Episode 422 – Time for a September Reset?

Ingrid: September has a funny way of feeling like a fresh start, even though the calendar year began months ago. The nights start drawing in, routines settle back down, and for a lot of us, that back-to-school energy still kicks in every single year. In this episode, we'll talk through why now is such a good moment to get back onto the decluttering track and what you're going to need to get you started on the right foot

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.

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Oh, Lesley, it's the end of August. Can you believe how quickly this summer has flown by? Why does it always go so fast in the summer? What's the deal? January always seems to drag its feet, and February's, cold. And then it's summer and light and it nicer weather and it's, we have heat waves and all of that stuff. then before we know it, we blink with our eyes and we're like, "Oh, end of August. Wow. How did this happen?" It- do you feel the same way?

Lesley: Exactly. It's gone so fast, hasn't it? And we've had a really nice summer weather and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, but here we are, September again, back into the depths of autumn and winter, which I quite like autumn and winter. I quite like the change of seasons, actually. Do you know what I mean?

So I like all of the different seasons. even winter I don't mind, do you know what I mean? 'Cause you can be a bit, hibernate a little bit. I don't mind hibernating for a little bit of time throughout the year. Do you know what I mean? So

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: yeah, so it's down to us, Ingrid, kind of New Year, new you vibes come September.

We have two opportunities, don't we, to get people revved up. One of them is in January. One of is in September. In between times it's a little bit more tricky, but there's definitely that new year energy come September. And so we wanna make sure that we've got everything ready to help you get back on the decluttering track, don't we, Ingrid?

Ingrid: Yeah. and I think even, a lot of people think, had kids, and th- they're not going back to school." Still, September always really feels, the, the end of August now, and we're like, once it's September, it suddenly starts to feel like, wow, it's really the end of the year.

We still have four months. We still have four months, but it feels like a really good kind of pause in the year somehow. I don't know. I think maybe because everybody back to school, e- everybody's, back to work. The holidays are the vacations are behind us mostly. so yeah, I don't know.

We, we need

Lesley: yeah, we're...

Ingrid: with that decluttering

Lesley: Yeah, we're definitely focusing on the Northern Hemisphere here, so we now have to talk about the fact that we gov- have got people here from Southern Hemisphere who might not be going through the same regeneration feeling of September. so we apologize for that.

But yeah, September is a reset for many of our members and podcast listeners, and so on. Before we go on about it being a reset, some people might have been just plodding along and keeping on going through that as well. But for many people, understandably, during the summer, they have a little bit of time to do something different.

we've sp- spoken about the fact that maybe your kids are at home, maybe the weather's nicer, some people go on holiday. It's time, and it's a good thing to do something different to just tending to your home 24/7. And so we're, here for the change in pace, right? y- you can't just keep the same uniform change of pace throughout the year.

A decluttering journey ebbs and flows. It's got, it's got plateaus, it's got down days, it's got up days when you're going crazy. We've got hyper-focus times, all of these different things, and we need to recognize them. And I think the, being a successful declutterer or having decluttering nailed in your home is as much about working out the bad times as it is the good times and getting back in the saddle when the time is appropriate, I think.

So but there is a bit of a lift come, post-summer. There is a bit of a, "Okay, enough of that fun malarkey. Now it's back to business." Do you know what I mean? It's like that, isn't it?

Ingrid: no more barbecues,

Lesley: Yeah

Ingrid: sitting outside wash- watching your, laundry dry on the line within, half an hour. It's time to get

Lesley: I'm sorry, but that, I- I have to stop you there. That is not fun, right? watching your laundry dry on the... I know it brings people ridiculous amounts of joy to be able to dry their washing outside, I get it, but not this person, I'm afraid. Not this person. I'm like, I'm all here for the summer cocktails and barbecues, not so much for the drying laundry on the line.

But it takes all sorts, as they say, Ingrid

Ingrid: I know, It makes me insanely happy when I can put my laundry outside on my line. I know I'm weird. But I know, it's I think we were talking about one of our, how, was it on one of the success sessions I did with the members? I'm like, "Guys, it's really nice weather. I'm, like, washing my duvets," and wh- and they were all like, "Oh." I'm like, "Yeah, If you've got, like, mattress protectors or pillow protectors or blankets on your sofa, this is the time." And I saw everybody, "Yeah, I'm filling my washing machine. I'm doing it. I'm doing it." So we had a whole thing going on. I know it doesn't float your boat, Lesley, but it makes me very happy.

