77. The 4 Rule System That Works to Declutter Any Room

Decluttering a full house means making hundreds of small decisions, and by the time you're an hour into just the kitchen, every item can start to feel like its own judgment call.

The 4 Rule System comes down to the same four questions, asked the same way every time: do you have a duplicate you don't use, would you buy this again today, has it expired, and has it moved in the last year. We walk through all four in the kitchen, the closet, the bathroom, and the garage, and the same four questions work well past those rooms too, on decor, furniture, and anywhere else clutter tends to collect.

In this episode:

• The "One Shelf Test" for kitchen duplicates
• The Reverse Hanger Trick for closets
• Why organizing before decluttering backfires
• A 15-minute game for bathroom clutter
• The $1,200 garage moving mistake
• The "Maybe" box trick that works

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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. Four rooms, four rules.

Jodi Rosko 0:23

Yeah, let's make it simple today.

Heather Fisher 0:25

Yeah, we're gonna just talk through some of the common areas and some rules, um, all four of these rules you can apply to every space you're gonna work on. So we're gonna go through some examples of those rooms that everybody has and apply them in real time and talk about what that looks like.

Jodi Rosko 0:43

Yeah, I think that sometimes people just don't know where to get started and they feel overwhelmed. And so um when you create a little framework of what of how to think about things, then then that makes it easier. And so that's kind of what these rules are for. They're just to kind of help create a little framework so it makes it easier to make decisions.

Heather Fisher 1:00

Yeah, you can tackle any project when you just put a little foresight into it, a little intentionality, and um, you know, aren't just looking at it like how do I get started, what do I even do? Um, which I think is what we find with a lot of people that we talk to. They want to downsize, they want to have less, and they just are looking at their space where they've lived comfortably for years, maybe don't notice all the uncomfortable spaces or don't realize how much too much they have and just need a way to to approach sorting. Right. I'm Jody Roscoe.

Jodi Rosko 1:40

I'm Heather Fisher. I think that decision fatigue is a real thing. Um, and when you have parameters around it, it helps the def with the decision fatigue because when everything is just all open, like if the question is like, what should I do with this thing, with no like extra thoughts, you know, putting it into any bucket of anything, that's hard to continue to think over and over like all the possibilities that it could be and then narrow down to something versus does it does if I answer these questions, these four rules, um, you're probably gonna come up with the answer of whether you need it or not, and then you just re rinse and repeat those, uh asking yourself those, and so it's not so much like just this big open question, right?

Heather Fisher 2:22

So it's a recipe for how to get through it. I mean, if you just walked into the kitchen with no cooking experience and you know, just picked up the the skillet, okay, make something. You know, you don't know. And so we do find um, you know, in going through things, people are handling a lot of items. Yeah. But it's just like pick it up, look at it, have a little memory or thought around it, and then kind of set it back down, shuffle it around the room, shuffle from pile to pile, and um nailing down to that decision on it, these questions and rules will help that.

Jodi Rosko 3:01

Yep. Okay, so let's get started with them. Okay, so I'm gonna just name the rules and then we're gonna talk about them each individually of every in every uh in the four rooms we're talking about today. So rule number one is if you have two or three or ten, just keep one and only if you use it. Yeah, the important caveat. Right. Number two is um, would you buy it again? So only keep it if you think you would need to rebuy it again, because if you got rid of it and you you're like, nope, I use it enough that I would need to buy that again, then you need it. Rule number three is expiration over emotions. So sometimes stuff is just out of date. Um, and so um it maybe like physically out of date or maybe like stylistically out of date, but um the the question there is like stop, you know, don't be emotional about it. If it's out of date, it's it's time to let it go. And then rule number four is if it hasn't moved, it doesn't matter. Um, which means if it has dust on it or if it's been dust around it because it's been sitting in the same place for so long, um, then that means you're not using it. So okay, so let's do this in the kitchen. Um so rule number one in the kitchen, if you have to keep one and only one, um, this is this will happen when you take things out of drawers and realize, oh look, I have six spatulas, or I have three mixing bowl sets, you know, because when you start putting things away in cabinets, and depending on how big your kitchen is, or deep, you know, the cabinets are, you find that you when you take it out of the cabinet, which is what you need to do when you start cleaning things out, you need to actually remove everything from where it is and look at it out on the countertop because it looks totally different than in the cabinet, you'll automatically see things that you don't use.

