Organize Your Life & Home: The Simple System That Gives You More Time & Energy with The Home Edit

Have you ever had an experience where you walk into your house at the end of the day?

You look around and you think, "Why does my house always look like a yard sale?"

Well, you're not alone. And whether you live in a studio apartment or a big old house, the overwhelm and frustration that you feel about the clutter in your space,

“I have that too. I walk into my closet and I think, "What is up with all these chains?"”

And why can't I get rid of them? Why do I have this broken broach from my great-grandmother? I've never even met her. Why are there 21 pens in the drunk door? Or four spatulas? Who needs four spatulas? And my favorite. Why is it that you can spend all weekend organizing? And by Monday after noon, it's just as disorganized as before you started organizing it.

Well, today, that ends because you are going to get a simple, fun, amazing way to deal with your

stuff and to get organized. Our experts are going to teach you a no-shame method to go drawer by drawer just 10 minutes at a time. Doing what you can and here's the best part. Everything that you're about to learn today, it's free. You don't have to buy a thing. Because you don't need another

“basket or container, do you? You and I need a better, more consistent, and fun, simple system”

that you can stick to. And you're going to laugh. You're going to see yourself as we go through my struggles with clutter, but you're going to realize really quickly that this conversation is about something way deeper than those packed drawers in your bathroom. It's about giving you what you deserve. Time, space, peace, and freedom. Hey, it's your friend, Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. I am so fired up for our conversation today. It's an honor to spend this

time together. And if you're new or someone shared this episode with you, I just want to take a moment and welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast family. And boy, have you picked a winner of an episode because we're going to talk about how to make everything easier. You're going to learn a shockingly simple and fun way to organize and declutter your life. Clear, sure, and Joanna Teplan are the powerhouse duo behind the home at it, where they organize spaces for busy

parents, families, roommates, and everyday people who are tired of moving the same mile from one place to another. They are the authors of three New York Times best-selling books. The stars of Netflix Emmy-nominated series get organized with the home at it and the host of ABC's Revival

of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Clea and Joanna have almost 10 million followers online and they

understand what you and I are dealing with. Too much stuff, not enough time, no clear place to start and a home that feels harder to manage than it should be. Today they will remove the shame and teach you a crazy, simple system that's going to leave you feeling free, empowered, and in control. Clea and Joanna, the home at it is here in Boston. Welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. The best. We are so honored to be here. It's thrilling. Well, I invited you to the studios in Boston

instead of my home in Vermont because I was too embarrassed. You're not the first person to tell us that. I have followed you online for years and I will tell you upfront. I am so excited to talk to you because I have had a very mixed relationship with you too because I've seen how beautiful your work is and it has stirred both inspiration and a bit of, I will shall I say shaming of myself and I see your beautiful pantries and color coat and stuff like I don't think I'm ever going to erase

that. Okay, erase your shame. You are? Yeah, absolutely. It's for inspiration but it doesn't have to be what you absolutely need to strive to become. Yes, our Instagram. It's our portfolio. It's of of course it's gonna show all the beautiful things. You know, we like to say that the things that we put on Instagram, it's like having a wedding album, it's not the marriage, it's the wedding album.

>> Yes, and we need to lower everyone's standards for what organization has to become. Yes, a clear is exactly right. It's our portfolio. Of course we're gonna make it pretty. But this doesn't have to be exactly how you live. Correct. I love you. We love you. We love you.

“It's all to live in a way that makes them feel good. Organizing is about self care. And that's what we need to make sure that everyone knows.”

>> Okay, so hold on. You just said so much stuff. I just like tap the brakes a little bit and just make sure.

There were so many things I want to make sure that as a person's listening or watching, they got it.

“You said organization is self care. Yes, you also said your beautiful photos are your portfolio.”

And so think about the things that you're inspired by online. When you think about whether it's interior design or organization, the work that you do at the home edit with, you know, people's houses that are hiring you to come in. That that's your portfolio, much like you look at the wedding album, but it's not the marriage. It's the it's the beautiful imagery. It's the inspiration. It's what makes you excited, but it's not. It doesn't have to be your life. Your life has nuance. And you know, wedding album versus a marriage is the way we think about what organizing should be.

And of course, the photos and the imagery is going to be beautiful. Yeah, and it's a snapshot, but it's a still snapshot. This isn't movement in life. Right. And so let's start this way, Clea and Joanna. If the person listening takes everything to heart that you're about to teach us about quote organization. Even if your life feels chaotic, your home feels chaotic. What might change in my life if I if I follow what you're about to share? Mental clarity. Having physical clutter is a burden. And without it, it brings you mental clarity and a clutter free brain.

You know, it's not just about the tabletop. It's not just about what's in your cabinet. It is a mental burden to take in things around you that are not organized and don't have systems. It is a drain on your energy. And so when people say, well, I don't have time to organize, you know, this kind of, you are of time to not be organized.

“That's right. Like you need to be able to take a breath. You need to not be searching for things that before school.”

It takes so much more time not to be organized than to be organized. And organizing is not a one and done and it doesn't have to happen all in one sitting. I think that's the other misconception about it, too, is that people think, okay, I have an hour. I'm going to organize my whole house or I'm going to organize whatever whole space is is no.

Let's do it in pieces so that it's not so overwhelming. And each piece is powerful in itself. Organizing should be manageable. It should be maintainable.

Sustainable. It should not give you stress. It should take stress away. And again, we're here to remove the shame that I'm going to have. No shame. I don't care if you organize, you know, one cabinet of mugs, you know, it's something. And it brings you immense freedom to know that the things that you have in your home that you made a calculation. You chose these items to be here and you remove the things that don't belong. That don't bring you any happiness. It's choosing to be active instead of passive with your belongings. And it changes everything when you have that shift.

I'm sitting here thinking about the fact that you start to feel like you have an avalanche of things. Yes, that you don't know what to do. And you just feel paralyzed by your stuff. It's just the worst feeling, which is how we both got into this is because it's the most freeing feeling. To free yourself of all of this clutter that's in your mental space, but also in your physical space. And I'm thinking about the fact that this has been true for me when I lived in a studio apartment in law school. It's true now that I have a nice home. Absolutely. Absolutely. You can fill whatever space you have.

So if it's a tiny studio or if it's a humongous mansion, it doesn't matter. Both things can be cluttered or not. We have a very important golden rule of organizing. And it's the 80/20 rule, much like eating. You don't want to be more than 80% full because it doesn't feel good. So if you organize the way we're told to kind of treat our bodies, it's the same thing. 80% full give yourself that 20% breathing room.

“And honestly, I don't care if you're not color coded and you know, make it Instagram worthy. If you keep your home to that level, that 20% gives you so much mental freedom.”

And it gives you so much peace. So just we get so we're such nerds. We get so excited talking about it because it is it's freedom. And one of the things that we so love about organizing is it doesn't even have to be expensive. It can cause this massive shift in your entire life and cost $0. Literally, it's the edit. The edit is the magic. It's where the exhale happens and it's 80% of the job of organizing.

That was another thing you just said that I want to make sure you get. So I've always used the word organizing and from here on out, I'm going to use word edit.

