Today, we delve into the transformative power of decluttering with expert Kitti Andrews, who has dedicated 20 years to helping people escape overwhelm through organizing both their physical and mental spaces.

Decluttering not only tidies up your environment but also brings clarity and a lemony, fresh feeling to your family's daily life.

Learn about Kitti's unique one-system approach that promises to revolutionize your routines and enhance your family's well-being.

This episode is not just about tidying up; it's about adopting a positive mindset that you can even get your whole family involved in.

Tune in for an enlightening conversation that could be the key to transforming your home, mind and heart.

Anna's Takeaways:

• Intro (00:00)
• Decluttering + Organization With A Personal Touch (02:44)
• Decluttering Physical Space + Mental Well-Being (07:54)
• Decluttering + Organizing A Room (13:04)
• One Area Of A Room At A Time (19:37)
• Teaching Children Decluttering Skills (24:03)
• Decluttering + Its Connection To Mental Clarity (30:33)
• Maintaining Tidiness (37:29)
• Decluttering Tips And Habits (43:17)

Meet Kitti Andrews:

For over 20 years Kitti Andrews has been helping people to get unstuck and out of a state of overwhelm by getting their physical and mental surroundings under control by helping them to declutter their space and brain. Kitti has written, directed and performed over 800 online videos devoted to decluttering the five life pillars, which furnish the content for her daily newsletter. Her speaking career spans interviews on top podcasts and summits as well as Stanford and Harvard. She has contributed articles that have garnered her front-page status in the Los Angeles Tribune Magazine. as well as an upcoming interview in USA Today.

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5. Websites:

Guest website: https://www.declutterthebrain.com/

Guest social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitti.andrews.21

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kitti-andrews-87644055/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kittiandrews_mckay/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kittiandrews

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3GQuWw8 for brevity

Decluttering for clarity today we explore the power of decluttering to bring clarity and freshness to your family environment. For 20 years, Katie Andrews has been helping people to get unstuck and out of state of overwhelm by getting their physical and mental surroundings under control. By helping them to declutter their space in their brain. Discover how organizing your physical space adopting a positive mindset of believe that you can, in implementing Kitty's transformative one system can change your daily routines and enhance your family's well being. In this episode, we dive into the art of decluttering. And its profound impact on creating a lemony fresh feeling in your home, in your heart, learning practical strategies to declutter and organize physical space, creating an environment that promotes clarity, productivity, and sense of freshness, and how you can get your children and entire family involved. So get ready to clear out declutter your physical, mental and emotional space, enhance your routines in create harmonious home environment that supports your family's well being. Join us on this conversation. Thank you for joining us today on the money boss podcast, it is a pleasure to have you here. I am excited for our conversation. Because the topic of decluttering and we're gonna go deep on this today can be connected to a lot of areas in our life. And I'll just give a quick, quick little story because I'm not sure whether it is the universe was kind of putting all of this for me together knowing that you and I were going to be talking soon. But just this morning, I was sharing with my husband that I've been having this feeling of wanting to just like clear out our closets. And I pulled out a few things out of my son's closet because a four and a half year old boy is growing way too fast. And so it's like the the minute I know there's like a pile of clothes he's not wearing I'm like, I gotta get it out of there. So I've been having a feeling of wanting to clear space. So maybe it is because we're talking maybe there's there's something else going on. But here's here's an introduction of how I'm interested to talk about about this topic. So why don't we get started and please share with our audience. How do you you know, how did you become to be an expert in this? And just give us a little bit about what you do?

