A photograph of Nadia Arbach smiling sitting on a sofa

Episode 29 – Guest expert Nadia Arbach shares her 7 habits that cause clutter in creative work spaces

In the podcast, Ingrid talks about to Nadia Arbach about the 7 habits that cause clutter in creative work spaces and we chat solutions as well! It's important to understand the underlying reasons for clutter, otherwise it keeps coming back. When we understand our behaviours and work on overcoming them it's not just physical clutter that gets released, but mental clutter as well, including the mental blocks that are holding us back. Nadia has identified 7 habits that cause clutter in creative work spaces and solutions to solve these.

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Transcript of this podcast episode

Intro  0:07  
Welcome to today's episode of The Declutter Hub Podcast, your channel for super easy, no nonsense advice on how to declutter and organise your home. Please welcome your hosts professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:29  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 29 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid, if you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is to show for you. In today's episode, we're talking to Nadia Arbach, owner of clear the decks in Oxford. She's a professional declutter and creativity coach. Nadia motivates and supports creative women in letting go of the clutter they no longer need. She is the host of the declutter and organise your sewing space podcast, and the creator of four online courses about decluttering and increasing creativity. We're both members of the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers, and I'm delighted she's on the show. Welcome, Nadia.

Nadia  1:16  
Hi, Ingrid, it's so nice to be here. Thank you very much for inviting me.

Ingrid  1:20  
Absolute pleasure. I mean, your podcast is one of the first things I listen to. So I'm delighted you're on my show now. It's great. Thank you. And I would like to know first, how did you get into organising? And can you tell us a little bit more about your business?

Nadia  1:37  
Yes, of course, my business is called clear the decks. And I opened it three and a half years ago. And if you go back a little bit further in time, about eight or nine years ago, I was an extremely cluttered person, a very, extremely cluttered creative person. And I had recently taken up quilting. And I worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum at the time, and they had an exhibition about quilting. And because I was in the learning department, I got to the programme, all of the quilting activities, and at the end of every activity, I would take all the remains of the fabric and bring it home with me. So my tiny London flat, everything became very cluttered very quickly. And one day, I had a terrible experience where my estate agents called and they said, your landlord is coming in 10 minutes to view the property. And I had to clean the house very quickly. And it was so disorganised and I was so mortified, and I had to throw a bedsheet over my sewing table, because I could not clear the clutter fast enough. That was what motivated me to get uncluttered. And to really truly, you know, look at my craft items and get them into order. So that that would never happen to me again. And I was just doing it for myself. But I realised that I enjoyed it so much, that I could do it for other people too. And that's why I became a professional Declutter. So that's my story. And then I became a professional Declutter. And I loved working with creative people the most because I understood how easy it is to get clutter in a creative space. And I knew I could help them. And so I became a creativity coach, as well, so that I could help people not only clear the physical clutter, but also the mental clutter that comes with it with being a creative person.

Ingrid  3:35  
Yes. Fantastic. I mean, how wonderful to be able to turn your own passion into helping other people. It's fantastic, isn't it?

Nadia  3:44  
It's really fun. Yeah,

Ingrid  3:45  
yeah. Lovely. Now today, in today's podcast, Nadia, I would like to talk to you about the habits that crafters typically have that cause clutter in their creative workspace, and also talk about the solutions, of course, and I completely agree with you that we need to understand the underlying reasons for the clutter. If we don't, it will keep coming back. And when we do understand our behaviours and work on overcoming them. It's not just a physical clutter that can be released. It's also the mental clutter to and the creative blocks. Now, of course, it doesn't happen overnight. But it will lead to increase creativity. So I would love to talk to you about these habits and solutions that you really brought to the forefront. So let's start with with overthinking.

