My son has attention /distraction issues and the one thing that absolutely changed our world was getting rid of a lot of stuff. He had so many options everywhere- clothes/food/tv shows/tablet games/books/toys etc on and on. The shear amount of things was distracting to him and once I seriously pared down- I had to lose a lot of my fantasy stuff-(the what if, maybe later, etc) and that was difficult for me- but Oh my word the changes for him were dramatic. He is now on less medication, happier and more relaxed. His moods have evened out (not perfect, but who is?). I can't say enough about getting used to (me) offering less options. It was a bit of a mind game for me. I wanted to offer all that I could, "maybe this will be the thing that catches his attention..." but I was fooling myself. Turns out he was craving less "noise" (options/decisions) but didn't know how to ask. He even keeps his room tidy of his own volition Just my 2cents.
Not a mother to a child but I am a "pet parent" & we have a 1yr old lab puppy. I keep his toys very limited bc first of all he can chew through & destroy a lot quickly so we wind up tossing many a new toy, but also he gets overwhelmed when he has too many options. So now he has his rubber fetch stick, tennis ball (that gets replaced by fresh ones when necessary), a Kong, & a chewy tug ring thing. That's all he needs plus exercise & play. I imagine kids are sorta similar!
Erica. I really enjoy your videos because the way you process situations out loud is very helpful for me and I'm sure others. So thank you for that! Ok, what I'm about to say is out of love and no judgement. I used to teach special education and the majority of my students had sensory processing issues. I had to have very little visual distractions in my classroom. Meaning, minimal items on the walls, materials on shelves were hidden behind fabric or in closets. Wow. Night and day when it came to concentration and progress. Have you ever had a discussion with your kids (or kid) about this? I had a student (he was 8 at the time) tell me that he could not focus because he was so interested in the books on the book shelf, the art materials on the shelf and the wall of birthdays. Fascinating..... ❤
I've been watching your channel since the beginning, and I mean this in the nicest way, but you have so much space in this house that you've accumulated more than you need. I have the same problem here, that's how I know. I justify shifting things around because I have the room for it. Keep getting rid of stuff! Get used to half empty rooms.
Erica, have you thought that perhaps there could’ve just been too much over stimulus on that table and just too many options presented to your children, so they almost became blind through excess to what was there. Try perhaps creating more space because that homeschool room is so full of colour and items that perhaps makes it feel just too ‘busy’, which can be very distracting to the concentration of younger multiple children when they are all sharing the same space and wanting to do different things in that space at the same time. You used to be comfortable with space, now you just always seem to want to fill it. Also, if you have less stuff you can judge more easily what they play with and what they have out grown or got bored with.
Good for you for tackling that next layer of your overwhelming homeschooling collection. It seems as if you've bounced back from some tough times and have brought yourself back to a place where you can get into a happier state of mind. You seem to have reached a point where you are better able to discard some items rather than continue to shuffle them around. You can't organize clutter. If your house is messy, you have too much stuff. A lot of minimalists have said these things, and I find them to be true. Give yourself a pat on the back and keep up the good work. Thank you for sharing your struggle.
I totally resonate with the term”clutter avalanche”. That has stopped me in my tracks , many times on my decluttering journey. Thanks for a really helpful video.☺️☺️☺️
Call it a WIN. You set yourself a task. You completed even so far as to take donate/share items to the car. Other parts in the room are just that other parts in the room. Have A Great Day!
I have always appreciated listening to you talk out your logic. I think the problem solving part of my brain is so satisfied by hearing the steps you use to reason through your issues. SO helpful, Erica, thank you. ❤
Great job and wonderful that you know your limits. No sense spinning your wheels when you've accomplished what you wanted for the day, and the rest is just stressful. Count the win! The table is gone! Take care, Linda 🦋
Use the table as your desk. Could be adjacent to the cabinet to store teacher stuff (and easy to put away) .... space for one on one teaching. I love a table for a desk because you could spread out be clean up easily with the cabinet next to it.
I currently use a table for an art space and agree with the easy clean up. Sometimes you just need a bit of space to spread out and get things done. I also find the space useful for sorting through paperwork on my annual cleanout. It's so much better than trying to sort piles on the floor with a dog and kids knocking your piles over. You can safely leave it and come back and it's still sorted.
