Clean up the apartment: get away with the stuff!
How do I want to live? And how can my apartment support me? Two questions we should ask ourselves now and then. One's own personality is not something fixed, but continues to evolve. With 55, we see much different than with 35? also our own four walls. But sometimes your own ego seems to be buried under things that have docked over the years and are now difficult to shake off again. This abundance makes us unfree, it steals our time and our well-being. It basically seems so simple: the apartment should be the place that gives security and clarity, where we can find ourselves. We just have to have the courage to free them from the accumulated ballast and reshape them. Step by step, this process not only clarifies and widens our living space, but also the view of ourselves. This happens alongside, almost by itself.
Step 1: Imagine how beautiful it could be
Every object that has sometimes accompanied us for years and decades has memories. They connect our present with our past, make our home unique, unmistakable. Sure, the leather stool reminds of the wonderful journey through Morocco, the four-armed candlestick was the gift of the first loved one, the small mahogany table was already in the grandmother's salon ... Only: Do we really need it all for the rest of our lives? Hardly likely. But throwing it away seems like a betrayal of our own history and of the people they should remember. A dilemma. On the one hand, we long for change, but for fear of the emptiness, which may then overwhelm us, everything remains the same and obstructs our view of the present and the future.
This helps
Imagine what your apartment would look like without all these things, how the rooms would become lighter and airier. Finally, space for new ideas and surprises that still holds the life. But as good as a new beginning feels, it also carries uncertainty. The old is no longer there, the new is still waiting, and we feel like transients in our own home. To take the first step, we need motivation. And that can only come from ourselves.
Imagine how generous your home could look like if you first scrapped the cupboard and brought it to the bulky waste. To get inspired for the aftermath, collect cracks from magazines and pictures of rooms you like. Compose small collages with color and fabric samples. Attached to a bulletin board, you have your goal in mind every day. Since it may even happen that the mahogany table grandmother unfolds a whole new impact, for example, as a unique piece in front of a color painted wall.
Get rid of your feelings of guilt and trust in your heart: You will remember the first great love anyway - even without the four-branched candlestick.
Step 2: No more uninvited guests
Memorabilia, leftovers from frustration purchases, garments that have become too tight: We hoard all these objects, because we believe that they could once again be useful or at some point fit on our bodies and in our lives. Actually we know it better, right? But after almost every shopping trip or weekend trip we carry again any useless little things in our apartment.
This helps
No new purchases until some old ones have been sorted out. Just having enough of everything is an art that you can learn and let us live happier. And if something nice falls on your next shopping spree, remember what the children's book author Maurice Sendak once said: "There must be more to life than having everything."
Step 3: look at the essentials
Take a look around: on the shelves the travel souvenirs and all sorts of odds and ends are piled up next to books that you have not looked at for a long time. In the kitchen cabinets bowls, sieves, bakeware stack in multiple versions. Not to mention the dishes: one for daily, one for parties, one for holidays. The children are already out of the house and cooking for the extended family is long gone, right? Nevertheless, to part with it means to say goodbye to a nice part of life.
This helps
Reward yourself after your work is done. Letting go is easier when you imagine how beautiful the table would look with this wonderfully elegant, yet simple service you've been flirting with for a long time - for every occasion. If your feelings are sloshing too high, get yourself a good friend who can resolutely grab because she does not associate emotions with the items.Take one step at a time and just imagine what you can actually do. Just these little success experiences can be extremely inspiring!
Step 4: Create clarity
An early trained perfection claim prevents many women from enduring an intermediate state in their home. When creating an order, your own creativity often gets in the way. Thousands of ideas are in the head, many things are started and never finished. They become entangled in their interests, and the frustration increases with the amount of unfinished things. In addition, some occupations are very material-intensive. Anyone who then writes, tinkers or paints stories in his free time can easily lose track of things. Books, sketches, brushes, paints, described sheets suddenly pile up on tables, on shelves and on the floor, and at some point you will not be able to cope.
This helps
Do you create places? and for every passion! In the study the table stands for the job, in the living room one for painting and crafts and in the bedroom a small secretary for letter and story writing.
The only rule here is: The separation must be strictly adhered to. And do not forget the motto of Nam June Paik, the father of video art: "If too perfect, dear God evil."
Step 5: Say goodbye
Some companions are so precious that you can not imagine being without them. Almost everyone has such a box of love letters, tickets for concerts, postcards from the family. For a long time, her silent presence calms down somewhere on the top of the store, where she slowly becomes dusty. Unimaginable, just to throw it away, it is something of the key to a past life.
This helps
There are times when you want to start again, for example after a breakup. But the memories rob energy. The thought of the box of love letters is just too oppressive. Take a weekend and read all again, call the beautiful and the pain in the consciousness and then burn one after the other solemnly. A worthy farewell. Separation? also of things? It takes time, and you should take it. Carefully handle yourself, then let go and enjoy the newly won ease!
