Declutter Your Home for a Happier Life

How many of you have ever thought to declutter your home for a healthier, happier life? One of the benefits to being a health coach is that I often coach clients through issues that resonate in my own life. Most recently I had a client discuss how her material possessions were a source of stress and this happened to be the the exact issue that I’ve been struggling with for months. She returned from a relaxing vacation with the epiphany that her life is less complicated and stressful when she has fewer possessions to manage. She saw how vacation forced her to travel with the bare essentials, which somehow made life easier.

The benefits to declutter your home was also apparent when my father hit the road with his camper trailer a few years ago. He decided which items were absolutely essential, packed those items into his house-on-wheels and went out to discover what life had to offer. He left behind a 4 bedroom house on 10-acres with a 2-story barn and garden shed. I should note that each of these structures is packed full of stuff. While living in this home he spent his time caring for the yard, his material goods, routine upkeep and cleaning. When he left this home behind, he also left all of that responsibility. H now spends his valuable time doing things like riding his bike, swimming, playing music and just sitting by the pool.

My Own Clutter

I too dealt with the material goods struggle after we moved from our spacious house in VT. We moved into a much smaller home in NC. I found that I was spending a great deal of time managing our things; every material possession needed to be tightly crammed into its exact location to avoid complete chaos and disorder. My clothes barely fit in the closet and the kids toys were overflowing into baskets and corners all over the house. Even more annoying was the fact that my kitchen gadgets were crammed into nooks so hidden that I couldn’t even reach the darn things without first engaging in a 5-minute ordeal that involves a step ladder and possibly the reach of a much taller person. My house was a constant mess and I was spending an incredible amount of time each day trying to manage it.

The Realization

I kept trying to come up with a system to manage all of the clutter, but it just wasn’t happening. So, I gave up, stopped cleaning and decided to just live with the mess. But at some point I had a realization that the problem wasn’t that I needed to be cleaning more or less, the problem was that we clearly had too much stuff. WAY too much stuff! I asked myself,

“What do you gain from owning all of these things? What happiness do you find in your material possessions? If you didn’t own all of these things, what would you be spending your time doing instead?”

And do you know what I realized? Not only were these materials goods not bringing a single drop of joy, but they were actually causing me to be unhappy and dissatisfied with life. The frustration of trying to cram all of my clothes into an overflowing drawer is a frustration that I just don’t want in my life. I didn’t want to spend my time managing my junk. What I’d prefer is to be working in the garden or going for walks with the kids. I really don’t care about having a clean house, but I do care that there’s unnecessary stuff EVERYWHERE! And quite frankly, this stuff is taking up valuable time and attention.

Time Management

I’m slowly realizing that there’s a finite amount of time in each day and it never seems to be quite enough. Parenting a daughter with cystic fibrosis and a son with food allergies automatically means that I have a bit more on my plate than most parents. This also means that I have slightly less time in a day. The time that I do have could be spent cleaning up toys or putting away laundry. Or it’s time that could be spent doing something more fulfilling like enjoying my children while they’re young.

With my daughter’s 1st birthday approaching I can’t help but feel a sense of sadness to watch her grow older. We’ve been extremely lucky with her disease in that she’s been extremely healthy, but I know that it might not always be like this for her. Cystic fibrosis is a progressive disease that will become more difficult to manage as she grows older. But I also believe that some of what has kept (and will continue to keep) her so healthy has been my investment of time, time that I choose to spend doing things other than taking care of my material possessions.

Choose Your Battles

The truth is that we make time for the things that matter most…. My bathroom needs to be cleaned. There’s a massive pile of legos on the living room floor. I stopped folding clothes months ago and just pile them on the spare bed in my daughter’s room. Mopping? What’s that? The windows and furniture are covered in sticky finger smears. My car is an embarrassment. But on the flip side, we just spent the weekend camping, hiking and biking together as a family. I haven’t had to buy vegetables in weeks, because my garden is rocking this year. My fridge full of nutritious meals for the whole family. I consistently make time for my daughter’s daily therapy and supplements. Exercise happens on a fairly regular basis.

Knowing that there’s only so much time in a day, I’m picking and choosing my battles. And I don’t want to choose between organizing my unwanted material possessions and going for a walk with the kids. I’m constantly getting rid of possessions. I’m making time for myself and my family. And this means letting go of the things that don’t bring us health and joy.