The Art of Letting Go! Declutter your Mind, Home, Workspace to bring Happiness, Peace and Joy!
me&my health up podcast episode #52 – Transcript
Anthony Hartcher 0:01
Hello, my friends welcome to another exciting episode with Me&My Health Up with your host Anthony Hartcher. A healthy man, according to his kids, aka clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist.
The purpose of this podcast is to enhance and enlighten your well being and today we’ll be chatting with a professional organizer and founder of Organized You Roelene Coleman, on the Art of Letting Go, that we all need a little bit of that now, given what we’ve been through.
So you may be thinking, why are professional organizers on a health podcast? Well, how do you feel returning home from a busy day or a hard day’s work into a messy, dysfunctional household? pretty crappy? How does it feel when you walk into a clean bedroom, it feels like home pretty good ai. So you probably guess where I’m going with this.
Being organized helps with a feeling of progress, well-being, and happiness. So let’s get tidy with Roelene. Before we get started a little bit bit about Roelene. Very early on in my life, rolling realized, not my life. Very, very early on in Roelene life, she realized her knack for organizing and order. She has always practiced these skills in her personal life and the lives of her friends and family.
She found that turning a mess into a space of simplicity and order gave her a deep sense of satisfaction. Roelene was able to apply these skills and an eye for detail in her professional life, working as an office manager for a small business as well as a sole trader and a business owner for a previous venture.
What keeps Rowley motivated as a professional organizer is helping people find their feet again, by giving them a fresh start, whether it be in their business or home. So here we are with Little Miss Tidy Rolene, How are you today?
Roelene Coleman 2:08
Very well today. It’s a beautiful day outside, so can’t complain.
Anthony Hartcher 2:13
It’s fantastic. I’m loving this bit of sunshine after what we’ve been through with all the floods and excess rain and so it’s so nice to have a little bit to be able to wake up and see the sun and see the stars at night and the moon. It’s beautiful.
So there’s a little side of Roelene that you probably didn’t hear about in the bio. It’s her acting career. So Rolene is an actor. So I’m going to ask her the first question is, just tell us a little bit more about your acting career.
Roelene Coleman 2:44
Oh, yes. So my acting is another one of my big passions. I guess I’ve always loved acting since I was young. I remember falling in love with it ever since the first, you know, play we had at school and this is like, how old was I probably seven.
You know, in our parents dressing us up in little bee costumes and I was just so excited. I remember I had one line in the play and I got to just shout it from the stairs on the stage and so exciting. So I think ever since then, you know, being introduced to drama and performance. I just loved it, and I basically every school holiday, I was doing an acting course I was in an acting workshop for a few weeks or every weekend I’d be there or it was a full week, you know, and it was with no one I knew.
So I was it was never with friends or people from school. It was outside of school, I’d have to make new friends and I just loved art and I just loved performing. So I was in every school play every house play and I was just doing it all the time. So I did drama all the way to HSC graduated with it and then as soon as I finished school, I moved to Sydney. I was in Perth, I graduated in Perth. I moved to Sydney literally the same year. So I finished my exams in November, I was in Sydney in December, I was like Seo 17 loves like, I want to go act, you know, so I moved to Sydney and yeah, I’ve just been pursuing it ever since then with you know, other things, trying to start my own businesses.
It’s always been in health as well. I’m very passionate about health and a bit of modeling as well and then I kind of had to put it on pause for a bit to go study a real degree in a completely different direction. So I had to put it on pause for a bit but I’m back in it now and it’s just so much fun. I think what I like about acting, is that, you know, I get to learn, like continuously the learning with acting never stops because it’s basically it People don’t realize this, like acting isn’t pretending Acting is living truthfully, in an imaginary circumstance.
So you’re actually, people think you just learn how to act, but you’re actually learning about the human condition, because without knowing yourself, knowing what makes you tick, knowing what makes other people tick, knowing your trauma, what you love what you hate, you can’t give people a truthful performance, and you can’t tell a proper story like people will see you being fake. So to be real, you have to actually give a piece of yourself to everything you do, and every character you play, and to be able to give a piece of yourself, you have to be in touch with yourself and to be in touch with yourself, it’s like you have to do like, basically, personal development.
