Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Decluttering & Cleaning Tips for the Busy Working Mom with Taryn Maria | Clutterbug Podcast # 214

Episode Date: March 11, 2024

Keeping your home clean and tidy can be quite a challenge, especially when you have a full-time job, kids, pets, and other things that demand your attention. But don't worry, I've got you covered! In today's podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with the lovely YouTuber, Taryn Maria, who shared some fantastic tips on how to keep your home clean and organized, even with a busy lifestyle. With Taryn's helpful hacks, you'll be able to have your cake and eat it too!   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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm excited today. Welcome back. Clutterbugs for today's Clutterbug podcast. We are going to be talking about things I don't talk about very often, even though this podcast is all about cleaning and decluttering. I want to talk about specifically when you're busy and you work full time, like how you can do this and actually have it all. And I'm excited because today's guest is Taryn Marie. We're going to call her Taryn, but her YouTube channel is Taryn Marie. And it is so inspiring because I feel like it's relatable, great advice, especially for moms, busy moms, working moms to show you shortcuts so that you can have it all. So welcome Taryn.

Thank you so much, Cass. I'm so excited to be here. We're so excited to have you. I've been deep diving your YouTube channel and a video that you did recently, first of all, I guess I should start at the beginning. tell us about yourself before I jump. I'm excited to jump in, but tell us about yourself. My name's Taryn. I live in Washington, D.C., and I've got three kids, kind of a big age spread. My youngest is seven, and then my oldest is 15, so we're kind of in like all of the stages right now.

And I started my YouTube channel last August, so it feels like it's been a long time, but it hasn't been that long. I'm just really enjoying making YouTube videos because my My goal is to make like very practical educational videos where I can just give advice and and it's like things that you could watch the video and say like, oh, okay, I'm going to go do that right now. Like you don't have to do anything else other than hear it and try to see if it works and fits into your life. And so that's kind of why I wanted to start the channel just to give this, these tips and

things. And yeah, speaking of working, I also have a full-time job. And, you know, I go into an office, a couple of. a few times a month. Luckily, you know, since the pandemic, I'm working from home a lot. I'm originally from upstate New York. So just kind of like a D.C. transplant. And I've been here for quite a while and just enjoying, you know, making this content. I had no idea that you just started your channel. So last August. So it hasn't even been a year. So, oh, sorry, it was August of 2022. So it's been about a year and five months or so that I started it. You're killing it.

That's incredible. Oh, thank you. Amazing. You're like a baby. You're a YouTube baby. I had no idea. I assumed you'd, you know, been around a while. That's so incredible and working full time.

Wow, that is impressive. I started my YouTube channel while working full time too. And it was sort of a hobby on the side because I was so passionate about, I struggled with keeping a house and housework and all adulting. And then when I found solutions and shortcuts, I was so passionate to help other people because it felt like I found the holy grail. It felt like a secret. And I feel that while watching your videos, you have that same level of excitement. Like, listen, I found something amazed balls and I want to share it with the world.

Have you always been a tidy person? Definitely not. And probably when I was like a kid and like a teenager and even in my 20s, I was like almost, I don't want to say like a hoarder or anything. But I mean, I was like keeping everything. I was a huge fan of piles of things. I loved to like make sure that like, especially when I had like my kids, I would be like, well, we need all of these baby things. You know, we need to make sure that we're fully equipped to handle everything. and, you know, what happened to me is we were in a two-bedroom condo, and then after we had our first baby, we were like, well, we need to get some more space and go some more, you know, bigger for us, and we wanted to have more kids. So we bought a house, and I, if you can believe it, you know, we're in this very small condo,

and then we get a three-bedroom house, and somehow in just like a few years, I managed to fill that house up, like, fill. it up with stuff. When we first moved in, it was like, wow, we have nothing. There's so much space. And then a few years later, wow, we have no space. There's like nowhere to, you know, no room or anything. And I really felt like overwhelmed by that. And I wanted to get a cleaning person because I thought the house needed a cleaning person. I wasn't thinking like you just have a lot of stuff. Like it's really hard to clean when you have way too much stuff. And that became like kind of like a point of contention with my husband because he was like, we don't need to get a cleaning person.

