SpaceClear Reflections

Making Friends with Food & Eating (= Clearing)

Posted on17. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“It’s the desire—not its fulfillment—that nourishes you, because it’s the language of your heart. When you listen to that language, you hear your self.”–Geneen Roth
If you saw my little One-Minute Clearing video clip, you might recall my saying this:
“Here’s the thing about clearing: It is really not about the “doing” at all. It is [...]

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When Clutter is Too Much to Handle

Posted on10. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I received this note from a friend on Facebook the other day:
“What do you charge to come out and HELP!!!??? I don’t even have time to read your book (which I DID buy) or the blog. And to that the 30 boxes I moved in of my dad’s crap and I am drowing in it!!!!”
My [...]

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Praise for Your Spacious Self

Posted on06. Aug, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

I love pleasant surprises.  I got a really nice one the other day in the form of an unsolicited review for my book.
This one is by someone named Austin S. on Goodreads. I don’t know who Austin is, but I’m grateful for the time he took to write about my book, and what it has [...]

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Managing the Mountain of Mail (or Whatever Burdens You)

Posted on30. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Another good question came the other day:
I am following your practice of clearing one item each day. My question for you is what about the stuff that comes into your home- like mail? I can never seem to get through it and it piles up – then if I clear only one thing, a [...]

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Self-Storage or Storage of Self?

Posted on23. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Dan Pink, best-selling author of A Whole New Mind, confirmed this staggering statistic I’d heard some years ago as part of my research for Your Spacious Self:
“The self-storage industry is bigger than McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s combined.”*
Ouch.
Whether this fact is still true or not (I wouldn’t be surprised if it were), it still shocks me.
Then [...]

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Airing Out The Heirlooms

Posted on20. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Just read a terrific New York Times article about the effect heirlooms have on on our lives entitled “How to Lose a Legacy” by Ellen Lupton. Humorous, colorful, timely – this article does a good job of naming the behaviors and beliefs that keep us holding on to dusty relics of our past.
Some of my favorite lines:

An [...]

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One-Minute Clearing Practice

Posted on16. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

Try this experiment: Watch the 3-minute video below and see if adopting a simple daily practice in home tending doesn’t help bring new energy into your home and  life.
Even better: Set an intention before you begin your one-minute practice and repeat the exercise every day for a week. See if it doesn’t lead to creating new openings in [...]

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Clearing the Residue of Previous Occupants

Posted on06. Jul, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

How many times have you gone into a big warehouse store feeling just fine and come out totally depleted? Or, maybe you’re standing in the checkout line of your supermarket and suddenly feel a wave of emotion, like depression, worry about money, anxiety—something you weren’t feeling before? Perhaps you walk into a room and feel [...]

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Living the Answers

Posted on25. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This is the last in a series of posts on reinventing ourselves,* excerpted from Your Spacious Self. Enjoy!
Quitting the career and job that defined me for two decades detailed in the last three posts* led to a long period of fumbling in a foggy netherworld I call not knowing. I still find myself visiting that [...]

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Connecting the Dots

Posted on21. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This post is the continuation of a series on reinventing ourselves. It follows this last one: “Making Friends with Not-Knowing.” **  Enjoy this excerpt from Your Spacious Self: Clear Your Clutter and Discover Who You Are:
Just days after this big moment of clarity, a book about clearing spaces was delivered un-beckoned to my front door [...]

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Making Friends with Not-Knowing

Posted on18. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This is the continuation of my previous post: “Stepping Out of Comfort into Not-Knowing,”  which tells the story of how and why I quit a successful teaching career of twenty years – on purpose.
What happened next? In today’s post I share the goodies that could only be revealed to me by hanging out in the [...]

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Stepping Out of Comfort into Not-Knowing

Posted on14. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“There is a grief that occurs when who you thought you were begins to disappear.” – Ram Dass
As I prepare to pitch my book and my message to the folks sponsoring the Next Top Spiritual Author contest, I’m being reminded of the moment my life took a radical turn that led to my becoming an [...]

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Coming Clear: Confessions of a Packrat

Posted on11. May, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“I want to shed my waste with quiet reverence like the pine…
Keep me mindful of what I take into my home, the items brought to substitute
for real living…Help me slowly to surrender all excess.”
–Gunilla Norris, Being Home
I’m a packrat.
There, I said it.
Yes, squirreled away in the dark recesses of my house I still have boxes [...]

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Gathering Your Clearing Mojo

Posted on23. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

What needs gathering in your home or life that you can do in one minute or less?
My spring newsletter might inspire you.  The theme this quarter is about “gathering” – as in loose ends, all those papers cluttering up your desk, the clothes that you no longer need or love…
Gathering steam… gathering your self.
Click [...]

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Extreme Clearing vs. The Slow-Drip Effect

Posted on02. Apr, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“Change happens slowly, then all at once.” – Unknown
Thanks to Mother Nature and major flooding in our area, we got a head start clearing the junk in our basement this year. Not easy. Not pretty. Not ideal. This form of “extreme clearing” is not worth waiting (or hoping) for. It’s too consuming and jangly.
I favor the [...]

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The Grace in Gathering

Posted on30. Mar, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” – Anne Lamott
It’s springtime: A return to my rituals of gathering.
Gathering clothes I no longer love (or can wear) to take to the Goodwill. Gathering and tossing the growing [...]

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Different Faces of Clutter

Posted on26. Feb, 2010 by Stephanie Bennett Vogt.

This is Message #2 from my free thirty-day email message series. Enjoy!

As I see it, clutter comes in many forms and has many faces.

There’s the physical stuff, of course: The junk that spills out of the closet and the piles that we wade through every day just to get out of the door. It’s the stuff [...]

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