Vig - The Holistic Guide to Decluttering: Organize and Transform Your Space, Time, and Mind

2020 Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc.

Text 2020 Michele Vig

First Published in 2020 by Fair Winds Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group,

100 Cummings Center, Suite 265-D, Beverly, MA 01915, USA.

T (978) 282-9590 F (978) 283-2742 QuartoKnows.com

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Digital edition: 978-1-63159-891-3
Hardcover edition: 978-1-59233-961-7

Digital edition published in 2020

eISBN: 978-1-63159-891-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Vig, Michele, author.

Holistic guide to decluttering : organize and transform your space, time, and mind / Michele Vig.

ISBN 9781592339617 | ISBN 9781631598913 (eISBN)

1. House cleaning. 2. Orderliness. 3. Time management. 4. Storage in the home.

LCC TX324 .V54 2020 (print) | LCC TX324 (ebook) | DDC 648/.5--dc23

LCCN 2020003979 (print) | LCCN 2020003980 (ebook) |

Design and Page Layout: Tanya Jacobson, jcbsn.co Photography: Jes Lahay, except pages 29, 40, 111, 133, 134, 171, 186, 188, 200 Shutterstock

Organize and Transform Your Space, Time, and Mind

MICHELE VIG of Neat little Nest

There are many organizing companies and plenty of resources that teach decluttering. In my own pursuit to learn as much as I could, Ive read books on how to declutter, how to organize, how to simplify, how to prioritize and the list goes on. While Im grateful and appreciative for all I have learned, I found myself feeling there was something missing.

You see, Ive always had a passion for organizing. I leveraged that passion to help keep my busy home life and calendar running smoothly during my twenty-year corporate career. I eventually followed my passion and took the leap to start my own organizing business. Now my life is all about helping others declutter and get organized.

As a professional organizer, Ive witnessed the weight of physical clutter firsthand. Ive seen it in my clients eyes when we've met, and Ive heard it in their voices. Physical clutter is heavy, anxiety triggering, and overwhelming. Fortunately, Ive also seen how anxiety and stress can melt away when those same people spend focused time and energy decluttering and creating organizational systems.

Ive found that decluttering physical things has had a positive impact for my clients, but too often it seemed its reach was not deep enough. A cluttered house might be resolved, but the change would not be lasting. In a house full of stress-inducing calendars and racing minds, the clean, organized home was only a temporary anchor. I realized that most peoples focus was on the clutter we can see: the surface-level clutter.

Eventually, something clicked for me. The truth is that clutter is not always physical. Clutter is bigger than just stuff. When you consider clutter holistically, you can see there are three main forms of clutterphysical, time, and mentaland they are all intricately linked.

It is my hope that this book will show you how all these types of clutter can be resolved. By decluttering holistically in all key areas, I hope to provide you with transformational change. We will start by examining the sources of clutter from a higher-level view, then get into the home. Ill help you sort through the most common areas where physical clutter builds up. Ill also share popular, proven strategies for organizing, as well as tactics to help you keep it that way. In the chapters that follow, well dig into the idea of the calendar and time budgeting to help free you from another key source of stress. Finally, well address what may be the most important topic of all: mental clutter.

My hope is that you will find inspiration in the pages that follow and that they will serve as a spark to help you dig deep into the different types of clutter that might be holding you back from living your most desired life. Ultimately, my goal is for you to expand your belief of what it means to live clutter free.

Let the holistic decluttering journey begin!

Michele Vig

Its important to consider what factors contributed to your clutter if you want to achieve lasting change.

Where does clutter begin? Thats a difficult question to answer as every persons story is unique and multifaceted. With my clients, I have found one thing to be true: Everyones life experiences and priorities are different. Furthermore, because we are exploring three areas of clutter in this book that are different, but intricately linked, guessing one root to the clutter is nearly impossible.

Lets look at physical clutter as an example. Some people have a lot of physical clutter simply because they buy a lot of stuff and have a difficult time managing it all. Others struggle with physical clutter because they have a difficult time letting things goeven when they know they need to. And the reasons dont stop there. There may be significant life events that disrupt routines and require a lot of time and focus, which lead to clutter. Or a racing mind and an inability to stay focused long enough to tend to the day-to-day needs could also be a factor.

In this chapter, well take a closer look at the reasons people find themselves buried in clutter. Some of the factors and stories may resonate with you, while others may not. My hope is that you will find both hope and inspiration in the chapters that follow. This chapter may help you understand how you got hereand youll see you are certainly not alone.

When you only keep the items you love and can fit in the space, youll ward off mountains of stress and clutter.