Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Do you have scarcity mindset and don’t even know it? | Clutterbug Podcast # 281

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Are you struggling to declutter? Feeling overwhelmed by clutter but deep down, you're scared to let go? I’ve been there—and in this episode, I’m getting real about the fear, anxiety, and trauma that fuel the scarcity mindset. In this powerful, honest, and practical episode, I open up about my own past with extreme scarcity and how it shaped my home—and my life. If you're stuck in a clutter cycle that feels impossible to escape, this episode will show you a way out. You’ll learn: ⭐ What the scarcity cycle is (and why it's so sneaky) ⭐ Why decluttering feels terrifying for so many of us ⭐ Emotional signs you’re stuck in survival mode ⭐ Practical ways to start breaking free—without burning out ⭐ Why starting with expired Caesar dressing might change your life ⭐ The “container concept” and one-year rule that makes decluttering easier ⭐ How gratitude journaling literally rewires your brain to see abundance This isn’t just about getting rid of stuff—it’s about healing. It's about moving from survival mode to THRIVING. You don’t need more bins. You don’t need more stuff. You need trust in yourself, a trash bag, and tiny steps forward. 💪 Let’s break this cycle together—hit play, grab a bag, and start letting go. 🎧 Want to leave a question or message for Cas? Go to www.clutterbug.com/TalkToCas and record your 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 #mondaymotivation #mindsetshift #scarcitymindset Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you worry about not having something when you desperately need it? Today, I want to talk about scarcity and the scarcity cycle because this is a huge barrier when you're decluttering. And this is something that I see over and over again, but it's also something I really struggled with. It's this fear that I'm not going to have enough or something's going to happen and the money won't be there. I won't be able to provide for myself or my family. And honestly, it's terrifying. How can you let go when you are riddled with anxiety and fear that you're going to need that again?

Or that you won't be able to buy that again. And this scarcity cycle is so toxic because it becomes a funnel that, yes, there are things we should worry about, but everything gets sucked into it. So even things we would never need in the future or wouldn't actually have to buy again, also feel just as important. And this is why you're paralyzed. And this is why you can't let go of anything. When I first started my decluttering journey, I didn't know the word scarcity. I just knew that I couldn't get rid of stuff.

And I knew the feeling that I had. I couldn't fit all my clothes in my closet. But as soon as I would pick up that pair of jeans that didn't even fit and had no room, my immediate thought was, but what if I run out and I can't buy this tomorrow? And I know where that came from. That came from years of me being homeless, having no money, losing everything, having no clothes, having to wear the same outfit over and over again, not even being able to afford a washing machine, that sticks with you. And it's also something that you don't even necessarily have to go

through that level of extreme scarcity to feel. Maybe your parents went through that and you felt it growing up and you owned that as your own kind of trauma or maybe you went through a divorce where you had to give away half of your stuff that you didn't want to. It was taken from you. I see this with clients who have had fires or even losses anytime. Even as a child, maybe your mom decluttered your room without telling you and something special was taken from you. It doesn't have to be big trauma to be trauma. And that's the root of scarcity.

It's fear. It's anxiety and it's loss. I think what's so interesting is, scarcity cycle doesn't even have to be tied to financial struggles. Like 40% of people who are doing fine financially still can feel this scarcity mindset, this fear, this what if. And I'm not going to get political, but let's just get real for a second. When there's uncertainty in the world, of course you're going to have uncertainty. Hey, clutterbugs. Welcome to the clutter bug podcast. I'm Cass, the creator of Clutterbug, and today we're talking about scarcity,

the scarcity cycle, and how to actually break free. But first, I want to encourage you to get off your butt and do something to make yourself proud. Preferably declutter something, which is ironic because I'm telling you how hard it is to let go. But this is why I want you to practice right now with trash. I want you to go in your fridge because you, you're going to go in your fridge because you have Caesar salad dressing that is expired. Probably. Okay, you probably do. But even if you don't, you have leftovers, you have sauces. If you have little packets from chick flay of sauces that you have not used, they got to go. Let's start with trash today. Let's get up. Let's get moving. Let's make a difference and we're going to start with something that is not emotional at all.

Starting in your fridge, move to your medications or vitamins. You probably have protein powder. Did you know that stuff expires? It's made with milk, my friend. Weigh protein's made with milk. Don't kill yourself. You're not going to, it tastes like crap. You're never going to use it.

