Kathi (00:01.72)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I am here with my co-host Tonya Kubo, leader of all things clutter-free. Hey Tonya. Tonya, it’s our favorite time of the year.

 

Tonya Kubo (00:25.117)

Hey, Kathi!

 

Tonya Kubo (00:29.445)

It is our favorite time of the year. I was just about to say that.

 

Kathi (00:33.399)

Because we’re weirdo wackos. Yes, but 30-day 1k. What do those words mean to you, Tonya?

 

Tonya Kubo (00:36.969)

We are the Wackos.

 

Tonya Kubo (00:45.727)

That means in 30 days, we are going to eliminate a thousand pieces of clutter from our homes.

 

Kathi (00:53.152)

Now, Tonya, you’ve been doing this for years. Obviously, you have no clutter left.

 

Tonya Kubo (00:58.079)

Yeah, because we just live in a museum over here. You know us. Right? mean, the whole principle, if somebody is just joining us, right? If you are a veteran listener, you’re laughing with us. But if you’re just joining us, the clutter is never one and done. And I think that is the number one challenge for most cluttery peeps when they are new on their journey, is we really think if we declutter the right way, if we just do it right this time,

 

Kathi (01:04.29)

You

 

Kathi (01:12.728)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (01:28.179)

we’re never gonna have clutter again. And that is not how it works if you live with other humans or if you’re going through various stages of life. Like, I don’t know about you, Kathi, but every stage of life I’ve been in brings a different type of clutter into my life.

 

Kathi (01:43.852)

Well, okay, Tonya, so let me just get, we’re gonna dive into this, but let me just tell you what’s happening over here at the Lipp Household, right? So we’re launching a book and we have a retreat net, you know, in like a week and a half. And the book I happen to be launching is about cooking, right? So every appliance in the Lipp Household has decided to die at the same time.

 

Tonya Kubo (01:47.87)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (01:58.952)

Mm -hmm

 

Tonya Kubo (02:03.176)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (02:09.499)

yes, yes.

 

Kathi (02:11.144)

And we’ve decided to have a major electrical problem here in our garage, sure. And the people who installed our heating and cooling system, who I won’t say it here on, but if you are installing a heating and cooling system and the people you’re looking at start with a B, contact me first. Let me talk you out of that. But they have to come. So all of that.

 

Tonya Kubo (02:18.205)

Mm -hmm. Sure, why not?

 

Tonya Kubo (02:33.801)

Yeah

 

Kathi (02:40.344)

contributes to clutter. Plus, let’s just be honest, because I’m not cooking as much, we’re eating out a little bit more. And well, we’re eating in a little bit more. that causes it. just like life circumstances cause more clutter. so you just I, I have spent 50 of my 57 years thinking, well, next year, it’ll calm down. Next year.

 

Tonya Kubo (02:55.411)

Mm -hmm. Yup.

 

Tonya Kubo (03:08.732)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (03:10.164)

you know, when the kids leave the house, it’ll calm down when, and yes, it calms down, but then other things ramp up and all of that contributes to clutter. So explain to us, Tonya, the concept of why, you know, that’s ridiculous. You should just be decluttering all the time. Why are you trying to declutter all that in one month?

 

Tonya Kubo (03:15.817)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (03:30.986)

Okay, so first of all, if you see yourself in any of those pictures, we’re probably not the podcast for you. But so from a very practical point, we do the 30 day 1K in the month of November, because we know regardless of how solid your systems are, a lot of stuff comes into your house in the month of December. And so it’s nice.

 

Kathi (03:37.4)

Probably not.

 

Kathi (03:55.468)

Yeah, it’s so true.

 

Tonya Kubo (03:57.983)

to not pile more on top of more and to actually reduce the amount of stuff that is in your home prior to this flood of things. Now I have younger children, I’ve been saying I have small children for so long, they’re not really that small anymore, they’re 10 and almost 15. So they come with a whole bunch of stuff, especially in the month of December. So the first reason is just to minimize what’s in your house before you get an influx of things. But the second is,

 

I think most of us, regardless of how we feel about our homes, spend 10 months of the year so in the thick of it we don’t really pay attention to what’s around us. And then November hits and we start thinking about Thanksgiving and we think about Christmas and you know, if you’re the kind of person who decorates you think about where you’re to put the tree. If you entertain you’re thinking about where you’re going to put all the people. If you don’t entertain sometimes you have fantasies about wouldn’t it be nice if we could entertain.

