Living Clutter Free Forever - decluttering tips,home organizing, minimalist living

Foolproof your resolutions. How to master the art of sustainable tidying for lasting clarity and peace in your home #137

• Caroline Thor - Professional Organizer - KonMari® Consultant

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Are your resolutions already slipping?
Does clutter still feel like it’s winning?

I get it. We all start the year with big plans. Declutter the house. Organize the chaos. Finally create that clutter-free home we dream of. But by week two, overwhelm creeps back in, and those goals? They feel impossible.

This week on the Living Clutter Free Forever podcast, I’m breaking down why resolutions fail and giving you the tools to foolproof your goals. It’s not about doing it all at once. It’s about building sustainable tidying habits that stick.

Discover:

  • The real reasons clutter keeps coming back.
  • How to master the art of small wins (yes, they matter!).
  • The secret to transforming tidying from a dreaded chore into a source of clarity and peace.

I’m sharing the declutter strategies that have helped me and countless others create lasting change. You’ll learn how to embrace progress over perfection, implement habits that fit into your life, and start winning the battle against clutter—once and for all.

This isn’t just about organizing your space. It’s about transforming your mindset and reclaiming control of your home and time.

If you’re ready to ditch the overwhelm, revisit your resolutions, and start fresh, this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now to Foolproof Your Resolutions: How to Master the Art of Sustainable Tidying and take the first step toward your clutter-free life.

Let’s make this the year you stick to your goals.

I would LOVE to hear from you. Text Message me here.

Get your home tidy in just 15 minutes a day! Grab my FREE 15 Minute Declutter Kickstart Guide HERE!

Thanks for listening! For more organizational motivation, support and free resources:
Join my online membership Clutter Free Collective
Join my podcast Facebook group Living Clutter Free Forever Podcast: KonMari® Inspired Organizing | Facebook
Visit my website www.caroline-thor.com
Come and say 'hi' on Instagram @caro.thor
Follow me on Facebook @carolineorganizer

Speaker 1:

Hi there, I'm Caroline Thor, professional organiser, konmari consultant, teacher and mum of three. I started off my life as a mum feeling overwhelmed, disorganised and desperately trying to carve out some time for me amongst the nappies, chaos and clutter. One day, one small book called the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying changed everything and I began to learn strategies for making everyday life easier. Today, I have the systems in place that means life can throw almost anything at me, and I want to share them with you. If you're an overwhelmed mum struggling to keep it together, then this is the podcast for you. Grab a coffee and settle in for a quick chat with someone who gets your reality. Hello and welcome back to this latest episode of the living clutter free forever podcast. My name's caroline and I am a professional organizer, konmari consultant and mom to three kids, two of whom are neurodiverse, and I would like to thank those of you who were at my amazing event on Saturday. It was so much fun with all of you decluttering our mindsets. I hope those of you that were there found it useful, and if you missed out this time, don't worry. I will be doing more events in the very near future, so watch this space.

Speaker 1:

Now we are in week two of 2025. How are those New Year's resolutions going for you? I am wondering because in the past, I always used to set myself New Year's resolutions and by the end of January they would have failed. And what I wanted to talk about today is why your resolutions might fail and how to create sustainable tidying habits for lasting change. So let's say it's New Year's Eve. We can all think that far back, it was only two weeks ago. We're all really excited. It's the start of a new year and we are thinking, yes, this is my year of change. I'm going to lose the weight, I'm going to get the house decluttered and organized, I'm going to read every day, I'm going to use the Peloton every day, all this stuff and then, very often, we lose steam. Why do we lose steam? We'll come into that in a little bit, but I want to just tie this briefly to tidying and why. Tidying is not just about a clean space, but it's a sustainable way of living. And what I mean by that is if your news resolution was to have a tidy house, great, you can tidy a room, but if you don't create a sustainable way of maintaining it, then you are going to be back to square one very, very quickly. So my goal for this episode is to help you learn how to create habits that stick.

Speaker 1:

But before we get onto that, let's think about the reasons why resolutions fail, because it's actually really important to understand that, if we're going to be able to make changes, our goals are unrealistic. Very, very often we want to do all of the things all at once. Now, at the start, a minute ago, I just said lose the weight, do the exercise, get the house tidied up, read a book every week, whatever it is. I have done this in the past and failed miserably, because when you try to change too many things all at once, it's just overwhelming and it's not something we've done before. So why are we going to suddenly be able to do it just because it's the 1st of January? And trying to tackle the entire house in a week, for example, is just totally unrealistic. Unless you have a complete week's holiday, you don't need to cook a meal, you don't need to look after a child, you don't need to do anything else in that time, and very often it's the lack of systems or plans that we've put in place to support the resolution that make it really difficult. So if we've not thought about how we're going to follow through with this just on the 1st of January like, yeah, we're going to get the whole house decluttered and organized, great Off we go. But if you haven't got a plan, then it's really, really hard to actually follow through with what you intend to do. And this is why, in the first week of January, when I met with my membership Clutter-Free Collective, we sat there and we literally thought in just minute detail about all the things we need to do this year, whether it's get the cat vaccinated, take the kids to the dentist, get the tires changed on the car, get the linen closet, decluttered, everything, book the family holiday I mean the list is endless, but we got it all out on paper. This means that we can then break down the things that we need to do and create a plan, and that will support us then in actually being successful.

Speaker 1:

Another reason why resolutions often fail is we've got emotional barriers that we're not even aware of, like we've got guilt or perfectionism or fear of failure. This has been a huge one with me, especially when it comes to weight loss, and I hadn't even realized that's what it was until I've read a few books in the last few years and I had this sort of aha moment. But I would start off with my weight loss efforts and I would lose a bit of weight and I would perhaps do a bit of exercise along with it and I'd be like, yeah, great, it's going really well. And then at some point I have this fear of I'm not going to be able to maintain this, I'm going to fail at this, I'm not going to manage it. And so what do I do? I self-sabotage and give up. I self-sabotage by eating the whole box of cookies and then I think, well, I've broken the diet now anyway, so there's no point carrying on. So this fear of failure is very often something that I see with people when it comes to decluttering and organizing their homes. I've not managed it before. I can't do this. I'm not someone that can have a tidy house, no-transcript.

Speaker 1:

And then another reason when it comes to decluttering and organizing, that our resolutions often fail is that we're not addressing the root causes of clutter, and there is nearly always, with every single person, a root cause. There was with me when I was in total chaos, when my kids were little and I had so much clutter. My root cause was complete overwhelm and feeling like I needed to be this perfect mom, which meant that I actually ended up not doing anything. Because, well, it's just like a vicious cycle. But if you don't address the root cause of the clutter, it's going to be impossible for you to be successful with your resolutions.

Speaker 1:

So how do you create sustainable habits? What is the secret to sustainable habits? The first tip I would give you is to focus on progress, not perfection. Shift from all or nothing, thinking you don't have to do it all, and this is something else that I'm always banging on about in Class 3 Collective. It's better to do a few tiny steps than start a whole big project, get out all the stuff and then get overwhelmed and not make any progress and just give up. So focus on progress, not perfection. My second top tip would be to build habits into existing routines.

Speaker 1:

I do this all the time, so pair tidying with a daily activity like listening to music or podcasts. So I had one morning where I knew I had to take all the decorations off the Christmas tree. It was something I'd been procrastinating on, not because I didn't want to do it, but I was just always finding other things that I would rather do than take the decorations off the Christmas tree. I've been listening to a book that I am absolutely loving. I'm going to plug it because I just think it's amazing. It's Mel Robbins and the book is called the Let them Theory. I highly recommend you listening to it, but I digress. I was listening to that while I took Christmas tree decorations down, because I'm so loving listening to this book that I will take every opportunity to, and it seemed like a really good opportunity to listen to my book because it was a quiet activity and I could hear my book really well while I was taking down the Christmas decorations, so I didn't feel like I was losing my time.

Speaker 1:

Another thing I've got really good at is doing small tidying jobs while I'm waiting for things to cook. So if I put the pasta on and I've set the timer and I always cook my pasta for too long, according to my husband, but I always set the timer for 15 minutes, even though the packet says 11, I do 50. But that gives me 15 minutes to go and tidy some stuff away, to sort through a drawer, to hand some washing up, whatever it happens to be. I've got really good at doing that now, so I build into existing routines things that I can do, and it means that I get more done and I'm not using up my free time my relaxing time, if you like to do any of the tidying, and I love that. I absolutely love that, and we've talked about that in clutter free collective as well, because everyone's been trying to do habit stacking and building habits into existing routines, and we talked about this just before Christmas and it was really fun to hear how people are coordinating habits into their daily life so that it becomes part of what they do.

Speaker 1:

And my final third secret to sustainable habits is the power of consistency over intensity, and what I mean by that is if you make small daily actions, they actually make a bigger difference than if you just go at something full pelt for like a really intense amount of time. We are all busy. Most of us are working or looking after kids or our caregivers or whatever it happens to be. We don't have much spare time in our day for decluttering, organizing or whatever the resolution is that you've come up with. So if you can do small daily actions, just get a little bit done each day, even if it's five minutes. That stacks up and it will end up making a bigger difference in the long run.

Speaker 1:

So my strategies for lasting tidying habits First of all, set yourself realistic goals. Break down your tasks into manageable chunks, one category a week, or even a month if necessary. If you know in January you're really, really busy. Don't set yourself up for failure, say I'm going to do my clothes over the course of the month, not in a weekend, not in a day. I'm just going to where I have pockets of time. Do the next bit of this category, and that will make it much more manageable.

Speaker 1:

The next strategy is to celebrate small wins. You really need to do this. Acknowledge and reward yourself for progress. When we celebrate ourselves, we then encourage ourselves mentally to keep going, and that is so, so important, and that's why, within my membership, every Wednesday we have Wednesday wins and it's so fun hearing every Wednesday what people are celebrating. And then to declutter with purpose, revisit your why. What does having a tidy home mean for your life? If it means you're going to feel calmer, more present, more in control, you're going to show up better for your kids. You're going to show up better for your kids. You're going to show up better for your partner. If you revisit your why it is so much more motivating to help you carry on and complete what it is you have set yourself to do so, overcoming common challenges, what to do when you fall off track.

Speaker 1:

If you fall off track, it's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean you failed. You just reset and start again with a small win. So let's say, for example, your plan had been to declutter and organize your kitchen and you managed to do a few days where you were doing a bit and then nothing happens for a week. You feel like you've failed, you've fallen off the track. It's like it's useless. You might as well give up. No, set yourself a small task, a small win, just to get you back into the momentum again. It could be just going through the mugs and seeing if there's any mugs that you could declutter. It could be as simple as emptying out the cutlery drawer, wiping it out and only putting back in the things that you use. A small win. And once you have that small win, you will regain the motivation to keep going.

Speaker 1:

Another challenge is how to handle resistance from family members or housemates, and all I can say to you on this one is ignore them If there is resistance from family members or housemates. You do your thing, you do what you need to do for you and I promise you, given time, their ripple effect will start to appear within your home and they will start to get on board to appear within your home and they will start to get on board. You can't force people to change what they're doing. You can encourage them, you can invite them to help you and not be annoyed and frustrated when they say no, and you can keep making that offer and one day they will say yes. But at least during that time you are working on what you want to work on and you are working for your future self, which is the most important thing. And another way to overcome common challenges is to find some way to stay accountable. So join a group or have a friend where you've both agreed you're going to do a similar sort of task at the same time and then use each other to stay accountable. This is why something like Clusterfree Collective is so amazing, because we're holding each other accountable in there and we are supporting each other and celebrating each other. But that can also work if you can find a friend or a family member who's willing to support you with that Now.

Speaker 1:

Those of you who were at my workshop on decluttering your mindset on Saturday will know that a clutter-free mindset is super important. So shift from tidying as a chore to tidying as self-care, from tidying as a chore to tidying as self-care. Focus on creating a space that supports your goals and energy, and stay compassionate with yourself during the process. So if, like loads of other people out there, you have already not managed to stick to your New Year's resolutions, I challenge you to reframe them as goals that you can break down into small steps and create small wins to keep you moving.

Speaker 1:

Try to build in sustainable habits and strategies, especially for lasting tidying habits, and try, as you go, to build a clutter-free mindset. I know you can do it and I would love for you to message me on Instagram at carothor, and let me know how you're getting on. I am loving hearing from so many people and, with that in mind, until next time. Hearing from so many people and with that in mind, until next time. If you've enjoyed this episode, please send the link to a friend you know would appreciate it, subscribe and leave a review. I look forward to bringing you more organising tips next time, but if you can't wait until then, you can go to my website or find me on Instagram, at carothor, or on Facebook, at Caroline Organiser. Thanks for listening and I look forward to guiding you on your journey to find your clutter-free ever after.