Podcast Summary: Focus on the Family with Jim Daly

Episode: Clearing Out Your Space and Schedule (Part 2 of 2)
Air Date: January 8, 2026
Guests: Courtney Ellis
Hosts: Jim Daly, John Fuller

Episode Overview

In this enlightening episode, Jim Daly and John Fuller continue their conversation with writer, speaker, and pastor Courtney Ellis about the spiritual and practical benefits of simplifying your home and life. Building on themes from her book, Uncluttered: Free Your Space, Free Your Schedule, Free Your Soul, Courtney shares her personal journey from overwhelmed living to greater clarity, deeper faith, and more present relationships. The discussion moves from decluttering material belongings to making space in schedules, teaching children minimalist values, and the profound spiritual freedom that comes from less. The episode is filled with practical advice, biblical insights, and warm, relatable anecdotes, all designed to encourage listeners to clear out physical and emotional clutter and embrace God’s peace, or “shalom.”

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Spiritual Roots of Clutter

• Clutter’s deeper issues: Courtney explains that holding on to things isn’t just about physical mess but often stems from deeper spiritual challenges, such as a lack of trust in God’s provision.
  • "Why was I trying to keep so many things? … I needed to prepare for every possible eventuality in my life. And I couldn't trust the Lord to provide and to care." — Courtney Ellis (04:00)
• Scripture focus: Jim Daly reads from Matthew 6, highlighting the call to focus on heavenly treasures rather than earthly ones (03:15).

Rationalizing Clutter — "Just in Case" Syndrome

• The group discusses how easy it is to accumulate and rationalize items for potential future need, invoking humor (prom shoes, old generators, outgrown jeans).
  • "We can fill our entire houses with things for the just in case moment that might never occur. But in the meantime, we've got to dust it, we've got to store it…" — Courtney Ellis (05:33)
• Mentions “The Minimalists" advice: if it can be replaced in under 20 minutes for under $20, let it go (05:29).

Hearing God in the Silence

• Clarity through simplicity: Courtney draws a parallel to Elijah’s encounter with God, noting how physical and schedule clutter can drown out God’s voice.
  • "It's like walking around with a backpack full of bricks... God's like, take off the backpack, set down the bricks. That's our schedule. That's our stuff. When we overfill our lives, it becomes very difficult to hear from God." — Courtney Ellis (07:11)
• Uncluttering as spiritual practice: Courtney describes ordinary actions—organizing shelves, observing Sabbath—as forms of prayer when done with attentiveness to God (08:55).

Hospitality Reimagined

• From performance to presence: Decluttering not only makes homes more manageable but shifts hospitality away from perfection and towards genuine connection.
  • "It's not about impressing. It's about loving and caring for." — Courtney Ellis (11:15)
• Lowering unrealistic standards: Letting go of the need for “spick and span” and embracing “clean enough” as loving and freeing for both host and guest.
  • "The laundry is on the couch, but it's clean." — Courtney Ellis (12:08)
  • "When you invite friends in and your house is not perfect, it is a grace to them... mostly people read that as, oh, you're just like me." — Courtney Ellis (12:40)

Instilling Minimalism in Children

• Cumulative nature of kids’ stuff: Practical strategies for regularly reviewing and removing items no longer needed.
  • "Go through things every six months or every year and say, we're out of this phase now... and it blesses someone else." — Courtney Ellis (15:27)
• Combating overscheduling: Advocating for margin, boredom, and free play.
  • "Our kids are so overscheduled and overstimulated and so hungry for breathing room...we try to really foster and encourage that with our own kids. They each do one activity or one sport, and then they play." — Courtney Ellis (16:33)
  • "Being bored is the soil for creativity and innovation." — Courtney Ellis (17:16)
• Intentional gifting: Favoring “experiences and consumables” over accumulating toys; passing on or reselling items like Legos with humor and practicality (18:21, 19:04*).

Generosity and Modeling Simplicity

• Teaching generosity: Sweet story of Courtney’s son, Lincoln, giving away his Matchbox cars to a neighbor, learning the joy of giving even from a young age.
  • "He put 42 cars, and he was buzzing like a hummingbird... But then we walked them over to the neighbor... it bonded the two of them together. And it was an example of how to be generous and how to be kind." — Courtney Ellis (20:09)
  • Practical note: always ask permission before giving away items to others’ children (20:58).

