Ah, the clean slate effect – I clean out my office | Andrea de Michaelis – Creating my own reality, one thought at a time

The other day I moved my laptop out of my dining room and into my bedroom. In the evenings when I want to check email and play on Facebook, I now have to step into my home office to do it. That’s turned out to be a good thing since I get more work done, what with my In Box and To Do List staring me in the face each time I sit at the desk. I figured if I was going to spend more time in here, I needed to unclutter. My place stays fairly clutter free, but I get weekly deliveries of one thing or another, mostly books or supplies, and that creates boxes and bubblewrap trash. Often I’ll leave a delivery unopened for a week, or put it unopened in the supply closet. Eventually that catches up with me, and I have to pull everything out and unwrap it and put it all back in. So my clutter is usually packaging material or stacks of paper I need to go through, and it’s easy enough to do.

First I pulled all the furniture away from the walls and swept and mopped behind them. I cleaned the entire floor and I created more space by moving two small bookcases out of the office and into the living room. I put away the newly arrived office supplies and I recycled 4 pounds of paper. Now that we’ve got recycling bins here in Palm Bay, I’m shocked at how much paper I am able to recycle each week; cardboard, paper towel rolls, bath tissue rolls and tons of junk mail, which I ask to be unsubscribed from. When the office feels fresh and new, I feel more motivated and being productive is easier.

I call it the clean slate effect. When I feel free from the past, I am more motivated to work toward the future. When rearranging a room, instead of just moving furniture around, I typically pull everything out of it so I can begin with a new eye. If it feels new to me, I am more alert and when I’m more alert, I am open to new possibilities and new ways of being. Sometimes I go back to the old arrangement, but more often than not I stick with the new until I think it’s time for change again. Because I’ve learned that if I don’t make changes, the Universe will make them for me.