Latest / Bright Star Kids Parenting Podcast / Episode 5: How to Declutter When You Have ZERO Time

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Episode 5: How to Declutter When You Have ZERO Time · Bright Star Kids Parenting Podcast

• 0:00
  Dimity: Welcome to the Bright Star Kids Parenting Podcast.
• 0:03
  Dimity: Hi, I'm Dimity and this is Susan and today we're going to be talking about decluttering your home.
• 0:08
  Susan: We're going to be talking about how to do systems that are really easy to make your house just so much more livable so you're not the only one keeping things organised.
• 0:17
  Susan: Dimity, you've just moved recently.
• 0:20
  Dimity: Yeah, so we've moved from a two-bedroom apartment into a three-bedroom townhouse, but the storage space is uh limited.
• 0:29
  Susan: Yeah, it's so hard, isn't it?
• 0:30
  Susan: And you're renting too.
• 0:31
  Dimity: Yes, we're renting.
• 0:32
  Susan: So when you're renting, it's really challenging because you don't have a lot of freedom to just like put up different things, especially structural.
• 0:40
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 0:40
  Susan: So you have to really work within the constraints of the property.
• 0:44
  Dimity: Yeah, so it was really hard.
• 0:46
  Dimity: Um we basically moved in one day.
• 0:49
  Susan: Did you name all your boxes?
• 0:50
  Susan: Were they all kind of organised?
• 0:52
  Dimity: Yeah, the boxes were organised.
• 0:53
  Dimity: That was pretty easy as we had removalists come in, which also made it easier.
• 0:57
  Dimity: They took the boxes to the specific rooms that we needed.
• 1:00
  Dimity: So I was heartset on the kids coming home and spending the first night in our new place with us.
• 1:07
  Dimity: So the first things that we did was unpacked their rooms.
• 1:10
  Dimity: So their rooms were great from them from the get-go.
• 1:15
  Dimity: They were organised, their clothes were everywhere, it was beautiful, and then the rest of the house is where it kind of went.
• 1:21
  Susan: Work in progress.
• 1:21
  Dimity: Yes, because I was like, I quick, just put everything away.
• 1:24
  Susan: Yeah, and like that's the reality for so many people out there.
• 1:27
  Susan: You literally just have to get it done and whatever works.
• 1:30
  Susan: But the thing is, for me, being organised, like I know I'm a labelling company, like an owner, so I think a lot of people presume I'm super organised, and I'm pretty organised, I will say that, but not to the point where like it's perfectionism, absolutely not, and I think organising isn't about being perfect, having an organised home is actually just about figuring out the best ways to put all your things in a place that everybody else can find them.
• 2:02
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 2:03
  Susan: So kind of when you're organising your kitchen, you just need to think about where all your bits and pieces need to sit in relation to where all the different jobs that you're doing.
• 2:14
  Susan: That's the key.
• 2:15
  Susan: It's easier said than done.
• 2:16
  Susan: But I think one of the battles with being organised is just actually thinking about when something annoys you, how can you solve it?
• 2:25
  Susan: Just acknowledging the fact, okay, for example, for me, like my kitchen sink was annoying.
• 2:30
  Susan: I've lived in this house now for five years.
• 2:32
  Susan: So it's probably annoyed me for five years.
• 2:34
  Susan: But the other day I got this into my head, I wonder what, like should I have a look and see something?
• 2:41
  Susan: Like, you know, those lazy Susans, which I'm offended by because they're not lazy, they're actually very efficient.
• 2:46
  Susan: Could we should we call it an efficient Susan?
• 2:48
  Susan: Um, but anyway, the spinny things.
• 2:50
  Susan: And so I ended up getting three of these.
• 2:52
  Susan: I just measured it, always measure before you buy.
• 2:55
  Susan: Because otherwise you end up like buying things and then not fitting.
• 2:58
  Susan: Literally took me five minutes.
• 3:00
  Susan: I took all the things out, I put my little lazy Susans in it, and I put all my little tubs, the tall ones at the bottom and the short ones at the top, and made sure all the labels were facing out.
• 3:11
  Susan: So when you spin, you can actually see what it is.
• 3:13
  Dimity: True.
• 3:13
  Susan: Simple, but it it actually makes a lot of sense.
• 3:16
  Dimity: Yes.
• 3:16
  Susan: Um, and now it's such a joy.
• 3:18
  Susan: And I actually bring people in, I go, come, come and have a look at my sink.
• 3:22
  Susan: Nigel, Nigel, come here, look, look at this, isn't it amazing?
• 3:26
  Susan: I'll spin it.
• 3:28
  Susan: And um, what was really funny with that is that um we were we'd been looking, we have this carpet cleaner, like a vacuum kind of thing, but it needs a special liquid to go in it, and we searched all over the house because we knew that we'd bought it.
• 3:44
  Susan: We'd bought a big tub of it ages ago, and we could not for the life of us find it.
• 3:49
  Susan: It took five minutes to clear out my kitchen under the you know the kitchen sink, and there were two bottles, two bottles of this cleaning liquid, and we had just bought a sack like another one.
• 4:02
  Susan: So now we have three bottles of carpet cleaning liquid.
• 4:07
  Susan: And do you know how much carpet we have in our house?
• 4:09
  Dimity: I'm but I'm betting not a lot.
• 4:11
  Susan: Tiny. Only in our walk-in wardrobe, that's it.
• 4:14
  Susan: So now we have this whole thing.