Perhaps you can designate a temporary storage area for all of the activities. Clear it out once a week. You get clarity about what is and is not useful.
We just did this with a table in our basement. We were hoping our kids would play games and eat snacks with their friends. None of that happened. We got rid of the table last weekend.
When decluttering I never feel bad doing what feels easiest or what interests me the most VS what 'should' be done first. When I do it that way I end up getting more done and leaving the project with a more passive outlook. 😊 Thanks for sharing! Good work! 💪🤩
Hi, Erica, it must be increasingly difficult to find new topics for decluttering videos, as you progress on your journey to a minimalish life style with daily processes that work for your family. I am happy that you still find new angles that we, your viewers, can wrap our heads around. I might have missed some of your videos, but today I thought I saw a few new items of furniture I had never noticed before. Is there a temptation to bring items in as “props” to be used in a video, and some of those items end up overstaying their welcome? No complaints here, though. After each video, I feel compelled to tidy or declutter my house - and that’s the purpose of your videos, after all 😉
It is so helpful when you talk through your decisions. Thank you! And I love how you refocus and stay on task when you see/think of other things you need to get done. 🙂
You need a Sunday Basket for your paperwork. It will reduce paper clutter significantly. I'd be so interested to see how you would make the Sunday Basket work for you!
Erica I have been watching you since 4 years. You are real and authentic. Why don’t you use that room for homeschooling and organize accordingly. love from the Netherlands.
I love how you always talk through your decision making process! I have noticed that every flat surface must be tidied and thing put back where they belong EVERY day or two or they are instant clutter magnets! Messy Minimalist was the first minimalism channel I ever watched in 2017 and became a cosy minimalist through that so I have a soft spot in my heart for her! Could that gray cabinet go in front of the Verizon plug with an opening cut behind it (as another person said they do with a nightstand) to be a charging station and home for the two bins you are keeping as well as what is in it already?
I agree! Your thought process is great, especially because u verbalize it SO well. You have a gift that u give to all of us. I would say you’re “teaching”your subscribers (like me)! Thanks.
The avalanche always happens....it starts with one item and multiplies by itself 😅. And the emptier a space is the more inviting for chaos (I know, a contradiction). A yoto player is a kind of Alexa for kids ? A speaker you can add audios to ?
I think your decluttering muscles are strong. I would be interested in knowing if you feel like the flow of stuff coming in is more or less since starting journey. That's my problem. Very org and minimal but I still acquire things too easily that have to be managed. Blegh.
Can you move the two book shelves next to each other on the window wall and put the desk where the shelve was? I love your videos, and your honesty. You keep it real. You and The Mainer Mom are my favourites. 😊
Not regarding today’s topic, but can you tell more about your daughter’s using basil cubes and how? I put one into soup and it was delicious. But intrigued by the toast and what else you do with them
When my kids were small I had my husband remove the back of a nightstand and in that backless cabinet, I pushed it up flush with the wall (where the wall outlet was) and that's where most of the unsightly electronics lived. Hang in there, you will miss the messiness that comes with raising children one day.
That's a great idea. Charging stations are a reality of modern living, and ticking off the visual clutter and everything related, corralled in one spot solution is brilliant
You made some good keep and declutter decisions for the learning materials. A table like that can be really useful for doing school work and puzzles and that sort of thing but it just requires the daily habit of a 10-minute tidy by all those who use it.
I don't know the layout of the house, but putting the table in the middle of that room might make it more appealing as a plce for your kids to gather to play. As a teacher I notice that kids want to be where they can be noticed (like how they always bring toys into the middle of the living room).
As always, well done! Yep, keep table for now. It appears both attractive, useful, perhaps a great work station as kids get older. It could be kids didn't catch on to use because it would have been a new way of doing things, a new habit to form.
OMG,exactly That front “living room” space is huge and should be able to accommodate ALL of the home schooling.Since everyone always wants to be together in the dining room for school,get some seating for this table and use it for school. I would love to see your dining room used strictly for family dining and after dinner family games only. It would be nice for Andy(and the rest of you) to not be dining in the classroom. The literal separation would be good for everyone as in “Let’s go into the classroom and begin” and again at the end of the day,”Let’s tidy the classroom for tomorrow because we’re all going home”.
