Tyler Moore
Appearances
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yeah.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yeah, so to me, tidying up is this process of bringing order to things. And I think oftentimes people think about it just with their physical possessions, you know, the act of putting something away once it's been used. But I also feel like tidying up these days, it's really transcending just the aesthetics of our home that
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
You name it, you can learn to tidy it up, be it your hobbies or your professional life or the relationships that you have with people or your email inbox, your calendar that you're dealing with. Anything that you can name, you can learn to tidy it up.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yeah, I definitely think that we all have thresholds of mess. And I think that that's one of the beautifully messy joys of life is that we're often sharing spaces with other people, whether it be at home or in the workplace.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
But I often think that, you know, if you can drill down to that area of your life that you really feel is tidiest and like for some people, it's their car or like their glove compartment, their trunk. It could be those drawers that are in the kitchen. If you go to that place where you feel like it is that like optimal level of tidiness, you can start to unearth sort of the why behind that.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Why is it that you show so much care or affection for that one thing? And then how could that transcend into other areas of life that may feel a little bit messier? Because I do find that we all have those areas of our life that It is of value or importance to keep tidy. And then there are other places of our lives that we just sort of let things go.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And it could be like the side of your bed where you just throw the clothes at the end of the night instead of putting it in the laundry hamper. Like there is a why or a bigger, you know, sort of question underneath that.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
So I feel like so often when people start the process of like tidying or decluttering, they're so excited to take on their entire house at one time. And it's sort of like when you start that new resolution that you're going to like work out every single day of the month, like a few days in, you start to develop muscle fatigue and overwhelm. And that can happen with tidying too.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And I feel like when you want to have an entry point or a place to start, I feel like decluttering those categories where you don't have to negotiate can be so freeing.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
So like for you, if you are starting with the clothing that's in your closet, if you're starting with your work stuff, if you're talking about your own individual work bag, like those are things that you're able to actually declutter and go through without negotiating with your wife, for example.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Because I feel like so often when you have to declutter with negotiating, that's when all of these other relational sort of issues, start to pop up. And it's not to say that you never want to declutter with negotiating, but I feel like if you are inspired, it's like start with your own stuff first, and then you gradually begin to take on the more complex sort of categories.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And the decluttering process that I recommend, it's You first clear the space, then you start to sort the stuff because it needs to be in smaller categories. Then you can begin to assess what do you want to keep versus what do you want to move out before you then make the organizational plan for all of those items that you've chosen to keep.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
But I do feel like decluttering without negotiating first is a great place to start.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
yeah absolutely not and you know most recently i did our like tech drawer which i feel like everybody is great at bringing new tech in but there's something about us that like holds on to all of those cords and chargers even when we've gotten multiple duplicates forever more and so Over the weekend, I was like, let me just set a timer for 15 minutes.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Let me pull all these chords out and actually see, can I sort these and get these reorganized into a way that's actually usable for our family? And it was amazing to see, one, the volume of chords that we had, but two, to be able to name, which of the chords did I actually like? What was the optimal length? Which ones were sort of broken at the end? And
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
It really reminded me of the power of that like 15 to 20 minute declutter with a very narrow category that then has so many positive impacts on your life, like when your device needs to be charged that you know exactly where to go for like the type A or the type C charger in a place that's like neat and tidy and organized.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yeah, and I don't know what it is. I feel like sometimes there's this doomsday scenario almost that we're all planning for. We sort of have lived through doomsday scenarios, which is still coming out of the pandemic of 2020. But whether it's toilet paper or coffee mugs or tech courts, it's like, why do we need the volume that we do? Is it so that if we happen to have
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
30 friends who come over and all of their cell phones are like dead and they're expecting like important, like life altering calls that they all need to be charging their phones at the same time. Like when you start to use a little bit of humor and ask yourself like, Am I planning for a doomsday scenario right now?
