July 17, 2025 • 16 mins
All summer long, we’re bringing back some of our most-loved episodes from the This Organized Life archives—because let’s be honest, good conversations deserve a second (or third) listen.
This week, we’re throwing it back to one of our most talked-about topics: the 5 Clutter Pitfalls.These are the sneaky little roadblocks that keep us from tackling our clutter and staying organized—and trust me, we’ve all fallen into one or more of these traps. I originally broke them down in Chapter 8 of my book Hot Mess: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized (shameless plug—you can grab it here).
In this episode, I’ll walk you through each pitfall and how to recognize them in your own life—plus some tips for getting unstuck and moving forward.
What You’ll Learn:
✔️ The 5 major clutter pitfalls holding you back
✔️ Why procrastination and indecision are besties with clutter
✔️ How guilt and fear sneak into our organizing process
✔️ Why “overwhelm” is more than just a feeling
✔️ Simple mindset shifts to help you make progress—even when you don’t have time
🎧 Tune in, take notes, and let this be the nudge you need to finally deal with that one drawer (you know the one).
This week, we’re throwing it back to one of our most talked-about topics: the 5 Clutter Pitfalls.These are the sneaky little roadblocks that keep us from tackling our clutter and staying organized—and trust me, we’ve all fallen into one or more of these traps. I originally broke them down in Chapter 8 of my book Hot Mess: A Practical Guide to Getting Organized (shameless plug—you can grab it here).
In this episode, I’ll walk you through each pitfall and how to recognize them in your own life—plus some tips for getting unstuck and moving forward.
What You’ll Learn:
✔️ The 5 major clutter pitfalls holding you back
✔️ Why procrastination and indecision are besties with clutter
✔️ How guilt and fear sneak into our organizing process
✔️ Why “overwhelm” is more than just a feeling
✔️ Simple mindset shifts to help you make progress—even when you don’t have time
🎧 Tune in, take notes, and let this be the nudge you need to finally deal with that one drawer (you know the one).
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to This Organized Life. If you're a mom, wife,
or coffee lover seeking advice on how to reduce clutter
and reclaim time, look no further than your host, Laurie Hellau,
Founder Simply Be Organized and author of hot Mess, a
practical guide to getting organized. For a lot of people,
clutter is their dirty little secret, but it doesn't have
to be. Each week, we will.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Share practical tips, chat with experts.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And provide strategies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
On how to keep you organized.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I hope that by sharing our stories you feel a
little less alone and more empowered to tackle the areas
that are holding you back. So let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And running off with you today's episode of This Organized
Life podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I am your host, Lori Palau, and I am so
happy that you guys are here. If you're listening in
real time, we are at the end of June and
it is a.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Scorcher here up in the Northeast.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So if you're watching on YouTube, I'm right here in
a messy bun and if you're listening, it doesn't really
matter because I'm just in your earbuds. Well, before before
we get into today's topic, I just want to talk
to you about an exciting new program that we are
rolling out. So if you are somebody who is in
a life transition, whether you are thinking about starting a
(01:13):
side hustle or maybe you want to work part time,
you're looking to maybe do something different in your life,
and you have a patcheon for organizing and thinking, you
know what, I might want to test the waters and
start a professional organizing business. I think this is something
that I could do and make money, but I'm just
not sure how to do it. You're going to want
to check out our new training program that we are
(01:33):
launching in September. So for the past fe four years,
I've been mentoring professional organizers one on one, and I
have a limited amount of time to do it, so
I've decided to actually start a cohort. So we are
limiting it to no more than ten people, and it's
going to be an eight week live training program. So
it's basically going to be a course that we are
(01:54):
being taught by me as the instructor, and we're going
to go through several different principles of running a business.
