Out with the old, and in with the new—a mantra that many relate to the spring season — is often easier said than done. This rings especially true for those who have trouble letting go of old clothes, shoes, books—you name it—during annual spring cleaning sweeps. However, having a plan in place for not only tackling your mess, but also for getting rid of unwanted items, makes this daunting task that much easier.

“Spring cleaning is important for your health, and to de-clutter the mind,” said Mildred Munjanganja, vice president of LifeOrganizers.com. “When your environment is clean and tidy, your mind is clean and tidy.”

Here are some of Munjanganja’s tips for getting rid of the items you no longer need.

Read the rest of this article from an interview LifeOrganizers.com did for Fox Business. Enjoy

1. Make a strong resolution: You must begin with an initiative in mind. Determine what you are trying to achieve, make a public declaration of it by telling someone else.

2. Never allow an exception to occur until the new habit is securely rooted in your life: A habit is like a ball of wool, every time it falls, it unravels. So you cannot allow ‘just this once’ to occur, it will take you many steps back. The act of yielding weakens the will and strengthens the lack of self-control.

3. Seize every opportunity and inclination to practice your new habit: In the beginning, you may need a lot of reminders to stick to your resolve. So practice your habit whenever you can, it may involve using a checklist so you can see your progress.

They say it takes 21 days to develop a habit and 6 weeks to make it natural – so whatever your goal may be, getting a specific area in your life organized, working out, saving money etc; follow these 3 easy steps and watch yourself succeed.

1.       Determine what it is you are trying to achieve.  This will help you to select a trainer that will have the related experience to suite your needs. 

2.       If you are a member of a gym, the gym may already have approved trainers for you to choose from, otherwise; find trainers that are in your area for convenience.

3.       Look at your budget to ensure that the trainer charges within your price range.  Sessions can range from $20 – $200 an hour, based on the trainers client base, experience, certifications and what they offer.

4.       Be sure to get ask for referrals from people who work out with the trainer and those that no longer do. I asked trainers and clients about Joseph Petrie and everyone willingly spoke highly of him – it made me comfortable in my choice.

5.       Ask to see your trainer’s certification and be sure to verify it. 

6.       If the trainer is part of a gym, they likely have personal liability insurance to protect you from personal injury or loss, but if they are independent, be sure to ask for proof of insurance.

7.       Be sure that your trainer knows CPR – you want someone who can help you if the need ever arose.

8.       Talk to the trainer and asks as many questions as you see fit.  You have to be comfortable with the trainer and confident in the fact that they will cater to your needs.

You have to be happy with your trainer in order to remain committed and get the best value for your money.  My trainer, Joseph Petrie’s is extremely patient – he will take time to show me how to do an exercise properly to ensure that I do not get injured.  He alters the workouts based on my pre-existing injuries while ensuring that he is giving me a program that strengthens the muscles surrounding the area.  He is always on time, has a great sense of humor that puts me at ease while making sure that I give my all to the work-outs.  I find him to be very inspiring and appreciate his constant reminders that what I eat will ultimately determine my success.  If you cannot say 5 good things about your trainer….then maybe you should find one like mine.

You have to make time to take care of your most valuable asset, because without it, you genuinely have nothing. There are some illnesses that you cannot control, but there are a lot of things that you can do to prevent the illnesses that are within your control.

1. Determine your current state of health. Check your weight, blood pressure, vision, dental health and full body. It’s important to know where you are and where you should be.

2. Set achievable goals based on where you should be. If your doctor tells you that you are 30lbs over weight, the goal is fairly clear, lose 30 lbs. Break it down into smaller goals that you can track and achieve. Write all your goals down and be as specific as possible.

3. Write down specific actions you need to do to achieve your goal e.g. If your goal is to exercise 3 times per week. Write down which 3 days you will dedicate to working out, what time you will work out on those days, how long the workouts will be and exactly what you plan on doing during that time. You can prepare this weekly or monthly but make sure you have it.

4. Now use your calendar to make appointments for your future check-ups, weigh-ins etc and stick to these appointments. For instance, every year the month of my birthday, I do a full body physical. My birthday serves as an excellent reminder.

