Hey there, Jen here, and this is a happy bit.

In our last episode, we just heard from Tracy McCuppen all about decluttering our lives,

seeing through the mess and creating a vision for how we want our home to feel and look.

And that is a statement I come back too often.

How do I want to feel? I've noticed when I'm out in nature

sitting under a tree or looking at a beautiful landscape, I feel very calm and grounded and oh,

that feels so good. And sometimes, in contrast, when I'm in my home and my six kids have been in the kitchen,

yikes, it can look like a tornado with the cupboards hanging open and Cheerios spilled all over the

floor, crunching under your feet, and dishes lining the counters, there's no space to work or clean

or cook or anything. And that feels overwhelming. So I contrast the two often and

think peace or overwhelm. And that's why, to me, decluttering is pleasurable. Now, you might hear that

phrase, decluttering equals pleasure and think, oh, please, that's crazy.

Decluttering is hard and I don't know what to throw out and I don't know what to keep and

I have so much stuff I don't even know where to start.

Well, that's the fun of it.

I like to break it down and just pick one small area and think of it in terms of how I want

to feel when I'm doing the thing that I do in that

area. For example, in our bedroom next to the bed, there is a chair and a little table with some of

my favorite books on it, and I like to sit there and read and start my day and journal. So I think about how do I want to feel in that space?

And if the book stack is getting too high, then I realize, okay, I need to let some of it go.

I'm always aiming to create a certain feeling. So if we stop looking at decluttering as this

giant to-do list, and I've got to manage the stuff, but look at the individual spaces

...