Clean Up Commitment

This is episode 231 of the Empowered Team Podcast. Welcome to the Empowered Team podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider. Welcome. Welcome everyone. This is a podcast all about our topic for the month for our group coaching program, which is the Empowered Team. And every month we have a new topic and this month it is the cleanup commitment. And we focus on personal and we focus on professional. And I usually record some sort of topic podcast related to our monthly topic. And this month I decided to get a little more personal on this one because we, we did record a little more of the stats and the information about clutter on our five minute facts. So on this one, I figured that the best way to help whoever's listening to, for the audience to really understand how clutter can impact and how cleanup can impact the performance, the clarity, the happiness in your life. I thought I'd share a couple things that have happened in my life. So first of all, clutter is that disorganized, that messy, the accumulation of all the stuff, the junk, the, the things that we thought were useful and we keep hanging on to even though we never use them. And ultimately, there's lots of research that shows that this clutter impacts our health and it impacts our productivity. And when I think of the people that we serve, all of my audience are people who care about their health and they're very productive people. They're achievers, they're people who do a lot. So this topic is one that will serve health and serve productivity in performance. So years ago, when I was a kid, because I, I, the reason I thought about years ago when I was a kid is I wanted to understand what impacts what I do and what I don't do now. And now I have a relatively organized, fairly clean house. Some people would say it's very clean, very organized, and there's not a lot of clutter. In fact, it's almost minimalistic in, in a lot of ways. However, there are areas that clutter builds up and we've only been in this house for a year. So when I started to think about it, I thought, well, why do I do what I do now? Where did it come from? What did I used to do? What were some of the examples that I had as a kid? And these are some of the things that you might want to think about for yourself, because when I looked back and thought about myself as a kid, my room was so, so messy. And I remember going over to my friend's house and my friend had this really neat room. And. And. But then I realized something one day is that her mom would come into her room and clean her room. And I thought, whoa, you know, I. No one ever comes in my room. In fact, whenever my mom would come into my room, it would be a huge problem or blowout because my room was so messy and she gets so angry with me and. And I just kind of let it get messy. I was a little kid and it would be clothes everywhere. And anyway, so I thought about this and then I realized that not only did I have one messy room in one house, I had another house that I went to, which was my dad's house that had my other room. And what was happening there is that over time, as I got older, stuff would accumulate in that room. But I would keep it a little more organized because when I got there, I came with a backpack or came with a little suitcase and the room was already set up for me. And then when I left, I left one of my backpack or suitcase and not too much changed, especially if it needed to stay tidy, if my room was being used as a guest room for someone else. So it stayed fairly tidy. But then I noticed when I thought about it, when I was a little older and a teenager, I would have. If I was stay there for a month at a time, I would have clothes covering the entire floor and it would be such a mess and I'd have suitcase open and I'd be living out of the suitcase instead of, out of. Instead of having unpacked things or put them in the dresser. And this was a pattern because I was going back and forth to people's places. I lived at my mom's, I stayed at my dad's, I went and lived with my aunt and uncle in the summers I would stay with grandparents and aunt and uncles. I was all over the place place. And I never really found that sense of things having their home, partially because I didn't feel like I had a home. So things were just kind of floating around and I was just floating around. Flash forward. And we, My. My husband Paul and I were living in Turkey and we weren't married yet, but my daughter was there with me and we were going to get married as soon as we got back. And we were living there for two years. And when I went to Turkey to the apartment, I showed up with two suitcases. Now granted, they were very full, but with all the things that we wanted to live with for that two year time or that particular season. And lo and behold, you can imagine this happens to you if you've stayed somewhere or gone to school for a semester. When, lo and behold, when we left two years later, there were boxes of things to pack and send overseas to come back home to Canada. And I think to myself, how, at the time, how did this happen? And it happens in an insidious small step at a time that seems so menial, it seems so simple and so tiny. So what would happen is that we might need another kitchen utensil. The kitchen wasn't outfitted with it, so we'd buy one that we really liked and we didn't want to leave it behind. Or we'd buy a new bed set, or we would bring something extra when we went back home at Christmas, the thing that we forgot to bring, and