Focus

Focus.  In part, it is what separates the mediocre from the great.  Zeroing in on your goals and becoming zealous about their execution can determine if the clutter comes back.  It also determines if once it is gone it stays gone.

Not only does focus define your outcome in decluttering, but getting your finances under control as well.  You can meander in to a pile of debt, but you don't wander out.  You have to get insanely angry about being in debt, and radical choices have to be made to ever crush those interest payments that tie you down.

It can be the difference between setting up a practice of decluttering your home for 15 minutes a day, or swearing off deeper debt and tacking your smallest debt first (as opposed to letting the clutter come back with a vengeance or deciding that you can swing one more monthly payment).  It is a matter of focus.

If you find you don't have focus, then prioritize.  Write down everything that you feel you are obligated to spend energy on and do.  Look at it.  Look at it harshly.  Start picking out things that are optional, and discard them.  Pick out other things that need doing but don't need immediate attention. Put those on a separate list.  This is your waiting list.

Find the thing that cannot be ignored.  This is what deserves your focus.  Spend all your energy on accomplishing that thing, and when you have it conquered, turn to your waiting list.  Take the next most pressing thing from the waiting list on, and make it your new primary task.  Keep doing this, and you will likely find that you have accomplished much in record time.

Most great achievements do not happen without a severe amount of focus.  Don't deprive yourself of your own greatness.  Choose to zero in on your most important tasks to give them your energy to see their completion.

Focus.