Ep 2 | Can Decluttering Improve Your Mental Health?

"Several studies show a correlation between disorganization, clutter, and mental health conditions, including, depression, anxiety, and stress. Messy environments can cause frustration, helplessness, and feeling overwhelmed. Excessive clutter often leads to feelings of shame, hopelessness, and guilt." (PsyhologyToday.com) 

I have spent years, years getting to this point in my life where I’m not overwhelmed with house work. I’ll give you my number one secret. You ready? Own less shit. That’s it. I’m not talking be a bare minimalist, but have a manageable amount of things. Start being intentional with what you buy, what you bring into your home. 

For years I tried a cleaning schedule, I tried buying bins to keep organized, but then I wouldn’t feel motivated to clean or I was in a rush and didn’t put things up where they belonged, and then everyone’s a mess again. It’s like yo-yo cleaning. You start decluttering, you start feeling better about your space your environment, but then something comes up or something happens, and you revert back to your old cleaning tendencies and behavior and what was once clean sand organized is now not. So you took 2 steps forward and 10 steps back. And you think well this particular cleaning schedule or routine just doesn’t work, so you browse Pinterest to find another one. And you give that a try, and the cycle continues. And the frustration and stress slowly build up overtime. And then you become bitter about your home. Not liking anything, not liking your clothes, not wanting to do the dishes again or dust or take the trash. Because you’re tired of the problem not being solved and not improving. 

So I want to go over more of the psychology behind Decluttering and organizing, rather than a How to Declutter tutorial or How to become more organized. If you didn’t have clutter, what would your life look like? How would you feel? What would you think about yourself? About your home? About your belongings? If you became an organized person, how would this impact your life? What would change? How would you feel? 

Ask yourself are these two end results possible? Why or why not? Yes it’s possible for me to have a decluttered space and keep it decluttered, and it’s possible to become organized. Or no, it’s not possible for me to change my decluttering ways and I’ll always be a hot mess.

*The PDF Link to the questions for this podcast episode are attached here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TPvalF5orRB-T05pKu1QNptqDsCm1X0c/view?usp=sharing

*Be sure to download the file and not open in the browser.

Psychology Today article: (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-resilient-brain/202302/the-many-mental-benefits-of-decluttering#:~:text=Several%20studies%20show%20a%20correlation,shame%2C%20hopelessness%2C%20and%20guilt.) 

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Transcript

Meritt: 0:00

What is up, Cueties? By the way, I say cueties now because that's a play on the word cue, C U E, because I teach people how to rethink their habits with simple strategies, but also learn about thought patterns and how to process feelings, and all of that stems from a cue. Today's podcast is brought to you by a poll I put up on my Instagram stories. A couple of days ago. I asked them, what kind of content are you needing? The choices were decluttering slash organizing tips, cleaning routines, morning and night time routines, and meal planning slash recipes. The majority chose decluttering and organizing tips. So that's what I'm talking about today. Let's start off by defining what decluttering and organizing means. I literally just googled these definitions and pulled them from dictionary. com. Decluttering means"to remove items from a room, an area, etc". And organizing means"to form into a coherent unity or functioning whole.". Decluttering, to me, means not having as much shit as you currently have, and organizing, for me, is a system used for building a sustainable cleaning routine and habit. Decluttering and organizing, just like routines, are different for everyone. You can go on Pinterest and look up how to declutter or how to be more organized in articles like How to Purge Your House, 11 Tips When Decluttering Is Hard. Or how to declutter your entire home room by room and step by step, or how to create a minimalist home pops up. But before you go, as my kids would say, quote unquote, search up how toss. We need to figure out the why behind decluttering and organizing for you. Why do you want to declutter? Once you have a more specific reason as to why you are decluttering, then you can type it in Pinterest or Reddit or TikTok decluttering for XYZ because it could be decluttering for your home. It could be decluttering toys. It could be decluttering your car, your office space, whatever. And you can do the same with organizing. So, I'm giving you a little bit of homework in this episode and, I'm going to post a PDF of these questions and references for you in the show notes in case you are listening to this podcast while working out or driving or doing something where you can't write your answers down. You have to understand why you think you have a cluttered space, how you got a cluttered space, and why you think you are not organized, and what has caused you to feel this way. What does clutter mean to you? What does being organized mean to you? For some people, like people who collect things, they may have items displayed throughout their homes on various surfaces, or someone who reads a lot. May have books piled up everywhere. And all the nooks and crannies. But they may not view these as clutter. You need to define for yourself what clutter means to you. What cleaning means to you and what organizing means to you. Why do you want to be more organized? Why do you feel like you aren't currently organized? Who would you be if you were more organized? How would your life be if you had less