A graphic of some balloons and some writing saying 'Celebrating our 150th episode'
Episode 150 – Busting Decluttering Myths

Episode 321 – The secrets of organisation when you have ADHD with Ian Anderson Gray
Episode 320 – What is clutter blindness and how to fix it?
We’re celebrating 150 episodes of our podcast and what better way than to bust some decluttering myths.
There are a lot of things out there in the decluttering world that send us off on a tangent and stop us from achieving our goals.
In this podcast, we discuss 7 decluttering myths that you shouldn’t believe.
Prefer to read rather than listen?
Transcript of this podcast episode
[00:00:00] Lesley: Today on the podcast, we are celebrating what better way to celebrate than to blast those decluttering myths out of the water.

[00:00:09] Ingrid: So Lesley, what are we celebrating? 

[00:00:14] Lesley: Well, you're obviously celebrating a graduation of some kind with your attire, aren't you Ingrid? I'm loving your graduation hat. For those who are not watching on YouTube, Ingrid has got a beautiful graduation hat. And I've got some nice twinkly fairy lights. And the reason for that is that very 150th episode.

[00:00:35] We've done 150 episodes, which is worth celebrating, 

[00:00:39] Ingrid: isn't it? It is quite a momentous occasion. I mean, like if, because we do a weekly podcast, that means we've been doing this for three years, Lesley, three years of our life. 

[00:00:50] Lesley: We're never going to get back. No, we have loved every podcast, haven't we? So even the tech disasters that we have had along the time, but we have brought our podcast.

[00:01:02] Every week, two years. So we've absolutely loved it. And along the way, we've now got almost half a million downloads, like half a million people want to listen to us. Well, not half a million people, half a million times. People have wanted to listen to us, Ingrid, which is,

[00:01:19] Ingrid: I don't know what to say about that. I know it's, it's mind boggling numbers really, isn't it? It's like, really? We see this, this, the counter go up every week and we're like. We're just so delighted that anybody listens to us chatting about decluttering and organising. We love it. And we're just so happy that you love it too.

[00:01:36] Lesley: I know. So we thought, well, this is obviously our celebration, our twinkle fairy lights and our graduation hats that you can't see if you're listening to us. So for those that are watching on YouTube, don't worry, we will be taking that off in the next five minutes. serious and get our decluttering heads on to try and bust out those decluttering myths.

[00:01:54] We thought it was time for a revamp, didn't we, Ingrid? 150 episodes, but a little revamp, haven't we? Not a major revamp, just a little revamp. What's different? 

[00:02:04] Ingrid: Well, we've got some new, like, we've got a little jingle going on now. We have got a new intro, a new outro. We thought, you know what? It's time to do something new.

[00:02:16] Lesley: freshen things up. And of course, it's the first time that we filmed our podcasts on YouTube. So if you love a little bit of Lesley and Ingrid and you actually really, really want to see the graduation hat and the fairy lights, which to be fair is not that exciting, then tune into YouTube and you can watch us for the first time.

[00:02:34] We thought it was time to go. To do a video podcast. I 

[00:02:38] Ingrid: know. I'm kind of afraid, Lesley. I'm like, Hmm, because normally I can kind of look very serious when I'm talking about stuff. And now I'm like, there's a camera on me as well. I need to think about my face. 

[00:02:55] Lesley: People just like it. We're on you. We've been on YouTube for quite a while, but we've just played out the podcast on YouTube.

[00:03:00] And we thought. It's time. Let's film ourselves. We do lots of videos and stuff like that. We thought it was time to film ourselves. That's exciting. So new intro, new outro, new filming on YouTube and loads of new topics coming up. So we're not stopping at 150. We're here to see. Stay away. 

[00:03:19] Ingrid: I know we are here to stay and we already have got our topics lined up for you.

[00:03:25] We know what we're going to do for the next episodes. So we are just so thankful that you are here with us. And for those of you who've been listening in for a while, we appreciate you so much. We love our loyal listeners. We know there are people out there who tune in week in week out, can't wait for that podcast to drop into their.

[00:03:47] podcast player on Friday morning. And we just really appreciate you. And we know there are people like, huh, I've only found you now, but I've been to watch the other hundred and 49. 

[00:03:59] Lesley: And so there are so many people out there who binge the podcast, aren't they? Literally one after the other, after the other, after the other.

