21: Why Cleaning Routines Are Hard To Maintain. Hint: It's Not You

So I'll try to give you the CliffsNotes version as it relates to this episode.

If we rewind to middle school, Nicole, you'd see that I had already started subscribing to home magazines and my bedroom was my decorating lab to try out new DIY projects.

My mom still talks about paint color choices that I made in high school because...

Apparently my interior design lab was not always to her taste.

But really, we moved so often.

I've lived in over 15 homes.

So I had to come up with a system to quickly declutter, organize, and decorate.

And while I always enjoyed helping family and friends, I started helping strangers in their homes over 10 years ago.

And through all of that, as much as I love creating beautiful homes, the thing that always sticks with me are the things that people say.

So many women that I've helped say such horrible things about themselves, things that they would never say to someone else.

And often their parents or their spouse or their kids make comments that stick with them.

I've always been messy.

I can't change.

Or, there's no hope for me.

My mom tells me that I've always been unorganized since I was a child.

I feel like I'm failing my family.

I suck at decluttering and cleaning.

Nice homes are for other people, not for me.

I don't deserve that.

I'm too embarrassed to have anyone over.

They wouldn't want to be friends with me if they saw my home.

I'm struggling with anxiety and depression, and I know I need to fix my home, but I don't have the energy to make things better.

Things are never going to improve, so what's the point? I'm failing at everything in life.

My home, my husband, my kids.

These are things I hear over and over.

So I'll try to give you the CliffsNotes version as it relates to this episode.

If we rewind to middle school, Nicole, you'd see that I had already started subscribing to home magazines and my bedroom was my decorating lab to try out new DIY projects.

My mom still talks about paint color choices that I made in high school because...

Apparently my interior design lab was not always to her taste.

But really, we moved so often.

I've lived in over 15 homes.

So I had to come up with a system to quickly declutter, organize, and decorate.

And while I always enjoyed helping family and friends, I started helping strangers in their homes over 10 years ago.

And through all of that, as much as I love creating beautiful homes, the thing that always sticks with me are the things that people say.

So many women that I've helped say such horrible things about themselves, things that they would never say to someone else.

And often their parents or their spouse or their kids make comments that stick with them.

I've always been messy.

I can't change.

Or, there's no hope for me.

My mom tells me that I've always been unorganized since I was a child.

I feel like I'm failing my family.

I suck at decluttering and cleaning.

Nice homes are for other people, not for me.

I don't deserve that.

I'm too embarrassed to have anyone over.

They wouldn't want to be friends with me if they saw my home.

I'm struggling with anxiety and depression, and I know I need to fix my home, but I don't have the energy to make things better.

Things are never going to improve, so what's the point? I'm failing at everything in life.

My home, my husband, my kids.

These are things I hear over and over.