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 2017, 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. We are just a few days at the end of the year, right before New Year's.

I feel like I say this every year and I feel like I say it more and more as I get older, but I don't know where this year went. I don't understand how the year went by so fast. I don't understand how it's almost 2026.

And I don't know, maybe you're feeling that way too, or maybe you're not. Maybe you're like, this has been the longest year of my life. I don't know.

But for me, 2025 has been a year. It's not been the best year for me, but it does feel like it has gone really fast. So anyway, today I want to talk about New Year's energy.

And what I mean by that is we all know that going into the new year, it's really easy to set resolutions and to think like New Year, new me, and all of that. And there's a lot of messaging out there that's like, don't listen to that. Like, just be yourself.

And yes, be yourself. I agree. However, I love New Year's because I like to take advantage of that energy.

I think it's natural to gravitate towards like fresh starts. Anytime we're feeling overwhelmed or frustrated with anything, a fresh start, even if it's just this fictitious day that, you know, starts a new year and tricks our brain into believing that we have a fresh start. Sign me up, right? Like, heck yeah.

If I can trick my brain into thinking I have a fresh start at anything, I'm feeling frustrated or overwhelmed or behind in, then yes, I will use that to my advantage day in and day out. And will I have set all of my resolutions and by mid-February not have done many of them? Maybe.

But when it comes to our home, this is one of the best times of the year to declutter because we can harness that energy if we do it in a smart way.

So if you are like, heck yeah, I'm going all in. This is the year that my house is going to run well. I'm not going to have any clutter. There's never going to be a mess. I'm going to know where everything is. I'm going to be super organized. Everything about my house is going to be amazing and perfect.

And you start January 1st and you go in and try to overhaul your entire closet. I wish you could see me right now, but it's just not going to work.

It won't work. You will get overwhelmed. You will get burnt out.

You will get frustrated because you don't know how to handle sentimental items in your home and you don't know whether to get rid of it or not. And you don't know if like this is a gift and maybe I shouldn't give it away. And that makes me feel like a bad person.

And like maybe if I, you know, go to the gym like five times a week, I can wear this dress again or whatever it is.

If we just jump into like really tough spaces and we spend like just hours and hours and hours, we probably will burn out. And we probably, it won't even take like mid-February. It'll probably be like mid-January and you will be done with it.

And you'll be back here December 2026 saying like, let's go, let's do it again. I don't want that for you, right?

So every year we do a five day free decluttering challenge. We normally do it twice a year. I don't know if we're going to do it twice this year. We might just do it in January because I have so many new things I want to try for the business in 2026.

But we have had this challenge every year since 2019. I take that back. We did do it in 2018, but in the fall.

So like 2019, January 1st was the first time we did this in January. And we have done it every year since, which is kind of crazy.

Um, and we have had over 100,000 people go through this five day challenge, which again is crazy, but we have it down to a science.

That's what I'm trying to say is that we have perfected this, how to get started in the way that doesn't kill momentum, but fuels it in a way that makes you feel so good in your home that you just want to keep going.

And in a way that you're not spending hours and you're not diving into things that are too hard for you emotionally, or you just don't have that like decluttering muscle yet. Right.

So this takes like 15 minutes a day for five days. And I always say, if you can give me 15 minutes a day for those five days, you will be well on your way to transforming your home because you will have built this momentum and this, gosh, how do I put this?

You will have made specific spaces in your home feel so different that you have to keep going, right? Like family members notice and you notice most importantly. And so it's just, it's really exciting.

It's the most busy time of year for me personally and professionally, because like I said, we've had over 100,000 people do this challenge. So you can imagine like coordinating and navigating. And there's always some type of tech issue.

We like broke our email system basically one year because we had so many people emailing because one email didn't get delivered. And like, it's just kind of crazy. So it's a very, very busy week for me in the business.

And then also I have three birthdays in my home right after Christmas. So it was very busy personally also.

And we're in that like haze between Christmas and New Year's. There's no haze here in this house because I have to be ready. I have to be ready for birthdays and I have to be ready for the challenge.

So the challenge is not meant to overwhelm you. And like I said, because we've done it for so many years, we've tweaked it over time. And we've just gotten it to a point where it just works. It just works really well.

And so my message to you today is that if you are feeling overwhelmed in your home, if you're feeling frustrated with your home, if you're feeling like you are always decluttering or you are always cleaning or you are always organizing and nothing looks different, or maybe it does for like a day or two or a week or two. But after that, it just goes right back. And you're sick and tired of trying to figure it out, then this challenge is for you.

And so the link is going to be in the show notes. And I purposely wanted to keep today's episode really, really short just as an encouragement to you.

Whether you do the challenge with us or not, I hope you will harness some of that like New Year energy, fresh start energy into something that you are excited about.

And something also, which is kind of ironic because I'm running a decluttering challenge where we're taking things away. But something for me that I really like to focus on for New Year's is like what can I add that I enjoy versus like what can I take away?

Which I guess decluttering works in a weird way with that because it makes us enjoy our home better.

But for example, I really love reading and I just have not given myself the time to do it. I end up scrolling on TikTok or Instagram way more than I'd like to when I do have the time.

And so I'm setting a reading goal for 2026. And both of my girls are, they did it last year and they both hit their goal, one in September and one in October.

So they hit it early. So the three of us are going to do it together. And I think that makes it extra fun too because I don't want to let them down.

We can hold each other accountable, but it's just kind of like a fun shared goal.

But it also like we're going to print out sheets and put them on our walls and we color in the book when we are finished with the book. And so it's something I enjoy.

I'm adding it in versus like taking something away that I enjoy in order to achieve a different goal. And obviously we have different life circumstances where we have to do that. But I have found when it comes to New Year's resolutions that that's been really helpful for me.

So I hope you will join us. We start January 1st, five days. And like I said, 15 minutes a day.

And you can sign up in the link in the show notes. You can also, if you're on Instagram, you can DM me the word, I guess not a word, DM me 2026, just 2026, like the year 2026. And you can register for it in DMs with my automation that I have on Instagram.

You can do it that way as well, if you would prefer. So either way, it's totally free. We'd love to have you.

And I hope we will see you guys in the challenge. But either way, we will see you back on the podcast for the first episode of 2026 next Tuesday.

Thanks for hanging out and listening to the Decluttered Mom podcast.

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I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.