Yes, we put it in our name for a reason. The home edit. The edit is the single most important thing you can do for your home and yourself and it costs $0. I love this because you're right organizing. I'm just like moving stuff around. Yeah, and it feels overwhelming. And it feels like you're cleaning and all this. No editing. You're curating the things that you need used in love. This is going to be one of these conversations where I forget I'm supposed to interview.

We start on this in Vermont. Oh my god. Well, that'll be act two. Let's get on this. Let's check the change in the way that you think about it is half the battle also.

“Okay, let's talk about something that we need to change the way we think about. Because so many of us think we don't have time.”

The clutter is not really the problem. The problem is I don't have time to deal with the clutter. What do you say to the person like me who says well, I just try to have time to do.

There's an old adage. Maybe we made it up. I don't know. Oh, that's right. But organize people are just too lazy to look for things because we just want something one spot. We don't want to look for. I don't want to search around. I don't either. I don't want to have to look for my child's favorite water bottle or the keys in the morning. Like, what a way to start your day to look for your keys for 15 minutes. No, let's have a spot for them that they always your keys are always here. Every physical item in your house should have some home.

It doesn't have to be like in a bin. No, it just needs to live in the same spot. So every morning, you know, where there is nowhere to go, you always know where to put it away.

And it's just that easy. It can be drilled down to being something that's in the system and it that's the other piece to which is we'll get into later, which is not to over complicate the system.

“You have to have simple sustainable systems trust us. It is time well spent to take that small amount of energy and just focus drawer to time.”

Yeah, cabinet at a time doesn't have to. Doesn't have to be overwhelming and do not do the house like we would never advise you to even do it room just start with ever, ever, ever that's not where you want to go. You don't need to start with a room. No, absolutely not. You'll be paralyzed in the corner like it's so overwhelming to start with a room absolutely not so small and who doesn't have time to just go through like one bathroom door. Let's just do a drawer. Let's start with a drawer when it's time for that. And 15 minutes in the morning even just the edit. We don't have to organize it. Just 15 minutes of an edit and then every morning when you get ready.

We like to set up something called a daily drawer. It's that one drawer that has, you know, your dental. If you wear contacts. If you're doing things that you know, you need every single morning. Okay, I'm already wrong in my bathroom because I'm like, okay, wait, where is this stuff? Like organized people are just too lazy to look for this. And it's self-care. This is so important that people realize this. It is for your mental and physical well-being that you do stay organized. It's also for my marriage. I mean, I am going to be celebrating 30 years of marriage this year, but my poor husband has watched me for decades race around particularly in the morning.

Yeah, for things. And I have to stop and say to myself, and I'll say this on behalf of you as you're listening and watching too, we don't have to spend the rest of our lives as this version of ourselves wasting time looking for things that we need. No, and it's a muscle. Organizing is also a muscle. It doesn't. You don't have to be born good at it. You can learn to have a system that works for you and you are organized. You can call yourself organized.

“All right. Let me ask you another question because as your listener watching, maybe you feel the way that I feel, which is, how can I be successful at work? How can I raise kids and have them fed? How can I be in a relationship and my dog's good fed?”

And yet, I can't manage my own house or my own closet without having a panic attack. Well, okay, let's break that up a little bit. Yeah. First of all, what you just described, you're a really busy person, right? And most of us are like, I'm sure all of your listeners are very busy people very busy. You are highly functioning.

And you simply just need to take something off of your list, which is, again, not racing around the house, trying to search for a million things. You actually deserve a break.

You deserve to have some peace in your home so that you can deal with all the million things you have going on. If you are a super busy person, again, whether it's kids and work and feeding dogs and, you know, signing homework slips and all that. All the millions of things and organizing actually takes something off of your plate. Yeah. It is a small amount of energy to put into something that has such a long lasting effect and it actually removes like a burden. It's not, it doesn't add to it. You people have to rethink and shift their idea of what organizing is. It's not another chore. No, it actually removes so many chores from your plate because you just don't have to think about it. It's plug and play.

And I'm loving this idea of systems and the edit. Yeah, because I've spent a lifetime shoving things behind or putting things in the mask. It's like just trying to contain it all. It's like, make it go away. And what's more overwhelming than opening a cabinet and having things tumble on you. That I mean, what a way to start your morning. It's terrible. Yes, but I had this question because I wonder, you know, there are so many of us that feel like if we were just smarter or more disciplined.

This is a little bit of time and effort at the beginning for the longest reward. Yeah. We are not the clutter that we see, right? We can fix that. We can do something about that. And again, all it is is an edit. We don't even need to get into the tenants of organizing. There's a very solvable problem, which is so like exhilarating. Like how what an amazing thing. It's like we struggle through so many things in life. Clutter just doesn't have to be one of them. Clutter's just that's easy. You know, let's just remove it.

“And we can solve it with the edit that you're about to do. Yeah, I will add one thing too. I think the space is that you decide to start first.”

You want to start with the simplest, least what we call like a landmine space because what happens, a closet is a perfect landmine space. And one of the reasons that people, I think, don't even realize that they resist organizing is because they are afraid of what they might find in their brain of landmine issues. Let me give you some examples of what those landmine issues could be. Will these jeans ever fit again? I don't know. I wish I could have lose more weight.

I always thought I would be a different size. I always thought I would go back to this old size. Oh my god, I just don't know if I should keep these jeans and I can ever, now I feel bad about myself.

Okay, am I going to have another baby? Well, if I have another baby, I spent so much money on these maternity clothes on the only were them once. I would, it would be a shame to have to have another baby and now I have to buy the maternity clothes. God, do you think I should talk to my husband or are we going to have another child? Oh, or just even the thought of, you know what, I spent money on that. I never wore it or my grandmother gave it to me and I never liked it. So there's guilt associated with all these decisions too. And so that I think comes into play a lot of times with people having this like a version to organizing because they're afraid to confront these bigger existential issues going on in their mind.

“And I think that Joanna is exactly right. I think that it, those are the real issues that people resist it, but they use the fact that they don't have time.”

And I think that we all have a little bit of time. You spend a lot more time looking for things. You can spend very little time just being like, I actually don't like that.

You know, I don't like that look. It has a chip and I'm never going to get a fix. He doesn't match the others. Whatever it is, it's so much easier actually to just make decisions about things.

We have to go through life making good decisions all day every day. So why not let this be one of them? And again, start extremely small, start in a space like Joanna said without landmines.

“Yes, no landmines. A junk drawer has very few. That's why we love a junk drawer. You're not that attached to a paperclip.”

Let's be honest. And if it's bent out of shape and it's not going to work, it can go. Like, so we want to start with the small wins and then you kind of get your muscle memory and you kind of build your confidence and then you're like, oh wait, you know what? I can actually do a cabinet to it because maybe that mug is sent a metal from college or maybe it's not. But you start getting the muscle and you're like, you feel the reward and the endorphins start kicking in and you're like, I can actually do this off to the races.

I love this and it feels so doable. I really believe you and I believe that I can do what you're telling me to do. I got to take a quick pause so we can hear a word from our incredible sponsors, but don't you dare go anywhere, because after the break we're diving deep into the simple process of editing, stay with me. You want to do something I've really struggled with getting enough protein. My doctor recommends I get at least a hundred grams. To you know how much protein that is, I mean there's only so many chicken breasts and eggs that a woman can eat for crying out loud.

