Clutter in our lives

A reader sent in the below which I thought you might find inspiring, especially if you feel overloaded with things!


I was watching Oprah recently as an expert who helps people organize their homes and de-clutter their lives was interviewed. He shared some amazing statistics.

He believes that 2/3’s of the people in the USA today live with clutter. He pointed out that 1 in 10 rent a storage space for the things they own, even though Americans today live in houses that are twice as big and families are twice as small as they were 50 years ago.

He said it was interesting to note that not only is 2/3’s of the population clutter’ers, but 2/3 of the population is also overweight.

He continued to explain that all of this excess, or clutter, reflects out-of-control living that many people live.

The way out of the box, he shared, is not to focus on the clutter but to look within oneself. He found there is always an emotional source for all of this clutter in ones’ life.

Some are holding onto the past thru memories and things that remind them of those memories, and others are holding onto things in fear they might need it in the future.

The tragedy is; it leaves very little room for living in the NOW. It would be more helpful to recognize that this moment in time is when we can find joy in the family, friends and relationships that we have rather than being burdened by excess mental baggage and things from the past.

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus told us how to get rid of clutter. He instructed,

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."

I find it amazing to consider that there isn’t any rust corroding the love I have for my children. And no one can steal the peace I have each day as I spend time in prayer and meditation. Harmony permeates my home with smiles and laughter that no one can take away and no one can complain are a burden.

Once we put on our spiritual glasses and begin to see the world through spiritual eyes, the things we have held onto so tightly lose their grip and don’t seem so important anymore.

Maybe it’s time to study the New Testament and gain a fresh reference for what is important and will last, so as we go through our day we see the things we own and store in an entirely new way. Old things can then be let go, they can pass away and allow for a renewal of our lives in less cluttered ways.

For a better way of life

I enjoyed reading Og Mandino’s seventeen rules for a better way of life.

Two favorites that jumped off the page:

Rule Six

Let your actions always speak for you, but be forever on guard against the terrible traps of false pride and conceit that can halt your progress. The next time you are tempted to boast, just place your fist in a full pail of water, and when you remove it, the hole remaining will give you a correct measure of your importance.

Rule Eight

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow!

I read rule eight as a friendly reminder to make space for spiritual progress in our schedule. We must not let opportunity to grow and expand as individual expressions of God get crowded out by the menial and mundane demands of materialism.

Life is not a to-do list. Life should be a spiritual experience that has us soaring through the heights of Mind bouncing from one glorious revelation of Truth to the next.

In the long run, it’s not how much money we make that counts or the people we impress. It’s our spirituality that matters. Spirituality is the one thing that stays with us as we trek down the road of Life, and it is the only thing we’ll have to show for our efforts when held accountable for our time. Everything else is as a shadow in the night.

You may enjoy reading Mandino’s 15 other rules for a better way of life.

Living an uncluttered life

My wife panics when I get into a serious cleaning mode. I don’t like clutter. I easily part with things that sit around unused. I can sort through a closet jammed with clothes, books, trinkets, and other dust-catching objects and discard the majority of it with ease leaving clean sparsely covered shelves behind to hold the items we really need.

My wife doesn’t have a problem with getting rid of material possessions. That’s her mantra too. She’s just worried I’ll throw out the wrong things. Like “her” things! Aw, the price we pay to keep a light load around the household.… We make a good team.

In his article, “The ‘Real’ Simple Life,” Matt Bell describes a sentiment many people are discovering these days as they work to live an uncluttered existence.

He wrote,

Not long ago, a good friend went through his closet and gave away literally half of his clothes. Rather than missing the items, he feels a new sense of freedom.

In a recent Town & Country magazine article, Jane Hammerslough
describes a similar experience. A roof repair gone wrong forced her family to frantically pack what they could and move to a small, sparsely furnished rental house for six months. She writes of their surprise that they didn't miss much of what they had left behind. Rather than feeling depressed or deprived due to their "hideous living room" and "mismatched plates," they felt liberated. And when they returned home, she felt "overwhelmed by the utter excess of stuff." A purging of things soon followed. She concluded that "when 'enough' is always just a little more than you already have, you don't have a lot of room left for the truly great pleasures of life: family, friends, and the time to enjoy them.

He ends with the summary

In our materialistic, marketing-saturated world, simplicity isn't, well, so simple. But as Richard Foster points out, it begins on the inside with the attitudes of our hearts and minds. And those attitudes are cultivated through prayer and meditation on the truth of God's Word.

I recommend reading the whole article. It’s very enlightening on how to catch the spirit of living a truly simple life.