71. The 7 Hidden Places Clutter Builds Up and How to Clear Them for Good

Clutter does not always show up in the middle of the room. Sometimes it hides behind a door, in the back of a drawer, on the top shelf, in the trunk of the car, or in that one corner of the counter you keep meaning to clear.

Those hidden spots may seem small, but they can make a home feel heavier, harder to manage, and more overwhelming than it needs to be.

In this episode, Jodi and Heather walk through seven places where stuff quietly piles up and why those spaces are often tied to postponed decisions, busy routines, and the things we plan to “deal with later.” This is not about judging the mess. It is about noticing the areas that are creating extra stress and giving yourself a practical place to begin.

You do not have to clear the whole house to feel progress. Sometimes one drawer, one counter corner, or one shelf can give you enough relief to keep going.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why clutter often builds up in hidden or overlooked places
• The drop zones behind doors, in bedrooms, and near laundry rooms
• How small counter piles can add more stress than people realize
• Why the backs of drawers often hold forgotten purchases and delayed decisions
• What the car can tell you about errands, routines, and things “in transit”
• Why high shelves and top cabinets can become safety concerns, especially for older adults
• How garages and basements turn into temporary holding zones for hard decisions
• The paper and digital task piles that create mental clutter
• Simple reset methods like the 2-minute sweep, full-extension drawer check, Sunday car sweep, and one-wall method

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Transcript

Jodi Rosko 0:01

Welcome back to another episode of the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast with your hosts Jody Roscoe and Heather Fisher. We're talking about all things downsizing, from our own experiences with clients to guest experts. Let's make downsizing easier, one conversation at a time.

Heather Fisher 0:17

Hi, welcome to Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. Hidden spots. We're gonna talk about seven of them today where stuff piles up and maybe some solutions for clearing them for good.

Jodi Rosko 0:29

Yeah, my question is, are you a stuffer? Because maybe I am a stuffer person. So there might be some things in these places in my house.

Heather Fisher 0:37

I'm a recovering stuffer, definitely not, but I've had those um phases in my life when I definitely um, you know, let stuff pile up. I'm re recovering.

Jodi Rosko 0:48

Yep. I'm Jody Roscoe. I'm Heather Fisher. So let's just talk about the places that we shove things because I think this happens. For me, it happens often when if people are coming or you know, something's happening and I don't know exactly. I don't have a good spot, I don't have a system because Heather's all about the systems. I don't have a system for something, and then it just gets shoved in some sp you know particular spot and then I can't find it, or you know, whatever happens, or it gets, you know, that area gets really kind of messy.

Heather Fisher 1:18

So I think yeah, I think what I've realized most after trying very deliberately in the last um few years through a couple moves to not be that stuffer and to be more intentional is the amount of energy that it takes from you that now I've gotten back, that I know where things are, or I'm looking at much calmer spaces. Um, and so as we talk through this list, it it they may feel like very small things, but the dramatic change in just your mindset, your energy, the not the stress hormones that it's creating by just having clutter in all of these spots can really make a world of difference.

Jodi Rosko 2:03

Yeah, I have so I have in my laundry room, I have a desk, and that is my place that everything lands that I'm not sure what to do with. Either it needs to go out of the house to go back to somebody or to be returned, or it's mail, or it's, you know, something that I'm just not sure what to do with. And I think it's really interesting um in that it shows me how many delayed decisions that I, you know, that I'm not making, that I'm just and if you're holding it in your hands, could you have made a decision about it in the 30 seconds about where it actually goes or what you actually need to be doing with it versus just shoving it somewhere for a later decision problem. But then that weighs on you. It starts to weigh on you.

Heather Fisher 2:44

Yeah, absolutely. I have two returns sitting beside the chair in my office right now, and they're constantly like, oh, I need to do that, ooh, I need to do that. And in full disclosure, I could have done it two weeks ago. Right. And it just would have been done. Neither is that big of a deal.

Jodi Rosko 3:02

Right.