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Welcome back at your friend Mel Robbins and today you and I are here with ClearShure and Joanna Tepplin, the powerhouse duo behind the home edit. And they're teaching us they're shockingly simple and fun way to edit, organize and declutter your life. So, clear and Joanna. Here's my next question. So let's say I look around. My house from the garage to the if you're lucky enough to have an entry or a mud room to the kitchen to the and all you see is like, oh my god, what's the first step.

Okay, let's just say okay. A mud room or an entry, whatever you have, especially if you have kids, it is what one of the places that we call grand central. It is where everyone comes in and out of and it's where things get dropped and things get left and it's like, well, this is my project pile and this is where the kids backpacks.

“Yeah, and so the first thing you need to do is assess.”

Does everything belong here? Yes, you know, like are there things here like dirty socks? No, why are those there? It's because I have 21 year old son. All right. Well, that walks in the door and drop the floor.

And we'll get into. We'll get into that. We'll get into that. I'm ready to come back. We're going to stay on tap. Yeah, very first thing you do is say does all this belong in the space.

And many, many times they don't things go, they should be in the garage. They should be up in someone's bedroom. They should, you know, if there's a project pile, let's make a spot for that. So first, just assess quite simply what belongs here, what doesn't that that would be considered the. I've already picture and I bet it's your listening. You're doing the same thing. I'm in my grand central. Yeah, my house. Yes. And I am mentally inside my grandmother's cabinet that sits next to the door.

“And I am mentally inside there going, why do we have the dog food in a dog food cooler?”

Right. Why is there a, like, kind of, vice thing that belongs in the grass, like you are literally walking me mentally. That's right. That half the stuff in that entry doesn't belong. Doesn't belong. And you know what, and a lot of times people don't do the organizing is because there's too many steps to put something away. And that's something we get into later, too, which is like removing the barriers to entry and having simple systems so that things make sense. God is also, that is exactly what I was going to touch on that.

So as we're in though your version of grandson, do you have a studio apartment or a big man? Exactly. Right. And you're visualizing this. You're asking, does all of this belong in this place? That's right. What am I doing with it? So, okay. So let's say now we're removing the things that don't belong, but there are still plenty of things that do belong and why are they all on the floor. Okay. Now we believe very simply just you can't fight the tide, right? If people come in through this door, people, if your kids come through this space, they are going to put their shoes here.

Their backpack is going to go here. You're never going to get them to carry it to the room, right? We know that.

“So don't fight the tide. Create a home where it's going to end up. For instance, if shoes are going to come off, all you need to do, put a shoe bin there.”

At least it's contained. It's not all over the floor to trip all over. Jackets need to stay there, then put a hooks on the wall hooks. Let's work vertical. Let's use the storage space vertically, especially in a small space. We are always hunting for spaces and looking up is usually one of the best spaces. Exactly. Always look up ad hooks add a floating shelf. There are external storage opportunities, carts and credences and all kinds of things that you can bring in that ad storage opportunities. And very simply again, very inexpensively adding hooks and a bin for shoes can be such a solve for an entry for a mud room for anything like that.

The goal, I don't ever want to see things just laying on the ground. No, nothing goes on the ground. In fact, unless it's a rug, it should not be on the ground. Right. Or a shoe bin, you know, basket, but again, the shoes are in the basket. That's right. It can be a very, very inexpensive thing. I don't care if you live in a studio apartment.

In fact, if you do for free, that's right. There's tons of options there and I'll back up one second. If you're walking in and there's 12 backpacks and you have two children. Let's talk about that.

Why do we need 12 backpacks here? Have we just been keeping them as the child getting a new backpack every single year? Okay. That's fine. Again, we're not going to focus on the new bought now. Don't get into your head with the landmine. Why did I buy a backpack every single year when they could be, let's not go there because they pressured me in every video. That's right. And you know what, crying in staples, you know what, and you did your best. You did your absolute best at the time. But why are we doubling down now on them having two backpacks or 12 backpacks? Okay. Let's remove that.

Let's decide which backpacks do they actually use. It's our ones with holes. Let's get rid of those. Is our ones to donate? Let's have a day donation is a huge part of taking away the guilt. Taking away the guilt and what you bought your kids and what you bought yourself. I mean, even in a junk drawer, if you're like, oh, God, but like all these markers. I don't know. You know what? You know what, you love them. Teachers with schools. Schools. Schools. Kids need back. It is one of the essentials that they need to be able to go to school.

There are so many things we can do with the items that we feel guilty about quote getting rid of. Let's not have the guilt on top of everything else. We do all have too much guilt. I want to make sure I'm tracking because where we're starting is you pick a place that's not a mental landmark, right? Which really narrows the focus for me in my house. Okay. There's a lot of mental landmarks.

Sure. But I love that we're just going to start with Grand Central. Yeah. Okay. We're just going to start there. Okay. And I love that you're basically saying a couple rules. I want to make sure I'm following.

Then remove it. Yes. Or donate it. Yep. You also said nothing belongs on the floor except for the rug or your dog. And so if you're looking for places.

Where it goes. Look up vertical storage is always an option behind a door behind a door over a door. Hooks are super cheap. Yep.

And don't fight the tide. That's right. You've got it. Stop turning Grand Central into an architectural digest photo shoot. Yes. And just embrace Grand Central embrace it. Got it. If you know that every day, whether it's you or a partner, whatever, everyone gets the mail and the mail always goes right down. Can we talk about this? Oh, we need is a simple. That's right. You need a tray or a basket.

“That's it. Let's talk about paper clutter. Why do the entryways, the kitchen?”

Yeah. Like, why does the cloud process? Because it's just asking. You're just like, Oh, this is a space I can put things on top of. So we also try when it's possible to not have additional flat spaces for things to get cluttered. Like open flat spaces. Just a flat space is fine. But just an open empty spot is asking for clutter. No, that's where you put a tray. And you have the tray designated for mail for keys for wallets, whatever it's for. It's a home for something. It's not just an open and let's see of whatever wants to go there. What do we do about the kitchen island?

Because what drives me crazy. Yeah. Maybe it drives you crazy as you're listening is. Okay. We've gone through Grand Central. Yep. You enter into the kitchen and I swear to God. I just spend an hour every day picking up my husband's glasses. My son's keys. The mail that somebody just put up there. Yep. The other, like, they can see their pocket.

It's a second Grand Central. That kitchen island is. Yes, it is.

Kitchen in general. That's exactly right. So my sister embrace it is or right here. That's the good thing is the rules are the same. Okay. So now we're going to see what doesn't belong here. Keys don't belong on the kitchen island. They sure do not. But they could belong in a tray. That's exactly right. They don't just belong on the kitchen island. Basically, here's here's one role that we just really embrace.

We do not like a free floating item. It should have a home. If you, if this pen is just like right there. Well, it's on my kitchen island. It doesn't belong there. It doesn't belong there. Have a pen cup. Yeah. Have a drink. Have a drawer. Have a drawer. You know what I just realized is I just realized that I have an opinion about where my husband's reading

the last is belonged. Okay. Great. Like you just said it doesn't have a home.

“Yeah. And I'm like, well, it's because I think the home is on his face.”

