The SuperMom's Clutter Cure

How many times have you moved your junk around and “organized” only to find that it is back in disarray in just days (Or hours, maybe? Perhaps if you have little ones like we do!). We both have big problems with clutter. “Stuff” not having a place and junk collecting in our homes makes us both feel incredibly anxious. You know, the kind where you feel like your chest is tightening or closing? The anxiety is that real and unpleasant for us both.

Since we both homeschool our children, we are in our homes with our kids a lot. This means that we are surrounded by our clutter and it gets overwhelming fast.

Just the clothing for our children can mean that laundry is everywhere and nearly impossible to put away and keep organized! This is why we both absolutely must have routines in place for decluttering. This doesn’t mean that we have not had times in our lives where the clutter just feels like it is impossible to control. But just knowing that it is imperative to declutter to get our lives back in order is enough motivation for us to revamp our decluttering routines for a new season in our lives and work toward clutter-free living once again.

We are going to show you how purging the clutter and developing simple routines for purging/decluttering that will become your habits...your new normal.

We are also going to show you how short bursts of decluttering and organization can allow you to get your home into order in just a few minutes a day. No more panic thinking about how you need days and days of uninterrupted time to get your house in order! Small steps, taken each day (and yes, even if you miss some days, you will still succeed!), will lead to great changes! 

The emotional side of decluttering

Decluttering can bring up many emotions within us. In fact, some of those emotions can actually cause us to pause, halt, or avoid decluttering at all. But you must ask yourself... is it worth it? Is it worth your time? Because every time you have to move clutter, clean clutter, or pretend to organize clutter, it is taking away from what you actually would like to spend your time on.

The vision for your home

We want you to be empowered by reaching your own vision. This vision does NOT need to be perfect right now. However, you need to create this vision so you can stay motivated and follow through. Pinterest is really not the place to go for inspiration. Just look at yourself and look at the spaces in your home. How does each space make you feel? How could you improve that space to make it more pleasing or more useful? This is the type of vision you need to cast for your home.

Attitude basics for decluttering

During decluttering it is an absolute must that you refuse to beat yourself up about anything. There will most likely be times that you will be annoyed, irritated, or frustrated with what you have saved over the years. It is important to recognize those feelings, accept that they are valid, but then quickly let them go. Dwelling on those feelings will only lead to an attitude of defeat and overwhelm. Just think, how well could you do anything if you had a coach yelling at you about how awful you were? That is what happens to your ability to declutter when you are beating yourself up and you will eventually try very hard to avoid decluttering just so you can escape those negative voices.

Prioritize

If you are like me, going slowly at decluttering might immediately feel like a failure. Going big or going home is what I like to do! Once I decide something, I want it done yesterday or I am not satisfied. But these feeling have left me with nothing but frustration, disappointment, and a defeated attitude over the years. I have had to remind myself (and still do) that slow and steady brings about positive results and by slowly creating new habits, big changes are made over time. And the benefit is that these big changes don’t feel like they were difficult to do at all because they were broken down into routines that became habits!

Reject perfectionism

Because decluttering will become a new daily habit, there is no need to feel like you have to have perfection in each area. Instead, you will slowly progress toward your own version of perfection in each area. You will even decide how often you visit each area to declutter based on that area’s needs. For example, decluttering your pantry might be a weekly or a monthly habit based on how you shop. Because you have the new habit of decluttering your pantry, you do not have to worry if you can’t clean out/organize to meet your ideal. You can, instead, make small improvements each and every time you declutter your pantry.

Daily Decluttering

We are not going to tell you exactly how much time to dedicate to this daily decluttering. Instead, we urge you to look for the small windows of time, even as tiny as five minutes, where you can declutter. Sometimes the hardest part of getting a big job like decluttering done is getting started. If you have a large job, taking five minutes just to get started means that you will have completed the most difficult part...actually getting started!

Roadblocks

It is almost guaranteed that you will encounter roadblocks during your decluttering. These roadblocks can range from your own issues such as lack of time, guilt over getting rid of “perfectly good stuff”, loving items too much to declutter them, or perhaps even resistant family members. Marie Kondo’s method is one way that can help you overcome some of these roadblocks. If you are having a hard time letting go of items:

Thank an item for the joy it brought you when you received it/brought it into your home or thank it for the joy the giver had when they gave it to you...then LET IT GO if it no longer serves you or brings you joy. This helped reduce keepsakes and other things.

Create a decluttering routine that can become your habit

If you are like us, you might wonder why change is so difficult and why we always default to what is easy. It really isn’t our fault that we are this way. Our brains want to keep things easy for us and that is why we absolutely must create habits and routines that become our new normal. It is only by creating new habits that we won’t feel overwhelmed. With new positive habits, we will be able to stay organized and in control while still being able to operate on autopilot. Operating on autopilot means that you absolutely will not feel overwhelmed and instead you can go about your duties almost instinctively while still meeting the needs of your children. Have you ever had to prepare a new meal for your kids all trying to talk to you at once? It is nearly impossible because it takes up so much brain power to figure out how to cook this new concoction. However, compare that to a tried and true recipe that you have been making for years. You can almost fly through the kitchen grabbing spices and adding ingredients all while chatting with your kids and not feeling at all frustrated by their interruptions. It is that kind of autopilot that we want you to have when it comes to decluttering. It just has to be part of your new routine.

Without a consistent routine, clutter will invariably sneak back into your life. It is amazing how quickly a clean surface can gather bits of mail, schoolwork, notes, messages, and everything else in between! This clutter will, once again, slow you down both in your actual daily routine as well as mentally. You cannot clean around clutter easily so moving it just to clean takes extra time. Additionally, just seeing the clutter can cause anxiety because you know you want it gone and need to deal with it. There might even be important bills and responsibilities in that pile of clutter that you know you must address, but just can’t because the junk pile feels overwhelming.

If you create a decluttering routine, you will know exactly when you will address that clutter and you will be much less likely to avoid purging the clutter because you have now made the decluttering a habit that just happens naturally. Your decluttering routine will depend on your own life and the time allowances, but we are offering some ideas that you can try on for size below. But first, divide your home into clutter zones. These can consist of all small areas (ex. Each kitchen cabinet, a bathroom cabinet, one portion of the master closet, etc.) or larger areas (ex. the entire garage, the entire master closet) or a combination of both. The combination of both is typically what works well for many people because certain areas, like the garage, might be difficult to divide into small clutter zones.

Decluttering routine ideas

• Declutter a section of your home every day: tackle one small clutter zone each day.
• Declutter a larger clutter zone once a week. This larger clutter zone should be scheduled based on time allowances each week since it will take longer to complete than a small decluttering job.
• Declutter a massive clutter zone once a month.

GET THE MINI CLUTTER CURE  - SUPER MOM'S GUIDE TO CURING CLUTTER FOR GOOD