Megan Smith: once you go through one space and you kind of realize why you’re holding onto things, it becomes a lot faster in other spaces to realize like what you’re holding onto and why.

And once you’re able to like sort that out for yourself, then it’s easier to make the decisions.

Jade Boyd: Welcome to the Business Edit Podcast, a podcast about redefining productivity for the modern woman in business and finding ways to work smarter, not harder in business and life. I’m your host, Jade Boyd, an MBA business minimalist and productivity coach. I help overwhelmed business owners simplify and feel their service-based businesses by doing less but better.

I help my clients create business. Minimalist strategies and systems that allow them to pursue ambitious goals while working at a human pace. On this podcast, we’ll explore simple ways to grow your business with a life first approach. If you’re ready to scale your business, bring order to chaos, ditch the busy work, and spend more time living your life than managing your life, [00:01:00] you’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to the Business Edit Podcast.

Welcome to the show, Megan.

Megan Smith: Thank you so much for having me, Jade. I’m so excited to be here with you.

Jade Boyd: I am so excited that we’re finally having this conversation. I feel like it’s been a long time coming. For those of you who don’t know Megan, she was part of the business edit, so I’ve known her for a long time now and seen her business evolve over the past more than a year now. And I feel like we’ve had many conversations that are a little bit indulging just about organizing and getting rid of things,

Megan Smith: sure.

Jade Boyd: and we just share a lot in common.

So I’m excited to actually have some dedicated time to like sit down and chat about this stuff. So for those who don’t know you, would you mind starting out with just a little bit of your backstory and kind of how you got into business and what that looks like today?

Megan Smith: Yeah. So my name is Megan Smith. I am a farm wife and a mom of three. We live in rural South [00:02:00] Dakota. And I am a full-time elementary teacher, and also I started Stressless organizing in 2023. And I honestly, for as long as , I can remember in my adult life, like I’ve always felt this like call or pull to share, like, and kind of in this like sense of the more, the merrier type attitude of like just sharing as much as I can, helping others as much as I can, sharing what I know or what I can figure out and getting excited about, you know, things like spreadsheets and like things that are pretty unorganized.

And but then it would’ve been within the year before that so sometime in 20 21, 20 20. Two-ish, I’d have to check. But I was diagnosed with A DHD and my [00:03:00] counselor actually was the one who mentioned, like, we were starting, we were talking about things and getting suspicious of if maybe I had a DHD.

And then that was kind of a moment where I was like, well, what the heck? At that point I had been an elementary education teacher for 10 years and I was like, how did I not catch this? And then I really started to realize, you know, deeper that like, I felt like I was living a little bit of a double life because from the outside everyone thought I was so organized but really on the inside my head, like I just always knew I couldn’t keep track of things.

And it was my counselor who actually said, well, maybe those like the organization systems that you’ve built for yourself are really coping mechanisms and coping habits For you to manage the A DHD that I didn’t know I had. And that really kind of aligned too because I, I said, I always told myself like, I felt like my parents like, in a good way, helpful [00:04:00] way, loving way that they like parented the A DHD out of me.

And I mean, research shows that A DHD presents differently in girls anyways than it does in boys. And I feel like now is a time where finally, women are being late diagnosed with A DHD and at the same time, society has all these expectations on us of what we should be able to handle and it just can be so overwhelming.

And so that, that was kind of how I have carved out this little like area or focus of what I’ve wanted to share about is that experience and help others in that way. So that’s how Stressless organizing kind of came to be. And what I wanted to do is to help others and to help moms.

And over the past few years, I’ve really been narrowing in and focusing on how I can best do that along with the season of life I’m in too. So I [00:05:00] started with in-person sessions two years ago, a little more than a year ago, I started the podcast. And since then, now I’ve actually just moved to digital offers for moms and kids to help with home organizing.

Jade Boyd: I would love to dive a little bit deeper into that experience getting diagnosed with A-D-H-D-A little bit. You know, later we always think of like children being diagnosed as with A DHD. And I’m sure as an educator you see that quite often, but I feel like it’s just been really common recently.

I’ve seen a lot of adults, especially women, get diagnosed late with A DHD and have that big like, oh, that’s why X, Y, and Z. And I would love to know like, what was your experience being diagnosed like you said as an educator you’re like, how did I miss this? ’cause you know, you know the things to look for.

And I would love to also know a little bit more about what you said about women’s and men’s symptoms. Presenting differently. What did that look like for [00:06:00] you?

Megan Smith: Yeah. So there’s a few points in my life when I look back and then, and it’s like, oh my gosh, all of a sudden things make sense. And I always say getting on anxiety medicine was one of those, like, that would’ve been very helpful in high school and in middle school, those really hard times when you’re growing up, like anxiety medicine would’ve helped me a lot,

when I had my first son I started counseling and then when I had my second child, I got an anxiety medicine. After my third child, I got diagnosed with A DHD and things just like completely made sense. But even in that conversation with my counselor, I was like, so what do you treat first? You treat the anxiety and manage the anxiety or the A DH adhd. And she was like, well actually research. Shows you should treat and manage the A DHD first because that is what brings on the anxiety. And it’s so true. I said becoming a parent, exacerbated all of my A DHD symptoms. So like I had kind of, [00:07:00] one of my providers had also said intelligent people can manage A DHD.

Fine. So it was like I, you know, before kids I was managing. But then when you take on so much more responsibility and tasks and like your executive functioning has to be top notch, like that’s actually one of the reasons I believe that like more women are being late diagnosed with A

DHD because they are capable of managing so much and then it just becomes too much.

So, yeah, and I mean, just looking back, like as my parents always said, like if you would just, if you would just crack a book, if you would just study, you know, and like I got bs. I was like, I’m fine. I like, I’d rather go talk with my friends. I wanna go, you know, be social and like, I don’t is like normal stuff for a kid.