You owe it to your future to get this part of your life on track. Enjoy it.

1.       Call your family often

2.       Each day give something good to others

3.       Forgive everyone for everything

4.       Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6

5.       Try to make at least 3 people smile each day

6.       What other people think of you, is none of your business’

7.       Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick – your friends will, stay in touch.

8.       Do the right thing, all the time

9.       Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful

10.   However good or bad a situation is, it will change

11.   No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up

12.   The best is yet to come

I absolutely love this list.  Imagine living your life everyday believing that you have hardly tapped your potential and all the good things in your life can and will be surpassed.  They say you should always dream when you are awake, I say our lives are what we make them and when we go about the business of creating who we want to be, we become the real masters of our own destiny. 

I even get excited about it, you can’t just come to my place and leave things hanging around, you will find them trashed, and donated, recycled….something will happen to them [I will try to give them back first – promise].  

I recently moved out of my place and I was pleased to find that I did not have a pile of things that I needed to get rid of because this is a process I do often.  Don’t get me wrong, I never used to be like this, I used to hold on to everything!  If I got a magazine, I would keep it for months because I always thought one day it would come in handy, I kept every single book I ever bought, old clothes, things I did not use because I just could not bring myself to throw things out or give them away.  Then I read a book about purging, getting rid of the old to allow the new into your life.  And that did it.  I let go of the notion that I had to keep gifts from friends which I knew I would never use, or sentimentally hold on to old clothes, Christmas cards,  books I had already read.  Something in me just clicked – if I wanted to invite change in my life and allow improvement and new things to find a way to me – I had to become comfortable with letting things go.  I am of the belief that somehow my life will always be for the better and everything I embrace or lose is for the greater good.

So how do you start?  Just pick one area, for example, you can start with your closet or bathroom cabinets, or a cabinet in the kitchen or your computer desk area – it doesn’t really matter where you start, just start.  Try to do this during a time when you have the least number of interruptions, when everyone else is sleeping or out of the house.  Now grab 4 boxes and a trash-bag, each box should be labeled, Keep, Donate, Put Away, Recycle or any label that works for your purpose.  The follow these steps:

1.       Empty the entire space.  Take every single thing out as if you were moving.  This will allow you to clean the area anyway.

2.       Sort items based on usage frequency.  If you have never used it, then it probably needs to be donated or given to someone who will use it.  If it’s something you use often, you need to keep it.  Is it a beauty product that you have had for years? Then it may not be good for your skin anymore.  It its completely worn out and you have been meaning to replace it, throw it out.  This step involves being 100% honest with yourself and envisioning the future that you want rather than holding on to the past.  Put everything in the box that you think it belongs in.  Don’t think about it too long, just do what you initial gut instinct tells you.

3.       Get rid of anything that you decided you would donate or trash or give away immediately.  This is the only way to prevent yourself from heading back in the pile and changing your mind. 

Now that you have done some purging, you can go about the business of organizing the things you plan on keeping, labeling them if need be and putting things exactly where they belong.  You will feel a lot better about yourself; you will be far less cluttered and you have just created room in your life for change.  Enjoy.

Visit me at: http://www.organizedleader.com/change-leadership.html

Right this second, grab a piece of paper and right down everything….big or small, personal or work related, urgent or not, every single thing that you have ever thought you need to do.  Do it in an excel spreadsheet or on a numbered piece of paper, your list will look something like this:

1.       Take old clothes to Salvation Army

2.       Clean out trunk

3.       Take PowerPoint lessons

4.       Lose 10lbs

5.       Lower credit card interest

6.       Look into marketing project

7.       Get puppy

8.       Submit living will

9.       Call Aunt Eunice

10.   Talk to Juan about that thing he does that annoys me

Can you imagine the amount of bandwidth you are able to clear from your head once everything is written down?   Whenever you are trying to focus on a given task and your mind starts to wonder, have you ever evaluated where your mind wonders to? It likely focuses on things that are incomplete and need to be attended to.  This then leads to worry and then stress.  Once you have EVERYTHING written down, start tackling the list one at a time, and determine what action item needs to be done to get the task complete.

