August 13, 2025 • 27 mins
Organization expert Lauren Palau shares tips on making space for new opportunities
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome and any advice
(00:23):
they have for the rest of us. So today I
am delighted to welcome Lauri Palau to the show. She
is the host of the Organized Life podcast, author of
the book Hot Mess, owner of the business Simply Be Organized. So, Laurie,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
I love sitting on the other side of a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Most absolutely, it's a totally different experience. So why don't
you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, well, I'll try to give it the quick, short version.
So I'm a mom to two grown ish kids. I
have a almost twenty two year old and year old,
so kind of in a new season of.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Life for my youngest.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Just graduated college and so that's bringing on a whole
different type of mothering. And then professionally, I run a
company called Simply Be Organized, where I write teach speak
all about decluttering all parts of your life, whether it's
the physical stuff in your home, whether it's more of
(01:26):
the productivity side of things where you're reducing things in
your calendar, or just kind of relational things that are
the mental block of keeping you stuck where you are.
And yeah, and I have a I had a podcast
for eight years, and I just made the decision that
(01:50):
when we talk about editing our lives and things that
you know we need to make changes, we just made
the decision that we are going to be ending our show,
which is scary and exciting all the things.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Also, that's kind of.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Where I am personally and professionally.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And how did you get involved in the organizing business?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So it was really by happenstance. I tell the story.
It was very anticlimactic in a sense that I was
just always somebody that was very organized. When my kids
were little, my husband traveled a ton, so I had
to create systems and strategies for my own sanity. That
was it, And I guess my brain just works that way.
(02:33):
And my past life, I was an executive recruiter and
I loved working with people. I always liked working with
people and finding out what motivated them, And in my
old world, it was although what motivated them for changing
their careers?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Was it freedom? Was it?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Status?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Was it? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Fill in the blank. And in the recession of two
thousand and eight two thousand and nine, much of my
client work was impacted and a friend of mine who's
an interior designer, made the recommendation of like, hey, you
might want to try doing this professionally. And I really
took the skills that I was using with recruiting and
(03:17):
just applied them in a different realm. And so I
started working with people to find out about their motivation
for holding onto things or wanting to get rid of things.
And I found that there was a lot of overlap
in the work that I was doing.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It was just showing up differently.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, And one of the things you talk about, I
love the big phrase on your website, it's not about
the bins. So for those of us who think that organization,
you know, we like our bins, perhaps why is it
not about the bins?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Because for me, and this is where I always put
the disclaimer that I pretend I'm a fake therapist, I'm
really not.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So with all and.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
The utmost respect to anybody that has letters after their name.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
But after doing this for fifteen years and just kind
of being a student of personalities and human development, I
really find that clutter is the symptom and disorganization is
the symptom.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
And really I can give you the tools to meeting
the bin, the.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Basket, the filing, cabinet, whatever, and we can create those systems,
but ultimately it's about how it makes us feel. How
does this stuff make us feel? What is driving our
behavior to make the decisions or not make the decisions
to either act or not act on our stuff. And
once we have that light bulb switch, that's when change
(04:48):
really happens. And so many people think, if I just
had and I know for myself, right, if I just
had the beautiful built in closet, if I just had
the custom budroom, if I just had the fill in
the blank, then my problems wouldn't be there. And we
all know this in so many different aspects of our lives.
That's just not the case. We have to really kind
(05:09):
of get in beneath the surface.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, what is cluttery symptom of? Then if that's the
if that's the symptom, what is it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I mean I think for a lot of people, it
can range right, it can range anywhere from it's a
symptom of chaos. It's a symptom of control. It's a
symptom of you know, I have like these like five
kind of c's. You know, it's confusion, it is, you know,
people are paralyzed where they are. There's all of these
(05:37):
different reasons. There's not just one reason why we get stuck.
And you know, I think the key to unlocking what
clutter where your own clutter pitfall is is doing some
self discovery. And sometimes, you know, when I go deep
and we look at sometimes it is situational. I call
(05:58):
it like situational clutter versus crime clutter. Situational clutter is Listen,
we're in a busy season of life. We've got kids,
we're running around, We're using our home as it drop zone.
So we're not really spending the time to put this
stuff away, put the laundry, you know, do the laundry,
put it away, go through the mail, and we just
(06:18):
need to kind of get back on track. That's situational clutter.
And maybe it is something as benign as hey, let's
get this bin or basket, and it's gonna solve the problem.
But what where it starts to become a pain point
for people is when it becomes goes into more of
the chronic, like this is an ongoing issue in our home,
(06:38):
and this is I'm constantly the only one, you know,
I'm filling in the blank, right, I'm the only one
that cleans up after everybody or nobody listens to me,
or you know, why can't I No matter how much
I declutter, it just keeps creeping back. And then it's
let's look at, well, what are the patterns of behavior?
(06:59):
How you communicating? Is it a problem with yourself? Is
something that you're not holding yourself accountable? Is it I'm
not communicating the expectation clearly with the other people in
my house, which is oftentimes the case. And so when
we look at kind of all the different nuances, that's
when we can start to develop an actual system that
(07:21):
is going to hopefully be sustainable for you.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I must say, is one of those c's children, yea,
because I feel like, I mean, I can have a
good grasp on my own stuff and it's fine, but
I have many many other people bringing things into the house.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, and that, and that's real, and that's a struggle
that most of my clients and most of the people
that I work with are struggling with.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And I get it, you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Know, and that's why I always kind of lead with.
And I only had two humans. You have five kids,
you know, and so everyone's coming with their own stuff
literally and figuratively. That is going to get in the
way of how you want to get that done.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, all right, Well we're going to take a quick
ad break and then I will be back with more
from Louri Palou. Well, I am back talking with Louri Palau,
who's the owner of the business simply be organized, all right,
So I love practical tips on this show. We've talked
(08:31):
about the deeper issues of clutter. But if somebody's like, Okay,
I want, you know, some quick solutions, some things that
I can do maybe today to help with the organization
in my life, whether that's you know, stuff or whether
it's temporal or whatever it is, what do you have
for us?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So, I mean there are some basics which are I
really think doing a sweep of your house on the
regular is really important, and that could mean you know, sweeping,
getting if you have little ones at home getting the toys,
you know, corralled and wrangled. And I'm not saying you
(09:12):
have to be doing it ten times a day, but
have a couple of like design pockets in your day,
whether it's first thing in the morning, obviously before bed.
Maybe there's a midday sweep if you're home, just to
kind of keep things at bay. I'm a big fan
also of not having dirty dishes in the sink. That
might be my thing. I like to create a system
(09:35):
for running the dishwasher. And it's funny now that I
used to always, you know, say, run the dishwasher every day,
run the dishrusher every day, and when I had a
busy household with lots of people, that was a no brainer.
Now when it's just my husband and myself, we're not
necessarily running it every day, but I still get in
the habit of running it at night when I do
(09:57):
run it, and so that way it gets unloaded first
thing in the morning, and so any dirty dishes throughout
the day can just funnel themselves into there. Another quick
tip that I have for people is go through the
mail every day. I try not to even bring in
the junk mail. I would put it right in the
recycling bin. But I go through the mail every day
(10:19):
and if you and this is obviously space dependent, but
one of the things that was a huge game changer
when it came to that paper clutter was we moved
our shredder downstairs into our I have a desk command
center in my kitchen. Totally get it that not everybody
has this space, but I moved my shredder there, and
(10:40):
that eliminated that extra step of going, oh, I need
to go up to my home office and have this
pile of stuff to shred. I could just do it
on the spot. So just making things super, super convenient
and easy so that you're adding fewer steps to get
your stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Done, yeah, because if it takes a lot of time
and effort, you're.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Not going to do it right.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Absolutely, Yeah, No, I love that. That's good. I'm curious
if you have any particular routines that make you more productive.
I mean, so we start to transition into scheduling here.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, I mean this, And again I always feel like
this sounds so obvious, but maybe it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I have always gotten up earlier than my kids. I've
always created an extra buffer. I'm a morning person, but
I like to have that even if it's fifteen to
thirty minutes, where I could have a cup of coffee,
I could just sit with my thoughts. I've gone through
different seasons of my life. Sometimes I would journal, sometimes
(11:45):
I would read, sometimes I would scroll. Whatever it is
that you are going to do for me. Having that
little buffer allows me to then when I had a
kick into mom mode or going off to work mode
or mode or whatever it was, I could then flip
that switch.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
But I needed that break.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I call it putting the margin in my day, and
so that always has helped me. So that's kind of
like my morning routine. And then I'm a big time blocker.
And I know you're a productivity person, so I'm sure
your listeners are familiar with that.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
But I like to just chunk my time into so that.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I I know, when I know, like I'm in work mode,
short of an emergency that's coming up, I will just
tailor any personal stuff or volunteer stuff or stuff that's
not related to work later. And I give myself that
permission because I know that this window of time, whatever
(12:44):
that window of time is, allows me to be focused
in on that task, and I do the same when
it comes to decluttering a space. You know, I'm giving
myself x amount of time, whether it's twenty minutes, thirty minutes,
an hour, four hours, whatever that window is. I'm like,
I'm setting aside this time to do this task and
(13:07):
everything else can wait. That means laundry, meal prep whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Do people wind up with cluttered schedules in the same
way that they wind up with cluttered homes.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh? Absolutely. We call it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yes, we call it calendar clutter. Here when I teach
about clutter, I talk about three main types. The physical clutter,
which is the stuff that you see, the emotional clutter,
which is like guilt or fear that holds people back,
and then calendar clutter. Obviously there's other clutter, like digital
clutter and things like that. But those three areas if
you were to look at like a you know, a
(13:38):
diagram like, you would see them as like concentric circles overlapping.
That's kind of the visual that I give to people,
and that calendar clutter will indirectly oftentimes lead to the
physical clutter because if you are so busy and you
are constantly on the go, it doesn't leave time for
you to address the physical stuff that needs attending to laundry, dishes, mail,
(14:03):
what have you.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So how can we get rid of some of that
schedule clutter.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I think it comes down to prioritizing what are your
goals really and how important is this thing to you?
You know, I make a lot of analogies about working
out and you know, health and fitness to decluttering your life,
whatever that looks like. And if you're you know, something's
(14:31):
going to give. And I'm always here to tell people,
like listen, if you want to be scheduled constantly, then
you have to be okay with either outsourcing and paying
somebody to do the things that need to get done,
or come to a piece of acceptance that you're.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Going to have that if you are.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And like, you know, a realistic analogy would be it's
summertime now, at least at the time that we're recording this,
people want to be outside.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You want to go to the beach, you want to
go to the lake, you want to or wherever. And
if you're gone all weekend, every single weekend, and you
work during the week, that leaves you little time to
get done those things. So maybe giving yourself a past
that Okay, our house is going to be a little
bit more messy, but if that stresses you out, then
you have to be intentional. I have that discipline because
(15:19):
really so much of organizing, once you find that system
and strategy that works for you, it's really just about
Vinson repeat, it's the discipline of doing it. Just like
if you were to work out or eat healthy, it's
just to say, Okay, I'm not going to eat the
ice cream, or I'm not gonna have dessert, or maybe
you want to have it, and that's okay, but then
(15:40):
you have to just accept the fact that maybe the
scale is not going to move in the direction I
wanted to, but I enjoyed the ice cream. So you
just have to kind of recognize you you necessarily can't
have both things at the same time.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, I mean, it's the reality that household management and
life administration take time, and we can tell ourselves that
they don't, but then they're going to stack up and
create this this sort of schedule clutter, or you can
sort of have the time built in to deal with
them and understand that this. You know, if you don't
(16:13):
want it to take time, that doesn't really matter. It's
like it's either your time or somebody's time.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Right, Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I used to I haven't said it much recently, but
I used to talk really about be looking at yourself
as the CEO of your home, and the CEO of
like in any business, oversees everything and then they have
different people that facilitate different aspects of the business. And
if you look at your home that way, and you
(16:41):
can itemize, okay, who is being in charge of this
particular area and maybe that's you, maybe that's a pay professional,
maybe that's your kids, maybe that's your spouse, whatever that
looks like, but really identifying it because we can't do
all of the things all the time, just like a
just like in a business, you can't have one person
(17:01):
just running the show.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Absolutely, all right, We're going to take one more quick
ad break and then i'll be back with more from
Louri Palou. Well, I am back talking with Lauri Palou,
who's the owner of the Simply Be Organized business and
has also been the host of the Disorganized Life podcast.
But we learned earlier that you are you know, going
(17:26):
to be ending that I wonder if you can talk
about that decision.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, It was probably one of the hardest professional decisions
I've had to make. So I don't know if there's
a lot of you know, entrepreneurs that are listening to
your show.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I'm imagining that there are.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
But anytime you have to walk away from something that
you like and that you are good at is really hard.
And you know, I wrote an article afterwards, you know,
I wrote a letter to my to my listeners to
just again not only thank them, but to say I
(18:01):
really put my organizer hat on and try to channel
how my clients feel about getting rid of things that
they might still love but maybe aren't serving them the
way they once were.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And it's okay to grieve that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And so for me, it really came down to the
fact that I was entering this new season of life
I've been talking about on the show and also on
my social media. We bought a little cottage that we've
been renovating, and that is taking up a lot of
my time and attention, and I needed to create space
(18:37):
for something new and I don't even know what that is,
and that's really scary also in its own right. But
I knew that my calendar was full with all the
things that I was doing and what was required of
the podcast, And as much as I love it, I
felt to a degree, I've said all of the key
(18:59):
things I want wanted to be a resource for people,
and it's still there. But I needed to say, Okay,
let's let's give space for something new.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
And so it was.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Really hard and we're i'll see what. I'll see what happens.
I always say, never say never. I love this medium,
I love this platform. I mean, I love helping people.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So we'll see. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Well, I say that open space invites opportunity in a
way that a cluttered calendar can. I mean, it's just
you can't say yes to new things if you feel
like every minute is spoken for. So I mean, it's
always exciting to see what comes next. But I've been
interesting to see with your business. I mean because with
a business like organizing, obviously, there's only so much that
you personally can do right and if you you know,
(19:46):
there's only so much it can grow if you are
you know, in people's houses for a certain amount of time.
And so you've you've come up with some interesting ways
to scale a business that is based around you. So
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, thanks, And I it's very interesting because I started
in this business in two thousand and nine, and I
tell people all the time, especially for newer organizers, just
to put it in context, there was no Instagram and
there was no Pinterest when I started. So you think
about how these platforms, especially in my world of organizing,
(20:23):
have helped people start, scale and grow their businesses like
that didn't even exist back when I started. And you know,
I think when you're in any type of hands on
business where it's a time for money trade, scaling has
a couple of different ways they can do it. You
can either scale it by bringing in a team and
(20:43):
basically duplicating yourself or other versions of yourself. And I
didn't necessarily. I had assistance, but I didn't want to
necessarily go that route because then your life becomes a
lot of management and project management.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Of other people.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
And I really love the relatetional piece that one on
one and so in order for me to scale, because
like you said, there are only so many hours in
a day, I had to basically develop other revenue streams
that could complement an offset, either peaks and valleys within
the business of like when times were, you know, slower
(21:22):
with clients, or just other ways that I could tap
into different markets. And so, in my specific case, I
started a speaker series called the Clutter Clinic, and it
was designed as a way.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I've noticed early on that.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
There were a lot of people that were very interested
in what I was saying. They were that this is
back in the blog like when blogging was in its heyday.
They were subscribed to my blog, they were getting my email,
they were on my email list, all the things, but
they weren't converting to be a client. And maybe they
weren't converting to a client because of embarrassment. Maybe they
(22:04):
weren't converting client because of cost. Maybe it was another reason.
Maybe it was that I think I can do it myself,
or I want to do it myself. I want to
be a di wire. I just don't have the tools.
And so I said, how can I reach that market
and essentially monetize that market that isn't necessarily falling into
that textbook luxury client that wants you to come and
(22:25):
do it with them or for them. And so I said,
what if I developed this lunch and learned series where
people could pay, they get some content and have it
in a fun, very non threatening way and then leave
with some action steps. And so that wound up becoming
another revenue stream for me to and it was a
(22:45):
win win because I was able to access another market
and also be able to share kind of my strategies
and theories. And then once the podcast came about, it
opened up another door for which I hadn't originally thought of,
but it opened up the door to allow me to
mentor other professional organizers. And I started the podcast in
(23:10):
twenty seventeen and just again for contacts. That's when, like
Marie Condo started becoming really popular. And then once COVID
hit and a lot of people were trying to figure
out alternative ways to generate money. And with social media,
you know, there's a low bower of entry for the
professional organizing space, which is a good.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
And a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And so you had a lot of people that were
coming in and starting either side hustles or starting businesses.
But they really struggled with some of the tactical business acumen. Right,
they knew how to organized, that wasn't the issue. They
love that, but running a business, running an organizing business.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Was a little bit of a struggle and so the.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Podcast attracted organically other people interested in the space, and
so that allowed me to then develop a mentorship program
where I do group in individual mentorship where I'm teaching
other organizers how to sustainably grow their businesses in their
respective markets.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Excellent, excellent, Well, Laurie, I always ask people on the
show this question, what is something you have done recently
to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 3 (24:21):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I really think it comes down to gratitude and just
your mindset right of just recognizing.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
That where you are is a gift. And you know, I.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Just came off of being having the luxury of being
away for almost a month at our beach house renovating it,
which I've never in my life been away for that long.
And I'll yes, I was working remotely, but I just
kept reminding myself, like how fortunate I am not only
to be to like be in this beautiful space, but
(25:02):
just like that I was healthy and that I had
you know, all of these I have great friendships and relationships,
and so wherever you are, even if you're not doing
that and you're in the weeds, trying to just take
that moment of gratitude for whatever it is that you're
grateful for. I think just really helps me to elevate
(25:25):
kind of what's going on, even when things don't necessarily
go exactly the way that you want.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
That can really reframe.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, absolutely, you can savor the good things that are
happening and sure get through the bed. So, Laurie, where
can people find you?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
So best place to find me is my website, which
is the hub of all the things, and that's simply
the letter B like Boyorganized dot com and you can
connect up. There's a link for the podcast because even
though we're not doing new episodes, we have over five
hundred episodes of all kinds of organizing stuff and there's
(26:01):
you know, the book and coaching and all that fun
stuff there.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Absolutely all right, Well, Laurie, thank you so much for
joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you
have feedback about this or any other episode, you can
always reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
And in the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
(26:29):
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas
or feedback. You can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
(26:51):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
episode is going to be a longer one part of
the series where I interview fascinating people about how they
take their days from great to awesome and any advice
(00:23):
they have for the rest of us. So today I
am delighted to welcome Lauri Palau to the show. She
is the host of the Organized Life podcast, author of
the book Hot Mess, owner of the business Simply Be Organized. So, Laurie,
welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here.
