35 Journal Prompts for Decluttering Your Home and Life

Decluttering our homes isn’t just about the physical act of clearing our clutter. Decluttering is also about our mindset and how we both think and feel about our stuff. Here are 35 journal prompts for decluttering your home and life with clarity and ease.

WHY DECLUTTERING IS HARD SOMETIMES

We know that decluttering is about grabbing a box or rubbish bag and moving through our home, room by room, making decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of.

However, many of us also know that decluttering isn’t as easy as that. We get stuck, overwhelmed, run out of time, motivation, energy. We don’t know where or how to start, we come up against problems which we can’t see a way round. We worry about making decluttering mistakes, asking the wrong questions, getting rid of things we should have kept, keeping stuff ‘just in case’ and then wonder why our home and life still look and feel cluttered.

Simplifying life isn’t easy and decluttering our homes is not an exact science. Decluttering is messy and it’s unlikely you’ll declutter perfectly, however good you are at it!

In a nutshell, decluttering is hard. Not just because of the physical act of sorting, getting rid of and organising your stuff, but also because you have to address your attitude and mindset about decluttering too.

THE DECLUTTERING MINDSET

In fact, getting into a decluttering mindset is arguably more important than the actual decluttering itself because unless you know why you’re doing it, the what and the how will always feel more difficult. This doesn’t just apply to decluttering either!

To help you get into a decluttering mindset and really understand what clutter means to you, I’ve put together some journal prompts to help you do the mindset work around decluttering. Get clear on your why, your decluttering goals and what you want to achieve – not just in what your home looks like but what your life feels like too.

These journal prompts for decluttering your home and life will help you get clarity over what clutter is costing you, why you hold onto it and what could change if you didn’t have that clutter in your home and life generally.

There are so many benefits of a decluttered home and I hope these journal prompts help you discover them for yourself.

WHY JOURNAL FOR DECLUTTERING?

Journaling is a useful tool for helping us understand what we’re thinking and why. Instead of doing the same things over and over and getting the same result, journaling helps us get to the root of what we’re thinking. Once we know what are thoughts are, then we can begin to understand why we’re thinking them and how to develop or work on them going forward.

Busy life and the thought patterns we default to by habit don’t often encourage us to look at things from a fresh perspective. We tend to think about things the way we’ve always thought about them and then we get the same outcome when we try to make change.

Journaling is paying attention to the inside for the purpose of living well from the inside out.

Lee Wise

When it comes to decluttering, journal prompts for decluttering are helpful to lay the groundwork for your mind to clear stuff more easily and effectively.

I hope that by working through the following decluttering journal prompts, they’ll help clarify your own relationship with clutter, namely:

• Why you have clutter in the first place
• Why it builds up and why you hold onto it
• What effect your clutter has on you, your family, your home and life
• How to make decisions about your clutter and how to let go of it
• Exactly what benefits and change you want decluttering to bring about for you

All these are meaningful thoughts to consider before you even start decluttering. Getting clear on your answers will help make the actual decluttering process easier and less stressful. Hopefully, you’ll also feel more confident in your decluttering skills and your stuff will no longer hold power over you as it might have done before!

JOURNAL PROMPTS FOR DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME AND LIFE

Here are 35 journal prompts for decluttering your home and life.  I hope they help you clarify what clutters your home and how you can declutter to make time, space and freedom for what matters most to you!

Grab a notebook and pen and reflect on your thoughts and responses to these prompts.

1. My home makes me feel…
2. The thing I like best about my home is…
3. The thing I like least about my home is…
4. I would like my home to feel…
5. My home feels most peaceful when…
6. My home feels most draining and a burden when…
7. My home functions best when…
8. I would describe my home as…
9. When visiting my home, I would like guests to feel…
10. My favourite room in my home is…
11. My favourite item in my home is…
12. The activity I enjoy doing most in my home is…
13. My home is easiest to keep clean and tidy when…
14. My fondest memories in my home are…
15. Clutter makes me feel…
16. I feel my home is cluttered when…
17. I feel most productive at home when…
18. When I open my front door and walk into my home I feel…
19. Clutter builds up in my home most when…
20. I can keep clutter away by…
21. When I get rid of stuff I feel…
22. I struggle to let go of things because…
23. Decluttering makes me feel guilty because…
24. I can overcome these feelings of guilt because…
25. I feel attached to my stuff because it makes me feel…
26. I let my stuff hold power over me because…
27. I can build courage and confidence to declutter my home by…
28. When I feel decluttering is too difficult I will…
29. I will celebrate my decluttering progress by…
30. The greatest benefit to decluttering my home and life will be…
31. I will give myself praise, reward and kindness when I’m decluttering by…
32. I will assess my decluttering progress by…
33. I will know when I’ve decluttered enough because…
34. I will enjoy the process of decluttering by…
35. I know I can declutter my home and life and achieve what I set out to because…

MORE DECLUTTERING TIPS

Here are some more decluttering tips to help you declutter your home and life more easily.

1. If you don’t know where to start decluttering

Start decluttering in an easy place where you can build your confidence as you practice decluttering. Leave difficult to declutter areas or items until you’re familiar with the process of sifting, letting go of and organising what’s left.

2. If you feel overwhelmed by decluttering

Decluttering is still effective if it’s just one item a day for the next year, that’s 365 ways to declutter your home in 365 days! Your progress might not be quick but it will be consistent and sustainable. If you feel overwhelmed by decluttering, take it slow and steady. Remember the story of the hare and the tortoise.

3. If you have a lot of stuff

Our clutter can build up over years, so getting rid of it is likely to take a while too. We hold on to our stuff for all sorts of reasons but understanding why you hold on to YOUR stuff with the decluttering journal prompts above will help you. You might also find these decluttering tips for hoarders helpful.

4. Decluttering when you don’t have time

If you don’t have time to declutter, break it down in to small chunks of time. Be creative with what you declutter and when you do it. Set a timer for whatever window you have and just do what you can. Here are some tips on how to declutter fast!

For a complete round-up of articles and resources to help you with decluttering, try this article on how to declutter your home and life.

MORE JOURNALING RESOURCES TO HELP SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

If you enjoy journaling, are new but curious of the benefits or would like to make journaling a regular practice, here are some articles which you might like:

• 30 Journal Prompts for Self-Discovery
• Journaling Tips for Beginners to Encourage a Meaningful Life
• 30 Journal Prompts to Inspire Simplicity in Your Life
• 5 Powerful Journal Prompts for Self-Reflection
• Journal Prompts for Self-Care and Self-Love