As a home buddy, I always wondered how my little home had the power to make me fall in love with it. Home is all about family but there was still something else about it that made me want to ‘stay home’ when I wasn’t hustling outside. I wanted to be home even when I was living alone. Technically, it was just four walls and some material things that barely connected with me on an emotional level. So what exactly was about it that made me want to take care of it and nurture it and keep it decluttered?
Last month, as our family decided to put one of our old houses on sale, I found myself being hit by a strange sense of loss. I found myself thinking hard about the connection I shared with my living space until I finally realized that a home is so much more than we perceive it to be. We don’t just live in our home but develop a deep spiritual connection with the so called ‘four walls’. And this connection gets stronger and stronger with time.
If you’re still wondering why it’s important to keep your home clutter-free, don’t just think about the tangible reasons (guests coming over or to save time or to have more space). Decluttering has as much spiritual benefits as the material ones, if not more. And I promise you’ll start focusing more on decluttering once you learn about these amazing spiritual benefits of decluttering:
1. Brings Emotional Stability
How do you feel holding onto the things that remind you of a bitter memory? Or a thing that keeps you connected to your past in a negative way? Now imagine the amount of peace – mental and emotional – you’ll be rewarding yourself with by decluttering these things. Letting go of items that give you nothing but pain helps enhance your emotional stability and makes way for emotions that positively impact your life.
2. A Source Of Positive Energy
If you’ve ever slept in a room full of clutter, you would know what impact it can have on the quality of your sleep. It’s a psychological fact that you can’t expect to have a good night sleep when you’re surrounded by clutter. Too much clutter makes way for negative energy. And when you let go of things that add up to this negative energy, you end up paving the way for positive energy that’s essential for your soul.
3. Cleanses Your Mind
Holding onto things that make you feel negative will eventually deprive you of the ability to think in a positive way. For instance, how do you feel looking again and again at the things gifted by an ex-partner? Pain? Betrayal? Sadness? Now imagine how you would feel once you let go of these things. You surely might end up missing them more for a while but soon, you’ll be able to discover a new side to yourself. This happens because letting go of negative memorabilia helps clear your mind and makes it crave for new challenges and experiences.
4. Detoxifies The Body
The health benefits of decluttering shouldn’t be ignored because a healthier body makes way for a happier spirit. Clutter causes tiredness as it increases the amount of effort it takes to move around the house. Add to it the time that gets wasted looking for something in a pile of clutter and you’ll realize what it does to your body. Clutter reflects on our faces and drains us of energy.
Do you ever feel like eating in a room full of clutter?
Do you feel like cooking in a kitchen with countertops that are jampacked with clutter?
If you can answer these questions with utmost honesty, you’ll know what impact decluttering has on our body.
5. Makes Way For Personal Growth
Decluttering is bound to give you a sense of accomplishment. And a clean space makes you want to take up new adventures. More often than not, decluttering helps unleash new spaces to grow and nourish yourself. I know people who have started new businesses from a previously cluttered room in their house. You can even think of using a now decluttered space to start a new hobby or to nurture an already existing one.
6. Sparks Joy
Don’t you sometimes discover a hidden item in your house only to find yourself smiling and feeling happy looking at it? It’s because that particular item sparked joy within you. Now imagine getting rid of every item in your house that doesn’t spark joy while keeping only the ones that do. The amount of happiness you’ll feel by keeping only the items that add value to your life is immense and you’ll feel proud of yourself for letting go of unneeded stuff.
7. Helps In Regaining Control Of Your Life
If you’re holding on to stuff that acts as a reminder of the negative things from your past, you’re simply allowing it to dictate your emotions. Letting go of these things will help you regain the control thereby making you appreciate your home a bit more than you did. Life is too short to hold on to things that are unnecessarily controlling you.
8. Makes Us Feel The Joy of Giving
When you keep stuff that isn’t adding value to your life, you’re depriving yourself of the joy that can be felt by giving that thing to someone who might be able to appreciate it. Be it the kids’ toys, books or clothes, it always benefits to pass down the unused stuff to the needy because it comes back to you in the form of immense happiness.
Although you are parting away from your possessions by donating them, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that will make your soul dance with joy and your spirit happier than it has ever been.
Now that you know the power and essence of a clutter-free home, it’s time to get into the spiritual exercise of decluttering. Purge anything and everything that is not feeding your soul or adding value to your life because in the end, it will all be worth it – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.