Decluttering was a keystone habit for me — a habit that once unlocked, causes a domino effect of good habits throughout your life. We had a remote storage unit in NYC, and I was fed up with the amount of time I was shuttling stuff between it and my apartment. I had the audacious goal of getting rid of it — getting all of our belongings (Christmas decorations and all) to fit in our small two bedroom NYC apartment.
I read Marie Kondo’s Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, held every item we owned, asking whether it ‘brought me joy,’ and then gave away half my belongings. It took months, but the day I emptied out that unit was one of the most proud moments of my life. A weight was lifted. I thought clearer and was able to also clear out the non-physcical junk in my life.
Decluttering magically creates more time and less stress:
Eliminating clutter eliminates 40% of the time spent cleaning the average home
55% of people say they would save 60 minutes a day if they were more organized
There is a direct correlation between a woman’s stress level and the density of household objects
Start small. Start today. Take one type of item today (like short sleeve shirts), put them in a pile and hold each while asking yourself if each one brings you joy. If the answer isn’t a big ‘yes’ then get rid of it. Tomorrow do another category. Trust me, it’s addictive.
To save even more time, Give Back Box let’s you mail donations in for free in all of those Amazon Prime boxes you have stockpiled. They even will send you an itemized receipt for tax time.
Sources: *The Cleaning Institute, NAPO, Center on Everyday Lives and Families
