Organize Your Life, Organize Your Mind

The experts all say that by decluttering our lives we can lower our stress and bring about a great sense of satisfaction. I don’t know why it is that so many of us have a tendency to collect more than we really need. But we do. Some of us are collectors to the extent that we have a totally cluttered life. And some of us have a relatively neat life, but still have more than we need stored away in our closets, our basements and our attics.

OK, I’ve read the articles which tell us that once a year we need to go through our closets, garages, dresser drawers and boxes stashed in the attic and find out what we can get rid of. When we collect too much stuff it begins to weigh our lives down. And if we have to make aisles in our basement or our storage shed to get to things (and I will admit to an isle or two) then it’s really time to start sorting through belongings and getting rid of things we KNOW we will never use again.

Do you save clothes in the hope of returning to the size you were when you stored them? I cannot lie. I have a wardrobe for at least three or four sizes. (OK, maybe more.) Of course the sad truth is that this clothing can add up to boxes and boxes of things that will be out of style by the time we can ever fit back in to them again.

Every now and then you really have to dig in and mercilessly “let go” of some of your stuff. I am a relatively organized person—however not nearly as organized as my husband. Jeff thrives on order! In fact, every time he shops for new clothes, he comes home and goes through his closet to weed out what hasn’t been worn in a while or that has fallen out of style, and replaces those items with the new ones. It astounds me. I must admit I am jealous of how he does that. Why can’t I let go of my “stuff” so easily?

I’ve managed to amass a huge amount of clothes since I am constantly acquiring wardrobe from TV shows and other projects I work on. I guess it’s difficult for me to cast the clothes aside, since much of it is expensive designer labels and then too, I wonder if I might need them again one day.

But we’ve all heard the rule of thumb we are to apply to our stuff when cleaning out—if you haven’t worn something in the last year, you probably won’t wear it ever again. That means a lot of stuff in my house should go.

From time to time my husband gently asks me if I might be in the mood to go through the “Joan Lunden Dressing Room” as he likes to call my “giant closet” in the basement. And truth be told, I too am really craving order and feel the need to purge—maybe it really is this “spring fever.”

I know it will feel great to “weed out” and “let go” of all that which I am not using in my life. I’ll never be as organized as my husband—maybe in my next life but certainly not in this one. For his last birthday, I gave Jeff a promise that I would “spring clean.” I knew he’d love that, but he looked up from the card and gave me that look as if to say, “Nice idea sweetie, but will it really happen?”

Well I’m happy to report that this past weekend, I got started. After a good night’s sleep, I went to the gym with my hubby and had a great workout. Then I came home feeling invigorated and went to work trying things on and weeding out! As I looked in the mirror, some of the shoulder pads were so big that I had to laugh! It felt wonderful; it really does have a great cleansing effect on you emotionally and of course it helps others when you make a donation.

Our local charities can really use donations of clothing, so we are helping others while also helping ourselves. All that clutter causes stress. It robs you of your life energy as you agonize over how you will ever organize it all. So don’t organize it… get rid of it. I’m on my way and it feels great