Sometimes the smallest inconveniences become our biggest annoyances in our daily life. Do these five simple things to feel a little less stressed.

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I’m a stay-at-home mom with a toddler, so I occasionally have days I become so overstimulated with noise and mess that I want to throw the entire house into a big black garbage bag and start over. Lately, I have noticed just how annoyed I’ve become by some of the smallest inconveniences in my house.

The last thing any of us needs is more added stress. We pay lots of money annually to feel less stressed and call it self care. But if we don’t fix the actual things causing us daily stress, it just ends up being a Band-Aid on the problem itself. Because once we get home from getting our nails done, having a massage, getting a skin treatment, or brunch with our book club…the daily stress is still there.

These small stressors in my life have become repeat offenders that make my blood pressure spike slightly any time I have to deal with them, so I decided it was time to just remove the stress for my own personal peace. The best (or worst?) part is that every single one of them is preventable and totally fixable.

When I say these are small things that annoy me, I mean they are very small. Minor inconveniences. And small enough to FIX so they don’t keep stressing me out or wasting my time. So here we go–five small things to do to make your life a little less stressful.

How many emails do you have that you never open or don’t even care about just sitting in your inbox? This could be your work inbox or your personal one. For me, it’s always the “sign up for 20% off” just to get the discount and then I don’t shop there again for one reason or another.

Sure, it’s easy to just hit delete. It’s even easier to just let them sit unopened in your inbox. But lots of servers like Google Mail and Yahoo are now charging you if you hit your storage capacity. I don’t know about you, but I’m not paying for more storage for emails I don’t even open or read.

This was also causing me unnecessary extra stress. I am the type of person that can only let the red number sit in the corner of the app for so long before it demands my attention. Kudos to those of you who have hundreds of unread texts and emails. I am not one of them, and it literally stresses me out if I don’t clear it out at some point. You may not realize it, but it’s actually clutter for you too.

Go through your inbox and hit “unsubscribe” on everything you haven’t opened in the past week that you don’t need and have no intention of opening. Most of mine were from stores and shops, but I also had some from places I’ve visited or newsletters I don’t read and have no intention of reading. Then, delete everything else that you haven’t opened that is over a week old. If you were going to read it, you would have already.

This is a small thing in the grand scheme of all the things. You could leave it as is. But this is also how things become busy work. One more thing to do. One more unnecessary alert on your phone stealing your attention and time. One more reason to check your phone while you’re at the gas pump instead of just taking a minute to breathe in some fresh air and decompress for literally 3 minutes.

Unsubscribe. Literally.

I live in a three level house. That’s a lot of stairs. And it’s not that I’m lazy and don’t want to climb stairs (although…) but it can be really irritating for me to constantly be going up or down for something like a pen, hair clip, or a phone charger.

I am sure every single minimalist and de-clutter-er will shiver at this statement, but if you are always finding you need something that is located in another room or level, I highly recommend either adding another one to that room or level or moving it to where you find yourself needing it most often.

I am not saying to move the contents of your bedroom into your living room so you never have to get up. But if you notice you are going to another room or level a lot for something, that’s a pretty good indicator that you either need a second one or it’s being stored in the wrong part of your house.

Here’s a personal example. For weeks I was walking myself upstairs at some point every day to grab a hair clip because my hair accessories live in a small drawer in my bathroom upstairs. We also have a bathroom on our main level, so I started keeping 2-3 clips in the cabinet of that bathroom too so that I can grab one quickly and get on with my day.

Here’s another one. My husband started realizing almost every day that he needed a phone charger while he wraps up work invoices in the afternoon. He uses his phone for work, which means his battery is pretty low by the time he gets home. So, we bought a couple extras and now we keep one in the office drawer on the main level as well as upstairs. Two locations we know we can always find a phone charger.

Here’s why this is useful for me. I have tried keeping things in their “spot.” I actually prefer it that way because it creates less clutter in our home. However, I was finding that I was constantly getting distracted if I had to change levels or rooms for frequently used items.

I would be on my way to grab a pen and see some toys that needed picking up, and stop to pick them up. Then I noticed a plant that needed to be watered so I’d grab it and bring it with me so I could water it. Then I stopped to pet the cat. Then I noticed something that needed to go in the sink. I’ll just fold this laundry quick…and all of a sudden, I’m not only delayed getting a pen, but I forgot what I even needed to write down in the first place.

It’s way more efficient for me to have one readily available where I spend the most time in my house, which is on the main level. Not in the drawer upstairs or in the office down the hall. Of course you want pens in an office. But if you aren’t spending much time in there during the day (I don’t) then you may also want a couple where you do spend most of your time.

Pens now also reside in a drawer in our dining room, along with tape, the phone charger, and some post-it notes. And chocolate. Keep chocolate in multiple locations of your house too. Trust me.

I fully believe most of us are not using our smart phone’s available functions to their potential. This is one I think should be utilized more. The Do Not Disturb option. Whether you have a Samsung or an iPhone, you have this option. I promise. I even Googled it to make sure.

The Do Not Disturb option is fantastic because you can mute all incoming alerts to your phone for a period of time that you decide on. Texts, phone calls, notifications, emails–all of it. Mine will always be on from 9pm-6am, but I have also started using it when I need to get into a flow state of work and crush some tasks and projects, during dinner time with my family, and when I’m playing with my daughter for some intentional play time.

