“Out of clutter, find simplicity.” ― Albert Einstein
Many people find clutter challenging. After all, it’s procrastination (which is an emotional skill that often begets negative consequences) in its physical form. Living in the Nation’s Capital, you won’t be surprised that there’s even a membership organization for clutter, The Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) (formerly the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization); they’re not promoting clutter, they train professions to combat it, of course.
In honor of National Simplicity Day, on July 12th, let’s keep this simple―there are three ways to help you declutter your emotions and surroundings together: understand the importance of decluttering to you, deal with your physical clutter, and manage your mental and emotional clutter.
Importance of Decluttering
The first thing to understand about the importance of decluttering is why it’s important to you. You might get nagged by those around you for things laying around, but typically it’s not social pressure that helps you clear the decks and get to root cause.
I recommend that you sit down, right now, with a piece of paper and pen. Write down at least three ways decluttering your home or work spaces would be beneficial to you; no one else. These three benefits must be all about you.
Your Emotions and Surroundings – Importance of Decluttering
That list is something to refer back to whenever you need encouragement, because it’s your reasons for decluttering. What you will realize is that, mostly likely, that list of benefits of the importance of decluttering is comprised of emotional advantages in your life and work.
Physical clutter is only one type of clutter–the visible and physical stuff around you. Your brain, however, parks each and every thing in your physical world somewhere inside your memory. And, when it does so, it creates a kind of psychic baggage when it’s not clarified. Why is that clutter there? And, what do you need to do with it?
There are many techniques for decluttering (and there’s no harm in trying them), but one of the most powerful decluttering methods are just three simple steps:
- Determine where important things go (i.e., keys, new mail and bills, wallet, phone, legal documents, groceries into the refrigerator or pantry/cabinets, etc.). You might even draw a map of your home and work spaces to label where these important items live.
- Then, take a few minutes every day to put those important things where they belong. This can be when you arrive in the morning at work, or return home from work.
- For everything that is left–let’s call it backlog–take another five minutes to process a few items that are laying around.
That’s it. You’ll be surprised that after a few weeks, how much clutter dissipates. Also, pay attention to the things you’re avoiding. As we’ll learn next, there’s more to clutter than meets the eye.
Your Mind and Emotions – Importance of Decluttering
So, you’re humming along and making progress on your three-simple-step method for decluttering for a few weeks. Then, you stop! But, why? Often, this is because you came across something in that pile of papers and stuff that was an emotional landmine. It reminded you of an unpaid invoice, a difficult conversation you need to have, an uncomfortable appointment upcoming, you name it.
And this is the reason why decluttering is so important, because it’s a physical tether to your emotional needs. Not only does your mind track where everything is in your physical environment, there’s also an emotional residue associated with every item in your life.
So, you might have a sentimental thank-you card from a friend, family member, or client. You have designated a place for it, and you can easily put it there. But, when it comes to things that harbor negative emotions, those are toxic to your space and your emotional well-being, and you unconsciously avoid it.
The goal here is to make conscious what negative context surfaces by this item, then make a logical, rational choice about what needs to be done about and with it. Both how you’re going to address the negative emotion/circumstance and what you’re going to do physically with that object. If you don’t address both, you can’t build the resilience needed to declutter when the next emotionally negative item comes into your home or office.
I think Victoria Moran, author of Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul for Lifelong Beauty, summarizes the importance of decluttering best when she writes,
A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with—that’s poverty—but how efficiently we can put first things first…. When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar.
What techniques have you tried to declutter your home and work surroundings? What worked? Let me know in the comments!
And, if you feel chronic disorganization and clutter has you stuck and you need some professional help, check out the ICD’s list of professional organizers who can help you.