Ep 79- How Decluttering Can Reduce Food Noise with Tracy Hoth

August 14, 2025

If your pantry is overflowing, your fridge feels chaotic, or you find yourself hoarding food “just in case”, this episode is for you. I sit down with professional organizer and mindset coach Tracy Hoth to explore how clutter and disorganization often mirror our relationship with food.

You’ll learn:

• How visual clutter impacts food choices

• The psychology behind overbuying & hoarding food

• How to organize your pantry and fridge to reduce food noise

• What to do with clothes that don’t fit anymore

• Tracy’s 5-step framework for organizing anything — from your home to your to-do list

Tracy Hoth is a 17-year veteran professional organizer and certified life coach who is on a mission to help people free themselves from the weight of clutter. She is the host of the top 1% globally ranked Organized Coach Podcast where she makes organizing so simple you can't help but have fun along the way!

TRANSCRIPT:

 Amber: Hello, confident Eaters. Today I'm here with Tracy Hth, who is an organization coach, is gonna talk to us about so many things around food and getting our life together, really. So Tracy, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit more about you?

Tracy: Yes, Amber, so excited to be here. I'm Tracy Hth. I've been organizing people professionally for 17 years, and so I've been in every type of home and office and I help people.

Now with mindset, when I got certified in 2018 for coaching, I combine all the practical stuff with all the mindset stuff. And the combo of that is magical when it comes to helping people organize their life, their home, and behind the scenes in their businesses too.

Amber: Yeah, and I one time Tracy on today, because there is something that I see so often with people who are struggling with food and binge eating that I have definitely been guilty of.

Which is where we often hoard food, where we overbuy things, we think things on sale. We don't wanna get rid of anything. And this can also translate into other areas of our life just being disorganized and messy and general. But I see this happen a lot of times with people who show of food because it comes from this place of diversity mindset that stem from dieting where it feels like.

We never have enough food. We always need to get in more, and we wanna make sure that we're never hungry. And so it tends to lead to this overbuying of food. And then we're just like, flooded too much food. Maybe food is going bad. So can you talk to us about what you see with people who have, you know, too much stuff in their life, where that stems from and how it gets to that point.

Tracy: Oh, there's so many different avenues right there. One of them that comes up is the dopamine hit they get when they find that deal and it's with stuff too. So they find that deal and they need to get it 'cause it's on sale or it's a great, they couldn't find it anywhere else or whatever. So there's that.

Then there's also the avoidance of feeling emotion. And so they're bored or they're restless, or they, you know, need something. They're avoiding some hard situation, and so they go. Overspend. So those two things are probably the biggest. It's the dopamine of finding the deal and it's the avoiding other emotions.

So they focus on buying and bringing things in

Amber: Right, which sounds very similar to the same thing with food, where it's like we get this dopamine hit from it. And then also all these thoughts of like, oh, you know, I'm not gonna get it again and we wanna get it in right now. So I think there's a lot of overlap there.

Yeah. So are there any thoughts that you see in particular coming up for people on why they wanna hold onto things and how can we address those thoughts if they're overbuying and not wanting to get rid of things or having a hard time letting go of all this stuff?

Tracy: I like to help people just keep asking the question why, so that they're uncovering the thoughts that are there.

So one of the things when they're keeping stuff and they're trying to make a decision about should I let it go or not, it's tied to a memory. And why is that important? Why is it important that you don't get rid of a gift that you were given? Because that's a thought that, you know, you're somehow learned along the way, that you don't get rid of gifts, that it would hurt someone's feelings if they didn't see the gift next time they visited you.

And it's so interesting. What if it doesn't, like we were sitting in one of our groups just talking about what if it doesn't, like if someone. I was at their house, I would be kind of proud of them that they didn't keep something that they didn't use or love or knowing that they gifted it to somebody else because that person needed it.

It's like giving it to a donation center. Someone that comes in there could be providing for their family 'cause they buy things and they resell 'em. It's like you're providing for someone in a way that you might not have even thought of. So it's just kind of challenging lots of different beliefs and asking those deeper questions.

Oh, why? Oh, isn't that interesting? What are you thinking about that? And it just brings up the belief that they learned somehow and never thought to question along the way.

