When I sit and scroll through Instagram instead of being productive, I make myself feel better by thinking that these suggested bloggers are teaching me something with their minimalist décor and their sweet potato-avocado recipes. I brainwash myself into believing that I will minimize the junk in my life tomorrow, that I will follow a workout routine tomorrow, that I will grocery shop with her suggested list tomorrow and then meal prep for the week.
Do I ever do any of these things?
No.
I want to! I truly do! However, these ‘easy hacks’ are not sturdy enough to truly mold my life into the shape I want. So, how can I begin truly altering the way my life looks since Instagram influencers are just not cutting it?
Here are my real-life tactics for ‘cleaning up’ my life in the manners that really matter:
- Look at Your Life
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This may be the hardest step because it is the least tangible and requires introspection. Take a step back from your Instagram feed and the way that you project your life out onto the world, and look at how it really is. It’s not all vsco filters, Huji light leaks, and gif smothered stories.
For me, it is eating chunky almond butter with a one-dollar Walmart spoon as I sit on the floor of my kitchen. It is seven-minute Facetime Audio calls down trash truck littered streets. It is Target red lipstick clinging onto my teeth. Some of these things are tragically beautiful, while some are just tragic. Try and look at your life to find what you cannot stand about it. Find what you may have thought was awful before, but actually don’t mind. How can you clean a room you have never really looked at before?
- Pick Three Things You Want to ‘Clean Up’
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Now that you have seen the extent of the mess you want to clean up, pick three achievable things that you want to start with. You can always do more later on down the line, but you have to start somewhere. Having three things is beneficial for a myriad of reasons; three things are easily remembered, you have two things to fall back on if one falls and it is more efficient than doing one at once. For me, my grocery list/meal prep, my closet organization, and my anthology prep are the three things I want to work on. Identifying the problem is half the battle.
- Do The Work
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There is no hack for this. Once you have chosen your things, do them. Don’t just tell yourself or your Insta feed that you are working on yourself when really you are just watching other people improve their lives. There is no easy way to do the work, you just have to do it. Woman up, be there, be present, accomplish what you say you are going to. If you keep looking for easy ways out, you’ll never find your way into what you want.
As I said earlier, not all the things in your life need to be cleaned. Some of the things you don’t necessarily adore about yourself or splatter all over social media are not actually bad, and some of these things don’t need to be changed.
Every week by Friday, my room is a mess. I have come to accept that it’s alright. On Saturday, I can get up and clean it and prep for another week. However, my messy room doesn’t get in the way of my life or other people’s lives. My life doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be perfect because it is impossible for it to truly be flawless. It has taken me time to realize that my life doesn’t have to be perfect to be good. Sometimes messes are the prettiest things. Sometimes being pretty isn’t everything.
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