top of page
amy-talking-into-podcast-mic_desktop (1) (4) (2) (1).jpg

ORGANIZING WITH EASE PODCAST

Screenshot 2024-09-27 153713 (1) (1).png
Screenshot 2024-09-27 153713 (1) (2).png
Screenshot 2024-09-27 153713 (1) (3).png
amy-talking-into-podcast-mic_desktop (1) (3) (1) (1) (1).jpg

ORGANIZING WITH EASE PODCAST

Screenshot 2024-09-27 153713 (1) (1).png
Screenshot 2024-09-27 153713 (1) (2).png
Screenshot 2024-09-27 153713 (1) (3).png

Episode #126 - Simplify Your Space: Declutter Before the Holidays

Welcome to Organizing with These, where we simplify and organize our lives for the better. I'm Deanna Mall, your host, here to guide you towards a more organized and enriching life. Together, let's explore practical strategies, inspiring stories, and expert advice to simplify every aspect of our lives. Are you ready to embark on this journey with ease? Let's start.


Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Organizing with Ease. I've got some exciting news for you. So you ready? Especially, if you've been feeling overwhelmed by clutter or struggling to just stay organized with your busy schedule.


I'm hosting a free live workshop called transform your habits and home one step at a time, and it's happening Tuesday, October 8th at 12 PM EST. This workshop is specifically designed for the busy moms and professionals or even those who just want a practical strategies to declutter their homes and create sustainable organizing systems. In the workshop, I'll be teaching you my fresh start method, which is the step by step system to help you take control of your space. Whether it's one room or your whole home, this method focuses on building, organizing habits that will actually work for your lifestyle without feeling overwhelmed. Now what are the benefits, you're probably asking?


Well, you're gonna learn some time staving staving strategies. You're gonna set up some simple organizing systems. Leave a with a clear actionable plan to transform your home into a calm functional space. And as a bonus, once you sign up, you'll receive a free habit tracker and a mini version of the fresh start workbook to kick start your organizing journey. The workshop again is happening on Tuesday, October 8th at 12 PM EST.


So mark your calendars. You don't wanna miss this opportunity to finally get organized and simplify your life. The sign up link is in my show notes, so be sure to reserve your spot today. And, again, you definitely wanna stay till the end because there is an extra special bonus at the end. Alright.


Now you ready? Let's jump into today's episode, But don't forget to stay tuned for more tips on how to start organizing your home one step at a time. Hello, my friend. Welcome back to Organizing with Ease. I'm your host, Deanna Moll, and I'm thrilled to kick off our October focus, Simplify, streamline, and succeed series.


Over the next 5 weeks, we'll explore how to prepare your home and life for the holiday season while keeping it simple and, yes, stress free. Today, we're diving into simplifying your space before the holiday rush. By decluttering and getting organized now, you'll be setting yourself up for a smoother, more enjoyable holiday season. As always, we'll be using the fresh start method to guide you through this process, showing how these steps create lasting habits to help you stay organized, not just through the holidays, but beyond into the new year. If this is your first time tuning in, I welcome you, and I'm so happy that you're here.


Let's get started. Why does simplifying now in the beginning of October really matter? It's because it's before the holiday season really kicks into full gear. When you're decluttering and simplifying your home, it can make all the difference in the world. Here's why.


I have 3 topics that I wanna talk about. Three short ones, but it's gonna make a big difference on for you to understand a little bit more. Alright? Number 1 is mental clarity. Clutter has shown to increase the stress levels and decrease focus.


Can we all agree on that? Yes. I think we can. Right? But once you start decluttering early, you create mental and physical space to breathe.


There you have it. Mental clarity. That's 1. Right? Number 2, making room for what matters.


The holidays always bring I don't know about you, but it just seems like the the core. Right? The influx of the decor, decorating the home, you know, going by each month for the theme, your guests are arriving, you get new gifts. If your space is already cluttered, it's going to feel a little bit overwhelming. Don't you agree?


Simplifying now creates room for those important holiday elements without adding stress of the clutter. How about that? Do you have any thought about that before? Making room for what matters. Number 3, setting the tone for the season.


A well organized home doesn't just happen and help you now. It's actually going to help you and make the entire holiday season so much more smoother. And you'll spend less time searching for things and more time enjoying your family, friends, and festivities. Because I don't know about you, but I know that when I have guests in the house, the last thing I wanna do is start cleaning up or organizing something where I could have had time to have done it before. So I'm asking you now just to take a mental note to see if you can start now by doing these steps so that you can really enjoy the holidays.


So now let's talk about how to make this decluttering and organizing so much easier. Right? So what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna go walk you through the Fresh Start Method and why this forms the habits that stick even during the business time busiest times of the year. Again, the Fresh Start Method isn't just a one time fix. It's designed to create systems that make staying organized feel natural, especially during the holidays when schedules are so packed.