Nadia  4:35  
Yeah, yeah, so Okay, so yeah, that's the first one of my seven habits that I I realised after a few years of being a professional declutter for creative people. There are certain things that happen over and over again and I distilled it down to those seven habits. The first one is over buying and over buying is something that happens quite a lot with a creative person because we see so many beautiful things We want and we buy them right away without having a specific project in mind to make with them. And we also love a sale. And so we when we find that our favourite craft store has a sale on or there's a special offer that comes, but through our email, we often buy things because they're on sale instead of waiting until we actually need them. So like over buying is just bringing things in without a specific purpose for them when we already have so many things in our craft space, that we don't actually need that extra. And so what my solution is, is to transform that overbuying into more conscious spending. And obviously, the first thing is to set a budget for yourself and set a time when you're actually going to buy that is the very, very basic, but also to maybe unsubscribe from some of the craft kits that you get in the mail. Because I know lots of people who do knitting, for example, there are knitting clubs of the month, and you get a whole bunch of more materials. And sometimes it builds up and builds up and it gets overwhelming. So I worked with one client who had had that coming in for several years. And she hadn't used hardly any of it. And so she really needed to just stop that subscription for a while. Use up the things that she had, and then maybe resume it afterwards. And another thing is to unsubscribe from those emails that tell you that there are sales on and a lot is that actually, in today's times, like there are sales all the time, you're not going to miss out on something because you didn't buy at this time because it was it will be on sale again. Later. Yeah. So that's the way to transform the overbuying into conscious spending. So that we are being very deliberate about what we bring in to the creative space.

Ingrid  7:02  
Yeah. And so really, if you decide you are going to a shop, go, why am I buying this? When am I going to use it? Is this the stuff that I need for this project? Instead of kind of thinking, oh, yeah, that will come in handy one day that I love that. Let's just buy this now. That's exactly what you mean, isn't it?

Nadia  7:20  
Yes, absolutely. Not buying things because they might come in handy one day, and that actually leads right into the second habit, yes. Which is scarcity, thinking, I used to call this more like over inflating the value of things that you already own. So with the over buying habit is bringing in too many things into your house, but the scarcity thinking and the overinflated value, it's not letting things go out of your house, because you are thinking they're more valuable to you than they actually are. So that the key phrase for this one is it might come in handy one day, I'll use it some day, I spent good money on it. So I'm gonna keep it or it's perfectly good, even though it's not actually that helpful or useful for you in the projects that you're doing now. And it could be something that you bought three years ago and absolutely loved at the time. But now you've passed that point. And it's no longer of use to you. And it's so hard to let those things go. Because especially if you've got a scarcity thinking mindset, from previous experience in your life, or from stories from your family, even if you've never lived in lack or scarcity, there's maybe somebody in your family who has in the past down those sayings, you know about keeping things just in case. And that's one kind of that's the thing that we need to transform. And so the solution, in my mind is to transform the scarcity thinking into an abundance mindset. And so I asked my clients to take a look around their creative spaces right now, and feel so grateful and happy for the tools and the materials that they're actually using, that they use all the time at the end that served them extremely well. And then they realise that, yes, this is what I need. And there was other things that I was keeping, because they might come in handy. I actually probably will never use and it makes it a little bit easier to let them go.

Ingrid  9:34  
It's just also so because I see that a lot with my clients as well who are very creative. They not only then quilt but they also show and then it's and they stamp and the end it's like is it possible to maybe pick one or two activity activities instead of all five or seven because there's not enough hours in the day do?

Nadia  9:58  
Yes, that's true. I mean, some people people that I've worked with have five or six hobbies, and they love them all. So I don't ever counsel them to like, put a hobby aside forever. But what I do counsel them to do is to have only a small number of projects that they're doing at the same time. So that might exclude one of the hobbies for now. Yeah. And then when they finish one project, they pick up another project, maybe from that hobby that they haven't done for a while.

Ingrid  10:28  
Oh, that's great. That's really good idea. I love that. Okay. So then let's talk about your third habit. sentimentality. Oh, yes,

