5 projects to pull you out of a slump

In a rut? Feeling stuck and stale? I’ve been there. In fact, I am there. My schedule is full but it’s kind of monotonous. I have big things on the calendar but a long wait to get to them. My space is feeling stagnant and the air in here is stuffy. So today we’re doing some little projects that will help refresh, update, and re-energize. They’re small, but sometimes a little goes a long way.

Clean up your digital space

Clear out your downloads folder and your email inboxes. Unsubscribe from all those ad emails. Get rid of those files you don’t need. That game you downloaded but never play. The 15 housecleaning checklists you made in Canva but never printed (that one’s for me). Weed out photos on your camera roll and apps you aren’t using. Declutter those devices! And then find yourself a pretty new wallpaper.

Plant something

Indoors or outdoors, it’s up to you. And this is the only one on the list that might cost you something, unless you scour Marketplace or Craigslist or your local Buy Nothing group (proceed with caution in all interactions with internet strangers!) to find secondhand flowerpots and cuttings/baby plants. Put your hands in the dirt! Plant something. Whether it survives the next six months doesn’t matter right now. Putting your hands in the dirt and touching nature is the point. Gardening is grounding, it’s centering, and it has a tendency to put me in a growth mindset.

Spruce up your bed

Take all your bedding off your bed. Strip it all the way down and let the mattress air out while you throw your bedding in the laundry. Take everything off your headboard and side tables, wipe everything down with dusting polish or an all-purpose cleaner. If you have a mattress spray, use it. Get fresh, clean sheets onto the bed, plump up those pillows, and put it all back together once your comforter/duvet/quilt is clean and dry. For me, getting my bed clean and made up like it’s going in a magazine sets the tone for the whole room and I usually end up tidying up, giving the entire space a nice refresh. But even if the bed is all you do, it’s going to feel fresh.

Clean out your closet

This one may be a bit of a time commitment, speaking from experience. I recently cleaned out my closet (I’m actually still in the process, but it’s coming along), but I have trouble actually getting rid of clothes, so here’s what I did: grabbed three big storage tubs from Target, put all the clothes I’m not sure about into those tubs, and stuck them in the basement. In a year, whatever I haven’t gone to fish out from the tubs, I’m donating. Getting my clothes down to a manageable volume has been a game-changer. I also physically cleaned my closet: vacuumed the floor, wiped down shelves, used a little room spray, and now that little corner of my house doesn’t feel like a repository for stagnant energy. Win!

Think long-term

Open up your notebook or a new note in your notes app. Write one goal for each of these time intervals: one week, one month, one quarter, one year, five years, ten years. You’ll end up with 6 total goals. Now spend a few minutes going over each goal and writing the first step for each goal. So if your five-year goal is to travel to Europe, maybe your first step is researching savings accounts so that you can start socking your pennies away. If your one-week goal is to catch up with all your laundry, your first step is gathering all the dirty laundry from around the house to get it all into one place. The idea is to look into the future a bit, give yourself something to look forward to, but also to help your brain conceptualize the action steps it’ll take to get there. Shake out the cobwebs. Work a different brain muscle.

Hope these help you shake a little bit of that stale energy out of your system and out of your space. Let me know if you try any!