Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - After 20 Years, I Turned My Biggest Decluttering Regret Into a 1-Weekend Solution—The Fastest Method | Clutterbug Episode #335

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Hey Clutterbugs! Struggling to declutter your home? The co-founder of a $300M clutter removal company who's cleared out 100,000+ homes reveals the #1 mistake people make, and it’s one I made 20 years ago. If you've been decluttering slowly for months (or years) and still feel stuck, this episode will change everything. After helping hundreds of thousands of families let go of their clutter over the past 20 years, Nick Friedman (co-founder of College HUNKS Hauling Junk & Moving) has seen it all, from overflowing garages to full-blown hoarding situations. He was the very first entrepreneur ever featured on Shark Tank, appeared on Undercover Boss, and built a national brand from a borrowed cargo van in college. But more importantly? He's witnessed the exact moment people finally decide to let go . . . and what happens when they do. I spent an entire year of my life decluttering my own home, and I still wish I’d called a dumpster and changed my life on day one. Nick backs this up with insights from the field, explaining why the "rip off the band-aid” approach can work better for some people than slow, painful purging. Nick's company: https://www.collegehunkshaulingjunk.com/ Melissa's makeover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YqVuXSfl9g Want to get organized? Learn 6-Step The Clutterbug Method: https://clutterbug.thinkific.com/courses/Clutterbug-Method You can find more Clutterbug content here: Main YouTube Channel: @Clutterbug Website: http://www.clutterbug.me TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/ #clutterbug #podcast #Decluttering #Cleaning #ADHD #LifeHacks #HomeHacks #DeclutterWithMe #CleaningMotivation #StorageSolutions #MelRobbinsPodcast #JunkRemoval #Hoarding Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I only have one regret when it comes to organizing and decluttering my home. And I've talked about it before, but I'm going to say it again. I regret not just renting a dumpster or having a junk removal company come in and starting fresh earlier. It took me almost an entire year of slowly picking away and decluttering until I got to a point where I could organize. And I wish I could have fast-tracked that. I wish I could have just jumped into.

the point of like setting up systems and really loving my space and slowly working on making it better. It is impossible to organize when you have excess. And decluttering is a long, emotional, tedious time-consuming process that honestly we can shortcut. I mean, I do even feel lucky that I got to a point in the decluttering process where I could start organizing because most people declutter on a weekend one time feel completely overwhelmed and then that's it. They might get half of the garage cleared out or maybe even the whole garage, but all the closets and attic and everything else are still full. And then it refills again. We turn it into this project where we make a small dent and it was so big and so hard we give up. And that's just the reality of it. So

what if we could have a year's worth of decluttering in a weekend? Like, What if we could rip off the band-aid and just start fresh with less stuff and just a new life, a clutter-free life, almost instantly, like a magic wand? That is what I wish I would have done. And I know it's a big ask, but I'm wondering if any of you listening to this, hearing me say that and imagining this for yourself, does it make you excited or scared? If it makes you excited, I think you're ready. If it makes you scared, then you, you big.

baby step it little like one thing at a time, one thing a day. There's a difference between being ready and not. But if you're ready, what if tomorrow you could start fresh with a clutter-free home? Last week on my main YouTube channel, I put out an incredible video about a hoarding situation. I wouldn't even classify it as full hoarding, but a very cluttered space. Melissa was the client that I worked with virtually. And I wasn't there to help her. She was doing this on her own, and it took her 239 days to declutter essentially one room in her home. Eight months, you guys, eight months to declutter one room. It was a living, like a living room kitchen combo together, and she really only focused on the living room area.

And that's how long it took piece by piece, one thing at a time, slowly just peeling layers. It was a huge job. I'm so proud of her for doing it. And I think she needed to be in the right mind frame in the beginning and do it slow. But I can tell you this, a month in, she would have killed to just have a dumpster or a junk removal come. But it was so much. Like the quantity was so much. She only had one vehicle.

She could only take a truck load at a time. It was this lengthy process because she had to do it herself. she had to load everything. She had to sort. She had to carry it. She had to transport it. That's what took so long. She had already made the decision about all these things could go. The time-consuming part was actually removing it. Like imagine she had a dumpster in her, or imagine a person came in and she could just point. Now, she would have had to go through and sort still some of the things. But what if she could have sorted and just put it in the lawn and not had to worry now about disposing? If Melissa, didn't have to worry about how to dispose of everything. If she didn't have to pack everything up and take the trash to the dump and find a way to take the donation, some of the more big things, too, finding a way to dispose of all of this stuff. If she could have just said, this can go, this can go, this can go, put it in a pile, it would have cut her workload in half, at least, or more. And if she had someone there in an appointment to hold her accountable,

I think it would have gone even faster because Melissa had to self-motivate. Melissa had to decide every day. She had to wake up every day and say, today is the day I'm going to find things to leave. And it's easy to say maybe I'll do it tomorrow. It's easy to say, well, you know, I'm not feeling well. Maybe I'll wait to the weekend or maybe I'll wait till next week. And before you know it, a month has gone by and you haven't done anything at all.

But if someone's showing up, you're accountable to them. And I think there's real power and magic in that too. I'm going to be really honest about Melissa's makeover. I was, I did not edit it. Watching back the edit, I realized I was really tough on her, especially in the beginning. And I think I had already made up my mind before I even had my first meeting with her that she was going to fail. I had decided by looking at the pictures in the video that there was absolutely no way that she could do this without professional. help and I felt almost resentful. It was my producer's idea to come up with this. So usually I vet

everybody that I work with and I do a hoarder's test and I get to know them and make sure that they're ready to let go before I agree to help them so that it isn't, you know, a waste of both of our time. I don't want my client to feel like a failure and I certainly don't want to be in a position where I have to say you're not ready. So I make sure people are ready before I, even work with them so they can succeed. So they're happy. So they're not wasting their time. But my producer convinced me to gather people I had never spoken with, never seen their places, and live during a live YouTube video, show you these spaces and let you vote and pick a winner live, having vetted none of them. And I didn't even pick the people who submitted,

my producer Heidi took care of all of this and I saw the photos of one space and I just was like, please no, don't vote for this person. Please no, please, please, please, please no. But here we are during the live. Almost every single one of you voted for her because she needed the help because you couldn't see the floor. You couldn't see the furniture. It was just stacks upon stacks of who knows what. and I knew by the photos that a hoarder lives here. And I wasn't able to do a hoarding test. And I wasn't able to see if they were actually ready to let go. And it was terrifying for me because I expected failure even before we started.