clutter? What would your space look like with less clutter? What is your decluttering slash being more organized? If you have a problem with clutter because you are over consuming things What other areas in your life are you over consuming? Are you over consuming alcohol, food, social media, work, etc? What you are doing currently slash what you have done in the past hasn't worked or else You may not be reading this or listening to this podcast or watching home organizing videos on Netflix, YouTube, or TikTok. It's like seeing all of these influencers organize their fridges. Most of them... Have all of these acrylic organizers they use to store categories of food or beverages in now I'm not saying that this is wrong or that I don't like what they're doing because it does look really good And I'm not hating on anyone I do think it looks nice and It is organized, but I just want to point out how those videos make you feel. Like if you watch those videos, do you feel like shit about yourself because you wish you could be more organized or um, you wish you had this stuff, but you don't need acrylic organizers. to be organized. Keeping eggs in the egg carton is fine. I use leftover cardboard boxes from my pantry organizing and cleaning supply closet. It doesn't necessarily look aesthetically pretty, but it's my house and it's what works for us. So I don't think you have to go spend a ton of money. It's simply about figuring out how you want your future self to behave with the items in your home. Changing your thinking about having a cleaner house will also reshape your experiences with habits you may not want to have anymore. What do you currently believe about your cleaning habits? And I added cleaning into this because I feel like you can't have, you can't have decluttering and organizing without cleaning. So I, I kind of combined those, but how are you cleaning slash organizing currently? What actions, I think cleaning is a system for being organized. That's And we're having less clutter. So I think that's why I combined those. What actions do you take that match your current belief? These questions are here to provide data and awareness to your brain. Sometimes we aren't even aware of patterns. We have, whether it be a thought pattern or habit pattern, sometimes we aren't even aware of where a certain belief came from. Do you believe you are a failure because you can't keep your house or your life organized? Why do you feel this way? Where did this belief come from? And if you answered yes, do you want to change this belief about yourself? You can buy all the organizing books, pretty boxes and whatnot. and still not be an organized person. It's not about the how, it's about the who. Who you are becoming and who you want to become. For example, this is a quote from Atomic Habits."Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results". So that's why I was saying cleaning is a good system for the end result of being more organized. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time designing your systems." some other things I believe are systems, um, is the art of showing up and discipline and doing the thing, doing this one thing every day until you reach your end goal. Atomic Habits also says"bad habits repeat themselves again and again, not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." It's like walking into an unorganized room and you are so fed up with it that it motivates you to clean it. And then you spend a couple of hours cleaning it and in the end you are satisfied with how it looks and how you feel. But then a few days go by and it's back to being disorganized and you don't feel motivated to clean it this time. So then it just stays disorganized until you feel that rush of motivation again. Which may come in a week, it may come in a month. It's because there isn't a system in place. And you haven't learned how... Like with the art of showing up, you haven't learned how to show up for yourself, even when you don't feel motivated, even when you don't feel like doing something. If your goal is to have less clutter and be more organized, you have to create systems. Okay, so here are some more questions about your environment and systems. What is serving you? What isn't serving you anymore? What can you change? And then do this with your belongings, like with your things as well. And ask yourself, are you comparing yourself to those TikTok cleaning videos? And if so, why? Why? Are you feeling a certain way when you are watching cleaning videos? What is not in alignment with how you're feeling in those videos? I thought, I thought I used to be organized just because my kitchen cabinets look clean and my closet looked clean. It wasn't until the cycle of it getting messy and me feeling stressed out that it was messy, meant I was missing something. I wasn't motivated or driven to clean the house when I felt overwhelmed with all of the shit. It was especially tough when my kids were little. Less time to clean, stressed out because of babies, and all of the shit that babies need. And then feeling helpless because I didn't have a good system for establishing a cleaning routine. It took me years to figure this out and I, I would often get frustrated with myself, feeling like a failure because I couldn't keep my house clean, and then I was embarrassed to have people over because my house was usually always messy, and then I would get frustrated with my husband because I felt like he wasn't doing anything, which wasn't fair to him, Anyways, it just wasn't it just wasn't a good a good Environment or and it wasn't a good mindset That I had it wasn't a good outlook of Who I wanted to be and My lifestyle so That has drastically changed For the better, um, And now, it doesn't take me long to clean my house. I think, I think I count, or I timed it one day, and it was like four hours. And that included vacuuming, mopping, dusting, doing all the windows and mirrors, cleaning all the bathrooms, and putting all