Uncluttering to Find Joy

Uncluttering to Find Joy

        Uncluttering our homes, our offices, our social relationships, our eating habits and our lives may be one of the best things we can do. It will help us keep our focus on what is truly important and give us time to appreciate what we have. It will help us to have time for gratitude and joy.  Resolving to simplify life and uncluttering may seem like a daunting task, but it is worthwhile.

        Many of us talk about multitasking and even find delight in multitasking, because it helps us get things done faster.  We want to get things done more rapidly so we can accomplish more.  The more we accomplish the closer we are to our vision of success or a feeling of being uncluttered. Maybe the multitasking approach is part of the problem, however. If I do the dishes, mop the floor, nurture my little child, spend time with my husband, talk on the phone, bake bread and give myself a facial all at the same time, perhaps something will be slighted. Some things need my entire focus of attention. I am only uncluttering my life, when I repeatedly multitask, to find time for more clutter.

         There is actually a speech disorder called cluttering.  It is characterized by lots of starts and stops; racing thoughts, saying things that were not meant to be said, leaving off parts of words; omitting endings of words; using lots of “um’s and ah’s” and being unaware of how one’s speech sounds to others. It is as though the person has a cluttered mind. Isn’t that metaphorically what we are doing when we clutter our lives?  Isn’t that how our brain feels when we are cluttered in physical, spiritual or emotional ways? It is like being on a treadmill and not being able to get off.

       Being cluttered can be a way of talking, thinking, living and even hiding.  Have you ever been in a room where most everyone is someone you know and you say “hello” and a few words to everyone in the room, but realize that that was all there was time for? You feel cluttered because you did not have time to really connect to anyone. Maybe, that is how we hide.  We just do not have time to let anyone really get to know us or really get to know someone else. Moving through life that way will not lead to strong relationships.  It is another way of being cluttered.

       Eating without a plan can be an act of cluttering. Cluttering one’s body with foods that are not nutritious and not beneficial can be another form of confusion to one’s health and well-being.  It is true that good food tastes better when one eats primarily good foods. Healthy eating promotes good health.  How simple and uncluttered is that?

      Can uncluttering even promote weight loss?  Ms.Lynne Johnson, a professional organizer, said in the January 5, 2008 NewYork Times that she often sees a link between her client’s efforts to get organized and weight loss. “I think someone decides, ‘I’m not going to live like this anymore. I’m not going to hold onto my stuff, I’m not going to hold onto my weight,’” she said. “I don’t know that one comes before the other. It’s part of that same life-change decision.”

       Collecting junk and saving useless things is the obvious form of cluttering that we think about when we talk about this issue.  I try to clean out closets and drawers periodically and this activity proves very positive.  It gives me a feeling of control of my life to a degree.  I like to control my “stuff”, not let the “stuff” control me.  What we hold on to says a lot about what we value, as does what we are willing to part with. “Less is more”.

         We give our children in America so many things that they do not have time to appreciate them.  When you look at most suburban children’s rooms, you see numerous colorful toys, stuffed animals, gadgets and craft supplies.  These items are layered upon each other and then stuffed in boxes so quickly that there is little time to enjoy or appreciate them.  The children are easily bored, because they have not been given the time to delve into anything.  They are given one stimulating item after another without the time to explore them.  They are taken to lots of classes and sports activities, but time to enjoy the simple things is not available.  We are a nation of doting parents, but the fruits of our labors are cluttered children who will soon become cluttered adults.

        Simplifying our lives and controlling our clutter is a possible task if we see this as important.  Cluttering in our lives can be seen in many ways.  It can be seen by how we multitask, how we over-stimulate our brains, how we interact socially, how we eat, how we collect “stuff”, and how we prioritize our lives.  It can be seen prominently in how we rear our beloved children to become cluttered adults as we are. 

        G.K. Chesterton said, "The modern world has far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn.  People forget that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about if and be thankful for it.  And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise and surprise is the secret of joy."  That is exactly what I think!