Episode 387 – Our 2025 year in review – the big Declutter Hub round-up

Ingrid: It is been quite a year at the Declutter Hub, and in today's episode we're taking a trip down memory lane to celebrate all the incredible moments from 2025. We'll share the highs, the humbling moments, and everything in between.

All the things that make this year so special. So join us as we reflect on 2025 Declutter Hub style, where community learning and laughter always come first.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley: And I am Lesley. Now, if you are here for the very first time today, or you've been listening in for ages, we want to say a huge thank you we have a little favour to ask.

Ingrid: If you like what you hear, be sure to hit that follow or subscribe button. Share us with your friends or leave us a review. It makes a huge difference to us.

Well, Lesley, I'm gonna be honest with you. When we were, preparing this podcast and we ran through the year and thought about all the, things we've done, I went, wow, it's been quite a year, hasn't. And it's like amazing. And we're still like here, like laughing standing.

It's been absolutely what a year. And we forget because she gets so, just we, always like to be busy and we love doing things and just the next thing always comes up and then you look back and you go, wow, it's been phenomenal year.

Lesley: I think it's been, and this is why Ingrid looks so happy. I think it's been a year that Ingrid's been. Able to shine bright, hasn't it? Ingrid? 'cause Ingrid's always in her seriously happy place when she is in the spotlight. And this year, you've definitely been in the spotlight many times, haven't you?

we have. I know you enjoy it. So much more than me. And so yes, Ingrid has been, has come to the fore this year.

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: and being, being up there because it's been, it has, it's been an incredible year and I've enjoyed it too. And we need to run through some of the things and just remind ourselves.

'cause sometimes wherever you are in life. is our year and there've been many people looking back on 2025. that time of month when everybody does these, like highlight reels and stuff. And it's always so lovely to see and reflect because we can forget the good stuff and amongst all the rubbish that we have to deal with on a week-to-week basis.

But, we've had a great year. 2025 has

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: been one of our years. And, we hope that it continues and we hope that 2026 is our year as. to be fair, but let's reflect back on 2025 and talk about our highlights, whether that's our personal highlights, whether that's within our membership communities, and remind you of all the good stuff that happened in the Decal to Hub this year.

Ingrid: Oh, I know, And of course, we have to of course, start with our book went live. Yes. Two years in the making. Finally, last February it went live. It got published.

Lesley: Live? Is that not a, is that not a reference to a live before? I'm not sure the term is

Ingrid: Oh,

Lesley: live. I

Ingrid: okay. maybe.

published, our book was published back in Feb. I know. Can you believe it was February, Lesley? It seems shorter, but longer, all at the same time, right? yeah, our book was published last February, two years in the making. We were so proud. and of course, when you. Write a book and you publish it.

And we were lucky that Bloomsbury, of course, where our publishing house and we just thought, oh, we'll, we'll write a book. It, will be published here in the uk. And of course then it also became an audio book and it became a Kindle and it went global. And oh my gosh, it was like one, like what after the other?

Lesley: It was so long in the making though. that whole two years. I'm not a patient person. That two years felt like forever. Do you know what I mean? So like really like we're starting this in 2022 and it's going live in 2025. Is that really a thing? 'cause that's not the way that life works. For me. but sadly that was the process that we went through within the publishing and we needed that time.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: when, I think it was like February, was it the February the 27th? It was like a date that was permanently etched on our minds when that finally came round. It was such a good feeling. And I think, people talk about having a book and you have, you got a book in you and all this kind of stuff and oh, things will change when you've got a book and all that kind of good stuff.

a lot of people. hang a lot of credibility on a book. And for us it's been really lovely, hasn't it, to provide what we do in a different format to people.

because a lot of what we do is live and it is trying to, it is try, it was trying to bring that to life within the book, which was the, difficult things.

'cause Ingrid and I liked to laugh and we wanted to bring that in the book. Luckily for us, it's been a huge success and we're absolutely delighted. And I think the nice thing about a book is it continues, So yes, we had our book launched this year, that's not to say that 2026 or 2027 might not be an even better year for our book because, we're interested to see what happens in January because January's a big time for decluttering and decluttering books. So we're, hoping for a good January as well, and to. To continue for our book to go from strength to strength. We know we had as well, we had some fantastic news last weekend with what was our news as well last week on the book.

Ingrid: I know. You know what? Every time we are like, we like opening email is like exciting, but you never know what comes into our email inbox. And then we got an email saying, oh, by the way, ladies, your book will be translated into Spanish. And so Lesley and I, because we work of course a different way, we're like, oh.

