Do you struggle with wanting to live clutter free but also wanting to create a warm and inviting feel to your home?
On today’s show, Kathi sits down with Myquillyn Smith to talk about her book, Cozy Minimalist Home. Myquillyn shares her insights into what it means to be a “cozy minimalist,” one who wants the most amount of style with the least amount of stuff.
Kathi and Myquillyn also discuss what it looks like to go from a “stuff manager” to a “home curator.” And Myquillyn shares the one thing you can do today to start your journey towards a cozy, minimalist home. You don’t want to miss this fun and informative interview!
Cozy Minimalist Home releases on October 23, 2018!
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Enter to win a copy of Myquilln’s book!
Two lucky winners will win a copy of Cozy Minimalist Home
Enter by answering in the comments, “Which room do you struggle with the most when it comes to being a cozy minimalist?”
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Meet Our Guest
Myquillyn Smith
For the last ten years, Myquillyn Smith, known online as “The Nester,” has encouraged women to embrace their homes – imperfections and all. In Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff (Zondervan), Myquillyn helps readers see their home’s hidden potential and create beautiful, functional spaces they love.
Myquillyn is a self-taught, design school dropout who took a week-long course so she could be a certified home stager and redesigner. She and her family have lived in 13 different houses, apartments and condos and spent plenty of time getting real world design experience. Millions of women have been inspired by Myquillyn’s blog, The Nesting Place and her home has been featured in Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Cottages and Bungalows and the Charlotte Observer. Christianity Today named her one of 20 Creative Innovators of 2016. Her first book, The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Beautiful, released in 2014.
Have you ever started to declutter and just quit halfway through the job because you didn’t know what to do next?
If you have experienced these feelings in the past (or are right now!) you won’t want to miss today’s interview with Angela Cody-Rouget, better known as Major Mom of Major Organizer. She is the expert on the professional way to declutter someone’s home.
And Major Mom is going to give us the secrets to decluttering any space:
In this info-filled interview, you will learn how to:
• make the most of your decluttering time
• understand when you need to call in a professional
• stop feeling the guilt about all that stuff
I’m thrilled to have Major Mom on the show – so buckle up those kiddos, grab your phone and let’s dive in.
Insider Bonus
Want a free ebook for how to keep your car clean and organized even with kiddos crayons, nugget crumbs, and toy cars? Download your free Kid Friendly Car Organizing ebook from Major Mom here.
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Meet Our Guest
Angela Cody-Rouget is the founder and owner of Major Organizers™, a residential organizing company. She has been building the Major Organizers brand (formerly Major Mom) since November of 2006 and currently has a team of 22 employees in Arizona and Colorado. She was featured on the military episode of Shark Tank on February 5, 2016. Angela spent 14 years dedicated to serving her country in the US Air Force as a satellite commander and missileer. She attained the rank of Major and her husband nicknamed her Major Mom after their first child was born. After her son was born in 2005, she resigned her commission to be a better wife and mother to her two children.
Angela earned a BA in Speech Communication at Indiana University and an MBA from University of Colorado. Angela is a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and Faithful Organizers, and has served as the President of the Board of Directors for both organizations. She volunteers her time to her veteran community and church on a regular basis.
She is currently in the process of franchising her brand in order to create more jobs and opportunities for veterans and military spouses. She has one franchise location in Columbus, OH. Like most women, she sometimes feels torn between kids and career and the balancing act is difficult, but she’s thankful for a husband who is supportive. She also has kids that cheer her on because they believe in her. Angela was born to create order out of chaos. She is on a mission to raise up an army of Liberators so she can restore order to the world, one household at a time!
We’ve got another Clutter Free Success Story from the amazing Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group today. Grace Church is an active member of our online community, often sharing her Monday Morning Musings about clutter struggles with the group.
Grace discovered Clutter Free through Facebook in January of 2015. When an old friend posted something about the 21-Day Challenge, she was intrigued. The friend sent her an invitation to join the Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group and she was hooked. With the 2000 Things tracking sheet in hand, she got to work.
We asked Grace what the impact of Clutter Free has been for her:
The impact has been enormous and life-changing — but not all at once. It’s happened layer by layer, over time. At first it was simply about decluttering “things” (for me, mostly paper) and getting myself organized at my desk. A side benefit of that was that once my desk was organized and my responsibilities taken care of…I had a lot more bandwidth for my writing projects. I could work on them freely and without distraction, knowing that I was taking care of the basics.
Then, I started noticing that I was enjoying my play time more and was more present when I was out and about, rather than worrying about what I should be doing at home. That was huge…because it was a little taste of the freedom Kathi talks about.
