Episode 007 – Decluttering Based on Values

Hey my friend! It’s Angie of Cozy Minimalism! Today, on this episode, we’re going to talk about how you can make minimizing a little bit easier by defining your values BEFORE you go in to do a fairly major purge.

How It Helps

When you minimize, after you define what’s important to you and what you value, it helps the process become a little more clear.

You take a step back from looking at all of the stuff you have to give up and you move towards looking at what you want to keep. And that, is a pivotal mindshift to help you work through some of your stuff. Sometimes the things we own are not in alignment with our core values. Sometimes these items may be something that we used to value but it doesn’t align with what they currently value. This is one of those times that you may keep things based on who you used to be or you you used to want to be.

My Story

I used to value creativity in the form of crafting, it was simply an outlet for me to feel happiness and joy. I also value simplicity and by recognizing that, it’s allowed me to let go of the excess craft supplies that will never truly bring me joy or happiness. I’ve simplified my craft supplies to what I use and bring me joy.  That way, the stash aligns with my values of creativity and simplicity. By keeping the excess for years, it stressed me out to see the stash in my basement of doom and I would avoid it. There was no joy in that. Now, with the alignment, I feel zero stress in that area and even get sparked to create every once and awhile.

The Benefits

Minimizing based on your values has a benefit that’s two-fold.

The first benefit is that when you deep dive into your values you learn a little bit more about yourself. You get to define what’s most important to you and your family.

The second benefit is when you’re looking through your stuff, it will be so much easier to make decisions on whether it has earned its place in your home or not. Because of things that don’t align with your values will be super easy to let go of. It’s like a lighthouse beacon guiding you on your journey.

You have a solid foundation to support yourself in letting things go. When you ask yourself the basic questions “Does this bring me joy?” and “ Does it bring value to my life?”

Your Mission

Your mission today, is to go to the page for this episode www.cozyminimal.com/values. There, you will find a really big list of values. You can go through that list and choose all of the values that jump out at you. Then go through that curated list and choose the ones that resonate the most with you. Those are your core values. When you go through your next surface, drawer or closet, think of how those those items either support or detract from your values that are listed. 

Better yet, keep the list in someplace visible and refer to it often.

Acceptance
Accomplishment
Accountability
Accuracy
Achievement
Adaptability
Alertness
Altruism
Ambition
Amusement
Assertiveness
Attentive
Awareness
Balance
Beauty
Boldness
Bravery
Brilliance
Calm
Candor
Capable
Careful
Certainty
Challenge
Charity
Cleanliness
Clear
Clever
Comfort
Commitment
Common sense
Communication
Community
Compassion
Competence
Concentration
Confidence
Connection
Consciousness
Consistency
Contentment
Contribution
Control
Conviction
Cooperation
Courage
Courtesy
Creation
Creativity
Credibility
Curiosity
Decisive
Decisiveness
Dedication
Dependability
Determination
Development
Devotion
Dignity
Discipline
Discovery
Drive
Effectiveness
Efficiency
Empathy
Empower
Endurance
Energy
Enjoyment
Enthusiasm
Equality
Ethical
Excellence
Experience

Exploration
Expressive
Fairness
Family
Famous
Fearless
Feelings
Ferocious
Fidelity
Focus
Foresight
Fortitude
Freedom
Friendship
Fun
Generosity
Genius
Giving
Goodness
Grace
Gratitude
Greatness
Growth
Happiness
Hard work
Harmony
Health
Honesty
Honor
Hope
Humility
Imagination
Improvement
Independence
Individuality
Innovation
Inquisitive
Insightful
Inspiring
Integrity
Intelligence
Intensity
Intuitive
Irreverent
Joy
Justice
Kindness
Knowledge
Lawful
Leadership
Learning
Liberty
Logic
Love
Loyalty
Mastery
Maturity
Meaning
Moderation
Motivation
Openness
Optimism
Order
Organization
Originality
Passion
Patience
Peace
Performance
Persistence
Playfulness
Poise
Potential
Power

Present
Productivity
Professionalism
Prosperity
Purpose
Quality
Realistic
Reason
Recognition
Recreation
Reflective
Respect
Responsibility
Restraint
Results-oriented
Reverence
Rigor
Risk
Satisfaction
Security
Self-reliance
Selfless
Sensitivity
Serenity
Service
Sharing
Significance
Silence
Simplicity
Sincerity
Skill
Skillfulness
Smart
Solitude
Spirit
Spirituality
Spontaneous
Stability
Status
Stewardship
Strength
Structure
Success
Support
Surprise
Sustainability
Talent
Teamwork
Temperance
Thankful
Thorough
Thoughtful
Timeliness
Tolerance
Toughness
Traditional
Tranquility
Transparency
Trust
Trustworthy
Truth
Understanding
Uniqueness
Unity
Valor
Victory
Vigor
Vision
Vitality
Wealth
Welcoming
Winning
Wisdom
Wonder

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