Welcome back to the Well and Worthy Life podcast. I’m so excited you’re here. I have got another great guest with me today. We met through Instagram, which seems to be one of my favorite places to meet people, and she showed up in my DM just telling me that she has been listening to my podcast. And you know, let’s face it, there are so many people on Instagram.
Sometimes it’s hard to find all these great people. So I’m so glad she found me so that I could find her. That’s what’s so wonderful. So who do I have today? Corrine from Grid and Glam. Oh my goodness. What an awesome name. So Corrine, thank you so much for reaching out to me, first of all, and then agreeing to be on the podcast.
And we’ve already talked before, but let’s tell everybody what you do. But maybe tell everybody, kind of tell ’em your story about how you got into what you’re. Yeah, sure. Well, thank you so much for having me. And I love that you shared the story about how we connected. Cause I feel like sometimes social media can feel so negative and it also is nice to show the positive side of it and that you can make really great, authentic, fulfilling connections through it.
So I think that was such a nice way to start the conversation. So, as you mentioned, I’m the founder and c e O of Griding Glam, and the company has multiple components. We do in-person professional organizing, meaning we go, meaning we go into our clients’ homes and organize them. And I also have an online membership, which really teaches women and families how to get organized.
in a very doable bite size way over the course of a year. And then I have business coaching programs for other professional organizers who want to grow and scale their businesses. So my story started I think a lot, you know, like a lot of other women. I graduated from college and I was really intent on having.
Fulfill career and I worked on Wall Street. I met my husband in New York and we moved to the suburbs of Boston and we were living the quote unquote dream life in a beautiful house. And I had two kids and was still working in finance. And I looked around and I said like, this cannot. Possibly be as good as it gets.
I felt like I was always chasing my to-do list and I constantly had things to do. I like my space, very organized, but I felt like I was constantly organizing and reorganizing. And I had this moment one day where I was picking my kids up from daycare at the time, and I’m walking in the house and you know how it goes.
You’ve got all the bags and their bags and all the things, and my kids were running around the. , having fun, laughing, making a mess, and I yelled at them and, I sank the floor in tears and I realized, oh my gosh, I’m yelling at my kids for being kids, for having fun, for making a mess of this messy life. And it just, for me was this moment of like, oh my gosh, I have let my own life get out of control.
And I refused to spend the rest of my life, life like this. So I spent a year decluttering and organizing my house. And it changed everything for me. I really simplified the way we live, but it also simplified the plans that we have. I started getting rid of the negative thought patterns, the toxic relationships, and building a life that actually felt fun.
Cuz there’s so many parts of life that are hard. And out of our control and through this process, I really transformed my life and I was staring my 40th birthday in the eye and I thought, you know what? It’s now or never to start a business where I can give other women the same gift of. , getting ourselves back, getting our lives back, being able to show up in a way that feels really good, so there’s more time for fun and joy and pleasure and all the things we wanna do.
And not just filling our days with being a mom or being a wife or going to work. And yeah. So that’s, that’s how it all started. Wow. And that was about five years. . Wow. I mean, that’s such a powerful story and there’s so many things about that that I love that. First of all, I’ve had a lot of, in fact, my very first podcast we talked about reinvention, and I have reinvented myself so many times, but I can imagine at 40 you had a really great job.
I honestly, I’ve, I’ve never had such a great job that it was hard for me to leave one to, to go to another. So, So, but you had a really good job and so this was like a big leap of faith and let’s just be honest, being an entrepreneur is lonely sometime. That’s why I’m so glad we connected too.
Yes. And you can be lonely and you’re, and trying to figure out all the things. So that’s one thing. And then I love how you spent a year decluttering. , and it wasn’t just in your. Just wasn’t just the things, it was everything for, you know, relationships that were toxic, you know, trying to . I always say this, I’m a wannabe minimalist.
I really am. I think there’s so many people that are like that that we are this wannabe, minimalist and for some reason, you know, it never happens, but that you spent this time to declutter. And, you know, because we do, we are more healthy in our space. We can be more creative. And then the example you’re setting with not taking up time in your life for the toxic relationships, for the, for the things that just fill the time because you think you. You should. Yeah. Yeah. Right. They should. Right. All the shoulds ex. That’s exactly right. And I love your comment about being an entrepreneur.
