May 1, 2025 • 41 mins
Hey friends!
In this week’s episode, I’m diving into something we all struggle with—someday stuff. You know… the juicer you might use when you start eating healthier, or the crafting supplies you swore you'd use when you had more time. These items might seem harmless, but they often come with a lot of emotional weight—guilt, fear, nostalgia—you name it.
I also share an inside peek at our Clutter Clinic live workshop series (so excited about this!) and how we’re helping people tackle not just the physical clutter, but the emotional clutter too. We’re talking decision fatigue, scarcity mindset, identity clutter—all the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes it so hard to let go.Whether you're sorting through your own “someday” piles or helping clients as a professional organizer, this episode is full of practical tips and real talk to help you move forward with intention. I walk you through:
💛XO,
Laurie
Resources Mentioned:
In this week’s episode, I’m diving into something we all struggle with—someday stuff. You know… the juicer you might use when you start eating healthier, or the crafting supplies you swore you'd use when you had more time. These items might seem harmless, but they often come with a lot of emotional weight—guilt, fear, nostalgia—you name it.
I also share an inside peek at our Clutter Clinic live workshop series (so excited about this!) and how we’re helping people tackle not just the physical clutter, but the emotional clutter too. We’re talking decision fatigue, scarcity mindset, identity clutter—all the behind-the-scenes stuff that makes it so hard to let go.Whether you're sorting through your own “someday” piles or helping clients as a professional organizer, this episode is full of practical tips and real talk to help you move forward with intention. I walk you through:
- Why “someday stuff” is so common (and sneaky!)
- How to identify the emotional triggers behind your clutter
- My go-to 4-pile method for simplifying decisions
- Questions to ask when you're stuck in the “what if” loop
- Special insights for pros in the organizing space
💛XO,
Laurie
Resources Mentioned:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, they're organizing friends. If you 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
(00:22):
our group mentoring Comehork kicks off this coming September, and
that is ideal 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
(00:43):
you need, and I am here dot guide you every
step of the way. To learn more, visit simplyborganized dot
com or 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.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
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 share practical tips, chat
(01:22):
with experts, and provide strategies on how to keep you organized.
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.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So let's get started, everybody, and welcome to today's episode
of This Organized Life.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I'm yours Lori Plow. I'm so happy that you're here. Yay,
it's may to you the competty. Hopefully at the time
that this releases it everyone's going to be in tag tops.
That's all I That's all I can hope for, right,
That's all I can hope for. Obviously, we know it's
been a long winner here. If you're a longtime listener
at and I'm just so excited for spring. I love
(02:05):
the warm weather. If you've been attending any of our
clutter Clinic series, like Springtime brings out the need for
organizing in a lot of people. Right, we'd nest a
lot in the wintertime, and comes spring we are ready
to purge and edit and thin out and lighten our load.
(02:26):
And again we had clutter Clinic closets last month and
we are just about to drop our or have our
clutter Clinic garage. If you've missed any of these, they
are our live workshop series. By the way, Sorry, I'm
assuming that you guys know what they are. Clutter Clinic
is our live workshop series. If you missed it and
(02:49):
you would still like the content, because it is applicable,
you can you could purchase a reply. But the which
is still great, right, still great content. But if you'd
like the lie version where you can interact and have
Q and a visit our in our show notes below
orherever you're watching or listening, it's Simplybeorganized dot Com slash workshop.
(03:11):
I'll tell you all about the other thing that I
wanted to bring up is I know a lot of
parents are gearing up for their kids to be wrapping
up school. Whether that's your college kids that are coming
home from the summer or coming home for the summer,
or if you depending on where you live. Your kids
(03:31):
could be getting out of school this month or in June,
and that means is shift in your schedules. And for
a lot of people, it's a reset time. And that
could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing,
and so we're here for you. I've got a ton
of free resources on our website where recently I like
to change up things on our website every now and
(03:51):
again just to freshen it up. We have new offerings
and I just take your feedback of what you're looking for.
But on our free resources there's a button that's as
free resources. Doesn't get much simpler than that. You could go.
We've got tons of checklists for parents that if you're
looking for things to help your kids as they transition
(04:12):
back into the house for the summer, organizing challenges, checklists,
you name it, so let us know if there's something
that we can help you with as you your schedules.
For a lot of people, this is a shift in time,
and again, in some ways it's really good. We could
take things down a notch. But in other ways, especially
if you're a working parent, this disruption in the routine
(04:36):
can throw you for a loop. I know It used
to throw me for a loop as a working mom
when my kids would come home and it was nice
to have the less hassle of school lunches and homework
and all that, but it also brought itself a whole
other mess of issues or new problems, that struggles that arose.
So if you can relate to that, we've got a
(04:59):
lot of different resources for you, So go and check
those out. But today I wanted to talk about this
topic of what I'm calling someday stuff. Right, letting go
of the someday stuff? Now, what do we mean by that?
So I talk a lot here about emotional clutter. We
(05:19):
talk about the different types of clutter, right, the physical clutter,
which is the stuff that we see, But then we
have the emotional clutter, which usually stems from guilt, fear,
or nostalgia. And a lot of times we have that
what if that's someday, Someday I'm going to fit into
these Someday I am going to need this again, all
(05:44):
of that. Someday I might get back into this hobby
that I thought I was going to get into. I
might start knitting again one day, I might fill in
the blank. We can all relate to some sort of
Someday item in our house. And as I started, because
I'm a little bit of a nerd in this respect,
(06:05):
I like to peel back the layers and look at
the psychology behind this. And so today we're going to
talk a little bit about the psychology behind it, the
mindset shifts that you can try, and if you're a
professional organizer and you are working with clients, these are
I'm going to be sharing some prompts and tips and
(06:27):
things that you might be able to use with your clients.
So maybe you're not somebody that struggles with someday items.
Maybe emotional clutter isn't a big roadblock for you, but
maybe it is for the people in your world, and
that is something that you're faced with. I know for me,
I don't particularly struggle with it myself, but I have
(06:48):
to know how to navigate it because so many of
my clients are struggling with it, and even some of
my kids have some emotional clutter that we need to
work through. And so and this someday comes up, we
want to be equipped with kindness and perspective and juggling
(07:10):
in some facts with the nuances to be able to
get yourself or the person that you're trying to help
to a place where they have come and peace about
their decision of how to take action on the Sunday stuff.
Because I think ultimately that's really what the biggest thing
is when we are riddled with this kind of someday stuff,
(07:32):
this I might need it. When it just stops, it
forces us to make to take inaction. Right, we're not
going to do anything because we might need it. And
what any organizer is going to try to do, or
if you're trying to organize your life, is you want
to move from this place of paralysis, mental paralysis, to
(07:54):
taking action and feeling good about the steps that you're
going to take to get you from this cluttered room,
this cluttered space, this cluttered situation, to this decluttered, calm, peaceful,
organized space. So if that sounds good, we're going to
(08:15):
just dive right into it. Okay, So let's talk a
little bit about some of the psychology factors that might
play in with your Someday stuff. So, as I mentioned,
it is going to be a lot of emotional baggage
of fear of waste, like I feel wasteful. I was
(08:36):
actually talking to somebody not too long ago, a colleague
of mine who was working with one of her clients,
and she said that this particular client got rid of
seven bags of clothes and there was this level from
the client of shame about the waste of all of
(08:57):
this stuff that was just taking up space. And the
purpose of it is not to make anybody feel bad
about their decisions, but to just be mindful and then
about their decisions moving forward. And that's what I always say,
is we can't go back, but we are going to.