And that was a mistake. I mean, in hindsight, judging her was a huge mistake because not only did she succeed, she did it by herself without professional health, but she did a better job than I would have done had I gone to her home, which means it's going to last, which means her life is changed. She is forever a tidy and organized person. And she did that without any external help at all. When I watched the first cut of Melissa's makeover, I was like, wow, Cass, you seem like a B-I-T-C-H. You nasty with her. Because again, I was just, I laid the expectations out. I'm like, you have to get rid of 75 to 80% of your stuff. It was probably

more than that, but I just laid it out. And I was like, I just didn't hold back any punches. I questioned why she would want to keep stuffed animals. I, as she was going through her things, I'm like, you don't need that. That's ridiculous. And that is usually not how I am with clients. I was tough on her because I guess I felt like that was the only way to know if she was going to actually do it. Eight months of meeting with her, it would have killed me if she didn't succeed. And I did not know if it was going to be a success until the very last meeting. So going back to what I talked about in the beginning, it's the shortcut, the dumpster, the junk company. I think for Melissa, day one, it would not have been helpful. But by day 40, when she had

strengthen that muscle and she was like really getting rid of stuff, having a dumpster or having someone come in and haul things out for her would have been a game changer. She would have taken me up on that offer. I can promise you that because it would have shortcuted the process. It would have allowed her to not worry about how to dispose of her things and just focus on what can leave. Like it would have knocked her decision fatigue down and the guilt and the shame about do I to clutter this to a good family or do I donate this or do I rinse this out and recycle it?

All of that would have been gone. She only would have had to focus on yes, this stays or this can go. I wish I could have done that for her. But guess what? We can do that for you. So that's why today we're talking to Nick Friedman. Nick is the co-founder of the crazy successful junk removal. College honks removing junk. Is he a hunk? Well, you'll have have to see in a second. Know that he started this 20 years ago, but I would not guess that man was 48 years old. He must be almost, listen, not the point. The point is he has helped hundreds of thousands. I'm not even kidding. Hundreds of thousands of families declutter their spaces. And so he is an expert not just on like stuff and clutter, but he's an expert on what motivates people to let go.

Like, why do they finally make the decision to get stuff out and what kind of stuff are they getting out and the emotional aspect of it? Do they have regrets? These are all the type of questions we are going to talk to Nick about today. Hi, Nick. Welcome to the Clutterbug podcast. Thank you for having me. Great to be here. I just want to jump right in because I don't know if this is true, but I heard a rumor. You were on the very first episode of Shark Tag. I was. That is a true fact. We were on the very first episode of the very first season. So it was the premiere episode. It started as the pilot. And believe it or not, we were actually not even pitching our primary business college hunks hauling junk. We were going to pitch a sister company and call it college foxes packing boxes, which kind of had an organizing slant to the business proposition. But the sharks weren't interested because it didn't exist yet. So they made us an offer in our junk remote. and moving business, college hunks, we ended up turning it down. We really didn't know these sharks were going to become TV celebrities. We had no idea who they were before we went into the pitch because, again, episode one. But really cool experience and really glad we got to do that. And here we are still talking about it to this day. Yeah, it's also awesome. And it's a good thing you turned them down because you did not need them. You are so successful without shark tanks. Thank you. Yeah, you know, it's always easy to try to, you know, second guess when you look backwards

in your rear view, my sister, the way she puts is like when you're walking forwards, you're crossing the stream, you're feeling out for where the rocks are. When you're looking back, you're able to sort of like say whether or not you stepped on the right rock or should have stepped on a different one. Maybe one was a little more slippery than you thought it was going to be. I feel like most people know the name, college hunks. But is there, is there like a story, an origin story here that maybe some people haven't heard of? It started from very humble beginnings and it did start in college, hence the name. So my best friend and I, we were, heading into our senior year of college. And his mom actually had a furniture store. And she had

this beat up cargo van from her furniture store. It was a small, you know, private furniture store in the DC area. And she used to always get people asking her to haul away people's old furniture or in some cases their clutter or junk when she would be delivering their new furniture. And so she offered us to borrow the van. And then she kind of jokingly looked at us and said, you guys could be the college hunks who hauled junk. And we kind of laughed about it at first. And then we were like, you know, that's not real people typically associate with moving or junk removal. It was kind of a pattern interrupt to from a branding perspective. And so we did that that first summer. We just put the name on computer printout flyers. And I realized very quickly, people had a need for this service.

They thought the name was playful and catchy. And, you know, most college kids would go on to do something in the quote unquote real world after they graduate. But we had a very brief experience in the real world and felt very unfulfilled. And so we circled back to this business idea that we had done in college and said, you know what, let's make it a year-round venture. So I describe it as a 20-year overnight success. It's been a long journey for us to get to where we are today. Do you ever get pushback for your name? Because I love the college hunk part, but hauling junk, a lot of people don't want to think of their belongings as junk. And I define junk as something maybe differently than you do. But I'm curious, like, what your definition of junk is and if you

ever have a pushback on the name. It's cute, though, and it rhymes. Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah. So, So really the name was part of the original branding, right, bestowed on us by my best friend's mom. And I think for us, we think of junk, whether it's clutter, physical clutter, stuff that really, at the end of the day, it's stuff you no longer want or it no longer serves you. And yes, it might have kind of maybe a negative connotation historically. But I think in the broader sense of what we do, it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek, it's playful, it rhymes with hunks. So that's kind of why it became, you know, part of who we are. And when you think of junk, it's just, it's getting rid of the old or the stuff that's no longer serving me. And, you know, it could be, you know, as we always know, somebody's junk could be somebody else's treasure.