I read a quote that said, entrepreneurs are the only people crazy enough to leave a nine, nine to five to work 24 7. Right. And it’s true. We do. We do work. . And I remember when I first started working in finance, they used to call it the golden handcuffs because you make so much money that it feels hard to leave, but you get to a certain point in your life where you’re like, if money is not everything, right?
Mm-hmm. you, if you’re not enjoying it, what is the point? And you know, so my son is now 13 and he actually just wrote a paper for school. He had to interview someone and he interviewed me for all of about two and a half minutes, . Cause that’s the amount of time he was gonna put. But I read the article that he wrote afterwards and it’s just so fascinating the how they connect the dots, how they’re really watching.
Mm-hmm. and the whole paper was about how I started this business to change other people’s lives, but. The byproduct has also been that I have so much more time to hang out with the kids and do things I love, and it was talking about this gift of simplicity. Now, I don’t consider myself a minimalist. I love beautiful things.
I love luxury items, but it’s about having. just the right amount of stuff for you and not that excess that weighs you down and that gets in your way and that you’re constantly having to organize and reorganize and, yeah, I mean, I know you’ve talk about this all the time with the work you do, but it really is, you know, our, nothing in our life.
Functions in a silo, right? It’s all this E. Everything is interrelated. And so when we start getting rid of the physical clutter, it becomes so much more clear to us where we’re spending our time that doesn’t feel good, and who we’re spending our time with and the types of things that we’re thinking. And I think a lot of us through the years have just sort of felt like we’ve lost control to what our.
Can be, because like you were saying, we’re doing all of these shoulds, but when you realize like there are a lot of things, many, many things that are in our control, and if we take that control back and we start making choices and filling our time with the things we wanna do, all of a sudden you built a beautiful life that actually feels really fun to show up in every day.
Yes, I, I totally, agree. I definitely think it is about finding space for everything. I just did a podcast recently talking a friend of mine just wrote a book and she talked about wanting space. So space can be decluttering, space can be. Cutting off some relationships. I mean, I think space for us is what we need so that we can bring that fund back to life.
Right? Yeah. life can get so serious and so hard sometimes, and we are going to have hard times. I mean, that’s just . There’s just gonna be stress. I talk about that with my groups all the time. We’re gonna have stress. It’s just how we deal with it all. And to have a a lot of clutter around us. A lot of you know, I, I say this all the time.
I cannot stand to get in my car and have a bunch of junk in my car. It just makes me. Yuck. Like, I want my car clean. I just got a new car and I’m right. I’m so, I’m trying to keep it so clean right now. You know? ? Yes. Like, I don’t like any of that stuff. So let’s get back to this. Okay. So you like luxury things.
So how do you, because this is the problem. When I say I’m a wannabe, minimalist, I love things. I love nice clothes, I love. You know, and let’s face it, like clothes. I, I, that’s what I think of. I bring in a lot of clothes, a lot of times because the different seasons and everything and the different trends, and I bring it in and I’m like, oh my gosh, now my closet’s packed full.
Now I am pretty good about getting rid of things. Okay. Sometimes I get rid of things before I should and I’m like later going, wait, I know I had something just like that, . But so do you have like a rule of thumb, like when you buy one thing, get rid? I’ve heard of people like the one in one out rule.
Yeah. Yeah. So I, I like that. So the thing, the, the, the thing is I love nice things too, but I love the calm of a clutter-free space more than I like things. And so every time I buy something, and I’m not kidding, and I like everyone, I’m a almost daily Amazon shopper too. So I’m not trying to pretend that I don’t, I don’t shop, but every time I buy anything, no matter how small or big, I ask myself, where in my house is it gonna.
where’s it gonna go? And that simple question, just taking a little bit of a pause makes you realize, do do I have space for this? Mm-hmm. , do, do I have space for it? If not, what am I gonna get rid of to make this space And the other. . Amazing benefit of that is when the package comes in the mail, or if you go in person shopping, when you bring the stuff home, it doesn’t then sit on your kitchen counter or by the back door.
Mm-hmm. , you immediately know where in your house it’s gonna go. So these things that you bring in, you actually can enjoy and they don’t then become more clutter. And in terms of what we hold onto, I say you should only keep the things that you. And that you need and that you love, right? So the first two are really the things that we’re using in our lives every day.