How can we use this information to look forward and
be a better version of ourselves. But for so many
(09:19):
people there's this fear of waste. I don't want to
be wasteful. Also, I don't know what to do with
this stuff, so I don't want to just end up
in the landfill. So all this waste is a huge
issue for some people. The second thing is that guilt
over the money. And I've talked about this quite a bit,
especially when it comes to clothing, and we've talked about
(09:39):
this in our clutter clinic closet. Is that I bought
these shoes and they cost a lot of money, they
kill my feet. I'm probably never going to wear them.
But I can't get rid of them because they cost
a lot of money. Or I spend a lot of
money on these jeans and I don't fit into them,
but I'm going to hold onto them because they cost
(10:01):
a lot of money and maybe someday I'm going to
fit into them again. Now that's again something that we
work through with the emotional clutter, because as I tell
people all the time, the money's already been spent. So
unless you're going to resell it, which is not normally
my go to making peace with it, it's not making
you any money by sitting on a shelf in your closet,
(10:22):
And if you're not using it, then to me, if
you're not using it, it's becoming clutter. Now. The third
thing is a lot of times people will hold onto
things because it's part of their identity. It's somebody who
they used to be or somebody who they want to be.
This is a big one, and we did a whole episode. Gosh,
(10:43):
of course I wasn't. I don't have that one at
my fingertips, but I remember, we'll link to it in
the show notes. It is talking all about identity clutter,
and I did it was with the minimal mom. Don
Madson and we talked a lot about how for so
many people they hold onto things because it reflects who
they were at a particular period of time or who
(11:07):
they want to be. And John Deloney, who was a
guest on our show, talked all about this, and it
was specifically with like his musical instruments and out wanting
to be a rock star and having holding onto all
these things because it represented a certain time in his life.
And for a lot of women that I work with,
they hold onto a lot of their work clothes, especially
(11:29):
when they moms that went from a big corporate job
to a stay at home mom. And you know, I
feel like it's a noble profession to be a stay
at home mom. I'm all about that. I think it's
great if that's the path that you choose, but there's
still a stigma that there is a less than effect
(11:51):
on that. And for a lot of women, holding on
to who they were at a particular time gives them
this false sense of validation. And I'm saying false sense
not to minimize how they feel, but understanding that like
the validation, we don't want our validation to come from
(12:11):
the material thing. We want to come from the inside
and who we are and the value that we are
bringing into the world. But for a lot of people,
this stuff, this someday stuff, acts as this validation for
them and because it's part of who they are or
who they identify as. Hey, friends, if you're tired of
(12:34):
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 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 gonna
(12:56):
be sending out a replay to anybody who registers during
this one. In our workshop, I'm going to 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,
(13:16):
so please don't wait head on over to Simply Be
Organized dot com slash workshop, or click on the link
below wherever you're listening or watching to grab your spot.
Let's clear that clutter together. Now. Some other psychology reasons
why people hold on to it is just being stuck
(13:37):
in decision fatigue, right that I when you have so
many items in front of you, and I talk about
that with the five clutter pitfalls, and I talk about
that procrastination in decision guilt, overwhelming time when you don't
know what to do, we do nothing, And that is
(13:59):
that decision fatigue can absolutely paralyze us. And so we'll
hold on to someday stuff because we just can't deal
with it right now. There's too many decisions that need
to be made. Or maybe we're holding on to it
because we have so many other decisions in our lives.
What do we make it for dinner, what's going on
with the kids, where are we going on vacation, what
(14:19):
are we doing about this? Blah blah blah blah blah,
fill in the blank. That the last thing that you
have the mental space for is to make a decision
on what to do about this beer making kit or
crafting kit or all the cricket accouterments that you bought
(14:40):
when you thought you were going to be monogramming everything.
So that is a very real struggle that a lot
of people face. Okay, so then we have another kind
of issue that a lot of people deal with, which
is that scarcity mindset that what if I need it late,
I'm going to hold on to it because I might
(15:02):
need it someday. And we see a lot with certain
anagram types, and again I think you can find patterns
with a lot of these prompts with different anagram types.
And I was somebody who was asking me the other day.
I was having an offline conversation about the anagram, which, again,
if you're new to our show, I do a lot
of work with personality typing and helping people understand who
(15:27):
they are. And your anagram type talks about your unconscious motivation,
so basically why you do what you do. And certain
anagram types have certain characteristics that lend themselves to falling
into specific clutter traps. Now, every anagram type can do
that for different reasons, so it's not oh, if you're
(15:47):
this type, you're not going to struggle with clutter. No,
any anagram type can struggle with clutter and can also
live a very organized life. So just know that. But
there are certain characteristics of certain types, specifically our niagrams fours, fives,
and nines, and their orientation to time is the past,
and so they oftentimes will think about nostalgia. They'll think
(16:13):
about the what if I need it? This is a
time when I needed it, what if I need it again.
You also have your sixes who are very fear based.
That's and that need for safety and is very real
for the anagram sixes. So that holding onto it out
of a scarcity mindset of what if I needed I
want to be fully prepared is something that you might
(16:34):
see specifically in an any five or an Anagram six.
Now I don't want to say that those are the
only types that would struggle with that, but I have
seen in my practice of working one on one with clients,
both on a hands on and in a coaching capacity,
(16:55):
that is a theme that comes up over and over again,
specifically with the fives and sixes, is I might need
it someday. So just something to think about. Okay, So
we touched on some of the specific categories, but I
want to just highlight them again So some of the
common categories that I see over and over again with
(17:19):
this Sunday stuff are clothes and anything that relates to clothes,
so that will be shoes, handbags, all that kind of stuff. Right,
so we have clothing, I see papers, which surprise might
surprise a lot of you. But when it comes to
holding onto papers, it's less about sentimental but more about
(17:40):
what if I get audited. I hear that all the time,
I need to hold on to it. I'm working with
a client now and there's tons and tons of papers
from the past, and ninety nine percent of it is
stuff that we're taking to the mobile shredding place because
they're not the things that they would need to keep.
(18:00):
And again I'm not accountant. Please consult your own tax professional,
but every professional that I've ever spoken with says you
need to hold onto things for seven years and those
things are specifically things that would be relating to your
income to write offs. Your monthly statement for your electricity
(18:22):
bill is not something that you need to hold onto
for seven years. It is very specific information. And so
a lot of times people don't know what to hold onto,
and so because they don't want to have to make
that decision, going back to decision fatigue, they will hold
on to all of it. And so paper clutter is
a big someday item. Now I mentioned this earlier, hobby
(18:46):
or craft supplies. We oftentimes will get into something and
this is this. I'm seeing this a lot now because
of COVID. Right, we were all at home during COVID.
We're five years post lockdown quarantine, and people were getting
creative and trying to keep their mind stimulated and their
(19:09):
time filled and doing all kinds of things. So people
were taking up all kinds of hobbies, you name it.
