330. Minimalista with Shira Gill

I’m Jody Moore and this is Better Than Happy, episode 330: Minimalista with Shira Gill.

Did you know that you can live a life that’s even better than happy? My name is Jody Moore. I’m a master certified life coach and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. And if you’re willing to go with me, I can show you how. Let’s go.

Hello everybody. Today I have a special guest for you. I want you guys to know that I’m very selective about guests that I bring on the podcast. I try to make sure they’re always people who are going to be engaging and have a fun really useful message that you will get a lot from. And today is a special treat, Shira is someone who was on the podcast quite a while ago. We talk about that so she’ll reference the episode if you wanted to go back and hear it. But she is someone that I’ve known for a pretty long time.

She’s a fellow coach who specializes in home organization especially when it comes to simplifying, and editing, and making everything beautiful and easy to navigate. Shira is a mom, she has kids so she understands these things are harder to achieve with children. She also lives in – I haven’t been to her house but I’ve seen photos of her beautiful really modest sized home. So she’s learned how to maximize small space and she just has so many amazing tips and tricks.

She also happens to have a beautiful new book out which we’re going to talk a little bit about. And you’re going to want to for sure grab it, Minimalista. I have a couple copies myself because it is fun and useful to read through and look at but also makes for a beautiful styling product for your home. So you’re going to want to grab that at the end but please enjoy this conversation with Shira Gill. Here we go.

                                                                                                                   

Jody: Shira Gill, you’re here. I’m so excited to talk to you.

Shira: I’m back. I’m so happy to be here.

Jody: You’re back. It’s been a while. You were here on episode 164, I think. I’m going to link it.

Shira: Yeah, it’s been some time. That will be good.

Jody: Yeah, okay. So a lot of people probably are new since then. So introduce yourself first of all, would you please?

Shira: Okay. So I guess I call myself a stuff and life editor. I’m kind of a hybrid of a home organizer, and a coach, and a stylist, putting that all together. And basically, I help people clear physical and mental clutter and really simplify every aspect of their life. So my work kind of bleeds into business, life, home, wardrobe, all of the things.

Jody: Yes, okay. And I want to just mention, I’ve known Shira for – how long have we known each other, probably five years at least?

Shira: Yeah, at least.

Jody: Yeah. And I think I used to pronounce your name wrong so I apologize.

Shira: Probably. That’s okay.

Jody: I’m probably not the first one, right?

Shira: Definitely not.

Jody: Okay. But you are one of my most favorite people. I just love, first of all I love the work that you do. I’m a big fan of making things pretty but I love how you do it in a simple, doable way. Shira’s stuff always looks clean, and pretty, and professional, and well edited. And anyway, your work is amazing. I have worked with you. You helped me declutter my pantry.

Shira: Yeah, that was fun.

Jody: That was fun and I’m proud to say it’s still looking pretty good. Every now and then we have to pause, redo, but it’s nowhere near as much of a project as when we first started because of what you taught me.

Shira: Yay. Well, you were a very good student.

Jody: Thank you. And your name is also a verb at our house, whenever I do clean something out my husband’s like, You totally Shira Gill’d that drawer.” I’m like, “I know.” And then I always think how you would be so proud of me.

Shira: I love that, that’s so fun.

Jody: Yeah. And I love how you combine, like you said, the decluttering, the styling, the editing of your life with the coaching tools. I feel like a lot of people – I don’t know if you run into this but as I talk to people who are considering becoming a life coach or what have you, they always say – I had this recently, this girl said, “I don’t know if I want to become a life coach or keep doing this thing that I’ve been doing helping people.” She helped them with their lazy eye, kind of correction of lazy eye and things like that.

And I’m like, “What are you talking about? You don’t want to just be a life coach, that’s weird, nobody wants that. You want to be a coach that specializes in a certain area then you take all the things you learn about human behavior, about the brain, about how to maximize your life experience and your relationships. And you bring that into that area.” And you’ve done that so beautifully in your book which we’re going to be talking about today.

Shira: Well, thank you. And it’s funny because I was a home organizer for eight years before I became a life coach and we got certified at the same school. And I really got certified because I just was really interested in the tools and not because I thought I would become a life coach. But then getting all of those tools profoundly changed every aspect of my business.

And in fact now I feel like I say I’m a home organizer but really, I’m like a life coach. So it’s most of what I’m doing is coaching people but it’s under that umbrella of I’m going to help you clean out your home, simplify your life but it is really all coaching.

Jody: Because it’s all mental, the reason we hold onto stuff, the reason we buy too much stuff, the reason we don’t keep up on our routines is just all about the brain and it all goes hand in hand. So as I was reading through your book, which I haven’t read through all of it yet but I was like, you did just such a great job of incorporating the tools, it’s so powerful. And we’ll tell you where you can get Shira’s book, Minimalista. It’s beautiful. And it’s also a great styling tool for your home.

Shira: Yes. So I wanted it to be a beautiful coffee table book that then surprise, it’s actually a really helpful book.

Jody: Yes. Okay, so let’s pause for a minute. I have to ask you about this. So I’m trying to re-edit some areas of my home. I’m noticing, you’re supposed to buy books to help provide visual appeal. And then I’m thinking, you just buy any book like that coffee table book that you’re not even going to read really, does it matter what’s in that book? Tell me how you handle this.

Shira: I know. I will tell you honestly because my kids make fun of me all the time because they’re like, “Mom, you don’t read these books. These are just décor books.”

Jody: They’re just for show.

Shira: These are show, we used to have, I would put lemons in a bowl and my husband would say, “Are these show lemons or can I use these lemons?”

Jody: These are show lemons.

Shira: So yeah, to answer your question, I mean I love books, I love reading them. But the books that I have out on the coffee table and behind me on the mantel are the pretty, beautiful, aesthetically pleasing books with the spines that I like. And they’re good books too, bonus. But yeah, books are a great styling hack. Like these beautiful coffee table books they look good everywhere.

Jody: They do, and that’s again what’s amazing about your book is it is that kind of beautiful book that you want to put out and full of amazing wisdom. So let’s talk about some of that wisdom. I thought it would be fun to dive into this five step process just a little bit that you teach in depth in the book. But maybe we can just kind of high level go through the five steps and then I’ll have some questions for you as we go through them if that sounds alright.

Shira: Great, yeah. So the book basically contains my entire process and toolkit to help you edit, organize and elevate your home and your life. And I realized after now I’ve been organizing for 12 years that I had a process. I didn’t know I had a process until I wrote this book. And then my editor said, “What’s your process?” And I had to figure it out. And I realized, I’m doing these same five steps in order all the time, I just didn’t really realize it.

Jody: Because it’s so innate for you, yeah.

Shira: Yeah, it’s so intuitive and I just would do the things but then I had to kind of slow down and break it down so I could teach it in the most simple way.

Step one in the process I call clarify. And that really is that kind of getting laser focused on your current values, and priorities, and goals as it relates to your home. But also just big picture. So whenever I am going to organize someone’s home I want to know, what do you care about? What do you like doing? What do you want to do more of? What do you want to create? What are the new results you want to create?

So then on a smaller level in your home like say you’re editing and organizing your living room, I would ask, “How do you want to live? How do you want your space to feel? What do you want to do in your living room?” So clarify is really the most important, it’s like the foundational step.

Jody: Do you find that hard for people? Those are kind of tough questions to answer, I think.

Shira: They are. And I just force people to answer them.

Jody: I love it, yeah.

Shira: Even if they don’t want to because it is uncomfortable and I think people have a hard time sometimes claiming what they really want, what they’re really hungry for. But I think in the organizing process you’re really just moving piles of stuff around unless you have a compelling why. So when I decided I want to be a minimalist it was because I wanted to travel the world a lot. And I just didn’t want to haul a bunch of stuff around with me. So otherwise it would have been really hard to give away pretty shoes and handbags.

