5 Tips to Eliminate the Clutter Magnet

Is it self-care?

Clutter. You may be asking yourself “What does this have to do with self-care?”

I have wrestled with that thought myself. The definition of self-care is: the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health. The definition of clutter is: a collection of things lying about in an untidy mass.

These don’t seem to be directly related. However, I propose that clutter, both physical and mental, contributes to stress.

This stress is something that we are trying to eliminate through self-care practices. Thus, the two are very much related.

This year is all about taking tiny nudges in the right direction. Recently, I planned how I would start my garden. I like to start the seeds indoors and then plant them outside when the weather is appropriate. I watched a video on all the things that could be started in January for my climate zone.

There was a long list of items. I was excited about getting these little seeds started.

There is something amazingly inspiring about seeing new life spring up. With this growth is the promise of spring which can always bring joy to your heart. Despite the excitement, I was filled with a sense of dread.

One thing leads to another…

My planting always happens in the garage. I didn’t really have a good place to work on planting. I had a make shift table that looked about ready to collapse and I would do all my soil mixing in a tub that was set up on the handles of my wheelbarrow.

This type of set-up really does zap the motivation for getting started. I recalled having discussed with my dad the idea of putting in a countertop that would fulfill all my planting needs. We chatted and determined that he would come over the following week to put it in. I was elated!

Then came a new dread. My garage had become a bit cluttered.

It isn’t that I forgot there was a problem. I knew it was there all right. It was one of those things that constantly nagged at me in the back of my head. It would move to the front of my mind when I would go to put something away in the garage or get out of my car. I was not proud to have anyone see my garage in this state and it was causing me stress.

While I wouldn’t have stated it as one of the top ten things stressing me out had you asked me, it was definitely something that I regularly thought about. I would regularly have thoughts like “you really need to just get this cleaned out.” “If you got this cleaned out maybe you would be able to find your tools and project materials better.”

Negative Inner Dialogue, Stress, Clutter

Then came the shame. I just cleaned this garage out a couple years ago.

How could it possibly be so bad? I was ashamed that I did not keep it clean. This in turn reminded me of all the other things I was embarrassed that I wasn’t keeping up on.

This is exactly the type of inner dialogue that contributes to my chronic stress. As I looked around wondering how I let it all go downhill, my eyes landed on a box in the corner. I went over to look at it and noticed that this was the last box I didn’t take care of the last time I cleaned out the garage.

The box contained various items that needed to be sorted through. I needed to decide if I was going to keep these items, donate them, or if they just needed to go to the dump.

I had originally left the box because I thought it was no big deal. It was the last one. I was tired. I could go through these things later. This, I now realized, was a big mistake.

The Last Box

Is it possible that this one box lead to the messy, cluttered state my garage was now in?

I began to ponder this as I started cleaning things up. I have come to the conclusion that there have been many times in my life where the “just one thing left, I will take care of it tomorrow” thought has been detrimental.

The truth is, tomorrow never comes. By not completely finishing the task at hand, I have left the door open for the problem to return.

It is almost as if that one box is like a magnet. Because I didn’t get that box taken care of, it was easier to leave something else out instead of putting it away. It was easier to leave a box of items from the house stacked there without putting it away.

Before you know it, the entire area is once again cluttered and driving you crazy. All because that one box wasn’t dealt with.

A similar conundrum happened when I moved. I put everything away except for a couple boxes of items that I didn’t need to use right at the time. I really wasn’t sure where I would put the items or if I really wanted to keep them, but since everything else was put away it didn’t matter if I got to these boxes later.

The problem was that I didn’t get back to these boxes until two years later. In the meantime, I had put other items that I didn’t know what to do with in the room. This caused the declutter process to be much larger than it really needed to be.

That situation had added to my stress levels because I knew that I should deal with the items in the room and it was a constant nagging in the back of my head. I would avoid the room in hopes that I wouldn’t have to think about it or deal with it. This did not help.

5 Tips to Eliminate the Clutter Magnet

                        

This is all completely unnecessary stress that I brought upon myself. One of this year’s self-care goals is to reduce my levels of chronic stress.

Clutter is definitely something that brings me stress. While the issue of the clutter magnet is still something I am working on, here are five tips I have thought of to help in this area.

1. Finish the entire project –  While this is good advice in all areas of life, it is especially good for avoiding the clutter magnet. Even if you have been working for a long time on the cleaning project, take the time to finish the area or box. Do not even open the door for the clutter to return or build up.

2. Schedule in breaks. – If you struggle to finish the task because you get tired, create regularly scheduled breaks. Set a timer so that you work for 20 minutes and give yourself a 5-minute break. This can give you something to look forward to and a reason to keep powering through. Just don’t check social media during your break time.

3. Ask a friend to help. – It is always more fun to work on a task with someone else. I get a little embarrassed about my clutter and have a hard time asking for help, but this can be a really good strategy when sorting through sentimental items. It is hard to let go of things that you have a sentimental reason for keeping. Sometimes having someone there to give you permission to part with something can be very freeing.

4. Donate items. – Sometimes you don’t want to part with something because you can’t help but thing about the money you spent on it. However, if it is causing you stress by keeping the item and it is attracting other clutter to your area, consider donating. This is a great way to give someone else the opportunity to use the item that you once loved.

5. Realize that trash is still trash. – The amount of garbage I found in my garage was embarrassing. While there wasn’t really any in the box itself, there was plenty around it. Consider if you really need to keep that empty box from the vacuum cleaner or open tube of goop that is now dried out. Boxes can be recycled and the dried-up items won’t be able to be used anyhow. You can part with these items without the need to feel guilt.

I hope that my story and these 5 tips will give you the motivation you need to eliminate the clutter magnet in your life. Let’s move forward and take care of ourselves by reducing the chronic stressors that we do have control over!