The Clutter Covering Up the Main Thing

I recently stumbled across a website for decluttering coaching. Clutter, or stuff as I like to call it, serves as a real hinderance to happiness for many people.  My own family garage suffers from this ailment, and yes, causes us discomfort and stress. This website I encountered offers coaching to help you get rid off that stuff you already know you should throw away, give away, or sell.  The coaching is expensive, but in the worst cases, I do believe that good coaching can be a huge benefit.  When I work as a coach myself in a Catholic parish setting, I tell them upfront that they can create a long-term plan or communication plan themselves, but the reality is that I was hired to come in because they know that but have never been able to do it alone.  Do you really think most star athletes get to where they are completely on their own?

But getting back to the clutter issue, this is so much an issue of stewardship.  Clutter can be a sign of our squandered gifts of treasure, a result of poor stewardship of those possessions we have received, and an over attachment to material things.  Also, clutter can actually hurt us.  At the website, www.starttodownsize.com, they list 4 unexpected costs of clutter: 1) an unhealthy fear of loss; 2) clutter leads to more clutter; 3) clutter can be expensive to manage; and 4) managing the clutter is tiresome and an impossible uphill battle.  

There is so much stuff that keeps us from the main thing in our lives, God.  Our hearts and minds cannot rest in God when they are constantly busy thinking about and interacting with all the stuff we have in our lives. If you claim to have 100 prized possessions, then your relationship with God and your family are just a few things on a very long list.  But if you can reduce all that stuff, if you can focus on those things that will last as opposed to the those that are temporal, those lasting things will be that much more precious.  Remember, where your treasure lies, there your heart will also be. However, if someone needs to go through piles and piles of stuff to see it, that’s a problem.

Some sites to explore: starttodownsize.com , nourishingminimalism.com , passionatehomemaking.com , catholicdigest.com

2 books to check out: