Feng Shui Meets Spring Cleaning!

Lose 10 pounds easily with no diet!

“Decluttering your outside world helps declutter your inner world.”  Me

I have instituted this Feng Shui practice at least once or twice a year for about 6 years. It is freeing. I feel as though I have lost 10 pounds, and what’s not to like about that? My home space is more organized, uncluttered, and dare I say ZEN feeling.

What is it? The Feng Shui practice of setting aside 9 days in a row and eliminating at least 27 things a day from your home. If you miss a day, start over and no cheating. I have told some people and they are aghast, “27 things a day?” they say. Well, I am living proof that 27 things is not really that much.

I map out each day ahead of time by places in my home. I have downsized many times in the last 20 years and most recently sold or given away most of my belongings to move to California. And yet, I still find at least 27 things a day to get rid of.

You can donate, recycle, or take out to the trash.  Because I have downsized so much, I am pretty good at it. And I am not attached to my belongings as much as some are. What have I learned?

First, when I find clothes or other items that have been in my closet for over a year, I realize they are taking up physical and mental space. If I am not wearing them, why am I keeping them? As Marie Condo asks, “Does it spark joy?” With each item I ask that first. If I am waffling on the answer I follow it up with, “Would this spark joy for someone else, more than it has for me this last year?”

That question has been freeing. I visualize some very happy person getting my items, and that thought sparks joy in me. My mind pivots from wondering how much I will miss this to feeling happy that I can help someone else feel happy.

Another trick I learned when moving across the country was that I don’t need everything to keep that sense of joy. What do I mean? I had a cottage in Michigan with a lot of “stuff”. These cottages are usually sold with most of the belongings, furniture, kitchen items, bedding and more. And in this case it was a blessing because I didn’t have to literally find places for it all. I could cull through it, and pick just the things I wanted.

I kept a few small pieces of furniture. I kept our pictures. We had had watercolors of the cottage painted over the years, and I kept those. I kept a few small pieces that meant something. And I kept some of the kitchen items, as well.  We had a full setting of adorable blue and white speckled dishes with serving pieces, mugs, and more. About 30 or 40 pounds of dishes. They were not ones that I would use in a regular house, they felt like a cottage.

Rather than pack them all up in a box and lug them from place to place where they would sit in a closet, I chose a few serving pieces, and I took the mugs. Now I can enjoy a cup of tea with a cottage mug, feel the joy I got from so many years there, savor the memories, and I am not stuck with a heavy box of things I am not going to use.

One day I always set aside to unsubscribe to the many emails I spend time each day just deleting. Once I have done as many as I can that day, it’s so easy now to do the same one at a time as they arrive in my inbox. I save time each day having to delete, delete, delete! And it makes me happy.

One day I spend time organizing and deleting pictures I don’t want to save. I go through my closets, drawers, cabinets, and pitch or put in a bag to donate. I just completed this and I cannot tell you how good it feels to take 5 bags of things out of my house to donate, and untold bags of trash.

Spring seems to be a time when we almost automatically feel like cleaning and culling. Try the 27/9 practice and see what you think. Energetically they say that when we move things out it makes room for the new. The Universe abhors a vacuum, so just imagine all the new things coming your way as you clear out the old.

Betsy Smith, Certified Happy For No Reason Trainer and coach

betsyrsmith@mac.com

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