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24: Ditch Your Shit: Decluttering As Self Care with Kate Evans

• Marnie Martin- Midlife Mentor, Empowerment Coach, Happiness Expert, Best Selling Author • Season 1 • Episode 24

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Do you ever look around your home and feel overwhelmed by all the stuff that seems to multiply overnight? What if that physical clutter is actually connected to what's happening inside your mind?

Meet Kate Evans, psychologist, life coach, and author of the boldly titled "Ditch Your Shit," who believes decluttering is as much about mental transformation as it is about organizing your closet. Having gone from self-described "slob" to someone who maintains a peaceful, organized home, Kate shares her powerful insight: "Caring for your home is self-care."

Throughout our conversation, Kate unpacks the psychological barriers that keep us surrounded by clutter – shame, limiting beliefs, fear of making wrong decisions, and the fascinating tendency to create familiar chaos rather than unfamiliar order. "If I already have a messy house, then I already am at failure, so I can't go any lower," she explains, revealing how our relationship with our stuff often reflects deeper patterns.

The beauty of Kate's approach lies in its gentleness. Start with just one item. Make one decision. Feel the satisfaction of that tiny victory before moving on. Understanding which stage of change you're in – from pre-contemplation to maintenance – removes the pressure and shame that often derails decluttering efforts.

Whether you're drowning in mail piles, can't see past the laundry mountain, or stand in a closet full of clothes crying "I have nothing to wear!" (while literally surrounded by options), this episode offers practical wisdom for creating systems that stick and breaking habits that sabotage your space.

Ready to feel lighter, happier, and more confident in your home? This conversation might be the permission slip you need to finally ditch your... well, you know what.

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Speaker 1:

Hey, beautiful friend, it's Marni and welcome to. Life is Delicious. If this is your first time here, you picked a great day to show up. Today we are going to be talking about decluttering.

Speaker 1:

And I'm not just talking about decluttering your home, your closet, your garage. I'm talking about decluttering from the inside out. I don't know about you, but when I have too much stuff, it just feels like noise in my life. So that's what we're going to be talking about today. My guest is Kate Evans, and she is a psychologist and a life coach, and she has just written an amazing book called Ditch your Shit, and it's all about decluttering not only your home, but your mind as well. I'm so excited to have her here. So if you're ready to ditch your shit and reclaim a life that you love, then stick around, because you're not going to want to miss this.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to this episode of Life is Delicious. I'm Marni Martin and I'm so glad you're here, and if this is your first time here, welcome to the Life is Delicious family. This podcast isn't about surviving midlife. It's about crafting your next chapter life overflowing with purpose, joy and delicious possibilities. Listen, midlife doesn't have to be a crisis. It can be a beautiful invitation to remember who we are, to rediscover a new version of ourself, or to completely reinvent our life to reflect who we are. To rediscover a new version of ourself, or to completely reinvent our life to reflect who we are becoming now.

Speaker 1:

So if you're tired of being exhausted, living life on autopilot and putting everyone else first, then you are in the right place. Each week, we'll bring you thought-provoking ideas and practical strategies, as well as inspiration to help you prioritize yourself again. It's time to take back your joie de vivre. So grab a notebook and pen and pop in those earbuds and let's go get it. I don't know about you, but for me and a lot of my friends, I noticed that we are all just a little more sober, curious than we used to be and, if you haven't met me, just a little more sober, curious than we used to be. And if you haven't met me, I am a true wine lover and I still love to drink wine. But as we get older, our bodies just don't metabolize alcohol as effectively as they used to, and for me, I'm really trying to be a bit more mindful of what I'm putting in my body. So I recently discovered Kensho Cocktails. They are delicious, premium, non-alcoholic and ready-to-drink cocktails that are crafted by the RSRV Collective, and I love that. The meaning of Kensho is self-discovery in Japanese and it really reflects the brand's dedication to crafting cocktails with the nuance of traditional mixology while remaining gluten-free, vegan, non-gmo, low in calories and free of alcohol.