Heather Fisher 3:02

But those delays uh don't go away and hide, they're just in your mind. Yeah, they take up mental space.

Jodi Rosko 3:09

For sure, they take up mental space. Yeah. And now when I go in to do my laundry, I see all this piles of stuff and then I get like stressed out about it, you know? Yeah.

Heather Fisher 3:17

So yeah. Absolutely. So let's run through um some of these seven common places that don't necessarily feel like a big deal because maybe they're small or hidden, um hidden or the things are you know changing, but can really make a big difference if we uncover them and clean them out for good.

Jodi Rosko 3:36

Yep. Okay, number one, the drop zone behind the door. So that could be behind your bedroom door, behind a closet door, in the laundry room or entry, as I was just saying. Um, you know, places where um things accumulate because it's the easiest uh delay, delayed uh uh what you're like hiding the decision from your own.

Heather Fisher 3:58

Yeah, delayed decision.

Jodi Rosko 3:59

Yeah. Um it's yeah, you're like, oh wait, I'm gonna deal with that later, but I can't deal with it now, and so I'm just gonna put it in that delayed decision spot that you've created in your house.

Heather Fisher 4:08

Yeah, absolutely. And so I I mean I think that the easiest way to approach all of these areas is to think about what consistently doesn't have a home that you're putting in these wrong spots. Because you'll find a pattern and that's different for all of us. Maybe it's a problem with the mail, maybe it's a problem with all of your family's shoes, or maybe it is coats and things that you're just hanging on the doorknob closest to you when you come in.

Jodi Rosko 4:37

Or are you being lazy and it has a place in your house and you just don't want to take it to that place because you're in a rush and you're trying to just, you know, clean up maybe the kitchen area so you're shoving it somewhere so that it looks, you know, clean somewhere else, but then it isn't.

Heather Fisher 4:52

Yeah. So maybe thinking about what's consistently coming in these wrong zones, either because its actual place is inconvenient to you and how can you make that better, or it doesn't have a place and how can you find one. Um, and then you know, what is that type of of clutter that you might maybe don't have that spot for? Yeah, and it's built.

Jodi Rosko 5:16

If it's behind the door, it's not much. You know, it might be, you know, it may be like a bunch of robes from your bathroom, but you only really use the top one, you know, and then you just have those other ones that are under in a hook on a hook or something like that. So um, you know, you could do a quick two-minute sweep of behind a door and anything that, you know, ha has to have it has a home or you're using can, you know, put it in its home, or you know, if you're not using it, it's gotta go.

Heather Fisher 5:39

Yeah, and I I can distinctly remember uh uh a bedroom I had earlier when I was younger, and you know, I had just piles of stuff behind the door, and it's like you can't even fully open the door because it gets like stuff there in my childhood room and you know, all of that. So if you're living with that, that is just adding those little pings of stress to how your life operates throughout the day by those simple things.

Jodi Rosko 6:07

I think too, uh, for me, and I think for most people, it the state of your home is actually the state of the inside of your mind, right? Yeah. And so if you're feeling overwhelmed and you can't deal with it and it's too much and it's too, you know, like you've got to just then you'll see that in your house, in where you're just kind of stuffing stuff because you can't figure out how to, you know, where it goes right now and you aren't gonna take the time to put it away right now or whatever. And so that means maybe the whole stress level in your life needs to come down, and that can come down by having less stuff.

Heather Fisher 6:38

Yeah, and it I mean that brings up like chicken and the egg. Does the stress in the rest of your life come down if you have a calm space, or does it become easier to have a calm space if you're feeling more in control in other parts?

Jodi Rosko 6:52

So I th I feel like when you have when you make your space calm, it it calms your mind. And so if it isn't calm, you have to work towards that.

Heather Fisher 7:04

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So the behind the door, um, if it is, if you realize it is something where that makes the most sense as a home uh for whatever the items are, um, you know, do you need a hook? Do you need uh something on the wall behind the door? Do you need a basket? Um, what can you do to have it feel like um it's a true home and not clutter in the wrong spot?

