The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

This rebound effect is caused by ineffective methods that tackle tidying only halfway. As I've already mentioned, there is just one way to escape this negative spiral. By tidying efficiently, all at once, as quickly as possible, to make the perfect clutter-free environment. But how does this create the right mindset? When you tidy your space completely, you transform the scenery. The change is so profound that you feel as if you are living in a totally different world. This deeply affects your mind and inspires a strong aversion to reverting to your previously cluttered state. The key is to make the change so sudden that you experience a complete change of heart. The same impact can never be achieved if the process is gradual. To achieve a sudden change like this, you need to use the most efficient method of tidying. Otherwise, before you know it, the day will be gone and you will have made no headway. The more time it takes, the more tired you feel, and the more likely you are to give up when you're only halfway through. When things pile up again, you will be caught in a downward spiral. From my experience with private individual lessons, quickly means about half a year. That may seem like a long time, but it is only six months out of your entire life. Once the process is complete and you've experienced what it's like to be perfectly tidy, you will have been freed forever from the mistaken assumption that you're no good at tidying. For the best results, I ask that you adhere faithfully to the following rule. Tidy in the right order. As we've seen, there are only two tasks involved. Discarding and deciding where to keep things. Just two. But discarding must come first. Be sure to completely finish the first task before starting the next. Do not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding. Failure to follow this order is one reason many people never make permanent progress. In the middle of discarding, they start thinking about where to put things. As soon as they think, I wonder if it will fit in this drawer, the work of discarding comes to a halt. You can think about where to put things when you've finished getting rid of everything you don't need. To summarize, the secret of success is to tidy in one shot, as quickly and completely as possible, and to start by discarding. Before you start, visualize your destination. By now you understand why it is crucial to discard before thinking about where to keep things. But to start discarding without thinking ahead at all would be like casting yourself into the negative spiral of clutter. Instead, begin by identifying your goal. There must have been some reason you picked up this book. What was it that motivated you to tidy in the first place? What do you hope to gain through tidying? Before you start getting rid of things, take the time to think this through carefully. This means visualizing the ideal lifestyle you dream of. If you skip this step, not only will it delay the whole process, but it will also put you at higher risk for rebound. Goals like, I want to live clutter-free, or, I want to be able to put things away, are too broad. You need to think much more deeply than that. Think in concrete terms, so that you can vividly picture what it would be like to live in a clutter-free space. One client in her 20s defined her dream as a more feminine lifestyle. She lived in a messy 7-mat room. 7 tatami mats take up about 10 by 13 feet of floor space, a built-in closet, and three sets of shelves of different sizes. This should have been sufficient storage space, but no matter which way I turned, all I could see was clutter. The closet was so stuffed the doors wouldn't shut, and clothes oozed from the set of drawers inside like the stuffing in a hamburger. The curtain rail over the bay window was hung with so many clothes that there was no need for a curtain. The floor and bed were covered in baskets and bags filled with magazines and papers. When my client came home from work, she moved the things on her bed to the floor, and when she woke up, she put them back on the bed to make a path to the door so she could go to work. Her lifestyle could not have been called feminine by any stretch of the imagination. What do you mean by a feminine lifestyle? I asked. She thought for a long moment before finally responding. Well, when I come home from work, the floor would be clear of clutter, and my room, as tidy as a hotel suite with nothing obstructing the line of sight, I'd have a pink bedspread and a white antique-style lamp.