Intentional Living
For decluttering and organising to be effective and long lasting the most important change to be made is our mindset.
No amount of handy dandy storage solutions will keep our house in order unless we also change our behaviour, and for a change of behaviour to become a habit here has to be a change in mindset.
There is a huge amount of writing on habit formation, and many different approaches to try, but whichever method you prefer, at the centre of making change is intentionality.
Choosing to purposefully divert your actions in a different direction is the first step to intentional living. This can be as small as deciding to put your dirty socks in the laundry basket instead of on the floor, or as big as facing a lifelong fear. It's switching off auto-pilot, moving from passive to active. It's the realisation that you have a choice, that your actions are yours to control, and that you can create change through your actions.
So where do decluttering and organising fit into intentional living?
If you've begun on your decluttering journey you've already started living intentionally. Whatever your motivation, you've decided that you want to make a change and have started taking steps to get there.
During the process of decluttering, when deciding what to keep and what to discard there is often a dialogue going on between the old habit of “I'll just put this back in the drawer” and the part of us determined to make a change. This is the part of us which recognises that “we haven't used it in years.”
The passive part of us might urge us to put it back because choosing to discard it would mean accepting that we made a mistake by acquiring it. It might also be unsure if we might need it in the future, because the future is so uncertain.
The intentional part of us is able to forgive our past error of judgement, and is confident enough in our vision of our future that, no, we won't need it.
Living intentionally can be uncomfortable at times, as it requires us to get to know ourselves very well, to think carefully about our actions, to take responsibility for ourselves, and to stand up for ourselves. The pay off is the peace of mind that comes from a life lived aligned with our values, and the knowledge that we tried our best.
This National Organising Week the topic for discussion is sustainability. This is a subject which fits very well with intentional living.
In order to make sustainable choices we must live with intentionality. Unfortunately in our current world the “automatic” route is often the less sustainable one. We have to actively choose to look for sustainable options.
When decluttering and organising there are several areas we can think about with intention:
How can I responsibly re-use, donate, or recycle my unwanted items?
What sustainable options are available for storage and organising.
How can I think differently about what I bring into my home (or other people's homes) so that it doesn't become clutter?
Check out my social media feeds all this week to find answers to these questions and more!
