Day 3 - Remove All The Clutter in Your Life

After turning my personal finances around by spending 60 minutes every day on small projects I decided to share everything I did to get my self in a better position when it comes to money. I will be serializing all the 60 minute projects so other people can try them so they to can get their finances together. Most of these tasks will take no more than an hour and it's those tasks that we love to put off. So join me from Day 1 to Day 13 to see if you can get yourself in a more prosperous place financially.

Day 3 - Remove All the Clutter in Your Life

The reason why we're not where we want to be financially is because we've spent more money than we should have. I was guilty of this and I was guilty of it for a long time. The thing about overspending is it becomes a nasty habit (like smoking) and one which takes incredible will power to put right which is why we keep on avoiding it and getting deeper into trouble (it's like compound interest in reverse). One way to stop your overspending is to look at all the clutter in your life and then remove them relentlessly without showing mercy.

This exercise will take slightly longer than 60 minutes but there's so many benefits to it. The best way to start this is to find a room which you don't use frequently. You should also try and make a space to put all your clutter in. I used my spare bedroom which I seldom use to store all the items. The next step is to go through each and every room and find items that you'll never use or are likely never to use again. You need to be relentless and remove all items you don't need. Try to avoid telling yourself you might need it six months from now because you'll probably forget you have it in six months.

Go through every cupboard in every room and keep a clipboard handy to make a list of all the items that you think are clutter. As soon as it's on the list, move it to the space you created for the clutter. When I did this I kept on asking myself why on earth I bought these products and what compelled me to buy items which are still in the box or have still have a label several months later. While doing this you'll see all the needless places your money went. You will see the specific areas where you overspend and then hopefully see it's just useless items which are ultimately holding you back from living your life.

The Things You Own End Up Owning You - Fight Club (thought I'd throw in a quote)

Once you've gone through your entire house you should see your space fill up with useless needless items. You should realize that you're not where you want to be because of items like these. Try to stare at the clutter and make a strong connection in your brain about how the clutter is holding you back, this will help you from overspending in the future! It certainly helped me.

Once you've got everything together, try to sell all the items online on eBay, you should try to generate as much money as you can from your clutter. Any money that you do make should either go towards your savings, your debt or towards your emergency funds.

Removing all the clutter in your life will give you clarity, it will distance yourself from the old you who was reckless with money and help you to look forward to a better financial future. Personally I was able to sell all my items on eBay within a month, I calculated that I probably spent a good £3000 on these items most of which were designer clothes. I sold all the items for a mere £400, that's a loss of 86% (Yikes). If I had put this amount in a savings account then I would now have £120 in interest if the prevailing rates were at 4%. Live and Learn!