Like we should be able to handle our own house. And I'm like, well, we have little kids and we're busy at work. And the house is a mess. And I was, you know, spending my weekends cleaning. And I don't even know the exact moment that it happened. I just kind of had this. Actually, it started in my kitchen because our kitchen was piled. with just crap everywhere, like the tables, the counters, and it wasn't even stuff that belonged

in the kitchen. It was like purses, baby toys, I mean, you name it, just things that did not belong in a kitchen. And I one day just said, you know what, I'm going to take everything off of the counters and out of this kitchen and make it look like it did the day we moved in and just see how it looks. And I did that. because we had felt like we were suffocating in the kitchen. So I did that. And it was like, wow. Like, I could just like wipe the counter and the kitchen's clean.

Like, it was nothing. That was kind of like the epiphany that kind of got me down this path of like, I just need to like do some stuff and make a few changes in the house. And I don't need a cleaning person. I can keep it clean and I can keep it tidy. But it was a process. It definitely took me like having lots of kids and lots of stuff in the house and it took me a while to get there. Yeah, I feel, I mean, I feel that it,

it took me a full year to fully get my house under control, but I did it in like a little short chunks. So 15 minutes here, 15 minutes there of decluttering while still doing like the daily dishes and keeping up on laundry and the tidy ups. But it became really addicting to me because I, I feel you so hard. Like, I remember I wanted to divorce my husband, if we're being honest, at many times in the beginning of our relationship, because suddenly we have kids and we have this house, and it feels crazy pants overwhelming.

And he would say, what's the big deal? Let's just give it a quick tidy and why other people can keep on top of it? And I'm like, dude, if it's that easy, why don't you do? Why don't you do it? Like, I'm drowning here. And part of me, I guess as a woman, as a as a mother, I really took on that responsibility and saw it as a failing when I couldn't do it. And yeah, I internalized a lot of that, but I also like externalize some rage.

And it really, I was like, what is the secret here? I guess I have to work harder. And that wasn't it at all. I just needed less stuff. and you don't have to be a minimalist. And I love that. You are also like, you still have stuff. You just don't have the things that you're not using.

Yeah, that's like a big thing I also have been talking about in a lot of my videos. Like, I used to think I needed all kinds of stuff for all kinds of scenarios. And just like, just in case this is what being an adult is. You know, you need all of these things in case you need them. And since I've kind of gotten older and really figured out like what we actually use and what we actually need, I've really paired it down. And so I definitely like to talk a lot about that because I think like I love minimalism. I think it has a lot of wonderful principles. And I think it's so great to apply that to a lot of things in your life.

But I also think like there are things that I love that I feel like I'm almost like a maximalist in some categories. and so like I love, I'm like a little bit of a clothes horse, unfortunately. And so, you know, I have a lot of clothing. But then for shoes, not so much. You know, I don't want to have like an overwhelming amount of shoes. And so I kind of think of it in categories. And I've just kind of come to realize, like, if you use the things and you or you need them and you love them, it's not clutter and it's fine.

You just have to like have that balance because because some people don't mind having a lot of things and they feel like their house is tidy and that's great. That's how they, you know, I think it's very personal to your own life. Whereas I've kind of had to find that balance where it's like, okay, we have just what we need and this is what we need to have the house looking great and tidy. And I'm just laughing what you're saying about your husband. This must be like a universal thing because we went through the same thing. And my husband would be like, you need to lower your standards. Like, don't worry about it. Just, this is fine. You know, and he has such a high tolerance for clutter and mess. He's going to watch this and kill me. But he really does.

And I just don't have that same tolerance. Like, it just, I just can't, you know, function that way. Yeah. My husband, I feel like he also does not thrive in a messy space. But I think he really underestimates how much work it is to maintain it, probably because I noticed the dirt before he does and I get to it. So then we're left with this thing like, well, it's not that bad. I'm like, it's not that bad because I just spent two hours cleaning it, brosky. And so, you know, but we're, we're much better off when I had to realize it was an issue of me just having more than I could manage. That's what it really came down to. And I know that, decluttering. I don't want to patronize anyone or act like, oh, just get rid of it. It's hard. It's hard,

