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Mastering Mental Clarity: Enhancing Your Life through Decluttering And The Four Pillars Approach With Kitti Andrews · Mindful You

0:03
Alan Carroll: Welcome, everybody, to the mindful U
0:07
podcast. My name is Alan Carroll. And I am your host, as
0:14
we traveled together, down the path of mindfulness, in order to
0:20
develop that power within ourselves. And there's many
0:25
different paths. And many different people have many
0:28
different ways that they achieve this mindful state of
0:32
consciousness. And today's guest, Katie Andrews, has a very
0:39
unique way, but very, very practical. I've been practicing
0:45
her technique for 50 years. And it's just, it works. It works.
0:51
To be able to get your physical environment, your mental
0:55
surroundings are under your control through the process of
1:01
decluttering. So today's podcast, we're going to focus on
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what is decluttering? And how can we begin to declutter our
1:11
own reality in which we live, to free up our thoughts to allow us
1:17
to achieve a more powerful and clear state of consciousness,
1:21
which will we call mindfulness. So please welcome to today's
1:26
mindful you podcast. Kitty, Andrews. Thank you, kitty.
1:34
Kitty, welcome to the mindful you podcast. I'm excited to have
1:39
you on today. And I'm excited about the topic that you're
1:43
going to be talking about. So I want to really just want to
1:47
welcome you. And thank you very much for being here today.
1:51
Kitti Andrews: Thank you so much for having me. Oh, and pleasure
1:54
to see you again.
1:55
Alan Carroll: Thank you. One of the words that captured my
2:00
attention that you use that I would call your vertical
2:08
expertise is a word called decluttering. And I'd like you
2:18
to share with us a little bit about what that means. And also,
2:25
the the fun trip you might have gotten from the discovery of
2:31
decluttering is something of value. What was the journey that
2:34
led that led you there and a little bit of your of your
2:37
background?
2:40
Unknown: And then yes, I'm processing two different
2:45
questions there. Well, what I do is I help people to declutter
2:52
their space and their brain, so that they can focus on being
2:56
profitably productive, and getting the right things done.
3:00
Now, that sounds very cut and dried. But what invariably
3:04
happens when I work with clients is they come to me with
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physical, the physical clutter was like the they don't know
3:13
where to start, or it's just too much, it's too overwhelming 30
3:18
years of, of accumulation in a basement or your late mother's
3:25
papers, or just just anything, and it just, it just gets to be
3:29
too much. And what happens is, invariably, the as we start to
3:36
clear, the physical clutter, the the other four pillars of life,
3:44
your heart, your health, your habits, and your head, hence my
3:48
company named declutter the brain. These other areas start
3:55
to come come into play. Now, you asked a bit about my journey.
4:01
And I've I've been pretty much a natural, organizer type person I
4:08
like I like things to be in their place, because I'm ADHD
4:12
and I need to be able to know where to find things. So that I
4:17
don't have that mental moment of frustration, which can kind of
4:21
throw you throw your entire hour off, day off, month off. So I
4:29
need to stay reasonably organized. And I felt people do
4:35
that for a long time. Like my first job was a file clerk. And
4:40
I was promoted to and remember back in the in the days of
4:44
offices and paper files. I do. And I was promoted to the
4:53
accounting department and a couple months later, a lady came
4:57
from where I used to file and she said Would you consider are
5:00
coming in and working for us part time because we can't find
5:03
anything anymore. Where were, you were the best way ever has
5:09
in to me, it seems very simple A, B, C, D, and then good Oh,
5:14
subsections of that, but it doesn't come to everybody. So
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I've noticed over the years that fast forward to rest and to long
5:24
restaurant career, where I was always voted the one to go clean
5:28
out the walk in fridge, because the tie at the end, when at the
5:31
end of their shift cooks just throw everything into the
5:36
fridge, willy nilly, and they just think that they don't care.
5:41
And eventually, you can't find the yogurt, I'd like to be able
5:44
to find the yogurt, waitresses, when you've got a full section,
5:47
you want to be able to find the yogurt. So So I've always had a
5:54
challenge. And not not quite an obsession, but pretty close to
6:01
being able to find things. Now factor in ADHD or it's also need
6:08
to be able to see we often say, Well, I need to be able to see
6:12
it. So I remember that it's there. But if things are in
6:16
their proper place at all times, then that turns into a good
6:19
thing. Now most of my clients, it's coming back to the five
6:22
pillars. If if, if you don't mind to illustrate a point of my
6:27
being clear. Am I being clear so far?
6:30
Alan Carroll: Right? I wanted to Kitty go into the five pillars
6:33
because the five pillars I got I got the home I got the heart I
6:37
got the head I got the health and the fifth one. Habits.
6:42
Habit. Ha bi t right. Yeah. Okay, cuz? Because I bet that
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they they sound like they sound like benefits to me, when you
6:54
when you talk about decluttering. So what do you get
6:57
out of decluttering? And I suspect that that they lead to
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improving the five pillars? Is that true?
7:04
Unknown: Absolutely. I actually I've been credited, to my
7:08
knowledge by saving three marriages and ending an abusive
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marriage. Wow, my best way of illustrating how it can affect
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how clutter can affect the five pillars is with a client. So I'd
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love to share with you that story of Sarah in Ohio, who does
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not mind? Just she she has just always been the perfect example
7:38
of but yeah, off all five pillars. Most of my clients, by
7:43
the way, have been with me for over three years. Why? Because
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it decluttering is not one and then we keep finding more things
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to declutter. So allow me to illustrate. Sarah came to me,
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along with these other clients. We started a group program
8:01
together. And she had the usual physical clutter. The she never
8:09
Sarah never met a hobby that she didn't like. And the evidence of
8:13
it was all over all over the house. And then the sun porch
8:18
where you're walking where you walk into your home. A there's
8:25
kind of a path to walk through like it was it was chock a
8:28
block. Wow. Wow. So so that's all very well and good. And we
8:34
use my one system to help to start to clear the clutter. We
8:41
started with the entrance and then moved to another room and
8:49
then another room and that's how I do things sequentially. And a
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funny thing happened about two months into were working
8:58
together. She said she just popped up out of the blue. I
9:02
don't know were in the middle of a consultation saying you know,
9:05
I have decided that I'm going to take up the fitness program that
9:09
I have been meaning to do for years. Now. I was reasonably
9:14
new. I was two years into declutter coaching at that
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point, so I didn't really think that it didn't really hit me.
9:24
And oh, okay, good. You're doing a fitness program. Good for you.
9:30
By the way, I'm proud to say that she is still at it. She has
9:35
kept that fitness program. This is where you get into the habits
9:40
part. Okay, so we've covered the health. We've covered the
9:43
habits. She got herself a personal trainer, she
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nutritionist, everything that she needed. Miss lady is so
9:54
dedicated that one time her or her regular vehicle broke down
9:58
and she grew up the family We tracked her to the gym. That is
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how habitual she became 1030, Eastern Natalia there she was
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going. And so, so you've got your health and your habits.
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Now, a little while later, and then maybe about a month later,
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she said, you know, my husband said something to me the other
10:24
day that I'm not really sure that I like. And she told me
10:29
what it was, and it wasn't so aware now, and I was I wasn't,
10:34
it wasn't great, but it wasn't abusive. And I said, Oh,
10:40
interesting. Again, not really thinking too much of it at the
10:44
time. But she said that she said this kind of thing to you
10:48
before. And she stopped and she thought about it. And she says,
10:53
you know, come to think of it. He's been saying that kind of
10:57
thing to me for the 25 years of our marriage. Ah, all right.
11:04
She's one of the marriages I'm credited with with saving. If
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she had an agenda and I'm first she got angry and took it took a
11:14
few months of working on this and as the layers of the onion
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with that, when you're doing physical decluttering the layers
11:26
of the onion seem to kind of peel back and clarity emerges
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and you start to see things that you didn't notice before, like
11:35
the her husband's the snarky for lack of a better word. Gently
11:43
snarky if you can be gently snarky, gently snarky comments.
