I don’t exactly know what decluttering does for your mind during stressful times, but they tell you over and over on the YouTube channels I watch, it does relieve stress. They say that getting rid of stuff helps clear your mind and gives you less things to care for. Clean vistas are peaceful. White space is helpful for creating a restful ambiance.
And I believe it’s all true.
Now, my house doesn’t look like this picture, but I can dream… right?
At least I’m putting decluttering into practice, trying it out, and feel like a load has been lifted as I move out stuff I’ve stored for years without using it. Our church is having a yard sale to raise money for our youth girls. I’m sending the first wave of things to them but will continue to pare everything down, room by room, and send the rest to Goodwill.
I’m just beginning, and hope to finish one round in every room of the house and start over with another round. It is hard to get everything the first few times.
Here’s one area that has made my life easier as I’ve decluttered my spices and put them in easily accessible jars (from Amazon). I can also tell when I am getting low on a spice and add it to my grocery list.
Another stress reliever is to get rid of stuff that you actually need but doesn’t create contentment, and replace it with something that does. An example would be to replace outdated clothing and things that no longer fit.
After I finish the decluttering process and clothing updates… I’m hoping to implement the biggest stress reliever of all… to not go shopping to buy more stuff to fill up my rooms again. I’m hoping my money will grow, and I will find contentment in what I already own.
Definition of…
CONTENTMENT: 1. CONTENT; A RESTING OR SATISFACTION OF MIND WITHOUT DISQUIET; (Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.)
Sounds like a stress reliever to me!
What do you do to relieve stress?
I think decluttering is one of the most relaxing things to do, even though it’s a lot of work up front. I think it relieves stress because it eliminates the need to manage too much, makes you really evaluate your priorities, gives you clean spaces to look at, and less decisions to make on a daily basis.
I also think mentally it helps you shed years of buying things for either a future self or an unrealistic self. I’ve bought things that weren’t really “me”, whether it’s clothing or books or decor on impulse, but they weren’t really representative of who I really was at the time.
I have taken several years to really pare down because we live in a small house, and everything must earn its spot. Ha ha.
It does get easier. And after a few rounds of decluttering, you are less inclined to pick up more things you don’t need because you don’t want to always be decluttering as much each time.
And thankfully, you can bless others sometimes with what you have. I’ve passed on books my kids outgrew to friends with younger kids and they were thrilled to add them to their home libraries. 😉
That’s a wonderful picture of all that decluttering can do for you, Allison. Thanks so much for sharing what it means to you. Sometimes we just need nudges from others to get us going, and then we are amazed at how it can impact our lives for the better.
I’m with you, Jane. De-cluttering is really a good stress reliever. Thanks for the post.