Kitchen Week: Clearing the Counters

"When we learn to accept the whole of our experience--the fact that situations simply will not run to plan at times, but have their own will--we begin to dance with life." Shefali Tsabary, PhD

Right now I am reading a book called The Conscious Parent that teaches us to "sit with" our emotions rather than distract ourselves from what we are feeling. Once we are able to embrace all of our feelings, the feelings no longer overwhelm us. 

I believe that clutter is one of the ways that we distract ourselves from what we are really feeling. By covering every surface with stuff we either have a mess that we then need to clean up or we beat ourselves up for not being perfectly organized. Of course, neither is really all that important in the grand scheme of our lives. But it takes our attention off whatever is really going on.

Cluttered countertops become an outward sign of the clutter in our minds. We can't make a decision about where to put the special commemorative cup that doesn't fit in with the rest of our dishes so it sits awkwardly on the counter. We can't figure out when we'll fit going to the post office to mail that package into our busy schedules so it sits, day after day, on the counter. Then we try to cook dinner or wipe the counters down after a meal, and we have to move those things. Again & again. A constant reminder that we didn't do whatever it was we were supposed to do. Failure. What a serious bummer, no??

Becoming Minimalist suggests radically clearing your kitchen counters to gain peace, and I think they make a good point. 

Clover Lane

Check out the kitchen above. This woman has six children! Ranging in age from nine months to a freshman in college home for the summer, this is one busy house! Yet Sarah maintains this level of organization and in turn exudes calmness straight through my computer screen every day. I can only imagine how great it would be to actually live there.

Currently in our kitchen we have a great many things on our counters, and it looks constantly messy. I'll give this "absolute zero" a whirl and let you know how it comes out. Now I'm off to the post office to mail that darn package finally!