Calm the Chaos: How to Declutter Overwhelming Spaces
Today, we’re talking about the problems that living with clutter can cause, the system I now use whenever I’m tackling those overwhelming spaces, and the benefits of taking the time and energy to declutter. That way, we can contain our clutter problem, live with less stress, and relax more. Ready? Me too. Let’s GO!
Clutter destroys serenity
Clutter is a crowded or disordered collection of things. It’s anything we don't need, want, or use that takes our time, energy, or space, and destroys our serenity.
Let me repeat that- It Destroys our serenity. The calm, serene, peaceful home environment that we crave is destroyed by clutter. I don’t want to invite anything in that would destroy that for my family, but when I bring clutter in and let it take over, that’s exactly what I’m doing.
This quote by Peter Walsh sums it up pretty neatly. He says, “Clutter is not just the stuff on your floor – it’s anything that stands between you and the life you want to be living.”
I’ve been decluttering and working really hard to get rid of things that aren’t serving me or my family for a while now and I still feel like there’s stuff that gets in the way of the life I want to be living. My husband and I have three young boys and another one on the way so I know my home will never be picture perfect all the time, it’s just not realistic. In fact, as much as Living in constant disorder isn’t productive, striving for a perfect home can also be counterproductive. And honestly, We live here and I can’t devote my whole day to cleaning, nor do I want to, but I would like things to be more put together and easy to put back together at the end of the day so that way we can relax and have more family time, and enjoy each other more without being stressed out by the things that are around us. I’m not there yet, but that’s what I’m working towards. And truthfully, I need to continue to get rid of things if I want that end result. Less stuff to manage means more time doing…anything else.
Our Clutter is Stressing Us Out
Sometimes I think I experience clutter-blindness, maybe you can relate- Where I just ignore or push aside the mess and put it to the back of my mind and can somehow walk past it without giving it a thought – but even when it’s all the way back there, it’s still affecting me. I’m still bothered by the mess.
During my research on this topic I came across an interesting study that was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles called "Life at Home in The Twenty-First Century". In the study, UCLA anthropologists looked into the accumulation of things in our modern day homes and the effect they have on our families. Researchers went into 32 family homes of middle class families with working parents and they counted every single item in every single room and documented the objects found in each room and how the items were being interacted with and how they were affecting the families in their daily lives. They were very thorough. I can’t imagine how long that would take. I’m thinking about my garage and… whew!
Through their research they found a direct link between clutter and stress levels. They discovered that women who described their homes as cluttered had higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, compared to those who described their homes as tidy.
They said, “The finding was, the women who looked around the home and saw clutter, and remarked on the effect of the clutter on their lives, mainly that it was like an ever-present, continuing, ongoing burden for them to manage, when we looked at the cortisol levels of those women, their cortisol was very high.”
Interesting to note that the research suggests the negative effects of mess and clutter may be more pronounced in women than in men.
So our over-abundance of stuff is stressing us ladies out! And here’s why:
When we encounter our clutter, a signal is sent to our brains that work isn't yet done and cortisol is released into our bodies. Cortisol is a steroid hormone made by the adrenal glands and is important for our health, but too much of it can harm our bodies and cause several unwanted symptoms. High cortisol levels can cause a number of symptoms, including:
- Weight gain
- Stretch marks
- Muscle weakness
- High blood sugar
- Bone loss.
- Easy bruising
- Mood swings including anxiety, depression, or irritability.
- Brain fog
- Sleep disturbance
- Slowed healing
It lowers our focus, and makes us feel stressed and anxious. It can affect how we fight illness and even digest food. It makes it difficult to relax, creates feelings of guilt, and reduces our productivity and creativity.
If we decrease the amount of stuff we allow to take up space, we will decrease the amount of stress we have, which will in turn decrease the amount of cortisol in our bodies and decrease our symptoms.
Our well-being is on the line, so let’s get purge some stuff!
How to Declutter Overwhelming Spaces
Decluttering can feel really intimidating, but when we dive right in with the intention to improve our environment, we will be rewarded. So let’s just dive right in. Welcome to my messy living room!
