De-cluttering your home, office and life have the potential to radically improve your productivity at work, home and in relationships. From kitchen counter tops to a messy desk and even a junk filled car – your “space” is a reflection of your life. Show me a person’s car, for example, and I can tell you a lot about their thoughts, actions, and behaviors.

It’s hard to believe, but our environments reflect our inner space and give a glimpse into our souls. When Sanya came to our organization looking to lose weight and demolish over $30,000 in credit card debt, I asked her if she would take me to her car. She looked at me perplexed and yet walked me to her vehicle. As she opened the car door, a can fell out of a messy, trash-filled car full of old papers, shoes, food bags, and wrappers. I had seen enough and kindly asked her to follow me inside.

Sure enough, as we unraveled her emotional, physical, and spiritual “issues” it was clear that her car was a mere symptom of a deeper need for transformation, self-respect and self-discipline. Sanya weighed 373 pounds and was desperately seeking change. Good news is that after only one year, Sanya lost over 85 pounds and demolished $30,000 in debt to go on to live a thriving life of balance and peace.

The key: She had a cluttered mind, cluttered soul, and cluttered life. Though her process included much mental reconditioning, there are a few practical tips we gave her to de-clutter her environments that will serve as a great help to anyone looking to de-clutter their life. They include:

Rule #1: De-clutter Your Emotional Space
Rule #2: De-clutter Your Work/Office Space
Rule #3: De-clutter Your Home/Personal Space
Rule #4: De-clutter Your Relational Space
Rule #5: De-clutter Your Spiritual Space

In this blog, I want to cover Rule #1.

Rule #1 – DE-CLUTTER YOUR EMOTIONAL SPACE

Do you ever find yourself misplacing important items or searching for things that you just can’t seem to find? You say to yourself that you will come up with a better system for organizing the details of your life, but where do you begin? Design Psychologist, Kelli Ellis states, “You see that person who has papers flying out of files, or you see their handbag, and you say, ‘I know exactly what your car looks like or what your home office looks like.’” If you have overflowing drawers or an overflowing purse, chances are you have excessive overflow in every area of life. We call that overflow: Clutter.

Clutter, both mental and physical, can leave you frustrated, delayed, disappointed and even late for important meetings, deadlines, or events. Such disorganization eats away at our time and productivity. Think of all of the wasted seconds and minutes used up on searching for keys, papers, clothing and even excess time spent on messy relationships.

“To be truly happy, sometimes you must eliminate unhealthy people and situations from your life,” says Alex Lluch, author of Secrets to Love Life and Be Happy.

If you find yourself surrounded by negative, emotionally draining people, begin to remove them from your mental and physical space. If you feel stuck in a dead-end job, don’t just sit around complaining about the mess, make a determined effort to change.

Breaking away from a comfort zone of cluttered voices, relationships, and even a job will not be easy. It may take a monumental amount of confidence and courage, but it could very well be the key to unlocking your greatest, most inspiring days ahead.

Take Denise Gerrich who came to me weighing 330 pounds. Her life, home, work, and car were a cluttered mess. She lived with a massive amount of clutter for over 10 years till finally she made a radical decision to leave her comfort zone, change jobs, move to a new city, and clean house personally, emotionally, and physically.

The result? Nine months later she was working in the job of her dreams, having lost 123 pounds and loving life. Eighteen months later, she had lost 181 pounds and her life took on a whole new perspective.

To master Rule #1, you may have to made some radical decisions. However, change doesn’t come to those who wish for it to happen. It comes to those willing to make it happen with daily effort, faith, and determination.

Tip For The Week:

Start with one area of your home that needs to be de-cluttered. It could be a closet, pantry, bedroom, or any space of your choice. Remove everything from the room, including furniture so that you start with a clean space. Then, place back into the room, only the items you wish to keep. Be courageous. If you haven’t used an item for over a year….let it go! If you don’t plan on using it in the next 3 months, set it free! Those items that end up in your “excess” pile, either throw them away, donate them to a local charity, post them on Freecycle.org, or apply them to a garage sale to pay off some of your debt or bills!

Stay tuned for Rule #2