Episode 369 – 10 items to declutter from your home office

Ingrid: Your home office should be a place of focus and productivity, but for many of us it becomes a clutter magnet. Whether you're working remotely, managing family admin, or using the space for hobbies, it's easy for this room to fill up with things we don't need use or even remember owning.

In this episode, we are digging into 10 common culprits that might be cluttering up your home office right now.

Ingrid: Well, Lesley, I'm super excited to be recording this podcast because it's a 10 things podcast and as know, it's favorite of mine to record. And I do love the list we have created because I think this is absolutely spot on. Yeah. People have, we've found loads of these things. I think we very, I'm really happy we're doing this podcast, basically.

Lesley: Yes, you are always happy with the 10 things, aren't you? Ingrid, you like

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: don't you? Simple things, not complex discussions. She loves a

Ingrid: Exactly.

Lesley: So first things first, not everybody's got. Home

Ingrid: Yeah. Out.

Lesley: a bit of a privilege. You know, I'm lucky here. I mean the fi actually, I think the number one thing to remove from your home office ideally should be me because I'm in here way more than anywhere else in my house.

We should have put that on the list. Should we? Like we just declutter ourselves, my home office and go out and do nice things. That would be nice. But anyway, that's not actually on the list, but I just wanted to.

Ingrid: And, and Lesley. And Lesley, I mean, people might have to think of visions of grandeur of our home offices. I mean, like the tiniest box room, we're just about squeezed in a, a desk and a chair and one tiny cupboard. So don't think we're talking about like these gigantic spaces either. Right?

Lesley: just, can I just mention the fact that for the past 15 years that tiny squeezed in shoebox has been your daughter's bedroom,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: dunno why you are feeling hard done to, you've got. can go to, you know, got into Max's room and you are in there, but you make it sound like the poor girl's had to be there for 15 years and she managed perfectly fine.

Ingrid: Yeah, I know my previous home office was looking at the spare bed and my laundry drying, so I, I'm on the app.

Lesley: Yeah, definitely. I think it's, you know, at the end of the day. We talk about a home office here, but people have set up a little place in their house where they've got the kinds of things that we're going to be talking about. So you

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: home office, but I bet you've got this stuff. And so

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: about.

So if we say home office and you've not got one, it's your kitchen table or your dining room table, or a little airy in your bedroom. think about the kinds of things that we're talking about instead. So let's get

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Definitely number one. I'm going to go for a one A. Me and Ingrid need to be extracted today from our home office, but let's go.

Let's go back to the actual number one.

Ingrid: Yes. old or unused, stationary, I mean, my goodness, glue that is dried up. Hence, they're not working paperclips that nobody uses anymore. All of these little bits and bulbs and that, you know, they're little, so we don't even think about them, but they're cluttering up the drawers and the little books and we think, ah, it might be handy one day, but honestly, let it all go.

What do we, we have a computer that just does about everything. Pens, maybe give it a pa, a notebook, and that's about it. Even a notebook you don't need, you can put everything in the computer.

Lesley: I think that, you know, realistically, if I'm being honest, we hardly use anything do we? Different people have got

Ingrid: Hmm.

Lesley: Different things really. But there's a lot of things in my home office that are just there for the occasional use as opposed to everyday use. And certainly a

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: used to be everyday use, but now, you know, really it's just pens, perhaps

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: jot a few things down on.

You know, maybe if you're using a stapler and stuff like that. Maybe a ream of paper. But you know, we don't use that much. And so I think it's really important to look at the stationary that we've probably gathered a lot of times, dare I

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: I am not going to say stolen. I'm going to say acquired from employers along the way.

You know, kind of surreptitiously brought it home one day and then we've got loads of it there. There's things that we had when we were at college that we've, all of that kind of stuff. We need to

Ingrid: Mm.

Lesley: because what we, what we once needed in stationary, we now no longer need. So it is good to do that kind of declutter, get it all sorted, and you'll probably be able to get that stationary down from several drawers into one.

So yeah,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: a look. That's the point that

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: to make.

Ingrid: Are, are we doing a tally, Lesley, are we doing a tally? Perhaps at some point do we talk about, have you got this stuff or shall we just go? Yeah. What do you think?

Lesley: I mean, there's always, there's always improvements to be made.

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: so?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: go through some of my old stationary and let some stuff go? Could I go through my pens and see if they're, Some of them have, know, not working anymore. Is there a bit of dried up glue knocking around? Possibly. So I

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: could certainly do some decluttering and let some stuff

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: it

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: bad? No. And is it fairly orderly? Yes. So I

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: there's always improvements to be made. It's skimming off the

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: talk about all the time.

