Dejunk Yourself Week Five: Mid-Course Mindset Check-In
How to keep up the motivation when everyone and everything around you says decluttering is dumb
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We’re halfway through Dejunk Yourself! Time for a mental check-in.
How are you doing?
I ask because when it comes to decluttering, the actual act is only half the battle. The other — frankly more important — half is all in your head.
When we declutter, motivation often wanes after that initial rush. It’s not made any easier by people telling you your minimalist dreams are dumb. Our fast-paced world isn’t exactly gunning for you to slow down.
It’s hard.
In my experience, doubt starts to creep in around a month after you start decluttering with intention - hence why week five of Dejunk Yourself is all about the mindset.
Let’s nip this one in the bud together, shall we? Here are the best ways I’ve found to maintain motivation.
Practice gratitude that you have something to declutter
This is a tricky point to labor because I don’t believe that whole “eat your greens because kids are starving in Africa” schtick works all that well. Any of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s almost certainly had our parents tell us this and thanks to a complete lack of context (unless you had actually been to Africa), it never stuck.
The same can go for decluttering. Someone saying “be grateful you are in a privileged enough position to have something to declutter” might not be of much comfort when you’re deciding which jeans to keep and which to throw.
But there is a key difference between these two scenarios. Whilst your decision to eat your greens (or not) as a kid would have had very little impact on a child starving in Africa, you throwing out something from your home could have a huge impact on someone else.
Here’s an excerpt from Rachelle Crawford at Abundant Life with Less which I think sums up this concept better than I can:
Generosity is the secret weapon to combat clutter. We can spend months hemming and hawing over whether we’ll one day need those extra baking dishes. Or we can drop them off at the rescue mission thrift store and let them find their way to someone who could actually use them now, while funding a worthy community resource.
It rather puts it all into perspective, doesn’t it?
If you’re tired of decluttering, check in with your “why”
If you’re struggling to keep up the decluttering pace, go back to your “why”.
What was it that made you want to declutter in the first place? Was it to feel calmer? To save money? To make you feel more in control? To level up your happiness?
Everyone has a why but it can be easy to lose track of it after a while. So take a moment to remember what yours is. Write it down if you want to. Stick it somewhere visible like that newly-cleared fridge door. Remember it always.
Remember: judgment is a mirror
There will always be someone in your life who dismisses your decluttering or your choice to live a minimalist lifestyle. People are only too keen to tell you it’s unsustainable or impossible or just plain wrong.
Some of the best advice I ever received about tackling naysayers came from Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists fame:
Judgment is but a mirror reflecting the insecurities of the person who’s doing the judging
In other words, whatever comes out of people’s mouths usually has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.
When you take on something like decluttering or living a more intentional life, it will always make other people question their own choices — and many are not keen on what they see.
If people judge you, it’s almost certainly nothing to do with you which means you have permission to ignore it and use your energies in more worthwhile, meaningful pursuits — like decluttering.
Decluttering is easier with friends
If you’re in the valley of decluttering despair, friends are what will help you out of it.
If you have IRL friends who are also keen on living a minimalist lifestyle, then great! Get on the phone with them
If you don’t (and I certainly didn’t when I started my foray into minimalism) then that’s what the internet’s for.
I’m here. Give me a shout.
Or check out communities on YouTube, Reddit, and even Twitter. The resources section at the end of this email is a good place to start.
The internet has many flaws but one of its strengths is you can find your tribe even if they live thousands of miles away.
Stop listening to The Noise™
The Noise™ is my phrase for everything around you that tells you what you’re doing is wrong.
It’s our society’s predilection for busy worship. It’s hustle porn saying you’re never good enough. It’s everything that stops you from living a simple, slow life.
And boy is it loud. The Noise™ is real and it will do its very best to derail your minimalist dreams.
Instead of re-hashing what I’ve already written about The Noise™, I suggest you head on over to this article once you’ve finished here for some practical tips on how to drown it out.
Surround yourself with content that keeps you on track
When I began my simple living journey, I consumed minimalist content like it was going out of style.
Podcasts, articles, blogs, YouTube channels, if it had the word minimalism in it, I was there.
This content is like an antidote to The Noise™. It says hey, we know what you’re going through, you’re not alone.
Check out the resources below for some of the best minimalist content out there.
Resources
Online minimalism communities
Becoming Minimalist Facebook group
The Minimalists’ local meetup groups
Articles
How to Live a Simple Life When the World Around You Is Busy, Noisy, and Says Your Choices Are Dumb
How to Hear What People Are Really Trying to Tell You
7 Tough Love Decluttering Tips
Minimalist content
Paula Pant’s Afford Anything podcast
Jessica Rose Williams Substack