I recently made a post about some ways to cleanse your home. I thought I'd share with people here interested in cleansing and who have just started out on the path of the witch.
Well done, with a good approach. great photos too.
I am a seasoned de-clutterer, having retired 2 years ago and suddenly with time on my hands, I found myself staring at Stuff I forgot I had. Excavation of 20years of household clutter required ruthless determination to exterminate. It was well worth the effort. So if I, a mobility-challenged person of advancing years can do it, there is no excuse for younger folk with a few years less Stuff not to. Your cats will think you've gone crazy, and it's fun to mess with their mind's.
Very nice! Though for me, it could take up to a month per room.
I am currently trying to de- clutter the garage...an absolutely overwhelming task. Trying to go box by box, but then I get consumed by the contents. Too many memories, and I guess if I don't keep the "thing", item, whatever it is, I will loose the memory?
It seems to get worse as the years march on.
So I'm really hesitant to throw out much
Any great tips for this problem?
TY...blessings, and good to see you by the way!
Firebird
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― RWEmerson
firebirdflys wrote:Very nice! Though for me, it could take up to a month per room.
I am currently trying to de- clutter the garage...an absolutely overwhelming task. Trying to go box by box, but then I get consumed by the contents. Too many memories, and I guess if I don't keep the "thing", item, whatever it is, I will loose the memory?
It seems to get worse as the years march on.
So I'm really hesitant to throw out much
Any great tips for this problem?
TY...blessings, and good to see you by the way!
Firebird
Thanks! Nice to see you too!
I've had this very same problem for many years up until now really. My solution for this would be listening to your intuition. Just connect with your feelings. When you look at that old thing you still own in a box, does it feel good to keep it around or not? What I sense from your words is a kind of anxiety, fear of letting them go, fearing what it would mean to throw them away. It's like an attachment of sorts. If the things does not feel good anymore, why keep them? If you're still keeping it even so, then you're resistant to change or letting go. But as advice, I think you might need to study the meaning you've created for throwing stuff away? As you said, that you think it might be because you will lose the memory. Ask yourself why that would be a bad thing. Question it. Would you really lose the memory? There might be a shadow-side to this.
Then just listen to your emotions. Your intuition will know the best action to take, even if that feels very anxious in your mind. I think the anxiety is generated from your thoughts - not your true emotions about the things you still keep.
Hope it makes some sense? Personally I just had enough of my past, that I got so tired of anything old around me, and felt that I had to make room for new and better things to come my way.
Black is the color of creation. Black is the maternal color and thus the starlit night gives birth to a new day.
The job only seems overwhelming if you look at the whole. Break it into small, do-able segments. Nobody is timing you. It all pays the same.
Take a PICTURE of the contents. LABLE & DATE the box. If you don't reopen a box in two years, it is doing you no good and can be used by someone else. Get rid of it. Boxing and storing is just moving stuff out of the way so we don't have to deal with it. Consider that, if a wall of boxes threatens to collapse, it endangers the living of life now.
It took me three months to unclutter my kitchen, an hour a day, cuz I couldn't stand up long, or carry things. I laugh at the tower of assorted step stools, ladder and chair i needed just to climb to the third shelf level. Time is nothing. I used a luggage carrier to move things I couldn't lift, & a bucket to hold little things. There's always a way to get a job done. Go slow and don't push your endurance. The job will be there until you get it done. And how good it feels! I used frankincense as I went, by the way, then redid the fuming when I was finally done. The noticeable energy difference encouraged me to keep going.
By all means keep what you deeply love, and put it into your daily life and enjoy it. You cant enjoy it in a box. Anything boxed is already history. Wedding memorabilia and baby pictures are exceptions and can be reduced and confined to albums. Xms & birthday presents that are not useful...are not useful.
Items we inherit ... That has to be the toughest challenge. Put them to use or pass them to other appreciative family.
I set up a holding station on a shelf on my enclosed porch. Anything I thought I might need but wasn't using, went on the shelf. If, after two years it did not get reclaimed, that proved it was not significant, and I boxed it and donated it. Didn't matter what it cost. I already spent the money, that's ancient history. I have just taken a trunk full of expired stuff to Good Will. It's ongoing. I will always have the holding area. I read a lot of tips from the Internet. They give it one year, but I move slowly, so gave myself 2.
I'm trying to get rid of one useless thing per day. That's currently my manageable goal. My weekend visits tripled as of today, with one of my coworkers leaving abruptly. It was not a smooth transition. Most everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It was a lesson in time management and the need for cloning technology.
firebirdflys wrote:I am currently trying to de- clutter the garage...an absolutely overwhelming task. Trying to go box by box, but then I get consumed by the contents. Too many memories, and I guess if I don't keep the "thing", item, whatever it is, I will loose the memory?
It seems to get worse as the years march on.
So I'm really hesitant to throw out much
Any great tips for this problem?
If it's hard to throw things away why not repurpose them? Small items could be glued to a box, planter picture frame, or ....? They would decorate and still be there to share your memories. Larger items can be made into planters, or other kinds of containers. Clothes can be made into handbags or table cloths or even curtains.The only limit is your imagination. Some of those flea market decorating magazines have good ideas for repurposing things.
Sorry... members with under like 20 posts need approval to contribute in this forum. No worries though.
I hear what your saying about re-purpose. It's partially why I save some of the stuff I should throw out, I have these ideas of making "cool stuff" out of it.
The other reason I cling to stuff I think, is some sort of deep rooted child hood issue. My mom used to throw out all my stuff when I was at school. Just because she didn't think I needed it anymore. I was forever coming home to a cleaned out closet. Something about ww2 for her. Now I may need a discernment spell for this
Bb, Firebird
“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the Doors.”
― Jim Morrison “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― RWEmerson
We have a say, "Thrift is the mother of misery". By throwing away things, you make room for new ones.
That said, I do cling to things too. Especially clothes I like. I wear them until they are no longer wearable I may have for example 10 pairs of jeans, but wear my 2 favourite. And then be sad when I have to get rid of them.
Yet, I try and do a major cleaning of my house at least once a week and do a wardrobe cleanup at least twice a year and give most of it for charity - it feels a lot better when I know my favourite clothes will go to someone who really needs them, rather than to the bin.
I may have for example 10 pairs of jeans, but wear my 2 favourite. And then be sad when I have to get rid of them. 
