Welcome to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Elevated Edit podcast.

So, a interesting fact about me.

Well, guess it's interesting depending on how you look at it.

I used to be a really messy person.

So when I lived with my roommate, we lived in El Dorado and we had an apartment that was actually pretty spacious, but we had that thing filled to the brim with stuff.

We had so many clothes, so many shoes, so many bags, just stuff everywhere, Coffee cups, I mean, you name it.

It was so bad.

We had one of our friends, she would come and clean for free.

Like just because she couldn't handle how much stuff we had in there, she would come clean for free.

I have just always been like a very cluttery.

Is that a word?

Person.

And then I met Will and we moved in together and he is like neat freak to the max.

Like his clothes have to be a certain way, the house has to be a certain way.

His vehicle, his, like, he's very, very clean, very organized.

And so I have had to adjust and adapt for the better, I think.

And so this last year in 2024, I have really focused in like, I would say I'm even a little bit more of a neat freak now than he is.

I got a dumpster and we have just thrown stuff away, decluttered, implemented systems in the house all year.

And it has been so amazing.

But one thing I have figured out this year is that decluttering isn't just about having a clean house.

It's about creating space for clarity, possibilities and growth.

And as I head into 2025, I am focusing not just on physical decluttering, but digital and personal as well.

And today I'm going to share with you how you can do that as well.

I think for multi passionate women like us, clutter, whether it's physical or mental, can literally drain our energy and focus.

I am to the point where I can't go to bed unless the dishes are done.

Like the sink is empty and the dishwasher is started.

It's this weird new habit I've got.

I kind of like it, but it's also kind of frustrating because I'll literally Be laying in bed and I'm like, likely you've got to get up and go start the dishwasher.

Like, I don't know.

It's this new thing that I do.

And like I said, it's a little frustrating.

But when I wake up in the morning, my day just starts off on a better foot if my house is clean.

And decluttering is not about clearing, just clearing the mess, just clearing the, the clutter.

It's also about clearing the noise so that we can amplify what truly matters.

And like I said, I used to be very cluttered.

And coincidentally, I also had a ton of anxiety.

And honestly, I don't know which one came first.

It's kind of like chicken or egg situation.

Did the clutter lead to the anxiety or did the anxiety lead to the clutter?

Because I had so much anxiety, I, you know, procrastinated cleaning.

I self sabotaged a lot.

Either way, I have learned that decluttering is a huge part of finding clarity and peace.

So like I said, the first step I took was physical decluttering.

I have been throwing away and donating things all year long.

Like I said, we have a dumpster in our backyard.

And every couple weeks I'll just kind of go through the house and I'll really evaluate, you know, is this something that we use?

Is this something that we love?

Is this something that.

If I were to walk into a store today, would I pick this out?

And if the answer is no, we've probably gotten rid of it.

And I've done something this year that is a little controversial for some, but this is something that used to hold me back a lot, is I would feel like I couldn't throw anything away.

Like I had to donate everything.

Like, I would feel so much guilt if I threw something away.

And so I would say, okay, you know what?

We're going to set this in the corner, or we're going to put it in our backseat and we're going to take it to Goodwill, we're going to take it to Salvation Army.

Always very well intended.

But inevitably it would hold me back because in the back of my mind, I would say, okay, how long is it going to take me to get to Goodwill?

Well, I don't have time for that this month, or I don't have time for that this week, so I'm just going to leave it in my closet or leave it on the shelf.

And then all of these things that I was wanting to do just kept adding up because in the back of my mind, I knew that it was going to take me forever to actually go donate the item.

And so now what?

I try to tell myself in moments where I know I really need to just throw something away, I think, Blakely, what kind of good could you do if this item was gone and you had that space to be creative, to come up with a new idea?

Could you help someone with something?

Could you make more money and donate it?

You know, I've really kind of tried to reframe my mindset and that has helped me a lot because like I said, I had a lot of guilt around throwing things away for a long time.

I just did.

I felt so guilty about it because I felt like I was being unfair to others who didn't have if I just threw things away.

So now I try to look at it as I am clearing space for myself so that I can give back to others, be it in a different way.

And aside from the house, I've also kept my car really clean.

