Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Celebrating 300 Episodes: The Tough-Love You Didn’t Know You Needed | Clutterbug Podcast # 300

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

Today is a super special day – it's our 300th podcast episode, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate it with YOU! This milestone is all about you, your stories, and the amazing things you do while listening to this podcast. Spoiler alert: laundry seems to be the winner, and honestly, I get it – laundry is the WORST chore. But together, we’re tackling it and celebrating every success, big or small. In this episode, I share a very personal story about a recent health challenge and the chaos that greeted me when I emerged from my "recovery cave." From mountains of laundry to messy floors, life threw me a curveball, but I took back control – and you can too! This episode is packed with inspiration, real-life moments, and the reminder that no matter how defeated we feel, we have the power to take action and turn things around. So grab your laundry, set a timer, and let's kick some butt together.  Thank you for being part of this incredible journey. Let’s celebrate this milestone and keep moving forward together. You’ve got this!   Want to record a question or message for me?! Go to www.clutterbug.com/TalkToCas and record a message now!   You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/     #clutterbug #podcast #productivity #mondaymotivation #delcutter #decluttermotivation #motivation #organization Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today is a crazy special day. Today is our 300th episode, our 300th podcast episode. So like, let's go. This is exciting. I'm so thrilled that you are going to be a huge part of today's podcast too. You sent in so many stories of the things that you do while listening to this podcast. And I'm honestly a little surprised. The winner, the thing that was mentioned the most is laundry. Can we all just unanimously agree? that laundry is the worst chore. I'd rather clean a toilet than put away laundry and I don't even fold. So all you guys out there doing it meticulously, I'm feeling for you. But before we get started just like always, I want to encourage you to not just listen, but take action, get something done, make yourself super proud, get further ahead. And why not to celebrate? Let's do some laundry

together. Before we jump into the video, I want to like, I'm going to whine to you for a minute. No, is this whining? I want to tell you what's going on a little bit in my life and in my home. And this might be TMI. So warning, do I get into all the details? I mean, let's just do it. Years ago, years ago, I had a hysterectomy because I had a tumor. And they did a hysterectomy. And when I woke up, I was like, something ain't right. Not just that, you know, they removed my uterus, but something wasn't right like with my bladder. And it turns out the theory is, with a isn't confirmed, but like there's a catheter that goes inside your bladder when you're having surgery and there's a balloon. And apparently it wasn't deflated. It was just ripped from its

orifice causing scar tissue and damage to my bladder and urethra. So every day since then, I have had to be on antibiotics. That's like eight years straight of being on daily antibiotics or I get like a raging UTI, like urinary track infection slash bladder infection. So my new family doctor, who I love so much and I'm so grateful for, is like, um, reviewing my medical history. He's like, that ain't right, Cass. Maybe let's find out what's going on so you don't have to be on antibiotics. Unfortunately, because of the scar tissue, they couldn't do any type of scope. So I went to the hospital, was put under, for what I thought, my friends, was a routine cam. in the pea hole. It was in fact not that. I mean, that was part of it, but it was in fact a urethra

dilation. So up into this point, I am told not to take my antibiotics so that they can see what's actually festering, you know, in all its festering glory. So I have a terrible infection. And now they're putting metal rods and balloons in there to expand it. to make it a proper channel of flow. Is this going places? I know it's weird. Stay with me here. I left the hospital, woke up from anesthesia, and I felt like maybe, maybe I was dying.

And I'm not saying, there was no stitches. It wasn't like real surgery, but friends, I was down for the count, full diaper wearing down. Okay? My husband, lovely, great guy. You rest, take it easy. So the entire Wednesday I laid in bed. Thursday still felt awful. Guess what? I'm taking another day off. There was fortnight. There was cookies. There was movies. They were bringing me food in bed. Then comes the weekend and I think, why not just roll with it? I spend the entire weekend resting and recuperating. And it was awesome. When I stumbled out of my little cave on Sunday night,

Reality hit me like a freight train. As wonderful as my family is, there was dishes everywhere, and there was mess, and there was mud all over the floor. The rumbas, they just had gotten stuck, and no one had saved them. Nothing's getting cleaned. They'd obviously made themselves food, question mark, because there was dishes. But the worst thing was that my husband was doing the laundry for me. I'm using air quotes if you're listening to this because putting the laundry in the washer and then transferring it to the dryer does not doing laundry make. That is a step of laundry, but the big part is the pudding away. So I walk into our mudroom, which is our entranceway slash also laundry room.

And every laundry basket we own, which it's like eight, is heaping, filled, just stacked all in, you can barely get in the door, filled with laundry. And he wants a cookie because he did the laundry. And I stare at these mountains of eight loads of laundry that no one bothered to put away or carry upstairs for who knows why. And I'm instantly filled with rage. First of all, I've been sick. I've had rods and balloons in my hoo-ha.

Second of all, this isn't laundry I've worn. I've been stinking wearing the same pajamas for four or five days. And third, come on, man, you're all adults. And this is just ridiculous. So I have two choices, right? It's like rage and scream. Or say, I'm just going to set a timer and see what I can get done so I feel better. I'm just going to try to catch up so that I can continue keeping up.

I don't want to start Monday behind. I don't want to start Monday like a psycho who's just screamed at my family either. It's fine to scream at your family when they've done this. Just disclaimer. But I made the decision to just like see what I could do. And honestly, it was like 20 minutes. Everything was sorted. I wasn't putting away their laundry.

but at least it was sorted and then another 10 minutes for my laundry to go away while I was watching a movie. And I felt so much better. I went into that like feeling taken advantage of, feeling like a martyr, feeling like, oh, poor me, this isn't fair. And I left that feeling really empowered because like I'm a badass. I'm amazing. I am in charge of this household and I can take back control in a very small amount of time. So I wanted to share this story with you because you might be feeling defeated too. You might be feeling like life is kicking you in the pie hole. I get it. But the only thing we have control over is what we do about it. Right. So today while you're listening, I hope you're like, I'm just going to take some control of my home. I'm going to be the boss.

I'm going to get something done and celebrate my success and feel. proud of myself. And I know you're like, well, laundry is just laundry. But you know what? It's this never-ending, nagging chore. And when it builds up and we get behind, it's one more crushing blow we don't need to feel. It's one more way that life is just knocking us down. And this is something we can do something about in a short amount of time. By the end of this podcast, you can have all your laundry put away. Seriously, you can. Go fast. Do it shitty. Don't fold. your underwear, let's go. So while you're kicking your house's butt, let's jump into the podcast. And today's podcast is all about you. We're just, it's usually we do like talk to Cass at the end.

This 300th episode is featuring you through the whole thing. So let's start with a question. I don't even know. Is it a question? So let's start by hearing from Allison. Hi, Cass, it's Allison. I'm also from Canada and I'm also 46 like you. And I also have ADHD. And I've been listening to your show or your YouTube videos and watching them for years now. And I've gotten so much help. The way your brain works really is similar to the way my brain works. So I really enjoy your content.

And I thought that I would give you some of my insight as to my own hacks and ideas of what's really helped me. I have like a totally random list, so I'm just going to go for it, vitamin gummies, because I always had good intentions to have vitamins, and then I would just, it's not pleasurable. So I would definitely not take them after the week of my motivation wore off. So I have a tray on my counter that has all of my vitamin gummies on it, like omega-3, magnesium, iron, vitamin D, things like that.

Let's see here. Another one I have is a vision board. You talk about that as well. But yeah, just like spending a few hours, cutting and pasting on Pinterest of what you want for the year. And it's amazing how much will actually come to fruition. Another one is types of socks, especially for kids. just go to a cheap store like Walmart or whatever and get all of the same color of socks.

And sorry kids, you're just not going to have fun socks, but it makes your life way easier if the kids all have like, you know, 20 pairs of purple socks. Having somebody having an expectation of me makes me more motivated to do it. So for instance, my kids are 12 and 14. And so now I'm the one responsible for doing the dishes and they're the one responsible for putting the dishes away. And so if I don't do the dishes, then they don't put them away and then it screws up our system.

So and then also I message somebody every morning and tell them what I'm having for dinner, because that's always a pain point for me, remembering to take something out of the fridge. And then I tell them that I'm going to clean my kitchen for 15 minutes. because if I don't, then everything gets behind. And then three goals for the day. And that's been really helping just having somebody else. I'm telling somebody else I'm doing that. And then the next day, I say, yes, I did everything. And then here's my goals for today. I love that, Alison. Thank you for all those tips. You know what? I was so excited to hear you start with gummies because like this changed the game for me. I need to take vitamins every day because of the surgery. I have my body.

doesn't absorb vitamins from food in the same way, not the pee hole surgery, the other weight loss surgery. The point is, I had to take vitamins. So I just have, they are so delicious. I cookie monster them down. Can you take too many? I don't know. Hopefully not, because I eat them like their candy.

But yeah, I've seen my blood levels, like my vitamin levels, all of that go up. So they work. People say, oh, chewable vitamins don't work. Ha ha, my friends, the science will say you are wrong. I have seen this work. Even the chewable iron, they're delicious and nutritious. And if you need to take vitamins, give this a try. So good, Alison, I'm definitely going to try your hack about the socks because I feel like same girl, all the things you do, I do except socks. I got to work on the socks. Wait a minute. Did she say she got? I thought she was like these are things you should try,

Cass. I thought we were both just ADHD twins up in here doing the same things. I'll like, I was like, wow, me too, Allison. Okay, I'm sleep deprived. So I started my very first podcast in 2016. I did not know this. My producer just told me this. If you held a gun to my head and said, I would be like I have no idea. So 2016, holy doodles, that was a long time ago. And also didn't know, but was just told. The first episode was about organizing kids clutter, which honestly, like that makes sense because this was the time in my life where I was all in on kids toy clutter. Like I had found a system that worked like magic and I was shouting it from the rooftop. So yeah, that tracks.

My producer just told me that in fact the first three podcasts were about kids clutter. Wow, that was not smart because you're just hammering it home. But again, like ADHD hyperfocus, this was a time in my life where I was like obsessed. with this sorted toy bin system because it literally changed my life. I was running a daycare. I had three kids of my own. Getting the toys to a point where you don't ever have to pick them up and it's easy for the kids to do it and your house always looks tidy. When you're a mom and you have small, that's game changing. It's life changing. So of course, that was what I was definitely obsessed with back then. Do you know why I started the podcast? Here's why I started the truth time.

podcast. I love making content. It feels like because I want to just talk about it and no one in my life wants to hear about it like in my actual immediate life. I'm like, guess what? This basket chain is so amazing. Nobody cares. Their eyes glaze over. So I love making content. But YouTube was starting to feel like really intimidating. First of all, you got to brush your hair and put on clothes. Maybe a touch of makeup. You probably need a light, you know, so you don't look like. the wicked witch of the West, it just, it felt like it wasn't easy, but I still wanted to share all the things I was super excited about. So I was like, I can start a podcast where I don't have to show my face. I can just literally like get excited and share all this cool stuff with my friends.