• 4:16
  Dimity: Great!
• 4:17
  Susan: Yeah, so but that's the thing I think about being organised is that it's about like you actually will end up saving money because you will know where everything is.
• 4:28
  Susan: That's the key to an organised home, is just knowing where all the things belong.
• 4:32
  Susan: Like it's easier said than done.
• 4:34
  Dimity: Yeah, I feel like I'm gonna be learning a lot from this episode.
• 4:37
  Susan: I would just go to uh like there's online places, but I know like there's Howards Storage World, which you've never heard of.
• 4:44
  Dimity: Never.
• 4:45
  Susan: But they do have an online store and they're amazing for proper like home organisation stuff.
• 4:50
  Dimity: Yeah
• 4:50
  Susan: But then you've got like Kmart, Target, um, and um IKEA is amazing.
• 4:56
  Susan: I do love going to IKEA for all the organisation stuff, but there's heaps of of really good storage solutions out there, so just measure your kind of drawer, and then look and see what the measurements for those things are.
• 5:09
  Susan: Get that, and literally within five minutes, you'll have all of them done.
• 5:13
  Susan: And when you pull out that that drawer, it's so nice.
• 5:16
  Susan: Everything is there.
• 5:18
  Dimity: I have tried it before, and I have made the mistake of not measuring.
• 5:21
  Dimity: I just keep gone to the shop, thought, oh, that looks nice, I'll buy that, I'll buy that, and then I get home and I put it in, and I think, oh god, it doesn't work, this doesn't even...
• 5:29
  Susan: And some of them will expand, so you can get some expandable things.
• 5:32
  Dimity: Okay.
• 5:32
  Susan: So definitely measure. Very important.
• 5:35
  Susan: It takes like 10 minutes extra, but you won't waste your money.
• 5:39
  Susan: So a few years ago, I found Marie Kondo.
• 5:43
  Susan: Her book "Spark Joy"", it was fantastic.
• 5:45
  Susan: It helped me to understand the psychology behind having an organised house and having a like decluttering and figuring that out because a lot of the time decluttering is a very psychological thing.
• 5:58
  Dimity: Yeah, it's a very important thing.
• 5:59
  Susan: It's a very emotional thing.
• 6:00
  Susan: But that book really did help me to kind of get on the right path for creating systems, and so systems sounds a bit like very businessy or something, but essentially it's just a way of doing something, it's kind of like a recipe, and so like figuring out where all the different things belong and making sure that your whole family kind of get on board with it, especially your husband or your partner.
• 6:27
  Susan: Um, they really need to be feel like they're a part of building the system because when they are, that is when they will, you know, take ownership of it too.
• 6:39
  Dimity: They'll be able to help.
• 6:40
  Susan: Yeah, like yeah, you don't want to be bossed around, yeah.
• 6:43
  Susan: Everybody wants to feel like they are in control.
• 6:45
  Susan: Okay, that's the key.
• 6:47
  Susan: Even little kids, if you give them some level of control, they'll be much more likely to do it.
• 6:53
  Dimity: Definitely.
• 6:54
  Susan: You know, and same in work, like for me, all my team, they have feel like they've got control of what their jobs are and things like that.
• 7:01
  Susan: If I was just going around bossing people around, it wouldn't nobody would want to do it.
• 7:05
  Susan: They'd all they'd probably do the work, but they wouldn't be enjoying it.
• 7:08
  Susan: And they wouldn't have that sense of ownership.
• 7:10
  Susan: So the same thing at home.
• 7:12
  Susan: Bring that kind of self sense of ownership to your kids and to your partner.
• 7:17
  Susan: Have it as a team of kind of sport, you know, right?
• 7:20
  Susan: That you all have a say in in how the different things work.
• 7:24
  Susan: And whoever comes up with the best solution, great.
• 7:27
  Susan: You know, then everybody hopefully will be okay, this is how we do it.
• 7:31
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 7:32
  Susan: Or and it can't be just your way.
• 7:33
  Susan: Like it might be your husband's way.
• 7:35
  Susan: Yes, that might be better.
• 7:37
  Dimity: I just don't think about these kind of things, yeah. You just, yeah.
• 7:39
  Susan: So that's it, if you're just the one saying no, this is the only way that you're allowed to do it, they'll just kind of go, well, you can do it.
• 7:47
  Susan: And then you be you, you know, that's how you end up doing everything yourself because nobody's doing it the right way.
• 7:53
  Dimity: The right way.
• 7:54
  Susan: But maybe you're not doing it the right way.
• 7:56
  Susan: Have you ever thought about that?
• 7:57
  Susan: If we want to try and get past the women doing everything in the house, we have to allow for kids and the husbands to do it their way too.
• 8:06
  Susan: And as long as it gets done, then I think that's good enough.
• 8:10
  Susan: But yeah, Marie Kondo really helped me to understand how to declutter.
• 8:15
  Susan: Uh, but perfectionism is not what we're about here at all.
• 8:20
  Dimity: Absolutely not.
• 8:21
  Susan: It's pretty wild, the expectations that some people have of what their house should look like. And it doesn't have to be like that, it just has to be functional for you and your family.
• 8:30
  Susan: That's it.
• 8:31
  Dimity: It took me a long time to to accept the fact that I was probably never gonna have a perfect looking area.
• 8:38
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 8:38
  Dimity: Especially with two kids.
• 8:41
  Susan: Yeah, totally.