Yeah, yeah. I don’t wanna sit down and read and, well actually, honestly, reading was like, I don’t wanna say hard for me, but I had [00:08:00] to focus, like, I always say , I have to if I’m focusing, I have to read the words on the page and like repeat, almost, like repeat them in my head. I can’t just like absorb the content by reading it.

I have to truly focus. So as a child, of course, in your underdeveloped brain, like of course that’s what I wanted to avoid. It was a lot of work,

Jade Boyd: Mm-hmm. For sure.

Megan Smith: but, but I got by.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, and you and I have had a lot of conversations about this I think over the last year, but just that the symptoms of A DHD more and more are becoming so common even for people who are not diagnosed with A DHD just because of, you know, digital technology and how addicted we are to like that fast response and the dopamine hits and like a million things coming at us at once, which we were never meant to like live in that way.

So even people without a diagnosis of A DHD whose brains do function differently, still struggle with a lot of the exact same things. And I’m curious, I feel like I’ve experienced the same thing since having kids. And [00:09:00] your story honestly makes me wonder if I need to get tested for a DHD. ’cause I’m like, am I doing the same thing where I’m just really organized as a coping mechanism?

I don’t know.

Even as a minimalist, like when we were registering for baby stuff, and even now, like we try to buy as few things as possible because she likes playing with the spatula more than like the $50 toy anyway. Right? There’s still so many items, like even for one child, like we’ve had over a thousand items, like almost immediately enter your home and the more kids you have and the less control you have

Megan Smith: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Jade Boyd: it adds up so quickly.

And so I would love for you to speak to that problem like in the home specifically with women and the decision fatigue and the mental load and being overstimulated. How does clutter impact women? And how do you deal with that with your clients and even for yourself? Like what role does managing our homes and setting these systems in place play when it comes to that decision fatigue and that mental load?

Megan Smith: Mm-hmm. [00:10:00] And I think like the most basic answer for that, and I know this is so exactly aligned with what, what you teach in the business edit, but it just comes down to being so intentional from the beginning and, knowing yourself, knowing your goals and knowing everything that’s important to you first is gonna make managing everything so much easier.

So being able to identify what types of things are important to you, what’s not important to you, and kind of set almost setting up rules for yourself really of what you allow into your house or almost like setting up your filter

of what can come in, what goes out, even like how long things stay in your house.

Because somebody asked me once when I was doing like a kinda like a panel type event, they asked me how often I declutter my house and I said, every day. [00:11:00] And I wasn’t even joking, but it’s because I have like, I know what I want in my house and I know what I don’t want in my house. So. I’m constantly throwing things in the trash

and you know, like there’s even layers to that too of, you know, people have strong feelings about waste and things like that.

But like you said, when you have kids it literally multiplies overnight in their backpacks in the backseat of your car. Like it’s just stuff is just everywhere. So if you can set your own parameters it brings it down more of like what you have to manage, because we know with A DHD, like managing more is harder.

So if you can, even just the mental load that moms have in generally, even if you don’t have a DHD, if you can keep pairing it down to what’s truly important to you and your family, that is like the most baseline helpful thing you can do.

Jade Boyd: Can you give an example or two of filters that either you of your clients have [00:12:00] set up that have kind of helped with that?

Megan Smith: Mm-hmm. Yeah. One. Okay. So when it comes to school papers, and this took me a couple years to figure out, because you know, like your kids start in preschool and all of like, it’s very craft based. And then they get to kindergarten and they do a little bit more, you know, worksheet type work. And then there’s usually, you know, like weekly crafts and things here, and then, you know, notes and flyers and things like that.

So when it comes to school, I encourage my clients or even my podcast listeners and Instagram followers to like decide once and I, and it’s not something you can necessarily do right away, but start to just pay attention to what is coming home. And so with my own kids. And I’m even a teacher, so I feel like I am slightly more attached to their schoolwork.

’cause I know like what they’re working

on and like I know when they I remember making a note on my kids’, like first sight [00:13:00] word page they brought home, you know, because like I, that’s the level I teach. And so I’m

like, oh, that’s their first sight word. Kind of silly. But like, I made a rule, a filter for me is like any worksheet, like in school you’re gonna bring home a million worksheets.

Like every single worksheet goes in the trash, you know? And then when it comes down to the art stuff, there was even a time where like, ’cause I have you seen those file bins that are for each year and the

kids’ name is on it, and so that you have hanging folders for each grade level? That’s what I have for my kids.

And of course preschools was like very full. ’cause I was

new parent and it’s all crafts and whatever. But then once they got to kindergarten and stuff, I even made like a filter or a rule for myself that like, I’m only keeping crafts that are flat because they fit in the folder.

You know, little things like that.

So if they brought home a craft that was made out of a Dixie cup, I’m not hanging onto that. When they’re not looking after it’s been in the house for a little bit, it just disappears and everybody’s [00:14:00] fine. You know, like I’ve probably only had a couple times that my kids have questioned me on where something went.

And it’s not usually a big deal when it comes home from school, but that’s, that’s an example of a filter of, you know, just the rules that I have made

for

Jade Boyd: And I love how you tied that back to like clarifying what’s important first, because it is such an important piece whenever you think about letting go of something and I. I mean, you’re talking about things that can be really emotional, right? And you feel that attachment and feeling like it’s so important, but everything comes at a cost.

Even if it’s like a little Dixie cup. Like we have houses that are so big now, like everyone has their own room and we feel like we have all this closet space, but that little stuff adds up so quickly. And so, yeah, pre-deciding because of that decision fatigue just makes so much sense so that you’re not deciding every single time.

’cause that takes so much emotional and mental

energy.

Megan Smith: Yeah, exactly. And if you put it away, I’ve, I mean, I even noticed this with myself, but if you put it away, you know, outta sight outta mind, [00:15:00] get it put away, it has a place. But if you’re just storing paper there and, you don’t go back to it and it’s, you know, maybe up in a closet on a shelf, it’s still taking up space and it’s still like, you forget that it’s there

anyways. And so, are you truly coming back to it? Is there a use for it? You know, that’s.

