44: Company is coming quick stash everything
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Welcome to episode 44 of Permission to be Messy I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about cleaning up before company is coming over. Now, some of you listening may be the type that. you get everything done weeks before you feel really good. You're not worried about the state of your home.
And some of you are stashers. What does that mean? That means. Either people are coming over and you quickly stash all your clutter or you just stash your clutter because you don't like to look at it. But you love your home to be organized and clutter-free, but open any of those drawers, those cabinets or those closets and that's another story. So if you're a stasher, this episode is for you.
What I want you to know is it's totally okay to be doing this. Because the last thing we need is to try and force a decluttering project before a major event. Talk about stress, right? So sometimes we have to stash our clutter away. But what I would love to talk about with you today is being able to stash your clutter in an organized fashion.
One tip that I love. Is using over the doors shoe hangers inside your closet doors. So it could be in several rooms or just your linen closet, your coat closet, whatever. But having an over the door, shoe hanger. And to be able to stash stuff. if you need to pick up a lot of small items, it can really help you instead of throwing it all into a bag and a box and throwing it in a closet. Putting it in compartments in the door.
So for example, You're stashing all your mail that you haven't opened, put all your mail in one pocket or two or three, depending on how much you have and what fits. you have a lot of loose items from your kids' toys. Put those in separate pockets. Anything that's lying around and the things that you would typically just swoop up and throw into a box, thrown in a closet and forget about.
This can be a really effective way to put things out of sight, but also have them in a state that when you're ready to put them away for real in the spot that they really should go in, it'll be a lot easier. Plus if you're stashing mail. If there's bills in there, you can grab that out and it's not mixed in with a bunch of clutter in a bag or a box.
Over the years. I've been in many clients' homes and offices. And I will walk in and I will for a split second think. Why am I here? Everything looks great, but I know that if I opened those closets, those drawers those cabinets that it's going to be chaos. And you know, if you're stuffing things in closets and cabinets. That's one thing, but a lot of times I will find that people will have those bags and boxes a culmination of all the times they've stashed. In a quick second. And they never go through those. And sometimes things get lost.
This is one thing I love to tell people. I find money in a lot of these. Sometimes it's money in the form of actual cash, but sometimes it's checks that haven't been cashed. Or it's gift cards that you've received. There's a lot of gold in these spots. So I want you to not worry about if you've done this in the past. I want you to think about going forward, how you're going to manage that stashing, because to be honest, I think once you're a stasher. You're not always a stasher, but you're going to be until you get things under control.
So until you have systems in place, It's going to be habit. And so if you can minimize what you're doing. for example, if you put everything into a box because you don't want to get over the door shoe hangers, but you want to put everything into a box. Label it and tell yourself, okay. for example, in the United States, Thanksgiving's coming up.
If you've stashed a bunch of stuff. Label it Thanksgiving stash. And put it on your calendar to go and find that box. And process it so that you're not just leaving it in the box to never be seen again, not never, but to be seen years later, when you may have missed important things or just having to deal with that clutter later. Tackle that box. And then if you've done this periodically over time, Pick a box a week to tackle or a bag or whatever it is, you're putting it into.
Take my quiz. See if you are a typical Stasher.
And another way you can look at this too, is instead of walking around with one box or bin or bag. Maybe you do one per room that might be easier. And it may not be that the things that are in the room that you're gathering belong in that room. So maybe you have separate containers for each room and you go and put them there.
So for example, Anything that would belong in your office. You have one box or bin that you're going to gather up, all the things that would belong in your office. And you're going to go put them in your office. You can put them in a closet if you need them out of sight, out of mind, but just tuck it away. Anything that needs to go back to your bedroom. Put that in there, anything that needs to go to the bathroom. You could put that in a box.
You may not want to put it into your bathroom, cause it will be in the way, but you can label it bathroom, labeled the date and make sure you process it. So really this is about giving yourself the permission to stash it, but also holding yourself accountable so that you will go through it. And you won't end up with years and years of boxes.
So I hope this is helpful. If you are somebody who identifies as a stasher and again, take my quiz the link is in the show notes .And I hope that you're have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you're in the U S and you celebrate that. but otherwise I just want to let you know that I'm super grateful for you. I'm super grateful that I'm on episode 44 for all of you who listen. who've commented and given me ratings and reviews, I appreciate it.
And as always, I'm wishing you much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