[00:04:05] And then there were other people who pick and choose. And so go into those podcasts. Stick something in the search bar, like kitchen, for example, and find out what podcasts we've done on kitchens. So your podcast, listening your way. You 

[00:04:20] Ingrid: know what, Lesley, maybe we should tell our, ask our listeners what their favorite podcast is.

[00:04:25] Yeah, tell us, tell us in our Facebook group, we've got a lovely Facebook group. If you're not in there yet, please come and join us, the Declutter Hub community, and, uh, tell us what your favorite podcast is, or maybe put a comment in, um, in, in under this. Uh, if you're listening on the website, you can put in comments, uh, under the show notes.

[00:04:45] We would love to know from you. Or maybe you're like, you know what? I've been listening in 150 episodes. It's about time I leave Lesley and Ingrid in a review to tell them how I feel about their podcast. Do that in your podcast player. We would love to know from you. 

[00:04:59] Lesley: I'm going to put you on the spot for this 150th episode.

[00:05:03] Ingrid: Oh, of course.

[00:05:07] She never lets me prepare. She just throws these things out at me and then kind of, okay, you go for it. So what are you putting me on the spot for now? 

[00:05:15] Lesley: It's just that your heart just seems to keep shifting every time you turn around. So it's quite funny, really. But anyway. What's your favorite podcast? 

[00:05:25] Ingrid: Oh, wow.

[00:05:28] Um, that is a very, very difficult question. Lesley, there are so many that I really, really enjoyed. I think one of my favorite recording one was with my lovely client, Julia, who shared her story about her partner who passed away only weeks after their son was born. That was a very special one, I think, for me.

[00:05:54] Um, but, I, I, there's so many. I really enjoyed. 

[00:06:00] Lesley: I know. I think you're right. I think, I think the ones that I've loved more than any other are the ones where we get stories from members where decluttering has changed their lives. I think those are the most special ones to me, even though I love doing the podcast with you, Ingrid, of course I do.

[00:06:18] The ones where you're not there and I'm not there, they're actually the ones that we prefer. Is that what we're saying here?

[00:06:27] Surely there must be some that you and I have done together that we like. The truth of the matter is. We really like all of them, don't we? We have such a laugh and we absolutely love it. But anyway, on that note, I'm glad that I put you on this, but I could have made you sing. I could have made you sing, but I'm not going to do that.

[00:06:42] Okay. Today. I'm not going to subject people to more of Ingrid singing. So let's, should we, should we, are you going to keep your hat on for the whole time? Or should we turn it off? I think we've done enough celebrating now. Now we need to get down to the nitty gritty and this serious stuff of organising.

[00:06:58] So we need to turn off our lovely, um, How do you do that? 

[00:07:06] Ingrid: Oh, here. None. None. It's gone. It's gone. I actually was like, I don't even know how to do that either. We found these lovely filters, but we don't know how to turn them off. Okay. 

[00:07:15] Lesley: Right. Okay. So today for 150th episode, we were like, right. Okay, what can we talk about that's kind of special?

[00:07:23] And it's not special, but there's a lot of stuff out there, isn't there Ingrid, that people believe about decluttering, that people have been told about decluttering. And we're here to say, there's a load of myths out there that we're going to blow out of the water, aren't we? So let's go in to some, we've got five or six or seven or.

[00:07:42] We've got seven decluttering myths, just looking down my little sheet, how many we've got. And we're going to talk about why they are myths, aren't we? So number one, Ingrid. 

[00:07:52] Ingrid: One size fits all. That is the first one. Our first decluttering myth. Because. We see it all the time. You need to follow this system and these baskets and this way and there's no other ways the right way and that one size fits all.

[00:08:11] That's a myth. It's a myth and we 

[00:08:13] Lesley: know it. It is yeah and there's a lot of methodology out there which is quite prescriptive and we know don't we that one person is not the same as the other person and so for one person, you know, clothes might be the hardest thing in their wardrobe. And to sort of tackle those first is really hard for the people.

[00:08:31] It might be books for the people that might be kitchens as loads of different things. And so we are big advocates of your journey, your way, aren't we? So even though we have our own system as well, that we suggest that people follow, it's absolutely a suggestion. And I think we, we make it very clear, this is a framework that you can follow.

[00:08:49] That might be easy, but. Do it your own way. If you find this thing that we've said, do this alien on in your journey, very difficult, then it's time to move that list. And you need to know, cause we're all about the emotions, aren't we? So our, our system is led by emotions, isn't it? Rather than by stuff or by rooms or by volumes or anything like that.

