Are you ready to unclutter your environment?
Whether you are at work or home, having clutter in your life is very constricting. Chronic clutter can make you feel as though the world is closing in on you. Having stuff EVERYWHERE also increase your stress because it is likely you will not be able to find something you want or need. You know it is there…somewhere…but all the things on top of, around and falling off the flat surface probably hinder your ability to find the thing.
Simply put, by reducing your clutter problems, you simplify your life.
When we are busy, we find it easier to put something aside in hopes of getting to it later. My own always messy desk is a perfect example of this behavior. Unfortunately, something else always seems to get in the way of me getting to it soon, and before long, I have a huge pile of “things to get to.”
For the past few years, I have gotten serious about personal growth and living my best life. By identifying what frustrates and irritates me, I become aware of what I need to work on. I’ve been focusing on how I can change my behaviors that don’t serve me. One of the BIG problem areas is my tendency towards getting ALL the things but not doing anything with them.
Now I visualize myself having a tidy desk and a neat, clutter free home, so I am changing my behavior and habits to be more in tune with this vision. It is still definitely a work in progress but having the focus and awareness of the problem is a great start!
Why does clutter happen?
We’re busy, multi-tasking and don’t take time to really slow down to do one thing…ever. We put things aside to do, but never do them. I sometimes wonder how many great ideas I have in the folder of random notes and loose papers I recently gathered to put all together. At least now all of them are in one place when I do get time!
It’s understandable as people are busier than ever, but are we truly doing anything meaningful in our busy-ness? The internet has made it possible to connect immediately with people, information and entertainment at the push of a button. We’re used to having immediate gratification and our attention spans have been reduced to the size of a pea. Not only have our homes become cluttered.
Our brains are cluttered with too much stimulation, noise and nonsense!!!
I’m not sure what the trending game is at this moment, but how many hours of bubble popping, candy crushing, word creating with friends have you logged in recently?
Before the internet, distractions weren’t usually an arm’s length away, everything took longer, and we had to focus more on one task at hand. Our piles of “things to get to” weren’t as big, because we didn’t have so much distraction and spent time DOING them.
You can stop the madness now. Making any type of change starts with one simple choice that leads to powerful commitment…
Make a Decision.
Decide to unclutter your environment. Decide to slow down and focus on the act of decluttering your environment, which will free you to live a simpler, more positive life you love living.
Keeping free of clutter is simply a matter of creating a system and following it. You need to make it a habit and commit to doing it. If you are not good at coming up with your own system, try hiring someone who is. It will be money well spent. Another option is to read and research organizing online, find a system that you resonate with and begin incorporating it.
Before you start, make an area to sort the items you are decluttering. I use small plastic bins for this. For example, I’ll have a bin for pet sitting, personal growth, household, and maybe miscellaneous. All the pet services paperwork and items (I end up with a lot of clean poop bags and empty key rings on my desk) go in one. Other things that always seem to be cluttering my desk are hair ties and barrettes, coupons and business cards. There are also many scraps of paper with notes I scribble for whatever subject go in the appropriate bin.
If you feel overwhelmed…and trust me, I get it if you do…start very small.
Work on one area and then take a break. Feel grateful you did the one area, and appreciate how great it looks uncluttered, and how satisfying it feels to have done the task you put your mind to.
Decide which area you will tackle next and either dig into it, or if still feeling a bit overwhelmed, do it tomorrow. The key is to DO it when you decide you are going to. Keep at it until all the areas are how you want them and appreciate the process and the results.
Creating a habit of putting things where they go immediately with go a long way towards reducing future clutter!
After you have gotten everything organized and put all together in the appropriate bins, you should have an idea of what you tend to collect that creates the clutter. These things now need a permanent home somewhere out of the way so you can start putting them away right away.
If some of the things you found are notes or paperwork that require action on your part, get a desk organizer and label one of the slots “to do today.” Set aside a certain amount of time daily to go through and take the action NOW. Once the action is complete, either file the hard copy if necessary, or shred and recycle it.
When you’re completely decluttered, step back and breathe deeply. You did it! You’ve got this! Your focus on being more organized paid off and doesn’t it feel great to have space and neatness instead of clutter and chaos?
Now, from this point forward, make a conscious effort to keep up to date with your system. Take time weekly to scope out your typical problem areas. If you notice an area starting to collect “stuff,” you can rein in and put everything away in their new, permanent homes. Doing it weekly eliminates the overwhelm and soon becomes a positive habit.
Once the habit of keeping the chaos at bay is developed, you should find yourself living a new, decluttered way of life with minimal effort. Being organized has become second nature.
What other area of your life do you want to improve?
Decide right now you want to improve it, and begin to determine what action steps you can take to do it.
By focusing on what we desire and taking action to make it happen, we can completely change a frustrating, out of control life into an amazing lifestyle we absolutely love.