Episode 320 – What is clutter blindness and how to fix it?

Over time, we become so accustomed to seeing the same things in the same rooms at the same time of day that we become what is known as clutter blind. In today’s podcast we are going to discuss clutter blindness and how we can put strategies in place to stop it.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
00:00
Over time, we become so accustomed to seeing the same things in the same rooms at the same time of day that we become what is known as clutter blind. In today's podcast, we are going to discuss clutter blindness and how we can put strategies in place to stop it.

00:30
You're listening to the declutter hub 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,

00:53
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.

01:12
If 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.

01:32
Lesley, we are going to talk about clutter blindness today, which is actually a quite an interesting Can I call the phenomena? I think a lot of people with clutter don't realize this actually exists, but we've kind of found it out over years of working with clients that we see clutter in a completely different way than they do, right? Yeah,

01:55
I think we go in to a client's home with obviously, with an evaluative eye, but also with a fresh eye. And I think that's the point. And so quite often, when you know a client knows that they've got clutter, right? Yeah, they know that, but they're not seeing exactly what we're seeing, and not seeing the, probably the quick wins. You know? The bottom line is, we become clutter blind to things that are actually fairly easy fixes. You know, the kind of magazine stuff down the side of the sofa, the kind of kids artwork on the front of the fridge that you've just like left there for six months, those kinds of the DVDs that are kind of in front of the telly that have not been put away. They're actually quite quick fixes from either tidying or a decluttering perspective, but we stop seeing them because we our eyes become so accustomed to it that we become clutter blind. And so it is definitely a phenomenon, and it's something that we really need to work hard to avoid by various things. So we're going to talk a little bit about what it is so you can try and work out whether or not you've got it. And then, obviously, we're going to try and give you some ideas about how you can fix it, so how you can stop becoming clutter blind. I think one of the important things that I want to talk about first of all, and the way that we avoid it in the first instance Ingrid, is we need to encourage people, and you can absolutely do this yourself, to look at their rooms with a fresh lens. And so that is, you know, we talk about the fact that, as professional organizers, we come in with a fresh pair of eyes, right? And so you cut, you don't have a fresh pair of eyes in your house. But I tell you, when you do, England is when you take a photograph of it, if you photograph or video your room, that effectively, effectively gives you a fresh lens, doesn't it?

03:42
Yes, and I think a lot of people underestimate the power of taking a photograph as well, because a lot of people are super embarrassed about their clutter. They feel awful about the clutter. They're like, we know it's here. We don't want to look at it. But I think if you are embarking on a dictator journey. I it can be so powerful to be able to look back at some point and go and not to shame yourself into how bad was my house looking before. But more about we always try to put a positive spin on everything. Look at how far I've come and all of the effort that I've put into it. And I think a lot of the people who don't take the photographs, the before photographs, almost regret it later, because they're like now I understand when they're working with us in the club membership, they're like now I understand why you keep banging on take a photograph every time you do a drawer, a cupboard, a shelf, a basket, anything, just to kind of go to give yourself that pet on the back. Go, me, I've done this. And the people the members, are like, Oh no, I'm just too embarrassed about my house. I can't buried. I'm not going to do that. I don't want to be confronted by this clutter and this. Stuff later go, Oh my gosh. I now see what you mean, and I now see actually how far I've come. It will be wonderful to be able to look back and go, Wow. How amazing am I doing. And I think that's really important, because what we see a lot as well is that people who have lots of clutter also just don't see a lot of the other stuff around the clutter anymore, either. And once you start to kind of peel away that clutter, kind of like, like an onion, you're peeling off one layer at a time, it's like, oh my gosh, I can now see I really want to wipe my light switches, or I really want to Hoover the room, or I really need to wash my curtains, or, Oh, wow, that's broken. I'm I need to get a screwdriver and just do a little thing to fix it. Because the clutter is so overwhelming in people's brains, and it's eats up so much energy that it's really hard to start to be able to think clear, and then the overwhelm, I think, sets in even more.

