Episode 380 – Home, Life & You – How NOT to declutter your home

this is very exciting. Our very first podcast in front of a live audience, and honestly, we were a tad nervous, I'm not gonna lie. We're like, how is this actually gonna work? So, you are our audience. You're gonna have to bear with us. I normally see Lesley through a screen. So it's like, oh, I can actually touch her.

So for anybody who doesn't know who we are, which is probably a lot of you, Ingrid and Lesley from the Declutter Hub. So we mainly, most people here will know us from our podcast, and so we've been podcasting for seven years, which is like, we're like OG podcasters we think, and we've got over 380 episodes, 3 million downloads.

So for some reason people like to listen to us, so let's see if we can do our stuff today. Basically, we love getting people organized and decluttered, and the types of people that we typically help are people who. Really struggle. So not people who are just a little bit disorganized, but people who really struggle and feel overwhelmed and feel completely stuck.

So that is where we're at. And so what we've seen so much of over the years is that there's a lot of things out there. And of course we're all on social media that are kind of, oh, just do this, just do that. And, and everyone's like, oh, that sounds like a really good idea. So today's talk is really about busting through.

Some of those decluttering myths. Yeah. And trying to help you to find alternatives to those. So are we gonna sit down, Ingrid? Yeah. And let's do that in a minute, because we're going to do six decluttering. six. We're gonna bust six myths. I can't say myths very well. We did a little rehearsal this morning.

I'm like, Lesley, I don't think I can say myths. Actually, I thought that it, I said myths just to agree. So we're gonna do four decluttering myths and two Organising myths. So. Why don't we indeed sit down Lesley? Yes. Beyond, and then start with the four decluttering myths, right?

Let's do this. Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay.

Ingrid: Hello and welcome listeners. I'm Ingrid.

Lesley: And I am Lesley. Now, if you are here for the very first time today, or you've been listening in for ages, we want to say a huge thank you we have a little favour to ask.

Ingrid: If you like what you hear, be sure to hit that follow or subscribe button. Share us with your friends or leave us a review. It makes a huge difference to us.

So the first decluttering myth we want to talk about is, and we hear it all the time. If in doubt, throw it out. Wow, that sounds so easy, doesn't it? Ah, you haven't worn it. Just throw it out. Just get a skip, throw it out. If you're not sure about it, you haven't worn it.

Just get rid of it. Get rid of it. We hear it all the time everywhere, but we wanna take a moment to really think about what that would look like. Because if you just, if it's just a decision to, if in doubt, throw it out. What that means is you've not given it much thoughts, and we are all about your connection to stuff.

We're about emotions, not clutter. We want you to look at. Why is it that this, this item is so difficult to let go of? Don't just throw it out, evaluate it, learn from it, and so you can look at that the next time and go, actually, I remember having that feeling before and this is the decision that I made. There are so many things that come into play when it's about, when you are evaluating whether or not to keep something, you know, things like emotions, memories, the practicality of it, the timing of it.

So it's really important for you to just. Take a moment and breathe and think about it. And don't just make a quick decision to chuck something out just 'cause you've not looked at it for six months. Really, really important. Yeah. You really, you don't need to push yourself. You don't have to be ruthless.

You don't have to go, well, this is the day and this is the day I am gonna let it go. And I now need to make all of the decisions all at once. That's not necessary. You need to take time to go through your items. By the way, can I just do a quick check? Can everybody hear us? Because I know I am super loud as always.

Yeah. Can they hear me? That's my word. Yeah, can, can they hear? Can you, hear Lesley? You gimme thumbs up. Even if she didn't have a mic on, you'd be able to hear Ingrid. Yeah. Okay. Thanks audience. That's really good to know. Thank you. So really what we wanna say, and we're gonna talk about this a little bit more later, is decluttering is a muscle.

You have to build up that decluttering muscle. So we need to think about stuff before we make these decisions. So what we are gonna say is, if in doubt, don't throw it out. So let's turn it on its head. So if in doubt, don't throw it out. Evaluate, take some time. Yes. So we're gonna jump onto myth number two.

