Table of Contents

-Introduction
-Did you know?
-Monthly Mission – Bathrooms
-Check Out These Pages! – Relevant pages and new site additions
-Clutter and Energy

Introduction

Welcome to October, and the last quarter of the year. How have you been doing on your organizing mission? Have you been working through your clutter by making those needed decisions? This certainly is an ongoing never ending process. But it’s one we can make progress on a little bit at a time. Just don’t give up.

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Did you know…

Everyday Americans buy 62 million newspapers and throw out 44 million. That’s the equivalent of dumping 500,000 trees into a landfill every week.

(source: University of Colorado).

We recently had a leak under our bathroom sink so I had to go through some stuff, but I might as well finish the job! There are always products and medications that need to be sorted through and tossed. If you want to do the monthly mission for the bathroom with me, click here.

Here are some pertinent pages on the website you may have missed along with any new pages.

Laundry Room Ideas - Ideas to help you out in the laundry room

Kids Rooms - A little help with ideas to organize all the stuff kids come with... artwork, toys, clothing.

Living Room Storage Make-over - See how we re-organized our living room (play room) with a new Ikea wall unit that's great for storing lots of stuff.

Christmas Organizing - Tips on how to get the most out of your Christmas holidays, in an organized stress free manner.

Home Filing System - Keep all your paperwork in order so you can find what you need at a moments notice, and learn what to keep and what to toss.

Garage Makeover - before and after photos of my personal garage makeover. See how we tackled the problems and ended up with a functional garage.

Streamline Your Morning Routine - Ideas to help you get out the door in the morning and be on time for work or school.

Organizing Children's Artwork - Here are some ideas about what to do with all that fabulous artwork your young kids bring home from school.

Stop Clutter - Quick simple tips on how to stop the clutter from coming into your home in the first place.

I like to read about Feng Shui, the art and science of living in harmony with our environments, and the study of energy in our living spaces and how it affects our lives. And no matter what book I’ve read, the most important key to get started is to clear out the clutter and clean our homes. Energy cannot move freely through our home if it’s full of clutter because clutter causes stagnant energy. If we can’t move through our homes without being obstructed by clutter, neither can life energy, which will begin to affect our lives and health.

Whether you believe in Feng Shui or not is not important. Here are a few examples of how clutter mucks up the energy in our homes.

Try walking through a room with tons of toys and stuff on the floor. It’s like a landmine! It’s dangerous and stressful. I avoid the area if I can to prevent tripping and falling and feeling angry at the mess or the person who put it there. But, once the floor has been cleaned and you can walk through the room, you can physically feel the difference. You can walk freely through the room without worrying about what you’re going to step on and be injured by. It feels good. Even my kids comment on a clean floor “look at all this space, I can dance in here!” Same room, just cleaned up giving it a different feel.

Another example… walk into a bedroom with an unmade bed. The feeling is that the room is a mess and unkept. Now walk into a bedroom with a made bed. The room looks cleaner and attended to. That one simple task can help change the energy of the room.

One last example… have you ever walked into a home that was messy and cluttered (not your own) and felt the stagnant energy? Your eyes are drawn to the piles of stuff and the things lying around out of place. Compare that with how the energy feels when you walk into a home that is clean and clear of clutter. It is more relaxed and orderly and is simply a more pleasant feeling than the messy home.

Over time, we begin to ignore some of our piles of clutter and no longer even notice them. Try walking into your home with fresh eyes, as if you were visiting for the first time. Does your home look and feel tidy, welcoming and free flowing? Or is there a lot of clutter that pulls your attention making your home feel unkept, messy and unwelcoming?

If you have clutter that’s blocking the good energy in your home, there is good news! This is easy to fix and it won’t cost you a dime, no major remodeling or construction to change the look and feel of your home. What it does take is some time and dedication from you to declutter your home. You don’t have to do it all in a day. You can work on one room or one corner, and you can work in 15 min. sessions if you need to. You WILL make progress and it will inspire you to keep moving. The result will be that you can walk into your home or room with fresh eyes and both see and feel the improvements you’ve made. The energy will be lighter and more welcoming.

By removing clutter, we are allowing fresh new energy to flow through our homes instead of the old stagnant energy stuck around the clutter. Clutter pulls attention and energy to its various piles, distracting us and making us feel stuck. They say “energy goes where attention flows”, so you’re focusing on the clutter instead of what you would truly rather be doing. I know that happens to me.

I hope this helps inspire you to continue on your decluttering and organizing journey. There is a reason we all want to be better organized. It just feels better, maybe more in control. I’ll be working right along side you.

Until next time, happy organizing!

Tracy Greene
Plan-and-Organize-Life.com