“I want to get my life back.” When you hear that from a woman there are several reasons she might be longing to reclaim her own life. Wives and mothers get consumed in their roles. Women who are depressed go down for periods of time and lose touch with themselves. And, living in physical chaos created by dumping the belongings of a deceased relative in your space can do the same thing.

The tricky thing about trying to get your life back when your house is loaded with memorabilia, furniture and other stuff from family members is that in order to deal with it you are likely to be taking a trip back in time. The reason so much of that old stuff stays stuck where it landed when pulled off the U-Haul is that a part of you is resisting feeling the feelings that could surface when you go through the boxes and move the furniture.

Items hold the energy of the person to whom they belonged or the energy of a particular time in your life. Their energy comes from the story they have to tell. Items whose stories mean nothing to you are easy to part with. Those that bring pictures from your past into your mind are loaded and can elicit strong emotions! It’s anticipation of feeling those strong feelings, particularly sadness and loss, that will keep you too busy to do anything with all that stuff.

If you want to “get your life back”, find a way to address the influx of old stuff as soon after it arrives as possible, before it becomes a physical block to getting on with your life. The first step is to decide what you want to incorporate into your home. Keep only those things you truly love or will use. It’s OK to get rid of old stuff. Really!

Pass unwanted items to other family members, donate or sell them. If you have difficulty getting started on the sorting process or making decisions about what to keep and what to move along, get help either from a sensitive friend, family member or professional organizer. Why prolong the agony? Take the first step. There is relief on the other side of any sadness you may encounter.

Want a very good reason to tackle the shoe nightmare at the bottom of your closet? Over 300 million children around the world are without shoes. Souls4Souls®, a non-profit, facilitates delivery of shoes to those in need. In the last five years over 12 million pairs of shoes have been delivered. Shoes are being delivered at a rate of a pair every seven seconds.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could restore order to your closet, a place you visit several times every day, and give hope to children in need in some part of the world? For more information about Souls4Souls®, you can check them out on YouTube, at GiveShoes.org or call 615-391-5723. Or, you could just send your shoes to: Souls4Souls®, World Distribution Center, 315 Airport Road, Roanoke, AL 36274-8011.

Shoes to give up are:

• those you never wear despite the best of intentions
• those that hurt your feet
• those that make your feet look ugly

Join the Souls4Souls® effort to put shoes on every child worldwide. Make a difference in your closet and in the life of a child.

I’ve had the pleasure of helping artists clear out and set up their studios to be more productive and sell more art. As an art history major in college who took all the studio classes I could, going into an artist’s studio feels like going home to me. What has become very clear to me when I’ve worked with artists is that having enough space and the right type of space makes a real difference in an artist’s ability to create.

It takes space to create. Imagine trying to paint a work of art in a closet. It’s just not happening! No matter how passionate you feel about your subject, your medium or your mission, you won’t be able to access your creativity.

Physical space is necessary to access your creative genius. It’s an energy thing. Just as a business can only grow as big as the space allowed, so too the work of an artist. It takes enough space and the right kind of space to create art. Following are some suggestions for a high performance art studio:

• preferably a space used only as a studio
• a space large enough for an adequate work area plus a storage area for supplies and completed work
• a space with good natural lighting
• a space that is well ventilated
• a space that is easy to access (few stairs)
• a space that is reasonably uncluttered
• a space that is reasonably organized
• a space with some of your favorite art hanging on the walls

Give your art the space it deserves!