56: Let's Shift Your Perspective on Clutter
===
Welcome to episode 56 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall.
And today I want to help shift your perspective on clutter. At least try to.Once again, my Facebook feed is flooded with ads about getting organized and decluttering.
And it seems like everybody's jumping on that mindset bandwagon. If you just change your mindset all your clutter will be gone and you'll be organized forever again. Huh. It's like a fairytale, right.
You've heard me say before of course, you have to shift your perspective on clutter and getting organized because otherwise we can't make change. But just telling people to do that. It just doesn't work. And we can't, it's like telling somebody who is depressed to just be happy. Just I'll think of all the good things in your life.
It doesn't always work that way, especially with, having a lot of clutter and disorganization because sometimes we can have the best mindset in the world, but our circumstances. whether it's, physical stuff going on or other mental stuff going on. It's not easy.
So I'm going to give you an exercise. In the past. I always used to use the example. what, if there was a fire, what if there was a flood? And I realized that really makes me uncomfortable.
And while it would really help, some people think about their items when they're thinking of letting go. It's really not the positive vibe. If you will, that I want to put out there. So in recent years, I've started having people think about. What if you had to move tomorrow? Not had to, but what if you were like, oh, we want to sell our house. We have a great opportunity. But the thought of moving is stressful. Moving is one of the most stressful things that we can do in life. But if you take that perspective right now when you're not moving. And you look around each room and you can imagine yourself trying to pack all of that stuff up. That might help you shift your perspective on certain things. I always ask you either love something or you need something. But there's always those. I might need it one day. But those maybes. Are the things that if we had to pick up and move our house, It would just add so much to the workload.
So this is going to be a really short episode today because You know me, I don't like fluff, and this is a simple concept, but it's one that I would love you to think on. So if you can walk around your home or your office, You don't have to do any of the decluttering right now, but if you can walk around and look, because often we don't see the clutter. It's in our subconscious it's in our peripheral vision. But we really don't pay a lot of attention to it because we're just getting through day to day. So if you can take some time and kind of look around and think. Maybe there is more stuff that I can let go of. And maybe you think about. Looking at an item and thinking, is this something that I really want to take on a move with me when I move someday down the road?
Now, if you're moving anytime soon or in the near future. I'm sending you peace. And of course you go through your items, try to declutter as much as you can before you move. But if you're not moving, try this exercise and go through and see how much you can get rid of. You know when we're decluttering, it doesn't have to be done all at once.
We can do a little bit each day. I know I'm working with a group of people right now going through one of my programs. And, it's, I think it's liberating for people to realize that. You could do a little bit each day, but also having somebody give you guidance because, I can say to you go through your home, look at things, but you still may say, I don't know where to start. So start with the easy stuff. We all have to pack up our kitchens when we move. How many boxes would you like to move from your kitchen? think about how you could maybe reduce it. Think about the things that you don't use that are in your kitchen, that you really wouldn't want to bring to a new home. And maybe you can let go of them now.
So I hope this was helpful. I wanted to give you a little bit of a motivation to, rethink your stuff without having to change your whole mindset. It's just giving you a tool. To help you with those maybes and, one thing I'll mention, it's it. It's worth repeating all the time. If you're really struggling with something. If it would be inexpensive to find again. And easy to find again. So both of those questions you can say, yeah.
this wouldn't cost me much to replace and I could easily find it. Then that should be a little bit easier to let go of because you know, the things that we say we might need someday. Of course it happens sometimes, but usually we don't.
So again, I hope this was helpful and I'm wishing you much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