They’re the clothes we put on on all the time. And then absolutely keep things that you want. But what you’ll realize when you start being a little bit more discerning about the things you’re bringing in your home and how you wanna live that. , you actually want fewer things. I love this philosophy of owning well, like buying fewer but nicer things.
And if you go in your closet and you say, there’s a lot of things in here I would wear, but I’m not wearing them because there’s these other things I like more. , then get rid of them, make the space, and then also commit to really only buying things you love. What becomes clutter is when we buy something that we’re kind of like iffy about.
We’re like, oh, I’ll wear it maybe, but you never loved it. Or it’s a gadget that you like think, and maybe I’ll use this, and you bring it into your house and you’re like, you don’t incorporate it as part of your lifestyle. That just becomes clutter because after a few weeks or a few months, you’re never gonna use those things again.
They just sit there and take up space, and we always worry about the money. Spent, but these items don’t gain any more value by sitting in our house. Right. , the money is spent , you’ve got the money. That is so funny you say this because, okay, so I think I’m better at bringing stuff into the house. Like it’s gotta have a place.
But my husband, he’s at like a wannabe decorator I think, and he, and I’ve been married almost nine years and and so he, when I moved into his house, he. . I mean, it was fully flourished with antiques and some beautiful stuff. Some that I was like, ah, this has gotta go. I mean, and it is. And he is like, I spent thousands of dollars on this.
I’m like, well, I don’t know. Nobody’s gonna spend, you know, he always thought, oh, this is gonna be an investment. Nothing. Nothing goes up. I don’t care. Very rarely. Does something go up in value? Very, very rarely. That’s true. And and so we, he can’t get rid of it because he is like, well, I just know how much money I spent.
So it is, is taking place in a storage room that we have downstairs, . I’m like, and when he starts looking for new things, like we’ll go to New York and he’ll go like, let’s go look at. A new painting or a new, and I’m like where are we gonna put it? Yeah. And he is like, well, we’ll find a pla. I’m like, no.
Well, something’s gotta go down. So. Yep. . Yeah. It’s real. It’s so, and a lot of people get caught in this trap. I remember my, when my grandmother passed away, she had a beautiful home with all these lovely antiques, and she was convinced, and my mom and my aunt were convinced that things were gonna be worth.
There was one thing that was worth a good amount of money. She had a harp, a beautiful harp. Nothing else was worth anything. The rugs, the paintings, the vases. Like no one, because nobody wants antiques anymore. And if you love those items, you should absolutely keep them because you love them and they’re in your home and they’re on display.
But keeping something because you think it’s an investment or someone else is gonna want it, it’s, it’s not, they’re not going to. Now you are lucky that you have storage space and this stuff isn’t cluttering your home. So for someone like you, I might say, okay, it’s outta the way. , your husband loves the stuff.
It’s not doing any harm. But for people that don’t have the space, these things that they’ve spent money on are continuing to detract value from their lives because they’re taking up valuable space. They’re looking at these things thinking, oh, I spent all this money on it, but now I don’t use it anymore.
So that’s causing them frustration, right? So some of these things we think, oh, there’s no cost to keeping. , but there actually is a cost to keeping it as well, and people need to keep that in mind. It’s not just the money we spent acquiring the item, but it can be really hard. Really hard. Yeah. Yeah. I have a girlfriend who, her closet is packed full and it’s packed full with different sizes, and I’m just like, Just get rid of the sizes that don’t fit well.
But what if I gain the weight or what if I lose more? I’m like, no. It’s just taking up, like you said, it’s taking up the space and taking up, like especially if you lose the weight, like just get rid of it. That way you don’t have an option to go back there. That’s what I had heard from other, yes. Yeah.
I have a, I have a good friend who lost a lot of weight and she was like, I’m getting rid of all the clothes, so it’s not an option. I’m not going back there. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. No. So, but I know that it is, for some people, it’s easier to get rid of than others. Yes. My first husband we, we were the worst. We would get rid of so much stuff.
