Two

Physical Clutter:

Home, Office, Car, and Body

When my husband and I first moved in together, our physical clutter merged to create a mess of epic proportions. We had barely any real furniture. In fact, I can list all of our furniture right here: Futon, two shoddy computer desks, two barstools at the kitchen counter, and a TV table that had been crafted from spare lumber with ugly carelessness. The clutter was horrific. Less furniture does not necessarily mean less clutter. In fact, it can mean vastly more clutter as there are no drawers, stand-alone cabinets, entertainment centers, dressers, or bureaus in which clutter can hide. The main storage closet was filled with empty boxes from floor to ceiling. In general, the living space felt cramped, dark, and impossible to keep clean. It took my family about three days of cleaning to reduce the clutter, but that wasn’t all. My poor car was so cluttered that an actual pack rat had made a nest of string and candy wrappers deep in the well of the spare tire.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Before you get started, it may help you to perform a quick ritual exercise to get your-self in the right headspace.

Untie any laces or strings on the clothing you are wearing to loosen the way.

Rub your hands together briskly and feel the tingle as you pull them apart from one another slowly. Some people believe this tingle is the spiritual energy of your body, but it is actually the blood flowing in the veins at the surface of your hands.

Clap three times loudly or ring a bell. Many cultures clap or ring bells to frighten away pixies or spirits that
might cause clutter as mischief, or to shake free and loosen stuck energy in the clutter.

Get a glass of water to hydrate yourself and put in a squeeze of lemon for energy and clarity. Pause before you get started and visualize your clutter already cleared.

Chant: “Source of flame, earth, wind, and water. Within and without, clearing clutter.” Take a sip of the water, set down your glass and begin. You can tie your shoelaces again if necessary!

Simplify, Harmonize,
and Reflect in Physical Space

The home is often where the worst clutter piles. It’s our nesting space. The crossroads where we find rest and relief and through which all of our belongings pass. We prepare food there, we sleep there, and we invite others into our homes. For some, the clutter reaches hoarding levels, and begins to threaten our feeling of security and even safety, thus precluding any hope of developing self-esteem, a sense of love and belonging, or spiritual self-actualization. Thus, many of the tips in this chapter will be written for the context of a living space, but could also be applied to a car or work space. More specific tips to shared spaces like an office will be included in chapter Five, since the office is not necessarily yours to shape as you will.

Simplify your physical space

Healthy and balanced people go through regular cycles of pruning down as many things as they acquire in order to keep circulating possessions like energy throughout their lives. If you’re new to this process, you may have to do a big purge or many small ones right away. Read all of the simplification instructions before you get started. Upon evaluating your own personal situation, you may decide that you need extra resources, like some helping hands or a rented trash dumpster, before you begin. If you share your living space with other people, enlist in their help or at least warn them before you get to work. Some people, especially my husband in particular, find it disorienting and stressful to have their personal clutter items moved by somebody else.

You’ll need some bags or boxes to start. Have one each for garbage and recycling, and have another for giving away to a local charity that has a drop-off point for belongings. Throwing away things might feel difficult for you. I have trouble even throwing away broken or expired things sometimes. Inoculate yourself against those feelings by practicing the necessary evil of ridding your life of waste. Don’t beat yourself up about it. I like to take the opportunity to transform those feelings into a renewed commitment to curb my acquisition of things that might be a burden on our environment when they eventually must be discarded.

As a kid, I didn’t pick up after myself, but my preschool teacher knew that I cared about the environment, so she equated the toys and things in the classroom to litter. Since I detested litter, when she related the toys to litter, I understood and learned my lesson. Garbage is garbage whether it is in a landfill or in your home wasting space. Everything you own will be discarded eventually, whether it is now or in a hundred years. Take a deep breath and start throwing things away and gathering things to donate. Hold in your mind the vision of what you want your life and environment to look like after you’re finished.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Avoid churning, where your possessions simply move from place to place in your home while you decide what to do with them.

Maybe you move all your clothes from the floor to the bed before sorting them, or you move some things to the hallway while you decide whether to give them away or not.

When you’re clearing clutter, pick an item up and pretend that it is stuck to your hand until you make a final decision whether to keep it, discard it, or give it away.

Don’t get carried away with saving things for others, as this is one point that can trip up many cluttered lives. If your physical clutter problem is moderate to severe, don’t set aside lots of things for sale unless you need the money to survive. Reselling used stuff is a full-time job in and of itself. At home, I have one cupboard reserved for things I need to return, things to give to a specific person, and new gifts for re-gifting. I make sure to cycle through all of those as quickly as possible so the cupboard is more empty than full. Don’t get caught in the trap of saving lots of stuff with the rationale that somebody you know is bound to use it. Tap into your compassionate side and donate it. Don’t deprive yourself of useful storage space and imagine that you’ll free it up by foisting things on an unsuspecting friend or relative. They don’t actually need all that stuff.

Now comes the tough part: deciding what to keep. Try to keep only those things that bring you joy every time you look at them. Use this philosophy as a touchstone. Recall your list of what things are most valuable to you. Sure, a toothbrush might not bring you joy when you look at it, but if heath is at the top of your list, it will bring you joy overall. And if a prettier or more effective toothbrush would bring you greater joy, by all means discard the old one and make room for the new.

Decide how much time you want to spend before you take a break. This will depend on your personality. For me, my house is now generally uncluttered, so I have to zero in on the small vortices where clutter gathers such as where new mail or belongings get deposited, the dreaded cluttered coffee table where I study, my bedside table piles of books, and the bathroom cupboards where unused products seem to gather like mice. I like to work on the small disaster areas for fifteen minutes at a time, but some people do best with larger chunks of time like a couple of hours or even a full day for a big clutter clearing job. When you stop, make sure you put your next clearing clutter date on your calendar if you need the reminder or motivation.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Make yourself a “maybe” box if you’re ever really torn about whether or not to keep something. This way, you’ll have a box to put into storage with a date on it that marks when you need to use it or lose it.

For example, I often get myself into art projects or musical instruments I don’t have time to practice.

I put some craft supplies and other things into a box and set a deadline so that it would either get used or get out of my house. I put the box in my garage. When I hadn’t opened it by its deadline, I had nearly forgotten what was inside. I took the entire box to donate without opening it.

Don’t use a “maybe” box if you’ve got a serious clutter problem to the point of hoarding, because your whole place is already your “maybe” box!

Get rid of all of the bulky things that tend to creep in on your living space. I’m sure you know the sorts of things I’m talking about. The objects that you moved into the hallway “just for a minute” or onto the kitchen counter “for now” and just left there for months or even years on end. Those things become part of your landscape and blend into your life so much that you might even step over some of these objects every day, ignored until the day you will supposedly give it away or fix it or install it or do whatever it was you meant to do in the first place. Subconsciously, those things affect you, but it only comes up to your conscious mind when guests come to your home and wonder why that thing is dominating the room. Try looking at your living space with the eyes of someone visiting for the first time. People who live in cluttered homes often become “clutter-blind,” meaning that what may seem like oppressive and shocking clutter to outsiders seems normal to them. Even the spouses and children of such people may become habituated and clutter-blind to chaos and disorder that may have seemed upsetting and abnormal at one time. If you suspect that you are clutter-blind, get some outside perspective in the simplification process.

Before you put things away, clean everything. Wipe down shelves and dust things you put away. Be mindful of where you place things and leave enough space for regular cleaning, and arrange your things so they are pleasing to the eye. You may need to pull everything away from the area you’re clearing or even empty a room into a hallway before putting everything back. Now is the time to get out the vacuum cleaner and the broom. Your lungs will thank you after you clear out all that dust and detritus. Don’t forget to clear closets, drawers, and other hidden spaces. Even if your own eyes or the eyes of your guests don’t see the clutter, it still affects your energy. For example, I tend to collect papers and files long after they’re no longer needed. I once found bank statements that were decades old. Whenever I need to find an important document, it’s stressful to have to first thumb through excessive worthless documents to find it, even if things are logically organized. I have to force myself to destroy old documents regularly to keep the clutter at bay for those important moments when I need to find something.

