As some of you might know (if you follow me on Instagram @iamhakme), I did the #DeclutterFor30Days challenge a few weeks back. The reason for joining this challenge was simply I got too much time at home and on my hands. So I thought I would do something productive, something that I had always wanted to do but was “convinced” that I didn’t have time for. What’s the best time than now, right? So the idea is simple, you clear out the items that you haven’t used for awhile, the items that you don’t want anymore etc. for 30 days. Day 1, you clear 1 item; Day 2, you clear 2; Day 3, you clear 3; so on and so forth. So by Day 30, you clear 30 items. And the total amount of items you declutter for the 30 days would be 465 items. Voila!
Did I get rid of 465 items? No. Did I enjoy the challenge? Yes. Did I find it difficult? Yes, at around Day 18, I started to feel the pain and I thought I really didn’t have that many items to declutter, so I changed the plot to suit myself (I am not a tree, everyone is different and I can of course change the challenge to suit myself, if I say so!). How many items did I clear away in total? 195 items to be exact (I’d just done my math for the sake of this blog post *LOL*). Am I proud of myself? Oh hell, yea! It’s great to talk about numbers and how I feel, but what’s more important is always “things I learnt” during the processing. It’s a great self-reflection journey and let me share my “10 Things Learnt from Decluttering” with you.
10 Things Learnt from Decluttering
- My majority of clutter comes from mainly two areas of my life i.e Beauty (skincare + makeup) and Fashion (jeans + handbags + shoes). They are in a way related to what I do/ share online, it makes sense (in a way) but I need to strike a better balance in these areas.
- Further to above, I am happy that I don’t actually haul in other aspects of my life. You seldom see me buying something just because it’s cute/ it looks nice. I guess I should pat myself on the back on this.
- Clothes won’t magically fit. I did have so many pairs of jeans and I donated all the ones that I wasn’t wearing just before this challenge. I hung onto them because I was hoping that one day, they would magically fit or one day I would suddenly look good in them. Well, let’s be realistic! If I really lose weight, what would I do? I probably would celebrate by buying new jeans that would fit the new me instead of “shopping in my wardrobe”, wouldn’t I?
- Closed Drawers = Tidy Drawers (because if you don’t open it, you don’t get to see it, so it must be OK, right?). I made it my mission this time to open every drawer and clear away items that I have no use for or I am not happy with. You will be surprised of what I found! It’s also refreshing to know that now I get to see what’s inside the bloody drawers and every time I open them, they don’t stress me out anymore!
- When I start a new thing, I tend to haul. Like when I started to journal in paper form, I would haul stickers, pens etc. It’s like I have this vision that I want to achieve and I need to haul a bunch of things for me to bring that vision to life. I need to slow down on this because apparently, I need to give myself a period of trial and error, a period of finding my style and a period of “do I really like this?”. So I set a 3-month rule now, I can start anything new and I can buy the basics to get started, but don’t get anything fancy within the 3 month period. If I can survive 3 months of consistently doing something, then I will review.
- Pretty shoes are a killer – both in physical pain and my bank account. I admit that they are nice to look at and I could imagine myself looking all kind of sassy and sexy wearing them. But, let me ask you, “apart from an outfit photo taken at home, how often do you see me wearing killer shoes outside (if I do, that would be a priceless Instagram photo for sure)?” NEVER! You are right and even I know I always opt for comfort and practicality, but still I tend to have a tendency falling for pretty heels. I think I have done better in recent year, but I need to follow my logic on this.
- Limited Editions are fast consumption. Limited editions are so on trend nowadays and many joke that “you just need to put the word “limited” on and it will sell.” True in a way, and it’s difficult for a person whose job is to review the latest beauty/ fashion products and what’s on trend at the moment. I think I did pretty well of not getting into the hype of “limited editions”, however, I do get them from time to time, just like the rest of the folks. But as a reviewer, limited editions are no good for me. They are usually out and gone within a short space of time, leaving me no chance of reviewing them properly. Most often, I find myself buying the so called limited-edition-items and never got around to reviewing them.
- Invest in classics and not trend-based items. I think most of us would have the same experience on this – we open the wardrobe, we think we have nothing to wear, and then we dig deeper, oh we find something that’s forgotten, and oh we find another thing that even we wonder “why did I buy this?” I think I have done better and better these days not getting anything on trend nor anything that doesn’t make me comfortable, but I still slip from time to time. I got sucked into “oh that looks pretty on her” or “oh maybe I should try to see if it suits me”. It’s fine to have these thoughts, of course, we are humans after all. Now one of my tricks is giving myself 2 weeks’ cooling off period. If I still remember/ miss/ want the item after 2 weeks, I will get it. If it’s sold out in the process, then it’s not meant to be.
- Go paperless (even further). I am a huge fan of going paperless. I don’t like killing trees just for the sake of killing trees. So I don’t have name cards (my reply is always “you google me, I am all over the internet) and we move our Hakme Beauty membership forms from paper to online forms. I read books on Kindle instead of buying paperbacks (unless they don’t have one in digital format and I am dying to read it). I try to cut down the use of papers anywhere I see fit because with the technology that we have right now, I really don’t see the need for it. And because of this, I don’t have much of a paper clutter during my declutter process (thank you)! I think this motivates me to go further because I see the benefits of having next-to-none paper clutter in my space. I am now trying digital journaling and I will keep an eye out to improve my process of going entirely paperless.
- Declutter is not just one challenge, it’s an ongoing process and a shift in mindset. As much as decluttering is fulfilling and fruitful, it takes up time, energy and space. Shopping of course is fun and exciting, but mindful shopping do bring long term benefits in saving up that time, energy and space. I think I tend to get too excited when I shop (who doesn’t), but I also should be more cautious with my choices. I haven’t found a perfect balance just yet because I still want to keep shopping and trying new things to create useful reviews for you all, but I also remind myself not to be too ambitious in hauling too many items thinking that I could physically review them all within a short space of time.
Well, it’s a different type of read and I hope somehow you enjoy a different side of me. If you are curious of what I have decluttered, you can always follow me on Instagram (@iamhakme) and check out the #Declutter Story Highlight (as above picture).
It’s been 10.5 years since I blogged and there were a couple years, I had been really quiet on here. I wasn’t motivated to write and I wasn’t sure what else I could offer. Who would have thought after 10.5 years, I am sitting here typing away, enjoying every minute of it like I used to. I will keep content coming your way here on my blog as well, because I do have a lot of time to think and reflect. Not only I want to record my thoughts, I would like to share them with you as well. So much for now, love you and leave you. Xoxo.
