I can’t count the number of times I’ve used these two words on initiatives to empty out the junk in my life. 🗑

I feel I’m going to be decluttering for the rest of my existence. It’s really how excessive or “accidental” we can be with the things we buy. For example, I’ve books 3 and 4 of the Legends of the Condor series, but they’re the small paperback size that don’t match my copies of books 1 and 2. 🤦‍♀️

Quoting my boss, I’m in “survival mode” now. I have to recover my personal wealth and build up my savings again.

Work against the urge

Small steps are always better than none. The most important of those steps is making sure I use what I have and only add either what’s necessary or what will fit into my new home.

I think I’m getting better at shutting my inner enabler up. My current arsenal is made up of the following tools and routines:

Tools

• A Trello board for all my wish list items, travel plans, and the like.
• A Todoist project for all my decluttering tasks
• A monthly expenses spreadsheet that keeps track of all my cash flow
• Gmail’s web app

Routines

• In Trello, create cards for all the items I want to buy in the future. This empties my mind and lets me literally put wish list items away for later.
• Go straight to Gmail and change the Inbox view back to Default. This view has a tab for important emails and tabs for social emails, promotional emails, and email updates.
• In the same Gmail Inbox, select all the marketing emails I’m not interested in and delete them.
• Keep staring at my monthly expenses spreadsheet. Feel the pain of the expenses already incurred for the month.
• Think of the new house and all the work that needs to be done to get it ready before the year ends.
• Think of the kids, dogs, and cats, and all the money we need to save up to support them all.
• Gather items I no longer need and pile them up before giving them away.

So far, I’ve got house slippers, skin care, toys, books listed on my Shopee store, and a box of Windy’s old collars and accessories that will hopefully go to new homes someday.

Next year’s theme is certain

It’s been one of the hardest financial years of my working life, but the hardship has hardened my resolve and is slowly putting a stop to my incessant need to buy-so-I-don’t-miss-out. I can already tell what my goals are going to be for next year. 👀💰