11 Ways to Declutter Your Life for Less Stress
I have talked about decluttering and how it affects your life. But there are other types of clutter (aside from the one that we can see) and here are 11 ways to declutter your life– and believe me, they will make a difference in the amount of stress that you feel.
How many times have you lost your keys, shoes or important papers because there is too much clutter in your home?
Families everywhere are drowning in clutter that can cost time and money as well as cause frustration. Clearing the clutter from your home, and your life, will take some time and effort but the results will be well worth it.
11 Ways to Declutter Your Life for Less Stress
* Go through your home and make note of anything in your home that is out of place, items that are piling up or things that bother you. Start with what bothers you most and begin going through the items, getting rid of things you no longer need or want.
The goal is to clear small areas, one at a time, until you have cleaned the entire room. Go through each room until you have gotten rid of as much clutter as possible.
* Bear in mind that it is often going to be a lot easier to declutter your life if you have a smaller home to begin with. There is nothing wrong with a humble home, and in fact it is often preferable. So if you want to make decluttering easier, consider starting with downsizing your home.
To do that, it’s a simple case of moving somewhere that is only as big as you need it to be. You might also want to think about opting for somewhere with less going on in the exterior, as that is always easier to manage too. So you might choose to just have some simple asphalt paving rather than a lawn that you’d have to look after, for instance.
Once you have done that, and moved into an easier home to manage, you are going to find that your life is a lot less stressful on the whole.
* Create a cleaning and decluttering schedule. Include chores for each member of the family so one person does not have to do everything. If you work on cleaning a little bit each day, it will make keeping your home clean much easier.
* Rather than stacking mail and other papers all over the room, create a specific area to handle mail and pay bills. This could be a desk or a shelf with an inbox.
Be sure to place a garbage can near your mail area so you can throw junk mail out as you go through the mail. Along with the inbox and garbage can, it would also be helpful to keep a family calendar in the area.
When you see paperwork that has an appointment or important date, you can write the information directly into the calendar and toss the paper unless you need to return it.
* Place a coat rack or shelf with hooks near the door you use most often. It is important to have everyone hang jackets and book bags here when they come into the home each day. By placing these items in the same place each day, your family will be less likely to lose things.
* What clutters your mind? Begin by getting a notebook and a pen. Take a deep breath and think about things that you have to do.
Write everything down.
Once you have written things down, you can see what is necessary to accomplish and you will have a list to keep track of everything else. It can also help if you watch less television as it tends to clutter the mind with things that are not important.
* In some cases, people who have a clutter problem also have a weight problem. Sometimes people use both as a self-protection mechanism. If they are overweight or their house is full of “stuff,” they will not have to worry about others getting too close and possibly hurting them.
Once they begin to let go of the “stuff” in their home, they may find that it is easier to let go of excess weight as well.
* How many activities does your family have? If your family is like most, each child has at least one activity they participate in after school. Mom and Dad may each have things they do that keep them on the go.
To declutter your schedule, sit down as a family and talk about the activities each does that mean the most them. If you can cut out some activities, you will have more time to share as a family and there will be much less running.
* Think about bills you have that are draining. For instance, is it necessary for everyone in the family to have a cell phone? If the answer is no, then let some of them go and have one extra that your teenager can use while they are away from you.
Do you watch all of the channels on satellite or cable? Chances are good that you do not, so pare your programming down to what you know you will watch.
Stop eating out so often. Even though eating out is easier, it is more expensive and is often not good for your health.
* Depending on your job, workspace clutter may or may not be a problem. For those with an office desk, workspace clutter may be having too many pictures or mementos. For those in a factory setting, it may mean you cannot find your tools when you need them.
By creating a functional and clean workspace, you increase your productivity, which will make the boss happy.
* Evaluate everything in your home. If there is no use for it, get rid of it. If you have to start justifying why you keep something around- it might be time to let it go. I’m not suggesting that you go an extreme purge, but do start looking at what you have.
* Believe it or not, sometimes your friends might be a source of clutter in your life– whether your realize it or not. How? You may be trying to spread yourself too thin when it comes to arranging your social life or if you feel as though you have to keep all of these commitments.
Start to ask yourself, are these friendships really worth it to me? If a friendship isn’t growing you or beneficial to you in some way, it may be time to let it go.
I’m not suggesting that you just start cutting out your entire support network, but really think about your friends.
Does less clutter lead to less stress?
It is unlikely that anyone consciously decides to have clutter in his or her homes or their lives. Unfortunately, clutter tends to creep in and take over once it starts. Use these tips for decluttering your life and you will marvel at the sense of freedom you experience. You may also be amazed at how far it will go when it comes to your overall home organization.
Finally, if you are too overwhelmed with the amount of clutter in your life, give yourself permission to seek outside help. A professional organizer can recommend simple habits to keeping your life clutter free and will help you develop a routine that will work for your family.