Our kids would be like, Going, like when we cleaned out together, that was one of the things that we did very well together. When we cleaned out, we really cleaned out, and when we moved we told the kids like, here’s one box. Whatever you can fit in that one box. It can go . God, I love that. Love that. But the thing is, do your kids miss any of the things that they couldn’t bring with them?
No. Nothing. No. Right. That’s the thing. I mean, truly. I mean like even if I had to say, Well, I only could bring a box full of clothes. I mean, I could get my clothes and I probably wouldn’t even realize that I didn’t have the others because I would take my favorites. Right. I mean, that’s what we do. Yes. But but anyway.
Okay, so here’s another question I have for you. . Yeah. So when we talked before, you were talking about how you have this membership, you go through slowly each room, and the beauty of what you do, what you teach, is that you don’t have to go back and claim that room again. Yes. Okay. So now I’m like, wait. Now, how is this possible?
Because I have organized a drawer in my kitchen about , 17 times a year at least. Okay, so maybe every two or three weeks I have to go and organize it again? Yes. So what happens? What happens? Okay. So yes, the whole premise of the membership is that you do a space thorough. One time, and then you don’t have to revisit it.
And that’s why we do it over the course of the year because life happens in between. This is not our full-time job, but we really wanna do it right now. I will say there is one major caveat, and that is if you have kids that are still growing, because of course kids clothing and kids’ toys and kids’ artwork and kids’ schoolwork that you need to continually call through, but really the rest of the items in our.
So kitchen, for example, if you really go through and you get rid of everything that you don’t use and you assign everything a home, and this is what we do in the membership. Everything has a home, and then every time you take something out of its home, , you put it back, and this is important. Everyone in the house does the same, it.
That’s the important part. Yes, yes. How, how do you get everybody on board in the house to do that? Exactly. And so, you know, my husband, for me so and so, it’s true. And so it can be a spouse, it can be kids, and listen, like you were saying earlier, how it’s easier for some people to get rid of things than others, which is absolutely true.
It’s also easier for some people to be organized than others. So obviously you have to. Understand that you are not doing anything wrong if you can’t get your kids on board. But what we talk about in the membership is you know, listen, we like to have fun and we try not to make this so serious, but there is a serious component to this of when you go through this process and you do it right.
It will change your life. Like it will absolutely change your life. The stories that I hear from the women who have gone through it about how much, like just at the end of the night, being able to sit on the couch and read a book without any guilt because there’s no to-do list hanging over their head and the amount of time they can spend with their kids, the less nagging and, and the less shout, so much less shouting that they do.
Like, it really does have an impact, but it all starts with having an like an actual serious conversation with your partner, with your kids about. We’re gonna do things differently around here now, like this isn’t working for us. I don’t wanna be yelling all the time. I don’t wanna be stressed, I don’t wanna be frustrated, and I don’t wanna.
Serving you. I don’t wanna be take taking care of this house nonstop because then I can’t do the fun stuff with you. And so let’s talk about the importance of really working together. And for those of us that have spouses or kids that are not gonna do any of the work to help us get organized. I do teach in the membership how to get people to help.
But if, let’s say you’re at the extreme and no one’s gonna help, you can say them, you don’t have to help. But at a minimum you have to. You don’t have to do the work, but I’m gonna set up a system and you’re gonna follow the system and here’s what it’s gonna look like. And in the beginning, there might be.
and by some I mean a lot of reminders of like, remember we talked about this? That’s not where that goes. This is where it goes. And it might feel a little rigid at first, but from everyone who has been a little bit rebellious against the rigidness of it, they come to see that on the other side of the structure comes.
All of the flexibility that you have to get to the other side of it to really get that breathing room and the freedom you want. Because if you don’t set up the structure, you are just constantly in chaos or fighting or tension, that actually, that structure is what allows you to truly get the freedom.
So it is about setting an expectation, a very clear expectation, creating the system, and then reminding g. or not so gently, whatever your style is that like, this is how we’re doing things now and kids and partners will catch on eventually. Yeah, and you know, I find that same thing in, in when somebody starts.
With me on one of my programs and they’re like, oh, this is going to be so different. And my spouse or my kids are not gonna like the food, or they’re not gonna like the way I’m doing things. But yeah, I think we lead by example, number one. And people finally do, they’re like, see how The, the wins in it, you know, they, they see the how it’s, it works.
