A home filled with clutter causes stress, feelings of overwhelm, and embarrassment. Decluttering is a must when you desire an organized and simplified home. Learn how to declutter and start the purging process so you will have success in simplifying home and life.
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Full Episode Transcription (not edited):
A home filled with clutter causes stress, feelings of overwhelm and embarrassment. Decluttering is a must. When you desire an organized and simplified home, learn how to declutter and start the purging process. So you will have success in simplifying home and everyday life.
(00:15):
Hey moms, welcome to the intentional edit podcast. Do you wanna stop feeling overwhelmed and find only 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 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 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 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 life and home. Come on. It’s time to create a life you love.
(01:26):
I’ve begun last year with purging more and more areas of my home. This podcast surely helps me to not become overwhelmed, keeps it simple and thoughtful process. I love keeping a clean home. Thank you, Lauren. That was a review that was left on the apple podcast app. And I want to remind you that through the end of April, I am having a ConEst where you can win a free coaching session with me. All you have to do to be entered in this contest is leave a review for the intentional edit podcast and include your full name in that. The only reason you have to leave your full name is so that I have a way to identify who left the review and a way to contact you. If you happen to be the winner of the free coaching session reviews, help podcasts get discovered and rank on the chart so that listeners can find them and other people can get the information that I am sharing on this podcast.
(02:19):
So thank you so much. If you feel inclined to leave a review, I would re appreciate it. It’s super simple. So easy to do. It’ll only take you a minute or two. All you have to do is scroll down on the podcast app where you’re listening to the intentional edit podcast and click on, leave a rating or review type up a sentence or two right there include your name and you will be entered in to win a one on one coaching session with me. As long as you’re listening to this before the end of April, 2022, you can head over to leave the review and you will be entered in to win that coaching session. So if you’ve been wanting a coaching session now is your time to, or your chance to get a free coaching session. If you happen to be the winner from leaving that review, thank you for being here for episode 49.
(03:09):
This episode is going to focus on decluttering and purging because I’m always getting questions about decluttering and purging and why is it so hard, hard for some people to let go of items, even when they know they will feel better when their home is cleaner and more organized. So let’s go deep and talk about all things decluttering today. How do people feel when they have a lot of clutter around them? Clutter is anything lying around the house that is untidy and out of place, or doesn’t have a place it’s really anything that is lying around in an untidy. Mass clutter is common. It causes stress. It takes up your time. It takes up your energy. It’s an unsettling, heavy feeling in your home that makes it hard to relax and unwind. And it’s even overstimulating for your nervous system and can cause sensory overload. And a lot of times people identify clutter as something that makes them feel embarrassed.
(04:07):
When people come to their home or stop by to visit. When you eliminate clutter, you feel better. You have more time, stress and anxiety can be reduced. Overall purging PHY physical clutter is also decluttering for the mind when you devote time and spend minutes of your day decluttering, you’re eliminating the distraction and that heavy feeling that the clutter is weighing you down. It’s bringing you down in your surroundings, living in a clutter free zone or a space that has significantly less clutter can and energize you and really make you feel better. Most people can relate to a time where a friend or family member has called or sent you a text and said, they’re gonna stop by to pick something up or drop something off or it’s at any time that it’s an unexpected visit from someone that you know, and you feel that an immediate stress and scramble because the house isn’t what you want it to be.
(05:06):
It’s messy. There’s stacks of paper or mail, maybe dirty clothes out things aren’t hung up. There’s an overall mess, maybe all over or just in different areas, but it can bring on those feelings of embarrassment and a shame. And it’s stressful to run around frantically. When you know, this person is on their way over and pick things up as much as you can, but it’s not to your liking. And you feel this overall sense that you don’t want people to think that you are messy, or you don’t know how to clean your house, but because of the clutter and because you don’t have sister in place, the clutter creeps in quickly. And is there, it’s usually there when your home is decluttered and you have come up with organization and systems to take care of the things that we use on a regular basis that are constantly coming and going.
(05:58):
That’s when you can breathe and you feel more at ease, you don’t have to scramble around because that friend just sent you the text that they’re stopping by in 15 minutes, you can have them over unexpectedly and it’s easier. It’s some, you can finally enjoy these people when they stop by. You can spend a few minutes with them and you can stop making excuses for how your home looks or how you think it looks because it’s not up to the standards that you want. Another example would be not having people over and not socializing, not doing things because you feel bad, or you have maybe a little bit of feelings of being ashamed around the state of the house, because the clutter adds to that. Even if your house is clean and you are great at the upkeep, when there are things that don’t have a home and stacks here and there, or things, obviously out of place like sitting on kitchen counters and the kitchen table and all of that, a lot of, of times you are inclined to say, no, you don’t wanna have someone over.