So when you do acting courses, you’re basically in a personal development course, which I think why it’s so cool for people who even don’t want to be an actor to do acting courses, because you should just learn a lot about life. So it’s really cool and it’s a forever learning process and you kind of you get to be, you get to live different lives. In one career, so you get to be you, as a mother, you get to be you, as a victim of some crime, you get to be you, as a firefighter, as a doctor, you know, all a drug addict, like all these different things, you get to experience what those life experiences are like, without having to be that person. I think that is so cool. So that’s a bit about my acting, oh, there’s so much more to say. But I won’t.
Anthony Hartcher 6:44
I know, it’s intriguing and it’s really fascinating because you know, what I’ve really connected with what you shared, was around having to be truthful, in an imaginary role and that, you know, requires an understanding of self, and that’s where you had to go on this self-exploration, journey, self-discovery, what was most profound to you that came out that you realized, in that journey that you’ve been through,
Roelene Coleman 7:11
I think it’s like, something that I really became in touch with was my fears and we all have them, but some of them are so deeply rooted in you that it’s not just something you think about, but it does actually drive you in your life, you know, fear of abandonment, their scarcity, fear, you know, losing people that you love, or that kind of thing and in your daily life and if someone asked you, was this something you’re scared about? No, I don’t think about that ever, but if it really comes to you, being in a situation where that isn’t a real possibility, conscious possibility, you realize how much you have that fear.
So I think it was about getting in touch with my people call it I don’t know, gentle people might not know this, but like your inner child, which everyone has, and it’s a part of you that’s active all the time and its kind of like the fears sit with that person as your inner child that just scared of all these bad things happening and I think that was it’s very scary, and it’s very confronting, but as an actor, you have to be brave enough to acknowledge that, sit in it, feel it and everything you feel and you experience, even though you’re an imaginary circumstance, it’s real, because you’ve made it real for yourself in that time period that you’re performing.
So it’s just it’s pretty crazy, like, and then when they said, Cut, you just feel like, you have to shake it off and go, it’s not real, I’m fine. I’m back to me. Which is just bizarre. It’s like, an emotional roller coaster that you have to be in control of, but also, not control-flow if that makes any sense?
Anthony Hartcher 8:59
It does and what’s interesting for me is how you manage that transition, because I’m thinking, there’s certainly the listeners that go through different transitions in every day, you know, they, they’ll go from being a mother or father into the work environment where they’re the CEO or, you know, a managing director or whatever, and then, you know, they go back into the home role.
So there’s constant transitions throughout the everyday life and, and so they need to, you know, wear a different hat and, and performing in those various tasks and, and so I’m wondering what helped you in these transitions where you got deeply engrossed in that person and the fears and, you know, living out that imaginary.
How did you get back to being Roelene Coleman?
Roelene Coleman 9:50
It’s, honestly, it’s practice. You have to practice snapping yourself out of it. Everyone’s different, so some people find it very easy, but some people take a little bit to shake it off, but you just, it’s, it’s a concentration thing is what it really is just concentration. So if you can be focused and concentrated enough, then you can switch it off and go, all good. This is where I am, let it go and you just have to, like, breathe it, shake it off, like I did a scene that was quite upsetting the other day and as soon as they press cut, like, I felt like I was gonna cry, the whole scene I was holding in my emotions and then as soon as I pressed cut, like a roar, and I just had to like, shake it off and like, like, get your body back, put it back in your body, that you’re just like, fine, and that’s sort of how you do it.
But everyone has different stuff. Some people like, if you play a certain character for an extended period of time, you might, you know, go away with family or spend some time just with family, don’t look at your phone, don’t look at technology, read a book, do something that’s you do something that’s light, and like happy and fun and I think that’s what people do, if it gets really, if they’re really into it, but yeah, everyone’s different. Some people take some people will literally change themselves and sometimes your personality will change a little bit if you’ve experienced quite a contrasting type of character to you, you’ll take on certain ideals or because you’ve learned something, you kind of growing at the same time and you might change a bit.
It’s pretty bizarre acting as like, once you delve into it, you just know it is people think it’s just like people like running around jumping and saying weird shit. It’s not It’s it, there’s so much to it. I feel like a psychologist to myself.
Anthony Hartcher 11:51
But it’s so important in life because we, you know, don’t really we were too scared to go inward, you know, where we often ignore it and you know, when it arises or a certain thought or the inner critic rises, you know, raises its voice, we tend to run from it, and we don’t sit with it. We don’t listen to it and we don’t question it.
You know, we don’t and we don’t learn to coping mechanisms to deal with it and I think what you’re what I’m hearing is that you have to face that, and you have to deal with it and you’re, and you’re, as you said it, you know, it’s through practice and techniques that you’ve learned, whether it be breathing or shaking it out, or just doing something that I guess refocuses you.
