Why I can't clean my house? Part 1: Minimalist with less than 50 possessions teaches the ultimate method
I am one of the extreme minimalists who owns less than 50 objects with me.
I am spending my life very comfortably with fewer objects but more happiness while travelling and working at the same time.
In this article, I'm going to answer the question "Why I can't clean my room?"
Yes, I know this is a serious concern for some people, like SERIOUS.
One of my siblings has a problem with this topic and that person has not been able to clean their own room for more than 10 years.
As an extreme minimalist for more than 5 years, I would like to share some of the tips that you can use for cleaning your room or at least reducing unnecessary things.
There are 5 steps to achieve the simplest dream "I want my room to be clean."
Those steps are...
- Know what you have
- Know where you have
- Know if you need it or not
- Decide your cleaning time
- JUST DO IT
Let's jump into it.
1. Know what you have
The first step you need to do to clean your house is to understand what you have.
Some of my friends ask me how to clean the rooms or houses, and this is exactly what I tell them to do first.
When you try to know what you have in your house, categorizing is very important.
I will show you how to categorize things easily by sharing what I have done to become a minimalist.
When you try to clean your house, the reason why you fail is that you try to do it all at once.
So my advice is that you want to focus on one category per cleaning.
If it's Saturday today and you want to dedicate all day to cleaning your house, what you need to do is decide the category you are cleaning today.
The first category that I worked on was "clothes" because I had a lot of clothes due to my fashionista era back in uni, so working on the clothes category first seems to be a very big first step for many people.
After choosing the category, you need to find everything related to the category in your house.
Summary of the paragraph: You should work on one category per cleaning. What is today's one?
2. Know where you have
The second step is to know "where you have" things related to the category you have chosen.
Let's stick to the example of "clothes".
If you're still on your way to clean your house, all the clothes are not organized, so you need to look around your house to find every single cloth that you have; literally "digging up".
After digging up everything, the difficult part comes; you need to think about whether you still need it for sure or you are not going to use it forever.
Another important point here is that you should be without hesitation of digging up.
Here, I mean that you shouldn't judge something while you are picking it up.
The process of digging up and judging must be separated because if you try to judge while you dig up, it will take a massive time to finish cleaning and you'll be lost where are you in the long journey of cleaning.
Summary of the paragraph: Dig up all the things related to the category you have chosen but do not judge now. Just dig them up.
3. Know if you need it or not
As written in the article "Reasons why minimalism gives you a simple life", knowing what you need and what you don't need is very important.
So how do you know whether you need the things you have or not?
I will show you two possible approaches you can try out.
1. If you haven't used it for a year, you do not need it
My method here is that if you haven't used something for more than a year, you do not need it.
This is pretty obvious that after one year of not using it, when would be the next time to use it?
In addition to that, if your house is filled with too many things, you may dig up something you almost forgot that you have it.
This is a sign that you do not have to have it in your place.
2. If you do not love it anymore, you do not need it.
Another method that I have been telling people is that you should not own something you don't love.
I appreciate the objects that I have like I do for human relationships.
You may have purchased something with a very passionate mind that you thought you would use for a long period but things can change from time to time.
What important here is that you listen to your heart right now and ask yourself what you think about the objects now.
Summary of the paragraph: Based on the method I have shared with you, try to find out whether you still need the possession or not.
4. Decide your cleaning time
4th step is to set the weekly cleaning time and put it on your calendar.
The important point here is to make the cleaning habit weekly repeated.
Many people work 5 days a week I think, so probably Saturday morning or Sunday morning is the best time to focus on cleaning.
You want to remember that if you are serious about changing yourself by cleaning your house, no event or no schedule except for an emergency can disturb this weekly cleaning habit.
Based on my experience, you will need at least 2 hours for each cleaning session; i.e. when you wake up Saturday morning, get the coffee time done and try to focus before you get hungry.
Summary of the paragraph: You should set the date&time to work on cleaning. Put it on the calendar with a weekly repeat setting.
5. JUST DO IT
The final step is "JUST DO IT".
When the time that you can finally clean your room, please do not hesitate or procrastinate doing it.
Being a doer is so important for organizing your room since it is so easy to make it messy again.
I know the reason why you came to this article, so let's make it happen this time.
Summary of the paragraph: You should work on one category per cleaning. What is today's one?
Summary
The 5 steps that you should follow to clean your house are as below.
- Know what you have
- know where you have
- Know if you need it or not
- Decide your cleaning time
- JUST DO IT
Cleaning your house makes you feel much better after you do it, so
If you have not yet been able to do these steps, I have another extreme case.
LEAVE YOUR HOME WITH ONE BAG AND NEVER COME BACK TO YOUR PLACE FOR 3 MONTHS.
Why doing this?
Because then, at last, you will know that you are fully capable of living and spending your life peacefully without going back to your place, which also means you did not have to have all the things you left behind.
The next article: Why I can't clean my house? Part 2: the ultimate shopping method for minimalism