We all love living in a clean space, don’t we? Imagine standing in the middle of a room which is totally dishevelled. What are the first thoughts that are going to cross your mind? Is your mind going to be at peace or is it going to be cluttered just like your surrounding? Now imagine walking into a room which is organized, and everything is at its place where it’s supposed to be. Now watch your thoughts. I bet it going to be calm and at peace.
It is a very underrated saying, but your surroundings have immense power to manage your thoughts and how you are feeling. Your surroundings can reflect in your mood. Test it out yourself and see the difference.
Now having said that, you cannot control anybody else’s space. You walk into your friend’s house, and you see a mess everywhere. Now you cannot go up to that person and say clean up your space so that I can be at peace. But you can control your own space and that is where you are spending the most time anyway.
That is, one should always keep their spaces organized. Now just organising is going to be a huge task if your house has a lot of clutter. And I bet every lived-in house does have a lot of clutter. It’s just the way of life. But if we keep holding on to the clutter and start organizing them as well. Then our house is going to be a “organized mess”. Here I am not taking about being a minimalist or being frugal. I am talking about getting rid of items that no longer serves us. I am talking about DECLUTTERING.
Any organization project must start with decluttering. I personally always follow the below flow while cleaning up any space in my home:
Declutter – Organize – Clean – Sanitize
When you have less things to organize, the process gets a lot smoother and quicker. Also, decluttering & organizing is not going to be a one-time project. Things are inevitably going to come into your space whether you like it or not, so this needs to be done time and again to maintain the health of any space. But trust me, every time it gets easier with less and less things to manage.
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I’ve already mentioned the gist of why we need to live in a decluttered and organised space, but here are some very specific benefits of how it can improve your life:
Why should you declutter & organize?
Before starting any project, it is important to know why it is important. Decluttering and Organizing is no different. Here are few reasons why you should declutter:
- Your mind will be at peace –
- It is simple, the more organized your space the more mental clarity you’ll have. You walk into your home after a long day’s work, and you see your living room is a mess. Automatically, you have a note in your silent to-do list that you need to clean it up. Next you go into your bedroom and see a pile of clean laundered clothes in the bed which you forgot to put away yesterday, again another entry on your silent to-do. This way your mind is always in active mode, and you have no time for it to relax.
- Your house will look neat and tidy always –
- Nobody likes living in a messy home. It’s a fact whether people own up to it or not. And by decluttering and organising from time to time, your space gets the much-needed care to stay in check. You get rid of things that you no longer use and arrange everything else in order. This makes sure there is always breathing room available.
- You save money –
- Now when we go over possession from time to time, we have a very good understanding of what works for our space and what does not. Also, the act of getting rid of stuff can sometimes be very hard on our pockets. We might have spent a lot of money to buy that item and now we are having to give it away for free or sell it at a very low price. So, this way we become very conscious of any new items to bring into our home thus saving a lot of money.
- You will always find what you are looking for –
- One major rule of organization that I follow is “A place for everything and everything in its place”. So, when my house is organized, I know exactly where all my things are. I am looking for a screwdriver and I know it’s at the 2nd drawer in the TV unit. No wasting time looking for it.
- You will save your time –
- No matter how organized your space is you will still need to clean it. But having a decluttered and organized space cuts down cleaning time by a huge margin. I think it’s ridiculous to be cleaning around the things that serve you no purpose.
Let me give you a simple example. You have a shelf full of small knick-knacks and it gathers dust very often. So, to clean it, you’ll first need to individually remove all those small items, dust them, then clean the shelf and then put back all those items. Won’t it be easier to get rid of those small artifacts all together and have the shelf empty or decorated with one or two items that have some value.
Well, there are several benefits to keeping a space decluttered and organized. And some of the key ones I’ve mentioned above. The next question would be how to get started?
How to declutter & organize?
If you’ve never decluttered your space before or it has been a while since you did, then it might look like a challenging project. But it’s not. All you need to do is plan accordingly and dedicate some time every day to it. Now I don’t mean dedicate 1 hour each day. It could be just 10-15 mins each day. The below steps will help you navigate your decluttering & organizing journey.
- Start small –
- my advise would be to start with a single small space. It could be a corner or your junk drawer. If you are just getting started, then it will advise against starting with a whole cupboard or a room. It will get overwhelming very quickly. Start with a space which will not consume for than 5 mins of your time and will help you make easy decisions. One example would be the junk drawer.
- Remove every item from the space and clean the space –
- always start with a clean slate. Start by removing every item from the space and empty out the container. While you at it, clean up the container while its empty.
- Take a decision on each item (Keep / Trash / Donate) –
- segregate each item as you pick up into 3 categories – keep, trash and donate.
- Put back the “Keep” items in the space neatly –
- once you have decided on the items you are going to keep, put back those items into the space.
- Either label or make a mental note of what this space should be dedicated for –
- i would highly suggest to label the space. This is a very good practice to ensure that it never goes into chaos ever again. For example, if you started with your junk drawer, see what you are primarily storing in it. Either label the whole drawer as a category or use smaller labelled containers inside it like bulbs, batteries, pens, nuts/bolts etc.
- This will ensure that such items never float around your space homeless. Every time you see an item from the category, you’ll know exactly where to put them back.
- Repeat the above steps from time to time –
- It is never a one time activity to declutter and organize. You’ll have to repeat it time and time again. But the beauty of this process is that the more you do it, the less time it will take and the easier it will get.
Ensure the Space remains Decluttered Always
The only key to ensure that your space is always decluttered is to rinse and repeat the decluttering and organization step. However, there is one thing I would urge you to note. Go through all the items that you decided to declutter and make a mental note of the reason you are doing so. How did that item land up in your home? Did you buy it? Were you gifted? If you have decided to get rid of an item, there must be a reason. Noting it is very important so that you do not end up bringing back the same item back into your space.
This trick comes in very handy when I declutter my wardrobe. I always make a note of why I am decluttering a clothing item. If it was the fit, fabric or shape that I was not comfortable with. This piece of information helps me when I am out shopping. If I am attracted to a new piece of clothing that I want to buy, I first run it by my declutter reasons. If any of my reasons fit the piece of clothing, I deter from purchasing it. Else I will soon land up decluttering the new item yet again. This practice will save a lot of money and energy in the long run.
What to do with the Decluttered Items?
It is equally important to deal with the decluttered items once you have decided to get them out of your space. The sooner you do it the best. This is because if you delay, these items may again infiltrate your life and all your efforts will go into vain.
One simple practice while decluttering will make this step very easy. Before you start with the decluttering process, keep 3 bins around. One for Trash, one for Donate and the other for Sell.
Every item that you pick up and decide to declutter, put them in one of the 3 bins based on your understanding of the item.
- Trash – Anything that is easily recognisable as Trash, get rid of it immediately as per your local guidelines.
- Donate – things which are in good condition and can be used by others will fall into this bin. There are many NGO’s and organizations where you can drop-off such items.
- Sell – this is for those items that you want to make a little money on by selling. You can use any platforms that deal with second hand buying and selling of items. However, I must warn you that this can get a little tricky and time consuming. So be very choosy when picking up items to sell. If the money value is not that huge, consider donating the item. It won’t be worth the hassle of negotiating and dealing with buyers. I try to limit my items in this category at all times
Basically after every declutter session, your goal should be to get the items out of your homes as soon as possible.
Summary
Once you are able to declutter every now and then & limit the items that you bring into your space, you will definitely have a much simpler and easier space to manage and live in. It is definitely easier said than done, but I can vouch that it gets easier each time and to see your home get lighter is a different feeling.