“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”
- William Morris
I had been sitting on the floor of my home office working on a scrap booking project busy with my thoughts, when I decided it was time to get a box and go through some of the things that I didn’t need anymore. Once in a while I like to go on a minimization spree through the house as it’s very easy to accumulate stuff. So the empty boxes found a temporary home in my office as I brought things from other parts of the house and placed them inside the boxes. Without even realizing it, soon the floor of the room was full of stuff mixed together with my scrap booking project materials, and the office transformed into a mess. I didn’t think much about it at first as I knew the disorganization was temporary, until one day I felt a stress I hadn’t felt in a long time. I felt stressed not because of my super packed schedule or because of the many difficulties I’d been facing lately. I felt stressed because my home office, which I use daily, all of a sudden was chaotic.
I knew it would be difficult to work in such an environment, so I decided to take action. The boxes found a new temporary home in the garage and will be there until they are full and ready to go to the donation center, and my scrapbooking project, which I know will take me a while to complete, moved to a smaller desk I have in the office. With everything back in place, that all-too-familiar-but-not-missed feeling of stress disappeared. I breathed in deeper. Several years ago I lived with that feeling of stress and chaos constantly, but since I began this journey to simplify my life, which has included minimizing the things I own, that stress has been replaced with a sense of calm in the home. I like it better now and I don’t want to go back!
Do you think our environment matters? Does the environment we live and work in affect us mentally, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually? According to an article on Psychology Today referencing a study by the University of New Mexico, environmental clutter affects us negatively in many ways. Lower sense of well-being, unhealthier eating, poorer mental health, and less efficient thinking are some of the ways we are negatively affected by a cluttered environment. I would add, from personal experience, increase in stress, decrease in productivity, and decrease in energy.
The benefits of a healthy environment are many. Living in a clutter-free environment increases productivity and creativity. Since I cleared my kitchen counters from most appliances, decorations, and what-nots, I am more creative with meals and have a lot more fun inventing new recipes. We eat a lot healthier too. A clutter-free environment gives us a sense of inner peace and less stress. It affects our physical well being as well. Just think of less dust for example. As a clean and germs freak, I love this! Another benefit of a clutter-free environment is less time spent cleaning and organizing, which means more time to use on things that are more important or that we enjoy doing more. For me it has translated into more time with family, with friends, more time serving others, and more time reading and writing.
Why am I sharing all this? My journey to a more simple life began several years ago when moving from Alaska to Texas. We were forced by circumstances to leave behind many of our earthly belongings. Though stressful at the time, looking back, it was the best thing that ever happened as it opened the door to a new path and a more abundant life. This journey began with having fewer material things and it has expanded from there. From my experience, this is the best place to begin. When our environment is free of clutter, there is space for other more important things. Like I said before, I have by no means arrived at the perfect simple life, but I know I’m headed in that direction and the journey has simply been amazing!
The Bible counsel us to seek and pursue peace (Psalm 34:14). Our environment has a huge weight on our sense of well being and peace. Start by simplifying your surroundings. Look around your home and decide what you don't want anymore and either sell or donate it. Anything that is robbing you of peace and energy must go. I'll share how we did it on a future post, but until then I'd like to encourage you to simplify your life and free it for more abundant living.
Resources:
http://creationhealth.com/CREATION-Health/Environment
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/becoming-minimalist-start-here/
The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker.
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