“Your home doesn’t have to be perfect,” insists Katy Wells, declutter expert and host of the Maximized Minimalist Podcast. In today’s episode of The Momologist™, Katy dives into some of her favorite tips and tricks for decluttering and reorganizing your home more effectively. 

Katy tells our listeners how to handle clutter, particularly toy clutter. She discusses several ways that we can minimize clutter, involve our family members in the clean-up process, and be more in control of what comes into our homes. While it can sometimes be tempting to reorganize items into different bins, Katy explains that it can often be more effective to clear out unnecessary clutter entirely. She explains the difference between clutter and expected mess and how to reframe your mindset about what your home should look like in order to reduce your stress levels. 

Tune into this week’s episode of The Momologist™ for a conversation about how to begin the process of decluttering your home, how to rethink your relationship with stuff, and how to treat yourself and your family members with more compassion. If you are often overwhelmed by the amount of clutter in your living space, don’t miss out on this episode!

 

Quotes

• “Your home doesn’t have to be perfect in order to serve you and your family. The moment I realized that, I gave myself and my family so much more compassion and it felt all of a sudden like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Our homes, they don’t have to be perfect. Instead of striving for a home that’s always tidy and Instagrammable after image, I switched my mindset to ‘I want to strive for a home that’s easy to tidy.’” (13:43-14:06) 

• “Even really small progress…is progress… Done is better than nothing at all.” (14:47-15:02)

• “If clutter and mess and just too much bothers me, then it also impacts my kids in some way.” (20:42-20:48)

• “The goal of toys is to get our kids to play and use their imagination and do what they were made and created to do. The more a toy does, the less your child will do with it.” (21:14-21:28)

• “There’s no better time than when our children are young to instill some of these really great life skills like being able to pick up after themselves and be responsible for their things.” (24:17-24:29)

• “Clutter is disorganized excess, stuff that simply doesn’t belong. Expected mess is a mess that happens from living life. Dirty dishes on the counter, laundry to be done, socks on the floor, toys on the floor. Normally, without clutter, expected mess is maybe annoying but it’s nothing to fret over…Expected mess should be fairly simple to handle. The issue comes up when we have clutter on top of that…Clutter makes expected mess a million times harder, and a million times longer to handle, and a million times more frustrating to handle because you’re constantly working through and around clutter.” (44:43-45:47)

• “Procrastination is one of the main reasons we have clutter and then clutter causes procrastination.” (51:56-52:00)

• “Is your relationship with stuff toxic? If all it does is steal your time, steal your energy, drain your bank account, cause you stress and give you really nothing in return but a ten second dopamine hit, that’s not a really fair balance or exchange. That’s not a friend I would ever want in my life, so why am I allowing my stuff to run my life?” (54:00-54:24)

 

Stats

• “Twelve billion dollars annually is spent on specifically unwanted gifts.” (34:08-34:15)

• “It costs an average of $10 per square foot to store things in our home.” (37:29-37:33)

• “Decluttering pays dividends in the long run. There are actual studies that show simply by decluttering your home, you can save up to 40% of time doing household chores.” (43:44-43:56)

 

Notable links:

Book Recommendations by Katy: Essentialism by Greg McKeown

• https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382

 

Connect with Katy Wells:

Website: https://www.katyjoywells.com 

Instagram: https://www.ins