What’s Hiding in Your Storage? 5 Steps to Declutter You’ll Wish You Tried Sooner

Okay, you're supposed to always open with something really catchy, but there's something I want to tell you first. I'm really glad that you're here. I know this is not easy work trying to declutter and simplify our homes when we don't have a lot of extra time, when there's constantly more stuff coming in, when it feels like we've taken one step forward and six steps backwards, but you're still here, you're still working at it. And today I want to share with you the exact steps for getting storage spaces simplified, because with the right game plan, you can tackle any space. So real quick, how time has been working against you, especially in storage spaces. So we all know, I sometimes talk about frog projects. If we let a task go for too long, it gets bigger and bigger in our head. It gets harder and harder. We feel more overwhelmed by it. And we have this sense of inadequacy. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to tackle it. It's just too hard. There's too many hard decisions in there. And that's just what happens over time. It happens to all of us, our head builds it up. The other thing, interestingly enough, is that over time things that we don't use become more and more special. This is scientifically proven. In our brain, things that we have not used are so special that, well, we don't want to use them now. Think of things that have been passed on, special linens, special clothing, or party supplies, different baking things. The longer we let things go unused, we have this weird thing we do in our head where we're like, Oh, but it's so nice. I don't want to get it dirty. I don't want to use it up. I don't want to spoil it, whatever it is. But things are meant to be used, right? So that's the problem with storage spaces for many of us. It's become this big overwhelming project. And there's a lot of things in here that we're like, Oh, but that's so special because so much time has passed since I've allowed myself to use it. So I wanted to preface our steps with that just to let you know, again, there's nothing wrong with you. If you have been putting this up, there's nothing wrong with you. Welcome to the club. Okay. So we're going to go through these steps. And then also I'm going to insert, just some real life of my frustrations of going through this space most recently. So we're going to keep it real, but also give you a very reliable predictable game plan. So step number one is to look for garbage and trash and obvious donations. Step number two is to categorize and to group like with like. Step number three is to pick one category to fully deal with. Step number four is to add in a basic organization and step number five is to finish, complete the space, get all of the donations and the trash and the recycling and everything out. So step number one is to just go into your space and look for garbage, trash, obvious donations. And this accomplishes two things. It debulks and it also re-familiarizes yourself with everything that has accumulated in the space. Again, we've built it up to feel like all hard decisions, but that's not actually true. So one, let's talk about debulking. So for many of us in our storage spaces, the inventory has just gotten out of control. It is way too much for any of us to manage. And that leads to the feeling of overwhelm. There's just so much stuff. By looking for things that can leave the space, we're debulking it. We're reducing the inventory. We're making it feel a little bit more manageable. And I love what Dana from A Sob Comes Clean says. She's like, you know, often we're like, Oh, there's not really much garbage or trash. I don't know. Do you call it garbage or trash? We call it garbage. I think. Garbage? I don't know. But there's not a lot of stuff in there that I could throw away or recycle. Until you get into the space and you're like, why did I keep this box and why is this stuff down here? And so these are easy decisions. We're not making any hard decisions. Yeah. Easy stuff. We're just re-familiarizing. We're debulking. We're looking for trash, garbage, obvious donations, right? So what stuff in this space can leave, whether in a black trash bag or in a donation box? And again, this is reducing the inventory and it's making this space feel more manageable. The second thing it does is it re-familiarizes us. So when we're going through the space looking for garbage and obvious donations, we're remembering everything that's in here. Prior to me walking into this space, I felt like everything was hard until I get back into it. And then I realized, Oh, obviously we don't need this. Oh, this cardboard box can get recycled. Oh, we don't even have this thing anymore. Oh, this thing is missing pieces or broken or no, we clearly don't need this anymore. So into the black trash bag, into the donation box it goes. And I'm starting to realize that maybe this space isn't quite as bad as I thought that it was. And so this first step is so powerful. Now, if this space still overwhelms you, just set the timer for five minutes. Say the only thing that I have to do today is to go into that storage space and work on looking for garbage and obvious donations