My First Objective: De Clutter
Time and Money are the first areas that need to be dealt with, but it would be better for me to start with Energy. She talks about Energy Drains, things in our life that we have to get done which we put off. Also, or physical space acts as an Energy Drain. Is it cluttered or is it organized? Your mind and your physical space are the same thing. A cluttered space relates to a cluttered mind. My physical space is cluttered, which leads to procrastination and laziness.
So my first task in creating my Abundant Life is to de-clutter my Living Space. Since I share a house, my bedroom is the first place I need to start. In my room there is an old desk that was here when I moved in. I wanted to get rid of it before I moved in, but never did. It takes up a lot of space and is ugly. I’ve been using it to store all kinds of junk, the junk that is my life. Well it’s time for that junk to go. It’s amazing the type of crap I have in there. Old Las Vegas Weekly’s that I never read, Matchbooks from the different clubs I’ve been to, 3 old iPod boxes, a cell phone that I had since 2002 and doesn’t even work, napkins from Subway (WTF?), the Sports Page from the Las Vegas Review Journal from May with nothing important on it, a granola bar I never opened, old copies of Men’s Health, A few old boarding passes, My Rose Bowl Ticket Holder (Hurray, I found It!), Business cards from clients who wanted to give me a job and never did, pens and note pads from the different conventions I like to visit here in Vegas just to get the free stuff… All kinds of junk, 2 trash bags worth.
After hauling the large bags of crap out of my room I looked at the desk to see if there was any other function it could serve, like if I painted it or only used the bottom half as a table. I found no reason to keep the desk and began to dismantle it, which was a bitch to take apart. Whoever designed this desk had no concept of ‘light construction.’ I didn’t go after the desk with a hammer; I just removed all the screws and let it fall apart.
When the desk was gone I felt the room totally open up. I see what Cheryl Richardson meant by de cluttering your living space to help clear your mind. And it’s refreshing to throw that stuff away. It was like I was surrounding myself with unwanted useless junk and because of that all I was producing for my life was unwanted useless junk.
De-cluttering is Awesome!