Episode 276 – How NOT to organise your home

Finding the right place for the things in your home is an absolute must, but getting to that point is not always straightforward. When it comes to home organisation there are some things that work and some things that don’t. In today's podcast we’re going to hone in on the things that won’t work so you can get to the crux of what will.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
00:00
Finding the right place for the things in your home is an absolute must. But getting to that point is not always straightforward. When it comes to home organization, there are some things that work and some things that don't. In today's podcast, we're gonna hone in on the things that won't work so you can get to the crux of what will.

00:31
Your listening to the declutter Apple 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.

00:54
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.

01:13
If you'd like to get involved in conversations related 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. Well, Lesley,

01:34
here we are yet again, brand new podcast the second of 2020 for the new year has started with hurdling already along in the new year. And here we are yet again. It's Friday.

01:47
Yes. And we're going to follow on from the successes of last week's podcast when we focused on the negative to get to the positive. So in today's podcast, we're going to talk about how not to organise your home. Last week we did how not to declutter your home. Today we are going to do how not to organise your home I like this little spinning it on its head. What do you think I know, I

02:09
know. But the thing is, it's like you say it sounds to me like a how not to do stuff. But we do give a lot of good advice on everything that you should do at the same time as well, isn't it? Well, we

02:20
hope so. We've not started yet. Let's see if we can bring some positivity to it. So I think it's really important to stay I mean, organizing your home, you know, once you've decluttered, you're going to start thinking about organizing your home. And it's so important to think about creating a system that's actually going to work for you. And you know, a lot of people of course, social media is awash with ideas of what you should do when making things aesthetically, look amazing, and all those kinds of things. And we just need to cut through the noise a little bit sometimes and find a system that's going to work for us. That's the crux of this is don't do what other people are doing. Yes, of course, there are tried and tested things that work. But it's important to think about the reality of what that looks like for you. So so important, right?

03:08
Yeah. And I think you know what the thing is, literally, we are all different. We're all different people in different lives and in different homes. And we can get a bit light or everything out there is so perfect. And it's so like, I want to have that as well. But it feels even too overwhelming to start. I mean, I don't even know how to get there. I've got all this stuff in my house. I've tried to declutter, I'm going to move, you know, forwards. But now I see all these beautiful things out there. And it's just, you know, me in my little house, and I love it. But I just don't want I can't do all this perfection that I see out there.

03:47
Exactly. So yeah, we're gonna talk a lot about that. And we created a system that works for you. But let's jump straight in Ingrid and think about we want to portray an organised home to those around us. So if somebody pops in, then we definitely want to make sure that our home is looking kind of at its best at that point. And what that often then leads to is that we frantically start to in inverted commas, organise our home at that stage to a point that makes it look good. But by doing that it can be detrimental. And you will have heard us talk about this before and we're going to talk about it again because it is so important to know about and so important to understand how damaging that it can be. So we are going to talk about the sweep. It's been a while since we've talked about the sweet rain, Grace. Yes. And trust us we see this sweep and the sweep bags everywhere. Because we get into a panic. Don't we have people say oh, I'll come round and pick it up from your house or can I just pop in and come and say quick hello or I haven't seen you in ages. How Are you and people just even sometimes randomly knock on the door and you're like, Oh, I'm not expecting this company and my house is looking a bit chaotic. And a lot of things are out of place.

05:09
Let me do a quick tidy up. So it looks presentable for that five minutes, 20 minutes, three hours that people are in my house. But the downside is that when you frantically tidy up what happens people normally just grab a bag of books, a laundry basket, something that a container, and they kind of go wash, and they wish around all of the sides and kind of chuck stuff in and go, I'll deal with that later and let you put it away, hide it somewhere in a room. And then this sweep back or books has has come as being created. Oh dear. And the problem

05:50
with it as well. And it's so it's a quick fix to something, this is the thing. And one of the things that we're going to talk about today with organization is that there is no quick fixes. There are no quick fixes should I say it's a organised vehicle to to organise your home takes time, energy, effort, thought, logic, compromise all of the all of the above, really. And so to just gather things and chuck them all into a bag and hope for the best is going to be detrimental to us long term. It's all about putting the effort in as we go. If you ever have to do a sweep, we always all have to tidy up at some times and kind of put things away and put things into cupboards and what have you, we need to make sure that that sweet bag is dealt with. Yeah, so when I say never do it, but we're saying if you do it, you need to make a conscious conscious decision that at some point very soon, you're gonna go you know, all that stuff that I gathered up together into a bag, I'm actually going to go through that I'm actually going to rehome it properly. So there's always kind of you know, we always have to do things in a panic sometimes, don't we that's just like that. Let's think about, you know, undoing the sweet bag very quickly. So just to reiterate a sweet bag sweet box is a frantically gathered together a collection of things that we have typically put together just because we are nervous about somebody seeing our home in its natural state. Yes,