especially in the beginning to let things go because it feels wrong on a real fundamental level to just give away things you've bought that you've spent money on, to just get rid of perfectly good items that could be used to just get them out. It goes against everything. I feel like that is human nature. And so it's difficult in the beginning. And I think that's something that we don't really talk about enough, how hard it is to get started with decluttering, how emotional it is. And that that's completely normal. Because I've worked with a lot of clients and as we start decluttering, they're like, I'm just not good at this. I know it's easy for you and other people, but it's really hard for me. And therefore, I'm not good at this and I can't do it. But the truth is,

it's hard for everyone in the beginning until we really see the benefits for ourselves. It'll never become easy. Yeah. Okay. So let's really talk about how to do this when you work full time. Because there are a lot of people that we look to for advice who don't have full time jobs. They're stay-at-home moms or, you know, and it can feel like, well, that's good for you because you have all day. but I'm over here working 40 hours and no one and I have kids and I have pets and I have responsibilities. How could I possibly do this? But you not only do you work full time, have three kids, but you also now have this part time job as well and you're still doing it. So can we talk about some of your secrets? Yes. Oh my gosh. I feel like this is something that just over the

last 10 years I've kind of really tried to like embody and do. I mean, I think the first thing is, and now I'm going to like like channel my husband, I do think the first thing is to lower your expectations a little bit. I mean, I know they're like, we can do it all and just lean in and, you know, everybody says that kind of thing. But I do think that when you're in it and you've got little kids and everything's a mess, you think like, okay, this is my life forever and this is just the way my house is always going to look. And you don't realize that like that's just a snapshot in time. Like in five years, those kids are going to be bigger and they're going to be able to be helping you clean and your house is not going to look like that. So sometimes you just have to sit back and

say, okay, well, this is what it is today. And I'm just going to get through this. And in a few years, you know, we'll make it better how we can. But you're not going to make yourself feel bad because, because it's hard with little kids. I mean, luckily, mine are getting older, and I love the little kid stage, but it's hard if you want to have lots of kids in a nice clean house. It's just, you know, how do you, where do you begin? So I think lowering your expectations is like the first thing I will say about that. Then, of course, you want to have your house clean.

So I really think like you should prioritize what's important to you to have clean. in your home because if you're going to say, well, I need everything clean. I need all of my surfaces dusted. I need every bathroom's sparkling. I need the kitchen perfect. I need the baseboards clean. No cobwebs. It's just, I mean, you've got to prioritize.

You've got to just pick the things that either are most important to you. Or sometimes I say, like, pick the things that are like maybe the dirtiest rooms in your home, like the kitchen and the bathroom. Or you could pick things that are. a big surface area, you know, like the floors or the couches and the beds, you know, just kind of think like what are these big impact things and that's what you prioritize and just let the rest go. You know, maybe like you can get to those things every six months or something when you've got some free time, but you're not going to get to them every day or weekend or

whatever. So I think that's a really big thing is prioritizing. Yeah. Can we talk about prioritizing? My kitchen's a priority and the laundry is a priority. I can't even tell you the last time I dusted a baseboard, I have never washed my curtains. This is something people do. I've never ate my life done this. I've never washed the walls. I might spot wipe if I see something, but I've never like done that.

My fridges really needs to be cleaned out. The oven needs to be cleaned out. I think there's this expectation that people who have a clean house have. every nook and cranny clean, but I promise you that's not true. They're focusing on, like you said, their priorities. And for me, it's kitchen and laundry. I should clean the bathrooms more. I do not. That is bad. What are your big priorities? Yeah. So definitely the kitchen is a big priority of mine because we are constantly in our kitchen. And if we don't stand top of it, it just will look like a mess in five seconds.

And especially when everybody's home, it seems like people are eating all day long and there's constant dishes. So, yeah, so the kitchen is definitely a big priority for me in our house. I would also say, I would say our bathrooms as well. And the way that I like handle the bathrooms, I mean, I'll just clean a little bit every day in each bathroom when it looks dirty. and then that way that helps us stay on top of the bathrooms. So I definitely pick the kitchen and bathrooms, although I am also, I weirdly enjoy vacuuming. So I do do a lot of vacuuming.

