My Plan to Win the Daily Battle with Decluttering and Stuff
I battle with stuff every day. The things that I have in my house and my life – all the minutia. All the stuff. Stuff from Target, stuff from Walmart, stuff from Costco…stuff we’ve had for years, just stuff. I wanted to figure out a way to deal with all the things, and manage it going forward.
Last year, I read Marie Kondo’s book – before she was on Netflix – and it spurred me to clean out my closets, drawers, kid’s toys, kitchen, I even roll my socks to this day… but evidently, I went wrong somewhere. I still have too much stuff for my 3-bedroom, 2 bath house. 3 kids and 2 adults have a lot of stuff.
Love of ‘Stuff’ at its Limit
Don’t get me wrong, I love my art supplies and notebooks, but I feel like I’ve hit the ceiling. A limit. And yet when I walk into a supply store, the intoxicating smell of bound paper, the crackle of a package of pens lure my senses into insisting that I need yet another item despite the lack of space in my house.
I read books on happiness, books on habits, books on decluttering my life, and yet, I still can’t find the answer to my problem.
The Answer
But today, I think I found the answer to my problem. I am not specific enough, and I don’t put decluttering or ‘finding joy’ in my things into regular practice. I read the advice and yet don’t carry through on most of it.
Decluttering is not a one-time event. The once and done is a nice concept, but I know now that it’s not permanent. It’s a battle fought constantly. Clutter and stuff want to make my home it’s home, and the tiny humans living under my roof don’t help one bit. In fact, I created a planning spread ages ago with a similar idea, but never put it into regular practice.
Clutter Definition
Here’s where I need to define clutter. I define clutter as anything that habitually gets out of place OR an overabundance of things without a proper home or spills over into other locations. Some people might say it just gets messy, but the mess makes me feel cluttered, inside and out and I don’t know about you, but feeling disorganized on the inside makes me feel restless and ornery all day long.
I don’t want to continually feel like I need to get rid of stuff. If I can put a stopper on the intake, I still have to deal with the items we want to keep. Once I pare down the extra items in my house, I still have things that creep out of their designated places.
My aha moment – combining the advice from two sets of books and combining them into one: decluttering + habit creation = make decluttering a habit.
Working on a Solution
I’ve figured out the problem, and now I’ll go to work on creating a habit for daily decluttering. I’m excited to show you what I’m working on – and I’ll give you a sneak peek!
In the next decluttering post, I’ll step you through how to fill out the declutter habit plan printable.
I’d love to know! What do you do to keep yourself ‘sane’ and deal with all the clutter and mess every day?
![This month’s creative challenge is all about flower names! Use these everyday floral names to expand your creativity throughout this month. Check out the challenge list below, and if you’re having trouble with creative ideas, keep reading. I have lots of ideas to share. Handlettering these words is fun if that’s what you always do. […] The post Creative Challenge: Flower Names appeared first on Chocolate Musings.](https://i0.wp.com/i.pinimg.com/564x/12/65/81/1265815e2ef10a0fd4505524fb3f0eeb.jpg?ssl=1)
Oh the clutter! The stuff! I have a ton of it too, and as much as we get rid of and organize, there is more stuff around. I feel like the stuff hides and waits until right after you clean. Then it comes out and lays itself right there on the floor for you to clean. I love the Kon Marie method, and it really helped me let go of things I’d been carrying around for years. You are right though, it’s an ongoing thing, and it must become a habit. I am like you, I’ll do it in bursts and then wonder why it didn’t stay that way months later. I am with you on this, I want to declutter. Clutter makes me depressed. It makes me feel like I’m drowning. My husband has gotten better at it, and my kids are very slowly learning. There is still hope!
Good luck with the habit forming! I’m excited to see the outcome!
Ani Kay recently posted…The Public is the Movie I didn’t Know That I Needed
There IS still hope. And it’s not so bad every day when you set an end time or an end to the task. Because I could swim in the laundry piles all day every day. Setting limits and defining when done is done for the day is a tremendous mental relief too. I never realized how much all the stuff clutters my mind mentally too.
Tricia recently posted…My Plan to Win the Daily Battle with Decluttering and Stuff #1