“I don’t even know where to start!”
I hear this a lot from my clients (and friends; and family; and, well, yes, I’ve said it myself). There’s not a single room in the house that looks the way you want it to look, and there are not enough hours in the day to do what’s most pressing, much less start a big, new project. So…?
Start small. Look around your home and choose a space or surface that you see and use, or could use, every day. The nightstand beside your bed. Your kitchen table. The table where you place your mail when you come in the door. A kitchen cupboard where you store food.
Take a moment to simply look at that space. See it as it is now. Not with judgment toward yourself about what you should be doing differently or judgment toward the space about what a mess it is. But look at it with appreciation for how well it serves you and has served you for, most likely, a long time.
Notice what it holds. Some items that perhaps matter a great deal – a book of readings on your nightstand, a favorite food in the cupboard, a birthday card from someone you love about to disappear beneath the most recent incoming mail. Notice, too, the items you’d meant to file, to discard or recycle – but just haven’t gotten to yet. It’s all there. Again, without judgment, feel appreciation for these emblems of your everyday life and the surface that supports them.
Then, one by one, move each item to where you want it to live in your home. Some will stay right where they are, like the book(s) by your bed. Some have another place in your home where they belong. Some are ready to leave. When you’ve placed or replaced each item, the space may be perfectly clear or it may have a few well-chosen belongings still there. Either way, it is now how you want it to be.
Your task going forward is to keep it that way.
Treat that space like sacred space. Because it is. It’s an expression of what you want for your entire home, and it is an emblem of what you are capable of creating. Take care of this space every day, and it will become a model for you and for the rest of your home. It will inspire you every day.
A closing note: I am aware that for some readers thinking about your belongings as if they have feelings or other personal qualities might sound strange or feel a little weird. But here’s how I think that works. Each item in your home is there for the very good reason that you brought it there. Each item was touched by you, and each item has just a bit of you — your energy, if you will – attached to it. Some are very dear. Some, you can’t even remember where they came from. Some you will keep, some you will let go. As you care for your belongings, you care for yourself. And that’s really what this is all about.