Think and Well, thank you for asking. And thank you for having me. It's an honor. Yeah, you, you, you've you've seen those pictures of the little kid with the building blocks very carefully stalking, right? That's, well, that's, that's, that's me. Those those pictures are usually they're they're supposed to be depicting a form of autism. And I am one of it that usually affects boys. Well, I'm one of one out of 189 girls that gets diagnosed with that. And of course, with that comes a need a strong need for order and organization. It's also factored in with ADHD where you tend to be kind of all over the place at the same time. So it's an interesting combination. But I've always been organized in my first and my first job in fact, as a file clerk in an office. I was promoted to the accounting department and the couple of months later the ladies came from from where I was filing and said would you consider coming back and working for us part time? Because we cannot find anything anymore. You are the best file clerk we ever had. I'm thinking okay, a b c should be pretty easy right? Maybe not. And then into my net my next career in restaurants and I was always the one voted to go and clean the walk in fridge because at the end is at the end of a restaurant chef cooks. They just throw everything into the fridge, they don't care where it goes. And eventually you can't find the yogurt okay, you just can't find it. Well, I love doing that. Number one I could be by myself, you know quiet space and and just weren't happily organized. So then into a cleaning 18 year real estate cleaning career Where I just always felt to kind of rearrange, not total rearranging in someone's house, but maybe just shift something on the top of the TV stand just a little bit. And the client would always say, you know, I've been meaning to do that for a while. I'm glad you did that. I got, I was lucky that nobody said, why stop? What you have to move things to clean them, don't you? Right. And now, I specifically vert do virtual decluttering, which is basically not being in their home, in somebody's home, I can work anywhere in the world. And it's been described by a realtor friend of mine as a less intrusive, more focused way to clear years and years of clutter, because you don't have the shame around it, you know, cleaning for the cleaning lady. Kind of thing, right? Yeah. So none of that we just focus on one room, and you'll learn why I said one.

Three. Yes, this is this is funny that you said cleaning for the cleaning lady. And I catch myself sometimes like, it's the day I know, she texted me in the morning and said, she's coming today to clean and I'm still somehow like trying to get the dishes out of the sink. Because? Because that's what I do. And I'm like, Okay, well, shouldn't she do that for me at least once every two weeks? So yes, I think we all kind of fall into that category. But I love your idea of focusing on the one thing, right? And so let's kind of maybe pivot a little bit, I think listeners are all of us understand the physical clutter, I want you to help us kind of draw connection between, like, we start with the physical, right. But there's more to that, like, what happens if you've addressed the physical part, at least have that, you know, challenges or those challenges that you're having? I think that the

best? And that's a great question, the best way to answer that is actually with a story of a client. Can Can we go there? Yes, please, sir. Because she really is a perfect example. Lady in Ohio. And we've been working together for three years because there's always something more to declutter, if your way if you're wondering why there's always something more. Most of my clients have been with me for three years or more. She came to me with physical clutter. She couldn't, you know, walking her son porch, the entrance into her room was kind of walking, barely, barely able to walk in. And so we started there. And after a couple of months, which which happened first, the chicken or the egg? I'm trying to remember. That's right. First. She said, You know, I think I'm going to start a a, I'm gonna start a fitness program. I've been meaning I've been wanting to for a long, long time. She's in her 50s. And she said, I've been wanting to do this. And neither of us really made a connection. We just figured, okay, well, well, this isn't this is good. We're starting to make space and make space. And here's an extra bonus of, okay, yes, I want to improve myself in this way. And then she said something, she said, you know, my husband said something to me a couple of days ago that I don't really think that I liked. And she told me what it was and it wasn't that bad. But I said no. Interesting, because he said this to you before. And she thought for a minute or two and said, you know, come to think of it. He's been saying that to me for stuff like that to me for the 25 years of our marriage. She just says I just never noticed that before. Yeah, yeah, again, just just didn't notice it. But you want to hear the kicker. Here's a really, really cool her. She's an artist. She and this lady never met a craft or hobby that she didn't like, right. She's She's, she's afraid to go into Hobby Lobby because she will still walk out with a cart full of stuff right. And everywhere in her Her home was evidence of this, and including stained glass art, which is one of her favorite things to do. And finally, this this, this happened a few months ago. All of a sudden, she just decided yeah, I'm thinking of doing this and she got an opportunity to to actually do some art for somebody, and I'm proud to say that she has received an $800 $800 for a commit her first commission stained glass work, she was finally ready. The more she decluttered this is this is what I guess I said to her. She's about a week ago, I said, would you have thought in a million years that you would be doing this if you were still living with with the clutter from when we met? And she just said, no, no, not at all. I wouldn't have been able to think that clearly. decluttering the brain? Huh? Go figure, right? Yeah.

So how can this physic like decluttering? This physical environment, right, or our space, whether it's home or even like our offices? How can that contribute to our the rest of our well being? Whether it's, you know, personal, mental, physical, financial? Like, how do we draw the connection there?

