Moving, Downsizing and Clutter

by Diantha Harris, Interior Alignment (R) Practitioner

This is moving month. After many wonderful years in our current home, we are downsizing for the final time into a graduated care community in this same town. I originally hated the idea of leaving our beautiful home and wonderful, unique neighborhood, but things have changed and we now have a wonderful buyer for our place and a brand new little cottage to move into! Life is good!

Those of you who really know me know that my dear and wonderful Mom was a hoarder. It was so terribly hard for her to let go of things so moving her out of her big house into a retirement community was very, very difficult for her, and almost impossible for us, her daughters. I will spare you the details but now it is my turn to downsize for the last time and move into our final home. It is a hard reality but I am excited and ready to roll with this!

As the daughter of a hoarder, I have the exact same tendencies. I tend to want to hang on to everything: to friendships, to favorite clothes, to favorite books, to photos and memorabilia, well, you get the picture. I have way too much of everything even though my home is neat and not piled with boxes, containers, and piles of clothing the way hoarders get.

It is amazing how much stuff one can pack away into cupboards and closets. We have given away at least 4 truck loads of stuff and more to come. For this old keeper of just about anything, it feels so good to be lightening up. I was thinking about this the other day and wondering why, what is the difference this time? This time the purging feels so good and I look forward to it whereas in the past it has been heart wrenching to part with things.

For one thing, I think it is our age. We’ve reached an age where we don’t need a lot of what we thought we did! We don’t use our professional tools any longer. We don’t need huge reference books because everything is online. We won’t be doing our own yard work any longer so all that can go. We don’t entertain the way we used to. We don’t have house guests like we used to. SO MUCH JOY in letting go!

For another, I think on a more 5th dimensional level we are all letting go of things: old beliefs, old ways of doing things, old patterns, old systems…..there is a lot of letting go in the collective unconscious so I am totally inspired and in sync with what is going on globally. I feel so supported in this and hope you do too. Have you noticed yourself wanting to organize/clean out/declutter?

Thanks to my Mom and her Mom, I had several very nice things. But life isn’t like it used to be so although they are lovely, I never used them. And we have some nice furniture that we are letting go of. It occurred to me to sell these things but then it didn’t feel right. I was getting a strong message to just let things go and release them into other hands, hands that would love and cherish what I could no longer use. THAT felt right.

Fast forward to a recent Saturday when my husband took another truck load of stuff to Habitat. There was a line for drop off and while waiting, he opened up the back of the truck and there was a brass planter. The woman behind him, about our age, stepped up and asked if she could buy the planter. Oh, she said, I am from England and I love things like that. Bill replied, No M’am, you can’t buy it but I will give it to you. Then she spied another painted planter and asked if she could buy that. No he, replied, you can’t buy anything. My wife is very generous and she would love that you love her things so just take them. Then he showed her a collection of little things that I always thought I would use with my own grandchildren but it isn’t going to happen so I had sent them away to be treasured and used by other children. Imagine my delight that I now know what happened to those precious things! They ended up with this lady for HER grandchildren and I know she couldn’t have afforded to buy this herself for them. I was THRILLED by all this when he told me. THRILLED! It was much more fun and soul satisfying than keeping them locked away in a closet for years. I love the joy of giving! You can probably tell how excited I was over this even days later as I write it down.

So what’s my point? (My husband always says I am too long winded and don’t get to the point fast enough but I do love a tale!) My point is to share this experience with you so you might be inspired to pass things along that you no longer use. The general wisdom is if you haven’t used something in the last year and can’t foresee a need for it in the near future, out it goes. I guarantee you, you will make someone’s day!

Further, the more we can do this on the physical level, the faster it will duplicate in the collective unconscious bringing the 5^th dimension into our reality faster. Bring it on you guys!