Nadia  10:38  
yes, sentimentality and nostalgia. And that is a big one. And I have experienced this, especially with people who so because if there is, I'm sure that this is possible for other kinds of crafts as well. But I've experienced it with so is the most, if there is somebody in their family who did sewing, and who passes away, and they are the person who do does sewing in their family, they get a huge amount of materials dumped into their creative space, all at the same time. I know that that can happen with other things, but fabrics are actually take up a huge amount of space. So the person is overwhelmed by all of that stuff that they've inherited from a person they love, and how could they possibly give it away or sort through it even. And so that's a very difficult one, because what we're doing in that case, is we are making the item, a substitute for the actual person. And so if the person is no longer with us, then you know, it's very hard to let go of some of those things. If the person has given us something, and they're still with us, we can we can let go of some of those things and work on other ways to make that relationship closer in more communication, you know, more fun times together instead of like actual things coming into play. But if you are sentimental about a lot of items that have been passed down to you, it's very difficult. So my solution for that is to transform that sentimentality and nostalgia into looking to the future. So actually looking at the items and thinking what am I actually going to use in the future and keeping the best 10% of that, and letting the rest go? Because you have to realise that the person who gave them to you also would have not used all of them, they would have used their favourites. And so you pick your favourites, and you use them. Yeah. And there's also an element of nostalgia, if you are, if you yourself are keeping things that remind you of fun times that you had things that you did when you were younger, maybe patterns that used to fit you when they don't anymore. And so you have to look carefully at that, too, and look to the future and think what do I really want to create? Now, instead of what did I create in the past?

Ingrid  13:07  
Yeah, I think so much of this is also in other areas of people's homes, we can use this. So I'm so happy we're talking about this not yet. Because these seven habits, I mean, you're not talking about crafting, and but you can use that with other things as well. So fabulous. So fantastic. So let's move on to the fourth habit.

Nadia  13:27  
Yes. Okay. That one is the sense of duty. So it works in two ways. The first one is, because you're the creative person that people know, they ask you to teach them how to do the thing, or they ask you to make something for them or do something for them, when actually you don't really want to and saying no is very hard. No, it's hard for us. We love to do our craft, and we love to make things for people. But when we have a list of things to do for other people, it prevents us from doing projects that we really love and that we really want to concentrate on. So my second way of the sense of duty that when sense of duty works is that we feel obliged to finish a project that we started, even if it's no longer resonating with us, even if actually, we think Haha, I really don't like that project anymore. But I started it, so I have to finish it. And that is what a lot of creative people do. Because they feel such a big obligation. But the way that I transform this one is to transform the sense of duty into putting yourself first and that is something that we have not got a lot of practice in doing putting ourselves first creative people when they want to do creative work often do all of the other things first, we tidy the house. We take care of the kids If we take care of our family, and we come last. And then finally, we get a little bit of time to do our creation. And actually, it should be the opposite way around to be taking care of ourselves, making sure we have the time to do our creative work, and making sure that we're only working on projects that we actually love. So that means saying no to people who asked you to help them be more creative, unless you really want to, and you could really want to it could make you really happy. But if you don't want to, you have to find a kind and gentle but firm way to say no. And if you have projects that you are not enjoying anymore, it is okay to toss them. And that is one thing that I tell people in here like, oh, no, I couldn't possibly, and then they realise actually looking at all the projects that they have. This one is never gonna get done, because I don't love it. No, I love the other ones. So I,

Ingrid  16:02  
I do a regular talks for groups. And we always talk about clutter. And one of the things I say is that clutter is everything that you do not love, and do not use an everything that's unfinished. Yeah. And I then say, Are there any craft crafters here in the room, or people who love being creative? And then, of course, there's always a couple of hands. And I say everything, any project that you haven't finished, is clutter as well. And they all go, oh, but it makes him think about it. And it something happens. And I also say exactly like you, if you're working on a project you do not love doing. Let it go and let the materials go. Yeah, time is we've got little time. And it's so important that the time that we have to do crafting or any hobby, that we use it wisely, and we spend it on projects that we actually love to do. And I so agree with you that saying no can be so difficult, but it's so important. And sometimes saying no straight ahead can be tricky. And maybe you say, Let me think about it. I'm gonna get back to you tomorrow and kind of then instead of immediate, saying yes. And then later regret it. Being able to say, I'm going to think about it, I'm going to get that to you and then say do and actually ask yourself, what do I really want to do this for this other person? And we're really enjoying his projects.

Nadia  17:29  
Yeah. And if it's still a no, you find a way to say no,

Ingrid  17:34  
yeah, yeah. And I agree with you saying no, it's okay. Yeah, absolutely. Love this. Love this. Okay. Very good. Okay. Let's go to the fifth one.

