WHY SHOULD WE DECLUTTER?
WHY SHOULD WE DECLUTTER?
Declutter is one of my new favorite words.
At the mention of this word, though, it makes some of my friends and family cringe!
You know those people who just can’t let go of clothes from high school because some day that style will come back? Or perhaps you know someone that buys the size clothes they wore in college because someday that size will fit again? And then, there are those who spend an hour arranging items all around them on their desk before they can “be productive.” They arrange so many items so close by that there ends up being no workspace! (I call this cocooning). There is a lot of psychology behind why people cling to clutter.
So, for many, decluttering must be taken in baby steps!
One of the best decluttering strategies I have read regarding this is by Julia Williamson. She suggests
“Find Five Things.” This can be workable for all family members, no matter how young or old. It can
start out as a once-a-month activity or be scheduled weekly. Julia’s strategy is this:
“Tell everyone in the house to go find five things they no longer need or want. It’s so easy, and if you do it once or twice per week or month, you will have a lot less junk to deal with.”
So, ask yourself …
Why do we keep a drawer full of pencils/pens we don’t like to use or will never use?
Why do we hang onto a book we purchased, but didn’t like and stopped reading halfway through?
Why do we hang onto a hand-me-down sweatshirt that exhibits a school we didn’t even attend?
Why do we have annual garage sales? Do we really accumulate that much unwanted stuff that we need a year to convince ourselves to part with it?
Why do we have a “junk drawer” in our homes?
Benefits of a Regular Declutter:
*Fewer choices to distract our thinking; it has been said that clutter represents postponed decisions.
*Positive feeling of deciding what we like, what we use, and what we want.
*Less “stuff” to take care of; every item we own adds a little more stress to our lives.
*Letting go of good items that would be beneficial to someone else.
Look for the next community garage sale and get ready!!!
“If you measure something, you can understand it. If you understand it, you can control it, and if you can control it, you can improve it.” The same holds true in your monthly budgeting.
The reality is that it is nearly impossible to complete & follow a monthly budget without improving your overall financial position. There are several reasons for this, so I would challenge you to do this.
First, just developing a budget for yourself will raise your awareness of what you have for revenue or income sources and then also boost your cognizance of how much you are spending each month. Next, you will come to grips with the reality of one of three facts. Either you need to boost your income sources, reduce your outgoing expenditures or, thank goodness, if you have more income than expenses, you can then save some money. Of course, this is fantastic! You just need to determine where you will store or invest those extra funds each month…
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