Transitioning Through Stages Of Life Clutter-Free

Complimentary session from my course "Creating Your Peaceful & Clutter-Free Home".
Once you have created your new clutter-free home, it's time to maintain it and create new habits and rituals to sustain all the amazing changes you created. Consistency in your actions is the key to success. It’s also important to understand the cycles of life and how we need to adjust through all the different stages.
I invite you to join my course and get support from me in the course classroom.

Transcript

Hola,

Welcome back to day 17.

Thank you for being here.

In the last session,

You learned strategies to embrace your digital life with intention.

Today,

We are focusing on step three,

Maintenance.

Remember that step one was awareness and step two was taking action.

Once you have created your new clutter-free home,

It's time to maintain it and create new habits and rituals to sustain all the amazing changes that you have created.

Consistency in your actions is the key to success.

It's also important to understand the cycles of life and how you need to adjust through all the different stages to create a home that sustains you and your new needs and desires.

Let's start with a practice to get you grounded and excited.

Please get in a comfortable position.

Close your eyes if you can.

Take a couple of deep breaths.

I want you to remember that you are making big changes during this process and you are questioning many habits,

Many beliefs and rituals that you have followed for a very long time.

How long have you been following the same habits and routines for?

Allow yourself time and space to really become aware of it.

Has it been months,

Years,

Decades?

It does take time and consistency to change your habits.

It's normal to drop the ball sometimes or many times.

It's normal to feel uncomfortable.

The fact that you are listening all the way here shows that you are committed and ready to do this.

Please,

Let go of perfection.

Let go of unrealistic high expectations you may have for yourself that may be causing you stress and even anxiety.

When you do this to yourself,

You start feeling like you are failing.

You may even get overwhelmed,

Frozen and may decide to even give up.

Wherever you are right now,

It is the perfect place for you.

Whatever you are going through now,

It's what you need to keep making progress.

I invite you to focus on the present moment,

What's happening right now,

On how you are feeling right now,

On all the little progress you are making every single day,

On how your life is going to be if you keep taking action towards what you really want.

Remind yourself that you are learning something new.

It's okay to make mistakes.

Mistakes are necessary for you to really embody all these changes.

Mistakes are not failures.

Mistakes are the learnings that you need to become aware in order to create what you want.

Celebrate every single milestone,

Every single sign of progress.

Take a couple of deep.

I want you to visualize yourself as a little child,

Learning how to walk.

Visualize how much fun and excitement you are having when you stand up on your own for a fraction of a second,

When you take your first step,

When you start walking from the couch to the wall,

When you fall a thousand times.

Imagine all the adults around you celebrating every single win with a big smile,

With very proud faces,

With loving encouragement.

They never will tell you to stop because you failed.

They will always encourage you to keep going.

They will reassure you that they are there to protect you,

To catch you,

To keep you safe.

They won't care how long it takes you to master this new skill.

It's perfect the way it is.

Everybody is just enjoying the process and letting everything just happen the way it's supposed to happen.

I want you to visualize that little child inside of you,

And I want you to be the adult to that child.

I want you to treat yourself the same way that you will treat that little child,

Learning how to walk.

That little child is in you,

Learning how to do something new,

Something scary,

Uncertain,

Something exciting.

I want you to encourage that little child.

Celebrate every little step.

Always,

Always love and support that little child.

Please take as much time as you need to stay with that little child.

Comfort him or her.

Do whatever feels right.

When you're ready,

Feel free to come back.

Pause the audio if you need to spend more time with that little child.

Every time I visualize the little child inside of me,

I always feel strong emotions in my body.

I feel a lot of compassion,

A lot of love,

A need to nurture and protect that little child.

I am sure that you also experience emotions,

And I invite you to explore them.

I invite you to spend more time with that little child inside of you,

Especially when going through the process of learning something new.

It's okay to cry.

It's okay to smile.

It's okay to do whatever you need to do.

Let any emotion express itself the way it needs.

Now,

I want to share with you specific questions I receive from members of my community that will help me answer your questions around the maintenance step.

How often to purge items from home?

Is the plan to do this four times a year or gradual purge every month or week?

There is no right or wrong answer here.

