A graphic of the 'Reset your home' system saying 'Thought by Thought, Day by Day, Room by Room'
Episode 101 – Decluttering with the Reset Your Home System

Lesley and Ingrid are talking about the basics of decluttering success in this 101th podcast. To get your decluttering project to a successful finish you need to follow a certain path and that's why we have created our Reset Your Home System.
So, let’s get things back to basics. Why is this so hard? We know people who want to declutter their homes are on a mission to transform their lives but sometimes it just doesn’t work. Within the Declutter Hub we use a very simple Reset your Home System and we explain how it will help you in your decluttering journey.
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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 host professional organisers, Ingrid Jansen, and Lesley Spellman.

Ingrid  0:31  
Hello, and welcome listeners to Episode 101 of the Declutter Hub Podcast. I'm Ingrid. And I'm Lesley, if you have clutter and want to sort it out, this is the show for you. In today's episode, Lesley and I are talking about the basics of decluttering success. And it's so interesting that this is episode 101. 

Lesley  0:54  
I know, well know when we could not let episode 101 go by without taking it back to a decluttering 101. Back to Basics, explaining everything from first principles. So today, we are going to take you right back to first principles, as we said, and explain our declutter hub mantra, if you will, which we call a reset your home system. So it's exciting. decluttering 101. Here we go.

Ingrid  1:19  
I know because how apt is it? And episode 101 is our decluttering 101. Lesley.

Lesley  1:26  
So let's talk about why decluttering we know that decluttering is really hard. Yeah, I think we all agree that decluttering is super hard. We know people who want to declutter their homes are on a mission to sort of transform their lives, but sometimes it just doesn't work. So, at the declutter hub, we use a very simple reset your home system, but we need to explain what that actually means going away.

Ingrid  1:50  
Now, Lesley, before we started talking about the reset your home system, I wanted to let our listeners know that to make sure they listen are right up till the end of this podcast, because that's where we're going to chat all about our reset your home five day free decluttering challenge coming on the 14th of September, so make sure you listen through to the end. And then we're going to explain all about the challenge that is coming.

Lesley  2:21  
Yeah, we've been preparing that challenge. And it is super exciting, isn't it Ingrid? We know what we know at all our listeners love our challenges. And so but it's been a while I think it's how long is it since we've done the challenge.

Ingrid  2:32  
It's been ages. So it's a bit it was it was COVID. And we did a bootcamp. But we did a 40 day challenge in the Facebook group. But like a five day decluttering challenge. I don't know that's been a while. So we're super, super stoked to have it all getting ready for you.

Lesley  2:48  
So let's talk about the reset your home system. It has three basic components, reset foot by foot, reset room by room, and reset day by day. So let's talk a little bit now Ingrid about reset thought by thought.

Ingrid  3:06  
Yes, let's see, the thing is, what we see is that people start a decluttering project. But they end up going round and round in the same circles because their thinking stays the same. So they try and start something. We make decisions based on what we know. But then we don't change our thought process while we're doing it. And of course, if you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always gotten. So you want to break through that cycle, and start challenging your own thought process. And but you can't do that overnight, you have to reset it thought by thought. And that's a big part of the reset your home system. Because if you change your thinking, then you can start making the changes in your life and in your home. That you really, really want. Yeah, but of course,

Lesley  4:14  
yes, we can reset those thoughts, thought by thought. But we need to practice as well, don't we? So we need to do it room by room. And then we need to do it day by day, which is why it's a cycle. So the thought but the reason why the thought by thought is so difficult is because we are overwhelmed. Let's face it. decluttering is hard. And we focus very much on the stuff but it's never about the stuff. It's always about ourselves and the limitations that we put on ourselves and the thought processes and staying in our comfort zone. These habits and emotions that we've got have been ingrained in us. They've been around for decades and decades. And so they're not going to give up without a fight. So that's what we need to tackle and that's what we need to do gradually. We cannot change overnight.

Ingrid  4:56  
Yes, I think you're right and because we are are desperate for things to change. We keep struggling and we keep getting stuck at the kind of the same hurdles all the time. And that's when it's so important to look at how am I feeling? What am I doing, and challenging those feelings and those thoughts, one at a time, so you can start to make those changes that you want to do.

Lesley  5:25  
And yeah, exactly. And I think it's about being brave, isn't it, you know, this, this process to take ourselves out of our comfort zone is kind of scary. But when we make that decision, when we decided to come out of our comfort zone a little bit and do things a little bit differently, then we get rid of a T shirt that we've clung on to for years and years. And then the following day, or a week later, or a month later, we realised that it's not that bad that actually we can live without that T shirt. And those are the kinds of things that make us more competent than to change our thought process. And to know that we can continue on and we can change. And it's not that bad.

Ingrid  6:00  
Yes, I think it's true, because, of course, in the beginning of your decluttering journey, it's like this gigantic mountain of things and decisions that you have to take. And you do need to be be brave and go over that those hurdles one at a time. And keep looking forward to where you want to go. What is the aim here? What is the goal here? And we know that the goal might be decluttered, a room and a beautiful wardrobe. But it's also about how do I get to that point? What do I need to make happen? What do I Where do I need to shift my thinking? How do I change my mindset? one thought at a time to get there. You're so right.

Lesley  6:50  
So in the first instance, what we need to do is we need to come out of our comfort zone and we need to want it don't we, we really need to want it we need to want that change. That has got to become a more powerful emotion than keeping stuff that we felt comfortable with for years and years. And that's the key, isn't it, working on your goals, deciding on what you want, being brave enough to come out of those comfort zones and to make different decisions to the ones that you've made in the past, as you said at the beginning, Ingrid, if you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you've always got. So just think about that. And that's all about change. We need to change something, we need to change our thought process. We need to change our mindset. And we need to do that one step at a time. We cannot do that overnight. And that's the interesting thing. And we need to do that. By learning. Yeah. And we learn to change our thought process by doing it room by room. So let's now talk about the next stage in the reset your home system, which is room by room.

Ingrid  7:50  
Yes, it's let's see, it's so interesting. What do we see all the time with people who are in our Facebook group, people who are in our meme in our members area, they want to start with the hardest room. They want to start with the area they've struggled the most with. And some people call it the room of Doom or the room of terror or the scary part of the house, or that's where they want to get started. And what do we say? No, you don't start there, you don't that's the hardest part of your journey. That's the hardest part of the room by room programme, you need to start with something that's easier. And why? Because decluttering is hard. So you can't just start with the hardest part, you have to start with stuff and in rooms that are easier for you to do. So you build on your decluttering muscle. Now, this is not a real muscle just to explain this to our listeners. But it's an internal muscle that you need to grow and build on. So when you do ease your decisions first, it gets easier to make the hard decisions later down the line.

Lesley  9:08  
Yeah, because of course, what we naturally do is our minds naturally take us when we think about decluttering and organising our homes, to the one place in our homes that really gets us down, or the one place in our homes that we really think will be difficult. So we might, we might think about, oh, I'm not decluttering my books that would be really, really difficult. Or as you rightly say, there's a room of doom which many people have got, which is the spare room dumping ground or the garage or the loft or whatever that might be. And that's what you naturally think about because that's the worst area in your home. But as Ingrid rightly says that's the last place that you want to go because you need to have worked on your foot process. What the last thing that we want to do is prescribe and said this is the way that you have to do your house. But what we have learned with 10 years of experiences, that there are better rooms to start tackling at the beginning that are easier from an emotion from emotional perspective, the decisions are much more practical than they are emotional. So our suggestion is always to start with those easy rooms first and then build up that decluttering muscle that we talk about. And do the harder than difficult rooms, the rooms that are full to the brim, the rooms that have got decisions in them that we've procrastinated over for years and years and years. That's why they're full. That's where they hard that's why they're overwhelming. So do those at the end. And so we do definitely have our ideas don't wait about in a standard home. What should come first?

Ingrid  10:33  
Yes, Lesley, because one of the things we see in our membership is that people always say to us, we don't know where to start. And we have courses for every room in the home. But we also have a reset roadmap, where we actually say to our members, this is where you start, that's what you do next, then you go here, then you go there, and we've got an all spread out for them in our roadmap. And our members can just follow our step by step process. And we have seen fantastic results by our members following that roadmap, and then building themselves up to do that room of doom. Because they feel much more confident that they have the tools and the and the motivation to do that projects.

Lesley  11:30  
Because it's so hard, isn't it Ingrid to to make those decisions, we use so much brain power actually making decision after decision after decision, which is why decluttering for any length of time is completely exhausting. You and I then in we can take that element of the thinking away from it the thinking, which is what do I need to do today, we take that part of it away, and they just say I just follow the roadmap. This is what I've got to do today. That's what I'm going to do and you can pick up and you can leave it and then pick it up wherever you were before. That makes things a lot easier. And it takes that part of the thinking away from it, doesn't it?

Ingrid  12:03  
Yes. And we give lots of suggestions on what kind of decluttering questions do you need to ask yourself? What kind of organising is important to take into consideration when you decide where your items go? Where can I donate? What kind of storage can I use, but very, very important part is the beginning of every course when we talk about the emotions in the habits. And that's where we also change the thoughts as well. So it all starts to come together, isn't it, Lesley?

Lesley  12:32  
So we've looked at two of the stages within that reset your home system, thought by thought and room by room. And of course, what we're seeing now is as a pattern, all of these things are cyclical. And so you can't do one without the other. You change your thoughts based on the rooms that you work in and you build up that decluttering muscle you change your mindset, you change your thought process. As you work in room by room. In the free challenge that Ingrid mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, which we're going to explain right at the end, we are obviously going to tackle thought by thought and room by room, we're going to tackle thoughts and we're going to tackle rooms.

Ingrid  13:07  
So Lesley, let's now then move on to the third part of our reset your home system. And that is day by day. Because if there's one thing we know for sure certain decluttering is a process. It's not a project. I mean, how often do we hear people say, I'm done, my house is done. And the you and I look at it. And we always look at each other though we already read it or we hear it somewhere. And then we look at that and we and we're like You're never done. You're never done. decluttering is something that you do to your whole life. Because your life changes your home changes. Your family setup changes your work, circumstances change. You might have children or create a home office or downsize to a smaller property, your life is in constant fluctuation. And that also means that the stuff changes with you. We are never truly done. I mean, we wish we weren't but we are not. I mean, I'm decluttering all the time. And I have systems in place to make that happen. But it's ebbs and flows within your life and some parts of your life you declutter a bit more and you organise a bit more, and other parts of your life. You don't have to do as much because you might already be in a smaller home or you might, you might have changed the way you're shopping or you're behaving. And it just goes but the decluttering always stays. It's a process.

Lesley  14:45  
It is absolutely and it's interesting what you say because we're talking about thought by thought but of course, along with these life changes that we've spoke about moving house, your children moving out, etc. Your mindset changes so you change the way you think about things and you you change the way You view those belongings and what's important to you as well. So your minds change as well as your mind changing throughout the decluttering process. It's changing anyway through life, the way that you think in your 20s. And the way that you think in your 50s are so very, very different. And of course, we buy things, we buy things all the time, don't wait. And so when things come in, things have to go out to make space for those things to come in. And so that's why decluttering is this constant cycle. It's a constant process that we need to work on every single day. Now, that sounds a bit depressing to say every single day. And that's why we need to work on are decluttering day by day.