They do not belong at home on the kitchen count. Same with Oakley's keys. I think they belong in his car or up in his room. Yeah. But they end up on the kitchen. Okay. Okay. You can't fight the tide. You're fighting the tide. Yeah. So this is the tide. This is exactly what we're talking about.

We're not going to fight it because that's just going to make everybody. It's going to make you crazy. It will. It has to make me talk about. And we talk about crazy. Well, this is what we also talk about. A me problem and a them problem. So this is something we really talk about. And it's easy and we'll we'll give the example of both of our children's bedrooms.

Okay. We asked our children separately. We don't with together. We are married. We're married to other people. We're children. Yes. But separately, we both ask that our children make their bets. Well, okay. They most of the time do.

It turns out both of us hate the way our kids make the bets. So now I go back and remake the bed the way that I want it. That's a me problem. They did their best. They made the bed. But I don't like how they made the bed because it's not up to my standard. That's a me problem. For instance, you put a basket down for shoes in the

Mudroom or untrue way. Well, they might just toss them in and it looks a mess and whatever. I want them lined up nicely. That's a me problem. That's right. It's a them problem if the shoes are on the floor not in the bin.

“So you have to set up systems that your family, your household,”

whatever you live with that it's really simple and that everyone can follow and understand because if they leave the keys or the glasses not in the home that you helped create. Yes. That's a them problem. And that's something that needs to be worked on. So I don't have a home for those things, which is why they keep adding.

And that's a me problem. That's where I got to create them. Then you create the home and then it's a them problem if they don't follow it. Oh, my God. I love this. Yeah. It's a me and a them problem. Got it. Yeah. This is actually kind of simple. It is. It is. It is simple. Okay. Let's talk about editing. Okay.

Okay. Because when you said, okay, we're not even talking about organizing. Let's just talk about first this editing because editing will free you. It will magic. And I also assume editing is how I implement the 80 20 rules.

Yes. Okay. Absolutely. The any space only 80 percent full that the 20 percent

allows me to breathe and editing is the thing that will set me free. Right. Well, so I'm assuming editing means decide what to keep and decide what to trash. So how do you edit? So the rules for editing.

All right. You either need it, a toilet plunger. You use it. You know, a toaster spatula, you know, whatever it is. You use it, you know. And you love it. You actually just like you're attached to it. You just love it. It's brings you joy for whatever reason that that might be. It's somebody gave it to you that you love. It's represents something to you that you

love whatever reason you don't have to justify it. You just you just know you love it. It makes you happy. You need it. You use it or you love it. Aside from need using love, there's one other bucket and that is sentimental. And sentimental, you might say, well, I love the things that are sentimental.

But that's not always true. Sometimes it's just it's a special item that you just

feel. You can't get rid of it. Like you can't get rid of it. Now, there are two rules within sentimental. Okay. Okay. You either need to use it or store it appropriately. When people tell us that this whatever sweater from their grandma is really important or whatever it is that sentimental and it's just shoved and backed shelf,

I question how special it actually is to them because you're not honoring the item.

“If it actually is special in sentimental, you need to either be like,”

I'm going to put this in a keepsake box at the top of the closet. Or I'm going to have it framed. You have to honor whatever it is. Yeah. But if it's something that you're like, I just can't get rid of it. Yeah. Then you need to honor it and like display it or honor it and store it. Now, there's a rule with the storing it because some people and everything

can fall into sentimental. Of course, it can become a very slippery slope. So what you have to do is put up a little bit of a guardrail and decide, I, in my house, my studio apartment or my huge house doesn't matter. This is how much space I want to a lot to my sentimental value of stuff. So whether it's the site, maybe you have six bins in there the size of this table.

Maybe it's a whole garage full. But you have to assign a value of how much all this stuff means to you and then decide what's worth keeping and going through that stuff and making sure that it really has value to you because there's also a dollar amount tied to the sentimentality. People think about how much you pay in a mortgage or how much you pay in a rent.

How much stuff are you just holding on for the sake of holding on that's taking up so much valuable real estate in your house that you could be otherwise have other things or just breathing free air there. So these are all like decisions to kind of think through in other ways to make the value seem more rational.

So when I go through this edit list, need, I need it. Yeah, I use it. I love it. That's right. And then we've got this little subcategory with a giant red flag called sentiment. That's right.

This is where we fall into starting to hoard and that's the thing, right? Because you can justify well of it. Absolutely. And so we can correct ourselves by going, okay. Well, am I actually honoring it?

Yep. Or is it on display? Yeah. Because it's not shoved in the back corner. Doesn't seem special to me.

And it's really not that sentimental. Right.

Here's what I did in here.

Should. Right. I should hold on to it. Well, the thing is we don't believe in that. We just don't if it should.

That to me does not equal. Um, a desire. I want a need. It's it's like putting this like imaginary. Well, I should.

Shoulds are not powerful. Hmm. And they feel powerful. That's the thing. I feel so powerful.

But they're what are they?

“It's not that you want to or that you need to.”

It's just that you should. I, I would always question. Well, why? Tell me why you should. Is it because you think that someone's really going to come over and look for that T towel?

Because they're not like no one is. I can't believe you just said T towel. Because we know just was sitting. You're thinking, because you can't help but listen to you. To and start to mentally go through your.

Sure. And so as I'm going to edit. I'm like, okay, need you. And I was standing in my kitchen. And I thought sentimental.

And I have my. Grandmother. Okay. Great. Absolutely.

Beautiful, harvest pattern. Yep. And it's on display. Great. That's perfect.

That's perfect. I never use it. But I love seeing it. That's perfect. But that's exactly right.

“Do you know how many doilies and broken pieces of costume?”

Jewelry. I have jammed into a door in my closet because I, I, I should hold. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm like a bad granddaughter. Let's talk about it.

I don't want this stuff. No. Even like I didn't even know my great grandma. Like I don't. No, right.

The, the, the. Plates mean a lot. That's great. That's the difference. That's the difference.

We question. We have to push back on people, right? Well, I feel like a bad person. If I'm ditching broken costume, jewelry from the 1920s. Not.

Absolutely not.

And we always push back when someone says it's special.

I want to know why. And I want to know. If again, you're trying to on displays. Look how you lit up when you're talking about the China. It's the fact that vases.

Yeah. Yeah. That are pikes. You kind of lit up. And now this doily brings you now.

Oh, my God. I got there's a doily next to the broken jewelry.

And let's talk about this too.

This doesn't mean anything.

“This is another way to know what means something and what doesn't mean something.”

Okay. So what in part of our process, we like to categorize things. So what this does is allow you to see the totality of a category. So say it's all your great grandmothers or your grandmother's stuff. What if you brought all of the things that your great grandma has ever given to you and put it all in one space and you're able to see.

Okay. All of that stuff takes up this table. Well, actually, I love these dishes and the rest of it means nothing to me. Well, you're representing your great grandmother through the stuff that you love. Why are we holding on?

She wouldn't want you to have a bunch of broken costume jump in a door.

Look at what you are honoring her and you will. This makes you so happy and this brings you down. And what are we doing? I don't think that anyway. Exactly.

Exactly. You know, she's and she wouldn't want this. I know. I know. I know.

But maybe somebody else wants it. Then you donate it. Okay. another conversation, but I mean thinking about seeing it all together, which is part of our process,

“even with not just sentimental stuff, but like anything you have 40 pens. Do we need all 40?”