Nadia  17:44  
Yes. Okay. So this one is about your sense of identity, as a creator. And it's some of us are really influenced by other creative people. And that's as it should be, because we need to get inspiration from somewhere. But there are things that dampened us a little bit like seeing beautiful projects on Pinterest, and thinking, I could never do something like that. Or, you know, seeing somebody in a magazine with a beautiful pattern, and you will love it. And then you try it. And it's not for you. So this is about not exactly knowing where you're going with your own creative work. And being so influenced by outside influences that you actually never get to the point where you understand what you want to do and what you love. And so this can be transformed from a shaky sense of identity, into deep self knowledge, by asking yourself the questions about what you actually want as your creative goal. And this is where it gets really intense and like deeply soul searching, where you have to tap into your own ideas and your own creativity, to figure out what it is that you actually want to do, bringing influences in from elsewhere. But being your own creative person, instead of always following a pattern or always doing something that's trendy. And because that brings in clutter, not only physical, but this is a lot of mental clutter, that comes up and it manifests as I'm not good enough. How could I ever do that? Why even bother? And that stops you it holds you back from doing the projects that you actually love. So the solution is to have that deep self knowledge by asking yourself the questions about what you really want to accomplish as a creator.

Ingrid  19:53  
I think that also is connected to maybe perfectionism and trying to do everything per Perfect, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely exactly what you say we see all these beautiful magazines and all these beautiful Pinterest pages and Instagram photos. And you think, but my house doesn't look like that my craft limbless doesn't look like that my project doesn't look like that. And then feel that you haven't accomplished anything, because it doesn't look like that. And I always say decluttering. And organising is not about having everything perfect. And I think, yeah,

Nadia  20:30  
yeah, because a lot of those photos are staged. They're, you know, they're curated in some way. And what we really want to do is actually just bring the joy of creation, into your hands and your heart so that you're enjoying the moments that you're spending, instead of worrying that you're not doing it well enough.

Ingrid  20:52  
Yeah, listeners, such good stuff here talking to Nadia, oh, my goodness, we've already done five habits, and we still have to to go. So let's talk about overwhelm. And of course, that's a word we hear all the time as professional organisers, I'm so overwhelmed. So I am completely understand that that comes up in your seven habits. please expand on that a little bit more, Nadia?

Nadia  21:16  
Yes. Okay, so overwhelmed. Because you're so excited about all the projects, and you want to do them all at the same time. And you have the materials for so many projects in your creative workspace. And this can be extremely overwhelming when you have too many. Now, what I have a solution for this is to transform the overwhelm into excitement by making what I call a master project list. So I'm going to elaborate on that a little bit, the master project list, because you would not believe how many times I asked clients, do you have a list of all your projects, and they say, No, I don't, I have like this notebook here filled with this drawing. And I have this notebook over here and this loose sheet over here and a bunch of other things that sort of tell me what projects I'm doing. But I can't even remember half of the things that I wanted to do. So it's a very simple process, you take a sheet of blank paper, you go around your creative workspace, and you list all of the projects that you have underway. You list all of the projects that you have the materials for, but you haven't started yet. And you list all the projects that are just ideas in your head. And you haven't even gotten anything to make them yet. But we need all of those projects in a list on the same paper so that you know exactly what's in your head, and exactly what you're working on. And that can number anywhere between 10 and 200. I mean, it could be anything like I worked with one client, and we ended up having over 100 projects. With other clients who had maybe 50 projects, I made my own list when I started when I when I devised the master project list, and I had about 22 projects. And I recently redid it and I have about 27 projects. But most of those ones from the list of 22 have been finished. And these are all new ones. Because whenever you think of any one, you add it to the list. Now the thing that you do with the list, after you've gotten all of the projects written down, is you prioritise them by your excitement level. So if it rates of five on excitement level, on a scale of one to five, that means you're the most excited, you cannot wait to get started on it. So you go through the list of put a five, wherever it belongs, and you put other numbers between one in five, one means you actually don't care about this project at all anymore. And everything that marries in between two, three, and four. And what you do after that is you cross off all the projects that rated A one and all the projects that rated a two, because you're never gonna get to them. If you have all those fives on your list that you really love the idea of that you really want to work on. And then you get the number ones and number twos out of your house, and you concentrate on the three, four and five. And so as to not become too overwhelmed. You pick the five projects, maximum five, that are the most appealing to you to do right now. And those are the ones that you're working on. And only when you finish one of those, can you bring up something else from your list to be in those top five projects. So you've prioritised everything, you are still have the list so you can capture any new ideas and you can put a priority on them as well. But you have the five that you are working on And then you put them each into a separate container, so that you have them all laid out in your creative workspace so that you can work on them without wondering where the pieces are, and so that you can pick up one, work on one day, pick up a different one work on another day, but there's not too many to think about at the same time. Does that make sense to you

