Declutter your Home: Understanding The Decluttering Mindset

The Decluttering Mindset: Overcoming Mental Blocks to Declutter Your Home

Your mindset is important when preparing to declutter your home. Clutter isn’t always a pile of unwashed clothes in the corner of your room or a mound of garbage overflowing from the kitchen trashcan. Sometimes it’s more subtle, like a steadily growing collection of random items that have little to offer beyond sentimental value. Perhaps you have a closet full of clothes that no longer fit, but you’d like to wear them again one day. Maybe there’s a stack of mail on the kitchen counter full of bills and notices from past months, waiting for the moment when you finally check the contents or need them for information. 

These instances and many more result in clutter across your home. A once-calming space has become a place of mental anguish, though you may not even realize it at first. Clutter begins to collect, either without us realizing or through conscious effort, and our attempts to clean it are often met with stiff resistance from… ourselves. We hold ourselves back from decluttering for a variety of reasons, despite the benefits this provides us mentally, physically, and emotionally. Understanding why we do this helps us take steps toward decluttering our homes and creating new memories instead of holding on to old ones.

Where Does Clutter Come From?

Clutter appears gradually, since it is a slow accumulation of items over time, therefore you might have the sudden realization you need to declutter your home. These items can be anything, from sentimental items from a loved one to books that we’ll eventually get around to reading. Clutter comes in many forms, but the reason it occurs comes from a few psychological sources. 

The Inability to Identify Clutter and Declutter your Home

Sometimes it’s difficult to discern between what’s clutter and what isn’t when deciding to declutter your home. Leaving out a book on the couch isn’t clutter, but having multiple sitting unread for weeks on various nightstands or tables around the house is clutter. If you have something that is used regularly or nearly enough, it’s likely not clutter. If it doesn’t get in the way of your daily life, it isn’t negatively impacting you. 

If you have items that are either in the way or are rarely used but held just in case, they are likely clutter that needs to be corrected in some form. Not only will they lead to a growing mess in your home, but it will begin to affect you mentally. 

A Tendency to Hoard

Hoarding has been well documented across TV and the internet, yet despite the sensationalized portrayal, can go relatively unnoticed until it’s too late. People hoard for different reasons, either because the accumulation of items brings them joy or because they feel like everything in their possession is necessary. Whatever the reason, an accumulation of excess items results in clutter that piles up to the point you struggle to determine how to begin the cleanup efforts. 

Unable to Let Go

Many items hold some form of sentimental value to us, which is why we keep them around as treasured memories. While most have no functional use, we like to display them prominently or keep them near at hand to remind us of people or events that mean something to us. While this is pleasant in small doses, over time some people tend to attribute important memories to increasingly more items, leading to problems with clutter and organization. 

Taking Lax Inventory

It’s easy to overlook items in your home, especially when they blend in with other items. You place a magazine down next to an older one, soon forgetting about both. You forget to check the fridge and end up buying more cheese, even though you already have enough. These little forgetful events result in clutter that slowly piles up over time. 

Cleaning Can Wait

We’ve all had that moment of reflection where we look at the state of a room, know it should be reorganized or outright cleaned, and decide that it would take too much time and can be done later. Unfortunately, later often never comes, or when it does, the clutter is much harder to manage. This compounds itself and leads to the mental struggle of determining the best means of cleaning up a mess that seemingly never ends.

Why We Struggle to Enter a Decluttering Mindset

There are many factors that play into our ongoing battle with clutter. Many items hold a special place in our hearts, making it harder to get rid of them. Others are difficult to remove because they have become part of the status quo. Whatever the reason, they are preventing you from reorganizing and making new memories. 

Emotional Attachment

We all have items in our homes or lives that have a special place in our hearts. Objects from loved ones past or present, items that remind us of memories past, and items we attribute special feelings to that are difficult to part with all lead to clutter. These items may hold precious memories, but they make it difficult to create new ones as you slowly run out of space or clutter your home with so many memories that you begin to lose track. 

