YOU ‘SHOULD’ START WITH THE BIGGEST MOST CLUTTERED AREA OR ROOM FIRST

You decide to try to declutter – again. You decide to start on the area or room that you believe is going to make the biggest improvement to how you feel and what you see in your home the fastest. You decide to start on the biggest, most cluttered area or room.

Before you know it, the overwhelm hits you, the decision-making fog descends, and you lose the will to live – again. You give up, having made no visible difference what-so-ever. Again.

You’re stuck in the giving up cycle which isn’t helped by the fact that you always start by trying to clear the biggest and most cluttered area or room first.

Been there, done that, and if I hadn’t realised this myth is a myth, you wouldn’t be reading this now, and I’d still have a garage that looks like the picture on the right.

Here are 5 reasons why you should NEVER start clearing the biggest and most cluttered area or room first.

1. Overwhelm

How many boxes, bins or piles do you have in your biggest, most cluttered area or room? More than 7? How many things are in each of those boxes, bins or piles? More than 7? I’m going to assume your answer is yes, and that’s why you feel overwhelmed. When your brain has more than 7 thoughts, feelings, memories or emotions at once, it triggers overwhelm and your logic and reason part of your brain gets switched off. 

So, given that just one item in your biggest, most cluttered area or room could easily trigger more than 7 thoughts, feelings, memories and emotions, you are guaranteed to feel overwhelmed before you even start trying to make decisions on the clutter in your biggest, most cluttered area or room.

2. Learning

You need to learn lots of things before you start clearing the biggest area or room, for example how to manage the overwhelm, why you have your clutter challenge, how to make decisions, how to keep areas and rooms clutter free Forever once you’ve cleared them.

3. Experience

Some of that learning can be done through understanding theory and the way your brain works, some of it must be done through applying that theory to your clutter with exercises, practice, and making the inevitable mistakes that provide us with significant and valuable experience, learning and feedback that help us make better decisions in the future.

You know that your biggest most cluttered area or room is the most overwhelming and, in the past, has caused you to give up (if indeed you’ve ever actually managed to start trying to clear it in the first place). 

This time you need to learn the theory and first apply it to smaller, less cluttered areas and rooms so that you can get the experience and knowledge that the tools you have will help you make decisions will actually work on your bigger, more challenging clutter in your biggest most cluttered area or room.

4. Confidence

As you apply the theory on non-physical digital clutter FIRST, you can build your confidence – not only that you can make decisions and let go of things in your clutter, but as you move on to clear whole areas and rooms, that you can keep small areas and rooms clutter free.

After all, you don’t just want to clear our clutter – you want to stay clutter free Forever – right?

If you try to start by clearing your biggest, most cluttered area or room first, not only will you immediately become overwhelmed, but you also won’t be able to make decisions because you haven’t done the learning first. Consequently, just like in the past when you’ve tried to declutter, you won’t be confident that you can clear it all and keep it clutter free Forever, even if you do manage to clear it all.

You will need to build your confidence that you CAN clear your clutter.

Make decisions and let go of things in your clutter by starting on your non-physical digital clutter FIRST, then as your confidence builds move on to the smallest, least cluttered area and room. Leave the biggest, most cluttered and usually the most emotionally challenging area or room until last.

When you’re clearing your clutter, you need to use the swimming pool analogy. Stop jumping in the deep end and drowning. Go to the shallow end, learn how to stay afloat, and then gradually build up your confidence as you learn to swim towards the deep end. It may take longer, but at least you won’t drown before you’ve cleared all your clutter.

5. Seeing is Believing

When you start with the smallest, least cluttered area or room, you’ll see and feel a difference significantly faster than if you start with the biggest, most cluttered area or room. 

Think about it. Which do you think you will take longer to clear and therefore where you will see a difference faster? 

A hallway or a garage?

If you’re like me when I had my clutter challenge, then you’re impatient to see and feel a difference FAST – that’s why you’ve given up so many times in the past.  

You may think you’ll see and feel a bigger difference by clearing your biggest, most cluttered area or room, but you’ll give up long before you see and feel that difference. Reframe starting with the smallest, least cluttered area or room first as a way to manage your impatience so you can see and feel a difference FAST.

When you see the visible results of the time, energy and effort that you put in to clearing your clutter in the smallest, least cluttered area or room, the quicker your confidence will grow, the more likely you are to want to make the time to ‘Do the Doing’, the less likely you are to feel overwhelmed, and less likely to give up.

You can clear your clutter fast, or you can clear your clutter forever, but you can’t clear your clutter forever, fast. 

To find out how Clare can help you clear your clutter Forever, without the need for an expensive home visit, click here now: https://www.clutterclearing.net/clares-help-centre/