At any given time I can have 15 apps open on my phone, 35 junk emails waiting on me to delete, 4-5 tasks I agreed to do but have no interest in, and well…you get the picture. I’m sure most of you are the same way! If I wasn’t so bogged down with random tasks, I might be able to enjoy my “free time” much, much more and have time to actually get the things done I need completed. I’m not going to linger on the aches and pains of clutter, but below I’ve listed 5 ways to rid your life from clutter.

1. UNSUBSCRIBE. If you look in my email, you will see so many subscriptions to email lists I’d signed up for to get a 10%  discount from a one-off purchase. You will see blog newsletters that no longer interest me. You will see so much unnecessary stuff. Why not take 10 minutes one day and unsubscribe. Or decide that for a few days, every time you get an email in that’s “junk” you will take the 2 seconds to unsubscribe instead of just deleting the email. This is just going to save you time…and sanity.

2. CLEAN YOUR APPS. Yeah, someone had to tell you to. Delete apps you don’t use. Free up some space on your phone so you aren’t surfing through 10 pages of apps to find your “Contacts” app. Who knows, you might have to delete so many that you have some extra space freed up on your phone and it will work faster for you too!

3. JUST SAY NO! There is no shame in being busy with your own family and life. I’m sure you take the time to help others whenever you can, so when you actually need the time for yourself….SAY NO. When your sister comes to you and wants you to watch her kids even though yours are with your in-laws and you planned on getting some gardening done and getting dinner with your husband? Say no. You deserve time for yourself. You deserve to achieve your own tasks and goals….so say no.

4. JUST DO IT. I mean, you can’t do everything on your own. Ask for help when you need it. Ask your best friend to help with a project you’ve been meaning to do. Ask your husband to do the dishes. Ask your kids to gather up all the trash in the house and take it out. Just ask for help when you need it. The worst that could happen is someone says NO, but people could say yes too!

5. KEEP A PLANNER. Do you have to write every single thing down in this planner? No, but it might help. Knowing when and where you need to be at certain times is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to planning. You can use your planner for daily tasks you need completed, for activities, for bills, for grocery lists…for just about anything. There’s something about writing something down that makes it seem more important and permanent. There’s also something completely liberating about being able to cross something off your list as DONE.