And we were having stuff delivered right because we couldn't
go shopping, so we were ordering things online having it delivered,
and everything from puzzles to knitting to breadmaking kits, you
(19:30):
name it, and it you know it likely has a
home somewhere. And as life returns to air quote normal,
we don't have as much time to spend on these hobbies.
Or maybe we did it and it we tried it
and it was fun, and now we've moved on to
(19:52):
something else. But we still have this stuff and we're
holding on to it for someday because someday I might
go back to it. But we have to really think
about again, what is the reality of that. We're going
to get to some of the more practical questions in
a few minutes. The same holds true when it comes
to fitness gear. People get really into a particular workout thing.
(20:16):
Think right now, think rucking vests or what have you. Again.
People also during COVID ordered a lot of in home gyms,
and I see a lot of big box jump those
portable boxes that you that you could jump on, things
that people couldn't go to outside, so they brought them
(20:37):
into their homes and now that life, they're going about
their business. This stuff is just taking up space in
their house, but they're holding on to it for some day.
I also kitchen gadgets another big one. Dan I talked
about the breadmaking but or we bought something for a
particular recipe and we're not using it. Or we bought
(21:00):
that zoodle maker because we thought we'd be making zucchini
pasta by the truckload and we're really not so having that. Like, honest,
come to Jesus, talk with yourself of how much space
do we have? How often am I really using it?
All those questions. But again, we'll get to the questions later,
I'm jumping ahead. And books. We've done episodes on books,
(21:22):
but books are also a someday, someday I'm going to
go back and read this, or I bought this thinking
I was going to read it, and someday I'm going
to read it. We hold on to a lot of things, classics,
nonfiction books, fiction books, you name it. And again, maybe
it's something that we want to learn. Maybe it's I'm
(21:42):
going to learn how to speak another language and I
have this book, or I'm going to learn this whatever.
We hold onto things as part of who we want
to be or who we once were, and that is
just that emotional stronghold of this someday stuff. And then
finally we have those sentimental items. And I touched on
(22:05):
this with the clothes we have past career or stage
of life. Oftentimes I see parents, usually the mom more
than the dad, but I don't want to stereotype, but
really struggling with getting rid of maybe some of the
baby stuff because they're not ready to make peace. That
(22:25):
phase of their life is over, that time is moving on,
and so we accumulate things. Or maybe it's the someday
of I might have another kid and that's obviously a
very personal decision. And I certainly would never force somebody
to get rid of something wastefully if there's a chance
that they're going to be having a child down the
(22:46):
road or whatnot. But I think we have to have
be very honest about how long we're going to hold
onto things. The practicality of so many things change over
the years. You holding onto the crib that your kids
upon might not even be up to code nowadays. So
there's so many things that change over time. And just
(23:07):
knowing like that again that nostalgia of someday I might
wear it, someday my daughter might want to wear my
fill in the blank. I had a conversation recently with
a friend of mine slash client, who was holding on
to her prom dress and thinking that her daughter might
want to someday wear it. And maybe she will, right,
(23:27):
maybe she will. But you have to have this honest
conversation with yourself of saying, am I willing to give
up the space in my house? And that's where the
that's where the practical kind of math comes in. Right,
Am I willing to sacrifice space in my home for
this for the in the hopes that someday, so and
(23:50):
so might wear it or use it. So the again,
that's a question only you can answer. So what do
we do? I think we can look at some start
with some mind shift, right, just rephrasing, reframing. And it
depends again on the item. And what is the root
(24:10):
cause of the Suday? Is it guilt? Is it fear?
Is it nostalgia? So those are the three buckets that
you want to look at for if you're holding onto
this Sunday stuff? So question number one. Three questions for you?
Question number one, if I didn't already own this, would
I buy it again today? And again think about the
(24:31):
uncomfortable pair of shoes, think about the hobby that interested
you at a time but no longer interests you. So
if I didn't already own it, would I go out
and buy it again? That's your first question. Second question,
and I did this with my client. Is reframing this
(24:53):
from should I keep this? To what is it costing
me to hold onto this? Now? Again, it might not
be costing you money? Right, And again we're not even talking, folks.
I haven't even broached the subject of paying for a
storage unit. Again, we did that whole episode with my
friend Kate Bosh about storage units. I'm just assuming that
(25:15):
we're talking about Sunday stuff that is sitting in your
current home. So let's not even go there because that
opens a whole other jar worms. But if you're holding
up to the Sunday stuff that's in your home, you
may go. It's not costing me anything, it's just taking
up space. But think about that space. What is that
space representing? What that could that space be replaced with.
(25:35):
Could it be replaced with something else? Could you have
other stuff that is being encroached upon that I could
just give you some breathing room. What is it costing
you just this reminder of what was right of who
you were in the past, or how thin you were
in the past, or a time in your life. And
(25:56):
a lot of times we just hold onto things because
again we don't know what to do with them, We
don't know how to properly disposed of things. We feel
wasteful and not having that roadmap of what to do,
how to get rid of things, what's acceptable, what's not acceptable?
All those unanswered questions really can just cause that paralysis.
(26:18):
So think about what is this someday item costing me?
And then the third thing is taking a step back
from the actual item and looking at yourself in the
mirror and saying, who am I now? What does my
life look like now? And then saying does this someday
(26:41):
item support and align with my current life? And if
the answers know, that may be telling for you. And
I'm not going to say that this doesn't come without
for some people without some level of grin or sadness,
(27:02):
because as much as it can be freeing to get
rid of things, it can also you go through this
catharsis and if you were getting rid of things that
represented who you were at a certain time, and you're
finally taking action on this, like saying, Okay, I'm not
(27:22):
gonna I'm gonna get rid of those size two or
four genes and if I ever get back to that size,
I'm gonna buy myself new ones, or I'm getting rid
of those the baby jogger and if I'm blessed with
another child, I'll just put it on a registry or
(27:42):
I'll go to Facebook, marketplace or whatever that looks like,
and you'll there's a way that you can re like
the way that you can recoup this. If that someday
thing does actually come into fruition. Now, if you're a
professoron organizer, I want to just pivot for a second, because, again,
we got a lot of people that are in the
(28:04):
business that listen to our show, and so I just
want to kind of address it from the practitioner side
of things. You can use these same prompts with your clients,
but I want you to be really mindful of asking
very curious, non judgmental questions, asking your clients to elaborate
(28:27):
on what is that product, what does this item, what
does it mean to them, what does it represent? And
then asking other little mini prompts about when was the
list time you used it or when do you think
you're going to use it again? And again, non judgmental
is the crux of things. That's really big for a
(28:48):
lot of people, especially if you're just starting out in
the business, because you are very clear in what you
want to You have your process and you know what
you want to keep and what you want to get
rid of, but it might not be as clear cut
for the And that's why I love our four pile method.