Within three split seconds. I had Lesley, like on the, phone or on the, Slack video going pick up, we need to, have you seen the email? And it was like, oh my word. Wow. Because she just don't know. it, it, for us, I think it was as big to hear that we were gonna be published in the US and in Canada and in Australia and in India.

But now to hear. We're actually going to be translated in another language. It's wow. Like goosebumps. I'm gonna be honest with you. We were like beaming, weren't we?

Lesley: Yeah, definitely. And I think, it's nice to have a book and it's nice to have that out there, but it's really, we need to flip it on its head. This is about the impact that the book is having.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: are getting emails all the time from people saying, I'm reading your book, I'm loving it, I'm making progress.

And that's what it's all about. It's not just so that we can

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: it's so that our

can get out there. And so that's what's so

it. So yeah,

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: we are, we're going for it. So we're we, Heading towards Latin America and Spanish speaking, north America now, aren't we?

And yeah, exciting times,

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: can't wait to

Ingrid: and.

Lesley: what do you think it'll be called in Spanish?

Ingrid: I, only had a laugh with Max about it, and I said, it's probably gonna be like, reset. So Max was like, it's stitches

Lesley: And, I said to my kids all the, there's a reason for you to be doing Duolingo Spanish for the past five years, and I have a thousand day street. You can read my book now in Spanish. But anyway, so it's fair to say the, sorry, Ingrid, go ahead.

Ingrid: No. I, just wanted to, also, add to this, it never gets tired signing a book. lemme tell you, we had so many laughs visiting, bookstores. Try, seeing our book on the shelves. Signing it. Then going to, of course, home Life, you we'll definitely talk about a little bit later on this podcast as well, and then having the signing in the book corner and people coming up to us during the show.

Can you sign It Never gets old, honestly. It never gets old. It's and when we go, when I go to choir on a Wednesday night. And like my fellow Rockish, oh my gosh, I've literally just realized you've written a book and I've bought it. Can you sign it for me? Oh my gosh. It's I love it. I just, it's such a proud moment every time.

It never fails to amaze me that people actually, buy the book, love the book, want to have that signature. It's I just love it. I honestly love it. It's fantastic.

Lesley: you've taken to oath to being an author like a Duck to Water.

Ingrid: I know. I know.

Lesley: lucky if I managed to get that sharpie in my, in my hand to sign it, and so there. Go. But the thing is about the book is that it has also created lots of other fantastic opportunities for us this

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: we

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: eternally grateful for.

And I think the nice thing about this is doing new stuff, aren't we? Ingrid, like these, they're not really bucket list items, but things that you never thought you would be able to do, which are

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: for us and we never, ever take for granted. And one of those this year was when we got invited to go on Women's Hour on Radio four. that was special. It was a decluttering special. It was over Easter, so I think it was April time, wasn't it? Ingrid? And we were,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: it wasn't just a, we go on radio quite a bit, but quite often on radio you get a kind of a five minute slot, which is why we love our podcast so much. 'cause we can talk like forever. And so radio is normally much more condensed. But that show was really fantastic because we got a whole hour to talk about decluttering. So how special was that to go to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: house and, Fab, wasn't it?

Ingrid: Oh, you know what it was, honestly, I'd never even, realized this was a bucket list, but when we were like walking up to the building thinking, oh my gosh, we're actually like going past the. P the security we're like, yes, we are being expected here. going into the studio and meeting the presenters and seeing like how it is when a po when a radio show is being recorded and not just on the phone.

'cause normally we're just sitting at home on the phone or a mobile. Chat, chat for two minutes and that's it. But actually going into the studio and, meeting other, phenomenal people that were guests on the show as well. It was just, honestly, I loved it. I thought it was honestly fantastic to, to, be able to do that and, so many people, because Women's Hour is such a massive show here in the uk.

It's like really a big deal. So it almost seemed like we were taken more seriously or something when we said we've been on Women's Hour, and not I know

A radio four.

Lesley: four, as if we're on radio four, like who knew? It's

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: posh Radio four, isn't it? Which we are, so

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: but we tried our bit, we put our posh voices on, didn't we? And tried our hardest on radio four. Yeah.

yeah, that was a, that was really fun. So it is like the book started that out and that, started that, that off and, we were able to do things and the real pinch me moments.

Aren't they Ingrid? And lovely to be able to have opportunities, particularly, not that we write ourselves off, but it's nice to have these opportunities in our fifties as well, that we never,

would have. And so yeah, so that was fun. And I think also book has also provided the opportunity for us to. not only on the radio, but all over the press. I think it's fair to say we've the press a little bit this year with our decluttering chat, haven't we? So we've been like. Everywhere. Now Ingrid again loves seeing her name and photo in print. She's as soon as we get word that we're in print somewhere, she's across that road to Tesco's.

