Be more productive: Declutter and Set Intentions

What do you feel if you see the interior of your place? When you sit down in your home and look around, is that what you look at energising, inspiring or calming you? Or does inspire you to procrastinate? In this post I will explain why you should declutter and set intentions to become more productive.

In this article you find a quick way of getting more intentional. If you want to dig a bit deeper and set intentions for the rest of your life I suggest to read my article ‘Don’t waste your life’. If you just strive to get a bit more productive in one area of your life, you are reading the right article at the moment.

Everything you see in your place can trigger a thought

The items you see trigger something. They make you think. And what you think has a consequences in how you act. Here are some examples. Do any of those apply to you?

The items I see in my place remind me of what I:

• could be doing now
• you should be doing soon
• could start now instead of the other more important task which is less fun or makes me tired or stressed only thinking of it
• rather do now instead of the job I should do
• should do before I do this more fun thing

Clutter destroys calm and productivity

‘Working hard is good.’

I have learned somewhere in my life that working hard is more important than doing fun things. First work, than fun. You are a good person when you work hard. I believed in that too much. This believe made me experience a cluttered place as a place where you have excellent opportunities to work on being a good girl.

Me in a cluttered place

This is what happens to me in a cluttered place: I want to do something fun like walk, paint, read but I will always get distracted by something that seems more ‘important’ : a clean house, a tidy cupboard. But my mind can always find more work to do. Consequently I am in danger of spending my whole life working ( tidying up/cleaning/..). As that is not what I decided to be the most important activities I want to do in my life.

The most important in my life is not having a clean and tidy home. It will not give me the most fulfilling life. This way I would end up feeling empty, disappointed, tired and unhappy. When I set my intentions for my life I decided that creating ( art, writing, gardening) was important. Being in nature. Health. And more.

Decluttering as a requirement for calm and productivity

Having a tidy and clean home was for me the way to get there. A requirement to make my life intentional. I had to tidy up otherwise I would never do what I intended, really wanted, to do with my spare time. Conclusion:

Be more productive: Declutter and Set Intentions.

1 Declutter to get calm and productive.

2 Set intentions and stay focussed on your intentions.

1 Declutter

Is your clutter ordering you around?

Consider the following questions to find out a bit more about how you chose your activities, and what your home has to do with it.

Reflect on your decision making

Think about how everything that there is in your home /office influences your decisions. Does the interior of your space:

• Cause you to procrastinate ?
• Set you up do tasks you know are not the most important in this moment?
• Make you do tasks that will not be important in 5 years time. ( Will you regret not having done those tasks in 5 years time?)
• Do you always/often start doing something different than you were supposed to do?
• Do you always pick up a task when you had planned to just rest and relax?
• Does seeing your homes interior clutter keep your mind busy non-stop?

I used to say yes to all of those questions. Except I would not regret not having done this vacuum clean in 5 years time. (Click here if you want to read tips on how to stop procrastinating)

Distractions

When I see something it activates my mind easily. I get distracted by stuff I see from what I am supposed to do. My thoughts go like ‘I should do this with that’ : I have to read that book, I should finish that project.

Distractions result in procrastination

As a result will choose to do things that will not make me feel content afterwards as I would not finish anything. I would do lots of little bits here and there, without a visible result. Therefore end up feeling unproductive and unsatisfied at the end of the day.

Instead of relaxing with my book (or craft, paint, bake, write) I would be cleaning something.

I did not do what I wanted to do. Painting was my chosen priority. But this intention got lost in the clutter.

Declutter to get calm and productive

That is why I started to declutter. (Click here if you want to start decluttering, or here if you want to learn more about decluttering.)

I finally had figured out that I was ‘wasting’ my time on activities that were not fulfilling. (Mostly cleaning )I had to find out what was important to me, set my priorities and act as they were my priorities.

Later more about how you can become more intentional. First an example of how I was not able to focus on my intention:

A chaotic art studio

Not getting started

Whenever I wanted to paint, I could not get myself started as there was always something that needed to be cleaned or moved or tidied away, or do something else with it. At the end of my days I had no idea what I had been doing and did not feel I had achieved much at all. But I was tired at the end of the day of doing random things and having chaotic thoughts during the day. That was not a fulfilling way of spending my free time.

The intention was there ( I wanted to spend time painting) but I did not stick to it.

Declutter to get calm and productive

I started to see the cause in the clutter and that is why I started decluttering. Clutter distracts me from what I find important in my life, it makes my mind busy, it makes me procrastinate.

Organise your home in such a way that you see things that remind you of what is most important to you. What is less important you move out of sight.

To be more productive you will have to declutter and set intentions.

To be focussed on what you find important you need to be less distracted by what is not important, such as all the stuff in your home. Having less stuff visible around makes it easier to focus and be productive because your mind is calm. Your mind can then think about what you decided you find important: your personal intentions.

2 Set your intentions

I did not want to spend my time at home to see a stack of stuff I wanted to read, a corner of little things covered with cobwebs and floors desperately needing a clean. My intention was painting that day.

How to set your intentions

How to decide what you find important in your life. In this article you find a quick way of getting more intentional. If you want to dig a bit deeper and set intentions for the rest of your life I suggest to read my article ‘Don’t waste your life’.

What do you want to use your precious time for?

A craft project you started but didn’t work on for a while? Reading one book a week? Is it trying new recipes? What would make you feel good at the end of the day? What do you dream of spending your free time on? Is there a bigger goal you want to reach in your life, maybe in a year of five? You want to do more exercise? See friends more often? Play with the kids? Set priorities.

What do you want?

Maybe you are just living day by day trying to keep up running around to try and keep up with life. You might not find it so easy to find out what you find important in your personal life. Because you are probably used to just do what is needed. Without thinking about what you personally need, and personally want.

Have a good think about what you want and need. Because if you do not know what you need and want, how are you going to get what you need or want? You have to be able to imagine before you can create…

Some ideas to think about to get you started:

• What small changes would make you enjoy your free time more? Read a chapter a day? Journal ten minutes a day? If you have no idea start small to try out different activities to find out what makes you feel fulfilled and happy.

• What is absolutely needed?

• What do you wish you spend more time on?

• Relax and listen to music?

• Learn something new? Learn about how to fix your bike? About cooking? A language?

• It also can be something outside your home. Going for a run, spend an hour in a gallery, plant flowers.

• Do you need a challenge, a project to focus on?

• What would you like to get better at?

Focus on your intentions

Increase your awareness of what you spend your time on. Focus on what you decide is most important to you and spend less time on the rest. E.g. spend more time on reading, less time on cleaning. Or half an hour more cleaning, watch half an hour less series.

Decluttering as your intention

If spending less time on cleaning is one of your goals, you will find out that decluttering our house will decrease your cleaning time. An empty bench top is a lot quicker to clean than having to lift and move things to be able to clean it. In this case decluttering might be your prioritised intention. Declutter and become more productive.

See and remember your intention

Have whatever reminds you of your intentions you prioritised for the day in clear sight, e.g. the sewing project, the watering can for your new vegetable garden. Remove anything distracting out of sight. What you see makes you think. What you thinks makes you do.

Personalise

Not everybody thrives in a clutter free environment. You might thrive in a very stimulating loud and colourful environment to be able to get inspired to get yourself to do what you find important in your life. Personalise it to whatever are your and your housemates needs. You might need to compromise, some spaces can be busy while other spaces are kept quiet and minimal looking.

Steps to become intentional

Step 1 Choose the important areas

Find out what you find most important. What areas in your life are making up your life? ( friends, work, family, health, self development, learning, traveling,….)

Step 2 Choose goals for each area

For example, when you chose ‘friends as the important area: Call X every month, ask P out for dinner, invite D for coffee)

Step 3 Set the most important achievable goal for the day in the morning

For example: Call my friend X.

Another example:

• Choose important area: Sustainability
• Goals for this area: stop using single use plastic, start composting, learn about circular economy
• Today’s goal: get a reusable cup and a spork and keep them in my handbag.

Be more productive: Declutter and Set Intentions

Maintenance; daily, weekly and ongoing

Every day

Set your goal for the day

• Decide in the morning what goal you are working on today.

Every week:

Review area and goals

• Reflect on how you did. Check on how you have been working on your goals once a week at a set day, for example Sunday night.
• Is your area still the most important area to focus on?
• Decide what you would like to achieve next week. What is going to be your goal next week.

Ongoing

Declutter to stay calm and productive

• Declutter your environment/space, to get more calm, focussed and productive.

The more stimuli around you the more reasons your mind finds to procrastinate the activity you should do, you decided to finish or start today.

Over time you will spend less time on decluttering and more on your intentional, most important activities. Maybe spending more time relaxing on your sofa? Or finally doing up that piece of furniture?

Declutter your place

Organise your house in such a way that a daily 10 minutes tidy up is all you need to have tidy house for the rest of your life. Declutter your place.

