Unclutter Your Life: Transforming Your Physical, Mental, And Emotional Space [Paperback]

Her [Gibson's] tips will help you clean out your closets and clear your head, too. -- Canadian Living, March, 2004

Are you ready to move into a bright clutter-free future? From noise pollution to financial messes and stressful relationships, clutter affects ALL aspects of our lives--not just our physical spaces. If you¹ve tried feng-shui and other organizing techniques and you still can't find clarity in your life, this down-to-earth guide will show you how to evict the clutter culprits and cultivate peace of mind in your home and soul.

Katherine Gibson is an author, speaker and educator. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Preface

We nearly lost the battle.

My husband, Bob, and I were poised to spend ten years’ worth of vacation funds enlarging our house. The spoils of the Good Life had infiltrated the nooks and crannies of our home and taken charge. Clothes spilled from closets. Sports and camping gear, an army of linens, gardening paraphernalia and the bits and pieces of two lifetimes were crowding us out.

But it wasn’t just stuff invading our world. There was too much of everything. We sandwiched jobs, family, friends, meetings, volunteering, home duties, gardening, and more meetings into our frenetic lives. God became a word to express frustration and peace was a prize thwarted by the need to have it all. Yet, life was fun.

For a while.

We gaily careened through our whirlwind lives until we lunged into spin cycle and tumbled out of control. That’s when we jammed on the brakes. Our stuff, along with the daily hassles and spiritual minefields in our grab-and-run world had squeezed us out. And not just the stuff around us, but also invasive technology, information anxiety, noise, deadlines, decisions, and an overload of expectations. Negative feelings, toxic people, resentments and worries created confusion. Somehow, this all ended up on the kitchen table of life.

Inside and out, clutter plagued us.

Rather than earmark future earnings to build more room to house more stuff, we decided to take charge and cull what mattered from what didn’t. Feng shui expert Beth Skala offered us a starting point. “If the things we own no longer reflect what we want in life, keep us from realizing our potential, or cease to have purpose, they are clutter—and they’ve got to go.”

We yearned for a home that sheltered us from the hurly-burly. We wanted a life that reflected our deepest desires. The “simple life” was not our goal, just a less complicated one. We wanted more time for each other and those we love. Re-arranging the garage on a sunny afternoon missed the mark. So, we pledged to separate what we really needed from what we thought we needed. But we didn’t want to abandon our comforts to take up a Walden-like existence—we liked our comfortable life.

We discovered battling clutter isn’t a one-time thing, but a continuous process. It requires a shift from impulsive acquisition to being mindful about what we bring in our home, minds, and hearts. It means pitching what doesn’t serve us and enhancing our life to make room for what does. Most importantly, remaining uncluttered means examining our relationship with our stuff… the purpose of the chapters to follow.