7 Great methods to Declutter your life

It’s easy to lose track of life and allow the little things to clutter our thoughts. But eventually after a list of clutter adds up, it distracts us from our main goals and we become more attentive to controlling the clutter surrounding us.

I remember when I used to have trouble organizing my life because I had no time to eat healthier, exercise, or read. This eventually caused me to gain several pounds with a taste for only fast food, microwave products and an addiction to television.

That was when a light bulb flickered in my head and I decided to change for the better. So I began the journey to declutter my life by applying small, but very effective methods to removing my distractions.

Such as when we have messy rooms, unless we want to easily find our most valued items, we need to remove the excessive clutters first.

Tackling this exercise could appear stressful because there’s a bundle of things we want to manage such as our children, job, and income. But it’s best to not think that way. It would be like trying to build a house in one day. The very thought would exhaust anyone.

That’s why, while going through this list, remember the key to declutter your life is taking baby steps. Don’t worry about having the perfect life, but learn to make things simpler. Tackle each problem in your life one area at a time.

1. Declutter your Room:

The first step to declutter your life is attacking the physical aspects of it. Clean parts of your house or room that needs attention. When we deal with a busy schedule, we tend to neglect those duties. But by acting on those thoughts and organizing your house, your mind will transform into a productive state to want to complete other tasks.

One of my favorite scenes is from a movie called, “Limitless.” If you haven’t seen the movie, there’s a scene where after the protagonist takes a pill to enhance his brain, one of the first things he does is clean his entire apartment.

If it helps, throw away any objects that don’t serve you a purpose anymore. Holding onto materials with no value will only be one more thing our brain will hold onto. If my readers would like to see the scene from Limitless, it’s below.

2. Declutter your commitments:

Not only can objects influence our behaviors to act more sluggish, but holding onto other people responsibilities could be a burden as well. We hold a certain level of commitment to our family, friends, neighbors, communities, and even strangers.

Through those commitments, our schedule becomes full and we drop important things to better ourselves whether it be exercising, writing, drawing, or reading. We spend time in so many places that we don’t have moments to think to ourselves.

Examples of events that holds us back are going to parties, watching movies with others, or plainly wasting time by doing nothing with friends.

You don’t have to ditch your friends or neglect your family, but when it gets in the way of what you have to do, cut time for them to thrive towards your goals. It’s healthy to have companionship, but it’s also healthy to balance work with pleasure.

3. Declutter your emotions:

Sometimes anger, fear, worries, anxieties, and depression could be the very source holding us back from finding motivation. So find ways to remove those nasty emotions so you could develop a focused mindset. If you’re angry at someone, learn to forgive and forget them because anger won’t do anything to them or you.

If you’re depressed, seek treatment by speaking to someone about your problems or writing it in a journal. It’s not expected for you to get rid of all your negative emotions on the first day, but make it a stepping stone process until you feel the small burden in your heart slowly evaporating.

The more negative emotions you defeat, the simpler it’ll be to find happiness and content.

4. Declutter your priorities:

We want to do everything that’s on our mind, but when we fail to deliver those expectations, we become depressed and back away from them. But if we learn to handle each big task separately, it makes success much easier to obtain.

To give an example, suppose you wanted to find a girlfriend/boyfriend, have kids, and buy the perfect house.

Rather than stressing on how to acquire them all, focus small on each goal separately by saving money each month to point towards your house, speak to more people so you could discover someone who matches your chemistry, and allow the kids to happen on their own when you marry someone.

Don’t try to complete four giant tasks at once. Tackle each step at a time and eventually things will start to lay itself out for you to grab. If it helps, invest in a journal or calendar to plan out your goals and mark them off when they’re completed.

5. Declutter your procrastination:

It’s good to be a little lazy every once in a while because our minds need a break from reality and relax in the moment. However, when procrastination starts to invade our productivity, it’s best to put our foot against it.

If you find it difficult finding the necessary willpower to stop procrastination, eliminate the distractions keeping hold of you. It could be your phone, laptop, video games, or television. If it’s preventing you from doing what you need to do, get rid of it and come back to it when you have free time to spare.

6. Declutter your eating habits:

You don’t have to give up junk food forever, but don’t make it a priority choice when choosing a meal. Make healthier choices not only to give yourself a better body, but a focused mind.

A good strategy to apply if you hate the taste of healthy food is by only eating them when you’re starving. This tricks your brain into believing that it’s good and will consider it as a future food choice when questioning what to eat.

7. Declutter your spending habits:

When you find yourself spending more than you could afford, stop and reflect on what your actions. And it’s not only the expensive items I’m referring too. It’s the small things we must be most mindful of.

We may not notice it at first, but a continuous spending habit of buying small items everyday could bundle up into big costs. I used to be addicted to buying at least 1 energy drink a day and would cringe when I didn’t have one.

It may have only cost a few dollars every day, but that eventually added up into a few hundred dollars without me even noticing.

To give you a real life example of the dangers of small spending:

If I bought a $4 cup of coffee from Starbucks five times a week, that will only be $20. It doesn’t seem like much, but when I continue this habit for a month, it adds up to $80. After a year of going to Starbucks five times a week, I’ll end up spending $960 a year for only coffee. So instead of buying that morning coffee, invest your money into a coffee maker at home.

In final thoughts….

It doesn’t matter who we are or what position we stand on. If we allow the little things in life to clutter our lives, we end up stressed and develop other bad habits like a chain effect. So by taking baby steps to organizing our life and changing for the better, it sets us on a path of productivity and happiness.