Dana K. White
Appearances
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And you look at that and you think, that's it. I need the colors. And so you bring the colors in and then you're trying to fit all the stuff in there.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Everyone has a clutter threshold. It's the amount of stuff that you personally can keep under control. It's the reason why you and your friends can go shopping together, buy the exact same things. She puts it in her house. It looks like a magazine. You put it in your house. It looks like a thrift store, right? Like that, that difference between like, she can handle this stuff.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I brought all this stuff into my house because I wanted it. I saw potential in it. I'm a lovely person who sees value in things that no one else sees value in, right? Like that's a great quality, except that I was bringing it into my house and I couldn't handle it. it was not possible for me to keep my house under control with the amount of stuff that I had in my house. So it's not aesthetics.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Some people hear clutter threshold and they're like, oh yeah, this drives me. No, I'm talking about what can you handle? What's easy for you to keep under control? So if a space is continually getting out of control, get rid of more stuff. Oh, it's still getting out of control? Get rid of more stuff.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Get rid of, until you realize at some point, this is what happened to me as I was like, wait a minute, I can do this. Like I can keep this under control. And that's where I realized there's this point, this level of stuff that I can handle.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I hate to tell you this, but there is literally no way to know other than to declutter. You can just know if my house feels overwhelming, I'm over my clutter threshold. If my house is consistently getting out of control and I feel bewildered by that, then I'm over my clutter threshold. So the only way to find your clutter threshold is to declutter.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Let me just say... The less stuff you have, the less stuff that can pile.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I used to think that containers were for putting things in, right? Organized people love containers. They buy containers. Their house looks great. I must need more containers. So I would bring containers into my house. So here's my little scenario that I give. Let's say my friend whose kids were the same age as mine, her little craft area looked amazing.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Mine was this huge pile disaster spilling out of the cabinet, okay? And I would look and say, oh, she has her crayons and a red bucket. Yes. That's the difference between her and me, right? Like she has a red bucket. I don't have a red bucket. That's why my space is a disaster.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So I would go and buy a red bucket and I would dump crayons in there and I would realize, oh, I still got 700 crayons left over. why does this not work for me the way it works for her? So I would go out and buy two more red buckets. And then I would put the rest of my crayons in those red buckets. I go to put the red buckets on the shelf and my shelf wouldn't fit three red buckets.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And I would think, are you kidding me? Why is this so hard for me? Like, why does this not work for me? And then eventually I would be like, well, obviously I need more shelves. So I'd buy more shelves. And then at some point I would think, well, I don't have any room for more shelves. Obviously I need a new house and we can't afford a new house right now. So I am doomed to be disorganized.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
That is just how my brain worked. I just thought that if I, you know, ran out of space in a container, I bought another container. And in reality, her house was smaller than mine. But in my mind, my issue was that my house was too small, right? Like, which doesn't make sense, but it made total sense to my brain before. So when I was working, I was talking to myself and I was saying container.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And I went, container, contain container. Like the word contain is in there. Serve as a limit, set a boundary. You know, like firefighters contain a fire, they create a boundary. And as long as the fire stays inside the boundary, they can keep it under control. Their whole goal is to keep it within this boundary. And I realized, oh, a container is not for putting things in.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
A container is meant to serve as a limit, to serve as a boundary. And that changed everything for me because I was able to say, okay, here's the red Beckett. It's not going to fit everything, but it's the boundary. So I'm going to put my favorite crayons in first. And when it's full, something happens in my brain and I realize, oh, maybe I don't need a thousand crayons. Oh, OK.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Before I would pick up every single crayon and be like, well, I mean, I know it's broken. But broken crayons still color, right? Oh, yes, that's right. So I would make all these and it took forever for me to analyze every single one. And instead, it's just I'm going to put my favorite ones in first and I'm going to let the container make the hard decision for me. Wow. Yeah.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And then when I go to put the red bucket on the shelf, I have to acknowledge that the shelf is also a container. The shelf is a limit and it determines how many red buckets I can have. And the size of the room determines how many shelves I can have. And the size of my house is the size of my house. So I'm like, the size of my house is the size of my house. And if I'm gonna put my favorite things
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
