EP 113: Conquering Physical & Mental Clutter

Hello. Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the first solo episode of 2024. This is exciting you guys. I actually have something extremely exciting to tell you that has nothing to do with this podcast and it has nothing to do with think happy. It's just generally an exciting thing to tell you. And that is, well, let me just start at the beginning.

So this morning, I'm getting dressed for the day. You know, I put on my sweater, I put on leggings, I put on my new cozy wool socks with some boots and put my earrings on, you know, get the kids out of the door, drop them off at school. From there I drove to the allergist's office. I don't know if you know this about me, but I get allergy shots. So I got my allergy shots and then while I was driving home from the allergist, I happened to put my hand up to my ear lobe and I didn't feel any earrings or I didn't feel an earring in my left ear lobe and I was like, oh, that's weird.

I really could have swore that I had put earrings on this morning. And so then I feel my right ear lobe and lo and behold, I had an earring in that ear. So I'm sitting there thinking, ok, surely, I just got distracted and maybe I just didn't ever put my earring in my left ear.

So I get home, I go into the little jewelry dish that I keep next to my bathroom sink lo and behold my earring was not there. So then I started frantically searching around the bathroom in my bedroom, in the kitchen all through my car, on the driveway, in the grass. I was looking everywhere. Eleanor and James's school has a messaging app. And so I send a message to the school saying, you know, hey, sos I lost this earring and if you see it, please let me know. 

Mind you. This is special earring. I love this pair of earrings. Oakley got them for me. Not this past Christmas, but the Christmas before. And so I was really starting to panic and I kept telling myself trying to make myself feel better. At least this wasn't like your wedding ring, at least this wasn't your engagement ring. So I'm psyching myself up.

Right. I'm like, it's ok. This could be totally worth or totally worse. But I call Oakley and I told him that, you know, I can't find this earring. I was bummed so then I the last thing that was on my list before I totally gave up was calling the allergist office. I called them, I told them which chairs I had been sitting in and the lady on the phone was like, ok, let me call you back.

I'll go look around and I'll let you know if I find it. So she calls me back and she says I have your earring! Guys. She found my earring, a tiny little earring that happened to fall out in the waiting room of my allergy office. She found it and I was so excited. She probably thinks I'm a crazy person. I was jumping up and down, guppy and I loaded back up in the car.

We drove straight there, we picked it up. I gave her an air hug because she was like on the phone with another patient or something like that when I got there. Oh. Oh, it's just the best feeling I cannot believe it. I really had chalked it up to a loss. And so that's my really exciting story for the day. And other exciting news, my kids are back in school.

So Monday, they were out for MLK Day yesterday, they were out because of ice on the roads. Yes. If you are listening to this, you know, in real time, then you are probably well aware that an Arctic front has been going on and because we live in Houston, we are not equipped for temperatures in the teens and when that happens and when there's any bit of moisture in the air and ice happens, we just kind of freak out and we stay home.

And so that's what we did yesterday. It actually ended up being a lot of fun. We made, we made lemonade out of lemons if you will. We hung out with neighbors and we had a movie day. I made a palette for them on the floor, they ate all the snacks. It ended up, yeah, it it was actually pretty fun. So but with that being said, it got me thinking about the mental load that moms feel when our kids are out of school, whether it's for being sick or you know, weather like snow, ice rain, whatever, it might be just pretty much any unforeseen circumstance that is outside of our control that leads to something like our kids being out of school that feels really heavy for a lot of moms. 

I know this to be true because I sent an email out about it yesterday and that is the I have never gotten more responses from you guys from an email that I have sent out and so I just want you to know that I see you and I feel that mental load that you feel also, right? 

You know, I had XYZ planned. How am I supposed to do this now that my kids are home. How am I supposed to keep them busy? Are they getting too much screen time? Have they had anything healthy to eat today? Why do I keep snapping at them? I was really looking forward to doing whatever it was you had planned for the day.

It's a lot. It's a lot and I just want you to know that it's ok and it's ok when you lose your patience and it's ok when you have days that don't go according to plan. That is life. You have heard me say it 100 times before you'll hear me say it 1000 times. Again, one thing we can always be prepared for one thing we can always expect is for unexpected things to happen.

Ok? And so I'm right there with you. Yes, I have Think Happy. Yes, I have this platform, but I feel those same exact things too. Ok? And so I just wanted to start today with a little bit of encouragement. If your kids are not back in school yet, I feel for you girl, I feel for you. We are in this together and if there's anything that I can do to support you through this, please let me know.