Speaker 1:

Kensho cocktails were recognized by BevNet as one of the best 2023 non-alcoholic beverages. They're crafted with premium botanicals, natural citrus and spices, and each cocktail offers a distinct and sophisticated experience. Botanica is inspired by gin and tonic. Orana mimics the best of an old-fashioned and Amari channels an Italian aperitif. These ready-to-drink beverages can be found at wwwrsrvcollectivecom, and my listeners get an exclusive 30% discount. And my listeners get an exclusive 30% discount. Be sure to use my special link, delicious 2025, to get 30% off your purchase. Kensho cocktails are a fun way to enjoy responsibly, with sophistication and great taste. That's wwwrsrvcollectivecom, with the discount code DELICIOUS2025. Welcome to the show, kate. I'm so grateful that you were able to join me today. I think we have so much in common and I think we're going to have a super juicy conversation.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Marnie. I'm really excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

Before we kind of get into the nuts and bolts of what we're going to talk about today all the decluttering. Let's talk a little bit about your story and what led you to this line of work. So I was already a psychologist. I've been doing this line of work in psychology for a couple of decades plus, but back in 2018, after having done a ton of personal work on myself I had dealt with my mental and emotional business and I had done a lot of work on my physical health and I'd done work on my spiritual health, especially via my work in yoga and just about to go through a yoga teacher training program I decluttered my own home. I touched almost everything in my home and the stuff I did not touch was my husband's stuff, because you don't touch somebody else's stuff. You don't declutter somebody else's stuff.

Speaker 2:

And I didn't declutter the garage because it was February and I live in Chicago, so it was too cold to do that. But when I did that, it was this amazing experience where I went from having believed that I was a slob who was incapable of having a tidy home to being able to stand in a tidy, clean kitchen that I could clean up after dinner within minutes and stand there and look at it and not want to scream anymore and actually feel relief, and I realized that caring for your home was self-care and I wanted everyone to know this. I want everyone to feel the way that I do. And so my therapy clients started getting decluttering coaching, whether they wanted it or not. And in 2020, I decided it would be a good idea if I would actually start a decluttering coaching business in addition to my therapy business, so that I could specifically focus on that work.

Speaker 1:

So what was it in your life that spurred you to do all of that emotional work? I mean, obviously, working as a psychologist you're helping other people to clean up their stuff. And was it just? Was there anything specific that made you move into that direction and clean all of your own stuff up? Or was there, you know just, was there anything specific that made you move into that direction and clean all of your own stuff up? Or was there, you know just, was it a natural, organic process?

Speaker 2:

It was, over the course of time, it was just getting in touch with just the right things. It was having done some work with a business coach because I had opened a business and it was a good idea to see a business coach. Because I had opened a business and it was a good idea to see a business coach and having gotten involved with yoga and gotten deeper and deeper and deeper into yoga. It was having been raised by artists and just being open to a lot of things. I got introduced to Pilates, fell in love with that and that became a way that I really took care of my body and strengthened it.

Speaker 2:

My mother is a vegetarian, so I was raised knowing a lot about nutrition. Not that being a vegetarian automatically means that you know a lot about nutrition, but my mother does. She actually was macrobiotic at one time and so I just had a lot of knowledge and I've picked up knowledge like a kind of a rolling stone. You know, just picking up stuff along the way, hooking the pieces together. You remember barrel of monkeys coming to mind to me of just like this chain of a barrel of monkeys and just hooking together and never underestimate what one thing is going to lead to, because just because I'm not currently teaching yoga doesn't mean that getting trained as a yoga teacher was a loss. It was one of the most powerful years of my life.

Speaker 1:

And it's all connected, right, it's all connected Everything that we do. It is yeah, and it's really as we get older. I think that's one of the things that we become a little more open to, and all of our life experiences even though it might've felt like we were taking a left turn and going down a different path, it actually all leads back to where you're supposed to be right now.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and you've got to be open to that. I work with so many people who are initially closed off to that and they think that, oh, I shouldn't have done this thing because it's not specifically designed for this path that I was supposed to be on. I always tell them hey, you don't know what the payout's going to be, just let it all connect.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think it's so true, though, because I think the tapestry of our lives is everything sort of that we've done that sort of creates, and sometimes we need this specific skill set, and sometimes we need this specific skill set, and sometimes we need this other specific skill set. But when we have a varied things to choose from, then we, you know, are a little bit more diverse, and it's good.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that diversity so wonderful I have. I think I've tried throughout my life to just bring in as much weird and interesting information as I can, and who knows how it's going to help me. You could not have told me when I was in high school that I was going to be a therapist. In my late 20s I went to grad school and became a therapist. There are so many things that you could not have told me when I was younger, were going to grad school and became a therapist. There are so many things that you could not have told me when I was younger were going to be happening when I was 51. And that I would have a book coming out and that the girl that I met on the first day of seventh grade would have been my book coach. I mean, come on, oh, wow, that's amazing, life's amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, we'll definitely get into that, because I think that your new book sounds fascinating and, just for all the listeners out there, it's called Ditch your Shit, which I think all of us can relate to in a huge way, and it's all about decluttering your mindset to declutter your home, and I think that's such an important topic for everyone, and I love the way you've sort of gone at it from a different angle. So let's go back to your decluttering journey and what was your first takeaway, where you realized that a lot of the decluttering had to happen from the inside out.

