Prioritize and Organize Your Home and Work Space with Adria Firestone

All right, welcome back, no problem parents, to Mindset and Motivation. Monday, I have a returning guest on today's show, Ms. Adria Firestone. She was on just a few weeks ago on episode 229.

We talked about energizing your life one breath at a time. High achieving women work with Adria to reclaim their essence and energy so that they can discover their wise, wild woman and reinvent their lives to create impact. And Adria's written a book called You Are the Artist of Your Life. And in episode 229, we talked about working on the inside of us, working from the inside out.

And now today we're going to talk about prioritizing and organizing from the outside in. As a certified Rapids Results coach and an intuitive life coach, Adria has the tools and the experience to guide women into the best part of their life. Whether you're just starting out as a parent or you're knee deep in raising kiddos, have you asked yourself what lights your fire? What excites you?

What is your heart calling for? I learned long ago, if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. And every day is an opportunity to begin again. So today, Adria is going to share how prioritizing your home and workspace with organization and being surrounded by things that actually energize you rather than bring you down is super important.

Welcome to the No Problem Parenting Podcast. From toddler tantrums to teenage eye rolls, this podcast is your go-to for updated, and old school tips and tools that are going to help you become the confident leader your kids crave you to be. Do you ever wish there was a specific manual that came with each one of your kids? I mean, what works for one often doesn't work for the other, right? And let's face it, we don't know what we don't know. And even if there was a manual, it probably wouldn't be able to keep up with all the changes in our world. Well, this podcast is the next best thing. I'm your host, Jackie Finnaman, a 30-year counselor turned parenting coach. And I've got a lot to share, including hundreds of resources that you have access to right from your home and strategies that are going to boost your confidence and energize you. So whether you're knee deep in diapers or navigating the tween years, or you're launching your child into adulthood, subscribe and share this podcast with your friends, teachers, and daycare providers. We're going to turn your parenting problems into no problem, one episode at a time. I'm excited to welcome Adria back to the show today to talk about all things clutter and how do we organize our life in the midst of chaos. So Adria, welcome back to the show. Oh, it's so much fun. And I love talking about organization. It must be, I mean, of course I am a certified clutter coach, but I've secretly

between us, between you and me and your peeps out there, Jackie, I'm slightly OCD. So it works perfectly. What we need to ask ourselves about clutter, and it's something I've noticed, is that clutter is a reflection of what's going on inside of us when we're surrounded by stuff, when we can't find our keys. Doesn't that sound simple? But if you are losing time every day because you can't find your keys.

You can't find the key to the shed. You can't find the matches to light a candle. All of these things seem so minor and so silly. But what happens is, one, we surround ourselves with clutter because we are creating a false sense of security by having stuff around us.

When your security, just like being sexy too, is right between your eyes. It's between your eyes. It's your mindset. It's how do you feel.

And if you, and this is one of the things that as a wise wild woman, I am passionate about, is make space for the life of your dreams. Because what happens is, we end up, we're tired, we're upset, we're overworked, we're burnt out, the kids are screaming, your husband needs attention. Everybody wants a piece of you. And you'll grab a thing and say, here, take this.

And in reality, what usually happens, it's not the thing that is going to satisfy them. They need some of your attention. Well, you're only one person. And haven't you tried fitting yourself in the copy machine and it doesn't work?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, boy. Jackie I've tried that so many times and I'm learning that when I have fewer things around me and there is space for me to expand space to sit and allow my mind to be in this blank space which is not easy because we all have monkey minds and the monkey minds want to do things But when we can sit down, just breathe in and breathe out, when you are making space mentally by doing that, when you make space physically, that when you sit down in a chair or on a couch or someplace in your home, that you're not looking at piles of stuff to do.

do. That's not restful. That doesn't allow you to rest because right away you're thinking, oh, I didn't put this away. Oh, I got to put that away because I'll never find it if I don't put it over there. So one of the greatest things that you could do as far as organization, three little words, put it back. Yeah. On the daily, right? On the daily. When you are actually doing something. You finish doing it, put it back. Because if you find a place for things, that doesn't mean they'll always be there. It doesn't mean it's always going to be this way in your life. Organization and prioritization is something that is living. It's a living thing.

This is not set in cement. So the thing that you strive for is space and you want clarity. You want to have space. In other words, I was saying to Jackie just before we got started, if I am carrying all this stuff in my life, right?

I've got my arms full. I've got my hands full. I'm doing the laundry. I'm taking you to soccer practice.

I'm doing all of these things and my arms are loaded. My hands are loaded. And Jackie says to me, Audrey, I have these diamonds that I want to give you. And I say, ooh, I love diamonds.

