{"id":5752,"date":"2025-01-13T01:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T01:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/?p=5752"},"modified":"2025-01-13T01:31:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T01:31:17","slug":"palabras-intraducibles-declutter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2025\/01\/13\/palabras-intraducibles-declutter\/","title":{"rendered":"Untranslatable words: declutter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week<\/a> I mentioned I wanted to talk a bit more about this wonderful English word for which I\u00b4m not able to find an elegant translation into Spanish: declutter<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other day, in the article, I referred to it as \"hacer limpia\", but there\u00b4s another way to call it that I like a lot more, and I hope the academics and purists of the Spanish language can forgive me because this word doesn\u00b4t officially exist: decluterear<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online dictionary WordReference translates the verb declutter<\/em> as \"ordenar\" or \"poner orden \" (meaning to tidy up), but in my opinion, that translation omits a big portion of the original meaning. Because even though it\u00b4s true that the end result is a tidier space, the key question here is not the what as much as the how. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, tidying up is about classifying things and moving them around so that they\u00b4re arranged differently, in a more aesthetic and logical way. But at the end of it, you have the same bunch of things as before. In contrast, decluterear<\/em> consists of freeing up space by removing things<\/strong>, eliminating what in English is called clutter<\/em> (which is how the verb was formed; de-clutter<\/em>, as in remove clutter<\/em>), and that I usually translate as morralla<\/em> (the dictionary seems to more or less agree with me on this, as one of the meanings for the word morralla<\/em> is \"garbage\", \"trash\" or \"rubbish\"... In short, whatever is no longer useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So then, decluterear<\/em> (decluttering) is the art of setting ourselves free from what we don\u00b4t want and\/or is no longer useful to us, to leave space for what we do want and find helpful.<\/strong> And this morralla<\/em>, or clutter,<\/em> is very often physical, but it can also be mental or emotional; in fact, decluttering our physical space has a liberating and renovating effect that goes way beyond<\/strong>, because, as it\u00b4s often the case, what happens around us is a reflection of what happens inside of us.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I already mentioned, this year at home, we\u00b4ve accepted the challenge to declutter step by step, dedicating some time to it every day (or at least every week). The dictionary defines clutter<\/em> as \"desorden\", \"desastre\" or \"l\u00edo\" (in other words, a mess), and once again, yes but no. The mess is a consequence of having too many things, too many trinkets that end up generating more and more mental noise and distractions. And this reminds me of two very cool phrases on this topic that I\u00b4d like to share with you all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one is a minimalist saying (I\u00b4ll write more about minimalism in a future post). I came across it in an article by Joshua Becker, author of becoming minimalist<\/em>, but I\u00b4m sure he wasn\u00b4t the first one to say it, nor will he be the last: LESS STUFF, LESS STRESS<\/strong>. I think this is a genius quote, so simple and so true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second one goes back to my period of \"fighting against chaos\", not long after moving to Ireland, when I was trying to get organized with cleaning the house and minding my little daughter... That\u00b4s when I came across a web page and email distribution list called FlyLady, which I found extremely helpful (if you\u00b4re curious,, look it up, the website is so old it looks abandoned, but the lady who created it is active in YouTube, and also has some presence on Instagram). Her approach goes directly to the key to all this, and it says: YOU CAN\u00b4T ORGANIZE CLUTTER, YOU CAN ONLY GET RID OF IT!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what about you? Do you spend your days \"tidying up\", moving things from one place to another and rearranging them, not daring to throw anything away? That was me for many years... Come on, have a good decluttering session; you\u00b4ll be amazed at how good it feels.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La semana pasada se me qued\u00f3 pendiente hablaros un poco m\u00e1s de esta palabra, que me parece maravillosa en ingl\u00e9s y para la que no encuentro traducci\u00f3n elegante al espa\u00f1ol: declutter. En el art\u00edculo del otro d\u00eda lo llam\u00e9 \u00abhacer limpia\u00bb, pero hay otra manera de llamarlo que me gusta mucho m\u00e1s, y que me … Continue reading Untranslatable words: declutter<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":3116429,"featured_media":5751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"BinaryWords - Palabras intraducibles: declutter \/ Untranslatable words: declutter","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Qu\u00e9 palabra m\u00e1s maravillosa \/ What a wonderful word","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5145,5153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intraducibles","category-minimalismo","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DPtR-1uM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8469,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2025\/12\/28\/juegos-de-palabras-intraducibles\/","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":0},"title":"Untranslatable word plays","author":"binarybea","date":"28\/12\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Hoy a\u00f1adimos otra subcategor\u00eda a uno de los temas recurrentes de este blog: los \u00abintraducibles\u00bb: palabras, frases y expresiones que me parecen muy torpes de traducir del espa\u00f1ol al ingl\u00e9s o viceversa. El otro d\u00eda estaba curioseando por El Corte Ingl\u00e9s (unos grandes almacenes muy famosos en Espa\u00f1a) y me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Intraducibles"","block_context":{"text":"Intraducibles","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/intraducibles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_20251223_111429.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_20251223_111429.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_20251223_111429.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_20251223_111429.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_20251223_111429.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":700,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2022\/02\/20\/frases-intraducibles-o-casi\/","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":1},"title":"Untranslatable sentences (or nearly)","author":"binarybea","date":"20\/02\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Seguramente os habr\u00e9is dado cuenta de que este blog es biling\u00fce: se publica en espa\u00f1ol (o castellano), y tambi\u00e9n en ingl\u00e9s. Tengo la suerte de hablar los dos idiomas, y adem\u00e1s soy traductora aficionada, as\u00ed que con este blog disfruto por partida doble: primero escribiendo el post de la semana,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Intraducibles"","block_context":{"text":"Intraducibles","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/intraducibles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Wooden scrabble-like letters in a pile","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/pexels-photo-278887.jpeg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/pexels-photo-278887.jpeg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/pexels-photo-278887.jpeg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/pexels-photo-278887.jpeg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/pexels-photo-278887.jpeg?fit=1200%2C857&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3329,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2024\/02\/19\/palabras-intraducibles-overthinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":2},"title":"Untranslatable words: overthinking","author":"binarybea","date":"19\/02\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Hoy os traigo un post rapidito, sin pens\u00e1rmelo mucho :-D Esta palabra la cuento en mi lista de intraducibles, no porque tenga un significado especialmente complejo, sino por lo sencilla, clara y elegante que me parece en ingl\u00e9s: Overthinking. En espa\u00f1ol ser\u00eda algo as\u00ed como \u00abpensar demasiado\u00bb, \u00abpasarse de pensar\u00bb,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Intraducibles"","block_context":{"text":"Intraducibles","link":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/category\/intraducibles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Multiple rows of empty orange sticky notes on a light purple background","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pexels-photo-6991812.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pexels-photo-6991812.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pexels-photo-6991812.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pexels-photo-6991812.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/binarywords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/pexels-photo-6991812.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3207,"url":"https:\/\/binarywords.com\/en\/2024\/01\/22\/palabras-intraducibles-kidult\/","url_meta":{"origin":5752,"position":3},"title":"Untranslatable sentences: kidult","author":"binarybea","date":"22\/01\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Hoy vuelvo a uno de los temas recurrentes de este blog: palabras y frases que me parecen dif\u00edciles de traducir entre el ingl\u00e9s y el espa\u00f1ol sin que pierdan la gracia o parte de su significado (puedes leer los art\u00edculos anteriores en la categor\u00eda de intraducibles). 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