Before you can say anything, getting it and putting our Instagram story, she absolutely loves it, don't ya? She's Oh my.

magazine again.

Ingrid: It was so funny, Lesley, you're really like, you're, pulling me up here because I do, because we were in closer a couple of, weeks ago. And of course we never know, right? We never know if it's going to be like a two liner if, because we, supply information, but we never know.

Is it going to be like a full, article or just a two liner or we never know. So I'd heard that we were in Closer magazine. And, which is a very popular magazine here in the uk. So I said to after tennis, I said, oh. I said to Jan, we have to just draw by the Tescos and look at closer and see if we're in it.

So he was like, okay, okay. So there I am in my, with my tennis record. I'm a sports gear going to the magazine aisle. Tipping up the clo, opening up and going, oh my words. And we are like, there was like a gigantic picture. There was like a whole article, beautiful photographs. So I'm like, beaming. And the lady at the tail is going, you okay?

And I'm like, yeah, I'm actually in it. And so she's so she looked at it going, thought I was like, pranking her. And I was like, no, look, this is me. She's oh my gosh. You're like a celebrity.

Lesley: That's like music to Ingrid D is let me

Ingrid: Oh my gosh.

Lesley: isn't it? Oh,

Ingrid: Oh

Lesley: I actually am a celebrity.

Ingrid: yeah, I know.

Lesley: So everyone

Ingrid: And then of course this,

Lesley: it is all the true. It's completely true. So anybody who

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: the Mickey out of Ingrid constantly,

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: is what she's like. she's all in the, in real life.

She's okay, move aside. Celebrity coming through. Celebrity coming through. Did you know I was a published author and I'm actually in this center spread of this magazine, by the way. But anyway, I know. You know what? When we were in the metro this summer with like also a double spread and again, huge pictures, and then I got all these WhatsApps from people going. Oh my God. Ingrid, I've lit. I'm like in the hospital where the doctors were lit reading a metro and I'm turning the pages and the next thing I know we see you like on the Giant.

Ingrid: I'm like, oh my gosh. And of course we made it to the BBC homepage. we, can't even keep up. We've been in so many magazines. Good Housekeeping. Ideal. Home. Best. Closer, platinum. one thing both online and in print. But of course the BBC homepage, that was a bit, that was a massive one as well, wasn't it?

Lesley: I think, but to be fair, press does come tap sometimes with its downsides, doesn't it? Ingrid?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: So we have also been, featured in the Daily Mail comments section, which has been quite interesting. So it's a good job. We've got thick skin, isn't it? Because.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: The problem with the Daily Mail, even though it's incredible going in there, the comment section for anybody who doesn't know is quite brutal.

and so we, it is

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: we could while away a good hour on the Daily Mail comments, just having a laugh about what's in there. Go. We

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: They know nothing about it. And then we've had, Inwood being propositioned on there, haven't you? they keep putting a picture of me where you can see down my. Almost non-existent cleavage. And so that's always quite interesting to see as well, isn't it? So the daily mail comment section has been, has kept as entertained as well this year, hasn't it? But as they say, all publicity is good publicity. So if people want to think we're complete decluttering, frauds, then.

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: know

Ingrid: know.

Lesley: so we're all good. So that

Ingrid: We're all goods.

Lesley: has been, has kept us entertained all year and

Ingrid: Oh.

Lesley: is still ongoing.

Ingrid: Huh?

Lesley: we are not

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: anytime soon. So we're

message out there right in a slightly

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: So

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: good fun.

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely, And of course, another massive thing that we did this year was that we went, to home life and you, the show in London Excel, it used to be called the Clean and Tidy Home Show. We had been. we've been there before.

but again, this year especially also through the book, we were asked again to, speak at the show, which we absolutely love. and we, in, like I mentioned before, we did a book signing at, home Live in, we did a meetup with our communities. one thing after another really, fantastic weekend for us, wasn't it?

Lesley: It was, and I think. sometimes we sit behind a screen quite a lot of the time, don't we, Ingrid And just

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: other. And we do, we're lucky enough that our community, our members are very chatty with us. And so we know impact we have on a personal level, particularly with our members in our, the inner hub. But I think. Sometimes we don't get that much feedback from podcast listeners, and so we get the odd email, we get comments and all that kind of stuff. But there are thousands and thousands of you listening every month. And so what was so nice

meet people that have been listening to the podcast and we were blown away, weren't we?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: blown away people that we, have got no idea who they are because it's like a, it's almost like a one way thing. Really. A podcast, isn't it? And was one. Gorgeous lady who came over to me and she said, oh, I've come all the way from Budapest to see you. I'm

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: I'm blown away.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: special moment. And we don't take that for granted, So there was a lady

was people who have been listening since the first. episode, I've done seven years. You've changed my life. You've changed the way I think about declutter.

