This post is all bout clutter and stress.
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This post is the second of our 30-day self care challenge on the topic of Creating Calm. I will be highlighting how clutter causes overwhelm and stress, and the importance of dealing with your clutter before it becomes too big a problem!
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How Clutter Causes Overwhelm & Stress
Hey hey my lovely entrepreneurs,
One of the biggest causes of stress in our lives is actually clutter.
How many of you start getting palpitations, clammy hands and feelings of breathlessness upon seeing piles of clothes, unopened junk mail, loads of laundry, a messy desk, and other disarray?
Yes?
Well it's normal and this really causes most people to feel anxious and overwhelmed, sometimes even depressed. It's hard to achieve a sense of calm when there's chaos all around, in the form of physical eyesores or the insidious kind that attacks your mind. That's why it's important to corral the clutter in your life. Taking steps to get control of the disorder is the start of creating calm.
Read on, and I'll tell you more about that.
Clutter & Stress
Each person's definition of clutter is different. We all have our comfort level when it comes to the amount of stuff we want to have around us and to enter our lives. However, it's when you begin to have a negative reaction to all of this input that it becomes a problem. At this individualized and personal point, you're dealing with clutter. Usually, this breaking point arrives because your life is affected due to the amount of disarray you're facing. Whether you're feeling closed in and agitated or you're physically constrained by the mess, you have a problem that needs to be addressed.
Benefits of Clutter Control
There are loads of good things that come from controlling the clutter in your world. You'll likely feel an increased sense of energy because you'll spend less time looking for things you've misplaced and will no longer feel as overwhelmed emotionally by your stuff. This can lead to greater productivity and getting more done. It's even been shown that folks begin to make improvements in other areas of their lives such as diet and exercise once the "weight" of excess clutter is lifted from them. Taking action in this one aspect of your life can have tremendous impact on other areas. Finally, you'll be much closer to achieving the calm you seek once you start to pare things down.
How to get started
The hardest part of ridding your life of clutter is getting started. This is especially true if you've lived in chaos for a long time. The good news is that this problem is relatively easy to tackle once you overcome your initial resistance. The best place to start is the one that is causing you the most stress.
For example, if coming home to your messy living room makes the idea of relaxing impossible; begin to clear things out in that room. Having a place to unwind at the end of the day might just be the catalyst you need to motivate you toward clearing out other cluttered places.
It's also a good idea to enlist help in order to make the process more manageable and less overwhelming. Have your family or roommate pitch in or consider hiring a professional organizer if you live alone.
Finally, get rid of anything you honestly don't use and find a "home" for everything else. When you cut down on the amount of stuff and put things in their place, you'll find life becomes a whole lot less hectic.
6 awesome tips to get rid of clutter
Looking on the internet, you will see many blogs and businesses that offer help to those struggling with clutter. If this describes you, there is help available. And if you follow these simple habits to keeping your life clutter free, you may find you also let go of the clutter in your home.
How many times have you lost your keys, shoes or important papers because there is too much clutter in your home? Families around the country are drowning in clutter that can cost time and money as well as cause frustration. Clearing the clutter from your home, and your life, will take some time and effort but the results will be well worth it.
Your awesome tips
TIP 1
Go through your home and make note of anything in in your home that is out of place, items that are piling up or things that bother you. Start with what bothers you most and begin going through the items, getting rid of things you no longer need or want. The goal is to clear small areas, one at a time, until you have cleaned the entire room. Go through each room until you have gotten rid of as much clutter as possible.
Obviously don't try to do all at once! Not only will it just stress you even more, it will just lead to even MORE clutter!!
I'm a list-gal, so I have an awesome 12-page checklist booklet to help you declutter your home, reclaim your space & ease your mind.
You can download it in the PRINTABLES OF THE DAY section at the end of this post.
TIP 2
Create a cleaning and decluttering schedule. Include chores for each member of the family so one person does not have to do everything. If you work on cleaning a little bit each day, it will make keeping your home clean much easier.
Here is a printable that is going to help you delegate and get everyone in your household (mostly your kids) to help you out!
