Pairs Well With…Clearing Space for What’s Next: A Conversation with Professional Organizer, Stephanie Davis (Let’s Get Organized!)

Clutter can look like a stack of boxes, an overstuffed closet, or a garage you can’t park in, but the real weight is usually what it represents: grief you haven’t had time to process, a life season that ended too fast, or decisions you keep postponing. Serena and Sheila start with a candid check-in about their own “year of yes,” feeling stretched thin, and craving a reset at home and in life. That honesty sets the stage for a conversation that gets practical fast and stays deeply human.

We’re joined by Stephanie Davis, founder of Let’s Get Organized in Jackson, Mississippi, and the first nationally certified professional organizer in the state. She explains why people reach out during major life transitions like moving, downsizing, empty nesting, divorce, loss, and remarriage and why organizing is rarely just about bins. Stephanie shares a powerful reframe: organization is about retrieval. If you can’t get to it, you won’t use it, and what you own stops serving you and starts stressing you out.

We also dig into the psychology of clutter, especially decision fatigue, identity, sentimentality, and the guilt of money spent or gifts received. Stephanie offers realistic decluttering strategies that don’t rely on perfection: start small, build momentum, and “release” what no longer fits so it can have a second life. We talk closets, kitchens, attics, and simple upgrades that help you use the space you already have, especially when you’re preparing to merge households or start fresh.

If you’re ready to breathe again and create a home that matches who you are now, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Although your hosts are attorneys, Pairs Well With… does not provide legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship. Always seek the advice of qualified professionals regarding any specific questions or concerns you may have.

Transcript

Welcome And Life Updates

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Welcome back to Pairs Well With, the podcast where we talk about crossroads, transitions, reinventions, and everything in between that pairs well with where you are in life.

SPEAKER_03 0:18

I'm Serena. And I'm Sheila. And we are glad you're here with us today. We have someone very special that we're going to be speaking with on today's podcast. But first, Serena, how are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:29

It's been a time lately. You know, I've a lot of changes going on. We were laughing as we were prepping for this that in this year of yes, have we said yes too many times? We're both feeling a little frazzled today.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

I know. I wonder if that's not a podcast in and of itself, sort of the aftermath of our year of yes. Yeah. Potentially. But you've got some fun stuff going on. I don't even know what's going on. I mean, we really do have to catch up because I feel like we're meeting in the night and then we have been lately for once a month on the podcast. So at least we have that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01

Well, legislative session is wrapping up in the next two weeks. And that's been the bulk of my career for the last 20, 25 years. And so that is a season that once it ends, it you know, it definitely makes a change for a better, more relaxing time. Except for now, I have filled it with not only the green butterfly, but I have purchased an art gallery. And we have been this came about in January. It was something that was on my life list, but it happened a lot sooner and quicker than I anticipated. But it was one of those doors that opened, and I said yes, and we have our grand opening on Friday.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

And what's the name of the Left Bank Gallery?

SPEAKER_02 1:39

And that is an ode to the Left Bank in Paris in the early 1900s when all of the artisans and writers and musicians were the creative collective there at that time. And we're also on the left side of the interstate in our area.

SPEAKER_03 1:52

So yeah. Well, I'm excited to go to the opening. I can't wait to see what you've curated. I know it's gonna be fabulous. And maybe one day we'll have another podcast over there.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Yeah, I love that just for y'all to see the space because we've completely renovated everything. They're hanging my red crystal chandelier today. So oh, that's exciting.

SPEAKER_03 2:10

And you were on the road this week. Well, you've been on the road a lot. I've been I've been saying yes to every everything that has fallen on my plate, and now I am reaping the benefits of it. I'm not sure whether it's the spring in the south with the pollen in the air or too many airplane rides. But yeah, we did. I've been southwest, I've been on both coasts in the last three weeks. I spent a week with Ellie up Los Angeles for spring break, and that was great fun. I was in Scottsdale, Arizona the week before that. And then I just flew back in from New York on Sunday, and it was hot in LA and cold in New York. So I went from hot weather gear to wearing my fur coat again back in New York over the weekend. And I guess in between all that, I picked up something along the way. But but it's been it's been a lot of fun. I'm I'm actually really looking forward to settling into my house. And one of the topics we're gonna be talking about today is sort of getting our life in order. I think springtime is good for my yard work that I can't wait to get started on and just clearing out the winter clothes and all those types of things.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Yeah, that got in my way this today when I was trying to get dressed because I have not flipped my closet, and I I think there's about 900 items laying in the floor right now because I was trying to dig through to find something to wear today.

