The Power of Decluttering

By Patty Kreamer, CPO

One of the main reasons people are unhealthy nowadays is due to tremendous amounts of stress. Stress from work, kids (big and small), appointments, paying our bills on time, getting our taxes done before an audit hits us, emails, the internet, the speed of life in general. It’s a wonder any of us can survive on a daily basis.

Because of all of this stress, at times, our lives lose order. We cannot seem to keep our priorities straight. One of the main contributing factors that adds to this stress is clutter—and that does not only include physical clutter. It also includes the mental clutter that goes with it. They go hand in hand.

CLUTTER CAN:

• Make you feel tired

• Affect your body weight

• Keep you living in the past

• Make you put your life on hold

• Induce a feeling of shame and guilt

• Be the main cause of procrastination

• Add unnecessary confusion in your life

• Affect how people treat and/or respect you

• Induce or enhance the chances of depression

• Cause disharmony among family, friends, or coworkers

The physical clutter in our lives should come as no surprise as we live in a very prosperous time. The problem is that we all want everything and we live in a society that has recently turned into a climate of instant gratification. About seventy-five percent of what we have in our lives we do not need and the "stuff" that we do not need accumulates and is never given a proper home. This is how clutter is born.

So how do you reduce the clutter in your life? First, remember that It did not take an hour for your life to become cluttered, so you cannot expect it to take an hour to declutter it.

Here are some excellent tips to put you on the road to a clutter-free life:

1. Start small. Don’t try to declutter your entire house in one day. Take one room at a time and in that room, pick a corner or a closet to start with. Start by removing the contents of a closet. As you empty the contents, sort it into piles or boxes. Those piles should include trash, donations, keep, other places, and memorabilia.

2. As you come across photographs or any other memorabilia, put that all into one pile or box to sort through later. If you contemplate each piece as you see it, this will add a tremendous amount of time to completing the project at hand.

3. As you go through books or any other reading material, realize that you cannot read it all. If you feel that a book is no longer of use to you, donate it to the library or a retirement home in the area. They will be grateful for the material and it will be out of your home—everyone wins.

4. Designate a home for each item. In your house, I know that you can always find spoons and plates. The reason is that you assigned them a home when you first moved in. This is what needs to be done with everything that you bring into your home before it enters.

5. Ask yourself three questions as you go through your "stuff". 1. Have I used it, looked at it, or picked it up within the past year? 2. Do I REALLY value this item? 3. Will I ever use it again? The answers should help you declutter your life quickly and effectively.

6. Set time limits. Whatever your threshold is for decluttering, whether it is 1 hour or 8 hours, set a timer so that you don’t overdo it. If you exceed your time limit, you may become exhausted or bored and this may discourage any future sessions of decluttering.

7. Reward yourself! As you progress, you will see definite results. Keep in mind that it usually has to get ugly before it gets pretty. As the beauty evolves, reward yourself with whatever makes you happy; an ice cream cone, a bubble bath, 9 holes of golf, a half hour of reading. Just do something to pat yourself on the back. You’ve earned it.

8. One of the ways to maintain the amount of clutter that you currently have is to use the 1 in-1 out policy. If you buy a new blouse, get rid of an old one. In order to step-up the decluttering process, use the 1 in-2 out or 3 out or 4 out policy. The higher the number that goes out, the faster the clutter disappears.

If you are able to get your physical clutter under control, the mental clutter is sure to follow without much effort. If you go into a cluttered room or office, you immediately tense up. If you go into that same room or office after you have de-cluttered it, you feel a freedom like you are floating on air. It becomes addictive after your first accomplishment.

Your time becomes yours again, your priorities fall back into place and best of all, your health may improve. Even if you are already organized, we all can find things that we do not need in our lives. The term voluntary simplification comes to mind. If you decide to make life simple, the clutter will go away. If we make a conscious decisions as to whether or not we bring something into our lives before we purchase or acquire it, nine times out of ten, we will not bring it home.

If you ask yourself while in the store "where am I going to put this in my home?" and you do not have an answer, then don’t buy it! It’s really that simple. It may

feel like a sacrifice at first, but as you see less and less clutter in your life, it becomes exhilarating.

Now it is your turn to discover the POWER OF DECLUTTERING YOUR LIFE! Go out and conquer YOUR clutter!

Here's to simplifying your life!

Patty Kreamer, CPO, owner of Kreamer Connect, Inc., is a Certified Professional Organizer, speaker, and author of “…But I Might Need It Someday!” and “The Power of Simplicity” available at www.ByeByeClutter.com.