Visual Clutter

The week after Christmas we slowly, slowly, slowly wrapped and packed and stored Christmas decorations around our home.  Instead of doing it all the day after Christmas, I gave myself grace and time to get them all put away over the course of a week.  It helped that we really didn't have much else going on in-between Christmas and New Year's.

After the counters were clear, the railing simplified, and the living room put back together without the tree, I let out a sigh of relief.  As much as I absolutely love putting the decorations out after Thanksgiving, I feel the same way storing them after Christmas.  Our home felt clean (even though it wasn't) and clear of visual clutter. 

I gave the room a good wash down with soapy water and swept numerous piles of pine needles into a dustpan.  As I started to go around to get all the items that usually stood on the end tables and the counters, I stopped.  It was so easy to clean, so easy to breathe in the space without the books and the knick knacks and the stuff.  So I didn't.  I didn't pull out the pile of books that stand at attention on an end table.  I didn't have Kevin move the oversized peeling faux-leather chair back into the corner.  I didn't get the few knick knacks I have sitting in random spots around the room.  I just didn't.  And I liked it.

If you know The Nester, she talks about quieting a room.  Her definition of quieting a room is removing everything, except for the furniture, rugs, and big art, from a space.  Then she suggests sitting in the space and looking for any areas that feel cold.  Add something meaningful to those specific places. Store everything else.  I guess you could say not putting all of our everyday decorations out after Christmas is my version of quieting our main living space.  The quiet feels peaceful, clean, simpler, and better without all the stuff.

   There is a reason my home is feeling better without all the stuff.  Visual clutter affects not just our homes, but how we feel.  UCLA’s Center on Everyday Lives and Families(CELF) studies show clutter has a strong affect on mood and self esteem.  The same study concluded the amount of stress women feel at home is directly proportional to the amount of physical stuff they have accumulated.  Visual clutter matters to the overall feeling of not just our home, but of how we feel.  Wow.

So, this quieting the room thing is working so far for me.  The books on my end table were just for show and I usually ended up straightening them three or four times a day because the kids knocked into them.  They are now corralled on the bookshelf.  The oversized chair that's peeling mainly just got jumped on and was in the way.  I got rid of it on the swap page.  The knick knacks collected dust and moving them to clean was a pain.  They can stay stored or maybe I will even make a trip to Open Door Mission to get them out of my house. The dark and cold winter months are a good time for me to quiet everything, to remove the excess and focus on what is truly useful and meaningful in my home. And the peeling chair certainly isn't it.

What could you remove today to make your home simpler and the things in your home more meaningful?