Where the questions for yourself. Just go on and on about identifying what is necessary for you. ’cause

it’s not gonna be the same for everybody.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. And you have a signature four step method that you use to declutter any space, and I would love for you to walk through those four steps and what that actually looks like for somebody who’s hearing this and thinking about, you know what, I really should be going through my house, but it feels like a lot right now.

What are the steps that you recommend people take?

Megan Smith: Yeah. So my favorite four step method is prioritize, categorize, downsize, and reorganize. So prioritizing, and [00:16:00] honestly, you circle back to prioritizing a lot throughout the the method. But prioritizing is deciding one where you’re starting, but then even if you say you’re gonna start in the bathroom, you, the next step is.

Well, which cupboard? You know? Or are you gonna do a whole cabinet, you know, are you gonna do all the under the sink? You know, it’s so you keep cycling to that prioritized step. And just depending on, I always say how your brain works, then you go to categorizing. And the important part with categorizing is putting all the things that you have in the space, you’re organizing in their categories together.

And the important part is so that you can see what you have all at once. And I know that part, honestly, I feel like can be overwhelming for people who are maybe doing it on their own or who know they need help with that. But so like if you’re, for the bathroom example, if you’re gonna prioritize bathroom and then you’re gonna start categorizing and you put all [00:17:00] your towels in one spot, it is important to put all of the towels together or all of whatever category together so that you can see how many you have.

Even like, even just for my own, my own house, I took out some towels to see if we could survive without some, without, you know, when I hit ’em, I didn’t get rid of ’em yet, but like I put them away to see if we could still live our rhythm within the towels that we had to make the laundry less, you know?

And it’s just important to be able to see how many you truly have. ’cause again, if you have some in like several different closets in your house, you might have too many. And then that’s just more for you to manage and more laundry for you to do, and more towels that can get used and dirty before you

have to do laundry again.

So categor, so prioritize, categorize, downsizing is the where you are decluttering, deciding what you don’t need. That’s probably the most emotionally taxing part of the

process. Just, and, and [00:18:00] also where you’re setting up your, your filters and deciding what’s right for your family. So that part can be tiring.

And the last part is the fun part that’s reorganized. And so that is where you’ve downsized each category and then you’re picking a home for each category. And reorganizing is like just putting it all back. Of course, like my love language is labels, so I put things away, make sure they’re labeled so I remember where things go because that’s just one less thing that I have to hold onto in my motherhood mental load of like where I decided something should be.

And also for the, my other like family members know where it goes too. And don’t always have to ask mom,

Jade Boyd: Yes.

Megan Smith: So reorganizing is the fun part,

Jade Boyd: what I love about this framework and like the idea of decluttering or organizing in general is that I just feel like it applies to so many other aspects of life. [00:19:00] And when you were talking about prioritizing and like, okay, just pick a place to start, like what’s most important right now? It reminded me recently, so we moved in August, but we’re like slowly, I wouldn’t say renovating, but like designing our house, like choosing paint colors and actually making it our home.

’cause it was kind of like a big. Blank box when we moved in. And honestly still mostly is, but I have frequently found myself getting overwhelmed, especially recently because I went a little crazy and put like paint colors in multiple rooms of trying to decide like a million paint colors at once. And I have to keep reminding myself of like, no, we’re starting with Caleb’s office and when Caleb moves into his office, then we’ll do his old office and that’ll become my office.

And we’re like, we’re doing it one thing at a time, but instead of being like, okay, we have to do this and that and that, and like literally the only next thing is to paint the office, which is the thing I don’t want to do,

Megan Smith: yep,

Jade Boyd: but it is like prioritizing of like what is most important and just start there.

Because I do think when we’re caught up in that overwhelm and looking [00:20:00] at the big picture, it’s easy to get kind of lost in the weeds. And maybe especially with A DHD, maybe start a million things and then

Megan Smith: Being super ambitious.

Jade Boyd: Yes.

Megan Smith: Yeah. Okay. I have to laugh because you mentioning one thing at a time. That phrase that is like, I think my phrase of the summer with my kids,

because they are, you know, it’s like we’re getting in the car and it, it’s literally the same thing coming down to prioritizing.

Like, we’re, we’re walking to the car and they’re like, asking me a million questions. Can we do this? Can we do this? Where are we going? And I just say, we’re doing one thing at a time. We are getting in the car. That’s all we’re doing right now. Like, and I, so I’ve been like saying one thing at a time to my, to my 8-year-old and 7-year-old, or 6-year-old, however old she is.

Yeah. To like prioritizing and just like focusing. We’re doing this because

it’s too overwhelming for me to get all three of you in the car and tell you where we’re going and what we’re

doing and,

Jade Boyd: I love that. I love that.

I also love, like the [00:21:00] categorize, having everything in one spot because it is. It is difficult. Like I was thinking your bathroom example, like we have a set of towels for each bathroom now, and I would probably not put them all in one spot. I’d probably just look at one bathroom at a time and I would say we’re not to the spot where like we’ve accumulated a million towels.

That’s probably a bad example for us. But what does that do like mentally when you see everything in one place? Because I think, again, just thinking about how this applies to different areas in life or maybe even different rooms of the house, sometimes we just don’t want to see everything in one place.

And so I’m curious, what does that do?

Megan Smith: For me and the way my brain works when I see it all together. ’cause I, same thing when I was prioritizing my towels, just overall in general, because I was finding, you know, towels in my kids’ rooms and bathrooms, like when they were already, you know, dirty or used or tracking them down for bath, bath time.

But I, I literally had them all on my bed and [00:22:00] I think I did get them all through the wash and it was just seeing all of them. And then also like, and this is, I mean, not totally necessary, but I’ve always wanted like all of one color towels in my house, you know, things like that. But, but even like as I am paring down what I, what to, what we need.

