The September Reset

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the “September Reset.” September has always felt like a fresh start for me. Especially in the northern hemisphere, when summer turns into fall, and it’s time to head back to work/school with a newly charged battery. 

The September Reset is a moment in which you pause to get organized before starting a new chapter or diving back into things after a little time away. It doesn’t have to be in September, it can be whenever you’re closing one chapter of your year (or even life) and starting another.

September used to be a time in which I would go shopping for new clothes, stationery, and cosmetics. Now I have turned this tradition into prepping my space and mind for whatever lies ahead, and that usually comes in the form of decluttering, cleaning, and/or organizing. 

In this post I’ll be sharing some of the areas I like to reset and how to keep the reset manageable.

What not to do

Before I start listing things to reset, I want to share what not to do because this could get overwhelming quite quickly. Even for myself, while my physical space is very minimalist, my digital and mental spaces can get a little overwhelming after a year of creative projects. So, here’s what not to do:

• Get overwhelmed: When you read the list below, you might look around your space and wonder how you’re ever going to complete a reset before starting your next chapter. Each thing I’ve listed could be its own blog post, so take a deep breath. This is meant to illustrate what kinds of things you can reset and inspire you, not make you feel like you’re behind.
• Do everything: Similarly, once you start, decluttering, organizing, and cleaning can be a slippery slope. One moment you’re cleaning out a single desk drawer and suddenly you’re doing a whole house clean-up. I recommend you reflect on your own habits and life and pick which of the resets I’ve listed below would have the biggest impact on your day to day. You can always tackle the other ones later throughout the year. 
• Buy new stuff: Social media is full of reset videos, which I absolutely adore, but they always contain some form of buying something new. Matching storage containers, pens, notebooks, candles, hand sanitizers, towels. You name it, it’s in a “tidy with me” video. I want to emphasize that you do not need to buy anything new to do a reset (unless you’ve run out). Part of the magic of a reset, to me at least, is that decluttering, cleaning, and then organizing what you already have, makes things feel new and fresh, without actually having to get anything new.
• Feel bad about getting rid of things: This could be a whole post in itself but don’t keep something because you feel bad about getting rid of it. Money or time spent, resources wasted, and even gifts, if something doesn’t make you feel good when keeping it then you can let it go. Ways things make you feel bad might be: Something is in the way all the time but you never use it, you feel guilty when you look at it, you feel pressure when you look at it, using it is uncomfortable (replace it). Letting go of stuff creates so much space in your brain/life/space that you could become a whole new person. 

Areas to reset

Let’s talk about the areas that may be due for a reset:

Physical space 

When resetting a physical space, there are a couple of things I like to do regardless of what the space is:

1. Clear surfaces - This has the biggest impact, when we don’t see a bunch of clutter everywhere our brains have a bit more peace. It also makes it easier to wipe surfaces down and clean everything.
2. Dust/wipe things down - Taking a damp cloth with some all purpose cleaner or a dusting cloth and simply wiping down surfaces and the inside of empty storage solutions like drawers, shelves, cabinets, or boxes gets rid of some of that stagnant energy. I clean throughout the year, but a reset doesn’t feel the same without including at least some rudimentary cleaning.
3. Declutter your most used storage areas - Your most used storage areas (which I call active storage in my post about Active, Passive, and Archive Storage) are the easiest to access, and where you store the items you use most often. These are things like drawers or cabinets that are closest to where you do most of your living. I always make it a point to review these storage locations and remove anything from them I haven’t used in a while and put that somewhere slightly less prominent. 

