The Art of Decluttering

Today we're talking about seeing the vertical walls in our home with fresh eyes. Oftentimes the art/ pictures/ decor on our walls becomes invisible to us as we've become so used to it our brains don't even register it anymore. 

Take a slow walk through your home, noticing everything on your walls, doors and front of your fridge, without touching anything, just noticing. 

You might like to change up some of your photos/ ...

Until this week I never understood the saying, "later never comes" I just thought it meant procrastinators will always procrastinate, but it means that the time right now is literally never later (perhaps obvious to most!)

Later is an indefinite postponement, which has real life impacts on our homes and lives when we continually put things off to an indefinite future. Learn today some strategies for getting things done like a bo...

Every kitchen I've ever been into has at least one (and usually many more) small appliance that they are no longer using that is taking up precious real estate in their kitchen cupboards.

Todays challenge is simple - take out every small appliance in your kitchen, lay it out on your benchtop or table and make honest choices about whether you use it enough to keep it (and allowing the space for it) or if it's time to let it go. ...

If you have any items in your home that you *thought* would be valuable but find out aren't then this episode is for you. It can be disappointing, frustrating or even devastating when you find out that items that you've kept because you were told they were valuable turn out to have very little monetary value.

It might be coins, stamps, collections, antiques, vintage items or maybe just an appliance you paid a lot for and intende...

Has giving or receiving gifts been an area of tension for you? Do you find the kids get way too many toys for their birthday or Christmas? Do you get stressed at the time and money it takes to get the perfect gifts for friends and family?

It can be a challenge to navigate keeping an organised home when it comes to gifts. Add in the desire for minimalism and frustrations can flare.

Learn in this episode how to have helpful con...

Thanks for the listeners who have asked what to do when life happens and you need to make exceptions to your minimalism? Living life as a minimalist is all about knowing your values and balancing that with your desire for minimalism, which sometimes means having items you need for a season or reason.

Sometimes you need to have excess to cater for the season of life that you're in. More sheets, more toys, more clothes etc. When y...

My guest Jeannine has been helping seniors downsize (or rightsize as she calls it) for over 15 years and Jeannine shares her wisdom for how to prepare for and downsize well. Whether you are the older adult downsizing, or you are a family member supporting someone through this transition there is so much in this episode for you.

Discover healthy ways to talk about keepsakes and memories, hint: it's not just about things that are ...

One of our team members Bec shares with us today the adventure of building and living in a van for 6 months as she and her partner travelled Australia. 

Learn what it was like to live as a minimalist on the road, and how even when living in a van they found they had items they didn't need. 

Bec shares some of the life altering and career changing lessons she learnt while on the road that she now carries with her and...

I've been thinking a lot about the correlation between clutter and loneliness. I speak to so many clients who are suffering from loneliness and often one the significant factors contributing to their loneliness is the clutter in their house.

1. Do you avoid having people over because you're ashamed of the state of your home?
2. Do you avoid going out because you feel bad that you should instead be tidying up?
3. Do you say no to invite...

Two areas of every home that make a huge impact on if you're feeling like a boss and on top of things, or if you feel like you're drowning are LAUNDRY and DISHES.

The reason they're probably your nemesis (and mine!) is because they are never-ending, multi step, impacted by clutter and have many steps and opportunities for procrastination. 

TIP #1 - HAVE LESS

Less clothes, less towels, less sheets, less dishes, less contai...

Greeting cards, birthday cards, retirement cards, birth cards, christening cards, sympathy cards... why do you keep them? Or more truthfully... why do you keep so many of them?

Cards can be really special and I'm not suggesting that you keep no cards at all, but based on what you as listeners and my clients tell me, keeping them all is overwhelming and creating unnecessary clutter.

In the podcast today I address a specific li...

My guest Lisa is a minimalist and was married to someone who kept everything... and was a prepper. When her husband unexpectedly died she was not only left with grief… but rows of emergency rations, gear, tools, and mystery items that made decluttering both emotional and overwhelming.

Hear Lisa's practical and insightful journey of decluttering her husbands things while honouring his memory.

Lisa shares about:

💍 Marriage: A ...

I've been doing some decluttering in my own house due to us doing a bedroom renovation and it really made me realise how much we tend to ignore our up high and down low storage spaces in our homes. I hadn't FULLY been through what was up the top of my wardrobe for about 2 years, and although under my bed had been gone through weeks earlier, it did make me think that we often ignore the up high or down low spaces in our home.

Up ...

Boy I love BIN NIGHT! It's a weekly (or regular at least) opportunity to declutter rubbish from around the house. However your rubbish is removed, whether it's a communal apartment bins, curbside pickup or tip drop off, what a gift it is!! I encourage you to take full advantage of your rubbish removal - walk around your house with a rubbish bag and collect as much rubbish as you can. Aim to full the rubbish bins before each pick up...

My guest Elizabeth is a life and health coach and works with women to remove barriers to them succeeding in their health goals. Elizabeth and I connected over our shared understanding that a cluttered environment can sabotage your health.

• A cluttered bedroom can disrupt your sleep
• A cluttered fridge can make you order take out because it’s too overwhelming to cook
• A cluttered dining table might encourage you to eat in front of...

Reverse Decluttering is making decisions about what you keep rather than what you want to let go of. By process of elimination, whatever you don't keep you declutter.

This can be helpful if you're overwhelmed by a huge collection and know you can only keep a small amount. It can also be really useful if you have limited space and have to curate your possessions to fit, picking your favourite until the space is full rather than f...

My guest Ingrid is part of the dynamic duo from The Declutter Hub podcast and she shares how thinking through the emotions and potential pitfalls can be super helpful to prepare you well for the task of the doing when it comes to decluttering.

For instance, if you have a quantity problem, it requires more than just decluttering a cupboard... you actually need to do some thinking about why you have a clutter problem, what causes ...

Spoon theory - what a gift to those of us with chronic illness, disability or mental health challenges! Spoon theory is a theory anyone can use - it's simply a theory to articulate personal energy levels and capacity on any given day. 

Energy is consumed by daily activity, decision making, socialising, talking, listening, thinking, emotions - all your activities require spoons! For some people having a shower requires just ...

If you're stuck on what to declutter next - why not go with some easy decisions and just declutter items which have gone out of date!

This week in the podcast I give you some simple (and maybe not obvious) categories of items that go out of date that you can grab and do a quick declutter of.

• Out of date food
• Out of date make up/ beauty products
• Out of date technology
• Out of date prescriptions
• Out of date user manuals

Join...