More Space in Your Home = More Space in Your Mind

Whether you're prepping your home for a sale, or you simply desire to create a better "flow" throughout your space, there is true merit in exploring the principles of Zen philosophy as applied to the design of your home and how you live within it.

- De-clutter Your Life

On a material level begin by de-cluttering your home. You'll be amazed at how much inner peace and joy floods in to you when you look into your own mindfully created, de-cluttered space. Here are some valuable tips:

-Begin with Baby Zen Steps

- Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to organize and de-clutter huge projects like big closets of whole rooms at once. Give yourself a time limit, and do your de-cluttering in chunks. Begin with 20 minutes to work on one small area. You'll discover that you'll learn from the smaller projects and you'll be able to able that first han d de-cluttering expertise to your larger projects as you gradually progress. Zen is about enjoying the process, so these task should bring you a sense of joy as you go through them.

- But... Be a Zen Ninja!

Toss, toss, toss ( or better yet recycle!) - and at all costs. You must be merciless in the zen art of de-cluttering your life. Part of the challenge in this is a personal and spiritual one. You'll need to let go of things, and live purely and simply with only the most important things in your life. So, if you used it once last year- not good enough- into the by-by bin it goes. Same goes for if you have great intentions to use it in the future but have not yet. You must honestly evaluate the true worth that all this " stuff" hold in your life. Guaranteed, this process will get easier as you move along and in the future you'll stop accumulating as much.

A "Maybe" Box is Okay.

Alright... if you're finding the straight up purging process too challenging, then putting "things" in a purgatorial "maybe" box to await decisions on their fate, is acceptable. But you must set a date by which you will decide what to do with them. If you let them go, don't worry, "things" will forgive quite easily- you'll always have the memories associated with them. No one can take those away. Better to er on the side of judiciousness, than to continue hanging onto to stuff.

Create a Method to Stop Future Madness

Once you pared everything down- you now have to look at how you're living and organizing your life and decide to make some changes. Imagine some concrete systems of organization that'll help you be consistent with your future de-cluttering habits.

Everything in Its Place

This idea can help you with your future organizing- every "thing" of importance should have its own "home" within your home. You then have to be consistent about putting that "thing" back "home"- every time.

Quality over Quantity

Before you begin de-cluttering and simplifying, take a look at the larger picture and select what are your top priority projects. It's better to begin the transformation of your habits from a clear and organized state of mind. If it's easier for you, you can start by making a master list of "things to do", and then go over that list and pare down to the essentials. Similar to the process of clearing un-needed stuff from your life, sometimes it's easier to do this in stages.

Once you've made some progress, its important to celebrate your achievements. Relax and take in the new found space you've created in your home and in your peace of mind. Enjoy this process of "editing" your life down to the most important essentials. Guaranteed, cultivating such habits in your household with have a great impact on the quality of the time you spend there.

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