3 Lessons I Learned From the Lifestyle Cleanse & What's Next for EO Edits
At the start of March I embarked on a decluttering journey that I dubbed, a Lifestyle Cleanse. With the release of the coordinating workbook I tackled several categories of my life including digital, beauty, style, home, sentimental items, & miscellaneous. Nothing has been left untouched! With a clear action plan, I went through each room, drawer, and box. My basement has become my sorting area and currently holds piles and piles of stuff that i'll give away, throw out, donate, or sell.
I'll admit It's not the first time I've decluttered. In fact, I make a habit of declutting areas of my life every 3-6 months. So as a self-proclaimed, practiced veteran to decluttering, what did I learn?
THE WORKBOOK HELPED MORE THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD
I want to let you in on a little secret. I only design inserts that I will actually use. If I can't see myself using a design, why would I go through the trouble and spend my time creating it? So you can rest assured, that I am right there with you using all of the designs I come out with. In saying that, before the launch of The Lifestyle Cleanse workbook, I had never had checklists to keep me on track while I decluttered. Because of this, I feel like this cleanse was so much more organized and thorough. I would highly recommend having the workbook or something like it to keep you on track.It can be so easy to finish tackling a job with the intention to move onto other areas of your home only to lose motivation, feel drained, or get busy with something else going on in your life. Everytime I looked at the workbook it was that little reminder I needed to keep pushing forward.
That's another lesson: decluttering is exhausting. More than once, I posted on IG stories that I was drained after completing a cleanse. Not only is it physically demanding but mentally too. You have to constantly make difficult decisions about items. You have to talk your way through a lot of things and fight the urge to go out and buy more once you see how much space you're creating. I can almost guarantee you'll reach a point of frustration as you declutter your belongings. It's a big job and a very demanding process that involves a bit of soul searching along the way. You'll have a-ha moments that make you feel lighter and clearer, and next you'll be ugly crying from exhaustion and feel completely lost. My advice is to always have music playing, keep the mood light, have snacks and drinks nearby, and carve out a few hours to get the job done. If it all gets too much, step away for a few hours and come back to it. You never know how easy or difficult a task will be until you start.
That being said, a huge motivator was this community and the accountability I felt to all of you. So if you can, have a friend or loved one that you can check in with often and will listen to you and encourage you throughout this whole process.
MY STYLE BECAME CRYSTAL CLEAR
I'd love to say I'm done decluttering, but deep down I know that's not true. It will be an ongoing process. This made me realize that declutting is about your mindset, not about getting rid of everything in your life or purging your possessions down to a certain number of items. That's not realistic. As I tackled each topic, It became clear that decluttering is about really understanding who you are, how you live, and what you love. I noticed over and over again that I was keeping or getting rid of certain things for the same reasons.Likely due to the work I'd put in using The Lifestyle Designer workbook, I was clearer on my vision this time around than any declutter I've done in the past. For me, I'm finding that I'm more mindful when I shop, and am way more protective and picky about what I bring into my house. That, in itself, is progress I think.
What's important to me:
Quality
Luxury
Minimal aesthetic
Natural, raw materials & textures
Simple designs
Neutral color palette
It's incredibly easy to fill space just because you can. When we moved into our new house, which was bigger than the condo, I felt like we needed to buy more more more. As a designer, I wanted every nook and cranny of this home to be well thought out and designed to my liking. Realistically, we only recently moved in and are still figuring out how we want our house to be. With these qualities in mind, I'm taking the process of designing our home much more thoughtfully and only buying items that are absolutely perfect for our space.
SOME AREAS NEED MORE WORK & SOME AREAS DON'T
Most of us can probably say we have too much stuff. Amen. As a multipassionate person I find I have too much of everything. Clothes, makeup, planner supplies, home decor. Sigh. I'm definitely not there yet when it comes to those areas of my life and I know I want to declutter more. On the other hand, I love that I'm multipassionate and find happiness from a variety of sources. These things fill me with joy for a reason. So what did I learn? It's good to have boundaries. For instance, I have a designated spot for my makeup and I've decided to use what I have, keep just a few favorites of each category, and never have so much that it won't fit my vanity. The same goes for clothes and planner supplies. I have set zones where these items are held and I can't let them get so big that there's overflow.
As I've been working through this challenge, I have realized that decluttering, cleansing, minimalism, whatever you want to call it... looks different for everyone. You may have way more of one thing than other people but if it brings you happiness and doesn't overwhelm your mind or your physical space than that's okay. We are all unique and at different points in our lives. Your home, your clothes, whatever it is you own, is a reflection of you and more than anything it should never be a source of stress. Instead, it should always fill you with joy.
If you followed along on your own cleanse or have done a declutter before, do you find a checklist or workbook helpful? Did you discover or learn anything new on your journey?
Now we've come to the really exciting part! What's coming up on EO Edits.
April is all about being creative and artistic. I'm going to focus on the beautiful things in life and with it comes the next installment to The Commitment Series!
I'm challenging myself to create something every day for a month.
Stay tuned on Instagram to see what I get up to. This Friday is the final (at least for now) workbook in the Lifestyle Designer series with The Edited Home. Sticking with the theme of art and beauty, on April 19th I'm coming out with a new collection of beautiful dashboards to add to your planner.
I'm so excited! May is honeymoon month! Like I said before, I don't design inserts that I won't see myself using. So as we gear up for the adventure of a lfietme in Greece I'll be launching two inserts focused on travel - the packing list and the travel planner.
I tossed and turned about when to launch the Fitness planner because obviously I'll be wanting to get fit before I find myself on the beaches in Greece, but let's be real I'll be eating all of the food and drinking all of the wine while I'm there so it's not the best time to focus on being the healthiet I can be. Instead, once I get back from Greece it will be all about recovering from the vacation and getting back on track when it comes to health and fitness with the Fitness planner and diet tracker.
I hope you guys are as excited as me about the upcoming launches for EO Edits! Of course, throughout the next few months there will be freebies, blog posts, and tons of action on Instagram all to go along with these themes. You won't want to miss it.
Let me know in the comments what you're most looking forward to!
-Emilee