Beyond Decluttering

I have been decluttering and downsizing the amount of things that I own for around 8 years. At first, my process was slow, punctuated with the slight influx of items here and there, but, recently, I have found myself approaching an amount of things that suits me, my values, and the life that I envision for myself. I am nearly at the “click” as Marie Kondo says. The life that I envision for myself is defined by freedom; freedom from debt and from the overwhelm of excess. There are certainly physical manifestations of this life, such as a cute little ~500 square foot home, however, this life is not defined by the physical, but rather the emotional and spiritual nourishment that occurs beyond the physical. I certainly dream of a small home, a simple space that revitalizes me in a location where I am not compelled to rush about in my daily life but beyond that I want to be free to live simply and slowly in order to better appreciate what I have. But I seek more than that.

My physical decluttering has, of course, played a huge role in my ability to pursue this life in the first place—it allows me to comfortably live in a smaller space because I do not own too much. If I had a three bedroom house’s worth of stuff, there is no way I would be able to live in a space around 500 square feet (my current space is actually closer to 300.) Owning fewer possessions also allows me the freedom of movement that I currently desire; I am able to live in different places without feeling anchored by my stuff and I can move the things I do want to take with me without feeling overwhelmed by them.

However, removing the excess physical things in my life has, most importantly, given me the freedom and space to focus my time on the things that are truly meaningful to me. When I first started decluttering, I was entirely focused on the physical side of minimalism— I wanted to stop feeling overwhelmed by the things that I owned and for my space to remain tidy and relaxing. But when I actually became aware of how much I owned, and how much I actually wanted to declutter, that too became overwhelming. When we are stuck in the cycle of consumption, constantly buying things to fill our spaces in an attempt to fill something inside of ourselves, we become easily overwhelmed. But, so too, when we declutter in an effort to simply own fewer things, we are still controlled by our things and are still focusing on the physical world around us. We somehow believe that when we reach that “click” our lives will magically improve, that we will no longer feel stressed or overwhelmed. Reaching that click may help things, but physical decluttering alone is not sufficient unless we do some internal decluttering as well.

This academic year has been the most challenging of my life so far. While I love that I am able to teach from the comfort of my home, after doing so for months, my students and I are all starting to feel the effects of burn-out. We feel overwhelmed and even simple tasks are difficult to complete. It helps slightly to know that none of us are alone in that feeling, but, even so, I seek to find some respite from it and, as has always been a habit, I turn to seeking a way to declutter, to gain some control when I feel like I do not actually have much control. Cue the urge to physically declutter.

But I know that decluttering is not the solution to my problems when I encounter stress. I am certain that I do have some things in my space that I would actually love to declutter, but simply clearing out some junk will not actually reenergize me in the way that I need; it may help for a few hours, but I will end up feeling overwhelmed again later. Instead, I must “declutter” or refocus my mind. I can do this in several ways. When I am truly feeling overwhelmed by what is going on inside my head, the best thing I can do is release whatever I am feeling; I write it down in my journal and by allowing myself to actually feel whatever is going on inside, I am able to release it. Sometime meditating will also have this effect. Sometimes all I need is to refocus my energy and when this is the the case, a small tidy of my physical space may be exactly what i need to get the ball rolling. Other times exercising or creating something will also allow me to redirect that overwhelm into something good.

The point is, I have a collection of actions that I can do, intentional ways of spending my time that do more for me emotionally and spiritually than physical decluttering alone can do. I can always choose to journal, to meditate, to create because these actions are not bound my physical objects. They are processes. Physical decluttering has, of course, opened up my time and allowed me the space to pursue these actions more regularly, but at some point, when we have decluttered all/most of what we physically can, we must then refocus our energy into something more. Figuring out the formula of actions that lead to that place where we feel more grounded and in control may take time, but eventually we begin to discover the things that truly nourish our soul, and we start to reach that place, that “click,” that we first started to seek through decluttering.