On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 18 phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms about home organization and decluttering.
You'll be learning vocabulary like hoard, weed out, purge, lighten the load, and more.
Let's get to it. Hey there, welcome to the RealLife English with Gaby podcast.
I'm your host, Gaby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City.
My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs idioms and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.
Are you ready to improve your English skills?
Let's jump right in. Hey, hey, hey, greetings from New York City.
Welcome to episode number 62. This episode is all about home organization and decluttering.
And it was actually inspired by the events of my personal life currently.
If you don't know decluttering, don't worry.
I will explain it shortly. On my end here in New York City, my family and I are doing well, trying to enjoy the summer.
This summer hasn't really been that great of a summer.
It's either been extremely hot or extremely rainy, but we have been getting a few really nice days.
Thank you. The main thing we've been doing, though, is waiting for the arrival of our daughter next month.
Pretty exciting, right? For those of you who don't know, I'm a mom of two boys.
Jacob is seven and a half. And Miles turns four today, actually, the day that this episode airs.
And I'm pregnant with a little baby girl arriving in August of 2025.
It's been pretty crazy over here moving furniture around, buying new things, a lot of decluttering. throwing things away and giving things away.
While I was recording the previous episode, This episode idea popped into my head, so I switched the order around of episodes a little bit because...
I realized that home organization and decluttering, it's a really great topic.
On the podcast, we've talked about cleaning your home before, but organizing and cleaning are very different.
And I mean, a lot of the times they happen together, but the actual topics are different.
This is a very common thing for people to do at any time of year.
Organizing your home and getting rid of things you don't need is a very common task to do between seasons when something happens.
Big is happening. I'm not sure about your culture, but in American culture, We do this a lot between seasons.
When we switch our clothes from summer clothes to winter clothes, for example... or we prepare for the new school year or a holiday season.
It's very common to do these things. Or for some of you, when something big is happening in your life, you're going off to a new university, starting a new job, things like that.
In our case, we're doing it because we're trying to make space for a new tiny little human to join us.
Just to give you some fun updates here, in light of everything that's going to be happening in the next month.
There are actually a lot of updates for English with Gabby.
Firstly, I'll be taking off one month from the podcast once the baby arrives It'll probably be part of August and part of September.
So maybe the last two weeks of August and the first two weeks of September.
Or it may end up being the entire month of September.
Let's see how things go. If you're on my email list, you'll definitely be updated on what's happening.
I'll also be posting some things on Instagram as well.
Also, something I'm very excited about that you'll hear more about, I'll be launching a new mini course called English Through Media.
I'm so excited that it's finally ready. It's a mini course that I created that was inspired from a course that I've taught. here in New York City for maybe about four to five years.
It's where I use media like TV clips, movie clips, music, podcasts, celebrity interviews, etc. to teach English.
You've heard me say this often, but media is kind of like... a little shortcut to learning English because There's so much vocabulary, grammar, listening practice.
There's so much packed in one episode of a TV show, for example, and it gives you definitely an advantage when you study English.
We'll talk about this in the future, but I'm very excited that that's coming.
And then I'll also be launching a new website.
I found a new company or site or tool, you can call it, to manage the business.
So hopefully everything will be looking a lot nicer, easier to follow, etc.
So you'll notice a lot of differences. Hopefully, they'll be for the better.
So stay tuned for updates because the last part of 2025 should hopefully be very exciting.
Also, before we continue, I just wanna remind you that there's a study guide waiting for you. along with the episode that will give you all the tools you need to remember everything that you hear in the episode. so that you can become confident enough to use all of the new vocabulary in your daily English.
To get that study guide click the link in the episode description.
Alright, so now, back to the episode. Let me introduce you to the new vocabulary that you'll be learning in this episode.
First, we have clutter, make room for, clear out, junk, Pile up Sort through Let go of Hang on to Give away box up, hoard, weed out, tidy up, pack up, nesting, minimalist or minimalism, purge, and lighten the load.
Now I'm going to read you a story that has all of the vocabulary I just mentioned in real life contexts.
See if you can guess the meanings of these words based on the context they're used in.
Then afterwards, we'll review the definitions together and I'll give you more examples.
Okay, here we go. When Aisha and Leo found out that they were expecting their first baby...
They were excited, but also a little overwhelmed.
Their small apartment was full of clutter, and they knew they needed to make room for the baby.
We really have to clear out the spare room, Aisha said one morning.
It's been our dump zone for years. Leo nodded.
Yeah, it's where all of our junk has piled up.
So over the weekend, they got to work. First, they sorted through old boxes. filled with books, papers, and random electronics.