Feeling Secure in Ownership

Owning items makes people feel secure and comfortable, which can get in the way when you declutter your home. It feels good knowing that you have a lot of items, be that food, books, clothes, or more. The more we have, the more options we have available to us. More clothes in the closet means you don’t have to repeat your outfit as often. More food means you don’t have to go to the store as often. However, while these elements give us a sense of security, the term “less is more” comes into effect. You end up with so much that it begins to overflow and overwhelm. You feel secure, but there’s a lingering feeling that you’re trapped. 

Comfort Amid Clutter

Sometimes clutter brings us comfort. Humans love routine, and many of us prefer that our space doesn’t drastically change. Clutter doesn’t occur all at one time, so when you finally realize that a room or the entire home is cluttered, you’ve already mentally accepted it. Reorganizing or cleaning drastically to declutter your home changes your space, so for some it’s difficult to bring yourself to begin the process.

Memorable Items

Some items in your home hold special memories. They’re important to you or someone you know, so you keep them around. A book you loved a few years ago displayed prominently in your living room, a trophy you won at a tournament when you were younger, a shirt from that time you volunteered downtown. While these are precious memories, they are preventing you from making new ones. They are sentimental, but they don’t all need to be out on display. It’s better to rotate them through storage, either seasonally or as you see fit. 

Not only does this give you more opportunities to create new memories through new items, it helps declutter your home and prioritizes items that are more important to you to be on display. Out of sight doesn’t mean it’s out of mind. 

Declutter your Home: Beginning the Decluttering Process

It’s hard to begin decluttering when your mind is actively working against you. If you start small and make incremental progress, slowly your home will start returning to a healthier, happier state, helping you improve as well.

Create a Sorting System

A simple start to your home decluttering efforts is to create a sorting system. A decluttering checklist goes a long way in helping you prepare for your reorganization efforts. Create a list of items in your home that you absolutely need and set them aside. Then you can start putting items together in groups, such as books and clothes. Once done, separate these piles into smaller segments, with one pile for items you’d like to donate or sell and one pile for items you’d like to throw away. 

Take it slow, one room or one pile at a time. Stick to whatever makes you most comfortable. However, be critical when you are making this decision. The goal is to remove items from your home that you no longer use or have overstayed their welcome. The items left will be reorganized and stored if necessary, so there’s no risk of losing anything precious. 

Start Small and Work Up

When you start your decluttering effort, start small. As mentioned previously, humans have trouble adapting to drastically different changes to an environment. Mentally, it will be difficult to begin decluttering as you’re comfortable with the state of your home. However, for the sake of your mental health, it’s best to start decluttering your home and making room for new memories. 

Set aside an hour each week to focus on reorganizing a room and sorting the clutter. Determine what stays, what goes into storage, what should get sold or donated, and what can be thrown out. If the hour ends and you feel like you’re making good progress, you’ve succeeded in decluttering this week. If you’d like, you can keep going and finish the room entirely. Slowly, your home becomes decluttered and you feel more at ease and relaxed.

Motivate Yourself With a Goal

Make incremental goals that you can complete each week. Reorganize your bookshelf and put those you aren’t reading anymore in storage. Sort your pile of mail and throw out those you don’t need. Clean out the fridge and make room for new food. Whatever your goal, set a time and day you’d like to achieve it, then set a timer when you begin. This helps keep you motivated and your mind focused on the task at hand. 

Seek Out Support

If all else fails or you’re feeling overwhelmed, two or more heads are better than one. Decluttering can be a daunting task depending on how much clutter has piled up. Having a trusted loved one or friend help you reorganize can provide motivation and clarity to your cleaning efforts.

Declutter your Home with Support Services from Tranquil Transitions

Clutter is as much a mental construct as it is physical. Sorting through your clutter and overcoming your mental roadblocks leads to a more relaxing environment and makes you feel more fulfilled. Not everyone has the means or resources to completely declutter their home though, which is when Tranquil Transitions steps in to help.

Tranquil Transitions offers decluttering services to help you reorganize your space and give you a healthier, happier home environment. Whether you need help starting the reorganization process or struggle to decide what to keep and what to throw away, our team can find you the optimal solution. If you’re ready to take back your life and reduce the clutter across your home, contact Tranquil Transitions today.