I love sitting on the other side of a podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Most absolutely, it's a totally different experience. So why don't
you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Okay, well, I'll try to give it the quick, short version.
So I'm a mom to two grown ish kids. I
have a almost twenty two year old and year old,
so kind of in a new season of.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Life for my youngest.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Just graduated college and so that's bringing on a whole
different type of mothering. And then professionally, I run a
company called Simply Be Organized, where I write teach speak
all about decluttering all parts of your life, whether it's
the physical stuff in your home, whether it's more of
(01:26):
the productivity side of things where you're reducing things in
your calendar, or just kind of relational things that are
the mental block of keeping you stuck where you are.
And yeah, and I have a I had a podcast
for eight years, and I just made the decision that
(01:50):
when we talk about editing our lives and things that
you know we need to make changes, we just made
the decision that we are going to be ending our show,
which is scary and exciting all the things.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Also, that's kind of.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Where I am personally and professionally.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And how did you get involved in the organizing business?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
So it was really by happenstance. I tell the story.
It was very anticlimactic in a sense that I was
just always somebody that was very organized. When my kids
were little, my husband traveled a ton, so I had
to create systems and strategies for my own sanity. That
was it, And I guess my brain just works that way.
(02:33):
And my past life, I was an executive recruiter and
I loved working with people. I always liked working with
people and finding out what motivated them, And in my
old world, it was although what motivated them for changing
their careers?
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Was it freedom? Was it?
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Status?
Speaker 3 (02:52):
Was it? You know?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Fill in the blank. And in the recession of two
thousand and eight two thousand and nine, much of my
client work was impacted and a friend of mine who's
an interior designer, made the recommendation of like, hey, you
might want to try doing this professionally. And I really
took the skills that I was using with recruiting and
(03:17):
just applied them in a different realm. And so I
started working with people to find out about their motivation
for holding onto things or wanting to get rid of things.
And I found that there was a lot of overlap
in the work that I was doing.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
It was just showing up differently.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah, And one of the things you talk about, I
love the big phrase on your website, it's not about
the bins. So for those of us who think that organization,
you know, we like our bins, perhaps why is it
not about the bins?
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Because for me, and this is where I always put
the disclaimer that I pretend I'm a fake therapist, I'm
really not.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So with all and.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
The utmost respect to anybody that has letters after their name.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
But after doing this for fifteen years and just kind
of being a student of personalities and human development, I
really find that clutter is the symptom and disorganization is
the symptom.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
And really I can give you the tools to meeting
the bin, the.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Basket, the filing, cabinet, whatever, and we can create those systems,
but ultimately it's about how it makes us feel. How
does this stuff make us feel? What is driving our
behavior to make the decisions or not make the decisions
to either act or not act on our stuff. And
once we have that light bulb switch, that's when change
(04:48):
really happens. And so many people think, if I just
had and I know for myself, right, if I just
had the beautiful built in closet, if I just had
the custom budroom, if I just had the fill in
the blank, then my problems wouldn't be there. And we
all know this in so many different aspects of our lives.
That's just not the case. We have to really kind
(05:09):
of get in beneath the surface.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, what is cluttery symptom of? Then if that's the
if that's the symptom, what is it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
I mean I think for a lot of people, it
can range right, it can range anywhere from it's a
symptom of chaos. It's a symptom of control. It's a
symptom of you know, I have like these like five
kind of c's. You know, it's confusion, it is, you know,
people are paralyzed where they are. There's all of these
(05:37):
different reasons. There's not just one reason why we get stuck.
And you know, I think the key to unlocking what
clutter where your own clutter pitfall is is doing some
self discovery. And sometimes, you know, when I go deep
and we look at sometimes it is situational. I call
(05:58):
it like situational clutter versus crime clutter. Situational clutter is Listen,
we're in a busy season of life. We've got kids,
we're running around, We're using our home as it drop zone.
So we're not really spending the time to put this
stuff away, put the laundry, you know, do the laundry,
put it away, go through the mail, and we just
(06:18):
need to kind of get back on track. That's situational clutter.
And maybe it is something as benign as hey, let's
get this bin or basket, and it's gonna solve the problem.
But what where it starts to become a pain point
for people is when it becomes goes into more of
the chronic, like this is an ongoing issue in our home,
(06:38):
and this is I'm constantly the only one, you know,
I'm filling in the blank, right, I'm the only one
that cleans up after everybody or nobody listens to me,
or you know, why can't I No matter how much
I declutter, it just keeps creeping back. And then it's
let's look at, well, what are the patterns of behavior?
