Category: uncategorized

Hammond Forever House!

Published 07/15/2015

Oh hello there, beautiful heritage home.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of touring this gorgeous heritage beauty. It is located in Port Hammond, British Columbia, which is the town where I spent most of my childhood years growing up so I was immediately drawn to checking it out. I always love a little summer nostalgia 😉

The story caught my eye when I saw the ad in the local newspaper. The owners were doing a public tour to showcase the history of the home, as well as talk about how they were going to “renovate and retrofit this 1923 Craftsman-style cottage into Hammond Forever House – a house that heats and cools itself, conserves both energy and water, and keeps their family healthy and happy – on a budget.”

I was inspired to share their story and blog with you, because it is amazing to see people pour this much love into their home, as well as care for the environment and the future of their family. It’s not everyday you come across people with a progressive view of both caring about the history of a building, and wanting to think about its impact in the future.

If you have some time, please check out their story, and the progress of turning their dreams into reality. We can learn a lot from James and Leanne!

www.hammondfh.ca

Social Media or No Media? Which Would You Choose?

Published 06/17/2015

“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” ~ Jim Morrison

Let’s talk about social media, or the media in general and what it does to our emotional and mental wellbeing.

I have a friend whose family is from Africa and her grandfather lived until he was 127 years old. They say it was because the family moved him out of the city, and into the countryside, cut him off from all media, so that he could live blissfully and stress free with his family and the beautiful nature.

I have another friend from Vietnam. They did the same thing. When their elders got old, they chose to protect their family members from the media and moved them to a beautiful location to live media free so they could live longer and healthier lives.

It is well known that the Media (social media, news media, etc.) can cause us stress. Especially the television news. The stories that are told to us are generally negative and frightening. I personally try to limit my exposure to negative news topics because I am a very sensitive person, and I can get very depressed about the state of the world. And while isolating oneself from the media can make us potentially live healthier stress free lives, what are the costs?

Social Media is a topic on it’s own which can cause stress because of:

Trying to keep up with the Joneses with what is popular or what others have
Keeping up with ourselves and the need to portray our ideal image
Being addicted to technology
Losing our privacy
Prying people
Identity fraud
Relationship/Friendship drama

If you had to choose to either be media and stress free (ignorance is bliss), or informed but stressed out and miserable? Which would you prefer? Can you have both? Do you care?

I think the happy medium is to be able to choose what content we are exposed to. Essentialism, coined by Greg McKeown, would say we should choose to expose ourselves to information that brings us value, and disregard the rest. A dear friend of mine says it’s always important to be learning (which requires learning about what is going on in the world), but we should have a choice on what kind of information we get and go to trusted, unbiased (ideally) sources. We should also explore all angles of a story or issue, and not blindly accept what is being told. For example, read the comments sections and discover other intelligent interpretations.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Why Introverts Struggle to Speak

Published 05/26/2015

I can’t take credit for the below article, but it was so good I had to share it. It’s something I deeply relate to; some of you may too. The original post is here. What do you think?

A co-worker appears out of the blue and asks me a question. Her eyes and tone of voice say she wants an answer now. Her request is easy, but my mind is momentarily paralyzed.

I start sentences then stop them. I hesitate. I say words that are close to what I mean, but not exactly. I backtrack.

My co-worker — an extrovert who always seems to express herself effortlessly — looks at me like, come on, spit it out. I think, if only my brain would cooperate.

Why introverts struggle with word retrieval

When we’re speaking out loud, we introverts often have trouble finding the word we want. We may come off sounding like we don’t know what we’re talking about, even though we probably do. In social situations, we may have trouble keeping up with fast-talking extroverts.

Our brains use many different areas for speaking and writing, writes Dr. Marti Olsen Laney in her book, The Introvert Advantage: Making the Most of Your Inner Strengths. Information needs to flow between the separate areas, and as introverts, we process information deeply, which means it flows slowly.