My kitchen clutter days ended when I followed the advice of my best friend and started storing away countertop appliances between uses. My kitchen was tiny, so I procured a small plastic rack for this job. Later, I moved to a place with a pantry that could accommodate my appliances. Without mixers, food processors, blenders, toasters, rice cookers, and more cluttering up the countertop, I could easily wipe counters clean. The small hassle of getting them out and putting them away afterwards was totally worth it for the wide expanse of workspace that opened up. As a bonus, I always remember to clean the appliances before putting them away, so they don’t become more dingy and gross.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: In Jewish tradition, the family dining room table is like an altar or sacred space. I believe that this tradition should be practiced in every home.

Don’t let your dining room table be a place of clutter. Keep it clear; engage in the ritual of place setting.

While at the table, don’t tolerate any bad manners from your children or yourself, and put away all distractions to engage in the moment with your food and pleasant company.

Don’t place objects on your dining room table that don’t belong there, like mail, clothes, or shoes in between meals.

When you finally finish your simplification process, at least for one round, move the bags out of your house as quickly as possible. Walk the trash bags out to the trash, or make the car trip to the dump and donation drop-off. Don’t allow yourself any time to agonize over the chore, because you need to move onto the next phase of harmonizing. The simplification isn’t done until you take the last chore of removing the clutter from your home off your “to do” list. Once the items are gone, you won’t be able to second-guess yourself, and that’s a good thing. Worrying about the feelings you’ll have is much worse than actually experiencing the feelings that come when you rid yourself of your clutter. In fact, those feelings may be more life-affirming than grieving.

Harmonize your physical space

After completing a simplification cycle, you’ll go through an adjustment period. It may be particularly intense if you just did your first major clutter clearing session in your living space. Now you’re harmonizing, getting used to the new normal, which is key for balancing out your life. During this phase, start by thinking about what you may have been neglecting in your emotional and intellectual lives as well as your spiritual life. Now you will pay attention to and nurture these areas, which may seem counterintuitive when you’re already reeling after a major lifestyle overhaul in simplifying your surroundings. It is important, however, to fill the void you’ve left with spirituality and brain food rather than leaving it open and gaping or allowing it to refill with possessions.

Stemming the tide of new items can feel problematic for somebody whose life is imbalanced. You might feel unable to pass up a good deal. You might buy multiples of things you already have because of a bargain or because you like the security of knowing you’ll always have more of your favorite shampoo or brand of food. Just keep in mind that you don’t live in a culture of lack. It is okay to trust that the universe will provide for you through the proper channels as it has all your adult life. Passing up on a good deal is worth it if it helps you battle your own clutter demons. Or, as my dad always used to say, “If the pleasure of not doing it outweighs the pleasure of doing it, let it go.” Developing a source of trust and faith that you will always be resourceful enough to have plenty may be spiritual work you need to do.

Stick to a list when you go shopping. Don’t go grocery shopping while hungry and, for the same reason, don’t go clothes shopping when you’re dressed in your pajamas and feeling unhappy about your looks. When you go to get groceries, keep to the outside edges of the store where the essentials like produce are kept, and venture into the inner aisles only for specific necessary items on your shopping list. If you do see something you want that you weren’t expecting to buy, consider sleeping on that decision. Ask yourself if you have an immediate use for that item today or on a specific date you can name in the future, and if your house has a permanent place for that item to live. If neither of those are true, pass on buying the item to stick to your goal of being clutter free.

Avoid using “retail therapy” to treat emotional ills. Find a more healthy reward, release from boredom, or source of comfort for yourself. If you find yourself turning to retail therapy, that’s a sign that your emotional clutter needs to be cleared. My own weakness is the “bargain” lure of garage sales and thrift shops. I make sure I only bring home things that will bring me joy and that will have a proper place in my life, which also means balancing my treasure hunting with clearing clutter.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Reframing the gift-giving holidays and occasions may be part of balancing your new life and your life goals.

Encourage your friends and family to give you experiences instead of stuff. A zoo membership or tickets to a concert may be a much better gift for you than yet another possession.

Strive to give the same sorts of gifts to others. Not only will it clue them in that you are serious, but you will also get to bypass the problem of storing gifts for others in your house until you’re able to give them away.

When you receive gifts, don’t automatically unseal the packaging and think about where you’ll put them. Decide first whether to return, regift, donate, or keep.

Maintaining a cleaning regimen for your newly simplified space will be a big part of getting to know your new life, and it will serve as a trial for keeping things simple. There is thought to be a universal magical law that “like attracts like.” That is, a cluttered home will seem to accumulate even more clutter. An unclean home will encourage occupants to live in a cluttered space. When clearing clutter from your home, cleaning has to be a necessary harmonizing component after you’ve simplified the amount of stuff and space you have to clean.

If you’re new to starting a cleaning habit, it may feel particularly daunting. I know, because cleaning my house is pretty new to me as an adult. As a child, I was blessed with a mother who spoiled me and cleaned up after me wherever I went. As a result, I had a pretty steep learning curve when I finally needed to grow up—and I’m still in the process. What worked for me was setting aside specific days of the week for specific rooms. After the process of clearing clutter was through, I started with a pretty rigid plan: Monday was cleaning the kitchen and dining room, Tuesday was the two bathrooms and the hallway (as well as the baseboards), Wednesday was the living room and washing windows, Thursday was the bedroom and laundry, including bed sheets, Friday was mopping the whole house and working on the yard. Every day involved sweeping the floor and vacuuming furniture since I have indoor pets. I tried to give myself weekends off. Now that I have a clutter-free home and am into the groove of keeping it that way, I don’t have such a rigid schedule. But for any new lifestyle change, some guidelines are helpful.

Tackling your home’s dishes and the laundry monster may be quite the battle. First, you’ll need to give yourself a system, and this may be different for every family. Do you need laundry baskets in every bedroom? Can the family use a laundry room as a central zone for collecting such stuff? Try running a load of laundry every day. For me, this works best if I start a load right after I put my kids to bed. That way, I run it all the way through the wash and dry cycle before my own bedtime. Doing laundry every day might sound like a hassle, but it is far less of a hassle than dealing with a mountain of laundry intermittently and having the task chatter in the back of your mind more than once a day. If you build a load of laundry into your routine, you’ll barely notice the impact on your life except the positive outcome. Try this method for a few months, long enough to make it a habit. Then, reevaluate how many clothes you need if you’re doing laundry more often. Your clothes may need to run through a simplification process now.

For those of you who loathe doing dishes so much that you’ve resorted to using paper plates, you may find that you use fewer dishes when you start building it into your schedule. I like to do the dishes right before bed. Now that I have a dishwasher, the task is pretty simple, someone loads the dishwasher throughout the day, finishes right before bed, and pushes the button. In the morning, I unload the dishwasher and put everything away. If you make sure to scrub your sink every day, this task can be a tool to help you do the rest of your daily duties. After all, you can’t scrub your sink until it is free of dishes, and this can help spur you to begin the process of collecting dishes throughout the house and making sure they’re all washed and ready for the day to come. Later in this chapter, you can read about a similar practice of washing your floors to represent a symbolic cleansing, plus an aid to motivate you to get the floors clean enough for a floor wash.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: The broom is more than just a cleaning tool. It is a symbol for clearing clutter and inviting abundance and fertility blessings into your home.

Sweep often, and make sweeping a special ritual that readies you for guests, special time with family, or simply sweeping away thoughts of a stressful work day.

Visualize negativity being swept away. Choose an attractive broom and store it standing with the bristles up for good luck and to preserve the bristles.

Folklore says that when your broom falls over, it means company is coming. You can bless your broom or even a vacuum by sprinkling it with salt water and passing it through frankincense incense.

You can write on the broom stick, with the words traveling toward the bristles, “I sweep in clarity, simplicity, and peace.” On the other side, with the words traveling away from the bristles write, “I sweep out clutter.”

A new home should always mean buying a new broom. Leave old brooms and dishrags in the house or apartment when you sell it or move away. You don’t want to bring dirt and grime from the past into your new life.