You can customize this if you need to. Maybe you just want to mute all notifications from your apps and emails. Maybe you want to just mute phone calls and texts. Whatever it is, you can adjust it to what you need and when. You can also set daily times that your phone will automatically turn on DND mode so you don’t even have to do it yourself.

The reason I started using this more is because I would find myself glancing down at my phone without even realizing I was doing it whenever it would light up. It was interrupting me for a lot for things that could absolutely wait. Non-emergencies presented as emergencies.

For example, while I’m playing dress up with my daughter, I really don’t need to know immediately that it’s BOGO at the local coffee shop tomorrow. Or that Taylor Swift wore Louis Vuitton head to toe as she entered Arrowhead Stadium. Or that my credit card minimum payment is due in five days. Or that my bestie just sent me three reels on Instagram. These are all things I can check later and not be worse off for knowing them in an hour or two.

How about a Smart Watch? How often are you looking at your wrist even if your phone is in another room? I personally don’t have one, and I’m not against them at all. I think they can be really valuable tools. But I will tell you that it is unbelievably irritating to me when I’m having a conversation with someone and they glance down at their wrist every two minutes. And I can’t help but notice how distracted they are all the time.

If you are expecting a phone call or a text message or an email, I get it. You need to stick close to your device to make sure you don’t miss it or respond right away. But are there times when you really don’t need to be alerted to anything? Something to consider.

In the season of life I’m in, I basically wear the same shirts and pants every week and I fill in occasionally when I need to look a little more put together or dress up. So ask me why it felt like I was always playing Where’s Waldo? to find clothes to wear. The answer is not that I need to do laundry (although…), but that they were inconveniently tossed into a drawer with a bunch of other shirts I rarely wear or on a hanger in between other items I also don’t wear as often.

I ended up rearranging some clothes in my closet and making some more defined spaces to make the clothes I wear regularly most available to me. Sweatpants, sweaters, jeans, and leggings are now front and center. Dresses, “cute” tops, and jackets are now higher up and not in my way.

I also made a commitment that if I don’t wear it for a year, it gets donated.

This honestly works for anything in any of your spaces. If you need to rearrange a cabinet, countertop, closet, or drawer so that you aren’t getting hung up on things you don’t use every single day, my gosh DO IT. The amount of time I save not staring into the abyss of my closet is not a lot, but it feels like it makes my get-ready routine go a lot smoother.

If a space isn’t functioning for you, rearrange it so it works for you and not against you.

And while you’re at it, get rid of what you don’t need or want anymore. It’s just taking up space for something else you do need or want. Or just plain taking up space.

This one is especially for my Midwest based friends who see long stretches of winter. Since I have added some ‘outside’ to my inside spaces, I feel so much better coping with the dreary days of cold weather and lack of sunshine.

Adding plants to several rooms of our home, opening curtains and blinds to let in daylight, and even opening the patio door a couple times a week for a minute or two is unbelievably helpful in feeling less boxed in. Yes, it’s cold for a few minutes but it really does air out the space and make it feel refreshed.

For those of you reading this who swear you kill every plant you touch and need low maintenance, hard to kill plants, I would suggest a Pothos, Spider Plant or an Aloe Plant. All of them are very low maintenance and brighten up any space you have while cleaning your air.

However, if you have pets, always check and make sure the house plants you are bringing home are nontoxic. I can tell you with certainty that of the above three, only the spider plant is pet safe. The other two are toxic to cats and dogs because of their foliage and the gel inside the aloe plant.

If you really are certain you cannot keep plants alive, at the very least make sure you are getting natural light and fresh air into your home. At our house, we open the patio door for 1-2 minutes every afternoon and just let air come in. Yes, it usually triggers the heat to turn on, but I’ll take losing some heated air in exchange for some cool, non-recycled air.

We also make sure blinds and curtains are open during the day to let in natural light. I know people are weird about privacy, and I get it. This past summer we invested in some vinyl window tint that uses a water based solution and a squeegee to put on the windows so that we can see out, but during the day no one can see in. It helps with UV rays and also keeps some heat out during the summer when we bake because our house faces west.

Having some fresh air, greenery, and natural light makes any home feel freshened up and it’s good for your energy too! Fresh air and sunshine is one of the easier things you can do daily to lower stress levels. I also find when I’m feeling a little sluggish or dreary midday, breathing in a few breaths of fresh air and looking outside for a minute or two gives me a boost I need to make it through my afternoon.

These five small tweaks won’t solve every stressful issue you have, but they’ll sure help reduce some anxiety and annoyance in your life. My screen time has gone down almost a full hour since I’ve minimized notifications and utilized my Do Not Disturb option more often. A whole hour I gained back just from adjusting some settings.

I also feel oddly relieved that I’m not checking my phone as much which tells me checking it or seeing all the notifications come through was making me a little anxious. Something I wasn’t even consciously aware of as it was happening.

I think if you can take anything away from this, it’s this: If there are things in your life that are causing you unnecessary stress or annoyance, ask yourself how you can fix it or remove it altogether…and then do it.

Here’s to living life with a little less stress,