Word retrieval is a problem for some introverts because, along with deeper processing, we rely on long-term memory more than short-term memory. It takes longer to access long-term memory, and we need the right association (something that reminds us of the word) to reach into our long-term memory and pull out the exact word we want, writes Laney.

If we’re anxious — which may happen when we’re with people we don’t know well, or when we’re in a high-pressure situation like a first date — it may be even more difficult to locate and articulate a word.

Why it’s easier to express ourselves in writing

Introverts “often feel as if they express themselves better in writing than in conversation,” writes Susan Cain in her book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.

Introverts often prefer text messages and emails to phone calls. Many of us keep journals or compose lyrics, poems, or stories, and some of us make careers out of writing.

The reason for this preference once again has to do with how our brains are wired: written words use different pathways in the brain, which seem to flow fluently for many introverts, writes Laney.

What to do when your mind goes blank

Memory is complex, and it uses many different areas of the brain. Our brains store memories in several locations and create links between them, called associations.

To yank something out of long-term memory, we need to locate an association. The good thing is, most pieces of information in long-term memory were stored with several associations or keys for unlocking them.

“If we find just one key, we can retrieve the whole memory,” writes Laney.

When you struggle to remember a word, a piece of information, or even what you did over the weekend (because that question often comes up in small talk!), try these things:

Be still and relax.

Give yourself permission to be quiet for a few moments. Don’t let the other person rush you.

Buy yourself time to process things by saying something like, “Let me think about that,” or “Hmm, let me see…” Or, give a nonverbal signal that shows you’re thinking, like looking away and furrowing your brow slightly.

Let your mind wander for a moment and go where it wants. One thought may lead to another, and one of those thoughts may hold the “key” to unlocking the words you want from your long-term memory.

If all else fails, and words escape you, don’t feel embarrassed — your brain is doing what comes naturally to it, and that is to pause and reflect. If you’re being quiet, you’re in good company with other deep-thinking introverts: Stephen Hawking once said, “Quiet people have the loudest minds.”

Then, try breezing over any awkwardness in the conversation by using humor to make light of your tongue-tied state, or say you’re a little distracted right now, and you’ll get back to the other person later — by sending an email or text.

Aha! Moments – John from The Hill of Beans

Published 10/28/2014

Meet John from www.thehillofbeans.com. John created The Hill of Beans as a forum for discussing what matters in this crazy world and to encourage his readers to simplify their lives, savor the short time they have here on earth, and think about that which is important and lasting. Please check out his blog!

John shares his Aha! Moment:

I recently read through a terrific book, The Artist’s Way: A spiritual path to higher creativity, by Julia Cameron. Written in 1992, this inspiring book on the subject of creativity is a provocative and invaluable guide for any aspiring artist as well as “non-artists”.

Cameron guides one through a process to inspire creativity. The foundational activity is daily “morning pages”. This constitutes writing three pages first thing every morning. There are no rules to the morning pages; just write freely and whatever comes to mind.

The bedrock tool of a creative recovery is a daily practice called Morning Pages. – Julia Cameron

I have been practicing the morning pages, and it has been revolutionary for my writing as well as my mental and emotional state. It has changed my life perspective.

The experience is terrific! Through the discipline of writing the morning pages, I have come closer to my personal alignment equilibrium.

On one morning, while writing the morning pages, a question came to mind.

What would my fantasy day look like if I had the financial resources to do whatever I wanted to do?

Thus, my morning pages that day became a fantasy piece. Here are the highlights of what I discovered about myself and my desires:

Wake naturally – no alarm clock (this is normally about 6 am for me)

Thank God for life and breath and salvation. Stretch and take 3 deep breaths

Breakfast (featuring slow carbs) and freshly ground, French-pressed coffee – delicious!

