Declutter Your Space, Declutter Your Mind with Kitti Andrews

Interview Episode with Kitti Andrews

Kitti: [: 00:00:00

Laurin: Hello, friends, and welcome back to Curiously Wise Practical Spirituality in Action. I'm Laurin Wittig, your host. And today I have an expert on decluttering, which I'm really excited about because this is something that I can [00:01:00] use. In my practical life. So let me introduce you to Kitti Andrews. I'm going to read her bio.

Kitti Andrews is a multiple international bestselling author known as your thought organizer. Help successful entrepreneurs to enjoy calm, clarity, and control by helping them to declutter their space and their brain. As CEO of Declutter the Brain, Kitti has presented at Stanford and Harvard universities and contributed articles to the Los Angeles Tribune Magazine and USA Today.

Welcome to Curiously Wise, Kitti.

Kitti: Thanks so much for having me, Laurin.

Laurin: Yeah, I'm looking forward to this. I like to bring practicality and spirituality together. I think this is going to be perfect for me. So just if you wouldn't just tell us a little bit about how you came to be a clutter expert or a declutter expert,

t's been a journey and it's, [: 00:02:00

And my first job out of, out of high school was as a file clerk, surprise, surprise, right? And I got promoted to the accounting department, and a couple months later, the lady from where I used to file, she came, she came to me and said, would you consider coming back to work for us part time? Because we can't find anything anymore.

rward to waitress basically, [: 00:03:00

Laurin: gosh,

Kitti: Yeah, yeah, oh, you've got restaurant experience, do

Laurin: yes I do.

Kitti: You know, the cooks, I'll tell you what, at the end of their shift, they just want to go for a big old beer and they just throw everything the yogurt. God knows the yogurt goes in the pepperoni. Doesn't matter. Okay. It just all gets thrown in there. And I love that job because it was I volunteered for it.

So eventually I just got, I was the de facto organizer because. Number one, it was quiet with the ADHD and the autism and it gave me the sense of order and, and service that I was making everybody's life easier as well as my own. And it just, it just looked so nice and I got so many compliments after it was done.

And [: 00:04:00

You had the guts to do it and it looks good and I'm going to keep it that way. I put a lot of feng shui into. into what I do as a matter of which makes things, makes things flow in, in your space and ultimately in your brain. You just feel better. And yeah.

t my husband in a restaurant [: 00:05:00

Yeah.

Kitti: them on as a client, I'll ask, what is your why? Why do you want to do the, why do you want to declutter? Well, because I wanted to look pretty. No, no, I'm sorry, that's not a good enough reason.

asically, you're not feeling [: 00:06:00

Those people who feel like they've got to do everything all at once and the, the ever present, well, I should be able to, dot, dot, why can't I, dot, dot. And we just live that. All of the time. So if we're, if we're faced with clutter, it's, I don't know where to start. I plainly don't know where to start. So, thanks to being ADHD with my brain, thoughts, busy thoughts everywhere.

at a time, one area of that [: 00:07:00

Not only your home, but your heart, meaning your relationships. Your habits, your health, and your head. Hence my company name, Decoder of the Brain. Now, one room at a time. What do I mean by that? I mean that you don't do a little bit in, say for example, your office, and then I'll do some in the bedroom because I'm going to get bored.

Well, by the time you get back to your office, frankly, you've forgotten. what you're at and you've got to get back into character again. And please, just an aside, don't start with the biggest room in your house. Yes, I know. I know you want to clear that basement that has 30 years worth of decorations.

do that. So you've got your [: 00:08:00

It didn't stick. So, so why even bother kind of thing? No, you want to fuel your momentum and your and your confidence. By sticking with, how many, Laura? I also know there's the one lady, by the way.

Laurin: One.

Kitti: You're sticking with the one.

Laurin: going to have to,[: 00:09:00

Kitti: Nice. And then, and then we get to one thing at a time. Is it tedious? Yes. Is it time consuming?

I'm afraid so. However, it is, is it also the number one way that you will eventually be reasonably clutter free for life. Yes, can I give you a quick example?

Laurin: absolutely. Absolutely.

Kitti: Oh, my very first client, you're going to love this, very first client, she had a huge L shaped desk. Covered with six, eight inches of paper, and you couldn't see, you couldn't, you didn't know what covered the desk was unless, mm hmm, okay.

she looked at me like I was [: 00:10:00

We're not going through all of this one by one. But I'm thinking, I've already taken this lady's money. What do I do now? Well, she relented. And so, okay, well, I'll give it a whirl. I'll tell you what, within seven minutes, she was flying through these papers saying, I don't need bank statements. My accountant doesn't need them.