Jodi Rosko 7:32

Yep. Okay. Number two, um the corners of flat surfaces, like you know, your kitchen counter, um, you know, stuff that's shoved in the corner of your kitchen counter, your laundry room counter, your nightstands, like all of your flat surfaces, your your coffee table, like what are those what what is that looking like? Or, you know, corners of your room, all of that stuff. Like what is that looking like?

Heather Fisher 7:59

Yeah, I would say nightstands are probably a big one, and kitchen counters or islands, um, that that surface of coming in the house.

Jodi Rosko 8:10

It just seems like it it does seem like it's an easy place to put something in. So if there's if it's all open and blank, you're like, oh, I can just put that there, like right, because we do have a tendency to want to fill up spaces. Um, but living with that blank space gives your mind room to breathe. And so do you have too many things on your kitchen counter, or are those all things that you use every day, or are those things that you could potentially store in a in a closet or let go of if you're not using them? Um, you know, we've talked about our toasters and putting them away in the clos in the cupboard or not, and how often do you make toast and you know, just really be thoughtful about that. If you make toast once a month, it could live in the cupboard. If you make toast every day because that's what you eat, then it should probably be on the counter. So there's no wrong answers to it, is just how are you living your life and are you actually using those things that you you know need? Nobody's nobody wants to put the coffee maker away every day.

Heather Fisher 9:02

Yeah, no, the coffee maker stays on the counter for sure. But I think that you're right, it's just noticing your own habits. And for us, we don't use the toaster, but maybe once a month. So it lives, you know, in the pantry on a shelf. Yeah. Um, we currently have too many um cutting boards on the kitchen counter, and we were just talking about that. We ended up with a few as gifts after the holidays, and I'm like, okay, we gotta Which ones do we like? Yeah, we need to uh uh rank these and and move some of them, but it it can that's that one in, one out. Um, you know, we already had some, some got added, and we haven't let some go yet. So um always making those decisions if it's just stuff that always lives on your flat surfaces, if it's an ongoing part of your daily life, like you drop the mail there, but it shouldn't go there, or you're dropping your purse and and your keys on the closest surface, like back to where's a better home that keeps it feeling organized and um in a place that makes sense.

Jodi Rosko 10:10

Yeah, is there a hook in the you know, by the garage where you go to your car or whatever that you can put your purse, you know, on and so that number one, you're not searching for it all the time, you know where it is. And then, you know, it isn't landing on the kitchen counter or the dining room table or whatever is your catch-all place that you you know.

Heather Fisher 10:28

Yeah, we have that stat in our um downsizing class. What is it, a hundred and fifty-three days that people spend searching for things they can't find in their home. And so all of these spaces tend to be where where they're found, they're just right overloaded, right? It takes a while to find them.

Jodi Rosko 10:47

Right. So if you consistently put it back in the same place over and over and over again, then you aren't looking for it. But that has to become a habit. We have a place where we put keys and sometimes they don't get back there because they're in my purse or they're whatever. And so I know that's surprising to y'all. But um, but yeah, you if you continue to do it, then you know it does become a habit and you just always look there for it and you always put them back. Um, it's actually very, very freeing.

Heather Fisher 11:11

Yeah, and I I think there's a difference of things you're using daily, like keys or you're you're grabbing your purse, your glasses, um, that need a a convenient place, and then there's a level of um like fooling ourselves with this doesn't belong here, even though I'm stretching the purpose. I think, you know, we got the new tags for one of our cars, um, and and the paper with the sticker that goes on the car sat on our drop zone counter for, you know, probably almost the full month ahead of time and it just needed like walked down the driveway to the car. Yeah. And it's like those decisions that you could make faster and just take it off your mind.

