A graphic of a living room with a sofa with a cat and a checklist on it. In front of the sofa there are some boxes and a vacuum cleaner
Episode 174 – Habits you need to embrace in 2022

Episode 314 – How to declutter a storage unit with Margie
Episode 313 – My decluttering journey with Christina Rudes
Some of those new resolutions you wanted to embrace at the start of the year might just have slipped off your radar. So let’s continue to move forward positively and revisit some simple habits you can add into your life to make your decluttering journey succeed.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
[00:00:00] Ingrid: It's the end of January and by now some of those new habits you wanted to embrace so much in 2022 might have just slipped off your radar a little. So let's continue to move forward positively and revisit some simple habits you could add into your life to make your decluttering journey succeed.

[00:00:24] Now, Lesley, Blue Monday, the worst day of the year, according to the people in the know is behind us.

[00:00:34] But it's the end of January and we had all these kind of wonderful New Year's resolutions, and it's so hard to keep them up. What do we do? I know. 

[00:00:43] Lesley: Well, sometimes it's because those New Year's resolutions are a little bit on the tricky side, maybe a little bit ambitious. So what we thought we'd do today is take it back to some super, super simple Simple things that you can do some habits that you can encourage yourself to do in 2022, which are going to make all the difference to your decluttering journeys.

[00:01:03] So we're not talking about going declutter this and organise that and change this and do all this overnight. We're talking about some really simple things that you need to do to make sure that 2022 goes as planned in the decluttering world than anywhere. 

[00:01:17] Ingrid: Yes. So let's indeed. I love it. If you say, let's just start simple because we make it so hard for ourselves.

[00:01:25] We put these massive things that we have to do. And then of course we're like, how on earth am I going to do that? But there's lots of stuff that we can make a small, simple change. That will be a tremendous positive effect for everything else. 

[00:01:40] Lesley: Isn't it? Yeah. And a lot of these things are all about saving time.

[00:01:44] That's a big thing. A lot of these are time servers and that's what we need. We all need a little bit more time in our lives, don't we? So 24 hours just never seems to be enough. Does it Ingrid? Never seems to be enough. Never quite enough to achieve what we want to achieve. Let's get some time servers on the go.

[00:02:00] We love that. Yes. 

[00:02:01] Ingrid: So I've got a good first one then for you. Okay. Um, I think it's really important to put your keys, your phone, and your handbag, if you have one, in one place. Find a place in your home where that stuff is going to live. Because we lose tremendous amounts of time scrambling around when we're kind of on the go and we need to quickly get somewhere.

[00:02:28] It's like, where's my car keys? Where's my house keys? Where's my bag? Where's my phone? All the time. Find one place and stick to it and get into that habit of as soon as you come into your home, that's the place where it's going to be put. And as soon as you go out and you come back the same place, you need to find one place for this stuff.

[00:02:49] So I'm with 

[00:02:50] Lesley: you. I'm with you on a couple of those things, but I'm not with you on everything. Is that okay? And we start off with me completely unraveling your habits, Ingrid. I 100 percent agree with the keys. You know, we definitely need a place for our keys. I get it for the coats. There's nothing more frustrating than you assigning a coat coats.

[00:03:11] Over banisters, on the chair, on the floor, on the back of chairs in the kitchen, very, very annoying. So just from a kind of aesthetic thing, please, kids, family, put your coats where I've told you to put them and don't just randomly put them wherever. Put the phone, Ingrid, the phone follows you around during the course of the day.

[00:03:31] You can't have one place for your phone. See, look, you get, see you said it and I'll let you say it. 

[00:03:36] Ingrid: But you can't do that. I know. I know. I know. Phone is tricky. Maybe you could use your back pocket or something. Just take it to your back pocket. So because I mean, Lesley, it happens all the time is that also we see it when we work with clients, we hear it in a membership.

[00:03:51] It's like. For 25 times a day, when did I know, I know. It's like, it's either glued in our hands, or we leave it somewhere and then we forget. And then we start walking around and then we have to actually retrace our steps to find where we left the thing. Do you know what I will 

[00:04:07] Lesley: say? I'll give you a tip that's better than your tip.

[00:04:10] How about 

[00:04:10] Ingrid: that? I love it. Go for it. 

