“Anything that gives you a sense of mastery or control over your space can relieve stress,” says Darby Saxbe, PhD, an associate professor of psychology and director of the Center for the Changing Family at the University of Southern California. (Her research focuses on how our family and home environments affect our bodies and our health.) And that’s why practicing minimalism can be a form of self-care (so long as it has that stress-easing effect for you) — self-care is anything that promotes your physical or mental health that you find enjoyable. A study published in February in the International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology found that living with less stuff around was associated with feeling greater autonomy, more competence, more mental space, increased awareness of one’s values, and more positive emotions. RELATED: How to Start a Self-Care Routine You’ll Follow Making the switch doesn’t necessarily come easily, however. Adopting a minimalist, uncluttered approach to where you live and work has the best chance of succeeding if you focus on changing habits over time (rather than abruptly), says Sabrina Helm, PhD, an associate professor of retailing and consumer sciences at the University of Arizona. (She’s conducted research on materialism and consumption behaviors.) “It requires being mindful or aware of what you’re doing, setting priorities, and tackling them one by one. If you start with simple steps, once you have some positive results, you’ll have motivation to continue.” Here are eight tips to help you embrace minimalism physically in the space around you and mentally as a form of self-care:
1. Identify and stay within your clutter comfort zone.
Some people are completely averse to clutter, while others feel a bit uncomfortable in pristine environments where nothing is out of place, says psychologist Allen Elkin, PhD, director of the Stress Management and Counseling Center in New York City and author of Stress Management for Dummies. Figure out where your threshold lies, he says. “Then work hard to keep your clutter level at that line.” Spend a few minutes every day putting or throwing things away, he suggests.
2. Find a meaningful source of motivation to go minimal.
Think about why you want to pare down. “It helps you deal with anxieties about what to keep or throw away,” says Catherine Roster, PhD, a professor of management at the Anderson School of Management at the University of New Mexico, who has studied the effect clutter has on our psychological well-being. “Have a goal in mind to drive you — such as what you’re going to be able to do with the space—because going through the process is often painful for people.”
3. Enlist a friend to help you declutter.
Establish guidelines for what you want to keep, throw away, or donate; then enlist your helper to keep you on track (and give you a reality check when needed), Roster says. Joseph Ferrari, PhD, a professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago, who studies the effect of clutter on emotional well-being, recommends taking a hands-off approach by having someone else pick up a pile of magazines or tchotchkes, for instance, while you consider whether you want or need to keep each one. “Once you touch the item, you are less likely to get rid of it,” Ferrari says.
4. Create dedicated spaces for things and keep those things in them.
To prevent your environment from becoming re-cluttered, have specific cabinets, drawers, shelves, bins, or closets where bills, books, bags, clothes (dirty and clean), and other items should go. When you move something out of its designated space, make a conscious commitment to put it back there once you’re finished using or wearing it. It also helps to develop a systematic way of organizing important papers and a filing system that’s easy to use, Elkin says. You could, for example, divide papers into categories such as “to handle,” “to pay,” “to file,” and “to read.” Designate folders or a specific space for each category, and then don’t let paperwork linger elsewhere.
5. Build time into your schedule to declutter and put things back where they belong.
Designate specific times throughout your day or your week to declutter and make sure things are in their places (and other clutter isn’t piling up). Elkin recommends keeping a wastepaper basket near your front door and throwing away junk mail as soon as it enters your home, for example. Try picking a day of the week to get rid of the previous week’s papers or get rid of the oldest one each day. “Do a little bit [of organizing and paring down] every day to nip clutter in the bud,” Roster advises. If you’re tackling a large decluttering project, such as reorganizing your closets or kitchen cupboards, do little bits at a time to make it feel more manageable, Roster suggests.
6. Be mindful about what you bring home in the future.
“Purchase less in the first place and be careful about accumulating possessions,” Saxbe advises. Adopt a new policy of questioning your shopping decisions before you hand over your credit card, suggests Elkin, who recommends asking yourself: “Do I truly need this item? Would the quality of my life be worse if I didn’t have this? How many things like this do I already own?” Consider these questions in the present context, rather than the future. Need added incentive to say no? Remind yourself that research has found again and again — including a 2014 study published in the journal Psychological Science — that spending money on experiences provides people with more enduring happiness than spending money on things.
7. Avoid multitasking to pare down mental clutter, too.
Many of us are used to juggling multiple tasks simultaneously; we may even feel like we’re good at it. But we’re fooling ourselves because research has found that multitasking weakens both working memory and long-term memory; it’s also been shown to lead to greater distractibility. Declutter your mind by taking the one-thing-at-a-time approach whenever possible: Remove distractions and focus on completing one task before moving on to another one, and you’ll likely do a better job on both while feeling less frazzled or stressed. Similarly, “taking breaks to unplug can be restorative and healthy,” Saxbe says. RELATED: Should You Pull the Plug on Social Media?
8. Train your brain to stay in the present.
If you find yourself second-guessing decisions you’ve already made or replaying your worries on an endless loop, spend some time clearing your mind with a meditation or yoga session, Saxbe suggests. This will help you stay more mindful in the present moment and remove the mental chatter from your head to keep stress under control. “Writing down your thoughts can also be a helpful way to get them out of your mind and break a feedback loop,” she says. RELATED: 4 Ways to Get Started With Meditation