• 8:42
  Dimity: It took me a long time, you know, to tell myself it's okay to have um, you know, their artwork on the fridge and have it look like, you know,
• 8:49
  Susan: But it's nice.
• 8:49
  Dimity: Has stuff in the, you know, in a in a pantry so that they can reach it.
• 8:53
  Susan: And it makes it a bit more homely too.
• 8:54
  Dimity: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:55
  Susan: So, like, you know, you can aim to be more organised as you go.
• 9:00
  Susan: But if you're at the stage right now where your house is an absolute mess, you cannot find where anything is, you're constantly buying replacements all the time.
• 9:08
  Dimity: Oh my god.
• 9:08
  Susan: Then just start small.
• 9:10
  Susan: And I think tricking 15-minute trick is a great thing when you go home, maybe this weekend, go and get yourself a cutlery thing,
• 9:19
  Dimity: Organising things, yeah.
• 9:20
  Susan: And say, I'm gonna spend 15 minutes.
• 9:23
  Susan: That's it.
• 9:24
  Susan: You're tricking your brain psychologically for the procrastinators because those people who are procrastinating and are worried, "Oh my god, this is gonna take me forever." I guarantee you will probably be thinking about it so much longer than the actual reality of just getting the task done.
• 9:43
  Dimity: That's what that is literally my reality.
• 9:44
  Dimity: I think nah, this is gonna take me so long, and then I just continue thinking about it over and over again, and then it's just constantly on the ball.
• 9:50
  Susan: And then you're like you're building this like mountain out of a molehill kind of vibe.
• 9:54
  Susan: I think that everybody has clutter everywhere.
• 9:57
  Susan: So for me, like the end of my bench is terrible.
• 10:00
  Susan: I always end up having paperwork, like bills, and just the difference and devices always end up there, and wires and cables and and all these things.
• 10:10
  Susan: And they end up being there for months.
• 10:12
  Susan: Yeah, like I see uh some people on Instagram, and some are amazing, they really are useful.
• 10:17
  Susan: They kind of they say, look at your house and all the problem areas that you have, and then build solutions for them.
• 10:23
  Susan: For me, it's like the end of this bench always ends up being maybe I have I should have a container, like a basket or something, and everything goes in it, and once that container is full, I have to do something to do something with it.
• 10:35
  Susan: I think clothing is another big thing, like um putting away the washing.
• 10:39
  Susan: So for us, we don't have a laundry, yeah.
• 10:41
  Susan: So we have it kind of integrated, our laundry i s hidden behind the like a press in the kitchen, and it's okay.
• 10:49
  Susan: It's brilliant, it like it works so well.
• 10:51
  Susan: But the problem is that there's nowhere to put when we take our washing off the line, there's nowhere to put that.
• 10:57
  Susan: So that always ends up at the end of the kitchen and kind of like the bench or whatever.
• 11:02
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 11:03
  Susan: But I also don't like to do just one load of washing to put it away.
• 11:08
  Susan: Because for me, I like two. I like to be a little bit efficient and kind of get a good bunch done at the same time.
• 11:13
  Dimity: That is what I like to do, but then it ends up being I've got four or five, I've got three baskets that are ready to go away, and I've got more that needs to be.
• 11:22
  Susan: Don't have more than two baskets and you can't, it forces you to have to do it.
• 11:26
  Susan: But then If you've got too much stuff, that's another thing though.
• 11:29
  Susan: When you've got too many of something, then you just psychologically you're like, Oh, I've got another basket, I've got another basket, I've got another basket.
• 11:36
  Dimity: It's I'm really bad.
• 11:37
  Susan: And you know, when I looked up this topic, I did have a Google, like what are the some of the things about being organised and whatever.
• 11:44
  Susan: Um 40% of people say that lack of time and just too much stuff is what deal they just can't deal with it.
• 11:53
  Susan: They just don't know what to do.
• 11:54
  Dimity: Well, that's like us.
• 11:55
  Dimity: That is completely like us.
• 11:57
  Dimity: Our pretty much our whole garage has been taken up by just things that don't fit in the house.
• 12:03
  Dimity: We moved in in February.
• 12:04
  Dimity: Only within the last well, the last month have we actually been able to fit a car in there.
• 12:09
  Susan: Another thing in my research is that around three quarters of homes, they they don't have room for a car.
• 12:15
  Susan: The garage is taken up with stuff.
• 12:18
  Dimity: Even when you drive on the street, people have their garages open and you can see in there that there's just so much stuff, boxes, like shelves of things.
• 12:28
  Dimity: It's crazy.
• 12:29
  Susan: Y eah, we have a massive problem with just accumulating things, you know.
• 12:33
  Susan: And so I think one of the things that I took from that Marie Kondo book is just thinking before you buy.
• 12:39
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 12:39
  Susan: The amount of times when I'd be in the shop and I'd just see, oh, that's on sale.
• 12:44
  Susan: Oh, that looks pretty.
• 12:45
  Susan: Um, you know, oh, what a bargain.
• 12:47
  Susan: It's is it actually a bargain?
• 12:48
  Susan: Because did I actually want it to begin with?
• 12:51
  Susan: Probably not, yeah, especially Aldi, those special buys.
• 12:54
  Susan: I'm really so dangerous.
• 12:56
  Susan: I actually have stopped myself going to Aldi because I used to love going around and having a look, especially when they were on sale.
• 13:03
  Susan: They're already cheap enough, like, but now they're on sale.