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: Decluttering is

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: done, but I'm not taking it. I'm not taking number one as a, as a as a as mine. I don't

Ingrid: Okay. Ag agreed. Me too. I mean, I've really whittled it down over the years. Over time, yes. There is a box downstairs in the living room, close to the other desks with some kind of. Surplus items, but it's not like I've got boxes and boxes full of stuff and 150 pens knocking about that don't work. I mean, I had it, actually, I had it the other week when, so I went, oh, the pen actually ran out because where I just didn't, you know, I, I know pens run out, but it really was like, oh, middle writing.

It just stopped. I was like, wow. And I threw it out immediately.

Lesley: I've got here. Can you see it?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: What does it say on it?

Ingrid: Oh, I can't see that.

It is because it's fuzzy, not because you're not holding it still enough unless you can't see it.

Lesley: says, Bexley Grammar School.

Ingrid: Huh?

Lesley: So I've obviously stole, stolen a pen from your house, so I do not go to Bexley Grammar School. Do not live anywhere near Bexley, but I happen to have that I'm using every single day. A Bexley grammar school pen.

Ingrid: Oh my gosh. Well, it must have been Max's then, probably because it's been a while since you've been at my house. Okay.

Lesley: It's a

Ingrid: Well,

Lesley: but just

Ingrid: brilliant. Brilliant.

Lesley: my own Anyway, so number one, old or un new stationary in pens.

Ingrid: Yes. Number two, oh gosh. Out date paperwork, those. You know, just piles of paperwork that are kind of cluttering up our desk that are somehow ended up in those little desk drawers. Maybe some leather arch files, filing cabinets that are kind of bursting at the seams. You know, kind of that old, old stuff. some, maybe some maps from a local thing.

Some flyers from a thing you went to or that you've kind of thought 10 years ago, oh, that would be nice to go with the kids, and now you're like. Why would I go there? But kids have left the house, so all of that outdated paperwork. Oh gosh. It does build up, doesn't it, Lesley?

Lesley: It does now. you know, the nice thing often about a 10 Things podcast is that it's nice, easy, quick wins now. Of this one. Number two, not a nice, a nice, easy, quick win. This could be

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Lesley: would take you months to get

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: you mean? So it just depends on where you are in the paperwork world, you know, but maybe

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: that are on your desk that are stuffing up on top of your, know, into your in trays and things like that, that would be the things to maybe tackle.

You know, doing a paperwork project if you are overrun with paperwork is something. Entirely different, isn't it? Ingrid? Still

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: to do this within your home office, declutter, and hopefully this will give, give you a little bit of food, of food for thought. But this is potentially not a quick fire win.

We wanted to,

Ingrid: no.

Lesley: address that, but yeah,

Ingrid: Maybe, maybe, maybe Lesley. It's more like paper that's left on top of a printer or something, you know, or something that you printed off from work, or you brought in from work to read at home and it's still kind of lingering about. Maybe. Maybe that's better than, yeah. Do your whole filing cabinet.

Lesley: I bet you've got loads of stuff on your printer. Ingrid loves to print. She's obsessive. She's an obsessive printer. You need to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: that. Not good.

Ingrid: I know I'm getting better. I'm really, really getting better. But yeah, some things a lie to have in front of me.

Lesley: think you're getting better. I don't see any improvement at all. Like no change in habit or behavior, but anyway, but on the, on the flip side to it, I've just downgraded my hp so I get one of these where I pay monthly. Do you do that where you pay for

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: and you get, you get your ink and you get a certain number of, copies. Do you know what

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: are per month?

Ingrid: What

Lesley: 15, get angry, like

Ingrid: I, I actually, now, I now want to pause this podcast and 'cause my husband probably would know this. I would not know this. I would like to, but I can't post this podcast, so I'm going to have to somehow find out the answer and report back to you at some point. How much?

Lesley: the family printers as well. Do they love a print?

Ingrid: No.

Lesley: No, just you, you

Ingrid: No, and, and some that needs to print something for school, right?

Lesley: yeah.

Ingrid: when she's working on a pre.

Lesley: like you, where you don't need to print anything and you print it.

Ingrid: I feel like you're, no, you're being now really, really too hard on me. I have gotten a lot better. I will tell you the answer after this podcast. The listeners, at some point you will hear, you will hear back, but I don't think it's 15 copies per month.

Lesley: Exactly. Well, I'm saying that's where we need to be going to. And then we could

Ingrid: Okay. I am just, I,

Lesley: are you

Ingrid: I am moving swiftly. I'm, I'm going on to number three.

