Declutter and Minimalism Challenge
September 01, 2016
안녕하세요! Hello! How are you? Kumusta?
Sorry for such a weird introduction. I just feel so giddy because it's finally the -ber months, which also means Christmas is near~ My favorite season! I love how Christmas season in the Philippines starts as early as September because I love anything Christmas-y -- Christmas lights, trees, decor, and good 'ol classic Christmas songs. Yes, I'm that person who blasts Christmas songs even if it's nowhere near the holidays... say a random March morning or a rainy June afternoon? Not gonna lie, I'm absolutely not embarrassed that I am a certified Christmas Freak lol!
Anyway, September is also my and GOT7 Jinyoung's birthday month so that easily makes this my favorite month! How lovely, right? *heart eyes emoji* Ok, allow me to be delusional since my birthday is just weeks away~
In all honesty, my random introduction is not related to my post. I guess I just miss blogging this way, blabbing anything that comes to mind. This was how I blogged for the past 11 years -- not really formal, just showing my weird, true self. I'm thinking of keeping it this way, though. It gives off a personal touch, which I like. I may have a public audience now but this is still MY blog that was originally made to document anything that inspires and motivates me. This also means that I'm getting comfortable blogging in a space that is open to the public. No more Google-search protected blogs lol! I think that's a good thing... IT IS A GOOD THING.
Alright, let's get on to why I made this blog post in the first place. Refer to the title please. Since it's a new month (ohh, my introduction is somehow related after all!), I have decided to start on two challenges that will help me achieve a more peaceful mind: the declutter and minimalism challenge. The declutter challenge is for my physical surroundings while the minimalism challenge is for the things that have been occupying my overthinker of a mind.
I read somewhere that a messy environment equates to a messy mind. If I already feel frustrated or annoyed then see my surroundings in disarray, the negative feelings become stronger. Sometimes, the cause of the clutter is not just about one's organizing skills. Owning too many things, especially things that we don't need in our everyday lives, can easily result to a hodgepodge of unnecessary knick knacks.
I read somewhere that a messy environment equates to a messy mind. If I already feel frustrated or annoyed then see my surroundings in disarray, the negative feelings become stronger. Sometimes, the cause of the clutter is not just about one's organizing skills. Owning too many things, especially things that we don't need in our everyday lives, can easily result to a hodgepodge of unnecessary knick knacks.
I used to be a "memory hoarder". I found it hard to throw away things that elicit certain memories. A bunch of grade school quizzes here, chocolate wrappers from high school outbound trips there, condominium brochures from Idon'tevenknowwhere were some of the stuff I unconsciously kept just because it had "significant value". After reading this book (I love Kon Mari please!) early last year, I realized that these things I found oh so valuable did not really add value or happiness to my life. Asking myself "Does this bring me joy?" whenever torn between throwing or keeping an item helped me let go of more than half of the "memories" I hoarded over the years.
Then again, I still have a lot of things to do. I need to stay organized (and not just rely on my spring cleaning days lol) and to stop myself from buying items I don't need. Here enters my declutter challenge. A note, though. I am not materialistic. I can spend more than half a year not buying new clothes and I don't feel the need to always have the latest gadgets. But I know I can let go and donate more things, that I have items here that will be appreciated by other people. It's a win-win situation because through this challenge, I'll not only be able to keep my things organized, I'll also be able to help those who are in dire need of these things! :)
THE DECLUTTER CHALLENGE:
I started on this around 2 days ago and the goal is to clean a part of my room every day. I first cleaned my make-up and dresser then proceeded to my desk and iPad (all them useless apps!) the following day. The next target is my handbag, then my drawers, my closet, and so on and so forth.
Here are the 3 simple steps I follow when decluttering:
1.) Pick a spot you want to clean for the day. You don't have to organize everything in one day because that will be too overwhelming and draining. More often than not, if you force yourself to finish everything at once, the locations you tried tidying up on the latter parts of the day would still remain significantly messy compared to the first spots you cleaned.
2.) Lay everything out. After picking a spot, you have to lay every content of that area on a flat surface (I used my bed lol). This is to let you see the enormity of what you own and to make yourself pick the items and organize them one at a time.
