If you want to get hours back in your day that you didn’t know you have, take a look at these ten places to shed excess stuff in your life to take back your time. Ladies we have things to get done, places to go, and people to see. And you know what? We have dreams, hobbies, special interests, passions, ministries, and volunteer work. It’s endless because we have so many things to do.

But you know what the last thing that I want is for you to be bogged down by weight, clutter, heaviness, by just gunk in your life. It can be hiding in your life in areas that you never even thought of. I am so happy to bring you ten unbelievably easy places for you to open your eyes to see brand new places to shed excess. There is stuff everywhere. Maybe it is not right in front of your eyes or maybe it is.

It can be hard, complicated, and overwhelming to deal with. But we are going to dive into ten really easy places where you can go in and get out of the clutter in just a matter of minutes to feel lighter and better overall. More importantly, so you can go in and get back more time in your day every single day. Are you ready to get into this with me?
 

Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast

This is the best time of year to start digging in deeper into our thoughts and maybe less of our actions. At the beginning of the year, it can be the best time to get organized and systemized for the year, and get prepared for going into the spring and summer, then taper back in the fall. Sometimes it can be a good idea to follow the seasons in your home, or in your business as I have done. I love being seasonal with pretty much everything and anything that I can. Also, I am currently geeking out on being seasonal with the food that myself and my family eat.

Break down this list if you need to

This is a great way for you to take that and support that in your own life whether or not you want to take all of these ten easy places to shed excess stuff in your life. You may say to yourself, “You know what that sounds really great and all, but I think I can get to one of those next week. And maybe next week the week after that.” That is okay too. Use this list as inspiration and education to take it at the pace you want to go. The important part is that you know that when you have this list it won’t be overwhelming and will create a lightness and easiness in a way for you to move through your day without so much resistance because you won’t be carrying so much excess with you.

Every single one of these ten places you can shed excess stuff in your life may seem really insignificant, but they may be places you have never thought of before. Take this list and store it on your phone to share in your stories or share it in our Facebook Group and tag me. Commit to these ten places to really easy places to shed excess stuff by getting started. This is going to be really fun, or share with a friend.

1. The Coffee Drawer

The first easy place you can shed excess stuff is your coffee drawer. Go to your coffee drawer where you keep your coffee or tea in. And if you are not a coffee drinker go to where you store your water bottles and tumblers because I know you have a ton of those. Go straight there right now and pull 4 to 5 things out of that bucket, drawer, or bin that you can get rid of. You are never doing to drink that coffee that you have just a few beans left of throw the bag away! You don’t need that coffee mug anymore. It has been shoved in the back of your shelves for so long.

2. Emails

Shifting gears here, but how can you get rid of emails? Delete. Set up your iPhone so you can swipe left and it immediately deletes it instead of archiving it. That is just a quick switch and a change in your email settings to swipe left and delete. So I am in the habit of going into my inbox two times a day and just swiping to delete, and that keeps my inbox down. But the way I got to that in the first place is that literally almost every year I go back in and I look at everything that has been read or unread and do a mass delete.

Hit Delete

So for all of you that have thousands of unread emails go in on your desktop and just delete them. Get rid of it because you just don’t need it. I promise you don’t need it. If it is really that important there should be a copy of it online somewhere. All of your bills you can call the company for everything. If it’s an online portal, you can sign in. Just go do a hard delete.

I don’t mess with folders or any of that. Just go in and delete the thing and you are done. If you don’t take action on it then it’s just going to sit there and sit there. So I choose to delete it often daily and that one time each year. That is the best way for you to do that. And if you want to keep a folder that is fine too to keep them organized. If I need to or have an unread email I just leave it unread and then in my actual emails I only read my unread so I know that is what I need to take action on. I delete it. But the really exciting moment is when you go down to zero. This is your second easy place to shed excess stuff.

3. Texts

The third easy place you can go to shed excess stuff is your phone. Go in and delete all of your text message threads. Clean them out. It does so much for your phone to get rid of those threads. All of the texts on your phone or the links that you share are taking up space on your phone. Get rid of them and clean them up. Go in and delete. I usually go in at least once a month and delete them and I love not having to take forever to find someone or just going in and let’s just typing their name in and it will pop up. That should take just a few minutes as long as you don’t go through every single history on it.

4. The Kitchen

Your kitchen and cabinets are easy places to shed excess stuff. Going back to the kitchen now, we are going to look at cooking. Mainly the what is for dinner question. That is a really common problem that I hear and I want you to look at the heaviness. We are trying to look at the excess right? Just the amount of questions that you get and your think about regarding what is for dinner. That is so much that you could be getting rid of and probably thirty to sixty minutes of your day.

Go into one cupboard and get rid of any of the kitchen stuff that you are not using and get rid of it. Even if you have to get rid of it one cupboard at a time. Pull everything out, go through it, get rid of anything you don’t need, and go on with your bad self. Here is one of my podcast episodes where I go into how to meal plan if you need more help with that.

5. Laundry

Another easy place to shed excess stuff is the laundry. How can you remove the excess when it comes to laundry because it’s everywhere? There is a heaviness and weight that comes with clutter around getting dressed. And there are so many people that just avoid getting dressed because they don’t like what they wear, or they have much in their closets. It is such a great time of year to be thinking of that. I love to go through my clothes when the seasons shift because I am naturally going through my closet anyway.

Kids Clothing

But for you in this very simple moment can you go into your kid’s room or during the next load of laundry can you go through their clothes and pull out what doesn’t fit them anymore? Stop washing clothes that are too small. Don’t put them away again. Stop using clothes that are not going to work anymore.

