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How to Organize Your Home and Ease Your Mindset with Juliana Strickland · The Spiritual Parent: Mindful Tools for Raising Spiritual and Conscious Kids

• 0:00
  Julianna: It's amazing how time sort of expands when you're not stressed and how it contracts when you are stressed.
• 0:06
  Julianna: You know what I mean.
• 0:08
  Julianna: Like if it's a stressful morning, then it just feels like the time is flying and it's wild.
• 0:12
  Julianna: But like that's part of like what having an organized home and functional systems that work for you and your family do for you is that it kind of allows you to relax and it expands time and before you know it, then sometimes you're out of the door and it's early and you have extra time and it's just.
• 0:30
  Julianna: You know, I think that there's it's just an amazing.
• 0:34
  Julianna: It's just an amazing process and now that I have a baby I have a seven month old yeah, there's so much more to get ready, to get out of the house in the morning and I'm always I'm always looking for new ways to kind of just like hack it and figure out like okay, what are all the things I can do the night before, so that I don't have 50 things that I have to do in a very specific order the next morning.
• 0:58
  Julianna: And sometimes I get out the door and I get in the car and I'm like I feel like I've like lived a whole life.
• 1:04
  Carrie: Yeah, welcome to Heart to Heart Parents.
• 1:08
  Carrie: Let's connect with our kids and learn together.
• 1:10
  Carrie: I'm Carrie.
• 1:11
  Carrie: I was a former teacher and speech therapist.
• 1:14
  Carrie: I'm also a parent of two spirited, gifted, highly sensitive kids.
• 1:19
  Carrie: I was quickly brought to my knees as a parent when I thought that I would see a rosy lens version of parenting, just as they present on Instagram, but I quickly learned that's not real life.
• 1:30
  Carrie: I will provide real life experiences and transform them into moments for connections and change for you to use in your house.
• 1:38
  Carrie: Hi there and welcome back to Heart to Heart Parents.
• 1:43
  Carrie: I'm Carrie and I'm here with a very sweet special guest today Juliana Strickland, who is an owner, a CEO, of a successful organizing company called Space Camp, which I love the name.
• 1:57
  Carrie: You're going to have to tell me what that comes from in a second in a second, juliana co-created and hosted a successful streaming cooking show, blending her love of film and food, which I found to be a fascinating tip with your background.
• 2:14
  Carrie: And then a chance request from a friend led Juliana to discover her love for home organization and improving lives by bringing peace, beauty and functionality to people's spaces.
• 2:24
  Carrie: Juliana, it's been so fun to get to know you, as we've been chatting here and there and I loved when you were chatting, you mentioned you have this background, with fluid, flexible mindsets, with organizing spaces that's the term I was bringing to the picture.
• 2:42
  Carrie: I loved it when you were telling me about it, but is there anything that I missed in your background?
• 2:48
  Julianna: I mean nothing big.
• 2:51
  Julianna: Nothing big, that pretty much covers it.
• 2:55
  Carrie: Okay, cool, and so would you agree with the fluid, flexible mindset mentality that I was thinking with organizing.
• 3:04
  Carrie: Those were keywords.
• 3:05
  Carrie: I was like these I love these pieces that when you've described your product and your company, it's really cool.
• 3:12
  Julianna: Absolutely.
• 3:13
  Julianna: Yeah, I think so many people get really stuck when they're like I want to get organized, but then they're like I have to fit inside this very specific box, I have to do it this specific way, and then they overthink it and then they never do anything and then it you know that you live your life and you keep just not functioning properly in your home.
• 3:31
  Julianna: And if you kind of like let go of that perfection, if you find a little bit of flow, if you realize that nothing is ever perfect and nothing is ever set in stone, because life is constantly changing, then you can sort of start the process of getting organized and loving your home again and finding systems that actually function for you, because life is constantly changing.
• 3:43
  Julianna: Then you can sort of start the process of getting organized and loving your home again and finding systems that actually function for you in such a more just like a, a way more fun and and what's the right word I'm thinking of just like a way more Sorry my brain is not working.
• 4:05
  Carrie: I have it like a I'm trying to think of that's going to stick right.
• 4:09
  Julianna: It's like diet culture.
• 4:10
  Julianna: And then now we've moved on.
• 4:12
  Julianna: You know, I grew up in the eighties and nineties and it was like any low fat, everything.
• 4:18
  Julianna: And now we've realized that, oh, you know what you have to feed your body.
• 4:22
  Julianna: Uh, intuitive eating is way more of a fad.
• 4:25
  Julianna: You can't just like, starve yourself and try to fit into this box.
• 4:28
  Julianna: That's just not how we work as animals, and organizing is the same thing.
• 4:33
  Julianna: So we don't need to do everything perfectly to be able to enjoy our homes.
• 4:38
  Julianna: We don't have to fit into a box.
• 4:40
  Julianna: You don't have to have all of your pantry goods in perfect little plastic boxes, all labeled.
• 4:46
  Julianna: You can if you want, if that works for you, but that not.
• 4:48
  Julianna: Every system works for every single person and we're all very different, and that is my philosophy when it comes to helping people get organized.
• 4:57
  Carrie: I love that so much.
• 4:58
  Carrie: I feel like there's such a mindful piece there.
• 5:00
  Carrie: Do you end up doing a lot of this counseling piece when you're working with families and trying to organize a busy family home?
• 5:10
  Carrie: Oh my gosh.
• 5:11
  Julianna: Yes, I always say that organizing is half therapy and half interior design and maybe like a little smidge of like puzzling and problem solving in there as well.
• 5:23
  Julianna: So many people I would say most people who are successful with working with us and feel like they make major changes in their lives, come to us when they have a problem, and it's usually.
• 5:35
  Julianna: It's usually there's some sort of emotional problem tied in there, right?
• 5:40
  Julianna: So it's like you know, I'm frustrated that I can't get out the door in time.
• 5:44
  Julianna: I am angry when I go to get dressed.
• 5:45
  Julianna: I'm frustrated that I can't get out the door in time.
• 5:46
  Julianna: I am angry when I go to get dressed in the morning because I can't find anything that fits me properly.