Speaker 2:

I came across these YouTube videos of people decluttering or cleaning their homes and I was fascinated by them. Then it was actually a night when my husband and I were sitting in the kitchen eating dinner and I just I lost it because I was looking at all the crap around our kitchen. That was when I decided I was going to do the whole house crap around our kitchen. That was when I decided I was going to do the whole house and I didn't understand at that time what had led to that In retrospect, this sequence of events of how I had been taking better and better care of myself, and actually the summer prior to this so this was February of 2018, the summer prior to this, 2017, I had woken up one Friday morning where I, when I was supposed to be going to the Pilates studio to work out and I woke up crying.

Speaker 2:

No idea why, no reason. I just woke up crying. Um, I guess it's what one would call a breakdown of some sort. Yeah, I found a therapist because I wasn't seeing one at the time who could see me immediately, and I got myself back in therapy. I really did some like such intense work in a very short period of time, but I was ready for it.

Speaker 2:

And then these YouTube videos popped up exactly at the right time. So, again, it's like you never know exactly why things are happening in the right at the time, that they are in the sequence, but when you're open, yes, it's the openness.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, amazing things can happen. Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting because I know for me and I never really understood this because I'm a book person so I always had three or four books beside my bed table all the time and I would come in to my like restful space and go, you know, to climb into bed and I it took me a while to restful space and go, you know, to climb into bed and I it took me a while to decode what was going on. But every time I looked at that stack of books it made me feel obligated, like shameful, that I you haven't read that book yet, and why haven't you read it and what's taking you so long? And and it was this whole dialogue in my brain and it was just this little stack of books. So I was like these books are like make killing my vibe here.

Speaker 1:

So I put them in the drawer and it was like a game changer. It was something so small, but it absolutely changed the way I could relax in that space.

Speaker 2:

Totally. That is one of the big things I tell people is please, please, please, do not have a stack of books on your bedside table, because that is a stack of, like you say, obligations, unfinished projects, whatever you want to call it. It is such an energetic suck.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a big should all over you, okay. So I know in your book you have a couple of really fun chapters. I think the first one is called Shitty Thinking.

Speaker 2:

So shame has a lot to do with shitty thinking, and shame and fear, perfectionism, limiting beliefs are kind of the four things that are in those two chapters, and what we do to ourselves when it comes to clutter is we think that the clutter is us.

Speaker 1:

Right, so we have to detach from that Right, exactly.

Speaker 2:

So it's like if the clutter, if you think that the clutter is you, then you think that getting rid of it or having the having of it is bad and therefore you are bad, and shame is about feeling that you are bad. But the having of the clutter does not mean that you are bad, it just is having stuff and so detaching the idea that this stuff means something about you, and then getting rid of limiting beliefs. Like I mentioned that I had this limiting belief that I was a slob. I had had this belief about myself, my basically my whole life. I had a messy bedroom when I was a kid, as a teenager, in college, even when I moved in with my husband, like I had to kind of clean it up a bit when I was sharing space with another human being, but I'd always has been kind of messy. So I just thought that's just the way I am. But limiting beliefs are these things that we use to kind of hold ourselves back.

Speaker 2:

So there's a difference between having a lot of stuff and having clutter and there does need to be an understanding about the difference between those two things, because you can have a lot of stuff and you have an unorthodox organizational system that I might not understand, but you know where everything is and you know where to find things and you are very comfortable with this. You're going to have other spaces that are filled with stuff and there's kind of it's almost like there's a layer of stuff over the real stuff that you want to get to. It's like the person, kind of, is distracted by existence and so they don't put things away. They don't have a place for things, they just put stuff down and then they don't know where they put things and things get covered by things and then they lose things and then maybe bills don't get paid.

Speaker 1:

It creates a fair bit of drama in your life and I think you know there's probably some underlying reason that some people want to create that drama in their lives. It's like the person who's always lost their keys or they can never find their wallet, or they you know and it's it's. It's often there's something else going on there.