Myth, shall I say myth Ingrid? Yeah. Yeah. You say myth. Myth. Myth. I'll say myth. Myth. Decluttering just takes 10 minutes per day, just 10 minutes. You need 10 minutes per day, and then you're going to be decluttered for the rest of your life. That is definitely a myth, isn't it? I see the audience nodding.

They're like, yeah, if it only would, that's simple as you 10 minutes. Great. I know. I think we want it to take 10 minutes a day. So when people tell us that it's gonna take 10 minutes a day, we want that quick fix, don't we? We want to break it down and make it super simple. And when you get to a certain stage of your decluttering journey, maybe you can just spend 10 minutes a day fine tuning, evaluating, declutter as you go.

But if you are in a position where you are very cluttered, you're very overwhelmed, there are lots of barriers or struggles standing in your way, then it is gonna take a lot of effort to get there. Yes, you need to break it down. Yes, you need to look at how much time you are spending, but you're probably gonna need to spend a little bit more than 10 minutes a day to make a dent.

I think decluttering it takes focus. It takes time. You need to plan, and of course you do need to break it down. But what you can do in 10 minutes a day is your resets, Ingrid. Yes. So daily what you need to do is you need to build in reset time, once, twice, three times, depending on how busy your life is.

After dinner, take 10 minutes to put that kitchen back, to put that dishwasher on, to give those kitchen counters a little wipe to put the recycling outside. It doesn't take that long. People always see these things. It's gonna take a long time, but it really doesn't. If you do it on a consistent basis, 10 minutes every day, same after breakfast, just put those breakfast bowls, you know, and give that little table where you've been sitting having breakfast a little while.

A couple of times a day, 10 minutes, and that will really help you to not get a massive load to do over the weekend. So you then can claw back a little bit of that time to actually go, okay, now I'm freeing up my weekend a little bit. And then I'm going to see if I can do a 30 minute, one hour slot of decluttering so it's not all taken up by those daily chores.

Really, important. Resets are key. We talk about it all the time in the Declutter Hub because that is what's going to help you. It's going to be a combination of the decluttering, which is of course is really important if you're overwhelmed with stuff, but then to. Put those daily resets in, that's gonna be the, golden nugget, the key that's gonna help you longer term.

I think one of the problems really, Ingrid is, and, and the reason why this is a myth, is because people get confused. So when you are looking at managing your home, people get decluttering, Organising, tidying, and cleaning, and put it all into one kind of big, horrible chore situation. But really you need to understand which bit of it is decluttering, which bit of it is tidy, and which bit of it is cleaning, which bit of it is storage.

Once you get that sorted and you think, actually what I'm focusing on now is the decluttering side of it, or what I'm focusing on now is the Organising side of it, or the tidying or reset side of it, then it makes it that little bit easier. So the myth is not the 10 minutes. The myth is that it's the decluttering piece that's 10 minutes.

And so the reality is that 10 minutes a day is your maintenance, your research, your tidy, not the decluttering inside it, which is gonna take that little bit longer. Let's go on to myth number three. Um, and I, I have a feeling Lesley and I are gonna get on a, on our soapbox about this one because we see it all the time.

If you are unsure of what to do with something, put it in a box, close it. And put a date on it for six months later. And then if you haven't opened the box in six months looking for this item after six months, just pick up the box and throw it away. You've not needed this stuff so you don't have to look into it again.

Oh my gosh. How often? Everywhere. Just put it in the six month books and we're like. What does this whole six month situation, why are people doing this? This is like, great, I'm getting at rate already. can you see my face? I'm like, my heart's like going, whoa. Can somebody stop with this six month nonsense?

I know because by putting it into the six month box already, you are already thinking that it's, am I gonna keep it? Am I not gonna keep it? And so what you need to do is spend some time at that, that time that you're thinking about putting it in the six month box. I'm really evaluating at that moment and, and looking at what is it that's causing me a struggle?