• 5:50
  Julianna: I am mad at my husband because he leaves his stuff all over the kitchen table.
• 5:55
  Julianna: I am mad at my kids because they don't clean up the playroom.
• 5:58
  Julianna: Like there's usually an emotional element there and that's what gets people frustrated enough that they reach out.
• 6:04
  Julianna: Because you know, things have to get bad enough for you to make a change.
• 6:09
  Julianna: And it's not an easy change to make, because it is.
• 6:13
  Julianna: It costs time, it costs money, it costs attention.
• 6:17
  Julianna: It can be difficult to, you know, confront the shame and the fear that come along with being like, well, what's wrong with me that I can't keep my home organized?
• 6:27
  Julianna: Or, uh, what's wrong with me that I'm doing it wrong.
• 6:30
  Julianna: Like I should be able to do this.
• 6:32
  Julianna: I should be able to, you know, be the perfect parent and the perfect spouse and all this kind of stuff, like.
• 6:39
  Julianna: There's a lot sort of wrapped up into that and we help unravel that.
• 6:45
  Julianna: And the first step is looking at the problem that you have.
• 6:50
  Julianna: So, if you want to call an organizer or you want to call a friend to help read an organizing book or whatever it is and it's great to start with a problem so, like you and I were talking about getting out the door on time- and knowing you have what you need, right, yeah, yeah.
• 7:06
  Julianna: So it's like, okay, if you keep noticing in your family that you guys are always rushing out the door a few minutes late, like barely making it to school on time in the mornings, okay, well, maybe there's a way we can change that.
• 7:20
  Julianna: And let's work backwards.
• 7:21
  Julianna: What's the root of the problem?
• 7:22
  Julianna: Well, maybe the root of the problem is you just don't have anywhere to put the things you need in the morning, so you don't have a hook to hang the backpack, you don't have a clean surface to put your keys, so then you're always losing their keys, your keys.
• 7:35
  Julianna: You know a lot of these sort of complicated, stressful situations.
• 7:40
  Julianna: You can work backwards to the root and say like, oh, if I just have a bowl on on a clean surface that has my keys in it and a hook with a backpack, and I get into the habit of packing the backpack before we go to bed, then we can just get out the door easily in the morning after everyone's eating breakfast and all that, and we're not going to be late anymore.
• 8:01
  Julianna: So there we help, sort of work through all those kinds of things which feel like therapy, because then you know, and anyway, so it's, it's a lot of emotions and we have a lot of emotions attached to our stuff and attached to our homes and there's a lot to work through.
• 8:18
  Julianna: It's not just as simple as just, you know, putting your things in a box.
• 8:22
  Carrie: So I love that because, yeah, getting out of the house in the morning is a struggle for us every morning on school mornings, especially summer.
• 8:31
  Carrie: Now it's like night and day, because I have the time and I can look for everything.
• 8:36
  Carrie: But, yeah, yeah, our mudroom is it's a little bit of a chaos zone right now.
• 8:41
  Carrie: So I really appreciate this time because it sounds like I need a little Juliana in my life right now.
• 8:44
  Carrie: So I really appreciate this time because it sounds like I need a little Juliana in my life right now.
• 8:47
  Carrie: Well, something I read.
• 8:49
  Julianna: you and I were talking about executive functioning and I was reading a very cool organizing book recently and it was.
• 8:58
  Julianna: What is it called?
• 9:00
  Julianna: I'll tell I forget what it's called, but it's essentially for people who are neuro, neuro divergent and like how, oh how, to clean house when you're drowning, I think, is what it was called and it's so.
• 9:11
  Julianna: It was so beautiful and I feel like it was so different from other organizing books that I've read um, because it really outlined how much executive functioning goes in our day-to-day basic lives.
• 9:23
  Julianna: Like what you were just saying is like how to get out of the house in the morning.
• 9:26
  Julianna: You probably have to do 50 tasks before you get out of the house and you have to do them in a pretty specific order, right, like you can't just wake up and put.
• 9:35
  Julianna: I mean, I guess you could wake up and put your shoes on first and then go about your day, but you probably don't want to, right?
• 9:41
  Julianna: So your brain is.
• 9:43
  Julianna: I think we discount how much work all of these tiny little tasks that are all threaded together to, let's say, get out of the house in the morning are, and we feel like it should be easy, but it's not.
• 9:56
  Julianna: And I think actually naming it and being like, yeah, there's a lot that we have to do to not only get yourself ready but help everyone else in your family get ready, and if you have kids, get them ready.
• 10:06
  Julianna: If you have dogs, make sure they have what they need.
• 10:09
  Julianna: Like all that, yeah, there's so much you have to do in a specific order that it's hard.
• 10:15
  Julianna: And I think even just naming that and being like, yeah, it's really hard and that sort of gives you the grace to feel like, okay, it's not unusual that I'm frustrated or exhausted by this process, but what can we do to simplify it?
• 10:32
  Julianna: What can we do to make it easier on ourselves?
• 10:34
  Julianna: What can we do ahead of time so I have fewer decisions to make in a row in the morning?
• 10:39
  Julianna: And yeah, just being easier on ourselves, because I think we expect ourselves to be able to do so much and maybe we're not built to do that.
• 10:50
  Julianna: I don't know.
• 10:51
  Carrie: Yeah, it's amazing when we give ourselves a little bit of validation of.
• 10:55
  Carrie: It can be hard in the morning, or if we can't find the perfect coat that my daughter needs, like I can get in my head and get nervous and that like she's going to explode if she doesn't have her coat or we're gonna make it to school late and just letting it go.
• 11:10
  Carrie: We might be to school late and then you can focus and find your stuff yeah, oh, totally.
• 11:16
  Julianna: It's amazing how how time sort of expands when you're not stressed and how it contracts when you are stressed.
• 11:22
  Julianna: You know what I mean.
• 11:23
  Julianna: Like if it's stressful morning, then it just feels like the time is flying and it's wild.
• 11:27
  Julianna: But that's part of like what having an organized home and functional systems that work for you and your family do for you is that it kind of allows you to relax and expands time.
