15 Ways To DECLUTTER Your Life
When you were little, remember when your mum used to tell you to tidy your room? Yes, we're going to remind you of that good advice your mom gave you, but we're going to take it quite a bit further too.
Hey, Aluxers! Watch this video right until the end, and you'll have all the tips you need to bring clarity to your life by cutting out all the clutter, unwanted noise, and focusing on the things that really do count. Welcome to alux.com, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. If you're not subscribed yet, you're missing out.
Number one: Have a place for everything. For a clutter-free life, first, make sure the space you spend most of your time in is tidy and well-organized. That means your home and your workplace too. The first step is to make sure everything has a place where it belongs. No, not thrown over your bed or across the floor; it's definitely not that place. Usually, somewhere out of sight. If there's too much stuff in view, it means the room will look cluttered.
A place you can easily access is a good spot, somewhere you can actually remember where it is. When you're not using it, put it back to where it belongs, just like your mom used to say. You'll get more enjoyment out of spending time at home when it's well organized. Without the clutter, you'll have peace of mind, and you'll be able to focus on the things you need or want to focus on. The extra space is also a bonus, plus you'll actually be able to find stuff.
Number two: Organize your digital space too. Is your laptop jam-packed with a headache-inducing array of random files, half of which you can't remember what they are or when you last opened them? Or does it just have a few well-named and well-organized folders and lots of empty space? Needless to say, the second one of these is by far preferable. Remember everything we said about your living space? The same goes for your digital space too. Having a place for everything inside a folder—keep the number of folders down by creating more subfolders inside of them.
It's okay to have two or three documents on your desktop that you're working on. Once you're done with them, just put them into a place where they belong, like you should do with a pair of jeans you're not wearing. Besides all of the obvious benefits, there's an added one: you'll finally be able to see that super high-res picture you chose for your desktop.
Number three: Stop buying so much crap. Another way to avoid having a ton of junk taking up valuable space is not having so much of it. Anytime you're about to buy something, ask yourself these questions: Are you really going to use it much? Are you going to get any real value from it? Soon, will you see it as just another useless piece of clutter in your home? If you can honestly answer the first two with a yes and the third with a no, then sure, go ahead and buy it. Otherwise, just don't.
Keep these questions in mind, and you won't end up buying another kitsch souvenir made of plastic that seems hilarious for about two days before you realize it's just another piece of junk, or another piece of expensive hobby equipment you totally intend to use regularly, but deep down you know it's just going to gather dust. Just because it's on sale, that alone isn't a good enough reason to buy it. You should still be asking yourself those questions.
Number four: Do regular clear outs. Yes, Aluxers, we know from experience even when you don't buy loads of junk, things will still have a habit of building up, and you really notice it when you move house because by then you've got a ton of them. Every now and then, go through your stuff and get rid of things you don't need anymore—clothes you used to think looked great but you've changed your mind about, sports equipment you don't use anymore. Donate them; sell them on eBay. Just don't hoard them.
Organization guru and decluttering expert Marie Kondo is a big fan of doing this. She says, "My criterion for deciding to keep an item is that we should feel a thrill of joy when we touch it."
Number five: Clear out your digital space too. Talking about clear outs, do exactly the same thing with your digital space. Delete those emails. Having 5,000 of them in your inbox isn't doing anybody any favors. And for that document you're not going to need anymore, delete it! Or if you're not sure, put it in external storage and free up some disk space.
Number six: Go for minimalist decor. A long time ago, it was normal for people to have lots of fancy looking objects on display. Just watch a Victorian period drama, and you'll see! Then at some point, we realized it was all just too much for the eyes to take in, and well, it just looked cluttered. That's when minimalist design took over and paved the way to a clutter-free lifestyle.
The empty spaces induce a feeling of calm, and just having a few statement pieces of decor with simple but well-defined lines makes them stand out more. For styles that best capture the minimalist aesthetic, you could go for Nordic design with its sleek contours and neutral colors or Japanese design inspired by Zen philosophy and the flow of positive energy. You could even combine Nordic and Japanese, and you'll get the style designers call Japandi. Not that you really need to know that—just remember to keep your decor minimal, elegant, and simple. The calm, uncluttered space will make you feel relaxed and invigorated, and it will make dusting a lot easier too.
Number seven: Use to-do lists to declutter your tasks. When you've got a busy lifestyle, bursting at the seams with business meetings, projects that are due, and dentist appointments, how do we stay in control of it all? Same ideas before—find a place for everything, in this case, a time slot on a to-do list.
So, set up a to-do list for yourself. Just like you should give your things their own place in a drawer, give every task a place on your list. Prioritize the most important ones! Give yourself some wiggle room because some of them will take longer than you expect. For the less important ones, if you can't fit them in, be realistic and leave them for next week or next month.
If you can delegate them or when they're not worth it, just accept that and cross them off your list. There are plenty of apps and productivity tools that can help you do this, but whether you use an app, a Word doc, or a classic piece of paper, you'll find that allocating a realistic time slot to each task will put you in control and reduce your stress.
Number eight: Focus on your most fulfilling friendships. So you've got 3,000 Facebook friends or more—fair enough. And 50 acquaintances you meet up with every now and then. Not necessarily a bad thing, but when meeting them for the sake of it becomes a drag, that's when you know it's time to declutter your friendships.
