Those of you who read my previous post entitled “Clear Clutter to Get Your Dream–Alpacas Here We Come!” may be wondering what happened to Julie, my client who intentionally cleared her whole house to go for her dream of living in the mountains and raising alpacas. Once the hurdle of selling her house had been handled, she set her intention on finding the right new home for the next leg of her journey. I was so excited when I got a call from her with news that she’s found that home. It’s just 20 minutes north of Asheville, NC, in a small community named Mars Hill. The house is the perfect size for her, is set into a lovely landscape, has been lovingly and meticulously maintained by its current owner, and she’s set to close on the house on June 4. The sale of her house will be final on June 14.

What’s interesting is that the current owner of Julie’s new house is an energy worker. I have always suspected that Julie is an energy worker in preparation. She is fascinated by Reiki , healing touch, feng shui, etc. So, the predecessor chi (energy left by previous owners) of the house is a good match for Julie!

Not only has Julie gotten a full price offer on her home, negotiated an acceptable contract for a lovely new home, but everything else seems to be falling into place. She had a camper and shed down at Sandbridge that she needed to sell. On a recent trip to the beach she easily sold both. All the arrangements associated with the move are being handled with relative ease!

Julie's New Home

Remember, Julie has been orchestrating this move by herself. She is a single mom of grown children pursuing a dream. How often do you hear of middle aged single women pulling up roots and setting off on an adventure? Not very often! I’m so impressed with Julie’s courage and determination! And, I’m impressed with what can happen when you get clear about what you really want! Julie got clear mentally, then got clear physically–by clearing her home of all items that she no longer loved and used. In so doing, she removed energetic boundaries that could have impeded her progress to follow her dream.

Julie’s journey still continues. I can’t wait to see where it will lead her. To her credit, she has managed to keep her fear of the unknown in check and take the necessary steps to keep moving forward. What is your heart’s desire? What do you really want, but feel unable to attain? If you don’t know what you want, or if you do, but can’t see a way to go for it, start by clearing clutter. Clear the energetic barriers that block you from having what you really want. Julie has demonstrated that clearing clutter can help make dreams come true!

Our homes are an outward expression of our inner selves. And, sometimes they tell the story of imminent change. Let me show you what I mean.

“It just doesn’t feel like my house anymore!” lamented Sally, a client who was in the midst of preparing her house for sale. Sally’s decision to pursue a life dream to buy a farm and raise alpacas necessitated her selling her split-level house, a place that she had made her sanctuary over a period of ten years. At this time when houses are slow to sell, it is especially important that they look almost perfect. Her realtor had advised her to paint the entire house in shades of buttery yellow. Gone was the brilliant blue office and the peaceful blue dining room. “I feel like I’m living in a margarine stick!” she railed.

Sally was also agitated because creating a peaceful, neutral space that a prospective buyer could view without distraction and easily picture himself inhabiting, had required that she move many of her belongings to a storage unit. Preparing her house for sale had also given her the opportunity to sort through her belongings and clear out anything that she no longer needed or loved. She was left in a shell of her former home, a place that she no longer recognized, nor did she feel comfortable inhabiting.

Sally was between selves. She had moved beyond the self who had painted those blue walls and had tolerated a packed attic, to a self who was prepared to make a huge leap of faith, buying a farm and finding a new job in a new location. When she began clearing out her house, sending things to storage, the trash, and a local charity, she was physically ripping up energetic roots that had helped her feel comfortable and grounded. She was adrift in unfamiliar territory. Painting the walls in colors not of her choosing effectively wiped away evidence of her individuality. Everything became neutral. Of course Sally had reason to rail against the injustices of the real estate sales process! She was feeling like a stranger in her own home. She was grieving the loss of her things and already grieving the loss of the home that had been such a comfort to her.

Is this a normal reaction? Absolutely! Preparing a house for sale is a stressful and exhausting process. If, like Sally, your home has been your haven, transforming it into a strange place devoid of evidence of your energy can only be disturbing. At a time of high stress you crave stability and familiar, safe places to retreat. Everywhere Sally looked was upheaval, strangeness and work to be done.

Was making all those changes imperative? Given the current real estate market, and given that Sally’s house has no special features like a water view or new garage, making those changes were the best steps to take to increase the probability of a fast sale.

Is there a way that Sally could have avoided the grief and stripping of her energy from her house? Unfortunately, change often comes with a cost. In Sally’s case, she paid the price by having to strip her home of specific evidence of her existence, leaving her feeling sad and mad and frustrated. To her credit she put words to her anguish, which helped her deal with her mixed feelings. What a healthy response!

