- So when we first start decluttering
we can definitely do it the wrong way.
And often people want to start in a particular area
but there's one thing you definitely need to do
before you even start decluttering.
Hey, I'm Robyn.
Grab your tea and let's go.
(bright music)
Now first I will get to one question
and you need to ask yourself before you even start
and then I will talk to you
about where you should start.
Now for me, when I decluttered my house
it was one of the best things I ever did for my house.
And now I have so much time,
so much relaxation and so much peace.
I want that for you.
Now you need to consider why you have clutter
in the first place.
Now I you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no.
You got to listen to this.
Now, many of us have clutter as a result of a lot of things.
It can go back even to childhood.
There are a lot of reasons.
Maybe you grew up with somebody who didn't let you
have a lot of things.
So you're happy to have a lot of things
or there wasn't a lot of money.
So you couldn't have a lot of things.
Or there was so much.
So you're used to that.
The thing is a lot of people after The Depression
felt like they wanted to just get more
and more things because they had been deprived
for so long and that passed down to different generations.
Another thing is shopping habits.
Shopping habits can be a reason
why a lot of us have a lot of clutter.
We maybe just buy things
without considering where we're going to store them,
if we already have things,
and it's just sort of overall our consumerism
and our habits for those things.
Another thing which I have talked about before
is Swedish death cleaning.
Now this was described by a lady named Margaretta Magnusson
and she describes three instincts as she calls them.
And it is like the clutter instinct.
Basically, you want to have things around you,
you like having things out.
It makes you feel safe.
It makes you feel good.
The second one is the hoarding instinct.
That is basically when you like
to have things just in case.
Those are the people who have things in their drawers
and they love just being sure
that they're ready for anything.
The third one is the fear of death instinct.
That would be mine.
I definitely identify with that one,
because it's basically like your kids are growing up.
You're not happy about it.
Or, you know, you don't want time to change.
You don't yourself want to grow up.
You don't want, and I don't mean like you're immature.
I'm just saying like
you don't want to like go of times past.
So you hold onto things.
This might be one reason why you have things.
So I think it's really important
before you start decluttering
to explore why you even have these things
in the first place.
Because if you don't recognize why you have clutter
and how you continue to get things,
how you're going to actually prevent that
from coming in the future.
Another thing that you need to explore
is how the clutter makes you feel.
Now, I know you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I'm not saying you need to go to a therapist
or that I'm your therapist or anything like that.
Or that you need to, you know
explore how you felt about your second grade teacher
or the mean little kid down the street.
What I am saying is you need to explore
how the clutter is impacting your life.
So does it make you feel stressed out?
Clutter made me feel super stressed out.
I didn't even realize it.
And then I was like, wait a minute.
I can't relax.
That's another thing.
Does clutter me make it so you can't relax?
Do you feel so burdened
by having all of this stuff around you
that you can't sit and put your feet up
because when you get home from a long day
you know that you have piles of things here.
You've got stuff on the stairs
you've got piles in your kitchen
and you just ultimately can't relax
to the degree that you could
if you didn't have that clutter.
Another thing it basically can just make you
feel terrible overall.
Maybe you feel bad about yourself.
I've talked about nuts, the nagging unfinished task.
Those are basically when you walk by something
and over and over in your brain,
your brain is like, you didn't do that.
You didn't do that yet.
And the thing is, we need to get these things
out of the way, because this stress compounds
over time and it makes us feel bad.
And you can't make a big change
without dealing with the absolute foundation
of why you have the clutter in the first place
and how it is making you feel
and how it is impacting your life.
Now, a lot of people want to just start
and rush and start decluttering.
And this was my own problem in my own house.
Once I started decluttering years and years ago
and I was not actually recognizing
why we even had the clutter
and that I needed to change some habits,
I needed to change how I thought about things.
Yeah, I thought I just needed to go through
and get rid of a few things.
Maybe get rid of a few baby things.
And I would sit and be like, oh, you know what?
We need to get rid of this.
We need to get rid of that.
I didn't know that.
Maybe we thought we needed to just buy
more storage furniture and then that will solve our problem.
But the thing is that is never going to solve your problem.
It wasn't until I examined my reasons why I had clutter
in the first place, which would be like the fear of death,
not recognizing that I can't hold onto
all of the baby clothes
and laziness, maybe in some areas,
although it probably is more procrastination
because when you think about doing something
and then you're like, whoa, I'm overwhelmed, nevermind.
And also not shopping smartly,
not thinking where am I going to put that.
You know, that is a really important thing
to consider when you are shopping.
Now that I fully decluttered my house
I really recognize when perhaps I could fall into old habits
and that way I can prevent it and thus prevent the clutter
and continue living in a nice, simple,
reasonable, minimalist house.
Where should you start?
That's a big thing too.
Now I have explained why you should never start
in your kids' room in the past
but where should you start for your own stuff?
Now, what is the one area of your house
that is not completely overwhelming,
but that you can make a great experience
out of decluttering?
So perhaps it is like a small corner
of your dining room or your whole dining room.
And if you start there, you can get that win.
It can be any room in your house.
I don't think it should be your garage,
but hey, it could be.
Maybe that is not like a super huge messy place.
I mean really choose a place that is not super overwhelming.
Once you start experiencing great wins
you can enjoy that clear place
and then you can start expanding your minimizing
and your simplifying.
I can't tell you exactly what room
everybody should start in, but what you should do
is start in a spot that is manageable for you.
So instead of living
in a cluttered and stressful environment
where you continue to exercise the habits
that led to the problem in the first place,
and you decide to declutter
and just get that to come and come again,
you can actually now recognize why you had that clutter
and then prevent it in the future
and love living in your clear home.
Now click this video here for how to get started.
Thank you so much for watching and will see you next time.
Bye.
(gentle music)