Decluttering or not to declutter?

[Guest guest]

Yesterday I was looking at a friend's website and she had a link to this

article. Just to show the flip side of NOT decluttering:

 

http://www.qi-whiz.com/node?page=2

 

joe

[Guest guest]

I find feng shui totally confusing, and apparently I'm not alone, lol.

 

Cyndi

 

In a message dated 2/28/2007 4:53:58 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, joeflaherty writes:

Yesterday I was looking at a friend's website and she had a link to thisarticle. Just to show the flip side of NOT decluttering:http://www.qi-whiz.com/node?page=2joe

 

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.

[Guest guest]

LOL! Well, I think if people are fine with their clutter, then there's no issue. I've gone to peoples houses for loan signings where there was literally not ONE INCH of clear space, and I had to shove stuff aside just to find a spot where they could sign. And if they are happy that way, then fine. LOL!

 

My "energy" is drained by not having order, space, organization, harmony, or whatever feng shui words apply. I like the feeling of "positive" energy when things are clear, I work better and I feel happier, and I tend to avoid those rooms where there is clutter. ;-)Cyndi

 

In a message dated 2/28/2007 9:41:19 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, joeflaherty writes:

They moved it! I can only get to it from Rebecca's site now. Unfortunately the link onlytakes you to her frontpage, then you have to go through to blog, down and backto the feng-shui page. This is it:http://www.unlimitedcolor.com/Wednesday, January 24, 2007Clutter, clutter, and more clutter. Why fear clutter? Does it mean your mindis cluttered if your house is cluttered? Clutter is everywhere now, likecancer! Help! Actually, it’s no big deal. You can deal with it just like youdeal with spam …..or not! Having “clutter†around your house, on yourdesk, in your garage is a LEARNED BEHAVIOR. So check out this nice commentaryabout clutter and rejoice if you have stuff!I like stuff!reb++++++++++++

 

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.

[Guest guest]

Joe...what article are you referring to? I went to the link but there

was only a little blurb about not cleaning and cutting your hair this

yar on some fung shui sight. Is that what you were reffering to???

 

--Cee--

 

RealSimple , " Joe Flaherty " <joeflaherty

wrote:

>

>

> Yesterday I was looking at a friend's website and she had a link to

this

> article. Just to show the flip side of NOT decluttering:

>

> http://www.qi-whiz.com/node?page=2

>

> joe

>

[Guest guest]

They moved it!

 

I can only get to it from Rebecca's site now. Unfortunately the link only

takes you to her frontpage, then you have to go through to blog, down and back

to the feng-shui page. This is it:

 

http://www.unlimitedcolor.com/

 

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Clutter, clutter, and more clutter. Why fear clutter? Does it mean your mind

is cluttered if your house is cluttered? Clutter is everywhere now, like

cancer! Help! Actually, it’s no big deal. You can deal with it just like you

deal with spam …..or not! Having “clutter†around your house, on your

desk, in your garage is a LEARNED BEHAVIOR. So check out this nice commentary

about clutter and rejoice if you have stuff!

I like stuff!

reb

 

++++++++++++

 

 

Home › Glossary

clutter

8 January, 2006 - 18:37

 

In the psychobabble of New Age feng shui, clutter is a malignancy that can

extend from your home to the Internet.

 

Clutter allegedly causes " negative effects " such as the following:

 

* " stuck, stagnant energy " — a vague definition at best

* a lack of energy, focus, and clarity

* feelings of being " stuck " in a job, or " stuck " creatively, spiritually,

or romantically

* the impression of having insufficient time for and attention to family

and self

* an impression of increased stress, irritability, and depression

 

These are not Human Problems. These are not Guy Problems.

These are Female Problems, especially girls and women with certain types of

personalities.

 

They are easy prey for quacks and frauds.

 

In the New Age mind, " clutter " refers to an arrangement of living and working

space that indicates a person's mental state and, by primitive concepts of

association, what is happening in their life.

