i decluttered my life in 30 days

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Leah's Fieldnotes
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after spending almost a year living out of a carry-on suitcase I realized the thing that makes me the most happy aren't things at all I'm My Own True source of happiness and what inspired are the people nature and knowledge I can tap into no matter where I am but it's so easy to forget that and get swept up in these new trends and things to buy I have to actively ask myself whether the things I already own actually make my life better so when I gotten back to my mom's where I left the rest of
my belongings I decide to conduct the biggest declutter of my life I've done many closet cleanups in the past it was pretty easy to do one of those on my own this is 60 items but to go through every single thing I owned I needed a game plan after some internet research I decided to try the men's game which gamifies decluttering with a 30-day challenge where you get rid of one thing on day one two things on day two all the way up to 30 items on day 30 totaling out to 465 objects in total
that you would be saying goodbye to this is so much stuff although I started out pretty optimistic it was still very daunting and it did get pretty rough at times this past month but by the end of it I felt like I had shed so much heaviness from my life not only did my room feel airier lighter brighter so did my mental space I had more energy more creative motivation I just felt more at peace where I was so if you want to experience this challenge for yourself without losing all of your brain cells I'm
going to be sharing with you the strategies I devised through this past month number one is make a cute tracker I drew one out that I could put on my wall as a cute little Decor piece and help me to visually see my progress to motivate me look how cute my tracking sheet is like I can't not succeed this game with a tracking sheet that's cute and also made me excited to play the game every day because it was genuinely so fun to fill out I am simply slaying putting it somewhere prominent will also remind
you that this is a little task you need to get done for the day I'm going to bed feeling extremely accomplished tonight okay tip number two do not go in chronological order at least I didn't as someone who usually gets a burst of motivation in the beginning I try to get rid of as much as possible at first and then save the smaller number for days that I had less energy which made the challenge feel a lot more manageable number three is split your room or house into smaller chunks if you're looking at the entire
space as a whole it will feel super daunting so if you can break it down into really manageable sections you can start off with the easiest area or the one you've been procrastinating the longest depending on what you're feeling that day and this way you won't forget areas of the house that usually don't go through either one thing I think that's super important this 30-day declutter challenge doesn't go over is digital clutter which I think is almost just as important as physical clutter because we live so much of our Lives online now my computer has
been slow but to be fair like I haven't done everything I can to make my laptop as fast and smooth as possible which is why I downloaded clean my Mac thank you wait why is that so cute they help you remove all the unneeded junk they can fully uninstall programs and just like wipe things more cleanly than you would just by yourself and helps you increase the overall performance speed of your laptop also the design is really cute she's going I'm running clean my Mac [Music] okay this is actually really wild finding stuff on my
laptop that I didn't even know was here and I just don't need it but it's taking up so much space I don't even use Adobe but I have four gigabytes like I don't use Mozilla there's so many things I don't need like what are you if you also want to try out clean my Mac you can use the discount code down below to help your computer run at its fullest potential number five is to do two sweeps two weeks apart some areas I pass through once I realized a few weeks later that I didn't actually
need a bunch of the stuff I'd kept like these old letter press stamps thought I would reference the designs I've had them for over three years and never touched them so I figure it's time to donate some of them to people who'd actually use them and at first I'd set aside about half of them but then after some time I realized the likelihood of me using the rest were just as Slim ended up just keeping three of them as a little Memento and put them into this memory box that I have where I also put
letters and small gifts that friends viewers or family have given to me foreign or jewelry the best thing you can ask yourself would be is this a trend or something I could see myself genuinely wearing using for the next 10 years or so so often in the past I've bought things just because they were cute or I thought I would brawl like around in sheer vintage dresses there's no part of my lifestyle that has that and even if you really like something I think it's still reasonable to ask yourself how often would you wear it
don't remember the last time I wore this like in terms of jewelry I have a necklace and a few earrings and those are all I really wear the rest were kind of trendy items or gifts or things that I just never ended up wearing that someone else could easily appreciate [Applause] number seven is asking yourself does this item significantly approve my life this painting from one of my favorite artists does make me feel significantly happier every time I look at it but things like buying an excess of cute stationery doesn't actually make me more happy
or productive which I used to think it did but now I've realized I was more so buying into the idea of organization rather than organization itself because giving away all these tape stickers I rarely touched my drawers actually feel much neater and I just kept a few of the items I actually reached to on a weekly basis good number eight is asking yourself would I notice if this object went missing remember these two boxes existed probably means that most of the things in here can say goodbye there are a bunch of things I've kept just
in case I'd need them in the future or I had attached sentimental value to that I hadn't actually touched or looked at in years or just like plainly forgotten like these rocks that I had collected in my past travels they've been sitting in a bag in the basement and I completely forgot about them I have to say though I feel like when they're all put together it looks really cool but Leah you don't need these you don't need a bunch of rocks I think I brought them thinking that they would capture these memories of these
places but the thing that actually captures them is my Noggin I love you all the memories will always be in my Logan number nine is more personal it might not apply to you but I asked myself would I own this if I lived in a shared economy I really believe in creating the reality that you want to live in and one of mine is being a part of a world where we just share the things that we have when we're not currently using them so they can be used by someone else who needs it if
I've finished a book I feel like they're kind of just sitting there collecting dust when someone else could be enjoying them too which is why I love places like the library or even just giving away books that I've finished reading I feel like if we all shared what we didn't need we would be living in this happy circular economy and you can apply that idea to tools or clothing as well in fact when I was in Brighton the past summer and it was so hot I didn't pack enough lightweight clothing and the viewer that I
had met up with was cleaning out her closet and brought me this new tank top she thought that I would like and I absolutely loved it I wore all throughout the Heat wave and when I got back to London I brought it to a picnic clothing Swap and someone else now gets to continue wearing this tank top tip number 10 when it gets overwhelming which it definitely will at some point give yourself a pep talk in the mirror hey um I know that everything looks like a mess right now just gotta stay calm stay focused
it's okay we got this we're almost done just gotta imagine yourself finishing it how proud how relieved you're gonna feel you're great you're awesome I'm awesome you're awesome we're awesome and if that's too weird for you just go for a walk strategy number 11 know that you will feel stuck there's gonna be a point where you realize 465 is a really big number and you have no idea what to declutter next or whether or not you'll even be able to finish this challenge 20 S I don't know how I'm gonna do that just have a
little snack and go take a shower your shower thoughts will magically make you remember something you have not gone through yet the space at the very top of my closet Electronics God knows what's up there I don't know how it works but it does trust me so we have ended up with 51 things which means we're crossing off two days 22 and 29. not bad this feels like very relieving and lastly just remember once you get over those hurdles everything will get easier and you will be done the challenge in no time I go overwhelmed
just sitting here looking at everything right now I can't believe this is all in every room I don't even know what to say although I'm nowhere near owning as little as I'd like I think this challenge was a big step in the right direction it encouraged me to share more of what I own and created more space to prominently display the items I kept however I do want to say you should never feel bad if you don't have the energy or resources to make your space as tidy or aesthetic as you'd like I personally don't
believe in the statement that your external environment has to control your internal mood I think the truth is actually the opposite if I can practice being grounded from within then no matter how chaotic the space around me is I can always try to find a sense of Peace but if you do have the energy and volition to declutter your space you can download the tracker I made on my website and I hope you tag me in your before and after picture so I can see them thank you so much for spending your time with me
and I hope to see you next week you are amazing and wonderful and I love you mwah [Music]
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