I intended to write a post about decluttering today. You know the idea… it’s Spring, let’s declutter our physical and emotional spaces. And that’s fine. And helpful. And a Good Idea.
But here’s what I want to write instead. I want to throw open the windows instead. I want to open all the doors of full-to-bursting closets and let the chaos see the light of day. I want to let the light stream in through my windows and illuminate the dust that has gathered this Winter.
I have so often used Spring cleaning or decluttering as a thinly veiled attempt to look like I do indeed have life ‘together’. In anticipation of the next move, the next transition, streamlining was important; a key element in project, ‘don’t get too attached’. I grasped at bin bags and dusters as I grasped at my identity as someone ‘in control’.
I’m done. I’ll always gravitate towards order but it turns out I attract ‘stuff’ like a magnet, and my-full-to-bursting house is now a reflection of my full-to-bursting life. And I like it that way.
So let’s throw open the windows and let the light fall where it may. Let’s stop hiding those messier aspects of our identities; tidying them away in the childhood game of ‘if I can’t see you then you aren’t there’. Yes, there is mess. Yes, we could do with addressing some of the crud leaking out of our closets. But throw open those windows – sunlight indiscriminately warms all that it touches, whether or not we deem it worthy for the light of day.
What clutter are you hiding? How would it feel to let the sunlight warm those places?
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