The closet, like the bathroom, is a deeply private space within the home. If the home is our inner world, then the closet is one of the deepest spaces within it. It’s where we hide our things and stash our most precious secrets.
Energetically speaking, there are many types of closets. Each one plays a slightly different role in storing life’s physical and digital ephemera. Any sort of cabinet, dresser, or storage unit can be considered a closet of sorts. Perhaps you currently have a handful of these spaces, perhaps your space has many of them. Types of closets include:
The Personal Closet (where we store our wardrobes)
The Linen Closet
The Coat Closet
The Fridge
The Pantry
The Computer
The Junk Drawer
The Basement
The Attic
The Garage
The closet is an often forgotten space. Hidden away behind closed doors, it is all too easy for mess, clutter, and excess to pile up within the closet. Even when the externally facing spaces are well tended to the closet can quickly become a dumping ground. It is where the miscellaneous pieces tend to hide. It is easy for things to slip through the cracks here because no one outside the home sees it.
Rarely do we store our most prized possessions in the closet. The closet is often reserved for our more painful and shadowy memories, experiences, and purchases. To put it bluntly, it’s often where we stash the physical pieces tied to the painful memories we would rather not see the light of day. As a result, the closet is often energetically dense and charged and full of skeletons.
While it can take what feels like a Herculean effort to clean out the closet, regularly emptying life’s physical closets enables us to sort through the proverbial ones. Sitting down and sifting through the contents of a closet, or even a single drawer brings our memories, propensities, and habits to the forefront of our minds. It is a task that jogs the memory, reminding us what we are carrying through life and providing the opportunity to let things go.
Neither objects nor tendencies were meant to be indefinitely carried through life. Cleaning out the closet allows us to assess how we are moving through the world and presents the opportunity to make a shift. The closet highlights our assets and reveals our shortcomings in a concrete and tangible way. It shows us where we may be carrying too much of one thing and not enough of another.
From an energetic design perspective, it’s important to include breathing room in the closet. It is beneficial to have extra space in all closets, including the phone, as it signals capability and capacity. Most of us are longing for more something in life and the closet is the perfect place to reinforce that desire. Empty hangers in the closet, shelves in the cabinet, and space in the drawers signal you are ready to receive and capable of handling more—whatever that means to you.
TO CONTEMPLATE:
When was the last time you deep-cleaned your closets? What did you uncover?
Is there a specific closet you feel compelled to dig into after reading this? What is hiding there?
How would it feel if another saw your closets right now? What would they see, and is there anything that feels particularly vulnerable?
Thoughts? Questions? Let me know. I’m always here to chat!
-MRD