When it comes to your clothes: what to wear, what to buy, what to let go--how would you like a simple rallying phrase that:

• clarifies your decisions
• prioritizes your values
• leans into your goals and aspirations
• gives it your personal touch

Friends, this magic phrase is your Style Manifesto. In other posts and videos, I have called it an Intention or a Theme. These are all basically words for a consciously-crafted skeleton on which you hang the stuff of your dreams so they take shape.

There is no one way to write a manifesto and you could literally write a whole book or pamphlet outlining yours (see: every modern political candidate ever). But just in case you don't want this project to take over your entire life, here is one simple method for easily crafting one that is flexible and creative and do-able in a matter of minutes.

Materials needed (now it's a craft! Whee!)

• notepad and/or Post-Its (the more colorful, the funner!)
• pen or markers (funner option)
• Optional addition: Notes App on your phone
  

Now, choose 5 words or phrases that represent your voice, your goals, your current life (function, needs), your communication style, and finally: the IT factor that distinguishes your outfits from anyone else's.

If that kind of freeform, limitless thinking is too wildly obtuse of an order, write these five questions down on a piece of paper and answer them with any words that come to mind. As you do this, keep your favorite outfit or top three favorites in your mind. Consider how you feel and what you are expressing when you wear them.

1. What is one outstanding characteristic you already possess and want to continue to grow or encourage?

How does that look in clothes? I choose all my clothes in cheerful, bright colors (red, yellow, navy, and grass green) and look for whimsical, light-hearted details (ruffled hems and bows) and patterns--stripes and polka dots that are always looking on the bright side of life!
 

2. What is a characteristic of a look, an ideal, or in fashion that is something you aspire to?

My word: POLISHED

How does that look in clothes? I love tailored, well-shaped clothes and classic silhouettes in natural materials like cotton, wool, and leather. I like clothes to coordinate seamlessly and intentionally, but not be excessively matchy. I do not like anything that is ripped, unfinished, stained, excessively faded, or shapeless (even if intentionally done and trendy). That said, I am not always as put together as I'd like to be and my hair is often a bit messy. So...it's an aspiration.

3. Instant Recognition: What word is the instantly recognizable inspirational touchstone for every outfit you create?

My phrase:FUNCTIONAL WHIMSY

How does that look in clothes? Comfy, interchangeable, very practical and high quality pieces with fun colors and details that maybe don't look like everyone else, but that feel great to live in and exude my joy and high energy.

4. What word best communicates your current lifestyle?

My word: UNLIMITED

5. What word or phrase best summarizes the overall aesthetic of your signature style?

My phrase: PLAYFUL CHIC

As you can see, I think there is actually a lot of overlap in my phrases and words and most of the pictures I used for one could easily be used for another, but as I thought through each question, I kept seeing my same favorites over and over and these were the characteristics of those items I love to wear that feel so true to me. 

You have your words, now what?

After you come up with your 5 words or phrases, write them down on Post-Its and put them in your closet or wherever you get dressed each day as a reminder and see if the clothes you pick out align with what you wrote. You can also put them in a note on your phone to reference when you are out shopping and before you put that impulse buy in your cart.

If you did this exercise and you don't feel like you got the words quite right, you have infinite opportunities to try again--change out one word or another and tweak it until you get just the right fit! Happy manifesting!

The "5 Kind of Things" clutter-clearing strategy, as presented in author KC Davis's book How To Keep House While Drowning is one of my favorite methods for taking action in a space because it removes anxiety about what to do next by providing clear direction for staying in flow, virtually eliminating decision fatigue. My 5 Things Method for Travel will keep your journey-weary brain and body systematically moving until the hot shower and Netflix-binge at the end, which you can enjoy without having to step over your suitcase!

Ideally, you will utilize the 5 Things Method to completely unpack and settle in immediately upon arriving home. However, the beauty of this method is that it smartly prioritizes your must-do tasks so that even if you just tackle one category right away, you've taken care of the most pressing/bulkiest tasks before taking on anything else. Just follow the yellow brick road! (Indulge me; I've been overusing the Wizard of Oz metaphors since my high school graduation speech.)

1. Take everything out of your car, then each bag and suitcase and sort into these categories:
   

2. Perishables and Trash: Empty that pic-a-nic basket, BooBoo! Get your souvenir pralines (and anything that melts) out of the sun and away from your “Beach Life” tee. Receipts, lint, bag tags, boiling hot slushies

3. Clothing and Personal Care Items: Dirty clothes to the laundry room (and start a load, if possible) Put away everyday use items: medications, glasses, hair brush, make-up, shoes, accessories, chargers/tech, and any clean clothes next. Traveling with multiple people? Do this at the same time for max laundry efficiency

4. Non-Travel Items:  These are the items that do not need to live in your suitcase beyond this trip. This could include souvenirs, work business, and anything else that came home with you. If you know where it goes, put it away. If it’s new, find it a permanent home. If this part feels interminable and slows you down, designate one HIGHLY-VISIBLE space of a counter, preferably in a contained bin to put anything you don’t have a place for yet. If you don’t clear it within a specific time (one day? 72 hours? A week?), resolve to discard it appropriately at that time. Move on to number 5.

5. Travel Items:  Refill any empty travel bottles and creams and replace razors so you can re-pack them and be ready quickly for the next trip. Out of something?  Add it to your online grocery or amazon cart for the next order. Repack your replenished travel toiletries. Put your packing cubes, garment bags, and any other travel-specific items back into your suitcase. Wipe down your suitcase and inspect for any damage before putting it away. Bonus: Re-stock your car with travel essentials—wipes or napkins, utensils, band-aids, hair ties, dental floss, etc. Super mega bonus: vacuum and wash your car.

   This 5 Things for Travel method was recently featured in my Help Yourself! weekly newsletter, along with other simple tips for easily re-integrating into your life and home after a trip. Subscribe here to get that great content delivered straight to your inbox.
   

   If you want to learn more about the original "5 Things" method, check out my FBWatch video where I explain what it is and how to use it to clear any space of clutter:

   Do you want to go beyond unpacking, reorganize the universe in your favor, and get personalized understanding and ideas of how to create the most intentional environments to live and work in? I can help you! Book a free consult call with me.
   

   
   

Okay, so you've decided to join in the 7 Day Clutter Clear Challenge (Cue the imaginary, biodegradable, non-mess-making confetti!) but you're still thinking: how do I get started? (and all the other thoughts: This is overwhelming. Can I doom scroll social media instead? I'm sleepy. My head hurts. I think I might be dying of mumps. I wonder what deals I can find on Amazon! Today would be a good day to learn how to can my own vegetables...)

1. Pick a Project

It doesn't matter what, but for maximum impact, pick something that you see/interact with a lot. You certainly could pick 3 square feet in the back left corner of an off-site storage unit, because you're the boss of you, but if you're not going there and living around that every day, the emotional impact from the satisfaction of completing it and now using it will be basically nothing. 

Have you heard of Dave Ramsey's debt snowball where you pay off the tiniest debts first and then you gather so much momentum that you're a financial wizard before you know it? Same concept.

"So if I'm not organizing deep space...what are some ideas"? If you give yourself two clear minutes to think, you will either see or remember something that is not working optimally that would feel so good if it was just tidied or cleared. It could be a bathroom drawer that you can never find what you need in. It could be a pile of mail from yesterday or the last 10 years taking over your kitchen table. It could be your sock drawer, which seems to contain everything but socks. It could be your medicine cabinet or your roller skate collection. It could be even be "stuff within 10 feet of sofa." And if something doesn't come up that "feels right," just pick the first untidy pile you see and that's the one. 

Pro tip: Take a before picture. Snap it quickly. You don't have to pour over it.

