A photograph is a woman in a kitchen wearing a pink top smiling into camera, guest Cher Casey
Episode 325 – Why decluttering is the ultimate self care with Cher Casey

We are delighted to welcome the inspirational Cher Casey to the podcast. As a Californian native who is now based in York here in England, Cher has the benefit of having experienced being a Professional Organiser at first hand in both the US and UK. Her holistic approach goes beyond tidying up; she focuses on enhancing physical, emotional, and mental well-being by creating spaces that promote peace and balance. In today’s podcast we are going to chat to Cher about why she believes decluttering is the ultimate in self care.
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Transcript of this podcast episode
00:00
We are so delighted to welcome the inspirational Cher Casey to the podcast as a Californian native who is now based in York, here in England, Cher has the benefit of having experience being a professional organizer at first hand in both the US and the UK. Her holistic approach goes beyond tidying up. She focuses on enhancing physical, emotional and mental well being by creating spaces that promote peace and balance. In today's podcast, we're going to chat to share about why she believes decluttering is the ultimate in self care.

00:39
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's your host. Lesley Spellman,

01:02
hello and welcome listeners. I'm Lesley. We're delighted you're here to join us as part of your decluttering journey. So whether you're brand new today or have been listening for ages, we want to say thank you so much for being here. It means so much to Ingrid and I that you turn up every week to listen to and support us while we talk all things decluttering and organizing. We'd love to help more people with their quest for a clutter free home. And our podcast is a fantastic way for people to be inspired to take action. We have a favor to ask. If you like what you hear, be sure to hit the follow, subscribe or like button on your podcast player. Share us with your friends, or share your thoughts on the podcast by leaving a review. Well, hello, Cher. How are you welcome to the declutter hub podcast?

01:46
Very well. Pleasure to be here.

01:47
Well, I said just before we came on, we're both, if you're on YouTube, you'll see us. Well, you'll also see the weird sun that's doing weird things on my window. But we're both in pink today, so we're, we're doing it, doing it for the pink, aren't we share? So I'm so excited to invite you, because you've been in our world for quite a while, and you've got so many fab things to share. But let's go right back to the beginning. You are from the US, from California, but you now live here in the UK, and you have experience professional organizing, decluttering, organizing, whatever, both in the US and the UK. And I want to explore that a little bit. So tell me about what brought you to the UK and why you kind of strangely left California.

02:30
I get this question a lot though I have an academic background, so I came to the UK to pursue my graduate studies in History of Art, medieval art, specifically. So I was completely charmed by York and all of its historic treasures here. And so I left to, yeah, pursue my graduate studies, start with my masters, and then continue with my PhD here in York.

02:52
So you are married, share is that to an American or a Brit? Actually

02:56
Irish? All right. Okay, real he's been included. Just add

03:01
a third country into the mix just to make it even more complicated. Yeah, yeah. All right. Okay, cool. And did you meet in California? Did you meet here in York? How did that work? We

03:10
met in York. So it was at the end of my graduate studies, and we met in the city center, in a bar. And yeah, that was kind of one of the main reasons I wanted to stay in addition to stumbling upon a really interesting academic topic that I wanted to pursue and to PhD level. So it's a combination fantastic.

03:31
So before we talk about your life here, sort of post academia, let's call it that. Let's talk about what you did in California so you had experienced decluttering and organizing. And organizing, and am I right in thinking you had been a professional organizer over in

03:45
California? Yes, it was. So it was between 2010 and 2012 so right before I came to the UK, and it wasn't I did use the term professional organizer, but I didn't have an official business. It was kind of alongside childcare. I kind of was struggling lots of different jobs, partially working and teaching at the university, and then also taking care of children. And it kind of snowballed from there. Kind of started with working with the families that I, you know, helping the families that I worked with, tidy, kind of their pantries, or streamline the toys and things like that. And then they would refer me on to their friends who may or may not have had children, and it kind of started from there. So

04:22
fantastic. So fast forward, you come to York, you you follow your dreams and your passion, and you write a thesis about what tell us it's

04:35
the the short version is, I worked with medieval relics, so skulls from Cologne, Germany. So we're looking at like 11 to 1300 and investigating their decoration and their textiles and their displays in Cologne, and then they were kind of sent out in great numbers across Europe. So I got to do some really cool case studies in Belgium and Poland, as well as areas in Germany, even

