Heather Aardema shows how to declutter without stressing your nervous system. Use sun exposure and humming to stay calm, work room by room instead of by category, and start with the spaces you use most. The progress itself keeps you motivated.
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One of the things that I've learned is that you want to be nice to your nervous system when you are decluttering and when you're thinking about decluttering. I used to say as long as you start, you can't get it wrong. But I don't really agree with that anymore. So, for example, let's say you were going to do category by category and you're going to focus on clothing. And so you walked through your home, found all of your clothes and decided to put all of them on top of your bed. Well, looking at all the clothes on your bed is going to be so incredibly overwhelming to the nervous system that you might stop, give up, and three months later you're still not sleeping in your own bed because all of the clothes are still there. So you really want to be nice to your nervous system when you are thinking about decluttering and decluttering. So how can you be nice to your nervous system? My favorite ways are the following. I'll go outside and put my face up towards the sun. That feels so good. I will do some vu breathing or vu humming. And what that is is I'll breathe in V and then I'll say vu voo. It's not pretty, but that can actually help the nervous system as well. And then one of my favorite exercises is that you can say I'm feeling anxious because of the clutter or whatever it is. And what the research says is that when you vocalize, when you verbalize your anxiety out loud, the amygdala no longer lights up. And so if you just keep whatever it is that's making you anxious inside, if you just keep that overwhelm inside, you will feel it, you won't feel good. However, if you vocalize it and if you say I'm feeling anxious because, and you say why you're feeling anxious, that can create a sense of calm as well. So go ahead and try some of those ideas out and see if they can help you create a sense of calm when you're thinking about decluttering or decluttering itself. And if you're wondering if I don't recommend or suggest the category by category, what do I suggest? I love the approach by Joshua Becker, one of my favorite minimalists. And what he says is to go room by room, easiest to hardest, starting with the spaces the most lived in spaces first. That's what makes the most sense to me as well. Room by room, easiest to hardest, with the most lived in spaces first. And what you'll also notice is that once you start diving in and you're focusing in on a small area and you notice some progress. There's something fun called the progress principle. We notice little progress, and it inspires us to create even more progress. So here's the thing. Decluttering, it can be one of the best decisions of your adult life. It can be one of the things that you are most grateful that you did. There is a book by Sue Monk Kidd, and it's called Dissident Daughter. And in that book, she talks about sacred moments. And she defines sacred moments as the now, the ordinary, and the natural. So decluttering absolutely can be sacred because when you're in the act of decluttering, you are present, you are in the now, you are in the moment. It's an ordinary thing to do, yet it can be so tremendously meaningful. Now, if you have a tiny fear laugh saying, oh, my gosh, but what if I get rid of something that I really, really want? What if I have regret? One of my favorite tips is to go on a treasure hunt. So maybe start with a treasure hunt. And what I mean by that is that you decide what are the 10 or the 20 or the 100 most important things to you? You go and you find those treasures. And then when you start to declutter for good, you know, and your brain knows that you're not going to get rid of anything that is truly important to you. All right, have fun with decluttering. This can be an amazing adventure. Don't get overwhelmed the category by category that can be so much. So try the room by room approach and I know you'll be happy with your results.
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