Ever come back from a trip to find your garden overrun with weeds? That's what happened to me after being away for two and a half weeks. As I was knee-deep in pulling those pesky weeds, I had an aha moment: decluttering our homes is a lot like weeding a garden!
In this episode, I share how this simple task made me realize the impact of clutter on our lives. Just like weeds steal nutrients from your plants, clutter drains your energy and joy. Let's dig into how simplifying your space can create room for the things that truly matter. 🌸
Here's what you'll hear about:
- The surprising joys of gardening and how it relates to decluttering 🌼
- Why clutter is more than just a mess—it's a thief of your happiness
- The connection between physical and mental clutter
- Three mindset shifts to make decluttering a breeze
So, if you're ready to weed out the unnecessary and make room for what truly matters, hit play and join me on this journey to a more organized, peaceful life.
🎧 Ready, set, declutter!
Ready to weed out the clutter and let your life bloom? 🌺 Join me in the Clutter Cure Club! This summer, we’re launching the Summer Simplicity Sprints—quick and easy tasks designed to help you declutter both physically and mentally. It’s perfect for those busy months when you want to make a big impact with minimal effort.
What does it mean to live more with less? I'm Katie Wells, and welcome to the Maximized Minimalist Podcast. If you found yourself caught up in the hamster wheel of modern-day motherhood, and want to rewrite the scripts, congratulations, you're in the right place. I'm here to be your guide and help you take back your motherhood and achieve a simpler, more joy-filled life. Cheers to being a Maximized Minimalist. Enjoy the show. This weekend, I was weeding in my garden after being gone for two and a half weeks on our trip. And boy, did those weeds grow while we were away. It was like my garden was basically just filled with weeds. And after about 20 minutes of weeding, I began to think, like, why am I even doing this? Just like very objectively, I'm like, why do we weed? Why do we weed gardens? Why does anyone spend the time? I'd rather do something else with my 20 minutes. Like, what is this for? And it hadn't even dawned on me to not weed my garden. I just knew I was supposed to, right? It's part of having a garden. And as I was kneeling in the dirt, I had this incredible moment where it's just like the beauty of being outdoors and getting sunshine, doing something with my hands, admiring my plants, feeling like, oh, it felt so good to pull those weeds out. It is so satisfying. And then, like, this came together with my knowledge and experience of simplifying. And it created this beautiful moment and, like, thought process. And I thought, well, Katie, we weed our gardens because when weeds take over, they steal the sunlight, the water, and the nutrients meant for our flowers, vegetables, plants, all the things. And when we don't weed, our gardens become overrun, and the plants we care about can't thrive. I'm going to repeat that. When we don't weed, our garden becomes overrun, and the plants we care about don't thrive. They can't thrive. Just like a garden needs regular care and attention to thrive, our homes and lives need the same. When our homes are cluttered, our energy and attention get drained by all this unnecessary stuff, leaving a far less room for the things that bring us joy and fulfillment. You are the plant in your garden. We are the plants. Our children, our partners, our hobbies, our passions, our God-given talents. Those are the plants in our lives. And the weeds is the clutter, the stuff that doesn't matter, the excess, the stuff we've been hanging on to just in case, the obligations we feel like we need to do, even though we don't want to do them. It's not just physical, right? The things we don't love, but hold on to out of guilt, the piles you don't even want, but you keep because you spent money on them. The excess, unused, unwanted things, all the stuff is distracting you from the plants. De-cluttering is a whole lot like weeding your life, isn't it? It helps you focus on nurturing yourself, your loved ones, and your passions. And it helps you be present in the moment, create more experiences, and enjoy the people who are important. And just like we remove weeds from a garden without second thought, right? To ensure the nutrients go to the plants we need them to go to, we also need to declutter our homes to make space and give ourselves what we give our gardens. And I want to give you three mindset shifts that will help you weed out more of that clutter in your home. The first is to see decluttering as a positive process. While I was weeding again, I wasn't like not enjoying it. Again, I kind of hit that 20 mark and that was a long time and then I just, that's where my mind goes, right? Why do I do this? I saw weeding as a pretty positive process. I didn't question it. So instead of viewing decluttering as this huge, overwhelming chore, doesn't have to be that way, try