I am not a great housekeeper. There is this habit I have been trying to break for years where I actually put things away when I come home from work or where ever it is I have been rather then dumping everything on the kitchen bench. Over the space of a few days you can imagine what my bench looks like. Handbags, unopened mail (yep if I know it’s a bill I shudder and leave it there for a few days as if I am gathering strength to face the fact I am all grown up now and have to be responsible for my finances) and even books I have been reading all go on the bench. Eventually I get this desire to clean and occasionally in my flurry to be tidy things get put into draws or cupboards at random. Come on – you know the draws and cupboards I am talking about? We all have them. Don’t we? Surely I am not the only one. Anyway regardless I push on before I start thinking I am the only one with this inability to sort, file, deal and/or let go of crap as it comes into my life.
Recently I have seen a need to clean out my cupboards and draws and it got me thinking. Declutter my physical space has had a flow on effect to my mind space. I know I certainly feel better when the physical space that surrounds me is clean and tidy. Perhaps I also I knew this subconsciously because this time the draws and cupboards were not as cluttered with random items as it has been in the past. Or maybe it’s because I only decluttered a few months ago. Maybe I am becoming a better housekeeper and a little more responsible for my life than I think. Perhaps my method for decluttering is getting more efficient, more mindful maybe?
So this got me thinking what have I changed that has meant my life is becoming more decluttered and developing more space in it. This is what I come up with:
- The need for holding onto stuff “just in case” has diminished. No longer am I so bothered with the future need to keep something in case I need it. Okay so maybe that pendulum swing is not so great and the anxiety of what the future hold is reducing.
- Items I have held onto from the past have less meaning then they once held. Oooohhh this got me thinking more. Does that mean I no longer care for that person or that event in my life? Nope – that person and that moment in time still hold great meaning for me but the attachment to the material “things” from that moment no longer has a hold of me. I still have the memories, the sweet beautiful memories.
- What I have right now is enough. There seems to be comfort in the space and the need to fill it with more no longer matters. I look at space as gratitude so does this mean I find gratitude more? Yeah I think so!
There is no denying we live in a material world where the accumulation of stuff is going to become evident at times but the need to declutter the material can assist in us in reducing the hold the unknown future has over us , letting go of the attachment to the past and learning to be grateful for the present. Yep I may not be a great housekeeper but I have certainly begun to embrace the concept that Mindful Living Matters because it is about being present now.
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