3 Simple Ways to Clear Your Clutter Without the Overwhelm - Final
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[00:00:00] Traditional decluttering is pretty complicated. And by that, I mean, The methods that you see people using on social media, especially other decluttering experts and pro organizers, the methods that they use to declutter their client's homes and their friend's homes and even their own homes. It's way too complicated.
So in this episode, I'm going to share with you three ways to clear your clutter as simply as possible without making a huge mess, without the overwhelm and without taking up all of your time.
Hello, hello, and welcome to the Take Charge of Your Home Show, the podcast helping you trade in the clutter and the messes for peace of mind and sanity so you can have more time to make memories with your family and the freedom to enjoy a nice evening to yourself amidst the chaos of never ending to dos, dinners, and diapers.
We're saying goodbye to the hot mess mom life and creating households that are sustainable and supportive of the lives that we want to live and the things that we want to do. [00:01:00] And I am so excited to announce that Simplified Decluttering is now open to help you clear your clutter in one afternoon. This is a brand new quick start class designed to make decluttering a piece of cake so you can get an organized home without the overwhelm and without making a bigger mess.
The introductory pricing is just 57 with two bonuses for a very limited time until March 14th. You can enroll in Simplified Decluttering at themaximizingmomma. com forward slash simple or click on the link in the show notes. And once you're in send me a dm on instagram so I can celebrate you. Now let's get back to the show
So many people feel like there is only one way that you can declutter. Like you have to have these huge marathon sessions, like what Marie Kondo does, or you have to sort everything into a bunch of different piles, and have a pile for things you [00:02:00] want to keep and things you want to let go of and things you want to donate and things that you want to relocate and things you want to sell and on and on and on. Or another way that traditional decluttering is pretty complicated is when you're trying to organize and declutter at the same time.
And so all of these different concepts they really came about because of society in general and what we have watched people do on social media over the last five or so years.
But it doesn't work because the fact is the truth is that when things are more complicated, we're way less likely to get them done. I mean, if you think about it, if you have this complicated to do list that has 30 different things that you need to do, what's likely going to end up happening you're not going to do any of them. And you're going to find yourself scrolling on social media or, you know, snuggling up on the couch with a pint of ice cream, watching your favorite show. And that's because whenever something is [00:03:00] complicated and overwhelming and tedious and frustrating, we tend to avoid it all together.
And I'm not a psychologist, I don't know why this is. I can only share my own experiences and the fact that I have noticed this trend amongst myself over the last five or so years. That the more complicated something is, the less likely I am to do it. Whether that's de cluttering or organizing or tidying or trying a new recipe or you know, trying a new work out routine, or trying to achieve something with my kids or anything along the lines, and God I've even noticed this with personal experiences and things that I have to do, like cleaning up the house that we lost in the fire.
It's complicated. It's new. It's something that I've never done before. And so I find myself really procrastinating and avoiding it. And the reason I'm sharing this with you today is [00:04:00] because. If you can resonate with this, it's no different when it comes to clearing your clutter. The more complicated it is, the less likely you're going to do it.
And I feel like this is a big part of why there are millions of people who are really resistant to decluttering their home, because the thought of it in general is so overwhelming. When you look around your house and see a lifetime's worth of stuff, you start feeling a little bit overwhelmed, trying to piece together how you could possibly clear away all of it and turn your entire household from cluttered to calm. And so when you feel that way, That's what leads you to taking no action at all.
And so many people are never taking action because they're viewing their house as a whole, because they've been taught that decluttering has to be this complicated thing. And then they just end up doing nothing.
And so, [00:05:00] because of all this, I am all about doing things as simply and easily as possible, not just in you know, my day-to-day life and my day-to-day activities, but also when it comes to decluttering. I really want decluttering to fit into my daily life so it doesn't take up a lot of time and it really requires the least amount of mental capacity. I want decluttering to be something that I can make the decision just like that, that I'm ready to declutter. And then I can get it done in less than 15 minutes.
And so with that said, in this short little episode, I wanted to share my favorite ways to clear my clutter as simply as possible. So let's get into it.
The first way that I like to clear my clutter as simply as possible without the overwhelm is to just look for items that I'm willing to let go of.
This is one of my favorite ways to declutter. It is something that I started doing many years ago, and it's something that I [00:06:00] still do to this day. And it's something that I always recommend to my clients and students. All you have to do is choose an area in your home, walk right up to that space, and look for things that, you know without a shadow of a doubt that you can let go of. And that's it. That's all there is to it.
It is the simplest decluttering method that you could ever choose from. So looking around my office space right now, there is this table couch thingy next to me, it has a backpack on it that the red cross gave us the night of our house fire. That needs to go. We don't need that. There are some empty boxes that I had been saving after Christmas because we didn't have any boxes. We don't have any totes or bins or anything to store things in any new decorations that I had been buying over the holidays. So I saved all those boxes, but now I know I no longer need the ones that are left here. So those can go. Or looking over to our [00:07:00] laundry area. There is, um, Some bubbles that are almost empty. I can get rid of those. So as you can see in like a minute, I just named off you know, three types of items that I can easily gather up and get them out of my house. And we're not going to get into how to get them out of your house in this episode. But in this case, you know, they could be thrown away. They could be donated, they could be set out on your curb or given to a neighbor or any number of ways, there are so many different ways to get the clutter out of your house. But what's very simple about this method is none of that really matters. You just walk up to a space, you find items you're willing to let go of you, gather them up, and then you get them out of your house. And that's it.
And it is. It is so powerful. It is so transformative. It is so easy and so simple that I want you to go try it right now. Look around the room that you're standing or sitting in right [00:08:00] now. Find something you're willing to let go of and then take action on it.