I don't know about you, but my already October, November, and almost December, January are already packed. And stress levels can so rise automatically and you didn't even ask for it. Having these habits in place is essential to maintaining peace of mind. So here is how it works. We're gonna go through the find and the sort, which is the first step, which is always the hardest.


It's the step that involves identifying an area that needs attention. Now typically, it's the entryway, kitchen, guest room, or living room. Now these areas during the holidays, I don't know about you, but get a lot of use. So why don't we just start sorting things into categories? So let's just say I'm gonna take my guest room.


I already have already gone through this process, but I'm gonna go through it again. I did it over the summer. But, again, I do have a feeling that there's things that wound up in the back closet, which is in my guest room as I call it the back. Things that have no idea. But, you know, we have little other extra little people in the house that always like to now hide things and not put them in my office.


So you definitely wanna see what you'll need for the holidays. And if you're gonna actually use them, do you actually use it regularly? Do you use it every year? How is it being used? If the items are in good condition and serve you no purpose, no longer at all, then consider donating.


Let someone else enjoy it, and you can move on and free your space. One of the easiest decisions to make is, of course, if anything is broken, you cannot fix it. It's no longer useful for you. It doesn't serve its purpose. If it's torn, if it's broken, if it's shredded, if it has holes in it and it cannot be repaired, these are easy decisions of honestly just to discard.


So by sorting first, you're setting the foundation for a space that's functional and ready for the holiday. But the key is consistency. Forming a habit of routinely sorting through areas of your home will keep it clutter free, what, all year round. You heard me right. So here's a little bit of a tip.


You wanna set a timer using for 25 minutes using the Pomodoro method. If you haven't heard about this method, just hear me out. This method actually helps you focus at one area at a time with the timer. It helps prevent overwhelming being overwhelmed, and it builds the habit of decluttering regularly. I do use this method.


It is very helpful for me, especially when I'm working or I'm getting ready to do a presentation or I'm doing time blocking for writing of content, this method is a phenomenal. It is one with less, distractions, and I see end results. And that is what I want. I wanna see an end result after 25 minutes. You'll be amazed at how much work you can accomplish without any distraction.


Once you've sorted, the next step is to, yes, we want to redo. This is where we want to let go of things that really no longer serve you. Ask yourself a couple of these questions. Do I still love this item? Does it fit my lifestyle now?


Will it add any value to the holiday season this year? By making these evaluations a habit, you'll find that your home remains streamlined, making the holidays and your everyday life much more manageable. And that's, again, what we want. We wanna make your home manageable and not so overwhelming. So if you regularly evaluate what you have so your home doesn't get bogged down with unnecessary clutter, it makes you feel good.


Does it have you heard of using the 80 20 rule? It is where 80% of the time, we only use 20% of our things. Keep what serves you and let go of the rest. That's my tip. One of my tips for the day.


Now you've reduced the clutter. It's time to what? Systemize. Now during the holiday season, it can be so chaotic. So creating simple systems will make your life easier.


These could be ready. You designate a bin for holiday decor, making setup and tower down super easy. You might wanna create, a a shoe station or something along the way in your entryway to keep things tidy when guests arrive so that they have a place to put thing their things down when they walk inside. You want clear bins in the kitchen to organize any of your baking or your cooking essentials for the holiday meals so that if you have others that are in your kitchen needing to bake, you can guide them and direct them, and they'll be able to see and pick out what they need. By creating these systems and making them part of your routine, you'll keep your space functional and organized during the holiday rush.


Remember, you wanna it helped this method helps you think ahead. So instead of scrambling, you have everything in place. I do like to recommend, this is a tip, that you label bins if you can. Using baskets are also very easy, effective ways to systemize your home. Simple systems like these save you time and energy in the long run.


Lastly, the key to making those changes last is sustaining them, which is always the hardest step. I keep saying that the first step and the last step. It's so easy to clean and organize once you have regular maintenance set. It encourages you to keep your home clutter free throughout the holidays and what we want into the new year and beyond. Spend just 10 to 15 minutes at the end of each day tidying up.


It's a simple habit that keeps everything in place, preventing clutter from creeping back in because some some reason or another, it always does wind up. Things just kind of creep back up inside, and you're just not wondering how it got back inside the house. Are you shaking your head thinking, yeah. You're right. A lot of things keep creeping back.


But over time, this becomes second nature. It happened to me, remember, step by step, little by little, making organization effortless. So now, again, I mentioned the Pomodoro method. You can use this literally to stay on track and avoid burnout. This technique is so perfect for building habits because it what?


