How to Declutter Your Life and Reduce Stress | 23 Simple Ways
The ultimate guide on how to declutter your life and reduce stress.
Decluttering the mess in your life can seem like such a hard thing to do, but with some tips, you can easily declutter all areas of your life.
Clutter can contribute to stress and feelings of overwhelm, plus it can hold you back and minimize your focus.
If your space is full of all sorts of appliances, collections, products, clothes, or piles of paperwork, then this negatively affects you mentally.
The less you have in your space and overall life, the more peaceful you will feel and the clearer your mind will be.
Today I am going to share with you how you can get rid of clutter in simple steps.
Physical items are the most obvious ones when you think of getting rid of clutter, but other aspects of your life, such as your digital life, should never be ignored when you want to simplify your life and reduce stress.
In this post, I will share with you several areas of your life to declutter: How to declutter your life and reduce stress, how to declutter your home, ways to declutter your workspace and digital life, and tips on how to mentally declutter yourself.
With the right tips and strategies, such as the 20/20 rule for decluttering, you will easily understand how to go about getting rid of all the clutter in your life.
This post is all about how to declutter your life and reduce stress.
What is the 20/20 rule for decluttering?
What is the 20/20 rule for decluttering?
When you’re struggling to make decisions on what to keep and what to declutter, the 20/20 rule says that if the item can be replaced for less than $20 and in less than 20 minutes, it can safely be decluttered.
Applying this rule as you declutter several areas of your life will help you easily get rid of those just-in-case items you rarely use.
How can I declutter my life and reduce stress?
1. Re-evaluate your commitments
Having too many commitments can leave you feeling overwhelmed.
Look at the things you devote most of your time to at work, school, church, home, and in your relationships.
For every area of your life, write down all of your commitments.
Analyze whether all of them are meaningful and important or whether they are just draining your energy.
After doing this, choose a few you love that truly bring you joy and that you value, then get rid of the rest.
2. Focus on quality friendships
How many quality friendships do you have? Or do you just have a bunch of acquaintances whom you can’t really say are your true friends? There is nothing wrong with engaging with many people.
However, if you tend to pour more effort into shallow friendships, then this leaves no room for the people who genuinely care about you and are there for you.
The truth is, you will find much more fulfillment in few quality friendships than tons of superficial relationships.
Figure out the top 3 quality friendships in your life, and focus more of your energy on those.
3. Create routines
Are you the type of person to wake up every day and go where the day takes you without a plan?
The best way to organize and declutter your life is by approaching the day with purpose.
If you always feel stressed out in the morning, creating a simple morning routine that helps you focus on doing things that are healthy for your mind will change your life.
You can create also create an evening routine to help you get organized and unwind at the end of the day.
One tip that will help you create a stress-free routine is task batching relevant activities and completing them at the same time.
4. Have a place for everything
Leaving things lying around can easily add clutter to your life.
Whether it’s your work area, bedroom, or purse, make sure everything has a certain place where it’s stored.
Don’t leave clothes on that random chair in your bedroom or leave tons of paperwork on your desk.
Find storage for everything that clutters your space, and make sure it’s somewhere you can still easily access whatever you need.
5. Simplify your goals
If you find it easy to set goals but have a hard time working on them, this may be a sign that your goals are too complicated.
The simpler the goal, the easier it will be for you to work on. Instead of setting a bunch of unrealistic goals, be honest with yourself in regards to what you can and can’t do.
In addition to setting realistic goals, be as specific as you can and avoid being vague.
This will add simplicity to your life and rid you of the stress and overwhelm of trying to keep up with complicated goals.
6. Be mindful about what you buy
Are you the type of person to go around buying random things? Then this one is for you.
If we’re being honest, most of the things we buy without a plan are rarely useful to us.
So before you make another unplanned purchase, make sure the product is valuable, that you will use it so much after buying it, and that it won’t just be another piece of clutter collecting dust in your home.
This will help you stop buying so much unnecessary stuff.
Also, creating a budget you can easily stick to helps you be mindful about what you buy.
7. Get planning
To keep all areas of your life in order, you should create planning systems to help you stay at the top of things.
If you have a hard time remembering important appointments, for example, using a monthly planner can help you out a lot.
You can also download printables to help you keep your routines and finances in check.
If this seems tiresome to you, there are countless planning programs that are purely digital.
Make sure you find one that works for you and stay consistent.
How to declutter your home
8. Throw away useless stuff
The first and easiest step to decluttering your home is throwing away things you don’t need at all.
Go through your living room area, kitchen, and bathroom and see if there is trash that needs to be thrown out.
Also, look for expired items, anything that doesn’t add value, as well as damaged items, then proceed to throw away all these useless things.
9. Tackle the bedroom
Are there a lot of things you don’t need or that you’ve outgrown that are taking too much space in your bedroom?
