Chapter 1: What freedom can decluttering bring to your home?
Hello and welcome to the Art of Decluttering podcast. I'm your host, Amy Revell. It is awesome to be back with you this week and just continuing this conversation that we've been having for years now about how to declutter and organize your home.
The reason that we continue to have this conversation and the reason I bring this podcast to you every single week is because there is true freedom to be found in having a home that is not overwhelmed by clutter, that is not rained by clutter, that you walk in and there's like this freedom. And you're like, okay, this is a house I want to live in.
I don't feel like I'm bound by clutter, ruled by clutter. It's not controlling my decisions.
And I want you to experience that freedom. Now, for some of you, you experience that freedom after 50 episodes and some of you are brand new and you're just starting to get a hold of it now. So I'm just going to keep turning up and sharing this stuff with you because it's made a huge difference in my life and I want it to make a difference in yours.
We're in clients' homes every single day of the week. And so we see, my team are out there and we see the transformation that happens when people relinquish the control that stuff has. And so today I want to talk to you about a little book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organizing Your Stuff by Georgene Lockwood.
Now, some of you may have read this book, but within it are the 10 laws of stuff. And I want to just quickly go through the 10, but I want to pick out a couple that I want to deep dive with you today. I think they're relevant. I think they're helpful. And sometimes just having another person's insight and view into our world of stuff is really helpful.
So let me read to you these 10 different laws of stuff. The first one is the more you have, the more you need. All right, we're going to deep dive into that one. Number two, useless stuff crowds out the good stuff. And I think that is really relevant for calendars and our thinking and our processing as well as our homes. Number three is dirt and bugs love stuff. I mean, amen.
adjusted intake with a client who's like, yeah, there are mice and say like, yes, yes, yes. Stuff stays where you put it is number four. Number five is stuff multiplies to fill the space that you give it. We're going to deep dive into that and learn a little bit about Parkinson's law in that. The next one is over time, you just don't see your stuff.
And you know, I've talked about that quite a few times. We're Number, I don't really know what number we're up to. We're up to something. When you have a lot of stuff, you have to pay for it over and over. So, you know, thinking about the fact that you pay to purchase it, you pay to keep it, you pay to store it, you pay to look after it. And it's just, that's just the money side of it.
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Chapter 2: What are the 10 laws of stuff and why are they important?
The other way that stuff, the more you have, the more you need, is the more you have, the more containers that you need. The more containers that you have, the more storage furniture that you need. The more storage furniture you have, you might feel like you need a bigger house. And so what might just start is like buying some extra kitchen appliances and
all of a sudden ends in a conversation where you're saying, I just think this house is too small for us. And if we look back over history, we are living in the biggest houses in history and we've got more stuff than anyone has ever had before. And so we're just increasing the size of the container, the cupboard, the storage, the room, the house. And so the more that you have,
the more that you need. And I think that's a really, it's a great first point. And I am all there with you, Georgine. Number two, useless stuff crowds out the good stuff. And I see this all the time with clients is because they've got a large quantity, they kind of attribute a value to the whole. And it might be, I've got all these letters from high school and and they're really important.
And then they might say, I don't want to go through this. You say, well, can we just see if there's a few things we might be able to get rid of? And as you start to go through it, you can actually separate what's really important versus like just
you know, a random letter of like, at PE next class, let's be on the same basketball team or whatever it is, is you lose all the really important things. And so we find that with like mementos, like I'm talking about, and it might be you've got a whole box of stuff from a trip you did to Europe when you were maybe younger.
You got this big box of ticket stubs and brochures and, but actually within it, maybe it's two or three really important things that you remind you of that trip. And then I see that when people have their shelves full or photos all over the walls or books all on the bookshelf.
So when you have too much, the good, the excellent, the things that you actually want to remember, that you want to pay tribute to, that are these mementos that are important to you, part of your story, get lost amongst everything because sometimes we just pile it all in together and think, no, that is too important. I can't get rid of any photos. But the truth is maybe you can get rid of photos.
You can get rid of the duplicates.
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Chapter 3: How does having more stuff lead to needing more?
You can get rid of the blurries. You can get rid of the scenery photos. But you've actually got some really special ones in there. So when you have too much stuff, it's hard to know what that beautiful good thing is that you want to keep is. The next one I want to deep dive into is stuff multiplies to fill the space that you have. stuff multiplies to fill the space that you have.
So there's a law called Parkinson's law. And the idea is that work will always expand to fill the space that you give it. You might have found this when you're studying or when you're preparing a workshop for work or you're doing something that's like you've got to get a project done. If you give yourself four weeks, it will take four weeks.
If you give yourself four hours, it will take four hours. And so this is kind of like we just expand things to fill the space that we're given. And then Parkinson's law, I think, really does apply to our homes because What I see often is people are really uncomfortable with empty spaces. And so your stuff will expand to fill the space that you give it.
