When you clear your physical space, you clear your mind. Offloading excess “stuff” frees up energy for new opportunities to drop in. Clutter – whether it is in your home or your mind- causes you to lose motivation, focus, clarity and a space to relax and be peaceful. These are the things required to have a happier, fuller life. Decluttering is one of the ways to help you get organized and become proactive in your life.
Awareness is the first step.
The first step is to recognize the impact of your physical surrounds on your emotional and physical health and wellbeing – particularly your energy levels. Every time you look at something in your surrounds and have a negative thought or judgement about it, it affects you. It can be draining as you have a mental list of things you need “to do”.
Decluttering is an emotional act of “letting go”.
Clutter appears in so many areas of your life, not just your physical space. We buy all of our ‘stuff ‘because we think it will make us happy. We think that by gathering the right house, car, clothes, and appliances that we will eventually accumulate the life we imagine for ourselves. But what you find is that‘stuff’ can be very demanding! It fills space, costs money and doesn’t respond to your changing needs. It promises everything, delivers nothing and ends up stressing you out!
Chasing the life you want by accumulating more stuff is a dead-end street.
Being clear on the vision you have for your life is the first step in working out your wants and needs. As you may have discovered already, change takes time and is often difficult. It is easier to stay the way you are than to embrace change to the new and unknown.
Getting organized is not something you do; it is a commitment to live your life in a particular way, one that serves you and your vision.
Decluttering helps you to create an environment that nourishes your soul. You get to choose how you want things to be, instead of feeling like a victim of circumstance. Imagine how good it would feel to be surrounded by things that make you feel good and proud.
When you’re brave enough to let go of anything you don’t absolutely love or need, you leave a space of possibility. This creates more peace, calm and relaxation.
In her classic book ‘The life-changing magic of tidying up’ Marie Kondo, talks about the “Japanese art of decluttering and organizing”.Her method for decluttering involves clearing and sorting everything out by category, in a particular order. Then you decide what you will keep by handling each item and asking yourself, “does this item bring me joy?”
She recommends scheduling a full day or weekend to get this done and complete it.
Otherwise, if you declutter bit by bit, you never seem to finish. It feels like there’s always more to do, so you haven’t really got it off your mind. Or, you clear the stuff out but don’t remove it from the house and get rid of it, so that’s another job to do. Or, you start to let things creep back in!
My favourite books about decluttering and getting organized are by Peter Walsh ‘Enough Already’, David Allen ‘Getting Things Done’, ‘Sorted’ by Lissanne Oliver and of course Marie Kondo’s book, ‘The life-changing magic of tidying up’.