Nobody Panic - How to Marie Kondo

Episode Date: November 16, 2021

Tessa bought herself a ‘Marie Kondo Experience’ for her birthday and Stevie has some questions. Please, journey with us on Tessa’s ‘festival of tidying’.Subscribe to the Nobody Panic Patreon at patreon.com/nobodypanicWant to support Nobody Panic? You can make a one-off donation at https://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanicRecorded by Ben Williams and edited by Naomi Parnell for Plosive.Photos by Marco Vittur, jingle by David Dobson.Follow Nobody Panic on Twitter @NobodyPanicPodSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/nobodypanic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Carriad. I'm Sarah. And we are the Weirdo's Book Club podcast. We are doing a very special live show as part of the London Podcast Festival. The date is Thursday, 11th of September. The date is 7pm and our special guest is the brilliant Alan Davies. Tickets from kingsplace. It's coming to London. True on Saturday the 13th of September. At the London Podcast Festival. The rumours are true. Saturday the 13th of September at King's Place. Oh, that sounds like a date to me, Harriet. Clotted. Can't quite see you for all of the mounds of socks that are in front of you. Me? No, not you. Not me. Come on in. My home is completely empty of all things. Come on in. Isn't it free? I was just talking to that third co-host of this podcast that we have who we've never allowed to speak, but they just sit there staring at us. And we call them Goat Man. I was talking about Goat Man.

Perhaps you, a listener. I was going to say, perhaps the listener. That makes more sense. sense, yeah. Look, welcome to the podcast. This is Nobody Panic. My name is Stevie Martin. Full names today. With me is Tessa Coates. To my right is goat man and you'll be listening. I knew the listener, the sort of proverbial goat men. And we are doing, so Tessa is decided, we're going to do this episode based on an experience Tessa had that I think is one of those things that you go, oh, that would be so lovely about, I wonder what it's like. And then you don't actually do it.

Tessa actually went and did it and now we get to find out, A, what it was like, B, should we do it? And C, have a laugh. It's exactly right. What was it? It was an orgy. Yes, that's right. No. Of course it wasn't. It was a Marie Kondo decluttering experience. I bought it for myself for my birthday, which was in September. And I had a little cry on my birthday. And in fact, that's a lie. I had eight or 12 cries. and I thought it was three so that's gone up yeah yeah it was just sort of relentless tears and in one of the cries my friend was like

what are you crying about they're like well what did you want for your birth what do you actually want and I was like well I don't want anything and I was like well I mean obviously I've got loads of things I want I want a personal chef I want to be physically well I want a maricondo to come

come to my house, like these are my dreams. And I said them, without real thought, they were just right there in the forefront of my mind. What do I want most in the world? A Maricondo experience. My friend went on her phone and then just like turned the phone around and was like, there you go. A woman comes to your house and does it. And I was like, what?

It never really occurred to me that like it was an actual service that you could get. The company is called Spark Joy. It is a woman called Katrina. She is the loveliest woman I've ever encountered, and she comes to your home and holds your hand on your decluttering journey, otherwise known as your tidying festival. Okay, I can see that I'm going to be muting my mic a lot through this,

and also want to be very supportive, want to be supportive and will be supportive. Listen, the thing is, you can tease me if you like, like joining a cult. I've transcended beyond. There's nothing you can do. Because for I have seen your drawers. Yeah. And my literal draws as well. They were my underwear.

The drawers in your drawers. Yeah. Very excited about this. Before we get into it, because once we get into it, there's no getting out. There's no stopping that train once. It's rolling. Oh, yeah, yeah.

What is the most adult thing you have done this week, Tessa, Coates? Well, mine is, where did I leave us on the narrative of my football journey? Did I share with you my Lola Bunny theory? Yes, that you want to look like everyone kind of seeing. secretly wants to look like low low low... Or not supposed to you secretly want it, but like as a teenage girl or a girl child or in your early life,

you are like, if I wish to play the boys' sports, I need to be not only smoking hot, but unbelievable. And then sassy afterwards and like say all sort of sassy cool things. Anyway, and therefore I feel when I'm playing football, and now I play every Saturday with just a gang of pals and we play on a rooftop. And I just keep looking around being like, this is like a joke.

