You’ve surely heard the expression, “a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear." If this sentiment applies to your closet and other areas in your home, it could be a sign that you have too much stuff.
Here are other warning signs:
- You have to move things off the couch to sit on it or off the table to eat a meal
- You spend a lot of time looking for certain things only to discover you have multiples of those in various areas of your house
- You're constantly having to search for missing items
- Books and papers are everywhere, in baskets, in stacks, on the shelves and tabletops, and in nearly every room of your home
- Your refrigerator and pantry contain expired food
- Your freezer contains items you can't even identify
- Clothes are scattered in several rooms, including the laundry room. Rather than doing another load of laundry, you go buy more
- Your hobby room is beginning to resemble a hobby store
- Single socks are in the sock drawer and in the laundry room, but no mate in either
- There's no space in your closets and/or your drawers aren't closing properly
- You want to declutter, but can't decide where to start
- You have dozens of food storage boxes, but no matching lids
- You have a drawer full of pens, but find it challenging to find one that works
- Your car can't fit into the garage
- It's hard to see the floor in the sea of toys
- You keep convincing yourself that if you get rid of something, you might need it someday
There are more warning signs, but you get the idea.
What can you do about an abundance of stuff when it feels overwhelming to see all of it AND you also feel that you don’t have the time to deal with it?
Just like the items that have slowly gravitated into your home, you can slowly gravitate them out of your home as well.
My recommendation to you today is to choose ONE cluttered area to focus on. Not a whole room, but rather a drawer, a shelf, a surface, etc. Declutter that one area, and celebrate that accomplishment. Tomorrow, choose another. Little by little, you'll begin making headway.
Patience, action, consistency. Repeat.
