Podcast: The Clutter Cycle
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[00:00:00] Hello, hello, and welcome to the Simplify, Organize and Thrive podcast. I am so excited you are here today because this episode is going to hit pretty close to home. We're talking about what it feels like when you clean, tidy, reset an entire space, or maybe even your whole house, and then somehow it looks like chaos again within another day or even another week. So if you have ever thought, why do I even bother cleaning, tidying, decluttering, and organizing when the mess and the clutter keeps coming back? This episode is for you because the number one thing I want you to fully understand is the reason why your house keeps getting cluttered,
it's not because you're messy. It's not because you're just naturally disorganized. It's not that you're bad at keeping up or that you're lazy. The reason why this is happening is because you've been following a system that's working against you, a system that wasn't built for real life based on the phase that you are currently in with [00:01:00] your clutter and your household.
So we're gonna talk about why this is happening, why the mess keeps coming back, and the first steps that you can take to finally get out of this once and for all. So tell me if you can relate to this, if you've ever had a good day where you finally catch up around the house, you clear off the counters, you pick up the toys, you fold the laundry, you put everything back where it belongs.
Maybe you even light a candle or vacuum the entire living room, but by the next morning or within a day or two, the table's full again. The shoes are scattered. There is stuff piled up in every single corner. There's you know, a, a laundry pile that's waiting in the living room for you, staring at you, and you're just left wondering like, what happened?
Why is my house such a mess again? That is what I call the clutter cycle, and it looks like this. You clean up the visible messes, you shuffle things around, maybe even relabel some bins or you know, get new containers and reorganize [00:02:00] your linen closet.
Then you feel better for a day, and then the mess comes back, and you start over next weekend, and then the mess comes back again. And on and on and on forever and ever and ever. I mean, that's literally how it goes. It's the clutter cycle that doesn't stop. It is a perpetual cycle. So if you are stuck in this cycle, if you can relate to this, it's not because you're not trying. As a matter of fact, I know that you are trying everything. That's exactly why you're in this cycle, but none of it is working. So the number one reason why people get stuck in the clutter cycle is because the home organizing industry was not built for the 21st century.
Between consumerism, the sheer volume of stuff that we continue to acquire day in and day out, on top of not letting go of enough stuff compared to the amount of stuff that we're consuming and bringing into our homes, on top of the constant pressure to keep your home [00:03:00] clean and tidy, on top of videos and podcasts and emails and ads and influencers
showing you how to clean and tidy and dec clutter and organize. When you put all that stuff together that leads to a giant cluster fuck of one big mess that simply doesn't work for everyone. I mean, there are millions of people struggling with clutter. I would even venture to guess tens of millions of people.
And as I've said a dozen times, de cluttering is not one size fits all. So if you're following a video that you found on social media, or you're searching clean with me videos on YouTube, or you're going off a de cluttering checklist with 80 plus items to get rid of, well, what's essentially happening is you're piecing all these different pieces together, all these different strategies together and trying to make them work for you.
But that means that you're really looking at it from a black and white or all or nothing perspective when it's [00:04:00] anything but that! Decluttering is not black and white. It's not either or, it's not all or nothing. There are nuances and details that the free content and checklists and videos on social media simply are never fully going to cover
So what this all leads to is you are basically trying everything, you're trying all these different things. You end up tidying, cleaning, decluttering, and organizing your home over and over again.
But it's almost always that you're tackling the surface level of your home, and this is because our brains crave order, and the surface level of your home is obviously what you can see with your naked eye. It's the visible messes, it's the problem areas that are stressing you out the most. So it's what makes the most sense to tackle because it's, you know, it seems like it's going to make the biggest difference in your day to day, and your peace of mind.
But the problem is that surface level cleanup, that [00:05:00] surface level tidying and decluttering and organizing, it doesn't solve the real problem. It doesn't get to the root of the problem. So, before I get into what the real problem is, let me share with you a few more signs to see if you can relate to this.
Tell me if you have ever felt like there's just nowhere to put things even after you have decluttered and organized, or if you've had to dig for something in a closet or a drawer, all the while your counters and your tables are overflowing with stuff. Or if you have ever shuffled things from one room to another because the piles keep growing and you don't know what to do with everything.
Well, those are three signs that you have, what I call hidden clutter.
The hidden clutter is all the stuff that's piling up in your closets, cabinets, shelves, bins, boxes, piles, and drawers. It's the cabinet that you dread opening, or the drawer that you shove stuff into until later, or the closet that you keep saying you're gonna get to next [00:06:00] weekend, or the garage that you don't even wanna go into, or even the spare room that has become a storage unit.
When these storage spaces, when these storage areas are full, there's literally nowhere for anything to go. So even when you tidy and organize and declutter and clean , all the items that you use on a day-to-day basis will end up back on your counters and your tables and even your floors again and again because there's literally no room to store them.
So even when your home looks tidy on the surface layer, those spaces are still working behind the scenes in overdrive holding every single item that you own, maybe years or even decades' worth of stuff.
