Clutter cluttered clutter! We all have it and we all need to get rid of it!
Clutter can pop up anywhere and everywhere. In your house, in your car, in your cupboards, and even at work. It can be overwhelming if every place you visit has clutter surrounding you.
When I walk into a room and it is untidy or overcrowded with clutter I never feel good. Clutter has a direct impact on my happiness. What about you?
But wait, there’s more clutter than you think. Your mind might be cluttered, your time might be cluttered, your day might be cluttered and this all causes the same kind of stress.
If you hate clutter as much as me, let’s start decluttering your home and surroundings together.
Start Decluttering: Steps For Healthy Living By Decluttering
How do you get started? As simply as possible:
- Take just 10 minutes today to sort though a pile, or declutter a shelf or table or countertop.
- Put everything into one pile, and start with the first thing you pick up (no putting things back in the pile).
- Ask yourself: do you really need this? Do you use it regularly? Do you love it? If the answer to any of these is no, then recycle, donate, or give it to someone who might want it. Put it in a box for these purposes.
- Put things back that you need/use/love, with space between things. This is their “home” and you should always put them back there.
- Stop after 10 minutes, continue tomorrow for another 10 minutes, and so on, one small spot in your home at a time.
- If you want to do more than 10 minutes, go ahead, but be careful not to overdo it in the beginning or you’ll think it’s difficult and not want to continue.
Keep Going: Detox Your Life And Start Organising Your Space
Once you’ve gotten the ball rolling, here’s how to keep going:
- Keep decluttering in small bits. Pick an area to focus on each week.
- Don’t worry about perfection. Just get it simpler. You can always declutter it more later.
- Put your box of donation/recycling/giving away in your trunk, to get rid of next time you’re out. Email friends/family to ask if they want things — often you can find a good home for perfectly good things you don’t really use (that workout equipment).
- If you’re on the fence, use a maybe mox (put things that you think you might need in a box, mark it with today’s date, put a reminder on your calendar 6 months from now to check on the Maybe Box. If you haven’t used it in 6 months, you probably don’t need it and can get rid of it.
- Get help. Sometimes you just can’t bear to part with yourself, but if you can get an outside person to make the decision (friend or family member), they are usually much more dispassionate and ruthless.
- Enjoy the space. Once you’ve decluttered an area, really focus on how much you love the simplified space. Once you detox your life like this and realise the simplicity in decluttering, you’re more likely to keep going.
Decluttering Your Life
Physical decluttering is only one type of decluttering. You can also simplify your day, and your online/computer life as well.
A few simple tips:
- Decluttering your day is about reducing commitments, and saying no to the non-essential things. So first make a list of your commitments. Once you start organising your life you will feel great!
- Make a list of what’s most important to you (4-5 things) and declutter the rest. Say no to people with a phone call or email, and get out of existing commitments.
- Be very ruthless about saying no to new commitments — and seeing requests as potential commitments. Guard your time.
- Declutter your digital life one step at a time, just like your physical life. Email newsletters, blogs, social networks, online reading and watching, forums, etc. — are they essential? Can you declutter them?
- Think about the consequences of actually not doing something or ignoring it completely. Most of the time there are no consequences and the task is usually not needed. Just do not do this task and see what happens?
- Don’t broadcast your special skills. When people found out I fixed computers, I had the whole town phoning me and asking computer questions. It was taking up so much time that I became stressed because I could not get my actual jobs done. I had to de-clutter these time wasting phone calls. Don’t get me wrong, I love to help people but at whose expense should I do this?
Helping Others Declutter
Having other people in your life (home or workspace) can make simplifying more complicated. I have a big family and a lot of staff so I know how difficult this can be.
Some tips:
- Talk to them about it early on, when you’re just thinking about it (show them this article). Don’t force a decision on anyone, but involve them in the decision-making process.
- Focus on the benefits, the why, rather than what they need to do and why what they’re doing is wrong. People don’t like to be wrong, but they do like benefits.
- Lead by example. Show how you can declutter your space, and how much nicer it is, and how much easier it is to find things, to clean, to be at peace during your day.
- If there’s resistance, focus on decluttering your space. Don’t get frustrated with them, because that makes it more difficult. Instead, remember that you were a clutter-holic not long ago, so empathize.
- Don’t shy away from an opportunity to discuss simplifying, and why you’re doing it, in a positive way. Criticizing doesn’t help, nor does acting superior. Inspiring helps tremendously.
Some of this above content was copied from Zenhabits as it is an amazing uncopyright blog.
Never Travel Back
The other day I cleaned all of my paperwork off my kitchen table and it felt fantastic! That night we even sat down and ate dinner at the dinner table because it was free from clutter. It was fun because it was an unusual situation. (crazy I know)
That was about a week ago now and today I looked over at the same table and it has started to get more paperwork placed on it. Now is the time for me to remove that clutter as soon as possible and try and keep the table clean and keep myself happy. It is so simple, but I love looking at my table with nothing on it.