This week I address two related topic suggestions from Bright Lifers. Nena asked, “Does a cluttered house contribute to weight gain? Or does it make sticking to the Bright Lines more difficult?” Meanwhile, Sarah wrote in: “I’m doing a week’s focus with my Gideon Games team on decluttering our mind and environment. Can you speak to how decluttering leads to clearer thinking? I find that the longer I’m Bright, the more I want to declutter my space.”
I’ve been decluttering for 15 minutes a day for several months now. I’ve learned that going slow and steady and doing something for 15 minutes a day is freeing, comforting, and effective.
I use tracking sheets so I can monitor my decluttering. My new year’s resolution is to declutter 15 minutes a day for 75 percent of the days each month. In January, I did 76 percent. And you better believe I was keeping track and making sure I hit that mark!
Research shows that decluttering matters—a lot. It impacts our mood and our sense of well-being. A tidy environment is conducive to rest and happiness and impacts our parasympathetic nervous system. A pleasing environment leads to an elevated mood. A cluttered environment is stressful.
It also affects cognition. It impacts reaction time, memory capacity, focus, and more. It’s hard to think and perform well in a distractive environment. If you’re trying to get work done in your office, for example, tidying up your desk is a good first step.
As to whether it can impact your Bright Line Eating journey—yes, it can. I once worked one-on-one with someone who was a hoarder. She had little space to weigh and measure her food or to chop vegetables. She had nowhere to sit and eat. It was difficult for her to execute the functions of Bright living, and she did not stay Bright.
Even a small amount of clutter can make it difficult to establish Bright habits. I have a friend who says, The way you do one thing is the way you do everything. There’s truth to that. It’s going to be harder to have order in your meal structure and routines if you don’t have order in your physical environment.
So what can you do if you feel cluttered? There’s the “Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” method. Marie Kondo, the author, recommends doing your decluttering all at once. There are lots of videos on YouTube if that method sounds good.
If that doesn’t work, try the FlyLady approach and do 15 minutes a day. My daughter Maya and I made a list together of decluttering projects. We listed the spaces in our home to declutter: the gift wrap paper area, the medicine cabinets, the kitchen catch-all drawer, the mud room closet.
We tackled these areas one at a time. We sorted and organized, wiped down surfaces, and put things back. It was very satisfying. We also noted expiration dates and tossed expired items.
I’m also decluttering my email and voicemail, which will easily keep me occupied for a whole year. I’m not good with mail. When we moved to Australia and were selling our furniture, we found behind my desk an envelope addressed to me with a check in it that I’d ignored for several years.
My 15 minutes of decluttering may mean just keeping up with stuff. Before I first stopped eating sugar and flour, my habit was to let my laundry pile up until everything was on the floor waiting to be washed. I would go three months without doing laundry! That was my relationship with my physical environment. That was my food addiction.
So now I am motivated to spend 15 minutes handling stuff that needs to be handled. I feel so much freer when I do it. I use the Marie Kondo method, where she asks, “Does this bring me joy?” If my heart doesn’t leap when I hold an item, I get rid of it. Now I’m getting a positive energy exchange with my belongings, and it’s so satisfying.
It’s true that less is more, and, equally so, more is less. Getting on top of decluttering is amazingly liberating, and it will help keep you Bright.
