Decluttering Made Easy with Amy Revell (Part 1) | 119

Welcome to today’s episode, where we dive into the world of decluttering with none other than Amy Revell, a professional organizer and decluttering expert.

Amy shares her practical wisdom on how to simplify our lives by tackling clutter in a way that feels manageable and rewarding. She believes that “clutter stifles creativity,” and in this episode, you’ll learn how clearing your space can free up your mind for inspiration.

Get ready to transform your home and your mindset!

Biography:
Amy Revell is an experienced Declutter Coach and Professional Organiser, as well as an author and industry leader. Sharing as an expert on TV, radio, print media, podcasts, and live events, she’s available for expert comment or media appearances. 

As founder of The Art of Decluttering, she lives her passion for organising and decluttering every day! Her business provides decluttering and organising services for NDIS clients and others who are busy, overwhelmed and sick of dealing with clutter in their home.

The Art of Decluttering is Australia’s top decluttering podcast, with well over 4 million downloads. 

Stay in touch with Amy:

• Instagram 
• FB Group
• Podcast on Spotify
• Podcast on Apple Podcasts

Links Mentioned in this Episode:
🎧 Podcast for Teachers
📘 Simply Organised

Where to find me:
Crescendo Community Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crescendocommunity
Official Crescendo Page: https://www.facebook.com/CrescendoMusicEd/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CrescendoMusicEd
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crescendomusic
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-o-shea-62a3741b/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/CrescendoDeb

Introduction

Here is the Crescendo Music Education Podcast – Episode 119.

This podcast is being recorded on the lands of the Turrbal people. I acknowledge them as the traditional owners of the land and pay my respects to elder’s past, present and emerging. They were the first music makers on this land.

If you’d prefer to listen to this episode, click here!

About ‘Read the Episode’: Sometimes, we would rather skim visually than listen to a podcast! That’s a great way to learn too!
The transcript of episode 119 of The Crescendo Music Education Podcast is below.

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Debbie O’Shea 

Welcome to the Crescendo Music Education Podcast to Amy Revell. Hello Amy.

Amy Revell 

Hey, Debbie. How are you?

Debbie O’Shea 

I’m fabulous and I’m just so excited to meet you. A bit of a fan girl. I’ve been binging your podcasts.

Amy Revell 

That’s a bit nice. You might be sick of my voice by now, so hopefully other people are ready to experience all the newness of decluttering?

Debbie O’Shea 

Well, actually, it’s funny you should say that, because I really enjoy listening to your voice.

Amy Revell 

Oh, thanks.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yeah, I mean, apart from the fact it’s a nice voice, but whether too because I was listening to decluttering podcasts before I found you and they were all American.

Amy Revell 

A lot of people say that, they’re like Oh, it’s great to hear an Aussie voice and Aussie take on something that we’re passionate about and actually have it kind of homegrown. But the Americans love the Australian accent too, which is always lovely.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, so there you go. Win, win, yeah. But I really love listening to your voice and I came across you because I’m on my own decluttering journey, but I’ll come back to that. I want to start by reading just a really brief bio for those people who haven’t come across you yet. Alright, Amy Revell is an experienced declutter coach and professional organiser, as well as an author and industry leader. Sharing as an expert on TV, radio, print media, podcasts and live events. She’s available for expert comment or media appearances or appearances on the Crescendo Music Education Podcast (laughs).

As founder of The Art of Decluttering she lives her passion for organising and decluttering every day. Her business provides decluttering and organisation services for NDIS clients and others who are busy, overwhelmed and sick of dealing with clutter in their homes. The Art of Decluttering is Australia’s top decluttering podcast with well over 4 billion downloads. So if you have not come across Amy before, listeners, you’re going to hear from her now and I know you’re going to go scurrying and following her podcast, because it’s gold.

Amy Revell 

Thank you. It’s lots of fun being able to connect with people all over the world and share the thing you’re passionate about, which I know is something you love as well Debbie.

