Decluttering Your Home, Mind, And Heart For The New Year

New Year, New Home?

In this episode of the Home and Marriage Podcast, Lennon and Christal discuss the importance of decluttering not just your home but also your mind and heart. They begin by identifying signs of mental clutter and emphasize the impact of that. They share their experience of cleaning up clutter and reflect on the benefits of a fresh start in the New Year.

They also explore mental decluttering and highlight the significance of organizing and prioritizing tasks, as well as seeking spiritual renewal. Lastly, they address the importance of decluttering the heart by confronting past hurts and forgiving others, urging listeners to seek God’s guidance in healing emotional wounds. 

Join us today if you need a RESET for your home, mind, and heart.

Link to Episode on 7    "From Chaos To Calm: How To Have A Peaceful Home".

Transcript

Lennon 0:02

I think another sign of clutter is just stress. Mm-hmm. Being stressed about the news, stressed about bills or not dealing with things early and allowing them to grow into big issues in our mind. You know, if your mind is cluttered, it usually just looks like constant stress. And can I say decision fatigue is a real thing and I notice for myself when I'm getting to a place where I can't even make a decision on something simple, it's because I've had maybe too many decisions to make. I've just got a lot going on and that's where I can tell that I'm getting to a place where mentally I need a reset. This is the Home and Marriage Podcast with Lennon and Christal Noland, where we help couples become better at home and stronger together. We are husband and wife, parents and ministers who want God's best for our home and for yours. Well, hello friends. We're still saying Happy New Year around here. We hope it's going good for you so far and that you're doing very well. I'm here today as I usually am with my bride, my lover, my baby's mother. It's Christal over there. How are you?

Christal 1:10

I'm doing good. How are you doing today?

Lennon 1:12

I'm doing good. I think we probably know because we live together.

Christal 1:15

I know. I always love that, how we say, how are you doing? I know, and I've seen you for a few hours.

Lennon 1:20

Yeah.

Christal 1:20

Well, it's a good day today. We now have all of our Christmas stuff cleaned up. Right. Our home is fresh for the new year, which I love.

