Clutter-Be-Gone!

(BOOKS) © 2010 Jackie Paulson

My coaching clients ask me, “Jackie, how do I declutter my house?” I always say, “Simple.
Threw “Stuff” away.” Yes it is that simple and easy to do but the hard part is letting go of things.
It is not the clutter that is a problem, it is you. Now, I am not going to pretend I am free from
this but I am more so now than ever before! Do to unforeseen circumstances I was forced to
move, downsize and put my most Valuable “stuff” into bins and into a storage unit. For
example, I had 5 big bookcases full of books. I had to donate them to a local resale bookstore.
Amazingly the library, Salvation Army, and Home of the Sparrow located in McHenry, Illinois
told me they do not take books anymore. The first round it was easy. I pulled all the books I
never read or was going to read. I picked up all the books that were old and out dated. That left
me with one clean shelf. The second round I had to talk to myself. I had to ask myself questions
like, “Do you really need this?” “Are you really ever going to read this?” “Why is this book so
important to you?” The third round was when I had to get tough. There are many books I kept
because they were my favorites. There were also books people gave me. Some have notes in
them. Some were just gifts. I wanted to keep them for the memory. Of course, the memory was
not the book but the remembering of a moment in my head. The book was just taking up space.
Plus I could just take a picture of it and let it go. It is hard for me to let go of things because I
think I might need them. I want to remember the moment, the person. Decluttering is
allowing you to do just that. It allows you to go through and remember all those great times
and then let them go to make room for new ones. The memories are still with you. If it was
something that truly was important to you, you would have it somewhere else than on a
bookcase in a back room you barely look at. Decluttering really is about remembering that life
is about people and not things. People will come and go in our lives. The memories and feelings
will always be with us. The things that remind us of them are just “things”. They do not bring
them back to us. We do not store people on a book case. We store people in our hearts.