Declutter Your Space: Mental and Physical
Updated: Nov 26, 2020
Its 3 am and I’m up thinking about all the things I need to do, crunching numbers in my head, and trying not to stress about these HUGE transitions I’ve made in the last few weeks. Needless to say, I’m suffering from a typical case of MIND CLUTTER 😩 I say typical because this often happens to me: everyone peacefully at rest and I’m like, ”Who’s gonna watch the kids for my dentist appointment next Tuesday?” 🤦🏾♀️
My house currently looks like my thoughts; semi-organized spaces, with mini hurricanes throughout. Although I’m proud to say that I’ve built four shelving units in the past couple of days to create more space in my kitchen and to organize the kids’ school corner, I also have laundry to do, floors to sweep, mail to sort, and we’re not even going to discuss my closet ✋🏽 I’m sure I’m not in this boat alone. Our physical space can be reflective of our mental space. Nothing has been truer for me; I always have so much brain movement, thoughts, ideas, that my processing can clutter quickly... just as quickly as my bedroom as I’m disrobing from the day and feeling more like I wanna crash than clean 🙇🏾♀️ Here are some tips to help get you started with decluttering your space: 1. Clear surfaces: I am so guilty of piling things on my counters, radiator covers, and tables... that it’s starting to expand to a chair I rarely use or even the end of the chaise. Find one space, clear it, and keep it clear! The gratification of seeing that space is motivating to keep it that way 🤗
2. Find a space for 5 items: someone once told me “everything has a home”, and I find myself drilling this to my own children. Once a home is given to an item, that’s where it belongs- not in the middle of the floor or on the dining room table, in the place you originally set for it. Hold everyone accountable (including yourself) for getting things back ”home”. 🙂 3. Pick a shelf, any shelf: this can be a book shelf or the abyss in your hall closet, but things are collecting on these spaces and we don’t realize it until we can’t fit anything else there. If you know you want to “clean up” and not sure where to start, pick a shelf. 😉
4. Schedule a Dedicated Time: Even if you scream ”Saturday is the Day!” or set an alarm for 15 minutes of clearing your space, do it with intention. Make a commitment to yourself to get ’er done! Gotta start somewhere. Key word: start. You don’t have to finish it all in that moment. Thats a sure fire way to overwhelm yourself 🙏🏽
5. Give yourself some credit: It’s a lot of pressure to keep a home presentable, make dinners, be a full-time anything, and still find time for you. Don’t over promise or over commit. Start small and if you're feeling ambitious, go with it! Celebrate whatever you were able to accomplish and move on. There's always tomorrow (arguable, but go with the vibe, mmmkay?).
Now, lets talk about brain space. Time to free up some memory and add an external hard drive! Try some of these tips for decluttering your mind:
Meditation: I’m leading with this because it’s intentional. Take 3 minites at the start of your day to do a mini reset from yesterday’s junk. A few minutes at the end of the day could be the decompression you need. It doesn’t have to be deep, just done with intent.
Create lists: Write (or type) short term things you don’t necessarily have to store like appointments, grocery lists and reminders. The visual cue will help you stay on track and you don’t have to second guess yourself.
Release: Holding on to past events is giving power to that thing. It has control over a piece of your world; a piece of your world that you can dedicate to something else. Let it go. You cant get back those moments, but you can create new ones by pushing that out.
Prioritize: Put things in an order of importance. I often ask myself, ”Is this important right now” or I ask others, ”What would you like for me to do about this right now?” If there’s not an immediate need, set a deadline for it and move on. I’m sure there’s a lot that requires your attention and processing; choose wisely and with intent.
Be gentle with yourself: we can overwhelm ourselves with our thoughts and daily routines. Just remember to take a time out when you need it and make self care paramount. Dedicate some of that brain space to you, too.
Ok, it’s now about 4 am and I should go take some of this glorious advice. But I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished this week! Now to create some clarity in the mind 🧘🏾♀️ and get some rest.
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