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At the start of 2021 I began to journal. Every morning I write down everything that is going through my mind. It can be writing down things I need to remember for the day, things which have made me laugh or cry, something somebody said, a programme I watched on television, a dream I had or sometimes I draw a picture because words don’t always express thoughts properly for me.
My Journals
But what has this got to do with decluttering and organising?
Well, having my home decluttered and organised has lead me to be a calmer, happier, more relaxed person. Journaling has done the same for the inner me. By having a daily commitment to journaling and completely offloading my thoughts into a notebook I can declutter and organise my mind. And mindset is so important when you are hoping to have change in your life which involves commitment of any kind.
Journaling and Decluttering
(Firstly, leave a page at the start of your journal - we’ll come back to this.)
Let's go back to mindset. In your journal you are completely free to write without judgement or embarrassment. It is purely for your eyes and nobody else. So you can be totally honest with yourself, ask yourself questions:
Why have I decided to declutter?
When did I realise that there was too much clutter?
Why have I got all this stuff?
When did this all start?
Just start writing whatever comes into your head, don’t worry about writing sentences and paragraphs and don’t be concerned with punctuation, just get it all out of your head and onto paper.
Then it’s time to look forward.
What do you want your home to feel like?
How do you want your home to look?
What will you feel when you begin to see successes?
What changes will you see in your home and life?
Remember the page you left at the start of your journal? Now is the time to go back to it and write down your goals. What you are going to achieve by decluttering your home. This is your commitment to yourself.
Now you have begun to feel what it will be like to live in a less cluttered environment you are ready to start on your decluttering journey.
The next step in the journaling process is to have a clear idea of where and what you want to declutter.
You can create a room by room plan
You can declutter by category ( clothes, toys, books etc.)
You can declutter according to Marie Kondo
However you decide to proceed, set out a plan of action in your journal.
If you decide to work through your home room by room allocate a page per room and title each page. Then begin to think about how you are going to tackle that room. Depending on how you approach things - you can get very detailed and create a checklist which gives you something to tick off as you proceed and a visual record of how far you have come,
or you could write JUST DO IT! at the top of the page and use the journal to record what you have done as you go along.
If you decide to tackle your decluttering by category, make a list of the different categories you will be decluttering:
Clothes
Books
Toys
Paper work
Gadgets
Music etc.
The same if you decide to use Marie Kondo’s method for your decluttering. You can go online and find countless checklists for decluttering - search for Konmarie Checklist, this is from pinterest:
By creating a decluttering journal you are making a promise to yourself and a commitment to declutter your home. It is then up to you to keep this promise to yourself and plan to spend time on your decluttering journey.
On the Amazon page on my website there are links to some journals I have created. There will soon be a decluttering journal based around some of the suggestions in this blog. At the moment there are a couple of ‘Acheivement’ Journals where you can write down all the little wins you have had over the course of a day from managing to pair a drawer full of socks to finishing a kitchen declutter! Whatever you win at in a day you can write down and get a sense of satisfaction that you are moving forward little by little all the time. There is also a journal with weekly prompts, where you can follow the prompt or just write down whatever your thoughts are for the day. This journal also has space for you to doodle or sketch when words are just not enough!
You can comment below or look at the end of the blog for all the ways you can contact me privately. I love hearing from you with all your ideas and photos of the areas you are working on!!
If you want to delve deeper into finding a system which will work for you, you can contact me via my email lindajharper@yahoo.com or using the chat bubble on my website, I would love to help you!
You can message me on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Linda-J-Harper-Professional-Declutterer-and-Organiser-107805011001601.
I am also on Pinterest and Instagram if you need some inspiration! https://www.pinterest.co.uk/adnilenaj1314/boards/