So that's why we position ourselves to donate, recycle as much as we can per the, you know, clients' recommendations or requests. And we actually made hunks an acronym. It stands for honest, uniform, nice, knowledgeable service. So in that case, we kind of redefine what hunks stands for. And I think we're kind of doing that with junk as well in terms of, you know, really it's what people no longer. want in their home or their office or their space that no longer serves them. We're here to help people remove that. Wait a minute.

I'm suddenly disappointed. So the people who, they're not like buff beefcake, hunks? Like, we're not getting. We were on the truck. That was the definition of hunks was the traditional sense. But then we got kind of, we were like, hey, we're going to, we got 4,000 employees all around the country, you know, providing this service. We can't, you know, please everybody with the physical side of it.

So we need a better acronym. It became our brand promise. the honest uniform, nice knowledgeable service. We do still have a lot of physical hunks in the traditional sense as well. So we've been very rare that we've had people complain that they weren't hunky enough because they usually give us some grace on that one. I love it. You know, we were doing all the work ourselves.

So we had, we actually went, we bought a 1-800 number to try to make ourselves look bigger. It was still routed to our cell phone. And so, you know, we'd be driving the truck and people would call the 800 number to complain about erratic driving. And then I'd be in the, I'd be in the driver's seat saying, oh, yeah, well, you know, we will fire those guys when they get back to the office. You know, thank you for reporting that to us. It was you. It was me all along. So probably fired ourselves at least three or four times that first number before we realize, hey, if we're ever going to have another truck, let alone another

location, we've got to start kind of systemizing how we do things. And as you know, systems are everything when it comes to whether it's business, organization, or or otherwise. Yeah. You, I mean, you've, you've probably seen some things. You've been in a lot of homes, especially people dealing with clutter, I love to ask this question for people who experience this, because I have also experienced this, but not even close to the level you have. Is there something that you find kind of surprising? Or do you have an insight with people who are struggling with clutter that may be over the past 20 years? I'm putting you on the spot here.

But that you find is not what you initially suspected. Like for me, I always assumed people who had a lot of clutter, just like myself, when I had a lot of code, I'm like, oh, they're lazy or they just, you know, but it's so, the hardest working people sometimes have the most stuff. Have you found sort of a pattern or an insight or something surprising with all the cluttered homes you've seen? As you know, there's a wide scale of people's attachments to their belongings and whether it's emotional or physical attachments or just they've placed a value on it and they don't

want to let it go or in some cases they just allow it to take it. up space in their home that then creates that angst and worry or stress. And so, you know, we've stepped whether it's into a high-end home that just, you know, they still can't park the car in the garage because it's full with, you know, old equipment or boxes or furniture that they haven't let go of or, you know, obviously in the extreme sense and or extreme cases, we've walked into hoarder homes where things haven't been, you know, touched or tossed in years. And we need hazmat suits to be able to navigate the very tight hallways that are packed to the, you know, the shoulders with newspapers. I think in every case, it's almost like an emotional release that you see when

people finally sort of come to grips or come to terms with sort of the letting go. And whether it's an attachment to the past or it's an attachment to this nostalgia that they've, you know, associated with this item. And we've seen it kind of on both sides of our business because, you know, on the moving side, it's, we've heard that it's been reported, study that moving is number three next to death and divorce as the most stressful time in somebody's life. And usually when there's a life event like a death or divorce. There's also a move involved. And then junk removal, as you know, is created, you know,

shown to create stress and angst as it takes up, you know, physical space. It actually clutters people's, you know, mental space as well. And so we've sort of seen both the release and relief of, you know, a stressful time of moving, turning into a less stressful experience as well as the stress of the physical clutter kind of being released and turning into almost like a, like a sigh of a physical sigh of letting go. go. And obviously, also when people are moving, that's usually when they come face to face with the stuff that they no longer need. It's not until, in many cases, people are in transition where they're like, you know, why are we moving this to our new home or new apartment or new fill in the blank? You know, we need to have us donated or disposed of or recycled or, you know, any other way of letting go. One of the things we have to be mindful of is the mental state that our clients are in. Some of them might be stressed simply because they're in transition. Others might be stressed because they're letting go of something. And, you know, we might look at, our guys might look at a piece of furniture or, you know, a piece of equipment and think it's just, quote unquote, junk.

But to the person that's getting rid of it, it has memories attached. It has, you know, emotional or monetary value just even perceptually in their mind. But I remember when we started the business, I was like, you know, can this business really be sustainable? Are we really, you know, that much of a consumer society that we just continue to accumulate and accumulate. And I thought at some point, surely there's going to be sort of come to a head. where people are going to just, you know, stop buying new stuff and, and they'll just sort of settle down with the stuff that they have. But even, you know, as I've moved into adulthood and, you know, in parenthood and I see the Amazon boxes that, you know, show up every day on my doorstep,

it's, uh, it's just, you know, it's just an interesting concept as we acquire more. You have to have either someplace to put it or be willing to, you know, part ways with it. Yeah. And I always thought, I just need a bigger house. And what I found with myself and my clients is you grow to your fish bowl. We're like a goldfish. You know, we just fill a bigger space. Like, that is not the solution. That's right. One thing I notice over and over when I go to someone's home is the shame at the door. So even though I'm an expert and I help people to clutter all the time, every client's home I go to, they think they are the most cluttered. Or they're just like they don't even want to open the door, which is probably why they haven't called before.