Kori
Latest posts by Kori (see all)
- Managing Co-Parenting Conflicts as a Neurodivergent Mom - October 3, 2024
Thanks for the tips! I really need to work on the clutter in my house.
I have a friend who is a professional organizer. I think it would be a fun job. I despise clutter. It makes me crazy and I can’t concentrate!
What a great post! I have 4 kiddos and am always trying to keep everything tidy and organized. I also work from home, so it’s even more important to have order in my home. Posts like this are incredibly helpful! Thanks for linking up to Tips & Tricks. I’ve pinned this to our Tips & Tricks board. 🙂
Very true about home and work. Not only is my home cluttered, but my cubicle is at work. I’m calling this year the Great Purge of 2015. So far I’ve only managed to sell a couple of things, but I’m hoping to clear out the trash, sell things, and donate things. Freecycle is great for this too.
All such great tips Kori! I especially like the one about spreading yourself to thin. Clutter can be so paralyzing at times.
I completely agree with friends sometimes cluttering up our lives. I actually ended a long time friendship with someone a few years ago because I just couldn’t take all her negativity anymore.
If anyone needed these tips, it was me. My life is cluttered both physically and metaphorically. Great tips!
These are great tips. We just moved and I threw away a bunch of stuff to help with the clutter.
I love decluttering!! I am always donating or getting rid of stuff I don’t use anymore. Makes me feel so good!!
This is great. Agreed about friends. I have had to clean house when it comes to friends a few times, and now my life is much more clutter free!
We’ve recently started trying to declutter our lives as well. We really cut down on our satellite package for example.
We have been focused this year on decluttering!! These are great tips it can be overwhelming to start with but feels so good once you get going!
Great tips. I am all about decluttering, the anti-hoarder. I love to get rid of things and clean and organize.
Decluttering old stuff is my favorite past time!!! I hate not being organized and neat!
I definitely feel like I’ve decluttered my life but I know a lot of people who need to and could use these tips!
I do agree with you, once clutter starts to pile up, it takes over the whole space. We have an old refrigerator that we don’t use anymore at the basement, I offered it to someone who needs it but hubby wants to keep it. I told him that we can use the space for something else and someone could benefit for the fridge, he finally agreed.
Great post. I do agree with you, family and spending time is very important to me. Though my daughter has 3 activities after school but she has so much energy to burn that’s why I keep her on after school program. My husband likes to organize things at home.
Decluttering used to be a really difficult task for me, but in recent years I have gotten much better at it. It’s become so much fun that I like doing it two or two times per season.
These are some great pointers for decluttering. This is something I’ve often had issues with – everything seems to pile u so quickly! Thanks for the info!
I share my office with my husband. Even though he moved out of it and into the man cave out in the barn, it still houses his clothing in the closet. Which, somehow always ends up on the floor. And it drives me crazy to constantly see the mess every morning when I come in to work.
Great tips! I’m pretty good at keeping a very organized and clean home but I could definitely use a Decluttering in my mind!
Thank you for sharing such great tips to declutter your home. I actually did some of this a few weeks ago when my sister in law came for a visit.
Nice post. Decluttering my life would be something I should try to do. Thank you for sharing.
Great tips! We are always looking to declutter and I love your ideas and tips! Thank you!
All of these tips are great. I think aside from setting a place for mail… make sure to organize it so bills aren’t lost along the way.
Since we have time to declutter this Holy Week vacation, these tips are really useful for reference. We need to spare some time to clutter our minds as well. Writing is a good practice.
The hubs and I try our best to have things organized here in the house so it’s basically clutter-free. But I did get rid of some “clutter” two years ago and I’ve never been more at peace when I did that. And I’m not talking about friends. 🙂
THese are some fantastic tips!!! I’ve been on a huge declutter/ spring cleaning kick lately! Gotta get my place ready for summer 😉
Thanks for the tips! I’ve been working on decluttering so this came at the perfect time!
De-cluttering is so important! If my house is cluttered I get very stressed. That stress can even make me physically ill.
Great ideas! Thanks for sharing on our Tips & Tricks Linky Party!
These are great tips, this is what I need to do like today! Lol I have too much clutter!
Love your notebook suggestion. This is one I use on a normal basis to keep my mind uncluttered and me organized.
Great tips! I particularly like the cutting down on bills part. Having one cell phone that your children can share is an awesome idea! I’m going to share that with my “parent of teenager” buddies.
These are all great tips, especially the ones that involve looking at the other types of clutter in our lives (e.g. thoughts, relationships). I need to do a mental declutter session soon!
I will be forwarding this to the husband. He has a clutter issue and a problem with throwing stuff out! Good idea to place a trash bin by the mail. So much incoming stuff automatically goes in the garbage for us.
You’ve got me motivated to declutter now! Congrats, you’re featured at the This Is How We Roll Link Party.