SPEAKER_03 3:28

So Well, you know, I think that's where like the door closing strategy works for organization, is when you just can close the door. But I feel like people walk in my house and they think, oh, your house is so neat. Well, that's what I think every time I walk in your house. But you don't often come back to the back because when you have, you know, it's not always that way. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. But in any event, that kind of brings us to where we are today where we're welcoming our next guest. Yeah.

Why Space Shapes Your Next Chapter

SPEAKER_02 3:56

Your space tells your story, whether you mean for it too or not. When you walk in someone's home, you learn so many things about them from that initial, you know, kind of gaze around. Most people don't think about organization as being a tool in life. And when you go through major transitions, it is a tool that can help you get through that. I mean, the transition of losing maybe a loved one and dealing with the emotions of that, or a transition of a new baby coming into the home and getting organized. We're not in that season anymore, but there was a time when we were. Or a a divorce or a remarriage. Um you know, that's something that my husband and I will be looking at merging homes in the fall for the first time in all these years. We've been together. And so I've definitely am gonna have to get myself organized in preparation for that.

SPEAKER_03 4:44

So and you know, as we've talked about the podcast and topics on our podcast and things that we wanted to explore, you know, one of the things that that we both have is a lot of stuff, and we both deal with our stuff differently and how we present ourselves to the world, and some of it's great stuff, and some of it's stuff we could probably declutter out of our lives. But we all hold on to things and we all have things that we have in our lives that either make us who we are at this point in our life, or we felt like maybe they gave us identity in our previous part of our life. And so exploring that on the podcast we thought was a really good way to bring our listeners, you know, closer to know about us, and also to kind of help them with maybe strategies that they need to move forward in their lives because we're always talking about taking that next step and what's the next chapter and opening the next door. And like we said before, it's really hard to open the next door or to open the door that's in front of you when there's a whole bunch of clutter, and whether that's like emotional clutter or physical clutter, both need to be cleared out in order for you to move forward with your life and whatever that might be.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

And to do it in a positive way. I mean, you you could push through the clutter, but that's not always gonna get you the best results and the results that are most healthy for you.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

So sure, because that you know, once even though you're trying to push past the clutter, if it's still by your side, for me at least, I'm gonna always be distracted by it. Yeah. You know, and that's that's sort of where you and I have talked about where we are in our lives right now, you know, trying to really say in an intentional way, okay, I know I've got to get through this mire to get to the next thing, whatever that next thing might be, and we still are trying to figure that out. You've got lots more next things going on. But you know, until you take care of old business, which could be your physical clutter next to you or emotional clutter or work clutter or whatever it might be, you really can't feel free to do the next step. And I think we're at that point in our lives where we're saying, you know what, there's a lot of stuff we can we can put to the side, we can close those chapters and move forward. So one of I think right now the the perfect segue for us at this point in the podcast is to introduce someone like Stephanie Davis to

Meet Professional Organizer Stephanie Davis

SPEAKER_03 7:06

our listeners. So if you would do so.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

We have with us today Stephanie Davis, she's the founder and the president of Let's Get Organized here in Jackson, Mississippi. She's been in this area for 25 years. Started your your business in 2001, I believe. And Stephanie was the very first professional organizer that was certified in the state of Mississippi. So she is from the local area, but she is nationally certified in her trade, and she's going to share some great tips with us today.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

And if that wasn't enough, she was named one of the top 50 leading businesswomen in Mississippi by the Mississippi Business Journal. Through her work, Stephanie has seen firsthand that organizing is rarely just about closets or storage systems. It's often about life transitions, like moving or downsizing, becoming an empty nest or getting divorced, having to deal with the loss of a loved one, and realizing that your home no longer just reflects who you are and who you have been, but who you may want to become. So that just we feel fits perfectly with the theme of our podcast and especially where we are both right now in our lives.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

We're so happy to have you here with us today, Stephanie. I'm excited to be here. I have never heard of before that we were prepping for this podcast a certified professional organizer. So I'm anxious to learn more about this today.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

We are certified by our national organization, and we have our codes of ethics and things that we need to follow, and you know that's what we making organizing more of a structured business.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

So Stephanie, you started this back in 2001. I mean, what made you choose this path? Were you an organized kid?