Can you have 10? Right. You know, like, let's see the totality of something to really make this decisions easier. You know, one of the things that I love most about the two of you and how you approach this is it's fun. It's fun to listen to you. Like, I feel so heavy when I think about organizing and clutter and I do make myself wrong. And so having you be fun and it's practical, I'm excited about it. And I bet as you're listening you're excited too. And if you've been

thinking about somebody who's overwhelmed or embarrassed or frustrated or stuck when it comes to clutter, their home getting organized, sure this episode with them. It's such a gift. There's nothing they need to do. They can laugh. They can learn and feel empowered because everything that you and I are learning is making your life easier. All right. Don't go anywhere. Coming up, they're going to teach us the organizing mistakes everyone makes, especially when you go to tackle

that landline called your closet. Stay with me. We'll be right back. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins today. You and I are here with the extraordinary women behind the mega brand the home at it. Since you've been listening, you now know why they are such a force for positive change. They're making everything easier. And I've just been enjoying this so much. So let's just jump right back in. Now let's talk about the crap that does not fall

into that category. And I have wrestled myself to the ground and I've got some things. Okay. I've got, let's use the example of pens. I've got 20 extra pens that I do not need. Okay. I have close it. Don't fit. I have other things over here. Now I've grid piles. Yes. And I have piles that are like, okay, get rid of this. Donate this. Okay. Am I reselling that? But now I'm super comfortable. If the piles are categorized in their all genes, you're starting the organizational

process. You're really two thirds of the way through. Then we talk about containment. And containment doesn't have to be a bin. It doesn't have to be drawer inserts. I mean, obviously, we like to

“operate that way. But again, you can do this for free without. Okay. You need to have guard rails”

for any item that you're keeping. Any. So if it's denim, whether you hang it or fold it or whatever it is, you only have X amount of space. I don't care if you live in a humongous mansion or a studio apartment. You only have X amount of space. So your items that you keep cannot exceed your space. It's the 80, 20 rule. So if you have 20 pens, 20 extra pens in your drawer, you're taking up now too much space. And now you can't fit a pair of scissors because you have too many pens.

I can't open the drawer because the scissors are jammed in there. That's too many pens. That's right.

It's always the scissors and the rolling pens. It's always those two things. Right. And the potato

masher. Potato masher always gets in the way. Yeah. But it's about you have to think about containment. If you're not using drawer inserts or things like that, then you have to just assign a containment kind of in your brain for like, this is where pens go. I can only fit X amount, which means I have to actually get rid of something. And it's the 80, 20 rule. And that and the containment goes back to the categorization because if you can see that you have 20 pens,

when things are all scattered all over, you have no idea what you even own. And then you end up wasting money because you're buying it over and over again. So true. But then I have 40 pens. That's right. 20 pens. But if you see them all together, again, this comes back to you don't have time to not be organized. Like once you're organized, you save so much time and so much money. Right. All right. Well, we'll come into the details of the organization and containment in a little bit.

First, I want to make sure we understand editing. Yeah. And we talked a little bit about pens and scissors. Let's talk about the junk drawer that we all have that gets out of control. And I would love for you to walk us through a zero cost way to take to do it. Just zaster in a drawer and edit and

And this late stage. I'm so sorry to put you on blast like that's your junk drawer. You know,

this is your show. And oh my gosh, this is your, this is your junk drawer. It is. Okay, show the audience. Oh, no. They don't need to save my God. So let's, let's, this is perfect because we can go through all this steps right now with you. We're going to, okay, this is going to be

“the edit. The first step with an edit is you have to take it all out. And there's no way around. There's no way around.”

Because let's, let me explain why. Okay. And I'm going to start just going. There's no way around it. Because if you just looked in here, whether it's a closet or a drawer or whatever, it's very easy to say in this all belongs, this all stays. But when you pull it out, you actually have to make a conscious decision about putting it back. It's active versus pasting. Oh, my gosh, you know what I've done with our junk drawer? I'm glad you're doing this. So now I don't have to do it.

But what I love, at least I have a rubber band ball. You do have a band. That's right. I, I will arrange one little bit of it. Yes. Like one little side tracing of it. And I might pick out the fuzz or something have the dog hair or the old band aid is in there. Yes. And then I'm like, okay,

oh, God, okay, just shut this thing. Great. You have to do the edit. At how much stuff is in there. If you're always

amazing how much comes out. Oh, my gosh. Duck tape, glue stick. So then I would air. Oh, my god, the card that was missing from the cribbage game last night. There you go. Look, why is this in here? I don't mean one card is not. Oh, I know because we didn't need it for the game. Okay. So somebody put it on the freaking kitchen island. Okay. And then I got frustrated when I was cleaning. Right. So I then put the card in the junk drawer because I didn't want to see it. Oh, my, look at the

“receipts in there. Yes. Oh, my god. There are a few things that we can just like this. What is that?”

I don't even know. I don't even know if it's like a part to something that I don't know. But we're holding on to it. You don't even know me to find the other person. I don't know. Matt. And then this coffee cup lid. Oh, this doesn't belong in here. No. And I've got the bracelet. I don't know who those are. Okay. So like already you're seeing, but see what we're doing right now is we're categorizing this stuff. So you can see even in the little drawer the totality of each

thing. These are like, you're like racers. You're like, I hate half of those style of pens. Okay. I would not use that pen. Let's, well, I've got one chopstick. Okay. Yeah, one chopstick. One chopstick. All right. We've got some sunscreen. Okay. So there's some office supplies in here. Yep. Which I hear is a little office supplies section that we're putting together. All right. And then we've got some laundry. Like, okay, that could, I wouldn't make a case for this. Yeah. So even before

we get in to like, do you want these pens with this pen? I think it's just a very even cursory look at being like, okay, Bryce, let's talk along here. Nail polish does not need to be in. Right. Keep out. Oh my god. You're right. You're right. But he's got like feel so conflicted because I'm like, we're almost pregnant. No, that's, but that's great. Hold on, let's actually ask a question. Do you paint your nails in a place that's next to this junk? No. No. Okay. Okay. Where would you

paint your nails? My bathroom. Okay. And then the floor. That's where it goes. That's where it goes. That's where it goes. This goes in the bathroom. I can only do a good job on my toenails when sitting. That's where it goes. There you go. That's where it goes on the floor. But here's the truth. Okay. I say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. Say it. I don't even know why I have nail polish because you don't get your nails. I don't often get a manicure. I only get a manicure

pedicure when we're taping episodes in Boston. Otherwise, I live in Vermont. Okay. I don't know what. I bet I have eight bottles of nail polish lying around in different doors. Would you want to have

nail polish in your house? Or would you never, no. Okay. We don't even need that. I need nail polish

remover. Okay. Great. Great. So never buy nail polish. So what do I do? Because those are full. Then you can donate it to someone. Yeah. Okay. Like the daughter or I know we're going to talk about how we do that because I have a hard time moving from the pile. Oh, don't know. Well, we'll talk about that. But if you're like, for instance, this is a list at some point that has been spilled on and you can't even read it because it was probably something that Chris

asked me to do and then I spilled on it and I put it then in the drawer because I would come back to it later. Yeah. I'm guessing you either did it or that didn't do it. Okay. You were right. Okay. So we're going to take that out. T bags can move to the kitchen. I don't even like Irish breakfast. Okay. I'll take them. Okay. You see you're donating a lot. Duck tape belongs in the garage. Okay. So this is a keep, but it doesn't belong in the junk drawer. And let's

have a space to take that. What belongs in a junk drawer? Well, tell you what, let's ask you. Okay. So is this drawer from your office or is this from the kitchen? This one is for the kitchen. Okay. So in a kitchen, let's talk about the things that you would need. You don't need this in the kitchen.

