Whether you are naturally an organised person or not, clutter seems to dominate our lives. Everywhere you look there is stuff! It’s something that is only getting worse as new ‘must have’ things are invented and technology advances.
The problem with clutter is that it competes for your attention (whether you realise it or not!), resulting in increased stress and often decreased performance.
Here are 8 Simple tips to De-clutter your Life… Feel free to comment below and let me know your best tip for de-cluttering your life.
// File your e-mails
Whether you have 15,000 e-mails in your inbox (this is Kyle!), or 10 (this is me!), having a tonne of e-mails glaring at you every time you open your inbox can be stressful and a form of clutter for some people. If this is you, make a conscious effort to file your e-mails. Even if you have a folder called “to read” and everything that doesn’t get read straight away gets filed.
// Organise your desktop
Something as simple as filing your e-mails, organise your desktop. If you don’t have a specific place to store your documents and don’t know where to file it right this moment, create one folder (call it Home, or To File) and put everything sitting on your desktop into this folder. This way you can actually see your desktop background and you aren’t bombarded with seeing the all the little file icons.
// Choose 1 Thing Each Day
Choose one thing each day to get rid of for a month, at the end of the month you’ll have 30 less things to clutter your house and mind. If you struggle with just throwing things out, take them to your local Hospice, Salvation Army store or Women’s Refuge or offer them up on Facebook or to a friend who might enjoy them. Start with one area of your home, it might be the bookshelf, it could be the kitchen gadget cupboard, it could be your wardrobe.
// Reduce your commitments
Clutter isn’t necessarily always to do with physical clutter that you can see. Your mind can also get cluttered with all the appointments, meetings and things you need to do rolling around in your head. Don’t be afraid to say no to things which do not serve you or delegate where you can so that you don’t have as many commitments and clutter in your mind.
// Shop from your wardrobe
Go through your wardrobe and pull each item out one by one, make a number of different piles. Have a pile for clothes you never wear and should get rid of, a pile for clothes you never wear but can’t bear to part with and a pile of clothes you always wear. Get rid of the items you never wear and won’t wear in the future (donate them to a Hospice shop or Salvation Army store, or somewhere similar). Doing this exercise you will likely come across items you completely forgot you had. Whenever you purchase a new item of clothing promise yourself to get rid of at least one item you already own.
// Out of sight, out of mind
If you can’t bear to part with some items, but know you don’t use them frequently, put them in plastic containers up in the roof and out of sight. They will still be close by if you need them, but they won’t get in your way every day.
// Hide your cables
This is a super easy one to do, with all the technology we have these days there are chords and cables for almost everything! Hide your cables behind furniture, under tables etc and things will look so much more organised. Plus you’ll be able to easily unplug the items you need as they will be organised and not tangled. There are some pretty nifty cable organisation ideas on Pinterest.
// Stack Books Neatly
We all have piles of books in at least one place in the house, if you don’t have a bookcase, or the bookcase is full, make a neat stack of the books. This is a simple thing you can do to help the place look more tidy and less cluttered.