141 | Are You a Manager of Stuff in a Messy Home or Are You Spending Your Days Doing Things You Enjoy - Intentional Edit

The idea of a clean and orderly home can seem impossible to imagine when there are toys all over every room. Starting in the right spot and sticking to a plan will improve the situation and reduce your overwhelm.

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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):

When the toys, crafts close, stuffed animals, accessories, all that stuff from the kiddos are taking over your home. It can truly seem impossible to get it under control and removing the clutter doesn’t always seem possible if you are in the thick of it and living like this. Right now, we’re going to talk about where to start and how to get a handle on this situation, on this episode of the Intentional Edit Podcast. Hey, friends, quick tips that make a big impact in your daily life are my favorite ways to implement systems around the house. I’ve been sharing easy strategies and my go-to organizing products for Tip Tuesday on the intentional edit Instagram feed for a few years Now, I’m excited to bring it to the podcast with sure episodes, answering your questions every Tuesday. If you want me to answer your questions, go to the podcast page on intentional edit.com and submit your questions there.

(00:50):

Let’s get started on this Tip Tuesday episode of the Intentional Edit Podcast. The idea of a clean and orderly home can seem impossible to imagine when there are toys all over the place in every single room at your house. Starting in the right spot and sticking to the plan will improve the situation and reduce the overwhelm that you are feeling. On this Tip Tuesday episode, I’m about to answer another listener question. If you have questions about organizing or feel stuck or want to know more about creating systems in your house, meal planning, how to make things simpler, what kind of a reset or restock that I do, what kind of things you can do weekly and monthly and systems and routines that you can put in place or you want to know more about decluttering and purging and how to get all of the stuff out of your house, then you can ask me a question and I will answer it on a future Tip Tuesday episode.

(01:46):

The easiest way to ask a question or submit a question is to go to intentional edit.com and a little record now button pops up. All you have to do is click on that record now button and then it will ask for your name and give you a place where you can press a button and simply record a message. You just have to talk to it like you are talking to a friend or having a conversation or leaving a voicemail for someone. It really could not be easier. You don’t have to worry about sending a text or typing anything out. It is so simple. Once you’ve done that, you press submit and send the recorded message to me. It automatically sends it to me once you submit it, and I will get your questions and then answer them on a future Tip Tuesday episode. If you are struggling with something or wondering how to make a change in your home, what kind of a change you need to make, how you can get things organized, how you can get things dialed in, how you can improve everything so that you can truly stress less and have less clutter everywhere, and overall make things easier so that your life is filled with more of the fun of things that you actually want to be doing.

(02:57):

Submit those questions. So are those thoughts or those struggles that you’re having on intentional edit.com and click on that record now button so I can help you on a future tip Tuesday episode. If you are having a question, I guarantee there are hundreds if not thousands of other people struggling with the same things and wondering the same things. Submit your question@intentionaledit.com and click on that record now button to leave me a message that I can answer on a future tip Tuesday episode. Now, let me share with you a question that was left for me to answer right now, and the question is, where do I start? When the toys have literally taken over my house, there isn’t a room that doesn’t have my kids’ toys and stuff in it. I can’t think in my home anymore. There’s just too much stuff to deal with and I want to declutter, but I don’t even know how to start doing it.

(03:51):

Awesome question. Common scenario. Thank you so much for submitting this. What do I say about where to start when you are struggling with how to start a project or where to start a project? Because that is a question that does come in all the time. Where is the best place to start? And there’s a couple different podcast episodes where I address this, but in this situation, there is another level of vulnerability here because she is asking not necessarily how to start, but she’s saying, I don’t even know what to do with this stuff. Like I don’t even know what this process looks like and let’s dive into that. Despite her best efforts to organize all the toys and clothes and all these belongings and stuffy animals and all of the stuff, it’s just too much. It’s simply too much. It’s overwhelming, and the little things that she does accomplish when she tries to take on these tasks, it doesn’t last, and if it does last, it does not last long.

(04:51):

It’s a big chunk of time spent really wasting the time. It’s it’s waste wasteful minutes of the day. It’s a big chunk of time spent managing stuff, and we wanna change that. When you are organized and and you have an orderly home that has the structure with the systems and routines, those things that are currently hanging over your head and causing problems, and when the clutter is gone, you can start doing things that you enjoy, things that you want to be doing because we have created this intention with routines that make the things that you’re currently struggling with, you solve the problem because they become little habits and things are easier and the clutter, we get rid of it. You’ve gotta get it out of there and then you can start really living life how you want to instead of being bogged down and overwhelmed with the situation in the home.

(05:44):

So of course you have to declutter. You have to declutter first, and you have to be ruthless and follow a proven process from start to finish. You’ve heard me share it before. If you really want to get into how to declutter and organize and simplify every single room, then join us in the Simplified Home Masterclass. There is a link for that in the podcast description. You can find that information on the intentional edit website, but removing the clutter is the first part of the process. Organizing happens after the clutter is gone, the systems and routines and creating that mindset to ask yourself, what are you allowing to come into your home? Those are all key steps in the process, and you have to do all of those things to make sure the work that you put in sticks and you’re not just wasting your time in the process of decluttering and you wanna make sure that you’re decluttering right so that you are getting rid of all the stuff that you don’t need and all the stuff that you don’t use and all the stuff that your family doesn’t want anymore.

(06:47):

You don’t wanna put yourself back into a situation where those piles show up again, where the clutter creeps back in, and then you have to start these huge purging projects and the process of decluttering all over, so you have to complete everything a second time, a third time, a fourth time, or you start it and you never finish. You don’t wanna do that, and that’s why you sign up for something like the Simplified Home Masterclass because it gets you through the process through every step, and if you follow along and you actually put in the effort and you do the work, you will have success because you do every step of the program, you do the purging and decluttering, you do the organizing, you come up with the systems and routines, and you are given the tools to put you in the right mindset to have the confidence to do these projects and to go forward and it carry out the systems and routines long term so that this amount of clutter doesn’t come back.

(07:44):

Now, where do we start? We start in the area that is causing the most stress, and in this situation, she has really already identified that it is the entire house because it’s all of the toys and the toys are causing clutter and excess all over the place, but she’s overwhelmed with everything that the toys are bringing in the the supplies, the toys, the stuffed animals, the activities, all of these accessories and belongings from things that belong to the kids, and they’re all over the house, so the toys it have been identified as a huge stressor. Where are they causing the most problem for the people in the family? Maybe that is the family room because they have really taken over. Maybe if you live in a open concept home where your family room, your kitchen area, dining area are all one, maybe you need to tackle that as one thing and break down the in individual spaces within that so you identify what would make the most impact because it’s stressing you out the most among those areas.

(08:54):

And start with the toys in those areas and you purge and you purge some more and you keep purging. Listen to episode, I think episode 59, and that one is on decluttering and it will really help you zone in on the questions that you need and the process for how to properly declutter. It’s a great resource for you to know exactly what to do in this process, and it will help you with an actual process to use. So be ruthless and start, but go listen to episode 59 before you start the purging. If these things are not being used, why are you keeping them? Kids actually thrive with fewer toys. There’s many, many benefits to that. I’ve done a couple podcast episodes on that and there’s a lot of information on intentional edit.com if you wanna see more reasons and references to some studies where kids really thrive with less and they play with their toys more when they have less to pick from.

(10:00):

So think about now if you have things that they’re not using, get rid of those things. You don’t need to keep these things. Your home is not a storage unit. Designate a specific space and a specific storage that you want to have for the toys that are going to be allowed to stay in your home wherever you are permitting to stay in the family space or this living space has to have a place to be stored. It has to have a place to be put away. Everything else also needs to find a home, but that’s probably going to be in another room. It could be the child’s bedroom, it could be another place, space in the house, a storage closet. Sometimes people will devote a linen closet or a few shelves to toys and toy storage. That’s great. You do what works in your home.

(10:49):

Also, go listen to episode 123 if you feel like you have very little time to devote to this because that will give you some ideas on what to do when you don’t have a full weekend or a full week or even a full day to devote to the decluttering. Episode 123 can help you with some ideas, and then episode 1 28 might be a good one too, so go listen to those. I said, episode 59, 1 23 and 1 28. Listen to those and remember, the decluttering has to happen first. The purging has to happen. You have to get the stuff out of the house, and then we have to organize it and have a good system or systems. Sometimes those systems look like a nightly routine, a nightly pickup, or maybe you are implementing rules, some type of structure around if the toys come out, then you have to put those toys away before a new set of toys comes out.

(11:48):

There might be rules around certain toys that stay upstairs and some that come downstairs, or some are designated to the play space while others are designated to the room. You set this up for what works for your family and what is best for your family. It’s your house, it’s your family. You get to decide what rules you need and what practices that you want to implement so that the toys can stay picked up when they are not in use. If you’re okay with them anywhere and everywhere, then that is fine in your house, but if the clutter is bothering you, it’s consuming you, it’s overwhelming you, then you have to come up with a system to keep the things that are not in use put away, and this can be simple things like a nightly pick up, five minutes an evening, not a big deal.

(12:36):

Depending on the ages of your kids, they can be involved in this, they can help with it or they can be fully responsible for it. The systems and routines are what’s going to maintain. You have to do the purging first and you have to get the organizing done so that it makes sense. It’s going to make it possible for all of this to happen and for you to have a home with significantly less clutter. If you want the whole system from start to finish and you don’t wanna jump around from thing to thing, trying to figure it out, then click on the link for the Simplified Home Masterclass and sign up for that and you can follow the proven plan step by step 1, 2, 3, and so on, and do what is taught in that program, and then you will have everything that you need right there. But you can start with the decluttering and episode 59. We’ll help you with that. I also mentiond episode 1 23 and 1 28. Thank you for listening to this episode. If you want to submit a question for me to answer on a Tip Tuesday episode, go to intentional edit.com and click on that record now button, record your message and submit it so I can answer it on one of our upcoming episodes. I’ll meet you back here later in the week for the next Intentional Edit podcast episode.

(13:51):

That wraps up another quick episode of a Tip Tuesday. If you want to be featured on intentional edits, tip Tuesday, go to intentional edit.com. Click on the podcast page in the menu bar and then scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll find a button that says Record tap on that and record your question or share what is currently overwhelming to you. What is going on that you need help with. I want to know, I need to know your struggle so I can share actionable solutions to help you create simplicity in your home. If you are having this issue, I know other people are having it too, and we wanna help as many people as possible. Head over to the podcast page of intentional edit.com and record your question for me there.

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Lauren is the founder of Intentional Edit, a home organization and lifestyle company focused on consciously editing to create efficient and organized spaces. Lauren believes that a functional home that looks and feels good has a positive influence on all aspects of life. Creating systems that allow for the home to function more efficiently, therefore, eliminating most of the clutter and chaos is her priority. While trends come and go organization is always in style!

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