Well, there's, there's certainly the unseen factor of just Fretwell frankly, fresh and from a functional point of view, fresh energy moving forward. Moving on, which is why I always say what start with the floor first, because the energy travels across the floor. On that, unseen energy is what fuels all of us. If you have negative energy around you, you can you can feel it can't shoot. Oh, yeah. And once you're clearing that, then somehow, and I can't explain it, but it become because it's unseen. It's not, it's not really scientific, but it's from whatever I read, very well accepted that that the energy just starts to flow through. Now, from a practical point of view, this has serious from a scene point of view, very positive benefits, because many people allow things to accumulate for emotional reasons. And then the in the find themselves powerless to do anything about it. Because perhaps they've tried to declutter before and they've given up, or they've gotten overwhelmed, or somebody has laughed at them and said, Ah, you can't do that, you'll always be like this, well, Gee, whiz. And of course, you're going to feel deflated. But once you declutter, and you stay decluttered for life, so for example, you have, here's a good example. You can never find your keys. So you tend to be late for work. Or you just don't have a proper some proper system so that you know, so that you can fudge or you're paying your bills late all the time, because you can't find them. Now, it's digital, but still. How is your self esteem? During these times? You're feeling guilty

or feeling same? Right. It's like you feeling like you're letting down yourself to begin with? Right? Absolutely.

And failing thing? Sorry.

I'm just I'm you asking your question. Like, I did feel that too. You know, there's a real okay. Yes, go ahead. And

it builds on itself, and it builds on itself. And many times, you can do it. I mean, you're you're, you're a young mother of a young child. And you know, you know, better than I do, that the messages in that child's head are pretty much set in stone by the age of seven. Watch anything after that. Even Even if people keep saying, Oh, you're with them, you're you'll always be messy, or why can't you keep things clean, and then that six in the head. And so if somebody says that as you're an adult, or those little voices are in your head, and you're going to perpetuate those, but if you do something like decluttering and you have that under your belt and you feel positive and in control, once you feel in control, then that that reflects to all areas of your life it reflects to your relationships that have reflected in your career. It reflects in in absolutely everything. But when you're looking at a pile of clutter and you feel defeated already, shoulders sag, not feeling good.

So if I know you mentioned starting with the floor, are there like specific items or like I'm sure you probably like if somebody has our room where you can't or space you can just walk in that makes sense to go clear the pathway. But if I mean, if you're you know, if there's definitely things to work on, like we're What do you address? First? I,

when it comes to something like that I work in categories, but when it comes to decluttering, unfortunately, one size does not fit all, if you have that room that you were just talking about, I can answer that question in a couple of ways. So bear with me, Anna will juice if you. Um, so you do have that room. That is, if you can't walk in too much stuff has been thrown in the first thing that I always say, and again, from a functional point of view, is make a pass from the door to the window. So the energy can flow through so it has somewhere to go. I know that sounds woowoo. But with any luck, your your listeners will understand this. I had che a client that she said she said, now that's just silly. And you would that What kind of nonsense is that? And I said, Well, you don't, okay, we can do something else. If you want to surf Well, you're the you're the professional. Let's try it your way. Tell you what, the more she started picking through these things and making a pass and it was only like a foot wide. She said I felt really really good. It happened to be in her bedroom. And she had complained that she hadn't slept well. In years. She started sleeping better just because she was able to walk in i And again, sounds whoop. But making a pass from the floor to from the door to the window on the floor makes a huge difference. Now you can go by category, or a way that I find is less overwhelming is because Marie Kondo does it by category. And God bless her. The few if you can do that, I see the pitfalls. And I've even seen them on her show and my clients who many of whom are ADHD and get overwhelmed. At the best of times, they they just say, Oh, I can't do by category. Like take all your sweaters out of all of the pile them all on the sofa. Don't do that to yourself. My is my one system is a is designed to make life a lot overwhelming, a lot less overwhelming. Would you like to hear about it?

I'd love to hear about your one system. All right.

