Diana Rene 0:06

You're listening to the Decluttered Mom Podcast, a podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, Diana Rene. And in twenty seventeen, I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home. Okay, not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. 

Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings, and I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system, and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks, and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Decluttered Mom podcast. I want to first apologize for the sound quality, and this episode is probably not the best. I am recording in my car. It is very cold out, which is not normal for Denver, Colorado. You'd think it would be in January, but it has not been this year. This winter has been insanely warm. It's been the weirdest thing. Anyway, so I'm wearing my crinkly coat. 

I was like, I should probably take this off for the podcast. And I was like, but I am very cold. So if you hear it, I just I just need to apologize. Otherwise, I will not be able to think straight if I am that cold. And I don't have my mic with me. I thought I grabbed it, but I did not. And so here we are. I just want to still make sure I get my episodes to you.

I was thinking about something as I was driving. So I literally just pulled over into a parking lot and decided to just hit record while it was fresh on my mind. And the thing I wanted to chat with you about today was because it's January, it's it's early January right now, we are in a season where we are wanting to reset in many ways, in many aspects of our life, right? Not just in our home, but a lot of times with how we eat or how we move or how we parent or all of the things. 

It feels like a renewed season when we are starting a brand new year. And oftentimes what I see happen is people will go into a renew type season. Um, and when it comes to their home, they will think, okay, I just need to get organized. Can you relate? Raise your hand, yes or no.

That is something that I hear constantly from people in my DMs. Is like, I like my house is a mess. I just feel like I never know where anything is. I can never keep it like neat and tidy. My kids never know where to find anything. Like I just need to get organized. And like I get it. Like I understand why someone has that feeling because I had that feeling for many, many years. 

And so when I was like in the throes of just overwhelm in my home, when I just had so much mess and I never knew where anything was, and I felt like I was always cleaning and nothing ever stayed clean. Um, and there were piles everywhere, and like our floors felt like they were covered, our counters felt like they were covered, like everything felt crazy and chaotic.

My first thought was I just need to get organized. And so I would watch YouTube, I would go to the library and borrow books, I would talk to friends, I would look on Instagram, I would look on Facebook, like I would do Pinterest. Pinterest is another one, a big one, actually. Um, I would just look everywhere for like how to get organized, how to organize a playroom, how to organize my kitchen, how to organize my paperwork. And like I just would constantly be looking at how to organize things. And then the other thing I would always constantly try to do is get better at cleaning. 

Like I I if this is the first time you're hearing this podcast and you don't know this, but if you've been listening for any time, you probably know that I am a naturally messy person. I am not like a type A color-coded um by nature person. I am totally type B, maybe type C, if that's a thing. Is that a thing? I don't even know. I'm I am a I have ADHD. I just have always been a very naturally messy person by nature. Like that's just how my brain operates.

And so I have always felt like I was quote unquote bad at cleaning. Like my mom taught me how to clean when I was a kid. We had chores, um, but I felt like I was always really bad at them. I felt like I didn't like maybe I just needed a new system. Maybe if I just learned how to clean better, my house would be cleaner, which again feels logical, right? Like, yes, I totally understand where those thoughts come from and why they come up, and then why they feel good to start planning because um it's like a dopamine hit, especially with organizing. 

Yeah, well, and cleaning. I mean, it's like if you like YouTube something with cleaning, and then you find um like a YouTuber that you really connect with, and she shows you how to make your shower like sparkly clean with way less effort than you're used to, and you go and do that, and you now have this very sparkly clean shower with little effort, you have a huge dopamine rush, right? Like your brain is like, Yes, give me more of this. And so it's easy to think that heck yeah, man, this is the solution.

And then with organizing, like if you go out and you buy like$100 worth of organizing bins and you come home and you put things in them and you like take everything else out, even though you don't really know where to put it, it feels good to like look at those pretty bins for a few minutes, even though deep down you know they're probably not gonna be sustainable like that, right? Like give yourself three weeks, maybe four weeks, and you come back and there's like random things in the bin, stuff in there that aren't supposed to be in there, and it doesn't really look or feel pretty anymore, and it's actually turns into a stressor, right? 

So am I saying it's bad to clean? No, absolutely not. Am I saying it's bad to organize? No, absolutely not. As far as cleaning goes, we should absolutely be keeping like a baseline of cleaning our home, right? I mean, obviously for sanitary reasons, but um, it's obviously, of course, nicer to be in a home that feels cleaner. However, it is really hard to clean when you have clutter.

Like, think about if you've ever hired someone to come over and clean your home, what do you do? What do you do before they come? You mad rush, pick up everything, and you feel like you're quote unquote cleaning your home before anyone ever cleans your home, right? Because you have so much stuff to clear for them to even be able to clean. 

They can't clear your kitchen if you have piles and piles of stuff all over and dishes in the counter and dishes on the in the sink, um, and paperwork and crafts and hair products and pantry ingredients that were left right. Can't do it. You can't clean a countertop unless everything else is put away first. And so when we have too much stuff on all of our surfaces in every area of our home, it becomes really hard to even maintain a cleaning schedule. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't clean. I'm saying you shouldn't start with overhauling your cleaning system when you are feeling overwhelmed in your home.

​And then as far as organizing, I'm not saying you should never organize. However, it is impossible to organize clutter. And so we really have to first declutter ruthlessly if we want any of our organizational systems to actually work. If we want to put to good use the hundreds of dollars we likely will spend on organizational containers and gadgets over the years, uh we want to make sure that we can actually use them to their fullest and that they actually work within our home and within our family structure, right? And so the first thing if you are feeling overwhelmed in your home is to focus on decluttering. 

And yes, of course you're hearing this from me, right? But I just think it's so much easier to begin with that. If you want to save yourself time, if you want to save yourself energy, if you want to save yourself frustration, do not start with a cleaning overhaul or an organizing overhaul. Start with a stuff overhaul. Start with decluttering.

Now, if you are not sure where to even begin, um I do have a free guide I would love to share with you. It's called the declutter without thinking guide. Um, it's gonna give you 15 things to just go toss now without thinking, because a lot of times with decluttering, we overthink, right? We pick something up and we just like aren't sure if we should let it go or if we should trash it or donate it or should we hold on to this. Um, and so these are 15 things that you can just get it rid of now. 

You don't even have to think about it. You can just go grab it. Um, the link is gonna be in the show notes for you. You can go grab it and you can just do it today. It'll take you maybe 10 minutes and you'll start to feel better already in your home just by taking action and kickstarting that momentum, right?

And so again, I was like I said, I was driving, I was like, I gotta just pull over. I'm sitting in some random vet clinic parking lot talking to you because I really just would hate for you to waste the precious small amount of time you actually have, like free time you have as a busy mom, wasting it on solutions that are not going to be helpful for you in the long run and probably not really even in the short run either. 

Okay. All right. I am so happy you are here listening. If any of my episodes resonate with you, the biggest thank you you can ever give me is sharing it with friends. The podcast algorithm is an interesting thing that we are still learning even four years later. Oh my gosh, that just hit me. We have been doing this podcast since 2022. That is insane. Why did I think it was like a year? That's not true. Time feels not real right now. I don't know if anyone else can relate, but four years. Wow.

The podcast algorithm is unlike any other uh like any social media algorithm. And so we have found that the best thing you can do to get us to show up for other busy moms that are searching for solutions and help within the home is number one, just sharing it. Um, and number two is leaving a review. So if you are so inclined, I would be so grateful. But otherwise, we will see you uh next week's episode. 

Thanks for hanging out and listening to the Decluttered Mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories. 

And if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me @the.decluttered.mom and send me a DM to say hi. I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.