100 Healthy Living Tips #17 - How to Declutter Your Life

This fall I decided to declutter my life and my New Year's Resolution is to finish the job. Removing and organizing the clutter in your home or office helps you to take charge of your life and clear your mind and focus on the most essential things.

Looking around you and seeing junk, clutter and a disorganized mess keeps your mind in a constant state of turmoil as well. The best way to get to what's most basic and important in your life is to remove everything that isn't basic and important. If you believe in the law of attraction, what would you rather attract? More clutter or an organized, simplified life?

If you need help decluttering your life, you might want to begin by reading Clean Sweep: The Ultimate Guide to Decluttering, Detoxing, and Destressing Your Home, which gives you a plan for turning every room in your house into a sanctuary of comfort and simplicity, with special green living and cleaning tips.

How I Decluttered My Life

1. I started the decluttering process weeks ago by cleaning out a couple of junk drawers each week. We all have them and sometimes it's a drawer I haven't looked into in months or even years! Do I really need all that stuff? Have I used it lately? I cleaned out my closet too, sorting through clothes giving a bunch of them away. One wonderful way to get good energy flowing into your life is to create room for it by giving things away.

2. Next, I cleaned my carpets. The reason I did this as one of the first jobswas that I had to move everything in the room to use the carpet cleaner and then move it back.

3.  Before I moved anything back where I had it, I asked myself "Do I really need this item?" The things I didn't need went into the give-away pile. You could also start a garage sale pile if you are so inclined.

4.  Also, before putting items back where they were, I made changes in furniture and knick knacks to give everything a fresh look. I looked for ways to better use the furniture, organizers and bookcases I had to help me organize and simplify.

5.  I was very severe with myself on throwing away old magazines (make a folder of any articles you want to save and label them as to topic) and organized important papers. Buy organizers or shelves as you need them to help you find a place for everything.

6.  In my case, I decided to buy a larger desk to give me more workspace. I've been cramped up on a small computer desk for 5 years and I'm relishing the great expance of desk around me.

Simplifying your life and getting rid of clutter can have an energizing effect on your life. What are your dreams and goals, what do you want to accomplish? Decluttering your environment helps you to focus on what's truly important and saves you time. AND decluttering your life helps you to feel really proud of yourself because you aren't looking with guilt at all the organizing you wish you had time to do.

Is Eco-Living Really New?

Eco living is all the rage right now but I've been interested in eco-living since I was a kid. Back then though, we didn't call it that. I grew up on a small family farm where we raised our own beef, pigs and chickens. We drank fresh milk from the cows and ate fresh eggs laid by the chickens. Our huge vegetable garden was fertilized with composted manure from the animals and all of our table scraps went into a compost pile.

My mother worked from dawn to dusk, making our clothes, growing our food and then preserving it. She gathered eggs and sold that and the milk to our neighbors. She hung laundry on the clothes line outdoors and fed and milked cows right along with my dad. There was no inequality of pay in our family. They both worked for the common goal of feeding our family.

As kids we got to run free around our rural neighborhood.We spent our days at the creek or on the mountain behind our house. Nobody ever thought we'd get stolen. There were no cell phones to keep in touch. We showed up for meals and the rest of the time we were off being kids.

I didn't wear that many hand-me-downs but only because I was the oldest. My two sisters wore my old clothes though. We got a couple new outfits when school started and a fancier one - with shoes - at Easter. Our Christmas presents were clothes and ONE toy that we most especially wanted. Nobody had heard of designer clothes and NOBODY ever suspected that kids could also be consumers.

For fun my parents used to take us to the A&W Root Beer stand for a root beer float and once in a great while, not often, we went out to eat. The rest of our meals were all home cooked and mostly home raised, as well. Nothing we ate came from a package and we'd never heard of "processed" food.

We had no toxins in our air and water, no chemicals or pesticides on our food.

For all these reasons, it saddens me to see how much the world has changed. I'm happy to see the green living movement going strong. Perhaps we can keep what was good about the past, even while enjoying the conveniences and benefits of the modern world.