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
That can sort of help you guide to what is that like just enough number or what is that just right number of the number of cords that you need that make you feel comfortable so that when you open up that drawer, you can actually find what you need as opposed to being frustrated that you can't find something.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And then you have to go out and buy a new cord because you lost the cord that came with your device. And then you're just continually bringing all of those like new things in.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yeah, no, it's funny. And I feel like coffee cups, that's it's almost sort of like, I don't know what it is. It's a category for people. And I don't know if it relates to deeper values that we have around like hospitality, or it reminds us of seeing friends or sometimes people collect coffee mugs when they're traveling, but also they have those coffee mugs from like, Aunt Sarah, but I do feel like
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
If you can name for yourself also like what is getting in the way because of that volume of coffee cups that I have, like that can be an important place to start. And like we live in a 750 square foot apartment. Like I just went through coffee mugs also recently and my daughters were like, daddy, what are you doing? Those are all of our holiday mugs. And I was like,
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
it's fine i'm not getting rid of the holiday mugs but i'm like moving them with the holiday stuff because they can't be out on these shelves for the next year so i do feel like you know again it's going back to that like doomsday scenario like do you have enough coffee mugs to not wash your coffee cup for an entire month like if so that may be too many um do you actually have a coffee pot that's large enough
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
If all of your friends come over and everyone is holding a coffee mug, like can you actually fill up everyone's coffee mug at the exact same time? The answer is probably no. So like that could be a category that you start examining and that could be a great sort of like testing ground for some of your decluttering skills.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yeah, and I think that that's okay and I think that, you know, one of the philosophies that I like to share with people is this idea of being able to name what is just enough for you in any individual category and I think that our spaces in our homes function best when we feel like we do have space for the things that we value or love or enjoy that it's like so often
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
We can look at our square footage as being limiting, but it's often because we have an abundance of things in categories that are taking up space that might not be allowing those new things to come in or be able to organize those things that we have of value.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
I think that this is when you look at a restaurant or those like MasterChef episodes, especially when you have like Gordon Ramsay sort of like yelling at you and you have the clock counting down. Like restaurants have to be organized in such a way that the chefs, the sous chefs, the servers are able to get the food out to people in a timely manner.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And as you mentioned, like so often when people move into a space or when they're like unboxing items to go into their kitchen, You sort of adopt this like put it wherever it fits sort of mindset that it's like, okay, there's a drawer over here or there's a cabinet there. Let me just put the stuff away.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And oftentimes, you know, how people put things away when they first moved in, whether it's five years ago, a decade ago, 20 years ago, it's sort of like that is what set people. the organizational blueprint.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And so I feel like zoning can be a really important sort of organizational approach where it's like within the kitchen, you need to have a prep station, you need to have a cooking station, you need to have a serving station, you need to have a cleanup zone. If you have kids, you need to have the items where kids can access them. And that's exactly what the top restaurants around the world do.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Like there is this organizational blueprint and there is these zones that are established because the goal is to make really beautiful, wonderful, savory foods in a very quick or efficient manner because it could be the best restaurant in the world, but if it's not set up for efficiency and it takes two hours from the time you've ordered to the time that dish lands on your plate or on your table, like
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
It's not going to taste as good and people aren't going to be happy.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
I think that people have these sort of like catch-all zones. And whether it is, you know, you live in a small space or you live in this like palatial sort of farmhouse. I've also had people who live in castles who are like, can you please just help me declutter? And I'm like... I think I can help you with that castle, but first we've got to sort of pare down these different wings that you have.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
But I feel like people are notorious for having these catch-all, I'll-get-to-it-later sort of areas. And so often when you have... closets or wardrobes or dressers. Like you don't actually think about them as real estate that's important within your home. You know, like when we get architectural blueprints, we often see the purpose of the room that is named.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Like it's very clear that there's the living room, there's the kitchen, there are the bathrooms. But then there are those smaller closeted areas that people don't give a specific name or purpose to. And so, I feel like One strategy that I've shared with people is to actually treat your closets like rooms and like, can you name what is the specific function or purpose?
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And like, if you were doing this overhead layout of your entire space, could you tangibly name for yourself and for others what the purpose of that closet is, which then helps you to set up the organizational system, which then helps you with the tidying process of putting things back in their place.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
which then can also help you with the process of cleaning, which is like the removal of dirt and grime and signs of life. But so much is interconnected and related, and oftentimes that catch-all can just feel like this huge overwhelming barrier that often is drawn from the fact that you're not actually clear what the purpose of that space is in the first place.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yes, and then it leads to that overspending and consumption because when you can't find something, you're like, well, I've got to go back out the store to get it. Or when you have a spouse or kids and you're like, just go to that closet, just go to that bedroom. That's where it probably is. No one is actually going to take the time to sort through everything that's in there.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And so, I think that...
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
know establishing the purpose establishing zones committing to stopping that trend of like that's just our catch-all space i don't know it's something that's really important because it as i mentioned it like leads to you going and buying more stuff or it leads to resentments or frustration or sometimes just embarrassment where you just have that door that like nobody's allowed to open nobody could go in there and you just sort of try to forget about it even though it's sort of like subconsciously lingering for you
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And then I just love that then it's like the person who found it somehow gets to become the person who like blames it on everyone else who lives in the house. Because we've all done that. We've like opened the drawer and then it's immediately like, who put all this stuff there? Why is everyone doing this? Why can't people just put their stuff away?
