What is disorder?
What exactly tidiness means is very individual. One thing is clear in any case: if you feel uncomfortable and stressed at home, if your own flat annoys you, if you keep looking for things, are often late, make double purchases because you don't know what you have or can't find it anymore, then there is definitely disorder.
This clutter robs you of a lot of time, space, money and nerves and has many negative effects on your life:
- Bad conscience
- Fear of unexpected visitors
- Lack of space
- More effort for cleaning
- Feeling unwell or overwhelmed
- Quarrels with partner, family, flatmates
- Children adopt bad patterns
- Lousy moods, listlessness and even depressive moods
What are the causes?
Our generation has never learned to deal with "too much". Almost everything is available everywhere and at any time (also online). We often buy wishes or they are so-called gap fillers. For many people, "more is more" and not the other way round, i.e. "less is more". More things are constantly coming into the house. Since these new things don't get a permanent "home" and we rarely if ever clean out, we eventually lose track of them.
Here are my top 4 tips to make sure it doesn't come to that:
- A permanent home for every object: every thing in your house gets a "home". It is always brought back there after use. The dining table, the floor, the kitchen shelf are not suitable for a "home". Think about where you want to put things.
- Clean out thoroughly: less is often more. When you have less stuff, you have less stuff to tidy, store, clean and manage. You can let go of things you haven't used in the last 6-12 months. This process of clearing out and letting go is not easy. Get help from friends or a professional ;-). For example me... just an idea...
- Change shopping behaviour i.e. shop smart. Plan your purchases and go with a list. Only go shopping when you need to, not just because you need to... this way you avoid impulse buying and rash "snap buys". Think about why you want something. If you really want to buy something, wait a week. Maybe it will look different then
- Unsubscribe from newsletters and catalogues and put a "stop advertising" sticker on your letterbox, so you are less tempted ;-).