And just wanted to come over and say hello. And the nice thing about the home life in you, it's a fantastic show. We love doing our live podcast, which was fun. We'd never done that before. and we loved doing the book signing in particular, Ingrid likes that 'cause she likes to do the signing, be the big author. more than anything else, for me it was about that member meetup. It was

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: So it's member community and gathering everybody together and everyone was just so lovely and it was so humbling for us to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: what our work can do out there. Wasn't it? The only

thing is that we can't do that. Everywhere in the world,

just in London. but we had just such a fabulous day

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: it was very, humbling. That's what I would

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: very validating for us as well to know that the work that we do lands with people and makes a difference. I know for sure. And of course, we had so many members who came as well to home life and you, because they see us on the screen the whole time and they wanted to get a hug and chat to us and. Chat to their other fellow members and, take pictures. And we took loads of pictures and people coming up to us, oh my gosh, I'm listening to you every week and can I take a picture with you guys?

Ingrid: And or indeed, we did a talk in the morning of the, on Saturday morning of the show that was recorded. Many people from the audience later then found us when we were wondering about, or when we were doing the meetup. It was honestly the best weekend. And of course. On a Sunday, it got even better, didn't it, Lesley?

Lesley: Yeah, on the Sunday of, the, life and new show, we were up for an award and we won, which was so much fun. So we were up for a service provider of the year, which we applied for, and we

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: And so we were

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: happy. Again, it's a more. not proof or, but like that we're doing the right thing, that we are making a

Ingrid: Yeah. I.

Lesley: people and

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: it really means a lot to us.

Honestly.

Ingrid: yeah.

Yeah.

Lesley: this because we want to make a difference in people's lives. We set this the up seven, eight years ago now because we wanted to try and bring. professional organizer to everybody, regardless of circumstance and, budget really. So we have things that are free.

We have things that cost money, all that. But generally we wanted to provide an affordable service to people who can't afford to have a one-to-one organizer in their home. And we wanted to try and make it so that it felt like we wi with you. and we think from what we've heard and from what people tell us, that we've managed to do that successfully.

And that

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: to us, doesn't it? Ingrid?

Ingrid: Yeah, for sure. And, the icing on the cherry on the cake, the icing on the cake was really, too. Hear our name and, we're just so proud. We, just basically, I think we, both of us just jumped, in the air and just, to be so proud to, to win this award. I think it was a really first of validation of all the work that we.

Put in over all of the years, not just last year, in, together with, the, radio and the press and the book and the, it was like, wow. it couldn't even have been even better. But, and then we won the award as well. We were like, absolutely just. Buzzing about it. And, so many people have been in touch to say that they were so delighted for us.

They loved, that we won. And it's so nice, to, hear that from other people as well because, it's so easy to, to not be happy for somebody else. But so many people fed back to us and said that we, they were delighted for us and it was just absolutely wonderful. Yeah.

Lesley: Yeah. And I think, thanks to home life and you for the event that they put on, really, because it is,

it's a show that celebrates the professional Organising cleaning, tidying wellbeing industry and brings all those people together in one kind of happy roof. It's a really joyous show, isn't it?

And it's lovely.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: of. So big thanks to them for providing the opportunity for us to do that member meetup in such a nice environment. So

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: the first part of our podcast. We've got more, haven't we? 'cause it was still an exciting year. So we're gonna come back after the break and we're gonna talk about a few more of our highlights of 2025.

Ingrid: Hi everyone. Welcome back to our, basically our review of the year that we've had. What a year has it been for the Declutter Hub and everything that we've done? So before the break, we talked about the book and the show and radio and press. But that's not all you would think that would be all, but No, We've got so much more that we want to look back on. And firstly, of course, that we also wanna touch upon is all the fantastic work that we've done in our Declutter Hub membership, because of course, you probably know that we have got a Facebook group and we've got this podcast, but we actually also have a membership where we help.

Hundreds and hundreds of people all over the world where they're decluttering and Organising. And we have, courses where you can learn about decluttering and Organising. But we also have, accountability sessions on Zoom. We have live sessions where you can ask us questions. We have our lovely, internal message board where our members can share their wins.

We have checklists, we have videos, we have everything you need when you struggle with decluttering. But of course, while we were, celebrating books and writing press, we never, ever of our membership always comes first. So of course we've done a lot of work on that as well, haven't we, Lesley, this year.

