Ep 19 - 2023 Projects: At Home and in Tidy Revival

 

Welcome back after the holidays. This is the first episode since our holiday break and the last episode of 2022. So today I'll be talking all about projects I have planned for 2023 at home and in Tidy Revival. I'm looking forward to giving you a little bit of an insight into what I'm working on personally behind the scenes.

You can listen right here, on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or you can read the transcription below. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

New Year’s Reevaluations

I'm just gonna get into it. So the new year, it's a great time to reevaluate your goals, to think about what's working, what's not working, what needs refining or tweaking, and what you need more of. And I was talking in the Clutter-Free Home Process community recently about some year-end goals I’m working on cuz that was… this is being recorded before the holidays.

So as this comes out, hopefully, I will be wrapping up a couple of things that I'm working on (those items aren't really system-related and I won't be getting into them here), and I was thinking to myself like, oh, I think I might have even said it. Like, oh, I've got my systems pretty locked up.

But that kind of made me think about the things that I would like to work on and tweak. And so I'm gonna get into those things that I do wanna work on this year because now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like: I do need a little bit of refinement and just kind of working through these systems. Cause sometimes you gotta tweak your systems, you know?

So we'll get into that in a second. But I did wanna say, if you are creating your action plan for the first time, I have a free class with tons of tips and some of those tips are around making your action. So if you haven't taken it, highly recommend it. The class is called How to Create a Clutter-Free Home Without Giving Up All your Free Time. We spend less than an hour together, but tons of tips along the way. And my aim is to make it as engaging as possible. There are surveys, questions that you can answer. It's more interactive for people who find that helpful. That's myself included. And if you don't find that helpful, then you can also listen to it pretty passively and just take away the tips and that's fine.

Systems at home to tweak in 2023

Okay, so let's jump into some of these tweaks that I need to make in the new year. One is the donation system that I have at home. As you can imagine, because I have in-home clients and part of the process of working with in-home clients is that I take away donations, and a lot of times we end up separating some things out for specific organizations or the way that we process them.

I'll end up taking, you know, batteries for recycling and light bulbs and small electronic recycling is needed. So those all go to the city of Sacramento - there’s a location that lets us process them for free.

And then we have a number of other places that we collect donations for. We take away old eyeglasses to get refurbished for people. We take textile recycling to get sent out by Retold Recycling. So, yeah, textile recycling through them. We take donations for the SPCA, we take them for Women's Empowerment. Yeah, we're often, and then a lot for Goodwill too. So a lot of different things. So at home, I have ways of separating all of this out.

But then I also have some longer projects that are work-related that take up some of that space. So I need to kind of tweak my systems so it's a lot easier for us to, at a glance, look at the shelving system that I have set aside for donations and say, okay, this is, needs to go away and be donated.

Or this is for that longstanding other project that we're working on. We don't need to take these things away. That sort of thing. So just some tweaks and that'll help streamline things on my end because I have an errand runner who comes once a week to take away the donations and to do some of those errands for me. She'll help take things to Goodwill and other places and do my weekly shopping for client products that I need to, and that just helps me save time all around. So basically just need to tweak these systems so it's easier for us to have less communication on a weekly basis about what's going where and just kind of streamline things that are even easier.

It's a work in progress. It has gotten a lot better because in 2022 I added a fair amount of storage in my garage that's just dedicated to these donation systems and getting things out. So that's been really helpful and good. And now I just need to keep tweaking it so it's even easier. And along the same lines, I've found that it's going to be even more helpful if I have even more storage, like just a little bit more storage in my home office too.

There ends up being a lot of things that go in and out, in and out, in and out of my office. Because of my in-home client projects and they’re mostly products from The Container store, Amazon, and Target, those are probably the big ones. But we're constantly shopping, using things, and to be honest, for some client projects we end up overbuying. If I'm not sure exactly how many of a certain bin or whatever the case may be I might need, I'll just overbuy and then return what I don't need. And the folks especially The Container Store Target, are very used to that and they're super nice about it.

But what that means is that I end up having a bunch of products going in and out constantly, and they’re not always the same products. There are actually very few that I'll keep in stock. It's like barely anything that I'll keep in stock. So a lot of things are in and out. And what that means is that I sometimes end up having things that feel like clutter on my end because there's not enough shelving space for all of these items between projects.

