Jennifer and I have been working on an editorial calendar for the blog. What does this mean to you? Well, for one thing, on Monday’s we plan to share a short post with an inspiring quote—something to get your week off on the right foot. In addition, each month we plan to have a theme we will weave into our posts for the month. In January, the theme was goal setting, and for February our theme is love. This means our posts in February will be about creating space in your home for things you love and creating space on your calendar for people and activities you love. Of course, we won’t completely abandon the goals theme. I’ve still got 12 of 13 goals to finish up for the year. 😉
To kick things off for this month of love, I thought I’d share a tidbit of advice I’ve shared in my workshops as well as on Facebook.
This concept really seems to resonate with people. And I think it is important. One of the overriding benefits of organizing and decluttering your home is that in the process you can transform it into a place you truly love to be. But that can only happen if you fill your home with things you love, and let go of the stuff that you don’t like or makes you feel bad.
Pay attention to how the items in your home make you feel. Are you holding onto certain things out of a sense of obligation—maybe because an item was a gift? Are there items you cling to because they were expensive? Do you have belongings that you once enjoyed but simply don’t anymore?
If an item doesn’t make you happy, and you aren’t using it today, give serious thought to letting it go. It’s rare that in the future we will love an item that we seriously dislike today. And when you let go of items (or obligations) that don’t bring you joy, you create more space and time for items and activities you truly do love.
There are times this is fairly easy to do. If you no longer love the candlesticks given to you by your cousin’s ex-wife who you don’t see anymore, it can be fairly easy to let them go. Other items may be more challenging to send packing. You may absolutely hate cooking in your current pots and pans, but if your budget doesn’t allow for your dream cookware set right now, this probably isn’t the time to send your only pans to the donation center. But you can begin creating a plan to replace items you no longer love in the future, as soon as your budget allows.
What’s lingering in your home that you don’t love anymore? Can you let go of it today to create some space for the things you do love?
Happy decluttering!
This post really hit home. I spent a few hours decluttering and organizing today and decided to let go of a few things I don’t like. I feel so much better 🙂
Thanks for the inspiration!
That’s awesome Stephanie! So glad the post connected with you. Congrats for taking action so quickly!!
~ Aby
Unfortunately the things I don’t love in my home are things my husband insists we keep because they were given to him (a large collection of music boxes) so there’s not much I can do. I try to keep other area with things I like.
I don’t usually have a problem letting go of things EXCEPT in a case like this one: I have 2 cube stools/side tables I wanted to have covers for. I found tablecloths with the print I wanted so I bought one for the table, and 1 for covers to be made and napkins from the leftovers. I was so excited—wneh I got it all home I still liked the print but I don’t like the fabric for the table cloth and napkins. I feel guilty about not using them. I struggle with spending money on things, making mistakes or things I thought I would do and don’t and then getting rid of them. How do people deal with this? Part of it is thinking my spouse feel negatively about the money spent, too. It feels like I am embarrasssed about being mistaken.
I am so totally into this post. I tell this to people all the time. I do have things I do not love but need. But I am replacing as I can. DH and I went out and picked out what our new dishes will eventually look like. When getting serving dishes for a gift from my Mom I knew what would match and we went with that. That was a huge lifter for me. I have things I do not like, but my MIL lives with us and these are her things so they are here as long as she is here. She needs to have some ‘stuff’ throughout the house as well to feel more at home.
A lovely post and I completely agree with your quote! When I’m stuck with an item that I really don’t like (and if my budget does not allow for something at that very moment) I get rid of it and incorporate things I already have and love. For example, when I wanted to have a great holder for some toiletry tools but didn’t have the budget for something new, I dug out a pottery cup that I made a couple years ago. It’s pretty, functional, and I love using it and looking at it everyday.