To follow up on my post: Things to do in January: Declutter your Digital Life, I was going to write a way too long post on how to declutter your ‘material’ life, but since I’m reading an incredible book on the topic, instead, I’m going to tell you about such book!
Note: contain an affiliated link. if you decide to purchase this book, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Declutter your Life???
Why in hell, am I talking about decluttering on a road trip / travel blog?
Well, bear with me for a second. There is some logic behind it, I promise!!
I want to travel more, I want to be free from material constraint. I don’t want to be a full time digital nomade because I love having a home base, but I need my home to be a nurturing place. My home needs to be my creative kingdom, my dream land. I don’t want my home to be a burden, full of stuff I don’t need and don’t use and which just collect dust. Loosing time looking for things, cleaning unnecessary stuff or rambling around to find space are not efficient ways to spend time.
Chances are that if you are reading this, you are the same or at least part of you is aspiring to a more organized and efficient life. This is exactly why I’m writing these articles on decluttering.
Less time spent on stuff equals more time being productive.
Being more productive & more efficient means more free time.
And you guessed right:
More free time equals more travels!
I hear you arguing that travels require time but it also requires money. As mentioned in my previous post on this, decluttering shouldn’t the end of the journey. Decluttering should be the beginning of the trip, the 1st step to a more organized life. A life where you don’t loose time because of your stuff but also a life where you don’t spend money on stuff you don’t need. When you don’t spend money on things you don’t need, you have more to spend on things that matter.
If you don’t want a clean, clutter free home, if you don’t want to have more free time & more money to do what you love, that’s fine with me. Even if I don’t completely believe you when you say that! But anyway, in that case, I would recommend you to read something else, like on of my other latest articles, this one or this one for example!
On a final note, if I didn’t convince you of the suitability of this series of articles on a travel blog, well, so be it! As I’ve mentioned before, when I write an article which seems ‘off topic’, I always feel a bit weird, but after all, I shall do as I please, since this is my little corner of the web!!
Unstuff your Life!
What is this magical book I want to tell you about?
It is called Unstuff Your Life!: Kick the Clutter Habit and Completely Organize Your Life for Good and was written by Andrew J. Mellen, a Professional Organizer!
The first and most important message of the book is simple: You are not your Stuff!
The second most important message is also very simple: One home for everything and Like with Like
That’s it! But if you think about it, those are powerful messages.
Obviously Unstuff your Life doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t just focus on clearing the clutter, which a lot of other books do, it helps you create the habits which guarantee you to remain clutter free.
With such a book in hand, if you don’t get organized, it can only be because you are not following the steps. I’m not trying to blame you or make you feel bad, it’s not always that easy and we all have resistance to changes. I’m saying this because if you follow the steps, you will get results. It’s that simple.
The thinks I also like about this book?
- It’s easy to read and even fun!
- It’s well organized which seems to be a prerequisite for such sorts of books but isn’t always the case
- It includes actionnable & practical recommendations for every steps
- It goes well beyond the clutter and explores the psychologie of stuff.
A final note: 
Full disclosure…
I haven’t read the whole book yet but so far so good!
I’m super proud to say that I already had a set space for my keys, my purse, my mail… Everything on the counter top of the kitchen we use daily, the clothes in “Sentimentaland” isn’t big… doing go!!
How come? Well the methodology applied by Andrew J. Mellen isn’t new. It is similar to the Japanese 5S methodology. You may not have heard about it before but I have because well… it used to be Mr A.’s specialty (Mr A. is my partner, in case you wonder)! I did have resistance to it, when he started bugging me with this. It annoyed me very much when he was taking examples from your daily life, during the seminars he was presenting … to a point where I kind of wanted to choke him for it! But eventually, I ended up admitting it was pretty smart!
Despite all this, I bought this book and I’m doing the work now, because things slipped a bit with time and it is good to be reminded of the How and the Why.
And yes, I am totally dreading the basement chapter!! But I will let you know in while, how it went!
Let me know how it goes for you! And especially what you are doing with your free time!
