Decluttering and Organising

Many people feel overwhelmed daily by the amount of clutter in their lives. Whether you have too much stuff or you just do not have it organised well, it can cause stress in your life. You may experience frustration from not being able to find anything. Clutter and disorganisation do not always happen just at your home either. Have you ever lost anything in you office? While losing things around the house can be stressful, losing important work documents can be detrimental. But, you can overhaul your environment, which can lead to a healthier you.

Feng Shui and Clutter

The Chinese have long recognised that placement and organisation of your belongings can lead to living a much more harmonious life. Feng Shui is the art of placement. This means placing things in and out of your home just so, in order to allow your natural chi to flow. What is your chi? Your chi is your basic life energy or force. If your home or office is too cluttered, it can block the flow of your chi. When chi is blocked, you may feel ill, depressed, or even be in physical or mental discomfort. By organising and decluttering your home or office, you can ensure that you have a good flow of chi. This involves cleaning out things that are unwanted or unneeded as well as anything that is unpleasant or dangerous. By removing these objects, you are able to enjoy your environment more.

This may sound difficult, but it really is not. Just look at the things around you right now and ask yourself “Is this really important to me?” “Do I need this?” or “Will I miss it if it is gone?” If you do not really need it – get rid of it. You would be surprised how this simple little exercise can help you declutter your home or office. What will really surprise you is how much better you feel by decluttering your environment.

Stress

Some people put off organising their living space or office simply because it seems like such a large task. Take your garage for instance. If you feel your garage needs to be cleaned out and organised, you may avoid doing it because it is such a huge project. You will need to go through everything, throw stuff away, clean, and then organise. That can be overwhelming! But, by avoiding this large project, you may feel stress because you know it is something you need to do and it is constantly on your mind.

By breaking your major projects down into do-able tasks, you can get something done. Rather than worrying about how your whole house needs to be organised, start with one room. Within that room, you can start with one area. For example, clean your desk. Many people store things in a desk that they will never need or look at again. As you go through things, ask yourself if you have used that item within the last year. If you haven’t chances are you never will, so you can safely get rid of it. Have a filing cabinet or some other type of container that holds all your important documents such as marriage or birth certificates, tax records, etc. While it is a good idea to have places to store stuff, remember that hidden storage space means you will put stuff in there and forget about it. Make sure you go through hidden storage space every so often to get rid of stuff.

There are many books that offer additional helpful hints on decluttering your space. One final hint is to get a calendar and schedule tasks. Make one day a week your “declutter” day. Of course, you do not have to spend all day decluttering, but even spending 30 minutes or an hour will help you get a better handle on your clutter. You will find that the more organised your stuff is, the more relaxed you will feel!