Worship as the Ultimate Uncluttering

• Worship’s re-centering power: Worship is described as the ultimate decluttering, reminding us of God’s priorities over our own.
  • "When we worship God, we come before God with open hands. We come before God without our bag of stuff, without our busy schedule... Worship is everything." — Courtney Ellis (21:33)

Realities and Ongoing Journey of Decluttering

• It’s not about perfection: Courtney emphasizes that decluttering is a lifelong process, not a destination. Different seasons bring different challenges.
  • "All writing is aspirational and we're all on a journey and different clutter comes in at different times... So the call is ongoing. And that's a beautiful thing because that forces us to stay connected with God." — Courtney Ellis (22:46)
• Family differences: Everyone in her family has unique struggles with clutter, reflecting individual personalities (23:35).

Practical Benefits: Margin and Presence

• Greater presence with God, spouse, and kids: Simplicity makes room to notice God, deepens marriage (especially through intentional Sabbath), and allows for neighborly love.
  • "It's given me new eyes to see my kids, to notice my kids... We now cultivate this family Sabbath... By the end of that Sabbath, Darrell and I have reconnected." — Courtney Ellis (24:23)
  • "Now we have time for our neighbors, which we feel that that is, in a way, God's greatest call on us is to love our actual literal neighbors." — Courtney Ellis (24:23)
• Growth, not perfection: The hope of the gospel supports us as we repeatedly try, sometimes “do one of the things badly and we relearn and keep growing.” (25:31)

Notable Quotes

• "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. I mean, that's right in your face, you know." — Jim Daly (03:15)
• "It's like walking around with a backpack full of bricks... That's our schedule. That's our stuff. When we overfill our lives, it becomes very difficult to hear from God." — Courtney Ellis (07:11)
• "The laundry is on the couch, but it's clean." — Courtney Ellis (12:08)
• "Being bored is the soil for creativity and innovation." — Courtney Ellis (17:16)
• "When we worship God, we come before God with open hands. We come before God without our bag of stuff, without our busy schedule, and we say, here I am... Worship is everything." — Courtney Ellis (21:33)
• "All writing is aspirational and we're all on a journey and different clutter comes in at different times... the call is ongoing. And that's a beautiful thing because that forces us to stay connected with God." — Courtney Ellis (22:46)
• "It's a framework... and it's a target. And you're not always going to hit the bullseye, but hopefully you're going to be around it often enough that it does change your life and it does give you the margin that you need to love the Lord better, love your spouse better, love your family better. That, at the end of the day, is what's going to matter." — Jim Daly (25:33)

Important Timestamps

• [01:01] Courtney shares the emotional and spiritual effects of clutter
• [03:15] Jim Daly reads Matthew 6, setting biblical context
• [04:00] Courtney discusses the spiritual roots of accumulating “just in case” items
• [07:11] Parallels drawn between Elijah’s story and hearing God through decluttering
• [11:15] How less cluttered spaces support authentic hospitality
• [15:27] Decluttering with children and teaching them about possessions
• [17:16] The value of children experiencing boredom and margin
• [18:21] Tips on gifting experiences and consumables vs. more stuff
• [20:09] Story of Lincoln’s generosity with his toys
• [21:33] Worship as decluttering and re-prioritization
• [22:46] Uncluttering as a continual, imperfect, grace-filled process
• [24:23] Practical benefits: more present parenting, deeper marriage, loving your neighbors
• [25:33] Decluttering as framework and ongoing journey

Tone and Takeaway

The conversation is warm, honest, and infused with humor and real-life examples. Both hosts and guest speak to common struggles listeners will identify with, encouraging grace, persistence, and the pursuit of “shalom” over perfection.

Decluttering, as described here, isn’t merely about having a clean home, but about freeing up emotional and spiritual bandwidth to hear from God, love one’s family, and serve others well. The episode gives both practical tools and spiritual encouragement, calling listeners to a simpler, fuller life.

For More:
Pick up Courtney Ellis’s book, Uncluttered: Free Your Space, Free Your Schedule, Free Your Soul, for practical steps and more inspiration.
Listen to the full episode for further tips and heartening stories.