Wouldn’t you be troubled if your influence was erased from your home and you found yourself living in a place of your own making that was not an outward reflection of your inner self? And, all those changes also came at great financial cost. They speak volumes about the price Sally was willing to pay to go for her dream!

© 2012 Clutter Clearing Community | Debbie Bowie

“Author, Organizing Expert and Feng Shui Practitioner Debbie Bowie, is a leading authority on clutter clearing to attract more of what you want in your life. If you’re ready to finally clear the clutter from your life and move your life forward, get your FREE TIP SHEET, “Feng Shui Tips for Instant Success” at http://www.clutterclearingcommunity.com.

My client stood in the middle of her home office looking overwhelmed and harried. “What a mess! I don’t know where to start!” How often have you felt that way? Without a word I began clumping like items together. Mary Kay products in one area, cassette tapes and CDs in another area, paper in another area. When I left that day, the room still had way too much in it, but everything was sorted into piles of like items.

Two weeks later I returned and was surprised to learn that my client had not only organized much of her Mary Kay products, but she’d also sorted and filed papers for over two hours. How remarkable! You see, this client had been diagnosed with ADHD. In the 13 years I’ve been helping people clear clutter and get organized, I cannot recall a single client who had spent two hours sorting paper by themselves after one of my visits, much less one with ADHD. ADHD is a brain disorder with deficits in executive functioning that make dealing with paper seem like an impossible nightmare. I was astounded. Paper is one of the toughest things to organize for anyone, and is definitely at the top of the list of organizing tasks that are avoided like the plague!

My client had no clue that what she had accomplished was remarkable. She said, “When the paper was all over the room, I couldn’t even begin to think about going through it. But, once it was all in one place, it was much easier to do.” That is the power of clumping. Once like items are all in one place, it’s much easier to deal with them, both psychologically and energetically. When items are all over the place, it’s as though their energy is calling to you from all different directions. It’s just impossible to wrap your brain around what to do with them. Put them all together and you’re ready for action.

So, the next time you are faced with an overwhelming organizing challenge, first clump like items together. Don’t make decisions about the items you’re clumping, unless it’s a no-brainer to discard them. Making decisions will distract you from clumping and slow the clumping process. Once you have groupings of like items, then go back to each grouping, working from the largest to the smallest items, and make decisions about what to keep, what to pitch and how to containerize items. Experience the power of clumping!

I say the word “attic” when I give a speech, and at least half the audience cringes or groans. Why is that? Perhaps, as is so common, their attics have become toxic dump sites.

As I was helping a client excavate her attic, amidst the boxes of useless stuff covered with pollen, dust and dirt, I found myself pondering attics. I thought, “If people remembered that one day they’d be going through the equivalent of ‘hell’ in order to sell their house, follow their dream, or move to a better living situation, they would be VERY careful about what they put up in attics!” But, alas, most of us live only in the moment when the attic seems an easy answer for storing things you aren’t quite ready to get rid of, or about which you are unable to make decisions.

I hate clearing out attics. Did I say that already? Well, I do. They are most often nasty, dirty places housing items of marginal value. These days it’s rare that I run into an attic that holds really interesting stuff. For example, a recent find by a client who was excavating her attic in preparation for a move was 6 boxes of miscellaneous junk that one of her sons threw into boxes, probably when he’d been ordered to clean his room, and hauled into the attic. The son moved away, but his litter remained. The only redeeming quality of that stuff was that it was quickly pitched into the trash with minimal effort and few tears of nostalgia. My thought was, “Why did it end up there in the first place!”

Here are my suggestions for maintaining an attic as a useful storage area instead of a toxic dump site:

1. Teach all family members that the attic is NOT a place to dump things they don’t want to deal with.
2. Store only items that have a high likelihood of being used again at a later date.
3. Attempt to store only the following categories in the attic: luggage, seasonal decorations, out of season clothing or linens, archived financial documents, furniture and household items that grown children will later use in homes of their own, camping/seasonal recreation equipment. Most other categories of items, like books and memorabilia, do not do well when subjected to the temperature extremes of an attic.
4. Once a year review the contents of the attic, clear out useless items and restore order.

And, remember, feng shui teaches that an attic is the area of your hopes and aspirations. No wonder so few people aren’t achieving their dreams! The area of their hopes and aspirations primarily holds the remains of old dreams and cast off items.

Treat your attic with the respect it deserves, and not only will it be a useful place to store items of real value, but you’ll be more likely to achieve your hopes and aspirations.

How do you know when it’s time to get a new purse? When your dog eats it! Since I hate shopping I usually find myself shopping for a purse when my old purse is showing embarrassing signs of wear. But, most recently I was motivated by the fact that my dog, Oz, had expressed his boredom by chewing up my beloved purple purse!