It breaks down tasks into manageable chunks. So I'll tell you how this works. You set a timer for 25 minutes. You work on one task. It could be for right now, we're talking about the holidays.


It could be organizing holiday decorations. It could be clearing out your entryway. It could be decluttering a guest room dresser drawer. Then you take a 5 minute break. And once the timer goes off after the 4, you do 4 of them, 4 promoderos.


Then take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes. By working in focused intervals, you make steady progress and avoid feeling overwhelmed. This helps reinforce the habit of consistent action, whether it's decluttering, organizing, or maintaining your space. Now that you understand how the fresh start method and the Promodaro method work together, are you seeing how they both work together? Let's talk about specific areas to focus on as you prepare for the holidays.


Again, the guest room is always the one that I always have to go to first just to make sure that since I'm hosting my guest, I want to make sure that the guest room is beautiful. So I remove anything that doesn't belong there. Again, it seems to always creep up. There we go. That word creeping up.


Old clothes or clothes that are not even mine that wind up in that back closet. Sometimes there's actually even storage boxes out there, and I don't know even know how because a lot of those boxes aren't even mine. Is any of this resonating with you or just random items? It just winds up in the guest room because it's just so convenient. It's that one stop before the garage.


Right? But, again, this is what we wanna keep is what was is only necessary for our guests. We wanna have the fresh linens. We wanna have the toiletries. Maybe even have, like, the the side nightstand pretty with some flowers, which I always do.


Check your closets. Then here, you can actually apply the 80 20 rule in your own closet. You wanna sort through your wardrobe. Let go of items you haven't worn in a year. You'll make space for those holiday outfits while ensuring your closet stays organized for the season.


Now you're now you're thinking, okay. Now you're you're talking too much, Diana. You've you're giving me, like, these 4 areas, and I don't have that much time to do it. But what you wanna do is you wanna pick and choose. But again, for the holidays, you definitely would like to look at the more the 4 busiest and most used areas of your home, again, which is the guest room, if you have your guest, the closets, kitchen and pantry, and entryway and living room.


Your kitchen will likely see probably the the most use of all during the holidays. So if you declutter and organize now by what I mean by, like, go through your, baking supplies, get those holiday meal ingredients, serving dishes, clear out all those expired pantry items, you're probably saying, well, I've already done that. Well, do it one more time because you just never know. You might have overlooked a couple of those pumpkin pumpkin pies or those other other needed, items for your holiday ingredients. These are, again, entryway and living room.


These are high traffic areas as well as the kitchen and pantry and guest rooms during the holidays, so you definitely wanna keep them clutter free. You can use baskets or bins to organize shoes, bags. You can actually even have if you have your throw blankets, you might wanna put them in there as well. In the living room, clear off surfaces to make room for the holiday decor. I don't know about you, but holiday decor always seems to take a lot of space.


So you definitely wanna make room for that so that you can be able to proudly display the beautiful change of the season and the feel of the new fresh season that it a lies ahead. So this week's challenge is to choose one key area of your home. Apply the fresh start method to simplify it. So here's how. I'm gonna tell you how.


Ready? You're gonna set your timer using the Pomodoro method. Start with 25 minutes, and then take a break, and then go back. You want to sort and reduce. You want to focus on clearing out what you no longer need and make room.


So for what? That holiday decor and those new gifts that you might be getting for the holidays. You wanna systemize. You wanna create a simple system that will help you keep the area organized throughout the holidays. Sustaining it.


Commit to tidying up the area for just 10 minutes each evening to keep it in order. So that's, again, the hardest part. So the first part is to actually get going. You wanna start. The last one is to sustain it, which is where you are committing yourself to tidying up these areas just for 10 minutes.


You wanna pick it up, pick up you know, fluff up those pillows, wipe down those kitchen counters. All of these things make such a difference so that on the next day, it's all in order when you wake up. Remember, it's not about perfection. It's about progress and creating lasting habits that will serve you not just during the holiday season, but year round. That wraps up today's episode by using the fresh start method and the Pomodoro method.


You'll simplify your home and create lasting habits that will make this holiday season so much more smoother and much more enjoyable. This week's challenge is to tackle that one area in your home and start building those sustainable habits now so that you're not overwhelmed later. Join me next week as we continue our October focus, simplify, streamline, and succeed series. We'll we'll dive into you're ready? Streamlining those routines for you for a stress free holiday season.


Thank you for tuning in. Stay organized. Stay motivated, and I'll see you next week. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe to Organizer With Ease podcast on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us grow and reach more listeners like you who are passionate about living their best lives.


And remember, a new episode comes out every Thursday at 8 AM. So mark your calendar and join us. Until next week. Take care, and keep shining bright.

1 view0 comments

Comments


bottom of page