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I'm not even noticing them and now say, Whoa, hang on a minute
11:54
now that that wasn't very nice. And she started noticing it and
11:59
i She confronted him. And of course that escalated so we
12:05
worked on how she could address it gently. And that that
12:11
actually turned out really really well. For him it it
12:16
brought to Dale Carnegie into action about the right thing to
12:20
say the right thing to handle in the way way to handle things. So
12:24
what have we gotten now we've gotten our habits, we've gotten
12:28
our house we've gotten our heart meaning relationships, and then
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you've got your head I mentioned before that she's never met a
12:44
craft that she didn't like, I like honest to God and and she's
12:49
a DIY er the there's nothing this woman cannot do with her
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hands and she's five, two and full of spunk. She could do
13:02
anything but one of her favorite and one of her passions was
13:04
stained glass art, actually making stained glass art which I
13:09
revere, and she dabbled in this. She dabbled during our time
13:18
together. She had always dabbled in everything, again being
13:22
really ADHD or many, many varied interests. And she put
13:31
everything kind of on hold for a while well, about a year ago,
13:35
the passion she she just started to really realize that she
13:40
wanted to stick with one. Notice I said the one system before.
13:45
Okay, well, one is one of my keywords at declutter the brain.
13:49
She decided to take my advice and stick with one craft and see
13:56
if she could make some money at it, whether that be knitting or
13:59
crocheting or painting or pick a craft out. And she said, Okay,
14:08
well, I'll go with the stained glass. I am over the moon proud
14:14
to report that about two months ago, she accepted her first
14:19
deposit on her for her first commissioned work of art. Wow.
14:26
What I didn't know until just recently is she accepted a
14:30
commission on a second piece of art. Now, I asked her this may
14:36
sound all very random. But I don't believe that I don't think
14:41
you would believe it either. Because of your field of
14:44
expertise and in metaphor or the you know the metaphysics it is
14:48
the university it's not exactly what you see kind of thing.
14:52
Would you agree? I agree. Well, I believe that the universe
14:57
opened up for her because of Her physical decluttering is replace
15:02
perfect now. No, it isn't much it stated she couldn't get it
15:07
right back to perfect in an in in one day it because she has
15:12
the skills to do so the skills and the mindset to do so. But,
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um, yeah, I asked her after the first commission, I said, Do you
15:25
think that you would have been able to do this? Before we
15:28
started? And it was a resounding hell no, no, no, I wouldn't have
15:35
even considered it, I wouldn't have stopped myself good enough.
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I, you know, I just, I wouldn't have thought of it. even dreamed
15:44
of the possibility. So that I believe, is the power of
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decluttering. And most of my clients so well, they're usually
15:55
over 40. When you're in your 40s, I find that people are in
16:01
kind of a transition. They're the the, the they're saying, is
16:09
this all there is, you know, that old song is that oh, there
16:13
is all right, well, you start looking for more you start,
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maybe you're going through a divorce, maybe you're going
16:20
through a job transition, you're not sure you want to do
16:23
corporate anymore. If I would say every single one of my
16:27
clients, except one who was 30 has been they come to me with
16:33
the physical clutter. But invariably, they're looking for
16:38
a change of their life. In fact, one of these three year clients
16:41
just two weeks ago, told me, you know, I've hated my job for a
16:45
long time. Oh, what would you rather do? She's a, she's a
16:51
pharmaceutical researcher. I would work with animal
16:55
psychology quotes.
17:01
And this was after a recent decluttering stint because she
17:05
and I, you know, she'll take a break for a while and defer a
17:08
month or two and then come back and we did a bunch of
17:11
decluttering. All of a sudden, she wants to be an animal
17:15
psychologist in which she had gone to school for us kind of
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thing. That is what I'm trying to talk about is your eyes
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become open as the physical clutter clears, the clarity in
17:29
everything else emerges. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on
17:34
this.
