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The Most Important Thing You Need To Know When Getting Rid of Clutter

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The most important thing you need to know when getting rid of clutter is what clutter actually is.

That’s right: if you don’t know what it is, getting rid of it is going to be next to impossible.

What Is Clutter?

It was a typical Thursday morning. I was sitting on the couch in our family room, watching the kids play and feeling utterly overwhelmed by my life.

I had a mountain of laundry next to me waiting to be folded. It was almost time to make lunch, but I was avoiding the kitchen because the counters were overflowing and I had no clue how to tackle them.

I was literally wiping the tears out of my eyes and trying not to let the kids see my distress.

My son was showing me a toy from across the room and trying to get to me so I could properly admire it, but had to scale mountains of crap stuff to do it. He kept tripping over toys and stuff that hadn’t gotten put away the day before (or the week before, if we’re being honest).

Clutter was literally the thing standing between my child and me.

I remember that moment so clearly, like it was yesterday. It was the day I decided that something had to change. I would never have let a person stand between my son and me, stopping him from getting to me.

In fact, if someone tried to get between us I would knock them flat.

So why was I letting a pile of inanimate stuff do so?

Overwhelmed By The Messy House

That morning I was so overwhelmed by my messy house that when my precious boy [finally] got to me to show me his creation, I picked him up onto my lap and just cried.

My daughter stood staring curiously at us, not knowing there was a problem. Sadly, this mess was normal to her. I gathered myself together, determined that things were going to change.

I knew they needed to, but I was so overwhelmed by my messy house that I didn’t know how.

woman overwhelmed by clutter

I started by googling “getting rid of clutter” and heading into groups on social media to see how other moms did it.

I bumped into everything from hoarders who shouted about their stuff making them happy (and I knew they were not for me because my stuff most certainly did not) to women showcasing photos of their all but bare homes with white couches. Also not my tribe.

As I slapped peanut butter onto bread, I prayed and asked God for guidance. As I added the jelly, I took a deep breath and promised myself that during their nap time I would start to do something about getting rid of clutter from our home.

The problem was, I didn’t know what to do first because I didn’t actually know what clutter was. And you need to know what something is if you’re going to do something about it.

You can’t fight an enemy that you can’t identify.

What Is Clutter?

Clutter is the thing that makes you want to scream, or throw your hands up in the air and walk out, or just sit down in a corner and cry.

Clutter is the stuff you walk by on your way to the kitchen in the morning and try not to notice because you are sick of dealing with it.

Clutter is the mess you fuss at your kids for leaving everywhere and the things strewn across the counters and piled in the corners that you and your husband bicker over.

Clutter is the thing that you don’t know why you have and can’t quite figure out how to get rid of.

But clutter is more than just stuff. 

Definition of CLUTTER_anything that keeps you from living your purpose with joy by stealing your time, your peace, or your passion. Graceful Abandon, Lisa Yvonne.

Clutter is anything that keeps you from living your purpose with joy by stealing your time, your peace, or your passion.

Clutter is demanding.

It steals your time because it demands that you spend your time and your emotions on handling it all.

Clutter is overwhelming.

It steals your peace because it overwhelms you when your home should be your sanctuary and instead it is covered in stuff you don’t know what to do with.

Clutter is defeating.

It defeats your purpose because it stifles your passion and you have no energy or space left to create, to enjoy, to become.

Related: 3 Rewards of Decluttering That Will Change Your Life

getting rid of clutter quote

Clutter is a thief that stops you from enjoying motherhood, distracts you from your purpose, and impacts every part of your life.

How Will Getting Rid of Clutter Help Me?

I had no clue how utterly revolutionizing that Thursday morning would become. That’s because I thought clutter was merely stuff. I thought it was just the items in my home that I had too many of.

I didn’t fully understand the damage that clutter was doing to my heart and mind, or how it was affecting my kids. I just knew I couldn’t go one more day living the way that I was.

But once I got started and saw light hope at the end of the tunnel, I was hooked. I was ready to fully enjoy being a wife and a mom, love being a homemaker, and walk in my purpose once again.

I wanted to stop spending my days fighting clutter and just start living.

Are you there, too?

Sweet friend, are you ready to start enjoying motherhood again? It’s time for you to spend less time maintaining your home or trying to make it livable and more time loving the little people living in it.

Those little loves who call you “Mommy” deserve a woman who enters each day with joy-filled purpose. And you deserve to embrace each new day with them with a smile instead of overwhelm.

Are you ready to embrace your purpose as a mom, a wife, a woman created for more than this? If God has planted dreams inside of you, it’s not for them to lay dormant. No, my friend, He wants them to grow and bear fruit!

He never intended for you to become a slave to piles of stuff and end up paralyzed by overwhelm. It’s time for that season to be over!

Is your marriage suffering because you’re too tired to enjoy your husband? Clutter makes it harder to sit and relax together, distracts from meaningful conversations, and can even affect intimacy. Girl, let’s cut that clutter out!

Related: The Rewards of Decluttering That Will Change Your Life

How Do You Start Getting Rid of Clutter?

Why is knowing what clutter is the “secret sauce” to living in a joy-filled home? Because once you recognize what it’s costing you, you’ll invest in getting rid of it.

Listen, your home didn’t get there all at once, and it’s not going to magically stop being cluttered overnight. I get it, I promise.

But what if you could start seeing a difference…today?

If you’re ready, here are 25 Things To Declutter Today That You Won’t Miss Tomorrow. This is a list of “easy wins.” It’s more than two dozen things you can kiss goodbye that don’t belong in your home anyhow.

Getting rid of clutter is never easy, but those 25 things won’t be hard and they are an awesome first step!

And if you’re ready to do even more, you can grab this Declutter Your Home Checklist: 101 Items You Can Purge in 1 Week. For real, 10 minutes, twice a day and you can go through this list (yes, I’ve done it and so have a few of my friends!).

Plus, when you grab the list you’ll also get several other goodies that will help you on this path. It’s time to reclaim your life: be the wife, mom, and homemaker you’ve wanted to be, but were too overwhelmed to become.

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