Lightening UP

I know, I know

Everyone writes about this around New Year’s EVERY year. letting go of stuff, people, weight, files, emails, clothes, toys, broken electronics, unfinished projects…

It can be beyond overwhelming!

But what if you decided to let go of something every day for 90 days?

Decide where you are going to concentrate your efforts for 3 months and make a pact with yourself that you will stick with it daily for 90 days. If you miss a day, you start over.

Why 90 days? It takes 21-90 days to form a habit. So if you make it a habit to let go of something every day for at least 21 days (90 is still better but start where you are), you change your awareness and essentially change the way you live.

I recently had a client that moved into a smaller house. In packing up the old house, he had over 200 boxes of stuff, half of which lives in a storage facility that he now has to pay rent on. Now, to be fair, he got rid of a lot of stuff, too. But the amount of hours it will take him to go through the remaining boxes is something he will never get back.

So how do you start?

Be kind to yourself and start with something easy, like the shelf with all the to go containers. You don’t have one? (really???) Or open the linen closet or any closet and start there.

Here are a few idea

~ You can make three boxes and put them in the garage or a hallway and labelthem- “donate” “throw out” ” undecided”( if you use the undecided box, you can’t count it as an item you got rid of).

~ You can take a room and go through a section at a time. If you come upon something that makes you feel bad or sad, GET IT OUT! You may have held onto it because of sentimental value but if it does nothing for your spirit and frame of mind. GONE.

~ Make a 90 challenge to go through the clothes closet or any closet, and toss something daily in the “donate” or “garbage” boxes. At the end of every week, empty the box. If its something you want to hang on to, ask yourself why? What value does it have?

~ Get your family involved. Let them know you are going to do this every day. It will hold you accountable AND maybe they will join you!

Let me know how you do.

My 90 day Lightening up work is to toss something or use up something in the pantry or freezer. It’s actually been fun!

Happy lightening up!