April 24, 2025 • 23 mins
Hey friends!
If your home is starting to feel stale or cluttered, but you're not quite ready for a complete renovation or big shopping trip, this episode is for you. I'm diving into practical, budget-friendly ways to breathe new life into your space using what you already have.
Whether you're craving a fresh vibe for spring (or any season), I'm sharing five easy areas to focus on that can totally transform your space—and your mindset.
Here's what we cover in this week's episode:
I also discuss seasonal decorating and how small tweaks to your routines can help you stay organized for good. The best part? You don't have to spend a dime to start feeling better about your home.
✨ Ready to go deeper? Don't forget to check out my monthly Clutter Clinic, where we take these strategies even further with real-life solutions and support. You'll walk away with fresh inspiration and a clear action plan.
Let's make your space work for you—without being overwhelmed or overspending.
xo,
Laurie
Links Mentioned in this episode:
Clutter Clinic
Start a Professional Organizing Business
If your home is starting to feel stale or cluttered, but you're not quite ready for a complete renovation or big shopping trip, this episode is for you. I'm diving into practical, budget-friendly ways to breathe new life into your space using what you already have.
Whether you're craving a fresh vibe for spring (or any season), I'm sharing five easy areas to focus on that can totally transform your space—and your mindset.
Here's what we cover in this week's episode:
- How a simple mindset shift can reignite your motivation
- Ways to shop your home and repurpose décor you already love
- Clearing out high-clutter zones like your entryway and kitchen counters
- Tips for managing overflowing bookshelves without feeling guilty
- Closet refresh ideas to make your wardrobe feel new again (without buying anything!)
I also discuss seasonal decorating and how small tweaks to your routines can help you stay organized for good. The best part? You don't have to spend a dime to start feeling better about your home.
✨ Ready to go deeper? Don't forget to check out my monthly Clutter Clinic, where we take these strategies even further with real-life solutions and support. You'll walk away with fresh inspiration and a clear action plan.
Let's make your space work for you—without being overwhelmed or overspending.
xo,
Laurie
Links Mentioned in this episode:
Clutter Clinic
Start a Professional Organizing Business
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, Lori Palau,
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 share practical tips, chat
(00:22):
with experts, and provide strategies on how.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
To keep you organized. I hope that.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
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 (00:39):
Hi, everybody, welcome to today's episode of This Organized Life.
I'm your host, Lori Palau, so happy that you're here.
We're in spring. We're talking all about ways that we
can refresh our home. We want to declutter, we want
to simplify, and that's what we're talking about today. And
so one of the things that I experience myself and
(01:01):
I hear from so many people is I don't have
a big budget. I want to make some changes, but
I don't have the money for a complete renovation. I
just find like the stuff in my house I don't
like it. It feels stale, it feels old. And when
we get in that rut of feeling that way, it
(01:21):
makes it really hard to find the motivation to want
to organize or keep things organized. I know. And it's
turning because if you follow me on social media, you
know that we have this vacation investment house that we
recently bought and we're rehabbing and everything's new, right. We
like gutted bathrooms and we refinished floors, and we painted
(01:44):
cabinets and all the things. Right, So it's basically like
we took this like old cottage and gave it a facelift,
and that was a big deal, right, And I understand
not everybody's in the position of that, but it's because
everything feels new and fresh, I want to keep it
more organized than ever before.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And I come back and I look at our regular house,
like our everyday house, and I'm same old and I
have to work mentally harder to want to keep it
organized than I do for our vacation house. And so
it got me thinking of, Okay, let's talk about that
mindset shift, because when we want to show up, we
(02:26):
do and it's not that different than I know. For myself,
I tend to eat healthier in the warmer weather because
I'm outside and I feel lighter, and so I'm more
motivated to not have a greasy cheeseburger or shovel pizza
down my throat, but maybe I'll have a salad or
(02:47):
a smoothie. And so again, there's so much of this
mindset stuff. So I want to talk about how we
can act our way into getting ourselves to this point
of giving these little, many refreshes to our space that
will not only help us with enjoying the space, but
(03:08):
also inspire us to want to keep those spaces clutter free.
And I figured the We're going to go through five
different areas or five different tips and give some practical solutions.
So sound good, All right, guys, let's get right into it.
Rearranging and shopping your house for decor is one of
(03:29):
the biggest things that I recommend to people all the time,
even before you go shopping. So even if you are
going to spend money, oftentimes we have hidden treasures in
our house that we don't even know or we just
like forget are there, and sometimes pulling out or moving around,
throw pillows, blankets, vases like those decor, candles, trays to
(03:55):
corral things that we have and we cycle them out.
