Part II: How does clutter impact you?

By Jessica Hoelzel

“The use of space, and the degree of cleanliness or clutter all impact and collectively determine your home’s energy flow. And this flow (or lack of flow) affects you continually, conditions your experience in your home and workplace, and significantly influences your future for good or for ill.”
David Daniel Kennedy, Feng Shui for Dummies

More ways clutter impacts you…

4. Clutter drains your energy
Clutter can drain you because it is stagnant energy. If you have things sitting around in boxes or shoved in corners, closets, drawers or storage areas, untouched and unattended to, their energy has in essence been abandoned. They are left to sit and fester, like water in a gutter.

Since all your things – outdated and unnecessary paper records, articles of old clothing, or broken electronics, for example – have ties to your energy, if they are not being used they serve no purpose. Their old, abandoned, stagnant energy can pull you down with it. You might feel tired, unmotivated, hopeless or empty.

Another way clutter can drain your energy is when it collects on surfaces, unattended to. The main culprit: PAPER. Do you have piles of papers stacked up, strewn about or covering your office or kitchen counters?

If you answer yes, and also say you are quite sure you don’t know exactly what is there, then your paper clutter could be draining your energy as well. Every piece of paper you have is demanding something from you. It is saying, “Pay me!” “Call me!” “Reserve me!” “Plan me!” “File me!” or “Recycle me!”

So, when you have a lot of papers, all crying for your attention, that is a big pull on your energy. It can make you tired just imagining it. Now, how does it feel to look at that clutter every day, passing it several times a day? How about when you try to focus and get work done or cook a meal amongst it?

When you multiply these factors, the drain on your energy becomes substantial. The absolute worst place for paper clutter to be is in your bedroom. If you have a desk in your bedroom that accumulates paper, beware. It can affect your sleep, your mood and overall feelings of well-being.

Another type of clutter that can occupy surfaces is “the unnamable”. It doesn’t have a clear-cut category that it falls into, because it is many things from many categories. So, random stuff, this ‘n’ that, junk, crap. It is enough to make you exhausted just thinking about how long it will take to put back (if it has a home) or also tiring to contemplate where it’s home should be in the first place.

I’m talking about stale pieces of candy from Valentines Day (maybe somebody will eat them), the popsicle-stick sculpture your kid brought home from school three years ago (my kid will hate me if I move it), the electrical cord thingy (I have no idea what this goes to), that cute photo someone gave you (that’s now curled up, smudged and spattered on), different odds ‘n’ ends of a project (or two) you started (I will get to that, it could be in my next life…but I will), a book of your neighbor’s (it’s sitting there so I remember to give it back)…all of this, plus, of course, change, gum wrappers, paper clips – WHATEVER!

This stuff can drain your energy much like the paper can. It needs your attention. You pass by or you try to function around it, all the while trying to convince yourself it’s not bothering you, but it probably is. It’s subtly pulling you down with its decaying energy. Yes, it’s true, anything that sits there long enough will start to decay.


5. Clutter makes you feel stuck
Besides lovely thoughts of decay, what clutter is also doing is making you feel stuck. It’s simple: it is sitting there, in your space, not moving. And your space reflects your life. Your home and everything you have in it is an extension of you.

If you have a lot of things that haven’t been dealt with, and are piling up – stagnating – they can make you feel like you’re also stagnating. You might find yourself stuck in the past or like you can’t move forward. Or like you’re repeating the same patterns over and over. What is happening here is that the stuff – your clutter – is weighing you down and keeping you there.

Clutter often has a heaviness that’s unnamable, because it is low energy. As it is draining you, like I described above, it pulls you down and keeps you there. No wonder you can’t get ahead. The energy of the old, abandoned things are keeping you right there with them. How could they not? They are in your space. Their energy field is mixing and melding with yours.

Life may not present you with new opportunities because the clutter is taking up too much space. It is like a cement dam, blocking up the open space that represents creativity and possibilities.


Stay tuned for:
Dealing With Clutter
Top 5 Things to do to Reduce Clutter