Speaker 2:

Well, unfortunately, for many people, chaos and drama are so familiar to them that they will. They will maintain it, and to be calm, to be happy, to be peaceful is not familiar to them and therefore it's actually scary, it's uncomfortable, it's uncomfortable Absolutely. The idea that they could succeed at something is frightening because, well, if I actually declutter and I get this home looking the way that I want it to be, then that's a way that I can fail, because once it's nice, then I'm going to mess it up, I'm going to screw it up, I'm going to fail at this somehow. But if I've already failed, if I already have a messy house, then I already am at failure. So I can't go any lower. Interesting, yeah, it's like a way of self-preservation, but I ask clients I say well, has that actually kept you from feeling bad so far? They always answer no.

Speaker 1:

Right. So it's kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in a way.

Speaker 2:

Right, absolutely. I was just talking with a client yesterday about the same thing and you know I said what? What would happen if you were happy? And she said, well, then something bad would happen.

Speaker 1:

Right, the other shoe would drop, right, yeah, yeah, it's a fascinating thing and I know in your book description you talk about being kind of a combination of Marie Kondo and Brene Brown and your best friend, and I love that because I've studied Brene Brown for years and that whole concept of waiting for the other shoe to drop when happiness is actually in your space, in your space, it's such a it's mind blowing. And yet I understand why people do that, because there's just it couldn't possibly be this good. They're afraid to lean into that joy, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so this book is the first half is your mental shit, the second half is the physical shit. So all the stuff that we talk about in the first half we then go and apply to the different areas of your home in the second half. So it's really wonderfully set up that way. People don't really talk about stages of change very much because they're usually actually applied to people in addictions counseling, but they need to be applied to everything. We're in a stage of pre-contemplation where we're not even thinking that there's a problem at all.

Speaker 2:

Stage of contemplation where we think there's probably a problem but I'm not willing or ready to do anything about it. A stage of preparation where I know there's a problem and I am ready to start thinking about it and making a plan, but I'm not doing anything about it yet. And then stage of action, which is exactly what it is applying that plan. And then stage of maintenance. And when you are able to figure out which stage you're in, it makes a little more sense to you of like, okay, I get it, I'm, you know, I'm in pre, I'm in, you know contemplation, so I'm not quite ready for action, so I'm not going to ask action out of myself. And then understanding. Just like stages of grief, you might move in and out of these stages. So don't get down on yourself if you thought you're ready for action but something happened in your life that pushed you backwards in your stages. That's fascinating.

Speaker 1:

I like that, those stages from that it makes so much sense to apply to everything in life really.

Speaker 2:

Mm-hmm, understanding how shame and limiting beliefs apply and how fear is a big part of decluttering, because all the fears of ah, what is going to happen if I do this, what's going to happen if I don't do this, what? What are people going to think of me? What do people already think of me? Um, and going forth in that, and then how your values apply to, to the things that you keep and the things that you don't keep.

Speaker 1:

What's your take on the kind of person or not necessarily the kind of person, but what's your take on what it says about somebody when they collect things and just in case they need it someday, like, so they've got everything they've ever owned since they were in grade four and they just can't because they know because they're like well, I might need that one day right, you know, and there's that, and I think it's a protection mechanism of some kind where it's like I might not be able to afford another one or I might be without you know.

Speaker 1:

what do you think that says about where they're at, you know, in their mind?

Speaker 2:

It's such a safety issue. They're trying to create a sense of control over their life and their world. They're trying to create a sense of safety. If I just have all this stuff, then I'm going to be okay. If I just have this, then I'm going to be safe. The best guess is most likely they had something happen in their lives, probably early on some sort of upheaval, some sort of something that you know. Maybe most likely not just a single episode of something, but probably an ongoing sort of thing or a sense of not being seen, something that left them feeling unsafe feeling unsafe.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's really fascinating because I know with my dad. He's an artist and we just recently moved my dad and mom into an assisted living place and then my mom passed away this January, so he's there sort of, and he's always had. He used to have this shop. That was like it was that organized chaos, Like he had like four of everything in his shop, but he could tell you exactly which drawer it was in and where it was and all the things, even though there was papers and stuff everywhere. He just he, he could totally function in that space.

Speaker 1:

And then when we moved him into the assisted living home where he is now, he had this sort of corner that was like his little man cave. And I went in and I said, hey, dad, let's clean this up and fix it. And so I went in there and kind of did my thing, thinking I was helping, and organized everything for him so he can find this here and that there. And I think it totally was not a good move. He can't find anything because he just he didn't put it there for one. So that was a, you know, a learning experience for me, because I like things organized and so for him. So now you know a learning experience for me, because I like things organized, and so for him. So now you know we've had a bit of a conversation where I'm like you.