 

Kathi (04:55.64)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (04:57.215)

and you start to get really down on yourself. And so the 30-day 1K is a great opportunity to say, you know what, let’s take some massive action. Let’s get into motion so that we feel better about our surroundings on the end of the month than we do right now.

 

Kathi (05:15.288)

Yeah, and I’m going to add one thing that I’ve never really thought about before when it comes to November and December. We’re just spending a heck of a lot more time in our houses. And, you know, things that you can ignore when, know, nine to five, who works nine to five? Come on, nine to six, nine to seven, you know, like eight, you know, six, 30. Right. Exactly. That was yesterday, except it was seven to eight.

 

Tonya Kubo (05:26.494)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (05:34.975)

Hahaha

 

Tonya Kubo (05:39.155)

Seven to seven.

 

Kathi (05:44.536)

And we’re just spending so much more time in our houses. And like you said, we’re having more people into our houses. It’s time to really think about how those walls are kind of closing in on you and to create a little elbow room. So guys, this year, we are starting Friday, November 1st, 2024. And so that is our launch day.

 

Tonya Kubo (05:59.155)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (06:06.163)

Mm

 

Kathi (06:08.77)

But everybody likes to have a little ramping up, which we will do the few days before, you know, that Halloween week, we will be ramping up. To be a part of it, you need to go, and we’ll put the link down here, to Kathi Lipp’s Clutterfree Academy on Facebook and ask to join. And the most important part of asking to join is answering all the questions. Because if you don’t, we don’t let you in. It’s not that we’re being mean, it’s we’re trying to be really, really kind.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:13.289)

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:29.885)

Yes, please.

 

Kathi (06:37.944)

to the 15 ,000 people who have already answered the questions. And we want to make sure that we don’t have raggedy people in there. Okay, so Tonya, here’s my first question. Is it really possible to get rid of a thousand things in a month?

 

Tonya Kubo (06:38.879)

Mm -hmm.

 

Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:46.057)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (06:54.911)

Yes, in fact, every, I have so many 30-day one case stories I can share from our community. So just let me know if you want another story. But so every year somebody says, well, I’ve been at this for three years now. I don’t have a thousand things. Or you know what? We did so much at the beginning of the year. I don’t have a thousand things. And then at the, usually around the 20th, they’re like, my gosh, I’ve already hit a thousand things. So part of it is we,

 

Kathi (07:03.103)

Yes.

 

Kathi (07:10.04)

Mm

 

Kathi (07:19.084)

Yeah, it’s crazy.

 

Tonya Kubo (07:22.801)

Everybody defines clutter differently. And I remember the first year we did this, I had posted a picture. We had done a dumpster, which we have prior episodes about that. We can link them. But I had gotten a dumpster to get rid of a bunch of things. And there was one person in Clutter Free Academy who was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought this was about decluttering. Trash isn’t clutter. Clutter is only things that are usable. And I was just like, well, maybe in your house, but in my house, I am overwhelmed by trash. So I have a big dumpster.

 

That’s what I’m using, right? So part of it is how you define clutter. So for us, it is stuff that you do not love, do not use, would not, could not buy again. It’s very simple. If it falls under those three things, then it can be clutter. And I don’t care personally, and Kathi, I know you don’t care how you get rid of it, but here’s the deal. It has to leave the house. You can sell it. You can donate it. You can stick it on your curb or

 

Kathi (07:52.354)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (08:02.424)

Mm

 

Kathi (08:07.416)

Mm

 

Kathi (08:14.785)

Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:19.965)

You can throw it in a trash can or a dumpster, but it must exit completely to count. And now Kathi, yes, I want you to kind of share your perspective because what I have found in Clutterfree Academy is I am everybody’s friend in Clutterfree Academy, right? I’m their buddy. I am in the thick of it with you, with them, and you are the boss and nobody wants to take off the boss.

 

Kathi (08:25.929)

It’s so true. Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (08:48.639)

So I need you to tell us what your non -negotiables are for the 30 day 1K.

 

Kathi (08:48.78)

Okay.

 

Kathi (08:53.688)

Yeah, so first of all, I want you to know it’s very, very doable because it’s only 33 items a day and all of us can do that. Okay, this is how I count things.

 

Tonya Kubo (09:02.825)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (09:07.769)

I was like, that’s what they’re afraid of. They do not want to upset Kathi Lipp by counting something that doesn’t really count.

