Over ten years ago, I wanted to clear the clutter in my home. I looked at all of the blogs and did all of the programs. But I wasn't able to declutter as much as I had wished. Sometimes what the programs said to get rid of, I wanted to keep or wasn't sure I wanted to let it go. I started blaming myself and assumed something was wrong with me. The truth was that clearing away the clutter is not a one-size-fits-all process. It wasn't until I combined my experience as a therapist with everything I learned in the decluttering process that I found something that worked for me.
Besides a very low-stress, simple system, I started asking myself questions that were not the typical "Have you used this in the past 6 months" questions. I also started giving myself a lot of grace. It was okay if I didn't know if I wanted to keep an item and if I took my time to decide on it. I let go of the judgment.
Then a shift happened and the process became more about me figuring out exactly what fit with my values, my family, and how we saw our future. It was less about how many mugs we owned and more about us. Surprisingly, after we started using this process, it became easier to sort through the stuff.
My takeaway for you: as you go on your decluttering journey - make sure you give yourself a ton of kindness and grace.
Next month I am re-releasing Declutter Your World, a program to help you declutter your home using my simple system while asking more meaningful questions. If you want to know more, contact me here and I can give you more details.
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