Clean Space, Clear Headspace
The spaces we spend our time in affect us.
As we move into the new year and new energies an easy step you can take towards greater balance, ease and abundance is clearing and decluttering. Everyday spaces in our homes like our entryways, closets, cabinets, and fridges, in addition to our offices and workspaces, as well as our digital spaces all mirror our internal state. Explore these examples of how cleaning these spaces clears up headspace, allowing your life to flow more smoothly and with ease.
2023 is the year of the Water Rabbit; a year of easier adjustments and problem solving; thus an excellent time to seek opportunities!
After over a decade of feng shui for myself and my clients I can confirm that cleaning and clearing space for the new and your goals in your home each season is THE best way to refresh the energy and jumpstart your life.
The first hurdle is almost always biting off more than you can chew. Envisioning every nook and cranny organised and decluttered, no. Take it one small project at a time. You eat and elephant bite by bite so pick one junk drawer, one closet, set a timer for 40 minutes and enjoy the feeling when it is done.
For example, this winter I decided to deep clean and organise my refrigerator.
The Nested Feng Shui decluttering tricks I used to do this in under 20 minutes were:
To clear everything out and place like with like {Komarie Method, Making Spaces Clutter Free}
Deep clean the area (smoke cleanse to clear if needed)
Evaluate wants and needs (for example I wanted all the hot sauces to have a good spot, I wanted the bread and yogurt that go bad quickly to be more visible, as well as the greens to be more viable and easy to access. I wanted a spot up top where I can see the food that needs to be eaten first and all these wants and needs made it easy for me to move one of the clean shelves to a new position to meet the wants and needs of my fridge space).
Celebrate! *if you took a before picture and after (and share them with me tracy@nestedfengshui.com), have a favorite snack, call a friend. Aknowledging your wins makes you more likely to do them again
Tips for Increasing Ease in Everyday Spaces by Decluttering, Cleaning, and Clearing
Start small pick one room or area so you have a win
Empty and clean top to bottom (dusting, dresser emptying, drawers/cabinets)
Notice your wants and needs from the space (i.e. I want a bread and yogurt shelf)
Go with the flow, it is ease to clean and shift your space to match what you are already doing (i.e. if all your shoes and jackets are near the entrance, you are going to keep putting them there, now find a coat rack or hook and shoe shelf)
Optimising your Offices and Workspaces
Another area that contributes to clearing a cluttered mind is offices and workspaces. After taking time to celebrate the holidays, coming back to these spaces often leaves us with a better picture of what we want and need to clean and clear away to set ourselves up for a successful 2023.
Lighting: A) Get the vitamin-D, make sure your workspace has natural light you can sit in, B) Opt out of and clearaway oppressive overhead lighting, C) decrease blue light with blue light blocking glasses and screen free time before bed
Clear-clutter: A) take everything off the desk and out of the drawers, B) recycle and toss that which is not longer regelant (Nested Feng Shui Documents to Keep Cheat-Sheet), C) Explore more feng shui for optimal desk and office organisation (like the intentional bagua for where to place things on your desk, where to place plants
Ergonomics: A) a seat where you can touch the floor and look straight ahead to your computer screen B) a keyboard position that allows your elbows to drop below your wrists C) set yourself up in the command position (in feng shui this is the place in the room where you can see the entrances and have walls protecting behind you)
Digital Spaces Need Digital Laundry
In addition to the physical office, laptops, tablets and phones have extended our workspaces into the digital. Consider doing what we at Nested Feng Shui call, “Digital Laundry.”
Change your desktop and screensaver to something that Sparks Joy
Empty the trash and recycle bin
Clear old search caches
Delete old texts
Inbox at zero
Backup your hard drives
Update your headshots and information on socials, or delete them
Often I recommend a good baby step for feeling the difference between clean spaces and more headspace is to take all the things on your computer desktop and drop them into one folder marked (in this case Winter 2023). Exhale into the digital space you have created for yourself. If you need anything from those folders then start sorting them, but often that file stays there as an archive or can be recycled, it is as easy as right clicking, select all, folder to begin to feel how spacious your new year can be!
Now that you have some actionable ideas for cleaning your everyday spaces, workspaces, and digital spaces I invite you to start super small and enjoy how it feels to clean and clear your spaces and transform them to support you and your needs.