I’ve noticed your homeschooling arterials are seeping into every room of your house and maybe centralizing everything into one room will help you see how much material you actually have. That way you and your children don’t have to “take home work” when you’re not working .
Well done Erica dealing with the table that you wanted to change. From here it looks a cart would fit in the space either side of the whiteboard beside the shelves. Is there another accessible place you can move the Verizon box to? A corner if possible to hide it, I saw someone put it with the wires in an open topped basket so from a distance it looks ok. I think I recall that you had a different cart for a charging station a while back? Maybe you don't have that anymore? I was watching a few of your sentimental unboxing with Andy videos recently and you figure things out together so following on from this video would be good to see the next steps you took together 😊
If I were you I’d keep the table a bit longer at that place. It seems to be fishing for unnecessary extras in your house, so you can just harvest them and get rid of the stuff. And when he stays clean.. you can either bring him out because he fulfilled his purpose, or he’ll find a new one - maybe even the way you intended!
Hi Erica, When you stop even though there is still an unfinished project, is it worse of a mess when you return? How long do you leave the unfinished project? I have been trying to work on a toy declutter and organizing projects for a year now. When I go back to that project it’s never the way I left it because my boys were trying to find something. Yes it has taken me a year because I am a full time work from home for an employer mom, wife, and caregiver for my 87 year old mom who lives with us and has dementia. Anyway I also have a hard time with this project because when I go through these toy’s they are also memories of playing with them or how excited they were when we got that toy for them. What if they want to keep it for their kids someday 12:29 ? Having a hard time. 🙏🏼 thanks!
Wouldn't it be better to move the cabinet that you don't like where it is into the spot under the white board and put the charging station on or inside the cabinet? Then move the rolling carts either to the outside of that cabinet or where the cabinet was under the teaching posters.
Erica, I would love to see you go on a spending fast- particularly when it comes to homeschool stuff, educational & non-educational games, etc. I know your family loves games, but it seems like you guys have had sooooo many over the years and your kids don’t take care of them.
I just discovered a weird behavior about myself: I never slide or scooch a box across a table or drag furniture across a floor. I always pick things up and place them in a new location. Am I the only one who does this?
Like a lot of others, I have watched you for a long time. This is my opinion and only that (I am autistic so abrupt is my default so sorry in advance). I feel that you are struggling and putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You home school which means that you are basically sourcing 3 different year grades in one room in your home, no wonder you are feeling overwhelmed. I agree with others that you are all possibly over stimulated because every thing is on show at all times and it is in your home, you never get a respite. I am in England so my home is very different to yours but I know that a lot of people who work from home since Covid never seem to switch off and it feels that you are feeling the same. Is there a way of re configuring the space? Could you use the basement as the home school area. I think you do an amazing job, you have come so far but I think along side the organising have to come some behaviour changes too, simplifying behaviours and making space for you all to breathe. Thank you for sharing your honesty and thought process, you really are loved 🥰
My son has attention /distraction issues and the one thing that absolutely changed our world was getting rid of a lot of stuff. He had so many options everywhere- clothes/food/tv shows/tablet games/books/toys etc on and on. The shear amount of things was distracting to him and once I seriously pared down- I had to lose a lot of my fantasy stuff-(the what if, maybe later, etc) and that was difficult for me- but Oh my word the changes for him were dramatic. He is now on less medication, happier and more relaxed. His moods have evened out (not perfect, but who is?). I can't say enough about getting used to (me) offering less options. It was a bit of a mind game for me. I wanted to offer all that I could, "maybe this will be the thing that catches his attention..." but I was fooling myself. Turns out he was craving less "noise" (options/decisions) but didn't know how to ask. He even keeps his room tidy of his own volition Just my 2cents.
Not a mother to a child but I am a "pet parent" & we have a 1yr old lab puppy. I keep his toys very limited bc first of all he can chew through & destroy a lot quickly so we wind up tossing many a new toy, but also he gets overwhelmed when he has too many options. So now he has his rubber fetch stick, tennis ball (that gets replaced by fresh ones when necessary), a Kong, & a chewy tug ring thing. That's all he needs plus exercise & play. I imagine kids are sorta similar!
