You know you want less stuff but you just can’t seem to get on top of it. We’ll show you exactly why in this podcast episode.
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Resources: Minimalism Episode 15
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Hi, and welcome to the Made for Greatness podcast. I’m your host Sterling Jaquith. And today on episode 69, we’re talking about how your house steals your peace. So we talked about minimalism in episode 15, so that was quite a long time ago, but it’s such a great episode. And that’s where I talk about why Catholic minimalism is important and what it looks like. But today I wanna talk about all the ways that our house, not our home, our home is kind of like where heart lives and where we raise our family, but the actual stuff, the physical things, the house.
How it steals our peace, and we’re getting ready to do this. Lenten minimalism challenge. So I’ve been reworking all of our worksheets and re-filming the course, and I really wanted it to have so much more of a mindset focus because I think that’s where most of us get hung up because you can go to Pinterest and you can figure out how to organize a bathroom or how to create a capsule wardrobe or any of those things. But minimalism, when it comes to the mindset piece, all our decisions end up into three buckets. Okay. So the first bucket is super easy to get rid of, right? So for me, it’s, you know, trash things that are broken clothes that don’t even fit my youngest child, like things where I’m just like, yep, I’m ready to let go of that. I have zero drama about it. The next category, the next bucket that I think is also easy are the stuff that we know we wanna keep. I love, you know, my daughter’s violin, there are some books that I are my favorite and I will never get rid of them. Those things are also easy, right? It’s this middle bucket Where we want to make progress. We want to get rid of something and we just can’t quite do it. It’s like we’re watching ourselves and it looks like conflict tension. For example, you may open your closet and think, okay, I really wanna get rid of some clothes, but then start going through the process. Your brain talks you into keeping most of your clothes. And it’s usually not all, like, usually we’ll find like a tattered cardigan or something from 15 years ago. And we make a small pile of things to get rid of. But overall, you didn’t accomplish what you wanted, which was to have a closet that was paired down enough and organized enough that it’s just the things you actually wear. So not only was the closet stealing your piece before, but now as you’ve gone through this process, you’ve kind of broken trust with yourself. It’s been a yucky experience. You leave feeling kind of deflated or disappointed. And I think that’s because you went in on a practical level and I’ve done this many times, right. On a practical level without being prepared for the mindset piece. And so the mindset piece is where we slow down. We get into our bodies. So when I say, get into your body, what I mean is you really pay attention to your breathing, The tightness in your chest, the sinking feeling in your stomach. And you just notice, whoa, Sterling, Something’s going on for you right now. What is that? And this takes a lot of courage. You guys, This takes lot of willingness to be uncomfortable. And that’s why I think Focusing on a minimalism mindset is just the perfect thing that we could do for lent Because so many of us do the coffee thing or the chocolate thing or the sugar thing or the so social media thing. And those are not bad, But God desires that we live with peace. And for a lot of us coffee, isn’t stealing our peace. It’s our homes. It’s your closet. It’s your kid’s choice. It’s pantry, It’s your master bedroom, which is a catchall for everything. And it makes you feel terrible. Every time you go there. At the end of the day, It is very uncomfortable to sit with the mindset of our stuff. And the way we do it is we pay attention to our body. We notice when we’re having a negative reaction For me, it’s usually a clenching in my stomach And I just did this. I’ve been kind of filming ahead of time for you guys, cuz the, the challenge starts on February 28th. And what I wanted to do this time was to show you exactly how I do it. So I’m gonna share my master bedroom room, my office, and two bathrooms. I might add more, but I’m just, I wanted to keep it simple for 40 days. And so I went through my clothes recently and I noticed that My stomach was feeling clenched up about some of my clothes. And you guys, this is my job. I’ve been in doing minimalism for a long time. And so it’s, it surprises me sometimes still when I get to an item where I’m like, I never wear it, but my brain goes, but we have to keep it. And I’ve now learned to just slow down and sit with myself, Hey sweetheart, what’s going on? Well, I really love that sweater. It’s so beautiful. I love the color. I actually like the way I look in it. Yeah, I know, but why don’t we wear it? We never were. And I just sit with myself and I listen to my brain. Tell me a story. It’s gonna tell me a story about who I am as a mom, who I am as a woman about my weight loss journey, about my faith in life, About the things that I say I wanna do, but I don’t do, it’s gonna tell me a story. And that just shows me where my work is. It just shows me that I have some work to do. I’m believing something that isn’t true, cuz here’s what I can promise you. If you don’t have peace when you’re looking at your closet or your bathroom or the playroom, it is because you are believing something