Living Intentionally

Being in cluttered environments impacts our mental health and relationships. Having a system that is manageable and works for you will help you create the lifestyle you want. Don’t compare yourself to others because everyone has their own journey. There are factors in your life that are unique to you and impact you differently than others. We often avoid chores because they feel boring, unmanageable, overwhelming, and unsatisfying. Finding techniques that you can utilize to support you in creating the environment you want will help improve your mental health, relationships, and overall happiness. This can also be done as a team effort if you live with others. Getting everyone involved will reduce the stress associated with decluttering.

Being someone who is neurodivergent, I often struggle with task initiation. This isn’t necessarily because I don’t want to do the task itself, but it may be because the task feels huge and I don’t know where to start. To help with this there is a system I use that I want to share with you all. This has helped me take a step back and break down large tasks into more manageable parts. This decreases the overwhelm that comes with them. I often refer to my home as living in organized chaos. It may not always be flawless, but it is manageable for me and my family. 

As a starting point, I like to think about things in terms of "Projects" and "Activities." Projects refer to what you are aiming for in the long run. For example, “decluttering my home” could be a project. The next step is to break it down into activities; these are the smaller tasks you will accomplish along the way that will help you complete the project. There is no right or wrong way to complete an activity, as long as it feels manageable for you.

I use a system that breaks down activities into daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly chunks. This allows you to keep up with the things you need to do in a way that does not feel overwhelming. To begin, I want you to do a brain dump and write down all of the cleaning/organizing activities that you already do and ones you would like to incorporate into your regular routine. Once you have done this, pick 6 that you can do on a daily basis, 10 you can manage weekly, 5 or 6 you can manage biweekly, and 5 or 6 you can manage monthly. 

Here is an example of my organized chaos breakdown. Depending on how you like to look at things you may want to use either the bubble chart or the list chart. Either is fine as long as it works for you! You will also notice there is a miscellaneous section. This is where you can write down activities you do occasionally but not regularly. This may include washing carpets, stripping laundry, or fixing things that break due to day-to-day life. Again, depending on your lifestyle these things will vary.

As we work together, these will be customized to your needs. Some activities that I do daily you may do less frequently or activities that I do weekly you may do more frequently. For example, depending on your family size laundry may be a dreaded activity. You can break this down by doing 1 load of laundry a day. I encourage you to print the chart out that you would like to use after it has been customized and laminate it if possible. This will allow you to write on it and check things off as you progress. 

If you are someone who wants a complete reset prior to implementing this daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly activity chart then you will need to work on decluttering your home to get to a place where you feel ready to use this chart system. To declutter a home, I encourage you to use the same approach of breaking down larger projects into smaller more manageable activities. This can be done by choosing one or two days a week that you have a solid chunk of time to sort through and get rid of things that no longer serve you. Having enough time to take breaks will also allow you to accomplish this without feeling too overwhelmed. 

Make a list of all rooms you want to declutter. This may include bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, closets, etc. Pick one room and a set amount of time (i.e. 2 hours or 3 hours with 2 - 30 minute breaks) to work on your decluttering process. This will vary depending on the size of the rooms and the amount of stuff you need to sort through. If it takes you more than one day to complete a room, that is okay! Remember, this is set at a pace you can manage. After you have created your list, identify which room you want to start with. As you work through each room, get rid of things you no longer use or want. If you want to keep something, it needs a home. If it doesn’t already have a home you will have to create one. Everything must have a home; basket systems can also work well for this. If you are getting rid of a lot of stuff, it may be worth renting a dumpster that a company can deliver, you fill it, and they pick it up afterward or hire a trash removal service. You can also donate or sell anything that is still in usable condition that you think someone else may want! Once you have decluttered your rooms, gather the cleaning supplies you need and wash down shelves, floors, windows, light fixtures, etc. This will give you a solid reset to implement the chart system. 

If you would like to learn more about how I can support you with decluttering your home and creating a sustainable environment that you will thrive in, please set up your free 30-minute consultation today!