Clutter Intervention on KTLA

So many of us feel satisfied after a good spring cleaning, but there are still some items in your home that you wish you can get rid of, but maybe you just can't.

Our next guest says we need to get to the root of why we have such a hard time getting rid of certain items. She's written a book called Clutter Intervention: How Your Stuff Is Keeping You Stuck. She is here with tips from her 9-day clutter intervention program that'll make it easier to let things go. Please welcome best-selling self-help author, feng shui expert, and interior designer Tisha Morris, good morning.

Thank you.

Nice to have you. So tell us more about the book and then why people have this kind of experience when it comes to clutter and the difficulty in letting things go. And it really does— and tell us how much it does affect our lives.

Yeah, there's all kinds of scientific studies now showing that a cluttered environment leads to a cluttered mind. And there's lots of books showing you or telling you how to declutter, But I wanted to really expand on the why we have the things we have, why we hold on to the things we hold on to.

Right.

And those really sticky items that are so difficult like memorabilia and photos and we all kind of have our own Achilles heel of those things that we accumulate in our home whether it's mail or clothing or beauty products and so I kind of get into the psychology of why we hold on to the things we hold on to and then once you know why, the how is actually really easy.

You have a 9-day clutter intervention program and one place where so much of a lot of that stuff ends up is in the closet.

Yes, yes. So day one, it's like tackle the closet. Our clothing is our kind of our uniform that we express ourselves out into the world. And so we want it to be current. We want our current self to show up every day, not the past self from college or the past self from the old job. And so our clothing is really important.

But I might wear that shirt again someday.

Yeah, just in case, right? That's what I hear all the time.

Don't they say if you haven't worn it in 6 months, you're not going to.

I think that's a good rule, or maybe a year once you let the season go around. But we all have a different standard, and knowing what your standard is. For me, it's a year. For you, it might be 2 years. For someone else, it might be 6 months.

Yeah.

Or 6 years.

Or 6—

Or if you have a little— which I have a special pile of things I have an attachment to, whether it's like a prom dress from— and I put it in a separate little thing under the bed.

That's good, yeah. And then you might come around and you might realize—

Her pile, by the way, is about this big.

I mean, it does grow over time. But let's get to another thing that you say you would do on day 2. After you tackle the closet and you try to get rid of things is the books, the magazines, the mail. You have that one recipe in that one Martha Stewart magazine that's years old.

Yeah, we're information overload these days, and it piles up in our house, on our— the mail. We really need systems when it comes to information. With the mail, whether it's email or mail that comes in the snail mail, we want to immediately toss the junk.

Yeah.

You know, that's the easy stuff to get out of the way. And then have a system for the stuff that you do need to keep. And then for the stuff you have to make a decision on, put that in a different stack and get to that last. That way it doesn't pile up the stuff you definitely don't need. So having that system in place. But books, you know, there's no reason to have books around that you don't read anymore, or if they're nonfiction that don't really, they're not your thing anymore. Just toss them. It's too much information in the house.

Yeah.

The kitchen, what's your philosophy on clutter?

The kitchen, you know, if you're wanting to start a new diet program or health program, the best way to start is to declutter your kitchen. You don't want to have anything in your kitchen that you don't want in your body. And so, whether it's the pantry, the refrigerator, that's just clutter. And so, that's such a good way to start off a new, new health kick.

Yeah. Bed and bathroom, day 4, a lot of people have trouble even sleeping if the room is cluttered.

So what do you suggest?

That's right.

Yeah, we are so sensitive beyond what we realize, and a lot of people have books in the bedroom. Books are just information, and information keeps us awake. And so nightstands tend to pile up with books and clutter and stuff, so really minimize and use only— have only on your nightstands that stuff that you use daily or nightly, and don't let it stack up. It's gonna— you're gonna sleep so much better.

And what about the bathroom?

The bathroom, I'm sure your beauty products are piling up, aren't they?

Yes, they are. It happens.

Yeah, so that's kind of an Achilles heel for a lot of women, of the beauty products. And we have a lot of guilt consciousness around throwing away these products. Maybe they didn't work, maybe, you know, your skin didn't jive with it, or the color or something. It's okay. Don't use your bathroom cabinet as its own little landfill. You know, be okay with tossing it. It's gonna it's gonna have, um, you're gonna purchase better in the future as a result.

9 days, she has laid it out for you. Tisha has a live online version of the 9-Day Clutter Intervention Program. It starts April 24th. To register, you can go to tishamorris.com. And if you'd like to take a feng shui certification course, Tisha will be teaching one at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood April 19th through the 22nd. For more on that, you can go to her website. Tisha, thank you.

We'll have to have you back. Yeah, I feel like we only got partway through it.