And I'm sure if you're a professional organizer, you probably
have your own method. Feel free to use that, but
if you don't, you can certainly adopt ours. And ours
(29:10):
is a simple four pile method that I use. It's keep, donate, recycle,
and relocate and key pile is what they're keeping in
the space. Donate is donating, recycle is anything that is
you know, not in good condition and not necessarily donate
(29:31):
worthy to a person or a charity. And then the
relokey pile of stuff that they're going to keep, but
they're going to move it elsewhere. It's not going to
live in the key pile. It's not going to live
in that current rotation spot. And so that's our four
pile method. And you can use this at home and again,
use this with your clients, use this with your children,
go through those four piles, and that we call that
(29:52):
our ESP method right our empty sort purge. And another
approach that I like to use with my clients is
starting with the goal, starting with the end goal in mind,
and then reverse engineer it. And what do I mean
by that? So I have a client right now that
(30:14):
I'm working with and we are working well in various
spots of her home, but specifically we're in her unfinished
the unfinished part of her basement, and we're creating some
storage zones, and like many people, the basement's become a
big dumping ground over the years for anything that doesn't
(30:34):
have a home, it goes there to die. We figured,
I'm sure you guys can relate and film the blank
That could be an attic, that could be a garage,
that could be a guest room. And for her it
is this unfinished storage room in her basement. And so
before we started and dove into it, I said, in
a perfect world, how do you want this space to function?
What do we want to live here? And so she
(30:56):
mapped out some specific categories. She wanted some keepsakes, memorabilia,
she wanted seasonal decor, she wanted some They have a
lake Mountain house, so she wanted some stuff that maybe
can go up there meeting, some extra bedding and camping
supplies or whatever. Some stuff that doesn't. So we've mapped
(31:18):
out a few big categories of things, and then from
there and on that we knew this is what we
want this space to look like. I could then reverse
engineer and say anything that doesn't fit into those categories
goes So it helps the math math, right, we want
to say, okay, if this doesn't fit into this category,
(31:38):
that we need to find a new home for it.
And that's a really so when you're struggling with these
Sunday items. So if I came across a breadmaking kit,
I would say, Okay, we know it's not going to
live here because we've already designated the goal of this
particular space is to function as A B and C
and this doesn't fit into those categories. So now we
need to find a new home that can either a
(32:01):
open up another jar of worms, which is not what
we want, or B it's we're going to decide that
the someday stuff doesn't really need to live here at all,
and so we want to have those conversations. But again,
starting with the goal is really important. And then when
we talk about the math adding up, at some point,
(32:23):
organizing and decluttering becomes a math issue. You have a
certain amount of space and a certain amount of stuff
can fit in it, and so it doesn't matter how
organized you are. There's only so many bins that can
fit on a shelf, there's only so many clothes that
can fit in a closet, and so what we want
(32:44):
to do is make sure that our volume does not
exceed our space. And so if when we're faced with
these someday items, and when we talk about what is
our clutter costing us or what is this someday stuff
costing us? We want to look at space. That is
a huge factor. And just like time, there is a
findite amount of that right there is There is so
(33:08):
only so much space. Even somebody with a big, beautiful
home has only so much space to be able to
hold onto things. And so really looking at what am
I going to use that precious space for? And that
is a question that you know you can have with
your clients and then really for a lot of people.
(33:32):
And I said this at the top of the episode,
the biggest roadblock for Sunday stuff is in action. And
if we can move from our thoughts and our feelings
into actual doing, taking action, then that is when the
Sunday stuff starts to dissipate. There's no perfect time, It's
(33:58):
just time to time to start at some point. And
I tell that all the time that to my clients
all the time, there's never going to be that ideal
perfect time we hope we want. We think, oh, when
the kids go off to school or when summer comes around,
or want to become an empty nester or blah blah
blah blah blah, all these reasons, and then life happens,
(34:21):
something else goes sideways, and that encroaches in our time.
So if you're listening today and this resonates with you
and you're like, oh my gosh, like I have a
lot of this someday stuff, I don't want you to
have shame. I want you to a just congratulate yourself
for recognizing you that this is an area that you
(34:45):
might struggle with and say, Okay, what am I going
to do about it? What are the three things? Right?
It's guilt, fear, and nostalgia, and you may struggle with
all three or there might be one that is a
little bit stronger for you. And recognizing that and honoring
it and then saying what am I going to do
(35:06):
about it? You don't have to toss everything. I'm not
saying you have to get rid of all the things.
There might be stuff in your someday pile that you
will use or wear someday or somebody else will. Right,
there are things I do contrary to what I think
a lot of people might think is I have memory stuff.
(35:27):
I've got keepsake bins, memory boxes. I have them for me,
I have them for my girls. We have them for Josh,
like we have that. But we are just very selective
over the things that are in there. And I want
to make sure that if you do have these designated keepstakes,
that there is a specific spot in your home for
(35:51):
those things. And finally, I want you to remember that
your identity is not tied to your stuff. So many
of us we just lose sight of who we are
because this thing represents we personify our stuff. I'm a musician,
I'm a sneakerhead, fill in the blank, I'm a nineties
grunge person. And you know, we start to identify with
(36:15):
those things that play into that. And when it starts
to become an issue of moving us forward in who
we want to be or living the organized life that
we're looking to organize, that's when it's time to say, Okay,
we need to make some concessions here and how do
we go about doing it? So if you're looking for
a next step, we've put together a free download. It's
(36:40):
called The Letting Go Questions. At least that's the working
title right now. It might be something else, but right now,
my working title is the Letting Go Questions, and it's
just a quick PDF download you can get on our
website and we're going to put the link below in
the show notes, and it just has a bunch of
different prompts for you to go through. Not a ton,
(37:00):
I think it's a nine or ten. I broke it
into different categories of ways that you can think about it, because, again,
our brains all work differently. Some people's brains are more analyticals,
some people's brains are more emotional, some people's brains are
a little bit more intuition based. And so I approached
the prompts from different angles because some of them might
(37:20):
not resonate with you. Right if somebody's like, how does
this make you feel? I might be like, I don't
really know what you're talking about. It's a thing, But
for somebody else that could be a really big deal.
So just know that not all the questions might might
resonate with you, but there is bound to be something
that you're gonna be like, oh aha, that's my aha moment.
You can also share this episode with somebody. I know
(37:43):
there's somebody in your life that is struggling with someday stuff.
It could be a sibling, it could be a parent,
it could be a friend, it could be a coworker.
Share this episode with them. Again. We all have our
pain points and things that stress us out, and there's
no shame if clutter is yours. That is what we're
(38:05):
here for. That's why this podcast exists. And if you
are somebody that is a professional organizer and you're been
privileged to help other people in navigating their own clutter
struggles and you're looking for some additional support, like, we
would love to help you. That is what I do
(38:27):
with my coaching and my mentoring, and so I hope
that whatever brought you here to this episode, you found
some value and that you will pay it forward to
somebody else. Again, check out our letting Go Questions. It's
this free, it's on our free resources. It's our latest
one that we've put together for you. And that's it, guys.
I also one last thing for anybody who is in
(38:51):
the process of starting a professional organizing business or thinking
of one, we have recently launched a new podcast. It's
a mini series specifically geared to the professional organizer, giving
you a lot of very practical tools about starting a
business because I get a lot of calls, a lot
(39:11):
of inquiries from people that have specific questions, and so
we've used where we've created this as a free resource
for the aspiring po or maybe you're somebody that just
started but you're trying to get the business side of
the business going. Great place to start. It's called starting
a professional organizing Business. Start and Grow a Professional Organizing Business. Go.
(39:34):
You can check it out wherever you're listening or watching.
It's on our YouTube channel. You can binge its twelve
short episodes and it just gets the juice is flowing
of things that you might not know, because a lot
of times when we're starting on something new, we don't
even know what we don't know. We don't know what
questions to ask, we don't know the things that we
should have or do or say, and so we cover
(39:55):
all of it, from pricing to marketing to business th processes.
We cover all the things. So check that out for
all of my pos over there, and I think that's it.
I got a lot for you today. I thought there
was gonna be a quick, short episode. I wound up
being a lot longer than I thought. But hopefully you
found some value out of it. I'll be back next
(40:16):
week with another episode. Until then, I'm Lloyd Pleo peace out.
Thanks for tuning in. If you like this episode, please
spread the love and share it with your friends. 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
(40:38):
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
like boyorganized dot com, which is filled with tons of resources,
including free downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners,
and all of our digital offerings. I'll see you next
week for another episode of This Organized Wife
Hey, they're organizing friends. If you 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
(00:22):
our group mentoring Comehork kicks off this coming September, and
that is ideal 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
(00:43):
you need, and I am here dot guide you every
step of the way. To learn more, visit simplyborganized dot
com or 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.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
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 share practical tips, chat
(01:22):
with experts, and provide strategies on how to keep you organized.
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.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So let's get started, everybody, and welcome to today's episode
of This Organized Life.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
I'm yours Lori Plow. I'm so happy that you're here. Yay,
it's may to you the competty. Hopefully at the time
that this releases it everyone's going to be in tag tops.
That's all I That's all I can hope for, right,
That's all I can hope for. Obviously, we know it's
been a long winner here. If you're a longtime listener
at and I'm just so excited for spring. I love
(02:05):
the warm weather. If you've been attending any of our
clutter Clinic series, like Springtime brings out the need for
organizing in a lot of people. Right, we'd nest a
lot in the wintertime, and comes spring we are ready
to purge and edit and thin out and lighten our load.
(02:26):
And again we had clutter Clinic closets last month and
we are just about to drop our or have our
clutter Clinic garage. If you've missed any of these, they
are our live workshop series. By the way, Sorry, I'm
assuming that you guys know what they are. Clutter Clinic
is our live workshop series. If you missed it and
(02:49):
you would still like the content, because it is applicable,
you can you could purchase a reply. But the which
is still great, right, still great content. But if you'd
like the lie version where you can interact and have
Q and a visit our in our show notes below
orherever you're watching or listening, it's Simplybeorganized dot Com slash workshop.
(03:11):
I'll tell you all about the other thing that I
wanted to bring up is I know a lot of
parents are gearing up for their kids to be wrapping
up school. Whether that's your college kids that are coming
home from the summer or coming home for the summer,
or if you depending on where you live. Your kids
(03:31):
could be getting out of school this month or in June,
and that means is shift in your schedules. And for
a lot of people, it's a reset time. And that
could be a good thing, it could be a bad thing,
and so we're here for you. I've got a ton
of free resources on our website where recently I like
to change up things on our website every now and
(03:51):
again just to freshen it up. We have new offerings
and I just take your feedback of what you're looking for.
But on our free resources there's a button that's as
free resources. Doesn't get much simpler than that. You could go.
We've got tons of checklists for parents that if you're
looking for things to help your kids as they transition
(04:12):
back into the house for the summer, organizing challenges, checklists,
you name it, so let us know if there's something
that we can help you with as you your schedules.
For a lot of people, this is a shift in time,
and again, in some ways it's really good. We could
take things down a notch. But in other ways, especially
if you're a working parent, this disruption in the routine
(04:36):
can throw you for a loop. I know It used
to throw me for a loop as a working mom
when my kids would come home and it was nice
to have the less hassle of school lunches and homework
and all that, but it also brought itself a whole
other mess of issues or new problems, that struggles that arose.
So if you can relate to that, we've got a
(04:59):
lot of different resources for you, So go and check
those out. But today I wanted to talk about this
topic of what I'm calling someday stuff. Right, letting go
of the someday stuff? Now, what do we mean by that?
So I talk a lot here about emotional clutter. We
(05:19):
talk about the different types of clutter, right, the physical clutter,
which is the stuff that we see, But then we
have the emotional clutter, which usually stems from guilt, fear,
or nostalgia. And a lot of times we have that
what if that's someday, Someday I'm going to fit into
these Someday I am going to need this again, all
(05:44):
of that. Someday I might get back into this hobby
that I thought I was going to get into. I
might start knitting again one day, I might fill in
the blank. We can all relate to some sort of
Someday item in our house. And as I started, because
I'm a little bit of a nerd in this respect,
(06:05):
I like to peel back the layers and look at
the psychology behind this. And so today we're going to
talk a little bit about the psychology behind it, the
mindset shifts that you can try, and if you're a
professional organizer and you are working with clients, these are
I'm going to be sharing some prompts and tips and
(06:27):
things that you might be able to use with your clients.
So maybe you're not somebody that struggles with someday items.
Maybe emotional clutter isn't a big roadblock for you, but
maybe it is for the people in your world, and
that is something that you're faced with. I know for me,
I don't particularly struggle with it myself, but I have
(06:48):
to know how to navigate it because so many of
my clients are struggling with it, and even some of
my kids have some emotional clutter that we need to
work through. And so and this someday comes up, we
want to be equipped with kindness and perspective and juggling
(07:10):
in some facts with the nuances to be able to
get yourself or the person that you're trying to help
to a place where they have come and peace about
their decision of how to take action on the Sunday stuff.
Because I think ultimately that's really what the biggest thing
is when we are riddled with this kind of someday stuff,
(07:32):
this I might need it. When it just stops, it
forces us to make to take inaction. Right, we're not
going to do anything because we might need it. And
what any organizer is going to try to do, or
if you're trying to organize your life, is you want
to move from this place of paralysis, mental paralysis, to
(07:54):
taking action and feeling good about the steps that you're
going to take to get you from this cluttered room,
this cluttered space, this cluttered situation, to this decluttered, calm, peaceful,
organized space. So if that sounds good, we're going to
(08:15):
just dive right into it. Okay, So let's talk a
little bit about some of the psychology factors that might
play in with your Someday stuff. So, as I mentioned,
it is going to be a lot of emotional baggage
of fear of waste, like I feel wasteful. I was
(08:36):
actually talking to somebody not too long ago, a colleague
of mine who was working with one of her clients,
and she said that this particular client got rid of
seven bags of clothes and there was this level from
the client of shame about the waste of all of
(08:57):
this stuff that was just taking up space. And the
purpose of it is not to make anybody feel bad
about their decisions, but to just be mindful and then
about their decisions moving forward. And that's what I always say,
is we can't go back, but we are going to.
How can we use this information to look forward and
be a better version of ourselves. But for so many
(09:19):
people there's this fear of waste. I don't want to
be wasteful. Also, I don't know what to do with
this stuff, so I don't want to just end up
in the landfill. So all this waste is a huge
issue for some people. The second thing is that guilt
over the money. And I've talked about this quite a bit,
especially when it comes to clothing, and we've talked about
(09:39):
this in our clutter clinic closet. Is that I bought
these shoes and they cost a lot of money, they
kill my feet. I'm probably never going to wear them.
