Is Your House Secretly Making You Anxious? | The Clutter & Anxiety Connection

Is your house making you anxious... or is anxiety creating the clutter?

In this episode of The Anxiety Compass, Sammy and Nat explore the surprisingly powerful relationship between physical clutter, mental load, and the nervous system.

From overflowing washing baskets and mystery drawers full of random cords to unopened emails and endless to-do lists, clutter isn't always about being messy. Sometimes it's a reflection of an overwhelmed mind trying to manage too many open loops at once.

Together, they unpack:

🧭 Why clutter can increase feelings of stress and overwhelm

🧭 How visual noise impacts the nervous system

🧭 The difference between physical clutter and mental clutter

🧭 Why unfinished tasks continue to drain your energy

🧭 Simple ways to create more calm without becoming a minimalist

This isn't an episode about having a Pinterest-perfect home.

It's about understanding how your environment influences your thoughts, emotions, and sense of safety.

Because sometimes finding your True North starts with clearing a little space around you.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hey, it's Amy and Natalie here, and welcome to the Anxiety Compass. Where anxiety isn't the enemy, it's our tour guide. We'll swap stories, share tools, and have a laugh while we find our way back to true north. Come along. Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Anxiety Compass. How are you, Nat?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

I'm fabulous. Miss Demi, how are you, my love?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

I'm pretty good. I've actually um this week I've just finished recording my podcast. Um not my podcast, my audiobook. How did that go? It was so much fun. And you know the funny thing is, is that the studio people who run it who were fabulous, they asked me if I was a professional voice actor. And I laughed, and they said to me, You've got a great voice to read audiobooks because my book actually has a lot of characters in it. So um I I did a lot of fun voices in it, so can't wait for it to come out. But anyway, I'm off topic. Excellent. But you know what I also found lately, because I've got my mum living with me at the moment, which is which is great, but there's a lot of um distractions in my home, and I'm finding I've been going to the local library that has fantastic Wi-Fi, might I add, and I'm finding I'm getting so much more work done away from my house than when I normally work here.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, I go to the library a lot. I started doing that when I was actually doing my degree, yeah, and I would go to the library, yeah. Great Wi-Fi. Um, the one that I go to has a cafe in it. So I I would literally stay for the whole day. And yeah, it's it's really interesting. I find whenever I'm like in a library or a cafe or something, I do get a lot more work done than from home.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah, because I find when I'm at home, I'm like, oh, I'll sort the washing. Oh, oh, I've got that, and you can see everything that you need to do. Yes, and you just keep getting distracted. And I find like I know this is me, but I find that when my kitchen in particular is messy, I I it's like this thing. I immediately feel stressed. Um, yeah, even when nothing bad's happening, it's like as soon as I see mess, it just sends my brain a bit crazy. Like I have to I have to tidy up because I feel I feel messy. I does that is that do you know what I'm talking about? 100%. I really do. Overwhelm hits. Yes, yeah, yeah. And I think this is what this episode's gonna be about today, because a a lot of people get kind of overwhelmed and feel a bit anxious when there's mess. It's like your brain is focusing on too many things at once, and you can't too many tabs are open, too many tabs are open, and yeah. So looking at the uh anxiety compass, do you know I found out um yesterday I say anxiety, not anxiety. It was picked up with my enunciations, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Oh, when you're recording, you're yeah, there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

So if you're listening and you're like, I know you've been saying that for a while, I will change the way that I say anxiety. Um I never realized I was saying it incorrectly. Oh, I didn't pick it up on it either. I know, right? But with the compass, the the anxiety compass direction, uh, we're looking at our environment and we're also looking at the nervous system because it can be very overstimulating. Um directly affecting how our nervous system works, these piles of messes we have all over the house. Um yeah, so uh we're not talking about being perfect because my obsession with minimalism went extreme, Nat. Like extreme, to the point where people were coming over and I had no cups for them because I'd cleared out, cleared out all of the coffee cups I don't use. There's too many coffee cups here. I'm sick of all the dishes, and then I got rid of things that I don't use that often. So when I started entertaining again, I people were laughing at me because I didn't actually have anything. So I went too far to the point where my house became sterile. Um, so that there needs to be a balance here with clearing the clutter and clearing that space. So um yeah, when you think of too much clutter, do you think of too much on your mental load?