It is one room at a time, one area of that room at a time. And one thing at a time. This system is so simple that children can master it. And that's why I love it so much. Because as I said before, declutter and clutter and declutter the concept of decluttering can be so overwhelming that you want to keep it as simple as possible. No, you want to give yourself quick wins. You want to make yourself feel good, get that dopamine happening. Get all of those good, good hormones going through and going through your body and feeling good so that you will you don't like the little choo choo train? I think I can I think I can I think I can. All right. Yeah, I know I can. You want to give yourself that. So you can see I like it. Right? I can see that. Yeah, yeah. All right. So quickly, I'll go through a quickly is one room at a time and please it pick one room. And if you're an entrepreneur, perhaps that's going to be your office. If you have children, then perhaps it's going to be one of the bedrooms or the the kitchen I usually recommend the entrance because it's the first room that you see when you come home wants to see I gotta clean this sometime. And the last thing that you see when you're on your way out to work that sticks in your subconscious. I really believe that and my clients have borne that out. So one room and don't make it the basement with the 30 years worth of Christmas decorations. Please don't do that to yourself. No.

I like that. Forget, leave that to the last. Absolutely.

And then you get to one area of that room at a time. Same basic concept is so that you can totally focus on it because it's easy to get bored and say oh, the reason for the one room. Left out sorry, is don't bounce but I suggest that you don't bounce between room to room and all I'll do a little bit here, then I'll do a little bit there. Well, frankly, from a practical point of view, by the time you've come back to room number one takes you about 15 minutes to get into character and remember what you were doing. But if you stick with one, it's still in your brain. Okay, so fast forward to the one area of that room, exact same concept. As opposed to oh, do a little bit on the desk, and then I'll do a little bit in the corner that can work. For some people, it really can. But if you want as like multitasking, you know, that doesn't exist, right. Same concept still do it though. Yeah. Right. But if you stick with one area, even if that area is and I usually recommend smalls, too, two foot by two foot area, and clear and clear that but just pick one area of that room and stick with it. Now, the last part is okay.

When Yeah,

right. And is it? Is it tedious? Yes. Is it time consuming? I'm afraid so. Is that also the number one way that you will train your brain to stay decluttered for life? Because what's the use of decluttering? If you if you can keep it that way? Right? If if it's bad in six months already one thing at a time. Quick and quick line story. Do we have time? Yes, please. All right. my very very first client five years ago she had a huge L shaped desk and it was covered so not a word of life six inches of paper all the way through she didn't do you could not you didn't know what cover the desk was unless you look down this way. And you are very first session and I said okay, well let's start with the top piece of paper. And she looked at me like I was from Mars and said You're out of your tree I just know we were going through this one by one. My very first client I just didn't know what to do. I didn't know what else to suggest it was the only thing I could think so she relented and said Oh, all right, I'll give I'll give it a try for a few months but it for a few minutes. But it might want my money back. Fear. Okay. Anyway, after about five seven minutes she starts rifling through these papers and saying I don't need bank statements right now doesn't need bank statements. Why do I have bank statements a well what is the power bills here? I don't need these. She said I can get them online. She was saying she was seeing by going through one piece of paper at a time her brain ninja training her brain but here's here's here's the chocolate the cherry on top of the sundae. She She threw away a stack of trade magazines because apparently they go bad go bad as they're no longer relevant. After it's after both three, four months are no longer relevant. So she she tossed a bunch of them that were on the desk. And a couple of weeks later on our session she said you know I was in the store and my arm automatically reached for the magazine. And she says wait a minute now I just I just threw away about 50 bucks whereas she didn't buy the magazine she said every couple of months retraining the brain so that that clutter does not come in. So if you if you if you try to do it all at once, or if you have somebody coming in and doing it for you God loves professional organizers don't get me wrong, but if you want it done solo stay that way. Invest the time in yourself in the beginning and do it right and do you see how how it's so simple that a child can learn it?

Mm hmm yes, I liked that a lot. So because we talked about this before we hit the record button is there some ideas you have for how do you train the kids because I will share this you know honestly there's definitely challenges for with the four and a half year old to kind of maintain the gleam in this in the house with like he plays here with a little bit of a toys and then I go around and there's more of here and then like and so in all I have to do clean up your toys but you know it's this kind of Central reminder. So I would love that to be a skill that he learns. For sure.