Bible reading, prayer and journal

Write morning pages

Tidy up (always clean your bowl), dress, check email and calendar

One hour vigorous walk

Stop by coffee shop, update on today’s news, socialize, update blog

Back home to write for an hour or two

Lunch

Odd jobs around the residence (wherever that may be house, condo, tiny house or RV)

Afternoon: Exploring, volunteering, new writing projects, grocery stop, exercise/stretching

Dinner and correspondence

Write another hour (or dancing, if a group event is scheduled)

Evening quiet time: Reading, reflection, and preparing for the next day

Bed at 10

The point of writing out this little exercise is the realization that I can live a portion of my fantasy today. I don’t have to wait for some other situation to develop before I begin to embrace my “fantasy”. I don’t need to wait for enough money, better health, fewer obligations, better relationships, etc, etc, etc.

Today may be my last day here on earth, and how will I use it?

Today is the day to start living one’s dream. The only person responsible to make it happen is yourself and the choices you make.

The following quote presents a great perspective on how we should live each day. The obstacles of life are inevitable. We need to be about the business of living each day to its fullest. Embrace the dream.

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin — real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last in dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. – Fr. Alfred D’Souza

Living a simple life without the clutter and clamor that consumerism, advertising, and modern media thrust at you provides space in your life. It gives you room to do that which matters to you. It allows you to remove the unnecessary obstacles of life. It allows you to move closer to your fantasy day, because you have reduced the unnecessary and now have more freedom to make positive, deliberate choices. I choose to live a little of my fantasy each and every day.

I want to share YOUR stories.

If you have experienced any ‘Aha!’ moments where you realized you want to align your life with who you really are, I want to hear about them and share!

All I need from you is:

1) A written 300-700 word personal story
2) A photo of yourself, or something that represents your story (this is optional)
3) A link to your blog/website (if you have one)
4) Email the info to lessoftheexcess at gmail dot com

Take care and see you soon!

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Deliberately Creating Memories

Published 09/18/2014

Leave the memories as they are, you just can’t duplicate something like that. ~ an old friend

Something’s been on my mind. On the one hand I love the internet and technology because it allows us to communicate across distances and accomplish our dreams in a way we would not have done before. But on the other hand, as the meme says, I miss my pre-internet brain.

I miss those days when we would wait forever for our favourite musician to release their new album, and line up at the store just to purchase it. Then we’d go home and listen to it on repeat for hours, probably with some good friends.

I also miss feeling like I could actually be OFF THE GRID when I traveled, or like I was escaping somewhere where nobody could find me. Now I don’t feel like I’ve gone very far because everyone is just a click away, or I could easily be tracked down because my flight and bank details are probably online somewhere, if anyone had to really go searching for me.

On the flip side, music is at our fingertips. Anything we want to listen to, we can get, how cool is that? Anything we want to learn, is right there. Now when we travel, we can update our friends and family in real-time and show them what we are experiencing. We can look up our childhood friend and reconnect with them.

But here’s a question –

When is the last time you looked back and thought, wow, that was such a great time when I watched that YouTube video on cats, I’ll remember that forever…

That was so much fun scrolling through Facebook for hours on end. I’ll remember it until the day I die.

Yeah…not quite the same as real life is it?

The difference is we created a lot more MEMORIES. And we valued things that took more effort to do as opposed to the instant gratification of today.

My fear is that I, and anyone else who is guilty of too many hours being distracted by Facebook/YouTube/Reddit/video games/name your vice here, (and I know there are many of us) will one day look back and realize all this time has passed us by and we don’t have any wonderful memories to look back on. At least not to the degree of what it used to be. I mean, aren’t memories part of what makes life so amazing?

I worry about our children who will grow up with their faces glued to an iPad or computer screen, and sure they will probably learn a lot, but I wonder if their childhoods will be as magical and full of memories as the pre-internet world.

I don’t know…just some thoughts. What do you think?

