How can you declutter when you barely have time to shower or clean up your house? If you're a super busy and hardly had time for yourself, how can you possibly find the time to declutter? In this episode. You will learn how to find time in your day to ditch the clutter, even if you're super busy.
Hey there, I'm Nicole from The Maximizing Momma, and I am obsessed with creating a home that gives me more peace of mind, more time to myself and more time with my kids. I teach you the tried and true secrets to clearing your clutter, getting organized, and managing your household in a realistic and sustainable way.
This show is where we talk about things like motherhood, decluttering, organizing, creating routines, mindset, energy, and everything in between. Our homes are the foundation for the rest of our lives, and it's so important to have a calm, relaxing household so you can have the time, the peace of mind, and the freedom to truly enjoy motherhood.
So sit back and get ready to take charge of your home.
Busy it's become such a normal way of life. We're all busy in our own ways. We all have a million things to do and hardly any time for ourselves. I've had dozens of people tell me over the years. Yeah, but I'm like really busy. I have no time to do anything. I have no time to declutter. And I get that.
Really I do. I have four kids. a business, private clients and a part-time job. Some days I truly have no time to even sit down. This past Sunday was one of those days. My daughter had a ballet recital. The rehearsal was in the morning. And I also do my meal plan and grocery shopping on Sundays. I plan for the coming week and I do all of my kids' laundry. Now in hindsight.
I should have done my weekly prep on another day to prepare for the ballet recital, but I didn't. So by the time her recital was over. I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. And by the time I finally got my kids in bed at 9:00 PM, which was two hours later than my younger kids need to be in bed.
I felt right to sleep myself. But on other days, I do have free time. So the first thing I want to say is that. If the first example of what my day was like on Sunday, if that is your every day, then I can help you get organized and create some routines to take some of the work off your plate. So you can have more breathing room in your schedule on other days of the week.
Send me a DM and we will chat. But that's not what we're here to talk about today. Today. I want to share with you how you can find time to declutter, even if you're super busy. So even if my Sunday is one of your, every days, You can still find time to ditch the clutter. So let's get into it. The first thing that you can do is to remember that decluttering does not have to be this big grandiose marathon session.
I know several people think that is the only way to declutter because I thought the same thing when I first got started, this is why I decluttered my garage in eight hour chunks, because I thought that was the only way to do it.
But that's a load of crap because you can declutter in a few minutes a day. I recently coined this mom's magic minutes. So whether you have five minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or any amount of time. You can do a lot in that time. So long as you stay focused. All you need to do is break your decluttering tasks down by individual spaces in your home.
You could focus on one pile or one box or one specific piece of furniture or even one drawer or a cabinet at a time. So, instead of thinking about how you need to declutter your entire kitchen, because you might really need to declutter the entire thing instead. You can just tackle one teensy, tiny, small area at a time.
As an example, you could start with your silver word drawer. If you scan through that drawer and look for extra silverware and kitchen utensils and random items that you no longer need to keep, you could create a lot of space in that drawer in just a couple of minutes.
And if you need to transform your entire home, these short decluttering sessions are what I highly recommend anyway, because the way to take charge of your entire home is to tackle each individual space and get it working for you. So let's say that your dining room table has become a drop zone full of all kinds of random stuff.
You have decluttered the table more times than you can count, but it keeps overflowing and getting cluttered and messy all over again. Well that's because of your, and your family's habits and tendencies to drop things on that table. So in order to tackle it and keep it clear for good, you need to come up with a system for those items that are getting left there.
So maybe you need a spot to put in coming paper or a place to hang backpacks or even a basket to hold library books. My point is the way to transform that dining room table drop zone is to declutter and tackle individual spaces. So you can have room for the things that are getting left on the table.
And the way to do that, the way to tackle those individual spaces is to declutter one small area at a time. So as you can see, you do not need a lot of time to declutter. I would go so far as to argue that it's actually better to declutter when you're short on time, because you'll be much more likely to get it done as opposed to procrastinating because you have all the time in the world.
So remember that decluttering does not have to be this big project or a big session.
Change the way that you think about decluttering and how to ditch the clutter, and you will be able to take your home from cluttered to calm in no time. Pun not intended.
Now playing off the short declutt- er sessions. If you feel like you are super busy and every day for you is like, my day was the other day, then you can declutter in the pockets of time that you have available. These are the few minutes here and there that.