And if the the earlier, the earlier you ingrain it in them, the better. Now I've worked with some working in a, where I live is a military base in Canada. So I've worked in with quite a few military families, and they started training those kids from the age of two, to put them to put their toys away at the end of the day, could be a bit extreme. But it's what I'm trying to demonstrate is it's never too early and never too late decluttering can be learned and can be learned. And I use that I'd rather have a better word, but I adopted. That's, that's my better word for it. And if you get a child to do when you make it as simple as possible. I'm afraid I'm straying away from the question.

So I think yeah, we're still continuing to figure out how can this be learned? Or how can parents teach this to their kids? at early age? First, give

them a why three is now. If we declutter, know, when, when we do when we get your room nice and tidy and organized, you'll be able to find everything right away. Remember, when you couldn't find your playdough? Something like that? And how upset you were? Well, if we keep things tidy, that will never happen again. Give them an give them a why? Because if you just say because I said so. Well, you know, that works. Oh, yeah. kid looks at you and says Yeah. Pretty much. Because you want this to be a habit that will stick with them for life, because Because pretty soon you're going to be at the door with the Kleenex and hand waving your kid off to college. And he's not going to have you to, to tidy the dorm room. And it just gets worse from there. And then they get into adulthood and there's no still everywhere if you teach them early them and make it a habit that's so ingrained in their brain. An easy one couple of easy ways to what's Imagine yourself, okay. First, we've given them a strong wife so that they'll always be able to, to find things and they will. I don't know if they would be embarrassed if their little friends come over in the room as a pigsty. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't, I don't I don't know. But being able to find things, and being able to find that piggy bank where all the money is the outlet. Let's do the bribery one step further. And then what you want to do is keep the sessions short. Say for example, you decide, okay, we're gonna do a big decluttering on your room. And they've got their wine, and they're still not quite sure about all of this concept. Make it a game, say, all right. We are going to make the sessions very short with them at least 15 minutes. an adult's attention span is about 45 If you're lucky. So making it for 15 minutes and say, I tell you what, let's do it together. Don't get them to do it by themselves. They, they have no buddy support, right? You could say, I tell you, I'm gonna go through and let's spend 15 minutes I will go through your clothes to make sure that they're all clean, so you can be proud to wear them. And why don't you go through and pick a category make it simple. This is where we get into the categories. Why don't you go through that little stack of books that's on the bookcase and take out anything that is too babyish for you. Mm hmm. You'd still want to feel like babies. Right? Right. You keep your big boy books. Sounds good. been making it for my dad. I wanted to declutter myself with all of this probably works for all ages, but I am in child mode right now. And making it fun making it in short spurts. And at the end of it, I suggest some sort of reasonably healthy reward you go was when you can go with ice cream or McDonald's or whatever. But I some sort of reasonably healthy reward even going to the playground, okay, we can go to the playground as soon as we've done that and keep your promise, go to the playground. This is not the time for you to start scrolling through your phone, you keep your promise for that child. I have no children, by the way. But this just makes common sense. It's like the golden rule. Treat it treat yourself. Treat them like you want to be treated.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, that's the reward system does work for sure. So yeah, yes. Okay. Yes, I can, I can totally see that. How that could be an adopted behavior, right, for both parents and, and the kids. So I'm totally practicing that. So, um, I want to, I want to pivot a little bit here, because, um, the physical space and things were talked about, like, I think it makes a lot of sense, because as you were describing, the very first area, or the very first room to start with would be the entrance or like the hallway. And as you're describing that, I'm thinking about the mail, I don't know why I'm thinking about the mail. Honestly, our inbox is actually in the garage. So my husband has to go to the garage, go to you know, it's a little section and pull up the mail. So it doesn't necessarily come into our entrance. But I would think a lot of people, you know, walk in their door, and they may have their mail in their hand. And so the mail right, the letters could be your bills we talked about to or things like that. And so my mind was connecting the dots with like the the financial pieces, right, or like the bills, like wanting to throw in a trash can. So like you walking through the door, or somewhere in your hallway, you have a basket with all the mail that comes in. So how, like, helped me like connect the dots with like, if we do all this work to clear our physical space? Like when and how do we start to see that maybe we need more work for the for the other pieces, right? Because you talked about emotional, or we need to work on the mental piece here, like at some in some fashion. So I want to connect the physical to the other areas of decluttering.