Heather Fisher 4:41

Yeah, putting like things together will let you know, oh, do I have ten spatulas or you know, mixing bowls or all of the things? I just realized that myself. I, you know, I think I have like 10 mixing bowls of various sizes, and I don't need them all, so need to make some decisions.

Jodi Rosko 5:01

We have like a a drawer that has like utensils in it. Yeah. Maybe two drawers that have utensils in it, and then we have like a thing on the cat on the counter, like a croc or something that has utensils in it. So we those are the ones we use really all the time, and then there's the little things that we use a little less. But if I pulled all of the drawers out, I'm sure there's extra spatulas in those drawers that I don't hardly ever use because I just use the ones that are in the car. So you don't, like you said, when you take everything out and you lay it and you put like things together, you'll just be surprised at how much things that you might have doubles and triples of.

Heather Fisher 5:34

Yeah, I think that we spread out and as we get more, we don't let go and we just oh now we have, like you said, two utensil drawers. Oh now we're encroaching into three and uh it just kind of spreads instead of keeping uh you know the uses to match together and and not needing so much.

Jodi Rosko 5:54

Right. So put like things together and then keep the best one or maybe two, depending on what you need, but don't you know you don't need six or seven of whatever it is. So um it only keep if you would rebuy it again. This is a question that you can just hold something and ask yourself if I didn't own this, would I buy it again? Because owning it, remember, we've talked about this. Owning it makes you feel like you need to have it because you own it. Just whether you need it or not, just the fact that you have it means you think you should keep it. So um the question is uh would it would you spend money to keep it, right? Would you buy it again?

Heather Fisher 6:28

Yeah, I think that you can buy things. I know in the kitchen I fall trapped to like gadgety one use things, and I use them for a few weeks when they're the fad and w and you know when I'm excited about it. And most of those uh I've given a lot of them away, but m I don't I wouldn't need to buy them again. I'm not gonna go back to the Instapot or the other things. I think we fall into that trap a lot.

Jodi Rosko 6:58

Yeah. And some people will get that Instapot and they're like, I make every meal in it now because I've learned to do that and it's so cool, or the crock pot or whatever. But some people's crock pots have been sitting, you know, on the shelf for years and they're just like, Oh, I need to own a crock pot. And it's like, well, maybe you don't because you don't, you know, use it. So be be kind of really honest with yourself about whether whether you use it and whether you would buy it again. Expiration over emotions. This one's easy in the kitchen because you have uh the pantry, and you know, we all know our spices are totally expired. Um but you know, going through food, obviously, like that's easy to see, you know, is that expired and letting go of all of that?

Heather Fisher 7:37

Yeah. Um donating to food pantries, um, there are you know, if stuff is really expired, that's gonna just be trash and food waste. But if you can stay ahead of those expiration dates, if you know you're not gonna use it, that can still be put to good use, um, donating that uh to local organizations. So the more you're going through it and not getting way past those expiration dates, the more you can put uh that to good use helping someone else.

Jodi Rosko 8:08

Yeah, and different food pantries have different rules. So, and um some of them they can't give out anything that's um that's expired, and some of them it can be a t a time frame after it's expired. So um I would say if it's just just been expired, I will go ahead and give it just in case, unless you know that or ask the rules of where you're giving it to what food pantry. But um, the one that we were just um we're just volunteering at did have a bin um of things that were expired for the last couple years, actually. Um and I'm not sure what their process is to do with it, but it wasn't just going directly, you know, yeah.

Heather Fisher 8:46

They have resources that can use that for different things. So um check on that, and the more you stay on top of it, the more um I mean, I have stuff in my pantry that like, well, yeah, I bought that, but we didn't really like it. Yeah, I'm not gonna use this second pack of whatever. So go ahead and and clean that out.

