A thought process for figuring out what to keep.
I used to pride myself on all the things I held on to. I could pull out a birthday card from when I was 5 or a text book form highschool or a paystub over 8 years old. I had lots of art supplies and papers that I collected forever and had plans for. I was not until I decided to leave home for an extended amount of time.
I could only take what I could physically carry + my relationship with my things began to change.
I began to realize that my things represent what I make them represent. I began to see that when I let go I was opening up space for new possibilities.
Set Your Intentions
With any goal in life you need to look at what you want to achieve. What do you want your outcome to be? Do you want more time? Less things to manage? What is really important to you?
A simple way to begin is to choose 3 words that represent how you want you home to feel.
Go ahead choose three now...
Later when you are deciding what stays and goes you can reference these words and ask: Does this item help me to achieve my 3 words of intention? If you share your home ask the other family members what their words would be and see if you can narrow it down to 3 you all agree on.
My words are: FLOW | MAGICAL | INSPIRING
The Little Book of Sanctuary, suggests that you can choose another set of words for each room.
Assess you space
Next you can ASSESS your existing storage space, think of that as your max - everything you need to store must fit into these spaces. Think: Can I do with less? Go around your house room by room and check out your storage spaces. You might even want to take a few photos for reference.
Choose your Mindset
Now that we have set our intentions and we know how much space we are actually working with, we can look at our mindset moving forward. There are a few ways to think about your decluttering journey:
1. Get into the Mindset of HONOURING what you love, and LETTING GO of what holds you back.
It is important to surround yourself by things that uplift you, making your home a place that inspires you. Connect to what you have and only keep what you love. First we connect with what we have, this is a process of honouring yourself. Focus on decluttering your own things, if you have family members living with you, you will need to let them declutter their own things, declutter is usually catching so when they see what you are doing and here your whys and results they are likely to follow suit. See Declutter Like a Manifesting Guru for more inspiration.
2. Get into the mindset of a TRAVELLER
Just when I was settling into my one bedroom studio apartment in San Francisco, I decided to take a leave of absence form work, sublet my apartment and travel to Australia and New Zealand for 6 months. This was my first real look at all the things I was carrying with me. I had to do it a few times before when I was at University studying design; every year we had to pack up or dorm/ apartment and decide what to keep and what to go, but most things went into storage, until I graduated and had to move back to San Francisco. I had to decide what was worth shipping back and what was better to let go.
Let's just say I had a bit of a struggle getting my bags from the airport to the train station to the hostel - there may have been tears sheD.
When traveling I realized that I did not need much, but I still held on to quite a lot of things. The real change in what I held on to came when I decided to move to Australia indefinitely and I really could only take what fit in 2 suitcases and a carry-on, even then I had to pay for extra luggage- arrgg. When I moved in with my now husband, he was a real minimalist and soon I began to let go of even more. I will save more of my transition to simplifying my life in a future post.
So whats next?
TODAY'S ACTIONS (SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT THEM):
1. Choose your 3 words of INTENTION
2. Assess your storage space
3. To get ready for the next post pick the first room you want to declutter, I suggest starting with your bedroom.
I will share more about mindset and give some practical tips on the process to start decluttering in future posts.
Be Wonderful
xx
LaToya
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