A few weeks ago I decluttered my living room. It was the room that was driving me up the wall with extra things that didn’t belong. There are so many hotspots for clutter that made me want to rip my hair out daily; on the back of the couch, the table by the front door, the TV console were the biggest offenders. Stuff had accumulated big time and it was causing me a lot of frustration.
So basically, one day I decided to get those piles out of there once and for all- and it’s been so much easier to clear up at the end of the day now. I wanted to share a method I adopted that makes it so much easier for me to handle a big decluttering project like this. Basically, it’s gather everything together, sort and categorize all at once, and remove unwanted items.
Let’s go through each step a little more in depth.
- Gather everything
- Locate hotspots and gather all the piles into one mega pile, that way we can see what we have all at once and make decisions with everything in mind
- I use a small rake to help me gather things up
- My all or nothing brain loves to know that I’m including everything so I don’t have to worry about it later. It's been a game changer to get it all together FIRST and THEN sort through it.
- Sort and categorize
I use four different categories
- Donate
- Trash
- Keep - Goes elsewhere
- Keep – Stays here
When I come across something I’m unsure of, I’ll ask myself:
- Would I buy this if I saw it in a store today?
- Is it important to my husband or kids?
and I heard this one the other day and thought it was really great
- If it got poop on it, would I take time to clean it or would I throw it out?
- Remove unwanted items – trash and donate
- Once you’ve decided something needs to go, get it out of the house, don’t let it linger. take the trash bags to the trash immediately and donate the box of donations as soon as possible.
- Because, if it lingers, you can think about it. If you think about it, you might change your mind. Trust your previous self and don’t second guess her.
- Find a home for everything in a place that makes sense to you.
- When everything has a home, and is put away. We can find it when we need it and we know what we have.
- Ask yourself, “Where would I look for this first if I needed it?”
Try to keep only items that you actually use, need, and desire.
"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
~ William Morris
The benefits of decluttering
When we work to declutter things in our homes, we are rewarded in many ways. It’s not just a matter of having more space, but we will also enjoy:
- Improved self esteem
- Better focus
- More time
- Improved sleep
- A cleaner environment
- Improved creativity and inspiration
I found a Reddit thread that asked, “Have any of your decluttering endeavors led to a noticeable improvement in your quality of life?” and here are some of my favorite responses.
I don't feel as much guilt or obligation about things I "should" do. For example, I've sold my guitar and my snowboard. I'm not going to ever use them. Decluttering stuff like that has forced me to be more honest with myself about who I really am, instead of trying to live up to some image I have of myself in my head.
7worlds
My place is easy to clean, which is massive because when it was more cluttered I didn’t clean. Now I clean and I’m much nicer to myself. If there is a mess I can deal with it quickly. I’m also not in danger of tripping over things.
rofosho
I am 💯 more relaxed. I can look at my house and feel at peace. Because it's easier to clean and find what I need. So that means I have more free time.
I also save money because I'm not buying more than I need because I can't find anything.
I also feel better about the size of my house because it would feel smaller if I had more stuff. And that would make me sad because my house is expensive and can't afford anything bigger.
More Helpful Decluttering Tips
Maintain the reclaimed spaces. Prioritize this ahead of decluttering a new space.
Black trash bag. Just toss it in, it's like a black hole, don't think about it, let it go. I have a black trash bag outside that I'm still filling but when I was in the thick of it, I had it inside. Toss, toss, toss. Then get rid of it ASAP.
Organized clutter is still clutter, don’t be tempted to over organize when you should be letting some things go. Declutter, then organize.
Decluttering is an ongoing project that won’t be finished in a short amount of time so
If you’re unsure of where to start, pick somewhere small that could be done quickly and will make your life so much better when it’s done. Somewhere that you interact with daily, like a spice rack or junk drawer that drives you crazy. It’ll snowball from there.
Chaos creates chaos. Calm encourages calm.
If we work towards removing clutter, the physical things that are causing us stress, we will feel more at peace in our own spaces and have more time to think about anything besides the mess. Think of it as a therapeutic practice. Because it is. Less clutter means less chaos, more calm.
And that sounds pretty good to me.
♥️Lana
