Are you on your way to decluttering success but feeling like you’ve slowed down? Do you wonder if motivation for decluttering comes first or if you have to declutter before the motivation will show up? Is there a right way to work the decluttering process?
No.
There are many ways that are right at different times. The best, right ways are any methods or options that help you make progress.
It depends on what is going on in your life as to what may be the right option at the time. None of them are wrong. Use what works for you — it will be the way to keep moving forward.
The key to all of this is ensuring you are treating the decluttering process as important. First and foremost, this must be the case, otherwise getting simplified will fall off your list of tasks and never be done.
As long as you make it a priority, you can find a way to make progress. If you’re just lacking some motivation, sometimes all you need to do is still keep trying in some way to keep your momentum. If you’re feeling deflated and like you’ve slowed down, then use the list below to rouse some new ideas for decluttering success:
- Reading about decluttering to get motivated – This is good when you have to do other things. Usually, this can be worked into exercise, leisure time, car rides, and time away from home.
- Reading about decluttering to learn about ideas, suggestions, and best practices – When you’re first starting out, some of these suggestions can get you going.
- Joining a group (in person or virtually) for accountability – If you need to have someone ‘keeping you honest’ with your actual decluttering steps, this can be a real game-changer. I’ve found that extroverts seem to gain energy from working with others, even if only virtually.
- Participating in a challenge – Challenges are good and usually only take small bits of time. This can gamify the task of decluttering and can make it fun. Challenges can also work for all family members.
- Setting a timer to work a Pomodoro round of decluttering – If you only have a set amount of time or energy, using the Pomodoro technique can really help to get you moving. This is also a good technique for perfectionists, because it helps alleviate the need for perfection and get some action started.
- Getting rid of a set amount of items each day – This is really fun for families to work on finding a certain number of items a day to get rid of. Whether or not you’re doing a level set number of items each day or trying to increase with each day, you may find that this gets harder as the items get picked over, then you may need to swap to another technique. Also, if using the day of the month method to get rid of items, consider going back and getting rid of 30 items the first day, then 29 the next. This has worked best for our family as we are able to have the energy and ease in finding the most items at the beginning before we’ve pared down substantially.
- Creating new rules to stave off clutter – Establishing new rules to follow is a key way to stay on course fairly easily. You just must be sure everyone knows the rules and that you actually follow through with them.
- Marking off a chart to see your progress in getting rid of items – Use a box chart with 100 boxes on it and mark off the boxes as you go. Children love to mark off the boxes and create an image doing so. You may also choose to use different colors for each family member so that you can see everyone’s progress at a glance.
- Working room by room – This is a great way to get motivated if you have an entire day. Work what you consider the most important room first for the best enthusiasm. Usually, for most people, this seems to be the living room or bedroom.
- Working by type of items – Gathering up all the same types of items and then going through them may be handy to get rid of items because you will see the sheer amount of items you have in each category. This usually makes it so your reasonable side can part with items and be more able to pick the ‘best of’ items to keep.
- Take baby steps – If you’re getting overwhelmed, it will help if you don’t think you’re decluttering your entire house or life, but instead focus on smaller units. Breaking down the task of decluttering into smaller chunks can go a long way towards keeping motivated, especially when you’re first getting started and keep getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of clutter to work through. A common gotcha to this is moving around from thing to thing without actually finishing an area. So, while doing this, be sure to decide what you’re working on so you won’t move from one thing to the next without knocking something out.
- Using the boxing method – If you’re wavering a lot about whether or not to get rid of stuff, then try using the boxing method to temporarily get rid of the items until you realize you don’t need them, then it is much easier.
- Pretending you’re going to move – If you envision moving in the future, sometimes you can trick yourself and imagine moving even sooner. This can help you make decisions on what to get rid of sooner rather than later.
- Use a rewards system – If you are enticed by rewards, setting up a system by which you’re rewarded with an experience may be beneficial in helping you work toward your goal with more joy.
- Scheduling decluttering sessions – If you are calendar based and schedule oriented, actually marking time down on your calendar with a reminder may be helpful.
- Paying for a professional’s help – Sometimes you just need someone to help. There is nothing wrong with this. Hiring a professional to help you can be very informative. People who do this for a living have a lot to offer in the form of education and behavior modification.
