Substack of Spring Cleaning: From Clutter to Clarity
How to Declutter When Your Stuff Is Probably Haunted
“If you're wafting smoke from burning herbs as you go, the last thing you need is to trip and light up a curtain.”
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Greetings, Curious Spirits!
As part of our long-term spiritual house cleansing series, we must discuss the art and science of decluttering. Learning to banish the stagnant is a core skill in magick-centered practices, just as it is in life. People move, and they move on. Sometimes, the perfect in the old place is wildly inappropriate in the new. Children move out and leave their stuff behind. Hobbies can and do change, and so on.
Even so, item purging isn't for everyone.
Some people just like their stuff. I respect that. If you don't want to remove your stuff, you don't have to. Some folks are naturally minimalists. They might not even have garbage to take out for them - the need for materia just doesn't exist for them.
A few folks, like me, live in a liminal space between holding on tight, which we learned from immigrant grandparents, and letting go almost too much because of the way stuff has been used to hold on to us.
Declutter as a Spiritual Banishing Practice
Over the years, I've found decluttering practices highly beneficial. I recommend removing stuff you haven't used in years. As a witch of a few decades, I have one strong spiritual reason for attempting (if not succeeding) at routine decluttering:
Spells and energy-sendings work better in uncrowded and low-clutter spaces.
Yes, spells can work while you mutter your incantations in piles of clutter. But you may have to invest more energy, and you may need to repeat the spell more often just because you have to push that energy past the clutter.
Also, removing items - even those with "sunk cost" leads to more money finding its way to my home.
By making more space to breathe on the physical level, I give myself breathing room on the financial-energy level. I haven't studied the Law of Attraction enough to say whether I'd buy into it. Still, as I give away items that other people claim, the money for it finds me even when I give those items away for free. I often keep that exchange dynamic in mind as I sort through what to keep and let go.
When to Declutter
Decluttering happens at the beginning and end of every room, as well as cleaning and cleansing.
We will talk about it in depth here because we're looking at the now year-long spring clean. But it's also part of a bimonthly or monthly house cleanse practice. Most small-scale house cleansings still require walking through your house. If you're wafting smoke from burning herbs as you go, the last thing you need is to trip and light up a curtain.
For that alone, it's in your best interests to declutter or to at least have one or two baskets to hold items in the short term. (Baskets are valuable to people with long-term chronic illness. Sometimes, all you can do is contain the mess, but by containing it, you still give yourself the relief of relative spaciousness.)
Note: The process of letting go of items can bring up deep-seated wounds for some. If you're struggling to let go or love someone struggling in such a way, you may find it worthwhile to seek support.
About Deep Decluttering
US Americans get a lot of flak for our acquisitiveness. We don't have space in the series to discuss the historic and cultural reasons we wind up with a lot of stuff or how it connects to the traumas of our immigrant and more recent ancestors. Trust that there are reasons related to World War II and the Depression combined with a massive land mass, pieces of historic trauma that show up down generations.
Throughout this series, decluttering will regularly address the space and spirit of a room and home. Every new space we address begins with "declutter." It ends with, "Is there anything else that no longer suits your life and the space?"
I recommend a once-a-year sort-and-banish for every room, closet, vehicle, and data collection you have. Decluttering is the activity that will raise the most resistance.
Every item we acquire has a story, an attachment, an intention (often unfulfilled), or someone who gave it to us. Often, those stories crowd out the actual use of the item. That may be why it's also easier to pack up for a friend who's moving than it is to pack up our belongings when we move.
Also, because many of us grew up as "latchkey" kids, we didn't necessarily learn how to declutter or clean. Our parents didn't have time. In some cases, they hired out that work. Often, beyond a bare minimum of cleaned dishes and laundry, they just didn't do it.
At the same time, many of us were raised watching TV shows where everything was completely tidy and dust-free at all times. We had no idea a thirty-person crew made that clean happen every week. Meanwhile, we'd hear our grandparents and parents gossiping about their neighbors' cleanliness or lack thereof. "She only ever vacuumed in the tracks that people walked through all the time, never the corners!"