Have you seen this as well? Like, are people apologizing for the mess? We absolutely have seen that. And it's, you know, it's interesting because this is how we have to train our frontline employees to be so compassionate and empathetic that we're not just hauling somebody's junk away. Like, we're walking into an emotional situation. Most people's homes are the most sacred spaces.

And they're letting a complete stranger into that home to handle their belongings. If it's a move, we're taking them to another location. If it's a junk hall, we're hauling the, them away. And to your point, it probably took them a little bit of a confidence ramp to get to the point of being able to say, okay, I'm going to let these complete strangers who I've never met, come in and handle my stuff. And so we've absolutely seen the scenarios where folks are kind of almost like insecurely apologizing for the mess or for having to get rid of the stuff. But we have, what's interesting there is you do see the shift as the items are getting cleared out.

They move from sort of like insecurity or, you know, a little bit of shame, I would say, to sort of confidence and relief would probably be the shift in the emotional state. And so I think that's what is exciting for me as a founder as an entrepreneur to be able to sort of deploy that solution across the country. But absolutely, we've seen that take place. I love that. You know my favorite thing about what you do is you take it away. Because in the beginning, I used to help people to clutter. They would make a big pile. They would identify the things to go.

And then it would be up to them to dispose of it. Six months later, five years later, it's still sitting in a pile. And the worst thing is sometimes they'll have regret or second guess it and go back in and take things out, even in between like the declutter process and coming back to organize. So now I remove the donations in the trash. I take it with me as part of my service. because otherwise there's just, it's just more work. But you take care of everything. But that being said, do you, are there people who have regrets?

Are there people who get caught up in the excitement, like urge to purge? And then say, oh, actually, no, I do want to keep that. Or are they just so thrilled to have less junk? I think it's the latter. I think in most cases, when people call us to haul their junk away, they're so relieved by the end of it, that they just feel like they just, you know, it's like you sat in the sauna. It might be a little bit discomforting, you know, at some point, but, you know, when you're all sitting done, you just feel a lot better afterwards. And I think that's kind of, there's sort of

this therapeutic relief component that falls into it. The only time that actually popped in my head as you were asking, it was actually more of a unique situation. It was a divorce situation. So the woman was getting rid of her ex-husband's stuff that was still in the home that they were living in. And so she called us out. We loaded up in the truck and we were hauling it away. And I guess the husband didn't want it to be thrown away. So that was the regret. As the wife was throwing it away, the ex-husband didn't want to. So he ended up calling us and intercepted the truck before it reached the disposal facility and had us reroute to donate it to his new apartment. So we ended up getting paid twice in that scenario because once for the junk removed by the ex-wife and once for the

delivery by the ex-husband. But that's not a typical situation. Obviously, a little bit more unique. But no, I think most of the time, once people come to the sort of mental, over the mental hurdle that we're going to get rid of this stuff and we're going to pay for a service like college hunks to come in and take it away, it's more of a relief and, you know, sort of purging component to it versus a guilt or regret. You said a lot of people call for moving, which makes sense when they're in like this transition period. Would you say that would be like the number one reason people would call you? You would think so, but believe it or not, we get calls daily for people that have just finally made this sort of like decision that they're going to clear out their garage or their basement or their attic or their crawl space. And, you know, kind of maybe it might have been a weekend project that turned into like, okay, we've got this pile now. You know, let's get it out of here. Because usually what we see on the turnaround time, you know, from a lead to a completed job, on a move, it might be two to three weeks.

people are sort of planning it out a little bit more in advance. Getting rid of junk is, in many cases, feels almost like an impulse decision for folks. It was like the switch flipped in their mind, and they called us or went on our website, and they said, we want to get rid of this today. Can you send a truck out to clear up this pile that we just sort of organize out of our storage closet or, you know, how quickly can you get out here? And we're seeing that, you know, on the junk removal side, it could be same day or next day. Sometimes I think people maybe get frozen in that decision of how they're going to handle it. They can either let it just sit there.

They can put it out the curb and hope that the city picks it up or, you know, some cases call Salvation Army or Goodwill or other charitable nonprofits, but there's limitations there of what they'll accept. And in many cases, they won't go into the home. And you can rent a truck or borrow a truck and take it to, you know, be donated or dispose of yourself. Or you hire a professional junk hauling business. And there's a wide range of, you know, anybody from off of Craigslist with a truck to a company

like ours, sometimes the cost of energy and time of trying to do it yourself or figuring out how to do it yourself is actually worse than just paying somebody to come in and take care of it, especially when you've sort of made that leap of, okay, we're going to clear out the junk. We're going to do a purge today. And I didn't even mention, you know, there's the option of a yard sale or a, you know, Facebook marketplace or otherwise. But again, that's time, that's effort, that's energy. Some people enjoy it. Others want to just be done with it and let it go.

I love that you're saying this because honestly, I used to live in a very, I wouldn't say full hoarder, but a very cluttered home. I call myself a recovering super slob. And the only regret I have is that I didn't have a junk removal service come in day one or get a dumpster. Like it took forever. And I was like picking away and like it was like layers of an onion. And when I finally, for a client, actually had a dumpster came and then I did it for my mom and I've been doing it for clients ever since or having junk removal come in. It is a level of motivation. It is like a rip the band-aid off. I'm sick of it. See immediate results.

That is undescribable. And now I'm a big person who like promotes if you are sick and tired of the clutter. I think this is a shortcut. I truly believe that. If you're ready, like you said. Why are we waiting till we're moving or downsizing? Why are we waiting till there's been a death in the family? Why are we telling ourselves we're going to do it someday by ourselves?