SPEAKER_01 8:54

I was. I mean, my mom was a nurse and she had four children, and our home was always put together. So I think I learned it from her. I tell a story that when I was in fourth grade, I had my own Dewey Decimal system for my books because I was having a reader. But why I started it, I was a new mom. I was gonna be a stay-at-home, and I was over to a friend's house, and she had just had her kitchen redone. And I could not stand her pantry. It was just not working. So I said, Let me organize your pantry. And so she did, it worked out great. And then a friend of hers came over and was like, Would you do mine? And I'm like, Okay. Well, I had never thought about that. I was in advertising, I was gonna do, you know, freelance advertising is what I was gonna do. And so when this started, my husband's like, you should do this. And I'm like, I've never heard of organizers. I mean, Jackson, Mississippi. So, you know, I did a little research. I was not the first organizer in Jackson. There were people who came before me, very much so. And so I literally just put my shingle out. And there's funny stories, early days I would be going through daycare, you know, picking up the kids in after school care, and I'd have a magnet on the car. I mean, I it was like early days of marketing. And I put a and the north side sign, and lo and behold, it started. And I was always blessed with clients who I started thinking, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna tell everyone how to be organized. And then they're gonna do it. And that was it. I never really thought about the repeat business. So even today, some of my first clients are still clients today, which, you know, as you grow, that gets to be a problem when there's only, you know, one of you. So you've definitely had to expand over time.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

But well, for those first clients, when they reach out, is it because they need to get organized, or is it because they're going through some transition in life that makes them realize maybe how unorganized they are?

Kitchens And Closets As The Gateway

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Definitely there's people reach out because there's usually a transition, something's changing, or there's a part of the house that has always bothered them and they're wanting to get through that. And so, and we'll start with a specific area. You know, I'll have the people who call and say, I want to get my whole house organized. And I'm very quick to tell them, you can't, it's not that you we just come in and organize your whole house. You have to work through the process. So we usually get down to picking a you know, one big room, one big project, and go from there.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

And do you find that when they have when your clients call you and or they inquire about your services and that type of thing, is it because they've faced some sort of crossroads in their life? What is the instigating factor, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Um they're calling honestly because they want to get their spaces organized and put together. As we work together, it comes out the why, why do you have this? Why are you holding on to this? Those are the questions that we'll ask. And it just brings in, there's always a reason why a certain area, and most of the times we'll start with kitchens and closets. Those are the easy ones. Everyone's like, oh, I want my kitchen organized. And you don't really see a lot of personality traits in the kitchen, but as you go into the other areas of the home, it's systemic. You see it in other areas. And so that's why a kitchen is always a great area to get into with somebody because it's it's it's the heart of the home. And if we can get that order, it starts to bring peace into the home.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

Oh wow. Absolutely. I love that. And when you let's talk about the kitchen because uh I agree with that. I think whenever I've moved into a new house, the first thing I want to do is have the kitchen organized. And do you find that like sometimes I feel like when you start over, you just want all new fresh stuff. Well, sometimes that's just not reasonable or that type of thing. So when you are organizing somebody's kitchen, for instance, do you recommend new things or do you say, let's work with what you've got already?

SPEAKER_01 13:20

For me, I really don't like to recommend new things unless something is absolutely worn out or they don't want it. And then I'm gonna say, if you get something new, we have to get rid of the old. You may want to have a new set of dishes because we have all new colors and but we don't need to keep the dishes from, you know, 25 years ago. Tell Sheila that you know how many sets of china she has. She does.

unknown 13:45

I do.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

But she's also built a nice little economic. So and that brings me to the point of the amount of items that you have does not mean that they can't be organized. You just have to treat them with respect. And that's what I like to tell people: organization is about retrieval. If you can't get to it, you're not gonna use it. So if you have 20 sets of dishes, I'm great with that. But make a cabinet, give it the space that it deserves so that you can enjoy using those items. So that's a very good point.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

You know, I was talking with you earlier about the frustration this morning. I couldn't get to my warmer weather clothes because I haven't taken the time to flip my closet and get organized in that area of my life. And caused me frustration this morning when getting dressed. It caused me to be late here today. So that's a real world experience of what you're talking about right there.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Organization takes time, it takes time out of your life, out of your schedule, to give it that extra five minutes, ten minutes, whatever it's gonna take to put something back or to put it back. And so when we're we're working with people, I always say, I need that extra time from you. That's what you have to commit to. If we put your closet together, I need you to be able to follow up on it and put it back. Put it on the hanger, put it back where you've got it from, assign a home to it. Because if not, it just becomes chaos.