(06:59):
How you communicating? Is it a problem with yourself? Is
something that you're not holding yourself accountable? Is it I'm
not communicating the expectation clearly with the other people in
my house, which is oftentimes the case. And so when
we look at kind of all the different nuances, that's
when we can start to develop an actual system that
(07:21):
is going to hopefully be sustainable for you.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I must say, is one of those c's children, yea,
because I feel like, I mean, I can have a
good grasp on my own stuff and it's fine, but
I have many many other people bringing things into the house.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Yeah, and that, and that's real, and that's a struggle
that most of my clients and most of the people
that I work with are struggling with.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And I get it, you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Know, and that's why I always kind of lead with.
And I only had two humans. You have five kids,
you know, and so everyone's coming with their own stuff
literally and figuratively. That is going to get in the
way of how you want to get that done.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, all right, Well we're going to take a quick
ad break and then I will be back with more
from Louri Palou. Well, I am back talking with Louri Palau,
who's the owner of the business simply be organized, all right,
So I love practical tips on this show. We've talked
(08:31):
about the deeper issues of clutter. But if somebody's like, Okay,
I want, you know, some quick solutions, some things that
I can do maybe today to help with the organization
in my life, whether that's you know, stuff or whether
it's temporal or whatever it is, what do you have
for us?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
So, I mean there are some basics which are I
really think doing a sweep of your house on the
regular is really important, and that could mean you know, sweeping,
getting if you have little ones at home getting the toys,
you know, corralled and wrangled. And I'm not saying you
(09:12):
have to be doing it ten times a day, but
have a couple of like design pockets in your day,
whether it's first thing in the morning, obviously before bed.
Maybe there's a midday sweep if you're home, just to
kind of keep things at bay. I'm a big fan
also of not having dirty dishes in the sink. That
might be my thing. I like to create a system
(09:35):
for running the dishwasher. And it's funny now that I
used to always, you know, say, run the dishwasher every day,
run the dishrusher every day, and when I had a
busy household with lots of people, that was a no brainer.
Now when it's just my husband and myself, we're not
necessarily running it every day, but I still get in
the habit of running it at night when I do
(09:57):
run it, and so that way it gets unloaded first
thing in the morning, and so any dirty dishes throughout
the day can just funnel themselves into there. Another quick
tip that I have for people is go through the
mail every day. I try not to even bring in
the junk mail. I would put it right in the
recycling bin. But I go through the mail every day
(10:19):
and if you and this is obviously space dependent, but
one of the things that was a huge game changer
when it came to that paper clutter was we moved
our shredder downstairs into our I have a desk command
center in my kitchen. Totally get it that not everybody
has this space, but I moved my shredder there, and
(10:40):
that eliminated that extra step of going, oh, I need
to go up to my home office and have this
pile of stuff to shred. I could just do it
on the spot. So just making things super, super convenient
and easy so that you're adding fewer steps to get
your stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Done, yeah, because if it takes a lot of time
and effort, you're.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
Not going to do it right.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Absolutely, Yeah, No, I love that. That's good. I'm curious
if you have any particular routines that make you more productive.
I mean, so we start to transition into scheduling here.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yeah, I mean this, And again I always feel like
this sounds so obvious, but maybe it doesn't.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I have always gotten up earlier than my kids. I've
always created an extra buffer. I'm a morning person, but
I like to have that even if it's fifteen to
thirty minutes, where I could have a cup of coffee,
I could just sit with my thoughts. I've gone through
different seasons of my life. Sometimes I would journal, sometimes
(11:45):
I would read, sometimes I would scroll. Whatever it is
that you are going to do for me. Having that
little buffer allows me to then when I had a
kick into mom mode or going off to work mode
or mode or whatever it was, I could then flip
that switch.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
But I needed that break.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
I call it putting the margin in my day, and
so that always has helped me. So that's kind of
like my morning routine. And then I'm a big time blocker.
And I know you're a productivity person, so I'm sure
your listeners are familiar with that.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
But I like to just chunk my time into so that.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I I know, when I know, like I'm in work mode,
short of an emergency that's coming up, I will just
tailor any personal stuff or volunteer stuff or stuff that's
not related to work later. And I give myself that
permission because I know that this window of time, whatever
(12:44):
that window of time is, allows me to be focused
in on that task, and I do the same when
it comes to decluttering a space. You know, I'm giving
myself x amount of time, whether it's twenty minutes, thirty minutes,
an hour, four hours, whatever that window is. I'm like,
I'm setting aside this time to do this task and
(13:07):
everything else can wait. That means laundry, meal prep whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Do people wind up with cluttered schedules in the same
way that they wind up with cluttered homes.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Oh? Absolutely. We call it.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yes, we call it calendar clutter. Here when I teach
about clutter, I talk about three main types. The physical clutter,
which is the stuff that you see, the emotional clutter,
which is like guilt or fear that holds people back,
and then calendar clutter. Obviously there's other clutter, like digital
clutter and things like that. But those three areas if
you were to look at like a you know, a
(13:38):
diagram like, you would see them as like concentric circles overlapping.
