How do you know if you've finished decluttering or uncluttering and organizing your home?
What does a “decluttered home” actually look like? How do you know when you’ve “finished”?
Let’s talk about this, because since so many of us with chronic clutter issues are actually perfectionists, worrying that we are “decluttering wrong” can stop us from decluttering at all.
So let me say this as clearly as possible:
You have to know where you want to go, or you’ll never know if you’ve gotten there.
As a starting point, consider these two questions about your relationship to your stuff:
- How important is owning less “stuff”?
- How tolerant are you of mess in your home?
Consider a 2×2 grid with these two questions, and you end up with four different End Games, defining four general “Uncluttered Styles”
#1: Tidy Minimalists
Less Stuff / Low Tolerance for Mess
Some people not only hate seeing a mess, but realize that they feel really heavy holding on to things. Or they find they simply don’t have the energy to maintain “things” that end up getting in the way of the life they dream of. Some minimalists want to pare down enough to pack a family of six comfortably into an RV and travel the country. Some live in 10,000 square feet houses but still curate every item they own. And everything in between.
Minimalism keeps maintenance housework to a (dare I say it) – minimum.
#2: Chill Minimalists
Less Stuff / Higher Tolerance of Mess
The Chill Minimalists are similar to the Tidy Minimalists in that they have minimal possessions. But if you walk into their home at any given time, it may feel very lived in. (Whoever said having few possessions prevents a mess has never seen me in a hotel room traveling with just a backpack….). A Monopoly game may be set up over days because it’s still being played, or a homework project may be occupying the dining room table all week – but when it’s time to clean up, it’s no problem.
Chill Minimalism keeps housework manageable because there’s only so many things that need to be put away, and usually plenty of space to do it.
#3: Tidy Collectors
More Stuff / Low Tolerance for Mess
Some people truly are comforted by and/or love their things. They might have bookshelves filled with books all over the house, baskets of toys in multiple rooms, extra cooking supplies in a basement storage area; and they maybe even go all in decorating for holidays, with multiple tote boxes for each and every holiday. Their things make them happy!!!!
But messes stress them out, so if this is you, you need to be great at organizing and creating routines for tidying! (This is probably the category that best benefits from an organizer to come in and help when the main decluttering is done!)
#4: Chill Collectors
More Stuff / Higher Tolerance of Mess
Like the “Tidy Curators”, “Chill Curators” have been relatively intentional in curating their belongings, but they still own a lot when they’re finished. They need to be great at organizing, but their everyday tidying routines are, well, much more “chill.” Walk into their house, and you may even think, “But, I thought you just did this whole decluttering thing….”
This is probably the hardest style to maintain. Those of us (myself included) with relatively high tolerance for everyday mess and a propensity toward clutter-blindness might not even notice when the everyday mess begins morphing into clutter until it suddenly all becomes too much and we are lost in a pit of despair that we’re back to square one.
(Hint: you’re probably not! After decluttering, messes tend to be much quicker to deal with, even for collectors.)
Personally, I am a Chill Collector who has my eye on the Chill Minimalist style.
Note that every one of these decluttering styles IS an End Game of decluttering! You don’t have to be a minimalist to be decluttered. Decluttered simply means your home is filled with things you’ve intentionally kept, and functions in a way that supports you and the life you want to life.
So – how about you? Do any of these styles just make you feel like “THIS IS SOOOOO ME!!!”???