5 Steps to decluttering

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

beliefs, closet, item, space, housecleaning, decluttering, serve, physical, steps, rat race, mental, drawer, longer, purge, book, episode, life, feelings, little bit, reboot

00:00

Decluttering is trending online right now for our physical spaces. I mean, there's some really innovative ideas out there right now. And you know what they say decluttered space decluttered mind. So today we're going to be diving a little bit deeper like we always do on rat race reboot, because we don't want to just stop at decluttering our physical space we also want to do some periodic Mental Housecleaning, so stick around.

00:26

The following was recorded in front of a live studio audience at the studio 21 podcast cafe. This is the United Podcast Network.

00:36

Welcome to rat race reboot. I'm your host, Laura Noel. And as a certified coach and former 27 year military leader. Each week, I provide bite sized mindset pivots that will help you reset your mind reawaken your spirit and regain your control. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode, I was just kind of scrolling on Instagram and online. And I got sucked into all the cool little reorganization kind of posts and memes and videos and all of that stuff. There's some really awesome ideas floating around out there. And I recently just had my closets redone, just like completely gutted and then just redesigned. And it's such a wonderful feeling when I can go into a clear space, such as my closet, and be able to see everything clearly everything is in order. everything's lined up and color coded or by item. And it makes dressing in the morning fun. I like opening that closet and seeing what's in there and experimenting with the things that are in there are so many things I didn't even realize were in there. And so many personalities were in that closet, I needed to do some purging. And so with all this hubbub with purging and decluttering, it got me thinking about how wonderful it is to declutter and how great it feels. But I don't want us to stop there in just our physical space. And I don't know about you. But I noticed when my space is cleared, my desk is clear, my working space is clear. My handbag is clear, and I can find things in there. Along with that comes some mental clarity, I feel more at ease, I feel on top of the world I feel ready to go I feel organized. So those feelings influence how I move forward in my day and in my life and in the pursuit of my goals. So I want to take some some steps that I found by looking online, I have five steps for decluttering your space or your closet. But I also want to align those steps with some Mental Housecleaning housekeeping so that we can keep our thoughts in alignment, we can start to purge some of those beliefs that are no longer us anymore. Some things that, you know, if you remember our paradigms, our deep rooted beliefs really run the show when it comes to our habitual behavior, and a lot of things and a lot of the things that we do or that we say, a lot of the things that we engage in, sometimes while they're on the unconscious level, a subconscious level, we don't even realize we're behaving in the way that we are. And it's this old programming that's guiding our behavior. And so if we don't take the time to do some mental house cleaning, and housekeeping every once in a while, our operating system can get a little bit low GI and cluttered and we don't have room for growth and for some new beliefs or new habits that we might want to adopt if we want to elevate ourselves in terms of the people that we want to be some of the things that we want to do and the things that we aspire to have in our life, whether it's experiences or material things, we have to let go of some of these old beliefs that we're clinging on to. So here we go some five things that we can start to do right now to declutter our physical space and our mental space. One is in your closet, you would take out every single item and put it into one pile in the middle of your room if you have space to do that. So put every take everything out of that, that space, put it in a pile that's step one. Now, next, you want to separate those items into keep, toss, donate or sell or repair If you have some things that you need a new button, but you haven't been wearing it and it's in your closet taking up space, well, you're not going to wear the darn thing until you repair it. So we've got separate separate piles, keep, toss, donate, or sell, and alter or fix. And then the items that you're going to keep, ask yourself these questions for each item. Does this item bring me joy? And I got that from Marie Kondo. So read her book, phenomenal? Does this item fit me?