Speaker 2:

Just do whatever you want to do in that corner. It's your space.

Speaker 1:

Because it wasn't about me trying to control him. I was just trying to help him move forward in this space where he was not really able to do it on his own, and so, anyways, it was just, it was out of love. But it was a learning moment for me that not everybody likes stuff the same way, and so you have to work with them and maybe ask you know how? How would you like to see this put together?

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm so glad that you brought that point up. So I mentioned earlier that when I decluttered my house I did not touch my husband's stuff. It is best to ask people before you touch their stuff. I had a girlfriend years ago, long before I ever thought about decluttering my stuff. Her mom had a house that was just filled to the brim. It was a house that had just pathways through it and her mom went in for surgery. And so while her mom was in the hospital my friend cleared out about she said it was about a six foot by six foot space in her mom's house and without her mom's permission and when her mom came home from the hospital it was just awful, just awful, and I will never forget that story because it really was. She thought she was doing the right thing. She thought that she was starting a ball rolling with her mom, but really what she did was she traumatized her mom and derailed her stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, even tighter. So, yes, you most definitely ask. It's interesting because my my artist dad is ADHD. He has ADHD and he has asked me to help him to declutter his house and his studio. He's wanted to do something about it, but he hasn't known where to start, and that is a huge concern that so many people have and that's what a lot of people are asking me is. It's one of the number one things that people ask me is where do you?

Speaker 1:

start.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I know, with my dad, I did actually have his permission and we did it together, but still. But I think that's huge, because there's so many people that don't know where to start and that overwhelm is what keeps them from taking a single step of any kind.

Speaker 2:

Right, because the overwhelm is when you're just looking at all of it and it all just turns into one giant blur.

Speaker 1:

What do you advise your clients? Where is the best place to start?

Speaker 2:

A lot of times, with just one item, you just pick up one thing and make a decision about that one thing and then walk away. Let yourself sit with the delightful feeling that you made a decision about one thing. You start with what you think you can handle and you just look at one tree. You don't look at the whole forest look at the whole forest.

Speaker 1:

So what would you say is one of the most significant changes you see in people when they actually start this process of decluttering? What do you think you notice the most about? What changes inside them or the way they feel about themselves?

Speaker 2:

Well, they get happier. Lighter is one of the number one words that they use to describe themselves, what they feel. As they go along, they get more confident with their skills. So they do start to speed up as they go along.

Speaker 1:

I would imagine people have to build up that sense of trust that the decision that they've made is something that they can live with, and so it takes time for them to start to trust that their decision is right.

Speaker 2:

Yes, trust is exactly the right word To trust in their ability to make the right decisions, the trustworthy decisions. They just always have this smile, this happiness, this joyful look on their face. It's I just I love it. It makes me so happy. And then people will come back to me years later and, you know, tell me, you know, my closet is still organized, my, you know, my cabinets are still the, you know, and I am still so happy. Or they'll tell me oh, I'm, I'm going back in and I'm re-upping my garage. It's gotten a little, you know, it's gotten a little cluttered. I've got to go back in, but they've still got the bones of what they started with. So it's not going to be that difficult, they're okay.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's always interesting when you move into a new home and then you're like, oh, it's so good I got rid of some things. And then a year later you're like, how on earth did I accumulate all this stuff again? It's just like, even if you're not trying, it just seems to happen.

Speaker 2:

And that's the thing is. We're so not intentional with our purchasing sometimes, and we need to get more intentional. We need to get more aware of what we're buying and why we're buying it. When you buy something, what's the reason? Where is it going, what's it going to be used for?

Speaker 1:

And I think, for a lot of people, at least for me. I'm like I have a hard time resisting something that's like a really good deal, I'm like, but that is just like too good to pass up, right. And then sometimes it's like why did I buy that? Yeah?

Speaker 2:

it's crazy what we call it. Do we call it girl math? I'm saving money by buying this thing because it's on sale, even if I don't know what I'm going to do with it.

Speaker 1:

Or if I need it at all. Exactly, yeah, and my clothes is probably my biggest thing. And it's interesting, though, because when I have too many clothes, it's like, honestly, even though I'm not in my closet, I'll just feel like it's noise. It's just noise in my life when you think about what you want to wear, and it's like, oh man, I mean. And then I was putting all my skirts away and I was like, I mean, even if I wore every skirt once like one, every other like one, every day a different one, I'd still have way too many skirts you know what's that all about.

