A new year is the perfect time to declutter not just your belongings, but your entire life. After the Christmas and New Year celebrations have finished we often feel tired, overweight, full of toxins, penniless and with a home full of clutter. Not the best way to start a new year in your life! But it doesn’t need to be like this.
That jaded January feeling, which some people call the winter blues, makes you feel eager for something better. That’s why this is the perfect time to make some changes in your life.
Banish Christmas
The first thing to do is to declutter the Christmas leftovers. Take down your decorations at Twelfth Night promptly, as nothing is worse than tired reminders of something past. Your home will instantly look less cluttered and more spacious without a six foot Christmas tree! Pack your decorations away neatly into boxes and store them in your attic or basement.
Next look at your Christmas gifts. Are some of them a little bit superfluous? Will you use that cookery book? After all you already possess thirty you never look at! How many socks can any one person wear? You only have two feet! Do you need five bottles of perfume and six make up sets? Do you really want to look at that ugly ornament every day? Be ruthless in discarding the gifts you know you’ll never use. You can appreciate the thought but don’t have to suffer the reality!
Declutter Your Body And Soul
Now that the clutter of Christmas is well and truly under control you will feel victorious. So take advantage of this feeling and shake up some other areas of your life. Most people put on some extra weight at Christmas and this bodily clutter slows you down just as much as excess possessions.
Declutter your kitchen by banishing the junk food from your fridge and cupboards, so that you’re not tempted to eat it. Egg nog and mince pies are lovely at Christmas, but are not helping you to have a model figure! Replace them with fresh, colourful, juicy, fruit and vegetables. This will help you to shed those excess pounds which are cluttering up your physique.
Going for a short daily walk will have the double benefit of slimming down your body and decluttering your mind. Stress is a great clutterer of minds. But a walk in the fresh air, even a short one, will soothe your spirit. Yoga or meditation is another effective technique for relaxing your mind as well as your body, and smoothing out some of that stress.
Make Your Bedroom Inviting
Getting enough sleep is important at this time of year as bad weather and short days make us feel more tired. Remove the clutter from your bedroom and turn it into a shrine of rest and relaxation. If you need more storage then acquire some. No one want to sleep in a jumble sale, or a room which looks like it’s been hit by an earthquake, but many of us do! You will sleep much more peacefully if your bedroom is a tidy, spacious and soothing haven.
Figure Out Your Finances
Finally your finances may need a bit of decluttering. If you’re feeling cash-poor after Christmas then you could do with streamlining your finances. Look at all the standing orders and direct debit payments coming out of your accounts. Are any of them for things you don’t need, like that subscription for the magazine you never read, or the gym membership you are too lazy to use?
Do you use retail therapy as a way of cheering you up and thus acquire surplus clothes and possessions? Remember you don’t need enough clothes for ten people, there’s only one of you! Cull those pointless standing orders and stop buying things you don’t need. This way you will declutter your finances and your house in one go.
Become Supercharged
Once you’ve given your entire life this clutter makeover you will feel supercharged with energy. You will feel in control of every area of your life and this is a very empowering feeling. Without the clutter to hold you back you will be itching to take on new activities, new ideas and new friendships. There is no better way to start your new year, so make this your best year ever by decluttering your life!