But I saw giving away and letting go was actually gaining something even better and juicier. So I think when I kind of remind people, we want to find something that you’re so excited about that then you actually want to slog through the piles because you’re so motivated to get to that end result that you’re hungry for.

Jody: I love that so much. I love the idea that we are letting go of things to move forward to something better because it feels like otherwise, why would I get rid of this, I still like it and it’s still in good condition. We hold on, I feel like we hold on to so much of our past through our stuff that it’s just weighing us down from, again, like you said, whatever we want to do, whoever we want to become in the future. In fact there was this one sentence I want to read really quickly from your book if that’s alright.

It said, your stuff tells an important story. Your belongings are a physical manifestation of your life, your stuff can reveal what you value, what your priorities are and where you’re stuck or struggling. The good news is that you get to decide what story you want your stuff to tell moving forward. That’s so inspiring to me to look around and go, “Yeah, I want to get rid of half of this stuff because that’s not who I want to be moving forward.”

Shira: Yeah. And I love, I mean I think the reason I was drawn towards life coaching was because I love a future focus. I love thinking about whatever happened in the past, it’s okay, now we get to decide on purpose. And so I know with the home, there’s so much guilt and shame for people. How did I get here? Why am I such a mess? Why can I not manage this? And I like to just literally ignore all of that and just say, “It doesn’t matter. It’s okay. What do you want to do now? What do you want to create moving forward?” That’s so much more juicy and fun.

Okay, so we talked about clarify. So once you know what you want then the next step is edit. So that’s letting go of all of the things that don’t serve or support your vision. That is the hardest step for most people is the letting go, just because something was valuable or cost a lot of money it doesn’t mean it’s adding value now. So like I said with my example of I identified I really wanted to travel more.

And so even though I had all of these beautiful nice, perfectly well made things, they didn’t serve that vision of I want to be light, and free, and unencumbered, and throw a few things in a bag and take off for Paris. And so it’s really looking at your stuff with a critical eye and identifying, do these things serve what I want now and in the future? Or were they things that were great in the past and now I can just release them to another person who needs them for their future?

Jody: It’s funny because I was thinking about doing a whole podcast episode on this idea of sunk cost. I’ve heard it a couple of times recently. And then I saw it in your book. And I think it’s fascinating how the psyche behind, because I’ve put time into this before or because I spent money on this that if I get rid of it now I’ve wasted that time or wasted that money. And we actually ‘spend’ whether it be our energy, our time, what have you by holding onto it.

Shira: Yeah, it is, it’s really interesting. And I think all humans kind of do that and go there. But I’ve had to kind of unlearn that and unteach myself. So now one thing I really love is just focusing on generosity as a way of helping me let go. So if I’m looking at – I keep using shoes, I really like shoes I guess. But if I’m looking at a pair of shoes that I like but I never wear, they don’t make sense for my life but they’re so pretty. And I’m having a hard time and they were expensive.

What really helps me is just thinking, there’s some woman out there that maybe can’t afford these shoes and would go crazy for these shoes. These shoes would delight her. And how fun and how good would it make me feel to give in that way and let go? It’s solving two problems. It’s making her life better and it’s clearing space for me in my life. So I think focusing on generosity, and I find also the less I have the more abundant I feel. And I’m trying to kind of unpack that because it’s so counterintuitive.

But the more I can let things go and be really loose about giving stuff away or being really generous the more abundant and full I feel in my life so it’s such a win/win all around.

Jody: Yes. I think that’s because to give it away like that from that energy of generosity requires you to get to abundance. Because you have to believe that you’ll have what you need and that whole, what if I want it one day? Well, if I really want it, I’ll find something else comparable. That requires that abundance, don’t you think?

