A graphic image of a messy wardrobe with clothes and boxes on the floor
Episode 312 – 10 clutter hotspots and how to fix them

In this podcast, we’re talking through 10 clutter hot spots. Working out where they are and why they gather more clutter is half the battle. We’re going to give you some quick fire, handy tips on how to avoid them.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
00:00
Today, we're talking through 10 clutter hot spots, working out where they are and why they gather more clutter is half the battle. We're going to give you some quick fire handy tips on how to avoid them. You

00:22
You're listening to the declutter Hall podcast bringing you tried and tested no nonsense tips and advice from the leading experts in decluttering and organizing your home. Now here are your hosts Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman.

00:42
Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid and I'm Lesley. If you're new to the declutter hub podcast, you're so welcome. What you'll find is that we try and find a fun factor in the serious business of decluttering. And if you've been here for a while, you know exactly what we mean. So thank you so much for listening. If

01:05
you'd like to get involved in conversations relating to this podcast, it all takes place in our Facebook group. So come and join our lovely, warm, supportive community. To find the Facebook group, go to declutter hub.com, forward slash group to find out more, or you can search for the declutter hub community on Facebook. It's

01:24
a 10 things podcast. Lesley, I like a 10 things, and we've already been laughing because of the way I pronounce hot spots,

01:33
as per usual. This is where half the listenership think it's funny and half think I'm just being particularly meeting because your English is impeccable. We all know that. But every now and again, there's a word that just kind of makes me laugh, and half of it is because I studied Dutch, and so I understand the origins of it, but go and just say hot spot. Hot Spot. Oh, I see now you're trying to turn it down. Now you trying to turn down the Dutch nurse.

02:00
It's a bit like hood spot, which is actually a dish in Netherlands. This

02:07
is going to say hot spot many times. I just thought it was a very durified word, and it just made me laugh. Because honestly, if you had to create, as let's call it, create our lovely podcast content, as much as we do, sometimes we get a little bit stir crazy, don't we Ingrid, and we just collapse in a heap on the floor and just laugh our way through it. Yeah, mostly off camera, yeah.

02:33
Thankfully, thankfully. Oh, my goodness. Well, at least we're laughing and not crying, I'd say

02:40
exactly right. Okay, so we're here to talk about hot spots. So there are lots of areas of your home. You could argue that everywhere in your home is a clutter hot spot, but we're going to talk about some of the ones that just have this habit of like gathering more clutter. So you start to kind of put things down, and then all of a sudden it builds and builds and builds and builds and builds and then it becomes completely unruly and needs to be fixed. So we have identified 10 hot spots, and trust me, there are many, many more. This is just 10 of many that we could have mentioned. So we're going to talk through those clutter hot spots, perhaps, why they behave in the way they do, as clutter gatherers, and how to a sure fire way and how to fix them.

03:19
Let's get cracking because we love a 1010, 10 things podcast, and we're here always, forever. So, and I know we've got a lot to say about all of these hot spots. So number one is the entry way, the hallway, the place where you enter your house. Oh my goodness, that that area has to work hard, doesn't it? Things get just chucked

03:42
they do. They get they get chucked down. Because you, obviously, you kind of breathe a sigh of relief when you come in. You just want to drop everything, don't you want to drop your bag down. You want to drop your shoes down. You want to take your coat off. You want to throw your keys in a dish. You want to put your money down. You want all these things that you kind of gather from the car, water bottles, children, everything, and you kind of manage to get it into your front door, and then you just drop everything. And that's why they become hot spots and so, and it's the first place that in your home, right when you get to so it's important to keep them not hot spotty. And how do you do that Ingrid? Well,

04:18
you have to, you have to, first of all, I think, have some coat racks you need to have, possibly a shoe rack, or some boxes or containers where you can put shoes in, maybe, you know, a place where you can put the mail down, maybe a place for for a key, or, you know, all of these little bits and bobs that you come in with and just have a place for them. But I think it's also an area Lesley, even if you've got all of that, and I do, still it gets a bit unruly. It's something that needs to be tidied on a regular basis. And actually talking probably daily.