05:35

And if I saw this item in a store right now, would I purchase it? Would I invest in it? Okay? And if the answer is yes to all of those questions, then keep the item and if not put it into one of those other piles, let it go. Because you're not opening yourself up to the new version of you. There's no space for that. And then the other thing is, start small start with one space at a time with one item. So maybe just start with your sock drawer. Oh my gosh, what a nightmare. My sock drawer was, by the way, I had, like all different kinds of old ones that I just needed to purge and get rid of things that I wasn't wearing old tights, like I don't know, it needed to be cleaned and decluttered. So I started with one item at a time. Do I need 25 million pair of running socks? No, I do not. That's a bit too much. Like let's purge the ones that I've had for a while, let it go. Make some space so that I can easily find some things. Maybe you might want to start in your denim drawer, right? What is no longer in style? What no longer fits you? What are you holding on to? What do you feel good, what feels good on your body. When you wear it, you feel elevated. Those are the items that you want to keep. But start small, you know, maybe just start one drawer at a time all of your denim, put it in the middle of the pile and then go through this process. And then reorganize with beauty in mind, you want to make sure that things are accessible to you that you can see them. And you can find a lot of great examples online. Of course, again, Marie Kondo has some great examples. One thing that I learned from her is taking all of my camisoles for example, or tank tops, and rolling them in a way that I I'm situating them upright in the drawer. So I can see what type of shirt it is, what kind of underpinning it is and what color it is. And it's color coded. So when I get dressed in the morning, and I'm looking for a tank top to wear under a jacket, I can open the drawer, oh, here's a silk one, or here's a cotton one or here's one with lace, I can pull it out, it just makes things much easier in the morning. So there's something to start you. And of course, this will be in the show notes. And of course, I always do a blog based on these podcasts. So you can re listen to this, you can read it, there's a transcript there. So you don't have to miss all of these steps. But I'm going to walk you through the steps one more time in terms of Mental Housecleaning and your mindset. So let's it's the same principle here. So take every single item out and put it into a pile. Okay, how does this translate to doing some mental housekeeping keeping? You know, when you have beliefs in your subconscious mind or paradigms that you know, are holding you back. I want you to get those thoughts and those beliefs outside of you. They are not you, you might have these beliefs, but those beliefs, you don't want them to have you. So get a notebook and write down some paradigms and beliefs that you know are holding you back from that next level or living the life of your dreams or, you know, really stepping out of your shell. Okay, living your best life. You want to get those things out on paper so that you can examine them from the point of view of the observer, okay, so get all those beliefs and ideas that you no longer want to identify with. You no longer want to believe you know, that are no longer serving you and get them out on paper or journal about them. Now, you might have some good beliefs throw in thrown in there too. So some things that you want to hold on to that serve you well and keep you moving forward. So you take note of those to have some things pop up into your mind and write them down. And then you want to kind of underline and separate those beliefs into what am I going to keep? What do I want to keep? Think about your goal. Think about the image that you're holding in your mind's eye about the life that you want to live, how you want to be seen how you want to engage in the world, the difference you want to make in the world, how you want to grow and evolve as a person how you want to give, with those goals in mind, with that vision in mind, look at your beliefs that you've written down on this piece of paper. Are they in alignment with that goal? Or are they old beliefs that you no longer need that maybe served you well and got you to this point in your life, but you know, wow, you know what I can afford to let these go, these beliefs have helped me looking at it through the lens of gratitude. These beliefs have served me, but I think they've kind of overstayed their welcome, they, you know, to get to this point where I see myself, I think I could afford to adopt some new beliefs and let these ones go. So put them in a pile in on your sheet of paper, come up with a little system, maybe circle the ones that you want to keep and hang on to, and then put a line through the ones that you could toss or give away, get rid of? Or maybe there's some beliefs that could be altered a little bit, right?

11:37

And then even ask yourself some of these questions that you asked yourself, when you were clearing the clutter in your closet or in your physical space? Does this belief bring me joy? Does this belief still fit with me? Does it fit with where I'm going? Think about your future self? And how you would make decisions? Does this belief align with my future self? And if not, let that belief go. And if I saw that belief in a in a store, you can take the same concept? Would I choose it? Would I want to adopt this belief? And if the answer is no, then let it go. Sometimes we can resist change. It's our old operating system that really wants to hang on to some of these old beliefs that are no longer serving us. And the fear of letting them go. keeps us from really letting them go, we hang on to them, because we are certain of what we have now. But cuz who would I be if I didn't believe these things, we start to question that. So I don't want you to just stop there.