Amber: Right, And I think why is the most powerful question we can ask ourselves in so many situations? That just helps us get that deeper layer of insight and understanding.

And so if all you could take from today is like, I'm just gonna ask myself why behind these habits, I think people will start to get so much awareness that can help them move them forward.

Tracy: Yeah. And why without judgment? Because sometimes you can ask why, and they can feel like they're being judged. And so make sure for yourself, when you're asking yourself that question, just say, oh, interesting.

Why? Why is that? So that it's not like, why? Why do you think that? You know, that kind of thing. So important.

Amber: I'm curious for you in your journey. Did you always consider yourself like an organized, clean, put together person or did you come from a background where like things were really messy and then this is something you kind of learned along the way?

Tracy: I think I'm somewhere in the middle because my background wasn't messy. I think I am, what do I call it, down to earth, kind of organized, and let's get the definition out of how I think about being organized. It's knowing what you have and being able to find it when you need it. So it's not the pictures on Instagram or Pinterest that are all color coded and clear and every, I just saw something this morning, all matching containers on shelves in the garage with the perfect label.

Like that doesn't mean anything. Yes, that's a situation that's organized. 'cause you know what you have and you can find it when you need it, but it also doesn't have to look like that. So I am more. Functionally organized, like I know what I have and not saying anal in a mean way. Like I like color coded files, that's great, but I don't have that all throughout my house.

'cause I really don't wanna spend the money on something new when I have something that works. And so I'm functionally organized, I'll call it that.

Amber: Absolutely, and I see this happening with so many influencers like in their kitchen, you know, where they like take everything outta their original package.

They put in these pretty clear containers and you open the fridge and you just can see everything so beautifully in their cabinets. There's not like a single normal package in there. It's all like repackaged and to the spice jars with the little labels on it. And like all of this really fancy, expensive stuff, it's like that's really not necessary.

So talk to us about organizing your pantry and why might spending time, you know, looking at your buying habits, your organizing habits, where things are in your cabinets, in your fridge, in your freezer, how could that help someone with their eating habits and eating healthier?

Tracy: Well, when you know what you have and you can find it easily. You're not spending time, you're not digging all over, you're not overbuying or buying duplicates. So that's probably the main reason is it can help because you know what you have. So next time you go to the store, you know what you need. You know where to put it away when you get home. So it's not sitting out, you know, all over your counter in grouping things together in your pantry, in your fridge by category is helpful.

Like thinking of zones in your pantry. When I help people get organized. There's steps that I use. But when you get to the step assign homes, I think it's helpful. It's a little bit like a puzzle, like you wanna assign homes to things in a way that makes sense that you have the most accessible things in the front, or easiest to get to.

Mm-hmm. Where you group things like I always loved in pantries, putting breakfast items next to each other and putting. Cans next to each other, and pasta so grouped by category or all the baking things in my house are in one drawer in my pantry, so it makes it easy to use and find, and then it just functions better.

Amber: Absolutely. This has me thinking of when people have like their treat drawer, where it's like everything is like bad and off limits in this special drawer, and then it becomes like this obsession of, Ooh, you know, I always get something from my treat drawer after a meal or after work or something. And so it's got me thinking.

I'm like, I wonder how. If that association like could be helpful or unhelpful with people who are struggling binge eating and it's So I would honestly offer too, if maybe you do have something where it's like this is the special part of the cabinet that is only for like my bad foods. That's the thing you're thinking in your head.

Yeah. Maybe

even mixing it up. Could like create a new association where you put like your can of green beans next to your chocolate and that might like change in your brain the ability to think of like these foods as more morally equal. 'cause that's a big thing I work on with people. So I think that would be one strategy to try.

Or also looking at when I'm scanning through my cabinet, do I have different thoughts about the different shelves. Why is that? Do I think like, again, is this like the bad or off limit shelf or only have these things after a meal and what have been said? It was like, well, sometimes maybe I have chocolate with the meal, which is what I encourage a lot of my clients to do, is to have it all on a plate together.

So it kinda neutralizes that food and makes it taken off of a pedestal where it's not like this special food and then we want it so much more. So it's like maybe if I have a thought of like, oh, this is the boring cans, like. I don't really like these things as much. Maybe how could we have that thought about some of the other things where it's like, yeah, these foods are delicious, but it's just food.