Erica. I really enjoy your videos because the way you process situations out loud is very helpful for me and I'm sure others. So thank you for that! Ok, what I'm about to say is out of love and no judgement. I used to teach special education and the majority of my students had sensory processing issues. I had to have very little visual distractions in my classroom. Meaning, minimal items on the walls, materials on shelves were hidden behind fabric or in closets. Wow. Night and day when it came to concentration and progress. Have you ever had a discussion with your kids (or kid) about this? I had a student (he was 8 at the time) tell me that he could not focus because he was so interested in the books on the book shelf, the art materials on the shelf and the wall of birthdays. Fascinating..... ❤
I often ask them and take notice about their reactions and behaviors. My oldest is the best at expressing how he feels about stuff these days.
I've been watching your channel since the beginning, and I mean this in the nicest way, but you have so much space in this house that you've accumulated more than you need. I have the same problem here, that's how I know. I justify shifting things around because I have the room for it. Keep getting rid of stuff! Get used to half empty rooms.
LIke a fish to a fish bowl! Growing to the size of the tank.
I love that you go straight to the point and no intro, just say your name and what you are about in 3 secs and get on with the video ❤❤❤
thanks! I'm a direct person lol
Hello from Denmark. How about hiding the powerstation in the gray desk/cabinet? Have a great weekend.
Erica, have you thought that perhaps there could’ve just been too much over stimulus on that table and just too many options presented to your children, so they almost became blind through excess to what was there. Try perhaps creating more space because that homeschool room is so full of colour and items that perhaps makes it feel just too ‘busy’, which can be very distracting to the concentration of younger multiple children when they are all sharing the same space and wanting to do different things in that space at the same time. You used to be comfortable with space, now you just always seem to want to fill it. Also, if you have less stuff you can judge more easily what they play with and what they have out grown or got bored with.
Good for you for tackling that next layer of your overwhelming homeschooling collection. It seems as if you've bounced back from some tough times and have brought yourself back to a place where you can get into a happier state of mind. You seem to have reached a point where you are better able to discard some items rather than continue to shuffle them around. You can't organize clutter. If your house is messy, you have too much stuff. A lot of minimalists have said these things, and I find them to be true. Give yourself a pat on the back and keep up the good work. Thank you for sharing your struggle.
Thanks! I do feel better nowadays... like I came out of a grief cloud.
I totally resonate with the term”clutter avalanche”. That has stopped me in my tracks , many times on my decluttering journey. Thanks for a really helpful video.☺️☺️☺️
Call it a WIN. You set yourself a task. You completed even so far as to take donate/share items to the car. Other parts in the room are just that other parts in the room. Have A Great Day!
I have always appreciated listening to you talk out your logic. I think the problem solving part of my brain is so satisfied by hearing the steps you use to reason through your issues. SO helpful, Erica, thank you. ❤
The problem solving part of my brain appreciates being able to talk aloud to you!
Great job and wonderful that you know your limits. No sense spinning your wheels when you've accomplished what you wanted for the day, and the rest is just stressful. Count the win! The table is gone! Take care, Linda 🦋
Use the table as your desk. Could be adjacent to the cabinet to store teacher stuff (and easy to put away) .... space for one on one teaching. I love a table for a desk because you could spread out be clean up easily with the cabinet next to it.
I currently use a table for an art space and agree with the easy clean up. Sometimes you just need a bit of space to spread out and get things done. I also find the space useful for sorting through paperwork on my annual cleanout. It's so much better than trying to sort piles on the floor with a dog and kids knocking your piles over. You can safely leave it and come back and it's still sorted.
Perhaps you can designate a temporary storage area for all of the activities. Clear it out once a week. You get clarity about what is and is not useful.
We just did this with a table in our basement. We were hoping our kids would play games and eat snacks with their friends. None of that happened. We got rid of the table last weekend.
I remember those leap frog videos well!
