Cleaning up: Tidying up better and getting rid of clutter through hypnosis

Tidying up, it's not everyone's favorite task and it can be incredibly difficult. An obvious reason why Mari Kondo has become so popular with her Netflix program where she helps people tidy their homes. Cleaning up is also really one of those chores where you can suffer a lot of procrastination and where you mostly feel like you're cleaning out other people's clutter

Why is clearing important?

Everyone knows that decluttering is important, but why, exactly? Perhaps, first and foremost, to prevent your home from becoming so cluttered that you essentially turn into an uncontrolled hoarder.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to declutter, and the interesting thing is, people who are either extremely organized or those who always have clutter on their desks tend to be the most creative and productive. Do you always have a bit of clutter and find that you really can’t work in a messy environment? Then it’s a good idea to keep your workspace super tidy for maximum productivity and creativity[1].

A tidy room also influences what you eat and how much you give. Research conducted in 2013 shows that people in a tidy room are more likely to choose healthy foods and are more willing to donate money. So it also makes you more generous[2].

Clutter in the home can cause irritation and stress. By keeping your home tidy, you reduce stress and irritation, allowing you to experience more peace of mind. A study conducted in 2010 among women showed that women who perceive their homes as cluttered—and are constantly reminded by the clutter of all the things they still need to do—have higher levels of cortisol in their blood than women who do not perceive their homes as cluttered; furthermore, women living in homes they considered tidy experienced fewer depressive moods[3].

Note! So this is a subjective sense of when a house is tidy. This means that if your home feels tidy to you and you are not reminded by stuff you have in your home of what you still need to do your home is really tidy enough.

On the contrary, if you do suffer from irritation and the feeling that you still need to do all sorts of things in your home, then you are suffering from a cluttered house and it is time to tidy up.

Beliefs that prevent you from cleaning up

Cleaning up is no fun and there are always reasons to not do it. Especially if you are not the only occupant in the home, it is very appealing to think:

Belief: It's not my mess

You are irritated by the clutter in the home, and you notice that your partner or children leave their clutter everywhere. As long as they don't clean up, you won't either. Then they'll see how quickly the place turns into a pigsty!

It’s very natural to notice other people’s clutter more than your own, which is why you might come to believe that you’re not a clutterer at all. But if you actually start tidying up and tackle your own mess, you might realize that you do create a bit more clutter than you thought. That alone is a huge relief.

Belief: This is very important stuff

Regret is something you absolutely don't want to suffer from, which is why some things are very important to you and it's hard to part with them. For example, if you want to clear out your baby stuff, you may suffer from the feeling that you need it all to properly remember that wonderful time (even though you have at least 10 photo albums full that help too).

This belief is what can eventually cause many people to even become uncontrolled collectors. For example, if you already think receipts are super important, something is really wrong. So always check how logical it is that what you want to clear out is actually super important.

A hypnosis expert can help you with this if you notice an imbalance.

Belief: It has to be fun

Regret can also arise because, while decluttering, you want to get rid of gifts and unused clothing that simply take up too much space. We’d rather not be confronted with negative emotions—such as regret over buying those clothes or that they no longer fit. Or how about the stress of having to choose what to keep and what to let go of?

As for that decision fatigue, you can start by asking yourself: “Does this need to go?” Then you just have to choose between yes and no. The “yes” answers alone will go a long way toward decluttering your home, and you’ll have so much space left over that the question of where to put the rest will be easy to answer.

What we often do when we don't want to throw something away is think of how it can still be used in a practical way, because that's fun. But for tidying up, this often means keeping more boxes in which goods have been shipped, and that again can be very messy. Therefore, consider exactly what it costs you when you hesitate about throwing something away or keeping it.

Do you get really super cranky about tidying up? Then a hypnosis expert can help you figure out where that's coming from and whether you're suffering from this in other parts of your life as well.

How hypnosis helps with clearing

As you may have read, hypnosis can help you when beliefs block you from cleaning up. Not liking tidying up can demand so much attention that all the other benefits of tidying up don't even occur to you and so you are left in the mess.

Hypnosis then helps you, among other things, shift your focus from the negatives of cleaning up to the positives. Initially, a hypnosis expert can start the conversation with you to find out why you don't like tidying up and your home is actually seen by everyone as a junkie hole and you yourself are actually unhappy and still won't tidy up.

Then the expert can counter this with positive hypnotic suggestions that help you shift your focus from negative, to positive. These suggestions are often given to you on an mp3 for you to listen to at home so that they have a longer effect and you find tidying up to be the most normal thing in the world. These can be suggestions such as:

"You really enjoy cleaning up, it gives you energy."

"You relax really well in a tidy house."

"You work much better when your workplace is tidy."

"You act healthier when your house is tidy."

These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions. Depending on your beliefs about clearing, the hypnosis expert may give you other suggestions.

Regression for more clearing

Cleaning up is something you often learn as a child. Sometimes that can also be where you find it really hard to start cleaning up or to continue once you've started. With regression, you can find out when your subconscious has determined that cleaning up is a bad idea. Because many beliefs originate in childhood, you will often go back to a childhood event where tidying or a messy house left an impression on you that still influences how you view tidying today.

Sometimes, the reason you find tidying up difficult might stem from a completely unrelated experience. Through regression, you can uncover this and immediately correct your belief, making tidying up a natural process.

Clearing practice with a guided visualization

Is it such a mess in your home that you can't see through the mess? Then a guided visualization can help you put yourself into action mode. After all, we often need to see behaviors in front of us before we can carry them out. If you can no longer do this yourself, a hypnosis expert can help you with this.

With guided visualization, your imagination is so affected that you can almost feel yourself clearing out. In athletes, it even affects muscle memory if they first totally visualize how they are going to do something. For example, you often see people who visualize a bobsled track before they start sliding every turn is already taken in their mind. It is the same way with guided visualization.

Every room is then cleaned up. All clothes are washed and your closets are sorted by color (if you want to go that crazy).

So tidying up is incredibly healthy for you and it promotes all kinds of positive things in your life. A cluttered workplace can still promote creativity, but if you don't have a creative profession and are at home, a tidy room is really better. Hypnosis can help you find the tidier person in yourself.

Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis works and exactly how these techniques (and others) are used? Then come to a hypnosis workshop or sign up for one of our training programs. Ask about online options if that suits you better.

[1] https://pmj.bmj.com/content/94/1110/246.abstract

[2] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797613480186

[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19934011