What barrier am I facing, all those kind of things. It's a recipe for disaster to put something away in a loft with it and some kind of arbitrary date on it. Who said six months? Who said a year? Who said three months, a month, whatever that might be. Why should we be decluttering based on date? We need to be decluttering based on what we feel inside.

We need to delve a little bit deeper. We need to not just look at things on a superficial level, but go a little bit deeper to try and understand what's going on inside. And the problem is, of course, if it's in that box, in the loft, in the basement, wherever you decide to put that box with the date on it, it's out of sight.

So how can you ever evaluate as you're going along, whether or not you're gonna need that? 'cause you don't have an opportunity to use it becausecause, it's. Out of sight, out of mind in a box. And so honestly, this whole six month box thing really bothers me as a professional organizer. Yeah. Yeah. You've got loads of professional organizers in the audience.

I can see them all like Yeah, I know. With the box and everything, isn't it just like the worst advice ever, but anyway. Yes. But yes, so that is definitely a myth. It just delays those decisions, like your guilt pilot. Arbitrary dates just do not work. All they do is hide the problem. And it's still there waiting for you when you open that box.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Because if it's out of like, let's, you said out of sight, out of mind, you completely forget about it and then you're going to open that box, right? You're not going to just, I've, I've had friends of mine, well, Ingrid, we moved house. Eight years ago, and there's still boxes in my garage that I haven't opened.

And I think I'm just gonna one day just drive to the tip to the recycling center and I just went, oh, oh, you can't do that 'cause you don't remember what's in there. We are going to, because we are going to feel guilty because we're gonna forget what we put in that box. Right. And we're going to feel guilty and we're gonna be worrying about it.

And then you're gonna have this, it's gone. I dunno where it's what? I'm, it was in that box, remember that we threw out and then you never know. Open those boxes, put the stuff in where you're currently will look for it. And then when you see it, you can go, actually, I actually have not used that. And then at some point you can go ride.

Is it time to let it go? Is it time for me to keep it? Both. I needed. And then you can just feel much calmer about those decisions. I think being in control of decluttering is all about feeling calm and in control about you taking the right decisions for you, for your life, for your situation. So yeah. My brain's not working well with this life situation because I know I should be listening to you, so I know what I'm gonna say next, but I'm looking around now.

I know that's Angela, that's Trisha. I know. Looking at everybody. I know. I know. Yeah. So, yeah. I know. I'm like, everybody I know, it's like everything's going on. It's nice. Wouldn't it be nice if we're in front line every, normally we have to see you all the time and I know how you look like, so I can do loads of things same time.

I just saying I have a little bit more interesting than you. Yeah, I know. Sit for a while. But anyway. 380 episodes later. But that's good to know. You are a lovely, I know. It's very distracting. Very distracting. But anyway, we shall go on to myth number four. This is another decluttering myth and, and one that we really want to talk about because.

Start the room that's bothering you the most. So our minds take us, when we think about decluttering, we're like, do you know what? This is my time. I'm gonna start decluttering my house. We automatically go to the worst place, whether that's a room of doom, a dumping ground in the spare bedroom, our sentimental items that have been bothering us, our digital, it might be, all of the things.

We think about those things first because that's the thing that we worry about, right? So our minds are taken us to the things that we're like, we've, we've been stalled. 'cause we, we don't like the idea of decluttering. We think about the difficult things. That's where our mind takes us. That's where we think we need to start first.

It might be difficult emotionally, so we might be a difficult room, like sentimental, like photographs, all of those kind of things. We like the idea of it. But it's very, very difficult. Or it might be difficult logistically 'cause it's kind of like a room of doom and we've all got one of those, or had, we haven't actually got one.

we haven't actually got a room of doom. 'cause that wouldn't be good as a professional organizer, would it? But, we know lots of people who do. Yeah. We know lots of people who do. Yeah. So, um, so yeah, we think about that room of doom and we, we wanna go there, but now is not the time to do your room of doom because you need to build up that decluttering muscle.