[00:04:13] Lesley: Have one place for a phone 

[00:04:14] Ingrid: charger. Okay. I have that maybe, maybe, maybe I need to rephrase my, my own wording. And I do have that. I have one place where I charge my phone. That is true. Yeah, 

[00:04:26] Lesley: I mean, you might have multiple, to be fair, you might have multiple phone charging places, but it's always good to not move that charger around, you know, you need to have like a designated spot or you need to have multiple chargers ideally.

[00:04:37] So I have one in the kitchen that I use, I have one in the back of my computer in my office that I use and one next to my bed. And if anybody. decide to take my charger with them, then they are in serious trouble. So try and keep your charges in one spot. I think that's really important. I think we're very lucky these days with the phone actually, because, um, if we've got things like Apple watches or, you know, other watches, I'm sure the same, you can ping your phone.

[00:05:02] So if I lose my phone, I can go on my watch and I can ping my phone, which is very, very useful. And things like find, find my iPhone. You can't really see. Find out where it is in the house, but if you've got something like an Apple watch and I'm sure all the watches do the same thing, very useful feature to be able to ping that 

[00:05:18] Ingrid: watch.

[00:05:19] Well, I'll tell you one thing. If my, if, if, if my, uh, if my husband hears this podcast, he's going to laugh because I always have my phone on silent. 

[00:05:29] Lesley: No, it overrides the silence. It overrides the silent English. 

[00:05:32] Ingrid: Oh, that's good to know. I didn't know 

[00:05:34] Lesley: that. Yeah, you're just going to have to spend 500 pounds on Apple Watch to be able to ping your phone when 

[00:05:39] Ingrid: it's on silence.

[00:05:41] Lesley: Just that slight downside that an Apple Watch is not a cheap purchase to make, but very, very useful. I mean, I did buy it to encourage me to do loads of exercise and things like that, but actually the only thing I use it for is to find my phone. But anyway, that's a whole nother story for 2022. 

[00:05:59] Ingrid: So, uh, but designated 

[00:06:02] Lesley: spot for your keys, absolutely.

[00:06:04] Put those coats in the right place, put your handbag in the right place. So you do not spend copious amounts of time looking for things that you need regularly throughout the day and keep those phone charges in one place 

[00:06:15] Ingrid: as well. And I think that Lesley, that is also, then I think the start of a place for everything, everything in its place.

[00:06:22] That's where it starts, isn't it? I mean, a lot of people say, yeah, but I don't know what that means. Well, it means actually that. You designate a place for something so you can find it again. And it starts with your keys and your coat and your handbag and hopefully your phone at some point. But I think the time saver is worth us talking about it because it is something that happens all the time.

[00:06:45] So yes, very important. Now let's move on then to the next one that we thought that is really crucial is create a donation station. Again, not a difficult habit to do, but oh boy, is it lovely to have a donation station? And what does it mean? It actually means that you have a shelf, a box, a bag, something receptacle, where you can put stuff in you no longer want.

[00:07:17] So it goes into your donation station. So, you know, this is stuff that I've made a decision on. This is stuff that I want to declutter that I want to donate to my, Favorite charity or a charity and this is the place where stuff goes and also a lot of times it's really handy if you've got family members, they can get quite excited if you explain the whole donation station to them.

[00:07:42] Lesley: Honestly, donation stations, which all of our members have and absolutely love. It's a game changer to have a donation station. Now, it sounds kind of fancy, doesn't it? And as Ingrid says, it's literally, it could be. a bag, a cardboard box, maybe an old laundry basket that you're no longer using. And it can be anywhere.

[00:08:04] It could be in an understairs cupboard. It could be in a corner of your kitchen. It could be in your garage. Although the garage, if it's a little bit cold, not quite so good. It needs to be somewhere in the kind of hub of the home. And it needs to be somewhere where everybody in the household knows where it is and can put things into it.

[00:08:20] You're going to use a donation station when you do your laundry and something comes out and it's gone pink and you know that you're actually not going to spend the time to try and bleach it back white, for example, and you just put it in the donation station and it will go to rags at the charity shop. It might be something with a hole in it that you take out of your laundry.