[00:09:08] So, um, yeah, there is not a one size fits all. And that's the same, whether it's you doing your journey yourself, whether it's us in our own homes. Whether it's us working with clients, every time we work with a client, we work in a very different way, a very different order sometimes, don't we? And we have different strategies that we use depending on who we're working with.

[00:09:27] So there is definitely not with decluttering a one size fits all. That is the first decluttering myth blown out of the water ingrid. So what's number two? The second 

[00:09:39] Ingrid: one is decluttering is all about the stuff. So that's what we see right? Just throw it away. Don't worry about it. Focus on the items. You can only have so many items in your house.

[00:09:53] Eight pairs of trousers is enough. Numbers, games, all of those things. It's all focused around the clutter and the stuff. And we don't do that, do we? 

[00:10:05] Lesley: No, we don't. And I think we, we sort of It always, it's always not, it's not upsetting is the wrong word because that's like too melodramatic, but it is a kind of when people say, how many, how many trousers should I have?

[00:10:19] How many shoes should I have? How many is the right amount? And there's no right amount because it's determined by the size of your house, your emotional connection to those things, your current lifestyle, what makes you tick. And so. There is no right amount. And so that strategy doesn't always work, does it?

[00:10:39] And so there are things where people very much focus on things and getting things out. And so we're very much all about what you need to do first before you even go anywhere near some stuff is you need to work through those emotions and work out what it is. That's holding you back from making the right decision about that thing.

[00:10:58] Ultimately, when it comes down to it, the success of the project is largely based on stuff that's going out of the door, but in our world, that's a byproduct of decluttering, isn't it? Ingress, the real success is in the mindset change. It's in the understanding it's in the light bulbs going on and. When people go, Oh yeah, of course, that's me.

[00:11:17] That's why I find it so difficult. So don't focus on stuff, focus on the emotion sitting behind that stuff. And then the stuff will follow. Does that make sense to you, Ingrid? 

[00:11:28] Ingrid: Yes, for sure. For sure. And I think it's, we see this all the time. I'm sorry. I'm, I'm kind of sighing because we hear it all the time, right?

[00:11:38] It's all about what do I need to declutter? And I'm like, I think we're far, we're far more about. You need to actually actively decide what you want to keep. That's it's the same thing. Stuff needs to leave your house in the end, but I think it's a different way of looking at things, deciding what fits in my lifestyle, what works for me, what actually do I want to have around me.

[00:12:01] And decide on that first and then you can make easier decisions on the items that can leave your house and it's all about the habits that are changing the mindset, the shopping, the planning, the insights, which are so important and not about, I want to have, for example, um, Only 20 items in my wardrobe so I can mix and match them.

[00:12:24] And I'm going to stick to those 20 items. It's not about the stuff we might end up with 20 items, but the number doesn't matter. 

[00:12:33] Lesley: Yes. Ingrid, you're so right. And if there's one thing out of all this podcast that we want. That's the most important, isn't it? Like don't focus on the stuff, focus on the emotions first.

[00:12:43] And this leads us very nicely into decluttering myth number three, which is, I've always been this way. I can't change. And so so many people think I was born this way. Some people are born organised and why can I not do this? I can't change. And so we're here to tell you. Anybody can change whatever is thrown at you whatever you've lived with whatever upbringing you've had, whatever thoughts you've got that holding you back, it can be learned, this stuff can be learned, and you can change and so I think That's your own decluttering myth really, isn't it?

[00:13:18] That's not something that somebody else is telling you. That's the things that we think ourselves. And so how do we do that then Ingrid? So how do we change? How do we go from not being in, in our own words, not being able to do that stuff, that decluttering and organising stuff to being successful at it?

[00:13:36] Ingrid: I think it's all about. Telling yourself you can do it. That's where it starts as well. And to not worry about, don't let the overwhelm bog you down. And the, well, I can't do this anyway, so I might as well not even try. You can't, you know. To have long lasting change, you have to try it several times. It might not work the first time or the second or the third, but over time, you will change those habits.

[00:14:06] And it's really important to prepare really well. And that's what a lot of we give in our challenges. We talk a lot about preparation and smart goals, don't we? And a lot of the light bulbs go off when people say, Yes, I always go in all guns blazing and then I look around after two hours and it's, it's worse than it was ever before.