You need to start in the rooms where the decisions are gonna be way easier. You know, we are in our Declutter Hub membership. We have a roadmap and we, we advise people to start with the kitchen and people are like, oh, but the kitchen's got loads of stuff in it, you know? And we're like, but the different, the, reason why we ask people to start in the kitchen is because most of the decisions in the kitchen lean more towards practical decisions, things about dates on things.

Are you using it? Do you need 10 wooden spoons? Rather than later on once we start to get to things like clothes and books and sentimental. We've got to delve, we've got to dig deeper for those, for that emotional connection to stuff. So start in the kitchen. And the other nice thing about a kitchen is that we can break it down.

We can go cupboard by cupboard, right? We can do all our pots, all our pans, all our glasses, all our, so we can break it down into that, you know, into that, into much smaller chunks, which makes things easier while we're building our decluttering muscle. So don't be tempted to start in the most difficult rooms first, even though you want to do it because it's what's bothering you.

Give yourself some time to, to kind of lead up to that. Really, really important Isn't England? Yeah. We talked about that decluttering muscle earlier, didn't we? And this is exactly when that's really important. It's like, going, right, I'm going to go on a, I wanna run a marathon, right? You need to start small.

You're gonna go right. Let me get off the sofa first and walk around my house and then let me walk around the block and then let me walk around half an hour and then I'm gonna try and jog. A little bit, and then I'm gonna go, Ooh, okay. Wow, this is like amazing, right? So you build it up over time. Exactly the same with that decluttering muscle.

You're starting in easier rooms. You work your way up to more difficult rooms or categories of stuff. That's the reason why in our roadmap, in our membership, we follow that plan. That's why in our book, we follow that plan. Now, if you are thinking, but Ingrid, seriously, I'm going to be a chef. That is my aim in life.

Okay. You might wanna start in the bathroom, because the kitchen is gonna be a harder room for you. But for most people that we know in our communities, in our membership, in podcast listeners, we know that kitchens are easy rooms to start. I start a lot with clients in kitchens because it's just, you see a big difference.

It's a room that gets used a lot, so you immediately see that space appear, right? That's so important. So build up your decluttering muscle. Leave the overwhelming rooms till later. And also, and we haven't mentioned this yet, when you have a very full room, it probably has stuff that needs to go to other rooms, but it can go there because your cupboards are.

So you first need to make space in your kitchen, in your bathroom, in your bedroom, in your wardrobes, in your living room, and then you can go, right, I'm seeing some space appear. Now I can take the stuff from that full room, and now I've got space to kind of go, right, what is this? And actually, oh yeah, this is this new pan set that I bought a year and a half ago.

What I got for Christmas or whatever it is. Now I can actually take it all out, have a look at it. I now know where all my pans are in my kitchen. Just random example, right pan are in my kitchen and now I can go, now I can take those out. Ooh, that's that really nice griddle pan that I absolutely wanna keep.

But this is now the replacement. But if you start in that room of do more in that very full room, you find that box with a new pen set, you're gonna go, it can't go anywhere. I'm gonna put it back. So you just. Shoveling, you know, you're just churning stuff from one place to the other and nothing ever leaves.

And now that's another term for you churning. We use it all the time. Right. Moving stuff from one place to the other. You look like you're gonna take up I'm that chair. I know. I just, I'm so excited. I can't, I'm like, I can't sit back. I'm like, chills, chills my back. I'm like, anyway. So that's, that's our, and there are many, trust me, there are many, many decluttering myths out there.

Yeah. So that's just four. We, could talk 20, 25, but we just wanna end with, um, well say end. We're here for a little while. Yeah. So, uh, we wanna move on to Organising myths. A couple of myths that are not great when you are Organising your home.

First Organising myth is buying storage is the answer to your decluttering problems. I suddenly see the whole, room go, woo. Yeah, I know, exactly. Storage is a tricky one because we want it, you know, we talked before about we want the 10 minutes a day as well that we so want.

The end result that we want to kind of forward project and get there much quicker. We want to get to the pretty boxes. We want to get to everything being concealed in boxes, but now is not the time. You know, we're talking about having a lot of work to do in different rooms in your home. We've got a lot of work before we get to the stage of Organise, of, of, of buying storage boxes.