“No. Okay. Would you use, if you spill, would you use a type pen in the kitchen?”

Oh, I'm not. I don't probably run up stairs. Okay. So this is not looking to take a little bit of the dawn like this. Totally. That goes in the laundry. This is trash. Yeah. That's trash. There's a trash pile over there. Does the key chain belong in the kitchen? It doesn't even have keys in it.

Now twine could belong in a kitchen, but do you use it as such? No. Because I have a drawer

“that has twine wrapping paper and my scissors for cutting flowers. Okay. That's what then it's”

totally organized, which I love. This goes into that. Ben, what about these headphones? Yeah. They're broken. Okay. I think they must. That blame. Oh, please. This goes with those. We don't have to donate everything. If it's broken, it's trash. Okay. Okay. Now bracelets and hair ties. Hair ties I would need in a juncture. Okay. Great. Perfect. And the bracelets. I don't know who those ones. They can go. They can go. All right. Okay.

Okay. You have a couple coupons. You even know what they're for. Both cat food. Cat food. He doesn't eat it. So throw it out. Like a great noodle. No. Can we just celebrate what you've already done in five minutes? Look at what you're down to. You're down to things that actually just work in the store. Need user love. That's it. It's so small. And now watch. We're not going to spend any money. Okay. And you know what I could do more. Okay. I only like the black

pen, the blue pen, and the green pen. Get rid of the rest of it. Okay. There we go. They go to a teacher. That was a little regret. Okay. All right. And do you use these? What are little post-it-abs? Oh yeah. I know these. Okay. All right. So and do you use the male panda or the? Are these just employees? I don't know. No, there's a racers. Okay. You do not use a racer. No. I don't need an eraser. Okay. Somebody else was empty. Oh my gosh. Okay. And where does the

male typically go? I typically, it typically ends up on the kitchen island. In the bypass of aggressively drop it on Chris's dress. Okay. That's fine. So it goes there. A pacifrogiously or not. It doesn't matter. Well, it finds you a new train. I judge men about pacifrogiously behavior. That's not our segment. Yeah. That's not our brand. We don't nail belongs on Chris's. That's right. That's because he sits at it five days. There you go. And then it'll actually get opened and the bills will get paid

and amazing. Yeah. Fantastic. And you have a pack of batteries that are contained. So and I'm sure

you need by having a different drawer that has bad. There you go. So did I don't know now that I'm realizing this, I need to do this with every drawer in my kitchen because I've got a bunch of doors to other stuff that it's missing. That's where that's where the crawling and categorizing comes into play. And I don't need to just spend a whole weekend doing this. I could just do one drawer

“at the time. Right. And that's why the barrier to entry is still low. And that's why it's so”

free. How free do you feel now? Look, wait until you just put this all back. I feel even better knowing you did it. Like, I know, I, I, I, I, I know I can do this. If you can, you just did. Okay. And then you've got these old boxlets that you're using. Yeah. And now we don't have to buy drawer dividers. No, right, just use box. You absolutely get nice extra. Yes. You have extra envelopes. Would you, are you ever rid of the envelope? Okay. Would you see? I'm starting to feel like you kind of get on a roll.

That's the door thing. It's kicking in. It's so free. It's like shopping, but the opposite. It's so, it's so jewelry. I'm hoping, but you know, we're shopping for space, space, you're shopping for space. I can see what you mean now about you can't afford not to do this. Yes. And another thing that I just recommend this is what I would do if I, especially if, like, things need to now move to other places. Just have a little basket with you so that all of these things just go in the basket. And then you

just walk around your house. You put it in the garage. You put it in your bathroom. I literally want to run out of here. I feel like you're going to get rid of this. It's like powerful. This is so manageable.

And this is why we always say start with a drawer because see how excited you are. I really do feel

excited. I, what I also like about this is I've always made the mistake of thinking that, okay, I got it. I got to take the whole weekend. No. I got to take the whole weekend. No. And the whole, I'm going to tear apart the kitchen. I'm going to redo all that stuff 30 minutes. Take 30 minutes. Yeah. Totally cow. Yeah. And it's, it's as simple as that. One other important rule for someone wanting to start this process. Yes. Just like we did here, do not start and edit. Do not take

out more than you can put away in the same day. Meaning, don't just take everything out of your closet. Yeah. And then what? The reason why we also love a drawer, you can go from A to Z with a very, you know, within 30 minutes and the great thing is going from A to Z in a small space is the same thing is going to A to Z in a big space. The rules are the same. That's right. It just takes more time.

“That was so helpful. And the edit's easy. You know, I use it. Do I need it? Do I love it?”

That's great. Awesome. All right. I have more questions. Okay. I'm going to take the drawer. All right. Let's take all the stuff. All right. I'm going to take the drawer. I'm going to take the drawer. Because I'm going to go from drawers to other parts of the house. Okay. Let's see that. So let's talk about the big mistakes and drafts. Okay. It's a Saturday morning. Yes. Kids are out partners gone. Okay. I got a burst of motivation. And now I decide

I'm going to declutter and organize an edit. So what's the big mistakes? Okay. You started saying them all together. Organize the clutter and edit all at the same time. Let's just start with an edit.

So they can be bathroom drawers. They can be kitchen drawers. Let's start with drawers.

If this is your first big go at it, let's get you really comfortable and feeling good about yourself.

And once you finish that drawer doing the edit, go to the next one if you sell the energy. But one by one or not going to take apart the entire kitchen all in one Saturday morning when you think you have a burst of energy that's going to last all day. It won't. We'll just spare you the spare you the good news. It will not last all day. It will last an hour until you're in the fetal position in the corner because it's too overwhelming. Again, this whole experience should make you feel good. Yeah,

“not bad. You don't want you should not have any shame. You should not have any guilt. No. You should”

not be. You don't want to be exhausted and just get excited about this because it's an opportunity. It's not a chore. Bathroom drawers. Also a great list of bathroom drawers. Great place.

So satisfying. Also it's like the last thing you see in the first thing you see in the

morning and the last thing before bed. And so to start your day and end your day that way feels so satisfying. I am guilty of holding on to like make up products or samples. It's still like, well, like, what if I run out or I might want that color or, you know, like, maybe I'll learn how to use eyeshadow one day. I don't know. You won't. I won't. I've think that ship is sailed, but make up products are just so small that you're like, like, can fit it. Yeah. Does it mean that you should fit

it? How much more would you rather have the clear space that I've have tied lotion you don't know how to use? It's like true. That's, and that's the thing to think about. Do I want the item

“or do I want the space? And you get stuck that binary decision is the best way to get out of”

being stuck, especially in a closet? Like, oh, I can't decide, well, do you want the space? Do you want the breathing space? Do you want the extra hanger? Or do you want that pair of jeans? Oh, I am going to be repeating that as my mantra. Yeah. For the rest of my life. It's, it really is binary. Because it's binary. And there's no gray area. Right. It's just, you have to follow those rules. You only have so much space. That's right. And I myself, again, I am ruthless with

everything in my house, but I love to shop. I just do. I love, I love shoes. I love handbags, but I will get rid of. She will. Oh, they're items. She has to do it like a one-in-one-out rule. I kind of do. She kind of doesn't. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I see. I see. It's usually three and three out. It's like, it comes in. Right. I'm not sure why I don't one-in-one-out because I do believe in having space in the closet. Here's a rule, I have for myself.

I will not buy new hangers. I don't need anymore. The hangers are, they completely match the space I have. If I need to add hangers, then I'm shoving things into my closet. Oh. So if I get into a one-in-one-out, that means like, I'm not adding a hanger to accommodate my new clothes. I will

purge. She and she's an excellent. She is ruthless. I'm hardcore. Yeah. Wow. Why does mess always come

back? It really comes down to putting systems in like a situation that is so sustainable and easy and simple. So when a mess comes back, I generally think it's like, okay, Joanna and I obviously organize. We spend the time organizing our homes. If we create a system that's too complicated or don't put in a system at all, the mess will come back. If you're only tidying up a space and not truly organizing it, the mess comes back. All organizing is, if you really want to keep it

as organized as the day you did it, you just have to create simple, realistic systems and set

“realistic expectations. A lot of it comes down to a me versus them. Is it a me problem or a them problem?”

I don't even care if it's a kids' playroom. You just put big floor bins for like blocks. That's right. Dolls. If you don't have dizzy doll air. No. Princess dolls here. But people do go down the path because it's easy to do and because you do it one day and you get excited. And then the thing is it's too hard to maintain and then all the wheels fall off the bus. Like, okay, for instance, for a pantry. We love pantries. We could do a whole episode on my god. Okay. Nothing's more fun.

Every pantry could be organized and look great by just having six categories, just bins. A simple bin. What are the six categories? It's breakfast, dinner, snacks, baking, cooking, dessert. That's it. Thank you. That's it. And again, if you have this space and this is fun for you to have micro categories, have at it. It looks, it can look beautiful. It's so fun. But if you are a busy professional or a busy person, just in general, just the six categories and you are off to the

race, just organization, simple systems. And one of the keys to maintenance is a label. Yes. And again, that feels like it's just an aesthetic situation and it is not labels or a set of instructions for the household. I love this. Oh, my gosh. I am going to have so much fun this weekend. What is the hardest thing that people seem to have trouble getting rid of? Denham. Denham. We have had to make

going to be able to fit in to their old jeans. And I would say just generally close, clothes are

so, clothes are really hard because it's the emotional piece that goes with clothes. There's so many triggers in a closet that it's so hard. So going, when you are ready for the closet, just give your self grace and know that you may come across things that are hard for you to face and be patient with yourself. And because it is hard. Okay. You were masterful in walking us through the drawer. If somebody, yes, starts with the doors. Okay. Okay. We're doing one door at a time. You get good,

you have the pens. Yep. We are really starting to feel motive. Yeah. We got the six different items in the pantry. Got it. We have handled grand centros. You're working through your house. Yes, I'm realizing my systems. Yeah, are simple. I'm able to get things where they're supposed to be. I'm not buying more stuff. I'm starting to feel like, oh my god, I've got more space. I'm feeling good about this. Now I'm ready for the closet. Okay. How do you want us to think? You still

need to start directing the whole thing out? Not at once. Do not, so don't want drawer or one categories.

“Or like one, you know, bank of clothes or whatever. And are there categories?”

I know. So we're a question. Like in the pantry. Is there a camera work out? Okay. Give me the categories. In a closet. Generally categories like represent themselves. Yeah. So it's like pajamas exercise, work, leisure, swim. Whatever those are summer, winter. We have seasonal categories. But you don't need to get so granular. Okay. I would just, if it was me, I would just take all pajamas and throw them on the bed and start matching them and seeing what what I like and what I don't

like anymore. Right. Just start with really small simple steps. A closet take one day a week and just do little small bits. You're not do the whole thing. And it adds up to really, I mean, editing out your closet. I think is actually the most freeing thing. It is a map. That's the hardest one. And once you do that, again, it's, it's, but acknowledging on the front end, this may be challenging because I'm going to confront certain emotions. Let's just say I'm going to tackle shirts. Okay.

Great. Hanging shirts. It's okay. That's great. That's great. That's great. I pull them all out of the closet. All of them. Throw them all in the bed. That's right. Pull it out. Just look at it. Do I want to take the point five seconds? It's going to take to actually put this back on the rod. Like,

do I actually love this? Or do I, am I never going to wear this kind of tank top ever again? Yeah.

You know? And if something creeps up, oh gosh, I've, it costs so much and I've never worn it. And now it, don't it? Okay. Let's talk about the selling donate. Selling is a whole different thing. And that's a barrier to entry. And so we don't want you to get stuck with the selling. There are

“a few things that, if you want to sell your items that are, you know, that you spend money on,”

that you feel like, you know, I spent, I spent so many on this. There are resellers that do the work for you. You know, there are people who do the posh marks to do the real real real real. Yeah. Oh, there are people who do these things. They're just take a commission. Yeah. And they market it, and you do stuff off with them. Yes. They do the picking up. They do the whole thing. And I would guarantee

there's always an exception to rule here. But I can't think of anyone we've worked with, a

single client that has missed what they have purged from their closet. They make the decision and once it's gone, it's gone. You also have these rules in here in, we have a lot of rules. A lot of rules. I don't what I love these rules because they never thought about it. You say invest in matching hangers. Yes. And you also say, when you remove an article of clothing from a hanging rod, put the empty hanger back at the end of the rod. Yes. I never do that. I stick it in

the middle. No, you can't find it. And sometimes, like, if I do a real big, like a major purge, like from all the different sections, I won't take all of the hangers and put them on one rod at the end. I'd put it in their section. Yeah. So that way, it's not, doesn't take up so much space on one rod. So what if you live a really small place? Okay. Okay. And do you have suggestions for, like, where do you put things like clean laundry before it's folded? Where do you put your work

laptop when it's the week? So this goes back to external storage. Like we talked about with hooks.

“But over the wall unit, things like that, a cart is a mirror. What do you mean by a cart?”

