Calling Our Lady Of Perpetual Decluttering To The Rescue

I need her help, and I need it now!

After all, that’s what artist Janice Taylor did back in 2006.

After several unsuccessful attempts at losing weight, she created the iconic, Madonna-esque Our Lady of Perpetual Weight Loss to encourage her successes and forgive her slip-ups.

With Our Lady’s encouragement, Janice turned losing fifty pounds into an art project. Our Lady kept her busy making art and writing instead of chowing down on crispy creams or large goey pizzas.

Janice’s writing became a book chock full of crafty how-to’s and weight loss tips, Our Lady of Weight Loss. Her craft projects are fun and doable in a retro kitschy way. Like turning a box of mac ’n’ cheese into a miniature shrine. And best of all, they worked! She’s kept the weight off and written a sequel, All is Forgiven, Move On.

The book’s on my reading list for 2024.

To inspire me to get serious about dealing with my messy abode, I’ve created my own inspirational icon, Our Lady of Perpetual Decluttering. She’s encouraging me to turn my desperate need to clean and declutter into a philanthropic art project.

Why Philanthropic?

I say philanthropic because much of what I need to do is get rid of stuff. Lots of stuff. If nothing else, so I can actually see the carpet to clean it.

Being ecologically minded, Our Lady warns me against adding to the local landfills. Not when I have things others can use. Like clothes, books, kitchenware, toys, and toiletries.

She’s instructed me to donate things to where they’ll do some good. And reminded me of the time I gave a bag of toiletries harvested from hotels and motels to a women’s homeless shelter.

The gracious woman who received that bag made a genuine fuss about how appreciated these items were. And what a difference clean hair and moisturized skin make to someone so focused on survival that body care becomes a luxury.

She made not just my day but my week.

I now have way more than little samples to give away, especially with that kind of reception. I just need Our Lady’s butt-kick to get organized and do it.

If this is true of toiletries, I’m sure it’s true of clothes.

Poor, unemployed, and unhoused women need help getting out of the vicious cycles of poverty they’re trapped in. Having clean, professional clothes for job-hunting can make a difference in getting hired.

Our Lady says there are organizations with this as their focus. I need to look them up and hook up. It turns out there are several. One site, Jails to Jobs has a directory of Bay Area organizations folks can go to for not only clothes but job placement and other forms of support.

The first one listed, Assets, focuses on helping unemployed–-including unhoused–-folks 55 and older get hired. How cool is that?

That’s why Our Lady had me put culling my wardrobe at the top of my to-do list. Now that I realize what a difference having a spiffy suit jacket can make, I sure will! Goodwill and Magic Johnson’s Out of the Closet thrift stores usually take whatever I give them. But this new vision ups my urgency and sense of satisfaction. Thanks, Our Lady!

While I still have that philanthropic hat on, Our Lady wants me to shift my thinking about hiring someone to clean our apartment.

Duh! If I give away clothes to help someone find a job, why not hire someone vetted by one of those assistance programs? And be a part of their life makeover? Hmm. That will take some more digging. In the meantime, I found a national directory, Care, that lists available nannies, caregivers, and housekeepers who live nearby.

What about the art project side of things?

Once I get rid of excess stuff and get our apartment reasonably cleaned, it becomes a blank canvas full of possibilities.

While being less cluttered shimmers with a beauty all its own, my inner artist looks forward to a chance to play and experiment. I’m not talking about Architecture’s Digest or House Beautiful fancy interior decoration. Colorful shabby chic is more my style. And Our Lady’s.

I’d like to turn part of our living room into an art studio since we have plenty of space. Or will, once it’s decluttered. Looking at images on Pinterest inspires me. Our Lady wants me to liven up the living room with a colorful area rug. Cost Plus, here we come.

The point is to have fun playing and experimenting. And figure out ways to display some of the beautiful and quirky things I’ve collected over the years. Otherwise, why have them?

Finding images that help me envision what my home could look and feel like keeps me motivated. And boy, do I need that. So, daydreaming has a purpose, after all! I may have to print out some of these images and make a giant collage featuring Our Lady front and center.

Or a series of SoulCollages about my living space. That will be fun. But Our Lady warns me not to get so carried away that I forget to start my plan at the beginning — purging my wardrobe and hiring a housekeeper.

But I told her that making that collage is the beginning. It’s all of a piece. And if I do any of it, it will be huge progress as far as I’m concerned. So please send us some good energy as we get started.

Thanks and have an extraordinary New Year!

Marilyn Flower’s a sacred fool who writes every day — fiction, poetry, and blogs — inspired by a process called SoulCollage®. She’s the author of Creative Blogging and Bucket Listers: Get Your Brave On. Follow her Sacred Foolishness or SoulCollage® for Writers, and Stay in touch!