Jodi Rosko 11:58

Yeah. And if you're if your kitchen counters are really cluttered, take everything off of it. Just like, just like we would always say, you know, if you're gonna do a cabinet, take everything out and and only put back the things you're gonna use. Same thing with the kitchen counter, take everything off of it and then be honest with yourself about whether you use the things that you are gonna put back daily. And you know, maybe they need to sit in a you know in a spot for a little while and you only are allowed to put them back until you, you know, use them. And if they've been there, you know, a week or so a different version of the maybe box. Yeah, like they just need to, you know, be either stored or go away.

Heather Fisher 12:31

So if you haven't used it in 30 days and needed it out of the box, then they don't need stored there. Right. Yeah, for sure. I think too, um, especially for these flat surfaces, that um that nightly reset or a morning reset before you leave the house, um, just getting it back to that baseline of cleared off and things put away, um, is so rejuvenating to wake up to um the surface already being cleaned off and ready for the next day, or you're coming back to home at the end of the day and you're not walking into it. Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 13:09

That's our our pillows and our blankets on our couch.

Heather Fisher 13:11

You know, you just want to just fluff that back up and make it feel the symbol between refreshed with my husband or I, whichever one, stands up and starts folding the blankets first. It's like, okay, tired, time to go to go to bed. But yeah, um, but yeah, just making that a fresh spot to walk into, just if you're doing it daily is takes no time at all. No time. Um, and and so to do that for you know, those common places, your nightstand in the morning or your kitchen counter before you go to bed, bathroom counter. Um, and then taking it a step further, I always feel like when it's clean, you know, wipe down the kitchen and bathroom counters or dusting um some of the other furniture pieces makes me less, you know, it just feels like, oh, I want to keep it this way. Um so making sure you're you're doing that step as well.

Jodi Rosko 14:05

Yes, yes. Okay, so clean off those those flat surfaces, which is what we tell everybody when they have to go to sell their house. And then once they've done it, they're like, why don't we live like this? Yeah. Don't we hear that all the time? Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, so you'll love it. You will you will love it. Okay, number three, the backs of drawers that you never fully open. And this is the backs of cabinets too, especially the lower cabinets that you don't even see. The really tall tops of them and the lower ones where you can't see what's in the back there. But um, yeah, drawers you just kind of open and just use the front, like especially in your bathroom, maybe, you know, you just use whatever's in the front of it. The junk drawer, things get smushed to the back that you aren't using, maybe your desk drawer, same kind of things. So um, you know, that's I think it's back to the 80-20 rule, right? We only use 20% of the things we have, and the 80% are the stuff that's in the back of the drawer.

Heather Fisher 14:57

Right, right, right, because you haven't pulled it out anytime soon. And um, you know, we always say that doesn't mean you have to get rid of 80%, but if there's eighty percent available that you could get rid of, let's look at you know, maybe another 10 or 20 percent of just clearing it out. Yeah, and that won't affect your life at all except to make it feel fresher and freer and simpler. Simply.

Jodi Rosko 15:27

And it can cost money. I mean, um, you know, there's a statistic that the average household spends fifty to seventy dollars on stuff, rebuying stuff they can't find, basically. Like and and so you if if everything is in the same batteries, I think, are like an ideal thing. Like they might be all over the house, but and then you can't find some when you need them, and then you go out and you buy some, right? Um, but things like that, if you keep them all in the same place and you know exactly where they are and you keep that you know fresh, then you are gonna save yourself money.

Heather Fisher 15:57

Yeah, absolutely. I think that this piles up in uh nightstands a lot because you don't need that many things that close, but we shove and stuff lots of stuff there. Yeah. Um you know, just dresser drawers, if you're back to that 80-20 rule and only wearing 20% of the clothes in your closet. Just the top. All the t-shirts at the bottom of the pile or the things shoved in the back of the drawer. Um, that the dresser that m we have has the deepest drawers I've ever seen. And I'm like, I can't, it doesn't matter. Right. When you buy it, you think, look at all this storage, this is great. And then later you're like, no. Like I can't even see it without pulling, you know, all the clothes out. So just being aware of what you're actually using so you don't have to stuff um that stuff in amongst the stuff you're not.

