Clutter

One of the things that kept me and my friend Organization from becoming B.F.F.'s, is the thing that is currently a source of frustration in our home. It's clutter. It's such a weird word. Sometimes I wonder where these words come from. The Urban Dictionary defines it as this:

Clutter; Trash, just useless trash that is lying around that takes up space.

Initially, I tend to think this definition is bogus, because my clutter isn't trash! It's just "stuff" I haven't put away yet... right? I don't keep trash sitting around, and once I "de-clutter" everything is where it's supposed to be... right? But then my sister-in-law who lives with us said the other day "It's just hard to know where to find stuff since nothing really has a specific place." Hmmm, maybe I'm not as organized as I thought!

Last year I invested $20 of my husband's hard earned money in a roll top desk from craigslist. Initially I thought it was too big. I've since filled it. My desk is the "catch all" for things that are currently "without a home". The roll top has certainly helped keep the peace, but it hasn't solved the problem. Is clutter just trash? Or is there something deeper there that I am not seeing? In college I learned about the Spiritual Disciplines and what they meant for my life. Those lessons from long ago need to be re-visited.

A speaker named Kelli Wilson came to our M.O.P.S group. She's a consultant, has her own business, and soon will be publishing her first book. In her talk she said something that really impacted me:

"Clutter is an outward expression of an inward state."

She hosts "Clutter Workshops", and I plan to attend one soon, because I don't like what this statement implies. I am not practicing Simplicity if there is constant clutter in my home. I am not at peace with the state of our home (though trust me I've come a loooooooooooong way!). The fact that clutter stresses my husband out has worked in my favor. I try to speak his love language and de-clutter the house before he gets home. I simply do not see the clutter the way he does. I see only the clutter that bothers me! It's been a long road, but seven and a half years later I feel like I'm finally making a little bit of progress. Our home is less cluttered and more organized than it has been since combining all our "stuff" in 2002.



As I continue on this journey of becoming better aquainted with organization, I hope you will join me. Simplicity is a Spiritual Discipline, and one that I want to take part of more often. It will be a journey for sure. A journey that will take small steps, a journey of patience and grace that will be trying on all, and mostly a journey of prayer, as I seek to Glorify my Savior in a life of simplicity.