7 Tips for people who are ready to declutter are no good unless you find individual motivation. You might be asking yourself, why do you say, “ready to declutter.”? Well, the truth is you have to be ready. Decluttering is really not a one and done kind of thing.
Are you ready to declutter, if you are ready, we can talk about how to get started. Decluttering is not easy and the reward comes after you are done. I may be something that is really hard to start doing and even harder to finish.
Less mess is easier to organize, but you have to start decluttering first.
Are you motivated to declutter and get organized? Have you found the secret to take on your clutter and change the way you live?
1. Motivation
The key to getting started on any project that is hard and will take a considerable amount of time is finding what motivates you! I have four children and they are all motivated by different things. One was motivated by praise, one by extra activities, one by 1:1 time and one I never figured out. I can tell you that none of them were motivated by money and that made getting them on board sometimes difficult.
Tip number one is a big one for people who are ready to declutter. Being ready is half of the battle.
Motivation comes from the inside and is not the same for everyone. Just because declutter your home is the newest buzz word it doesn’t mean it is going to be easy to start. You have to find what motivates you. I may be shopping or the quality time alone, whatever it is, it’s the key to getting this job done.
I have read all the articles about decluttering, maybe you have too. The articles ABOUT decluttering are not motivational to me. I can read those and know that “less is more, and that a simple life is a better life.” I get those things and understand the potential to have a simple life, but reading those things don’t motivate me to actually do something about it.
A year or so ago I wrote about 7 Good Reasons To Declutter, because let’s be frank, sometimes we need a reason.
So, What Motivates You?
What motivates me is a clean, clear space. I like to sew, paint and do other hobbies, but I can not do them if my space is a mess, for real. I have to straighten up before I can start a project. The more clutter I have, the longer it takes to get to the project I want to start. Having a lot of junk laying around and taking up space bothers me.
So what motivates you? Unless you figure that out you are going to fall back into the same trap over time. That is the key to success in decluttering and getting organized. The reason I say that is because I have seen this principle in action. Can I tell you a story?
Chaos
I had a friend that lived in some chaos. She had several children, home schooled and led a very busy life. Several times over the years she asked for my help getting some of the chaos under control. The value of living an organized life appealed to her, but it was just never on the radar for her.
When the chaos got out of control she would call me. I loved helping her because being organized is really a thing for me. Personally, I can not stand to search for something for hours. It drives me crazy, but for her, she did not mind not being able to find whatever was missing. We had different approaches to life and how our day should look.
I would go to her home and spend the day getting some of the chaos in order. The school supplies and other areas of her home would look organized and somewhat decluttered. Things that piled up and that were unnecessary were thrown away but, it never stayed that way. It would soon become a matter of chaos again later.
What I loved doing she did not. The key to keeping your chaos straight is finding what makes you happy. Do you want order, less, the simple life, time, whatever it is you need to figure it out.
Now I love to declutter. It just makes me happy to do it. I find it therapeutic, but I have learned that when you do it FOR someone else they do not get the awesome reward that comes with it. I like decluttering and think it is therapeutic, but my friend did not. She didn’t get the benefit offered to you when you organize and declutter. She just watched and never really figured out why it was necessary. Figure out what motivates you and start with that.
Don’t Let Clutter Get In The Way Of Living Life
Standing on the sidelines and letting someone else do the work for you will never help you. Find what motivates YOU. You will never keep your house decluttered if you do not find what motivates you. Being temporarily bothered by the mess will never help you keep up with it.
Once you discover what motivates you to declutter and keep it organized, write it down somewhere. During this process you may want to quit. Never give up! Write down why you are doing this and the reward when you have completed the initial task.
What Will Motivate You?
In the book, THE GENTLE ART OF SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING, Margareta talks about what we leave behind with our families. In the last few years, my husband’s parents passed away. Before my father in law passed they downsized.
We are thankful they did but, there was still a lot of clutter to get rid of. After going through most of their belongings and keeping some of it we still had spare rooms and an attic full of things we had to get rid of.
This week I had a conversation with someone that is going through the same thing. It is a job! A very difficult job. Getting rid of another persons things is just hard.
Don’t wait, start now. Make your life less stressful and your children’s as well. Find what will motivate you and the job will be so much more pleasant. It could be clearing things out now so that your family will not have to. Some other things to think about.
A Few Things To Motivate You!
- Make some money, yard sales can be very profitable. The money you make is all yours.
