SquareRooms Issue 181 Mid-Year 2020

3 3 ORGANISATION Step 6: Set a deadline There’s that triumphant, accomplished feeling whenever you finally manage to chuck non-essential possessions out of your home. If you are currently selling something but no buyer is taking the bait by your deadline, donate or discard it. While we have the best intentions down pat, we don’t always have the time to make them happen – and that’s OK. Just go with the next best option and move on! P R O T I P : "Segregating old clothes in specific categories (work pants, leisure pants) instead of heaping them into one big pile makes it easier for you to narrow down which articles to take or toss." Nathalie Ricaud, Get Organised & Beyond founder Step 3: Come up with some ground rules Before you even start touching your belongings, list a series of rules and/or questions specific to the type of objects you’ll be decluttering. Doing so will help you decide which items to take or toss. By setting self-regulations upfront, you separate the decision from the action, making you more detached when going through the physical purge. Step 4: Build your decluttering muscle Unlike Japanese tidying superstar Marie Kondo who advocates discarding “all at once, intensely, and completely”, start slow and small. Launching with items that require easy decisions helps build your decluttering confidence and provides opportunities to learn the benefits of living with less. Otherwise, you’ll likely have decision fatigue and may end up throwing in the towel halfway through the process. Remember: decluttering should be approached as a journey of self- discovery and an essential activity to live an organised life. Step 5: Arrange your disposables in piles When you purge unnecessary possessions, categorise them in multiple stacks instead of the typical two. Be systematic and separate what needs to be donated, given away, recycled, sold, and swapped. Otherwise, you’ll quickly lose track and re-start the process, leading you to doubt your previous decisions. PHOTO BY JEFF SHELDON ON UNSPLASH