I don't need utility bills. I can have them online. What am I doing with all of this stuff. So, her brain was already making decisions and seeking out ways that she could reduce the clutter that was coming in. And here was, here was the best part of Julie's story was, Okay. She had trade magazines and she bought them maybe even once a month, if, if not a little bit more anyway, we threw out six or eight of them and they weren't cheap.

bucks a pop at the time and [: 00:11:00

Laurin: Oh, wow. Yeah. I can't imagine having that much paper. I have a lot of paper, but not that much paper.

Kitti: It happens.

Laurin: So okay. So I'm going to give you a problem solving a thing here, because here's what I do. I will pick a place, usually a room. Either the kitchen or a part of their bathroom or something. But I pick up something and go, Oh, this belongs in a different place.

eplace else. And then I did. [: 00:12:00

And I do this a lot because I, I don't have the H, but I, I do think I've never been diagnosed, but I do think I'm ADD. Cause I'm like, Oh, look at the pretty flowers, you know, so so do you have any suggestions for how to manage that?

Kitti: Well, the funny thing is, what you just described is one of my, one of my steps for keeping it decluttered. And we, and we can, we can get into that. So, so remember that

Laurin: Okay. All right.

Kitti: the walking from the room to room. In a case like that, all I would do is. In fact, I usually clients will say, Oh, I'll just run it over to the other room and I'll be right back.

do is put it at the bathroom [: 00:13:00

Oh, you're in the next room. Oh, I'll just.

Laurin: Yeah. Oh, I forgot. I need to take that over there. Cause it's got to go out for somebody else. And then I got to do this. And Oh yeah, there's that bill. I need to put it where the bills go. And it's like, Oh, and now the dog wants to walk. Well, let me go through all the clutter in her basket to get her out of it.

Kitti: And you wonder why people get overwhelmed.

Laurin: Yeah.

Kitti: This is exactly it is because we are faced with so many choices and so, so many little things that are on our brain that if you can make things as simple as possible, and I mentioned out there that you can apply this to other areas of your life where you can.

your life, which I think is [: 00:14:00

I've been meaning to. for years and years and years. I firmly believe, because she's not the only one, I firmly believe that once you start to declutter the space, the the brain, the things get revealed, as it were, and the layers of Life's Onion, if you will they, they start to peel back and you see other things in your other life pillars that perhaps you never noticed before because that woman, not only did she, and she's still on that fitness program three and a half years later, by the way.

earth shattering. It wasn't [: 00:15:00

Kind of thing for 25 years of our marriage. I just never noticed it before.

Laurin: my gosh.

Kitti: Yeah and she proceeded to work on it and she's still kind of working on that. Some things are easier to, to de clutter than others. But the idea is to be able to niche those things down as well. Say, for example, the fitness program. She didn't do everything at once, but she did plan it that. All right, I'm going to get a a fitness trainer and a nutritionist.

And I'll start with that. And I'll start with getting rid of one thing like the junk food.

Laurin: hmm. Mm

me of New Year's resolution. [: 00:16:00

Laurin: Yep. Yeah.

Kitti: that one area. What's the one thing? That I, I can do to make a change or in, in say, for example, her relationship, all right, well, I'm not going to tackle the fact that he's a massive clutter bug and, and, and, and, and I'll just look at that one thing that he does, those kind of things that he says, and we'll work on that and then we'll move to the next thing that bothers me. But he's in trouble over there.

Laurin: Yeah. He's gonna get decluttered.

Kitti: Yeah, in more ways than one sometimes from what I hear.

Laurin: Yeah,

Kitti: Yeah.

ne for pit for the pandemic. [: 00:17:00

I had a pile of stuff for Goodwill. I took carloads of stuff to Goodwill over those two years. And so like every four or five months I'd have another, I got to get this room straightened out. And we are empty nesters. It's just my husband and I, we both work at home most of the time. And, and so living and working in the same place, you, your clutter kind of cross pollinates.

Kitti: Yep. That's good. I like that.

e home most of the time. But [: 00:18:00

A lot of it was, had belonged to my mother. She passed just before we were. Quarantined. And I had, you know, had all of her stuff come into my house. So a lot of it was getting that stuff out, saving those very few things that I really wanted and not feeling guilty about giving them away.

Kitti: Yes.

Laurin: And one of the things that I learned to say to myself when I was like, this is a beautiful thing, I should want to keep it, I'm going to let somebody else find it at Goodwill for a great price and really enjoy it.

Kitti: Absolutely.