the laundry away. And just, like, putting things back. So you're having a bunch of gym equipment in your garage and never using it, wondering why you don't have the body you desire to have. It's because you haven't taught yourself the art of showing up and you aren't believing that you can achieve the body you desire or else you would be doing the work for it and using the gym equipment. And you may just be stuck in confusion and overwhelm and you don't know where to start. I'm not going to give you a specific cleaning routine like wipe bathroom counters down or fold laundry in the mornings because, again, everybody's lifestyle is different and schedules are different. Some people may have kids, some people may not. Some people may work night shifts or work from home. You have the ability to create your own cleaning routine that suits your needs and your lifestyle. This is about understanding. How you become the person who is organized go from I'm so disorganized and stressed to I'm an organized person because when I when I think of I need help organizing that means that I am stressed out in different areas of my life, and I feel like if I Become more organized and I will have less stress. That's what I think If you haven't listened to my podcast episode from season one, episode 20, it talks about the identity based habits versus the outcome based habits. And again, that's from Atomic Habits by James Clear. Because being organized is more than I'll clean when I'm motivated. And if I clean this, then I will be happy. Because you may clean the kitchen and still feel stressed out and not happy. So, that's a good episode to go back and listen to. My husband actually made a comment to me the other day about how I always keep the house clean. And I said, we have a picked up house, there's a difference between a clean house and a picked up house. Now, I clean it. At least once a week and I deep clean probably once a month or twice a month No, not twice a month once every two months, but it's not like I'm Quote unquote cleaning every day. That's why at the beginning of this episode I asked you to define what clutter means to you and what organizing means to you I'm satisfied with my house just being picked up, and that means limited clutter in every single drawer and cabinet is organized and stays organized because everything has a home. I've worked on getting to this point with my house for years. I mean, basically since Rob and I got married, moved to Charleston, South Carolina, got our ridiculously huge house, and We, and then had kids, and I had to go from living in, you know, this smaller house with Rob to this massive house with tons of space. And then, you know, we get hammy downs all the time, which is great. Hammy downs are a blessing, but it, it got so overwhelming. for me that I literally just hated. I hated myself. I hated everything in my house. And, um, like I said, it just wasn't, it just wasn't a good mindset. And then we actually ended up. Um, living in a school bus, and that helped with, that really helped with, like, do I need this? Do I really need four spatulas? Do I really need this? Um, we were very intentional about what we kept in the bus, um, because we had limited space. And with our current house, which it It's bigger than the bus. Um, I've done a lot of work to get to this point. And, like, now I hardly ever feel frustrated or stressed out about doing housework. Now, let me say this though. When I ask my kids to put their shoes, we have a little shoe place for shoes. Because we take our shoes off when we come into the house and they are spread out throughout the house. Then, and I've asked them several times to pick up their shoes, then, you know, I will get frustrated. But, I'm teaching them, especially in their rooms, since they all have their own rooms now, um, that everything in their room has to have a home. Because it just makes, your life so much easier if you know exactly where your books go if you know exactly where your pencils go and especially for kids because it's like okay this drawer is designated to socks this drawer is designated to pajamas and so when they go put up their laundry they aren't like oh i don't know or they just throw random things in random drawers I mean, it also helps, too, that my kids are older and they have more responsibilities and help out more. And I get frustrated sometimes, too, when we have parties or social gatherings and like the holidays are coming up, because I always wait until, like I said, like the day before guests come or in the morning of, and I'm like, you do this, you do that. We need this house clean. Um, and there's a funny video of this guy. My husband and I crack up at because he's imitating his wife about cleaning the house and he goes through every room and then and then he's like, it has to look like no one's ever lived here. And so whenever, we know that guests are coming over, that's, that's like our mantra is like, it has to look like nobody has ever lived here. But yeah, Anyways, sorry, that was a tangent. Okay, so besides clutter, like too many crayons and toys in the house, clothes have always been an issue for me. I never liked getting rid of clothes, or I keep a pair of pants I used to fit into, hoping that one day I could guilt my way back into fitting into them again, by doing ridiculous things. Now, I can be like, this doesn't work anymore, even though it's this brand, it's not worth me having it at this point in my life, it's because I've done research about capsule wardrobes and slow fashion, and I'm trying to hone in on my style, but it's also, you know, my lifestyle has kind of changed since, um, you know, I worked in the school system a few years ago, and like, I don't need, I just don't need the clothes I was wearing then for my lifestyle right now. So with clothes, answer these questions. What clothes are not serving you anymore? Are you holding on to things because of XYZ and why is this? What does your ideal