Cynthia McClure

This week I started listening to a new audio book, “De-cluttering at the speed of Life.” It’s been wonderful so far and I’m really enjoying it!

The concept that has made the biggest difference, and that I’ve been able to implement immediately, is the container concept. The idea is that our house is a container, the size of our house determines how many rooms we have, determines how many shelves we can fit, determines how many baskets we can have on our shelves, determines how many of X item we can have.

Instead of believing “Well you can’t have too many X” Instead we need to live within our container. The Author, Dana White, uses the illustration of scarves in a closet, but I’m going to use the illustration of children’s books in a cupboard.

This week I was gifted a few children’s books from my in-laws. They are lovely, and even more special because they have a QR code that gives us access to one of our family members reading the book to our baby. I knew when I brought them home that Lori’s cupboard of books has been overflowing for months. So instead of trying to jam some new books in the cupboard, or find a new container for them, or keep the extra in a pile on our couch, etc. I pulled all of her books out of the cupboard and started putting them back in based on which ones we love the most.

Obviously the ones with recordings from family members were prioritized. I also took into account which ones I enjoy reading the most, and which ones Lori likes playing with the best. When the cupboard was full I stopped, made sure I was happy with my selections, and donated the extra.

My child doesn’t need that many books, and I don’t need to have books spilling out everywhere. The joy found in having a clean, open, and un-cluttered space is way worth it to me. Might I buy one of the books I gave away in the future? Yes, but the effort to store those books now isn’t worth the money I’d hypothetically save.

This is the container concept, but I want to take it from material things to non-physical things. My life is a container. I can only fit so much without compromising my family’s happiness and ease. So what is most important to me? The container concept says to fill the container with your favorites first, and if you have more room then your second favorites. Anything extra is just that – extra. I don’t really need it.

So what in our lives is extra that we’re just hanging on to out of habit or poor prioritizing? Obviously things like laundry and dishes has to stay in my life container for functionality sake, but there’s some things that I’m reaching for that don’t fit in my container.

I’m sad to say that one of those things is organizing homeopathy study groups. I still hold a passion for homeopathy, and I’m still studying on my own, but organizing a group and executing it is actually a lot of work, and it’s just not within my container right now.

I will continue to seek friends who are interested in homeopathy, and if you want to go out for coffee to talk sometime I am totally up for it. I still find myself saying “there’s a remedy for that!” and telling my muscle sore family members to take some Arnica, but running a group is a totally different level of time and energy. Instead of running a group poorly and trying to stretch my own limits, I recognize my life is a container and can only fit so much.

Thanks for reading!

C.M

P.S – Dana White defines de-cluttering as stuff leaving your house; shuffling things and re-organizing doesn’t count. I love that definition! I took three bags to the giveaway this week and it has been so freeing.