Some things were easy to let go of. like old chargers that didn't work anymore.
But other things were harder. Aisha wanted to hang on to her high school notebooks, but Leo reminded her.
You haven't looked at those in 10 years.
So they decided to make three piles. Keep...
Throw away and donate. They gave away bags of clothes and toys to a local charity and boxed up the items they wanted to store.
This is harder than I thought, Aisha said, wiping sweat from her forehead.
Why do we have so much stuff? I think we both hoard things without meaning to, Leo laughed.
Over the next few days, they continued the process.
They weeded out old dishes from the kitchen tidied up the living room, and packed up winter clothes to put in storage.
Aisha started nesting too. She began decorating the nursery, organizing baby clothes by size, and even labeling drawers.
I want the baby's room to feel calm, she said.
I'm kind of going for a minimalist vibe.
They did a big purge of their closet and finally let go of clothes they never wore.
With every bag they donated or threw away, they felt lighter.
It feels good to lighten the load, Leo said, stretching after a long day.
This place already feels more peaceful. By the time the baby arrived, the apartment looked completely different.
Everything had its place. The nursery was cozy and ready.
Aisha and Leo were tired, but proud. They had made room in their home and in their hearts for the newest member of their family.
The End All right, so let's talk about these words and definitions.
The first word is clutter. Now clutter is a huge word that we use here in the United States.
And even the title has declutter, which is the opposite.
So let's talk about this quickly. clutter is when you have too many things in one place.
It makes things messy or disorganized. Clutter is a noun.
It's a thing. Like you could say, we have so much clutter in my apartment.
The adjective form would be cluttered, like this room looks very cluttered.
So the title declutter or decluttering is actually a verb and it means to remove all of the clutter.
So an example of clutter would be, there's so much clutter in the hallway that I can't even walk through.
Next up we have a three-word phrasal verb, make room for.
They wanted to make room for the baby. Make room for means to create space for something new.
For example, we need to make room for the baby's crib in the bedroom.
Next up, we have the phrasal verb clear out.
Clear out means to remove unwanted things from a place.
So if you have a room and there's a lot of things in the room, you want to remodel it, you're going to want to clear it out, for example.
I spent the weekend clearing out the closet.
We often use it in this context for storage or closet space.
Next up, we have the word junk. I'm sure you've heard this many times before.
Junk is a noun. And it's old or broken things that are just not useful anymore.
So if you have things that you can't use, maybe they're broken, they're old, we consider that junk.
For example, this drawer is full of junk that I don't use anymore.
Next up we have the phrasal verb pile up.
Pile up means to collect or increase in amount.
We also use the word accumulate when something accumulates. oftentimes you pile things up and you create a mess.
So imagine you have a lot of English words books, English textbooks, English course books, you start to put them on top of each other.
And then you could say, wow, my books are really piling up.
For example, The dirty laundry keeps piling up because I haven't done the wash.
By the way, in this example, you'll notice we have the wash or laundry.
We use both of those expressions. Next up, we have another phrasal verb.
So we're going to have a lot of phrasal verbs in this episode, which is really cool.
The next one is sort through. This is to look at a group of things and decide what you want to keep and what you want to throw away.
So I have a bunch of clothes I want to sort through them.
I want to look at each of them and make two piles.
What do I want to keep? What do I want to throw out?
What do I want to give away? Maybe add a third pile.
And that's how you heard it in the story that they had three piles. keep, donate, or throw away.
For example, she sorted through her makeup and threw out all of the old products.
Next up, we have a three-word phrasal verb, let go of.
This is to stop keeping or holding on to something.
Oftentimes it's special to you in some way.
You don't want to get rid of it. So you keep it, but it's finally time to let go of it.
For example, it's hard to let go of my childhood toys, but I don't need them anymore.
Next up, we have the phrasal verb hang onto.
This is to keep something often for emotional reasons.
Like I'm just hanging on to this thing We also sometimes use hold on to in the same way, same context.
So hang on to, for example. I'm gonna hang on to this photo album from college.
I don't wanna let it go. It has emotional meaning to me.
Next up, we have the phrasal verb giveaway.
I'm sure you've heard this one. This is very common.
Giveaway is to give something to someone for free.
So when you have things in piles, Sometimes you want to throw them away, but sometimes you want to donate them.
You don't want to waste them. Here in the United States, we have these Popular groups, they're neighborhood groups.
They have an app, but they're often on Facebook as well.
And they're called Buy Nothing Group. And basically, if, for example, my son is done with a toy and I don't want to throw it away, I go on, I take a picture and I say, hey, guys, this is free. come and collect it.
And you would be shocked at how many free things people give away and trade.