An important part of the harmonizing step will be inviting people over to your home regularly. I advise this for several reasons. First of all, you’re tending to your emotional and intellectual needs for good conversation. This will help you to balance out the clearing of clutter from your mind, body, and spirit. Having company coming can also be an incentive to clean and clear some last-minute stubborn clutter like unopened mail or bathroom dust bunnies. And when other people come into your space, having that outsider perspective can assist in ensuring you aren’t simply habituated to your clutter. When I was getting ready to have a baby, a young child who was a guest in my home advised me that my bathroom would have to be “much cleaner” when the baby arrived. I appreciated her honesty. Likewise, my dad was always a great, honest critic of my housekeeping. Don’t shy away from people who are blunt about your housekeeping habits. Your habit may be to take these comments personally, but instead use them as resources to help your self-improvement.

Your physical space: Reflection

How did it go? What did you notice about the process of simplifying and harmonizing your life? What was surprisingly easy and what was too hard? Have you noticed other people saying things about your process? Were they compliments or criticisms? Take some time to note your energy level after doing all this work. If you overdid things, you might want to shoot for less effort next time around. If you still feel energized, perhaps you can step things up a notch. Is your cleaning routine working out for you now that you’ve cleared some of the clutter? There are a number of barriers you might have to smash through before you do another even more successful round of simplifying your life.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Are you a visual person? Go easy on yourself. Some people just can’t deal with having all their belongings tucked away neatly in drawers.

My husband is visual and would rather have his clean clothes in a pile on the floor where he can see them than have them folded and stacked in a drawer. We compromised with cubbies and hanging clothes so he can see what he wants to wear while still being organized. Many of his other belongings collect neatly in baskets, on the bathroom counter, on the bedroom credenza, and near where he keeps his laptop. This way he can see his things close at hand, but I can still keep them contained and easily pick up the baskets to clean surfaces underneath.

Take note if you find evidence that you’ve been thinking about things the wrong way, also called “cognitive distortion.” It’s a natural human reaction to avoid the anxiety associated with a loss of possessions or anything else for that matter. For example, if your loved ones have been telling you you’re hanging onto garbage or that you’re never going to get around to fixing those old clothes or pieces of furniture but you’re certain that’s not the case, you might be experiencing a cognitive distortion. If you’d like to believe that you can get rid of or deal with those things and clear your clutter, try replacing the old scripts playing over and over again in your head with new ones. You may find yourself thinking, “I just need time—when I’m not feeling stressed—to fix these broken things.” Try to replace that thought with, “I can throw away this old broken thing and get a better version later if I feel like it.” Instead of thinking, “Grandma gave me this before she died and I am scared to let go of the memory of her,” think, “My memory of Grandma lives forever in my heart. I can throw this away without it affecting my relationship with her or how she’s affected my life.”

Did any feelings arise when you were getting rid of things or trying to get rid of things? Many people experience at least a little anxiety when throwing something away that might be useful or valuable. This anxiety can intensify if the item has sentimental value as well. The only way to cure yourself of this anxiety is to practice gradual exposure to that feeling, because you may be holding onto clutter to avoid this confrontation. When you pick up an object in your home and sense that you may be choosing to keep it “for no good reason,” stop and rate your anxiety on a scale of one to ten. Pretend that an anxiety rating of one means that it’s no big deal to get rid of the thing and an anxiety rating of ten means that you would regret it for the rest of your life and grieve as though a loved one had died if you were to part with the thing. If your rating is a five or above, don’t get rid of it yet, even if you know in your heart it is just garbage—you’re just not ready.

Walk around your house rating things until you find one that has a lower anxiety rating, like a three. Think about what is making you feel anxious about giving it away and put those thoughts into sentences. Sometimes it helps when the sentences sound silly when spoken aloud, like, “I’m afraid that if I get rid of this extra coat I will not be able to afford a new coat in the future when the one I use now wears out because I might simultaneously lose my job on a cold winter’s day.” Once you’ve given voice to all your fears, face them and throw the item away. Make sure the item is out of your possession that same day, preferably within the hour. Walk the trash to the curb or drop off the donation at your charity of choice.

Next, sit for a moment and own any anxiety you feel over getting rid of the thing. Don’t distract yourself from the feeling, and don’t judge yourself. Just let the emotion wash over you and reflect on it. Is your anxiety rating accurate? Do you feel more or less anxious than you expected? Wait until the next day and then rate your feelings again. Has your anxiety subsided? If you feel ready, pick an item that has a higher anxiety level rating and try again.

During your reflection process, avoid letting an all-or-nothing attitude keep you from starting the “simplify, harmonize, and reflect” cycle all over again. I tend to fall into that trap when cleaning house; if I can’t keep my house looking the way I want it to look, then what’s the point of, say, washing windows, period? They’ll just get dirty again, after all. This is when I know that I’m cluttering up my spiritual life with concerns that are distracting me from being joyful, and I need to seek balance. Instead of becoming too attached to the outcome of a house that conforms exactly to my vision, I try to focus on finding a little joy in the process. I put on some music and sing or chant while remaining mindful that I’m doing the work for my family and for myself. You can learn more about spiritual principles that can help balance out your “all or nothing” focus in chapter Four.

Finally, don’t forget to celebrate your achievement and your efforts as you close your reflection phase. You’ve put in a lot of work. Even if you didn’t quite reach the goal you envisioned, you still made a lot more progress toward that goal than you would have sitting around ignoring your clutter. Think of some ways you can reward yourself that won’t add to your clutter; indulge in a little pampering before you start the cycle anew.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Sometimes, you have to work on mental or spiritual clutter before you can really tackle your physical clutter. This can be frustrating because a home in chaos may not be encouraging for mental and spiritual healing. If this is the case for you, find a place outside the home that is clear of clutter and where you can find calm.

It’s all the better if your calm place is in nature like a garden, country field, or a wooded path. Richard Louv, author of The Nature Principle, speculated that people can suffer from “nature deficit disorder,” and that reconnection to nature can be a key part of being emotionally and physically healthy.

Cleaning: Spiritual Floor Washes

When developing a cleaning regimen, it can be helpful to create barriers against the clutter that hinders further cleaning. The example I gave earlier is to make sure to scrub your sink every night, a practice that entails washing any dishes in the sink and thus inhibiting dish clutter. Another way to do this is by regularly mopping or vacuuming your floors. I am already motivated enough to clean my kitchen, but I struggle with finding inspiration to clean my floors frequently enough for a growing family with pets. It helps to assign yourself a day of the week to use your floor wash to mop all the hard floors in your home. This will encourage you to clear the clutter so that the task can be done with regularity.

Spiritual floor washes can be a way to positively influence the energy in your household and cultivate a practice of cleansing for your family to clear clutter away. The practice of spiritual floor washing comes from Latin American and American Hoodoo traditions. In the culture of such families, the smell of the herbal floor wash and the sound of the head of the household singing while mopping the floors is a comforting part of regular family life and a memory children bring to their adult lives and habits.

Traditionally, floor washes are made by boiling herbs in water and adding just a bit of salt—not enough to scour the hardwood or tile but enough for salt to be a symbol of cleanliness. Nothing harmful can grow in an environment too salty, after all, and in witchcraft salt is considered to be earth of the earth. The herbs used in the floor washes vary widely, and each family may develop their own favorite. Floor washes are sold in some stores, and you can also make them with your favorite herbs. Choose herbs with a scent you enjoy. Use a floor wash as a mop solution or put it in a spray bottle to spritz on your carpet before vacuuming. Another alternative for rugs or carpets is to sprinkle a dry herb like lavender and a pinch of salt before vacuuming or beating the rug outside.

A purification floor wash could be a strained tea of bay leaves, marjoram, and rosemary. You can also wash windows and doors with this tea. Lemon juice squeezed into water can clear a home of negativity and energetic clutter. For a clearing clutter floor wash designed for blessing you with clarity of mind, try using white vinegar and lemon peels. Drop a small piece of fluorite or other crystal into the bucket or spray bottle. If you don’t have fluorite, you can use a rock you find outside that has a vein of quartz.

For a floor wash that invites harmony into your home, try using essential oils of tangerine and grapefruit and a teaspoon of sea salt. If you don’t have the essential oils, you can soak grapefruit peels and juicy tangerine pits in the vinegar and then strain out the detritus before using it. An alternate harmony recipe is to use some lavender and rose. After a heated argument that disrupts the harmony, you can try a more serious mixture of peppermint, lavender, spearmint, and rose. If the disharmony is caused by some upset outside the home, make a tea of parsley as a floor wash. If the disharmony began within the home, make a tea with valerian root as a floor wash. Be careful though, valerian is a powerful herb that has a strong odor. I mix a tiny bit of it with chamomile to mask the smell, but if you don’t like it you can stick with the grapefruit and tangerine harmony floor wash.

For a happy home, create a floor wash with vanilla and tangerine. For a floor wash that invites helpful house spirits and fairies that tidy up while you sleep, mix some lavender, spearmint and vanilla in your floor wash. To clear your mind and reduce stress, try a floor wash with lavender and peppermint.

As you can see, with just a few herbs on hand, you can mix up floor washes for a variety of uses. When I make a spiritual floor wash, I make a four thieves vinegar. Legend has it that, when the plague swept across Europe, four mysterious thieves would rob the dead by anointing themselves with a healing, protecting, and cleansing potion. Many recipes abound. I like to use three pints white vinegar mixed with four herbs, one for each of the thieves. Herbs that were traditionally used have clearing properties: Lavender, mint, rosemary, garlic, thyme, and sage. Again, pick ones you like (or the ones you already have on hand) and add three pinches of salt. I heat up the vinegar and steep the herbs in the solution. Then, I strain the liquid into spray bottles I use to clean surfaces. I cut the vinegar with water to create a floor wash.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Have you experienced a lot of accidents around your kitchen? It may be time to spiritually cleanse the area. Here are some tips based on research by Scott Cunningham and David Harrington in The Magical Household.

Boil water in a copper tea kettle and add three bay leaves, rosemary, lemon peel, and cinnamon.

Scatter a pinch of salt on your floor, sweep it all up, and get rid of it outside your home. Strain the water in the tea kettle.

Tie two old dishrags together and soak them in the water. Use the water as a floor wash and for cleaning surfaces and appliances in your kitchen.

Pour the leftover water outside on the earth and bury the knotted rags.

A variation of the floor wash idea can be used to clear clutter from your car and to bless it with protective energies. Start by clearing any garbage or clutter from inside your car. Remember that anything sitting freely in your car can become a projectile in an accident. A friend of my family was hit by another car while driving and he said that his daughter’s Barbie dolls that cluttered the back seat became missiles. Thank goodness she wasn’t in the car at the time!

After you’ve removed as much clutter as you can, clean the car from roof to tires with a tea made with protective herbs such as rosemary, bay leaves, or dill; whichever scent you can handle works. You can add soap to this concoction to make the car wash more than spiritual. Wipe down the dash and interior surfaces and sprinkle a bit of the tea on any carpet you can vacuum.

Spring Cleaning

There’s something magical about springtime. The warmer weather in some climates may allow people to throw open the windows and let in some fresh air. The allure of springtime activities might require you to dig out lawn equipment and pack away winter clothes. Bright and cheerful people and animals with spring fever inspire action and movement. This may be why spring cleaning is so pervasive in our culture.

Even if you’ve never undertaken a spring cleaning, you might want to mark it on your calendar for near the spring equinox, around March 20 or 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, and in September in the Southern. The spring equinox is celebrated in some cultures as a time of rebirth and rejuvenation, good for starting over with a clean slate and watching new and pleasant things grow in your life. It is a good time to pull weeds from the garden, in some climates, to make room for newly planted seeds. In warmer regions, spring cleaning might actually begin in early February, as a representation of the first stirrings of life in deep winter. Imagine shaking the clutter free from the house after feeling like you’ve been buried under the winter accumulation of stuff from the holidays and the many weeks or months of indoor activities. It is good luck to wash your face on May 1 with the morning dew collected from leaves and flowers.

Whenever the sunshine and warm outdoor weather tells you it is springtime, take the opportunity to open your windows and doors and sweep all the dirt out of your home. Clear out any clutter that has accumulated over the winter months, especially any objects that haven’t been used in the last six months. Donate them so that somebody else can use them. Consider bringing in some freshly cut flowers to bless your clean environment with the positive energy of spring.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Some other symbolically good times to clean are when the moon is waning. This represents the fading of energies, so you can use the moon’s symbolic energy to empower you.

As the moon wanes, so can your clutter also fade from your life. Saturday is a good day of the week to rid your life of clutter, as it is associated with the god Saturn (Greek: Kronos), who governs order and chaos.

Use the energy of Saturn to inspire you to throw away or get rid of anything in your life that no longer serves you.

Ritual for Giving Things Away

For some people, giving things away is more than just tossing garbage. Some people prefer to rehome furniture or other belongings with the same care given in adopting or rehoming a beloved pet. I’ve also heard stories of people who feel guilt at not being able to give better things away to charity. Personally, I’ve never been particularly wealthy, so giving small amounts of cash away to charitable causes made me anxious, almost as if it wasn’t worth the embarrassment to offer such a small gift. I also have the dubious honor of actually having a chair be rejected by Goodwill because the fabric had been penetrated with too much pet hair to be usable for anyone else. Now, of course giving away garbage in such a state should always be avoided! If you do have something of value you must give away, here’s a ritual you can use to add value to your gift.

First, you’ll need a bit of cinnamon, which is meant to magically multiply and improve your gift so that more and better gifts will soon be drawn to the chosen charity. Sprinkle the cinnamon on your giveaway items. Next, the following prayer should be spoken as close as possible as to the time you drop off the items. Just before or just after is okay if you’re shy and don’t want the volunteer staff to catch you murmuring over your stuff.

Be as a seed, a seed for change.
Allow my gift to grow and rearrange.
Multiply blessings for many.
For those with none, let there be plenty.

Retreat from your gift without looking back, but don’t forget your receipt for tax write-off purposes. As soon as you return home, find one more item to put aside for donation as an act of following through with your prayer. You multiplying the items you prayed over will cause that energy to radiate throughout the universe and encourage others with more to do the same.

Purification

Sometimes, even after the clutter is cleared out of a place, you can have the sinking feeling that there is some sort of unseen clutter in the room. This can even happen in a garden, where garden pests might be the culprit of that sinking feeling. Ancient peoples would write stern notes to home and garden pests asking them to vacate the premises. Or they found it helpful to burn a dishrag the first time thunder was heard in March. However, for indoors a purification exercise might be more effective. Even in an empty room that has seen a lot of arguments in its day, or that was the site of a murder or suicide, some sensitive people will be able to feel energetic clutter. You might feel it as an emotion like sadness or anger. You might feel it as a general sense of unease or a creeping sensation under the skin. This could be marked by the strong but unexplained desire to leave the area. Some people will even leave a room or basement unused or move to a different apartment to avoid these sensations. Instead, you can purify to make room for good things in that space. Here is a very simple but effective purification for the beginner who can feel a bit of intangible clutter in a place.

Step 1

Visualize yourself encircled with protective energy. It might look like a purple wall of flame, a rainbow bubble, a golden sarcophagus, or even a pack of dogs. Imagine this visualization strongly and hold it in your mind’s eye. If you are having trouble with this step, read more in chapter Four about your natural protective aura.

Step 2

Sweep the space with a broom three times in a counterclockwise circle. Even if the area is carpeted or outdoors, the sweeping motion with a broom can be used to symbolically clear the air. Sweep once high in the sky, once at waist height, and once at floor level to clear the entire space.

Step 3

Speak a purification prayer. You can word your own or use something like this: “Clear the clutter of this space. Banish rubbish, harm and waste. Ward this place with protection around. Evil sink into the ground.”

Step 4

Walk around the circle three times with incense; white sage is a good one to use. Add three pinches of salt to a cup of water and then circle three more times sprinkling this salted water with your fingers. Together, the salt, water and burning incense represent the four elements of earth, water, air, and fire.

Step 5

Ring a bell three times or clap your hands three times. The purification is done.