then we bring it because we knew we really wanted it there, or a couple extra books and these things would accumulate, accumulate until it's accurate. A suitcase worth and then another suitcase worth and another suitcase worth, and it's a lot of stuff. Whereas when we went there, my daughter and I knew that we only needed what was in this suitcase and a half for the two of us. And that's. We had to get very, very selective about what would we bring. Now, I had an experience recently where I went to Fiji, and on that experience I brought a small suitcase. The suitcase got lost and I was in Fiji and for at least five days before my suitcase found me. However, when the suitcase found me, I had been living five days on the things I had in my carry on. I had to wash my underwear every day, I borrowed a friend's clothes, and I had very little. We were in a Fijian island where it wasn't like I could pop over to a Walmart and buy the extra things that I needed. And yet I had the toothbrush, I borrowed a hairbrush, I had a couple extra clothes. I wore some clothes over and over again, or washed them, I was able to get them laundered. And by the time all my stuff showed up, I felt overwhelmed with the amount of stuff it was. And it was a small suitcase. It wasn't a lot. It wasn't even a full size suitcase. And I was staying there for 10 days. So the point is that I realized when it came, I was like so happy to have my stuff. And then when I opened my suitcase and throughout the next day, I wasn't really using my stuff, I was just still relying on what I had been relying on the whole time. So the point is that it's normal for us to accumulate things. We have preferences for a lot of things, and then we gain attachment for them. But what happens over time is that ultimately the health impacts can be profound. For me, I found when I look back, I was always so stressed when I had to go from one home when I was a kid to another home. Now, one of the reasons was because I had to pack by myself. Nobody helped me pack. And I didn't realize until looking back that I was so stressed out trying to pack my stuff to go to the next place. And I always felt stressed out because I was going to the next place. But I'm sure looking back, that the mess, the clutter, the disorganization also contributed to my level of overwhelm, my level of stress. And same goes for going to Turkey, that the stuff that we surround ourselves to make a place feel like home, the things that we're attached to or the things that we accumulate, they don't end up marking home. Home is wherever we decide. Our emotional home is not necessarily a physical place. So here are some of the things that clutter that that disorganized buildup of stuff can do to our health. It's the increase in cortisol levels, even allergies and respiratory problems, along with difficulty sleeping. People who have a whole bunch of stuff in their bedrooms have more trouble falling asleep and then staying asleep versus people with tidy bedrooms. There's also a link to obesity. So studies have found that a link between clutter and obesity in people who lived in tidy homes didn't have as much of a propensity for obesity. Now, the speculation on that is that the clutter is, is more conducive to sedentary behavior and then unhealthy eating habits. But it's not conclusive as to exactly why the link between clutter and obesity exists. And then there's mental health issues. So clutter's been linked to all sorts of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and hoarding disorder. And what I mentioned earlier, that feeling of overwhelm that I described when I had to go from one house to another, yes, it was probably anxiety and overwhelm from leaving one home and having to go to another and all the rules that came with that and what I would stress out about that. However, looking back, I also know that I was a little kid or a young kid who had to pack by myself, and that in and of itself was creating a level of overwhelm and anxiety. Now, I pointed to earlier that production productivity is also impacted by clutter And I can think for myself about a habit that I have right now. I have this habit that I've been working on that I end up keeping a very tidy home for the most part. However, in my office, when I'm working on things, I'll let them stay out or stay on my desk and I'll leave my computer open and I'll leave my daytime or my notebook open and I won't tidy those things up at the end of the day. And I have this false belief in my head that by leaving it out, it's reminding me when I go back there what I need to step back into. And the times that I've chosen to go against that and actually do a little tidy up and finish my office space and leave it in a beautiful space. Those times I end up going back into work the next day or whenever I return to feeling so clear and focused and amazing. Whereas what happens when I leave everything open? Then I'll leave something else out and leave something else out. And then the desk itself doesn't ever get dusted or cleaned because I have so much stuff on it. And it's something that I've noticed. So much so that when my office is clean and tidy, my daughter calls it the study because it's this nice looking room. And so she calls it the study study. Not an office, not a workspace, but the study because you can sit in it, you can relax in it, it's got beautiful window light. Now, when my office is fully cluttered, it certainly doesn't feel that way. It doesn't feel like the study. So when it comes to