531: Calling the Bluff Decluttering

Dana K. White (0:00)

Hey, y'all, my new book, Procrastinators Get Stuff Done, How to Go from Overwhelmed to Finished, will be out in the world in less than a week. It comes out on Tuesday, October 6th. Yes, October is already here. This is your last chance to pre-order. You can order any format from any retailer and then fill out the form at danakwhite.com/procrastinate to claim your pre-order bonuses. You'll get an excerpt of the book, access to five exclusive podcast episodes, and an invitation to a book club. We're going to meet and talk about the book for four weeks starting on October 13th. Go to danakwhite.com/procrastinate to learn more. Welcome to A Slob Comes Clean, the podcast. I am Dana K White. I share my personal deslobification process. As I figure out ways to keep my own home under control, I share the truth about cleaning and organizing strategies that actually work in real life for real people. People who don't love cleaning and organizing. Thanks for joining me today. This is podcast number 531 And I think I'm going to call it Calling the Bluff Decluttering. I'm kind of excited about it. And if you're watching the video version of this, you will see that I'm wearing the same shirt I was wearing last week. Because today is the same day as I recorded last week, because I had this idea for a podcast over the weekend. And I was like, my brain was starting to go, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. And I wanted to do it while it's still kind of fresh and exciting to me, instead of putting it off. But I also wanted to share the anti-procrastination process with you last week, because, y'all, my book is out. It's out in the world. I mean, it's not like as I'm recording this, but when you're watching it or listening to it, it's out in the world. Procrastinators Get Stuff Done is out there. Wherever books are sold, you can go grab your copy. I am so excited for you to read it. And I have just loved all of you who've been reading it and who have been emailing me and telling me how much you love it.

Just kidding. Like it hasn't actually come out yet when I'm doing this. But a lot of people have pre-read it and they absolutely love it. So now you can go and see their reviews and hopefully they're good. But you can go and get your copy and have it immediately. And there's no pre-ordering anymore because it is available. So, all right, go grab it. Just always anytime you're searching for me, my books, wherever you like to buy books, put in Dana K White and that's how you'll find them. Okay. All right. So let's talk about calling the bluff decluttering. So y'all know I don't give parenting advice. And I know that I've told one of these stories back in March because I went back and checked that my son had given me permission to tell the story.

But I'm not giving parenting advice. I'm just saying this is kind of my style of parenting is called the bluff parenting. And I will tell you that I was having this idea as I was driving, my husband and I were driving to go visit one of our kids. And I was like, hey, can you explain to me what it means to call the bluff in poker because I actually don't really know. I think I know what it means. And he explained and I was right. So I won't go into the poker side of it because I don't know. I don't understand it. But basically, it is somebody pretending that they've got something and trying to convince the other person that they've got this thing like great cards or something so that the other person gives up. Or they call the bluff and they're like, oh no, we're going to go for it. And then that person is forced to put down their cards. And then you actually find out if they had great cards or not and whether they could win. So they could win just by bluffing. I'm just going to be clear here. That feels a little deceitful, and I'm not necessarily talking about the bluff in these situations being purposefully deceitful. Meaning, when we're talking about calling the bluff decluttering, I am talking about decluttering in a way where we actually get to the truth of what's going to happen, as opposed to all the things that are in our minds that we feel like, oh, this is what I should do, or this is what I would do, or this is what I'm going to do someday. And instead, we do things in a way where it calls the bluff. I'm not saying that we're being deceitful when we say, you know, no, no, someday, I really am going to learn how to paint with oils, paints. Like, absolutely, when I say I intend to do that, I'm not lying, I really do mean to do it. And yet, sometimes I need my bluff called, because even though I'm not purposely lying, I need to actually have it forced out, have it forced out. Like, is this going to happen or not?