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Even though you have may actually caused some of that disorganization yourself. Yeah.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Yes. And it's like, well, I've held on to this for all these years. Like, why would I get rid of this now? Which again, just sort of perpetuates this cycle. And I think it's why, you know, the processes of decluttering and organizing, tidying, and then cleaning, I think it's why they're so important. And it's why those four really do need to be treated as separate
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
you know, sort of routines and systems that also all are intertwined. And it's just like, you know, a few months ago, my youngest daughter, like completely clogged the down the toilet, which then caused it to like flood into our downstairs neighbor's apartment. And, you know, it was like, where did I need to shut off that water?
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Our water valve for the entire bathroom is underneath the bathroom sink. And if that was an untidy place, it would then cause me to not be able to actually get to the valve to turn it off. And it's one of those examples where
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
yes that sort of feels like a catastrophe sort of like situation but there are practical realities that like disorganization does make it really hard for us to maintain our homes and when we don't maintain our homes there are a whole host of issues that can surface and problems that can happen where we have to throw money at things simply because we didn't like either know how to take care of it in the first place or actually take care of it in a way that like keeps things maintained and organized
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
I think that just some people do, but you know, like the example that I gave of like, we have a cottage in Pennsylvania and one of the best things that we did when we purchased our home, a friend said, find yourself a home inspector that will allow you to walk around the house with you because that home inspector is actually going to teach you how to take care of your home.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
And that was one of the best things that I could have possibly done in that two-hour stretch of time, that he allowed me to follow him around. He was like, here's how you turn off the water. These are things to look for in the crawl space. Here's how you want to get into the attic. And these are things that you want to check seasonally.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Just that two-hour stretch of time gave me so much mental clarity on how to share and how to take care of our space.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
For 11 years, every night women slept illegally on the Common. We would move down to the West Indies to form a lesbian nation. Meg Christen coined the phrase women's music, but she would have liked to say it was lesbian music. And that's kind of the origins of the Combahewer Collective.
Something You Should Know
Why You Are More Courageous Than You Think & The Magic of Tidying Up
Most recently, I did our like tech drawer, which I feel like everybody is great at bringing new tech in, but there's something about us that like holds on to all of those cords and chargers, even when we've gotten multiple duplicates forevermore. All this today on Something You Should Know.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Most recently, I did our like tech drawer, which I feel like everybody is great at bringing new tech in, but there's something about us that like holds on to all of those cords and chargers, even when we've gotten multiple duplicates forevermore.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yeah. So, to me, tidying up is this process of bringing order to things. And I think oftentimes people think about it just with their physical possessions, you know, the act of putting something away once it's been used. But I also feel like tidying up these days, it's really transcending just the aesthetics of our home that
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
you know you name it you can learn to tidy it up be it your hobbies or your professional life or the relationships that you have with people or your like email inbox your calendar that you're dealing with anything that you can name you can learn to tidy it up
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yeah, I definitely think that we all have thresholds of mess. And I think that that's one of the beautifully messy joys of life is that we're often sharing spaces with other people, whether it be at home or in the workplace.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
But I often think that, you know, if you can drill down to that area of your life that you really feel is tidiest and like for some people, it's their car or like their glove compartment, their trunk. It could be those drawers that are in the kitchen. If you go to that place where you feel like it is that like optimal level of tidiness, you can start to unearth sort of the why behind that.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Why is it that you show so much care or affection for that one thing? And then how could that transcend into other areas of life that may feel a little bit messier? Because I do find that we all have those areas of our life that... It is of value or importance to keep tidy. And then there are other places of our lives that we just sort of let things go.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And it could be like the side of your bed where you just throw the clothes at the end of the night instead of putting it in the laundry hamper. Like there is a why or a bigger, you know, sort of question underneath that.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
So I feel like so often when people start the process of like tidying or decluttering, they're so excited to take on their entire house at one time. And it's sort of like when you start that new resolution that you're going to like work out every single day of the month, like a few days in, you start to develop muscle fatigue and overwhelm. And that can happen with tidying too.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And I feel like when you want to have an entry point or a place to start, I feel like decluttering Those categories where you don't have to negotiate can be so freeing.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
So like for you, if you are starting with the clothing that's in your closet, if you're starting with your work stuff, if you're talking about your own individual work bag, like those are things that you're able to actually declutter and go through without negotiating with your wife, for example.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Because I feel like so often, when you have to declutter with negotiating, that's when all of these other relational sort of issues start to pop up. And it's not to say that you never want to declutter, you know... negotiating but I feel like if you are inspired, it's like start with your own stuff first and then you gradually begin to take on the more complex sort of categories.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And the decluttering process that I recommend, it's you first clear the space, then you start to sort the stuff because it needs to be in smaller categories, then you can begin to assess what do you want to keep versus what do you want to move out before you then make the organizational plan for all of those items that you've chosen to keep.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
