It’s an old dieter’s trick to use smaller plates at dinner time. The logic is that most people will fill their plates. So, if you have a small plate, you will eat less food. This concept also seems to hold true with our homes. The more square footage you have, the more likely you are to try and fill it. With today’s residences being 61 percent larger than 40 years ago, that’s a big problem-and a lot more stuff.
For some, the solution lies in downsizing. If you would like less, purchase a home with less square footage. Then, you really have no choice but to have less and pare down what’s not needed or what you can’t squeeze into your new home. I recently did something like that when I moved into a 700-square-foot home.
For those of you who aren’t moving any time soon, the challenge lies not in making a goal to declutter. It goes much deeper and goes straight to your core beliefs and what is important to you. That question prompts more questions:
What do you believe?
What guides your purpose in life?
How do you want to be remembered?
These are some pretty hard-hitting questions that dig much deeper than simple decluttering. It really puts the focus on how you want to live.
The question that stands out the most to me is “how do I want to be remembered?”. Most of us would like to be remembered in one way or the other. How do you want to be remembered?
Would it be as the person who always wore the latest fashions or had the most current gadgets and appliances?
Or might it be as the person who always had people over, be it for the big sporting event or to watch your favorite sitcom (this requires having room, people).
Maybe you want to be the person who lived modestly at home but went on exotic trips?
This exercise requires you to sit down and see how you want to live and what that looks like. Picture it and commit it to memory. Then, develop some action steps to make it happen. If that vision requires removing items from your home to live the life you want, take one small step towards that today. If that overwhelms you that’s okay. It probably should. But a step in the right direction, even a baby one, is progress toward the life you want to lead.
If you need some help putting some of these suggestions into play, give me a call at 508-246-6120.