04:52
I think if we're being if we're being realistic, Ingrid, even if you've got coat racks, shoe racks, designated areas. Of things, are you really going to go to that effort when you come in? You might, if the habit has been well formed, you might get 50, 60% but in general, we can be forgiven for letting things go. But we have to get back on top of it, don't we? It has to form part of your daily reset. And if you've got multiple people in your home, including small children, then you might have to do that a couple of times a day. So it's a combination of trying to form habits and so putting the right organizational systems in place that you've actually got somewhere to put these things. It's about trying to force habit, trying to encourage everybody to get on board with those habits. And then ultimately, it's about, okay, it's fine. People can kick their shoes off. You know, we're not going for perfectionism here, but at some point later in the day, when you've got a little bit more energy, when you're not kind of breathing that sigh of relief, when you come through the door, then you go back and you kind of reset it, that's what it's all about. But they are lots of hot spots, right?

06:00
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think leading on from that, Lesley is and we see them everywhere. It's the little bowls and dishes with random bits. Now, what do I mean with random bits? It can be a key, it can be coins, it can be even buttons from a trouser or a shirt that you think, huh, what? What are these doing in here? You know what? I see a lot of paper clips from, you know, when a coat has been to the dry cleaners and you kind of want to wear it again for the first time to see you like, oh, the labels to live with the little paper clips. Of paper clips, and the little labels get dropped in these bowls and dishes.

06:38
But okay, well, just a minute. What do you mean? Paper clothes? Means safety pins.

06:43
Oh, sorry, a safety pin? Yes, I'm sorry. I mean a safety pin. I mean a safety pin,

06:49
paper clip, kind of strange thing,

06:54
safety pins, yeah, yeah, I

06:56
agree, yeah, yeah. You find a safety pin with a little kind of cardboard or sort of paper thing? Yeah, exactly. I think it's, you know what? There's a reason for it. So why do we do these things? You know, people put bowls on in entry ways and also on kitchen counters. There are bowls in bedrooms, you know, offices. People put bowls in there because there's this idea that you won't find what you need because it's not got a designated spot. So the reason why these become hot spots we have there's we've got all good intention, because what we want to do is we want to keep things in a safe place. And so we then designate a safe place, so the keys don't just go all over the place, and the save it, and we kind of Chuck it in there, chuck it in there, chuck it in then it gathers and then it's full of dust and all that kind of stuff, then it becomes not a nice space and so but yeah, really, what we need to do is, there's no problem with having a bowl for keys or that kind of thing in your home, but it needs to be designated for one particular kind of thing. And what happens is it might have 20 or 30 types of things altogether, and that's when it becomes unruly, and then it's no longer a designated space, because it's just a catch all writing grid.

08:05
Yeah, yeah. I forgot to say batteries. Lesley, batteries are working or not working. Who knows? You know it's the same thing, yeah, batteries,

08:15
umbrellas, wet wipes. Face mask was, was a big one when we were all wearing face masks all the time, tissues, all of those kind of things just gather into this bowl together. And really, we need to have a designated place for the face masks, a designated place that we can put the safety pins back, where we can use them again, because we never going to look in that bowl for a safety pin. If we need a safety pin, we're going to go to the place where the safety pins live, right? And so it's really important to get these bowls, actually, if you're a cluttery person, for me, the bowls need to go, yeah, they're never good, are they?

08:54
No, I have no. I'm actually thinking, No, I don't think. I think there's one type of tray in my house, but that's main, that's my husband's. That's my husband's. I do not have any of these gathering bowl stingy situations because I don't like them.

09:11
Yeah, I've got no bowls, no bowls at all, you know? And Steve will have bowls, but he is a person that would chuck all kinds of nonsense into a bowl. The bottom line, do you know? I mean, so, but not in he has his own flat, his own bowl situation going on in his flat, you know what I mean. So, no bowls allowed. But honestly, a straightforward piece of advice is, as you are going on your decluttering journey, try and eradicate bowls, because they just become this catch all, and they they won't help your closest situation now,

09:42
and you know, the thing is, they multiply exactly what you said, Lesley, it starts with a ball in the hallway with all the best intentions, and then before you know, there's one in the bedroom, there's one in the living room, the kitchen. And I'm like, what are all these balls doing with all and it's all the same type of thing. So what you need to create is a drawer somewhere. With useful things, where every category has its own little box or container. So you can actually find, you know, before I start to rant, I'm going to move on to number three, Lesley living room, tape coffee table, clutter, another hot spot where we sit down, we relax in the evening, watch a bit of Telly, I don't know, maybe read a read a magazine, to chill out, lay on the sofa and have a little nap. But there's always some sort of table there, coffee table, which kind of gets cluttered with lots of random stuff. Yeah,

10:38
as you say, books, magazines, pens, post it, notes, coins that you've taken out of your trousers, particularly men, a lot have coins. Maybe not so much now that we're going kind of cashless a bit. But you know, if you do ever pay cash and you get coins, and men put them into their pockets, right? I think women typically use purses and stuff. Yeah, and would put things back in the person. Men kind of have, like, coins and then so they take them out because they want to sit down with them and stuff like that. Medication, um, is quite often on there.