And you know, in, for instance, you know, on the other side, you know, once everything is in place, that mom has more time or the wife has more time in the evening to spend, you know, these men seem to want. Attention. Right . Right . So we have more time to give them the attention, or we have more time to do the things that we truly want to do as a couple, or just by ourselves.
I mean whether we’re living by ourselves at this point in our life or. Or whatever. But I think that it’s really important too, to really think about the health aspects of it. And I know, I think it was yesterday or one in one day this week, I saw on your Instagram there was an article in the, what was it?
Tell us a little bit about that article. . Yeah, so it was an article in the New York Times that was talking about, I mean, there’s so much research about the impact of clutter on our mental health. And what this article was saying was that when we are feeling depressed, this article was in particular talking about depression.
One of the first things to go is our homes. We stopped taking care of them, right? We’re still taking care of ourselves. We stop taking care of our homes, and the clutter comes in. And what’s so unfortunate about that is the clutter then causes us to be more depress. and it becomes this really unhealthy cycle.
And the article was saying that if you could just. A few minutes to declutter. It is not going to cure you of your depression, but it will lift your mood. It is scientifically proven that when it’s, it’s twofold. It’s the act of decluttering itself, doing something productive, seeing a result from it, but then experiencing an environment that is less cluttered.
Both of those components lift our mood and having your mood lifted really can. Impact the chemicals in your brain and make you feel less depressed. So again, the article wasn’t trying to say that it’s gonna cure you of your depression, but it is gonna make you feel so much better. And the opposite is true.
The more clutter we live in, the more of a negative impact it has on our, on our mental health. Mental health. So this article was talking about depression in particular, but I’ve also seen studies about anxiety and it really, there really is such a correlation between. decluttering and living in a clutter-free space and the positive impact it has on our mental health.
Mm-hmm. . So I was working with a client, this is when I did one-on-one coaching, and she had just moved. and to a house, and she had not unpacked her boxes yet, so she had boxes everywhere and we were trying to work on her health and wellness goals. We were trying to get her to plan her eating. We were trying to get her to move her body.
We were trying to get her to do some of those things. Yeah, because she had some weight she wanted to lose and. , but every time I talked to her, she just couldn’t get it done. And come to find out, like I said, I, I didn’t know of her that she had moved and she had all these boxes and she started telling me that all these boxes were laying around.
So we came up with a plan to like, Unpack one box a day, get your bathroom situated, get your kitchen, the, some of the areas that would make a difference. And it did help her tremendously. But I think that’s, it can happen to us. Like we’re all of a sudden we we’re like, we know we need to change something, you know, and we’re just.
So we start on our outward appearance, but maybe we need to start in our house kind of Yes. Organizing everything so that you know, then we can, we, in fact, it’s funny cuz in balanced eating method, the first thing we do is clean out our pantry in a refrigerator. Yep. And get it organized, you know, putting all the like foods together.
So, We can be organized so that we can make healthy choices so that we can go replenish. Everything has a spot. The things that we don’t want to eat or whatever, we place ’em somewhere where we don’t see ’em. And and so I think that that really is important that, you know, the, these two things where they may seem like they’re not related.
They’re so related. They are so related. Yeah. You make such a great point, and I’m sure everyone listening to this is interested in having a healthy lifestyle. Right. That’s why they’re mm-hmm. in your, your world and it’s a, the kitchen is a huge thing, but also in our bedrooms because sleep is such an important component Yes.
Of. Waking up, exercising making those healthy choices, right? When we’re not exhausted, we’re making better food choices, and so also having a decluttered bedroom allows us to fall asleep more easily. I’m a big fan of not putting our phones next to our bed at night, and then if we know where our.
Workout clothes are, or maybe we even have a routine where we lay them out the night before. Then we’re getting up. We have no excuse not to work out. Then like you’re saying, we’re going into our kitchen that’s organized full of all the healthy things. Maybe some unhealthy things too, but we know where the healthy things are.
They’re exactly, et cetera. , right? It really, all of these things do. You know, our life is interconnected and having an organized environment, you know, people always joke that you know, let’s say like, I just lost a hundred pounds because they’ve donated a hundred pounds worth of stuff in their house,
But there is a correlation between decluttering and losing weight. Again, it’s not gonna cause it the same way getting organized. It’s not gonna lift your depression. But when you set yourself up in an environment that is decluttered. And organize. It really does then help you achieve all of the other lifestyle and health goals that you have.