Other than that, my point is I think it’s important to be mindful of deliberately creating memories. Take that time to disconnect ourselves from the digital world, and live in the real world. Have a little picnic in the park with an old friend, or meet a new friend while hiking up a mountain. Because it would be so sad to look back and realize we could have had a richer experience.

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My Fall Capsule Wardrobe

Published 09/05/2014

I did it guys! After my Decluttering Your Closet post, I got serious about my clothes and did another purge. I thought about the style I wanted to have, the colours I liked the most, and the lifestyle I lived.

I was inspired by Unfancy’s capsule wardrobe strategies and followed her How to Build a Capsule Wardrobe principles linked here.

It was really fun being deliberate about my wardrobe and planning all of the bits and pieces. It’s also freeing to know that I wasn’t impulsively buying things just for the sake of shopping. I already owned pretty much everything, and only had to purchase a few things. I tried to stick with neutral tones and classic styles. I do have some leftover bits and bobs that I kept because I’m not ready to part with them, so they might show up from time to time in my real life, but below is my core Fall Capsule Wardrobe!

The 34 items that make up my Fall Capsule Wardrobe!
You can see everything on my Pinterest Board here.

TOPS & JACKETS – 17

3 Sweaters
Taupe slouchy sweater / Navy blue slouchy sweater / Black slouchy sweater

4 T-shirts
Grey jersey long sleeved shirt (new) / Black t-shirt / Navy and white stripy shirt / Plain white t-shirt

3 Button-ups
Black button-up #1 / Black button-up #2 (sheer) / White button-up

3 Tanks
Grey tank (new) / Black dressy tank / White casual tank

4 Jackets
Leather jacket / Fall coat (need to purchase) / Casual army green jacket / Black blazer

BOTTOMS & DRESSES – 10

3 Pairs of Jeans
Black skinny jeans / Dark blue jeans / Light blue jeans

3 Trousers/Leggings
Black loose trousers / Mustard yellow loose trousers / Black leggings

4 Skirts/Dresses
Black cotton long skirt (new) / Black pencil skirt / Grey jersey dress / Black jersey dress

SHOES – 7

Black chelsea boots (new) / Black ankle booties / Camel ankle booties / Black loafer flats
Brown flats / Black Converse sneakers / Black Nike Freerun running shoes

I’d love to hear if you are working on a fall capsule wardrobe yourself, let me know in the comments below!

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Distraction Detox – September 2014

Published 09/04/2014

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but maybe I just needed that extra kick in the butt.

Well I got two kicks in the butt, and I want you to join me!

The first kick was from a section I came across about having a “Low Information Diet” from the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. Here’s an excerpt from the book that explains it a bit, but I’d recommend checking it out for more in-depth information:

The Low Information Diet – Cultivating Selective Ignorance

From this point forward, I’m going to propose that you develop an uncanny ability to be selectively ignorant. Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also practical. It is imperative that you learn to ignore or redirect all information and interruptions that are irrelevant, unimportant, or unactionable. Most are all three.

The first step is to develop and maintain a low-information diet. Just as modern man consumes both too many calories and calories of no nutritional value, information workers eat data both in excess and from the wrong sources.

Lifestyle design is based on massive action – output. Increase output necessitates decreased input. Most information is time-consuming, negative, irrelevant to your goals, and outside of your influence. I challenge you to look at whatever you read or watched today and tell me that it wasn’t at least two of the four. – Timothy Ferriss

My second kick in the butt was from a YouTube post from Unconventional Living which I’ve posted below. He challenges us to do #30daysunplugged from the internet in order to increase productivity, and not use it as a distraction because we’re bored.

My Distraction Detox!
And why you should join me!

While the internet in general is not my focus, I am committing to a 30 day Distraction Detox of my mindless YouTube and Netflix watching. I want to be deliberate and mindful of the time I’m spending on the internet, so I can get FOCUSED on my personal dreams and goals. It is so easy to get sucked into the land of aimless video watching, and it’s not getting me where I need to be. Yes, there is a lot of valuable info out there that we can get by watching videos that are more educational, but if that is the case, it’s also about taking a break from the research and absorbing, and doing a little more… doing. I’ve already disconnected from Facebook and have noticed a huge benefit of the extra time I got back.

