How to reduce clutter with kids

00:01 - Krista (Host)

Welcome to today's episode. So, as moms trying to declutter, we're just gonna dive into this episode today. As moms trying to declutter, it is no surprise at all that there are a lot of challenges that get in our way. We have kids who are almost always underneath our feet, quite literally right, just in the way while we try to declutter. They go behind our backs, they undo our piles, they go behind us and make messes in other rooms while we are sorting through things in another room. They have opinions about all of the things that they want to keep right and they get maybe upset when we try to get rid of it. But not only like logistically.

00:41

The physical act of decluttering doesn't make it harder for moms to declutter, but they consume our time, right, taking them to and from school, to and from sports, to and from activities, having to feed them, having to get them to bed if they're teeny tiny, snuggling them, rocking them, feeding them, making sure they're safe. They consume a lot from us, right, and that's not even taking into consideration all of the other things that you have going on, like work, like wanting to be a human, grocery, shopping, coordinating everything in your life Like it's just a lot right, and any of these ring true to you, right? Also, like kids, just come with having more stuff. It doesn't have to be an overwhelming, unmanageable amount, no matter how many kids you have, but it does come with having more stuff, right? Everybody needs their own clothes, their own things, rather than you know. If you were living alone or single without kids, then you would obviously have less stuff to deal with.

01:39

So what ends up happening for these moms moms like you, moms like me is we say that those are all of the reasons that we can't declutter. You know, if we didn't have these circumstances, then we would have decluttered by now. And I want to challenge you on that, because it's not necessarily true and I'm not negating the fact that you have these circumstances that it is harder for you, that moms have a lot more to manage and coordinate than people who don't have kids because you do. I want to acknowledge that. But moms still find ways to declutter every single day, and we all have variations of the same circumstances. So I want you to know that, because you're not alone in it, you are not the only one dealing with all of these things in your life. We all have variations of the same circumstances, and so I just kind of want to debunk these reasons that we think we can't or won't ever be able to declutter, because those aren't actually true.

02:42

The real reason that you haven't yet decluttered or haven't been able to declutter yet is because you haven't yet put a plan in place and then followed through on that plan that you created or that you get in a way that accommodates for your mom life. You haven't planned how you're going to make time for this. And before we dive into a little bit more about the real reasons of why you haven't been able to declutter and how you can, there's this idea that floats around a lot that people say and maybe you believe it that they will declutter when their kids are older or when their kids are out of the house, or once their kids are this old, then they'll be able to declutter, then they'll be able to take control of their house. And that's not true. There are a lot of studies out there that show the longer you take to make a decision, the less likely you are to actually make the decision and act on that decision, and the same is true for your clutter. We see this often with there's people in the motherhood simplified group who have children, who have left the house and they still have the clutter because they've just been delaying the decision making process of what to keep, what to let go of, where to take it and all those things.

04:06

And it doesn't get easier just because your kids aren't around. You just have new circumstances and new challenges in your way and you have time. That works against you because you delayed the decision. And the longer you delay making a decision, the harder it is to make one. And I think if you look at your own life and the way that you make decisions, there is a balance, a sweet spot of like how long do I need to make this decision, considering all the factors versus am I avoiding making these decisions and making this a lot harder on myself? Like harder than it needs to be?

04:44

So the real reason that you haven't been able to declutter is that you just have not put in the strategy behind how you will problem solve the circumstances that you have as a mom trying to declutter. How are you going to break down your decluttering projects into bite-sized pieces that you can actually do in the cracks of your day? How are you going to delegate to your family? How are you going to ask for help if you need it? How are you going to temporarily rearrange your priorities so that you can focus on decluttering short-term and live a simpler, easier life long-term?

05:20

How are you just haven't put that in place yet and there's an episode a couple of episodes back, where you can listen to the full training that I did recently, called how to Create your Mom-Proof Decluttering Plan, where I walk you through exactly how to do this. I give you the step-by-step of it's the framework for my decluttering program. Decluttering simplified I walk you through like my decluttering simplified course is very thorough. It's mom-proof, it is simple and it's effective. If you follow through with it, which is part of what I teach you how to do, how do you actually get yourself to follow through with your decluttering? We cover that in that training, but I give you the framework so that you can build this strategy out yourself or you can just get mine. I'm not gatekeeping the secrets here. I'm showing you exactly what goes into it and it's not what I see other people creating which are just like here's a checklist to declutter your entire house and it's like great. You know, if all it took was a checklist, then everybody would have decluttered by now.

06:24

But you need more support. You need to break it down into tangible pieces. You also need to have somebody who validates the fact that your experience is more challenging and different than somebody else's and encourages you to problem solve regardless of those circumstances and can help you troubleshoot like is this the right time for you to focus on this or should you focus on something else? I will say that for most people, focusing on decluttering is the right answer. It is the best answer because decluttering is the only form of like physical work or chore that you can do. That gives you back more time. If you clean something, it's going to go right back to square one pretty soon, especially if you have kids. If you organize something same thing it's going to get undone pretty quickly and you're going to have to continually maintain that. When you declutter, you're getting rid of that excess workload for yourself for good.

07:25

You're just eliminating it and therefore choosing to prioritize decluttering for a short amount of time is almost always the right answer for everybody, barring certain circumstances, like maybe you are dealing with a health issue, an urgent health issue, maybe you are recently postpartum, maybe you're about to have a baby in two weeks. There are certain times. Maybe you're like another mom in the group who's like I'm in grad school. I'm a single mom, I have two children with disabilities. I have all of these things going on. That's maybe not the best time for her to take on another project. Maybe she just needs to get through this, needs to get through grad school. She was pregnant. She needs to get through grad school, have the baby settle in and then focus on decluttering.

08:11

But for the most part, decluttering will help most moms and it's a matter of figuring out how to prioritize it in your life right now, while also considering all the other circumstances in your life. That's the real reason. Moms haven't been able to declutter. They haven't been able to figure out how to rearrange their priorities and how to actually declutter in bite-sized pieces very strategically throughout their entire house, and I teach you how to do that in the training. So you can scroll back to a couple episodes ago, go listen to that episode, or you can go to motherhitsimplifiedcom forward slash DIY, and you can find it in the description of this episode as well and get that training.

08:53

So, yeah, the podcast is nice If you like to listen to it all at once or pause and come back to it, save it, whatever. But if you want the training, you get it broken down into like five different videos, five different videos Plus you get, you know, written breakdown that you don't get when you listen to the podcast episode. Both are really great. Go listen to it, enjoy it. And yeah, decluttering is the mom's harder for you know, than it is for people who don't have kids. But that doesn't mean you are doomed and that doesn't mean that you can't do it. You still can and I would love to support you in that. That's what this whole podcast is about. That's what everything I ever create is about. So go use what's there for you and let me know what you think about it when you do so. Happy decluttering. I will see you in the next episode.