The convenience principle is the number one decluttering organizing tip that I wish I had gotten when I first started all of this six years ago. And we're going to talk about why and how you can use this convenience principle through your entire home. If you're new here, my name is Becky Truda and I've been decluttering for a while now and organizing, downsizing my home, and just learning how to live a little bit simpler to make my life easier.
The convenience principle is basically the idea by James Clear in the book Atomic Habits that I read long time ago. But it was his idea of the convenience principle that finally clicked in my head that made so much sense why I was having a hard time organizing and decluttering. And it really came down to the idea that if we want a habit to become something that we do all of the time.
If we want a habit that can stick, then we need to make sure that we are making this habit as convenient as easy as possible or it's never going to happen. So, let's talk about some honesty here. One of the hardest places for me to keep organized, to keep decluttered was my entryway.
So, raise your hand if that's also you. I hope I'm not alone here. But it was so hard because I just felt like there was constantly more than I could keep up with.
But I didn't know what I could declutter and what could go. I kept finding things on the ground all of the time, misplaced. It was, let's just say, a chaos tornado.
And I didn't know how to solve this problem. Well, when I started using the idea of the convenience principle, a few things were highlighted. And that gave me some clarity.
The idea that if I wanted the habit of being able to put my jackets away, if I wanted the habit of putting my shoes away, and I always knew where my keys were, then I was going to have to make it a habit that was easier than I even thought it could ever be. So, it started with the hooks behind me. And in our old house, we had this beautiful closet, which I'm so jealous of now.
But when I moved into this house a few months ago, I knew that I had to use the convenience principle in order to continue our success with putting our coats, hats, gloves, shoes, keys away. And so my husband very generously built the shelves you see behind us. And I made sure that we had enough hooks for all of the basic essentials that we are going to need all of the time.
And the other great thing that I want you to remember as you're using the convenience principle in your entryway is that if you find that you are constantly not having enough hooks or not having enough place to put things, often it's not the fact that you don't have enough organization, a lot of times if you've put in the organization, it's that you're continuing to buy more. You're continuing to bring in more than the space can handle. And so the thing that goes along with that is that space is finite.
and in our entryway, the only things that should be in there are things that we're using in this immediate season, this immediate moment of our life. And so, if you still have all your flip-flops out or you still have all your summer stuff out here in your entryway, then I highly recommend that at least you start there because once you take that excess out, you're using that convenience principle. It's going to be easier to find hooks to put your coats up.
It's going to be easier to find a place to put your shoes because all of that noise, all of excess is gone and it's not distracting us from the easiest thing to do with our stuff. Another idea I think you're going to love as much as I did is that in the book he talks about that our environment is that invisible hand that shapes our human behavior. So our environment in our home where we're living is shaping how we can interact with our space, how happy we are in our space, how functional our space is for us.
And a big thing that I've started doing years ago was to have a done bin. A bin where I can put those things that I may not have time to fully put away yet. But this bin allows me to have a place that I can call its home until I have the time, the energy to be able to fully put those things away.
So, think about the last time maybe you did a craft or the last time that you're just quickly trying to put things away before maybe you have guests over. If you had a done bin, then you wouldn't have to stress about running around your home trying to find the perfect place for everything. A den bin gives you that extra hand, helping hand in order to feel successful.
And it also gives you kind of a timeout area for you to be able to go back later and really figure out what the best home is for all of these items without feeling like you're being rushed to do it. So, think about maybe like the packages that need to go out. Where are you going to put those packages that you need to return or the items that you borrowed from somebody that you need to send back out?
The done bin can be a place to put those things or the mail that you need to deal with. Where are you putting your mail? Do you have a done bin, a little basket area that you are keeping those things that you know exactly what's in there and that when you get the time and opportunity, you can deal with them without all those things being scattered all around your house.
So, your environment is that invisible hand again, making the environment either work for you or work against what your new habit is going to be. You can use these done bins all over. Now, one of the mistakes that I did make years ago was thinking that I needed a bunch of done bins in the same room and they all were just kind of a gathering place for things and then it was overwhelming.
