← podcasts Archives - Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean
podcasts Archives - Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean
491: What to Do Differently (or Not) in the New Year (or Anytime)
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- [00:00]
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Y', all, the Take youe House Back course is on sale right now. If you want to make major changes in your home in the new year, grab this course now. So I teach this course with dawn from the Minimal mom and Cass from Clutterbug. We have a lot of fun there. But most importantly, people take their houses back even after years of struggling. Tens of thousands of people have gone through this course and absolutely love it. To learn more and grab it while it's on sale, go to aslob comes clean.com take that's aslobcomesclean.com to get it while it's on sale for $94. Welcome to a Slob Comes Clean, the Podcast. I am Dana K. White. I share my personal desalobification process as I figure out ways to keep my own home under control. I share the truth about cleaning and organizing strategies that actually work in real life for real people, people who don't love cleaning and organizing and some who do like it. You're all welcome. Welcome. And I think I'm going to call this episode number 491. What to do Differently or Not in the New Year or anytime or something like that. Right? It is New Year's Day, I believe, when this is going to come out. And I'm so glad that you're here. And I'm recording this far in advance so that I can enjoy that time with my family. So I'm just going to assume I'm enjoying that time right now as this is coming out. But it's the normal, natural thing to decide that everything's going to be different in the new year. It is a natural thing. And when I say a natural thing, what I mean is we all experience it. And maybe you're the one who doesn't. But for the most part, most people experience this urge to change something for the new year, to do something differently, to start acting differently, to start prioritizing differently. And it's such a natural, normal thing with the changing over to a new year that sometimes I used to not realize that everybody else was experiencing the same thing. Like I can remember when, you know, my husband would always get the newspaper and I love to look at the ads and I remember specifically in January thinking, this is so weird. I have been thinking about getting my house under control and there's ads for exactly the kinds of things that I would need, like bins and baskets. If you're new here and this is the first time you've listened to one of my podcasts, bins and Baskets are not the answer. But anyway, go listen, go watch the container concept video that we're going to link in the show notes of this. They're not the answer. But so. But that's not what we're talking about today. But my point is this is a normal, natural thing to think. Okay, I'm going to start doing some things differently and it happens to most people. This is the time when a lot of us are thinking about what am I going to do differently in my home. So couple things I just want to talk about today with that. As you have that mindset and you have that natural energy toward making some changes, zeroing in on what changes to make, what will make those changes actually have a the impact that you're hoping that they're going to have things to watch out for as pitfalls during this time of year of having this natural energy. Like things are different now. You know, that's what we're talking about.
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Hi, it's Sarah Gibson Tuttle, the founder of Olive and June. Can I tell you the one thing that always makes my day better? A fresh manicure. But here's the thing. Who has the time or budget to go to the nail salon every week? That's why we created the Olive and June gel mani system. It gives you that same same glossy, long lasting mani you get at a salon for so much less. It comes with everything you need. A pro level LED lamp, salon grade tools, our damage free gel polish that lasts up to 21 days. Just prep, paint, cure and you're good to go. And the best part, it's so easy and super affordable. So skip that $80 salon appointment, get that salon quality look at home on your schedule. Head to OliveAndJune.com DIYgel20 and use code DIYgel20 for 20% off your first Gel Mani system. That's OliveAnJune.com DIY Gel20 code DIY Gel20 for 20% off your first gel mani system.
