Do you ever tell yourself things like “I didn’t get the tidy genes”? Maybe you look at other people who are great at organising and tidying and tell yourself that you’re a hoarder, you can’t let go of stuff and you don’t know where to take stuff even if you were able to let it go.
You might feel like you just don’t have the mindset for decluttering. Family and friends are our greatest cheerleaders and support, but they’re also the ones who can criticise us behind the scenes about the state of our houses.
“Why aren’t you doing this?”
“Why aren’t you doing that?”
“You’re at home all day, why can’t you have the house organised?”
I’d one lady, she was at home all day, but actually, she was working on the farm. She was maintaining the house, minding the children, doing the shopping, she was doing everything. She wasn’t sitting painting her toenails. She felt awful being criticised and it was undermining too.
It’s kind of nearly tattooed on us – “your sister’s so neat and tidy. You’re like chalk and cheese. You’re the messy one, you’re the one who hoards everything”.
I think it’s all a mindset thing.
When you kind of get through the mindset and break down that mindset and remove those blocks, you suddenly discover that we’re all capable of decluttering. It’s just that you need to be shown the tools and given the tips to declutter
I suppose the first thing that I do is a brain dump. When you declutter the mind, then you can take action.
- Put the thoughts down on paper, then you can see exactly what needs to be done
- What you can prioritise, and what’s urgent?
- What might you do in a month’s time?
- What might you do in three months’ time?
If you’re reading this post and you feel like you’d like to work with me you might be interested in my White Sage Academy, which is a group of like-minded women where you get full support, accountability, motivation and fun while decluttering.
In the membership, we go through the 12 areas of the home (yes there are 12!). We have weekly training, weekly online decluttering sessions and tip sheets. All the training is private on Facebook.
It’s a DIY program, you do it at your own pace, your own speed. It doesn’t matter if it takes you a day, a month, three months or longer. Many of my members are there since day one, and they’re staying because of the accountability.
It’s a lovely community and no one judges when it comes to clutter. No matter what way you work with me, whether it’s online or one-to-one it’s fully confidential. It’s a soft and gentle approach to decluttering.
The biggest thing that my members realised was that so many of them had been tidying clutter all their lives – there was nothing leaving! They didn’t know what decluttering was. Decluttering is your ability to let go.
You have to let go of your clutter, aka the items you haven’t used, needed or wanted in the last 12-18 months.
And once you’re ready to let go – you have to have your destinations – family, friends, charity, the recycling centre, or sell and get your money back on your items.
There’s so much guilt when we hold on to items that still have tags or that are still in boxes that are never used. When you get your money back, it definitely helps us to move on.
And in case you were wondering – we all have clutter, including me, the Professional declutterer!