Remember what a disaster it was when you moved to another house? You take an educated guess of how much work it will take. Well take that educated guess and multiply it by at least 3 and you will be in the ballpark. And it's like that every time you move.
It's unbelievable how the stuff keeps coming out of the woodwork. Cabinets, drawers, closets, the stuff just keeps on coming out. You never realize how much stuff you have stored away until you have to move it all.
While I was in college and moving out of my place I had a lady friend coming in from out of town in a couple of days but no problem I don't have much and I will be finished moving today. Well today came and went but no problem I had all the next day. But then came the day of her arrival and I was still taking things out and some of our "quality time together" was spent with me getting the last of my stuff out. And even then it didn't get completed and that was the day I was supposed to be out. The landlord realized my situation, and saw that I had a lady with me and bless his heart big time because he allowed me to stay another night.
It was slightly awkward and it was caused by an extreme under estimation of what was required. The stuff just keeps coming out of the woodwork non stop.
The point is you have mountains of stuff stored away, and most of it has never been used or touched since it was stored making it unnecessary clutter and if it all suddenly disappeared you would never miss it.
This is amazing but take a look in your closet, look in a drawer, a cabinet or a bookcase and each time pick out the items you've actually touched recently and when I say recently I mean in the last 12 months. Go ahead do it you will be shocked. It's usually less then ten percent. The vast majority of your stuff you will never ever even touch again and if it was gone you would never miss it. Isn't that amazing?
Did you go do it, did you check it out? Go do it. You don't want to get up? Oh, you can't rip yourself away from this incredible article, I can understand that. Okay well at least turn and look at a bookcase. Can you see all the books you haven't touched in years and you most likely will never ever look at again? What's left over (the stuff you have touched in the last 12 months) won't even fill one shelf. Now are you amazed? Well that's how it is with all of your storage areas.
Have you figured out where I'm going with this? Right, how about getting rid of some of this stuff and declutter your home a little bit.
Let's start with a bedroom because that's where people store a lot of things. Pick an area of your room like a corner. Go through drawers or shelves and start tossing. Now move in a clockwise direction to the next target and do the same and keep moving in a clockwise direction until you've made a complete circle around your room and tossed lots of unnecessary clutter out.
Remember we said you only need ten percent. Does that mean you are supposed to throw out ninety percent? No it doesn't, there is going to be lots of stuff you are going to want to hang on to "just in case you may need it some day" and that's totally okay. But you should have a goal of tossing out a good chunk, what ever that means to you, but not 10% don't be a wimp about it you can do better then that.
Throw out what you are comfortable with and keep the rest. If you keep a lot of unnecessary stuff that's fine because in six months you do the same procedure. Go clockwise around the room tossing out more stuff until you make it all the way around the room, and don't be leaving out the closet.
You still have clutter you are hanging on to but the spaces are opening up fine. Your closet even has a lot of room in it now. In six months...same thing but now it's been a year. You know all those things you've been hanging onto "just in case you may need it some day?" Well it's been a year now, have you even touched any of it. No? Well let's be realistic about it, it's now a year later do you really think you will touch it next year or ever for that matter? If no, it's time to toss it. If by some off chance later on you find you need it then just buy another, you'll be fine, it's far better then hanging onto lots of useless clutter for years when the odds are you will never need any of it. Make sense? Good.
Since this article is called declutter your home obviously you do this with each room of the house, including the garage. Have you ever moved your office to another location? Same thing at the office the clutter just pours out of the woodwork nonstop so use this declutter tool at the office too.
The great thing about this declutter method is there is no urgency because you are dealing with clutter that is out of sight and it's been there for ages so you can do it at your own pace with no pressure about it.
You could legitimately ask the question, "why bother to declutter your home of stuff that is out of sight out of mind if it's not causing a problem?" That's a tough question but a fair question and I think I can answer it.
First of all when something is out of sight it is NOT out of mind. Your mind knows every piece of clutter that you have stored away even if it is out of sight and unfortunately this is a burden for you and has the effect of cluttering up your mind as well. How do you know this? It's proven by how much better you feel and how much clearer your mind is when you just start this decluttering. Isn't that enough reason to continue the process until it is finished? Yes, absolutely it is because when you actually finish decluttering your home using this method you feel like a million bucks. You feel liberated, you feel unburdened like a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. And that's why you need to declutter your home. Plus when the day comes that you have to move look how much easier it will be and how much less you will have to pay the movers.
Doesn't it just sound like decluttering your home on a deep level like this is the correct thing to do? Sure it does and you like doing the correct thing so go ahead just start the process and see for yourself how much better you feel by doing the right thing for your home and go from there.
Autor: Russ Cooper
Declutter Your Home is just one of a number of very powerful decluttering tools that you can get for free of charge at http://clutter-bugger.com/ go there now and grab a few tools and change your living conditions and your life for the better.
Added: February 15, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/
Posts
0 Comments:
Post a Comment