How To Increase Joy By Decluttering Your Life

It was 2004 and I can still remember my excitement when we arrived at the workshop all about organization. I only had two kids at the time and they were little. Life felt chaotic and out of control. My ex was a bit of a hoarder and I was the one left to manage it all. It felt incredibly overwhelming to me; mentally, physically and emotionally. 

I learned far more than I ever imagined in that workshop all those years ago, it was like therapy. Going in to the meeting I felt like I just needed to be more organized. What I really learned was my home wasn't bringing me joy OR peace. And by clearing the clutter in my physical space I could also clear the clutter in my mind, relationships and enjoy my time more. Instead of carrying all the heaviness, the stress, the energy to manage all the stuff we had that we didn't need.

Ever since that day, I've been on a mission to live a simple life with less stress. One of my healthy habits is an ongoing practice of de-cluttering. I haven’t mastered it to perfection BUT it has become part of my routine to keep stress at bay.

When your home, office, car, financial situation, job, relationships or any other major aspect of your outer environment is in disorder, you'll be more easily stressed out and ungrounded. I think you all know this, and so do Feng Shui masters--but the question is what are you doing to change it?

I’ve had so much stress over things like overflowing closets, messy bedrooms, paper piles and more. Each time I would open the door or see the mess, I'd get a little anxious. "I really need to clean that up," I'd say, then never do it. All these things add up into a low resonance buzz that followed me around. The more things in my life that felt ‘cluttered’ the heavier I’d feel on the inside and stress would be harder to keep at bay.

If you have things you need to change for the better, clear up, or want to create solutions to the things that are making you anxious, but you're putting them off, then get ready to have an underlying imbalance for your health or life.

It's quite common to know what things you want and need to tackle to move yourself forward in all the ways. It's far less common to actually do something about it.

But when it comes to real transformation. . .action creates clarity and freedom!

So, what exactly is clutter?

Clutter can be defined as ANYTHING that could get in your way or block your path to having any outcome (vision or goal) in life that you want. It's not just physical 'stuff'. It's When you can define and acknowledge what’s in your way, then you have the opportunity to shift it and progress forward.

Once you define your list of clutter, you are really looking at a list of problems you get to solve as you so you can live a more joyful life with less stress moving towards your vision and goals.

Examples of clutter include;

→ old ideas that don't serve you
→ your schedule
→ people (toxic relationships)
→ events
→ disorganization
→ certain situations
→ emotions
→ behaviors/bad habits
→ and not enough time.


Maybe you just read that list and realized you have every form of clutter in your life. That's OKAY! Now, you get to do something about it.

Take 3 minutes and write down everything that comes up for you from that list.

Once you have YOUR list - pick the top 3 things that seem the biggest to you and choose one simple action step towards clearing that clutter. Then put it on your schedule and commit to doing it.

I do this weekly, sometimes daily and in a bigger way every month. I find when I shed CLUTTER it helps me transition more into the fullest expression of myself. I get to become the best version of me and show up in world as unstoppable. Seriously.

Clutter can be so incredibly paralyzing and induce overwhelm which leads to procrastination.

When your body has a clear directive from your mind, it knows what to do, but a cluttered, unfocused mind creates a confused, tense body. Your muscles tighten up, your breath shortens, and you may find yourself feeling constricted without necessarily knowing why.

I remember when I used to get so fed up with the clutter in my life after procrastinating forever. I’d finally want to act and get it all fixed ASAP. I would do it in a rush and try to bite off way more than I could realistically manage and end up very stressed out, irritable and feel super edgy, then crash and burn. I did that for many many years until I learned how to clear the clutter as a habit.

Letting go of clutter helps to keep all things in flow so you can experience more joy. It helps your body to feel lighter and less tense, and you mind to feel calmer and more balanced.

"Discard everything that does not spark joy" ~ Marie Kondo

If you are feeling anxious, stressed, overwhelmed and you really just want to relax and be happy - I highly recommend making the exercise I shared above part of your weekly journal routine OR you weekly to-do list, and actually DO it. Even if it’s small baby steps at first.

If you try this exercise and found it helpful, leave me a comment below and let me know what came up for you. Also if you like this post, you may consider being a part of the tribe that is being built here. A good way to begin is to sign up for my newsletter .