Then you need to declutter them as well.
If you find yourself having trouble deciding what to take out of your room and what to leave, think about how each item makes you feel when you look at it or touch it.
If something doesn’t make you feel excited, then this is your sign that it doesn’t belong in your room.
As you declutter your room, also remember to clear out junk from your drawers.
10. Declutter the closet
All right, you’ve just cleared out your bedroom.
Now it’s time to go through your closet. Separate all your clothes according to what you wear the most and things you never wear.
Set the things you don’t wear aside for donation, then go through the pile of clothes you plan to keep.
This time, separate everything by season and leave clothing items for the current season in your closet.
Put other seasonal clothes in plastic bins and take them to the storage.
11. Store specialty and seasonal items
If you have special equipment in your kitchen that you don’t regularly use, put them away in the storage.
Only take them out when you need to use them instead of letting them take too much space in your kitchen.
Also, store away seasonal items such as heavy blankets, seasonal decor, electric fans, etc., so they stop cluttering your home.
This is a simple thing to do but can leave your place feeling much more organized and looking put together.
How to declutter your workspace
12. Go paperless when you can
If you have a lot of paperwork causing clutter in your work area, consider scanning them and keeping soft copies instead.
Then proceed to organize all your files into relevant folders on your computer.
Also, receiving things electronically will help you avoid having too much paperwork.
13. Clear out your work area
Clear out the junk in your home office, and set aside all the outdated and unnecessary stuff.
Shred what you can, or recycle things you don’t need anymore.
Then proceed to create a home for everything, and always make sure you return everything to its designated home after usage.
Pro tip: Taking a few minutes to tidy up your workspace after work will help you avoid the clutter.
14. Invest in office organization products
Organizing everything accordingly is essential to get rid of the clutter. Office organization products are cheap, and you can easily buy them online.
If your office seems to get cluttered every other day, buy desk organizers to help you stay organized.
If you struggle to make your desk put together, invest in a monitor stand riser to create more space.
How to declutter your digital life
15. Delete unnecessary accounts
Do you have a ton of accounts you rarely use? If this is the case, I’m pretty sure you get a bunch of irrelevant emails.
Decide which accounts you use the most, then delete the ones you don’t need.
16. Clear out your digital space
You literally don’t need those random screenshots you took months ago.
Go through your phone and get rid of all irrelevant pictures.
If you use the Notes App, also make sure you delete the ones that are no longer useful.
Also, don’t forget to declutter downloads on your computer.
Clearing your digital devices will help you get rid of all the unnecessary things that are taking up too much storage.
17. Organize your devices
How many apps do you have on your phone? Delete the ones you rarely use and those that serve no purpose in your life, then organize the ones you do use.
You can create custom widgets for the apps you use the most for added organization and remove everything else from your home screen.
Also, create a minimalist look for your desktop by removing outdated files and folders from your desktop.
Trust me, this makes a huge difference and simplifies life if your devices are too cluttered.
18. Reduce how much information you consume
It’s about time you start being selective with what kind of digital information you consume daily.
You can do this by disabling notifications for unimportant apps, especially social media apps.
Another way you can reduce information consumption is by unsubscribing from email lists.
If you always receive emails from people or companies you don’t want to hear from, you can stop this with a few steps.
Open an email from the sender you don’t want to receive emails from, scroll all the way down, and click on unsubscribe. It’s as simple as that.
How do you mentally declutter yourself?
19. Journal
Journaling is a great habit to start because it helps you organize your thoughts and release unprocessed emotions.
Even a few minutes a day can make a difference, especially if you’re the kind of person who deals with things alone.
So get a simple notebook and set aside some time to journal in your morning or evening routine.
You can follow journaling prompts or simply write about the events in your current life.
20. Take time to unplug and unwind
Your mind will get cluttered if you’re always staring at screens.
It is essential that you turn off everything and allow your mind to relax. Make it a priority to unplug and enjoy some “me time” more often.
You can use this time to focus on your hobbies, or you can simply go for a refreshing walk around the block or focus on fully being in the present.
This will help you declutter your mind, reduce stress, and get new creative ideas.
21. Automate what you can
One thing that increases stress and makes you feel mentally overwhelmed is trying to remember everything you need to get done.
If you’re always worried about missing your bill pay date, simply set up automatic payments.
If some of the steps in your work can be automated, then set aside some time to automate what you can.
22. Take breaks more often
You will increase your productivity and reduce stress by taking breaks.
Instead of working for a long period of time, break your work hours into chunks separated by small breaks.
When you take a break, get up and walk around or talk to someone else instead of scrolling on your phone.
23. Use to-do lists and prioritize urgent tasks
To avoid getting overwhelmed when you have a lot of things to do, simply write a long list of everything you need to get done.
Then, start with the most urgent tasks first. This way, you won’t feel like you don’t know where to start from.
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