Clutter to Clarity

"Define what you are shooting for, and then prune against that standard." 

~ Dr. Henry Cloud (Necessary Endings)

In June I began a Clutter Buster Challenge - get rid of 7 items per day. By the end of August I had gotten rid of over 5,000 items (much of it paper). Choosing what to keep and what to discard gave me clarity about my life.

In the past I had been a school teacher and a youth worker. Those seasons have ended and now I am looking ahead to a new season. Although the picture of the next season is still a little fuzzy, I see a picture of a counselor, a teacher, and a writer. While I gave away many of my tools that had served me well as a school teacher or youth leader, I kept those tools that would help me as a counselor, non-school teacher, and writer. In my sorting and evaluating, I found clarity about the season that had ended and the season ahead.

The old must go to make way for the new. Pursuing new opportunities requires energy, time, and focus. As long as I hung on to the old, I was stealing time, energy and focus from what lies ahead. I had to let go of the old to make room for the new. Letting go of the old is giving me the time and space to focus on the new. As I focus on the new, I am excited about what lies ahead.

My Clutter Buster Challenge has ended. Purging my home of what has come to an end has given me emotional and mental space to pursue the future. Still, I own too much. My next challenge is "Finding a Home" for everything, also known as "having a place for everything, and everything in its place." I can tell that this is going to lead to further pruning. As I continue to prune, I trust that my next steps will become clearer and clearer as well. 

Have you had a time when you made room for a new season in your life? What helped you to transition into that new opportunity?

Clutter Buster Challenge

Back on April 29th Money Saving Mom invited all her bloggy friends to join in her in a Clutter Buster Challenge for the month of May. The challenge was to rid your home of 7 items each day for the entire month.

Well, my invitation was late, so I didn't find out about the challenge until most of May was done. However, I knew how desperately I needed to accept this challenge, so I decided even though it meant being incredibly late to the party, I would accept this challenge, but for June. Well . . . actually, not just for June, but also for July and August. So far so good. June is recently ended and it's time to report how I did.

I donated 21 books, 12 foam craft sheets, 15 corrugated craft sheets, a bin of foam letters, 7 Happy Birthday pencils, and 4 red pencils to a local Christian school.

41 files of outdated financial records hit the shredder to be taken to the recycling center.

23 defunct writing utensils were thrown out.

13 pen and pencils were donated to my church's Jr. Church program.

Approximately 750 pictures from my picture file were recycled.

247 documents were recycled.

20 sewing patterns will be sold at a garage sale or donated to a worthy charity.

An old Pledge sweeper hit the dust and went the way of the trash.

3 calendars were recycled.

5 Ink cartridges are marked for recycling.

514 pieces of paper were recycled.

14 packages of craft supplies are headed for a garage sale.

39 greeting cards were donated.

12 books set aside for a garage sale.

5 gift bags thrown away.

3 gift bags set aside to sell.

3 gift bags recycled.

Total number of items decluttered = 1,753

Whew! My office space feels lighter! Now onto other parts of my home.

What clutter have you removed lately? or what clutter do you need to remove?