Nature abhors a vacuum after clearing clutter is done.
Clearing Clutter for More Space
The combination of daily gratitude and clearing clutter in my household probably wouldn’t seem like it would lead to an amazing life changing event. I found it to be just that in my life. In December of 1998, I had an intuitive urge to start clearing clutter out of our home. We needed more space for our growing family.
Around the same time, I was introduced to the idea of keeping a daily gratitude journal. I was thinking about what goals I would make for the following year. I committed to clearing all the clutter out of our home. One drawer, one closet, and one room at a time, and keeping a daily gratitude journal. In January of 1999, I began my journey.
Staying True to My Commitment of Clearing Clutter and Gratitude
I was raising our family of four children and working in our plumbing business.All of our lives were busy, but in between I found time to work on clearing out the unused. I donated it to charity or I disposed of it. I was truly committed to creating more space. Our children were growing and so were their friends; holding on to the unused just didn’t fit in anymore. I was diligent and completed my goal of clearing the following December.
I kept true to my gratitude journal during that year as well. Even though I was tired, I still wrote down my five things that I was thankful for. I felt truly grateful for all the blessings in my life, for our home, family, health, and our work. Our home felt much lighter without all the clutter, I felt lighter and joyful.
Dreaming About New Goals
One morning in March, I awoke in a state of reflection. I was quietly contemplating that it was time to find an investment property. I decided that my course of action for the day would be to go look at some open houses. I visited two houses, didn’t see anything that called to me. I drove home and picked up my son to help me do grocery shopping. On the way to the store, I decided to just ride through a neighborhood again where I had been earlier. We happened to come across a house for sale by owner. We stopped, took a flyer, admired the front closely,and drove around to see the back yard.
Into Action
We took the flyer home after shopping and showed it to my former husband. The house was out of our price range for an investment property. Although, the house would be a great house for our growing family. The response I received was, “No, I won’t even look over there, I don’t want to live in that area.” I didn’t push it, I just kept the flyer, hung it in my office where I looked at it each day. After about a week, I called my realtor and requested a showing because I had a feeling about it. The owner did not return her call.
The next day, I called the owner directly and asked to see the house. I could see it on Saturday afternoon, when he would be there doing repairs. I loaded all the kids in the car, went out to the ballpark. As I approached my former husband, I said, “Would you like to come with us to see a house?” “A house?” he frowned. “We’re just going to look at it. Our realtor will meet us there.” “Well then, I’d better go,” he said.
Our tour of the house went well, the layout was exactly what we wanted in a home. The features that we liked were a big back yard, a fireplace, a front porch, big bedrooms, parks, trails. .Everyone in our family loved it.
Going for our Dream
We went home and had a family meeting. We agreed we should make an offer contingent upon the sale of our house. Our offer was accepted. When I received the news I felt ill, an obvious sign that this was a big goal for me. I had to choose between being in total fear, or going ahead on faith.
Within our contract time zone, our house did not sell. We had to either create other financing options or not go through with the sale of the house. I felt that if this was meant to be, we would find a buyer, it would work out. We let the contract expire. At the same time we lowered the price of our home. We buried a St. Joseph in the back yard and gave it up to God.
About a week later it was a rainy Saturday all day. None of the properties listed with our realtor had any showings scheduled; our house had four showings scheduled that day. A cash buyer appeared which meant we wouldn’t need to wait for financing approval. We accepted their offer. Our realtor called the owner of the house we wanted and told them we could buy the house now. We would be able to close in two weeks.
A New Normal
Our move was very smooth, we were packed and moved at the end of those two weeks. We didn’t have all the clutter to deal with and sort, we simply just took our things and started over. Within four months of our purchase, a brand new mall opened up close to this neighborhood. The properties on our street went up in price. If we had waited any longer we would have been priced out of our neighborhood.
Not only did we have more space for our growing family, but an investment property as well. I never dreamed that all of this would come about by simply clearing clutter and expressing gratitude.