In the last several years I have started to clean my house and get rid of stuff that I don’t use. Simply I found myself feeling tired whenever I need to find something I need to move 90% of the stuff I don’t need. They simply take a large part of my space, limit my movement, my view. Do I finish my job? No! There are still too many things I don’t need that I need to get rid of them. They need to be in the trash or to give away to people that will use them.
What did I find in my house? There was old furniture that I don’t need. Also, I found old appliances that don’t work. There was also the paper that I have collected in the last 10 years that take part of my space for more than two cubic meters. Also, I have apparel that I don’t wear anymore. And there are a lot of things inside and around my house.
So, I really need to build the system that will help me to clear many things that bother me. They are not the only things that bother me, but also things that decrease my movement in my house, my productivity and things that simple exhausting me.
Here I would like to share my system that becomes as one ritual to get rid of stuff I really don’t need:
1. I start building the right system to clean my house
There are several possibilities when it comes to cleaning unnecessary stuff:
- Unfunctional things and
- Out of date things.
Get rid of unfunctional things
The first rule I put in my house was to start throwing away things that become unfunctional. For example, when something stops working or is broken I will throw away. In large part here was things as appliances, tools and child toys. The questions that I answer in this stage are the following:
- How much time is this thing not functional?
- If it is a long time not functional do I feel negative effects in my life?
- Do I really need to have this thing?
- Can I repair and make it functional if I need to use it?
- If I don’t need it and I can not repair it how I will get rid of this thing?
Answering this questions I become in a position to decide about the thing I found not functional. If I don’t need it, I have not used it for larger time and I can not repair it will be thrown away to trash.
Get rid of stuff that is out of date
Another possibility to get rid of stuff in my house was to get rid of stuff that becomes out of date, such as clothes that I don’t wear anymore. For this part of the stuff I have used following questions to make the right decision related to throw away or to чувам:
- Are some of my clothes out of date, non-fashionable?
- How many times have I used these clothes or accessories in the last year?
- Am I happy wearing clothes that don’t fit on me?
- Do I really want to wear the specific clothing in the future?
As you can see, in both of the cases I want to find the reason why I don’t need the specific subject that takes a space in my house. The first reason is functionality and the second reason is out of date. In such a way I want to make easy for me to get rid of things because of specific reasons. It’s much more difficult to throw away things when there is not the right reason for such an action.
When you have an obvious reason to get rid of things that are not functional or out of date, just get rid of them. You will see the difference in your life. You will become more productive and more focused person.
Using this system based on several questions for nonfunctional and out of date things I was able to get rid of more than 50% of the things around me in my house.
One additional secret step that I have done to succeed in my intention is taking the photo before cleaning and after cleaning each day. In such a way I can see what I have done when I get rid of stuff. So, when I see my progress I continue to motivate myself to do the right job with this process. Here is one photo to see what was my starting point – attic that simply becomes a warehouse for old unusable things.
Also, I recommend you to read the article about using 5s to make your workplace more productive.
2. The place for all things and all things in the right place
When I start thrown away things in my house I find myself so much unproductive. Why? Because the starting point was in such a messed environment as you already see in the photo above. So, it was not easy to make a commitment related to getting rid of stuff I don’t need.
Because of that, I need to make this work as some type of habit or ritual on an everyday level. So, the first thing I have done is scheduling each day for one hour to check all the things I have and decide about the future of those things.
The second thing that I decided was to start selecting the right place of all things that I need and all that things to be in that place. This was important to me because it shows me how much unnecessary things I have. If something is necessary when I check one by one stuff, then it will go in the right place. But, if something according to my process from the first step is not necessary then it will be placed in one angle in the room for additional check based on the questions in the first step of this process.
3. Repeat the processes several times in a year
The last important thing is that this is an ongoing process. You can not do everything from once, or in one day, week or month. You will always bring additional things that will need to be part of the process next or after several years.
So, repeat the process several times in a year. In my experience, this brings the best results. For example, when once I have decided to leave the thing as it is, after several cycles I see that I have not used. In such a case many things will be thrown away after the second or third cycle of cleaning.