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Um I yes, absolutely. Um, I mean, more when I think of clutter, it's more clutter in the house. Yep. But yeah, definitely clutter does come under, you know, too many times open in my own brain.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Do you have a lot of knick-knacks? My hubby's a big uh non-liker of it. I used to when I first got married when I was yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah. Um when I when you know, when I moved into my first home and got married, you know, I was 22 and had lots of little knick-knack-y things and would go and buy things to make it all homey. Um, that didn't last too long. When I moved out of that home, I got rid of it a lot of stuff. And yeah, I I don't have many knick-knacks at all these days.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah. I'm not really a knick-knack person, but I've got friends that love knick-knacks and they bring them joy. So it's not about removing things that bring you joy, it's about sort of having a little bit of I guess it's having a room where you can sort of not be constantly having things like your brand, brand, your brain constantly scanning all these objects in the room and becoming overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Um, I mean, my mum loved cat, um, she had she actually collected ladro figurines and stuff.

unknown 5:58

Ah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Love them, but she had a dedicated cabinet. It was a beautiful wood cabinet with a glass door, so it was enclosed, so you know, she wasn't constantly dusting them. Yeah. Um, but they weren't taking up space throughout the whole house either.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, so and not having them all over your kitchen bench. Um, it's also hard when you're living with other people. My hubby has specific spots in the house for things, and I I'm the I'm the mover of things, I am, because you know, have you ever seen those reels where the hubby gets a cup out to go and have a drink of water, and as he turns around, the wife puts it in the dishwasher. That's me. I'm a little bit obsessive like that, but I'm I'm getting better at it. But um, every object is information for your brain, and so your brain, as I said, is constantly scanning, it's looking at unfinished tasks, it's looking at all the decisions you need to make in the day, um, all the responsibility responsibilities you have. Like I often say to my hubby, I I like being at home during the holidays, but I also like to get away because I'm constantly looking at all the things that I need to do and the reminders that are there. Um, even when you don't realize you're doing it, you're unconsciously thinking about all the things that you need to do around the house. Talk about reminders.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Um one of my foils, let's say, is post-it notes. Um, as reminders. I, you know, I've got my calendars and everything, but I write everything on post-it notes, and then I sit down to my desk, and I actually did this this morning, and I had post-it notes because I've been running in and out all week at work and doing things, and I sat down and my brain just felt fried because I just had post-it notes everywhere, so I just did a posting overload. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

Yeah, yeah, it's too much. I use post-it notes when I flag um recipes I want to cook, but I said to my hubber the other day, I'm becoming quite overwhelmed because I have physical recipe books, I have a thermomix, so I have recipes in my thermomix that I've flagged. I also have recipes from videos that I've seen of people cooking. I've flagged them in my recipe app online, and then I have all my ebook recipe books in my tablet. And I said to him, I'm starting to dislike cooking because I'm overwhelmed with the amount of recipes that I have flagged to cook. So I'm cluttering myself with recipes.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I do the same. Like for me, um, the other big one is like 110 billion tabs open on my computer on my laptop. It's it's always because I'm doing research for patients and cases and all that sort of thing. And you know, literally this morning, so before we started recording this morning, I was having technical issues. Um, my camera was lagging. So I said to Sammy, I'm just gonna sh do a full hard shutdown and then restart. And I must admit, as I hit uh hit shut down, I had a little bit of anxiety because I was like, oh, I'm just about to lose all the tabs that I've got. I mean, I can go back to my history and get them. Yeah, but there's there's this thing about they're not easily accessible, they're not just there. But then, and it happens occasionally that I have to do this, but as soon as I hit restart and and reopen my computer, there was a sense of um a free freeing because they weren't all all there in my face.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yes, yeah, isn't that interesting? Yeah, wow, like it that's called what do we call that? The open browser tab theory, because a lot of people use that theory. I've got too many tabs open in my brain, and I find women have more tabs open um because there's there's just all that invisible weight that we have that that exactly we're juggling. We're the rememberers, the rememberers of the entire factory. Oh my gosh, even like washing, like seeing your washing pile up. I don't know about you. We've got, I mean, I mean, I've got teenage boys and a husband, and they don't know how to use the washing basket. They have piles of washing all over the bloody house, and it doesn't matter how many times I tell them to put it in the laundry. I mean, the my youngest is pretty good at it, but they have like four different piles going. These ones are sort of dirty. I could probably wear them again. These ones I need to put back in the wardrobe because I decided not to wear them, and these ones need to go in the dirty pile. I'm like, hang on a minute. Like, what the heck? It's too many different piles. It's too much for my brain to remember all that. Yeah, I just kind of have to deal with allowing their rooms to just, I mean, I share a room with my husband, obviously, but allowing their rooms to just be because I can't control other people's clutter.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