Laurin: was for me, I had to, I had to remind myself that that was what was going to happen. So it's it's amazing to me how, how getting stuff out of your house. Even if it's been a gift from a beloved person or it's something that was, you know, it's been passed down through the generations and nobody else in the family wants it either.

st to let somebody else love [: 00:19:00

Kitti: Absolutely. And we, we want to remember whenever we're talking about decluttering or basically accumulation of any kind is all of these things carry energy and that can be positive or I'm kind of going into your field. Positive energy, whether it be positive or negative, and that of other people, and especially if that, if that person has passed, I have stuff in my spare room from, from my father, and I'm having, I'm having trouble going through, whether I have help with the rest of his stuff, couldn't have done it without that, with

Laurin: I did too.

Kitti: Yeah, it's it's very difficult once you remember that, that is someone else's energy.

Do you want that or do you want that much of it?

Laurin: Yeah.

might want one of the couple [: 00:20:00

Laurin: Mm hmm.

Kitti: after that. Absolutely. Let it go to someone who will and enjoy it,

Laurin: Yeah.

Kitti: know.

Laurin: So let's talk a little bit about the connection between decluttering and spirituality. Mm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm

Kitti: Unless people, I'm just trying to people may say, oh, well, there can't possibly be such a thing. Dick buttering, you know, I'm, I'm clearing, clearing the attic or wearing a spare bedroom. What's that? What does that have to do with spirituality? I contend that much like the, the peeling back the layers of the onion, if you you're an intuitive, you're, you're an intuitive healer, if.

The person is [: 00:21:00

That it is almost impossible to pry them apart and most people that I will ask which bothers you more, the physical or the mental nine and a half people, yes, it's possible to have nine and a half out of ten, I used to say ten out of ten, and then I did a poll and one person said, this is after four years of doing this, said, no, the physical bothers me more.

Okay, fair enough. Anyway, most people will say that the mental

Laurin: hmm.

: The magical thing is, when [: 00:22:00

And all of a sudden you look around and this has happened to me more times than I want to think in this particular apartment that I moved into six months ago. It was because there's a lot of transition and keeping the business going while you've moved all of this. And I would look around once in a while and say, what have I done?

ll right. Okay. I clearly my [: 00:23:00

One area that's small. And you've got more, you, you come back to the week, the following morning and you have renewed energy and when you have that renewed energy and clarity, mental clarity, then you can accept the. What people are trying to tell you, what you are trying to tell your clients, because if you, if there's a barrier of any kind, physical, emotional, mental, then they're not going to receive the, the energies that

It's funny because a minute [: 00:24:00

So I'm, I'm actually a declutterer, I didn't realize it, but, but decluttering their energetic body. Which I've never thought of it that way before, but I love that I'm going to use that now. Okay. Okay. So. Let's talk a little bit about, you, you've mentioned the five pillars of life a couple of times. So can you just tell us what, what those are?

And then, and with a little attachment to how decluttering affects them?

written in stone, but it's, [: 00:25:00

Letter. Age. So you've got the home, and then you've got the heart, meaning your relationships, and and I'll come back through these. Your health. Your habits. And your heart, your, your head now, when you're talking about decluttering your, your head, imagine if you will, you're getting ready for the day, you're brushing your teeth and then the thoughts start to come in.

the cat please? Right? That [: 00:26:00

Laurin: Yeah.

Kitti: simplify daily life, and this decluttering your habits.

Is the more you can simplify, the easier it is, and I will come back to ADHD for this because it's, we, we do tend to thrive on structure. Now, say for example, I know for a fact that today is Tuesday, not just simply because I look at the calendar, but I'm wearing green. On an interview. Yeah. And it's it helps me in other business areas of my life, but I always, I know what is there for each day of the week.

single. Did I mention that? [: 00:27:00

Laurin: Mm

Kitti: my point being that the more you can simplify and a realtor here, he actually said one of the first people that I worked with where I live in the real estate I, he he told me that A buddy of his, they used to have Thursday sales meetings, and a buddy of his said do you only have one blue shirt?

And Scott says, well, no, I have two or three of them, but I wear blue on Thursday. Now, I didn't know anything about ADHD or anything like that. He and I were just chatting a couple weeks ago, and he says, yeah, I still do that. I still have a shirt. So he doesn't have to think,

Laurin: Think about it. Yeah.

Kitti: so he [: 00:28:00

Am I, am I on track here, am I answering your questions?

Laurin: Yeah, you are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kitti: Awesome. Okay, so there's in that, that's kind of a blend of your habits is making things as streamlined as you can doing the same things at the same time, for example, so you don't have to think about, well, maybe I should, I don't know if

Laurin: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Kitti: for a nap kind of thing.

