Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight (71 page)

In fact, you also know how much each room, each bedside table, and each shelf will hold. You know what your home looks like when it's overstuffed, and you know what it looks like when it's holding a reasonable amount. I'm guessing that you're now far more aware of how you
feel
when your spaces are overloaded—that feeling of being overwhelmed and unable to breathe, paralyzed by the things you own, and unable to feel peace and calm in your own home.

If you don't honor and respect your space, you can never feel completely at home in it. Your body also works like this.

For your body to thrive, you must show it honor and respect, too. It functions best within certain obvious limits. It's only designed to use a set number of calories per day. Only so much food, alcohol, and sugary drinks will “fit” within these limits. Unlike a plane or a house, however, your body can expand. And that's what it'll do when you choose to ignore its limits, showing yourself little honor and respect by taking in too many calories or the wrong type of foods and drinks and not burning off enough through physical activity.

You've now gone through a momentous period in your life. You've developed a new relationship with your body and your home. You've picked up new habits and shed old ones. Hopefully, your mind feels freer and less burdened.

Still, you've only been doing this for 6 weeks. That's not a lot of time. If you fall back into your old habits or return to your old ways of thinking, your home can descend into chaos again—pretty quickly. Your pounds can also return, and in a few months, you could be heavier than you were when you bought this book.

Somewhere, that airline passenger might be repeating the same dramatic performance with her luggage every single time she boards another plane. Right now she might be flushed with outrage, feeling surprised all over again as she shoves the suitcase with all her weight (and starting yet another trip unhappy).

This doesn't have to happen to you. Once you acknowledge some basic truths, then live your life with those truths in mind, you can maintain all your improvements for the rest of this year and next year and the rest of your years.

The central truth, when it comes to keeping your home and body decluttered, is this:
You only have the space you have.

The space available for your stuff is
not
flexible. Your home only has so much space. Your body can only take in a certain number of calories and still maintain its current weight. When you use these limits as a starting point, you can adjust your behaviors to live an uncluttered, healthy life within the space you have.

In this final chapter, I'd like to review a few more habits that will help you maintain the improvements you've made in your home. I'll also highlight some advice that scientists have discovered while studying people who have preserved their weight loss for years.

The New Realities That Will Maintain Your Clutter-Free Home

I've said many times that successful decluttering and organizing doesn't start with “the stuff.” It's not about the stuff. So often we get caught up in the things we own—especially if they're so overwhelming that they cause heartache and stress—and forget that change comes first in the way we
think
about what we own. It starts with our mindset and our routines.

So be sure to incorporate these ideas into your daily life to maintain and build upon the successes you've already achieved. These methods of maintaining a clutter-free and organized home may actually seem
too
simple. But I can guarantee that the simpler the maintenance strategy, the greater the impact it will have as you move forward.

1. Never forget the vision you have for your life, your home, and your personal spaces.
I've asked you to detail your vision for the space you're tackling each week. Your vision is the foundation for deciding what objects come into a space, what you put into your body, and how you spend your time. By constantly revisiting the question “What do I want
from
my life?” or “
from
my space?” or “
from
my body?” you will be sure to keep your focus on the things that help you create your best life.

2. “Later” does not exist. Now is the time to do the things you need to do.
As I tell people at every opportunity I have,
clutter is decisions delayed
. The moment you begin to procrastinate—“I'll put this in its proper place later” or “I'll throw this away later because I feel too guilty to get rid of it now” or “I'll make the bed later,” or use any sentence that contains the word “later”—you have begun to lose the battle against your stuff.

Instead, make all your decisions in the present moment. As you've learned throughout this book, remaining aware of the present moment—which is the only time that truly exists—dramatically improves your ability to live the life you really want.

This “I'll get to it later” thinking is very easy to slip into. It's the path of least resistance. It convinces us that we're dealing with things, even though we're not. If the thought occurs to you that you need to put something in its proper place or throw it away, do it now. “Later” is the best friend of clutter. Don't make it your friend, too.

3. Finish what you start.
On a similar note, if you realize you need to do a task, carry it out to its end right now. Don't do part of it and plan to finish the rest later. If you stop too soon, then resume later, the task will take more time. In the simplest terms, complete the cycle!

Your laundry provides a great example of what I'm talking about. Have you ever done this? You run the washer but don't get around to drying the laundry. Two days later, you find that the damp load of clothing has turned into a mildewed, smelly mess. You have to waste your time, detergent, and electricity rewashing it before you can dry it.

Or maybe you've snacked on a bowl of salsa with chips, then set the bowl in the sink. The salsa remnants form a hard crust overnight, and you have to scrape it out before you put it into the dishwasher. Add up enough of these extra demands, and you've lost a substantial chunk of time you could have applied elsewhere. That's one of the benefits I hope you discovered from the
Lose the Clutter, Lose the Weight
program. Yes, living a decluttered lifestyle does take a few extra moments here and several minutes there throughout the day. But often, these moments save you from getting mired in a lengthier hassle later. Like Leah, the test panelist you met in
Chapter 12
, discovered: A well-run and streamlined household frees up time you can put to better use.

