Cleaning, organizing and releasing what no longer serves us is one of the greatest ways we can re-energize our spaces, our bodies and our lives.

Clutter affects our energy, our mindset and our productivity. Clutter can come in multiple forms: physical, mental, digital, relationships and emotional.

If you’re ready to live an even more productive and inspired life, then it’s time to release your clutter and get organized.

Here are some tips to get started:

Step 1: Rate your life on a scale of 1-10 in each of the following categories: financial, career, health, family/friends, intimate relationship, spirituality and external environment.

One of the best ways to start is to take a look at each category of your life and see which ones may need some reorganization, love and attention.

Maybe for you, it’s a conversation you’ve been putting off, finishing your taxes or getting some financials organized, cleaning out your closet and/or work environment, decluttering your computer, or cleaning out your fridge/pantry of unhealthy foods.

Step 2: Choose which category you’d like to begin with as you move through these exercises. You may want to start with the area you’d like to improve the most. Maybe that’s the one with the lowest number or area that causes you the most stress, or you may want to start with an area that’s going well that may just need a few simple adjustments for even more fulfillment.

Here are some helpful guiding questions as you think about how you’d like to get started:

• Where could you benefit most from creating space?
• What do you want to bring more of into your life?
• What’s no longer serving you or draining valuable energy?
• What do you want to let go of?
• What’s your ideal environment in this category? What would it look like and feel like? What fills your space when it’s exactly how you want it to be? What’s no longer present?
• What would it mean to you if you were to make meaningful progress in this area of your life? How would this benefit you and the people in your life? (Your family, partner, team, clients…)
• Do you find your current environments are an accurate representation of what’s most important to you or what you want to be most important to you

 

Step 3: Read about the category below that you’ve chosen to work on for now to gain awareness around the clutter you may have in this area of your life.

Financial:

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Is it that you have financial documents and bills cluttering up your desk or kitchen? Do you need to go paperless and set up automated systems?
• Are your taxes documents and receipts in disarray?
• Are you organized? Do you know your spending habits, do you have a budget? Do you follow it? Do you have unpaid bills, traffic tickets, or loans?
• Do you have stress in your life because you’re living above your means?
• Do you need to liquidate some of your assets or investments?
• Do you need a new financial plan?
• Do you have limiting beliefs around money taking up space and cluttering your mind?

 

Career:

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Are you inspired and fulfilled by your career?
• Do you have clear direction and plan?
• Do you need to create more effective systems?
• Do you have communication challenges with partners, co-workers and/or clients?
• Do you know and own your value around your product or service offering?
• Do you set boundaries or need to set any in your work environment? (This could be related to energy, time, money, interruptions, distractions…)
• Is your desk or work environment cluttered with papers or other objects that aren’t productive or fueling?
• Is your computer or desktop unorganized and cluttered with digital documents that are not labeled or not filed properly?
• Do you have any limiting beliefs holding you back from advancing in your career, growing your business or changing career paths?

Health:

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Do you have a clear vision for what ideal health looks like for you?
• Do you have plan to get there?
• Do you engage in daily physical activity?
• Do you have any unwanted physical body pain or ailments?
• Do you have expired or unhealthy food in your refrigerator, freezer, pantry or cabinets?
• Do you have out-of-date supplements or ones you no longer use?
• Do you engage in habits that are unproductive or not moving you towards your ultimate health goals?
• Do your beliefs around health and wellness support your vision?

Family/friends: 

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Do you have communication challenges in this area? If so, make a list of the people you feel judged by or you’re judging, people you feel you can’t please or often seem to go out of your way for?
• Are there any conversations you need to have or that you’ve been avoiding having?
• Are you spending the quality time you desire with your friends and family?
• Do you have a purpose and vision for your time together?
• Do you know the 5 love languages or what’s most important to your family and friends?
• Do you feel able to sufficiently create boundaries around your time, energy, money and resources?
• Are there any emotions cluttering your mind and space (such as grief, anger, lack of forgiveness or jealousy…)?
• Do your family and friends leave physical clutter in your home you need to remove or organize?

Intimate relationship:

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Are you currently in an intimate relationship? Do you want to be in one right now?
• Do you have a vision for your ideal intimate relationship?
• Can you clearly communicate with your partner?
• Are there any conversations you need to have or have been avoiding having?
• Do you know your partner’s 5 love languages and/or erotic blueprints? Are you meeting them consistently? And, are they meeting yours?
• Are you still holding onto past emotional weight from a previous relationship or any beliefs that are not serving you and your vision?  