Like I’ve been think telling myself of like, I just wanna be like a, just enough mom. Like we have just enough to get through life how we do in our rhythms. And so even like I was able to put all the white towels in. Mine and my husband’s bathroom, and then all the hooded towels I folded and put in the kids’ bathroom.

And knowing that I would have a few other like colored towels for guests or like adult, obviously I’m not gonna make a guest use like a hooded towel, but it was just like for our own daily functioning, and to know where they are, then you can make it make sense for yourself if you see it all in one place.

Jade Boyd: Mm-hmm. [00:23:00] So kind of going back to what you said about clarity and like, okay, knowing what’s important to you and realizing. This is what’s actually happening in my house because I didn’t see it, but now I can see it very, very clearly, even though I don’t want to.

Megan Smith: Yep. Yep. Well, and like it comes down to, I mean, you can get as obsessive as you want about it, but even for me, I was like, okay, we have five people in our house.

Jade Boyd: Mm-hmm.

Megan Smith: How many towels do we truly need? And, and you can say that with everything plates, you know, and toys, like how many do you truly need?

So socks are another thing that I’m trying to figure out just to like, what’s our baseline of just enough, you know? Just because more be more items. I’ve said this before too, just becomes more to manage and we could argue too more for the mom to manage. We don’t need that. I feel like I’m just always like ninja karate, chopping stuff out of my life that I don’t, that don’t need.

Jade Boyd: Yes. And also it is [00:24:00] like, I do feel like before kids, it was a lot easier to stay on top of those things. Even even something as simple as like socks or how many pairs of pants do we need? But then you get pregnant and it’s like, oh, you almost need a whole new wardrobe. And then postpartum and then breastfeeding.

It’s like, oh, I just need like three different wardrobes apparently that I’m just gonna rotate until we’re done having kids. And then, I mean, kids outgrow clothes so quickly and then at one stage they only need so many pairs of socks and then they’re getting dirty more often. And so it’s just like constantly changing.

And I think

Megan Smith: Constant.

Jade Boyd: it, I just remember what you said at the beginning of our conversation of like, you can cope for so long, but then becoming a mom, it really is just like different next level executive functioning. But at the same time, I feel like so many women. Beat themselves up of like, why am I, like, why is my house such a mess?

And why is, why am I not able to do this? Like everybody else on the internet is doing it. And so I would love for you to speak to that and like, what is the secret? Because it is really, [00:25:00] really hard to stay on top to, on top of, and we have unrealistic expectations for ourselves, but at the same time, I think we all know that we could be doing better.

And so what is like that secret above, like just decluttering constantly. What are like the systems or like the behind the scenes tips that actually help us live life differently?

Megan Smith: Yeah, so honestly this is like a hill. I will die on this it, this book, there’s a book and it completely changed my life and hopefully, I hope a lot of people have heard of it because it’s just so good. But The Lazy Genius by Kendra aci, I wanna say that I I had to have read it. So my son, my first two kids are 21 months apart and that was like the height of my overwhelm.

And I mean at that time I was even trying to like keep up with other people by seasonally decorating my house. And [00:26:00] it’s just like, that is just something that is, I don’t do anymore, it’s too much. But it was because I was finally confident enough to make the decisions for myself and what’s

best for me and my family after I read The Lazy Genius.

And. I mean, Kendra Dachi is awesome. Her podcast is great, and her books, I’ve read all three of them too. They, it’s just like, it truly comes down to having the confidence in yourself knowing that what you’re doing is right for you and your family. And it doesn’t matter what anyone else is doing. It doesn’t matter what social media says.

It doesn’t matter what other families are doing. It doesn’t matter what you’re assuming other families are doing or able to do, or assuming what other people’s houses look like. Even even thinking about like your own house growing up, I mean, our generation, like [00:27:00] our parents did not grow up with social media.

So like I know that my, like my mom, she seasonally decorated that was. What she did, but she also didn’t have like a million other things to keep up with

like we do now. You know,

like, and she still worked full-time and everything, but it was just like, even if you are trying to do something because you feel like you should do it because the home you grew up in did, it doesn’t mean that that’s like a tradition that you need

to follow through on if it’s not bringing you joy and serving your family in a way that is important to you.

Jade Boyd: So just playing like a little bit of devil’s advocate here, do you think that most, I won’t even say most, do you think part of the problem or maybe even a major part of the problem is that we just expect ourselves to do too much and do things that we don’t like doing?

Megan Smith: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I would 1000% say yes to that, but that my reason for that is [00:28:00] because we maybe haven’t taken the time. To identify what is important to us, because I feel like it is so easy for moms to just go through the motions

of what’s expected or even like, even if they did set up a rule or expectation for themself in one season, but then their kids grow out of that season and they can change.

And it’s, if you just haven’t taken the time to be in intentional and ask yourself why you’re doing something, you know, why you’re going to events, you know, a certain

event or something like signing your kids up for an activity just because everybody else is signed up for that activity. You know, there like if we just go through the motions and don’t pay attention to what, why we’re doing it, it’s easy to fall into that trap to just take on too much and do things that are not important to us and we don’t need to spend our time like that.

Jade Boyd: Yeah. And again, I wish, like, I just wanna go back and like [00:29:00] rephrase everything you said from a business perspective, because I think the same rules apply of like, oh yeah, you’re just doing what you think every other business owner’s doing. You don’t even like it, and you built this business that you hate.

And like, it’s a completely different season of life for you. So why are we still trying to force ourselves into like this little box again? Like, I feel like everything, I love your industry so much because I feel like it’s so applicable in such a real, tangible, visual way to every other aspect of life that feels a little bit more intangible or like harder to grasp and actually see it clearly.

But above and beyond that, for the person who’s like, you know what, I actually do have clarity, but I’m just, I feel like I’m drowning and I can’t keep on top of it. Or like, I know I need to operate my house differently. And I don’t have any systems or anything like where do I even start? What would you recommend for that person?