Ingrid  25:22  
completely. So just to recap, so if people are very overwhelmed, you can create a master project list, you write down the things you already working on the ones that are on the go, you write down the ones you have the materials for, but haven't started yet. And you write down all the stuff that's in your head that you would love to do at some point.

Nadia  25:44  
Yes. And he's that ideas. Yeah.

Ingrid  25:47  
And then you look at all of those, you prioritise them by excitement level, I love that excitement level, one to five, while the ones and twos get are crossed off the list, you focus on, you look at your three, four and five categories. And you go, which five of those are am I going to do now. And those are going to be put in containers ready in my crafting space. So if I'm time, I can focus on one of those five projects. And only if one of those is done, I can look at my list again and pick something else.

Nadia  26:23  
Bingo, you got it is exactly, yes. I

Ingrid  26:27  
love this. Okay, because maybe it's because it's a list. No.

Nadia  26:33  
Don't we all? Yes.

Ingrid  26:35  
So does that also mean that if you other stuff pops in your head? You need adding it to your list?

Nadia  26:43  
Yes, you keep adding it. Whenever there's a new idea, you put it on the list, and you give it a priority number.

Ingrid  26:49  
Okay? And would you have this list, like on a notebook with three different identities that got on the go or like a one, one document in a word or in a Google Doc or in a list on your phone? Or how, how does that work?

Nadia  27:03  
I have mine as a Word document. And I know people who have them on paper, I have done them on paper for clients, and the client who had more than 100 projects. She was a big user of Trello. Yeah, the app. And so she put them all in the Trello app. And you can probably find other apps that will organise your projects for you. But she loved it because it helped her see exactly what she was doing exactly when she wanted to do it. And it could also mean that there's lots of opportunities in Trello to like, make a materials list as well. And you know, so it was very clear for her. It clarified everything that you can do it on paper, it doesn't matter. It all just has to be in the same place.

Ingrid  27:53  
Yes. So of course, I want to know now, of the 100 projects. Were there any ones or twos? And how many did she Declutter?

Nadia  28:01  
Oh, sure. There were lots of ones and twos and we are still working on decluttering them, in fact, but yeah, they're being decluttered and the top five are being worked on.

Ingrid  28:12  
So um, that's in the end what it's all about, isn't it? Yes.

Nadia  28:15  
And she gets through projects really fast. So Trello actually really helps Queen Oh, I

Ingrid  28:20  
love this. Okay, listeners, are you ready to make your master project list? If you're a crafter, really, really good advice from Nadia here. So Nadia, let's move on to the seven habits. And that's disorganised thinking, I would love to know a little bit more about that.

Nadia  28:37  
Yes, disorganised thinking is when you step into your creative space, and you think, Where is that thing that I know I just put down? And how many such and such an item do I have? Oh, I'm out of this thing. Let me go by it. And then you realise you already have four of them. They were just hiding somewhere in your workspace, and it has it you have a tendency not to put things away because you think you're gonna forget about them. But you actually forget that they exist anyway, because they're hidden under other piles of things. So that's disorganised thinking. And what we would like to do is transform it into helpful systems. So here's where some really basic organisational tips come into play. So bringing everything together, like by like, so all of one type of material is in one place, all of another type of material is in another place and putting them into ideally, they would be clear containers, and they would be properly labelled so that you know that all of your things like that are in the same place. And it also manifests itself in creating easy to use systems so that you don't have The clutter building up all the time. So I have found with a few clients that is, they don't tidy things away after they're finished working on a project for the day. And then they pick a different project to work on. So that one comes and lies on top of their first one. So what we do in that case is we work in a tidy up routine as part of the creative work time. So if you know you only have an hour to work on something, you spend the last 10 minutes of that hour, putting everything away in its container for ready for you to use the next time. And because sometimes it's not a habit for people to tidy up, this one is a difficult one to put into play. But once it starts getting going, you realise how clear and ready to use your workspace is every time because you've tidied it away. It's just like in a kitchen when you have to wash the dishes in order for the counter to be clear for the next set of dishes to appear when they have been used. So that is the way that we create helpful systems.