that isn’t true. You are believing lies because when we walk in the truth, when we walk in the light, when we are close with the Lord, The fruit of that is peace. When we don’t have peace, we’re believing lies. So you might be believing a lie about your body. Something’s wrong with your body. You’re not at the right size. If you just tried harder and you lost 15 pounds, then you’d be in these set of clothes and that’s what you really want. And that might feel terrible if you’ve been telling yourself that for five years, but you’re kind of telling the Lord that something’s wrong. Most something’s wrong with my body right now. Imagine saying that to him, imagine that he’s sitting on your bed, kind of smiling at you, watching you go through your closet, proud of you for being intentional about the things that you own and you turn to him and you say, I hate my body. I’m so ugly. This isn’t my right size. What do you think he will say? And for some of us it’s about money. I spent so much money on that. I told my husband, I would love it. I told myself I would love it. It was an $80 sweater or a $200 dress or whatever it is. And we know we don’t wear it and it doesn’t fit or it’s not in style or whatever the reason, but we don’t wanna let it go because of the money. So imagine turning to the Lord and saying that Lord, I spent this money. So I can’t get rid of it. I have to keep it As your worth come because of money cuz of money that you’ve spent and the things that you’ve acquired, the cost of losing your piece is not worth however much money you spent on that thing. And I’m using the closet an example, and just giving you a couple of these Identity issues or wounds that come up when we’re doing minimalism, I have a whole worksheet of questions that you can ask yourself, but you don’t have to deal with it right away. I want you to know that. What, what I wanna do in this Lenten minimalism challenge is I want to show you that peace in your home is possible. And I wanna empower you to see your stuff. That doesn’t mean we’re always ready to dig into it. I’ve shared that this year in 2022, my number one goal is to improve my marriage. So I’m gonna get to the craft area of my home. That’s a problem area for me. I have a lot of emotional things that come up. When I look at all the craft materials I’ve bought for me or the kids. And I might look at that and I might find some identity stuff. I might see that I really want to be a mom who does art with my girls, but I don’t. And I really want to be someone that knits or sews at least sometimes, or has the stuff, but I never do. And then it makes me feel silly that I’ve kept this sewing box or this felt material or this fleece for six years from house to house to house. And I’m just so embarrassed about it. And I don’t wanna get rid of it yet. I don’t wanna have to sit in that discomfort. I may notice all of that and just say, that’s okay. I’m gonna let that sit there for right now. I’m gonna deal with that in the future. Not in a brush it off way, not in a stick, my head in the sand way, but in a way that says I’m at peace with that not being resolved right now because I saw it. I opened it up. I found the story. I don’t like that story. I don’t wanna keep it, but I’m not gonna process it right now. I’m in the middle of writing a book. I’m gonna do this. Lenten Minimalism Challenge. And I’m working on my marriage. I’m choosing not to deal with the craft identity stuff right now. Do you see how that feels different? And then when I walk past our, art closet, It doesn’t steal my peace. Cause I know I’m going to get to it. I know I’m gonna tell myself the truth about it. And I know I’m going to deal with it. That’s where I want you to get to in your home where you, you either deal with the things that you can deal with. So I just went through my room and I love it. I woke up this morning and I was like, oh, it’s so beautiful and clean. And I really enjoyed it. And it didn’t take me that long, But I’m probably not gonna do the art stuff Maybe this summer. And I’m okay with that. And that’s what this Lenten Minimalism Challenge is gonna be about. It’s gonna be about Showing you that middle bucket, the stuff you want to change, but you’re not quite changing it, helping you understand why. And then you’re just gonna make one of two choices. You’re either going to do the work emotionally and mentally to shift some things around until you feel better about it. Then you’re gonna take care of that space or We’re gonna put it back on the shelf. It’s not scary. We’re just not gonna choose to do it right now. We don’t have to do everything every year. There are things that I want to do with life that I’m not going to do in 2022. And I’ve stopped telling myself lies about that. I’ve stopped telling myself, oh, you don’t have enough time. You’ll never get to that. You’re stuck in toddler land. I just have so much time. I mean, I’m gonna plan that way and then live as if I don’t right, but I’m gonna plan as if I, I can learn how to snowshoe next year. I can learn how to bake some things in three years, I’m at peace with who I am right now. And I’m able to see these things come up and say, yep, I’m gonna do that in the future. My favorite definition of minimalism is just being intentional about everything that we own. And so I’m gonna be intentional about having more art stuff than I want, but it’s in its place right now. And I will intentionally deal with it in the future. That’s very different than when you’re avoiding something. You close the closet, you don’t look at it and it feels panicky and scary. That’s how you know, you’re just