HOW to Find a Place for Everything in Your Home when Decluttering

I'm Dana K white of aslabcomsclean.com and the author of decluttering at the speed of life okay so I am talking today about finding a place for everything every little thing every random thing every last thing because this is the issue for a lot of us who struggle to keep our homes under control we and I'm saying we because this is what I used to say I don't have places for things I don't know where things should go I can't put stuff away like people act like that's something easy and it was really really hard for me because I was like I don't have places to put things so uh that is a problem that I had to solve I didn't really know I was solving it in the beginning when I came up with my first decluttering question which solves this problem completely but it this is what it solves okay so I just want to be clear that I will never be one to just quote real flippantly placed for everything and everything in its place because that is the single most annoying phrase to people like me to people who are where I once was of like I just I didn't have a place for things saying that is not helpful okay because that phrase just made me think well then I don't know what to do because that doesn't make sense because I don't have a place for everything right unfortunately I mean I wish I could say that that phrase is incorrect that phrase is actually very correct it is true which is the reason that the people who this stuff comes naturally to say it so easily because I guess it's true but if you don't know how to make that happen then it's only frustrating so how do you make that happen well I have three different things that I recently found places for by using my first decluttering question and I'm gonna talk about those three things and how I made that decision and how this decluttering question helped me establish a place and the reason why it's so important for things to have a place okay so as far as why is it so important for things to have a place well there's a lot to it okay it's super simple but also very complicated to people like me um the container concept I talk about that all the time right the container concept means that the space that I have is the space that I have if I try to keep more stuff then I have space for in my home then there is no hope of my house ever being under control it is not possible to have a house that's under control and have more stuff than I have space for usable get to Able actual functional space okay this means everything needs to have a place like if my house is going to be under control then when I pick it up things need a place to be to live okay this first decluttering question gives me that place this is how I determine the home for something even if it's something that is highly sentimental even if it is something that with other decluttering strategies would totally make my brain spin out if I was asking myself do I like it the answer is always going to be yes but then I'm going to feel guilty because I'm like should I like this do I really like it do I like it for all the right reasons whatever if I'm gonna ask myself if I like it the answer is of course I want to keep it right I love this stuff that's the reason I brought it into my house it's cool it has sentimental value to me that is not helpful for me because I will keep everything and I can't keep everything I just can't if I try to keep it all there is no hope of my house ever being under control because there's simply not enough space in my house for all the stuff that I like to actually have a place to be and it be a real home and not a pile okay so I ask myself this question instead of analyzing how I feel about things instead of considering how much it's worth anything like I just go ahead and ask this question because it always serves me well so a couple of things two were very sentimental one was just like yeah that's super usable like I will probably use that at some point okay but I didn't have a place for any of those things in my home so I pulled these things out of a box and the first one was super useful like if I was just asking myself is this useful does it deserve to be in my home of course the answer is yes that doesn't help right because it still needs a place to be so instead I asked myself the question skip all the useful stuff and just say if I needed this item where would I look for it first well this is a postal scale I don't sell on eBay anymore thankfully uh that's kind of what got me into the mess that got me uh to the point where I started in anonymous slot block on the internet which is now turned into this somehow but that postal scale it's useful and I have used it over the years even after I used to use it all the time in our old house knew exactly exactly where that item went like I was on the specific shelf I knew exactly where it was anytime that I did randomly need it I knew right where to go well we were in a new house I didn't have a place where I had ever looked for it before but it's not a question of where would it be it's a question of where would I look for this first so I kind of hold it in my hands and I have this moment of uh and I just go if I if I had the thought I know I've got a postal skill and I need a postal skill right now where's the first place where I would look for it in this house that I have and when I ask myself that question I'm like well I would look for it on that shelf in the it's like a home office even though I have a separate office and a different you know building out in our field right now but like in our little home office I don't know what to call it see that's my own advice I'm not following I haven't named that room yet which is part of the reason it's a problem still but I would look for it first on that shelf in there specifically and so I took it there now that's the other key so this first decluttering question where would I look for it first it gives me the home that's how I determine the home the second part of it take it there right now that's not a question but it's everything for this process that's the whole entire most crucial thing for this no mess decluttering process that I use okay where I promise myself progress and only progress and never a bigger mess I take it there now but by taking it there now I find out is that an actual space where it can live does it fit in that space is there room for it in that space taking it there now gets me to that spot and I realize yes there's room for it here I very well could have gotten to that same space and found that it was full of books in which case I would have to decide okay am I willing to get rid of some of these books in order to make the room for this or do I realize I actually am not going to keep this either way it's perfectly fine but I am embracing the reality of the stuff I have where I would look for it first and embracing the reality of my actual space that I have in my home as long as I just say oh yeah of course I would totally go looking for this in my house and I set it aside or if I just try to remember and I say oh I would look for it in that room so I'll do that later I don't know for sure if that's actually a real place where it can live okay but it was so I was able to take it there right now and I'm done with that item right so I've given it a home I have found a place for this item