It's awesome. It's a way to reduce waste.
This is a big thing in the United States.
Sometimes people put things right outside of their house. so that other people can come and take them because we don't like to waste products and things like that.
So giveaway, for example, we gave away our old sofa to a friend.
Next up, we have the phrasal verb box up.
Box up means to put something in a box and... seal it, close it, usually for storage or moving.
For example, I boxed up the winter clothes. and put them in the attic.
The attic is the highest level of the house.
Usually it's right above the top floor and it's smaller.
It's very common in American homes. Next up, we have the verb hoard.
Hoard is to collect and keep too many things. even if you don't need them.
In the United States, we have a lot of people who hoard things.
We even have a TV show called Hoarders. Basically, you wanna keep everything.
You never wanna get rid of anything. And so your house just has so much clutter.
So some people might say, oh, I'm a hoarder.
I don't like to get rid of things. but it's very bad.
For example, my uncle hoards newspapers and never throws them away. hoarding newspapers is actually very common in the United States it's not one of the negatives really of hoarding people who hoard everything It's seen as being very problematic, but hoarding one or two things, not too terrible.
Next up, we have the phrasal verb weed out.
Weed out means to remove things that you don't want or need.
We use weeded out for people as well. Like you can say, if you are a manager of a company, You want to weed out the bad employees.
So you give assignments that will show you who are the strongest, who are the weakest, for example.
With possessions and with organization, there's a pile or a group of things that and you go through them and you weed them out.
You take the ones you don't want, you don't need.
For example, we weeded out the broken toys. from the toy box.
Next up, we have Tidy Up. Tidy up is to quickly make a place neat and clean.
So if you're going to have guests, in 30 minutes, for example, like your sister calls, hey, can I stop by?
Oh my gosh, I have to tidy up. I have to quickly make a place look neat, organize things.
For example, can you tidy up your room before dinner?
Next up, we have the phrasal verb pack up.
Pack up means to put things into bags, put them into boxes.
You're going to move them. You're going to store them.
They're going to switch locations. Sometimes you can say pack up.
So in a classroom, for example, I'd say, all right, students, you can go ahead and pack up.
We're not going to be. doing any more work for the rest of class.
So put things in your bags, take them home and But in the context of organization, it's similar to box up, except pack up. is not specifically boxes.
It can be any kind of containers, bags, etc.
For example, we packed up all the kitchen stuff before remodeling.
Next up, we have nesting. This is preparing and organizing your home for a new baby.
I want you to think of a bird and their home, which is a nest, a bird's nest.
This is where we get this from. Nesting is preparing your nest.
Oftentimes we call our home a nest. And for many pregnant women, nesting is something that we do in our third trimester. before the baby arrives.
We wanna make things look pretty, we wanna organize, we wanna prepare.
For example, she started nesting during her last month of pregnancy.
Next up we have a minimalist. This is a noun.
This is a person who likes to live with only a few things.
The practice of this is called minimalism.
It's very trendy right now in the United States. with people who want to get rid of most things and they only want to keep what they need.
A minimalist is a person who prefers to live like that.
For example, after moving to a small apartment, he became a minimalist.
Next up we have the verb to purge. To purge is to get rid of a lot of things at once.
Decluttering is really when you remove the clutter.
Maybe sometimes you can move things to storage.
But purging is getting rid of things. Like maybe you throw out a lot of things at once, for example.
I did a big purge of my closet and donated five bags of clothes.
And lastly, we have to lighten The load.
To lighten means to reduce the weight of something.
And a load is like a big package. So lighten the load is to reduce the amount of things...
You have things that you're carrying, okay?
For example, getting rid of old furniture really helped us lighten the load before moving.
Lighten the load is an idiom that we use very often.
And you can also use this in an emotional and mental capacity as well.
So if you're going through a very difficult time and your friend says, why don't you talk to me?
Let's hang out so you can lighten the load.
So this can be physical, mental, emotional.
Well, guess what? You just learned 18 awesome phrasal verbs, slang words, and idioms about home organization and decluttering.
Now I have some homework for you. Step one is to go download the study guide if you haven't already.
The next bit of homework that I have for you is to pick 7 to 10 of the vocabulary from this episode and make it your goal to use them this week.
You can write them in a journal and make your own sentences.
You can record yourself in an audio file using them out loud.
You can try to use them with a friend. You can even teach these words to someone else because teaching helps you to remember these words even more.
However you decide to use these words, that doesn't really matter as long as you do it. so that you can use these words in your English confidently.
Well, That's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast.
Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning.
Also, I'd love to hear from you. So please leave me a review.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