But I do feel like decluttering without negotiating first is a great place to start.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yeah, absolutely not. And, you know, most recently I did our, like, tech drawer, which I feel like everybody is great at bringing new tech in, but there's something about us that, like, holds on to all of those cords and chargers, even when we've gotten multiple duplicates forevermore. And so... Over the weekend, I was like, let me just set a timer for like 15 minutes.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Let me pull all these chords out and actually see, can I sort these and get these reorganized into a way that's like actually usable for our family? And it was amazing to see, one, the like volume of chords that we had, but two, to be able to name like, which of the chords did I actually like? Like, what was the optimal length? Which ones were sort of like broken at the end? And
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
It really reminded me of the power of that like 15 to 20 minute declutter with a very narrow category that then has so many positive impacts on your life. Like when your device needs to be charged that you know exactly where to go for like the type A or the type C charger in a place that's like neat and tidy and organized.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yeah, and I don't know what it is. I feel like sometimes there's this like doomsday scenario almost that we're all planning for. Like, we sort of have lived through doomsday scenarios, which is still coming out of the pandemic of 2020. But whether it's toilet paper or coffee mugs or like tech. You know, it's like, why do we need the volume that we do?
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Is it so that if we happen to have 30 friends who come over and all of their cell phones are like dead and they're expecting like important, like life altering calls that they all need to be charging their phones at the same time. Like when you start to use a little bit of humor and ask yourself, like, Am I planning for a doomsday scenario right now?
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
That can sort of help you guide to what is that like just enough number or what is that just right number of the number of cords that you need that make you feel comfortable so that when you open up that drawer, you can actually find what you need as opposed to being frustrated that you can't find something.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And then you have to go out and buy a new cord because you lost the cord that came with your device. And then you're just continually bringing all of those like new things in.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yeah, no, it's funny. And I feel like coffee cups, that's it's almost sort of like, I don't know what it is. It's a category for people. And I don't know if it relates to deeper values that we have around like hospitality, or it reminds us of seeing friends or sometimes people collect coffee mugs when they're traveling, but also they have those coffee mugs from like...
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Aunt Sarah, but I do feel like if you can name for yourself also like what is getting in the way because of that volume of coffee cups that I have, like that can be an important place to start. And like we live in a 750 square foot apartment. Like I just went through coffee mugs also recently and my daughters were like, daddy, what are you doing? Those are all of our holiday mugs. And I was like,
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
It's fine. I'm not getting rid of the holiday mugs, but I'm like moving them with the holiday stuff because they can't be out on these shelves for the next year. So I do feel like, you know, again, it's going back to that like doomsday scenario. Like, do you have enough coffee mugs to not wash your coffee cup for an entire month? Like, if so, that may be too many.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Do you actually have a coffee pot that's large enough If all of your friends come over and everyone is holding a coffee mug, can you actually fill up everyone's coffee mug at the exact same time? The answer is probably no. So that could be a category that you start examining and that could be a great sort of like testing ground for some of your decluttering skills.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yeah, and I think that that's okay. And I think that, you know, one of the philosophies that I like to share with people is this idea of being able to name what is just enough for you in any individual category. And I think that our spaces in our homes function best when we feel like we do have space for the things that we value or love or enjoy.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
That it's like so often we can look at our square footage as being limiting, but it's often because we have an abundance of things in categories that are taking up space that might not be allowing those new things to come in or be able to organize those things that we have of value.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
I think that this is when you look at a restaurant or, you know, those like MasterChef episodes, especially when you have like Gordon Ramsay sort of like yelling at you and you have the clock counting down, like restaurants have to be organized in such a way that the chefs, the sous chefs, the servers are able to get the food out to people in a timely manner.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And as you mentioned, like so often when people move into a space or when they're like unboxing items to go into their kitchen,
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
you sort of adopt this like put it wherever it fits sort of mindset that it's like okay there's a drawer over here or there's a cabinet there let me just put the stuff away and oftentimes you know how people put things away when they first move in moved in whether it's five years ago a decade ago 20 years ago it's sort of like that is what set the organizational blueprint.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And so I feel like zoning can be a really important sort of organizational approach where it's like within the kitchen, you need to have a prep station, you need to have a cooking station, you need to have a serving station, you need to have a cleanup zone. If you have kids, you need to have the items where kids can access them. And that's exactly what the top restaurants around the world do.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Like there is this organizational blueprint and there is these zones that are established because the goal is to make really beautiful, wonderful, savory foods in a very quick or efficient manner because it could be the best restaurant in the world, but if it's not set up for efficiency and it takes two hours from the time you've ordered to the time that dish lands on your plate or on your table, like
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
It's not going to taste as good and people aren't going to be happy.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
I think that people have these sort of like catch-all zones. And whether it is, you know, you live in a small space or you live in this like palatial sort of farmhouse. I've also had people who live in castles who are like, can you please just help me declutter? And I'm like...
