One of the tasks I enjoy doing the most is decluttering. I absolutely love it! I do it a lot to the extent that I don’t even accumulate enough mess for me to have a proper declutter.
The ritual of removing clutter or mess from a place aka. decluttering can change your life and improve its quality.
If you want to change up in your life, you should think about performing a complete declutter. It would help you in ways you wouldn’t even imagine.
1. Helps You Move on from the Past
One of the ways that decluttering can change your life is it helps you move on from the past and into the here and now.
It helps you to not only clear the mess, but also process and come to terms with whatever happened in your past relationships, previous jobs and ventures that didn’t work out.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with having sentimental attachments to some things, but holding on to every item and memory from your past can prevent you from accepting the future with open arms.
2. Improve Positive Karma
The first time I performed a complete decluttering, I had more than three boxes of items I no longer had any use for. Some of those items, I hadn’t even used in years. They were just occupying space and making everywhere stuffy.
You can free up those objects by donating them to charities and those who needs them.
These items can range from clothes, tools, kitchenware and lots more. Giving away these goods also increases your karma points.
3. Clears Your Head
I don’t think that there is any sane human being alive that would feel comfortable in a disorganized and messy environment. Too much clutter distorts your mind and stops your from thinking straight. If you are in need of a mental rest or just want to relieve emotional stress, you can try a bit of decluttering.
4. Gets You Organized
This is one of the most important ways by which decluterring can change your life. Being organized is very essential for you to maximize your productivity. ‘
If you want to improve your productivity through organization, you are in luck because decluttering is the first thing to do in the process of getting organized. When you do a proper declutter, you redefine your workplace, maximize spaces, develop new habits and even have control over the payment of your bills and budgeting.
5. Find Hidden Gems
After my first deep declutter, I realized I had four different house keys in various corners of the home. I always thought I misplaced them and always spent money to change the locks. It turned out they were not missing, just hidden beneath piles of clutter.
You would be surprised what is hiding under the bed or behind the dresser. There could be some things that you would find that are very useful and would cause you lots of money to replace. Decluttering would save you the stress of having to duplicate or buy a new item when you could just find them.
6. Creates the Avenue to Pursue Your Hobbies and Dreams
Is there a hobby you’ve been putting off for long? Maybe you love to dance but there isn’t just enough space for you to do it.
Decluttering can change your life, helping you to create new spaces so you that pursue whatever hobbies you may have.
You could clear and area in your garage to start your own painting studio, a space for your band, or turn a bedroom that is no longer in use into an office.
7. Provide Additional Cash
You can earn some extra cash if you sold the proceeds of your decluttering on online stores like eBay. You can also have a yard sale. I bought myself a new TV from the proceeds of my yard sale after decluttering.
Knowing you could make some money from cleaning your garage should serve as a nice incentive to declutter.
8. Save Extra Money from Storage
Self-storage can really be a bad idea. When you store items on your own, a lot of them begin to depreciate in value, they are a financial drain, and most storage facilities lack the adequate security. My line of thought is if you can store a particular item for years, you can probably live without it.
When you empty your storage spaces, you free up your money that be otherwise placed in other things. I am sure you would prefer a fat wallet to a jam-packed storage locker.
“Decluttering can change your life and make you more productive in the process”
9. Ignite Former Interests
When time passes, various challenges and responsibilities get in the way of our hobbies and old interests. The act of decluttering would help you to rediscover those interests and projects that have been abandoned for a long time. When you declutter do it with a sense of reigniting past pursuits and you would be sure of having sufficient energy for the task.
10. Enjoy Memories
Decluttering can change your life and that of your family and friends. It helps to uncover memories that you can share with your family and friends. You would be surprised to even find family heirlooms and treasures that can be shared within the family.
11. Reduce Your Footprints
Knowing exactly what you have and what you need makes it easier to make purchases and skip buying things that are unnecessary. In the same light, when you have less things to store, it would means less clutter, less things to clean and less time spend doing maintenance.
With decluttering, you would be helping to improve the environment. It also reduces your carbon footprints and you would assist in make the world greener.
12. Liven Up Your Mood
There is nothing that kills motivation and productivity like a clutter. In other words clutter is a bitch. Although it might take you a while before you might build up enough energy and motivation, the act of cleaning our homes from clutter can help to brighten a dour mood and improve positivity.