Jodi Rosko 9:04

Yeah, and I go through my pantry periodically and I do ask myself, do you think do I think I'll use it before it expires? Like if it's close, it's a month or two. Am I gonna be using that or is it just go take it to the food pantry now? Because they'll give it away to people quickly who who will use it.

Heather Fisher 9:19

I'm really happy to get that.

Jodi Rosko 9:20

Yes, for sure. So um, and then expiration can also be um, you know, that you just haven't used it forever, which is the fourth rule. Um, if it hasn't moved, it doesn't matter, which means if it's dusty or if it's up in the tops of your shelves or in the backs of your cabinets, um, you aren't using it.

Heather Fisher 9:37

I think one thing I've learned as I've um, you know, downsized a lot of my belongings is learning to love and and feel comfortable with some empty spaces. So, you know, we have real tall cabinets and I can't reach the top shelf and they're empty, and like that's okay.

Jodi Rosko 9:54

Yeah, I mean you can also just almost feel like excited about it, like you can decide. Yeah, because I think that is our uh tendency is to feel like every space needs to be filled up with something. Yeah um, but you could just be like, I'm gonna make sure there's nothing on the top shelves that I can't reach anyway of my cabinets. And you know, I think okay.

Heather Fisher 10:13

Yeah, and I think the same goes for our countertop surfaces. When when that's relatively clear, you know, maybe a crock of utensils or your coffee pot or you know, one or two things that you're using daily when the rest of it is clear, your day is so much simpler. You know, when you finish cleanup, you can wipe that counter down so easily. And um, you know, that's how you're avoiding that dust and everything else because it it's just clear you've already given that away, and then it's an easy wipe down.

Jodi Rosko 10:47

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think um for sure that makes what's on so I see so many people that just have lots and lots of things just out on the counter. Maybe that's because it's you know easier to access or whatever, but potentially you have things in the cupboard you're not using, and so those things could go away on the lower shelves and you could actually put the things that are on the countertop up in a w c you know close proximity to where you can uh you know get easy access to it. Um and clean and like you said, then it's very easy to clean the countertops and all of that. So ask yourself if you use it in the past, you know, 12 months. Um if I gifted this to somebody, would they be excited? Um you know, and then toss anything that's that's not not good. So um, okay, let's put the same um rules uh into effect in the closet.

Heather Fisher 11:40

Yeah, good good way, good room that can usually a lot can go away from the closet.

Jodi Rosko 11:45

Right. I think we fool ourselves in our closets of how much we actually wear. Um if you think in your head how much are you actually laundering every week, which means you're wearing it and laundering it and putting it back, um, it's it's usually not nearly as much as we all have in our closets.

Heather Fisher 12:02

Yeah, we did an early episode on the 80-20 rule, um, which is uh the Italian economist Pareto, um, he discovered that 20% of the population of Italy was bringing in 80% of the country's wealth and and the um financial picture was leaning on this 20%. And then as a hobby, he was also a gardener. So he realized that his pea plants that he was growing, 20% of his plants were bringing in 80% of the yield. Um, and so that became Pareto's principle, the 80-20 rule, and you can apply that so many places. Um, so I think that's what Jody's talking about in the closet. Um you're putting your 20% that you're wearing over and over that same 20% that you love in amongst the other 80%, and you're not really, you know, you always have laundry, but it's the same laundry week after week.

Jodi Rosko 13:07

Right. You wear those pants that feel good and all of that stuff. So um, so uh in in the closet, if you have, you know, if you again you're gonna pull everything out, you may find that you have five or six black shirts, right? This would be me. Um just ask me, just just you know, for example. Um so uh so I just end up buying the same things over because that's what my style is, and so uh, you know, I'll end up, but you'll if you start laying again, like things out or put it in colors or put it in long sleeves or short sleeves or whatever, and realize, oh my gosh, I have 67 t-shirts, you know, like what which ones of these are am I actually wearing? Same with the drawers, right? Not just the closet. Like if you have drawers, you wear the stuff that's on the top, and then there's still like you know, a stack of things that you just continually stack things on top of and never wear. So, um, so pull out pull that out and keep just one or two of each style of thing. You know, if it's a black shirt, you know, just keep one of those.