Uhhuh, it’s so, I mean, you and I are right on track. I’m like, yeah. I always tell everybody like, please do not put your phone right by your bed. , even when my kids were teenagers, I, I’m like, they were in, I would, I would stay up till they were in, but at this point, my kids are grown.
They’re men. They do not need to call me in the middle of the night. I mean, I can wait till the next morning. They. You know? Right. But so many of my friends are thinking, oh, if there’s an emergency, I mean, like, they’re grown people. What did we do? I, I didn’t have a cell phone when no. Was 20 something. Of course not.
And my parents didn’t even have a phone in their bedroom, I don’t think. Like, no, you know, back, no, we shouldn’t do that. Right. It’s so true, but it’s, it’s very hard because, so we are so used to being connected and so, and that’s the tendency. Then somebody wakes up if your phone is right beside your bed, you know, this perimenopause, menopause, we end up not sleeping so well anyway, so we need to do everything we can.
And the last thing you wanna do is pick up your phone in the middle of the night and start scrolling. . Yes. And listen, the reason I know that not, you know, we shouldn’t put our phones next to our bed is cuz that was me too. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and I’d start scrolling and then I, and I would lose a night’s worth of sleep and then I’d eat terribly the next day.
Mm-hmm. cuz I’m trying to eat to get the energy because I have to stay awake. And so and listen, every now and then I might fall asleep with my phone next to my bed still. And those mornings are never as good of a morning because then I’m looking at my phone first thing where, whereas if I wake. From my alarm, and then I immediately start my routine.
I work out and I don’t check my phone until I’m ready to start my workday. I’m like, oh my gosh, I’ve just had this peaceful morning, so productive, and now I am ready to be connected and do all the other things. And I think a lot of us think it’s gonna be harder than it’s al. It’s almost like an addiction, but if you just put it away, oh, it’s addiction, right?
I mean, again, there’s been studies showing, yeah, we’re addicted to our phones. Yeah, and you just physically put it somewhere else and you’re, you don’t even have the option. You’ll, you’ll start to re like, then you’ll get a addicted to the high of actually like, enjoying life. And that’s what I feel like happens with getting organized too.
You get, you almost get like a high from. Feeling like, oh my gosh, I’m like so on top of my house and my life. And I’m sure, you know, I know a lot of people get that exercise high too when you’re eating healthy. Like it really is about feeling good. But so much of us are just, you know, so many of us are just Numbing out in all different ways.
And then we don’t get to experience the true pleasure and joy even in food and in all the things that are out there for us to enjoy because we’re not even in touch with our real feelings. Yeah, I, I, I totally agree. I couldn’t help, but as you were think talking too, Thinking about another benefit to having an organized home.
And I really feel like my house is fairly organized. It could always be better and I probably should take your course, but . But and my husband is fairly good about putting things back. And so and if not, it’s just one person. I have to go back and maybe put things back. It’s not like it’s, I don’t have kids at home, thank goodness anymore, but.
and my mother-in-law, we had, we celebrated my father-in-law’s birthday the other night and my mother-in-law was like, thank you so much for having us all over. We picked up food. So it really, I like, well, it was really no problem. And she goes, yeah, but you had to clean your house. And I’m like, no. My house was like, there really wasn’t a lot of cleaning going on before y’all got here, you know?
Yeah. Cause everything, like you said, has a place, I mean, I didn’t need to go back. You know, clean everything up. I mean, like, I have a Bible study here on Tuesdays. I mean, like, everybody’s like, oh, thank you so much for having the Bible study. I’m like, Well, I mean, it’s really no big deal. All I have to do, I, I go around and I fluff some pillows a little bit just cause I wanna be extra fluffy.
My husband says I’m really good at fluffing pillows and night I am. It makes a difference. It does. Try maybe light a candle. Yeah. You know, make such a great point. I actually grew up in a house that was very disorganized and I never wanted to have people over. And I told myself I was gonna grow up in a house or I was gonna raise my kids in a house where people could, were welcome to.
