“Create in Me a Clean Heart and KonMari the Garage Please!”  

 Ok, so my prayer did not involve asking God to send Marie Kondo to declutter our garage like she was some modern-day Mary Poppins. 

 Even though as a child I secretly wished that I could just snap my fingers and see my toys march straight into the toy box.

 Snap! The job’s a game!

 Yeah, not so much.

  At the time, I am writing this at our local library after dropping off…

 

 Wait for it-

 

 

12 HUGE BAGS stuffed with the wants and needs of our family of five for the past ten years. 

Yes, it is crazy. Our youngest is turning 10, and it has been at least eight years since we’ve been able to park the van in our garage. 

I remember being at a bible study a few years ago and asking for prayer because my garage was such a hot mess.

The truth is I was a hot mess.

I knew that the clutter piling around me was an indication of the stockpiles that were spilling over in my head.

I trusted my sweet sisters-in-Christ to ask for prayers and help. They were very encouraging, yet I remember the guilt and shame that I felt when I showed them the pictures of our garage.

 There was no doubt about it. I had gotten myself into the mess, and now I was stuck. 

Being stuck is one of the most miserable places to be in! You feel physically and emotionally weighed down.

I know this feeling too well. Maybe you do too?

It’s the slippery slope that many moms have experienced right before the fall. You know what I am talking about. The one where you find yourself in a pit and cannot even remember how you got there in the first place!

It’s that gloomy place between inspiration and desperation. It’s the one place I know too well and that by God’s Grace, I have overcome.

And I know if this is hitting a nerve, I want to assure you that God cares and He is leading you to new ways of thinking. He led you here, right?

He knows what got you in that pit. He also knows how to pull you out of it.

And He will. I know this. I am a living example of what God can do to transform your mental and physical health.

 

The clutter you see all around you is not just because “life happened.”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that having a blessed life filled with love, family, babies, pets and all that comes with it, did not contribute to your current circumstances.

Believe me. I know it did! But, can I just kindly suggest that maybe, just maybe, this has always been a struggle for you?

Before you got married?

Before you had kids?

Before you got this far in reading this?

If I could, I would look into your eyes and say, “It’s okay. I’ve been there. I know. Yes, I know.”

The truth is that it has always been a struggle.

 

It was a struggle before the “motherhood train” came to a complete stop because the “little engine that could” finally gave out.

Even if you wanted to, you were in such a thick fog that you could not see behind you.

But what was even more unsettling was the thought that you had children depending on you and you couldn’t see straight because the fog was so thick.

It was that debilitating. You probably started to question your sanity.

You might have wondered if you were the only one.

As a mother to find yourself this stuck, this deep, with little to no hope kept you in a daily fight-or- flight state of mind. Yes, ask me how I know.

This is what happened to me. So no matter how many times I tried to “declutter my way to success,” I always came back feeling defeated and overwhelmed.

I sometimes found my surroundings in an even bigger mess!

 

But God did not leave me in that mess, and He will not leave you in it either. Take a deep breath. In the thick of it, you will feel restless. It’s okay. I’ve learned to encourage myself by speaking the truth over the situation.

Here’s what I say out loud when I start to feel anxious:

• “Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.” (I take a deep breath as I say this.)

• “I am SO proud of you!” (Lately, I’ve grown to see the progress I’ve made instead of focusing on the unfinished project.)

• I’ve adopted Marie Kondo’s question of, “Does it spark joy?”

It’s a gut reaction that will hijack the part of your brain that would want to rationalize why you should keep it or not. Even my hubby and kids used this when they were sorting through the things they wanted to keep or donate.

(You didn’t think I did this all on my own, right?!)

 

Let’s Get Some Perspective! 

 We live in a relatively new community, and construction is always going on around us. I remember one time when I was walking my dog Goldie around the neighborhood. I saw homes in mid-construction and signs of more stores and even a movie theater making its way to us. It’s a rhythm of life. It’s not a one and done thing. And it certainly doesn’t just happen overnight. It takes vision, planning, and completion.

Just giving yourself grace goes a long way!

