Welcome to Less Clutter, More You, a podcast that travels with you through the journey of letting go and creating order so you can start making more room for what matters most. Together, we'll go beyond the basket to start unlocking your next level of embracing your physical and mental space through mindset shifts and action steps. I'm your host, Maggie Brittain, professional organizer, clutter coach, wife, and mom of four. And I am so glad you are here.

Before I dive in I have a list of eight clutter enablers that are showing up in your life. I first want to say three things. One, there is a new feature. So at the bottom of this episode or any episode going forward, it will show you the option to Text me, but please know that it's only a one way text. So if you want to have a conversation, follow me on Instagram at Chesterfield organizing co. or send me an email at hello Chesterfield organizing co. com. But for the text message, if you're right in the app listening to this podcast and you want to share your takeaways from an episode, or you want me to cover something specifically in an episode going forward, this is a perfect place. You can also just let me know where you're listening from. Cause I love to know who's listening, who's out there, Where are you? When do you listen? Tell me when you listen, also, while you're in there, down in the notes and down on this podcast page, go ahead and leave a review because this helps. other people find the message that a lifestyle of less clutter allows you to show up with more of you. And lastly, next Monday, this would be Monday, May 20th, 2024, is our next live session inside the community. And during these live sessions, it's Q and A, and active decluttering. However, you need that time with me on the other side, that's our next session is May 20th, and that's still at the introductory rate. So hop in before that rate goes up. Now to today's episode of clutter enablers. So what I find is that a lot of times. People are going throughout their day, and they are not being mindful of all the hidden messages that are supporting clutter or enabling the clutter or enabling the thoughts or the actions that are contributing to whether clutter is sticking around or whether clutter is coming through the door or your mind and your thoughts. or on your calendar and your schedule, right? So I have listed eight. Number one is your thoughts. What are you saying to yourself to enable more clutter to come in or to prevent the process of letting go of clutter? When you say. Oh, I need to go and fill this void and I'm going to go shopping. And you're probably not saying I'm going to go fill this void. It might sound more like, oh my gosh, I'm feeling so down and a new shirt could really just be that thing that I need. Or this item. is going to really boost my mood just by going out and finding it or going online and finding it. And as you're going through that thought process are you not pushing back when you start to find yourself going down that road or are you taking a second and recognizing that you can totally shift the direction. of whether you're going to fill that void by shopping and bringing more clutter into the house or finding something else to do. Or are you working through decluttering and you find yourself up against something that feels uncomfortable to let go of and your thought process is saying, Oh no, come on, Meg, you can keep that. What's another one of those? Or, oh, you don't need to get rid of that quite yet. And sometimes that's true, right? Sometimes we're not ready, but if your brain is trying to trick you, you might have to start being more mindful of those thoughts that you're telling yourself. So that's number one. Are your thoughts, what are you saying to yourself that may be enabling the actions of bringing clutter in or preventing the action of letting go of clutter? Then the second thing is digitally. There are so many digital enablers of clutter in our lives all the time. And you have to be so mindful to find ways to just completely eliminate them if you're unable to control the thoughts. So, recently I saw a post and it was one of those, you only live once posts. And so it said, go out and buy the thing, go out and get this, go ahead and treat yourself to that. But that narrative is enabling the clutter to build up. Because when they're telling you that you only live once, go ahead out and buy that thing, go ahead and treat yourself. Are they also going to be there? When you're home managing that item, are they going to be there when it's time for you to find a place? in your home for that item. So pay attention to the narrative. That's telling you that screw it. Go out and buy the thing. There is a time and a place for this. Okay, but if you're not checking yourself and you're not going back to those thoughts and you're drawn in and you're saying some stranger on the internet told me I should go out and buy it, then that is definitely enabling the clutter that's building up in your life. A second thing digitally are Facebook shopping groups. So these groups, you may be a part of them, you may have been invited into them, but the entire concept of the group is buying things, finding things on sale, getting a good deal on something. But chances are you never even thought about buying that item before seeing the link or before someone else using it. So if you are part of these groups and you're finding yourself going down the rabbit hole of what someone else is suggesting that you're buying, then that might be an enabler to the clutter that's building up. And the only way around that, if your thoughts are not yet built strong enough to know when you actually need something or when some stranger is suggesting you need something, then you need to remove yourself from those groups. Because if you can't handle the temptation, then you need to remove the temptation. And this is a third thing, digitally, are the emails with discounts to new products from all of your favorite brands. But the chance is, again, you may have not even knew that you needed this item, but now you feel like you're getting a good deal. So it feels like it's there. A reasonable thing to do is take advantage of this, the sale, this discount. So what can you do instead? Unsubscribe to those emails that are constantly coming at you with the message that more, more, more, more, So that's two, that's digitally, the digital enablers. Number three, and um, this surprises a lot of people, but this is something that I have found working through has made a huge deal in enabling the clutter that sticks around. is furniture. What type of furniture is in your house that is enabling more clutter? do you have extra dressers that's creating more space for you to put things? Do you have end tables in your family room that have drawers so that you can add things to them? What in your house is supporting and enabling you from holding on to more things?