But I can't get rid of them because they cost
a lot of money. Or I spend a lot of
money on these jeans and I don't fit into them,
but I'm going to hold onto them because they cost
(10:01):
a lot of money and maybe someday I'm going to
fit into them again. Now that's again something that we
work through with the emotional clutter, because as I tell
people all the time, the money's already been spent. So
unless you're going to resell it, which is not normally
my go to making peace with it, it's not making
you any money by sitting on a shelf in your closet,
(10:22):
And if you're not using it, then to me, if
you're not using it, it's becoming clutter. Now. The third
thing is a lot of times people will hold onto
things because it's part of their identity. It's somebody who
they used to be or somebody who they want to be.
This is a big one, and we did a whole episode. Gosh,
(10:43):
of course I wasn't. I don't have that one at
my fingertips, but I remember, we'll link to it in
the show notes. It is talking all about identity clutter,
and I did it was with the minimal mom. Don
Madson and we talked a lot about how for so
many people they hold onto things because it reflects who
they were at a particular period of time or who
(11:07):
they want to be. And John Deloney, who was a
guest on our show, talked all about this, and it
was specifically with like his musical instruments and out wanting
to be a rock star and having holding onto all
these things because it represented a certain time in his life.
And for a lot of women that I work with,
they hold onto a lot of their work clothes, especially
(11:29):
when they moms that went from a big corporate job
to a stay at home mom. And you know, I
feel like it's a noble profession to be a stay
at home mom. I'm all about that. I think it's
great if that's the path that you choose, but there's
still a stigma that there is a less than effect
(11:51):
on that. And for a lot of women, holding on
to who they were at a particular time gives them
this false sense of validation. And I'm saying false sense
not to minimize how they feel, but understanding that like
the validation, we don't want our validation to come from
(12:11):
the material thing. We want to come from the inside
and who we are and the value that we are
bringing into the world. But for a lot of people,
this stuff, this someday stuff, acts as this validation for
them and because it's part of who they are or
who they identify as. Hey, friends, if you're tired of
(12:34):
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 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 gonna
(12:56):
be sending out a replay to anybody who registers during
this one. In our workshop, I'm going to 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,
(13:16):
so please don't wait head on over to Simply Be
Organized dot com slash workshop, or click on the link
below wherever you're listening or watching to grab your spot.
Let's clear that clutter together. Now. Some other psychology reasons
why people hold on to it is just being stuck
(13:37):
in decision fatigue, right that I when you have so
many items in front of you, and I talk about
that with the five clutter pitfalls, and I talk about
that procrastination in decision guilt, overwhelming time when you don't
know what to do, we do nothing, And that is
(13:59):
that decision fatigue can absolutely paralyze us. And so we'll
hold on to someday stuff because we just can't deal
with it right now. There's too many decisions that need
to be made. Or maybe we're holding on to it
because we have so many other decisions in our lives.
What do we make it for dinner, what's going on
with the kids, where are we going on vacation, what
(14:19):
are we doing about this? Blah blah blah blah blah,
fill in the blank. That the last thing that you
have the mental space for is to make a decision
on what to do about this beer making kit or
crafting kit or all the cricket accouterments that you bought
(14:40):
when you thought you were going to be monogramming everything.
So that is a very real struggle that a lot
of people face. Okay, so then we have another kind
of issue that a lot of people deal with, which
is that scarcity mindset that what if I need it late,
I'm going to hold on to it because I might
(15:02):
need it someday. And we see a lot with certain
anagram types, and again I think you can find patterns
with a lot of these prompts with different anagram types.
And I was somebody who was asking me the other day.
I was having an offline conversation about the anagram, which, again,
if you're new to our show, I do a lot
of work with personality typing and helping people understand who
(15:27):
they are. And your anagram type talks about your unconscious motivation,
so basically why you do what you do. And certain
anagram types have certain characteristics that lend themselves to falling
into specific clutter traps. Now, every anagram type can do
that for different reasons, so it's not oh, if you're
(15:47):
this type, you're not going to struggle with clutter. No,
any anagram type can struggle with clutter and can also
live a very organized life. So just know that. But
there are certain characteristics of certain types, specifically our niagrams fours, fives,
and nines, and their orientation to time is the past,
and so they oftentimes will think about nostalgia. They'll think
(16:13):
about the what if I need it? This is a
time when I needed it, what if I need it again.
You also have your sixes who are very fear based.
That's and that need for safety and is very real
for the anagram sixes. So that holding onto it out
of a scarcity mindset of what if I needed I
want to be fully prepared is something that you might
(16:34):
see specifically in an any five or an Anagram six.
Now I don't want to say that those are the
only types that would struggle with that, but I have
seen in my practice of working one on one with clients,
both on a hands on and in a coaching capacity,
(16:55):
that is a theme that comes up over and over again,
specifically with the fives and sixes, is I might need
it someday. So just something to think about. Okay, So
we touched on some of the specific categories, but I
want to just highlight them again So some of the
common categories that I see over and over again with
(17:19):
this Sunday stuff are clothes and anything that relates to clothes,
so that will be shoes, handbags, all that kind of stuff. Right,
so we have clothing, I see papers, which surprise might
surprise a lot of you. But when it comes to
holding onto papers, it's less about sentimental but more about
(17:40):
what if I get audited. I hear that all the time,
I need to hold on to it. I'm working with
a client now and there's tons and tons of papers
from the past, and ninety nine percent of it is
stuff that we're taking to the mobile shredding place because
they're not the things that they would need to keep.
(18:00):
And again I'm not accountant. Please consult your own tax professional,
but every professional that I've ever spoken with says you
need to hold onto things for seven years and those
things are specifically things that would be relating to your
income to write offs. Your monthly statement for your electricity
(18:22):
bill is not something that you need to hold onto
for seven years. It is very specific information. And so
a lot of times people don't know what to hold onto,
and so because they don't want to have to make
that decision, going back to decision fatigue, they will hold
on to all of it. And so paper clutter is
a big someday item. Now I mentioned this earlier, hobby
(18:46):
or craft supplies. We oftentimes will get into something and
this is this. I'm seeing this a lot now because
of COVID. Right, we were all at home during COVID.
We're five years post lockdown quarantine, and people were getting
creative and trying to keep their mind stimulated and their
(19:09):
time filled and doing all kinds of things. So people
were taking up all kinds of hobbies, you name it.
And we were having stuff delivered right because we couldn't
go shopping, so we were ordering things online having it delivered,
and everything from puzzles to knitting to breadmaking kits, you
(19:30):
name it, and it you know it likely has a
home somewhere. And as life returns to air quote normal,
we don't have as much time to spend on these hobbies.
Or maybe we did it and it we tried it
and it was fun, and now we've moved on to
(19:52):
something else. But we still have this stuff and we're
holding on to it for someday because someday I might
go back to it. But we have to really think
about again, what is the reality of that. We're going
to get to some of the more practical questions in
a few minutes. The same holds true when it comes
to fitness gear. People get really into a particular workout thing.
(20:16):
Think right now, think rucking vests or what have you. Again.
People also during COVID ordered a lot of in home gyms,
and I see a lot of big box jump those
portable boxes that you that you could jump on, things
that people couldn't go to outside, so they brought them
(20:37):
into their homes and now that life, they're going about
their business. This stuff is just taking up space in
their house, but they're holding on to it for some day.