• “Sloppy Success Beats Perfect Failure.” (Thank you, Hannah Keeley, for this one!)

• Philippians 4:13 “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength!”

• Or you can use the mantra I came up with as a little girl: “I do my best and leave the rest to God!”

•  You know how they say, “more is caught than taught?” Well, my daughter has adopted this one: “It’s a work in progress!” 🙂 

 

What is the Bigger Issue? (What’s Really Going On?)

Here are some questions to ask yourself to get to the root cause of your clutter problem: 

• Why do I feel the need to surround myself with stuff?
• What is it keeping me from?
• Am I procrastinating on something?
• Why am I afraid of moving forward?
• What new small step can I make today to move forward?

To face it you must embrace it. (I’m about to share some hard truth.)

Are you ready?

You are gripping the past too tightly. You cannot live fully in the present while staying stuck in the past.

You are stuck and not enjoying life.

You may not even be aware that you are a spectator instead of a player in your own life!

Ouch! I know! Believe me. I can’t share with you what I haven’t climbed out of by the Grace of God. But take a deep breath and let God’s truth bring some light into your heart. His love heals as we surrender our hurts to Him.

Even though the past is behind you, it doesn’t mean that the memories and lessons you learned are not still with you. In some ways, it may seem like they are more with you now in the present than they were in the past when you were experiencing those moments.

Have you ever heard, “You’re just too close to the problem to see it?” Sometimes it helps to take a step back and BREATHE.

Why? Because your mind needs to be present to be aware.

I always say, “Knowing is half the battle.”

If you bring yourself to the present moment, then you can begin to see the choices you made in the past that led you to where you are right now.

I’m not talking about some massive change. What I’m talking about is the room in your home that you keep dumping things in because you don’t want to deal with it at the time.

Let me give you an example. I have a treadmill in my bedroom next to my window. My mom gave it to me several years ago. I have walked many miles on it and use it to boost my energy!

At times I even get the kids to exercise on it because they have so much energy to burn. Isn’t that funny?

Well, right now I have a couple of boxes on top of the treadmill.

Okay, maybe a few. Now would you expect that after I just told you I spent countless hours (over a month) decluttering, sorting, putting away and donating the rest?

No, right? Me either! But can I let you in on a secret? I struggle with finishing things! Ha! I just remembered that Jon Acuff’s book, ”Finish” is partially read and waiting for me.  As he puts it, “give myself the gift of done.”

So if you are curious like I was about why Jon Acuff wrote the book, you can read the full interview on forbes.com.

It is inspiring and encouraging!

Here’s a sneak peek:

“I kind of believed what a lot of us believe, “Well begun is half done.” “The hardest part of any journey is the first step,” and so I thought if I could just get people to start, that’ll help, but what happened is, over the years, people have come up to me and said, “Hey, no offense. I like your book, but I’ve never had a problem starting. How do I actually finish?” And I realized I didn’t have an answer, but I needed one because, in my own life, I don’t finish well. It took me three years to do six days of P90X. I don’t finish books I read.  I haven’t finished diets, and statistically, according to The University of Scranton, 92% of New Year’s Resolutions fail, and so I saw a big need, both in my own life and the lives of other people, and so I said, “Let me figure this out,” and that’s kind of what started me on the journey.”

Did you get that? He wrote the book for all of us because he also struggled to finish things!

I don’t know about you, but for me, it gives me some reassurance that I am on the right track!

To read the full interview, go here.

How about you? Has the KonMari bug bit you?

Do you need to declutter your garage too?

It’s an ongoing process, but if I can do it, I KNOW you can too!

Remember to ask yourself, “Does this spark joy?”

I would love to know if this resonated with you!

Let me know in the comments below if you also experience mixed emotions dealing with the stuff in your life!

Also, do you have any questions about where and how to donate? My hubby has a great process of itemizing everything so that we get a good return for the investment and time we put in!

Would you be interested in learning about this? (Did you notice the typed pages stapled to the bags?) 🙂

You’ve got this!!! It’s time to let go of what doesn’t spark JOY in your heart so God can bring you more of what does!