In my case, I had to unlearn nearly everything I was taught about cleaning practices, relearn them in judgment-free ways, and updated to my allergies and sensitivities. Along with all the other mental burdens that come with being large-bodied and femme in a family that prided itself on conventional attractiveness, I had layers of cleaning guilt. I still have enormous amounts of shadow work I need to do around cleaning to shift my mindset from something I dread to something I do for self-care.
How Niecy Nash Helped Me Heal My Declutter Trauma
When I get caught up in my "cleaning as punishment" trauma, I remind myself I am giving myself the gift of breathable space, items found and replaced quickly, and a chance to see daily beauty.
Not all shadow work has to suck, and yes, watching TV intentionally can count as helping yourself work through the shadows.
Niecy Nash helped me face my shadows and traumas while cleaning.
Clean House. The show originally aired on the Style Network, which featured a crew of comedians, such as Niecy Nash, helping families in the LA area reclaim their homes from various life pileups. The show brought in lower-middle-class people with tight budgets and showed me how to rethink a home by how you want to live in that space. Other bougier shows have since aired. While they have their charms (and Marie Kondo's animistic approach parallels my spiritual practices), there was humor and charm to Clean House that spoke to me and made me look at my home and think, "Ok, I can do this!"
The next eye-opener to what was possible with my space came from a New York City public-access show run by a drag queen that goes by Brini Maxwell. She demonstrated all sorts of ways to repurpose old items, all with a wink and a smile. You can find her YouTube channel here.
Other shows that might help you find declutter inspiration:
I'm not just citing the show because of its popularity in 2019, which led to the most glorious thrift store glut ever. Marie Kondo was formerly a Shinto priestess. She brings her animistic practice into the show, telling people to thank what no longer serves them and respectfully move those items on. Shifting from a sense of object ownership to a sense of item conservatorship is powerful and freeing.
While I didn't find the Home Edit quite as touching as Clean House and Tidying Up, it does have a certain aesthetic appeal. You need not buy all the products the show promotes, but you can take note of some options for organizing your space (if organizing is what works for you.) Neurodivergent folks, you do organize, but it doesn't always look that way to those of us with more linear neurology.
High, Low, and Middling Energy Decluttering Approaches
Sorting through our collection of stuff can take a massive amount of energy or only a little. The volume of items is not necessarily connected to how much energy it takes to do the job or why. Your headspace, life interruptions, and other people's opinions can all create a drag or a boost, depending on who you're working with. Emotions and stories connected to items can add weight to the work.
Recommendation: If someone whose presence is often unhelpful offers to help, politely decline. Crazymakers love to derail decluttering and home cleanings.
As I've learned to do, every declutter requires a garbage bag and at least two boxes or baskets for sorting.
The garbage bag holds items to dispose of.
Box one is for items you want to keep.
Box two is for items you want to let go.
Because we get caught up in the stories we attach to items, I recommend an optional box three: items we aren't sure we want to eliminate.
In my case, there's sometimes a fourth box: items with metaphysical energy attached, and I may or may not know how that energy got there.
Low Energy Declutter
If you're struggling with low energy, I suggest the two-container process over three to seven days.
Once or twice a day, set a timer for one hour or whatever amount of time you believe you can sustain a cleanup. Put items that are definitely garbage in the garbage bag and items that are definitely not garbage in the basket. Repeat the process, one hour at a time, until you believe you've found all the garbage and all that you consider clutter in the basket.
Take out the garbage (or ask someone to take it out for you, if necessary.)
Next, get a second basket or box. Set a timer for however long you need until decision fatigue usually sets in. Sort out the "keep" from the "absolutely it needs to go pile." When you have gone through everything in the basket, bag the "must go" items and have someone take them to a thrift store or other donation drop.
If you're unsure where to take your material, a Google search of "where to drop used clothing items near me" will provide you with a list of resources. Add "places that pick up clothing and used items" if unable to drop off material yourself.
