Spring Cleaning for Your Mind: How Decluttering and Getting Outside Can Support Sobriety

Megan and Nate are back from a refreshing walk at the dog park to talk about the mental health benefits of embracing spring—and how small changes like getting outside and decluttering your space can actually help reduce the urge to drink.

In this episode, the Minnesota-based couple discusses:

• Why getting outdoors matters — especially after long, dark winters when couch drinking feels tempting
• The connection between clutter and mental health — how a messy space can spike stress and why "everything needs a place"
• Practical decluttering tips — from junk drawer organizers to planning a dumpster day
• Office organization struggles — Nate gets lovingly called out, and they invite listeners to share their favorite systems
• Maintaining order vs. marathon cleaning sessions — why regular upkeep beats occasional overhauls

Whether you're trying to cut back on alcohol, improve your mental clarity, or just get your home ready for warmer months, this casual, candid conversation offers relatable encouragement (and some good-natured marriage banter along the way).

Send us your favorite organizing systems! Reach out through your podcast app !

Welcome to The Dry Life- Alcohol -Free Lifestyle, Marriage Growth In Sobriety, the podcast where one real couple gets honest about sobriety, personal growth, and everything in between. Join us — a husband and wife duo — as we share our sobriety journey, including the raw ups and downs, the unexpected benefits of alcohol-free living, and the lifelong learning that has transformed our lives and our marriage. Whether you’re sober curious, newly sober, or years into your recovery journey, this podcast is your reminder that life after alcohol can be full, rich, and deeply rewarding. Each week we dive into real conversations about sober living, self-development, mindset shifts, and the daily commitment it takes to keep growing. If you’re looking for a sobriety podcast that goes beyond just quitting drinking and explores what it truly means to thrive, you’re in the right place.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hello everybody, it's Megan and Nate from The Dry Life. We just got back from a nice brisk walk with our dog at the dog park. And we were just talking about how it's nice to get outside. We haven't done it that much. Yeah. Because of winter.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

We're here uh as you may know, we're here in Minnesota, so winters are longer, winters are colder. But gosh, yesterday, I mean it was like 75 degrees. Yeah, it was hot yesterday. And now it's uh it's nice out. You know, it's right around freezing, but it's gonna get warmer today. But uh yeah, spring is here.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Yeah, we were just talking about how it's really important to get outside and um for mental health, and that can help maybe cut down on your drinking too. If you instead of having a beer, you go out for a quick walk first. Right. And then we were joking that well, if you're gonna drink, maybe drink outside.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah. Why not? Um yeah, and and we're uh we're seeing, you know, much more daylight here, which is good. Um and you know, you get in, you know, in these in these northern states and you get in the dead of the winter and it's dark and cold, and you know, sitting on the couch drinking is has a certain appeal to it. But now's an excellent time to curb your enthusiasm.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Uh what do you for alcohol? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

We were also talking about spring is a really good time to declutter. I said unclutter. But I think declutter is the right word. Um you know that can help. I think the idea here with this episode is just thinking about mental health. Now, as you declutter around your house. Now, Nate, I don't know if you really believe in this yet, but we're gonna get there with you. But you tell me, like, when the kitchen's a mess, just ignore it, it'll get done tomorrow. But there are like studies and just the way I feel when I see the flutter and stuff spike. Um lots of interruptions here.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That's our dog making a nest on the couch.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Um no, I I understand where you're coming from. I mean, I think I think deep down I probably feel that feel that way. Especially yesterday, I meant to mention it. It was very uncluttered in the kitchen. It was nice. But I think I just get lazy more than anything.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

No comment. Yeah. Um, yeah, and it's just sometimes I feel like also you you like hate doing it so much that you rush, like you're just rushing, and water's flying everywhere, and things are flying everywhere, and I told you try to like enjoy it, and he rolls his eyes. Like, how am I gonna enjoy cleaning the kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Yeah, this is uh this has quickly become Megan's therapy session, marriage counseling with everybody.

SPEAKER_02 4:00

But you you do kind of hear what I'm saying, like oh yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I do.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

If you just take your time and put pride in your work, your wife will be so happy. And I think it helps with the the kids too when they come up and see a clean yeah, I couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Uh we have plans to declutter our our house. Um I think right around the first of May we're gonna be planning on getting a dumpster just to really um do it to it and get it done. And because right now, I mean, it's kind of like shuffling things around. A garbage can can only take so much, and um yeah, so looking forward to that.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

I mean it's a lot of work, but yeah, we um have dreams of moving out west, and so I think decluttering and getting in our house in order and in felt mode, you know, just like you're gonna have to explain that. Well, like what are what are you like reducing like we have a five-bedroom house that's just like full to the brim with furniture and stuff and a lot of our furniture is like hand-me-downs from because my parents just don't downsized. I think we probably have stuff from my brother, I don't know. Um we just take on a lot so we don't have to buy furniture, but I think um putting us in a position of like you know, trimming the fat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

I think we also have some furniture that we would consider heirlooms, so it's tough to tough to part with that.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Like tomatoes? No.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

No, like uh pieces of furniture that mean a lot to you because they've been passed down.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

Uh that's an heirloom? Heirloom?

unknown 6:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

I know heirloom.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Heirloom. H is silent.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Yes.

unknown 6:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Uh I just never heard you say that word before. What's another word for something like that?

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Um keepsake, family keepsake, um. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe we'll um look that up later.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

But uh, but I'm with you on the on the whole mental health thing. And uh, like my office is not where I want it to be. Your office is in good shape.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

Yeah, I read somewhere that if your or maybe I heard it on a podcast that and she read it somewhere, doesn't matter. Um, the more stuff in your office, like everything, like if you have like a lot of things, like just sitting around, like figurines and stuff, like that stuff takes up headspace when you're trying to work. So I've tried to really keep it non-cluttered in my office, so and if you think of it, like then energy can flow and your mind can flow and your thoughts can flow, and that's kind of the idea with decluttering, too, is like making room for yes, we want to move, but also just like you're in a position to keep the flow going through your house. It's not being the energy's not being stopped by all these objects and all this clutter, and it's also not stopping your mind to like look at that and be like, ugh, you know, like it it doesn't feel good. Like I love when our center island is just nice, you know, just the fruit bowl, and it's just clean. Maybe a random cat is up there, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Um yeah. I hear you. I had a thought, but it just escaped me. Um but oh, I I guess the point is, um I think the key to it is maintaining it and not letting it go. Um because then it becomes overwhelming. And we've talked about like kind of getting on a more cleaning schedule around here. You know, it's just kind of eh, we do it whenever. But um, I think that would help.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

I don't want to throw you under the bus, but I'm kind of gonna. You already have because I feel like it's a random occurrence for you to say, I'm gonna work on my office, I'm gonna work on the garage. Now the garage, I get it, like we have my parents' car in there now, and there's a lot of changes and shifts and stuff, but I feel like we need to get you a system or something in your office because it it gets to the point where you're spending like a whole afternoon working on it like every couple months. Do you feel like that?

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah, that's that's to my point, is like get it to a point where you like it and then maintain it. And I'm just not maintaining it.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

But I think you need like a system, like where are you gonna put like the you know, do you keep like bells up there? Or what do you what's the thing that's getting?

SPEAKER_00 10:10

I don't know. I'll be honest, I just don't know if people wanna hear us get into the minutia on this stuff. Oh, okay. But I I hear you, um, um, and I really want that. So I'm gonna have to work on that.

SPEAKER_02 10:25

But if anybody has an office system that they can send in as a suggestion.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah. I'm open to that.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

My dear husband. I'm open to that.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

He's really hating this chat. Yeah, no, I mean, you know, it's fine. Hopefully, some poor husband out there can relate. Maybe. I don't know. Um I cover today?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Let's see what else is putting. No, just kidding.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Um but I mean your your point is good. Like uh we're looking, we're in our sunroom. I'm looking at a gold uh lamp. Um it looks like kind of looks like an Emmy award. It does. And I like it. Where did it come from?