I've got like a cordless handheld vac to make it easier. And so that's another thing that I do. But yeah, laundry. I hear a lot of people saying that. I like, I mean, who does really like laundry? But, you know, I should prior. prioritize that, but we're lucky, you know, I try to do it twice a week and that's like my max. Yeah. I feel like my kids, if I don't keep up on the laundry, they will take clean clothes and

they'll just put them back in the dirty clothes because they don't want to put them away. Like I can't overwhelm them with a lot of clothes to put away because their brain is like, this is going to take forever and therefore I'm going to put it back into the dirty laundry or on the floor, which gets mixed in with dirty. And then I'm never getting ahead. if we keep a little bit every day so it just takes two minutes three minutes to put the laundry away I feel like everyone gets less overwhelmed and we're less likely what's actually saving us time because we're not rewashing a lot of clean clothes which I was doing with teenagers you know constantly they would just it would get mixed back in with dirty clothes and it was like this never ending

I just washed this why am I washing it again no one even wore it crazy burden So that's why laundry is a focus because it just saves me time. But I love that you talked about your stick vacuum because I think there are a lot of cleaning shortcuts and tools that take a lot of the pressure off of us and just make it easier. So when it's easier, we do it more often. And I, everyone was always like, get a dice and cordless. Get a dice and cordless. I was like, I will never spend the money on that. That is ridiculous.

no surrey bob until i went through a bunch of vacuums that kept breaking over the years i finally said what's all the fuss about and i don't know if it's a dyson but it definitely is the stick vacuum and cordless i think any one of those would do i'm vacuuming a lot more because it isn't a pain tell me you agree oh my gosh i like for years would get out my huge vacuum cleaner and unplug it every day. And I don't know what I was thinking. I just was like, well, I got to do this. And then I went to my mom's house and she had the Dyson stick vacuum. And I stayed with her during the pandemic. And I was like vacuuming her house like all the time, like three times a day. And I was like, what? This is like amazing. Like you don't have to plug it in.

You just so tiny. You can just keep going. And I agree. The. price is outrageous. So I didn't even buy it for myself. My mom bought it for me because she was like, I know how you loved this. So Merry Christmas, you know, and she got me the vacuum. And now I just recommend it in all of my videos as like a tool or a shortcut because even if it's saving you like five minutes of like taking out the big vacuum cleaner and putting that away, it's over time saving you hours and hours of time. And I think, like, vacuuming with kids, there's always something on the floor, just all day. And I love robot vacuums, too. I know you have a robot vacuum that you love. I'll tell you, I'll tell you something that's really magical about vacuuming.

I moved into this brand new house. There was some carpet in here, a little bit of carpet, but what we noticed was like, wow, it's dusty. Why is this house so dusty? Every surface was covered in dust. And I was vacuuming. And I was vacuuming way more than I vacuumed at my old house. And it still was so dusty. And I was like, what is going on here? And I was running the Roomba's every single day, multiple times a day. And what I noticed was after a month, about a month and a half, there was way less dust because, and I knew this, like I felt like I knew this, but I didn't really know this. Most of the dust on surfaces comes from the floor. And so if you're not vacuuming on a regular basis, that accumulates and accumulates, especially in carpets,

but even on hard floors. And as you walk, it stirs up. And just vacuuming once is not enough. So after I spent literally like six weeks vacuuming like a maniac, I don't have to vacuum like a maniac anymore. And the dust is not accumulating. I can just keep up on it. And it's been insane. Like my surfaces are no longer dusty. So not only, I love that you're talking about vacuuming because, yeah, not only are your floor is going to be cleaner. Your entire house will be cleaner.

You will have considerably less dust. And I think that's another reason why I'm such a huge fan of a robot vacuum because it's, you don't got to do it. You got a maid that's doing it for you. But not only your floors cleaner, your entire house will be less dusty and more clean as well if you're just running those in the background. Do you have like a super expensive one or do you think it matters? No, I actually, mine is less than $200.

And I know I got mine a while ago. maybe I don't even know I want to say almost like a decade ago and it was a lot the prices have like come down a lot so I think they're much more affordable and I'm this I totally agree with you like I love it I love it so much like I remember when I first bought it I would just relax on the couch and watch it vacuum and just be like ah this is this is wonderful it's just such a and the other thing I love about it is it goes like under your furniture, which to me is like so key because who, I mean, I'm never moving my furniture to vacuum, maybe once in a blue moon, but certainly not regularly. And, and that's a great point about the dust because it's funny you say that. And I kind of just

made the connection now. When we moved into the home that we're in right now, it was incredibly dusty. And I, I was like, what is this what houses are like? Like, why is this so dusty? And, And I realized, I was thinking like, you know, this house is over 100 years old. Maybe that's, maybe it's just old and dust is, you know, accumulating everywhere and coming everywhere. So it's interesting that you say that it's just accumulated dust because I think that I don't notice as much dust today. And now that, you know, part of me was like saying, well, maybe I'm just cleaning more.

