Ridding home, life of clutter is liberating

God never ceases to amaze me. His breezes touch and guide us all. My peace comes from following his golden rule, to love thy neighbor as thyself. For it is not until we fully love ourselves that we can truly love others.

In January of 1999, I set out on my journey toward this peace. I had no clue that the ship I was sailing was setting the course for other people to join. As I tried to figure out how to "GET ORGANIZED," my major concern was to be kind to myself through it all. To do this I had to get rid of the guilt that I had placed on myself for breaking every New Year's resolution I had ever made.

So I decided that I was not making a resolution; I was going to change my behavior one habit at a time. I didn't sit down and make elaborate plans; I just picked one item to focus on for the month of January. That was keeping my sink shining. I never dreamed that one little action could bring me to this place of peace that I reside ever single day.

My best friend's mom once told her that her insides don't feel in order if her outsides aren't in order. For me this means that peace does not start inside; it works from the outside in instead of the inside out. You can't just decide to be peaceful. How many times has that ever happened to you? You go to the closet and pick out your cloak of peace; Ain't gonna happen, is it? So how do we find this allusive peace?

Our lives are just one big jigsaw puzzle! Think about this. When we begin working on a huge puzzle, what do we do first? We look at the box full of pieces and say. 'I can't do this! I will never get this all together!' Sometimes we put the cover back on the box and put it back in the closet because it is just too hard. Then you have some little voice saying, 'Come on, we can do this.' Then what do you do? You dump it out on the table with a little plan. You may not even realize that you have a plan but it just comes to you automatically.

We have to turn over all the pieces to see what is there. Then we just start sorting them to find all the side pieces with the flat edge. Just look — we are working from the outside in! As you get the framework complete, you begin to have some confidence that it can be done and even have a bit of excitement. Did you know that this framework is your simple routines for morning and before bed: laying out your clothes at night, going to bed at a decent hour, getting up in the morning and dressing to lace-up shoes? Then you put these sides together, and you can start working on the other sections of the puzzle.

Have you ever mixed up two big puzzles? It is a nightmare. You spend all your time sorting through the maze of pieces to find just the right one.