Timesaver of the week: Declutter! You, Yes You, Can Create Time (by Creating Space).

When you've lived in a small apartment in New York City like I have, you learn to get creative with space because every inch makes a difference, and any item left on a table has the appearance of a boulder.

I want to share the tricks I learned so you can create space in your home because they also create time.

(Creating space can also be called simplifying, neatening, decluttering, or organizing - just choose the term that doesn't fill you with dread and make you hide under a pile of clutter.)

Creating space saves you time looking for your keys when you have to run out the door which makes you late, which gives you road rage (or walk rage for city folks), because you’re running late, because of your keys being who knows where… In your other pants pocket? How’d they even get there?! Then you spend time thinking you’re a mess and getting mad at yourself, which spirals into focusing on what goes wrong for the rest of the day.

It saves you time at the store when you can’t remember if you have enough toothpaste and then you buy more and realize it was just in another cabinet, and this is the second time you’ve done that, so now you have three tubes of toothpaste and that ends up with the existential crisis, “What am I doing with my life?” 

It creates time because you’re not spending time looking for things.

It gives you time to feel more grounded. Not only because you have room to think but because you can literally stand on the ground instead of on your laundry and your mail that you need to go through.

So how do you create space and time in only two steps right there in your humble abode you ask?

1. Everything has a home.

Decide where each item you have belongs, and that’s where it lives. That’s where you put it back every single time you’re done with it.

If you don’t know where it should go, ask yourself: “Where would I go if I were looking for it right now?”

Group things together. I've seen it in homes and soooo many times in offices. People scatter things around, don't know what they have, and then they buy more, wasting money, space, and time, needlessly.

2. As-you-go.

You put things away as you go. You don't wait for one day when you'll do it all. Life isn’t all or nothing. It’s more of a steady pace.

It might seem like a time waster: “I just got in. I don’t want to hang my jacket up right now.” But those few seconds save you time later when you can’t find the TV remote, and all you just want to do is relax, but it’s hidden under the jacket you tossed on the couch. Hang up your jacket when you come in. Open snail mail as soon as you get it, tear and toss the envelope, and put the info where you keep that info. As You Go is a great investment in your time. You're consistently setting yourself up for success.

Think of it like washing your hands every day. (Hopefully.) We don’t wash our hands once, hoping to get it done for life, we do it every time we need to as a necessary part of life. It helps us stay healthy, as well as preventing staining a couch with pizza sauce, and we do it without attaching so much meaning and dread to it. 

If your mess is overwhelming, put everything that needs to be put away into One Big Pile (instantly creating space!) and put one - yes, only one - thing away from that pile every time you enter that room. (You'll likely do more than one, but one is so doable.)

How to handle One Big Pile: Throw away easy things first that require no decision making. (An old phone number you don’t even know whose it is. An empty envelope...) Then put away the things that you've already given a home. You know where those go. Then things that don't have a home, give a home - remember to group things together. Then things you don't want anymore, put in a bag by the door to donate.

Lots of people get stumped by a sink full of dirty dishes. Clean one dish (only one required) every time you go by the sink. (Then once you've made that breakthrough, you can do your dishes as-you-go.) People also get stumped by old food in the fridge. Stop feeling guilty for not eating it - it won't get tastier the longer you leave it.

For things you don't really want to keep but feel like you should... ask: "If I got rid of it and really missed it, could I get it again?" If the answer is yes, make a list of these items so you remember what they were (the list is for your comfort, you’ll never look at it again), bring them to a donation place and say buh-bye! 

• Note to those who have just moved: First of all, moving should be called "Life Upheaval". Moving sounds simple, a move to the left or the right. No. You need the scissor to open the box, but you packed the scissor in the box. It takes time to get unpacked and used to everything, but think of this as a great opportunity to set yourself up for success.

  
  

• Note to new parents: Parenting involves unexpected moments all-day, every-day, in the newest way. Be gentle with all of this. Embrace your little one taking things out and not putting them back. They're discovering the world and this is the time to do it, and for you to enjoy it. Just do the best you can putting important things in their "home", like your keys, so things are less scramble-y when you need to go somewhere. The idea is: Take your time. Less stress.

  
  

To Sum Up:

You're lighten-ing your load. Don’t worry about why things got so cluttered, it’s not random carelessness, your mess is your metaphor. You’re busy. You’ve got decision fatigue and have no idea what to do with your stuff. It's covering up items representing an old dream or something that brings up a guilt, obligation, and complicated memories. Maybe you’re bored and ambivalent about every single thing you own, or no one's visiting so you don't see the point. Maybe it has significance to who you were but not who you want to become. Maybe you just need shelves.

What you have and how you keep it represents the clarity - or lack of clarity - in your life. And what do we know about clarity? It saves time!

Once you set up your Creating Space system, it becomes automatic, paced, and purposeful.

It’s time to heal your environment (and yourself). Creating space is a great use of your time because you're giving yourself a foundation. You're setting yourself up for success and keeping that going. This is real self-care. And, by the way, you don't have to get rid of everything to have a time-saving environment. You can keep anything you want, including for sentimental value. In fact, if you don’t live by yourself, you have to have things around that other people value that you don’t. In that case, just ask them to give their items a home as-they-go.

The result when you streamline instead of scramble: Lower stress. Feeling lighter. Calmer. Clarity. Time to process things, and to look at what's going on from different angles to make decisions. More creativity, sensuality, and stability. Eliminates last minute chaos when you need it most. Feelings of accomplishment. The creation of time.