Whether it's your mind or your bedroom, clutter has the power to make any woman feel so overwhelmed (as if we didn't already have enough going on).
While the decluttering trend has been poppin for quite a while now, it's safe to say there is no better time than now to take it on. Taking a day to declutter your physical and mental space can make a world of a difference. This is coming from someone who loved to keep everything until I found out living a borderline hoarder life wasn't cute…so clean out, declutter, and refresh.
Here are some reasons you should think about decluttering your life ASAP:
Free Your Mind
The phrase is more than an En Vogue song that's still the jam to this day. But seriously, from clothes to unopened mail, to socks to blankets, having clutter in your home, car, and office space can make your mind feel cluttered too. And this isn't a one-and-done thing. You can't really free your mind without freeing your physical space, especially at home. There's a pretty big chance you'll feel like you have to go somewhere else just to obtain peace of mind and think, when the answer could be as easy as clearing out your area and making room.
Get That Beauty Sleep
Having clutter piled up has this weird way of making you always feel tired, but somehow, it never actually allows you to get any sleep. The nerve, right? I think we've all had that mess that we get tired just thinking about having to clean up. But, the effort it takes to declutter, even if you have to do one room or one space at a time, will be worth it when you can look at the same area that used to stress you out and breathe a sigh of relief before you get some much-needed sleep. Plus, how can you sleep with a pile of clothes and other unmentionables on your bed, floor, and everywhere in between?
Helps Decrease Anxiety
…And stress. Seriously, research has proven there's a connection between anxiety, stress, and the amount of clutter you have in your home. This has the potential to make you overeat, and just be an emotional eater in general, which not only makes you gain unhealthy weight but impacts your mental and physical health. On the upside, once you decide to declutter, your mood will be much better. I can attest to the emotion of having too much clutter and always feeling like you have to get your life together. But once you remove it, you'll be happier and might even be ready to have company without feeling like you have to throw everything under your bed and in the closet...or am I the only one who does that?
Focus On Fleek
Oh, the places you can go once you declutter. Instead of giving your attention to seemingly overpowering piles of items here and there, picture a clean and open space that will help you get inspired and motivated with ideas. Whether it's cleaning your kitchen to make a meal or cleaning out your office to get more done at work, decluttering will have your focus on 10. Now, you can finally tap into your creativity, be even more productive, and make clearer decisions.
Goals Don’t Seem Impossible
Decluttering can also help you set and reach goals. You probably know how hard it is to even try and accomplish anything when you have a pile of mess to focus on instead. If you clean out the clutter and replace it with items that inspire and motivate you, you'll be able to really take time to think about what you want out of life, and the goals and dreams you've been hoping to achieve. But, proceed with caution, because the items that inspire you can turn into more clutter, and you'll have to repeat the process all over again.
You Could Actually Save Some Coins
Having clutter around could actually be costing you money. Have you ever had that moment when you can't find your lipstick, or your favorite scarf, so you count it up as a loss and go buy a new one? It might not seem like a major life changing purchase, but that ish adds up when it comes to your coins and the amount of clutter you have. Plus, if you haven't embraced paperless billing and get your bills mailed to you, it will be easy to forget to pay a bill, and those late fees are no joke.
That Pile Can’t Keep Piling Up
And I say this out of love. But girl, if you don't take care of it, it will only get worse. And we both know that's not healthy for your mental, physical, emotional, or any other type of space you have in and out of your body. This was a reality I had to come to terms with too. As easy as it is to ignore the clutter and subconsciously make it bigger (because who has time to clean up?), it only makes things worse for every part of you. Seriously, I know how much of a chore taking the time to declutter is, but it will make a world of a difference.
Related Stories:
Got Clutter? Marie Kondo Your Life With These Tidying Hacks - Read More
5 Easy Ways To Raise The Vibration of Your Home - Read More
Tour Multifaceted Creative McKenzie Renae's Dope ATL Abode - Read More
- How I Turned My Bedroom Into A Zen Oasis - xoNecole ›
- Professional Organizing Tips To Declutter & De-Stress - xoNecole: Women's Interest, Love, Wellness, Beauty ›
- Decluttering: How to Decide What to Keep? - Simply + Fiercely ›
- 6 Popular Minimalist Decluttering Methods - Break the Twitch ›
- Downsize and declutter: how to get started - MarketWatch ›
- How To Declutter Your Home in 5 Easy Steps - YouTube ›
- How to Declutter Every Room in Your Home ›
- 18 Five-Minute Decluttering Tips to Start Conquering Your Mess ... ›
- How To Start Decluttering Your Home: 15 Actionable Tips ›
- Professional Organizer Tips: What NOT To Do When Decluttering ... ›
- 10 Creative Ways to Declutter Your Home ›
- How to Declutter Your Home: A Ridiculously Thorough Guide ... ›
Before getting married and becoming a mother, Danielle Brooks was just fine focusing on her career.
“I did not want children,” Brooks shared on the first episode of Pregnant Pause, a new podcast for Black women at the intersection of motherhood and ambition. “I was one of those women who believed I was not gonna be married and I was not gonna have kids, and I was ok with that.”
But after meeting her now husband Dennis Gelin, The Color Purple actress had second thoughts about building a family. And one moment in particular rocked her world and changed her mind.
While playing the role of Sophia in The Color Purple on Broadway and playing Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, Brooks shared she struggled with severe acne and decided to get on Accutane. However, because it is a potent teratogen, meaning it can cause significant harm to a developing fetus, experts warn the retinoid medication should never be taken during pregnancy due to the high risk of severe birth defects. When Brooks found out she was pregnant while taking the medication she realized she did, in fact, want a child.