This is like a joke opening of a, a film, you'd be like, no one has that nice a time living in the city. What you all need in your life is a Charlie Perkins. Shout out to Charlie Perkins. Doesn't listen to the podcast. I'd suspect doesn't even know it exists. But hello Charlie. Charlie Perkins is a friend of us who is a producer and my lord, she's an efficient producer. It's like, this is the event. This is what's happening. The first time we played it afterwards, everyone was like, oh, is everyone free? Should we maybe go and get a drink? We like, she didn't really say anything. We wandered to the nearest pub. We went in. There was two tables booked in the beer garden under her name like that's the level of efficiency so what you

really so i've been extremely lucky in being like scooped up by by this efficiency i i myself did not organize it so if you want to take on that mantle it is it is a tricky one but then it's just a WhatsApp thread and then it's like anyone got any other friends and then it's just like anyone's welcome and now it's like if we make up if there's more than 10 people there or less or whatever it doesn't really matter we don't play anyone else we just play each other we'd play for an hour it's just just just it's so you're you're welcome stevie you're in you come along like i would love to come along it's like it's so it's so i've never ever played before and i feel just crosser and crosser with each time i play of being like this was denied to me for all of my 21 years like i was like

from from birth till now i've not played because i thought you weren't allowed to play football and it's so silly and dumb and also honestly when when charlie blows the whistle at the end or we get kicked because like the next team of like properly good people want the pitch and we're all just like screaming and like running around the time passed like in a second whereas when I do like an exercise class for an hour from the moment it starts I'm looking at the clock being like 56 minutes it's just very um it's very wonderful I think I would say is that like it felt very much like oh I've been scooped up into this nice get this nice thing that someone else is organized but I feel like I had been like open to the universe of being like I want to do this team thing I want to start playing football and

And then it was like, oh, look, all the things have collided and worked out. So I think just make yourself open to it. Step one. Make a vision board. Make a vision board. Stick football op-its on it. Next thing you know, someone's invited you to play. That's honestly how it happened.

So believe in the power of the universe. Play more football, everyone. I hope I inspire you to do it if you think you can't. Love that. Well, mine is as ever much more straightforward and simple and boring administrative. I, as have recently gone fully vegan. And you're not supposed to say it's difficult to get protein, but it is. And anyone who says otherwise is a moron.

This sounds like it's a product placement, but it's not. I just my hairdresser gave me one. And I was like, this is delicious. And it's a really healthy, good, low sugar, really high protein chocolate bar called misfits. And you get them in like a million different flavours. So currently I'm on, I bought like 70 the other day. of all different flavors. I like, I like these and we're just going to double down on it.

Like, cookies and cream. There's one called Speculose, and I don't know what that means, but it's got like lovely biscoty bits in it. Basically, I'm smashing through them, and I feel very adult about it because it's something incredibly grown up about being like, I'm not getting enough protein, and I'm also going to do something about it,

and then also doing something. I was like, no, I am actually going to try and get enough protein, and my nails grow normally now, so it's actually really nice. Oh, good for you. Well done you. Thanks. Right. Please.

Tessa, just real quick, off the drop of your head. Worth it? 100%. Amazing. Okay. Right. What happened? Who was it?

What happened? Katrina. A beautiful, petite lady and a lovely little flowery dress. Arrives at my house, my flat. 9 a.m. Sunday morning. And she's going to be here for five hours. Sunday morning. Yeah.

She does it all the way through the week. And the week before, we'd had a half-hour consultation on Skype. and just a lovely chat in which I discussed my problems why I think I wasn't why I'm not good at keeping tidy why I've got too much stuff the source the root causes of all the problems rather than just here are some solutions we had a lovely chat about it

what were the root causes like always being overly ambitious with what you can achieve and then never doing it and then like someone's coming around so you just throw everything into a bag and put it under the bed and understood um early like not early like low grade hoarder problems of like maybe that'll be useful one day believes all your clothes are sentient so it can't get rid of anything in case they are lonely brushing over that one quickly um you know so I can't put anything in the bin because you know

all of this nonsense so just like keeps everything and then got a bit of a problem with sort of out of sight out of mind so that's why I keep everything out because otherwise I forget about it if I can't see it so I want to have sort of open plan wardrobes, open things. Otherwise, I'm like, oh, I forgot I owned that. You know, if it goes in the drawer, it's gone. So we discussed some of these problems, yes. Lots going on. And, yeah, so she arrives.

We had a cup of tea. Did you tidy the flat before she'd arrived? Not really, no. A bit. Good of you. I had tried a bit, but it was still pretty chaotic. And also this five-hour experience, you think like five hours, yeah, bloody hell, your house must be immaculate. But actually, you just begin, the thing about the tidying festival and think about Marie Kondo is rather than just like be doing one room, you begin with like clothes.

And within clothes, you begin with like jumpers, then trousers, then socks, then dresses, then this. Like you constantly work through the list. So if you're going to be like, I'm going to tidy all my books today, you would work through of like cookbooks, fiction books, fact books, music books, you know, you'd work through in this list rather than being like, my books. you know so it's this constant like um breaking everything down for you so things that feel totally overwhelming are actually like we're just doing this we're just doing this so i definitely really thought even though i've read all the books and i really know the literature i was like yeah yeah yeah we're doing clothes but i bet through we can i bet we can get through more today but she was like no we we won't so the very first we literally will not we literally will not so she made me go through

the house and i explained where my all my storage was like where i keep things what my like day-to-day life is like where I get dressed where I need things to be etc like what I'm using is storage and then like I showed her some things it was like this is this is a wheelie box under the bed and she was like that's that's that's a bad idea she was never mean to me she was always like so supportive but she was like we're going to find better we're going to find better solutions you kept saying so then you get every single item of clothing you own and you put it all on the bed so this is like wherever they are this is like all your coats or you know your underwear your your dresses like everything out of the wardrobes, everything out of the drawers,

even when you're like, I don't need to bother with this one. I know I'm keeping that. It's like everything goes on the bed. And then you go through the spark joy process, which is which you have to get off with your jumpers. To get off with your jumpers. You have to hold everything in your hands and decide if you are going to keep it. Or, and you have to call it keeping with confidence.

So if you are going to keep something, it's not like, oh, okay, I'll keep it. It's like, I'm keeping this with confidence. Like, I really believe in it. And you also, like, there's lots of stuff that was a, in my wardrobe that's like a 1984 world championship cheerleading uniform. Not mine. It doesn't fit. I think it's hilarious.

Like an original Hufflepuff, quiddish sweater. Again, there's a stuff that, you know, that I was like, oh, she's going to be, it's going to be embarrassing and she's going to see all this stuff that I keep and she's going to think I'm really silly. But she was like, I was like, I know I shouldn't bother keeping this uniform, but I think it's hilarious. And she was like, then keep it with confidence. Keep everything.

Your entire wardrobe could be filled with fancy dress or, like, hats that you never wear or a dress from your great-grandmother or anything, as long as when you look at it, you go, he-he-he-he. Like, that's, I love it. I'm filled with joy. They don't have to be, like, you know, they don't have to be reasonable, good quality, use, like, all this, like, a smart outfit that you wear every day. If, like, it doesn't make you go, like, I love it, then you won't ever take care of

anything. So it's about, like, the total reassessment of how you feel about the things in your house. And then you get to a lot of stuff, and we've like talked about this before, that's like, you go like, ah, I should keep this. Or I, oh, oh, grandma gave me that and oh, you know. Oh, uh, or a lot of thing that was coming up for me a lot was, oh, that's really good quality. Oh, that was. You say that a lot about things.

Yeah. Like, look at the sleeves. Look at the sleeves. Like, I got this. And it's from, you know, whistles. But I got it from a car boot sale. Exactly. The material is so good.

And then he's like, yeah. but you don't want to wear it. Exactly. Because you don't like it. Exactly. So a lot of things were expensive, but I had myself had got them from second hand. And then I was like,

but they would have been so expensive. It's like, it doesn't matter if you aren't wearing them yourself. Or I'd be like, oh, that's linen. And she'd be like, do you wear it? I'd be like, no. But it's linen. She's like, well. Oh, that's linen.

