Ep 131: These are the 5 Hard Truths with Decluttering and Organizing

Decluttering has been sold as the cure-all to people looking to simplify their lives. The promise of decluttering is that by getting rid of all your extraneous possessions, you will be happier, more organized, and more productive.

While this may be true for some people, if decluttering was the only issue, I wouldn’t be in business. We’d all be able to comb through our belongings, keeping only the items we needed, and then go on to live our easy, stress-free lives.

However, we all know that decluttering is hard. That’s just the cold hard truth. For most of us decluttering is hard because it forces us to confront our emotional attachments to our belongings. We get attached to things for a variety of reasons – they might remind us of happy memories, or we might think that they make us look successful or stylish.

The reality though is that humans are really good at avoiding hard things and we're masters of procrastination, which is what clutter usually is - not dealing with our stuff in a timely manner.

The science tells us that contrary to popular belief, procrastination is not laziness.

If you’re struggling with decluttering or you've tried decluttering in the past only to have your home become messy again, please know that you are not alone. Here are the 5 problems I see the most when it comes to decluttering. Once you understand why decluttering is so difficult, you will understand why I do not suggest starting here and what I've seen work with much more success.

This episode of Wannabe Minimalist will also help you discover:

5 hard truths with decluttering and organizing
The proper use of organizing bins
Why your family may not be on board with decluttering
How decluttering compares to a leaky boat
What I recommend instead of a big decluttering session

Helpful Links:

some of these may be affiliate links. If you make a purchase using these links I may get paid a small amount. I stand by my recommendations. Thank you for supporting this podcast.

Links mentioned in this episode (some may be affiliate links):

Episode 35: A listener's favorite

Episode 129: Clutter Statistics

Book: Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century

Tidy Home Academy - This life-changing course will help you declutter, organize, & create systems so your home can run on autopilot.

The Home Systems Power Pack - A digital library is jam-packed with actionable workbooks, guides, pdfs, worksheets and more so you can start to make real progress in your home!

Wannabe Minimalist Family - come join my private group filled with amazing people just like you who are on their journey toward minimalism and simplifying.