And then I look at my arms and I look at my hands and I realize I'm so overloaded with stuff. I would have to drop something or let something go to be able to receive this new gift. Our lives are the same way. This is just a simple, a metaphor, an allegory to look at, to realize that if we are surrounded by clutter, if we are trying to be all things to all people, that our priorities are a little upside down.

So we're not able to say, wait a minute, I've got space in my hands. I've got space in my pockets. I'm not overloaded. But that takes a certain amount of discipline.

and it also is not a thing as i said that is that is poured into cement it is a living flexible thing because if suddenly you had no children and all of a sudden you've given birth to twins and they are now two years old and there are toys all over creation and you just can't stand that because you want it to be in order there comes a certain time in your life to say you know something is that order as important to me as their delight is with the playing with the toys maybe i can confine it to a space i just want us to realize that the organization and where this space comes from starts on the inside i remember the very first time i did the group of wonderful the wise wild women life design formula and we were working on from the inside out. We're trying to figure out, okay, what do each of us want? What part of our lives are we working on? And then I had one of my clients say to me with great indignation, well, Andrea,

I'm changing so much. I don't even recognize myself anymore. Well, I want my house to look like the new me. And I said, darling, that's the next module. I said, the next module is now we were going from the inside out. So now I do want us to go from the outside in. And that is where clutter clearing comes in. And you need to ask yourself two questions. This is what I am trained in is the Denise Lynn method. And it is about having sacred space. It is really allowing and designing your space in a way that supports you. Because if you're trying to work, you're trying to deal with all that you're dealing with as a mother or as a businesswoman, well, you need space that supports you. So that's where the from the outside in comes in. The two questions you ask yourself when you pick up something is, do I love it? That's one. In other words,

every time I look at, let's say, a beautiful pen that I have in my hand, every time I look at that pen, I love it because someone I love gave it to me. And then I ask myself, do I use it? And if I don't use it, then that thing is probably clutter. But if I love it so much that every time I look at it, it delights me, then you keep that. But how much stuff do we have in our life that we don't love because our cousin handed it down because your mom left it to you because your dad did this and so then i should really keep that well why should you keep it there's those shoulds when we should all over ourselves that there are people who can use that who need what you have and you're not using it is simply collecting.

And what I was stunned to discover, how many people, especially in the United States, have a storage unit. They're spending money that they could be spending on vacations and on treating themselves. They're keeping their stuff in a storage unit. Unless you have a business that has product that you need to put it somewhere.

why do you go and visit yourself do you sing it lullabies do you tell it how much you love it or do you ignore it for a whole year but you keep paying four five six hundred dollars a year that could be that could go into investments exactly i remember years ago when i hired a an organizational uh coach declutterer we spent we spent a whole weekend and then i had my tasks to do and then she came back and we finished up and i am a sentimental person and i i just i love i love the memories of certain things and so we did we had uh she taught me how to have like what is that that you just absolutely cannot part with something that you want to hand down to your kids or nieces or nephews or something right okay let's let's put that over here and then we went and cleared out other things and then we went back to that and said okay now if you could keep five of those or if you could keep 10 of those which ones would it be and we started to prioritize and then there were some things that I never looked at I just knew they were there and she said let's let's take a picture of some of those things I actually created a little album of mementos that I took pictures of but I love what you just said about could someone else use it could someone else benefit from that thing? And it was, she taught me really how to think about it as selfish that I'm hanging onto something somebody else would have use for on the regular. And so

you do offer, and it is like step two of your wise wild woman's path to rapid change and making space. And so that making space also includes the external space. I will look at something, a jacket that I love that right now, no matter how I love it, it's too big. So when I put it on, it looks sloppy instead of beautiful, even though I love it. Well, I'm saying you have other things pass this one on. This is in great shape. Someone can use this. So when we do that, it is casting a stone, but a beautiful stone of who we are as beings. What made us happy?

what pleased us. And when we throw that bit of ourselves out into the world, we are sharing the ripples of our love. We're sharing the ripples of our taste, the things that we appreciate and that we enjoy. We're passing that on. And we don't realize that that is also a reality. It's not just the words we say, even the things that we have gathered in this world also have an energy, and energetically can make someone else's life even more wonderful.

Well, you're expanding who you are. You're expanding your own heart. And the universe loves you to give because the more you give, the more space you have to receive. In step two of the Design a Life You Love, you talk about does your space support you?

You share in there that you own a business called Organizer Bunny and that you're the certified clutter-clearing bunny. So give us one or two tips to take away today for how to get started when you're organizing your space or decluttering your space. Absolutely. Absolutely. Start small. Start small because what happens is because most of us are sentimental animals.