Debbie O’Shea 

Mm, hmm. And everyone who’s listening is super passionate about music education and I know that some people might be going, hold on, Debbie you’re going off on a tangent. Those of you who know me, well, know that’s sort of what I do. You know, look something shiny, but it actually isn’t a tangent. I think this is something that we as teachers. I think we struggle with it. I think we struggle with our electronic files and our paper files and our resources.

Amy Revell 

The resources, don’t they breed.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh they so do. And, like, who doesn’t have a love affair with the laminator? Anyway, let’s get back to that. Let’s go back to your bio. Is there anything that you want to add to that summary of your work? And I also realised I didn’t say anything about you personally. So you’re in, I want to say Melbourne?

Amy Revell 

Yeah, I’m in Melbourne. So I’ve got 16 and 18 year old boys and I’ve been married to my husband for 22 years. I’m neurodiverse. I’ve got ADHD and a few of my family members do as well. So I think one of the things that I want to say from the outset, like music teachers and those of you listening, is my way of doing decluttering is not picture perfect. So it’s not about having the best looking. It’s about functionality. It’s about creativity.

It’s about finding how you work in a space. So if you’re kind of scared, you’re like, Oh, she’s going to tell me to get rid of everything and then make it all beautiful. Actually, I think you’ll be surprised at the relative correlation between how you teach music and how you run your business and how you live your life, to how to live decluttered and organised. So just don’t tune out. Don’t be too scared.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh, that sounds fabulous, because it is a little scary. You know, when you get onto Pinterest and you’re thinking, I just can’t cope with my pantry, or I just can’t cope with my office and you start Googling and you just go, Ah that’s. I just can’t, yeah I just can’t. And I think that puts a lot of people off straight away. It’s too overwhelming.

Amy Revell 

Yeah and the expectation is so unrealistic that it’s no wonder that you can’t get there. So actually, how do we make things so that it’s reasonable and easy and simple and maintainable? Because that’s how we succeed, rather than setting unrealistic expectations and wanting it to be something somebody else might like but doesn’t work for the way that we live and work.

Debbie O’Shea 

And it’s true in every aspect of life, isn’t it?

Amy Revell 

Totally, yeah.

Debbie O’Shea 

I love it. Alright, so I’d like to ask you about gratitude. For what are you most grateful?

What Is Amy Grateful For?

Amy Revell 

So many things. And when I saw this question, I was like, What? What is the thing today that I’m the most grateful for? Because I feel like it changes every day and I feel like there’s overriding things of gratitude around family and faith and business, but one of the things that I’ve been really grateful for this week is that I get to do what I do with the team and I think sometimes, as business owners and I’m in the office on my own almost all of the time when I’m not out with clients, is that sometimes that isolation and doing it solo can be quite tricky.

So I’m super grateful that I’ve got an incredible group of people who are out seeing clients, igniting each other’s fire about how we can help change people’s worlds, giving each other inspiration, coming at it from completely different angles, from different world experiences and cultures and ages and demographics, coming together around something that they love and yeah, I’ve really kind of got a renewed enthusiasm and gratefulness for my team over the last week.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh that’s wonderful. I think we’re hardwired to be like that, aren’t we?

Amy Revell 

We are and it is tricky sometimes, because when you’re a creative sometimes you can kind of go like, I imagine you’re the same, Debbie, it’s how my brain works. I get a creative idea and I’ve like lost time. I’m just like, so far down the rabbit hole. But when you actually bring people along with you, that’s when you can change things, and you get that longevity, rather than just like Amy having a bright spark idea that lasts a week and then it fizzles out.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yeah, there’s something else exciting to do then, isn’t there?

Amy Revell 

Yeah, always. Always.

Debbie O’Shea 

I love it. No, I think that’s certainly something to be very grateful for. Now, I’m going to get personal just for a little while here. Okay, but you can reign me in if you need to. And this is like, Here you go I’m getting a free session with Amy Revell. Ok.  Now, I started my personal decluttering journey some time ago, but it was sort of reignited, sharpened if you like, after the death of my mother. So that was a few years ago, 2021, and my husband’s mother passed away at the same time, our Dads had already passed away.

