Probably most of us can admit that at some point in our life we have felt completely overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with too many responsibilities, concerned about our financial situation, perhaps feeling insecure about our relationships, or maybe we felt the need to simplify our life, to get rid of junk, to leave unhealthy friendships behind. Clearly, this year did not help - 2020 turned our lives upside down. We are living in a new “normal”. Many of us started working from home full-time, and our sanctuary became our office. Many people are facing enormous financial difficulties. Our relationships with family and friends have suffered because of our physical isolation - the list goes on. So, how can we reduce our stress and breathe easier? Even though we are practically heading into winter, I cannot see a better time than right now to do a little “spring cleaning” around the house and within our soul.

Decluttering does not only mean getting rid of physical possessions, but also reexamining our financial health, figuring out our priorities in life, and identifying positive relationships and letting all the negative ones go. Clutter in general causes stress, it distracts us from more important things, and it creates chaos in our life. This task could seem rather daunting, but no need to do it all at once - think small baby steps, slowly working towards the end goal. So, where should we start?

1. Put your Finances in order

Money is usually the number one source of stress for the average person. Whether you are single, live with your partner, or have children, money problems can always be a heavy burden. Most people use credit cards and accumulate debt, have outstanding loans on a car, a house, or are still paying off substantial student loans, which adds to our ever rising daily living expenses such as food, gas, electricity and so on. With a little effort and planning, we can examine our finances and create a better plan to a healthier financial future so we can sleep better at night.

• Create a budget: First, you need to create a budget. Approach it as if it was a business. Money coming in, money going out. Record every single expense, no matter how little it is - no cheating. You can do this on a piece of paper, or as we do it, on an excel table on your computer. There are also great software such as Quicken or Mint for managing your personal finances depending on the complexity of your situation. Take a look at your bank account and write down all the different reoccurring expenses, going back several months so you do not miss anything (sometimes we pay bills quarterly or bi-monthly). Do the same exercise with all of your credit cards if you use them for paying bills instead of direct payments from your bank accounts. Make sure you separate all your other expenses into different categories, such as food, gas, entertainment, car maintenance and so on. Are you over budget? See in which category you can cut some costs. Too many restaurant bills? Try to eat at home more nights each week. Make your own lunches to bring to work. There is always a way to lower your spending, just look at the details. Are you able to save some money? Great! Make sure you keep up the good work and put the extra cash away each month. Check out our blogpost here on how to create a budget.

• Clean up your credit card game

  Biggest tip is: always pay off your credit cards monthly. Most credit card companies charge you huge fees for carrying a balance, which is a big waste of your money. If you are a compulsive spender and cannot pay your cards off each month in full, we suggest that you use your debit cards or cash instead. Do not cancel your credit cards as it could affect your credit rating negatively (big shocker) but lock them away in a secure spot, or even cut them up if you cannot resist as a final resort. If you accepted an offer for a zero interest loan on a card, make sure you pay it off in time, otherwise your fees will be off the charts. It is also much harder to keep track of your expenses if you use too many different credit cards, not to mention all the yearly fees some credit card companies charge. A good visa card is a must, our favorite is Chase Sapphire Reserved, but other visa cards from Chase have great offers as well, even ones with zero yearly fees. Our other big favorite is the American Express Platinum card. Great to use in the United States but be aware, if you travel a lot oversees, many merchants refuse to accept American Express, so always have a backup. Having only a couple of cards also lets you collect a substantial amount of points resulting in cash back or enabling you to use your points for travel, entertainment and other fun activities. We bought several free airline tickets and booked free hotel rooms with our collected points. It feels nice to stay in a chic hotel in Paris especially knowing you got it for free. C'est la vie!