Download it in the PRINTABLES OF THE DAY section at the end of this post.
More tips
TIP 3
Rather than stacking mail and other papers all over the room, create a specific area to handle mail and pay bills. This could be a desk or a shelf with an inbox. Be sure to place a garbage can near your mail area so you can throw junk mail out as you go through the mail. Along with the inbox and garbage can, it would also be helpful to keep a family calendar in the area. When you see paperwork that has an appointment or important date, you can write the information directly into the calendar and toss the paper unless you need to return it.
I have a little area under our staircase where we have a tiny desk on which we have our family binder and our mail sorting area. I have placed our chequebooks there as well, so that whenever we have bills, that aren't debited directly out of our account, come in, it's easier to pop a cheque in an envelope and get it mailed the next day.
This avoids mail, bills and other paperwork backing up!
You don't have to have a fancy mail sorter, we use this one that I got off Amazon. It's cheap and super useful with its separate sections.
TIP 4
Place a coat rack or shelf with hooks near the door you use most often. It is important to have everyone hang jackets and book bags here when they come into the home each day. By placing these items in the same place each day, your family will be less likely to lose things.
We don't have a coat rack, but we have these original little hooks, that are perfect for our space! We have them in white and grey.
final tips
TIP 5
You can use similar tactics to declutter your office or workspace. A clean work area can make your day more productive, which your boss will most likely appreciate. Develop a filing system so you can find important papers when you need them.
We've all seen the gorgeous Pinterest photos that inspire us to become more organized and aim for a minimalist space, but for most of us, we may not have the budget to reorganize everything by buying new items.
My best tip is to actually go shopping, but at home! You are bound to have items already in your house to get your decluttering and organization process started!
Not only are you saving money, but you are actually recycling what you have and using it in an efficient manner.
Your goal isn't to have a Pinterest-worthy home office space! Your aim is to get your work space clutter free.
Keep that in mind when you're embarking on your decluttering journey.
TIP 6
Cut back on commitments.
Part of having a cluttered life is having too many obligations each week. Families these days are busy & everyone is going in different directions with meetings, sports, band, volunteering or religious activities.
Declutter your schedule by asking each person to give up all but one activity. This will reduce the amount of running and allow the family to eat together regularly - but mainly just be together!
This book is incredibly real and there are so many areas in which you will recognize yourself. I'm sure it's going to help guide you to getting back in touch with what it truly means to be a family & it just helps us slow the eff down to realize what is really important in our lives.
You're going to LOVE it!
Finally, if you are too overwhelmed with the amount of clutter in your life, give yourself permission to seek outside help. A professional organizer can recommend simple habits to keeping your life clutter free and will help you develop a routine that will work for your family.
I highly suggest you read these books about the importance of letting go and how this can help you start your decluttering journey.
book recommendations
Declutter like a mother
the clutter connection
decluttering at the speed of life
printables of the day
These printables are going to help you reclaim your space, by decluttering it first.
Having too many items in the area in which you live can seriously hinder your growth journey as well as any chance of creating calm.
The Difference Between Physical & Mental Clutter And Their Impacts on Your Life
Clutter can come in many forms. For simplicity's sake, I'd like to break it down into two main types. These are physical and mental. Each has a heavy impact on your stress levels. They both are likely to play a role in keeping you from creating calm in your life. Therefore, I think it's important to take a look at each type, define it, and examine ways both can negatively affect you.
Physical clutter
Physical clutter is easy to understand. This is the kind of mess you can see. It's the piles of clothing, papers, dishes, and more that are strewn around your home or office. It's the overabundance of things you've been holding onto for years because they're sentimental or you might use them one day. Physical clutter can even be the many tabs you keep open in your computer browser or the tons of media you consume each day. These things can be seen. They consume large amounts of your resources such as time, space, and money.
Mental Clutter
Clutter does not only happen at home. In fact, it also can happen in your mind, your body, your schedule, your finances and your workspace. Unfortunately, chances are that if you have clutter in one of those areas, you most likely have clutter in all of those areas. If you have been trying to conquer the clutter in your home, it is time to move beyond and follow these tips for decluttering your life.