Jodi Rosko 16:53

And I think that's a mindset too of a level of um needing to have things full, right? So I think you don't have to fill up everything. And and that's a hard like we just we tend to want to do that. We just squirrel stuff away, right? And so we just have to realize uh it's a mindset change that it's okay if you only have a few things in that, you know, drawer, your toothbring your toothbrush, you know, some of the things that you use. Like it doesn't have to be all full of things that you don't use to make it feel yeah, yeah. Okay.

Heather Fisher 17:26

We all stock up. Okay, area number four. I'm a big guilty one on this one. Jody just rode in my car, and so we're talking about the back seat and the trunk of your car. Um, but you know, you just tote things. I mean, for us, we're toting lots of things for events and uh work stuff, uh, but it lives in there. I have something in my trunk since October that I don't need. We just talked about that. And you know, it's just a decision that I've delayed of taking this in where it belongs and getting it out of my car.

Jodi Rosko 18:02

But it's like, yeah, I think people don't see it very much, you know, like you're in your car, like some you you only really realize it when somebody comes to get in your car. Um, and then you're like, oh, wait, there's stuff in your way. You can't sit on the seat or you can't put your stuff there because you aren't looking at it. You're driving, and then whatever's behind you, you just aren't paying any attention to it. So, you know, it becomes storage for errands that you haven't completed yet. And, you know, a cluttered car, again, it's all it's all emotional about like, is your life cluttered? Is your, you know, are you too overwhelmed to get things done? And so you have that stuff that needs to be returned, and you put it in your car a month and a half ago, and now you might not even be able to return it because the date is past. I mean, seriously, like my mom did that all the time. And so she didn't mean to, she was, you know, she had good intentions of putting it in the car, but but then it's about systems again and like making sure that you're just following through with all of the things. If you bought something and you need to return it, just get on get on it and get get on getting it done, right? So um this is the same idea of this the counter sweep, you could do like a Sunday sweep of your car, or you know, someday, what a particular day, or once a week, you can just everything comes out of the car, and you know, there's gonna be trash in there, you know, you had a you had a water bottle that you just aren't using, you know, all of that stuff um that kind of just but if you just do a weekly sweep of it, that again, it that just makes it so much more easy to just keep t take care of it instead of it getting overwhelming.

Heather Fisher 19:34

Yeah, I think too for me, uh when there are some things that I want to have in my car, you know, an extra umbrella and um you know, jumper cables, you know, the s uh snow scraper for where we are and all of that. Um finding some way to have it have a home in your car as well, whether that's one bin with a lid that you can keep things in in your trunk or um you know, a place where it it is tucked if your car has compartments, um, makes it just like we've experienced in our home, but it's organized and it's where you expect it to be, and there's not a lot of stuff just floating around and rolling around makes it much better.

Jodi Rosko 20:19

Yeah, I like the Sunday sweep. And if you do it on, you know, it on a day that you would be able to do errands, then whatever's in there also gets returned on that day, right?

Heather Fisher 20:28

So great advice that I should take.

Jodi Rosko 20:32

Okay, number for my return. Number five, the space above eye level. Um so the top pantry shelf, the top cabinet shelves, the top of the refrigerator, you know, all of the places that are um out of reach and um people shove things up there because like, oh, I don't know where to put this, let's just put it up somewhere. Because you they already know it's not something they use all the time. Um and then it kind of gets hidden above your eye level, and so um your brain knows it's overfilled and up there, but you just you know you aren't fully seeing it.

Heather Fisher 21:07

Yeah, and if you I mean i if you're height challenged and you're literally not seeing those tops of things, you do forget that it's there, but it's tucked back in the back of your mind somewhere and and all of that.

Jodi Rosko 21:21

So And I mean you know, if you have to get a step stool to get it, uh how often are you getting it and do we actually even need it? I mean, I would actually say you probably could have all of the top uh shelves of your cabinets empty.

