“Your winter is when you’re doing a deep cleanse. You’re resting, you’re feeling deeply, you’re shedding all the things, and you’re reflecting. You’re also starting to plant seeds for your next bloom.”
I used to think I experienced a “winter funk.” Some may even say it was a Seasonal Depression.
While on paper some of these qualities are true, I’ve reframed my perspective on this.
The winter months instead are a time for me to feel, shed, cleanse and to cut the clutter in my life.
I’m like an oak tree shedding the leaves and acorns, it just feels right to physically and mentally cut things that no longer serve me.
It’s not necessarily a fun or pleasant journey to do this every winter but when my spring and summer months come around, it creates even MORE abundance and joy for me.
If you’re like me and you’re in a space where you feel like it’s your winter (ie: a period when you slow down and feel a little funky) and you want to maximize this time by cutting clutter in your life then tune into today’s “Become an Unstoppable Woman” episode, called “CUT THE CLUTTER”
I’m going to teach you how to cut clutter from your life (beyond the physical stuff) and why it’s SO important to annually do this work.
Listen via the link at the top of this page.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
→ Continue the conversation in my free online community
→ Get The 4-Day Accomplish Your Dreams Free Training
→ MAKE STRONG DECISIONS episode
Full Transcript
How to get rid of clutter
This is the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast with Lindsay Preston Episode 90, Cut
the Clutter.
[music]
Welcome to the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast, the show for goal-getting, fearfacing women for kicking ass by creating change. I’m your host, Lindsay Preston. I’m a wife,
mom of two, and a multi-certified life coach to women all over the world. I’ve lived
through enough in life to know that easier doesn’t always equate to better. We can’t fear
the fire, we must learn to become it. On this show, I’ll teach you how to do just that. Join
me as I challenge you to become even more of the strong, resilient, and powerful woman
you were meant to be. Let’s do this.
[music]
Hey there, Ms. Unstoppable, welcome to Episode 90 of the show. We are only 10 episodes
away from Episode 100. If you heard me recently, you know we’re doing something super
fun for Episode 100. It’ll be on February 15th, 2021 when we hit it. Keep that on your
calendar. Get ready for what is in store. It’s going to be awesome. Now today, we’re on
Episode 90 as I sad so we’re going to talk about cutting your clutter. Now, ideally, you’ve
listened to Episode 89 of the show, where we talked about finding your seasons.
We talked about, specifically in that episode, your winter season. In your winter season,
you are cutting and cleansing and shedding and feeling and resting and reflecting. That’s
what we’re going to go more in depth with today as we talk about cutting your clutter.
Now, are we talking about cutting your clutter from a physical sense? Absolutely. We’re
also going to talk about it from a mental sense and I believe the best times to do this is
when you’re in your seasons of fall and winter.
Again, if you haven’t listened to Episode 89, it may be smart to start there. Golly, I’m
tongue-tied today. Again, figure out what your fall and winter is, and then go do this
exercise when you’re in your fall and winter. For me, right now, I am definitely in my
winter. I follow the seasons that we have here in Texas to a tee. It’s December right now
and I am in my winter season so this exercise is what I am doing right now.
I’m not even intentionally doing it. It’s just like my body and my mind has already gone
there. Since I’ve done this now for a couple of years to really honor my seasons and
knowing my winter is, I just honor that and I maximize what I’m already doing naturally so
that I can have an even bigger spring and summer when I’m putting myself out there more
and going after my goals more.
Cutting the crap. Let’s talk about physically first, what this means. Obviously, it’s going
around your physical space and saying, “What can I get rid of?” It’s just like if we’re an oak
tree and we are in our winter months and we are about to shed our leaves and our acorns.
We want to get rid of all the things that are no longer serving us. Even though in the
winter and the fall, you may not have as much energy to go around and do a deep clean of
your closet and things of that sort, do what you can.
Move the ball enough to start to cleanse because you’re just going to naturally be in a
headspace where it’s going to be easier for you to focus on this and it’s going to be easier
for you to make these decisions of things that aren’t serving you anymore. I know for me,
I’m looking at my closet, actually, we’re always recording my closet and I’m just like,” Oh, I
see all these clothes that need to go. I did not wear them this year. I did not wear them
last year. It needs to go.”
Maybe last year when I started doing this, I was like, “Well, I didn’t wear it this year, but
maybe I wore it the year before. Now, it’s been two freaking years and I don’t feel like I’m
going to be interested anytime soon and wearing that stuff so I’m getting rid of it.” It just
makes more sense to do this stuff again in the fall in the winter.
The big thing lately with cutting your physical crap has been the Marie Kondo method
where it’s like, “Does it bring me joy?” I totally agree with her method there. Go it, touch it
even, trust your intuition, make that quick decision. Does it bring you joy or not? Are you
using it? Yes or no. If not get rid of it.