not even thinking about it at all. We don’t want that. And so this lent, I just wanna invite you instead of giving up something that you do every day. One of the common things that we do for lent, I wanna at you to come find peace in your home, To look around and see which areas of my home cause me the most stress and overwhelm, where are they stealing my peace? And let’s tackle them from a mindset perspective. There are two different tracks that we’re going to have for this Lenten animalism challenge one. I will have a task every day and that’s the way I’ve always run the challenge before where I say like, okay, Wednesday, we’re doing shoes and Thursday, we’re doing the junk drawer. And I just give you kind of one area of your house to work on. And that’s kind of coming in more at the practical level and have a lot of tips for each of those areas. But the second option I wanna introduce this here is just one area in your home Where you just say, you know what, it’s my bedroom or my laundry room or the playroom Or Lord help you the garage. That’s, that’s a big one. And you just spend the entire time on one space or one category of things, maybe like books. And I love having the two different options because you’ll just know which one’s right for you. And like I mentioned, I’m gonna have kind of behind the scenes videos of me actually doing this in my office, in my bedroom and two of my bathrooms. And if I get through those, I’ll, I’ll probably add some more spaces after, but I wanna show you what it actually looks like. And you will see, I do not have an HGTV home. I have mostly Craigslist furniture and mismatching lamps and things like that. I have a beautiful kitchen. So you’ll see that I, to show you what minimalism really looks like, It’s six kids and homeschooling, And I want to invite you to be brave, to have courage, to be willing, to lift up the hood of your own mind and see what yuck stuff is in there To go through the suffering of discovering the lies that you’re believing about your, about the world, about God, about how he provides about forgiveness, About how we worry about what other people think of us. It is going to be real suffering to do that, But it’s gonna be the clean kind of suffering that we choose. I was just reading that in a book about trauma. I’m sure I’ll do an episode about that. Clean suffering versus dirty suffering. And I would say I would describe that as the suffering that God invites us into and we ch who’s on purpose versus when we just create our own drama and he doesn’t give us any grace for our imagined problems. I wanna invite you to step into the, the suffering of refinement, of burning away, Our attachment to this world and building a trusting and loving relationship. But the Lord, he loves you so much. He loves you just the way that you are. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He will give you everything you need in this moment. And in every moment going forward, let us choose to cultivate homes that speak to that truth, his goodness, his provision, his love and our trust in him. Join us in masters. We start the Lenten minimalism challenge on February 28th, And that’s when we’re gonna start getting ready. I’m a big fan of getting ready for things, having days to get ready for things. And then our kickoff workshop will be March 7th Until you’ll have the whole course, my book, not of this world, which you can also get on Amazon, but there’s a digital copy in the, in Masters. And we’re gonna talk about minimalism mindset. We’re gonna talk about the stories that come up when we look at our stuff and we’re gonna find the lies and we’re gonna weed them out and we’re gonna replace them with love and trust in the Lord so that when you wake up and you walk through your house, you feel peace. And I think that is a woman’s job is to cultivate peace in her home for her family to be the peace center of her home. And our goal is not to live like that all the time, right? Because no matter what your house looks like, your kids are still gonna be running around and throwing Legos on the floor and spilling their sippy cups and whatever it is, Right. But the piece of knowing that you have created your home in an intentional way, and you are not A victim of your stuff, We’re gonna show you how to do that. And I think it’s one of the most powerful things you could do with your time and your money and your energy and your brain space, this Lent. I think in the goodness of the church, one of the things that we have as a tradition, that’s kind of making a comeback is Ember days, Ember days are three days where we kind of fast and clean the house often in preparation for a big feast or holiday. And there are three days in every quarter That are the Ember days. And so coming up the spring Ember days are in March, March 11th, 12th, no, March 9th, 11th and 12th. There’s like a day. And then you skip a day and then there’s two more days. And so we especially will be Living in prayer is a community And focusing on our homes and making space for the Lord For those Lenten Ember days. If you wanna learn more about that, I’ll link that up. But I think in God’s goodness, he knows that we need this every quarter, every quarter, we need to clean out, our hearts and our minds and our homes. I love the rhythms of our Catholic faith. And I love that we’ve created a community of women who want to do that together. So please join us in masters for the Lenten Minimalism Challenge. We’re praying for you. We’re praying that you become the peace center of your home, even if it is a challenging process, But remember you were Made for Greatness.