Like, give a shit. Like, it doesn't matter if it doesn't, when you, if you don't wear it and put it on and like, and that's the thing, like with the trilogy. uniform I don't say oh that's linen I say ha ha that makes me laugh every time I see it that's fun as opposed to being like oh I should keep that it was so expensive or look at those buttons or X Y Z and then a really interesting thing came up which was like all the stuff I thought would come up which was like a lot of things

quite not emotional but there was a lot of sort of like oh I have this hoarding tendency and I have all these things and a really interesting thing came up which was a couple of hours in she said are you the youngest said it very like casually and I was like no I'm actually the oldest and then she was like oh how interesting you have and she didn't like this wasn't like an obnoxiousy therapy way. She just was like very offhandedly being like, you have a really, you have a real hand-me-down tendency and you have no trust in your own taste. You don't believe in anything.

And I was like, yes, that's very true. And she was like, I wonder where that comes from. And then after a little bit, I was like, okay, I've thought the answer. I was like, okay, when we were little, everything came from car boot sales. And so everything on a Sunday morning, and I'm not saying this as like, where was me? that this was the most exciting day of the week. On a Sunday morning, mom would come back with like a big bag of stuff

and you'd all get given like your toys, your bits, your things, like, what did you find? And it was like, it was an original YouTuber haul video, you know? It was like, it was so excited. But you never therefore like got to choose the thing yourself. You just got, you just got given it. And it was lovely, but you didn't ever choose it. And then the other thing was that these really classy,

rich, there was really rich family of doctors, really, really nice people, but really rich, lived at the end of the road or a bit around the corner in a really big house and they had two girls who were three years older than me and my sister and we would get every like season a massive thing of their clothes and again this is not a woes me memory

like this is me being like oh my god yes but therefore it was this like here are your things and these are your things and so you never and then I said once I do remember I was like nine and I remember going to some event in this jumper that I love and I used to wear it every had a big star on it and I remember this doctor-dad so kindly being like, oh, I recognize this. And being like, oh, yeah, you don't have any things.

You don't, you know, you don't choose any. You didn't get to choose any stuff. You just like, they were someone else's choice, which is something I definitely have in my life now, which is like, I don't trust my taste in anything. And so she's like, so many things here, you've been like, I should, I should, I should, I should, I should rather than be, oh, like, someone's given me this,

or this is why these things are here. And they're just, rather than being like, I hear are the things I have chosen. This is why this like keep with confidence thing of being like, I actually love this thing. I keep with confidence or I let go with gratitude. So you're like, this is when you like say thank you to everything. If you're like, oh, we had a good time.

We're like, oh, I used to, God, I used to wear that jumper every day. And it's like you're not the person you were when you were wearing that jumper. Something I've been really keeping a long time. Remember that like winter like princess coat? I used to have. It was black and it had like a fur trim. A hundred percent because I remember it because you came out. in it so you went through the whole of winter and you weren't really wearing a coat and you

weren't really wearing winter boots or like you had like you just looked very cold all the time and then you like proudly came out in it in like the end of May yeah boiling we were like it was like why are you wearing it now and you're like because now is the time it was it was like no it's when you're cold and you're like oh but yeah it's too precious to wear in the winter yeah you wear it when you don't need to wear it yeah this winter coat there's little sort of real Anastasia, like, princess black coat. I bought it from urban outfitters. I bought it for real money in a shop. And I'd chosen it. And I was like so proud of this coat. And then it has, I've not worn it in years. It just lives in the wardrobe. And yet I was like, oh, no, like, I was so proud of it. And she was like,

yeah. Do you have photos of you wearing it? I was like, yeah. And she was like, do you remember the places you went to now? I was like, yes. And she was like, then it can go. Like, you don't wear it anymore. And that time of your life is past because a new time is here. And you. And you're, you're you were proud to own it, but it doesn't have to stay with you forever. Like, it can go. Yes. And also as well,

it's nice to think sometimes, goes very emotional. And it's actually quite funny because it's like, she's talking about clothes, but it's not. As ever, you're not. Exactly.