11:11
Remote controls from all the different I've got five remote controls left you. What is that all about? Oh, I feel like I'm, like, starting up a spaceship or something. I just want to, want you to tell you to put on this on and that on and that on and five remote it makes

11:28
no sense. Exactly. So again, you know these kind of living room tables. It might be coffee table that sits in front of you. It might be a side table that's at the side of you. It's important to keep on top of these things, and every now and again, every day, hopefully, if you can, is to go around and to put things back. It's it's nice to be able to line up the remote controls next to the TV. There's something quite satisfying about not having them scattered and to gather together as part of your reset all the remote controls. So when you next go to put the TV on, you've not got a big searching situation where you've got to go down the side of the sofa, or has it fallen behind the table and all that. These are just the kind of thing that are going to help you the next time you want to find something, put the pens back. So when you want to find a pen, you can find it where it belongs. Put the post it notes by make sure your medication is back in the right places. These are all things that are going to help your future self, so that we can be forgiven, of course, for looking out for these things as we need them, but ultimately, we need to put them back so they're in the right place when we want to find them. Yeah. So yeah, those living room tables are definitely close to hot spots, exactly.

12:34
And what we see a lot as well, talking about living rooms, are the racks where you can put like magazines in, but then the daily newspaper gets in, and maybe the free newspaper that you get from your local area, and then somebody drops a leaflet through your door. You think, oh, that might come in handy. And that goes into the magazine rack as well. And before you know it, the thing nearly topples over. And what originally was meant to be a magazine rack for like, your two or three magazines that you currently are reading or that comes in a new one and you're trying to declutter the old one becomes this kind of catch all thing for all things, paperwork,

13:17
exactly, you're right. Paperwork, you know, magazines, newspapers, all that kind of stuff we've got to keep on top of it, haven't we? It's all about that quality of a quantity, really, you know? And we need to start to designate actual parameters as to how long we're going to keep these things. Because if you're somebody that's going to get in a new magazine every week when you go to the shops or getting one delivered or whatever, like, how long are you going to keep them for? And if it's something like a craft magazine or a subscription magazine. Are you going to keep all of those things? If that's the case, then they need a different spot, rather than for me, the magazine rack is more of a transient thing to keep what's current. And then some people will keep magazines long term, and they need a different allocated spot, right? So, but yeah, it's important for those magazine rags just to have magazines in them quite often, they've got people's knitting or crafting projects, or do you know what I mean? So just look at those. Because again, is it really helpful to you? If you are a cluttery person, perhaps taking the magazine rack out completely is going to help you, because once you start to have a place where you can put things, then it starts to gather more clutter, and then before you know it, you've got tons of things in there. So perhaps you go, do you know what? I'm not going to have a magazine, right? Because it's not helping me. It's just a clutter gatherer or a clutter hot spot,

14:31
yeah. And I think even taking it a step further, then maybe when you're going to do this project, you're going to realize, wow, actually, I have this magazine. I haven't read the last six. I've just stacked them in my magazine rack, and I haven't had the time, the energy, the inclination, I've lost interest in the subject. Is it time to actually cancel the magazine subscription and go actually, you know what? I'm spending money. Of this, but I'm actually not reading it at all. So I think that's kind of the next level, right? When you kind of start to work on these things, you can really ask yourself questions and go, do I still really enjoy it? Does it make me happy? Do I read this? Do I want to spend the time on it and take that next step further? But first step is, Have you got a magazine rack? If yes, what kind of stuff is in there, and does it actually need to live there or somewhere else?

15:24
Definitely. So let's concentrate Yes.

