The world is consumer driven and materialism has become a common feature of most people’s lives in the Western world. Our homes are packed full of things we barely use and the mountains if unused items are doing nothing but causing us more stress, more difficulty and having a negative impact on our lives. Simplifying the material world you have built will help provide a healthier, happier lifestyle and mind set.
Minimalism is one way to go but this involves a serious change of lifestyle. There are many benefits to choosing this type of living and it makes your home a much more comfortable and fresh environment to live in.
Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind
This myth will only work for so long. Flinging all those items you can’t bear to part with into the spare room will only work for so long and eventually you will have to tackle it. Clutter makes it more difficult to invite people around, to keep your house clean and to focus on the here and now. Simply stuffing it away doesn’t make it go away.
Don’t Be Overwhelmed
Start small. You can’t change everything in a single day and you’ll soon be overwhelmed if you begin trying to move mountains. The key to long term clutter free living is small changes. Choose an area to start and begin organising. Sort out what you what and what you don’t and think about how much you want to get rid of. If you have 20 pairs of shoes maybe it’s time to downsize to 10, if you have a wardrobe stuffed full of old clothes you never wear, move them on. The worst thing you can do is set aside piles of things for storage. We’ve already said above out of sight, out of mind simply doesn’t work in the long term.
If things are broken, you don’t need them and in most instances if they’ve been broken a long time you definitely don’t need to replace them. If you really needed it, it would have been fixed long ago.
What Do To With All The Unwanted Stuff
Once you’ve organised all your property then where do you put all the things you don’t want? What do you do with them? You can try and pass them onto friends and family who are looking for the things you’ve got. You can recycle anything which can’t be reused and you can make some cash out of the spares. Chances are if you decide to sell your unwanted Macbook Pro you’ll make a decent bit of cash back and there are plenty of other items from clothes to books that other people may be interested in, even if you’re not.
Once you’ve cleared out all the clutter your home will feel brand new. There may be some areas in need of a scrub and a brush but soon you’ll feel like you’ve got a brand new living space and you’ll be happier inviting people over and showing off your space.