04:58
more countries, right? Even more countries thrown into the mixture. Yeah, it was

05:02
basically medieval clutter, which is hilarious,

05:08
fantastic, so, but it came at a price, right? So your thesis, your studies, all of that that you did back in what year are we talking now that you did this,

05:18
I finished two and a half years ago, two and a half years ago? Yeah, yeah. I mean, people that have ever gone through to PhD level, people have witnessed and been part of someone's life. It's a really all consuming process, and everything for me, kind of came to a head the last, like, year and a half was my ride up year. You have to kind of like shuffle in, getting married, taking honeymoon. We also had a baby in the process. So I had a mat leave in there as well. So I came back from my mat leave after a year and, yeah, just started trying to finish everything up and tie loose ends together, going back over a research that had happened from several years ago, case studies and things like that. So kind of pulling all of the essential pieces together, and at the same time trying to be a really present mom and battling massive sleep deprivation, just exhaustion on all on all ends. So it was, I wouldn't change it, but it was a really, really exhausting period of my life. Everyone says, you know, being a mom is the toughest job in the world. And if you talk to academics, I say, you know, finishing your thesis and completing that is the toughest thing. But somehow in my life it overlapped. So yeah, it was also in a very, exhausted human.

06:43
And so, you know, you do, you think you got to a stage where, you know, you sort of suggested it's a lot. Did you actually get to a kind of burnout stage?

06:54
Yeah, because of the deadlines, you're not really permitted to have burnout. I mean, people do, but I had used up all of my kind of leave time with, you know, mat leave, and then getting married and all those types of things. So I didn't have any way to kind of push my deadlines forward. So it was kind of one after the other. And in the home, it kind of looked like my husband took over tons of stuff that I would normally be doing. A lot of pressure was kind of put on him for, like, childcare and house stuff and things, and as a result, I wasn't able to kind of action the things that I would normally be on top of in the house, which it never got to kind of a critical stage. But it didn't feel good for me. So, yeah, it was, it was tough, yeah,

07:41
so talk us through what you did, and your first sort of foray into trying to resolve those issues that you had, in terms of the exhaustion and the complete overwhelm by the sounds of things, what did you do?

07:53
It happened at a really good time. I submitted in October, and I didn't take any kind of I didn't look at anything academic. I really took a proper break until the beginning of the year. And at that stage I, you know, it was great time for New Year's resolutions. I'm a big, you know, advocate of setting goals and reflecting on your year. And I just kind of got this vision that I would just, I want my life to be more organized, my home, my, you know, my well being, everything just needed a little bit of TLC, so I just typed something in, you know, Google organized, you know, my life type thing, and the declutter hub popped up. So it's kind of started with that, but over the process of the year, it kind of snowballed into not just the physical things, but myself as well. And for me, this is kind of looking at kind of self care, but it it really took the angle of, right, I need to get control of my space so for me to feel better. I don't know if that makes sense, but like, having kind of control or kind of reclaiming spaces was my way of kind of crawling back out of this, like extreme exhaustion and overwhelm. And I'm quite not a busy person, but I like to be feeling like I'm productive a lot of the time. So it was a perfect combination of being productive, but also in a really, really loving way to myself that was impacting my space and also making me feel really good. So, and I don't think that there are many things in life I can do that. So,

09:26
yeah, absolutely. I think one of the reasons why we wanted to chat to you today, Shay, was because I think it's fair to say in the declutter, we talk a lot about overwhelm. We talk a lot about bigger volumes. We talk a lot about the emotional kind of association connection with clutter. And you know, sometimes we we don't talk as much about people who kind of feel overwhelmed by the amounts that they've got, but perhaps other people would look at those amounts and those volumes and go, that's not really a problem. Your house looks fine. And so it's. About this, this idea of different levels of tolerance. And so say, for example, in Ingrid, I have in Ingrid, and I have spoken about it, about ourselves, you know, so we can have small amounts of clutter and it still feels overwhelming. And so I want to explore that a little bit more with you, because I have a sneaky suspicion, because of your, your sort of background, when you sort of started to kind of work a little bit in organizing in the States, before you came over here, that you didn't have a completely overwhelmed fall to the brim, chock a block with clutter, that actually your volumes, compared to a lot of people who are in this world, were probably a little bit on the low side, but nevertheless, you still felt that complete overwhelm. So let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah.

