TORONTO — Last Sunday marked the first day of spring and for many Canadians, the start to their annual deep cleaning and de-cluttering routines.
But starting spring cleaning can feel like a daunting task. It’s common for people to find themselves facing psychological barriers and unable to get started.
Clinical psychologist Anna-Maria Tosco sat down with CTV’s Your Morning on Tuesday to break down the five factors that might be getting in the way of your spring cleaning.
PROCRASTINATION
Tosco says procrastination is often linked to perfectionism, or the desire to "do things right" or "do things fully."
"It’s the idea that if I can’t do it fully, I’m going to push it back and push it back. And I might not even do it at all. It’s kind of this ‘go big or go home’ kind of vibe," she explained.
But Tosco says spring cleaning doesn’t have to be a huge endeavour and even starting out small can make a huge difference.
"Cleaning out one junk drawer is so valuable. Cleaning out one shelf from that big garage is so valuable. It doesn’t have to be done fully or perfectly to be good," she said.
GUILT
Some people may feel guilty about getting rid of old items, particularly parents when it comes to their children’s old toys.
"What I’ve learned about guilt over the years that it’s anger turned inward. It’s like I’ve done something wrong, I’m doing something bad, I’m being an inadequate parent or an insensitive parent," Tosco said.
If this applies to you, Tosco suggests "standing up" to these feelings and asking yourself, "Am I really doing something wrong?"
"And if you can’t let yourself off the hook, I’m sure some of your family members in your household will," she added.
SCARCITY MINDSET
Tosco says having a lot of stuff can give some people the "illusion of safety," particularly those who may have experienced abandonment or trauma.
"So, as we’re cleaning out that garage, we have to keep in mind that it’s our old wounds and our old fears of not being safe that might be getting in the way and that we currently are," she said.
LOW SELF-ESTEEM
Tosco also notes that people with low self-esteem may rely on their personal belongings to make themselves feel valuable or worthy.
"What I’ve learned about low self-esteem is that it’s often related to making your self-worth be dependent on other people," she said. "Sometimes, it’s based on my self-worth being related to what I have or how much I have."
In reality, Tosco says true self-esteem is something that "has to come from within."
"Nothing on the outside can give you that kind of love and that kind of compassion that we can give ourselves and we need to give ourselves," she said.
CLUTTER AS A DEFENCE MECHANISM
Finally, Tosco says some people may be using clutter as their defence mechanism, enabling them to "hide and allow for things to stay status quo."
"How many times that we said something like, ‘Oh, I can’t look for that new job until I clean off my office desk downstairs,’" she explained.
Tosco says clutter can be like a "safety blanket" and get in the way of moving forward in our lives.
"We say we want to move forward. But moving forward is scary… If we do want to achieve change, we have to just compassionately and gently start pulling back that safety blanket to see the change we want,&xjmtzywquot; she added.
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