However, contrary to common belief, decluttering is not merely discarding items randomly or aiming for a minimalist lifestyle. The objective is not to limit possessions needlessly, but to eliminate chaos by designing a manageable, clean, and practical environment. Living now means my kids can easily get dressed for school because the only things in their drawers and closets are clothes that fit. Not clothes they outgrew two years ago or clothes they'll grow into someday. This doesn’t mean forgetting the future exists. Living now means giving now preferential treatment over the future or even the past.

Book - Decluttering at the Speed of Life - is My New Book - Decluttering at the Speed of Life - is

Generally speaking, I find White’s advice to be very practical. Start with the easy stuff--take out the garbage, do the recycling, move as many of the things as you can without having to make big decisions. It needs to be done so just do it.But more than simply offering strategies, Dana dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the reader's clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter--the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent--as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter. Practice Mindful Decluttering- Make it a lifestyle where you only keep items that resonate with your present taste and needs. Allow room for growth and change. Decluttering at the speed of life involves a systematic approach that breaks down the overwhelming task of organizing your space into manageable steps.

Decluttering at the Speed of Life by Dana K. White - Waterstones

Make sure every item has its own ‘home’ to return to after use, which will simplify tidying tasks, keep clutter to a minimum, and reduce your cleaning time. I thought the purpose of containers was to hold stuff. That’s why I kept buying more when the ones I had were full and I still had stuff that needed to be held. I did not understand that my overabundance of stuff was directly related to my inability to function well in my home. The more stuff I brought into my home, the more out of control it felt. The more out of control my home felt, the more I looked to the future as the time when I'd finally have things figured out. The more I focused on the future instead of the present, the more I justified collecting things I might need one day.Our marriage meant moving into one apartment that was, honestly, pretty large for a newly married couple just starting out. If I remember correctly, it was 960 square feet. If you feel like traditional cleaning and organizing advice is written in a language you never learned, you're exactly the person for whom I wrote this book. I didn't understand, either. Not only does Dana provide strategies, but she dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the listener's clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter - the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn't seem urgent - as well as how to make progress when there's no time to declutter.

Dana K. White (Author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life) Dana K. White (Author of Decluttering at the Speed of Life)

While the world seems to be in love with the idea of tiny houses and minimalism, many of us simply can't purge it all and start from nothing. Yet a home with too much stuff is a home that is difficult to maintain, so where do we begin? Add in paralyzing emotional attachments and constant life challenges, and it can feel almost impossible to make real decluttering progress. Mastering clutter control is more about forming consistent habits rather than one-off tidying sessions. Once a space has been attentively decluttered and organized, preserve its cleanliness with a steady routine. I’m super proud that the book truly delivers on the promise of its title. The marketing spiel is, “Whether you have five minutes, five hours, or five days to spend decluttering, you can make real progress in your home.” I definitely didn't make up the word clutter, but I did make up a definition for it that helped me get it out of my house. I define clutter as anything I can't keep under control. If a space in my home consistently gets out of control, I have too much stuff in that space. I have clutter.

Decluttering isn't organizing. When I realized decluttering and organizing were two different things and that it was okay to just declutter, I felt a weight lift off my soul. I no longer slumped my shoulders in defeat before I even started, knowing from experience that whatever "solution" I might create would surely fail like all the others had. Instead, I purged. I focused solely on getting things we didn't need out of our house. The whole book, every chapter and every strategy, helps you make real progress in whatever amount of time you have available. Yay for that! Those other books are on their way (finally) out of the door and I have stopped feeling like failure. I haven't finished, in fact I have only just started but already there is so much difference in my life and so much more space in my rooms. They are becoming places to live in, and thrive rather than dread spaces filled with misery-making boxes, clutter and junk. Determine a starting point that seems less daunting; a single drawer or a section of a room, perhaps. I might have tried to do some math. Multiply the number of days in a month with scarf-appropriate weather by some other number that entered my unnecessarily analytical brain. I might have researched scarf trends and color palettes and tried to determine which scarves were on their way out of style.