So you’ve been trying to figure out what are some ways to get this year started for a while now.
You may see others online, showing how they've planned and organized their lives this new year. And it seems like everyone makes it look so easy.
But for some reason, planning and organizing keep eluding you. Every time you get close to clearing the clutter out of your life, something happens and you end up back where you started and with even more clutter than you started with.
Not this time.
Because this time you’re going to be armed with the same tips, tricks, and secrets you see others are doing to make their lives easier to become successful in whatever it is you are trying to achieve.
This year I wanted to start with a clear mind, a clean slate, and a clean home. Decluttering is a great place to start when you need fresh ideas, a new start, and a clear mind. And I don't know about you but I can't think straight when my home is not in order and things are all over the place virtually and physically.
Give these simple tips a try and see if they work for you too…
Tip 1: Declutter your email
There are many ways you can declutter your emails but these are a few that have helped me in the past 2 weeks.
Download Unroll.me
- Unroll.me is the easiest way to manage your inbox. Unsubscribe from unwanted email subscriptions, discover new ones, and organize them all in one place.
Create folders in your Inbox
- Creating a folder for emails I will return too is one of my top ways to declutter your email. I put these emails in the folder and put some time on my calendar during the week to read through them.
Never stay subscribed to an email if you know you're not going to read them.
WARNING: Keeping emails you never open adds to the clutter and does not decrease it. We tend to keep subscriptions based on coupons, discounts, or sometimes we feel we are missing something.
NEWS FLASH: you have everything you need.
Erasing these emails can help you eliminate unnecessary purchases, which is buying psychology, which will ultimately help your budget. This will clear your emails of so much junk, and also minimize the internet's algorithm to stop studying your shopping habits.
- Go to the top search in your email browser, put in a name of a consistent company you see in your inbox, erase all the emails if you aren't going to read them, and take the companies latest email and unsubscribe.
Tip 2: Declutter your social media
This is a quarterly task I complete about every 3 months. There are so many voices, so many opinions, and so many “facts” that a lot of times, social media can be really noisy.
I don’t follow everybody that follows me. If a page doesn’t uplift me, encourage my faith, and help me with something. I will not follow them unless they are my family or friends.
If you went to high school with somebody and they didn't talk with you then and don't say too much to you now. Why are you following them? Now if you support them or their business and the relationship is mutual then that’s a different story but most of us follow a lot of unnecessary people just because.
I don’t like much noise so when my feed seems cloudy. I clean out my follower's list to minimize the busyness of social media.
Tip 3: Declutter your Closet
This will have to be my all-time favorite! Cleaning out my closet is so refreshing to me. I like to do these things to declutter.
Create a Toss, Sell, or Donate pile
- Sell items I don't wear on eBay
- Donate clothes to Goodwill or local church for outreach
- Toss items that are torn, ripped, or super old
Organize your closet using containers, labels, and color coordination
Hire a professional to help if this task becomes daunting.
Bonus Tip: Just Breath. This may seem like a lot but this becomes fun once you implement these steps in your life. I started doing this by 15 minutes a day for each tip and saw a huge leap in my creativity because my phone, my social media, and my closet were all clutter-free.
In sum: Decluttering is fairly simple when you apply the above 3 tips. So let me leave you with one last tip…
So get to it – you’re going to be glad you did! Let me know in the comments, which is your favorite.
