The Clutter Obsession

Posted by The Divine Cowgirl on June 1st, 2009 at 12:08pm

This cowgirl needed a little down time this past weekend. Sometimes I have a hard time shutting of my mind. On those occasions I turn on the tube. I don’t spend much time with the tube as I find it numbs the brain and the soul so I am careful about what I allow into my unconscious. My choice is usually something that shows real interaction with our immediate world. As I am curious about relationship, my current favorite is our relationship to stuff. And that leads me to our attachment to clutter.

Last year I found myself watching Peter Walsh’s Clean Sweep and due to cable offerings, find myself checking in with Nicey Nash’s Clean House. Both shows assist the entrenched clutter monger let go, deal with the process of letting go, and start fresh.

This weekend Clean House showed a rerun and update of last year’s messiest home makeover. It was a head shaker. To see three women living- (change that to existing) in the obsessive amount of clutter bordered on a mental health issue. The team hauled out five huge dumpsters of garbage to start. And that simply made a dent in the mess. In this episode the family fought to keep enormous amounts of “stuff.” Even at the yard sale for charity, the family tried to fill an entire extra tent from the sale to put back into the house. In the end the makeover was constrained due to the family’s need to hang on to an unbelievable amount of bins relegating the basement to become a storage room instead of a family game room.

Clean House showed an update inside the house. For the most part things had remained the same although the mom sounded more resentful than grateful for the show’s hard work.

From what I could see the event had not brought the women closer, nor had it shifted the deeper issue of what the stuff really represented in their lives. I believe our outer world reflects our inner world. When we are attached to stuff we can focus our attention on how to deal with it or not. We can need more stuff. We can become overwhelmed by stuff. We can become even enslaved by our stuff. And we can spend monthly money housing our stuff at special storage companies. The bottom line is that our stuff provides the perfect distraction from our inner journey; to getting in touch with our feelings, emotions, desires and needs.

One of my regular spiritual practices when I feel stuck is to go through a cupboard, closet or room and deeply clean and organize the space. I too have engaged in retail therapy when I could have better spent the time and energy getting quiet and deeply listening to what is really up for me. It can be easier to engage with the exchange of my credit card than to go to those scary places inside me.

Our culture rewards distraction rather than connection. In fact one of our cultural norms is “whoever has the most stuff or the must have stuff wins.”

I was talking to a horse friend the other day. She was in the middle of sorting and releasing clothes from her closet and she was having a hard time. I shared my method of only keeping what I loved. What fit right now and made me feel comfortable, loved and relaxed. It didn’t matter if the clothes had tags on them, if they didn’t fit or if I didn’t love them, they needed to be released to someone who would love and enjoy them.

The process of clearing out and letting go is truly a spiritual practice. When we hang on to stuff we are often stuck in the past or a memory. Sometimes we are stuck in a family rule such as “what if need that in the future or having stock piles makes us safe.”

Moving often provides an opportunity to pare down, however if we don’t become conscious of what we bring into our living space, pretty soon we are right back to the same place –stuffed. And it isn’t just physical space that we stuff; we can also stuff our bodies with emotions we don’t want to deal with or beliefs that need to be release.

Part of the Divine Cowgirl journey is about becoming conscious. It is about waking up to our choices. Change is part of the process or maybe it part of the game – the game of life.

More than likely Peter Walsh or Nicey Nash are not scheduled to come to your house, with cameras to show your organization and order. It is up to you to do your own cleaning and clearing. Order in your outer world brings clarity to your inner world. Order in your inner world brings a life of grounded, deliberate experiences.

Are you hiding behind clutter? Does your space reflect distraction and overwhelm? Or do you regularly commit to cleaning and clearing?

If you need help in starting the process, download my free tip sheet and Corralling the Clutter (click to view & download).

The Divine Cowgirl

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