10:40
Yeah, absolutely. I think that the amounts of clutter and the way it impacts people is completely personal, and it's all relative to your space, but it depends 100% on on how you interact in your space. If you're not happy in it, regardless of how full or empty it is it, if it's impacting you, then the clutter is bothering you, and it's, it's impacting your life in negative ways. So I never had enormous amounts of clutter, but for me, like, when I was finishing up my thesis, you know, just kind of like, look around the house and be like, Oh, I'll get to that when I'm finished. I'll get to that when I'm finished. Oh, that's really big, you know. And from the outside, it wouldn't have looked like a lot of stuff, but it was really bothering me and triggering me. And I was working at home, and kind of like seeing these things that were triggering me on a daily basis and not being able to action them, and that build up of not having the time to be able to do it was really, really, really a struggle for me, and

11:40
it's really about that lack of control by the sounds of things, you know, having to sort of hand off things to your husband that you ordinarily would have wanted to do yourself, and things like that. You know, there's big transitions in there, there's marriage, there's the end of your academic journey, perhaps, maybe not the end, but the kind of the end of that part of it. And, of course, having the child as well. Those are huge transitions, which bring with them, naturally, a lot of stuff and changes in the house. And so what you did before doesn't necessarily lend itself to going forward. So how did you do that? How did you go about the that decluttering process tell us about, like what it looked like before and what it kind of looked like looks like now?

12:17
Yeah, so we, we moved house, and we brought a lot of the stuff that we weren't using with us, because we didn't, I didn't have the capacity to kind of declutter before we arrived here, and so there was kind of a build up of things. A lot of it had to do with my daughter, things that she had kind of outgrown, clothes, toys and just kid kit, baby kit, comes with having a child. So that had kind of accumulated when I first started the program, it was a structured program. I think the first day was the kitchen, second day was bathroom, third day was like the wardrobe. So it was, yeah, it was structured. But with each one of them, I think because I already had that kind of past history of decluttering for other people, it is something that I have kept in my life. But when I went at it, it was like, right, we're gonna do the mugs, but I just did the whole kitchen. I was really, really lucky, though, because I had the kind of the privilege of having time. So all of a sudden I didn't have a thesis I was writing. My child was in my girl was in childcare three days a week, and I had these days where it was like, yes, like, let's just, let's do this. So I just dove in head first, and it things really radically started changing. And I was, I'm really, really ruthless. It's like, this. I'm not using this go. There is obviously some sentimental stuff that I have, and that's still important. But, I mean, there's also a caveat that I I came here someone who's not from the UK, so I still have some stuff back home with my parents at my dad's house, so that I have not touched those things. And I'm lucky I don't have that. And also, my husband has moved here to the UK, so his parents have a lot of his stuff from when he was a child. So I can touch those things. So this is, like my adult life of 12 years living here, which is still amazingly accumulated a ton of stuff. Yeah,

14:07
exactly. So the stuff that's back home is probably mostly sentimental stuff. I would imagine, you know, something in that can come over when it comes over. And so I think, just to clarify, I think what share is talking about is that she joined us in the reset your home challenge was that a couple of years ago, share, January

14:23
2023 Yeah. So a year, yeah, last year, last

14:27
January, yeah. And I think, I think you're right, really sure so for a lot of people, and obviously we've got an upcoming reset your home challenge in January. So do sign up if you've not done already, because what that allows you to do, it gives you that structure, and by working alongside other people, and just have people coaching you through things and things like that. It really does give you that kick start that you need in your decluttering journey. So check out the reset your Home Challenge, which is where share got started. So you just went for it. Basically, you had time on your hands, which is absolutely fantastic. You felt you were ruthless. You felt you had. This background of understanding things a little bit in terms of organization storage, from your time in the stays. I'm really interested in talking to you. Your Business show is called the mindful organizer. So I'd like to talk a little bit about the mindfulness aspect. Why do you think that decluttering and mindfulness are intrinsically linked? Yeah,