 

Kathi (09:13.634)

Guys, it’s your house. The only thing I care about is that you live in peace. So this is how I count things. If you want to count a thousand piece puzzle as your thousand things, feel free, but that’s not going to get you towards peace. It’s just not. So I always think of it like this. If there’s a paperclip on my desk and I pitch it, that counts as a thing. If…

 

Tonya Kubo (09:18.068)

True.

 

Tonya Kubo (09:40.991)

Mm

 

Kathi (09:43.032)

If there’s a box of a hundred paper clips on my desk that counts as one thing every Decision counts as a thing so if you’re gonna get rid of a thousand things it’s a thousand decisions and That’s why this is so hard because it’s so hard making these decisions So if you’re making a decision, that’s a thing and it counts if you want to count the thousand piece puzzle

 

Tonya Kubo (10:06.036)

Bye.

 

Kathi (10:13.176)

pop off, but here’s the thing. I do not believe that that is going to get you to the place you want to be in your house. So if I was going to have one rule, every decision is a thing.

 

Tonya Kubo (10:25.991)

Yes. So I was going say, so that’s the big non -negotiable one, right? Because people will, we’ve had members in the past, it hasn’t happened in recent memory, I mean, we’ve had people paralyzed by the indecision of whether a pair of shoes counts as one item or two. And go ahead.

 

Kathi (10:38.626)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (10:43.594)

And so under that, I would say it’s one decision, because you’re not going to get rid of one shoe and not the other. It’s one decision. Yes.

 

Tonya Kubo (10:51.535)

Right. Yes, exactly. And so that’s, you know, I think that’s important. And the other thing, and you said this the very first year that Clutterfree Academy was open, so I don’t expect you to remember it. But, you you said like, well, you have, when it comes down to it, you have to decide what’s more important to you. Checking a box toward a thousand things or free, actually making an impact in your home. So back to the thousand piece puzzle.

 

Kathi (11:16.621)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:19.983)

If it’s that important to you to check off a thousand items on a thousand checkboxes by all means, but how much of an impact is throwing away one thousand-piece puzzle going to make in the landscape of your home?

 

Kathi (11:31.972)

It’s so true. Okay, so Tonya, I have a question for you. lot of people want to do this and they’re like, one, nobody will help me or two, I can’t get rid of other people’s stuff. So can you talk a little bit about that? Because Roger is on board. Like he’s sold out. We’re doing it. But you have kids. You have a husband.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:35.539)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:45.16)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:49.278)

Right.

 

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (11:56.445)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (11:59.213)

And your husband was quite the collector when you got married. Okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (12:02.911)

he still is. I mean, the collection is dramatically diminished, but he still is a collector type. He likes to collect things. I think I have like, yeah, I think he has like 700 bottle caps on his desk right now. They’re yeah, like he has that thing. Like, I don’t know why I don’t get it. But you know, they’re in a vase. It’s his desk. He gets to do what he wants with his desk, which is it’s rule number one, right? I do not mess with other people’s stuff.

 

Kathi (12:11.02)

Yeah. So how do you deal with that?

 

Kathi (12:18.434)

Does he really?

 

Okay, yeah.

 

I bet it’s really cute.

 

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (12:31.871)

I focus on my own clutter and I let everybody else focus on theirs. How I have gotten my family enrolled from almost day one is I gamify the 30-day 1K. It is a family-wide contest. I print out our tracking sheet for the thousand items. There’s four people in my family, so this is actually very easy for us. It may not be easy for you, but I have four different colors of highlighters. Everybody gets a highlighter. If you have more people in your family, use markers.

 

Kathi (12:32.14)

Mm -hmm. Bye.

 

Tonya Kubo (13:01.651)

but everybody gets to mark off a box in their color when they declutter something. And at the end of the month, whoever has colored the most boxes, so whoever has gotten rid of the most stuff, gets to pick our reward. So we have done it in the past. We’ve done a whole movie day. And so, you know, that person got to pick the movie and then everybody gets to bring their favorite snack. So nobody’s punished for not decluttering the most.

 

Kathi (13:21.74)

Cool.

 

Kathi (13:28.354)

Great.

 

Tonya Kubo (13:30.491)

So we’ve done a movie day, we’ve done dinner out. I remember the first year I taught the girls how to make charcuterie and they all got to pick out a fancy cheese, which you know that was actually a very pricey endeavor. It’s cheaper to take those kids out to the movies. But I gamify it. I think one of the things that I would like to free all of our listeners from is decluttering does not have to be penance. It doesn’t have to be a punishment. You can incorporate joy into this.