Ingrid  15:41  
Yes. And I think what's really important is that we stop seeing it as something that's a project we need to do in three weeks time, I'm going to do another project, I'm gonna, if you constantly do a little bit all the time, little but often, then you're gonna completely change your outlook or your home and have your success. And it's interesting, because the members in a membership you can you hear them say they write it to us. And they're like, Wow, listen, Ingrid, because I'm in your reset your home system, I am completely viewing my house and I start to see things that I didn't see before. And I look at stuff and things I want to buy completely differently, because I might have found something that is very similar in my house while I was decluttering. And I didn't use it at the time, either. So why am I trying to buy it again. And that is a thing really, when? Because you're decluttering? And you're getting on top of it, you start to change your thoughts, one by one at a time. Yeah, definitely. And I

Lesley  16:53  
think as well as that you fall back in love with your house, once you remove the stuff from it, that's excess, you start to love your home again, you know, when we are surrounded by stuff as our homes become sometimes a burden. We don't want to be there. Because every time we walk into a room, it's a little bit depressing. All we see in front of us is projects. Yeah, let's call them projects, we've got to declutter this room, we got to do that. That's a mess, this is a mess, I've got to do this. And it becomes very, very depressing day after day after day, and it's monotonous. But by decluttering, and going through that process and spending the time and energy on it, it's important to spend that time and energy only going through that and giving your time over to this to this process. What that means is, is you're going to appreciate much more the outcome. And that's what we see this change in mindset is completely what it's all about. The bags of clutter that go out your house, honestly, are a byproduct of this journey, aren't they Ingrid? Yes, they are the tangible thing that you take out. And it's fantastic to take things to the charity shop or to give them away. But the real transformation is in the change in your mind.

Ingrid  18:05  
So yes, Lesley, I mean, day by day, this third part in the cycle of the reset your home system is super important. And that's why on day five of our challenge, that's when we're going to talk about what day to day means you're not going to do massive decluttering projects every day of your life. But there are certain things you need to do every day. So you start to stay on top of your decluttering and on top of your house. And on day five of the challenge. That's where we're going to talk about what does that mean? And what do you do? We love a

Lesley  18:39  
daily reset, don't reset love it. So we're going to tell you all about what our daily resets look like for sure. So we have gone through our reset your home system, we thought about thoughts by thought. We talked about room by room, and we've talked about day by day, and it's a cycle. And so you're constantly going to be wearing around the cycle, it's never probably going to be as bad as the first time you go around the cycle. This cycle is going to get less over time. But it is constantly going to be something that you need to think about to keep your home in order. And we're not talking about people who are naturally disorganised here, we're talking about everybody. So Ingrid and I, you know, we have fairly decluttered houses as you might expect. But we're still going through these things, changing our thought processes every day people talk to us in our membership in the Facebook group. People leave reviews on our podcast and tell us about things that we've not thought about. We can't think about every single component of every piece of stuff that there is. So that's it. That's the reset your home system, reset your home, thought by thought, room by room, and day by day. It sounds quite simple, doesn't it? Ingrid?

Ingrid  19:48  
You know what the interesting thing is, the members in our membership who are following our roadmap, are actually saying it does get easier. The beginning is really hard but Once I'm building up this decluttering muscle, I'm getting better and better at making decisions and decluttering. But not only that, I'm keeping on top of it. And one of our members actually said that she had a chair that was constantly a dumping ground. But actually now she's still managing to keep that cheer clean of stuff, because she's got her systems in place, and she know where items have to go. And she's got a laundry system, and she knows where her clothes go. And it all starts to come together. And that's why the cycle is, is so important. It is a cycle that kind of goes round and round, but it gets easier, we promise you.

Lesley  20:42  
So now it's time to talk about our lovely free five day decluttering challenge called the reset your home challenge. So how is it going to work?

Ingrid  20:52  
Ingrid? Yes, Lesley. So the challenge five days now the first four days, we are going to focus on two things, a specific room or area in your house, and the thoughts that are holding us back from decluttering success. These are the two key parts of our reset your home system. So the thought by thought and the room by room. So day one will be kitchens and kindness. And we've chosen kindness because this is hard enough as it is we need to be kind to ourselves. So we're going to talk loads about that. Then day two is all about garages and goals. What are we trying to achieve here? What's the goal when we are decluttering? Our home room by room? Lesley, what's day three.