Feng Shui

Feng shui is the Chinese practice and philosophy of allowing chi (energy) to properly flow through a space. Recall that “energy” in the chi sense of the word represents the life force people use to manifest what they want and need. Though this energy is omnipresent, it can become diverted or stagnant. You feel this energy as soon as you pull into your driveway and the second you open your eyes in the morning. The Western interpretation of this Chinese architectural and geomantic practice brought the art to our homes and offices. It is the Western version I will use here for some practical tips.

Picture the world as a giant river and you as a salmon swimming in that river. If the river has a lot of jagged rocks, it will impede travel in that direction. Not only are those rocks obstacles for you, but they can cause the river’s water flow to change. Some rocks divert the water flow, causing it to splash about chaotically. Others block the flow altogether, forming small pools that have no current where mosquitoes can breed but are of no use to you as a salmon. Feng shui is about figuratively removing these rocks from your life, moving them for optimal flow, or choosing a path unblocked by such barriers. Feng shui is a huge, very detailed discipline, so I’m going to limit it here to tips that will help you clear clutter and include some tips from Western magical traditions as well.

Generally speaking, any clutter is bad feng shui. The different areas of the house represent your life and can change with the orientation of your home, which is outside the scope of this book; however, you should know that clutter can create obstacles in more than your hallway. If you’ve unwittingly created clutter in an area of your home relating to love, for example, you could find yourself stuck in a romance rut. You won’t notice freedom in your love life until you clear that clutter. This may be one reason why the act of clearing clutter can feel so good.

To help chi enter and move about your home freely, clear clutter away from lamps so that the lighting is very good. Clean windows thoroughly and regularly to allow natural sunlight into your home. If you wash your windows with white vinegar, it is not only a natural cleaner that doesn’t leave poisonous residue for children or pets, but it also blesses your home. Open windows when they are in the direction of lush plants or slow-moving water. Both these activities are deep sources of positive chi. Harmonious sounds are good feng shui, so when rain is tapping on your roof, consider silencing all noise-
making things in your home so you can soak in the music of nature. One possible origin for the word “window” is “wind’s eye.” Keep windows closed on a windy day or when the sights outside your window constitute what is known as a “poisoned arrow.”

An important principle of feng shui is the avoidance of this poisoned arrow, or shar. A poisoned arrow can be many things, some of which may add to your clutter. Exceedingly pointy objects are considered to be poisoned arrows. For example, a CD stand in the middle of a room or a couple of bookcases sandwiched back to back showing their angles, an abstract sculpture with a sharp top, a miniature house with a pointed roof, or a folded-up exercise machine that looks lonely and out of place. Look at your clutter and find some objects that could be considered poisoned arrows. Anything that has harsh edges and sticks out like a sore thumb could be a poisoned arrow you can clear out of your life. Modern art and weapons displays fit into this category unless they truly soothe your mind. In general, try to balance out any jagged and pointy things, which traditionally represent masculine yang energy, with rounded and wavy things, which represent the feminine yin energy. If you have too many pointed and sharp-edged things, start downsizing by getting rid of them first.

Lucky numbers of objects on display are important. For example, if you have potted plants lined up in a row, make it a lucky number of plants. Strive to make this true of any decorations, curios, or displayed collections you have. Five is an unlucky number, representing chaos and misfortune. If you have five display items, consider getting rid of one of them to make four, which is a number relating to love and education. Two is an unlucky number, representing poor health. If you have two display items, consider clearing that clutter altogether, because if you leave only one it could stick out like a poisoned arrow. Don’t leave chairs in odd numbers like five or three. Consider reducing the number of chairs to four or two, respectively. The Chinese believe that happiness comes in pairs. The exception to this is that an odd number of pets may be considered good luck, so keep that in mind before adding a new pet to your home.

The entrance to your home is extremely important in feng shui, because this is how the good chi enters your life. Think of making space for good energy to move. Thus, the entryway should be entirely free of clutter. An entryway that is narrowed or restricted due to clutter will stop up the flow of chi. It’s especially important to have bright lighting in the entryway. If there are two entry ways to your home, strive to only use one of them or to make one the main entrance so chi does not leak out the other way. Get rid of any clocks that are visible when you first enter your home—you don’t want to suggest to visitors that it may be time to leave already. The door to your house should remain closed when not in use to keep the energy from leaking out of your home, especially if you don’t own a house but would like to someday.

Do not have a game room or spare room within sight of the front door, as this chi discourages guests from staying or taking you seriously. If you have what you call a “junk room,” “mud room,” or “rumpus room,” clear out any clutter and rename the room. The names alone can be bad feng shui, as they represent clutter or conflict. Consider reframing rooms like this as a study, a den, sunroom, and so on.

The kitchen represents prosperity in feng shui, so counters should be clear. The stove top especially, should not be used as storage. In other magical traditions, the fireplace hearth is the center of the home, so if you own a fireplace you should regularly clear it of ash and charred wood. The ideal kitchen has plenty of clear space on the countertops and nothing hanging down or obscuring from above. The dining room table should not be in view of the front door, lest your guests eat and run. The kitchen and eating area is very important in feng shui, as these regions of the home represent your finances and wealth. Therefore, a cluttered kitchen and dining room can stop the flow of riches to you and your family. Clear any old photos or portraits of the deceased from your dining area. If you must keep them, move them to the living room area where they are more suited to the yin energy there.

You should have plenty of free space to move around in to impress your guests. It is bad feng shui to leave any chairs neglected. If you live alone, take turns with your chairs each time you sit down to eat so you don’t always leave some of them unoccupied, as this discourages the energy of guests coming to your home. Feng shui is a good reason to reduce the number of chairs in your home to get rid of clutter and to prevent the problem of bad feng shui from unoccupied chairs. Don’t allow rooms to feel too cramped because of excess chairs.

If you have a desk, place it near a wall rather than floating in the middle of the room to lend you stability. For added stability, also make sure your back is facing a window when seated at the desk. You should also be able to see the entrance to the room from your desk to avoid others potentially “stabbing” your energy in the back. Take care that an exposed beam does not lie directly over your head when you are seated at the desk, as this could be a poisoned arrow. Also take care that any sharp angles on furniture and other poisoned arrows are not pointing your way while you sit at your desk.

Now that you can see how feng shui encourages clearing clutter, you may have to move your desk around to a cleared area to avoid bad chi. And if you’re wondering if there are similar applications in other rooms of the house, you’d be correct.

Like a desk, a bed should not be placed under an exposed beam. When lying in it, you should be able to see the bedroom door. The bed should not be lined up with the door, however, because it looks too much like a coffin on display. Also, the head of the bed should not face the door. Occupants of the bed should be able to exit the bed to either side freely without stumbling into furniture or clutter, allowing chi to flow freely. If you want to attract a love partner, it is especially important to “clear the way.” The ideal bed position is with the headboard against the wall and close to the corner diagonally opposite the door.

Mirrors should be removed from the sight of any beds unless they are necessary for the bed occupants to be able to see the door. Also, there should be no photos of people except photos of a current relationship. Obviously you wouldn’t want your mom staring down on you while you have sex; it makes for odd energy! For the same reason, religious figures are discouraged unless you associate them with sex or fertility, and childhood toys should also be cleared from the bedroom. Don’t keep your exercise equipment there, and if it’s there because you don’t use it, consider this a good chance to donate it to somebody who will.

Any distractions that suggest activity should be cleared from the bedroom. When you open your eyes in the morning, you should not be able to see any clutter from the bed that might remind you of unfinished work such as a vacuum, a pile of laundry that needs to be washed or folded, or files from work.

Don’t use the bedroom as a storage area, or the clutter might negatively affect your intimate relationships. There should be absolutely no clutter underneath the bed and if possible, there should be nothing but empty space there that is regularly swept or vacuumed to allow smooth movement of chi. The only time you should not continuously clean dust from under your bed is when conceiving children and when the pregnant mother is in the bed, as the spirits of potential children may hide in the dust. Mattresses should ideally be turned during the waning of the moon; some people believe the moon’s pull will help them stay flat.

Bathrooms should be modest and not call attention to themselves with excess decorations or furnishings. Keep the toilet lid closed to avoid flushing away your wealth, and keep the door to the bathroom closed when not in use.