06:08
So I think, you know, just chatting through pictures and photographs, and you're absolutely right, you know, people don't want to take them, because it feels like an admittance of failure for a lot of people, or embarrassment or shame. And so I completely get that people don't want to do them, but as you say, we do encourage that. You know, if you don't want those things popping up in your feed, there are lots of things these days on photo apps, you know, like on my phone, which is Apple, and a lot of people have got an Apple phone, you know, on photos, is it hidden? Is it a hidden album which nobody else is going to see, and it's not going to be popping up on your feed when you know on your kind of picture of the day and stuff like that, because nobody wants to see that. But I think it's so important a to be able to monitor your progress, but B to C, through the blindness that we have encountered, but when we become clutter blind, because the problem is that the clutter becomes our new normal, and we've got to try and eradicate that. So that's what it's like our brains training to not seeing it anymore. And so if we can't see it, how can we then fix it? And so it's so important to really allow yourself the opportunity to evaluate with that fresh pair of eyes. So photos, to us, are an absolute no brainer. There are some places where it's easier to take a video. We know sometimes, if it's a whole room, it's easier to take a video, but take a slow video, so you can really evaluate and see where are the clutter hot spots? Where are there these quick wins, because a lot of the things that we're talking about with clutter blindness, honestly, are quick wins. They're just things that have landed somewhere and just haven't moved for a few months. And so we're going to talk about how to fix that afterwards. So it's important, photos are the first step towards avoiding clutter blindness. For Ingrid,

07:56
I think so too Lesley, and I think it's, I don't think we realize how attuned we are as professional organizers, we just because we look at things with a completely different pair of eyes. I mean, a perfect example was, I had somebody on on on a zoom call the other day, and she was showing me the things she was going to declutter, and actually said, Oh. And how about that thing over there? She's like, Oh my gosh, that was like, in the on the on the camera, for like, one split second. How did you see that? It's because we are so used to really looking with like these radar eyes, I think, yeah. And it's on on with our members as well when they send us pictures right to go. Emma, I'm looking at this. I want to tackle this. What can we do? We immediately go, we could do that. You could do that. Have you thought about this? But it's also our job, right? We people also go, Well, how do you do that? Well, because we are good at that, I guess. I mean, there's loads of stuff that we're not good at, but seeing the possibilities of a room, of a wardrobe, of a cupboard. That's our job, and that's years and years and years of experience.

09:08
Yeah. And I think that the problem is, if you feel downtrodden by your clutter, you fail to see opportunity. That's what we're trying to see. So we will, we will see, and this is what you need. This is by looking at things through a different lens. We want you to get to this point, and you can get there, right? We want you to see opportunities, storage opportunities, decluttering opportunities, opportunities to store things in a slightly different way, to zone things in a different way. So it's about looking at your room with an evaluative eye and seeing different options there, and they will be there. Every room that we've ever worked in has got possibility in it, in terms of flipping it on its head and doing things in a different way once the clutter is gone. So it's not only the clutter, it's the organization, it's the zoning, it's the storage, all of those kind of things really, really important to have that fresh pair of eyes and. And so, and that's the only way that we can think of at the moment, is to to kind of train yourself to do that. The other thing that I wanted to say as well Ingrid is, even if you take it on your phone, if you then have an opportunity to blow it up. So, you know, Ingrid was talking about, you know, having worked with somebody on our client on zoom the other day, you know, she will be looking that on quite a big screen, right? And so you can see it, you know, it's hard to see on your phone screen. So if you have the opportunity to add a photo to your laptop or whatever, then do it, because it really does help. Or even just zoom in, you know, zoom in on your phone, so you can just see things with a little bit more granular detail.