What I've decided to do is in different rooms that I realize that I need a kind of done bin, I have one place to put those things. So, the main one is by our front door here and I put anything from packages to things that need to be returned or things that are just left out in the wrong place. They all go in that bin.
And then I have a place to put my mail by the front door because I wanted it to be a convenient place that I'm reminded that I need to deal with these things. But overdoing the den bins never really helped me. Quick thank you to today's sponsor, which is my Siri toothbrush.
I got this around Christmas and I've been loving it. It has a magnetic piece that keeps everything off of the countertop. And if you know, one of my main rules is that if the countertop is clean, then it's much easier to keep up with it.
And so I have been absolutely loving this idea. This toothbrush looks really slim and minimal. So, even if it's out on my mirror, it still looks good.
And I've really appreciated that when I charge it, it lasts for a really long time. So, I'm not having to keep the cord out all the time and charge it on the countertops. I also love that it comes with this travel case.
It's actually a UVC cleaning travel case as well, so you can put your toothbrush in it and you can clean it as you're traveling and keep everything as healthy as possible. The brush heads are plant-based and Suri will actually recycle this for free for you. So, it's just one less thing for you to have to worry about.
So, if you're ready for an upgrade, use my code to get extra money off their sales and you'll quickly see why I love it so much. Now, I wanted to share this next one as we're talking about the convenience principle because I no longer have it, but I did have one of these for a long time and that was a donation bin by my front door or in the most convenient spot possible. Why did I do this?
because I had a lot of things that I was donating and I constantly was finding things and so I had a very specific basket that I was using just for things that I was going to donate. So if you are just starting this journey, having a donation bin basket that you are already going to have all those things ready to go and out the door when it's full is extremely helpful. But now what I do is I actually just use my done bin.
So the bin that's by my front door, if I find things that I need to donate, I throw them in there as well. And then when that basket is full, I go ahead and get rid of them. But having a designated donation bin is extremely useful when you're trying to build the habit of going through your home every day, finding a few things that you can donate, lightening your load throughout your home.
It's extremely helpful to have a bin that's already ready to go for you, so you're not constantly having all these little bags of donations. there's already a designated place in your home that those things can go. So, let me know.
Let me know if any of these are speaking to you. I really wanted to make this video because I wish this was the video that I had to listen to when I was first starting. The convenience principle really helped me to assess the things that I kept missing out on and I was making my life a lot more difficult.
And if you are enjoying this, then come and join us here on Minimal. we're a fun little bunch by subscribing, but also throw a heart emoji down below if you are decluttering and organizing with us cuz we all like to know that we are not alone on this crazy journey. So, the convenience principle is all about making things obvious to yourself.
Making them obvious and easy. So, the next thing that I wish I had been told all those years ago was to have a visible landing zone for those things that our brains just keep missing out on. Right?
we keep putting things back where they shouldn't go or we can never find the scissors because they just keep going in other rooms and there's no place to really put them. I don't know if any of you guys are like me, but if I don't have a highly specific visible place to put something, then it's just going to float around for a long time and it's going to be in the done bin and then I'm never going to find a home for it. So in order to create a habit, we need to make things visibly obvious for our brains.
And therefore, slowly over time, our brain gets more and more used to doing the same thing. It becomes a pattern. One of the things I had to do for my husband and I, because we both have ADHD, and so often our brains are just on a thousand, is that we kept forgetting to put out the trash and we kept forgetting to put out the recycling.
So, how do we fix that? Well, we can set an alarm on our phone, but we can also have a nice reminder board by our front door that tells us when we need to take those things out, and we see it right before we walk out the door. Another thing, think about your kids snacks or your snacks.
Are you constantly looking around and trying to figure out where should I put my snacks away when I have finished buying all my groceries? Well, have a visible landing space for that. Get a basket.
Basket. Basket specific for your kids food or specific for your favorite snacks. And when the basket is full, you'll know I don't need to go buy more.
And as the basket starts to wean down and get less and less, then you get that visual cue that you need to go buy more. It's all about making our environments work for us, not against us. And the more visual cues that we have in our environment, the easier it is for that to happen for us.