So not only can we talk about the organizing nuances
of the industry, but we're going to be talking all
about best business practices and how to develop workflow strategies, accounting,
(02:17):
social media, building an email list, all of the moving
parts of running a business, not just the organizing side
of things.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So what I love about this course.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Is that it's completely one on one, personal group dynamic.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
There's no modules that you need to watch. We are
recording them, so.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You certainly can go back and rewatch them, but this
is live training where you get to ask questions just
like you are in a classroom. At the end of
the eight weeks, you are going to walk away with
the tools to feel confident and successful in starting and
running your own business, like getting clients immediately and helping
(03:00):
to contribute to your family. And the best part about
this and what I love about this industry is you
don't have to sacrifice that quality of life, especially if
you are the primary caregiver of your family. I started
this business when my kids were small, and one of
the things I loved about it is the flexibility to
be able to carve out time when it worked for me,
(03:23):
and we're going to talk all about that in the course.
So if you want to learn more, we're going to
drop the link below in the show notes, but you
could just go to our website, which is simply be
Organized dot com and there's a business mentoring. There should
be a little button right there. You can click on
that and I'll give you all the details and then
if you still have questions, you can hop on a
(03:43):
free discovery call and we could talk about it. So again,
I'm very very excited. This is the first time we're
doing an actual class, so you guys will be working
with people that are in like similar boat of you,
and so again having that bouncing ideas off of with
a community of people is going to be so helpful.
So definitely definitely check that out. Okay, great, Now onto
(04:05):
today's episode. One of the things that I want to
kind of focus in and going back and doing because
we have a lot of new people, is getting back
to basics and what do I mean by that. So
we talk a lot about all of the different ways
that you can live in an organized life. But at
the end of the day, there's some tactical foundational principles
(04:26):
that we teach here at Simply Be Organized. It's some
of the stuff that we're going to be covering in
our course. As a matter of fact, one of which
is our organizing esp which is our empty sort purge methodology.
But the next one, which I'm going to focus in
today is the five clutter pitfalls. Now, early on in
(04:47):
my career, I started noticing that there were patterns, patterns
of reasons I don't want to call them excuses, but
reasons why people were struggling with clutter, and so I
started kind of noting them and paying attention to them
and leaning into them, and I came up with these
(05:07):
five key areas, which I've deemed the five clutter pitfalls,
and we teach them today still today, fifteen years later.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
About where people get bottlenecked.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
And the interesting thing is the longer you do this
and the kind of the deeper we go into the
psychology of clutter is you can look at all the
different reasons why do it, but why people struggle in
these different areas. But I want to walk through each
of those five areas, because if you can first identify
where your clutter pitfalls are, it's then easier to address
(05:41):
and figure out the strategy that's going to help you
get past it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So let's go through them one by one.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
The first one is the clutter pitfall of procrastination. Now, Procrastination,
in its simplest of terms, is just that kick in
the can down the road. We're going to do it later.
We're going to just close the door the drawer, walk
away and deal with.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It at another time.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And the interesting thing is, the longer I did this,
I started looking at why people procrastinate. So procrastination comes
for a variety of different reasons. It can come from overwhelm.
It can come from not having enough time. It can
come from not knowing what to do, not having the
strategy to do it. It could just come I'd rather
(06:28):
be doing something else. I mean, it could be that simple.
Is I just would rather be doing something else. So
I think we have to really look why are we procrastinating?
And for a lot of people, procrastination is if we
can unlock that key, then we can begin to develop
those healthy muscles of getting in that routine practice of
(06:50):
decluttering and organizing. Okay, the second clutter pitfall is indecision.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
This is a big one.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Now, Indecision will often to procrastination, and indecision simply.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Means I don't know what to do. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You're at an impast You're kind of like at a
crossroads and you're frozen.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And for a lot of people that can come because
they there's this fear of making a mistake. People don't
want to make a wrong decision. And when it comes
to decluttering and organizing, if you start to doubt yourself,
a lot of times people will say I'm not sure,
so I'm just not going to do anything. And so
the act of not doing anything will result in clutter,
even though you're not technically making a mistake. And I'm
(07:32):
air quoting. What happens is if you do nothing, that
in essence will result in clutter because things will continue
to build up if you are failing to take action.