- Free yourself, less mess is easier to maintain. Go golf, read or take a dance class, you have less stuff to maintain.
- Free your family, when you move to the next life they do not have to worry about all the things you kept and find a place for it.
- Someone else can be getting pleasure from your things. You are not using all the things you keep stored in your home.
- Time lost is NEVER given back. Being organized and clutter free gives you precious time.
2. Make It Simple
If your system is not simple you will not keep it up. A complicated system will only make it hard to maintain. Just start with one room. The end goal is to declutter your home. The tips for people ready to declutter are only good if you are ready to declutter, right? After you find the motivation the other tips with help get you to start to declutter.
I like to start in small drawers. They get unorganized quickly and we tend to just toss things in there. You don’t have to buy anything to declutter a drawer. Simply toss everything in the drawer into a bag. Use jewelry boxes or you can buy drawer dividers on Amazon.
This post from Budget Dumpster talks about your common Junk Drawer, HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR JUNK DRAWER IN 25 MINUTES.
After arranging the boxes in the drawer start to put the things in the bag back in. Be more concerned about what you want to keep than what you are getting rid of.
Keep it simple, the more complicated you make this the harder it will be to keep it up.
3. Save The Sentimental Stuff Till Last
Tip number 3 for people that are ready to declutter is one of the hardest to overcome, don’t start with your family photos or baby things. You will just be shooting yourself in the foot. Start with junk drawers, linen closets, and your clothes.
If you start with the sentimental things first you will NEVER get anywhere. Start without getting bogged down in things that are sentimental.
4. Make Some Money
Someone else can be enjoying your clutter. Yes, it is true, “One Man’s Junk Is Another Man’s Treasure.” It is really true, someone would love to have what you kept in your closet for 5, 10, 15 years.
The last yard sale that I had was because we moved. I had nothing of great value on any of the tables. Selling the things that have been stored in your home for 17-18 years or maybe more is a good way to make some money.
It was not a lot of work and I was ecstatic with the end results. You can make some money from the things you decide not to put back in our home.
5. Don’t Look At Your Whole House
Try not to look at this task as one huge project. Break it down, room by room. Bedrooms are usually a good place to start. I suggest make a simple plan. Don’t over plan this, that is just another form of procrastinating and we do not want to put this job off.
6. Give Yourself Time
Can you declutter your home in 24 hours or one Saturday? Maybe you can. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. It takes time, so give yourself real time frames. Just because someone put on Pinterest, Declutter Your Home In One Afternoon doesn’t mean it is possible.
7. Get Some Help
Recruit a friend to help you. Tip number 7 for people that are ready to declutter is like having a one on one coach.
Not just any friend, but a good friend. Sometimes we need perspective about the things we are getting rid of. Having sentimental attachments to THINGS is real. Looking at them brings back memories and helps us recall another time in our lives.
Asking a really good friend to help you make a decision regarding the items we remove from our home can be so helpful. Your friend can help you ask the important questions you cannot ask yourself.
Ask Yourself These Questions
For example:
- Broken items, “Am I really going to fix this?”
- Storing items, “Will I even want to use this in the next year?”
- Clothing, “Is the chance of this fitting realistic?”
- Tools, “Do I have more than one? Do I need more than one?”
- Anything, “Do I love it? Do I want to love it but don’t?”
- Ask, “Have I used this in the last year even two years?”
It can be hard to ask those questions if you have someone there that can look at this task with clear judgment it can make this so much easier.
Tips For People Ready To Declutter
So, maybe you are saying, “What do Tips For People Ready To Declutter” really mean? Just that, you have to be ready. Getting motivated to start the job you have to start doing.
Start the job, get in motion. Pick a day, a month, anytime just start the process. A ball that starts rolling down a hill will pick up speed, right? Put your plan into motion and as you start doing it the motivation will get stronger and stronger.
What will I Keep?
You will start to realize that getting rid of things is a really important step. You may need to look at this from the perspective of, what will I keep? Remember, it is not just about letting go of stuff that is affecting the way you want to live, but it is also about keeping things that do not matter.
So as you dump that drawer out in your bathroom and line it with some really pretty paper, what do you want to put back in your newly clean space?
You Can Get Started Now
Go ahead make a plan. Let these tips for people ready to declutter help you find the motivation. Start doing it. You will find it easier if you just get started today. Remember, we don’t NEED STUFF. We need people and relationships. Keep it simple and get help. Honestly, Janet