So it’s sort of going from that acting focus where you’re very in the here and now in that acting role and then you switch into a new focus, whether that be a little jiggle like you did or a little dance that, yeah, so and I think those are the really fundamental tips for you know, life skills, is in terms of, in order for us to be at our best and at our emotional best.
We need to be able to switch from, you know, a phone call that wasn’t all that great into, you know, a friend we haven’t caught up, we don’t want to take that conversation with on that phone call into this case, catch up with a friend that we haven’t seen for a while yet because otherwise, you can take the energy from that into it and so I can see how this translates very much into everyday life skills because we are we’re performing different acts or
Roelene Coleman 13:37
acting all the time. Yeah, it’s true.
Anthony Hartcher 13:44
Like I am when I put on my earphones I did the same for me, man. Yeah, get out the microphone. Absolutely. I’m in podcast mode. That’s it, take this off, but I might be going to pick up the children from school. So yeah and again, I got to learn how to switch that focus and you know, you mentioned some techniques there breathing and just whatever, helps you get back into another here and now moment outside of what you’re doing.
Roelene Coleman 14:14
And I think I think also when you win, the thing of with acting that can translate to real-life of going this is real, this isn’t. It’s people who are just everyone when you start worrying about stuff and worrying about something that could happen or possible thing because we worry about stuff that hasn’t happened yet.
That’s what we really worry about and it’s kind of going and I do this in my normal life as well and with my friends when I see them worrying I go. It’s no use putting yourself through this twice. You’d rather just go through it when it’s actually happened but before it’s happened, it’s not real. It hasn’t happened. It’s not reality. Stop worrying about it and you just need to be able to focus your mind and tell yourself, this isn’t real, this isn’t real, I’m worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet.
I might as well be present and enjoy my life right now before I need to deal with that stuff, you know, and it might not even ever happen, and then you’ve wasted all that energy. So I think feel like that’s really translated for me from my acting to my real life is just knowing what’s real and what’s not real.
Anthony Hartcher 15:25
It’s a great point because that’s, you know, living in the future is where we often get stuck and particularly, when you know, adversity hits such as COVID, we’re sort of anticipating the future, but it hasn’t happened yet.
I mean, we actually no one knows what the future holds and so, it, you can only live in the moment and control what you can do at that moment and, you know, you have to let the future just play out. So I think that’s really valuable because I can imagine enacting if you’re thinking about, I don’t know, if I’m going to remember, remember the forthcoming lines, and you start worrying about that I could guarantee you’re not going to remember them are you.
Roelene Coleman 16:03
As an actor you can’t be in your head, you have to be in your body, because that’s where instinct is, and a great actor, knows their lines, but they act from instinct at the moment, which is how we all do in real life. Right?
We’ve, we’ve reacted of people and other things, that’s how we live. So you can’t, you can’t foresee everything you’re going to do. Like, you know, I don’t know what I’m going to say next. Based on what you’re asking me what you’re giving me that’s, that’s what it is, we just have to go with the flow and just be you know, that’s Art of Letting Go is not just organizing, it’s in life in general like I can, I can only control me, I can’t control everything else. So to me, the better way of living is just letting go and saying what will be will be I’ve done everything I can, you know?
Anthony Hartcher 16:54
So let’s get into the subject matter of the Art of Letting Go. What’s really helped you because obviously, you know, in order for you to share it with others and help others let go of their clutter their hoarding. What have you done and how do you help others in doing this?
Roelene Coleman 17:18
For me, I look I I’m naturally such a worrywart in a stress head, because I’m very organized, but I have a lot on like, I’m always doing a lot of stuff and I get so easily wound up really tight and going, oh, you know, I can’t do everything and I can’t it’s so much work and I have no time to relax and I needed to learn one. Prioritising the important things in life first, you can’t do everything.
And I think in today’s society where everyone is so busy, it’s important to go if you find yourself overwhelmed, it’s important to go do I need to do all the things I’m doing? Is there anything I can let go of for now? You know, until I get grips of everything again? Is this something that there can wait and let that go? Because you’re going to feel you will feel better about being in like in control of your schedule in your life, then missing out on maybe something, you know, it’s going to be so much better and sustainable for you to do that.
