Change is hard.

I was watching Oprah last night, and her show was about hoarding. This poor woman had a 3200 square foot home and enough stuff in her house to fill a 10,000 square foot warehouse. One of the psychological experts on the show said that people like to accumulate things because they don't want to let go of the past or move into new challenges with the future. Closets are the worst for hoarding because you can close the door and no one has to see what's really behind the door. Remember when we discovered Monica's secret closet?

I really took this show to heart, especially after remembering the chore it was to move Meme out of her old house. Another expert on the show said that most people become overwhelmed by the amount of clutter and don't know where to begin. Since closets are usually one of the first things you deal with in the morning, that overwhelming feeling stays with you all day and affects how you handle the rest of the day. Imagine if you feel overwhelmed within twenty minutes of waking up, then going to work where the feeling multiplies. It just doesn't go away.

So this morning, I decided it was time to de-clutter my life. And I started with my closet. My closet has been a source of problems for me over the last few years. I have this amazing walk in closet. The one gigantic problem is that the racks don't like to stay on the walls. And since I only have a small 4 drawer chest of drawers, I really don't have a lot places to put my clothes other than the closet. And apparently over the last four years, I have accumulated a ton of clothes. Well after five 30 gallon trash bags full of clothes, two paper boxes full of shoes, and two bags of trash later, I think I have uncluttered my closet. Yeah!