Organizing Secrets for Messy Homes
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[00:00:00] If you feel like your house is always messy and cluttered, no matter how many times you organize it, this episode will tell you three mistakes that you might inadvertently be making in your home and how you can avoid them.
Hey there, I'm Nicole from The Maximizing Momma, and I am obsessed with creating a home that gives me more peace of mind, more time to myself and more time with my kids. I teach you the tried and true secrets to clearing your clutter, getting organized, and managing your household in a realistic and sustainable way.
This show is where we talk about things like motherhood, decluttering, organizing, creating routines, mindset, energy, and everything in between. Our homes are the foundation for the rest of our lives, and it's so important to have a calm, relaxing household so you can have the time, the peace of mind, and the freedom to truly enjoy motherhood.
So sit back and get ready to take charge [00:01:00] of your home.
Hello. Hello and welcome back to the Take Charge of Your Home Show. So last month in July. A couple of days, actually, before our house fire, we had a free workshop called Organizing Secrets for Messy Homes. And because of our house fire, I didn't really share much about it here on the podcast. So I wanted to catch you all up on what we covered during that workshop.
Now that event was primarily meant to help you recognize what you should not be doing around your house. And so we dove into the three biggest mistakes that people make when they're trying to organize a messy home, which is what I'm going to be sharing in today's episode. So let's get into it.
The first mistake that you might inadvertently be making is that you think you're organizing, but you're not. This has so common. I see it every single day. Specifically because of the Home Edit [00:02:00] and other professional organizers, we follow these experts and really implement exactly what they say to do because. You know, they have these beautifully organized spaces that they share on social media. And it's natural to think that if we do what they're doing, that we can get the same results. So you end up pulling everything out of a space, sorting it all into different piles, letting go of a couple of things and then organizing what's left.
But you're essentially just rearranging your things. The reason why you're not actually organizing is because your house is at a different stage then the house s that many of those professional organizers work in.
So keep in mind that the Home Edit, for example, not only are they professionals and they have a team helping them, their primary intention is to transform one particular space in a client's home. They are not [00:03:00] by any means, trying to transform an entire household. As a matter of fact, most professional organizers have rooms or spaces that they specialize in such as garages, closets, playrooms, pantries, et cetera. So the disconnect here is that the Home Edit, while they do have a book that walks you through step-by-step of how to organize every space in your home. Their ideal clients, the people that their book is primarily for are people who just want to be more organized and might have a little bit of clutter. So, this is why I have a system to help you identify what stage your home is in. Stage one is when your house is pretty tidy ish. Stage two is when you have some things left out and some minor amounts of clutter. But stage three is when the clutter and [00:04:00] the messes are taking over and you really feel like you're running out of room. And then stage four is when you have no room left, because there was so much excess stuff taking over your home. So the Home Edit is primarily helping people who are between stages one and two. And if you're at a different stage, Following their methods and really trying to organize in general, it doesn't work because you're just moving the clutter around. And so that is all why, if you think you're organizing, if you're trying to organize, you're really not. You just end up tidying the area to make it look more neat and orderly. Because the definition of tidying and organizing are so, so similar that it can be very confusing. So tidying means to arrange neatly and in order. While organizing means to arrange [00:05:00] into a structured whole. I mean, no wonder it's so confusing, right? But the way that most people are trying to tidy and declutter and organize are very, very distinct, which is why I have my own explanations. So tidying, the way that I define it is to put things back where they belong. While organizing is to arrange a space and make it look more beautiful. And this is crucial to get, right because you want to get more organized. You want your house to be organized and you want it to stay that way. But unfortunately, following these methods that you find online, following the methods that professional organizers share, it's not sustainable. Because when your house is at a stage three or a four, when it's messy and full of things that you want to keep as well as things that you should be letting go of, [00:06:00] then organizing and decluttering at the same time and constantly tidying and shuffling your things around is never going to amount to any longterm progress. So I want you to think about everyone you know who has been successful with decluttering and organizing. The reason why they were successful is because they already had the messes under control. I mean, the homes that the Home Edit work in, they don't even have any messes. Their clients just want to organize a particular area to make their lives easier. Whereas most of you, most of the people listening to this podcast, most of the people in the Maximizing Mom ma community, most of you all want to get organized because the chaos and all this stuff is stressing you out. So you can really see the difference here. And because of that, the first key takeaway for this episode, [00:07:00] is that when you have a messy home, solely organizing is not the answer.
Now mistake number two that people inadvertently make in their homes is when they're focusing on the surface level. This is when you're going wide and trying to tackle the problem as a whole. Instead of going deep into each space. And it almost always inevitably leads to the messes coming back again in just a couple of days. So to put it simply, there are different layers of stuff in our homes, different levels really. You have the surface level messes that are typically items you want to keep. They usually get left out on the counters, the tables, the chairs, and other flat surfaces, as a result of simply living in your home. Just by living your life, raising your kids, uh, living in your household, [00:08:00] things will naturally get left out. Those are the surface level messes, like the stuff all over your table that you're using on a daily basis. But then there is hidden clutter. This could be in boxes, bags, bins, drawers, closets cabinets, or even piles of stuff. It's the things that are accumulating and you likely aren't even really sure what it all consists of. Now I just shared a post on Instagram with a visual example of this. I will pin it to the top of my profile. So you can go check it out at the maximizing momma, because when you can fully see this, see a visual example and fully understand this, you will be able to take charge of your home in no time.
