So in the spirit of this whole laying the foundation concept I realized that I had to start my organizational makeover at the epicenter of my life, my home. It is a common saying that home is where the heart is so you should always make sure you put some heart into your home because it is going to affect the rest of your world.
You probably have no idea how important the set up and organization of your home is to the rest of your life but if you really think about it, everything you do is impacted by the quality of your living space. Whether your living in a house or an apartment or simply in a bedroom of someone else’s home, you need to make sure that that space is appropriate for you and life you want to create.
For example, I live in an apartment. I am not a naturally neat and tidy person. I rummage through drawers leaving all the clothes in them wrinkled and crumpled. Most of the time I leave my closet doors and my drawers wide open partly because they are overflowing and too difficult to close. There is typically clothing laying all over the furniture and floor simply because I don’t feel like putting it away. I don’t throw anything away so I have half empty or practically empty bottles of hair product, nail polish, or lotion all over the place. Magazines are piled up in empty corners on the floor, junk is stashed under the bed with no sort of order to it, and my bed is never made. Basically, I think you get the picture that my apartment lacks organization and I’ve only described my bedroom so far. It’s no wonder that the rest of my life is messy and chaotic if this is the environment that I live in.
As I said in my previous post, I’ve tried the extreme way of cleaning up my act and while it produces good results for a while, the neatness never seems to stick. This time, I needed it to stick. So I made tweaks in my everyday life that were subtle but hopefully beneficial to overall goal. My first step was to declutter. Now I know you’re thinking, why wasn’t I smart enough to declutter my life sooner? Well like I said in the extreme versions on my home makeovers I have decluttered but this time I changed my way of thinking when I did it. Instead of being frustrated with all the junk and just throwing things out, I really thought about what I was letting go of.
So when I started throwing away product and make up, I started a new trash bag. By the time I was done, I had filled up the trash bag and it was almost too heavy for me to carry. It became very apparent to me that this was more than just a bag full of old cosmetics but rather that is was a lot of wasted money and impetuous, unnecessary purchases. I did the same thing with my clothing. I removed items I didn’t wear anymore from my closets and drawers. As I put things in give away and throw away piles, I mentally estimated all the money I had spent on these items vs. how much use I actually got out the garments. Many of the things I was getting rid of were items that were either rarely worn or out of style only one season after I had purchased them. By the time I was done with my decluttering, I had bags of things that had been extracted from bedroom and I was very aware of all the money that was now been thrown in the dumpster. My hope was that the next time I would go shopping or be browsing in Ulta or Target for that must have hair product or nail polish, that I would remember those bags and make smarter purchasing decisions. I will say that this like trick has worked. Over the past month, when buying something, I have been able to keep the images of the discarded items top of mind and it has helped curb my frivolous spending.
Once the unnecessary items are extracted from your living space, you are ready to move on to the next step. What to know what that is? Well you declutter and I’ll write Part Two for when you’re done but while you simplify your surroundings keep this in mind. My mother always said that there is a difference between needs and wants and as much as it pains me to say this, she may have been on to something.
"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak." ~Hans Hofmann
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