Tags
2017, calm everyday, Calm life, empty nester, less clothes, less emails, Less is more, Less is the new more, less stuff, more freedom, more happiness, new intentions, organising emails, Springclean, surround with what you love, turn off computer, turn off phone, uncluttered life
I started on my bedroom today, the perfect place to rid my life of clutter I no longer need. Uncluttering is a process which if done properly creates more freedom and space in our living areas and minds, some can do it all at once but others need to do it slowly.
I have slowly been getting rid of ‘stuff’ from our old life for a few years now but am going to ramp it up a bit this year. Today I was ruthless, out of my wardrobe I took anything I have not worn in the past 18 months given that our seasons have been a bit up and down lately, I kept the really warm coat along with the less warmer but still much needed coat. That third coat, it went. If you still really want to treat yourself to the newest season coat next winter, knock yourself out but don’t hang it up with the other two, you seriously cannot wear three coats at once, give one away. I used this philosophy with everything else as well, jeans, pants and yes even shoes, OMG I can hear some women scream – you mean I really don’t need 30 pairs of shoes?
Actually I must admit I have never had that many, I usually have 3 or 4 pairs for 2 seasons, hot weather and cold weather- with me its either no socks or socks end of story. The same with handbags, the most I have owned is 3 at a time and even then one is just for when I go to markets and just need to throw it over me for ease of carrying other things. I really cannot be bothered with changing bags each day, I have too many things I like to carry with me, oils and deodorants a water bottle, plus headache tablets & tissues as well as pens and paper you never know when you might need them, sometimes a book, ipod or my kindle and of course my wallet and phone (the essentials lol). With all that in my daily commuting bag who could possibly be bothered changing it all each day? I have often thought of uncluttering my bag and actually this is the uncluttered version but cannot get it down to anything less on a weekday. On weekends the book, ipod or kindle comes out (they are just for my lunch breaks)…mmm…perhaps I need another post on what we girls carry in our handbags 🙂
Its our very last week with an adult child in the home so I am using this transition to look at all the stuff we have carted from one house to another through our army postings and children become adults to our final resting place at mybeachretreat. Its time to empty those kitchen drawers full of kitchen utensils I have duplicates of and the numerous casserole dishes I have stacked in cupboards and hand a few second hands over to Matt as he walks out the door on Saturday
Then over the next few months, I intend to really clean up around here, time to empty sheds full of boxes of old reminders of what we were doing years ago, really? Does it matter what I was doing in 1998? I don’t even remember how old I was unless I work it out. I’m calling it ‘my Empty Nest Springclean Year’ as our son heads off to find his own balance its a great opportunity to really sort out just what we need in this place, just Bill and I, not holding on to things for the kids in case they might want them one day…
I have realised along this journey that less is definately more, without so much mess to tidy up, your space keeps clean for longer. Now that we will be adult child free, its just the two of us, I plan to systematically go through every cupboard and drawer of this house and if its not something either my hubby or I use on a regular basis then its going. For all other thing we use once a year, such as the Christmas tree I just put away, can go out into a shed to be stored. Anything out in that shed which has not seen the light of day for over 12 months means I do not need it and someone else just might.
Have a peak at this quick little video I am sure a lot of us can relate to:
So off I went to my local Red Cross depot and handed them 3 bags of clothes which were just filling up my cupboard and not being worn. Then I came home and opened my email only to think to myself, ‘now there is a place I can really declutter‘. Emails, how many of these do we get each day? How many of these are we not even opening, you know the ones, that we have mindlessly subscribed to while surfing the net just to get more information and they need your email to bombard you with further advice, request, ideas or worse money. Well I unsubscribed to nearly all of them. My criteria for the ones I kept were to do with things I will be doing in my future or information I need in the near future. I can always go back to a website and subscribe again if I think I am really missing something.
For anyone else who is interested in this exercise to unclutter their day with less bombarding of emails, here’s a few great websites with tips on how and where to begin:
Simple and Easy:
http://www.theorderexpert.com/how-to-declutter-your-email-inbox/
For the Tech Savy:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/6-apps-that-will-unclutter-your-life-2013-4
So with a light wardrobe and less choices, kitchen drawers with only utensils I use and thousands of unopened emails out of my life, I can see that 2017 is going to feel light and free and give me more time to spend on things which make me happy such as my new gardening hobby and beginning to plan my big trip for next year – ahhh, cant believe its actually next year now!!
The last little practice my hubby and I plan to do this year is turn off our computers and phones at least an hour before bed, plug the phones into the kitchen to charge not the bedroom and hopefully have better nights sleep this year with less white light blue screen stimuli and I can get back to some of my books…
I am intending this year
to be a whole lot calmer…
how about you?