wardrobe slash closet look like? Do you want a capsule wardrobe? Why or why not? Think of someone whose style you admire. Could be an influencer, an artist, a friend, a fashion designer. What do you like about their wardrobe, style, their clothes? Or even their attitude and clothes. What do you not like about your current wardrobe? If this was in the store today, would you buy it again? Are you over consuming clothes? What are you doing with out of season clothes, like winter clothes during the summer? Are you storing them in an organized way? And if not, how can you start doing that? Now, picture your ideal house. What does that look like? How do you treat your ideal house? What belongings are in your ideal house? What's different between your current house and your ideal house? Why are you treating your ideal house better than your current one? It's not about the how to do something. It's about Becoming the who. Who am I currently being? And who do I want to be? And I'm going to repeat that Probably more times than you wish. Because I And again, go back to Season 1 episode 20 of the identity based habits Versus the outcome. Because a lot of times people try to change The outcome without changing their mindset around the outcome. And that's when you start, like, yo yo dieting, or, you know, yo yo cleaning, um, or starting a new habit, and then two weeks later something comes up, something happens, and then you, quote unquote, fall off the wagon. Because your identity... isn't shifting and aligning with the outcome that you want. You're trying to do something, your future self wants to do, but with your past thinking and past patterns. So, are you someone who has a hard time getting rid of items, clothes, or someone who thrifts all the time, someone who makes a lot of things, but doesn't have anywhere to store their crafts? Someone who lives in a small apartment and has an environment lacking in storage space? Or are you someone who grew up with a parent who hoards things? Or grew up in a disorganized slash dysfunctional house, and you were never really taught how to create a clean environment? We all have different backgrounds, but understanding that you can change your habits and beliefs is available for everyone. Changing habits can be simplified thanks to Charles Duhigg's The Habit Loop. In The Habit Loop, you have the cue, routine, and reward. And I'm probably going to do just a podcast episode just on The Habit Loop. But the cue is something that is triggered within your brain. The routine is the behavior and actions you take when the cue happens. This could be on an emotional, physical, or mental level. For example, your cue could be stress. When you feel stressed out, your routine is to pour a glass of wine, sit on the couch, and watch Netflix. With housework, your cue may be overwhelmed because your kids didn't pick up after themselves. There are dirty dishes to be washed, laundry to fold, meals to cook, etc. Instead of just doing one thing, you decide to not do anything. This is known as the all or nothing thinking because you're so overwhelmed that... Either all of my to do list has to get done, or none of it is going to get done. We wanted to kind of find that middle ground with that. We want to be able to do a few things to not feel so overwhelmed, and also feel accomplished. Whenever you try to do something new, like um... Have you ever tried creating a cleaning schedule only to find out when you set the time to mop the house, you're like, yeah, I don't feel like mopping right now. I'd rather be doing X, Y, Z. So then you don't mop. And then you scheduled. To clean the bathroom is the next day, but oh, your kid is sick, or you had an extra last minute meeting at work, and you came home late, and you were too exhausted to clean the bathroom. And then you say, screw this cleaning schedule, it isn't working. And, it's not the schedule itself that isn't working. It's how you're trying to jump from who you currently are. Which would be maybe living in a cluttered house and disorganized and being disorganized and you are trying to be this person who doesn't have a cluttered house who is organized and on top of everything. That jump is too big for our brains to comprehend because we haven't practiced being the organized versions of ourselves yet. Because again, we're trying to change the outcome without changing our identity. Our brains are like computers. They like efficiency. They like knowing they can rely on this method of a routine because this is what you've done in the past. Your brain's job is to keep you alive. But most of the time we are using our primitive brains, our lizard brains. The survival mode and not our prefrontal cortex, which includes functions of controlling impulses, critical thinking skills, comprehension, problem solving, and making decisions. And Hebb's law states"what fires together wires together." So if your brain's wiring system is about what you've done in the past and you are wanting to change an outcome or result, like being more organized, you have to essentially rewire your brain. The more you do something, the more you do something. So the more times you make a cleaning schedule, a meal plan, a workout schedule, and you skip this on this day, and you skip this on this day, and you feel like you're failing, the more times you're going to create another cleaning schedule to see if that's the right one, but then you end up skipping days, and you feel like you're failing at that schedule, and then you quote unquote fall off the wagon and then you try another method. And the more times you say you're going to do something and not do the thing you said you were going to do, the more times this cycle is repeated. Your brain likes the path of least resistance. So when you start cleaning schedules, Or even if you buy all of these organizing bins and boxes and you clean and put everything away How long does your environment stay clean? This is what I call the art of showing