What Would Happen If You Released 25 Things for 7 Days Straight?

2025 was rough, not gonna lie. So let’s get right to the heart of the matter. The biggest lie being perpetrated in the world today is the over-identification with the ego. Simply put, we live ego-driven rather than soul-driven lives. And clutter is the ego made visible.

Physical clutter is obvious, but we are also burdened by clutter in our thoughts, emotions, energies, and in how we relate to others. It’s easy to spot in our individual lives and in the world at large. Notice how your mind bounces between the past and the future, struggling to settle in the peace of the present. Feel the anxiety and rage coursing through the culture. Perceive the ever-present energies of greed, urgency, chaos, and superficiality. Turn on the news and watch the ego parade. Observe how you battle to be right or to get that parking space at Costco. Peek into every garage in your neighborhood, jam-packed with stuff.

We can shift toward more sanity and humanity right now by making the intentional and spiritual choice to align with our true nature. Living a little less from ego, and a little more from essence, is the radical act our world needs in 2026.

Ego vs. Essence

There are two aspects that live within each of us, both necessary and forever entwined. The ego is our “human” aspect. It’s the image we construct of ourselves; the beliefs, needs, roles, and possessions we identify with in the world. It is concerned with self-preservation, success, and survival. It knows fear, competition, scarcity, and holding on. It sees us as separate from all other beings and the earth itself.

In contrast, the soul is the divine essence within us. It’s eternal, expansive, wise, and loving. It knows peace, presence, gratitude, and joy. It is free and unattached yet deeply connected to everyone and everything. Our soul aspect is our core identity, as we are all human “beings”—souls inhabiting human bodies, temporarily here on planet Earth.

Knowing which aspect is in the driver’s seat matters because that’s what determines our thoughts and emotions, the energy we exude, the way we relate to others, the actions we take, and whether our lives are clutter-full or clutter-free. Moment by moment, we must decide if we will affirm the lie of the ego—I am not enough, you are not enough, and there is not enough— or the truth of the soul—I am enough, you are enough, and there is enough.

All forms of clutter reflect a soul that is not true to itself. And the ego serves us best when it’s riding shotgun.

The Invitation to Alignment

In an awakened world, we would always live from soul alignment. #GOALS!! For now, just observe where you hang out in ego. You might see it in your judgments and worries. Or in your stacked bookshelves and the mini-CVS in your bathroom. You might see it in those hard-to-shake feelings of shame and unworthiness. Or in the victim stories you tell yourself and others, buying into the social currency of brokenness rather than wholeness. You might see it in your scorekeeping, status-seeking, self-absorption, and exhaustion. Or in your child’s face, overwhelmed with too many toys, clothes, screens, and choices. You might see it in your financial lies, the subtle (or not so subtle) ways you interfere, or your mistaken belief that abundance means accumulation. You might see it in your disconnection with nature, which is waiting outside with open arms. Or in all the things you hold onto that no longer serve.

“Get your house in order,” the soul whispers, not as judgment or indictment, but as longing for alignment.  

The Magic of 10 Percent

Living from the ego broadcasts confusion to the universe, which always responds to who we are being.  It’s like a static-filled radio, our true signal lost in the noise. Life changes when we tune into our soul signal— a higher frequency of self-realization, gratitude, compassion, love, enough-ness, and letting go.

Take a moment to consider 10 percent less ego identification and 10 percent more soul alignment in your life. Imagine 10 percent less dog toys and 10 percent more wonder; 10 percent less resistance and 10 percent more lightness of being, 10 percent less arguments and 10 percent more space in the laundry room. The magic of 10 percent is a small but seismic realignment, doable and transformative.

One way to declutter is to force yourself to get rid of things in the hopes that it helps you align. But the more graceful way is to align first. Get quiet for a moment and ask your soul what it’s longing for in 2026. The answer may come in a word, an image, a phrase, a gut feeling, or a knowing in your bones. Trust what you receive. (Mine was peace, and it came with an image of the family dog Mr. Peabody, whom I affectionately call the “Prince of Peace.”)

With this soul knowing at the wheel, you can look at everything and everything in your life and ask: “Are you essential…are you of my essence?” The things in your life that are not will become obvious and begin to let go of you.

Get The Release Party Started

There is no right way to declutter. Just start somewhere and have fun with it. If you’re hesitant to release something, don’t. Trust that when it’s time for something to let go of you, it will, easily.

Here are a few strategies to try:

• Become like an owl in a tree, scanning for ego and soul energies as you do your day.
• Set aside an hour and clear a clutter zone, such as the nightstand or that secret you’ve been keeping. Or use that time for something soul-affirming, like doing your art, getting on your bike, or allowing yourself some rest.  
• Make your morning meditation active. Cherry-pick some things that no longer speak to you, like 10 percent of your coffee mugs. Make the cabinet under the kitchen sink soul-worthy. Or empty your dresser and put back only what truly loves you back.
• Spotlight relationship release. Forgive someone— or yourself — held hostage by an old story. Softly close the door on energies that don’t lift you up. Turn off that podcast and listen for your own information. Make your boundaries less of an electric fence and more of a soft light of sovereignty.
• Clear one “horizon”-tal surface per day (hint: desktop, bathroom vanity, or top of the fridge) to see your future more clearly.
• Add space between the notes of your life. Remove something from your schedule that takes more than it gives. Sit with someone in true presence. Give yourself a five-minute buffer between phone calls to just be.
• Release 25 things each day, for seven days straight. Anything counts, whether it’s an outdated file folder, the crutches from your surgery five years ago, or your habit of not appreciating what you have.

A Year of Soul

Let’s make 2026 the year we remember who we are and why we came—to serve our love to the world. May your thoughts, feelings, vibes, the trunk of your car, and your smallest gestures bring that remembering to our weary world.

Peggy Fitzsimmons has helped many people get their houses in order through intensive decluttering. A former staff of the Omega Institute, she was a consulting producer on Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul Sunday. In her book Release: Create a Clutter Free and Soul Driven Life, she shares spiritual and practical insights for living in alignment with our true soul nature. To learn more visit peggyfitzsimmons.com.