So on top of everything else, I had my Mum’s stuff and not just my Mum’s stuff, but my Mum’s house. When you look at all of the things that meant something to her, but mind you, if everything means something, if everything’s special, nothings special. And I must tell you that my mum is of the sorry, was of the generation when she bought meat in the supermarkets on styrofoam trays she would wash the trays and put them in the pantry.

Amy Revell 

Mm hmm. I’ve seen the clients who do that and I remember growing up in a home that had that as well.

Debbie O’Shea 

So I’m coming from that. And my mum said, But we didn’t have enough growing up, and they didn’t, they were struggling for food when she was a kid and it’s just such a different existence now to Oh I’m struggling to decide what I’ll cook for dinner. Then it was, go to the butcher and see if you can get some dripping. She used to talk about getting dripping from the butcher so they could eat, so we had a lot of stuff. So there was that stuff.

So there’s this personal thing. And your podcast absolutely supported me. It’s amazing. And actually, it reaffirmed to me that what I’m doing in my podcast for music educators, or what I’m trying to do, I’m hoping it’s supporting them, that even if they’re people I’ve never met, that hopefully I’m providing some sort of support. So absolutely, you did that for me. So I was chipping away and I I did your 101 series about each room. Yeah, I was listening to all that. Not that I’ve started every room, but like I’m getting there.

Amy Revell 

Resources when it’s time.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yeah, exactly. I’ll go back and re listen. But it’s more apart from the personal, it’s also the professional perspective. Right here I am, a music teacher. Teachers in general, I think we collect and hoard things. Actually, I should ask you for some past teacher stories, shouldn’t I? But we like, we find something, Oh, we might need that, or I could use that. I could use it this way. And there’s actually good educational backing for this, because the kids learn through doing and having manipulatives and actually having something physical helps kids to learn.

So there’s reasons for it, but we end up with so much stuff, and then how do we store the stuff? And then how do we find the stuff again when we need it? So that’s where my head is at. Oh, and let’s not forget electronic, oh, my goodness, you should see inside my computer. Okay, where do we start Amy?

The Importance of Stuff

Amy Revell 

That’s really generous of you to share the experience of losing your mum and your mother in law and how that kind of, I liked the word that you used around sharpened. It sharpens your focus. Because I think often when we have loved ones that die and we’ve then, kind of naturally, we get a lot of their possessions, we are really confronted with stuff, the value of stuff, the importance of stuff, the unimportance of stuff, the lack of value of things. And it’s like all running around in our heads while we’re also grieving. And while we’re also kind of trying to establish in our minds often, what’s the legacy of the person who’s passed?

I think a long time ago, the legacy was the stuff. And so when my great grandparents passed away, the legacy was that they pass on their China, or they pass on a piece of furniture and that was their legacy. Obviously, they had a legacy in character and life experience and all of that. But the legacy of stuff has actually changed, but how we handle it hasn’t. And so I can really see that there’s lots of people in kind of their second season of life who are like 50s to 70s, whose parents might be passing away, that are going My parents left me all this stuff. I don’t need it. I definitely don’t love it.

I’m not going to use it, but I feel really guilty about it and I feel some kind of connection to it, which I kind of only assume is what you would have felt as well.

Debbie O’Shea 

The guilt is so real. You go, I don’t really like this, but I know mum loved it. What am I going to do?

Amy Revell 

Then there’s the question of, Did she love it? But did she love it, or did she keep it because they’re that generation where they didn’t have a lot of stuff and so when they had things, they kept it and they looked after it well and they stored it well and they used it, but did they love it? It’s really tricky. And so I think that that’s a really important thing to recognise, is that plays a part in, then how you see your stuff?

Because you might then be thinking, Oh, one day when it’s time for me to move on and I’ve gotta pass all these things to someone. Do I expect them to know what’s important to me? How do they know? Is it actually just a piece of art and a teapot that I would ever want to pass on to anybody? And how do I make that known? Or do I want to slowly curate my things so that I’m enjoying what I’ve got, but I’m not keeping them unnecessarily? Does that ring a bell with the kind of process you were going through?

