How to clear clutter, keep a clean house & get rid of stuff

Being a CEO of Me® is all about balance and doing our best, even in our households.  This doesn’t mean having a house that’s always sparkly clean or that everything is always in its place.  It simply means creating systems that work for you & sticking to them that allows you to live in a happy, healthy environment. When we learn how to clear the clutter in our homes, we can open up room for growth and abundance in all areas of our lives,

I lived in a small 520 square foot, 1 bedroom apartment for several years. When I first moved in, it felt huge (it was the first place I lived in after moving out of my parents home). As the years went by and I began purchasing more things and as my home-based business grew, that apartment began to feel about as big as a refrigerator box.  I was slowly starting to suffocate because of all the stuff that was stuffed into that small, stuffy space.

When it came time for me to move into a house, I promised myself I would not ever let my new house become so stuffed. I did a clean sweep and got rid of over 1/3rd of my possessions. I wanted a home I could live in, feel comfortable in and be able to invite friends to spend time at. 

I mostly didn’t want all that external baggage around me anymore.  When our homes are cluttered and overstuffed, it damages our mental, emotional and physical health.  We feel guilty because we can’t seem to catch up, much less stay on top of the mess. We are embarrassed when people come over and always making excuses.  Lots of times the stress from the mess can even make us gain weight & cause us to become lazy because it’s just too much to tackle so we just keep putting it off.

It can be hard to let go of stuff though. We often allow stuff to take the place of people, relationships and even love in our lives.  When we get hurt or lose someone or something we love, we cling to the things that bring back those memories or that make us feel safe from the pain.  Shopping and obtaining things can also become just as bad as being addicted to drugs (ever seen the TV show “Hoarding, Buried Alive”?).

We have to ask ourselves where our heart really is?  Does all of that stuff really benefit us?  Does leaving the mess just because it’s too much to deal with do us any good at all?  Does it move us any closer to being the person that God intends us to be?  Are we really being good stewards of all our blessings?  Is our home an example of how a CEO of Me’s home should be? 

I can promise you once you learn to let go of your material stuff & you gain control of your household again that you will also find an amazing sense of freedom. You will be able to let go of a lot of mental stuff that is piled up and cluttered up & damaging your ability to be the best that you can be.

I have also learned that when we clutter our homes and lives up with material possessions that we block abundance in other areas in our lives – from our income to our health and even relationships.  When we remove the things that aren’t really serving the person, life and relationships we want in our lives, we create space for those things to enter and expand in our lives.

A few resources that helped me learn how to clear clutter and do better with housework include:

Flylady.net

Marie Kondo’s book “The Magic Art of Tidying Up”

Leo Babuata’s book “The Power of Less”

After learning some of these methods and taking some time to implement new systems, I have been able to keep my house fairly neat & organized all the time without having to spend a lot of time & energy to do so. 

The biggest thing for me was doing a clean sweep and letting go of things that I was holding onto because I was emotionally attached to them. I also had to realize that I am not defined by my possessions, how much stuff I have, what brand of clothes or type of car or size of house or the decor I had, none of those things defines us. It is who we are on the inside and how we treat others that defines us.

A few years later after realizing I was beginning to accumulate too many things, particularly clothing, I also began working on minimizing my wardrobe using a capsule wardrobe & organization method. I explain more this blog post Beginner’s Guide to a Capsule Wardrobe & Organizing Your Closet which gives many more tips for organization and decluttering.

Make a commitment to start living more by living with less. Work on 1 room or one corner of a room or 1 closet in your house to start with.  Then tackle the next room, corner or closet. Once all the extra stuff is out of the way, you can begin implementing daily & weekly systems that will enable you to stay on top of your housework and maintain a healthy environment in your home & your heart too!

Did you enjoy this post or learn something from it? I would LOVE it if you would leave a comment below and / or share it. Thank you!