Heather Fisher 21:35

Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Jodi Rosko 21:37

Honestly.

Heather Fisher 21:38

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 21:38

Or if you have especially if you have like 42 inch kitchen cabinets like the tall ones. Yeah. I you know, nobody can reach that w most people can reach can reach that without a stool.

Heather Fisher 21:50

We have those uh height cabinets and I can't reach the top two shelves. So constantly asking, um, but w we don't have anything up there. That we need, maybe holiday stuff.

Jodi Rosko 22:02

Right. Right. So um and if you need to use that for storage for things that you like holiday stuff that you actually are going to use and that's what your storage is in your home, then that's okay. Um if it's, you know, purposeful and intentional. If it's just shoved up there because you have an extra shelf and you want to put something on it, then no.

Heather Fisher 22:19

Yeah. It's again, it's checking yourself on how often are you using it or is it time for it to go?

Jodi Rosko 22:25

Yeah. So give yourself an audit, you know, once a quarter or something to clean out those spaces.

Heather Fisher 22:31

Yeah. And if you are using stuff that's up too high, how can you shift things around so that you're being safe and not being on ladders that it shouldn't be?

Jodi Rosko 22:39

And is stuff on the middle shelf that you're not using and you know is taking up space and you could move that down. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 22:45

Yep. So that question, if you didn't know it was up there, do you still need it?

Jodi Rosko 22:51

No. No. No, you don't.

Heather Fisher 22:52

Yes. Area number six, uh, the basement or the garage, those temporary holding zones. We talked about this in depth um in a podcast episode a few weeks ago. Um, it's a great one if these areas are speaking to you to go um do a deeper dive on. Um, but they definitely become those. I don't know what else to do, so I will just put this at the bottom of the basement steps and wait for it to get absorbed into the rest of the black hole.

Jodi Rosko 23:25

Yeah. I think that um my basement is my worst, um, my worst place that I put things that I think I'm gonna need, and you know, like, you know, you have those kind of thought processes, and that's where my holiday stuff goes, and you know, all so but maybe not organized quite as well as it could be. And so um I think the basement is something for me that is a project that I need to I need to audit more often, I think, because that's what happened. It'll it will kind of get to a place and then I'll get it all cleaned out. Kind of like my our rooms when we were little. Yeah. Same, same. So I kind of still treat the basement like my little kid room that used to get really, really, really, really messy until I couldn't stand it, which took a long time, by the way. My parents were way over it before I was. And then would spend the entire day, you know, reorganizing and moving the furniture and cleaning the room and all that stuff. That's kind of how I still treat the basement. So the rest of the house isn't really like that, but the basement still is like that for me.

Heather Fisher 24:25

Yeah, I mean, as careful as I've tried to be in downsizing everything uh as we've moved, we just sorted what we had put down in the basement into piles and uh, you know, we piled all of the Christmas boxes in one spot, and I'm like, oh my gosh, like too much. Even just after downsizing a couple times uh over a couple moves over the last few years, when you put it all together in those categories, um, it's still I just I know there's stuff we didn't use, you know, our first Christmas here in this house, and I just still didn't, you know, it's still down there. So we all need to audit. And like you said, the more often you're scheduling that audit, the less likely that you're gonna end up with just total overwhelm when a move comes up or when it's just physically harder, you'll just have managed it much better.

Jodi Rosko 25:23

Yeah, and I think that um some kind of sentimental and emotional stuff ends up in the basement because it's not stuff if you're really being honest with yourself, it's not stuff that you want to look at and use all the time, but you feel guilty about keeping it and and it might not be the basement for you, it might be a storage area, it might, you know, whatever, attic. It might, but those kind of places are where that stuff lands because you don't really want to see it every day because it's not your favorite thing, but you also feel guilty about getting rid of it because of whatever sentimental person in your life or whatever that is, and so I think that the basements are sometimes or attics or wherever are sometimes harder to do because you have to spend some emotional time there making actually maybe a little bit harder decisions.