It's it's too No, look, I I was like that as a teenager. And my mum, she would yeah, keep the door closed. It's like that's your space, but she would get sick of it, and you know, because I would with I was the same, I had similar piles. Yeah, and mum would just go in when I was at school and just pick everything up and go and wash it. And it didn't, you know, it didn't matter when I get home and have a spAck attack because I was 15. And that's what 15 year olds do. Don't touch my stuff, but yeah, but you know, mum was like, Yep, no, you know, if I if it's on the floor, I'm cleaning it, I'm washing it. End of story. Yeah, exactly. You've got to be a little bit more. You should do that, just like ubiquitous. If it's on the floor, it's getting washed.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah, I'm not playing into your weird piles game. It's not, it's not happening. Too many things in my brain. But that's it. That's the society we live in where the it's not just physical clutter that we can see, it's the clutter in our minds, and it's setting off this anxious feeling inside us, even our calendars. Like we we have structures and things in place. Like I've got the to-do any list app, and I have all these different lists in my phone out of sight, out of mine, right? Because otherwise I'll just have written lists everywhere. And I think you and I, was it you and I saying we have a physical list that we look at during the day? So many lists, right? And um I like physically highlighting and crossing off. Like I like paper, but everything else goes into this app a way that I can't look at it unless I physically go to the app and click on um, like, you know, a list of whatever it is that I'm you find that helps or is Yeah, sometimes it does because I find like for my business, for example, I think of all the little things that I'd like to do, but I it's not an urgent thing. So I've categorized them into urgent and non-urgent, and you know, things that need to be done right now, and things that I can think about in a month or so if I've got the space. Like maybe one day I'm like, oh, I feel like being creative. Let's go to that list and have a look at some ideas that I jotted down for my business. Um, yeah, yeah. So that sort of it's taken a while to get used to it, um, because I had a list on my computer, a list over here, and now it's like I need a master list of my thoughts to go somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

It's too much otherwise. It really is. But I also find with apps, there's I've stopped using so many. I was using Notion and all these other things. I know. I've just it was getting too much. It's too much. But all these different apps, I've literally gone back to old school paper rather than having everything. I mean, all my clinic stuff goes into my clinic diary, it transfers over to my Google diary. Yeah. Um, but my master list is pen and paper these days. Yeah. Uh when I'm not using 110 billion things, but I know. But I've got I've got a physical diary and everything goes in there now.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Um it just simply I've got too many things in my brain that I feel like I would fill up a whole like notepad in a day. Well, yeah, you I mean you're different, you've got a lot more going on because you've got but I've got like even in my even in my any list app, I've got um books I'd like to read. You know, when you like when you're scrolling and you see things, you're like, oh, I'd like to read that, oh I'd like to watch that. And you kind of you know how you save, save, and then you all of a sudden you've got Facebook saves, you've got YouTube saves, you've got saves everywhere. I actually write it down into my any list app, so it's all there's actually a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

I do screenshots. That's probably the other thing that later if I see a book or you know, whatever, take a photo.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

No, yep, screenshot. Half the time, or I'm gonna say 90% of the time I don't go back. No, yeah. Until I'm deleting pictures a month later, and I'm like, oh yeah. But even like there's too many different message apps, like the amount of people who message me on different platforms, and in my mind, I'm like, oh, I need to reply to that person. And then one day I go, oh my gosh, because they'll appear in my stories or something. Like, I haven't replied. And then I'll spend 10 minutes trying to find what ad you sent me a bloody message. I know, I'm the same. That's too much. It really is too much.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Do you know?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