So, when I made myself go to Kohl’s to search for the purple purse replacement, I was not really up for the task. Despite my attitude, I took my time locating just the right purse. As I made the rounds of the purse displays, I was acutely aware that being a feng shui practitioner and professional organizer has made me especially particular about the criteria for just the right purse. Over time I’ve learned what works for me, and settling for anything less is a setup for disorganization and daily irritation when I can’t find what I need when I need it.

Here are some features that do not work for me:

• deep, large purses–They hold too much stuff, and the deeper they are, the harder it is to see what is in them. They also weigh a ton because I tend to fill the space that’s available.
• zippers for closure–Zippers require added effort to get inside a purse. I knew I’d find that effort irritating. Besides, zippers break.
• purses with no inside dividers–I carry a variety of items in my purse, and it’s easier to find what I need if I have specific locations for things. One big area would become an annoying jumble of stuff in no time.
• purses with no outside pockets–I’ve learned that I enjoy easy access to high use items like my keys and cell phone. An outside pocket is perfect for that. When I don’t have one, there’s no telling where the phone will end up. Then I’ll be cursing as I miss calls while searching through all the items in an inside section.

Features that I have to have:

• medium size, but not too deep–This size is perfect to hold what I need to carry, but it won’t weigh a ton. And, it must be a depth where I can see everything at a glance.
• magnetic closure–This type of closure takes little effort both to open and close. And, it doesn’t break!
• two major sections with a zippered divider, a small zippered pocket on the back wall and an open pocket on the front wall–I use the front section for my wallet, change purse, business card holder and glasses case. The back section is for my small spiral notebook, pens pouch, pouch for earphones and cell phone charging wire, and pouch for occasional use items like special keys and nail clippers. The zippered divider is where I keep high dollar coupons for office supplies and restaurants and extra business cards. The zippered pocket on the back wall holds personal hygiene items like kleenex, a small brush, nail files and a small mirror. The open pocket on the front wall is used to hold lip balms and lipsticks.
• interior fabric that is any color except black or brown–Dark interiors transform purses into black holes and really reduce visibility.
• an appealing color–It is important that my purse be a color that does not clash with my coats and shoes. Its color also has to be dark enough so it won’t easily show dirt. I’m rough on a purse, tossing it into my not-so-clean car and dropping it on the floors of client houses. I never want a yellow or white purse that will look dirty in no time. And, the energy of the color has to be compatible with my current energy. I wanted a purse with a rich, vibrant color like the purple purse was destroyed by Oz. But, when I finally found all the necessary features in a purse, I had a choice between a light purple that was too flashy for me and a pleasant taupe, a nice earth tone. I chose the taupe because earth tones are very grounding, and given the recent challenges in my life, a grounding energy would work well.

Finding just the right purse took me about 45 minutes of searching and thinking and deciding what would work for me. When I left the store I wasn’t completely happy with the color of my new purse because I had wanted a color with more energy, but I chose to compromise on the color in favor of having the best size and internal design. The color is neutral and calming, something I can learn to like a lot.

My new purse may not be the color I wanted, but it’s design is actually better than my mutilated purse. It is not quite as deep as the purple purse, so I can now see everything inside much more easily. It seems that Oz did me a big favor!

When you go shopping for your next purse, it’s worth taking your time to find one whose design and appearance really work for you. Your purse is an extension of you. If it’s a jumble of disorganized stuff, you will not only waste precious time finding things when you need them, you will also be annoyed over and over again as you move through your days. That annoyance is a stressor that costs you vital energy.

By investing time and money in finding just the right purse, you will make an important statement to yourself and the Universe that getting and staying organized is a priority in every area of your life. Know that it may take several purses for you to find the features that matter most. But, when you finally figure it out, you will be amazed at how wonderful it feels to have a stress-free purse!

What can happen when you don't put things away!

Are you a person who routinely puts things away when you’ve finished using them? Or, are you a person that uses something and leaves it where it landed when you were finished using it? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess which person would be most challenged with staying organized. Regularly putting things away as you move through your day is one of the most important behaviors necessary for staying organized.

 What is the benefit of putting things away?

• You restore visual order. An orderly space is peaceful and feels good. It has positive energy.
• You snuff out a bud of clutter. Anything left out of place immediately creates a negative energy that will attract more of the same. Once one thing is left out, it’s much easier to leave other things out.
• You’ll be able to find the item when you need it.
• You maintain order in your space and a sense of control in your life.

Why doesn’t a person put things away?

