Krystal Holm of Designed Life Studio On How Simplifying & Decluttering Your Life Can Make You Happier
An Interview With Drew Gerber
Learn to listen to your clutter.
If you don’t pay attention to what your clutter is telling you as you declutter, you’ll just end up buying more of the exact same clutter once it’s gone.
We live in a time of great excess. We have access to fast fashion, fast food, and fast everything. But studies show that all of our “stuff” is not making us any happier. How can we simplify and focus on what’s important? How can we let go of all the clutter and excess and find true happiness? In this interview series, we are talking to coaches, mental health experts, and authors who share insights, stories, and personal anecdotes about “How Simplifying and Decluttering Your Life Can Make Us Happier.” As a part of this series, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Krystal Holm.
Krystal is a Feng Shui Master, Interior Designer & Clutter Expert who helps entrepreneurs turn their spaces into offices they love to work in.
Using her proprietary framework The Designed Life Method℠ Mind, Body, Soul, Home, she helps her clients declutter and design a workspace where they are empowered to create the life & business that they want.
Krystal shows women how to use their workspace as a 3D vision board to help them design who they are becoming & the life they want with it, right into their space.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share your “backstory” with us? What was it that led you to your eventual career choice?
I think I have always been on a mission of female empowerment.
From a very young age I had to fight for my voice, as I was silenced over and over again.
Until I learned to silence myself.
At the same time, decorating was my passion. I spent endless hours arranging the furniture in Barbie’s Dream House.
And just as many hours doing the same in my own room, as well as any other room I could get my hands on.
Always trying to get the room to feel just right.
So a career in interior design, when it finally dawned on me that I could do what I loved for a living, was a natural fit.
I discovered feng shui in college, and that too, was a natural fit after a lifetime spent studying everything I could about energy, magic, and the occult. Anything that would teach me how to magically create the life of my dreams out of the ashes of my childhood.
But it was really on my own healing journey that I found my niche.
As I worked through decades of baggage, I did everything in my power to regain my voice, frequently starting with feng shui-ing my home to get the foundation right first, as I did the work.
I would offer my services to those women in my community. Other women on the same journey as me.
Women that were looking for love, women that were looking for health and healing, women looking for financial autonomy and independence.
Over and over again, as I worked with these women, I heard the same story:
They wanted a different life, but they couldn’t let go of their old one. They were stuck in their own clutter and they couldn’t get out.
So really, my career sort of found me as I would talk to them and coach them around where they were stuck and why, and help them to declutter that stuckness and get things moving again.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
About two years after I started my company, I had an experience that finally taught me the true power of clutter.
I had been on a mission to find love again in my own life and I thought I had found it.
We were both looking for a new life, seemed to be heading in the same direction, and enjoyed each other in every way possible.
Then, out of the blue, one day he ended things and left town to go back to his old life.
I was devastated.
At the same time, I was going through an extremely traumatic and ongoing legal battle over an injury I had sustained at work and was inundated with mail in triplicate on a daily basis.
Unable to deal with it all at once, I frequently just tossed the unopened mail into a box and closed the lid.
Out of sight, out of mind, gave me the ability to focus solely on my physical health as the battle raged on.
My business dried up completely and everything stagnated.
After about six months, I had buried my pain away and was ready to get on with my life.
I hired a coach to help me get my business back on track and I was once again looking forward to my future even if I was alone.
A few months in and my new coach challenges me to do a live video on the internet every day for a month to help my business.
May 1st just so happened to be a week away so I decided on a 30-day spring cleaning challenge as a way to make my live-streams valuable to my audience for the upcoming month.
When we finally got to paper clutter and I opened that box of mail that had been sitting in the corner since he left, it took me 3 days to shred all of it, and there were bags upon bags of shredded paper by the time I was finished.
By the end of the month, not only did my home feel lighter and brighter than it had in months, so did I.
Three days later, that man showed up at my door, having dealt with his own past and unfinished baggage, both of us finally ready to move forward and begin building a life together.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I am working on a couple of things.
In addition to working with me 1:1 on your entire office space, starting next month. there will be an opportunity to work with me in a group setting to help you listen to what your clutter is telling you so you can conquer it once and for all.
This is to make working directly with me more accessible to many more women that are struggling with their clutter.
I am also learning a 2nd language: ASL.
The reason for this is personal. One of my granddaughters is autistic and nonverbal, so she is learning ASL for communication.
Our whole family is learning ASL together, which is fun.
So, while I am mainly learning ASL to be able to talk to her, I am excited that I will also be able to use it in my business to help those that also use ASL as their primary language.
Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority on the topic of “How Simplifying and Decluttering Your Life Can Make You Happier”?
Clutter (and decluttering) are topics that are near and dear to my heart, and I have been helping people with their clutter since I was 16 years old.
It has been a primary focus of my business for over a decade.
And it is literally THE THING that I do day in an day out with each and every client.
I have spent most of my life studying the subject of making life happier and found that decluttering IS the answer.
I teach what I know, and what I know is clutter.
Clutter talks when you know how to listen.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. We live in a time of excess. We have access to so much. But studies show that all of our “stuff” is not making us any happier. Can you articulate for our readers a few reasons why all of our possessions are not giving us happiness?
All of those possessions don’t make us happy because they are an external reflection of what is wrong on the inside.
The only purpose all of our possessions have is to amplify what is going on internally.
So if we are miserable on the inside it will be bigger and more visible on the outside.
Our “stuff” is not making us any happier because it is a reflection of the dream we were all sold, that is really just a nightmare in disguise.
We buy stuff we can’t afford to keep up with the Joneses, when what we really want is peace, and to feel worthy of existing in a society that rewards nothing that isn’t perfect.
The scorecard of our meritocracy makes losers out of all of us in the form of our unhappiness.
On a broader societal level, how do you think this excessiveness may be harming our communities and society?
First and foremost, it is destroying our entire planet without which none of us survive.
Beyond that, it also devalues and dehumanizes us.
When possessions are the priority, we are driven to unspeakable acts just to fit in.
Children killing children over a pair of shoes.
Adults killing adults over Black Friday deals.
People killing people over “stuff”.
This excessiveness does more than just harm. It kills.
The irony of struggling with happiness in modern times is glaring. In many places in the world today, we have more than ever before in history. Yet despite this, so many people are unhappy. Why is simplifying a solution? How would simplifying help people to access happiness?
The truth is, the more stuff you own, the more your stuff owns you.
By letting go of all the excess, and all of the obligation that goes with it, we are able to find peace.
By simplifying and stopping the scarcity cycle of never-ending consumption, we are able to find prosperity.
In the peace of prosperity, we find happiness.
Can you share some insights from your own experience? Where in your life have you transformed yourself from not having enough to finally experiencing enough? For example, many people feel they don’t have enough money. Yet, people define abundance differently, and often, those with the least money can feel the most abundant. Where in your health, wealth, or relationships have you transformed your life?
All three of them actually.
My life used to be quite different than it is now.
I spent decades trying to escape an abusive childhood, running away from anything and everything that caused me additional pain.
One day I woke up and realized how miserably unhappy I was, then, for months I just sat there, doing nothing and staring at the TV trying to figure out what to do with my life.
Eventually I came to a decision and started out on a deliberate journey to change it all.
It took a long time. Decades.
Every day, just one step at a tine.
Instead of running away from my pain, I started facing it.
Soothing it.
Healing it.
All of it got worse before it got better, until eventually I worked my way through all of it, decluttering out the old and replacing it with something new.
There was lots of trial and error along the way, but over time I developed a repeatable system for designing the big goal, whether it be health, wealth or relationships, and then following the steps to bring it into being.
I call it the Designed Life Method℠: mind, body, soul, & home, and I now use this framework with each and every client in my business.
I went from being single, unable to walk, with an job I absolutely despised, to being in a loving relationship for the past 6 years, with a business I love every minute of.
And while, even after 7 years, I still live with constant pain, I can walk again and I have an amazing set of self-care practices that fully encompass what my body needs to keep healing.
Most of all I am ecstatically happy, and absolutely in love every aspect of my life.
People, places, and things shape our lives. For example, your friends generate conversations that influence you. Where you live impacts what you eat and how you spend your time. The “things” in your life, like phones, technology, or books impact your recreation. Can you tell us a little about how people, places, and things in your own life impact your experience of “experiencing enough?”
The injury that I had sustained at work, ended up being a torn tendon that required surgery to repair.