Let that go. I don't care if it was $40. It's expired. You know what I'm saying? There's so much trash in our homes. And that doesn't mean that you live in. a hovel. You could have a beautifully tidy clean house. You're still going to have old receipts. You're still going to have expired junk mail. You're still going to have stuff in the fridge that has

to go because that is real life. And until you are intentional and take a trash bag and hunt around your house and remove it, you will not even understand that it's there. And the best part about this is that it gets the mojo going. It helps switch your brain into this is fun and I'm good at decluttering and it's building your decluttering muscle because everything you get rid of puts you one step closer to the peaceful, clean, organized house you deserve. So with me in your ear right now, get up, grab a bag and let's get stuff out. I'm going to be vulnerable for a second here. Um, clothes was really hard for me because I didn't have clothes for a long time. And also, because my weight fluctuated so much, letting go of clothes was terrifying. Not only was I not sure that I could afford to

replace them, but I also wasn't sure what size I was going to be tomorrow. And it was really hard for me to let go of clothing because even buying clothes was so hard. Like it was so wrapped up in so much grossness that I didn't want to start there, you know, because it was hard. But you, I want you to, as you're listening, realize that sometimes it's okay to do hard things. So what if you thought about your own home and the hard thing for you? What, like, what is the thing you struggle with? For a lot of people, it's food. For a lot of people, it's food. Can we find one thing in that category to let go of. So one shirt. Can we go in your pantry if you have this scarcity mindset of food and identify those cookies that everyone in your family hates and you bought them at Costco

and they're called dad's cookies and they're way too crunchy and no one's going to eat them? And even in the apocalypse, probably not wanting some dad cookies. Can you find one thing and be brave enough today to let that go? Because that is the domino, my friend. That is how we overcome this. It is about exposure therapy. When somebody says to me, decluttering is hard. I don't know how to start. I have scarcity mindset. I'm terrified to let go.

There isn't a trick. The trick is action. It is literally doing it in small, tiny ways. And then living with that anxiety and then going, okay, that wasn't that bad. And then tomorrow, we do it again. and then the next day we do it again. And every day we take that step further, it's easier because we are literally exposing ourselves to the thing that scares us the most.

As you're moving through your house, as you're identifying things to go, as you're putting things in the bag and you're feeling maybe uncomfortable. Listen, that uncomfortable feeling is exactly what millions of people are facing daily. there is this paralysis that we're suffering. It's like an epidemic, okay, fueled by the fear of not having enough. And what's bonkers is your home will be stuffed and yet you feel like there's not enough. It could be time. It could be money. It could be anything. Scarcity mindset doesn't have to necessarily be about the physical clutter, but it all ties together. And at the very center of this is fear. I think it is important that we have compassion for the person who's so scared.

Because there's a reason we're terrified, whether it's something that happened to us or our parents, whether it's learned behavior, whether it just is anxiety that we've kind of absorbed from all the world and all the chaos going around us. Whatever it is, it isn't the enemy. I don't think scarcity is all bad. It isn't like this horrible, you know, monster under the bed. It is there for a reason. We feel this way to protect ourselves. This is survival, honestly. When I was broke, broke, poor. Like, listen, so poor I was ran out of ramen and not sure where my next meal was coming. from poor. It was a good thing I was living in that kind of mindset because I wasn't going to just next time I had food, eat it all in the same day. And I was when I did have extra money, I was like,

well, I'd better make sure I'm buying extra food because I really might not have anything to eat tomorrow. It served its purpose and it protected me. But it didn't stop when I didn't need it anymore. That was the real problem. We no longer have to be in this place, in this scared, bunker down, hold down space because it's holding us back from the next level of our life, which is thrive. We don't have to be stuck in survive forever. But in order to get into Thrive, we have to bust out of survive. We have to make that mental shift and say, it served me to be, here, but I don't need to be here anymore. This is where we put on our cape and we rescue our damn selves. For me, I had to realize that that survival mode was hurting more than it was helping.

My brain was telling me it was to protect me, but the reality was every day was a nightmare, living in a house full of clutter, always spending money instead of saving because I was worried the money would be gone. This is what I did. Like I would get an extra $20 and immediately have to buy something just in case, which just added to the clutter problem. And then guess what? I didn't have the money. So it was like perpetuating this fear of not having enough. And that cycle kept me sad and scared and depressed. And it was ruining my life. It was ruining my life. And it was coming from a place of trying to help me. It really was. But it was hurting. way more than it was helping. The most interesting part from me is that most people who are stuck

in the scarcity cycle don't even know it. Like honestly, it's just the way you've always been or you've it's become like almost invisible to you. And you're living this life and you don't see another way. It's like, oh yeah, great. You're telling me, I could just declutter stuff and I'm suddenly going to feel better. It doesn't work that way. I can't explain it to you. You have to experience it. You have to have the realization that this is actually happening to you in the first place. There are definitely going to be signs. And some of the signs that I notice when I'm going into clients' homes is the stockpiling. The fear stockpiling, oftentimes it's food. And there'll be lots of excess. After the event we do not speak of, it was toilet paper, it was disinfectant,

it was masks, it was, there was a point where there wasn't enough. There was this moment in time where it was a legitimate fear that the shelves were going to be empty at the store and we were not going to have. And that just fueled the fire. So I see stockpiling of all of these type of things, but it also goes deeper than that. Oftentimes, they'll go into a client's home and every surface will be crammed with books. There'll be so, they'll just be books upon books upon books upon books. But when you dig deeper, there's something under there. Either they grew up feeling that they weren't smart enough, that they were behind, that or that they,

they needed to like prove themselves in school in order to get validation and it was never enough and they had just more learning and more learning and more experiencing or they loved fantasy aspect and they had to like escape and now suddenly books are a lifeline and there's a scarcity of like well I better get this book I better get this book before I forget about it I'd better get this book and even though it isn't the same as food it's the same as the food because at the end of the day, it's this fear of missing out, the fear of what if, the fear of I better get it now before I forget or before it's not here or before someone takes it or whatever. And that, my friend, is the most awful debilitating train to be on.

So take a look at your own home. Are you stockpiling? Are you over buying certain categories of things? And 40% of people who do the subscribe and save, you know, where every week or every two weeks the same stuff is coming and coming and coming, they will admit they already have more than enough. And in fact, a really good indication is do you have a pile in front of the storage? Do you have cases of pop in front of a closet? Do you have stacks of toilet paper in the corner of your freaking living room. Do you have boxes of diapers in the corner of your baby's room just stacked up? This is what fear looks like. Another sign that

I see is the saving of broken things. So the parts of an old vacuum cleaner, even though that vacuum cleaner hasn't worked in 20 years, why you still got the bolts? Or you know where you get a piece of furniture and it comes with those like little baggies of all the screws? And it's like, well, I better save them and I better save the Allen key. And you don't need 55 Allen key yet somehow you never know. You better hold on to it. Scarcity, scarcity, scarcity, it's all scarcity. It's the coupons.

And it's the, well, I better hold on to that bed bath and beyond. I don't even think that place exists anymore, but you probably still have the coupons. Shove somewhere. It can look like so many things. And to an outsider, to me coming in, I'd be like, well, that doesn't make sense. but to you, this looks like just in case. Do you have a hard time letting go of the freebies or the gifts, the things that you're receiving for free?

So often the people who really struggle in the scarcity cycle are the people who friends and family churches will call when their kids have outgrown the clothes. They think of you to bring their donations to instead of a donation center because you are so eager to say, yes, I'll take it. And so they're thinking they're doing you a favor. And you're like they are doing me a favor, but you have an entire room filled with boxes of other people's hand-me-downs that you haven't even looked at or opened.

You have now turned yourself into a storage for other people's stuff. And I see this all the time. All right, listen, hold on to your butts for this one. Another really good indication is if you've determined your own expiry date for something. So I will go into a client's house and I will pick up a jar of pickles that's covered in dust. And they'll say, yeah, but that could live for 200 years from now. That jar of pickles will still be good. And I'm thinking, you got fresh pickles in your fridge, bro.

I mean, it's dusty because you're not eating it and you never will, but you're like in case of an emergency, just in case of this horrible, awful apocalypse that you're thinking about, like to constantly be worrying about and preparing for that must be a terrible way to live. Because it's always now in the back of your mind. every time you see that jar of pickles, your brain thinks, better keep that for when the end of the world is coming. Okay, I'm just going to say it. And you're like, well, what if just in case? And I'm saying that jar of pickles is perpetuating your fear.

This is the cycle. The just in case stuff now is reinforcing that fear. over and over and over again. And it's impossible to get out, to get to a place where you aren't scared and anxious and worried and preparing and always thinking about the doom and gloom. How can you do that when everywhere you look in your home, it's mirroring to you, doom and gloom, you don't have enough, you don't have enough. This is protection. This is safety. Your clutter is not safety. It is not protection. It is a freak. and bully that is ruining your life.

There's a ton of physical signs, but there's also the emotional signs and the emotional weight that comes from this scarcity cycle, like decision fatigue or decision paralysis. So you're so, so afraid that you're going to need everything, need everything, need everything, and then you look at something and you have to make a decision on it. Should I keep this? Should I not? Except your brain is filled with doom, gloom, worst case scenario. What if?

What if my house burst into flames? What if my, everyone in my family gets cancer and dies? What if I lose my job and all my savings? And the stock market completely crashes all on the same day. Like this fear, whether you realize it or not, this is the narrative in the back of your head. This is the thoughts that are running in the back of your head. And you are exhausted. from them. There's also the anxiety. There's also the, anxiety is also just fear. Let's get real.

And it's best friends with perfectionism. So maybe you have made decisions and you filled some donation bags, but they're just sitting in the corner or in the garage or in the back of your trunk because there's something stopping you from taking that next step. And what that honestly is is a few things. It's the what if I change my mind? What if I make a mistake? But it's the, It's also how is the best way or what's the best way to dispose of this? Many people who are in the scarcity cycle, what I find is so fascinating is they can't get rid of anything. It's like, oh my gosh, I'm so scared. But if I came in to them and I said, I'm hungry, can I have that can of beans?