All of this sume I think can give your space
a new luck. And I know for me in our home,
I've got a couple of different zones that I cycle
out seasonally. So I know that there's this one. I
have a sideboard table as you come into our entry
once you enter the house and you come into the
(04:17):
main living space, it's like an anchor of where our
kitchen and living room is. And I will swap out
the little I don't I'm not a big chuchky person,
but I will swap out I have a tray, what
tray I have there, I will swap out candles, I
will swap out some of the decor that I have there.
(04:38):
I will maybe sometimes make it a little seasonal. Sometimes
I'll make it generic. But that is like my one zone.
For some people they do that on a mantle and
they say, I have a space here. Maybe it is
an entryway table. Depending on your home, so I would
pick a few key spots of your home, and even
if your home isn't big, even if you live in
(04:59):
an apartment or small, pick one or two spots that
you can give a little refresh. We have this one
area of our home. We call it the library sitting room,
and I just swap out the throw pillows on. We
have two chairs. It's very minimalist room, and I just
(05:19):
swap out the pillows seasonally that sit on it. It's
like a lumbar pillow and that just gives it a
new fresh breath. And it doesn't cost a lot. And
I have a lot of these things in my home already.
I don't have to go out and buy them. And
so just looking at what do you already have that
(05:39):
you can repurpose that will give your house this like
freshuge and have it not be as stale and born. Okay,
second thing is you have your clutter build up buckets.
Now for some people, that is the entryway you come
(06:00):
in your front door. Other people that could be a
mudroom as you're coming through the garage, if that's how
you come in and out. For some people, if it's
at the back door. Maybe you come in the back
door and you have this spot. But you have these
I'm calling them entryway clutter build up spots wherever your
entryway point is. And maybe we need to revisit the
(06:23):
system that we have. Are people using the hooks that
we have set up? Do we have a little tray
for our stuff? If they're not, are maybe we need
to come up with a new system. Is the male
just sitting there? We don't want that. We want to
keep things flowing. And that entryway spot is supposed to
(06:43):
be a temporary pit stop on your way to where
you need to go. It's okay, here's where I need
to my grab and go things. But it's not always
the final destination for your stuff. And so yes, maybe
your keys are supposed to live there, but your back
your kids backpack is. And if you're finding that the
kids backpack gets dropped there and stays there, then we
(07:05):
need to either create a zone for that thing in
that spot, or we need to figure out why are
we getting bottlenecked there? Why are we just not have
we just fallen off the wagon of accountability and reminders
and we've just thrown in the towel and said, okay,
you know what, I've got other things to deal with,
and then we fall into these kind of poor patterns
(07:29):
of behavior of leaving our stuff around. Does the mail
not get opened? We're we opening it, we're we're in
a pattern of opening it and then all of a
sudden something happens and we get busy and we start
to on opening the mail and deciding where it's going
to go. Maybe we need to do that reset of
(07:51):
what are leaving and like our coming and going routine
has gotten a little sloppy, and maybe you need to
tighten it up a little bit and revisiting that. Hey, friends,
if you're tired of stepping over piles of stuff in
your garage just to get through the house, or digging
through bins to find what you need, then you have
(08:12):
to join me for our next clutter clinic. And this time, guys,
we're talking all about garages. It's happening live on Friday,
May second, at twelve o'clock Eastern time. And the best
part is, if you can't make it live, no worries.
We're going to be sending out a replay to anybody
who registers. During this one hour workshop, I'm going to
(08:32):
walk you through the practical strategies that I use in
my home to turn your garage into a space that
actually works for you. Whether that means that you want
to park your car in there, you just want your
kids to be able to access their toys and put
them away. We're going to cover all of it now.
Spots are limited, so please don't wait. Head on over
to simply beorganized dot com slash workshop, or click on
(08:53):
the link below wherever you're listening or watching to grab
your spot. Let's clear that clutter together. Okay, I love
this next one. This next one is when overstuffed bookshelves
start to feel really messy. And this is something that
(09:13):
happens in our house like often we are. This is
an intentional thing because Josh is a voracious reader, way
more than I am, Like I envy how much he reads.
He's always reading all different types of books, and so
we constantly and he listens to books on audible. But
he also loves to support local bookstores and read and authors,
(09:37):
and so we constantly have new books coming in. And
what happens is I like to style our bookshelves so
that they look esthetically pretty, and he's more about function,
and so we have to find that sweet spot so
that he can have room to store his stuff. And
I cannot feel like I am just living in a
(09:59):
li library. And if that's what you want, that's great,
but for a lot of people, we want to be
able to have room for our stuff and not have
it feel so cluttered. So what do you need to do?