13:01

Start, start small, just like you did in your physical space. You know, if you have beliefs around money, or if you have beliefs around relationships, or beliefs that you know, are keeping you stuck in terms of your career progression, or living the life of your dreams, or giving to the level that you'd want to give, start in one of those buckets. And really start to examine the beliefs in that one area, start with one piece at a time. And then once you've determined what beliefs are no longer serving you in terms that they're not in alignment with the person you want to become in that bucket, then you want to start to reorganize, reframe some of these beliefs or adopt new ones that are in harmony with what you want. So if you have a belief, I'm really bad with money, I'm bad with numbers. And you know, that's not serving you to grow your, your wealth. You know, maybe reframing that of I love learning about numbers, I'm great with numbers reframing that would you rather adopt that belief would that belief serve you in your goal for creating wealth and and sharing it and enjoying it? So what would be a more suitable belief that would be in alignment with that goal? So you want to reorganize with beauty in mind, just like you did in your physical space. So I hope that's been helpful to you. Doing a little bit of decluttering is essential. I like to do it every season. I kind of reevaluate what's in my wardrobe. And even when I'm looking at my wardrobe, I'm thinking about who is this person who Am I becoming? Does this even even though it's a beautiful piece, I've kind of let go of the guilt of I've, I've had this in my closet forever, it was expensive, I really had to have it 10 years ago, it's still good. But if it if it's not aligning with who I am now and who I want to be, and I'm not wearing it, what good is it doing anyone, you know, it would be better served to donate it or to resell it or consign it, and let somebody else enjoy that piece. And it might resonate with somebody else. And then they can, it can be loved by somebody else. But being crammed in your closet into the the dark spaces of your closet where you can't even see it, it's not being loved by anyone, right? So you have to be willing to let go of those things so that you have space for the things that you want most of all, and when I say things, I don't mean just material things. I mean, it feelings, you know, whatever that is for you. How do you want to be when you're living your best life? Do you want to feel a sense of joy? And freedom? Do you want to feel confident? Do you want to feel carefree? Whatever that is for you? Do you want to be more of a giver? Do you want to be more outward focused, those things are important as well. But if you're wearing old things that no longer fit you and if you're carrying on to beliefs that no longer serve you, then you're always having to fuss with those things, right? And then when you're doing that you're not focusing on what you want. You're focus backwards, you're looking in the rearview mirror, and that's not going to serve you moving forward. So I hope this has been helpful, helpful for you. I want to hear how it goes. How is your, your mental health keeping going? Oh, I'm

16:53

having trouble saying that word mental house cleaning, I want to say cleaning. Alright, I'm gonna go with that mental health cleaning. How is that going for you? How is rearranging and redesigning your physical space is that creating more clarity for you, I want to hear from you. So if you go to rat race reboot.com, you could choose whatever platform where you listen to your podcast, leave a five star review. If this resonated with you, leave some comments there, I want to know how this is going for you. I do read those comments. And it means a great deal to me. Also, a lot of these ideas, they throughout all these episodes, gosh, we're on episode 53. Right now, a lot of the ideas that are leading up to this episode, they're kind of sequential. And if you really want kind of something that you can refer to often, I have my rat race reboot book that's coming out very, very soon, I just finished the last two chapters, it's with my editor right now super excited. But go to rat race reboot.com. And on the right hand side of that page, you can subscribe to get updates when that book comes out. And all of these things throughout these 50 episodes, kind of put in a method. In a method sort of way, you can follow kind of A to Z and follow through in that book, and you'll have worksheets and everything there. So you don't have to be lost, you can follow through. And then when we go through these episodes on rat race reboot, you'll know exactly what we're talking about. You won't have to look backwards. But anyway, we're going to end today's episode the way we always do. And I want you to think about decluttering. What would that look like for you? Where are some areas in your physical space that would serve you well to do a little bit of decluttering? And how about one of those bucket areas that I talked about today? Maybe it's in your finances, maybe relationships, maybe your work situation? Maybe it's in living your purpose or giving or just expressing yourself to your fullest potential? Which one of those areas would you start with to do a little bit of Mental Housecleaning? And I want you to think about that area in your life. The way you truly desire it to be what if it could be easy? What if it could feel effortless? And what if you navigated obstacles and challenges for your growth and it felt good You are living your best life in this area how are you serving? Who are you connecting with? As you stand in your fullest potential and what are some new beliefs that this person would adopt? This is you, this is your future self How does it feel? Being new and as ideas float to the top of your mind, some new beliefs, feelings, emotions, maybe things that you are doing experiencing. Start to write them down. Because this is your reality, this is your worthy ideal. This is what you're stepping into. And you can do it right now from where you stand.

21:49

Now, what actions do you feel inspired to take based on this reality?

22:04

Welcome back. And this is what taking inspired action is all about when you declutter, you open yourself up to new possibilities. And when you imagine yourself in your worthy ideal, and you're feeling into it, and you have insights and flashes of inspiration. those action steps are meant for you to take now. That's your path of least resistance. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, I want to thank you again for joining us. And again, go to rat race reboot.com Leave your five star review subscribe so you know when the book is coming out. I'm super excited about that. And until then, remember, everything is created twice. First in your imagination, and then in physical form. We'll see you next week.

22:59

The views and opinions expressed by the hosts guests or callers of this program do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the studio 21 podcast cafe, the United Podcast Network its partners or affiliates.