And it was like no work, no editing, just talking. And yeah, that I still love the podcast so much now, you know, I have a video and you're seeing my face. But it's so, it's like no effort. to do this. It's literally just me chilling and hanging out with you and sharing all my favorite things. And I love that. It brings back that joy that I first felt when I started doing YouTube. Okay, let's hear from Danielle. Hi, Cass. I listen to your podcast every

garbage eve while I run around my house like a crazy person with a giant trash bag filling it up so I can top off the garbage can so the garbage company can take it away. I've been doing that every day. I've been doing that every day. for about a year and a half and my house is amazing. Thanks. Bye. Oh, Danielle, that's so good. I also am a crazy person on the night of garbage night because I'm like, well, all the bathroom garbages and I change the cat litter. And while I'm at it, let's look in drawers. Maybe I'm just like a, like a psycho. I just go around like a tornado

filling trash bags. You are so sweet. You're like, so I can fill my one trash can. My trash pile looks like 50,000 people live at my home. My neighbor across the street used to put his garbage with our garbage when we first moved here so that the garbage men had one stop. He was so embarrassed to be associated with my garbage pile. Not only does he keep it on his side of the road, but he walks his butt far to the corner of his lot. So it's like as far from ours as possible.

Just so no one could ever think in any. way that is his mountain of trash. Let's hear from Linda. Hi Cass. My name is Linda. I'm from Hamilton, Ontario. I absolutely love your podcast. It has inspired me so much.

I've kind of felt a little bit paralyzed after my mom passed away. My sister and I spent a lot of time going through all her things and having to throw stuff out that didn't make any sense to us and distribute what was left. The issue I had after that that paralyzed me is looking around at my own place thinking, I don't want my kids to have to go through what my sister and I just went through. So that's when I started on my mission of really taking a hard look at things that I've been holding on to thinking, well, if my kids looked at this, what would they do? They'd probably just bag it all up and throw it away.

So I just started getting rid of stuff and taking pictures of things and sending it to my kids saying, do any of you want this? And if they did, it went in a bin with their name on it and got rid of it. And if they didn't want it, it went on Marketplace and I'm selling it. And the thing is my husband allows because he's like, oh, my husband, My minimalist wife, look at around this place, look at all this stuff. I'm like, oh my God, it took 45 years to collect the holes. It's certainly not going to take one year to get rid of it all.

So my takeaway from what I've been watching on your podcast is to take a really good, hard look at the things you're holding on to and to ask yourself why. and if you died tomorrow, what would happen to all this stuff? Because I know my husband would just get a dumpster and back it up and that's where it would go. Anyway, I just want to thank you for opening my eyes and helping me to see what I have around me, what really matters, but most of all, what doesn't? Thank you so much for doing your podcast. Linda, I love that so much.

And I think this is such a beautiful message. And sometimes I'm reluctant to share this more because no one wants to talk about death. First of all, also, sorry for your loss. That's awful. But you are so right. You don't understand until you've had a loved one pass. And you have to now, while grieving, go to their home and sort through mountains and mountains of things. And it's such a painful, but also like labor-intensive, insane.

like process to go through that yeah i i feel like and this is awful to say it almost like has a little resentment for the loved one who's having to go to your home after you've passed and deal with your stuff and it it tarnishes a little bit of that love in the memory do you know what i'm saying i feel like don't burden your loved ones and and taking time now to go through and making sure that you're eliminating the things that you don't use and love it not only is it's a gift to you. Like Linda, you're giving yourself this beautiful gift, but you're also making sure that you're giving a gift to your family and loved ones if you're gone. All right, it's time to hear from Julie. Hi, Cass. My name's Julie. I am in London, England. I have been following your

YouTube and your podcast for a number of years, and it has helped me amazingly. You feel like you really understand me and my self-diagnosed and diagnosed by my best friend, ADHD, and helping me understand that I'm a butterfly has been fantastic. You asked what we accomplish whilst we're listening to your podcast. I have recently had major surgery, a lot of pain, and very low motivation. So the most recent thing that you have helped me accomplish is just to get going, to get out of bed, to get showered and to get going. And that has just been incredible because you have to start somewhere. And that is one thing that I have learned from you. And I'm so appreciative of it. And I just want to say thank you. And I really hope that you keep

this up for the longest time. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. I would love to to say your voice is the most gorgeous soothing thing. I'm feeling real sleep deprived and you just calmed me. Oh, oh, your voice. Okay. But also, thank you for saying that because this is a good moment to say, listen. If you're watching or listening to this podcast right now and you're still not up doing something, what the heck are you doing? Here are some really easy things if you're feeling overwhelmed. Put a load of laundry in the washing machine. Or if there's already a skanky one in there that, you know, you didn't you let sit, rewash it. This is kind of you doing something while doing nothing. Like it's running in the background. Dishwasher, the same way. I think this is also why I love my robot vacuum

so much. I push a button. It feels like I'm vacuuming and yet I'm doing nothing. And it's that momentum. It's that like background things running that really can not only make you feel good. Like, okay, something's getting done, but give you that burst of energy, that little bit of like motivation you need to do something else. So put in a little laundry, start the dishwasher, or throw something in the trash right, like right now. Don't you dare? Just sit and listen. Let's talk about my podcast for just a second because it's a 300th episode. I did start really heavily, obviously, with kids clutter. And I was talking a lot about organization and simple solutions. but I feel like for you long-time listeners, maybe you've seen a change and a growth.