If you have lots of bookshelves, you automatically kind of assume, well, I need to fill it with books. And so sometimes a step that you can take in decluttering is to get rid of the thing that holds the stuff. So it might be getting rid of a toy box or getting rid of a bookshelf or getting rid of a bedside table or getting rid of an extra set of drawers that you have in the laundry.
When you get rid of them, you're like, well, now I don't have the space. Now I have to make a decision about the stuff that was in it.
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Chapter 4: How do dirt and bugs relate to clutter?
Because when you have those containers and drawers and shelves and all of that stuff, you will naturally fill it. It's just one of these laws of South Parkinson's law. If you have the space available, you're most likely going to fill it. But this is exciting because Parkinson's law also applies if you downsize.
If you give it less bookshelves, less toy boxes, less drawers that you're filling, a smaller house, you also naturally expand and contract to fit it. So if you do decide to downsize, it makes sense then that you would look at it and go, well, I have to get rid of some stuff because you understand this law that stuff will fill the amount of space that you give it. When you give it less space,
I mean, you have to declutter, right? Because there's nowhere else to put it. So Parkinson's law is a good one. It's a principle I often talk to clients about because it has real life application and it's easy to see. It's easy to kind of picture and go, yeah, you're right. Whenever I have an empty drawer, I think, what can I put in here? An empty cupboard is like, oh, what can I store in here?
And that principle applies right across any kind of your organizational stuff and just creates clutter if you've got too much space.
Next one is over time you don't see your stuff and we talk about this being like you become visually unable to see what's in front of you so it's kind of like this invisible clutter because you no longer can notice all the things and sometimes it's not until someone important comes to your house maybe it's your mother-in-law and you're just like oh I'm really conscious or a new friend or your kids bring someone over from school and you look at your house with fresh eyes.
I think looking at your house with fresh eyes, and I'll link in the show notes to the episode around this, is really important to just wander, wander through your house and see it with fresh eyes. What's up on the walls that you forgot you put there? What's on the floor? What's leaning against the walls? What doesn't really have a home?
Because we come so just used to seeing it and it's the same thing all the time, you may not notice that you have a pair of shoes that have been sitting at the back door for three years that nobody owns because they're just always there so you stop seeing it.
It's a really smart thing our brain does because if we were to take in every little piece of information that comes, we'd be overloaded all the time. So our brain filters a lot of that out and it just becomes this background noise. So over time you don't see your stuff. One of the solutions to that is to look at things with fresh eyes.
The next one I want to talk about is stuff is valuable only if you use it. One of the biggest challenges that people talk to me about when it comes to getting rid of things is that costs me a lot of money, that's worth a lot of money, or that could be worth a lot of money to someone else.
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Chapter 5: Why does useless stuff crowd out what matters?
So maybe it is time to donate it or maybe you can take it to cash converters. But the value of the item is really how it's serving you, how it's making your life easier, how it's bringing you enjoyment, how it's, you know, helping you create memories. It's not about that little dollar value that you paid or you hope that somebody else will pay for it one day. And this one is really important.
Stuff can't buy happiness. I mean, isn't that true? We've all seen the shows and known people who just keep filling their lives with stuff, hoping it'll make them happy. And maybe for the moment when they purchase it, there is that like that dopamine hit and they go these rush and they're so excited. I've been to houses often where the rush is in the purchase and
And when the parcel arrives at the house, I don't even open it. And there's often a pile of unopened Amazon or delivery parcels because they've got this, like, it's going to make me happy. And maybe it made them happy for the three minutes while they were purchasing it. And by the time it arrives, the shine has worn off and they're no longer interested in it.
And it doesn't bring them happiness anymore. And so if you're not happy intrinsically in who you are and the life you've created and the values that you have, buying more stuff is absolutely 100% not going to make you happier. I think when people say money can't buy happiness, I think actually money can buy happiness.
There are some really great things that you can invest your money in that will make you happy. But content, happy with where your life is at, having your good values and friends and people around you, that stuff is really important. So I want to encourage you that if you're trying to buy stuff to make you happy, stop. And have a think about your values.
Have a think about what you're actually wanting and what will get you there. Because more likely than not, it's not jumping on Timu. It's not purchasing some things that you thought, oh, I should really buy that. But it is about having that true, genuine settledness and happiness in yourself, not just from buying stuff. I hope that's helpful. I just wanted to flick through a few of those.
I could have gone into more of them, but I'll put the list of the 10 in the show notes for you to have a look at. And if you want to purchase the book, I'll put a link to that so you can purchase it on, maybe we'll go Amazon on there as well. But have a think, like there's these things that are intrinsically true about stuff.
And when you're aware of them, it helps you to make way better decisions. I hope that's helpful. If you've got an idea for an episode, please let me know. This was a listener request. Someone sent this to me and said, hey, I think this would be awesome to cover on the podcast. So send them through to me. You can send them on Instagram or Facebook or email, whoever you like.
And I will put them on my list of topics to get to. So until next week, enjoy the freedom.
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