for five minutes. And that is it. At the end of the five minutes, you can decide, do I want to keep working? A lot of the days, like the videos I'm showing you are from our mentorship group and we do daily tasks. That's all we commit to every day in our mentorship group, five minutes. And so there were days that I came down here and I set the timer for five minutes. I'm like, okay guys, here we go. Let's do this. Right. And then I got into it and I'm like, okay, I'm going to go a little bit longer. You don't have to, but I'm just going to keep going. I'm kind of into it. I want to get this part finished or I want to get all this stuff out, whatever. And then there was other days where I'm like, nope, timer goes off. I get all the donations and the garbage to where it needs to go and I am done. Right? Leave me alone. I'll see you again tomorrow. So you get to decide for yourself, do you want to keep going or not keep going? Either way you decide, you absolutely do not have to, but you're going to notice each time that you go back in there, it feels less scary. You might not still be excited about it or look forward to it, but it is going to feel less overwhelming. Well, this is a big deal. Helix's Black Friday sale is already underway and right now you can save 25% off your own Helix mattress plus get two free pillows and a free bedding bundle with Deluxe and Elite mattresses. Now I know you've been thinking about upgrading your mattress. 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The Helix Plus, a mattress designed for big and tall sleepers, and the Helix Kids mattresses designed for growing bodies and endorsed by child sleep and medical experts. So if you have not upgraded your mattress in a while, it's time. The Black Friday sale right now, right? So again, you can save 25% off, get two free pillows. And if you get a Luxe or Elite mattress, you can get that free bedding bundle as well. Go to helixsleep.com backslash minimal mom, save 25%. And before you know it, you're going to be getting a really awesome night's sleep too. All right, now step number two, this, this is important because we're still not doing anything hard yet. And this is to categorize or to group like with like. So in our basement, I started to notice some general categories of things. And so there was pantry, like extra food storage items. There were household, like my household decor stuff. There was stuff from our camper that got put down here when we sold another camper. And then everything came down here. There was winter snow gear because we live in Minnesota. And so I started noticing that most things actually fit into a handful of categories. And you could also have like a random things or another category too, but most things actually pretty neatly fit into categories. And what's really helpful for our brains, especially if we don't get long chunks of uninterrupted time, is to make signs. So make a sign for each category that you have. So we have kitchen stuff, pantry stuff, winter gear stuff, extra clothing, camper stuff. So make signs, put them around your space and start moving everything into those categories. And then when you come up against something, you're like, okay, this item does not fit neatly into one of my categories. Then you have a decision to make. Do I want to keep it? Maybe it's because I don't need it. I don't use it. I don't even know why it's down here. So you decide, do I want to keep it? Or can I just put it in the closest category? You know, if you have a miscellaneous category, if you want to, if you have, you know, quite a few things or just force fit it into a category, it doesn't really matter because we're going to go back through the categories, right? But this step is huge. This is such a kindness to your brain because another reason these spaces are so overwhelming to us is because they are such a mish mash of different categories of stuff. And our brains, whether you're type A or type B, our brains always prefer to think for things to be neatly categorized with like items just into their little grouping. Our brain loves that because our brain is not actually good at managing details. It's not good at managing inventory. It's not good at remembering where things are. And so if we can physically put items into categories, and we're going to talk about like organization as we get further down the steps, our brain is just like sighs, this like sigh of relief of like, okay, I know where that thing will be if I need it. So categorizing is huge. And again, this is another big step to this space, not feeling overwhelming. And have you noticed we're still not making any hard decisions. We're just putting stuff into categories. If you come across some obvious garbage or donations, great. Throw it in your donation box in your black trash bag. If not, doesn't matter. We're not to that point yet. You don't have to make any hard decisions. And so you can make a ton of progress in your storage space before you get to any judgment calls. And that's great because a lot of us have a lot going on in our brains and we don't always trust ourselves with decisions. But doing these first two steps, it just adds a lot of clarity to what we're doing. And then it's going to lead to