At the end of the day, none of them are better or worse morality wise. Yes, they have different nutrition of course, but they're all the same morality wise. Mm-hmm. We're not a better or worse person for having them. And you know, just something, I'm sure I could go deeper with this, but I'm just, that's coming up for me of like, I wonder how we could change people's associations too if they do have this like.

Special space in their pantry. Ettes.

Tracy: Yes. That is so interesting. So in my mind, as you're saying that, that's not something I've thought about before, you know, as far as that goes. But I like the idea of snacks. So you are kind of saying like, bad foods go in this snack tub or whatever. Let's say a snack could be an apple or an orange or a chocolate bar or a bag of chips.

Yeah. And if all snacks were in. Let's say the refrigerator drawer with the apples and oranges. If you had chips in there, and that way when you associate that, you go to that, or even if that's unrealistic in the pantry, you could have pictures of the snack options, woo. Next to the candy bars or chip bags.

You could have also like a list of snacks there, which would remind your brain, oh yeah, there's other things I can eat right now if I choose to. That would also be included in snacks.

Amber: I love that idea. I think that's a great idea. Yeah. Yeah. Because our brains are such visual creatures. So that's like, you know, part of the reason that none of our fruits and vegetables get eaten is 'cause they're on this like deep, dark, crisper drawer in our fridge that we don't see.

And then we open up our pantry and it's like, ah, the bag of chips is right there in front of us. So it's like, of course we're going to them a little bit easier. And something I actually recommend my clients doing is if they're any sort of baked goods, which can often be like a. Trouble food of like, oh no, because we see it every time we go into the kitchen.

It's just like sitting out there oftentimes in like a clear container. Mm-hmm. I will tell them. Put your jar of cookies like in the cabinet with everything else. Not to try to hide it from yourself or make it off limits, but simply so you don't have to think about it every single time you pass by it.

Which is why, you know, I don't have a plate of donuts right by my desk every day. It's 'cause I probably want a donut then. So I think it can be useful too, to use our cabinets in our spaces, in our fridge to kind of. Again, I don't really like the word to like hide things, but to make it easier on us to not have them all the time as kind of a

strategy.

Tracy: Amber, that makes me think of the silent to-do list concept where when you're cluttered, you have things laying around and all those things are screaming to you. It's silent, but that you see them and then they're yelling at you, oh, you haven't done this. Oh, you haven't done that. And so with food, that's exactly what you're saying.

You're putting it away just so that it's not yelling at you. Eat me. Eat me. Here I am. You know what I mean? But that's, yeah, that makes me think too of people that have fruit bowls out on the counter or you know, something that's healthier yelling at you versus. Yeah, those other things, but it's the whole clutter thing.

That's what we talk about a lot with clutter is that that weight of all those things yelling at you to do something and you haven't done this, and whatever else they say to you. It is very heavy. I mean, it feels heavy. It occupies a lot of space in your brain.

Amber: Absolutely. And just because we're such visual creatures as humans, like our brain is having to process all this visual input all the time.

Mm-hmm. So if there's clutter everywhere, it's so hard for our brain to figure out like what it's actually looking at. And it's having to think about those things so much deeper. And again, like we have like the never ending to-do list, it's really hard to process all the words on that all at once when we're looking at it.

So I think that. When we get more organized in our fridge, in our cabinets, it can make our eating decisions so much easier too. Like we already have to make, I don't even know what this is, but it's like a million something decisions a day that we're constantly deciding between. So if we can make it that much easier for us in our homes and our spaces where it's like I don't have to choose between.

10 million cans right now in front of me, of which one I want. And I only have the necessities because I know that the grocery store is five minutes down the road and I could go get something again if I really needed it. You know? I think that can just reduce so much of our overwhelm and stress and so many people when we're struggling with food, like we're already dealing with so many constant thoughts around food and so much food noise that like, let's try to make it as easy as possible ourself and eliminate all of that extra.

Decision making and thinking and processing around looking at overflowing cabinets and fridges.

Tracy: Yes, a hundred percent. My husband even used to love going to this little grocery store that we had next to us. Well, I did too. 'cause it only had four aisles. Better than the grocery store that has 20 aisles with 4,000 selections in each category.

It was like this little grocery store had two options. You just chose one. It was so nice.

Amber: Do you ever find that that comes up with people when they're going through an organizing process, like they're having to decide, you know, going through their clothes, for example? This is probably a big thing we could touch on.

When people's bodies are changing, they often have a lot of clothes because they want to have many different sizes just in case they lose weight or gain weight. And then when they're going through it, there's like so much decision processing to do in that. Like, how do we make those decisions and how do we make it easy for us?

So it doesn't like. We don't get tired by like the fifth article of clothing we're going through.

Tracy: Okay. So that's where my organizing steps come in, because the first step is to sort. So I never tell people to start by making decisions because even if I walked in my own closet and pulled out something and said, well, I just gotta get rid of some stuff, and I lifted up something that's hanging, I'd be.

Whoa. I don't know. That's hard. I can't, I mean, that would look good with this. I would put it down and be overwhelmed and walk out and not do a single thing. And so I always tell people sort first. So if you have a lot of options and sizes, if you have a lot of the same type of thing, sort by size, sort by category, sort by type, or sort by color even sometimes I tell people, just take all the white things out of the closet.

Put them all together and now you know like you have 14 white shirts, you really don't need 14. And then once you get all the white stuff out, you could even do another sort by size. If it's the size is something you struggle with. Mm-hmm. Then go to the purge stage, which is the decision making. Stage and then it becomes so much easier because you know exactly what you have, how many items of each one you can try those on, see what fits, see what doesn't, and make decisions from there.

So it's so much easier now that you have everything in that category together.

Amber: Yeah, and I think for a lot of people, they don't always know what they have. So I think that sort thing is so important of like, well, I need to keep, you know, some bigger clothes or some smaller clothes just in case it's like.

Do we really need half a closet, you know, filled with clothes that fit you 10 years ago? Yeah, probably not. Or, you know, clothes that are bigger than that. And what I usually recommend people doing too is if they are in this in-between thing, keeping like one box of their favorites. So like one box of your absolute favorite, maybe most expensive, like things that you really treasure of like these smaller size closes because we don't really know.

Exactly where your body's gonna end up. At the end of the day, like I don't do weight loss specifically. My goal is to help people repair the relationship with food in their body, so you might stay the same. Some people occasionally gain a little weight because they have to, because they've been restricting their whole life and their body's been undernourished.

Some people do lose weight, and so I do think it's important to have a flexibility of. I will keep some stuff, but I love the idea of sorting it all first so you can get clear on like, well, how much do I actually have and what fits my body today? Right now? Prioritizing those clothes and knowing that you can always, you know, go grab that extra box if you need to or go shopping if you need to really change up the sizes.

Tracy: Yeah, and I do recommend that too when you're assigning home, so it's sort purge. Then assign homes. So when you're assigning homes to the items that you decided to keep, especially in a closet, put the items that actually fit you, that you can pull out in a moment's notice and put on. And they look good.

They feel good, they fit you. You'll wear them. Assign homes to something that doesn't fit. In a tub or a box, label it so you can find it when you need it and then put that away. But exactly one of the steps in the purge is, or one of the thoughts to consider is to choose your favorites. And so like you said, when you're deciding which items to keep or let go of, start by picking your favorites.

And that could be a favorite in each size, whatever that means. But choose your favorites first. Try 'em all on, then go to the next items, and then you can make decisions a little bit easier. The other thing you can do is to set yourself up for success in that is before you even start, decide like, okay, who am I?

Who do I wanna be? What's my identity as an organized person? What. Does that person, who has what she needs, what she loves, what she feels good in, what does she decide to keep? How many jeans does she have? How many socks does she keep? And then you have a guideline ahead of time that you run the filter through.

Does it fit? Do I love it? Do I use it? Does it fit into the category of five pairs of jeans or whatever number you pick ahead of time?

Amber: Yeah, I travel a lot and it's always so fun for me to see like, hey, when I'm going away for two months to live somewhere else and I can fit everything in one suitcase, like what am I doing with all the rest of this here?

Because I probably don't need as much as I imagine. And I kinda like that question for myself is like, would I take this on a long vacation? I think maybe this is short vacation. Sometimes we only keep, you know, a few select things. But like if I was going on a long vacation, you know, for a couple of weeks, would this come with me?

And if not, you know, you probably don't like it that much.

Tracy: Yeah, that's a great question. Someone else would be like, would I pay full price for this item? That's a fun one to ask yourself too. Would I buy this again if I was gonna go out right now and shop? Mm-hmm. So many different questions that are helpful.

Where are we in the steps? Oh yes. So the steps spell spasm, by the way. So when you picture like your stuffed full closet or pantry, you can think of the word spasm and it makes me think of that. And next time you have a muscle spasm, you're gonna think of organizing. So sort, purge, assign homes, and then set limits.

I call it that because when the limit that you set. Is reached, you will be automatically triggered to go back through the steps again or reminded to go back through the steps again. And this is the stage where you're setting a limit by a shelf. Like, I'm gonna put this on this one shelf, or in this one drawer, or in this one bass.

Skit or container. And a lot of people start with that step. They go out and buy containers and they're like, I'm gonna get organized. I have these pretty containers. Well, nothing fits. And the categories are too big or small, so it doesn't fit. So I never tell people to go buy anything until they get to that step.

They know exactly what they're keeping. They know exactly where it lives, and now they can go. Shop their house first. 'cause maybe they have a cardboard box that would work for a while while they test this. And then they can go buy containers after that if they want to have it look a certain way or if they need something.

And then the final step is to maintain. So in the steps, the sort and purge is dec clut. Then assign homes and set limits is the organizing step, and then maintain is the habit. It's the habit that you're gonna put in place. And so the secret to maintaining anything is to tie it to something you already do.

So I always say the example of taxes. You do your taxes every year. So tie going through your file cabinet or your paper to doing your taxes and add an extra. Hour to go through that, to clean it out when you're doing that, or the seasons change or whatever it is that you're tying it to so that you maintain that space of organizing.

Amber: Yeah, I love that. Okay. Can you say them one more time through?

Tracy: Yeah. So sort, purge, assign homes, set limits, and maintain.

Amber: Awesome. That was so good. I love that process and that it's so clear. One thing that I think that is a big thing with maintaining that is also so important in. Maintaining your eating habit is these little teeny things that start to creep in.

And I know I do this, I'm so guilty of this where I will be like, uh, you know, let me just throw this thing down on the floor, or let me just, like, I'll get to that later. And it's these little teeny things. And the next thing you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, I have to spend like an hour cleaning my room now because there's so much shit around.

And it's these little teeny moments. And I think that is the same thing that happens with people around food, where they start to tell themselves these little moments that don't matter. Oh, it doesn't matter if I binge one more time. Oh, you know, I'm a little full right now, but I'm just gonna keep going.

You know, a couple more bites. And then that's when slowly people start to wake up and realize. Oh my gosh, I'm right back where I was with food. You know what happened? It was all these little individual moments and decisions. But then on the flip side, the good news is I feel like all those little individual decisions count to help you maintain it.

When you decide, I'm gonna take the 10 seconds to put this item where it belongs, then it like keeps it clean. Or I'm gonna decide this one small moment that I'm gonna not overeat because I know that still reinforcing this brain pathway and gonna take me where I don't wanna go in the long term. And it does all matter.

Tracy: Yes. And that's where the habits are formed, right? And that's where you can see, and this just came up with a client just with Google Docs. We were looking at her Google folders and her Google Drive, and she had docs that weren't in any folders and she was saying, Tracy, I just started a document I don't even think about.

Like I just started, it's not living anywhere. And so I was like. Okay. I mean, you can do that, but you also can just click into the folder and you can start it there. And that way it's where it needs to live. And so you're not having to later go back and clean that up. And it's just, like you said, it's reminding yourself this will only take two seconds, two clicks to get to where it needs to live.

And then I can start the document there. So it's that pause. It's that pause that we were talking about on my podcast, like it's the pause of. No, I can stop for just a second and decide how I want, what identity I'm taking action from. And decide, yes, that's the action I wanna take because I'm taking it from this person who's organized.

This person who eats healthy is in control over eating, or what is the right term you would say?

Amber: I call them natural eaters. Like natural, a natural eater, a normal eater, or a confident eater. I kind of use all of these words to kind of identify ourselves as someone who. Eats with confidence and who doesn't struggle with food.

Tracy: A confident eater. Yes. Am I coming from an organized identity or am I coming from over here or acting out of the person that's over there? Yeah.

Amber: I love it. So I am so curious to know, Tracy, how you organize your calendar and your life and your to-dos, and any tips you have for us or people who feel like they're just so overwhelmed in their life, they don't have time for anything, just to-dos are.

Post it noted everywhere. And how can they start getting some like clarity and freedom around their schedule and time?

Tracy: Oh gosh. Okay. That's the great thing about the organizing steps. These five organizing steps work with every single thing they work with. Your physical space, your closet, your digital space, they work with your brain, they work with time with starting a brand new project.

And so if you are feeling overwhelmed. With your, and you're thinking of all the things you have to do, that's your signal to go and follow the steps. And so the first step, you just sort everything out onto paper. And I like to sort it into categories like we talked about with clothes. You sort it into errands, you need to run phone calls, you need to make computer tasks, you need to do whatever it is.

You just get all of that out and one of the categories could be thoughts that you're thinking about that aren't to dos. So you get all that out and then you go back through, which the next step is purge. So you're gonna go to each category and with purge and tasks and calendar type things. I like to think of the Ds.

Can I delegate this? Can I delay it till next month or next week? When I look at this again, can I delete it completely or am I gonna choose to do it? So you've purged each category and then assign homes. You're gonna get out your calendar, you're gonna look group things together again, as much as you can, and then you're gonna assign homes to things on your calendar.

Then the set limits part is the time amount. So that appointment on your calendar is the container or the limit that you're setting for that activity, and then maintaining is just repeating that process. It's every night you're gonna look at it and you're gonna maintain your calendar. You're gonna maintain your mind around the overwhelm, manage it with the overwhelm by following these steps again, so anywhere.

You are that you feel overwhelmed. You go back to these steps and pretty soon you are gonna be so good at using the organizing steps with stuff and with things and with your mind and with projects that you're planning, that you're gonna feel and be in the identity. You're gonna have so much evidence that you are an organized person, and so I love that you can use it with your calendar.

The other thing you said was that you have notes all over. One of the biggest concepts that I teach and train people with is the wonderful one. You have one place where you write things down. You have one place where you keep 'em. Now that could be something digital or I used to keep, and I still, right now, I just have a notepad.

But I always, for like 17 years, had a clipboard. With a notepad on it. So no matter if I wrote something on a post-it note or on the back of an envelope, it would get clipped to my clipboard because that was the one place I kept every single thing, even at my desk. I stick it on that and then I know that I process through that.

So I go through the notes. I'll put 'em either on my calendar on a to-do list in where be like. Make a call, whatever it needs to be done with that piece of paper, and then I throw it out, and so I know I have that, but I know it's all in one place. It's not all over the house.

Amber: I love that. Such good tips. I'm obsessed with this like framework too. It's such a good thing that I can, it really does go in so many different areas and I love that you said to have this thought category too. Like, oh my gosh, so good. Because it is, we have like what we actually need to do and then we have all our thoughts about what we need to do.

Oh my gosh, it's too much. I'm never gonna get through this. You know, will this work out? And then like getting all those thoughts down I think is really important too. Just to acknowledge them and give them like. Their own little space in home of like thoughts, I see that you're here and I'm just gonna let you out.

And then maybe coaching on them, or even just looking at them and be like, okay, I'm acknowledging that they're here, I think is so important with that.

Tracy: Yes. And the cool thing with that is keep following the steps with thoughts. And so you're gonna purge them, you're gonna delay them, delete them, decide you wanna keep them, and then assign a home to it.

So even if it's a thought that's. What you would consider negative or a thought, you don't wanna believe you can assign a home to it like three o'clock tomorrow afternoon or this afternoon. I'm gonna spend some time looking at that thought, but it's gonna live at three o'clock and I'm gonna come back to it and I'm gonna process through it and sit with it and decide like, okay, do I wanna believe that?

Is there something else that's true that I can build some evidence for? And so it is like you can literally go through the steps with your thoughts as well.

Amber: I also love the purging step because so many people put. Way too much on their to-do list that doesn't actually need to be done. And it usually comes from this perfectionistic mindset of like, I wanna have the perfect life.