So don't be tempted to run out to Ikea straight away to buy the boxes unless you absolutely know what the end result is going to be. We are, we are, hopefully when we go on a decluttering journey, gonna let go of of a lot of stuff. We're gonna reconnect with stuff. We're gonna work out, we're gonna gather like with like, we're gonna understand a little bit more about what we need to store and what the best type of storage is going to be.

So we need to do all that work before we buy the storage, don't we? I know. So tempting, right? So tempting and it's a question we get a lot, right? Ingrid, Lesley, what do I need to buy to get organized? And we are like, please don't buy anything. Stop buying stuff. We need to focus on that decluttering. Yes.

Trust us. You are allowed to buy storage at some point, but not yet. Because we first need to declutter the surplus stuff we don't need. Then we need to decide which place is this item going to live in my house? Where is the place? A place for everything? Everything in its place and that kind of thing. And then we're gonna go, okay, now it lives in this place.

I need a box. Because it's normally smaller items that kind of need to live together in with the friends, right? So then you're gonna go, you know what, I'm just going to temporarily use a box. Have I got an empty shoe box that I can use? Have I got, a bag with boxes somewhere? Or a cupboard with boxes?

Because we know you have them, right? You all have empty boxes in your house. We know this. I was at a client on Thursday. She had them too, so I know you. They exist. So use those first, those boxes. It can be an empty Amazon box. It doesn't matter. But then once you start to go, right, this room is going to getting there now.

Now I'm gonna look at, okay, it would now be nice to get some storage and then you know what kind of storage you need, right? Do I need. Bigger boxes. Do I need smaller boxes? Do I like plastic boxes? Do I like white, ones with a lid? Without a lid? Do I like wicker? Do I like fabric? Then you can think about that, but we see it all the time that people go out, they want to get organized, and the first thing they do is buy storage.

They buy the wrong thing, the wrong size, the wrong shape, whatever it is. They buy stuff with a lid when it shouldn't have a lid, or they buy something without a lid, when it should have a lid, and all of those things. And you find that out later, that is a later step in the cycle of success that we use in our membership.

Storage comes later. It's really important. So don't be tempted and, uh, trust me, I know that IKEA is not far from here. I love it. I love it so much. I have lots of Ikea. If, I call out Ikea, half my house is gone, but don't be tempted. Wait and go. Hold on. Ingrid. Lesley told me I cannot buy storage just yet.

Ooh, that sounds much nicer, doesn't it, Lesley? I, I can't believe you said Wicker. So Ingrid's got this weird relationship with Wicker. For some reason she just can't bear wicker baskets. I. What's the problem with a wicker basket? Anybody? With me? I am like, it's not offensive. It's like, fine. So she'd be like, oh, you might want wicker.

I was like, oh, we've, we got, we're being positive about Wicker for a change. I don't know about, it's slipped out. I don't like wicker baskets. Like it's, it's, isn't it everybody with me? Like, what's wrong with wicker? I'm like, nice. Anyway, so I was waiting to, I've waited patiently. Yeah. Yeah. Until he finished the talk.

I know what you had to pick you up on the wicker. So we're gonna end with a blinder, I think. 'cause this is another one. It's a little bit like the put things in a box for six months. And a lot of people, there are a lot of people here. We want to make sure that we, we, um, what's the word I'm looking for? I know, acknowledge, I acknowledge this.

We know a lot of people at home life and you are super organized. They've got beautiful homes. You love cleaning, you love Organising. This is something that makes you tick. And so we want to say some of these things might work for you. What the, the kind of ideas that we have, as we said right at the beginning of the, um, podcast where that we work typically with people who are a little bit more overwhelmed with clutter.

That's not exclusive. We can work with all different types of people, so some of the things that we've talked about today will absolutely work for you, but some of them will not. And this is one that we. We see some of our mo more overwhelmed pe the more overwhelmed people in our community using this strategy that is, um, out there on the internet, socials, whatever, which is this idea that you turn all the hangers around in your wardrobe so you then know six months later what you've worn.