Let me know if you want to join me. What is distracting you from achieving your current dreams and goals? What are the things you know you should focus on but keep getting sidetracked by?

I’ll follow up at the end of the month and talk about my experience. This is something I want to revisit from time to time, or maybe every month, there will be a new distraction to detoxify from!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Turn Your Current Job Into Your Dream Job

Published 08/26/2014

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. – Confucius

Sometimes I look back to where I used to be and where I am now, and while I still have a long way to go and many many more dreams to pursue, I have carved out my work situation in a way that I get to do what I specifically love doing for a living and I want to share with you how I’ve done that. Aside from entrepreneurship where we can start our own business doing what we love, there are some tips and tricks on how you can turn your current job, into one you will at least enjoy a lot more (that’s if you’re currently in a job you don’t necessarily like, or would prefer to be in a different job). Which will eventually lead to new opportunities.

I’m really only speaking from my own experience, but I’ve witnessed other people do the same, so I will share this anyway. And I’m fully aware that some work environments may not allow for any of these techniques, but if it helps one person, I am happy 🙂

Five Steps To Guide You Toward Your Dream Job

1. The number one rule you first need to adopt is to make decisions that are in line with your dreams and values, and do not compromise that. Check out this post on how to make difficult choices and this post on living according to our values. That means knowing what those values are and doing a little soul searching. Take some time to write out a list of what you value the most, what your strengths are and what fires you up.

2. Look at your current job situation and see how you can use those values and skills to enhance the current working environment or job role. For example, my value of connecting and developing people was important to me in a workplace. My first ‘job’ out of university was in Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS). This is a quite technical, data oriented part of HR. Definitely not my interest or strong suit. But I had a passion for people and making them happy in the workplace. A few things I did to incorporate those skills were:

Get my entire team to do an “About Me” powerpoint presentation over a conference call to get to know one another (most of us were remote workers and we didn’t know each other at all). This brought us closer together as a team.

I joined the Events Committee and took part in creating fun company events or lunch and learns.

I became the Diversity Champion Lead of our Vancouver Location to help promote and celebrate the diverse cultures of our company and set up related events.

I had/have a huge love of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), so I set up a team building event to discover my team’s working styles so we could communicate and work better together

None of these were related to my actual job role. And I made sure they didn’t take time and work away from what I actually had to get done. Most of it was done on my spare time.

Another example is from a friend of mine who worked in the IT department, but had a huge passion for health and exercise. He created a company exercise team/program where employees could participate in various sports or exercises during lunch hour, or various monthly challenges like the Monthly Ab Challenge. This would build upon his passion of helping people live a healthy lifestyle even though it isn’t directly related to his current job. Check out his blog here.

The main point is to keep building on your skills by adding new things.

3. Add these new special skills to your Resume. Now that you’ve got some experience under your belt related to what you love to do, add them to your Resume.

4. Connect with people who have similar interests and values. Through the power of filtering, when we obsess over certain things, we start to open doors that lead us in that direction. Someone, somewhere, will be looking for someone with your skill set. Meet lots of people. Join meetup.com and attend events and meet like-minded people. Keep your eyes open for job opportunities that allow you to grow your skills and apply for them. That’s where finding a good mentor can help you get there.

One note about rejection and failure. Try not to worry about it. As much as we hate it, it will happen at one point or another. But the opposite of happiness or success is not failure, it’s boredom. Just keep sticking to your guns, because the people who reject us aren’t a good match for us anyway. We want to be in a situation where our passion is appreciated.