Retrieval Over Perfection

SPEAKER_03 15:15

When you're initiating a, I guess, what do you call it? What do you call it when you enter someone's house for the first time? When you're initiating which one? Assessment. Assessment. Okay, so when you're doing your initial assessment of a client's home, do you is it pretty common for you to hear a client or a potential client say, I just can't move forward in my life because of what's going on in my space?

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Everyone's different. I have there are some people who call and they're calling for a reason. Exactly what you talked about. Someone's passed away, we have a new baby coming, we're moving, the kids have left the home. And then that'll be the impetus for the assessment. Then there are times that people don't even realize that that is why they're stuck, is because they're not making it through. A lot of times I don't do cold calls. I'm usually referred and I'm word of mouth. So I'll know how they've got my name from somebody, which helps me to determine. Like I've been called after a husband has died, and and they're just at a loss. And there's so much. Those are really it's really hard. Those are the hard jobs. And we talked, it's just when you're going into someone's home, there's nothing more personal than their stuff and how they use their stuff. And there's there's no judgment. I don't what you have and what I have and what's personal to me. And so you've got to go in and you've gotta, you can't just start purge, purge, purge. You've got to figure out what is meaningful to them, and sometimes helping them realize what's meaningful to them. Because especially y'all have talked that you're in the empty nestra phase. Well, everyone's excited for the kids to go to college, but you're still holding on to those memories because it's a part of your life that's gone, and there's gonna be new memories. But rather than keep the ones that are very special, we're keeping all of it. And then it's just too much. And it's not even a burden, it's not even a pleasure to look back, to look back through. You can't even find photographs or baby books or memory because it's amongst all of the things. And so I like to talk to people to try and get them to help me figure out what it is that they what's important to them and how to get there for them.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

And what does that look like practically? You do that in the home with them and y'all are working through things together, pulling out items one at a time, or do you sit down and just have a like an interview almost with a client before you start going through their stuff?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

If you know me, I I'm a doer. And so a lot of times we as we work together, it comes out because you've called me because you want something organized. The last thing you want to do is to sit here, talk to me, and at the end of the day, the closet's still a mess. Because I always say there are better books out there, and you can watch all kinds of videos from people. I'm a doer. So if we're gonna do it together, I want to talk to you. And as we're going through it, I'm gonna learn why you're holding on to this. Why do you think you're gonna get back into that size clothes? Why is it so hard to let go of mom's china or great-grandmother's china or boxes of cards, letters? Why do you need to hold on to that? And it's not about just blanket purging, it's about making it be something that you can manage. I mean, there are people who want to, you know, keep all the cards and letters and they actually have them filed away and they can retrieve them. But other people just have boxes and bags of cards over the table. And I mean, you can't find what you need when you do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

And as you know, to your point, when I turned 50 a couple of years ago and we were trying to get together photographs and things for my little slideshow and all, I mean, I had just literally boxes from childhood, college, when my kids were young, and they were in different boxes in the garage and in the attic and in one room and the other room. It took forever. And I was like, why am I even doing all this? I was very glad that I did it and and I had something that was reflective of my 50 years here, you know, at that time. But it was not fun trying to retrieve all this.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

No, and that's when you change your mindset about it's all about retrieval, then it's gonna make it a lot easier. You know, if a lot of times when I'll do a talk, I'll say, I'm ultimately a lazy individual. I do not want to, if I want to bake or cook something, I don't want to fight with all those pans that are on top of the one. Or if I have this really pretty dish, I'll just use McCarty. That's everyone's got tons of McCarty, but it's all shoved and they can't get to it, which is why I love to see them displayed or make it easy for you to use. It's all about making it easy for you to get through.