OK, we're going to touch something. It's going to bring back a memory and it is going to make us travel mentally, which stops us from working physically. So promise yourself, I don't care if it's one drawer in the kitchen, one drawer in the kitchen, take everything. Here's two things that you need to do. Well, three things. Empty everything out of that drawer. Then you want to clean the drawer. Then you want to sort what you absolutely need first. Like, do you need three different can openers? I don't think so. I found three when I went into one of my drawers and I went, no, somebody can use this. Somebody can use these other two. I only need one. And I'm keeping one that's manual in case the electricity goes out.

So it can open up any can at any time. So one, you clear out the space. If you're working on a closet, do the same thing. You have to take everything out. Oh yeah, that is, it is pretty intense to take everything out of a closet. Then literally clean the closet. And if you've moved into a new space, you want to even spray it with some water that has a couple of drops of oil, of the fragrance oils, like a clearing such as peppermint, spearmint, basil, frankincense, little drops in this water will cleanse the space.

And if you really want to get wild, paint the inside of that closet. And then while that's drying, you are starting to go through things. You want hanging in your closet what fits you right now. Not 10 pounds from now, not two years from now.

And if you have it hanging in there for a whole six months or a whole year and you haven't even put it on, Or, boy, oh boy, have I done this before. I'll try it on. I'll look in the mirror and I'll go, nah, and I'll try something else. Well, if I've done that a few times, why am I still holding on to that?

So the sorting, the first of all, empty completely. Then clean something out. Clean it, paint it, make it all new. And then think, I want to be able to see everything in that space.

I want to be able to grab when I need something from that space. And when I put it on, if we're talking about clothing, I want to feel wonderful. When I put it on, let's say you have a gorgeous silk blouse and you wore that in court on the day of your divorce, even though you spent so much money on that blouse and it is a gorgeous blouse. But every time you look at that blouse, it brings your energy down.

It hurts your heart. Pass it on to someone who doesn't have that memory. and who is going to say, oh, what a beautiful blouse. Yeah, that's a really good point.

So yeah, we think that because you spend a lot of money on something, well, you're changing. You're changing and you're evolving just like your kids are growing. And so we have to move with that. Yeah, some of those things we don't realize what's taking us down or what's bringing us down.

We don't, no. And it is really important to purge some of that stuff. You're not triggered to think about that again. Because a lot of times it is subconscious, meaning just below the conscious level.

So there it sits and it's bothering you and you don't even know that you've just been bothered. Except you're wondering, oh, my energy just feels so lousy. Yeah, because there are things in your space that are bringing you down and you're not even paying attention to it. This has been super helpful.

And listeners, if you want to learn more about the five steps to designing a life you love, there's a free download that Audra is offering. And we have a link in the show notes for that. And you're going to want to pay attention. Well, number one, of course, kind of working inside out.

And then number two is designing your space to support you as you're designing your kind of new life that you love. Right. And it starts with that outside space starts with really just one simple thing, one drawer, one closet, one closet, one thing. Don't overload yourself.

And do that. Even put it in your calendar for once a month or once a week. You're going to pick one drawer so that after the kids are in bed or on a weekend, you have it on your calendar that you're just going to go do that one drawer or that one closet. Put on a timer.

Put on a timer. So you don't think, oh, I have to do this all day. If you don't have all day and all you have is one hour, then you do the very best you can within one hour. It makes a huge difference.

A huge difference. Yeah. There's a whole new cohort of life design formula that is starting. And I would love to see you.

Let's do, you can come and do a session with me. You'll find it right there on the website. I would love it. Or come and join our group, our Facebook group.

We talk about all sorts of things like this. I would love it. When you go to adriafirestone.com, and that's A-D-R-I-A. I know it's a strange spelling and a strange name, but think of the Adriatic Sea without the tick. Okay. So adriafirestone.com slash welcome. And you will find right there, when you go there, you'll be able to get the report. You'll be able to join the Facebook group and you'll be able to book a 20 minute session with me. We are supporting each other with expert coaching that we go through and by the time we get to three months, six months, nine months, let me tell you, lives change so incredibly that it amazes me. Although I do this all the time, it always is miraculous to me to see the shift. I love it. Tips and tools and encouragement for women to really go out and design a life you love. Thank you so much for being on the show again.

Oh, my pleasure. And I wish you all not just fulfillment, but profound fulfillment. We deserve it. We women are the healers of this world. And I want us all to speak out, be seen and lead because we are teaching. Our legacy is teaching the young ones in our hands and in our homes.

problem parents.com until next time remember your confidence comes from embracing both successes and setbacks so take a deep breath embrace the chaos and remember you got this