Without a second thought, it's yes. If I came to you and said, there's a family down the road that just had a fire and has nothing. Can I take some of your extra dishes and pots and pans that you're not using and bringing it to them? You won't even hesitate. Why am I emotional? And this is what's so, so fascinating about the anxiety and the scarcity is like it's not just you you're worried about. You're worried about the whole world. You're keeping that jar of screws because what if your neighbor needs the screws? You're not just holding on to the food for you and your family. That's a big part of it.

But what if your sister? What if your mom? What if your neighbor? What if the clothes, everything? If I came to you and said, oh my gosh, you don't have room for sheets and blankets, that's redonculus. You have to declutter. Your initial reaction is absolutely not. But if I said there's a homeless shelter and they don't have blankets, you're, of course.

Right? And that is something I really want you to sit with the gravity of that. You know you don't need it. And honestly, you don't even want it in your home. It is the fear and anxiety of making a mistake, of not being able to be there, of the unknown that's causing you to hold on to it. And you're suffering. And oftentimes you're suffering because you're so.

kind. Sometimes I feel like there's also physical signs. So not just emotional signs, but there's physical signs too, and it often looks like illness. And especially in women, there's been so many studies that go to women who have messy homes and they say, like, do you have higher levels of stress and cortisol? And the answer is always yes, yes. Obviously, if you have a calm or less cluttered home, you have less cortisol. But what I find fascinating is that they have linked stress and cortisol to autoimmune diseases. And women are 80% more likely to have an autoimmune disease than a man, but women are also way more likely to be stressed out about their home than a man. And if every day you wake up and you're surrounded by piles of laundry

and clutter and mess and your kitchen's a disaster and your entryway is a disaster, you are stressed whether you know it or not. You are constantly, your body is, flooded with these stress hormones and that makes you sick period it's the cycle that i find so fascinating this like cycle so you acquire and then you don't have money because you've acquired so then you genuinely are reinforced and feel like i don't have enough and then so that when you do you buy and you And even if you have money, there's still the cycle because you're like, this is going on sale. Oh, I better get it quick. And it's this.

Now I've filled up my home. And everywhere you look, you see things. And in the back of your mind, you're like, that's okay because it's safety. If there's ever, you could always sell that. You could always use that. This is safety. This is protection. So you're being reinforced that safety, safety, safety.

So then when you're out at the store, now you're like, oh, I better buy this thing because that's going to protect me. I better get this. I better say yes to the donations. I better say yes. And it's just fill in your house, but it's also filling your soul with constant, constant, constant worry. I think at the bottom of this really is saving, right? We're like we, we want to save ourselves money. We want to save ourselves heartbreak in the future. We want to save ourselves from like an emergency. This is protection. This is like helping, saving.

But the reality is it's costing us way more than it's saving. It's costing us our health. It's costing us just the mental load. It's costing us time. That's a big one because we're constantly having to move and stuff shuffle and look for things. It's costing us relationships. It's costing us so much more than it's giving. And I want to share a quick story with you. had a really close family member of mine who did go through a time of scarcity and not having enough and then became a mother and had children and started collecting for them because she never wanted her kids to feel like she went without like she did. So every toy taking the hand, she wanted a kid to have everything, the clothes and the toys and the stuff. And her living

room was full. The kids' bedrooms are full. You can't even walk in the space. And her three children have never had a friend over. Her three children cannot play on the floor with her and do a puzzle. Her three children never get the joy of having a birthday party at their home because not even grandma and grandpa are allowed in. And so in this desperate attempt to save and to give them this amazing life and this amazing childhood, the stuff has actually stolen it from them. They're not going to remember the Barbies and the clothes. They're going to remember living in a house where you can't walk. So let's get out. Like enough. Enough is enough. Let's move out of scarcity, out of the fear and into the thrive, into the warrior us, where we feel safe, where we feel secure, when we trust ourselves

that we got this. We don't need this stuff to protect us. I'll protect my dang, Thank you very much. I don't need the crap from Walmart. I don't need your hand-me-downs. I am the boss and I got this. How do we get there? It's practice. All right?

It's practice. It's hard. I'm not telling you, I'm not going to lie to you and say there's some magical crap, fairy bull crap that's going to transform your life. You're rolling up your sleeves and you're making it happen by doing the scary thing anyways. You're going to feel anxious. That doesn't mean you shouldn't. Stop running from the fear. Be brave. And start by throwing something out. The best thing I would tell you to do to really just punch scarcity in the face is to stop yourself from worrying about, well, I better give this old jar pickles to the food bag.

