Last week, I wrote about what it means to be fabu(less). If you didn’t see that post yet, I really encourage you to read it first. It lays the foundation for this post. It’s kind of the meat of this short series and gives you the WHY, whereas, this is the practical application part that gives you the HOW.

To read Part 1, click here!

Choosing to be “Fabuless” and to live with less, fabulously, means clearing out some of the clutter that makes life … well … less fabulous. Let me help.

All of my secrets on clearing out the old and making room for the new this year. I can promise you that these little tricks will not change your life one by one, but combined, they will give you that reset feeling that we love so much at the beginning of the year. And I purposefully waited until the end of our first month of the year to share this. It’s usually around this time that we’ve let go of all of our crazy dysfunctional and unrealistic New Year’s Resolutions. But these little things are super realistic. They don’t have a deadline, and they’re things you can do on your own time without too much effort. The benefits of a de-cluttered home, digital life, workspace, and phone are great. You’ll be able to find what you’re looking for, and trust me… that is gold ❤

Your Digital Life

• Clear out those facebook messages
  • Yeah, like go through and delete all of the ones that don’t apply anymore.
  • There’s an awesome Chrome extension that will help you to delete them all at one time, and I love it!
  • I deleted everything that stopped in 2017, and I deleted all of the *finished conversations* from 2018.
  • I kept any ongoing conversations and anything that started in 2019.
• Remove last year’s Instagram highlights
  • This doesn’t work for everyone’s account because if you’re like a professional HMU, your past looks are gold for snagging new clients. 
  • But if you’re just a regular gal like me, go through the highlights and make room for new ones this year!
  • I ended up doing a little recap of 2018 in one highlight and deleting everything else (well except for my travel highlight bc I love being able to share my adventures with you!!)

Your Home Life

• That Closet
  • Here’s my rule: If you don’t feel great in it, let it go. If you have ever felt bad in it, let it go. If it’s not fabulous, let it go. 
  • I’m forever downsizing my closet only to fill it back up again, and I’m constantly skipping over things that I know I’ll never wear simply because it doesn’t make me feel very pretty. How much better would it be if I didn’t have to spend 30 minutes picking out my clothes because 1.) only half of it fits and 2.) only half of what fits actually makes me feel good.
•  Kitchen
  • Clean out the fridge. Check all the expiration dates and toss anything that’s overdue.
  • Clean out the pantry. If you’ve made a decision to be healthier this year, remove anything that might get in the way of that. 
  • Clean out the spice cabinet. Check expiration dates and toss anything you’ve never used.
  • Plastic Bowls and Lids. If you’ve lost its match and it’s no longer functional, toss it. Or if you just have too much, donate it.
• Laundry/Linens
  • Most families have *the good towels* and the discolored towels with holes in them, amiright?! 
  • Here’s my thing about that… (and maybe it’s because I don’t have a house of teens in the house yet), but my philosophy is “Use the good towels!” Use ‘em! You bought ‘em… Use ‘em! And throw out the old towels… well except for like 1 or 2 in case of big messes lol 
  • Dish Towels. Start over. If they are all mismatched and that’s not working for you, then get rid of them. Toss or donate depending on condition. 

Your Work Life

• Clear out the inbox
  • Utilize additional folders for stuff you need to keep but don’t need to see in your inbox
  • Delete your trash bin and spam!

• Unsubscribe to those emails
  • As you’re deleting emails, go ahead and unsubscribe to the emails you never read

• Your phone
  • Text messages
    • I’m not attached to texts except for all of the cute pics of my nieces and nephew and like every text, my husband has ever sent me lol
    • So, I save the pics in an album in my photos and deleted everything else and start fresh with all new conversations.
  • Voicemails
    • Delete them! Except for the one where your mom is *just calling to say she loves you*
  • Photos
    • Save them to your computer and clear out your phone, unless you have like a 5 billion gig storage plan lol 
    • I do this every year, and I usually don’t regret it. I’ve pretty much posted all of my photos somewhere at some point, so even if I need immediate access, I can find them with a quick scroll on facebook or Instagram.
    • There’s also the cloud. You could save them there, but what is the cloud, exactly? Where does it live? I don’t know lol and I don’t totally trust it. Call me old fashioned. It’s fine. I’m not recommending that you save all of your precious photos to the cloud unless you can answer those questions first.
  • Apps
    • Go through and delete all the stuff you don’t use
    • I found that I had like 11 or 12 apps that were just wasting space on my phone, and now they’re gone 🙂 So easy.

Once you’ve done your clean out process (and trust me, this might take a few weeks, working a day here and a few hours there), but once you’re done, be super particular about what you let fill its space. You don’t want to re-clutter your life with the same stuff you just got rid of. You’ll save a lot of money in the long run by only making savvy purchases like buying clothes you are actually going to wear and taking care of the new stuff you put in your home like your towels and dishes.

Who knows, maybe this adventure of deleting and decluttering will catch on to other areas of your life like negativity and bad friends?? Once you get into the habit of removing things from your life that don’t matter, you are better equipt to know what does matter. Good, solid friendships matter. Nurturing your relationships with your family matters. Embracing your faith and finding ways to learn more and become more involved matters. Doing things that you love, things that help others, things that are truly good, those things matter. Clear out the headspace to make room for these things, and you’ll be one step closer to becoming Fabu(less) this year!

– the Wife