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
I think I can help you with that castle but like first we've got to sort of pare down these different wings that you have but I feel like people are notorious for having these like catch-all I'll get to it later sort of areas and so often when you have closets or wardrobes or dressers. Like you don't actually think about them as real estate that's important within your home.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
You know, like when we get architectural blueprints, we often see the purpose of the room that is named. Like it's very clear that there's the living room, there's the kitchen, there are the bathrooms. But then there are those smaller closeted areas that people don't give a specific name or purpose to. And so, I feel like
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
One strategy that I've shared with people is to actually treat your closets like rooms and like, can you name what is the specific function or purpose? And like if you were doing this overhead layout of your entire space, could you tangibly name for yourself and for others what the purpose of that closet is, which then helps you to set up the organizational system
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
which then helps you with the tidying process of putting things back in their place, which then can also help you with the process of cleaning, which is like the removal of dirt and grime and signs of life. But so much is interconnected and related.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And oftentimes that catch-all can just feel like this huge overwhelming barrier that often is drawn from the fact that you're not actually clear what the purpose of that space is in the first place.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yes, and then it leads to that overspending and consumption because when you can't find something, you're like, well, I've got to go back out the store to get it. Or when you have a spouse or kids and you're like, just go to that closet, just go to that bedroom. That's where it probably is. No one is actually going to take the time to sort through everything that's in there.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And so, I think that... you know, establishing the purpose, establishing zones, committing to stopping that trend of like, that's just our catch all space. I don't know.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
It's something that's really important because it, as I mentioned, it like leads to you going and buying more stuff or it leads to resentments or frustration or sometimes just embarrassment where you just have that door that like nobody's allowed to open. Nobody could go in there and you just sort of try to forget about it, even though it's sort of like subconsciously lingering for you.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And then I just love that then it's like the person who found it somehow gets to become the person who like blames it on everyone else who lives in the house. Because we've all done that, we've like opened the drawer and then it's immediately like, who put all this stuff there? Why is everyone doing this? Why can't people just put their stuff away?
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Even though you have may actually caused some of that disorganization yourself.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yes. And it's like, well, I've held on to this for all these years. Like, why would I get rid of this now? Which again, just sort of perpetuates this cycle. And I think it's why, you know, the processes of decluttering and organizing, tidying and then cleaning, I think it's why they're so important. And it's why those four really do need to be treated as separate things.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
you know, sort of routines and systems that also all are intertwined. And it's just like, you know, a few months ago, my youngest daughter like completely clogged the toilet, which then caused it to like flood into our downstairs neighbor's apartment. And, you know,
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
it was like where did I need to shut off that water like our water valve for the entire bathroom is like underneath the bathroom sink and like if that was an untidy place it would then cause you know me to not be able to actually get to the valve to turn it off and it's one of those examples where
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Yes, that sort of feels like a catastrophe sort of like situation, but there are practical realities that like disorganization does make it really hard for us to maintain our homes.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And when we don't maintain our homes, there are a whole host of issues that can surface and problems that can happen where we have to throw money at things simply because we didn't like either know how to take care of it in the first place or actually take care of it in a way that like keeps things maintained and organized.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
I think that just some people do, but you know, like the example that I gave of like, we have a cottage in Pennsylvania and one of the best things that we did when we purchased our home, a friend said, find yourself a home inspector that will allow you to walk around the house with you because that home inspector is actually going to teach you how to take care of your home.
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How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
And that was one of the best things that I could have possibly done in like that, like two hours stretch of time that he allowed me to follow him around. He was like, here's how you turn off the water. These are things to look for in the crawl space. Here's how you want to get into the attic. And like, these are things that you want to check seasonally.
We Can Do Hard Things
How to Survive This Absurd Life with Samantha Irby (Best Of)
Like just that two hours stretch of time gave me so much sort of like mental clarity on how to share or, you know, how to take care of our space.