15:20
I really love this question, because it took me time to come up with the name of my business, and I was toying around with a lot of different words and combinations. And when I came across the mindful organizer, I loved it, because, yeah, there for me decluttering. And I know that this is a huge part of the declutter hub, but the decluttering is really not so much about the stuff and the things that accumulate. It's not about the physical items. It's about the emotions and habits, life, circumstances, what, what's going on your house, and the clutter is a manifestation of those things, and usually it's a couple of those things overlapping, and this is what I've seen a lot in my work. So taking a mindful approach is not just about right. I want this desk clear. Let's put everything in the bin. It's really taking the time to think about the items and with the objective of, you know, analyzing like, does this fit in my life? Does it serve a purpose? Why am I holding on to it? So looking at things, not just from the surface level of I want space, not that can be a really effective tool, but how do I want to use this space? What do these objects mean to me? And in a lot of ways, is kind of curating your space to reflect you and your lifestyle now. And I see a lot of this with my clients, where it's they have these thoughts and hopes and dreams about what they will be doing, and a lot of the stuff in their homes reflect that. And it's taking that pause, that moment, to just be like, Okay, I have this item. I'll use the example of a bread maker, because that was something that I had held on to for so long, because the thought of making homemade bread was so appealing, and I did it for a long time, but then I had a baby. It just wasn't something that was high on my list, but it took a while. I didn't let go at my first pass. I knew that it was something I didn't use, but I wanted time to kind of think about it, and once I let it go, it actually felt great knowing that it was going to be used again, and I have not regretted it at all. So, yeah, the mindfulness is really about taking the time and digging deeper into the reasons about why you have these things and what they how they serve you or don't to serve you,

17:34
what I find really interesting share and you know, because everything is related somehow to what you're doing. And I think the fact that you come from an academic background, and there's a couple of words that you've used there, so you've talked about evaluation, you've talked about curation, and I wonder whether you feel that your kind of academic life, particularly with it being about artifacts. I'm sorry, I'm not very good with those kind of I'm just going to call them artifacts, you know, I think, do you think that's been relevant to the way that you think about decluttering and organizing?

18:06
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I wrestled with this, and we may or may not touch on this, but pivoting from academia into professional organizing, but and because of it, I've just kind of thought of the different ways that kind of academic stuff overlaps with decluttering and organizing, and a lot of it has to do with the importance of items. And the things that I studied previously were these really sacred, like the most important things, priceless objects that the celebrated in in a society and put in amazing spaces that were going to be visible. And that plays into creating spaces and curating spaces, because, yeah, when you look at your space mindfully, and you pick out these pieces and things that are important to you and put them in pride of place where you can appreciate them, it is really each room becomes this kind of not an exhibition, but a curated, a mindfully thought out and designed space that, yeah, that's meant to make you feel a certain way. I love

19:09
that so much. It's that's, isn't it interesting how it's good to make that connection? Because I think a lot of people wouldn't get that connection from studying something that's that seems so separate, so different to what you're trying to do with a day to day, you know, modern home and something that's, you know, medieval. And so really, really interesting that you brought those two together and thought it's just the same. It's the same. Do you know what I mean? But it's different, but the same. So, so interesting. And of course, we are absolutely going to talk more about you pivoting your academic studies into your business after the break. So let's go for a short break, and we'll be back in a moment. So welcome back, and thank you so much for everything that you've shared with us. So Fauci, I'd really like to talk a little bit more about this, the similarities, the overlap, then, between your academic studies and your sort of foreign. Into decluttering, whether that be on a personal level, within your home, that then obviously moved into a business, which we're going to talk about in a moment. So where do you think the sort of similarities and overlap are?

20:11
Yeah, I think for me personally, once I finished my program, I kind of had this strange void in my life, and I kind of felt like I wanted to be active, but I could not, kind of face anything academic and returning to my thesis. So for me, actually decluttering my home kind of filled that space in my life where I could dedicate a lot of time and energy. And when I came across the declutter hub, I really just kind of dove into all of the different self study elements of it going through the systematic each room by room, and kind of projects by projects. So that's kind of how I got started, and I really kind of stuck with that. I think I've taken kind of a PhD approach to learning about decluttering and looking at different styles and different ways and methods of approaching decluttering and organizing. And

