7 Easy Steps To Start The Year off With A Clean Slate & Clear Mind

With 2013 coming to a close, it’s a good time to set goals, resolutions, and start the year off with a clean slate. We live in a time where it’s go-go-go all of the time!

My to do list and emails that keep piling up in my inbox seem neverending! The saying is true, ‘the more you have, the more you have to worry about.’ Everyone deals with this life-overload differently. Some become scattered and confused, others react with anxiety and irritability, or perhaps you just get overwhelmed and find ways to procrastinate. I know I have been victim to all of the above!

The first step to thinking clearly is purge the things that are no longer serving you. Everything is a reflection, so the less clutter your have in your home, the more space you’ll create in your mind. As humans, we tend to hold on or attach to things, but why not donate that shirt that you completely forgot about, or that book that you don’t even recognize because it’s covered with dust? It’s a pretty freeing feeling when you can learn to live simply. And, you’ll see that by creating space and organizing your life, you will help clear your mind so you can easily work towards and accomplish goals. As a result, you’ll be calmer, happier, and be able to help others!

1. DeCLUTTER Your Home

What does your home look like? Are there papers built up, clothes everywhere? Set a day or weekend aside to unclutter and deep clean your home…

• Clean out your cabinets and closets: Throw away or donate anything that is no longer serving you.
• Come up with a filing system for your papers:  Create folders and files for all of your mail, receipts, and loose papers laying around. Make sure they are easily accessible so that you can quickly file papers away.
• Bins-Bins-Bins – My sister hired an organizer for her home, and one of the main things I noticed was that she used a lot bins! I tried it out, and now I swear by bins! Go to Target and and buy a bunch or different colors, fabrics, and sizes. You can organize all of your closets and cabinets with bins by separating everything into categories and adding labels, which will make everything easier to find. They make everything look nice, and give you a space to organize so you’re not just randomly throwing something somewhere in a closet or cabinet.
• Organize your junk drawers: While you’re at Target, grab one of those sectioned off bins for drawers. That way you have a drawer with dividers where you have a space to find loose change, screws, magnets, wires, mints, business cards or whatever else you throw in a junk drawer! It can be fun and scary to see what you find as you clean this out!

2. Do A Deep Cleaning of Your Home

• Clean the floors: Sweep & Mop – Don’t just push the dust to the corners with your swifter, but really get in there and clean out the nooks and crannies. 
• Clean the counters: Move everything out of the way and use a toothbrush in the corners and any build up around the sink
• Wipe down the windows, baseboards, the insides of the cabinets and get the dust off the walls, and doors.
• The Bathroom: Spend some time cleaning the walls and tub of the shower. I always use comet when I’m deep cleaning. Does the job! What do you use?
• Clean The Refrigerator: Get rid of anything old, but also take out the drawers and wipe everything down. I promise that if you take everything out, you’ll find things in the back or on the side cabinets you completely forgot about. Eeeek!
• Get The Places You Forget: Clean under the stove and behind and under the refrigerator. That can also be a pretty scary scene, but if I can do it, so can you. 
• Make your bed: makes such a difference!

3. Clean Your Car

• This is another place we all spend a lot of time, so you should think of it as an extension of your home. If you’re someone who loves to wash your car manually, Awesome! But, if you’re like me, you’ll take it to the local car wash and tip the guy for going the extra mile (pun intended).
• Tiny Tip: Leave some cleaner and a towel in the trunk of your car, and just do a quick wipe down of the inside of your car to give it that fresh feeling every few days!

4. Make & Keep a To Do List

Get your life organized! Everything can build up and become overwhelming, so here’s a checklist of things that I help me incredibly:

• Pay all of your bills once a month: It’s SO Important that this is the very first thing you do when you get paid! Try to pay them on the same date every month, but you might split it up, which is what I do. I get paid twice a month, so the first paycheck I take care of bills (electric, car, insurance, etc), and the second I take care of rent. Sit down and create a budget & schedule to always have your bills taken care of so you never have to worry about late payments or creditors calling. 
• Answer Emails: don’t let your inbox get out of hand! Stop everything, and let’s with a clean it up right now. Delete all of your junk mail no matter how long it takes. Answer any outstanding emails, and create folders or flag emails indicating if follow up is needed. From this point forward, unsubscribe from anything that you have no need for, and keep your inbox organized and as low as possible.
• Set Up A Cleaning Schedule: If you’re like me, you have a hard time keeping things clean. I have no idea how it happens, but by the end of the week, dust builds up and I have a pile of papers on the counter and clothes all over the bed. I literally have to schedule it in! Try to schedule daily and weekly tasks for cleaning. For example: I make sure that I always have my dishes done and counters cleaned before I go to sleep, and I file my papers the 15th of every month. Another way to do it is clean a room a day, or schedule a different cleaning task during the week. It might look like this:

5. Organize Your Computer Files

Don’t let your computer files and folders get out of hand! One of the worst habits to get into is to just ‘save as’, and say, “I’ll organize that later.” I’ve done that, and reorganizing is frustrating and tedious! Don’t make the same mistake I did, and get in the habit of organizing now. Create files and folders for all of your work, and just make sure you take the time to save your files and images to the right places the first time, so that you don’t end up with a crazy scattered desktop with images and files all over.  6. Make A Vision Board 

I went over this in a previous post, but this will help you organize your scattered goals and dreams. You’ll list your goals in a picture form, and this way you can better visualize yourself living out your dreams, which will help you believe in yourself and motivate you to make them happen for real! Read about it here

7. Meditate

We live in a society where our minds are constantly stimulated by computers, smart phones, social networks, the television, and video games. On top of that, we have so much going on that we don’t really have the time to digest everything that we experience. That’s why it’s vital to take at least 20 minutes a day for yourself. Meditating will create a pattern of calmness and teach us how to slow down the mind. Right before you get ready to hit the sheets, set aside those 20 minutes to meditate before bed. Don’t know how to meditate? I gotcha covered here!!!

I hope I left you with some great tips to keep your mind clear, and start creating your dreams for the new year! You can really use this list for anytime that you need to make some changes in your life, not just the new year, so feel free to bookmark this, put it in your pocket (A great organizing tool), or pin it so you can refer to it in the future! 

Also See:
Great Quotes to Kick off 2014
Yoga, Blogging, & Health Goals for The New Year

What did I miss? How do you clear your mind? I’m counting on you to share your organizing tips on how to live less scattered life in the comments! The more the better! Thanks!