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Podcast #626: How to Declutter Your Work Life.Podcast #699: The No-Nonsense Guide to Simplifying Every Aspect of Your Life.Matt’s TEDx talk on “The Unintended Result of Our Attachment to Personal Belongings”.This is a really fun and interesting conversation that definitely motivated me to clean out our house. Oh, and we also discuss where to find hidden stashes of money when you’re cleaning out the house of an older person who’s died. We end our conversation with how, after you’ve decluttered your place, to keep it from getting clogged up again. Matt explains what to do with your stuff whether trashing, donating, upcycling, or selling, and how much you can reasonably expect to get when you do the latter (spoiler alert: it’s a lot less than you think). Matt recommends how and where to get started with your decluttering, and offers tools, including creating a “maybe pile” and a “legacy list,” for deciding what to keep and what to chuck, whether you’re dealing with big items like furniture or small stuff like documents and pictures. We talk about why we can feel so attached to our possessions, and how to let them go, while still preserving your and your family’s memories. We then get into both the mindset and brass tacks tips he’s learned from the most extreme cases of clutter that can be used by regular people who just want to pare down their stuff.
We begin our conversation with how Matt got into cleaning out houses and working with hoarders, and some of the worst cases of hoarding Matt’s seen. His name is Matt Paxton, and he’s a downsizing and decluttering expert, a featured cleaner on the television show Hoarders, the host of the Emmy-nominated show Legacy List With Matt Paxton which showcases people’s heirlooms and treasures, and the author of Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life. My guest today sorts through both the psychological and practical roadblocks that can get in the way of living more minimally, and more in the present. So what’s been holding you back from getting closer to those ideals?