A few years ago I remember hearing about the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up By Marie Kondo. Let me be clear here; I never read it. I hardly have the time to tidy up let alone read a book devoted to it. But the idea behind the book is to simplify, eliminate unnecessary material possessions, and declutter. From my understanding the approach she outlined in her book recommended touching every item you own and recognizing if the item brought you joy or not. If it brings you joy, great! If not, you rid yourself of said item. That is all well and good, but realistically when I look around my house I can't think of much that really brings me "joy" other than my coffee machine and the lock on my bathroom door. But none the less the idea of endless clutter drives me pretty much crazy, so something had to be done. The problem I quickly recognized is where to start this journey. So between my children who can't seem to pick up after themselves, my husband who seems to be unaware that we have a dresser or closet to put clean laundry in, and two dogs with a serious shedding issue, I was quickly overwhelmed. Nothing brings me that kind of "joy", so how can I possibly declutter my life when clutter has become my life? But eventually it hit me, maybe the clutter was less about stuff, and more about my own anxieties. Maybe I just need to simplify those smaller things that I have more control over, the things I stare at everyday that ultimately make my eye twitch uncontrollably and push me closer crazy.
1. Email. I know, I know, no one actually sees this so how is it "clutter"? Well, when you have over fifteen-hundred unread emails, folders upon folders of irrelevant work emails, and promotional emails you will never read, that number becomes a little daunting. So I set to work with a fresh pot of coffee and the drive to get this part of my life under control. It took me nearly two hours to delete everything that I needed to be rid of and sort the more important emails into new folders. So staring at my inbox now isn't overwhelming, doesn't make me feel like so much needs to be done, it makes me feel like I can handle everything that comes through one at a time. I discovered a handy dandy tool during this process, the Unroll.Me app which is available on both the Appstore and Google Play. This app processes all of the subscriptions you've either intentionally or unintentionally signed-up for and allows you to either easily unsubscribe, keep them, or consolidate them into a once daily "newsletter". Where has this been all my life? I have totally abandoned email accounts in the past because of spam and subscription take over, so I am thrilled that this can be solved so easily.
2. Cosmetics, skin care, and hair products. Basically my entire bathroom closet and the strategic caches I had developed in places like my car, the closet in my bedroom, and my nightstand. As someone in the beauty industry and a prior sales rep for a hair care brand you can imagine how immense this collection is. To top it off I had an Ipsy subscription for over a year and finally cancelled when I began running out of places to stash everything. So I laid it all out, every makeup bag, every nail polish, every hair spray and finally scanned over them. Would you believe half of this nonsense was expired? On the back label of most products is a little picture of a jar with a number in it, this indicates how many months the product is good for. So I saved the good stuff and tossed the bad and even cleaned my makeup brushes in this process. Something is to be said for minimizing my "collection" since the majority of the expired products were things that I didn't like so I never used. Another bonus is that by being rid of the expired junk I am not running the risk of exposing my skin to additional bacteria or ingredients gone hay-wire, which will both lead to irritation and break-outs. So YAY for trash day!
3. My work space. I think this one is huge for anyone who works or creates in one designated area. For me it is the family computer desk, which over the years has served as a total catch all for paper work, books, old CD's, and more colored pencils than I can possibly explain. An inviting and organized work space is essential for focus, so it was time to tackle this beast. I wanted to build a space that would encourage creativity, some place peaceful even, someplace I would want to be. And guess what I found in the process, another stash of nail polish...
4. Decluttering thoughts. So this is another one of those weird can't see it so why bother things. But mommy brain often gets the best of me, I forget things, I worry, I stress about the stupidest possibly made up problems. Raise your hand if you've ever felt personally victimized by all the crap in your head... I see you, I see all of you.
So what is the best way to eliminate the unwanted and unneeded mental clutter we accumulate and hang onto, other than drinking copious amounts of wine? Meditation. If you're new to meditation it can seem a little difficult at first, laying there in silence, thinking about not thinking. But if you continue to silence that inner dialogue, tune out that grocery list and to-do list, and just focus on your breathing. Inhale through your nose three counts, hold for two counts, exhale through your mouth four counts. After so long you will slip into a more lucid and relaxed state where all that clutter simply disappears. I personally love a guided meditation, I basically need someone else to tell me how to relax, go figure. A great one I found for clearing mental clutter is by The Mindful Movement, a "Guided Meditation for Reducing Anxiety and Stress--Clear the Clutter to Calm Down". Like anything else in life this can be found on Youtube.
So though I wouldn't say this was an exercise in reducing, or evolving into some minimalist mastermind, it was rather an exercise in mindful decluttering. Eliminating some of the things we have more immediate control of to create a more peaceful existence. So if you're like me and keep staring at your closet or your kids room totally overwhelmed, start small. Pick a few things, a few every day pieces of your life that may hit you with a ping of anxiety or that would make your day move a little smoother and conquer them, but do it for you and do it for real. No sense in taking short cuts here.
What are you going to mindfully declutter?
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