Life: The New Year Cleanse.
As 2016 comes to an end, I immerse myself in thinking about how I can best prepare myself for the new year. I strongly believe in positive and negative energy in your surroundings and believe that your environment greatly impacts on your daily life. Due to this, I decided that before the year was over it was important to cleanse my surroundings of clutter and unnecessary items. This cleanse is not limited to my physical surroundings but also extends into my digital being. I thus have decided to effectively operate I needed to minimise the hoard of things that I was keeping but not using.
I started off with purging my closet of unnecessary items to ensure that it did not appear cluttered. I removed a bulk of my summer clothes from my wardrobe and placed them into drawers. Doing so not only allowed my cupboard to look more coherent, but also promoted a habit of wearing weather appropriate clothing. I remember last winter, I often would go into uni wearing summer clothing under my coats. I adopted a mentality that I still had clothes in my closet to wear instead of immediately having to do my laundry at £3.50 a time. Although I am now back at my parents, this is an effective way of cultivating a habit of dressing for the season which I have failed to do in the past.
A second change to the physical environment that I lived in was ridding my socks/underwear drawer of stuff I no longer used. My t-shirt drawers faced a similar fate as I quickly removed any articles that had significant damage and sold some of the decent shirts that I had not worn in a while. Thirdly, I got rid of books and CDs by flogging unwanted items on eBay or sending the unwanted items off for recycling. With my magazines, I sold many online as they were music magazines that fans would pay for.
I knew that I had a lot of old paperwork, bills and receipts that had no use in my room and I also worked quickly to shred these and recycle. I also got rid of a bulk of my sixth form work that was lying around in a box under my bed. Over the years I was reluctant to throw them away as I felt that I might need the notes for something in the future. Or that I would like to see my essay feedback in the future to reminisce. But the truth is, they have been sat in the box collecting dust, I have not looked at them in years. So, I promptly threw away all of it except for a few pieces of importance. I also threw away old make up boxes I had been hoarding for ages as well as they were just taking up space for no good reason.
Lastly I washed all my bed sheets, put brand new ones on and sprayed them with fabric freshener which smelt calming and hopefully would promote good sleep as well. I also cleaned the floors and surfaces to complete the clean environment.
I also feel like it is important to enter the new year on a fresh digital slate as well. This means, organising your tech space. Deleting photos that you have on your phone after transferring them to your mac reduces clutter and makes space for new memories for the new year. If you choose to keep some photos on your phone, it's important to keep albums of separate events for easy access. Alongside this, another easy way of organising your iPhone would be to use the faces feature, which provides an easy an accessible way for you to find a photo of a certain person without having to strain your memory. Deleting old contacts and emails is also an effective way of decluttering and saving memory. If you don't really speak to someone or the number is not a business contact then why should it be on your phone? Get rid of apps, memos, songs and videos you rarely use/view and you will be surprised at how much space your phone really has without the unnecessary junk on it. Most importantly, be sure to create folders of apps so that you can easily locate a particular app without the need for using the search bar and to keep your home screen tidy.
In terms of your computer (in my case my mac), I believe that a clean non-cluttered desktop is the way forward. I often only have what I am currently working with on my desktop and when I am done with the file, I file it away or delete it if I do not need it again. I also keep sticky note lists on my mac to remind me of my priorities whilst I am on my mac. I however minimise these into small dragable rectangles to minimise the space they occupy. I have also gone through my files deleting videos I haven't watched since they were taken and photos that were poorly taken. My photos have also been synced to the photo app as this gives me a streamlined means of viewing the images I really do want to keep. I have deleted all my unnecessary emails and have unsubscribed to email newsletters that I do not have any interest as they clog up your mail box and their notifications are distracting.
I've organised my spotify removing playlists and artists I do not listen to, cleaned up my Facebook, deleted old instagrams that I do not like and unfollowed inactive accounts and the accounts of people I have only met once. I decided it just makes more sense for me to keep the people I regularly interact with online as opposed to those that I have met once at a gig or festival who I probably will never talk to or meet again. I just feel like doing all these steps allows you to live a more meaningful, organised and well paced life compared to before. Admittedly, it does not take much for it all to become cluttered again, but I am aiming to try keep as simplistic as possible in the new year. I am also hoping this will help me think twice about keeping unnecessary items, making purchases I do not need or really want and lastly help me think twice about my online persona.
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