up. You have to learn how to start showing up for yourself And this is part of changing the routine in the habit loop. If your cue is overwhelmed Your routine is to not clean because you're feeling overwhelmed. Your reward is is the instant gratification of the Glass of Wine and the Netflix show. Showing up for yourself not only builds your self trust, but it creates a snowball effect for everything else in your life. Showing up for yourself helps bridge the gap of where you currently are to where you want to go. It helps shift your identity in order to become a person who doesn't have a ton of clutter and who is organized. And the last part of the habit loop is the reward. The reward is the aftermath or satisfaction of the routine and it also is a projection of future behavior. If your brain likes this reward, then it will help become a repeated pattern. If it doesn't... Like the reward, then you most likely won't attempt the routine again. Our brains pull evidence from the past of certain actions, behaviors, habits, in order to keep us going. It can't pull evidence from the future because we don't know the future. We can certainly visualize our future selves and where we want to live and who we want to become, but without providing our brains with new evidence of our future self, It will keep pulling evidence from the past and you'll have a difficult time becoming your future self. In order to provide new evidence for your brain, you have to be aware of your cue, change the routine, and like the reward. Charles Duhigg has provided the golden rule for habit change". Rather to change a habit, you must keep the old cue and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine. That's a rule. If you use the same cue and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit. Almost any behavior can be transformed if the cue and reward stay the same", end quote. You're probably thinking this is great and everything, but how is this actually helping me declutter my space and live in a more organized manner? We need to understand the why behind our current thoughts about clutter and organizing so we can start changing our mindset around our environment and how we are conducting our life. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. says, quote,"Habits are a dopamine driven feedback loop. Every behavior that is highly habit forming, taking drugs, eating junk food, playing video games, browsing social media, is associated with higher levels of dopamine. When it comes to habits, the key takeaway is this. Dopamine is released not only when you experience pleasure, but also when you anticipate it."End quote. Like me, I get excited to drink my cup of coffee in the mornings. I don't consume it first thing when I wake up. I wait at least an hour after waking up to drink my coffee, and it never fails. I always get excited to drink that cup of coffee in the morning, and I love it. I love this reward he goes on to say,"It is the anticipation of a reward, not the fulfillment of it, that gets us to take action. I also get excited about waking up to a clean kitchen in the mornings. That means sometimes we are doing dishes at 10pm, but it's worth staying up a little later to clean the space because I know in the morning I won't feel stressed out walking into a clean kitchen. We just had our daughter's 10th birthday party at our house the other weekend And I got you know all the supplies and crafts and decorations and food. I was working on getting everything Together and ready throughout the week, but I left cleaning to the morning of the party We cleaned the entire house and outside and I had I actually had time to relax before the birthday party but what I couldn't ut up, I just threw into my bedroom and shut the door so guests wouldn't see it and I also piled dirty dishes into My oven because the dishwasher was full and the dishes weren't dry in there So and I didn't want dirty dishes in the sink with people over so I just put it in my oven usually after A day of cleaning and throwing a birthday party. I normally say whatever I will clean it tomorrow. I'm tired I don't want to do it right now But I kept thinking that man wouldn't it be nice to wake up on a Sunday and not have to clean anything So I set a timer for one hour and ended up cleaning and putting everything back where it belonged And then doing the dishes and it felt so good and I knew my reward for cleaning that night was to wake up and just enjoy and relax the next day. But before you start on this journey of changing up your routines and you start practicing showing up for yourself, you have to shift your beliefs. You need to believe you can live a life that has less clutter and more structure. Belief is the magical ingredient to... If you don't believe you can change your ways, habits, or beliefs, then you won't change your ways, habits, or beliefs. You'll just keep living the life that you have been living. And you can do this by visualizing your future self. Since we are talking about decluttering and organizing your home or space, like an office or car, then you have to apply a belief shift. A belief is a thought we think over and over again, and we end up having this emotional connection to, with this belief. Like, have you ever tried talking about politics with someone whose beliefs are so strong, they get really emotional? Like, they legit get mad or angry or aggressive when they disagree with what you are saying? That's because their belief is so strong. And that is also a pretty good indicator that they may not have such an open mind to change. I'm not saying they're a bad person. I'm just saying their beliefs are so strong they may have a hard time being open to hearing, you know, other, the other side of politics or whatever. Norman Vincent Peale states Your attitude determines your entire life," end quote. But what drives our attitude and emotions are our thoughts. Our thoughts create our feelings, and our feelings determine, essentially, the