Clutter (030)

It took until a few years ago to realize how much my mental state is affected by my environment. I always swore that I knew where everything was located, no matter what the mess looked like to outsiders. Then I decided one day that I was fed up with my mess and wanted some order in my life. After sorting, donating, selling, I am still left with too many material belongings, but it’s much easier to bring order to my space. Going through this process helped me realize how cluttered my mind had become.

If there is a horizontal surface empty, I will fill it. Piles would have gold medal toppers for my junk piling techniques if recognized by the Olympics. I decided to put an end to this habitual offense, and since moving into our new place, I am more aware of the surfaces. That is not to say I am perfect—far from it! I spent a couple hours organizing my hoarded notebooks this afternoon so that I could gain some shelf space, and then moved on to my desk surface that had slowly turned into a lump of random crap. I am left with one corner of stuff that I just couldn’t be bothered to put away, but most of the surface is now clear for me to spend time piling words.