Lesley: Yeah, I think it was really important for us, so we've been it. It's interesting, isn't it, when you start to build a membership because when you first start out, you don't exactly know what that's gonna look like or what members needs, and it needs to be driven and led by the members and not by us. think we know what people. Need to hear. Do you know what I mean? We've got a lot of experience in that, but it's the kind of the manner in which we deliver it. And so what we've done is we've been building a like library of content for years. We've got lots of stuff. We make no apology for the fact that we are very thorough, like very thorough and we do things in our own way. But we, did a membership survey. So every year we do an annual survey and our members came back with some feedback about what they liked, what they didn't like, and look, luckily for us, most of it was super, super positive. But there's a few things that our members were like, we would love to just take it up a notch by doing this. And so we're happy to say that all of the things that our members. we've done because there were just a couple of things and there was not much missing was the Ingrid. some of the fantastic things that we're introducing, some of them we've already introduced. So we're introducing a dilemma, deep dive.

We did that back in November. And so every year we're gonna go live, every month. So we're gonna go live and do a live training, really focusing on. Specific struggles that people have digging into that deep, deeply 'cause our members wanted to see more of us live. Not that they don't see much of us, 'cause we have something like, I think. 20 live sessions a month. Is that right? Ingrid? Something like

Ingrid: Yes.

Lesley: already, but we just want to do in a slightly different format. And so we've got our Dell dilemma deep dive, which is bringing the content live. again, and we love being live, right? So it's no hardship to us to do that. and we, did accountability and goal setting every month. We've done that for many, years. we've now brought that into a live format. So we've got our monthly momentum calls, which are kicking off at the beginning of January. So we're very, excited, that.

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: momentum calls where Ingrid and I are gonna lead sessions on getting people to do goal setting and things like that. We've rebranded. We're now called the Inner Hub. We're calling our membership the Inner Hub, and we have got our new Hub Hangouts, which used to be the forum. We've got, buddy clubs in there so people can buddy up with somebody, they wanna do one-to-one with other people. We've done loads and loads of stuff, but basically

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: massively fine tuning it, and we're super proud of that because.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: are constantly striving to make things better because we can

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: the content out there that we like, but if people can't find it or can't navigate it successfully, then it's no use. And so we're constantly tweaking and fine tuning, and the feedback that's coming back from our members is, fantastic at the moment, isn't it?

So we're excited. I know a lot of you

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: know that, can't see that you've got the opportunity to go in there at any point. We have trials, so if, you're interested doing a trial of our membership, pop in, have a look. If you wanna know more about our membership, talk to Ingrid and I on a discovery call.

We can chat, we can show you around and tell you everything that's there. Yeah, we're excited by that. And it's not

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: everybody. It's only the people that are in the inner Hub, but we've got some really cool stuff if you wanna take your declutter to the next level. So we're excited by the changes that we've been and still are making in the,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: the Inner Hub as it's now called Ingrid.

I.

Ingrid: I know, I keep, I keep, correcting myself to the new terminology because we've used the same terminology for such a long time. But I love the way, that we're now changing things and, the hopsters, they love their, new name as well and it's been absolutely so much fun and, yeah, just absolutely love it and so much love for our membership from our members that it's absolutely incredible and they love that we always are Still looking like what kind of tiny thing can really change, change the dial on their decluttering and Organising was, that's in the end, the whole thing. Why people are in a membership, they want to make progress on their decluttering and Organising, and that's what we wanna provide. So yeah, super exciting and we absolutely love it.

Lesley: We do. So let's talk about the thing that we're on right now, Ingrid, and let's talk about our lovely Decla Hub podcast, which is arguably where it all started, right? So all of our success really is built on the back of this podcast. I think, the book came about

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: of the podcast. come to the membership, from the podcast and things like that. And Our membership is the kind of the glue that holds it all together. We've done 387 or something. Podcasts already. We're approaching 400 every year. We're like, oh my word, we're going to another hundred. And but we're still going strong and we're never really.

Struggling for guests. We're never struggling for things to talk about. and you guys keep on listening and the podcast keeps growing, which we absolutely love. but I think the high, if we're going back the highlights of 2025, yeah. Was did two weeks, didn't we? Ingrid.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: book launch in the UK and the US right?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Ingrid and Lesley Week and Ingrid and Lesley go

Ingrid: Okay.

Lesley: week. We just wanted to just put a name, stop there in lights, didn't we? But they were fun weeks, Ingrid? And we did bonus episodes every day.

Ingrid: Yeah, I know. We just, yeah, let's do, we have a weekly podcast. Let's just do a daily podcast twice for a week. that's eight extra episodes, throughout the year, which is a lot because, creating a podcast is a lot of work and we love it and we want it, but it was made extra special.

