How to Reset and Deep Clean Your Life
Get rid of the clutter in your life that’s holding you back! You can’t pour more water into a full glass. This is one of the fundamental principles of any real change. It’s impossible to radically transform your life and rewrite your story if you’re acting from a place of unresolved baggage. Your life’s puzzle will always form the same picture if you keep using the same pieces, no matter how many times you shuffle them at the start.
To consciously create a new version of yourself and your experiences, you need to start with a reset. Not by searching for goals, not by declaring your five-year vision, and not by asking about your mission or purpose. All of that will get tangled up in old beliefs, which also drain your energy. You need to start by throwing out all the junk from your life—physically, energetically, and mentally.
Uncontrolled hoarding of the past leads to two things:
- Endless repetition of your past. Life starts to feel like déjà vu.
- Slowing down your pace. You look at people who get three times as much done and wonder how they do it. Success and fulfillment in all areas of life are only possible at a fast pace.
Stop living as if you have 500 years left.
~ Bill Gates
Sometimes, people genuinely try to speed up their rhythm with early mornings, exercise, and strict self-discipline, but nothing works. Their energy swings from exhilarating highs to deep lows, leaving them feeling empty inside. There can be many reasons for this, but one of them is trying to move at a normal speed without letting go of the baggage of years of accumulated junk.
We all have “vehicles” built for real movement—the question is about the driver and their approach. It’s not enough to just hit the gas, just as it’s not enough to simply pick a direction if you’re still attached to something or running on empty.
Deep Cleaning Your Life for Those Who Want Speed and New Horizons
It makes sense to clean up your life in all three dimensions: the past, the present, and—believe it or not—the future. Yes, your future is already cluttered with your ideas about it, and that needs clearing too.
I suggest starting with the present. It’s the most tangible—here and now. Fully clearing out your current moment will give you a noticeable boost of fresh energy, and you’ll need it.
The principle: throw out everything you can, and then a little more. The idea is to put a period at the end of every unresolved issue: either finish it or cancel it if it’s no longer necessary. The main thing is to remove all lingering questions from your to-do list.
This isn’t about instantly polishing your present to perfection (though that’s helpful!). First, you need to tidy up and close out “pending” tasks, even if that means resetting them. Remove tasks from your waiting list or get them moving if they’ve been stuck for more than a few weeks. This will give you a huge surge of new energy.
What to Do This Weekend If You’re Ready for a New Life Experience:
- Throw Out the TrashStart by getting rid of all the junk in your home. Throw it away, give it away, or donate it to a shelter. Don’t just put it in a box to “take to the church someday”—actually get it out of your space. Leave nothing on your “waiting” list.
What counts as trash? Anything you haven’t used in a year (and that’s generous) should be removed, given away, sold, or thrown out:
- Clothes you don’t wear
- Most souvenirs, except those that truly make your home cozy (which is usually a small fraction of what you have)
- Broken or outdated dishes and appliances
- And so on
The more you dig up, the better. Every single item is a piece of your energy—look at them honestly and only take into your new life what you’ll need and what brings you joy. Ask yourself, “Do I want to keep this energy, or make room for something new?”
You can’t pour more water into a full glass. You empty your own glass—the more you pour out, the more can flow in. If you’re stingy, don’t be surprised if there’s no room for big changes.
I can’t give detailed advice here, since I don’t have this problem myself. Frequent moves have taught me to let go of unnecessary things, even those I thought I loved. But seeing the homes of some friends who’ve lived in one place for years or decades—it’s like a museum of past junk. How can you expect change?
In short, a deep home clean is a game called: “How ready am I to let new experiences into my life?” The more you throw out, the more ready you are. This applies to all your spaces—your office, your car, your summer house, even your private jet if you have one. Surprise your coworkers—really clean your desk and start the process of decluttering.
- Delete Digital FilesThrowing out physical junk is just the beginning—it’s time to delete files. How much time do you spend on your computer and online? That’s your space too, even if it’s virtual, and it’s part of your energy.
We’re used to storing everything on our computers. Why delete it? There’s enough hard drive space for everything. But the principle is the same: clearing out frees up energy. Keep only what you love and value. Why keep a movie you didn’t like? Why hold onto old, useless files? It’s all a piece of you. The more baggage you carry, the slower you move—or you can make room for something new.
Sort through not just your personal but also your work computer, and your online accounts: social networks, blogs, websites.
- Organize and SystematizeIt’s not enough to just throw out the junk—you need to organize what’s left. I was never a fan of strict cleanliness and even used to justify my creative mess as part of my artistic nature. But now I’ll say this: harmonious order (not obsessive, but systematic—where everything has its place) is the key to effective functioning, especially if you want to speed up. You can’t shift your life into high gear if your desk and home are in chaos.
- Filter Incoming InformationYour flow of incoming information also needs order and cleaning. This is food for your mind, and its quality determines how well your mind works. Ever heard of information intoxication? It’s a common problem these days. People read everything online, endlessly reposting quotes from famous people, and lose the ability to hear their own inner voice.
Information accumulates and never really leaves our subconscious, so it needs to be carefully filtered. Only let in what’s valuable and put it into action right away—then it teaches and develops you. Otherwise, it clogs your channels, creating powerful informational noise. This makes it hard to hear your inner voice and leads to mistakes on your path.
So today, I recommend you:
- Clean up your friend list. Remove people whose posts don’t resonate with or inspire you.
- Clean up your social media walls. Delete or hide people whose updates annoy you, especially those who post negative world news.
- Decide which blogs and websites you actually want to read.
My main rule for determining the value of a resource is the response in my soul. When you read something and feel a spark inside, that’s a clear sign of awareness and a thirst for action.
And it should never be a list based on “they added me, so I’ll add and read them.” No, it should be a collection of resources that truly fill and delight you. Regularly clean and update this list with new resources.
I have an RSS feed for reading, where I keep sites, blogs, and journals of people I want to follow, plus a “to read” list on Twitter. In my email, there’s a separate “mailing list” folder for newsletters I subscribe to—and I actually read them! If an author stops satisfying me, I unsubscribe. But I never get emails just because, and I rarely read social media feeds. All my channels get a deep clean on a regular basis.
- Finish or Reset Unfinished TasksIt’s important to finish everything on your “waiting” list: either move it to “in progress” and actually do it, or reset it. It’s better to decide that a task is closed and you’re not doing it anymore than to keep carrying it around. You should feel inside that all your tasks are done, current projects are on schedule, and there are no lingering questions. This is “first gear” for asking yourself, “What do I want from life?” and moving toward conscious change.
In Conclusion
The process of deep cleaning your present consists of two key steps: getting rid of clutter on all levels, and organizing your affairs—including your flow of incoming information.
Set up your channels so that only high-quality, useful information comes to you in moderate amounts, and you’ll see your world transform. Who cares how all your friends and acquaintances are doing? You can meet up with them in person when you have time, but consuming their “news” daily is almost a guarantee that nothing will change in your life—unless all your friends are living the life you dream of.
You can reinvent yourself only if you realize that your old experiences won’t help you do it.
Now, let’s get cleaning!