SPEAKER_03 20:31

You talked about sort of personalities a little bit, and we probably all have different personalities in terms of what the reason is why we keep something or hold on to something or don't throw it away. Sometimes I feel like it's laziness that it's just easier to shove it to the back of the closet than to toss it out. Sometimes I feel like well, I paid X amount for it and still has the tag on it. I'm not gonna get rid of it because of that. Sometimes sentimentality of oh, I wore it to this event and I took pictures in it with so-and-so who's no longer here, and I want to keep it for that. How do you kind of

Guilt Sentiment And Identity In Stuff

SPEAKER_03 21:07

work through those issues with with your clients? Because I would think everybody's got some reason, whether good, bad, or indifferent. And like you said, you're not judging people when you come in, but you kind of have to understand and work through that with them.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah. Having done this 25 years, there's probably not anything I have not seen or organized at this point. And so it's people like to say procrastination, lazy. It's about decision making. You have to make a decision on everything, whether you're gonna keep it, how you're gonna keep it, and that can be exhausting. Some people are just not good at making decisions, and clutter is a big blanket. It's comforting, it's comforting to know you have it, especially the sentimentality. Knowing that we have these items from grandma or from a parent that's passed away is comforting to know. But what are we going to do with them? You know, a lot of us hold on to things because we're going to be that someday. We are going to scrapbook all of those photos into a book, or I am going to buy all this stuff, you know, in the kitchens. We all try every weight loss product that's out there, and we have oodles of all the protein shakes and all that. But to get rid of it, we spent the money on it. So you just try and get people to get to where they could be comfortable with making that decision. And sometimes it's not easy. Sometimes I challenge people, okay, let's move it to a different space. A home is like real estate, everything has a priority. If you're walking in your house and that one place on the counter is full of clutter, but that would be a natural place where you would either entertain or put something there. You've got to choose where you're going to put items to make them a priority.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

And you said you were talking about sometimes it's about a life you want to get back to, but what about if it's a life that's changed already? And that's why they don't want to let go of items.

SPEAKER_01 23:27

Yeah, when change happens, it it depends if it's a slow change, if it's an immediate change. One of my toughest jobs was right when I started, I got a call, and it was from a new mother. She had just moved to Jackson to be closer to family. She had lost her husband. So I was going in a house trying to set it up for a newborn baby and the loss of a spouse. And those are tough. And at that point, I chose we're going to make this home about the baby. I'm not going to worry about getting rid of all the husbands. I made him a part of that house. There was going to be a time when we could move on with that. So you have to read your clients about where they are in that change. A lot of us whose kids are older, it's weird. We may be okay with getting rid of the kids, you know, the childhood things, but those middle school years are really tough. We can't get rid of that. Or, you know, we want to hold on to college stuff. It's and if you look back at yourself, why what happened there? There's a reason. There's all there is a psych a psychology on what we're holding on to. We just have to figure that out. And it is tough.

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Do you think a lot of it is people want to hold on to and they they say they want to move forward and I want to, I I want to be organized, I want to have everything in its place. And then they really have a hard time letting go of the identity that they had that is tied to these belongings. Is that part of it?

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Well, space is finite. There's only so much space in a home. And so you have to decide, let's say it's your dad's belongings. I'm gonna say if we want to keep it, let's give it a space, let's give it a shelf, let's give it a cabinet, make it a definitive space that we're gonna put his items in. Don't put them in a box and put them up in the attic. Yeah, because that's not honoring them. That's not treasuring them. That's a comfort that you still have them, but it's not, you're not doing anything with it. A lot of times, you know, guilt, guilt is the biggest reason why we hold on to stuff. Either money, somebody gave it to us, or I'm supposed to be doing this, so I might as well hold on to it. We need to let ourselves, you know, free of that guilt. It guilt, you know, I heard someone say this in a podcast, it's not an heirloom. I mean, just because your great aunt died and she left you all of these possessions, cluttering up your garage with furniture you're never gonna use is not honoring them. Yeah. Now move them forward, give them to someone who could have a second life with it. I mean, green butterfly is a wonderful place for vintage clothing, and there's great places. People can always use furniture. And so letting someone else use it and give it value.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

I love that concept of the guilt, holding on to things because of guilt, like not just because it's a family heirloom or something somebody gave you, but even the purchase of something that you're tied to because of gosh, I feel guilty. I bought I bought this and now I need to hold on to it. I mean, I I haven't really thought about it in terms of that that guilt aspect of it before, but letting go of that guilt, I mean, that has to be something you have to convince yourself of, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:13

