We all know the feeling of walking into a room and just wanting to turn right back around because the mess is overwhelming. Even if you’re usually clean and tidy this can happen at times, all it takes is being unwell for a bit or something happening that means you can’t do your usual routine and things build up fast. But maybe you know you’re a bit of a hoarder and don’t declutter as much as you need to. Your home is supposed to be your absolute sanctuary away from the world, not a messy storage unit that you just happen to sleep in at night. If you’ve got huge piles of old clothes and boxes of things you swear you will use one day sitting there taking up all the space in the room. The state of our physical space always reflects our mental state, and fixing one often helps fix the other. The state of our physical space often reflects our mental state, so fixing one often helps fix the other too.
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Mental ‘cost’ of clutter
It is incredibly strange how random physical objects can feel heavy in our minds. When your everyday environment is totally cluttered your brain usually feels exactly the same way. We hold onto things for all sorts of bizarre reasons like guilt or some idea that we might need a spare broken toaster at a moments notice. A lot of this can come from past traumas, if you grew up without much money to replace things for example you might feel like you need to keep hold of what you have in case it breaks and you cant replace it (even if you’re now no longer struggling financially). If you think there’s a reason behind why you struggle to let go it’s well worth exploring therapy. If you can push yourself to start getting rid of things on your own then go for it as you’ll feel so much better for it.
Getting started
Getting started is always the hardest part of the entire process. You dont need to tackle the whole house in a single weekend because that is honestly just asking for instant burnout and an afternoon meltdown right there on the living room floor. Pick one small room or even just one single drawer to begin with. Set a timer for twenty minutes and just see what you can achieve. Make piles for things to keep and things to donate and things to throw away. Be completely brutal with your decisions. If you havent looked at a specific item in over a year it is definitely time to say goodbye and move on. If you can rope in someone to help you it can be handy too, they can help you be brutal about things if you struggle knowing what to let go of.
Finishing the job
This is the exact stage where most people get stuck and completely lose all their hard earned momentum. You sort everything out beautifully and then you just leave the rubbish bags and cardboard boxes sitting right there in the hallway for three whole weeks?! That entirely defeats the purpose of doing the work in the first place. You need to get those donation bags straight into the back of your car immediately. For all the broken furniture and random junk it is honestly best to just arrange a skip bin hire so you can toss everything outside in one go and have it hauled away without making multiple miserable trips to the local tip.