Heather Fisher 14:07

Yeah, and that goes um to things that maybe you had more of in a different phase in life. If you um had a career where you dressed up more and you know, you had a lot of dresses or suits or things like that. If that's not the phase that you're in, that's a great place to just keep those one or two um for those events that come up that you do need some options for, but not every one of them.

Jodi Rosko 14:32

Yeah, and I'm not saying like, you know, keep one black shirt, period. I'm saying like a black t-shirt and maybe a black long sleeve shirt and maybe a black dressy shirt. You know, I mean, whatever, but like you don't need the same, the same one of like, you know, a dressy long sleeve black shirt, six of them, right? Right. That's what I'm saying. Right. So, you know, kind of just think about what doubles do you have.

Heather Fisher 14:54

Yeah. Next question to ask yourself is would you buy it again? Do you do you need it? Would you need to have a case, you know, would you have occasion that you need this exact thing? Would you buy the same one? Um, you know, I think this kind of addresses the guilt we feel when we find stuff in our closet that still has the tags on it where we never just didn't feel right, like there wasn't the right occasion, or you can't find something else to go with it, or whatever that is.

Jodi Rosko 15:22

Give yourself permission to let that go to somebody who would love it. And, you know, yes, it has tags on it, but the money's spent and it's too late to return it, and you know, you've put it on four times and taken it right back off and realized it's just not working for you, and you aren't going to be doing that again. So I have a bag in my closet that when I put things on and they just don't fit right or feel right, it just goes in the closet donate bag because there's no if I put it back into the closet with you know on a hanger, it will just sit there forever until I donate it. I will not be raining again. Like you just pass it over as you're going through things. You don't even realize you're doing it.

Heather Fisher 15:57

Yeah, I feel like with online ordering, you know, I'll get something that maybe is a mediocre response, but you know, I'm like, oh, I don't want to deal with return. I I mean I I'm sure I like it, I'll wear it. And you know, so it hangs there too long. And I mean, unless you're buying something for a future like special occasion event that's very specific that you're buying something ahead of time, if you've bought something brand new and you haven't found a reason to wear it in a week or two, a month, you're never going like if it's brand new and you're not excited enough to take those tags off and wear it the day you give it. Yeah, the next day, that's okay.

Jodi Rosko 16:38

Yeah. Mistake made, move on. Yeah. Um, expiration uh over emotions and clothes, expiration I think is style, right? So is the style not this, you know, style that fits for your current lifestyle anymore? Um, you know, what is that? So yeah, yeah. There's things that you're that are in there that used to be something you loved, maybe, but um you haven't worn it in a long time because it just doesn't fit your current style. So um for me that's expiration in clothing. And then if it hasn't moved, it it doesn't matter, right? So I literally pulled out a pair of um dress pants that I don't wear often, clearly, because the part on the hanger where it folds over was like dusty. Like so when I opened the pants, there was like a dust line on them.

Heather Fisher 17:23

So I think we've all experienced that ones that I wear often. Yeah, I think you can just kind of peruse your closet. If you don't want to look for dust, I think you know, your trick of turning around the hangers is a great way to come to this same answer, you know, in a few months if you're having trouble with your clothes closet. Um, that would be to, you know, once you've done an initial sort and you've gotten rid of some of it, but maybe you've kept a little too much still, um, hang it all back up with your hangers turned backwards. And then as you wear it and launder it, those things that you've worn, you know, hang them the right way in the closet. And then six months from now, after that season is over, you'll know everything that's still on that backwards hanger you've not worn, and um, that's like the the visible uh dust. Yeah, right.

Jodi Rosko 18:19

So then you're like, oh, okay. And some of it, I did this, and some of it was like, well, that shirt's cute. Like, and the hanger was still backwards. And I I mean, I can look at the shirt objectively and be like, it's cute, but I never reach to wear it. For whatever reason, it's not it. It doesn't give me the joy that I need when I'm wearing clothes, and so it's okay. It's time for it to go. And somebody else is gonna think it's cute and really want to wear it. And that's what the purpose of this is, is to just, you know, let go of the things that are making our lives heavy and share them with people who need them or who will they'll make their lives happy.