If you have a lot of mind drama around getting rid of stuff, I encourage you to go listen to
Make Strong Decisions episode. What I’m going to be putting out here soon is trusting your
intuition because it boggles my mind when people are like, “Well, I don’t know. Should I
get rid of it or not?” Make the decision. Trust yourself enough to make that choice and
move on. There is no need to sit and decision about things. That just shows you too, that
maybe there’s some mindset drama that needs to be cleaned up.
Two, if you’re like, “Lindsay, in my fall and winter, you say it’s a good time to cleanse, but
for me, it’s not.” Great. Then honor that. Then go put this exercise on a spring or summer
activity when you have more energy. For me, in the winter, I’m just like, “Let’s get rid of
some stuff physically, first off.” It’s like, “Come on, let’s get rid of this crap. Let’s move on.”
Not only do I think you should physically purge some of your stuff. I think you need to look
at other areas of your life physically like your email box. This is the time of year when I’m
looking at emails I’m getting in and I’m thinking, “Am I finding value from this person or
company? Is this something that I find brings me joy?” Again, going back to that, Marie
Kondo exercise, “Is this something I see myself purchasing or using in the next year? If not,
unsubscribe.” If it’s on social media, “Am I following this person? Do I think I’m going to
buy from this person? Again, am I getting value from this?” No? Unfollow.
I know sometimes it’s hard for us to unfollow people, especially if it might be a family
member and you’re like, “Man, I just don’t know if I want to bring your Facebook profile
into 2021.” If you don’t know this, I’m going to give you a little hint here. You can still be
friends with somebody, but you can unfollow them and they won’t know. There’s this little
button you go in and you can go in and you can just say unfollow. You would also do this
on Instagram where you’re still friends with them or whatever it’s called, but you can mute
them so you can mute their posts and their stories.
I do this from time to time because maybe I’m not quite ready to fully let go of that person,
for whatever reason, but I just don’t really want their energy in my space anymore and so
I’ll go and unfollow them or mute them. Now, some people like I just recently did this last
week with my Facebook friends, I was just like, “Nope, nope, nope.” I just started
unfriending people. It was like, “It’s just like another year. I didn’t find value in hearing
whatever you had to say this next year. I don’t really know if I want to cultivate a
relationship with you anymore and so I just start cutting.”
Again, this is a time of the year for me where it’s just a very quick decision for me. I just
find myself almost more in this bad bitch mentality, I guess. This is like– I don’t know. I’m
ready to shed, I guess, so it’s just very easy for me to cut this stuff. It feels so good. It’s like
I’m cutting things and opening space for the new that’s going to be coming in soon with
the spring and the summer for me. I want you to do this too. Even if it’s unsubscribing
myself. If you don’t find joy in my emails, if you’re in my email list, get rid of that. If you
don’t like my social media stuff, get rid of that.
Even with your podcasts, are you finding joy from all the podcasts that you’re subscribed
to? Even if you’re like, “Well, Lindsay, I don’t listen to some of that stuff.” Well, ask yourself,
is it worth just looking at the image of that on your feed? Clean that crap out. It makes a
difference. Your brain is taking in so much stuff all day long, why put stuff in there that’s
not serving you? Let that stuff go so again, there’s more space for new stuff to come in
there.
The other thing is the relationships. I want you to really analyze your relationships in your
life and say, “Okay, what is it that I want to bring into my next year?” Again, for some
people, the year really starts for them on January 1st. For me, it does start on January 1st,
but it doesn’t. I really view when I start my spring season in March is when my year fully
starts happening. I get really clear now before the new year starts, it’s like, “Do I want to
bring this relationship into the next year? Yes or no. Do I need to get rid of it? Yes or no.”
For some people, that may not be an easy, you’re all on-board to get rid of that
relationship or you’re all on-board to keep it. Maybe just be a maybe, and that’s okay too. I
just want you to really look at your whole life right now and think, “Okay, what are the
things I want to carry forth into this next phase of my life?” Just honor that, trust that and
take that in. That’s physically what I’m wanting you to do, but then I also want you to
analyze mentally and emotionally and even your behaviors of things that you need to
shed.
The easiest way to start to do this is ask yourself, “What did not go well this past year?”
Again, for most people, they’re entering their winter phase right now because they’re in
the Northern hemisphere, it’s getting cold where they live and they just naturally follow
the seasons of that. December, they’re starting that winter month, they’re wrapping up
their calendar year where they’re asking themselves what went well in 2020, or whenever
they’re listening to this and what didn’t go well. I go in-depth on that. I get really clear
what did not go well in 2020?
