After a long day, everyone deserves a space to unwind. Clutter is one of many things that can rob you of your peace and take you outside of your house of zen. Return home to a space that is both tranquil and calm with these tips to help you declutter your space and in turn, your mind.
Organizing, including getting rid of clutter, is a skill set. Not everyone is skilled at knowing how to take a mass of things and pare them down in a way that makes sense and is no longer overwhelming. To that end, hiring help is always a good idea. Organizers have studied and honed the craft of organizing. They are able to zone in on a living environment, office, or workplace and create a plan of attack for creating more structure and order. Hiring one can take the guesswork out of everything.
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Evaluate what you truly love
When Marie Kondo’s book, The Life Changing Art of Tidying Up, hit bookshelves in 2011, it was an instant hit. And earlier this year when her book inspired a television series on Netflix, the same excited frenzy occurred. The magic of Marie Kondo’s method, also known as Kon Mari, is this: does this spark joy? To begin a decluttering process in a home, office or workplace, start there. Ask yourself if the things crowding your bedroom, living room or your desk are things that excite you or bring feelings of joy. If not, that’s a feeling you can use to navigate paring your belongings down.
Give things away
After you’ve honestly evaluated how all your things in your living or working space make you feel, if they spark joy, you can start to create a plan of giving things away to worthy new owners. This could mean passing something along to a friend, family member or other loved one. It could also mean looking into doing secondhand or thrift exchanges for cash. Or even dropping items off at Goodwill for donation for those in need. To begin the giving away process, categorize your things and put them into boxes, bags, or plastic containers accordingly. If you're give away pile could is too much for one person to handle, consider delegating the task to a junk removal service that will recycle or donate anything first before sending to a local landfill.
Adapt a new philosophy of zen
Once you have weathered through the decluttering process and have a more organized, stress-free living or work space, the work then becomes maintaining it. How can you keep a space of zen so something like this doesn’t happen again? Personally evaluate what things calm you and bring you peace. Maybe it’s quiet and candles. Or creating a new method for handling household chores so it doesn’t get all of a sudden overwhelming. Perhaps you need less screen time first thing in the morning or at night right before going to bed for deeper, more restful sleep. Creating new systems ensures you stay on the path of success.
Adapt a new philosophy of zen
Once you have weathered through the decluttering process and have a more organized, stress-free living or work space, the work then becomes maintaining it. How can you keep a space of zen so something like this doesn’t happen again? Personally evaluate what things calm you and bring you peace. Maybe it’s quiet and candles. Or creating a new method for handling household chores so it doesn’t get all of a sudden overwhelming. Perhaps you need less screen time first thing in the morning or at night right before going to bed for deeper, more restful sleep. Creating new systems ensures you stay on the path of success.
Choose calming activities to keep anxiety at bay
To take it a step further, building in other activities to keep anxiety at bay could be reaffirming. A lot of time clutter and disorganization rears its ugly head when we are overwhelmed in our lives due to personal circumstances. To support our new process of committing to declutter everywhere, incorporate other soothing activities to de-stress. Activities like painting, meditation, yoga, short naps, reading fun and light books, taking leisurely walks or cooking home cooked meals are some of the things you can do.
~Nicole Ramer
Professional Organizing & Certified Senior Move Manager®
863.268.4041