confidence when we do have to make decisions. All right, so we've gone in, we've looked for garbage and trash. We've started to categorize things. Once you have everything in your space into these categories, and then they're all grouped together. Now the next thing we're going to do is we're just going to pick one category at a time and we're going to fully deal with that category. So I might look at the kitchen stuff. I keep some kitchen overflow stuff down here, which is some baking pans. And Adeline has some of her baking things down here. And so I'm going to look at that category and now I'm going to decide what I want to keep and not keep. And if you struggle with some of these decisions, it's very helpful to use the container concept. So I have two clear bins down here that I keep kitchen overflow in. And so those are my containers and that's what I limit what I keep. Adeline also has one bin of her own stuff, of baking for making cake pops and decorating cupcakes and that kind of stuff. So she has one bin for that. I have my two clear bins. And that's my limit to how much kitchen overflow I'm going to keep down here. Because I know myself. And if it is more than that, I don't use it. I don't even hardly need this much worth of stuff. But I know if it is more than that, there is stuff that is not getting used. So this is my container. We're going to use the container concept, keep what comfortably fits inside. And then I'm going to let go of other stuff. Again, from the outside, if you haven't gotten, if you haven't done the first two steps leading up here, this can sometimes feel restrictive. Like, Oh, I have to narrow all of this down just to these two containers or this Rubbermaid tote. It feels restrictive. But again, our brains love limits, especially in storage spaces where there's not always a lot of natural boundaries. If it's a garage or an attic or a basement, a lot of times we just have these big open spaces. And so we have to set the limits. And so I pretty much just use Rubbermaid totes as my limits. I have, you know, one, well, we used to have one for Christmas stuff. Now we have two. I have two bins for kitchen stuff and, and we limit, you know, how much winter gear we keep and all of that. So you decide what your limits or boundaries are going to be for each category of things. But we zone in, we zero in on a category. We work to simplify it and pare it down to what comfortably fits in the space that we have. And I don't know, I don't like to oversimplify or say that these aren't hard things, but it just, if you're going step-by-step and then getting to here, it doesn't feel so hard. And if you are finding yourself self-struggling, then you might want to set that category aside for a little bit and just go to some other ones. And maybe you'll be like, you know what, we're not going to keep the camping stuff anymore because we never camp. And now I have extra room for my Christmas decor, which was kind of hanging me up. So I'm going to have four totes of Christmas and none of camping. And now I have room for everything and it doesn't have to be that big of a deal. So don't let any one category hang you up too much. If it does feel hard, like you just aren't ready to make those decisions, move on to a different category, work on that, and then come back and you might have some more data or information to work with. Next, we're going to add in some simple organization. So in storage spaces no matter what our organizing style is, I think a lot of us could actually agree on pretty basic organization in these types of spaces. So we just have these like Rubbermaid shelves and Rubbermaid totes. I did choose clear bins for the kitchen stuff because I didn't want to forget what was in there. And I also wanted my family to easily see what's in there, but all the rest of the totes, I am a ladybug, which means I like stuff out of sight and in broad categories. So I selected opaque bins you can't see in. And I did invest in ones that all match because I wanted it to look nice, but you don't have to do that. But keep organization in storage spaces, very basic, make sure it's labeled. So I really like these chalk labels because they peel off really easily. You can wipe off the chalk marker, relabel them. So these have worked awesome. I've used them for multiple years now, but it's very basic organization. It's very clear, not clear like see-through, but it's easy to see the organization, which makes it very easy for all the members of our household to cooperate with it and to kind of try a little bit to keep it up. I'm still the one that does the bulk of keeping everything organized down here. But if they're looking for snow pants, I'm like, go get the bin that says Boyd's Winter and they're going to be in there. And be okay with letting it evolve. So I know for those of you who are more perfectionistic, which I don't fall into that category, I know you want to put the exact organization into place that you are going to use forever, but it just doesn't always work that way. So if you would be willing to say, I'm going to put some organization in place, I'm going to test it out and then I'm going to make adjustments as needed. I think you're going to feel better about the