to see it as a positive and rewarding process. Think about how you feel after you pull the weeds out of a garden accomplished. You can enjoy your plants. They're thriving a little bit more, right? Same goes for you. Focus on the benefits, more space, less stress, a home that supports your well-being. Refrain your thoughts to focus on what you gain, rather than what you think you might be losing. And by the way, from a time perspective, because I know some of you are thinking, "Oh, Katie, it's so busy. I have no routine right now. Summer is crazy. We're traveling. I don't really have time to declutter." The time you put into decluttering pays off dividends. You put in one minute. You gain two minutes of your life back. I mean, every single time. And if we think, "Oh, this is just a waste of time," well, then you're probably not going to do it. If that's your attitude about it being worth it or not, you have to see it as a positive process. And there's a huge difference between spending time and investing time. When you invest something, say money into a stock market, your goal is to put 50 bucks in or whatever number and get more out, right? Maybe you make 75 or 100. Same thing goes with our time. There are so many things we do in our days where we just spend the time not expecting anything back in return, spending time on social media, spending time watching Netflix. Okay, you can turn your brain off. You might feel more relaxed, whatever. You're not getting anything back out of that. When you invest your time into something, it's worthwhile. You're gaining something on the back end. When I spend 10, 15, 20 minutes taking a walk, I'm gaining so many things. You know, mental health, physical health, all the stuff. It's all related. When I spend time decluttering, I gain time back on the back end and so do you. Number two, let go of the guilt. Oh, so much guilt. Many of us hold on to items or obligations or all these things, expectations of ourselves. And it's guilt driven. Maybe for some of that physical clutter, you feel guilt for spending money buying gifts, receiving gifts, clinging to gifts that you have, but you don't even like sentimental attachments, whatever. We have to let go of the skill and recognize that holding on to things you don't need or use doesn't serve you. That's like a plant clinging to a weed just because it's used to the weed being there. Even though it knows the weed is harming the plant, right? We're going to keep this analogy going. A flower doesn't feel guilty about letting a petal go. When the petal needs to go, it falls off. It goes. There's no tears. Give yourself permission to release what isn't serving you and move forward. Embrace the natural process of shedding the old to make room for new growth and beauty in your life and focus on the bigger picture. So many of us get stuck in the now, right? We're reactive. I don't have time. I'm so busy. I can't do it. I'm overwhelmed, right? You're thinking short term when our brains get like that. And here's the thing. I still get like that. Not with clutter in my home because that's not an issue, but with other things in life, it's easy to get overwhelmed, other responsibilities, other issues. Remember why you're decluttering in the first place. What's your big why? What's your motivating reason? What's your purpose for wanting to declutter? If it's not bigger than wanting a prettier home, it's not big enough. It's called a big why for a reason, not a little why. Whether it's to create a peaceful home environment, reduce your stress, spend more time with your loved ones, do it so you can, gosh, enjoy your life, enjoy your hobbies. You have to keep your bigger goals in mind. And this perspective matters. It will keep you, help keep you motivated and focused on what we talked about in the first one, the benefits of a clutter-free life. Just as we accept weeding as a necessary task to keep our gardens healthy, we have to embrace decluttering as a regular practice to keep our homes and our lives flourishing. And if you want fast results, if you want to reclaim your home and make it happy, make sure to join us in the clutter cure club this summer, we have our new brand new series called the summer simplicity sprints. These are a labor of love. I love these summer simplicity sprints. These are a series of micro declutter missions designed to make a really big impact in your home with minimal effort. This is what we all need through the summertime, or maybe, you know, all time of year. And each week you'll receive two quick and easy tasks, one for physical clutter and one for mental clutter. These are designed to take less than 10 minutes and help ensure progress is being made during the busy summer months so you don't get to the school year in August or September and feel like your home imploded over the summer. It doesn't have to be that way. So join us now at kdrowels.com forward slash clutter cure club that link will be in the show notes. And I hope to see you there. Ready set declutter. See you next Wednesday. Bye.
