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get organised Archives - Kate Emmerson

REASONS TO ZAP YOUR KR@P – what is your Clutter REALLY costing you?

By Get organised NOW, Selling Your Home

It’s time to wake up and be brutally honest as to what is holding you back, keeping you stuck and weighing you down! My life motto is to help people to LIVE LIGHT, LIVE LARGE and to that end, one of my areas of expertise is “clutter” that manifests at ALL levels in your life. The subject fascinates me and I get a real kick out of helping you work through your clutter.

Clutter is a powerful triangle of physical, emotional and physiological aspects.

Physical clutter is all the tangible mess and chaos that we can see with our eyes – too much stuff, not well organized, chaos, mess etc. Imagine buyers walking into your home on showday – would they be impressed or repulsed?

Emotional clutter is the baggage that we hang onto that negatively affects how we feel emotionally – anger, resentment, betrayal, hurt and old negative patterns etc. It also covers so much more stuff that we cannot see, we only see the effects of it in our lives.

Physiological clutter is what lies inside our body and negatively zaps our va va voom and vitality –pain, illness, excess weight, cellulite etc).

 

I want to challenge you to think about what and where YOU are stuck, stagnant and CLUTTERED?
What’s the real cost of all 3 forms in your life from a few angles?
I am talking about time, money and energy…grab something delicious  to drink and read the info below:

  1. When you have too much stuff in your life and it is not stored in some form of order, you may find that you go and buy duplicates. For e.g. you know you have a black top somewhere in your cupboard but you cannot find it. You do not know what is in your medicine/ cosmetic / grocery cupboard so you just buy more cream, toothpaste or chutney “just in case”.
  2. When you need to locate something in your house or office, you cannot immediately find it in your memory retrieval system. You have to start thinking about “where on earth could I have put it?”, or “which pile of documents to wade through first?” Translated- a total waste of time and energy that stops you doing more useful things and makes you feel stupid.
  3. If you equate any time that you spend looking for things, or sorting, or even wondering where stuff is, shuffling papers….just do the mathematics into an hourly rate. If you were earning $20 an hour, and you spend just half an hour a day looking for stuff, that would add up to $3640 per year. Yikes! If you have a cluttered life, I bet you are wasting this everyday. Beat the recession by clutter clearing!
  4. Don’t laugh at this one…..but do you or anyone you know need to rent or buy extra storage space to keep all your stuff? So you can’t even access all the possessions that you own? Or you eventually move into a bigger place because you outgrow your old one? Are you trying to SELL THIS HOME RIGHT NOW? Or what about the extreme of not being able to park cars in garages because they are filled with clutter. Now talk about wasting money or devalue-ing your possessions! I work with SPACEBOX.co.za to help clients store stuff mindfully and purposefully, not just thrown into offsite storage never to be seen in ten years. They are all about VALET STORAGE and having a living relationship with your stuff – and it can be returned to you at the click of a button!
  5. Lots of clutter in your life is very depressing, makes you feel embarrassed, overwhelmed and chaotic. This does not allow you to be creative, energetic and able to put wholeheartedness behind exciting projects. If every time you walk into your office you feel “yuck” because of all the mess, how is that going to help you get organized and productive each day? It will just keep you stuck.
  6. What about late bills because you are disordered, or even late tax submissions because you can’t find all your paperwork for your accountant. Let alone the emotional stress of this, there are the real financial penalties imposed. Or what about annual renewals being late e.g. car licence, audits, medical checks because you have no systems in place?
  7. What about the money that is locked up in your clutter. EVERY single time I go into a client’s home we find money – literally picking it up, or by selling stuff, or we find our financial policies, etc, not to mention the creative energy unleashed that gives people ideas on how to welcome MORE abundance their way.  When you keep things that no longer serve you, then you are blocking cash flow….these could all be sold and free up some cash. They could also be gifted to friends or charities to get your feel-good juices flowing. My clutter clients generate heaps of cash after clearing out, and then put that money to better use…let alone the joy of cherishing all the space they have created.
  8. Having too much clutter also blocks the flow of abundant energy. Think about a dam that is full of dirty, murky water. If you add more water the volume just gets bigger, but it all stays murky and the mud/ weeds keep growing. If however you clear out the dam first, then you can have fresh clean water that is full of life, light and energy. Clutter in your home is dull and stagnant and does not allow for new and fresh in your life. It will absolutely sabotage the sale of your home too!
  9. And what about the wasted time, effort and money to keep all the additional stuff you have CLEAN? Clutter in the form of objects and possessions have got to be looked after, dusted, cleaned etc. Either it is costing your time, or the money you spend to employ someone to do it for you.
  10. What about the time lost due to emotional baggage that you are holding onto? If you are holding grudges, resentment, non-forgiveness, anger, hatred etc, well quite frankly it is taking all your precious energy from you. That baggage could be freed up by letting go and moving on, giving you the space for fresh vital energy, creativity and joy.
  11. Linked to this is the body clutter you may be holding onto. Pain, illness, toxins and weight are all forms of clutter your body no longer needs. Letting this form of physiological clutter hold you back is a real disservice to your body. Treat your body well as you really do deserve health and vitality so that you have the energy to face an awesome day.

