Episode 47 - MANAGING CLUTTER and HOME ORGANIZATION Looks Different as the Stages of Life Change and Why This is GREAT! - Intentional Edit

The daily struggle is real and can seem more stressful when the stages of life are quickly changing. Embracing the current season, making the necessary changes, and adapting as needed, makes living in the moment and enjoying the little things more of a reality. Episode 47 of The Intentional Edit will help you bring simplicity to every phase of life with strategies to be intentional in each season.

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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):

The daily struggle is real and can see more stressful when the stages of life are quickly changing, embracing the current season, making the necessary changes and adapting as needed, makes living in the moment and enjoying the little things. More of a reality. This episode will help you bring simplicity to every phase of life with strategies to be intentional in each sea. Hey moms, welcome to the intentional edit podcast. Do you want to 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 our 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’s never enough time to complete all the daily tasks is exhausting. So simplicity all around a healthy mule 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 complain 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 of life and home. Come on. It’s time to create a life you love.

(01:28):

This is such a great podcast. Wish I heard it years ago since every bit of opening space in our lives and doing things intentionally not only makes the most of our time, but feels great because it is aligned with our values. Lauren gives you step by easy to follow ideas to make this happen in your own life. This show is an absolute gift. Thank you, Lauren. That was a review on the intentional edit podcast, apple podcast page. And I wanted to let you guys know of a contest that I have coming up that is all about reviews. If you leave a review between and the end of April, you will be entered in a contest for a free coaching session with me. All you have to do is leave a review on the apple podcast app and include your full name in that review. So I can easily contact you if you are the winner of the free coaching session reviews, help podcast get discovered and rank higher so that other listeners can easily find what they’re searching for.

(02:25):

When they’re looking for new information or a new podcast, that is a specific genre. I would greatly appreciate it. If you could head over to the apple podcast app and click on the ratings and review section, leave a five star rating and a simple review, just a few sentences, all that it takes. Make sure you leave your name in there, and then you will be entered to win a free coaching session with me. Thank you so much for doing this. It’s very easy and it really will only take you a minute or two. You guys are always telling me that you want me to open up more availability for coaching sessions and you’re trying to get coaching sessions. So this is your chance to get in one of those coaching sessions with me by being entered into the contest. And then it is completely free.

(03:12):

If you are the winner, head over to the apple podcast app and leave a review between now and the end of April, you will automatically be entered to win a coaching session. Speaking of coaching sessions and working together on one of those let’s get on with this episode. And a few of my recent sessions, I’ve noticed mom saying something along the lines of things that they used to do aren’t working now, or so that was easy before they now found hard or they don’t find time for, and it made me think of the different stages that we have in life. And you can call them seasons in life phases, stages, any of those words work, but as our seasons of life change, we have to make changes around that what life looks like today, the stuff we need, use and want, and even our perspectives on things change.

(04:04):

It’s okay. And it’s actually good. When a recent client told me that she didn’t know what to do with all the stuff after having three kids in three years, and she was feeling like her house had been taken over by everything that comes with babies and toddlers and kids. It’s I realize like it’s only normal. She would feel this way with all the extra baby toddler and now kid toys, supplies, clothing, accessories, necessities, for all these different stages and the developmental stages that her kids were in. And they’re quickly moving through six years ago. When you think about it, her home didn’t have one thing for a baby. We are a child fast forward to the current situation in six short years. Now it has a lot of stuff. It’s not bad stuff, or even too much stuff or unused stuff. It was probably very useful at one time or another.

(04:56):

Over those last six years, for the most part, these were all things that served a purpose and they were what she needed during those phases and stages of life based on the ages of her kids and having those babies. Some of those were probably very short term and maybe only needed for a few weeks or a few months and some for much longer. But now she’s in this place where she’s embarking on a new tear because what she was needing when she had a newborn and a one and two year old is not what she needs when she has a four, five and six year old, which is the current situation to relieve some of the stress caused by the clutter and the unused item. Of course, she needs to do a thorough purge and be ruthless in her decluttering. That’s necessary. One sets, decluttering, and purging is done.

(05:43):

Then she can move on to organizing for what this phase of life looks like. But in order to not feel so bogged down and stressed out by the physical clutter, the purging and decluttering has to happen. First. That’s always the first step in organizing, but in this situation, it’s a lot of things accumulated in a short amount of time that were used once, but no longer needed today. Sometimes hesitation around change makes for us to feel anxious and nervous. And those feeling like those anxiety feelings creep up, but we are in a place where we can embrace each stage of life. It makes it easier. It makes it easier for you or me or anyone dealing with this to get through these changes and the growing pains that come along with this. But more importantly, it will allow you to be present for what is going on in your life right now.