Over the next few weeks, go through the keep box and put one to five items away per night. Stop after the maximum of five. Repeat until the basket is empty.
Once the "keep" basket is emptied, go through the "maybe" basket, looking at one to three items a night. In round two, put items you decide not to keep in a box for donations. If you decide to keep them, find a place for those items.
After each step, open a window and burn a bay leaf with "cleanse this space" written on it, followed by a bay leaf that says "ward this space," or play a binaural cleansing and protection file. When in doubt, use technology to ease the work.
Mid-Energy Declutter
You have reasonable energy to clean an entire room and go through a standard eight-hour workday, grocery run, or child-wrangle. You have full energy to do one of these things, but not two. But you want to reclaim your space enough to do something with what you've got to work with after work.
Give yourself two hours a night, with a loose aim of three days per room. Set a one-hour timer and do the "garbage/keep/maybe/is this cursed?" sort. After the timer goes off, take a twenty- or thirty-minute break from the room. That break is necessary to combat decision fatigue.
Set a one-hour timer, repeat the process, and then stop. Do not work more than two hours daily or night on the cleanup process.
When ready, remove what you can remove.
Follow the low-energy process above, and when sorting and putting items away, set a thirty-minute to one-hour timer, depending on your time commitment to the project.
Ideally, by the end of a week (sometimes two), you will have donated items to a charity, put away items you wanted to keep, and made decisions a little at a time about your "maybe" basket.
High Energy
A high-energy person likely has less stuff or is blessed with enough physical and mental health to complete a lot in a day or two. Or, like me, anxiety is in the driver's seat, and that's almost like having the energy.
I recommend engaging in the "trash/keep/maybe/is this cursed?" sort at a rate of one room per day. During the healthier times, I often got rid of items I regretted if I tried to do a whole apartment, house, or trailer simultaneously.
Also, unless you're okay with the charities with drop boxes next to the Dairy Queen, you must wait until thrift stores are open to drop off donations. Go dance while watching some Tasmanian Devil Loony Tunes until you're tired enough to rest.
A Ritual to Cut Ties Before Donating Objects
The Spirited Witch is a spiritually centered publication, meaning spiritual impact is a factor somewhere. One of the spiritual impacts we sometimes forget about is our energy and emotional imprints lingering on items we used to know. For reasons of spiritual security and kindness to strangers, performing some small energy severance on what you give away is a helpful practice.
When I teach relationship cut-and-clears, I tell people they need to tie a string around their wrists and cut one at a time for each relationship severed. At least for US Americans, where mass production has led to mass stuff, such an approach is highly impractical.
The animistic way to end ties with items you're moving on is to simply thank the item and let it know you're moving on to the next phase of its life.
If you need/want more ritual, I recommend what follows.
A basket holding all your stuff, music, and a hand-held broom should do the job.
Set up sacred space however you see fit - cast a circle, ask angels to stand in the corners, and invite your ancestors to hold the space. Do what works for you. Put on a goodbye song. If it's emotionally complicated, Gotye is always good. If it's just a "hey, good times, but you gotta go," Happy Trails is a classic.
Open a window or crack a door to allow any energy or spirits inhabiting the objects (in addition to the spirit of the object itself) to move on.
Sweep the broom symbolically across the stuff you're donating or giving away.
A spoken spell for separating from your stuff:
"Here are some things I had, in good times and bad
Now our times are done, and so are the pain and fun -
With the broom, I sweep off ties; the little strands of attachment's binds
Goodbye miasma, goodbye to burdens,
Go on, free from me, to find the places you're perfect!"
Behind the Paywall is the procedure for items in the "Is this cursed?" basket and a video on using a pendulum to determine whether an item is cursed.
The video and procedures from this posting are also available on The Spirited Witch Patreon and may be purchased a la carte.
Creation Time: 7 hours
Consumption Time: 45 minutes - 90 minutes
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