• Cut your expenses, eliminate unused services

  You would be surprised how much we pay each month for services we do not even use or need. Do you pay for extra data storage, even though you have enough space on your laptop or cloud account? Cancel your service right away. Do you have a streaming subscription you ordered because it had one special show you could not live without, but your show has since ended and you do not use this account anymore? Cancel it right away! Go online and check for new offers on your existing services such as cable, internet, and satellite. First, you will find offers for “new customers only” but surprisingly if you call your provider, 9 out of 10 times they will give you the offer anyways. It is always cheaper, so definitely worth a little time of searching and schmoozing with customer support. Call your credit card companies and see if they are willing to credit you the yearly fees. If they refuse the first time, call again. And again. Especially if you have been a long time customer, loyalty pays off. You might just save yourself a couple hundred dollars with a 5-minute phone call. Getting a little extra cash for practically minimal effort will put a smile on anyone’s face!

2. Create a tranquil work environment

• Clean out your desk

  Now that most of us are working from home, it is essential that we keep our home office/work space tidy. We often put mail, bills, coupons, and who knows what on our desk and later just shove it into your drawers. Grab a large garbage bag, trust me, you will fill it up, and start sorting through your papers, throwing out all the bills you already paid, (best to go paperless, sign up is easy on all your online accounts) toss out all the expired coupons you are holding on to and all the magazines you have never even opened. Believe me, if you have not read it yet, you never will. Get rid of it. Put your important documents into separate piles such as tax material, official paperwork, medical records, and so on. Box up materials you do not need but would like to keep for records and put it away into your garage or closet shelves. File current papers into folders with tabs, so you can easily find something as needed. Use a drawer only for personal stuff and put your work documents into another one. Keep the top of your desk clean and tidy. So much nicer to start your workday when all you have on your desk is your shiny laptop, a picture of your loved ones and a nice smelling candle. Now, sit back and take a sip of your tea! Ready to start your workday?

• Declutter your computer

  Many of us tend to save stuff on our desktop for easy access. Well, not only it is visually horrid to stare at a cluttered screen first thing in the morning, but it will also slow your computer down. Delete all the stuff you pinned on your desktop, or save them in the appropriate folders instead. Let’s talk pictures….a touchy subject for me, I admit it, probably the biggest clutter of my life. It is a mess on my computer, I transfer so many pics from my phone due to taking hundreds at a time for our business, and I never put them into the proper sub folders. This is a task that takes a long time, but is definitely worth it. If you ever feel bored or have nothing else to do, start organizing your pictures on your computer for better storage, delete duplicates, or bad ones you will never want anyone to see. A great time to do this exercise is on a long-haul flight when you already watched all the new release movies and still have hours to go but cannot sleep.

3. Tidy up your Home

• Raid your closet

  Think about brightening someone else’s day: donate, donate, donate! First, start separating your clothes by seasons, then by color and length. When you have it all organized, it is easier to see the ones you never ever wear. Have you at any point owned a piece of clothing that still had a tag on, yet you never wore it in public? Hmm, I wish I could say I have never….but of course I had. So, be heartless! Clothes you have not worn in 6 months to a year, unless it is seasonal, or for special occasions, or your nutty Halloween costume, you probably will not wear again. Instead of feeling sad bagging it up, think of making someone happy by taking those clothes and donating them. We donate to the local Goodwill, which is a fantastic way of helping others and it is tax deductible as well. And about those dresses with the tags on, well there is always eBay or Amazon. You will be surprised, but someone might just want to buy your yellow sparkly jeans for a special 70’s party.

• Detoxify your bathroom

  Clean out your medicine cabinet - all expired medication should be thrown out. Get into your makeup cabinet and really examine the products you use on your face, eyes, and lips. These types of products do dry out, and cream ingredients and oils get separated. Makeup and skin care is expensive but let’s face it, no pun intended, they do not last forever. Not worth having an old-fashioned eye infection or skin breakout from an expired beauty product. Oh, and those precious sample products you have been collecting for years but never tried? Straight to the garbage, do not even think about gifting them away, nothing tackier than receiving those tiny bottles of expired products.

