Why should you be decluttering your house to reap rewards in your life?
Let me ask you:
- Do you have some things in your house that you don’t use?
- Or items that you have never even taken out of the box?
- Do you have more than one version of some items?
- Or struggle to get rid of things?
- Do you keep some things, just in case?
Have you ever stopped to wonder why you keep hold of them?
Today, I thought I would tackle some practical tips to help with the decluttering process for both the physical and emotions around letting things go in your house and life.
How Marie Kondo Converted Me!
First up I am going to talk about Marie Kondo and her KonMari method.
She deserves a mention because since I read her book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” in 2011, she has inspired me to embrace her clothes folding and tidying up methods!
From a purely practical point of view, it changed my whole bedroom to start with.
I confess I was terrible with my drawers – more specifically my underwear draws! There was never any structure or folding. My underwear drawer was always messy!
My husband, on the other hand, was super tidy – everything neatly piled up and folded! He never understood how I could be so organised in so many other ways and yet have super messy drawers.
Equally, I couldn’t understand why he would bother neatly folding everything into piles!
Upon reading Marie Kondo’s book, my eyes were opened, and I quickly set to work on folding and having things on their sides. It made it so much easier to select what you wanted without disrupting the whole pile.
I became an absolute convert. All of a sudden, my messy drawers and shelves were tidy AND they have stayed that way.
All my drawers now use this methodology!
From a purely practical point of view, I was able to fit so much more in the draw and have immediate access to it.
I even employ the same technique when packing bags for travelling. Including a few structured bags to hold different items, means I can live out of my suitcase without having to unpack and repack it all the time!
No more crazy-crinkled clothes! In fact, when travelling I have found the folding seems to remove the creases. No ironing required!
So, the KonMarie folding method is one part of the cleaning up process. It’s about organising and utilising the spaces well, so everything is accessible.
For me, it created a sense of being in control in an area of my life I didn’t feel in control of before. I was always scrabbling to find what I was looking for in my drawers. I never know exactly what I had or what I might need.
How Can Decluttering Your House ‘Spark Joy’?
The second part of the process is the cleaning up process.
By that I mean, sorting out what you need and don’t need.
While it isn’t a totally minimalistic approach, it is about only keeping the items that you need and love.
Some items are easily going to fit into one of 4 piles: Dump, Donate, Resell or Recycle.
For others, you may be sitting on the fence.
Either way, it is important to do the full ritual. This starts by asking yourself about every item and whether it ‘Sparks Joy’ for you.
And if you really can’t say an emphatic YES, then it’s time to consider which pile it goes into.
Before you do that you lovingly and authentically thank the item for its service and serving its purpose in your life until now.
It may seem like such an unnecessary step.
This is where the power is.
Often, we hold on to things, way past their real usefulness to us. We hold on to things because of the memories we have attached to them.
This process of letting go, allows us to move forward, fresh and ready for the new, not being held back by the past.
Is It Time to Schedule ‘Decluttering Your House’ & ‘Letting Go’ Time?
One of the tell-tale signs that it’s time to clean up, is when you know you have more than one version of something.
Do you ever find yourself going to look for the good version? Let’s say you have a couple of corkscrews. One is your go-to, and the others, you avoid unless you absolutely can’t find the good one.
Perhaps it’s time to consider that it’s time to get rid of those things!
Another one is when you keep walking past a closet and every time you do, you think ‘I really must get around to cleaning that up’.
Think of all that wasted energy thinking about it. You may even feel an emotional charge associated it with. An almost wince every time you see the closet door. What is behind that door, is keeping you in a constant state of suffering every time you walk past it. That’s a huge sign, that you need to face up to it and clean it out.
Maybe you have a particular weekend or time of the year when you do a clean-up or cleanout.
Traditionally it was the spring clean. Making space for Summer. It doesn’t have to be. You can do it when the feeling arises.
I’ve always liked January – to start the new year and August (because it was my birthday month and in Australia it is pre-spring. They’ve always been my two months of thinking about goals and cleaning up!
You will be surprised by the life-changing effect of cleaning up your house, having a place for everything you need and not feeling any guilt, emotion or other negative emotion around items that are no longer serving you.
If you are feeling overwhelmed in your life, perhaps a weekend organising and decluttering your house and living spaces could spark a change and you could reap rewards in your whole life.
LIVE, LOVE & THRIVE