How to Declutter your Life

Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed by your cluttered home? What about your emotions? Your life?

Clutter is bad for your brain and bad for your health!

It can make you feel stressed, anxious, and depressed.

The visual distraction of clutter increases cognitive overload (fills up your mind space so you can’t think clearly).

I never realised the impact clutter was having on me until I started decluttering. I immediately felt my mental health improve!  

What happens when you declutter your life?

Researchers have found that clearing clutter from the home and work environment resulted in a better ability to focus and process information, as well as increased productivity.

Here are some other good things that happen when you declutter:

• Your thinking will become uncluttered. You will have more clarity and make better decisions.
• You will be more productive.
• You will experience peace of mind and of heart.
• You will feel less irritated and more patient.
• You will hear God speaking to you more distinctly.
• You will have mind space for important things like relationships.
• Your children will be happier because you have time and mind space for them instead of trying to keep your clutter under control. Clutter affects children and they will be easier to manage if your home is simple, neat, and orderly.
• You will have lower stress levels. Women who live with clutter (lots of stuff and unfinished home remodeling etc) have higher stress levels and higher rates of depression. (See this article)
• Your physical health will improve.
• You will sleep better, be more focused, and experience less anxiety.

How do you completely declutter your life?  

Let’s look at all the different aspects of your life and figure out where to start decluttering.

Relationships

Keep your relationship stream unclogged by dealing with resentments and misunderstandings. Resolve conflicts as soon as possible. Communicate your needs. Harboring hurt will keep you from enjoying happy, satisfying relationships.

Emotions

Deal with negative emotions such as anger, resentment, fear, and worry (they have a harmful effect on your health!). Don’t allow them to take up emotional space. Stuffing them down and pretending they don’t exist is not the answer.

Clothes

Research shows we only wear 20% of what’s in our wardrobe. Get rid of stuff that you never wear, that’s the wrong colour or fit for you.

If it’s something you don’t want to get rid of just yet, put it away to decide on another day.

Sometimes we don’t want to get rid of items because we paid a lot of money for them. If you’re not wearing it, you may as well give it away or try and sell it. Cut the emotional ties and ditch the guilt!  

Schedule

Put the basics in place and don’t overload your schedule. Sometimes less is more. An overloaded schedule creates pressure and leaves you frustrated when you don’t get everything done.

Learn to say no to things without feeling bad. Keep your life simple and you’ll feel much healthier mentally.

Related: 2 Morning routines that boost productivity

Meals

Keeping meals simple made a huge difference to my stress levels while at the height of homeschooling. I made sure we had fresh fruit and salad every day with whole wheat bread, baked potatoes, and simple pasta dishes.

 I couldn’t afford to spend hours preparing gourmet meals that got eaten in 10 minutes. I chose quick, easy meals that didn’t leave my kitchen looking like a war zone. There’ll be time enough to cook fancier meals once your kids get older.

Schooling

If you are homeschooling, focus on the basics while your kids are young. Reading, writing, and math was all I did for formal schooling for many years. 

For the other subjects we focused on incidental learning, reading stories, experimenting, unit studies, and doing chores. This gave us lots of time to be together and learn together.

Toys

Too many toys makes for unhappy children. Get rid of some and tidy up the rest. Or, alternate the toys by keeping some in a box out of sight. Switch them each week or month.

I used to leave my kids toys all over the living room floor. Why tidy them up? Tomorrow they’d be all over the place again. When I began to put more effort into keeping my home tidy I immediately noticed a difference in how I felt, and how my children behaved. The whole mood of our home changed from irritated and cross to calm and peaceful.

Possessions

Stuff has a way of accumulating. Get rid of what you don’t need. Sort your kitchen, your books, your clothes, your linen, your office, your desk, your garage…

Sort stuff into three piles – to keep, to give away, to throw away. I usually have an extra pile of things I’m not sure about. I call this my “deciding” pile.

When you get rid of stuff, you do face the risk of needing that very thing you threw away last week. That’s part of the risk of living an uncluttered life, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives! Do consider carefully before you throw stuff out, though.  

As you declutter your life you will enjoy new energy, mind space and freedom. Now you can put effort into the things that really matter.

What area of your life needs decluttering asap?