We need to go through our books, look at the
things that look at the ones that we can donate.
There are books that I'm sure you're going to want
(10:20):
to keep. I know books are very emotional. When we
talk about emotional clutter, the different types of the clutter
physical clutter, emotional clutter, calendar clutter. Although books can result
in physical clutter if they aren't pained, the stem, the
root of book clutter is oftentimes emotional. This is a
book that makes us feel smart. This is a book
(10:42):
that reminds us of a certain time of our life.
This is one of our favorite authors. You can the
list goes on and on, and so look at what
is actually living on my bookshelf. Are there things there
that can go? Are there books there that can go?
Do I have excess chotchkes and things that end up
on the bookshelf that maybe I can remove? Maybe at
(11:03):
one point I could I had enough space to have
pictures and decor on the shelf with the books. But
our books have gotten to the point where they are
overrunning it, and so something else has to go. And
so I think it's about identifying how do we want
this space to look, how do we want this space
(11:24):
to look, and what can we get rid of it,
What can we eliminate and get rid of that will
not allow this bookshelf to just look like it's attracting
clutter and dust. And I also like to move books around.
This is again just more of a simple tip, where
as opposed to if it were up to Josh, he
(11:45):
would just line his books upright with the spines facing
out from left to right and just pack it in.
And to me, that's just visually cluttery and it's unattractive
and can be overwhelming. And so I like to break
my bookshelf into the rule of thirds, like a third,
and so I'll have a third of them upright, and
(12:08):
then I'll put some stacked. But again we're not stacking
twenty books. We're stacking like half of the shelf. And
then we've got another row of thirds that are upright.
And so I moved things around to give some visual interest,
and that will break up some of the clutter and
make your home feel more organized without a becoming a
(12:31):
whole big overhaul. Okay, We've done a lot of episodes
recently on closets, so I don't want to spend a
ton of time on that. But and I encourage you
to go back and listen to a couple of our
closet episodes. Of course I don't have the number right
in front of.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Me of what of what was what episode, but I
think it was the beginning of this month, we had
an episode on closets, and of course we just did
our Clutter Clinic closet workshop.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
On that we talked all about wardrobe refreshes, and I
tell everybody listen, and I just did it myself. Before
you buy anything for the season, I implore you please go
through the stuff that you have. You can remove the
stuff that you just you're not wearing it, the stuff
(13:24):
that you're not wearing, get rid of it, and then
really look at what are things that I can maybe
pair together. Maybe for you, it means let me make
some capsule wardrobes. Let me say what goes well with
you know what goes well? I have these cream colored pants.
Let me spend a little bit of time looking at
(13:47):
what do I have in my closet that can pare well,
let me come up with some ideas of things. And
if you're not good at this, I guarantee you probably
have a friend who is. I rely on my best
machine to come and help me figure out what goes
with what. Also, when you this is a shameless plug
(14:09):
for my friend Jeanie Stith over at your color guru
when you shot, when you get your color analysis. And
so now all of the things that are in my
closet fall under this like spectrum of what colors look
good on me, and so the majority of things will
mix and match with each other. And so I find
(14:31):
being able to have in the back of my head
a few ideas of Okay, so I have these pants
and they can go with these three different tops, so
I know I have three outfits for one bottom. And
coming up with a few different scenarios is a great
way for you to like rethink your closet in a
new way. Because we oftentimes look at our stuff, we
(14:53):
feel we're looking at the same boring things the same
way is I just wore that outfit the other day.
I'm so tired of it. I don't have money to
go buy new clothes. I don't have the space all
of these things. If you just look at your stuff
and say, okay, these are the things that I really
how can I maximize them? How can I nix and
(15:14):
match these and pull them together so that I feel
like I've got a new wardrobe without having to go
out and invest in a new wardrobe. And then maybe
all you have to do is fill in a piece
here and there, and I'm I think it's great, go
in and buy a new buy a new anchor piece.
And for me, what I try to do when I
(15:34):
buy something new is think about am I going to
be able to wear it with multiple things? I try
to maximize my purchases and say, all right, if I'm
going to buy this sweater, I really want it to
be able to be worn with more than just one thing. Now,
maybe if you're going to an event or something and
you want a special anchor piece, that's fine, But like
(15:55):
buy and large, all the stuff that's in my closet
is stuff that I can wear multiple ways, in multiple configurations,
so that I can mix and match like ger animals,
and that allows me to have fewer items but more outfits.
