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Clearing the clutter will clear your mind

Window-opening weather is upon us, and perhaps with it, the temptation to clean out closets and winnow what once seemed so necessary.

Window-opening weather is upon us, and perhaps with it, the temptation to clean out closets and winnow what once seemed so necessary.

Do so, and you may end up with something else that feels especially cleared:

Your mind.

"I feel liberated," says Joyce Kelly, a Dallas real estate agent who began simplifying her life a decade ago. For the last three years, she has lived in an apartment with minimal furnishings and nothing on the walls.

"It's easier to quiet your mind. That results in a calmness of self and inner peace."

In the big house where she once lived, plenty of photos hung on the walls; an abundance of furniture filled the rooms. When she owned a furniture store, she remembers standing in the homes of clients, looking at all that filled their rooms, and thinking, "Who has to dust this?"

That, as well as a divorce, started her decluttering ball rolling. A diagnosis of a degenerative nerve disease four years ago further strengthened her resolve; she doesn't want her children to one day have to go through a lifetime of her accumulations, she says.

Now, her furnishings consist of a bed, a dresser, a table for her computer, cooking equipment, triathlon training paraphernalia, two sewing machines, and a chess set.

"I feel liberated, I do," says Kelly. "I feel light. I'm a 56-year-old living like a runaway 16-year-old."

Dallas organizational expert Amy Zepeda doesn't encourage her clients to take austerity quite so far. But she believes most would be a lot more comfortable in their homes if they'd at least pare down.

"Mentally what happens is that you get rid of clutter you see, which also helps you get rid of clutter you can't see, which is in your subconscious," she says.

Often people call her and say they're unable to relax in their homes. When she visits, she understands why: Every flat surface is covered with piles of some sort.

"People are coming from a highly structured environment - work - into an unstructured environment," Zepeda says. "Instead of being able to relax, they feel they have to be doing something: 'I have to file papers, do the dishes, put the kids' notebooks away.' They end up doing nothing because they don't want to think about it."

Seeing each item leads to a mental to-do list, says Denise Park, codirector and founder of the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas.

"Every object, every clutter, every piece of information will pique your attention," Park says. "It's a cue; everything is connected to something else."

Zepeda's clients often want to start clearing out the biggest things first, which they assume will be the most satisfying approach. She reins them in. Starting small helps people not be overwhelmed, and they'll see immediate results, she says. The process is slow but more rewarding, she says.

"Think about all the things renting space in your head that aren't allowing your creativity, your productivity, your quality time with yourself or your partner or your family," Zepeda says. "You're not giving space to things that really count in life because all these other things are occupying your space."

Even if you box something up and shove it into a closet, it's still there, she says.

"Keep in mind you're still tied to it. You're letting it rent a place in your head."

Dallas psychologist and health coach Lori Shemek agrees with the connection between physical and emotional clutter. Mental thoughts and feelings, she says, "reflect themselves in our physical environment." But she advocates a mental cleaning first.

"The things we think about spill over into every area of our lives," she says. "I like to tell people to spend some good time every day trying to reduce mental clutter and they will have energy to move and to literally rid clutter from their environment."

Take a walk, she suggests. Do yoga. Soak in a hot bath. Call a friend. Pet your dog.

If negative thoughts sneak in, "reach for a better thought immediately," she says. "It will become a habit and that's the key to this, really. The receptors in our brain really respond to input we give them that's repeated over and over and over."

Then, she says, "declutter your physical environment. You'll have energy, focus, motivation to create a better change for yourself."