Heather Fisher 18:51

Yeah, if it's not serving you, it can serve someone else.

Jodi Rosko 18:55

Yeah, and we've talked about this a lot, but there is heaviness in too many things. So it it turns into emotional clutter, it turns into anxiety. You're it will be life-changing if you only have in your closet things that fit you, things that you want to put on, um, and you're not trying to search between the things that you don't want to find the things that you do want, it actually um it will be life-changing. Getting dressed will be so much more fun.

Heather Fisher 19:19

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, shall we move on to room three, the bathroom? Yes.

Jodi Rosko 19:26

Okay, so back to the rules. If you have uh two uh or more, just keep one. Um and this, I think, some of it, some some of it is um I I when I think of it in the bathroom, I think of it like um you bought a lotion and it wasn't you used like some of it and it wasn't great way, but then you bought another lotion to because that one wasn't really doing it, but it was still half a bottle, so you weren't gonna throw it away. And then you, you know, you haven't found the one you love, and so then that stuff just accumulates, right? And so just let it go. If you didn't love it, you're not going back to it, you know.

Heather Fisher 20:01

Yeah. I think the same thing happens when uh that type of stuff comes in as gifts, too. Like you have some lotion you're using, and then Christmas comes and you get a few and they're you know, beautiful scents, and you're like, Oh, this is lovely, and then you use that up and you our brains don't register, hey, there's still a half a bottle of something else, right? You know, down below, and we just buy something else, buy more.

Jodi Rosko 20:28

Yeah, yeah. So, and if you use it and if you trade them out and you know, whatever, then keep it. I'm not saying to, you know, get rid of things that you are actually using, because that's you know, that's the thing. But um, so question two is um, would you buy it again? So same thing, right? Right? If you are using half the bottle of lotion, you aren't buying that lotion again, right? You're you you decided when there was still half a bottle that it wasn't it. Um and that could be anything. That could be perfume, that could be, you know, any kind of toiletries, all all of that stuff. Um, and so just be honest with yourself. Makeup, I think makeup accumulates, you get a new mascara, but you don't throw away your old one or whatever.

Heather Fisher 21:10

Yeah, yeah, especially things with different colors. You have, you know, six lipsticks that were the wrong shade, but and you're never going to pick it up again, but you just hang on to it. I think for me, uh seasonal stuff happens like that, sunscreen and things, you know, we have a whole bin of sunscreen, and then the next summer comes and you know, you want it for being outside heavily, and I'm like, okay, there's the sunscreen rack at the grocery, and I'll stop back at that.

Jodi Rosko 21:46

Is it expired? Yeah. Um, so sunscreen actually does expire and doesn't, you know, give you the same level of protection it says on the bottle after a certain amount of time. Um so yeah, we all have the sunscreen bag or whatever, and you need to go through. it and see you know what it is and it's not I don't think it would like not work at all but I think it would not give you the same um amount of protection that you're expecting um when you're doing it.

Heather Fisher 22:11

And if you've bought those new ones throw the old ones away because you're not gonna ever pick the old one over the new one in front of it. So right.

Jodi Rosko 22:21

So yeah so the next one is expiration um and that is um you're gonna find medication that's expired. Um you know you really shouldn't keep makeup more than six months right or especially eye makeup. Um so and some of it you don't even get through but in that amount of time but you know it's not healthy. So um lots of my I could spend I could dump most of my makeup drawer I think actually.

Heather Fisher 22:48

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 22:48

Yeah I probably time for that.

Heather Fisher 22:50

Yeah I I could probably do that as well and I mean when I went through before we moved our linen closet at our um you know old house as I was getting ready to pack it I've said this before but when you opened the door because we had space it didn't feel overcrowded so it wasn't hitting me with like oh this space really needs decluttered but when I went through and took out all of the things we don't use or were expired or were you know hardened and right you know weird colors now. Yeah all those things I mean it was a pretty full trash bag of stuff and you know it but it's looked neat and orderly. So even if your spaces are not feeling like they're overcrowded this is a great exercise. You'll find more than you thought you had to get rid of.