whole process, but you do you when it comes to that. All right. And then the last step is to finish it. So we want to get all the garbage out and all the donations out and all the little things that might be floating around. So get them into some kind of category and into some kind of organization. And man, does it feel so good. I want to answer some of the common questions too, but probably one of the biggest things that I would encourage you and what surprised me in this space was how we had to reduce the inventory so far to get it to a manageable point where we really can stay up on it easily. But also along with that, that didn't feel sacrificial or limiting because I realized how little of stuff in storage that we actually use. We don't hardly use any of the stuff in storage ever. Winter gear and Christmas decorations were the ones for sure get pulled out every year. And I couldn't believe how it could go a year with other stuff just sitting down here with no one ever going into those totes. And so be really ruthless with your stuff in storage. If you have not used it in a year, two years, three years, it's almost guaranteed that you're not going to use it in the upcoming year or two. We are creatures of habit. We all use the same 10 to 20% of stuff day in, day out, year in, year out. And so let's let go of the fantasy self stuff, the identity clutter, the someday maybe when all of the stars align and we start camping again or whatever it is, right? Or I pick up this hobby or I want to look at all these sentimental items that I have inherited. I just want to encourage you to go so much further with simplifying your storage spaces because most of us never come back and access or use the stuff that is in here. So permission to go further, even if you spent money on it, even if someone gave it to you as a gift. The freedom that comes from having these spaces organized and tidy and easy to get in and out of, it is awesome. Now I've let this go to heck a few times, right? So that I could show decluttering it again, quite frankly. And every time I get it pulled back together, it's just like, again, this like my brain and my body are just like, sigh, like, okay, this feels good. And I'm not a hyper type A organized person, right? I'm a very messy like person, you know? But there's still something about it where you're just like, whew, okay, things are in order. I can find what I need and get to it when I need it and know where it is and not buy duplicates and all of that. Okay. So enough on that. So go further than you think with it. Now let's answer some of the common questions that come up when we are decluttering and simplifying our storage spaces. Okay. So how can I declutter if I don't have much time? This is where I'm telling you five minutes matters. It's easy to discount five minutes. You're like, oh Dawn, I would need 800 five minute sessions in here, right? But this is what happened to me down here. So earlier this spring, I showed decluttering and simplifying because it had gotten wet down here. And I had to come down here and declutter because we had to get the wet stuff up and get it dried out and everything. And what happens when you commit to five minutes every single day, whether you have stuff like water or pests or something, you get so sick and tired of it. And you're like, why? Why do I continue to have to waste my precious time and energy to come down and work in this dumb space that I don't want to have to work in anymore? And a lot of this stuff isn't mine. And how did it get here? And why did I keep it and why did I buy it and all that? And so what happens is as you go five minutes, five minutes, five minutes is that you get really frustrated with this stuff. And that actually causes you to make better decisions. And by better, I mean, by more likely to just get rid of it. Right? So please do not discount the power of five minutes. Again, it re-familiarizes ourself. It breaks down the mental barriers. And it helps us to feel like we're on top, like we're winning, like we're making progress and doing something productive, that we're keeping the commitments to ourselves. So I know we glamorize full weekends where we get the whole weekend to work on a space and we pull everything out. And for most of us, that is not practical. We either don't have the time, we don't have the mental bandwidth, decision fatigue is real, or we don't have the physical capacity. And so that would be wonderful if we could all do that. But most of us that doesn't work. So five minutes, absolutely 1,000% matters. Oh, this is a good one. How do I keep from stuff shuffling? Right? So we've all done that thing in storage spaces where you move it from this side to this side, to this pile, to that shelf. Right? And so I think by categorizing that in and of itself makes a huge difference with stuff shuffling. And then also using the container concept. So when I'm holding something up, so when I come across, some old exercise equipment and I'm like, okay, am I going to dedicate a tote to exercise equipment? And I'm looking at my category of stuff and I have some kettlebells and some other weights. And I'm like, okay, let's think this through, shall we? I'm going to make a tote. I'm going to label it with exercise stuff. I'm going to put this stuff in it. And let's see if we can predict the future. I am never, ever, ever going to go into that again. Right? Let's just be real with ourselves. And so when you hold something up, instead of saying like, okay, well I'm going to put that on the shelf where I always put all the exercise stuff, ask yourself, what are the chances that I'm going to come back and use this again? We've all lived long enough and with this type of stuff for long enough that we know what's going to happen. And we don't want to fantasy self it and be like, oh, well I know someday, again, I'm going to just work out all the time at home. Maybe you've learned that this isn't how you work out or you need to go to a gym or you have to have a class or you have to meet up with a friend to go for a walk. And this type of stuff doesn't work. And that's okay. You've learned that about yourself. That's awesome. Right? But keeping it doesn't make the thing happen. It certainly doesn't put the money back in our pocket. So how do we keep from stuff shuffling? Assign things a home. And if you really don't want to assign it a home, then just let it go. And that is totally okay. That is actually preferred. Okay. Let's talk about someday, just in case. But you know, Dawn, maybe once I do get my basement decluttered, maybe I am going to have more time to do the hobby or the thing or whatever. So I've become a big fan of putting dates on things. So I was over at my parents' house and we were going through their front hall closet and I came across a pair of boots. Now, the last time we had done that, we do it in our mentorship group. I've kind of been bouncing back and forth between our house and my parents' house. And the last time we did that closet, I couldn't believe it. It had been three years. And I was like, I come across this pair of boots, and I'm like, I just, they were my dad's boots. And I'm like, I really think these have been in here in the exact same spot since the last time we did it three years ago. But I didn't have any hard data. I didn't know for sure. So here's what I did this time. I put a Post-it note inside the boots and I said, these boots have been here since whatever date it was, 2024. So the next time we go through it again, and then if he wears them, he'll pull the note out, throw it away and it's fine. But the next time we go through it again, now I will know if they've actually gotten worn or not. And so when you're putting stuff into categories and totes and bins and boxes, jot a date on it, whether it's on the label, whether it's on the inside of the lid, put a Post-it note, put a piece of paper in there with the date. And let's collect some more data because when we have those kinds of facts to work with, that kind of overrides our sense of making emotional decisions or a whim. And then it gives us more confidence to declutter the items. So, you know, I've talked about time will tell bins. So you can put stuff in bins, set it aside, but make sure you're putting a date on it so that you have good data to work with. And then if in a few months, maybe a year that you still have not used it, then give yourself permission to let those things go. Because we can't keep dragging all of this stuff through life with us. It's too costly. It's stealing from our mental bandwidth, our sense of autonomy and confidence in ourselves. We can't keep doing it this way. So make sure you're marking dates on things that'll give you some good data to work with. And then down the road, I mean, for me, I don't hardly keep anything for just in case anymore because I've learned over the years. And I think you're going to have that same confidence as well. Okay. What about sentimental items? So, you know, I advocate that everyone in your household should have a memory box. And that is where the most special of special things go. We curate a special collection of things in our memory box. Now let's say though, your storage space has a lot of things that you've inherited. They're bigger items. They're just a mishmash. They're just things you really don't know what to do with. I highly recommend that you read the book Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff by Matt Paxton. And he talks about the legacy list. I've also done another video on this that I can link to, but whether it is you're helping an aging parent or it's your own stuff or stuff you've inherited, this idea of curating and creating a legacy list is so powerful because you are picking out the most special, most treasured in his book, Let It Go by Peter Walsh. He kind of has a similar thing of like your treasure list of what things do treasure the most. And those, of course, we're going to keep those. We're going to find a good way to store them and care for them and make sure they're safe. But we can't do that with everything. That is just a recipe for continuing to feel anxious and stressed out in our own houses. Right? So we're going to pick out the real gems, the treasures, the most special pieces. We're going to store them in a way that they're protected and safe. And then the other stuff we're going to work to let go, whether it's offering it to other family members, selling it or donating it. How do I organize a space so that it stays organized? Yeah. So the biggest mindset shift is that organization doesn't keep it organized. You still have to do the work to make sure, even with my system here, with totes and shelves and everything, and they're labeled so nicely, the stuff still has to get back into the tote after it's used. And that has been the biggest hangup, right? Because it's much easier for the kids just to bring their winter stuff down here at the end of the season and put it on the freezer, the deep freeze, instead of putting it back in the bin. So most of us think our system, our organizational system is failing when it's really just our maintenance of it. Now, don't get me wrong, if you feel like, I don't know, I try to keep up on it, it's just not working. Well, that's an inventory problem. That means you go back to the very beginning and declutter some more, but it's probably still not your organization. So if you have decluttered a lot, if you have been consistent with maintaining it, then you might want to look at the organization. Maybe it's not quite the best system for you, but nine out of 10 times, it's more an inventory and a maintenance issue than an actual organization issue. What about items that belong to somebody else? Yeah. So I'm a big fan. Well, it depends. Have you agreed to house these items? Some have adult kids or they're at college or they're somewhere else. And so I would define a space and say, you can have this much space, these shelves, this corner, this closet, whatever you want to keep in there that is yours. Please keep it tidy in bins or totes or boxes labeled. You may use this space for this long. And just be clear about the boundaries in the space that you're giving to them. Now, some of you're like, well, that's great, but the stuff's already in my house. Then if they are in a place where they could take the stuff back, I love putting a deadline. So you could say, Hey, I've been working on cleaning the attic or the basement or the garage, wherever their stuff is at, the spare bedroom. And I would like to use this space again. I'd like to get it organized, whatever. And so I would like for you to remove this stuff by this date. Now, depending on how much bandwidth you have, how caring you are as a parent, you could, I know some moms have said like, Hey, do you want to FaceTime together? I could help go through some of it with you. We could decide what you really want. Maybe you don't want all 84 boxes with you, but we could go through it together over Zoom or FaceTime. Maybe we could plan a time for you to come here. We'll go through it. But either way, I would like this stuff out by this date and just being very clear about it. But again, this is giving us data to work with because if they don't come get it, they're telling you that stuff has no value to them. It's similar to my kids when they leave stuff on the floor and I'm like, Hey, you pick it up, you keep it. I pick it up, I keep it. They don't pick it up. And I'm like, what is going on? And I'm like, oh, they don't care about it anymore. Okay. I guess I'm going to take it and throw it away or donate it. And so a lot of times our kids have accumulated stuff at our home or other people too, they don't actually care about it anymore. They don't want it and it has no value to them. So you can't have more value for it than they do. So there is a point generally where we have to say, okay, here's the deadline. It's passed. I'm going to toss it, trash it, donate it, whatever. Not always easy, especially if their childhood stuff is in there. But you get to decide at that point, do you want to curate a memory box or something for them? You certainly don't have to, but working with some kind of deadline can be a really effective strategy if you have other people storing stuff in your house. How do I keep clutter from re-accumulating again? I think it's equal parts trying to think through anytime we bring something into our house, where's it going to live? Am I for sure going to use it? And then also just having some grace for ourselves because marketing is such a strong force in our lives. And I think we don't give it enough credit. I mean, these companies are spending millions, billions of dollars to get us to buy things. And I've talked about this before, but I mean to the point where they use MRI machines to know how to formulate ads and recipes and different things to get us to buy. And so it's no wonder that from time to time, we still make an impulse buy and we take things into our home that we think we're going to use and are going to be great. And they don't always get used and they often end up in our storage spaces. So I think this is something we get better and better at over time as we continue to declutter, to simplify. I mean, I still make mistakes from time to time, but I have to just not beat myself up so much. I've gotten so much better. We just keep getting better. We keep being intentional and we keep really working to maintain our systems, noticing that if they're getting cluttered up, like, okay, well, is it because I'm bringing unnecessary stuff in? Do I need to stop going to thrift stores? Stop going to estate sales, garage sales, that kind of