Lesley: okay? We should have done that. As it were, outdated, paperwork just morphed into Ingrid's papers on top of the printer somehow. But anyway, let us carry

Ingrid: I know. Listeners, help me here. Help me here. Okay, number three. Oh gosh. Unused techy stuff like you as B sticks. Maybe, maybe people even have like. DVDs from like old programs, Leste, when you had to install stuff right? In the olden days.

Lesley: Yeah.

Ingrid: cables, random charger thingies. I mean, we, we all know, it's like, for me it's like the dreaded, the dreaded drawer with stomach.

Oh no, let's no. Yeah. Heart, heart.

Lesley: 10 things podcast is quite the jobs in it. A little quick, five, 10 things. It's like all of the hard. Stuff. That's the problem

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: we want

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: to function nicely. And so all these things are quite tricky now.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Wire isn't Cables One thing we want to say with that, it has got a little bit easier with the addition or the introduction of Google Lens, which is, kind of thing that you will find on Google.

So I, I can't tell you where it is, but just search Google Lens. Sometimes it's a little icon in your browser bar in Google and things like that. And you can actually take pictures of things. Take pictures of wires in the us. B cables and all that kind of stuff. And Google Lens kind of what it does is it kind of searches the internet to find something similar and then you will have an idea what that wire actually belongs to, which is super,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: when you're trying to sort out tech cables.

'cause I dunno, one cable from another, if I'm Frank. I think the

Ingrid: mm.

Lesley: are much better. Like they seem to know A USB from a US. C to A-U-S-B-C to a micro USB to it is just, to me it's like la, la la, la la. Do you know what I mean?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: so I do use kind of, Google lens, but I get awfully frustrated when I don't have the way that I want.

That much is true, and I do definitely 100% use labels on all my ways. You can get bespoke wire and cable labels and they are super helpful. So, if you really want to go to the nth degree on your declutter. dig some labels out.

Ingrid: Yeah. I, I'm sure we have some of this stuff. I mean, I think my husband a while ago kind of went through all of, all of this, but I'm sure there's, it's already. We have stuff again

Lesley: I mean, apple

Ingrid: with without.

Lesley: and now everything's on A-U-S-B-C you. It's

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: no. So I think there's like a ruling actually in the eu I think it is.

Ingrid: Yes.

Lesley: they're trying to bring all of the wires and the attachments and stuff and the charging things to be the same. I heard that

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: right?

Yeah. So

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: trying to do away with this, 'cause this is really bad for the environment. All this probably copper in

Ingrid: incredible.

Lesley: And there's

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: everywhere we see it. We see boxes and boxes of wires, don't we? With client, Ingrid, you

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: And it's all

Ingrid: Yeah, yeah,

Lesley: not doing anything.

So yeah, definitely check out those tech, tech cables. Sometimes you need to have a little bit of help with this 'cause it's not easy 'cause tech and wires and stuff belongs to other people, belongs to kids, belongs with other family members. You might not know what you're doing, which is my thing. So I have to ask people who do know what they're doing.

So, so

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: yeah. Number

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: accessories.

Ingrid: And, and just a little side note, if you are kind of, you know, feeling inspired to sort out your home office and you're finding all these things in random places, and start by putting them in one place. Don't have these things in multiple places because that will make it worse. I know you think, but if I put 'em all one place, they're all going to get tangled and, and, and spaghetti.

It, it, putting stuff in different places doesn't make it any difference. You're going to have to sort it out and start from scratch. So definitely have number three. number four, oh, notebooks and planners. And we know you notebook lovers out there are kind of groaning right now going, oh no, not the notebooks, because the people who love notebooks have.

Hundreds of them because they love them and every time they see a notebook with a nice, pretty outside, they think I'm going to buy that because the notebook and the new notebook is going to change my life and how I do things. But we get so many, so if you have stacks and stacks of them, this is your kind of.

Nudge to go. Okay. Okay. I have to, I have to think about this. We've done a whole separate podcast about notebooks, so if you want to know more, there's a whole massive lesson in our membership that's even longer about notebooks, because we know the struggle is real, but you're going to have to go through 'em if you, if they're cluttering up your home office.

You need to find a notebook that works for you. And in, in, in the size, in the, in the, in the lines, no lines. All of those things. Is it a large one, a four? Do you like a small notebook? Whatever it is, and declutter the rest. And you can just, you have, if they're unused, please donate them, give them away. put them on a free giveaway app because people will love them.

but you don't need every notebook under the sun in your home office.

Lesley: Yes. Good. Number four. Have you got any of those? Ingrid?

Ingrid: no, not really. I've done a lot of that over the years. I might have like one rogue, one lying about somewhere, but no, I, I, no, I definitely don't have a lot. And the ones that, the one or two spares that I have are the ones that I like and I know I will use them. You know what I mean? So they will come in at some point.