Megan Smith: Well, the first thing I would say is. They should download my decide guide because the I, when I was creating [00:30:00] this, I just remember actually, so in December, I remember being like so pumped about it while when I was creating it because I couldn’t believe that I came up with, so there was eight, there’s eight major living spaces in our house or like there’s eight major spaces in our house.

But I was able to get those spaces into sub spaces and came out to 24 different sub spaces within your house of. Things you can declutter. Yeah. And I was just like, I didn’t even, didn’t even, again, you can’t see it. You don’t categorize it, you can’t see it. And so I was like blown away that there is that many different parts of our house that we need to take care of.

And you know, that I am saying to, we need to be intentional about. But in the decide guide, each of those 24 subspace have a list of questions that guide you. There’s no right or wrong answer to these [00:31:00] questions. It’s just a way to guide yourself to identify or evaluate what’s important to you and what’s not.

Like a big thing that I think when you go through the questions and the decide guide, it’s just a digital PDF that you can look at. You don’t have to write anything down. It’s just reflection questions basically. And I think a lot of the things that we might be holding onto is some. Like is connected to some form of guilt in the sense of like, it was a gift.

You know, I like somebody, I got this at some event, or I spent this much money on it so I can’t get rid of it. You know, there’s so many different reasons that we might be holding onto something and I would bet that, you know, it’s kind of, once [00:32:00] you go through one space and you kind of realize why you’re holding onto things, it becomes a lot faster in other spaces to realize like what you’re holding onto and why.

And once you’re able to like sort that out for yourself, then it’s easier to make the decisions.

Jade Boyd: What is your stance on like, what if I need it someday? Because I feel like that’s another really common one of like, yes, maybe I spent money on this, but I actually think that I might need this

Megan Smith: Mm-hmm. So there’s, there’s two filters that I go through for that. And one is, when was the last time you needed it?

Jade Boyd: Mm.

Megan Smith: like, to think back, like how long has it been sitting there and how much space is it taking up too? Like is it’s been sitting there and it’s taking up space and how long haven’t you used it?

Another thing I like to think about is like, if I needed another one, would it be an inexpensive purchase to get, again, like say five years comes down the line and I need another three, three hole punch for my, for a piece of paper. You know? Or like, [00:33:00] or in the future if I need another one, do I know where I could borrow one?

You know, things like that. Like if, if you might need it, and it’s not that, you know, under 20 bucks to get again and you haven’t used it for years, you know, every, but everyone has to establish that for themselves. You know,

Jade Boyd: Mm-hmm.

Megan Smith: what’s worth it and what’s not to get rid of and what’s more valuable? Is it, is it more valuable for you to have that.

In, in just in case, or is it more valuable for you to open up some space in your closet?

Jade Boyd: I think I just had kind of like a mental clarity moment as you were saying that because I’m like, you make it sound so easy because I’m thinking about partic like a very particular instance in my own life right now that I’m floundering on and I’m like, she just makes it sound so easy. But really answering those questions, it seems so simple, but it’s also just so difficult to decide.

And when that’s compounded by like, you know, 500 items to declutter, one space, it is a lot of energy on top of what we’re already going [00:34:00] through, but also like so worth it when you have. A simplified space that feels easier to maintain. And I feel like I have experienced that in my own life. But I do think it is just like constant decluttering no matter how intentional I am with like what we let into our home.

It is just like this constant process. And I think another misconception that people have, and I’m sure you’ve seen this, is like, oh, I’m just gonna like spring clean, do it all and then we’re good. But like what is the system that you use or teach that allows people to actually stay on top of that?

Megan Smith: For me, it just always circles back to the four step method and no matter what you’re dealing with, you know, whether it’s, I was trying to think of like garage items, but just no matter what you’re trying to basically get under control, it’s to decide what’s important with prioritizing and then seeing what you can let go of [00:35:00] from there.

One thing I was, I was thinking about when you were. With like the system part of it

or like letting go, it reminded me that or when you’re talking about your you know, making, making the decision is, I call it purgatory instead of like purgatory,

but it’s in, it’s in my garage. And there’s so often where like, I want to declutter something or like, you know, get, get rid of it.

And kind of like, I like to put things in like a holding zone, whether it’s like a tote, a box, a big garbage bag, wherever, and like just get it out of my actual house. Because even if like, and I mentioned about like the value of like the space that is taking up in your closet. If you don’t wanna let it go, is there a place you could move it to that is, is like a less valuable space that it can take up?

Like can it take up space in like your basement storage room if you’re not ready to let it

go, you know, does it need to be in your prime real estate of. Your kitchen cupboards if it’s [00:36:00] something you don’t use every time. Sorry, I don’t think that quite answered your question about the the

Jade Boyd: Like your system

Megan Smith: teaching Yeah. System for decluttering, because really it just comes back to knowing what’s important. Like you, the system is yours,

Jade Boyd: Yes.

Megan Smith: and knowing your values.

Jade Boyd: I guess what I’m getting at is like, do you go through every space in your home every year, or is it more so just like as you’re noticing, Hey, this bathroom feels like something’s outta whack, it’s time to go through it, and you’re just kind of working through things as

Megan Smith: You’re gonna

Jade Boyd: creating problems.

Megan Smith: You’re gonna laugh at this because there’s so many layers to this. But because it comes down to when I’m overstimulated

Jade Boyd: Mm.

Megan Smith: I’m overstimulated in a room in my house, whether it’s my kids’ bedroom, whether it’s our home office, the kids’ bathroom always drives me insane because it’s.

It’s not even that big. It’s not, I, I should say it’s small, but [00:37:00] it’s like a, oh my God, get me outta here. You know, like, ’cause it’s like they leave stuff on the floor and it’s just like, things are just not where they belong. But, so I, and this is something I really say with A DHD because like hard, fast, like regimens are hard for me.

And so I, I kind of follow my energy and so when it, when a space becomes overstimulating, that’s like when this like gotta take back control, energy comes over and then that’s like when I’ll declutter stuff. Even though I do, like I said, I declutter every day because I know my filters of like what I’m gonna grab and throw in the trash, like McDonald’s toys.