(06:34):

It helps you enjoy the little things can easily be overlooked when you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed out and not present in the moments and enjoying those moments, living in a time where the message that surrounds us is usually more, is more and hustle harder. That’s the message that we’re constantly getting it. We think it’s the way to go. So it can be difficult to slow down and be present and truly embrace what’s happening. Now, the way you dealt with clutter or didn’t have clutter before kids. And I really hear that a lot. A lot of people think, oh, I was neat and organized and clutter free. And then when I had kids, they came with all this stuff. And where did all this clutter come from? So the way that you stayed organized, or you dealt with a clutter before, or I tackled home organization projects, or setting up systems for routines and rhythms for your home to function and flow, those things will be different as life happens.

(07:27):

And we walk through these different seasons in life, overall philosophies, and how to, with like the instructions on how to declutter purge, how to organize and create systems will always be the same when you’re following good procedures. And there are a ton of podcast episodes that I’ve already put out about that, that you can go back and listen to. I’ve recorded these with instructions, how to step by step guides in mind. So you can zone in on whatever it is that you’re struggling with, of those things that I listed and get the instructions you need from those episodes, but your mindset or the way that you’re thinking about things when you’re in a different stage of life and how you approach these tasks will be different from time to time. Think about the present phase of your life, whatever that is right now, what do you need right now?

(08:17):

Not what you need 10 years from now, not what you needed 10 years ago. What is working for you in your home and what is causing you stress? What are the stress triggers? Where are the things that, you know, don’t feel good that are overwhelming to you that are causing you to be irritated. Being intentional with this time in your life will help you make decisions that work for what’s going on right now today, whatever the phase or stage or season is for you, as you are listening to this, that’s what you’re focusing on right now, maybe a few years ago, you were able to go to the gym five days a week for long workouts. And it was easy to fit that into your schedule. But today you feel like it’s nearly impossible. You can still get a good workout in and move your body, but now you have to do it from home and maybe a weekend bootcamp class every now and then is all that you can fit in outside of the home with our homes.

(09:10):

It might be that there was not a lot of clutter a few years ago, but now there is a different season of life or a home pre-kids looks different than with kids or with, with a baby. We want you to be intentional about managing the items that are necessary during this stage. And it goes beyond just the physical clutter, like with the example of finding time for the workout, it’s a different type of workout, but you’re still able to get something in because you’re being intentional. And it’s important to you. Decluttering often developing systems to manage the things that you need and being organized in every area of your home is helpful. And it’s what keeps you not feeling stressed out when the phases stages of life are changing. I’m going to give you a little comparison right now. So when I’m talking about the seasons or eight stages or phases of life changing, let’s compare this to what we all know as seasons in terms of where we live with spring, summer, winter, fall, those seasons.

(10:14):

If you live in a place that has seasons, in addition to the seasons of your life changing, you can look at this as a reminder that we have different things easily accessible at different times of the year. If you live someplace where there’s a true winter, then gloves, hats, coats, boots. Those things can move to the back of the closet during summer, because in summer pool bag, the beach towels, the goggles to take to the pool, all of that is what’s frequently used. So that needs to be in a prime location. The seasons throughout the year are always requiring different items to help us through the day to day, depending on the weather and the climate, wherever you live, but being intentional with winter gear, winter, and maybe rain boots in the spring and the summer items in the summer is similar to how you’ll adapt to the changes when the stages and seasons of life are changing.

(11:08):

When things are changing frequently, purging decluttering needs to happen more often when you get to those seasons of life, where it’s a slower time, you won’t need to declutter. As often. Sometimes it’s a peaceful restful time in life. Sometimes it’s a busy, more hectic time in life. The organizing the purging, the decluttering, the systems need to revolve around what is actually happening for what the current stage or season is in your life. You know, that good systems are hugely important to me. When you have good systems in place, little modifications can be made. You can like here and there, you can make little changes. You can tweak things as needed and it keeps your house running. And the systems going as the stages of life change, being intentional as these changes and these season changes are happening. It can look like this. One thing I want you to think about doing is being ruthless, be ruthless in your decluttering and remove everything by donating it, tossing it or storing it.

(12:09):

If it’s really something that’s important that you can’t live out. An example would be clothing in the correct sizes and the correct seasons for the future of a growing child or a bike for a kid that is going to be that correct size of that bicycle in six months, you’re probably not saving that bicycle. If it’s years down the road, when you know that these things are something that you will actually use, that’s the only time that you’re storing them for the future. Otherwise they’re going to be tossed or donated when you know, they’re not necessary anymore. Remove them from your home. As soon as you possibly can let go of what isn’t serving you and your family. Another thing I want you to do is make that you need and use now easily accessible. Whatever is something that you would use for the stage that your family is currently in, should not be in a harder mutual location.