Yes, of course, I want to highlight all the wins and all the things that went great, of course,
and I will celebrate that soon, but right here at the beginning of December, I’m just going
straight into, “Lindsay, what sucks this year?”Let’s just go there for a second and taking
some time to really feel some of that. Like, “I did not have a lot of fun this year. Did I have
fun with my family being at home and did we have aspects of that?” Absolutely. It was not
a shitty year by any means. A lot of people are like, “Oh, 2020 worst year ever, dumpster
fire.” All this stuff.
I don’t feel that way about 2020, but there were some things that I didn’t quite enjoy. Part
of that was feeling like I was working all the time and I was taking care of kids all the
time. Great and yes, Coronavirus, whatever, but still I was like, “Man, I do not want another
year like this. I want a year where I’m incorporating more fun. I do not want another year
where I feel like I’m working all the time.” I already had this conversation with my
husband. It is really important for us to put our son in school next year.
Yes, we’ve had Coronavirus, but by the spring, it’s like, “Let’s move on.” There’s going to be
vaccines out there. We’re moving on with our lives and I’m getting back to a more “normal’
work schedule. I’ve also made some decisions where him and I aren’t going to be going
over financial things on the weekend anymore and we’re just going to incorporate fun into
our lives because that’s something I do not want to bring into next year.
Right now, I talked about this in the last podcast where winter is like I am planting some
seeds as I’m shedding too of what do I want to cultivate, what do we want to bloom and
blossom right now? Again, as you’re starting to cut out some habits that you don’t want.
For me, one of which was overworking, it felt like. Even though physically, I wasn’t working
that many hours, I was thinking about work all the time.
Instead, I’m like, “Okay, I want to open up space to think about my husband more and think
about fun things we’re going to do and think about my house more and things I’m going to
cook and fun things I want to do with my kids.” Again, cultivating habits of fun because
that is one area of my life this year that felt a little bit off. Then I’m going into all the
different buckets of life, of career, what went well and what didn’t go well. Finances, what
went well and didn’t go well. Relationships with my husband, with my friends, with my
family, with my kids, with my health.
With my health, for example, I lost the last of the baby weight. Awesome. I’m so glad I
finally did that. I lost the weight away, but I need to get back into a workout routine. That’s
something that didn’t go well this year. I did not work out this year. Yes, it went well when
I lost the weight, but what didn’t go well? As I said, I didn’t work out and I’m really sitting
in that for a minute. I’m like, “Oh, I didn’t work out this year.”
Really taking that in and feeling the depth of it so that I kind of, in essence, teach myself
like, “Hey Lindsay, don’t get to this place another year. Use this as motivation for you next
year to say, “Hey, let’s go work out. Let’s make this a priority.” “Now again, coronavirus, I
may want to go to the gym and blah, blah, blah,” but I still could have gotten it done. Next
year it’s like, “Okay, this is going back on my schedule. This is important to me.”
Then two, I’m looking at spirituality. What went well and didn’t go well for me. I feel like I
did really well in that area. Then as I said, look at your fun. Maybe you want to add an
environment there, maybe you want to add romance as a section. I don’t know. You just
figure out what the big sections are for you, but just make sure you spend time looking at
those big overall sections, as I said again, our career, finances, relationships, health,
spirituality, fun and then possibly environment and anything else you want to add on
beyond that.
Those are the thought and behavior patterns that you can pull as you’re thinking about
what didn’t go well this year. Then as you pulled those, I want you to get very clear on,
“What are the behaviors I’m no longer going to tolerate in myself and others starting
whenever my next year starts?” If that’s on, January 1 for you or whenever your spring is,
whatever, doesn’t matter. Just think again of like, “Okay, what are the things I’m going to
no longer tolerate?”
For me, I’m telling myself, “I am no longer going to tolerate me sitting around thinking
about work all the time. I’m no longer going to tolerate my cell phone coming into my
bedroom at night anymore. I’m no longer going to tolerate me working on the weekends.
As soon as my son has another day of childcare, my Sundays are going to get moved to
being a weekday that I work and I’m taking weekends off again. I’m going to no longer
tolerate some of the stuff that I do to my husband like these little nagging things that
diminish our relationship.” I’m not going to tolerate that stuff.
Now, there’s also some behaviors I’m not going to tolerate from other people. Like for my
daughter right now, she has a little bit of attitude. She’s 10 years old, she’s getting into
this tween phase. I am not going to tolerate that crap. I’m really getting really clear of like,
“Okay, moving into the next year, what am I going to work with her on so that we can
make that boundary?” Again, get really clear on this stuff. Face the stuff, face the music,
face the facts here.
So many people like to numb out when they’re in their winter, when they’re just not
feeling good to take some of the edge off. I encourage you not. Now granted, we may have
a drink from time to time, turn on our Netflix, eat our cookies, take a little bit of the edge
off from here to there, just enjoy it. Every once in a while, indulge yourself, love that stuff.
