THE CLUTTER SERIES
The ‘Clutter Series’ discusses important aspects of the clutter in our homes and minds, including the close relationship between clutter and our general wellbeing.
Click here to read a summary of the main insights of this series.
What are the benefits of the decluttering-activity?
The most obvious purpose of a decluttering project is, of course, to get the clutter out, to clear our home of physical clutter. And, yes, achieving this goal – creating a clutter-free living place – has a range of benefits.
As a result of the decluttering process we usually gain more space and time, we save money, become more productive and efficient, we experience more peace of mind. (Click here to read about the benefits of a clutterfree home)
However, the benefits of the decluttering activity can be even bigger than the benefits of the decluttering results.
Making decluttering-decisions in our home offers the opportunity to simultaneously make positive changes in other areas of our life.
Yes, depending on the size of our home and the amount of accumulated clutter, the decluttering process can be very demanding, challenging, exhausting, time consuming.
That’s why many of us feel overwhelmed even before we start to clear up and why we often postpone the project again and again.
However, if we are willing to invest some time and energy to prepare ourselves and the working process properly, the activity of decluttering can evolve from being a very productive home-improvement experience to becoming a powerful self-development exercise.
Decluttering creates awareness, clarity and direction.
When we start to make decisions about our belongings, we have to be(come) well aware of what’s important to us and what’s not, what we want to change and what not, and why we want to make changes in our home/life.
The decluttering process offers the opportunity to learn about our very personal values. It can help us to (re)define our vision for our life. It offers a way to re-direct our attention and energy towards the areas and goals of our life that are truly important to us.
Decluttering improves our decision-making skills.
While we are sorting and clearing up our stuff we need to make decisions about whether to keep or discard items, and where to put them. This is not easy, at least not in the beginning.
However, while looking at hundreds of items and asking ourselves if they serve us, we get fitter and faster in making decisions.
We begin to feel more confident about our decision-making skills, and we are more willing to use these skills – not only to solve clutter problems but also to make changes in other areas of our life.
Decluttering increases our confidence and sense of self-efficacy.
Managing a decluttering project successfully changes how we experience ourselves and our ability to take action and control in our life.
The process of decluttering and organising our belongings delivers real and visible results: We take action and directly experience the results of our hard work.
This experience of effectiveness and success triggers a sense of ‘I can take action’, ‘I can organise’, ‘I can achieve results’.
Our sense of self-efficacy gets a boost and this can play a major role in how we approach goals, tasks and challenges in other areas of our life.
Thus, a deliberately prepared and conducted decluttering project not only results in an increase of space in our home.
It also creates more spaciousness in our mind – we gain awareness, clarity and focus, we experience an increase in self-confidence and more energy – to change whatever we want to change in any area of our life.