You hear me say this over and over: decluttering is self-love. Let me explain what I mean by that.
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https://www.connygraf.com/podcast/3
Everything in your outer environment is a reflection of something that’s inside of you. What you surround yourself with affects you – either in a positive way or a not-so-positive way.
Clutter is one of the things that negatively affects you.
The more stuff you have around you, the more your energy is consumed by these things (primarily because you have to take care of them).
The stagnant energy that accumulates around items you don’t love or use (whether they are laying around or you have them packed away) causes a corresponding “stuckness” in your life.
You are spending a lot of attention and energy on stuff that holds you back and keeps you stuck. As a result, your life is on hold, and there is no space for change. No space for something new to come into your life.
Clutter stresses us out
What spiritual and other teachers have talked about for centuries we’re now starting to prove scientifically.
For example, researchers at The University of California found that stress hormones spike during the times you spend dealing with your belongings. Also, Stanford published an article on how less clutter reduces our stress levels.
Clutter makes you feel stressed, overwhelmed, sidetracked, stuck, heavy, sluggish, uninspired, unmotivated, and sometimes even depressed.
When your environment looks bad, you feel bad.
Clutter also distracts us
While living clutter-free and organized really helps you feel less stressed and overwhelmed, you also don’t get sidetracked as easily.
Researchers at the Princeton University Neuroscience Institute came to the conclusion that a cluttered environment restricts our ability to focus.
The more objects in the visual field, the harder our brain has to work to filter them out. This is causing your brain to tire over time, and reduces its ability to function.
By creating space in your outer environment, you and your loved ones can actually focus on what matters to you. You have the time and the energy to put into those important areas of your life.
Clutter can make us sick
Clutter is also a risk to our health. All the dust that is trapped by clutter (and that collects around clutter) affects the quality of air in your home and office. In more extreme cases, the dust can lead to mold and bacteria.
This can lead to serious health risks, especially if you or one of your family members is prone to allergies or asthma.
If we just stay with the dirt and dust for a bit longer, tidy, clutter-free and organized spaces are way easier to get clean and keep clean. And let’s be honest. For most of us, cleaning is not an enjoyable activity. It’s more a necessary chore.
Less clutter does mean less cleaning. And when we save time cleaning, we can in turn use that time for something that is more important to us.
Why is decluttering so difficult?
Given that there are so many good reasons to declutter — and to live clutter-free — why is decluttering so difficult?
It is because we don’t approach clutter with the right mindset.
We might think it’s a one-time event. I do it once — sometime in the future when I have enough time to do it –— and then I am done. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t work that way.
Another reason is that we are not aware how much clutter is weighing us down until we let go of some of it.
Decluttering, organizing, and getting control of the stuff in your life will give a sense of accomplishment and well-being. When you let go of things that have no more room in your life, you will physically feel the release in your body.
You will feel lighter, you will feel like you are in the flow — and this will lead to you feeling more energized, optimistic, and happy.
That’s why my mission is to show you an approach and a way of decluttering that ultimately becomes simply the way you live your life.
It is not about purging, minimalism, or becoming overwhelmed with tasks or overwhelmed with decluttering — that would be counterproductive.
Give your future self elbow room
My friend Vicki coined the phrase: “Decluttering will give you and your future self elbow room.” That is room to grow, discover, evolve and change — all at the pace of your own wisdom.
And that’s what decluttering helps us with:
- to find ourselves and who we are
- to let go of the things and thoughts that have nothing to do anymore with who we are
- maybe they never had anything to do with you in the first place.
So ask yourself: what is your vision for how you (and your family) live in your home?
There is no right or wrong answer. A young family with small children will have different requirements than “empty nesters”, and singles or couples without children are different again.
Related Post: DECLUTTER AND CLEAN | 5 SIMPLE STEPS TO HOME OFFICE ORGANIZATION
Craft a vision of the perfectly functioning home for the stage of life that you are in right now.
- What stage of life are you at?
- What are your requirements for this stage?
- What is trying to emerge in your life that you might need to make room for?
- How would your ideal home and/or office space look like?
- How would it function on a day-to-day basis?
- How would it support your lifestyle, your hobbies, your needs?
Remember we want to make elbow room for our future self. We are shaped by what we surround ourselves with. The question is, how do you want to be shaped?
These are big questions that you don’t have to and most likely can’t answer right on the spot. But you might want to keep them in your mind, and when you go about the rest of your day and in the next few days pay attention when you get stressed coming into your home or office.
See if you can take five minutes and clean something up to relieve some of this stress. Because, a few minutes a day keep the chaos away.
Surround yourself with what tells the story of who you are right now, not who you used to be. So decluttering is really a thoughtful and powerful approach of self-development.
Let’s summarize why I call decluttering an act of self-love:
- When our environment looks bad, we feel bad
- A clutter free environment helps us feel less stressed and overwhelmed
- We also don’t get sidetracked that easy and we can focus better
- Clutter is a health risk, the dust and dirt affect the quality of the air, and can lead to mold and bacteria
- All this dust and dirt requires more time cleaning, so less time for the things we really want to do
- When we have more time for yourself we can focus on what really matters to us. It’s a tool for self-development, we can find ourselves and figure out who we really are
Self-care and self-love are important but it’s much more than bubble baths, massages and special treats. It’s about creating an environment that supports us in a very practical way, brings more ease and freedom and joy in our life.
That’s why I say decluttering is self-love.
CONNY GRAF
Conny Graf is a Swiss certified Expert in Finance & Accounting, a certified Clutter Clearing Practitioner, Astrologer, Coach, Podcaster and the founder and owner of From Chaos to Peace Consulting Inc.
She’s helping people create supportive, clutter-free environments in their home, office, files, and finances but more importantly, she helps them develop habits and systems that prevent clutter from creeping back in. Clutter Clearing is not just about purging and organizing, it’s about exploring and releasing the limiting beliefs we tell ourselves and the stories that keep us stuck in the past. Dealing with clutter brings us up-to-date with who we are right now and where we are heading in your life and business while being organized is simply a side-effect.
Her mission is to help people understand that decluttering is self-love, and a few minutes a day keep the clutter away. Come on a journey from chaos to peace with ease.
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