Declutter your space, declutter your life! Written by Coach Kim Edited by Marla Reese Martin

You are what you surround yourself with. This applies to people as well as your surroundings. If Marie Kondo was able to build a multi-million dollar industry showing people how to declutter their life, she must be on to something right? Yes she is. As entertaining as her videos are, they are also excellent to help decluttering beginners make the first step in organizing their life. I have divided clutter into four types:

Digital clutter: If your phone consistently notifies you of “low storage space”, you may be suffering from digital clutter. Of course you could buy a bigger sd card and continue business as usual, but the clutter would keep building up and up! Fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes is all it takes to clear your device from old downloads, blurry pictures, and random videos you’ve saved. When the digital photo was invented, people were thrilled to save space in their house by having pictures saved in their computer instead of photo albums. To be honest, if you asked me to show you my daughter's fifth birthday pictures right now, it would probably take me an hour to find where they are in the computer. Originally, my goal was to have labeled folders for each kid and each year: it didn’t happen. This is another example of digital clutter. It’s the same for inboxes full of old emails and never cleaning your search engine history.

Physical clutter: We are all guilty of this type of clutter! Who doesn’t have a drawer in the kitchen in which you throw everything that doesn’t have a pre-established place? Physical clutter isn’t just having stuff on the floor or in a visible location. It can be a closet, a drawer, under the bed, or in the attic. We keep lots of stuff because we may need it someday. I always say if you haven’t used it in 2 years, you can get rid of it. Why do we keep old magazines? Why do we hang on to a $10 shirt in the hope that one day it will fit again? It is because we create emotional attachments to objects making it hard to dispose of them.

Social clutter: How many people do you know? Social clutter is having a lot of people in your “friends list” but really not caring for most of them. Sure it is fun to creep their Facebook and read the latest gossip about common friends. Your social media page has a lot of your personal information. It shows pictures of your kids, places you’ve gone, and immortalizes important moments in your life. Do you really want to share it with Carmen, the mean girl from 5th grade? You know you turned out better than she did. You don’t have to rub it in her face! What I am trying to say is having quality people surrounding you is more important than the quantity of people in your “friends list”. Be selective and clean your social media friends list once a year! (Sorry to all Carmens, I picked this name randomly!)

Professional clutter: Do you have a lot of tasks at work but don’t know where to start? Does your office look like a teenager’s bedroom? Then you are suffering from professional clutter! This is probably the easiest clutter to fix. Make a list, and use your agenda. Some people respond really well to color coding their assignments by level of priority. Whatever works for you, do it! You will be less stressed and the quality of your work will improve. You will have better concentration and feel more confident tackling new projects! Bosses also notice employees that are organized and are more willing to trust them with important tasks.

Decluttering requires time, and we often feel like we don’t have enough time! Here are few reasons why it is worth taking the time to declutter your life:

Stress: Psychology specialists agree: clutter causes stress and anxiety. Clutter bombards your mind with excessive stimuli. Have you ever tried to relax knowing the kitchen is a mess? Clutter causes stress and feelings of guilt for not being more productive. Life is already stressful enough. Do yourself a favor, reduce your stress and start decluttering.

Distraction: Clutter distracts us from what our focus should be on. It is very hard to concentrate when we are surrounded by chaos! Living in a clean space brings better productivity and creativity to your life.

Source of conflict: According to realsimple.com, 78% of households fight about cleaning! Clean and decluttered households are happy households! Do a favor for your spouse and show them this article. Make decluttering fun by involving the entire family. Once every six months the kids and I go through our clothes drawers and get rid of what doesn’t fit anymore, is stained, or we no longer wear. My kids love doing this because we bring the clothes in good condition to the local shelter. Not only do we have cleaner and more organized drawers, but we also help people in need.

Physical hazard: This is pretty self explanatory! A pile of magazines on the floor is a physical hazard! The 10 pairs of shoes in the entrance are an accident waiting to happen! The 5 minutes it takes to organize the entrance can save you 8 hours at the emergency room!

If you feel lost on where you should start on your decluttering journey, there are millions of YouTube videos you can watch! You can also ask each member of your family what they think should be organized first and then do a family challenge: who can declutter their space the fastest and most effectively? What a fun activity for the next rainy day! Decluttering can be stressful when you take it all on you. Get people to help! Also be open to getting rid of things. What really matters isn’t what you are cleaning, it is the people you clean with. Make a plan that is realistic! Often we get into cleaning mode and try to do everything the same day. I recommend you make a list and write how long you think it will take to complete each task. When you have free time, look at the list and pick the one that you feel confident you can tackle. Music helps with chores. Play music that motivates you and makes you happy. Once you have decided to clean a specific place, take everything out! Having the closet’s full contents on the floor forces you to complete the task and not stop in the middle. Seeing the pile diminish will motivate you to keep going. Remember : You can buy anything at the store BUT mental sanity!