 

Kathi (13:40.152)

Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (13:59.401)

whole experience. And so I want my children to have positive associations with decluttering. I don’t want them to be like, yeah, every time we decluttered, my mom made us eat baloney sandwiches and wouldn’t let us leave the house until the whole place was clean. I don’t want those kind of memories. So we make a game of it.

 

Kathi (14:15.757)

Right.

 

I love it so much. Okay, so we have the people who are like can I even find a thousand pieces of clutter in my house and the other people on the other end of the spectrum Dude a thousand pieces of clutter won’t even make a dent in my house so let’s talk about Those friends who are like I it’s not even gonna make a difference So my first thing would be to say you have to start somewhere

 

Tonya Kubo (14:23.519)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:32.799)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (14:46.814)

Mm

 

Kathi (14:46.89)

and a thousand pieces of clutter, especially in some of the in those circumstances, I would ask you to concentrate on surface clutter. I think for many of us, when we, you know, we’re like, okay, we’re gonna declutter a thousand things. And so we go into grandma’s China, like that’s the first thing we do. And it’s like, okay, that’s not gonna make as much of an impact as all the mail on top of your microwave. So.

 

Tonya Kubo (15:06.356)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (15:16.244)

If you want to, and then I would also say if you have a lot of clutter, stick to one room for a while until it feels different, then move on to another place. What would you say to that person who says a thousand pieces are not gonna make a dent?

 

Tonya Kubo (15:26.495)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (15:31.433)

So what I actually hear in that question, Kathi, is if my house isn’t going to be company-ready, Pinterest perfect, there’s no point in starting. And my response to that is, but if you ever want your home to look like your fantasy home, your dream home, you have to start somewhere, and why not start now? I agree with you. I do advocate for starting in one room.

 

Kathi (15:42.775)

right.

 

Kathi (15:55.362)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (15:59.935)

A lot of times the daily challenges that we do for the 30-day 1K will hit various rooms of the house, right? Because what we’re our goal is to jog your memory to get you to think like, what can I get rid of in my kitchen? What can I get rid of in the spare room? But if you focus on one room, then you’re going to be able at the end of the month to go, wow, I’ve accomplished something. If you’re flitting throughout the house, you know.

 

Kathi (16:05.09)

Sure, yes.

 

Kathi (16:09.878)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

 

Kathi (16:21.368)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (16:26.227)

Like Kathi’s point, I mean, you may have clear counters and a clear microwave in the kitchen. You may have clear coffee table in the living room, but you also just may not feel as accomplished as if you focused all your energy in one space.

 

Kathi (16:39.786)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I think People you know, we we talk about the concept of spending all your time saddling up like I’m gonna I’m gonna find the perfect system. I am going to color code I’m going to have different baskets for different things I’m following these six different decluttering systems that I found and I’m combining the best of all of them

 

Tonya Kubo (16:49.555)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:03.647)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (17:07.212)

to come up with, and I’ve been working on this system for two months.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:11.529)

Mm

 

Kathi (17:13.28)

And I think a lot of us who struggle with perfection are waiting for the perfect system. And we are here to say imperfect action beats perfect inaction. And what I mean by that is don’t spend all your time saddling up, go somewhere. The most important thing is to get this stuff out of your house.

 

Tonya Kubo (17:21.214)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (17:41.599)

Mm

 

Kathi (17:42.302)

And when I say out of your house, it can go into the back of your car, but then the back of your car needs to be put somewhere. So, you know, if you, what, what do you say to that perfect, that perfect mindset? I mean, I know you just talked about that, but like just for the getting started, you’ve already talked about if it can’t be company perfect, I’m not going to start at all. So what, what would you say on day one to that person who

 

Tonya Kubo (17:48.713)

Exactly.

 

Tonya Kubo (18:04.67)

Mm

 

Kathi (18:12.148)

is like, but I’m going to make mistakes. It’s not going to be right. How do you help them, Tonya?