Lesley: I'm with you.

Ingrid: How about you, Lesley?

Lesley: No

Ingrid: Same.

Lesley: excess of notebooks and planners. No.

Ingrid: Okay. Alright. Okay. This is interesting. Number five. Other like home office supplies. So I'm not, we're not talking about scissors or staplers or paperclips or those kind of things. What we're talking about are things if unused laminators, like these cutting machines, remember them, Lesley, then you can go and like this massive kind of big knife comes down and you have to be like super careful

Lesley: A

Ingrid: that you kind of.

Lesley: guillotine.

Ingrid: Gil Team Gil, couldn't think of the name there. like all these kind of equipment, like large stuff that you think, why, why, why on earth have I got this? Yeah, I know.

Lesley: and a lot of times they're just from a different part of our life, aren't they? Ingrid? You know,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: laminators and things like that are super helpful if you are,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: volunteering for something. If you've got little kids and you want to laminate. Stuff for them. So draw on and all. So the, these things have had a purpose, but I suppose what you need to do is you need to look at your current life and go,

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: is that taking up?

And when was the

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: time I actually used it? And is my life going to stop if I do not have a guillotine or a laminator, for example? I think that's it. It's balancing up the value to the, the sort of the space or the stuff kind of thing. We need to look at that

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: always look at something like a laminator or a guillotine and think, you know what, that might come in one day and it might, and it maybe it

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: Do you know what I

Ingrid: yeah, yeah,

Lesley: life going to end if you don't have it? Can you borrow it from

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: Can you find a different way of doing something? Because ultimately that will free up space in your house. So definitely look at

Ingrid: yeah. Yeah.

Lesley: kind of officey type handy things.

Ingrid: Also, you know what Lesley about things like folders and things like that, right? Like either the. The, you know how I love the Harmonic, I know it's not Harmonic folder, but you know, the, the, the accordion folder or the harmonica fo, I call it calls in Harmonic folder. But the ones with those kind of things, old lever arch files that the kids may be used when they were in school and they had to bring in paperwork for school.

Maybe they've, you know, they're not at home anymore, and those files and folders were all left with you. maybe, I don't know, eight to set tabs to put in set folders, you know. Is that all stuff that we need? Things have changed dramatically in the last, well, maybe it's mainly in the last five years before that already, of course.

But I think when we started working from home and lots more things got scanned and we got started putting things in clouds and it's changed a lot.

Lesley: Yeah. You know, and I think that those are the kind of things, the kinds of things that we're talking about today are notoriously difficult to let go after somebody,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: you're thinking about a kind of charity shop outlet. And it's really

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Lesley: 'cause they have got value to somebody who might use them.

So all of the things that we've. Spoken about wires, cables, you know, tech gadgets, notebooks, they all could have a second life. And so what we need to do is find the people that want to give them that second life. And that is why something like Olio which is a giveaway app that we have here in the uk and, and it's also in other countries.

Or Free cycle or Freegle or Facebook marketplace giveaway sites. All of those things you, it will find its next home. And that feels very satisfying because these

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: they were expensive, they're useful, but are they useful to you. So try and find its next life, and that gives you great satisfaction when you're decluttering as well.

I love giving things away

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: lio. And this is a lot of what I've given away 'cause I've got a lot more stuff that I used to use when I was doing paperwork sort outs for clients. We used to use a lot of supplies, right, Ingrid. But now most

Ingrid: Yep.

Lesley: digital organizing that we're doing for clients and not paperwork organizing or stationary organizing and all that kind of stuff.

And so even the supplies that I used to use as an organizer. A all surplus and I would never use them now. So all of those kind of things have gone and the charity shop work, really thank you for them because it's very difficult for them to kind of sell them because they're just kind of non-standard.

Right. So,

Ingrid: Yeah, definitely,

Lesley: So yeah. So how

Ingrid: definitely.

Lesley: Kelly one to five?

Ingrid: I definitely unuse tech. The rest I think I'm pretty good at, I would say, I mean, I do still have a ator in my house, but I still have a child in school, so I think that's different. I, but the rest, no, I think I'm pretty good on new tech for sure.

Lesley: And when's Anne laminated anything?

Ingrid: we actually laminated something not too long ago actually,

Lesley: like

Ingrid: so, yeah, there, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was actually not,

Lesley: I, I need proof.

Ingrid: could, I can't remember. I can't remember what it was, but I remember it not being, it's not been years. It's been like in the, in this year somewhere. I remember.