A three tier cart. They sell them at the, they sell them all over the place. We made one at one point at the container store. The container store has tons, targets, tons. Yep. And it is similar. Like a three tier cart on wheels. A three tier cart on wheels. One of those for my son's dorm room. It's three tier cart on wheels. They are the best investment. They can go anywhere. Sometimes they go to bathroom. Then go in a kitchen towel. They can have bath supplies. They can have a, you

rent. Best rent. And then you can put clean clothes in them while you're waiting. And you can literally push the cart from the, from the laundry room. And then back of the doors, there's some

amazing, there's Elfo at the container store, which goes over the back of the door. It's clean looking,

you can put shoes on the back. You can put, oh, that's true. This is your look up thing. So you use the vertical, vertical space and an external storage. A cart is, oh, but see, when you set external storage, I thought you went outside. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, sorry, sorry, additional storage that doesn't exist already. It's not a pre-built into the house. Got it. Okay, that makes sense. Yeah. So how do you know when you've edited and organized and

“contained enough? Okay. Whenever it works, that's how you know. If it works, you've done it. If it's”

falling apart, you need to rethink your system. And let me say this, so it's not just falling apart. There is a level of maintenance that's required. Yes. Organizing is not a one and done. It's a can to exercise. You can't go to the gym one time. Like, that is not how it works. You don't do anything one time. You invest in your relationships. You have to constantly maintain things that matter to you. And organizing is, unfortunately, no different. The thing I think people make, I mean,

people make mistakes in a lot of different ways. But I think that one thing that is a mistake is thinking about your organizing as a snapshot in time. It is a living space, right? You, it lives and breathes in your home. You add to it. If you organize your pantry, that's why

we think we always want to think about like, what is the easy solution? What is the system that's

“simple to maintain? Because that's when things go off the rails. If it's, if you put in a”

system that's like kind of too complicated, it's not going to work. It's like exercise. If you have something falls off, somebody puts in the steak knives into the junk drawer in your kitchen, it's not like, oh my God, it's over. No, no, no, it's exercise. Like, okay, so you missed two days of working out, just get right back up there and do it again. We talked a little bit about the low bar method for closet. But is there any other examples of low bar at all? Our whole life, our whole life.

So yeah, but we have something called a low bar lifestyle, which means if you set the bar low enough, you'll be able to get over it. Yeah. So if the bars on the floor, you're going to be able to to walk over it. Except for nothing, especially on the floor, but the rug in the bar, the rug in the bar. But if you set the bar low enough, basically what we just want people to understand is that any amount of effort that they put in is enough. Any amount of energy of effort, of financing, of

whatever is enough. And you don't need to beat yourself up. The low bar life sells about giving

yourself a gold star. Yeah. Literally, like we always say, if all you do in the day is make your

bed, you've achieved something. Yeah, you started off. And you did something today. You did something. So for the person who's listening, who is sitting here, just thinking about the state of their home, because as you talk, you can't help but like do a little fly by and imagine drawers and particular places that you want to start. But you still feel a little ashamed and overwhelmed and maybe you're judging yourself a bit. Yeah. What do you want them to remember most?

“I want them to remember that we three sat here and went through one drawer within 10 minutes and”

we didn't do the work you did. And you probably had the same feeling that they're having right now, that you thought, oh my gosh, this drawer looks awful. I can't believe the way it looks. It's a horrible. I can't do this. You did it. Not us. We just talked you through it. Yeah. And they can do it, too. And it is not. This is not meant to be overwhelming. It is meant to be freeing. It is meant to relieve yourself of the mental clutter. It's not one more thing to do. It's the way to save yourself.

And to give yourself what you deserve and it's self care. It is self care. It is wellness. It's mental wellness. It is and physical wellness. It's all it's so valuable. And there's the payback, the payoff is so much greater than the energy that's required to do it. And don't tie being disorganized with yourself worth. Like don't do that. Yeah. You are busy. There are so many competing things for your time and your attention. And this is only an opportunity to help yourself.

That's it. It's not another drawer. It's truly an opportunity. Yeah. That's absolutely. Joanna and Plia. What are your parting words? My parting words would be to just start, you know, you can't you can't finish anything if you don't start it. And even if you start super small, I think that it's just doing something and all of a sudden you're like, oh my god, I feel like I

I would just say the edit is free and you get out whatever you put in. And so if you have five minutes, you will edit for five minutes. And if you have an hour, edit for an hour. But that is so powerful. And it gives you such a lift. And it will carry you through all the other parts of your house. If you can start with something that's for you, that way you can see how you maintain it yourself. I sometimes think that gives you more confidence to go for the next thing. Whereas if you do it in a

big space, that's a very shared space, it can be very frustrating when people aren't falling.

Your systems right away. So if you did your own bathroom drawer first, that is really powerful. Because

you're like, this is mine. And I'm taking care of it myself. And you have the ownership over it. And so you can see it through. And you can see the maintenance through. And then start implementing it through other drawers where it's shared spaces. Well, I haven't even started. And I don't feel I agree. And I cannot thank you enough. Thank you, God. I made it. I cannot thank you enough. I love that 99.9% of everything that you said I can do. It's not going to take a lot of time.

In fact, it's going to take less time, the amount of time that I am wasting and the person who's listening is wasting, racing around, feeling overwhelmed and trying to find the things you can't find and wasting money. And you did something really important. You not only gave us the simple steps, but you infused it with such belief and enthusiasm that I know that this will work if I

“actually do it. It will. That's why you just have to start. Well, here's what I want to tell you.”

Your fantastic. Well, thank you. And what I appreciate most about this conversation is it wasn't about editing or organizing or decluttering at all. You gave us a roadmap to have the single,

most powerful resources that we have in our life, which is energy and time back. Yeah. And I really

understand what you mean. Now that we've had this conversation that this is not one more thing that you need to add to your to-do list. This is your way to get time back and not to get peace back. And I cannot thank you enough for hopping on a plane and for being here and for doing this work and teaching us how to do this for free. Well, we are so honored and so happy to be here. What an honor. And we're coming to Vermont. Yeah. We sure are. We sure are ready or not. Here we go.

Yeah. I want to go decluttering now. Thank you about that. No, seriously. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. This was such a pleasure and such an honor. I learned so much and I'm so excited

“to go home and edit. That's what I'm going to do. I'm so excited for your daily routine. I know.”

Please take a photo of it. In fact, when you do a daily drawer, I want you to post a photo of it

and tag the home edit. Please tag the home edit. I get so much satisfaction about seeing other people's work. Let us celebrate. Yes. Yes. I love that. So thank you. Thank you. And I also want to thank you. Thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode. And I think you probably started it thinking you were going to get one thing. And now that the conversation's over, I know that you got what I got, which is this deep sense of confidence that yes, you can do this. And I also feel the lift

of pressure and shame that I've been putting on myself like something's wrong with me. This isn't one more thing that you have to do. It's one thing that you get to do and that you can do to get back what you really deserve, which is time and space and to feel good about yourself. So I can't wait to see your photos. And in case no one else tells you, I wanted to be sure to tell

“you's your friend that I love you and I believe in you and I believe in your ability to create a”

better life and a holy cow when we edit. We will create a better life and we'll feel better in that life too. All right. I'll see you in the next episode. I'll welcome you in the moment you hit play. Okay, great. Okay. Hey, it's your friend. Hey, it's your friend Mel Robbins and welcome. Hold on. Got you. Got you. Got you. Okay. Um, one rule you really follow or is that or how would you, how would you recommend? The should do the listen back while you're doing the

edit. I believe in the whole time. In my car is so filled with stuff to donate. I cannot wait to double this. Just double it. Get it out. Get it out. I mean, I was saying I have a bag that I've been bringing between. Why do why are there? Well, that's again. Is that it? Okay. Hey. Right. Wow. Look at look it up. Two are dynamists. No wonder you are so successful. Do you want us to literally help us through all this out? Let me just do that. YouTube, though. Okay. Um, I say. Alrighty. Uh. Oh. And one more thing.

and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment

“purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended”

as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified

professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.