One of the basic tenets of decluttering is every item should have a home. At the end of each use, said item should return home. It is when that item does not return home and other items take its place that clutter and overcrowding occur.
There have been all sorts of studies on how living or working in cluttered space can impact your mental and physical health. We know we feel so much better when things are less cluttered. Yet we struggle with making a clutter-free existence a long-lasting thing.
Why?
Much has to do with mindset. More has to do with habits–old ones and developing new ones. Everything has a home should be one of those habits. And when you are done using something, you should always return it to its home.
This will not always happen. Distractions happen in life and that can lead to things being left out. So, an additional habit you can adopt that will lessen clutter is this:
Never leave a room empty-handed.
If you’re working in your home office and there’s an empty coffee mug on your desk, take it to the dishwasher when you next leave the room. If you are in the kitchen and headed to the living room, put your dishes in the sink/dishwasher. Or take out the trash. Leaving the bed room? Then take the full laundry hamper down to the laundry area.
If you lock in on removing clutter each time you leave a room, you will see some tremendous results in a short time. Even more important, you will feel so much better, freer, lighter.
When you have clutter in your life, you constantly are making decisions–even though you may not realize it.
Let’s say your desk has stacks of paper. You know you should clean off your desk. Each time you work, each time you leave your desk, you are making a decision about whether or not you should clear away the clutter. This decision is an easy one to procrastinate on and it creates a guilt each time you come back to your desk.
By never leaving your desk empty handed, you ease the guilt and lessen the urgency of making that decision. Consequently, you feel better. And isn’t that what you hope to get out of a decluttered home?
Want some help with your declutter? Give me a call at 508-246-6120.