• You were never taught the habit of routinely putting things away. It is a habit to use something and leave it where you last used it. It is also a habit to use something and put it away!
• You have attentional issues that keep you bouncing from one task to another, leaving object litter in your wake.
• You haven’t created a home for the item. There is no place to put it away.
• The home you created is not convenient enough given how often you use the object.
• The home you created has become so cluttered that putting it away is a hassle.
• Putting things away seems boring to you.
• You are rushing and putting an item away will take time you don’t think you have.

I could go on and on with reasons why people don’t put things away. Whatever the reason, you pay a heavy price when you neglect to regularly put things away. Over time you create your own nightmare of clutter and chaos in your space.

Putting things away is a behavior over which you have complete control. It can take only seconds to do if you’ve created convenient homes for everything. Being faithful to the behavior requires self-discipline, but it is one of the best ways to stay organized and directly correlates with feeling in control in your life.

Watch yourself today. Are you taking those extra few seconds (yes, seconds, not minutes) to put things away when you are finished using them? Remember, your peace of mind, stress level, productivity and success are affected by what you choose to do. Make putting things away a priority every day! If regularly putting things away isn’t a habit, make it the next habit you acquire in your effort to stay organized, manage stress, and have the life you really want.

Some of you are thinking, “Duh! I already do that. Doesn’t everbody?” And others of you are going, “Ewww, I’d rather die! It’s overwhelming! It’s boring!”

For those of you who already have the good habit of corralling and processing paper daily, keep up the good work! Being conscious of the daily flow of paper and deliberately controlling its flow is the only way to win the war on paper.

A casual approach to paper is a guarantee that you’ll create your own personal paper nightmare. Paper is relentless in its flow into your space. You need to be relentless in your handling of it. Do it daily! It really only takes minutes! Minutes of agony or boredom are better than the hours and hours of excavation that will be required if you procrastinate and let paper accumulate.

Here’s what I mean by PROCESS PAPER DAILY:

Make sure paper follows a specific route, a paper path.

• Paper should not float from room to room. When paper comes into the house, make sure it lands in one spot to be sorted into categories instead of allowing it to land in any one of a number of different locations. If you decide the kitchen counter is that spot, make sure everyone in your family knows that mail always lands on the kitchen counter.
• After being sorted, make sure the different categories of paper are immediately moved to their next logical location. Bills, for example, would go to the bill paying area. Once the bills are paid, the paper associated with them would then be filed or pitched. So, the paper path for a bill would be: from the mailbox to the kitchen counter; from the kitchen counter to the desk of the home office where the bill is paid; from the desk to the filing cabinet. It’s important to create paper paths for every category of paper you regularly handle.
• To simplify this process, consider having all paper move from its sorting location to a home office where the different categories can be processed and stored if necessary. That way the path would be: from the mailbox to the kitchen counter for sorting; from the kitchen counter to the home office desktop for review and action; from the the desktop to the filing cabinet or the recycle bin.
• Making papers follow specific paths puts you in charge of paper instead of feeling at the mercy of paper. Your work is to determine the paths and to discipline yourself to make paper follow those paths every time. Just one lapse in maintaining your new paper system can cause paper to spiral out of control. Remember, digging out takes much more time and energy than maintaining paper paths! It will take over if you let it stray from a defined route.

Sort incoming papers into categories. I recommend these categories: trash; refer out to someone else; action; filing; reading; holding for later reference or action; and possibilities of things to do, buy, etc. It’s best to separate the action category into bills and other actions. That way you are less likely to lose sight of your bills.

Distribute papers by category to their appropriate locations. For example, trash goes to the recycling bin or trash can. Action papers are moved to the desk or countertop where action will take place. Filing is either filed or stored in a filing tray until you make time to file. Reading is taken to the location where you do your reading, perhaps a basket on your desk or next to the sofa.

You’ll notice I don’t recommend that you complete all the tasks associated with those papers on a daily basis. That would take more time than you have every day. I am just recommending that you control the flow of paper coming in, sort it and distribute it to the place where it will be acted upon or stored. If you do that much paper processing every day, you will find your stress goes down and your productivity goes up. You’ll be in charge of paper instead of feeling at the mercy of it!

Clutter clearing in the bedroom can have a positive effect on health.

We all know that clutter clearing ALWAYS improves the feel of a space. But, many people ask me, “Where should I start?” Following are 9 tips to help you prioritize your clutter clearing efforts. The first three tips are focused on the best locations to begin clearing. The final seven tips identify the types of items to clear for immediate feng shui benefits.