It kind of like when you're waiting for something or someone else. So this could be while you're waiting for a pot of water to boil, or even when you're waiting for the microwave to ding.
As another example, when your kids are learning how to tie their shoes and it takes them forever. That can be 10 minutes you have, that requires a lot of patience on your part. So you could spend those few minutes, de cluttering the shoes by your front door, while you let your child know that you'll be ready whenever they are, and that you're giving them the space to tie their shoes on their own, like a big kid.
Now another small pocket of time in your day could be while you're eating lunch or watching TV, or even listening to this podcast episode. Hint, hint. You also have pockets of time when you're waiting in the school pickup line. Waiting in the doctor's office or even waiting in line at the pharmacy.
So what you can do to find time to declutter, even when you're super busy is to declutter during those pockets of time. Wherever you're at, waiting on something or someone, de clutter whatever is closest to you at that moment. So if you're in the kitchen waiting for a pot of water to boil, de clutter your junk drawer.
If you're running errands, de clutter your purse, if you're watching TV, sort through a stack of papers that have been sitting on the coffee table for the last two weeks, if you're sitting in your kid's room at night, waiting for them to brush their teeth, declutter their nightstand.
I like to do this by just reminding myself consistently pockets of time, pockets of time. What can I declutter in my pockets of time? Now, typically we almost always reach for our phones during these pockets of time. And that's why we always reach the end of the year and feel like we didn't accomplish a single one of our goals.
And that's because our phones are our greatest nemesis. But if you can remind yourself to declutter instead of scrolling on social media, these pockets of time will really add up. Now another way to declutter, even when you're super busy. Is to borrow time from other activities. So, if you think about what you do all day, every day, I can guarantee that there is time somewhere in your day that you can borrow for decluttering. Maybe it's gardening or knitting, or even watching baking shows. Or if you don't have a lot of hobbies, You can even borrow time from your cleaning tasks. So if you spend two hours every week cleaning your house.
Maybe you can cut that down to one and a half hours and then spend the extra 30 minutes decluttering. You can either clean faster or give up a few tasks for just a couple of weeks, a few tasks that are not as important. As an example, maybe every other week, you clean out your fridge and wipe down all the shelves. Well, if you cut that down to just once a month, you could have 30 minutes of free time to declutter this month.
But the example that I always like to give, the one that I always share with my clients is tidying up. Because I'll bet that you spend several hours tidying up every single week because you want to make your house look more orderly. But really it's only a band-aid solution because the messes and the piles will keep coming back as long as you have too much stuff in your home.
So, if you can borrow the time that you would spend tidying and instead spend it on decluttering, your home will be drastically different in a few short weeks. To give you another example. Maybe you have a date night with your spouse once a week, a book club that you love to go to, or you take your kids to the park every Saturday. Well, you can borrow time from that, those activities that you like to do.
Just for a short while, maybe a month or so, and spend that time decluttering instead. You're borrowing time from an activity right now, knowing that it will pay you back in dividends down the line. And that brings me to my next point. You do not have time to not declutter.
Every single day, that goes by where there is still clutter in your home is another day where you have spent way too much time looking for lost the items tidying up and shuffling things around, trying to clean around the piles, and trying to escape the stress. Not only is the clutter taking up all your time, but it's also costing you time with your kids.
I often share about how I missed out on my kids younger years, because I was so consumed by the mess. Because I thought that I just needed to get organized. And I was so obsessed with trying to figure it out. And because of that, several years went by and I missed out on all of it. I don't remember a single thing. I have a few memories that stand out. But I am being 100% honest when I say that it is very, very few. In a three year time span, I don't remember anything and I have no photos to show for it. Definitely no photos with me and my kids when they were that age.
All because of the mess. But once I decluttered the excess stuff, once I was able to simplify our things and let go of all the extra belongings. I suddenly had more time than I knew what to do with. Which is exactly how I was able to start this business and this podcast teaching you how to do the exact same thing. Five years ago, I wouldn't have had time to start a business because I had too much clutter that was costing me time.
But once I let go of it all, several free hours opened up in my day, every single day. And as my younger two kids finally started school. I found myself bored during the afternoons. So all of this to say, You don't have time not to declutter. I know that it seems like you're so busy right now. You don't even have time to shower or even sit down and relax.
But I also know that you don't want to look back in 10 years and feel like you spent your kids' entire childhoods, too busy to remember a single thing. And that's why you need to find the time to declutter right now. Because every day that passes. Is another day that you're missing out on every day. That passes is another day where you're missing out on memories and experiences with your kids.