[00:14:25] And then I feel completely deflated because I now realize I didn't prepare properly. I was mentally, emotionally, physically, I just wasn't ready to do this. And that's, I think a very, very important part of our system, isn't it, Lesley? 

[00:14:40] Lesley: Yeah, it is. And I think that. I think that one of the other things that makes us feel as if we're not going to be able to do that is, is to, there's two other factors come into play.

[00:14:48] So we tell ourselves about that. Some of that is because we've been told by other people, all of our lives. And so people have said, you're rubbish at that thing, decluttering and organising in this instance. And so we start to believe it. Don't we start to believe that we can't change. And that's really a big part of this myth.

[00:15:05] And we're saying you absolutely can, but I think people then form a large part of, of changing that process as well. So once you go into and enter a community of people who understand it, who feel the same thing and you think, Oh, actually there's all the people that feel this way as well. So you may be surrounded, you know, people that struggle with, with, um.

[00:15:26] Clutter is actually a minority. Many people are perfectly fine. I've got things under control and many people in your life might be like that. But once you start to find other people who are struggling in the same way, then it it's, it's empowering, isn't it? Because you're like, I'm not doing this alone. I think, you know, you talked a minute ago about the challenges, the biggest thing about our challenges.

[00:15:49] I mean, of course, Ingrid and I teach you how to declutter and preparation and all of those things within our challenges. But. The community is everything, isn't it? The sense of community and understanding. And finally, I found my people that understand where I'm going from. And now I've got something to build upon.

[00:16:07] So critical. So people are always the problem and the solution equal measure. Do you know what I mean? So it's a, it's a tough one, but you know, finding the right people who understand. It's super important, isn't it? Yeah, 

[00:16:22] Ingrid: because I think it's an incredible sense of relief. I'm not alone. It's not only me.

[00:16:27] There's other people who feel the same way or I feel a connection that. I'm, you know, I'm not stupid. I'm not lazy. I just don't know yet where to start. And I need to learn this. And I have now found a group of people who understand that it's not as easy as, yeah, just put something in a, in a bag and let it go.

[00:16:49] It takes time to change, to change those ingrained thoughts in your head. 

[00:16:55] Lesley: It does, you know, and you only have to, it's just that you just reminded me a bit about those, um, the decluttering programs on TV and you know, you watch the social media. We, we, we really struggle watching those programs, don't we?

[00:17:07] Because not all of them, some of them are fantastic, but some of them are so sensationalist. And then if you watch the social media feeds of people talking about those programs, it's really disheartening because you've got so many people who really. Don't get it and have zero sympathy for people are just like, why don't they just took it away?

[00:17:26] Why do they live that way? Why have they got so much stuff? The emotions and the backstory to why that's happened is so huge and so colossal and people don't get it. And so it's really important to go into a world where people do get it. So we're, I guess to bust out decluttering myth number three is find the right people.

[00:17:45] You know, our communities. Whether that's podcast listeners, Facebook group communities, people within our membership have absolutely found the right people to make this happen. So it's so critical. Don't do this alone. You know what I mean? Share and so that other people can can chip in with their ideas about things.

[00:18:04] Yeah, 

[00:18:04] Ingrid: yeah, definitely. Um. Let's go to the next decluttering myth then, and that is decluttering you do only once in your life. It's a one time project. You declutter once and then you're done. How untrue is that? We always declutter! I'm like... I know. I know. That's kind of the bad news, isn't it, Lesley? You have to declutter and organise and tidy the rest of your life.

[00:18:32] Yeah. So the fact that people say you just do it once and then you never have to do it again, that is just in our opinion, not true at all. What is true, it gets much easier. It is going to take a lot less time. You will feel much more on top of things, but the fact you can only declutter once and then you're done is like.

[00:18:54] This is like a myth we need to bust. 

[00:18:58] Lesley: I know exactly because there are so many people who are like, I'm finished, finished. And we're like, yeah, sadly not. If things come into your house. Things need to go out of your house to make space for the things that you want to come in. But as Ingrid says, it gets so much easier.

[00:19:13] So if we work with clients, what we, what we find quite often is there's a kind of three year, I would say, would you agree Ingrid, cycle. So for those people that are kind of reliant on us as professional organisers to come in and help them, we go in, we do a project. We might do the whole house. If we're lucky, we love doing whole houses so we can do.