Ingrid  31:04  
True, I mean, putting stuff away after you've used it is really part of all of those routines. And that's why if people say I'm going to put it down, no, don't put it down, put it away. And the same goes for crafting, you know, when you've done 45 minutes of knitting, you have to make sure that you put your knitting needles and your wall and your pattern maybe back in the bag and put the bag where you want to find it the next time. Because otherwise, if you do I have got several projects on the go, then it all gets muddled and things and then it takes longer to find stuff. So you actually have less than crafting, which is sounds like crazy, doesn't it? But it's really we you know this from experience, obviously. But if we talk to that and teach our clients and show them that they actually will have more time to do the thing they love being able to tidy it up. Yeah, it's it's life changing, isn't it? Really?

Nadia  32:07  
It really is. And it's a it's a new habit to instil in yourself if you don't have that habit already. And it helps in all areas of your life, not just in crafting. Yeah, but you know, because clutter is, is quite sticky. If you put one thing down, something else comes in attaches to it somehow by magic, you know. And it all builds up very quickly. Yeah. So.

Ingrid  32:30  
So are you lucky enough to have a separate craft room? And that yeah, I

Nadia  32:35  
am not. And that is why I have instilled that habit in myself. Because as a soloist general quilter, I use my dining room table. And so that is definitely needed three times a day for other things. And so I have to incorporate a tidy up routine in my making. And I have to have a specific place for my third projects to sit, because there's no dedicated craftroom space. So I need to put them somewhere in another room so that they are there and that they're not taking up other space. So I have an area in my dining room, which is dedicated to those projects that I have going on. And I have an area that's dedicated to holding my crafting materials. And that's all I have. So they don't build up anywhere else in the house.

Ingrid  33:29  
Yeah. Like you said, You are a super creative person yourself and you are showing your quilting, you're write poetry, you're a visual artist. Can you give our listeners a couple of tips for the craft room organising if they are even lucky enough? If to have a craft room with separate craft from? Or if they're not lucky enough? Do you want to have boxes with lids? For example? Can you give us some tips?

Nadia  33:54  
Yeah, like I said, clear boxes, with lids definitely and with labels so that you can see exactly what's in them. And if space permits, you put them all in the same place in the area of a room, that if you're that if you don't have like a dedicated space. Now if you have a really really tiny space, you may have to divide your items. You know some types of things in one room, some types of things in another room, but at least if they're in labelled clear boxes, and you know which room they're in, you don't have a problem because you know where to go to get your items. If you do have a dedicated crossface then if you create space for yourself vertically by going up the walls that doesn't just mean shelving that can mean hooks to put scissors on that can mean some kind of like storage solution that goes vertically up the wall. I'm thinking of a sewing room specifically but I've seen some beautiful sewing rooms with thread holders that go all the way up the wall and it could be also under bed storage for the people who don't have the dedicated space. And I also would like to give a shout out to all the writers who don't necessarily have physical objects or many physical objects for their craft, but they do have a lot of digital space being used on their laptop or computer or wherever, that also needs to remain organised. So they need to be looking at where their files are on their device. And keeping those in an organised fashion as well. And also deleting the ones that are no longer useful for them.

Ingrid  35:37  
Excellent. Such good stuff, listeners. So listeners, are you ready to do some decluttering and organising of your craft materials and take all Nadia's fantastic advice on board? Is there anything else Nadia, we would like you would like to discuss with our listeners or give us a top tip? Or is there anything that we've missed? Because it's such good, good quality? Anything else that you'd like to add?