When decluttering I never feel bad doing what feels easiest or what interests me the most VS what 'should' be done first. When I do it that way I end up getting more done and leaving the project with a more passive outlook. 😊 Thanks for sharing! Good work! 💪🤩
Hi, Erica, it must be increasingly difficult to find new topics for decluttering videos, as you progress on your journey to a minimalish life style with daily processes that work for your family. I am happy that you still find new angles that we, your viewers, can wrap our heads around. I might have missed some of your videos, but today I thought I saw a few new items of furniture I had never noticed before. Is there a temptation to bring items in as “props” to be used in a video, and some of those items end up overstaying their welcome? No complaints here, though. After each video, I feel compelled to tidy or declutter my house - and that’s the purpose of your videos, after all 😉
It is so helpful when you talk through your decisions. Thank you!
And I love how you refocus and stay on task when you see/think of other things you need to get done. 🙂
You need a Sunday Basket for your paperwork. It will reduce paper clutter significantly. I'd be so interested to see how you would make the Sunday Basket work for you!
Erica I have been watching you since 4 years. You are real and authentic. Why don’t you use that room for homeschooling and organize accordingly. love from the Netherlands.
I love how you always talk through your decision making process! I have noticed that every flat surface must be tidied and thing put back where they belong EVERY day or two or they are instant clutter magnets! Messy Minimalist was the first minimalism channel I ever watched in 2017 and became a cosy minimalist through that so I have a soft spot in my heart for her! Could that gray cabinet go in front of the Verizon plug with an opening cut behind it (as another person said they do with a nightstand) to be a charging station and home for the two bins you are keeping as well as what is in it already?
Erica, I've been watching a long time, and you are AMAZING ...don't know how you do it all. Please rest when you can :)
Thanks for spending time with me!
I agree! Your thought process is great, especially because u verbalize it SO well. You have a gift that u give to all of us. I would say you’re “teaching”your subscribers (like me)! Thanks.
So proud of you. You cited the person who coined the avalanche idea. Yooooohoooooo!
I like her channel!
The avalanche always happens....it starts with one item and multiplies by itself 😅. And the emptier a space is the more inviting for chaos (I know, a contradiction).
A yoto player is a kind of Alexa for kids ? A speaker you can add audios to ?
I think your decluttering muscles are strong. I would be interested in knowing if you feel like the flow of stuff coming in is more or less since starting journey. That's my problem. Very org and minimal but I still acquire things too easily that have to be managed. Blegh.
Can you move the two book shelves next to each other on the window wall and put the desk where the shelve was?
I love your videos, and your honesty. You keep it real. You and The Mainer Mom are my favourites. 😊
That table is beautiful!
Not regarding today’s topic, but can you tell more about your daughter’s using basil cubes and how? I put one into soup and it was delicious. But intrigued by the toast and what else you do with them
I have to admit that I don’t understand pesto.
I grow basil all summer and make pesto. I freeze it in an ice cube tray. She eats it with sourdough bread. I microwave it for 30 seconds to melt it.
When my kids were small I had my husband remove the back of a nightstand and in that backless cabinet, I pushed it up flush with the wall (where the wall outlet was) and that's where most of the unsightly electronics lived. Hang in there, you will miss the messiness that comes with raising children one day.
I love this idea ❤
Exactly what I was thinking! Charging station problem solved!!
That's a great idea. Charging stations are a reality of modern living, and ticking off the visual clutter and everything related, corralled in one spot solution is brilliant
You made some good keep and declutter decisions for the learning materials.
A table like that can be really useful for doing school work and puzzles and that sort of thing but it just requires the daily habit of a 10-minute tidy by all those who use it.
What about the little bookshelf as charging station on the floor? Cords behind and attractive wood blocking the outlet
I don't know the layout of the house, but putting the table in the middle of that room might make it more appealing as a plce for your kids to gather to play. As a teacher I notice that kids want to be where they can be noticed (like how they always bring toys into the middle of the living room).
Great video! The questions and the logic is easy to understand. Very helpful.
You did a great job! ❤
As always, well done! Yep, keep table for now. It appears both attractive, useful, perhaps a great work station as kids get older. It could be kids didn't catch on to use because it would have been a new way of doing things, a new habit to form.
LOVED all of this! ❤
Can you use this table for home schooling instead of dining room table?
