Declutter your home

A simple life isn’t necessarily an easy life, but it does tend to be more fulfilling and less stressful. Mainly because the idea of a simple life is to whittle down your life to the bare bones. To create a life that invigorates you instead of draining the joy out of you.

Every good purge starts with a decluttering of things. Maybe it’s people that you could do without. Or you have too much stuff that is cluttering up your life. We tend to want to amass things and then hoard them. We tell ourselves that we need it or that it will come in handy someday. But the truth is that without a great deal of it, we would be a lot happier.

Looking at the people in your life

We tell ourselves little lies, lies that are meant to convince ourselves that it isn’t what it looks like. Like that person who is always putting you down, doesn’t mean it like that. That it really is a good person underneath it all. But at the end of the day, if that person drains you of energy, you have to think about the possibility of maybe letting go of that person. And if you aren’t willing to completely cut that person out of your life. Then maybe tell them when they’re giving off a toxic vibe. Maybe they never realised that they made you feel that way or that they behave a certain way. But be really honest with yourself. And ask if you really want that person and all the emotions they cause in your life.

Decluttering the stuff in your house

Getting rid of stuff is much easier when you compare it to having to look at all the people in your life. If you like the way Marie Kondo declutters. Then, by all means, use her method, I know plenty of people that really like her way of decluttering. Personally, I prefer to declutter with what people call the 4 box method. Although, I used old shopping bags, which made throwing them out or donating way easier. The way it works is that you have 4 boxes/bags, and each box is for something else. You divide the boxes up into categories, one you want to keep for storage, one for things to donate or sell, one for things that need to be binned or recycled, and the last one is for things your now sure of yet.

It’s this way that I reduced the amount of stuff I had until everything my family and I owned could fit into under 30 boxes. I was raised by a mother who always hoarded loads of things I considered trash because it might come in handy one day. And my father wasn’t much better, for he kept every newspaper and every jam jar he ever owned. So when I moved out and had my own house, I did the exact same thing, I bought every discounted item and kept every jam jar.

But like so many people, I found that all the clutter was stressing me out, so I put 4 bags on a table and just started walking around my house en throwing things in there. It felt so liberating, especially when I started looking at the furniture pieces. I had more furniture than would fit into the house, so much that I even had to keep a chair in the shed.

But just like me, you can grab 4 boxes and put them somewhere easy to reach, and just continuously throw things in there as you go about your day. Choose a day in the weekend to look in a cabinet or closet and go through them completely. That way, you won’t end up with tidy surfaces and overflowing cabinets.

Good luck and grab your boxes: storage, donate, bin and undecided. 

If you’re looking for more ways to simplify your life then read why nature walks are important for a simple life.

Pin it for later: