Clutter can ruin a good system and decluttering can totally fix systems that aren’t working. Learning to declutter and let go of things that are making life harder to live is a great skill to have, but let’s talk about why!
Big thanks to our sponsor The Organized Home — in there I talk about decluttering every area. And we talk about how certain areas are harder than other areas. I also am really honest about how I sometimes keep too much (check out the bedroom section and my shoes).
Decluttering is an Organization Hero
In this episode
Why clutter can hurt you
Why decluttering is hard
Why I end-up keeping things I don’t need.
Am I just buying something that is on sale?
Methods to declutter
Other things that might interest you
5 Things for Easier Organizing
Podcast on decluttering your kitchen
Producer: Drew Erickson
Check out my other household tips podcasts:
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Transcript
[00:00:00.205] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys, welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on Episode 88, we follow an evil villain.
[00:00:10.855] – Hilary Erickson
At every turn, we feel like we buy things that are important, and yet somehow they turn into this villain. Today we’re talking about clutter. Let’s untangle it.
[00:00:30.445] – Hilary Erickson
Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast, I’m Hilary, your curly headed host on the podcast, where we untangle everything from pregnancy, parenting and home routines. I want you to know that there are no right answers for every family. And I find that simplifying my priorities is almost always the answer. It’s tangled, just like my hair.
[00:00:55.395] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys, before we get started, if you could just subscribe, it lets you know about every darn episode, isn’t that awesome? We have episodes that range in a wide variety of things. You might not be interested in every single thing, but at least you’ll see them. So definitely subscribe on your favorite podcast player. OK, so if Clutter is your arch nemesis, decluttering has to be the hero. Right? And when systems don’t work, which by the way, in the organized home, I have a whole chapter section on what to do if your system isn’t working, because I am the first to say that every system I make is not a genius system and I do have to adjust.
[00:01:29.715] – Hilary Erickson
But almost like I’d say, 88.899 percent of the time, it is too much stuff in the area. And the reality is that decluttering is just a nice way of saying it’s time to get rid of some stuff. And, you know, and there’s varying levels of that. Sometimes if you’ve created a zone in an area, maybe that zone just has too much stuff in it. And you need to either move some of it to another area or move part of that zone to another area or something like that.
[00:01:55.515] – Hilary Erickson
So I think de cluttering is kind of the buzzword. But the reality is it’s just let’s get rid of this and that, you know, that can mean the garbage. It can mean goodwill. It can mean giving it to a friend or something like that.
[00:02:07.875] – Hilary Erickson
Do you ever just feel like it’s unfair that some people can have company over at a moment’s notice? Their house is just super easy to clean up and they can relax on the couch with Netflix while you feel like you always have things to do around your house. That can totally be you. The organized home is all new in twenty twenty one. We’re talking about de cluttering zones, organization systems that actually work. We’ve got assignments and challenges. I hope you’ll join us.
[00:02:31.965] – Hilary Erickson
You can use coupon code UNTANGLED. Look for the organized home, link in the show notes.
[00:02:37.845] – Hilary Erickson
Now I’m not here to say that the cluttering is not hard because I think I can be like, well, that’s why your system isn’t working. You just needed a clutter. And sure, that sounds super easy, but I understand that it’s not super easy. Clustering involves decision fatigue because you’re having to constantly make choices of if you should keep or throw something away. And I understand that. I feel that very, very much when I’m going through a system that’s not working.
[00:03:00.705] – Hilary Erickson
You are confronting poor choices that you have made. You know, we buy things, planning to use them. I don’t think very many people go to the store and they’re like, you know, I’m just going to buy this to stick in this area, to really mess up my system. Nobody’s doing that. They go into it with a good intention of like how they’re going to use this item that they purchased. And then slowly we realized that that was a poor choice.
[00:03:21.135] – Hilary Erickson
And so that can be hard. It’s like ruins my self-esteem a lot of times when I’m decluttering. It is actual work. To declutter a lot of the time. Because a lot of times you got big bins that you’re like having to haul places and it’s like a physical activity also. And so that can be really tiring also. And I have to say that a lot of my decluttering, there is a worry in the back of my brain that I am making a mistake.
[00:03:42.915] – Hilary Erickson
I’m throwing away something that I’m going to need eventually, and it’s going to ruin my family’s life. And I will have made a poor choice. I don’t know if anybody else has that, but I do have that in the back of my head, just kind of like nagging at me. But I have to tell you that having less stuff feels better. And I think we are trained to feel like having more stuff does feel better. I am the first to agree if you’ve been in the organized home, I have a big pantry with a lot of food.
[00:04:05.655] – Hilary Erickson
I feel safer when I have more food around, but I also find that I feel less overwhelmed when I have enough food that fits OK in my pantry. And I’m not constantly like having to move things or nothing is worse than having a jar of Alfredo fall down onto the tile floor while you’re trying to get marinara sauce because you just had too much on that shelf. So having less stuff actually does feel better, but somehow having more stuff seems to be my own personal safety blanket, I think.
[00:04:34.335] – Hilary Erickson
Well, I might need these least twinkle lights some day, even though I have never use them since I purchased them. And I think, you know, that’s a mistake I make. And it always reminds me to reconsider before I actually purchase something. Am I going to use this? Do I have a way to use this right now? Am I just buying it because it’s on sale? Hello. I have been that victim many, many times.
[00:04:53.715] – Hilary Erickson
But am I going to use this? How am I going to use this to have a way to use it right now? I think that’s really important to go through in your mind. And honestly, the more I’d clutter, the better I am making better purchases when I buy. And that’s awesome too, because I’m saving money. And then you get less stress and saving money. That’s almost perfection to me. So one thing I’ve seen that people you can do.
[00:05:12.855] – Hilary Erickson
There’s a few methods you can use to declutter. One of them is to just take a box, one of the boxes you got from Amazon and just fill it up with stuff that you don’t need anymore if it’s too overwhelming to just pull everything out and declutter a certain area. A lot of people really enjoy these like twenty pickups. So they’ll decide today I’m going to pick up ten things and I’m going to get rid of them. And tomorrow I’ll pick up eleven things and get rid of them or something like that so you can pick a number and just declutter.
[00:05:37.455] – Hilary Erickson
That way. You could also use a bag instead of a box. Like reusable grocery bags can be really good for this. And one of the most important things that I remind myself frequently is that I have this one area and I can keep what fits in that area. And so. Learning to prioritize what’s most important to me for that area, it somehow seems easier than that method of like pick 10 things to get rid of, although in your closet you can a lot of times go in and be like, well, I haven’t worn the shirt in six years.
[00:06:03.815] – Hilary Erickson
I probably get rid of closets are a little bit easier to do that way. So just being really clear about the boundaries that you have for those types of items and only keeping what fits can be such a huge perk when you’re trying to use that area because you’re not having to look through a lot of different things or sort through different things in order to get the thing you want. So de cluttering is your friend, even though it’s painful and it seems like it’s not the hero, it really is.
[00:06:29.075]
It will save your systems when they just don’t seem to work.
Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope we help smooth out a few of the smiles in your life. We drop an episode every Monday and we always appreciate it when you guys share and review until next time. We hope you have a tangle every day.
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