Boost your mindset with simple decluttering methods.

Are you prone to procrastination? Irritated by imposter syndrome? Or perturbed by perfectionism? How tidy is your house? Are your worktops full of clutter and your cupboards full to bursting? Is your desk a mess of papers and books, and your computer groaning under the weight of thousands of mixed up files, unread emails and photos galore? Clutter has a very real affect on mindset and mood. The good news is it can be cleared relatively easily and quickly. And this will boost your mindset enormously.

Tidy House, Tidy Mind

My dad always used to say , ‘tidy house, tidy mind’. I didn’t really understand what he was saying at the time, but have since come to realise exactly what he meant. I have a tendency to let clutter build up, and I have to work to stay on top of it. Because of this, I have found ways to help me stay clutter free and organised.

Clutter is not just physical stuff. It’s old ideas, toxic relationships and bad habits. Clutter is anything that does not support your better self.

Eleanor Brownn

Clearing clutter is about far more than just having a tidy up and donating a few unwanted items to the charity shop. Systematically going through our homes and our minds and getting rid of all unnecessary clutter can have a profound effect on our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It can lead us to a more abundant life as we get rid of blocks and limitations to happiness, success and wealth.

Let’s take one quick example. When you open your front door and walk into your house, what greets you? Is it a mess of coats, shoes, mail etc? If it is, this will affect your mood, even if only subconsciously, every time you enter your house.

Do you tidy and wipe around your kitchen before you go to bed? If you do, your mood is likely to be much better than someone who comes down to a dirty sink with last night’s dishes on the worktop.

Improve Your Sleep

What about your bedroom? If your bedroom is clean, tidy and comfortable, you will get a better night’s sleep than you will if you have to fight your way through the mess on the floor, and throw things off the bed to get into it. And if your living space is clean, tidy, and uncluttered, you will be more able to sit down and relax than you would if there was a mess around you.

Is your desk tidy and organised? If it is, you will be more productive and efficient than if everything is a mess and you must waste time searching for what you are looking for.

Do you mindfully pay attention to your thoughts and beliefs? If your inner critic is constantly chattering in your ear, telling you your not good enough, you can’t succeed, you will never be wealthy and other toxic messages, you can work on clearing this clutter out too.

Even if you think these things don’t bother you, clutter and mess is influencing your subconscious mind and can lead to underlying anxiety and stress. It can also lead to procrastination as you put off work because you can’t face your messy desk or files. Mental clutter can lead to you missing out on opportunities because your inner voice holds you back from taking those chances.

Download my free PDF 5 Ways to Silence Your Inner Critic if you would like to learn more about how to quieten that nagging inner voice and discover your inner cheerleader.

The 80/20 Rule

It is said that on average we wear just 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. The same rule applies to other things we own – books, DVDs, kitchen gadgets. This means that our homes are cluttered with a lot of stuff that we rarely, if ever put to use.

One way to resolve this problem is to get two large boxes. Mark one box 20% and the other 80%. Starting in one room, closet or cupboard, put everything you use pretty much all of the time into the 20% box. Everything that you use rarely or never at all, put into the 80% box.

Your 20% box is filled with items you really want to keep. Now go through your 80% box and decide what you really need (or want) to keep. Only keep things that you really cannot bear to part with from this box. Sort the rest into two piles – to donate or to go to the tip/recycling.

Put your items from the 20% box back in place. Then revisit the things from the 80% box you wish to keep. If there are things that you really want to keep to hand, such as a gadget you use every week or two, make sure that it is in a cupboard out of sight. Don’t have things you only occasionally use cluttering your worktop. If there are things you want to keep but rarely or never use them, think long and hard before storing them in an attic or garage. The likelihood is you will store them and never get them out again. They may as well be gone.

Tale of The Shipping Container

I read a story some time ago. I can’t remember where I read it. It was about a couple who moved to Canada. They took a lot of belongings with them in a shipping container. All the years they were in Canada, the container remained untouched.

After about ten years, they decided to move back to the UK. One of the partners insisted on shipping the container back. The other partner said absolutely not. They got divorced. Try not to be so attached to your untouched clutter.

Clearing clutter—be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual—brings about ease and inspires a sense of peace, calm, and

tranquility.

