In my last post, I referred to using colors as a calming technique while decluttering and discussed a contest currently running. So far, there are 225 artists entered, and over 1,000 art pieces to view in our contest.
Anyone can vote! You can check out the contest on Fine Art America here: Fine Art America contest
Here are more details on our contest here:
I have a 3 stage process for decluttering. Stage 1 is planning and preparing to declutter. Stage 2 is minimizing overwhelm by reducing the emotional impact and chaos inside the home that comes from decluttering. Stage 3 is when we actually declutter, not before.
In today's blog, I want to discuss one of my methods for Stage 2, minimizing overwhelm. One of the essential things to have prior to decluttering is a go to place or sense of being for when you feel overwhelmed by decluttering. It is essential to find something, some place, some ritual, or some item that makes you feel calm. Decluttering brings up so many emotions and requires so many difficult decisions, if you are not able to just chill out when you need to, you could end up in a deeper hole than when you began.
One of the tricks I have for calming is to have a visual area I can look at and just lose myself in the colors. I have an aesthetic Pinterest page for this reason. I built it solely to calm myself down when I was going through tremendous medical challenges. I chose colors that I could just stare into and feel better for doing it. You can click here to get to my Pinterest page if you want to see it. My aesthetics pages are the ones that just have posts dedicated to specific colors: blue, green, pink, white, purple, and grey. I also have nature elements as a calming board for myself which includes animals or nature photography that is relaxing to look at.
I found that having a piece of art that I could stare at, get lost in, really helped me to calm down when I needed to. If you find that pink is your calming color, we will have a website for you to view in a few weeks. If you want to preview the site, you can find it here: https://mrjbsinc.wixsite.com/calmingpink. We will be replacing the demo art on the site with artwork done by very talented artists. We are hosting a contest currently where more than two hundred artists are submitting their work. The pieces are inspiring, beautiful, relaxing, and amazing to look at. We will feature them on this blog, and on our websites, and on our YouTube channel so you can see their work in video format as well. For those interested in purchasing a piece that inspires them, we will provide information for you about the pieces and the artist it was created by.
In the future, we will bring forth other colors that I found to be calming: blue, green, white, cream, and grey. Are there other colors you favour when you think of relaxing, meditating, or sinking in to that deep sense of calm and tranquility. Let us know and we will run a contest, bringing forth beautiful art work that inspires and relaxes at the same time. You will be able to view the pieces on our sites whenever you need to. Art transports us into another time and dimension, so we want to help you by providing some great pieces to look at.
If you have not used color to help create tranquility before, let me explain the reasoning behind why we do it at Inside The Clutter. First, you can find out if there are colors that make you feel calmer, safe, more relaxed. You may already know your colors and just need to surround yourself with that color. Once you know your color, we will have a site dedicated to that color where you can go when you need a break and just view beautiful art pieces that remove you from the stress you are experiencing in the moment. Second, you want to be able to get in tune with how you feel, what reactions you have to things, prior to decluttering. In our hectic lives, we often forget how we feel and get into our routine based on actions, duties, and responsibilities. We push down our feelings and then forget we have them. We want to be able to know if we like or don't like an item or a color when we are looking at it. So we begin slow, with looking at items that are in a color group, and start to decide if we like or don't like the color. Then we look closer within that color to choose pieces we like, pieces we react to positively. All of these actions increase your ability to handle decluttering and the inner turmoil that comes with it. It helps in your decision making process when you need to decide on whether you like your oven mitts or if you should donate them. Decluttering is a lot of tiny decisions, all the time. So begin with looking at art dedicated to one color and then we can build from there.
Well hello there! Welcome to Inside The Clutter! We are focused on helping people get through the emotional turmoil that comes from decluttering.
There are so many experts out there that offer blogs, sites, courses and in person help with decluttering. They are really great at what they do. However, decluttering is not just about going into someone's home, reorganizing cupboards, folding clothes, and donating what isn't wanted anymore. There is so much personal involvement emotionally, mentally, and energetically. It takes a lot to declutter your home.
We want to offer some advice on how to prepare to declutter your home, and how best to prepare for the physical aspects as well as the emotional aspects. We especially consider that people with medical conditions, brain injury survivors, those with fatigue or chronic pain syndromes, seniors, and many others will especially struggle with decluttering when it is done too quickly.
Stay tuned as we explore different options for how to approach decluttering!