Lesley: Yeah,

Ingrid: Yeah, yeah,

Lesley: but

Ingrid: yeah. But it will go,

Lesley: something probably to look at in the next year, you know, once I

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: leave school and

Ingrid: for sure.

For sure.

Lesley: the passage of time, isn't it? So

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: going to say yes. As I say, you can always go a little bit further, but nothing within there that is troublesome. That

Ingrid: Okay.

Lesley: out within 20 minutes of sorting,

Ingrid: Okay. Alright. Okay, well that's not bad. Okay. Yeah, I'll take on use tech. I know we're on top of it, but I think we could definitely always find more. So I'm going to take that one for sure. Let's go for a break and we'll come back and do five more because it's a 10 things podcast. Yay. Back soon.

Hi everyone. Welcome back to your Ten things podcast of things to Declutter from your home office. We've already done five, we're not going to go back to them. Next five are coming up. So number six, oh, books that are cluttering up those shells that might have to do with. a Business that you've been running, a course that you've been doing, maybe even some books for uni, some old textbooks, that kind of thing.

Whoa.

Lesley: I think we just put them on the shelf, don't we? And they've been useful one

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: and I feel like there's an element of, it depends on what your relationship with books. really, doesn't it? But I think a lot

Ingrid: Hmm.

Lesley: oh, that's a good idea. You know, sometimes we acquire these books, sometimes we have to have these books. If it's a college course, something like that. or we might acquire it when we go to work, we might think that we ought to read all these kind of motivational speaking time, habits, type books, medical journals, you know, all of those kind of things. And then they go out of date A lot of these things go out of date Not everything. But we really need to evaluate them. 'cause a lot of the things that we're talking about here, like businessy, worky type books are big as well. So you can really

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: of space. It doesn't take many books to free up an awful lot of space. And so, you know, these kind of things are, are a good thing if you want to create space on shelves, aren't they?

Ingrid: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I, I had my marketing book from, from when I did hotel management back in the nineties. Years and years and years. And we actually talked about this the other day with my husband, and he went, do we still have that book? I went, no. It's been decluttered now a couple of years ago. And we were like, oh, we, we, in our minds, we still had this book, but it's, it's been gone.

But I've got lots of, organizing books. So maybe at one point I will let some of the organizing books go and only keep our book, which is the best.

Lesley: Yes, exactly. Who needs old organizing books when you've got the Dilu Hub recently, your home book? We do not.

Ingrid: Exactly.

Lesley: they're like, what book I need, this book goes tolu hub.com/book and by our book, because it's amazing.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: it will definitely stand the test of time.

Right Ingrid?

Ingrid: Well, it was Le Love. I haven't even told you this, Lesley, but I was with one of my clients last week and she actually, she goes through books like at a raid of knots, but she often doesn't finish them. And she said, Ingrid, your book is so good. She said, I honestly finished it front cover to back cover. It was so brilliantly written.

I loved it. I keep dipping back into it. So yeah, she was really impressed. So I just thought I should, I. Completely forgot to tell you this because we've been so busy,

Lesley: Yes.

Ingrid: yeah. Isn't that nice? So they culture all the books apart from our book?

Lesley: Yeah, I think it actually says in that, in the book, don't declutter this book, doesn't it?

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: It actually says that we spent our

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: declutter books. Then we're like, Ooh, actually, maybe we'll

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: Change the tone a little bit on the decluttering of the books front, but hey, but yeah, so well that's really nice and if you've not got it, go check it out 'cause it's great.

And if you don't want a physical book, you've got Audible or

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: also fine.

Ingrid: Yeah, but you know what? If you are never going to read or reread anything of those books, just let them go. let's go to number seven. Oh gosh. Sometimes home offices can become a bit of a dumping crown, can't they? Lesley, with just. Loads of stuff that shouldn't even be there in the first place. Kids toys, laundry rails, things that need to be donated.

some overflow boxes and things like that. It becomes really, really messy. So see if you can declutter some of this stuff because if you need to focus with work, work is busy enough. If you have all this random stuff around you, it's really. Difficult to concentrate.

Lesley: Yeah, I think you're right. I think the reason why home offices sometimes become a little bit of a magnet for clutter and overflow items is because it's not a communal area of the home. Normally. It's

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Lesley: space or two individual spaces, and it's definitely not somewhere I. That guests will typically go, you know, but often, you know, certainly if we're working from home, we've got children, our kids coming there while we're working, all those kind of things and things then gravitate in.