Lisa Kaplan Gordon from HouseLogic.com has this to say about clutter, “It turns out that clutter has a profound effect on our mood and self-esteem. Social scientists have discovered that there is a link between high cortisol (which is the stress hormones) in female home owners that have a high density of objects in their home. The more stuff in the home, the more stress women feel.”
Our living spaces are personal, so it is important to take time to clean it up. The feeling you would get from sprucing your home is sure to make you happy.
13. You’ll be More Radiant and Present
When there is order in your surroundings, you become more grounded in the present. Chinese Traditional Medicine believes that proper circulation of energy or life force is key to being in good health and abundance.
The same way acupuncture would remove imbalances from the body, so also clutter removes imbalances from spaces hence improving dynamism and wellness.
Moving through areas that are well lit up and free of clutter would ignite fresh energy and improve your inspiration, making you radiant and bringing brightness to your personality.
The same way acupuncture would remove imbalances from the body, so also clutter removes imbalances from spaces hence improving dynamism and wellness.
14. Creates More Time
Clutter can make you feel overwhelmed and reduce your productivity. Decluttering can change your life since it gives you more time to get your tasks done. Instead of you to spend hours trying to find something you need, a well-kept and organized space save you loads of time.
You could be saving up to an hour on the average every day after you have done a deep decluttering. Now calculate an hour every single day for year, you would see that you have saved a ton of time.
15. You Sleep Better and Deeper
When you clear away the clutter around you the air becomes fresher. This allow you to fall asleep easily – especially when you address the clutter around the area where you sleep.
In a sleep study, it was realized that people who suffer from hoarding disorder finds it more difficult to sleep at night. These difficulties would include experiences such as rest disturbances.
Feng shui teaches that humans are energetic beings and the more energy that is allowed to flow freely around us, the easier it would be for you to be able to have a more peaceful and deep sleep.
16. You Solve Problems Easily
Opening up spaces in your home after a proper decluttering would give you a different perspective on issues around you. This makes it easier for you to then focus on your problems and find solutions to them inventively.
17. Your Intuition Becomes Sharper
Of course, your intuition would still work when its time to wash your laundry or dirty clothing. Making important and big decisions on the other hand would require a clean and soothing environment.
Decluttering would give you a sense of clarity and would often help you to make decisions that would be right and accurate.
Whenever I am about to make a life changing decision, I found that clearing the space around me always helped to make a more empowered decision.
18. Your Concentration Improves
You would almost never get any task completed if there is a bunch of rubbish on your desk. If you just took some time to clear the desk, remove extra papers, place everything at right angles, you would see yourself becoming more productive.
Mikel Cho states that, “Whether it be your closet or office desk, excess things in your surroundings can have a negative impact on your ability to focus and process information. That’s exactly what neuroscientists at Princeton University found when they looked at people’s task performance in an organized versus disorganized environment. The results of the study showed that physical clutter in your surroundings competes for your attention, resulting in decreased performance and increased stress.”
Essentially, clutter makes it difficult for you to concentrate as you causes your brain to multitask more.
19. It Involves Physical Activity and Allows Your Mind to Wander
Decluttering gives your mind the opportunity to wander if you’ve been concentrating too hard on your job. It helps you to have more insight on the work you are doing.
Physical activities like moving around heavy boxes, helps in supercharging the mind wandering process. You could even have a Eureka moment during this period.
20. Reduce Strain in Family Relationships
Decluttering can change your life in the sense that it could help you to reduce stress and tension in the family. Clutter and mess can cause you to argue with siblings or snap at your wife after you have you have been looking for your keys for more than 10 minutes and you are now running late.
21. More Freedom
After decluttering and clearing up possessions that are have no more importance or value to you, you would begin to have a sense of lightness and freedom.
Lack of attachments to these possessions, would make it easier for you to concentrate on other experiences.
The results from decluttering can change your life and proof highly therapeutic. The results of course is wonderful and it should be a habit that you should develop. There are only upsides to clearing up space and clutter.
You would feel much happier and energized. Money would be easier to save, your health becomes better and your creativity increases. With that much said, go grab some empty boxes and start emptying the garage!