DECLUTTERING TIPS

Hi loves! I’m Shannon of Ana Olivette and I’d like to thank you for coming back to read my blog. Since the last time I wrote, I continued with the decluttering of my house. I began in my closet because after doing a lot of research (there’s tons of it out there) I decided the best way for me would be to break it down into smaller tasks. I did a ton of research and made a list of things that I wanted to declutter in my room and began on my closet. There’s a difference between wanting to declutter and actually decluttering. So, I thought of some really good actionable and attainable steps to take the motivation from wanting to declutter to actually make it happen so that I can make 2021 my most organized year ever.

Regular decluttering is something I have found to just be super beneficial to my life. There are studies that prove that living in a more cluttered space negatively impacts an individual’s mental health. People who live in places that they describe as cluttered tend to have increase cortisol levels throughout the day. Cortisol (https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-cortisol) is the stress hormone that makes you gain weight amongst other things (Click the link to do some research). People who do not describe their space as cluttered have decreased cortisol levels throughout the day. I think this totally makes sense because we all have spaces in our house that sort of just gets cluttered and we kind of ignore it. The more we ignore it the more cluttered it gets and then it kind of weighs on us. We're always thinking about the clutter and we know we need to get it done. So why is it so darn hard?

What I find is, clutter tends to cause stress which causes a mental roadblock. This prevents us from getting the motivation we need to declutter. Finally, cluttering becomes this huge mountain. We feel like we're never going to be able to climb it. That's why my first tip when it comes to decluttering is to realize that it actually is not that big of a mountain. It's actually not going to take as long as you think. We tend to think of decluttering like that show Hoarders. We think it needs to be this huge process. In reality, you can break the decluttering down into much smaller tasks (special education teacher btw). By breaking your decluttering into small little tasks that you do every single day, it makes it way more attainable than trying to do a full house or a full room.

My suggestion is to keep a running list of places that need to get decluttered. I want you to think small and really specific. Instead of saying I need to declutter the kitchen you will say, I'm going to declutter the kitchen utensil drawer or the kitchen pantry or underneath the kitchen sink. The point is, you want to make a list of small specific things that need to be decluttered and then work on tackling one a day or even two or three a week. By doing this, we're not just decluttering, we're making the cluttering feel much more attainable. I think we all agree that we can spare five minutes somewhere in our day. It takes the mountain and makes it something that we absolutely can tackle, something that we can climb and that's what brings me into my next point.

The goal for decluttering is for you to start to be in a constant state of decluttering. Instead of looking at the decluttering as a project you do every three months, every six months or once a year. It’s shifting away from that thought process of I need to declutter the kitchen and breaking it down into I need to declutter underneath the kitchen sink. Knocking out one of these a day or a couple of them every single week a sort of just becomes part of your daily cleaning or your daily routine. I'll give an example, I was putting away my dishes which is a daily thing that I do and I knew I needed to organize the utensil drawer and so I just took an extra not even 5 minutes to remove everything from the utensil drawer wipe it clean and organize it as I was putting those dishes away. I just grouped it right into my regular cleaning literally adding less than five minutes to putting away the dishes and utensil drawer got nice and organized.

Now let's move on to get a little more specific and talk about decluttering specific areas in our house and let's start with the closet. I think a closet is a place that most of us at some point feel like is too cluttered. You feel like it's bursting at the seams. I know my life I spent a whole lot of time with a closet that always ended up being a total hot mess. Although it was stocked full of clothes, I always seem to open it and never have anything to wear. Now I'm a big believer in streamlining your closet to be full of things that you actually need and not clothing that you just think you need or that you want. The main point is that you want a closet that when you open it, it is full of clothes that you can wear on that specific day. For example, If you spend 80% of your days working from home, running errands and doing stuff around the house you want your closet to be comfy casual clothes that you can use working from home and running errands. It wouldn't make sense for mostly fancy blouses and cocktail dresses. The challenge is to think about how you spend your days and what kind of clothes you need for those days. The ultimate goal is to open up your closet and be able to grab and go but look good all at the same time.

These are the things that I have found so far that helped me. These are honestly just tips and hacks that I use in my daily life that have really helped me so much I hope that they will help you as well. As always thank you so much for stopping by and reading my blog. I hope you guys are having a fantastic day and I will see you all in my next edition of the Spring Decluttering Series. 💕 Shannon 💕

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