So we definitely need to do that reset on a regular basis. Definitely, you know, hopefully on a daily basis, definitely on a weekly basis to let go of the stuff that is distracting us from what we need to be doing. Really, really

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Have you got out of place items? I'm, I, I can't take that one. I like everything is because it is a tiny home office. Nothing can be put in here, but nothing would go in here either because I'm like, I finally have my own home office. This is so amazing. I

Lesley: surprised you can fit in there, Ingrid. It's so small and like, it's like the Harry Potter Cup. I've noticed

Ingrid: and no.

Lesley: you'd make it out. I was like, it's not that small. It's not that small.

Ingrid: But n no out of place items so I don't have to take number seven business books. Yeah. Yeah. I have definitely, we forgot to do a tele on number six, but I definitely have a couple of business books, no out of place items in my home office.

Lesley: have I got out of place items? mm Not really, but I do use my home office as a bit of a kind of command center. I. Do you know what I mean? So

Ingrid: Mm.

Lesley: you know, I do use it. So if there are things that need to be done or to go somewhere or to be returned or that need working on, or pictures that need put up, or, I typically hold those in my home office quite neatly, but I do have them.

So you could consider those to be out of place. So you could consider them to be transitory, is that the word?

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. Trench. hmm.

Lesley: no, but it could be.

Ingrid: Okay.

Lesley: I'll go

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: go 0.5.

Ingrid: Right. Let's, oh my gosh. let's go to number eight then. And I think this is absolutely something we see all the time, just things that. You wonder why people hang onto it. Like, like old certificates and awards and just prints and knick-knacks for, I mean, of course if you've gotten a lovely award, like, which is a, I mean, you know, which is amazing and you're super proud of it, but sometimes you go, you're like, wow, you know, is it, does it need to be on show?

Does it need to be out? Does it, do you need to have. Shells full of all this stuff.

Lesley: You do

Ingrid: SI do. I do.

Lesley: and you

Ingrid: I do.

Lesley: whereas I just leave it behind 'cause I know that I'm never ever going to look at it ever again. She does love a certificate, so I'm

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: this, but I think what

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: is I. too many. The

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: too many.

So

Ingrid: Too many.

Lesley: an award, a certificate, a trophy, all of those kind of things is only really going to be appreciated if it's kind of curated. I think that's the

Ingrid: Mm.

Lesley: need to, you know, if you do have certificates, there needs to be on a wall in a, in a frame, or, you On the, on a side, in a photo frame or something like that.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah,

Lesley: if your home office is the natural place for those kind of things, do something nice with 'em so that you can really appreciate them.

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: a big

Ingrid: yeah, yeah.

Lesley: to appreciate them. It's

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: though, you know, 'cause I, I, you know, you see, we see a lot of people with like, kids like football trophies and stuff like that.

You know, dance trophies. As well, like loads of them. And if your child has played football, I know Nathan, for example, you know, played football from being kind of like, you know, three to 15 or something like that until his knees got completely mangled and now can't do anything. But anyway, that's by the bye. They're getting two or three trophies a year, you know what I mean? And some of them are more special than others. And so it really is sorting out the quality from the quantity.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah,

Lesley: In terms of

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: awards and certificates and

Ingrid: I,

Lesley: definitely have a look. You know, these things are not off limits and I think a lot of people think that they absolutely are. So

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: possible. And ask the people who own those things, do they really make you feel special? Are you really, you know, are you not that bothered? 'cause you've got too

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. I think also, you know, it's nice to kind of look back on something as well and go, I'm really proud of that, but not like, it feels a bit stuck in the past, right? If, if you've got all these sales, it's like, okay, but who are you now as a person? Which job are you in? Where do you want to go to? And sometimes it feels too much of a, I'm still clinging on to.

Lesley: Yeah.

Ingrid: Olden times. So yeah, I think, and I think when you, you know, especially now, we have to be so versatile and technical and, you know, because times are changing so fast, I think it's important to have things feel fresh. And I mean, if I was delighted when I moved into this home office and it was painted and I could pick out some stuff and new furniture and it really reenergized me.

So I think it's, something's really good to,

Lesley: You know,

Ingrid: to shake things up.

Lesley: the mickey out of your home office, but it's a really, really lovely office and,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: a big boost for you to get to finally get your own space where

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: it's important with a home office. To be able to shut the door on it and leave it. You know, we talked a couple of

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: on the Edmond Cornick podcast about having that I can't, she called it like an end of day shutdown or something like that.

And she was talking about the fact that her door is closed, you know, she closes the door in her office. So you don't, and I think that's important as well, if you're working from home,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: it? To be able to

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: of day shut down and close the door on it, which is more difficult if it is a, a shared space then, or a

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: are

Ingrid: yeah,

Lesley: you know, using for all the purposes as well.

