If our bedroom’s a mess, our life would not be much different from it. Because we spend a surprisingly huge amount of time (almost 1/3 in fact) on our bed sleeping. So the condition of our bedroom- whether it is dusty, dirty, cluttered with rubbish and papers or neat and clean would really influence our clarify of mind.
Sort out internal issues that is making you a clutterer
If you find that the mere idea to clean your home or room drains you, you would seriously need to consider what’s inside you that is creating and keeping that chaos and disorder. Sometimes you brave yourself to clean up your room and throw out things, but you may have such deep regret for throwing out certain memories…. Or your room revert back to its original nest of chaos in a matter of days.
Something inside you may be holding on tightly to the past. You are not ready to let go yet and that could be a possible reason that’s preventing you to have the clutter free life that you dream of.
Perhaps those old sales draft and letter reminds you of the time which you prefer to be in than the one now. If that’s the reason, you need to have your insides sorted out….and when you are ready, the instinctive urge to be out with the old and have the new come in would occur naturally.
Therefore, don’t beat yourself up when you cannot keep your home in order- instead- address the reason why you want to keep the chaos around.
Once the issue is dealt with, automatically you would want to declutter and throw away things that you no longer need.
Creative bedroom display at a local shopping complex
A real life example
Let me share with you an example on how clutter can make you stuck and prevent you to get ahead.
My current office is neat and quite paperless- when I took over, the previous girl already file everything in its proper folder in the computer. Hardly any records were maintained on paper.
Unnecessary documentation and letters were being disposed off- important documents were scanned and parked in proper folders on the PC.
Other office were filled with paper and a whole cabinet of filling system but our office had functioned for years on a more paperless setting. And I noticed that my mind is more focused and clear compared when I work in the office compared to while working at home.
The main difference I noticed between my office and home is that my office, specifically my table, do not have much clutter on them …my boss don’t like to see a messy table or clutter lying around so I do try to keep my table tidy 🙂
After that, I came back and sorted out the mountains of bills lying around near my laptop and the old newspapers which I have been meaning to digest- I filed paid bills and put unpaid bills in a clear folder.
I create a table of the due date and frequency of different bills. I have kept aside a lot of interesting articles that I got from the papers and plan to write about them- since I’ve yet to find the time, I punched a hole and file them properly- one day, I’ll just trace the online versions and do a whole record, then send the physical papers for recycling.
And I clear up my room. I realized that a lot of items lying around on my bedside table and within view were part of my past- and some of these items reminded me of a time where I’ve wanted to be.
I dealt with these items- some I throw away, some I just file it away. Now, my room is tidy and neat and it becomes a welcoming place where I want to lay my head down every night. I also sorted out my closets.
My life changed after doing this- I became more focused, and my ideas and creativity grow. Sometimes, solutions to certain predicament arrive on its own and I have inspiration and ideas to try new things. I also sleep better at night- less disturbing dreams and I wake up more rested (I’ve been having a sleeping problem for more than a decade).
The lives of a few of my friends changes after they’ve learn to declutter. It is a step by step process- you cannot force the letting go process… it is gradual. But again, it is something that you have to get started, little by little. And a small little step- learn to put things back where you have found them makes a lot of difference.