 

WHAT NOW?

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO NEXT TO  GET STARTED ON YOUR JOURNEY TO LIVE LIGHT LIVE LARGE… perhaps it’s time to disconnect a little bit. Grab my latest free email series here… 

THE STRATEGIC POWER OF DISCONNECTING

 

HELP ME ON MY MISSION TO LIGHTEN up the world,

ONE SHELF

ONE DESK

ONE HOME

ONE BUSINESS

ONE LIFE at a time

 

Have a LIGHTER BRIGHTER day xx

 

 

The amusement of irony – is it time for a self-weighing suitcase?

By Get organised NOW, Transformational Journeys

Have you even been so vehemently FOR or AGAINST something that it smacks you in the face? Even just a little bit?

 

Well I sure get that often. I also know that thank goodness I can see the irony and have a massive laugh about it and instantly think … ooooh there’s an interesting blog topic.

 

So – you may know from my last newsletter about my EPIC year ahead- embarking on my MINIMALIST MANIFESTO and being location free. That means simply being wherever I am and working mostly from my trusty Mac. A Mac AIR – see the irony that it’s so LIGHT it wants to travel too. If you missed that post and want to read more and watch my video, click here.

 

In a nutshell I am travelling the world for work, all belongings with me, (3 boxes and a Batisse piece in storage as my only other belongings to be shipped one day – pics in previous post!) in an aim to really take my notion and love of living clutter free, light and joyously to the N’th degree.

 

I’m working on the concept of 10X  living lighter for 10x  living larger

 

So I gallivant off to the UK to surprise my mom – whilst chilling out with her is always divine, this trip is actually to unleash my work on HER this time. I surprise her at King’s Cross station, having snuck into Heathrow unbeknownst to her, am booked on the same train up North as her with the sleuth-like help of my brother and watcher face as she walks out the lift – I announce “I’m here for a month and we are doing your house!”

 

We need to de-clutter her ready for downsizing when she moves later in 2016. I know the irony again right – she would sell and move in my busiest work period and I wouldn’t be able to come and assist her and then I’d feel super “kak” (for my overseas subscribers it’s a delightful South African word for feeling horrible/ guilty/SH%% all at once) at not being able to slip in a trip to support her big move. Well small move seeing as she’s downsizing!

For a laugh, we found pics of course – this is me at about 4 – already bossy with hand on hip, and then me at about 20, probably squirelling biscuits in my cheeks  at the height of my bulimic GLITCH I speak about in my second book DITCH YOUR GLITCH.

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So, I had a clear month in my diary because possible trips to Goa and the USA both got postponed as things weren’t lining up and I also did not need to be IN any specific place for 30 days. Which to be clear, this doesn’t mean “holiday”, it means I’m totally location free and devoid of face to face engagements for talks, workshops etc. It means time for working on my online business, looking after my writing mastermind group and doing my own writing etc. and then of course MUM’s HOUSE! You know, I just thought I’d be clear before you get green with envy, spitting into your morning coffee thinking that I’m swanning around the planet doing nothing. Pretending to LIVE LIGHT LIVE LARGE.

I’ll definitely let you know when I’m doing THAT.

Let’s go back a month…upon departing at OR TAMBO I was SO chuffed to have my baggage weigh-in at EXACTLY 21.3 kg’s. Happy dance at check in. Ok, to be honest they thankfully never weigh my hand luggage as that is always filled with some books to both read and my own for marketing purposes.