And we're like, that's complex. So for people who are potentially then struggling to get the clothes back in the wardrobe, 'cause your wardrobe is so full perhaps, or, you know, those kind of things, it's like it's adding another layer of, kind of complexity into something where we just want you to take that item of your wardrobe and make a decision about it based on, you know, we give loads of like.

Emotions. Like we get people to work through different things that you might think about. We're giving people pointers about what it is that might, might keep you stuck. You've gotta delve deep. You know, it's, this is not a kind of a superficial decision. We need to go deeper on, particularly on clothing.

What is it? What is it? Is it gaping? Is it, does it not make me feel good? All of those kind of things. And I think this idea of turning a hanger around and then looking at all the hangers that are in reverse come. I'm not buying it. Not buying it, no. You know what? I think I consider myself quite an organized person.

I think, if I'm honest, I, could never do this whole six, six month hanger hanger situation. I just don't see that. And I see one of my fellow professional organizers who's also very organized, nod, and she's agreeing with me. It's just, you know, how do you, then I would go, oh my gosh, did I ha, did I turn it around?

Did I not turn it around? How long was six months ago? The time goes so fast. Now I need to put a reminder in my calendar to remind me what the six months, I'm like, oh my word. This is like, this is not work for me at all. I know there are, like Lesley said, super organized. People who are like hanger trick.

Best thing I've ever did in my life. Good. Great. Good for you. But I'm like with the, people that we know in our, communities that listen to our podcast, we know that this hangar trick is, is, very hacky, right? It's, it's just, it's, for people who struggle with volume and with overwhelm and, this organization and just super busy lives.

When you get dressed in the morning, are you gonna think. Oh, I'm taking this, I'm gonna turn the hanger around. When there's like three people who need to go to school, you have to rush to get the bus drive to work. The coffee is, you know, I, I, I'm, getting tired just thinking about it, you know what I mean?

I just don't see it happening. So that's why we really wanted to think. Sounds so good. Sounds so good. Right on the socials, just turn your hanger around. Think these things through. Will it really work for you? When you go through and your clutter is a lot more manageable, there's a lot less stuff in your house, then it's something you could at some point possibly consider.

I've not been there yet and I've been pretty organized for about 50 years of my life, but if it works, it works. Hey, I think really the point of that is to take it sort of back a level is really about being aware of where you are in your decluttering journey and what types of things are gonna work for you.

So if you've been stuck doing the same thing over and over, one of our favorite phrase phrases is, if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. And so we think maybe it's time to do something different. Maybe it's time to not work on a superficial level at you're decluttering, but to really dig deep into go deeper on that emotional connection to clutter emotions.

First stuff. Second is what we're all about. And so once you delve into that self-awareness, once you start being kind to yourself to understand. That this is not an easy thing for a lot of people. Not everybody is good at decluttering and Organising their home, and this is something that needs to be learned by building up your decluttering muscle.

So once you realize that you need to use different strategies, then perhaps some of the more common ones that are out there on the internet, then you're a long way towards achieving your goals. So English. Yeah, I know. Look at us and we're kind of on time as well, which is like, like a miracle. I know. We like amazing because we're like longwinded the most long wind people we talk like all the time.

I mean, we actually, I, uh, ages ago I challenged Lesley that we need to do like a 24 hour marathon. On the podcast or something because I actually think we, we could do it. You know what I mean? 'cause we love talking, which is kind of fortunate since we're here on stage. But we actually of course had to keep time.

what we're going to do, so let me just kind of tell you what the plan is here so you know what's happening. So we are gonna now take some questions from the audience. Maybe you wanna challenge one of our MITs, and you're like, but Lesley, I can't believe that you put that in. Or maybe you've got another question we'd like to ask.

After this, um, we are going to be going to, it's called the Book Nook. It's straight over here because as you might have known, we have written, we have, we wrote a book, we have written a book, uh, called Reset Your Home. It's all about resets and how you can get with, on, with your decluttering, Organising, your home, unpacking those emotions and that collateral step by step.