Shira: That’s what it is, yeah. And you have to believe fully and kind of in habit that I’ll always have enough, I’ll always figure it out. Because people ask me a lot, “Well, what if I need it later? What if I regret it?” And I think, well, what if you just believed you would always have enough and you have friends, and you have neighbors, and you have community who will always have your back.

We don’t ever camp and so we have zero camping things but occasionally we have to go camping. And we’re not a camping family. And I will pick up the phone and call a few friends and say, “Hey, do you have a sleeping bag? Do you have a tarp?” And always people are happy to give. And so I think I’ve learned again and again, I will always have enough, there’s always going to be enough for me and that’s such an empowering thing to believe. Okay, back to the five steps.

Jody: Okay, number three. Number three.

Shira: Organize, that’s what this is all about but it’s really this step where you can spend the least amount of time and effort if you’ve done the first two right. So once you’ve clarified what you want, you’ve stripped away all of the things that don’t matter, don’t belong. Then organization is really simple. I think organization if done right, your five year old can do it 100%. So all that it really is, is grouping similar things together and giving everything a dedicated home. That’s it.

So I try to make it so that I can break it down by giving examples like in a supermarket, you don’t go in and have to ask somebody to explain a supermarket to you. You just walk in and all the produce is right here, and all the frozen goods are here. So that’s how I try to help people set up their home. So anybody walking in can find a mug, can find a pen. Your kid can find their art supplies. It’s just grouped together, everything has a designated home that makes sense, that is organization.

Jody: Love it. Okay, so after the editing phase you have a lot less stuff, makes it a lot less overwhelming to organize everything, right?

Shira: Exactly. And so organization in my system is basically, it’s not about perfectionism, it’s just about being intentional and thoughtful with how you set up your stuff. Then the next step, elevate is the one everyone really wants to get to. So elevating is basically adding things to improve your space and make them pretty and intentional.

Jody: Because we get to go buy baskets and things?

Shira: Yeah, this is the fun part, Jody. This is when I give you permission to go to the container store or whatever your favorite store is to buy the pretty bins and the pretty baskets. But now you know exactly which ones you need. So if you’ve edited and organized basically you should have kind of neat piles of things and maybe they’re in bins, or baskets, or shoeboxes that you don’t really like. So at this phase, elevate, it’s just about looking around and thinking to yourself, what are a few little tweaks I can make that are kind of delightful?

So for me I love having fresh flowers in my house, that’s the way I elevate. And sometimes it’s just we have an olive tree growing outside our house, I’ll just clip some olive tree branches, put them by my bed. So it’s just looking at what are the little simple things I can do to make my space feel cared for, to personalize it maybe with art, or color, or texture that you love, pictures of your favorite people. This is also the phase where I love to get everything out of ugly packaging, that’s really fun.

So even hand soap, dish soap, things that maybe aren’t in the cutest containers, decanting into a beautiful glass bottle so that every day when you’re doing the dishes now suddenly there’s fresh flowers and a beautiful thing of soap. So it’s just thinking about how you can elevate your everyday.

Jody: And don’t you think that there’s again something to the psychology of too much stimulus with all of our stuff? I know one of the tips I took from your Instagram page, which is awesome as well, is it Shira Gill?

Shira: Yeah, just @Shira Gill.

Jody: Just @Shira Gill, is you did a thing on organizing your spices. And so I ordered all the little glass bottles and the labels printed from somebody that you recommended. And I just took all those random spice bottles that none of them matched and all different sizes. And it took a couple hours probably but we emptied everything in and now they all match and they’re all beautiful. But I feel like when I’m cooking and I need a spice they’re all alphabetical on a little rack, it’s much less overwhelming for me than going through all the different bottles, trying to find the one.

And just because they – obviously I love that they look pretty but it’s also less of a drain on my mental energy. And it seems like a little thing but all those things added up really do affect, I think your life overall.