I also kitchen gadgets another big one. Dan I talked
about the breadmaking but or we bought something for a
particular recipe and we're not using it. Or we bought
(21:00):
that zoodle maker because we thought we'd be making zucchini
pasta by the truckload and we're really not so having that. Like, honest,
come to Jesus, talk with yourself of how much space
do we have? How often am I really using it?
All those questions. But again, we'll get to the questions later,
I'm jumping ahead. And books. We've done episodes on books,
(21:22):
but books are also a someday, someday I'm going to
go back and read this, or I bought this thinking
I was going to read it, and someday I'm going
to read it. We hold on to a lot of things, classics,
nonfiction books, fiction books, you name it. And again, maybe
it's something that we want to learn. Maybe it's I'm
(21:42):
going to learn how to speak another language and I
have this book, or I'm going to learn this whatever.
We hold onto things as part of who we want
to be or who we once were, and that is
just that emotional stronghold of this someday stuff. And then
finally we have those sentimental items. And I touched on
(22:05):
this with the clothes we have past career or stage
of life. Oftentimes I see parents, usually the mom more
than the dad, but I don't want to stereotype, but
really struggling with getting rid of maybe some of the
baby stuff because they're not ready to make peace. That
(22:25):
phase of their life is over, that time is moving on,
and so we accumulate things. Or maybe it's the someday
of I might have another kid and that's obviously a
very personal decision. And I certainly would never force somebody
to get rid of something wastefully if there's a chance
that they're going to be having a child down the
(22:46):
road or whatnot. But I think we have to have
be very honest about how long we're going to hold
onto things. The practicality of so many things change over
the years. You holding onto the crib that your kids
upon might not even be up to code nowadays. So
there's so many things that change over time. And just
(23:07):
knowing like that again that nostalgia of someday I might
wear it, someday my daughter might want to wear my
fill in the blank. I had a conversation recently with
a friend of mine slash client, who was holding on
to her prom dress and thinking that her daughter might
want to someday wear it. And maybe she will, right,
(23:27):
maybe she will. But you have to have this honest
conversation with yourself of saying, am I willing to give
up the space in my house? And that's where the
that's where the practical kind of math comes in. Right,
Am I willing to sacrifice space in my home for
this for the in the hopes that someday, so and
(23:50):
so might wear it or use it. So the again,
that's a question only you can answer. So what do
we do? I think we can look at some start
with some mind shift, right, just rephrasing, reframing. And it
depends again on the item. And what is the root
(24:10):
cause of the Suday? Is it guilt? Is it fear?
Is it nostalgia? So those are the three buckets that
you want to look at for if you're holding onto
this Sunday stuff? So question number one. Three questions for you?
Question number one, if I didn't already own this, would
I buy it again today? And again think about the
(24:31):
uncomfortable pair of shoes, think about the hobby that interested
you at a time but no longer interests you. So
if I didn't already own it, would I go out
and buy it again? That's your first question. Second question,
and I did this with my client. Is reframing this
(24:53):
from should I keep this? To what is it costing
me to hold onto this? Now? Again, it might not
be costing you money? Right, And again we're not even talking, folks.
I haven't even broached the subject of paying for a
storage unit. Again, we did that whole episode with my
friend Kate Bosh about storage units. I'm just assuming that
(25:15):
we're talking about Sunday stuff that is sitting in your
current home. So let's not even go there because that
opens a whole other jar worms. But if you're holding
up to the Sunday stuff that's in your home, you
may go. It's not costing me anything, it's just taking
up space. But think about that space. What is that
space representing? What that could that space be replaced with.
(25:35):
Could it be replaced with something else? Could you have
other stuff that is being encroached upon that I could
just give you some breathing room. What is it costing
you just this reminder of what was right of who
you were in the past, or how thin you were
in the past, or a time in your life. And
(25:56):
a lot of times we just hold onto things because
again we don't know what to do with them, We
don't know how to properly disposed of things. We feel
wasteful and not having that roadmap of what to do,
how to get rid of things, what's acceptable, what's not acceptable?
All those unanswered questions really can just cause that paralysis.
(26:18):
So think about what is this someday item costing me?
And then the third thing is taking a step back
from the actual item and looking at yourself in the
mirror and saying, who am I now? What does my
life look like now? And then saying does this someday
(26:41):
item support and align with my current life? And if
the answers know, that may be telling for you. And
I'm not going to say that this doesn't come without
for some people without some level of grin or sadness,
(27:02):
because as much as it can be freeing to get
rid of things, it can also you go through this
catharsis and if you were getting rid of things that
represented who you were at a certain time, and you're
finally taking action on this, like saying, Okay, I'm not
(27:22):
gonna I'm gonna get rid of those size two or
four genes and if I ever get back to that size,
I'm gonna buy myself new ones, or I'm getting rid
of those the baby jogger and if I'm blessed with
another child, I'll just put it on a registry or
(27:42):
I'll go to Facebook, marketplace or whatever that looks like,
and you'll there's a way that you can re like
the way that you can recoup this. If that someday
thing does actually come into fruition. Now, if you're a
professoron organizer, I want to just pivot for a second, because, again,
we got a lot of people that are in the
(28:04):
business that listen to our show, and so I just
want to kind of address it from the practitioner side
of things. You can use these same prompts with your clients,
but I want you to be really mindful of asking
very curious, non judgmental questions, asking your clients to elaborate
(28:27):
on what is that product, what does this item, what
does it mean to them, what does it represent? And
then asking other little mini prompts about when was the
list time you used it or when do you think
you're going to use it again? And again, non judgmental
is the crux of things. That's really big for a
(28:48):
lot of people, especially if you're just starting out in
the business, because you are very clear in what you
want to You have your process and you know what
you want to keep and what you want to get
rid of, but it might not be as clear cut
for the And that's why I love our four pile method.
And I'm sure if you're a professional organizer, you probably
have your own method. Feel free to use that, but
if you don't, you can certainly adopt ours. And ours
(29:10):
is a simple four pile method that I use. It's keep, donate, recycle,
and relocate and key pile is what they're keeping in
the space. Donate is donating, recycle is anything that is
you know, not in good condition and not necessarily donate
(29:31):
worthy to a person or a charity. And then the
relokey pile of stuff that they're going to keep, but
they're going to move it elsewhere. It's not going to
live in the key pile. It's not going to live
in that current rotation spot. And so that's our four
pile method. And you can use this at home and again,
use this with your clients, use this with your children,
go through those four piles, and that we call that
(29:52):
our ESP method right our empty sort purge. And another
approach that I like to use with my clients is
starting with the goal, starting with the end goal in mind,
and then reverse engineer it. And what do I mean
by that? So I have a client right now that
(30:14):
I'm working with and we are working well in various
spots of her home, but specifically we're in her unfinished
the unfinished part of her basement, and we're creating some
storage zones, and like many people, the basement's become a
big dumping ground over the years for anything that doesn't
(30:34):
have a home, it goes there to die. We figured,
I'm sure you guys can relate and film the blank
That could be an attic, that could be a garage,
that could be a guest room. And for her it
is this unfinished storage room in her basement. And so
before we started and dove into it, I said, in
a perfect world, how do you want this space to function?
