Starting my year of Reinvention With a Bit of Decluttering

So I don’t know about you, but every year I pick a word to carry me through the year. I know it is a common thing to do nowadays, but I pick a word and this year my word is REINVENTION.

I needed a strong word that propelled me through this new year. This part of post menopausal me, is a different me than prior to menopause and reinvention is the perfect word.

At the beginning of the year, I set some intentions for myself. And in order for me to fully embrace reinvention, I had to let go of old habits, old things, and things in general that no longer served me.

So I started out the year doing a whole Marie Condon thing. Marie Kondo, the worldwide decluttering maestro, teaches that, though it's hard to part with items we've owned for a long time, working out whether they spark joy can make it easier to let them go.

I made a plan for myself to declutter an area a month for the year. Is in January, I started with my clothes.

I started with my drawers. I decided what I wanted to keep and what I hadn’t worn if forever and what just plain did not fit and never would again. I made decisions about how each piece of clothing would fit into my “reinvention” year. Once I finished my drawers, I was finished for the day. Remember I have all month to complete decluttering my clothes. I did not want any decision of what to keep or get rid of to be rushed. And, the drawers were a way to ease into this task. When done, I had a pile for keep, give away, donate, and resell.

Next was my closet. One thing that I knew if I went all Betty Davis on my closet I would have a whole mess and not accomplish what I wanted to. I started with pants and shirts because I knew making decisions on what dresses to keep and which to let go of would be tough….I love dresses. Lets just say when it was all done I had 10 thousand steps on my fit bit just by going back and forth to the close in my room.

Tackling my clothes, shoes, toiletries, and makeup took the whole month of January because I made it a task in my day not a one time decluttering party. The other thing that was different from any other time I decluttered was I immediately took the donate bags and put them in my trunk and took them to The Salvation Army. In the past, those bags would sit for a while and sometimes I would wonder where is that black shirt I use to have and remember it was in one of the bags and out it would come again. Not this time!

At the end of January, my closet, bathroom items, drawers, and even the night side drawer was decluttered. What I found was when I walked in to my closet, I not only a sense of accomplishment, but I felt my body relax in the organization.

This month, It’s the kitchen. My favorite room in the house. In January, I watched Home Edit on Netflix and got inspired to organize my kitchen. In January, I ordered the container set I needed to organize my pantry and purchased it at the beginning of February. I did that because I know myself and I would have wanted to dive right into the kitchen without have completed the January decluttering project.

I used the same concept as my bedroom and closet and started with one area. I chose the pantry which normally would be one of the last but I kept it in order but not organized. I decided to do shelf by shelf instead of removing everything from the pantry. I then got rid of any expired items. I then started putting the items into their own containers (I took things out of boxes and bags) and arranged them on the shelf. Each container was labeled and then for each shelf, wash, rinse, repeat. And, the month is still young. This week I am finishing my spice cabinet.

What I did not expect from this venture was how freeing and complete I would feel after I decluttered. According to a home and garden article: Decluttering isn't just about clearing your home of clutter, period. For many of us, decluttering can have a positive impact on mental health. A recent survey of homeowners showed that 44% of us experience ‘mess-stress’ at least weekly and 72% of ‘naturally tidy’ people have experienced stress from an untidy home over the pandemic*.

One other thing that I decided to do in my year of reinvention is to read a non fiction book a month that serves me and what I want to do in my life. January was Atomic Habits by James Clea. If you have not read it, get it. This month is Atlas of the Heart by Brené Brown (she is by far my favorite non fiction author),and The cholesterol cure. I had to pick two because I take in Brene’s books slowly and mark up the book so it may take many months.

I am loving how the decluttering and learning and just bing a new me has changed me in such a short period of time. I truly can’t wait to see what is to come.

How are you creating a mental clarity space for yourself? What things do you need to let go of that no longer serve you?