Oh, okay. Let me let me bring my mind back to that because I thought you were where I thought you were going was how do you how do you suggest about dealing with mail and bills and stuff like that? So how to how to connect the physical and the mental,

the cluttering them the physical space? Like what are the what are the benefits? And how does it help us mentally?

Oh, okay. Well, I, um, I partly answered that question with with the client story about how Shimba how as she was physically as she was physically decluttering then other areas of her life seen the the onion started to be peeled back, revealing things that she hadn't noticed about her, her relationship with her husband. revealing how she actually felt about about her weight in the evening and the self esteem that goes around around that.

It's maybe maybe you can clarify where at more I was headed with that kind of a thought so what I'm thinking about is like this weight and like more in the mental space, especially around finances so if you've seen like the bills coming in and maybe you haven't worked quite worked on your finances, but you know, you've got everything else like you cleared all the physical stuff that you've been wanting to work on. So at what point do you do you know that maybe it's more than just the physical space like how do you recognize that you may need work or support in getting you some help around the other areas? And then my example was like the mental clarity.

Oh, let me let me think about this. The after you have done unless a really really good question. The after you have dealt with your physical clutter, if you are still feeling overwhelmed and a lack of self esteem and not being able to pull it together because not everybody can do spreadsheets or they may they may just not have the NEA know how or they may have been told too many times, oh, you can't manage money or you can't cook or something like that. In theory, and one size does not fit all. In theory, once you have decluttered, physically, you should be able to I don't like that word should, but you should be able to see more. Well, if anything you sir, I was going to say you should be able to manage your finances better, or manage your household better. But entertain me this thought, Anna, let us suppose if you have pretty much hidden behind your physical clutter you you have mentally hidden behind your physical clutter and said, Oh, I'm always paying my bills late because I can't find them. Okay, so you, you've eliminated that excuse, that mail that has come in from the garage, you've got a good place to put it, you know, and then you do the right thing. You open it. I suggest that you open and at the same, same thing. You don't mind a Saturday afternoon that I look at my bills for one hour at 12 Noon. I suggest that you do that. But if you've been making an excuse, say for example, if I can't manage money, because my house is so cluttered, and then all of a sudden, now I'd love to hear your feedback on this. All of a sudden, okay, well, I don't have an excuse anymore. I've got a system, my place is decluttered. Why am I still not paying my bills on time? That's dealing with mental blocks are people someone saying to you long time ago, you can't manage money? So of course you say to yourself, I can't manage money? What is that? Now that you don't have that clutter to hide behind? It forces you to see, I need help. I need to reach out to someone who can help me. I always thought I could do it myself before. But now, I know that I need well say someone like your services, that they get all that they just say Alright, I've decluttered I can see my life is beautiful. But maybe I just don't have a head for finances. Or maybe somebody can do it better so that I can have more money for my children or my grandchildren or whatever. So decluttering can manifest itself positively by even just opening and opening up your own reality to so how does that land was? Oh, that's

perfect. That's that's exactly what I was hoping to hear that you say that? There's, there's this connection. So yes, I love it. Okay, I've got to ask this because it's I'm sure it's in the listeners mind. But we've done this initial phase. I don't know if it's phase or not, but I'll call it a phase. How do we keep it up? Right? Because just like with the kids, the room will get messy. Again. The toys are played with all the time all day long. So how do we end the hallway will get cluttered again? Because you know, you go through the hallway kitchen or any room in the house? I'm sure probably the same thing could apply to to mental clutter, right. So hi. stumps?

