Three Reasons For Making a Decluttering Plan
When I started decluttering my home, I first sat down and made a room-by-room plan.
I called it my PLAN OF ATTACK.
I put it on my computer so I would not lose it. I started with a room that I needed the peace in the most and I decided it was my bedroom. After all, it was where I started my day and ended my day. It was too overwhelming to think of my whole condo. But decluttering my bedroom seemed very doable.
My plan of attack was my roadmap to getting the job done.
I divided the room into areas. My bedroom became six less overwhelming areas. My clothes closet, my chest of drawers, my desk, and my two bookcases.
I thought the bed and the floor area were the best places to start because I would need both horizontal areas for sorting things. I needed to get them cleared at the end of the day.
I called the entire operation OPERATION SERENITY. Because SERENITY was my ultimate goal. I knew that after I got it I would be able to start doing the things that gave me more joy. And I also knew that once I had it would be so amazing I would never let things get back to where they were. EVER!
After I wrote my plan, I got the materials I would need which consisted of boxes with labels, plastic garbage bags, and ziplock bags.
I was then ready to attack my bedroom. I set a reward for myself as part of the plan for each section of the room and I even planned on posting a before and after photo of each section and then the entire room when I got all the sections done. This was extremely motivating for me.
The best part of my plan was videotaping a little victory dance of myself celebrating the finished room and sharing it with others.
There are three reasons you need a plan for your decluttering projects:
Reason Number ONE: YOUR PLAN IS YOUR ROADMAP
A plan is like a roadmap and you would not think of going on a trip without one would you?
Just think of the disaster that would result. A plan is what is going to take you from start to finish!
Without a map, you may get very distracted by too many “fun things to do” along the way.
Without a map, you may run out of gas if you don’t plan your pit stops.
You may get discouraged and want to quit if you don’t plan to rest at your planned stops.
But most importantly, without a map, you may never reach your destination. You may get lost.
And in the case of a decluttering project, your destination is a cleared and decluttered space to live your life in! And isn’t that a wonderful destination!
Reason Number TWO: YOUR PLAN BRINGS YOUR FUTURE INTO THE PRESENT
Until your dreams of a decluttered home become actual everyday steps on a list and the time to do it put on a calendar square, your dreams will be just dreams and never a reality.
Without strategically planning when you will do it, where you will do it and how you will do it, the lovely future you have pictured in your mind will never happen!
You need a plan to make it happen! Without a concrete, written down plan you will most likely procrastinate further, continue to feel overwhelmed, or just plain forget about it.
Reason Number THREE: YOUR PLAN IS A MAGICAL THING
There is something almost magical about putting your goals and plans on a piece of paper or a computer document.
It is then you see everything in black and white there on the page. You see your starting point. You see your destination. You see the steps along the way.
It is then that clarity happens.
And with clarity comes motivation. And with motivation, things begin to happen.
Hope begins to happen. And without hope, we have nothing to get us from Point A to Point B and then finally to Point Z.
Sure it will be hard, sure it will take grit and determination, sure it may be one of the biggest challenges in your life so far,
BUT,
YOU CAN DO THIS!
I BELIEVE IN YOU!
So make that plan, revise it along the way if you need to, but
MAKE THAT PLAN!