Do you feel like you are always having to tidy up when you are at home, or at least always noticing that you should tidy up? That is not necessary. How to spend less time tidying up your home?

Why is my place always cluttered?

Why is there always stuff spread out everywhere? How come that things are seemingly always ending up on the table, on the kitchen bench? I recognised three possible reasons. An untidy home develops because:

• Household members are not putting their items back to where they belong after using them.
• Maybe there is no place where the things belong (you might want to read ‘ How to never search for anything again’)
• There is too much stuff in the house.

The more things you have, the more time you have to spend to keep it tidy and organised

Declutter your place

Everything you own will take in a place in your home. All items need to be found, to be cleaned, to be put away. The less items you have the less time you will be wasting on searching, maintaining, lifting up when cleaning. Besides that you will do less thinking about all your stuff. If you want it to be easy to have a tidy house, your first goal should be to own less stuff.

By having less, you will gain time and space.

To spend less time tidying up your home you need to declutter your place:

– Get rid of things

(Read more about how to declutter )

– Buy less

(Read tips about how to buy less)

Where to start decluttering my place?

Here is how you can work towards having less stuff in your home. Start with finding out what you have, then decide on what is ‘too much’. Sound easy! But, where to start?

First sort all you have in categories. (See my post How to never search for anything again)

When I took this important step of sorting all my belongings I found out that we had 5 nailclippers between us two. Double the amount of shoes I thought I had. I had so many books that I would never read again. Also, I found things that were gifted to me but that I already had and were now ‘doubles’ or gifts that I did not enjoy using or looking at.

What things should I get rid of?

It is not easy to decide what things you can let go but if you set a few ‘rules’ it will be less draining to make all those decisions. The things you never use are the obvious. Or the things you even forgot you had. Here is a guide line to follow for your first declutter round get rid of everything you do not need or do not want:

Declutter my place – Round 1

Guide for the first declutter round:

Things you do not need or you do not want are things you:

• Have doubles off

• Do not use (e.g. wrong size, no interest, broken, projects I don’t want to finish, no time)

• Do not like ( not my style, not handy, not my taste, bad memories attached)
• The items you forgot you had.

Those are the things you can give away, sell, or repair and use again.

How to get and keep motivated to declutter?

Different people need different ways of motivating themselves to start or to keep tidying up their homes from the clutter. You might stick to your task by promising yourself a reward when finished, food, a rest, read a book, go outside… For many people it helps to formulate the task as a challenge. I will suggest some challenges to start you decluttering.

Choose the challenge you find the most fun. Especially if you have lot of clutter it will be useful to take on the second challenge to keep decluttering, and continue refining your home organisation.

By telling others about your challenge you are more likely to follow up. It is fun to document and share your successes, maybe take pictures and share with your friends or keep them to yourself to remind you of your own success.

If you have less stuff you will gain time you can use for other activities you love to do. How about a moment of rest with a cup of tea?

Declutter your place – Challenge 1

Add to the box.

• Get a big box and everyday you choose at least one item to get rid of, and put it in the box.

• If you like a bigger challenge you find one item the first day, 2 the second 3 the next etc.. Till you can’t find anything to distance from any more.

 If you now take on Challenge Two you might be surprised how may more things you are going to find that you do not love nor need.

Declutter your place – Challenge 2

Refine your categories.

• Find two items per category per day you do not need or not want.

If you would like to try other challenges that keep you going click here.

Example – Declutter Shoes

For example the category shoes. What shoes do you wear regularly? Those are definite keepers.

What shoes have you not been wearing regularly? Which of those:

• you only wear for special occasions– keep.

• you don’t wear because you don’t like them ( out of fashion, not your taste, bad memories attached)- give away ( thrift shop/ friend etc.) or sell.

• are broken or worn of too much to wear? Repair, recycle or as a last resort throw out.

• don’t go with anything you have in your wardrobe but are still in good shape? Give to thrift shop/op shop/ second hand shop.

Example – Declutter Wardrobe

Most people end up wearing the favorite few items very often and use the other less favorite items only sometimes, seldom or never.

Start with getting rid of the ‘seldom or never’ items. If you do a good job in selecting all your favorites you will end up with a wardrobe filled with favourite outfits. Everything you love. And only what you love.

I had a sports-top I loved but seldom wore. About once a year I would decide to wear it, and find out it was just a little too short for my liking. As a result I would wash it, put it back in the wardrobe and a year later the process repeated. I had some good memories of wearing the top, it made me feel good seeing it. But not wearing it. I brought it to the second hand shop and never missed it. Figure out why you are not wearing that item.