I I um I haven't seen her in a while, but I used to go to the gym with a beautiful lady. She was a mom of four girls. She's not on social media at all. She doesn't use her phone, she'll listen to podcasts in the car, but she isn't on any social media, never has, never will be. And she is one of the most personable, happy people I have ever met because she is in the moment, she's never on her phone. And I just get so jealous sometimes, but then I think she probably misses out on a lot as well. Like a lot of people post everything online. So I know.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Look, I was on the train yesterday, I went into the city. I had a uh a long-standing VIP client of mine who used to live here in Brisbane and and um used to get Reiki from me, and she was here visiting in Brisbane this week, and she booked me in to go and do Reiki. So I went out to the Ho Ho Hotel to do it, and I it's I'm often on my phone, yeah. But whenever I'm on the train, I'm I never am, but uh it's just something I just enjoy the train ride and looking. But just uh so it gives me a chance to just observe everybody, you know, like everyone else on the train. As we came into each station, 99% of people just had their heads stuck in their phone. Uh, it's like not looking around at all.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

It's just like it's haunting, it's creepy. I because you sometimes see posts of pictures of the future like that, and it's exactly.

SPEAKER_00 16:38

I was about to say that it's like it literally was predicted.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

It's scary. I um I don't like it, but then sometimes I find myself I look up from my phone because I'll be checking emails and I'll think, oh my god, I'm one of the zombies. It's yeah, exactly. And all of a sudden you're that. So going back to the anxious feelings around clutter, whether they may be physical or psychological, in your mind, let's be honest, um, it can actually trigger anxious feelings. It can lead to burnout, which is one episode we did not long ago, like having too many things on the go at once, overwhelm, depression can even kick in. Like I've seen cases of that. Um heighten our stress levels. And we often just kind of throw in the towel, so many of us, and just go to scrolling or something to kind of numb ourselves because it's too much. It's the clutter, and then I find the clutter gets worse because we've got too many things, too many hats, right? It's evidence that we're not actually coping, we're just creating piles on piles on piles on piles on lists on lists on recipes, more recipes. Are we actually living on it?

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Are we just combined?

SPEAKER_01 17:57

Yeah, and even another one, and I've noticed this one if my mum's listening. Hi mum. Um, clothes. I find some people buy clothes on clothes, on clothes, because clothes shopping can be very soothing. But how many clothes do we need? How many trinkets do we need? To the point, you know, I've read a book, the one I think it was Jay Shetty, um, the monk one that he wrote. Okay. He talked about wearing the same orange robes every day. And he said it was one less decision he had to make. Yes. I said to my hubby, I could totally wear the same thing every day. And he's like, No, you couldn't. You express yourself of what you're wearing. I'm like, Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

Well, I love it. I mean, I've thought about that many times when you know I'm getting ready to go to to work, either in my clinic or at the crystal shop. And some days it's like, oh, what am I gonna wear? Yeah. And I just really remember back to when I worked, you know, I I ran my father's business for 12 years and we had a uniform. And it was so lovely. I didn't have to think. Yes, I just would put on my uniform. I had my summer uniform and my winter uniform.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

Yep, and then that's one less thing you have to think about. Yes, I find it.

SPEAKER_00 19:02

I might have actually thought of having a uniform for my actual business, like yeah, apart from it being a tax write-off, yeah, but it would take away just one less thing that I have to think about.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's too much, and yeah, it's it's creating avoidance. And I find like even like we've talked about avoiding going out because um of anxiety, but another reason I've seen in a lot of women is they can't find anything to wear because they've got too many options or too many things going on in their wardrobe that they get overwhelmed and they go, I'm not going. It's too hard.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Exactly. I mean, literally open the cupboard door and there's just this sea of clothes, and yeah, it can get really overwhelming and go, Yeah, I've got nothing to wear, I'm not going, as you think.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

And and we haven't even sort of delved into the hoarding side of it because that's that's a mental illness, let's be honest. But having too much clutter can also cause shame, and shame is not a good feeling that you want to feel. Um and you can't it kind of spirals, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 20:04

So exactly, but I mean when shame like that, and that literally in um affects your mental health just in itself, because then you don't want people to come to your home because you're embarrassed, exactly losing out on on social connections and and you know so you're carrying the burden of the shame and you're also missing out on those that that connection, having people over for a meal, having people having a girlfriend over for coffee, yes, yeah, and I find people apologize when I come over and they're like, I'm so sorry for the mess.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

