Decluttering Can Be Made into a Fun, Easy Life Habit
Do you own stuff – or does your stuff own you?
If your room feels cluttered, it might be time to take a good hard look – not at your stuff, but your habits. You can’t clean clutter, but you can dispose of it. But rather than go on a massive decluttering spree that takes all weekend, you instead need to focus on creating a new mindset entirely. One where decluttering becomes a fun, and even easy, life habit.
Where do you begin?
1. Make rules about new stuff – specifically if you bring one new thing into the house, to get rid of something else. That keeps you from keeping around a broken object once you buy a replacement. But it also helps out your closet. What if every article of clothing that you buy means another one has to go? Here’s your chance to finally get rid of those old jeans that were never going to fit again anyway – or if they are, are so out of fashion you wouldn’t want to wear them out in public.
2. Declutter 15 minutes every day. It doesn’t take long to make an impact, and 15 minutes is just enough time to sort through a drawer or glance over a bookshelf or two. In a week, you’ll have made a significant change to your environment without even noticing that you’ve done it. By doing it at a set time (before bed, before work, after lunch…whatever works) you’ll also have built in a habit in no time at all that will serve to keep your environment under control.
3. Put that back! When you’re done using something, then take a moment to put it away. Don’t leave that decorative paper out after wrapping a gift! If you’ve used the scissors, you know where they go! By getting in the habit of cleaning up after yourself, you guarantee that you’ll never have that lost feeling again when you can’t find what you’re looking for.
4. Keep your hands busy. Before leaving a room, take a quick look around. Is there something there that doesn’t belong, that maybe needs to go to a different room altogether? By grabbing one item every time you leave a room, you begin a slow migration of things back where they belong.
5. Tidy up immediately after meals. By taking a moment to clean the kitchen before grabbing the remote and some time on the couch, you’ll find that you don’t dread your kitchen the next morning anymore. Even better, you’ll find you save a lot of time on your morning routine if you do.
Decluttering doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By creating a lot of small (not to mention easy) habits, you’ll keep your space under control, and be able to enjoy the rest of your day better.
Helpful Ways to Declutter Your Mind and Home =
Remember to Declutter Your Mind
When you start decluttering one of the things you notice is how so much of the clutter in your house reflects the clutter in your mind. If you’re hanging onto to clothes that don’t fit, or the ugly vase your mother gave you for Christmas or the exercise bike you might get around to using, you don’t just have a problem with too much stuff. You have a problem letting go. Chances are you’re also hanging onto a whole bunch of bad feelings, ill-founded assumptions, old grievances and future worries.
If it feels good to declutter your house, it feels even better to declutter your mind. Here are some useful expert tips to make some space in your mind.
Use some meditation techniques
You don’t have to do the full sitting on a cushion in a darkened room thing to benefit from meditation techniques. If you’re feeling overwound, some simple breathing techniques can help you calm down and focus. For a few minutes, focus only on your breathing and nothing else. If your mind wanders or gets back into the worrying groove, you must put that aside and come back to focus on your breath.
It can help to write down anything that’s on your mind. Once all those worries are down on paper, you can prioritize them and work out a plan to deal with them. You can also assess them to identify what’s essential and what isn’t. When you can see what’s important, you can focus your energy and free up some of that mental space!
Stay in the present
Brooding over the past and worrying about the future take up a lot of space in your mind and achieve precisely nothing. Let go of regret over past mistakes or resentment of past slights and move on. Keep your focus on what you can influence right here, right now.
Do one thing at a time
Multitasking is not only overrated (it’s very inefficient), it also leads to greater anxiety, and you never do any one thing properly. Focus on doing things methodically and thoroughly. As you finish one task, move onto the next.
Control all the incoming data
We talk about being available 24/7 and the 24-hour news cycle, but there is only one person who can control that. You. You can choose to switch off your computer, smartphone, and tv and control the amount of data your brain is trying to process.
Decluttering your mind will pay off in all sorts of ways you hadn’t imagined. You will be more productive, less stressed and more motivated.
Helpful Ways to Declutter Your Mind and Home =