What is a realistic, sensible and motivating decluttering system that works for YOU? How to declutter relies on knowing yourself and applying key principles that are relevant to you, rather than being tied to a prescriptive system of someone else’s invention.

Over the past six months MB (My Beloved as he is known here) and I have been clearing and sorting our loft space. Part of this space was already floored and insulated but none of it had been done very well. Additionally, there was an awful lot of…..well, random crap up there that had been parked some time ago for a later date when it would be Dealt With or Might Be Needed.

MB has a new found zeal for tidying, sorting and creating systems. More on this in a future week as this is much more about mindset and belief than it is about physical belongings. 

But his enthusiasm was what prompted the long overdue loft sort out. This was timeous indeed as it coincided with my musings on Marie Kondo and all things decluttering. You can read more about that here, and how this whole series started. 

Last week I was proposing that the WHY of decluttering is of considerably greater importance than the HOW.  

Our loft is not as yet finished. But I can see some key principles on how to declutter that I can apply to future projects and that point to how much I am understanding about myself in the process.

Have a clear goal of what YOU want to achieve and WHY.

What is the best outcome here for YOU? What do you most want to achieve in this area/space? And what will the benefits be? More on these themes here. 

Spending a bit of time working through this really does pay off. If possible, create a vision board or picture of what your space will look like after you have cleared it of extraneous clutter, and sorted it out in a way that fits with the best of you and how you live. Keep referring to this in the midst of the messy middle of decluttering. Avoid distractions along the way by reminding yourself of what you are wanting to achieve and WHY. 

It might help to have a mantra that works for you. I particularly love William Morris‘ tenet:

This, for me, is life giving and definitely sparks joy. I value efficiency and don’t like mess, so if something is not useful – and I can be brutally honest about it ever will be to me again – it goes. And that which I believe to be beautiful will differ from you, but again that is the point. What do I want in my life that fits with my values, that brings me joy, that creates an environment in which my soul can be restored and revived? 

These are all significant factors to keep in mind as I go about clearing and decluttering. 

It does not have to be an All-or-Nothing approach.

That would be my natural tendency – this has to be done extremely well, extremely efficiently, and at break neck speed to achieve results that are going to mean something.

This is nonsense, but this is a deep internal scripting of mine. So choosing to take a one-step-at-a-time approach right at the outset has been something of a revelation. Normally I would set sky high expectations of myself, and probably MB and stress us both out. But stopping to consider the best outcome has brought a shift.

The best outcome of course is a floored, insulated and well ordered loft that allows us to use best the possessions we are keeping and facilitates disposing of that which we no longer need.

And is there a time limit to this? No of course not. But in my head, I often have a self imposed one, which puts undue stress on proceedings. 

What is more realistic, more sustainable, and – believe it or not – more fun – is taking an open-ended, one stage at a time approach with a healthy dose of realism.

Set a time limit for each tidying session and stick to it.

Feeling that we are falling into a deep and endless black hole of tidying, sorting, clearing, decision making is not joy-filling for either MB or myself. That has been my tendency….”we’ll stick at this until it is done.” Not happy. So choosing to work solidly for two hours then stop has been key. Interestingly, this has had the opposite effect from that I anticipated. I had assumed that the loft clearing would take longer in the absence of long, hard chunks of time to work on it. But those chunks of time are rare, and also not fun at all. Shorter chunks of time are more realistic and also more pleasurable and therefore we have fitted in far more than I expected. 

Have definite and clear goals for each tidying session. 

This is very important for me as I am so achievement oriented. I need to be able to see clearly what the past two hours have achieved. So we would set ourselves a task of flooring two sections, or clearing one category of stuff, or working on one area, and then stop. And at the end, look at what we had achieved with smug self satisfaction and an appropriate reward!

Stick to one theme at a time. 

This is a central tenet of Marie Kondo’s philosophy. Don’t clear a room, clear a category. For me, this actually works and makes a lot of sense. I would not necessarily do ALL of that one category in one go, but it keeps the mind focused on decision making within a theme, rather than flitting about like a butterfly between areas of our lives and home. 

Set an end point at a suitable time.

This has also been an important recognition. I do not like things to drag on indefinitely. Setting an end point at the start of this project was unrealistic as we were unsure of what exactly was involved. But part way through, with greater clarity and experience, it became possible to accurately predict how long the remaining tasks would take. And at that point, to set ourselves a realistic and achievable goal for completion. For our loft, this is easy as come winter, it is freezing up there. 

What is important here over all is what works best for YOU. Know yourself, and know how you work and you will more likely succeed – that for me is how to declutter in a nutshell. If you want more, there are lots of practical tips here and some great words of wisdom here, from the Huffpost folk.

You can do this!