Heather Fisher 26:10

Yeah, I mean, homes are designed uh with storage for more practical items, and you know, so you know where the broom closet is or your clothes closet and the kitchen cabinets, and then there's the whole category of all your sentimental stuff, and every house is different, and what that space is, it's not really designed. Like here's the one closet for your Christmas decor, or here's the one closet for your memories, and so you have to make those decisions yourself, and I think the trap that often we fall into, all of us is just not defining this is where that's gonna live in this house for me, and it becomes these overflow spaces, um, but those spaces also have purposes like the lawn equipment and the you know extra paper towels and all of that. So it becomes just a jumbled undefined pile that's very hard to go through.

Jodi Rosko 27:08

Right, right. So you can, you know, take that in pieces and declutter, you know, one wall, one shelf, you know, one bin, whatever that is that you need to kind of work your way towards. Um and so people people underestimate how much stuff that they have, and for that is so, so true. Um, they underestimate it by like 32%. And when we moved um from our house, our basement was something I totally underestimated how much stuff was in there when we went to move, you know, how many boxes I needed or whatever for that stuff, and um probably didn't need the boxes, I probably should have let it all go. But um I ran I did all the things wrong, y'all. I so we're telling you, you know, do the things, but I did get rid of a lot of stuff, but then I ran out of time when I got to the basement and did not realize how much stuff was down in the basement.

Heather Fisher 28:02

So yeah, if you're listening and um you're feeling like, well, I'm not ready to to downsize. Um, you know, please just hear our advice that there's never too early of a time to get started and start working through so you don't end up against that time clock when an opportunity comes up for uh, you know, a great move.

Jodi Rosko 28:24

Yeah, yep. Okay, number seven is um the digital paper, whatever zone. There's mail, there's um digital stuff. You know, you have a desk corner, you have whatever, an entry ledge, like where wherever that stuff all lands. Yeah. Um, all that stuff that's coming into the house and you aren't sure what to do with it. You don't want to deal with it right that minute. You're not gonna actually like, you know, bring the mail in and pay the bill the mech the minute, you know, that it comes in or if that's what you're doing or whatever. You're not sure where to put it.

Heather Fisher 28:56

Yeah, I think digital is a struggle um because it's just endless amount of storage per se until they upcharge you for that cloud storage.

Jodi Rosko 29:08

All the emails people send you that you aren't even asking for and all the things, you know.

Heather Fisher 29:12

Yeah, but it can just uh multiply without really realizing it because it's not stacking up uh in paper form. Um and then actual paper, we see so many clients that just have file cabinet after file cabinet uh, you know, and boxes and piles. Um, and when it's not managed over time, it it's very overwhelming.

Jodi Rosko 29:36

I think that paper is probably one of the most stressful things um that people deal with, especially if there's a lot of medical things, like you said. Um, but a lot of paperwork coming into the house and our brains, if you don't have a system, your brain doesn't know what to do with it next, and that actually causes a lot of anxiety because when we don't know the path, we have anxiety. Knowing answers helps us handle things, which is why systems make us so much more peaceful because we know what the plan is, we know what to do next. And so if you don't have a system for your paperwork and it's just piling up and you know, important things and not important things are all going together in a pile, anxiety is is running you know, rampant in your brain whether you actually know it or not, that is happening.

Heather Fisher 30:21

Yeah, I think it is that category that has such a spectrum of non-importance to very important, and that's what trips us up. You know, if you got rid of every item of clothing in your closet, it still wouldn't be, you know, the world's the end of the world because you could go get a few more pairs of pants and shirts and be just fine. But paperwork could have very important documents that you don't want to just quickly make a decision. But if you haven't made small audits over time, it it can be so overwhelming.