Indeed, we did a. Ingrid and Lesley week back in February when our book was published here in the uk and then it was such a success and so many people absolutely loved all the extra episodes that we did. We said, you know what? When our book goes, is being published in the US and Canada. Or globally, let's do another in England, electrical Global Week.

And we had global guests as well. So we had Gretchen Rubin come onto the podcast. We had Tracy McComb and be a guest. Matt Paxton came back for a whopping third podcast and so popular Amy from Australia. We had an amazing conversation with. So what. A fantastic week, and so well received as well by all of our listeners.

So yeah, very, grateful that you all were on board with our cringey, wording of Ingrid and Lesley. We can Ingrid and let you go global week, but everybody loved it.

Lesley: Exactly, and I think it, I think that we had some big names on the podcast this year and

nice as well to have conversations with those people. 'cause they're big names for a reason. 'cause they've got some good stuff to say. And it is nice that. They just go, yes, of course. We'll come on your podcast.

And we've done reciprocal

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: gone on their podcast as well, which is lovely.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: for us to know that we can get our message out there and we can have these wonderful conversations with people who really are in the know, which is fantastic, isn't it? So the podcast continues to go from strength to strength, as always. And not long till we hit episode 400, we'll have to do something else now for our Milestone 400 part. These milestones are coming round every a little bit too often, so we need to think about what we're gonna do for episode 400. yeah, I think, but again, just to jump back to the fact that, it's. When we met, those people in person who've been listening to the podcast and who explain how that feels to them and

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: a difference

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: to their journey. That's what it's all about. but we do like

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: have fun as well, don't we, Ingrid, me and you

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely, Yeah, we, loads of stuff, we, laugh a lot, because, we, it's really important because we know how hard decluttering is and we know that it's, always, it can really hold people back. So we always try to. Also bring a bit of lightheartedness, bit of laughter to the podcast.

Lesley loves to tease me with the things I say sometimes and the things I come out of my mouth sometimes and I just take it all in my stride and it makes me laugh so much. And, yeah, no, absolutely. yeah. Fantastic. So all good here. You don't have to send emails that you're worrying about me. That left is being mean.

I'm all good.

Lesley: Yeah, exactly. Like she's got a thick skin. She's perfectly fine, but it's that people are like, oh, little inin. I'm like, she's fine. She's absolutely fine. Don't you worry

Ingrid: I'm fine. I'm fine.

Lesley: Anyway,

Ingrid: Lesley as well, before we,

Lesley: Is it? 12 years is something we've been working together now.

It's like too

Ingrid: oh my gosh.

Lesley: you'd have escaped a long time ago. If, you thought

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: to you, wouldn't you?

Ingrid: Yeah. And we've been together for ages. Oh my gosh. I know, you're like my, second partner in life besides my husband, I talk to you more than I talk to other people,

Lesley: Oh,

percent.

Ingrid: But no, it's ab All good here. And of course, before we move on to the next thing that we wanted to talk about, I also wanted to say to our listeners, if you ever think of a topic that you've never heard us talk about, or if you're like, wow, I wish Igu England legend would talk about.

So and send us an email or leave a comment on, one of the many places you can leave a comment because we would love, we love hearing from our listeners. So if there's ever anything at all that you think, oh wow, that, would be a fantastic thing. If, you could, talk about that, let us know and we're more than happy to, to look into if the topic is, is something that, we think would suit this podcast.

So we'd love hearing from you.

Lesley: Definitely. So one of the big things as well this year was, which was really nice, is you know, we, were just talking about our membership before and we went to a conference about memberships, and so it's a conference run by. A, guy who runs memberships, if that makes sense. And tells you how to run a membership successfully. And, we, nearly fell off our chairs didn't wear English right at the beginning of the thing because we got pop on screen as one of the people that was doing really well, didn't where we were like. oh, Okay. That's funny. how funny was that me? Because we were sat like in front of each other where you were sat in front of me, not like next to me.