Shira: I agree, I mean 100%. And I think that’s why it’s funny because sometimes I have to convince my clients to do those things that seem a little bit trivial. Or people will say, “Who has the time, Shira, to decant spices into matching jars?” But I think the net positive from the little time to invest in those things, whatever they may be for you, maybe it’s not matching spice jars but maybe it’s having uniform hangers in your closet so all of them are the same style and the same color. Now you’re seeing just this clean cohesive line every day.

And I think you’re right, we’re all overstimulated and oversaturated with news, with information, with social media, with stuff, it’s everything is coming at us all the time. So I always love to try to claim control over the things we do have control over which in my world is your physical environment. What can you strip away? What can you elevate? How can you make the day-to-day feel lovely so you can have more ease in your everyday?

Jody: I love it, it’s so fun. And then after elevate?

Shira: Yes, we’ve made it to the end. So the last step I just threw in there is maintain because I think there is a myth, even within my own industry that once you get organized, you’re done, that’s it.

Jody: I wish that were true.

Shira: I know, you and me both. But I think as we know with dogs, and kids, and spouses, and birthday parties there’s always going to be things coming into our world. And so in the book I break down kind of all of my easy maintenance hacks, most of which just take five minutes a day. So one simple example is just a little reset before you and your family go to bed for the night, spending five minutes, even setting a timer if you have little kids to make it fun, to run on some music.

Okay, let’s put away all the toys, let’s clear the surfaces, let’s get this place looking sharp so when we wake up in the morning we feel great, we feel like it’s a gift we’ve given ourselves.

Jody: I love that, yeah. And this part requires, I would say developing some new habits. So in my experience I’ve tried and failed and then succeeded in some areas and still failing in others. But I love also, and I know your book is full of all of these great little different ways to think about it. I remember you helping me, I think we were decluttering my office or something. And I was like, “I don’t know, I just have this, these are returns that need to go back and then this is stuff that I need to decide am I going to keep it or not.”

And one of the things you taught me was this idea of postponing decisions. Most of the clutter is just a delayed decision, do I want that picture? Am I going to hang it up or do I want to donate it? And why are we delaying decisions? And that’s been really powerful for me to go – it’s not like it’s going to take a long time like my brain thinks, I don’t have time. No, you do, you just have to choose to make a decision right now.

Shira: Yeah. And I think that is all clutter is, is postponed decisions, that it’s representative. And that’s part of why it feels so draining for people to have clutter is because on some level they know. It’s like this is unfinished business. And so even if you’re not thinking about it, it’s kind of they’re lurking in your brain, all of those piles, all of the stacks of mail that you haven’t dealt with, the laundry you haven’t put away. It takes a toll because your brain has to process it as information.

Jody: Yeah, that’s fascinating. I know from looking through the table of contents here that you talk a little bit in Minimalista about how to handle it when you have kids, and pets, and husbands that don’t follow all the rules. But do you have any, maybe a quick tip that you could share in that area? Because a lot of my listeners are dealing with that.

Shira: Yeah. I mean it’s one of the hottest topics is just how do I get my family onboard? How do I get my kids to cooperate? And of course we know because we’re life coaches, we can’t actually change how somebody thinks.

Jody: Control them.

Shira: Yeah. I know, it’s such a bummer. But I do have some things that have helped. And I have two kids, I have two girls that are now 10 and 12. But I have kind of been with them through all the phases. And one of the things I think of is just – and this is so much of what you teach is making it fun. Organizing and tidying for me is fun and I know that sounds crazy to most people. But I really believe there are a million ways of making it fun for your kids.

And if you can put a spin on it so that it’s positive instead of this is a nagging chore, focusing on the things that you don’t like about what they’re doing. I think specifically with kids they really react well to very clear boundaries and guidelines of the expectations. But within that you can make it fun. So even when my kids were really little and I had to put away the laundry which I hate folding and putting away laundry. I would be like, “Let’s see if we can do this in 10 minutes and then go get an ice-cream.” And they were like, “We’re all in on laundry now.”

