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!

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