{"id":211,"date":"2015-04-10T04:11:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T04:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.themevan.com\/miao\/?p=211"},"modified":"2015-04-10T04:11:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T04:11:32","slug":"pare-down-with-the-declutter-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/2015\/04\/10\/pare-down-with-the-declutter-habit\/","title":{"rendered":"Pare Down with the Declutter Habit"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a fact of life that without constant vigilance, clutter creeps up in our lives, accumulating into piles and closets and drawers and shelves so that it can overwhelm us.<\/p>\n

One of the best things I\u2019ve done is simplify my life and pare down the clutter.<\/p>\n

How do you pare down when you\u2019re overwhelmed by the piles? Where do you start?<\/p>\n

As with anything, you should start small, and start simply.<\/p>\n

Just pick one spot. Spend 10 minutes. Make a dent in the piles.<\/p>\n

And one spot at a time, one day at a time, create a zone of zero clutter that expands to cover your entire life.<\/p>\n

Create the declutter habit, and your life will gradually become simpler.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how to do it:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create space<\/strong>. The declutter habit doesn\u2019t need to take up a lot of space in your day \u2014 you don\u2019t need to devote an hour to it \u2014 but you still need to make the space. Just 10 minutes a day, but when will you do it? In the morning? After work? Midday? Pick a time, block off 10 minutes a day, and commit to doing that daily.<\/li>\n
  2. Pick a spot<\/strong>. Now just pick a small flat space in your home or workspace. A part of your countertop, a tabletop, a shelf, part of a closet floor, part of your living room floor, part of your desk\u2019s surface, a drawer. It doesn\u2019t matter where you start, just pick something.<\/li>\n
  3. Pile it up<\/strong>. Clear everything off the small, flat surface, and put it in a pile. This pile is like your to-do list \u2014 you\u2019re going to work through things one at a time until you\u2019ve finished the pile. Work by picking one item off the top of the pile \u2014 no skipping items!<\/li>\n
  4. Decide one thing at a time<\/strong>. Pick off one item, and decide whether you really love and use it. Have you used it in the last year? Is it incredibly important to you? If not, get it out of your life! Give it to someone else, or a charity, or sell it. Put it in a box for that purpose. The keep pile should be small. Make quick decisions, and move on to the next item.<\/li>\n
  5. Create homes<\/strong>. Take everything in the keep pile and create a home for each item \u2014 a place where the item will go from now on. Designate that spot carefully in your mind, and tell everyone else where that home is, so they know. Now always put that item in that home, always, so you never lose it. If it\u2019s important enough to be in your life, it\u2019s important enough to have a home. Note that you can find a home for items elsewhere \u2014 it doesn\u2019t have to be the space where you\u2019re decluttering.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Your new space should be pretty clear, with just a few keep items in their homes. Isn\u2019t it lovely! Celebrate this wonderful little oasis in your life, this reward for 10 minutes of deciding what\u2019s important.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s what decluttering is: taking time to decide what\u2019s important enough to remain in your life. It\u2019s not about getting rid of everything, or emptying your life completely. It\u2019s about figuring out what matters to you. And then getting rid of what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It\u2019s a fact of life that without constant vigilance, clutter creeps up in our lives, accumulating into piles and closets and drawers and shelves so that it can overwhelm us. One of the best things I\u2019ve done is simplify my life and pare down the clutter. How do you pare down when you\u2019re overwhelmed by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.focuxtheme.com\/miao\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}