![Anxiety never comes from the Lord. So the second I feel that tightness show up in my chest, I already know something true about myself. I am thinking about my life in a way that God does not want me to think about it. Period. Because if I were thinking about it the way He wants me to, I would be at peace. This episode is one question I want you to start asking faster than you are asking it right now. Not "Lord, take this away," but "Lord, what do you want me to know about this?" About this toddler. About my husband. About my body. About this house. I asked Him something this morning and He said, "You already know. You just doubt what I have already told you." Ooh, burn, Lord. We talk about why we are not reaching for Him sooner (we do not actually believe we could be at peace all the time), the grace you have to ask for before He hands it to you, what Fulton Sheen was doing in basically every talk he ever gave, and why Daniel in the lions' den and Mary at the foot of the cross were both at peace. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: The micro moment prayer: the second you notice tightness, throw your hands up and say "Lord, I invite you into this. Come be with me right now." Why anxiety is information and not a verdict. It tells you your thinking is off, not that your life is off The real reason we do not run to Him faster: we have never met a person who is at peace all the time, so we quietly decided it is not available to us Eight out of ten minutes. You will lose it. The win is how fast you come back Feeling powerless is the worst feeling there is, and being able to stay calm in any situation is one of the most powerful You are not done when you hear the sentence. Your job is to practice it, or your brain will spiral right back in two hours The gifts of the Holy Spirit were designed to be asked for. Wisdom, counsel, knowledge, understanding, fortitude, fear of the Lord. Ask Being at peace does not mean being peaceful. It means receiving. It means "this is okay right now and I can handle it" The surprise pregnancy test, the teenager going through it, the adult child who left the Church. You can be at peace today, in that EPISODE TIMELINE: (estimated at 5-minute marks, no timestamps in the transcript, confirm against audio) [00:00] – Hope when you feel anxious, trapped, stuck or frozen, and inviting the Lord into the micro moment [05:00] – "Lord, what do you want me to know about this?" Why anxiety never comes from Him, and what Mary has to do with our unbelief [10:00] – Eight out of ten minutes, and why staying calm is the most powerful you will ever feel [15:00] – Cheeky Jesus, the sentences He actually gives me, and writing them down so I can practice them [20:00] – My real morning (I do not pray first thing), redirecting my brain, and asking for grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit [25:00] – Fulton Sheen, the beatification, and why all his talks end the same way. At peace is not peaceful. Daniel, Mary, Joseph and the donkey [30:00] – Who I belong to, true freedom, and an invitation to the Catholic Mom Reset LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: Join the Catholic Mom Reset: www.catholicmomcalm.com/reset Fulton Sheen beatification, plus the conference with Arthur Brooks the day before (Sterling will have a table, come say hi): www.fultonsheenconference.com/ CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm](https://catholicmomcalm.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/CMC_Podcast_Ep_271_13-300x300.png)
![I am team planning. I am team house systems. We teach it in the membership and it is the very first thing we tackle in the Catholic Mom Reset, because looking at your next 90 days and making a plan is genuinely a gift to your future self. But if you took all of it away tomorrow, dropped me in a different house in a different town with no idea what the next 90 days held, I would be okay. I could walk around and have peace. That is the part I want for you. A lot of women tell me they are type A planners. There is a healthy version of that. There is also a version that gets built in a childhood full of chaos you could not control, or in a home where performing well was how you got love and attention. Both of those grow up into a woman who plans beautifully, and one of them is holding on with an iron grip. This episode is how to tell which one you are running on, the five minute healing work that sets the grip down, and the sentence I said to a mom on a coaching call that changed her whole face. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why the plan is not what makes you feel calm (you make a plan, then you think "I have a plan," and the thought is what creates safety in your body) The two childhoods that produce a hyper-planner: chaos you had no control over, and love you had to earn by performing The difference between planning that feels light and playful and planning you believe you cannot survive without Abraham walking up the mountain and the Israelites who never got the itinerary, and what peace looked like for both Tolerating uncertainty is a capacity you can grow, the same way a kid grows from 37 seconds to a minute and a half underwater The five minute memory work I use, sitting in the theater with the Lord while He tells you the truth about what really happened What I told the mom who was afraid that moving every two years would rob her kids of roots and stability EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – Why I wanted to do this episode, and why I am solidly team planning and team systems [05:00] – All brains hate uncertainty, the AI conversation nobody can predict, and the skill we can actually grow [10:00] – Your body feels your thinking, not your plan. The Israelites, and Abraham on the mountain [15:00] – The car breaks down. The husband's job might move you. How to answer your own brain [20:00] – Chaos versus performance, the grounded healthy version of you, and asking the Lord what we are doing today [25:00] – Bob Schuchts, inner child work, and revisiting a memory with Jesus in five minutes [30:00] – "You are their mom. You bring roots and stability everywhere you go." Protocols, and week one of the Reset LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: The Catholic Mom Reset (starts Sunday, September 6th, first live call Thursday, September 10th) Bob Schuchts books Brya Hannan book on inner child healing (do one chapter a month, it is deep work) Restore the Glory podcast with Bob Schuchts and Jake Khym Calm Catholic Kids: https://calmcatholickids.com CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH: Website: https://catholicmomcalm.com Connect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm](https://catholicmomcalm.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/CMC_Podcast_Ep_271_12-300x300.png)
!["People love change. They just hate transition." I heard Matthew Kelly teach that years ago and I think about it every single August. Because right now I'm getting a hundred emails from the school, two of my boys walked out today in socks with giant holes in the heels, and there's a lunchbox in this house that will not zip. If your body is fritzing out over start dates and supply lists and shoe sizes, nothing has gone wrong. You're not in the change yet. You're in the transition, and I want to give you the exact words to say to your own brain while you're standing in the middle of it. Plus a summer update: our little red golden retriever, the sickness that took my husband down, walking in 87 degrees on purpose, 200 Fulton Sheen rosaries, and the press-on nails I just ordered off an internet ad. WHAT WE COVER IN THIS EPISODE: Why change and transition are two different things, and why the yucky feeling belongs to the transition and not to your decision What to tell your brain when it starts second-guessing (the feeling is bad, so the choice must be wrong) and why that's backwards Who you are in a transition is not who you're going to be, whether that's back-to-school or pregnancy or a move you didn't choose The two weeks plus two weeks rhythm I use: get ready, live it, evaluate at the end of the day, tweak, then settle into the change Giving equal air time, because your brain will spend all day on what could go wrong and about nine seconds on what you're excited about The folder-and-calendar hack that keeps the school email avalanche from hanging over you every hour of the day Looking for what was good in a hard season, even when the good thing is just the timing of it EPISODE TIMELINE: [00:00] – Mid-August, the nesting itch, and going from wild open summer to ordered fall [05:00] – Annie Avonlea, a sickness that hit everyone one at a time, and what was actually good about it [10:00] – Walking in the heat on purpose, France prep, and giving equal air time to the excitement [15:00] – Making Fulton Sheen rosaries, why moms need work that gets finished, and yes, the press-on nails [20:00] – "People love change. They just hate transition." The emails, the socks, the lunchbox that won't zip [25:00] – Talking to your brain in the transition, and the four weeks it actually takes to settle [30:00] – The email folder hack, and having peace today in the middle of all of it LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: Join the Catholic Mom Reset: www.catholicmomcalm.com/reset Calm Catholic Kids: https://calmcatholickids.com Fulton Sheen beatification conference: https://fultonsheenconference.com/ CONNECT WITH STERLING JAQUITH ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/catholicmomcalm](https://catholicmomcalm.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/CMC_Podcast_Ep_271_11-1-300x300.png)