I’ve been decluttering wrong my entire life
At least four times a year, ushered on by a change in season, I set about decluttering my home. The scene might feel familiar to you. I go room-by-room with a cardboard box and black bin bag, throwing in things that I no longer need (and perhaps never needed). I donate or discard items that I have multiples of, that I regret buying, or that are broken.
So far, so good.
This decluttering mission normally goes on for a few days and ends when I have enough boxes and bags to fill the boot of my car.
Seeing all this excess leave my house gives me a huge sense of pride and progress. And for a few days, I feel the benefits. The house seems more spacious, and my life feels lighter.
But the benefits inevitably wear off.
The house once again becomes messy, and difficult to maintain.
So where do I go wrong?
My intentions with decluttering are great. My mistake is that I don’t think further than ‘getting rid of stuff’ and ‘freeing up space’. I forget to ask myself why I want to own less stuff. I forget to consider what I want my life to look like, and how owning less stuff will facilitate that. And because I neglect to ask myself these deeper questions, my decluttering efforts don’t go far enough.
Cambridge Dictionary says that to declutter is to 'remove things you do not need from a place, to make it more pleasant and more useful'. This is good to know. At least I've been using the term correctly. But I definitely haven’t been applying it to its full potential.
Decluttering shouldn't end when I've filled a satisfying number of boxes and bags. Decluttering should be a means to a more satisfying life.