Last Friday, I was delighted to speak at Turknett Leadership Group's Women in Leadership seminar series.

In my program, Your Change Management Plan: How Leaders Can Reduce Stress, Increase Positivism and Accomplish More, I shared the five CRAVE 

steps. 

When I spoke about cleaning out physical clutter, I posed this poignant question: "How much of your clothes in your closet today no longer fits your size, lifestyle and perhaps your era?" Everyone was silent and I could tell by the look in their eyes that I had struck a chord. 

When we passed the mic at the end of the program, many of the 70 or so women committed to cleaning out their closet that weekend. A participant followed up with me via email to say she cleaned out her shed that was storing clothing she and her daughter hadn't worn in years. "One of my co-workers is having a clothing drive for a women's organization that she founded," she wrote. "How timely is that?"

This made me think about why we tend to hold onto clothing and other items even though we know they no longer serve us. It reminded me of advice I read in one of my favorite books on conscious living, Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy. In it, author Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote, "Cleaning out closets and dresser drawers is daunting to contemplate (all that money, all those bad choices) and hard work once you're at it. But few things are as satisfying as bringing order to a closet in which chaos once reigned."