5 Tips on How to Start to Simplify Your Life - Part I

Today the word Clutter is not new to us, but a lot of people still associate it with only physical clutter. When in fact our “Mental Clutter” is way bigger than the physical one nowadays.

More and more we feel overwhelmed, distracted, and wish there was more “room to breathe”, a day longer than 24 hours, and focus sharper than a knife. We are overloaded with options and choices that we have to face daily. They are, like obstacles, rise and block our way to the things that really matter and the life we want to live. Believe us, Decision Fatigue is a real thing! It mentally weighs  us down and contributes to feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and stressed.

We don’t need all of that in our lives! What we need right now is a way to clarify our days to give us more time, space and freedom to prioritise what’s truly important! And it can be done by merely simplifying some aspects of your live. It does not mean to get rid of everything you own, just eliminate what is NOT necessary and does NOT bring joy or serves a purpose. Everything around you should add value to your life, not to distract and overwhelm.

And to be honest it’s easier said than done. We’ve been there and it took sometime to clear our path towards simpler life. You don’t have to switch all at once, just take one step at a time:) And even though there is always room for improvement we want to share with you the first 5 STEPS  that we personally took to start simpler and easier life.

• Unsubscribe.
  We all live with a fear of missing out on some level. We subscribe to newsletters, magazines, people on social media, and while all these information is poured on us we actually missing something important. Unsubscribe from any newsletter or accounts that do not bring any valuable information to you! Once you’ll start sorting out your subscriptions, you’ll be surprised that you still follow or receive newsletters from brands/companies that you have zero interest in now. Also finding that billing notice will be so much easier when your mailbox is not bombarded with emails daily
  
  
• Get Rid of Apps.
  Oh technology!  We are so grateful for giving us an access to literally everything. But again, with so many options we tend to download so many different apps to see if one is better than another. And then just forget to remove them. Or stop using it for certain reasons. But they keep on sending us notifications :“ Look at this”, “New recipe this week”,“Weather cast for tomorrow”, “These kittens are the cutest” ,“New Route to London" and on and on desperately trying to get our attention. Let’s be real, how many of the apps we actually use? 40-50%? The rest are just there “for when we have time” which we never have for them. We just keep updating in a hope that one day we’ll actually use it again! Delete everything that you haven’t open in a while. They can be easily re-downloaded once you really need it.
  
  
• Clean & Organise Your Photos.
  This was one of the toughest to be honest. Not because we were afraid of deleting, but because of years and years of piling up of photos it was scary how much time it would actually take us to clean and organise it. But what is  worst is the time we’d had to spend scrolling and searching for that one photo or screenshot that we urgently needed. Prepare yourself, as  it will take a while, but it’s totally doable:) Start at the very beginning and slowly go one by one deleting those that you don’t need. Why from the start, well it’s harder to part with the photos that reflect recent events, but something that happened long time ago would be so much easier to “send to trash”. Dividing photos into groups by theme and creating folders will certainly save you time in the future when you are looking for that favourite recipe or the invoice you snapped to file for taxes later on.
  
  
• Silence!
  Ooofff, there are group chats of all sorts now. Whatsapp, Facebook, Telegram, Kik, Twitter and etc. It was quite a shock for us when after asking a lot of our friends, we realised they keep their phone on constant silence mode because there are too many notifications from different chats and they are just annoyed by them. At the same time  risking to miss an important  phone call or message. Silence all that's constantly “talking”. In every chat there is an option of putting a specific group on silence mode. Save your gadgets’ battery, as well as your own.  You can always catch up with everyone by the end of the day when you have time:) Clear the path for all the important information that will help you during the day.
  
  
• Eliminate Physical Clutter.
  We surround ourselves with so many physical things throughout our lifetime, and obviously not all of them should stay with us till the end. That's why we believe it's necessary to carefully sift through all your possessions. Easiest place to start would be your closet. We are sure you have heard about term Capsule Wardrobe -  collection of  a few essential items of clothing that are interchangeable and do not go out of fashion. By having items that complement and match one another, you won’t struggle with “Overflowing closet, and I have nothing to wear” kind of problem every morning. One of the ways to simplify and clear out your closet is to eliminate items that you haven’t worn in months or even years. We used to have that pile of clothes and accessories known as “For..”. For when we’ll lose weight, for better weather, for a special occasion, for when we find a matching jacket, for “maybe I'll wear it one day", for the next time…If you haven’t touched that pile in months, you never will. It’s time to part with those. Give them purpose by selling or donating those items to people who will actually use them! Same goes for everything else you own.

 Simplifying your life is so much more than just getting rid of the “Things”. It’s about creating time, space and energy for your priorities. As the phrase by Hans Hofmann goes - The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that necessary may speak! Changes don’t happen overnight, but by making even one small step forward you’ll be much closer to the life you want to live that you were before!

Olya&Yulia
MILLENNY Team