The word clutter what does that word recall, if anything in my mind it brings other words like mess, trash and hording for some reason. I must admit ever since a young age I have always been a saver of almost everything from books, school papers, report cards, Birthday cards, receipts and the list goes on.

I Love Things and Need to Declutter

I don’t know why but I didn’t I inherited this compulsive hold of things from my grandfather and mother both loved savings things so growing up I never really got into the habit of letting go. I tend to have many dreams of having piles of things like clothes that I haven’t worn in ages and searching for that one tee or pair of pants then waking up remembering that I don’t own that much in my dream.

I believe my subconscious is telling me to declutter my life and do it now and I am sorry to see I see my young daughter mimicking my habits of saving things. I know I know some of you may say well I am the same way its hard for me get rid of things. Recently we sold my family home one of which I used to store “Things” from my childhood.

I found a great deal of interesting things from my youth going back to grade school to high school to college and beyond. Memories in my views of all my life moments successes and failures and really what made me who I am today, every piece of paper had some memory attached to it.

One Man’s/Women’s Junk is Another’s Teasure

The amount of clutter some would consider junk can be overwhelming and yes I know its by my own doing but that doesn’t mean we can’t change and grow to minimize clutter in our lives, something I think is part psychological.

Growing up I had two lives in a way being that my parents where divorced I had almost like two homes, the one I lived with my mother, sister and grandfather and my father’s/grandparents’ home. My father’s/grandparents’ home where the ones who loved to collect things. Remembering my grandfather who loved to collect tools, papers, like documents, and really a lifetime of things saved they didn’t throw a lot away.

My home in which I lived with my mother and sister that home was strictly no junk, even once I reached a certain age my toys and anything not age appropriate was tossed out by my grandfather, he never asked he just took my things and threw them away because we lived under his roof. Over the years I learned to see that my grandparents’ home was the perfect place to stash my treasure, so I did.

Over the years as I mentioned I collected much and threw away little and its recently I was able to see just how much junk I have saved. It has been hard to get rid of believe me until now. It has gotten to the point where I now have a storage unit when is not what I wanted so I must change this year.

For those struggling with this here are some tips I would recommend that we can do together for the new year and for the future.

Declutter your Work Area

1. Start with your Desk

Many of us who are not neat freaks tend to have things scattered throughout our desk from papers, Pens, notes, books you name its there. Sort through what you have, organize it and clean and wipe down your desk leaving nice and neat.

2. Declutter your computer

I am someone who has probably like tons of files saved to my desktop for convenience, but many times I am not using those files, so naturally you will want to create a folder and organize those files for easy and accessible safekeeping. In addition, would want to delete and purge files you have no use for and just get rid of them releasing more space on your hard drive.

3. Move on to Information

In our world we are so connected to information from subscriptions to notifications to Social Media. You don’t need to unplug completely but would recommend unfollowing, unsubscribing and delete those feeds you don’t read or have no use for.

Declutter your Home

4. Simplify your rooms

If your room is too cluttered, you will want to simplify them. Start by clearing off anything that is on the floors, by either throwing out or donate unused things. This would be a time to consider if you need everything and whatever you keep place in drawers, cabinets and closets.

5. Tackle the closets

Closets are a great place to store things that you don’t want out in the open and can easily become a place where you shove things just to keep them out of view.

Clean out your closets, take everything out, clean and toss finally donating as much as you can.

6. Clean out your drawers

Drawers are prime place for things to get shoved into by emptying out drawers, sorting and decide to keep or donate simple as that.

The Bottom Line

Maintaining a life without Clutter

This may be a challenge at first for those putting in the practice of living clutter free and in the end you just might like it and feel how could you live so long without doing it. Over time you will see that things are not as important as we make them out to seem and in the end we will be happier without things, or I should say useless things.

Set up a system to keep clutter in check, simply by putting practices in habit such as shredding documents, keeping your desktop and desk clean and then of course your home. Habits are hard to break at times, but it is completely possible by starting small and starting today.