When I think of clutter, I naturally think about the items in my home or office that create a messy appearance; the usual papers, pens, books, coffee cups, old boxes from a delivery (because you might need it). I absolutely love a clean and tidy space whether at home or the office, it makes me feel a sense of calm that annoys some people, haha.

Through the past couple of years between work schedules and activities in my teenage kids’ lives, clutter has revealed additional forms for us. In our society, I believe we often pack our calendars with events, both work and social, so that when people ask, “how are you,” we can answer the good, ole American way – “busy,” as it’s like a badge of honor for some.

I think we often over-book our social calendars with events with people that we aren’t really that interested in because it gives us certain feelings. In a similar way, we over stimulate ourselves with distractions like phones/streaming shows/social media. This busyness creates a way for us to not deal with difficult inner emotions that we need to address. These emotions aren’t necessarily bad… sometimes they just need to be processed.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good show just like everyone else, and I enjoy sending reels and memes to friends way too much. 

The sometimes-enjoyable-distractions I brought up are capable of creating clutter in our brains just like the physical items can create clutter in our home or office space. I’m not the one calling for, “give up technology and churn your own butter.” I’m simply advocating for leaving some margin in your life to enjoy some stillness (the absence of movement or sound), preferably on a regular basis. Stillness can be uncomfortable, even when it’s a regular practice. We are told that we need to grind, hustle, and go, go, go all the time. 

I’m on a quest this year to create a new path for myself – this has been difficult for me. I am learning some things that I enjoy, and some other opportunities that I haven’t enjoyed. During this time I’ve tried to be diligent in practicing stillness; I prefer to do this in the mornings, but sometimes it lands in different parts of the day.  In being able to listen to my head/heart/gut in that stillness, I’ve been able to narrow the focus (reduce clutter) as I move forward in this new phase. 

I just realized that the prompt says to reduce clutter, it doesn’t say to eliminate it. 

If you’ve ever been on a journey to lose a couple pounds, you don’t eliminate all food, you reduce your consumption and increase some physical activity. 

I would suggest here that to reduce clutter can mean different things depending on what we need; perhaps we need to reduce the number of events on our social calendar, or we should reduce our shopping habits, our entertainment intake, or even reduce the time spent with all our contacts and focus in on a few that have deep meaning to us. 

I love the idea of simplifying and would love to hear how this challenges you to reduce the clutter in your life as well.

Bloganuary writing prompt

Where can you reduce clutter in your life?

View all responses