Decluttering & Organizing for Self-Care
There are many self-care tips, but one in particular may be just what you need. It’s the art of decluttering and organizing. While that might not seem like it’s taking care of yourself, it does more than you know.
Disorganization can affect all areas of your body as well as boost your stress levels. Sometimes a lack of organization happens for a period of time such as during a holiday when there are packages and people everywhere. Or you’re so busy at work that you don’t have time to keep things orderly at home.
You get out of your normal routine. But most of the time, disorganization happens because you’re not practising self-care in that area of your life. When it comes to disorganization, most people automatically think of things like a home where clutter is piled everywhere.
But disorganization can also happen in other areas like your car, your purse, your finances, your schedule, your to-do list, and your relationships. Clutter, regardless of what form it takes, causes your mind to work harder and try to sort through the mess to find out what should be done next.
It zaps your time, your energy and the potential to be in a good mood. If there’s disorder in your surroundings then it can be hard to relax. You may feel tense because the disorganization is silently nagging you to take care of things.
If you push disorganization to the back of your mind, it’s still there weighing on you even if you don’t realize it. Plus, if your home is disorganized, you struggle to find the things you need when you need them and that adds to your stress.
Getting organized is a mood booster. When you organize your home, it helps to relieve stress. You also gain time in the future because you’re not wasting it searching for things over and over again.
I remember when I was young it was always difficult to find the scissors or sellotape and I could spend ages trying to find them. “Things” were just bundled into a couple of cupboards with no thought to organization. The idea of “a place for everything and everything in its place” wasn’t really practised in our house! I would get so frustrated at not being able to find the scissors that I would pull everything out of the cupboards and reorganize them – and I was only about 8 years old! But then weeks would go by and eventually it would return to its disorderly state. Now, as a “grown-up” I do my best to keep things orderly but have to confess that I’m not perfect.
Everything should have a place and you know exactly where it is. You also save money because you’re not constantly buying things to replace the items you know you own, but can’t find.
Good organization gives you peace of mind. It can also reduce the health risks that are associated with stress. Disorganization can happen as a result of bad habits – you just promise to get to it later, but that never happens and eventually, it’s out of control.
You procrastinate until it seems like there’s just so much to take care of that you feel overwhelmed because you don’t even know where to start. The job seems insurmountable. When you get organized, it’s one of the best self-care strategies you can embrace because it helps your life run smoother and makes you feel in control.
How To Declutter Your Home
The best way to declutter your home? Gradually!
If you look at your whole house and see how much clutter there is it can be so overwhelming that you just give up before you even start! The best way to declutter is to break it down into bite-size pieces and then tackle those areas one at a time.
Here are some actions to take to declutter your home:
- Take a notepad or clipboard and visit each room in your home. Make a note of any clutter in that room. If there’s a lot, break it down even further for example in a bedroom it may be wardrobe 1, wardrobe 2, clothes drawers, under the bed.
- By the end of this you should have a clear list of areas that need decluttering, and even sub-areas that need decluttering.
- Take the first area that needs decluttering and make an estimate of how long it will take to do.
- Set a time to do this and do it. Only do one area at a time.
- Once this area has been decluttered, take a look and see if it could be organised better. Maybe you need some boxes to store things in or little containers to organise things better.
- Repeat 3 – 5 until you’ve decluttered all areas.
This may take weeks, especially if you only have a few hours at the weekend but by the end of it you will have an orderly home and you should notice you feel calmer and less distracted by the clutter that’s no longer there.
As mentioned above, clutter and disorganisation can occur in other areas of your life such as your car, your bag, your garden, your desk and your office.
And similar to the way of decluttering your home you could break down other areas of your life that you want to declutter and organise. Make a list of these and work through the list methodically, tackling one area at a time.
Establish Some Healthy Habits
Now that you’ve decluttered your physical environment it’s time to set some healthy habits and routines to prevent them getting decluttered again!
You may find that now you have a “place for everything and everything in its place” it’s easy to keep things organised.
I’ve noticed that the “place for everything” is a key factor. If you don’t have somewhere to put the letters and junk mail that comes through the door it will inevitably pile up somewhere. Or if you don’t have somewhere to put the sellotape and scissors they’ll float around the house!
If you’ve already established places for things to go as part of the decluttering process then you are 80% of the way there. The remaining 20% is training yourself to put them there!
Examples:
- When you come in the house put your shoes on the shoe rack or in the shoe cupboard and hang your coat on the hook
- If you’ve been looking at some books or catalogues put them back on the shelf when you’ve finished
- Throw junk mail away as soon as you receive it and put letters to be answered in a specific place
- Put the sellotape and scissors back in the drawer when you’ve finished wrapping a gift (I know – I’m banging on about the scissors and sellotape!)
- If an item of clothing is broken, aged, too small, too big, throw it away. Don’t just put it back in the closet to be sorted out later.
Healthy habits are a great way to keep your life orderly and decluttered.
If you’d like some help take part in this 5 Day Self-Care Habits challenge. Over 5 days you will be addressing a different area of self-care which will help you feel calmer and less-stressed in life.
Join the challenge at any time and you’ll get access to the private Life Improvement Facebook Group where you can receive help and share your experiences with like-minded people.
P.S. Don’t forget your computer can get cluttered! Files you saved and forgot about, files you put in the wrong place, so don’t forget to take a look at your computer and declutter it.