3.) Categorize the items. For categorizing the items I was organizing, I made discard, keep and wash piles. Obviously, I threw away the discard pile, washed the wash pile and rearranged the keep pile. This made cleaning much easier and faster!
Decluttering is therapeutic and seeing everything so clean and organized instantly puts a smile on my face! :) I also feel more at ease because I know that everything I kept during my decluttering sessions are things I really need.
THE MINIMALISM CHALLENGE:
This is the minimalism challenge I'll be doing for the month of September. I got it from this site. Do visit that site for a more detailed explanation of the challenge. Decluttering should not only be focused on tangible products after all, an intentional decluttering of the mind should also be done to achieve a minimalist lifestyle and ultimately, peace of mind.
To be honest, I have done some of these things already (#5, #12, #28, etc.) because I have been working on achieving a more peaceful mind since last year. Then again, it doesn't hurt to revisit these things every now and then and I'm sure that I'll gain more realizations and learning after doing this challenge.
I'm already a day late in doing this challenge because I wasn't able to do one yesterday. I also won't be doing this in chronological order because I know I can do some of these challenges easily on certain days. For example, #16: Don't buy anything for 24 hours. I am absolutely certain I can do this on most weekdays so I'll intentionally do this challenge on a weekend instead, when we go to a mall or something.
I'll be posting updates with regard to these 2 challenges at least once a week (yay more blogging topics!). I'm excited about the outcome already and I suggest you should start doing these too!
Welcome that more peaceful mind!
THE DECLUTTER CHALLENGE:
I started on this around 2 days ago and the goal is to clean a part of my room every day. I first cleaned my make-up and dresser then proceeded to my desk and iPad (all them useless apps!) the following day. The next target is my handbag, then my drawers, my closet, and so on and so forth.
Here are the 3 simple steps I follow when decluttering:
1.) Pick a spot you want to clean for the day. You don't have to organize everything in one day because that will be too overwhelming and draining. More often than not, if you force yourself to finish everything at once, the locations you tried tidying up on the latter parts of the day would still remain significantly messy compared to the first spots you cleaned.
For Day 1, I picked my dresser because it was one hot mess and seeing it in that state every day gave me headache lol
2.) Lay everything out. After picking a spot, you have to lay every content of that area on a flat surface (I used my bed lol). This is to let you see the enormity of what you own and to make yourself pick the items and organize them one at a time.
Look at all the contents of my dresser~ Who would've thought I have accumulated such a number of items?? And yes, I removed all the contents of my make-up kit, purses, etc. to really see everything I own!
3.) Categorize the items. For categorizing the items I was organizing, I made discard, keep and wash piles. Obviously, I threw away the discard pile, washed the wash pile and rearranged the keep pile. This made cleaning much easier and faster!
And here's the photo after rearranging everything in the keep pile! I still own less make-up than most girls because I only wear make-up during work, important events or when I feel like it... which is seldom because I am too lazy~
Decluttering is therapeutic and seeing everything so clean and organized instantly puts a smile on my face! :) I also feel more at ease because I know that everything I kept during my decluttering sessions are things I really need.
THE MINIMALISM CHALLENGE:
This is the minimalism challenge I'll be doing for the month of September. I got it from this site. Do visit that site for a more detailed explanation of the challenge. Decluttering should not only be focused on tangible products after all, an intentional decluttering of the mind should also be done to achieve a minimalist lifestyle and ultimately, peace of mind.
To be honest, I have done some of these things already (#5, #12, #28, etc.) because I have been working on achieving a more peaceful mind since last year. Then again, it doesn't hurt to revisit these things every now and then and I'm sure that I'll gain more realizations and learning after doing this challenge.
I'm already a day late in doing this challenge because I wasn't able to do one yesterday. I also won't be doing this in chronological order because I know I can do some of these challenges easily on certain days. For example, #16: Don't buy anything for 24 hours. I am absolutely certain I can do this on most weekdays so I'll intentionally do this challenge on a weekend instead, when we go to a mall or something.
I'll be posting updates with regard to these 2 challenges at least once a week (yay more blogging topics!). I'm excited about the outcome already and I suggest you should start doing these too!
Welcome that more peaceful mind!
0 comments