But I think it's got to be there was accumulated dust. And it's just really makes your house so dusty and dirty. Yeah, years worth of dust. other people's dust. Yep. But also, if you've lived in your house in a long time and you haven't vacuumed at least once a week, honestly, if you've skipped a couple of weeks, you have accumulated dust. And that is every time you're walking, your pets are running your kids, it's being stirred

up into the air. And so you're like, oh, I just dust it. I have to dust again. Listen, friends, there's light at the end of the tunnel. If you can vacuum enough, you don't have to continually vacuum like a maniac. you'll get to a point where the dust is really manageable. I would say I dust once every two weeks if that, and I use like a swiffer duster, and it's not a big deal. And I don't ever see dust even ever and I'm not dusting all the time. But I am doing something that I know that you also do,

which is I am a huge fan of the one product wonder, which is what I call it, which is a multi-purpose cleaner for every surface. I grab one bottle and one rag and I just flutter around like a little butterfly. This has changed the game for me. Absolutely. And, you know, I, oh my God, I so agree. I just always laugh because when I was struggling to keep my home clean, I had an arsenal of cleaning products. Like I had something for every room, you know, every. Every, possible surface. I thought that that's what you needed. You know, you need a toilet cleaner and then you need a sink cleaner and then you need a shower cleaner and a floor cleaner. You don't need any of that. And furniture polish. Yeah. I've declared a lot of homes. The messiest homes have the most

cleaning products. Hands down. They have like closets full of cleaning products. Yeah, it's funny. It's so true. And so, yeah, so like having just that multi- use product just really changes everything. It makes it so much easier. And I even just like to make my own so that like to make it even easier. You know, I'll just take some water, some dish soap, some vinegar. If, you know, maybe not if I'm doing granite or marble or something like that, but just put that all in a spray bottle, shake it up and I just go to town in the house. I don't have to like do anything else. I could just like instantly make it and use it. Yeah, I love that. I like, I like, Mrs. Myers or method, anything that's ammonia-free, because then I can use it on every surface,

even wood. Wood. You just spray it right on the wood, and it doesn't dry anything out. I can use it on stone. And so I just run around with one rag. I'm not sure how sanitary. I'm not cleaning toilets or anything, but I'm just like do-d-d-d-do-do-do-do. And I feel like I've really not only cleaned more than I would have normally, but I'm tackling

things I wouldn't have thought to clean like light fixtures, light switches, doornobs. Because I'm not thinking about what product to use. So I'm not having decision fatigue. I'm not like, I'm just everywhere I see, I'm touching with a cloth and spray. And it's been crazy the difference. And so I'm shouting it from the rooftops. And I watched one of your recent videos and you had mentioned that as well. So I was like, yeah, see, she knows.

She knows the secrets. So true. And just, and like, and I think too, like by doing that, you know, you're just walking around and doing some things, you're just like preventing it from ever getting so dirty and unmanageable down the road. You know, you're like the spot cleaning. I love it. I mean, I just like spot cleaned before this call. I spot cleaned my dishwasher because I'm like, oh, there's a drip down there. Let me just quickly get that. And I didn't have to like go crazy. I just had a cloth and a spray and it was done. I'd like to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. Cozy Earth is a bedding and

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Cozy Earth has provided an exclusive offer for my listeners up to 35% off sitewide when you use the code Clutterbug at CozyEarth.com. Let's talk about really quickly the transition from, when I made the transition from messy to clean, I feel like I went too far the other way when you start getting into like, wow, it feels so good to have a clean house. Wow, this is life-changing. I'm proud of myself. Things look good. And when your house look good, it becomes very addicting to have it look good all the time. I'm here to say that I did become neurotic about it. To the point. where I feel like I was stressing out my family because I went too far the other way and was

cleaning too much and getting like upset when other people would make a mess. And I really have had to kind of embrace the middle, like go back to yeah, you're not allowed to worry if there's dirt or this or that. These are when you clean. You can clean within this short amount of time. just leave it till tomorrow. Did you feel that? A lot of people I talked to have felt like this. They've lived in a really messy chaotic state for a long time. They make the transition to a tidy house and they go a little too far. I don't know if you did, but I'm wondering. Yeah, I could totally see that happening. And I think there was a point where maybe I did do that because, you know, especially back then, I would start to clean and get into it and I would like make the entire room spotless in one go.

