Check out this brand new newsletter from Cassandra Aarssen, author of The Declutter Challenge!
Hey Clutterbugs,
It’s the first week of January and honestly, I’m just not feeling like doing anything at all. This is the time of year that everyone else seems so motivated to make huge life changes, but for me, this is always the time of year I just want to crawl back into bed.
When I feel like this, uninspired and unmotivated, I have a few tricks that snap me out of it and get me moving. The one thing that has really been helping me is new my 2021 mantra, “Five Minutes Matters”. No matter how big and daunting the task, five minutes can make a difference. I don’t need to finish every project on my never-ending to-do list, I simply need to start. So, I’ve been repeating this mantra over and over again all week. Messy bathroom? Five minutes matters. Dirty Dishes? Five minutes matters. This is about progress, not perfection.
I am also a HUGE advocate of borrowing motivation from others. When I don’t feel like cleaning or decluttering (or adulting in any way), I like to watch (or listen) to other people who are excited and motivated. Their motivation and excitement is contagious, and it always gets me motivated too!
I have joined a group of other YouTubers to bring you a Clutter-Free January Series, where each week we declutter a different area in our homes. This week, we are starting in the kitchen. You can watch my Kitchen Decluttering video HERE.
You can watch the entire playlist HERE and borrow some motivation from all the other people decluttering and organizing their kitchens this week too. Put the playlist on, grab and box and a bag and borrow some kitchen decluttering motivation today.
Remember: Five Minutes Matters. You got this!
If you find decluttering very overwhelming, a good place to start may be discovering your “why”. The truth is, everyone has a different and very personal reason for why decluttering is so hard for them. Maybe it’s fear of financial loss due to past (or current) financial instability. Perhaps the thought of letting go triggers anxiety because you pride yourself on being a “saver” and a “reuser”, and decluttering feels like a betrayal to your identity. Everyone’s “why” is different, and finding yours could be the first step in overcoming it.
The mental work is the hardest part of decluttering and a HUGE part of what I focus on with my clients. Because I can’t help everyone in person, I wrote a guided journal that asks ALL the questions I ask my clients in person. These questions are designed to help you discover your “why”, and that self-awareness is the tool you need to beat down the fear and anxiety you feel when decluttering.
My guided journal, The Declutter Challenge, is available on Amazon and Target. This isn’t a book, it’s a interactive journal that asks you all the tough questions you need to answer in order to really understand why decluttering is so hard for you. If you struggle to let go, please know that it has NOTHING to do with your actual stuff at all. Discover your “why” today.
–Cas
The Declutter Challenge
A Guided Journal for Getting your Home Organized in 30 Quick Steps (Home Organization and Storage Guided Journal for Making Space Clutter-Free)
A guided decluttering journal. Life happens to the best of us, whether we were born with messy tendencies or not. Messes find their way into our homes and lives and we can’t seem to find the strength or time to tackle them. That’s where this motivational guided journal by Cassandra Aarssen, best-selling author of Real Life Organizing and Cluttered Mess to Organized Success, comes in.