[00:19:33] Everything and we can create all the systems and processes for a whole house that are going to work. And then quite often we find there's a kind of three year window where people work with that. And over that three years, even though the mindset has shifted slightly, there's not as much stuff coming in.

[00:19:47] Things happen, life gets in the way. Life is not as simple as keeping on top of things every single day and never going back to that state again. So quite often clients will call us back in after about. Three years is quite typical for me. What about you, Ingrid? Yeah, you 

[00:20:01] Ingrid: know, and some of my clients actually say, well, I want to stay on a maintenance kind of with you because now I am decluttered.

[00:20:07] Can you just bump in a couple of times per year for a couple of sessions here and there just so I keep taking over so I don't fall back into my cluttered cupboards? I love my, my neat and tidy house. And I just want you to go one room, one time, one room, the other time. A couple of times per year, you come in and that's what really makes them happy.

[00:20:29] So yes, it is, it is maintenance. And we, you know what we have eight or nine courses about maintenance alone in our membership, the things you need to do daily, weekly, seasonally to stay on top of 

[00:20:42] Lesley: these things. And I'm sorry, I'm kind of laughing again, because you know how I can't help myself when I get a Dutchism, an Ingridism in it, and I feel sometimes that I have to kind of pick you up, because this one I think is a really nice one.

[00:20:54] I mean, they're all very endearing, I'm not going to lie. But you say this all the time, which is really good fun, so. The word is that you bob in to a client's, but you say bopping. So I've got this idea of you like shimmying up and hey, I'm here, let's dance. So yeah, you do, but you do say that. Do you think it's bop?

[00:21:17] Ingrid: Yeah. Bobbin! Yeah! So, 

[00:21:23] Lesley: so, so yeah, I'm just here to tell you, but you can bop in, I think that's really cool, I think that's definitely, you're not bobbin in, you're boppin in, so that's really cool. I just thought I needed to, um, share 

[00:21:35] Ingrid: that. That's okay. I thought it was bopping.

[00:21:40] Welcome back after a little break. Let's bust some more decluttering myths, Lesley, because we still have a couple of more to talk about. Don't we? 

[00:21:50] Lesley: Are you bopping back into the pocket? Yeah. 

[00:21:51] Ingrid: Okay. Yeah. 

[00:21:55] Lesley: You're bopping back in. Right. Okay. Sorry. I need to calm down now. We're getting, we're getting a little bit.

[00:22:00] ahead of ourselves because it's, um, our celebratory episode. So we should have had wine, shouldn't we? We should have totally had wine, but we haven't. So nevermind. So we can just laugh instead and just the happiness generally. Right. Okay. Back to being serious, Ingrid and Lesley. 

[00:22:16] Ingrid: Yes, very much, Lesley. I'm here.

[00:22:18] I'm here already being serious. 

[00:22:23] Lesley: Okay. Decluttering myth number five. Decluttering can be done in 10 minutes a day. 

[00:22:30] Ingrid: I know it. They keep saying this in these magazines, keep saying it, just tidy up 10 minutes a day and you're done. Like what kind of malarkey is that? I've never heard anything like it. Even, even just tidying up my, my, my bathroom and my bedroom takes 10 minutes.

[00:22:48] So I don't know how people did their whole house in 10 minutes, but that is like, where does this stuff come from? Lesley 10 minutes per day. 

[00:22:57] Lesley: Because that's the thing is that people. want to believe that. I think that's the thing. I mean, we, you know, to be fair, we, we get asked to, to contribute towards magazine articles all the time and we'll, we'll get, yeah, can you just tell us about a 10 minute quick, um, tidier?

[00:23:11] I'm like, well, it's not really a code, but it would not be true. I could do that. And I know that that's what your readers might want to read, but that's not true. So we're a big. We're a big fan of resets, aren't we? So we, we, we have resets in our system, which is resetting your kitchen, resetting your bathroom.

[00:23:28] So basically doing a non negotiable tidy up every day. So we love a reset is very important part of our processes, but even our reset. Takes more than 10 minutes a day. So the strange notion that decluttering can be done in 10 minutes a day is nonsensical. Having said that, we do believe in breaking things down into small manageable chunks.

[00:23:50] That's a big part of our process as well. But, but that's once you've kind of done a big decluttering project, then what we're saying is to maintain the clutter, then you can do that in 10 minutes a day. So there's a difference and all those things are getting mixed up together, aren't they Ingrid?

[00:24:05] Decluttering needs to be done in big, in big slugs, really, if you're overwhelmed, if you're not overwhelmed and your house has got a normal amount of clutter and you're just doing it almost like a maintenance and fine tuning your decluttering, of course you can do that in 10 minutes a day. So I think the notion behind it is while you're waiting for the kettle to boil, tidy up your cutlery drawer.

[00:24:26] I think that's the idea behind it, but I think the problem is that sometimes As readers, we believe that that can be done. And so that is definitely a decluttering myth that we want to blast out of the water. Is that the term blast out of the water? Yeah, I think so. Blast out the water. We keep saying it, but I don't know whether it's an actual term.

[00:24:45] You don't know because you're like, yeah, of course that's a term. Lesley says 

[00:24:48] Ingrid: it. Yeah, it must be true. It must be true. 

[00:24:52] Lesley: But anyway, so what do you think Ingrid? 

[00:24:55] Ingrid: You know what? I think it sounds great, doesn't it? Oh, just 10 minutes, but I think it really sets the wrong example to people because I think people are then going to go, well, how do I do that?

[00:25:09] I've got a house full of clutter. 10 minutes. That's not possible. And then again, they go into this, but I can never do that in 10 minutes. Well, of course not. If you've got a house full of clutter, you can't declutter your house in 10 minutes. I can even barely tidy up in 10 minutes, let alone decluttering 10 minutes per day.

[00:25:25] You know, we need to put some realism back into this. We need to be realistic about what's achievable. If you've got a whole house of clutter and you've built it up over many, many years. It's going to take a while and it's going to take a concerted effort. It's going to take, you know, you, yes, you can go, I've got a busy day today.

[00:25:45] I'm only going to do 10 minutes. I'm going to do one tiny drawer with a couple of little bits and do it that way and break it down the project. But to say decluttering in 10 minutes per day, you can keep your whole house tidy. That's just not true. And I think it's really, I find that quite frustrating because I think people start to measure themselves up to those standards, which are just 

[00:26:05] Lesley: never possible.

[00:26:06] No, no, completely, completely agree. So as it goes, just to summarize, I suppose what we're saying is 10 minutes a day can be done. If you've done a massive declutter of your house and you've done all of your daily resets, so your house is tidy. If you want to spend 10 minutes doing a little mini project to keep things ticking over, that's where that 10 minutes a day comes from, isn't it?

[00:26:30] Ingrid: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, let's move on then to decluttering myth number six to declutter. I need to become a minimalist. I can have nothing 

[00:26:41] Lesley: in my house. Are you a minimalist? 

[00:26:45] Ingrid: Definitely not. Lesley. Um, I have stuff in my house. I am not a minimalist. Definitely. I just don't have that much stuff, but I don't think I'm not 

[00:26:57] Lesley: a minimalist.

[00:26:58] So do you think I'm a minimalist, Ingrid? Um, 

[00:27:04] Ingrid: in some things, yes, but not in everything like what like clothes, you're not a minimalist in clothes or shoes or handbags or jewelry or 

[00:27:16] Lesley: I'm trying to think about what I'm a minimalist in books, apparently cookery books as one of our members told me the other day.

[00:27:23] Yeah, minimalist in that. Um, food as well. I really quite like not having loads and loads of food in my cupboards because I'm a bit big on food waste as well. So yeah, but I might, is that minimalism? No, not at all. So I think you and I. Neither of us are minimalists. That does not mean to say that minimalism is a bad thing.

[00:27:45] Of course it is not. As we've said so many times, it's all about your own journey and your own needs and desires for the stuff that you have around you, the stuff that is around you needs to serve your current lifestyle. And if you want to work towards minimalism, that's fantastic. And so. But I think a lot of people get scared and make that mental leap, don't they?

[00:28:05] From people are going to take away or make me get rid of things that I don't want to get rid of and leave me with a house with no stuff. And actually I really like my stuff around me. And so I think that, you know, quite often. It's about setting your own goals, isn't it? So when we go into, again, when we go into a consultation, we're like.

[00:28:24] What do you want this room to look like? Because one person might say, I want all these surfaces to be completely clear. And the next person might say, but I really like my little knickknacks around me and my ornaments and stuff. So actually that's not something that I want to get rid of. I just want to get rid of all the other stuff.

[00:28:39] So it's about creating your own version of acceptable and where you want to be with your home. Your home, your home is your home and you can have your home the way you want it. I think it's true that a lot of us want less stuff, but we don't necessarily want a minimal amount of stuff. We want the right amount of stuff for us.

[00:29:00] Yeah. 

[00:29:01] Ingrid: And I think it's almost like. You either have lots of clutter or you're a minimalist and we're like, no, it's actually the balance about what works for you about what makes you happy about exactly what you're saying the right amount of stuff for you. I'm not a minimalist either. But I don't have a lot of clutter either.

[00:29:20] I'm somewhere in the middle because I've got my stuff really well under control. I know where to find everything. I know how to organise it. I know where to put it once I've used it and all of those things. But that doesn't mean just because I'm a professional organiser, I have nothing in my house. And I think you don't.

[00:29:41] Have to kind of go from completely cluttered to minimalist. If you have a lot of stuff and you think, you know what, it's just a, I feel it like a burden and minimalism is something that interests me and that I would love to know more about, investigate it, see if it's something for you. And if you do decide to become a minimalist and it works for you and you feel really happy in your life with having minimal amount of stuff, by all means, go for it.

[00:30:05] But I don't think it is either or. I think there's a lot of in the middle, a balance. 

[00:30:11] Lesley: Yeah, definitely. Um, yeah, minimalism is not something that we, we tend to come across too much in terms of a, a need for the people that we work with, whether that's members, Facebook group members, you know, clients, that's not really something that, that comes up very often is that that desire for minimalism, but certainly it's a movement, isn't it?

[00:30:31] It's a movement, I think that is, um, gathering steam and I completely, well, it's not even gathering steam. It's like. Been there for years and years. And so, um, it's not our forte and it's not where we sit as declutterers, but certainly it's something that makes an awful lot of people very, very happy. And so something to look into if that's what you want, but to declutter effectively, you do not need to become a minimalist.

[00:30:56] So that is decluttering myth number six. 

[00:30:59] Ingrid: Yes, and I'm quite excited to talk about decluttering myth number seven as well, Lesley, which is storage is the answer to all my clutter problems. If I just buy storage or buy furniture to put stuff in, then my problems are solved. 

[00:31:19] Lesley: I know it's an interesting one, and this is also as well as a myth.

[00:31:24] It's also a mistake that people make, isn't it? And so we talk all the time about our cycle of success and buying storages is quite late around our cycle. But I think for many people, it comes at the beginning of the cycle. So how many times do people say, right, okay, I'm going to declutter my. Living room this weekend.

[00:31:43] So I'm going to go to Ikea and I'm going to buy some boxes or buy some storage or buy some containers or whatever that might be. And that's going to fix that problem. I need some storage to put stuff into. And of course there are in some homes, gaps in storage. Sometimes we can look at a home and think.

[00:32:01] They really do need more for, for a reasonable amount of stuff. There are some big storage gaps. There are homes without any kind of hanging space. There are homes without drawer space that need things for underwear and things like that. Sometimes there are gaps in storage, but 90 percent of the time there are no gaps.

[00:32:20] It just, you just need to get rid of some of your stuff and then you will have adequate storage. So for most people, at some point their homes have, have worked. Efficiently and effectively with the storage solutions that you have, whether that's furniture, whether that's boxes, whether that's drawers, et cetera.

[00:32:38] So don't rush out and buy storage immediately because that may not be the answer to your problems. Ingrid, I know you want to talk more about this. Yes. Oh, 

[00:32:50] Ingrid: yeah, for sure. Because we see it all the time, don't we? And we get asked that question a lot as well. If we work in one to one with clients, Ingrid, you're coming around, tell me what I need to buy to make sure that we get the most out of a session.

[00:33:04] And we have a very trained eye, don't we now, Lesley, to kind of go, ah, yes, you are indeed missing a couple of baskets or boxes or. You know what? Just wait. Hold on. Let's declutter first. Let's determine this place of where these items are going to live. And then the storage container shopping is the icing on the cake because you need to know exactly what you need to buy because we get Tempted by all these beautiful boxes and all these beautiful, um, shelves with pretty containers.

[00:33:38] And we think this is exactly what we need, but we end up buying the wrong size or the wrong material or the wrong fabric or the wrong height. You need to really wait with your storage container shopping until the end, but it's so tempting. It's so tempting. 

[00:33:56] Lesley: It is tempting and then it's a shame, isn't it?

[00:33:58] Because what we find at the end when we've got all these storage containers is we have to declutter the storage containers because they're not suitable for the type of stuff that we need to store. And so we like pretty boxes, but they're not suitable because they're not the right size, they're not the right shape, they've got lids on when they don't need lids on.

[00:34:14] And so it's definitely worth waiting until you realize what kind of stuff. You need to store or containerize and then buying the right type of box that's absolutely going to fit the space that you've got and work in the way that you want it, whether it's got a lid on, whether it's not got a lid on, whether it's deep, whether it fits in the shelf, whether it fits in the drawer.

[00:34:33] And a lot of times that can be done with temporary storage. It can be done with shoe boxes. It can be done with iPhone boxes. There's loads of things that we can repurpose, even if it's just temporary, but there's nothing nicer than. Doing those finishing touches. And so you've done your decluttering, your drawers look amazing.

[00:34:50] You're like, it would be so nice to be able to containerize or segment my drawers off a little bit, just to do that final finishing touch. And that is such a nice time to do it because you reward yourself then having done this fantastic job. And you really do put the icing on the cake and make it look amazing.

[00:35:05] So that's the time to buy storage, isn't it? 

[00:35:08] Ingrid: Yes. So if you see all these beautiful containers in, in the magazines or in the stores, just go, Ingrid and Lesley told me to wait. Let me just wait a little bit longer. I'm going to listen to their advice. I'm going to trust what they're saying. You will get around to buying some nice storage containers at some point, but don't fall into trap of thinking.

[00:35:31] If I get more containers, if I pack it in. All just a little bit tighter and just a little bit neater. In the end, we are all about the decluttering and having some space in your cupboards for items to move around so it's easy to get stuff out and to put something back. If all of your drawers and cupboards are absolutely Pack to the rafters.

[00:35:55] It's really hard to get stuff out and to put something back then. So a cupboard needs to have a little bit of space. It shouldn't be 110 percent full. It should probably be 80 or 85 percent full. So actually when you then do buy something, you can put it somewhere and you don't immediately have to go, okay, I'm going to go one in.

[00:36:15] What's the thing that needs to leave? Because otherwise this door can't close. It gets really hard work then, doesn't it? It does. 

[00:36:23] Lesley: So that's our seven myths. I know. I like it. Blasted. What did we say? But busting, I keep saying, but it was busting. That's the word, not blasting. It's busting. 

[00:36:34] Ingrid: I've 

[00:36:35] Lesley: worked it out now at the end of the podcast after saying blasting it for the last half an hour.

[00:36:41] I've now worked out that it's actually busting those decluttering myths. Yeah, because we're blasting, 

[00:36:45] Ingrid: we're blasting them out of the water. Remember? Oh, well, I think 

[00:36:51] Lesley: we were so clever with our busting and blasting and myths. and decluttering and everything. But that was it because we were quite a celebratory.

[00:36:58] So we're a bit giddy to be fair. We're a bit giddy today, aren't we? We started off with our graduation hat and our lights. They have now gone. We've been all serious and stuff. We've bopped and we've bopped and we've got to the end of our 150th podcast. 

[00:37:12] Ingrid: I know it's, it's, it's crazy. It's crazy. So do you think Lesley, that you, that we still have some stuff to talk about?

[00:37:21] I mean, I know we've already written down loads of topics we still want to talk about, but shall we hang out a little bit longer on our podcast? Do we have more to share with our lovely listeners? I think so. I think we 

[00:37:33] Lesley: got more to share. As long as people are still listening, we'll carry on talking because we like to talk, don't we, Ingrid?

[00:37:39] Yeah, we do. To be fair, we like to talk. Yeah. And sing, but you're not going to do any singing, are you? 

[00:37:44] Ingrid: No, not today. I'm not falling in that trap that you normally set to me. So, but I mean, we can do a little Happy birthday to us. Happy birthday to us. Happy birthday. Lesley and Ingrid, happy birthday with your 150th episode.

[00:37:59] Well 

[00:38:01] Lesley: done. I knew that I could get you to sing. Right. Okay. We are done. But we are 

[00:38:08] Ingrid: done next week. We are back next week. And we're going to talk about, are you a tortoise or a hare?

[00:38:17] So stay tuned, come back next week and thank you so much for being here. See you soon.
Subscribe now so you don't miss an episode
Listen on
Apple Podcasts
Listen on
Amazon Music
Listen on
Spotify
Watch on
YouTube
Prefer to watch rather than listen? Watch on YouTube