Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #270| Why Your Clutter Is Secretly Overwhelming You & And Why Ignoring It Costs You More Than Just Space
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: In this episode, you'll learn why ignoring clutter costs you more than just space.
- 0:05Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:17Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:22Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:27Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:34Michelle Gauthier: Hello, friend.
- 0:38Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for joining today.
- 0:39Michelle Gauthier: Today we're talking about clutter.
- 0:42Michelle Gauthier: If you've been around a while, you know that I believe strongly that clutter in all forms, clutter in your house, clutter in your mind, clutter in your decision making has a huge impact on how overwhelmed you are.
- 0:57Michelle Gauthier: When you're listening to this episode today, you'll learn why unprocessed piles of stuff cost you way more than the physical space, why this happens, why this clutter builds up, and the one shift that actually gets rid of the weight of clutter.
- 1:13Michelle Gauthier: And I'm sad to say it is not getting cute bins to organize them, because I love a cute bin.
- 1:19Michelle Gauthier: I'll tell you guys something about myself, which is that I am naturally a messy person.
- 1:25Michelle Gauthier: For example, just last night my kids had some friends over and they were all down the basement and I was upstairs in the kitchen and I'm packing to get ready to go on a trip, getting some snacks ready for myself and doing a few things around the house.
- 1:38Michelle Gauthier: And when I walked back to the kitchen, I realized, oh my gosh, I can tell exactly where I was because all of the cabinet doors are open.
- 1:46Michelle Gauthier: All of the things that I got out to pack my snacks in are still sitting on the counter.
- 1:51Michelle Gauthier: I'm always moving on to the next thing.
- 1:53Michelle Gauthier: And it is not my nature to have a closed loop process, so to speak.
- 1:58Michelle Gauthier: So you get out the Ziploc bags to put some grapes in the Ziploc bags, then you put away the Ziploc bags and close the cabinet.
- 2:05Michelle Gauthier: That is just not the way that my brain naturally functions.
- 2:09Michelle Gauthier: So for me personally, being organized and clutter-free, having a place for everything, is absolutely key to me not feeling stressed and overwhelmed.
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: Let's first talk about that invisible cost of clutter.
- 2:24Michelle Gauthier: Every time you walk past a pile, your brain notices it.
- 2:29Michelle Gauthier: Maybe it's the mail piled up, or your laundry, or that basement storage room, or the fact that you've had a project going on your dining room table for six months.
- 2:40Michelle Gauthier: Your brain clocks it.
- 2:42Michelle Gauthier: It doesn't have to be on your list for today to cost you.
- 2:46Michelle Gauthier: It's just there humming in the background, an undone to-do list, so to speak.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: I recently shared a story on Instagram where I filled my entire car of sheets, comforters, and towels.
- 3:01Michelle Gauthier: When I got to Goodwill, the guy said, I think that you win for the most full car ever.
- 3:07Michelle Gauthier: It was hilarious.
- 3:08Michelle Gauthier: I'm talking like the passenger seat, both back seats, and the trunk completely full.
- 3:13Michelle Gauthier: And the way that happened is when I got divorced, which was a long time ago, seven, eight years ago, we split stuff up and I didn't have the capacity to think through what am I really gonna need.
- 3:25Michelle Gauthier: So I ended up just putting most of the stuff in my basement.
- 3:29Michelle Gauthier: And over time I have been getting rid of stuff, but I was at a local thrift shop and I noticed that someone was buying a set of sheets.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: And I thought, oh my gosh, I cannot believe how many sheets and towels and comforters I have in my basement packed away in the storage room that I am not at all using.
- 3:46Michelle Gauthier: So I decided to put it on my list and start working on it.
- 3:50Michelle Gauthier: One Sunday I spent the majority of the day going through all of this stuff, getting it into piles, putting it into my car, and taking it to Goodwill.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: And what I realized in doing it was how much that was weighing on me.
- 4:06Michelle Gauthier: When I dropped it off, I felt like I had a million pounds off me.
- 4:10Michelle Gauthier: And it's so funny because on a regular day, if you would have said, hey, what's on your mind?