• 11:38
  Julianna: And before you know it, then sometimes you're out of the door and it's early and you have extra time and it's just.
• 11:46
  Julianna: You know, I think that there's it's just an amazing.
• 11:50
  Julianna: It's just an amazing process and now that I have a baby I have a seven month old there's so much more to get ready, to get out of the house in the morning and I'm always I'm always looking for new ways to kind of just like hack it and figure out like, okay, what are all the things I can do the night before, so that I don't have 50 things that I have to do in a very specific order the next morning.
• 12:13
  Julianna: And sometimes I get out the door and I get in the car and I'm like, oh God, I feel like I've like lived a whole life.
• 12:20
  Carrie: Yeah, In an hour, two hours, yeah, but like.
• 12:24
  Julianna: I feel like I need a vacation.
• 12:25
  Julianna: So we're trying to simplify that stuff as much as possible and make it easier for families to yeah, to live their lives.
• 12:34
  Carrie: I love, as you mentioned, your little baby.
• 12:37
  Carrie: I was thinking man, in that era, the seven month old.
• 12:40
  Carrie: They're changing so quickly that we would just get something organized Like, okay, we have the perfect organized space and then we'd have to switch out all of the toys again.
• 12:50
  Carrie: So you had mentioned that.
• 12:52
  Carrie: There's this flexibility of understanding that once you're organized you're not set for life, correct?
• 13:00
  Julianna: Can you tell me more?
• 13:01
  Julianna: Absolutely?
• 13:02
  Julianna: I think the so okay.
• 13:04
  Julianna: Working backwards a little bit, I think there is like a comfort and a joy, especially for people who like organization, to think that, like, once you do something, it's set right, and I think there's a grief in realizing that that's.
• 13:18
  Julianna: That's just not how life works right.
• 13:20
  Julianna: Everything's always changing, it's always moving, and so it's easy to then be like, well, if my baby's changing all the time, why would I even organize anything?
• 13:29
  Julianna: Because, like, I'm gonna just have to change it tomorrow, I'm just gonna have to change it in a week or a month.
• 13:33
  Julianna: So that's where, if you have broad categories and so, for example, let's talk about toys, so I try to keep it very minimal in my house, and that's not for everyone and that's not saying that that's how you have to do it or anyone else has to do it, but for me what works is I have a couple, a couple sort of flexible bins, and I know that they're toy bins and when it's full, it's full, and so the stuff that he's sort of currently playing on right now and playing with right now in his play pin is it's like one basket that's probably like 10 inches by 10 inches, and what fits in there is what he has, and if I find that he grows out of something and or isn't interested in something else anymore, I'll take it out and I'll replace it with something else or maybe I won't, and maybe he'll have fewer things to play with.
• 14:21
  Julianna: And I think just sort of being like okay, we know that the things in the spin are age appropriate toys and that what the contents of it are going to shift and change as he grows, but the actual receptacle and the category of what the receptacle is is going to stay the same for a while until we need a new one, right, um?
• 14:43
  Julianna: So then it's less stressful and we do the same thing, for example, with his clothes.
• 14:48
  Julianna: So he has his top drawer under, like he has diapers in the top drawer, and then the next one is clothes that he's currently fitting in, and there's pants, tops, sleepers, rompers, shorts, stuff like that.
• 14:59
  Julianna: Those categories stay the same, right, and they're all labeled, but the clothes that they're filled with clothes that currently fit him.
• 15:07
  Julianna: And so if I find, if I pull something out and realize it doesn't fit him right now I have a basket that says outgrown clothes, I just throw it in, deal with it later.
• 15:14
  Julianna: And then if I get something new for him and I'm like, oh, I think this might fit him, it goes into the category of pants, shirts, whatever.
• 15:21
  Julianna: I don't worry about what size it is, because if it currently fits him, it currently fits him.
• 15:25
  Julianna: And so, yes, I'm filtering through things, but the categories themselves stay the same.
• 15:31
  Julianna: It's the same concept.
• 15:35
  Julianna: In a pantry, right, like you have a, maybe you have a breakfast bin, maybe you have a baking bin, you know, you run out of flour.
• 15:40
  Julianna: You put more flour in there, you run out of different things.
• 15:43
  Julianna: Oh you're, you're trying a new ingredient.
• 15:45
  Julianna: It fits in within this category.
• 15:47
  Julianna: You can store it there.
• 15:48
  Julianna: So I think, sort of thinking of the framework of categories that you'll always have in your life, but allowing what's living in there to be flexible will sort of expand your consciousness with regard to how to stay organized and will allow you to not feel the stress of like perfection, if that makes sense.
• 16:10
  Julianna: Does that make sense?
• 16:12
  Carrie: Yes, yes, I think so.
• 16:13
  Carrie: Yeah, just having just the variations and just being ready, you have the space, you have the organizer and then you modify it to each era Cause, yeah, I do have a question.
• 16:25
  Carrie: I, I think.
• 16:26
  Julianna: I'm in there, I don't know.
• 16:29
  Julianna: I need to know more?
• 16:30
  Carrie: Yes, cause I definitely, definitely.
• 16:32
  Carrie: When my, when my babies were babies which they're now giant babies, they are bigger babies they did not get to choose what stayed and what went, so it was so much easier.
• 16:43
  Carrie: But now I feel like I have this giant closet that my husband just built shelves for and I was like look at this organizing paradise, but it has slowly slipped from mom's extra pantry area that I needed into kids extra toy zone.
• 17:00
  Carrie: So when they start to become opinionated and they're like pack rats, right, like mom, I colored this for five minutes and I need this for the rest of my life.
• 17:11
  Carrie: Like you cannot throw this away.
• 17:13
  Carrie: So do you have any tips for moms like me?
• 17:16
  Julianna: Absolutely, and I will start by saying that it is not easy and like kudos to you for navigating this situation elegantly and kindly and empathetically, because kids do get.
• 17:29
  Julianna: Every kid is different.
• 17:30
  Julianna: Like we have some kids who are, you know, clients and they're happy to get rid of lots of things and they don't need a lot.
• 17:33
  Julianna: And then we have some kids who are, you know, clients and they're happy to get rid of lots of things and they don't need a lot.