Your relationships, as we mentioned, that includes the spirituality. And being open to seeing other people, other ideas, other beings, other life forces, if you will and being open again to seeing them because we tend to, we can live life in a fog. Wouldn't you agree?

Laurin: Yes, absolutely.

ah, so clear, clear as a bug.[: 00:29:00

Your health. It's, it, that's kind of a slippery slope, but once you have once you've identified one thing that you, that you want, you're like a big general category, then you can, it makes life easier. The more you can say, okay, I've got that category junk food, done. All right, we'll, we'll, and you're decluttering your cupboards while you're doing it, by the

Laurin: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Getting all that stuff out of there.

Kitti: Yeah, Finding Cheesy's 100 Year Old Rice Krispies kind of thing, actually, I've got a really quick story about that. Do you want to have

Laurin: Okay. Go right ahead. I love stories.

our years old, and she says, [: 00:30:00

Laurin: Yeah.

Kitti: So it does not fit all. Yes, you can do things in categories, but in the grand scheme of life, it all blends together. And once you start, you clutter in your space. Everything else starts to fall, either fall into place or fall wildly out of place. I've been credited with saving three marriages and stopping two abusive ones.

Laurin: Wow.

Kitti: There have [: 00:31:00

Laurin: It's making space for something new to come in. Yeah.

Kitti: they want to, they just don't realize that all they see is a bunch of stuff everywhere, so they can't invite the super in, but what is really happening is, and you can relate here, the energetic, the energetics around them Are cha are changing and this is just a manifestation.

Laurin: Everything has energy. Thank you. And therefore everything has some impact on your energetic environment. And we pick that stuff up. It's I don't know if you've ever walked into a place and immediately wanted to turn around and walk out.

Kitti: Oh.

Laurin: Yeah. Often, sometimes it's because of the people that are in there, but sometimes it's just like I know people love Walmart.

a Walmart and I've done this [: 00:32:00

Kitti: Really.

Laurin: There's something about the energy of that space that is, it's uncomfortable for me.

Kitti: Okay.

Laurin: I'm not saying it's good or bad, but for me, it's not an energy I want to be in and my body literally will go, you know, and I will, I will sometimes I have to go and get what I came to get.

Because we go some places where that's the only place you can shop. And so you have to kind of suck it up and do it. But so there's, there's definitely that energy. And I know. With my mom's stuff my mom and I had a very difficult relationship and I got all of her paper hoarding cause she was a paper hoarder.

to bring that stuff into my [: 00:33:00

It will affect your own energy. I have to declutter my office pretty regular regularly because I walk in and go, I don't want to be in here.

Kitti: mm

Laurin: And I love my office and I love my work. So I don't want to have a place that I don't want to be in where I do my work because that's that's a dissonant kind of energy.

hing I want to keep and it's [: 00:34:00

Put it where I know I can find it when I want it, but it's in a closet there. I don't have to look at it. And Those two things file folders and a label maker make me happy because I can, I can tame the clutter that way and not get rid of things that I do think I want, but I just don't want lying around in piles in my office.

Kitti: And some people love the piles. They, they, they're, they're one man's, one man's chaos kind of thing is another man's system. And that's fine as long as you are. As long as you feel completely confident and you're not just telling yourself a story that Oh, yeah, I can find anything, anytime. And about the filing, I love accordion folders.

simple accordion, accordion [: 00:35:00

Laurin: for you.

Kitti: How many billion people in the world there are generally accepted ways that frankly don't work for some people, but as long as it's basically keeping you whatever keeps you mentally decluttered. That you can find anything, that you can feel confidence, that you don't, that you are not fodder for, for F O D D E R, that may come across as fodder for a partner to say, it's always such a mess, you can never find anything, and you know, there's, there's the next family fight brewing.

s, you help people to remove [: 00:36:00

You can grow in your career and most of my clients are, I think we have the same the same kind of demographic, if you will, people in their 40s or 50s who are tired of living the way they have been, and they want something more, they want something better. You know, what do you think about that?

and suddenly you're left in [: 00:37:00

I know I was, and I know a lot of women who have been in the same place of now, what

Kitti: Yep. Yep.

Laurin: it's like, okay, that whole chaotic part of my life kind of has a, an ending point. I mean, it's not a hard ending because your children's come home and you know, that kind of stuff, but it's like, okay, Hmm, now who am I when I'm not being mom hour to hour, who am I as a wife with a husband where we've been juggling things for, you know, 20 years, who am I?