I mean, shoes are the worst. We buy these shoes, we spend money on them. They're so uncomfortable, we're not gonna wear them. And we all like to be comfortable now. So I'll go into closets and people will have fabulous shoe collections. So I always say, let's display your shoes, let's look at them, let's put your beautiful purses up so that you can look at them. But if you're just gonna put them in a box and shove them in the corner, all it's doing is cluttering it up. That would be me again. Yeah, it's very far. I mean, money is you spend money on everything, uh whether it's a dollar, whether it's a hundred dollars, but it's holding, it's holding you back and it's not letting you be free. And whenever you start organizing project, uh it's not a project, it's changing your lifestyle. Yeah. And starting with something small, it gives you a touchstone. You know, everyone's got junk drawers. Some people have six. Try and get it down to one. But if you have an organized junk drawer, that gives you something to go back to. And y it'll hopefully catch on throughout the whole house that okay, I did, I did spend the money on COVID was worse. We all stocked up on everything there was. And now it's been almost five years, and all that food, all that make, it's all getting old, and we need to let it go. And it's very hard to have someone get rid of something that's actually usable.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Well, it makes you feel like you're being wasteful, or at least that's what it does to me. Like, why am I so why do I feel so guilty uh about you know, throwing out makeup that's five or six years old or colors that I don't wear anymore? Because I feel wasteful.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

It is. You know, that is a school of thought that is wasteful, but you don't have that much room in your drawer. And when you and it's already shoved to the back, it's already been dug through and pushed back, and so it is hard. And as an organizer, I I battle a lot with you're making a lot of trash, you need to recycle, you're putting so much in a landfill. That is true, especially when it comes to paper. We try to do good, we try to recycle what we can, but at the end of the day, my goal is for you to be free. So you've got to go on a diet. You've gotta just, if you want an organized makeup drawer, we have to get rid of some items. Yeah. There's one client, she was addicted to paper towels and like Clorox wipes. And I'm talking 300 rolls, but she's a single lady. And 90, you're they're not gonna go bad. Yes, you can use them, but you know, we had a two-bedroom house. I did not have the storage space. So that was a tough one to get rid of that, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

But and at to that point, you know, a lot of people probably look at it and say, Well, I just need a bigger house. And they don't deal with the actual problem. True. So you've probably encountered that a number of times.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Like a lot of people call and they want to stage the house because they're getting ready to sell it. And I'm like, Wait, have you looked through your house? So I'll go there and I'm like, You have tons of space. Why are you getting a different house? I mean, if they want to move or they move into a different area, but if they just feel like they've outgrown it, I'm like, let's just take a minute, let's get through some of the stuff and see what we can get rid of. And then if there's a if is a couple, there's a battle between whose stuff it is, that's his, that's mine, you can't touch that. So stuff is just it could be very, you know, tough tough to deal with for a couple trying to do that.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

So one of the things we talk about a lot it on the podcast is making a decision and make a decision to not make a decision in a decision, right? So you you decide that you're not gonna decide and that keeps you stuck, I think, right? So I feel like times where I felt unorganized at my house and I just made the decision, I'm gonna shut that door, I'm not gonna deal with this today, and then all of a sudden I'm not dealing with this in six months and a year, however long it takes for me to want to deal with it, that's the decision, right? But it's still hanging over my head, it's still weighing on me every day. And hard to move forward when I'm not making the decision to make that change in my life. Uh how would you say, and how could you tell our listeners how to go about really assessing the things that they're holding on to, like old makeup, for instance, uh expired medications? I'll talk about things that I hold on to, things with tags on them that I haven't used ever, things I overbought on Amazon that are maybe one day I'll use this and I know I'm not going to. How can we address those when we want to make the decision to do better? We want to make the decision to declutter or get organized or not having it hang over heads. Some people it may not hang over their heads. Some people can walk over clutter all day and it doesn't bother them at all, which is great. One less thing to worry about. It bothers me. So for those who it does bother and want to make the decision to do something different, what what is the assessment process of personally to say, do I want to keep this, do I not? How do we make that choice?