You, you know, like things that, like, even the little tiny, you know, just like little, like a friend of mine and I have a joke about trinkets, like, we always send each other memes about like trinkets because she loves ’em and trinkets drive me insane. And she always like, saves them for her Sunday school kids.

And I’m like, oh my gosh, that’s the stuff I’m trying to keep out of my house. Perfect place to donate [00:38:00] them.

yeah. Yep, yep. So that’s, yeah, like that. I, and I’ve talked before on my podcast about like identifying the things that float into your house and then you setting up the system so that they float out of your house. And so, you know, whether that’s paper coming in, you know, like you have a place for it to go, whether it’s the garbage or a file and just setting that up for yourself.

So at ba like I said, baseline, it comes back to what’s important to you,

but there’s like the daily. Get the crap out of my house.

Jade Boyd: Yes.

Megan Smith: And then like, and then I, I have to follow my energy with the you know, with the, the big projects. You know, once it just becomes too much and I can’t stand it anymore

because I can’t, I can’t assign myself a system that would,

Jade Boyd: Well, I

Megan Smith: should say, based on a calendar.

I should

say that. Within a calendar.

Jade Boyd: I feel like what you’re doing is actually like a really great system because I think the more that we rely ourselves, rely on ourselves to have that [00:39:00] energy of doing something like every February I’m gonna declutter the garage or whatever, that would be a terrible month to declutter a garage.

But you know, I’m saying like we don’t have a lot of capacity to force ourselves to do things we don’t enjoy doing. And then at the same time we beat ourselves up. ’cause it’s like why am I not doing this really difficult project every single year? Like, everyone should be spring cleaning and like wiping down all their walls, right? Like, no, we just don’t have the energy to do those things in like many seasons of life. And the more that we can rely on systems the more I think about this, like I really do think that something can either, either be seasonal or weekly. And there’s not a lot of in-between energy. Like either this is like a three month focus of mine that I can allow myself enough time to focus on, or this is something that I just have to incorporate into my weekly rhythm so that they feel effortless.

And there’s not a lot of room to do things that are like in between. To force ourselves to do things once a month specifically is what I’m realizing [00:40:00] recently, especially with planning, like date nights or things with friends, it’s like. If I try and tell myself I have to plan something every single month, it just, it just doesn’t happen because it might not seem like that big of a deal, but it either has to be like on the weekly rhythm or it has to be like this seasonal push where I’m planning several things at once.

There’s like not any in between. For me, and what you said just made me think about like, yeah, we do think that decluttering is a project that we just do, and maybe once a month you make it a goal, though declutter a space, but then it never really happens when really it should just be like a systemized thing where every day you’re looking at something small.

It’s like getting over that all or nothing energy.

Megan Smith: Yep, yep. For sure. And like maintaining the space is, is part of it, but things, it’s easier to keep things maintained when you have decluttered and reorganized from a point of like knowing your end goal, you know,

or knowing your intent. Like, I keep going,

circling back to like the [00:41:00] intention, but things stay, you know I think it’s Dana K White that talks about the container is the boundary.

And so if, this container is labeled with like kids’ medicine, you know, like once my kids’ medicine container is full, I need to go through it. You know,, that’s the, non rhythm

that I would follow. You know, like that’s like gonna be the asterisk on my calendar of like, okay, I can’t shut this drawer anymore.

I need to go through it.

Jade Boyd: Yes. Which is like, it seems really simple, but I feel like most people’s default is just like, we need a bigger house, or

Megan Smith: is,

Jade Boyd: I need a storage unit, or you know, like there’s no bounds to the things that we could own.

Megan Smith: yes, yes. And I have been even saying mostly to myself lately, but I’m like, let’s, well, I always love the phrase like, grow where you’re planted, but like, we truly can grow where we’re planted. Or let’s normalize like having a normal home, you know, and not, [00:42:00] not needing so much,

you know, like it’s, it’s possible,

but it does take time and we don’t have a lot of time either.

Jade Boyd: Yeah, for sure. But again, going along with your energy, all of us get those bursts of energy or you know, that emotional moment where we’re like, okay, I’ve had enough this, this gotta go right now. And I am also a fan of Kendra Aachi and I always think of her phrase like the big black trash bag, energy.

She talked a lot about it a lot in her most recent book, the plan of where we’re just like, alright, everything has to be thrown away right now. Which generally is probably not a healthy way to live. But again, if you work with your rhythms, we all get that energy once in a while where we do have that boost of like, motivation to do a big overhaul and then it just comes down to maintaining it.

But I do think that we try and set deadlines to things or like, I have to do this in the next 12 weeks and I have to dedicate, you know, so much time of my weekend every week until this [00:43:00] is done. When really if you just kind of like follow your energy sometimes your internal compass will just tell you like, okay.

Step one, prioritize. I think that we all, if we think about that question for a little bit, can come up with like, okay, yeah, this is the thing that’s really bugging me right now.

Megan Smith: Yep. And I even think too, like we have to stop beating ourselves up when we don’t have time to get to it. Or like in that in-between of like, like even just for me, I, a lot of times if I’m decluttering something that’ll get put to my, put in my office or if I’m gonna put it on Facebook marketplace.

So it, it will sit there. And yes, my office is not in like the perfect tip, top put away shape, but I also like let go of the fact that like, okay, during this, this last few months of the school year, I didn’t have time to like sit and take pictures and get it on Facebook marketplace. But I did. I, like, I got to it, it was on my list.

And just like not beating myself up in between, I feel like we need to be easier on, as women, we need to be easier on [00:44:00] ourselves about like, it’s okay to have intentions and it’s okay to not have things done like right now because our hands are full.

Jade Boyd: Yes. I love that. And I do feel like anybody who follows you, I think it is really comforting. I don’t know a better word for it, but you are different than a lot of organizers where you’re not like, Hey, you have to buy all of these matching bins. You’re just kinda like, use what you have. It’s gonna be functional, it’s gonna be organized, it’s gonna make your life easier.