17:37
Alan Carroll: An image comes to my mind of a window. And on the
17:43
window, you you're inside the house, and you're looking out
17:47
through the window. And the window looks out over a
17:50
beautiful garden. And flowers and green and birds flying
17:57
around even some blue sky with white puffy clouds. Yet, when
18:02
you look through the window, the window has dirt on it that a
18:07
film built up over years film and and you're sort of used to
18:14
looking at the world through that window. And that's the way
18:17
the world is. And then someone comes with a rag and some
18:24
Windex, and says why don't we try to remove some of that
18:30
clutter, which you didn't even know was there. And as you
18:34
remove the clutter, all of a sudden the film has disappeared.
18:39
And the clarity of what you now are able to perceive in your
18:43
mind's eye gets better and better and better. And so I'm,
18:48
I'm a, a believer of the what you do in the physical world has
18:56
some connection to changes in the metaphysical world and just
19:03
share a story. When I left the job, I had a job working at a
19:11
computer store and I didn't have the next stepping stone didn't
19:16
have the next job. And I remember my body was shaking.
19:21
And I knew it was shaking because I went down to the
19:24
golfing driving range and I couldn't hit a ball. My body was
19:27
as good at the ball. So I went home and cleaned my house.
19:34
cleaned my The Cabinet Door drawers in the kitchen, the de
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jour that had all that junk you put into that drawer in your
19:47
kitchen and it's like a it was under my control. I didn't know
19:55
about the next stepping stone but my home is under my control.
20:00
Oh, and I found that that that is correlates exactly, to what
20:06
to what you're saying. And, you know, and shortly thereafter,
20:11
the universe opens up and a job appears. And so I am in, then it
20:18
leads to a career and it leads to podcasts. And it's, and it
20:23
has a lot to do with the practice of practice, ongoing
20:27
practice, to maintain a sense of integrity to your physical
20:33
world. And so what I hear you talking about is cleaning the
20:37
windows and maintaining a sense of integrity. So you are more
20:41
balanced as you're sailing through sailing along the river.
20:46
That's my, that's my answer to your question. How did that do?
20:49
Unknown: That? That was awesome. And it's funny that you
20:53
mentioned windows, and the EU, yeah. The coal relation because
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I did my moved into my new home, beginning of May. And it's brand
21:07
brand new construction, and I didn't do everything was done
21:12
for me when I moved in. But windows get dirty, and I noticed
21:17
myself just kind of feeling saggy, you know, and just not
21:23
not lemony fresh, if you will just, and I said to myself, by
21:28
the end of this weekend, I am going to clean the glass in the
21:33
home, that being the mirrors, I didn't clean all the windows,
21:37
because there are a lot of them. But I pinpointed three or four
21:42
glass items and the patio door. By the way, patio doors are
21:46
very, very, very your listeners very important to keep clean,
21:50
because they are the window to the world. You want them to be
21:54
clean. And I'll tell you what, oh, what a difference to be able
22:00
to wake up Monday, and everything was just sparkling.
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And what a nice way to start them to start the week and
22:10
maintain. So I vowed that, that I would keep them clean. And
22:15
I've done this before. It's it's just amazing what, what a
22:20
difference and what a difference it can make. And it doesn't take
22:24
that long, just some Windex and the squeegee and Bob's your
22:28
uncle, or George or John, or
22:32
Alan Carroll: Wow. Let's before we before we end, I'd like to
22:38
have you take a look at some of the practical things that people
22:45
can do. And you and you mentioned one already, which is
22:47
one at a time, rather than the whole house. Let's do the drawer
22:52
of kind of a thing. So share with us some of the things that
22:56
people could could do to, to to taste this water, or this wine
23:00
of my Declutter. decluttering.