So that’s something I’ve done, I’ve had to resolve so much I want to do, but I just have to go What’s the most important. So that’s helped me to stop worrying and also just a My motto is it is what it is and everything happens for a reason. So knowing that, sometime in the future, I will be able to look back and know why that thing happened. Lets me feel better going. I’m gonna learn something from this. I don’t know what it is yet, but I know I will. So I’m just gonna it’s happened. Deal with it, you know, and make the best out of your situation.
So that’s something those two things prioritizing and just letting be what is you know? Yeah, that’s kind of helped me to let go and not be so stressed, because I’ve recently made a shift and I feel so much better and I can’t tell you like, can’t recommend it enough to do that. You know, look after yourself. Do what’s right for you because you can’t look up to other people if you’re in disarray.
You know, that’s it’s just gonna leak out of you everywhere. Like my friends used to be like, so wound uptight, don’t bother Lou’s gonna snap and now just like whatever man lets go do it and I’m still doing it a shit ton of stuff, but it just my mind is in a much better space.
Anthony Hartcher 20:06
That’s it, that’s magic, that, you know, being able to let go prioritize and really focus on what’s important and I think that’s what we lose sight of is what’s important, which we generally, you know, saying yes, yes, because of this fear of missing out, as you mentioned, and we take on too much, and then we often running around and we’re not enjoying anything, because we just think we get to function, we think.
But you know, within an hour, I’ve got to be at this next one, you start thinking about the next one, you know, function, you start thinking, how am I going to get there, and probably not going to make it on time and you know, and so you’re not really enjoying the experience.
And I thought you brought up a really good point is that more of letting go and I can only control what I can control, and sort of going more with the flow and it reminds me of that Steve Jobs as quote where he says, you know, go with your heart, follow your heart and you know, don’t question it, just go with it, and it’s when you look back in time that you’ll realize the connections between what you’ve done, that path will be clearer.
Whereas at the time, that path isn’t extremely clear, it’s always a bit cloudy, and if you just follow that intuition, as you said, enacting you know, you got to get out of your head and more into your body and experience, connect and connecting with your senses. That’s when you’re truly living is when we’re in the here and now connected with our sensors.
Roelene Coleman 21:36
Yeah, you just got to, I think everyone would do a lot better in life and start over-analyzing everything and trying to get all the answers because we’re never going to have all the answers and sometimes you just have to go what feels right.
Even if you don’t know what it’s going to turn out like, or if it is the right thing to do. I think our intuition knows what we need. So that’s something I’ve done as well. I’m just, I’m one of those people who just go, this feels right and I want to go oh, I don’t know, but what about this and like, I’m just gonna do it, I don’t need to, why don’t you research it not, don’t need to, I’m just gonna do it, that’s me and it’s worked, it’s really worked led me on a path I need to go, even though it’s been scary and risky, and like starting my business, I’m like, oh, it’s the middle of COVID.
But you know, I just feel like it’s the right, like, something I need to do and I just did it and it’s been fine so far and even if even the businesses I started before, and they didn’t turn out, I’ve learned so much.
And it’s you know, even though like I lost a bit of money, and it was, you know, like, it was really hard and I wish it worked out. Now I have all this knowledge that I didn’t have before, that’s going to help me make this business into a better, better thing, but entity, like make it work, but I understand so much more, everything’s a learning opportunity.
So it doesn’t really matter if we screw it up. You’re learning you’re developing your character, you have to learn if you don’t learn, we’ll just stay the same forever.
Anthony Hartcher 23:09
Absolutely. The only constant in life is changing and if you know, no open, not open to changing ourselves, then, you know, it was a joy, is there really…
Roelene Coleman 23:24
Live in fear being don’t change anything. Like, you know how those people you always get, like, it’s usually the older folks, I want to bag anyone but like when the when, you know, the council puts up like changes a road or, or Facebook changes its format or something people just go, Oh, what is this? I hate this and then they will wright complaints and why did you change and I can’t deal with this. It’s like, such so much time and energy is spent doing this and you can’t change what’s changed.
It is what it is now, you know, move on, and we do eventually, you know, because we have to, but we like to kick up a fuss, don’t we.
Anthony Hartcher 24:07
Absolutely a, you know, we saw that you know, what we’ve, you know, we’re still currently experiencing the COVID pandemic, and, you know, it would have had an effect on your acting career and acting opportunities and, you know, that will that’s probably an interesting conversation in itself, but, you know, if we couldn’t change it, you know, that the virus is out the cat was out of the hat or whatever and we had to just go with it, and then you know, you heard of people saying that focusing on a doom and gloom and the negativity of it.