Nadia  36:04  
Yes, actually, I do have one. parting thought, which is creators are, it can get messy when they're actually working. And so be okay with it being a mess, when you are right in the middle of your project, when you are working on your creative work. Because that is where you are allowing yourself the freedom to create. If you need to have things all over the place, then do it just that when you finish that session, you bring everything together, and you tidy it up so that it is clear and ready to use again. But don't get worried that it's looking really messy while you're in the stages of creating. Because that is where the fun and the joy is happening. And you just do what you need to do.

Ingrid  36:55  
Love that too. That's it for this episode, listeners. We hope you've all enjoyed listening to Nadia and her fantastic advice and are inspired to take action. Thank you Nadia for being our guest.

Nadia  37:08  
And thank you for having me on the podcast.

Ingrid  37:11  
I've loved talking to you. And I loved finding out more about your seven habits method. And your tips and especially your master project list. Really, really thought that was great advice as well. And listeners. I hope you've learned a lot today. And now these examples will be helpful for you, and you can implement them in your own home. If you'd like to know more about Nadia's podcast, and a free resource she has on our website. We will post a link in the show notes along with her website details and you can check her out and check out a free resource. Thanks for taking the time to listen today. If you'd like to get more tips and advice, please follow us on social media. We are on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and have a lively supportive Facebook group community where we chat all things clutter and we'd love to see you there. If you don't want to miss the next weekly episode, subscribe to the declutter hub podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. See you next time.

Outro  38:14  
Thanks for listening to this week's episode of the Declutter Hub Podcast. Check out declutterhub.com For more inspiration, and don't forget to tune in next week.

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Want to hear more from Nadia? Check out her guest blog below...

7 HABITS THAT CAUSE CREATIVE CLUTTER AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM – A GUEST BLOG BY NADIA ARBACH

Nadia Arbach, our guest blogger, is a Professional Organizer and Creativity Coach. She loves motivating creative women to let go of physical clutter and mental blocks so they can tap into their creativity and achieve their creative dreams!

Do you have creative clutter?

Is clutter taking over your creative workspace? You can have lots of great ideas, but if you’ve got creative clutter blocking you from working on your projects it can be a challenge to achieve your goals.

In my work as a professional declutterer for creative women, I’ve noticed some patterns relating to the clutter in a creative workspace. It’s all about habits – the behaviours that lead to clutter accumulating in the first place. In order to clear the clutter, you need to understand how and why it got there.

Here are the seven habits I see the most – which ones are leading to clutter in YOUR creative workspace?

Habit 1: Overbuying

You often bring extra items into your space – items that eventually become clutter because you can’t use them fast enough. Buying items because they’re on special offer or buying things that appeal to you (without having a project in mind for them) can lead to this kind of clutter.

Combat overbuying by practicing conscious spending. Set a budget, only go shopping when you know you’ll use your purchases right away, and remember that sales and special offers happen all year round. If you miss one there will be another one coming soon! Spend your money consciously and bring in only the things you know you need right now.

Habit 2: Scarcity thinking

You may tend to overinflate the value of what you have, thinking it’s worth more to you than it actually is. You’re reluctant to let go of things because they ‘might come in handy one day’ or they’re ‘perfectly good’. Scarcity thinking comes from us unconsciously repeating a story about lack that we’ve learned sometime in our life. This can be either from our own experience or our family’s experiences.

Work on transforming scarcity thinking into an abundance mindset. Look around at all the wonderful items that you have in your creative workspace that you actually use! Those tools are serving you well and you love them. You have abundance in your life. Now take a look at those ‘someday’ items. Are they really as valuable as the ones you use all the time? If not, let them go.

Habit 3: Sentimentality

Sometimes we treat things as a substitute for a person that’s dear to us, or a happy memory of a past time in our life. If you’re reluctant to let go of these sentimental items, you may have items in your creative workspace that you would never actually use, but it feels too hard to let them go.

My suggestion is to look to the future. Take a photo of some of those nostalgic items and let them go, and then think about your future projects – the ones you really want to do. If you’ve got real heirlooms, give them an appropriate future. You could use them as art in your home instead of letting them into your creative space where they won’t be of use.