productivity, what happens is that we lose our ability to focus. We end up becoming distracted and have a harder time thinking clearly when we have all of these things around us. Especially, especially in our view, when it's in our field of view. And then our brains can only focus on a limited amount of stimuli, so it's actively filtering out the other stuff that's right there. So the cleaner you keep your desk space, the cleaner you keep the environment around you, the more calm your brain can be and the more focused and clear it can be. Now, in terms of productivity, there's research around procrastination as well, that people who are in cluttered homes tend to procrastinate on important tasks. So if you have to sift through a stack of papers in order to pay the bills, which most of us aren't paying paper bills as much anymore. However, that same concept is true for our email stacking up our work desk space, stacking up with documents that we need to get to. So it's the same concept, but when that happens, when there's the pile of dirty clothes, the pile of bills, that it just feels overwhelming to even start that thing because it's not organized to start with. And then the other thing about productivity is that we have trouble controlling impulses. A cluttered environment combined with that feeling of being out of control, which often comes with a cluttered environment, then people are triggered, they're triggered to engage in unhealthy eating behaviors and also have a hard time controlling the impulses around it. So the concept is that when your mental health and your environment are in a chaotic state, they go hand in hand. And then a last one around productivity is that there's a lower quality of life. It can easily lead to a nearly constant feeling of frustration as there's struggle to complete the daily tasks amidst all the crap or the buildup or the disorganization around you. So in our past podcast I suggested a couple things. One was called a 2020 rule and it's get rid of anything that, that we, anything that we don't truly need, you can get rid of as long as you can replace it for less than $20, less than 20 minutes from the current location. So this is the kind of thing that if you've kept something that you think you're going to need at some point, like the fifth roller that takes off lint off your clothes, or the third, you know, barbecue lighter, then get rid of it, give it away. If you can get another one under $20 in less than 20 minutes away, then you don't need it, just keep the one. And you don't need the extras. Give them to a friend, give them to the goodwill, wherever they go, go. And the second rule was the 12, 12, 12. And this is 12 items to throw away, 12 items to donate and 12 items to be returned to their proper home. And, and this is one that really makes a difference in having a home for everything and keeping things in manageable tasks. Now there's one thing that I learned in a process that we went through within the last three years. We, with our family of five kids, we lived in a three story home and it was an old home. So there were always little things that needed to be done like painting or something needed repair. It was a almost 100 year old home. So that in and of itself that feeling of breakdown and always something needing to repair felt like clutter. And then on top of it we had five, five bedrooms Four. Yeah. Let me think. Five bedrooms for all of the kids. So there are four bedrooms for the kids, one bedroom for us, and three stories and a garage. And it just was so easy to have things go to a spot to die. And what I mean by that is that there was the closet, and there were things that were put away in there. And they stayed there for the 10 years we lived in that house. And there were drawers that the exact same thing happened. And stuff in the garage that the same thing happened. And they would just accumulate, and things would go to die in those places. Now, here's the thing is that I, as a kid, didn't have someone who would go through my stuff. What would happen. What happened eventually is that when I didn't live with my mother anymore and I didn't live with my aunt and uncle anymore, by the time I was in my later years of high school, I lived with my dad. So that meant that whatever was in that one room at my mother's house, at one point she just packed it all up and she came and she dropped it off at my dad's place. But the thing about my dad's place is that I already had a room that was full and had all the stuff I needed. And most of the stuff she was bringing was stuff that I had when I was either 12 years old and younger. And so there's this whole room full of an accumulation of 12 years from 1 kid, me. And she dropped it off in boxes and boxes of stuff. And they ended up just getting put into a shed and left there. Because at no point was anybody going through my stuff to give away on a seasonal basis. So with my kids, I started going through their stuff every spring for sure. And if I was on top of it, I would do it twice a year, Once in the fall, once in the spring, because everybody was always growing so much. And then there'd be an accumulation of clothes and stuff. And then we'd try and reorder everything. And that seemed to really work. But what I noticed by the time we were going to move out of that house and downsize to a home that was one third the size, because most of the older kids were on their way out, going towards either finishing high school or off to university. And we're downsizing to a house a third the