holiday lightsI realize this is a total cliché, however, 2009 has moved about as quickly as any year I can remember! In January we sold the house we’d owned for 7+ years. In February we moved into another one. In March I began a program in New York that had me traveling for four months (in other words, we shared our bedroom with a half-packed suitcase at all times). Summer came and went, school started, Halloween passed, and now we’re in the midst of the holidays! My house is a mess. Well, it was a mess. All that is changing.

I have regularly suffered fits of despair when the accumulation of physical stuff becomes unbearable. I get mad at myself for letting it become overwhelming. I get mad at my husband and children because they do not share my passion for order. I get mad at well-meaning family who send toys to the kids for birthdays and holidays (how awful of them!). I get mad at teachers for sending home millions of pages of writing, artwork, and projects that require saving.

This year after noticing (and despairing) that we had moved a lot of clutter with us into the new house, I finally decided to do something about it. I got the book (I borrowed it, from the library!) Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston… here I found complete and total validation for the way I feel about clutter. Friends and visitors will say ‘your house is not messy’ but I literally feel the stuck energy of clutter. It clouds my psyche, weighs down my spirit, blocks my creativity, keeps me in an addictive pattern of get stuff – notice stuff – despair stuff – clean stuff up – get stuff….

First I read the book. Second I asked my husband to read it. Which he did, and now he gets me. Hallelujah! I’m no longer a neat-freak lunatic in his eyes (at least, not about this). He knows what I’m envisioning is peace of mind, and flow in our lives. Flow of love, abundance, connection. Third, we began to work. Slowly, deliberately, over the past four weekends we have made progress: Three carloads to Goodwill, vinyl collection (except a few rare favorites) to the record store, an old unused camera to consignment, a small collection of items for Craigslist, moving boxes (finally!) picked up from our garage by a local shop owner.

Parents, guess what? You won’t believe this but the kids love it! Our six-year-old cried at first and then helped, and got really excited about how pretty her room looks, she is keeping it up. Our eleven-year-old said after waking up that his room ‘felt lighter, more airy.’ Together we went through the toy bins, threw away broken items and took three more boxes to Goodwill.

Other benefits. Weekend one, my husband found lost checks and rebates that added up to $675 dollars! I’m releasing items and emotions I’ve held onto for far too long, like the teapot I got when I married my first husband which has been on display forever, but never really was my style. Then there is this surge of energy. There are two types of holiday cookie dough in the freezer… I have never begun holiday baking so early.

Luckily, our tradition is to put up the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and leave it up for twelve days. I still have a couple weeks then, just a couple places left to clear, final dusting and vacuuming and I can get out the holiday décor. Hmmmm…. Wonder how many boxes of ornaments I can get us down to?