And then it's like, okay, well, nobody can come in this kitchen now because it's spotless. So I totally hear you. I think I like naturally though kind of transitioned away from that. I'm not sure how that happened, but I think now I'm more so clean the kitchen in chunks. And so it's never like the whole room is completely spotless. It's like this corner is spotless today. Tomorrow that corner will be spotless. And so I'm not too worried if things get messy.

But I definitely, I still though, get annoyed if people come in and you've just cleaned a room. And then especially the sink, you know, you just clean out the kitchen sink. And then you leave for a second and come back and there's five dishes in there. It's like, oh, really? Like, who did this? You know? Yeah, I've become more Zen living in this house, I feel like. It's like almost like exposure therapy. We bought a white sofa. I have kids, three kids and a dog. And our backyard floods

constantly, so it's a mud pit. And the kids will, especially my son, he's 11, he'll be outside playing with the dog. He'll come in. He'll be covered in mudhill, flop on the white couch. The dog will jump up. There's muddy prints. And at first, I was cleaning this sofa like a maniac. Now I'm like, oh, I'm just going to throw, throw blankets down over the sofa. And if I do notice the dirt, it's okay. I'm just going to wipe it once a week and give myself grace to see some muddy footprints and just wipe it when I wipe it. And it's crazy, like allowing myself to just be like, I'm going to be consistent with my cleaning. But I'm also going to embrace being crappy. and I'm going to embrace that everything's not always going to be perfect has given me like this beautiful freedom in my house.

It's yeah. It's that yeah, no, that's, that's, that's, that's, that is like a great way to put it. Although it is very brave of you to have a white couch. I mean, they are so beautiful, but I, I, I don't know. I think I also have an 11 year old boy, so I, I know exactly what you're saying. but yeah, the throw a blanket on there. You know, we got a new couch a few years ago and we, we watch dogs. Like we don't, I want a dog, but my husband isn't quite there yet.

So until then, we're babysitting dogs and we'll just do the same. Like throw a blanket on the couch and not worry about it. And we could deal with it after, you know, if there's dog hair or whatever, just deal with it at a time. But unless, you know, between then, don't worry about it and just kind of enjoy. enjoy your life, you know? Yeah, it's getting out of this all or nothing, which is why I think I was struggling with mess in the first place, because my brain was telling me I had to clean it all in one fell swoop and I was too tired to spend hours or I didn't have enough time to spend hours or I would wait and do it till I felt motivated or I would wait till the weekend and clean like a crazy person.

But then when I was cleaning, it was also this all or nothing like I have to keep it clean at all times kind of thing. And so allowing yourself to be in the middle. And for me, it's like the non-negotiables. Like I'm going to tidy for 15 minutes a day. I'm going to do the dishes and have the kitchen clean once a day at one point or another. And I'm going to do a load of laundry a day. That's really taken pressure off of myself. And it's keeping my house that are relatively, like it is. It's tidy all the time. But it's never perfect. And that's okay. And that is okay.

That is exactly right because I did say this in the one video I did. I was like, I used to not clean during the week. And then I would get to the weekend and be like, okay, it's Saturday morning. It's go time. And I would just all day long clean the house. And it was like I dreaded the weekend. Like who dreads the weekend, right? Like I just did not want to do this.

