Organizing your bathroom can be FULL of guilt, and today we’re talking about letting it GO of the guilt we might feel when we go to organize and likely throw away a lot of things we didn’t use, or didn’t work like we hoped it would.
Big thanks to our sponsor The Organized Home. In there we go over ALL the reasons why organizing can be HARD and what can STOP you from organizing — and then getting OVER it and moving on. It’s SO helpful!
In this episode
Why organizing the bathroom can be filled with guilt.
McKenzie’s episode about throwing out beauty products.
Other things that might interest you
Producer: Drew Erickson
Check out my other household tips podcasts:
Transcript
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Hey, guys, welcome back to Episode 109 of the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today, we’re talking about guilt. I mean, guys, I used to work for the Catholics, so I really understand guilt, but organizing doesn’t. Let’s untangle it.
[00:00:22.900]
Hi, I’m Hilary Erickson, the curly head behind the Pulling Curls Podcast where we untangle pregnancy, parenting, home and even travel. We know there’s no right answer for every family, but hopefully we can spark some ideas that will work for yours. Life’s tangled, just like my hair.
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OK, guys, before we get started, did you guys know how important reviews are, they’re more important than guilt, really? Seriously, if you could leave me a review. I mean, I kind of want to guilt you into leaving me a review, but I feel like that’s maybe not my best choice in this episode. But this is me ladling guilt on you. Please leave a review. Thank you so much.
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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 where you feel like you always have things to do around your house. That can totally be you. You organized home is all new in 2021. We’re talking about de cluttering up zones, organization systems that actually work. We’ve got assignments and challenges. I hope you’ll join us.
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You can use coupon code untangled. Look for the organized home link in the show notes. OK guys. Guilt is one of the major reasons why I don’t organize areas and I find that it happens so much in the bathroom. So this episode coincides with the organized home bathroom section. It is coming out next month. I would love to have you guys inside because it’s an area that’s so fun to organize with other people, because we all realize that we have challenges and things like I’m talking about today that we need to get over so that we can have better life.
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And so today I wanted to talk about kind of the guilt. Let’s just air it out in the open and say that it’s there and that it’s something that isn’t helping us. So first off, how we’re going to talk about how to deal with guilt when you’re organizing in general, not just your bathroom, but I think in your bathroom we tend to think we thought this product was going to fix X, Y, Z and A maybe it didn’t need to be fixed and B, it didn’t.
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Is it is it just me? Or sometimes they lie in marketing anyway. So think about it first. Is the guilt helping you to progress? Because I think there are some things that we sort of feel guilty of, like when we a kid and we lie and that reminds us, you know, we don’t want to lie again. We want our moms to be able to trust us. And so guilt in those cases can make us change and be better people.
[00:02:40.790]
Right. And I do think that in some ways, guilt can help us not make these mistakes again. Right. We don’t rebuy X, Y, Z, because we know that they lie in their marketing. And so it does make a change. And we have to just be like, OK, so the guilt is helping me like we’re five and we’ve lied to our mom. The guilt is helping me realize that lying isn’t a good idea, that we want our mom to trust us.
[00:03:00.770]
So I’m not going to do again when it’s with the mascara that was supposed to make beautiful long lashes. We say, you know, I’m realizing that this guilt is helping me realize that I should just stick to my standard mascara from the drugstore instead of paying more expensive mascara at the makeup counter. Right. So you can use the guilt to help you. But usually it’s about choices in the future. It very rarely is helping you organize better. Right?
[00:03:22.370]
Maybe just me. So another thing you can do is there’s someone like maybe the product didn’t work for you like, but maybe it would work for one of your friends. And there’s no shame in saying, hey, I bought this foundation, but it’s way too dark for me. I can’t return it. Would you be interested in it? See if they are don’t foisted on them, don’t just drop off a bunch of makeup at a friend’s house unless you know that’s their thing and see if somebody else would like it, because sometimes that really helps my guilt when I know that somebody else could enjoy it, that I’m not just wasting it.
[00:03:47.510]
Another thing you can do and my friend Mackenzie talked about this on her episode, was talking about their they’re buying in places that have good return policies, because if you buy it at Ulta or I believe at Sephora, if you take it home and it is not super lengthening, it can go right back to Sephora and you can get your money back. But you’re going to have to remember that you have a little spot of where you return things. You’re going to have to have a routine for that kind of a thing.
[00:04:09.500]
But when you buy it at a place like that, where they’re standing up behind the guarantees, you know, you’re just assured that you’re hopefully going to get what you want. Right. But again, if it doesn’t work, take it back. Use that return policy. And if it does work shared on Instagram, because I love it when people share beauty products that really work for somebody. I’ve always gotten my best products that way. The other thing you can do is just resolve to do better.
[00:04:30.830]
So my dad calls it a sunk cost. My dad was an economics professor. If you guys didn’t know it’s a sunk cost. So there’s nothing you can do. If you bought it at X, Y, Z, you’ve opened, it cannot be returned. There’s nothing you can do. What you are doing is you are putting more cost into that item. Right, by keeping it, by using the stores, by having to rearrange your thing, by keeping this item you don’t want, you’re adding to the cost.
[00:04:51.650]
So what you have to do is just be like that. My purchase price is a sunk cost and it’s not working for me. So I’m going to throw it away before I think more time, money, effort into this item. Right. So realize that it’s a sunk cost and you’re moving on. I love the idea of the sunk costs because so often we have a sunk cost and we just pile more cost onto that item because we’re ashamed, embarrassed, whatever resolve to do better, make a change and then finally realize that everyone makes mistakes.
[00:05:19.460]
Everyone buys beauty products that they don’t love. Everyone maybe buys a larger bottle of beauty products. That kind of goes some of my products kind of go a little sour and it may just be living in Arizona. And then I keep my house fairly warm. But those things happen. That’s not something to feel guilty about. Resolve to do better next time, maybe buy a smaller bottle next time, learn from your mistakes. But there isn’t a real reason to have guilt behind it.
[00:05:40.220]
So if you. Whoever’s listening to this, if it is keeping you from organizing because you’re afraid of what you’re going to find and how you’re going to feel when you find it, stop it. There’s no reason to do that. You can make a change. That change starts by either throwing that out of my way or giving it to somebody. All those different kinds of things. But keeping things that aren’t useful to you is not helping that guilt.
[00:06:01.330]
It’s just prolonging. So take the sunk cost. Move on. Don’t let it stop you from organizing. Right. So what I’d love to hear on the show notes for this at pulling curls is what are you holding on to? The guilt is stopping you from either an area you’re not organizing because, you know, there’s guilty things in there. Or if there’s a product that you won’t throw away, this can happen with gifts, too. Right. I always feel guilty when I’m throwing away something somebody gave to me.
[00:06:25.210]
Why? If they’re a true friend, they don’t want me to hold on to something. And if they’re not a true friend, why do I care? Right. So get into the organized home. We are doing the bathroom last month like we’ve done the entry with the living rooms coming up the kitchen. Do not miss the kitchen episode. We’ve got the bedroom. There’s all sorts of information in there. So get in there. You can get in for just a month and then you can jump out whenever you’re ready.
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I’d love to see you guys inside. If you guys have any questions, find me on Instagram, email me. However, I’d love to talk to you. Just get in there and organize. Stop letting guilt stop you from having a nicer, happier experience in life.
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Thanks so much for joining us on today’s episode. We know you have lots of options for your ears and we are glad that you chose us. We drop episodes weekly and until next time, we hope you have a tangle free day.
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