Have you ever felt like decluttering is not working for you? Like, no matter what you do, it seems like you haven't made any progress, or maybe your house is getting cluttered again and again each week? In this episode, we're breaking down five different reasons why this may be happening to you. And this is such an important topic because if you are not clearing your clutter, your home will stay messy, which means you'll continue to feel stressed and overwhelmed.
But this show is all about taking charge of your home one realistic step at a time. And the first step to making a change is becoming aware of what's not working.
Hey there. I'm so excited to be here today because this is such an important topic. I will probably say that a lot, but that's because I think every aspect of our homes is important. Our homes are important in general because they're the foundation for the rest of our lives. And decluttering, well that's one particular aspect of your home that is so needed.
I'm not going to get too much into this today because if I do, I'll go off on a rant, but decluttering is necessary because we can not hold on to everything that we've ever owned for the rest of our lives. We can't! We need to let go of our excess stuff to make room for new items that we're purchasing, to make room for newer versions of ourselves. And to have space for the things that matter, like physical space, energetic space and mental space. And this is why decluttering is my favorite topic to talk about because it's truly the key to taking charge of your home. You can spend all week cleaning, but your house will still be trashed if you have too much stuff.
Or you can organize your heart out. But if you have too much clutter, none of those baskets and bins will make a bit of difference. But when you declutter, when you let go of the excess, your home will stay more neat and tidy by default.
Now, I'm sure that you have tried decluttering before. After all, it's been a hot topic for a while now. But after spending years doing this work, I have found that decluttering is actually pretty misunderstood. Many members of my community have told me that they have tried decluttering. They have done the Marie Kondo marathon sessions. They have decluttered their kids' toys. They've even emptied out their closet.
But they're just not getting the kind of results that they were hoping for. So today we're going to dive into why that might be happening. And there are a few different reasons for this and fair warning, I may go off on a tangent because as I said, this is my favorite thing to talk about. So buckle up, grab your favorite, drink, water, coffee, or my personal favorite at this time of year, hot pumpkin chai latte, and let's dive right in.
So the number one reason why you may not be getting decluttering results is because decluttering isn't one size fits all. What works for some women will not work for someone else. But yet a quick search on Google or Pinterest will bring up thousands of articles explaining how to declutter. And if you spend any time going through them, you'll see that they all pretty much say the same thing. Now, of course, there are some valuable nuggets dropped here and there in these articles online. But for the most part, most of the basic decluttering advice that you've probably come across, it's not going to work for you because you're not a basic woman.
I mean, if it was going to work for you, you would have been successful with decluttering before now.
You see, the basic decluttering advice was created for a generalized group of women, but the women in my community are unique, passionate, and extraordinary. And we are still worthy of having a clutter-free home. Which is exactly what this podcast is about, helping you defy the odds of what may not have worked for you before now.
So, if you have tried the basic decluttering advice and found that it didn't work, you're in the right spot.
The second reason why you may not be getting decluttering results is because you're trying to organize and declutter at the same time. This is very, very common because it's what the Home Edit and mainstream media teach us to do.
When I first started decluttering, I did the same thing. I started in my garage, which was literally stacked to the ceiling. And I was trying to spend entire 10 hour days pulling everything out. Sorting it all into piles, decluttering a few things, and then putting it all back in an organized way. But that doesn't work when you're first getting started with decluttering.
Yes, it is how professional organizers do it. But they're a professional and they have a team helping them. And most importantly, it's not their stuff that they're decluttering. It's easy for them to make decisions on what to keep and what to let go of because they have not associated years worth of memories and emotions with our belongings.
Now I love professional organizers. They do amazing work and they truly make the world a better place. And they're so needed. But their job is to do it for you. You can hire a professional organizer or you can do it yourself. And if you're in the maximizing momma community, then I'll bet that you want to take charge of your home yourself. And I'm here for it! I believe that we should be taking charge of our homes ourselves because not only is it super empowering and it instills a hell of a lot of confidence in ourselves. But also because we need to be able to maintain our homes for years to come. And we also need to be able to teach our kids how to be mindful of their belongings so they can teach their kids.
Because the way that children interact with their stuff is based on what they see us doing.
So back to the method that the professional organizers use of organizing and decluttering at the same time. When you do this, when you're trying to do both of them at the same time, all of your attention gets put into rearranging and reordering and reorganizing your things instead of actually letting go of the stuff that you no longer need, use, or want.
So let's break this down a bit to give you a concrete example. Let's say that you're wanting to declutter your living room shelf that is full of toys and books. And you use the Home Edit Method of first pulling everything out, then sorting it all into piles and then decluttering or editing everything, and then putting it all back in an organized way.
So when you pull everything off the shelves and you start sorting it into piles, some of these piles could be keep, donate, trash, relocate, et cetera. Then you handle each pile appropriately, you take all the stuff in the donate pile and you put it in a box in your garage or your basement. Then you take everything that needs to be relocated and you put it all back where it belongs and so on.
