Taking a page from my own advice, during a really stressful time, I hired a professional organizer from my team to organize my pantry and my home office (these pantry photos are mine). The organized pantry motivated me to tackle some of the other spaces in my home needing some care and my mood got better. I couldn’t control the world but I could take control of my personal space.
September is Self Care Awareness month and I can’t think of a better way to care for oneself than to make sure your home is a sanctuary.
The Feng Shui definition for clutter is “postponed decisions and the inability to move forward.” That means what you accumulate, where you put it, and why you keep it says a lot about you. We all have to deal with some amount of clutter, but according to Feng Shui principles, extreme clutter holds you back and keeps you from making progress.
The Feng Shui definition for clutter is “postponed decisions and the inability to move forward.” That means what you accumulate, where you put it, and why you keep it says a lot about you. We all have to deal with some amount of clutter, but according to Feng Shui principles, extreme clutter holds you back and keeps you from making progress.
One of the basic tenets of Feng Shui is that nothing new flows into your life until you make room for it. Therefore, clearing clutter is the key to transforming your space. Feng Shui is about attracting harmony and abundance into your life, but clutter blocks good things from reaching you. From FengShuiforRealLife
I’ve seen first hand through clients and my own experience the toll clutter takes on our mental health.
Clutter clouds the mind, making it difficult to relax both physically and mentally. Clutter causes shame keeping us from inviting people into our homes. Clutter can be overwhelming leaving us unsure where to begin. Clutter causes stress and can steal valuable time. Searching for misplaced items like phones and keys robs the average person of almost one hour a day. Clutter stifles our creativity. Clutter makes us feel unsettled and unsuccessful. Clutter can actually make us feel sick by increasing levels of the stress hormone cortisol contributing toward tension, self-medicating or other unhealthy habits.
This information was modified from an article on LoadUp:
Not sure where to start, this guide will help.
- Perfect is the enemy of done. Momentum is far more important than anything else. Just commit to taking on a little bit at a time.
- When you start the process, envision the life you want to have in the space. Then when you are going through the process, remind yourself of your intention.
- Do a brain dump of all the areas you want to organize and rank them with the easiest task first. Then commit to doing one task a day and check it off your list. It’s always easiest to get started if you work from the easiest task to the hardest.
- Set a timer for 10 minutes a day and get two bags, one for donations and one for trash. This breaks the task down into manageable chunks. Not everything is donation worthy. It’s ok to throw things out every once in a while.
- Use a system to break down each room. We use colored stickers = donate, sell, gift to a loved one, trash. That may be the only thing you do to get organized one day but it’s a start.
- Try and keep only the items you love or “spark joy” taking a page from the Kon-Mari method. If you are holding onto an item out of guilt, allow yourself permission to release it.
- If you are holding onto an item because of what you paid or what you think it’s value is, look up the item under sold items on www.eBay.com or use an app like Google Lens.
- When organizing, gather items together, eliminate duplicates and broken items. If you haven’t repaired or used it after being stuck at home in quarantine, there’s an answer.
- Create systems – gathering items you’ll use together and finding a space that makes sense to store them. For example, putting stationary, pens, stamps and an address book in a bin where you’re likely to write letters and pay bills.
- There are wonderful ways to recycle items including www.Freecycle.org and Facebook groups like Buy Nothing.
Rather than spending money on a manicure or massage, spend the money to hire help or tackle your own to-do’s. An organized home will have a much bigger impact on your entire life than having pretty nails.