Stop over anytime where we could just have people pop in. I don’t like to cook, so when I’m hosting, also I’m bringing in food, right? So it’s no stress, but my, like I, there’s literally nothing that I have to do to prep for hosting. And that’s another bene benefit that the women have said in our membership that people can just pop in and, or they can host a big family gathering and.
the, there are still other things that can be stressful with family dynamics or whatever, right? Yes. But the house component of it is not a stress. And just think about how much freedom that gives you when you just don’t even have to think about it. It’s not even a worry in the world. And I love the fluffing pillows examples because it is like, it does make a difference.
But if that’s all you have to do, like that is so. . And I wanna co comment on one thing that you said a couple minutes ago about how there’s always more you could do. I think one of the things that trip people up is they feel like they’re looking at Instagram and they’re looking at pictures and they’re thinking either two things.
One, my house could never look like that, or I don’t wanna live in a house that’s that organized. And here’s the reality. You get to choose what organized means for you. My house. I had a friend who came into my house one day and he was like, your house feels like a Pottery Barn catalog. And I was like, oh my gosh, thank you so much.
He’s like, that’s not a compliment. Like, why would you wanna live in a catalog? And I realized, oh my goodness. We all have our own set point of what we’re comfortable living in. I love living in a super organized decluttered environment. He does too, but it means something different to him. Mm-hmm. . So we get to choose our own set point.
So don’t let. Even what my home looks like. If you follow me on Instagram or any other organizers or designers, don’t let anyone else’s reality impact your desire and motivation to change your own life. You get to choose, but even incremental change will have an amazing benefit on your life. This is not all or nothing.
It’s not like you’re totally organized or like, it’s not worth trying. The little incremental changes you make will have a huge impact on your. Yes. And we say that all the time in all the courses we have. And you know, it’s the small things that we do consistently that make the big transformations. It’s not like, like if you, you know, went in and Let’s just say you really blitz it out and organized your kitchen in a day or something like that.
I mean, that’s a lot. And is that sustainable long term? No, it’s not. Right. And you want sustainability. You want it to stay that way. And so by doing it a little bit at a time okay, so let me ask you this cuz I don’t have kids at home, so it makes it so easy. And if I think about when I did have kids at home and it was just actually me and my boys.
I was a single mom for many years. And what do you I had a system at at my house. And I’ll tell you my system, but I wanna hear what you do with your kids. Do you make them clean up their room, make their bed every day? . Tell me a little bit about that. So, our general philosophy is never leave a room messy.
Mm-hmm. . And so when they first come in the house, don’t leave the mud room messy. Put your shoes on the shelf, hang up your backpack, empty out your lunch, and pack your snacks for the next day. And so, like, it’s just this, this idea of treating the house with respect, putting things back where it goes. So of course when they’re playing, everything’s a mess.
As as it should be. That’s how life should be for kids. , but they really do have to clean up the space at the end of the night. And like you, you know, I might go back and like fluff the pillows afterwards, right? Or straighten up the blanket. But they’re really putting things away. They do make their beds.
They put all of their dirty laundry in the hamper and we have one central hamper for them that’s in the laundry room. Like I got rid of the hampers in their bedrooms cuz I’m not going around emptying hampers. Like they put, they put the stuff in the laundry room, they help set the table, they help clear the dishes.
, they will help with laundry. They help put the groceries away when we grow, go grocery shopping. So we, we’ve tried to make things it changed a lot in Covid when we became like sort of, we were doing everything as a family. Mm-hmm. , right, right. Like everything, right? Yeah. It’s like family affair. But we try to really do things together so that it moves more quickly.
But they absolutely are responsible for just cleaning up after themselves continually when they have friends over. They’re, we have a finished basement where they’ll hang out. They’re expected to go down there and clean everything up. Mm-hmm. You know. And how old are your children? They are now 13 and nine.
Okay. And we’ve been doing this for years. And so even when they were little at the end of playtime it was, put all your toys away and, you know, yes. Did I go through afterwards and make it look a little better how I wanted it to, but they know that I am not here to clean up after. . Yeah, I love that.