If only we get motivated, what if we just call? And now we have the pressure of they're coming on Saturday to take it out. And I think that that's really powerful. Let's talk about something crazy pants that I'm sure you see all the time. I have so many of my listeners who tell me they want to hold. on to things for their kids one day, whether it's that antique furniture, the toys for their future, maybe someday grandchildren, or just like extra dishes sets. They're like, my kids are going to someday use this mismatched, chipped old dishes that I got secondhand. But you're seeing these families

actually receiving all of this stuff from their parents or their loved ones. Do you have a message? Are the kids excited to inherit all the... garage and basement an attic full of stuff. No, no, they're not. And you hit on just a very, I guess, sort of common theme here when it comes to aging parents thinking that the items that they have are going to be, you know, wanted and valued and appreciated. And, you know, the kids, the adult children of these aging parents don't want to offend

their mom or dad by saying, hey, that's junk. Or in some cases, it ends up turning into. a fight or an argument and it creates a lot of friction within the household because we do a ton of junk removal as well as moving for folks who are downsizing in the homes they lived 20, 30 years into maybe assisted living or a condo or apartment for a time. And usually it's the adult kids that are helping to sort of quarterback that process. And we've seen arguments in the household. We've seen, you know, frustration where, you know, adult children are sort of like telling us on the side, like, hey, our parents want us to keep this, but we're going to not be moving into storage. We're going to be going ahead of getting rid of these items.

So honestly, I think the message needs to be heard primarily by, I hate to say it, the aging parents, even though they probably don't want to admit to it. But I think an exercise before it sort of becomes kind of like too late or overwhelming would be. be to, like we talked about practicing, you know, spending some time maybe organizing a specific area or having a candid conversation with, you know, your aging parents to say, hey, you know, these items that, you know, that you have, you know, we think that we'd be better served, either being donated or recycled. You know, we've got kind of our own style and set up and and doing it in a way that's not going to offend or, you know, create friction in the in the family dynamics.

But, but yes, I see that, again, on a personal level, right, my folks are in their early 80s now. My sister is about a year and a half older than I am.

We're in our mid 40s. And, you know, again, me having lived it, I'm like, just toss everything. Let's just keep it moving.

Let's, let's make it easy. We've got the college hunks. They can show up and hauled the junk away. And, you know, my sister is, I think,

more of, you know, sentimental with, with items that we, you know, grew up in the house we grew up in. And actually during Father's Day weekend, she was up visiting my parents and they were spending time kind of going through my dad's garage.

And, you know, God bless them made a lot of different piles of things that wanted to go different places. But it was a bonding experience for them. They felt good that, you know, certain items were going to different destinations so that it wasn't all just going to be disposed of. And it's, you know, sort of a step change process and evolution, I think, along the way. Yeah. Okay.

My grandma Adi, I got a story. for you. My grandma Addy did this thing one Thanksgiving about a decade ago. She is 94 now, so she must have been 84. She was still living at home, still in great shape, but every year was her last year. Not the point. We're at Thanksgiving. She gives everyone a package of these round stickers and says to write our initials on them and go around and put stickers on things we want. And I was like, this is the weirdest, most morbid thing. Like, are you dying? No. But she, ended up, it was weird, she wanted us to do it, and there was hardly anything anyone actually wanted, but it was a cool exercise for people to talk about, yes, actually, this is important. And on the

bottom of furniture, knick-knacks, people put stickers. When she downsized five years later, it was so easy to identify, like, what people could take what they wanted, because do you know what I mean? Like, as crazy as my grandma sounded at the time, I actually think that this could be, you know, like talk to your kids about what they actually want long before you're to the point where there's this transition period where the pressure's on and you have to. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually I've heard others doing it that it's something similar or doing it like that. And I do think that's kind of a fun, you know, makes it a bonding experience for the family where it could be something that's fun, not uncomfortable or frictionful, where you're having to sort of like offend the person

to say, hey, nobody, nobody wants this stuff. But I guess it would be, it would have been a little, little sad for the aunt if, you know, everybody went around as like, there was zero stickers that applied. And then she'd have to go there wasn't a lot of stickers. Let me just tell you that. But I do think that's another eye-opening experience, too, because sometimes the, our aging parents are keeping things because they don't know that their kids don't. Like, they don't, they don't even want it.

But they think that they're keeping it for them. So, yeah, let's talk about things like this. long before we need to or have to. 100%. I think surfacing those conversations are better and the earlier the better. And they're going to become so much more relevant because of this booming, you know, baby boomer population continue going to, you know, age out. And there's all that sort of generational stuff on top of like we just talked about the fact

that, you know, my generation and younger is all buying stuff as it is anyway because it's so much easier. So you've got this sort of like generational stuff that thinks it's going to be handed down. And then you've got the folks that are, you know, young adults in middle age that have already accumulated, you know, mid-lifetime's worth of things. And so how do you manage that flow? And it's, it's not coming down to the next generation. Yeah, we already have too much. Thanks, Mom. We already have, our house is already cluttered. We don't want yours too. Do you do this? Like, if you walked into a home, would your company, if they were like, that can go, that can get put on the curb for a,

for a free that can go, that can go, or do they already have to have made all the decisions and have it in a pile for you? No, so with college hunks, we come in with the truck, typically a two-man crew, and we assess, and we tell our clients all they have to do is point.

The items can be anywhere in the house, and we do all the labor, loading, lifting. So it doesn't, you know, some people like to consolidate it so they can kind of see it visually and be like, that pile there goes. But if they've already sort of walked around the house and it's like, okay, you know,

this exercise machine, this couch, this dresser, and these different rooms throughout the house, these no longer serve me, these are ready to go. They can just walk us around the house. We make, you know, a note. Then we take it out of there, right there on site and give the estimate up front before we do the work of what it's going to cost. We try to identify items. It could be donated, recycled, and load that strategically onto the trucks and that somebody might have called us thinking they were going to get rid of, you know, an old sleeper sofa, you know, an old dresser and sort of a pile of clothes. And then by the time we show up, they've sort of, their antenna is up or their radar is up. So now they're sort of looking around for stuff.