But it just, it was this. all or nothing thing. And so I'd get the house completely from top to bottom sparkling, you know, and just dreading having to do that. But that's what I felt like I had to do. And so just like you said, just taking that slower approach, meeting in the middle, it's not perfect. But, but it's fine. Like you could have if someone come over and you're not going to be like super embarrassed. You know, it's, it's just, it's fine. It's fine. I watched one of your videos about your decluttering rules and you said something that I just thought was so good. I actually stopped and rewound it. You said stop delaying success. Yeah. And I think not only do we

have this all or nothing mentality about cleaning, but there is a real kind of mindset when it comes to decluttering that we have to con Marie or we have to do it all in one fell swoop. So we're procrastinating doing it and your idea of like stop delaying your success and just declutter in 15 minute chunks is the message that a lot of people need to hear can you talk about what decluttering in 15 minute chunks might look like to someone is it taking everything out please say no no I mean it it doesn't have to be that it definitely does not have to be taking everything out. What I like to do with decluttering unless I have a specific decuttering project,

I just like to incorporate it into like my daily things. You know, I'll be walking around the house. Like I'll be standing in the living room, just hanging out. And then I'll start seeing something, a pile maybe. And I'll say, okay, well, I'm going to just declutter here. I'm just going to do this small thing. I mean, I think that decluttering in these, in these tiny chunks is like, just pick something that needs to be decluttered. It doesn't have to be

like your whole basement or like a storage room. You can just pick a drawer, pick a cabinet, or do something that's visible, pick a tabletop, you know, just something small and just set a timer or not, but just say to yourself, I'm going to do this just for like a short time. And I think what a lot of people think that they need to do is pull everything out and like like empty out the whole pantry because if you don't do that, then you're not decluttering your pantry. You're not cleaning your pantry out. No way. Like I would never get it done if I did that. I would my stuff, I would empty my pantry and it would sit there for a month because I wouldn't want to like put it away. My thinking is just kind of do a little here and there and get it done and and be disciplined.

about it because I also think like, you know, there's a lot of good motivation for decluttering. But if you don't have that discipline, then the motivation is going to wear off. So you really need the motivation and the discipline together. And if you say to yourself, well, I'm just going to give this 10 minutes a day or I'm going to give this 15 minutes a day, you can do that. And sure, it'll take you some time. But the clutter, it's been there for a while. it took you a while to get cluttered in the first place.

So 15 minutes, it's going to make a big impact. A huge impact. Five minutes is going to make a huge impact because what we're looking for is just things to leave. Just looking for things that can 100% leave your house. And I could open the drawers of my desk right now and find old scrap pieces of paper and to-do notes that I've read that, like that I've wrote that there's probably candy wrappers up in here. here. I think we kind of overthink what decluttering has to be. Like we go full to, oh my gosh, I have to get rid of all my favorite things and my sentimental things and all my baby clothes and

all the special. That's not what this is. It is literally opening a drawer and really assessing it. And for me, when I started my decluttering process, I had one goal. And that was to make every space not stuffed. Because when spaces were full, my utensil drawer, you know, in the kitchen and I was like looking for a spatula. Whenever spaces were really, really full, it was hard to keep the whole outer big space clean. And so a really good exercise that you can do, those listening right now, is this fun. I promise it's fun, is to go into your kitchen and open all the cabinet doors and just open them, step back and look.

Are any of them bursting? Are any of them so full that it's hard to put away or hard to cook or hard to find what you need and pick the one that's the fullest and just start there and say what can leave here to make this more functional? Sometimes we're so used to living in our house, we become clutter blind. We see it every day, so we no longer see it as clutter. It becomes invisible to us. And that's just how we've always lived.

So stepping back, opening up, and assessing our space as if it was a stranger's home is a really great way of identifying things that can go. Yeah, I love that because, I mean, everybody has those drawers or those cabinets that are just overwhelmingly fall. I mean, I'm just thinking now, as you were talking, I have my dresser drawers with my pajamas is overwhelmingly fall. And I keep like just stuffing them. them in and shoving. Yeah. And I'm like, I'll get to this later. And that would be a perfect place where I could just spend 15 minutes and go do it. And it would make such a huge impact because I know I'm not wearing all the pajamas in there. I don't, there's no way. Like, I don't need them. And it's, yeah, it's the perfect way to think about it. What are the places that you can't close or you can't use? You can't see inside of to start. Yeah, to find things that can go.