Lesley: Yeah, no, I d- I get it. I do get that it's exciting to a lot of people. But if I was to think about the fun of the summer, it's not in my top five. That's all I'm saying. I'm not saying it's not a good thing to be able to dry your washing and get stuff done, but I'm just saying I'm more there for the social stuff and the sunshine than the laundry.

That's all I'm saying. Anyway, let's not get bogged down

Ingrid: I know.

Lesley: with the misery,

Ingrid: gosh.

Lesley: coming from me. I think another thing, Ingrid, is the fact that when it gets to September, we know that we have a, sort of a run of festivities, don't we? starting with things like Halloween, Thanksgiving for a lot of people, Christmas, Hanukkah, all the different things that happen all happen...

A lot of them happen towards this tail end of the year. So for many people, they're looking forward towards the festive period, and that typically involves a lot more stuff coming in, it involves a lot more people coming in, it a lot- involves a lot more planning. And one of the things that we typically want is for our houses to support that fun.

now that's fun. that, putting your washing on the line, not fun. Having people over to your house for Christmas, more fun. Yeah? So, yeah. So I think there's a bit, an element of that with September, 'cause you've only got, what? September, four months, three and a bit months really, haven't you,

Ingrid: Yeah.

Lesley: doing that preparation.

And you need to get started early as well

Ingrid: I think so, because I think a lot of people might be looking forward to the festivities, but are dreading the fact that their house maybe is still very cluttered, and they might get a bit of a sense of panic like, "Oh my gosh, this is all coming. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and doing all of the nice things, but I'm not looking forward to possibly hosting because this house is in such a state," and that dread and that panic might be looming under s- below the surface. then you can't enjoy it as much. but there is still time. There is still enough time now to make a real difference before all the big festivities at the end of the year. So if you're, like, sitting at home listening to this, keep listening because it might really hopefully then motivate you to go into action and to go and do something about it.

Because if you're dreading this time of year, or if you're dreading all of the things that are coming up, maybe this is, the pers- you know, the perfect place for you to be at the moment

Lesley: Yeah, and, it's our job really to be here to support you guys through that. And September, as I've said already, Ja- January and September are key times for us to get the, the, troops rallied almost. And so we've always done something in September, and January, and other times of the year, but those are our key times.

And so we thought long and hard this year about what we could do. Now, a lot of you know that we often do our Reset Your Home Challenge. We do that in January. and we often repeat that Reset Your Home Challenge or a similar version of that in September. And so this year we wanna do something different, Ingrid?

We wanted to do something different. So we were like, what can we do that's gonna give people that same boost of motivation? And there's no doubt about it, the Reset Your Home Challenge is a huge boost that people look forward to every single September. what can we do that's different? And Ingrid and I, as you all know, have the Inner Hub, which is our, membership, that we do loads and loads of different things in.

And recently, d- do you know what? It's been... We talk about building up your decluttering muscle all the time to a place where you're getting better and better and more confident in what you're doing, and certain things that you do, you let go of, and, then certain things you start doing better.

Ingrid and I really feel that certainly this last 12 months in particular, we've done so much with the Inner Hub that's really made a difference to people's decluttering journey. It was great before, but now it's absolutely, in our opinion and that of the members, fantastic. So what we wanna do is we want to invite you into the Inner Hub, and we're gonna do that in September.

So there's a lot of things that we're gonna invite you into to get a feel for what the Inner Hub is like in case that's something that you would be interested in really catapulting your decluttering journey to success with a little bit more support. but as well as that, even if you're not interested in joining the Inner Hub, we're gonna give you loads of fantastic stuff that you're not gonna wanna miss.

So we're gonna go for a break, and when we come back, we're gonna expl- explain a little bit more about our September reset sessions

Ingrid: Hi, everyone. Welcome back. We are talking about if it's time for a September reset because it's the end of August, September is looming, and we are ready for a September reset. And Lesley already briefly, before the break she briefly mentioned we are going to do a September reset sessions. And my gosh, I'm so excited about this, Lesley.

I am so excited. let's talk a little bit what we have in mind, because we are not doing our Reset Your Home challenge this year in September. We are going to do the September reset sessions, and we've got stuff coming your way, right? So yes, let's talk about what we're going to do

Lesley: Yeah. So I think what we wanna do is we wanna make sure that you've got really big takeaways, from after a week. So we're gonna open up the, the Inner Hub for a week, and you're gonna be invited to some of our existing, Inner Hub live sessions. You'll get access to all of the material, all our roadmaps that you'll hear us banging on about, all our courses.

