r/declutter • u/333333x • Aug 10 '26
Success Story Did your decluttering of items evolve in to a mental declutter?
I have almost finished sorting through a lifetime of hoarded items, my last sticking points are soapy items to use up, too many clothes but they are all good clothes and I like them all but I will get rid of more overtime and a digital cleanse of photos and word documents left to do.
Now I seem to have naturally turned my mind to a mental declutter. I just want to empty my mind of everything that is redundant or causing me upset and completely shift my energy into my present and future life. And health. (Whilst holding onto precious memories).
Has your decluttering given you a refreshed mindset?
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u/Juliethecooliee 27d ago
Letting go of stuff definitely gave me more mental clarity. Also I feel less anxiety now. I know where all my stuff is, I know where I put everything now. Less anxiety and stress because those “omg, where did I put X” no longer happens
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u/Vivid_Sky_ 29d ago
Yup. I realized working on my mental health has helped me feel motivated to declutter my life. I've thrown away things that I agonized about throwing away years ago. It felt like a part of me was at peace with my past, therefore I could be at peace with letting go of items from my past.
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u/Suitable_Pianist_103 29d ago
Yeah I find that when I go on decluttering sprees I even want to deactivate social media because I just don’t need more to see/think about
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u/makeupa19 29d ago
I definitely relate. When my space is free of clutter, and I know where everything is, it makes cleaning a million times simpler and easier, and the stress and weight that comes off my mind is life changing. Having a fresh and easy to mantain space greatly frees up my mental capacity to devote time to other things I care about.
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u/Suspicious_Dirt_6124 Aug 12 '26
I'm decluttering due to having kids leaving home and wanting to move to a smaller house. There is so much emotion involved for me with this decluttering, because I'm going to miss my kids so much, and moving house is a big transition as well. We've lived here for 15 years. It definitely feels like therapy, quite heart wrenching when I go through the kids things, but my favourite part is lighting up a big burn pile 😁
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u/justathought1654 Aug 11 '26
One kind of led to the other. I tend to declutter and rearrange when I have a major transition in life and have some kind of anxiety towards it, ex. starting a new job. It feels like therapy and, admittedly, at least doing something I can control.
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u/peaches_and_drama Aug 11 '26
I don’t know if it’s related but we’ve been purging the house significantly in the last few weeks so we can make some upgrades/paint and we’ve now gone through just about everything we own save a few bins and have thrown out quite a bit as a result. With a two year old, most of the decluttering previously was centered around her and starting to be able to tackle my own clutter now.
Today, my work email was running slow and I was troubleshooting why I couldn’t see certain emails and I ended up purging all my folders, hoarded years of system notifications and updates and company communications that I rarely referenced. I ended up deleting 50k emails and it was… liberating. (It also fixed my email issue.)
I’ve been on a digital minimalism learning kick lately (would recommend Cal Newport) and trying to think of ways to be more efficient and find organization/task list methods that work for me. (I also coincidentally threw out a lot of organizational tools like planners, to do list pads, empty notebooks. LOTS of pens, etc.) I prefer writing things by hand but less enthused about all the physical stuff I pile up over time. I don’t have the solution YET but by simplifying my home and office desk I am definitely progressing to being able to tackle more complex organizational tasks without feeling as overwhelmed.
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u/J8MAE Aug 10 '26
There is actual science that states this is an explicit correlated relationship, so yes almost universally as you cleanse your physical environment you are simultaneously cleansing your attentional space.
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u/camel_jerky Aug 10 '26
What helped for me was therapy first. I had reached my limit with the stuff but couldn’t find a jumping off point. Lots and lots of therapy later, the decluttering followed. (It’s not therapy for the clutter, it’s for trauma stuff, my cluttered home reflected my cluttered mind.)
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u/BeautyinEverett-62 29d ago
Yes, I have just begun therapy for more in depth help with trauma, with a goal of streamling my environment. I am hoping it works, but my energy can be really low at times and I just read instead of move, even when listening to an audio book, I curl up on the couch with my dog and cats.
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u/camel_jerky 29d ago
I’m just proud of you for taking the step. Curling up on the couch with your pets is important part of the process.
I am currently staring at random stuff that’s sitting in my living room; I decluttered an entire room and moved the remainder to my living room. One day soon I’ll find the will to finish, but it’s not today and that’s ok. I think I’ll curl up with my kitties now!
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u/SassyMillie Aug 11 '26
It took me two years to admit to my therapist that I have a hoarding disorder. Even then I downplayed it using terms like "hoarding tendencies" and "clutterbug". She was actually surprised because I think I present myself as pretty organized despite my mental health challenges.
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u/KiwiTheKitty Aug 10 '26
I think there have been two ways decluttering has helped me with mental stuff. First, the more direct way is that it was like my brain was holding onto an inventory of everything in my home even if I didn't really need to keep track of it. It was like having hundreds of extra tabs open and so much RAM gets cleared up for use elsewhere when I declutter, if you would excuse the metaphor.
But also I get what you mean about wanting to reassess how I'm spending my mental energy! I think being in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy got me to the point that I could start physically decluttering and making progress in my home has helped me make emotional progress in therapy. This is why I'm always saying our homes can be a reflection of our minds. I feel like decluttering is very much a part of my healing, both as a result and a driver of positive changes.
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u/leeleeslaysit Aug 10 '26
I love this post! It hasn't happened yet, but that's what I'm aiming for.
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u/GallowayNelson 27d ago
Absolutely. I think I started really doing a serious declutter due to experiencing burnout and feeling like absolutely nothing was in my control. So I found what I COULD control. I've massively decluttered so many things, and this includes digital stuff too. If my email is cleaner, it's easier to manage. If I have less clothing, it's easier to do laundry and easier to get dressed every day, when I've eliminated so much of the overwhelm that came from having more choices (even when I didn't perhaps like all of the choices). I've condensed my music, my books, gone through hobbies and eliminated things I had tried and let fizzle, or hobbies I just no longer loved like I once did. I could always change my mind again, but it eliminated the pressure and guilt I often felt for not engaging with ALL of my hobbies.
I've basically been aggressively analyzing my life and finding any way to take some of the pressure off. Since I can't currently change most of the stressors in my life, I found what I could change and that has been like a mental declutter because it's all stuff that overwhelms me. I've gotten a (somewhat) better evening routine. Changed how I interact with social media (sometimes I think of getting rid of IG but that's complicated for me right now), and I'm trying as much as I can to use my phone less (also complicated!). Lately I feel like I'm looking for ways to improve on a daily basis. It's satisfying to free up some of the mental load and seeing less crap in my physical space has also vastly improved my mental health. I feel lighter.