Tag: Uncluttering as a Spiritual Practice
-
What Have You Uncluttered in 2015?
It can be helpful/inspiring/hilarious to hear what other people are uncluttering. So far in 2015 my list has been quite tame, but here it is . . . . ~ a coffeemaker broke — was dispatched to my husband’s Middle School “Take It Apart Club” — the intact coffeepot was donated and a new Mr.…
-
Open-Window-Time: Spring Uncluttering
I love sleeping with the windows open. What a pleasure to wake to the birds and a breeze. The open-window time is, itself, a brief window of time, coming after the worst of the pollen has passed, and before the heat arrives.?Open-window time makes me want to air out other parts of my life. Which…
-
Fall Is a Great Time to Organize
The fall is a time of new beginnings. The air is crisp, those new notebooks have uncreased covers, and the holidays loom, but not frighteningly so. All things seem possible! But is it hard to feel fresh in your home environment? Does your space support the kind of life you want to live? Or are…
-
Clutter Creep: Now you see it, Now you don’t!
Refrigerator magnets. Overstuffed bookshelves. Piles of paper on the kitchen counter. To me, it’s all visual clutter, and I say: Get rid of it! I like clean surfaces. A couple weeks ago we reorganized a section of our basement. After we cleared out some “stuff” we decided to get rid of the shelf unit that…
-
What I Found In My Archive
“This type of man has his good qualities and his failings; he is obsessed by the desire to get on with his work, consumed by the inner flame which all those who live by the pen so well know. But he is also rather vain, very sensitive to criticism, extremely touchy, quick to consider anyone…
-
Clutter, Craigslist and Father’s Day
As I unclutter the house, I fill a donation bag. It feels good to know that someone can make use of something I no longer need or want. I set an internal limit. If the item is worth $20 or more, I take a picture and post it on Craigslist. Last week I listed a…
-
Stuff: good, bad, ugly
I’ve been thinking about Stuff. We all have lots of Stuff, probably more than we need. Chances are it’s getting in our way: out of season clothes that clog the closet, fondue pots and mismatched Tupperware that get in our way in the kitchen cupboard, or unused electronics that line the steps to the garage…
-
For the Filing Cabinet (or not)
Yesterday, March 26, was my daughter’s 25th birthday. Happy Birthday to her! I could not be prouder! Yesterday was also my mother’s 83rd birthday. My first daughter was born on my mother’s 58th birthday. I could joke that I planned it to make it easier to remember birthdays. But March 26 just seems to be…
-
Stuff Is Not Neutral: Clutter Edition
Stuff serves you, or it gets in your way. Stuff enhances your life, or it makes you stumble. Stuff makes your life more beautiful, or it clutters your life with the unnecessary. Stuff takes energy many times over: to earn the money to buy it, to spend the money shopping for it, to maintain it,…
-
Uncluttering Books
When I was growing up we didn’t have any extra money, so every book I read came from the library. I remember winning a couple of books through book-reading challenges at the library; those were precious. Buying textbooks in college was a stretch financially, and I never bought books for pleasure. Then I went to…
-
The Year of Living Superficially
All of my life I have been “deep.” When I was in high school, people would say to me, “You’re really deep” and I took that as a compliment. Then I went to college and seminary and became a minister. Being a minister is a deep profession. You deal with the serious, the profound. You…
-
What Breaks
Tonight I’m remembering a valuable dish that broke, the most valuable dish I ever owned, and I’m feeling glad that it broke. The dish was a gift from one of the sainted widows in my congregation, a token of her esteem for me. She called it “Kitchen Ming” because it was from the Ming dynasty,…