• 13:06
  Susan: I definitely need it.
• 13:08
  Susan: Um, so I think being really mindful of the fact, hold on a second, do I actually need this?
• 13:15
  Susan: Do I have something at home that could actually work that I've forgotten about?
• 13:21
  Susan: Um, or does somebody else have something that I could just have a lend of it?
• 13:24
  Susan: You know, because that's the thing I think nowadays in our culture, we're so uh obsessed just like having it ourselves.
• 13:31
  Susan: We don't necessarily have to buy everything.
• 13:32
  Dimity: I know, and I fall into that trap a lot.
• 13:34
  Dimity: We I borrowed a um like a a steam carpet cleaner from a friend, and I was like, I need one of these.
• 13:41
  Dimity: Haven't bought it, so maybe I won't now.
• 13:43
  Dimity: But I just kept I and it for a long time it took up a lot of space in my mind thinking, I need this.
• 13:48
  Susan: Yeah, look, if you use it all the time.
• 13:50
  Dimity: But I don't, that's the thing.
• 13:51
  Susan: I used it once, yeah.
• 13:53
  Susan: And and that's it, like you can just borrow it again.
• 13:55
  Susan: And it's the whole throwaway culture, isn't it?
• 13:57
  Susan: Yeah, you know, and like something breaks and we just throw it out, and then we get another one.
• 14:01
  Susan: And I think the more that there's clutter everywhere, the more your brain just goes into fog mode.
• 14:06
  Susan: Like you're not thinking clearly.
• 14:08
  Dimity: It's so overwhelming.
• 14:09
  Dimity: We have a bit at the end of the bench that we everything just builds up.
• 14:14
  Dimity: I usually try to at the end of the week, remove that because then we're prepping dinner and there's I don't know, like some artwork that Poppy's done in the way, and I'm like moving it.
• 14:26
  Dimity: Yeah, it's just it's impossible.
• 14:27
  Dimity: It's impossible.
• 14:28
  Susan: At least stacking things on top, and the minute you just put it up into a nice little vertical pile, instantly you've got this clean house.
• 14:35
  Susan: You're like, oh, it feels so much better.
• 14:37
  Susan: Yeah, I can actually think a little bit more.
• 14:38
  Susan: Now they do say that messy houses give more creativity.
• 14:42
  Dimity: Okay, well.
• 14:42
  Susan: You know, if you're in the creative mode, maybe you want to do that, but for most people, you want to think clearly, you just want to be a bit more calm.
• 14:49
  Susan: And I think having as much clutter away really does help with that.
• 14:55
  Susan: It helps you to think more clearly, you know, and I think what you see outside is what you see, what is inside as well.
• 15:02
  Susan: So when you have a very cluttered, messy house, you're probably your brain's probably very messy and cluttered too, and you're not thinking clearly.
• 15:10
  Susan: I think like for me, um there's always a junk drawer.
• 15:14
  Susan: Yeah.
• 15:14
  Susan: Always like this junk drawer, uh it's at the end of our things, it's also near that area that we always end up like piling up all this stuff, and things just get chucked in there, and before you know, you can't even really open it.
• 15:27
  Susan: Yeah, it's so jammed full.
• 15:29
  Susan: So every so often, probably every six months, I'll go through that and I'll just lay it all out and figure it out.
• 15:35
  Susan: Most of it just gets chucked or put somewhere else.
• 15:39
  Susan: My hallway cupboard is another one that is a bit of a disaster.
• 15:42
  Susan: So you open it up and then you're like, oh, and things start falling out, and yeah, that's when you know you've got a problem.
• 15:48
  Susan: So I decided when Nigel was away overseas, I decided I'm gonna tackle this, be careful what you tackle because there were so many wires and so many bits and pieces.
• 15:59
  Susan: It was actually really hard to organise.
• 16:01
  Susan: And so I was really challenged, and I had to actually deal with this mess in the hallway cupboard for probably around three or four nights.
• 16:07
  Dimity: Yeah, okay.
• 16:10
  Susan: I kept saying, I will finish this, I will finish it, I will finish it.
• 16:13
  Susan: I did do it, and it's not it definitely still doesn't look as nice.
• 16:16
  Susan: I wouldn't be going and bringing anybody around to have a look at it.
• 16:19
  Dimity: Not like the kitchen sink?
• 16:20
  Susan: No, not like the kitchen sink, but uh it does at least it's functioning a lot more, which is good.
• 16:25
  Susan: And that's all you want.
• 16:26
  Susan: I've got this under the stairs where I have it my like art, so that has been stopping me from doing any painting because it's just such a mess.
• 16:33
  Susan: And so it's like the procrastinating.
• 16:35
  Susan: Spend so much longer thinking about it.
• 16:37
  Susan: Every time I go to the garage, because I have to look at it, every time I come in, I'm looking at this mess, and I should just clean it and I should just make it pretty, and I will.
• 16:46
  Susan: Maybe this weekend, maybe next weekend.
• 16:50
  Susan: This is the thing, isn't it?
• 16:51
  Susan: And this is the thing.
• 16:52
  Susan: Trick yourself.
• 16:52
  Susan: Say, right, I'm gonna have 15 minutes today, I'm gonna do it.
• 16:55
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 16:55
  Susan: And then when you're in that mode, then that 15 minutes, if it does need to go a little bit longer, you're in the kind of swing of it.
• 17:02
  Susan: And so even it ends up going to like 30 minutes or an hour, you'll more likely get it done.
