Making Home Preparation for Interior Styling More Enjoyable
Discovered: The Effective Procrastination Countermeasure, 'Dopamine Anchoring', for Completing Your Decluttering and Home Organization Tasks
Preparing a home for interior styling can often be a daunting and overwhelming task, but dopamine anchoring can make the process more enjoyable and satisfying. This psychological technique pairs a behavior someone might usually avoid doing with a pleasurable reward.
The Role of Dopamine Anchoring in Home Decluttering and Organization
Decluttering and organizing a home can be seen as synonymous with cleaning and tidying up, the process of removing excess items, disposing of unwanted items, and reorganizing one's living space. Organizing at home is closely related to this: only those who declutter can maintain long-term order.
Challenges:
Many people find decluttering, sorting, and tidying up to be tedious, unmotivating, or even stressful. The motivation is often lacking because the process itself is often perceived as laborious and unfulfilling.
Using Dopamine Anchoring to Facilitate Home Decluttering and Organization
Dopamine anchoring can be deliberately used to make the processes of decluttering and organizing at home easier and more enjoyable.
How it works:
- Celebrate successes: After each smaller step (e.g., a shelf sorted, a drawer decluttered), a pleasurable reward (e.g., a piece of chocolate, self-praise, a short dance) is associated. Dopamine is released, and the brain learns: "Decluttering is worth it."
- Create rituals: A specific ritual (e.g., a favorite drink, music) is always associated with decluttering. The brain associates decluttering with positive feelings.
- Visualize goals: Visualizing the end result (e.g., "I can find everything again," "My home is a haven") after each small action strengthens the feeling of reward and thus the motivation.
- Reward small steps: Every small action is celebrated. This reduces the hurdle of starting, and the process becomes more enjoyable.
Implementing Dopamine Anchoring in Daily Life – Example
Process: You decide to declutter your wardrobe today. After successfully sorting the first pile of shirts, you take a moment to savor the success, close your eyes, feel the achievement, listen to your favorite song, or treat yourself to a small treat. This feeling you consciously anchor in your brain.
Repetition: You repeat the process at each step. Over time, the desire to declutter becomes associated with the pleasant feeling of reward – decluttering becomes fun!
Conclusion
Dopamine anchoring can help make the decluttering and organizing at home more enjoyable by associating it with positive feelings. In this way, an unpleasant, energy-sapping task becomes a process that motivates because the brain has learned that it is worthwhile. The result: A lighter approach to decluttering, more fun in starting over, and a home that remains tidy in the long term.
Give it a try – set yourself small, achievable goals, reward yourself, and enjoy the feeling of success after each step! This will also make decluttering a good habit.
Expert Insights
Caitlyn Oscarson, a licensed marriage and family therapist with a master's degree in clinical psychology, specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD), recommends starting small when using dopamine anchoring at home.
Anna Tatsioni, Lead Interior Designer & Architect at Decorilla Online Interior Design, suggests using dopamine anchoring by pairing the task of organizing with something that feels good, such as listening to a favorite podcast or treating oneself to a sweet treat.
Dr. Ashwini Nadkarni, an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains that dopamine anchoring helps form an association between something unpleasant or neutral with something that generates a dopamine-boosting stimulus.
Inspiring Home Organizing Ideas
- The Large Stoneware Bowl from H&M can be used for inspiration from TikTok's purse bowl trend for minimalist chic decorative organization.
- The Arild Laundry Basket by Broste Copenhagen can be used to organize your utility room.
- The Marilo Rectangular Woven Banana Bark Basket from AM.PM can be used for biophilic decluttering.
