Each blog post until the end of the year, I will focus on a particular area of clutter, to help guide you in removing unwanted things, activities, and people from your life. The goal is to start 2013 clutter free! Here we go...
Smart phones have a lot of places to hide clutter. It's worth finding and removing the clutter so that your phone can serve you in better ways.
1) Let's go through the contacts. Look through the names for people that you haven't called or texted in over a year. It can be sooner if you know you no longer need their info. Begin deleting these contacts. If you find yourself having a hard time letting go of people who are no longer in your life, think of it this way: they are gone in form, now you can complete it by letting go of their names.
You also might notice a person that you are still in contact with whose presence agitates or drains you. I'll be talking in future blog posts about clutter busting people from our lives. For the moment, reflect on your relationship with this person. Is there anything you need to express to them? If you have expressed it already, do you still want to be in relationship with this person?
2) Let's take a look at your apps. Sometimes we'll download an app and either not use it, or just use it once or twice. You may say, "But I want to use it." I have found that the best gauge for whether something is part of your life or not is if you're actually using it. Trust your behavior.
3) If your cell phone has web access, go through your bookmarks and simply delete any you no longer use.
4) What about the phone itself? Our cell phones are mini-computers. It's
like taking the office with us in our pocket. They can be great at
particular times. But we do ourselves a favor by taking cell-phone-free
moments. When you are heading out, and you find yourself grabbing your
phone, stop and ask, "Would I be okay if I didn't take my phone with me
at this time?" I do this for myself and find a great peace of mind in
being out and about without the phone.
5) What about old cell phones? Many of my clients still have their old deactivated cell phones. Old unused electronics have a way of sucking energy out of a space. I would recommend donating these.
6) What about getting a new phone? We're encouraged by the cell phone companies to buy the latest version of their phone. They make ownership sound life changing. And it would be exciting to own it for about a week. But what if you kept using your current phone instead? It's still a good phone. It takes care of your needs. Plus, you end up not spending any money.
P.S. A lot of people have music and videos on their cell phones. We'll cover these when we work on computers, later on this week.
P.P.S. Send me an email or make a comment if you've done the work! It helps to tell other people about it, and it will help keep you on track during this process.