And I feel like that's because I've changed and grown. Once I got my home under control, for the first time in my life, I felt confidence, right? Like maybe I am capable. And then I started a business. And then I started getting my finances under control. And I started getting just all these other areas. you know, I talk a lot about trying to get health and fitness under control. And I started consuming a lot of self-help books. And anytime I come across anything that's like, wow, this makes my

life better, even if it isn't organizing related, I want to share it with you. So I've seen this podcast really change and grow as I've changed and grown and leveled up my life. And I'm assuming you're leveling up your life right along with me, right? Like, We're growing together. We're becoming the best version of ourselves together as a big community, a big clutterbug community. Now let's hear from Olivia. Hi, Cass. My name is Olivia. And I listen to your podcasts as I'm getting tourists done, folding laundry or cooking. But my favorite time to listen is actually when I'm driving. I just find I'm able to like focus better.

And actually the first time that I really got motivated to finally get things in order was when I was listening to your tough love podcast. I was just ready to hear it. And that really motivated me, like just getting a kick in the butt. Like, finally, like, you deserve, you know, a clean house and what are you even doing? So I have been able, that was last year, around this time, I've been able to just ruthlessly declutter my house. Finally, I've been messy my whole life.

And I had already taken your quiz, so I was already understanding just my style and the best way to organize for me. but my problem and the reason that nothing had worked for me in the past was because I had too much stuff. So just getting that kick in the butt and getting things out, just getting them out finally, I still have more that I can do, but I'm seeing the benefits. It's a year later. I've gotten rid of so much stuff. I've even done another lap around the house and gotten rid of more. And as you commonly say, like getting decluttered leads to other things in your life as well. So we were able to get debt free this year. It took us nine months after being in debt for practically our whole adult lives.

Yeah, just nine months of hard work. And the reason for that is you. You inspired us just to get things out and get rid of access. And that led to becoming debt-free. And I just can't tell you how amazing that's been. I'm going to do that thing you do where you get emotional. How amazing it is just to have a house that my kids can have friends over. and I can have friends over and I can cook and clean, which I thought I hated, but it turns out I just hated doing it in a messy house.

And yeah, we're debt-free. And, man, what a weight off your marriage that is. So I just want to thank you for all that you do. And thank you for your podcast and your tough love. because, man, I needed that. And it's just been so beneficial for me. Thank you so much. Thank you, Olivia. Way to go. You made me emotional. Oh, I'm so proud of you. Man, I'm so freaking proud of you. And it is not so but so. The correlation between like decluttering, getting stuff out, being empowered, taking control back. and then like the dominoes just going in every other area.

You know what I mean? Like everything's just, I guess, the opposite of dominoes. Things falling into place. And suddenly you're able to have control of your finances and bettering your relationships and getting a handle on your health and fitness. I don't know how it works, but it works. And there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who have done the work and seen the results. And I know if you're listening to this and you're like,

I don't want to be wasteful. I don't want to throw things out. Stop it. I'm here to say the only thing you are wasting is your life's potential by holding on to junk you got from Walmart that you don't even like. The money has been spent. You are not any richer for holding onto it. It is taking from you in ways that you can't even imagine. Olivia filled trash bags and got out of debt. And I don't know how that works, but it does. So right now, take back control. You deserve it. Congratulations, Olivia. I get asked a lot. Actually, I got asked by a coworker at the fire hall the other day. He said, one of your videos just hit a million views. Do you know how many people? Like, picture a million people. And I was like, don't even say it. I can't even. First of all, not only can I not picture

that because my brain doesn't do math, but also I have social anxiety so bad. And I love to think during this podcast that I'm just talking to you. Like, it's just you and me, man. My friend and I'm sharing all my true bits and I really want you to like have this life changing insane thing too. And when I try to get like abstract and zoom out and think about how many people are actually listening, I feel like a little panic attack. So let's keep it small. Let's know that it's just you and me right now doing laundry, cleaning the house, throwing things in the garbage, being awesome together.

Even though the clutterbug community is ginormous, when it comes down to it, it's just me and my bestie. When I think about the birth of tough love, because, yeah, I'm holding back, my friends, I'm holding back. but when I started getting kind of a little bit tougher on my podcast and even in the YouTube videos, it was around like 2020 where I started kind of bringing a little bit like, what are you doing? And two things were happening. One, the world was nuts. Okay. And I was just, I was feeling overwhelmed myself and I just didn't want to beat around the bush anymore. Like,

I didn't want to people please you. I didn't want to. And I realized I'm not doing you a service either by like, oh, I don't want to hurt your feelings and I don't want you to, you know, I don't want to push you to. What are we doing? Like, are you, do you want to make a change or not? And the second thing was I was doing Hot Mess House around that time. And I was working with, there was one particular lady who just was like living in the land of delusional and had so much stuff, particularly like baby toys, even though she didn't have babies in the house anymore. and I just felt like this rage inside of me because what I wanted to say to her was you're hurting yourself and you're hurting your family but I didn't have I wasn't brave enough

to do it to her face so I but she needed it like she needed it man and and so I took that energy and I realized there are other people listening to this podcast that I'm not helping by just like giving them excuses and telling them it's okay. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're listening to it because they want to make a change. They don't want to live like this. You don't want to live in a messy, chaotic home anymore. How is me tiptoeing around what you need to do and telling you,

yeah, it's fine to just buy some bins and baskets going to help you? It's not. So I started getting tougher and surprisingly, like, you didn't hate it. Some of you hate it, but not all of you. And then I thought about my own life. Anytime I've made any strides when it comes to health and fitness, it's when I've hired a personal trainer to scream at me. To be like, what are you doing?

Give me 10 push-ups. Do you want this or not? Stop it. You are your own roadblock. That resonates with me. And I think it resonates with a lot of you, too. Let's hear from Madison. Hi Cass, I wanted to answer your question about what I do when I listen to your podcast.

