How is tidying useful for you?

There are as many reasons to have a clutter free life as there are people. Be it what it may, there will still be room for excuses such as "I don't have time", "I don't have the skills", "I don't have the energy", "Actually, it doesn't look THAT bad", "Maybe being messy is cool?", "Maybe someone could do it for me?". My rude answer to all of these excuses is a big fat NO.

You have to take it in your own hands and work towards your dreams yourself. But wait... can organising and tidying really be someone's dream? No, probably not - however, tidying is a powerful means to an end. And that end is where your dreams and goals reside.

If you find yourself in a situation where you seem to want to have everything organised but haven't yet found the will, feeling, motivation - name the factor as you like - then perhaps you need a tiny push. Read on!

The fun fact is - everyone needs to find their inner motivation themselves so I'm not here to tell you that there is this one certain holy goal at the end of the rainbow. You'll need to find that rainbow yourself because if you don't, one of the three things is very likely to happen:

1. You'll start enthusiastically but won't finish;

2. You'll force yourself to tidy up because it feels like the right thing to do but after a while everything gets messy again and you give up;

3. You'll leave everything as is and won't even bother to start with any tidying.

With this post, I would like to guide you to think what could be the motivator for you.

Productivity growth

Systems and order are a certain way to increased productivity.

A good example is your email inbox. Imagine this scenario: you'll arrive at work in the morning, open up your inbox and see 74 unread emails. It might alert you a little bit but you decide to start from the oldest. This email, however, was sent to 5 people in total and while you were out of office, other recipients have already replied something. The emails in the same thread are now the 74th but also 55th and 14th oldest so it messes up your plan to start working on the very oldest unread email you have. Instead of tackling this mess, you'll rather go make a cup of coffee, chat with colleagues and boom! - an hour gone and no productivity achieved whatsoever.

Find yourself an application or systemise your email and inbox and you'll see straight away that you have a better overview and control over your incoming emails. You'll know what to prioritise because YOU have been the one to decide your priorities by categorising recipients/labels/topics or whatever it is that works best for you.

Less stress

If the environment around you is clean and tidy, your mind will also be calmer. This is a fact.

Your brain translates visual mess instantly into negative stress. A home that is filled with stuff is one of the biggest sources of stress, possibly without you even knowing it. The brain constantly processes everything you see. If you see a lot of different things, a lot of colours at once, a lot of words in various fonts and so on, then the brain works on high speed and you will neither be able to focus on the important things nor relax.

Yes, there are other sources of stress in life, of course, but in a larger scale, everything that surrounds you is interconnected.

If you make one big positive change in your life, you will notice other aspects changing for the better as well because you are moving towards your goals and dreams more consciously.

Considering all of the above, please don't take it as a recommendation to not own absolutely anything or that you should live in a sterile minimalism but here's just some food for thought: have you ever heard the phrase "less is more"? Close your eyes for a moment and think to yourself why this particular phrase and many of its derivatives have become so known and popular things to say.

More time

Once you know how many things you own and where they are exactly, be it in your home, your (digital) photo albums or a chest of drawers in your office, you will save a tremendous amount of time because you will find everything as soon as you need it.

If you have many boxes/drawers/cupboards/closets that you could label as "random stuff" and none of the items inside them seem to have their own place, then it's very likely that you will forever keep searching for the screwdriver you put away in a "smart" place.

More money

In addition to time, you will also save quite a good sum of money if you know what and how much you own. If the previously mentioned screwdriver has completely vanished but you really need it right now - what do you do? Chances are that you will buy a new one. However, if you know where what is you will manage to avoid these double purchases.

This applies especially for clothes. It can happen (and I believe it does for most of us) that you accidentally find yourself in a clothes store without a goal in mind and see that beautiful blue shirt that is absolutely your style. If your closet is organised, you will remember that you have two "absolutely your style" blue shirts in the third drawer of your bedroom closet's left cabinet (and you had three more but you donated them because you only wore the two favourite ones anyway). Therefore it is way more likely that you decide not to buy this shirt you accidentally saw but that is very similar in style to the ones you already have.

Healthier lifestyle

This benefit might not show itself straight from the beginning (especially when you've just started to tidy up your home euphorically, working 24 hours straight with no sleep and with the help of lots of caffeine...) but is definitely a huge long-term factor.

If your goal is getting organised in as many aspects of your life as possible, then sooner or later you will also start planning your meals. Once you've tried doing the hard work of putting together a weekly menu on a Sunday and ordered all necessary food items from an e-shop, you'll see that in addition to saved time and money you will also eat healthier and less. When you plan your meals, it's much easier to make healthy choices and re(consider) what you put in your basket as you don't have all the SUPERDISCOUNTS and colourful sweets and delicious freshly baked bread smells in front of you that would distract you in a physical shop.

It goes without saying that thanks to a lower stress level you will also sleep better and you know that quality sleep is the foundation of success, right?

If you don't yet or want to know more about the importance of sleep - I can't not recommend enough the book “Why we sleep”. Someone should put it into the mandatory reading list for everyone.

Higher self-confidence

When you're surrounded by objects you love and actually need and when you have injected a lot of your valuable time and energy into tidying and organising, you'll feel proud of yourself. You won't need to beat yourself up anymore for not getting anything done or for spending too much money on useless purchases.

Maybe you haven't noticed or thought about it, but your life has probably already improved because by taking on this fairly large challenge, you have geared your mindset towards a positive change. With a bigger number in your bank account and much less stress, feel free to pat on your own shoulder and tell yourself that you're really proud of taking control of your own life!

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Take these possible outcomes as a basis for your own thoughts. Think about the most important thing for you; dream away and visualise what your life will look like when you've made it to the goal you have set. Write the goal(s) down so you wouldn't forget. Write down also how tidying, organising and system will help you along the way of reaching your goals. Then, every time you feel demotivated, check what you wrote and read how amazing your future will be!