Yes, you know the big signs of clutter:

• You’re unable to find anything
• Your house looks like a tornado
• You can’t have people over because you’re embarrassed
• You feel overwhelmed to confront it all…

That’s just the very basic start of the clutter story.

After a decade of feng shui and hundreds of people soaring through the Feng Shui Life De-Cluttering Catalyst Camp I can say one thing with absolute clarity: you’ll have no idea how personally destructive (and self-destructive) clutter has been for you until you are free of it!

Here are 10 of the sneakier side effects of a cluttered home & life. They will make you want to clean and clear everything around you right now!!!

As I go through every cycle of the Catalyst Camp de-clutter with my campers, cycle after cycle of 8 weeks, I clear more of my own home and life clutter.  There’s always another level of stuff to clear away.  There’s always a next level to clean away.  And in each cycle I see in myself along with the gang just how much the clutter has been creating problems that vanish in the clearing and cleaning and donating and confronting of stuff…

1. Physical headaches are common when there’s a lot of clutter.  It’s amazing the amount of physical pressure that clutter can put upon life.

2. Physical loss of balance. I hear constantly about how dizzying clutter can be and how physically it is hard to feel balance.  It’s part of the stuckness and stagnation of clutter.  You feel sort of thrown into a whirl every time you confront all of the confusion.

3. Loss of balance in life is another harrowing side-effect of clutter.  It’s hard to maintain habits like exercise, downtime, social time that’s fun… Life starts to run you rather than you running it as a side-effect of having too much stuff stuck in your space.

4. It’s so hard to be present. It’s actually nearly impossible to feel present when you’re in an unstable space.  Confusion in finances, a backlog of work in the office, a lack of preparedness for the day… If you’re continually playing catch-up and felling like you are either falling behind or in a really big bad space of a mess can push you out of present time.  When your nervous system overloads in these states, we tend to dissociate from the present moment because it’s too overwhelming.  That leads to the next issue…

5. Nothing gets done & when things get done they fall flat.  When there’s too much junk and chaos and mess, things are stopped in their tracks.  When anything does get attempted or accomplished, it’s half-done or just not that exciting because all of the magic of you and your genius is missing.  your art feels flat, your work is not that keen, your communication feels lackluster…

6. Thoughts spin in circles. There’s nothing quite like staying up all night with a racing mind that’s too full.  Just like there’s nothing quite as maddening as an inability to make decisions.  If you’re constantly asking what to do, what should you do… you are in the spin of clutter.  When you’re present, you know what to do.

7. Negative effects keep happening that feel out of control. From forgetting important things to losing jobs to feeling sick to angry confrontations… so so so many negative effects spin out from clutter.

8. Relationships spiral down.  When I see relationships and friendships take a fast dive, you see the clutter of things unexpressed by the people involved.  Repressed truths lead to resentments and anger and victimization and drama that’s not grounded.  Usually that same clutter is stuffed in people’s closets, their social media feeds, their drawers, their un-managed schedules… It’s all a big down-spiral where, in confusion, things become heated.  It’s hard to be self-expressed.  Lots of good things get very poisoned.

9. Mood swings feel typical. If you’re up and then down, happy and then triggered into an upset, there’s a good chance you are surrounded by stuff that sets off your triggered responses.  Stuff + People that trigger you into trauma responses and mood swings that are powerfully bad.

In the most innovating drug rehabilitation centers, before newly-sober people head home, their lives and their homes are purged of triggers that set them into bad-feelings and low self esteem.  Clutter is cleared and that helps keep the newly-won sobriety in a more stable place.

10. It’s hard to feel or see responsibility in all of the chaos of life.  Blame is common.  You can see what a monster your boss is, how much your friends have given you bad advice, how absent-minded your co-workers are… how neglectful your partner is… how unfair the “system” is… but in cluttered lives it’s hard to see how you have 100% as much responsibility for everything that’s happening.  When you can’t see responsibility, you become a victim.  Victims can’t change things.  Heroes change things.

Clearing clutter is a heroic act.  No matter how much stuff, no matter how painful the memories, no matter how overwhelmed you feel, the act of facing the clutter in our homes and lives is courageous and empowering and transformational.

xoxo Dana

P.S.: The Catalyst Camp Life De-Clutter is coming soon!

It starts with a FREE 3-Video Class  to revolutionize your clutter clearing… with lots of Feng Shui magic mixed in, too!

You can sign up HERE to get started!

Clearing clutter- even the overwhelmingly tough stuff- can – and will-  be super-fun!!!