I would say about 50% of the time I feel very called out because I listen to them in my car. So I'm not doing anything except driving, but I do really try to hold on to the motivation and the things that I've learned. When I do get home and I have time to do things. But if I am home, when I listen, I always find myself that that is when I like to put laundry away. So I like to hear your voice or whoever you're interviewing, talking while I put my clothes away and my children's clothes away or fold towels, just laundry. And then I do also, when you, you know, really try to get our butts in gear at the beginning, we'll use that opportunity to go through closets in my house because I feel like I typically will put off

like decluttering or organizing closets because I don't really see them that often. So I'm proud to say that a few weeks ago, I finally decluttered and cleaned and reorganized my cleaning closet and it has stayed perfectly tidy. I am a bee, by the way, so I really like don't want to see stuff. And I have a lot of decor in my house, but it's all on the walls. And most of my surfaces are clear and all of my functional items are put away. I don't want to see them. I use them and then I put them back.

Um, so closets though are kind of hard for me because I don't open my closets very often. So your podcasts really kind of encourage me to go through those finally. And then I just like know that they look beautiful even if I don't look at them all the time. And then also my basement. I do like to listen to your podcast when I tackle my basement and I have really, really started using the do it shitty when it comes to my basement because my basement is the size of my upstairs. It's like a full basement. And I have one stopped looking at it as a one big room and I have zoned it.

I have storage, laundry, kids play area and like miscellaneous. And so I really like to go through my basement a little bit at a time. I do it as shitty and it still ends up being better than what it was before. So thank you. Madison, good for you. Do it shitty. I can see the perfectionism. I can hear it in you. So this is exactly what you need to do to let go of like I got to do everything perfect. And I think this is a really good reminder for everybody listening to look in those hidden areas. It is human nature to focus on the things that we see. So our countertops and like the living room and the entranceway also guests see that. So it feels like even more important. But we are are never going to truly have an organized effortless home if we're not tackling the hidden space.

Like if we're not decluttering the drawers and going through the cabinets because then we don't have an easy, fast way to put things. It's like playing Jenga every time we need something or we have to put it away, which is friction. It's taking from us. So good reminder, Madison, to open up a drawer right now, close to you. If you're driving in your car, please don't do this. Leave the glove box alone. But if you're at home, is there a cabinet or closet really close to you? And right now, I want you to find five things to leave. Five. From the nearest drawer, the nearest closet, the nearest cabinet, five things that aren't serving you are leaving right now. And if you're like, I don't have the capacity to drive those five things to the donation and I don't want them just sitting in

my entrance way, put them in a trash bag. I give you permission. It's all good in the hood, my friends. Let's hear from Star. Hi, Cass. My name is Star, and I have been a follower and a listener and a Cass doer slash recently joined your organizing experts group. You have completely changed the game for me and my entire thought process. So first, I would just like to say, thank you very much. You are so appreciated, and I really hope that you know that. And recently in your podcast yesterday, from 1020, you asked, what do we do while we are listening to your podcast?

Well, of course, I do my very best to make sure that I am always moving my butt as instructed. And the majority of the time, if I am listening while I'm doing something, I'm usually at a client's house working on a project or doing whatever it is that they've done. they've asked me to do. Otherwise, it's typically while I'm driving. But once again, thank you so much for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us. And personally, I think you should get a Nobel Prize. If anybody else wants to vote with me on that, please let me know we'll start a petition. Thank you. Have a nice day. Thank you, Star. I love that. I recognize you actually from the experts group. So it's so exciting to have you on the podcast. That's amazing. Yeah. I I'm seeing now maybe a lot of you listen to this podcast while driving.

And I also listen to podcast while driving. So me screaming at you to put things in the garbage while you're driving, maybe not effective. But I'm hoping the motivation lingers until you get home. And then you can like, you enter it. You take your shoes off. You're like, actually, I don't even like these shoes. They just were the ones that were by the back door. They're going to go right now or the coat or the extra mittens, whatever it is.

Let's like, ugh, let's take our lives back. Let's talk about guests on the podcast. I did not have a guest on the Cudderbug podcast, tool, the 100th and 6 episode. I just found this out for my producer. I had no idea about this. But this, I mean, this tracks. The reason is I just was sharing things when I was bored that I thought, you know, would help change your life. And some of those podcasts were like seven minutes long.

I don't know. That's not even a podcast. What are you doing? Seven minutes? That's like a normal ad in a podcast. So that's a little embarrassing. Listen, I'm not claiming I'm an expert and I know what I'm doing. But I did know I had this real passion. Anytime I heard something or did something or found out something cool, I'm like, I can't wait to share it with my friends. I don't want to put on makeup and make a YouTube video. I'm going to do it on the podcast. And then I realized, oh, maybe I should be a grown up and do podcasting right. So I started looking for guests. My first guest was Mary Ann from HGTV Obsessed.

I have zero recollection of this podcast or her, and I feel really bad for saying that because she was my first podcast. Couldn't tell you what we talked about. Heidi, my producer, just told me that, in fact, we talked about ADHD. Has Heidi listened to all my podcasts? Poor Heidi. And that we talked about ADHD because she was super successful. And she had ADHD.