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So real quickly want to cover what I call the myth of consistency. There's a whole podcast on this. We'll link to that in the show notes as well. The myth of consistency is what I call this idea that for goal setting it is so normal to think my goal is to be consistent because it is true. Like it is obviously true that the way to have an actually changed health or home or finances or whatever it is that I'm wanting to do. The answer is to do this thing consistently that I want to do. But when I make my goal to do the thing Consistently, that is not an achievable goal today. What I need to do today is the thing that, yes, I want to do consistently someday. But by focusing on the consistency part of it, I'm looking too far ahead and it becomes daunting before I actually do anything. So instead to say, of course I want to be consistent, but my actual goal, which this is the goal setting time of year, my actual goal is to do the thing right now. Because if I was ever to do it consistently, I would have to have done it. And so doing the thing right now actually moves me forward. Fixating on consistently is on doing something consistently is often the thing that overwhelms me and keeps me from doing anything. Because I'm trying to think, figure out before I do anything, how am I going to do this consistently? So instead of putting my energy into going on a walk right now, even though I actually have the time and I have and maybe the weather's good or and I got some new shoes for Christmas and I'm gonna go on this walk instead of doing that, I'm spending my time and energy analyzing my calendar and figuring out when am I gonna go on a walk every single day for all of 2026 anyway. So not letting that be a pitfall as opposed to a positive, we as people who have big ideas, have lots of great intentions, we want to be consistent, and yet that is a pitfall. To make the goal consistency instead make the goal, what can I do today that, yes, will contribute to the consistency that I know I need to do, but it's more important for me to do the thing today. Along with that, as you are thinking about things that you want to do differently in the new year, pick some things that you can do that will have a positive impact on your home. Obviously, this can be anything, but we talk about home stuff here on this podcast. Pick some things to do that will have an impact whether you do them one time or 25 times. 25 times is great. 25 times is, of course the desire that I'm going to do this all year long. But if I will pick things to really focus in on that are going to have an impact that whether I do it just today or an even bigger impact if I do it 25 times, then I can go ahead and do the thing today and I can experience the impact of that. Because experiencing the impact of doing the thing leads me so much further down the road of actually doing the thing again. And then maybe again and maybe again, as long as it's just in My head. And it's so overwhelming because I know I need to do this thing over and over. Instead, doing the thing and experiencing, oh, okay, this had a real impact. And therefore, because of that impact, I'm inspired or encouraged or less overwhelmed, less intimidated to do that thing again, which then means I've done it twice. And then I start to get used to it, and then I have figured out, oh, okay, these are different times when I can do this thing and then I do it again. Anyway, all right, so. So what are some things? And try these things while you're in the mode right now. Like, use this energy that you have to make changes to do these things that are going to have a real impact that you'll be able to see and you'll be able to feel that will then affect you throughout the course of the next year. So what are some suggestions that I have for that? We'll try the visibility rule. The visibility rule is the rule that I personally follow to prioritize decluttering projects, any type of getting the house cleaned up, whatever. I prioritize the visibility rule. What I mean by that is I start at the place where guests would enter my home. The. The number one reason why I follow the visibility rule, the number one, one reason why I came up with the visibility rule is that I just needed a place to start. Because if I don't have a place to start, then I will do a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit here. Because here, there, and here all need a lot of work and there's plenty of things to do. Every space in my home needed to be decluttered. I needed to have a place to start. The visibility rule, so much of its value is just the fact that it's a rule. It's not the kind of role that somebody else imposes on you. Right? Like this is you choosing to do this. This was me choosing to do this. I decided this is how I'm going to prioritize, which eliminated a lot of decision making in the future. Because anytime I felt overwhelmed, I would go back to the most visible place. If I had worked on it before, it wasn't that big of a deal. Even though it felt like it was back to being a big deal, it wasn't that big of a deal. And I just decided, okay, you know, this is what I do. And removing that decision making angst from the whole process was really powerful in getting me to get started, which is the key, right? So try the visibility rule. And you know, I just talked about, you know, pick some things that'll have an impact right now and then will also have an impact if you do it 25 times. That's the thing about the visibility rule. This is how I recommend, because from my own experience, this is what worked for me. And what continues to work for me is following the visibility rule is how I gained momentum in my home. If you are desperate for decluttering momentum in your home, try the visibility rule. Try it as the thing that will have an impact now. It's going to have an impact if you do this. I'm telling you that if you do this now and then because of that impact, you're inspired to do it again. And you continually do the visibility rule over the course of this year, you're going to see a huge change in your entire home because you will build the momentum that you may have been craving. That I was craving. So the visibility rule, here's how that works. You declutter in the place where. Where guests would see, okay? Meaning somebody knocks on your door, you get to decide, is that the place where people who know us come in or the place where people who don't know us knock? Whatever, Right? You just gotta have a place to start. Start in that spot, declutter, and then you'll reap