But I like to think when I give, like, something away to a charity shop or sell it on, I put a lot of the old things on D-pop and stuff. I always, I'm happy to do it because I'm like, someone is excited.

Yeah. They've spotted it and guys, oh I want that and that coat deserves to feel like that because everyone deserves to feel loved and I do love it but everyone deserves to be worn. Everyone deserves to be worn. It's such a good one. My friend Emma City was saying the other day that she had given to a charity shop a skirt that she'd like loved and worn but like and were treasured but then hadn't worn it for years and had really been like okay okay gut wrenching but like got to go got to go to the charity shop and then a couple of weeks later in the same area saw this girl walking across the park and the skirt had it was like a long very specific colored skirt which had on it an element that Emma had customized, which is how she knew for sure this was the skirt. And she like saw it walk across. And the girl looked so proud in it. And she'd also styled it in like a totally different way than Emma would have done it. But it's like she really felt as though the skirt like was at the end of a heist movie

where like it like turned to just be like just to nod to the protagonist. And then like go its separate way of being like, yeah, let the things. Let them go. Let them be love. Let them go. They don't want to just live in your cupboard covered in one. because you're like, oh, the memories, but like, let them go, let them make them make more things. So if there's something that you are thinking of doing, firstly, cannot recommend Katrina at Sparkjoy Enough. Secondly, the Tideying Festival list is really easily available online. It is like, it's a very specific way of working through things. So after you've got your massive piles and so you're working through it, and you just get into this like spark joy habit of being like, do I actually like this thing?

If you start saying, oh, I should give that to, oh, Stevie will like that. Or I said, like, oh, I'll give that to my mum. and she would say, okay, let's ask her right now. And I was like, okay. She was like, otherwise you'll just put it in a pile and you'll say like, oh, that's for my mom and you won't let it go. And also all you're doing there is just handing over your clutter to someone else because you don't want to deal with it.

So she was like, let's take a photo and let's text your mom right the second and say, do you want this? And some of the things, my mom was like, oh yeah, 100% I'll have that. But some of them, she was like, I don't want that. And one of them, she was like, I gave you that. I don't want it back. So here we all were just passing around, you know, things. circle. Her other thing was if you say like, oh, I'll sew the button on. She was like that you have a

one week time limit from now. Let's write it in the calendar. If you haven't done it by that time, it has to go. You didn't do the thing that you promised. You're just like giving yourself excuses. If you're like, oh, it needs to go to the dry cleaners. It's like put it on the list right now of like the things that need to the things that need to be done. And if you don't hit them in the week, like off they go. Like they, you didn't put the time in to care for them enough. Like, off they go. Some stuff of mine, which is like really, definitely the quality. of my things. Even I was like, okay, I let them go. I let them go. They couldn't even go in the charity bag. They had to go in the textile donation bag. And that's of like, if you see like a trade

T-R-A-I-D bin on like the end of your road if you live in a city, it's like textiles and they're taken down for scraps and made into other things, whatever. So so many of my stuff had to go into textile donation because it wasn't actually recognizable clothing. It wasn't actually recognisable clothing anymore. It was just like absolutely ragged as shit and like, you know, and also like, and so many things have been just worn to death. I also let go of my sweat pants that I had worn like all lockdown. I was like, be free, go. We don't, thank you, good time. And then it was when we did my underwear, I was really laughing because some of those Marks and Spencer pants have been in there for so many years. And honestly, when they were going in, they looked so relieved. They were like,

let me die. Like, please let me die. I mean, you say, I've got a pair of pants and I'm not, this is not a joke. And it's actually horrific. Is it the, I've got a pair of pants. And I think I've had and like high school, like secondary school. So that's just normal green knickers. They've got a hole in the butt. It's exactly where my ass hole is. Yeah. And it's, the hole has now become so big that now when I put them on,

it's like, ha ha ha, but I do wear them. Yeah. And I had to throw them in the bin the other day. And it was, yeah, it was like, this is absurd that you're throwing them away now because they're not actually, they didn't look like knickers. They looked like some sort of weird sex pant. Yeah.