And I'm like, dude, everybody has a table full of laundry. Well, I my overneeding to clean face, I rarely do, but I know most homes do. They have they don't use their dinner table for dinner, they use it to sort and arrange and and piles and piles and piles. Um, and it comes down so if you're listening, you're driving, or wherever you are, and you're thinking, wow, this is totally me. I have clutter everywhere, I've got clutter all through my house. Um, maybe it's not clutter, maybe it's just tasks that you need to do of piles everywhere, which your brain is just overloaded with it. Like it's things that you need to do. And I wonder what is the clutter trying to tell you. Maybe too much is on your plate. Maybe you're having difficulty of letting go of things in your house. I mean, don't do what I did and throw out an attachment and realize that it's part of the ice cream maker. That's yeah, I've done I had to throw the whole thing out. I've heard someone throw out throw out the bottom of the Christmas tree because they didn't know what it was. So they just threw it out. And then Christmas came around and they had no bottom. Oh, that was the important part of the tree. So maybe, maybe, maybe not let go of everything, but the things even just cleaning out your your clothing cupboard, it can be really very Refreshing or shutting down your computer and restarting it like Nat did. Exactly. Maybe it's a fear of making decisions. You're kind of stuck.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

What else do you think it could be? It could also be a lack of systems. So you just don't, as we're talking about, we've got systems in place, different apps that can make life easier. So maybe it's just an indication that you know you need to sit down and work out a better way of systemizing your life, your home, your family. And it can also just be pure exhaustion. Yeah. Your body is just so overwhelmed, it's burned out, it's just exhausted.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

And you know, like someone was saying to me, I don't do systems, I just live in the moment, I live with the flow. And that is great if that works for you. But I find if you're living in this modern society and you want to be a part of the game, which let's be honest, most of us are. Unfortunately, you have to have some sort of system to be able to function in it. Otherwise, it becomes too much. I mean, we can't all just go and live out of a van and travel around Australia. Like, I mean, we probably could, but it's really interesting.

SPEAKER_00 23:12

I've got a friend who actually did that. She runs her own business and they prepared for a year, her and her husband. They were gonna spend a year, a couple of years just traveling around Australia in their van. They did it for maybe six or seven months, and she couldn't cope. She was like, I can't, I it was it was too free, too loose. Yeah, finding places to be able to work from. Um, it was just too hard. So they actually they used to live in Brisbane. Um they're now living in Cairns because that's they got to Cairns and then she just turned around and said, enough. I can't do this anymore.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

I'm like that. It's like when you go on holidays and everything's there's no system, and like we were talking about routines and keeping us grounded as humans. And you find like I find in my grandma's retirement village, they have routine, it keeps their brain in check. Like these women are and men are got dementia and they need some sort of system. So having a system is is quite a safe thing for the nervous system. Absolutely, yeah. Ah, so what's a practical approach for this? I mean, don't do what I did, and what was that book that was out that was really popular for a while? And she had a series. Marie Kondo. Yeah, I went and did a Marie Kondo on my house. Oh, I avoided that. Minimalist minimalism. Um, I literally like got rid of I had like one of everything, and it it was ridiculous. So instead of I need to like if you're driving and you get home and you're like, oh my gosh, I need to clean this whole house and and creating the biggest project ever that you're probably gonna get halfway through and have a mental breakdown. What's something that we could do instead?

SPEAKER_00 25:00

That from picking a small area of your home. So if it's your home, one small area, yeah. So it could be something simple like your bedside table or your bedside drawer. Yes, it could be your car the bottom drawer, the bottom or the third drawer in your kitchen, exactly. Yes, you know, all day for that. Yes, it could be your car. I I I do a clean out occasionally of my car and it feels so good because I mean we're talking about feng shui here as well, yes, you know, clearing that clutter, allowing the qi or the energy to be able to flow more freely, which then helps our brain to relax and feel safe. Um, it could be your handbag. How often do you clean out your handbag? Just clearing that out. I clean it out actually. I fly down to my clinic in Canberra every six to eight weeks. And before I go, I actually literally empty out my entire handbag. Uh, it's a large tote, so I've got my laptop and everything in it.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Do a full clean out, it feels so good. Oh, it totally does. And I'm shocked at some of the things I find in there. Like I found the other day, this is probably gonna gross everyone out, but I found the other day it was a receipt, and I'm like, I probably need that. And as I went to open it up, it had gum from like I knew you were gonna say that. I've been putting gum in there and it was at the bottom of my bag. I've done that. So I do feel better cleaning it out and getting rid of it.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yeah, absolutely. With clothes, it could be just a um you know, do one section, don't do the whole wardrobe. You know, if you've got drawers of of you know, jumpers and tops and underwear and stuff, do that first. Do one drawer at a time. Or most um, you know, if you've got a double-sized um wardrobe and you know how it's got the the railing halfway, do that half. Don't look at the whole thing, just do that half and then come back another day and do the other half. You sometimes you'll find you get going and and you get inside, especially if you don't try and do the whole lot. So your brain goes into overwhelm before you've even started. But if you do a little bit, you often find and you've achieved that, you often find that you then go off and do something else. Or you're like, oh, I'm nailing this, I'll keep going. Yes, but you find you overwhelm.