If that’s something you love, go for it but don’t feel like, “Oh, here’s my winter months. I
feel like crap in the winter. Let me just zombie out in essence.” No, face this crap, face the
feelings of this. Does it feel like crap? Yes. I don’t like my winter too much. You can
probably already tell from my energy. It’s like, “Lindsay’s not as perky today.” In my winter
months, I’m not. I’m really going in deep.
You know what happens though? When I come out of this and I’m in my spring, I’m whole
new level Lindsey. Then my summer is like, “Holy shit. I just did something I thought was
once impossible.” Like this past year in my August, I made almost $60,000 in one month.
That’s freaking crazy. Any year prior to that, I’ve never made that much money in my entire
year and I made it in a month this year. August is the peak of my summer.
That was part of me last winter, I did a lot of growth work and that was the reward of that,
so in my summer, I was able to bloom in a whole new way. If we think about like that
garden analogy like I gave in the Find Your Seasons episode of going in … I’m not a
gardener, but they go in and I guess they tend the dirt and do all the stuff with the dirt and
really do the stuff with the seeds so then they can have this beautiful spring and summer.
That’s what we’re doing here, is we’re digging the dirt.
What’s all the crap that didn’t work? What’s all the things I don’t want to bring it to the
next year? What are the things I’m not going to tolerate? What am I wanting to change
from what didn’t go well this year? Feeling the depth of that. That’s where, again, having
emotional management, those tools of things like journaling and knowing how to feel
feelings like I teach in my Become An Unstoppable Woman Process and all the things of
going into the depth of that and knowing it’s okay to go in the depth of that and really
feeling that and not judging yourself for it or getting freaked out of fear and again,
wanting to turn a numb yourself out of it, but just feeling it.
Then being like, “Okay, all right, this is just part of my winter. It’s part of my shed. It’s part
of me cleansing everything and clearing the crap.” Go out there, my friend. Purge, get this
crap out of you, shed, cleanse, whatever you want to call it, but get rid of this crap because
again, it’s going to open up so much for you when you hit your spring and summer months
because you’re going to have room for it. You’re not going to be weighed down by things
physically, you’re not going to be weighed down by things mentally as much, you’re going
to open up these pockets of new things to come in.
I encourage you too to start building some habits now, even though it’s going to feel a
little bit hard to start to build that, which I know this is why a lot of people, when they hit
January 1st, they’re like, “Here we go. New year, new me.” Then they all give up by
February 15th. I’m shaking my head thinking, “Yes, because most of us are in our winter
months when we’re just trudging along here. It doesn’t feel that great.” When really, it’s
almost like we need to just slowly be leaning into our habits and our changes we want to
make on January 1st or whenever.
Then knowing like, “Okay, if I just stick with this and move just a little bit here these next
few weeks in my winter months, then in the spring, I’ll be picking up the pace a little
more.” Then in my summer I’ll be like, “Whoa, look at me, look what I’m doing. I’ve lost so
much weight. I’ve worked out so many days.” or “I’ve started to build this business and how
I’m making more money.” or “My relationship and my marriage has really changed.” and,
“Oh, gosh, this looks so great.” Because they started building these little bitty habits right
now in the winter months, they are planting the seeds and the winter months. They’re
knowing that it’s not going to change overnight and that they don’t need to hit pedal to
the metal here, they just need to make small little changes and habits and every day, little
by little it adds up. That’s another Lara Casey quote. I’ve been quoting her lately as we’re
talking about the season stuff. That little by little stuff adds up and then it will pick up the
pace even more. Okay?
So another short episode for you today, but it’s a good one. Go out there, get into action,
cleanse that crap, get rid of that stuff, unsubscribe, unfollow, donate the stuff, think of the
thought behaviors, think of all the things that didn’t go well, think about what you don’t
want to put up with next year, and let’s get rid of this crap and let’s open up new space for
you. All right, my friend? That’s it for this one and I’ll see you in the next one. Bye.
[music]
Hey there, Miss Unstoppable. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. If you enjoyed
it, share it with a friend. Send them a picture of this episode via text, via email, share it on
social media, I’m sure they would be so appreciative to know these strategies and tips on
how to accomplish your dreams. If you are ready to guarantee you’re going to accomplish
your goals and dreams, then it’s time to start coaching with me.
In my nine-month simple success coaching system, I am going to walk you every single
step of the way to ensure that you get the goals and dreams that you want. The first step is
to apply for a free 60-minute consult call. Just go to LindsayEpreston.com/apply to get
started. As always, my friend, remember, you’re only as unstoppable as you believe you can
be, so believe in yourself. You got this.
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