All of the stuff that we have, all of the tools that we have, you'll have access to for about 10 days in total. But most of the live sessions are gonna take place over a week. So what we've done is we've concentrated a lot of the different formats of our live sessions into one week, and because we can't help ourselves, we've added two more in as well.

because we're just like, "We wanna do that as well for them. We wanna do that." So that's what we've done, so let's get started. So first of all, something that we introduced into the Inner Hub about six, eight months ago was called our Dilemma Deep Dives, and let me tell you, they have gone down an absolute storm.

So once a month in the Inner Hub, we do... we tackle a common dilemma that people have, and this would be things that many people have. And so the one that we're tackling during the September reset sessions is called, I Can't Get the Other People in My Household on Board With My Decluttering Journey.

So this is where you're firing on all cylinders, but nobody else is quite playing ball, and how do you deal with that? And so that's what our Dilemma Deep Dive session is gonna be, and that's one of the sessions that's available during the September re-sessions week. It will be on replay as well if you can't make the live sessions.

All the details about this are gonna be on a webs- on a webpage, declutterhub.com/september. So all of the details about when and replays and all that jazz and timings and things like that are all gonna be there on a, on a webpage for you. But we're just gonna give you the basics of what's included. So that's our Dilemma Deep Dive that's gonna be part of the September re-session week.

Re-session. September seshi- Sept- oh, God. why do I

do, tongue twist? the- nothing that we create is ever easy to say, ever. Do you know what I mean? The September Reset Sessions.

Ingrid: now what we're also going to do is we are going to do a live Q&A session with all the people in our September reset sessions because we know you wanna ask us your decluttering and organizing questions. So if you're like, "Yes, I've been meaning to ask Ingrid and Lesley something, and I'm struggling with something, and I don't know what the right answer is, know these ladies can help me," this is your opportunity. Come and join us for the September reset sessions, and you can ask us your burning questions, and we're gonna answer it. Now, we're probably gonna have hundreds or maybe thousands of people, make sure you ask us a good question because we'll probably answer about, I would say, 10 questions or so, I would say

Lesley: Yeah, exactly that. So we talked about the fact that we've added an extra couple of sessions in, that we don't normally do for... we do them for our members, but not this week, so they're extra. 'cause we were like, " that's gonna be a special, masterclass. And we thought it was really important for us to give you some really practical advice as well. You know, that we're all about the emotions here, but you know that it comes to a point where you've gotta stop thinking, and you've gotta start doing the doing.

And so we wanted to give you a tried and tested methodology about how to declutter your house or a room or a drawer or a cupboard, whatever that might be, from start to finish, and all of the steps that you need and what order you need them in. Because often we get stuck at a certain point, and it's identifying why we get stuck and where we get stuck.

So that masterclass is gonna be an absolutely fantastic walkthrough of how to do a decluttering session. It's gonna be called How to Avoid the Messy Middle, we all know what that feels like, Decluttering Your Room From Start to Finish. So yes, that is a masterclass that's gonna be part of the September reset sessions, and I've got that completely nailed now.

I'm good

Ingrid: What we're also going to do is we're going to be doing a planning session, because in our Inner Hub membership, every month we do a planning session called a Monthly Momentum. And we thought, "Oh, that is such a popular, fantastic, good session that our members absolutely love. How can we incorporate this, during the September reset sessions?"

And we thought, "You know what? Let's do a, a planning session where we go, 'Okay, let's now look at these last four months of 2026, and let us help you get s- put a bit of a plan around that.'" And, so you can have time to think it, because sometimes we're so focused doing the doing, but planning is key on your successful decluttering journey.

So yeah, I'm really excited about that as well

Lesley: Yeah,

so it's a kind of last quarter of '24 kind of planning session. It's different to what our members have 'cause they do them monthly, so they're used to the format and they go through things every month, and we use a three Rs framework, don't we, Ingrid? kind of reflect, refocus, and realism is what we use in our planning sessions.

Yeah, so one not to miss to really get you, on the right track for the rest of the year

Ingrid: now Lesley, I know you always love pulling me up on stuff, but you said the last quen- quarter of '24, but

Lesley: Did I?

Ingrid: '26, right?

Lesley: Yeah,

Ingrid: Did we

Lesley: the working

Ingrid: years

Lesley: yeah.

Ingrid: or

Lesley: Oh my word. I was I know. Work- time flies when you're enjoying yourself, right? I've lost two years of my life. Yeah, but thank you for pulling me up on that, and justifiably Ingrid. I pull you up all the time, so you should absolutely pull me up on that.

Ingrid's

Ingrid: Yes.