the benefits of that. When somebody comes in that door, or even if somebody knocks on that door and you have to open the door, when you open that door, and you may still have that physical feeling of, oh, no, I don't want them to see inside my house. And then you have the realization of, actually, they can totally see what they can see here. And I'm fine with that, and I'm really proud of it. That experience is going to inspire you to keep decluttering because you're going to benefit from significantly from the work that you put in there. The way that this gets better and has even more impact if you consistently doing. If you not consistently. I'm trying to stay away from that word. But like, if you continually. If you do it several times throughout the year or many times or every week or every day or whatever, the way that that benefits is that it builds in that this visible space is decluttered. It increases my decluttering energy because I'm seeing the impact of the work that I did. I didn't just put work in and then my house doesn't look any better. No, my house looks better because the most visible space in my home has been decluttered. Okay? Every time I walk by there, I'm like, wow, I really. I did it this time. I can do this this time. This is amazing. And I try that. And then the next time I declutter, which is sooner because I'm thinking, wow, that made an impact. I'd like to make some more impact on my home. I go back to that most visible space. Because that's my rule. That's how I prioritize. I always start in that space. But this time, it takes five minutes to just deal with some trash and maybe some things that got dropped there. I'm not actually decluttering. My brain will think that I am going to have to declutter. My brain thinks, oh, no, it's back to being a disaster. It's not. It's not a buildup of months or years worth of stuff. It's literally just what drifted there since when I actually did the decluttering. So what took me two hours before takes me five minutes this time. And I moved to the next most visible space. And the next time I'm inspired to declutter, I go back to the door where people enter my house. That time it takes me three to five minutes. The second space I did takes me five to 10 minutes just to get back under. And then I move to the next one. That is how I make actual, real decluttering momentum. That's how I achieve decluttering momentum in my house and ultimately get the whole house decluttered, which was something I was never able to do before. I was not able to get to my whole house. Cause I felt like I would work on one area and another area was getting out of control. And then I would go work on that. And then the one that I was originally working on is now getting out of control again. This is how to achieve that momentum. But again, every time I work on anything, the first time, if I only just today, on January 1st, when this podcast came out, you're like, you know what? I'm actually off work today. And I think I'm gonna get a little bit. You know what? I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna do the visibility rule. If all you do is declutter in the most visible space in your house today, your house is better than it was before. Your house has benefited. Your family is going to benefit, the people who live in your house. Your life, it's going to be simpler and easier to function because of the work that you did there. So that is worth it, even if you don't ever do it again. But the visibility rule, acting on it is actually the thing that gets you to do it again because you see the impact of the work that you did and that inspires you to work some more. And so it naturally leads in to doing some more. And follow that visibility rule again, go back to that space and you'll eventually get through your house. So what is it that I recommend you do new in the new year? Try the visibility rule. You'll benefit today if you keep going with it. You'll benefit big time over the course of the year.
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Hi, it's Sarah. I'm the founder of Olive and June. And can I tell you the one thing that always makes my day better? A fresh manicure. But who has the time or the money to go to the salon every week? That's why we created the Olive and June gel mani system. It gives you that same mani that you get at a salon for so much less. It comes with everything you need. A pro level lamp, salon grade tools, our damage free gel polish that lasts up to 21 days. All you do is prep, paint, cure and you're good to go. And the best part, it's super easy and so affordable. Each mani breaks down to $2. So let's skip that $80 salon appointment and get the salon quality look at home for so much less. And on your schedule, head to oliveandjune.com DIYGEL20 and use code DIYGEL20 for 20% off your first Gel Mani system. That's oliveanjune.com DIYGEL 20 code DIY GEL20 for 20% off your 1st Gel Mani system.
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A
Here's another thing. Something you can do today that will have an impact. And if you continue to do it, it's gonna have an even bigger impact. Pick a place to donate and call to schedule or drop off a bag or a box or a truck full. Okay, now I know some of y' all are like, but it's closed on New Year's Day. I get it. Let's not focus on that. Let's focus on what you can do. Maybe your local place. If you're in a place where everybody's on the Internet, potentially you could schedule the pickup online. You could get everything loaded into the car and put it onto the alarm and put it. Look up the place where you're going to go on your trek tomorrow out of the house, whatever. Pick a donation place and get a donation drop off done. Because I know a lot of y' all are not listening to this on January 1st that is going to have an immediate impact. I, I know that it can be very. It's very normal to put all your decluttering energy to making into making all of these decluttering decisions and getting, getting things, you know, put into donate boxes and trash and blah, blah, and then the don there forever. It is a valid use of your decluttering time and energy to get those donations out of the house. Whatever it takes, use this energy that you have. This new year, new you. I'm going to make big changes in my home. This is such a valid use of this energy. If you've been listening to my podcast for a long time, if you've read Decluttering at the Speed of Life, one of my books, if you have made decluttering progress and you've got a garage full of donate boxes that you've already made decisions on and yet you