A month later, mum’s house has experienced a tornado called Kate whilst there is STORM KATIE in the UK – irony yet again which made me shriek with laughter when we saw the name of the storm – but not laugh at the terrible updates of devastation it caused. I have also sold some DVDs, offloaded books, given small gifts and only gathered some small things as gifts to me from family. And then there is a pot of special BETTY’S JAM for my man. That could be another entire post.

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To be fair to my brain trying to understand this, on travel day I do land up wearing different clothing to that which I flew to the UK in, so heck, maybe my shoes in the case are heavier after all, but to be honest I was WAY more concerned about my own excess baggage after drinking copious wine and scrummy food all month as we reveled in each day’s work we accomplished. But after packing my case ready to depart, I also thought, darn this feels heavier. Yes, yes – I don’t have one of those fancy schmancy self-weighing suitcases yet.

YET!

So thank heavens for dear friends – Not sure if you remember a few years ago an old dear school friend “B” had tracked me down on Fb and then flew me to the UK to de-clutter his entire house and look for a “court required” check worth a gazillion pounds – well the same fella is meeting me at Heathrow for a coffee and a cuddle. We walk me over the check in to get rid of one bag….

I’ll prefer not to say which airline – as dear “N” who checked me in will get into trouble! On goes my wild-coloured suitcase (pics in blog post here) and ……25.5 KG!

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Oops she says it’s overweight. We’ll have to weigh your hand luggage. Now to be fair I have a laptop bag as well which has about 4 KGs of stuff. But my HAND luggage felt as light as a feather compared to what it HAD been on earlier trips this year.

Eeeck 10 kg’s

Not doing too well here am I? Miss clutter free Katie?

So N says, it’s fine, just take a bit of stuff like books or shoes out hand luggage and pop into big suitcase and then you can pay for excess heavy luggage.

I’m mortified. The ONLY time I have ever paid for excess luggage since my first trip to Kuruman on my own at age 8, is when travelling with kitty kats, or boxes of books for functions. But NEVER for my own personal belongings.

I’m fast realizing at check-in that perhaps every time I do fly I’ve got at least 12 kg’s in hand luggage. I’m seriously mortified, embarrassed and start grumbling over my words

I can’t believe this

I’ve never been over weight before – In luggage that is!

THIS IS WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING – looking up at her then I start laughing!!!! I am moving 2 books and one shoe into suitcase and at that moment my dear friend B says- “show her your book” as I’m about to zip shut my life to go off down the conveyor belt

Me: Shut up what are you talking about

N: Yes she says, show me your book, show me your book, what do you do?

B: SHOW HER YOUR BOOK!

Back and forth we go…

Me: I organize and live light

B: Show her your book

N: Yes PLEASE show me your book

Me: This is a cool blog post to share how poor I am at living light

 

Sheepishly I haul out CLEAR YOUR CLUTTER and hand it to her

B: SIGN IT FOR HER!

Me: Yes I’ll give it to her- keep my weight down!

N: squeals and says you are my hero, I LOVE being organized.

ME: Yes it’s all other stuff too like body and emotional.

B: LAUGHING

N: Yes she squeals when I’m stressed I clear out.

Me thinking: Girl after my own heart and I ask her name and sign her the book.

Coming from SA you know this is sounding a lot like bribery right – I just wanted to pay my excess, see my suitcase go off to never land for the night, pay my fine make B buy me coffee so could go to duty free to buy more stuff for gifts!

She pops my suitcase back on the belt, quickly adds a heavy tag and whisks it off to happy Heathrow behind-the-scenes-land.

 

ME NO PAY!

 

N: Hands me a piece of paper and says – send me the link to your blog post when it’s done.

TICK

I walked away laughing and feeling totally ironic and sheepish as I’m clearly carrying way to much stuff on my MINIMALIST MANIFESTO.

So another clear out due before my next trip.

How much EXCESS BAGGAGE DO YOU HAVE?

After that long ramble – where can YOU see the delight of irony in your life? I know all too often we get ‘peed off’ when things go against what we say. I always prefer to ATTEMPT to see the hilarious side. I guess that’s what my favourite comedian Billy Connelly does – every day life through his wacky lense!

Wishing you an awesome LIGHT day

 

PS: I’m seriously going global. My books are currently being internationally published under the KEYS PRESS in the USA – so for those of you outside of South Africa, you can grab CLEAR YOUR CLUTTER here. In SA you can grab it here