Just finished facilitating an eight week Clearing Clutter Support Group a week ago today. This group was the highlight of my week as individuals shared their stories, successes, challenges and their humour week after week. This group is a mix of clients from WOTCH Community Mental Health Services and individuals from the community.
This group is free to participants and is a great opportunity to work on issues around clutter and hoarding in a supportive environment. This group is very participatory and it always amazes me how people feel comfortable right away and are able to share their stories and also be supportive of others where they are on their journey.
At the end of each week during checkout we asked everyone “how are you feeling ” as this work is intense and it can bring up all kinds of emotions. We also asked participants to make a commitment for the week, something to work on that is challenging. Usually, this is an area that you might notice that causes you a lot of stress. This was a huge success and participants worked on things like cleaning up the sofa so they would have a place to sit, cleaning up in front of the computer in order to get to it, selling stuff on kijijji, getting items out to the curb for pickup, cleaning up the paper and garbage, going through clothing and donating it, organizing concert tickets which had been saved for a lifetime, etc. This is the best kind of homework because it really brings an awareness to the challenges and the emotions that are connected to doing this work.
It was so inspiring to hear about each person’s progress and success over the week and for all of us to be able to share in those successes. There was even some “show and tell” which was pretty awesome. The participant who organized the concert tickets brought them in all organized in a binder and another participant brought in samples of her collection of “sheep” which she had decided to change her mindset about. They had originally caused her some angst but she changed her relationship to them and decided she would love them instead of being stressed about them. Respecting what you have can make a world of difference in knowing what you want and what you don’t want.
What can you work on this week that is challenging for you? What is it that you procrastinate about
