If you find that the clutter keeps piling up, this episode will blow your mind.You’re going to learn a foolproof decluttering method that has transformed Mel’s home.The incredible Dana K. White, founder of the hit blog, A Slob Comes Clean, and author of How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind, is here to help you tackle your clutter and the overwhelm that comes with it. Today she shares a five-step process that’s revolutionized the way countless people manage their lives—and it’s not about buying more containers or wasting time making everything look perfect. This is decluttering like you’ve never heard it before, designed to make your life easier, your mind clearer, and your home more peaceful. This episode will give you the first step to finally feeling less underwater (no matter what your shelves, desk, or bathroom counter looks like right now!). This is an encore episode with new and exciting insights from Mel at the top.For more resources, including links to the studies mentioned in the episode, click here for the podcast episode page.If you liked this episode, which was packed with personal stories and open dialogue from Mel, you’ll love this one: How To Create Better Relationships: 6 Surprising Lessons From 28 Years Of MarriageConnect with Mel: Watch the episodes on YouTubeGet Mel’s new book, The Let Them TheoryFollow Mel on Instagram The Mel Robbins Podcast InstagramMel's TikTok Sign up for Mel’s personal letterSubscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ on Apple Podcasts to listen to ad-free new episodes Disclaimer
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I have to tell you something you may not know about me. I am a slob. I mean, it's almost embarrassing and something I would rather not talk about, but the time has come for me and you to face this issue head on.
If you have people coming over anytime soon and you would rather they not get past the welcome mat, or if you just have parts of your house... For me, it's like the bathroom doors or the laundry room that are hidden disasters. Shut the door, Chris. You know, when the company's going to sit right next to me right now because you're not alone and you are in the right place.
You and I have got to talk about clutter because clutter weighs you down mentally and physically. I mean, just think about it. When you walk into a room that's packed with stuff or you open up a drawer and you can't find what you're looking for, your brain feels it. You may be in your car looking at old soda cups or tissues that are left from the day before. This was me this morning.
I had to find some in my car. I'm like, how long have those coffee cups been in the backseat? Or you may be in the house or office looking at a cluttered counter or kitchen. Just take a second to notice. Isn't that clutter weighing you down? I'm here to tell you it's not only weighing you down, it's holding you back. No, you do not need to buy more storage bins to hide the mess.
You don't need to take a trip to the big store to get organized or color code anything to start cleaning up your act. You can take back your home and your life with a few simple decluttering steps that actually work in real life for real people like you and me. Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I am so excited that you're here. I just love this topic.
I especially love this topic for right now, based on the fact that the holidays are coming up like a driver that is riding your rear end right now on the back of the car, whatever the heck that's called. Well, first of all, I should probably start and say it's an honor to spend some time with you and to be together. And if you're brand new, welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast family.
The fact that you hit play on this episode, it tells me something. It tells me you value your time and you hate the clutter, right? It tells me that you want simple ways to clean up your act. You'd like to be proud of your house. You'd like to be proud of your counters. I mean, wouldn't you like counters that are squeaky clean? I know I would.
And I also know that you're interested in learning about ways that you can improve your life. And one of the simplest ways to improve your life, and this is actually really important, is to improve the space around you. your environment matters. It like sends these cues to your eyes, to your nervous system.
And the space around me in my home, in my studio and in my car, I mean, it could be described as I'm looking around, there are balloons in the corner in the office. There are stacks of let them books and manuscripts that are Almost a year old, lying around. There is a box sitting next to the printer that has some beige sweatshirt on top of it. I don't even know who the heck the sweatshirt is.
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Chapter 2: How can decluttering improve your life?
Yes. What is the difference between that perfection that I want and where I am right now?
Here's the reality. Organizing and decluttering are separate things. They are not the same thing, but I always thought they were the same thing. I would look around at my mess and I would think I have got to get organized. Yes. Because that logically makes sense, right? Yes. But the problem was I would buy a bunch of products, bring them into my house.
The organizing energy was gone by the time I got home and I just dropped them by the back door and they turned into more clutter. So it never made a real impact on my house. I was at such a rock bottom point I honestly thought I was giving up by saying, I don't even have it in me to get organized. I am just going to declutter. Wow. In my mind, I thought, that's how bad I am.
I've just got to declutter. I can't even think about organizing yet. Decluttering changed everything in my home. So the beauty of realizing that organizing and decluttering are not the same thing and that you can just declutter and that just decluttering will change everything, it's just starting to get stuff out of your house.
So are you saying, Dana, that as an organization expert, that in order to have a home or a workspace or any area of your life feel manageable, which would be the opposite of how I feel right now when I look at my bathroom sink or my closet, that you just gotta forget about organizing because you're not ready to organize. that you need to first declutter. Is that what you're saying?
Yes. You need to declutter. Decluttering is everything. When I decluttered, then I knew what I had. I knew where it was. I could get to it easily. I could access it easily because I'd gotten rid of all that extra stuff so that when I opened the cabinet, I just saw what I needed and I could get to it without moving 15 things.
decluttering made my house look better function better feel better it was the thing i had been needing that i didn't know i needed i thought i needed to get organized so what is the difference between decluttering and organizing In my mind, organizing was bins and boxes and systems and all these things that I would look at those images on Instagram of the color coded things.
And you look at that and you think, that's it. I need the colors. And so you bring the colors in and then you're trying to fit all the stuff in there.
I'm laughing because I thought the solution to my bathroom sink problem was to go to Walmart or Target and buy a bunch of bins to put all the stuff that's on my counter in. Why doesn't it work for me to go buy a bunch of containers for this stuff?
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