Jodi Rosko 23:44

I just let I just let go of a whole bag of like hair stuff. Hair ties like hair clips. I realized I had like literally like 15 hair clips like I don't need that. Like I only use it to basically wash my face for the most part. So like I kept like two or three and I you know let go and somebody took them and was super excited about it and you know so um even if it's good I mean that's okay just like you know give it to somebody who uh wants it. Um and the final one is if it hasn't moved it doesn't matter and so that stuff that's we're back to being dusty. But um I think where you'll find most of this stuff is in the back of the cab you know back of your cabinets or you know bottoms of your drawers and you know those things that just kind of get pushed back and they just take up that space back there that you just never don't ever look at it again and it's dusty back there.

Heather Fisher 24:34

Yeah I think one way to look at that is you know your vanity or your m linen closet shelf or your medicine cabinet just being really aware um you know I have two drawers uh in my vanity that all my daily stuff is in and I'm kind of like I wonder what's in those other two bottom drawers like right uh you know they're not accumulating dust per se because they're in a drawer but I'm not really opening them.

Jodi Rosko 25:01

But that's the thing when you don't open it it's like out of sight, out of mind you don't even know you know you obviously don't need it but you just let it lick linger in there and it just doesn't need to. That's back to being okay with some open space. Yeah. It feels like you know it's okay if it's not full of full of everything. But um and you know some things that people um acquire are like hotel you know they keep all the hotel things which is fine if you're gonna travel with it or whatever. But do you do you use it to travel or do you just take use the ones that you have when they get there and you know what does that look like because those could easily be donated um they those are actually really used um if they're donated.

Heather Fisher 25:39

And I think again stuff like that is great places to put parameters. Like we have one small clear bin on the shelf in our linen closet that has all the travel size stuff. So if we are traveling there's some tooth uh toothpaste tubes that are small, you know, all of those things but it's not just everywhere and we'd never find it. I know if I'm going somewhere that's where I go get it and that's where it is. So when you're containing all like things together you can look like am I gonna travel 40 weeks out of the year to use all this or do I just need a small portion.

Jodi Rosko 26:18

Right. Okay last last uh room to for today so um last room for today is the garage the garage where things go to die we sort of half make decisions often on things in the garage. I mean there are things that are supposed to live in the garage but there's a lot of things in the garage that usually aren't supposed to live in the garage but it's like oh I don't know where to put this I'm gonna put it out in the garage which is like almost to the trash but it doesn't quite make it to the trash or donation or whatever. So I think um there's a lot of things in the garage that probably could easily get let go of right away. But um okay so if we're gonna go through the rules uh rule number one is if you have more than one of them you're just gonna keep one right so back to like things together put all the like things together and this is in your house everywhere. Like if you have batteries all over the house put those all together you probably don't even know how many you have right yeah um so put like things together and so start like that in the garage as well put like things together and then if you have several of something either use it up uh don't buy more before you use it up that's the other thing in all of these things like maybe you'll find things you're like I didn't even know I had this and I use it I do use it so so then make sure you use it before you buy another one.

Heather Fisher 27:29

Yeah and if the I think the garage like you said is kind of two um distinct things. Sometimes it's actual garage stuff that often needs downsized and decluttered because we collect too much of that just like the kitchen. But sometimes it's storage and it really is like double delayed decisions because you delayed decisions on things inside in the closets where these items might reside and so they're too full and these are the things that were too full for those delayed decisions and so now they're in the garage in you know worse storage condition usually and you know you're really double delaying.