That's kind of the visual that I give to people,
and that calendar clutter will indirectly oftentimes lead to the
physical clutter because if you are so busy and you
are constantly on the go, it doesn't leave time for
you to address the physical stuff that needs attending to laundry, dishes, mail,
(14:03):
what have you.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
So how can we get rid of some of that
schedule clutter.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
I think it comes down to prioritizing what are your
goals really and how important is this thing to you?
You know, I make a lot of analogies about working
out and you know, health and fitness to decluttering your life,
whatever that looks like. And if you're you know, something's
(14:31):
going to give. And I'm always here to tell people,
like listen, if you want to be scheduled constantly, then
you have to be okay with either outsourcing and paying
somebody to do the things that need to get done,
or come to a piece of acceptance that you're.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Going to have that if you are.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
And like, you know, a realistic analogy would be it's
summertime now, at least at the time that we're recording this,
people want to be outside.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
I get it.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
You want to go to the beach, you want to
go to the lake, you want to or wherever. And
if you're gone all weekend, every single weekend, and you
work during the week, that leaves you little time to
get done those things. So maybe giving yourself a past
that Okay, our house is going to be a little
bit more messy, but if that stresses you out, then
you have to be intentional. I have that discipline because
(15:19):
really so much of organizing, once you find that system
and strategy that works for you, it's really just about
Vinson repeat, it's the discipline of doing it. Just like
if you were to work out or eat healthy, it's
just to say, Okay, I'm not going to eat the
ice cream, or I'm not gonna have dessert, or maybe
you want to have it, and that's okay, but then
(15:40):
you have to just accept the fact that maybe the
scale is not going to move in the direction I
wanted to, but I enjoyed the ice cream. So you
just have to kind of recognize you you necessarily can't
have both things at the same time.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah, I mean, it's the reality that household management and
life administration take time, and we can tell ourselves that
they don't, but then they're going to stack up and
create this this sort of schedule clutter, or you can
sort of have the time built in to deal with
them and understand that this. You know, if you don't
(16:13):
want it to take time, that doesn't really matter. It's
like it's either your time or somebody's time.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Right, Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
I used to I haven't said it much recently, but
I used to talk really about be looking at yourself
as the CEO of your home, and the CEO of
like in any business, oversees everything and then they have
different people that facilitate different aspects of the business. And
if you look at your home that way, and you
(16:41):
can itemize, okay, who is being in charge of this
particular area and maybe that's you, maybe that's a pay professional,
maybe that's your kids, maybe that's your spouse, whatever that
looks like, but really identifying it because we can't do
all of the things all the time, just like a
just like in a business, you can't have one person
(17:01):
just running the show.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Absolutely, all right, We're going to take one more quick
ad break and then i'll be back with more from
Louri Palou. Well, I am back talking with Lauri Palou,
who's the owner of the Simply Be Organized business and
has also been the host of the Disorganized Life podcast.
But we learned earlier that you are you know, going
(17:26):
to be ending that I wonder if you can talk
about that decision.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, It was probably one of the hardest professional decisions
I've had to make. So I don't know if there's
a lot of you know, entrepreneurs that are listening to
your show.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
I'm imagining that there are.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
But anytime you have to walk away from something that
you like and that you are good at is really hard.
And you know, I wrote an article afterwards, you know,
I wrote a letter to my to my listeners to
just again not only thank them, but to say I
(18:01):
really put my organizer hat on and try to channel
how my clients feel about getting rid of things that
they might still love but maybe aren't serving them the
way they once were.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
And it's okay to grieve that.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
And so for me, it really came down to the
fact that I was entering this new season of life
I've been talking about on the show and also on
my social media. We bought a little cottage that we've
been renovating, and that is taking up a lot of
my time and attention, and I needed to create space
(18:37):
for something new and I don't even know what that is,
and that's really scary also in its own right. But
I knew that my calendar was full with all the
things that I was doing and what was required of
the podcast, And as much as I love it, I
felt to a degree, I've said all of the key
(18:59):
things I want wanted to be a resource for people,
and it's still there. But I needed to say, Okay,
let's let's give space for something new.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
And so it was.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Really hard and we're i'll see what. I'll see what happens.
I always say, never say never. I love this medium,
I love this platform. I mean, I love helping people.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So we'll see. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Well, I say that open space invites opportunity in a
way that a cluttered calendar can. I mean, it's just
you can't say yes to new things if you feel
like every minute is spoken for. So I mean, it's
always exciting to see what comes next. But I've been
interesting to see with your business. I mean because with
a business like organizing, obviously, there's only so much that
you personally can do right and if you you know,
(19:46):
there's only so much it can grow if you are
you know, in people's houses for a certain amount of time.
