4133: 8 Ways to Get Rid of Clutter and Get Your Life Back by Allison Fallon with No Sidebar on Minimalism

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] Back to School starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at $699 with exclusive student pricing starting at $599. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and must-have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at dell.com slash deals. That's dell.com slash deals.

[00:00:34] [SPEAKER_00] This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments, it's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com.

[00:01:04] [SPEAKER_01] This is Optimal Living Daily, Eight Ways to Get Rid of Clutter and Get Your Life Back by Allison Fallon with nosidebar.com. And I'm Justin Malik. Welcome back to the podcast where I read an article to you every day of the year with permission from the authors. So with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01] Eight Ways to Get Rid of Clutter and Get Your Life Back by Alison Fallon with nosidebar.com. It's safe to say most of us wish our lives were less cluttered than they are. And yet when it comes to actually going through our physical possessions and getting rid of the stuff we don't need, most of us get stuck. Maybe we tell ourselves we don't really have the time to do that, or we convince ourselves we don't really have that much clutter anyway.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01] But there's a significant amount of research that shows what common sense could have told us all along, which is that clutter causes more than just a mess. It causes us a significant amount of stress. It bombards our minds with stimuli and makes it more difficult for us to relax. Not to mention when we actually do get around to going through our possessions and sorting through what we need and what we don't, our brain tricks us into thinking we're more attached to those things than we actually are.

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_01] However, a new study shows that the part of your brain that lights up when you get rid of clutter is the same part that registers when you experience physical pain. No wonder it's so hard for us to clear out the clutter. I thought I'd give you a few simple ways to get rid of clutter, a guide you can follow, so that when you make the attempt to clear your clutter and your brain tries to protest, you have a solid plan you can follow, reminding yourself this will be worth it in the end. Here are eight steps you can take to start clearing out the clutter.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_01] However, if you've been putting off this task, any of these places would be a great place to start. Number one, clothes you haven't worn. Go to your closet and clean out anything you haven't worn in 12 months. Or if it's in season and you haven't worn it this season, give it up. If you're anything like me, you have dozens of items hanging in your closets or stuffed in your drawers, not only that you don't wear, but that you actually dislike. Get rid of them. Clear out space for something better.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_01] Side note, if you have a hard time getting rid of some of these things, tell yourself you can keep it for one more week, but you have to wear it this week. If you wear it and love it, keep it. If you wear it and remember to yourself, oh yeah, I remember now why I hated this shirt, it's time to let it go. Number two, kitchen appliances or tools you don't use. My guess would be your kitchen is full of things you don't ever use. Aside from a few seasonal things like a big pan for your Thanksgiving turkey, for example,

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01] there's just no reason to keep things in your kitchen that you aren't using at least four to five times a year. Do you have a crock pot you never use? Either use it or get rid of it. Do you have a blender that couldn't cut a scoop of ice cream on a warm day? Maybe you're holding onto it because you haven't wanted to invest in one that actually works. Get rid of the old one. And you'll either forget about it completely, or it'll motivate you to start saving for something a little more effective. Number three, any duplicates.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_01] Do you have two vacuum cleaners or two lawnmowers? Maybe you got a new one and you're keeping the old one. Why? Just in case? Just in case of what? The running joke I have with myself is that if I need a second one of something I have, I know where to find it. The store. That may sound wasteful or irresponsible to you, but the truth is we often overestimate the value of our possessions. Ever try to buy something on Craigslist? More importantly, I rarely, if ever, have to go out and buy a second one of anything.

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_01] Number four, expired products. Most of us are holding onto products in our bathroom, our kitchen, our medicine cabinet, or our refrigerator that are expired, nearly gone, or that we used once and decided we'd never use again. Throw them out. It'll feel good, I promise. Just go through the space under your bathroom sink and get rid of all of those bottles that are nearly empty anyway, that hairspray you bought that you never liked, or the cough medicine from 1993. You don't need it.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_01] It's taking up space. The same is true with your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry. One time for fun, I tried to eat for a week on just what was in my freezer and pantry already instead of grocery shopping. It was a total challenge. Save me money, and it makes me think twice next time I think about buying that giant pack of tuna fish from Costco just because it's on sale. Number five, junk drawer. I understand the need for a junk drawer as much as the next person, but every now and then,