No matter the task, complete the cycle. If you start a load of clothes, put them in the dryer when they're washed. When your clothes are dry, fold them and put them away instead of allowing wrinkles to set in while they linger in a pile.

When you use a dish, rinse it off and put it in the dishwasher right away. When you empty the container of milk, immediately jot it down on your shopping list. When you finish the toilet paper, replace the roll. When your car is running low on gas, fill it at the next station you see. When you bring the mail into the house, throw out the junk, open everything, and put items that need attention in the tray on your desk.

If you open something, close it. If you get something out, put it away. If you move something, put it back where it belongs. If you borrow something, return it. Regardless of the task, the key to maintaining an organized space is the same: Finish the cycle!

4. Honor and respect the physical limits of your space.
I began this chapter with an emphasis on the limits of your space, but it's worth repeating here. This program has taught you to designate a space for the things you have, with a place for everything and everything in its place.

Thus, you should have a clear idea of how many items each space within your home will hold: How many shirts will hang in your closet; how many containers of berries you can fit into the produce drawer of your refrigerator; how many pairs of socks will go in your dresser and still allow the drawer to close; how many books will fit on your bookshelves; and how many bins of holiday decorations will reasonably fit in your garage while still providing room for your car.

By working within the limits that your home places on you, the things you own and the spaces that you have will stay tidy, uncluttered, and organized.

5. One in, one out.
Maintaining the limits you've established is easier when you follow the simple technique of removing an item from your home for every item of a similar kind that you bring in.

A new one comes in, an old one
must
go out. When you come home from a back-to-school shopping trip, your kids have to get rid of as many clothes as they add to their closet. When you bring home new shoes, an old pair must go. When you buy a new can of beans, you have to eat or get rid of the can that was already in your cupboard. This technique maintains a balance in your home so that it never again becomes overstuffed. Practice the one in, one out technique until it becomes a natural part of the way your family operates.

6. Routines create order.
I'm guessing that during the past 6 weeks, you've fallen into a pattern of exercising at a certain time, tackling your decluttering tasks in a certain order, shopping for healthy food at designated times, and preparing meals in certain ways.

By creating this daily rhythm of activity, you shifted into routines that
support your healthier choices and more mindful living. Keep preparing your weekly meal plans at the same time each week, exercising at the same time each day, and dealing with your mail in a similar fashion each time you bring it into the house.

Decide now when you'll regularly clean and organize each room in your home so it doesn't fall into griminess or chaos for long. Now is also a good time to mark in your calendar when you'll reassess how your maintenance is going, whether 3 months, 6 months, or a year from now. Walk through your home, being mindful of what you see. Is each room still honoring your vision? Has your vision changed? Have circumstances in your household changed that require you to work harder in certain areas? By noting this commitment in your calendar, you acknowledge the importance of checking in on yourself and your home.

7. Perfection is never a reasonable goal.
Listen carefully: I don't expect you or your home to be perfect! In fact, I believe that perfection is the enemy of an orderly, uncluttered home. When you strive for perfection, you remain constantly disappointed because the goals you set are simply unattainable, and so you are constantly falling short of where you think you should be.

Life is messy and it often gets tough, so expect a little failure here and there. It's not a bad thing if it causes you to reassess your progress, look at where you fell short, and recommit to a happier, healthier life. Being organized doesn't mean rigidly demanding a picture-perfect home. Organization is about creating the life and the home you want: happy, fun, warm, welcoming, and most importantly of all, a reflection of who you are as a person.

8. Turn clutter into kindness by continually collecting items for donation.
In that spirit, keep a few small hampers around your home and toss in items the moment you realize you no longer want or need them. I'd recommend putting a hamper in your clothes closet and one in your entryway closet.

When you finish a paperback book, toss it in. When you realize your son's pants are too short, toss them in. When the kids no longer play with a toy, in it goes. Make a monthly appointment on your calendar—here's another routine!—to take the contents of your hampers to your nearest donation center. If you haven't collected enough to bother making a trip when donation day rolls around, survey your home and toss in more items, then load the car and make a trip that will turn your clutter into kindness for someone who's more needy.

9. Create decluttering traditions.
As I noted earlier in the book, our society has all sorts of traditions that entail packing more stuff into our homes:
Christmas, Hanukkah, graduations, anniversaries, and so forth. But we don't have many rituals for shedding our possessions, aside from spring cleaning (which hardly anyone actually does).

As you now also know, living like the rest of society will lead your house to grow overstuffed again. So be different. Set up a family tradition to weed through your possessions several times a year, for a full 2 hours on each occasion. Pick dates that you'll remember, such as:

When your quarterly taxes are due

The week before each family member's birthday