Now that many people are working from home and spending most of their leisure hours there as well because of COVID-19, it seems that we finally have time on our side to declutter our homes. Simply put, decluttering is removing the things you no longer need from your home.

Getting started is often the most difficult part. But there are ways to motivate yourself.

Shandra Kusuma Dewi, a 30-year-old state-owned enterprise employee, said she had successfully started decluttering her home while social restrictions were in place.

“Hoarding a pile of stuff in your house makes your home more prone to attacks by ants and termites. My neighbor twice discovered snakes hiding in her pile of things,” Shandra said.

Thankfully, you do not have to wait until ants, termites or – God forbid – snakes are lurking beneath your pile of stuff to start decluttering.

According to Dana K. White, the author of the 2018 book Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning your Never-ending Battle with Stuff, you can motivate yourself to declutter right away by changing the vocabulary you use.

“First, it's important to acknowledge that organizing and decluttering are not the same thing. Organizing is problem solving, and problem solving can be overwhelming, which can be a great excuse to put off getting started. Just declutter. Decluttering is getting stuff out of your home. When you give yourself permission to just declutter, you can start immediately,” she wrote in an email.

According to White, every item that you remove from your space will cause it to feel less overwhelming and become more manageable.

“Start by grabbing a trash bag and removing trash. Broken things, packaging, etc. Then move out anything that has a home elsewhere, but is out of place in this space,” she advised.

“Each time you remove an item, you will reduce the overall volume of mess and therefore reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed. Once you feel less overwhelmed, you will be able to make the more difficult decluttering decisions,” she said.

The advice to start small and build from there has worked for Shandra.

“So that I don’t exhaust myself, I dedicate two hours of my Sunday mornings to declutter my belongings little by little. I like to start at 7 a.m. because the temperature is still low,” Shandra said.

Shandra sorts her belongings and classifies them into three categories.

The first is damaged goods, which she throws away or – if they are useable – gives to those who need them.

The items she no longer needs but are still in good condition she advertises for sale on her Instagram account dedicated to “preloved” items: @prelovedby.shandra.

The third category is items she wishes to keep.

But this final category can be challenging. Ayu Chandra, a 40-year-old florist, started decluttering again during the relative confinement of the pandemic. She noted a mental barrier that caused people to hoard stuff. “It’s the idea that ‘I’ll just keep it. Someday I’ll wear it,’" she said.

"Think about the lipstick whose colors don’t match your skin or the skincare products whose scents you don’t actually like. Let’s be honest with ourselves; we’ll never use them!” said Ayu, who lives in South Jakarta.

Ayu has developed a golden rule; if you haven’t used an item for more than six months, give it up.

“If you want to give them away to other people, make sure that the items are still at least decent. For example, don’t give away expired cosmetics to someone or a shirt full of holes,” she said, laughing.

Meanwhile, to motivate herself to begin a weekly decluttering regimen, 32-year-old consultant Indriana Apriani said she would first watch Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo’s program on Netflix.

Augustine Merriska, a 32-year-old professional in Jakarta also said Kondo’s methods had helped her overcome her “laziness”. After reading Kondo’s books, she cleared up her pile of miscellaneous things in three decluttering sessions.

Augustine was so impressed with Kondo’s methods that in 2019, she joined Kondo’s client-handling course in London, the United Kingdom.

Another book that can help inspire and motivate decluttering is Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending up with More by Erin Boyle (2016). Ayu said Boyle's book was helpful to her.

Ayu said the decluttering process had turned her into a more mindful shopper, saving her from impulse buying. “You will no longer purchase cosmetics, clothing and skincare items that you end up disliking and throwing away,” she said.

“The number one benefit of decluttering your home is that it's easier to function in a decluttered space. A space with less stuff is a space that's easier to keep under control,” White concluded.

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