Everyone has a different tolerance level for mess and disorder, some seem perfectly capable of living with a – to some extent – cluttered home. And we all have friends or family members who live in tidy, well-kept homes. Despite having full, busy lives. This blog contains a part of my book “Empowered WMN WFH”. Whether you are going to the office again part-time or full-time or still at home working your own business, this book can be a good guideline regardless. It’s about bringing balance in your existence by organizing your life. Not only the parts that are related to your work, but also your home and your psyche. A holistic approach to how you feel and behave in a changing environment.
Balance your Life By Organizing your Home
your Work and Yourself.
Going Back to the Office?
The funny thing is that going back to the office brings a whole other series of anxieties for some people. While they had a hard time adjusting to working from home full time and being separated from their colleagues. You would think that going back to the office would bring things back to normal and people would start where they left off. But that is not the case! Having a home environment that radiates tranquility is crucial to adapt to the changes and find your balance again. As is finding inner peace.
But sometimes that’s easier said than done. Even if you get stressed out by your home not being organized, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to fix. There are different factors that could have contributed to your home being in the state it is in. You simply might have too much stuff and not enough space. There might not be enough time to tackle the clutter because of career, family and other obligations. Or maybe you have a history of disorganization. You do not know how to get organized and stay organized.
The Filers and the Pilers
Understand whether you are naturally organized or not and take measures to ensure you stay within your own healthy range. The fact is, some folks are more inclined to be neat and orderly, while others feel more comfortable with a lot of stuff around. Instead of fighting against your nature, learn from it and work with it.
There are filers and there are pilers. Too often pilers try to turn themselves into filers, and they shouldn’t. You have been given permission to be yourself.
Although we have just been discussing that there is nothing wrong with having lots of stuff hanging around, we should make sure we have a plan so that things do not get out of hand.
15 Minutes
To keep our own cluttering in proportion, we have a household routine that we try to practice at least once a week. We call it “quarters” and as you can guess from the name it’s about decluttering 15 minutes with the whole family.
We usually start downstairs where our main living areas are.
The timer is set to 15 minutes. We start clearing out everything that does not belong or that is out of place. When the alarm goes off, we stop. Sometimes we take the routine to another floor where everyone starts to clean up their room, the bathroom and the dressing for 15 minutes as well. We never do more than 45 minutes. To keep it short and sweet.
At first you might not see any to very little result, but I can assure you that after a few weeks you will have a hard time finding new things to put away after a few minutes. Sometimes we add dusting and cleaning to the routine to make the most use out of our quarter.
Everybody can squeeze in 15 minutes a week. When the alarm goes off, you stop. Your house didn’t become messy in one day, so you don’t have to declutter in one day or week.
It doesn’t really matter what you do with these 15 minutes, whether it’s decluttering, dusting or cleaning. Important is that you take care of your house for a short amount of time and give it all your attention and your love. When you do this several times a week, and in multiple rooms, you will notice that your house feels lighter.
The One Thing
There are several other practices that might feel more like you and that you can implement. For example: “What’s the one thing”.
When you step into a room you ask yourself, what is the one thing that I could remove or replace or add so this room looks better when I leave it.
Routines
It might be helpful to get some routines going for daily tasks so you start doing them automatically and balance your todo list:
- Getting-home-routine. It keeps things in order without having to take extra actions.
- Morning-routine. Like opening your windows to let in fresh air and make your bed.
- Cleaning-routines.
- Laundry-routine.
Think of your own routines to keep things organized. Also don’t forget to take time off to relax and enjoy.
Conclusion
Whether you continue to work from home or you go back to the office part-time you need a place where you can relax and disconnect from work and other stressful activities. Make sure to balance out the overstimulation of people and impressions with some Zen-like rooms and morning routines.