And we're going to be in the book? No. Uh, if you'd like to have a copy and you wanna have it signed, you can get it there and, uh, we'll be there right after this talk. and if you already have the book and you want to like Trisha here, yeah. And if you wanna have the book signed, please come along. And we're also, are meeting up in the community hub this afternoon at three.

So if you're like, I want to talk to you, Ingrid and Lesley about these things. Come at three o'clock to the community hub. We're doing a little, just get together for everybody who wants to come along. We've got cake. Welcome. We've got cake. We've got little cakes. Yeah. So, if you are like, ooh, a fancy little cake, a fancy saying hello to Ingrid and Lesley, come along at three.

So let's see where that roving mic is. because there should be a roving mic. I think it comes the roving mic. Yeah. Let's see. Oh, we got a thumbs up. Yep. It's coming. So. I dunno if anybody's got a question for us, Lesley say would just stand up a little bit. I'm getting a bit like, Ooh, Ingrid says we've gotta stand up.

So we stumbled it up. I'm gonna have to sit down for too long. Has anybody got a question? Yeah, please don't be shy. Honestly. Any, any question, right? We're going here first and then I see the lady over there. So I love your advice about don't delay the decision. You know, don't, don't distract yourself by putting it in a box or on a shelf.

Just, make the decision now. How, what's your advice though about managing energy? 'cause that's pretty daunting, is like, oh my God, I'm gonna have to make this number of decisions about this number of things right now. How, how do you manage that energy? I think it's really important. You know, we talk a lot about self-awareness and that's something that we encourage people to do right at the start of their journey, is to really think about.

All of the things. Are you a morning person? Are you an afternoon person? Have you felt burnt out before when you've gone hell for leather? Most people are like decluttering this weekend. Eight hours straight, two days, I'm done doing my whole house. Break it down. Really, really important. So we need to have that awareness and so really we need to start from the bottom and go, right.

I'm gonna do an hour say, and then if I feel good, I'm gonna do another half an hour say, and then build it up. Work out when your emotion is, uh, when your, sorry, when your energy is lacking from a, practical, physical perspective or when you've got decision fatigue. Because what we do know, and there are loads of professional organizers here in the audience, and I hope that, I'm sure that most of, we never really do more than two sessions a week with a client.

We rarely do. Most professional organizers are doing. Three to five hours. I'm not saying we never do more than that because we do sometimes in different circumstances, but we know as professional organizers that our clients are tiring after that time because it's so emotionally and physically demanding.

So do what we do as professional organizers. It's much easier as well when you've got somebody working alongside you because there's that empowerment piece and it's more fun and all that when you're on, when you're on your own. It's hard. Couple of hours like Max really, and then build it up. There are gonna be occasions where you need to do more like a, a garage declutter.

You gotta kind of go for it. You can't do it in like a a half an hour or whatever. Yeah. But really it's about building it up and being self-aware. Yeah. Can I add to that as well? So in our membership we've got something called success session. We do them four times a week on different days of the week and different times of the day, and we set a countdown timer for 50 minutes, five, zero, and we work together.

So we all come together in a zoom room and I just put the countdown timer on. And just to seeing that clock ticking away and other people doing something in their own homes as well is really, really helpful. We've got countdown time for 15 and 30 minutes that people can use themselves, but we realize that a lot of people.

And like let you said, they clear their whole Saturday and go, I'm diving in. And then after, after an hour and a half, you're like, oh my gosh, what was I thinking? This is not a good idea. and you are exhausted also, probably because you are not rested enough. You started at the wrong day. You may be a bit dehydrated.

You haven't had an, you haven't had a proper breakfast because you're like, I'm getting on today, and you kind of dive in. So it's really important to kind of put some things in place to really kind of Okay. Not all has to be done today. This clutter has not happened overnight. This is not something from the last two weeks, right?