15:28
Number five is medication that can be a real hot spot wherever you put it. Some people have it in their bathroom. Some people have it in their bedside table. Some people have a tray in the kitchen. Some people have kids medication in kind of the floor where the kids are sleeping, and they got their own medication on their own floor downstairs. Medication is very it kind of starts to live if you don't have one space. It starts to live everywhere. And then it become really cluttery, but because a lot of the magazine packets are small, so we can squeeze a lot in a drawer or a cupboard or a tray or a container. So that's where it already starts. And then, if we are some we use a lot of medication. Things get outdated. Things get, you know, replaced by another medicine, but we still have the old one, and we haven't really gotten around to sorting it all out. And then it can really get out of control. It

16:30
can. And I think, you know, it's a real quick win to go through medication and again, like all of these clutter, hot spot things that we're talking about, as well as sorting them out, getting rid of what you don't need anymore. And, you know, trying to reset things, it's really important to take a step back and to evaluate what's happening and why. So things like medication, particularly if you're a person that's got a lot of complex health needs, you can get a lot of medication every time you get a prescription. And the chances, if that, if that medication has got 24 tablets in it, the chances of you actually using all 24 often, unless it's on repeat is on is slim. You know, sometimes we forget to take them. We stop them. The ailment goes away, and then all of a sudden, we've got a 14 left that then goes out a day, and it's, it's difficult to, if it's prescription medication, it's difficult to let go of it's gotta go back to the pharmacy. You know, I was having a conversation last week with my father in law, and I was like, have you gone back to the pharmacy and told them to stop sending you things on repeat, because you've gotta keep on top of the pharmacies as well, because they will just keep sending you things, and then it's costing a lot of money and all that you really need to keep on top and go, you know, I'm no longer using that. And it's up to you then to tell them, this is the UK. It's probably different around the world where the NHS is, you know, is you need to keep on top of that and go, I keep getting sent these things, and I no longer need them or want them. But of course, because it's health related, there's a different emotion, which is panic. We get a little bit panicky about things. We think that we might need them, so we start to stockpile them, so there's so much wrapped up in that so. But medication is often very unruly and the complete clutter gatherer, because we honestly Ingrid, how, if we're doing medication sort out, I bet normally, three quarters of that medication will go, Yeah, always. And then you look at the waste, you know, you look at the waste and all of those medications that have, you know, if it's the NHS is paying for ultimately, you know, and it's just so much waste. And so there's a lot involved in medication, right? A lot involved in keeping

18:37
and even even things that are not kind of given to you just the paracetamol and the nose spray and, you know, the kids things, and the cream here or there, or when, you know, you bit of a sniffly nose in the summer, all of these things I need to clear out a couple of months ago, right before I went on holiday, just to kind of make sure, like, Did I have still the right things that I want to bring on holiday with me and and I said, oh gosh, that's been, you know, even, and I'm normally quite on top. I found things that were six months out a day, because it's not something you do all the time, because I don't have massive amount of medication so, and thankfully, we're not people who are ill a lot and don't have to take a lot of medication. So it's kind of once or twice a year kind of job. So you then, even then, realize, Wow, gosh, it's been a while and things in so then you need to bag it up. Because, of course, they really said, please don't throw medication in your normal bin, return it to the pharmacy, because it's much better for the environment. So lots involved. So definitely a hot spot. Well, I think we've done really well with these five lessons, these first five before they break.

19:48
Um, well, I've

19:49
admitted to one bowl, one, it's more like a tray in my living room. Um, with, with, Oh, it's my husband's stuff. Boy. Machines, skis, radiator bleeding, keys, your sunglasses.

20:05
Oh, so it definitely isn't like a full blown bowl situation, like a whole

20:09
I can't even talk about it, but at least after 2025, years. Oh, are we married? 20 years of marriage? It's in one tray and not in six different places. So I'm winning here, no magazine racks. Medication is something that I do. So one one,

20:27
I'm gonna go a zero, because I am not taking responsibility for Steve

20:32
just told me you've got a whole thing of bags in your entry way. We thought go to bags yet, but we've done entryway in their bags or in your entry way. No, we're not,

20:42
excuse me, you'd like jumping ahead. So now you're doing a spoiler alert for the next part of the podcast, and we're gonna have to do that first. Now,

20:52
let's do it. Let's go for a break, and then we'll see you back. We're gonna talk about bags. Oh my gosh. We nearly got into fish tea. Gosh, hear me, unless he's a good thing. You're in Manchester, I mean London, Lesley,

21:07
because you preempted and, like a big spoiler, that people were like waiting with bated breath to find out what the next five things were on our clutter hot spots, and you just went

21:20
straight in. Well, okay, then so bags, and actually, is it bag storage? Is are bags, random bags in your in your Understairs cupboard, or is there a kitchen, kitchen cupboard full of bags? Are there in your hallway? Like Lesley had just told me before we started recording, where are your bags? So