in first, and I'm going to realize my house is a container. My house is a limit. What's my favorite thing in my house? It's the people who live in it, right? So like we deserve space first. And so that just shifted everything. It actually doesn't matter how valuable something is, how much sentimental feelings I have toward it. It doesn't have space.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I can keep anything, but I can't keep everything and my house ever have a chance of being under control. Okay. Wow. Yeah. So that's the container concept, which changes how you look at your house and how you look at your stuff and lets me let go of things because I'm like, it's not me. It's the container. I don't have the space for it. And that is very freeing. Wow.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I recommend that you go to the place that visitors to your home will see when they either come inside or are standing at the door and you're trying to keep them from coming inside, right? Because it's a mess, whatever. That is the place to start. And we're going to go through the decluttering process there. I'll explain that.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But the reason why you want to start in a visible space is that you will see the progress that you're making. You will see your house getting better. The people who live with you will start to see your house getting better. You'll experience that it is easier to live in a space with less stuff. Okay. Okay. Because here's the thing.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So many times when we get that desire to declutter, we go to the pantry, we go to the linen closet, we go to the top shelf of the master bedroom closet. Yes. We do those spaces because we think, okay, if I will work really hard on this, we really don't use this space that much. And so maybe it'll actually stay that way, right? Yes. When in reality, you can work really hard on that.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
You talked about like, you know, all the color coding and blah, blah, blah in this random closet. Yes. and then at the end of the day your husband you know is like so what'd you do today and you're like oh i have been organizing all day and i don't know about you i'm not going to project this on you but in my experience i've had that exact scenario happen and my husband would be like really Okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Well, what is more defeating than that? Right. Like is to feel like I have been organizing all day and I'm still embarrassed to open my front door.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But if you work on visible spaces first, then you see the progress that you're making and you inspire yourself to keep going. Cause you're like, Oh wow, that looks good. I may not have noticed when it was messy, but But I notice now when it looks great and then that inspires me to keep going. Okay. Do you want me to talk about the actual process?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Okay. I know. See, I have to have like real steps because I have to remind myself still. I still look at a space and go, and I'm like, nope, I have steps. Okay. All right. So the first step is trash. Grab a black trash bag or whatever you have available. Ideally, it's black just because then you can't see what you just put inside of it. Your family can't see what you're putting inside.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Yes, that's exactly why. Now, with that, if you're like, I don't have black trash bags, start with whatever. Start with a... Paper sack. It doesn't matter. But if you have a black trash bag, use that for exactly the reason that you're talking about. But I'm talking about trash, not necessarily donations at this point. The reason I start with trash is it is literally the easiest of the easy stuff.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I am not talking about deciding whether this item is trash. I'm talking about just saying that's trash. Put it in the bag. That's trash. Put it in the bag. It starts the movement. Okay. Like there are literally no decisions to be made, no emotions to be felt. It is just the action. And that immediately makes the space less overwhelming because there's less stuff in it than there was before. Okay.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But it also... helps my brain start to adjust to what's actually there. Because when I look at it as a big pile, the pile is overwhelming. There's important stuff in there, I'm sure. And so it feels like the whole pile is full of important decisions, difficult decisions to make.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But as I'm looking for trash, I'm seeing what's actually there, which then helps me be ready to move into the next steps of the process.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
If you have to think about it, skip it and we'll get to it in the next step.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
You're saying is I just want it to be pretty. Change your mindset to I'm going to make this space better. That means I can literally throw away two pieces of trash, get distracted, step away, step away. Cause I'm just don't want to do this right now. And I've still made it better, which means I have been successful. Like if I do anything, I have achieved better. Okay. So, all right. Sorry.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
That was a little preachy break there.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But you are successful with every piece of trash. It is better because my goal is to have less in this space. If you have less in this space than you did when you started, you have successfully decluttered. You're not done, but you have successfully decluttered, right? Yeah. Okay. So let's move to step two. Step two is the easy stuff.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So trash was the easiest of the easy stuff because it's just going straight into the trash bag. Yep. But the second step is the easy stuff. Easy stuff I define as anything that already has an established home. It's just not there for whatever reason. Like I'm not going to agonize over why is this in the bedroom? It's just, oh, this goes in the kitchen or whatever.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I'm gonna take those things to their already established homes immediately. I can take as many as my hands will hold. But I can't take any more than that. Like I'm not going to put them in a box. I'm not going to set them aside and do it later.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I'm going to go everything that comes into my hands that I pick up that I identified as easy, having an established home, no decision to make, no emotions to be felt. I am just going to go ahead and I'm going to take it there now. Okay. So again, I am making the space better. I can step away at any time because I'm making progress and only progress, right? Got it. Then the third step is donations.