So, I'm sure I'm sure friends that you have some hot spots in your home as well. Things that just keep getting left out and never put away. One of the things again that I noticed in my home over the years was that the remotes were never put back where they belong.
And isn't it the most annoying thing in the world when you're getting ready to watch your show and you're having to take off all the cushions cuz you can't find the remote. How do we solve that problem? We have to make it visual.
We have to make it obvious. So, put the remotes in a basket and have the basket be the home for them from now on. Do not do the lazy thing like I used to do all the time and just lay the remote down wherever.
have a pattern over the next 30 days of saying that I'm going to put the remote back where it belongs over and over again until my brain realizes that not only is this the easiest thing to do, but it's the most convenient thing for my brain to do because I'm going to be able to find it again. Okay, this next quote I'm actually going to read to you because it's too good to get wrong. And that is the idea that you rise to the level of your goals, you fail to the level of your systems.
When your systems are not working, you are failing. And that is not something that you did wrong. It does not make you a bad mom, a bad person.
It literally means that the systems that we thought we were told were going to work aren't working and we just need to reassess things, right? So today we are going to declutter friendly storage. Where are you feeling really overwhelmed?
What bins are full? What drawers are stuffed? What closets can you not close all of the way?
And it's driving you crazy, but you don't know what to do with it. Our storage is working against us, making our environment more miserable because our solutions are not working for us. I'm going to tell you a couple of contradictions and I want you to listen very closely to them and figure out if they work for you.
When I'm thinking about my kitchen, my kitchen has to have everything that I use on a lower level and it has to be easily within an arms reach if I'm going to remember that I have it and I'm going to use it. I also have to have open bins that I can easily throw my food in. I do like to decant my food, but not the way you think of it.
I would be way over stimulated decanting all of the goldfish into its individual box. No, but I what I do do, sorry about that. What I do is that I will take out the crackers out of their package.
I will put them in an open clear bin. It's easy for me to see. It's very visual for me to see when it's full and so I don't go buy more than I really need.
The other thing that I do in a very specific area is in my bathroom. And that is I have these bins that I can link for you guys. I think they're already linked in the description down below, but they're bins with the lid that I label.
And there's a very specific reason why I do this in my bathroom. And it really is because one, it's a place that I don't go as often as my kitchen. So things like hair supplies that I might not use as often, medicine that I don't use all the time.
I have my travel stuff that I'm not using all the time, my daughter's bathroom play toys that we're not using all the time. And it has a lid. And there's a very specific reason in this place why that helps.
Because in my bathroom closet, I'm extremely overwhelmed by the patterns, the colors when I had things all in clear bins. What the closed bins does for me is gives me a visual trigger when I have too much medicine, when I have too many hair, scrunchies, or products. It gives me a visual signal that I don't necessarily need in my kitchen, that I need in my bathroom because it's not a place that I'm decluttering all the time.
So, you have to kind of pick and choose and figure out what visual cues you need in certain areas. And yes, I know that does take a little bit of time, but it really is worth it at the end of the day because like James Claire says, we fail due to our systems failing. It is not because we are not trying our very darnest to get it all done.
It's because our systems are not working where we need them to work. So today, take a deep breath. I want you to start with decluttering these highly trafficked areas that are full of clutter.
Take one drawer out today. Set a 10-minute timer and declutter it. Take one closet today and just do the things that are hanging on the hooks.
Take out anything you don't need immediately right now and get rid of it. put that stuff in that donation bin that now you have ready to go and clear up those friendly areas because you will succeed when your systems are working for you and not against you. All right, friends.
I hope you've enjoyed this. This has been a really fun walk of things that I wish my brain knew a long time ago, but it's okay cuz I do now. And I hope that it has helped you.
I really hope that you have found at least one thing that you can try today because we do not need to be failing in our homes. We don't need to feel like failures in our homes cuz really it's all due to having systems that aren't working for us and just needing maybe a good clear out and everything will work a lot easier. And if you have enjoyed this, then I'd love for you to watch the next video right here and continue your journey.
And I wish you guys all the very best.