21:39
let's talk about the hallway situation, by the way. Okay, so yeah, again, gonna put this down to my husband, because he is the one that does all the shopping right, and he loves to keep things right. So they're in the hallway because they're waiting to go out to the car. Mm, hmm, which is what we would recommend, yes. So you bring them in, you do your shopping. Steve went shopping last night, and we came back, and so they're in the hall ready to go back out to the car, and they will go out to the car next time I got to the car. So that's not bad. But are there too many? Yes, there are too many bags. I looked and I was like, that's probably 25 bags. And actually, every time Steve does even a full shop, it's probably four to six Max. Yeah, bags, yeah. And we don't, you really use the we use the kind of, you know, the Hessian type ones now more than the plastic ones as well. So do you know what I mean? So yes, I do. Thank you. Have bags in my hallway, but it's half good. It's half good out to the car. But do I think I could do a little bit of a get rid of a few bags Absolutely. But again, it's a little barrier that you see England, because they're bags for life. And so in order, you can't just, well, you can, if you wanted to, you can throw them away, but ideally, we would want to return them to a supermarket where, you know, and that's not every supermarket here. So we have, like, soft bag recycling at many supermarkets, don't we, where you can take those kind of things and they will recycle. But it's certainly certain ones. It's not all of them. It's not available for everybody, is it? So, yeah,

23:08
you know what bags? We see a lot of bags, bags, bags with bags, with bags. And the thing is, it's, you know, it not only plastic bags. It's paper bags. It is bags for life that you can use over and over and over and over again. It's the fabric bags that you can now buy or or get given as a freebie when you go somewhere, and we just gather them and and I don't think, I think in the beginning, when plastic bags you have stuck years ago, we have to start paying like 5p or 10 p for a plastic bag. So I think everybody was like, I need to hold on to my bags. But even still, now, although we are all used to that, and people are much, much better, and I think the plastic bag use has gone down dramatically, but I think still we've got somewhere inside as a little bit like I'm going to pay for now, so I'm going to keep it just in case, because you never know where you might need a plastic bag. And we have tons,

24:04
tons, yeah, tons, tons, yeah, and, but I think it's 20 p now for a bag.

24:09
Oh, wow. Well, that shows you how long I haven't bought a bag. Yes,

24:13
I think it's 20 feet per bag. But, you know, I think it's New Zealand. There's no plastic bags in the country. You just can't get one. Which is really good, right? Yeah, they just don't. So they've eradicated it completely, which is brilliant, you know? I mean, yeah, but where do they come from? Like, where did the Where have all those bags actually come from? Because you can't buy them at when they can buy them here. Maybe I just forget sometimes. But anyway, I don't know. It's a bit, it's a bit like a sock situation. You just like, where are these bags actually coming from? Yeah,

24:43
but it's definitely, definitely a clutter hot spot, and that's why it made the list, because we, we see it and, you know, we it's, it's something that we also love to give as like, a quick win or a challenge. You were like, go through your bags and have a look, because it's really something that people. Don't realize how many they have until they pull them all out and start to sub categorize them in all the different categories. And then you have to ask yourself, you're Alec, I do not like a fabric bag. I'm sorry. I really tried just not my thing. My kids, on the other hand, love them. So I'm like, Here you go. But then I was in Max's room the other day. I'm like, why have you got like, eight fabric bags? Anyway. So, yeah, it's one of the because

25:23
it's sustainable, because sustainability has taken us down a fabric bag route, but now we've got a ridiculous state of affairs with the fabric bags that we have with the plastic bags before. So it's like, but anyway, we just need to recognize it and and we need to manage the volumes, right? Yeah. And

25:41
maybe, what if you're like, Okay, I have loads of them. Use them to back up your donations. That is, like a great way, because charity shops and goodwill and things, they like a plastic bag, and it's they're not too heavy. You can't overfill them, and they're easily to transport. So that is our solution. If you got a surplus of bags, go and find some stuff to declutter from your house and put that stuff in there. Oh my goodness, right, we got there in the end. Numbers. Where are we? Now? Seven in we're going to the bedroom, and we see a lots of nightstands full of clutter, books, glasses, iPods, medication, again, electronics, sometimes passports and report and paperwork. I mean, all notes, tissues, lots of stuff finds its way in and on top of nightstands. Yeah,

26:41
iPods have been gone a long time Ingrid. Oh, sorry.

26:50
I wanted to say, like headphones. I wanted to

26:54
say, honestly, he's still stuck in the light. It was like 2003 or something like, she's just anyway, but yeah, all this out Lesley, because I just can't let anything go, like bottom line. As soon as Ingrid says anything, I jump on it. The boys, good job. She's got to fix good, isn't it? Mostly she laughs.