And then you had others really thinking, Oh, this is not so bad afterward. I’m actually enjoying working from home because I spending more time with my children I’m doing I have the time to exercise because before I was commuting a couple of hours a day and that was just a waste of time and now a couple of hours I can be out exercising, I can be out buying healthy foods I can cook them.
And so, you know, some people got really healthy, you know, during COVID, because they found that they had more time, you know when they were able to work from home so that, you know, there’s certainly the within anything I think there’s always pros, and there’s always not so good elements.
Roelene Coleman 25:21
Everything in life is perspective. It’s your attitude, you choose to have towards what happens to you can’t control what happens to you, you control how you react to it. So you had people who gained weight and were miserable during COVID, and you had people who lost weight and got healthier and made better choices than their life and had better relationships, even though they couldn’t see people, their relationships got better, or, you know, then you have people that, you know, divorced and really badly.
But it’s, it’s, it’s how you decide to react to things in your life. So, you know, you could have gone ahh, well, COVID Hit it’s So can be so terrible for me, or I can do things I’ve always wanted to do and I can learn skills, I’ve always wanted to learn and I can spend more time on myself and my self-development, and whatever it really is, like, and some people get really tough, but you know, if you choose to look up, keep your chin up, then your life, you’re gonna see sky instead of mud on your feet, you know, but they’re both there. So, I just, that’s why I’m always saying it is what it is, do the best you can with it.
Anthony Hartcher 26:37
Absolutely, you know, you’ve dealt a set of cards, and you can only play the best way you can play them, it’s you know, and everyone’s dealt their own genetics, and we should appreciate those genetics we’ve been given because they’re completely unique, and there’s completely unique talent within every one of us and, you know, we tend to just look at what we don’t have, and instead of focusing on what we do have around our genetics and you know, that can be including the way we look at body shape it can be including, you know, how we metabolize food and, you know, health conditions, and it all plays a role, but we just got to deal with what we’ve been given and, and optimize the talents that we have that and why compare ourselves with others,
Roelene Coleman 27:27
By example, saying we can’t be the same as people, because we’re literally biologically not the same.
Anthony Hartcher 27:34
Absolutely. I was just, you mentioned that thing of focusing on what you can control and you are in control of your choices and your decisions and that so, you know, like in terms of where we should focus our energies, what we can control and as you said, you know, you made a shift and, you know, you can control your health, you can control how you respond to situations and, you know, another element that’s in our control is how our house looks and how our business looks to the clients and so really keen to get into the, the art of organization and because obviously, you shared so much of us about the art of acting and the I guess the self-development that’s come of that and how important it is and you know your life experiences.
But this art of organization isn’t you know, some really struggle with it and so I’m really keen to explore how you can help people better organize their workplace so that they feel better and happier.
Roelene Coleman 28:46
Yeah, so I think the I know like a lot of people struggle with being organized they just can’t see like they can’t see the end result they can’t imagine it everything’s just a mess and I and I know this because I have I live in a share house and I have two roommates that are just they will just like leave everything lying around and it just everywhere they go things just turned upside down and but then they also don’t like it that way but it just ends up that way and to go okay, organize it they kind of will go what do I do? I don’t know what to do.
You know, just my husband coming in my room all the time and got so nice for me. I just want to lie in your bed for a minute, because our room is baskets of laundry everywhere and it’s just the bed is a mess and the plot side tables a mess, and I just go we’ll just pick away your stuff you know, but hardly so much can’t deal with it turns into but everyone can be organized.
So I think it organization comes from a, like a fundamental need for organ order and cleanliness. Some people have that, that naturally in their bones like me, and some people don’t but it’s something that benefits everyone. So I inherited the thing from my mum.
So she’s, I always say she has undiagnosed OCD, but you know, who knows? That she was a housewife and she looked after us, my brother and I, and it was just everything was always immaculate and she hated the stuff. You know, she hates keeping stuff that has no meaning.
People are like, Oh, this is a nice little statue thing and she’d be like, No, it’s just the dust gatherer she calls them dust gatherers but I wouldn’t get that. How would you clean it? That’s a fair question. What kind of clean this like Chandalers like, physically in a chandelier? Why would you have that? Was my mom.
So I always now I see things that way as well because that’s the kind of question she would ask before she bought something and also do I need it? My mom was not one for shopping. She makes her own clothes. She doesn’t even like really buy things for herself. Because she just she does. She’s a minimalist. I’d say she has stuff. She doesn’t just buy just because it’s nice. She’s like the fundamental like, she is like a walking talking Marie Kondo. She’s like, do I need it? Do I use it? Do I like it?
