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The Joy of Decluttering
A Psychologist’s Perspective
In the pursuit of happiness, we often accumulate more than we need—yet true liberation lies in the art of decluttering, from tangible belongings to the depths of our minds.
Australia has now overtaken the United States as the country with the world's biggest houses. Every Australian wants “a spare room”. But why you may ask and the answer always is “to store stuff in”. Generally stuff we rarely use and that we forget about. Bigger does not mean happier. Australia is ranked 12th in happiness behind countries such as Denmark and Finland. Finish houses are a 1/3 of our houses in size. This forces their people to decide if an item is necessary and they live a very decluttered life.
In the last few weeks I went on a decluttering rampage. And while I like Marie Kondo’s version of decluttering where she clutches things to her chest and asks, “does this spark joy?” as part of the decision to throw it out or keep it, it doesn’t work for me. Its only half the story.
You need to ask, “Does this spark joy and/or is it useful?” My vacuum cleaner certainly does not spark any joy but its useful and needed. I threw things out, gave things away to people I know would appreciate them and donated the rest. It was very freeing and I felt “lighter.”
I started thinking about other forms of decluttering.
My digital world is cluttered +++++
My techie partner is always on my back to organise my emails so I can find things easily and to also have a more organised system on File Explorer. We have saved everything and I mean EVERYTHING from laptops from 10 years ago and desk top computers (the last 3). I even have boxes of floppy discs that I keep thinking “I will go through these…”.
My digital house is like a hoarders paradise……
So here is my New Year’s resolution “spend an hour every Sunday sifting through my digital house and saving/storing or deleting every file/picture/PowerPoint etc”. By the end of the year I will have spent 52 hours doing this and it should be a thing of beauty and easily maintained.
And finally, as a psychologist I’m always telling clients to declutter their mind/brain.
You may be thinking, “She’s gone too far – I can’t give my mind/brain away…”.
A couple of years ago, a client of mine was telling me that her adult son who had recently found his inner Hippie, had told her to “sit on the side of the road, give away your possessions and clear your mind of all thoughts to find inner peace.”
She told him that she “refused to sit on the side of the road, loved her stuff and all the thoughts in her head were a well assembled collection of thoughts that she had spent years gathering”. I focused on her “well assembled collection of thoughts” and asked her to tell me more about it.
She replied, “I have been doing what you told me to do for the last 8 years!”
I tell people many things and remembering what I had told her 8 years ago was impossible, but clearly it was good advice.
She continued, “I let a thought wander into my brain and then I address it and ask myself these questions, ‘is this thought important, is it useful, is it joyful?’ and if it is one of these I keep it. If it is none of these I let it keep walking though my brain and out the other side. I don’t keep it!”.
What a great way of decluttering the mind/brain – how had I forgotten this story?
She continued, “All the thoughts in my brain are important. I don’t keep ###. I don’t see the point.”.
I try to do this for myself and have started telling clients this story. Some complain, “It’s not that simple”.
It is that simple!
Only keep useful and/or joyful thoughts, dump the others. If you don’t, your mind/brain will be like a hoarder's house with no room for future learning.
Decluttering isn’t just for houses. Declutter your digital world and also declutter your mind/brain. All of this decluttering will help you balance your life.
I’m actually feeling more joyful and now after my 2 weeks bout of decluttering and I’m even loving the vacuum cleaner!
Something further to read, Seven Simple Ways To Declutter Your Mind