 

Tonya Kubo (18:17.135)

Right. Yeah, well, so I always tell people start small. And when we say small, we mean really small. Your very first day, I think the temptation is to say, I’m going to tackle this entire cabinet. I’m going to tackle this entire closet. Your very first day, I want you, if it’s the cabinet or the closet, I want you to just focus on one shelf. Like,

 

Kathi (18:25.954)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (18:43.229)

The top of the microwave is, if that’s where everybody drops mail and paperwork and stuff, the top of the microwave is your only job on day one. Okay, the kitchen table, it’s your only job on day one. That’s it. It’s not the entire room. It’s not every flat surface in the room. It’s just one single flat surface. Take a picture before, take a picture after.

 

Kathi (18:56.525)

Yeah.

 

Mm -mm.

 

Kathi (19:09.366)

Yeah, you know, I’m gonna give one other suggestion. know, you know, I’ve been in houses where the kitchen table would take a week. So here would be my suggestion for a space that even though it looks small is overwhelming, get some painter’s tape and section off that table into quarters or eighths, whatever you need to do. And just do the one section at a time. It’s going to be so much more manageable, so much easier. Okay, we’re gonna take a.

 

Tonya Kubo (19:18.174)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (19:27.081)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (19:31.464)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (19:39.01)

Quick break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about where do you start? What do you do? We’ve already talked a little bit about it, but we have some tools that are going to help you get started. So we’ll be right back. Okay, friends, we are back and we’re talking about where do you get started? Tonya, my whole house is crazy. I don’t even know where to start. Can you please boss me around? Okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (20:01.383)

Yes, so we always say pick the room that bugs you the most. That’s your starting point. So it’s usually two different places. Place number one is where company might see. That’s usually where our members want to start because they want to feel good about having people in their home. But the other most commonly bothersome place is the place in the back of your mind that you were like, if I died in my sleep tonight and stranger saw that.

 

Kathi (20:14.103)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (20:30.171)

I would die a second death. Right? That is usually the number two. But I like to start in a public spot because then every day when I walk in the front door, I’m reminded of my progress. That is my favorite.

 

Kathi (20:31.756)

Mm hmm. Yeah.

 

Kathi (20:43.672)

Mmm, I love that and We also are going to be doing some challenges for you We’re so you need the most important thing is to stay active in the group So you can get those challenges. So, you know what’s going on and you can be there with other people you know what you’re talking about right there Tonya is the low-hanging fruit sometimes

 

Tonya Kubo (20:52.371)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:11.251)

Mm

 

Kathi (21:12.332)

You know, it’s the place that’s most obvious or the place the thing, you know, is going to be the easiest like right now in my entryway because we just got home from unpacking some stuff. There are some fruit boxes, you know, like the cardboard boxes you get at Costco and things like that. Like I could get five points right now by just going. That is low. I didn’t mean to do fruit boxes as your low-hanging fruit, but you know that will cement it in your mind now. Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:18.291)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:27.091)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (21:32.767)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:41.085)

Right

 

Kathi (21:42.048)

Yes, so there are things that need to be thrown away. There are things that you’re like, well, maybe somebody will eat that banana. That was your thought on Tuesday. It’s now Friday. Nobody’s eating that banana. You can you can throw that away. That stained t-shirt that you’ve tried to bleach four times and it’s not coming out. You can either you cut it up for rags, or I’m going to let you count it.

 

Tonya Kubo (21:55.775)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (22:10.057)

Mm -hmm

 

Kathi (22:10.196)

As a declutter I am because you’re repurposing it, and I love that idea, but get that low-hanging fruit, Tonya, let’s talk about how important is momentum and how do you keep it going.

 

Tonya Kubo (22:28.639)

Yeah, so the first thing, so I think momentum’s very important. So if you are mathy person, some of our members are mathy people, I am not a mathy person, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that 33 items a day is about 250 items per week. And some folks really, because 33 items is not satisfying to them, they wanna do 250 in one sitting. And I…

 

Kathi (22:36.727)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (22:55.263)

I love that about you and at the same time, it is going to be a lot harder. It’s gonna feel harder to declutter one day a week to 250 items than it is to do a 10, 15, 20-minute session each day. So I think that’s part of the momentum is if you, know, six.

 

Kathi (23:11.5)

Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (23:16.191)

say, hey, from 6 a.m. to 6 15 a.m. every day, I’m going to do my decluttering or from 2 15 to 2 30 every day, I’m going to do my decluttering and just make that happen. Then by the end of the month, you’re going to have a 30-day habit that has been built. And that is huge. And in terms of keeping going, can we just be honest that decluttering solo is not fun? OK, the demons in our head get really loud, I have found. And, you know, we start

 

Kathi (23:29.376)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

 

Kathi (23:39.797)

It’s done.

