47: Where to start decluttering in 2024
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Welcome to episode 47 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about where to get started with your organizing projects in 2024. You may have noticed. I missed a couple of weeks. I was sick with COVID and then my voice was gone and it's pretty much back, so I'm ready to get going. It really, really bothered me to miss a couple of weeks, but I had to let go of that. Perfectionism, give myself the permission to be messy and just pick right back up. So now that we're heading into 2024.
This week before the new year is often when we start reflecting and thinking, okay, really what do I want 2024 to look like, and many of us have that goal to get organized. But I'd like you to make a little mind shift instead of thinking about how can I get more organized in 2024? Think about how much can I let go of, because as I've said before, When you've let go of as much as you possibly can. You're going to find that being organized is just natural and it's a lot easier. To get in state organized when you've got less stuff.
So if your goal is to get organized, shift it and make it your goal to declutter. Just keep it simple. Keep it easy on yourself. Because. once you've done all the decluttering, it's going to be so much easier to get organized. And you're not putting that pressure on yourself that I need to be organized this year because honestly, getting organized and staying organized is a journey.
It isn't like a. You're organized and that's it. It takes time and things shifts. So you have to get in that mode. So it's really important to focus on the decluttering,
but where do you start decluttering and how do you know where to start? There's a few different ways. You can look at this, you can start with the thing that is bothering you the most mentally.
Or you could start with a thing that's causing you the most financial distress. Or you could simply look at it and say, I'm going to start with the easy stuff. And you're going to move through as many easy things as you can. So if you're working with paper, Go with the easy stuff, the junk mail, the receipts that no longer need to be held onto. Anything, that's a no-brainer for you.
The same goes with your digital files. going through every individual file can be really difficult. But if you can, look into a folder or look at your desktop and look at the things, just hone in on the things that, you know, you can get rid of just start chipping away at those.
And, as you go along you're going to start to get to the harder stuff. So maybe if you're doing digital files and you start to get to the harder stuff, maybe move on to paper and do all the easy paper. Or you move into your kitchen and you work on that or you move into your closet. There's nothing saying that when you're decluttering that you have to focus on one room on one category. on one, closet, whatever it is, you can move throughout your home and your office. In fact, I encourage this because it helps you to prevent boredom. It helps you to see results all over.
Just the focus should always be about letting go of things each day. Making that habit of getting rid of things each day. And I know I've said this before, but it always bears repeating. Sometimes it takes people. hearing me or somebody else saying it. I may say it a different way one time and it's oh yeah, you know what?
I'm just going to get up each day. And I'm going to let go of something or I'm going to let go of five items or I'm going to spend 10 or 15 minutes decluttering. You can actually brainstorm all of the areas that you want to declutter and you can look in that list and make a plan. As I'm recording this, I'm reopening my membership and I would love for you to join me in there.
The way I'm structuring things now is I have all of my decluttering programs and my planning program and, doing like monthly calls with people in my Sensibly Organized program and the membership piece is separate from that.
Now it's an addition to the program. It's additional support. So with the program, you have all the resources, the steps, the success path, you get a monthly group call with me, and then you can also ask questions, but with the membership, you can come to sessions during the week.
And I do multiple sessions in the week and I actually add them as people need them. and you can come to as many as you want. And it's like making an appointment with me. We're doing it virtually and we're doing it with a group of people. But you pop in. And you work on your projects, so whatever you're decluttering and the key thing is you're setting that appointment with yourself by coming in. And we're all together. And you work on your own things.
And if you have a question that would normally stop you in your tracks and you would stop working. You can ask me, can interrupt me at any time because I'm just working while I'm there with you. I'm really there for the whole session just to answer questions. Many times people don't have many questions.
They're just there to focus, catch up, talk about what they need to get done. Get to work. it's really about setting that appointment with yourself. So if you're interested in that, what I want to let you know is as I'm recording this on December 27th, 2023. I literally just sent an email out to my list. And you can get Sensibly Organized for a hundred dollars off. So it's $197 for the program. And then if you decide to join the membership, I'm offering that for 50% off the monthly fee and that's for as long as you remember now, remember, my membership is not meant for like a Netflix type of thing where you just sign up and you keep staying. You can, but it's really meant for you to only be a member for as long as you need my help getting organized.
And for that right now, you can get in for only $45 a month. I'm going to put this all in information, all in the show notes. that you can get to joannkrall.com and, I hope you'll join me. I know this is a big time for people. you're probably getting ads for all the free challenges, the free decluttering challenges.
I've done those myself in the past as well. What I have found is that people get very excited and then they just, they get overwhelmed and they can't do it anymore. trying to compress all of this stuff into a short period of time. Isn't always effective. So if you would like the help getting organized and you've ever wanted to join my programs now is a great time and I hope to see you in there. And I am wishing you a very happy new year. And of course as always much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy.
Thanks for listening.