Lesley  21:45  
Day three, we're going to delve into clothing and choices. Ultimately, we choose what we have in our home. And we're going to talk about those choices and why we make them. And on day four, we're going to do the dreaded paperwork, and procrastination, which is definitely a thing that happens with decluttering, isn't it? So we're going to talk about why we put these decisions off.

Ingrid  22:09  
And then day five, we are going to tackle routines and realism. Because we're all about keeping it real, aren't we, Lesley and that's the day by day bit of our cycle. So how does it work? How does this challenge work? Then let's see what do people need to do?

Lesley  22:27  
So first of all, Ingrid and I are going to go live every day because we love going live, don't we?

Ingrid  22:32  
Yes, my that's my gonna, that's gonna be my favourite bit,

Lesley  22:35  
Lesley, of course is we love to talk, we're going to have worksheets to guide you a little bit. And for you to to be able to put your thoughts down on paper, nothing too major, you know, we're going to talk about six different ways it's not going to be a huge workbook, it's going to be a little worksheet that you need to fill out. And just to just to solidify those goals, we're going to have a Facebook group, which is going to be free. And then we're going to have lots of little extra bonus goodies, aren't we over the course of those five days to help you along in your decluttering.

Ingrid  23:03  
So if you'd like to know more about our challenge, go to declutter. hub.com, forward slash reset challenge. You can sign up starting now you can sign up I mean, I know it's not until the 14th of the September, but you can sign up now and get involved. And if you're thinking to yourself, you know what, this sounds fantastic. I want to think about my goals and about kindness and about choices and about procrastination. And I want to learn more about room by room. And I want to know what the reset your home system is in this cycle. You're in the right place to come and join our challenge.

Lesley  23:39  
So decluttering 101, done Ingrid, the reset your home system? What are we thinking?

Ingrid  23:46  
You know, we noticed is working. We're seeing it with our members in our membership. And that's why we're doing this challenge because we want to share with more people, you can do it. You can declutter and organise your house, you don't have to have some sort of secret gene in your body to make sure that you can do this. Everyone can do it and we can teach you how. So come and join our challenge and be inspired to do that, too. So thanks everyone so much for listening. That's it for this episode. And we can't wait to see you all in our challenge. So don't forget to sign up. And if you're if you really enjoyed this podcast, please share it with others, maybe your friends or family would love our show to and on our show notes page. On our website, you can find all the sharing buttons. And if you would like to have some more handy tips and advice from us. You can find this in lots of places. We have a fab support a Facebook group go to diclofenac community, which is a great starting point. We are also on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to where you can find us at declutter hub. We'd love to see you there. If you're thinking to yourself, you know what I Don't um don't want to challenge I want to become a member because Ingrid Alessi completely makes sense to me. I love how they keep it real I love how they speak no nonsense talk on this podcast, and I am ready to do my house thing. Go to members declutter hub.com And to find out more about our VIP membership. Now of course, if you don't want to miss the next episode on this podcast, please subscribe and it will pop into your notifications each Friday. We love reading your review. So if you're listening a lot to this podcast, leave us a review and tell us how you feel about the podcast. So thanks so much for listening and see you next time.

Outro  25:44  
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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Recent Posts
Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success

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

Episode 386 – 10 Tell-Tale Signs that you need to Declutter your House

Episode 385 – Life Skills for Kids with Katie Kimball

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Liz says:

23 March 2022 at 12:37 AM

I love this podcast! An absolute gem, each and every episode. I have learned so, so much.

Reply
1. Ingrid Jansen says:
  
  23 March 2022 at 2:17 PM
  
  Thank you Liz for letting us know!
  
  Reply
Episode 101 – Decluttering with the Reset Your Home System

Episode 388 – Start as you mean to go on – plan 2026 for decluttering success

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

Episode 386 – 10 Tell-Tale Signs that you need to Declutter your House

Episode 385 – Life Skills for Kids with Katie Kimball

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Reset Your Home

Unpack your emotions and your clutter, step by step