And the pants were like, please let me go. Please. Yeah, this is embarrassing for me. Like, and yeah, your butt's like, I don't, I deserve more. Like, please. So after you've like made all your choices, a thing that she's really into is shopifying your closet. So, you know, when you're in like a fancy shop or literally any shop, or you say, oh, have you got any more of this? And the shop assistant is like, oh yeah, and they open a drawer.

And there's like, it's just, oh my God, like, they're so neat in the drawer. it's like why why shouldn't you have that in your own home like why not like why not create that feeling of like oh look at that draw you know why not do that everywhere and so she's a lot of work with shoebox lids because then you can sort of like make draw dividers she was very pro like you don't have to buy all the expensive stuff to like make draw dividers you can make draw dividers with literally anything all those if you keep a person who keeps boxes because they might be useful oh ho ho they're literally going to be useful here we go and so you can divide everything up really neatly she rolled all my pants

and then they were like so neatly in the little drawer and then when you see anything that's like not that nice in there you can feel it being like not me not me not in a like oh I'm not good enough and it's like truly like come on

like come on come on when it's in like a massive bundly mess and you root through and you know that there are pants in there that you go past every day and you're like yeah yeah you can say like but obviously not you I'm looking for a good pair when you actually see them like neatly rolled up together, it's so clear that you're never going to pick those, the ones with your whole butt out.

Like, and so you do, when you see it all together, you do become better at being like, oh, okay. Yeah, just the nice ones. God, I'd be so worried. I'd be like, look at them all proudly rolled up. Aren't they doing their best? Because I sometimes wear the bad pants, not necessarily the ones with the whole and then, but I've got ones with like, like, a bit of the elastics come off. You know, you just like, oh, it's just, because I'm like, they, I'd be nice for them to have a day out.

Okay. Do you? I understand 100% because I do that. Do you think they actually want to day out or do they wish for death? You know, like? They, I think they are a piece of material that any self-respecting person should absolutely not be wearing every day unless they were, you know, having some real issues that I'm not having. Okay. Wait.

Can you see what that word says? Should? It's the word should, which you just said there. Interesting. And so that was a really big thing for her of like any time should comes up, you need to be aware of that. So what you said there was you took yourself out of it completely and you said any self-respecting person should not doing it as opposed to how you personally feel.

And once should is in there, if it's like, oh, I should get rid of that or I should keep it. It's like, no, you shouldn't. No, you shouldn't. If you think I should let that go, it's silly. It's like, no, it's not. You like it. And if it's like, I should keep that,

it's like, no, you don't need it. Everything has to be total confidence. And so if your thing is like, the pants want a day out, that's the truth, you know? And they do want a day out. I understand that there are a few pants that some pants were just like, please I went out of here. They were leaping from my hands

into the textile donation bag. And some of them were like, maybe we could stay. Maybe one more turn around this. Maybe one more turn. Mortal coil. I had more to give, you know? So they went in the drawer and I was like, yeah,

okay, come on. Like a couple more rounds. You know, let's go. And then sometimes I would be like, you done or you want to stay for more? But like, you have to. You know, you have to do, like, I don't, I think there are a reason that, like, these books are so popular and that people, like, want this stuff. It's like, you're not alone in those feelings of, like, my pants want one more go.

You know, like, you're not alone. And then we say, like, oh, that's crazy. I shouldn't be saying that. Should, should, should, should. Doesn't matter. You feel that way. Of course, we feel, like, attached to things and whatnot. Anyway, so, oh, and also when, when, when you go through it and you actually, like, see just how many, for example, how many, how many.

soft blue jumpers you own. You're like, huh, okay, this is a problem. And then she was like, and again, none of this was this sort of wanky, like, where does this come from? It was just like, you really love blue? And I was like, I really love blue. And she's like, and you really love soft things. I was like, I really love soft things.