But I do think that there’s that dark side of organizing where they do set that unrealistic expectation of like, this is what your house is gonna look like. And then when your house doesn’t look like that, you think that you failed in some way.

Megan Smith: yeah, yeah. And it’s, that’s, yeah, exactly. And what’s important to you, if it’s important for you to have a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing pantry that is good. And that’s okay. You know, like that’s good because that’s what’s important to you. But if you. Wanna just like get home from the grocery store and [00:45:00] not decant your cereal?

Like, that’s,

Jade Boyd: That’s also fine.

Megan Smith: that’s all so good.

Jade Boyd: So we, I have so many more questions, but I do want to make sure that we have time to touch on toys since that’s such a huge focus of yours. And yeah, I would just love for you to touch on. Why toys? ’cause you have said for moms like that is maybe a good place to start because it is a category that expands your entire house.

And even like my daughter is not even a year yet, she’ll be a year this month, which is crazy how fast that went. But she already has so many toys and now that she’s getting more mobile, the toys are spreading farther and farther throughout the house. So I would love for you to talk about toys and what some of your favorite tips are for managing the chaos.

Megan Smith: Yes. This gets me so excited. I feel like with my elementary education or my background in elementary education, and then also my taking like my A [00:46:00] DHD mom experience and managing the overwhelm like toys for me, when, when I am speaking with a mom who is overwhelmed with the state in their house, I really like to encourage them to start decluttering or organizing the toys.

Like you said, they spread all over the house. That’s why I, I named my private podcast Play Spaces That Work because not every home has a playroom, but like our entire homes are. Spaces where our kids play, and we all know that our kids have brought toys into the bathroom while moms are using the bathroom.

Like it

Jade Boyd: Yes.

Megan Smith: happens. But since they’re everywhere, but then like you said, like we get inundated with them with gifts and people who love our kids and want to, you know, want to bring them something when they’re visiting or you like, there’s just so much. And really when it comes to toys, there’s, and moms, I think the, the level of like emotional attachment to toys is a [00:47:00] little bit lower just because there’s so many, like, yes,

there might be some toys that we are attached to because there it’s our first, you know, their first of anything that it could be important to them.

But since there’s so many, you know, we can’t have like 150 favorites, right?

Like of things that are, and, and, what I in play spaces at work that I. Have that private podcast and the digital resources set up so that it walks you through step by step with the four step method of prioritize, categorize, downsize, and then reorganize.

And within that, the, the best thing that I think you can start to consider, like with your kids’ toys is, you know, identifying what’s important. What creates meaningful play for your kids? What do your kids always reach for? What’s always spread out over your living room? Maybe you just need a basket to put under the TV stand to hold the magnet [00:48:00] tiles, you know, like, or they, you know, they don’t need to be in a bin in their bedroom closet, you know, if they’re always spread out over the house.

So it’s just kind of seeing, like watching your kids and their tendencies. And then I. Figuring out how you can make it manageable or like maintainable within your living space. So whether they’re in the living room or their bedroom, or if you have a extra living space that’s a playroom or a basement, those are like the ba, you know, basement toy rooms and things like that.

But also, one thing I think that’s important that I really, I like to talk about a lot is like the accessibility part of organizing toys. And if it’s a toy that you want your kid or your kid is at appropriate age to get it out by themselves, pick it up and put it away by themselves. Like, where are you housing that toy?

Is it, is it low enough for them to reach it on their own? You know, to like take something off of [00:49:00] mom’s plate and you don’t have to get up from drinking your coffee to go get a toy out for them. But then also, especially in my house with my girls. I have to make sure like the markers and crayons are not at in a place where they can like be unsupervised with them because we get, we like to not color on paper,

like we like to color on walls and like, my girls are very good at making things pretty, you know, like it’s, so things like the accessibility part is like if you want them to need permission to get it out, put it up high.

It doesn’t have to be, you know, in like the high real estate value of like where you’re storing your toys, put it somewhere that they can’t get to it and they need help or permission get it to get it down. So that, again, like I said, it goes back to like the intention part of it, but when it comes to toys, watching and paying attention to your kids and their interest is going to, it’s almost going to guide you to [00:50:00] see like what you need to focus on for them.

And if there’s things that they never touch. Do you need them? You know? And one, there was one, oh, I was listening to a podcast once, I think it was a girl named Capri Carpenter. She was, she’s a professional organizer and she was talking about toy rotations, and she even made the comment about like, if your child doesn’t need or want this toy for a set amount of time, like, do you really need to store it?

You know? So, but I do think like, just for even kids and what they can manage in the overwhelm, like there’s still a good place for like, toy rotations or even like toy libraries. Like I, people have closets, or you can set up a closet where they get the toy out and put it back, you know, like that they have it out for a while and put it back.

But it’s just like, do you need a huge backlog of

toy storage that you’re rotating through, you know, or can you size it down [00:51:00] so that it’s a little bit more manageable?

Jade Boyd: What are some of the other common mistakes you see people make when it comes to organizing or just managing toys?

Megan Smith: So the biggest mistake I think that I see is just having like, and this is probably an extreme example, but having all the toys or a bunch of toys in one large container. And honestly, I mean essentially like a toy box because if I can find like one little people, but I can’t find like the car that the little people ride in, you know, like that, that’s hard.

That’s multi-step for little children’s brains to put together. Like just to make the toy operate or just to play, to be able to play. They have to like work before they can play. So however you can make it easier for them if you like. Yes. I think the obvious thing, you know, like all the Legos go with Legos and all the Hot Wheels.

[00:52:00] Go with Hot Wheels, but the toys that are kind of like a hammer and a nail where it’s like you need this toy to play with this toy, like babies and blankets or baby dolls and bottles. Keeping those together too so that the children can play and just get, kind of get to work playing rather than like needing to find different things to put together to make their play work, if that makes

Jade Boyd: Yes. So what I love about Megan’s course, ’cause she launched this while she was in the business edit, so I got all of the behind the scenes look and she has this amazing guide of all of her favorite containers from all of her favorite stores. And it is, it makes it so much easier because if you go. To like target and just search, you know, container.