Now the most important thing for you to understand about this concept is the surface level messes . Those are items that you're using on a frequent basis. Those are the things that you use daily and you love, and they very [00:07:00] well could also be new items that are coming into your home, like mail or paperwork or you know, kids' homework or school items, et cetera.
But the hidden clutter that's piling up behind closed doors, those will likely be things that you use and want to keep, but they will also be mixed in with things that you no longer need to hold onto with things that you need to let go of.
So this is why I say there's a lot of nuance to de cluttering because there are piles forming on the surface layer of your home. But the reason why those piles are forming in the first place is because there's literally no room to store the things that you use on a daily basis.
So that's why you're piling things on your stove over and over again, because there's nowhere else to put anything. But this is actually good news because all of this means that you don't have a tidying problem. You don't need to try harder. It means that you have a storage problem and the fix is not more bins and baskets and containers.
It's not moving to a [00:08:00] bigger house to, you know, create more storage space because trust me, I've tried that and the clutter just kept multiplying through the years. The fix is not color coded systems. It's not another deep clean. What will fix this is a method where you can tackle both the visible messes and the hidden clutter.
That way you have room to put all the things that you want to keep, all the things that you use on a daily basis. That way you know right where everything is, and that way your home can finally stay tidy without you having to reset it every single weekend.
Now I guarantee you might be thinking that if the fix is a method that will help you tackle the visible messes AND the hidden clutter, it kind of seems like the solution would be to tidy the visible messes and de clutter the hidden clutter. But I can promise you from experience, that doesn't work. I started this journey back in 2017. Really, the beginning of my journey was in 2016 [00:09:00] when I moved us to a bigger home. But when that didn't work and the clutter still kept coming back, that's when I started organizing, I was always tidying.
Then in 2018, I started decluttering. So I have definitely been doing this for a long time. I have literally tried every single method known to man, and I have put all these pieces together on my own, and I can tell you with a hundred percent certainty that tidying the visible messes and decluttering the hidden clutter is not the solution. The number one thing I wish someone had pointed out to me back in 2017 is that there are pro organizers teaching you how to get organized.
There are decluttering experts telling you to declutter. You've got cleaning experts telling you to get a better cleaning schedule. And there's this message that gets mixed into all of them, that we need to keep tidying up. So there's these four different home life concepts that are being ingrained in you over and over and over again. And they all do need to be done in order to keep your household running on autopilot, [00:10:00] cleaning, tidying, decluttering, and organizing,
we need to do them all. But when you're starting from the beginning, when you're at the beginning stages of your journey, when you're starting from ground zero and your house is both messy and cluttered, none of them are actually the first steps that you should be taking.
There's actually a step zero that I'm gonna tell you about in another podcast episode, but essentially what you need to know is that you've been sold the wrong system. So if you have ever bought pretty baskets, matching labels, or followed a Pinterest organizing project and still felt overwhelmed, if you've ever decluttered a closet only for your kitchen counters to be covered in piles within the next week, or if you've tried dozens of cleaning schedules only to feel like there's something wrong with you and you just can't keep your house in order...
You need a better system that will target the root of the problem and give you a reasonable plan to keep things tidy for good so you can stop spending [00:11:00] all of your time shuffling things around, and instead have quality time with your family. Now there is a lot to cover, and that is exactly why we have a free masterclass coming soon where we're gonna be talking about the different types of clutter and exactly what you need to do to target each of them once and for all. So make sure to subscribe to the Simplify, Organize and Thrive podcast that way you don't miss a thing. And also over the next few weeks, there will be new podcast episodes released as we cover one topic at a time.
But in the meantime, if you don't wanna wait another day, if you are sick and tired of the chaos, if you want to say goodbye to the piles and start getting one space in order as soon as possible, I have a way where you can start using your kitchen as the heart of your home as soon as tomorrow.
De clutter In a Day is my bestselling quick start class where I take you behind the scenes and show you how to clean up the mess and clear the clutter from your kitchen counters, your cabinets, your pantry, your [00:12:00] dining room table, and even inside piles and boxes of stuff- in less than one day. I'm gonna drop the link below in the show notes where you can join us for just $37 that way you can spend less time managing your kitchen and more time actually enjoying it. I can't wait to celebrate you and see you inside.
Now in our next episode, we're diving into the truth about the clutter and the mess and the chaos, and this is gonna be your next step out of the clutter cycle and the very beginning of creating a home that stays tidy so you can finally reduce your mental load. Until next time, go check out Declutter In a Day because it will show you how to reset your kitchen, and then you can use those same methods for any other space in your home.
And if you found value in this episode or in this podcast, I would love, love, love it if you could leave a review. I read every single review that comes through and it's a really good way for me to determine what types of conversations and [00:13:00] episodes and topics are resonating with you so I can know what to create more of.
So whether you're on Spotify or YouTube or Apple Podcasts, leave a review. It means the world to me, and I will talk to you soon.
