Earlier this month I found toys in our bathroom cabinet. Toys that my kids used in the bathtub about TEN years ago! Wow, that cabinet was in serious need of spring cleaning! After I cleaned out that cabinet (and a few others) I felt so much better, almost lighter. Isn’t that amazing, the effect that cleaning out our physical space can have on our psychological state?
I have another space that needs some serious spring cleaning: my computer. Not the dust on the screen, but the hundreds of emails and documents and images that are stored there. Some of these things, especially the emails, create mental clutter that interferes every time I open the laptop to get a little work done. Often they distract me, and 30 minutes later I’m wondering what I sat down for in the first place.
Distraction is not even the worst problem with that type of clutter. Sometimes, I am so completely overwhelmed, I actually close the computer again and walk away. Can you relate?
That kind of mental clutter is not just distracting, it’s destroying. It destroys our ability to be creative, effective and focused. Would you allow a destructive person to remain in your house? Then why allow destructive things?
I challenge you to do some spring cleaning, whether it’s on your computer or somewhere in your house/car/yard. (Before you delete an email, find the “unsubscribe” button if there is one.) In your home, just pick one room or one closet or one shelf. Keep it small and simple so that you’ll actually do it. Just one thing.
Then you can breathe a big sigh and know that in addition to your physical space, you have opened up mental space!
What will you attack with your spring cleaning?
