Bags are packed, trail mix is mixed, passport is located and stowed, water bottle is cool, all there is left to do is go. I'm getting ready to drive from Toronto to California with my friend Sue and I can't wait. Are you going away this summer?
I go to California a lot, but this is the first time I've driven in a very long time. When I was 6 years old, my Grandmother and I drove too fast in her gold VW bug from Calgary, Alberta to Palo Alto, California. Highlights included staying at Best Western (amazing what branding will do to a kid, I would probably still have those little soaps and shower caps if I hadn't cleared my clutter), tattling on my Grandmother at the border for having bananas and apples in her trunk and getting my first ride in a tow truck after the beetle broke down outside of a drive-in movie theatre.
So, what does this have to do with clearing clutter? Sometimes the best thing you can do for your clutter is get away from it!
Karen Kingston talks about this in "Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui". When you go on vacation you get to have the experience of living life for a week or two away from all of your stuff. How liberating! You get to experience the feeling of what life might feel like if you weren't so attached to all those old mixed tapes and movies. When you return, sun-smooched and ahhhhh, suddenly that dress that doesn't fit, the lonely earrings and half finished knitting projects are so much easier to say goodbye to.
This is my prescription to you. Give yourself a real vacation.
So often we don't allow ourselves to have time off because there is so much work to do. The thing is, when you need time off, you need time off. If you don't give it to yourself in the form of some days lazing by the lake or wandering the streets of Paris you'll take it off in much less satisfying ways. Procrastinating, playing solitaire on your computer, staring at the wall sighing...
Go on! Take a break from you clutter, and when you come back you'll be amazed at how much easier it will be to get rid of. I'm looking forward to hearing all about your trip in the comments below.
Take care,
Cecilia