Even if it seems like a daunting task, I will show you in this article how to clean up the clutter from your life with 7 simple steps that will bring a massive change and will make you feel better in no time at all.
THE KEY RULE: SIMPLIFY AND LIVE WITH LESS
When you feel that you are in that moment of life when you are no longer in control of what is happening to you, you feel suffocated and pushed from one direction to another without a precise trajectory, it is a sign that you have let the chaos settle both internally and externally.
It may sound like a cliché, but if you want to be your most productive self, to live a peaceful life, organized, with a clear vision and purpose, the best way to do that is to simplify and live with less by getting rid of the junk from your life which weighs you down, distract from the things that matter, and robs all the joy and beauty from it.
Decide what kind of life you want, what are the things that matter to you and bring fulfillment, and say NO to anything other than that. Now it is time for a new approach to life… A tidy, more mindful, organized, and well-defined one!
HOW TO CLEAN UP THE CLUTTER FROM YOUR LIFE IN 7 STEPS?
BREAK FREE FROM THE CHAINS OF THE PAST
Every person has their baggage of the past, and this is not always a bad thing to have because gives perspective on certain aspects of life.
But some people are so stuck with the memory and wounds of their past that they are unable to live in the present, move forward, and open up to create new experiences for a brighter future.
I know it is not easy to get rid of everything that has hurt you or made you angry or sad, to forgive someone who has done something wrong to you, or to pass over the regrets or mistakes you made in the past, but it is time to let go of them.
You can’t change your past, but you definitely can accept it, and move on to create new future perspectives.
Accepting your past is being honest with yourself about it. Blaming someone for what happened, or making excuses for what you did, will not help you get over it.
It will just keep it alive throughout the length of time. Important is to be open-minded about what happened.
If you do not see it as something to be embarrassed about but rather as an opportunity for growth, you may be able to get over it and focus on the positive parts of your present.
Forgive yourself for any past mistakes because those mistakes are what make you unique. Are part of your story, and of who you are today.
Free up your mind, focus on the present moment, and take time out of each day to reflect on how far you have come in life, and how long your path ahead is to continue to accomplish exceptional things.
And remember…
Your Future Needs You, but Your Past Doesn’t!
MAKE PEACE WITH YOURSELF: LOVE YOURSELF
Learning to love yourself is one of the most important tasks in life. It is an ongoing process, especially when society tells you to look, act in a certain way, or have specific attributes.
Self-love doesn’t happen overnight, it requires patience and understanding to build this relationship with you as your best friend, not your worst enemy. But in the end, it is worth the effort.
When you love yourself you feel good about who you are, you have more self-respect, better self-worth, and a powerful self-confidence, which affect positively all the aspect of your life because you believe you deserve only the good things, and never accept what is worth less than that.
The key is to start with self-acceptance. Acceptance of who you are and what your life has been up until this point in time, good or bad.
You don’t need to be perfect to love yourself, to have a certain amount of money, weight, or anything else that society says is needed.
Focus on your happiness, take good care of yourself, offer yourself time to become the best version, and especially love yourself unconditionally with all your likes and dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, or frustrations no matter what other people say or do.
Remember that no one is perfect or flawless, and this will set you free from anger, judgment, resentment, and criticism.
If you want to improve your life and make it better than ever before, start by improving your relationship with yourself!
Accept That You Are Enough Already!
MAKE A CLEAR BREAK FROM ALL THE TOXIC PEOPLE
Maybe like each of us, you have also in your life, a manipulative family member, a partner who instead of supporting you to move forward keeps you in a place, a friend who can’t stop complaining at all, a co-worker who makes you doubt yourself, or a pitiful neighbor who doesn’t trust anything or anyone.
Without being aware of it, all these people are just bringing toxicity into your life, dragging you down, and stopping you from achieving progress.
Toxic people are not only harmful to your mental health, but they are also detrimental to your physical health.
They are known to be toxic because they have a way of making you feel worse and small, they are very difficult to be around, and always seem to have something negative to say about everything.
You need to cleanse your life of toxic relationships before it’s too late and start anew with people who bring you more positivity.
The process starts by taking some time to evaluate and identify who in your life is toxic, and to decide whether it deserves a place in it.
If you are like me, you will be able to break any connection with this type of person, because sometimes cutting people out of life is an act of self-care, and may seem like the only way to escape their toxic behavior.
But maybe for you to be sharp in a decision is a difficult thing to do because you just can’t get away from everyone without any possible means of contact.
But in this case, avoid playing into their reality, and focus on cutting out gradually the toxic elements.
Don’t Let Toxic People Rent Space in Your Life. Raise the Rent and They Will Go Out On Their Own.
CLEAN THE MESS FROM YOUR MIND-SPACE
As well as emotional baggage, mental baggage plays an important role in how it influences your life, productivity, and achievement of goals.