routine and the habit loop. Our actions, behavior, habits. And this determines the results in our life. If you hate cleaning and you feel frustrated and stressed out with your to do list all the time, then your actions may be to avoid, procrastinate, until it gets so bad that you end up spring cleaning, and you feel great after that spring clean, but again, a week later, your house is cluttered and disorganized again, then your result is having a cluttered, unorganized home, because you don't have a great system for cleaning and Keeping your house decluttered and organized. If your end result or goal for decluttering and organizing is different from your current result, then we need to shift our focus on your thoughts behind clutter and organizing and how we can change the way we feel about your environment. Remember how I said it is about becoming the who and not the how and how I said I was going to repeat that. You are changing your beliefs, habits, routines by becoming the future you. Who do you want to be in the future when you see clutter? Who do you want to be in the future when your closet is full and unorganized? Who do you want to be in the future when your mental load is so heavy that you have a mental breakdown? Once you figure out who you want to be, in this case, about clutter and organizing, then you can start changing your routine by providing your brain with new evidence. And what I mean by providing new evidence for your brain is, like I said above, our brains like to be efficient. They run like computers, taking the path of least resistance. And if you have this habit loop of feeling frustrated and not taking action and always craving for a change, it's because your brain is unfamiliar with that habit loop. Anytime you try a new cleaning routine or you try to be your future self, it may work for a little bit, but eventually your brain freaks out because it is uncertain of this new pattern it's creating, and your brain tells you to go back to your old ways. Go back to your comfort zone because you are safe there. Sometimes we just need to tell our brains to literally chill out. In order to provide new evidence for... Our brain means we need to start thinking from our future and doing things outside of our comfort zone and reassuring our brains that we will indeed survive creating this new habit. And this is where you start doing the things you envision your future self doing. If you want a minimalist home. minimalist, minimalistic home. When you go shopping, you may ask yourself, do I really want this? Or is there an item I can get rid of in order to bring this item into my home? and you start intentionally thinking about your actions and behaviors. Every time you make a new decision, you are providing new evidence for your brain. Ultimately rewiring the neurons in your brain until you become the person you want to become. And with this, you are shifting your identity and your beliefs and your mindset in order to create the outcome that you want. Here are some ways to start providing new evidence. You can create a Keystone Habit, learn to Habit Stack, create a Visual Habit Tracker, or create a small reward for doing a new habit. So, Keystone Habits, and this is from The Power of Habits by Charles Duhigg, Keystone Habits"encourage change by creating structures that help other habits to flourish, and this creates a snowball effect with other habits." End quote. For example, if you want to make a change in your life and get a different result, like start exercising more instead of just sitting at home drinking wine and not really doing anything and you decide you are going to start walking after work, you are changing your routine up. You start off walking three days per week. After a couple of weeks of walking three days per week, you start to feel better overall. Maybe your mood has improved or you have more energy because you are falling asleep faster and therefore you're getting more sleep and you realize that walking helps alleviate stress instead of drinking the wine, so your wine consumption lowers, meaning you are saving money in the long run because you aren't buying as much wine, also meaning you may lose a little bit of weight because, again, you aren't consuming as much alcohol or sugar. Also, meaning you are consuming as many grocery items per week, meaning this awareness and new habit you are forming of not consuming as much will start to spill over into the other areas of your life. Maybe you start consuming less junk food or snacks, meaning your pantry has less stuff in it and it becomes more organized. And because you start feeling better about yourself and your environment, you start walking more and start maybe micro cleaning because you enjoy having a clean environment. Over time, you aren't over consuming materialistic things, meaning you aren't possessing as many things as you once had. And with having less things, the less you have to organize, the less you have to clean, the more freedom you have to do the things that you actually want to do. The less stress you create for yourself, and the more productive you become. The more you manage your time. The more you start taking care of yourself and of your belongings and because you now have time to enjoy longer walks and more frequent walks, you may even start habit stacking on your walks. The habit stacking is basically doing a habit that you quote unquote have to do combining it with a habit you want to do. But, I don't like the have to energy because I worked so much on my thoughts, around that, like I have to do this, I have to do this, that instead I like saying I get to. So, I get to clean my house and create a calm and welcoming environment. I don't have to clean. I get to. Because I choose to. Because I enjoy having a clean space. But, okay, back to habit stacking on your walk. A habit you get to do is exercising. A habit you want to do is maybe connect with somebody. So you call a friend or relative while you