And so you've you've come up with some interesting ways
to scale a business that is based around you. So
I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah, thanks, And I it's very interesting because I started
in this business in two thousand and nine, and I
tell people all the time, especially for newer organizers, just
to put it in context, there was no Instagram and
there was no Pinterest when I started. So you think
about how these platforms, especially in my world of organizing,
(20:23):
have helped people start, scale and grow their businesses like
that didn't even exist back when I started. And you know,
I think when you're in any type of hands on
business where it's a time for money trade, scaling has
a couple of different ways they can do it. You
can either scale it by bringing in a team and
(20:43):
basically duplicating yourself or other versions of yourself. And I
didn't necessarily. I had assistance, but I didn't want to
necessarily go that route because then your life becomes a
lot of management and project management.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Of other people.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
And I really love the relatetional piece that one on
one and so in order for me to scale, because
like you said, there are only so many hours in
a day, I had to basically develop other revenue streams
that could complement an offset, either peaks and valleys within
the business of like when times were, you know, slower
(21:22):
with clients, or just other ways that I could tap
into different markets. And so, in my specific case, I
started a speaker series called the Clutter Clinic, and it
was designed as a way.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
I've noticed early on that.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
There were a lot of people that were very interested
in what I was saying. They were that this is
back in the blog like when blogging was in its heyday.
They were subscribed to my blog, they were getting my email,
they were on my email list, all the things, but
they weren't converting to be a client. And maybe they
weren't converting to a client because of embarrassment. Maybe they
(22:04):
weren't converting client because of cost. Maybe it was another reason.
Maybe it was that I think I can do it myself,
or I want to do it myself. I want to
be a di wire. I just don't have the tools.
And so I said, how can I reach that market
and essentially monetize that market that isn't necessarily falling into
that textbook luxury client that wants you to come and
(22:25):
do it with them or for them. And so I said,
what if I developed this lunch and learned series where
people could pay, they get some content and have it
in a fun, very non threatening way and then leave
with some action steps. And so that wound up becoming
another revenue stream for me to and it was a
(22:45):
win win because I was able to access another market
and also be able to share kind of my strategies
and theories. And then once the podcast came about, it
opened up another door for which I hadn't originally thought of,
but it opened up the door to allow me to
mentor other professional organizers. And I started the podcast in
(23:10):
twenty seventeen and just again for contacts. That's when, like
Marie Condo started becoming really popular. And then once COVID
hit and a lot of people were trying to figure
out alternative ways to generate money. And with social media,
you know, there's a low bower of entry for the
professional organizing space, which is a good.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
And a bad thing.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
And so you had a lot of people that were
coming in and starting either side hustles or starting businesses.
But they really struggled with some of the tactical business acumen. Right,
they knew how to organized, that wasn't the issue. They
love that, but running a business, running an organizing business.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Was a little bit of a struggle and so the.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Podcast attracted organically other people interested in the space, and
so that allowed me to then develop a mentorship program
where I do group in individual mentorship where I'm teaching
other organizers how to sustainably grow their businesses in their
respective markets.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Excellent, excellent, Well, Laurie, I always ask people on the
show this question, what is something you have done recently
to take a day from great to awesome?
Speaker 3 (24:21):
That's a really good question.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
I really think it comes down to gratitude and just
your mindset right of just recognizing.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
That where you are is a gift. And you know, I.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Just came off of being having the luxury of being
away for almost a month at our beach house renovating it,
which I've never in my life been away for that long.
And I'll yes, I was working remotely, but I just
kept reminding myself, like how fortunate I am not only
to be to like be in this beautiful space, but
(25:02):
just like that I was healthy and that I had
you know, all of these I have great friendships and relationships,
and so wherever you are, even if you're not doing
that and you're in the weeds, trying to just take
that moment of gratitude for whatever it is that you're
grateful for. I think just really helps me to elevate
(25:25):
kind of what's going on, even when things don't necessarily
go exactly the way that you want.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
That can really reframe.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Yeah, absolutely, you can savor the good things that are
happening and sure get through the bed. So, Laurie, where
can people find you?
Speaker 2 (25:40):
So best place to find me is my website, which
is the hub of all the things, and that's simply
the letter B like Boyorganized dot com and you can
connect up. There's a link for the podcast because even
though we're not doing new episodes, we have over five
hundred episodes of all kinds of organizing stuff and there's
(26:01):
you know, the book and coaching and all that fun
stuff there.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Absolutely all right, Well, Laurie, thank you so much for
joining us. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you
have feedback about this or any other episode, you can
always reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
And in the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,
and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks
(26:29):
for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas
or feedback. You can reach me at Laura at Laura
vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.
For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,
(26:51):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Before Breakfast News
Host
Laura Vanderkam
Show Links
AboutPopular Podcasts
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!