[00:08:35] It might be something that you find in your office or a book that you think, you know, I'm not going to read that and I'm going to donate it next time I go to the charity shop. And the idea is that you, you're not going to make multiple trips to the charity shop and you're going to. Put things in that donation station.

[00:08:49] And when you have a bag, a couple of bags worth of stuff that you can easily take, then you're going to make a trip to the charity shop. So that donation station for me. Might be there for three months before I take a trip to the charity shop. If I'm doing a big declutter, then I'll probably do a separate charity shop run as part of that decluttering project.

[00:09:07] But in general, just to keep things ticking over, it's so, so useful to have somewhere to put things that you no longer need. So get a donation. station and make that a habit in 2022 because it's super important, isn't it? I'm very 

[00:09:20] Ingrid: helpful. Yeah. And I think it also, it helps really a lot because then you've got a designated place where the stuff goes that you no longer want instead of wondering, Oh, Oh yeah.

[00:09:31] Oh yeah. I've got some stuff here and I've put some stuff there and, Oh, there's a pile of stuff here that I want to donate. Put it in one place because that immediately, or you also see, Oh, the shelf or books or laundry basket is now overflowing now I need to kind of. Get in the diary somewhere this week that I'm going to drive past the charity shop to do these donations.

[00:09:51] But if it is kind of, if donations are lying around your house everywhere, it's a lot of mental clutter to keep track and go, Where did I put this stuff? Where? I even, Lesley, I've got a donation station in one of my cupboards. And I also put stuff there, for example, that I put on, on Freecycle or on Olio. I put there too, so it's got one place and it's not like lying around everywhere.

[00:10:13] Lesley: So yes, a good habit to encourage yourself to do in 2022 get that donation station. Now we're going to go on to something else where we often find bags, often in understairs cupboards or in places, but this is not a donation station. This is definitely not a donation station. This is what we call a sweep.

[00:10:32] And we would really like you to Get out of the habit in 2022 of doing what we call a sweep. Now, some of you will be familiar if you've been with us a while as to what a sweep is, but let's explain what a sweep is to those who are like sweep. What is this sweep? You speak off Ingrid, what's a sweep? 

[00:10:51] Ingrid: A sweep is basically a bag and most of the time a collection of bags.

[00:10:58] And it can be a plastic bag. It can be fabric bags. It can be, doesn't mean. A bag with random items that have people have grabbed from flat surfaces And kind of stuff them in a bag and put them down somewhere else To go through later now this sweet bags normally happen When somebody comes over to your house, you're going to have somebody over for a coffee, for a meal, for a friend to drop in, whatever it is.

[00:11:30] And you think, Oh, it looks really chaotic and messy. He'll have me quickly get a bag, put all the stuff that's loose and kind of lying about in this bag. And I'm going to deal with it. When this person is gone, I'm going to get the bag back. And I'm going to then look at all of that. And this is exactly where the problem lies.

[00:11:48] If this is a habit that you do, you probably have. Two, ten, twenty five, more of these bags somewhere hiding in your house thinking I really must do 

[00:12:02] Lesley: this and that will undoubtedly be where all those things that you have lost or mislaid are. And so if you've lost a passport, a driving license, a, some kind of weird tool that you need to put a shelf up, it will undoubtedly be in one of those bags of sweep, bags of sweep, sweet bags that we use for a sweep.

[00:12:24] I don't know what we would. So, but anyway, um, we coined it, we've got off the phrase, we, we haven't got the, the, the associated vocabulary to go with it, Ingrid. But yeah, so a sweep is a bad thing. Now we will say that to get to the point of not doing the sweep sometimes takes quite a lot of works because in order to avoid doing a sweep, you need to have a place for everything.

[00:12:45] We've already spoken about that in that, in this podcast, a place for everything and everything in its place. And so quite often a lot of decluttering and organising needs to have taken place before you can. Avoid doing a sweep because the reason you can avoid doing a sweep is because you've got places to put things.

[00:13:00] And so that does involve a lot of pre work. So what we would say is if you're not at that point yet where you have a place for everything in your home and you still feel a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of stuff that you've got, ensure that if you do do a gathering of stuff off surfaces that you absolutely get to that bag immediately and don't leave it.