go on your walks. And you feel even better because you are connecting with someone you love and you like the way that feels. And because you start noticing and feeling a difference with your body and emotions, you start maybe eating healthier. Because you want to keep the cycle of feeling better about yourself and your emotions. And so, you start... Learning how to cook higher protein meals, or maybe you stop going out to eat so much, which in the long run, again, saves you money. And with this new exercise habit and eating healthier and feeling better, you develop more energy throughout your day, which means you may perform better at work and you may do more household chores every day. And all of a sudden, six months or a year later, your thoughts, feelings, and habits have changed. And maybe you decide you will start listening to an educational podcast and that teaches you a new habit on your walk. And then you go and start implementing that new habit into your life. And this new habit then creates another snowball effect. The key note here is understanding that you didn't change everything at once either. It was a gradual change that started with one new habit, which was exercising more. The keynote with clutter and organizing is understanding that it can't be changed at once. You need to focus on one area or thing in your home that you want to change. That can mean having a system to where the kitchen stays clean. It can mean creating a capsule of wardrobe or finding your unique style. It can mean planning out your meal so your fridge and pantry stay organized and you actually know what you have. It can mean implementing 15 minutes into your morning routine to clean one thing each day of the week. For example, on Mondays you wipe down all the mirrors and countertops in your home. On Tuesdays you sweep and mop. Wednesdays you vacuum. Thursdays you clean baseboards. You start by getting rid of what you don't want or use anymore. And every day you spend 15 minutes in a section of your home sorting out what stays and what goes. If you create a cleaning schedule, make a visual chart of it, mark off on a calendar when you do the scheduled cleaning. After a complete task for that cleaning schedule for two weeks, then reward yourself with a little something. It could be a new dish holder for the kitchen, or a new mop, or a new storage box. And look at each task you checked off for the week. I always tell my clients to evaluate at the end of each week, once they set a goal, and ask themselves what worked, what didn't work, and what could they do differently. If you did everything you said you were going to do, great, reward yourself with something. If you didn't, figure out why it didn't get done. Were you too tired? Did something unexpected come up? And this is not a place to judge yourself. You are simply letting your brain be aware of what happened, and it's collecting data. So maybe you weren't in the mood to clean, so come up with a plan when you aren't in the mood to clean. Do you allow yourself a grace day, where it's okay to skip a day of cleaning and still earn that reward? This is why it can be... So helpful working with a coach because you can get a more detailed plan and have help if you can't figure out a solution or see something that may be missing. I feel like I've talked a lot. And I tried to get in a lot of Concepts into this episode. So let me try to wrap this up But I feel like I can connect so many other things But I want to try to keep this simple. I want to keep this simple and not like a to do list But more of the reason behind the why you want to learn about decluttering and organizing and what that means to you so be sure to Go back in the show notes and download the PDF with all the questions, um, that I've asked in this podcast. And as always, if you have any questions or need something clarified, don't hesitate to either email me or DM me on Instagram. And I'll link that stuff in the show notes as well. But, I'm not going to end this without, without giving you some methods of... and decluttering and organizing. You can't assume because you buy organizing bins or notebooks or even a calendar that all of a sudden you will become an organized person. You have to figure out your why first behind the change you want to make and make a conscious effort of fulfilling that why. here are some methods for habit stack cleaning. So, when I Mention habit stacking with the walk, and then you're, you're also calling a friend. You can do that with cleaning, too. So, maybe every time you do the dishes, you sweep the kitchen. And, like, the existing dining room floor, if it's an open layout, or if your kitchen is connected to another room. You could reset the living room every night, meaning fold the blankets, rearrange pillows, put books away, put TV remote up, etc. When you are waiting for the shower to warm up, wipe down your bathroom sink, or clean up makeup, clean up your vanity, maybe wipe the baseboards in the bathroom. When you are making coffee in the mornings, go start a load of laundry, or unload and load the dishwasher. This way you are cleaning throughout the day, and it won't be piling up, and it also doesn't take that long to do a One task, either. Some decluttering and organizing methods. So, the 15 minute rule, choose, and, I think, I forgot where I heard this rule, but, anyways. You choose one area, it could be a sock drawer, a closet, a corner of a bedroom, and declutter that area for 15 minutes. And do this every day until that space is how you want it to look. And then move on to another space for 15 minutes. And keep doing this until you're satisfied with your home. Create homes for everything. Combine light things with light things. Books with books. Legos with Legos. Out of season clothes with out of season clothes. And create a system to where you build a habit of putting things back into their home. The five minute rule, when you don't feel like doing any decluttering, organizing, or