Spirituality:

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Do you have a current spiritual or meditation practice?
• Do you have daily rituals to clear your space energetically, physically and emotionally. (grounding or cutting cords practices, energy or meditation, sage or using oils, using the elements: fire, water, earth, metal…)
• Are your spiritual items (crystals, candles, oils, books, gongs, yoga mats, cards…) strategically located to inspire and empower you or just another thing you bought that clutters your space?
• Do you have a vision for your spiritual practice?
• Do you consistently set aside time for spiritual growth?
• Are you able to talk about what’s most important to you with others?
• Are you able to sit in stillness? Do you have thoughts about all the clutter around you physically, or in your head, mentally?

External environment:

Create awareness where the disorganization or clutter lives in this area.

• Make a list of the places you spend the most amount of time. (Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, laundry room, car, office, gym, yoga studio, local restaurants/coffee shops, homes of significant other/close friends/relatives?)
• Are the places you spend the most time in physically cluttered or inspiring?
• Do you have a vision of your ideal environments?
• Does the clutter stress you out or take up space in your mind?
• Do you have stuff you don’t use, need or love around?
• Do you have excess books, papers, magazines that you no longer need or need to organize?
•  Would you feel comfortable with someone just opening up your closet or jumping in your car? What if that person were your ideal business client, a friend you really respected or person you had a crush on?
• Do you feel filled up and fueled by the restaurants, studios and places you go?

 

Our environments are a reflection of who we are and what’s most important to us.

And they can be a predictor of what we’re calling in.

The things we love to fill our space with allow people into our world and remind ourselves of our highest priorities when cleared out.

For example, I was working with a mom who loved her kids but was venting about how frustrated she was and she couldn’t get them off of her mind throughout the day. She felt she wasn’t organized or producing as much as she’d like with her business while her kids were at school. I asked her where in her life she felt like her kids were overwhelming her? The immediate response was her car.

It was an absolute disaster. She’s a busy mom and just threw stuff constantly. It’s not that that’s bad or wrong as a moral thing, but it was a good predictor of what’s happening in her unconscious and why she wasn’t creating the time for anything else. Everywhere she looked were things related to her kids. So even after dropping them off at school she found herself distracted and thinking about them constantly. Once I reminded her that it is possible to be an amazing mom, love her kids and still clear out space for her own personal goals she felt relieved. The first action she wanted to take was to clear out her car. As she started clearing out her car, her sense of self grew. After dropping them off, she found she began to produce more as a result. She had space to think about who she wants to be and what she wants to create. She added images around the car, a notebook for ideas in the front seat, and organized containers for each kids things so they had a place.

The purpose of this exercise isn’t to beat yourself up or to feel overwhelmed, it’s to have awareness of the areas in life in which you’d like to improve and to get started making progress in each of those areas.

Step 4. Schedule the time to take action and bring in professionals to help you reach your goals. Nothing feels better then deciding and starting to make progress. Take it one step at a time so you can feel accomplished and lighter along the way.

The goal is to create space, clarity and inspiration. The more clear we are, the easier it is to focus, be productive and have an even more fulfilling and inspiring life.

I can’t wait to hear what you want to clear out and what opens up for you.

Happy Clearing!

xx,

Laurin and Summer

P.S. Here’s two other blog posts related to digital clutter

Digital Detox: Clearing Out Emails

Digital Overload: Why Too Much Clutter Stops You From Achieving Your Goals

Summer Rose:

Summer Rose, founder of Star Organizers, was born and raised in Miami, Florida and has been passionately organizing for over a decade. She currently resides and works in New York City and travels to organize clients’ homes all over the country. Summer not only helps you create effective strategies for your home and office, but she also helps you create effective strategies for your life. She teaches you how to effortlessly follow these strategies so your space and your life are consistently clutter free. You can learn more at www.starorganizers.com or e-mail her at summer@starorganizers.com.

Laurin Seiden:

Laurin Seiden is the Founder and Principal of New You Development, your go-to resource for getting connected. After over a decade of life coaching, working with thousands of people and 25,000+ hours of studying and teaching with the world’s leading expert’s across every field in personal development, she’s on a mission to help people access and live as their most inspired beings. You can find her coaching with a green juice in hand in Los Angeles or skiing down the slopes of beautiful Aspen, CO. You can email her at laurin@newyoudevelopment.com.