I mean that from the bottom of my heart. So yeah, I'm rooting for you. Always, always rooting for you. And that actually leads me to our topic for today, which is one of my new favorite topics that is clutter. OK. So I recently have started to realize this like equation if you will, I don't even really know if equation is the right word to use for it.

But here it goes. So physical clutter leads to mental clutter, which in turn leads to more of a mental load. OK. So, I'm gonna say that again, the physical clutter that is in your external environment, OK? That leads to or accentuates the mental clutter that is in your internal environment. OK? And that in turn leads to a heavier mental load.

OK? We're never going to be able to get rid of the mental load that we feel, especially to my moms out there, especially to my busy, busy, high achieving women. OK? And don't get me wrong. Physical clutter is not the only thing that leads to this mental load, right? But in my opinion, it's an aspect of it and on top of that, it's an aspect that we have a level of control over.

OK. So Gretchen Rubin, one of my all time favorite authors. She also has a podcast. She has this saying that is outer order leads to inner calm. OK. So another way to view this is by looking at the direct opposite. OK. So we're going to flip this and that when you flip it, it would be outer disorder leads to inner disarray or you know, ask Google, ask Alexa for an antonym for calm.

Right. And you'll find agitation, unrest, stormy. The point here is that your external environment affects your internal environment. Ok. Now, I'm not in the physical organization field, but I do consider it a hobby of mine. Yes, I am. Absolutely. The weirdo who enjoys cleaning out and organizing drawers, closets, rooms, you name it.

But anyway, the thing with physical clutter is that we can become blind to it. Right. We get used to seeing it and it kind of becomes the visual version of white noise. I don't know if there's a phrase for that, but hopefully, you understand the picture that I'm trying to paint of the visual version of white noise. It's like we don't even see it anymore.

And when that happens, that physical clutter, well, it can start snowballing, right? And it becomes this project that starts feeling very overwhelming, right? Like you don't even know where to start. There's so much of it, you know, do I start in the kids' room? Do I start in the garage? Like I don't know, do I start in my own underwear drawer?

You know, it just becomes really big and overwhelming. So I have two sets of tips that I'm sharing with you for today's episode. And we have come to the point where I'm going to share my first set of tips and that is three tips on things you can do to start physically de cluttering. Ok. So this is going to be your external environment. OK? So my first tip here like everything I do.

Sorry, this isn't the first tip. This is just like another asterisk, like a footnote, like everything I do around Think Happy I have broken something down into like baby steps. OK? So this should feel quite manageable to you. OK? So now back to the tips. Number one, I want you to identify all of the areas in your house or external environment that can be either decluttered or reorganized.

Ok. All I want you to do is to identify those areas, write them down. That's it. Step number two, I want you to pick the lowest hanging fruit or like the easiest thing from that list. Ok. It could be one single drawer, it could be one single cabinet. You are probably catching onto my drift. So pick the lowest hanging easiest thing on that list. Ok.

That's what you're going to start with. Then number three, my third tip here is to prioritize the rest of your list based on either size of the project or level of importance to you. Ok. You could also prioritize it based off of like a timeline, you know, maybe you're having family coming town to stay with you, right? And so because of that, like you want to start with the guest room or the bathroom or something like that, you catch my drift.

If there's something that is timely, that is another way that you can prioritize your list. Ok. So those are three tips on things you can do to start physically declutter. Right. Start chipping away at that snowball before it becomes so big. So overwhelming. You can start those things today. Number one, you can absolutely start today. You can identify the areas in your house, in your external environment that need to be decluttered or reorganized.

Ok. Now, similarly to physical clutter, mental clutter has a knack for snowballing also. OK. We get so accustomed to going through our days with the extra weight of our mental clutter. The load of mental clutter can present itself differently, right? Between you and me. This load that we carry of the mental clutter can look different, can feel different heck for you, for me, it might even present itself differently during different seasons of life, right?

So for me right now, when I let my mental clutter go unattended, it usually presents itself as anxiety. OK? I also find that my patients tolerance decreases, right? So like my fuse gets much shorter. And overall, I'm just not the best version of myself when my mental clutter starts snowballing. So that leads me to my second set of tips that I'm sharing with you today.

And this batch is three tips on things you can do to mentally declutter. OK. So this is my wheelhouse of expertise. So please, you know, if you want to take notes, please do so. Come back, listen to this, maybe like when you're not driving, when you're not in the middle of folding laundry whenever it is that you listen to this show, come back to this.

If there's anything that you take out of this episode, these are the three things I want you to take away. Step number one brain dump. Ok. I want you to physically transfer the clutter that is floating around living totally rent free in your mind. I want you to physically transfer it out of your head and onto a piece of paper. Ok? I find myself doing brain dumps probably I'm gonna say on average once a month, maybe like once every six weeks.

