Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Why you need to EDIT your home today | Clutterbug Podcast # 90

Episode Date: May 9, 2020

The idea of decluttering and organizing can be overwhelming, so let's change the narrative. Let's "edit" our homes instead. No need to make a huge mess, take everything out or deal with tough emotions. Pick one drawer, one shelf or one cabinet and "edit" it today. Don't take EVERYTHING out, just remove the things you are not using or loving. Take out garbage, broken items, old papers...this is a quick edit and won't take you long at all.        You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about editing your home, not necessarily decluttering or reorganizing, just editing. And it's a small, fast thing you can do that has a huge impact. Maybe the birds will sing about your heart. Maybe the trees will whisper the word. Hey clutterbugs. Welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about editing your home. And this is something, I mean, every time I want to do a podcast, it's because The same sort of theme keeps coming up in my life. And yesterday I had live training and this theme came up again. And the day before that, I was doing a client consultation online and this theme came up again.

And just talking with my kids a few days before that, this theme came up again. And so I feel like it's very relevant in my life right now. So I wanted to share it with you. Perhaps this is also something that you're struggling with. so many of us think that we need to organize to create more space in our home that our home feels full or it's just hard to put things away we don't have room for everything to put away and it's stressful and things aren't functioning and we always say I just need to get organized I just need to get organized and then I'll have more room more space my life will be easier and unfortunately

This is a huge myth. Organizing does not create more space. Decluttering does. Organizing makes it easier to find things and it makes it easier to put away, but it doesn't create more space in your home. Yes, folding your clothes into tiny little pockets means that you can put more things in your dresser, but if you're not the type of person who's going to spend an hour folding your laundry every time you want to put it away, that's sort of a futile thing. It's not realistic. What organizing for your style does is set up systems that go with your natural style to make things easier to put away and easier to find, but it definitely does not create more space in your home. The thing that creates more space in your home is letting go. But this is overwhelming for people.

It is just the thought of decluttering is so overwhelming for people that they build it up into. this huge, huge task and they don't ever get started. They procrastinate getting started. And usually it's out of fear. Out of fear they're going to make a big mess. Out of fear that it's going to be way too much work. Fear that they're going to have to get rid of things that they love, that they're going to regret letting things go. The whole idea has been built up into this huge, massive thing. And so for that purpose, we're changing the word to editing. We're editing. We're editing. today. And what this means is maybe you have tons of DVDs, lots of DVDs, and nobody watches DVDs. Let's be real for a second. You stream it on Netflix or Disney Plus or Amazon Prime,

and yet you have this huge DVD collection. And so when I say to you, oh my gosh, you have to declutter your DVDs, I'm not saying to get rid of all of your DVDs. I'm saying to edit that collection to the ones you actually would take out of the case and put in a DVD player and play and to let go of the ones you're not using. When I say declutter your clothes, I don't mean pulling everything out of your closet and like touching it to see if it makes you feel joy or whatever. That's crazy. That's so time consuming. I mean opening up your closet, taking a quick glance and looking for something that you wouldn't buy again, that you don't love. That doesn't look great on you and just pull out the edited things just pull out the things that you can

gift to others and that's another way that you can really look at this sometimes the word donate or or letting go or getting rid of it feels really negative it has this sort of idea like I'm taking something for you and that inner toddler is like having a temper tantrum right I don't want to give up my stuff it's mine and this is totally human nature and I don't mean to mock you, I do this too. The idea of tearing stuff from my hands and getting rid of it feels wasteful and it feels unnatural. So when you change the word to gifting, when you realize, okay, this isn't wasteful to gift this to somebody else, I'm not using and loving, it's just wasting my space. Holding onto this is not giving to me, it's taking from me.

When you can change your mindset and your mind frame and your wording that you're saying to yourself to those things, it makes it so much easier. So I have a challenge for you. It's the editing challenge. I want you to pick one drawer or one shelf or one pile, one closet, and I want you to edit it. I want you not to pull everything out and make a huge mess. I want you to open that drawer and look inside for anything that you haven't used and that you don't love and that isn't giving to you. It could be broken things.

