Imagine that a decluttering guru sweeps into your world this week, waves a magic wand and clears away all that is clogging up space in your life.

How does that feel?

What does that gain you?

This is key when we are talking about the whole complex subject of decluttering:

…understanding WHY. 

What is your end point? What are you trying to achieve? And – being brutally honest – if clutter is an issue, what has stopped me achieving this end point before?

This is not a new topic, and I have spoken about this before. But it remains a thorny and complex issue. 

We need to be realistic and kind to ourselves, and not simply try to jump on the bandwagon of how the latest guru does it. Last week I was talking about Marie Kondo, the tidying sensation that is sweeping the world (well, Netflix anyway – here’s the trailer). Her methods make a lot of sense. There will be ideas, tricks and tools in there that you can use and that will make a difference. 

Crucially though, her methods – or those of any other tidying expert – will not necessarily work for you in their entirety. 

What is important here is understanding and knowing  yourself. Your own strengths, natural tendencies, and characteristics. But also your motivations and beliefs. What do you believe about your own ability to tidy and sort, and to keep things to the level of tidiness that works for you?

It may be that you have tried various methods before and either not found them to work, or not stuck with them. There may be lots of reasons behind this, but again what is important here is to be honest with yourself. You are not trying to be Marie Kondo. You are not meant to be! What works for her may not work for you, or at least not in the original prescriptive format. 

Ask yourself: who am I comparing myself to? Who am I trying to be and/or model? And if I’m really honest – how much am I kidding myself? What is most important here?

What therefore does it mean for me to gain the level of decluttering that suits me, allows me to function at my best, is in keeping with the person that I am and with what is most important to me?

A tangential question here is to ask yourself:

What has pushed me to want to do this now?

To take charge of this situation now? Often it takes the pain levels becoming high enough for us to take action. We can tolerate a huge amount before one small, seemingly trivial incident sets us off on an explosive path of clearing and purging. Maybe that is just me…

Of course, each of us is on a spectrum of clutter-tolerance. And this is about letting go of any judgment about yourself or another and instead simply choosing to be objective about the situation.

What is actually going on?

If you can, step back from yourself and observe without judgment your situation. What is the clutter that is most needing addressed? Where is it? Is it physical, and if so, what does it mainly comprise? 

Perhaps it is more emotional clutter: negative self belief, anxiety, comparisons with others. Or mental clutter: your brain feels like it is swimming in thick soup of constant what’s-nexts and to-do’s and over-thinking. This is exhausting and robs you of joy. These are the subjects for future weeks’ musings. 

For now, simply be aware of what the issues are and their impact. This is not going to be solved overnight. Simply give yourself permission to objectively assess the situation because you want to make changes. That is enough for now. 

Then – remaining in that objective, non-judgmental state, recruit your creative imagination and explore these questions:

• What do I want to achieve and WHY?
• What would be the best outcome here?
• What differences would I expect to see, and what would I gain from that? More on that here. 
• Am I being too idealistic? What is realistic for me here, now, in this life season?
• What is sustainable? And fun?
• How much time do I have?
• Who else is invested in this? What do they stand to gain from this?
• And who could I recruit to help?

The HOW of this will follow. But this week, simply seek to understand your own personal WHY of decluttering – for therein lies your motivation.