Clean Your Life's Closet: Take Time to Reflect, Put Away, and Make Space

I am slowly shifting to living a life with less. Clearing out space for the things I want to bring into my life.

Clearing out a closet is the ultimate test. Years of holding onto my things, my husband’s things, my mom’s things, my dad’s things, my mother-in-law’s things, grandparent things, and so on has created a cluttered, unmanageable mess. 

Once valued possessions have been banished to a far back corner or an unmarked box on a shelf. I recollect their once held position of importance, but I stopped attending to them as they became hidden by growing clutter. 

I evaluate each item now. Do I need to bring it to the front of the closet or let it go? Is it attached to the expectation of who I think I’m supposed to be? Those jeans from five years ago that no longer fit, a half finished project that I haven’t found time to finish, extra items that I never use but hold onto “just in case.”

Are those jeans from five years ago inspiration or punishment? Hmmmm . . . Maybe they started as inspiration but they’ve not prompted me to action. I’d say they’ve become a weapon instead of the tool I intended.

It’s okay to let go. 

I’m not that person any longer. If my physical health journey brings me back to that size, I’ll buy new jeans. If not, it’s okay. I’m eating right and focused on strength, not size.

I resolutely place them in the “give away” pile to make space. Space for what? I don’t know. Maybe just space. Space that looks neat, clean, and organized. Space that allows me to easily fetch things from my closet.

We all need more space in our lives. Space to breathe, move freely, expand and grow. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you are disinclined to take on a new challenge or go after a dream because your life, like a bedroom closet, is stuffed full?

This is what I value most about regular reflection. And I’m closing out my year with introspection.

You and I get to choose what we store in our closets, whether physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual. The process is simple but rarely easy. Regardless, the choice is ours.

This is a chance to practice “More of This v. Less of That.” What do you want more of in your life? What is keeping you from increasing it? Do you need to make more space? If so, what are the things in your life’s closet that you will remove or downsize?

Your choices either increase or impede the flow of energy. Below are some examples of what this might look like at the generic level (see detailed version below) as you complete your reflection.

This may seem like a “No duh!” thing, but we forget. Just like that box in the back of the closet, it is easy to be distracted by life. Important things get pushed to the back by more pressing or immediate things. The busyness of life creates layer upon layer upon layer. It obscures your view, keeping you from seeing the things you value.

The more you and I have the more we have to manage. But sometimes we don’t manage it. Then, it becomes the once treasured trinket swallowed by all the other stuff in the back of the closet. 

The abundance of “stuff”  in your life’s closet jockeys for position, inadvertently shuffling once high priorities toward the back. 

REFLECT: Do I want to move it to the front, so I can better attend to it? Is it no longer valuable to me? Do I need to release it?

With this practice you minimize what you bring into or keep in your life so you don’t minimalize the value of those things.

Build this practice into your life. You and I determine what is valuable. If you don’t revisit something’s value it slowly (often unconsciously) loses its value. How do you honor, or hold in esteem, what you say you value?

Sophia: A Case Study

Now, let’s get down to the nitty gritty for a for realz deal example of what your “More of This v. Less of That” reflection may look like by peering into the life of “Sophia.”

Sophia is a 41-year-old teacher who feels stuck in a rut. Her children are in college, her relationship with her husband is stale, and she is teetering on the brink of burnout. Each day blends into the next - wake, rush out the door, work, come home and throw together a quick meal, crash on the couch to watch television with the husband while grading papers, go to bed exhausted. Repeat the next day.

She is bored of everything. She even bores herself. Life is not interesting anymore. She envisions starting a business on the side to bolster her retirement savings . . . but it never comes to fruition. Why? She doesn’t know. It just doesn't. Anything that takes effort feels like it’s too much. You know?

Life is all about choices. Sophia can plod along, ignoring the tug to engage in life. Or she can clear out her closet, removing things that are cluttering up the space to make room for what she daydreams about.

She chooses to clear the closet and free up space. 

What does she want to keep? What does she want to remove? She gets to choose. 

She and her husband juggled a continually busy schedule with their kids for years, but now they’ve both left for college. Somehow, all the time once filled with after school activities became swallowed up with activities - extra errands, volunteering with four organizations every month, watching television, dinner with friends every weekend.

Some of these are good things but not well thought out. Volunteering at various organizations spreads a lot of good into the world. Dinner with friends every weekend strengthens that camaraderie. But the busyness of everything leaves no time for Sophia and her husband to tend to their relationship. There is no time.

If you don’t manage your time, your time will manage you.

Sophia and her husband work on a schedule to which they both agree. They make themselves the top priority, choosing how to spend their time together first. Then, they figure out the rest.

Over the course of a couple of months they shift to this new way of managing their time. They hold one another accountable. They commit to their time together. 

Unstuff the Closet

You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. The “do-it-all” mindset results in a closet stuffed so full that you can’t make heads or tails of what’s in it. In fact, you toss the next thing in and quickly shut the door to keep everything from cascading out. 

Start your new year fresh. Take time to evaluate what you have stuffed into your life. Maybe your life closet isn’t crammed full, but you still have an item here or there that you don’t really need. 

What will you keep? What will you remove? What will you add? Find the space.

Life is all about choices. Make choices that create room for a life you love.

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