But since it took almost 3 years of battling with the insurance company before I finally was able to get the surgery, my body had deteriorated to the point where I couldn’t really take care of myself any longer by that time.
My boyfriend’s work keeps him traveling all the time, so after the surgery I went on the road with him, living the nomad life for a few years.
To do that, we downsized drastically, put everything we couldn’t part with in storage and took our “essentials” on the road with us.
Living with only what you can fit in your car makes life less about things and more about experiences.
Over the years, I have found that the richer the experience the more enoughness I feel and the less need for “stuff”.
I have much more room for memories than I have for souvenirs of my life.
Now when we buy something, it is because we have put thought into it and it matters, it’s not just a dopamine hit to try and fill that void.
What advice would you give to younger people about “experiencing enough?”
Enough is about the experiences of life.
Enough is all about quality, not quantity.
Make time for yourself, and while your there treat yourself the best way you can afford.
Whether it is going to bed on time so you get enough rest, sleeping on some super special pillows that nestle you in comfort all night long, or splurging on a more expensive yoga mat to start your day because it turns your practice into a transcendent experience.
Just remember, the best is not always the most expensive, and just because something is expensive doesn’t mean it is the best, or even any good.
This is the main question of our interview. Based on your experience and research, can you share your “five ways we can simplify and declutter our lives to make us happier?” 5-ways video here
First, learn to listen to your clutter.
If you don’t pay attention to what your clutter is telling you as you declutter, you’ll just end up buying more of the exact same clutter once it’s gone.
Second, stop doing all the things.
I guarantee you have too many things on your plate right now, and 90% of them are a waste of your time, energy, and money.
Third, make the most of your time.
Productivity and making the most of your time are not synonymous. Spend time doing the things you love, just because you love doing them.
Fourth, don’t worry about what other people think.
Mostly it’s important to remember that more often than not, other people aren’t thinking about you at all anyway. But if they are and they are hating on you for doing what you love who cares what they think. As long as you aren’t harming anyone, do you Boo.
We are here to enjoy the experience of life, so enjoy your life whether other people get it or not.
Finally, don’t live to work, work to live.
Far too many of us have been force fed a BS diet of the value of hard work, and then end up spending our entire lives doing nothing but punching a time-clock.
Never actually enjoying our lives or doing anything that truly makes us happy.
If you want a life of happiness, you have to design it that way, and then work to make it happen the way you want. Not the way someone else dictates.
And bonus, above all love yourself.
No matter what love yourself through the process. It is the only way to get there.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I would like to end the oppression of women and people of color around the world and eradicate the infectious disease that is the myth of white supremacy and the glorification of white males.
So, I propose we ban the Bible and make Christianity illegal again, along with all manufactured religions and their accompanying dogmatic doctrines, and in their place, we bring back the worship of Mother Nature and a reverence for our connection with the Earth and our planet as the source of all life on it.
I further suggest that anyone who causes or ever has caused harm or destruction to our holy home or it’s inhabitants would be both held accountable for their actions, and responsible for reparations to everyone and everything they abused and molested in the process.
It is far beyond time to correct the mistakes of our past, so we can build a better future for us all.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The best place to connect with me is right in your inbox.
My weekly Trade Secrets Newsletter is where I share everything I know about decluttering and designing a life you love.
It is filled with funny stories, truth bombs, thought-provoking ideas and inspirations, and for entrepreneurs, even some cool products that I think are good fit for your stage of business.
You can download my free 5-step guide to decluttering and get on my email list at declutteryourmindset.com.
I can’t wait to hear from you.
Thank you so much for these insights. This was so inspiring, and so important!
About The Interviewer: For 30 years, Drew Gerber has been inspiring those who want to change the world. Drew is the CEO of Wasabi Publicity, Inc., a full-service PR agency lauded by PR Week and Good Morning America. Wasabi Publicity, Inc. is a global marketing company that supports industry leaders, change agents, unconventional thinkers, companies and organizations that strive to make a difference. Whether it’s branding, traditional PR or social media marketing, every campaign is instilled with passion, creativity and brilliance to powerfully tell their clients’ story and amplify their intentions in the world.
Krystal Holm of Designed Life Studio On How Simplifying & Decluttering Your Life Can Make You… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.