23:04
Unknown: All right, thank you. Well, the one system is in this,
23:10
this will break down. So so bear with me, the one system is one
23:14
room at a time, one area of that room at a time and one thing at
23:19
a time. And the idea of all of that is to reduce the overwhelm
23:25
that people experience with clutter. So they feel like they
23:29
have to do everything at once Well, I'll tell you what I want
23:32
if you're unless your magic wand is better than mine is not going
23:37
to happen. It didn't accumulate overnight, it's not going to go
23:41
away overnight. So cut yourself some slack. That's usually the
23:44
lines that I close with, but I've given it to you early and
23:49
pick the smallest room in your home. The this is where we get
23:53
into the handy tips because I won't go into the whole system,
23:56
I'll just take a smattering. Pick the smallest room in your
24:01
house as opposed to the 30 years, the basement with 30
24:05
years of Christmas decorations. Don't do that to yourself. Pick
24:09
the smallest room and preferably the closet in that smallest room
24:13
usually a spare bedroom so that you can build your momentum,
24:17
build your confidence, pick one area in that room so that you
24:22
can see that momentum as opposed to bouncing from place to place
24:27
to place and really get like multitasking really getting
24:30
nothing done. And if you tackle one thing at a time, is it
24:39
tedious? Yes it is. Is it time consuming? Yes, it can be at the
24:44
start. But is it also the number one way that you can stay
24:50
decluttered for life? Yes, it is. The reason for this is
24:54
you're training your brain to not do what you need. and what
25:00
you don't need an IP. If you don't mind, I'd love to share a
25:03
92nd story with please do please do alright, my very very first
25:08
client hired me. She had a big L shaped desk full on just six
25:14
inches worth of paper, you could not see the top of the desk six
25:18
to eight inches paper maybe. And she needed to do this so she
25:23
could hire an assistant to come in and help her but she said
25:26
this, they won't know what to do here. So we start and my first
25:33
client, mind you and I said okay, well, what's what's this
25:37
first piece of paper here? And she looked at me like I was from
25:40
Venus and said, We are not going through all of this one by one.
25:44
While she relented. I didn't know what else to do. Within
25:49
five minutes, she starts flying through these papers. This is
25:53
why I say it gets faster, flying through these papers saying I do
25:57
not need utility bills. I can get them online. My accountant
26:00
doesn't need my bank statements online. So she was training her
26:04
brain to see other options as opposed to paper. Here's the
26:08
kicker trade magazines. She would buy them religiously every
26:13
couple of weeks, and she threw away 5060 bucks worth of them.
26:18
They were eight bucks a pop. And she had never read them. She
26:24
reports I don't know two or three weeks later, after the
26:28
kitty I was in the store. My arm automatically reached for that
26:32
magazine. No, wait a minute, do I just throw away a whole bunch
26:36
of these Obi Wan every couple of months? See training the brain?
26:42
start bringing in clutter. Yeah. So if you take your time for
26:48
your audience if you take your time, and just do it slowly and
26:53
methodically, yes, I'm impatient too. But it will work. It really
27:00
does work.
27:02
Alan Carroll: I agree. I agree. I've, I've been practicing
27:05
cleaning the cleaner window for a long, long, long time. And it
27:09
really is a feeling of a feeling of a lightness. The analogy
27:17
would be a gondola on a hot air balloon. You want to get higher
27:22
you want to reach for the sky, you want to have more energy.
27:26
Well, how do you make a gondola go up? Well, one of the ways is
27:29
you throw the ballast off, throw the gunk off, throw the clutter
27:35
off, throw the weight off, and it will rise. And so as you
27:38
describe the five pillars, that's like you can visualize a
27:42
hot air balloon just rising and rising as you declutter the
27:47
gondola. So I want to thank you very much for sharing your
27:51
wisdom with our, with our guests in our audience on the mindful
27:56
you podcast. And for folks who'd like to reach out in connect
28:00
with your kidney? How would be the best way to do that?
28:04
Unknown: The best way is to go to declutter the brain.com and I
28:11
have a seven step and seven easy steps to conquer your physical
28:16
and mental clutter as my gift to your audience. And to sorry, we
28:26
had a technical difficulty there. And my contact
28:31
information is there. I'm also available kitty Andrews on every
28:37
almost every social platform except Tik Tok.
28:41
Alan Carroll: Okay, well thank you very much kitty. Wonderful
28:44
hearing your words of wisdom for our guests. Thank you very much
28:47
for being on the mindful you podcast. Thank you. Bye bye