Many t-shirts that I destined for getting sweaty in, I kept for years and years. But I never wore them. Giving it another thought I realised it was because they were all too tight, I didn’t like the neck-line, or I didn’t like the fabric. Consequently I only have a dozen orso rightly sized t-shirts that I love wearing.

How many sports tops did I need? Clearly not this many. I decided two different sports outfits were enough for the few times I worked out during the week. I choose my favorites and the rest I gave away. Enough variety for the few classes I go to. Have a good think about how many varieties of outfit for each sort of activity you need. (Read this post if you want to learn how to do this.)

Be sustainable when decluttering

Do not give stuff away or send stuff to the landfill to just give yourself a reason to go shopping again! Astonishing numbers of clothing end up in the landfill unfortunately.

If you are not sure wether you might going to regret parting with certain items, keep it in a ‘give away box’ or bag. Then wait a few months. Do you after those months still feel like you don’t need it or want it. You have not missed it? Then you can now get rid of it. 

No mess ever again

Things to remember to keep you house tidy in less time for the rest of your life:

To maintain your organised home:

• Buy less by buying only what you need. (Tips on buying less)

• Review regularly how much and what you have and compare to what you need.

• Keep things organised at their one specific place. (Post about how to keep your place organised forever)

How to keep your wardrobe organised

How to know in one look what excactly you have in your wardrobe. Keep your wardrobe small and organised so you know exactly what you have in a glance. How can you keep your wardrobe organised?

What you can’t see you won’t wear

In my former post you can read how I organised my wardrobe in such a way that I can get dressed quickly without stress. Marie Kondo ( The life-changing magic of tidying up) helped me to get rid of many many clothing items. She shares ideas on how to make choices about what to keep and what to get rid of. And how to get it all in your wardrobe in such a way you can see what you have. Because it is true. You do not wear what you can’t see. You just forget that you have it.

If you want to declutter your wardrobe, or you wonder why you should, read my post ‘Dress without stress in 6 steps’.

When you have less, you want the best

Minimal wardrobe

I got inspired via Pinterest by the minimal wardrobe philosofy and learned about how to dress with less clothes, styling etc. When you have less clothes you want even more that they suit your bodyshape and colours suit your skin. As you want enjoy wearing everything you have.(Links)

(A small wardrobe is often called a ‘minimal wardrobe’, wherein the size totally depends on your personal definition of what you find minimal.)

Learning about what suits you best

I mean learning about your own wardrobe and its possibilities for you. I have had so much fun sharing and trialing this newly learned skills with friends. We had sessions at each others homes to try to find new combinations of items, get honest feedback about pieces we were not sure about, make decisions about what could go and what could stay in our closet. We took pictures of new combinations to remember them.

Even though I am not a fashionista, I surely enjoyed this proces of finding out what suits different body shapes and hair and skin types, and trying these theories out on each other.

Reorganising your wardrobe

After such a session you will be able to choose what items you are going to wear and thus want to have in your wardrobe for this season. The rest can go in a box or bin, stored for when you want to refresh your wardrobe.

Read the post ‘Dress without stress’ about ‘Declutter your wardrobe of what you do not need or want’.

Keep your wardrobe organised

You probably already have decluttered your wardrobe. Now it needs maintenance.

Review your wardrobe

Main points to remember when you adjust/review your wardrobe during the season.

1

Have only what you wear in your wardrobe. Every extra item in your closet, even those items you do hardly ever choose to wear, makes it harder to focus on your favorites. By taking those not so popular items out you make it easier to see in a glance everything you have (=want) to choose from. You can still take them out of a storage bin for that special occasion. Put the hardly worn/ not worn clothing items in storage.

2

Sort all items back into their categories. You know what happens when you are in a rush putting the laundry away…Time to fix that now.

3

All items should be visible. Make sure you can see everything you have without moving something. No double stacks.

If you still can not see everything you might have to declutter a bit more.

You can use shoeboxes and their lids to make dividers. Or any box/container/basket you already own, to separate socks, underwear, scarves, bra’s. I personally am a fan of Marie Kondo’s folding techniques. Look it up on U-tube or Pinterest.

Now you choose: declutter your wardrobe or review your already decluttered wardrobe and check point 1,2 and 3 above.

How many pieces do you need in your wardrobe?

How many pieces make an easy to use and interesting enough wardrobe? That depends on: what you need, your lifestyle, and personal preferences.

What happens in your life? Do you need special work clothes? Are you a party beast, love chique dinners, doing lots of sports? Those individual circumstances will guide you into how many pieces you need in your wardrobe.