Your home should always be in good working order to support positive feng shui. You should not have any stuck drawers, peeling paint, burned-out lightbulbs or, worst of all, stuck doors in your home. If your front door sticks when opening, this is especially bad feng shui that should be fixed right away. Fix any cracks in the walls, as they may allow chi to leak from your home.

Care for your home and clear the clutter to allow chi to flow freely. Even your garden and yard should not be cluttered. Clear all weeds and have any stumps or jutting rocks removed to allow the flow of chi without any poisoned arrows. If your house is covered too thoroughly with a creeping vine like ivy, clear it. Keep the garden spacious. Leaving parts of your yard or garden empty of cultivation is okay, as this represents an offering of the space back to the nature from which you accepted your gardening space.

Shiny things are good feng shui, which is why you need clean windows and good lighting. Dust your lightbulbs and lamp shades. Keep any smooth surfaces such as counters and tables free of clutter and shine the surfaces frequently. A little bit of furniture polish can go a long way with improving your feng shui.

In general, houseplants are a good thing. However, any poisonous plants may be bad energetically and should be removed. Some popular pretty house plants are poisonous, such as Dieffenbachia, sometimes called the Mother-in-law plant or dumb cane. Don’t put a cactus in the bedroom unless you purposely want to reduce your libido. In Hawaiian culture, the ti or ki plant (Cordyline fruticosa) may have strong violent energy associated with the volcano goddess Pele when it is red; some may choose to clear it from their homes, but others take their chances with the good luck it may provide.

Although not usually considered part of a house, the garden should be uncluttered. Dead leaves or overgrown weeds can represent a lack of potential or an opportunity that has been missed. Plants that stick out in the garden can be poisoned arrows, and of course you don’t want growing plants to narrow the path to your front door.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Whenever I’m clearing clutter and cleaning behind things that haven’t been moved in a while, I stir up plenty of spiders. If and when you find them, don’t kill them!

In fact, as Tess Whitehurst writes in Magical House-keeping, lore says that a spider will answer a question for you within a week if you whisper it to the spider before releasing it outside.

Perhaps you can ask questions about how to best clear the clutter from your life and wait for the answer to come to you in your dreams or as you begin your clearing work.

Creating Sacred Spaces

Arranging things in a pleasing manner is one of the important steps to creating harmony in your home. Now that you’ve decided what to keep in your life as part of the simplification process, you have to actually use those things. For example, if you kept a good china set from your grandmother, don’t just store all those valuable plates in a drawer. Use them. If they break, at least they were broken in the course of being used and enjoyed by your family. Likewise, some of your more beautiful curios, jewels, photographs, statues, and other decorations should be on display to be used and enjoyed. You should have space on shelves, end tables, or cabinets to create small sacred spaces, or display collections that feed your spirit.

Try creating an ancestral sacred space to display framed photos of deceased loved ones you’ve kept. This sacred space can also display any jewelry or other keepsakes you’ve kept from your loved ones. Anything you don’t have room to display or enjoy should be graciously donated to clear your clutter. Choose a decorative bowl or cup you already own to act as a vessel to hold water as a symbolic offering to your ancestors.

An elemental altar can help establish balance in your household. The four alchemical elements were once thought to make up everything in the universe. By displaying representations of the four elements in your home, you can project your intentions to keep harmony and not clutter up your life with one thing over all of the others. Don’t acquire new stuff for your elemental sacred space. The point is not to increase clutter but to attractively display the things you already have. Every object fits into at least one of the four elements, which is the ultimate goal.

On your elemental sacred space, objects facing north should represent the element of earth. A decorative bowl or cup of salt could be there, as could any beautiful crystals, jewels, or other stones you have saved. Green objects can also represent earth. The direction of east represents the element of air and the color yellow. If you have an incense burner, this is a good place to put it. To represent air on my elemental altar, I also have a vase filled with beautiful feathers I’ve collected. Take caution here, as some people believe feathers kept in the home are bad luck. Next, south represents fire and the color is red, so this direction is great for any candles you’ve been saving. Finally, the west represents water and the color blue. You can place a decorative bowl or bottle of water there.

If you believe in/worship a higher power, you can also build a sacred space to your deity or altars to the deities of your choice. This is where statues and art can go. Here too you can place incense or plates for offerings. If there are objects that represent the loves or virtues of your idea of divinity, they can be placed here to remind you that these values are always with you. If you have a large home, you may make a clearing clutter project out of turning an entire room into a spiritual room. I am fortunate enough to have a temple room in my house, and I find it very peaceful to be able to retreat to that clutter-free room to meditate at a moment’s notice.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Some cultures personify the positive energy of a home’s elements and the ease of housekeeping into fairies. Different types of fairies are sometimes called ban-tighes, brownies, chi spirits, cottagers, drakes, and barbados, among many other names in many cultures around the world.

Legend has it that they help keep your home clean at night while you sleep. To attract them, keep your home tidy and welcoming, especially your hearth, if you have one.

Clear especially any clutter made of iron. Place an offering at your hearth of fresh cakes and honey, preferably placed by the woman of the household. You’re welcome to eat what’s left for breakfast in the morning.

Ritual for Blessing a New Home

When blessing a new home, clean the home from top to bottom first, and perform a purification ritual as needed, (see page 65 for an example). Remember to buy new brooms and dishrags for your new house so you don’t bring dirt from those objects from your old home into the new. Purchase a bottle of wine or beer that will be consumed only when you sell and leave this new home, when it becomes your old home. Hide it in the back of the cupboards where nobody will accidentally drink it.

Open all your windows and doors to invite blessings. Add a bit of salt to water and sprinkle it in every room of the home. Next, waft incense in each room of the house. Exceptionally good incenses for a new home blessing are frankincense or white sage, though you can find other options in chapter Four if neither are available. You can say a few words, if you wish. For example:

Bless this home from roof to floor,
Bless this home from wall to wall.
Bless this home from window to door.
A home that’s clutter-free for all.

The burning incense, salt, and water together represent harmony of the four elements. Together, they draw in positive blessings from all directions. If you want to attract money and wealth to the household, you could hide a penny or other small coin in some unseen corner in each room of the house. Of course, do this only if you don’t have small children or pets that could eat the pennies. Otherwise, temporarily place a penny in each room during the blessing with incense and salted water, and then remove them when you are finished and donate them to charity.

Your Body:
Simplify, Harmonize, and Reflect

Clutter can affect the body in many ways. Certainly, viewing physical clutter can cause stress, especially if you have no clutter-free place to relax after working hard. However, there is more metaphorical clutter that may need to be cleared from your life. A life with no time for sleep or exercise is a cluttered one. Clearing out your body clutter will be a lot more challenging than clearing the physical clutter from your home, since you can’t just bag it up and haul it away. Instead, you’ll have to make some serious lifestyle changes, placing a limit on how drastic your simplification stage can be, since what you do will continue for a long time rather than a chore that shows results after a day.

Before getting started on clearing body clutter, I want you to think about what resources you have in life and how ready you are for change. Of course, there’s never a perfect time completely free of stress. You can’t say “Oh, I’ll wait before going on a diet until I’m not so busy at work.” However, you can decide how drastic your life changes will be. If you have a big support network of friends and family, a relatively stable income, and aren’t struggling with chronic illness, you can change a lot of things in your life all at once without fretting at the upheaval and ending up quitting. However, if you’re a single mom of five kids working two jobs, try taking baby steps and making only one of these lifestyle changes at a time so you aren’t overwhelmed. You’ll be dealing with your physical health during this stage of clearing clutter, so consult with your doctor before starting diet and exercise programs if you have any health questions at all. I’ll be digging deep into my Bachelor of Science degree in nutrition, anatomy, and physiology training to share with you some basic science and spirit of clearing body clutter.

Step 1: Simplify

Before anything else, simplify your nutrition intake. You can’t add on exercise before getting a handle on how much fuel you are consuming and simplifying your meals. To do this, you’ll have to count calories, which are a unit for measuring energy expenditure. Foods don’t “have” calories; caloric content actually measures the amount of fuel needed to make your body move and perform all the miraculous functions it does every day. Calories are not the same as chi, so you can’t really consume metaphysical energy to power your physical body (people have tried and failed). There are techniques for nourishing your metaphysical energy later in this chapter in the section about spiritual fasting so you can use them in conjunction with a healthy diet if you wish.

