On Monday night, I found myself stepping over an empty gift bag and a wicker basket just to get to the bathroom.
The entryway to my apartment had inadvertently become a chaotic purgatory for purses getting switched out for date nights, rogue piles of shoes, and packages I meant to ship months ago.
Clutter seems harmless, like an inevitable side effect of a busy, creative life. But instead of addressing it, I’d just been navigating around it.
Cluttered entryways, piles of half-finished projects, things you plan to “deal with later…” take up a lot of space—not just in your home, but primarily in your mind.
We hold onto things long past their usefulness, convincing ourselves we’ll get to them eventually. But clutter doesn’t just sit there.
It blocks flow.
It clogs up energy.
It makes your environment feel heavy.
If you’re just tuning in, I’m on week 4 of The Brilliance Experiment — 52 weeks of tiny, life-changing experiments to reignite the spark you lost when life got hard.
On week 1, I challenged myself to wear more color.
On week 2, I challenged myself to leave the house every day with intention and purpose.
On week 3, I challenged myself to read every day.
During week 4, I challenged myself to clear the entryway of my home. This was a deceptively simple challenge that ended up feeling like I was playing a game of life-sized Tetris where all the pieces had mild emotional baggage.
I knew this experiment wasn’t just about tidying up. It was about creating space—space for movement, for fresh energy, for something new to enter, because when we clear even one small area of our lives, we open the energetic door for something else to come in.
Feng Shui, ADHD, and the Art of Avoidance
On the surface, this experiment might seem random and weird. But according to the ancient Chinese practice of Feng Shui, the entryway is known as the “mouth of chi,” the place where life-force energy enters your home.
If your entryway is cluttered, energy gets stuck before it even has a chance to flow through your space.
That checks out. My life has definitely felt stuck, which is a primary motivation for committing to these 52 weeks of tiny experiments to feel more alive.
Of course, knowing all this did not make the task easier. My ADHD managed to take this “simple” experiment and blow it up into a multi-layered existential crisis.
Instead of “clear the entryway,” I saw:
Find a permanent home for all these goddamn the purses
Why the hell do you have all these hats?
Why you have 4 pairs of slippers and 12 pairs if shoes you haven’t worn in at least two years?
What are you going to do with this stack of art that represents at least a decade of your creative experimentation (some of which is ugly asf?)
This “simple” challenge was calling me to confront the deeper emotional truth that I have a hard time letting things go!!!! So, naturally, I didn’t do anything for the first 4 days. I thought about it! Quite a lot, actually. I just couldn’t bring myself to begin.
By Thursday, I was starting to stress myself out, leaving this task till the end of the week. I wrote in the Brilliance Experiment group chat on Substack that I was struggling. Declaring it out loud made it real, and suddenly, I had no excuse not to start. Tricia chimed in that she had done a bit of tidying herself that day and checked up on how it was going. It really does take a village.
The cosmic Rubik’s Cube of change
I tackled the most chaotic part first. Behind the doorway, I accumulated a pile of art I’ve made over the years, dog accessories, and a completely unusable meditation cushion I covered in fabric I got in Peru. There was a lot of emotional attachment lurking behind that door…!
But the moment I cleared it away, discarded what I could and found new homes for what I kept, something shifted. Where there was once a dense, heavy energy of attachment, it now felt light and airy, like my eyes could exhale.
For the next few days, every time I walked by that cleared away corner, I felt relief. Why had I lived with that clutter for so long?
And yet, when you first create empty space, there can be something deeply unsettling about it—especially if, like me, you have residual hoarding tendencies from childhood. Empty spaces can feel wrong, like they need to be filled, like something is missing.
But empty space isn’t lack. It’s openness, potential, and abundance.
If you can’t feel relaxed in a clean and tidy room, try confronting your feelings of anxiety… When your room is clean and uncluttered, you have no choice but to examine your inner state. - Marie Kondo, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
A few days later, I went in deeper. Reorganizing the coat closet, finding better homes for the hats, the bags, the four pairs of slippers.
I am pleased to report that there is now a slight echo in my tiny entryway, and I feel light as a goddamn feather about it. I am so happy I gave myself this gift this week.
Letting your energy move freely
We get emotionally attached to things, even when they’re literally in our way. We hold onto stuff we don’t need, step over it, tell ourselves we’ll “deal with it later.”
But clutter—physical and emotional—blocks flow.
Clearing my entryway wasn’t just about aesthetics (although that certainly helped.) It was about creating space for energy to move and flow more freely, the same way an uncluttered mind lets inspiration move more freely and abundantly.
So, if you also find yourself with and entryway (or desk, or closet, or entire home) that has turned into a dumping ground for things you’ll “deal with later,” consider this your sign to begin letting things go.
You might just make room for something unexpected and wonderful to flow through that empty space.
Here are some Feng Shui tips to create a more inviting entryway:
Keep shoes out of sight—storing them by the door symbolizes instability, like you’re always ready to leave (oops, mega guilty of this one)
Use a console table with drawers for keys, bags, and small items.
Keep pathways clear so energy can move freely in and out of your home.
Most importantly: stop stepping over things and navigating around your clutter! You deserve a clear and functional space.
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