When you feel that your mind is too crowded with thoughts, worries, and negative self-talk, or you feel that you are stuck between many choices and you can’t decide which one is right for you, then it is a clear sign that you need to do a drastic mental cleansing.
A crowded mind only shakes your life, it gives you ambiguity in setting goals, drags you down, and distracts you from focusing on what’s important and productive.
Sometimes it is difficult to stay on top of your thoughts. Not all of them have the same weight on your mind, so it is important to prioritize which ones you should pay attention to.
Natural, the mind tends to accommodate new worries and to create negative self-talk, but if you make an effort, you can change this behavior.
You can do this if you:
• Find and do activities that make you happy or satisfied, and do not let you focus on the negative.
• Keep a thought diary to get all of those negative ideas out of your head onto paper.
• Develop a Mindfulness practice. Be present at every moment of the day, and thus leave no room for your mind to create unnecessary and unreal scenarios.
When You Throw Out the Mental Clutter You Clear also Your Soul!
KEEP YOUR ENVIRONMENT TIDY
As you maybe know your outer environment controls the way you think, feel, and reflect on the kind of life you are living.
When you walk into your house and you can breathe freely without feeling stress or tension, you can say that it is the most wonderful feeling to be home.
You can only have this feeling when you begin to organize your living and working environment because it also develops the basic skills needed for an organized life.
When you clear away unnecessary clutter from your surroundings, you are sending a clear message to your subconscious mind that you want to get organized, and what kind of life you intend to build.
When you start to organize your environment, it’s important to be clear about what you need.
• Identify the things that you don’t use as much as others. It doesn’t make any sense for you to hold onto them when other people could use them more than you. These are the items that can be easily given away or donated.
• Start by clearing the surfaces in your home. This may seem futile at first, but clearing clutter from surfaces can help create a more zen and serene environment, and it will allow the new things you bring into your home to have more space and presence.
• You’ll probably find that your desk is a mess, as it’s the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see before you go to bed at night.
” A tidy desk is a tidy mind”, so, if you want to be more productive, a good time manager, and more coherent in creative ideas keep your working environment tidy, and all the items in a specific place and order.
• Organize your house by category, function, or type. This will make it easier to find the items you need without wasting precious time.
These are only a few hints and tips to get started with. But I am sure you got the idea.
As Marie Kondo says:
“The objective of Cleaning Is Not Just to Clean, But to Feel Happiness Living within That Environment.”
GET RID OF NEGATIVE HABITS
We all have our habits that can lead to an organized, happy, successful life or a messy one. Habits can be a lifesaver or a bane, but the choice is only ours to follow.
If you have good habits, you become healthier, and more productive, with a clear vision of the life you want to have, without worrying that you will get distracted by other things.
On the other hand, if your habits are bad, it’s not easy to move on and change them.
The important thing to know about why it’s so hard to quit a bad habit is that habits are not just physical actions but also mental behaviors.
When you engage in the same habitual behavior, your brain rewards you by releasing dopamine which is the “feel-good” chemical.
If you want to successfully break a bad habit, you must understand what drives your addiction and then replace those feelings with other activities that provide an equally rewarding experience.
Identify the behaviors that you want to change, and then ask yourself why you want to change them, what are the reasons? Doing that will help motivate you and give you a clear idea of what exactly it is that you want to achieve.
Once you identify the recurring time wasters in your life, it will make it easier for you to find a solution on “HOW”
• Create a plan.
• Establish the time frame for the changes.
• Set specific goals.
• Create small steps towards your goal each day or week.
If you can’t find a way to do this alone, here is my recommendation 40 Days to Positive Change – Full Toolkit that will help you to make this process easier.
“We Are What We Repeatedly Do. Excellence Then, Is Not An Act But a Habit!” – Aristotle
REDEFINE THE DECISION-MAKING
Bad decisions lead to messy situations and consequences!
In a world where decisions are made daily, it can be daunting to figure out the best approach. Making decisions well is essential for advancing and achieving better results in life.
That is why, it is important to have a clear understanding of your priorities and values, as well as your goals and the rules you want to follow.
A successful decision-maker needs to be able to assess the different factors involved in a situation and then combine their knowledge, experience, and intuitive thinking to come up with the best option.
You should structure your decisions in a such way that each one builds on the others, and are not in opposition to one another.
Maybe sometimes you look back and find that the decisions you made didn’t make sense or didn’t fit into any plan.
This is usually the case when you do the most common mistakes when making decisions:
• You rush into decisions. It’s important to think things through before you make any big moves.
• You avoid tough decisions. If you don’t face up to difficult situations, they can get worse over time.
• You are afraid to change your mind. Decisions can always be changed if necessary, or if new information comes along that makes it clear the decision was wrong in the first place.
• You make a decision based on what feels good. Your gut feeling is not always the best indicator for making a decision. You need to be able to look at all the facts and weigh out the pros and cons before making a final one.