Yes, yes, very much. So in the mental part, we could do a whole other podcast on that part on stuff that I haven't really touched. I was afraid to go down a rabbit hole when you when you asked me that question because I talk for hours about it. Well, we only have so much time. How to keep it that way. If that's what you're asking? Yes. It's not a pretty answer. But it's it's effective. And it's just habits and a little bit of self discipline. And the key ingredient, believing that you can gonna say that again, believing that you can and sticking with it. But the here's the trick, just like Darren Hardy, small steps lead to big changes. Don't try to just like a you know, your New Year's resolution or your or your weight weight loss program. Don't make a big project out of it to just do one, that one little habit. And then once you master that, then you just know then you you can then you can take on another habit. Here's a very simple habit, gym that anybody can do any age can do to maintain tidiness. It's going to stay perfect. Here's it here's another thing To people who are too hard on themselves, I'm gonna get on a soapbox here. Be careful. People are too hard on themselves. If I've done all this decluttering and now it's, it's not it's not as perfect anymore. Well, it's not life is like that life is not perfect, but it's not as bad as it was before you decluttered is it? No. Okay, well, just it will, it will only take a few minutes to pick it back up, then imagine that conversation with your child. All right. He's all proud that he's got it and got it nice. And then the next day's board is looking as good as it did. Okay, that's okay. It won't take that long to put it back to the way it was, and it'll look all nice and pretty again, one very simple habit that I just mentioned a moment ago, before I went off on a tangent is the waitress rule. I mentioned that I was in the restaurant industry for many, many years. One rule that was drummed into us by European Greek owners, by the way, European owners, the big rule in any of the restaurants that I worked in was never walk through the restaurant empty handed. I'll say that again. Never walk through the restaurant, empty handed. There is always always something that you can carry the coffee cup from the bedroom, it back to the kitchen. Oh, I'm sure you know, geez. pair of shoes from your child's do. Can you think

of an example that Oh, yeah. I mean, just anything that you see, that's not whatever else. Whatever you see, that's not supposed to be there. Just grab it.

Just walk with it. You have to walk Anyway, forget in front. I love the coffee cup from the bedroom to the kitchen. All right, yeah. And I've seen three or four coffee cups on somebody's dresser. Well, why didn't you bring them to the kitchen? I don't know. I just figured they'd be there. Well, they are still there are things you have to empty arms. Always be carrying something. Again, a habit that anyone of any age can do. This will help you to keep clutter at bay. And when you were thinking, here's another tip that can be used by anyone any age for yourself, meaning you being an entrepreneur, for me, for me, it's my five minutes at the end of the day, tidying the desk. Hmm, five minutes. Just if you can't get rid of the papers right away, then at least just sorted so it looks Hotelli when you walk in your child at the end of the day, five minutes put away. Okay, let's make a game of it put away now. You got five minutes, how many toys can you put away? Kind of thing but it's a habit. At the end of the day so that you wake up and you look at your surroundings you are there lemony, fresh, and new feel lemony, fresh. It's all about how you feel. What do you think of those three tips?

I love the lemony, fresh feeling, yes. Yes, I love that I kind of have that. I'm not kind of have I have that and have the just at the end of the day, I have to clean up the coffee cups, like right now if you were recording on Zoom, you can't really see it. But if you looked it up on my computer, you know my desk here, I have coffee cup and my water bottle. So that would be all cleared, right? I'll close my desk, and they'll go off for the day. So I feel like that's a habit because I know if I don't do it, and very rarely, like I don't do it, I come in the morning and it's still here, so it's not a good start to the day. So I love that lemony, fresh feeling for the time that we have today. And I'm, we're gonna put some of these or we're gonna put all of these ideas in the show notes. tell our listeners how they can connect with you. I know you have a lot of interesting information on your website and there was something that you wanted to share with the audience as well. You

ate as well, you go to declutterthebrain.com, your choice of HTT p s or www, just type in declutterthebrain.com and it will come up and you can access my PDF, which is called seven easy steps to conquer your physical and mental clutter. And it's intended as an evergreen grounding tool for your declutter journey and be beyond it's it really is evergreen steps a lot of what what I've talked about today, but it's built under the acronym, the acronym of control, safer Exam. both the final l is Love Your Home after you've done all your decluttering it Oh, and it comes with seven short little videos. So you're never alone in your decluttering process. I

love it. Yes, I'm gonna I'm going to download that too and we will have a link in the show notes. So for the closer today, is there a number one tip you have for our listeners who are really excited to declutter.

Nice. Don't get it. They're excited, but they're nervous at the same time. They might be overwhelmed too. Yeah. Just remember, the clutter. Did not accumulate overnight. Did not accumulate overnight, so it won't go away overnight. Unless your magic wand is a whole lot better than mine. Just cut yourself some slack and break it down into the smallest possible and go easy on yourself. Hmm,

I love that. Thank you very much kitty for your time today.

Thank you for having me, Anna. Awesome.