Love it or leave it

I like lists. There's no particular time or instance that comes to mind that sparked this adoration of organization, but it's something that helps me focus my energy. I have entire notebooks dedicated to them: daily activity lists, packing lists, cleaning lists, financial lists... See even this is starting to become a list in itself.

But lists don't provide a solution. They're just a way to restructure thoughts and ideas- never actually decluttering. That's my resolution this year. My life just needs one big overhaul of clutter because my mind is starting to run out of space.

Last year, I don't think I had any real resolutions- it was more of a continuation of the previous year's goal: to stop being passive and do everything actively. Spending the past two years focusing on that resolution has been incredible. It pushed me to pursue my dreams whole-heartedly; it made me stop caring so much about rejection and the opinions of others; it taught me to embrace change; it allowed me to discover happiness within myself and my individual life choices. It's with that mindset already established, that I'm able to make progress on new personal ambitions. 

Being an active participant in everything is so so rewarding, but it can also get exhausting- that's where this years resolution comes in. 

I think I let everything pile up. By the time this year ended, I got so carried away doing everything that I wasn't taking the time to breathe. 

It's the little things that seem to accumulate the easiest. Right now, my Spotify has 1,734 songs and 50 playlists saved, my college email (that I don't even use anymore) has 919 unread messages and my todo list is so long I've lost sight of getting anything done.  I mean, there's 12 drafts of blog posts just waiting to be posted on this account alone. 

So posting this finally (after writing it two weeks ago) is my first act of decluttering. TBD how the rest will go, but the first step is always the hardest.