OMG,exactly That front “living room” space is huge and should be able to accommodate ALL of the home schooling.Since everyone always wants to be together in the dining room for school,get some seating for this table and use it for school. I would love to see your dining room used strictly for family dining and after dinner family games only. It would be nice for Andy(and the rest of you) to not be dining in the classroom. The literal separation would be good for everyone as in “Let’s go into the classroom and begin” and again at the end of the day,”Let’s tidy the classroom for tomorrow because we’re all going home”.
I’ve noticed your homeschooling arterials are seeping into every room of your house and maybe centralizing everything into one room will help you see how much material you actually have. That way you and your children don’t have to “take home work” when you’re not working .
The small gray cabinet has possibilities.
It does... it's been an art cabinet, podcast area, my desk, Andy's desk... lol
Well done Erica dealing with the table that you wanted to change. From here it looks a cart would fit in the space either side of the whiteboard beside the shelves. Is there another accessible place you can move the Verizon box to? A corner if possible to hide it, I saw someone put it with the wires in an open topped basket so from a distance it looks ok. I think I recall that you had a different cart for a charging station a while back? Maybe you don't have that anymore? I was watching a few of your sentimental unboxing with Andy videos recently and you figure things out together so following on from this video would be good to see the next steps you took together 😊
If I were you I’d keep the table a bit longer at that place. It seems to be fishing for unnecessary extras in your house, so you can just harvest them and get rid of the stuff.
And when he stays clean.. you can either bring him out because he fulfilled his purpose, or he’ll find a new one - maybe even the way you intended!
Our kitchen bar is the magnet in our house - drives me nuts! LOL!
Hi Erica, When you stop even though there is still an unfinished project, is it worse of a mess when you return? How long do you leave the unfinished project? I have been trying to work on a toy declutter and organizing projects for a year now. When I go back to that project it’s never the way I left it because my boys were trying to find something. Yes it has taken me a year because I am a full time work from home for an employer mom, wife, and caregiver for my 87 year old mom who lives with us and has dementia. Anyway I also have a hard time with this project because when I go through these toy’s they are also memories of playing with them or how excited they were when we got that toy for them. What if they want to keep it for their kids someday 12:29 ? Having a hard time. 🙏🏼 thanks!
I'm in this RIGHT NOW. I've left the mess and it's worse. I'm trying to nail down time with my husband so he can help me.
Get a cable box to make the cables on the floor look a bit neater😊
Can you please share a link to your favorite learning items for your kids? Thank you
It's a long list! Did you have any subjects or interests in mind?
Erica….Reading and writing would be #1 on my list. I hope you see my comment.
Wouldn't it be better to move the cabinet that you don't like where it is into the spot under the white board and put the charging station on or inside the cabinet? Then move the rolling carts either to the outside of that cabinet or where the cabinet was under the teaching posters.
Erica, I would love to see you go on a spending fast- particularly when it comes to homeschool stuff, educational & non-educational games, etc. I know your family loves games, but it seems like you guys have had sooooo many over the years and your kids don’t take care of them.
Can you use a shelf of your cart as a charging station?
we tried... the devices and the chargers did not fit well. Good idea though!
I’ve been wanting to ask you. Is your husband in the Navy? What rank is he? What is his job in the service? My husband and I are prior sailors.
I just discovered a weird behavior about myself: I never slide or scooch a box across a table or drag furniture across a floor. I always pick things up and place them in a new location. Am I the only one who does this?
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
It's a beautiful table. Just need to find another place for it.
Like a lot of others, I have watched you for a long time. This is my opinion and only that (I am autistic so abrupt is my default so sorry in advance). I feel that you are struggling and putting a lot of pressure on yourself. You home school which means that you are basically sourcing 3 different year grades in one room in your home, no wonder you are feeling overwhelmed. I agree with others that you are all possibly over stimulated because every thing is on show at all times and it is in your home, you never get a respite. I am in England so my home is very different to yours but I know that a lot of people who work from home since Covid never seem to switch off and it feels that you are feeling the same. Is there a way of re configuring the space? Could you use the basement as the home school area. I think you do an amazing job, you have come so far but I think along side the organising have to come some behaviour changes too, simplifying behaviours and making space for you all to breathe. Thank you for sharing your honesty and thought process, you really are loved 🥰
❤Erica maybe it's too much to declutter and organize in one go. Do each separately because I think they use separate parts of the brain.