Genevieve Simms

I remember the day my identity was revealed to me. My boss at the time came into my office and my desk looked freshly hurricaned. “I should clean my desk,” I meant to say in my head but blurted it out instead. “I’d be worried if your desk wasn’t messy,” my boss replied, explaining that creative people should be haphazard. My initial embarrassment gave way to vindication: being messy is a good thing.

But secretly, I wanted to change. Being an abstract-random was fine as long as I kept on top of things; but when I switched jobs, the e-mails and files piled up. My home life was similarly cluttered and it started to stress me out, leading my kind and generous friend Lynda to come over to help me clean. I knew it was serious when her undying patience, well… died. “Throw it out!” she said in exasperation. The organizational problems were many: overflowing inbox; expired fridge items; too many clothes (and still nothing to wear!). It was time to get professional help.

I turned to a self-described “Monica Gellar” from Friends, professional organizer Belinda McManus of Free Your Chi. “Some people are more sensitive to their environments,” she explains. For her part, McManus feels anxious in cluttered surroundings; for me, sheer volume of stuff leads to inertia and procrastination.

I warily show her photos of my room, which doubles as an office and a mini-kitchen. “That’s not so bad,” she says to Exhibit A. Then she sees the second photo with an unmade bed and strewn-about clothes. “Wow!” she exclaims. “Um. Yeah….” After a pregnant pause, she speaks: “I don’t think you have the right storage.” But to effect lasting change, I knew we had to go deeper than a surface-cleanse.

Time to Energize

Literally meaning “wind water,” feng shui centres on how to balance energies in a space to create harmony. McManus studies Black Hat Tantric Buddhist (BTB) Feng Shui, which was adapted for North Americans. Its auspicious placement of furniture and items can get complicated, but de-cluttering, not so much.

Springtime is the perfect time to clean house and renew your energy, also known as “ch’i” in feng shui. McManus explains how negative energy is heavy, but simply removing items off the floor helps ch’i flow again, like water. It never occurred to me that my habit of laying projects out like a picnic of clutter was actually the worst thing I could do.

“Clutter creates chaos which creates anxiety, disorganization and procrastination,” says McManus. The last one hit me hard. For the sake of integrity I had to quit procrastinating and get organized. I stopped writing this story and spent a few hours clearing everything off my floor, feeling an immediate sense of relief wash over me. My chi could flow. The world opened up like an ocean of space. And because I had deferred writing this article, it matched my nearly blank word document. Oops.

Tips for the Uninitiated

I noticed an alarming trend as I cleaned — duplicate and sometimes triplicate items. These findings were laughingly anti-recession. Had I been organized enough to take stock of existing inventory, I would have saved a lot of money.

Intellectually I’m no dumb-dumb, but I had a light-bulb moment: subtracting stuff could add money to my wallet. My hoarder tendencies could equal cash-flow. I posted and sold items on Kijiji and filled two large storage totes with items for a future garage sale.

McManus recommends an easy tip when deciding which items to pitch — ask the following: “Do I love it? Do I need it? Do I use it?” If the answer is “no,” then away it goes. For the extremely disorganized, she recommends starting small to avoid feeling overwhelmed. For example, “Start at one of your drawers where you have too many socks.” What really shifted my paradigm is McManus’s advice to clean as I go. “If it takes 30 seconds or less, do it right away,” she says. The ultimate goal is to have no more than 50 per cent of your space filled with stuff.

Clean and Clear?

Clearing clutter will allow fresh ch’i to flow, ultimately leading to abundance. “People clutter emotionally because they’re afraid to bring new things into their lives.” Clutter can contribute to or be a result of low self-esteem, and even a fear of failure or fear of success. The golden rule is to make room in your life for new things. If you bring in one new thing, get rid of something old.

I’ve learned that clutter can be (but is not necessarily) a state of mind that manifests itself in one’s physical space. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand to make clutter permanently vanish. Staying organized requires discipline and intention — plain, simple and honestly kind of boring.

In the end, does a messy kitchen/office/home mean that I’m a failure with low self-esteem? Not exactly. To me, an intensive de-cluttering cemented what I already knew — to be happiest with all the things I don’t have. Now that’s an identity I can live with.