If that makes sense. Hey, they're organizing friends. If you
(16:16):
are an aspiring professional, organizer, or maybe you're someone in
the early stages of your organizing business and wondering what
the heck is next. Don't worry, I've got you covered
here at simply Babe, we offer two mentoring options to
help you grow with confidence. First off, we have our
one on one start anytime program, which is perfect if
you're ready to dive in now. And our group mentoring
Cohort kicks off this coming September, and that is ideal
(16:39):
for somebody who's looking for a little bit more structure.
It's a bit more robust and it's going to put
you immediately in with some community and give you some
extra accountability. So, whether you're looking for help with pricing
or services how to market your business, either option is
going to give you the tools that you need and
I am here to guide you every step of the
way to learn more or visit simplyborganized dot com or
(17:02):
you can click on the link below in our show
notes and you can figure out which option is best
for you. Now, let's build the business that you have
been dreaming about. Okay, now we're into the kitchen. So
for our last tip or area of how to give
your homer refresh kitchen counters. That is notoriously. Because we
(17:25):
spend the majority of our times in our kitchen, they
are bound to become our clutter attractors, and we spend
we look at them. We look at every time where
you turn, you're seeing somebody else's kitchen counter, if you're
watching TV and they're in the kitchen, if you're on
social media and people's kitchens, whatever it is. We're always
(17:47):
looking at kitchens and we have to have that delicate balance,
that juggling act of I need to live here, so
I don't want to put necessarily put my toaster away
every day because I use it every day, but I
also want to keep my kitchen counters clear. So what
can we remove from your space? Because the reality of
(18:11):
is the less visual clutter, the commer you will be. Oh,
that is totally a rhyme. That was unintentional, so the
I'm just like laughing at that. Okay. So if the
more that you can keep them clear, then you will
(18:33):
automatically feel more inclined to want to keep it that way.
When we come in and we see a space, any
space that is riddled with clutter or overrun with clutter,
throwing one more thing on there seems no big deal.
If you walk in your office and it is littered
with paper and you're like, I have this one other
piece of mail and I don't know what I'm gonna
(18:54):
do with it. I'm just gonna drop it here, it
just winds up falling as another needle in the haystack.
But if you're in the practice, and you're in the
habit of keeping your space tidy and organized and free
from clutter, you will give yourself that extra pause before
dropping the thing on the counter or before dropping the
(19:15):
piece of paper on the desk, because you know that
there's gonna be a bigger impact. And then it also
becomes a snowball effect, and so you want to avoid
starting that snowball effect or abbing to it. And so
if you are feeling like I need to give my
space a spring refresh, let's say let's just start with
the countertops. So let's start with the surfaces. And so
(19:37):
whether that's your kitchen, whether that's your office, whether that's
your dresser, that's another big clutter attractor. Those are great
ways for you to just refresh your space without having
to spend any money, without having to go through a
whole big rigmarole, and you can oftentimes do this by
yourself and hopefully it's not gonna take a long time.
(19:58):
You can just pop in a pop and listen to it,
or if you're listening to an audiobook or music whatever,
and just say, I want to get this space clutter free.
And that means putting the stuff that's on there in
its proper home, or if you don't have a proper home,
it's about deciding where that is. And if you can
create a home for those items, then that will avoid
(20:22):
that clutter from creeping back, and that's the beauty of it.
So often we have these clutter traps on our surfaces
because we don't have a designated home. So by default,
those surfaces become the designated home, and that's what we
want to avoid. So let's create a space for those things. Obviously,
if they're living here, then they must have some level
(20:44):
of importance, because if they weren't important, then we would
just get rid of them. So if it's important enough
to live there, then it's important enough for it to
warrant its own home, and we need to figure out
what that is. So that the surface, the kitchen counter,
the top of the dresser, the office desk does not
fall into the space of being the drop zone for
(21:08):
all the things. I hope this has been helpful. I
love these like quicker Tip Dictionable episodes because I think
it allows you, or hopefully it allows you, to say,
all right, this is where I'm struggling or this is
something that I can bite off today. And I'm not
saying that you need to bite off all of these.
(21:28):
Pick one area and say this has been a little
source of contention. I'm feeling a little dejected in my home,
I'm feeling unmotivated. I think I need to give my
little put a little pep in my step and make
me fall in love with my house again, fall in
love with my space again. And if we can spend
a little time, given a little TLC to some of
(21:50):
these areas that we oftentimes forget overlook ignore, or just
walk past, it can make a huge difference. Trust me,
I do it in my own home and I notice it,
and I know that you can too. So I hope
this has been helpful. And again, if you want more tips,
I would love for you to join our clutter Clinic series.
