Today I want to make the case for de-cluttering and simplifying your business and your life.

Clutter, complexity and material possessions can become a huge burden in our lives.

When we moved house 5 years ago, the size of house we needed was largely dictated by the amount of possessions we had.  We literally needed a storage facility that was big enough to house all our possessions.

Not long before moving house, my parents in law had passed on so we we added a lot of their possessions to our collection!  This was stuff that was too good to throw away or had sentimental value.

Prior to that, I had some of my fathers tools and possessions when he passed away.

As a result of all this, my wife and I live in a 4-bedroomed house with two garages stacked high with boxes storing possessions that we cannot fit into our house.  I also have a shed and greenhouse with yet more stuff in them.

We have talked frequently about selling stuff on Ebay or going to car-boot sales.  But the whole prospect of listing stuff, dealing with buyers and hanging around at car boot sales is not appealing to me.  Frankly, I would rather be doing other things.

The same kind of scenario has taken place on my computer. 80% of the software installed on my computer is never used and probably 95% of the content will never be accessed again.

I collect these items on the basis that I might need them at some unspecified time in the future or it is just too much hassle and effort to get rid of them and just dumping them would be wasteful.

An example of this is that, early on in my business life, I bought a lot of stationary and two stationary cupboards and two filing units.

Nowadays, I hardly ever use any stationary and my cupboards are hardly ever used other than for storing stuff I don’t use.

The stupid thing is, whether these possessions are physical or digital, I have to pay for storage, insurance and also the time taken to file or move stuff around.

In short, most of my possessions are a costly burden and I am determined to ‘minimalise’ them because it would not be fair to burden anyone else in my family with them.

De-cluttering and simplifying my life will lift a large burden from my life so that I can continue my journey with a lighter load. The video below will perhaps cllarify my thoughts for you…