For some,

It may be necessary to purge four times a year.

For others,

10 times a year.

And for others,

Once a year will be enough.

The more your life changes,

The more you may need to reassess your home and your belongings.

Be aware of the different stages of life and the specific needs that each stage may require.

For example,

Being a student,

Moving in with your partner,

Having a baby,

Moving to a new home,

Changing your hobbies,

Having an accident and being physically limited,

Becoming empty nesters,

Downsizing to a smaller space,

Et cetera.

Every time you feel frustrated in your space,

It's a great time to take some time to become aware of why and make the necessary changes.

Ideally,

The decluttering process should be a one-time event,

Not something that you do every day.

This one-time event can last hours,

Days,

Weeks,

Months,

But you will start the process and finish it.

Cleaning and putting things back where they belong is something that you should do daily and weekly to maintain your home.

As items come into your home,

You can be proactive and question if you really need them.

And if the answer is yes,

You need to create a home for them.

If you let many items come into your home and you don't have space for them,

You may need to let something else go.

It's also helpful to have a donation bag or box going for anything that no longer serves you.

I do have a donation bag in my closet,

A donation bag in my daughter's closet,

And a donation box in the basement.

This way,

Every time I decide to let go of something,

I have a place to drop it.

When the bags and boxes are full,

I will do a donation.

Another question from another member is,

In different phases of life,

One has different needs for a staff that becomes cluttered after a few years,

Especially with kids.

So a perspective on how to organize things in a flexible,

Changeable,

And playful manner will be great.

So as I was saying before,

Every stage of life will require different needs.

Your home will evolve as those needs change.

It's important to recognize these changes and approach them in a playful manner.

Ask yourself,

What's needed from my home now?

What activities do I and my family want to pursue?

What are our current frustrations?

Every time your lifestyle changes,

I invite you to go back to step one,

Awareness,

To discover what's needed,

And to have clear communication with your loved ones.

There is a specific lesson about kids and playrooms in this course.

Another question is,

What is the timeline for something that you can get rid of?

I mean,

I set a rule for myself,

If I am not using something for last six months,

Then I am going to donate,

But I still get confused.

There is not a set rule on how often this should be done.

It will change depending on your situation.

I always recommend to go back to step one,

Awareness,

Every time you feel frustrated,

So that you can find out what you need to change and take action to meet these new needs in your space.

In our own case,

We normally declutter our spaces at least once a year,

Unless we feel frustration before that.

Then we will book time to explore what's needed.

We are very proactive with things that come into our home.

We will say no if we don't need them or we don't have the space for them.

If we accept them,

Then we will create a home for it immediately.

I want to finish this session by reminding you that any task that you do in your home includes putting away whatever you use in its permanent home.

If you don't follow this rule immediately,

You need to set a once a day cleanup time.

In our case,

Every night we make sure our kitchen is clean and ready for the next day.

Think about transitioning from task to task and making sure that you include this maintenance technique of putting things back.

If I fix something and I have used tools,

I put those tools back.

If I went to the gym,

When I come back home,

Part of that activity is to put my bag in the closet,

Put my dirty clothes in the laundry and hang my towel to dry.

If you don't follow this basic maintenance technique,

Clutter will come back very quickly into your home.

It's okay to drop the ball sometimes and let a few days go by without tidying.

But then maybe once a week,

You set the intention to make sure everything is put back in its place.

I hope this session gives you some practical and inspiring steps to keep your home clutter free.

Please share any further questions you may have in the course classroom.

There are no silly questions,

Meaning if you are thinking about it,

Many others are too.

So don't be shy and share anything that you need.

I will support you with an audio response.

Thank you so much for finishing this session.

I am looking forward to being with you in the next session.

Where you are going to learn cleaning routines and how to create space for your pet's needs.

Until then,

I hope you have an amazing rest of your day.

Adios.

Reviews

Such great imagery and pieces of advice! Thank you Emilio 🙏🏽💚🤗 Adios 🫶

Always practical and encouraging Emilio. This is so helpful as we split one household into two, ie for summer vs winter as we approach the empty nest stage. Your examples take away the overwhelm. 🙏🦋