• 17:37
  Julianna: And then we have other kids who who want to look through every single tiny stone, rock, little plastic thing, little piece of paper that they scribbled on.
• 17:45
  Julianna: Like everything has to be considered and thought through and they might want to keep a lot more than what I think is appropriate.
• 17:53
  Julianna: But I have to respect what's important to them and they're they're a person and they have their own.
• 17:59
  Julianna: They have their own preferences and just like adults do, and that's important to consider.
• 18:06
  Julianna: So there's a few things.
• 18:07
  Julianna: Number one I think setting boundaries is great.
• 18:10
  Julianna: So maybe we need to reclaim your pantry space for you and say, like toys, don't go here, but here are other spaces where toys can go.
• 18:20
  Julianna: They can go in your room, they can go in, you know, a playroom or a cabinet in the living room.
• 18:25
  Julianna: I think having boundaries is very, very helpful for organization, especially with people who tend to want to keep a lot of things, because then it's like great, if you have this much space to keep your toys.
• 18:37
  Julianna: You have to make some decisions about what you want to keep and then, once you have a boundary, then you're like oh well, if it's between this, this and this, this can go.
• 18:46
  Julianna: These are more important to me.
• 18:47
  Julianna: When there are no boundaries, then kids who are pack rats will want to just keep everything Right.
• 18:55
  Julianna: So that's one thing that can be helpful where it's like okay, ever like, all of your, all of your Legos need to fit into to this area.
• 19:03
  Julianna: Right, so can you choose the things that you don't you're wanting to give to other kids who don't have toys, or a donator or whatever you want to phrase it as um, and then often they'll get in line, or or, if they don't, they may have.
• 19:20
  Julianna: You know it's an uncomfortable feeling to have to get rid of something, but it's also a really important skill in life, because we all go through loss.
• 19:30
  Julianna: You know where your kids just went out of school, right, they just got to summer vacation, like ending of grade and getting ready to start a new grade, is a loss and you have to kind of grieve the loss of like, oh, I'm not going to be with that teacher anymore.
• 19:43
  Julianna: I might not be with those same friends, I won't be in the same classroom.
• 19:46
  Julianna: It's a part of life and I think teaching kids as soon as you can to let go of certain things.
• 19:55
  Julianna: It's okay that if this was your favorite toy last year but you don't care about it anymore this year, it's okay to feel sad about that, but it's also okay to let it go and pass it on to someone else that might use it.
• 20:06
  Julianna: That's a normal part of life.
• 20:08
  Julianna: It's a normal part of growing and get them used to feeling the feelings of letting go of things, because if they don't do that, they'll become an adult who can't get rid of anything and then they're going to have a much bigger problem when they need, you know, when it's not just their toys or their clothes but it's also things they need to use to function in the world.
• 20:31
  Julianna: So kitchen stuff, food things in their car, work papers you know, mementos.
• 20:38
  Julianna: I see so many adults that I think weren't given the support they needed as children to learn how to let go of things that they don't want anymore or they were.
• 20:49
  Julianna: This is something you and I spoke about yesterday when we talked was I see a lot of kids that are ready to get rid of things and they'll choose a toy that they want to donate.
• 20:59
  Julianna: And then their parents will jump in and be like, well, you can't, you can't get rid of that, why are you getting rid of that?
• 21:03
  Julianna: I gave that to you, or your grandma gave that to you.
• 21:05
  Julianna: And then they make the kids feel bad and they might not even mean to, but it's, you know, we all have attachment to things, mean to, but it's, you know, we all have attachment to things.
• 21:14
  Julianna: And then the kids are like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't, I didn't mean to.
• 21:22
  Julianna: And then they're afraid, like there's so many layers of emotion that go into all of this.
• 21:24
  Julianna: So I think that, yeah, giving boundaries is great and giving them the space to sort of think through what they want to keep, what they're ready to let go of.
• 21:35
  Julianna: Another great solution is storage.
• 21:37
  Julianna: So if you have a garage or a basement or an attic and you can say, you know what, we don't have to get rid of it, but we're just going to swap a few things out so that we have a little more clear space in our home, and so things feel a little bit new and fresh.
• 21:50
  Julianna: I think toy rotation is incredibly useful and helpful.
• 21:54
  Julianna: A lot of people swear by it and so, yeah, maybe you only keep a couple bins of toys in the house and then everything else is stored elsewhere.
• 22:03
  Julianna: And you know what's crazy is, a lot of times your kids will fully forget about what's stored away, and then later you can go make some decisions, like if there was something broken that you wanted to get rid of, if you realize they haven't asked for it in a year and it's just taking up space in your garage, you might, you might be fine to donate it, and so toy rotation is super great.
• 22:26
  Julianna: It makes things feel really new and fresh.
• 22:31
  Julianna: And yeah, that's, that's sort of what we, we tend to do and also knowing that categories are going to change, right, like kids might get into art more, so they might need different kinds of storage for art supplies and maybe some of the toys can go.
• 22:46
  Julianna: Or, you know, maybe they're really into legos and you don't need to limit them to one bin of Legos, but then maybe it's like, okay, train set can go or whatever, and we can add another system for organizing Legos and that's going to be your main thing you play with.
• 23:03
  Julianna: So I think it's just keeping an organ like a, a flexible mindset, communication, holding space for their feelings about it and your own feelings about it.
• 23:13
  Julianna: Because, like you know, if it was something that they loved playing with when they were really little and you see that they want to donate it, that might like make you want to die inside.
• 23:24
  Carrie: You sneak that one to the back of your closet.
• 23:28
  Julianna: Yeah, but not shaming them for it.
• 23:31
  Julianna: You know, I think that's um, and I think I see you getting that, but I see it happen a lot and it makes me sad because it's uh, it's like projecting your own grief onto your kids and like they have enough that they're worrying about.
• 23:46
  Julianna: So yeah.
• 23:47
  Julianna: I don't really want to do that.
• 23:49
  Carrie: You can even like vocalize your own feelings Like, wow, that was a really special toy and you're I can tell, like your energy is telling me you're ready to move on from it and I love.
• 23:59
  Carrie: What a big kid you are that you're able to do that.
