This past Sunday afternoon I treated myself to a manicure. My nails grow fast and needed cutting and shaping. While I was there I got talked into a French manicure. I have seen this on a lot of people but had never had one before.

I have seen my sweet niece try to do one in a hurry once. She complained that she could not hold her hand steady enough to make a straight line. We laughed and brainstormed about a paint pen that would make the job much easier. It wasn't until last Sunday that I saw that no one can make that straight line.

Getting a French manicure is all about baby steps. Isn't it strange? Everything in the world is a series of baby steps and we just can't see them. We only see the finished product.

The young lady clipped and buffed my nails first. Then she put down a foundation that would hold the white polish in place. The next part astounded me. She didn't carefully paint the white tip; she put it on any old way. It was a mess.

Here goes my perfectionism again. I thought it was awful but I kept my mouth shut and just watched the process. Next she took a flat paint brush and dipped it in nail polish remover and with a stroke of the brush she removed the excess polish and made a nice smooth line of white on the tip of my fingernail. I could not believe it.

This is when I realized the significance of this process. She was decluttering the excess much like we have to do to find peace in our lives; get rid of the part that does not bless us and kept the things that we love.

I try to keep clutter at bay by getting rid of clutter each time I bring something new into our home. When we clear out the clutter we make room for the peace that our routines bring to our lives and our homes. You can't organize clutter; you can only get rid of it.

To find the peace in my life it took me months of 27 Fling Boogies to get rid of enough clutter so I could breathe. My clutter was stifling my creativity. I was hiding behind the wall of stuff I had built up. It wasn't until I had cleared out the living areas of our home that I could see the light.

There was more to me than just a messy chaotic house. I had something to say and things that needed doing. As long as I was being held captive by my household clutter, mental clutter and physical clutter; I did not have a voice. My power had been depleted.

The clutter sucked the life right out of me. I didn't have time. No time for me and no time for the work that needed doing.

Please don't wait till you think you have time to start decluttering your life. There will never be enough time if we allow our perfectionism to set our schedule. Make yourself take five, 10 or even 15 minutes to eliminate the clutter from your home each day. In the process of getting rid of the clutter; you will be opening up the pathways to your new life.

What's next is just around the corner! Are you ready to FLY?

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Marla Cilley, a k a FlyLady, is the author of Sink Reflections (Bantam Books Trade Paperback). For more help, please go to: www.FlyLady.net. © 2006