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Okay. When you are someone who hasn't felt successful at decluttering before, it feels like all decluttering decisions are going to be difficult. So we want to narrow down the ones that you really have to make decisions about. Okay. And go ahead and just stick stuff in the donate box. The key with the donate box, like the black trash bag, is that the box itself needs to be donatable.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So don't stencil the word donate on the outside of a cute wooden box. Like that's not what we're doing. Right. Because that's organization. Right. And two, it just sets myself up to have to go back through that box again.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Write the word donate so that you remember that was a donate box. But don't decorate it. Don't make it something you're going to want to reuse. Got it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I always have a donate box or two or three in a spot in our garage that is ready to be taken wherever it needs to go. The decision making, though, is where the real power is.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Okay, so at this point, we have removed trash, easy stuff and obvious donations, right? So we are down to things that at first glance, you're like, either yes, they go here or I have no idea on this item what to do, okay? So this is where my two decluttering questions come in.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
When I started this, I had seen lists, beautifully written lists of all kinds of questions to ask yourself about items and whether you wanna donate it or keep it. I had too much stuff in my house to ask myself 10 questions about everything. You know, besides those questions generally let my brain spin out, right? Like, like, do I love it? Well, yeah, I love all this stuff.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
You know, like, why would I have it in my house if I didn't love it? Right. You know, so... I couldn't ask myself those kinds of questions. So I came up with two questions. And if I can answer the first one, I don't even have to ask the second one. So the first question is, if I needed this item, where would I look for it first? Okay. It's really important that you ask exactly that question.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Where would I look for it first? It is an instinct question. Okay. OK, the word would is the key word. That means if I needed my headphones, where would I look for them first? It is literally the first drawer or cabinet that I would open today. even if I had no confidence they would be there. It is because something, it needs a home, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Like the whole place for everything and everything in its place that organized people say and think is so obvious. I was always like, what are y'all talking about? I don't have places for things like what? Like it just didn't make any sense in my brain. And so I had to come up with where would I look for it first? Because here's the thing.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
The beauty of putting something in the place where you would look for it first is that when you look for it, you find it in the first place where you look for it. Isn't that the goal that you've had all along wanting to be organized?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
What I used to do was think about where my grandma kept hers. Yeah. And think, okay, well, her house was always great. So I should put mine in the place. Yeah. But how many people say as a joke, or there's a Facebook meme or something that says, I got organized and now I can't find anything. Yes. Right? It's hard in the beginning because you don't trust yourself. Right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And this also is part of that accepting how I actually function as opposed to how organized people function. And I wish I was like them. Fingernail clippers were the thing when I came up with this question. As I was like... Everybody else in the whole wide world surely would put their fingernail clippers in the bathroom drawer because that's where they're supposed to go, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But in my family, whenever somebody is looking for fingernail clippers, they look in this junk drawer that's like on the edge of the kitchen. That is just our reality. And I said, you know what? I would rather have things be in the first place where we look than... try to be like other people and never be able to find anything in my house.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
That's great. If that's where you look first, that's where they should be. But then there's the second part of the question, which is not actually a question, but is actually the key to my no mess progress and only progress decluttering process. Okay. And that is when you answer that question, where would I look for this first? Take it there now. No piles.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Because before I would step away for an hour or three weeks or whatever. And those neat little piles where I had totally made all these decisions, those neat little piles now morph into one big pile outside the space that I was initially decluttering. So my house looks worse than it did before. Yes. People... get all worked up over this.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Like they are like, no, but that's can't be the most efficient way. And yet in the end it is. So here's the deal. I used to make all these piles. I would be like, okay, this is the stuff that goes to the kid's room. This goes to the garage. Yes. This goes to the bathroom. Yes. And when I'm done. Yes. I will go deliver all these things through the house.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And that makes so much more sense than taking it there right now. Yes. But that's how things work in an ideal world where I don't get distracted in the midst of a project. I don't stop halfway through. Nobody starts bleeding, right? Like I just... That's the ideal world. I don't live in an ideal world. Okay. So I decided I'm going to go ahead and take it there right now. No piles.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
When I do that... I can stop. I'm accepting the fact that I will get distracted or life will happen. I can stop at some point and the space is only better. It is never worse. I have never created a bigger mess. I'm taking one item at a time. Making a final decision on it. And I'm acting on that final decision. So it's either gone in the trash bag. It's gone to it's already established home.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