07:08
yes. And

07:09
what sort of things are in a sweet back though Ingrid,

07:11
ah, all manner of things, Lesley, some important some not very important. But it's normally always a combination of really random things that need to go in different places. So what we'll find is paperwork, we find post, we find batteries, pens, notelets, we find a snack tissues, sometimes a pair of scissors, I mean, it can be it stationery, it is food, it is jewelry, you know, somebody kind of put something down and thinks, oh, I need to put it away my jewelry box, but haven't got around to it. It really is a muddle of things. Now, if you've only got one of these three backs, that's kind of that seems, you know, something you can tackle. But what we see a lot is people have multiple, sometimes 10s of these sweet bags. And that's when things really really get lost if there's just a one bag that you know you created because that happened yesterday, you can go okay, I'm gonna get the one bag out, I'm going to tidy it up. Oh, yeah, oh, here's the stuff that I was working on or need or do put away. But when there's multiple bags, things really, really get lost. It's

08:28
all about where you are on your journey really isn't it English. So the reason why sweet bags even exist is because we are not on top of our daily resets. And so we talk a lot about the difference between decluttering organizing, tidying and cleaning. And the reason why you will have to do a sweep or you might feel like you need to do a sweep is because you've not got on top of those daily resets. Because all of those things that we mentioned, you know, paperwork, stationery pens, old batteries, blah, blah, blah, snacks. If we do a daily, we set effectively in our bedrooms or bathrooms, our living rooms, etc, we will not need to do a suite because we've already as part of our daily routines put these things away. So the suite typically happens when we've got behind on our daily resets or when our daily resets are not habit yet. And so then there's a buildup of these things that we then need to kind of deal with quickly. So it's all about where you are on your journey and whether you've got those reset cemented. But I think what we're saying is, you need to recognize that you're doing that. And what that is we call it the sweep so that people have got a conscious kind of idea of what that might look like and what that behavior is and what how detrimental it can be. But once you recognize that you're doing because some people don't even know that they're doing it. So some people think that it's a normal part of the tidying up process. And it's not, you know, it needs to be different. So, organization does not involve doing sweet bags and kind of just gathering things together and put them in a box and forgetting about them. Because as Ingrid says, what we do is we find that and 10 of these sweet bags, these are all the things that we have lost, they end up in a sweet bag, and then we go out and we rebuy it, we buy duplicates, and so we all kind of joins together to make everything to make us basically slip backwards in our decluttering journey starts. If there's one thing that we really, really, really need to avoid, when it comes to organizing and tidying our homes, it's the sweep, you know, spend a little bit more time if possible, or as I said before, if it's unavoidable, because you're like, I've got 10 minutes, someone's coming round, make sure that you make a conscious decision once they've left that that sweet bag needs to be tackled properly. So sometimes we have to undo things of course we do. That's normal life, but make a conscious effort not to just shove it into an Understairs cupboard and forget about it for the next 12 months, because that's going to have a negative impact on the rest of your decluttering journey. Yeah. So avoid the sweep is that the first thing how not to organise your home? Absolutely.

11:00
And the second thing we already talked a little bit about containers and boxes and things like that no place for things that is really crucial as well that you start to find homes for the items in your home. You need to find a place where those empty batteries go where that loose change goes where the pins go where the snacks coming snacks got normally obvious right either in your food cupboard

11:29
with the snacks. I mentioned snacks like like once or twice you caught with Snell kind of snack so

11:38
you find these breakfast bars or little babies because you know a little chuckle chuckle maybe I had some chocolate ones

11:47
or snacks out the snack cupboard. It's literally gone within like seconds is not hanging around. I mean to be found in six months time once I've made a conscious decision. I need a snack is gone. You know what I mean? But are you saying that you've got snacks? Oh, I might just put

12:05
peckish it's Yeah, but it's bigger. Yeah, but that is true. I do carry when I go out or something I do always bring a snack of some sort. It can be a piece of fruit as well or like a breakfast bar or some nuts or something. It doesn't have to be chocolate. But that's the birthing of course that came to mind. But because I kind of I don't know I have to be careful with by sometimes I can go home feeling a bit. You know, I get what I get

12:29
hot. She's making me sound like she's got some kind of medical condition like diabetes or whatever, you just don't grab it and go get hangry when you don't need to keep on top of your sugar levels, Ingrid, I'm sure you'd be fine bobbing out to the bakeries for half an hour without a snack to go alongside it. But anyway, I just

12:51
been part of a live audience. I mean, we went out a while back and the first thing I was I were doing lunch, I were doing data. What's the deal here?