[00:13:21] Honestly, the amount of bags of. Swept up stuff that we find in clients houses years, decades later is astonishing. So that's definitely something to avoid. If that light bulb is going on with you at the moment, you're like, Oh, that's me. I do that all the time. And I've got bags and bags in my understairs cupboard in my, my dumping ground spare room, then that's something that you need to work towards.

[00:13:45] So we would love you to not, not have that habit in 2022 anymore. Yeah. 

[00:13:50] Ingrid: And I think the realization is really important. I think this podcast is not to sell, tell you, Oh yeah, just don't sweep your items. But it's like. Oh, wow. This is what I do. And I think that light bulb going on is really important and also catching yourself.

[00:14:05] Then in that habit of doing it, going, okay, hold on. I actually have this habit. This is what I need to work on. Really important to move forward in your decluttering journey. Now, Lesley, let's do another one that we think is really important. And that is. Don't try to do everything yourself. Get other people involved.

[00:14:25] If you live with multiple people in one house, I mean, if you're by yourself, I'm sorry, it's you, you and you, you got to do it. But if there are other people in your house, and I mean a partner, a husband, a children, a flatmate, I don't know whoever lives in your house. This is a team effort. Don't try and do everything yourself.

[00:14:45] And, 

[00:14:46] Lesley: and we say that not because you want to do everything yourself, but we say that because sometimes we say to ourselves, you know, it's just easier for me to do it myself, rather than invest the time and energy in fighting and explaining and going down that route of being disappointed by people not doing it.

[00:15:04] We know as well as you do that it's hard, particularly when it comes to partners and kids to get people involved and nine times out of 10 it will undoubtedly be quicker, easier and less stressful to do it yourself. We absolutely 100 percent know that. But if you can persevere in trying to encourage people to come on board with the tidying, with the routines, with the resets, with putting things away, with not doing a sweep, with putting the keys in the right place, with putting the coat on the right hook.

[00:15:33] We've put in the school bags where you need them. If you keep on being that boring nag that they're like, Oh, that's it again. Then in time it will change and it will save you lots of time and it will become habit for the other people in your home as well. So we're saying perseverance is everything when it comes to trying to encourage other people to come on board.

[00:15:54] Now, are they ever going to come on board to the degree that you want them to come on board? Probably not. Um, but it's definitely worth that perseverance, isn't it Ingrid? 

[00:16:03] Ingrid: You know what? Every day after dinner, I want the kids to do recycling. You would think now, after about a thousand and sixty four days, you would think that day after dinner, go, let's do the recycling.

[00:16:16] Every night. Kids do the recycling. And I'm like, this is not a new concept. We've been doing this for about... Three, four, five years now. Every night, but I just don't do it. And every night we have the same, uh, and the same me nagging. But I just want them to do that because I want them to contribute. I don't want to do everything myself.

[00:16:43] I hope at some day they're just going to do it without me asking it. There's some sort of pipe dream going on here, but I want them to learn, you know, this is, we all have to chip in here. This is not something that the only, the adults in this family do. We all have to do something. And I think I can expect that of them.

[00:17:02] I mean, they're 13 and 15. They're old enough. I'm a waiting, I'm waiting and I'm waiting for this moment to tip, but you know what? I think, you know, they're going to, they're going to be at some point, they're going to be grateful that we did this and they might not know. Yeah. 

[00:17:17] Lesley: 100 percent they are going to be grateful that you did this because my kids do do that for sure.

[00:17:22] Um, you know, I don't actually need to ask. They might be a little bit slow. It might be a little bit, it's more between the two of them. So it. Leah steps up and she does it all the time without being asked, so she's quite good. Nathan will find that that's the time, the time after tidy up, that's the time when he tends to go to the loo for a while, you know what I mean?

[00:17:40] So he's definitely got this habit of like, he's like literally disappeared after 10 minutes and then Leah gets frustrated. So it's more, now it's actually frustration between the two of those that are at home than it is between me and them, if that makes sense. And so, um, but they do do it. And, you know, we, we did a podcast in a way I did a podcast with my kids.

[00:17:57] And so there is hope out there. I did a podcast with my kids and said, what did you learn kids growing up with me? And we went through things. I can't remember what number podcast it is. We'll put it in the show notes. Um, but that's an interesting one to see that it did stick. They're not perfect, far from perfect.