• Freshen up your kitchen

  Let’s start with your refrigerator. Look at all the condiments first, check the dates and if anything is expired, toss it into the garbage. Of course do not forget to recycle. Then go through your plastic containers with leftover food. Do you remember when you made the pasta with meatballs? If not, it is time to grind it down the kitchen disposal. Salad and vegetable drawers should be examined too, we always end up with something stuck under the fresh veggies at the bottom, rotting a little. Same goes for your pantry; look at your canned products and your bottles and check their expiration dates. Consolidate half-full pasta boxes. Make a list of your stock, especially helpful now that we are trying to shop less due to the pandemic, so you know exactly what you really need to buy on your next shopping trip. Check your freezer for old frozen vegetables and meats. Even though we can store them for months, there comes a time when you can no longer recognize the product or it becomes visibly freezer burnt, at which point it is time to say goodbye. Now that you have less stuff in your fridge and cupboards, it is easier to wipe your shelves clean to make everything not only look nice and organized but smell fresh and clean.

4. Reclaim your garage

• Newsflash: garages are built for cars. Not for all your junk. Also, your garage is the first place you enter when you get home from work, or from driving your children around all day from schools to sports practices. Not an uplifting feeling to push your way through useless stuff just to get inside your house or get soaked in the rain because you cannot even enter your house through your garage. Now for the important stuff in your life: boxes of your precious memorabilia such as your kids kindergarten drawings, or videotapes of all your family trips, bulky supplies for your household - (all the toilet paper you stocked up on at Costco) - you can put together standalone shelving or wall units to keep it off the ground. Great idea to keep your bikes on hooks on the wall as well. But if you are thinking of moving your unwanted belongings from the house into the garage for indefinite storage, it is never a constructive idea. Go through your stuff, figure out if you can actually sell some of it, or if it is all junk. Set up a garage sale - sell that old couch, all the extra vases you inherited from your grandparents, boxes full of Barbie’s - trust me, you will never play with them again. The things you cannot sell, take to the Salvation Army, or call them and they will come out to collect your heavy stuff such as couches, heavy furniture, large appliances, and televisions. Now that you have everything off the floor, sweep up the dust and drive your car into your garage….the most satisfying feeling ever, if you have never tried it.

5. Declutter your inner personal space

• Reevaluate your friendships

  I know this might sound a bit harsh, but we all have some of those acquaintances who make us feel drained and emotionally spent. It is time to evaluate who is lifting you up, who makes you happy to be around, and who makes you feel special and loved. Or, who is always needy, negative, or outright annoying. Of course, we are not suggesting to delete most of your Facebook friends or contacts from your phone, but rather make some conscientious decisions on who you spend considerable time with, who is definitely a keeper for life. Not all friendships are meant to last forever, so take a note on who is brining positive energy into your life, and who is leaving you feeling empty and toxic. We should enjoy life as much as we can, so let go of the negativity and do not look back.

• Scale down on your daily responsibilities & commitments

  To start this process, first write down all your daily/weekly responsibilities and commitments. Then go through your list one by one and draw a smiley face next to the ones that makes you happy. Next, examine all the ones that seems to be unpleasant tasks or commitments. All your unpleasant commitments you should scrape right away. Now, responsibilities are a bit different, we cannot eliminate them all just because we do not love to do them, but we can make it easier on ourselves with a little planning. Let’s say you do not like cooking but you also would like to save money and not eat takeout every single night after a long day of work. So, pick one day a week which you will set aside for meal prep and try to precook some easy dishes, or prep ingredients for quick meals during the week. It will save you a lot of time in your kitchen as well as less mess and less cleanup. Decide on one laundry day instead of doing small loads every day. Make a grocery list and keep it going until you are ready to do a bigger shopping trip, instead of stopping by your local store every night on your way home from work. This also helps with your meal prep planning, as you can decide in advance what you will be eating throughout the next week. A little planning goes a long way. It makes your life less stressful, frees up your time, and gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Now put your feet up, it is time to enjoy a nice glass of wine!

Hope you found this post helpful! For 1-1 coaching on decluttering your life, or any other topic, contact us here or at doubletake.lifestyle@yahoo.com.