How Decluttering Properly Can Literally Change Your Life

Image Credit - Chrissy Halton

Change your life, by decluttering - really?

Well, yes - it's true - allow me to explain...

If you were asked to list 10 life changing events, I'm pretty sure that decluttering won't have featured on it.

Items like these: -

Wedding

Moving house

Having a baby

Retiring

Emigrating

Starting a business

Quitting a job

...will come to mind way before sorting out the clutter you may have.

BUT..

Decluttering - done right - really and truly can change your life.

WHY?

When tackled properly, it can be so much more than a quick sort through your home of what can be recycled, given to charity or thrown away.

In fact, it can produce a fundamental shift in the way we think about our homes and our lives - and it can be incredibly empowering.

Let's go into it a little deeper...

DECLUTTERING ISN'T A QUICK FIX

Most of us want to get rid of the amount of "stuff" we have in our homes, and are searching for a way to do this quickly and easily.

Unfortunately, decluttering in a way that makes real, fundamental changes to your life, in a way that sticks - is not a quick fix at all.

But it doesn't have to be hard either!

Let me give you an analogy: -

When you decide to diet, you want to lose weight quickly and easily. Your weight is your clutter. You may reduce the food you eat and therefore eat less calories each day. You go through weeks of restrictions and yes, you find that you lose some weight - but chances are it will pile back on as soon as you start to live your life as normal again. Unless you make changes that work with how you live, those changes won't last and won't fulfil you.

Decluttering tends to be the same.

You want to lose the excess "stuff", so you spend a few days/weeks going through your home finding anything and everything to get rid of. However, after all that you still find you haven't fundamentally changed anything. You're either left with less than you want, or you end up creating new piles of stuff over the months that follow and the pattern starts again.

The 'weight' from both situations goes for a while - but usually comes back.

The reason? - you've made changes that make a visible difference, but you haven't gone deeper. You haven't looked at the fundamentals that will ensure those changes last.

Life changing?

I think not.

SO - WHAT'S THE ANSWER?

...and how can we declutter in a way that lasts and really has an effect on our life over the longer term?

As with most effective answers - it's simple really.

To change your life in a way that lasts, you need to work out what you want you're really trying to achieve and work from there.

You want to go deeper than the superficial and get to grips with making your home (and life) the way you want it to be.

Instead of starting with a bin bag ready to fill, start with a pen and paper instead.

"Plan what you want, and make it happen."

HOW TO DECLUTTER PROPERLY...

To do this, simply follow these 5 easy steps: -

STEP 1 - Draw a rough floor plan of your home, and label each room

STEP 2 - Work out what you do (or want to do) in each room. That's its function (you may have more than one function in a room - that's totally fine!)

STEP 3 - Work out what you need in each room to do the functions that you want to do in it.

STEP 4 - Remove anything from the room that doesn't fit that function -and add in anything that does.

STEP 5 - Start in one room and move around your home until you've finished

Follow these 5 steps methodically, always keeping in mind what the rooms are to be used for, and you will naturally end up with items that don't belong anywhere anymore.

THIS IS YOUR CLUTTER. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.

The rest? - well - that's all the stuff that helps you live your life - and that should all stay.

IT'S NOT JUST YOUR HOME EITHER...

Your schedule and life can be decluttered in much the same way.

Start with what you really want to do with your life, and what your goals are, and you will much more easily be able to declutter that which doesn't help you get there.

HOW WILL THIS CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

You won't just have got rid of stuff - you will have moved it to the right place as well.

Everything will be grouped together so you can easily see what you have.

Your home will function for you brilliantly

You will feel calmer in your home

You won't lose things as easily

You will spend less time cleaning as things will have their place

You will spend less time looking for things

You will spend less money replacing things you can't find

You will start saying "no" to things that don't matter to you and spending time on what you really want to do

Your home will become a haven rather than a drain

All achieved by decluttering the right way.

Bliss!

Doing it this way will mean that decluttering should become a habit for the rest of your life, because it's addictive to shape your life and home exactly as you want them to be, and you'll want to keep going!

And that, my friends, is how decluttering really and truly can transform your life.

No more quick fixes- just real shifts in your thinking will make the difference you are looking for.

So, why not create the life and home that you want - starting now...

Make your plan and declutter around it - you won't regret it.

You ready to change your life? I hope so!