[00:18:12] But these habits have struck and they have taken them on to their next home. So Nathan at university says, I'm the one who cleans the kitchen up because I'm used to doing that. And I know that what it feels not to have that done. You know, Luke and Ellie, they definitely clean their kitchen up at home.

[00:18:28] You know, they do those things because they've always done them. So perseverance is everything. And ultimately, will it save you 

[00:18:35] Ingrid: time now? 

[00:18:37] Lesley: Dunno. But it will save you time and it will actually be doing the right thing for your children going forward. So yes, a nice little habit, not an easy habit, actually, not going to lie, but one to definitely persevere and to keep on trying to nail every day.

[00:18:51] Yeah, yeah, 

[00:18:52] Ingrid: I think it's all those small things, Lesley, I think that will really help, you know, put your plates in the dishwasher, just open up your curtains, you know, it's not all, you know, tricky things, but all these kind of things really kind of will help with an overall feeling of the house feeling tidier and not that you always has to do that.

[00:19:10] So yes, 2022, come on, let's, let's be brave and let's say no, and let's. Let's get people on board here.

[00:19:19] 

[00:19:19] Hi everyone. Welcome back. We are talking about new habits for 2022 and we've really discussed some really good ones, Lesley. So let's do another couple for our listeners because we've got some more ideas, haven't we?

[00:19:34] Lesley: Yeah. So, you know, it's not very long ago that it was the festive period, but we still have lots of other things that we buy gifts for, for people throughout the year. And so one of the things that we'd like to encourage you to do this year, and we absolutely love this and we definitely do it ourselves, is to embrace experiences, not stuff for any gifts that you might have to give to other people.

[00:19:55] So really think about what can I give to somebody that's not more stuff, you know, we're here, we want to declutter. We're trying to encourage ourselves and others to have less stuff in their homes. So isn't it nice to go out for dinner with people, to go to the cinema, to go to the theater, to go for a walk, to go for a coffee, all of those things are experiences, not stuff.

[00:20:15] And in general, they are much more rewarding. And so we'd really like you to think about whether that's something that you could embrace in 2022. 

[00:20:23] Ingrid: And I think also for a lot of people who are very artistic, there's so many lovely artistic things to do. You know, go flower arranging, do an art class, do pottery.

[00:20:36] You know, there's, there's so much cool stuff out there and I think it's so much. It's so lovely to spend time with people, you know, and do something fun together and learn a new skill. I mean, on the artistic front, I probably am rubbish, Lesley, but I mean, I did a singing class once, which was, you know, fun to do.

[00:20:57] Lesley: I think it's just thinking about it, and there are, you know, there's definitely a movement, isn't there, towards accessibility? experiences for gifts now, which makes things a little bit easier for us. But I think, you know, it's interesting, really, even at Christmas, when we did, for the first time, we did a sort of secret Santa, um, for our like wider family and even the secret Santa way, we give one gift to one person, if that makes sense.

[00:21:17] rather than loads of gifts to loads of different people. It was an experience in itself to open the one gift and to see that one thing. That became an experience, even though we gave stuff, it was kind of an experience to do the Secret Santa. So, you know, it was less stuff, but it was still quite a nice experience to do that.

[00:21:32] And so I think that that is going to encourage less consumerism. It's going to encourage us to spend time with people rather than just give them something. And so, and, you know, we definitely need that with everything that's gone on in the last couple of years. And we need to be spending more time with people.

[00:21:48] That's something that we've definitely learned. And stuff is not what it's all about. So for 2022, it's definitely something, I mean, it's something that I embrace anyway. But it's definitely something that I'm going to go even more. Kind of committed on in 

[00:22:03] Ingrid: 2022. Yeah, I think so. I mean, as you know, Lesley, I've, I've never been one for gifts already for a long time.

[00:22:10] So my husband turned 50, 50 last December. And I was like, first I was like stumped because you think it's 50, you know, we have to, what kind of nice thing am I going to buy him? And then I thought. He doesn't want anything. So actually I had to get creative and I gave him an experience. So hopefully this year in 2022, we're going to do a little bit of traveling.