21:03
I think the one thing that's that's true to say about the declutter the declutter hub is that it's very in depth, I would say. So it's very detailed and so, and we make no apologies about that. So yes, our videos can be quite long, but we want to make sure that everything that Ingrid, and I know about something is in there, so that people can then pick what resonates with them. I think it's really important, because there are only going to be certain elements that resonate with certain people. So we kind of like to cover most eventualities, so that people go I get it now. I get it now, because I think superficial learning is not going to do it. And you know something, if you've been struggling in your home for years, if not decades, it's not a quick fix. It's something that you do need to, you know, look at as if it were an academic piece, and kind of learn and go back to basics, like you would if you were trying to do an A level or a GCSE. You know, you've had the basics, but you need to go, you need to revise. All of those kind of things come into play. So it's something that, you know, we don't we don't apologize for that we are. We we go into a lot of detail. And I think that's something that you probably enjoyed. And I would say, share that you probably enjoyed the self study elements of things in the roadmap. We have a roadmap which takes you all the way through your home. Is that fair to say that you probably poured over the detail in the road map. Yeah,

22:23
I loved it. And I mean, to be fair, in the very beginning, they said, You say that this is really detailed, but we really advocate that you do everything, kind of the beginning parts. This the kind of the theory side behind, you know, decluttering. And I would just kind of wanted to jump in, but I did. I stopped, and I, you know, did it in the way that you guys suggested. And I just, I learned so much, and not everything applied to me, but it's something that I've learned about and taken on board, and it has been so valuable as a professional organizer. Because even if it's something that I didn't encounter in my own home, I've definitely now seen it in the professional organizing world, and being able to help clients and talk about things from, you know, perspective that they will understand and validating it. Yes, this is normal to have this many of these things, and this might be why.

23:14
Yeah, so I think what's really interesting about shares journey is that so you you kind of dabbled in organizing in states. You then went down a completely different path with your with your academic studies, with starting a family, with getting married, with, you know, migrating over here. And so you went down a completely different path. Then you felt overwhelmed. You had gone through those transitions. So organizing your home look different to what it had looked like previously. You sought out help, followed a structured journey, learnt a lot, loved it, so much that you were then like, right, I'm going to start a business, didn't you? And so tell us about why you decided to actually go completely pivot from where you were in your academic studies and decide to start a professional organizing business. Yeah,

23:59
well, at the stage when I finished and I defended, and, you know, graduated and all that, it's been almost about included. My masters have been about 10 years I've been working on this one topic, and there's still lots to do on the topic, and it's completely relevant and really exciting. But I am one that really listens to, kind of my internal, you know, guidance system. And every time I'd go back to think about something that I'd worked on, or think about applying or research, you know, a post doc position or look into publishing my thesis, there was just this like physical resistance to doing it, and I didn't push myself. And I think it the idea of becoming a professional organizer was just really suggested by a friend. She said, why don't you just start your own business? You love doing this. I think also because throughout my journey, it was just experiencing the highs of decluttering and just loving my new space and, you know, letting go of stuff, Reclaiming my space, Reclaiming my own kind of sound. Nettie, feeling more grounded and all of that. And my friends and everyone around me was kind of on that journey with me. So when a friend suggested, I was kind of like, God, yeah, well, let me think about this. And after, I mean, it was really like a couple days of just thinking about it, it was like, yes, let's do this. Why not?

25:22
And I think so many people get to that stage where it's like, I would love to do this as a business. Do you know what I mean? You know, people think How nice would that be? And you know, you've listened to Ingrid and I for 320 odd podcast wax lyrical about how fab it is, because we do see it's life changing. It's it's a really positive place to work in. And, you know, it's hard sometimes, and it's not easy for everybody, but when you can make those changes, it's so life changing. So it's just fabulous. So the nice thing was, I guess, Chef, so you were in our world at that point. You were in our memberships. You were in our in our normal membership, you know. So you were learning how to declutter your home for yourself. And then you found out then that we had a program for professional organizers, right? And so that's when you jumped from one to the other, right?

26:07
Yeah, yeah. So I had kind of started the process of picking a name, registering my domain, kind of all that back end, beginning of a business, starting to design my website. And there's a lot of professional organizers in the state. So one of the podcasts I was listening to has a community of you know, to support professional organizers. And I thought that would be amazing, but because of the time change, I wouldn't ever really be able to be present on their calls, which happen once or twice a week. So I was like, I don't actually think it'd be worth my while, but I knew that I wanted a community and support in starting the business, because being an entrepreneur, but also being a professional organizer, there's not huge amount of you know of us in the world relative to other professions, so I knew that I wanted and I needed that kind of support as an entrepreneur, but also as a professional organizer. And it's such a specific type of profession, that there are things that we deal with that other people just couldn't even dream of that ever being an issue or cropping up in their own world. So I needed some people that, you know, community of people that Understood,

27:14
understood, yeah, definitely, and you found it in the same community that you were kind of already in, but just didn't know. Did you share that with Did you not know that we had that?

27:26
No, I think because, yeah, there may have been emails before, and I just probably missed them, but it came as this amazing kind of gift into my inbox. I'm like, oh, there's something from the declutter hub. And I clicked on it, and it was like, remember the warning, but something like, If You Have you ever dreamed of becoming a professional organizer, and you've had percentages of like, this is what we do. We do this amount of like PR work, and this amount of market, you know, and this amount of actual client work and taxes and things like that. And I was like, okay, oh my god, this is like describing my life right now, so, and at the bottom it said, join our prosper circle. This is so amazing. I think instantly I sent you guys an email like, Oh my god. This is just amazing timing. And you know, for me, it was starting out, there was a lot of upfront costs, but this was one that I was like, I need this. This is something like professional development that I need. And I liked that it was a year, because it gave me that support, that network for, you know, the first year, and possibly onwards beyond that. But it was just so nice to know that I would be I'd found that community and and with the people that I already really respected and trusted. So it was perfect. Yeah, I know, and we love having

28:37
you there. And so just to give a bit of background to the PROSPER program. So a lot of you might know that Ingrid and I spent quite a lot of time before we were in the declutter hub, working for the Association of Professional declutterers and organizers. And our main role Ingrid was the president of apto for four years, I was the head of mentoring. We set up the first training program for professional organizers in the UK. We wrote it alongside one of our other colleagues, Juliet, and so we had been training professional organized for many years, and we obviously absolutely love bringing other people on in our profession. And so we were like, we need to do something. Once the declutter hub membership was up and running, we were like, we'd love to do something, but we kept putting it off and putting it off because obviously it's quite a lot of additional work. And so then we decided to do something quite low key. And so what we wanted was an area where it wasn't loads and loads and loads of organizers. It's a little bit of a smaller program, so we could really devote the time to the people that are there. And you know, share was one of our first members as well. And so it's very small, and so it's almost sometimes it can be like a one to one call, like there's never really any more than three or four people there. Share is share, and you just, you come, you ask your questions. And so we talk about client issues. Sometimes, if people are having, you know, not sure which way to go with a client, or, quite often, it's business related. As well. So, you know, obviously, for a lot of professional organizers, it's very much about, how do we, you know, get clients. How do we retain clients, how do we promote ourselves, how do we market ourselves, how do we make sure we get the right clients, and how do we, you know, keep people coming back to us, all of that kind of stuff. And, you know, the one thing that Ingrid and I have got, because we've been here a while, is experiencing running our own one to one businesses, and of course, we've learned an awful lot in terms of marketing, specifically with the declutter hub. So the PROSPER program has been going a couple of years now. It's still quite small. We had intended it being bigger, but we love it being small as well, and our members and so we know we've now got a model that that definitely works. When share joined us, it was minimum a year. Now it's not a year. You can come in for three months at a time to make it a little bit more affordable. So yeah, we love it, and we know that our prosper members love it, right? Share, tell us a little bit more about how it's helped you. Yeah?

30:58
Well, I think before I got on the first call. So their monthly calls, and before the first call, I just kind of dove into all of the replays, the live Q and A replay. So these are the calls that happened before I joined and like, every single thing was relevant. And I knew I was on the path, because I just I soaked it all in. And I knew that, I mean, some of this stuff was more advanced, and things that you'd be dealing with, like if you're taking on an extra staff member, which I wasn't even close to doing, but it was all relevant and so specific to the industry that it was all things that I could didn't need to put it into practice immediately, but it's it's there, and I love being able to kind of go back to those calls and Look at things as and when things become relevant. But it's great because it's, it is a small community, and we've got a WhatsApp group, which is really nice, because even in between calls, we can stay in touch, and we can just kind of ask each other things or celebrate wins. And it's, it's a really, really lovely community, and we're all in kind of different areas in the UK, so there's kind of no overlap, but it's nice to hear what other people are doing,