Laurie Buchanan, PhD

Repeat The Process

If you know you won’t use something but don’t feel ready to part with it, put it aside for a few days then come back to it. You may find once you have got into the clutter clearing flow you will be more willing to let things go. Repeat this process throughout each room, cupboard, drawer etc.

f you have gone through your house following the 80/20 rule and clearing some clutter every day, after a couple of weeks pretty much everyone can have a clean and tidy house.

If you haven’t started yet, try just clearing one area and see what effect it has on your mood. I advise starting with the area just inside your front door, so that you don’t get a sinking feeling every time you enter your home. Or try your workspace, or where you sit in your living room.

I guarantee that once you start to get rid of stuff that is literally weighing you down, you will immediately begin to feel better.

Clearing My Office

A few years ago my daughter decided to take over my office as a sitting room. It meant she had somewhere to take friends without having to sit with me or take them up to her bedroom. It meant that I had to work from the dining room table or the settee.

When she moved out, I knew I needed to reclaim the space as my office. A year passed, and I still hadn’t done this. And in the meantime I had been putting everything in there that I didn’t know where else to put. In effect it was a cluttered junk room.

Realising I needed my office and the organisation it would give me, and also knowing the junk was beginning to make me feel down, I set about sorting it out.

As you can see on the photographs, there was quite a bit of junk. I sorted out what was going in the bin/recycling and got that all out of the way immediately. That gave me a lot more space to work. I then sorted what was staying in the room and what was being stored elsewhere.

To get from the initial photos to the photos below took about 2 hours 15 minutes. That was all – and a year after my daughter moved out I had reclaimed my office.

If you don’t have time to do it all in one go, set a timer and do 15 minutes each day. In no time at all you will be sorted.

Boost Your Money Mindset

Many of us carry around a lot of baggage concerning money. Try getting out your journal and write down all of the money related phrases that you have been conditioned to believe since childhood. Some of these phrases are:

• Money doesn’t grow on trees
• Money is the root of all evil
• Filthy lucre
• I can’t manage money
• I could never be wealthy
• Wealthy people are greedy
• Wealthy people are ruthless
• I could never earn that much money
• Money burns a hole in your pocket
• Money can’t buy happiness
• A fool and his money are soon parted

There are lots of such sayings. You may have heard some of these growing up. You may also have heard others. Write as many down as you can think of. Who’s voice do you hear them in? Is there any truth in them? Can you let them go?

I love Denise Duffield Thomas for all things money mindset. I’m in her Money Bootcamp and have read all of her books, but she has lots of free stuff available on her website if you want to check her out.

I Don’t Have Time To Declutter

Do you think you don’t have time to clear your clutter?

• Get started quickly without being overwhelmed:
• Set a timer for 15 minutes and just clear as much as you can
• Pick one drawer or cupboard and clear it
• Walk through your house or office for 10 minutes with a bin bag and grab any rubbish
• Spend 15 minutes unsubscribing from newsletters that you never read but are cluttering your inbox
• Take 5 minutes and unsubscribe from any Facebook groups you no longer read or are no longer useful

Professional Declutter

If you are overwhelmed with clutter, consider getting someone in to help you. There are home organisers who will go through your house with you and help you to get, and stay, organised. This could save you a lot of time and could be well worth the money. If you can’t afford it, consider asking a well organised friend to help.

Use a VA To Help Boost Your Mindset

If you find yourself procrastinating because your computer files are a mess, consider getting a VA to help you sort it all out. You could use one to just get you organised, or you could employ someone to keep you organised going forward.

You can find VA’s online and you can use them just for the number of hours you need. This can be a small cost that saves you a lot of money.

Emotional Decluttering

Journaling can help with emotional decluttering. Take a good luck at your relationships. Is this an area that needs some work? You may need to work at improving some relationships. It may even be time to end some friendships if they are having a negative affect on your life.

Journaling can also help you to see where boundaries are lacking, and how having them in place can be really useful. Nobody else will be reading your journal, so get really honest there about what needs to change.

Meditation is also a great way to quieten the mind and remove emotional clutter. Try to find even a few minutes a day when you can just sit quietly. Let your thoughts come and go. Don’t worry about them and don’t hold onto them. Just become aware of them.

Have fun with your clutter clearing, and let me know if it helps to boost your mindset.