haven't actually donated those things. This is such a impactful thing that you can do. It's not fun. Nobody likes it. But pack up those donations or make the phone call or whatever it is that you have to do to get those donations out. It's going to have a huge impact right now on your space. If you personally can't take things, make that call, make the call to someone, or maybe TaskRabbit could do it. I don't know. I'm not saying for sure they can, but like ask somebody for help, go through that. Because that's going to have such a huge impact getting those items out, out, out, like gone. Because that is going to immediately free the space that they were sitting in. It's now going to be empty space, which is huge decluttering progress. The thing that's going to happen is you're now going to know exactly where the place is to donate. You're going to know what their process is. Do you drive your car like through a little section and then they come in and help you get it? Do you have to park and haul it in? Do you. Do they have helper? I mean, like what you're gonna know, you're gonna know and your house is going to be so much better because that space where those donations were sitting in boxes for who knows how long are now gone. And that's open and free space. But also you're going to know things that are going to help you know what to do in the future and be less intimidated and less overwhelmed. So that you think, oh, well, on the way to grandma's house for Black Eyed Peas on New Year's Day, there was a donation place where I was able to just go drop these things off and it was in the parking lot of a thing and it wasn't even attended, so I didn't have, you know, it was okay on a holiday. And so that means it's always open. And. And all of a sudden now you've got a place that every time you go to grandma's house, you can make a donation, drop off, and that's going to benefit your house significantly over the course of the year. What's another thing? Oh, I don't know. What do you think I'm going to say? Take it there now, today, on this day where you are feeling that energy, you're feeling the. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I am done. 2026 is the year when I get my house under control. I've been learning about it, I've been thinking about it, I've been listening to podcasts about it. I've been doing this. I am going to finally do this thing. Okay, try taking it there now. It is guaranteed to benefit your home in the moment. That you do is the only way that I can guarantee you'll make progress in your decluttering efforts. The only way to guarantee that you will make decluttering progress is if you take the item immediately to its already established home or newly established home. According to asking yourself the first decluttering question of where would I look for this first? When you take it there now, it's in its home. You're done. That item has a home if there wasn't any room for it, you got to get some trash or obvious donation out of that space in order to make the room for it and then throw that trash away or stick it in the donate box. The donations, not the trash. When you take it there now, it is immediate, real, unback, trackable progress, guaranteed progress. So try that today. Experience the benefit of taking it there now instead of making piles or setting it into a box of things to go put away later. And I'm going to say, no matter what your situation, you may not be able to take anything and everything there now, but whatever space you're working on, if it is humanly possible, not thinking about the future, not thinking about how things, how, whatever, if it is possible for you to take it there now, any of these things in front of you, because this one actually only goes three feet away, do it. The taking it there now will have an immediate, real positive effect on your space. And then if you take it there now, every time you declutter in all of 2026 or whenever you're listening to this, your house will be completely changed. You will only make progress. You will never end up in situations where you have piles spread everywhere and then life happened. And what was meant to be a decluttering project to help your home has turned out making it so much worse, which is what used to always happen to me. So that's. Y' all knew I was gonna talk about. Take it there now. Because that's, that's my thing, right? Like it's kind of my, kind of my number one piece of advice. But yes, take it there now. A couple of pre made decisions that I think will help as you go into the new year and as you're using this decluttering energy that you have some ways to kind of. Well, not kind of, some ways to break through the overthinking. Go ahead and make some decisions now. If it might not be donation worthy, trash it. If it might be trash, make it trash. Would you tell someone else to trash it? Here's the thing. There's a lot of stuff that ends up being trashed after it's been donated. There's a lot of angst and emotional energy that gets spent by people like us as we look through our stuff and we're like, is this trash? Is it not? Could somebody ever use it? Blah, blah. Make the decision to say, you know what? If I'm debating on whether or not it's trash, I'm going to choose to make it trash to make it easier for me. Because trash leaves the house in the most easy possible way. Trash or recycling, if you've already got an established recycling routine. So that is the easiest way for me to get it out. It also eases things up down the line. Take away the guilt of it going into a landfill. Yes, it is, it is not ideal, it's not perfect. But also say, well, I'm trading that which I can take completely on myself for the, the guilt of somebody else having to make this decision or go through this effort when they're at the donation center and then they have to identify it as trash and then it still goes in to the landfill. Okay? So make some decisions that if it's even maybe trash, trash it or recycle, because that is going to speed things up. So that is a decision that I can make now. It's something I can practice right now that the more that I do that and the more I am realistic about, is this item actually trash? It's going to have a huge effect on my home going forward in the New Year. One piece of advice that I would give on this, if you are really debating, you know, I know some of y', all, this is the first time you've heard me, so I do feel like I need to clarify some things. If you're really stuck, skip it. I mean like, move to the next thing. Don't let deciding one piece of one item is trash be the thing that you