And I have dedicated my whole closet in my office to this storage, and I added more storage in 2022 as well, but the wall right next to my desk is still blank. And as I've been deciding on what to do with that wall, the conclusion for me is that I think I need to make sure that there's just some extra simple storage for me to take.

These, you know, sometimes it can be big bags of Container store bins or whatever, and it's just easier to like keep it in the bag to go between the, between the client home to my home to returning instead of like unpacking and packing. And so I think I might just add some, I'm kind of refining what the, what the design is gonna act look like, but a little bit more of like a slight bench storage, maybe like a low bench, maybe some sort of like really meant as shoe storage.

It'll just create a nice little bench for this influx of bags that hopefully won't be too distracting when I'm on zooms. And then I can have some more artwork and plants above it. I think that's the direction I'm headed, but I will be working on that in 2023 because even though it's not clutter - if there's not a home for it - it feels like clutter. And that can be really frustrating, especially when my role is to not have clutter and to help people not have clutter. So something we were talking a lot about in the community this last month is, you know, realizing what sort of things end up being in flux in your house. Those items are always in and out, in and out, in and out.

Flux zones

My goal (and students in our community) is to create more space for the items that are in flux. So for me, it's items like this (client products). I do have some spaces, but like there's, there's some storage space that's probably not used as effectively as it could that I need to tweak. There's some storage space that's taken up by other things relating to the projects that I still have on my plate that are like more home projects.

So, It's kind of a give-a-mouse-a-cookie situation, so I need to maximize the storage that I have, figure out how much more would be beneficial, and then make a design around that so that. Even on the weeks when I have a lot of products, I can still have a place to gently put them so it doesn't feel like my office is being taken over.

And so I can still get into all my storage spaces, cuz sometimes it just kind of like blocks my cabinets and then that's frustrating if I have to like, move things to get into my cabinets. Like that's not, it's not optimal and it's not setting a good example. But even more than that, it's just frustrating.

Another clothing purge in 2023

The other big thing that I'm gonna be working on at home as far as my own storage systems go, is the number of clothes that I have. I already do a seasonal wardrobe switch. Anyone who's followed me for any amount of time knows that I probably talk about it too much, but I found it really, really helpful to make me not feel overwhelmed by the amount of clothing that I have and by the number of possible clothing decisions to make on a daily basis. So having a seasonal wardrobe allows me to have a little bit of clothing or you know, like a fair amount, a decent amount available to me at all times, but what's in front of me works for the season, fits my body, I know I feel great in it, and then I can just grab it and go.

And I've definitely been getting more and like back into thrifting lately, which is awesome. But I think sometimes, it lends itself to deciding like ”oh, I should, I should get this. This is a great deal. I'm gonna use this.”

Especially, you know, I've been going to like clothing swaps. So you're not even paying for things like by the item, you're paying for it by the bag. And then it's very easy to be like, oh, and I'll grab this. I'm gonna grab this. And even though things leave my closet in order to make that happen, there are still things coming in and I think, I think I've been a little too willy-nilly with my yeses because the areas to store my clothes are feeling a bit full from my hanging items to my drawers.

Then the overstock, that's the seasonal clothing. And so it's time for me to do a thoughtful purge to make room and really decide like, oh, okay, what am I over? What probably should I have not said yes to in the first place? And I'll probably take, especially if it's like an ongoing, you know, clothing swap that I go to, I'll just probably gather up those clothes for the next swap and be like, okay, my bad. I probably shouldn't have said yes to this - and see who wants it at the next swap. I just need to have a little bit fewer clothes. And it's not tons and tons, but I feel better when I don't have tons and tons.

If anyone else is like me (and I know I'm not alone because I do this for a living and help people edit their closets) there are also clothing sizes that have switched since Covid started and maybe I'm another seamlessly used to. And just making some decisions about that. Like how many things am I wanting to keep that were in some previous sizes and what do I just need to let go of? And that's okay too. So those are systems that I am looking forward to working on in the new year and that I think are just gonna be able to help me reset and help me stay more focused and streamline things this year.