thing. Stop accepting things from my mom who wants to pass all this stuff on to me, right? Where's it coming from? How do I cut it off? But again, don't be too hard on yourself. It happens to all of us. And I think we just continue to get better and better at it over time. What do I do if I feel like I'm not making progress? So this is why I really like this categorizing step because when we're doing that, we start to clear up floor space. And if you can clear up floor space mentally, that is going to register as progress. And so as you are categorizing, really work to really group things together tightly, get it stacked up neatly, get as much stuff up off the floor as you can. And that's going to tell your brain like, Hey, you're making progress. Like this feels good to us. Also take a before picture. I should have said that at the very beginning. Make sure you take a before picture because our brains adjust very quickly to the progress that we've made. And so often when we feel like I've made no progress and what a loser I am. You actually have made progress. It's just like your brain has adjusted to it so quickly. Sometimes even as I was working on this space down here and then I'd look back at the before video I took, I'm like, Oh yeah, okay. This is actually way better than it was before. Also regularly remove the trash and the donations because having that extra stuff sitting in here, then that's working against our sense of making progress as well. And then lastly, should I keep extra stuff for lean times? This is a very personal decision, but here's what I would encourage you is to ask yourself if we were to come across very hard times, what things would be beneficial? So we have some extra food storage down here. Again, we live in a cold climate. So we keep some extra linens and blankets. We have a way to power our well if we would lose electricity. And then beyond that, there's not a lot of stuff that I feel like like keeping extra craft supplies or even extra clothing wouldn't really add a lot of extra value to our life. So I think it's important to single out the categories of stuff that do add security and value, which is actually just a few. And then let's let the other stuff go. And then even within the categories of stuff you decide to keep, let's still provide some limits, right? So even in our food storage, we have these two pantry racks, which work really great. I really like them. But that's the limit to how much food. And if it starts getting too full, and then it's a signal to me of like, okay, start using up some of this food, right? And honestly, I don't do a great job rotating through this. There's probably a lot of stuff on there that's expired already. And I'm not trying to intentionally rotate through everything. It's more of a like, if all hell breaks loose and everyone's super hungry, you're going to eat the expired black beans, right? I mean, if you read stories of people that have gone through the Cold War or other lean times, and the things they ate and survived on, we would be fine with some expired canned goods. But you have to find out where that line is for yourself. And I never want to push my values onto anyone else. But for most of us, we don't need a full basement worth of stuff stored up for lean times, because that's just a recipe for things to go bad and for you not to even be able to find what it is you need when you need it. So you decide for you what feels best. Okay. So I did put this all together in a printable as well, a step-by-step guide if that's helpful for you. But mostly I would just encourage you to set the timer for five minutes and get into the space and start working. And then these steps really can be a clear game plan for you. Also, don't discount the power of body doubling. And so you can do that with anyone in your household. Like Corbin is like my awesome body doubling buddy, right? So I'll bring him down here often. We do tons of body doubling in our mentorship group. If you don't really have great people within your natural context and you want more help in that area, I can put details about that. But body doubling is so powerful. We're not meant to do things alone. We're social community beings, right? So if we can bring someone else in, it is amazing. It can multiply our efforts and our time spent working so much. We can get done with these phases so much faster and just move on with life. Right? Isn't that the goal? So anyways, thank you for hanging out. Thank you for sharing videos with your friends and family. Thank you for subscribing. I greatly appreciate it. And keep going because it just keeps getting better and better. My sister and I were talking about this the other day. The benefits of having so little to manage, it just keeps getting better and better. We don't miss any of this stuff, but we are so grateful for the extra bandwidth and capacity and confidence that we have. It is a disproportionate trade-off and it is so good. And of course, I really want that for you too. All right, well I'm going to link to my playlist of other storage area videos. So if you're working on storage spaces, you can play that in the background. But I love you. I hope you have a really good day and I'll see you again soon.