size. And that led to getting rid of the majority of the items that we owned. And it was a cathartic, incredible experience. I used Marie Kondo's type of philosophy in how we folded. I set up the new house in organizing things in the drawers. So you open the drawers and they're all folded in this neat little Marie Kondo style. I kept the rules of they had to spark joy in order to keep it. So everything that went in that new house was something that we wanted, something that had a home, and something that served purpose or joy in our lives. So that was my Marie Kondo lesson. And my daughter got into it and Paul got into it and we had it. And we've still kept it as part of how we do things. But the last way that I really want to emphasize what's worked for me, because I still let clutter build up. I have major attachment to things I hate. I hate having things that don't have purpose or aren't being used. And yet if something had a purpose at one point, but I still haven't really used it for five years or eight years, I'll still keep it if I think I'm going to use it. So I'm, I'm. I still want to keep a lot of things. So my point is that I'm very susceptible to stuff building up. I hate waste, so I don't want to. I don't even like to buy things. So one rule that we've had, I'll give you three rules that we have. One rule that we have is that if something comes in, then something has to go out. And this is one of the hardest things for my daughter Maeve, is to have something go out to release and let go of something. She keeps keeping and keeping and storing and building up stuff. But it's so exciting for her to get a new thing. And that that is what allows her to release something else, is that when something comes in, it makes room for the other thing. And so that helps us a lot knowing that, okay, if we're going to bring in a new pair of boots, while the other ones likely should go, or a new, you know, if we need two pairs of boots, which is understandable, and living out in rural areas, then maybe it's something else. Maybe it's more books or more clothing or more or more toys, then it makes more sense to get rid of the things that she doesn't use anymore. So that's one. If something new comes in, then something else goes out. The other one is so simple, but it helps me so much with my desk and my work issue around my desk. And it's the 10 minute tidy. If I can just do a 10 minute tidy and it might be a 2 minute tidy on my desk once it's relatively organized, then I just need two minutes to tidy it up. And I feel so much better when I leave the room, leave the workday and feel so much better when I approach the new workday because it has a serene sense, an organization and a cleanliness that really feels good. So that's the 10 minute tidy. And it's so great for a kitchen. At the end of the night with multiple people, we set a timer and blitz it with, with four people working on putting things away, wiping the counters, doing the dishes, loading the dishwasher, and it's done in 10 minutes. And it's so easy and it doesn't overwhelm. So number one is the something comes in, something goes out. Number two is the ten minute tidy. And the last one is something that feels really good when we value our stuff and it's that everything has a home. So when something's out and my daughter is, you know, noticing but not putting her things away, or I'm not putting my things away, then we can just say to each other, everything has a home. Where is this home? And especially when we moved into our new home a year ago, we didn't know where everything was going to go. We didn't understand where, how we're going to organize the kitchen exactly. And I was trying to figure out where everything, where everything was going to land, where it had its home. So everything has a home. Where is its home? And once everybody knows where the homes are for all the stuff, then whenever it's out, anybody can put it away. The dog, toys have a home. The school communication has a home. The mail and recycling has a home. So that's the stuff that typically builds up on a day to day basis. But they all have a home. So it's really easy to do a 10 minute tidy and everything gets put back in its place. So I share this in the spirit of your performance because we all care about our best health and we all care about our best performance. We know that our best health leads to our best performance. We know that we'd love to be productful, productive and impactful when it comes to how we show up in the world. And having the clutter is just weighing us down, bringing the frustration, the overwhelm and the lack of clarity. So I hope you can use these three tools, my little three tools. One of something in, something out, two of a ten minute tidy, or even a two minute tidy if it's something small. And three, everything has a home. That's what we use, that helps us a lot. So I hope it helps you. If you want to dive deeper into this topic, join us in our Empowered Team Coaching Group. It's our monthly membership and we have new things every single month and we support each other in a community. So join us in there if you want more on this topic because we're going deep into the professional and into the personal with ways that we can tackle it immediately and together that are really, really impactful. Have a wonderful rest of your day and keep being you. Do it. If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team podcast, you'll love being on the Empowered Team. 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