De-clutter: Baby Steps

There have been A BA-JILLION Facebook posts about New Years' resolutions.  Along with them are articles on how to follow through with them.  One that I found yesterday was from Refinery29.com called "Organizing is Turning You Into A Hoarder".  When I read the headline, I thought about that for a minute.  One of my resolutions was to become more organized, and have a place for the things that I owned.  Going a step further, I realized that if everything I owned was put away, I wouldn't really know what all I had.  If you're following along, that would mean that I probably would have a bunch of things that would stay "put away" and never used, simply taking up space.  SO... I decided that I should do something to change that, and aid in my plan of organization.

The article gives a lot of great advice, I highly suggest it for the organizationally challenged like myself.  I am known for keeping things for nostalgia's sake, such as bags upon bags of homework from 2nd-6th grades.  I remember thinking to myself as I put everything into a bag "I'll keep this to help my children someday" HAHAHA.  Kids say the darndest things.  I'm also known for keeping things "just in case".  There are usually a few instances that I look for something only to remember that I had gotten rid of it, resulting in keeping everything.

It's not going to be easy to quit this bad habit, and they don't make a patch for clutter-lovers unfortunately.  So I am taking some advice and beginning with getting rid of one thing a day (at least).  I am also challenging my boyfriend to do the same because I think his hoarding is as bad as mine if not worse."

Today was day one of "De-clutter Day-by-Day".  I looked around to see what I could part with.  With Christmas not so far behind us, most of the clutter are gifts and pre-holiday mess.  As I stood in my mess of a room and surveyed what was before me, I spotted the sore thumb in the room.  I have had two empty wine bottles on my dresser since I moved it into that room.  Since then, they have been holding a single bracelet each.  It was a cute decor item at the time, but now they just made me look like a sad wino.

It was actually a relief to get rid of something today.  My boyfriend has yet to get rid of something and his response to my challenge was "maybe", so I'm going to get on him as soon as this is posted!

Happy trashing, giving, selling and de-cluttering this year! - BellaBriBito

Happy New Year! (Keyword HAPPY)

Here are a few of my new years resolutions:

1) get organized.

I have so much junk and no place for it all.  When it comes to organization, my method is knowing where everything is as long as no one else touches it.  I need to have a place and purpose for everything I own.  If there isn't one of those things then I need to get rid of it.  

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." - William Morris

2) Get back to being healthier. 

I enjoyed everything about the clean eating lifestyle. The only thing that got in my way was that it got expensive. I'm going to research it a little more and find the best ways to stay on track while on  a budget.  I was running through my Nike app, which allowed me to "train" for a 5K that I never intended on running.  I just wanted to run  I was happier when I ran every day and I also drank more water as a result. It's really a win-win.  Also, I feel that it should be said that I began and wish to pursue the clean eating lifestyle because I would like to be healthier, not to lose weight or diet. 

3) Write.

I started probably 30 blog posts in the past year, and actually finished and posted either 2 or 3.  This is a new blog, a new year, and I plan on experiencing a lot.  I want to share it with the world through social media and more blog posts.

4) Pick up a new skill(s). 

I'm 2014 I was taught how to play the guitar which has brought me such pride in myself and a creative outlet.  This year I would like to continue to learn Italian  and hopefully pick up Spanish as well. (using the application Duolingo. It's amazing.) I also picked up crochet and would like to expand my learning to knitting and actually make useful items. 

5) Travel.

I will be turning 30 in 2015 and to tie-in with my "write" resolution, I am going to need some more inspiration, so I want to tap into my unending wanderlust and travel abroad.  This doesn't limit any cross-country travels though, there is so much that I want to see and experience.

I hope that you have your own resolutions that will result in a happy and healthy New Year and 2015! Peace and Love - Bella Bri