clutter busting

Clutter Busting: What is the Key?

March 21, 2015 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

What is your key to clutter busting?

The key is not in your clutter. Your clutter is a substitute for another need. What is your need? It is different for every person. And you probably know what it is even if it is lying in the shadows. Don’t be afraid to venture there and find that key.

You need to find the root cause, the key, for why you have clutter in order to create harmony out of the chaos. Spend some time this week investigating your true desires or needs to begin to conquer the chaos.

Clutter Busting: Are you Overcommitted?

March 14, 2015 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Being overcommitted has important ramifications for managing your clutter. When you are overcommitted, you tend to allow insufficient time for each activity, as well as insufficient time between activities; consequently, you constantly leave items unfinished.

If you are overcommitted people you may be willing to stop in midair the moment others call. You fail to take charge of your schedule and instead respond to the needs of everybody else. Therefore, you spend most of your time in crisis mode, which, along with flooding your body with adrenaline, triggering you to try and save five seconds here and ten seconds there by not putting things away and then spend three hours frantically searching for something they can’t find.

So when you are overcommitted you can wind up in a vicious cycle with your things. You may feel that you are too busy dealing with the next emergency to take the time to even hire the help you need to make inroads into your clutter.

An obvious solution is to try to scale back your commitments. To do this, you must stop the merry-go-round, and spend some time thinking about what matters most to you. Ask yourself what commitments are most important to you, and how you decide to commit.

Rethinking your obligations is a way that may enable you to stop overcommitting. Use these strategies: [Read more…] about Clutter Busting: Are you Overcommitted?

Clutter Busting: Letting Go

March 7, 2015 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Decluttering is a constant process of letting go. For some people letting go is easier than for others.

If you are experiencing difficulties with letting go of your clutter:

Evaluate: go shopping in your home for those items you need, then get rid of the rest.
Memorialize: take a few samples from the collection, mount them beautifully and get rid of the rest.
Curate: allow yourself one collection and display it predominately.
Enjoy: stop saving your stuff “for someday” and use your bowls for fruit or serving.
Limit: only allow yourself to keep a certain number or volume (one box) of items.
Wean: make a list of the types of things you need to get rid of, rate them from 0 to 10 according to how anxious it makes you to think of doing so, then get rid of the easiest things first and progress.
Out of sight, out of mind: if you can’t make a final decision to let something go, box it up and put a date on it for three to six months from now and put that date in your calendar. If you haven’t opened that box when the date comes remove the box (donate or giveaway) without opening that day.
Create distance: buddy up with someone who will handle your items according to your direction so you don’t touch or handle your items so it will be easier to get rid of the items.

Moving through the process of decluttering, you let go not only of the burdensome excess of things but also of the thoughts and feelings you associate with them. You cannot let go of one and hang on to the other. So let it go so you can open yourself up to so much more.

Clutter Busting: Dealing with Procrastination

February 28, 2015 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Do you leave things temporarily in a place? Set the shopping bag on the stairs temporarily? Leave the dishes on the counter temporarily? Leave the mail in a pile temporarily?

You may be a procrastinator. To overcome this:

Rearrange your stuff so it has a home near where you actually use it.
Establish way-station containers for things going up or down the stairs or out the door instead of leaving piles.
For one hour challenge yourself to put away as many things as possible where they belong immediately.
Post a sign that says “do it now”.
If you put something down temporarily, mentally set a time or physically set a timer to put it away. When it is time, do it.
Establish a regular cleanup time daily to put away all the stuff you temporarily left somewhere.
Allow yourself to do small tasks. You don’t have to wait until the mail is piled high to sort it.
Make a rule that anything you leave out temporarily has to be left out attractively arranged or put away by the end of the day.

Make a commitment today on how you will handle procrastination. Challenge yourself to follow through on handling your stuff now.

Clutter Busting: Are you Side-tracked?

February 21, 2015 by clutterbusting Leave a Comment

Do you have trouble staying on track when you are clutter busting?

It is important when you are doing your project that you stay in that area and that area alone. But that can be challenging.

Here are some tips to help you avoid getting side-tracked:

Limit your time when decluttering to keep your attention focused. Maybe scheduling an hour session helps you stay on track versus a four hour session.
Schedule mini breaks but have your refreshments or book in the area. Don’t leave.
Instead of scheduling a room, schedule a dresser or shelf. This will give you variety a little more often when moving from one item to another.

By implementing techniques that work for you, you can avoid getting side-tracked in your clutter busting journey.