• 17:07
  Dimity: Definitely, yeah.
• 17:08
  Dimity: The pain points for us, I think I'm quite lucky now because we don't have a lot of space.
• 17:15
  Dimity: We our linen cupboard's pretty good.
• 17:17
  Dimity: Towels, you know, the basic things.
• 17:21
  Dimity: Um, the end of the kitchen counter is the big one.
• 17:23
  Dimity: So I do that weekly.
• 17:25
  Dimity: I think mine and Daniel's um like clothing cupboard, yeah, that has become a just shove.
• 17:34
  Susan: Too much.
• 17:35
  Dimity: Shove things where you can, where it fits.
• 17:37
  Susan: And that Marie Kondo will say what you need to do is you need to literally get out every single piece of clothing.
• 17:42
  Susan: You put them into little categories, and you'll see how much stuff you have on them.
• 17:46
  Susan: Well, and then it's like this spark joy that she goes on about.
• 17:51
  Susan: Does this give me joy when I wear it?
• 17:53
  Susan: And so she makes you touch everything.
• 17:56
  Dimity: Okay.
• 17:56
  Susan: And it's good because then you can start seeing all the little holes or imperfections or stains or buttons missing, and she will say there is very little chance that you'll ever fix that stain or fix that button.
• 18:07
  Susan: So you should just donate it, or if it's terrible, just chuck it.
• 18:12
  Susan: I've got a pair of trousers, jeans that are too long, and I keep saying, I'm gonna bring it to a seamstress.
• 18:18
  Susan: It's hard.
• 18:20
  Susan: And you don't want to go to a seamstress like just for one item.
• 18:23
  Susan: I don't even know who this like a person would be to like a uh do you know.
• 18:27
  Dimity: I was doing the same thing, and I'm short, so none of my pants.
• 18:32
  Susan: Okay.
• 18:32
  Dimity: None of my pants are the right length ever.
• 18:35
  Dimity: And I just kept buying pants and then not wearing them because so my mum and my stepdad used to work at a dry cleaner's.
• 18:42
  Susan: Okay.
• 18:43
  Dimity: So they used to do the repairs, they used to do all of that stuff.
• 18:46
  Dimity: And recently I said to my mum, "I want you to show me how to take up my own pants."
• 18:52
  Susan: Yes.
• 18:53
  Dimity: Because I was sick of buying pants.
• 18:55
  Dimity: I don't know if um, I don't know if you should trust me with that.
• 18:59
  Dimity: I took these pants up.
• 19:01
  Susan: That's good, they're perfect.
• 19:02
  Dimity: Yeah, look.
• 19:03
  Susan: They're good, they're very good.
• 19:04
  Susan: That's impressive.
• 19:06
  Dimity: Um so yeah, I said to them, I need you to show me how to do this.
• 19:09
  Dimity: And they're not perfect.
• 19:12
  Dimity: This these ones are pretty good, I will say.
• 19:14
  Dimity: These ones are good.
• 19:15
  Dimity: There's another pair that I did that's not perfect, but they work.
• 19:19
  Susan: Yeah, and that's the thing, if you can manage to do those things and don't have that as being I think you need to start like how I think about my clothing is okay, does it do I love it when I wear it?
• 19:33
  Susan: That's the whole spark joy.
• 19:34
  Susan: Do I really think that I feel good and I look good in it?
• 19:38
  Susan: Great.
• 19:38
  Susan: Uh, if it still fits me, brilliant.
• 19:41
  Susan: Put it, keep it.
• 19:42
  Susan: If I put it on and I'm like, like, I spent a lot of money on this, it should look good on me, but it just doesn't.
• 19:50
  Susan: You just need to say, give it, either sell it or donate it.
• 19:54
  Susan: Somebody else will love it.
• 19:56
  Susan: Yes, give that joy to somebody else.
• 19:58
  Susan: Don't hold it for yourself and actually be like, I'm just because it was expensive, I'm keeping it.
• 20:04
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 20:04
  Susan: Um, just let it go.
• 20:06
  Dimity: The money go.
• 20:07
  Susan: You think, oh, maybe one day I'll wear it, like it will fit me again.
• 20:10
  Susan: The the reality is, moms, like our bodies change so much after we have children.
• 20:16
  Susan: Like my whole rib cage that has really expanded.
• 20:19
  Susan: Like, I've got a much wider back.
• 20:22
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 20:22
  Susan: Who knew that would happen?
• 20:24
  Susan: But my back's much wider than it was pre-baby, and like that's never gonna shrink.
• 20:28
  Susan: If you are nowhere near gonna be fitting into that, you are better off to just donate it and start again.
• 20:35
  Susan: Probably even if you dig hold on to those clothes, they'll be out of date by the time you get to wear them.
• 20:41
  Dimity: Yeah, and also if you've gotten to a point where you're feeling good about yourself, you're probably gonna want to buy yourself anything to be honest.
• 20:46
  Susan: Exactly.
• 20:46
  Dimity: Yeah
• 20:46
  Susan: So yeah, so let it go.
• 20:48
  Susan: Declutter is massive.
• 20:51
  Susan: Yeah, um, and so I think that's half the battle.
• 20:54
  Susan: Like in that Marie Kondo book, after her third child, she has definitely given up on this whole perfect house.
• 20:59
  Susan: But um, she has still inspired a lot of people.
• 21:02
  Susan: And I think it's just about being realistic, it's just about understanding what stuff do you have.
