Love Yourself Challenge Day #1: Declutter Your Space

Ask my parents if I've ever been a neat and tidy person.  They will actually laugh in your face. It hasn't gotten much better since moving out on my own into the real world. 

Since I was very young I've made it a point to be as busy as I can as often as I can. High school and college looked a lot like this: Track.  Cross Country.  Orchestra.  Pit Orchestra.  TV Crew.  Radio job.  School work.  Sorority.  Sleep when I'm dead.

Not much has changed as an adult.  When I'm in go, go, go mode I tend to cut back on the things that really need to be done.  You know like grocery shop or do laundry or put stuff away.  Basically my car, apartment and desk are buried under an ever growing mountain of crap 24/7 and Keke's so right.  When I'm feeling on edge at work, I know it's because in my mind I'm thinking about how much of a disaster my apartment is and it stresses me the hell out walking back into the mess after a long day at work.  I feel like my stuff is suffocating me so today's challenge came at just the right time.

I'll be honest, my apartment is such a disaster that I'm calling in professional help tomorrow.  Errr.  I'm embarrassed even for the woman cleaning my apartment to see it, but there's no way I'm going to be able to clean it on my own! My cubicle?  That seemed a little more doable.  After an hour and three trash cans it's looking pretty good!

Here's some tips from today's cleaning adventure.

De-Clutter The Easy Stuff First

I cleaned off my actual desktop first before I dove into the cabinet above it.  That gave me enough room to pull everything out of the black hole to see what should stay and what should go.  And that helped me not immediately feel overwhelmed...but I really do wonder how I fit so much junk in that cabinet!

Decide Not To Keep Things Out Of Guilt Or Obligation

I threw away notepads upon notepads worth of stuff today.  I initially held on to them thinking maybe there was a good idea written in there somewhere, but I gotta be honest.  I haven't looked at most of those notepads in 3-4 years.  If I've never gone back to them for an idea at this point, I probably never will.  Out they go.

On to my apartment next.  WISH ME LUCK!