It has gone in the donate box, or I have established a home by asking myself, where would I look for this first? And then I take it there now. Okay. So that's the key to all of this and people will resist it. Wow. And then I'll say, just try it. And then they will try it. And then they will email me and say, I cannot believe the difference.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I cannot believe I have actually made real progress decluttering for the first time in my life. It's working like it's changing my house because of that. Go ahead and take it there right now. But people don't like it, but it's still.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So all of those questions that you have in your mind, those are the natural questions that people think they need to ask when they're decluttering. I don't ask those questions. I stick to the facts. Okay. And so my process leads me through and helps me make those decisions, but without all of the emotions, because I brought all this stuff into my house because I saw the value in it. Right.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And so before when I would declutter, I would make value decision after value decision, which is exhausting. Right. It's so emotionally exhausting. And I know it is that then I would put off decluttering because I was like, I don't have it in me to make those kind of decisions today. Right. Like so instead I say, OK, if I needed this item, where would I look for it first?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And then I take it there now. And then I look at that space. And sometimes this is a common question people have is like, what do I do when that space is its own big decluttered mess? All I'm going to do is I'm going to not leave that space any worse. And I'm going to say, what am I willing to get rid of from this messy space where I would look for this item first?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
What am I willing to get rid of from here that will create the space that I need for this item? And so it helps me instead of saying, does this thing have value? I say, is there a space for it? Can I just give you an example?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Well, okay. Is this normal? Yes. What you just described is your brain spinning out. Yes. That is exactly how my brain worked. Everything you said made sense to me. I get it. Right. And yet when I thought that way, my house was a disaster and I was frustrated with it. And I had all those feelings of what is wrong with me. Yeah. Okay. So, so I mean, I,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I hate to just be like, let's go back to the process, except that... No, let's go back to the process. The process is what talks you through all of this. Okay. Okay. So the second decluttering question that I only ask myself, it's my first response to where would I look for this first, whether it's about the jacket, whether it's about a stapler, whatever.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
If I look at the item and I'm like, where would I look for this first? And my answer is... you know, like, okay. Then I asked myself the question, if I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already had one? Okay. We're not going to bring the scenario into it. We're just going to ask the fact based question. If I needed this jacket, Would it occur to me that we already had one?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And it's tough because you're holding it in your hand, right? Like it's there. It's in front of you. I had to make progress in my home. I had to get stuff out of my house, right? So I had to make these hard calls and say, I'm going to be honest. If I needed this, would it occur to me that I already had one?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Because I didn't have a place where I would look for it first, which means I would not have even gone looking for it. Instead, I would have done without, you know, we would have said, hey, here's six sweatshirts, kid who forgot your coat, right? Or, hey, let's run by the store and grab one, you know, or whatever. Yeah. Those are both valid options.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
That right there is me saying, this is my reality check. I'm going to stick it in the donate box. Wow.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already had one?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
You didn't make a decision. Uh-oh. You... asked yourself a question that revealed your instinct of where you would look for it first. Sorry. No, no, no. Great, great, great.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
If that's the place where you would look for it first, then you put it there. But if there is no thing there, like there's no place for it, but there's a pile of other stuff. Okay. I'm not going to leave that any worse. So what am I willing to get rid of in order to make room for this jacket? Which... Often, which means something is leaving your house, right?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So you are decluttering, but often it will help you realize, oh, wait. there's not actually a good place for this here. Or wait, I'm not willing to get rid of any of this stuff in order for this jacket to stay. And it will help you realize, oh, I can just donate this item.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
But if you don't take it there now, you're living in this land of hypotheses. I'm still thinking about the damn jacket. Right now. You're like, oh, oh, I'm going to put it down there. Yeah, I'll make a space down there. Yes, yes. But you're not dealing with the reality of the actual space.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
You're not dealing with the reality of if I take it down to this spot and then I realized this spot is full of spiders and all this stuff. And I don't want to leave a jacket down here. You know what I mean? Like, but when I go there, it forces me into that reality. So much of what I do, probably 100%, honestly, of what I do is just... A process that helps me accept reality.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Reality about myself, reality about my stuff, reality about my space, all that. I love this.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
So you know how when you get sick from some kind of a food, And then you never want to eat that food again. It's because you had a negative experience with it. That's the beauty of decluttering. There's a big difference in what you see at the store or the garage sale. You'll start to see it as future clutter and it will naturally...
