5 Simple Tips to Declutter Your Life
Why is it necessary to declutter our lives? The simple answer is that we have cluttered our lives with too many unimportant and unnecessary things and activities. In doing so, we have somehow managed to fill our waking hours with enough activities to keep us busy because we think that being busy is good.
This is a big fallacy that we need to throw out.
Being busy is not necessary good for us because being busy is not necessary being productive. Often, we fill our time with so many unnecessary and unproductive activities that we simply fill our time and make ourselves exhausted without getting any positive returns.
This type of busy-ness is not only unproductive but also unhealthy for us. It is actually a stress on us physically, emotionally and mentally, not to mention that it also drains us financially.
Decluttering our lives means taking stock of what is important and what is unimportant to us. It means making a list of priorities. It means sitting down to reflect on what is important for us in life, what makes us happy and healthy.
Here are 5 simple tips to declutter your life.
- Throw away your trash
- This is a simple enough instruction, but you may be surprised by how much trash we do keep in our house. They say cleanliness is godliness, so start by keeping a clean and uncluttered house.
- Get rid of what you have accumulated but have not needed or used for a long time
- Go through your store room and you will find a lot of stuff that you have kept for a long time and have not found any use for them, e.g. old clothes, bags, shoes, boxes of items, books, and many other long-forgotten items. Get rid of them. Give them away to those who can make good use of them. Give away to charity. Recycle them. Just don’t leave them unused in your store room for another few years.
- Do the same with each room. Throw or give away things that are of no use to you anymore. This will free up space for you. Then, remember to leave this free-up space free, and not fill them up with new things. Do minimalist.
- Audit your activities
- This step will free up your time. Make a list of activities that you have been doing each day all week. Prioritise them. See which activities you can do without. Stop those activities that are unproductive and unnecessary for you.
- Re-engage your relationships
- Now use the extra free-up time that you have gained from step 3 to re-engage with your loved ones, family and friends. Relationships are important for us but not all relationships are necessary or even wholesome. So, choose wisely and make time for those that matter.
- Declutter your mind
- Lastly, and this is the most important one – learn to declutter your mind. Do this by taking note of the thoughts that arise in your mind. Not all thoughts are of equal worth. Some are extremely useful and beneficial, but most are unnecessary, unproductive and unhealthy. When you start to examine your thoughts, you will realise that we dramatise our lives a lot. This is not only unnecessary, but it is also unhealthy. The first step to stopping this unhealthy habit is to be aware of it.
As you begin to declutter your life, you may notice that the more you throw away the unnecessary outer physical items and activities, the more you also begin to declutter your inner heart and mind. You may begin to experience a certain lightness of the heart and clarity of thoughts. You may find more contentment and peace, and find joy in simple things.
Decluttering your life is a training in letting go.