• Bathroom: Clear your counters, toss expired products, you don’t need all the hotel shampoos, wipe down your shower caddy, clean the toilet/sink/shower/bath/bidet.
• Kitchen: Clear and clean your counters, toss expired food, make it a point to incorporate those “this looks interesting” foods in the coming week’s menu, take out the trash/recycling, clean fixed appliances like the fridge/stove/oven/hood/dishwasher/microwave, clean portable appliances like the kettle/toaster/microwave/blender. 
• Entryways/command centers: Remove anything you don’t need for the coming season, get rid of those small things that tend to hover (like dead batteries/lightbulbs/rubber bands/receipts)
• Desks/office: Clear the surfaces, put your most used items closest to your seating position, go through your papers/receipts/mail and scan/archive/shred appropriately.
• Closet: Switch out clothes for the upcoming season, consider letting go of anything you didn’t wear all season (I recommend not letting go of things you may be tired of, come next year you might be excited about them again), take things that need mending to the cobbler/tailor/drycleaners. Make sure to clean everything and let it dry well before you put it in storage, this prevents pests and mold.
• Other: Clean your washer/dryer, check if the bedroom/living room/garage/porch/patio needs some love, clean your car or take it out for maintenance.

You’ll notice that I didn't include the bedroom or living room as individual items on this list. This is because I don’t see them as areas in which tasks are performed. If you do perform tasks in these spaces, definitely consider resetting them. What you choose to reset depends on what you have and whether or not resetting that particular thing/space is important to you and your peace of mind.

Digital space

Our digital spaces are so easy to overlook yet such a huge source of our overwhelm. Our digital stuff takes up space, but because it’s not in 3D we can’t tell the exact size, we just know it’s a lot (and that we are constantly running out of storage space).

Because it’s so easy to keep digital stuff, I have become increasingly strict about what I decide to store and what to delete. I always ask myself the question: “If this were physical, would I keep it?” 

• Emails: Delete and unsubscribe from junk mail, delete receipts I don’t need for insurance purposes, delete reservation emails of past reservations. 
• Clear desktop/trash/downloads: I make sure to keep my desktop, trash, and downloads folder empty at all times (I might keep one or two files in downloads/desktop if they are to be used within the coming week).
• Folders: My folders are always a big one for me, I treat them the way I treat my physical storage (active, passive, archive) so I’ll have certain folders that get messier than others. My strategy is always to make a new folder for a new project and put everything associated with that project in that folder. When that project then comes to an end or a pause, I take some time to delete anything I don’t need, rename, and reorder what I want to keep. This tends to happen during my reset moments.
• Apps: It’s a good practice to delete any unused apps once in a while. All apps track you, even if you’re strict about location/microphone/browsing settings, so the fewer the better.
• Bookmarks: When getting ready for a new chapter, I like going through my bookmarks and reading list in my browser and deleting as much as possible. If I forgot it was there, I generally delete it.
• Notes: My notes app tends to fill up as well, so this is something I make sure to get ready for any next project by renaming and deleting notes. 

When it comes to photos and videos, I don’t really consider organizing them as a reset activity. Sometimes I do take a moment to go through photos after a vacation to delete duplicates and keep the best ones, but personally my photos library doesn’t affect how “ready” I feel for the next chapter.

Mental space

Finally there’s the mental space. This is anything that takes up space in our brains but doesn’t really have a “stuff” feeling to it.

• Calendar: Take a look at what has been scheduled for the coming couple of months. Are there repeating commitments that might be repeating too often or not often enough? Are there commitments on the calendar that never seem to happen? I’ve had time blocked off for the gym, but I never ended up going during the blocked off time. Deleting it felt great. Also, think about things that might need to be scheduled before life gets hectic again (health checkups, dentists, car/home maintenance).
• Routines: Review the routines you (used to) have, how would you change them to better suit your life? Think about bedtimes, exercise, self care, meal prep/planning. How can you slowly get back into those routines in a way that serves you.
• Projects/to-do lists: I divide my tasks into the following buckets: to do this week, to do next week, and to do someday. I put them in one note in my notes app. With the “to do this week” list at the top. That list contains any tasks I can finish this week. They are tasks, not appointments or projects (projects consist of multiple tasks). I delete the completed tasks from the list at the end of the week. Anything that should be done soon, but not necessarily this week, will go on next week’s to do list. If something pops up in my mind that’s not necessarily urgent (like defrost the freezer, or figuring out how to transfer my playlists away from Spotify) I put it in the “to do one day list,” which can include any type of project. Over time, the “to-do one day” list starts filling up, so during my reset I review the list and prioritize things or remove them entirely.