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_01] it's good to go through your junk drawer and realize that most of the stuff in it is, surprise, junk. You can throw it out. Number six, books. When it comes to books, I divide mine into four categories. First, you have books you bought or were given to you, but that you will never read. Second, you have books you have read, but that you would like to keep so that you can reference them, or maybe they're a collector's edition, or simply a nice copy you'd like to keep on your shelf.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01] Third, you have books you've read, but you will never look at again. And finally, you have books that you purchased and plan to read, but haven't gotten around to it yet. When you're able to divide your books into these categories, it becomes easier to let the books go that you will never read or that you've read, but don't plan to read again. Number seven, under your bed. Beware of spaces and places in your house that are out of sight, out of mind. What happens in these spaces is we tend to shove things there that we aren't sure we want

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_01] to keep, but we aren't ready to get rid of. We put off the decision by saying, I'll just put it here. The truth is, if you went to one of those spaces right now and pulled things out, I bet you'll find several things you didn't even know were there. Sometimes you can put those things to use, or put them in a place where you won't forget about them. Most of the time you can put them in the giveaway or throwaway piles. Number eight, storage closet or garage.

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01] This is on the border of becoming not-so-simple ways to declutter, but here's the thing to remember with storage closets or garages, and consider the possibility that out of sight is not out of mind. The clutter that builds up in the spaces we don't see every day does absolutely have an impact on us, more mental clarity and peace of mind. So consider doing a mental pass-through of your garage or storage closet before you actually physically look to see what's in there. The items we remember and miss, keep those.

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_01] Everything else, consider getting rid of it. You just listened to the post titled, 8 Ways to Get Rid of Clutter and Get Your Life Back, by Allison Fallon with nosidebar.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Support for today's episode comes from Square, the business platform that helps sellers become neighborhood favorites.

[00:08:00] [SPEAKER_01] Payments, point of sale, online orders, inventory, staff, all in one place, so you can focus on your customers instead of your to-do list. One thing about my favorite gelato place, besides the flavors, is that I'm always done paying in seconds. Tap to pay, receipt in my inbox, and the person behind the counter is actually talking to me instead of messing with a machine. That's Square. Square. When the tools aren't the focus, the human part of the business gets to come forward.

[00:08:30] [SPEAKER_01] Square helps you run your business more smoothly, bringing payments, operations, and insights together in one place, so you're ready for whatever's next. Right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com slash go slash old. That's s-q-u-a-r-e dot com slash go slash o-l-d. Get started with Square and build a setup that works the way you do.

[00:09:00] [SPEAKER_01] Back to school starts now. Get long-lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Series 3 Intel Core so you can work from anywhere. Now starting at $699 with exclusive student pricing starting at $599. Complete your setup with savings on select monitors and must-have electronics and accessories. Limited time deals and free shipping on PCs and more await you at dell.com slash deals.

[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_01] That's dell.com slash deals. Thank you to Allison. I thought the most interesting part of this one was the little bit of brain science she mentioned. That the part of your brain that lights up when you get rid of something is the same part that registers physical pain. Which kind of explains why decluttering feels weirdly hard even when we know we don't need the stuff. It's not just laziness.

[00:09:57] [SPEAKER_01] There's a real little pain with letting go. I think that's also why it's one of those tasks so many of us put off. I can be a major procrastinator with stuff like this. I'll tell myself I don't have the time or that it's not really that bad and somehow months go by. But the longer I wait, the bigger and worse the whole thing feels in my head. What I liked about her approach is that she makes it small.

[00:10:26] [SPEAKER_01] You're not decluttering your whole life today. You're just doing the junk drawer or the stuff under the bathroom sink. One tiny baby step. And that's usually enough to get the ball rolling. Then the good feeling afterward helps build that muscle. So maybe today, don't try to tackle the whole house. Just pick one little drawer or shelf and clear it out. I think you'll be surprised how good it feels. Thank you to Allison for this one.

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_01] Have a great rest of your day. Thank you for being here. And I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.

[00:11:03] Bye.