Debbie O’Shea 

Absolutely and that last phrase you said. That’s what I want to do, slowly curate my things so that I’m living with what I love and it’s workable. And there is that whole thing am I leaving this to my two sons? I have sons as well. They are 27 and 31, but they’re just more likely to just come in and pay someone to put everything in the tip, 100%.

Amy Revell 

They don’t want it. They are going to ring a company like ours and go, Look, I’ve got the memories of mum. I’ve taken the photo albums and I took two shirts that I liked and a casserole dish that reminds me of my childhood. And if you were to look back and go, Why did I keep all the other stuff? I thought they would want it, but we don’t, like that’s the reality of it. And I think you then had that really natural shift from, how do I then place value on my own things? What do I need to declutter? How do I live intentionally?

And that naturally shifts to your business. And then all of a sudden you think, oh, all my business resources. Like, what? Because the mindset changes. And I think that’s what you identified, is like, I could use this. This could be helpful. But then there’s the reality of like, am I using it?  So that can be really tricky for teachers and educators, notorious, notorious Debbie, for keeping resources that could be helpful or I wouldn’t be able to get this again, is a really big challenge for educators.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, it is. Okay, is there a bit of a strategy to help us to approach this, do you think?

Judging What To Keep

Debbie O’Shea 

And yes, that’s the tricky part, isn’t it?

Amy Revell 

Yeah, I know some of my team have come out of education, so primary school teachers, kindergarten teachers, childcare teachers and you walk into a storeroom and there’s just shelves and shelves and shelves of things, which is fine if you’ve got the room and you’re going to use it, but I think when we’re sole practitioners, or we’re running small clinics or practices or studios, then you kind of gotta think about what real estate you have and you can’t be the master of all things. So you might have a teaching style or a music style, or preference on what instruments you teach and so that naturally kind of directs and curates the quantity of things that you keep.

And I think for teachers, it’s not about the Could. Could this be helpful? Could a student use this? Could I use this in the future? Could another teacher use this? But Have I used it? Has it been used in the last 12 months? Because you only have a certain amount of space don’t you, like you probably don’t have never ending space to keep all your resources you’ve got limited space. So how do you curate it so that it’s like, perfect for the way that you teach and what you want to specialise in?

Amy Revell 

Do you find for yourself that there’s certain areas of music teaching and your world that you’re like, Oh, I can easily get rid of that, because that’s not my area.

Debbie O’Shea 

I’m getting better. And this is a purely personal thing, but I do feel generally it will be shared. I think we are getting better at not keeping the paper stuff and going. Now that was a good worksheet, for example, a music worksheet. That’s quite a good worksheet. Actually, I wouldn’t use it because it looks old and dated. I like the concept. Maybe I might just scan it, put it in the ideas folder, which you don’t want to know how big mine is.

Amy Revell 

Is the ideas folder, where old things go to die?

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, I should rename it. Old things are in here dying, but where the concept of the worksheet is good and maybe I will redo it. And I guess because I also run Crescendo. So I work full time in a primary school as the music teacher and I run Crescendo and I produce resources for music teachers. So I am actually also looking for new ideas from that perspective. So once in a blue moon, I open the ideas folder. But I am getting better at not keeping the bits of paper. And okay, case in point, I’m very excited. I’ve reached a milestone in my office, decluttering. I have emptied two, four drawer filing cabinets.

Amy Revell 

That’s amazing. That is a very big milestone.

Debbie O’Shea 

It was. It’s taken me, like literally years. I have a three drawer and a one drawer left.

Amy Revell 

That’s incredible Debbie.

Debbie O’Shea 

To still go through. But I also bought an amazing scanner.

Speeding Up The Process

Amy Revell 

Great. Can I ask you a question about that, when you were going through and getting rid of the stuff out of these eight drawers, did you have a framework that you asked yourself, like, was it, can I scan it? Has this been updated? Because I think for music educators, often, if we just say go in and declutter, there’s like, well, I don’t know how to make my decisions, because I need some kind of a framework. Did you find that you naturally created a framework for yourself that helped the process become quicker?

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, I had not thought about it in that light, but yeah, I did. Certainly. The first thing was, will I ever need to refer to this again, possibly and then it was a scan. And I also think, as someone who’s lectured and presented for, I don’t know 30-40 years, I think some of the stuff that I did then and I don’t have electronically, I think I lost everything on a computer at some point, and I thought that might be good to have those methodology notes or whatever, some of that stuff is still valid. So I thought, I will scan that and I put it in the 2007 folder. What I did then, because some of that content can be reused, because I believe good teaching and good pedagogy is just good teaching and good pedagogy.

You may have to change the repertoire. You might have to change the approach slightly. So yes, it was I will scan. I will never use this again that’s rubbish. And I had a big thing for recycling. Then I did have another pile that was for a revisit, right? I just couldn’t quite make up my mind. And I basically got through all eight drawers doing that and there’s really not much left in the can’t make up my mind, a little bit, but not much.

Amy Revell 

Incredible. And I think that’s great for teachers to go. It’s okay to have stuff that I’m going to scan. It’s okay to let stuff go. And often, you know how technology has developed and resources has developed, it’s much more economical and a better use of your time as a teacher, to hook into someone who has great resources, who aligns with how you teach and to to pay them to subscribe to something, rather than you having to be the holder of all knowledge.

And I love that about the way that the world runs is that I don’t have to be the only person who does decluttering. I don’t have to own that space and I don’t, because there are other amazing people out there that do decluttering and I will go to them for different things that I need. And people can come to you for things and they can go somewhere else for things. They don’t have to keep every single thing themselves.

Amy Revell 

Totally.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes and I think that’s a big shift today, isn’t it?

Debbie O’Shea 

I recall in my early 20s, I recall sitting with cardboard and a ruler and making rhythm flash cards. Oh, drawing ta’s and titi’s and things and cutting out. Like, you would never do that now.

Amy Revell 

No and even students learn differently. Like, I remember when I I did piano right through to grade eight, and I had binders and binders and binders of printed out music. And I’d go to the music store with all my pocket money and I’d buy a sheet of music. My son plays guitar and piano. He’s never owned a piece of sheet music in his life. He just has his phone there. And so, even the way that students learn has changed so much, you’re not having to have 15 copies of something to hand it out to everyone necessarily, sometimes you might.

Debbie O’Shea 

Sometimes, you have to.

Amy Revell 

There’s all this technology as well, which changes what you need to keep and how you teach.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, smart boards and big TVs have changed everything.  I don’t teach a lesson at school without my big TV. And we start with a bit of a fun YouTube clip and we have a little chat about what we saw. And away we go, or we clap rhythms from the screen instead of having a sheet that we’re reading.

Amy Revell 

All those music books that in primary school, everyone got one, I think it was the whole of Australia, we all had the same music books and you’d have it on your lap. And I see them now in in clients homes and it is just so nostalgic.

Debbie O’Shea 

Yes, the sing books.

Amy Revell 

The sing books, that was them. They were great.

Debbie O’Shea 

Oh, believe me, it was a bit sad when they stopped actually, but there are quite a few of us and I’ve still got some in my school cupboard. Most of my colleagues are now just sort of getting rid of them and just keeping one copy, which I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet at school one day.

Debbie O’Shea 

But it’s so hard, because there’s something too nice about kids having the music in their hands? So you’ve got to also, we have a big choir program and the kids have the original choral music in their hands to sing, so you’ve got to provide that, the same way that we’ve got to teach them to be literate, not just plug something into a program. So it’s that whole balance.

Amy Revell 

One day.

Sign-Off

Thank you for joining me for this podcast. Don’t forget, you’ll find the show notes and transcript and all sorts of information on crescendo.com.au. If you’ve enjoyed the podcast or found it valuable, you might like to rate it on your podcast player and leave a review. I’d really appreciate it if you did. All I can be as the best version of me. All you can do is be the best you. Until next time, bye.

Just for Laughs

As we know, laughter relieves stress, don’t lose sight of the funny side of life.
I asked my dog what two minus two was? He said, nothing. He’s a very clever puppy.