SPEAKER_01 32:39

It's

Start Small And Build New Habits

SPEAKER_01 32:40

like anytime you want to do a lifestyle change, you have to start slow. And so if someone calls me, I challenge them to start with something easy, something in consequence, magazines, catalogs, things that have no meaning to you. Get clear that. Then you go to the harder things, expired foods, things that naturally you know that you can get rid of. But what causes a lot of problem is trash cans and putting out the trash is literally a difficult decision for a lot of people. Taking it to the street, making the commitment to get rid of it. So they have to work through that. And so if they can get to that point, then as they get to the harder things, it it all depends on where they are in life. If it's if it's your mom and dad stuff, there's a lot of pent-up reasons why you're holding on to it and why you want to get rid of it. I mean, and it can be that you're the holder, you're the keeper. There's no one else who's gonna keep their memory alive. There's no sibling the past and so guilt is why you're doing it. Money. We all spend money to bring it in the house very easy, but we won't get rid of it, you know? That's a great thing. And so you have a lot of people who are compulsive buyers, and I don't like to use the word hoarding because hoarding is a psychological condition, but they will retain too much of a certain item, but they can't get rid of it because they spent money on it. Well, the the money's gone. And if you really want your home to be peaceful and to be free in your home, these are the decisions. It's no different than if you have a heart attack, you gotta stop eating, you know, fat. You gotta you it's any lifestyle change. And some people are ready for it, some people are not, and you can't force it. That's one thing I never let myself be forced. Like if a wife calls me to go deal with her, I'm like, no, yeah, I will deal with yours, and we will bring him into the fold. But parents, you need to organize my child. That's not gonna be a guarantee. I'm happy to help your child, teach them systems, but there there's a difference. Our kids are not us, yeah, they live in a different world, and so I'm not gonna be just another person down there saying you need to be organized. Organization is a negative connotation. If I come to you and say you need to be organized, that's me saying there's something amiss. And it needs to be uplifted to be more of an aspiration because if you want to be organized, you have to be actful in doing something to make it be that way.

SPEAKER_03 35:44

I think that's a really good point with having the full service that lets get organized does. Because I know for me and pretty much everybody I know, we've got a pile of stuff that we either keep in the corner of our closet or usually in the backseat of our car that will say we're gonna go take this to Goodwill or we're gonna donate this or bring this to a friend's house, and it just stays there till the next season or whatever the case may be. But my experience has been that that's not what happens. I know that we've gone through discussions of just so that the listeners understand the process better, with stuff that might come from my office or from my closet or whatever, or garage. We've done that not too long ago. You know, there've been choices do I keep, do I donate, do I release? And it's as simple as that.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

But the way you just said that, release. Not at all. Start using that. That's great, because then I think that helps diminish the guilt factor. Right. I'm releasing this for someone else and in some other phase in their life. I'm not throwing it away. So that way I don't feel guilty for being wasteful.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

And I will say personally, it's so much easier to have someone else take it away and off my premises than it is for me to think I'm going to carry that somewhere. And I can take my garbage out every week, that's not a problem. But it's the things that aren't garbage necessarily, could be treasures to someone else. Right, exactly. And those for me have been even in the maintenance phase of the year since we first met, you know, and not just another move that Stephanie's company handle for me again, but they come to my house a couple times a year to flip my closet because again, I know what I'm capable of, I know my strengths. I have a lot of good strengths. One of them is not doing that regularly and enough to wear it's on my mind. And so again, it is a luxury, but I can think about all of the things that I spend money on that don't bring me the peace and the pleasure of having a clean closet, and including buying new clothes because I can't find the other clothes, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:59

Well, it also gives you the opportunity to make a decision about it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Which makes you feel in control of your life. And when you're weighted down with all this clutter, you feel like you're not in control of your life. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

I'll go to clients who are like, oh, I know I'm your worst one. No, my worst ones are when I can't get in the front door, when I can't literally walk through a house. And so you need someone to help you break it down. And to the listeners out there who have that room or that space, having someone helping you, even if you can't imagine that somebody would do, having someone come in and break it apart, separate it, sort it. What are these piles? What is this? It helps, it jumpstart you and it'll it'll let you go. Attics. When everyone gets to a certain age, which is we're about to that age, ladies, our attics need to be almost empty. We shouldn't be going up there anymore. We don't need half that stuff that's up there, and we haven't used it. And so when it comes time to do an attic, you physically cannot do an attic. You know, this by the time of year, we stopped doing addicts, it gets too hot. But you will not imagine how light you will feel when all that mix comes out of the attic or a garage.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

I mean, you're driven by some people's houses and you're like, maybe their car, you know, keep their cars in the garage.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

Sheila, your garage has taken so many. Over the years, it has been a playroom, an art room, a Girl Scout Club. I mean, it has been so many things.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

A workout facility that never got used.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

But it's a scary, it's a great space, and we needed the space. Right. And so just claiming those spaces and getting rid of all the stuff we're holding on to.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Well, I think this is very much resonating with me today because I said earlier, I just feel spread so thin right now, and I I feel like I'm on the cusp of breaking through to some really good places in my life and these new ventures.

