Weeding Out the Weeds in Our Lives
By: Janet L. Hall
As I was weeding the pathway to my front door I started to reflect on the past months events in my life and two of my clients.
I started laughing as I realized we three had a common bond in July … more about them in a minute.
In my working spaces I weeded out books, tapes and CD’s that no longer served me. I weeded through my paper files, computer files, and emails, purging, and deleting what was no longer needed. I transferred all my pictures and videos off my main computer onto an external terabyte hard drive.
Then I started weeding out the bathroom and kitchen drawers and shelves.
With a feeling of “new ground” and more space in my office and home I looked to my yard – more spaces to weed; the pathway, the flower beds, the vegetable garden, and even some potted plants!
To me pulling weeds is uplifting, as well as calming, although I don’t want to do it everyday. Pulling weeds also gives me time to think, day dream, and even plan. It’s my alone time with my thoughts and nature.
Okay so back to the two clients …
One client I’m in the process of organizing and Feng Shuing her whole house, room-by-room; weeding, purging, recycling, dumping, donating, selling and deleting.
I looked to her yard and mentioned she really needed to have her pool area and entrance way weeded and mulched so I called in my reinforcements for yard help.
Within four days her entrance way and pool area were transformed into beauty.
Inside, her home was feeling more like a home. The children were thrilled when they saw the changes we had made: a living room that was now “really” a living room. A space where they could relax together and invite their friends over for a movie or a dip in the pool.
A formal dining room turned into a gathering space where the client can now entertain and entertain she has.
She called the other day to tell me how everyone that visits loves the new look and feel of the place.
My second client, well I’ve been weeding out her home over the past year and a half … two dumpsters and 669 lbs. of paper … yes I weighed the bags of paper!
Finally finished she too was ready to tackle the outside; overgrown and neglected flower beds. Out with the weeds!
And as a bonus, she and her husband have both lost weight, just like I have!
All that weeding can change your life. All that weeding will change the energies of your spaces.
Sure it might be emotional, it might be back breaking, it surely will take some time, however when all is said and done your life will finally be weed free.
What weeds do you need to tend to?
With the month coming to a close, I wonder if you’re beating
yourself up (I hope you’re not) because you didn’t stick with your
New Year’s resolutions; whether it was decluttering and getting
organized, getting healthier by exercising and eating better or
getting your finances back on track.
Whatever your resolution was perhaps you didn’t follow through
with it because you didn’t remove the temptation.
Let’s look at Judith, whom actually gave me the idea for this article
and has given me permission to discuss her situation.
Judith is an innkeeper of a beautiful Bed ‘N Breakfast in White
Springs, FL – the place where I’m taking my sabbatical and helping
Judith declutter and get organized.
Although many private areas of the BNB needed help we decided
to start in the kitchen for two reasons: 1) Judith’s office is located
in the kitchen and 2) Judith has to cook breakfast every morning
when she has guests (plus cooking for herself throughout the day).
In the small kitchen with limited cabinet space Judith had her desk,
a hutch, two tables, stove, refrigerator and one wall of partial
counter tops. Her kitchen was so jumbled you could barely breathe,
let alone turn around and do work in it.
After speaking with Judith I made my recommendations and the
first one was to sort everything out of the hutch. The hutch that
Judith has emptied out and organized many times and then went
back to old habits of throwing this or that into and on it. We didn’t
just need to empty and organize we needed to remove the
temptation to pile, stow, toss and hide. Judith agreed we needed to
remove the hutch. You see the hutches only function had become a
“catch-all”.
With the temptation removed, the desk drawers cleaned out and a
new “paper system” put in place Judith has managed to keep her
space clear of clutter for almost three weeks now and she can
breathe again.
As Judith continues on her journey of decluttering and organizing
she asked me the other day, “Do any of your clients tell you they
feel like they are drowning in clutter?”
”Yes, all the time,” I answered.
”And do any of them mention to you that after the process of
decluttering they feel like the weight of the world has been lifted
off their shoulders?” Judith asked.
“Yes, all the time,” I answered with a giggle.
What temptations do you need to remove from your life?
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