It’s time. Time to check all of your bathing suits and underwear to see how they elastic in them is doing. Time to check all of those old jogging shorts you kept “just in case”. Time to check the functionality of your hair bands. Time to investigate your rubber band collection. Time to see if those old tube socks still stay up. I know I missed a bunch of stuff so it’s time for you to do a sweep of all things elastic in your home and release the unusable into the wild.

1. Cookbooks you haven’t used in at least three years. Face it anything you need can be found online.

2. Pet toys and other paraphernalia they never used or don’t use any more. I promise your pup won’t be angry when you toss that leash that hasn’t fit since she was nice months old.

3. Printed take-out menus. It’s all online now. Reduce paper ASAP!

4. Magazines that are not actively being read or used for a vision board. Recycle!

5. Old mobile phones. If you don’t know what to do with that drawer of phones contact your local police department as they sometimes have a reuse or recycle program.

Repaint a room or two. Take your space from cool to warm, dark to light. Colors react against one another so that when you change the color of your walls all of the colors in the room will look different. Plus, the cleaning of the walls frees up any energy that’s been stuck on them!

Let’s find out if it’s for you:

Are you feeling stressed by commitments?
Do you feel like you over-consume?
Is your house filled to the brim and you feel like you’re drowning in stuff?
Really, what is making you feel like you want to simplify?
Think about these questions, especially the last one, and write down your thoughts so you know exactly where you want your focus to be.

Tracking your finances with good ol’ paper or an app like iSave is a great way to get honest about how much you spend in relation to what you make as well as what categories are consuming the largest portions of your budget. Once your finances are decluttered, you’ll be amazed at how that honesty will spread itself throughout your life.

Your bedroom should be a haven. Someplace where you feel peaceful and happy. Your bedroom needs to have less in it than any other room to keep it as serene and energetically open as possible so start by getting rid of the clutter. Next, clean off your dressers and nightstands. Invest in matching bedding. Add some real or faux plants.

Every instruction booklet that comes with a dishwasher tells us to do this. Every repairperson who attends to a dishwasher mentions this at some point. And yet few people actually do it! If the water that goes to both your kitchen sink and the dishwasher is cold at the start the washer can’t get up to the proper cleaning and sanitizing temperature. Running the hot water in the sink until it’s actually hot takes care of this. It took me a while to remember to turn on the water every time, but it was worth it. Try it yourself for the next month and see if you notice the difference in how your detergent and spot removal agent work.

We all have that shirt we think we like but aren’t sure so it sits there unused and unloved. I’ve had clothes I thought I didn’t like and they sat in drawers untouched for months, even years. If you can’t get yourself to get rid of an article of clothing you’re questioning the value of, give it one last wear. One full day of wearing that thing will tell you if you feel amazing in it or meh, or gross. Anything other than amazing means bye-bye.