Now that I'm an adult and, you know, I got married when I was 25, which was pretty, pretty old at the time for the time. But but I feel looking back now that it was so pretty young. But I'm not the same person I was then. And I'm not the same person I was when I was being a mom and I'm not the same person I was before menopause even.

Kitti: hmm.

I, I actually, when I moved [: 00:38:00

It was so it lifted my energy, it lifted my spirits. I didn't feel like closed in anymore. Some of that is this is a bigger space, but it just was a, it was a, and it was a turning point for me. My mom had just died, you know, and, and it was like, I really don't know who I am when I'm not in antagonistic relationship with her.

and the energy of this room, [: 00:39:00

Kitti: Yes.

Laurin: You know, it's everybody likes it when it's decluttered, but you don't necessarily like going through the process, but I've even found ways to enjoy the process now. And it's, it's shifting my perspective from, you know, I really should keep this too.

And I hate shoulds.

Kitti: All right. Right.

Laurin: should keep this too. I want somebody who's really going to love this to have it. And and so sometimes I think for me, particularly for my clients, just changing that, that perspective on something. Flipping it from the negative to a positive makes you look for the positive, for one thing.

probably had some influence [: 00:40:00

And what is just really nice things that aren't doing really much for me except collecting dust that I have to take care

Kitti: Yeah. Take care.

Laurin: Taking up space. So I do think that decluttering and, and the clearing of the mind, which then makes a lot of room for your spiritual practices, particularly meditations, really hard to do in a cluttered place if you're not really good at it.

So I, I do see a connection there and, and I appreciate you you bringing that to our attention.

Kitti: You just brought a mental picture to mind. You know, you're sitting, you're sitting down, for example, on the, I'm not much of a meditator. I can do it in about 30 seconds spurts kind

Laurin: I'm not surprised given,

Kitti: But I'm trying to imagine sitting, sitting on your yoga mat, going, going, oh, I'm going to standardize here and yeah, I got to move some papers.

Laurin: yeah, right, [: 00:41:00

Kitti: Okay. Yeah, I should move that.

Laurin: Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Kitti: Yeah.

Laurin: Yeah. Yeah. When your meditation chair or your meditation place is full of other stuff, then it, it's pretty what do I want to call it? It's demotivating. To go and, and do your spiritual practice and, or your yoga or your exercise or whatever it is, if, if it's, you know, it's like the, the classic treadmill that's now a clothes hanger, you know, it's pretty demotivating if in order to exercise, you have to clean up the space

Kitti: Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Laurin: I can, right,

Kitti: I'll do it tomorrow.

Laurin: Right.

Kitti: Right. Right. Yeah.

Laurin: happen. All right. So could you tell our listeners where they can find you if they wanna get help with decluttering?

y? Do you clutter the brain. [: 00:42:00

Can I give you, I asked you to remind me.

Laurin: sorry,

Kitti: No, that's okay. I, I know that we're in this together.

Laurin: Are

Kitti: so we have the gift, we have the website and they can, they can text me. I'm very accessible for to have a 30 minute chat and say, see if you're ready.

Laurin: Mm-Hmm.

Kitti: start the decluttering journey for life, and that sounds overwhelming, but those who are ready, they know that they are, they know it's time and that they want it.

I don't work with [: 00:43:00

Laurin: Yeah. Lovely, lovely.

Kitti: You

Laurin: All right. And did you have one last thing, story you wanted to tell ? Go

Kitti: can see it bursting,

Laurin: Yeah, go for it.

Kitti: well, people say, well, and once you do, once you've decluttered, how do you, how do you keep it this way? And I go I have two or three or four tips, but here's my one favorite. How many? Which?

Laurin: Mm-Hmm.

Kitti: My waitress habit. From the years in restaurant business, never walk from, you never, we were not allowed to walk from, back to our station, from the table, empty handed.

d wiping, the ketchup needed [: 00:44:00

Makes it look welcoming when you walk in. So you walk and you go, all right, let's roll this up.

Laurin: Okay.

Kitti: Oh, God, let me turn around and walk out.

can implement one thing at a [: 00:45:00

And creating more space for things like your spiritual practice which I'm a strong advocate of. And and so I really appreciate this, this information. And I hope you listeners have appreciated Kitti's work too. In the meantime, I want to say goodbye and say, stay curious.

growth and understanding. So [: 00:46:00

It helps us be found by others. If you're curious to learn more about me or my healing practice, heartlight wellness, head over to my website at heartlightjoy. com. Until next time, I'm Laurin Wittig. Stay curious.