Emotional Housekeeping

Time To Clean House

Have you ever parted with something that held a part of you?For me, that was the dollhouse of my childhood – bar none, the most exciting Christmas morning surprise ever! There’s that one gift you will never forget – this was that gift. My father secretly built it in the basement for months; it had electricity, a doorbell that rang, opened on both sides and was an all around monumental labor of love. I was about 9 years old when I received it and its walls went on to hold my girlhood memories, recording and storing hours of play and creativity. It was a magical place for me...so I held onto it.We recently parted ways after almost a lifetime together.Have you ever wondered why we hold onto stuff? Of course, there are all the sentimental reasons — I could never have imagined getting rid of this while my father was still alive — which is quite absurd because I’m sure he never expected me to go down and play with it. And there was the practical reason that there were no little girls born into our family. It needed to be paired with a suitable new owner. So, I continued to lug it around. I’ve had it covered and stored in the basement of my current house without seeing the light of day for 11 years now, its contents in bins. This certainly was no life for a dollhouse!

Everything we surround ourselves with holds energy, occupying more than the physical.

Whether we realize it or not, it absorbs our emotional energy as well — as evidenced by all that I have wrapped up in my dollhouse. A beautiful thing emerges when we begin the process of letting go, when we initiate our emotional housekeeping and detach. There’s no denying that infusion of energy following a good ‘ol clean-up.I held onto the belief that when the time was right, I would know, and the next little girl would show up. It took a few decades, but she finally did. Without going into all of the details of how that played out – beautiful syncronicities lined up the moment I set the intention free and the rest unfolded very quickly from there. But before I said goodbye, I indulged the little girl in me and opened up each of the dusty bins and boxes to reminisce and relive it all for one last time — to hold the furniture and be transported back in time. It all came to life there in my hands in the greatest of detail, a ceremonial separating of sorts.Spring-cleaning had been swirling in the air. The need to clear, cleanse and create more open space both physically and energetically had been present on my mind. As soon as I took an action step, I was met with momentum. The same weekend that the dollhouse was to leave the premises, the floodgates of purging broke free. The trickle-down effect was undeniable. Suddenly, boxes were being organized, old paperwork was being carted off to be shredded and a new sense of order was being restored. No clutter was off limits.

I think the real art of clearing is in finding new meaning, purpose and connection.

Creating more landfill isn’t the answer. For example, if you are anything like me, you probably have a bin filled with random paper napkins and plates – remnants of parties past. I’m pretty sure I have stragglers from each themed birthday party the resident teenager has had to date. I will refrain from calling out those themes to avoid more embarrassment than I already cause him on a daily basis. One day I grabbed them all and said to myself, That’s it – we are using these up. We are not purchasing another paper napkin for this house until each of these is gone. It certainly has created some interesting fodder for dinner conversation.I could have easily dropped the dollhouse at a thrift store – but I would have missed the beautiful exchange and bypassed that blanket of sweetness knowing it had landed in the right hands. It’s the same with our emotions. We can keep them shoved away, but there is no dumping them without truly processing them. They will find a way to somehow slide back in like weeds in the garden. Running the course with them allows for the uncovering of their true meaning and hidden gift for us. Most of all, It provides us with the opportunity to bid them a proper adieu.Where could you spiff up things in the housekeeping department? I’m not talking only about the physical closets, I’m also talking about the emotional storage rooms where you stuff all the feelings you don’t want to deal with. When we don’t clean the corners, the baggage gets heavier, moving about gets more arduous and the walls seem to contract toward us.With willingness to release, we welcome openness. When we elevate our consciousness in all aspects of ourselves we are met with a wink from the Universe, a nod of agreement and confluence. Maybe it’s time to take a look around — what’s weighing you down? It could be a destructive personal habit, a difficult individual, suppressed feelings, hidden dreams or merely physical junk. Clearing is processing, processing is cleansing, and true emotional housekeeping is the most liberating tidying up of all. Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and see things differently? It’s time to clean house.