Sustainable living clutter free

All around us there is talk of sustainable living.

In these days of climate emergencies, excess plastic, technology that allows us to be available and ‘on’ 24 hours a day, sustainable living is essential for our planet, our relationships, and for our mental and emotional well-being.

This applies of course to our lifestyle choices.

What we buy, where we buy it from, how we deal with waste.

What we value, what is most important, and therefore how we use our time. 

What we keep in our houses, and how we choose to order and store those items.

Which brings us neatly back to clutter. 

These past few weeks have seen me musing here about decluttering. The WHY, WHAT and HOW (this latter being in many ways the least important). There has been an awful lot of content here, and I salute you if you have trawled through it all.

My desire with my writing is to allow faithful and committed readers food to take away, and not only think on but nourish and sustain whilst implementing change. And if you are intent on decluttering, there is a lot in these blogs that will help you do just that. 

Last week saw us musing on some of our underlying beliefs about our effectiveness to clear that which is causing us grief – be it physical, mental or emotional clutter.

To be able to see the wood for the trees.  

When we can see a way through that dense dark diminishing and disempowering forest to the clarity and creativity and freedom of the space beyond – wow! When we can not only see what is going on with our stuff, but find a way to clear and sort it and achieve our own desired outcome, this is wonderful indeed. 

We can breath, we have order that restores inspiration, we are lighter and the way ahead is clear. 

But what happens when life comes wham and hits us in the nose and we slip back into patterns that caused the build up of clutter in the first place? We slip and slide and crash and burn and we are back in among the trees, lost and stuck again. 

Harrumpf. But it need not be thus. 

This is about sustainable living. 

We clear the clutter. We create order out of chaos. We reduce, let go of, and discard that which hinders. And we cherish, use and are fulfilled by that which we choose to keep. 

Sustainable living without a repeat build up of clutter is about knowing ourselves, and coming back constantly to our WHY. 

What is it that I am wanting to maintain, and WHY is that important?

What do I gain from working to maintain this level of clarity and order?

There is no point creating systems of order and structure that are so complex or time consuming that maintaining them is not only utterly burdensome but unsustainable. 

There lies the root to frustration, guilt and defeat. 

When it comes to living in an on-going day-to-day way in your new clutter free environment, bear in mind a few things:

• Keep it simple. 10 minutes a day keeping on top of key clutter attracting areas might be what works. Don’t create overcomplicated methods that won’t last. More here. 
• Keep it relevant to you. Be clear on what YOU stand to gain by maintaining the level of clarity and space that you need. 
• Keep it realistic. What amount of time a day works? When? Set yourself up to succeed not fail. 
• Keep it honest. Recognise your own areas of weakness, your own blindspots. With me, with physical clutter, that would be books. Marie Kondo suggests 30 books although it suggests here this is a misquote. So I keep what books I want, but I do keep them ordered and tidy such that the house is not consumed….
• Keep it fun. Recruit family members to take responsibility for their own stuff with clear buy in. Set a timer. Tidy to music. Make it a race/competition. Have a reward. 

We all have stuff. Physical stuff. Mental and emotional stuff. When it accumulates beyond what is healthy, clearing it and then finding a way to live without becoming swamped and overloaded again is the root to sustainable living.

And sustainable living allows us to live each day with gratitude for what you have, for who you are, and for the life that you GET TO live.