Diana Rene: 0:06

You're listening to The Decluttered Mom podcast, a podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, Diana Rene, and in 2017, I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home okay, not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings and I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show. Hello and welcome to another episode of The Decluttered Mom podcast.

Diana Rene: 0:54

I am your host, Diana Rene, and today we are going to talk about why your home never stays tidy, even after you declutter, which this is a very common thing. I get in my Instagram DMs. It's Diana. I don't understand. I feel like I have decluttered all the time. I feel like I've done it so many times and it sticks for like a month, or maybe not even that. It sticks for a week and after that it's just like everything feels super cluttered again. This is common. This is super, super common, and it's frustrating because you put this time and you put this energy into actually doing the thing, actually decluttering, and for it to not actually feel like it actually worked can feel really defeating and can feel really frustrating. And so I empathize with that and I, like I said, I think this is a very common experience and I have seen over and over and over I have been, you know, I've been doing this now for oh my gosh, I have to. What year is it? Does anyone else feel like post COVID? It's like you can't even it all. Everything blurs together, right? Okay, so we are in 2025. I have been doing this since 2017. So you do the math, because if I do the math, it'll be wrong. I've been doing this for many years and I have worked with many, many women and this is one of their bigger pain points and one of the things that when they do come to work with me or they come to take one of my courses, it's a major pain point. And after working with me or after taking one of my courses, they're like, finally, the clutter is staying gone. And so let's go through a couple of the main reasons. I see this happening in homes where someone has tried decluttering and it just won't stick. Okay, number one, you were not ruthless enough. And this is a hard one because, like I said, decluttering takes a lot of time and energy, and so it's hard to hear that maybe you weren't ragey enough with your decluttering, you didn't get rid of enough, and there's a reason for that.

Diana Rene: 3:08

It's emotional to declutter, whether or not we want to believe that. We have emotional ties to our stuff, and if we didn't, we probably wouldn't have so much stuff to begin with anyway. Right. But we have ties to our kids' toys because we remember buying that for them, or we remember them getting that as a gift from grandma who worked extra shifts to be able to buy that for them. Or we have clothes that were maybe fit us in another time of our lives that we're fond of. Or maybe we just spent a lot of money on something and so we really feel bad getting rid of it. Or maybe it was a gift, or maybe it was from someone who's no longer with us. Or maybe you're just worried about the environmental impacts of putting all of this stuff into a landfill, or you know that Goodwill is overrun with just like crap, and so you feel bad adding to that problem and so like you might need this later and like it just spirals right, like anytime you pick up an item when you are trying to declutter.

Diana Rene: 4:15

Anytime you pick up an item and you have something that comes up for you that gives you a reason not to let it go, that is an emotional obstacle. So, whatever that may be, and it might be a valid one, and that's where we get tripped up, right, because it might be a reason to actually keep the item. When we declutter, we are not supposed to just rent a dumpster, take every item from our home and put it the dumpster Like that wouldn't be very effective either, because then you would have to go out and you would have to replace all of the things that you need or actually use or actually want, right. And so that's where we get tripped up. It's not that we can't just pick something up and realize that it's emotional obstacle and let it go. We have to then decipher whether or not that reason that's coming up for us is valid and if it's good enough for us to keep that item. So maybe I pick up a sweatshirt that I haven't worn in forever, but it's my dad's who passed away when I was 17 and I don't really have many items from him, and so even seeing that one physical item is comforting to me, right, and so, like that is a very good reason for me to keep this, this thing, and so it's.

Diana Rene: 5:36

It's figuring out what makes sense for your specific household. You can't just throw everything away, but you also can't keep everything, and so finding that balance of what is being ruthless enough for your specific home is where people get tripped up and tripped up often. But if the if you've decluttered and you feel like it just didn't stick and maybe it was a week, maybe it was a month then that is a likely candidate for what's happening is that you just didn't get rid of enough. Okay, number two and PS. Before I jump into number two, actually it's very common for these three things to be in play with each other, so it's very rarely just one of these things, it's more often all three of these things, and it just depends on what degree in your specific home, each of them is playing a factor.

Diana Rene: 6:37

Okay, so number two is no systems or routines were built in to maintain your home, and what I mean by that is yes, maybe you got rid of a bunch of stuff, but you didn't implement any way to slow the roll of new things coming into the home. You didn't implement anything that would help you maintain the current status of the amount of items in your home, and you also didn't implement any systems that just make your room, make your room, make your home run smoother, which then kind of gives you the momentum to keep the home decluttered. Does that make sense? So that's another big one. There was nothing implemented to maintain it just was like, yeah, I like got rid of a bunch of stuff and then just kept going on with my life as normal. And so, yes, things are going to build up, especially if you're online shopping or your kids are bringing things home, or a combination of all of those things. Right?