And we also try to train our hunks on, you know, be available as a resource to make recommendations. Not that you want to point out, hey, are you sure you want to keep that? But say, you know, hey, I noticed you have a pile of boxes in the garage, you know, is that something that you're using every year? Or is that something that you also might want to consider, you know, letting go of and things of that nature as well. So, So yeah, so typically they call us when they think, hey, we're finally going to be getting rid of X, Y, Z items. But by the time we get out there in many cases, that number of items or volume of items

have expanded. That's so good because you're right. You almost become clutter blind, I think. I know we become clutter blind because we see things over and over. And when you're switching your mindset to now you're looking for things to go and they're there and you've got the hunks in your house and they're picking things up, suddenly you're like, oh yeah, I also have all that pile of old crap in the garage that I've been dealing with or there's the pile in the basement. And I love that because this is what I've noticed with

renting dumpsters. It is so motivating. It is almost exciting. Have you seen this with your clients how like it starts with apprehension? Like, oh, I don't. And then it becomes like, what else can you take? Just load up my whole house. Yeah. That's right. Absolutely. It becomes it becomes energizing. It becomes somewhat liberating and I would say energizing and you feel good afterwards. Like now all of a sudden this corner that didn't exist in your home, you're really adding square footage. During COVID, we talked about this a lot because people were sort of stuck with their junk face-to-face with it. And they started really kind of coming to grips with, hey, I need this home office. Like this room that I'm using as a storage closet, we need to clear this stuff out.

And you're literally adding square footage to your home without actually adding square footage. square footage, you're just adding more usable space in the process. Yeah. Okay. So I want to ask you something that's controversial to some people, my listeners. I listen. I think donating is wonderful. And I think recycling everything and rinsing it out and having everything go to a perfect place sounds great. I really encourage people to just toss it in the trash and move on because the reality is there is not enough time in our day to manage and micromanage all of the stuff that is literally leaving our house anyways. And I know it feels weird.

But put it all in the trash. So you can start fresh. How do you feel about this? And do you find a lot of your customers are like, well, this should be donated here and this should be recycled and this should go here? And yeah, I just want your insight on this because you're an expert. I'm going to give you my personal opinion and then sort of our professional stance. So my personal opinion, I could not agree more with you. I mean, I've seen it just firsthand.

I've been living it as a owner of a junk removal company. And my sister and my dad are sort of the complete opposite in terms of they want to eke and squeak out the value. And it's a very noble and I think honorable mindset to have that, you know, my sister or my dad, who are very, I would say, more representative of most of our client universe, probably yours as well, is, you know, the thought that, hey, this could be used by somebody else. This could benefit someone else. And to your point, there is the potential of that. And we do offer that.

So that's why I say as a professional business model, we want to meet our clients where they are emotionally and kind of help them, make sure that they feel good about where their stuff is going and whether it's going to be donated or recycled. If they're, you know, passionate about, you know, protecting the environment by limiting items from the, you know, recycling or the disposal facility or if they're passionate about just kind of charitable initiatives. But the reality is a lot of what they think could be reused. The nonprofits and the charities won't accept or don't want because of a scuff, a scratch, or the way it's been utilized. And many times those better places don't exist or just creates, you know, somebody else's

storage and clutter problem on the, you know, warehouse floor or the nonprofit facilities, you know, showroom. And so, so yes, I agree with your stance. in that regard. I think having lived it and viewed it, I think that's probably the more likely reality. And we're not in a position to try, at least in our business, to talk people out of where they want their items to go. And so we try to make it clear, hey, you know, we're going to try to do our best to recycle and donate the items that we're hauling away. And our clients tend to feel better about that, you know, in terms of helping, helping them let go. And maybe because we are able to take it all right away at once and load it up in the truck at once, it sort of maybe allows

into short circuit some of the time of having to coordinate separate pickups and drop-offs. And so maybe that solves that challenge for them. And it puts the ownership on you and off of them. So they don't have to feel like an A-hole for putting it in the dumpster because you're putting it in the dumpster. Yes. If you can't donate it, it has to go ultimately somewhere and in most cases is going to be recycled at the transfer stations or, you know, the disposal facilities.

But listen, here's what I've reached. found people who tend to do it in this band-aid motion, like getting rid of a bunch of things, I call it like doing it shitty or messy or badly or cheating and just letting it go. They're instantly in a home that feels under control. That's not stressful. It's calm. And they have the extra energy, mental capacity to like do better for the rest of their life going forward.

So they're purchasing less. They're being more mindful. they have more time to recycle the things that are coming in on a regular basis. They're actually, for people who are like, oh, it's bad for the environment, I feel like you've made one big mistake, but then you're better the rest of your life, which more than makes up for it. Or you're less wasteful for the rest of your life. You're not wasting money and things. And it just reframes your brain when you can just start fresh from a clean slate in your home.

Okay, listen, you've done this. many times and you've seen probably the same type of stuff leaving over and over and over again. Inspire my listeners. If you were to go into their home right now, what is one thing or a category of things? You'd be like, girl or boy, you don't need. Like this is a no brainer it can go because you see it go over and over again. Is there something? I used to say the salad spinner. Now that I have a garden, I just bought a salad spinner. So I have to apologize to the entire internet for me, crapping on salad spinners. But anyways. Yeah. I mean, we still see people holding on to kind of the old school, not even the box TVs anymore, but the old school flat screen TVs that are just

like, you know, a decade or 15 years outdated. And I mean, the most common pieces of furniture, couches, sleeper sofas, refrigerators, you know, old appliances, stuff that people have, maybe they did a renovation, but they didn't get rid of the old stuff. They thought they were going to use it again somehow. or some way. And then, you know, every house has that junk drawer, that junk closet, my house included. And so, you know, obviously it doesn't take up a ton of bulky space, but when you open that drawer, you open that closet, you're definitely not finding what it is you're looking for. It's just going to be an instant, you know, stressor the second that you open it. So there's something to be