Lesley: "Yay, winner, But yeah.

okay, so that planning session's gonna be absolutely fantastic. So I hope that you'll see what we're doing here. What we wanna do is we wanna do what we do for our members, which is to build a selection of tools and information and training and support that are gonna take you to that next level at a time that's the perfect time for that reset, which is September.

And so we're trying to build that up. And of course, as part of that, every, every week we have four, what we call success sessions, also a tongue twister, in our Inner Hub, where our members get together for an hour. It's no big deal. It's facilitated by one of the team, me, Ingrid, Katie, or Lucy. We come together, five minutes at the beginning, five minutes at the end to talk about what you wanna do and what you did, and then in the middle you do something.

You do something, you do anything. You do some decluttering, you do some learning, you do some post, you do some washing up, you do some ironing, you do some whatever it is that you've been procrastinating about. And there's something very powerful about coming together as a group. Call it accountability, call it body doubling, call it what you want.

What we call it is super powerful and happening four times a week in the Inner Hub, and you will be allowed to come... allowed. You'll be invited to those sessions as well as part of September reset sessions. So it's a nice little an-

Ingrid: game changer

Lesley: Yeah. And as I said, Ingrid, that's just the live stuff. All the resources will be there.

You'll have access to all of the Q&A replays. If y- if you wanna just, take a week off work, you can just spend your whole day every day looking at all of our, replays that we've got. We've got replays of all the Dilemma Deep Dives, which you'll love. We've got all of our roadmaps, our Reset Your Home, room-by-room roadmap, our day-by-day roadmap, all our courses, all of our Mini Missions, show rounds, how-tos.

All of that is available, and you'll see all that as well on, the page declutterhub.com/september, which will give you a bit more detail. So basically, it's an access all areas with a little bit of extra just for you to get you kick-started. We're very excited actually, aren't we, Ingrid, about it? Because,

Ingrid: Yeah

Lesley: of...

it's an interesting one, 'cause we often do our challenge. We've done that many, times before. But we're like, "What can we do that's different?" And we're like, "But we have everything, and we have all the great stuff already, so why don't we just invite people in to take a look around?" And, ultimately to see whether or not that we hope that it kick-starts you, independently, but we also hope that you go, "You know what?

This kind of support is exactly what I need to get me to where I want to be as well." So there's, a two f- two-pronged, purpose to this really

Ingrid: Yeah. And you know what I'm ex- so excited about as well, because we've got, nicest people, right? In our, community, in our Inner Hub membership is so nice, and I can't wait for everyone to also meet our members and how helpful they are, and how supportive, and how motivating, and how kind, and how they understand how difficult it is to get, and continue on that decluttering journey.

So yeah, I'm really, excited about that as well. So of course, we want you to learn, we want you to, come and do stuff, but we also want you to be able to connect and to, able to plan with our help, and all of the things. It's so much more than we've just done a couple of live sessions.

It's just a such a fantastic opportunity for you to really kinda go, "Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hang out. I'm gonna hang out with Ingrid and Lesley for this whole week, and I'm gonna really see what it's like." So come along. All the details are on declutterhub.com/september. we, you've got about o- over, so for a week left to sign up, and then we're starting on Monday the 7th of September with of the things.

Oh, my gosh, I can't wait. I'm so excited

Lesley: we are excited. We're really excited by it, aren't we? yeah, it'll be nice because it's m- it's just, it's more intimate probably than the challenge, I would say. There's a few sessions done on Zoom and things like that. So yeah, it's gonna be really good fun. So anyway, so that's what it's about.

So really, we want to kickstart you into September. So have a think about the things that we said at the beginning of this podcast. This is your opportunity for a reset, and then look at the opportunities that we got within the September reset sessions. See whether you can make things live, whether you can watch things on replay, whether you can dip in and out.

Take from it what you want. You don't need to down tools and, I said that you could take a week off work. You don't need to do that, actually. there's opportunities for you to catch up on things on replay and take it at your own pace as well. It's completely free, of course. So we didn't even mention that.

you got 10 days of free access into the Inner Hub, so we'd love you to take advantage of that. So if you're on the fence and you're not sure, you know where we are, support@declutterhub.com. do ask us your questions if there's anything that you're not sure about. Hopefully, that page will cover everything 'cause we've got loads of great information on there.

But if you haven't and you're not sure, support@declutterhub.com is where you will find all of the information

Ingrid: Yes. we look forward to seeing you. Sign up, join us, and, we'll, also look forward to seeing you next week for our next podcast episode. So thanks for listening and/or watching, and we'll see you soon. Take care