So that's the first way that you can clear your clutter without the overwhelm.
The second way is to try reverse de clutter ing. Now this method has a little bit more involved than the first method. But this is one of my other very favorite ways to declutter because it is so, so powerful. So reverse decluttering is when you choose a space in your home. You gather all the items that you want to keep, and you separate them. And then every single item that did not make the cut, you make the decision right then and there to let them all go. And that's it.
So there are a couple of different ways you can go about doing this depending on the type of area that your specifically decluttering. But for example, if you were using this reverse decluttering [00:09:00] method in your bedroom closet. You would go to your master closet, you would pull out all the articles of clothing that you want to keep. You would set them on the bed. And then you would go back to your closet and gather up every single thing that you chose not to keep. And then you would take action on all of it and get it all out of your house.
Or if you were choosing to declutter a smaller area, You wouldn't even necessarily need to separate the items. So for example, if you were to declutter like a pile of stuff on the end of your kitchen counters, You could visually identify the items that you want to keep, and then just kind of take a mental note of them. And then from there, you could gather up all the things that didn't make the cut. You could gather all those items up, add them to a trash bag or a donation box, and get them out of your house.
So this is reversed decluttering because typically we're taught and [00:10:00] encouraged to declutter our homes by noticing and, and gathering and identifying items that we want to let go of kind of like. You know, method number one, I shared a minute ago, of looking for items that you're willing to let go of. That's the traditional way to declutter , you're trying to find items that you no longer need, use, or want. But with reverse de cluttering you're really honing in on all the things that you're keeping. And at that, your attention gets focused on the abundance of things that are important to you, of the things that you love, the things that matter to you. And then it becomes very, very easy for you to just make that quick decision to get rid of everything that didn't make the cut. So that's the second way to clear your clutter without the overwhelm.
And then the third way, a very simple way to the clutter in your home without the overwhelm. [00:11:00] This is what I call beating the overwhelm. And I just come up with these quick little names for things to easily differentiate them from the other methods that I like to use. And it's just a quick little method that you can use if you're feeling so overwhelmed by the clutter in your home, that you literally don't know where to start. So here's what it looks like.
You will choose an area or a space in your home. You will walk up to that space, close your eyes, you'll reach out, grab an item, open your eyes, and then ask yourself, do I want to keep this or do I want to let it go? If you want to keep it, you can put it back where you found it. Or you can set it to the side. And if you want to let it go, you can set it to your other side in a pile of things that you're choosing to let go of. And then you can start back over by closing your eyes, reaching out, grabbing an item, [00:12:00] opening your eyes, and again asking yourself, do I want to keep this or do I want to let it go? And you can follow those same steps as often as you need until you no longer feel overwhelmed. So this method has two steps to it. First you're closing your eyes and you're reaching out to grab an item. And then the second step, you're just asking yourself two questions. Do I want to keep this or do I want to let it go?
And that's it. And this really, really simplifies and streamlines the decluttering process and helps you beat the overwhelm because the reason why we feel overwhelmed in the first place is because the amount of visual stimuli that is in our households, the amount of stuff that we're looking at is overloading our prefrontal cortex, which is the part of our brain that is responsible for decision-making. So when you're seeing too much clutter, your prefrontal cortex feels overwhelmed and therefore it has trouble making [00:13:00] decisions. But when you close your eyes and you just pick up an item. You're not focusing on all the other stuff that you still need to make a decision on, you're just honing in on that one particular item. And then you're really simplifying it by just asking yourself, do I want to keep it or do I want to let it go? And the reason why this method is so powerful is because that simple question of, should I keep this or should I let this go? If you get really still and tune into your gut, you will always know the answer. It will either be a resounding yes or a resounding no. And from there, you can take action and handle that item based on if you want to keep it, or if you want to let it go.
So those are the three very, very simple ways to clear your clutter without the overwhelm first looking for items that you're willing to let go of, or you can try reverse de cluttering, or you can [00:14:00] try to beat the overwhelm by closing your eyes, grabbing an item, and just asking yourself if you want to keep it or let it go.
So that's all that I have for you today.
Go out and try one of these methods today. You can look around the room that you're sitting in right now, and look for something you're willing to let go of. Or you can try to declutter like a desk or a table or a box by using reverse decluttering and first pulling out all the things that you want to keep and then choosing to let go of everything that didn't make the cut. Or alternatively, if you feel super overwhelmed, you can try to beat the overwhelm. So go out and try one of these methods.
And I would love, love, love to hear how it went for you. So you can send me a DM on social media. Or you can always send me an email to [email protected].
Now, in our next episode, we're going to be talking about how simplified decluttering, this brand new quick start class [00:15:00] can help you clear your clutter in one afternoon and then, as a result, demolish the clutter from your entire house as simply and easily as possible. And I'm very, very excited for this upcoming episode.
So make sure to subscribe to the Take Charge of Your Home Show and I will chat with you soon. Bye.
Thank you for tuning in to the Take Charge of Your Home show. Go check out Simplified Decluttering and get enrolled at themaximizingmomma. com forward slash simple or through the link in the show notes. That way you can get access to a toolkit of decluttering methods and strategies. To help you clear away the clutter and get an organized home in one afternoon during this special introductory offer, you can join for just $57 and get two limited time bonuses 30 done for you decluttering tasks, as well as 365 short and sweet decluttering ideas.
So that way you will have everything you need to declutter your entire house over the next two months. Let me [00:16:00] know when you're in. I can't wait to see you inside, and I will chat with you soon.
