​How much do you need to be happy?

Does your home make you feel happy? It’s a pretty easy question, right? Does living in disorganization and chaos make you happy? If you are starting to feel like you’re making your life more complicated, trust that feeling. The more you hold on to physically and mentally, the more complicated your life becomes. Have you hit a breaking point? Have you realized that enough is enough and you need to make a change?

Being disorganized and having too much stuff will soon become a problem in the home. When there aren’t any systems to contain everything, it becomes a chaotic, stressful and an overwhelming environment. I’m not just talking about sentimental items here. Too much stuff also means, the unopened piles of mail, the magazines collecting dust, the random things sitting in your closets that you forgot you had and the piles of clothes in the closet that haven’t been worn in years.

Then you have items in your home that have meaning and are special to you, but after a while the really important things that mean something to you will mesh with the unimportant things. When you walk into your home, it ultimately all blends in together.

How does your home make you feel?  Grab a pen and paper and answer the following questions. Jot down any thoughts that come to mind when answering these questions. Clearing the mental clutter and putting things on paper will help you through this process.

• Do you feel like your home is always chaotic?
• How many piles of paper and mail do you have throughout the home?
• Are you embarrassed to have people into your home?
• When was the last time you emptied your food pantry or clothes closets?
• Are you holding onto things that have no meaning to you? Will letting these items go give you a sense of freedom?
• Are your relationships suffering because of the clutter and disorganization? 
• If you were told that you had to move tomorrow, how long would it take you to pack?
• How much money a month are you spending on a storage unit or extra garage?
• Is there a room in your home where the door is always shut? What’s your vision for this room?
• Do you find yourself saying there isn’t enough time in the day? Are you busy but not productive?
• Are you wasting money on items that never get used?
• Are you happy in your home?

You know you have too much, but it’s so overwhelming to tackle the project and you just don’t know where to begin. You also have to be ready to make the commitment to change and you have to be ready to declutter. You can’t get organized without decluttering first.

Are you ready to tackle this project? You will definitely hit a breaking point and you’ll wake up one day and say, “I’m ready.”

I hope this article will make you think about how much you have and how decluttering and getting organized will make your life easier and allow you to become more efficient and productive.

​When you are ready, make a plan, break the process down and commit to tackling it.