I don't have like a special time of month that I do it or like once a quarter, nothing like that. I just brain dump when I start to feel the clutter building up. Ok? So that's the first tip for mental clutter. Second tip is to make a game plan from your brain dump. Ok? So I am so big on taking action. You already know this about me. You already know this about all things.

Think Happy, right? We're not just gonna do a brain dump, we're gonna create actionable items from that brain dump, right? We're going to be very proactive with this and for me, this really is the best part of doing a brain dump, right? It helps me feel like I am taking control of this clutter that I feel of all of these to do s that have been floating around in my head.

OK. So categorize prioritize based on timelines, you know, whatever it is, just create a plan of attack. OK? A pro tip that I use if there's something on my brain dump that is not time sensitive or critical or worth my current energy. I like to put it in kind of like a parking lot category if you will, right. It helps me feel like that task like it has a place but is not going to take the energy.

My current energy that can go towards something more pressing. Does that make sense? Like let's say I do this brain dump and I have like 15 20 30 things that end up on my brain dump and maybe three of those things just are not time sensitive at all. Right. Not critical for some reason, they just found themselves floating around in my head and I needed to get it out.

Those are things that I could put in a parking lot category. You know, it has a place, it went somewhere in the categories. Well, words, it went somewhere when I was categorizing there. That was easier. And yeah, yeah, so that's my pro tip. Have a parking lot category when you go through and make a plan of attack, make a game plan for your brain dump.

Now, my third tip here is one that you have heard me talk about a lot and that is it's not specifically related to the brain dump. But if you hang on with me, you're going to see how this comes full circle. OK. My third tip is to identify the time that you are not using productively, then reallocate some of that time to something that serves you better.

OK? And since we're specifically talking about mental clutter, declutter mentally, this time that you unveil through identifying your unproductive time is perfect time that can now be used toward the game plan that you created from your brain dump. Ok. So our three steps here brain dump, make a game plan for your brain dump and then identify time that you are not using productively and reallocate some of that time towards actually executing your game plan from your brain dump.

Do you see how these all three go hand in hand? I guarantee if you start chipping away at your physical clutter, if you start not just physical clutter of your mental clutter too, if you start chipping away at your physical and mental clutter or you know, if you start the process of getting physically and mentally organized, you are absolutely going to start feeling and seeing the positive mental effects.

Ok. So, we're gonna summarize everything that we've talked about today, but I do want to let you know that I have a whole workbook. It has like more than 20 pages of resources. It is called Clearing Mom's Mental Clutter. OK. Inside that workbook, you go through not only the tips that I have covered today, but so, so much more that workbook covers, identifying your why behind your what.

It has amazing journal prompts in it. It walks you through the same exact process that I use with my clients for identifying unproductive time and figuring out how to best reallocate it. It has a cheat sheet that is filled with time and task management strategies, all strategies that you can try out and use in your own life. That really is just the tip of the iceberg.

It's a phenomenal workbook. I will link it in the show notes here also if you want to link for it, Just send me a DM on Instagram that says like clearing mental clutter workbook, something like that and I will send you the direct link to get that. It's fabulous. Yeah, so I wanted to let you know that I do have a resource that is directly tied to this conversation.

OK. Now let's summarize first, the clutter in your external environment impacts the clutter in your internal environment, which in turn impacts your mental load. That's a mouthful. But that is the the the topic for today, right? Second, physical and mental clutter have a tendency to snowball and when that happens, they start feeling very overwhelming.

And so the key to preventing this is to start chipping away at the clutter. There is no time like the present use this as your sign to get started. And lastly, we had the two different sets of tips. So the first step was three tips for clearing your mental clutter or sorry, your physical clutter. 

Those were identifying the areas in your house that can be either decluttered or reorganized, starting with the lowest hanging fruit and then prioritizing the rest of the list based on either size of project level of importance to you or even or even like a timeline. 

And then for your mental clutter, the three tips there brain dump, create a game plan out of that brain dump and finally identify and reallocate your unproductive time so that you can start using some of that unproductive time toward executing the game plan for your brain dump. And that is a wrap for the first solo episode of 2024.

Thank you so much for allowing me a space in your, in your life, in your busy life. Thank you for being part of this community. I am wishing you and your family and your friends and your loved ones a happy and healthy 2024 here's to many more podcast episodes coming this year. And with that being said, I'll be back in your ears next week with another episode of the Think Happy Podcast.