This year, I started with a simple plan to take one step on my backlogged to-do list every day during the Lent study — but wound up going even deeper into the “why” behind the things I hold on to (physical, mental, and emotional) and discovering big connections to core questions about self-worth and boundaries!
The biggest lesson Grace learned on this Clutter Free journey?
For me, it seems that the physical clutter is just a symptom. That’s empowering because while much hasn’t changed on the outside (I still have boxes and piles) — I know now when I look at them, that they represent something going on inside me.
We are thrilled to celebrate Grace’s success with her and so happy she’s an active part of our Clutter Free community.
If you haven’t joined the Clutter Free Academy Facebook group yet, what are you waiting for? There’s freedom to be found in this kindest corner of the internet. And there’s something so empowering about taking the journey along with others, one small win at a time.
“If you don’t have any areas of clutter struggle any more, ” she says as only the Queen of Positivity can, “maybe you can tell them about your past challenges.”
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll think of something!” I assure her, glancing guiltily around my office.
During the Facebook LIVE, I show everyone my greatest clutter struggle: the many ways I preserve my ideas.
A shelf lined with 2 inch binders labeled “Blog Post Ideas #1” … “Blog Post Ideas #2” … “Blog Post Ideas #3″…
File boxes full of hanging file-folders stuffed with notes from in-process book proposals and retreat messages.
Stacks of printed drafts (I live in terror of losing digital data, so I hav a printing compulsion) from the months when Kathi and I were writing Overwhelmed: 1st draft, 2nd draft, 10th draft.
Notebooks from the various writing and speaking conferences I’d been to, dating back before 2010.
“They’re all so beautifully organized and labeled, Cheri!” someone comments.
“Aren’t they?” I agree.
“Which is exactly what has allowed me to justify keeping all this stuff. After all, if it’s color-coded, labeled, and organized in binders, certainly it’s not clutter…right?!?”
My sarcasm evokes laughter, and then we all fall silent in communal conviction.
Just because our stuff looks good does not mean we should keep it.
What Size is Your Plate?
In Overwhelmed, Kathi describes each person’s individual capacity in terms of “the size of your plate.”
Most women have dinner plates—an average capacity for activity and productivity.
A few have turkey platters and can accomplish 2-3 times as much as most people.
I, on the other hand, have a small plate. As a highly sensitive person, I am extra easily overwhelmed.
“Does all this stuff in my office match up with a small plate person?” I ask the Clutter Free Bible Study group members.
No way, they all agree.
All the binders and boxes and stacks match someone with a turkey platter.
A hard truth hits me, smack dab in the middle of Facebook LIVE:
Hanging onto so much stuff is a form of greed stemming from distrust.
Protecting my precious ideas is me saying, “God, I don’t trust you to remind me of what’s important.”
And ultimately, hoarding my ideas is my way of trying to stretch my plate.
I never wanted a small plate. I’ve always wanted a turkey platter. So I’ve surrounded myself with “evidence” that “proves” my preferred truth.
It’s my way of saying, “Look! I have all this! If I have so much, I must have a really big plate!”
Bottom line: I’m keeping an office full of stuff so that I can prove God wrong.
<gulp>
Learning to Trust God
After the Facebook LIVE I look around my office with new eyes.
I’ve worked so hard to protect all my precious ideas, but I have far too many to use.
I need to trust God to choose.
I need to believe that God will help me remember the ideas I need when the time comes. Or trust that He’ll give me something new.
Either way, it’s time to quit pretending I have a bigger plate than I do.
I need to accept the size of my plate and let most of this stuff go.
My stuff needs to match the truth about who God created me to be.
__________________________
Cheri Gregory is a teacher, speaker, author, and Certified Personality Trainer. Her passion is helping women break free from destructive expectations. She writes and speaks from the conviction that “how to” works best in partnership with “heart, too.”
Cheri is the co-author, with Kathi Lipp, of The Cure for the “Perfect” Life and the upcoming Overwhelmed.
Cheri has been “wife of my youth” to Daniel, her opposite personality, for twenty-eight years and is “Mom” to Annemarie (25) and Jonathon (23), also opposite personalities.
Cheri blogs about perfectionism, people-pleasing, highly sensitive people, and hope at www.cherigregory.com.
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Enter to win a copy of Myquilln’s book!
For me, it seems that the physical clutter is just a symptom. That’s empowering because while much hasn’t changed on the outside (I still have boxes and piles) — I know now when I look at them, that they represent something going on inside me.