• 24:02
  Carrie: So like releasing some of your pain with it, totally like verbalizing, that's really smart.
• 24:09
  Julianna: Yeah, that's really kind.
• 24:10
  Julianna: Yeah, you don't have to like keep it.
• 24:11
  Julianna: Yeah, you don't have to keep it hidden.
• 24:13
  Julianna: But I just think, like, if you're feeling upset or angry because, like, gifting is a very touchy subject for lots of people, I don't know if you feel this way, but a lot of people, for example, will be, let's say, going to someone's closet and they'll have a dress and they'll be like you can tell that they feel they don't like it.
• 24:34
  Julianna: Like they don't like the energy of it.
• 24:35
  Julianna: It doesn't look good on them.
• 24:36
  Julianna: They don't really want to see it every day.
• 24:37
  Julianna: Maybe it reminds them of a bad memory or something.
• 24:42
  Julianna: And I'm like, let's get this out of here.
• 24:44
  Julianna: Like we, you don't need this, you don't need to be seeing this every day.
• 24:47
  Julianna: And they're like, but my, it was my grandmother's and I have to keep it.
• 24:50
  Julianna: And I'm'm like, okay, well, let's unpack that Like, yeah, if there's meaning there and you want to keep it, we could potentially put it in the mental box.
• 24:58
  Julianna: It doesn't have to stay in your closet.
• 25:00
  Julianna: But also, just because someone important to you gave you something, it doesn't that that item is not them, right, and you don't have to keep every single thing that came from a special person in your life, out of guilt, out of fear, out of shame, out of yeah, like trying to cling on to everything.
• 25:19
  Julianna: And there's a lot of magic in letting go of that stuff.
• 25:23
  Julianna: Like it literally like releases the energy and it it's.
• 25:29
  Julianna: I've done a good amount of organizing for people who've gone through traumatic experiences and like lost a spouse or a child, and going through their things has so much power and so much healing opportunity and it's.
• 25:49
  Julianna: You know it's the same with everyday stuff.
• 25:52
  Julianna: You know it's.
• 25:52
  Julianna: It's hard to watch your I can't believe that my son is already seven months old and like he'll never fit into his tiny newborn clothes anymore and like he's interested in different things.
• 26:02
  Julianna: Like there's a lot of loss there and I think that organizing makes us confront that loss and that's why so many people are afraid of it and that they ignore it.
• 26:10
  Julianna: So I'm here to be like let's embrace it, let's use it, let's work through it.
• 26:17
  Julianna: We'll all be better for it and we'll enjoy our home so much more.
• 26:21
  Carrie: Yes, I love that so much and you have helped empower me to grab some masking tape out of the closet and tape mom's area in the downstairs pantry.
• 26:32
  Carrie: They know they get their own little part and, yeah, boundaries really do help.
• 26:36
  Carrie: We have a Lego area where we can find my son.
• 26:39
  Carrie: Like you, get these shelves cause you don't like to pull your Legos apart.
• 26:42
  Carrie: This is your future, juliana.
• 26:44
  Carrie: No, I'm just kidding you don't want to pull these.
• 26:47
  Carrie: Legos apart.
• 26:48
  Carrie: So this is your shelf where you get to show them off yeah, so I love that.
• 26:53
  Carrie: That's.
• 26:53
  Carrie: I'm definitely going to grab the masking tape and designate their area, but yeah, and it's true, it does help them to get rid of the pieces that we no longer need or don't serve us.
• 27:04
  Carrie: I love that.
• 27:06
  Julianna: Absolutely.
• 27:06
  Julianna: And the boundary thing is so interesting that you say that too, because when we do consultations, sometimes we will go into someone's house and let's say it's like a three bedroom house and that'll be, and they'll walk us through and they'll be like okay, so this is my daughter's room, it's full of toys, right.
• 27:22
  Julianna: Then they're like this is my son's room, it's full of toys.
• 27:24
  Julianna: Then the living room full of toys, the dining room full of toys.
• 27:27
  Julianna: The kid like and I'm like wait, so the kids have twothirds of the house that they have claimed as their own and the parents have one-third.
• 27:40
  Julianna: That's a problem, like just mathematically.
• 27:41
  Julianna: That's an issue.
• 27:42
  Julianna: It's not an even split, not that it has to be perfectly even, but like there need to be boundaries of like where the kids stuff can go, where the adult stuff can go.
• 27:51
  Julianna: I'm sure the kids would like it.
• 27:53
  Julianna: If you like, threw your clothes or your work papers or your pantry items or whatever sort of belongs to you all over their space.
• 27:59
  Julianna: They shouldn't do it to yours either, because you're a person and you exist not just to parent them but also to live your life and to do the things that you need to do for yourself and for the family and all that kind of stuff.
• 28:13
  Julianna: And like you need your space, and I'm I'm always trying to empower adults to reclaim their space and be like we need a living room where maybe there can be a basket of toys when the kids are in here, but I would love for it to be able to be tucked away and for it to be an adult zone, because the kids don't get to, because then they walk through the house and they visually feel like, oh, this is my house, it's my, it's all mine, yeah, and then my parents time is all mine and my parents bodies are all mine and like, yeah, I don't think it's a healthy way to to run a family and I don't think it's good for parents and I think it makes them lose their identity a little bit and I am not a fan of that.
• 28:57
  Julianna: And so we have kids toys in two places right now and I don't want it to spread beyond that.
• 29:03
  Carrie: We'll see Check out with me in a year and we'll see if that's true or not.
• 29:06
  Carrie: Yeah, you can keep it going.
• 29:08
  Carrie: I were lucky enough to have a basement in our house and I got to the point a couple of years ago where I was like no toys on the main floor, no toys in your bedroom, just all because we're at one story.
• 29:20
  Carrie: I was like all toys are in the basement and sometimes if my daughter brings a box up while I'm cooking, she has to pack it back up and take it back down.
• 29:29
  Carrie: Brilliant, so it's been.
• 29:30
  Carrie: It's.
• 29:30
  Carrie: It's amazing, because it does feel so calming to me to not like move through the toys, to get to sit and read a book when they go to bed.