• 21:08
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 21:08
  Susan: Because if you can get rid of most of it, like in her because she used to do consulting in Japan, and all these Japanese women would say, I need a bigger house, and she said, "No, you do not, you just need to get rid of a lot of your stuff."
• 21:22
  Dimity: Yeah, for sure.
• 21:23
  Susan: And if you do start decluttering, it's unbelievable how much stuff that you do have that you just don't need.
• 21:29
  Dimity: For me, a big thing is the kids' clothes.
• 21:31
  Susan: Yes.
• 21:32
  Dimity: That is the one thing that when I declutter that, I pull everything out and I think to myself, "Whoa, like how did that fit in their cupboard?" Yeah, how did that fit in their drawers?
• 21:42
  Susan: Because when you have so much stuff, you can't even find the nice stuff.
• 21:45
  Susan: And so by the time when you do your decluttering, you're like, Oh, I forgot I had this, I forgot I had this, and then you actually you're highlighting all the nice things that you do have.
• 21:54
  Susan: It is really good.
• 21:56
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 21:56
  Susan: Um, so but when we're talking about decluttering, we're not talking about the crazy, like full on.
• 22:02
  Susan: We're not talking about a whole massive basement full packed to the brim with stuff.
• 22:08
  Susan: And there's so much like the the older generations, they have a lot of things, and that our generation are gonna have to deal with that as they pass on.
• 22:17
  Susan: You know, it's a whole thing now.
• 22:18
  Susan: Um, so don't get yourself into that.
• 22:22
  Susan: You know, you have to let go of things, you can't just be holding on to everything.
• 22:26
  Susan: So there's four main things when you're decluttering that they kind of like roughly put people into.
• 22:32
  Susan: So you've got your like gift guilt.
• 22:34
  Susan: So that's when like people give you gifts and then you feel so bad to give it away.
• 22:39
  Susan: Give them away, and it is like a feel I definitely fall into that, you know.
• 22:43
  Dimity: That's a big one for me, really.
• 22:44
  Susan: And my mum's a big gifter, so she loves to gift, you know, and it's so sweet, but sometimes not everything is your taste or whatever.
• 22:53
  Susan: Um, so that is hard.
• 22:55
  Susan: And you certainly don't want them seeing it being given away.
• 22:58
  Dimity: No, I know.
• 22:59
  Susan: And then if they come over and they're like, "Oh, where is that?" You know, so that is hard.
• 23:04
  Susan: It's easier for me because I live in Australia and my family live in Ireland, so I can get away with it a little bit more, but yeah, not so easy for you.
• 23:11
  Dimity: No, when I give things away that my mum has given me or the kids, I always have to tell her because I feel so bad.
• 23:16
  Dimity: I say, "Mum, I'm really sorry, but we didn't have space for this anymore, and I really needed to get rid of it." And she's like, "I don't care." It's like it's me, I don't want to.
• 23:26
  Susan: Yeah.
• 23:26
  Susan: And then the sentimentality, so the kids stuff is big.
• 23:31
  Dimity: I'm living that right now.
• 23:32
  Dimity: Because they're obviously growing so quick now.
• 23:35
  Dimity: So I like to catch it.
• 23:36
  Susan: And probably uh Poppy likes to make lots of craft things.
• 23:39
  Dimity: I'm pretty brutal with that.
• 23:42
  Dimity: We're pretty cutthroat with the craft.
• 23:46
  Dimity: Um, but that's good.
• 23:48
  Susan: Take a photograph of it and go, that's so beautiful.
• 23:50
  Susan: Let me take a photograph, and then you put it away, especially if she holds it.
• 23:53
  Susan: It's pretty cute.
• 23:54
  Dimity: That's cute.
• 23:54
  Dimity: We had some um some toilet roll people that she made, like a family, and we had it sitting up on the side for a very long time.
• 24:01
  Dimity: It was kind of like behind our our stove top and it started like there was food splattered all over them, and I didn't I that was like, "Oh, I don't know, I don't want to get rid of it, she'll be so upset." And then one day I was wiping things down, and I thought, "Nah, I don't know if I could get rid of these in the bin." Yeah, she was fine.
• 24:17
  Dimity: She didn't even notice.
• 24:19
  Susan: Yeah, Jamie doesn't care at all.
• 24:20
  Susan: He literally has he has no sentimentality.
• 24:23
  Susan: I'm a little bit concerned with the lack of sentimentality, but uh, hopefully he'll be nice to me when I'm old.
• 24:29
  Susan: Um, so another thing is the money guilt.
• 24:32
  Susan: You spent a lot of money on something, you do not want to get rid of it.
• 24:35
  Susan: So, like, I've spent a lot of money on a dress, for example.
• 24:38
  Susan: I have a dress I have not worn yet, because I bought it for a special occasion and I haven't worn it yet.
• 24:43
  Susan: And I'm like, one day I will wear that and I better wear it soon because otherwise it might end up coming up to a year.
• 24:49
  Dimity: Okay.
• 24:50
  Susan: You know, and so and people have that all the time, definitely.
• 24:53
  Dimity: Or I've meant multiple times, yeah.
• 24:55
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 24:55
  Susan: You spend all this money, you are gonna get lots of use out of it, but then you end up either not liking it or and it's just taking up space.
• 25:03
  Susan: So maybe you could sell it.
• 25:04
  Susan: You know, so that's a a good option that will remove the money guilt, and somebody else might enjoy it.
