Decluttering Difficulties & Solutions

The decluttering journey is different for everyone; some may find it easy and some may find it hard. It can be psychologically draining and physically exhausting. But the end results are worth it.

Deciding to Declutter

Day in and day out, have you found yourself constantly tidying up, fighting with stuff that is in your way and spending way too much time looking for things? This is your sign to declutter! Our homes are supposed to be a sanctuary from the outside stresses of the world, a place of safety, security and happy memories. Unfortunately, when our homes are cluttered, they can be the opposite. They can become a place of stress, nagging to do’s and arguments with family members; "Where are my keys?!".

Before starting to declutter your home, you need to have a meaningful powerful purpose for doing so. Having a positive purpose for doing so will help you when you get stuck and will help drive you through the difficulties of decluttering. If you are goal oriented, setting a realistic goal can also be helpful. Just do not let any failure to reach your goal knock you off your decluttering path.

Decluttering Difficulties

When you think about t, decluttering and getting rid of stuff seems easy… All you have to do is throw stuff away, right? Well it depends on your mindset, how attached you are to your possessions and whether you have the means of getting them out of your home quickly. Decluttering is a process that requires physical and mental work.

Time Constraints

Dragging our possessions out of cupboards and boxes, deciding if we need them, putting the items we want to keep back in their place and donating or selling the ones we don’t want to keep takes a lot of time.

What Can You Do? - Invite someone to help you declutter, whether family, friends or a professional. This can half the time it takes to declutter. When selling, consider if it's worth your time and energy to sell the item or price items 10% lower than what you think they're worth.

Decision Fatigue

Decluttering involves a lot of thinking and decision making, which quite often leads to decision fatigue and a feeling of general tiredness.

What Can You Do? - Instead of trying to declutter everything at once, have a plan and work on easy areas first. Try going through your whole house, a room or a cupboard with a bin bag grabbing anything that is clearly clutter (rubbish, out of date, broken items etc). The aim is to not spend too long thinking about if you need it or if it will come in handy at some point. Easy decisions lead to quicker decisions. 

Discard, Donate or Sell?

Deciding whether to sell, donate or bin something can lead to the aforementioned decision fatigue. 

What Can You Do? - Reflect on your reason for decluttering and make a decision before your next decluttering session what your session aim is. Maybe you just want your space back, in which case you have permission to bin the items or donate them. Or maybe your aim is to make a bit of money, in which case look for things with value. If you don’t have time to sell items individually, could you take a lot of smaller/low cost items to a carboot, or just simply donate them.

Guilt & Wasted Money

When decluttering you will often come across items that make you feel bad. You may have spent a lot of money on them and never used them, or they might be an unwanted gift from someone close to you.

What Can You Do? - Don’t hold on to items that make you feel guilty (unless you truly are going to use them). Keeping an item that you don’t like just because it was a gift leads to clutter in your home and chances are the gifter will not even know you have gotten rid of it. For items that you have paid a lot of money for and not used, use them as a lesson… Why didn’t you use the item? Think about that item if you are about to purchase something similar.

Sentimental Items

Items that hold memories are very difficult to declutter and can often be the ones that distract us from decluttering as we head down memory lane.

What Can You Do? - If your goal is to make progress quickly, decluttering sentimental items should be the last thing you declutter. As you come across them, separate them and come back to them at a later date. You can also make a memory box or two, which puts a limit on any sentimental items kept.

Just in Case Items

Items kept for their potential usefulness in the future are often small but when keeping multiple just in case items, they can quickly add up and clutter your house. The what ifs of these items make them difficult to discard.

What Can You Do? - Consider the likelihood of needing the item and whether you would remember that you have it. If it's generic and cheap, just get rid of it because chances are, you will not need it and if you do, you can always re-buy it.

Who am I?

Fantasy-self items, those purchased for the person who we would like to be, are a common clutter item that when considering decluttering, can make you question who you are. Such items largely consist of hobby items, craft supplies, exercise equipment, clothes and accessories.

What Can You Do? - Determine if you will use the item by giving yourself a (short) deadline for when to use it by, or carve out time to use it. If you do not use it at that time, accept that it might not be what you want to do really, that it is not that important to you and pass it on to someone who will use it.

The Bottom Line

When decluttering, there are various mental traps that we can get stuck in that can slow the decluttering journey. You can make the journey quicker and easier by having someone else help you, someone who can be a second pair of hands and an accountability partner to keep you on track.