Diana Rene: 7:51

Number three things are not given a home, so they just live anywhere and they feel like clutter, even if they aren't actually clutter. Right, and so if we don't give every single item every, okay, every single item that comes through your door, that is something that you are going to keep. It should have a home within your home. So if it's a book, it belongs on this bookshelf. If it's a clothing item, it belongs in this part of the closet. If it's a fidget that you mess with while you're on work calls, it lives in your desk drawer, in this one spot. You get what I'm saying Like, a lot of times we bring new things in our home that we do want to keep, but but we don't know where to put it, and so it just kind of lives on the counter and then we lose it because we can't remember where we put it last and it's just sitting there taking up space and looking like clutter, when it's actually not clutter.

Diana Rene: 8:57

It's something that you really want and you want to keep it in your home, but it's got to have a home. It has to have a place in your home that it lives when you are not using it, otherwise it's going to feel like clutter. And so again, this, this episode today is a short and sweet one, but I've just really wanted to get right into these points, because this is such a common thing I hear over and over and over. And so if you are in those shoes, if you are like I keep trying to declutter and it never stays, then these are three things that you can look at and you can think about and you can decide whether or not. Oh yeah, that's actually a good point, Like I didn't do anything to maintain it, or I probably should have been a little more ruthless than I was. Or like, yeah, nothing has a home, like everything is just, it just lives somewhere in the house, and those three things can really impact how your home feels.

Diana Rene: 9:55

Now here's the other. The last thing with number three is that if you're like Dana, like there's not enough room for everything to have a home, then that means we got to go back to number one. You're not being ruthless enough. Everything to have a home, then that means we got to go back to number one. You're not being ruthless enough. Like the hard fact is, especially if you have a smaller living space, the hard fact is that you just have to be, you have to live with even less, or you have to find really creative storage solutions to make it not feel so overwhelming in the home. And so we still we have to find a home, whether or not that is in our home or if it is in some type of storage solution. You have to be creative with vertical wall space and under bed storage, and like you have to be a little bit more creative, which is frustrating because it's more work, right, but that's just kind of the reality of the situation, if you do have a living space that calls for that, and so I hope this is helpful.

Diana Rene: 10:53

Again, it's short and sweet, but I just hear all the time and I really wanted to go over those three main things that I see over and over and over, because maybe that will resonate with you and you'll be like oh yeah, I need to do this. I'm here, as you know. I have several courses that can help you through this. I also have my Instagram and this podcast, so I'm here for you on this journey. I hope that you found this helpful. Could you do just a couple small things for me If this podcast has ever been helpful for you?

Diana Rene: 11:22

We are really trying to show up in the algorithm more for other busy moms who have not quite discovered the podcast yet but need the help from this podcast, and so the main ways that that would help us show up in the algorithm. There's three things. Number one if you could follow this podcast on Apple Podcasts and maybe you've done it in the past, but you haven't listened in a while and you came back to listen. Unfortunately, apple podcasts will actually unfollow a show if you have not listened to it consecutively two weeks in a row and so you might think you're following me and you're not, so can you please check and if you aren't, please follow me? The second thing is to leave a review. This is not only helpful for the algorithm, but helpful for any new mom that comes along this podcast. The more reviews there are, the more likely they are to tune in and give it a try.

Diana Rene: 12:18

And then, number three, can you just share this one episode with one friend? If you want to share it with more, great, I'm not going to stop you, but one friend. If you can just take the episode, copy the link, send it to a friend. Just the sharing aspect of the podcast shows the algorithm again that this is a good podcast. This is helpful for people. People want to listen to it and so it will automatically show up more in other people's feeds when they are searching for a podcast to listen to.

Diana Rene: 12:47

So those are three things that if this podcast has ever helped you. I would love it if you could just do even one of those but all three would be great just to support the podcast so that we can get this message out to more busy moms out there that just are looking for that breath of fresh air, to be able to feel like they are in control of their homes again. So all right, you guys, I will see you on next week's episode. Thanks for hanging out and listening to The Decluttered Mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories. And if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me at thedeclutteredmom and send me a DM to say hi. I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.