7 Tips to Help Clear Your Headspace While You Declutter

Everyone has the urge to declutter every once in a while – especially when your stuff starts piling up, and you suddenly have no choice but to face the music (by music, we mean your stuff). To keep up the momentum and get decluttering over and done with, you need to make sure you declutter your mind first.

Take on too many rooms at once and suddenly you have a whole house full of clutter that’s messier than when you started. It’s easy to get discouraged if you don’t tackle decluttering effectively. Here are a few of our tips to declutter your mind and clear your headspace while you declutter.

Slow Down, Speed Racer 

Just because you suddenly feel capable of decluttering your whole life all at once, doesn’t mean you should. Trying to do it all in one day, if anything, is a recipe for disaster; we wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re immune to burn-out (in which case, mind sharing your secrets)?

Instead, keep your decluttering tasks within reason and your headspace clear, by creating your zones and sticking to them. Decide how long you’re planning on tackling and decluttering each space in your home, and stick to it. 

Have trouble staying focused? Try putting on a podcast or a playlist and keep decluttering without distractions until it’s finished playing. Once you’re done, take a break – by setting specific time aside to declutter, you’ll keep up decluttering momentum and actually want to come back to it the next day, instead of burning yourself out.

Commit to It: Clear Everything Out 

If you really want to declutter your mind, you need to commit to the process. Choose the zone you’re ready to tackle, and clear everything out of that zone. Yes, everything.

To really freshen up your headspace, your best bet is to clear everything out of the zones you’re working in – that could be your pantry in the kitchen, the wardrobe in your bedroom, the desk in your office, whatever space you’re planning on decluttering. 

This way, you put everything back into this space intentionally and keep the stuff you want deliberately, rather than lazily casting it aside (into the back of the wardrobe, where you’ll forget about it until the next time you declutter in however many years’ time). 

Bring in a New Perspective

Feel like you’ve been staring at the same pile of stuff for what feels like an eternity? Still not sure what you want to keep? Sometimes you need to take a step back and make some space for a fresh perspective. 

Finding a new perspective can be as simple as:

• Taking a break from decluttering that zone, to come back later
• Asking a friend to come to lend a hand, and ask their opinion
• Storing your stuff someplace else for a while, until you’re sure what you need and don’t need

Categorise, Categorise, Categorise

If you keep your categories as simple as “keep” and “don’t keep”, decluttering is going to become real overwhelming, real fast. Our suggestion? Be specific to make the whole process easier to navigate: 

• Keep: Anything you need access to at home regularly goes in the keep pile.
• Store: Anything you only reach for not so often or once a year (if that) – you should store. Anything sentimental also falls into this pile.
• Sell: Anything that’s still worth something but you no longer need, you can sell. 
• Donate: Anything you can’t sell, you should donate. Take note of the donation criteria and donation bins for local charities in your area.
• Bin: Anything you’ve loved a little too long? It might be time to say goodbye. 

Save Yourself from Recluttering

So, you’ve sorted everything into piles. You’ve decided what’s going where, what’s staying and what you’re storing. Well done getting this far – it’s no easy feat. But the job’s not done yet (sorry about it). Don’t start putting your feet up just yet.

If you really want to declutter your mind and keep your headspace clear, you need to sort out the next steps before you forget which pile is which and suddenly, you’re surrounded by clutter again:

1. Find a home for stuff you’re keeping
2. Book your TAXIBOX to sort out your storage
3. Start listing items for sale online
4. Drive your donations to drop off, either a donation bin or local charity shop
5. Bin your too-far-gone, much-loved stuff (appropriately and with recycling in mind, of course)

Create a System for Future You 

via GIPHY

If you want to declutter your mind forever – and not just for the two weeks after you decluttered – you need to maintain the clarity and create a clutter-free system you can actually upkeep.

It sounds like a lot of work, but it doesn’t have to be if you keep things realistic, and make small changes:

• Create catch-all bins around your home, for anything that needs a home
• Set up a routine calendar to regularly declutter areas at home
• Establish a decluttering zone at home for anything you’re considering decluttering, which you can come back to when the decluttering-time-of-year comes around

Anything You’re Unsure About – You Can Revisit Later

If there’s anything that will help you declutter your mind and clear your headspace while you declutter, it’s taking your time. Just because you want to get decluttering out of the way doesn’t mean you should make any rash decisions to get things over and done with – your stuff is important, after all!

All you really need to clear your headspace while you declutter your physical space? A little bit of time away from your stuff. By storing anything you’re unsure about, you can really find out whether you need it in your life or not. If you haven’t reached for it or thought about it in weeks, months, or even years whilst it’s in storage, it might be time to say goodbye.

If you’re still having trouble deciding what to keep and what to toss, remember: storing your stuff out of sight in a TAXIBOX keeps it out of mind, giving you the space you need to finally clear your headspace. You can have your TAXIBOX redelivered to your door whenever you’re ready to revisit the process. No rash decisions are neccessary.