step number one
In my attempt to declutter and simplify, I have successfully completed step number one.
I emptied over 3000 unread emails from my inboxes. Granted I did it late last night when I should have been sleeping, but it is still done!
I am determined to read, delete, or deal with all emails as they come in and not let them pile up. My email box is one area I can surely stay on top of, is it not? After success in this area, I will move to the other areas of my life that pile up…laundry, dishes, old food in the refrigerator, mail, bills, thoughts, burdens, guilt, pain, should-haves, could-have-beens, and the inevitable, wish-I-wouldn’t-haves.
I'm Tracy, a mama with big dreams, crazy ideas, loads of laughter, an insatiable desire to learn, and enormous piles of laundry.
I always have a goal to have 15 or less e-mails in my inbox. It is a great feeling to get on top of it, isn’t it? But make sure you get some sleep! Sleep is one of the biggest factors in how I feel. Someone as busy as you definitely needs good sleep.
Good luck on the decluttering process. You’re motivating me to get going as well!
Holy craziness Batman! Three thousand! Yeah that would drive me nutso. Well good for you! How about read, delete, deal with or BLOCK. or UNSUBSCRIBE. That might reduce some of them out. I’m surely not understanding the last of your list starting with burdens. We do tend to turn into our mothers. I’m sorry for you! I really thought you had it all together. You are a strong! smart! amazing! dependable! awesome! woman!
What? You don’t understand burdens piling up? Guilt? Pain? All those things we regret and we stuff inside thinking we will deal with it someday?
I did unsubscribe from some things late last night…and today, over twelve hours later, my inbox is still at zero unread emails. I have read all of them that have come in today and dealt with them!
Yes, I totally understand that. I just never knew that YOU dealt with that . . .
Oh Tracy- good for you!! I completely understand where you’re coming from. I have 630 “unread” emails in my inbox right now- so I know that means I have thousands of read emails. ICK! My husband wants to just mass erase everything- but I can’t! What if I lose some important phone numbers, attachments, calendars, login info., etc. Whenever I have free time I never want to spend it cleaning up my email, but I know I must do it someday….
Sariah, take it in chunks!
I also get to feeling, if I’ve not needed that information often enough to have moved it to my rolodex thing, I probably don’t need it. I’m fine with deleting lots of email, on a pretty regular basis.
But, I also have about six hundred internet bookmarks lurking. LOL
Tracy, doesn’t that clear box feel fantastic?? Mine stays that way for about sixteen seconds, but I love it while it’s bare!
My fix for those science experiments in the fridge has been to toss the vast majority of all my storage containers. I have six small ones now, and some zip-loc-style bags, even with a family of six to feed. Things aren’t nearly as gross. :) (Well, that and the chickens will eat any veg or rice/potato leftovers on Saturdays, if we’ve not eaten them by then!)
For the emotional clutter… I write it out in my journal, pray for forgiveness as needed, and then trust my Savior. He’s already carried my guilt and my burdens, and He does it perfectly. I can (if I just try!) trust Him with those things, and stop trying to carry them all myself, particularly the past things that *should* be past.
Isn’t fall a gorgeous time to simplify life and living??
Liz,
Thanks for the wise words – they are good to read and remember and ponder.
I cleared out my storage containers a few years back and went to just a few glass pyrex containers with lids. I love my system, but I have not been paying attention to the fridge at all lately and it got away from me!
Isn’t it so silly to carry our burdens? I know I have a Savior. I know He is real. I know He loves me. I know the atonement is powerful. I simply don’t rely on Him as I should.