Jodi Rosko 30:57

Yeah, and uh in an easy system, you know, you can have uh some little bins that are action, you know, something that needs to be acted on, whether that's you know, you're gonna have to pay a bill or you're going to, you know, a party or whatever, there's action things. Um, there's filing things, but I would be careful on how much you file because most of the time we don't need to keep things forever. And if we put it in a file, we're almost never gonna look at it again. So careful on the filing um or shred, you know, and you can either have a bin that you shred and you take it, you know, to whatever the city offers shred, or you take it to one of the box stores to, you know, shred it, or you can buy a little personal shredder, which is really not very expensive, and just you know, shred your things as you go. But even just that much simplicity of this is something that I need to act on, this is something that I need to keep, and this is something that I need to get rid of, um, even that much will make a huge difference in the anxiety.

Heather Fisher 31:52

Yeah, and then to take it one more level is to plan when are you taking action on the take action pile. Is that a once a week you've set aside an hour to go through that? Is it act on it immediately so it never makes it to the pile? Um, you know, decide what works best for the rhythm of your life, but don't just have an action pile that weighs on you with no plan to take action.

Jodi Rosko 32:18

Yep, you had a time block too.

Heather Fisher 32:20

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So the real reason these spots build up, we talked about this earlier. It's often just a reflection of the phase of life you're in, your current energy levels, your current, you know, health situation, so many factors, but it's a reflection usually of where you're at in life at that moment.

Jodi Rosko 32:43

And the habits that you've created or the systems that you've created or not created for yourself, right? And so you can change if if you're feeling overwhelmed, you can start changing that feeling of overwhelm by just slowly putting a system around things that are irritating you. So if you have a drop zone and you realize that there's something in there that's always, you know, bothering you or you're not sure where that goes, that's the thing you need to create the system around first. And that system could be, you know, I bring in the mail, I throw away everything that's junk mail before I even get inside. I throw it in the outside trash, so I'm only bringing in the things that are important, you know, whatever that is, um, you can just start to create a system around it that will automatically start to help with your overwhelm back to the chicken and the egg, right? But honestly, if you're feeling overwhelmed, dealing with the things will start to help you feel better.

Heather Fisher 33:38

Yeah, give yourself grace and and no guilt over wherever your starting point is, but just layering in small habits on all of these areas can really make big difference um and and you'll see progress quickly on just how you feel uh in in your space.

Jodi Rosko 33:56

Yeah, don't feel guilty about it. Just realize, oh, I need to make a habit around that, or I need to, you know, figure out what what my timing is to go through that weekly or monthly or quarterly or you know daily, depending on what it is. And just know that then once you start doing that, it will actually continue to feel peaceful all the time. It won't have to like build up and give you stress and then you have to take a lot of time to handle it and then build up again. And you know, that is not a great cycle.

Heather Fisher 34:24

So yeah, there's a lot of uh good emotional payoff of the habits becoming just part of your rhythm. And um, you know, once if you have to do a a project to get to that point, you know, we'll get we'll get you through that, but um then just making it continual can just change the pace of your life and the amount of stress that you're carrying with you.

Jodi Rosko 34:48

Yep. All right, you have seven spots to go check out and see see what you can do with them. So that can be, you know, one a day, one a week, one a month.

Heather Fisher 34:57

Yeah, let us know which of these spots you guys find the hardest. And if there's any resources that we can share with you, uh please go to our website, downsizingroadmap.com. Be sure to uh register for our free guide. Uh, we'll help with a lot of these um things we talk about each week. That's at downsizingroadmap.com backslash guide. And if you're you know at that stage where downsizing is um in your world in the next year or two, uh please reach out downsizingroadmap.com backslash help and we'll connect you with our network of local resources. Yep. All right. We'll talk to you next time. Yep, happy sorting. Thanks, guys. Thanks for joining us on the Downsizing Roadmap Podcast. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who might need a little downsizing inspiration. Have questions or ideas for future episodes? Reach out to us on our website, www.downsizingroadmap.com. Until next time, let's keep simplifying and moving forward.