Lennon 1:29

It is fresh. And you know, I always talk about memes on here. Have you seen the meme of the last episode of the Prince Fresh, prince of Bel Air? Where Will Smith's character is standing in an empty living room because everyone's moving away. And the meme says how you feel at, in your house after you take all the Christmas decorations down. Oh, I haven't seen that one. That sounds great though. That's always how I feel. Yeah. Like all the, all the magic, all the greenery, all the lights and everything being gone, everything just feels really bare. And so I took down the outside. You took down the inside. I know. I'm, I'm a real sap with, with Christmas, and I'm always sad about it. Yeah. But guess what, everybody only like 340 something days until next Christmas. It's so funny how you describe that is the word bear for me. I'm like, it's fresh and clean now. I love our Christmas decorations, and there's a little, there's a part of me that misses that. At the same time, I feel like now we're kind of back to normal. The house looks more organized, everything's back in its place, so I enjoy that new year, new cleanup, feel. You do. And that's always something you, that's always something that's been important to you. And so we're gonna get into that on the podcast today, not just in the home, but in our mind and heart. We want to talk to you friends about decluttering your home, your mind, and your heart. Yeah, I'm, I know right now too, we're in this new year time where we will evaluate our habits and like what we're eating and we are in this new place of like, okay, let's get our eating habits back in order. And I always feel very excited and inspired for the new year to like change some of the old like holiday. Eating the junk food, eating the, the sweets. You know, I'm ready for that change and I will watch YouTube videos. I have certain people I follow Yeah. That give you all the info on the good stuff to get at the grocery store and new meals. So I love that. But I have noticed, we, we've been in this now for a good, what, seven or eight days and I'm feeling the. This is getting hard. I'm missing some of that old stuff, like the old junk food. I'm missing it right now. Yeah, I'm missing it too. Why do you think it is so hard to just do good things and stick to them. Why is it so hard? It's, well, you get all biblical and stuff. I mean, Paul talks about that it's hard to do what the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. And I think it's just like getting our bodies kind of into like, Hey, no, you're not gonna do this. We're gonna, we're gonna eat good or we're gonna, we're gonna work out. You know? I think getting into that, there's always gonna be a struggle. And today when we're talking about decluttering our home, our mind, and our heart. I know for me it looks good on paper. It sounds great. Yeah, I wanna do that. But when you're starting to get into it, you're weeding out that junk that that stuff is hard to let go of sometimes. Yeah. it's certainly true that. At the end of 2026, or as we're sitting here doing the New Year episodes next year in 2027, whatever, we are all looking back on of the past year, like the, the dreams we had or the resolutions we made, or the progress we wanted to make. It is going to be reflective of little things that we were able to maintain every day. Little things don't change. Big things can't change. And so, let's start with the home. We're talking about decluttering your home. How do, how do we know if we have a cluttered home? Yeah. I know for me, when our home starts to get cluttered, I can feel it around me. I can see it mentally when I see something and there's just disorganization everywhere. I feel it too. When you, you have all the bills or the mail everywhere. And you don't have a spot for it. It's just kind of everywhere. You don't know where to start. I just think we, we can feel it in our, souls, you know? And so like I even looked up, there were some really interesting. Statistics on clutter. And, um, there's a website called Zipdo that we looked at, and it has these statistics and says that 56 to 80% of people report anxiety or stress due to clutter. That's just the clutter side. Right? That's crazy. So they feel it just like I was saying earlier, like you feel it when you see it, you feel it. Did you know that because of clutter, we can lose an average of nine hours a week spent looking on lost items. That feels really wild. It does, right? That's a, that's a crazy, crazy stat. Yeah. I don't think either you or I do that, but the people of America. Alright. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty of our own problems. You do it more than me though. I know that. Oh, oh my gosh. I certainly do. I certainly do. I can't find myself half the time. And also, clutter can, uh, reduce our productivity by 40% and decrease our mental clarity and decision making. That's crazy. So if you knew that you could have 56 to 80% less anxiety, you could have nine hours of your week back and you could sleep better, you would think, oh, I wanna do whatever it takes to, to get that. Well, that's what it is, to declutter your home like you were in control of this to So to spend what, a Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon or something. We're not talking about remodeling here. Yeah, we're talking about straightening some things up, throwing a few things away. I don't know. Tell us what exactly we're talking about. We all know this is a wife's domain. Well, or at least in our marriage it is. Yeah. Yeah. It tends to be, and I would say when you declutter or you reset, I call, like, I think of it as resetting your home. Just like when you clean up your Christmas decorations, you've got, now kind of a blank slate to put things in, in order. The New Year's is just a great time to have a refresh and a clean house is really restful. And so we're not talking about perfection here. Like I don't believe that every home and every stage, especially with kids at different ages are gonna look the same. So if you go to your grandparents' house, right, they usually have a clean house. Everything's kind of put in its place. They don't have a lot of issues with things being everywhere. Right, because it's it's just them. Yeah, exactly. And then when you have little ones, you're constantly picking up or doing these things. So it's more about putting it in a way that can, can create peace for your mind and making you feel not chaotic. So you kind of have to find your