So I got from a mom, but look, even the average person be organized, even the messes, people can be organized, all you need to do is to keep things simple, like keep your space simple, don’t overcomplicate, don’t overcrowd, you know, and make sure you have systems in place for your whole life for your house, your business, your schedule, whatever all of it.
If there’s a system, and you have the discipline to follow the system, then you’re organized, you can be organized, it can be as simple as just going, okay, everything has a place my plates go, my dinner plates go here, the drinking glasses go here, this is where the baking stuff goes. This is where I hang my coats. You know, this is where I put my keys and my wallet like it has a place. So if it’s not in that place, you’ve put it in the place. So that’s, that’s as easy as what a system is.
It’s just where does everything go? You know, where does it go? When I’m done using it? Where does it go? When it’s clean? Where does it go when I’m using it? That’s, that’s it. It’s not intimidating. It’s not complicated. It’s very simple. So if you can do that, then you can be organised.
Anthony Hartcher 32:53
And in terms of that, you mentioned that vision likes it people struggle with envisaging it being nice and tidy and some people really have a knack for that. Is that something that’s learned or you know, it’s something that you can’t and you know, certain people can and can’t, you know, like, I’m just thinking, like, you can straight away look at a room and say it’s messy, but you can see what I can you know, what it could be in terms of your process through systemization? Is there some magic around that?
Roelene Coleman 33:28
I think I’m a visualizer. I, that’s how I learned, I have to, I’ve always like acting as well. Like when I have to get into a character, I always see it in my head, see the situation, and play out the story as a movie in my brain. So I’m very visual, not everyone’s visual. So that’s why not everyone can just stand there and go, I can see it. I saw, I think that’s something you want to have, you don’t, but if you can’t figure out how to organize your space, we live in a great time of technology, jump on YouTube and this homage on there for people organizing different rooms, in their houses, or in paperwork and all that stuff.
Just grab some inspiration from there and go oh, yeah, like that. I’m going to do that, you know, for your pantry but like, I like the how they use the boxes, I’m going to go buy some and do that, and then that’s going to help you to figure out how to do it or what it’s gonna look like for you.
So you can always just go online, me, I just I literally just go. Sometimes I don’t even know what it’s gonna look like until I’m doing it. So until I’m actually organizing like this is especially for other people’s stuff. Myself, I know because I see it all the time but other people’s stuff sometimes is like oh, what are you going to do? And I go, I don’t know. You’ll see what I’m done. You know, and I’ll just start and then I go okay, and then I want to roll I don’t know how I do it but you can do it even if you can’t see it.
Anthony Hartcher 35:00
So that’s really you’ve got the thrill inside talents that you possess that is really coming into play there in terms of, you know, you make a start, and then all of a sudden, you know, the vision just appears and you just go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and all of a sudden, it’s in this amazing state and I can imagine, that’s where people really trip off, or they think it’s too hard is that point of starting? Right? It’s sort of where do I start? It’s, you know, it’s just a complete mess.
So in terms of systemization, is it through, do sort of say, well, what’s your routine? Like, I mean, you come home, you put your keys down, so, therefore, the keys need, you know, this, the key place needs to be here, and you sort of map out the customer experience, or what’s.
Roelene Coleman 35:46
I mean, you’d have to everyone’s lives are different. Yeah, like, oh, yeah, you have it up here. I can’t, because I have young kids, and they’re probably gonna put the keys in their mouth. Okay, cool. Find a different place.
You know, what makes sense for you? In your routine and your household? Like, okay, if you don’t need to have somewhere stuff at the door, let’s move it. You know, all we need is backpacks in the lobby, the lobby closet, because we grab them as we leave. Okay, cool. Find a place for them, you know, even though that’s not where I would normally say they go. So yeah, every person you’re going to, you have to figure out what works for you because if it’s not convenient, you’re not going to stick to it.
Anthony Hartcher 36:29
Absolutely.
Roelene Coleman 36:30
Everyone, as well, everyone that lives in your house or shares your space. Everyone has to be able to follow the system and I think maybe when you’re thinking about more than just yourself, it can get tricky to figure out a system that works for everyone and people might get stuck there but it’s sometimes it’s trial and error, you know?
Anthony Hartcher 36:51
Absolutely I can I can see how it’s so individualistic in terms of your approach because everyone has a different what, different layout in their house, for example, a different routine in terms of what they do when they get home and then as you said, it’s got to fit in with the household itself. It’s got to work. It’s got to be functional, practical, otherwise, it just doesn’t get applied.
