A clean home leads to positive mental attitude, especially as a mother. With your busy life, it’s hard to keep your house clean all the time and when you do have time to clean, much of the clutter holds precious sentimental value which makes it difficult to deal with. Nostalgia causes hesitation for disposing of the simplest items. Whether you’re helping your parents downsize on stuff in their home or clearing your own space, utilizing these ways to prevent nostalgia when managing your clutter will make the cleaning process go smoothly.
Look at Items Realistically
In order to learn how to work past nostalgia when cleaning, you must look at items realistically. For example, ask yourself questions like, “When is the next time I’ll ever look at this again?” and “Does this have a purpose?” If the only reason that you’re looking at or holding onto something is because you started cleaning the room, you may not even notice when it’s gone.
Relocating items is a common way to use them again. Consider areas of the house where the item would have a use rather than existing solely as clutter. However, be careful with this line of thinking—if you drag every piece of clutter to new areas of the home you aren’t solving the issue at hand.
Tips for Photo Clutter
Film and photos are one of the most difficult forms of clutter to slim down on. Each picture fills you with the exact memory of the time, triggering a strong sense of nostalgia. Your home has limited photo storage, so utilize these common ways to handle photo clutter:
Dispose of Bad Pictures
Even the most masterful photographer takes low-quality pictures from time to time. Search for the bad eggs in your photo collection and dispose of them. You may be surprised how much room you’ll create by getting rid of images of thumbs and other poorly developed photos.
Scan and Digitize Your Photo Collection
Digital storage is easier to expand and add to than at-home storage. If photos are becoming a serious problem in your closet, under your bed, and in the guest room, you may need to take extra measures to create space. Sort through the pictures, separate those you must keep and those you can part with. Before you send pictures anywhere, scan your whole collection to ensure you’ll always have those memories. Make sure to pick the best scanning resolution for the images you’re digitizing.
Take Breaks To Reflect
The nostalgia from cleaning memorable artifacts out of a room may take a toll on your head. Take breaks as you’re cleaning to clear out your mind—especially if you start holding onto too much stuff and making reverse progress. The mess isn’t going anywhere, so take your time and use effective ways to prevent nostalgia when managing your clutter to stay optimistic about the hefty cleaning. Once it’s over, you’ll feel better about your home than you did before you began.
