If you’re in the habit of decluttering your home frequently, you will know how overwhelming it can sometimes be. There are times when you just want to give up and let your home be. But then you remind yourself about the many benefits of decluttering and push yourself to keep working towards your decluttering goals.
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Decluttering is hard. It’s exhausting. But it isn’t just the tasks that make it difficult for you to declutter your home. There’s a lot more to it that adds up to the challenges you will face along the way. You will struggle to find motivation when your home is drowning in a pile of clutter. And let me tell you that it takes a lot of time, energy and emotional work to cut the clutter in your home especially when you haven’t done it in a while.
But here’s what you need to know. Being fully aware of the challenges you are going to face on your decluttering journey is the first step towards cutting the clutter and making your home liveable. So, if you are a beginner or have been decluttering for a while, make sure that you fully acquaint yourself with these challenges before finding ways to overcome them:
1. Not Having A Goal In Mind
Just like any other task or activity, your decluttering efforts need to be directed towards a goal. You can’t just begin sorting through your stuff without knowing where you are heading to or what your end goals are.
Goals are what keep you focused and help ensure that you stay motivated during the entire decluttering journey. Getting rid of stuff without knowing why you’re doing so can be a big recipe for disaster. Be it the goal of creating a space that is easy to clean and maintain or the one where you wish to make your home safe for your elderly parents, it’s important to be clear about why you are decluttering in order to do it the right way.
2. Unwillingness To Change Certain Behaviours And Habits
If you’re limiting yourself by living in the belief that you are a disorganized person who doesn’t have it in her to keep the home tidy and clutter-free, you are depriving yourself of the benefits of a decluttered space.
Decluttering can also be a huge challenge for you if you identify yourself as an emotional buyer or someone who indulges in impulse buying behaviour. If the emotional highs and lows of your life make you buy stuff that can give you temporary happiness, maybe it’s time to rethink your behaviours and habits.
You may also need to change the mindset that is preventing you from decluttering your home. Are you always complaining that you don’t have time to maintain your home? Do you live with the limiting belief of not being hard-working enough to keep your home clutter-free? If that’s the case, try being more disciplined by making decluttering a necessary part of your routine.
3. Trying To Declutter With ADHD Or Depression
It can be a huge challenge to declutter your home if you are suffering from ADHD or depression. Given that your attention span is comparatively shorter than others, you’ll find yourself feeling burnt out in the middle of the tasks. Know that it’s okay to take small breaks in between and declutter your home little by little even if it takes more time. Don’t try to do too much at once.
For instance, if you are aiming to sift through your pantry, start by decluttering the uppermost shelf first and call it a day. Then go through the next shelf on day 2. Making small progresses is extremely important to stay motivated on your decluttering journey.
4. Not Having Time To Declutter
This is often the biggest challenge faced by people with busy lives. In such a scenario, try making the most of every opportunity you get to declutter your home:
- Go through one of the kitchen cabinets while the kids are napping.
- Got a 10-minute break during the day? Use it to sift through the junk drawer.
- While getting ready in the morning, look through your makeup and skincare and get rid of anything that’s expired, old, broken, contaminated or unloved.
- While the food is getting cooked in the pot, use the downtime to sift through the drawer of utensils and get rid of duplicates and excess items.
5. Keeping Items ‘Just In Case’
If you’re someone who holds on to the stuff because you think you might end up needing it someday, take a step back and think again. Do you really believe that an item that hasn’t been used in the last 3 or 4 years will suddenly become useful tomorrow? The answer is most probably ‘No’.
So, if you have a huge bag of ‘just in case’ items sitting under the bed or in your closet, bring it out and ask yourself the right questions to decide whether to keep or let go of them.
6. Inability To Maintain The Decluttered Spaces
Many people think of decluttering as an act that isn’t required to be done more than once or twice a year. And when their home goes back to being messy and untidy in a few days, they feel defeated for having wasted their time decluttering it earlier.
While it’s okay to declutter your home once in a few months, it will need to undergo regular maintenance. You can’t just declutter it once and be done with it. Clutter keeps coming back in the form of new clothes, medicines, food items and a lot of other stuff. You need to make sure that you’re regularly working to clear out the clutter that keeps coming into your home.
Now that you know about the many challenges you might face while pruning down your home of unwanted items, you will find it easier to work through them and keep making little progresses towards your decluttering goals.
What other challenges do you face while decluttering your home? Feel free to drop a comment below or write me at hello@theaestheticabode.com. I would love to add your views to this post.