5 Things You Can Remove From Your Office Now

You know that feeling after a good summer rain and the fresh, crisp smells that go with it? The rain knocks the dust from the air, cools the blacktop, and drops the temperature. Streams that were low are flowing again.  The world feels refreshed. The focus is not on the rain or the dust or the dried streams but on the results that appear after the rain. The fresh environment feels open and available.

Likewise, your focus should not be on the organizing project or the clutter or your current lack of productivity; but instead, focus on the results that appear when you create an environment that feels open and available. Take a moment now to think about how you feel and how your space feels when it is clear.

Your quest for productivity and organization will never be complete.
There is no end to the clutter and stuff that appears. The mail will still arrive in both digital and paper form daily. And when you focus on how much you are (or are not) letting go it can feel like you will never finish.

But, there are real, tangible, physical, spiritual and temporal effects that come from letting go of the excess and clearing your space. These effects are significant enough to move your summer rainstorm up in priority.

Don’t wait to declutter.

Start with a fresh slate, like that which comes after a rain, to give yourself space and time and mental clarity to feel better and get more done. You can either:

1. Dedicate a day or even two work on clearing your space and schedule.*
2. Clear the spaces by boxing things up and working from the boxes in smaller scheduled, increments of time.**

Either of these options will give you a fresh slate which is typically enough to reduce your stress, increase your creativity and productivity. Here are 5 things to let go of during your own personal decluttering rain storm.

1 – Anything that is passed or expired: invitations, mail, medication, bills, coupons, etc.
2 – Anything that is broken
3 – Most items on your desktop/workspace/counters
4 – Things you were keeping to read later
5 – Half-used items that you were keeping because they might be useful or you could repurpose them.

This list may sound ruthless and harsh. You may worry about letting go of your stuff, worried about making the wrong decision, worried that the process will be difficult, time consuming or boring. I promise that the results will be worth the discomfort, the pain will be manageable and that healing, if needed, will begin as soon as you make the decision to act.

If you need help, it is only ever a phone call away. Schedule a time to talk.

Register for the next Monthly Organizing Class here.

* If you choose this option, unless your space that needs to be refreshed is small, 1-2 days will not be enough but you should be able to provide yourself a ‘jump start’ and then plan for another 1 day work session or a regular basis or use daily decluttering sessions to keep going.
** It is extremely important to note that boxing things up does not make them go away and that scheduling time to work on these boxes is not optional.

---