Because the clutter is costing you time. You don't have time to avoid the clutter for one day longer. If you don't I find the time to declutter right now, your house will stay messy and cluttered as you continue to tidy up, rearrange and reorganize your things over and over again for months, maybe years on end.
So let's get started taking charge of your home right now. Even if you're busy, you can do this. I promise you. As a busy mom, I know that it can be challenging to find the time to keep your home organized and clutter-free. And that's why I am so thrilled about the Declutter Studio. This 30 day workshop is designed to help you tackle the clutter in your home one step at a time. I know that your time is valuable, which is why I have created daily tasks that can be completed in just a few minutes each day. Over the course of 30 days, the Declutter Studio will guide you through decluttering your home, room by room. The tasks are tailored to fit your busy lifestyle, and they're designed to be easily integrated into your daily routine and the pockets of time that you have available. So, this is not a course. There is no curriculum. There is nothing for you to learn and you will never be behind. The Declutter Studio is about integration and taking action.
Because that is the key to transforming your home. So if you have ever felt like you don't know where to start decluttering, or you don't know what to sort through or how to decide what to keep and what to let go of, or if you have ever felt like you just don't know how to declutter, that's exactly what we're going to be covering inside of The Declutter Studio.
So I want you to just imagine waking up each morning to a clutter-free home, with everything in its place. You won't have to dig through piles of clothes to find your favorite shirt or search for your favorite earrings in a pile of stuff on the table. With the Declutter Studio, you will have the tools and the guidance you need to make this a reality.
So that way you can declutter, even if you're super busy. We officially start on June 1st, but you can join us right now and get access to our live group calls throughout the rest of May. It's all happening in a safe, closed door community off of social media where the other members are all going through the same things that you are. So they know what it's like.
They are supportive and uplifting and they will hold you accountable so you can reach your decluttering and organizing goals. Now as we wrap up the last week of May and head into June, my kids will be finishing the school year. And it may take me a few weeks to figure out what days work best for me to record our weekly podcast episodes. I have some really incredible things planned for this community this summer that I'm currently working on behind the scenes. But the first few weeks of summer are always a little up in the air for me as my family adjusts to our new routine. So if the next couple of weeks go by without a new episode,
Don't worry. I will be back soon. But this is exactly why I wanted to create the Declutter Studio right now at the start of summer, because I wanted to create a closed door environment that we can all plug into. I wanted to create a community where you can get what you need for your household. Because I can share all the tips and the hacks and the world here on the podcast and on social media to help you ditch the clutter.
But when you invest a small fee, you're way more likely to show up for yourself and your household. It's like putting in, putting a little bit of skin in the game. And that's why this 30 day workshop and community is just $47. So we can all come together and transform our homes before summer officially starts.
So here's the thing. If you are super busy, the next seven months of the year are only going to be even busier. That means that this summer might be the best time for you to start decluttering. Because once autumn gets here, the kids are back in school and extracurricular activity start up again, and it's like, we barely blink and it's the holidays. And that's why you need to get the clutter under control before then for your, and your family's sake.
So you can enjoy the last few months of the year without feeling stressed and frantic.
So come and join us inside the Declutter Studio. If you learn just a handful of things that make a difference in your home, that help you ditch the clutter and overhaul the mess and get organized. Even if you just learn a handful of things, it will be well worth the $47 investment so you can have more peace of mind throughout the rest of the year.
I will drop the link to join us in the show notes. Just click on that link. That will take you to a page where you can learn more about what's inside and you can see some past results of my former clients and students, and then click on any of the buttons on that page. Page. And that will take you to the heartbeat app, a community app where the declutter studio is taking place. It's an app that you can download.
Right onto your phone. That will walk you through how to get all set up and you can enter your payment information and you'll be good to go. It's one payment of $47 for a library of decluttering ideas that will expand the way that you think about your household. A supportive community, live group calls and expert guidance on your specific home.
I can't wait to see you inside. Go check it out at the link in the show notes. And let me know if you have any questions and I'll chat with you soon.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Take Charge of Your Home Show. Go ahead and take a few moments to celebrate yourself for being here, doing this work, and really learning how to create a calm, relaxing home. Don't forget to check out the show notes and feel free to leave a rating and a review so I can know what you want to hear more about.
Because you and your journey are what make this show a reality. I'll see you next time.