32:02
yeah, and I think it's, it's so, it's so nice for us as well. We feel like sort of, we're almost like proud mums, really. So Cher, to be fair, Cher has completely hit the ground running with her business, and was on fire from day one, and has been, you know, I think that you've done everything in the right way. Share. You've tried lots of things out. You're very you're fantastic on social, so do make sure that you go and follow share on Instagram, because she's absolutely fab on there. You're doing shows, you know, kind of trade shows and things like that. So you really have gone into it sensibly. You are investing very much in the business side of things, as well as the client side of things, which is, unfortunately, what we have to do when we're business owners. We really want to spend our whole time helping clients, but unfortunately, there's a kind of whole host of things that have to be done on the background to make sure things keep ticking along. And I think you've done such a fantastic job. We're so proud of your show, which is one of the reasons why we asked you to come and talk to us today. So it's just nice to see you going from, you know, that's, that's a 1015, year evolution, really, isn't it, from where you were back in California, to coming over here through this big transition, to going to a transition of sorting out your own house, falling in love with it, understanding it more in terms of mindfulness, in terms of the fact that it's the ultimate self care and then deciding to go into it as a business to help other people. It's just this fantastic kind of you know, progression, really, isn't it? Yeah, thank

33:30
you. It's nice to hear from an outside perspective, and yeah, obviously someone that I really respect. So thank you. Yeah.

33:36
So tell us about why you believe decluttering and organizing has made you a better mom, friend and partner. Your words,

33:44
yeah, yeah. I really agree. I think that it has been, yeah, decolon and organizing has kind of really given me the gift of time and clear head space. So I've been able to, you know, really, really be more present with my daughter now that I feel like things are I'm on in control of things in my home. I mean, never 100% but for me, like knowing that I know where things are, and I can kind of action things quickly. I'm at the stage of a really fortunate stage, where I'm kind of constantly decluttering. Things come in, things go out. It's, you know, it's very, very, very quick. So, yeah, I think it's just, I've been able to be happy a lot more grounded. And that starts for me at home, having a place of like a sanctuary. And this is what I work with my clients, a lot with, is to create that safe, calm, space for people that is really your home, your grounding. And when you have that, you're able to be present with people in a different way. And you're also just able to have kind of a clear mind and be able to, I don't know, spend more time doing things that you love, instead of constantly. In in your home, and unhappy in your home and trying to make things better.

35:05
I think whilst, whilst decluttering can feel like a very daunting process in the beginning, it can be difficult. There's no doubt about that. It can be a difficult process to go through. You know, you had a couple of things on your side, really shy, where you had a little bit of time, and you had that kind of knowledge sitting behind it, and you had the structure. But I think ultimately, there's never a downside. There's never a downside to having less everything is positive, as long as you feel in control of the journey that you're on and you've got ultimate control, you know, the downside is if other people get involved and start to make you do things that you don't want to do. That's the downside. But other than that. It's all super positive, and it's just such a lovely thing to be able to come out the other side and feel calmer and feel as if you can, as you say, spend time doing the things that you want. So share. I've loved our chat today. Thank you so much. Tell us a little bit more about where people can find the mindful organizer. Yeah,

36:01
yeah. Got my website, which is the mindful organizer.com, I'm also really active on primarily Instagram and also on Facebook. So that's the mindful organizer. And I'd say those are the best places to get in touch. Yeah,

36:14
fantastic. And if anybody is a professional organizer that's struggling to make things work, or you think you know what? I love decluttering so much that I would love to start being a professional organizer, but I wouldn't know how then come and check out prosper program, declutter.com. Forward slash prosper. We would love to have you and you can sit alongside share our next Q, a call. Thank you. Share. And are you interested in exercising self care in 2025 by focusing on a clutter free, organized home. Don't forget, we've got a reset your home challenge coming up at the beginning of January. So do go to declutter hub, com, forward, slash R, Y, H for all the details. Or if you're like, you know what done all that my house is decluttered. I'm ready to take it to the next level and become a professional organizer and enjoy things as much as share does. Then you can come and join us in our prosper program. All the details are at declutter hub.com, forward slash prosper. We would love to see you there. So thank you so much share for being with us today, and we will see everybody next week.

37:14
Thank you so much.

37:21
Thanks so much for listening to the declutter hook podcast. Don't forget to subscribe to us in your podcast player so you don't miss an episode and we'll see you next week.
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Episode 325 – Why decluttering is the ultimate self care with Cher Casey

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

Episode 420 – 10 Small Clutter Problems that Create Big Stress

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

Episode 418 – Nesting isn’t just for new babies

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Reset Your Home

Unpack your emotions and your clutter, step by step