SPEAKER_01 27:25

It depends on your hormones and your mood too. Like I've gone to do things. I find just before I get my period, it's like I'm in nesting. I was about to say, yeah. I'm like, oh, I feel like doing it. Maybe when you don't do I think that's when a lot of the rash decisions are like everything's going. That's it. Yep, it's all about these socks are crap. I've I've got a rotation system. I'm being mindful of the time here because this is longer than I expected this episode would be. But um, I um I have a system in my wardrobe that if I'm looking at clothes and I'm not sure if I like them or not on my me, I have them off to the side of my wardrobe. And then if I haven't worn them in like six months, they go to an op shop. I'm I'm like, I'm just you know, it's a it's a maybe shirt. And why would I wear that when I prefer to wear that? Like, what's it doing in my wardrobe? And it's quite once you release it out into the wild or you gift it to someone, it's it's freeing. Hi, yes. And what about the brain clutter? What can we do with the brain clutter?

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Um well, you know, using uh if you're using a calendar, well, like we mentioned um Google Calendar. Yeah, I mentioned it before. One thing I do, and I know you do as well, is do the colour coding so that you just see blocks of colour. Um I find that soothing actually. Because I can look at things at a glance without having to go in and read it. I I know that you know this color represents this. So I know at a glance that, oh, I've got that coming up tomorrow without having to go in and read the details of it. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Um maybe just use one app if you're using things, or like try and consolidate all of your lists because it's easier. Um, I I find before I go to bed, I write everything in my brain down and then work out and I highlight what I actually need to do the next day. Yeah. And that's that's when I write my list for the day the next day, so that I go to bed with a clear brain. Oh, it's so much soothing. Um, I mean, yeah, working out how you can declutter the mind. And the last one that I mentioned when we first started is if you struggle to find time to declutter your home, maybe you will be more productive and more creative if you can find a space away from your home and then um like a library or something to to do work.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

I'm sorry, and and and at the and and and and and and and and and and um if your home is getting overwhelming and you can afford it, don't be afraid or feel ashamed to hire someone to come in. Yeah, I mean there are some amazing organizers out there that can come in and that's what they do. They declutter your house.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

I had someone do that in my clothing wardrobe. They went through my colour palette and said, Why are you wearing any of that? Threw that out. And it made my wardrobe so much more enjoyable to be in rather than overwhelmed with all the things. Amazing. Well, sometimes we think we need to calm our mind before we can tidy our environment, but often calming our environment is the fastest way to calm our mind. Do you want to throw a reflective question in for our audience, Nat?

SPEAKER_00 30:45

Hi, Shell. Okay, what area of your home, office, or life feels the most cluttered right now? And is it possible that space is reflecting oh sorry, that that space is reflecting something deeper that needs your attention.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

I feel like the bottom drawer in my kitchen is screaming at me right now. Is it? Yeah, it's full of crap. I need to throw it out. Hopefully, no chewed up chewing gum in receipts. Surely I wouldn't have put some in there too. That's great.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

My desk is calling me. Now that I've fixed my computer, that I've that was an instant declutter.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

Yes, we can now breathe. So um before we go, the anxiety compass that we mentioned can be many points of the compass. Perhaps anxiety is talking to you, and that anxious feeling you're feeling is actually your environment asking for attention. So have a think about that, and uh we're gonna we're gonna go and uh clean our own little spaces. Nat, have you got a space you want to go and clean? Oh, you've already got a laptop. Well, my laptop, but my desk. We'll love you, leave you, and we'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for joining us on the Anxiety Compass. If you love this episode, share it with a friend who needs a little laugh and love calm. We'll see you in the next one. Keep following your true mom. Disclaimer time. Sammy and Natalie may be clinical nutritionists, but we're not your personal doctors. What you hear is for learning and laughing, not diagnosing or prescribing. If things feel bigger than you, call your doctor or local support line or reach out to a qualified health professional and they've got your back to.