27:19
I will cry afterwards in the corner by myself. Lesley's been mean again. Yeah.

27:26
Do you know what? I will admit that my nightstand is the only thing I do, because what I do because I try. I've got this habitual thing every night where I have to take glass of water to bed with me, and I rarely take a sip of that water ever. And then somehow I don't take the cup down with me in the morning until there will regularly be four glasses on that night stand before. I'm like, okay, the glasses need to go down now, and they're all full, completely full, so I just then use them to water the plants. You know what I mean. So it's like, Okay, fine. So that's so it is cluttered with glasses. I just can't, I just don't know there's something about my morning reset. The rest of the room is completely fine, but it never take the glasses down. Yeah, it's a bit awkward to carry, you know, putting glasses into each other. You know, they know, aren't they, because they feel like they're going to smash and they sit One down, one by one. I don't know what it is I've got, I've definitely got a a mental barrier with glasses on the nightstand.

28:23
I think, you know, I think some people, you know. I think so the nightstand can be very collateral, actually, because it's just people have their routines. Yeah, when they go to bed, when they wake up in in the morning, as well, they've got their routines. And if you are somebody who puts, like, cream on your hands, and you've got your things, you want to write things down, you want to do some journaling, and in the morning, blah, blah, it needs to work really hard, but a nice that is normally quite small, you know? So it has to. It's a space that has to work really hard. And I think you're right. Lesley, the only way to stay on top of it is to just just about daily go, Okay, what's right? You know, maybe the problem is there's no rubbish bin in your bedroom. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe, indeed, you're not doing a morning reset the water with the glass. Is probably because you have to take that glass, go to the bathroom, empty the glass, and then take it down, because you don't want to walk down with four glasses with water in them, on two or three lots of stairs, you know. So there's, there's just things, and it easily becomes messy. I

29:26
think one of the things that I typically do with clients is they'll always, you know, because when it's gone to a sort of design place, which quite often does after we do decluttering, it's always, always, always have drawers in your nightstand, always, you know, to me, unless you really don't want them for to sort of stave off the clutter, but they're really handy to be able to keep things a little bit out of sight, but still orderly and stuff and organized. And so I just think it's a wasted storage opportunity not to have draws in your nightstands. And the problem is that a lot of them look so nice, like we. Just the shelves or the ones that are open underneath look really lovely. But if you can hide things away a little bit, and I'm not saying hide the clutter away, but I think a draw gives you the opportunity to compartmentalize things, containerize things a little bit more, give yourself just that a little bit more space at your bed stick, because we all want it to be calm when we get into bed. We don't want seven books and all your medication and all of those things that that gravitate towards the nightstand. Yeah,

30:24
exactly, exactly. I'm good. I'm good on this one, I'm feeling smug. I'm really I just don't have a lot of stuff at all. I have, like, a book, a couple of books, and maybe, like a notebook and an alarm clock, that's it. So, yeah, I'm good. Yours, yeah, yeah, you

30:43
have and what's, oh, you use those for your underwear and stuff, right?

30:46
Underwear and socks. One of them is underwear and one of them is socks. So, so that gives me the perfect limit that fits. That's it. I cannot buy more, because I know it will be otherwise too full. So I think so,

30:59
yeah, a lot of it Ingrid is that some people spend a bit more time in bed. And I don't mean, I don't mean sleeping and, but I mean some people might go to bed at eight o'clock at night and just chill for a couple hours before they go to sleep. Yeah? So it's a bit it has to be a bit more like, I don't really go to bed until I'm ready to go to sleep. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Same, same. Yeah, exactly. So I think it's different depending on the way that you deal with your mornings and nights.

31:24
Yes, um, number eight. We're going to stay in the bedroom and we're going to look at the wardrobe or closet floor. Oh boy, oh boy, we find so that definitely is a hot spot, because we, you know, shoes go in there on the floor of your wardrobe, and then some things full of the hanger. So then there's clothes, and then there's stuff we try to hide from other people, whether it's presents, gifts or just other stuff that we don't want anybody else to know. We kind of hide it away and under our clothes. What

31:57
are you talking about? What sort of things you talk about? No, no, I

31:59
got nothing.

32:04
Intrigued,

32:07
only in my wardrobe, but I have seen many a thing being hidden away.

