Is your home
constipated?

Some of it ends up in stores. Last week at the mall, I watched shoppers with their bags of purchases. I pictured them being brought into their homes, and again I wondered, where does it all go?

We shop, we buy and we bring objects into our homes. There seems to be a constant flow of things IN, but is there an equal flow of things OUT?

In most cases my guess is no. The result is too many homes too full of stuff.

Can you imagine what would happen to our bodies if we constantly took IN without eliminating anything? We sure would be uncomfortable and couldn't function well.

Pardon the analogy, but our homes can be like that -- too constipated. A constipated home isn't comfortable to live in, nor is it functional.

I once helped a client purge a mountain of clothes from her closet.

She realized she still had too much, so adopted a new rule that whenever she bought a new item of clothing, she had to get rid of two from her closet.

She said that when shopping, it made her think long and hard about whether she wanted the new item bad enough to part with two items at home.

How about you? When you buy something new, do you get rid of what it replaces?

BY NOW YOU might be wondering, "What can I possibly part with?"

That was my question back when I was a hard-core pack rat.

Since then I've identified numerous possessions that are outdated, outgrown, used up, worn out, uncomfortable or disliked, for starters.

When you buy a new pair of shoes, is there an uncomfortable or worn-out pair you can discard?

How about books? For every new book you buy, can you part with one you've already read or lost interest in?

When I bought a new computer, I kept the old, obsolete one. It's been an eyesore and dust collector for years!

When things are no longer useful, it's good to let them go before they become a burden. If your home is constipated, I encourage you to be a gatekeeper.

Set your own ratio of inflow vs. outgo, and equalize the amounts to achieve a balance. Your home will be more comfortable and livable as a result. See you in three weeks!