I received an e-mail from a friend that I thought was a good place to start, it had some ideas on the rules we can live by to improve our personalities in 2010, enjoy:

1.       Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about. 

2.       Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment. [People with road rage can understand how it feels to get completely worked up over something they have absolutely no control over…it is worth it?]

3.       Don’t overdo. Keep your limits. [I am guilty as charged!!!!! I tend to overdo everything, food, workouts, sacrificing, emotion…everything.  I will make this a personal goal for this year]

4.       Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does. 

5.       Dream more while you are awake.

6.       Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

7.       Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with His/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness. 

8.       Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others

9.       Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present. 

10.   No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

11.   Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.  Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime. 

12.   Smile and laugh more. 

This year my personality resolutions are simple: to practice discipline in every aspect of my life, to keep my limits and not overdo things, to continue to use laughter as the driving force of my joy and to live my life in such a way that in my old age, it will be a memory I like to recall and a story I am not ashamed to tell.

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Have fun.

1.       Staying current:  It has been reported that women earn the majority of college degrees and hold middle management positions but few are able to reach senior management level.  One of the challenges women face is the time to stay current or find avenues for continued professional growth once they have children.  It becomes more difficult to travel for work leaving behind your family and any professional development courses that can be taken at night pose the same problem. I often see very capable women who have the opportunity to be involved in a remote project that will have a huge impact on their career development, but are unable to make the commitment due to family commitments – very few men in the same situation would decline. 

Solution: Do online courses that you can do at night and seek work-related projects that can be completed during business hours in your city that will have a huge impact on your career.

2.       Maintaining your professional image during a sour economy and a time in history when image is a primary focus.  As shallow as it may sound, how we look as women actually matters in gaining clients or making sound business deals.  Weight problems or poor attire decisions can have a very negative impact on our development.  Everywhere we look, women are getting younger, fitter, and more dressed up – it automatically gives them a competitive advantage that is difficult to maintain when you have a busy lifestyle and are cutting back in order to focus on more important financial goals.

Solution: Work on your posture and your confidence – you will immediately appear more ‘attractive’.  Then start focusing on a healthy eating lifestyle and working out at least 3 times a week, it will change the way people look at you.

3.       Being Organized: With the advancement in technology, there has been a huge growth in the number of devices available to your disposal – your cell phone, iPod, PC etc are all pieces of technology that must be synchronized to create organized workflow and as demands continue to grow, it becomes more difficult to manage a constant influx of e-mails, memo’s, reports etc.  We like to be seen as having the ability to do it all and consequently may not delegate enough to stay organized and get the job done.

Solution: Get organized.  Need I say more? Make a consented decision to filing things away, responding to correspondence and making one decision or the other for anything that comes on your desk.

4.       Allowing emotional considerations to impact professional decisions.  This is likely the biggest problem! At times helping an employee in a bind is not necessarily the best decision for the companies bottom-line, but as women, we tend to be more sensitive to employee needs without actually considering how it will affect the company in the long run or if the decision is the best use of the companies resources and time as opposed to the best way to help an employee.

Solution: Try to find a balance between helping employees and meeting the companies bottom-line.  If you can achieve both without too much compromise it will instantly make you a better decision maker.

5.       Stress.  2010 comes with its burdens that we really cannot allow to impact our professional lives, but at times they do.  It’s important to present a consistent attitude at work, regardless of pressures that we may be dealing with externally, but that is not always easy.  Concerns about finances, weight/health, appearance, family, PMS, relationships, work-load etc can often creep into the workplace and can affect how we deal with employees.  It’s important to find solutions to our problems and actively start working on them in order to avoid possible ‘blow-ups’ at work, that can potentially ruin your reputation for good.  Once we are perceived as being ‘emotional’ – it’s over!

Solution: Do something for you every week. Whether its scheduling in quiet time, getting a massage, doing your nails or simply having a nice cup of tea while you read a great book – whatever it is – just find ways to handle your stress.

Visit me at: OrganizedLeader.com