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
keep you from bringing things into your house because of the pain and just the physical effort that you've put out decluttering.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
The first thing I would do is tell a little story about my husband. He was very nice and sweet about it. But he just said, he said, I hope you don't take this the wrong way. But I've realized that there, it's like there actually is something wrong with you.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
And I was so happy that he said that to me because what he was saying was, because he went on to say, I've realized you don't do this on purpose. This is not, you are not refusing to close the cabinet doors. You just literally don't notice whether they're open or closed. You are not putting something down thinking, oh, he will get rid of that later. You don't realize it.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I've realized this is how your brain works. And I was like, thank you. Exactly. It comes down to that clutter threshold. And remember, you're probably not going to help the other person do better in these types of things by organizing. You're going to help them by organizing. decluttering, even some of your own stuff in that common area.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Not to start. I recommend that whoever is listening to me, you're the one who cares enough to be listening to this podcast right now. And so you go ahead and... Deal with your own stuff. Like don't start with the other person's stuff. That is a recipe for disaster. And yet their stuff is more obviously clutter, right? But start with your own stuff first and neutral stuff in visible spaces.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
As you do that and your family starts to see, it's so much easier to live in our house with less stuff. Then other people start to get on board. Their view of stuff and clutter starts to change.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Yeah. So my five-step process specifically, purposefully does not use emotions to declutter. Right. Because I was so emotionally attached to my stuff, either because it represented who I thought I was going to be someday or who I had been in the past or, you know, just sentimental things that people had given me.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
As you start with these things and you make visible progress before you've ever even dealt with anything that has emotion attached to it, is you see the progress that you're making and you realize,
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I mean, it's you're where you are. You have the makeup products all over the counter and you think that that's what I want. Those images on Instagram and it looks like a magazine. Yes. Are we ready for me to tell you what the difference is?
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Here's the reality. Organizing and decluttering are separate things. They are not the same thing, but I always thought they were the same thing. I would look around at my mess and I would think I have got to get organized. Yes. Because that logically makes sense, right? Yes. But the problem was I would buy a bunch of products, bring them into my house.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
The organizing energy was gone by the time I got home and I just dropped them by the back door and they turned into more clutter. So it never made a real impact on my house. I was at such a rock bottom point I honestly thought I was giving up by saying, I don't even have it in me to get organized. I am just going to declutter. Wow. In my mind, I thought, that's how bad I am.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
I've just got to declutter. I can't even think about organizing yet. Decluttering changed everything in my home. So the beauty of realizing that organizing and decluttering are not the same thing and that you can just declutter and that just decluttering will change everything, it's just starting to get stuff out of your house.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
Yes. You need to declutter. Decluttering is everything. When I decluttered, then I knew what I had. I knew where it was. I could get to it easily. I could access it easily because I'd gotten rid of all that extra stuff so that when I opened the cabinet, I just saw what I needed and I could get to it without moving 15 things.
The Mel Robbins Podcast
How To Declutter Your Home: 5 Tips That Actually Work
decluttering made my house look better function better feel better it was the thing i had been needing that i didn't know i needed i thought i needed to get organized so what is the difference between decluttering and organizing In my mind, organizing was bins and boxes and systems and all these things that I would look at those images on Instagram of the color coded things.