Then you're left with this pile of stuff that you want to keep that needs to go back on the living room shelf. So you get a basket or a bin and you organize it all and put it back on the shelf. Then you take a step back and look at the work that you've done. But it doesn't even seem like you've made much progress, and unfortunately, you're exhausted or your kids need you, or it's time to make dinner.
Now this method of organizing and decluttering at the same time, it does work for some women. And it definitely works really well when you're doing maintenance decluttering. When you have already cleared your clutter and you just need to do another pass through a few times a year. But it does not work for millions of women who are starting from ground zero, whose entire house is a mess and who are first getting started with decluttering. Which is why you're not getting decluttering results. Because you've been trying to declutter and organize at the same time. And this is not your fault. I want to make that very clear. This is what the media has taught us to do. So if you have been doing this, you didn't know better.
But you're here now listening to this podcast and I'm here to help you take charge of your home one step at a time. So in a future episode, we're going to get you to decluttering in a way that does work. But first, let's go over a few other reasons why you may not be getting decluttering results.
The third reason is a little similar to organizing and decluttering at the same time. It's when you are tidying instead of decluttering. And there are really two different sides to this. You may have fallen into the trap of confusing tidying with decluttering. And this is because there are actually a lot of people that call this decluttering.
If you spend any time on Tik Tok, you've likely come across a video of a woman saying come declutter with me. But then she proceeds to put things away.
And this is because the reason these women make these videos and the reason a lot of people are actually confusing tidying with decluttering is because we've been taught that where there's a cluttered mess, like a cluttered space, we've been taught that it needs to be tidied, rearranged, and reorganized.
Maybe not in the literal sense. And maybe not everyone does this, but think about it like Let's say that your dresser top is a cluttered mess. What do you do to clean it up? You probably throw away any trash, take everything off, rearrange your things, and then put them back in a more organized way. And we call this decluttering.
You might get rid of a few things, but for the most part, you're not truly letting go of anything. And like I said, not everyone does this, but many, many women do. And we're going to get into why this happens in the next episode.
Because there's actually another side to this. So on the one hand, you may be inadvertently confusing tidying with decluttering. Or on the other hand, you may be tidying instead of decluttering. This is where you're spending most of your time, tidying the messes and not literally decluttering for any number of reasons.
This usually happens when we have multiple young kids because tidying is a big part of our day. We need to focus a lot of our time on putting things away and keeping the floors and the tables clean. And then we have no time left to declutter. And I know that tidying and cleaning up after our kids is important.
But there should be a happy medium between tidying and decluttering, where you are able to find time for both. Just like decluttering and organizing. They should be treated as two distinct tasks, as opposed to trying to do them together or doing one in place of the other.
So another reason why you may not be getting decluttering results is because you're not decluttering the right areas based on your specific needs. The areas that you need to focus on decluttering will be drastically different depending on what stage you're in, when it comes to taking charge of your home.
Because there are four distinct stages that will take you through a journey of overhauling the mess, clearing your clutter, getting organized, and fine tuning your habits so you can maintain your home in the longterm. And we're going to break these stages down in a future episode.
For example, if you're trying to declutter your closet, when you still have clutter lying about on your flat surfaces, it's not going to seem like you're getting decluttering results because the main living areas of your home are still cluttered.
Along the same vein, if you're constantly tidying the messes when you need to be focusing on the clutter in your closets and your drawers, then you definitely won't be getting any decluttering results.
And finally, the last reason why you may not be getting decluttering results is if you're not decluttering enough. So if your house is very small or if you have a lot of excess stuff, or if you have multiple people living in your home, or any combination of the three, that's a pretty good sign that you could use a full, thorough decluttering.
And again, there are different stages to taking charge of your home and each of those stages can be broken down into different phases.
When you're in the decluttering stage, there are two phases. Foundational decluttering. And thorough decluttering.
At the first of the year, we're going to be going deep into how to actually declutter so you can avoid these common mistakes and be certain that you're making real decluttering progress. But for now throughout the rest of the year, we're focusing on overhauling your home for the holidays and beyond.
So that's it for today. Let's wrap up what we have covered and the five reasons why you may not be getting decluttering results. You may be using a decluttering strategy that simply doesn't work for you. Or maybe you're trying to declutter and organize at the same time, because you've been taught to do that by mainstream media.
Or you could be tidying instead of decluttering because it seems like the quickest, easiest solution to dealing with the mess. Or you could possibly be not decluttering, the right areas, depending on what phase you're in with decluttering. Or finally, you may not be decluttering enough and you need to let go of more things.
Now I know that we covered a lot today, and some of it may be new information to you. And you may be dying to know what you should do instead. Well on November 21st, we're having a special Black Friday sale that will help you put all of this into action. So you can finally take charge of your home. If you're ready to overhaul the mess and declutter like a boss, subscribe to the Take Charge of Your Home show so you don't miss the announcement.
In the next episode, we're talking about why your home is always messy. And this will change the way that you see your home forever. So if you're tired of the chaos and you're ready for managing your home to be a hell of a lot more simple, go check out that episode now. Thanks for listening and I'll chat with you soon.