Habit 4: Sense of Duty

If you’re a creative person, you may get requests from family or friends to make them something or teach them your craft. You might feel obligated to do so even if you don’t want to. You might also be hanging on to projects or ideas because you feel the duty to ‘finish what you started’ – even if the project no longer appeals to you!

Remember to put yourself first. Make sure you have time to work on the projects that bring you joy, rather than doing favours for others or finishing an unwanted project. Find a way to say no to the requests that come in, unless you’re truly happy to do them. And here’s a challenge: look through your creative projects, find one that is no longer fun and enjoyable for you – and toss it!

Habit 5: Sense of Identity

If you have a less-than-clear sense of identity as a creator, you may not really know what you love to do. You may accumulate projects that reflect trendy styles or mimic the work of someone you admire. But then you end up not finishing them because they’re not quite your style.

To transform this identity crisis into deep self knowledge, do some thinking to find out what kind of creative elements you truly love. Incorporate them into your next project to boost your creative self-confidence.

Habit 6: Disorganised thinking

Although you may love and need all the items in your space, they’re not organized in any particular way – so you end up wasting time searching for things and are unsure of what you have.

Restore order by creating helpful systems, group items like by like, store them in clear containers, and let go of any multiples of items. Make a note of which supplies you need to top up for specific projects, and – most importantly – create a routine of putting things away as soon as you’ve finished using them.

Habit 7: Overwhelm

You have a huge amount of creative ideas and want to do them all! But you tend to start things and not follow through on finishing them, so you accumulate unfinished projects that eventually lose their appeal because you’ve left them too long.

Conquer overwhelm by creating a master project list. Make a list of everything you intend to work on: current projects, partially-completed projects, and ideas for projects. Then rate each one a scale of 1-5 for excitement level. (1 means you don’t like it much; 5 means you can’t wait to start working on it). Cross off everything that only rates a 1 or a 2 and declutter it from your workspace. From the remaining list pick a maximum of five projects to work on right now. Every time you finish one, bring another up from your list. Prioritizing your projects and limiting the number you work on at any one time will stave off the overwhelm.

So, which were your telltale habits? And how did it feel to let go of some of those items? By becoming more mindful of your habits and behaviours, you’ll start a huge transformation in both the way your creative workspace looks and the way you think about the materials and tools you own.

Happy creating!

Nadia Arbach is a Professional Organizer and Creativity Coach. She loves motivating creative women to let go of physical clutter and mental blocks so they can tap into their creativity and achieve their creative dreams! If you enjoyed this article and would like to know more about the seven habits, you can find a free resource on Nadia's website. Nadia also has her own podcast Declutter and Organise Your Sewing Space and you can listen to Nadia on The Declutter Hub podcast.

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Andie HelpMeTidy says:

14 August 2020 at 8:46 PM

This was such a great podcast – one of my favourites! Nadia really nailed the habits that lead to 'craft clutter' and I could identify with many of them, both for my 'crafty' clients and myself! Actually I found 'Sense of Duty' to be the most interesting one. I haven't sewn anything nice for myself for years because my pile of mending for the family seems neverending…listening to this podcast has made me realise I need to get creative again… 😀

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  25 August 2020 at 10:47 PM
  
  So glad you enjoyed this podcast. I really loved recording this with Nadia. I'm not a crafter myself, but found Nadia's insights very useful. I hope your creativity will flourish again.
  
  Reply

Episode 29 – Guest expert Nadia Arbach shares her 7 habits that cause clutter in creative work spaces

7 HABITS THAT CAUSE CREATIVE CLUTTER AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT THEM – A GUEST BLOG BY NADIA ARBACH

Do you have creative clutter?

Habit 1: Overbuying

Habit 2: Scarcity thinking

Habit 3: Sentimentality

Habit 4: Sense of Duty

Habit 5: Sense of Identity

Habit 6: Disorganised thinking

Habit 7: Overwhelm

Episode 315 – 10 ways to declutter spontaneously

Episode 314 – How to declutter a storage unit with Margie

Episode 313 – My decluttering journey with Christina Rudes

Episode 312 – 10 clutter hotspots and how to fix them

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