I wanna get it all done. We create this 90 step to do list. I'm like, ah, go. And it's like, oh my God, I can't do that. And so I think we're so many people, there's a lot of work in getting into this gray area where it feels like, you know, deep down it feels like I'm not doing enough. I feel like I should be able to do more, and we just talked about a little bit on your podcast, giving yourself permission to rest and slow down so that you don't feel the need to go to food every time, because that's the only way you are giving yourself rest in your life.

And so just really allowing yourself to say. What is necessary that I absolutely need to do today and everything else just, I do this all the time too. Or I'll write some things down my list. I'm like, I don't actually need to do this, and I just take it off. And that's what you said, the delete or delegate, what was the other one?

Tracy: And then delay. And here's a little tip for delay. If you use a planner, take a post-it, put it on the next week or the next month, depending on where you're at or on a digital calendar. Put up an appointment on the first of the next month, and in the description, write all the things that you're delaying till next month.

So you're organized. You have those all in there. You know where to find them. If you need, you could have a recurring appointment on the first of every month, and you could add things to that appointment. When you go back, you're gonna go through the steps again with those, so they're not gone. You're not scared.

'cause most people keep 'em on their to-do list 'cause they need to remember that. But then they see it and it's yelling at them every day. Like, you're not doing this. So make sure you put it away so you're not seeing it, but then you feel safe. 'cause you still know it's there. You know where it is. If you wanted to find it.

Amber: I learned in my coach training that our conscious brain can only process three to seven bits of information at any given time, maximum seven being pretty high. Yeah. So it's like, again, if you're looking at all of this information on a giant calendar to-do list, of course we're getting overwhelmed because our brain is having to switch between this and this and this and this and this, like a million miles an hour, and so it feels really hard for it.

So I really like just like. Even writing out my three priorities for the day and making sure like nothing else is on there. And then, you know, of course there might be like a few like little small things, but I just find it helps my brain so much to get out of this overwhelm, which again, I see a lot of people eating from because they just like want a break, they need something to get out of this overwhelm.

And one, we can learn how to sit with the overwhelm, but it's also good to address like where is this overwhelm coming from? And I think a big part of that is really just simplifying our to-do list, our calendar, our space around us, the things we're looking at in the day as we mentioned. Once that's all like clean and decluttered, everything just becomes so much simpler to do and get through in life.

Tracy: And you can just see it in people. Their whole shoulders just like relax. They feel they have so much more space 'cause they can breathe and they can relax and ugh, just be in that. I loved how you said. If you have space in your body, it's like if you have space in your calendar space, in your life space, in your home, all of that is just such a freeing feeling.

So do you have any last things you wanna leave the listeners with and then telling people how they can find you? Yes. Just be encouraged. It is a skill that you can easily learn. And you just practice it to be organized, to live in the identity of an organized person. And once you know the steps, then you have that skill in the identity.

So it's so fun and find me, my business is simply squared away.com and you can find everything there. I also have a podcast, the Organized Coach podcast, which Amber and I had a great discussion about food and business and how they relate, so that was a lot of fun. And you can get some freebies that I have and downloads on my website@simplysquaredaway.com.

Amber: Awesome. And I love how you mentioned that this is a skill that you can learn. Mm-hmm. So many people are telling themselves, oh, I'm just an organized person. I'm not an organized person. When really it can just become a habit that you build and create. And it's the same thing with food. Sometimes we start to think that, well, I'm just not a normal eater.

I've just been struggling with food for so many years, and I'm like, no, this is just a skill you can learn just like anything else. And especially with relearning how to eat those. Skills and those resources are already in our body, like we already have them. We just have to learn how to pull them out a little bit more.

And I think with organization too, like. I mean, who knows if there's a biological thing, but I can imagine that as humans, it's probably within our nature to become organized. Because if it's messy, then it's like unclean, and that's unsanitary, and that could negatively impact our survival. So even maybe just having that belief that like I am innately clean and organized and I just have to start practicing this skill and this habit to get to there.

Tracy: Yes, and even a lot of people are skewed or feel they're not because they have a DHD or they have some executive functioning issue even then. When you realize the skill and the simplicity of it, and I try to make it so simple, even then you can learn it and practice it. So it is possible. It's such a thing that I can help people with that it's encouraging and I just wanna leave people with that For sure.

Amber: Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for coming on today, Tracy.

Tracy: Thanks, Amber.