Think about driving in an intersection and being undecided of
you're at a fork in the road and you don't
know if you should go left or you should go right,
and you just stop.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
You're going to bottleneck and traffic jam everything. And so
that's what happens when it comes to clutter for a
lot of people, as they indecision and they're like, I
don't know what to do, and they just freeze. And
so what we want to do is we want to
get you to kind of pick a lane and figure
out which way you're going to go and make peace
with Nine times out of ten there isn't a wrong way.
(08:16):
Maybe you're taking the longer route, maybe you have to
reroute yourself, but it's not the end, like it's not
the end all be all, and so that's what we
work through when it comes to indecision. The third clutter
pitfall is guilt.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
How to think about that in my order?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So guilt, and we all know guilt also can lead
to procrastination. But guilt can come from a lot of
different ways. It could be family guilt and if you
know we talked about I think it was last week
when we talked all about inheriting your parents' stuff and
the guilt that a lot of times get passed on
to like this is.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Now your responsibility.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Guilt can also mean I spend a lot of money
on this and I feel guilty because I'm not using
it where and get some holding onto it. Guilt could
also mean sentimental stuff of like my kid made this
for me. Maybe it doesn't have a monetary value, but
it's something that like I would feel like a bad
mom if I got rid of it and so there's
all these different layers of guilt and it all stems
(09:16):
from this like false narrative that we tell ourselves or
maybe even it was something that was told to us,
but you know that that something was our responsibility, but
it really truly isn't. And so once we can relinquish
and like go of that guilt, then we are able
to kind of move forward and get over that that
(09:37):
clutter pitfall. The side sister to uh to guilt is fear,
and a lot of those same emotions hold true, So
fear of again going back and making a mistake, or
that fear of I'm going to upset somebody. And so
when we can work past the guilt or the fear,
(09:59):
that will again free us up to move forward. Overwhelmed
is the next one, and we touched on that with procrastination.
When you were overwhelmed, I mean, you just have more
on your plate than you can handle.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It could be emotional overwhelmed, it could be physical overwhelmed,
financial overwhelm. There's all these different types of overwhelmed that
just again paralyzes us from taking positive, progressive steps forward.
And when it comes to clutter, it is or organizing
clutter is overwhelming. We sit there and we're looking at
(10:33):
a mountain of stuff, or maybe it's a mountain of
stuff to us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And you know, I joke a lot of times with my.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Professional organizer colleagues where they'll say, you know, I'm working
with a client and they're like, they're so overwhelmed, and
they'll turn to the professional organizer.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Or you overwhelmed them.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
They're like, no, I'm not. I'm energized because we have
a plan, we have a strategy, we know how to
attack this mountain, this beast. But if you don't have that,
if you don't have that strategy, if you don't have
that plan, it's so easy to then get overwhelmed. Like
we understand that, and that's why it's important to listen
(11:12):
to podcasts and read books and talk to people and
get other people in your corner, whether it's a professional
organizer or a friend, to help you navigate through that,
to kind of work through that overwhelm, because the only
way that you're.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Going to get past it is to go through it.
And then the fifth.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Clutter pitfall that we talk about oftentimes is time. So
we just don't have the time. We have more things
to do than time to do it. And I always
say that time is our most precious commodity. Doesn't matter
how much money you have. We all the same amount
of time in a given day. It's just how do
we use that time? Are we using our time wisely?
(11:51):
Are we using our resources wisely? Is our time best
spent doing A or is it best spent doing B?
Because oftentimes you can't do both, and so we have
to pick and choose how we're going to spend our time.
And so for some people it might make sense for
them to outsource one thing so that they could do another.
