Day to day life can be pretty overwhelming at times. The pace of it can get ahead of us and things begin to feel chaotic. This is especially true if your space is cluttered. Clutter adds to our stress, in fact it’s been studied that clutter increases cortisol, the stress hormone, especially in women. It makes it difficult to find things, affects the ease of our day-to-day movements and actually clearing clutter is overwhelming. If things have taken over in your home, even if its just the stuff that covers the kitchen table, clearing it will make life better. So how to declutter?
How to declutter is different for everyone. What motivates you and what feels like the right process is going to vary. You might be an all or nothing type and tackle the whole thing at once (I don’t recommend and I’ll tell you why!) or maybe you do it bit by bit. You might do better with help and support if you are strongly attached to a lot of your things. Or you may have to navigate other people in your home. No matter what, if you find your stuff is getting in the way of daily living and you’re spending too time dealing with it, you can benefit from decluttering.
Start with Your Why
I recommend this before you take on an big project, find your why. This is because when we do hard things, it’s hard, and we have to be able to come back to our why to keep us going. What is your motivation, why does this matter to you? Really dig deep and think about it. It is easy to become complacent with our surroundings, especially if it’s a particularly overwhelming amount of stuff.
Your why has to be something powerful. If it’s just “I don’t like mess” or “I can’t find anything”, you’ll likely slip back into old habits. But if it something like “I realize this isn’t the life I want, I’m very stressed and I must change it.” Or “This clutter is affecting my relationship and making day to day life hard. I want to be happier” then there is some real emotion behind that. You want to connect to why clutter is affecting you negatively, recognize the impact it has on your life and resolved to make it better. You need to get to big picture thinking, it’s very easy to not see a birds eye view of our lives.
Imagine if you don’t make any change now, in 3 years if you are still in the same situation – are you happy? Let that be your guide, future you thanking you for taking steps now. These steps and reflections are an important part of how to declutter.
Starting is the Hardest Part
If getting rid of things triggers some strong feelings, do some internal work first to learn why. Stop and ask yourself why and get still so you can figure it out. Check in with yourself, change is an opportunity to know ourselves better and learn. Don’t resist or avoid, lean into those reactions and try to understand them. Starting is really the hardest part but give yourself the gift of choosing your life and following through on your intentions.
Here are 6 tips to get you started. Don’t go for perfect, go for progress.
How to Declutter
1. Don’t Bring Anything New Home
Not until you’ve decluttered. Of course, essentials, but I’m talking don’t go and buy new storage bins, new shoes or hangers for your new decluttered life. You have got to do the work first. Save the organization for when you actually know what you need (hopefully it’ll be a whole lot less than you think!) and save the treating yourself for when you’ve hit a milestone.
2. Adjust your Mindset
Remember it’s a process. You did not end up with a cluttered space in a day and it won’t be remedied in a day. This is good practice for much of life, we’re so exposed to overnight successes and transformations. Real lasting change takes time. So know you’ll take 10 steps forward and 2 back and then 10 more forward. You are going to grow and learn about yourself so much! Give yourself some grace and trust you’re on the path to something different even if it’s not clear and takes some time.
3. Start with your Biggest Pain Point
Which room makes you the craziest? Start there! Fuel yourself with the motivation to change what causes you the most stress and allow yourself to imagine what it could be like with less stuff. What will it feel like? Really imagine walking around your home without having to move around things and the ease you will feel. Think of how you always have to clear off the kitchen table or pick things off the floor to get to bed. With less stuff, you can fix those problems. Hold onto those thoughts and feelings and get rid of stuff. Which leads to…
4. Get Prepared
Have what you need with you. I like a laundry basket to fill with items that belong elsewhere, a box for ‘maybes’, one for donation and a garbage bag. Make quick decisions because you have a ‘maybe’ pile to put things you aren’t sure about. Then make another pass through your keep pile and the maybe pile. Once you take those items out, revel in the space you just created. Doesn’t it feel good?
5. Consider Larger Items
I know you have 3 chairs in your living room but maybe you actually don’t want 3? Sometimes when decluttering we focus so much on the smaller stuff and think ‘of course we’re keeping…’ or don’t even consider letting go of when it comes to furniture. But furniture takes up a lot of space. Maybe you had something that was used for storage for instance, you might not need it anymore. Or you could consider a floor cushion for guests instead of the extra chair. You could also move things around and try out a different arrangement. It may give you more room to move around. It is human nature to resist change, even little things like moving furniture around, but I promise you getting in the habit of letting go and shifting things will make you happier. Just some food for thought.
6. Use Inspiration
When the going gets tough, have some inspiration to reach for. Listen to a podcast, look at pictures of beautiful rooms in a magazine, read a blog post or google ‘decluttering quotes’. Remember, it’s a process and it’s probably overwhelming. Take your time, take a rest. Just don’t quit. Heck, take a week off, there’s no timeline here – but just keep going and seek out motivation when yours wanes. That’s what it’s there for. And a reminder, feeling overwhelmed and wanting to quit is part of the process of any change. You can do it.
I hope one of these or more really resonate with you and get you started on decluttering. Letting go of our belongings is a challenging thing. You want to have in the front of your mind why having less, matters more than the stuff.
Living a life we choose, comes from making intentional choices everyday. If we leave things in our homes that cause us stress, that is a choice too. You want to make sure you’re choosing the right things, for the life you want to build.
What do you find helpful when decluttering?
