We have a habit of collecting. Having something we need is fine, but acquiring something we don’t need and refusing to remove unwanted things creates clutter in our life. We may not realise it, but much of our agitation comes because of the clutter in our lives. It would serve us well to take an honest look and recognise what we need to remove.

A messy home or office doesn’t give a good feeling, and in fact, we get irritable with the way things are, often putting us in a bad mood. We may not realise it, but there is a huge connection between the environment we operate in and our peace of mind. Physical clutter agitates us.

Sometimes we get into a mode where we need to know everything that is going on in the lives of people around us. Of course we must care for others, but collecting trivial details and filling our mind space with unnecessary clutter takes away from being available and attentive to important and meaningful things in life.

It is so easy to get sucked into idle gossip and we don’t realise what it does to us. Not only does it make us critical and judgemental, but we also clutter our minds with information that may not necessarily be true, and we may not always know the full story. The clutter of idle chat and gossip complicates relationships.

Often we take on more than we can handle. Either we are not mindful of what it would mean to add another thing to our long pending list, or we get distracted and influenced in getting involved in things we have no reason to. Cluttering our lives with too many things on hand not only stresses us out, but often those close to us who want to spend time with us find us unavailable and always preoccupied. Clutter puts stress on relationships.

And when we reflect on it, most of these things could have easily been avoided. In a complex world, we need to simplify our lives. The answer may well lie in the simple fact that we need to relook at unnecessary things that we have collected and need to remove the clutter in our life.

(Picture-Swiss Chalet in the Canton of Vaud)