The LOVEolution » The First Step to Removing Everyday Clutter

Modern Minimalism

The Art of Designing Your Life for Comfort, Productivity, and Love

The First Step to Removing Everyday Clutter

June 19th, 2010

You know when your life has become too hectic, too cluttered to be considered productive. You see laundry and dishes piling up; you see dog hair piles on the carpet; you forget to check the mail for a few days straight.

You’re too busy focused on the piles of stuff strewn around your house to actually do anything productive. Those piles invade your mind; they wear you down and you find yourself feeling exhausted at the mere prospect of going through them to clear them away.

Tackling them is not as difficult as you’d think, however. The hard part is having the courage to actually discard or donate the items that you know in your heart you will not use. If you jump right in, the courage may come but it may not. If you go through your belongings systematically, reason is more likely to win out over emotion.

I am an emotional person but, unfortunately, emotion is the antithesis of an uncluttered life where “stuff” is concerned. Emotion should be saved for experiences and sharing them with loved ones.

This is just the very tip of the iceberg of “stuff” and what you can do to get out from under it all. In order to begin your journey to a simpler and more focused life, here are the first logical step:

Do a generalized sweep of all of the main living areas and address the most obvious every day clutter.
Leftover glasses and dishes, laundry (clean or dirty), books, paperwork, etc., can all be easily put in a dishwasher, the hamper, the closet, the bookshelf, or the filing cabinet.

Then once that is addressed, do not allow it to build up again. If you have laundry that’s done, hang it up immediately. When you are done eating, put the dishes directly into the dishwasher or wash them, dry them, and put them away. That way nothing compiles and this step will not have to repeated ever again.