 

As Terah Kathryn Collins claims in The Western Guide to Feng Shui (p. vii)

clutter in a house she was assessing " blocked smooth passage through the

house " and therefore explained why the occupants' lives had problems.

 

If the victims had said nothing about their lives, would the living conditions

have been an issue?

 

Some of Collins' students have elaborated on this concept, but always from a

female perspective: the husband who is a " king of clutter, " for example.

 

Interestingly, the clutter concept has evolved since it was invented for feng

shui in the 1980s. Now it reaches your email Inbox, where it can allegedly

make you feel overwhelmed.

 

No one seems to know whether the clutter malaise differentiates between spam

(and kinds of spam) and ham. Do women feel " overwhelmed " by clutter when their

Inboxes overflow with ads for Viagra? what about small-cap investments?

 

People who perpetuate the " clutter " myth claim to employ a perceptual skill

that William Spear called First Impressions — another clever invention of

Lin Yun. The technique is said to detect so-called " energy patterns " in a home

or office. (Alas, when these people start focusing on clutter, you never learn

more about the kind of energy and the kind of patterns.)

 

Unfortunately First Impressions has some conceptual flaws, and runs counter to

what is known about how human perception works. It's the same myth at work

with the absurd mantra " Where attention goes, energy flows. "

Scientific fact: You have to be paying attention to consciously perceive

something.

 

If you focus (or fixate) on something, a gorilla can stand in front of you and

you will not notice her. This is sustained inattentional blindness, the famous

" Gorillas in Our Midst " research.

 

What does it mean for the concept of " clutter " ? If you do not mention feeling

" stuck " or " negative energy, " or any of the " warning signs " the frauds say are

linked to clutter, you are unlikely to be admonished to rid your home of

clutter. Unless the person you hired is expressing their personal bias against

your housekeeping, the subject will only be addressed if you mention it.

 

The idiotic phrase " Where attention goes, energy flows " is reduced to

absurdity by the science. There is no " energy " involved, just your conscious

attention.

 

Keep your mouth shut when you hire a practitioner and let them tell you about

your life. Don't encourage fraud by telling them anything except the basics

(construction date, birthdate, etc.).

 

If First Impressions is the foundation of feng shui analysis, then all our

mothers were born Feng Shui consultants.

 

One of the cliches of life is that a typical mother will walk into their

child's home and complain about their inadequate housekeeping. Mom announces

this as the reason their child can't get their dream job or find a mate. It is

all done out of love, of course. They want you to succeed, get married, etc.

 

Some of us think so little of ourselves that we fall for this, which is why

sensitive New Age types pay complete strangers a lot of money to hear the same

verbal abuse their Mom provides for free.

 

Clutter is a marketing ploy.

 

The amount of so-called clutter in your house has nothing to do with feng

shui. It does have a lot to do about how women perceive themselves and their

lifestyle, with housekeeping an extension of themselves. Marketers have seized

on this to sell you more neuroses.

 

It is odd that New Agers are obsessed with the conditions inside our homes.

 

While holding down a full-time job, who has time to keep up these impossible

standards? And why should we obsess about such a trivial thing, or let some

New Age marketer insist that we obsess?

 

It's been known since the 1920's that vacuum cleaners, like other household

technologies, do not necessarily ease the burden of housework. " Conveniences "

like vacuum cleaners have also raised expectations and standards of

cleanliness.

 

Remember, most men think " clutter " and the obsession with housecleaning is

just plain nuts. Many like a " clean house, " but what is their standard of

" clean " ? It is typically not the same as a woman's.

 

You can get things too clean.

If your house is too clean, and you use the wrong sort of cleaning products,

you are messing with your immune system and the immune system of any creature

in the house.

 

Chaos, mess, clutter, whatever you want to call it: it is not necessarily bad.

Obsessive cleanliness and tidiness is a bad thing if you are trying to become

mindful of your environmental impact, because nature is not neat.

 

" Clutter, " says Dee Vance, owner of Professional House, a business supplying

professional home management and advice, " is just the accumulation of

postponed decisions. " You haven't taken the time to decide whether to keep

something or throw it out, so there it sits until you do.

 

There is no esoteric symbolism influencing your housekeeping — for Dee Vance

it is mere procrastination. As we all know, procrastination can have

significant effects on many areas of life. Behavior modification, not a

rearrangement of furniture, is what is needed to address the issue.

 

In Cheryl Mendelsohn's outstanding book Home Comforts — which everyone

should read, because it would stop a lot of needless suffering over this

" clutter " nonsense — she says

 

Health, safety, and comfort matter more than appearances, clutter,

organization, and entertainment. A jumbled closet may distract you, but it is

much less urgent than clean sheets, laundry, or meals. (p. 18)

 

Who invented the concept of clutter?

 

In European folklore, the blessings of the peasantry's folk-deity (Diana,

Holda, Perchta, etc.) and visits by the honored dead were bestowed only on

" clean places and clean houses " because these supernatural guests " do not like

to enter sordid places or filthy houses. " (Carlo Ginzburg, 1991:101)

 

Here is what Florence Nightingale considered " filthy " in 19th century

Britain:

 

Provision for conveying away surface and slop water is conspicuous either by

its absence or defect. The slop water stagnates and sinks into the soil all

round the dwellings, aided by the droppings from the thatch. (It has been

known that the bedroom slops are sometimes emptied out of the window.) There

are inside sinks, but the waste pipe is often either untrapped or not

disconnected.

 

… Water supply almost entirely from shallow wells, often uncovered, mostly

in the cottage garden, not far from a previous privy pit, a pig sty, or a huge

collection of house refuse, polluted by the foulness soaking into it. The

liquid manure from the pig sty trickles through the ground into the well.

Often after heavy rain the cottagers complain that their well water becomes

thick.

 

Imagine what was considered " filthy " when Holda and Perchta were visiting the

huts of peasants, not the cottages of farmers!

 

But how many of us are expecting the ghost of Grandma or for some peripatetic

chthonic goddess to bless our apartments and condos?

 

Considering the verbal abuse you suffer from Mom regarding your housekeeping,

how do you feel about having Grandma's ghost inspecting the place?

 

Calvinist theology drew upon these traditions to instill the notion that if

you were clean in more ways than one, God would provide prosperity. This

probably explains why Karen Kingston loves enemas and insists they are part of

feng shui.

 

The Puritans, being God-fearing Calvinists, brought this " Cleanliness is next

to Godliness " concept to the New World.

 

Florence Nightingale found this useful in her concept of " nursing, " which at a

high level is little more than environmental manipulation and attention to

diet.

 

People who dislike clutter tacitly assume everyone should share their Puritan

obsessions. The controversy about clutter conveniently ignores the fact that

human cultures have wildly varying opinions about it.

 

For many cultures the concept of " clutter " does not exist. Clutter as applied

to feng shui is an American invention.

 

When feng shui practitioners utter the word " clutter, " they are actually

expressing their opinions about how you live, based on their esthetics and

culture, and how their Mama raised them to think about housekeeping.

 

" Clutter " is nothing more than personal bias. whether it comes from your

mother or an alleged feng shui practitioner.

 

The faux feng shui concept of First Impressions is nothing more than the

aesthetic prejudice of an American subculture. Your mother's personal bias,

exhibited in her appraisal of your housekeeping and decorating tastes, doesn't

make her — or anyone else — an authentic feng shui practitioner.

 

What is the real issue? There isn't one, unless you want to be scientific

about the concept of clutter.

 

When floors and countertops are piled high with items you have to negotiate

around, you increase the levels of dust. Dust can cause asthma and other

health problems.

 

That doesn't sound like what you have come to associate with feng shui,

though.

 

" Clutter " can be measured with statistics. Observe the room of an adolescent a

number of times and record how many possible arrangements it has with its

current occupant. Repeated visits are the only way to tell if there is a

pattern of arrangement and whether the occupant is trying to preserve it —

in which case the room is not " cluttered. "

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[Guest guest]

LOL! Thanks, Joe...I was wondering if I was nuts! Hahahaha....

