What prevents you from maintaining cleanliness and order in the house and how can you fight it?
We write a lot about the fact that external order promotes inner peace and productivity. Even making the bed in the morning can be your step to success! In this article we will discuss the thoughts which prevent us from maintaining cleanliness at home and in the office and the ways how to deal with them.
1. It is necessary to keep everything in order
No! DO NOT start bringing everything to order right now. That’s what we have in mind when we talk about this point: for example, your wardrobe won’t close because the clothes are stuffed in there; your desk is piled with papers, and the kitchen shelves are full of dishes. You want to “restore order,” i.e. you want to neatly put everything on the shelves, place everything in containers and vacuum bags after brushing the dust from every item. Hey! Stop!
To begin with, get rid of lumber. If you are running out of space trying to locate all things, if you find it hard to constantly maintain everything in a neat form, then it is time to get rid of everything you find excessive.
2. The order must be perfect
It is surely nice when all the things in the house or office are easy to find because they are “on the second shelf from the top” rather than “somewhere in the wardrobe, I guess.” However, do not make order the meaning of your life. You will find it too hard. You will get tired or just develop a maniacal passion for order that will drive you and your nearest crazy. Arranging books and CDs in the alphabetical order and hanging clothes according to their color… perhaps this is a little maddening.
3. I need a lot of different containers to store my things with convenience
As it was said in point 1, if you get rid of unnecessary lumber, you will not need a million boxes.
4. I need to look for a perfect person to give my stuff to
The best way to get rid of the things that can still be used despite your finding them unnecessary is to give them to someone in need. But having collected several bags, each of which is strictly intended for a definite person (one of them may be for a childhood friend who now lives in another city, another one is for your grandmother living in a village), you run the risk of getting into the same trap once again. The bags will multiply endlessly waiting for the moment when you finally have the time to send or take them to their destination. If you have decided to give the things away, give them to those who will be able to take them here and now.
5. I cannot get rid of this thing as it might come in handy very soon
How many cups do you have for each family member? And how many shoe boxes are waiting for the hour when they will finally be useful to you? To make it easier to part with the things, think about it this way: “All these things will be kept in a store. When I need them suddenly (if I need them), I will go and take them.”
6. Yes, it can still be fixed, and I will do it!
Let’s face it. If you have not fixed a broken item during six months, then you may not need this thing or you just cannot repair it.
7. It is necessary to think of how to keep using this thing
Again, let us not lie to ourselves. If we have spent six months trying to figure out how we can use a certain thing, it is unlikely that we come up with a solution.
8. I will lose weight and then I will get into those jeans
If you lose weight, you’ll want to buy new clothes instead of wearing the jeans you had seven years ago.
9. These things remind us of happy moments
Yes, it’s important to keep the things that remind us of the happy time. They give us happiness in the present. But think if you really need all the T-shirts where your friends wrote something with a marker. Do you need all of those notebooks with wishes? Maybe, you can leave just a couple of drawings created by your baby’s little fingers instead of keeping a hundred of them? Carefully selected memories will be even more valuable, and the most important thing is that your home will not become a warehouse of the things from the past.
10. This souvenir should be preserved because the person who gave it can pay a visit and he/she will be upset not seeing the gift
Can this person really visit you? And what is the likelihood that he/she will remember about the gift? Will he/she be upset that much if he/she does not see the present on the most important shelf?
11. I have an empty shelf. Why should I keep it that way? I’d better put something there
Oh, imagine what a blessing it is to have at least one empty shelf in your home or office. Yes, you will breathe easier! Resist the urge to put anything there.
Could you share with us the thoughts that prevent you from parting with your things and keeping the house clean?
