Peter Walsh Interview

Peter Walsh Interview

Oprah’s decluttering expert and Melbourne native Peter Walsh has given us hints and tips on how we can declutter our wardrobe, our house and our life!

Peter was born and raised in Australia, he moved to LA in 1994 to launch is corporation and help improve employee satisfaction and in doing this improve their effectiveness. Peter tries to divide his time between working in LA and visiting Australia. Peter’s passions include mid-century architecture and design, home renovation and transforming chaos into order.

Every woman’s wardrobe is overflowing, but we just don’t know or want to throw the clothing items out, how can we declutter this space?

Peter Walsh:Yes, it is a good question as this is where all the clutter lives. We wear 40% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. One of the best ideas is to go through your wardrobe and turn everything on the hanger inside out, when you wear it you put it back on the hanger the right way and in six months all the items you have turned inside out still, you throw out.

You want to have a wardrobe with only items that you receive compliments whilst wearing or that make you feel good and actually fits!

You have to understand the limits of the closet, a closet can hold ten pairs of jeans, three business suits, four dresses and once we establish the limit of what can be held inside the closet and what is worn you use the idea of ‘one in one out’. It is really important, because if you understand the limits ‘one in and one out’ will begin to provide a working closet. It will help you live also in a calm and focused way, as you won’t be stressed every morning whilst you try and work out what outfit to wear and what goes with what. That is one broad thing; the second broad idea is this, link ‘like things together’. I know it sounds kind of dumb, but I recently did some work in America where I helped a woman declutter her closet, there was something like 25 or 28 black cashmere cardigans. Because she knew she looked great in a cashmere cardigan but she could never find the one she had, so whenever she saw one of sale she bought it. The problem was in her closet she didn’t keep ‘like things together’ so she continually brought the same item. Keeping ‘like things together’ helps you quickly and easily look for what you need and it also helps you see visually what your buying patterns are, this helps you as it means you don’t buy duplicates of clothing. This will help tame your closet and make it a place that really helps you live the life you want to live.


What about Makeup bags?

Peter Walsh:The thing about make-up is that it has a very short shelf life, a good rule of thumb is that the closer to the eye the shorter the shelf life. For example mascara has about a three month shelf life. If you look at the bottom of a perfume bottle, most of them will have the date it was made, this is at the end of a series of numbers; it is only good for three years from that date. It is important that with make-up or medicine that you are using, that you are regularly going through and throwing out what is past its use-by-date, otherwise it becomes a health issue.


Okay, what about a computer?

Peter Walsh:Two things you need to do, one is a regular back up and also archive items that are old or you don’t use. If it is in an archived file and it is backed up you can still access it later. This will benefit you and the computer as it will run faster and more efficiently as it has less to sort through. I regularly back up, I make a mental note that a backup is done every Monday morning and an archive is done on the first day of each month. This way I have established a routine.


What is your best tip for decluttering our days?

Peter Walsh:For me it comes back again to establishing a routine. The most important part of the day is the ten minutes at the end of the previous day. So at the end of the previous day make a list of things you have to do. Get your clothes ready, make lunches, and get in your head in the ten minutes before bed what you have to do the next day. You need to establish some routines, whether it is at work or at home. Have a calendar or a diary. If you live in a family have a shared calendar so that everyone can write on one. Most importantly, you drive the day not the day driving you. Set aside time for you and your family, you have to give time to what you think is important. When organising your day organise time to put into what you think is the most important tasks.


Does decluttering mean throwing items out or forgetting problems?

Peter Walsh:Decluttering is about establishing priorities, so for example, that often is to get rid of things, the word its self means getting rid of stuff you don’t need. I don’t see decluttering so much as throwing things out, although that is a part of the process, but as a way of revealing what is important. For example if we were working in your living room at home, that room has an ideal way you would like it to be. Let’s reveal that by getting rid of the stuff you don’t need, whether it is the clutter or the stuff that is in your head or heart, your emotions. Clutter is getting between you and the way you would like to be living. Yes, it does normally mean getting rid of things but more so it is about revealing things that you would like to be.


