Learning points
The Consequences of Not Decluttering
Clutter can negatively impact our well-being by making us feel uncomfortable, anxious, and stressed. This is especially true for people who are highly sensitive since clutter can easily overstimulate the mind and the senses. Distractions occur more regularly and there are fewer opportunities to relax both physically and mentally. Over time, frustration builds up and you can even become less productive.
Why Decluttering Improves Wellbeing
Although not seen as fun or pleasant by the majority of people, decluttering and tidying up is an essential form of self-care and personal organization. It’s about removing items that are unnecessary, outdated, or untidy while keeping what sparks joy, utility, and positive vibes. Marie Kondo became a worldwide expert on this subject after publishing The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and some of the tips I’m about to share come from her book.
Benefits of Decluttering
After going through a decluttering session, you are likely to feel clearer and more energetic. This is a process that not only improves our physical space but also our headspace. We have more space both physically and mentally, which in turn gives us a certain sense of freedom and clarity. This experience eventually overflows to other areas of our life.
In a nutshell, we may say decluttering improves well-being because it facilitates decisions, increases awareness, promotes wellbeing, saves time, reduces stress, and creates space.
How to Declutter?
Decluttering in 3 Steps
Once you decide to initiate the process, decluttering can seem daunting and overwhelming. This is especially true if you have accumulated a lot of stuff and you are already running out of storage space. Keep calm and breathe deeply. It gets worse before it gets better, believe me. Here is a quick step-by-step guide on how to start decluttering:
Step 1
Remove all items of place and put them on the floor to be easier to sort them through.
Step 2
Only keep items that bring you joy or that are useful on a regular basis. Everything else must go. You can either throw them away, donate or recycle them.
Step 3
Clean the items and their place of storage before putting them back in. As you hold each item, go through the decluttering question list once again to make sure you only keep what’s best for you.
Decluttering Question-List
Decluttering might seem easy but it can involve deep thinking and meaningful reflections. To make the process easier and more goal-oriented, it might be useful to hold each item separately and use the following questions in Step 2:
Final Thoughts
Decluttering is an important chore and we can benefit a great deal if we do it on a regular basis. It can not only be taken as an act of self-care as well as a starting point to bring more clarity into our life.
If the task feels rather daunting to you, you can manage it better by breaking the process into three steps. The first step is all about separating and creating categories of items. This can be somewhat messy so I recommend that you start small: choose only one category to work through at a time.
The second step is psychologically challenging for many of us. Do your best, to be honest with yourself and embrace the questions I shared in this blog post with courage, determination and self-discipline.
The final and last step is all about restoring order and freeing both your physical and psychological environment from the chaos there was once. Once you come to the end of the process, you will feel that your mission was accomplished.
The Wellbeing Blogger 