32:14
Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, I think the kind of the things that drop off that's, you know, like things like camisole tops drop off the hangers, and they're always at the bottom of the floor, all crumpled up in like and everything gets very dusty, because everything drops off the clothes onto the shoes. Handbags are there. Handbags are notoriously difficult to to store, so they end up on the bottom of the wardrobe floor bits of paperwork, or, you know, so wardrobes are a bit of a clutter hot spot, aren't they, so it's just you've gotta clear it out and clean it out with regularity, and that's the only way to avoid it, right? Ingrid,

32:49
yes. And you know what? Don't forget. What a lot of people don't realize is that bedrooms can be quite dusty because, you know, it's the clothes, it's it the beds are in there, we shed skin from our bodies, which is normal, but it gives a lot of dust. So and it comes onto our clothes. It's all the little fluff. It's possibly even the towels or the bedding, if you store those in your bedroom as well, or in your closets, it all creates a lot of dust. So this is something, and it all falls down on the floor. And we, of course, we probably regularly Hoover our room, but a closet, a wardrobe floor, you have to open the doors, get everything out. It's just not something that you do on a regular basis, and all of a sudden you go, Oh, my word. Why? Almost shoes so dusty? Probably because you don't wear them a lot or all the time, because you can't find them under the other stuff. That's just how it happens. So it's just one of those jobs once, maybe twice per year. You kind of have to go right. Let me dig it a lot and see what's going on here. And once you're on top of it a little bit more, it gets easier. It does

33:55
still intrigued. You're going to tell me off off camera.

34:00
I honestly have nothing. Lesley, I have nothing. You make any sound old, decadent store, nothing, nothing, apart from shoes in my wardrobe. But I found some interesting things in other people's houses. But I'm not going to tell you that on the podcast, right?

34:19
Maybe I do a whole podcast episode on what we found in other people's houses. People's houses. Yeah, that would be a fun podcast, but it would would be a complete breach of confidentiality. Yes, sadly, that's not going to happen. But yeah,

34:30
Ah, right. Oh gosh, I'm getting all flustered now because we're going to still stay in the bedroom, because we found another collateral hotspot there, and that is under the bed. Things just disappear under there. It's really true. It's like, How often have I actually laid on my stomach, on the floor with my Of course, I've got quite low I got a quite long body and arm, so I kind of can go whoop what i. Kind of kept, think sweeping things from under the bed and like, wow, what's under here? Besides lots and lots of dust?

35:06
Yeah, exactly, yeah. So I think it depends, you know, ideally, one of your goals, potentially, ought to be try to not have anything under your bed if possible. You know, we've talked a lot about dust and skin and all the kind of grimy things that happen in the bedroom. And so if we can avoid using under the bed to store anything, that would be the ultimate goal. But that's not always possible. We have to get real here. Sometimes we need to use those spaces. So if we do use under the bed, store storage for anything, make sure the boxes are covered, if possible, make sure they've got wheels, if that's going to work for you, to be able to wheel things out and then make sure that it's kind of compartmentalized and it's got it's intentional. That's the most important thing. If you have got stuff under your bed, it needs to be intentional. A lot of people have things like handbag storage under there, things like shoe storage under there, sentimental items go in there. And sometimes people have got duvets, pillows, it depends, you know, you've obviously got the beds where you can lift things up. So when we've got one of those, I've got one of those in London where you which are brilliant, those kind of Ottoman beds where you can absolutely store things underneath, which are great. But I think what we're talking about is more where it's there's an actual void area under your bed, and that's the one that you've really got to keep on top of. You know, you can interview, but it's awkward, you know, from a physical perspective, to get down low under those beds and scoop everything out. But, you know, you can use a broom handle, you can use a Hoover, all of those things. So keep on top of it, because it feels quite grim and grimy, doesn't it? If you get to it, like, after six or eight months, you're like, I don't even know why that is, and you will find things that you would love. Had lost as well. So, yeah, under the bed needs to be kept on top of it, because it is a bit of a putter hot spot, isn't

36:49
it? Yeah, definitely. Well, let's leave the bedroom. We found one more. I mean, there's so many we had, you know, we had, we made a whole list. In the end, we had to, we left, pick and choose. Last one is in the kitchen the kitchen table, or maybe sometimes the kitchen counter can become a really clutter hot spots. Kitchen counters have to work really hard, and in the end, you want to use a kitchen table to have breakfast, lunch and dinner on or to prepare your food. Same for a kitchen counter. It's there to be able to be able to easily wash your dishes, prepare your food, tidy up, clean it all up. But we find things scattered all over the place, and it gets really that hard to to manage. And the problem is often that the cupboards in a kitchen are too full, so stuff can't be put away properly, and it ends up on the table or on the sides, cluttering up everything. And then it also looks very, very busy, which makes it very draining to look at the messy kitchen.

