How to Declutter
My intuitive, spiritual, and practical 5-step approach on how to
declutter your home and your business will show you how to let go of
what no longer has a place in
your life and create powerful changes that last.
You have probably already tried to handle your stuff, declutter, and organize your life.
You may have purchased books, you may have read tips and hints in magazines, and you may have even hired a professional to come in and help you organize your space.
But what I’ve often seen is that the clutter just comes back, often immediately, and the root of the problem hasn’t been solved when someone else does the work without your involvement, or when you simply focus on the ‘stuff.’
Focusing only on the stuff and 'making it neat,' is not actually the point. When you focus solely on the stuff, you're not learning anything about yourself in the process; all you have learned to do is move some things around.
Your clutter is simply an extension of what is going on inside of you. Without a clear understanding of what message your environment is sending you, how the excess got there in the first place, and without a clear way of making decisions about what you allow into your life moving forward, the excess will come right back and there will be little to no lasting change in your life.
Learning how to declutter will help you make these lasting changes!
Step 1 – See your clutter as your ally
First, make friends with your things so you can understand why you have been keeping them.
Your clutter is in your life for a very good reason — in other words, your things are trying to tell you something very important.
We are often pretty sensitive about our stuff, primarily because we have assigned meaning and memories and hope and identity to our things. In many ways, the things in our homes and offices, especially the things we've hidden away, are more sensitive to us than our finances or our sex lives, because we believe our stuff represents us and who we are (it doesn't, by the way).
We keep things for many reasons, and I’ll show you how your things impact you. In fact, you’ll learn how to easily recognize the impact yourself as you declutter your environment.
Your clutter contains a loving, spiritual lesson for you, and once you learn it, you can more easily access and let go of your internal clutter as well.
Step 2 – Look for what delights you
Once we have a clear view of what your environment has been trying to tell you, but before we start cleaning out clutter, we’ll look at where the excess stuff is coming from.
If we don’t plan ahead and look at how you’ll be making decisions about allowing new things to come in, you’ll be surrounded in clutter again at some point in the very near future, so here’s where we’ll focus on stopping the flow.
You’ll discover how to be extremely selective about what you allow back into your life, your home, and your work, bringing in and keeping only what delights you.
You’ll also learn how to listen to and honor the inner guidance you receive, knowing and trusting that you will always receive everything you need.
Step 3 – Clear your clutter
Before you start letting go of things that you no longer adding value to your life, you’ll need a place for them to go. Some you will likely throw, but how about those items that are too valuable for the garbage? You need to know what to do with clutter.
Before we jump in and declutter, we’ll decide where to donate, recycle, consign, sell, and give away the items you’re ready to let go of, so they’ll all have a good home.
Otherwise, you’ll be tempted to wait until next summer so you can plan your garage sale, or your things will sit in a corner for months until you do something with them. That just makes more clutter!
It’s important, as you start clearing your space and learning how to clear clutter, to physically get rid of what you’re letting go of as quickly as possible. The benefits of the declutter process come after the things are gone, not after you have simply made the decision to get rid of it.
Now we’re ready to start actually clearing your space. First, you’ll learn my very simple ‘clutter test’ to help you easily identify clutter (this one will surprise you).
I’ll also show how to quickly and easily declutter your home, your office, your car, your garage, and any other spaces you have…one section at a time. You can do it all at once, or at whatever pace feels best to you.
You’ll also find out, firsthand, that the sooner you are willing to let go of what no longer serves you, the faster what you truly want can show up.
And best of all, I'll teach you how to trust your intuition and trust your decisions, so that moving forward you'll be able to recognize what is and isn't serving you and easily know what to do about it.
Step 4 – Trust the empty space
It can initially feel uncomfortable when you have let go of things you have held onto. It's often simply part of the declutter process for many people.
Knowing how to trust in that empty space, and knowing how to allow whatever comes up around it, is an important part of the process as well.
Otherwise, you will consciously or unconsciously start filling up your space again to get rid of that uncomfortable feeling.
Step 5 – Polish everything around you
This final step is like
putting a fine shine on a high-quality pair of
shoes. Without the shine, they’re just shoes that will protect your
feet as you’re walking. When they shine beautifully, they give you and
everything you are wearing a glow, a feeling of quality, and a sense of
confidence.
The same goes for your environment. Once you have cleared out everything that is no longer adding value to your life, it’s time to polish and beautifully arrange the things that are left.
Here’s where organizing comes in. At this stage, organizing becomes more about making your things beautiful and easily accessible than about simply fitting more stuff into the available space.
Rather than focusing on adding more things, this step is about upgrading everything around you so it delights and supports you just the way you want it.
The same goes for your environment. Once you have cleared out everything that is no longer adding value to your life, it’s time to polish and beautifully arrange the things that are left.
Here’s where organizing comes in. At this stage, organizing becomes more about making your things beautiful and easily accessible than about simply fitting more stuff into the available space.
Rather than focusing on adding more things, this step is about upgrading everything around you so it delights and supports you just the way you want it.
And while you may start the process of learning tips to declutter in order to have a clean desk, how to reduce clutter to create a delightful closet, and living and working environments that are efficient and organized, you will also discover a simple, powerful way to free an enormous amount of energy and creativity, allowing unexpected new opportunities and new possibilities to come into your life
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