It's where we go live once a month. We do
(22:11):
a deep dive, you get to ask your own questions.
We are doing an entire series on a variety of
different topics. You can get the bundle or just pop
in for the clutter clinic that makes the most sense
to you, but I would love to see there, so
there's a link in the show notes that can give
you more details. Or of course, always visit our website,
which has tons of resources, both paid and free. That's
(22:35):
simply the Letter be like Boy organized dot com and
if you go slash workshop, that'll take you right to
our clutter clinic page. So until next week on lur Palau,
peace out. Thanks for tuning in. If you like this episode,
please spread the love and share it with your friends.
If this is your first time joining us, make sure
to click the subscribe button wherever you are listening so
(22:56):
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,
including free downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners,
(23:20):
and all of our digital offerings. 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, Lori Palau,
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 share practical tips, chat
(00:22):
with experts, and provide strategies on how.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
To keep you organized. I hope that.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
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 (00:39):
Hi, everybody, welcome to today's episode of This Organized Life.
I'm your host, Lori Palau, so happy that you're here.
We're in spring. We're talking all about ways that we
can refresh our home. We want to declutter, we want
to simplify, and that's what we're talking about today. And
so one of the things that I experience myself and
(01:01):
I hear from so many people is I don't have
a big budget. I want to make some changes, but
I don't have the money for a complete renovation. I
just find like the stuff in my house I don't
like it. It feels stale, it feels old. And when
we get in that rut of feeling that way, it
(01:21):
makes it really hard to find the motivation to want
to organize or keep things organized. I know. And it's
turning because if you follow me on social media, you
know that we have this vacation investment house that we
recently bought and we're rehabbing and everything's new, right. We
like gutted bathrooms and we refinished floors, and we painted
(01:44):
cabinets and all the things. Right, So it's basically like
we took this like old cottage and gave it a facelift,
and that was a big deal, right, And I understand
not everybody's in the position of that, but it's because
everything feels new and fresh, I want to keep it
more organized than ever before.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Right.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And I come back and I look at our regular house,
like our everyday house, and I'm same old and I
have to work mentally harder to want to keep it
organized than I do for our vacation house. And so
it got me thinking of, Okay, let's talk about that
mindset shift, because when we want to show up, we
(02:26):
do and it's not that different than I know. For myself,
I tend to eat healthier in the warmer weather because
I'm outside and I feel lighter, and so I'm more
motivated to not have a greasy cheeseburger or shovel pizza
down my throat, but maybe I'll have a salad or
(02:47):
a smoothie. And so again, there's so much of this
mindset stuff. So I want to talk about how we
can act our way into getting ourselves to this point
of giving these little, many refreshes to our space that
will not only help us with enjoying the space, but
(03:08):
also inspire us to want to keep those spaces clutter free.
And I figured the We're going to go through five
different areas or five different tips and give some practical solutions.
So sound good, All right, guys, let's get right into it.
Rearranging and shopping your house for decor is one of
(03:29):
the biggest things that I recommend to people all the time,
even before you go shopping. So even if you are
going to spend money, oftentimes we have hidden treasures in
our house that we don't even know or we just
like forget are there, and sometimes pulling out or moving around,
throw pillows, blankets, vases like those decor, candles, trays to
(03:55):
corral things that we have and we cycle them out.
All of this sume I think can give your space
a new luck. And I know for me in our home,
I've got a couple of different zones that I cycle
out seasonally. So I know that there's this one. I
have a sideboard table as you come into our entry
once you enter the house and you come into the
(04:17):
main living space, it's like an anchor of where our
kitchen and living room is. And I will swap out
the little I don't I'm not a big chuchky person,
but I will swap out I have a tray, what
tray I have there, I will swap out candles, I
will swap out some of the decor that I have there.
(04:38):
I will maybe sometimes make it a little seasonal. Sometimes
I'll make it generic. But that is like my one zone.
For some people they do that on a mantle and
they say, I have a space here. Maybe it is
an entryway table. Depending on your home, so I would
pick a few key spots of your home, and even
if your home isn't big, even if you live in
(04:59):
an apartment or small, pick one or two spots that
you can give a little refresh. We have this one
area of our home. We call it the library sitting room,
and I just swap out the throw pillows on. We
have two chairs. It's very minimalist room, and I just
(05:19):
swap out the pillows seasonally that sit on it. It's
like a lumbar pillow and that just gives it a
new fresh breath. And it doesn't cost a lot. And
I have a lot of these things in my home already.