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Jim and Judy. Oh, and it goes with our gold um deer head.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

And then we got the the um evergreen wooden trees. Oh, he's nice.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

No, I mean that's kind of haphazard. Everything, everything else in here I think is good, but yeah. But there's also a comfort level, too. You gotta live in the place too.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

You don't want it to be a museum or a right, but I it does feel nice when things are just decluttered and things have their their spot. Um an old friend of mine used to have, well, she had two kids, but she um, and they had lots and lots of toys, and it would get like super crazy in there when they were playing, but she had she always said that like everything has a place, so she had like bins, and so like when it was time to clean up, it was like really easy for us to clean everything up and like tuck it away, it had its spot, so I think that's important too, is just like, and I think we have that a little bit, but you did an amazing job with our junk drawer. Oh my god. Oh, thanks. I just like throw everything in there, but then he put these little I don't know where you got those.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Are they just like little my mother's uh old with the wooden one?

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah, there's like little wooden um things that he put in the junk drawer, so then we have like pens in one spot, like receipts, batteries, like yeah, dog clipper and scissors.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Well, yeah, that that turned out anyway. Yeah, and that's state. Yeah, that's been like that for a while.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Well, it it forces us, like, okay, where does this go? And then finding a place for it, and then it just yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Yeah, I think you're good at thinking up systems, like you've done that before, like in the mud room with the crates that I had, or not crates, but like the racks, the baker's rack.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

And so yeah, and I think I think part of it too is everybody's busy, but it's it's making it a priority. And going back to what you said, like the mental health aspect. Like, I mean, many times I get home from work and I take my briefcase and just set it in. I do my best to not leave it in the kitchen, but when I do go upstairs, it just strap it in my office. Half happy. Yeah. And I think I got I I have too much in there. I did this random chair. I don't But Alice likes it. I yeah, but it's not about the cats. Well So you think the cats are missing, like they need an extra place to I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

She sleeps in there all night. But um, yeah, that's another thing. Like, you've been traveling a lot, or you're gonna be, um I miss you when you're gone, but the thing I don't miss is the things that get left around.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

I don't know if that's like a guy thing, but like just like the other day the hammer was just like sitting there and you're like, oh, I was gonna do this, but I didn't get to it. And so that's another thing people can think about is yeah putting things back.

SPEAKER_00 14:59

Yeah. I I remember I remember in high school a friend, a friend's dad, I mean, this is my I think first introduction to what OCD was, but oh my gosh, he was uh he was a tidy little man who wore uh bib overalls, it was very handy, um, but his garage, every tool had a place.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Every tool, and you knew it because when he hung the tool up there, he spray painted the shape of the tool around where it goes, which was amazing, yeah, but a little neurotic, and a little bit reminiscent of like a body. Well, sure. Like when they spray around the dead body, that's what I immediately thought of.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

That's what you would have thought.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

I thought you were gonna say yeah, like a label maker. But I suppose you don't know maybe what the tool's called. So that's genius.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

No, it's and um I'm a volunteer firefighter, lots of tools on the trucks, and when you have when you have a big thing happening, you're grabbing those tools, um, and then at the end you gotta put it all back. And we we do have labels, and that really helps.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yeah, that's super important.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Yeah, especially when you have multiple trucks out there, um, each tool is labeled with what truck it needs to go back on.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

And um so yeah, it'd be fun if people would write in and tell us what systems they have.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

That'd be great.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

That would just be so nerdy fun.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Where can they write?

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Fan mail.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

I think there's a thing. Or they could put a reboot.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

The drylife.net com.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

I don't know, you set up that website. I would never go there. Yeah, but we have an email maybe.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

We're so bad. Well, you can do it through your friendly local podcast provider.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, yeah, we would love engagement.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Yeah. So, um it springs the time for engagements.

SPEAKER_02 17:16

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

And weddings. Great.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah. Um I think we're good. Yeah, I mean 17 minutes. Oh wow, that's a shorty, and we just kind of Well, not like last week.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

I flew solo and I wasn't been um planning.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

We kind of let all of our recorded ones go.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah, we have to be more organized.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

We do with our podcast and our um our topics and stuff and such. But as we were out walking, we just thought, let's tell the people. It felt good to walk, which you guys already probably know that, but a nice brisk walk.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

We hurt we hope you've we've inspired you to to spring into action. Yeah. Um, well, this has been good, especially for Megan.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Yeah, I think I got I think I got some places with you. Yeah, she sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Well, we'll see. Maybe on a maybe on an upcoming episode we can see how things are going.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

See if Nate has to work on his office again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:31

All right.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

All right, well, have a great Sunday, everyone. And get outside. Yeah, get outside, walk, declutter, and um have a super day.