05: Gentle Organizing with Alison Lush

10/17/22 • 59 min

2 Listeners

Do you have too much stuff? As you look around your home, is it crowded and cluttered? Does your space make you feel burdened, unhappy, and frustrated? If you said–or shouted–YES, you can’t miss today’s show. Join me to learn more about gentle organizing.

Alison Lush is a Certified Professional Organizer, Certified Virtual Organizer, and Master Trainer. After a 20-year catering career, Alison knew she needed better organization and management skills for her home and personal comfort. She learned to live and shop intentionally, creating and protecting the space in her home. Now she puts her expertise to work in helping others by empowering them and teaching them to put themselves at the center of their organization efforts.

Show Highlights:

How Alison became an organizer with a gentle spirit
Why our interactions with our home, space, time, and belongings form the foundations of our lives
Why Alison’s focus is on “organic organizing”
Alison’s answer to a question sent in by Samantha about dealing with clutter, letting things go, and the functionality of her space
How to organize your space by using Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3—and consider the frequency of access for each item
Ways to keep, honor, and display memorabilia by identifying the risk level in letting items go
How to consider the purpose of items in our lives in deciding to keep them or let them go
Alison’s answer to a question from Kitty about decorating, a sense of style, and learning to feel good about her space
How to reframe what might look crappy and rundown to you as a life well-lived, meaningful, and full of love
Why your decor should fuel you and recharge your batteries
Alison’s answer to a question from Aria about separating and managing work life and home life
How to legitimize, categorize, and systemize your space for the best functionality
Why the professional organizing industry has the reputation of telling people to “just get rid of your stuff”

Resources:

Connect with Alison: www.alisonlush.ca and TikTok

Connect with KC: TikTok and Instagram

Get KC's Book, How to Keep House While Drowning

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Show Highlights:

How Alison became an organizer with a gentle spirit
Why our interactions with our home, space, time, and belongings form the foundations of our lives
Why Alison’s focus is on “organic organizing”
Alison’s answer to a question sent in by Samantha about dealing with clutter, letting things go, and the functionality of her space
How to organize your space by using Zone 1, Zone 2, and Zone 3—and consider the frequency of access for each item
Ways to keep, honor, and display memorabilia by identifying the risk level in letting items go
How to consider the purpose of items in our lives in deciding to keep them or let them go
Alison’s answer to a question from Kitty about decorating, a sense of style, and learning to feel good about her space
How to reframe what might look crappy and rundown to you as a life well-lived, meaningful, and full of love
Why your decor should fuel you and recharge your batteries
Alison’s answer to a question from Aria about separating and managing work life and home life
How to legitimize, categorize, and systemize your space for the best functionality
Why the professional organizing industry has the reputation of telling people to “just get rid of your stuff”

Resources:

Connect with Alison: www.alisonlush.ca and TikTok

Connect with KC: TikTok and Instagram

Get KC's Book, How to Keep House While Drowning

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Previous Episode

04: Q&A: A Housekeeper and an Organizer Walk Into a Bar…

Today, we start with my take on a question that I get asked almost every day about how to keep from losing motivation to complete tasks, especially those simple ones like cleaning a room. If you’ve beaten yourself up over this struggle, then join me for a fresh perspective on cleaning your space!

Show Highlights:

Why losing motivation to clean a room comes down to not realizing that tidying, organizing, and cleaning are three different projects
What is required to “tidy a room”: a five-step method
How organizing differs from tidying and cleaning
What the cleaning process entails
Why there’s nothing wrong with being a neat or messy person, but a functional level of organization is essential
How the tasks of tidying, organizing, and cleaning bring emotional barriers, especially for those with executive function disorders
Why we need to remember that these care tasks are morally neutral–and the only reason to do them is so we can function better

Resources:

Connect with KC: TikTok and Instagram

Get KC's Book, How to Keep House While Drowning

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Next Episode

06: Is Too Much Self-Compassion a Bad Thing? with Dr. Lesley Cook

In our first episode, you heard my conversation with Dr. Lesley Cook about executive functioning. Because she has so much great information and wisdom to share, I decided to bring her back to discuss self-compassion. Is it a bad thing to have TOO MUCH self-compassion? Join us for the conversation with Dr. Lesley!

Dr. Lesley Cook is a psychologist who does a lot of work with ADHD and other neurodivergencies. Born and raised in Hawaii, she now lives in Virginia and works with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families.

Show Highlights:

How to find the balance between the message of self-compassion and the need for better life management and progress
A basic understanding of self-compassion from Dr. Kristin Neff’s writings
A closer look at shame and how we experience it in relation to self-compassion
How to gently shift shame into self-compassion
How self-compassion can become a learned behavior that we pass down to our children

Resources:

Connect with Dr. Lesley: TikTok and Instagram

Connect with KC: TikTok and Instagram

Get KC's Book, How to Keep House While Drowning

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices