Is your workplace is surrounded by useless stuff and clutter that you find difficult to get rid of? If you have been planning to unclutter your room, these are some tips to make sure you can actually do it.
1. Do I need it? Is it Beautiful?
Do you really need the item? Is the item of intrinsic beauty? Even by just asking these questions we can help to decide whether we really need it. The problem is that often we accumulate things, without questioning whether we really need them. Go through each item, if you cannot justify its use then get rid without any qualms.
2. Start with Nothing and add only what you need.
Another very effective way to remove unnecessary clutter is to start from scratch. Rather than looking at things to throw away, imagine the room was completely bare, and then only add what you really need. This is a great way to decide whether a thing is of practical importance or just there out of habit.
3. Beauty in Simplicity
To get rid of clutter you should try and keep in your mind a vision of a better alternative. If you have something to aspire for, it will become much easier to throw things away. If you really value the beauty of simplicity then it will be effortless to make this a reality. Look at catalogues of dream houses, in these “show piece settings” you won’t see piles of old newspapers, unwashed coffee cups and piles of dirty laundry.
4. Don’t be Overly Sentimental.
Do you really need to keep your school notes from Grade 5? – It’s not as if you were any good at Maths anyway. Unless you are likely to reread elementary geometry in the next 12 months, you can probably chuck out these painful memories of old school days. This doesn’t mean you have to throw everything away. Do keep things of great sentimental value, but don’t feel guilty about not keeping everything.
5. Choose top 10 Items
If you have difficulty throwing ornamental things away, why not try making a list of just your favourite top 7 or top 3 items? This forces you to be ruthless and only keep the things that you really want.
6. Organisation.
Sometimes it is not just a matter of throwing things away, but, being organised. Items which are rarely used, can be put in the most distant storage space like a garage or attic. Add extra shelves and keep things organised.
7. Give to Charity
Giving unwanted items to a charity shop is an excellent way of creating space for yourself and making a useful contribution to charity. – Just make sure you don’t buy more bric a brac when you give your own items away.
8. Sell on Ebay
If you want to make money from your accumulated stuff, ebay can give remarkably good prices. Once you get into the swing of selling, it can become a very useful tool for both raising money and clearing out your clutter.
9. Get Your Mother To come Round.
Maybe your mother is not the best person. But, sometimes an independent third party can give a different perspective and help point out obvious improvements that we have become blind to.
10. Clear Up as You Go.
Don’t wait for the day when you have “loads of time” – that day may never come. Try to keep on top of your living space all the time. Once it is tidy and spacious, it provides its own incentive to avoid cluttering it up. Don’t delay but start right now.
Related:
Credits:
Photo by: Kedar Misani, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries
I came to the realization that one reason we live with clutter is because we postpone the decision on what to do with it. Like now for example…with my mail, I used to sift out my important letters like bills etc from the daily mail that I get and then throw the rest on the kitchen table then I’d put it into a box, bag etc later to go threw. Now I try to decide on what to do with every piece of mail I get that day, saving nothing for a later decision. I make that decision on an ongoing basis now. Just like clutter in my car. I use this rule of thumb….What ever I put into my car on any given day, I take out that day, leaving nothing to accumulate. Simply put…don’t postpone the decision to a later date! Decide now what to do with it!
Also I came to another realization as to why we live with clutter. Actually 2 realizations. Actually one you kind of already mentioned like not cleaning the clutter up now because we feel we don’t have enough time. So we let it go thinking that one day we will have the time which like you said could be never. One reason I feel we don’t tackle the clutter is because it has become so overwhelming so this then creates discouragement both physically and even mentally. Because one, we have to physically do the work and and two we have to use our mind to brainstorm about what to do with it all. So I feel on an unconscious level we then just put it out of our mind and kind of become immune to it. It kind of becomes camouflaged.
So, this is how I deal with the above so we can be more motivated to start tackling the clutter. First do not look at all the clutter as one big pile of clutter. Divide it up mentally in your mind into smaller projects. Don’t feel that you have to tackle it all at once. This will discourage you from tackling it if you feel that it needs to be done at once. For the sake of clutter loose the thought that it is all or nothing. If it is your bedroom that is really trashed with clutter then don’t look at it like you have to tackle it all at once. Just say to yourself…today let me just tackle my closet or say today I will just tackle the junk under my bed. Look at it as smaller projects so you won’t become discouraged to tackle it at all.
Or try this approach which is really just a different approach to the same concept of breaking the project up into smaller micro projects so not to be discouraged and if you really never seem to have the time to tackle it all at once. If it takes maybe 2 hours to rid the clutter in your room and you feel discouraged and or really don’t have the time then just spend 2 minutes a day cleaning the clutter up. Just 2 minutes a day becomes one full hour after a month. So in 2 months your room will be tidy. Or you could do just 5 minutes a day. It’s not too hard to find 5 minutes in your day no matter how busy you are. This will be 2 and a half hours after a month! The point is …what ever time you have use it! Just don’t feel like it can be started only if you can finish it all at once. This leads to perpetual delay and discouragement.
It is so important to see the progress you are making as you go about clearing your clutter. I use about six medium-sized cardboard boxes at a time, which I line up, and then I slowly fill them with things I am able to let go. As they get filled, I tape them shut so I won’t be tempted to peek, backslide and get bogged down. Come April, I will call a local social service organization and make a bulk donation to their rummage sale, yard sale or special project to help others. It is particularly gratifying to watch the boxes adding up neatly, sealed and ready to leave for others to use. I hope this little tip helps others to attend to their possessions well…