Clean Your Closets...Clean Your Life

I spent far too many hours the other day cleaning out my closets. It was worth it, though. I started in the kitchen pantry, throwing out expired food and mismatched plastic containers. I reorganized the shelves and made more sense of the whole closet. It took over six hours, not because the pantry is quite large, but because I also organized all the clutter within 20 feet of the pantry, too. You can guess there was a lot of clutter that had accumulated in my kitchen. 

I kept telling myself that I needed to do it to make sense of my life. I needed order and more empty space around me. My husband had said that he was starting to feel like the walls were caving in, and I noticed that I felt that way, too. I needed breathing room, and a sense of order.

A place for everything, and everything in its place, I kept telling myself.

After finishing the pantry area, I moved on to my bedroom closet. Working from one corner to the other, I hung up my clothes according to color, and completely cleared my closet floor.

More breathing room, and a sense of order.

The whole effort took most of the day. What a waste of the day, I silently told myself as I got ready for bed. I thought of all the fun things I could have been doing instead. Was it worth it?

As I settled into bed, drawing the day to a close, a sweet feeling started to simmer inside me. It reminded me of a subtle hum in the distant like the Whos in Who-ville after the Grinch stole all their Christmas presents, and started to grow into a warm, glowing flame of happiness. I felt a lovely sense of calm and joy seemed to ooze to the surface, something that I hadn't felt in a long time.

Cleaning my closets opened the access door to my stored happiness. I forgot how it works that way...always. 

I am actually looking forward to cleaning my basement, next. It's a really big mess, which means even more joy for me, right? I am looking forward to finding out!