 

Tonya Kubo (23:46.239)

We start with the negative talk. Like, how did I let it get like this? My gosh. Like, I remember the last time I cleaned this space and if I’d only kept it up and da da da da. And really in terms of continuing that momentum and keeping your motivation, that’s why we have a community. I love to say, know, everybody joins Clutter Free Academy thinking they are the only person in the world who has a clutter problem. And then they find out they’ve got about 15,600 or 700 friends or so.

 

who also think they’re the only person in the world who has this problem.

 

Kathi (24:16.918)

Right, you know, and so I also want to talk about momentum, but with a different take on it. So like one of the ways that I keep myself going when there’s a big decluttering is by putting milestones into my path. So I don’t even know if it’s milestones, but let’s say triggers in the middle of my path. So if I’m really working on decluttering for a month,

 

Tonya Kubo (24:24.936)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (24:39.411)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (24:45.848)

Then every week I’m going to Goodwill to drop off clothes. Every week or maybe every other week, I’m going to the dump to do a dump load of you know things that have accumulated in my house Every week I am I’m going to challenge myself to post 10 things on our free cycle group or our buy nothing group. Like I am going to be doing this

 

Tonya Kubo (24:50.494)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (24:56.083)

Mm -hmm.

 

Tonya Kubo (25:10.323)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (25:15.576)

I’m going to give myself some smaller goals and targets and go from that. Okay. If you are going through your house and you’re noticing like we’ve got all the Barbie stuff in the corner and I have not seen that Barbie move in 18 months. How do you talk to your kids? I know yours are a little older, but you’ve, you know, how do you talk to your kids about

 

Tonya Kubo (25:41.695)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (25:45.174)

How do we consider if this is something we keep or not?

 

Tonya Kubo (25:48.625)

Yeah, so I always like, I will reframe the conversation and focus first on what to keep before what to get rid of. So I’ve never gone to my children and said, we have to get rid of stuff. Instead, I say, hey, you know, it looks like we have like more stuff than we actually have space for. What do you really love here? So if I found the Barbie in the corner, I would just say, hey, how much are we loving this Barbie right now? mommy, I love it, I love it.

 

Kathi (26:08.95)

Yeah, okay.

 

Tonya Kubo (26:17.351)

Okay, well, I noticed you haven’t played with it in a while. Is it because it’s not where it belongs? Or is it because you feel like maybe you’re a little too old to play with Barbies right now? And then, especially in the month of November, I frame donating as a way to play Santa for other children. And they get very generous when it’s framed that way.

 

Kathi (26:32.769)

Mm

 

Yeah, so great.

 

Kathi (26:40.892)

Yeah, because they can imagine where it’s going instead of into the void. Let me also talk about your adult kids stuff, your adult kids who have moved on. I will say, hey, you know, whether it’s my stuff that I think somebody in the family may want, or their stuff that has been left behind, I will often do it as a text.

 

Tonya Kubo (26:43.635)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (27:09.208)

To say hey, you know take a picture text it over. Hey, is this something you’d like or I’m going to Goodwill can I go drop that off and? So that they know it’s a binary decision It’s not no mom. I want you to keep it because I can’t make a decision It’s either going to your house or it’s being donated because my house is no longer a storage shed for you.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:38.324)

Right.

 

Kathi (27:39.308)

But I also have to be okay with the no, don’t want it conversation. And that’s really hard for a lot of people because you remember that as it was in our house, Boo Blanky was this, know, Justin’s whole life was, you know, focused on Boo Blanky. And now you don’t want it. Are you kidding me? But it doesn’t have the same meaning to him as it does.

 

Tonya Kubo (27:46.526)

Yup.

 

Kathi (28:08.888)

I did at the time, but he is now he is now 30 years out from blue blankie and it’s okay for him to let it go. So I have to be able to say, do you want to keep this? No. Okay. Then I will donate it. I will throw it away. I will do whatever it needs to be done. And then also just making sure that you have an easy system that you are not recreating all the time. You know, we talk about the, you know,

 

Tonya Kubo (28:10.461)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (28:15.357)

Right.

 

Tonya Kubo (28:34.526)

Mm -hmm.