• You let excuses hold you back. There will always be reasons not to commit, but these should be considered as potential.
• You make decisions based on fear and the possibility of what might happen. Balanced emotions are crucial to intuitive decision-making.
• You are not confident in your own decisions, so you are looking for people’s approval. Update your decision-making skills and you will be able to make decisions based on your perspective, experience, and knowledge, and not theirs.
MAKE YOUR DECISIONS CAREFULLY BECAUSE IN ONE DECISION 90% WILL BE ALL YOUR HAPPINESS OR MISERY.
Learn the ability to balance competing interests, the short-term and long-term considerations, think strategically, and especially think creatively, because it is a hallmark of all great decision-makers.
When you make a final decision, the Universe will conspire to make it happen!
FINAL THOUGHTS…
When you cleanse your life from the traces of the past, your head, your heart, or your home, it’s incredible the space created to let in only the things that will enrich you, your life, and your family!
Till next time…
Be The Designer of Your Life Experience!
~Diana O. Debreczeni~
Founder of Dare & Be.
What a great piece of writing. It’s very helpful, especially for those who are stressed out and having anxiety. I love the section where you talk about self-love. “Accept that you are enough already” is the best line. I’d also like to add that loving one self, as you stated doesn’t happen overnight, moreover, I think if people begin to make a list of things they admire about themselves, they’ll begin to believe that they are loveable.
I know my mind is full of clutter which is a reflection of my cluttered space in my home and in my office. It’s something that I’ve been aware of for quite awhile now, and I’ve been working on it. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is myself. I just feel overwhelmed and unmotivated to get rid of stuff. (I’m not a hoarder by any means, but I do have a lot of clutter)
Your article has inspired me to get my S**t together and take action to clear that physical and mental clutter that has turned into chaos. I know it will make room for more positive things to enter into my life.
Thanks for writing this article.
Nice to see you again, Jariel. I’m glad you enjoyed the article and gave you a little push to make a change. Probably the reason why it is difficult for you to give up things is that you get emotionally attached to them. It may be an idea. Or maybe really, you have so many things collected for too long that you don’t want to waste your time and energy to get rid of them.
Just start section by section, day by day, and you won’t even realize when you’re one step away from finishing the entire cleaning.
Hello Diana,
What a beautiful article. We spend so much time in our heads it would serve us very well to make that space beautiful. And that starts with decluttering your mind.
I loved all sections of your article but the one that spoke most to me is the section about cleaning the mess from your mind space. This is something that I really need to work on. I also loved your tips on how to achieve that. I really feel like I need to put some conscious effort into this. It feels that I don’t take anything as it comes into my life because there are so many thoughts racing to the surface trying to be noticed. And they are doing a very good job and being noticed as for the most time I get totally absorbed in the thoughts and sometimes even miss what is really happening. Kind of sad, when you really think about it.
Thank you so much for your wonderful article and for reminding me what I need to focus on next.
I’m glad I could be of help, Anna. Even with a short reminder to bring your focus in the right direction.
In any case, I think that my new article “How to Get Mentally Unstuck” will give you more complex information. Just try the hints from it, and let me know how it works for you.
Reducing the clutter in my home and workspace has always lead to better focus and an improvement in my overall mood. As far as my head space, I have found it very helpful to use mind-mapping techniques and illustrations such as vision boards when trying to organize my thoughts. Clutter, whether it is physical or mental, subconsciously induces stress and chaos into our lives. Thank you for this much needed reminder to de-clutter and decompress!
Cheers,
– Ian
Hi Ian,
Sometimes a little reminder can uplift your day, by bringing you back on the right path. So, glad to see you here, and thank you for your feedback. I hope you come back for new updates.
I agree that we lose so much of our peace when we allow others that are toxic to manipulate us into making decisions that limit our self-growth. We need to identify what those characteristics are and how to combat them.
We also need to love ourselves unconditionally and without restraint. By cutting out the toxic people and situations in our life, we can start that process. Once, we get rid of the junk, our lives start to become more tranquil and positive. As you stated, it does not happen overnight but with concerted effort. This may take weeks, months or years but with continued persistence you can make it happen.
Jerry
Hi Jerry,
I’m glad to see you here, and especially to know that you agree with the steps mentioned in my article, steps that are part of the process of cleaning up the mess in our lives.
I hope you come back for new updates.
First and foremost, this is an excellent piece of writing. Second, I have a lot of clutter in my life, and the stress and anxiety it has caused me over the years has definitely gotten to me. People must declutter their minds and lives in order to be happy. However, the main point is that decisions must be made. You stated that one should think clearly about decisions, but I’ve heard that the most successful people make decisions quickly. Do you agree or disagree with that? I believe it is critical to prioritize one’s happiness above all else, and everything else will fall into place. This is a very insightful article that everyone should read.