I don't have to go out and buy them. And
so just looking at what do you already have that
(05:39):
you can repurpose that will give your house this like
freshuge and have it not be as stale and born. Okay,
second thing is you have your clutter build up buckets.
Now for some people, that is the entryway you come
(06:00):
in your front door. Other people that could be a
mudroom as you're coming through the garage, if that's how
you come in and out. For some people, if it's
at the back door. Maybe you come in the back
door and you have this spot. But you have these
I'm calling them entryway clutter build up spots wherever your
entryway point is. And maybe we need to revisit the
(06:23):
system that we have. Are people using the hooks that
we have set up? Do we have a little tray
for our stuff? If they're not, are maybe we need
to come up with a new system. Is the male
just sitting there? We don't want that. We want to
keep things flowing. And that entryway spot is supposed to
(06:43):
be a temporary pit stop on your way to where
you need to go. It's okay, here's where I need
to my grab and go things. But it's not always
the final destination for your stuff. And so yes, maybe
your keys are supposed to live there, but your back
your kids backpack is. And if you're finding that the
kids backpack gets dropped there and stays there, then we
(07:05):
need to either create a zone for that thing in
that spot, or we need to figure out why are
we getting bottlenecked there? Why are we just not have
we just fallen off the wagon of accountability and reminders
and we've just thrown in the towel and said, okay,
you know what, I've got other things to deal with,
and then we fall into these kind of poor patterns
(07:29):
of behavior of leaving our stuff around. Does the mail
not get opened? We're we opening it, we're we're in
a pattern of opening it and then all of a
sudden something happens and we get busy and we start
to on opening the mail and deciding where it's going
to go. Maybe we need to do that reset of
(07:51):
what are leaving and like our coming and going routine
has gotten a little sloppy, and maybe you need to
tighten it up a little bit and revisiting that. Hey, friends,
if you're tired of stepping over piles of stuff in
your garage just to get through the house, or digging
through bins to find what you need, then you have
(08:12):
to join me for our next clutter clinic. And this time, guys,
we're talking all about garages. It's happening live on Friday,
May second, at twelve o'clock Eastern time. And the best
part is, if you can't make it live, no worries.
We're going to be sending out a replay to anybody
who registers. During this one hour workshop, I'm going to
(08:32):
walk you through the practical strategies that I use in
my home to turn your garage into a space that
actually works for you. Whether that means that you want
to park your car in there, you just want your
kids to be able to access their toys and put
them away. We're going to cover all of it now.
Spots are limited, so please don't wait. Head on over
to simply beorganized dot com slash workshop, or click on
(08:53):
the link below wherever you're listening or watching to grab
your spot. Let's clear that clutter together. Okay, I love
this next one. This next one is when overstuffed bookshelves
start to feel really messy. And this is something that
(09:13):
happens in our house like often we are. This is
an intentional thing because Josh is a voracious reader, way
more than I am, Like I envy how much he reads.
He's always reading all different types of books, and so
we constantly and he listens to books on audible. But
he also loves to support local bookstores and read and authors,
(09:37):
and so we constantly have new books coming in. And
what happens is I like to style our bookshelves so
that they look esthetically pretty, and he's more about function,
and so we have to find that sweet spot so
that he can have room to store his stuff. And
I cannot feel like I am just living in a
(09:59):
li library. And if that's what you want, that's great,
but for a lot of people, we want to be
able to have room for our stuff and not have
it feel so cluttered. So what do you need to do?
We need to go through our books, look at the
things that look at the ones that we can donate.
There are books that I'm sure you're going to want
(10:20):
to keep. I know books are very emotional. When we
talk about emotional clutter, the different types of the clutter
physical clutter, emotional clutter, calendar clutter. Although books can result
in physical clutter if they aren't pained, the stem, the
root of book clutter is oftentimes emotional. This is a
book that makes us feel smart. This is a book
(10:42):
that reminds us of a certain time of our life.
This is one of our favorite authors. You can the
list goes on and on, and so look at what
is actually living on my bookshelf. Are there things there
that can go? Are there books there that can go?
