After a recent inconvenient infestation of grain moths and the subsequent purging of my pantry, I was poised to sit down and write about cleaning the refrigerator and sorting through your kitchen cupboards in order to save you from the perils of such. Then my beloved little dog, Rosie, died unexpectedly. All of a sudden, the expiration dates on those soup cans didn’t seem quite so important.

Don’t get me wrong… I don’t mean to denigrate the work I do or the overall importance of clearing clutter from your life. I sincerely believe that our lives work better when we keep the emotional, psychic, and physical clutter to a minimum. But, ultimately, having a perfect pantry isn’t really the the goal. That is simply a means to an end. After all, the true aim of clutter clearing is to live in the moment with appreciation for what really matters… our friends, family, pets… ourselves.

When clients ask me how to decide what to keep or what to throw away, I always refer to professional organizer, Karen Kingston’s Clutter Test (Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui).

1. Does it lift your energy?

2. Do I absolutely love it?

3. Is it genuinely useful?

In order to justify keeping something (or someone) in your life, you should be able to apply at least one of these criteria to it. For example, Rosie hit high marks in all three areas – she always lifted my spirits, I absolutely loved her and, when it came to keeping burglars at bay, she was genuinely useful with her incessant barking! By any standard, she was a definite keeper.

I’m not exactly sure where I am going with this, except to say that regardless of where we are in our quest for a clutter free life, what’s really important is to remember what’s really important. If we don’t throw something out that we should have, the worst thing that happens is that it takes up a little extra space on our shelf. And if we inadvertently throw something out that we should have kept, the worst thing is that we either replace it or mourn it’s loss and eventually move on.

Either way, to borrow a phrase from my teenage son’s lexicon, it’s all good. None of it should keep us from living in the moment and appreciating the people (or pets)  in our lives that make our hearts sing and and  our spirits soar. Rosie may not be here in body anymore, but I have beautiful memories of her that will always bring a smile to my face and a tear to my eye. And that’s what’s important… really.

Next week, I’ll tackle the not so important but necessary task of cleaning the refrigerator and purging the pantry. In the meantime, hug your kid, dog, hamster, mom, neighbor, friend, or even your enemy. It’s the best kind of clutter clearing there is!