Black Bag, White Space

During the month of February I spent a great deal of reflective time in my space.  It was cleaned up, organized and generally ready for the public.  This makes me happy and really opened up space for me to evaluate the "stuff".

I hate cleaning the bathroom.  Loathe it on a cellular level.  Admittedly, I make a mess in the bathroom.  Between the shampoos, conditioners, leave in treatments, face scrubs, face washes,  and soaps of the bar and gel sort in the shower, to the hair stuff, face stuff, make-up stuff around the sink...there is a lot of mess to be made in there!  Oh, and then it all gets glued down with just a touch of hair spray!   And the hair that gathers sends any dust bunny courageous enough the wander into the bathroom running for fear!   It is and can be THAT bad if left alone for too long!
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The window sill has been loaded with stuff since I moved into this place in November 2006.  Hell, my bathroom has been loaded for years before this!  Let's be honest.  Friends would come over and comment on the options in my bathroom or how they might go shopping in there.  Yeah, there was plenty to choose from for sure.

The root question is not why so much stuff but rather why do I feel the need to have that much stuff around me in the bathroom?  The smallest room in my house has the largest ratio of stuff to space.  Seriously.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, I arrived at the bathroom with black trash bag in hand and a sense of wonder about having white space in there.  I scooped almost empty bottles off the window ledge, out of the corner of the tub and off the shower door rail.  Oh! MY! Then I turned and faced the shelves above the toilet.

Moving bottles.  Running my fingers over them.  Putting them to my nose to smell.  Then plopped them one by one into the black abyss.  The medicine cabinet got a pass since I really can tell you the handful of items in there and it gets cleaned often.  Below the sink and the drawer there were a whole other story!

Scoop!  Move!  Hmm...when did I...where did this...buh-bye!  Lotion from 2007!  Really!  Unopened, "free" make-up kits that were not my colors.  All slid into the bag.  Then I shut the door to see the shoe bag thingy turned catch-all for hair stuff.  Sigh.  Even that had been over-run with bottles and items that had not seen the light of day in who knows how long.  Plucking them one by one out of the pockets and dropping them into the bag gave me such a sense of relief.

Space Made!

In total that afternoon 52 items went into the black trash bag.  52! Yes, I was counting.  As I stopped and looked around the tiny room I realized that it was stocked.  Truthfully stocked with more than enough items. I lugged the bag towards the front door.  Proud.  Exhilarated.  ENOUGH!  I have enough, more than enough, in there.  I did.  I let the rest go.

As I lifted the lid to the trash can I realized I was not going to be able to throw the bag in with one arm.  I sat it there on the ground for all the neighbors to see and walked back up the stairs.  Good bye.

The door shut with it's normal thud and suddenly I was scared.  Scared that I would smell bad because I did not have enough soap or shampoo.  Scared that I would not have enough eye make-up for work.  Scared of the space I opened.  I sat with my fears.  I gently faced them, slowly laid them down with peace in my heart. I no longer needed them to rile me, fuel me, send me into chaos.  Really, truly let them go.  I had enough.

I had soap, shampoo, toilet paper and lotion.  I had enough.  I have enough.  And the fears along with the black bag have been laid to rest for the day.  For this year.  For my future, my life.

Enough.

What have you done to create space in your life?  How do you manage your stuff?  Does your stuff manage you?  What can you do today to make a little more space in your life for you?