8 Ways to Motivate Your Nearest and Dearest to Declutter
Depending on your personality and motivation, it can take varying amounts of time to declutter your home and workplace of the many unnecessary items you accumulate, from days to years. You may have made much personal progress toward a reduced lifestyle and now wish to share your advancement with others. You may have already been approached by a curious friend or family member. Now is the time when you can role-model the what, why and how of your journey to living with less.
Here are 8 ways to persuade, advise and help another to begin the declutter:
Ensure that you have the other person’s permission before you help them dispose of their items: Only help them with their decluttering if they have asked you for that help in the first place. Many emotions and feelings of ownership come with possessions and you might experience a whole gamut of them once the decluttering begins. Be respectful, encouraging and show you support their wellbeing. Your approach must be encouraging, highlighting the benefits of having more space, less cleaning and maintenance, more time for other experiences, appreciating items of true value once buried in the clutter, helping the environment, and saving money.
Plan how to be rid of excess items and sort them into boxes: Think of all the ways that these items can be passed on without them going into landfill. Label the boxes for charity, garage or car boot sale, eBay, Gumtree, your neighbourly Nextdoor or Freecycle app, or recycling.
Create a Yes, Maybe and No pile: Once a category of items is sorted, such as shirts, compare them and choose the ‘best.’ Look at the undecided ‘maybe’ pile and ask them: Do you love this item? When did you last use this? When will you use this again?
Halt the temptation to buy more: Shopping addiction comes from wanting the next best thing, filling a person’s day with a purpose (the instinctual hunt for something), entertainment, being socially active in a crowd of other shoppers, boredom, perceived improvement of life through buying items for appearance and a pursuit of perfection. It can have consequences on a person’s happiness and finance. The problem is that these possessions won’t solve inner issues and the habit will continue as a cycle of seeking and spending. The initial high of buying quickly dissipates and a shopper will quickly return to their normal levels of happiness and sometimes experience the regret of spending through ‘buyer’s remorse.’
“What if..?”: If a person has many items because they are always thinking of what might happen in the future, it is time to bring them back to what is most important, the here and now. The future is only a prediction of what might be, not reality. Most items can be cheaply and easily replaced if they are needed in the future or borrowed from another.
Personal Ownership, not emotional: What we allow in our life is our choice. We do not need to own something because it was gifted to us, was inherited or is being held to please someone else. Stuff is stuff, and that is all. If they love it, they can keep it out of their own love, not to appease and please others.
Practice disposing of 3 items per day for one week: Start with broken or worn-out items, then multiple items and duplicates of the same category, then continue on to what has not been used for over a year. Begin to hone down even further with items that are no longer appreciated or fit a current lifestyle.
Start giving experiences as gifts: We have the tendency to give physical items to others, however experiences are more memorable and a great route out of material items that might not even be wanted or appreciated by the receiver. Encourage others to only gift an experience to you and your family.
If you would like to learn more about the process of decluttering and how to go about it, consider my book “Mindful Minimalism”