And so always thinking about, okay, what’s the thing, even a five minute tidy at night I had clients who they just couldn’t get their kids to clean up ever. And I said, “Well, what do they like?” And they said, “Well, they love music.” So I said, “Well, what if you just say every night 15 minutes before bed, they get to pick the music, whatever it is, blast it as loud as they want and you do a 15 minute family cleanup?” And that totally shifted it because then the kids felt well, we’re in charge, we get to pick the music. We get to crank it as loud as we want.

And the only caveat was we’re doing a quick tidy together. So always looking for how do I make this fun? How do I make it so that it’s not a chore but it’s actually something that leads to more fun? And so even with the things that aren’t fun like putting away the dishes. Every night me and my family do kind of a little tidy where my husband does the dishes, I help the kids make lunches and put away the dishes. We put on music. We see if we can do it in 10 minutes. And we always try to have something fun to look forward to for when we’re done.

So our kids love TV. So, often it’s just, let’s just knock this out so we can watch your favorite show together and eat popcorn. And so that’s a big one, honestly, is still you’ve got to do all the stuff but let’s make it fun, and easy, and quick, and turn it into a game.

Jody: Well, and I think what I hear you describing too, Shira, is that when we’re frustrated and overwhelmed, and we’re mad that it’s not done, and we’re upset and resentful that we have to do it all. And then we try to recruit their help, it’s not fun for anyone. But it doesn’t have to be that. It can be part of your routine. It can be like you said, with music or whatever. And this is just what we do.

And when I feel like as the mom, we so set the tone for the household, that if we’re not mad about it, and dreading it, and in self-pity, it’s not that hard to get them involved especially once it becomes a habit and a routine for your family.

Shira: Yes. I mean my kids will say, “I hate putting away the dishes.” And I’ll say, “I know, me too. Let’s do it. Let’s just knock it out.” You’re not trying to convince them to love these things. But just, yeah, I know, sometimes it’s just part of life, let’s see how fast we can do it so we can get onto the next thing. And then the other thing I wanted to touch on with partners because I think often with couples, they’re not necessarily aligned on how they want their home to be, how organized they want it to be, certainly me and my husband were like night and day when we met.

He was like, “What are you talking about with these systems and labels?” And so what I find is having a meeting to get on the same page with regard to values is the best starting point. So instead of, I don’t like how you leave your socks on the couch. It’s hey, let’s think about how we want to live as a family. What are the things that are fun for us to do as a family? What are the things we want to do more of as a couple? And so for me and my husband we kind of identified that we both had this overlap, we loved hosting, and entertaining, and having friends over.

And so obviously if your house is a wreck, you don’t feel that comfortable opening your doors night and day to other people. And so I think when he could kind of connect to, he loves cooking, he was like, “Yeah, I do want to have a kitchen that’s easy to cook in and makes it a joy to host and entertain and makes cleaning up a breeze.” So it’s not a direct thing about organizing but I think just starting with, again, that clarity piece of, how do we want to live? What are the things we have in common?

And how do we want to kind of set up our home to enable us to do the things we love doing? And then what does that mean in terms of storage and organization? But coming from that compelling why instead of just, why don’t you clean up your stuff?

Jody: That’s so good. I love that. And it’s a much more connecting conversation than just, could you put your socks away?

Shira: Yeah. I mean totally. And I really believe your home is a tool that you can use to help create the exact life you want. I have seen that again and again, it’s transformation from the outside in and the inside out. And so I think if you can get your partner onboard with some sort of shared vision then they’re much more likely to want to clean up after themselves.

Jody: That’s so good. Last thing and then I’ll let you go. But will you talk to us about the 15 minute rule because some of us feel overwhelmed thinking where do I even begin. There’s so much that needs to be done.

Shira: Yes. And I think that is the biggest reason people don’t organize their homes is it all just feels like too much and it can be so overwhelming that why even start. I know there is crossover with weight loss and starting a business, so many things where you just feel like it’s too much, why start? So I, one time when I felt very overwhelmed, actually I was writing a keynote for The Life Coach School that I think we were doing talks together.