• 25:10
  Susan: And then you won't get your money back, yeah, probably.
• 25:13
  Susan: But at least get it out of your house.
• 25:15
  Susan: So that's good.
• 25:16
  Dimity: You get some money back, maybe a little bit.
• 25:18
  Dimity: And then there's the "I might need it."
• 25:22
  Susan: Oh yeah.
• 25:23
  Dimity: Which I have we have a lot of, obviously, because it's filling up our whole garage at the moment.
• 25:29
  Susan: My father-in-law is a great one for that.
• 25:31
  Susan: But I helped him move and he has a tub full of plastic bits, literally plastic bits, yeah, that he might need one day.
• 25:40
  Dimity: Okay.
• 25:40
  Susan: Like like screw tops and things.
• 25:42
  Susan: Like all these screws.
• 25:44
  Susan: And like men around Australia will be like, yeah, no, no, they are very needed.
• 25:50
  Susan: Do you know how expensive screws are?
• 25:52
  Susan: But like, how do you find what screw you need in this massive tub of things?
• 25:56
  Susan: So I think men might be worse at this "I might need it" than women.
• 26:02
  Susan: Because I feel like, uh, chuck it.
• 26:04
  Susan: And we'll get it later.
• 26:06
  Susan: Sometimes but I definitely don't think I'm as bad.
• 26:09
  Susan: Uh my husband, again, his garage is full of things.
• 26:12
  Dimity: Yes.
• 26:13
  Susan: Oh, I'll no no, keep that screw, I'll I might need it, or keep that thing, I might need it.
• 26:18
  Susan: But then you go to try and find it, and you can't find it, so then you go to Bunnings and you find them at back.
• 26:24
  Dimity: It's actually so true whenever we've made things like from IKEA or something.
• 26:28
  Dimity: Oh, just put those screws, put those all those screws together and put them away.
• 26:32
  Dimity: And we've never not once, not once have we used them.
• 26:35
  Susan: Um another thing that Marie Kondo was would go on about with paperwork is um a lot of people will keep their manuals from you know their ovens and this and that.
• 26:45
  Susan: But she says just get rid of them.
• 26:47
  Susan: Because if anything ever goes wrong, you can just Google it.
• 26:50
  Dimity: I literally was gonna say that we've kept all of our manuals for everything.
• 26:54
  Dimity: And the other day I was trying to figure out how to use my um washing machine to put it in a soak.
• 26:59
  Susan: Yeah.
• 26:59
  Dimity: Soak.
• 27:00
  Susan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:01
  Dimity: And I didn't even reach for the manual, I googled it.
• 27:03
  Dimity: And the manual came up online for me to just read.
• 27:06
  Susan: Exactly.
• 27:07
  Susan: So get rid of your manuals.
• 27:09
  Susan: You do not need them.
• 27:11
  Dimity: No.
• 27:11
  Susan: I like my parent-in-law's uh their previous house they've just been in.
• 27:16
  Susan: The people before had this whole folder of every single receipt and every single manual they've ever had for anything.
• 27:24
  Susan: And it's just this gigantic thing that it's like very overwhelming when you have to go and actually look at something.
• 27:29
  Dimity: Yeah, crazy.
• 27:31
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 27:32
  Susan: Yeah.
• 27:32
  Susan: We're in the digital age.
• 27:34
  Susan: You can just Google it.
• 27:35
  Dimity: Daniel is really bad for he likes to collect and do Legos.
• 27:39
  Susan: Oh, yeah.
• 27:39
  Dimity: Like the really advanced ones, and he's really bad for keeping the books, which I understand.
• 27:44
  Susan: Which I think that's some money thing.
• 27:48
  Dimity: You can also find those online.
• 27:49
  Susan: Yeah, but you if you want to sell them on again, you probably should have this.
• 27:52
  Dimity: Okay.
• 27:53
  Susan: So that's the only thing I'm gonna let him away with that.
• 27:55
  Susan: Um, if you're struggling with so much stuff at home, just give yourself, trick yourself into 15 minutes saying, right, I'm gonna tackle one thing.
• 28:04
  Susan: So you it might be a cutlery drawer, yeah.
• 28:07
  Susan: But it might be like for me, it was under the sink, okay?
• 28:10
  Susan: That literally took me five minutes actually.
• 28:12
  Susan: Uh give it a bit of a wipe out and kind of think about where do things go.
• 28:17
  Susan: So, like, I'll give you an example.
• 28:20
  Susan: I go to people's house, and I'm not judging, but I do go to somebody, I go, why is all that here?
• 28:25
  Susan: You've got glasses over here, and then you've got another cupboard over here with another, and you got this.
• 28:30
  Susan: You've got glasses everywhere.
• 28:32
  Susan: Like, why?
• 28:33
  Susan: Why aren't they all just in the one spot?
• 28:35
  Susan: When I moved, I was um I got this kitchen designer guy who was helping me, and I was saying to him, I need to have this whole thing for my cups.
• 28:43
  Susan: And he goes, "How many cups do you have?" And I said, "Oh, probably around like 30".
• 28:47
  Susan: And he said, "You don't need a bigger cupboard, you need to get rid of your cups." And I was like, "Well, but how do I love my cups?
• 28:55
  Susan: I love my cups, they all have sentimental um value." Yeah, so but he made a good point.
• 29:01
  Dimity: Well, like really, what are you gonna have that many people over that you're gonna have to do?
• 29:05
  Susan: No, never.