Upkeep

A reset is so much easier when you’re working with a strong system, without a strong system, a reset can feel like a rebuild. So while I’m not going into creating systems in this post and I also recommend doing a big declutter/clean/organize session at some point, I do want to share what helps me keep my systems going:  

• A place for everything, everything in its place: This quote always pops up when it comes to organization. When everything has its place, putting things back in their place is very easy (unless the place is hard to reach, but we will touch on that in a second). Just make sure you actually do put things back where they belong.
• Observe where things want to live: That being said, we have to be conscious observers of our habits, spaces, and things. Our mess often tells us a story of friction in our lives. If you keep finding the kitchen scissors in your office or you keep finding pens on the dining table, this might tell you something about how these items are used. Store things where you use them and you’ll find that they’ll be more likely to be put away. Sometimes duplicates aren’t so bad either, like keeping an extra pair of scissors in an office desk for example. 
• Active, Passive, and Archive Storage: The ease in which things can be stored and retrieved is a huge factor in whether or not they will be put away. As I cover in my post on active, passive, and archive storage, the things you use most should be easiest to access, and the things you use least can be more difficult to access. And everything else is on a spectrum between those two. For example: you might want to keep your dining utensils within easy reach in a drawer in the kitchen, but anything you use to cook up a once-a-year holiday dinner might be better off on a higher, more difficult to reach shelf. No matter what, one of my personal rules is to do your best to avoid storing things behind other things if at all possible, especially if the items in the front are small and plentiful. For example: putting a seasonal serving dish behind a 12-piece set of wine glasses makes it a pain to retrieve, even if it’s once a year. Read more in the blogpost HERE.
• Inboxes: When it comes to staying organized, it’s important to have a place for things that don’t yet have a place. This way these items don’t clutter up your space. Once you have a moment, you can then go in and declutter or give those items a space. For example: in my digital folders, along with creating a folder for each project I am working on I also have an “inbox” folder to put any files I need to keep but of which I’m not sure where to put them yet.
• Outboxes: Similarly I have spaces for things that are on their way out of my space. Whether that’s a donations box in my hallway closet, which I will take out once in a while, a shelf in my kitchen where I put “foods that should probably be eaten soon,” or simply putting the trash by the door so that I take it to the dumpster the next time I leave the house.
  
  (A word of caution with inboxes and outboxes: they can quickly become a catch-all and expand in size if you don’t stay on top of it. So make sure to either set a time to take care of them, or keep an eye on them to make sure you get to them before they overflow)

Final thoughts

Like I said, it’s not realistic to do all of these at once. There are three scenarios for me:

1. Lots of time + big task: When I have a good chunk of time (like a full weekend) I go through this list and pick one that gets in the way of my peace most of all but that might take more time (like decluttering my digital folders). 
2. Some time + lots of little tasks: I keep my physical space pretty minimal, I can do a couple of the items on the list on a weekend afternoon (e.g. bathroom + kitchen + desk + command center + closet). 
3. Less time + any task: When I don’t have much time, I’ll just focus on dividing the most important tasks over however much time I have. I’ll focus on only removing stuff I don’t need, or only cleaning/dusting the area. If I’m decluttering my digital folders, I might make it a 10 minutes a day task where I declutter/tidy one or two folders, until the whole thing is done.

Depending on how big the task is (resetting your wardrobe is different from resetting your bedside table) don’t create more work than the time allows for. What I mean with this is that if you’ve given yourself 10 minutes, you don’t want to empty your entire wardrobe onto your bed. That’ll end up leaving you more overwhelmed because now your space is a mess and your 10 minutes are up. If you have 10 minutes for your wardrobe, simply remove the clothes you know you don’t want. A bedside table or junk drawer might be more manageable in 10 minutes. Always go on a case by case basis.

The September Reset should feel like a fun and calming thing that makes you excited for whatever comes next, not burn you out before you even get started. Any amount of decluttering, cleaning, or organizing is a win. Share a picture with your friends, curl up with a good book, or buy yourself some flowers, you deserve to celebrate yourself!