The simplest form of nourishing yourself is to make sure your body is in a healthy state of homeostasis, a point where you are not only healthy but the calories you take in roughly equal the calories you spend. And you won’t know how many calories you take in unless you count them. Do it in whatever way is simplest for you. For some people, it may be adding up calories by hand on a piece of paper. I use an application on my smartphone and a website that does all the math for me. If you need to lose weight, the calories you eat should be less than what you spend. If you need to gain weight or want to build more muscle for strength, the calories you eat will exceed those you spend. You can also use the Internet to calculate your ideal daily expenditure, or visit your doctor if you would like the most accurate estimate that takes into account any special health needs or conditions you may have.

Here’s the real trick to simplifying your nutrition: It doesn’t matter as much what you eat as long as you consume the appropriate number of calories for you. Some people choose to simplify their diets by eating a vegan, plant-based diet. Some people choose to simplify by eating raw, living foods only. Some people join the hundred-mile movement, and eat all foods grown or raised within a hundred miles of their homes to reduce environmental impact. Some people simplify their diets by eating only organically grown foods. Others strive to conform to what they consider “clean eating,” meaning foods that are not processed. There are many other ways to simplify your diet by cutting things out that you think clutter up your body, and I’m not going to recommend one over the other, because that’s an individual health decision for you to make (with a nutritionist if needed). For me personally, a vegetarian diet keeps things simple, but for someone else who raises chickens and follows family recipes, a vegetarian diet would be a drastic change that would complicate life considerably.

Simplifying your nutritional intake takes a long time, so you’ll start the harmonizing step while you’re still getting the hang of simplifying. It’s okay to cheat on your simplification sometimes, because the whole point of living healthy and removing body clutter is so that you can have room in your life to splurge and treat yourself with things you like. However, keep these as rare deviations from the norm to maintain your newly simplified lifestyle so you can properly evaluate it during the reflection phase. Your simplification may take place all at once with a drastic pantry and refrigerator cleaning—if you have enough resources to do so—or you might take baby step; for example, cut sugary beverages from your diet. Move toward the goal of only having healthy snacks and meals available at home and work unless your special treats are planned into your meals with careful calorie accounting. Of course you can still let your mom bake you her famous cookies for your birthday, and you can share a cultural treat served by a friend when you’re out at a restaurant. You’ll enjoy these delicious things even more if you keep them special.

Step 2: Harmonize

Make sure you’ve got your nutrition simplification under control before moving on to the harmonizing step. Of course, we’ve been talking about a lifestyle change, so you may still be tweaking your diet and getting used to a healthier life. I only mean that you should think about simplifying without moving on if you feel caught in the confusion of dietary change. If you find yourself constantly struggling with willpower or are otherwise unhappy with the simple diet you’ve chosen, these are signs that your simplification process is going haywire—you may need to back up a bit and take smaller steps, thinking things through before going through another cycle of simplification.

Lacking willpower and being unhappy with a diet can be markers for eating disorders; other mental or physical restrictions can prevent people from eating what is best for them. I am not a dietician or nutritionist, but I whole-heartedly recommend creating an eating plan and running it by a professional, preferably a doctor, especially if you are already taking any kind of medicine or are on any sort of program. Ideally, you’ll know you’re on the right track and ready to progress if your changes leave you feeling energized, motivated, encouraged, and healthy.

Now it’s time to work on adding some more movement to your life. It may seem counterintuitive to add exercise to a busy life to clear clutter. Believe me, I know. I never played sports when I was young, aside from some brief fun with downhill skiing and pole-vaulting. As a young adult, I figured I was too busy for exercise. I turned to movement and exercise finally out of desperation when I was a school teacher. I had so much clutter in my life at that point, not only material in my home and classroom, but mental clutter as well—I always had work on my plate and felt compelled to do it because it was for the children. I was desperate to have even one hour out of the day where I could choose to not think about work and still feel guilt-free. Exercise was the answer. Now, the busier my life gets, the more I know that I need to carve out time to exercise, otherwise my whole life might become cluttered with things unimportant to me. After all, health is on my list of valuable things I am retaining when clearing the clutter from my life.

Anything that moves your body is a good thing. Weight lifting or any sport or activity that makes you lift weights or your body weight will help you become stronger. Cardiovascular exercise or any activity that gets your heart pumping for minutes on end will help you increase your calorie expenditure and raise your endurance and energy. If you’re just starting out with vigorous exercise, aim for just twenty minutes three days a week. Increase time and number of days per week gradually from there. If you jump in too enthusiastically, you might injure yourself, which just means spending more time sitting around getting better. Put important exercise time on your calendar so it doesn’t get left out of a busy day. For some people, taking a class might be the way to make sure you don’t skip it. If you pay money, it’s a specific time on your calendar, and you also have people who might be wondering where you are if you skip class that day, so you may be more likely to stick with it. For others, flexibility on the calendar may be key, so picking a workout DVD or a run that can slip in anywhere in the day might be best. Just get moving and keep moving.

Step 3: Reflect

What did you notice about your body clutter clearing? What was easy and what was most challenging? Hopefully you’ve started to notice some of the benefits of what you’re doing. If so, keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep noticing positive changes as the months roll by. If you’re finding something too difficult, it may be that you are doing too much and need to scale things back. When I first started running, I found myself frustrated that I couldn’t keep up with even the simplest plan designed for a couch potato. After quitting and restarting twice, I realized the problem: even though my plan was sound, I was running too fast and getting too tired to follow the prescribed exercise. After slowing my pace significantly, I was able to follow the plan comfortably. Only after I completed my initial conditioning and training was I able to increase my running speed. Even if you have to take things slow, celebrate your achievements, because this can give you the motivation to progress. The better you feel, the more you will be able to do.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Take a cleansing bath. An herbal bath can be a special treat for yourself as well as a way to cleanse yourself physically and emotionally.

Try a twenty-minute bath with 2 cups Epsom salts, ¾ cup sea salt, and ½ cup baking soda. Adding herbs or essential oils to the water such as lavender, mint, or rosemary can lend a spiritual quality to your bath and may increase your bath’s efficacy at clearing your body clutter.

Try holding a bowl of water outside at night so it shows you the reflection of the full moon. Then pour that water into your bath for the purity of the white moon.

A bath on Saturday may be especially helpful for clearing clutter from your body, mind, and spirit because Saturday is associated with the planetary mythology of Saturn, the necessary destruction that precedes new life and creation.

In the particular case of those who are cutting calories, you might find that something seems missing in your life when you cut out all of the food you love and focus on throughout your day. This could be a clue that you should focus more on spirit during the next harmonizing portion of your simplifying, harmonizing, and reflecting cycle. If you wake up for a midnight snack, could it be that perhaps you’re really waking up for a chat with God? If you’re obsessing over what food you want to eat beyond basic calorie needs, perhaps you need to seek deeper meaning in other areas of life that will occupy your mind and feed your spirit.

Intuitive Eating

When you were born, you were gifted with the ability to know when you feel full, satiated, and hungry. Intuitive eating is using the natural methods your body has of knowing what it needs. Though it’s not as effective for weight loss as calorie counting and is not a treatment for an eating disorder, intuitive eating is a perfect way to keep nutrition free of confusion and clutter for those who are already at a healthy weight. Rather than watching the clock and stressing about specific meal times and quantities, you can follow your body’s cues. Life becomes a whole lot more simple if you make eating as easy as it is for woodland creatures.

To start, ask yourself what it feels like when you are hungry. You could try an experiment where you allow yourself to become truly hungry before eating. Don’t get to the point of starving, but you should be hungry enough that you are aware of your need for food. Try this experiment on a normal day or even a busy one. Hopefully food access isn’t unreliable for you; you can trust that the universe will present you with an opportunity to reach your fridge or stop by a restaurant or cafeteria when needed. If you’re out of touch with your hunger, you may actually have to meditate on your body sensations rather than watching the clock. What does hunger feel like for you? Does it feel like an empty or odd feeling in your stomach? Do you feel your hunger in your head first? Do you notice it as a drop in your energy levels or the edge of a grumpy feeling in your emotional state of well-being? Does your stomach growl when you’re starting to get hungry or only when you’re truly ravenous? Don’t wait too long, or you may have trouble controlling the amount of food you eat, not to mention the drop in your blood sugar levels. If you’re not sure whether you’re hungry or not, think about whether you could be easily distracted by a phone call from a friend or if you’d have to excuse yourself to eat.