There’s so many options, but you group them together based on like what looks, looks aesthetically pleasing together and like the furniture that goes with it, which is, it’s so good, but just from like a bigger perspective, when you give that advice of like [00:53:00] store everything together, my immediate thought was like, oh my gosh, how do you do that if you, you have limited space or like you don’t have the right furniture to store that many containers.

Just broadly speaking, what are some of your favorite go-to solutions for organizing toys?

Megan Smith: Oh my gosh. Well, I almost always would. The first thing I’m gonna say is I feel like it’s almost obvious, but the cube organizers those are so helpful, especially because different stores or different brands have the inserts for them to become, you know, like the bins fit, right? But there’s some bins you can fit to in, there’s inserts that you can make, you know, almost make it like a four.

Anyways, those, I really like those, but probably my favorite thing is if, if it allow, like if you can make it work in your house, is under the bed storage,

because those containers are bigger. And like I have two of those. This is my, you know, my boundaries here for my girls and their dressup clothes. But I have two of those that go under my girls’ [00:54:00] beds and I love it.

’cause when the cousins come over, it’s like the Dressup clothes just explode all over their

room. But it’s also so easy to grab the Dressup clothes and throw them back in this bin, put the lid on and slide it under their

Jade Boyd: Mm-hmm.

Megan Smith: I honestly get kind of annoyed ’cause my son’s bed is a little bit, there’s like a few more bars and it’s a little lower to the ground.

So I like don’t have like the perfect container to go under his bed, but in my girls’ room it works Great. So that would be the first two. And the last thing I would say is make sure that you’re using vertical space wherever you can. And where I think of that the most would be in your kids’ bedroom closets.

And then especially on like. The back of a, on the back of the bedroom door or

on the inside of a closet door, if they’re, if they, you know, like open with a swing rather than like, bifold, like the vertical space. And there’s some really great, like, back of the door organizers that are just super helpful and, you know, some of them [00:55:00] are at a level, like some of the holders on the doors then are at a level that the kids can still grab their toys.

And some of them are like, you know, like Christmas tights and things like that,

like can be up higher or things that you don’t want the kids to get to

Jade Boyd: That’s very affirming because we have to target like cube shelves. And I almost got rid of them when we moved because we didn’t really need them anymore. But then I was like, eh, maybe we could use those for toys in the future. And Hadley’s not filling up the entire thing right now. But again, it’s one of those things that’s like, we don’t really need this now, but we might need it someday.

And so this was affirming?

Megan Smith: Yeah, no, and I’m such a big fan of them because I, I mean. This is the way that I operate.

But like, I love them. We have at least three in our like playroom right now. But what I even love about them more is like, you can turn them on their side. They can, you know, like

they can, you can turn them, you can rearrange the space. I really love them to make, we have one that’s just like single cubes.

[00:56:00] It’s four single cubes. So it’s more like a tall,

long, skinny one. And I love turning that one on its side because then it’s like a play surface for the kids to put like cars on or whatever, you know, it’s just like at that level it’s just, and so I love rearranging and since, you know, like kids grow and go through their seasons and then like having furniture that’s like pretty much adaptable to like what you need.

It’s, I just think it’s so helpful. Like I never feel bad telling someone they need a cube organizer.

Jade Boyd: Does rearranging furniture have anything to do with A DHD or is that more personality?

Megan Smith: Oh God. I would totally think it has to do with a DHD ’cause I’m bored

or like, or I,

Jade Boyd: Everything you’re saying is like, yeah, I don’t think it’s just a personality like similarity. Yes, we get along, but like maybe I should get tested. We’ll see.

Megan Smith: yeah, yeah. It’s, yeah, I, it’s just the, once you see a better way, you can’t unsee it.

I think, you

Jade Boyd: yes. So we’ll see. I’ll keep you updated, but that’s one of Caleb’s [00:57:00] pet peeves. He’s like, why do you need to rearrange

Megan Smith: oh my gosh.

Jade Boyd: And my sister recently was like, every time I come, your couch is in a different place, which is like every other week. And granted, we moved. We’re still figuring it out,

but yep, definitely love rearranging.

Megan Smith: Yep. Me too.

Jade Boyd: So you’ve already mentioned the decide guide, which is a phenomenal resource and obviously play spaces that work. But for anybody listening who wants to get in your zone and learn more from you, where’s the best place to find you online?

Megan Smith: Yeah, for sure. Instagram at Megan Smith Stressless, and then also the podcast, which is the Stressless podcast. So it’s, that’s where I mainly share as, you know, as much as I can on the podcast. That’s like the how to in each space and more like where I can talk a little bit more than I can on Instagram, but then Instagram is where I like to share just the random like a DHD brain [00:58:00] moments or parenting things, you know, like my, I shared on my story recently about my my three-year-old thought that our dining room bench cushion needed pink and yellow highlighter to add it onto

it.

You know, things so like daily mom, household management, funny things is there so. Yeah, that’s where I would send them.

Jade Boyd: Perfect. We’ll have all of that linked in the show notes, and this was so much fun. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on.

Megan Smith: Yeah, thanks for having me. This was awesome.

Jade Boyd: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Business Edit Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, I’d be so grateful if you take a screenshot and share it on Instagram. Tagging me@jadeboyd.co. I’m on a mission to empower a new generation of women to become the types of wives, moms, and business owners that they’ve always wanted to be because empowered women change their families and communities for the better, and this is how we’ll change the world.

Sharing your [00:59:00] takeaways from this episode on Instagram will help more women in business discover helpful episodes and level up in life and business each week. Don’t forget to check out the show notes for the tools and resources mentioned in today’s episode because good ideas don’t grow businesses.

Action does. I’ll see you next time on The Business Edit podcast.