(12:11):
And maybe that means you have somebody to pick up
your kids so that you can do, you know, make dinner,
or maybe it means that you are going to not
go and do something on a Saturday so that you
could spend an hour or two in the morning going
through a.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Closet of clothes.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And again, most things aren't an either or it's a both,
and but we our time is so precious, and what
happens is if we don't spend any time giving attention
to our disorganization, then what happens is we don't want
to be in our space because it causes us anxiety
(12:54):
and stress, and it makes it really uncomfortable to want
to be there. And so that's when I see that
cycle happen where people are like, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed,
I'm procrastinating, I don't have the time to do it,
i don't want to spend to do it.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I'm just gonna leave, And then they come.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Back and they feel stressed, and it just perpetuates over
and over again.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so what do we do. We have to stop
the cycle of these clutter.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Pitfalls, and the way that you can do it is
just starting just saying I need help. Maybe that means
waving the white flag. Maybe that says identifying I am
just overwhelmed and I have these different pain points and
I need somebody to redirect me. I need somebody, whether
that's like a person working on one on one with me,
(13:40):
or maybe I just need like a clutter coach to
talk to. Maybe I just need to talk to somebody
and get a plan of action. Because what I find
for most of my clients is once they have the plan,
once they have the strategy, at that point they feel
empowered and inspired and motivated to actually take the steps
(14:03):
to start chipping away at it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But it's when we.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Don't have those strategies in place and we just don't
know and we're flying by the seat of our pants
that we get frustrated and we avoid things. And so
if that's you out there, just know that you are
not alone and there are resources out there. I mean,
if you're looking again for a in person professional organizer,
there's a ton.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Of people out there.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
We've got an amazing network of people under our SBO
Partner program and we're continuing to train new people.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
To help you. But a lot of times.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You just need somebody to talk to. And if you
are somebody that needs a clutter coach, we would love
to help. Just visit our website simply be Organized dot
com backslash clutter Coaching. It's right on our website and
we're here to help you to help you navigate through
that procrastination, that indecision, that guilt, fear, overwhelmed time, all
(15:01):
of those things that play this ongoing cycle of disorganization.
Because guess what, life is too short to have to
deal with that. So if that's you, please just know
it doesn't have to be that way and we are
here to help. I hope this episode has been helpful
and inspirational to you. If you know somebody who you
(15:24):
think could benefit from this episode, would you please do
them a favor and just share it with them. Again,
there is no shame in feeling disorganized or overwhelmed with clutter,
and so that's that's what we're here for people, So again,
any questions hit us up until next week.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I'm Lori Blaupisaut. Thanks for tuning in. If you'd like
this episode, please spread the love and share it with
your friends.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And if this is your first time joining us, make
sure to click the subscribe button wherever you are listening
so you never miss an episode. And while you're there,
please leave us a review so other people know that
our show is worth to listen. You can also find
us on YouTube and Instagram at This Organized Life Podcast,
and if you'd like to connect with us, you can
head on over to our website at simply the Letter,
b boyorganized dot com, which is filled with tons of resources,
(16:14):
including free downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners,
and all of our digital offerings. And I'll see you
next week for another episode of This Organized Life
Welcome to This Organized Life. If you're a mom, wife,
or coffee lover seeking advice on how to reduce clutter
and reclaim time, look no further than your host, Laurie Hellau,
Founder Simply Be Organized and author of hot Mess, a
practical guide to getting organized. For a lot of people,
clutter is their dirty little secret, but it doesn't have
to be. Each week, we will.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Share practical tips, chat with experts.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
And provide strategies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
On how to keep you organized.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I hope that by sharing our stories you feel a
little less alone and more empowered to tackle the areas
that are holding you back. So let's get started.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
And running off with you today's episode of This Organized
Life podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I am your host, Lori Palau, and I am so
happy that you guys are here. If you're listening in
real time, we are at the end of June and
it is a.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Scorcher here up in the Northeast.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
So if you're watching on YouTube, I'm right here in
a messy bun and if you're listening, it doesn't really
matter because I'm just in your earbuds. Well, before before
we get into today's topic, I just want to talk
to you about an exciting new program that we are
rolling out. So if you are somebody who is in
a life transition, whether you are thinking about starting a
(01:13):
side hustle or maybe you want to work part time,
you're looking to maybe do something different in your life,
and you have a patcheon for organizing and thinking, you
know what, I might want to test the waters and
start a professional organizing business. I think this is something
that I could do and make money, but I'm just
not sure how to do it. You're going to want
to check out our new training program that we are
(01:33):
launching in September. So for the past fe four years,
I've been mentoring professional organizers one on one, and I
have a limited amount of time to do it, so
I've decided to actually start a cohort. So we are
limiting it to no more than ten people, and it's
going to be an eight week live training program. So
it's basically going to be a course that we are
(01:54):
being taught by me as the instructor, and we're going
to go through several different principles of running a business.
