Spring time is a traditional time for clearing out the old ready to bring in the new.
A colleague once said to me that a tidy house is a tidy mind. This I have found to be very true. When I don’t have things tidy or organised, I seem to waste a lot of my precious time trying to find things. As I hate wasting time, the older I have got, the better I have become at organising.
In the spiritual sense decluttering makes more room for manifesting the things that give you joy. Being organised and less cluttered is a habit of a successful mindset.
Decluttering can be a cathartic experience, a sense of joy at having less stuff, cleaner and simpler lines in the home and more space.
If you come to my house, you will find very few shelves. Shelves mean a collection of knick-knacks, and knick-knacks mean a collection of dust and clutter.
Some pointers for decluttering:
- Don’t set aside an entire day to declutter. Eight hours of trying to declutter and get organised is debilitating. This way you won’t get disheartened.
- It’s easy to get overwhelmed, do one thing at a time whether it’s one drawer or a cupboard.
- Start by picking a drawer. When that’s done, pick another drawer. One drawer a time over a few days or weeks is better than none and will eventually pay dividends.
- If you regularly get charity bags through your door make use of them. I love them. Best of all they’re collected for you, the hardest part is filling them up. Do check the labels to see what they will and won’t take.
- Give to charity shops. It’s a type of recycling plus you help good causes.
- Rome wasn’t built in a day. Take one step at a time.
- Don’t expect perfection. Don’t expect your spaces to look like those in catalogue pictures.
- Set a space that is organised and fulfils your needs.
- Being organised and tidy helps to complete tasks more efficiently and quickly; it saves time. You won’t be trawling through junk to find that pair of scissors or scarf.
- Be prepared to let stuff go. You may never fit into that skirt you’ve been hanging onto for four years. If it’s not been worn for over a year, it goes.
- Invest in stacking boxes. I love Really Useful Boxes which I got from Homebase (UK). Pound shops also have handy cheap stacking boxes and baskets for organising cupboards etc. for those on a budget.
Remember, no-one is perfect. My Achilles heel is books – I can’t part with them!! But do try to give things up with grace and with gratitude. A tidy home is a tidy mind.
Angel Reis 