Jodi Rosko 28:15

Yeah things will degrade more in the garage for sure. So if there's something that you really actually feel like is important it shouldn't be stored in the garage. And so you know that's gonna just take up physical space and mental space the same thing. If your garage is super packed and you can't park your car in there or you can't you can only park one in there, you are you know your first entry to your house like let's say you you can only put your one car in the garage the first entry to your house is already anxiety. You don't you may not notice it anymore because you live with it but just you walk you know if you have a whole pile of stuff on the one side of your garage it is giving you anxiety every time you pull in and that's your entry to your house like you're you're supposed to be like I'm home and you're actually like you know it just already feels a little bit you know weighing on you. Yeah. So okay so uh just keep one um number two only keep what you'd rebuy I think there's a lot of stuff in the garage I we probably wouldn't rebuy but um you know if you have gardening tools and you use them great but do you use them all like which ones or are you hiring your yard done now and you're not gonna use your gardening tools anymore.

Heather Fisher 29:22

Yeah you know what does that look like? Is that the place where your um regular tools are you know not outdoor tools but hammer your workshop type tools live same question are you still using them at the same level that you might have in a different phase in life?

Jodi Rosko 29:37

Yeah so would you need to rebuy something if you let it go or would it be like oh yeah I I don't do that anymore.

Heather Fisher 29:42

Yeah.

Jodi Rosko 29:42

Yeah yeah um expiration um is there stuff that's that's expired out there either physically expired or expired out of your life like it's you don't use those things anymore in your life?

Heather Fisher 29:52

We just experienced this this is funny but my you know we had our lamppost replaced uh at the new house and so they had to trench where the um wire the electrical wires bear are buried from the house to the lamppost and so we needed to put new grass seed and we had carried a half used bag of grass seed from my house like six years ago was still traveling along with us and my husband used it on the well we should use up what we have and used that and you know watered it for like two weeks with no grass coming up in that spot and finally was like okay it was probably too old let me go buy a new bag and you know three days later we're seeing the little green sprouting and he's like yeah I should have decided on that grass.

Jodi Rosko 30:40

Yeah so the crotch things expired too folks yeah yeah well and my my first thought was it's different grass like because in our yard somebody before we had bought it had put like wherever it was you know they put whatever random grass so now our yard is like spotting all these polka grasses that's a whole thing.

Heather Fisher 31:01

Yeah well we tried to grow grass from a way expired seed and it does not work.

Jodi Rosko 31:06

Yeah I don't know if that was the lawn people that did that. I don't know who did that but anyway uh yeah that's a whole thing but yes it's it and seeds definitely expire if you have if you're a gardener and you have packets of seeds and that kind of stuff they won't grow. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 31:19

A lot of chemicals or you know herbicides and things that you want to use paint that's dried up. Paint definitely and um most counties you know cities or counties will have some form of disposal it can look different in different areas um you know we have transfer stations in the counties around us that they have some sort of a plan for taking these type of um chemicals and paint um so look that up and and have a plan around that if you're gonna go through it you know try to align that with maybe it's a once a month date maybe it's once a week and just take it right there where they'll take those hazardous waste um disposals.

Jodi Rosko 32:03

Yeah don't just like pile it up and pile it up until it's actually difficult to get rid of. Yeah. Um and then the last rule on this one is if it hasn't moved it doesn't matter. Um that's you know back to dusty again. But I think um I think that the other things that go in the garage are things that are broken that we're gonna fix, but then we never do fix them. And so I think you'll find those things that are things that haven't moved because you have some intention that is not happening. And maybe old projects that you thought you were going to get to but you never did and so you know maybe just be kind of realistic about the fact that that isn't gonna happen. Yeah.

Heather Fisher 32:40

So all good advice.

Jodi Rosko 32:43

Yeah so um okay so hopefully those these rules will kind of give you a little mindset um shift or uh or an opportunity to make decisions easier by just kind of putting everything through one or more of these rules so that it's really easy for you to decide hey I should keep this or I should not keep this.

Heather Fisher 33:03

Yeah help through that decision fatigue and have a a clear plan on how to make um those choices. Yep so get sorting yeah if you need any resources um downsizingroadmap.com we do have a free downsizing guide that can dive into some more strategies to help get started and some challenges to make it easier and that is also at our website downsizingroadmap.com backslash guide and if you're at a point that you're ready for some um more in-depth help you want to talk about your strategy or talk to an agent about how to get started uh towards that move downsizingroadmap.com backslash help all right we'll see you next time 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