You love soft things. And then she was like, well, why do you think you have so many? And again, none of this was like, as I'm saying it sounds pretentious, but I cannot stress enough how like, non-assuming and just like kindly it was. And she was like, why do you have so many? things and I was like I guess anytime it was like raining or cold or I'd had a bad day I would buy like a lovely soft jumper and she was like and then why don't and she was like and why do you think you buy another one I was like because I guess they're not good enough quality so they don't feel

soft and she was like okay so maybe just one really soft lovely good quality one rather than 10 decreasingly poor quality one and she made me write a list called I have enough of all the things you know, when I was like, anytime there's a, and it's not to be like, and so her thing was like, it's not the words, you have too many, it's you have enough, you don't get yourself, you don't like beat yourself up and I've got too much of this. Mine were, I have enough swimwear. So clearly I have, I have a problem. I just love the idea of swimming costumes.

Number two, I have enough soft things and I have enough black leggings. I have enough black tights as opposed to like, you have too many and like, you're not being told off, just you have enough. You don't need to buy more. And if you're instinct is, but I want more. It's like, well, the ones you have aren't good enough then. And the very last thing is about rolling stuff up. So you fold everything up.

So it's only taking up about an inch of space upwards into the drawer. So you can see everything. You can do sort of color-coded stuff. It's basically about making this sort of like, oh, every time you open the drawers. If you constantly find yourself flicking over one object on the way to another, you're like, okay, I'm actively not choosing that one every time. Should that stay in the drawer?

Should that be here? it just makes you like way better at like getting into the spirit of like what's actually what's actually lovely what's actually lovely is this the name of the game when you get dressed in the morning and you're like oh here was the thing here was my stuff here was this everything's clean and tidy I didn't have to like root through the laundry basket to look for something I'm not leaving in a dress I'm not cross at myself because once again it's got a stain on it because I didn't remember you're like oh look at me go one woman a ticket to success please and so it does absolutely become part of your whole life and then when you get we did just like an

hour of folding at the end and once you get into the rhythm of folding you're like this is so therapeutic and nice and a pleasant thing to do and takes seconds when you get good at it and again there's so many YouTube videos out there about doing it I cannot describe it to you through your ears I think you need to see it and then once you get into the habit of it you're like oh my god this is really nice and then when you do a next time you do laundry and you've got a whole pile of dry clothes you don't just throw them in you're like oh the lovely the folding bit and it's not a long and it's not tedious, it's just like, oh, oh, lovely, you know, and it feels nice rather than being like, here's a boring thing I have to do now. Makes me want to immediately go around my house and start,

like, just sorting stuff out, which is, I think, the point. Crucially, how would you begin that if you were going to do? I know we're very close to the end, but just, this is the main take home if you were going to sort things out. Categorising it, like, I'm going to do my wardrobe today. Perfect. And then with it, exactly. So it's not, if the place that everybody falls apart is you'd be like, I'm going to do the bedroom now and you try and do everything. But it's about being like, I'm just doing my jumpers or I'm just doing this. Be specific. Specific, specific. Otherwise, you get yourself totally overwhelmed.

Then immediately you'll find a photo album and then you'll be crying and then this at the end of the day, you know? Of course. Of course. Find a photo album's not crying. Thank you so much for sharing your experience. Thank you for having me on the show. It's really fantastic.

I left, there's like four bags. You're supposed to get things gone straight away so they have to go out of the house, even if they just go and like sit in the car or something. Be out of the house. Ideally, it's straight to the charity shop so you can't. be like oh i'll just get that back out of again and honestly gun to my head i couldn't tell you anything that was in those bags there we go so that worked didn't that's exactly what you want to happen right amazing you aren't thinking like oh no my precious thing it's like no you don't you don't need all

this stuff you don't need it you didn't actually care about it because you've let it go you let go thank you so much i hope that helps i hope that helps everybody educate inform and entertain yes and buy our book buy our bloody book do uh messages if you have any episode ideas that you would like us to tackle any like well we're coming up to the old christmas time as well any sort of like festive things that you would like us to do at nobody panic pod or nobody panic podcast at gmail dot com i'm at cvm the s is of course as ever and always i'm at tessicoats we'll be back next week for some absolutely rollicking good vibes