Once you’re hungry, get yourself some food in a timely manner. Think about what you would prefer out of every food available to you at the moment. Savory or sweet? What food textures would feel right to you right now? Would you like hot or cool food? Choose what you would like to eat without judging the nutritional or caloric content for this experiment. Serve yourself a small portion, as you can always get more if you want more. Some people use small plates and forks to trick the mind into thinking there’s more if they’re trying to reduce portions. Consider a small ritual such as lighting a candle or saying grace before your meal, as this way of making meal time special may actually make your food taste better.

Eat slowly and mindfully. Enjoy your food. Eat your favorite part of the meal first instead of choking down your least favorite or a filling side first. It may be hard to slow down if you’re used to rushed eating, so try chewing your bites longer and taking a sip of water between each bite. Really savor your food choice and allow yourself to be grateful. Notice the first potential signs of fullness. You may notice that the flavor seems to change, making the food not as delicious as it was when you started your meal. You may notice a gentle heavy feeling in your stomach and a relaxed frame of mind. As soon as you suspect that you might be getting full, slow down even more. Drink your water and chat with others if you are dining with company. If you confirm that you’re not hungry by waiting a few minutes, pack away your food to save for later. In some cultures it is good luck to leave a bit of food on your plate, as it represents giving back to spirit or to one’s ancestors in gratitude. This practice supposedly assures you’ll never go hungry. Remember that food beyond what your body needs to eat is waste, whether it’s in the garbage or turned into flab on your body.

If intuitive eating works for you, you can use this as a lifestyle rather than eating meals by the clock. Simply allow yourself access to your favorite foods when you feel like eating them and stop as soon as your hunger is sated. If you need to eat with others, at dinner for example, a shot of orange juice may stave off your hunger long enough. Or instead of eating lunch at a restaurant with friends, if you ate earlier you can enjoy a glass of water and good conversation. While experimenting in this way, you may wish to use only water or other calorie-free drinks you have on hand until you get a good feel for how caloric beverages affect your hunger. It can be trickier to know whether you are getting hungry or getting full if you’re drinking milk, juice, or soda with your meals. Keep it simple.

Fasting

Fasting is a spiritual practice that spans many different faiths as part of their spiritual practice. It may have risen independently in many cultures as a way to clear body clutter and press the body’s reset button. Specifically, there are a number of spiritual benefits to fasting that may allow you to harmonize that part of your life.

During a fast, abstaining from eating food can help remind you that your focus is on the spiritual part of life instead of the physical. It’s like tying a string around your finger to remember something, only much more persistent. Undertaking a fast may produce the light-headed state associated with trance meditation, a state of mind that’s potent and powerful for prayer and other spiritual practices. Also, fasting allows you to put energy into your spiritual focus and spiritual work that you would otherwise spend seeking, preparing, and digesting food. Some people even take the opportunity during fasting to give the resources they would have consumed to others who are less fortunate.

Depending on your health needs, a fast can take different forms (it isn’t just starving yourself for a period) so consult your doctor if you have any questions. Every religion in which fasting is a practice allows exemptions for the disabled, women who are pregnant or nursing, children, the elderly, and those who need a lot of calories to perform their work. Some fasts can be very short, lasting for one day and ending at sundown. Other fasts simply exclude certain foods such as meat, or they limit caloric consumption to liquids like juice. I like to do a juice fast during the day of a full moon. It helps me clear my mind and focus on the right things in life. If you’re healthy enough to try a fast and you think it may be for you, give it a try.

Clearing-Clutter Tip: Calories are not the same as spiritual energy, but here’s a meditation that you can use to draw in spiritual energy whether you’re temporarily fasting or simply feel like you need some intangible nourishment. Use this when you feel like eating out of boredom or emotional unrest.

Sit and take deep breaths. As you inhale, think of yourself as a being made entirely of loving energy. Imagine that you are breathing in through your chest through an energy center right at your heart.

As you exhale, imagine you are radiating love in every direction through your body. Tell yourself that everything you need to be healthy and strong and a positive presence in the world comes to you through the air you breathe and the spiritual energy that comes with it.

Mindful Exercise

When most people think about mindful exercise, they might think about yoga, Tai Chi, and other martial arts or spiritual dance. Mindful exercise doesn’t have to be something traditionally associated with the spiritual, however. Any physical discipline will do. When I was in college, archery was my sport of choice and a vital touchstone for clearing mental and spiritual clutter. When I toed the line at the archery range and let my eyes focus on the tip of that arrow and the target ahead of me, everything else would disappear. My muscles burned but my mind and body felt clear. My young life’s social struggles and homework worries disappeared and the only thing left was the focus.

The first time I turned to more physical exercise was actually when my schedule was more packed, as a school teacher. Every waking moment that I wasn’t working, I was thinking about working or planning my work. Any time spent trying to relax or sleep resulted in me feeling guilty that I wasn’t doing more work to serve the school and kids entrusted to my service. I volunteered for more work and became a curriculum leader for the district and attended extra classes to extend my learning. Well, my life was packed with way too much mental and physical clutter and my body was totally neglected. Paradoxically, I squeezed one more regular appointment into my schedule: karate classes. For an hour a day I was blissfully able to pay attention only to my strained breathing, form, and the pain of my exertion. I was hooked.

My latest love in mindful exercise is running. Of course, there’s nothing inherently spiritual or clutter clearing about running, but I highly recommend it to those physically able to do it. Not only does running not require the extra clutter of equipment for its practice, it can give the same clarity of mind found in other types of mindful exercise. And it’s free, to boot. It took me four months of running consistently before I learned not to hate it, but then I grew to love it. Running gives me the time to clear the clutter of my body, mind, and spirit while taking some much needed time for myself.

Making Time for Sleep

Sleep is vital for harmonizing your life. Adults need seven to eight hours of sleep and even more if you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, or an athlete. Make a commitment to give your body and mind the right amount of sleep needed to clear out all the clutter of the previous day. Give yourself a proper bedtime and get yourself ready for rest hours before hand. Some people believe that dirty dishes in the sink prevent restful sleep, so build that clearing clutter chore into your bedtime routine. I like to load the dishwasher and turn it on before I go change into my pajamas so I have clean dishes to put away in the morning before breakfast. Power down all screens like televisions or computers a couple hours before bedtime to get your mind ready for sleep. I like to catch up on my reading in bed.

Keep your bedroom for sleeping if your living space allows. Don’t put televisions, exercise equipment, or hobbies that excite and engage you too much in there. Exercising in the afternoon or morning may make sleep come easier to you at night. If you can help it, don’t exercise right before bed but of course do what you have to with your schedule to fit what you need in your life.

If you’re way too ambitious like me, you might feel like you’re slacking if you allow yourself extra hours to sleep. But think of it this way: dreaming is a very productive activity—a way to simultaneously clear the clutter of your mind and body. When you dream, your brain processes the activities of the day as well as your intuition about the future. While your body knits wounds, heals illnesses, and restores balance, your mind sorts through your problems and puts memories in their proper emotional place.

To work with your dreams, start by keeping a dream journal. Keep a notebook and writing implement by your bed as well as a small light you can use. Inform anyone sharing the room with you about your dream journal intentions. As soon as you wake up, even if it is nowhere near the time you start your day, write down what you remember about your dream. It may be difficult to force yourself into that level of being awake, especially if you try to write legibly. However, it can be worth it for the insights you receive. Sometimes I don’t even remember what I wrote when I wake up the next day.

After keeping your dream journal for a while, you may notice that issues become clearer. You can track your life as it unfurls in your subconscious. If you approach your dream journal with the same discipline used in approaching your material clutter simplification, you will reap benefits.

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