I’m thinking more about when my boys were teenagers. Yeah. And you know, so what I did was, so I had a two-story house. My bedroom was on the main level. So I told ’em, I’m like, this is my level. Yes. Like none of your stuff is gonna be down here. You take your stuff to your room and just close your.
You know, because they were boys, they were not making their beds. I mean, one, I think one of my sons did. But they, they’re messy. They’re gross. I mean, like, just, just do whatever you want in your room. That’s your space, your room. If it’s gonna be gross, it can be gross. And. I mean, every now and then you gotta clean it up.
Totally. Yeah. But and then I taught ’em to do their own laundry. So they did their own laundry too, which was amazing. But I definitely think that, you know some children are more or neater than others. Yeah. Like, so my middle son, he was, he always kept everything pretty neat in his room and he didn’t like anything.
out of place. It’s funny cuz when he went to college, he roomed with five other boys in this house and he had his own bedroom. But you can imagine the kitchen. I can imagine . Cause I lived with five other girls in college and I know what it was like. He hated it because he was the one cleaning up after everyone.
So anyway, I just think it’s very interesting to watch him figure out how are you gonna get every, you know, if you can start early and I will say with my granddaughter, I have a bunch of toys over here for her and we. Place form and she’s coming over this afternoon. She’ll spend the night tonight and we have Barbies and we have lots of pieces with Barbies.
In fact, they’re not allowed at her house because there’s so many pieces. I think her parents , so they’re allowed at my house because I’ve never had Barbies at my house unless I was a little girl, because I have boys. I just had, you know, other things. We have Barbies, but we keep it, we keep ’em in Ziploc bags, we keep all the stuff together and she knows that we are gonna, you know, clean it up every night.
Yes. We’re not gonna just leave it because Yeah. That doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t work. Adam. Yeah. . No. And we other spaces. Yeah. And I think, you know, we, we absolutely can model for our kids, but I love your system and I think, I hope everyone listening. Feels permission to not feel like your house has, has to be perfect.
That you can choose the spaces that you are setting the law for the house. This space must be clean, the kitchen, the the common areas, and then close the door in the bedroom. And it doesn’t need to be something you worry about or stress about. So many moms are so stressed because they can’t get their teenage kids to.
Comply or conform to how they want it. And it’s like, why are you, why are you killing yourself? Like that just shut door. It’s, this is not about perfection, this is about easing our lifestyle and if it’s gonna make your life easier. And I love that you taught the boys to do their laundry. Cause it’s like, it’s their problem if they’re not doing it.
If they run outta underwear sock, that’s on them. That is not your problem. Exactly. Love. I mean, I definitely it’s really, it was so freeing too. But it was funny cuz when my middle son got married, Wife had never used the washer and dryer. He had to teach her. Cause her mother was nicer, I guess, and did all her laundry.
I’m like, I don’t have time to do you guys laundry. I’m like, you know, every now and then I might o I might have offered. But they were like, no, I got it. And it was just so nice. Cuz really too, I didn’t want to wash my stuff with their stuff. Right. , I love that. I love that. Well, corre, I can sit here and talk to you forever.
We are so on the same page with all of this, but I don’t wanna take up much more of your time, but let’s just tell everybody where they can find you if they wanna work with you and go through the different ways that they can work with you again too. Yes, absolutely. So all of our programs live on our website, which is grid and glam.com, G R I D A n D G L A M.
And then I hang out on Instagram. That’s where we connected. So absolutely come say hi on Instagram, DM me over there. And for all my friends who are not local or don’t wanna fly my team out to organize you. We do travel. The the best program to really get started is our g and g home organizing.
Membership doors are not always open to it, and we do have individual boot camps. Let’s say you just wanna get your toe wet with one space. Our main bedroom. Bootcamp is our most popular. You can just buy a space at a time. And again, all that’s on our website. And if you did wanna hire a professional organizer to come into your home, all that information is on our website as well.
And then if there happened to be any professional organizers listening all my business coaching programs are on our website as well. So it’s really the website and Instagram, that’s where you can find. Awesome. Well, thank you again so much for joining me. I’m so excited about our connection and our friendship now.
I love it. Yes, I know. Thank you so much, Anne. For any of your listeners who are in your inner circle, I’ll be visiting you there, . I know. I can’t wait. I cannot wait. So thank you again and have a wonderful day y’all.