There's a saying: a true friend is one you can call at three in the morning when you really need them. And of course, that means you'll also be there for them at three o'clock when they need you. Ask yourself, how many 3 AM friends do you have? If you've got three or four, that's probably about the right number. It's not a big number, but those are the ones that really matter.
There will also be a few others who don't quite make it to the 3 AM club but still mean a lot to you. These most important friends will be the ones you enjoy being with the most, so prioritize quality time with them, not with hundreds of superficial friendships. It'll make your social life much more rewarding.
Number nine: Prioritize your most important free time activities too. Speaking of the time outside of work, if you're planning on trying out two new hobbies, taking three online courses, and going to five social engagements this week, it sounds like your free time schedule is cluttered too.
When you've got that much on, it's impossible to focus on anything enough for it to really bring you any value. Limit the free time activities you do regularly so you can focus enough on each one to make them meaningful. Choose the right kind of activities too, which brings us to our next point.
Number ten: Do things that help you disconnect. Being able to disconnect is so important; it gives our brains a chance to recover from working in overdrive. That's why you should do whatever gives you that feeling of being in a world apart from the pressures of everyday life.
Go running, do martial arts, or any other sports. If painting or making jewelry helps you disconnect, do those, or it could be meditation. If you haven't tried meditation before, why not check out our Mind Mastery premium experience, which is available for purchase at alux.com?
This 21-day challenge will help you learn the valuable skill of meditation and how to use your mind to come up with creative solutions to the problems you're facing. We know that $250 is a lot for some of you, but just one idea from this course can grow into millions. Go to alux.com/meditation, go through the entire experience, and if by the end, you still think you didn't get your money’s worth, we will issue a full refund under our 60-day guarantee because that's how much we believe in it.
Number eleven: Put down time into your schedule too. If your schedule is always jam-packed and you're constantly on the move, sounds like you need to add in some slots for downtime. Time to relax, time you can spend with those who are closest to you, time to put your feet up and read a book, or just be alone with your thoughts.
Give this time a proper space in your schedule; that way, other things won't creep in and push it off the list. Research shows that it's in this downtime the best ideas and greatest insights come to us. Be aware of just how valuable downtime is and make sure to give it the priority it deserves.
Number twelve: Get your finances in order. If you're one of those people who's always spending without any idea of how much money you've got left in the bank until you realize you don't have enough left over to pay the bills, this one's for you! It’s another kind of clutter. Your inbox is full of unread bills, and your mind is cluttered with the stress of not knowing how much you owe, when you have to pay it, or when you'll be hit with a penalty because it's overdue—all because you haven't organized your finances.
Know how much money you've got in the bank. Keep track of your spending, have an idea of when your bills are coming up, and of roughly how much they'll be, and have a set day when you plan to pay them. If it helps, you can use an app to help you organize all of these things.
Number thirteen: Reduce your screen time and even try a digital detox. All of those notifications crowd up your concentration and make it hard to focus. Once we've been distracted by our phone, if we end up scrolling aimlessly on social media, that cuts into our precious time as well.
Try finding ways of letting go of your devices for a while every day. It could be turning them off for an hour; some people do digital detoxes for a whole week or even more. But we know that isn't practical for everyone. Find a way to disconnect from the digital world at least a little bit every day. Let your mind get rid of all the clutter of the messages, notifications, and feeds, and focus on what's going on around you in the real world.
Number fourteen: Reduce waste and recycle whenever possible. There aren't many images that have the word clutter written all over them like a big bag full of trash, especially if there's a load of plastic in there. We know exactly where it's going to end up: in the middle of the ocean, cluttering up the planet.
Buy stuff with less packaging. Instead of asking for a bag every time you go shopping, take your own reusable one. Reduce waste, recycle where you can, and avoid single-use appliances you only have to throw away. It'll make your trash bin less cluttered for a few days and the planet less cluttered with plastic for centuries to come. There'll also be a lot less eco-guilt cluttering your mind.
Number fifteen: Focus on experiences, not things. Research shows us amazing experiences make us happier than having lots of material things. Even if we have a tendency to crave possessions, don't give in to that craving so easily. Stay focused on what will really make us happy instead of thinking about buying another gadget or a random piece of junk we don't really need.
Focus on things that will give you great memories. It could be a concert or a travel experience, something adrenaline-filled like bungee jumping, or something old school—a barbecue, a picnic, a visit to a museum or a gallery. Doing things you enjoy like these won't add clutter, but they will give you true satisfaction.
So hey, Aluxers, what type of clutter do you think damages our lives the most?
Now for sticking with us until the end, here's your bonus: Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness means being fully in the present moment. When we're mindful, we're focusing on whatever we're doing right now. It means learning to declutter our minds from the worries and concerns we have that are not related to what we're doing right now.
Disconnecting from your devices and the stream of notifications they're sending you and giving your all to whatever activity you're doing or the people that you're with. Do it when you're working, and you'll be more productive. Do it when you're having fun, and you'll enjoy the moment more.
And whoever you're with, you'll be able to give them all of your attention. It will mean less clutter and stress, more focus, and more happiness. Thank you for spending some time with us!
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