Thursday 23 January 2014

Back to the declutter #happinessproject


Today I came home from work a couple of hours early with a massive headache. It takes a lot for me to bail out on work, but my head honestly feels like it has a jackhammer inside. I suspect this may be because on the protocol's phase 1, I've cut back carbs and sugars to almost none. I've also had no processed foods for 3 days - so I'm probably in MSG withdrawal!

Sitting on my couch looking out at the beautiful rain, I decided to declutter my inbox. This is a task I've been putting off for over 18 months and has been a nagging voice in the back of my mind for quite some time.

I started with unsubscribing. An arduous task when you have at least 100 different subscriptions! One by one I removed myself from mailing lists I am no longer interested in. I deleted their emails. As the time passed (yes, this has taken me around 3 hours) I started to feel a weight lifting.

It's funny how we let little things build up, usually to a point where they begin to overwhelm us. I have been feeling overwhelmed at the thought of doing this for such a long time, and it turns out it wasn't so bad. I feel liberated from the mountains of emails that come in each week - most of which I just left sitting in my inbox unread.

So how bad was it that it took over 3 hours? I unsubscribed from around 120 newsletters and sorted over 3500 emails. Most of which went in the bin anyway. My deleted items folder has over 2600 unread emails!!! I'm not sure why I let it get this bad, or why I was so overwhelmed at the though of performing this task, but I know I feel a lot happier now it's done.

I am feeling much happier now - and I am really starting to feel free from clutter. I am nearing the finish line for January's project happiness tasks, and I'm honestly starting to feel better.



So despite sitting here with a headache, I still feel pretty great. I think declutter month is really helping my state of mind.  Maybe I'm decluttering my mind!



Hope everyone else is having a happy day!

Love to you all

M xx







9 comments:

  1. This is something I recently did too Ms M. I decluttered my entire inbox of useless crap and rubbish only to have hubby come along and subscribe to one 'competitions' page and now we're inundated with crap and rubbish again, on a daily basis *sigh*. I knew I shouldn't have left him unsupervised! LOL!

    When the kids return to work, the first on my very long list of chores is to declutter this house! It will be a big job but wonderful, I just know it!

    Love & light <3

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    1. return to *school* not work :/

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    2. I'm quite sure you need the kids at school before you can declutter - it'd be impossible with them all at home! I am lucky that my big ones are able to help, and are saving up some spending money for our holiday!

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    3. Absolutely...otherwise it's like pushing mud up hill! They're very good at tidying up but they never sort anything. For example, I cleared out a basket of toys and found socks, a jumper and plastic cups and containers (empty).

      A holiday sounds grand!

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    4. I'm very ready for school to resume after 7 weeks with the boy. He gets 8 in total - we both need school to resume! ;)

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    5. I'm hearing you Ms M! I love my babies but I'm looking forward to their return to school. I think they're ready now too.

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  2. It must be the day for it, I am doing the same thing!!
    I have 5 different email accounts and they are all getting sorted.
    Hope the headache starts to clear as the body cleanses...

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    Replies
    1. 5 accounts!!! I have 3, that is bad enough!

      I hope so too. I'm sure I'll be fine in a few days time when the withdrawals pass.

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  3. Oh my goodness that is something I need to do, I have started in sorts. I opened up a gmail and any subscriptions that I still wanted to get (but not look at all the time) I changed my email address to the gmail account. So that mail gets the majority of my subscriptions now. Every now and again I look at it, if there's nothing in the top 10 emails that take my interest I delete the lot until next time. It's made me feel a heck of a lot better.

    Carol
    www.finding-carol.blogspot.com

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