Decor

Clear Your Clutter: Apartment Therapy, Continued

Continuing with the apartment cure can be as simple as training yourself to clean sooner rather than later

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Credit: Flickr/florriebassingbourn

Everyday clutter can be tamed — honest

Declutter your place in minutes for peace of mind

In my first and second Apartment Therapy posts, I talked about starting the Apartment Therapy cure with two easy steps — buying flowers and cooking at home. It’s author Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s contention that your interior reflects more than your style (or lack thereof), but can shape how you think and feel from day to day.

Cluttered, hoarded places with little space tend to make us scattered and restless; their clinical, overly empty opposites leave us without warmth and comfort at home, where we need it most.

Fix Your Place, Fix Your Life

I’ve been inspired by Gillingham-Ryan’s blog, but especially by the book. The notion that you can relate points of frustration in your life at large to areas of poor flow in your apartment is a radical one, but it makes sense.

Such examples as a dead-end job, problematic relationships, a lack of friends or simply an inability to focus seem like larger issues than whether we sort our mail or use our ovens. Yet I’ve been surprised, when implementing even a few of Apartment Therapy’s recommendations, how much better I feel.

Clear Clutter, Feel Better

Apartment Therapy insists I do my dishes every night, clearing the rack before bed. I can’t tell you how I put off this simple chore, but as Gillingham-Ryan points out, all I’m doing is delaying. And he’s right: there’s an energy and calm in a clean expanse of kitchen counter and empty drainboard that’s little short of a miracle.

Set a Timer to Clear Everyday Clutter

Inspired, I’ve extended the lesson of cleaning to try and pick up my place before I go out. Mail, magazines, toys, shoes — they can pile up in minutes, seemingly covering every surface. The good news is such junk can be picked up just as fast, especially if you enlist everyone’s help. Some guides even recommend setting a timer and seeing how much you can get done.

Come Home to a Clean House

The payoff? Opening your door, upon your return, not to your disaster of a life, but to a space that’s (however temporarily), clean, serene, and clear of the usual strew. It’s almost enough to inspire me to finally do my dishes.