So not only can we talk about the organizing nuances
of the industry, but we're going to be talking all
about best business practices and how to develop workflow strategies, accounting,
(02:17):
social media, building an email list, all of the moving
parts of running a business, not just the organizing side
of things.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
So what I love about this course.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Is that it's completely one on one, personal group dynamic.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
There's no modules that you need to watch. We are
recording them, so.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You certainly can go back and rewatch them, but this
is live training where you get to ask questions just
like you are in a classroom. At the end of
the eight weeks, you are going to walk away with
the tools to feel confident and successful in starting and
running your own business, like getting clients immediately and helping
(03:00):
to contribute to your family. And the best part about
this and what I love about this industry is you
don't have to sacrifice that quality of life, especially if
you are the primary caregiver of your family. I started
this business when my kids were small, and one of
the things I loved about it is the flexibility to
be able to carve out time when it worked for me,
(03:23):
and we're going to talk all about that in the course.
So if you want to learn more, we're going to
drop the link below in the show notes, but you
could just go to our website, which is simply be
Organized dot com and there's a business mentoring. There should
be a little button right there. You can click on
that and I'll give you all the details and then
if you still have questions, you can hop on a
(03:43):
free discovery call and we could talk about it. So again,
I'm very very excited. This is the first time we're
doing an actual class, so you guys will be working
with people that are in like similar boat of you,
and so again having that bouncing ideas off of with
a community of people is going to be so helpful.
So definitely definitely check that out. Okay, great, Now onto
(04:05):
today's episode. One of the things that I want to
kind of focus in and going back and doing because
we have a lot of new people, is getting back
to basics and what do I mean by that. So
we talk a lot about all of the different ways
that you can live in an organized life. But at
the end of the day, there's some tactical foundational principles
(04:26):
that we teach here at Simply Be Organized. It's some
of the stuff that we're going to be covering in
our course. As a matter of fact, one of which
is our organizing esp which is our empty sort purge methodology.
But the next one, which I'm going to focus in
today is the five clutter pitfalls. Now, early on in
(04:47):
my career, I started noticing that there were patterns, patterns
of reasons I don't want to call them excuses, but
reasons why people were struggling with clutter, and so I
started kind of noting them and paying attention to them
and leaning into them, and I came up with these
(05:07):
five key areas, which I've deemed the five clutter pitfalls,
and we teach them today still today, fifteen years later.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
About where people get bottlenecked.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
And the interesting thing is the longer you do this
and the kind of the deeper we go into the
psychology of clutter is you can look at all the
different reasons why do it, but why people struggle in
these different areas. But I want to walk through each
of those five areas, because if you can first identify
where your clutter pitfalls are, it's then easier to address
(05:41):
and figure out the strategy that's going to help you
get past it.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
So let's go through them one by one.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
The first one is the clutter pitfall of procrastination. Now, Procrastination,
in its simplest of terms, is just that kick in
the can down the road. We're going to do it later.
We're going to just close the door the drawer, walk
away and deal with.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
It at another time.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
And the interesting thing is, the longer I did this,
I started looking at why people procrastinate. So procrastination comes
for a variety of different reasons. It can come from overwhelm.
It can come from not having enough time. It can
come from not knowing what to do, not having the
strategy to do it. It could just come I'd rather
(06:28):
be doing something else. I mean, it could be that simple.
Is I just would rather be doing something else. So
I think we have to really look why are we procrastinating?
And for a lot of people, procrastination is if we
can unlock that key, then we can begin to develop
those healthy muscles of getting in that routine practice of
(06:50):
decluttering and organizing. Okay, the second clutter pitfall is indecision.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
This is a big one.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Now, Indecision will often to procrastination, and indecision simply.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Means I don't know what to do. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
You're at an impast You're kind of like at a
crossroads and you're frozen.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I don't know what to do.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And for a lot of people that can come because
they there's this fear of making a mistake. People don't
want to make a wrong decision. And when it comes
to decluttering and organizing, if you start to doubt yourself,
a lot of times people will say I'm not sure,
so I'm just not going to do anything. And so
the act of not doing anything will result in clutter,
even though you're not technically making a mistake. And I'm
(07:32):
air quoting. What happens is if you do nothing, that
in essence will result in clutter because things will continue
to build up if you are failing to take action.
Think about driving in an intersection and being undecided of
you're at a fork in the road and you don't
know if you should go left or you should go right,
and you just stop.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 3 (07:53):
You're going to bottleneck and traffic jam everything. And so
that's what happens when it comes to clutter for a
lot of people, as they indecision and they're like, I
don't know what to do, and they just freeze. And
so what we want to do is we want to
get you to kind of pick a lane and figure
out which way you're going to go and make peace
with Nine times out of ten there isn't a wrong way.
(08:16):
Maybe you're taking the longer route, maybe you have to
reroute yourself, but it's not the end, like it's not
the end all be all, and so that's what we
work through when it comes to indecision. The third clutter
pitfall is guilt.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
How to think about that in my order?
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So guilt, and we all know guilt also can lead
to procrastination. But guilt can come from a lot of
different ways. It could be family guilt and if you
know we talked about I think it was last week
when we talked all about inheriting your parents' stuff and
the guilt that a lot of times get passed on
to like this is.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Now your responsibility.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
Guilt can also mean I spend a lot of money
on this and I feel guilty because I'm not using
it where and get some holding onto it. Guilt could
also mean sentimental stuff of like my kid made this
for me. Maybe it doesn't have a monetary value, but
it's something that like I would feel like a bad
mom if I got rid of it and so there's
all these different layers of guilt and it all stems
(09:16):
from this like false narrative that we tell ourselves or
maybe even it was something that was told to us,
but you know that that something was our responsibility, but
it really truly isn't. And so once we can relinquish
and like go of that guilt, then we are able
to kind of move forward and get over that that
(09:37):
clutter pitfall. The side sister to uh to guilt is fear,
and a lot of those same emotions hold true, So
fear of again going back and making a mistake, or
that fear of I'm going to upset somebody. And so
when we can work past the guilt or the fear,
(09:59):
that will again free us up to move forward. Overwhelmed
is the next one, and we touched on that with procrastination.
When you were overwhelmed, I mean, you just have more
on your plate than you can handle.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
It could be emotional overwhelmed, it could be physical overwhelmed,
financial overwhelm. There's all these different types of overwhelmed that
just again paralyzes us from taking positive, progressive steps forward.
And when it comes to clutter, it is or organizing
clutter is overwhelming. We sit there and we're looking at
(10:33):
a mountain of stuff, or maybe it's a mountain of
stuff to us.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
And you know, I joke a lot of times with my.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Professional organizer colleagues where they'll say, you know, I'm working
with a client and they're like, they're so overwhelmed, and
they'll turn to the professional organizer.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Or you overwhelmed them.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
They're like, no, I'm not. I'm energized because we have
a plan, we have a strategy, we know how to
attack this mountain, this beast. But if you don't have that,
if you don't have that strategy, if you don't have
that plan, it's so easy to then get overwhelmed. Like
we understand that, and that's why it's important to listen
(11:12):
to podcasts and read books and talk to people and
get other people in your corner, whether it's a professional
organizer or a friend, to help you navigate through that,
to kind of work through that overwhelm, because the only
way that you're.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Going to get past it is to go through it.