10:35
Yeah, I think too. And I mean, another perfect example, Lesley as well, was that last week, I was working with a client in her home, and it was a kind of a kind of a mishmash room, a bit chaotic, but I I can see the potential through the clutter. Again, it's because it's that fresh pair of eyes. And although I've worked with her in that room before, it used to be a toy room, the kids have grown older now. And I said, What are you going to do with this room? What are your options, your possibilities here? And she had, like, a four by one calyx, which we love, which is, you know, a unit where you can put in four kind of nice containers, but it was on its side, and I actually said, Well, why don't we put it vertical instead of horizontal, and basically just moved the baskets around, you know? So it was like, Oh my gosh, and I said, and I think I've spotted a perfect place upstairs where it will fit in with the other decor. It's just because we always think about what would work best where in the house, and that's why furniture often moves around as well. When we work with clients like that cupboard. I love that cupboard, but showing up, turn it around the other way, or move the desk around so you're facing the wall or the window instead of having your back to it, and all of those things, because we have just that insight into a space and what works, and if something will fit or not, I I kind of pull it my in my Eagle Eye. I'm like my Eagle Eye tells me it will probably fit, and very rarely it's wrong, because we just understand space and volume and and flow and energy in a room. And I think when there's a lot of clutter, people just don't see the possibilities anymore, yeah, because the clutter

12:27
is what's shrouding you and stopping you from being able to see that possibility. So we need to try and fix that in the first instance. And I think the fix is reasonably simple, actually. So why don't we go for a break after the break and talk about some simple things that you can do to try and avoid clutter blindness.

12:45
Hi everyone. Welcome back. We are talking about clutter blindness, and now we're going to give you some practical tips and strategies on what you can do about it.

12:56
Yeah, we talked a lot about the fact that a lot of the things that make us clutter blind are just random little things that have piled up. So it might be a pile of paperwork on the side of a kitchen side. It might be, we talked about before, a pile of DVDs next to TV that have not been put away. It might be a pile of kids toys that have not gone away, some books that are double stacks because you can't fit them on the bookcase, some magazines that have been there for six months, these kind of things that just grow and grow and grow. So I think the first thing that we would suggest, really in order to avoid this, is to start to declutter, for sure, but to really look we do this whenever we're decluttering, is to gather like we'd like, and so we need to be able to see the volumes of stuff that we've got in each individual category and evaluate each one for its merit. And so if you've got a sort of collection of stuff, can we declutter some and then, because often, if things stay out, if things don't find their natural home, it's because their natural home is full, and there is a barrier at play, which is stopping us from putting it away. So it's not always simple. So it's like anything in a decluttering world, we have to do a, to do B, to do C. And so first, first things first, let's gather light with like, let's see what we're playing at with the DVDs, with the magazines, with the books, with the kids, artwork, with the toys. And go. Is there anything that can go because all kind of success, really, in decluttering starts with having less the less we have, the less stuff there is to manage, less stuff there is to put away. The less barriers we have, the less full it gets. And so start to think, and you know, once you've seen that clutter through the new lens, then you can go look at that power magazines over there. I'm going to do something about that and then go right. Okay, where's all the magazines this room? Let me get them together and let me start to make some tracks to actually fix that. So that's the first step, isn't it? Inward by gathering like with like, because then you can evaluate and see the volume. So now you've seen the stuff that's the problem. You. Seen the thing that is causing a clutter hot spot, and now you can go, I'm going to look at it as a whole category, and they're going to make strides to fix that.

15:07
Yeah. And it can be very small, right? Don't feel like you have to pull half your house apart here. Do really one tiny category, you know, if you're in your kitchen. Just go, okay, here, I've got some stuff on the kitchen sites, but actually, this should live in a cupboard. Let me just get the other couple of bits together, even if it's five or 10 things, and go, Okay, I've got here 10 things. Which are the things I definitely need to keep, which are the things that are like no brainers that can go because they're out of date, because I never use them anymore, and now, okay, suddenly the little things you want to keep fit in the cupboard again, because there's just less of it. So break it down. We I know we keep hammering on about it every time we do a podcast, you need to break the cluttering down because it will really, really help you, especially also with these clutter hotspots, because it's just exactly what Lesley says it's out because it can't go anywhere. Why can't it go anywhere? Because the cupboard is full, you need to declutter some stuff from the cupboards so the stuff that's out can be put away again. And we're not talking about perfection here, right? We might not have the perfect place yet, and we might not have the perfect container yet. It doesn't matter. It all starts with having just a little bit less. So it all just all fits a bit better nicely. Yeah, because there's

16:34
our clutter, blindness typically is in the rooms that we're in a lot. So it is in those living rooms, in those kitchens, in those bedrooms, that's where you become clutter blind. And so it's really important to try and, you know, declutter, and then to try and, you know, that old adage of a place for everything and everything in its place. So we need to identify, so we declutter, we need to identify a place. You know, we're talking about making space in the cupboard. But is that cupboard the right place for it? Is that the problem? So it might not just be that the cupboard is full. It might be that the cupboard is a bit too awkward. It's difficult to get into. It's got a barrier. If it's a piece of paperwork, is it too difficult to put that paperwork away? And we need to rejig the filing system so some of these things, when you get into it might be quite you know, in big jobs to to evaluate, but just start small, and then you can go, actually, there is a problem with that. So in a few days, I'm actually going to tackle my paperwork, because that's really bothering me as a hot spot in my house. And so first of all, declutter, then try and find a place for everything, make sure it's zoned appropriately. So we've talked a lot about kitchens in the past. We talk about the categorization the different cupboards. Living rooms come in all different shapes and sizes, right? So one living room is not the same as another, but a lot of people's living rooms really have to work hard. They've got books in there, they've got DVDs, they've got toys, they've got magazines. Some people got medication and light bulbs and all kinds of manner of things. You know, if you've only got a kitchen and a main living room, which a lot of people have had in a hallway, and then bedrooms, then your living rooms kind of have to have everything in them, so therefore they need to be appropriately zoned so that we can have that place for everything and everything in its place. So let's talk about the final sort of piece of the puzzle to avoid clutter blindness, which is putting everything back in its place Ingrid,

18:25
yes, resets Lesley are key. When you are trying to fight this clutter blindness, you need to tidy up after you've done something. So if the kids have been playing with the toys at the end of the day, tidy it up. If you've had a lovely afternoon reading magazines and newspapers for an hour, don't just leave them actually. Put them in the recycling bin or put them in a pile of magazines if you haven't finished it yet, if you've got a magazine basket next to your sofa and you want to finish it up and next time put it in there, just don't leave everything lying around, because as soon as something is down on a flat surface, it attracts other stuff. It's like, Ooh, there's something random there. Let me put some other 1215, 20 random things on top of that, and then you're like, I've literally just turned around and that. It was a clear service, and now there's lots of stuff that house is possible. Tackling those things and putting them back when you finish with them is key when you're working on decluttering your home and having less clutter around. I think

19:35
it's really important as well Ingrid, to avoid when you've got when you've become clutter blind, you've got closer hot spots. We're trying to do resets. It's really important to avoid quick fixes. So it's important, it's important to avoid doing sweeps. And so if you've got these clutter hot spots dotted around, you see them, you've evaluated them, you've found them, don't just chuck them into a box or took them into into a into a bag to deal with layers. Data if you need to do that. The interesting thing about this process, about all of the decluttering process, is that if you start with resets, and you start with tidying, very soon, you will identify where your problems are. So if you you know we talked about a place for everything and everything in its place. If you can't put everything in its designated place, then there's a problem, and we need to go back a step and go, can we organize things differently? And if that's not the case, then we need to go back another step and go. We need to have less. So we need to declutter. So by seeing the problems as they arise with the resets or all that kind of stuff, we then know we need to. We've tried. It's not worked. We still need to go back a step and have less so it's so important, isn't it, and it all fits together seamlessly. By decluttering, by organizing, by zoning, by doing your resets, then the clutter is going to be gone, so you will not be there anymore. Clutter blind.