that is not an everyday use item but it is something that I would go looking for in my house okay next I had this full on trinket I think my mom gave it to me I love Wizard of Oz I've collected Wizard of Oz stuff over the years this is super cute whoever gave it to me thank you very much I totally remember I just didn't want to talk about on the video um but whoever gave it to me was thinking of me when they bought it for me and it means a lot to me that someone cared enough to get me this cute little you know it's a little bit higher end than some of the little trinkety stuff that I get um I mean like this was meaningful not meaningful enough for me to remember you but you know what I mean so I have this item that technically it doesn't have a real real purpose but it means something to me if I let myself say do I love it well of course I do and I would just keep it but if it didn't have a home in my house it would still be clutter right so it has to be in its final resting place in order for it to not be clutter anymore it needs to either be in its home or the trash or a donate box okay so I ask myself the question if I needed this where would I look for it first I didn't remember that I had this item okay that's why I'm not asking the second question first if I needed this would it ever occur to me I'd already had one because that would be really hard that would stop me in my tracks and make me go I don't like this and be done right and instead I say no I'm going to ask myself if I needed this where would I look for it first and what popped in my brain was this little built-in shelf in my bathroom area where I still have the wallpaper that I have plans to deal with but I haven't dealt with yet I thought okay that's where I would look for it first and so I went and I took it there now it's a little thing that holds something well I had just gotten this necklace at Christmas and I was like oh yeah I need a place to put this necklace like I wanted it to have its own special place so in letting myself say okay where would I look for it first it feels a little you know when you're like I don't know but I took it there right now it did fit on the Shelf I was a little concerned that it wouldn't because it's a very narrow shelf but it fit there and now I have a place where I put this necklace at night I get to use something very sentimental but that sentimental thing is not just floating around my house as clutter a Sentimental thing that I actually use and it has a real space in my home a real place to live place for everything and everything in its place but it's true is it is something that I honor it's something that I have positive feelings toward every time or almost every time that I use it okay sometimes I don't even think about it but I have a lot of positive feelings about it because it's being used and it has a real place and it's not causing me problems if it is something that just constantly every time I'm dealing with a space well there's that thing again and then I'm dealing with another space well there's that thing again those are negative feelings so even though this was a positive feeling item it would have if I didn't give it a real home if I didn't actually take it there right now it would have just floated and caused me frustrated feelings okay which is not how I want to feel toward sentimental items right and then I had something zero purpose only sentiment piece of hair for my 21 year old from his first haircut or maybe it was the first time I snipped some hair to get it out of his eyes because that kid had a lot of hair that kind of stuff will stop me in my tracks but I don't have to be stopped on my tracks I just say I'm going to ask the question if I needed a piece of hair from a 21 year old where would I look from his first haircut where would I look for it first ah because the truth is it has always grossed me out it has grossed me out from the time someone gave us that little container at a baby shower I mean it has I I thought it was a little bizarre from the very beginning it was um they're very sweet very sweet people we don't know them we haven't known them in 20 years uh but I I just would never go looking for it like that one I can say I would literally never go looking for this item because it kind of gross and if we needed something for DNA that kid now sheds leg hair like nobody's business and I'm sure I could go pick some up right so I mean or armpit hair that's what he always wanted armpit anyway uh but I mean like that is not something I would go looking for so therefore by asking myself that same question that I'm going to ask about every single thing which allows me to keep the things that actually are important to me it reveals to me that this thing is not important to me where otherwise I would be feeling guilty and feeling weird and how does somebody throw away such a cute little container you know holding a piece of somebody's body in it right like and if you keep yours that's perfectly fine but for me I just had no desire to do that as someone who found my teeth in the camera bag that my dad gave me one time it's just gross right like it was just gross that I just didn't want that in my house now I will tell you that I did send him a text and said just curious if you want this hair from 20 years ago and he said no and I said okay so you know what I did with it I did not donate it because that's disgusting I threw it away I just threw it away I didn't even I didn't even donate the container I didn't even take the hair out and donate the container because I didn't want to touch it even though you know I know some of y'all gonna be like what's the big deal it's a big deal to me and it is and I just got rid of it and threw it the trash and it is entirely possible that there will be a daughter-in-law one day who will think well I wish I would have had that um you're welcome and I am sparing you the difficult decision of should I keep that where would I look for it in my house my husband's now however many year old piece of hair um yeah I just got rid of it so asking myself the question where would I look for this first is the way I establish a place for everything in my home taking it there now helps me learn is that actually something that can work is there room for it sometimes taking it there now makes me go yeah I don't actually love it that much I can it's actually easy to get rid of but taking it there now helps me embrace the actual real reality of that space of my home is there a space for it because if my house is going to be under control unfortunately there has to be a place for everything and this is how I establish the place for everything and it's also the thing that lets me let go of things because I say there's not a place for that because there is no place in my home where I would go looking for it so there's no place for it okay all right if you are thinking yes but even if I go put all the things in the place where I would look for it first it's still going to be too full go watch the container concept video that one explains how that works it's not fun nobody's saying it's fun or easy but that explains then what you do in that situation all right I will talk to you later bye

Channel: Dana K White

Views: 273,432

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Id: AHh03tpyCZ0

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 05 2023