And I had ADHD and was making it work. And that also tracks because this was around the time where I was first diagnosed. And I went to a psychiatrist to get a formal diagnosis. And the first thing he said to me is you can't have ADHD because you're successful. Successful people don't have ADHD. And I remember the rage inside of me. Because first of all, bro, you don't know the steps I had to take to get to this appointment and not forget it and how many alarms I had to set and how many like, you know,

extra ADHD health. or tools just to live my life. And also, I know a lot of people with ADHD who are highly successful. So you supposed to be the expert over here. Dude, don't know what you're talking about. So, oh, that tracks. I want to go back and listen to that episode. But let's talk about some of my favorite interviews I ever did. I have a terrible memory. I'm blaming ADHD for this because there's probably a ton that I loved that I can't remember that I loved. But I will say one that stands out is Peter Walsh. Peter Walsh is the reason I started getting organized in the first place. He is my absolute hero. He saved my life. He did. I owe everything to him. His show Clean Sweep,

his books. And one of my assistants, without telling me, booked him as a podcast guest and I didn't realize, I just showed up for the podcast and he was there. I will say, I panicked and I totally shit the bed on that podcast. Like, I was there. I was there. I was. terrible. I wasn't asking great questions. I was so nervous. Like, I wish I would have known he was going to be on and I had time to prepare. I just, like, fan-girled over him for half of it. And then, like, we talked about controversial crap the second. Like, it was awful. I messed that up. But I will say, still got to talk to my absolute hero. I'm just, I'm so grateful to him. He's everything. And if you haven't read his books or know nothing about Peter Walsh,

please go check him out. He is incredible. I couldn't even tell you exactly what we talked about. I literally just like fan-girled over him and I could tell he was uncomfortable, but I couldn't stop because I was so like, oh my God, I wish I would have had some preparation. And then we started talking about he's really into like environmental things and he doesn't want to be wasteful and over-consumption. And we kind of like let it go in a dark place. And I feel like I also like insulted Marie Kondo, which I should never do because she's amazing. Like, what was I doing? I just, like, word vomited. Oh, I just word vomited all over him. And there was no plan. There was no rhyme or reason, which usually is fine, but add in my social awkwardness with my, like,

nervousness of talking to the greatest man who ever lived. It was, it was awkward and it was bad. Okay. Emily and Mara just brought in a 300th episode cake. which you can't see if you're listening to this episode and not watching. But thank you. It's amazing. Okay, let's make a wish. 300 more before I croak. That's amazing.

That's so cool. That's where you guys went today. This morning, they were like, we have to leave. And I was like, is everything okay? And they're like, oh, it's fine. We have to go. And they just left the office. And I was like, is there like a terrorist attack?

And they just left me to, are they taking? shelter and they didn't say a word. They just left. And I'm hilarious. Oh, thank you so much. Yeah, 300. It's cool. Another person that I got to talk to was Gretchen Rubin. Another one of my heroes. Gretchen Rubin wrote the four tendencies. Everything she wrote, I love her writing style. I love her message. I love her, like, oh, science behind it. Being able to talk to her in person was like one of the highlights of my life. She forever made my life better with her four tendency concepts. And I think she's a genius. So that really stood out to me.

I also got to talk to my friend Chris recently who I just like, again, there's these certain people that just have this lasting impact and being able to have them on the podcast and hopefully have a lasting impact with you too is just such a monumental thing for me. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast. sponsor, ORA Frames. I'm excited about this sponsor because I have to say this is the best Christmas gift I've ever given and received. I received an ORA Frame years ago and it was filled with amazing memories and photos that my loved one had found on Facebook. And then I was like, I'm doing this for everyone I know. And I preloaded them with beautiful memories, photos,

and videos from all of our loved ones. So when they open the frame, it's ready to go, but the best part is I can add photos from anywhere in the world at any time, and so can everyone else. So my sister-in-law can send photos of her kids at the hockey tournament instantly to my mother-in-law's frame. This is such an incredible gift. For a limited time, visitoraframes.com and get $45 off Ora's best-selling Carver Map frames named No. 1 by Wirecutter by using the promo code clutterbug at checkout. That's A-U-R-A-Frames.com promo code clutterbug. This exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year. So order now before it ends. Support the show by mentioning us at Checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Okay, I want to hear from Dawn.

Hello, Cass. My name is Dawn. I have found you earlier this year. And I was just struggling to figure out how to be able to function better as an ADHD person. I'm sure you can relate. Anyway, I was just struggling. And so I was just, you know, looking on YouTube, saw your one show that you did about ADHD. and decluttering and organizing. And I'm thinking, yeah, maybe. Well, anyway, it turned out to be one of the best things I've ever done.

I've learned so many crazy words with you, like crazy pants. And I have learned some things called body doubling, which is just good tools to have. I have been a mess all my life. I have been disorganized all of my life. And everything is everywhere. Nothing has a place. And you have just made a major difference in my life. Or you have just inspired me that I can actually do it.

And I believe in myself. And one thing I have been proud of for this whole last month is there has not been one dirty dish in my sink overnight for a month now, where I wouldn't do the dishes for a day or two, a week or two. I would scrape the dishes, but, you know, just set them all in a soaking pan of, water and but now it's just like no I deserve to have a clean sink I deserve to have a clean kitchen and my husband deserves to have a lovely structured decluttered home and I have actually just been so proud of myself about it. And I want to thank you so much for everything that you're doing. I wish I'd have found you a long time ago, but everything in its time, this was my time to find you. And just want to tell you, I love you.

Thank you, Don. Oh, this is good. You said so many things that are just like, just real life. When we have ADHD, when you have ADHD, your brain doesn't work like, is it called linear, like one thought to the next? It is chaos. It's like a million thoughts going all over the place. So of course our home is reflecting that. We, our brain doesn't think like organized methods, systems, systems. It just doesn't. It's pure chaos. So our home looks like chaos. So when we can learn tools, we can learn to mimic an organized person, you know, or embrace our own organizing style and set up systems so that we can still have the chaos in the brain without the chaos in our environment, it is. It's like, oh, so crazy, good. And I also love that you talked about the pride from doing your dishes. There are times where I'm doing this podcast and I think, do we, Do people just even care when I'm talking about decluttering and cleaning? Like in the grand scheme of things, is that really that important?