Hi Kiersty,
Thank you for your words of appreciation. I’m sorry to hear that stress and anxiety for you are the order of the day, and especially that they persist for a long time.
You are aware of their existence and this is a good sign. Now all you have to do is work on them mentally and emotionally.
I recommend daily meditation, even for just a few minutes to start. It will help you rediscover your essence and your inner peace, to be more present and less focused on things of the past or future that did not happen.
If you are unfamiliar with meditation, I provide you a meditation guide for beginners. For a more in-depth understanding, you can find out what meditation means and how it can transform you.
You can also try NLP techniques, hypnosis / self-hypnosis, or subliminal messages that bring changes directly into the subconscious.
And to answer your question, successful people have indeed developed their decision-making skills in a short time because they are more pragmatic, and use a lot the thinking intuition, and not the emotional intuition as most people do.
“Your Future Needs You, Your Past Doesn’t!” This is easily the best line in this incredibly motivating piece. Our inability to love ourselves always hinges on our past, things we’ve done or had done to us. Our hesitancy to break from toxic people is also tied to the past, a time when the relationship served us well or we needed them in some way. It feels unloyal to break from them now. I love the way you’ve laid out a plan to change the way we do and think about things. Thank you for posting!
Hi Cynthia,
Thank you very much for stopping by, and for your words of appreciation. I’m glad you enjoyed reading it, and I hope you’ll come back for more updates.
Thank you so much for this. We must learn to love ourselves first before we can love others. It has taken me many years to accept my flaws and I use to beat myself up pretty badly in the past about it.
And you are so right. Free yourself from clutter. It is the “things” that drag us down. After my first marriage broke down I got rid of most of my monetary possessions and never felt happier. It was like a weight had lifted from my shoulders. I could be “Me” again and not the “house” me or the latest “car” me.
I got sick of people talking about their new kitchen, YAWN, or their new pool. Shallow, pardon the pun. I left and traveled and truly discovered myself. The good and bad, and have learned to love the good and accept the bad.
Wow, you got me going. Thanks for a great article. I will be looking out for more.
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
To discover yourself, your true essence, is the greatest achievement of a human being.
The moment you become aware of your flaws and strengths, you begin to accept yourself, appreciate, and love yourself more.
You understand that true happiness comes from within and not from material things.
I am glad that you have reached this level of consciousness, and I am sure that the path of your life has taken a positive turn on all levels.
Great stuff!
It is very important to remove clutter from both your physical and mental spaces, but it isn’t always a simple task.
I have found that removing the toxic people from your life is the most difficult for me, simply because part of who I am is caring about people that are close to me. I admit I haven’t always made the best choices of who I kept as friends, and that has had costly effects on my life. How do you overcome the feeling of concern you have for people you have had to cut off for your own mental health?
Hi Jerromy,
I agree with you that most of the time, removing clutter from our lives is not an easy task. Especially when, as you mentioned, we need to get rid of people who are toxic to us.
In general, toxic people are like that by nature, and they have no plans to change.
My question is:
Why would you want to have people around who bring you only negativity, do not support you in your plans for progress, and especially question your potential?
Unfortunately, in some cases, even family members can be toxic. And here comes the paragraph in the article about decision making.
Sometimes we have to make drastic decisions, in which intuitive thinking, not emotional one, weighs more.
What do you prefer? To have the freedom to enjoy your true potential, and to live your life in the terms you want, or to remain under the umbrella of toxicity and limitations?
The decision is only yours!
Hi Diana, really enjoyed reading your article about How to clean up the clutter out of your life. I am one that struggles to be free of the past when it is needed and the clutter that comes along with bargain buys. I am going to take into account what you have mentioned to clear out the clutter. I will share your website with friends and family as they can benefit from this read as well.
Hi Jannette,
If we were to make a self-analysis of the life we lead, we would certainly find out that most of our present decisions and actions are conditioned by what happened in the past. A more or less painful past that unfortunately marks our present.
I have learned from my own experience, and I am sure you will agree with me, that as long as you do not make peace with the past you cannot come to terms with the present and build for the future.
Thanks for the appreciation, and I hope you’ll come back for more updates.
I broke free from my old habits with the mindset of “I want to accomplish something”. If I don’t do it now, then when. I use apps like Relax Melodies as well, listening to their soothing tunes to help me relax and unwind.
Also whenever I feel down, or upset, I always try to think of the positives. Because things will get better, and you have to believe in yourself.
Great article, and Thank you for sharing.
Hi Champ,
Thank you for stopping by. You have approached a great mindset that can only set you up for success. The fact that you are aware that negative habits only limits your true potential has only strengthened your motivation to come back on the right path, whenever you deviate from it.
I wish you a lot of perseverance to stay on the track with positive habits, and also to work step by step to remove all the clutter from your life. All the best!