The De-Clutter Process – Peggy W Barnes

The De-Clutter Process

De-cluttering can be such a freeing process.  For many people, though, it feels like it is an overwhelming, unattainable goal.  I believe that de-cluttering is essential for living the best life you can live.  

                                           (photo courtesy of Bill Longshaw/freedigitalphotos.net)

Take this room, for example.  This is not any one of my client’s rooms as I don’t take photos of any of my client’s rooms.  This was a stock photo off the Internet but I am using it to prove a point.  How can someone live their best life in the midst of chaos?  How can a child enjoy all they have been given if they can’t even get to half of it?  How can you feel like your world is not closing in on you every time you step into that room?  

So, how would I attack a room like this?  A little bit at a time.  I would first go through and see if there is any trash………..yes, trash……..you’d be surprised.  Then I would begin to take one thing at a time and decide what to do with it OR I would begin to divide the items into categories.  You could have a category of cars, games, blocks, clothes, art supplies, etc.  Then once it is divided into categories, I would only put a small fraction of the stuff back in the room limiting  the number of items in the child’s room. 

The same goes for any adult room.  Take one thing at a time, whether it be a shelf, a drawer, a corner, or the top of the dresser. Divide the items you find into categories and then make good, sound, sometimes hard decisions about whether it is adding value to your life and just like the child, limit how many items you get to “play” with or surround yourself with. 

There are two main things that are hard about the de-clutter process – letting go and pressing on, even when you don’t feel like it.  Getting through those two things will open a world of possibilities, allowing you to think about life instead of stuff!  

A Tanzanian Proverb says it best – Little by little a little becomes a lot.  Now go get going, little by little.  


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