It's a NO from me.

The easiest thing you will ever do in volleyball? Serve the ball.

Because you literally control everything about the procedure.

You throw the ball up in the air. You smack it over the net. That’s it.

 
All the other girls are doing it.

I can see them just serving and serving and serving all easy peasy like. Laughing even. Like it’s fun.

Except little 16-year old wanna-be-a-good-volleyball-player me is not laughing. Nor is she having much fun.

 
I’ve been watching everyone else do something that should be easy. But somehow isn’t.

And I’ve become this frustrated, embarrassed, trying-to-act-like-I-don’t-care girl. Who absolutely cares.

Because even though I am really good at all of the other volleyball things? I am terrible at serving. Truly terrible. I don’t know why. Nobody knows why.

And now this new coach at volleyball camp has pulled me over to this solitary court to watch me fail serve.

Me: (please don’t embarrass me)

Coach: Your arm is out of control. Waving all over the place.

Me: 👀

Coach: So, let’s not do that.

Then we worked on my serve until the lunch break. And we got my arm under control.

 
You’ll never guess what the problem was.

Turns out, I wasn’t bad at serving.
I was just starting in a place that made it hard to not flail.

I was starting with my hand on the ball, like all of the other girls. When I should have been starting with my hand in the air, exactly where it needed to be to give the ball a good whack.

Starting where everyone else was starting wasn’t working for me. So we stopped doing that. And instead of trying harder, we changed where I started.

 
While some organizers would have you starting your decluttering work by perusing your stock and picking out the things that you love or the things that spark joy or the things that you think you’d grab if you were running out the door in a fire?

I’m going to suggest something different.

Because if the goal is to decrease the volume of things that are cluttering up your home so that it feels lighter and less … combative… than it has to be?

Maybe you don’t need to try harder.
Maybe you just need to start somewhere you won’t flail.
 
My favorite way to start the decision making part of every decluttering project? I call it “The Simon Cowell Sweep.”

And it’s both a perfect warm up for the harder decisions you’ll have to make and the easiest way to start clearing out your things without stressing out yourself.

 
Because you’ve got stuff in your house that you absolutely know you 100% don’t want in your house.

For real.

You’ve got things that you totally know you will never in a million years need, use, want, or love ever again. And you know it so completely that you don’t even have to think about it.

 
Like that box of business cards from the job you had in 2003.

I mean, seriously?

Is this something you want taking up valuable real estate in your closet?

So drop it in the recycling bucket.

And never look back.

 
That’s how the Simon Cowell Sweep works.

You’re not making hard decisions yet.  You’re just honoring the obvious ones.
 

There are things that could leave your house today and no one would ever speak of them again. Things that you could toss in a donation bag or a recycling bin or the garbage can under your kitchen sink and forget about in 5 minutes.

No hesitation. No debate. No “maybe…?” No waffles.

Just a clear, honest, no-doubt-in-my-mind, Simon Cowell “no.”

And those things are very different from everything else.

 
The obvious no’s don’t slow you down.

They don’t make you second guess yourself.

They don’t send you into a spiral about who you used to be or who you thought you’d be and whether you might ever be that girl again.

They’re things that you are just…done with.

 
The stack of old magazines you’ve been meaning to read since Martha Stewart got out of prison? “It’s a no from me.”

The free conference tote bags from 2011 that you somehow moved houses with? Twice. “Nope.”

Whatever is in the aluminum foil encased in ice at the back of your freezer? “Absolutely not.”

The drawer full of mystery cords that don’t go to anything you own anymore? “It’s a no from me, dawg.” Because random cords deserve the Randy Jackson upgrade.

 
When you start with the Simon Cowell no’s, something happens that is super important:

There is movement.

That gains momentum.

And motivates you to keep going.


You don’t get stuck.

You don’t spiral.

You don’t overthink every single thing in your house.


You don’t have to be brave yet.

You don’t have to figure out your whole life.

You’re just collecting the things that are already on their way out and sending them on their way with one solid whack over the net.

All easy peasy like. Laughing even. Like it’s fun.

 
Your friend who would totally read all of your old magazines,
Vivian