5. Repeat steps 1 through 4. Eventually you will keep building and building to the point that you’ve flipped your working situation around. You’ll either end up in a new job that allows you to build upon your strengths and passions, or if you’re lucky enough your current job will build a space for you to flourish. This might even lead you to starting your own side business because now you have actual ‘work experience’ to back you up. The road can go in several directions from this point, but that’s what makes life so exciting!

That’s it! I just want to mention again that Step number one is the most important, and you have to be really strict on choosing things that line up with where and who you want to be. Sometimes you’ll be presented with a shiny opportunity, but it won’t be related to where you want to go. Don’t get side tracked. Stay on course and you’ll eventually end up where you need to be.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. If you liked what you read, please subscribe!

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Personal Style and Minimalism

Published 08/23/2014

Sorry boys, this may not be very interesting to you, (or it may be for some of you)! But ever since I wrote my Decluttering Your Closet post, I’ve been thinking about minimalist wardrobes, and how curating the items to reflect our personal style can be quite fun (if you’re into fashion). I do not like consumerism, so I don’t want to give the impression that this is where I’m going. It’s more about refining and being purposeful with what we own. Loving (and using) every piece in our wardrobes.

Again, the way I define minimalism is it is about finding out what is essential and getting rid of everything else. And this can be applied to our closets. I personally gravitate towards items that are practical, comfortable, serve multiple purposes and that match several things, hence why I like to stick to a neutral colour pallet.

Anyway, I’ve found an amazing blog created by Anuschka Rees, a young 25 year old woman from Berlin, Germany, called Into Mind that focuses on personal style AND minimalism. Anuschka’s website has nothing to do with the 10 Items All Women Should Have, it’s about refining and curating our wardrobes to reflect our own signature look. And if you’re into or interested in capsule wardrobes, there are tons of posts on that, for example here and here.

Below is a snapshot of her thought process or linked here:

Excuse me while I get lost in this website for a little while :).

Good night world!

*Edit* Uh oh, found another style and minimalism blog (Unfancy) here. Into Mind is very theoretical. Unfancy is more practical. If you have a preference.

4 Comments

Decluttering Your Closet!

Published 08/21/2014

“A shopping cart flipped upside down forms a cage that I use to protect myself from consumerism.” – Jarod Kintz

I’ve focused a lot of energy on in my closet decluttering process, but I STILL seem to have an endless amount of clothes despite the fact that I’ve given away several garbage bags full. That’s kind of embarrassing haha! I used to have a bit of a shopping problem. Whenever I’d get a paycheque, I’d have to make sure that I bought the latest things on my “want” list. And it was a never-ending list. I’d constantly see an image, or person wearing something that I had to have, and since I had the money to spend, I’d just go buy it.

I definitely think living in the city had a little to do with it. Working or living downtown, seeing everyone wearing the latest and greatest fashion trends. There was some sort of internal pressure to try and keep up, while it never crossed my mind when I was growing up in the countryside.

Anyway, those days are over. Ever since I embraced minimalism, I don’t care anymore. BUT, I was left with a ridiculous collection of things I probably only ever wore once or twice. I’m sure some of you can relate. Shoes for every occasion, bags to match every outfit, 30 pairs of jeans, random shirts of all colours and prints. Yikes.

(Side note: If fashion is your passion, then I completely get that. It’s a great way to express yourself and inspire others to do the same. For me personally, it was partly that, but partly an inner desire for something that was unhealthy. It took up a lot of my precious mental space and time and I was trying to fill some sort of void).

But to the point of this post, below are the steps I used to pare down my crazy collection. Mind you, there is some sort of method to my madness haha.

How To Declutter Your Closet

1. Make it fun! Put on your favourite music, have a glass of wine, and designate some special “me time” out of your day to focus on decluttering your closet.