It could be pens that don't work. It could be old receipts. It could be wrappers. I don't know. If you live in my house, there's candy wrappers shoved everywhere from my children. But my point is, when is the last time you have done that? When is the last time you've gone through your cabinets, your drawers? drawers, your closets, those piles, and edited. It's probably been a while because we think of

decluttering as this huge undertaking. Even our 30-day decluttering challenge, which is 15 minutes, tasks broken down by different areas of your home, that requires you to pull everything out, make a huge mess, make decisions, and put everything back. I don't want you to do that. I want you to just edit. I want you to take a look at your bookcase and say, are there any of these books, even though they all fit, maybe you have lots of room. But ask yourself, are there any of these books that I could gift to people who are stuck at home? Are there any of these books that I wouldn't read again that someone else could enjoy? Are there any of these toys piled up in the corner that are my kids that they don't play with? That I could put on the front lawn with a sign,

free toys and that the neighborhood kids could come and get joy from and collect. In this time where so many people are stuck at home, can't go to stores, can't go to school, can't be with friends, what a wonderful time to have a free sale on your front lawn with the things that you have edited from your home. And you can do this through, you know, Facebook Marketplace and you can have people come at different times and still do social isolation and social distancing, but really turn this into such a positive thing. Take this time when you are at home and you're like crushing Netflix and eating all your quarantine snacks. Why not edit your home a little bit? Because the only thing that's going to happen

is you're going to feel great about the stuff that you are gifting to others and you're also going to make every single day in your house easier because you're going to have more space. You're going to have, it's going to be easier to find things and easier to put it away. You're going to feel less stressed. You're going to have less mental and physical clutter because every single object that you own, every single thing from the pen to the books to the pieces of paper, it's all in your mind. Your mind is keeping inventory of everything that you own.

and it's exhausting. So make sure that things you are holding on to are worth the space, not only that it's taking up in your house, but the space it's taken up in your head too. It doesn't have to be a big, messy job. It doesn't have to be hours or days or weeks of your time. It's just opening up a drawer and looking at, in it and pulling out stuff you're not using and loving, taking out stuff that isn't giving to you,

and putting it in a bag or a box for gifting to others. Or garbage, if it's receipts or candy wrappers, please, please don't give those to others. That is garbage. But hopefully you're totally, um, is sort of getting my point here. I just, I think so often we overthink, we overanalyze, we overstress about the things that we want to accomplish in life. And I really want to help you just break it down into a simple step one thing editing not donating not decluttering editing it's an easy simple way to look at it and it definitely takes the stress and overwhelm out of the equation so that it feels like it's something that i can actually do that i can actually accomplish and i want you to be excited about it because you should be excited about it every time you let go and edit and have less in your home it's a gift to yourself it's a gift

in time it's a gift in happiness it's just all around going to make your life better and again it doesn't have to be a huge marie condo not to bash marie condo but it doesn't have to be a huge thing where you pile all of your belongings in the center of your living room and completely trash your house and spend like days going through the piles and having to put everything back. That's bananas. Nobody wants to do that. Least of not me, I don't want to do that. But I can open a drawer, look at a closet, look at a pile, and pick a few things to go. And I really think this is such a special time for kids to be able to edit their belongings, especially their toys, and set up a little toy store on their front lawn and share and share with other kids that are stuck at home, that are sad, that are lonely,

really bring some joy to someone else while at the same time freeing up some much needed space in your home. So anyways, that is our quick podcast today. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you do want to take the challenge and do some editing of your home, I would love it if you took pictures and if you post on social media, if you could tag you. me at at clutterbug underscore m e you can post on instagram or facebook and i will see those if you tag me at clutterbug underscore me m e i would love to see what you are editing from your home thank you guys so much for listening i appreciate it and i'll see you guys next time