“I will never forget, when I saw that pregnancy test, I broke down,” she said. “And it wasn’t out of fear. I broke down because I realized I wanted to be a mom, and that option was no longer on the table in this moment. And it shocked the hell out of me.”
Brooks eventually had her daughter Freeya in November 2019, and got married in 2022. Today she juggles her career with being a wife and mother and got real on how hard it can be but how necessary it is to pull back at times.
“There are moments in motherhood, in marriage, in life that you need stillness,” she said. “And I’m learning that that is ok and beautiful.”
Watch her full interview on the Pregnant Pause Podcast here, or listen to the episode on Apple, Spotify, iHeart or where you listen to podcasts.
Featured image by YouTube/xoNecole
What Does A Big Chop Have To Do With Your Career Success? Maybe Everything.
From declaring it a sexy scalp summer to being buzzed and booked, many Black women are revisiting an empowering rite of passage with short haircuts that have been trending all summer.
If you’ve scrolled through TikTok or IG Reels lately, you’ve probably seen it: clippers buzzing, curls falling, edges getting freed. The big chop is not just in a nostalgic, “Remember when we all went natural back in 2001” kind of way. It’s a modern-day reckoning.
While big chopping is nothing new—and can include both curly and straight choices—Black women today are snipping off more than damaged or weighty hair this time around. Many of us are cutting ties with the stress of career setbacks, unemployment, and underemployment.
For Black women especially, the chop is about reclaiming power when everything feels out of our control. It’s a ritual of release—like saging your crown. We’re saying goodbye to old versions of ourselves, outdated beauty standards, and the weight of being “on” all the time.
We’ve lived through a pandemic, confrontations around race and gender, “crashout burnout” culture, and the quiet grief of dreams delayed. The unemployment rate for Black women is disproportionately high, lingering at 6 percent (double that of White professionals—a record).
Take inspiring examples like that of Joy Reid, award-winning journalist and author who, earlier this year, was fired from MSNBC where she was host of The ReidOut after serving in the role for five years, tackling real conversations around race, equity, culture, and the U.S. systems minorities are constantly navigating.
Throughout the show’s time—as many of us do in the workplace—Joy Reid wore her hair in a plethora of styles, from tapered curly 'dos, to chin-length waves, to braided extensions. This was all while being the first Black woman to anchor a primetime cable news show, winning awards, and raking in top ratings at the onset.
The fallout of her MSNBC departure was public, and Joy unapologetically shared, via a recorded Zoom call, that she'd “been through every emotion, from anger, rage, disappointment, hurt.” Since then, according to a recent interview, she’s fully leaned into the short blond natural she’d debuted on MSNBC last year, and still proudly rocks it while hosting The Joy Reid Show podcast, which launched this June. “I finally did it, and I love it, and it’s so fun,” she said in the interview. “I think we’ve been so kind of tormented about our hair as Black women, and our hair has always been political. It used to be illegal for us to wear braids—or not illegal, but people could fire you for wearing braids.”
“I definitely had the anxiety of, how is this going to go over? You know, go over with my audience. And so we think about it all,” she continued, adding that she feels free.
There’s a specific kind of emotional alchemy that happens when Black women cut their hair, especially in a career transition.
Whether it’s walking away from a toxic workplace, stepping into entrepreneurship, or pivoting into a more purpose-aligned path, the big chop becomes a visible, visceral declaration: I am not who I was when I started this job. Hell, I’m not defined by a job—period.
Joy joins many other powerful Black women who have shown the world that short hair can be both evolutionary and revolutionary in one’s personal and professional life. Halle Berry, Toni Braxton, Rihanna, Yvonne Orji, Solange, Grace Jones, Keke Palmer—they all took bold, very public steps that redefine what self-care, healing and thriving can look like. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley publicly shared her challenges with alopecia in 2020 and has since continued to proudly embrace her bald head as part of her in-office style.
These women didn’t need a haircut to shine—the talent was already there. But let’s be real: Grace, Halle, and Toni’s iconic short haircuts didn’t just turn heads, they turned their careers up a notch. The crown wasn’t the source, but it was a spotlight. A fresh cut can’t make you—but it sure can let the world know you’ve arrived.
I recently went back to short and natural after a stretch of wearing wigs and extensions and losing clients left and right due to diversity budget cuts. I’ve had to make a major pivot in my career, and it’s hard enough rewriting resumes, tweaking proposals, rebounding from constant rejection, and piecing my mental health back together after constantly second-guessing why I don’t just give up and do something cyber-based and strange for a lil’ change.
The last thing I need right now—in this economy and wacky job market—is high-maintenance hair. Happily, it’s just curls, water, gel, and go—a sharp, short TWA that keeps me grounded and makes me pop. No stress, all presence.
So, if you’re on the professional edge (literally and figuratively), wondering why you’re stuck in a wacky Twilight Zone episode in your career, think about letting that hair go.
It’s true: A big chop is no magic wand to cure all your job search or career advancement woes. And it by no means will reverse the troubling socioeconomic and political conditions we’re living in right now. The dilemmas many of us are facing are harsh, terrifying and exhausting. Yes.
But if you’re constantly hitting career walls and you’re at your wits end, maybe your scalp deserves a bit of sunlight. In 2025, the big chop isn’t a breakdown—it’s a supporting character in your career breakthrough. And it’s reminding us—Black women— that we can reintroduce ourselves at any length. No warning. No permission. Just vibes, clippers, and clarity.
Let’s make things inbox official! Sign up for the xoNecole newsletter for love, wellness, career, and exclusive content delivered straight to your inbox.
Featured image by Face Stock/Shutterstock