De-Cluttering...

It's spring time and my spring fever is in full force.... as is my urge to do some spring cleaning.  I don't know what happened to me toward the end of pregnancy and now even postpartum, but I have been having these urges to purge all of the clutter in my life, and keep things simple and organized...and clean. It's like my nesting went into overdrive once this little peanut was born. So, I thought it would be fun to share three ways that I am de-cluttering (besides cleaning every inch of the house) in case anyone else is having the urge to spring clean and de-clutter + organize, too!

One: Clean out your inbox + hit unsubscribe
If you are like me, you have a few email inboxes (my married name email, my maiden name email, my junk email account, my work email, my blog email - ah I'm stressed just typing this)... and the emails just start to pile up. By law, any marketing messages have to have an unsubscribe link, so you can get off of their email list. I literally went through all of my email accounts and unsubscribed to so many different company's emails so they stop filling my inbox and piling up in there, and so I can focus on the emails that I really do want to read. 

I also created folders in my Gmail accounts and started organizing and saving the important emails, and purging all of the ones that I no longer need. I let so many emails pile up while I've been off of work and on maternity leave, and am finally responding to emails that have been left unread for awhile now. That's so unlike me, but this exercise has helped me so much... so I can stay on top of things and not get bogged down with junk mail. I'm halfway through this purge and I already feel a little weight off my shoulders! 

Two: Clean out your closet + donate & sell things
You know that quote Carrie Bradshaw said in Sex and the City "I like my money right where I can see it,  hanging in my closet." - I think I had that mantra for many years and the amount of clothing that I have been hoarding is absolutely ridiculous. I have a real problem going into Target and not coming home with a cute top...or five plus a pair of shoes. When we remodeled I was lucky enough to create/design a closet for just me that is the size of a small bedroom....yet I still need to swap out my winter/summer clothes using our downstairs closets. That's crazy. All of my clothes should fit in my closet where I can see everything. No one needs that much clothing and accessories! So, I went through everything in my closet (twice, maybe three times) and asked myself - when was the last time you wore this? Does it fit? Will it fit when you lose these last few post baby lbs? Is it in style? I ended up with a HUGE pile and broke it out into the following groups: 
1) Donate this is where I put all of my Target items, items that are more worn out or just aren't in style anymore
2) Consign for my more expensive pieces that just don't fit or I never wore
3) Sell via Poshmark, Clothes Mentor or Plato's Closet. There are also a lot of Facebook groups out there where you can sell gently used goods and make some good money, too. I've made quite a bit from selling items on there and am saving it up for something special. If you know of any other great places to sell, let me know, I would love to hear them! :)

I love having everything in my one closet and organized, where I can see all of my clothes and accessories. It helps when I am getting dressed too, because there are a lot less options to choose from and I know that everything fits (or hopefully will soon!). 

Three: Delete and organize your photos
I have so many photos on my phone, like 17K or something crazy like that. My amazing "Instagram husband" knows to just click away when we are taking pictures so we can get a good one out of the bunch, but then I'm left with all of these extra pictures that just pile up. All of the photos from my computer and phone have merged too, so I also have all of these pictures from going out in college, my early 20's etc and I definitely don't think I need all of those. Haha. So when I'm pumping, I try to go through chunks of my photos and keep what I really want to keep and delete the ones that I really don't need. An added bonus? It'll free up a lot of storage space on your phone, too. I can't wait until I am all done with this one.

Bonus: Be present + Take a Social Media Break.
Ok, I know this one isn't about de-cluttering, but it is about time management and balance. There are days that I find myself consumed with blogging/curating content/ideating, or just keeping up with all of the accounts that I love on IG, and before I know it I've been on there for like 20 minutes and the milk I pumped is overflowing the bottles...and that could happen multiple times a day. (Face palm.) I love Instagram, the beautiful content that people share and the inspiration that fills my feed, but sometimes its really nice to take a day off, focus on being present, and soak up all the joyous moments of being this little guy's mama and all that's happening around us. Taking a day off from social media here and there has been really nice and helped me find a little more balance.  

Thanks for reading! I'm super excited about my next installment of this post, too - so stay tuned for some more organizing/de-cluttering ideas! :)

Below is the screensaver that I have on my desktop in the photo above- I downloaded it from Design Love Fest - they have the CUTEST screen savers under their "dress your tech" section for both your phone and computer. #cactuseverything