Is your wardrobe for others or for yourself?

Do you dress for yourself or for others? Do you know that most people do not notice if you wear the same every day? There are lots of examples e.g. Steven jobs, and some fun blogs (example) about people that experimented with wearing the same for 3 weeks. Or a whole year! : The Uniform project. They all concluded that wearing the same uniform every day creates more time to think about other topics. And nobody has ever commented on them wearing the same. Nor did anybody actually notice that they were wearing the same over and over ( they asked). So, knowing this you can start wearing the same clothes more often without people noticing. It will make it easier to get dressed.

Dress in what you like to wear, everyday. Wear the same comfortable clothes over and over. Do not waste hours of thinking about what to wear every week. Stop worrying about what others think about your dressing as they do not really care as much as you might think.

Wardrobe in suitcase size

Maybe you are that person who packs his suitcase for a trip and only uses the top layer for the whole time while away? You probably do it in more extreme proportions with your wardrobe at your home. Have a lot, but usually wear the same personal favorites.

Even I, a minimalist packer wear only my few favourites. There are always at least two pieces unworn at the end of the trip.

How to decide on how many pieces you need in your wardrobe?

Find your personal ideal number

This is different for everybody. Some do with 33 items ( link), other 20 or 60. I just do with what suits me, not a certain number. In spring and autumn I need more items as the weather can be cold, wet or warm and I need to be prepared for every weather condition. This results in me using about 60 items in my wardrobe that I change from season to season. Anything I do not expect or decided not to wear I store in plastic bins. ( The number 60 is not counting shoes, accessories, underwear). At the beginning of every season I create my wardrobe from all I have in my finished season wardrobe plus what is in my storage bins.

Where to start? 

Find out what your needs are. How many pieces do you need in your wardrobe? You can print and fill out the work sheet below.

• Write down all situations you dress for: work, leisure at home, out for dinner, sports,etc.

• Then attach a number to each situation, how many days a week/4 weeks do you dress for these situations (categories)?

Example:

Work 5/20

Leisure at home 7/28

Out for dinner 0/2 (in a month)

Sports 2/8

• Now you can think about how many different outfits do you need to be satisfied. Keep in mind that it is about you, as others do not really care or notice!

What is an outfit

If you have two pair of pants with three shirts you can make three outfits with each pair of pants ( if they combine well together). You will have six combination with those 5 items (2 pants, 3 shirts). Six outfits.

Example: How to choose the number of outfits

Decide on number of outfits you need per category. Here is my example of a few years back:

Work; dress 20 times in 4 weeks, I want to have 6 different outfits to choose from.

Leisure at home; because I like variety I want a few options. In my case five different outfits is enough. I just want these outfits to be comfy and not too precious so I can cook and garden in them. I imagine myself changing into my ‘home outfit’ after work, and that might be the same outfit for three days in a row. In the weekend I like 2 different outfits, hence 5 should do me to get the variety I like. 

Dress up: I also would like to have a few nicer outfits for going to the movies/ party for example but different from my workclothes. About 3 varieties.

For sports two outfits will do. Gives me enough time to wash in between.

• Now choose your favorite outfits for all categories.

• Keep categories separate: All sportsgear together. Workclothes together. Casuals together.

• Give each category a place in your wardrobe. Sort them and make sure everything is visible.

• All you think you will not need, you store in boxes/bins, or what ever you have.

Why not to throw clothes out

Do not throw everything out on which you decide you are probably not going to wear often. Put it away in boxes/bins because you might want to wear it next season, or need to add more to your chosen wardrobe.

Changing out items per season will refresh your wardrobe without having to go shopping. Or you might have chosen a too small number of outfits and having to add a few items during the season.

Check if you did it right

If you do it right you will use everything in your wardrobe regularly. If not, there is too much in your wardrobe. Review your wardrobe now and then, read about it in my post ‘ Keep your wardrobe organised’.

Sustainability

If you do not want to hold on to certain items, sell them, give them to shops that can sell them or give them away. Try not to send clothing items in the landfill. Take note of how many clothes you bought unnecessarily and use that to review on your (hopefully not too bad) consumerism habits.

Downsize your wardrobe now:

• 1 Write down all different situations (categories) you get dressed for.
• 2 How many times a week do you dress for each category?
• 3 How many different outfits do you need for each category?
• 4 Choose this number of outfits (your favourites) for each category.
• 5 Give each category its own place in the wardrobe.
• 6 Make sure you can see each item without having to move anything.
• 7 Store what you did not choose as your favourites.