 

Kathi (28:38.539)

three totes and two bags. So there’s a garbage and recycling bag. There’s put away, giveaway and other rooms. And that helps you make decisions the whole time. Tonya, I wanna start to wrap this up. What will they experience in the free group when they join for the month of November?

 

Tonya Kubo (28:48.287)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (29:03.123)

Mm -hmm.

 

Yeah, so when you come into the month of November, be prepared. It’s a busy time, right? The challenge is a busy time. We have activity probably is like 3X, what it typically is, but you’re going to come in to the group and you are going to see before and after pictures showing all different types of living circumstances. We’ve got people who live in studio apartments. We have people who live in teeny tiny urban dwellings, people who have a lot, a lot of land.

 

a lot of open space and everything in between. have people who have several children. We have people who have no children, people who live alone, people who are, know, every age you can imagine. It’s always funny to me. Everybody joins thinking they’re gonna be the youngest person who’s ever joined the group and then they find out they’re not. Because clutter doesn’t, like clutter isn’t something that only becomes a problem after the age of 50, right? Many of us have a lifetime struggle.

 

Kathi (29:46.038)

Roommates, yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (30:00.467)

but you’re also going to get a lot of support. You’re gonna have me in there every single day supporting you. Kathi is gonna be in there multiple times a week. You’re gonna have Grace. Grace is our community manager over in our paid Clutter Free for Life membership, but she comes in. We’ve got Deanna and then our Clutter Free for Life members. This is what I love about our Clutter Free for Life members because they are the people who said, you know what? Like I can’t do this on my own. I actually need hand-holding support.

 

They come in and they serve as mentors. They help people. say, Hey, you know, I remember my first 30-day one K this is what worked for me. And it is just the most loving, accepting place for anybody who actually struggles with clutter. Now asterisk, big asterisk. If you are somebody who does not struggle with clutter, you are a born-organized person. Please do not join our group thinking you are going to tell everybody how to live right.

 

Kathi (30:54.967)

now.

 

Tonya Kubo (30:55.411)

Because we are the kindest corner of the internet for the cluttery peeps. We are not the kindest corner of the internet for the people who think they know better than the cluttery peeps.

 

Kathi (31:02.518)

Yeah, we just will kick you out. And the most loving, there are places for you. There are Reddit threads where you can go tell everybody else how to live. But Tonya and I do not do that. And we’ve made tremendous progress on our journey. But we don’t boss. I mean, we push you around in the kindest way possible, but it’s because you’ve asked us to. So there we go. And Tonya.

 

Tonya Kubo (31:13.012)

Yeah

 

Tonya Kubo (31:16.808)

No.

 

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (31:26.023)

Yes.

 

Kathi (31:29.91)

We’re going to do a little download for people who join the group, right?

 

Tonya Kubo (31:33.183)

Yes, yes. So every year we have kind of a different resource we provide for the 30 day one case so that people who are there every year have something a little different. But sort of this year what I have planned for our community is it’s the combination of what has been requested and served people well over the last five years. So we’re gonna have a calendar. It’s gonna give you what your challenge is for each day. And it’s going to have a spot where you can actually mark how many items you’ve decluttered.

 

for that day. So we have a separate tracking sheet that tracks you all the way to a thousand, but I think it’s important to be able to look at your calendar and see, hey, I was able to do 90 things on Monday. I did 10 things on Thursday. I’m still doing well. And so that’s going to be there for you to just give you that, individual guidance. I know it’s really hard, especially when you’re overwhelmed or when you’re starting out to go day by day, you need to be able to see a little bit ahead of you in the path. And that’s what we’re going to provide this time.

 

Kathi (32:31.774)

I love it. So guys, we’ll have the link below, but you can also just be on Facebook and do Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy and you will find us even if you just do Clutter Free Academy, you will find us. If you don’t know how to spell my name, it’s totally fine. But or check out the link below. Answer all the questions. There only like three, but we need you to answer them so we know that you’re our kind of people, which means cluttering and kind. That’s those are our kind of people.

 

Tonya Kubo (32:41.961)

Mm

 

Tonya Kubo (32:58.846)

Yeah.

 

Kathi (33:00.77)

Tonya, thanks so much for all your expertise today. Yeah.

 

Tonya Kubo (33:03.519)

Thank you, and one more thing, if you’re participating and you are a social media person, I wanna see #30day1K all over social media this year.

 

Kathi (33:10.506)

Yes. Yes, I love it. I love it. love it. I will make sure I am hashtagging up a storm. Friends, you’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.