You may be in the habit of keeping things in your home without really giving much thought as to why you are keeping them. What would your life be like if you could get out of this habit?

I recently worked with a client in his home office who is a writer. As he described the items in his office, I was getting the impression that the items he was surrounding himself with were more of a comfort than they were useful. He had books he had read and would never read again, many books he wanted to read that he admitted he would never get to, papers he had written and the notes that were used to create them.

When I asked, “Where are the things you need to do the writing you still want to accomplish?” he buried his head in his hands and said, “Somewhere in here, everything is mixed together.”

He was frustrated and worried because he knew he was getting older and only had so many productive years left to accomplish the writing projects that were important to him. So I said, “I can see that most of the items in your office are a distraction and are actually keeping you from reaching your goals. If you had the perfect office needed for your creativity what would it be like?” He said, “I would build a shack in my backyard and I would only keep the things I need to finish my writing in there. I would eliminate all of those things that are keeping me from being creative and passionate about my writing.”

Realistically he was never going to build an actual shack in his backyard. I said, “Since you can’t build a real shack, what is keeping you from creating that very same shack right here in this space?” The thought had never occurred to him that the space he was working out of could become the ideal space for his writing.

As we worked through his belongings purging what he didn’t need for his current writing projects he would sometimes have a hard time deciding if he should let go of an item. When that occurred I said, “If you had built the shack in your backyard would you carry that item out there?” More often than not, he said he wouldn’t want to clutter the shack with the item. He was now able to answer his own question as to whether or not to keep the item in question.

Look around your home and start keeping those items that help you reach your goals. If they aren’t helping you reach your goals than they’re probably keeping you from reaching them. You can create your very own shack filled with those items that are important to you in the life you are living now, if you are willing to let go of the habit of keeping things.