Get tidier - with these tips you can do it

We invite you to an exercise. Go to the middle of your living room and look around. For every piece that adorns your home, ask yourself the following question: Do i really need this? "Bringing awareness of things is essential if we want to be in a state of flux with ourselves and with life. If it blocks from the outside, we are always faced with the same results. For example, if we don't get a job and absolutely nothing goes on, then we should start with tidying up and mucking out!

This is how we lay the foundation for a new life, "explains Order and sustainability coach Regina Halbauer. The "closet whisperer" from Lower Austria brings order, minimalism and lightness into our lives. "Everyday life is demanding and time-consuming. It starts in the morning when we stand in front of the wardrobe and once again can't find anything to wear," says Regina Halbauer. But that is now over once and for all. Why can reducing to the essentials in life be so liberating, how we bring sustainability into our own four walls and what that has to do with our energy? You can read that here in the interview.

"We have rewarded ourselves with things that we don't really need."

WOMAN: How can reducing things make us happy?

HALBAUER: In 2009 I ended up mucking out and reducing things through burnout. During my months at the sofa, I had time to take a closer look at my surroundings. I found that all that stuff made me extremely restless. So I started sorting out and got along with every part that left the apartment calmer and more relaxed. I dare say: "Less is more, in every area of our life. It makes life much easier and easier too."

WOMAN: But what's really true about mucking out. What can it do, and why is it almost magical?

HALBAUER: Mucking out very often brings clarity. When things get stuck somewhere, I start mucking out. Regardless of whether it is a matter of private or business matters. When I notice I am blocked or that nothing moves anymore, I start to clean up. The energy flows again almost magically. For example, I muck out the attics with customers when the son is looking for an internship (usually the school supplies that are always hoarded in the attic are then cleared out). Or I am restructuring an office because nothing goes on professionally. I see things that my customers don't see because you become operationally blind yourself. This is often followed by an energy surge. What I can't make concrete promises now, but the fact is: When it is cleared out, energy is released and something new comes into life.

WOMAN: Is minimalism a trend? Why now?

HALBAUER: In the last few decades the motto has been: faster, higher, stronger. We have rewarded ourselves with things we don't really need. I think of a quote from the film "Fight Club": "With the money we don't have, we buy things that we don't need in order to impress people we don't like." The pandemic has changed a lot.

WOMAN: Keyword Corona: As you rightly say, the Corona pandemic has changed a lot. Did you have to rethink too?

HALBAUER: I offer online consultations via Zoom and have developed an online course on the subject of "Capsule Wardrobe". In addition, I founded a platform with colleagues with which we want to bring the topics of mucking out, minimalism and sustainability even closer to people. Now is the time for it: ordnungsberater-oesterreich.at

7 tips for reduction

Organizational coach Regina Halbauer has been living sustainability and minimalism for a long time. Here are a few tips for you to follow suit:

1. Sustainability in the wardrobe:

I have 85 percent secondhand fashion in my box. Partly from clothes swap parties, partly from thrift stores.

2.… in the refrigerator

Use food, don't waste it, don't throw anything away! It is a fact that supermarkets are not the only ones throwing away groceries. A lot of food ends up in the trash in private households.

3.… in living

It doesn't always have to be new and expensive. I have furnished my office almost exclusively with free and used furniture. Nobody sees that this furniture has been used elsewhere before.

4. Capsule Wardrobe

Translated, this is a "wardrobe capsule", where women are well-dressed and variedly dressed with just a few basic parts. Everything can be combined and you don't have to think about what to wear in the morning. Your favorite colors and some unusual parts form the basis.

5. Willhaben & Co

Buy from willhaben.at or share & care platforms. Try it out, you will be amazed at what wonderful things can be found here!

6. Let go

The liberating thing about letting go is that something new and wonderful always follows. And it feels so good. That's what everyone says who did it!

7. Accept help

I started offering online consultations via Zoom. And in 2021 I developed an online course on the topic of "Capsule Wardrobe". Get help with your clean-up work.

Get tidier - with these tips you can do it