Stuff overload. Negative energy in your home and surroundings. Sound familiar? Are your materialistic items taking over your life? Do you want to know how to get rid of unnecessary possessions and live the life you want? I want that too… I mean, I really want to share how you can get the life you want by only keeping yourself surrounded with what matters most. Today I’m sharing How to Get Rid of Unnecessary Possessions and Live the Life You Want.

I know there are people (like you) that need REAL help getting their lives back and are stuck spinning their wheels because of the (bad) advice they find online. I’m sure you’ve seen the organizing “hacks” I’m talking about that don’t really help you eliminate things, but suggest that you need to add more things in your life in order to organize your current things.

If you organize things a certain way, that will reduce the clutter in your life, right?  Wrong.

The only way to organize clutter is to get rid of it. Period.

Certain online sources can be misleading when it comes to real answers and advice from so-called “experts.”  I’m not saying that you shouldn’t look online for advice, I love using Pinterest to educate myself further – in fact, Pinterest generates 95% of my blog traffic.  Just be careful of the source you are using and whether or not they are a trusted expert.

So now you are probably wondering if I might be a trusted expert, lol… keep reading and I’ll let you decide 🙂

I’ve seen blog posts recommending using a tension rod under the kitchen sink to hang several cleaning products.  That’s a creative idea (and I’m pretty sure it stemmed from a highly respected celebrity homemaker) but there are much easier ways to tidy a space without having to add more stuff.

Take a look at my post for How to Organize Under the Kitchen Sink for example.

You will not find tension rods or several bottles of cleaning products in our cabinet.  We have 1 multi-purpose cleaner and products that we use daily only.  There is plenty of space to add more crap, but we realize that will just add more stress and negative energy so we keep it simple.

Let me tell you about my friend Karen

I’m always so frustrated when I visit my friend “Karen’s” house and see her garage stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes.  Her family has lived like this for the past 5 years.

You can feel the negativity in Karen’s home.  She is married with 3 college-aged sons.  The boys still live at home as well as an elderly grandmother.  They are unable to park their cars in the garage (because of those boxes), so they have several cars parked in the driveway and the street.  They are constantly shifting cars around to make this work, which leads family members arguing in the driveway on a daily basis.

Karen is not alone.  As I drive through neighborhoods, I see many households with these same issues and they don’t realize that they are drowning in this “stuff” until they finally have a tipping point.

I admit that I had fallen into negative energy and surrounded myself with things that cluttered my life and needed to hit that tipping point before making a major life change.  I needed inspiration to take a deeper look at how I wanted to live and what was most important.  I had to get away from those Pinterest images and blog posts telling me it was okay to keep all the stuff as long as I organize it a certain way.

You can read how we organized our garage here for the real deal on de-cluttering and the hard work it takes.

How to get rid of unnecessary possessions

I’ve always thought of myself as an organized person.  As a professional organizer, my job description involved de-cluttering homes.  Many times I would haul truck loads of crap away to donate or throw away for my clients after helping them de-clutter.  During my experience as a professional organizer, I found that our family owns less than typical American households, yet we were still holding onto things that created negative energy and clutter.

It wasn’t until I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up:  The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, that I saw our material possessions in a whole different perspective.

I will never forget the first time I read the book (I bought the Audible version so I wasn’t adding more books to our collection BTW), I was listening to the book in my car after an hour commute home.  I was only half-way through the book when I parked my car at home and immediately started de-cluttering and cleaning the inside of my car (which I thought was already very clean).

In the 5 minutes that it took me to go through the glove box, the center console and the side doors, I had a grocery bag filled with items to toss.  One of the items that I let go was a small notepad that had my father’s handwriting in it.  He passed away a few years ago and I kept it because it reminded me how unique his handwriting was.  The notes he wrote were for car maintenance on a car that I no longer owned and was written about 15 years ago. I had not used the notebook for the past 7 years either.  I knew it was time to let the notebook go after reading about the KonMarie method.

Clutter is the manifestation of your unresolved emotional baggage

In Marie Kondo’s book, she states that in order to let things go, you must hold each item in your hands and ask if you truly love the item.  If the answer is no, you thank the item for its time/service and let it go.  Thinking this way helped me let go of an item that had sentimental value.

Since then, items in our home have been perceived differently and we have been able to remove more possessions and negativity.  I was able to reduce my 4-season wardrobe (which was already much smaller than an average American women’s wardrobe!) and an entire year’s worth of clothing only takes up 1/3 of my closet now.  You can find my posts with my capsule wardrobes here for inspiration and tips to reduce your wardrobe.

How my family of 4 lives

We are not minimalists but we like simple living.  We may have more space than others but that is not what allows us to live clutter-free.  In fact, I believe the larger your home, the more possessions you accumulate.  Let me explain…

We currently have a 2,500 square foot home with an unfinished basement that has another 1,000 or so square feet.  We. Do. Not. Need. This. Much. Space.

Our home 2 years ago was 1,250 square feet and the only reason we moved was because it was only a 2 bedroom and I wanted our son and daughter to have their own bedrooms.  If there was a third bedroom, I think we would still be living there.

Before we bought our first home together, the hubby and I lived in an 850 square foot condo and before that, I lived in a 400 square foot basement studio apartment.  With every move into a larger home, we’ve accumulated more stuff – all of which we were living perfectly fine without before.

It starts with you

I’ve heard many reasons from clients, friends, and family for why they have a hard time keeping their homes clean and tidy.  Here are a few of the reasons I’ve heard that you may relate to:

• ” My house still looks like this and I de-clutter every day”
• “I’m not sure what to do with all the paperwork that comes into my home”
• “My family doesn’t want to help out”
• “I don’t have time”
• “I’m not sure where to start”

If you are ready to change your life, the secret ingredient is YOU.  It starts with you.  If you are not doing your part, how can you expect others to do theirs?

If you don’t follow the advice of a professional and expert to learn where to start, then you will never begin.  YOU need to be the one to dedicate the time and plan to do the hard work so you can change for good.

 

Nothing worth having come easy.  Do the work, inspire your family to help out, and change your life.

Want more tips to de-clutter your life? Check out Your Home Made Simple in 30 days.

Not sure if you’re ready to commit 30 days? Try my FREE 3- day course to organize your kitchen here!

Want freebies to help you get organized? Sign up to get access to my private digital library here!

Get a full list of top organizing resources HERE.

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Psssssttt…Right now I’m offering a FREE 3-Day Course to Organize your Kitchen FOR GOOD!  The free course includes instructions, tips, and pictures for how to de-clutter, simplify and organize your kitchen in only 3-days!  Hurry up and sign up here!  (Course instructions will be sent after subscribing)

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