"Enjoy the little things, as one day you will look back and realise they were the big things&qu
I adore this quote, but it only really resonated with me once I had decluttered my home. When I decluttered it gave me so much more time and helped clear my mind to make me see what made me truly happy. Material things do make me happy.... but what truly makes my heart glow is spending quality time with loved ones. I never seemed to be able to do this in my cluttered life. There was always something else that needed doing, and never enough money to do it! When I did book time away it wasn't enjoyable as the organisation it took was a slog and sooo much packing and unpacking! Trying to get the house to resemble some sort of order so that people coming in to look after my animals didn’t see how much of a cluttered mess we actually lived in! Coming back to a messy home and all the unpacking and washing of laundry would make the whole time away seem as if it never happened.
So let me tell you about what changed and how different it all is now.
Be financially better off
First of all decluttering has helped me financially so much, that it allows us to take holidays in the first place! You might wonder how ‘throwing things away’ can make your bank balance better!
You can you earn decent amounts of money from some of your unwanted clutter.
You also change your shopping habits as you only buy what you need and love, and no need to buy duplicate items as you can’t find something. You will find you buy less ‘bits’ of things you only half heartedly want, less shopping sprees and more considered buying, leaving more money in your bank account.
As you change your shopping habits, so do the people around you. MiniT will now look around the shop and all the options before deciding on the thing she REALLY wants rather than wanting everything! As she's considered it so well I no longer resent buying the things she wants as I know she will love them, and it won't just be a mountain of trashy toys that she will only love playing with for 2 minutes and then never played with again!
Paperwork being organised means you can find receipts and warranties easily, plus you can keep better track of your finances and you will find yourself being proactive rather than reactive to money. I check my bank accounts frequently as I’m no longer scared, this allows me to be actively involved about my finances. It’s meant that I’ve been able to say ‘yes’ to anything MiniT has wanted to do, and splurge on things she’s wanted to buy. A few of my clients (and myself) had paperwork going way back and managed to find old PPI information to successfully reclaim thousands using Martin Lewis’ Money Saving Expert reclaim info. Check it out here.
Packing.
Packing becomes a doddle! You take less and packing it in the first place becomes easier as you can find everything. As your laundry is more ordered there’s no last minute hunt for clothes to find out they’re in the bottom of a laundry basket. Kids can help get what they need as you can make them a list and they know where to get the stuff from.
Time
Now I’m no longer fighting my house and it’s clutter I have so much more spare time (and therefore energy!) This means we can just enjoy family time and each other’s company. We can play messy games as I know it doesn’t take long to put the house back to tidy again, and we have much more room to play too. As there’s no longer constant battles about tidying clutter away you get to enjoy genuinely happy times, and just how important they are as there is no negative thing to put a downer on it afterwards.
Leaving a tidy home and coming back to one!
There really is no better feeling than coming back home after holiday to find your home as tidy and welcoming as you left it!
Unpacking takes minutes as you know where everything goes. As you took less clothes (and shoes lol) there’s less piles of laundry to wash too.
Paperwork
You know exactly where tickets, boarding passes, passports etc are straight away, as your paperwork is ordered so there’s no last minute panicking!
If you need to check anything the info you need is right at hand. No more paperwork panic!
Decluttering my life has meant me and MiniT treated ourselves to a stay at Alton Towers for Scarefest for Halloween. We had a great time. MiniT has a new found love of rollercoasters and we had a great time dressing up as witches. Money can’t buy the ‘little things’ but decluttering can make them happen by showing you what is important, and makes it a whole heap easier too!
