Imagine having to deal with the usual mess you see on your desk or room every day. Imagine not being bothered by the unimportant stuff – and people in your life. Imagine living a simple decluttered life. How do you get to that kind of life though? Here are 7 simple ways to declutter your life.
7 Simple Ways to Declutter Your Life
Evaluate
Look at your life. Where do you need decluttering? Is it your schedule? Do you need more time for yourself or for people who matter to you? Do you need to be more organized at work so you don’t keep missing deadlines and forgetting things? Do you need to clean any part of the house? No one can assess you more honestly than yourself.
Make a plan
After figuring out where you need to declutter, make a plan. When are you going to clean up your closet? How are you going to get rid of the things you own? Give yourself a deadline. Because when you plan and not make a time frame, it will never happen.
Sort
For the things that you need to get rid of, like your clothes, get a box for those you need to sell, give away, and keep. Know the difference between your wants and needs. Be brutally honest and look at the people in your life. Who builds you and who breaks you? Harsh as it may sound, you have to get rid of some people in your life. Keep the genuine ones. Surround yourself with people who believe in you. And stay away from those who leave you empty and hurt.
Let go
Don’t be afraid to let go of your clutter. Sometimes we hold on to some things out of sentimental reasons. Be practical. You don’t have to make the change abrupt. Give or throw away one thing every day.
Or give yourself enough time to let go of those that are hard for you to depart from. Create a schedule for this that you can stick to as you declutter your life.
Spend wisely
Don’t spend on things you will not need. Do you really need another pair of shoes when you already have 10? Keep a budget and stick with it. Don’t overspend and live a life you cannot afford. Luxurious living, when it’s beyond your reach is a cluttered life.
Stick to your game plan
Continue to gauge yourself; what you need, what can help you live a better life, what can only stop or delay you from getting where you’re going. Continue to make plans on how to rid yourself of disorders. Continue to sort, and take each day at a time in letting go of stuff you don’t need. Evaluate, make a plan, sort, let go, and spend wisely. Stick to this game plan so you will not fall back in your old cluttered life.
Change your mindset
All your plans will not work if in your mind, you still haven’t changed. If for you, acquiring more is still the way to live, you will continue to go back to that lifestyle. If you feel comfort in keeping excess emotional baggage in your life, then you will never be able to let go of it. Change the way you think about excessive and simple living and see your life change.
Would you like to take part in #MondayMusings? Here’s how it works:
Write a post sharing your thoughts with us – happy, sad, philosophical, ‘silly’ even. Make it as personal as possible.
Use the hashtag #MondayMusings.
Add your link to the linky below
Use our #MondayMusings badge to encourage other bloggers join in too.
Visit and comment on the posts of other bloggers linked here.
Share the love.
I am a huge fan of decluttering and have been doing it for the past 5 years – life, cupboards,daily schedule, friend and family, social media, etc. All of it is evaluated periodically by me and cleaned out. You are bang on about the deadline- without that nothing actually materializes.
I couldn’t agree more. Decluttering happens in the mind first. And if and when we’re ready to go minimalistic with our needs and wants, can we seriously declutter our lives and our minds. It has taken J and myself a long time and a lot of effort to let go of the surplus that we’ve been lugging around for years before we moved into our new home and believe me, its the best thing that we’ve done in a long long time. So, yes, all for it.
The last point is bang on, Corinne. Nothing will work if we don’t change our mindset. Something I’m working on which is proving to be true. But these lessons I have to go through them every day. Otherwise my mind flips back to its insecure mode.
Getting rid of physical clutter comes easier to me than getting rid of mental clutter. 🙁 I really need to make a game plan to help me get rid of that.