spend all of 2026 debating about. We're not going to do that. Okay, Just like, skip it. If you need to move on to the other things, look for things that you can trash. But if, if you're in a moment where you're like, I'm pretty sure this is trash and I'm having take a picture of it. Look at the picture instead of at the item. Some. For some reason, when I'm holding the actual item, I'm seeing it in its best light. I'm often seeing it as the item that I purchased when it was brand new or it was in brand new condition. And instead when I see it as a photo, I realize now I can see that there's a hole in this shoe or whatever. I remember have my sister in law had a garage sale and I took some things to it and I had a pair of shoes that I had been wearing and says something about me I had been wearing until very recently before that. And I was going to put them in the garage sale and she was like, dana, you cannot put those in the garage sale. And I was like, what are you talking about? She's like, they have holes in them. And I was like, oh. Like it just didn't cross my mind because I had been wearing them and I didn't notice it. So taking a picture sometimes can, can help with that. Along those same lines, if something might not be worth selling, donate it. To be clear, I used to sell things and then came to the point where I realized it was very much worth my time to go ahead and donate because it was the fastest way to get things out of my house. And when I put time and effort into selling, I really wasted a lot of time and effort because I would spend hours selling something that when all calculated out at the end, I had earned maybe $2 an hour for the work that I had put in with the amount of money that I got from it. So along those same same lines, like default, make a decision to default to the easier way to do the thing. If it might not be worth selling, go ahead and donate it again. Taking a photo can be very helpful with that I one of my best tips for making breaking through this idea of, oh no, what if it's worth something? Go to eBay.com, look up exactly what it is that you have, and then go on the left hand side and click on completed listings. Because you do not. Don't get excited when you see what people are wanting to get for this item. The only thing that matters is what people have actually paid for this item. And you'll see, oh, this item is something that people want and they pay a lot of money for. Or the vast majority of the time you're going to see that nobody wants this. Or maybe one sells every once in a while for $7. But the vast majority of the time they don't get sold and then they just get relisted and relisted and relisted. Let's talk really quickly before we're done, about what to not do differently in the new year. How to know what to not do differently. Because that new year, new you energy can backfire. Like, it can end up being a problem because it's like, I'm going to change everything. I think it's really important to stop and say what is working really well for me so that I know. Don't change that. If you're keeping laundry under control, keep doing what you're doing. It is very tempting to think there's got to be a better way than the way that I'm doing this. But if what I'm doing is actually working, I need to stick with it. If I'm doing laundry day and I think, but I hate laundry day, but it's working. Then I used to go, well, I don't like doing it that way or it's not fun that way anymore. I'm going to try a whole new way. Because this is the energy that I have right now is to find a new way to do things. But if it's working, it's important to me, I know now to keep doing what I'm doing that's working. I can make small changes. I can say, I wish I didn't have to do this every day. So I'm going to go ahead and do laundry day. And then tomorrow I'm gonna do another load and we'll, we'll try the one load a day when I'm completely caught up on laundry. Cause I did laundry day yesterday. I did laundry day on Monday. Okay, well then I'll try the one load a day on Tuesday. All right. And then I'll try it on Wednesday. And then if, when I realize that I haven't thought about doing a load a day, which is the reason why a load a day never worked for me for three days. Then when Monday comes back around, I go back to laundry day. Okay, but I'm just trying some things, but I'm sticking with the existing thing that was working for me in the first place. Don't let go of things that are working. That's what not to do differently. Don't start doing differently something that was actually working for you. Pay attention to what's working. Don't change things that are working. If you have been keeping your dishes done and you have been doing them every morning and you're like, but so many people make a big deal about how you should never go to bed with a clean kitchen. But I do keep my dishes completely under control. I just do them in the morning. Okay, well try doing them at night, but don't give up on the morning thing because of that. What does that mean? Well, it means this is how my mentality used to be. I would be like, okay, well I really should be doing them at night instead of the morning. So then I would not do them in the morning and say, no, I'm going to do it tonight because I want to switch it to tonight. What's better to do is to go ahead and do it in the morning like I've always been doing and then do it again tonight. And then tomorrow morning I'm like, oh, they're already done. How great is that? And then maybe I'll do them in the evening that time again. But if I don't, I'll do them in the morning instead of saying, I'm going to throw away the way that I've been doing it and start trying to do a different way. Keep doing what you're doing that actually works. Okay. I hope this was helpful. I wish you a beautiful and wonderful year. I did want to remind you that my first children's book will be released in mid February. If you'd like to get a copy of a kids version featuring Winnie the Walrus, the character for my book, for my children's book. If you'd like to get a kid's version of my five step process, go to a Slob Comes Clean dot com. Winnie, that's W I n N I E and pre order put your preorder information in there and you will get a copy of that as well as some other fun bonuses that we'll have. But that is what you can get right now in case you want to declutter with your kids. Also, I think it was last week that I put out a podcast about decluttering with kids and with others. All right. I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday, and I will talk to you next week. Bye.