rhythm with this. But I think it really does matter because I know like when we've done like a good cleanup and got rid of stuff, so one of the big ways is just simplifying your area, your house simplifying it is a big deal because less stuff equals less stress. It really does. In the nature of. Our life is to accumulate, accumulate, accumulate. I mean, goodness. I looked up in our pantry not long ago. Not only did we have new chips, but behind that we had old chips. How old were they? I don't know. But they weren't all gone. Yeah. The nature I think, in our house is to, you know, whether it's more pillows and more blankets, more mugs in the cabinets, which is totally fine, which is totally fine, apparently, as, as long as they fit. But we, you're right, we tend to accumulate and it, it makes it hard on us. Yeah, it does. And it makes me think, when you said that about the pantry, I noticed the other day we had three things of yogurt in our, in our refrigerator, because I forgot I already bought one and then I did it again and forgot about that. And so with, I know for me, if my refrigerator is. Organized. I know what we have. We eat the food better. We don't waste. If you have an overflow of clothes, you're gonna have like too much laundry to do. And so when you simplify even your clothing and it's just gonna help your laundry load better. So it really. Makes a difference with your time, I think because you're not spending so much time looking for something or having to do the laundry or, you know what I mean? It's, it helps a lot in your life. The laundry really makes me think about chores in general, and the more people you have in your home, the more cluttered and messy it can be unless you are training your little humans and. I guess one another when necessary to contribute with cleaning up around the house or, and a lot less cleanup is necessary. Honestly, if we don't make some messes to begin with. If I can make a confession right here, this is something where I'm trying to be, I'm trying to be a better husband with this. I have lately begun to get tremendously annoyed with myself. Oh, whenever I walk out of the room and I come back later and I see beside the bed, house shoes, pajamas piled up in the floor or go in the bathroom and last night's dirty clothes are there. I mean, goodness, this is probably because of your faithful prayer life. You've been praying, Lord, Lord, change this man because I can't. But I have been realizing I kind of, as I go throughout the day, I make some real unnecessary messes that make that contribute to the clutter of our home. Well, I have noticed you have gotten better at that too, so I thank you for what you're doing with that. It does help overall, and I really think that's just the point that we should all work together. I know for us, we have teenagers and so they're very capable of doing a lot of things. Even kids. Kids are able to do chores at a young age. We've talked about this I think before on the podcast, but. Everybody can contribute somewhere, but I know for us with teenagers, those shared spaces are places that they're responsible for helping to clean too. That's right. Like their rooms as they grow up, you may let them be czars over their rooms, but what they are not gonna do is leave their Chick-fil-A on the coffee table and go up to their room so that mom can clean it later. Hmm. Like part of training our kids into adulthood is training them to contribute in a household and we've. As you said, we've talked about that in another episode. Maybe we can put that in the show notes actually. Yeah, I would about what this looks like in different ages and stages. So decluttering the home, really important. It's important. And that leads us to the next point, which is decluttering your mind. And so these are two separate things, but if you're decluttering your home, if you're like, okay, I'm getting rid of the junk where I can see it, now it's time to focus on where in our mind, how do we know if our mind is cluttered? What do you think are ways we can tell that our mind is cluttered? Yeah. I think if we're always feeling like we're rushed, going, not sure where we're supposed to be or like we're forgetting things. Oh yeah. That that was there. That our mind is probably really cluttered. And we don't have a way of, of organizing things or we don't have a habit of putting something on the calendar so that things can stay organized. I know that's something that I had to, I had to really learn is whenever I agree to something or I have a haircut appointment mm-hmm. To put it on the calendar so that you as my wife can, can adjust. And it's not me saying, oh, I can't pick up the kids today. I think another sign of clutter is just stress. Mm-hmm. Being stressed about the news, stressed about bills or not dealing with things early and allowing them to grow into big issues in our mind. You know, if your mind is cluttered, it usually just looks like constant stress. And can I say decision fatigue is a real thing and I notice for myself when I'm getting to a place where I can't even make a decision on something simple, it's because I've had maybe too many decisions to make. I've complicated my, my schedule, or I've, I've just got a lot going on and that's where I can tell that I'm getting to a place where mentally I need a reset. And I need to figure out why am I, why am I in this place right now where I can't even make a normal decision or a small decision? And so that's for me an indicator that something needs to change in my mind. Yeah. So as you're looking forward into a new year and you're wanting to declutter your mind, I think it really starts with seeking to renew your mind, which is a real scriptural theme of letting God do work in us so that we can prioritize better. You know, seek first the kingdom of God so we can keep him in mind and begin to think differently. I know, and you don't even have to be a New Year's resolutionary type person to do this. I think this is something that even throughout the year, we'll have moments where we need to do this, but New Year's is a great time to start it off, and so I think of that scripture. Romans 12, two, and I love the new Living translation version, and it says. Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person. By changing the way you think, then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. And what encourages me about that is that, first of all, sometimes we get into patterns of thinking not in Godly ways or just how the world would think about things. We really need to evaluate that and think about are we thinking in the way that God would want us to think? And of course, reading scripture's going to show you, it will really identify the problems, but also when it says, then you will learn to know God's will for you. I love that because it, personalizes. How God has plans for us individually as well. Like he has specific things for us and goals or plans. So when we get to change our mind into a mind like Christ, we start to see what God really has for us. And so I think for me. I need to get with God, I need to get in the scripture and see what do you have for me this new year, Lord, that I need to focus on, and what stuff do I need to just let go of? Yes. To do that. You said it starts in the presence of God, and so I guess our encouragement for you friends would definitely be, be sure you're spending time in scripture and seek to do it. More days than you don't do it. There's something very transformational. This has actually been very studied out by the Institute of Biblical engagement, I believe it's called, that there's a transformational effect of God's word on people when they engage it four or more times a week. And so I like to think of that as just more often than not, more days than not. I'm gonna spend some time in the presence of God, and you can't go wrong. I mean, just start somewhere. The consistency is more important than how long you do it or how intense you are about it. Read some scripture. Every day, even if it's only a chapter, meditate on it. Pray. And I'm telling you like with most of life, the daily habit is more important than the perfect format or how long or how intense you are. And what you will find is that you're thinking about God more. And you're thinking like God more. And that'll lead to you approaching stressful situations of your life with a different perspective and with the comfort and encouragement of the Holy Spirit. Did you know at homeandmarriage.com you can get our six Habits of Happy Couples Course. A lot of couples think that what makes for a better marriage is grand gestures, especially if you're in a time where you're a little disconnected or things are a little tense. We can feel like we need to do something huge and big to get things back on track. That's actually not the case. A happy marriage comes down to the little things, the everyday things. It comes down to habits. And so that's what's behind our six Habits of Happy Couples course. You've got six distinct habits that I teach on, and then Christal and I unpack those together. Each section has a PDF that is meant for you and your spouse to be able to talk through, some of the material and come up with your own ideas about how to improve your connection and improve your marriage. This course is$70, but for you as a listener of the podcast, if you use. Coupon code Podcast 20, you'll get$20 off of that. And so that is a better marriage for less than the price of a date night. So again, for podcast listeners, code podcast 20 at homeandmarriage.com. Get your course today. And another part of this is creating space to dream,. Creating space to be, like you're saying, be in the presence of God, or open up your heart and mind to have actual vision for your home. We talk about having vision for your family, for your marriage. It's important that we actually give time to have that space to dream and to to hear from God And some ways to do this. It's so important to get around people who help you really believe in a big God. It's like who you surround yourself with is gonna sometimes make you think differently about certain situations or life and it helps you allow yourself to dream more. It really does. If you want a decluttered mind, spend time around people that have peaceful minds. And we do have that handful of friends that whenever they talk about God, I want to love and know God in the way they do. Whenever they talk about life, I want to have that attitude of optimism and hope that they do. So people are really important. And then I know this year some books you've read, you've told me have had just a big effect on how you think. Yeah, I think sometimes Reading something that can encourage you in the way that's biblical, but also just seeing things better. And some of my favorite authors in this vein is Craig Groeschel. He has some great books about what to do with your mind. Uh, mark Batterson you've read and I'm in the middle of reading one of his books, gradually, then suddenly. And that book is already making me think bigger. And then Jenny Allen, I love her because she is really great with, The thoughts you have and how to, how to change the way you think about certain things and how to get out the kind of junk in your mind. So I love those authors. But yeah, I would recommend just read somebody who biblically sound and who can encourage you to help you think in a better way than maybe what you're used to thinking. Okay. So let's start to bring this episode home with this last area we've talked about, decluttering your home, decluttering your mind, and then we wanna, we wanna finish by talking to you about decluttering your heart. Decluttering heart is very different than your mind, right? These are two different parts of us, and so it's important to think about your heart and what's gotten into your heart. So How do you know? If you have a cluttered heart, I think you have a cluttered heart. If you're talking and thinking too much about the past, if you're still turning over in your mind, things that people have said and done weeks, months, or even years ago, you are very much weighed down by, by the pain of your past. The future that God has for you is not something that is meant to have a foundation of the worst moments you've ever lived and the worst things you've ever heard. And so decluttering your heart is about removing the hidden junk. It's about asking God's help to get the bitterness out of your heart. And a lot of times we can do that because whenever you're weighed down, you can't always even give a clear answer as to why it just is. But maybe asking God to reveal, Lord, is there anything that's taken root in my heart that, are there any weeds that you could help me pull? And David even talks about this'cause he says, Lord, search me and know my heart. Get out. Show me any wickedness or things in my heart that need to get out. And I really love that because on our own, I think sometimes we don't recognize what it is in our heart. We see the outside if effects of it and we feel it. It's good to ask the Lord God, what is in my heart? Is there anything in my heart that needs to come out? Like you're saying, maybe some bitterness, which really can come a lot of times from unforgiveness. And that becomes a big deal. That's why Hebrews 1215 says, see to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. And this is just that simple principle that what starts off small can grow into something big. That's why it says don't let a root spring up. One of the best things that we can do is ask God to help us be forgiving people. Mm-hmm. That forgiveness can be our default setting, so that little things and little offenses don't become things that turn us into bitter people that feel stuck in the past who can't move forward in the future. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever run across some elderly people in your life that you're like, this is the kind of person I wanna be when I get older. I don't wanna become a bitter person because it's pretty common that you see people who have aged and who have become really negative and bitter because of what's happened in in life to them, or just what maybe what they've done. It could be a number of things, but when we actually go to the Lord about rooting out that bitterness and the junk in our hearts, it, it can change us and it can. Help us to be a person that sees the good in things and and loves. Well, because you know what grows in the heart is gonna come out, it is. And the people that we live with are living with the overflow of our heart. It's like scripture says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So our kids, our spouses, they experience what is going on inside of us. We may not have shared with them exactly what's happening inside of us, but it is affecting them. So decluttering. The heart really does begin, as David did with asking God, Hey, search me, lay anything bare, and being willing to respond to the conviction or comfort or encouragement that the Holy Spirit can give. And I have a few questions that you can ask yourself to see where you might be here in this, in this spot. So one is, have you noticed that you're more negative or even cynical about things? I know for me, I had a season where we were going through a tough time and. I was personally going through a tough time and I could tell that something was different in me and the way I was responding mentally or out loud to certain situations, I tended to be more negative. Um, and I tended to be more like, yeah, I don't know about that. Just real cynical about certain things I was usually not like that, so it surprised me how I was acting, but it really showed me there was some stuff inside of my heart that I really needed to give to the Lord and get healed of because I was not really operating as a person who's healed or, or going through healing. I was getting into the other side of like, you know, just. Negative and it was because of disappointment in our lives. But that's one thing you can ask yourself. And another is, is there someone that maybe you need to forgive or you need to ask forgiveness from? Because sometimes we've done things that we know better, and we know we shouldn't have acted in that way, but we carry it because we've never really gone to that person and said. You know, when I did that, I, I should not have done it that way. Or can you forgive me for that situation? And we carry that. And there's something about asking for forgiveness that also heals us. Asking for forgiveness is a reset button. I'm sorry, is one thing. Will you forgive me? Is such an important next step. Right. And then another thing is, is there a situation from maybe this past year, maybe 2025, something happened that still needs healing or needs God's perspective, which we talked about with the mind changing the way you think about that situation. Maybe you need to go to the Lord and say, God. Can you help me think about this situation, the way that you would think? Not in the way that I've done in my mind, because you know, you're still carrying this situation and you've not moved past it. And I know God heals in different ways, right? Sometimes he heals instantly. Sometimes it's a process. But if we don't go to the Lord for our healing the way we need to think, we will just get into our own human thinking and our own human way of dealing with it. And that doesn't always give good results. No, it doesn't. So as we finish up, what would you say to somebody who is stuck, maybe not only in last year, but concerning a cluttered heart? Maybe stuck in something from years ago and they would say, I've, I've tried to forgive. Um, I, I don't know how to forgive. I, I feel like I'm always going to be stuck here. Well, I, I do think that the only thing, the main thing that we can do is go to God and ask him for help because in our own strength, I don't know how anybody forgives anything with their own strength. I mean, you can be a really good person and have a hard time forgiving, not knowing how to forgive, but that's where God will help us with forgiveness. He can change our heart, even for certain people. He can change our heart over certain situations and he can help us see the way that we should see. So I would say, first of all, go to the Lord and ask for his help. You cannot do this alone in your own strength. So it's so important that we do these things. Decluttering our home may seem very, you know, not spiritual enough, but it's important for our wellbeing. And then we need to declutter our mind and declutter our heart. Those are really important things and I think they really help set us up for a really fresh new year for 2026. So friends, thanks for being with us today. Don't forget to follow or subscribe so you don't miss an episode. We drop new ones every Tuesday, and if this encouraged you today. Would you share it with someone else who you think that it might encourage? You can visit home in marriage.com for more resources, like our Six Habits of Happy Couples Course, and if you'd like us to come speak at your church or event, you can schedule us through our website. You can also follow us along on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. All those links are in the show notes. Thank you for joining us on the Home and Marriage Podcast. We really do believe that home can be your favorite place. We'll be back again next week with more encouragement and wisdom to help you become better at home and stronger together.