And the true answer is no. But the results that come from doing that are. And it is that pride. Doing the dishes is something you can spend 10 minutes doing and instantly feel proud of yourself, instantly be done. and there is nothing else in the world that can give you that immediate satisfaction, that dopamine hit and have a long lasting result that affects you in such a positive way. So yeah, you're doing your laundry today, but it's not even about the laundry.

It's about self-respect, self-love, self-pride. It's about having your environment reflect back to you, positive things about yourself so that you can go out in the world and be your best version because your heart. home is your launch pad for your life. It really is. Your environment shapes everything about your life. So let's make it a priority, not because it matters if the dishes are done, but it matters if we feel proud of ourselves and in control. Now let's hear from Kate. Hey Cass, this is Kate from New Hampshire. And I just want to say congratulations on your 300th podcast. episode, that is truly incredible. I think you are the only reason I ever get any laundry done.

I know that if I'm folding clothes, then I get to be listening to you. And so I don't know if it's some weird body doubling thing for ADHD, but it works. So I thank you. I know it can be really difficult to kind of stay inspired and come up with new content, but your listeners appreciate you so much. I just love that you have such a quirky sense of humor and you're not the cookie cutter, Instagram influencer. So keeping you and doing what you do. We love you. Bye. Thank you. I love that. I listen to like, Weirwolf, Y, A romance novels when doing laundry. So I feel like we're both, we're twinning over here, you know, sure, Clutterbug Podcast. Warewolf Love Triangle, same zies.

All right, let's hear from Terry. Hi, Cass. My name is Terry. I watch you every single day, and over the years I've decletted my house pretty far. I'm finally at a point where I'm starting to organize, and that feels amazing. I don't have a question, but I do have some advice for your chronically ill listeners, Those of us who struggle with energy, chronic pain, or mobility issues, that's my reality, too. Five minutes matters. Let me repeat that.

Five minutes matters. About two years ago, I heard you say those words, and I saw you setting timers in your videos, and let me tell you, it changed my life. At first, I committed to just one, five minutes matters a day, then two, then three. Now I have alarms on my phone for four times a day. That's 20 minutes of decluttering, cleaning, doing dishes, laundry, something. I don't always do it, let's be real, but I do it often. I used to pay someone $40 every two weeks to help me clean because I just couldn't get myself moving.

She'd come in and pick up the slack. But because of you, Cass, there's no slack anymore. I do it myself with the timer on my microwave and the alarms on my phone. If you're ill, just do five minutes. If it hurts to stand, just do five minutes. Just get up, off the bed, off the couch, off the recliner for five minutes. It'll change your life. Thank you, Cass, for changing my life and my home.

Thank you for keeping me company every day with your YouTube videos and podcasts. And thank you for saving me $80 to $120 a month. Bye. I love you. Bye, Terry. Oh, thank you for that reminder. That is so good. It's so common to think, well, five minutes isn't going to make a dent.

Look at everything. It's hours and hours. But it is quite magical how five minutes every day adds up to more than like just doing it all in one. I don't know what it is. It, again, science, math, it doesn't seem like it should work. But it is the secret. This slow, tiny, little consistent steps add up to huge, huge, huge,

All right, we have an anonymous listener who's shared something. I haven't heard it. Let's hear. All right, Cass, we're staying anonymous for today because I'm about to say some off-the-cuff things, and I can't be reliable for it to be traced back to me. Anyways, I'm literally cleaning out my litter box right now. Well, not my litter box, but my cat's litter box. I'm literally cleaning it out right now as I'm recording this. And that is because I'm am listening to your podcast right now as i'm getting crap done you are my body double today so thank you for that and chris who actually was on your podcast that i was just listening to you know your timeblind this one that was a great one any who um so i'm just sitting here and i'm i'm just thinking i'm thinking

about the holidays coming up and think about the things to do priorities all that stuff and i I'm just thinking to some of the things that you've said on your podcast in regard to like your family or like your mother-in-law maybe in particular. Maybe that's why I'm staying anonymous for right now. So, all right, here's the team. My mother-in-law, she is from a different country. So she is not from the States. And so a lot of these things I'm like, okay, maybe it's like a cultural difference. I don't know.

But maybe we don't get along the greatest. and that's okay. But here I am listening to you talking about boundaries and literally saying things like, screw you, mother-in-law, I'm not coming to your house for Christmas. And I'm just thinking, holy badon-cadon. Cass has the biggest gonads ever to be saying some of the things that she's saying

on like an actual public forum. So my first question is, does your mother-in-law or do your parents listen to your podcast? Like, do they know you have a podcast and like, I'm just, I'm honestly, that's just me being nosy. Like, has it ever created drama in your life that you say some of the things you do? And please don't stop saying some of the things you do because I really need to hear them. So this is absolutely no shade.

This is me just being nosy. Part two is I'm currently in a phase where I'm like, all right, holidays are coming up. Please don't give me crap. Please, please give us experiences. Please do all the things, you know. Every holiday episode that you have in the past, I don't even know how long I've been listening to you. Six years, you always talk about this.

As the holidays come up, like, let's focus on experiences. Let's do all these things. So I really, I don't know if I have another question. Maybe just letting you know that that's really valuable to me. And this year, me and the good old in-laws were actually hitting up Disneyland. We live in not California. So, all of you. And we are visiting, visiting California.

and um and i just maybe i don't have the biggest balls yet because i instead of texting my sibling in-laws directly to say hey maybe let's not do gifts this year maybe let's like i'll just go out to dinner together uh instead of me directly sending that i i at least crafted a text message sent it to my husband and said hey can you send this in your in your sibling group chat for me um all right well that's really all i have and maybe i just needed some someone to talk to for a minute while I finish cleaning the litter box. But I hope you having a grand all day. Thank you so much for all of your tough love in your podcast.

