Declutter your life
Regardless of personal preferences in cleaning and tidying rituals, everyone enjoys being in a nice, aesthetical, and clean environment. Yes, aesthetics also fall under very individual tastes. But regardless of the style you like, there are good chances you will enjoy the physical space better if it is neat, tidy, clean, and somewhat organized. This can be equally applied to your living room, your work desk, your office… or your whole life.
For me, decluttering often goes hand in hand with minimalism (because that is my aesthetical preference), but it doesn't have to. You don't need to downsize to an absolute minimum for decluttering to be successful. You also don't have to (and actually, shouldn't) only focus on decluttering your physical space, but it's a great start. You will be surprised to see how much better the mind feels when the environment around you is - for the lack of better words - nice.
You might be questioning how should cleaning up your living space help with freeing up your mental capacity. Let's take a quick look at how the human body works: your senses and your brain have the fantastic capability of scanning the environment and working nonstop. Whether you realize it or not, your brain receives sensory information of everything in the reach of your senses. All you can see, hear, smell, taste, and feel gets "recorded", ongoingly, all the time. However, since the brain is also protecting our conscious mind from overwhelm, it has "filters". These filters identify and select which impulses are immediately vital for you to notice (like a sound of a car engine quickly coming from around the corner) and which are not (clock ticking on the wall or buzzing of the fridge). It's thousands and thousands of outer impulses that you are confronted with every day. On top of that, you can add all the inner impulses that keep on running simultaneously: when I go shopping, I need to get milk. I have to set up a reminder to respond to that email later. I should vacuum today. I need to call my dentist. I should work out more, so I can finally lose weight. I don't know how I will manage all the tasks on my to-do list in time. The inner voice never shuts up, and the stream of thoughts is endless. Do you start to see my point? Why not downsize the number of random impulses within our environment (physical and virtual!) with a focus on keeping the ones that are either pleasant or useful?
“Look around. All that clutter used to be money. All that money used to be time.”
You can indeed find a plethora of tips on how to approach decluttering all across the internet, but these are some that, in the long run, turned out to be the most important ones on my journey. They have brought the most significant change and worked exceptionally well for me:
Learn to be ruthless. Physical objects of general practical use such as clothes or kitchen utensils should remain of general practical use, not become objects you emotionally cling to. Yes, certain items can hold emotional value thanks to memories you made with them or the people who gifted them to you, but other than that - if it's not of any use anymore, let it go and ideally, pass it on. My personal addition to this tip is to avoid holding onto things that bring up any negative emotions, regardless of how important the person or situation those items relate to was at some other time of your life. You are allowed to let those go, too.
Break it down and section it. Decluttering your home might feel like a mammoth task to complete, and it helps to start room by room. In spaces dedicated to a particular purpose or activity (such as your office or work desk, but also in the bedroom or living room), try to stick only to items that relate to it. Do not store your gym equipment in your office, and if possible, vice versa, do not keep work documents in spaces intended for relaxation. This will also help you avoid unnecessary distractions and triggering additional trains of thought.
Be a step ahead of the game. Clutter can be prevented! Decluttering starts already when you shop. My favorite self-check questions are: "Why do I want to buy this - does it serve a purpose, or only brings temporary joy?", "Do I maybe have something similar already?" and "Would I buy this if it was twice the price?"
Focus on who you are today and who you are becoming. We collect and pile up many different things that only fit us for a limited time throughout our lives. The most common category is clothing. Sometimes you end up with a wardrobe full of clothes that maybe even fit in terms of the cut and size, just not in terms of your personal style, which often makes it even harder to let them go. They are good clothes, right? You just don't feel good wearing them. This can also relate to past hobbies you only enjoyed for a short while or even books you have read and don't want to keep for re-reading. While I strongly encourage you to let these go, please don't just throw them away! There are plenty of more planet-friendly options out there. Depending on the type of item and it's condition, you can sometimes even sell them, donate them, or even just swap with your friends to prolong their lifecycles. This can help you both literally and figuratively make room for the change you are trying to achieve in your life.
Declutter your mental space too. A good starting point is to write down things you need to remember - what groceries to get or what tasks you need to complete - so your mind can let them go. An important step is also to be selective with what you feed your mind. Being conscious and mindful about the amount of time you spend online and curating the content of your social media feed can bring extensive benefits for your mental state, but that's a topic of its own. More on that some other time. :)
What are your tips for keeping clutter in check? I will be thrilled to up my game on this - looking forward to hearing from you in the comments!