2. Take a little moment, sit somewhere comfortable, and think about the style you want to have. What type of style represents you the most? Are you preppy? Sporty? Classic? Girly? Hippie? Chic? What I always found was helpful was Googling or Pinteresting the fashion style of some of the celebrities that I found represented the style I wanted, and using those as a guide. For instance, I’m naturally drawn toward minimalist street style. So neutral pallets (grey, black, white, navy) mixing casual and smart with mainly plain patterns. My style inspirations seem to gravitate towards Rachel Bilson and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. I also love stores like Noul or Oak & Fort.

**One thing I’d like to add is to think about the lifestyle you live and the clothes you need for this. If you’re outdoorsy or active, you’ll probably have more of those clothes. If you like to go to fancy events, you’ll probably have dressier items. What is the most useful for you?

3. Once you’ve collected images of your favourite style inspirations, take everything (I mean everything!) out of your closet and toss it onto your bed. The floor works too.

4. Take the first item of clothing, hold it in your hands, and ask yourself these 8 questions. For anything you don’t want to keep toss it in the “don’t keep pile”. For anything you want to keep, put it back on the hanger and back into your closet.

Have I worn this in the last year? If you haven’t worn it in the past year, put it in the “don’t keep pile”.

Do I LIKE this? If you don’t even like the item, toss it.

Do I feel good/confident/hot/sexy when I wear this? If you feel unattractive in it, off it goes.

Does it fit? Don’t keep it if you think it will fit you ONE DAY. If it doesn’t fit, put it aside.

Is it in good condition? If there are any holes or snags, you can either choose to mend them, or toss the item.

Is it comfortable? If you can’t stand wearing it, why keep it? If you’re constantly pulling up at your pants revealing your beautiful hot pink thong, or you feel restricted and can’t put your arms up in that sweater, it’s time for it to go.

Does it serve a purpose? You may have to have different clothes for work, or you may need special clothing for specific activities/events. If it serves no purpose, get rid of it.

Does it line up with the kind of look or lifestyle I am going for? Going back to the style inspirations you gathered, if it doesn’t match, put it aside. A good example is if you’ve collected several printed items, but you actually don’t like prints anymore then get rid of it.

Do this with the rest of your clothes, until you get through them all.

By now you’ve gone through all of your clothes. The ones you want to keep are hanging up nicely in your closet, and the ones you want to get rid of are probably in a big gigantic pile on the floor. I know I could have done the next step as I was tossing things, but I like to work from the top down haha.

5. Sit with your giant pile of clothes and separate the items into 3 piles: Trash/Recycle, Donate or Sell. Obviously the items that are worn out or are in terrible shape can be trashed or recycled to a place that recycles textiles. Everything else can be donated or sold. You can donate items to a thrift store, charity, friend or family member. Some people like to get their friends together and do a Clothing Swap. Or if you have the time and patience, you can sell things on Craigslist or Ebay etc. No matter what you choose, all the clothes need to leave your home!

6. Finally you’ve gotten rid of the clothes you don’t want anymore. Now it’s time to ORGANIZE YOUR CLOSET! I love this part. Everyone has a technique, but I like to organize my clothes first by sleeve length (Skinny sleeve tanks, then thick sleeve tanks, then t-shirts, then 3/4 sleeve shirts, then long sleeved shirts, then sweaters, then blazers, then jackets, and lastly dresses.) Then I like to colour code them because I’m weird like that.

That’s it! You should be all sorted! For now anyway 😉 You can obviously use the same method for your drawers or shelves.

Remember, it’s a journey. You’ll likely make quite a dent the first time around. But as you get more comfortable with getting rid of things, you may go through this process a few more times.

What you will notice is a much lighter feeling within you. You’ve created more space and a clearer mind, which can be addictive!

Give yourself a pat on the back!

Next time you go shopping, carefully examine the piece you’re thinking about purchasing. Look at it, sitting there in your hands. And think long and hard if you’re buying it out of impulse, or if you really need it.

Random question of the day: I’m curious to hear, do you live in the city, suburbs or country, and how has this affected your need to shop for new clothes?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below! I’d love to hear them. If you liked what you read, please subscribe!

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