How Decluttering Changed My Life - The Minimal-ish Mama

This might come as a surprise, but I wasn’t born with the organizing gene.

As a kid, my closet space and room were often a disaster! I loved collecting little trinkets and trash. I grew up surrounded by piles, so to me, it was normal. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I noticed not everyone lived like that, and so I started reading every article in Better Homes and Gardens about organizing that I could find. Even though I implemented their ideas, I didn’t see lasting success. I wondered what I was missing.

As an adult, I swung so far to the opposite side of the pendulum to minimalism that I thought I would never struggle with having too much stuff. In our first five years of marriage, we moved 6 times, and there’s nothing like packing and unpacking to make you aware of just how much “stuff” you’ve collected!

After having a baby in 2015, I struggled with depression and anxiety as I continued working a stressful full-time job. Organizing and decluttering became a lifeline for me, as they helped alleviate and cope with my anxiety and gave me clarity on what I actually wanted in my life. Ultimately, I quit my full-time job. Brian started looking for a new job, and happened to look in our dream location – upstate New York. He got hired, and we downsized and moved across the country when I was eight months pregnant!

From a total career change to moving across the country – decluttering changed my life. It started a chain reaction that led me to a life of greater purpose.

Along with the rest of the world, I fell in love with Marie Kondo, but I had a hard time finding anyone who actually completed the tidying festival. Now that I had two kids, I wondered, what if there was a way to use the KonMari basics, add in foundational mindset shifts and habit-building techniques, break it down into a plan and schedule that could work for a busy mom?

That’s what I set out to create with my online course – a combination of the tried and true techniques I’ve learned and used over the course of my life, plus findings from studying habit change and mindset for a 6-week curriculum that you can apply and repeat to bring clarity and calm to your home, schedule, and soul. How could decluttering change your life?