And then the fifth.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Clutter pitfall that we talk about oftentimes is time. So
we just don't have the time. We have more things
to do than time to do it. And I always
say that time is our most precious commodity. Doesn't matter
how much money you have. We all the same amount
of time in a given day. It's just how do
we use that time? Are we using our time wisely?
(11:51):
Are we using our resources wisely? Is our time best
spent doing A or is it best spent doing B?
Because oftentimes you can't do both, and so we have
to pick and choose how we're going to spend our time.
And so for some people it might make sense for
them to outsource one thing so that they could do another.
(12:11):
And maybe that means you have somebody to pick up
your kids so that you can do, you know, make dinner,
or maybe it means that you are going to not
go and do something on a Saturday so that you
could spend an hour or two in the morning going
through a.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
Closet of clothes.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
And again, most things aren't an either or it's a both,
and but we our time is so precious, and what
happens is if we don't spend any time giving attention
to our disorganization, then what happens is we don't want
to be in our space because it causes us anxiety
(12:54):
and stress, and it makes it really uncomfortable to want
to be there. And so that's when I see that
cycle happen where people are like, I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed,
I'm procrastinating, I don't have the time to do it,
i don't want to spend to do it.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I'm just gonna leave, And then they come.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Back and they feel stressed, and it just perpetuates over
and over again.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
And so what do we do. We have to stop
the cycle of these clutter.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Pitfalls, and the way that you can do it is
just starting just saying I need help. Maybe that means
waving the white flag. Maybe that says identifying I am
just overwhelmed and I have these different pain points and
I need somebody to redirect me. I need somebody, whether
that's like a person working on one on one with me,
(13:40):
or maybe I just need like a clutter coach to
talk to. Maybe I just need to talk to somebody
and get a plan of action. Because what I find
for most of my clients is once they have the plan,
once they have the strategy, at that point they feel
empowered and inspired and motivated to actually take the steps
(14:03):
to start chipping away at it.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
But it's when we.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Don't have those strategies in place and we just don't
know and we're flying by the seat of our pants
that we get frustrated and we avoid things. And so
if that's you out there, just know that you are
not alone and there are resources out there. I mean,
if you're looking again for a in person professional organizer,
there's a ton.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Of people out there.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
We've got an amazing network of people under our SBO
Partner program and we're continuing to train new people.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
To help you. But a lot of times.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
You just need somebody to talk to. And if you
are somebody that needs a clutter coach, we would love
to help. Just visit our website simply be Organized dot
com backslash clutter Coaching. It's right on our website and
we're here to help you to help you navigate through
that procrastination, that indecision, that guilt, fear, overwhelmed time, all
(15:01):
of those things that play this ongoing cycle of disorganization.
Because guess what, life is too short to have to
deal with that. So if that's you, please just know
it doesn't have to be that way and we are
here to help. I hope this episode has been helpful
and inspirational to you. If you know somebody who you
(15:24):
think could benefit from this episode, would you please do
them a favor and just share it with them. Again,
there is no shame in feeling disorganized or overwhelmed with clutter,
and so that's that's what we're here for people, So again,
any questions hit us up until next week.
Speaker 2 (15:44):
I'm Lori Blaupisaut. Thanks for tuning in. If you'd like
this episode, please spread the love and share it with
your friends.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
And if this is your first time joining us, make
sure to click the subscribe button wherever you are listening
so you never miss an episode. And while you're there,
please leave us a review so other people know that
our show is worth to listen. You can also find
us on YouTube and Instagram at This Organized Life Podcast,
and if you'd like to connect with us, you can
head on over to our website at simply the Letter,
b boyorganized dot com, which is filled with tons of resources,
(16:14):
including free downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners,
and all of our digital offerings. And I'll see you
next week for another episode of This Organized Life
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