(07:01):
You don’t wanna do things that bring people to your house, because it would take a lot of effort to get to the point of decluttering and get to the point where the home is more of a clutter-free zone. Your kitchen counters are clean. There’s a place to sit. There’s not stacks of mail or papers or coats and all kinds of, of things all over the place. Last year, I decided to put wallpaper up in one of my bathrooms and my neighbor saw that I was doing this, and we had talked about it a couple times. And she mentioned that she wanted to come see the wallpaper and how it worked, because that is something that she wants to do in her home. That her husband thinks that the wallpaper won’t work because we have like a light texture on our walls here. So I was like, yeah, come over anytime.
(07:46):
You know, just let me know. You can come see it. She hadn’t come in to see it. And I kind of forgot about it. But a few weeks ago, she sent me a text one day and said my sister-in-law’s here. And she wants to do wallpaper in her new house. And I wanna do wallpaper. Could we come over and see where you put the wallpaper in your bathroom? Well, we were skiing that day and actually had just left the mountain to drive home, which was about an hour and a half away. So I text her and I said, absolutely, but we’re not home. I’ll be home in less than two hours. You could stop by then when you see us pull into the driveway, just come on over. If my house was full of clutter and had things all over, I wouldn’t have been able to say that.
(08:28):
And that is a very real situation for a lot of people. My house was in no way in perfect shape, but because I do have systems and I, I am intentional about me making sure that everything that we bring into our home has its own home and location to be stored when it’s not in use. Then the majority of our belongings have a place to go. Was the house model home looking? No, it wasn’t because people live here. But the overall feeling was that things are kept up and put away and orderly. When we got home that day and I’m carrying in all sorts of helmets from activities on the mountain and a bag with snacks and water bottles and all the stuff that we had from the car and extra coats and all that gear that goes along, skiing and snowboarding. I walked in, set it on the counter and that looked messy.
(09:20):
But that was about the time that she walked through the door. Were there coats hanging in my mud room on the hooks? Yes. Were there shoes in the baskets? Absolutely because we live here, but those things aren’t in a designated place. So it doesn’t ache. It seemed messy. Even then I did mention to her, I was like, oh my gosh, I’m sorry. It’s such a mess. And by that, I just meant, I just walked in with arm, pulls full of stuff from a day of skiing and mountain activities. Put those on the counter and I will spend five minutes putting all that stuff away. But she came in, we looked at the wallpaper, we about some decorating and decor stuff with her and her sister-in-law, everything was fine. It wasn’t a big deal. If my house was full of clutter, I would’ve had to make an excuse to not do that because I would’ve been uncomfortable with someone seeing the messy state of the home.
(10:11):
There are so many benefits to clearing the clutter, being organized, having is for your belongings, having a spot where your belongings live when they’re not being used. And it helps with the overall wellbeing of how you feel and bringing simplicity. It’s very simple to say yes to someone stopping by. And it’s so much easier for that. Not to cause overwhelming stress in your life, just because you took the time to declutter and purge at this time in your life. So going forward, unexpected guests are not an issue. It was okay for her to come over without prayer warning, because I have systems for things in my home, coats are on hooks. It wasn’t perfectly cleaned. I hadn’t deep cleaned that morning. It wasn’t a perfect scenario, but I didn’t have to stress about it because of the systems that I have in place. And you can do that too.
(11:03):
You can have the simplicity in your life. You can have the organized home. You can do all of this by following the steps and other episodes where I give you the puring plans and the how to guides on organizing with these tools. You can to this point where you have a simplified home in life too, when we’re in the stage of life where we know we have a lot of clutter and we’re desiring to be more organized, it’s only normal to have hesitation around these big decluttering projects. If this is not something that comes naturally to you, then the thought of purging and getting organized is overwhelming. When you are in the right mindset and you’re looking forward to the outcome of what will happen, what the result is, once the clutter is gone, then that hesitation and those overwhelming feelings are drastically reduced. The hesitation turns into motivation because you’re excited about the outcome.
(11:58):
If you have a good to cluttering step by start process, you won’t have to be frustrated. You won’t have failure. I can almost guarantee that if you are listening to this episode, wanting to know about how to clear the clutter in your home, how to pur you have tried to get rid of stuff before you have gone through a drawer or a room in your house. You’ve taken things to a donation center. This isn’t your first time trying to declutter and purge. You might have feelings come up of frustration with the idea of tackling this type of a process. And don’t be hard on yourself to that is totally normal. I have a step by step guide that will help you with purging. If you follow this, you will have success with purging every single area of your home. It works for every drawer, every cabinet, every room.