- 4:14Michelle Gauthier: I wouldn't have been like, ooh, you know that back corner of the storage room that has all those blankets and sheets and stuff, it's really bugging me.
- 4:20Michelle Gauthier: No, it was hidden away.
- 4:21Michelle Gauthier: I didn't see it very often, but it was weighing on my mind.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: And the reason why I made this Instagram video is because I was amazed at how differently I felt once I went through that stuff and got rid of the clutter.
- 4:34Michelle Gauthier: So why does this happen?
- 4:37Michelle Gauthier: Why do we keep stuff or just have that consistent pile of mail sitting on an entry table?
- 4:44Michelle Gauthier: It's not because you're disorganized or lazy.
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: It's because that loose stuff doesn't have a decision or a home attached to it yet.
- 4:52Michelle Gauthier: So you can't just take that whole pile of mail and throw it away.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: I guess you could, but you might regret it.
- 4:57Michelle Gauthier: You have to look through it and make a decision about each thing in order to put it away.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: So every pile of clutter is just an undone to-do.
- 5:06Michelle Gauthier: It's like something on your to-do list in your brain, even if it's not on your actual to-do list yet.
- 5:12Michelle Gauthier: It's there, it's waiting there.
- 5:14Michelle Gauthier: And I think this is so relatable because I love watching organizing videos.
- 5:19Michelle Gauthier: In fact, when I decided to become a life coach, I thought, should I become a professional organizer?
- 5:23Michelle Gauthier: I love the container store.
- 5:25Michelle Gauthier: I love cute bins, and I want to solve this problem.
- 5:28Michelle Gauthier: And there's a lot of marketing out there that says that we solve this problem by instead of having your loose mail all over your dining room table, you just put it in a cute bin.
- 5:37Michelle Gauthier: But putting in a cute bin does make it look cuter, but it doesn't actually solve the problem because the decisions are still sitting there unmade, just like all of those blankets in my basement were an unmade decision.
- 5:49Michelle Gauthier: Am I going to use these?
- 5:50Michelle Gauthier: Do I really need these?
- 5:52Michelle Gauthier: If not, what do I do with these instead?
- 5:53Michelle Gauthier: Those were all the unmade decisions hanging around.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: The fix for this isn't a system with 12 steps or anything like that.
- 6:00Michelle Gauthier: It's just making the decision that you've been avoiding.
- 6:04Michelle Gauthier: So I gave an example where I ended up dedicating the better part of an entire day to clean something out that was weighing on my mind.
- 6:11Michelle Gauthier: And it felt amazing, but I don't, and you don't always have that kind of time.
- 6:16Michelle Gauthier: So even if you think about something small as I'm saying this, I'm picturing my silverware drawer right now because there's this little catch-all spot in my silverware drawer where there's like straws and a random mismatched spoon and whatever.
- 6:30Michelle Gauthier: And I want to just keep it all there because I don't want to go through it.
- 6:33Michelle Gauthier: What if I just say to myself, I just need to make some quick decisions on this stuff, and then just go through and do the usual giveaway, throw away a recycle, or keep.
- 6:43Michelle Gauthier: Even if you just do this for something really small today, like your purse, or I'll tell you what always has crap in it, is the little side pocket of my car door.
- 6:53Michelle Gauthier: That's where I always put receipts and all kinds of junk.
- 6:55Michelle Gauthier: Even if you just choose one little spot to do this for today and make some decisions, you will feel that free feeling that I felt when I emptied out my entire car at Goodwill.
- 7:05Michelle Gauthier: So, just as a reminder, you really don't need a better system or cute bins for your piles.
- 7:10Michelle Gauthier: You just need to make the decision that is underneath them and clear it now and feel how light getting that done actually feels.
- 7:19Michelle Gauthier: If you feel like you need a major declutter, last year I offered a whole declutter challenge and the episodes are on the podcast.
- 7:26Michelle Gauthier: I will put a link to those in the show notes if you want to go back and really dig into decluttering.
- 7:31Michelle Gauthier: But otherwise, today, just get started and do one small thing.
- 7:36Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna go do my silverware drawer right now.
- 7:39Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 7:46Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 7:52Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.