Decluttering is more than just about cleaning and reorganizing your physical space. It’s about clearing out the extra junk in all areas of your life that don’t serve a meaningful purpose. The point is to promote clarity to make the right decisions to enhance or maintain your life. Decluttering allows you to take control of your environment and time so that you can find the motivation to keep moving forward.
Decluttering is an important self-care technique for three reasons:
To Decrease Brain Fog
A cluttered space can affect your thought process in big ways. For example, studies show that clutter like stacks of paper or an unorganized desktop can make people feel anxious. On the other hand, cleaning up and organizing around you is a simple and sometimes quick way to clear your mental fog, focus better, and make smarter decisions.
To Decrease Stress and Anxiety
People who live in cluttered environments report more issues with stress and anxiety than those who have a neater and more organized environment. Providing a home for everything and putting everything back in that home when finished stops rushing and hurrying when you can’t find something.
To increase self-motivation and Set a Continuous Cycle
Keeping your environment decluttered requires you to invest in proper storage solutions, narrow down what you need to stay around, and set up a schedule that includes setting up and breaking down, which is much more realistic than schedules created without this in mind.
Here are a few quick tips on how to implement decluttering properly:
- Organize by Room – Each room has a purpose, and only the things that need to be used in that room should exist in that room.
- Pack and Unpack – If you go on a trip, don’t just throw your suitcase in the room and forget about it. Instead, unpack it at the hotel, and then do the same when you get home. Likewise, toss everything from your drawers and closets on the bed or floor at home, and systemically go through them and make a home for the stuff.
- Ask “Do I Use It?” – As you go through the stuff in your home, if you’ve not used it for an entire year, you’re not likely to use it. However, you may be able to sell it or donate it, giving it a new life.
If you desire a life with less anxiety, more clarity, and boosted motivation. Follow these tips to ensure you get the most out of this self-care technique. No one thinks that your home should be spotless or like a hotel room or anything, but your environment should make it easy for you to locate and use what you need without too much trouble. After all, if you want to paint in your downtime, you’re simply not going to do it if you have to do too much work to set it up and tear it down.