To Grasp the Passage of Time Ago a Year’s Procrastination

In our last post, we discussed the common excuses people use to justify their disorganization at home or at work. We also learned that in order to seize control of clutter, we have to be willing to let go of our old beliefs and habits. This opens the way to make real progress with getting organized. How do chronic clutter and disorganization cause stress? Consider these common ways that chronic disorganization can lead to chronic stress. The more you see clutter, the more your mind reacts to it, whether you like it or not.

You can ignore clutter as much as you want, but below your mind’s surface, your subconscious mind is working overtime to find solutions to the clutter. Unfortunately, without conscious guidance, your subconscious cannot create concrete and practical solutions. Remember, your conscious mind gives instructions to your subconscious mind.

A cluttered environment is difficult to manage and navigate. You will have to spend double or triple the normal time just trying to find the things you need.

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Often, people look for things when they are urgently needed, so the stress increases even more. There will be situations where you won’t be able to find the things you need because of all the clutter. So you'll spend a lot of time searching for stuff buried under the clutter and at the end of the day, your efforts will yield nothing. This is the harsh reality of disorganization that we have to accept in order to motivate ourselves to finally get organized.

Clutter can easily consume your living space to the point that you will only have a small nook left to move about. If you don’t believe me, trying watching shows like “Hoarders” to see some extreme examples of how the problems of disorganization can conflate: People get threatened with eviction by landlords and housing councils if they don’t clean up the messes in their homes.

If your home is chronically cluttered, you may feel embarrassed about the situation and this may lead to ignoring requests of friends to come over. You may be limited to meeting friends in restaurants and other outdoor locations, which may not always be the most convenient option for all parties concerned. How can you motivate yourself to become more organized? Getting the right type of motivation can be hard, especially if you’re “going solo” and your support network is very small. Don’t worry – you can still do it! Here are some ways that you can motivate yourself to finally clean up your clutter at home or at work. Did you know procrastination is the number one enemy of would-be clutter warriors? It’s very easy to say you’ll do something tomorrow, a week from now or 2 months from now. The human mind cannot fully grasp the passage of time so a year’s worth of procrastination may feel like a week.

You will have a much higher success rate if you set a specific day and hour for your first de-cluttering effort. Do everything to remind yourself to clean up on the appointed day, even to the extent of canceling other appointments. This is one of the fastest and most practical ways to get motivated. Invite some friends over for dinner or a movie night so your mind can finally relinquish its inhibitions about getting organized. Be sure to invite friends that you secretly want approval from, so you will become really motivated to take action. It sounds silly at the outset, but trust me, the most brilliant ways to get rid of clutter come out when you’re having some great friends over.

This is extremely important for long-term management of clutter. Some people are averse to the idea of having clutter anywhere, as the successful executive businessman I described in the first of our series. Yet some people are oblivious to disorganization. If you’re feeling stressed about the clutter at home or in the office, it means the clutter has exceeded your tolerance level. You need to identify your tolerance level and use it as a benchmark for staying organized. If you start feeling stressed about the clutter, you have to do something immediately to relieve that stress. What you do is clean up, sort, and organize. This is the only way you will be able to remove this major stressor for good. Don’t worry – you will soon develop practical routines for getting clutter out of the way! Join us in the last of our three-part series,