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You're listening to The Decluttered Mom Podcast. A podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, Diana Rene, and in 2017, I had my second daughter, and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home. Okay, not literally. But I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. Over the next ten months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings, and I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system, and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks, and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show.

Welcome to another episode of The Decluttered Mom Podcast. I am Diana Rene, your host, and The Decluttered Mom on Instagram, so I know that it's been just about a week into the new year, and something that comes up a lot, honestly, like the entire year, but especially around New Year's first, for some reason, is that some people feel like decluttering and minimalism have to go hand in hand, like you can't have one without the other, and while I don't think you can have minimalism without decluttering, I 100% believe you can have decluttering without minimalism. So, my signature decluttering course is called Minimal-ish Starts Here, and it's called that for a reason because I would consider myself minimal-ish. I would not consider myself a minimalist, even in like the true definition of the term. I still don't think I'm a minimalist, and I think a lot of different people have different perceptions of what minimalism actually looks like or even means. You know, I think when I first heard the word, for me it sounded like an empty room with like one leather couch and a plant, and like that was it. That's kind of like my perception of what minimalism meant, and I think that's shifted a little bit over there the years.

I think that's that can be what it looks like, but I think it can also. I think it can look anyway, like it's not like a specific decor type or anything like that. I think it's just a way of living and and that kind of thing Do I think you can do it with kids? Yes, do I have aspirations to do that? No, I don't want to be a minimalist, I don't aspire to be a minimalist, and I think that that is just a super common misconception that if you were going to declutter, you have to go all the way and you have to like get rid of every single possible thing in your home. That's just not the case? That's not the case.

So for me, living a minimal-ish life is all about not living with the excess and not letting the excess take over my life, always looking to simplify, always looking for ways that I can consolidate a bit, or I can simplify, or I can declutter, or I can systemize. So like I'm always looking for ways that I can focus on living with less. But when I say less, I don't mean living with like one bowl and one spoon in our house. Do you know what I mean? So I think that everyone's journey on towards like a minimalist life is going to look a little bit different and a minimalist home is going to look a little bit different, like for me, for example, I do not care about fashion. Like I would be happy if I could wear yoga pants, jeans and joggers and like hoodies the rest of my life and like if I never had to even think about what I'm putting on my body clothes I would be happy, because it's not a way that I express myself. Like I am absolutely more of like a function person when it comes to my clothing and that is not how a lot of people are. A lot of my friends are, you know very into fashion and very into their clothes and how they feel in their clothes, aside from comfort, and so fashion or clothes is not a concern for me. And so I choose to like drastically reduce the number of clothing items I have, because clothes stress me out, like if I have too many options. It stresses me out because it's not a way that I express myself or I feel creative in or I get excited about it, just it's stressful for me, right? So for me, my clothing situation is going to look different than for someone who is wanting to be minimal or minimalish but loves clothes and loves expressing themselves through clothes.

Same thing with makeup. There's a trend here. I apparently just don't care what I look like, but I don't like. Makeup has never been a big thing for me. It irritates, like I feel like it irritates my skin, it bothers my eyes. I must be like allergic to something in most makeup, but like I'm not good at it, it takes too long. There's so many things that I'm like it's just not something that really appeals to me, or I'm I'm I'm concerned about, or it's just it's not something I enjoy. So I have very basic, minimal makeup.

However, I love office supplies, which I 100% understand how nerdy that sounds, but like if I could have a shopping spree in any store, it would be like staples. So I love pens and post-it notes and journals and little office gadgets. Those are the things that, like, I get really excited about, and I love organizing different aspects of my office with cool office gadgets and supplies, and so that is an area that if someone like is like listening to this and like what, why do you care about office supplies? They feel about office supplies how I feel about clothes, and we all have our different things. There are, you know, some people love hosting and some people love cooking and baking, and so their kitchens are gonna look different on a minimalist journey than someone who doesn't like cooking or baking or hosting. And so I'm telling you this because I wanna encourage you that your journey doesn't have to be this really intense throw everything away journey and it also doesn't have to look like anyone else who's doing it alongside you, because it's going to look different for every person.

And for me, when I went through the decluttering journey, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings. Number one we had a ton of stuff, and so that's a big reason I had to get rid of so much. But that doesn't mean that, if you're listening, that might not be the percentage that you need to get rid of to feel good in your home. It might be 50%, it might honestly be 20%, because you may already be living more minimal or there are just so many factors going into it. So I just wanna encourage you that if you want to have a more simplified home and have the results that come with it things like having more time that is number one. Honestly, that's just. It's amazing how much our excess stuff takes from our daily life and just how much we have to do to just manage it and keep it up. So time number one.

Patience is another really big one. When we're like feeling constantly stressed in our home because of all of the clutter and all of the excess, then our patients levels tend to just like go out the door. And when we don't have that, then we're a little more, we're able to be a little bit more, even keeled, or we're at least not affected by the house. There could be other things going on that are making us that patient, right, but at least the house isn't something that is making us not patient. So I mean, I could go on and on and on about benefits, but you hear me talking about that all of the time.

If you want the benefits of decluttering, but the idea of minimalism scares you, don't let that stop you because, I don't know, I think that there's a very small percentage of people that maybe that should be the goal for, because they are, like, meant to live a minimalist lifestyle. I do not think that I don't, and maybe this is controversial, but I do not personally believe that most people aspire or need a minimalist lifestyle to achieve the type, the types of positive benefits that they are looking for. I think simply ruthlessly decluttering and then implementing systems and routines in your home do not have to mean that you have to become a minimalist to receive many of, if not all, of, the same benefits that someone is receiving if they are going like full on minimalist. So, in this new year, if you are wanting to declutter, if you're wanting to simplify, if you're wanting more space, if you're wanting more time, if you're wanting more energy, don't let the idea of minimalism scare you, because that is not what you have to aspire to be able to receive all of the amazing benefits that come with simplifying and decluttering.

This is a super short episode, I know I just I really wanted to get this message out because I'm sorry like I said, I see this all year round, but I'm starting to see it more and more and more in the new year and I think it's just because decluttering tends to be top of mind in the new year, because it's a common New Year's resolution and people are wanting to start fresh, and so they're looking around their homes and their spaces and they're realizing that this is not how they wanna live. So I just wanted to make a quick reminder to all of you and also just to give yourself grace as you go through the process. It is not a. It is a simple process, or it can be a simple process, but that does not mean it is an easy process, because there are so many emotional obstacles that come up when you are decluttering. So I just wanna give you that encouragement and reminder and we will see you next week.

Thanks for hanging out and listening to The Decluttered Mom Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories, and if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me at the dot decluttered dot mom and send me a DM to say hi.

I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.