Decluttering Tips
I get asked a lot for my top decluttering tips, and through many media contributions, national and international decluttering campaigns, books, blogs and partnerships, these are something I’ve happily created and shared over the years.
Expert tips can be a wonderful way of cutting through vast amounts of data to get to what really matters. They can be thought-provoking, inspiring and encouraging. Usually coming from someone who has experience on the ground, they can enable a new-found understanding or awareness that brings great change. Many of us spend a lot of our time searching the internet for the latest and greatest tips in every conceivable aspect of our homes and lives. Indeed, this is something I like to do myself!
Decluttering is no exception as we scarper to find quick and free information that works. Although we may come across lots of well-intended facts, it’s not unusual that little of it brings us the help that we need. In most cases, the declutter tips we find are nowhere near enough to give us relief with our real decluttering challenges. (On a relevant note, you can read about my experience with the declutter checklist.)
Why we love tips
Much of what drives our need for tips is, understandably, our need to save time and money. I get the time thing – we’re very busy and we like simple, fast information. Yet the search for the best decluttering tips often leads to overwhelm as we try to accumulate and decipher data that is vague, conflicting or just plain ineffective. Often, once we’ve found what we’re looking for, we don’t even implement the information. So, ironically, we don’t save any great time in the process. I get the money thing too – most of us love a freebie! Yet the statistics from the business world tell us that online tips, e-books or programmes (even those to the value of thousands of dollars) that we get for free don’t tend to work for us. Of course, there will be exceptions to this, and there are times where free information has been our saviour.
But according to the statistics, we generally don’t benefit from or even re-access internet freebies once they’re in our possession. Even though gathering free information can sometimes give us a bit of a thrill, on one (possibly subconscious) level, it’s like we don’t really “respect” free stuff. How many times have you downloaded or been sent a free PDF, e-book or course by a friend and, despite thinking you were getting the score of the century, you never got around to reading or opening it, or you forgot about it almost immediately? This, unfortunately, is no different for decluttering tips.
There’s a psychology behind this that says when you invest in something, your intention changes. From an energetic perspective, you’re saying “I’m finally ready to commit to this and I welcome in this positive change in my life”. You’re much less half-hearted in the process and your expectations for what you believe can and should achieve are greatly raised because of the money you’ve spent. And that can only bring results.
Taking it a step further, when we invest in something we are actually investing in ourselves, and I myself can feel and appreciate the difference every time I commit to something financially instead of getting caught up in how I can save time or money.
The danger in sharing declutter tips willy nilly is that often you’re not getting the chance to explain the value of someone committing to the PROCESS of learning a vital life skill, gently overcoming any of the baggage that’s been weighing them down and honouring the time that this may take. And this perspective is priceless.
If you are ready to invest in a cutting-edge decluttering approach that teaches you the practical skills of decluttering and organising (including all the top decluttering tips you’ll ever need!) as well changing how you feel about your personal style, lifestyle, finances, career, shopping, relationships, wellbeing, hobbies and interests you might be interested in my The Declutter Academy. Find out more about this certified professional organizer training.