20:59
Now, if you're listening to this podcast and thinking, Yeah, I've got lots of clutter, but I honestly, I don't see it Ingrid and Lesley. I've taken pictures, but I still don't see it. Other people, you know, moan in my family, or they're always a bit like, I'm like, a joke, like, Oh, her and her messy house, but I just don't see it. You could be very brave. And, for example, say to your best friend, all right, I know my house is full of clutter, but I just don't seem to see it. Can you tell me what you see when you walk into my house? What stands out? What are the things you're like wondering, why is that there. It doesn't make sense. Why don't you put it somewhere else and ask them, you know, where would you put it? You know, to get some inspiration, where, where does this live? For your house? Then? Because, in my house, it lives here, but I don't know, because I've never been taught, or I just don't know, or I'm a I'm feeling stuck, but you have to be quite brave, don't you? Lesley, to do this? Yeah, you

22:01
know? Well, it depends on the relationship that you've got with that person. Really, doesn't it, but I do think, you know, I think, I think if you're not feeling as brave as that, I think the photographs that we spoke about at the beginning is really, really useful, but the important thing, and what we're trying to get across with this podcast, and it's quite difficult, really, to explain, but is that if you've got a cluttered house, you typically see it almost as a whole. And so what trying to avoid clutter blindness does is it breaks down the clutter into sections and allows you then to start working on individual categories, on all of the individual categories joined together to make the whole and that's what we're trying to do. So this is about breaking that collection, collection of clutter, down, and seeing the problem areas, and seeing the quick fixes, which we love, which, I mean, we love these quick fixes. And a lot of these things are quick fixes, right? And so that's what this is about. So it's a tough one, and it's, you know, it's easy for us to say we've been doing this for a long time. So we definitely see, we see possibility in a room, we see storage options, all of those kind of things. And you might be just there thinking, I don't see anything other than a clutch house. So what this is all about is to try and switch that on its head and go, first things first. I'm going to be kind to myself and go, Okay, that was then before I'm going to draw a line under it. Going to move forward. How am I going to move forward on this? And then I'm going to employ all of the strategies that we talk about all the time in the podcast, decluttering, categorizing, gathering light with light, organizing, zoning, all of those things and resets, of course, and try to chip away at it so that I don't see clutter anymore. Or I do see clutter. More importantly, I do see clutter as it starts to build, yes,

23:42
and then also, then you've learned the techniques on what you need to do, so you can actually go actually, now I'm spotting it, and what can I do to avoid this clutter building up in the first place? But this is not something that will happen overnight. This is not a quick fix. This is not that well, there's Ingrid, let's there's piles everywhere. I'm just going to get a box or a laundry basket, sweep it all up, put it away in my horrible room of do. And that's me done. This is all lots of habit changing over time, taking your time, learning how to declutter. This is why people come into our membership. They do the learning with us, because you need to do a lot of learning. You don't need to only do decluttering, but you also need to learn the emotions that sit behind that clutter. And that's where we where our teaching starts, and we help our members through the different rooms in their house, building up their decluttering muscle over time. And you can see over time when they start to put, you know, their decluttering in place, the resets in place. They're like, wow, time starts to appear. Space starts to appear. I'm seeing things that just didn't see before. And it's a journey. It really will always talk about the decluttering journey, which sounds, can sound a bit dramatic, but it really, really is. Is, and I think that's why we love also the membership so much is that we really see people go, go on that pathway and on that road and and make those changes over time, and then it really, really sticks. So yes, listeners, I want to know from you, have you ever heard of clutter binders before? Maybe Are you realizing now, wow, I have this. I had even no idea. Or I'm going to look at my house with a fresh pair of eyes and look if I'm actually caught. Replied, I had realized I could possibly be it. Let us know. We would love to hear from you. Leave a comment on the podcast, send us an email. Give us feedback, share it in our wonderful Facebook group. We would love to hear from you, because it's really important that you understand what clutter blindness is, and how you can slowly but surely make those changes. So thank you so much for listening. It's been wonderful to be here this week, and we look forward to seeing you again next week. Thanks so much.

26:06
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Episode 387 – Our 2025 year in review – the big Declutter Hub round-up

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