Ayeee-yee! Welcome October! Iyaaa-yaa, I see you December! Brethren, this is me doing a traditional dance to welcome the new month. Three more months and boom, we are done with 2025. I think decluttering is always a good way to usher in a new season.
But let us leave aside the old jerricans, car tyres, broken plastic basins etc, that are probably cluttering your house right now, have you tried digital decluttering? Last weekend, my husband left his phone at home.
At some point, I noticed that he was receiving messages from a WhatsApp group that he was no longer involved in.
I got curious and took a look at his other groups (do not worry, he did not mind, we actually know each other’s passwords, unlike those married people who would rather die than let their spouse touch their phone) and what did I discover? He was in not one, not five, not 10 but almost 20 defunct WhatsApp groups.
Later that evening, we went through the groups one by one, exiting and deleting them. One particularly striking one was a group where the members were, wait for it, himself and only himself! And that was because everyone else had already left.
Like me, I am sure you often despair over just how many WhatsApp groups you have to be in for the purposes of work, fundraising and family communication.
Why be in any unnecessary group? If the person you were raising funds for got buried, the photos were shared and the reconciliation of moneys done, it is time to leave the group, or are you hanging around until it is your turn to need a burial committee?
Do you know the term for people who stubbornly stay in groups they should have left a long time ago? Monitoring spirits.
Stop hanging around for gossip and memes and just leave! This will save you the heart palpitations and acute embarrassment of being kicked out of a WhatsApp group once the admins notice that their 100-strong group only has 25 active members and 75 monitoring spirits.
Declutter your WhatsApp groups today and experience freedom!