Well, I hope playing rock music met the negative chi of your messy closet or basement head-on ! Today, we’re going to be more assertive with these disaster areas, but we’ll fall just short of disassembling them. This is gentle work, best done in the given sequence. Let’s take a deep breath and begin.

1. Bring a tall standing lamp over to your troubled basement or closet. Take care that you keep your mess illuminated without setting your home on fire.

2. If you have any bells in the house–musical bell toys, or bells like this–shake them in the vicinity of your well lit mess. Or, grab a kitchen pan and wooden spoon and bang away for a good fifteen minutes. This will make the mess think, “Hmmm. Something’s definitely different.”

3. As you ring and bang, enjoying all the new light and noise you are shedding on your situation, visualize how you want this area to look. Aim high. Think Pottery Barn or The Container Store.

4. Grab a ladder and hang a windchime or large crystal above your awakening chaos. Here are some nice ones.

5. As you prepare to quit for the day, pray (in whatever way you feel comfortable) for the strength to clear out all the objects you don’t need.

6. Avoid drowning yourself in ice cream or other comforting carbohydrates. Come on, you can do this.

7. Check out your local flea market for attractive storage containers and baskets to house the parts of the mess you’re keeping. Buy biodegradable garbage bags for whatever you decide to toss and can’t give away or recycle.

8. Peek in at the mess. Repeat prayers and visualizations.

Monday: Arm-wrestling the clutter devil!