Just recently, I repurposed what was being used as our homework center, craft area, project table into our dining room, repurposing our dining room into a sitting room. And through that process, I had to reconsider the furniture pieces that were in those spaces. And in what was, what had served as our homework center, was a old armoire that I had board games and school supplies and things that we weren't using so much that now my kid's homework is basically all through a computer. So by letting go of this armoire that really wasn't serving a purpose, I was able to reclaim just open space. But if I decided, oh, I had always had that, I should keep it around. I can, you know what? I can use it to put more things in. in it, that would have just enabled me to hold on to more clutter, things that I didn't actually need, an entire furniture piece that I didn't need. And I'm seeing this shift in general because previously the style was this big bulky furniture that just kept holding on to things, those extra sets of china. I know you know the ones because if you didn't have them, someone you know has a big armoire with multiple sets of china. But if you start to shift and recognize that you're only using so much, why have an entire piece of furniture? to hold things that you aren't using, then you might start to see things in a different light. So go around your house and, and think, is that furniture holding things? First of all, do you even know what's in the furniture? Do you know what's inside those drawers? And could I eliminate that and just open up that space to allow more positive energy to flow through? Because that's what's going to happen. And you might feel at first when you remove this furniture that's just holding on to things that there is a sense of emptiness. But when you start to embrace and shift the thought of emptiness into openness. and less things to clean and manage, then this could be one major enabler that you can let go of. So that's three, is furniture. Four, not asking for help. We're not having the conversation about clutter. If you aren't asking for help, you're just enabling yourself to be the one that manages all the clutter on your own, which in exchange adds more mental clutter. And we want to avoid that, which you can do by talking about it. But if you're not talking about how the clutter is affecting you or how you need help to prevent the clutter from building up. Then you're just going to end up in that cycle. Or maybe you're in a decluttering season of life. Are you letting other people around you know? Or are you just keeping that silent, which means you're going to be more tempted by other people around you. And that goes right into number five is friends and family. Because if they don't know that you are being intentional and you're being mindful and you are trying to let go the clutter and create more simplicity within your life, then they're going to be tempted to keep those same standing traditions or social activities going. Maybe you have a family tradition that looks like every holiday you get a new pair of pajamas, whether you need them or not. or a pair of socks or this or that, or everybody has matching something. These family traditions, if you don't have the space for this, if this is becoming clutter in your life, then it's just enabling it, getting it through the door. So then now it's your job to let it go. Or are you getting together as a social activity and going out to shop or going to a yard sale these activities enabling the clutter? When you are working so hard to let it go. So again, if you're not having that conversation that I talked about, it's possible that all of these extra activities outside of your own are enabling, are building up, are contributing to the clutter coming in to your house, into your personal space. Or Maybe the family and friends have a narrative that they don't want you to be wasteful. So when you are left and it's your decision to be deciding what is staying and what is going, if you can hear them saying things like, Oh, well, when I grew up, I had to keep all of these things. We never had nice things like that. That's a good dress. Why would you let go of that? Or that's wasteful. I don't think you should be letting go of that. So think about those narratives coming in from family and friends, the traditions, the social activities that are surrounded all around physical items. And then number six is what I call fake space. And fake space. It falls along the lines of tips and tricks to organize more. But if you've listened to past episodes, you know that you cannot organize clutter. So if you are trying to trick your space into allowing more things to get into it, you're enabling the clutter to be there. And maybe you have a small space, right? For all of these are exceptions to the rule. But if these are happening over and over again, and you find yourself that this is what you're leaning towards, it might be enabling the clutter. I recently saw there is a drawer organizer that you can put into your bathroom drawer. And if you lift it up like a tackle box, you can get multiple items in multiple layers. Okay. Maybe this has a place in a small bathroom with multiple people using it, or maybe you're going to put it there and completely forget that you have something on the first layer of that organizer. And then it becomes clutter because you're not using it or you're not focusing on the boundaries of that drawer and your limitations and sticking within those boundaries. And so you're finding all the tips and tricks that you can get more in, more in, more in. And fake space can show up in multiple different areas. Maybe it is an airtight bag so that you can store more under your bed, even though you have a closet and you have drawers. But now this tip and trick around this fake space isn't allowing you to keep more things in it. Maybe it's an over the door drawer. that you are now using to store items because you have busted out of the closet. And I have talked about this in previous episodes as well. So pay attention to those fake spaces and those tips and tricks that are pushing past the boundaries. And then the next one is repurposing. So if you have the mental mindset that Anything you own, if you're not using it, finding a new purpose for it is the only way that you can prove that you are not a wasteful person, then this is going to enable clutter from building up and from never leaving your house. Recently, I saw someone who asked the question, they had a encyclopedia, where can they donate it? What should happen with it? And someone responded that if they hollowed out the encyclopedia, this would be a great place to store things. And I'm here to tell you that that mentality is going to cost you. It's going to cost you your space, your energy. Your time and eventually your money to remove all the things that you are trying to repurpose into something else. But another thing was, you know, toilet paper rolls, a good box. How else can I use this? If that's where your thought, your train of thought is going, when you're trying to let go of something, I want you to pause right there and recognize that by trying to repurpose something that no longer is serving you. That will enable the clutter to stick around and to build up, and it's only going to make it harder for you. So do yourself a favor, and when you are done using something for the original purpose that it was there for, Give your permission, your self permission to let it go and not to feel the need to repurpose all things. Again, an exception to a rule, but if that is your default is repurposing, then it is time to let that go. Go. And then lastly, fear, the fear of needing something. And that goes back to the mindset and the thoughts that you're telling yourself that it could be as extreme as what happened if the grid goes down and I need to survive. Or it might be something that looks like you. Being afraid of letting other people down. People pleasing. Because you're afraid of not having something for somebody else when they need it. This person might get hurt while they're here. I should have all the options. This person might need this color construction paper. So I'm going to have that ready to go just in case in five years that person needs it. So the fear around what ifs and some days is enabling the clutter to A, come in through the door and B, never to go back out the door. So to run through my, run through those eight clutter enablers again is one, your thoughts, two, what's showing up in your digital space. Three, the furniture that is just extra space to store extra things. Four, not asking for help or not having the conversation around your goals of clearing the clutter or how the clutter affects you. Number five, the narrative, the messages, the conversations that you're having with friends and families, the activities, the traditions that are surrounding that. Number six, the fake space, the tips and the tricks on how to get more in and how to find more space. Number seven, repurposing, finding new ways to use things that no longer are serving you. And number eight, the fear, the fear of not having something just because someday you might need it. So try to focus on. Two or three of these and see how you can start to pay attention, how those are showing up in your life and enabling not only the clutter coming through the door, but also in enabling the clutter from sticking around in your own space. And then now that you know that you can leave me a text message or send me an Instagram DM, let me know what you're working on and just keep going because any small change does grow and it will make a difference. It does matter to stop and get intentional and be mindful of what's entering your thoughts and how you're processing the things in your life. Until next time, go out and find those clutter enablers.