Journey to a Clutter-Free Life

Clutter, clutter, everywhere. Help! You want to declutter your home or your office, to make your life less stressful and more comfortable. How do you do it? Where do you begin?

The best place to start is by gaining a new perspective. How many years have you had your clutter problem? You can make great progress within weeks or months, but the problem will not go away ove
ight because the habits are too ingrained. Plus, society keeps tempting us to accumulate more clutter. So, instead of envisioning a clutter-free home as a destination, it might be more helpful to imagine decluttering as a journey. The journey consists of four overlapping projects: preventing new clutter, decluttering, organizing, and upkeep.

Even if you get rid of all of your possessions, clutter will probably build itself around you again. To make good progress in your decluttering journey, therefore, I recommend that you also take steps to reduce the inflow of new clutter. Reduce junk mail and credit card offers, throw out catalogs and junk mail as you receive it, hold off on new purchases until you need them (foregoing sales), end newspaper and magazine subscriptions (all such information is on the Internet now), find other pastimes besides shopping, and don't believe the hype that things can bring you happiness. Most importantly, observe your own behavior and the behavior of your family. What do you do that brings in new clutter? For some people, it's trying to keep everything as a memento. For others, it's an addiction to sales or auctions. For still others, it's starting new hobbies without finishing projects already started. Take steps to reduce your own cluttering tendencies. In my case, most of my clutter consisted of paper: notes to myself, To Do lists, etc. So I went paperless.

Decluttering itself is a process of decision-making. If decision-making is difficult for you, you might have difficulty being honest with yourself. Do you really wear--or like--all of your clothes? Do all of your clothes even fit you? Do you really have time to read all of your books? Do you have time to complete all of your projects? Do you tend to become busier or less busy over time--therefore less likely to have time later to repair the broken gizmos and furniture? Will you probably ever live in your dream house? Is this item a need or a want? What would be the worst that could happen if you didn't keep it? Answering yourself honestly is necessary before decluttering can be successful.

Many people find that a support group is helpful in their decluttering journey. Just knowing that others care, that others have been in your shoes, and that some have come along way in their journey, is motivational. Some people might need more than emotional support: If you tire after a few minutes of decluttering, you might choose to find someone to do some of the physical work for you.

Organizing also requires decision-making. It isn't simply a matter of buying more shelves or creative storage supplies. They help, but what helped me the most was distinguishing between objects I'm using Now, objects I'll probably use Later, and objects I'll honestly, probably Never have time for. "Never" objects get decluttered, "Later" objects go into my storage room, and only "Now" objects are aloud in my living space.

Upkeep involves starting and maintaining habits. Personally, I found it helpful to create rotating To Do lists of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Most importantly, upkeep involves putting everything back in its place as soon as you've finished using it for now. A tiny bit of extra effort right now will save you from a lot of work or procrastination later.

Reducing new clutter, decluttering, organizing, and upkeep can be done simultaneously or in any order. If one or more of them is ignored, the clutter will keep piling up, and so will the stress. Start your journey today: The personal growth you will gain along the way will bring more contentment and joy than you are likely to gain from your possessions. nnn