Tidy Revival in 2023

And then we're working on a lot of fun things for Tidy Revival too. I'm really looking forward to some fun episodes on the podcast. This year I'm gonna be talking to a therapist all about the intersection of clutter and therapy. We have episodes coming out all about ADHD with an ADHD coach, an author of a book all about ADHD and home organization, and a conversation with another organizer about some resources that we're loving for our ADHD clients.

So all of these are really with you guys in mind, and if this brings up any thoughts for you, like, “oh my gosh, you know what I would love to hear in the podcast?” I am all ears. So feel free to DM me anytime at @tidyrevival on Instagram. Probably the easiest way to get ahold of me. Or there's also a contact Carly form on my website, TidyRevival.com. Those go straight to my inbox too. So, on Instagram, Brittany, or I can help you there. If you contact Carly, those go straight to me and either way, we are all ears to get feedback and suggestions about podcast episodes.

Then over in the Clutter-Free Home Process private community, we are actively growing that community. And the reason the ADHD episodes came about is because that's a topic that's coming up more and more not only with my clients but especially in our private community. It's helpful to have a space to talk about home organization needs as it relates to ADHD or anything else that you're going through. You know, tough times, illness, family struggles, global pandemic. These are things that you might not necessarily want to talk about with your general friends online, but if you've got a space where you can share a thousand questions, where you can share every one of your wins and they are all celebrated you know, plus a ton of support and accountability along the way… this is the place for it. We've got live Q&A calls that people often use that time to work on their own stuff. We've got regular Day of Tidy sessions that are three hours long where we're all working on our own projects. And I'm here for questions along the way, so you know, we got you.

I'm really excited about what we have coming this year in the community. It's just a really awesome space and I love seeing what my students are up to. I love the shares. I love that everyone's working towards the same goal and just cheering each other on, and it's a beautiful space, so I'm super, super excited about that. Oh, and we have fun incentives coming up. We do one at the beginning of the year for anyone who's watched 75% or more of the videos that we have all about my four-step process, they're automatically entered into a drawing for a Target gift card. So for those who are motivated by contests, these are things that we have that just help you get moving along the way.

And of course, there is a special that starts today to kick off the new year, which is traditionally a very special time for people and gets them motivated and thinking about getting organized. If that's you and you wanna learn more about the Clutter-Free Home Process private community, we have a special that starts today and is going to be going on through the first half of January. Learn more at tidyrevival.com/course. And this community is just a great way to get ongoing support from me at a price that is much less than working with me, me one-on-one. So I would love to see you there and get you more information.

 
 

And as a final thought the beginning of the year, you know, this is the time of year that's all about resolutions. But I find a lot that in our culture we kind of have this unspoken tradition around setting lofty goals and then not achieving them. But it's kind of like this, it's a cultural thing where everyone's like, “oh, but it peters out by February”. And so instead of having this all-or-nothing approach, I wanna encourage you to really think about the things that do matter to you. If something doesn't really matter to you, don't worry about putting it on your resolutions list. Just don't worry about it. But I wanna encourage you to take the things that do matter, just bit by bit, step by step.

And know that things like decluttering, and home organization, these are like other healthy habits that you wanna bring into your life, your journey is not always gonna be perfect, and that's okay. We are setting ourselves up for success with the tools needed to get things done, and we don't have to do them perfectly in order to make progress because perfection is a myth anyway. Not every day is gonna go as planned. Some days you're gonna fall off a little bit.

That's okay. The important thing is that you get the tools needed so that you can come back to them and you can keep going with those baby steps. Every step matters. Everything is part of the process. If you have questions about this or if you need a pep talk, I'm here for it. Connect with me here. I am here for you.

I really appreciate you tuning in today. If you wanna learn more about how I can help you head to Tidy Revival dot com to learn more about how I work with people one-on-one or in our private community, the Clutter-Free Home Process.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you'll always have access to the latest episode. We would also love to hear your takeaways. Feel free to tag us at Tidy Revival on I. Facebook or TikTok. The Tidy Revival podcast is written and hosted by me, Carly Adams, and it's edited by Brittany McLean.

The title song Maverick is by Dresden The Flamingo, and until next time, remember…

 
 
 
 

Links mentioned in this episode

 
Tidy Revival PodcastCarly AdamsTidy Revival2023