That has helped tremendously just with my everyday anxiety because I'm not getting in the car looking for things.

I am not driving in a cluttered space.

Now, that's not to say that it's clean all the time, because life happens and sometimes I feel like I'm living in my car and things stack up very quickly.

Especially if I have a lot of people in and out of my car.

It things just add up.

But I try at least a couple of times a week to clear things out.

And it just keeps my mind so clear I can.

There's a definite difference in my mind when my home and my car are clean versus when they're not.

Like I can just tell a huge difference.

And a couple years ago I tried to declutter and I couldn't do it.

I was so overwhelmed.

I was trying all these different cleaning systems, like I paid for these programs and they were just all so overwhelming.

So one thing I did this year that really worked for me and it's kind of crazy because normally I am like, I want to get things checked off of a to do list immediately.

So the fact that I've had a to do list on my refrigerator for a year, that's still not done.

It's kind of crazy.

But in January of this year, I just took a post it and I went around my house and I wrote down spaces that I wanted to clean out.

And I've kind of focused on a space a month and it has been really slow progress.

I usually dive into a project and go in headfirst because I want to get it all done all at once and then I get overwhelmed or I get distracted or I just lose steam and then I never get back to the project.

So I have found that doing it this way has been really helpful for the way my mind works and things have actually gotten done.

I am painfully, slowly checking things off.

Like, we decluttered the laundry room, we decluttered the office, we decluttered this space, that space.

And so it sounds really simple.

It's very basic.

But that has worked for me this year is just take that post it note and slowly check things off of my list.

We'll just spend an hour on Saturday tackling a space.

And that's really about all the effort that we've put in is an hour or two a week.

And it's made a huge difference for us this year.

So that's definitely something.

If you are struggling with feeling overwhelmed when it comes to decluttering, that is definitely something.

I'd suggest just taking tiny steps, tiny spaces in your home.

And even if you want to do a refresh, like if you don't have an issue with clutter, but maybe you just don't love your decor or you want to freshen things up, take it, take that approach.

I feel like when we try to tackle everything head on, we can get extremely overwhelmed.

And so, you know, just take it one tiny space at a time.

That's.

It's definitely helped.

And our house feels so good.

It is full of light energy.

It just.

The air feels cleaner.

It's just our whole life has changed by following the system this year.

Okay, the next space that I am focusing on decluttering in 2025 is my digital space.

This is something that I feel like I have always been pretty good at.

And I, I think sometimes other people don't understand how pivotal this can be, but I am always.

I'm pretty good about keeping my digital spaces very clean.

My email in particular, I keep at zero.

Now, this is not.

I don't delete everything.

There's folders for a reason.

You can archive things.

There's a lot of different spaces that you can save an email.

But I personally don't believe that your inbox should be where you're saving everything, especially if you're not opening your messages.

Like, I will open a friend's email and they'll have like 20,000 something emails and it kind of gives me heart palpitations a little bit.

Now I will say I have an email that I've had since I was like maybe 13 and that one I never look at, so that one's probably close to 20,000.

But like my work email and my current personal email, I keep at zero because I need to be able to go in my email, see incoming requests, see incoming invoices, see what I need to be handling, and then I need to organize those to their spaces.

And when I get to zero, that's when I know my email is cleared out for me.

If I, if, if I never have a goal of getting to zero, that to do list is just constantly going to be running in the back of my head.

Even if it is 150 junk emails that are left unread in your mind, it's going to be like, okay, I hope I didn't miss something.

I hope there's not an important email that I missed in there.

And that can happen.

So I feel like that happens every day.

Like I'll follow up with someone and they'll be like, oh, I completely missed that email.

Which is kind of mind blowing to me.

I don't know how you miss emails, but I'm guessing that that is probably what happens is they just have so many emails in their inbox.

So clear that out, unsubscribe from things, delete unnecessary emails, organize the important ones, create folders, create systems.

It's so pivotal.

It will really.

When I started implementing keeping my email at zero, it's probably been about three years now.

I noticed a drastic difference in my time management, in my productivity because I felt like I was, I didn't feel like I had a lingering to do list in the back of my head and before I could never figure out what it was and I was like, oh my goodness, it was my email.

Because I would have, you know, 200 unread emails.

And granted most of them are unimportant, but your mind doesn't know the difference between an important email and an unimportant.

It just sees a notification for 200 things that need your attention and so clear those things out.

Unsubscribe went through a spree kind of around the same time I implemented the email at zero.

And I mean it took me a good three or four hours just going through unsubscribing, unsubscribing, unsubscribing, but it's helped so much.

Same with text.

Why do you have 200 unread text messages?

I hear so many people say that it doesn't affect them.

And if you want to lie to yourself, that's perfectly fine, but your mind is Constantly seeing that notification.

And even if you don't consciously think, wow, I've got a lot of text messages.

I hope none of those are important.

Subconsciously your mind is going to see that number and go, wow, look at everything I'm missing.

Look at all the things that I need to check up on.

I wonder what all I've missed in that.

So just give yourself a break and just go through and clear it out.

I was talking to a friend one day.

This is legitimately what she said.

She had like close to 200 unread text messages and she said, I'm scared to even start going through them because I don't want to know what all I've missed.

And I.

I just.

I guess I can't make that make sense in my head, but just dive in.

I mean, it's only going to get worse.

Just start now and then it'll be done.

It just tackle the hard thing first.

I don't know.

That's something I guess, like my mind can't comprehend.

But do yourself a favor if that is you and you have all these notifications, do the hard work.

Face your fears.

Spend a couple hours a week and tackle it.

And you will thank yourself so much.

You will have this sense of calm and peace and you'll be like, oh, that was part of the issue was I had this running to do list in the back of my head.

And chances are a lot of those text messages probably aren't even important.

They're probably.

150 of them, are probably Black Friday sales you just never opened.

But your mind can't tell the difference between an important notification and an unimportant notification.

It just sees a notification.

So do yourself a favor and just clear that out.

There is so much going on.

We are so busy and there's so much happening.

I feel like the more gifts we can give ourself of clarity and peace, the better.

Like, just clear it out now.

This is something I am absolutely terrible at.

Definitely going to try and improve on it from here on out, but organizing my photos.

I just have a dump of photos on my phone and every time I get a new phone, I just, like upgrade to the bigger phone with more storage because I just.

I don't have a system for my photos.

And so that is something that I'm going to actively work on over the next couple of months is organizing my pictures and putting some of them in flash drives, saving some of them too, like cloud storage.

I want them to all be safe and accessible, but I don't Want them to clog up my phone and my laptop.

So that's definitely something I'm going to work on.

Because same with the notifications, when I open up my phone and I have 15,000 pictures, it is just so overwhelming.

And I know there's so many good memories in there, but I don't get to enjoy them because I don't have them organized.

So I am going to work on a system in the coming year to hopefully organize my pictures so that I can actually go back in albums and look through them and enjoy them and reminisce.

And on this, I plan on spending 30 minutes a week.

That's it.

I'm not gonna spend all this time and overwhelm myself.

I'm going to put it on my calendar.

30 minutes a week, working on a system, organizing my pictures and just see where.

See where I end up with it.

For me, 30 minutes a week is usually good to make progress towards any goal.

So that's what I'm going to do.

And look, if I sit down and I'm in the project and I end up wanting to do it for four hours, that's perfectly fine.

But if I tell myself I'm only going to spend 30 minutes, I'll actually start it, and then I can actually make progress.

And then the last way that I am decluttering is going to be personal decluttering.

And this is clearing out your calendar and your commitments.

And this one's going to be a little bit more difficult than the other two because this obviously involves other people.

But hear me out.

I used to be the person that was so scared to say no.

I wanted everyone to like me.

And in my pursuit of wanting everyone to like me, instead of actually being myself, I just said yes to everything.

If someone asked me to do a favor, I said yes.

If someone asked me to chair something, I said yes.

If someone asked me to do, you name it, I said yes.

I spread myself way too thin.

And I legitimately felt like my personal life was so cluttered because I would wake up in the morning to all of these demands.

And then it was like all day long I was literally just running from one appointment to the next, one appointment to the next.

And most of it was things other people wanted me to do and things I felt obligated to do that I probably should have just said no to and the first place.

But instead I said yes because I was a people pleaser.

And so I would have to have these really awkward conversations trying to get out of commitments that I'd already said yes to, and it was just really uncomfortable.

And honestly, that's where I'm at right now.

I am decluttering my calendar, I'm decluttering my commitments.

I'm having to sit down with a lot of people and have really difficult conversations about the fact that I can no longer show up in the same capacity that I've shown up in before.

And these conversations are not fun.

And what I should have done was in the first place said no or sat down and analyzed.

Is this really something that I can fully commit to?

Is this genuinely something that I want to do?

And unfortunately, I, in the past couple of years have not done that.

And so now I'm having to deal with the repercussions of that and having to call people, email people, have conversations face to face, and tell people, look, I shouldn't have said yes to this in the first place.

I can no longer commit to this.

And in some situations, I'm putting people in a tough spot because now they're depending on me and it just turns into a cycle.

And it's one that I'm thankful that I'm catching on to and I'm putting a stop to, but I am in a position where I no longer align with a lot of those goals.

And so, like I said, it is a tough process, but it's so necessary.

And like I said, you've got to choose your heart, because it would have been easier to just say no up front to honor time and energy and set boundaries.

And so give yourself that gift.

Sit down and really think, what do I want my 2025 to look like?

What commitments do I want to say yes to?

What time do I want to keep open for opportunities that could come up?

And if a situation or an opportunity comes your way and it doesn't fall in line with that, you might have to do a hard thing and you might have to say no to it.

And that's perfectly fine.

Trust me, the people that I'm sitting down with right now would have much rather me told them no a year ago and them not be in the position that they're in now, where I'm now having to come to them and say, look, I can't do this anymore than if I would have just said no, I can't do this in the first place.

So give yourself the gift of boundaries.

Give yourself the gift of saying no.

Be very intentional with your calendar and look at your calendar.

What can you let go of?

Ask yourself that every single time you say yes to something, because what Is the quote every.

Every yes that you have as a no to something else?

That is not the exact quote, but you get the gist of what I'm saying.

And why does all this matter?

Like, why does decluttering matter so much?

Why am I rambling so much about it?

It matters because it gives you room to breathe and think.

It creates space for opportunities and possibilities that would have been blocked otherwise.

Whether you're talking about physical clutter or digital or personal, I have noticed that there have been so many opportunities that have come up for me now that I have started to declutter my calendar, declutter my personal life, even.

I feel like decluttering my physical spaces and digital spaces have opened me up to a lot of opportunities that I would have otherwise missed because I can now amplify through simplicity.

When you simplify, you amplify your energy, your focus, and the ability to achieve what really matters.

Now that my spaces are decluttered, my mind is open.

I am much more creative.

I can brainstorm more freely.

And to be totally honest, I have a lot of free time in my calendar now.

And I've got a lot of really fun, really cool opportunities that have come my way that I have been able to say yes to that I wouldn't have been able to say yes to a year ago because my calendar was so packed.

I didn't allow any room for any opportunities to come my way because I legitimately was working from the minute I woke up in the morning until the minute I went to sleep at night.

And now that I have a lot of open time, I've got open weekends, I've got open evenings.

I have room to explore.

I have room to say yes to things.

I have room for opportunities to present themselves, and it's really fantastic.

And I never would have thought that decluttering and simplifying would have been the answer to that.

But it really has opened up my life so much because I have begun to find a clarity and a peace in ways that I certainly didn't expect.

Decluttering isn't just about a tidy space.

It is about creating room for the things that align with your purpose, whether it's your home, your inbox, your commitments.

If you simplify now, you will set yourself up for clarity and success.

So I want you to take one small step today.

I want you to clean out a drawer.

I want you to look at your calendar.

I want you to organize the last week of your photos.

Whatever it is, I want you to take a tiny step, because every step creates space for the life that you are building.

If this episode resonated with you, please please please share it with a friend who might need a reminder to declutter their life too.

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It makes me feel so good and it helps the podcast grow and reach more incredible women just like you.

I hope you got some information out of this episode and I will see you in the next one.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

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