2. Fortify + Pump Yourself Up

Go to the bathroom, have a drink of water and/or a small snack on hand. Don't make this into a huge thing. You're only leaving Earth for 15 minutes or so, but tending to all these things ahead of time will calm your central nervous system and minimize your own need to talk yourself out of it. It reminds you that you're safe and your needs are being met. In addition to basic needs, consider also what else might make the task more enjoyable: is it listening to your feel-good music or a podcast or a book? What about working with a partner or a friend? Is it knowing that a hot bubble bath or a night out with friends awaits you after? Whatever will better doing this work, add it in. It's almost time to start, but speaking of time...

Now is a good time to decide how long you will spend on your clutter clear today. I recommend starting with 15 minutes, especially if you're just getting started. If you're just really in the groove after 15, you can always keep going. Just be careful not to exhaust yourself or burn yourself out to the point that you will excuse yourself from showing up tomorrow. Consistency is the goal and consistency just requires you repeatedly showing up for any amount of time. 30 minutes today is not the same as 15 minutes today and 15 minutes tomorrow. Tomorrow, you have fresh eyes that have been enjoying the fruits of today's labors. You are not the same you tomorrow as today. So set your timer for the amount of time you can easily, breezily do on your phone or your watch or your in-home robotic assistant, and it's go-time, baby!

3. Do the Thing + Have Feelings

Start sorting like with like or picking out the trash or items that don't belong (more on sorting order tomorrow). Just GO! If the task you've chosen is mail, you may spend the entire time chucking things into your recycling bin and trash (wheeee!) or maybe you're taking dishes back to the kitchen, or you're unearthing your sofa under clothes. Every step, every bit matters. Keep going. Thoughts will come up: fear and scarcity, tiredness and overwhelm. Acknowledge the thoughts and remind yourself you are safe and your needs are met and keep gooooooooing until your timer goes off.  If you feel like 15 minutes was basically all you could live through, you're golden. You made it! You didn't die. (If you're really on a roll or almost finished and just want to get your last pair of socks beautifully jellyrolled, by all means go for it. Neither I nor your timer are the boss of you and I love a good clutter-clearing bender myself. Just remember to come back tomorrow!)

4. Celebrate!

Give yourself a big hug and a high five and thank yourself for doing this kindness and act of service for future you. You're the best! Did you pick out a reward like a hot bath or a walk with a friend or your favorite show on Netflix? Please enjoy! And come back tomorrow to do it again. You're so great!

Pro Tip: Take a picture! Even if you didn't finish a space, you will be amazed when you compare your before with the after picture and knowing what took place in only 15 minutes. 

Have you ever wanted to accomplish something that you technically knew how to do, but got lost in the weeds the first moment you attempted it (and eventually abandoned ship)? I recently completed a 5-day online course/challenge to set up and launch an email marketing list. While I started working with email marketing approximately 100 years ago (in Internet time) and have, like everyone with a pulse, received my weight in marketing emails, I felt paralyzed by the thought of (or the many thoughts about) creating my own and [whispers] "being out there." What if it seemed spammy? What if no one signed up? What's it going to be like out on the WORLD WIDE WEB?! 

I would say, truly, that none of the information in the course was new to me and was honestly very basic compared to other programs and books I had utilized. But the very simplicity of it (" 'Step 1. Write your name here...' 'YES! I did it!' " ) gave me tiny wins that created momentum to keep me going to the end when I was able to assemble all my baby steps into a larger, slightly-awkward email sign-up form and thank you content. Sure, my "thank you content" looked very impressive--if it had been on a late 90s Geocities free site, but I had done it! I did the thing. And once I did the thing, I could refine the thing, and try it out and make more mistakes and not die of being spammy or lack of subscribers or existing on the WORLD WIDE WEB or anything at all. Feels great to be alive!

 

So in honor of my big (or at least first) email list launch, I wanted to offer you some hand-holding to something that, perhaps in your heart, you already know how to do, too. But I am going to say it in my way, with love and appreciation for where you are in your process, and maybe this time you will hear it and get out there and do the thing. Or another thing you've been trying not to do, but that you really want to do.

 

The thing I want to walk you through is creating a home sanctuary that nourishes and uplifts you, restores you in rest, and helps you connect more completely with yourself (and your partner, too). I'm going to tell you in 5 steps and I'm going to be cheering you on the whole time! Compassionate, hand-holding is here. Ready to create your blissful bedroom?

 

Sign up here, by clicking the image below. See you soon! 

5 Steps to a Blissful Bedroom Guide

Want a little more personalized hand-holding? If you are ready to embark on a restorative journey of creation that  supports and nurtures you every day as you do whatever you're meant to do in life, it's time to create your high vibe home.

 

I offer group courses, virtual organizing, feng shui consultations, and personalized coaching on your timeline to meet your needs. Visit the contact page of my site to book a session or send me a message to set up a discovery call.

Tis the season for catalogs from every retailer you've ever interacted with filling your mailbox! If you're snowed in under all the junk mail, the web site CatalogChoice.Org may be a game changer. It's essentially a "Do Not Call" list for your mailbox and you can directly unsubscribe from hundreds of catalogs or receive assistance in communicating a cease-mail succinctly and quickly with businesses that are not listed.

 

I first found the free-to-use site in 2015 after reading Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson, which taught me that ahead of, and far more impactful than, the oft-mentioned "Three R's" of mindful consumption (reduce, reuse, recycle) is REFUSE, which means: don't allow the stuff you don't want into your life by not accepting it in the first place. Stopping waste before it exists and enters the waste stream completely eliminates any need for further action and wasting your energy to conscientiously discard it later. (There is also a 5th R: rot, which is mindful discarding through composting.) I'll spell this out, in case you, like me, take a few hundred repetitions to get it. You can just say no--refuse the stuff and that is the end of your journey with the stuff you don't want in the first place. WHAT?! This honestly blew my mind (once it landed). As a dyed-in-the-wool, people-pleasing Southern woman, aged 35 (at the time) it had never occurred to me that I was allowed to say no...to ANYTHING (or at least without accompanying said request with an apology for living) and move on with my life. No kidding. I didn't pick that up in prestigious college education or in any of my various important-sounding office jobs. I was suddenly drunk with my own power.

 

I gathered every catalog and mailer in sight to get going in my "Just Say No to Mail" campaign. I gleefully entered customer and offer numbers into the web site as I purged one vendor after another from the list of mailbox scrubs. As the stack of current mailers dwindled, I eagerly awaited every postal delivery so I could pounce on would-be interlopers. I even solicited the permission of family members to cleanse their mailboxes (especially my mother, who was still receiving catalogs in my name at my hometown address 18 years after I went away to college). In just a matter of a couple of weeks, there was virtually NO trash in my mailbox. Amazing. My mailbox was peaceful, yes, but I think it's safe to say the solicitation-free mailbox was emblematic of a much larger battle I realized I had won. After that initial overhaul, I have revisited the site any time I wind up on a new mailing list and within 30 seconds, I'm back to mailbox zero.

 

 

So if you missed it earlier: CatalogChoice.Org (the .org is important!). I don't get any monetary remuneration from you clicking the link or anything (and the site is free to use), but I will probably take a tremendous amount of satisfaction in seeing how many outclicks I get to that link and thinking, obviously, of the Earth. 

 

And if you, like me 7 years ago, are just breathing into the space of "you're allowed to say no, the excitement begins as the whole world of "things you can say no to" appears before your eyes.

Think of all the junky stuff you've been handed in the disguise of "fun" because it's called a giveaway- the key chains and refrigerator magnets and jar openers and door stops branded by a random business, not to mention the plastic bags they come in. (Can't wait to share with y'all my thoughts on bags!) Some of this stuff you might actually want (thank you businesses for my many chip clips!), but more than likely it either goes straight to the trash or sits unused, unwanted and trashes up your home and life. So refuse it and that will be the beautiful ending of the story.