And so Ingrid turned round and we were like, oh, that's funny. was very, again, that was so nice, wasn't it? Because we

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: I didn't realize. Sometimes you need to be told, don't you? That you're doing okay. I think you know

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: a lesson for

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Like sometimes you can get so bogged down in the detail that you don't see how much progress you're making. I think that's the same with

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: journey. You've gotta come out of the, haven't you, the kind of depth to go, oh, actually we're doing okay here and we need to

I think that's the important

everything is really, everything we've done this year is really, Equally applicable to a decluttering journey, I think. 'cause this is real life, isn't it? And so it was lovely. So we really, we lo a, we loved the conference, we love meeting people. It's nice to get out and about from behind our screens, isn't it? We're all being together as well, which is always fun. And that was in Newcastle, but when our names popped up on screen, we were, laughing where we,

Ingrid: I know. We were like, oh, wow. I can't, I remember, I will remember that moment for the rest of my life, honestly, we were like. And because there were so many amazing membership owners and the fact that, we came on screen because of course, he was using us as an example, like a membership is, is, not only the membership.

we mentioned our book and our podcast and the talks that we do and the press and all of the things. And I think that's why I use this as an example. And it was like. Oh gosh. and, still, we, still, want to tweak things, we wanna improve things, but it was so lovely to hear oh wow, yeah, we are doing all these things and it's so amazing to get that recognition.

So yeah, that was very, special and an amazing. Amazing conference and such fun to, again, to hang out with Lesley in person because of course we see each other like on screens a lot during the week, but in person not that often. So yeah, that was really nice, really, nice to hang out and, and spend some time together.

Lesley: Definitely. last, but by no means least Ingrid, we wanna talk about our challenges, which is the reason why a lot of people are around. a lot of people go through our various challenges throughout the year and this year we have done three notable challenges. We started out the year with the reset Your Home Challenge back in January. We did our 40 days, 40 items, which is a real popular one in kind of January. No, February, March time,

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: to Easter, and then we did our clear out closed challenge in May. And so we love the challenges, right? How much fun is

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: us to

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah.

Lesley: of people all kind of wanting to make a change to that home?

That's what's so nice about the challenges, isn't it?

Ingrid: Yeah, absolutely. so, much learning, so many light bulbs, so many, mindset changes so much. Action as well of people who are in our challenges and absolutely love it, whether we have, you can sign up for the Challenger, whether we do it in our Facebook group, it's just every, time.

So much fun. And of course now we're on the verge of, starting our Researcher Home Challenge. we're starting on Monday, the 5th of January. signups are open. We would love for you to join us on Declutter Hub dot com slash r yh because we love, absolutely love a reset your home challenge. It's such a great way to start a new year and really have that focus on decluttering and Organising your home if that's something that's been really holding you back in the past.

And, yeah, what a great way to, to kick off the new year. So come and join us if you can.

Lesley: Yeah, I think it's important, isn't it, Ingrid, to do something a little bit different. And I think once you get the validation that other people feel the same way as you and have the same struggles and everyone's in this journey together. So obviously you've got the teaching from Ingrid and I, which is hopefully a little bit useful.

And then you've got all of the kind of, spirit around it. I think it's just such a wonderful combination and we can't wait to get that started. It's not long now, Ingrid not long now until 2026. Louis reset your home challenge, but I think. so that's our highlights of the year.

been an incredible, year for us. But

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: and there's all these things and accolades and books and awards and all that kind of stuff, but really, really just all about people, isn't it? And it's really

to people.

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: in having a book and a podcast and all this kind of stuff if you're not making a difference to people's lives. And that's. What this is all about. I think

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: through a bit little transformations this year as well. It's been a busy, year, but we've tried to put some balance into our lives a little bit this year as well, haven't we?

Have we failed? What success?

Ingrid: I, think we're halfway there.

Lesley: I think we had this conversation last year when we were like, yeah, let's, get some work life balance together in 2025. And here we are at the end of 2025 going, yeah, I did that, but didn't. but it's in our line of sight writing. It's in our line of sight. 2026 is gonna be our year for balance. has been a year of. I don't know. What would you call

Ingrid: Oh, it's just, been. I wouldn't call it a rollercoaster. honestly, we've just gone from one, one massive highlight to the other. It's been, I, just, can't even explain how just a bigger year it's been really, it's been so fun and it's been, we've done so many amazing things that we would never, ever thought we were gonna do.

It's just been, honestly, it's been just so fantastic and it's wow, what's next? People are like, what's next? And we're like, And then the other day is oh yeah, we're gonna translate your book in Spanish. flabbergasted. You know what I mean? It's one cool thing after the other.

And it's so yeah, we're so grateful to everybody who listens in everybody who signs up for our challenges. All the amazing members in our membership who trust us with their. Decluttering and Organising journeys and are so open and so kind and share so much, and that we can give them such great feedback and advice and that they really, all the emails we get from our members all the time, it's really helped and I'm now ready to take the next step or, wow.

Your, answer to my questions really make me think. I'm gonna look at it from a different point of view and wow, I got spurred into action and I feel really ready to now to, do this. I think that overall is, I think, like you said, Les is always why we have so much love for what we do and for our members because Lots of people are having, tough times and that you're then able to help them with your own expertise. it's, very, you said humbling before, but it's really true and it makes it really, special for us. And that never, ever, fails to make me happy that, we have a gift that we can share with others and that other people can make their lives better.