Roelene Coleman 37:13
No, you’ll put it there, and then it will never be followed and then then I’ve wasted everyone’s time. Yeah.
Anthony Hartcher 37:21
And so yeah, so Tiggy those people that are really stuck, it just can’t get started. That’s essentially where you come into play, right? It’s sort of well, yeah, I come into your house and what’s the process of engaging your services?
Roelene Coleman 37:35
Oh, I usually, in the beginning, when people inquire with me, it’s usually just like, you know, send me photos of the space and you’d help with? And then I can start thinking about else of what do you want to do with your space? What do you want to use it for? Or do you have a vision for it, and then I can start thinking about what I can do, things I might need, if I think I might need some to buy some storage items, or install something, to make the space work, I organize all that before usually and then on the day.
I have a system and it works everywhere and luckily, then they put on the client for us to choose what they’re going to throw away and keep, I pretty much unpack the whole thing, I stripped the room bare and that and I put everything into categories, like oh, this is camping, that’s kids toys, that’s whatever and it goes into categories and then the client chooses what they want to keep in throw and then I repack everything back in, in a different way that makes sense.
Like I’m very much about like flow and chi like you’ve got to have flow in space because everything is energy and if you have a room or something that has blockages and it doesn’t make sense, like yours, like it was a bit awkward, then that’s the energy you’re going to have when you’re in that room. So you need to flow. So that’s also another thing people don’t always know, to think of how to apply flow but we’re all flowing energy in energy out all the time.
So that’s another thing that kind of gets in there and I usually like to transform spaces completely. I did a garage where I literally, it was chucking block to the ceiling with stuff and there was nowhere to walk and I basically made it to a like a second kitchen there was so much storage in there when I was done.
They actually had the space to take stuff out of the house and put it in the garage and it was just as they just walked in going whoa like yeah, this makes sense. Oh, yeah, do this. Oh, well, I can use this now. This is nice. See usable space now and it’s just crazy how people just can’t even imagine it changing to anything else because the like, this is impossible.
Anthony Hartcher 40:05
So you, you essentially make people’s houses bigger in a way, because they’ll have these rooms where they just throw stuff in there because they haven’t got anywhere to put it. So it just gets thrown into the room and then they’re too scared to walk in that room so that rooms never use, it’s just storage. I see garages like so the car never goes in the garage because it’s just where they put everything because I don’t know where to put it in the house. So you would actually create a bigger house, through your systems and processes,
Unknown Speaker 40:32
Literally, like you’d be you people are so even I surprise myself sometimes how much storage I create just by decluttering and going through everything and packing it differently. Even if I don’t throw anything away, just the way you store it can create space.
Roelene Coleman 40:50
You know, there’s, there’s is always a smart way and a space-saving way to organize your things. Even without throwing stuff away. So that’s another little art that comes in handy.
Anthony Hartcher 41:06
Absolutely, yeah, absolutely and that requires that visionary skill that you possess, is to really see, you know, well, as you mentioned, to be able to look at a room and see how the energy is best going to flow in that room so that people feel welcome when they walk in the room and they just, you know, I guess the room moves them around within it.
I was thinking of an analogy for what your process was, is very much that that mindfulness that decluttering, so that when you, you know, you mentioned you empty the room. So you know, at the end of the day, we have that cluttered mind, because we’ve been for all these sensory inputs that have been feeding our mind and often we don’t have any breaks during the day. So we haven’t had time to process all this sensory information and it’s often at night, when we’re lying in our beds, that we start to process all this clutter and that’s why you know, people lie there for hours thinking I can’t sleep and because they’re so active processing.
Whereas if they had that little time before bed, were like, let go like decluttered the mind like you do the room, empty it out and then just allow back in what you want in there as opposed to the things that you don’t like in there that ruminate in your mind. So that’s what I was seeking. It’s sort of a nice analogy to mindfulness.
Unknown Speaker 42:27
Yeah, absolutely. You have to get everything out and go, Okay, I’ll keep this I’ll keep that I’ll keep this, this is useless. I don’t need that. I don’t need to think about that. I don’t need to keep that third away and then yeah, and then you’re just going to have more space, and then I’ll go, I hate to keep this but I don’t need to worry about that till next week. In the storage box at the back.
