As many struggle to stick to their New Year’s resolutions, Father Dave welcomes back friend of the show Kathryn Whitaker to help him overcome roadblocks to cleaning out his office. Kathryn is the co-host of the weekly show “Strong Voices” on the Catholic Channel, host of the “NICU Babies Parent Support” podcast, and author of “Live Big, Love Bigger: Getting Real with BBQ, Sweet Tea and a Whole Lotta Jesus.” She is also in the midst of her annual “Purge and Reset,” where she cleans out her entire home with her husband and six children.
After catching up with Kathryn about her life, Father Dave explains how he has a goal to clean out his office, but started with his bedroom and became overwhelmed. “I went looking for something in my bedroom desk drawer that collects batteries, paper clips, and pens,” he says, noting that everything he had did not fit. “Somehow I decided I needed to have little compartments or trays that subdivide the drawer so that the pens don’t all spill all over. So naturally, I [stopped cleaning] and went out to Staples to buy a little drawer organizer.”
Kathryn chides, “You didn’t do the most important thing first: You have to purge first. You don’t buy organizing stuff until you whittle down what you actually need. Then when you look at it, you can figure out What do I need to organize it? [Otherwise] all you’re doing is just accumulating more stuff.”
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She shares her tips when cleaning an entire home. “I always start with the part of the house that everybody uses, and that’s your refrigerator. Sometimes what people do is they look at their whole house and get overwhelmed, and then they quit after two days. Remember, slow progress is still progress, and if you’re trying to get perfection, it’s never going to work,” Kathryn says. “So I always start with the fridge, because that’s major satisfaction. Now I just walk by my fridge and open it just to look at it because it’s so organized and clean.”
In her annual Purge and Reset, she takes 10 days to clean her home, focusing on a different part of the house each day. “There is a pain point in every room. Figure out what the pain point is, fix it, and then move on to the next thing, because you’re not going to fix every single thing in that room,” Kathryn says, and explains that she will evaluate how a space is working for her family and tweak as needed through the year.
Father Dave explains his difficulty in purging items like cords that may serve a use later on. Kathryn responds, “It’s hard for us to let go of things that we have spent money on or that we’ve invested in. So what happens is that we hold on to these things, and we think it doesn’t cost us anything to hold on to it. But it does, because it’s costing you space, time, and energy.”
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Father Dave asks, “How do we fight our human nature that wants to just toss up our hands and say Close the drawer, I won’t see it anymore?” Kathryn answers, “Give yourself small goals. Like just do the drawer, or just do one space…I think sometimes people look at their whole house and think they have to make it look like Martha Stewart or Pottery Barn. First of all, nobody’s house is a museum.”
“Secondly, find something in your house that brings you joy; like when you walk by that area, you’re like, I love the way it functions. I love the way it looks,” she continues, and encourages to use that area as inspiration. “Give yourself some grace. It’s kind of like the spiritual life; you don’t start out by saying I’m going to pray the Rosary every day and I’m going to do all this. You’re going to fail. Instead, just start with one thing, like taking a walk and praying a decade. Sometimes we think we have to be the best at the very beginning, and we forget about the journey part.”
