Last week I talked about simplifying your life, paring down on things that clutter your time, your emotions and your space. Continuing with that theme, I'm going to challenge you to declutter a room this week. Choose a room—any room—and get rid of what you can't use and organize what you keep. After you have de-cluttered, donate any unwanted but still usable items to charity.
Get Started!
Choose your most difficult room and get started. Work from left to right in the room, or from top to bottom, sorting things as you go. Have three boxes or bags and sort everything into one of three categories: Toss, Donate and Keep. Keep only those things that you are certain to use at least once a year. Toss anything that cannot be mended or repurposed. Donate the rest to charity.
Reorganizing the house won’t work unless everyone in the family buys into the plan. People won’t change unless they want to, so you need to show everyone how their lives will be better without the clutter.
Include your children in the decluttering process. Go with them into their rooms and help them choose the toys or clothing that they no longer need. Make them active participants by having them help you clean the toys, launder the clothing and package everything up for delivery to the thrift store.
Breaking up is hard to do
Both adults and children can get very attached to their belongings. They may remind you of someone you love or special memories. There may be clothing that is especially flattering or that you bought for a special occasion. You may have an internal struggle deciding which items to get rid of. When it comes to the children, that struggle is not so internal. It may produce outbursts and obstinance. You may be inclined to just avoid the distress that de-cluttering causes in your children and do it when they're not around. You’d be able to make all the decisions yourself and just get it done, quickly and painlessly.
But when you involve your children in decluttering you’re teaching them invaluable lessons: how to be good stewards of their belongings, to not place so much emotion in possessions and to be mindful of the value of their things and be ready to let go when they have outlived their purpose.
While I don't agree with everything that minimalist Marie Kondo suggests, she does have good insight on how to deal with the anxiety of getting rid of things. She suggests giving thanks for the joy that your personal belongings have given you. “If you are letting go of an item, giving thanks is also a way of properly saying goodbye, so that you can mark the end of your relationship with the item and release it without guilt. It’s a way to recognize your relationship with your possessions.”
Once a room is decluttered, whether you did it yourself or your children helped, bring the family into the room to see the end result. As you look around the room, think about how this “new” room makes you feel differently. Help children recognize the feelings of satisfaction in a job well-done and the peace that comes from an orderly space. Ask them all to commit to helping preserve these feelings and not let the room fall into disarray again.
You'll be glad you did
There are good reasons to declutter and donate your unwanted items to charity: First, your environment can often influence your emotional and mental outlook. A cluttered environment can lead to cluttered thinking or muddled emotions. Physical clutter overloads your senses, can make you feel stressed and may impair your ability to think creatively. Start the year with a fresh, clear outlook by getting rid of unwanted, unneeded things.
When you give your still-usable items to charity, it may soften the blow of discarding things that you once enjoyed. It means your belongings may still serve some good purpose.
Another benefit: when you turn your thoughts to the care and concern for others, you open yourself to the abundance of grace and life around you. And by donating to charity, you are helping others to live more fully and self-reliantly.