(12:47):
And I have used it with clients and friends and family and even myself over and over again. I don’t have enough time, one episode to go through all of that. So go listen to episode three and eight. Those episodes go over the purging plan that I use with my clients. And I know that it works. It’s something that has been used over and over with great success. It gives you the tools and walks you through what exactly to do step by step. If you don’t know, oh, whether to let go of something, whether to keep it or whether to donate it, it helps you with all of that. So those are episode three and eight that I want you to listen to after this one. And those will help you with your purging process. It will literally give you the step and examples that can teach you how to purge no matter what the purge process is.
(13:35):
If you feel stressed out at home and you can’t find the things that you are looking for, then decluttering is a must. You have to declutter. Remember clutter is not just physical stuff. It’s old ideas, toxic relationships and bad habits. Clutter is about anything that does not support your better self. So you don’t need it and you don’t use it and you don’t want it. It can be identified as clutter and something that can be tossed or donated. And when you go listen to episode three and eight, you will understand the entire process to start purging and decluttering in your home. Right now. I want you to take a minute and imagine that you are at home living a regular day, doing the things that you normally do, what is causing you, frustration? What are you doing when you feel frustrated? Because of the stuff that has accumulated in your home?
(14:28):
Is it when you walk in the door and there’s piles of stuff everywhere, is it in your kitchen? Is it in the laundry room? Because you are fumbling over piles of dirty laundry and you can’t easily get to the washing machine. Is it in your closet? You can never find anything. The wear there’s clothes piled all over broken hangers, things that don’t fit anymore. Where is the frustration? Take a few seconds to think about this. And if this is something that is causing you frustration on a regular basis, these areas are probably going to pop into your mind within just a few seconds. And there might, it might just be one, but more than likely. There’s a couple areas that cause you frustration at least a couple times throughout the week. So take a couple seconds. Think about that right now. You just identified the starting point of your project.
(15:19):
You might have identified the starting point and the second one and the third one, but whatever you thought of that was the most frustrating. That’s where you’re going to start. That’s the first thing you are going to do to the first thing you’re going to deal with. And you’re going to listen to episode three and eight. So, you know, the purging process, you know, the purging plan and you will use that process to declutter and purge the space that you just imagined when you were visualizing your home, starting is often the hardest part of any project or anything that you’re tackling, but here you are, you’re ready to begin your decluttering journey. So you can finally find what you’re looking for when you need it. You can stress less, reduce the feelings of overwhelm in your home, gain your time back, stop wasteful spending, and bring your peace.
(16:08):
Just bring you an overall peace of mind and enjoy more. Have time, time to spend with your favorite people, doing the things that you guys truly want to be doing. Good luck on your purging decluttering before you know it, this part will be behind you and a simplified living space is just the beginning of what you will have gained. I’m really excited that you are on this journey and you are going to start to feel the benefits of DEC during and purging. Very soon. Don’t forget about the contest that I have going on. The contest is for one free coaching session with me, it’s a one-on-one coaching session. All you have to do is go scroll down on the podcast page for the intentional edit podcast, wherever you’re listening to this and click on where it says rating or review, leave a review. It can be a sentence or longer, whatever you would feel inclined to do, make sure you include your full name and that review so that I can identify who you are and find you when you might possibly be at the winner of the coaching session.
(17:09):
If you are wanting a coaching session with me, you can always go to the link in the podcast description, click on that and just book a session. But you could also try to win one with this contest. And all you have to do is leave a review with your full name, to be entered in that contest. One-on-one coaching sessions with me are a lot of fun. I love helping people, personalize systems and routines that are specific and individualized to them in a coaching session systems and routines are a common thing we work on, but decluttering, purging plans, organizing time management, working on scheduling strategies for your family and the busy calendars that you keep and really anything that will help you with organization decluttering systems and more we can cover it in a coaching session, leave a review on the intentional edit podcast with your full name, so that I can announce the winner.
(18:01):
When this contest ends at the end of April, if you know, you can’t wait for the contest and to possibly be the winner of the free one on one coaching session, you can always click on the link in the podcast description and book a coaching session with me that we can get on the calendar very soon to work and get you started and help you with the struggles that you are experiencing with systems decluttering, home organization, and so much more. Thank you for listening to another episode of the, the intentional edit podcast. I appreciate you more than, you know, I will meet you back here next week for the next tip Tuesday episode.
(18:39):
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 from you. Be sure to let me, you 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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