You need it's build up over time. You're gonna need time to slowly but surely. This is not quick, fix. I know there's another question. So to the lady over there and Yes. Yeah, go for it. ca Microphone is coming. I couldn't see the hand. Hi. Um, mine's also a question to do with the six month box.

Yeah. Um, so if I was to be helping a client declutter a wardrobe and they are really indecisive about a certain item, and we haven't got the capacity to evaluate every single item, would you always say, keep it in place, or would you ever suggest. Having a small pile just to put to one side just for a short time.

I, I agree with you about the six month box, but would you ever have a little pile there? We'll just think about that later, or if they're not sure or I'm not sure when I'm doing my own. If you're not sure, leave it. Leave it there. We are big advocates actually 'cause obviously in our membership we work with people, we help people to declutter in their own homes rather than, working one-to-one with people.

So I think we are very much, if you can't, if. If you feel that you're stumbling over the decision, keep it and, and look at it in a phase two. So we're very, you know, decluttering is not gonna be done in one phase. there are very few people that can go, okay, decluttered to not, sorry, cluttered to not cluttered.

It takes several phases and by building up that decluttering muscle, and then once you've gone around the whole house, then you start to revisit areas because you feel stronger in that decision making. So I, I mean, I, I would be like, let's. You're a professional organizer, right? Is that what you hoping to be?

Oh, hoping to be, right. Um, well come and talk to us a little bit later about it as well, but you come and meet us and we can touch a little bit more. But I would definitely be like if now's not the time, right? 'cause you, what you don't want is you don't want anybody being nervous about the decisions that they've made and then having regrets.

Because as soon as you start getting regrets from a client or yourself, if you're doing it yourself. Then that's when you feel out of control. So it's all about feeling control of every decision that you're making has to be made for the right reasons. There are obviously situations where we have to come out of our comfort zone a little bit more, so we've got very full volumes.

It's about managing that expectation between what the reality looks like and how much stuff you've got. So it's. It's more complex. Enough to be shocked, to be fair, but uh, yeah. Yeah. I would love to add something to that as well. That might be very helpful for everybody. If you're going through your clothes, don't think, what am I going to get rid of?

Think about what would I like to keep Now that sounds crazy and it is the same thing, but it's a positive way of looking at it. So instead of going, I need to get rid of stuff, which is like, oh, hold on a minute. I'm going to turn it around and go, what are the items that I really like? What do I love wearing?

What makes me feel good? What's my favorite color? I love that dress. These trousers look great on me. Get those items out first. Hang them in your wardrobe however you want. And then go, right, what have I got left? And then you're gonna go, oh my gosh, there's that, that jeans that I bought and I knew it. I didn't like it at all.

Oh, that's an easy one. I'm gonna let that, I'm gonna declutter that one and then you're gonna go through it you can go category by category, right? I'm gonna look at all my t-shirts now, and then I'm gonna look at all my trousers and first pick out the ones you want to keep. You will along the way, find stuff.

There's like, oh, there's no brainer that can go, and then you've got that, I'm not sure about this pile. You've got, a couple, probably a couple of those, and then you're gonna go, right. Okay. Do I need to try them on to see what, how I feel about it? Do I need to maybe wear them for a day or, Ooh, tricky situation.

Back in the wardrobe. You're just not sure yet about this item. You're going to keep that one. Because Yes, Lesley kind of said in between. I know you're in full flow. Okay. We've gotta wrap up. Oh. So you get the gist of what she's saying. Right. We wanna finish our podcast and say thank you so much to everybody for being here in our live audience.

It's been really, it's so exciting for us to see you all. I know I've been distracted, so thank you so much. We wanna definitely take, I wanna take one of those pitch night people do on like concerts and stuff with their audience behind. So we definitely need to do that before we go. Yeah. Lucy, can you come up with the phone please?

Um, hello. So yeah, so before we go, thank you so much. We are Ingrid and Lesley, if you didn't know from the Declutter podcast, come and listen to our podcast, 380 episodes. We would love to have you in our communities, in our Facebook group, in our membership, and thank you so much for being such a wonderful, wonderful audience today.

Thank you so much everybody. Amazing.