Do you have a vision for your home? The first thing we need to understand before we start our decluttering journey, is our vision, our end goal, our desire for the space and our home. Knowing this will feed into your motivation to keep up the hard work of actually working through your space. Your vision will include not only a physical shift but also the benefits will you gain from a sorted out house.
It’s very important to understand your vision for each room in your home. This is how I start a session. We talk through three main questions to help us both understand the expectations for the space. What will it look like? Feel like? What will you do in there?
If you want to play along at home, get yourself a notebook and pen. Go room by room and ask yourself these questions. Keep in mind, you might want to get others in your household involved in these questions too.
Questions to Create a Vision for Your Home
1. If you had a magic wand, what would the room look like?
Some people will bring in design elements to this like wall colours, furnishings, cushions and so on. That’s ok, get it all down. But from the decluttering and organising perspective, try to capture what you want to see in the space. What furniture do you imagine in there? Is there lots of space to walk around? Are surfaces clear? Does it have knick-knacks, paintings? Are you ok with boxes stacked in the corner, or are they gone? Try and forget about what needs to happen to get it there. We can sometimes get stuck on how much you need to let go of or on finding ways to store items. Forget all the logistics for this exercise and go with what you envisage for the space. That stuff will come later! Remember, it’s a magic wand!
The aim is to get a picture in your mind of what it will look like when it’s completed.
2. What activities do you (and your household) want to do in that room?
So if it’s the lounge room what do you currently do in there that you want to continue? What do you want to do in there that you may not be able to yet? Do you want to watch TV? Read books? Play board games? Play with toys? Do yoga?
3. What feel or energy do you want the space to have?
Will the lounge feel cosy and welcoming and restful, or entertaining, loud and strong? What words would describe how you feel when you sit in there? This question helps you check in with your vision to see if you’ve met your goal. If you wanted a cosy room, and you’ve removed everything from the space, this might give you a clue to add some cushions or photos or favourite knick-knacks. Or the opposite. If you wanted it to be clear, calm and clean, yet you have boxes in the corner to unpack, and surfaces covered, this tells you to declutter a bit further.
4. What will you gain from decluttering this room?
Space? The ability to do a hobby you’ve been wanting to do? A clearer mind? Less time spent cleaning stuff? Your sanity? Why are you ultimately wanting to change this space? How will you feel once you’re done? What will you gain?
What is the Vision for Your Home?
Thinking through these questions will give you a better idea of how you want your home to function and look. This vision and plan give you something you can connect back in with and see if it’s actually gotten to the point that you expected. If not, it might take some further tweaks to get it there, but at least you’ve got a direction to go in. If you keep your vision, your desires and the end feeling (or gain) in mind, you’ll feel much more motivated to make it happen.
Why not sit down and do this now? I’d love for you to share what you come up with in the WellSorted Facebook group.
