The perfect quote came through my feeds this morning: 

Clutter isn’t just the stuff in your closet. It’s anything that gets between you and the life that you want to be living.” Peter Walsh

So True.

When I tell people that I am a minimalist, they often look around at my big house and all my stuff with a raised eyebrow. Justifiably. I have a too big house for the inhabitants and way too much stuff. Throwbacks to a past life, all of it. It, collectively, is on it’s way out the door. 

And I was moving along quite nicely with that. Purging and clearing clutter, emptying cupboards, leading and participating in challenges aimed at having fun while getting rid of the junk – scroll through the old posts, you’ll see them. I have a very lovely shelving unit set up in the garage where I have placed many items that are currently for sale somewhere in the internet (mostly a Facebook garage sale page…) It was fun, exciting, inspiring. Beyond the physical clutter, I was purging old beliefs, negative thoughts, negative people. I was setting up my inner circle of those most trusted and valued contributors. People to whose lives I could also contribute, reciprocal relationships. 

But then something happened. 

I stalled.

Or more correctly, I allowed a very large item of “clutter” into my life. And that item of clutter is the very definition of that quote above. It is getting in between me and the life I have chosen. It it in between me and my family time, my business building time, my workout/health time. It is between me and time with my friends. It is between me and the physical clutter congesting my house. It is between me and my garden – well, this thing plus the snow is between me and my garden, but the snow is heading out. Maybe it’s time for this clutter to head out, too. 

This item of clutter does have a perk. It does contribute to my life in one way. There have been a few lessons learned that were certainly assets, but as an on-going facet of my life, it contributes in only one way. And I can get that perk elsewhere. The lessons, too. 

Because, and most importantly, this item of clutter is getting between me and my authentic self. 

By choosing to allow this clutter into my life, I have actively chosen to set aside all of those other things. I have chosen to set aside myself. And that cannot be tolerated. 

More to come … 

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