13:01
We tend to damn like literally met two o'clock. And I've told you we're gonna be here till midnight, of course for eating. Like my life would not be worth living if we didn't eat like a 10 hour period. But anyway, but you'd be okay, because

13:16
you've got your snacks with you. Exactly, exactly. There's

13:19
probably way anyway, completely off topic Exactly.

13:23
As we do. So once we were talking about storage containers there we want storage container is not the other reason Lesley, let's be honest,

13:33
I think even before we get to that process of one storage containers, not another we've got to think about where buying or acquiring a store or choosing In fact, if you've still got somebody's house, and we would love you to have storage containers already in your house and not have to go buy them. Where does that come in the process of organization. And so we are naturally we are drawn to finding the perfect aesthetic look for our home. Because everything over social media and magazines and so on, is kind of directing us down that route of decluttering and organizing them by these fancy containers to make it look nice and to label them and blah, blah, blah, is absolutely part of the process. But we can't jump to too far ahead. And that's the problem that a lot of people have when they're organizing their home is that they're thinking about the storage container before they put the hard graft in which is basically what you've got to do which is to declutter to categorize together like with like to look at shapes and sizes and types of things and what type of storage is going to be the most appropriate? Do we need square sides do it is round, okay? Do we want glass are we bothered about like sort of, you know, glass versus plastic. You know what's going to be versatile, what's going to work in our bathroom, when we look at you know, kind of humidity all of those kinds of things. That comes further down the line. Once we've got a handle on our stuff and the problem that we see Over and over and over again, is that people are deciding that they want to do a decluttering project, and eart too early in the process going out and jumping on the bandwagon of buying appropriate storage for it, and then making mistakes. That's what we see with getting the wrong storage container for the wrong thing. Yeah,

15:20
I know, I think that's exactly Lesley people think that buying storage containers will solve their clutter problem. They just think if I put my clutter in boxes that are nicely labeled, and I put somewhere, then all my clutter problems are solved. But we know that actually bind storage containers far too early, is just going to actually get you in more of a muddle, but also the storage containers are going to have to be put somewhere. And it's exactly what you say, because people haven't done yet that decluttering they haven't thought yet about okay, what do I want to keep in my house? Where am I going to store it? How am I going to store it? What would be a good container for that? Do I like things with lids or without lids? Do I want a label or not? And all of these things that that comes while you're working through the process of decluttering and organizing, and that storage container is the last one of the last steps in that cycle. And not the first one. You know, it's and I think that's a mistake that people think as long as I buy loads of different containers, I'm going to be fine, but it doesn't help anything.

16:36
I've tried to sort of talk about the difference between a temporary storage container and a permanent storage container as well, because you do need containers whilst you are going through the process of decluttering and organizing your home. Otherwise, it's tricky to navigate logistically. Yeah, so you're kind of neat, you know, we're big advocates of collapsible crates, we can use cardboard boxes, we can use sturdy bags, like we call them bags for life here in the UK, all of those things are kind of useful to gather like with like to kind of keep things together so that you've got a feel for what it is that you're working with. And so because if you had every item from a living room, all jumbled up on a floor, and you had to just leave them side by side on the floor, you couldn't go about your daily business, basically. So you need to have some kind of orderly process in place. Because the chances are that, you know, if you've got a very full home, this is not going to be something you're going to do in one session. So you're going to need to use the kitchen, use the bathroom, use the living room, whatever that is. And so, you know, we do need to think about temporary storage containers. And the problem is often if we have a very full home, that all of our storage containers are full. And so we need to think about something temporary, that's going to work. So, but the key to that is temporary. And so you need to think about what have I got that I can use Can I you know, amalgamate you know things into bags that are already in containers, so I can use these storage boxes. And so you do need some kind of container to allow the process to evolve. But what we don't need is the beautiful one that you spend time looking at sourcing measuring, evaluating later in the process. When we're working with clients in grid, we can have done if we were doing it at a very full home, we could be four or five, six sessions in before we're even thinking about storage. And then at that point, we'll really get you know, sort of dig deep and go, let's have a look. Let's have a look on land. Let's go out let's feel it, let's touch it, let's look at the sides and what sort of size and shape they are, is it going to house 20 of those specific things that you've got in your home. So it's quite, it's quite intricate to get the right box. And if you just go out and go, Oh, I'm gonna go go and do an Ikea trip this weekend, I'm going to grab boxes that look as if they're going to work and that's not that's not going to work. So how not to organise your home is don't run out and buy storage containers before it's the right time. And you might have to make do with bit of cardboard bit of this bit of mismatched things, dragging things from the garage that have not seen the light of day for 10 years, all those kinds of things. But ultimately, the benefits are going to you're going to reap the rewards later by getting the right box at the right time. Yeah, and of course you know to buy new storage is costly as well. And so it might not be immediate. It might be something that evolves over time you might buy one or two boxes a month or whatever that might be. So storage where that fits into the process is really misunderstood isn't Ingrid and one of the biggest problems when it comes to organizing your home. You

19:49
know it's so funny Lesley, you were you were talking about it and and I thought my mind took me to bed I always have an area where I keep storage boxes. that I find with my clients. Yeah. And one box, even if it's temporary, it's just not the other is it? You know, if I find a shoe box, I'm like, Oh, this is good. Let's keep it. If it's a shoe box that you can take the lid off completely, and back on. That's like, yeah, that's a keeper. We're going to use that at some point somewhere, even if it's temporary. But if it's a shoebox with the lid attached, and it's kind of flips open to love them afterwards, trainers in them, I'm like, go. This is not helpful, because she can't talk the lid under you can't you know, it

20:34
doesn't I would just I would just put the lid off.

20:36
I don't know. I just had just done like that. And then it's flaps open? I think so no. For me, it doesn't even read

20:43
in a box. I would I would I would just get my scissors. And I would if I am absolutely. Getting a box meant that I didn't have to go out and buy new I would. Yeah.

20:52
I agree. I agree. Okay, yeah, I believe you agree with you that, for me, the using temporary storage is always better than randomly buying a storage books from a shop. Yeah, at that moment. You know, the nice that the buying and getting the really good container is is far later. But some of the boxes are just too big. Right? Because he caught a cardboard box that is smaller is normally much handier because people that keep really big Amazon boxes or TV boxes or whatever. They're too big. They're too big and they're too clunky in size. They're, they're prone to putting too much stuff in. So even one temporary storage box is not the other I think.

21:39
And we'll talk about boxes then in grid because I can imagine people now and particularly people who like to repurpose things, but we listen to it now talking about the fact that you need temporary storage to go through the decluttering process and automatically go into a place of right. Okay, every Amazon box that comes in I need to keep pace. I do a decluttering project. What do we think about that slightly off topic, but irrelevant, right?

22:03
I know. I know. Oh, please, please, please Declutter. Yeah,

22:07
so what we're talking about is while we're going through the process, and finding things that already exist in your home, keep hold of them. As part of the decluttering process, a part of that process, we will always gather things together, Ingrid and I, when we're working with clients will always go there's a useful storage box, we don't know what we might need at some point in the future when we get to room number eight. And so we are going to keep those storage boxes to one side. But as soon as the whole house is decluttered and organised, those excess thought excess storage boxes are gonna go right, and we're not going to keep them they're gonna get decluttered along with the rest of the stuff that's going out of the house, because they're surplus to requirements at this moment in time. So don't keep boxes. Unless you absolutely know that next week, you're going to need them don't keep them forever, because that's just going to add to your clutter problem. Yeah, so people are keeping boxes, everywhere, appliance boxes, this box, Amazon boxes, bubble wrap stuff, and it's just like, too much, right? And the thing is, what we typically know is that people who have clutter, are getting boxes of stuff through the post quite regularly. And so there's gonna be a throughput of stuff, which is going to mean that you're always going to have an odd box, turn it up at your door. Yeah. And so please kind of drill down on the amount of boxes that you keep.

23:28
Yes, yes. Yes. Because once once the storage box, just get decluttered. Lesley, we know we're getting we're nearing the end. Well, let's go for a break. And after the break, we've got some more ideas about how not to organise your home. Welcome back, everybody to your podcast about how not to organise. And we've been talking about this week. And we've been talking about boxes. And I know it's incredible. We can talk for ages about boxes, but it's really, really important that you get the right books. But there are other things as well. Right, unless you that we need to kind of not do when we're organizing.

24:10
Yeah, there's one thing I think, you know, it's interesting, really, I was I was a guest on a podcast them a little while ago. And it just came out this last week. And I was listening to her and she's talking about, you know, what's the biggest, the biggest sort of threat starts from Well, the biggest problem like with the kind of professional organizing industry, and that was a it's a tough decision. It's a tough question really about what's the most difficult, but I think and we are part of this as well. So it's an interesting one. But it's kind of social media presenting something to the world as to how things should be Yeah, so like trying to create something that looks amazing or looks perfect, or is a great hack or is a quick fix because we naturally go to things that are easy, don't we? So if we think you know, I wants to He caught my home. And that person over there on social media says that I can do it in this time or in this way. And I liked that idea. Because that sounds quick and easy. As opposed to hard work unstructured and laborious. I'm going to go to that I'm gonna like think that's a great idea. And so one of the biggest threats to the industry is that is suggestions that this is easy. The bottom line is decluttering. And organizing your home is not easy. It's complex. It's difficult. It's tricky. It's hard emotionally, and it takes time and effort and energy. That's the reality of it. And so don't go down the quick fix route. And one of the things that gets talked about all the time on social media, is this idea of turning hangers around. What do we think about that? Ingrid?

25:52
I know. I don't know who thought about this. It's like it's been out there for, for I don't know how long but I've never even done that. So what what is whole hangar turning around situation. So basically, what people say is when you've got a hanging wardrobe, you hand your shirts and your tops and your trousers, and you hang them on a hanger, you put them in the wardrobe, with the hangers all facing the same way as you put them in. So you can easily take the hanger out. So what the idea then is, is that a lot of people say Oh, but I want to declutter clothes I haven't worn in ages. So somebody has thought of the hack. You know what? Why don't you then turn your hangers around the metal part of your hanger, turn the hanger around. And as soon as you've worn it, you put it back on the hanger on the right way. And then after six months, all the hangers that are still backwards, you know, you haven't worn these clothes, so they can be decluttered. Did I explain that right? Literally? Yeah,

27:08
I think so. Yeah. So you put Yeah, exactly. But to me that's so fundamentally flawed on so many levels. Yeah, I think we were talking about that. You know, the reason why I spoke about the this, one of the biggest problems in our industry at the moment is these kind of quick fixes and stuff. As well as being quick fixes, which that is not because it's a six month process for a start. There's also the idea that people will be who are cluttered and sort of disorganised and struggle with that kind of thing, are meticulous enough to remember to do that in an already busy chaotic home. And that that's going to work. So think the problem is that the people that are looking at stuff like that on Instagram, or Facebook or whatever, are the very people who want to change, but they're also the very people who would struggle with that process. And what we're saying is, you can look at an item and you can have a good feel for when you you know, if it was five years, if I looked at something I might go, I don't think I've worn that in three years, for example. And in some instances, that will be absolutely fine. I mean, like, like, I'm not bothered, I'm not one of three years. I know that at some point in this instance, so whatever on a with a fair wind, I'm gonna wear it. So you can make a vow, you need to be able to make a value judgment on these things. It's not a time based thing. That's my problem is why should we throw away something that we haven't worn for six months? Why? Yeah, like, well, who says who says that? That's the right timescale do not. I mean, I agreed. So I think there's so much wrapped up in that hanger situation, a why six months or 12 months, or whatever arbitrary timestamp, somebody has decided is the right thing for you to do. And then layer on top of that the fact that the very people that are kind of out of control, in principle with their wardrobe, have got enough control to remember every single time they take something on and off that it goes back the other way around in their wardrobe. And layer on top of that the fact that the whole idea of us falling back in love with our wardrobe is that it it functions well. So we're now putting hangers on the wrong way, which makes them more difficult to get off the rail. Yeah, we're creating barriers. That means that's a bit of a faff to know to mean. Yeah. And the bottom line is most of these wardrobes are probably bulging at the seams anyway, you probably would struggle to get them in backwards. So there's so much wrong with that idea in my head. Yeah. If you are a not cluttered, not disorganised, have got a really good handle on your wardrobe,

29:45
and your laundry and your laundry

29:49
and you want to put an arbitrary timestamp of six months on something, go for it. But the problem is that the people that are watching these things and reading these things on social media are people that would wouldn't be able to probably maintain that system. Yeah. And so, but it sounds like a really, it sounds like it's gonna fix itself, doesn't it? It's like, oh, so all I need to do to declutter my wardrobe is I need to follow this thing where I turn the hangers around, easy to second decision, and in six months, I can go, okay, but when is the sixth month going to come? Like when is that? You still gotta go through all the stuff. That's the and work out all now? Did I wear it and not turn the hanger around? Or does it? It's fraught with complication? In my opinion. Yeah,

30:32
I completely I think this is really one of our, my soap boxes. I really just unlike I don't even know why people think that is a good idea. I mean, you know, you've there's lots of different ways you can organise a wardrobe, you can organise by color, you can organise by sleeve length that you can organise what different ways, but whatever you do, this whole hanger turning around situation is like, I don't even know I mean, I think I can say I'm a fairly organised person is so are you Lesley, we wouldn't even dream of doing this. Because we know that although we are very organised. We wouldn't even go oh, gosh, what? Oh, I did where that I forgot it. And it is like and people already who are struggling with laundry with folding with ironing with getting stuff off the floor, dumping grounds. And then they also have to think about the return to hang around or not. I mean, it's like, really, you know, you can't you know what you struggled to find your keys in your phone three times a day. And then you think you can also do a hanger hack by turning your hangers around. Let's start at the basics here. Let's start at the beginning. And let's first aside from your wardrobe. What do you actually like to wear? What fits? What do you feel good and what looks good on you? That's the first step not, oh, this sounds like a great idea. I'm going to spend my Sunday afternoon turning my hangers around, because that's going to be the thing that's going to change my life. No, the thing that's going to change your life is to slowly but surely break everything down into small manageable chunks. Look at your clothes and everything else your house with one eye one item one category at a time and go okay, what in this stuff? Do I love to keep? What do I wear? What do I love what makes me feel good? That is going to go into wardrobe. And then you get rid of floor drops and you get rid of of bench drops and an exercise drops and all of those things. And then you can go right okay. I

32:43
feel like there might be people who don't know what drove is, you know where the beginning of 2024 I can guarantee we've got new listeners. So maybe we need to explain why we've taken the word Florida which they might have a chance of knowing about and change it to Bannister drove and bench drove go

32:59
Yeah, because you know, a lot of people know what a floor drop is, right? You you wear something, you can't really cram it back into your wardrobe, it gets into a chair, it becomes a chair drop, it gets dropped on the floor, that's a floor drop. But when we when we talked about this before, in our challenges, or in our podcast, people said, Oh, I don't have a floor drop or Chandra. But I've got an exercise machine in my in my room. And that's where all the clothes hang over. So I've got an exercise drove or I've got a banister, and I'm going to put my clothes off my banister. So it's a banister, drove or anything like that, oh, there's a door drove people hanging stuff over their doors or now or on hooks behind their door, there's loads of random clothes that have worn, not worn, definitely worn it and nobody knows. The thing is when there's a drop of any kind, and the list is endless, of things that we can think of. It means that the laundry, the putting away the getting cycling through the wearing of clothes is somewhere in there is it's somewhere this does not work properly. And that's why you get drops. Yeah.

34:10
So thing we've safely express that we don't like the turning hangers around hack as an organizational tool. So we are all about taking an item out of your wardrobe and having an emotional response to said item that will allow you then to make your decision about whether you want to let go of it or keep it for another round of decluttering. Yes. Keep it for the rest of your life.

34:36
Yes. Have you got it have you had closed you've had for a very long time. Let's see I have there's a couple of bits that I've had for a very long time. You know

34:46
what I wore a dress the other day, and I feel like he's probably 10 years old. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I definitely didn't wear that in the last six months.

34:55
Yeah. But I worry. You know, when I see it, I'm like that I don't suppose I don't remember how long I've had close and then I'm looking at picture and go my speech from like seven years ago I had top already been nominated.

35:11
To be fair, there's not much I do I do have a throughput of clothes. To be fair, I declutter a lot. And I buy I buy new, but there are some things that are kind of classics that I think. But you know, this whole six month thing drives me completely insane. Yeah, timestamps, by the way, and just in case you didn't realize it, right. Okay. So let's go on to the follow this follows along the same lines, right, Ingrid with us following other people's ideas of what the right thing is to do in our home. And we are very, very keen, the end of the day that you're listening to this podcast, probably most people, not everybody, some people love to declutter love to think about it, some people are very on top of it, and just want to fine tune and listen in. Most of the people in our world are generally on the cluttered side, on the disorganised side, on the chaotic side on the struggle inside, okay. And so but what we find is that you hone in on these ideas like this sort of hanger thing, to kind of follow things that are designed for people that are super organised, and think, Oh, that's a nice idea. Like, who doesn't love to watch folding videos of things looking incredible in drawers and vertical folding and fancy things and tucking things in. And, you know, it's therapeutic to watch, it looks nice. But sometimes what we see is that people are spending too much time worrying about the folding of the knickers in the Nikkor draw, when actually, you've got this whole house full of clutter that needs to be tackled way before you worry about folding your knickers. And so what we're talking about here is micro organization, this is what we call it. So you've got macro organization, micro organization, there comes a time in life in your decluttering journey, it would be amazing to get to micro organization. That's the goal. That's the long term goal. That's where Ingrid is. I'm kind of there in some things, but not really that bothered about it. You don't have to get there if you don't want to. But I think it's nice to have as a goal to go to you know what, I'd love to be able to fold my knickers and have them vertically stacked like that in my drawer. But perhaps I need to tackle the out of date stuff in my kitchen first. And so don't homed in on micro organization before the time is right is what we're saying. But I think we can be forgiven for going down that route because of everything that we are shown on social media. And so I think don't look for Insta perfect is what we're saying. Yeah,

37:32
and I think what we see that a lot over the last couple of years is all people making their pantry beautiful with all of these containers, and they make in their laundry rooms. I mean, I would love a laundry room. But I mean, you know that you see all these laundry rooms with all these containers with their washing powders and their washing equipment and all of the beautiful or fridges had been. Rich scaping is a whole thing since the last last year, the year before when everybody buys all these containers to make to decon stuff that is that you buy in boxes or in glass or containers in the shops. And then you put it in a beautiful plastic container with a beautiful label on it. And people think oh, it looks it looks amazing. You know, I mean, I'm not gonna it's, it looks beautiful. But wow, so much work. So much work goes into that Lesley, and people who are cluttered. Why do you give yourself all of that work of decanting stuff like cereals, and rice, laundry products, and cookies, and sweets and all of the things into all of these containers. To then not being able to find them because your house is chaotic.

38:59
When the bottom line is, most people haven't even got space to be able to containerize and decompose things into Yeah, you know, you're trying to squash your stuff in your cupboard to be fair, aren't you and make it little bit orderly for the most part. You know, some people got big kitchens fair enough to not mean and so you can do that. I mean, I I you know, it's an interesting one really, isn't it? Because I was I wasn't it's not that I've ever been anti D counting cereals. But I think I you know, I got to a stage where I'm like I had I've got too much going on. I've got three kids. We've got to do all these things. We've got to run a business we've got to I haven't got time for doing that. But recently as some of my responsibilities have kind of decreased i Looking after children because they're all grown adults now. I got to a stage where I got a new kitchen and I decided that the time was right and I was going to discount certain things in my kitchen because I've got a new pantry you know so in as part of what it was one of my goals right so before I just had normal cupboards and it just wouldn't work because things were pie in a wall cupboard and, but then I purposely got a pantry cupboard. And now I've got glass containers that I use and anticancer and things. And it's lovely. And I thought I thought it through. And I now do that. But it was only now at 55 that I've done that and above the time in my life to actually think about doing that. And I'm a professional organiser, who should, in principle be bothered about those kinds of things. But the way that I come into these things is, you know what, it's got to be practical, it's got to be sensible, it's got to be achievable. And it was not achievable for me to fit that into my week until very recently. But now it is like it just in the last year or so, you know, Ingrid spends time she loves it finds it therapeutic, some people love that kind of thing. And if that is you, then that's great. But you have to fit that into other things. You have to assess your whole week and go, Okay, I've got three hours, I don't know, three hours a week, that's just a random number that I can put towards organization and decluttering in a week, because I've got all these other things that I need to do. Where am I going to invest my time best? Is it going to be d counting serials and getting that one little part of my world perfect? Or is it going to be to look at the bigger picture and to start to get stuff out. And so there comes a time and a place when it does work. And that might be after a year of doing a decluttering journey might go Now I'm ready to fall Monica sorted decomp materials. Or it might be like me where you've done 20 years of kind of household, you know, perfectly organised, declutter decluttered home, but think okay, I've got a little bit of extra time now where when the groceries come in on a on a Saturday morning, I can spend half an hour Dickenson a few bits and pieces, just me and I've got a little bit of space for overflow. Yeah, but it's only certain things. I am not doing that with my washing powders and my dishwasher tablets and my you know, because I've not got space for that. Who's got

41:52
Yeah, and I think even especially with the washing powders less, you have to be really careful, especially when they're small children. Because of course, if they can reach all these plastic and glass containers that are open, that's why they've got all the child locks right on the on the especially on the on the washing powder, because of course they they they have chemicals in them. So I think a lot of the washing machine, people are like, please stop the counting stuff. Because unless you can really put it safely away in high up because it can be dangerous. Yeah, and I don't know, I just I just think stuff gets eaten so fast to my house. Lesley, sometimes there's no point in putting it in a decal.

42:33
But it just looked beautiful. Yeah. You know, so I look at it on Instagram and go, Oh, just how nice. That looks with a little little Chris. But he's got time for that. I don't think there was a thing on stage. And I will say Solomon, I think she's amazing. She literally peg this, like Chris Buck is on a little line. I'm like, What's that? Who's got time to peg? Chris pockets? I'm like speechless like need to be spending every minute of every day organizing your home. As you people. Do you know what I mean? People do and that's fine. That's what makes me tick. Go for it. But what we're saying is not that you shouldn't do that. But that we want you to evaluate why you're in our world and what it is that you're wanting to learn here. And you know, if you are at that, that kind of organised end of it. Fantastic. But if not, and you're like, ah, but yeah, I did think about doing the D counting thing I did the angular put the Chris Buck. It's like stay say on sort your life out TV show last week. But actually, I haven't really done a dumping ground or my kitchen is bulging at the seams, then you just need to rethink a little bit.

43:43
Yeah. So listeners you need to tell us have you identified any organizational tips and tricks out there that just don't work? And what are you going to change about how you organise your home? Let us know you can leave us a comment on our YouTube channel and oh my gosh, everybody's been leaving comments and we love it don't realize the we read everything we try to reply to so many of you that leave us comments because we love it. And we appreciate it because it's so nice to hear from you and to get an insight in what you're thinking and what you're doing. So yeah, let us know if we've given you food for thought as hopefully we do with each and every episode. I'm going

44:30
off now to hang up my crisp packet

44:35
counting as long as I can get to this house and nothing will be the candidate in any honestly, you'd have

44:43
to kind of create some kind of

44:46
anyway yeah. You need to create a like our curtain rods and then put the little things on it with the clips. I mean, Lesley outside of the bar I don't know. I

45:01
think you might I love Stacy but come on. Stay safe. That was just too much. Yeah. Was it stay was this old lady? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. People around the world who were like who Stacey Solomon. So Stacey Solomon has got a TV show here in the UK, which is brilliant actually, and she is great. So a lot of it she gets right. But some of the organizational hacks are a little bit. Yeah,

45:21
I think is season one, I think. I think she did that to season one. And I think everybody went I don't know what she's doing, but we're not hanging up crisps. Anyway, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope you've enjoyed it. Give us a thumbs up or give us a comment. Click on follow and follow our show because we've got a brand new episode out every Friday and we look forward to seeing you next week.

45:55
Thanks so much for listening to the declutter hop 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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Recent Posts
Episode 363 – Before you blame the clutter are you doing these 10 things?

Episode 362 – The Roots of Clutter: How Britain became a nation of stuff with Professor Jane Hamlett

Episode 361 – Decluttering for yourself – why Swedish death cleaning might not be for you

Episode 360 – Gretchen Rubin – The secret to happiness in a cluttered world

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GLORIANNE RUSATE says:

12 January 2024 at 3:01 PM

Another great episode. I also have gone down the trap of following too many groups, people, videos… on decluttering. When I saw one person decanting their cereal, I realized how over the top that was for me- what about the cereal at the bottom- does it ever get eaten? Anyway, I finally realized I am paying for membership here and there's plenty of advice and videos and people to help. I've experienced lots of mind shifts- such as stop shuffling, think of the why or big picture, shop intentionally and stop keeping aspirational clutter. Thanks for all your expertise!

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1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  12 January 2024 at 5:37 PM
  
  Thank you Glorianne! So glad you enjoyed our episode and are part of our membership. Have a lovely weekend.
  
  Reply
Episode 276 – How NOT to organise your home

Episode 363 – Before you blame the clutter are you doing these 10 things?

Episode 362 – The Roots of Clutter: How Britain became a nation of stuff with Professor Jane Hamlett

Episode 361 – Decluttering for yourself – why Swedish death cleaning might not be for you

Episode 360 – Gretchen Rubin – The secret to happiness in a cluttered world

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