Anthony Hartcher 42:55
I’m thinking there’s plenty of people out there that listening, there’s just thinking that that room is just too difficult for me to tackle just don’t want to go in there just it brings bad energy makes me feel bad and they’re going well, how do I get hold of Roelene Coleman to come in and just clean the space, let the energy flow through the house and create more space in my household.
So how can the listeners best connect with you?
Roelene Coleman 43:18
So they can just follow me on either Instagram or Facebook, my Facebook handle is organiseyou_au and that’s Organise with an s are Australian and Instagram is Organise You underscore au so you can message me on either platform, I also have a website, organiseyou.com.au you and you can message me through there.
You can also go there to check what services I do and sort of an idea for what it entails. But yeah, you know, I customized my service for anyone and even if you just have questions, I’m happy just to give advice on what you might need to do, you know, I’m just, like, it’s such a hard thing and people need all the help they can get. So yeah, just shoot me this.
Anthony Hartcher 44:06
And so you’re very much specialized in that the household and the workplace. So it’s both sorts of environment is where your specialty is.
Roelene Coleman 44:14
Yeah, exactly and even personal, it can be your house and it can also be yourself like your schedule. If you just don’t think you have enough time to do everything. If you have certain things you’d like to achieve and you don’t know how to get there. I’m massive on like, goals and actions are those goals and timelines and so I can help with that even or just helping you prioritize and move the schedule around that works better for you. business can be either literally ergonomics, as the physical actual organizing or can be helping you IT systems like are your systems working like your processes, your operations, is that running efficiently, you know, do you have to do have employees but you’re still doing all the work, you know, something’s not working.
So, you know, putting better systems in place, if you have internal audits, that’s something I can help with as well, making sure you’re compliant. Like all that stuff that sometimes slips between your fingers, and you just don’t know how to find the time to do it, or how to do it. I can help with that as well. So it’s like a whole range of things, really.
Anthony Hartcher 45:24
So it’s really the master is simplicity. So you know, you can simplify. Yes, efficiency. Absolutely. Yeah. So it’s not exactly we, you know, there’s plenty of clump complex things in the world that we need to make easier for us in order to live better lives and so I think, you know, if you’re struggling to tackle that complex problem at your house, which is that room, then certainly reach out to Rolene. I’ll include her links to a social media website, in the show notes.
So you can just click on the links, and Rolene Do you have any closing thoughts or comments you want to leave the listeners with?
Roelene Coleman 46:05
Yes. So if you’re going to tackle this, by yourself, now, I’m going to give this go, I’m going to go through my wardrobe, I’m going to go through the storage room, be prepared for unexpected emotional attachment.
We don’t realize it because these are things we’ve forgotten about. Or we haven’t looked at that code from your grandma that you’ve kept for 10 years, we attach to things about knowing, and so I’d say be prepared to have to make a decision about something that you have an emotional attachment to. But that’s not serving a purpose for you anymore and have a plan for it.
You can always put anything you’re unsure about unlike a separate pile and get friend, a friend to help you you know, get a friend that really knows you, and will be honest, but also empathetic, that can help you go through the I don’t know pile so that you can you know, not spend hours deciding about one thing, you can just do all the organizing decluttering and get to your difficult pile later.
The pile you think yeah, it’s very hard for you to let that go, get a friend to help you bottle a wine pop it, have a few last and then make a decision, you’re going to feel better. In the end, once you’ve done it, trust me, it’s going to be like an elephant has been lifted off your shoulders, and also, don’t underestimate the power of being in an organized and clean space.
The environment you’re in most will shape your mental state and how you feel. We see that with the people we hang around your job, is it stressful, is it not stressful, that affects you massively family conflict or tension, it really affects us mentally the space we’re in and that’s physical, emotional, mental space, all of it.
So it’s really all those things are no different to being in a clean or Organized Home Office. So your home should be your haven and your office should be a place you feel good setting and all day. To be honest, you don’t want it to drain your energy, you want it to give you energy and that’s possible, by the way. So if you shape your environment, you can shape your mind.
Anthony Hartcher 48:26
I love that closing comments. So thank you so much Rolene, for sharing all this knowledge and the Art of Letting Go the master of simplicity, all these life skills that you shared with us in terms of what’s helped you, you know, become a better version of you.
There’s all helpful techniques for all the listeners to take away from this episode. So listeners if you really liked this episode, please show that like it, share it with others that could also benefit, and leave a review because that helps it get rated higher so that more people can benefit from this excellent expertise that Roelene shared with us today.
Stay tuned for more insightful episodes of Me&My Health Up.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai