Clutter busting and cleansing

I've had a busy week or so back on the decluttering wagon and I even created a facebook page called The White Space Project to document my activities and encourage fellow declutterers (is that a word?) to post pictures of their clutter busting activities.  I took all of my decluttered items to my local animal sanctuary to sell in their shop:

I'm reading a lovely book at the moment called Soul Space which is about creating a home that is free of clutter, full of beauty and inspired by you. The author writes " by using your belongings as a concrete way to investigate and understand your feelings and attachments, you will expose and then begin to break down old patterns, literally "making room" for your new, more evolved self."

I had a clutter hot spot in my sitting room, built in shelves which stored some of our cd's and dvd's.  I have been storing cd's  in this unit for approx 14 years, many of the cd's I don't listen to anymore as I can listen to musically digitally through our Sonos System.  Was this space representing my more evolved self? No. It was time to pack the cd's away and put them into storage.

Here is how the space looked as a storage unit:

Post declutter:

And breathe............

I really enjoy walking into my sitting room and seeing this decluttered space, it feels very light and spacious and represents me, my move evolved self!

On the subject of evolving, I wondered if I could evolve some of my food habits, my diet isn't too bad but it does have alot of sugar and carbohydrates in it.  I participated in a 3 day sugar cleanse at the start of this week which was a freebie offered by Persephone Brown called Kicking Sugar's Sweet Ass. For the first 2 days we stayed away from :



Nothing white:: no potatoes, no grains, no flours (sweet potatoes ok) 
No beans (high starch)
No Alcohol












Persephone advised to stay off caffeine during the cleanse and to up our fluid intake (minimum of 3.2 pints water). This also included many more "bathroom stops!"

This was much harder than I anticipated, by the end of day 1 I was craving a cup of tea and a glass of white wine! I had a splitting headache, I was grumpy, tired  and I felt deprived. 
Day 2 - see day 1
Day 3 - see day 1 & 2 but without the grumpiness but extreme tiredness

Day 4 - an opportunity to "get back to normal" only I didn't! There had been a shift in my thinking, it no longer felt like something I "had to do" it now felt like something I could choose to do.

Day 5 - still sticking with it but brought caffeine back in with the odd cup of  Earl Grey tea.

Day 6 & 7 - week-end and I've had carbs and sugar and white wine (which just didn't taste the same). I tried a piece of fruit cake and that didn't taste the same either.

Day 8 - that's tomorrow and I will be back on the cleanse as I felt much better for it.

2014 Guiding Word

I like to make New Year Resolutions and yet like so many, I'm not so great at keeping them. Instead, I have started to choose words or a mantra to set the tone for my forthcoming year. For the year 2013 I chose the words Peace, Space and Brave. Out of that combination, space really showed up for me.  It was something I was craving for on a physical level and it showed up by quite an intensive year of decluttering, which in turn created space and peace within me on an emotional/spiritual level.  The consequence of this led to me brave by being able to release/let go of some issues, situations I had been holding onto.

As I was playing with and trying on word combinations for this year, I found that space didn't want to leave me and I didn't want to leave it.  My guiding theme or mantra for 2014 is:

White Space Project

White space for me feels like a space in which to rest, to feel at ease with, it feels uncluttered and reflective. 

The White Space Project has already begun, I feel it found me in the latter stages of last year when I started to remodel my kitchen (that is another blog post!).  Today my white space started with more decluttering and I filled a bag with 10 items ready to be taken to the Charity Shop tomorrow. My intention is to be able to decluttter 10 items a day for the next 365 days.

Decluttered items ready for donation

A cluttered pen pot holder

uncluttered spacious pen pot holder

What about you? Do you keep New Years Resolutions or are you guided by a word or theme?

4th January 2014

A late afternoon walk under a glorious sky

Clouds illuminated by a winter's sun

A picture so big, painted by nature herself 

Surrounded by your beauty, I easily lose myself

 

3rd January 2014

Holly Green

Smooth and shiny

Adorned with beads of red

Branches cross, gently touching

A silent exchange, one of you turns to look the other way

An interlude of yuletime colour 

I praise and applaud your performance during this cold January day. 

2nd January 2014

Red berries, silent and still

Red berries, bathing in sunlight on my windowsill

Red berries, you wear a wooden heart 

Red berries, you capture my grieving heart

Red berries, you are my pause in a busy day 

Red berries, I weave you into a small stone

Red berries, you remind me I am not alone