1. Clear clutter from spaces that greet you when you first enter your home.

The condition of the space that greets you when you first enter your home has an immediate effect on your energy. If it’s neat, organized, clean and lovely, you will feel comforted and your energy is likely to go up. If, however, you are greeted by a chaotic environment with lots of clutter, dust and grime, your energy will plummet because you are being assaulted by the negative energy of the space. Create a clutter free greeting and everything that happens after you enter your home is likely to be more peaceful and positive.

2. Clear clutter from spaces where you spend the most time.

After you create a positive greeting you can move on to clear clutter from the kitchen, family room and bathroom areas, places where you spend significant amounts of time. The energy of places where you spend the most time have the most impact on your energy. Clutter clearing shifts the energies of those spaces from negative to positive. Positive energy results in positive interactions with others, positive experiences, and optimal productivity.

3. Clear clutter from your bedroom.

You spend more time sleeping than doing any other activity in your home. The quality of your sleep is directly affected by the condition of your bedroom. A cluttered bedroom is full of negative energy. Negative energy is noisy energy, alerting you to the fact that all is not well, that there are things that need to be done. It’s hard to sleep well when distracted by the shouting chorus of bedroom clutter. And, persistent clutter in the bedroom can have a profound impact on health because you are being exposed to that negative energy for prolonged periods of time.

4. Clear out anything you hate.

Why would you keep something you hate? Hated items are negative energy pure and simple. Their energy will make it easy for you to keep a negative focus. A negative focus will attract more negative circumstances into your life. If the hated item belongs to a family member, make sure it is located in an out of the way area where your aren’t greeted by it on a regular basis.

5. Clear out anything that is broken that can’t be quickly fixed or that is not worth fixing.

Broken things attract being broke or having a broken body (health issues). They are strong sources of negative energy requiring some type of work on your part. If you accumulate numerous broken items you are likely to start to feel broken. Decide quickly whether a broken item is worth the effort and/or cost necessary to fix it. If fixing it is not worth doing, pitch it quickly. If it is worth fixing, take immediate steps to fix it.

6. Clear out irritants that can’t be made less irritating.

Wires are a common source of irritation. If they can be bundled or hidden, they are usually less irritating or not irritating at all. A trash can that is too small for the needs of a space is an irritant when it is constantly full and overflowing. Removing it is the only option for reducing that irritant.

7. Clear out items that immediately remind you of a painful relationship, event or time in your life.

Items with painful negative associations hold the energy of the particular pain in place. It’s hard to move on to a more positive future when you are regularly exposed to the energies of old painful memories.

8. Clear out items that remind you of past failures.

If every time you look at an item you are reminded of a failure, you are being exposed to negative energy that says, “You are a failure!” It’s impossible to feel good about yourself and your successes when surrounded by failure energy. And, failure energy attracts more failure.

9. Clear out items that are used less than once a year.

Using an item is one way to keep its energy alive and positive. Items that are used less than once a year tend to have energies that have gone dead. Dead is negative. You wouldn’t keep dead animals or bugs in your space, why keep dead things. Either activate the item by using it more frequently or pitch it.

Have you ever noticed that attorneys and executives always have their desk facing the door of their offices? There’s reason for that besides the fact that it makes a person seem important. Your nervous system is most comfortable and therefore works better when you have a solid wall behind you and a full view of the door, the most used door in any space. That’s the “power position.”

Your nervous system is programed for survival. When you can see what’s coming at you, your nervous system settles down. You are able to relax and feel empowered.

Check it out! Move your desk if your back is to the door. Then pay attention to how you feel, how you work and your attitude. I predict improvement in all three areas!

This week I had the pleasure of working with Nancy (names changed to protect confidentiality), a very special, very motivated client who not only paid for me to help her at my out of town rate, but also brought in a friend, Betty, who does some organizing on the side. I was once again reminded of the power of women working together with a common goal.

In this case the organizer, Betty, and I were completely committed to helping Nancy clear her space of clutter and organize what remained. Nancy has been going through some very difficult life challenges in the past three years–a divorce and caregiving aging parents. I suspect our empathy for her current exhausting life circumstances as well as our desire to help set her up to be able to reclaim her own life once her parents have passed on, fueled our efforts. Betty and I had just met that day, but we worked together like partners united with a common cause. It was an incredible feeling to be in the middle of that tornado of positive energy.

By the end of the day we had covered a lot of ground very quickly. We reorganized her dining room/home office which included setting up a filing system, moving a shelf that was blocking a hallway, and reorganizing parts of the garage. I was astounded and impressed with what we accomplished and how well we worked together! And, best of all, during the five hours we labored Nancy transformed from being tense, anxious and uptight to being playful with a relaxed, relieved smile on her face. Women helping women! It is powerful and magical!