[00:22:33] Um, not with the two of us, but with, with, with the kids as well. And I've got him a nice weekend away. So that was really kind of like, okay, I had to think about it and kind of go, okay, what would he really appreciate? What would he enjoy? And. I am not a big gift giver anyway, but there's again, creative people, you know, people are making lots of stuff.

[00:22:53] Now they're doing nice chutneys and jams and biscuits. And I don't know, you can go soap making or whatever. There's so much to do. And I think it's so nice. We can actually go, you know, what, how fabulous experience was this. Instead of here's your gift and they unwrap it and it disappears somewhere over the cupboard to be decluttered later.

[00:23:17] Lesley: So yes, 2022, embrace experiences and not stuff. Now, along the same lines as that, as long, you know, we really want to think about sustainability. Sustainability as well. Sustainability in 2022. It's going to become more and more important as we move through. I mean, it's super important now, but everyone's kind of coming on board with that now.

[00:23:35] So we really want to embrace you to shop from home. Now, Ingrid, what is shopping from home, please? 

[00:23:42] Ingrid: It is one of my favorite things, Lesley. It means that you use things up that you have before you go out and buy more of it. This can be anything. This can be food in your pantry. This can be toiletries and all the kind of lovely bath soaps and things that you have in your bathroom cupboard.

[00:24:02] It can be cleaning products that are under your sink. We have multiples of. Everything. Let's use it up and let's actually use it up properly. You know, my kids always roll, like, here we go again. My kids roll their eyes and they're like, yes, I know. And I'm like, there's more stuff in this bottle. You have to put it on the, on the other way around so it can all go to the beginning.

[00:24:25] We have to use it up properly. And, and they're like, yeah, yeah. Use it up. Use it up. We know mumble you . And I'm like, use it up. It's like the thing, it's a 

[00:24:33] Lesley: thing. It is. I'm surprised you've got any stuff left in your house to shop from home. I'm not going to lie. Not sure you've got any excess. Now, if you come to my house, there's plenty of excess because whilst I am an avid declutterer, the rest of my family do not appear to have come on board in quite the same way.

[00:24:49] So there's plenty of stuff to use up in our house. Particularly my husband, I hasten to add, but yeah, shopping from home is a big one. If you have gathered clutter along the way, if you've bulk bought, there will undoubtedly be loads and loads of toiletries. As Ingrid said, cleaning products is a big one.

[00:25:04] Um, food is a big one. So really look at what you've got, got and whether or not you can shop from home. We would love that to happen in 2022. And let me tell you, it gives you a fantastic feeling. When you start saving that money, we said at the beginning, we're going to do, there was a lot of time savers.

[00:25:20] There's also a lot of money savers in here. And these are the habits that we want, that we encourage you to embrace in 2022. So do shop from home and use up what you have. 

[00:25:29] Ingrid: I've just thought of another one, Lesley. Oh, go on. Notebooks. Okay. People, people who love like stationery and notebooks, they've tons of them lurking in cupboards.

[00:25:40] Use them up before you buy a new one. Uh, cards like, uh, if, if you're like an avid card writer, people browse shops and go, Oh, that's a nice card. There's, there's, there's hundreds of them. Use them up. And actually, you know, I love one of the really plus sides is in what you said, you save lots of money, which is, I think, amazing too.

[00:26:01] And then they could actually. Build up a bit of, you know, reserve, which is always good. Isn't it? 

[00:26:08] Lesley: Yes, definitely. Definitely. So this is our last habit that we want people to try and embrace in 2022. And it's also along the same lines. It's so interesting, isn't it? Because everything really to do with decluttering, certainly the after effects of decluttering are very much focused on sustainability.

[00:26:25] So if you do decluttering and organising well, whilst we may have had an excess of things in the past going forwards, we focus very much on having less. And with that comes sustainability, which is also fantastic. And so. We've talked about shopping from home. We've talked about experiences, not stuff. And so now we want to talk about sharing the love.

[00:26:45] So it might be, you know, I've got so much stuff. I'd love to shop from home, but literally I've got 27 bottles of this and I'm going to use that in the next 27 years. And so why don't I do the right thing and give it to somebody else that just doesn't go to waste. So I think it's really important for you to find somewhere for you to give away the stuff that you absolutely will not use.