Okay, I'm feeling motivated to declutter something today. I do need to tackle my daughters. She's 17. Her bedroom, it's bad, okay? It's really, really, really bad. But I never declutter other people's things without their permission. And I know you feel the same way about this, but you have three kids. So do you have a something, a tip of technique to encourage,

other people to also let go because we know, we know that when they have too much, it's almost impossible for them to keep their room clean on a regular basis. They're overwhelmed. They're miserable in the space. And then it just creates a lot of tension also in the relationship. So do you have a way that you help your children to let go? I do. And actually, this has worked really well for us.

So my oldest daughter, my oldest is 15. And her room gets very overwhelming. She's got lots of piles. All of the surfaces are full of things. And it's just when you walk in, you're like, okay, you can barely, you know, you've got a little space to walk to the bed. And that's about it. So what I did and what we did is I got a box and I said, let's just make your room look like if you were having, my mom, her grandma, come and stay for the night. so kind of make it look nice for her if she wants to come and visit and sleep in this room.

And she needs a place to put her makeup and she needs to put a suitcase somewhere. You know, she needs to hang some stuff up. So let's, how can we make this room look like that? And she was really reluctant to get rid of all the things on her dresser because they're all like sentimental, you know, like notes from friends and photos and candles and lighters she found on the street, like just random things that teenagers have in their room. And I said, okay, put everything that you're not sure of into this box and we'll just put it all away so we can get everything clear and clean. And then we'll put it under your bed. So we did that. And many months later,

I said to her, do you still have that box under your bed? And we pulled out the box and I was like, did you think of getting anything out of this box? Do you even know what's in this box? And she was like, I don't. I was like, okay, we can get rid of everything in this box. And she was like, okay, we can. And I don't know if that tip will work for everybody, but just putting it away and then her realizing that she didn't need any of it and she didn't even think of it really worked. And I think, too, just if she's getting her room ready for a guest and going through that process also really helped her to see her room from a different perspective. I love that. That's good. Use the pack up method. That's what we call that. So we pack the things away or like the time capsule or time will tell. And then when you revisit it later, it doesn't feel as special because you haven't seen it. Oh, that's so good. I also think there is real power. I call it the power of pretty. But there is real power in having a space that you find beautiful and wanting to keep it that way. And I think that's a real power. I call it the power. I call it the power of pretty. And I think that's

real struggle for teens and kids is if they're not loving their bedroom, if they're not seeing it at its best and it's always kind of in a state of kind of chaos, there isn't like a goalpost for them. There isn't like that internal desire to keep it looking beautiful because they haven't seen it looking beautiful. So for my daughter, we're going to do little things like maybe hang up posters that she likes or get her throw pillow. or a new comforter she finds beautiful because when she loves her space, she's going to do acts of love towards her space. And I think this goes for every human being.

When you can do something small in your home to make you love it and for you to find it a little bit more beautiful, whether it's flowers on your dining room table, you're less likely to pile crap on your dining room table. Or getting yourself some new throw pillows or a piece of art or even painting an old piece of furniture, that act of loving and sort of feathering your nest also motivates you to keep it looking beautiful. So true.

I love that. That is such a good point. And you're right. I think it works for kids and adults. It's kind of I recently, maybe a year ago, had decluttered my closet. And that was one of my goals. I wanted to make it like a pretty closet. You know, I wanted to like walk in and feel like, oh, this.

closet looks so nice and I got like a new rug and put some paintings on the wall and put a candle in there which before the closet was just packed with junk stuff to the max there was no space for like a you couldn't see the wall let alone put a candle in there so yeah I just I love that idea and it and it does motivate you to keep it looking that way to maintain that beautifulness yeah okay I'm going to go I'm going to go start helping my daughter get her room a little tidier. We're going to be doing her decluttering and doing her closet. I'm feeling pumped. I'm feeling motivated. I hope those of you listening at home are feeling motivated to love your house a little bit today. Take some shortcuts. Take some pressure off yourself because you can

work full time. You can have kids and pets and still have a home that's tidy and clean-ish and that you're proud of. So thank you. Can you let everyone know listening how they can find you and watch more of your inspiring and motivating videos? Absolutely. Thank you, Cass. Find me in my YouTube channel. It's Taryn Maria and I would love to see you over there. And thanks so much, Cass. This was great talking with you and hearing all of sharing all of these stories. Yeah, thank you so much. And thank you everyone for who's listening. We'll see you guys next time. Thank you.