The more you have, the more time you spend picking it up, moving it around and putting it away. By physically lightening your load you give yourself the gift of both time and space (physical and mental).
Decluttering & Organising your space can create
• calm
• clarity
• order
• increased productivity
• less stress
• improve mental health
• less spending, more money
• less wasted time
• improved relationships
and SO much more!
CLUTTER AND MENTAL HEALTH
Clutter can affect our mood, our thoughts, and even our behaviors. When we recognise the negative effects of clutter and owning too much stuff, it works as a great motivation to begin decluttering.
Clutter may
· Cause feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment
· Cause difficulty of focus
· Increase Stress
· Negatively affect mood
· Deplete Energy
· Produce negative feelings
· Cause distraction
· Encourage unhealthy eating
· Create lower self-worth
· Clutter thoughts
· Breed lack of self control
· Decision making/recall difficulty
· Lead to depression/anxiety
Local Decluttering expert Catherine Hamilton-Cooper of Tidying Time shares these great tips:
Use Mindset and Visualistation for Decluttering
Positive mindset & inspiration
- remind yourself of the reason you are doing it, your driver
- revisit this to reset your mindset throughout the process, particularly if feeling loss of motivation/fatigue/feeling like no time to complete/any regress stages
Creating your future space
You can do this using the following tools
- meditate - mood board
-journal/diary - visualisation
- draw - chat to friends/family
Tips for successful Decluttering:
• Manageable closed ended tasks
• Use a timer
• Find your personal motivation
• OHIO - Only hold item once or avoid holding items if struggling
• No churning
• Keep For A Week/Decision expiry date
• Focus on what to keep instead of what to let go
• Think of your house space as valuable real estate
• Hangers backwards, if any still backwards after 12mths let go.
• One In, One Out
• Make fun challenge for kids
MAKE A PLAN
· Sort into broad categories
· Purge more if necessary
· Find home
· Containers/storage - organise for space NOT stuff
· Leftovers – discard/donate/put away
KEY ZONES
• Landing Station
⚬ Keys - visual organiser label
⚬ hooks - coats
⚬ baskets for shoes
⚬ School bagsDaily Action Station (Short Term)
⚬ Mail tray (Read / To Do / File)
⚬ Calendar
⚬ Reminders
⚬ Receipts/coupons
⚬ School letters
• Make a new routine a habit (can take 30 days)
• Put in reminders to do certain tasks to maintain your hard work e.g. purging, cleaning, putting laundry away, decluttering regularly
• New living space, new systems need to be used properly and not fall back into old ways
For more great tips and advice you can find Catherine at tidyingtime.co.uk