• 29:40
  Carrie: Or you can put your mom.
• 29:42
  Carrie: You can take your mom hat off, put your I'm a woman, I'm a wife, whatever hat you want on when they're in bed, and it's you already are doing so many things right, truly like.
• 29:54
  Julianna: I I meet very few parents that are at, you know, without without having gone through like the organizational process with a professional, who are doing what you're doing, um, and it's so important, and for creativity too.
• 30:09
  Julianna: I'm sure that it's so nice for your daughter to bring her box of toys up and like, spread out on a clear surface and enjoy that versus, you know, trying to make space on an already cluttered surface, like I'm sure it feels so much, so much better for both of you.
• 30:27
  Carrie: Yeah, and she can find the pieces too, right, Because they're in the bin.
• 30:30
  Carrie: It's not like mom, where's Barbie's crown?
• 30:33
  Carrie: So yeah, which we did have the other day as well, but most of the time they're in the bin.
• 30:38
  Carrie: I mean, a little bit of that's unavoidable, it's just life, but yeah.
• 30:44
  Carrie: So we recently redid their bathroom and their cabinets and everything, and it was this beautiful situation.
• 30:51
  Carrie: I was so excited.
• 30:52
  Carrie: So I was like you do not get to use the drawers yet Cause you.
• 30:56
  Carrie: They were like I don't remember two and maybe five when we first redid it, but now they're six and they're nine and I'm like, okay, I think I'm ready to have them use their drawers.
• 31:06
  Carrie: I think I think they're ready to have the soft clothes.
• 31:09
  Carrie: Do you have any tips for combining so I have a six and a nine-year-old and their boy and girl combining them into their bathroom and any tips for organizing that space?
• 31:19
  Carrie: It's a pretty small area.
• 31:22
  Julianna: Totally so.
• 31:23
  Julianna: I think the first tip is to minimize products as much as possible.
• 31:29
  Julianna: So if there's things that they can share, that they feel comfortable sharing so you know things like toothpaste, lotion, sunscreen, you know basic things like that Just to have one of each of those is great because the amount I you know we often people will come to us with a messy bathroom and they'll be like, oh, I need to organize it.
• 31:50
  Julianna: And once we take everything out we realized there's seven sunscreens and 10 shampoos and there's just too much of certain things or there's a lot of backstock that people didn't realize they had.
• 32:00
  Julianna: So as much as you can sort of consolidate basic everyday things and have them share those things and maybe like they have a shared drawer of those kinds of things, that's great Then I would give them each their own space and, depending on what you have like maybe there's, they each get a half of a drawer or maybe they each get their own drawer, depending on the layout, and you can put some organizers in those I like little, you know, acrylic or plastic or metal organizer, something that you can wipe clean to kind of segment the space, especially if they have little things like hair bands or clips or you know, combs, things like that, and then try to put things by category in the little organizers and then don't let them go beyond that.
• 32:48
  Julianna: So let's say your daughter has hair accessories she likes, right, maybe you give a boundary and she has a little bin that fits in her drawer or a little box or something, and if she gets more than that then she needs to go through it, spend 10 minutes, go through it together and she can pick a few that she wants to donate or give to a friend, and then it will feel nice and fresh and new, and I'm sure there's some in there that she didn't even know she had.
• 33:11
  Julianna: So it's just about it's this it's learning to flex the muscle of creating a home for every item in your house, storing things by category and then having boundaries.
• 33:23
  Julianna: So then once a boundary gets full, you take the time to go through it, get rid of a few things, and so the items fit within the boundary again, and if you can learn to flex that muscle, you will be able to stay organized, no matter how big, how small, how complicated this scenario is.
• 33:43
  Carrie: Okay, so that makes sense because I have a Costco 10 minutes down the street and I love to just grab the box of sunscreens because summer is coming, but so you recommend we have a certain amount.
• 33:58
  Carrie: What is, what is your idea there?
• 34:01
  Julianna: Well, it's it.
• 34:02
  Julianna: There's no perfect amount for anyone, right?
• 34:04
  Julianna: So it's like, maybe, if you have, like, a super big house and you need to have sunscreen multiple places where you use it, that's okay, right?
• 34:13
  Julianna: Like if you need to have one by the pool and one by the front door before you go out to play in the yard and one by the back door before you get in the car to go to the park.
• 34:21
  Julianna: Like that's okay, keep things where you use them and where you're realistically going to use them.
• 34:25
  Julianna: But when it comes to back stock, shop your own stock before you make your list, before you go shopping.
• 34:32
  Julianna: Like for me I will.
• 34:34
  Julianna: I never go grocery shopping, or I try to never go grocery shopping until I first have made my list and then I check my own back stock, because sometimes my brain is saying we're out of olive oil.
• 34:44
  Julianna: I go, look, we have four bottles.
• 34:47
  Julianna: What was I thinking?
• 34:48
  Julianna: That's crazy.
• 34:48
  Julianna: Um, and so I.
• 34:52
  Julianna: We have too much that we have to keep in our brains all the time.
• 34:54
  Julianna: We can't expect ourselves to be computers to remember everything.
• 34:57
  Julianna: So that's why shop your own stock.
• 35:00
  Julianna: So you know, before I, before I go buy sunscreen this summer, I will go take stock of what I have underneath my sink.
• 35:07
  Julianna: We have, we keep some by the back door and I keep some in my bag that I like to take to the pool because I was swimming lots of blocks when I was pregnant.
• 35:14
  Julianna: I will look at all of those see how much I have.
• 35:17
  Julianna: look at the expiration dates If it'll last through the summer and I feel like I'm in a good place, I'm not going to buy any more.
• 35:24
  Julianna: If they've expired and I feel like I need one or two, I'll buy a couple.
• 35:28
  Julianna: The other thing is like everything's so accessible these days, right?
• 35:32
  Julianna: So it's not like you know we're playing Oregon Trail, right, and you like buy everything.
• 35:40
  Julianna: It's like COVID times there's no shortages Exactly, and so I mean everyone got into stockpiling mode because we had to.
• 35:49
  Julianna: And I totally understand that.