Do I have excess chotchkes and things that end up
on the bookshelf that maybe I can remove? Maybe at
(11:03):
one point I could I had enough space to have
pictures and decor on the shelf with the books. But
our books have gotten to the point where they are
overrunning it, and so something else has to go. And
so I think it's about identifying how do we want
this space to look, how do we want this space
(11:24):
to look, and what can we get rid of it,
What can we eliminate and get rid of that will
not allow this bookshelf to just look like it's attracting
clutter and dust. And I also like to move books around.
This is again just more of a simple tip, where
as opposed to if it were up to Josh, he
(11:45):
would just line his books upright with the spines facing
out from left to right and just pack it in.
And to me, that's just visually cluttery and it's unattractive
and can be overwhelming. And so I like to break
my bookshelf into the rule of thirds, like a third,
and so I'll have a third of them upright, and
(12:08):
then I'll put some stacked. But again we're not stacking
twenty books. We're stacking like half of the shelf. And
then we've got another row of thirds that are upright.
And so I moved things around to give some visual interest,
and that will break up some of the clutter and
make your home feel more organized without a becoming a
(12:31):
whole big overhaul. Okay, We've done a lot of episodes
recently on closets, so I don't want to spend a
ton of time on that. But and I encourage you
to go back and listen to a couple of our
closet episodes. Of course I don't have the number right
in front of.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Me of what of what was what episode, but I
think it was the beginning of this month, we had
an episode on closets, and of course we just did
our Clutter Clinic closet workshop.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
On that we talked all about wardrobe refreshes, and I
tell everybody listen, and I just did it myself. Before
you buy anything for the season, I implore you please go
through the stuff that you have. You can remove the
stuff that you just you're not wearing it, the stuff
(13:24):
that you're not wearing, get rid of it, and then
really look at what are things that I can maybe
pair together. Maybe for you, it means let me make
some capsule wardrobes. Let me say what goes well with
you know what goes well? I have these cream colored pants.
Let me spend a little bit of time looking at
(13:47):
what do I have in my closet that can pare well,
let me come up with some ideas of things. And
if you're not good at this, I guarantee you probably
have a friend who is. I rely on my best
machine to come and help me figure out what goes
with what. Also, when you this is a shameless plug
(14:09):
for my friend Jeanie Stith over at your color guru
when you shot, when you get your color analysis. And
so now all of the things that are in my
closet fall under this like spectrum of what colors look
good on me, and so the majority of things will
mix and match with each other. And so I find
(14:31):
being able to have in the back of my head
a few ideas of Okay, so I have these pants
and they can go with these three different tops, so
I know I have three outfits for one bottom. And
coming up with a few different scenarios is a great
way for you to like rethink your closet in a
new way. Because we oftentimes look at our stuff, we
(14:53):
feel we're looking at the same boring things the same
way is I just wore that outfit the other day.
I'm so tired of it. I don't have money to
go buy new clothes. I don't have the space all
of these things. If you just look at your stuff
and say, okay, these are the things that I really
how can I maximize them? How can I nix and
(15:14):
match these and pull them together so that I feel
like I've got a new wardrobe without having to go
out and invest in a new wardrobe. And then maybe
all you have to do is fill in a piece
here and there, and I'm I think it's great, go
in and buy a new buy a new anchor piece.
And for me, what I try to do when I
(15:34):
buy something new is think about am I going to
be able to wear it with multiple things? I try
to maximize my purchases and say, all right, if I'm
going to buy this sweater, I really want it to
be able to be worn with more than just one thing. Now,
maybe if you're going to an event or something and
you want a special anchor piece, that's fine, But like
(15:55):
buy and large, all the stuff that's in my closet
is stuff that I can wear multiple ways, in multiple configurations,
so that I can mix and match like ger animals,
and that allows me to have fewer items but more outfits.
If that makes sense. Hey, they're organizing friends. If you
(16:16):
are an aspiring professional, organizer, or maybe you're someone in
the early stages of your organizing business and wondering what
the heck is next. Don't worry, I've got you covered
here at simply Babe, we offer two mentoring options to
help you grow with confidence. First off, we have our
one on one start anytime program, which is perfect if
you're ready to dive in now. And our group mentoring
Cohort kicks off this coming September, and that is ideal
(16:39):
for somebody who's looking for a little bit more structure.
