It’s a normal day at the office. When you find that after a long day at the office, you come home and you realize how the remnants of a battlefield would have looked. You have to tiptoe around boxes, stuff that you wanted to take out but just didn’t have the time, or you down to the kitchen and find that Sunday’s over enthusiasm has left a dirty scar. All those things, well, you convince yourself that its important, necessary in fact for you…or is it just plain junk?
Some believe that attempting to de-clutter and tidy a home is an achievement in itself! But majority also believe that it is a myth, that in reality, the junk is hidden, under the carpet, in the “closet” destined to be a dirty skeleton never to be addressed or spoken about.
Let’s be honest, it is hard to find the motivation and the perseverance to remove clutter from your home. The job feels overwhelming and you are in awe of those handful “greats” who are actually successful in completing the task. You have probably tried every single one of their advices, borne the demeaning looks of your loved ones as you haplessly try to shut close the closet door.
If you are going to organize, do the deep-down kind of organizing that will last more than a day or two. You need to figure out what you need and is to be discarded. Ask the internal questions: 1) Why did I buy it?, 2) do I have any possible use for it?, and 3) where should I place it so that its right there when I want it?
After you have answered these eternal questions I suggest do the following:
1. Packaging
Find yourself, boxes, cartons whatever you use to dispose of JUNK. Label it as JUNK and make sure that when you throw something in that box, it stays there. You DO NOT NEED EVERYTHING FOR A RAINY DAY!
2. Time Yourself
It is very important that you keep a DEADLINE. “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and clearing you house of all the clutter, can also happen in one day. Know this before you start so that you pick up area’s that can be finished within the time span.
3. One Area At a Time
This goes without saying. Since you are on a deadline, you will do this automatically. This is just to re-enforce the fact that you have to pick out the rooms, even break up the areas in a room, to ensure that your cleaning spree does not create collateral damage.
4. “I need more space”
Attitude while attacking clutter is very important. You are bound to lose heart, you would feel like giving up, feel like “all is lost”. This is when you MUST tell yourself, time and time again “I need more space”. As you get closer, it gets harder, there is not much that you will be do to against this surge of negative emotion, unless you chant “I need more space”.
5. Give it ALL AWAY
You are not to keep the boxes in a garage “to be disposed off later”. That is just shifting the clutter from your room, to your garage, and still in the house. The best thing to do, is simply to give it away, let it all go.