• 35:50
  Julianna: And we're coming out of that now and I'm seeing a lot of like habits needing to change, people wanting to change their habits, but also a lot of guilt that people stockpiled the stuff that then ended up going bad.
• 36:03
  Julianna: A lot of it ended up expiring, and I think you have to just chalk it up to like it was a time and a place.
• 36:09
  Julianna: You did what you had to do.
• 36:11
  Julianna: You're in survival mode and let it go and move forward with new habits.
• 36:16
  Julianna: So check your own stock.
• 36:18
  Julianna: Same goes with for everything, right, like uh, shampoo.
• 36:22
  Julianna: It goes for even for clothes for your kids, right, like if it's okay, it's the summer, they need new swimsuits.
• 36:27
  Julianna: Well, maybe take the time, if you have it, to go look through their drawers, see how many swimsuits they have that currently fit them.
• 36:33
  Julianna: Maybe they should try them on, check for holes, check for wear, all that kind of stuff, and be like okay, you know, actually they each have like four that work.
• 36:41
  Julianna: Let's see what's our ideal number of of how many that they need.
• 36:45
  Julianna: Maybe we'll only buy one, but if you hadn't done that, you may have gone and bought three or four on sale and then now you have 10 swimsuits and nowhere to put them, and then you're frustrated.
• 36:56
  Julianna: So, um, um, there's just lots of.
• 36:59
  Julianna: You know it's easy to overbuy because we're all running around and places like Costco make it super easy yeah and, uh, I recently let go of my Costco membership.
• 37:11
  Julianna: Yeah, I'm like I don't have anywhere to store all this stuff like and I don't go through stuff that fast, so I let go of that.
• 37:19
  Julianna: I let go of my Thrive membership because, yeah, you know, I just didn't need a lot of it and then things were going bad and I would rather have less things and then we can get something on Amazon or I can run to Target in a day and, um, you don't need to have that prepper mentality anymore because it's it's just stressful and it's more stuff to.
• 37:40
  Julianna: You know, there's a theory.
• 37:43
  Julianna: There's a theory that, like your brain, our brains are so incredible and subconsciously we categorize and we know every single item that we own, like some.
• 37:54
  Julianna: Some people think that right, like every hairband, every bobby pin, every pair of earrings yes, and it's a lot, and it's always being categorized in your brain and like sort of, and so it's like the less you own, the less taking up space in your brain.
• 38:12
  Julianna: And that it's the same for if you have a storage unit full of stuff, if you have four storage units full of stuff, if you have a trunk of your car full of stuff, you know, and so it's taking up space in our brain and, in my opinion, I feel like I have a limited amount of time on earth and I would rather spend my time doing things I enjoy and not just categorizing all of the canned goods in my pantry.
• 38:37
  Julianna: And if that's what you want to do, you know it's not a judgment of people, I mean, I think there's a time and a place for everything.
• 38:45
  Julianna: And, yeah, it's just like you don't need it and we spend so much money on things that we feel like we need, and then, and then there's the guilt of, oh, I spent all this money on this but I never used it, and then it's just like this endless cycle and I'm like let's break the cycle, let's move on with our lives.
• 39:08
  Carrie: Yeah, I think you're going to be in business for a while.
• 39:10
  Carrie: You're going to have all these pandemic recovering hoarders.
• 39:14
  Carrie: I mean, it was like the depression era, I feel like so many grandparents and great grandparents had that mentality.
• 39:20
  Carrie: Now it's like my husband and I were joking about that, like the pandemic's going to have this group of people our age maybe coming out that you'll have to help.
• 39:29
  Carrie: Oh, totally.
• 39:33
  Julianna: Everything is so accessible and then everything is sold.
• 39:36
  Julianna: You know it's so hard.
• 39:37
  Julianna: You go to Costco and like you have to buy a two pack or a four pack or a 12 pack, like everything is sold in mass, um, and it's often a much better deal to buy things in bulk, and so we trick ourselves into trying to be like responsible.
• 39:53
  Julianna: I truly believe that everyone is always just doing their best, always.
• 39:57
  Julianna: So there's like no judgment here that if it's like, oh, I accidentally bought you know 20 laundry detergents, sure, sure, we're just human, we're just trying to do our best.
• 40:09
  Julianna: But, um, I think that a little bit of preparation, a little bit of planning and a little bit of like taking the time to shop your own stock, think through what you actually need, and holding off before you buy too many things, can go such a long way and help us just be like a lot happier ultimately, because we have less to deal with 100%.
• 40:33
  Carrie: I love it.
• 40:34
  Carrie: And, juliana, I'm sorry, do you have a superpower you would like to share with us today?
• 40:41
  Carrie: I forgot to ask you.
• 40:44
  Julianna: Well, hold on.
• 40:44
  Julianna: Will you answer that first?
• 40:45
  Julianna: What's your superpower?
• 40:47
  Carrie: Oh, connecting with others and finding what they're wanting from their heart.
• 40:54
  Carrie: So sometimes I can see it before they can see it, so I help them realize it.
• 40:58
  Julianna: That's really cool, that's amazing.
• 41:01
  Julianna: That's my superpower, you know, with regard to organizing organizing, I think, because that's what we're talking about.
• 41:09
  Julianna: I think it's I kind of know what a space wants to be like.
• 41:15
  Julianna: Yeah, sometimes I'll walk into a space and everyone's like, oh, the layout's awful, it's not working for me, and almost like I kind of believe it's a little woo woo, but whatever, I kind of believe that like homes have a spirit, like they're like my home is from it's over a hundred years old and like I think of my home as like a person right, and like I take care of her, she takes care of me and my family.
• 41:39
  Julianna: And I do think you can walk into a kitchen and there's an ideal place for things to live, where it feels just intuitive, and like a friend comes over and they don't have to ask where your water glasses are, they just open the cabinet and they're like oh yeah, they're right there, right Like there's.
• 41:56
  Julianna: There's just like a way that your home, where things want to be.
• 42:00
  Julianna: And sometimes I walk into a space that that other people feel stumped by and they're like've never been able to figure it out, and then I kind of just like, am quiet and I I sort of consider the space and I'm like, okay, actually I think this wants to be here, this wants to be here and this wants to be here, and then all it kind of comes together, yeah, and I don't know where it comes from or how I do it, but it's fun and it's really intuitive.
