3 Areas to Declutter in your Life

These are the scenarios: If you are traveling and you have no check-in baggages, what would you bring in your backpack? If you are going to forget everything except for a few memories, which events (and people) would you choose?

With things accumulating at a steady pace as we grow older, and with the information being just ‘everywhere’, it is nice to declutter and stick with the things that we really need. Sometimes, being stuck with the past prevents us from moving into the future. Personally, I still need to take away so much clutter in different areas of my life despite having removed so much also.

Here are areas that you can declutter in order to have space for new ones:

Physical clutter

You will think this is hard but this is probably one of the easiest things to do. What do people do when they are struck with disaster and their belongings gone? They have no choice but to pick up what’s left and deal with it. Just slowly learn to filter items (5S), throw away what you can and start the process again every so often. There is a certain peace and sense of freedom coming from a clean space.

Mental clutter

As much as we would like to know everything, there will always be something that you will not know. Try to scan what is important and  filter what you need in your everyday life. True, a tiny bit of information can help you save yourself, or the world for that matter, but at times, having a lot in our minds make us lose focus and be scatter brains.

A good example of this is unsubscribing to online subscriptions that you think you do not need (or do not need anymore). Some of us cannot even keep track of our emails. How about filtering your inbox and unsubscribing to several sites?

Emotional baggages

Emotional baggages were experiences meaningful to us once, but are of no help for us at the present, or even at the future. These are experiences that actually prevents us from moving forward with liberation. These are clutter that often needs closure; and if there is such a need for closure, do it, you owe it to yourself. If no closure comes, try your best to let go and move towards the future. Life is short, it is hard to live through it chained to what-ifs and what-might-have-beens.

As hard as it is to apply in our everyday lives, the rule is usually simple: throw some away, keep anything that you think is meaningful to you but organize it, keep it in such a way that you can still live your life freely and without fear. Then repeat.