Now what happens is you're tackling the surface level messes repeatedly. And never getting to the hidden clutter either because you're putting it the hidden clutter off for another day, or because you're avoiding it because you don't know where to [00:09:00] start or because you don't have time or any number of reasons. Essentially, you're dealing with the surface level messes over and over again and not getting to the hidden clutter. And this is totally normal because we all view our homes as a whole. So you walk through your house on a daily basis and all you see is stuff everywhere. So your natural instinct is to want to make it look as orderly as possible. But then your brain is inundated with visual stimuli in the form of visual clutter. So when you look around your house and see a bunch of cluttered, And messy areas. Your brain can't possibly process how you will ever be able to tackle all of it. So you go for the most logical solution. The visible areas that are in your direct line of sight. This almost always ends up being the flat surfaces around [00:10:00] your main living areas. Where there are things piling up and left out. AKA, the surface level messes. So the second mistake that you might inadvertently be making has been to prioritize these visible areas by tiding, decluttering, and organizing them over and over again. But here's the kicker. The reason why these messes keep forming, the reason why they keep coming back. Is because you have no room for these items. You don't have room to store the items that you use daily because the hidden clutter are taking up all of your storage areas. But when you're not going deep enough and not tackling the clutter that is hidden away behind closed doors. That means that your house will stay messy and cluttered for years. Now we're going to be diving into these different types of messes in our upcoming workshop on August 29th, [00:11:00] how to Keep a Neat and Tidy Home. There's actually another type of mess that I haven't even covered yet. So you're definitely gonna want to save your seat at the link in the show notes.
But let's very quickly get into the third mistake. This is when you're doing everything randomly without a strategy to transform your entire home from cluttered to calm.
So on any given week, your cleaning doing laundry and the dishes, de cluttering one area, tidying another and organizing a third, on top of watching clean with me YouTube videos for motivation, pinning organizing ideas on Pinterest, trying a new cleaning schedule, downloading decluttering checklists, and really just doing it all sporadically and randomly. So you're stuck in this endless cycle where you're cleaning up the same messes, essentially cleaning up after your children's childhoods, and just shuffling things around your home.
And I, I want to just acknowledge you for a moment because. [00:12:00] I know that a lot of that stuff is necessary in order to keep house. And if the messes are stressing you out, it is totally natural to want to do whatever it takes to clean it all up.
But what I really want to drive home here is that when you're doing this all randomly, it's not going to make a difference because you have no strategy behind what you're doing. And the reason why you've been doing it all sporadically is because there has never been something that tells you how all of these different home life concepts fit together. Until now. That is what I'm here to help you with as a decluttering coach and a strategist. What my business and what this podcast and my online courses and programs are really about is helping you fit all of these home life concepts together so that way you can tackle the messes and ditch the clutter and get organized [00:13:00] and tidy with intention and maintain a peaceful home for years to come. So just know that right now, you don't need to try harder because really, at the root of it, that's what's happening when you're trying to do all of these things randomly and sporadically. It's because we've been taught that we need to try harder, we need to do something better or we need to be more consistent.
But what you need to do is put a stop to the random tidying, organizing. And decluttering and follow a specific strategy so that way you can take charge of your entire home one step at a time. And of course you will still clean and tidy up. But you want to do it with intention. And instead of trying to declutter and organize at the same time, you want to first focus on tackling the mess and overhauling the chaos. Which is exactly what we're covering in our workshop, How to Keep a Neat and [00:14:00] Tidy Home. You will unlock a specific strategy for every single item in your home so you can ditch the messes and keep an orderly home consistently, even when nothing has worked before now. So, if you are ready to make this happen, if you're ready to have a neat and tidy home that puts time back into your day, you're going to want to save your seat for the workshop. We have over 125 people signed up already. And my favorite part is that right now, we have a free pop-up community where we can all come together and really go deeper into these strategies over the next two months. We're going to have live trainings and daily coaching so you can get support for your specific household. And then by the time October gets here, you will know exactly what to do to transform your home from cluttered to calm. I will put the link to save your seat in the show notes so you can get all signed up and I can't wait to see you there.
Now [00:15:00] I will be back soon with another episode where we're breaking down how all clutter is not created equally and why decluttering is far too broad. In the meantime, if you have found value from the Take Charge of Your Home Show, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a review. When you do, if you screenshot your review and email it to [email protected], you will be entered to win a one-on-one coaching call with me where I can help you with any area of your home that you wish. So go ahead and leave a review, make sure to save your seat for our upcoming workshop, How to Keep a Neat and Tidy Hhome. And thank you for being here, thank you for tuning in and listening. I'll talk talk to you soon.
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Take Charge of Your Home Show. Go ahead and take a few moments to celebrate yourself for [00:16:00] being here, doing this work, and really learning how to create a calm, relaxing home. Don't forget to check out the show notes and feel free to leave a rating and a review so I can know what you want to hear more about.
Because you and your journey are what make this show a reality. I'll see you next time.