cleaning, set a five minute timer and choose just one task to do. That can mean picking up trash throughout the house or dirty dishes and taking them to the sink. This can mean vacuuming a room for five minutes. And once that five minutes is up, stop. And pretty soon the urge to finish whatever the task was that didn't get done in the five minutes Will be strong enough the next time that I bet you'll want to vacuum the entire room or even vacuum a second room Race the clock. I love doing this with kids. I think it's fun The other morning the other morning We were getting ready to go down to the car and I don't know why but I was like I'll race y'all to the car and like My youngest was like, no you won't, I'm going to beat you there first, or be there first. And sure enough, she like, grabs all of her stuff and runs down the stairs and I'm like, oh no, I gotta go grab my feeding pack and get the keys to the car, and then she beat me. And then the other two kids were like, right behind me. But it was just a fun way to get out of the door. But anyways, okay, so race the clock. So set a timer for ten minutes, or To make it more competitive, like if you have kids, set it for one minute and see who, and make it a game, to see who can pick up the most toys or put their clothes away the fastest. It is important to note, this is much easier when items have a designated home. So the kids know where the puzzles go, where the Lincoln Logs go, where their socks go, and their drawers. Set specific tasks for specific days of the week. One of my favorite quotes that I like using when creating habits or routines is from Mean Girls. And it goes, quote,"On Wednesdays, we wear pink." End quote. On Mondays, do XYZ. On Tuesdays, do XYZ. With my kids, we have Make It Monday, Tesla Tuesday, and Bash Wednesday. Each kid day, they have to wash, dry, and put their laundry away. They have to cut fingernails and toenails and clean their ears out. And they have specific days they use their new mouthwashes on. It's like having a practice schedule for sports. You practice Mondays and Thursdays from 3. 30 to 5. 30. You can choose a day of the week and a time and complete a decluttering, organizing, or cleaning chore. When you bring home groceries, clean the fridge out before putting them away. or reorganize your pantry before putting things in the pantry. When you get out of your car, throw the trash away. In fact, keep a plastic bag as a trash can in your car, but get things out of your car every day. Your kid spilled goldfish? Take two minutes to vacuum it up, or at least sweep it out of the car. Seasonal decluttering. At the start of every season, declutter. There are a ton of decluttering how to's on Pinterest to choose from. This is a great way to plan ahead of time. Four times a year, you're going to declutter your home. And, same with seasonal spring cleaning. Deep cleaning your house and car at least four times a year is great. Again, this is a time to plan and prepare for how you're going to spring clean. Just like with business models or ways to learn, everyone prefers certain methods over others. So browse Pinterest again or TikTok and find a spring cleaning method that inspires you. And the golden method in my book is to just own less stuff. The less stuff you have, the less clutter you have, the less you have to organize, the less stress you have. And here are a couple of people I have been following for a while who have helped me with my decluttering and organizational journey. I follow Justine Leconte who does, talks about slow fashion. Alyssa Beltempo who also talks about slow fashion and creating a great wardrobe. And using what you already own. Marie Kondo, She wrote The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. And I also watched, I think it was like a Netflix series too. Shannon Ables has written Three books, Living the Simply Luxurious Life, Making Your Everyday Extraordinary and Discovering Your Best Self, Choosing the Simply Luxurious Life, A Modern Woman's Guide, and The Road to Le Papillon, Daily Meditations on True Contentment. And I love her podcast and her blog. I think, I think she's great. Um, Jessica White, uh, goes over. how to clean on TikTok. Um, Emma Seaborn. She has, she's a mom of six in homeschools and she has great cleaning routines. She actually does the, on Wednesdays we wear pink because I, I specifically remember this video because it pops up into my head when I feel like I don't want to do something because it was a Thursday and I know on Thursdays she cleans her kitchen which sounds really weird because it could be a Thursday and then you're gonna think oh she's gonna be cleaning her kitchen but it's because she chose Thursdays to clean the kitchen and why I say clean the kitchen she cleans her kitchen she does Like she cleans how Jessica White cleans, like she cleans out the trash can and wipes down all the countertops and all of that stuff. Um, but in this one video, she recorded herself saying, I do not want to do this right now. But she did it anyway. So when I feel like I don't want to do something, I go back to that video and then I end up doing what I didn't want to do. Most of the time. Um, Julie Jones designs, she has great, uh, interior design how to's, um, but it's a great way to maybe get inspired about organizing your space or rearranging your space in a way that may help you develop, like, less clutter and become more organized. And of course the home edit, they always do a great job of reorganizing, like, closets and pantries. And, um, and I think they, you know, I follow them on TikTok. And, um, I've watched a few of their episodes on Netflix. I feel like this was a really good go over. And I could go on and on about it, but I'm going to wrap this up. Because I feel like this is a long one. And again, check out these show notes for the references and for the questions. You can download and hopefully start on your decluttering and organizing journey. Okay, and bye.