Ingrid: yeah, definitely. okay. So yeah, I'm, I think I'm pretty good. Don't, don't really, I mean, yes, I dove, got some, some, some certificates and things, but overall it, it serves me, you know, it makes me happy. It doesn't make me feel down or look back in the past and not that kind of thing.

Lesley: its six months when Ingrid, kind of continues down her tennis career, which she's doing very well at the moment. that we're going to have all of the tennis trophies next time we go down and she's going to have like 65 tennis trophies and she's going to completely forget this thing. At the moment, she's just happy to win a set or a game.

Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah.

Lesley: but I feel like trophies are in your future. Ingrid?

Ingrid: Oh, I have to do a lot more tennis and a lot more practicing. Oh my gosh, Lesley, I'm so not good yet. It's really frustrating.

Lesley: love the, I love the yet, I love the, yet the positivity in there.

Ingrid: Exactly.

Lesley: attitude from Ingrid, which is literally going to

Agassi. Is that a tennis player? Before we know it,

Ingrid: Y Yes, definitely.

Lesley: old

Ingrid: going on to number nine, instruction manuals and warranties. Oh, they come with everything you buy. There's like this whole ream of booklets and things and I dunno. I mean, phew. It's incredible. So. Have a look at that and do you still own this equipment? Do you need instruction manuals in 25 different languages?

can you just get rid of some of this paperwork and go, you know what? I can find this online. I do not need all of this stuff. Can you put it in one box folder? Have it maybe labeled or something. But I mean, you don't, you need, you know how a kettle works. You know how your toaster works. You don't need to keep every instruction manual in your home office, to figure out how it works.

There's some things that are absolute no-brainers, and there's some things that are handy, but clear it out, have a bit of a clear out, very satisfying job This.

Lesley: I think I'm going to take that one. I don't think I have gone as far as I need to go with my instruction manuals because I

Ingrid: Hmm.

Lesley: I need to, and the ones that I've kept are quite old. And so, so I don't keep the new ones 'cause I know that I can get those online. But what I need to do is a kind of comparison and go, can I actually get this online?

I've never really had the time to look at, you know, you know, cameras that are maybe 15, 20 years old that I've still got, you know, and it's

Ingrid: Mm-hmm.

Lesley: can I get that information? So I think it's just as, as. know, and as soon as I find out that that information is available online, but I've never quite got round to doing that.

Ingrid: Mm.

Lesley: might be a retirement project for Steve, although he's

Ingrid: Be worn, Steve.

Lesley: really a decluttering type person, so I'll just keep all of it,

Ingrid: No.

Lesley: So,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: it myself actually.

Ingrid: Actually we did a really, really excellent, video for the membership about instruction manuals. And I recorded that. So I did a massive clear out when I did it and I went to, okay, these are the things I know can go, these are the things I'm sure we need to keep and these are the things I have to ask other people.

AKA, my husband. And he just went and then helped me and we sorted it all out and we actually just really, so we've got now one kitchen. It's not in my home office, it's actually in my kitchen. One drawer with like the most essential things, and that's about it. And we actually got rid of all the languages.

We got rid of all of the other stuff and the little cards and the little, the only thing I actually use on a regular basis, my washing machine one, I think of all the things

Lesley: you

Ingrid: I might have to keep.

Lesley: love a washing machine. We talk about

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: podcast. Ingrid,

Ingrid: Yeah, exactly.

Lesley: If you're not looking to the hypothetical podcast, you absolutely need to do because it's. It's like the most car crash. Half an hour of audio ever recorded, I think, isn't it, Ingrid?

Ingrid: I agree. So I'm not taking this one because I think I'm good. I'm good.

Lesley: done. Well

Ingrid: good on that.

Lesley: I'm taking it.

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: in the second half.

Ingrid: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Lesley: one. It

Ingrid: last one then.

Lesley: on. This last one.

Ingrid: Yes. Last one. Oh, kind of things from work that are kind of like a bit sentimental, but are they really like. Badges from when you went to a conference or your old work mug or your old kind of things from your job that, or maybe even from your uni days, you know, when you did like a project.

Oh gosh, I have that, I have to take this one. I'm, I'm, I'm, I, I have to be honest, I have some of this stuff.

yeah.

Lesley: I think the point is that you hit the nail on the head. Some of it is sentimental. I have this as well, so in my sentimental boxes, I've got all my badges. 'cause when you're in your early twenties, you go through jobs like job titles quite quickly, don't you? So I've got all my, I used to work for Sainsbury's back in the day when I was like, when I first graduated, and I've got all the different jobs and we used to always have to wear badges 'cause it was retail.

