Busting the Clutter

We’ve all had a house that is cluttered. A pile of mail that we need to address, clothes stacked up, dirty dishes in the sink and covering the counter tops, little things that simply need to be put in their proper place. But did you know that clutter can actually significantly add to your stress level, and ultimately compromise your health and well being?

Often, we put off clearing the clutter because we are simply too busy with other more important tasks to get to the clutter piles. And then when we look around and see the clutter, we simply get overwhelmed and our stress increases. We keep telling ourselves “I really need to clean that up!” but somehow, it continues to pile up and we get even more stressed out.

A clutter free living environment helps to reduce stress. When our home is relatively free from clutter, it allows us to breathe and to focus on the more important tasks ahead of us.

So how do you tackle the clutter? The best way is to focus on a smaller cleaning task rather than becoming overwhelmed by looking at the big picture. Plan on conquering one room at a time, and break it down even further to finish one task in your focus room at a time. When it comes to the family, get them involved. Set up a cleaning list for each family member. Then have each family member complete one chore at a time-if you give them more than one, then they can get overwhelmed and you’ll find that they will tend to procrastinate more, so break it down. Even the younger children can help with things like putting toys away, or throwing dirty clothes in the hamper.

Incentives work well for the kids, so encouraging them to help with cleaning with the promise of a special treat, toy or movie can go along way. Of course, there is always the incentive of the allowance. Many parents assign monetary values to different reoccurring chores. If the kids complete that chore, then at the end of the week, they will receive an allowance based on the work that they completed. Don’t forget to give them praise and positive reinforcement for a job well done. It will go a long way to helping them to be more cooperative in the future.

Put together a goal sheet for clearing the clutter. Break it down into small enough pieces, so that you aren’t having to clean for hours at a time. Allot a specific, and achievable amount of time to do some cleaning. When you write down your cleaning goals, it will give you a greater sense of focus and allow you to really see what you are accomplishing as you cross each task off of your list.

My husband tends to be a very messy person. But I am fairly organized. And to top it off, he hates to clean. What I realized was that he did not actually hate cleaning. He was allowing his things to pile up so much that he was feeling very overwhelmed, and in turn it really stressed him out. When he couldn’t stand the mess any longer, he had so many things on his to do list, that he simply didn’t know where to start. So often times, he ended up not doing anything.

Once I recognized that it was the overwhelm and the resulting stress that were the real culprit, I began having him decide what was the most important cleaning task for him to finish first. Then I had him focus on that one task. If he began wandering away from that task, I helped him to get back on track. But breaking the cleaning down into smaller pieces, it has allowed him to be less overwhelmed and stressed out, and he’s actually volunteering to clean more often, and our house in general is much more organized.

So try putting together a plan to bust your clutter. You will be amazed how much better you feel and you be able to reduce your stress level and improve your well-being and your life!