Declutter Your Home And Keep Stress At Bay

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Picture a home where there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place. Doesn’t the imagery itself do wonders to your psyche?  Don’t you love that sense of peace and serenity associated with such a picture perfect home?

Who wouldn’t love to live in such neat and calm surroundings? But, how do you turn that dream home into reality? The answer is declutter.

Why declutter?

Your home speaks volumes about your personality. If your home is in an unsalvageable mess, your life is probably heading in the same direction. Your home is where you spend the most part of your life and it should be the nest you enjoy coming back to.

Your home should be able to rejuvenate you and make you feel ‘at home’. It shouldn’t be a den where you merely accomplish your primary needs and head off into the wild.

Decluttering is therapeutic

If you have never tried to declutter your home, it’s probably because you have failed to appreciate its therapeutic value. As you slowly but steadily put your house back in order, you’ll see how you are able to get your life back on tracks too and start taking control.

As you clear away the cobwebs in your house, the cobwebs in your mind too move away leaving you with a clearer picture of your true state of affairs. Thus, as you slowly reclaim your house, you in effect reclaim your life!

How to declutter?

Now that you are all set to declutter, you are probably wondering where to start and how to go about it. You are also probably ready to rip down your house and make it spick and span right away. Well, hold your horses!

Decluttering requires some amount of pre-planning. And the most important lesson to remember at the very offset is, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Your house did not get cluttered overnight; and so, it cannot be decluttered overnight either.

Start with baby steps

With a firm determination to set your house straight, in place, you can start the decluttering process from the corner of a room. It is good to start with a shelf or drawer. Remove everything from the drawer and clean the drawer. Now, is the time to make decisions. You have to decide which things are really important to you. Be firm and make sure you put back only those things that are important.

Things you don’t need or haven’t really used in a very long time must be discarded immediately. It’s a good idea to have your trash can handy so that you don’t reverse your decisions to throw away unwanted stuff.

Learn to let go

The very reason we accumulate clutter is our inability to let go. Clutter mainly constitutes those items that we do not need and do not use, but have sentimental value. It may be old photographs which have faded away, old school notebooks, your kids’ first scribblings, old clothes, souvenirs, etc.

Our obsession with attaching memories and values to objects which serve no purpose leads us to accumulate junk both in our home and in our lives. People are so overwhelmed with their past that they simply cannot devote enough energy to mend their present and better their future.

Decluttering can be tough. Especially for first timers. But with dedication, it can be achieved. One has to be strong and learn to let go. One must be able to say good bye to their past and look forward to their future with hope. This requires one to drop the clutter and move on.

Donate

One person’s junk may be another person’s treasure. So, donate what you don’t need if it’s in good condition. Old text books can be distributed among less fortunate children. Clothes your children have grown out off, clothes you bought in the spur of the moment, but haven’t really worn, try giving these away in charity and see how good it makes you feel.

Drop the ‘what if’ attitude

If we aren’t holding on to something because of its sentimental value, then we are holding on to it because we fear it will come handy once we discard it. If you haven’t used something for years and still think ‘what if’ you need it, the answer is staring at you in the face. You don’t. Trash it.

If there are certain things you simply cannot get yourself to throw, then put only those things in a separate box or cover with the date marked on it. Allow it sometime, say six months. If you still don’t seem to need those items, its time to part with it.

One room at a time

If you plan to declutter in one go, it can be quite overwhelming. It will instead be very rewarding to tackle one room at a time and actually live through the experience savoring every moment. Try to keep only the things that are required in a particular room.

For example, if the children’s playthings are stocked up in your room, then shift it. They simply do not belong there. This way you can completely personalize a room and find important things faster without having to sieve through a whole lot of junk.

Involve children

Involving children in the decluttering process helps instill qualities of cleanliness and order in them at a very early age. This will go a long way in helping their all round development into good and organized adults.

Keep out further junk

Once you have been exposed to the immense satisfaction that decluttering and a resultant orderly home brings with it, you are unlikely to return to square one again.

Yet, it is important to be on a vigilant watch out for the entry of any junk through your front door. It is also important to be able to identify junk when you see it. One rule that most people swear by is the ‘one in, one out’ rule. When one new item comes into the house, an older, similar item is removed to make way for the former.

Decluttering your home can be a truly rewarding experience, and what’s better, the results are there for all to see. Decluttering often fosters a feeling of being in control because it helps one to let go off things they held on to irrationally. The accumulation of clutter is very much related to the escalation of stress.

Decluttering may demand an initial investment of time, but once underway, it is sure to turn addictive. So, declutter your home and show stress the back door!