Purging Your Life

 

 

I remember in university having one essay returned at least four times with the same failing mark and 'edit further' written in red pen.  I was careless with frivolous words so that many times my ideas became lost in fluff.  I learned to editing myself brutally (no sarcastic comments about why I don’t do that with my blog posts). I learned that if you cut out everything that’s not necessary you’ve got a more meaningful story.

 

I highly recommend editing your life.

 

Today’s edit: The rooms in your house, one at a time.

Are you surrounded by clutter in every room in your home?

 

Clutter is visually distracting and stressful — every item that you see demands your mind’s attention, and despite that it is subconscious, these little distractions add up. It’s difficult to have peace and to focus amid this clutter. I recommend that you edit each of the rooms in your house, one per week, until you have de-cluttered your home and made it a peaceful and calming place to be.
 

 

Here’s how:

 

Choose a room to do this week.

Focus on one room, and try to do 15 minutes at a time.  Seven steps to heaven!

 

1) Skip the closets and drawers that are out of sight for now. Focus on the things you can see.
 

2) Like Debt-Snowballing, start with the big things. Is there too much furniture in the room? What is necessary, which furniture do you love, which stuff is just too distracting.

3) Clear all flat surfaces. Desktops, tabletops, counter tops, dressers etc. Remove all papers, piles of stuff, little junk, knick-knacks, anything. Put it on the floor/bed. Now get a trash bag and two boxes. Sort through everything in your pile(s), one item at a time. Each item should be either thrown away in the trash bag, put in one box to give away/sell (to friends, family or charity), or in the other box to put in another room in the house.

4) Put back only a couple select items on the flat surfaces, such as a family photo or something that functionally belongs there.

 

5) Now go around the room and edit what's left.  This may be things on the walls. Be merciless and edit brutally - the more you get rid of the better.

6) Purge and Place. Put recycling out, throw out the trash and take the other box and put that stuff  away where it belongs. 

7) Sit down and look around - enjoy peaceful goodness.

 

Now, this editing process is not a destination, but an ongoing process. It won’t last long if you don’t have a system and develop habits to keep it de-cluttered.

Here’s the system:

SYS1 ~ "A place for everything, and everything in its place"

SYS2 ~ Inbox all incoming papers.  No Piles anywhere

 

SYS3 ~ Clean up at night before bed.

SYS4 ~ Every six months, declutter

Purge away little savers!

Thanks to Zenhabits uncopyright. Ideas taken and edited. He is a great resource.

Simplify

One of the best ways we have found to save is to simplify. Keeping up with the Jones’ just magnifies our personal stockpile of stuff and debt. Living simply means getting rid of things you do so you can spend time with the people you love and do the things that make you passionate. It means getting rid of clutter so you are left with the things you value. Getting to a simple life is not simple though; it is a journey that takes a few steps forward and then some falling ba...ck. It takes practice.

It is WELL worth it.

Grab a piece of paper. Now write the following.

1. What is most important to me?

Your list could be two things, or ten things. This is mine.

1. Family (dogs included)
2. Journey of Faith
3. Nature
4. Learning

Next step. Eliminate everything else. YIKES. Okay let’s take some baby steps.

This week, today:

EVALUATE COMMITMENTS.
Edit your life ruthlessly. List your commitments, Work, family, hobbies, civic duties, religious, home, etc. Which ones bring value to your life and match what is most important to you? How would it affect you if you dropped this commitment?

It is a difficult thing to do but if you dropped just one thing for a few weeks – the thing that gives you the least return for your invested time – you can evaluate whether or not it was necessary in the first place.

You may feel guilty or that you have let others down. Please balance this with the freedom of having more time and energy to put into your other commitments. It will make you better all around.

I’ve discovered during this exercise that I’ve been putting in a fair amount of overtime at work lately trying to dig through a mountain of things to do. You know what, as long as I am not fired – I have the whole year to prioritize and accomplish things eventually.

Goal: My commitment to overtime is null and void. I will practice this next week. I’ll let you know how I do next Saturday.

So what is your goal to simplifying your commitments?