And so I've got all those different badges. I would never keep a, a lanyard

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: or anything like that, that, I mean, mostly they go straight back now, which is good. You know, people, recycle them, don't they? and other thing that I've kept, which is quite interesting, is. about how much you got paid.

You know, when you, when you had the, you got those letters every year to say, oh, your money's gone up by like a hundred pounds, or everyone. I mean? I didn't keep those. I think those are quite interesting as a kind of look back in time. So part of sentimental, part, nostalgic, but I think there's a difference between the sentimental and nostalgic stuff.

If that makes you smile, it makes you happy. There's no reason

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: that, but you need to know that that needs to go into your sentimental items and probably shouldn't be bobbing around your home office. But then there are

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: that you feel are, that you might think that are going to be like professional development for you. And it's really looking at that and going, are those course notes from 1993 really going to help me in my current

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: pivoted three times since then?

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: things like that. So there's a difference

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: and nostalgic and the actual

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: and inverted commas.

Ingrid: I am really glad you're saying this, Lesley, because I've got a lanyard from when I went to my first conference in America and my first one in Canada be, and they were like, it was like so special and I was so happy that I was there. I've kept those because they're sentimental to me.

They make me smile. But indeed, I, and, and I still have my, the project that I did when I was in uni that I have to like a, like an end of, uni project. I still have that in a folder, but I ditched all the other stuff and all the other. Reams of paperwork around it. I just kept the one, so I think I know, but we see it, right?

We see it course notes from a first eighth course in 1994. WW why is it still in your house? You know what I mean? You're never going to look back at this stuff, so let it go. Don't let it clutter up. Dec cluttered from your home office. Oh my gosh. Now, Lesley, how, how are we doing? I'm looking back and I'm like, okay, I got, I got un used tech for sure.

Books I'll never read. I've definitely, I've got some of those hanging about. Hmm. yeah, I probably have to take sentimental work clutter, but it's more sentimental. It's not really work clutter. I think I've gotten rid of most of that, but there's probably, I wanna take that one

Lesley: You going to.

Ingrid: 'Cause I wanna be realistic.

Yeah. Yeah. So three, three.

Lesley: got, do you think you've got excess? It's okay to have sentimental if it makes you happy. There's not, it's not a problem. It's an intentional choice. It's if you've got stuff that you think is like not serving you well, I.

Ingrid: I did declutter again loads when I kind of moved into this office because of course, because I was sitting in a spare bedroom. There was some stuff in my spare bedroom. There was stuff downstairs because I didn't have a place. And when I moved in here, I did do a massive declutter of of stuff. So maybe I'm not

Lesley: No,

Ingrid: as bad as I think I am.

Lesley: that one. I, I, I'm, I'm going to, I'm

Ingrid: Hmm.

Lesley: for one. I'm going to be on your side and go, don't take.

Ingrid: Unbelievable.

Lesley: 1.5 because I've, I'm def for the out of place items 'cause they're intentional, but they are kind of outta place. I'm going to go half on

Ingrid: Mm.

Lesley: and I'm going to go instruction manuals and warranties. So 1.5

Ingrid: Okay,

Lesley: and I

Ingrid: so I've got two.

Lesley: and you've got to, oh, you lost again.

Ingrid: Yeah, I know,

Lesley: Maybe I shouldn't.

Ingrid: I know. Lost again, so, so listeners. Let, I mean, honestly, we love getting your emails and your comments and to let us know how many of the 10 things have you got? Or if you are like, okay, I, I need to take action on this. Just take one of the things this weekend when you're, after you've listened to this podcast, go, okay, one of the things I'm going to do, I'm going to look at, I know I have to do all 10 things, but you then it's overwhelming.

Pick one of our list and go. This is the thing I'm going to do this week. I'm going to sort it out, but let us know in the comments, in the the, the podcast things and all of that. How are you doing? Have you got one and a half or two or are you like, yeah, I'm to complain. Eight and a half. It is here. Tell us. We can't wait to hear from you.

Lesley: we we're

Ingrid: And Of course,

Lesley: like an 8.5. I think we're going to have like loads of 0.5, don't we? Yeah. Like with, with no explanation. Yeah. Just

Ingrid: yeah.

Lesley: comments. Just put the number, like seven. And you know, it's like if you know, you know, and we'll everyone be like, huh,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: and six and 8.5? Do you know what I mean?

Ingrid: Yeah,

Lesley: and we'll just put IYK, YK is it?

Ingrid: yeah, yeah. Exactly.

Lesley: So,

Ingrid: Yeah, that sounds a plan. I love it. So thanks listeners. We hope you've enjoyed this podcast. We certainly have. We appreciate you and don't forget to listen in next week to a brand new, episode. But for now, thanks for being here.