What is your number one tip for sorting through piles and piles of papers?

Peter Walsh:You have to be systematic, there are a few different types of paperwork, one is mail. You only need to decide one place where the mail can live in your home, so you may choose a desk, that’s where the mail lives. Junk mail, make sure it never gets inside your house, but if it does, you shred it straight away. Magazines, no more than three subscriptions and no more than three back issues, if you already have three issues, by the time third comes in you are not going to read the third oldest back issue. Bills, a simple way to manage bills and receipts is with a twelve month expanding file, as you pay them and want to keep them drop them into that month. The most important thing is to stay on top of it and maintain a routine.


What place normally needs the most decluttering?

Peter Walsh:Most people struggle with three areas, clothes- so the closet, paper work- the home office and kids toys, they are the main areas of families. If you don’t have kids the third one is generally the garage. Because the garage is kind of the burial ground of decisions, people throw stuff in there for storage before throwing out, as they don’t want to throw it out, but need too.


In decluttering all of our drawers and overflowing spaces will this declutter out life?

Peter Walsh:Look the point again and again in decluttering and getting organised is, what is the vision you have for the life you want? What you own should be helping you create the life you want? Do these clothes help you create the mood, the image, the feeling and the life you want? Does your career? Does your relationship? Once you start asking that question. If you start asking those questions and start decluttering your house, it always has a flow on a whole lot of different areas in your life, whether it is relationships or careers, even your spiritual life or social life, everything! Once you start it is about making sure you are living the way you want to live and being who you want to be in the best possible way.
One of the lines I use is: Your house, Your head, Your heart, Your hips, they are all connected and once you fix one it defiantly effects all of the others. Generally if you start the process and ask what is the vision you have? The answer is overwhelming as they work on one area and it just flows through the rest of the life, again and again.


How does household clutter make us fat?

Peter Walsh:It doesn’t necessary. It is really important to make the distinction that I’m not saying that if you are cluttered you will have a weight problem and I’m also not saying that if you have a weight problem you will be unorganised and cluttered. That is way too simple, and I’m not that guy! What I am saying is that you can’t make your best and healthiest choices in a messy and disorganised house. A really great example of this is that if you don’t organise your life or healthy choices, if you organise what you are going to eat at seven at night when you put the key in the front door, I guarantee if that is the first time you have thought about it you will always go for the easy choice. The easy choice is usually take-out, eating-out or pre-packed food. If you have organised you fridge, shopping plan and meal plan the easiest choice will always be the healthy and planned choice. The good choice becomes the easy choice. It goes back to the vision, if you house isn’t helping you create the body you want, start by cleaning and decluttering your kitchen, fridge and house. It is 90% common scene.
People think they don’t have time to shop or organise a meal, you have time to organise what is important. If you say you don’t have time, you are saying you don’t have time to invest in your life. It is about organising everything you own and do, eat and are. From your fridge you want a place where you can easily make and prepare meals and snacks. You have time to organise the fridge like this. Re-assess your priorities and commit to your life. Once you deal with the clutter and stress associated with it you can open up your life.


What will you book Does this clutter make my butt look fat help with?

Peter Walsh:Anybody who is struggling with organising their life or day. Anyone who feels like they can’t organise their day or schedule. Anyone can benefit from Does this clutter make my butt look fat and It’s all too much as we all have clutter and we can use the tips to discover the path to the best life that they can live. They have a wide audience; those who are organised can still have areas that overflow such as recipe books. It’s all too much is organised by rooms in the house so you could look at the book and only need to read one section. Does this clutter make my butt look fat looks at shopping, meal preparation, scheduling and exercise. They are like a buffet!


Check out Peters website for his daily declutter tip or for more information at: http://www.peterwalshdesign.com/