(13:04):

Make these things easily accessible words today, make these things easily accessible. This helps everything stay organized, neat, and clutter free. And you could always sign what you need when you need it, because you’re not surrounded by a bunch of stuff that isn’t needed. And the things that you do need aren’t in hard to reach areas. The third thing that you can do to be intentional is keep a donation bag or basket in every closet of your home, or at least have one of these for your entire house. If you live in a small space and the reason you do this is so that you can place items there. As soon as you know, it’s something that is not needed anymore. Clothing that is outgrown something you don’t like, you don’t want, you won’t use anymore. You place it in this bag or basket. Once it’s full, it goes in the car and it, the first time you drive by that donation center or store, you drop it off and always replace that donation bin or basket or bag in that same spot.

(14:02):

So everyone in the family can know to go there. If you have room in your closets, I suggest having one and the closet for each member of the family. So if you are in your kids room and they put something on and the pants don’t fit anymore, the pants go in the bag to be donated. You can do the same thing in your closet. Or you can have this in a central location where you can easily have a place to collect donations. And this cuts down on the amount of purging and decluttering that you need to do, because when you put something on and you see that it’s ripped or stained, or it doesn’t fit anymore, or you have an appliance that you realize you haven’t done a long time, or you don’t like the way that it works in the kitchen, it goes into the bag.

(14:40):

The bag is full and it goes to the donation center. Another thing that you can do to be intentional as the seasons of your life change is find a way to manage your schedule appropriately. Add in the non-negotiable things like work and school and events that are a must do that. You have to attend and adjust your routine accordingly. If your work schedule changes, school schedule changes, activities get added or taken away. Then you have to adjust your schedule. I always suggest that families with kids reevaluate the schedules and calendars every school year, because a lot of our calendar revolves around the school calendar and the sports and activities schedules. So once you have all those, you plug them into the calendar and reevaluate where you need give and take what you need to figure out in terms of carpooling or scheduling or babysitting. When are you going to fit a workout and all of those things need to happen.

(15:39):

And you reevaluate your schedule at different times throughout the year. And again, as the seasons and phases and stages of life are constantly changing. You might have to do this a couple times throughout the year, depending on, on where you are with your life and your, the life of your family right now. The other thing that you can start doing is start saying no to things. If something doesn’t fit and doesn’t work in the stage of life that you are in start saying no to it, it’s not forever. Sometimes we have to give things up in busy seasons, where we can add things in slower seasons, trust your intuition and listen to your body. If you need rest, find the time to rest. Sometimes we have to carve out that time and that’s because we are not attending an event. We’re not going to something because we’ve declined.

(16:29):

And we’ve politely said no, because it’s not the right time in our lives to be involved in that right now, this is a good time to push yourself to a new fitness school or something like that, make it happen. If it’s possible and it fits in, then make it happen. If it’s not, there will be another time when you can do that. But by making intentional decisions, that support whatever you are working towards, whatever you’re trying to do and whatever phase of life you are in these things are possible. You’re not constantly in a season of life that requires a lot of purging every three to four months, but sometimes you are, or you’re not constantly in a season where you need to recreate organization because the physical belongings keep multiplying, but you are using the tools from episodes three and eight. Those are tools for decluttering and purging step by step instructions to teach you how to purge properly.

(17:24):

And then also episode 16 will help you with organization. And you also wanna set up good systems and routines to keep your home going and running smoothly for the long term checkout episodes, 10 and episode 32. Those are great ones to help you with systems and routines that will make a huge impact on your home and your life. When we embrace the current stage or season that we’re in, and we allow the necessary changes instead of being resistant, it allows us to be truly present in the moments and enjoy the little things that quickly change those little things that are so cute or adorable, or also so irritating are fleeting. They do not last long, but when we are present, we can enjoy more and stress less. If you’ve been wanting a one-on-one coaching session with me, and now is the time to go to the apple podcast app, leave a five star rating and review for the intentional edit podcast.

(18:23):

And you’ll be entered in a contest to win a free coaching session. Coaching sessions include person and Eli systems, routines decluttering, and a purging plan organization, cheat sheets, time management, scheduling strategies, and really anything that will help you with home organization, decluttering systems, and a ton more. Leave a review on the intentional edit podcast with your full name, so that I can announce the winner when the contest ends towards the end of April. Thank you for listening to another episode of the intentional edit podcast. I will meet you back here next week for another episode. 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 am grateful for a five star rating and review you be sure to let me know what you liked about this episode and what you want me to cover in the.

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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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