3 Hotspots to Declutter Now

The new year is a time when a lot of us feel the ‘urge to purge’ and take control of our homes.  We know that by letting go of the tangible clutter in our physical space we gain clarity and energy to tackle our busy lives. Yet, if you try to tackle your whole house at once, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and not do anything at all.  With the best of intentions, we can end up with several ½ done decluttering projects, leaving us feeling defeated and discouraged. 

Instead of giving up, try focusing on just one or two “hotspots” in your home; small areas you can get done in one hour or less that will give you a big return on your investment. The calm and energy released will provide the energy and motivation to tackle other areas. 

Front Entry

Our front entrance sends us off into the world every single day and greets us when we come home.  In less than an hour, you can make this critical hotspot an oasis of calm and order.  Declutter this hotspot by removing all of the excess bags, shoes, backpacks, coats and totes that have accumulated over time and leave only those that you (and the people you live with) use every single day. Alternates can be stored elsewhere in nearby closets or in each person’s bedroom.  Then add something beautiful–a nice ceramic bowl or vase, an artsy container or some fragrant candles on a small table and voila...a warm and welcoming entrance that greets you and sends you into the world with a hug every single day.  

Plastic Containers 

We spend every day in our kitchens–cooking, prepping meals and cleaning up.  Even if your entire kitchen is in need of a serious organizing overhaul, there is one small area you can tackle in no time that provides a profound sense of victory. Declutter your plastic (or glass) containers and lids.  Somehow, we start with a nice tidy set of graduating sizes and lids.  Then over time, like single socks mysteriously gone missing, we end up with a gazillion containers and a bajillion tops, but none fit each other.  Declutter by sorting by size, locate matching lids, and call bankruptcy on the rest, by recycling any lid and any container that cannot find it’s mate.  You may end up with only a half dozen or so containers–which may suffice.  If you need more, buy all the same size so it’s easier to keep track of.

Comfort Corner

When your house feels cluttered and disorganized, it can be very hard to sit down and relax.  Because wherever you go, there is something to clean up or move out of the way before you can quiet your mind to decompress. Even in the midst of lots of chaos, it is possible to create a little comfort corner –one spot that you can go to recharge whenever you need to.   Pick a location in your house with the most appealing light and sound qualities—it could be a chair in your living room, a breakfast nook, a window seat or a corner of the guest room. Declutter the area completely by removing everything except what you use to relax; a candle, a good book, or a speaker and headphones to play relaxing music. Keep objects to a minimum to make it inviting and easy to maintain. No matter what the day, work or life has thrown at you, you will have a place to rest, relax and recharge. 

There’s a saying that small hinges can swing big doors. These three very small decluttering projects have a remarkable way of delivering a powerful sense of calm, control, and progress to your big goal of taking control of your space (and peace of mind)  in 2023. 

The Advantages of Paper vs Digital Planning

Each new year provides us with a fresh start and renewed resolve to get organized, be productive and stay on track with our goals. We know we need calendars and to-do lists to keep ourselves on time and on task.  But in our increasingly fast-paced, tech-saturated world, it can be hard to decide between digital options and old-school paper.

The goal, of course, is to find a system that works for you.  How do we define whether a planning system “works”?  You use it to capture all of your meetings and to-do’s, nothing falls through the cracks, and you refer to it consistently to guide how you spend every day. 

Research shows that paper planning has many advantages, and appeals to people of all ages.  Many people whose schedules are in the cloud for sharing with colleagues still find it beneficial to supplement their online calendar with a paper based planning and notetaking system.

What are some of the advantages of paper vs digital planning?  Here a just a few of the (science-backed) ways: 

• Paper planning helps you remember. The very act of physically writing pen (or pencil) to paper often emblazons the task on your memory, making it easier to recall (even if you never look at the list again.) Multiple studies, including this 2021 Japanese study published in Neuroscience News, have found that recall is stronger when we write longhand. When we type into a tablet or laptop, learning is impaired due to shallower processing.  

• Paper planning helps you focus. Going onto a device to use a Calendar or Task App means entering a carnival of temptations every time. You inevitably end up lost in email, social media or other distractions- the opposite of getting things done. By contrast, writing on paper forces a necessary screen break which allows us to access the deeper parts of the brain involved in strategy and decision making.

• Paper planning helps you prioritize. How we fill our days is how we fill our lives. Yet, once tasks become dots on a screen, they seem to feel “cheap” and disposable like every other word we can type and delete on a computer. Handwriting your to-do’s requires a commitment. Re-writing incomplete to-dos over and over forces you to consider the true value of a task and what's getting in your way.

• Paper planning helps you fulfill your goals.  In three different experiments involving over 1,079 people, Columbia Business School (2022) research found that individuals who used paper calendars developed higher quality plans and fulfilled them at a higher success rate.  In fact, paper calendar users completed 53% of their plans vs. digital users who completed 33% of their plans. The conclusion was that paper planning enables the user to see the big picture and create more detailed and cohesive plans that took into account how scheduled events will interact with or impact each other so you can plan ahead.

• Paper planning provides a visual record of what you got done—fueling your sense of accomplishment. It also helps you to account for where your time has gone, evaluate your workload, and gain insights on what changes you can make to delegate or approach tasks more efficiently moving forward.

Paper planning is surely not for everyone.  But if you are gravitating toward paper for note-taking and planning, perhaps you now have a better understanding of why.  As human experience and studies continue to reveal, there is still a place for paper planning in our digital world.  A paper planner does not replace all the amazing things technology can do for us. But discovering (or rediscovering) a paper planner’s unique and irreplaceable functions can be a tool to help you focus and prioritize.