Mindful decluttering. How to create a peaceful and harmonious home with 3 simple steps #112

Ever feel overwhelmed by clutter? Is organizing your home a constant battle? What if you could transform your space into a peaceful sanctuary with just three simple steps?

This week, I'm diving into a topic that’s close to my heart: mindful decluttering. I’ve discovered that a mindful approach to decluttering and organizing can create a harmonious home and ease your mental burden. Sound impossible? It’s not.

Problem: Clutter causes stress and overwhelm. Quick fixes might help temporarily, but they don’t address the underlying chaos. Ever find yourself tidying up only to have the mess return in no time? That’s because true decluttering isn’t about speed; it’s about intention.

Solution: Let’s talk about how mindful decluttering can change your life. By following three simple steps, you’ll create a serene environment that supports your well-being. I’ll share these steps in this episode, but here’s a sneak peek:

1. Visualize Your Ideal Lifestyle
   
2. Tackle Categories, Not Rooms

3. Mindful Organization and Storage

What are the benefits? Mindful decluttering goes beyond a tidy home. It enhances your mental clarity, reduces stress, and creates a space that nurtures your soul. Imagine a home where everything has a place, and you can find peace amid the busyness of life.

Ready to transform your home and your mind? Don’t miss this episode! Tune in to discover how mindful decluttering can be a game-changer. Listen now and take the first step towards a peaceful, harmonious home.

Links mentioned in this episode

Organized FOR You! Get my eyes on your space, and receive a personalized video response with step-by-step strategies and solutions tailored to you.

Visualize Your Ideal Lifestyle Guide

Episode 110 How to declutter sentimental items without regret in 5 easy steps

Thanks for listening! For more organizational motivation, support and free resources:
Join my online membership Clutter Free Collective
Join my podcast Facebook group Living Clutter Free Forever Podcast: KonMari® Inspired Organizing | Facebook
Visit my website www.caroline-thor.com
Come and say 'hi' on Instagram @caro.thor
Follow me on Facebook @carolineorganizer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hello and welcome to episode 113 of the Living Clutter-Free Forever podcast. I can't actually believe we're at episode 113 already. It is absolutely crazy. And it's crazy that we're flying through July and before we know it it'll be Christmas. But anyway, july and before we know it it'll be Christmas. But anyway, enough enough about all of that.

Speaker 1: 0:27

I have been trying really hard this year to be much more mindful about how I go about things. You may remember, if you've listened to previous episodes, that my word for this year is intentional. I'm trying to be very intentional about everything I do and I do think that very often we get caught up in this idea that everything has to be done quickly. We need to declutter our homes, we need to tidy, we need to organise. It all needs to happen now, and really fast, where actually mindful decluttering, so creating a peaceful and harmonious home will serve you better in the long run. There is nothing wrong with doing a quick tidy up and I am going to be doing an episode about that in the coming weeks but being mindful about your decluttering, being intentional about it, will mean that you're creating a home environment for your mental and emotional well-being, and not only that, but the act of decluttering and organising can be done in a way that doesn't stress you out. I hear so often from people that it's just exhausting. I would agree it is emotional, especially if you are dealing with sentimental items, but it becomes this big stress and I've got to take things to the second hand shop and I've got to put things online to sell and it all just turns into this massive thing that ends up becoming a real chore. And what I've been working on with everyone in Clutter Free Collective is building self-care and mindfulness into what we do in our decluttering journeys, so that we can enjoy it, so that we don't feel the pressure and that we are really trying to find the peace in the whole situation.

Speaker 1: 2:24

So the KonMari method focuses on intentionality and joy, and that's what I love about it and that is what I would like to talk to you about today, and I have thought of three simple steps that I know you can take in order to make your decluttering a more peaceful and mindful exercise. So the first thing and you're going to go, oh, she's talking about this again, but it's so, so important the first thing I would always recommend you doing is starting by visualising your ideal lifestyle the importance of having a clear vision for your ideal home and lifestyle cannot be underestimated, and this vision is going to guide your decluttering decisions, and not only that. It will keep you motivated If you know at the end of it, you want to have a space in your home to do something that you love, or you want to feel a certain way when you walk in through the front door or walk into the kitchen to cook. It's a huge motivating factor, and I think this bit gets forgotten by a lot of people, or they think I'll just skip that bit. I want to get on with the actual decluttering, and that is a huge mistake. So there are different ways that you can go about creating an idea for what your ideal lifestyle is going to be.

Speaker 1: 3:51

One thing that lots of people love to do is to create a vision board so you can gather together images and colours and words that represent your ideal home. You could be cutting things out of magazines or create a digital one. You can look for images on Pinterest or you could draw it. So that's one way is to do a vision board. Another way, if you're someone that loves to write, is you could write some descriptions about how you want each room to feel and function. If you're someone that journals, this could be part of your journaling and be really specific about the atmosphere and the activities that you envision. And something else you can do is a daily routine visualization. So imagine your day-to-day activities in a clutter-free space. How does it improve your life? How will you feel moving through your home? And you can take that even further and create your ideal week. On what days do you want to have time to do things that you love to do? So there are all of those ways that you can do.

Speaker 1: 4:55

I also have an absolutely amazing guide to visualizing your ideal lifestyle. I'll put the link in the show notes and you can grab that if you want to. That might be a good place to get you started if you're not sure how to go about doing this. So that would be my first simple step visualize your ideal lifestyle. And then my second step simple step is to tackle categories, not rooms.