The clothes that are sitting in the kiddos’ drawers that they literally don’t wear or don’t pull out because they don’t fit. Why are they still in the drawer? You don’t need that in the laundry cycle, whether that is wearing it, washing it, folding it, or trying to maneuver around it because it is in the closet and it is in the drawers. Get rid of it one drawer or one kid at a time. Maybe, start with your closet that’s the best place to start because it’s exciting and uplifting.

6. Your Schedule

One of the places that are easy to shed excess stuff that is really exciting and one that is probably not on your brain right now is your schedule. The excess that you have in your actual scheduling system. The errors in your schedule result in conflict. The “Oh my gosh I forgot it’s early release day”. The text message that you overbooked yourself, the client, and the call. “The “Oh my gosh, I have to work but I have the kids.” Or even the “I don’t even have the car seat in the right car and we have to be here at this time”.

All of the craziness that happens around the schedule is bogging you down tremendously. Not having an automated and shared google calendar that is shared with the adults in your life that are responsible for helping you take your kids to and from is absolutely weighing you down. It is wasting so much time. So if this is a big thing for you that takes up so much time let’s automate it for you. Super simple!

Your Google Calendar

Go straight into your google calendar and set up recurring events. Get in the habit of going in every single weekend and looking at the calendar to ask yourself what is going on next week. These are time-specific and sensitive events that are not your time blocks. These are sensitive events that you or your family would be considered tardy if they did not show up on time for this thing or meeting. That needs to be on your calendar and it needs to be very clear.

“The important part is that you know that when you have this list it won’t be overwhelming and will create a lightness and easiness in a way for you to move through your day without so much resistance because you won’t be carrying so much excess with you.”

7. The Excess in Your Makeup Drawer

Let’s take a look at what is in your makeup drawer! It’s so bad! How long has that blush and eyeshadow been hanging around? Please just pull it out take a picture and show it to me because I want to see it. You can snap a picture and send it to me in a dm, share it with your stories and tag me. Or if you are feeling brave come over to our Facebook Group and share it. I want to get to know you so please interact with me, because it lights me up.

Let me see the makeup that you have been hanging on to forever or the makeup brushes that are super worn down. Let me see how janky your makeup drawer is. Get rid of it! It is probably not your color anymore. That is a great place that could take you 5 minutes to get out so you can start from there.

8. Excess in Shoes

How many shoes do you have and what is in your show bin? For us, our kids have a show bin. I put this one on here as a reminder to myself. It is like with my kids their feet grow so quickly that keeping up with their hoes is just as hard as keeping up with their clothes.

But even for myself and my husband, it is hard to keep up with. So go into your shoe bin and get rid of all of the old and outdated shoes you don’t wear. I guarantee you that you have at least two pairs that are collecting dust that you don’t wear. Why do you have them?

Navigating through them bogs you down. And all of these little incremental pieces and moments throughout your day that you are literally trying to swim upstream are resistance in your life. It adds to the weight and is exhaustion and overwhelms you. You may be wondering to yourself, “what the heck did I do?” Well, you swam upstream all day, that’s what you did.

So these are great little tiny micro places that all add up. And it is unbelievable how much easier and lighter you will feel when you get into places like this. They may seem like they won’t make an impact, but just try me.

9. Paper Excess

Other questions you may want to ask yourself is Do you have a lot of excess stuff that you could shed in your life? If the answer is yes then ask yourself why am I keeping all of these papers? But it is 2023 and there is no need for paper anymore because you can just take a picture of that bad boy. You can keep those papers, but you know what I do? I just pick up a black garbage bag and I start dumping. Make sure you have all of your vital documents set aside.

Once you have don’t that you don’t need to go through the mail but just put it in the bag. I know there are going to be some people that say, “Wait doesn’t it have personal information on it, don’t you need to shred it?” Maybe you do but I personally do not. And you know what this is not legal advice or identity safety advice I am just helping you get rid of the excess waste. You do what you need to do when it comes to feeling safe when discarding your personal document.

10. Supplements and Medicine Cabinets

Last, but certainly not least are your supplements or your medicine cabinet. I think that there are probably 98% of Americans that are juggling either multiple pill bottles or supplement bottles. There are very few families at this point that have nothing that they take every single day. And it is a lot that you have to look through that are open or you have two and they are both half empty. It is a mess. It’s a really quick and easy way to go and get things organized. As weird as it is if you’re into pills and supplements those pill boxes are extraordinary. They’re really good at keeping things organized and making sure that you keep taking your supplements. But also they are great for keeping bottles off your counter.

Habit Stack It

We keep ours in a cute little basket by our common spaces where we are always coming and going. I have met some people that are dependent upon prescriptions and they have to take them for their health where they have to take them at specific times of the day. Those should be placed strategically in places where you know you are going to need to go every day and not have them off in some random spot.

You don’t have to have them tucked away unless it’s for safety reasons for children. But there is nothing wrong with having your pill bottle on your nightstand or your desk in your office. Somewhere you know where you are going to be on a regular basis and you go there every day at the same time would be a great place to set out your pill containers. Like how can you simplify that process and make it ascetically pleasing to make it look good? Keep the bottles that you want to keep and refill your pill containers on a weekly basis.

We did it!

Okay, those are ten really awesome places for you to shed excess stuff and take back time in your life. I can’t wait for the pictures to roll into the Facebook Group, so laugh with you about the funny things we hold onto. This is going to be such an incredible year for you and you are going to start out with one, two, three, four maybe even all 10 of all of these places for you to shed excess stuff so you can free up time for your to do all the things you really want to do this year.