It's, yeah. I'm gonna nearly cry, so I'm gonna stop talking now.

Lesley: know. Well done. I actually thought, I thought the tears were coming. I think it's really important as well for

the Declutter Hub is not just Ingrid and I, we've got people that help

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: different things. And so we've not got any, a team of 30 people putting this together.

It's mostly Ingrid and I, but we've got our wonderful Lucy,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: our kind of right hand woman. We've got other people who different things do different things in that. bit and the, and all, of too many to mention really. But there are other people who help us and they really keep the wheels turning for us and keep us sane and, find these wonderful opportunities for us and things like that.

thank you so much. If you, are somebody who's done something for the Declutter Hub, you know who you are and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts 'cause we wouldn't be able to do it without you.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Ingrid, what about something personal? hard to think, we've got personal highlights.

Of course we have. We've done wonderful things with our families and friends and everything like that this year. But has there been one thing that stands out as your highlight of this year?

Ingrid: Yeah, for sure. And I know it's probably gonna be the same one for you as well, Lesley. It must be, uh, the book launch party that we did, back in February for our families, our friends. members of our community, people that we, professional organizers, friend, friends that are professional organizers.

we just had a fantastic, afternoon, early evening, party in, In the Dili in London, and it was so fantastic. And the icing on the cake, of course, was that we actually saw our book across the road in the, massive big water stones that was on the shelf there. So that was made it even more like cool.

But yeah, I think having everybody there to celebrate that moment was really special.

Lesley: I think that's it because, you talk, about it brings all of the different components of our life together because it was a celebration. So it brought the professional organizers, it brought the members, it brought the friends, brought the family, and it brought us together as well. And you did a lovely speech.

We had a gorgeous cake. We just had such a blast, didn't we? And it

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: special. It felt like a celebration. That's definitely my highlight as well.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: meeting you every single day, pretty much on the other end of Zoom, more grumpy than others, that is me rather than you. Ingrid's like today, she's like. Where's the fun gone? It's just work, work all the time. as we're getting busy now, it's like the end of the year. We're like, we

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: here. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah. But no, thank you so much, partner for being incredible.

we're still going strong after seven or eight years. We have a laugh

so

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: only what we can do for our members, it's what we do for each other as well. And

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: that for granted either. Yeah, we still have

Ingrid: I know. I know we definitely have lots of fun. We can still talk about lots of, TV shows that bring us lots of, laughter that we follow and that we have to talk to about each other and our families, of course, that are such an important part for both. You and I, we give each other a catch up about what's happening because, we, In the Declutter Hub. we listen to, the podcast listeners and our members, but together we also share a lot. we are not just business partners, we are really good friends as well. So it's really important to also just have a chat. And it doesn't have to be a long thing, when, something happens in your kids' lives or my kids' lives, we.

We share our, happy moments and our tricky moments and moments when it's, when it's, hard because that's what you do. Because that's what you get when you work, together all the time. And I think, oh my gosh, I don't think I could have thought of anybody else. I would rather do it with them.

With you. yeah, hanging in there.

Lesley: you could. I'm sure you, if you thought about, if you thought about, she's like you just saying language. Just

Ingrid: No,

you, no. You know that's true. And

Lesley: Something just works. We still have no idea why. but something just

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: us, which is

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: But

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: yeah, no, it's always, it is always a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to 2026.

It's

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: we don't have a a, kind calm run into 2026. It's always crazy from the, from the get go, isn't it? 5th

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Full-blown, delivery mode, doing our challenge. And so we can't wait to see some new faces. Some old faces. There will no doubt be people who are coming back for the reset Your Home Challenge.

I don't know how many times we've done it. I'm thinking like 7, 8, 9, maybe. I dunno. This is, we've done the Reset Your Home Challenge quite a lot. We've changed it and tweaked it along the way. but it'll be the same, the same stuff that you're used to and the same delivery. Happy New Year. So we can't wait to see you in 2026 to start the year afresh. We hope that you've also had a wonderful 2025. If you're still struggling with clutter, at the end of it, make 2026 be the year of change. That's what we want so desperately for you. Thank you all so much for being such incredible support as Ingrid and I. couldn't be where we are with the press, with the book, with the podcast, with the membership, without you guys that are supporting us every step of the way.

This is not about

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: It's about all you guys being incredible. So thank you

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: from the bottom of my heart, and thank you, Ingrid.

Ingrid: absolutely. I have nothing to add to that, just to say thanks for listening and we'll see you next week for a brand new episode.