• 42:26
  Julianna: And then people are like oh yeah, this works so much better for me now.
• 42:31
  Carrie: So maybe that's it.
• 42:33
  Carrie: I don't know.
• 42:33
  Carrie: I've never thought about it.
• 42:34
  Carrie: I love that.
• 42:35
  Carrie: I think that's powerful.
• 42:36
  Carrie: That's amazing.
• 42:37
  Carrie: You're helping so many people, so I love that.
• 42:39
  Carrie: And where can our listeners find you?
• 42:42
  Carrie: Oh?
• 42:43
  Julianna: absolutely so a few different places, find you?
• 42:47
  Julianna: Oh, absolutely so a few different places.
• 42:48
  Julianna: We have our website, which is spacecamporganizingcom, and we have a blog on there and I I write articles almost every week, so there's lots of things to look through and lots of tips on there.
• 42:58
  Julianna: We have our Instagram.
• 43:00
  Julianna: So my personal Instagram is juliana underscore, strickland, where it's a little bit of a mix of organizing being a mom, cooking, crafting, gardening, stuff like that and then make better space is our organizing Instagram, where that's a little bit more organizing, focused and shows what our team is doing daily organizing tips, before and afters of spaces, all that kind of stuff.
• 43:26
  Julianna: Um, and then you know it goes on and on pinterest, youtube, all that stuff.
• 43:30
  Julianna: But you can always reach out if you need anything.
• 43:32
  Julianna: And we also have an organizing course.
• 43:35
  Julianna: So we organize in person in los angeles and occasionally we will travel to jobs, but often I will just try to recommend someone local because it's a little more cost effective for people.
• 43:46
  Julianna: But we created a course a few years ago to teach people how to think like we think when we're organizing, and I use the course to train my team members and we also use it to if there's a client that is on the fence about wanting people in their home or maybe doesn't live locally.
• 44:03
  Julianna: This is exactly what you need, because it's seven lessons taught by me workshop.
• 44:08
  Julianna: There's worksheets, there's journal entries, there's shopping lists everything you would need to be able to teach yourself to create systems, to get organized, to be flexible with it and to really change how you think about being tidy, moving forward.
• 44:24
  Julianna: So we have that on our website as well.
• 44:26
  Carrie: Okay, that's wonderful, and I can link your website in the show notes too.
• 44:30
  Carrie: So yeah, and I have to ask you, where did you get the name space camp?
• 44:35
  Carrie: I love it.
• 44:36
  Julianna: Okay.
• 44:36
  Julianna: So I was organizing just under my own name because it happened really naturally.
• 44:41
  Julianna: I just, you know, julian, an organizer, whatever, my friend juliana, who helps clean out your, your kitchen, um, and then eventually I was like I want a name, but I so many of the good names were already taken and I kept searching different things and I was like, oh, there's an organizer in england with that, or there's an organizer in new jersey with that, yeah.
• 45:00
  Julianna: And so I was like I want something that feels kind of witty and fun and like a little eccentric.
• 45:07
  Julianna: And I was where all good ideas come from.
• 45:10
  Julianna: I was in the bath and then all of a sudden I was like it was actually so funny.
• 45:15
  Julianna: I had been brainstorming and then I said space camp, and at the same time my husband runs and he says space cadets, and I was like, and then we both said yours is better.
• 45:24
  Julianna: You're like so close.
• 45:26
  Julianna: It was like the same wavelength.
• 45:29
  Carrie: It was amazing.
• 45:30
  Julianna: And I was like that's it, and it's so funny because people either get it or they don't get it.
• 45:38
  Julianna: Like so many people, we have our space camp shirts that we wear all around LA and people are like, oh, I always wanted to go.
• 45:42
  Julianna: And then they like I'll be like, oh, that's actually an organizing company.
• 45:45
  Julianna: And they'll be like, well, anyway, when I was 10, I really wanted to go to space camp.
• 45:52
  Julianna: And then you just like, let them tell you their space camp story.
• 45:54
  Julianna: And then you move on, but then some people are like, oh, that's great, I like that.
• 45:58
  Julianna: And they think it's funny and you're like, oh, you're my people.
• 46:01
  Carrie: Yeah, it's organized, it's wonderful, wonderful.
• 46:03
  Carrie: It fits your personality perfectly.
• 46:05
  Carrie: I love it oh thank you.
• 46:07
  Julianna: Also.
• 46:07
  Julianna: When I got a cease and desist from real space camp, I was like I made it, we're here, it's okay, we got it, we got it worked out.
• 46:14
  Julianna: I think, uh, it wasn't a big deal I think they do that to anyone who has base camp but I was like, wow, I'm on their radar and I feel really special so see, you've been seen.
• 46:24
  Carrie: That's amazing I love it.
• 46:25
  Carrie: Thank you so much for being here.
• 46:27
  Carrie: I'm so honored to have you as a guest and you have shared so many amazing tips.
• 46:31
  Carrie: I've been taking notes and I'm ready with my masking tape and my tools.
• 46:38
  Julianna: Send me a picture.
• 46:39
  Julianna: If you ever need anything, please reach out.
• 46:41
  Julianna: It's been such a pleasure.
• 46:42
  Julianna: You're a joy.
• 46:43
  Julianna: Thank you so much, juliana.
• 46:46
  Carrie: Thanks so much for following along with us on our heart to heart parents podcast journey.
• 46:50
  Carrie: I'm Carrie and I am here to ask you for a quick favor.
• 46:54
  Carrie: If you've enjoyed today's episode, would you be sure to review us, rate us and give us a follow on any platform that you're using to listen to this podcast.
• 47:06
  Carrie: Also, we love when you share it with a friend.
• 47:09
  Carrie: That's super helpful.
• 47:10
  Carrie: One other thing we would love is if you would love to contact and reach out with us.
• 47:15
  Carrie: We now have an email.
• 47:16
  Carrie: It's info at hearttoheartlifecom.
• 47:20
  Carrie: Have a great week.