Over the years and over many residential and commercial projects, regardless of location, state and even country, I’ve spent significant time observing clients, their habits and noting the challenges they’ve encountered prior to getting stuck in their current ‘cluttered-state’. However, once we get down to business, I ask all of them to mindfully examine each individual item that they own and as we go along the process to keep questioning and answering – “Does this item, make them happy, does it dispense positive vibes or does it trigger a negative connotation or does this item no longer excite them?” Looking through my notes, I thought, it might be beneficial to share some insights and lessons learned along the way:
Tackle Categories, Not Rooms:
Most clients have in the past tackled a room be it, the bedroom or the living room or even an office and have invariably failed as they landed up re-locating, re-arranging or even re-organizing the items but never dealt with addressing the whole category. An easily relatable example of such a category would be books. Clients would have typically, attempted to organize their home office and would have re-stacked the books and similarly while attempting the next room would have repeated the pattern. However, as predictably as the sun rises, those books keep getting moved around from one spot to the next, even from one room to the next, collecting dust or serving as coasters at times, however, the category of books continues to grow and spread. Starting one’s journey of de-cluttering with less emotional categories like books, clothes, toys, etc. will be well worth an evening session.
Nostalgia:
Every now and then, we all come across something that we had saved in the corner of our closets, that had been long forgotten and that hasn’t seen the light of day in years and as we happen to open up and read that old saved letter from decades gone by or stumble upon a photo from yester years, there is no stopping the downward spiral into the rabbit hole of nostalgia. That serious mistake now, puts one in a negative frame of mind, a sad and even depressed mood and it can be a struggle to deal with the overflow of emotions as one starts to re-hash the memories, the endings and one even attempts to play the ‘could have, would have, should have’ game that rarely ends well. A prime example of this would be to come across your childhood sweetheart’s letters or a photograph of the two of you at the prom. Of course, things ended between you guys decades ago and he/she surely moved on but, even though that the moment has passed, the memories remain (the good, the bad and the ugly). It’s time to let them go…
Respect Your Belongings:
When it comes to buying things and thanks to the excellent advertising tactics that companies use, our Gen-Y mindset wants the latest hype, regardless, of whether we need the item or not, we want it because it’s the ‘in’ thing to have and everyone around you already has it and clearly you will be considered a total misfit living under a rock if you didn’t own it. Of course, just like every ad that has a limited shelf life, one’s mind also conveniently forgets and losses interest in this ‘in’ thing and in a few days is ready to move onto the next ‘in’ thing. That item is now forced to make its way into one’s ever growing collection of clutter. Learn to respect your pricey processions that, are probably feeling miserable, neglected and useless succumbed to a pile of messiness. Think from your possessions perspective, how would you feel if you were that branded pair of shoes thrown across the floor or that new pair of jeans stuck in the wardrobe cause it’s no longer the right size or that ignored plant that rarely gets watered? Learning to respect every living and non-living thing creates breathing space by eliminating the unnecessary, so that the necessary may speak. Become a pickier individual and don’t settle for so-so things. Raise the bar and take time to fall in love again with items that bring pure exultation and bring out the essence of you. Let’s connect and I can help you break through the walls of clutter that currently surround you.
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Feature Image Source: Frugal and Thriving