 

--Celia--

 

RealSimple , " Joe Flaherty " <joeflaherty

wrote:

>

> They moved it!

>

> I can only get to it from Rebecca's site now. Unfortunately the link

only

> takes you to her frontpage, then you have to go through to blog, down

and back

> to the feng-shui page. This is it:

>

>

[Guest guest]

Me too! LOL! --C--

 

RealSimple , cyndikrall wrote:

>

>

> I find feng shui totally confusing, and apparently I'm not alone,

lol.

>

> Cyndi

>

[Guest guest]

Sigh. Me too. I can't work if there's a mess.

 

I just thought it'd give the folks who feel guilty about their clutter,

permision to let it stay.

 

joe

 

 

 

 

My " energy " is drained by not having order, space, organization, harmony, or

 

whatever feng shui words apply. I like the feeling of " positive " energy when

 

things are clear, I work better and I feel happier, and I tend to avoid

those rooms where there is clutter. ;-)

 

Cyndi

[Guest guest]

haha! I am still somewhat conflicted about my clutter, lol, but I have learned to do some soul-searching when I am resisting getting rid of something. Sometimes it just doesn't work, lol.

 

Cyndi

 

In a message dated 2/28/2007 12:46:30 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, joeflaherty writes:

Sigh. Me too. I can't work if there's a mess. I just thought it'd give the folks who feel guilty about their clutter,permision to let it stay. joeMy "energy" is drained by not having order, space, organization, harmony, orwhatever feng shui words apply. I like the feeling of "positive" energy whenthings are clear, I work better and I feel happier, and I tend to avoid those rooms where there is clutter. ;-)Cyndi

 

AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.

[Guest guest]

I get willing in layers Cyndi. Or maybe in phases is a better way to

put it. I start by getting rid of what I'm willing to let go of.

Next time round, another layer comes off, i.e., I'm willing to get rid

of more. Eventually, I'll be able to downsize considerably.

 

I read Ram Dass' *Still Here*, which is a wonderful book, and you'd

probably love it. Among other spiritual truths, he talks about

holding onto things which define who you used to be. That statement

alone let me get rid of 2 bookcases worth of archaeological books --

which defined who I used to be. And I was really clinging to that old

image of myself. The books & the image are both now just pleasant

memories.

 

Also I'm reading Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui -- another lovely

book.

 

Eventually we'll get it pared away!

 

Kate

 

RealSimple , cyndikrall wrote:

>

>

> haha! I am still somewhat conflicted about my clutter, lol, but I have

> learned to do some soul-searching when I am resisting getting rid of

something.

> Sometimes it just doesn't work, lol.

>

> Cyndi

>

[Guest guest]

Most people do exactly the same thing. So did I! But I've been unable to do anything for so long that I'm trying to make up for lost time, lol.

 

I'll check out those books, they sound good. I wish you still had those archaeological books, though, lol.

 

Cyndi

 

In a message dated 3/2/2007 11:11:32 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, ghostdancer writes:

I get willing in layers Cyndi. Or maybe in phases is a better way toput it. I start by getting rid of what I'm willing to let go of. Next time round, another layer comes off, i.e., I'm willing to get ridof more. Eventually, I'll be able to downsize considerably.I read Ram Dass' *Still Here*, which is a wonderful book, and you'dprobably love it. Among other spiritual truths, he talks aboutholding onto things which define who you used to be. That statementalone let me get rid of 2 bookcases worth of archaeological books --which defined who I used to be. And I was really clinging to that oldimage of myself. The books & the image are both now just pleasantmemories.Also I'm reading Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui -- another lovelybook. Eventually we'll get it pared away!KateRealSimple , cyndikrall wrote:>> > haha! I am still somewhat conflicted about my clutter, lol, but I have > learned to do some soul-searching when I am resisting getting rid ofsomething. > Sometimes it just doesn't work, lol. > > Cyndi>