Making Room With Systems And Layout

SPEAKER_02 39:58

But because of everything that's holding me back, I I stay so frustrated and anxious all the time. And a lot of it is probably just the clutter in my life and in my house because I'm moving out of those older, I don't have children at home anymore.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Um career changes. All of those are huge. Yeah. And so you have to devote the time or find the time.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

So I will commit to you and to the listeners right now. I'm I'm going through this with you. And I would I would like to go through it myself before we merge households so that I've got a clearer, more welcoming space when we do get ready to merge. So I'll make that you also got to go through the psychology of merging those households. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Yeah. I've been working on that and become you know, that's that is difficult. I mean, when older people get married or a second marriage, what of mine do I have to give up to take in of his, or you know, vice versa. Yeah. And so that's a challenge.

SPEAKER_02 40:58

And I I want to make room for that. And I need to, so I need to go through this process myself before we get to that point together.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

And we're like a mediator, you know. Most likely I'm gonna go with the newer, the better, the model that fits, you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Because I've already like, I almost bought another house, what, two months ago? Yes. Because I start panicking about we don't have enough room for both of us to live here. We do. There's plenty of room. It's just utilizing the space for here.

SPEAKER_01 41:25

Well, and that's another thing that I think we should spend a little bit talking about is utilizing the space that you have. Organizing is made up of time and products and things that help you be more organized. I mean, bins are an absolute necessity to have an organized drawer. There's different things and closets that you can use. I mean, everyone has seen the wealth of organizing tools that are out there. And that's another thing people help ask us to help them with is give them advice, give them counsel on what is the best thing to buy. Because we'll go out and we'll buy a bunch of those plastic bins and shove a bunch of stuff in it, but that is not organized. There's a lot of different things out there, and so we can take a closet space and add another shelf or add another bar and double space if you know it's out there. Because a lot of times you can't find someone just to go add a bar or just to go pullouts. That's another thing we do a lot. For older clients, you can't bend down, it makes difficult. So you want to add pullouts into your cabinets and make your stuff come to you rather than you go to it. And so just little things will just transition your home. And it's not a full remodel. You don't have there's so many ideas out there that is something that

Where To Find Stephanie And Closing

SPEAKER_01 42:48

can actually get done.

SPEAKER_02 42:50

Well, this again has been fabulous. I appreciate you being here today. I thank you for I feel like you were speaking just directly to me the whole time today. You know, I'm I'm glad that that this was scheduled because this was I came in here flustered and frustrated this morning, and you've changed my outlook on it. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

Well, good. Well good. Yeah, and organizing, you know, it's not about perfection. We keep talking about that in the podcast. It's about creating space to live the life that you want to live and without having things hold you back or disarray holding you back and and giving you the life that you want to live or that you aspire to live. And I think Stephanie made that clear, you know, just start start small if you need to and go from there.

SPEAKER_02 43:34

Well, if you would like to find out where you can find Stephanie and her team, you go to LGO Solutions.com. That's LGOSolutions.com. You can reach them directly at 601-214-9921. Whether you're downsizing, relocating, starting fresh, or just ready to breathe again, that's gonna be me. We're gonna get me organized. She's the person to do it.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

And friends, thank you for spending time with us today. If this conversation resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. Leave us a review. It does help us find people who are like-minded and who might resonate with us as well. We would love to connect with you on Facebook or Instagram. We're actually on TikTok now. You can listen to our podcast of wherever you listen to podcasts. We're now on Amazon Music and Spotify as well as iHeartRadio and Audible. We can connect with you any number of ways. We'd love to get emails, we'd love to get comments on our social media posts. So please keep in touch with us. And lastly, we didn't even mention that we're in our new studio. We didn't. So for those of you viewing us on YouTube or or elsewhere, welcome to our new studio.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

Yes, we have entered into a partnership with a local production company and entertainment law firm, and they built this beautiful studio for us, and we're looking forward to this being our new home. Remember that wherever you are in life, there are good things that pair well with that season, and sometimes letting go just might be the beginning of that. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Stephanie, so much. The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Although your hosts are attorneys, pairs well with, does not provide legal, medical, financial, or professional advice. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney client relationship. Always seek the advice of qualified professionals regarding any specific questions or concerns you may have.