Hey, clutter bugs. Welcome back to the clutter bug podcast. I'm so excited today because we have Laura from how to get your shit together. Hello. Hi. Thank you so much for being here. It is honestly an honor. I am fan girling so hard right now.

Oh my god. Don't that's crazy. If you have not seen Laura on her YouTube channel, you have to go check it out and have to get your shit together. You're so inspiring. And I'm excited to have you today. We'll talk more about your journey and and your health and decluttering. Yes. So, but first introduce yourself to everybody. Tell us a little bit about yourself. So my name is Laura. As you mentioned, I am originally from Ireland currently living in the US.

I have one daughter who is not at all on board with decluttering. Also not on board with decluttering. So it has been quite the struggle, but I think when my daughter was born, that's when I really dove into decluttering because I was struggling so hard with feeling very overwhelmed, feeling like my life was very chaotic.

And that's kind of how it all started for me. And it's been a weird and wonderful journey ever since. And how old is your daughter now? She is nine now, which is just crazy.

It is crazy. So the same age is my son Milo. Yeah. It's a special age. It's a special age. It's a great age. Oh man, just hold on. Hold on. I feel like they're already beginning. She's she's already like on the cusp and some of the behavior.

They're like, I can't I can't I'm not ready for this. Yeah, it's hard having teenagers. I thought I thought babies were hard. And then I thought, Oh, no toddlers is hard. And then I had this wonderful few years.

And then, you know, yeah, I see like every age is difficult, just in different ways, exactly in different ways.

Well, when I first became a mom, I think that's when I, I mean, had to start my decluttering journey too, because little humans have an obnoxious amount of stuff.

Yes. And so I was already very cluttered. And then I added humans, little baby humans with all their baby things on top of that. And just the pressures of being a mom, were you feeling like I felt very suffocated, which surprised me as a new parent.

It wasn't like sunshine and rainbows and like television and media. For me, my personal experience. I'd love to hear your experience.

Very similar, felt very overwhelmed, suffered from postpartum depression. It was a transition that I was not at all prepared for. I mean, I thought I was prepared for it, but I don't think anything can actually prepare you for it.

So I had always been very independent, had always kind of done my own thing. And then to somehow be beholden to this little tiny thing who, as you say, came with all of this stuff.

I was not ready for that. I thought I had my life figured out and then I did not realize I did not.

Yeah. And were you, were you working at the time, or were you doing like the stay at home mom thing?

I started working full time. So I was a lawyer at the time. And when I got pregnant, I started reducing my case load significantly.

So I still worked a little bit after she was born, just kind of finishing up cases that I had that were ongoing.

And then transitioned to being a stay at home mother, but that was not, I just was not prepared for that at all. I thought it would be all sunshine and roses and, you know, what you see online and baking and play dates and crafting.

But that's just not who I am. So that was a struggle for me.

So I, before I became a mom, I was running a charity and I was working multiple jobs and I felt like I was really good at not great at the adulting thing because my house was a disaster, but that I could multitask very well.

And so when I became a stay at home mom, I thought this should be easier.

I don't know why I thought that. How hard can it be to take care of a human and, you know, baked cookies and clean the clean the house, but I just could not get it together.

And I didn't, I don't know. I was like, this isn't rocket science. You're a lawyer and you struggled. This makes me feel so much better.

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