Here are
some common mistakes that keep us from decluttering and keeping what’s left
over orderly:
Mistake
#1: Waiting until you can devote an entire weekend to decluttering.
Dedicating
an entire day to sorting through your home may not fit into your schedule—and
Sharon Lowenheim, a certified professional organizer and the owner of Organizing
Goddess, an organization service in NYC, says that's just fine.
She's seen clients make great headway by taking a small-zone approach. If
you're unsure what qualifies as "small," Lowenheim says to take an
empty paper towel roll, look through it and identify one messy area. Set a
timer for 15 minutes, and only work on the space you saw through the tube until
the timer goes off. It could be a spice rack, a basket of magazines or a cluttered
corner of your desk—she says you can even do some tasks while watching TV or
waiting for a load of laundry to finish. Do this for a few days, refocusing
your paper towel roll on a new spot each time and clearing it in a 15-minute
segment and you'll make significant progress.
Mistake #2: Relying on a storage unit.
There are
times when renting a space to stash your stuff is necessary (maybe you're
temporarily relocating, or you just need a spot for your canoe all winter).
Still, many people never go back to access their items, Lowenheim says. A 2017
study by the Self
Storage Association found that almost 10 percent of U.S. households
rent a storage unit, at an average cost of about $90 a month, (though it varies
depending on how big the unit is, and what part of the country it's in). Yet 15
percent of people who rent units say they're storing items they no longer need
or want. Before you make another payment on your space, consider if those
folding chairs, baby clothes, old Christmas ornaments and tennis racquets are
worth the nearly $1,100 a year you might be paying for someone else to store
them.
Mistake #3: Keeping that $45 face cream, even though you hate the way it smells.
Pro
organizers are used to seeing abandoned, barely-used or half-full bottles of
moisturizer, sunscreen and facial serum in bathroom cabinets, and it's
typically not because clients have simply forgotten about them. Andrew Mellen,
an organization expert, speaker and the author of Unstuff Your Life, says the people he works
with frequently tell him they spent so much money on a product, that even
though they don't like it, they feel guilty throwing it away. Clutter isn't the
only reason to toss products you're not using, though: many of the products actually expire way sooner than you
might think. If you've already opened, say, a tube of anti-aging
cream with retinol, it's only good for a year.
Ask Yourself 3 Questions When You Go Through Your Belongings
So, the first step to a clutter cure is to write down your favorite pack-rat phrases. My clients' top three are: "I have to go through those," "Someone could use that," and "But I need it!" Unless you use the object in question at least once a year, such righteous exclamations are actually symptoms of dysfunction. Obeying these protests will keep you overstuffed and off balance forever.
Instead, use your powers of analysis to outwit the primitive logic of these phrases. When I ask clients what they long for, the most common responses are "peace," "space" and "freedom." Clutter keeps us from achieving these goals, and we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying larger homes. Empty space is more valuable—psychologically and physically—than almost any object.
With this in mind, walk into any room of your home and focus on 10 random objects. As you consider each, ask yourself (1) Do I truly need it?; (2) Do I truly adore it?; and, (3) Would I trade inner peace for this? The answers can help curb your pack-rat impulses, allowing you to clear out and move on.
— Martha Beck, life coach and author of Finding Your Own North Star
