Today, we’re continuing our “Clear the Clutter” series. If you listened to Tuesday’s episode, hopefully, you followed through and cleaned the dust and dirt from your workspace. Today, we’re tackling knick-knacks, odds and ends, and random junk that find their way into our lives.

We all hang onto certain things longer than we should. I tend to hang onto cords, cables, technology, and sentimental items I no longer need. I’m the guy who still has Huey Lewis cassettes from 1985 in his closet… along with the broken Walkman to play them! I’ve always been a packrat.

The problem with being a packrat is that these items clutter your life… and your work area.

As I approach 50 in the next couple of years, I’m much less inclined to hang onto this stuff than I used to be. I’m downright ruthless these days when cleaning. I challenge you to go through your work area and get rid of any items that are no longer serving you.

For example, as I look around my office right now, I see several things that need to go. There’s a random stick of Chapstick on my bookcase someone gave me for Christmas. I never use Chapstick but I felt guilty throwing it away. I see a pencil sharpener I have used a grand total of one time.

I see a Kindle Paperwhite tablet that’s about 8 years old, and I never use it. I see a small drawstring bag that held a small gift. I thought I might use the bag but it’s sat on my shelf untouched for almost a year. I see a high-quality lanyard that has my old college’s logo on it. The lanyard held my college name tag, and I wore it around my neck every day for the last few years I worked there. I kept it for sentimental reasons, but there’s no reason for me to keep it.

You see a pattern here: I felt a tinge of guilt at the idea of throwing these items away. But here’s the problem with hanging onto things we don’t need anymore: each unwanted item contains just a bit of emotional energy that we could free up for things that are relevant to our lives right now.

I will either throw away each of these items or find a new home for them. You can probably identify lots of items in your work area also. Physical items are not neutral. Your relationship with those items either adds positive energy to your life because it’s helping you in some way now… or it’s draining your energy because you feel guilt for not removing it from your life.

As you can see, this exercise isn’t just about being “neat” and “organized.” It’s really about getting your emotional life in order. Writing requires a lot of emotional energy. If you can free up more energy by getting rid of random junk, knick-knacks, and other odds and ends from your physical space, you will have that much more energy to give to the things that matter to you.

Today’s Challenge: Take five minutes and get rid of random stuff in your work area. If you hesitate or feel ambivalent about keeping it, that’s a sign it should probably go.