Jody: Which I remember and that was the best talk, I still remember it, but anyway.

Shira: So I couldn’t, I just had such a mental block, it was too big, it was too overwhelming, the pressure. And so I challenged myself, I don’t know where I came up with this but I just thought, if you can just sit down and write for 15 minutes, that’s all you have to do and then you’ll just get over that big obstacle of starting. So I set a timer for 15 minutes, I sat down and I said, “All I have to do is start.” And then for me, I just took off writing. And it was like now I’m in it, I’m over the overwhelm.

And so I started testing that with my clients in terms of their homes when they would say, “It’s all too much. Every room needs attention.” I would say, “Great, let’s set a timer for 15 minutes and see if we can just tackle your junk drawer.” And then what would happen is they would tackle the junk drawer in 15 minutes, have this win under their belt. And the big thing was they would start thinking new thoughts about themselves as a person who can take action, can get things done, is capable of organizing.

And so I created this challenge on Instagram a few years ago called The 15 Minute Win Challenge, just what can you do in 15 minutes or less if you put your mind to it? And people started sending me pictures from all over the world. It was so incredible, of I organized my refrigerator. I cleaned under my sink. I cleaned out my purse. I went and bought dog food even though I didn’t feel like it. All of these little things that they’d put off.

Jody: That’s awesome.

Shira: And so that is kind of my big challenge to your listeners is just if you feel totally overwhelmed, take out a timer, set it for 15 minutes and just see what you can do with one itty bitty space or project. And you will be shocked. You really will be stunned at what you can do in 15 minutes.

Jody: That is so good. Minimalista, everyone needs to own this book because first of all, like I said, full of wisdom. But I love all the beautiful photos too.

Shira: Thank you.

Jody: It is beautiful. So everybody, we can get it where, Amazon?

Shira: Yes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your local Indie Bookstore, all the places.

Jody: Okay. And I also just want to mention that I love your little bits of humor in there. I was telling my husband, I’m like, “Look at this part. She’s like get rid of things that you probably have too much of like tea. Do you really drink tea? Be honest.” I was just laughing.

Shira: Yes, there is a little tough love in there.

Jody: Yeah, I love it, so many just fun nuggets like that. I also was thinking about this, several years ago I went to a class at my church, we do these little classes sometimes, people volunteer to teach classes. And this woman was an interior designer and she was going to come teach, they asked her to teach about interior design. I was like, great, I want to make my house look better. And she said, “Listen, I’m going to teach you some design tips but none of it matters unless you get rid of the clutter and organize your home.”

You can have your home really well designed but if it’s full of junk everywhere, you’re not going to even notice that. And so she spent more than half the class just teaching strategies, like you said, for how to get a handle on the mail and the kids’ schoolwork and how to keep on top of it all and all the stuff that you reach. And I remember going, “Oh yeah.” I don’t actually, I mean I do still appreciate interior design. But it really does make such a difference in not only the appearance but I feel like your mental and emotional health. And so I’m just a huge fan, so thank you for what you do.

Shira: Yes, thank you for having me. This was so fun.

Jody: So fun, alright, everyone get Minimalista.

Shira: You’ve got it.

Jody: And let me know how you like it and come and share your pictures with Shira and I, we’re on social media so we’d love to see what you’re working on.

Shira: Yes.

Jody: Alright, thanks, Shira.

Shira: Thank you.

                                                                                                                   

Who is your life coach? If you don’t have one, I would be so honored to be your coach. I created a virtual coaching program called Be Bold that I want to invite you to join me in. We can address challenges, we can work on goals, and we can do it in so many different ways.

We have group coaching, individual private coaching, and online chats along with hundreds of hours of courses and content that I’ve created just for you. When you’re ready to really take what you’re learning on the podcast to the 10x level, then come check out Be Bold at JodyMoore.com/membership.