• 29:05
  Dimity: 30 cups.
• 29:06
  Susan: Never.
• 29:07
  Susan: I took his advice and I said, "Okay, fine, yes, I'll do that." I know many, many people who have cups stacked on top of each other, yeah, and they're all at the back.
• 29:16
  Susan: And to try and get anything out, you're potentially have an avalanche of cups coming down on you.
• 29:24
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 29:24
  Susan: So get your cups sorted, take them all out and decide which ones have cracks and chips in them.
• 29:32
  Susan: They're not hygienic, so get rid of them.
• 29:34
  Susan: You don't need them.
• 29:36
  Susan: Um, and then anything that is really sentimental, kind of think about it.
• 29:40
  Susan: Is it are you actually using it or is it just keeping it?
• 29:43
  Susan: Maybe take a photograph of it and then donate it, or again, yeah.
• 29:48
  Susan: If it's super old, just chuck out it.
• 29:50
  Susan: And just keep your absolute favourite ones.
• 29:52
  Susan: The ones that you you always go for when you have your cup of tea, you always end up picking a your favourite cup.
• 29:58
  Susan: So just have that and then ask your family, okay, which one's your favourite, which one do you want?
• 30:03
  Susan: You probably end up only having like five, five or six.
• 30:06
  Dimity: Yeah, exactly.
• 30:07
  Susan: And when you run out of space, you need to decide that's when you need to declutter.
• 30:11
  Susan: Do not create another cupboard for more overflow of glasses and whatnot.
• 30:17
  Dimity: Yeah, we're pretty good at that.
• 30:18
  Dimity: We keep everything if it doesn't fit in the cupboard, then it's for the kitchen anyway.
• 30:23
  Susan: Yeah, there's this one customer that we had from Bright Star Kids.
• 30:26
  Susan: She had, I think, four boys.
• 30:28
  Susan: She used to colour code them all.
• 30:30
  Susan: It was amazing.
• 30:31
  Dimity: Oh, really?
• 30:32
  Susan: One boy had orange, one boy was blue, one boy was like purple, one boy was green.
• 30:36
  Dimity: Wow, okay.
• 30:37
  Susan: Everything she had, she would get um like her plastic cups and bowls and whatnot, all in these colours.
• 30:46
  Susan: So those boys all knew that they had one bowl, one plate, one cup.
• 30:51
  Dimity: Wow.
• 30:51
  Susan: Yeah, it was it worked for her.
• 30:52
  Susan: She had a lot of kids, so yeah, a lot of boys too.
• 30:55
  Susan: And so she would buy our labels in the colour, and that's how she did it.
• 30:59
  Susan: And there's probably loads of other mums out there who do that, too.
• 31:02
  Susan: Like certain colour of towels and those kinds of things.
• 31:04
  Susan: They they can help with organisation.
• 31:07
  Susan: Yeah, you instantly know that colour equals that kid.
• 31:10
  Dimity: Yeah, we have um our bath towels, one for Poppy, one for Louie, and I can see their names are on it.
• 31:17
  Dimity: Yeah, I can see it so easily.
• 31:18
  Dimity: Yeah, put it away in their rooms.
• 31:21
  Susan: And when they're like, because that's another thing.
• 31:23
  Susan: It's like not washing things too many times.
• 31:26
  Susan: So like I will get at least two or three, maybe even four, runs out of a towel.
• 31:31
  Dimity: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:32
  Susan: But if you've got multiple kids, you can't remember which towel is for which, and you don't want to be using like a not fresh towel on a different kid.
• 31:40
  Susan: On the same kid.
• 31:41
  Dimity: Yeah, it's fine.
• 31:42
  Susan: Yeah.
• 31:43
  Susan: Mixing them is a bit gross.
• 31:44
  Susan: So I think that's basically us not about having a perfect house.
• 31:48
  Susan: It's not about having the perfect containers and everything.
• 31:52
  Susan: It's so neat and tidy, it looks like a show house.
• 31:54
  Susan: That's not what being organised is about, isn't it?
• 31:57
  Dimity: No.
• 31:57
  Dimity: No, definitely not.
• 31:58
  Susan: I mean, it's about having your little systems in place so that when things do fall apart, you can hopefully come back together and start being a little bit less chaotic.
• 32:09
  Susan: More calm.
• 32:11
  Susan: That's what being organised for me anyway is.
• 32:14
  Susan: So hopefully, today we've inspired you to just even do one little thing.
• 32:19
  Susan: Take one 15-minute task and just give it a go.
• 32:24
  Susan: That's gonna help to inspire you to keep that ball rolling and take on another little 15-minute task.
• 32:30
  Susan: And before you know, you might have even spent an hour doing something.
• 32:34
  Susan: But don't do something that's so crazy.
• 32:36
  Susan: That's gonna be like totally ruining your weekend.
• 32:39
  Dimity: And that's it from us today.
• 32:40
  Susan: Thank you so much, have a great day.
• 32:43
  Dimity: Thanks for listening.
• 32:44
  Dimity: If you enjoyed today's chat, tap follow so you don't miss an episode.
• 32:47
  Dimity: We would absolutely love to hear from our Aussie Mum community.
• 32:50
  Dimity: So leave a comment or share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Instagram at Bright Star Kids.
• 32:54
  Dimity: Share this episode with a fellow mum if you think she'd love it too.
• 32:57
  Dimity: You've got this, and we're right here with you.
• 32:59
  Dimity: Until next time.