Episode 124 - Overwhelmed this Holiday Season…Find Out Where to Start to Simplify Everything! - Intentional Edit

Are you overwhelmed and struggling to keep up this holiday season? In episode 124 of The Intentional Edit Podcast you will find out where to start to get more done, organize, and reduce stress to begin your journey to simplicity.

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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and struggling this time of year, you wanna tune into this episode? Hey, moms, welcome to the Intentional Edit podcast. Do you wanna stop feeling overwhelmed and finally get your home organized? Do you find yourself up late at night worrying about how you are going to get everything done and not drop the ball? You are wondering where to start and what to do. There is never enough time in the day the piles of laundry are building up and it’s already time for after school activities, homework, snacks, and carpool. Again, I’m Lauren. I too want an organized clean home where my family can make long-lasting memories and be present in the moment. Feeling like there is never enough time to complete all the daily tasks is exhausting. Simplicity all around a healthy meal on the table at dinnertime and a family that contributes to the chores really is attainable. Stop telling yourself that you have to do it all or it will never get done, or that picky eaters will never allow for a complaint free dinner. In this podcast, you will learn exactly how to declutter, implement systems and maximize routines that remove the overwhelming, unorganized parts of life, bringing simplicity to your life and home. Come on, it’s time to create a life you love.

(01:12):

Hey there, this is totally an impromptu episode. I was out running errands and just talking to a couple of friends and something came up that keeps coming up. It’s coming up often in coaching sessions with clients. It comes up with my family and friends, my neighbors, anyone that I’m out talking to this busy season. It doesn’t matter if you are a stay-at-home mom, a work from home mom, it doesn’t even matter if you are a parent. It’s just if you’re a person with a lot of commitments, activities, a full calendar in general, you have a lot going on this time of year. You have a schedule that is full, your calendar’s filled up and you have a lot taking your time. The idea of overwhelm is a real thing. It happens to us. It happens to most people, and the constant pull in the way of being pulled in every single direction can really be a struggle and feel overwhelming.

(02:10):

It can make you feel down and it can just make you like irritable and grumpy This time of year, I think you’ve heard me talk about those ideas over and over on different podcast episodes because that’s familiar territory for the state of your home. Just gen overwhelm, the idea of having clutter everywhere, being overwhelmed with the constant to-dos and the tasks of running a household and life and parenting and all of those things. And that’s why being organized and tuning in to what is important and knowing your intentions around simplifying and creating this life that you want that is simpler, that flows a lot easier than it currently does. That’s why we talk about a lot of those things. But because this has been coming up so much, I scratched my original plans for the episode that would come out today, and I’m just gonna talk about these things and what has come to mind because of all these conversations that have been happening the last week or two.

(03:12):

A question that I always get is, where do I start? How do I start organizing? What is the first thing I can do? I know you want the solution, you want the answer, and the question comes in all the time, where do I start? And that could be for any topic that we talk about on the Intentional Edit podcast. If you’re struggling, you want that answer. You wanna know where to start because your home is not organized. It doesn’t feel organized, it doesn’t feel good. And of course, I will always tell you, you have to remove the clutter. You have to declutter, you have to get it out of your home, but you have to take the time to organize and there’s a right way to organize. And then there’s probably the organizing that you’ve been doing that doesn’t stick. But removing the clutter is how you start.

(03:59):

You have to follow a process and you have to stick to the process. Depending on the time you have and where your pain points are, the starting point will look different for you. It won’t be the same for you as it is for your neighbor, for your sister W you have to identify the best place to start specifically for you. And that’s just with the organizing and the decluttering. What about when you are constantly frustrated and there’s that conversation that I was having earlier today where it’s the constant frustration, the constant overwhelm, and it’s just a kind of a normal theme that is happening in life these days. Moms are telling me this all the time, and when I’m talking and covering these topics, it’s because of all that’s going on. This time of year especially has a lot more. All the commitments, those extra commitments, those extra tasks, the extra things is that we put on our already full plates.