It's a bit more robust and it's going to put
you immediately in with some community and give you some
extra accountability. So, whether you're looking for help with pricing
or services how to market your business, either option is
going to give you the tools that you need and
I am here to guide you every step of the
way to learn more or visit simplyborganized dot com or
(17:02):
you can click on the link below in our show
notes and you can figure out which option is best
for you. Now, let's build the business that you have
been dreaming about. Okay, now we're into the kitchen. So
for our last tip or area of how to give
your homer refresh kitchen counters. That is notoriously. Because we
(17:25):
spend the majority of our times in our kitchen, they
are bound to become our clutter attractors, and we spend
we look at them. We look at every time where
you turn, you're seeing somebody else's kitchen counter, if you're
watching TV and they're in the kitchen, if you're on
social media and people's kitchens, whatever it is. We're always
(17:47):
looking at kitchens and we have to have that delicate balance,
that juggling act of I need to live here, so
I don't want to put necessarily put my toaster away
every day because I use it every day, but I
also want to keep my kitchen counters clear. So what
can we remove from your space? Because the reality of
(18:11):
is the less visual clutter, the commer you will be. Oh,
that is totally a rhyme. That was unintentional, so the
I'm just like laughing at that. Okay. So if the
more that you can keep them clear, then you will
(18:33):
automatically feel more inclined to want to keep it that way.
When we come in and we see a space, any
space that is riddled with clutter or overrun with clutter,
throwing one more thing on there seems no big deal.
If you walk in your office and it is littered
with paper and you're like, I have this one other
piece of mail and I don't know what I'm gonna
(18:54):
do with it. I'm just gonna drop it here, it
just winds up falling as another needle in the haystack.
But if you're in the practice, and you're in the
habit of keeping your space tidy and organized and free
from clutter, you will give yourself that extra pause before
dropping the thing on the counter or before dropping the
(19:15):
piece of paper on the desk, because you know that
there's gonna be a bigger impact. And then it also
becomes a snowball effect, and so you want to avoid
starting that snowball effect or abbing to it. And so
if you are feeling like I need to give my
space a spring refresh, let's say let's just start with
the countertops. So let's start with the surfaces. And so
(19:37):
whether that's your kitchen, whether that's your office, whether that's
your dresser, that's another big clutter attractor. Those are great
ways for you to just refresh your space without having
to spend any money, without having to go through a
whole big rigmarole, and you can oftentimes do this by
yourself and hopefully it's not gonna take a long time.
(19:58):
You can just pop in a pop and listen to it,
or if you're listening to an audiobook or music whatever,
and just say, I want to get this space clutter free.
And that means putting the stuff that's on there in
its proper home, or if you don't have a proper home,
it's about deciding where that is. And if you can
create a home for those items, then that will avoid
(20:22):
that clutter from creeping back, and that's the beauty of it.
So often we have these clutter traps on our surfaces
because we don't have a designated home. So by default,
those surfaces become the designated home, and that's what we
want to avoid. So let's create a space for those things. Obviously,
if they're living here, then they must have some level
(20:44):
of importance, because if they weren't important, then we would
just get rid of them. So if it's important enough
to live there, then it's important enough for it to
warrant its own home, and we need to figure out
what that is. So that the surface, the kitchen counter,
the top of the dresser, the office desk does not
fall into the space of being the drop zone for
(21:08):
all the things. I hope this has been helpful. I
love these like quicker Tip Dictionable episodes because I think
it allows you, or hopefully it allows you, to say,
all right, this is where I'm struggling or this is
something that I can bite off today. And I'm not
saying that you need to bite off all of these.
(21:28):
Pick one area and say this has been a little
source of contention. I'm feeling a little dejected in my home,
I'm feeling unmotivated. I think I need to give my
little put a little pep in my step and make
me fall in love with my house again, fall in
love with my space again. And if we can spend
a little time, given a little TLC to some of
(21:50):
these areas that we oftentimes forget overlook ignore, or just
walk past, it can make a huge difference. Trust me,
I do it in my own home and I notice it,
and I know that you can too. So I hope
this has been helpful. And again, if you want more tips,
I would love for you to join our clutter Clinic series.
It's where we go live once a month. We do
(22:11):
a deep dive, you get to ask your own questions.
We are doing an entire series on a variety of
different topics. You can get the bundle or just pop
in for the clutter clinic that makes the most sense
to you, but I would love to see there, so
there's a link in the show notes that can give
you more details. Or of course, always visit our website,
which has tons of resources, both paid and free. That's
(22:35):
simply the Letter be like Boy organized dot com and
if you go slash workshop, that'll take you right to
our clutter clinic page. So until next week on lur Palau,
peace out. Thanks for tuning in. If you like this episode,
please spread the love and share it with your friends.
If this is your first time joining us, make sure
to click the subscribe button wherever you are listening so
(22:56):
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,
including free downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners,
(23:20):
and all of our digital offerings. I'll see you next
week for another episode of This Organized Life.
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