What do we want to live here? And so she
(30:56):
mapped out some specific categories. She wanted some keepsakes, memorabilia,
she wanted seasonal decor, she wanted some They have a
lake Mountain house, so she wanted some stuff that maybe
can go up there meeting, some extra bedding and camping
supplies or whatever. Some stuff that doesn't. So we've mapped
(31:18):
out a few big categories of things, and then from
there and on that we knew this is what we
want this space to look like. I could then reverse
engineer and say anything that doesn't fit into those categories
goes So it helps the math math, right, we want
to say, okay, if this doesn't fit into this category,
(31:38):
that we need to find a new home for it.
And that's a really so when you're struggling with these
Sunday items. So if I came across a breadmaking kit,
I would say, Okay, we know it's not going to
live here because we've already designated the goal of this
particular space is to function as A B and C
and this doesn't fit into those categories. So now we
need to find a new home that can either a
(32:01):
open up another jar of worms, which is not what
we want, or B it's we're going to decide that
the someday stuff doesn't really need to live here at all,
and so we want to have those conversations. But again,
starting with the goal is really important. And then when
we talk about the math adding up, at some point,
(32:23):
organizing and decluttering becomes a math issue. You have a
certain amount of space and a certain amount of stuff
can fit in it, and so it doesn't matter how
organized you are. There's only so many bins that can
fit on a shelf, there's only so many clothes that
can fit in a closet, and so what we want
(32:44):
to do is make sure that our volume does not
exceed our space. And so if when we're faced with
these someday items, and when we talk about what is
our clutter costing us or what is this someday stuff
costing us? We want to look at space. That is
a huge factor. And just like time, there is a
findite amount of that right there is There is so
(33:08):
only so much space. Even somebody with a big, beautiful
home has only so much space to be able to
hold onto things. And so really looking at what am
I going to use that precious space for? And that
is a question that you know you can have with
your clients and then really for a lot of people.
(33:32):
And I said this at the top of the episode,
the biggest roadblock for Sunday stuff is in action. And
if we can move from our thoughts and our feelings
into actual doing, taking action, then that is when the
Sunday stuff starts to dissipate. There's no perfect time, It's
(33:58):
just time to time to start at some point. And
I tell that all the time that to my clients
all the time, there's never going to be that ideal
perfect time we hope we want. We think, oh, when
the kids go off to school or when summer comes around,
or want to become an empty nester or blah blah
blah blah blah, all these reasons, and then life happens,
(34:21):
something else goes sideways, and that encroaches in our time.
So if you're listening today and this resonates with you
and you're like, oh my gosh, like I have a
lot of this someday stuff, I don't want you to
have shame. I want you to a just congratulate yourself
for recognizing you that this is an area that you
(34:45):
might struggle with and say, Okay, what am I going
to do about it? What are the three things? Right?
It's guilt, fear, and nostalgia, and you may struggle with
all three or there might be one that is a
little bit stronger for you. And recognizing that and honoring
it and then saying what am I going to do
(35:06):
about it? You don't have to toss everything. I'm not
saying you have to get rid of all the things.
There might be stuff in your someday pile that you
will use or wear someday or somebody else will. Right,
there are things I do contrary to what I think
a lot of people might think is I have memory stuff.
(35:27):
I've got keepsake bins, memory boxes. I have them for me,
I have them for my girls. We have them for Josh,
like we have that. But we are just very selective
over the things that are in there. And I want
to make sure that if you do have these designated keepstakes,
that there is a specific spot in your home for
(35:51):
those things. And finally, I want you to remember that
your identity is not tied to your stuff. So many
of us we just lose sight of who we are
because this thing represents we personify our stuff. I'm a musician,
I'm a sneakerhead, fill in the blank, I'm a nineties
grunge person. And you know, we start to identify with
(36:15):
those things that play into that. And when it starts
to become an issue of moving us forward in who
we want to be or living the organized life that
we're looking to organize, that's when it's time to say, Okay,
we need to make some concessions here and how do
we go about doing it? So if you're looking for
a next step, we've put together a free download. It's
(36:40):
called The Letting Go Questions. At least that's the working
title right now. It might be something else, but right now,
my working title is the Letting Go Questions, and it's
just a quick PDF download you can get on our
website and we're going to put the link below in
the show notes, and it just has a bunch of
different prompts for you to go through. Not a ton,
(37:00):
I think it's a nine or ten. I broke it
into different categories of ways that you can think about it, because, again,
our brains all work differently. Some people's brains are more analyticals,
some people's brains are more emotional, some people's brains are
a little bit more intuition based. And so I approached
the prompts from different angles because some of them might
(37:20):
not resonate with you. Right if somebody's like, how does
this make you feel? I might be like, I don't
really know what you're talking about. It's a thing, But
for somebody else that could be a really big deal.
So just know that not all the questions might might
resonate with you, but there is bound to be something
that you're gonna be like, oh aha, that's my aha moment.
You can also share this episode with somebody. I know
(37:43):
there's somebody in your life that is struggling with someday stuff.
It could be a sibling, it could be a parent,
it could be a friend, it could be a coworker.
Share this episode with them. Again. We all have our
pain points and things that stress us out, and there's
no shame if clutter is yours. That is what we're
(38:05):
here for. That's why this podcast exists. And if you
are somebody that is a professional organizer and you're been
privileged to help other people in navigating their own clutter
struggles and you're looking for some additional support, like, we
would love to help you. That is what I do
(38:27):
with my coaching and my mentoring, and so I hope
that whatever brought you here to this episode, you found
some value and that you will pay it forward to
somebody else. Again, check out our letting Go Questions. It's
this free, it's on our free resources. It's our latest
one that we've put together for you. And that's it, guys.
I also one last thing for anybody who is in
(38:51):
the process of starting a professional organizing business or thinking
of one, we have recently launched a new podcast. It's
a mini series specifically geared to the professional organizer, giving
you a lot of very practical tools about starting a
business because I get a lot of calls, a lot
(39:11):
of inquiries from people that have specific questions, and so
we've used where we've created this as a free resource
for the aspiring po or maybe you're somebody that just
started but you're trying to get the business side of
the business going. Great place to start. It's called starting
a professional organizing Business. Start and Grow a Professional Organizing Business. Go.
(39:34):
You can check it out wherever you're listening or watching.
It's on our YouTube channel. You can binge its twelve
short episodes and it just gets the juice is flowing
of things that you might not know, because a lot
of times when we're starting on something new, we don't
even know what we don't know. We don't know what
questions to ask, we don't know the things that we
should have or do or say, and so we cover
(39:55):
all of it, from pricing to marketing to business th processes.
We cover all the things. So check that out for
all of my pos over there, and I think that's it.
I got a lot for you today. I thought there
was gonna be a quick, short episode. I wound up
being a lot longer than I thought. But hopefully you
found some value out of it. I'll be back next
(40:16):
week with another episode. Until then, I'm Lloyd Pleo peace out.
Thanks for tuning in. If you like this episode, please
spread the love and share it with your friends. 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
(40:38):
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
like boyorganized dot com, which is filled with tons of resources,
including free downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners,
and all of our digital offerings. I'll see you next
week for another episode of This Organized Wife
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
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!