Cleaning UP

Debbie and Wendy share their strategies for tackling clutter in a mindful and intentional way. Debbie emphasizes starting small, dedicating five minutes a day to organizing, and promising oneself a win. Wendy highlights the importance of having an accountability partner and taking small steps towards a goal. Both agreed that letting go of unnecessary items can lead to a more organized and peaceful living space, and that clutter can contribute to anxiety. Transcript Debbie 00:39 It is spring as of this recording. Wendy 00:43 And we have lots of clients talking about cleaning up. Debbie 00:48 Yeah, cleaning up clutter, getting rid of stuff. Wendy 00:54 Too much stuff truly causes anxiety. There's a direct connection with piles of stuff. And it might be wonderful stuff. It might be valuable stuff. It might be wonderful memories. But stuff accumulated in corners and drawers and in closets can cause anxiety, it can really stress us out. When we're stressed, our hormones get all wonky, our metabolism gets all wonky. Debbie 01:31 Let me step back for a moment, because this is such a natural human trait to collect stuff. I always go back to our roots back in the day, 100,000 years ago, when we didn't have a lot of stuff. And so we had the urge to collect things that we needed to live and survive. That is built into our DNA and we still haven't evolved out of that. And so we end up with too much stuff. It's just this human nature to do it. And before we know it, we look around and we're like, How did we get here? Wendy 02:09 We have a couple of clients who have inherited stuff from grandparents, and then parents, and it's hard to go through someone else's stuff, let alone your own. So when we're in the sandwich generations, you know, maybe the kids haven't left yet, and their rooms are still full of all their stuff. Maybe we have boxes of kids memorabilia, their arts and crafts projects, or their report cards and that sort of thing. I know, my mom and dad are doing a lot of purging themselves. And I got a box full of that material. And I was going through it. It really held some fond memories. So I took a couple pictures. And then I got the shredder out and it felt really good. Debbie 03:03 And it may not only be stuff that other people gave you, I'm looking at my home office right now. It does cause me anxiety, because it's cluttered with a whole bunch of stuff. There are some things that were handed down to me, but most of it is things that I've accumulated over the years. Our generation is between worlds in that we used to do all things on paper. And we've moved so much stuff online or on the computer or virtual stuff that I don't know why I'm still holding on to so much paper. But it's there, there's so many things that I just need to let go of. It's a powerful practice to let go. And I think it's something that is always a message in my mind - in so many different areas, not just about stuff, but letting go. And it always always, always feels good. Wendy 04:02 It does feel good. And I want to go back to these piles because you and I are wired a little bit the same way. I think it's really important this conversation between paper and computer. And I'm not going to get rid of my cookbooks. Right? I might purge a couple a year, right? For cookbooks, there's so much value in holding the paper copy. And so I'm bringing that up because I'm looking around my office and I have to make some decisions. I've got these cutouts from newspapers and from magazines. I'm like, Oh, that would be a good blog post or that would be good for a podcast. It's trying to discern what's valuable, what's not and what's practical, what's not. And there's a lot of decision making. You know, there could be some decision fatigue. Yeah, that's what feels overwhelming for me when I look at my office and all the accumulation of stuff. It's the decision making that needs to happen. Debbie 05:10 Right. And I'd have to say the biggest difficult part for me, in letting go of all this stuff is not the actual moment when I decide to let go. It's the approaching the piles, or the clutter, or whatever it is, and actually starting to do it. Because when you look at it, it's so big. Wendy 05:36 Well, I think you just named another human nature, for all things health and wellness. If someone is looking to approach a new habit of maybe working out or going to the gym or moving more by going for walks, the idea that you're this age, and you haven't moved for this many months or this many years. Just the idea of starting is overwhelming. And so our number one tip for whenever we feel overwhelmed, with either food choices, or movement choices, or sleep choices, or clutter choices. Our number one tip is to start super small. Baby steps. Because once we make a couple of baby steps, the feeling of relief of just starting. Dana always says "The hardest part is opening the front door of the gym." That's ...