Mental clutter isn't as simple to define. It involves the overload of information, along with nagging emotional issues, that overwhelm your mind. This type of internal congestion can consist of things such as your never-ending to-do list, negative internal dialogue, relationship demands, old grudges, or habits that don't serve you. The source of such mess usually lies in emotions like fear, regret, worry, guilt, or shame. Identifying the types of mental issues that are cluttering your brain can lead to purging yourself of them.
What clutters your mind?
Begin by getting a notebook and a pen. Take a deep breath and think about things that you have to do. Write everything down. Once you have written things down, you can see what is necessary to accomplish and you will have a list to keep track of everything else. It can also help if you watch less television as it tends to clutter the mind with things that are not important.
You will soon discover that I am obsessed with note taking, may it be digitally or on paper! So, I enjoy writing things down and just dumping them on paper! I've also created this brain dump printable that you can download here, in collaboration with our other site The Awesome Printables! It will download directly to your computer, as a .ZIP file. Use it to write down all the things that are cluttering your mind, as well as obscuring your creation of calm! You'll also find it at the bottom of this post, in the PRINTABLES OF THE DAY section.
Body
In some cases, people who have a clutter problem also have a weight problem. Sometimes people use both as a self-protection mechanism. If they are overweight or their house is full of "stuff", they will not have to worry about others getting too close and possibly hurting them. Once they begin to let go of the "stuff" in their home, they may find that it is easier to let go of excess weight as well.
Schedule
How many activities does your family have? If your family is like most, each child has at least one activity they participate in after school. Mom and Dad may each have things they do that keep them on the go. To declutter your schedule, sit down as a family and talk about the activities each does that mean the most them. If you can cut out some activities, you will have more time to share as a family and there will be much less running.
Check out Jefferson Bethke's book, Take Back Your Family, in which he pointedly helps us take stock of what is truly important when it comes to family & family time. The NYT best-selling author hits the nail on the head, whilst trying to knock some sense back into us when it comes to how we are living our lives and why it's essential to question our values. That maybe our quest for being that "perfect" family is just utterly flawed and we are looking at the way we think we need to live completely backwards. A total eye-opener!
Finances
Think about bills you have that are draining. For instance, is it necessary for everyone in the family to have a cell phone? If the answer is no, then let some of them go and have one extra that your teenager can use while they are away from you. Do you watch all of the channels on satellite or cable? Chances are good that you do not, so pare your programming down to what you know you will watch. Stop eating out so often. Even though eating out is easier, it is more expensive and is often not good for your health.
Workspace
Depending on your job, workspace clutter may or may not be a problem. For those with an office desk, workspace clutter may be having too many pictures or mementos. For those in a factory setting, it may mean you cannot find your tools when you need them. By creating a functional and clean workspace, you increase your productivity, which will make everyone happy!
Effect of clutter
Ridding yourself of clutter, both physical and mental, can truly increase your feelings of happiness and calm. It can lead to less stress and overall greater well-being. The negative effects of too much clutter are astounding.
Decreased mental health is one of the biggest issues to come of surrounding yourself with all sorts of clutter.
Studies show that mental hygiene is improved when clutter is kept under control, both in the home and in the workplace. Too much physical clutter impairs visual processing. It can be incredibly distracting to see lots of piles and messes in your surroundings, leading you to miss cues regarding people's emotions and other important information. Your cognition and clarity of mind are adversely affected by excess mental clutter. You simply can't think straight when you've got a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions swirling around in your head.
the takeaway
These are just a handful of suggestions for minimizing the clutter. We'll discover more throughout this challenge. Now that you understand the impact clutter can have on your stress levels, you can start to make some changes of your own.
It is unlikely that anyone consciously decides to have clutter in his or her homes or their lives. Unfortunately, clutter tends to creep in and take over once it starts. Use these tips for decluttering your life and you will marvel at the sense of freedom you experience.
The next post that will follow is all about creating inner calm through meditation.
Until then, stay humble, grateful and remember that today may not be the best day, but you can always improve on it!
This post was all about clutter and stress.
Elle Ash xo
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