If your home is less organised than you’d like it to be, it can have a knock-on effect on other areas of your life. Creating a life that is free from mess and chaos isn’t as difficult as you might think. Decluttering is necessary for a calmer, less stressful life. Follow these tips to start decluttering your life!
Go for Small, Quick Wins
Think of decluttering as a work in progress. Sure, you want everything to be streamlined and organised but it doesn’t have to happen today. Focus on small wins that you can tackle each day. Over time, they add up to a less cluttered, calmer and more organised home and life. Adopting this mindset can be important for making decluttering a big part of your life going forwards and for creating a life that is calmer and less chaotic.
Bin the Rubbish
Some of what looks like clutter is actually rubbish that no one has gotten around to throwing away or recycling yet. If you move around your home looking for items that fall into this category, you’ll probably be surprised to see how quickly you fill a rubbish bag.
Once your home is clear of the obvious rubbish, you can swap this tip to filling a rubbish bag full of items that can be recycled or donated.
Set Up a Central Communications Point
In a cluttered home, lots of things can slip through the cracks and get lost. Some of the prime candidates are important bits of paperwork that you can never seem to find amongst the general clutter.
Keeping paperwork together in a central place can be a game-changer for keeping stress to a minimum. When you know you need to access this kind of paperwork, just head for the place you’ve chosen to store it. This can be as simple as an intray or a collapsible folder.
A Sneaky Way To Add Storage Space
If you don’t have enough storage in your home for bed linen, blankets and other items that just seem to take over, why not store them in large storage baskets or even in a blanket box?
Do the 12-12-12 Challenge
Are you ready for a challenge?
For every 36 items you come across while decluttering, aim to throw out 12 of them, donate 12 of them and put the other 12 where they “should” live in your home. Not sure what should fall into each category? Think about how much you really need a particular item. Ask yourself:
- What do you actually gain from keeping it in your life?
- Would it make any difference to your life if you parted with it?
- If you saw it in a shop today, would you buy it?
Asking these kinds of questions can help you to see whether you’re holding onto items because of past attachments or because of genuine need.
This challenge has been known to add a very competitive element to decluttering and by getting the rest of the family involved you can get organised much quicker than if you were to do it alone.
Decluttering Your Life
Your home may be the main thing that springs to mind when you think about decluttering but what about streamlining the rest of your life too? Decluttering your life is another great option for keeping chaos to a minimum.
Reducing your non-essential commitments: Do you struggle to get much free time with a very full social diary? Take a step back and think about how many of your social commitments are actually essential. Do they all bring you happiness or do you find some of them stressful? Streamline your commitments to the ones that are either necessary or pleasurable. Anything else can go!
Decluttering your friendships: Even your friendships can be decluttered, especially if you feel that there are people in your life who are draining you, rather than providing positive energy and support. It can sometimes feel like any type of friendship is better than nothing but toxic friendships can be hugely stressful. Decluttering your friendships can be liberating and can release unnecessary stress and negativity from your life.
Decluttering your day-to-day routine: When it comes to the average day, how much of a structure do you tend to have? If you are like most people, you probably tackle your to-do list at random which can affect your productivity. It’s also a surefire way to add more stress and uncertainty into your day. Having more structure around your to-do list can make a huge difference.
Write down everything you need to do during the week and allocate it to specific windows in your schedule. When the time comes to carry out the task, make sure that you honour your commitment to yourself which will instil a trust in yourself to get things done. This can bring a sense of calmness into your day.
So, in terms of decluttering your home, choose a particular day to declutter that will suit the whole family. You could even reward the family member that is willing to part with the most stuff, for a bit of extra motivation.
Happy decluttering!
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