[00:27:05] Oh, 

[00:27:06] Ingrid: so many things now to where you can donate. I mean, you know, I think it all started with kind of knickknacks and, and clothes and, and, and, and, and jewelry and handbags to the charity shop. But then I think over the years, people have realized there's lots of other stuff as well that maybe don't do well in the charity shop, but still is too good to throw away.

[00:27:29] And this whole movement of Freecycle, Freegal, Olio. I mean, amazing Facebook marketplace, uh, a local Facebook group. If you don't need it and don't want it and don't use it. And if you don't have to throw it away, don't, I mean, even food that is not expired, but that you know, you may be, maybe you've been overbuying a little bit through of, of COVID and everything.

[00:27:56] And you thought I'm going to stock up on lots of food. And now you're realizing I'm never going to eat through all of this. A food bank is brilliant. So many options. Oleo is amazing. If you've got a kind of half a packet of rice left and it's. still fine, or you're going away for the weekend and you think, Oh, I overbought a little bit of fruit and veg, but it's not going to be good anymore next week.

[00:28:17] By the time I return, Olio is an amazing place and it started again with food, but now they do a lot of non food items as well. You can bring broken light bulbs and batteries to your recycling center. Oh, the, the, the. Options are endless for not having to throw it in the bin. 

[00:28:38] Lesley: Yeah, definitely. And I think that's really important.

[00:28:40] I mean, I've been using Olio a lot. I mean, Olio, as far as we know, is a UK based app, but there will undoubtedly be equivalents in your home country. And the way I would do it, if you're like, why do they keep talking about Olio? I don't even know what it is. You spell it O L I O. We'll put it in the show notes as well.

[00:28:56] Um, and, uh, Ingrid is now writing down if you can see on YouTube. Um, and, but if you just put...

[00:29:06] I'm sure something will pop up, you know, people look at what's going on in other countries and do the same thing. And in any case, Facebook Marketplace is going to very much depend on where you live. If you live really rurally, it's probably going to be different. I live in big cities and so there tends to be more stuff available and more community activity when there's a lot more people.

[00:29:25] And so, but really look at what's available to you and people want your stuff, you know. And so. Go for it. That's the important thing. So yeah, super important to find a good outlet for the things that you no longer need. Charity shops are fantastic and always our go to places of choice, of course, because they can make money out of them.

[00:29:44] But there are so many things that are just not going to work for a charity shop. Cleaning products, half full, rotten bananas. Banana bread for somebody else. Charity shops are not really going to want those bananas, are they? No. 

[00:29:57] Ingrid: But I think also you can get really creative, Lesley. I mean, you know, if you've got a lot of arts and crafts you no longer want to do, maybe, uh, you know, and if it's, it's maybe paper chains or something, maybe a preschool wants something or maybe you've got a teacher locally who would love to have some, some pens and pencils and some paper for, for, for the kids in the class.

[00:30:18] I mean. So many things you can get creative about, find your outlet. Don't get stuck on the, I'm now decluttering, but I don't know where to donate it to. And the donations is piling up in your house and in the boot of your car. You need to think about this. Which charity shop do I want to support? What is one that's close to my heart or which, where is one that's really convenient for me that I can easily drop off to what kind of stuff do they need?

[00:30:45] Invest a little bit of that time to figure that out. And then a whole kind of world opens and you make it easy for yourself to make that donation station empty, easier and quicker for yourself. Definitely. 

[00:31:01] Lesley: So habits, Ingrid, we've talked about little habits and they are all little things, but they really, really, really, really do add up and they are going to make our decluttering journey much more simple and much more successful, which is the important thing.

[00:31:14] Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:31:15] Ingrid: I think it, I think those small changes will make a massive difference and that's what we want for you listeners. We want you to have success in your decluttering journey in 2022. So. Yes, we hope we have inspired you. 

[00:31:31] Lesley: Yes, inspiration is what it's all about. And so Ingrid, more inspiration coming next week.

[00:31:36] What are we going to talk about next week's podcast? 

[00:31:38] Ingrid: It is a 10 things, Lesley, it's a 10 things which we both love and it's all about. 10 sentimental items to declutter today. Ooh, it's the sentimental items, which can be really hard. We are going to talk about it. Very important. So 10 sentimental items to declutter.

[00:31:57] Nice looking forward to it. So thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you then.
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