Speaker 1: 5:23

So the KonMari method approach of decluttering is by category rather than room, and that helps you see the total volume of items that you have in a certain category. And sometimes it can be really shocking and a bit eye-opening to see how many pairs of scissors you have once you've collected them all together, or how many hole punches you have, or whatever it happens to be, and it will help you make more consistent decisions. So the categories start with clothes and you should always start there where possible, because it's very often for people the easiest only keeping items that bring you joy and suit your current lifestyle. Books is next. Keep those that inspire you, hold valuable information or bring you happiness. There is this weird thing going around in the media for years now that if you do the KonMari method it means you can't keep books. That just isn't true. If you love books, if you have 150 books and they all spark joy for you and you have somewhere to store them, then by all means keep them. That's entirely up to you.

Speaker 1: 6:33

The next category is papers, so you can discard unnecessary documents and organise essential ones in a clear system so that you know where to find them. That, for me, is the joy of organising papers. Not the actual piece of paper, because I'm really not fussed about a travel insurance document, but knowing where to find it should I need it. That sparks joy for me. And then you have kimono, miscellaneous items, so you've got kitchen, bathroom supplies, other household objects. Really focus on keeping what's truly useful and brings you joy. And, as you've been going through all of those categories, if you find anything that's sentimental, put it in a box, put it to one side and tackle all these sentimental items at the very end. Tackle them last, approach them with care, keeping only those that hold significant positive memories. I recently did a podcast episode, episode 110, and in that I talked about the best ways to tackle sentimental items. So if you need more information about that, you could go back and listen to that episode. I will put the link to that in the show notes as well.

Speaker 1: 7:47

Now, step number three is mindful organisation and storage. So what on earth do I mean by that? By this I mean really thinking about having designated places for everything. Everything should have a home. Be really mindful of that, because when you know where all the scissors are being kept or where your hole punch is or where everything to do with the category of bikes is, so that if someone has a problem with their bike or needs something for their bike, they know exactly where they can go to and can get that, it makes life so much easier and it takes the decision making out of things on a daily basis. You're not having to look for things, so designated places everything having a home will ensure that you have more mindful organization.

Speaker 1: 8:40

I would then suggest accessibility and visibility, so storing things in a way that makes them easy to find and reach. If you have younger kids, make sure that you have things at a height that they can reach them, so things are accessible for them. It means that they can be independent. It means they can learn to put things away for themselves. They can get things out and they can see where they then put it back to. That is really, really important, and if you have ADHD, then storing things in clear storage or making sure that things are visible to you is really going to help you with putting things back. That would be my top tip for people with ADHD.

Speaker 1: 9:22

Try and use simple solutions, practical storage methods that suit your lifestyle. Sometimes we overcomplicate things when we come around to storing things and when we overcomplicate the system system, it makes it harder to maintain it and we stop using it, and that means we stop putting things away and that means the things start becoming clutter again. I had this example with one of my kids. I'd created an amazing storage solution for all of their school things. I thought it was brilliant. We got a drawer for each subject so that all the books could go in there and any papers that they brought home could then be filed and put in there, and I thought it was really simple. But her brain was working differently to mine and it wasn't a storage solution that was practical for her and she's there, created her own, and it means that she understands that system and she puts things away and uses it. So really think about each person that lives in your home and, whether the storage solution that you're creating or the system that you're creating and I'm going to do some podcasts coming up on systems, because I know how important they are and sometimes how difficult to understand they can be really check that they work for everybody or whether for certain people in certain rooms, systems are going to need to be adapted so certain kids in their rooms might need a different system than you would perhaps choose to have elsewhere in the house. That's really important. So practical tips Sometimes having drawer dividers can really help to keep items organised and easy to access.

Speaker 1: 11:03

I tend to use shoe boxes, boxes from chocolates like Ferrero Rocher, boxes for small items storage boxes. If they're in a drawer and they can't be seen, I really don't care what they look like. What's more important to me is that categories are stored together within their boxes and it's easy for me to put things away again. Try to use vertical storage, so save space and store things vertically. It's also going to improve visibility by having things going up and really clearly label storage containers to maintain organization. If things are labeled, it means that everyone in the family has got a chance of being able to see where things go back to. As you all get used to the system, maybe the labels won't be needed in the same way, but certainly at the start, labels can be an absolute game changer and the impact of this organization means that there's going to be reduced stress for you, it's going to save time and it's going to enhance your overall well-being. And when we think back to this idea of mindful decluttering, there is nothing more important than you having really positive feelings about the systems you're using and you feel in control and you feel calm about things. So I would highly recommend mindful organisation and storage. Give it some thought. Don't just quickly put things together Now.

Speaker 1: 12:38

You may have heard me mention in the previous episode if you listen to that that if you have a space in your home that is always making you feel overwhelmed, I have a really fun offer for you, which is only available until mid-August. So this offer is an audit that I'm calling Organised For you, and all you have to do is send me photos or videos of a space that you're struggling with. So maybe you need some help with some mindful organising, you need some system suggestions and I will send you a video. Back me on video talking to you, giving you a step-by-step guide on how to declutter and organize it. It will be the next best thing to actually having me there helping you. Now. This has proved really popular, but I still have a few spots available. I have been loving doing them and the feedback has been amazing so far. So if you would like my eyes on your space and for me to get it organized for you, I will make sure to leave the link down below.

Speaker 1: 13:50

So my three simple steps to helping you do mindful decluttering and create a peaceful and harmonious home are, first of all, step one visualize your ideal lifestyle. Step two, tackle categories, not rooms. And step three, mindful organization and storage. I am trying really hard for this summer season to keep these episodes short, because I know how busy everyone is. You're perhaps off on holiday, and if you are on holiday, I hope you're having a wonderful time. So I would encourage you to start your mindful decluttering journey as soon as you can and experience the benefits for yourself. It can be an absolute game changer. So thank you for listening and until next time.