(04:57):

The additional stuff and the expectations from outside people and maybe expectations that you put on yourself that might not be very realistic, that could be family putting expectations on you. Also the school expectations around gift giving, all of that stuff. It could be expectations with your time, financial commitments, the budget is stretched and exceeded this time of year. There are so many things that go into that, but the common theme is here happening over and over again that we have a lot going on. All these things that we are expecting of ourselves to tackle and to do to get done. We have to check them off the list. We have to accomplish these things. They’re causing us to feel overwhelmed and they’re taking the joy out of the season. Why are you celebrating these holidays? Why are you doing these things? Because isn’t the point to bring joy.

(05:51):

Think back at why we’re celebrating these holidays. Why do we get together with our families? Why do we choose to be involved in these programs and events and the extra stuff that we want to do? Is it a big part of that to bring joy and make memories and be happy? If the things that you’re doing are not bringing you joy and making you happy, why are you doing them? If they’re not making your families create these memories and bringing happiness to your family and to your kids, why are you saying yes to all these things? And why are we doing this over and over and over again? If it’s a common theme that this happens this time of year, why do we do this to ourselves? I want you to pause for a minute and think about, really think about the things that you have going on and what your calendar looks like.

(06:47):

What are these individual events and tasks that you have to get done and do they bring you joy? Think about that for a minute. What would happen if we didn’t schedule some of those things? We didn’t do some of those things. We said no, instead of the idea that we keep taking on more and more and more and that brings more and more and more overwhelm. If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re thinking, how can I stop this? What can I do to conquer my day to get more done in a short amount of time? To simplify. You wanna make things easier. And if you’re a listener of the podcast, then you know that these episodes over and over again. I talk on ideas and give you actionable steps to bring simplicity to your home because it is possible, but you have to be intentional with the decisions you make.

(07:43):

We have to tackle these things one problem at a time. Go step by step, one step at a time and be serious about making decisions based on intention. And the intention is around that goal we have for our family or that desire of what we want our life to look like when it is simpler, when the house stays picked up, when you don’t feel overwhelmed walking through your door. When you have your calendar under control, what do your goals look like? Do you have a mission statement for your family in mind? When I think, what do you, when I ask you what do you want your life to look like? Because we have to be intentional, but, but you have to go back and know what are, what is the end goal? What do I wanna achieve? I wanna feel better. I don’t wanna be so overwhelmed, I want to feel less stressed.

(08:33):

I want my home to be minimal and comforting and have the things that we need to be able to enjoy and relax and have fun without constantly feeling heavy and bogged down. So if you took a few minutes and you imagined what does your life look like, your realistic dream life? Now, I don’t want you to come up with some like crazy dream mansion scenario that is, you know, never gonna happen. Be realistic. What does your life look like now? But what do you want it to look like? What does your realistic dream life look like? We’re not thinking about having like cooks and chauffeur and living in a mega mansion and all those things. When I say dream life, I’m just talking about what with your current situation, how could your life be improved? What would be better? What? What would your home feel like?

(09:31):

What would it function like? What would your day to day be like? What would you do in your life right now with your current home, your current family? What would that look like? What do you imagine? How would things function if they were simpler? Does it mean that clutter in your home is gone for good and you have a more picked up environment? Does it mean that you don’t have piles of laundry waiting to go into the washer all the time, waiting to be folded, waiting to be put away, or you’re not constantly backed up with everything running late, feeling guilty because you missed something, you showed up later than expected, you missed something, or you just have too much to do that you can’t get enough sleep, you’re trying to get it all done and it’s just not happening. What does this life look like if you take a few minutes to imagine how your day functions, what’s the flow, what’s the ease of how you get through each day?

(10:27):

And then in turn it goes into how you get through each task. Imagine those things. Take a few minutes to imagine those things. Now, if you’re driving, obviously don’t close your eyes and do this activity, but if you’re not, then take a few minutes, pause, close your eyes and do this activity where you are. Imagine. Pause this episode for a few minutes, just two or three minutes. Take a few deep breaths and imagine what your day looks like. How do you get through today? Are you waking up exhausted or are you well rested? Are you waking up doing the dishes, running around, not having time to get dressed? Are you waking up before the kids or after? Are you brushing out the door? Are you arguing with the people in your family? Did somebody forget something and you have to go back and get it?

(11:17):

What do you have to do after school? You’re not running back to the house back and forth all frantic because someone left something behind. Or are you imagine what your day could look like from the moment that you wake up to the time that you go to bed ready to go to sleep and have a restful night’s sleep that night and most nights. What does your day look like that’s different from today? So I want you to take a minute, pause this episode if you can just for two or three minutes, imagine your day, how your day goes from start to finish. And then imagine, take take a deep breath and imagine what would be different about your day. How would your day look if you still have to do carpool, you still have to make breakfast, lunch, dinner, get the kids to school, help with homework, get your work done, do a couple household chores.

(12:11):

You still have to do all these things, but what would be different if it wasn’t as chaotic as it is right now? So pause and take a couple minutes to do that and then come back to us. And now that you have come back with the things that you have just imagined and pictured in your mind, what was the one thing that really irritated you, that really stuck out to you as something that drives you crazy and irritates you the most? That’s the one thing that is most likely going to be your starting point in terms of organizing, decluttering, coming up with systems. If we don’t have a system, we’re trying to break all these bad habits and laziness within our homes, what’s the first system we start with? So do you have a good morning routine? That might be something, do you have something that goes on after school or are you thinking, how do I implement a chore chart for your kids?

(13:08):

Where is the starting point? The starting point is different for every single person because your starting point has to reflect back to what is the biggest frustration, what is causing the biggest struggle in your home and in your situation right now, when I have clients book coaching sessions with me and a lot of times they want a schedule audit, then we go through what is your weekly schedule typically look like? And we find the holes where the time isn’t being used efficiently and we figure out what are the things that matter, what are the things that have to be done and how can we change the schedule around? And these are so successful because I can give you the tools and coach you on how to come up with the process for properly decluttering and how to make decisions and how to organize your projects and how to get rid of things to have that clutter-free envi environment.

(14:05):

But in the schedule audit, we can see what are the polls and the places in your day where we can complete some of these tasks. And maybe that means putting a load of laundry in before you go to school, pick up into the washer and when you get home, throwing it into the dryer and then not folding it until the kids are in bed at night. Maybe that means that tackling the laundry is gonna happen first thing in the morning. Sometimes you just need someone else, an outside person to revamp some things and it makes things so much easier. It takes the little struggles out of the day. I can give you tons of information all day long, but if you’re not using your time wisely and you don’t make little tweaks to your schedule to get things done that need to get done, you’re going to be wasting that time.

(14:56):

You’re going to continue with that struggle. So when I do the schedule audits, we find ways to save time. And sometimes that means changing the time that you normally do things with the laundry example, it’s like if you’re a person who waits for the weekend and then that stops everything you have to do and you always have a backup and you never get the laundry put away and it’s something that’s frustrating you and that bothers you, we need to change that laundry’s never going away. You can u do one of the examples I just did and if those don’t work, then we find something else that does. You have to find something that works for your family and a lot of families can do things the same, but not everybody has the same dynamic or the same schedule or the same runaround time is, or the same expectations and chores of who does what.

(15:47):

So the best thing to do is to come up with a system and a solution that is custom for your family and the schedule that you currently have because there’s always some things that we can’t move around. But the thing is we can can make a huge difference. It’s a big deal to get your schedule dialed in, now you have to find the best place to start. I’m gonna go back to this. Going back to your biggest pain point. What are you struggling with the most? What are you frustrated with the most? What is causing you the most irritation? When are the times in your day that you are ready to pull your hair out, have a breakdown, you’re going crazy because you’re so annoyed and you’re so frustrated? What is happening in those moments? I can almost guarantee it’s not What is act actually happening in those moments that is causing you the frustration?

(16:43):

It’s an accumulation of the thing is that are out of control that are happening all day long, all week long, all month long. The things that we don’t have systems for. The excess clutter. If you don’t have a good system and a good plan and there’s not a good routine established, then there’s too much to shuffle around in the house. Too much clutter everywhere, too much to handle that is out of control that doesn’t have a good system and routine established for the excessive knickknacks in your home. All of these things that you, when you add together and you put them together, they cause stress. That’s when the overwhelm starts to come. So when I was in this conversation with these moms earlier that prompted this whole episode and everything we’re talking about with overwhelm and frustration and how people are feeling these days, if you have a good plan to conquer all these things, then you put your systems in place, you have your good routines, you have cleared the clutter from your home, your home is organized, you have an abundance of time and not a overabundance of time, not like you are going to have all this time to relax and do whatever you want and be bored, but you have time and a sense that you didn’t have it before.

(18:04):

You have a sense of flexibility and freedom in your mind where you’re not keeping track of a million things each and every single day, every hour, and you’re trying not to forget. You’re always trying to remember because you have your day-to-day worked out with these good systems and routines and that’s what happens when you get organized. You get rid of the clutter and you put good systems and routines in place. You audit your schedule so that it is working for you and your family. So when you’re asking me how do I get rid of this overwhelm? I just wanna feel better. How can I take some of the struggle and this overwhelm and get rid of it and where do I start? You start with the biggest struggle for you. It’s personal. It’s a personal starting point. Start with the point in your day that is frustrating and I keep saying this over and over because it’s so important.

(18:58):

You have to go back to the exercise I had you do a few minutes ago when you visualized your dream day and what that was looking like and what in that day is not currently happening. Now think about your current day and where does that frustration happen? Where is the struggle? Is it in the afterschool pickup? Is it getting the kids home? Is it preparing dinner? Is it making snacks? Is it getting to the next activity? If that’s the cause, what can you do to plan ahead? What can you do to solve that problem that you’re having? You have to prepare ahead of time. Probably you’re going to use a weekly restock and refresh and reset over the weekend to get things under control and then you’re gonna do a little preparation the night before. It will take minutes only. You could look at your schedule and I’d be happy to do a coaching session with you and work on a schedule audit if that’s what you need.

(19:52):

But you have to start somewhere, and that might mean starting small this time of year. It might mean saying no to things that people are asking you to do, the things that take up your time, the extra things that you don’t really need to do that don’t bring you joy. If you’re overwhelmed and exhausted, what can you say no to? What can change? Where can you make these minor adjustments and changes to what you are currently agreeing to and what is currently happening to move towards the life that you imagined? I wanna close up this episode because it’s getting long by saying the life that you imagined today when we did that exercise, when you closed your eyes and you took a few deep breaths and went through your day and how it would work, that is attainable, it’s realistic and it’s attainable. You have to make the changes to get there and you take one thing, the thing that’s the most irritating, you start there, the thing that’s causing you the frustration and giving you the most anxiety, the one that is the most triggering for you, that is your starting point.

(20:56):

If you identify that you know what that is and you, if you don’t know what to do with it, go to the Facebook group and post it over there. The link is in the description below. Ask for ideas for that part of your day and someone can comment and help you, or I will be the one to give you feedback and comment. Send me a message on Instagram. I’m at intentional edit. Both of those links are in the description below. Wherever you are listening to this podcast, you can click on the link and you can send me a message or post it in the Facebook group and we will help you. Let’s get you moving toward this goal of simplicity, this goal of an easier life easier days. The goal of spending more time with your family and enjoying it and not being so exhausted.

(21:42):

This goal of having a home where you don’t feel guilty about having people over last minute or you’re not frantically running around to get it clean and orderly. It’s because when you simplify, you have a standard baseline that keeps it in a way where you feel comfortable with last minute guests. The goal of less clutter, the this goal of a more organized home makes it so that you don’t have to be so irritable. You don’t have to be grouchy with your kids because you’re frustrated and overwhelmed all the time. You can get to this point. If you want to jump in and start this, sign up for the Simplified Home Masterclass and go through each module and get your home organized and in that program, you will start creating systems that you need throughout different points of your day. If you want a coaching session with me, we can do that too.

(22:36):

Or send me a message on Instagram, put something in the Facebook group so we can help you. You deserve to bring simplicity to your life and to your home and to feel better and not have this overwhelmed surrounding you all the time. So how we can resolve these big struggles. Once you conquer that, then you can handle the little bits of irritation and the frustrating points throughout the day and you move on the those big things become little things. They’re not such a problem anymore and it usually takes about a month to get your systems dialed in and you come up with the solution for that one thing, that starting point that was personal to you, create the system around that. It becomes your new habit, your new routine, and then that’s when you start to see things change. You start to see positive changes happening, and then the next month you can move on to the next thing and figure out that next thing.

(23:33):

What else is irritating you? What else do you need to change at that point? What’s the next habit that we can establish in your home that’s going to make these routines and good systems within your home better? And I can tell you, when I work and I talk with past clients that have gone through my programs and used the systems and now have good systems and routines in their home and they’ve removed the clutter, they know how to organize and keep the organization going for the long term. They are having success this year because they’re not feeling as overwhelmed. Maybe they have learned to say no to some things or because their home stays at this baseline, they are able to do more and not feel overwhelmed by those things that we’re causing them to feel overwhelmed before they went through the programs, before they made the intentional decisions to simplify and to get organized, to remove the clutter and to maybe the most important thing, to get those routines and systems dialed in so that the function and flow of your home is easy and things that are causing the struggle now become effortless.

(24:47):

You don’t have to put a lot in because it’s just part of the routine. If you wanna get there, you have to start with the one thing that’s the most significant for you and your family in your struggle right now. I’m going to leave that with you. If you haven’t joined the Facebook group, click the link in the podcast description. Join us over there. Make sure you answer the questions so that I know you’re a real person and you’re not some kind of a bot trying to get into our group. Answer those questions. Then you’ll actually be approved. Get into the group, ask your questions in there post and let us know what is frustrating to you throughout your day. What are these daily struggles? Any ideas on how to help with this? We will give you and I will comment and will help you to find solutions and it’s to guide you so that we can alter these things that are causing the frustration.

(25:37):

If you were to start this now, today, we’re mid to end December, and if you were to start working on this now, you would have conquered something significant in a month. It’s that simple. You can make changes in your life one problem at a time, solve that problem, move on to the next one. You will have significant changes quickly if you were to start now and make these changes now, imagine where you would be a year from now. Imagine how much closer you would be to that dream life that you were imagining when we did that activity because it’s not far away. That’s not far fetched. Before this episode gets too long. I’m going to end it. I will meet you back here for more episodes next week. Thank you for listening. I’m happy to have you here. Connect with me on Instagram at intentional edit or join the Facebook group.

(26:33):

It’s a private group just for the Intentional Edit podcast community. I hope to connect with you on one or both of those places and I hope you are ready to start your journey to simplicity and get that life you were imagining and that is full of simple systems, easy function and flow and organized home, and more time for you to spend making memories with your favorite people. Thank you for listening to the Intentional Edit podcast. If you found today’s episode valuable, tell your friends about it by taking a screenshot, sharing it on social, and tagging me at intentional edit. I’ll be back soon with another episode. In the meantime, find me@intentionaledit.com and be sure to follow intentional edit on social platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. To ensure you catch future episodes, click the subscribe or follow button now. I’m grateful for a five star rating and review from you. Be sure to let me know what you liked about this episode and what you want me to cover in the future.

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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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