Speaker 2:

You know, I can tell you. I know the last time that I stood in my closet with clothes surrounding my feet and yelling about how I had nothing to wear, which is such a strange thing to say when you are surrounded by clothing.

Speaker 1:

Yep, it's like you don't have anything you want to wear is more like it.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. It's like let's use the correct wording.

Speaker 1:

So in the book that you have, you have another chapter on ditching shitty habits. Which ones of those habits would you say is really common, or can you describe a few of those habits for us?

Speaker 2:

Well, okay, so bringing the mail in and dropping it on a flat surface and not going through it Then the next day bringing the mail in, dropping it on top of the mail from yesterday not going through it and repeating this day after day until there's just a giant pile of mail.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that I think almost every household has done at some point, right, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that I think almost every household has done at some point, right, yeah, for sure. This is for all of our listeners from this day forth, you're going to do what Kate says. When the mail comes in, you will, within five minutes or less, you will go through it. Everything that is junk mail goes in the bin or the recycling and everything else gets divvied up to where it's supposed to go. You open things immediately, figure out what they're, what they are, and that's going to take you like two minutes. Other habits are are things that are like the, the laundry basket that never actually gets folded or never fully gets folded, or it gets folded but it never gets put away, and then more laundry gets piled on top of it. It's some strange like rotation or there's you know, we already talked about it habit, which is buying stuff that you don't know what you're going to do with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And I know the whole Marie Kondo thing where she says everything has a place. So quite often if you buy something and you don't have a place for it, then or there's that old rule too you buy something new and you have to let something else go to take its place right so that it gives space for something else.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that's a good one for sure, oh gosh. And the like. If you, if you take something out, if you like, say you take the peanut butter jar out, you put the peanut butter jar back, you don't leave the peanut butter jar just sitting out on the counter. It's having the decluttered home makes it so you can have these systems in place. It makes it so much easier. I am telling you, as somebody who had a cluttered home that was so hard to maintain it's so easy to put the PM bar jar back because there's a spot for it right there, because there isn't a cluttered pantry that I'm putting it into. It's amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I love that and I'm so excited for the listeners to get to buy your book. I think Ditch your Shit is a brilliant title and I think we can all relate to that. We've all got a little bit of shit that we need to ditch. Before we go, maybe just tell people where they can find you. I know your book is on Amazon, but give us a little bit of information as to how listeners can find you and work with you if they feel that decluttering is the thing for them.

Speaker 2:

So of course, you can always find me on my website at soulfulspacecoachingcom, and on Facebook and Instagram at katesevanscoaching. And yeah, my book is everywhere Amazon, barnes, noble bookshoporg you name it, you can find it. It's available for presale prior to October 7th and then out after that.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Well, thank you again for all of your tips and your wisdom today. It was a great conversation and I'm sure there's a lot of people that can relate to this and are gonna get some value from all of what we talked about today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for having me here, Arnie. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Wow, what an interesting conversation and an interesting way to look at decluttering as self-care. Let's do a quick recap. You're going to be doing some decluttering yourself. Here's some tips to help you get started.

Speaker 1:

Number one start small. Begin your decluttering journey by tackling one item or one small area at a time. This approach helps prevent overwhelm and builds momentum and belief that you actually can do it. Number two create systems. Establish systems for daily tasks like handling mail or doing dishes, for example. Sort your mail immediately to prevent piles from becoming overwhelming. Number three mindset matters. Shift your mindset by detaching your identity from your clutter. Recognize that having clutter doesn't define you and focus on the positive changes decluttering can bring. 4. The One-In, one-out Rule when you bring something new into your home, let go of something else. This helps maintain balance and prevents over-accumulation. 5. Be mindful of your purchases and ask yourself why you're buying an item and where it will fit in your home before you purchase it.

Speaker 1:

I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I hope it inspired you or motivated you in some way to keep going and to create your very best life. Want to know what to do next? Share this episode with someone that you love who maybe just needs a little more delicious in their life. Join my free Facebook community over at Mindset Mastery for Midlife Women, where like-minded women come together to support and inspire each other and where we get to hang out together and I offer cool bonuses, videos and some extra content. And lastly, don't forget to subscribe so that when new episodes drop, they'll be queued up and ready for you. In case no one has told you today, there's not one person on this planet that is exactly like you, and the world is a better place because you're here. So thank you for being here. I'll be back next week and I hope you'll join me right here on Life is Delicious.