That really, that is what speaks to me. So keep up with the tough love, please, so that my house can stay clean and decluttered. Thank you. Bye. I love that anonymous. And that's actually such a good question. I do talk about my poor mother-in-law a lot. And here's why.

She is literally the greatest human being on the face of the earth. But sometimes, like, calm down. She's annoyingly too great. You know what I mean? Like, just like maybe be a little less awesome over there. But she also listens to every single podcast. She watches every video. She is the most supportive human being.

Let's all gag collectively. She's just so great. Freaking Mrs. A. This is what I call her. Mrs. A, I know you're listening to this right now. now. And I think her genuine, like, kindness allows me to just be brutally honest with her because I know she'll still love me. Oh my God. Ew. Um, gross. I'm very tired. So I'm going to be extra emotional. My parents don't listen and they're not supportive. They're wonderful people, but they're

just like, yeah, you know, they're just like, yeah, you do something. I don't know what it is, Cass, but it's probably something. But my mother-in-law is, like, crazy supportive. So sometimes I feel bad for throwing her under the bus, but I wouldn't throw my own parents under the bus just in case, like, what if they ever did listen? We just don't have that, like, relationship where I can be just totally unmasked.

But I do with my mother-in-law. So, yeah, I tell her she's annoying, and she tells me I'm annoying, and I'm not coming to your house for Christmas. Oh, my God. this is what sleep deprivation does it like i'm like extra emotional she's going to watch this and be like oh see she does love me shut up mrs a oh oh we way to go now i'm all crying my makeup's all why am i even just oh crying about being mean to my mother-in-law it's fine it's ridiculous uh let's hear from alley cheer me up alley

Hi, usually when I listen to your podcasts, I'm tidying up in the kitchen because the kitchen is always a problem. So thank you very much. I've been watching your videos for years now, absolute years, and I love it. You've helped me no end. So thank you. Keep going. I'm Ali from the Thumbland in the UK. Thank you, Allie. I don't know where that is, but that is the coolest sounding place on Earth.

It sounds like a magical place I want to live. Oh, British accents, man. Can we just all collectively agree that it is what all humans should sound like? It is just, ugh, is gold. And last but not least, we are going to wrap up with a message from Mary. Hi, Cass. My name is Mary. So I've been listening to you for a few years now. I want to say since 2020 or 21. And I heard your recent podcast about what do we do when we're listening to your podcast?

Well, for me, I started out listening to your podcasts and it was the only way I could get my dishes done. And to this day, that's usually what I end up doing. but now it's turned into if I really don't want to declutter my house, I usually put your podcast on if I can't concentrate. I actually put your podcast on every Monday whenever you release a podcast now. And I listen to it in the car because I drive for over an hour. So normally what I do is either I'm driving and I need to just brain dump and not...

have to think, or I'm decluttering or doing my dishes because I do not like doing dishes whatsoever. But I thought I'd jump on, answer your question real quick, because I've been listening to you for so, so long, and I just wanted to say, thank you so much for what you do. You have changed my life in so many ways, and you've helped me learn how to get a handle on my ADHD and cleaning. And it was even before I even knew I had ADHD and you were helping me. So thank you so much for what you do. And I look forward to your next podcast. Thanks. Have a great day, Cass. Thank you, Mary. And don't forget, it doesn't count it done unless we've done

the last 10%. I used to be a person when I'm doing the dishes. I would like, for some reason, I'll just let one soak or I'll put all of them away except these three plates. What are we? Like, this is human nature. Do you know they've done studies that people like do this? They complete all the way almost till the end. And then they're like, well, I'm just going to not finish because that would be crazy. So this is just my PSA to all of you listening to complete the cycle today.

Whatever you started, finish. Do it shitty. put the dishes kind of still damp in the cupboard. They'll dry inside there. I promise. I promise it's okay. Also, the power went out while I was listening to Mary, which was weird. And my first thought was, is this a terrorist attack? Are we being, like, you know, I catastrophize. Is this a word? And I don't know if this is an ADHD thing, but I do. Like, my immediate thought was always like, someone calls me and I'm like, are you okay? They're like, I just was constantly, oh, I thought maybe you were in like a horrible wreck and this was your last call just to say you loved me before the lights went out on your life

forever. Like, why, why does my brain do this? I don't know. I thought I'd share that with you. Weird. Let's just be proud of ourselves. Be proud of yourself or whatever you accomplished today. I hope you got the dishes done and the laundry put away or something decluttered. And I want you to literally pat yourself on the back. And I definitely want to say how grateful I am for you listening to this podcast because it has been, this podcast truly has been such an incredible leveling up experience for my life. I've looked into things that I otherwise wouldn't have sort of researched and dug deep into love languages and the connections and more personality, different traits and how it affects your life and money management. And all of these have also been

tools for my toolbox too. So together, we are growing. as humans. We're getting a handle on our home, but we're getting a handle on our entire lives. And I'm just so grateful to be on this journey with you. It's because of you. And thank you. Just thank you, my friends. It was so fun to spend today's podcast listening and chatting with you. And there were so many submissions for this episode. I'm sorry if I didn't get to play. I definitely didn't get to play even nearly all of them. But we are going to continue to play. those as part of the Talk to Cast segments in future podcasts. That's a, I got to go to a fire call.

See you in a 301. I'm going to go save a life. You're going to save your laundry. Bye, babes. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo.

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