said about taking the time to pulling everything out of that drawer, that closet, and just doing a purge of, of we don't use this, we don't use this. I do this with my kids because we got inundated with stuffies, so many stuffies. And of course, some of the stuffed animals, my kids hadn't seen in years, but the minute they laid eyes on them, they were like, no, no, no, that's my favorite. No, no, no, I don't want to let go of that. And so it was actually good practice to spend with the kids so they don't get these, you know, attachments to everything. But I think it starts, you know, even in childhood is this emotional attachment to some of our belongings. And then, you know, over time, whether it was through a setback or a trauma or even just financial challenges over

the course of heading into adulthood, we create these attachments to our items and our belongings. But even just viewing it through the eyes of my kids with their stuffies was actually a really interesting exercise. And I think we ended up negotiating. They each kept like five, not two. And we ended up donating like a bag of 50 stuffed animals, which was awesome. Love it. Yeah, and I love that you said practice because I think that is the thing that people don't realize about decluttering is it kind of does take practice. You kind of, you either get to your breaking point where you're, I have to sell this house or I just can't take it anymore or I'm going to murder everyone in my family unless things get better and then you just have this spontaneous, everything can go. Or you take the practice approach, which is I'm going to just fill a trash bag today with things that are expired or I'm going to find stuffed animals that can go to. today to practice having less because we live in a society where it is easier than any generation before to acquire. Things are cheaper. It's to our door in seconds and everything's kind of crappier. So it doesn't really last. And we just put it in the basement or the garage for some reason

where it just sits forever. Electronics is a big one and the empty boxes for the things we buy. Why are we keeping that? That's bonka dogs. That's right. Are you going to return that? Are you going to, you know, like sort of pulled onto that warranty? And my dad's probably the classic textbook example of everything you just described. So I can totally relate to it on a personal level here. I have a personal question. One last question. I'm so sorry, I'm going to ask you because like, yes, yes, yes, the decluttering is great. But you're like some sort of amazing entrepreneur boss. And you're running this insane company that you started when you were a baby. You were what, 28 years old when you were first on Shark Tank?

That's right, yep. What is your secret? What is something you had to declutter maybe to be successful? Or do you have some sort of entrepreneur or general life advice for myself and my listeners? Yeah, so the thing that I believe is really important, whether you have a vision for your business, for your career, for your own personal self, for your home, it's to have a vision of the outcome. first. So have a very clear definition of what the future looks like and then start operating personally, professionally as a business, whatever the case may be, as if that future already exists. And so you're no longer operating in the past. You're not even really operating in the

present. You know, some people I think negatively would say fake it until you make it, but that's not appropriate, you know, to think of it that way. I think it's as if you conduct yourself as if that future is already a reality, now your identity is going to. of support and your behavior and your decisions is going to support that reality. So you're setting at such a high bar for what the future looks like that inevitably your floor starts raising. And so in my case, as an entrepreneur, the decisions that I made to grow the business were all with the expectation that we were going to try to have this very ambitious vision of being a national household brand name, one that services all across the country. And so kind of the example I gave at the beginning of

having that 800 number was we were operating as a bigger business. And I think, you know, whether it's in the case of cluttering, having a vision for what your home looks like so that you start operating from a place of an organized home, even if you don't feel it's organized today or you haven't historically been organized. So I think that's probably the most powerful framework from a business and personal development standpoint I would share. Obviously, there's no easy overnight success. I describe ourselves as a 20-year overnight success. So kind of appreciate and embrace the journey. remember where you started to where you are now so that you're appreciating that, you know, how far you've come. But then when you're trying to get to the next level, you know, really sort of operating from an identity and culture standpoint as if you've already gotten there because then

you'll pull in the circumstances to make it much more of a reality. Man, that is such good advice. And I know on my own journey when my house was messy and I was disorganized, I just started thinking like, what would an organized person do? How would a tidy person and I just tried to be that. They would put the groceries away immediately coming home from the grocery store. They would not just leave them on the counter for a couple of days. Guess what? It did. It changed everything. That's amazing advice. Thank you so much. I'm feeling inspired to fill a trash bag right now. And I think everyone who's listening, I'm going to put links to college hunks hauling junk and moving in the description below, rip off that bandaid. They're going to come.

and they are just going to leave you with a clutter-free tidier home. In a day, right? Let's be real. That's right. Now it's time for my favorite part of the podcast. Talk to Cass. And we're first going to listen to Catherine. Dear Cass, I just watched one of your programs and you were talking about addressing the needs of people at different stages of life. period. I just turned 80 and I wanted to share some of the things that I've observed. I've only been following you for about a month and you've really helped me focus on energizing my life in a way

that I hadn't been doing before, at least not the way you presented it. One of the things that you suggest a lot is shortening the space between different places. in the house so that you cut down your activity. As you get older, you want to do the exact opposite. So you want to build in things that make you walk more, make you get up and move around more, period. That's just one thing I wanted to say. And I really have enjoyed participating in this process. This is so much fun. has really been just wonderful. I couldn't believe it.

I've done a lot of clearing, clutter, and all that for all my life. And I'm like you. As a kid, I changed the furniture, paint the walls, change everything around in the house. And I still do that. That's one of the ways that really energizes me. But you've given me a new approach. I am definitely a bee, but I've got ladybug tendencies. This is Catherine. I live in Oregon out in the countryside. I'm a writer and an artist, and I have really enjoyed you. I have other ideas. But just that one in particular, I just wanted to mention. Thank you so much for all you do for people.

