“Always Be Purging”

“What?”, you say? Yes, I mean it, but I don’t mean in the way you are thinking as a bulimic. I mean that you need to always be purging “stuff” you accumulate to reduce your stress. Some of us tend to hold on to “things”. Believe it or not, this can increase overwhelm and stress, and as Mel Mason, my friend and The Clutter Expert explains, “what you see on the outside, quite often reflects your inside. If your home is cluttered, so is your mind”.

Mel Mason
The Clutter Expert

She writes: “Here’s the deal. You accumulate stuff everyday, so it’s important to make decluttering part of your daily life. I have a motto: “Always Be Purging” or ABP for short.

The best way to make it part of your daily life is to start small with 15 minute increments. The first week do 15 minutes one day. The second week, do 15 minutes two days a week and the third do three days etc.

Your goal is to build up to making time for it everyday, so that it becomes a habit and part of your daily life. 

By becoming consistent with making time to declutter your life, you’ll get to see the accumulation of space that you’re creating. You’ll get the dopamine hit and that will make you want to do more!

One way to help you stay consistent is by putting the 15 minutes in your calendar as an appointment with yourself and treat it with the same importance you would a dr.’s appointment or an appointment with a client. Actually pencil it in and make the time for it. 

The question now is, when are you going to schedule your first 15 minutes with yourself?”

One of the most freeing moments of my life was when I lost my business, and my home. I was living in a 2400 square foot home, the size of which did not include the basement and the huge two car garage. When I lost everything, I was forced to get rid of many material possessions, as I was moving into a 900 square foot apartment. The purge felt good. From there, I moved again and this time the place was 500 square feet. More purging. I finally found a really cute apartment on a lake. This one was 395 square feet. For every move to a smaller space, more “stuff” had to go. The less I had, the lighter I felt.

There are situations when “purging” is a benefit. Not when it comes to eating. However, as Mel has noted, “when it comes to putting order on the outside, you will feel more order on the inside, which helps improve your mindset.”

If you want more information about “decluttering” and a FREE blueprint download please visit Mel’s site at DeclutteringSpaces.com

Who would have known that Joan Rivers’ health would bring people here?

When I wrote about Joan Rivers’ eating disorder I would never have thought that this would bring us here… you reading my blogs, nor would it make me a bit worried about my own history with bulimia and issues with not breathing, but I could certainly understand.  Bulimia can bring across some frightening after effects.  One night I woke up, and I believed I blogged about this earlier, and I could not breathe.  I was choking on acid that had come up through my esophagus. For I don’t know how long I couldn’t get the air moving.  I finally did and I was so mortified, so to speak, that I ran next door to my neighbour.  He is my best friend, but his girlfriend was over and she yelled at me to leave.  I live alone and didn’t know where else to go, my parents being out of town for the summer.  This may just be a lesson to all those of you out there with eating disorders.  If in the early stages stop now.  You don’t want to end up with these nightmares.  Your eating disorder will not just mess up your social life in your youth, but your health in your latter years.  Not worth it.  Never mind that… really not WORTH it.  The costs are monetary as well.

• Let go, learn, live, love…. life is too short for anything more than that. 😉