37:56
I think for me, I think one of the things that's quite important when you are doing your reset and doing your kitchen counter clean, in particular, is to be able to lift things and clean underneath. And if that becomes too difficult, then perhaps you've got too much on your kitchen counters. So every time I wipe, I will actually pick the the toaster up and the coffee machine up and wipe underneath it, because otherwise things go like crumbs and stuff go behind it. So I think it's important to sort of, you know, be able to maneuver things and move things around. Or when you're cleaning your kitchen counters down, and I think if you if you start to keep things on your kitchen counters, typically, because either you feel like you need visibility on them, or because you don't have a suitable cupboard for them, or because your cupboards are too full, then it's important to know where your limits are. So things like utensil racks and stuff like that, they Gather and Gather and Gather before you know if you've had one utensil part, and then you've got two, and then you've got three, and like, why and do we need? Is there anywhere else that we can put those things? These things gather clutter, and once you've got it sort of in your mind that actually, yeah, I'm going to put those things on my kitchen counter, it might become a little bit unruly. Anything we've said, it becomes, it sort of messes with your head a little bit, doesn't it? It becomes very esthetically busy. And yeah, that's what we're trying to avoid,

39:15
yeah. And I think as well, when you've got so much out, it is so hard to clean. So then it's a job that you avoid and don't want to do, and as soon as you you know you want to wipe a kitchen counter several times per day and keep on top of it, because as soon as you leave little bits and bobs, it gets harder to clean. It gets more work, and even you want to do it even less. And then it becomes this massive, big chore. So the less, the less stuff that's out the issue it is and for for everything. So we can definitely recommend tackle that kitchen counter, take care of that whole spot, because you will your future self will go, Oh, it's so much easier. It's it's part of your your your your morning, reset your afternoon, reset your evening, reset. And it's. So nice to wake up the next morning and come into a kitchen that is calm. You're just at the start of your day. You want it to look neat and tidy.

40:07
Yes, you do. So tell me, tell you how many up?

40:13
Um, no bedroom nights sent for me. Nothing on the wardrobe floor. No. I mean, I've got under the bed storage, but it's all I know exactly what's there. It's tidy. It's organized. So I'm good kitchen counters, well, it's, it's messy now, but I think that's because, you know, there's kids in there, but it will get done, like, on a regular basis. There's not, like, random bits there back storage. Probably they got a couple of bags, but it's not too crazy. I think I'm, I'm in relatively good shape here. Lesley, how about you? Yeah, well, I've

40:44
obviously got the bag situation going on the out that you outed me on. So I've got one from from segment two, and you've got one from segment one. So we, we have got one close.

40:55
So just to clarify, you're not counting your glasses on your nightstand. That's um, so have you lost ever? Actually, finally, for once, won.

41:06
Yeah. Okay, I'll let you win. I will allow you to win Ingrid.

41:11
That makes me actually quite happy. I'm not gonna lie. I might deduct

41:14
a point for you not being able to say hot spot very

41:18
well. So listeners, have you got one or more of these clutter hot spots in your home, and have you kind of gone? Oh yeah, I got that one and that one, I need to do some work. I'm going to tackle one of them this evening, after I've listened, or I'm going to do one of them this weekend, and I'm going to have a look at that and sort it out. Tell us in the comments. We would love to know, share with us your clutter hot spots, and maybe you're like, Listen Ingrid, Ha, I'm fine with those, but you didn't even mention this one, and I've got this one for sure. So maybe if you have a clutter hot spot that you have in your home that we haven't talked about, let us know, because we can do another podcast. I really enjoyed this one. Yeah.

42:00
10 more. Clutter hot spots. 10 more plus hot spots. Yeah, exactly. So anyways,

42:05
we appreciate you. Thanks for listening, and we hope to see you next week. Bye, everyone.

42:16
Thanks so much for listening to the declutter hook podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to us in your podcast player so you don't miss an episode and we'll see you next week.
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Episode 312 – 10 clutter hotspots and how to fix them

Episode 421 – Why an Organised Freezer Changes Everything with Kate Hall

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Episode 419 – Why repairing is better than buying new with Martine Postma from Repair Cafe

Episode 418 – Nesting isn’t just for new babies

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