Catherine, I actually agree with you, but I'm also going to disagree with you. And here's why. Okay, so I think when it comes to organization, we should think about how to be as lazy and move the least amount as possible. But I do agree with you that as we get older, we need to incorporate movement into our day. So here's why I don't think we should try to make organizing harder or setting up systems harder because what if like you're sick one day? Like organizations should catch you on your worst day, not make it more complicated to force you to move because what's going to happen is it's just going to add up to mess and clutter. But I think we can force ourselves to move more when it comes to cleaning. And shameless plug, I am filming this video called cleaner size where I'm incorporating

exercise movements with general house cleaning like lunging. while vacuuming, squats while loading the dishwasher. And as someone, like, I'm not 80, you're amazing, you're 80 and you're still moving around. I am peri metapausal, found out I'm losing a pound of muscle a year and I feel it and I feel weaker. And after a day of cleaner size, I had to hold on to something while sitting to go pee. Okay, listen, my legs were on fire. my shoulders were burning for three days after benching a laundry basket. It works. So,

Catherine, I want you to check out that video and try some of those moves. Please don't hurt yourself and don't sue me. But I promise you'll have, you'll have buns of steel or at least slightly firmer if you try some cleaner size moves. That is all. Now we have a question from Elizabeth. Hi Cass, this is Elizabeth from Florida. I found you fall of last year and I had gotten rid of over a third of my belongings. And I recently moved out on my own for the first time, which I'm super excited about. But it's been a little bit overwhelming. I have a one-bedroom apartment and it has virtually no built-in storage. except I have like two racks above the washer and dryer, and then one small walking closet. And I think I've kind of been doing therapeutic decluttering to just kind of help with the overwhelm because all of my stuff is out.

The other thing is I have like no furniture. So all my stuff is currently just kind of out in the open. And because I also didn't want to shove everything into my closet because I've done that. in the past and then it contributes to more clutter. So I was just wondering if you have any tips for like when is a good time to stop decluttering because I think I might just be doing it to help with the feeling of overwhelm as I'm getting settled in and then tips for like choosing furniture pieces like I don't have I want to get a storage cabinet but I'm not sure what kind of storage cabinet to get and I don't know how big to get it because I also don't want to

make it so roomy that I will then be tempted to keep things that I should be do cluttering and then contribute to the previous clutter problem that I had but stuff-wise I'm in a pretty good spot I'm just a little bit scared to buy furniture because I'm also scared of buying something and not liking it and then it becoming clutter so So, yeah, when to stop, how to kind of buy pieces that fit my stuff in the space. And then just overall, decreasing the overwhelm to feel like I'm a little bit in more control of my space. And, yeah, just finding storage solutions when I don't really have any yet. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks again. congratulations Elizabeth on the new place that's amazing and I definitely have thoughts I think decluttering is amazing and is the first step but I'm a huge fan of actually having storage in your home because we have stuff and we use it and it needs a place to go and it's not just kitchen and dishes we have hobbies and we have knickknacks and we have things we want to display and we have things we just use and books we want to read. And so what I would absolutely recommend is that you get a piece of storage. So not just furniture like a dresser or a coffee table, but something that takes advantage of vertical space, especially in an apartment. And don't worry

about it becoming a clutter-catching doom thing. I think you're past that. My friend, you're, you've decluttered so much. You have strong decluttering muscle. and what's bothering you about your space is that nothing has a place to go and it's feeling messy. My recommendation without even seeing your space would be Billy bookcases and here's why. You can get a base cabinet pretty affordably and you can add doors on it in the future or you can have solid bins. It is something that can move with you so it isn't a permanent fixture, but it only comes out from the wall like 11 inches. So it's not going to feel like it's taking up a lot of floor space. And again, you can have half of it closed in the top open.

It's so versatile. And you can change it up in the future. You can have door panels that look fancy. This is a piece that you will have until you're 80 years old or older. So a Billy bookcase from IKEA, I think, is the perfect place to start. And remember that bookcases aren't just for books. They're for all your stuff to have a place to go. Know your organizing style.

If you are a hidden organizer, absolutely probably put doors on it or at the very least solid bins. And like I said, you can add onto this in the future by adding new pieces. You can add an extender on the top. You can have doors put on. And you need storage, Elizabeth. There I said what I said. And last but not least, let's hear from Jen. Hi, Cass, it's Jen.

I got rid of a bully out of my wardrobe today. well, a pair of bullies. And I just needed to tell someone, so you're it. Nearly 15 years ago, I fell down the stairs and broke both my ankles. This happened on a Thursday. The previous Saturday, I had bought a brand new, very expensive pair of mid-calf, or high-calf boots that I absolutely love. I had only worn them twice.

I have not been able to get into them again since I broke my ankles. And every time that I would do a wardrobe clear out and we would go through shoes, someone would say to me, no, hold on to them, don't get rid of them. You might get back into them one day. And I would listen when I really just wanted them out of my wardrobe every time. that I looked at them, they made me sad. And today I just said, no, that's it, they're going. And they are out of my house.

My support worker has taken them. She is going to give them to someone that she knows who they will fit. So I know that they are going to someone who will love them. And yeah, it's a lot. It's done. It only took me nearly 15 years, but it's done, and I have you to thank for that. So, thank you. I'm so proud of you. I know how hard that is, but yeah, the fact that you recognize that they're bullies is amazing. So many times we have things that maybe we used to enjoy or we used to be proud of. And those feelings have shifted. And yet we hold on to the thing because we

remember the past feelings, not recognizing the current feelings, which are, we're feeling bullied. Whether it's that dress that we wore when we were 30 pounds later that made us feel fabulous, but now every time we look at it, we feel fat, or the sporting equipment that we used to be able to enjoy, but we no longer can. And it's not reminding us of better days. It is reminding us of our failure today. So I hope everyone listening is inspired. And what bully do you have in your home that you can let go of today, too? I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. I hope you enjoyed talking with that hunky hunk, Nick, from college hunks hauling junk. And even if you cannot afford or don't want to hire a company to come in, how can you take a little shortcut today? A shortcut could

even be filling a trash bag. A shortcut could be saying those boxes in the garage that I haven't opened in five years and I have no idea what's inside, I'm not even going to look. I'm just going to load them up and let them go. How can you radically gift yourself less stuff today? Okay? I can't wait to hear and go to clutterbug.com slash talk to Cass and let me know what you're letting go of today. because you might just inspire someone else to do the same thing. Thank you guys so much and I'll see you next time.