And it, right? Because this is it. This is it. This is the narrative that is keeping you there. You take that jar of pickles, you don't even worry about recycling the jar, and you throw it in the dang trash. Oh my gosh, the horror. The horror, right? Who cares? You're saving yourself because you can't help anyone else when you are stuck here, when you are suffering. You are an amazing person.

You are kind and you are smart and you are capable. What are you doing? Enough is enough. We practice and it is consistency that's going to make all the difference. So yeah, today I don't want you to declutter 20 boxes out of your home because that's bull crap. That's a band-aid. I want you to change your mindset. I want you to feel empowered. And the only way to do that is through repetition. And the only way to make repetition sustainable is if it's easy. which means yes we start with trash and then we move on to one shirt or two shirts and if you're feeling it and you're feeling good get rid of 20 shirts but tomorrow you better come back and

get rid of something else too do not burn yourself out this is the long game friend this is a daily thing this isn't a one and done this is just like you've got to do your dishes every day you've got to practice digging yourself out of this scarcity cycle, this hole that you've buried yourself in. If that is terrifying you, the idea of throwing out your pickles, fine. Listen, maybe you need rules. Let's get really practical. Rules can be helpful because it will help your anxiety if you predetermine some clear boundary for yourself. Like, if I haven't used something in the last year, I can feel safe letting it go. And why one year is the perfect amount of time is because that includes Christmas and it includes

birthdays and it includes all the seasons. So you don't have to worry about letting go of something. And then, you know, the next holiday come up and you be like, oh, man, yeah, I would have used it for this holiday. You didn't use it for the last holiday. So one year is a really good benchmark. That's a good challenge for you and a good. baseline to start because you can logic your way over the anxiety with that one. Does that make

sense? Yes, it's still going to be stressful and what if. But if you haven't used it in the last year, that feels like a good amount of time to test that item. And it's okay for you to say and trust yourself that it can go. A lot of experts will tell you like a certain number of things to have or to calculate a certain the right amount of number. I hate that so much because everybody's different. And again, you're just overcomplicating something and putting so much pressure on yourself to do it right. That just reinforces that anxiety, that perfectionism kind of cycle that we're stuck in. So instead, what if your guideline was the space that you have? So what I would love you to do, let's take food as an example, if you have a big stockpile of food,

where does that stockpile, where's the ideal home for that stockpile and how much space are you willing to dedicate to that stockpile? Right now you may have it on the floor, in half a room, and maybe a bunch in the basement on a shelf. In an ideal world, what would be the space and how much room do you have for this stockpile in the home you have today with the stuff you have today not i'm going to buy shelving right now and we only keep what fits there this is called the container concept it was really popularized by dana k wayt from a slab comes clean this is how she turned from complete hoarder into somebody who has her home under control she had to stop fighting her brain and use the their home as a container as limit and making that the bad guy, not her. It's not that you can't keep certain things. It's not that

you have to even get rid of things. No one's telling you anything except your house. You can only keep what fits in the space that you've deemed for that category of thing. And this is so helpful for perfectionists and overthinkers because it's a limit that there's a hard stop at, but also it takes the pressure off of you. It's a rule that can follow you through all the stages of your life. When all your kids are home and you've got babies, of course, you're going to need more space for more stuff. But maybe you're retiring or you're downsizing or maybe you want to travel and literally have less stuff to manage so you can do more outside of the home. This is still adjustable for that. How much space are you going to dedicate to each of these different things?

And whether you move or you stay, this is a really good rule that can help decluttering become a lot easier. Let's be real for a second. Therapy also helped me a lot overcome my scarcity mindset. I started working with a therapist years ago and I'm just kind of complaining about all the things in my life and I'm stress, stress, stress, stress, stress. And she said, I want you to grab a notebook and every night before bed, I want you. you to write down five things you were grateful for that day. And I looked at her like, what? I'm paying you for this. I'm paying you a lot for this. This is some bull crap. She said, that's your homework. For the next week, I'll see you in a week. Every day, I want you to write down five things you're grateful for.

And I went home like, what a moron. That's my thought, right? Like, okay, gratitude, I'm trying to woo. I'm just going to rub crystals on my body and huff some essential oils too. Sure. Maybe I'll do some yoga, some um, like I was so negative about it, honestly. I was like, I was so mean about the whole thing. But I, I was like, a fine. I'll give it a try just to prove that it doesn't work. And the first night, I could not think of five things I was grateful for. And I was like, I guess I'm grateful for the sun. I guess I'm glad the earth didn't explode today. You know, like I was really kind of negative about it. And then the second day, I was like, I guess I'm grateful for my family. They're cute. I guess I'm grateful for my dog. And then,

the third day, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm actually really grateful that Joe took out the garbage and cut the grass and I had this extra time. Then the third day, I was like, I'm so grateful for the way the sun comes in my windows and makes my bedroom feel so peaceful. Ew, ew, I'm getting emotional. Gross. Anyways, by the seventh day, like, I found myself all throughout the day, noticing the good so I could write it down later. This is crazy, okay? This is called your reticular activation center in your brain. And the concept is that you've got this part of your brain that filters out the things,

all the things, so that you're not overstimulated, and that you've trained this reticular activation center of what's important. important to you. And when you live in a state of fear and oh my gosh and the world is ending and everything is bad, all that's being filtered in is the negative. You're seeing it everywhere. You're seeing your neighbor being a dick and that jackhole on Facebook commenting the crap thing and you're seeing like this is all you're noticing. But when you start training your brain to notice good, it's crazy. That's all you notice. And then I can prove that you can prove that this to you by there's this Mel Robbins thing about looking for hearts. So Mel Robbins said she started

doing this heart challenge where every day she was actively with alarms reminding herself to look around and see if she noticed hearts. So that cloud looks like a heart, that leaf looks like a heart, that rock looks like a heart. And it was really hard at first. But by the end of the week and by the second week and by the third week, all she saw was hearts everywhere. Right? You do this when you're going to buy a new car. Suddenly everywhere you look, that's the brand of car you see. This is what a gratitude journal does.

It switches your brain from that only letting in the negative, the scary, the scary, they're reinforcing. Yeah, you better be prepared. Everything's going to be awful. You're never going to have enough money. That's all you're seeing. You're in this reinforcement loop to, look, I am safe. I do have enough. I am grateful. Look at all the good in my life. And yeah, a $1 notebook from the dollar store can do that. I have a challenge for you this week. I want you to like I had to have an open mind with my therapist, okay? I'm going to pretend to be your therapist for a second. And I want you to identify an area of your life that maybe you're noticing a bit of this

scarcity mindset. And then think of small things that you can do in that area to break it. Maybe you can switch your mindset and work on some journaling. Maybe you can go into that space and say, yeah, no. man, I need all this food. But maybe if we're talking about food, maybe you can go in your overflow, overstock food, and get rid of those can of beans that have definitely expired a long time ago, even though canned goods don't actually ever expire and are good for 200 years. Maybe you can say it's okay to put that in the trash today. And here's the secret. Tomorrow we're doing it again,

something again. Every day for seven days, I want you to take that. this scarcity challenge and see what you can do to flip the narrative, to change your brain, to get out of survive and in to thrive. And it is tiny steps, my friend, and you can do this. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor Factor. Factor Meals delivers delicious, nutritious meals right to my door because I suck at eating lunch. That's the truth. I needed help. I was always grabbing cookies and granola bars or getting fast food because I was so busy. I didn't have time to make myself a proper meal. But Factor is like, think TV dinner, but gourmet, chef-inspired, never frozen, ready in two minutes. And these are huge portions. I'm talking gourmet.

restaurant-style meals in minutes. And you can choose from healthy options or keto or low calorie. So it's working with your fitness and health goals too. If you want to give this a try, take something off your plate, make life a little easier. Go to factormeals.com slash clutterbug 50 off. And use the code clutterbug 50 off to save 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. That's code Clutterbug 50 Off at FactorMeals.com slash clutterbug 50 off. I really like the idea of these new segments as part of the podcast.

And I've been looking at getting little jingles made. I beg my daughter who plays ukulele to sing one. She won't. But we're going to be like, let's imagine. This is a placeholder, okay. Here we go. Talk to Cact. No, that one's bad.

Talk to Cass. Talk to Cass. Caz will give you advice with Cric. No, it's bad. It's a work in progress, my friends. Okay, moving on. Let's hear from some people who have submitted to the talk to Cass. Hi, Cass. My name is Sandy from Pensacola, Florida. I am a butterfly, and my husband is a Virgo who I just cannot pin down, but he is also a pack rat. He just can't get of anything. About a year ago, we sold our 2,300 square foot house and we downsized by about half to about 1,200 square feet. And I donated everything. Like, we filled the donation truck a year ago.

Well, flash fast forward to this year. And now I feel like I'm drowning and all that crap again. I've run out of places to store in my new much smaller house. And so I'm just wondering, how do you get rid of the stuff that's like next to impossible to get rid of, especially when your husband doesn't get rid of anything? And then at the same time, is shelving really the only option when you just have run out of nooks and crannies and places to store things? Thank you so much for your time and attention. Sandy, I love this because I heard maybe something different than what Sandy was saying. So I'm just going to, I'm just going to, it's time for truth cast. Okay, listen, you said you let go of a bunch and when you moved in, you hinted at like you,

it was okay. And then you filled it past the point of capacity. Sandy, decluttering is not a one and done. You've obviously like, I love using the jar of marbles as an example because this is your home. Your home is a jar of marbles. And they're constantly at a constant flow like a tap coming in. And if you're not letting go at the same rate, of course it's overflowing, Sandy. And yeah, I know it's hard because your spouse doesn't want to let go of anything. But just like the jar of marbles, why don't we incorporate the container concept? I think you should dedicate one entire closet for your husband and he can keep whatever he wants in there and that's his maybe he can also have the entire garage it's compromise here sandy but you also have to put limits and rules where is your closet where is

your container where is your limit for your stuff and absolutely shelving will help but i do not want your house to look like a storage locker i think when you first downsize and moved in it was probably manageable because it was a manageable amount of stuff and it no longer is. My advice to you would be to do another big declutter. Just like you did before you move, do that again. Absolutely the easiest way and best and most effective way to do this is to rent a dumpster, Sandy. Honest, everybody hates this, but there is nothing more motivating than a two-day window and something in your front yard that's going to be gone and everything in it is also going to be gone. And I can promise you this, men are always motivated by a dumpster. A, because it costs money to rent. And B, because dumpster, Sandy.

Dumpster says something to a man like, let's throw stuff out. I use this trick with my husband and a lot of other men in my life. You want your garage emptied. Put a bin in front of it and watch the magic happen. Now let's hear from Brooke. Buckle up, Cass, because this is, this is the long one. My name is Brooke. I am 28 years old, and I am a stay-at-home mom with the lovely superpower ADHD. I live in Michigan with my husband and two beautiful kids, and like a lot of moms, I didn't realize I had ADHD until after I had my first kid. I just always always, I assumed I wasn't smart or tidy. I was always getting C's in school and my locker was always messy and I was just always

labeled as the weird kid with the weird sense of style and the messy room and but I was creative. I just have always stayed busy and my home never stayed tidy. A, because I didn't have the time because I'm a mom. and I have to take care of my children. B, I'm a collector and I love antiques. My husband and I go antiquing all the time. We have probably the largest collection of Pepsi stuff

for kids under the age of 30. And we see, I had to see everything, or I forgot it existed. So every horizontal space has something it. Um, D, I don't have the money for special organizing bins and labels and I wanted everything, you know, um, cute and in those like, yeah, canisters or whatever, you know, and E, I don't, I didn't want to. I don't want to. I hate cleaning. I didn't, I mean, I like it, but I don't. I love organizing, but, uh, there just no motivation. And then I started doom scrolling on

on Facebook Reels. And this quirky blonde who said, maze balls, came on my feed and started talking about bugs. And I'm all about knowing more about myself. I'm like one of those, you know, the clickbait where it's what kind of dog are you or want to know what kind of dog you are by the salad you're eating? You know, like all those quizzes.

So I was like, yeah, sure, I'll take this clutter bug. quiz and I'm 100% a butterfly. And then my husband took the quiz, he's a butterfly. And then I started telling everyone about this quiz. And I was like one of those Harry Potter nerds that wants to know your house. Like are you Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw? But in this case, I wanted to know if you were a ladybug or I'd be talking to something. Oh, you're a bee, you know? And so I've, I've only been cluttering my house for like a few weeks, a couple weeks. And I started with my entry room. And then I did my kitchen and I did all the sticky notes. And it's made a huge, huge difference. And every, my life is just becoming so much easier with these children. And it's wonderful. And I want to

tell everybody about this. I want to thank you for your videos. They have helped me embrace who I am and make me feel like I am not alone when it comes to having a messy home. But I want people to know that they are not a failure. They just need a different system that works for them. I just wanted to say that I wish more moms going through postpartum depression knew about clutter bug. I wish I had known, you know, dishes piling up and laundry piling up and and just feeling like you're a failure and then being consumed with that depression.

Like I just, I want to give moms a hug and I want to go to their house before they have a baby and find out what systems are going to work for them so that they're not swallowed up in all of this. It really is life-changing. My sweet four-year-old who is a B, she's so enthusiastic. about decluttering and organizing. And your advice has been wonderful about labeling bins in their playroom. But she just wants even more bins. And it's not just a doll. It's a Disney, and it's not just a Disney doll or a Disney princess.

It is the doll from Enkanto and it needs its own bin. She is very, very particular. And I love her to the moon, but she and I are complete opposites. Thank you, Brooke. I didn't hear that before. My producer loads these probably because she wants me to cry because she's mean. She's a mean. But oh my gosh, thank you so much for sharing. Also, to be a be it for is very young to be that level of meticulous. So you didn't ask advice, Brooke. But I'm going to give some. I would encourage you to encourage your daughter to be a little more loosey-goosey. While it's great to be a bee, it is at the end of the day a perfectionist mindset. And so when we can train our brain to relax a little bit and it's okay for there to be like a little bit more flow and a little less rigid structure, it's just going to set her up in the future for more success because it's hard to live like a bee when you're in the real world.

And I love that you talked about ADHD because I do think here's what happens. When you have ADHD and it's undiagnosed, you are constantly being corrected. As a child, you're constantly being, no, that's bad. That's not the right way. What's wrong with you? You're not doing this. Like the narrative from everyone around you is that you suck. Let's get real.

That's what it is. And you are bad at all these things. And so by the time you hit your teenage years, of course you've kind of given up trying. Does that make sense? Like you just expect, I've tried organizing and I suck at it. I'm just messy. I'm born like this. I'm really bad at this.

And you kind of stop caring. You kind of stop wanting to try again because it's inevitable failure. Right. And so what's beautiful about the clutterbug method is you suddenly realize like, oh, wait a minute, I didn't fail at all. I just didn't know it worked for me. And it allows you, it gives you permission to try again and get excited about trying again. And even more importantly, now you know what's going to work. So you're not going to fail. So you're going to try again and succeed, which is when you have ADHD and you've lived your entire life with constant crippling

failure. It's amazing when you start having success. So branching off on what Brooke was talking about, about her knowing her daughter's a bee and she's a butterfly. Yeah, like that detailed, non-detailed, that was actually the first thing that I realized about the clutterbug style. I had tried for so long to get organized and then my husband swooped in after we got married and he's like, I'll save you, I'll set up these systems for you, and then you just have to maintain them. It'll be easy. And he sorted all my medication and all our medication in the bathroom, like antacids, pain relievers in this crazy detailed way. There was labels, okay? There was little bins. And in the filing cabinet, he had set that all up with, this is electricity. And this is our one kind of insurance.

And this is our other kind of insurance. And here's our home insurance. And here's our home insurance. and here's our life insurance? How much insurance is there, Joe? And then I would go to actually file a bill and be so overwhelmed with the amount of categories that I would just hide it in a drawer because what? Or I would have a headache and I would take an aspirin and then to put it back, I'm like, I have to think about, is this for pain or is this for fever? I mean, technically it's both. Which bin does it go in? So I would just throw it on the counter because what? And so I realized, like, stop it. You don't have to have a detailed system. And I went full balls to the walls and went to the dollar store and got a bunch of dish pans. And I just had

medicine. And I literally dumped out all his stupid category bins into one big bucket. And I took some masking tape and I wrote medicine, like in crappy handwriting. And guess what? It was all. Awesome. It worked for me. And yet, it wasn't ideal for Joe, but he still knew where the aspirin was because it was in the medicine bin. And he was able to find it instead of having to look in all the drawers or wherever I had hit it because I couldn't use the other system. So I took all the papers. I started just throwing them in a paid bills for the year. And so if he needed one, he knew where it was. He didn't have to hunt through our house. And it wasn't as organized as he would like. But our house, was more organized because I was using a system that worked for my brain. And that's when it really was like,

oh, I'm a genius. There's two ways to organize. And then it really became a parent that there was four when I started helping friends and family and then clients. And I had one client who I knew she was detailed, man, so I set up all this detailed system. And then she'd call me to come back. And she's like, it's a mess again a week later. And that lady had pulled everything out and spread it. And I refused to believe that she was messy. That wasn't the problem. And so I had to think, why isn't it working? And then it dawned on me, oh, she's pulling it out because she wants to see it. It's out of sight, out of mind. Everybody doesn't just hide things in drawers and closets. Some people need visual storage. And that is kind of the birth of the four different organizing styles. It didn't come from,

it didn't come from success. It came from failure. It came from like, why do I suck at this? And why do they suck at this? And how can we adapt the system instead of trying to adapt the people. Now it's time for the MythBuzzers segment where we bust, where we bust some myths. There's going to be a new jingle for that. So let's talk about some really common myths when it comes to decluttering or organizing and I am going to bust them. One of the myths that I hear over and over again is anytime someone thinks they have to

declutter their whole house when I'm like, listen, you got to let go of like 50 percent of your stuff, they immediately say, but I don't want to be a minimalist. Decluttering is not minimalism. Honestly, I think the word minimalism is kind of subjective in itself. Decluttering means you're letting go of things that aren't serving you, period. And I have a lot of stuff. I would even say, I'm a bit of a maximalist, if I'm being honest, but I declutter all the time. Because what we're never taught is that decluttering is part of housework, period. It's just like vacuuming or washing the dishes or doing your laundry. It is something we are meant to do on a regular weekly basis.

We are supposed to constantly be letting things go because we are constantly bringing things in. And yet we are never taught this. And this is the problem. And we associate this with a project. Like in the spring, I have to declutter my house and it has to be this big insane thing where I pull everything out of my closet. That's not it at all. You can declutter that way, but also and also you should declutter weekly. You should always be looking and thinking, am I using this? Do I like this? Is this worth the space that it's taking in my home and my brain? and if the answer is no, it leaves.

And maybe one day, you'll realize, hey, I'm a minimalist. But it certainly isn't the end goal and it certainly isn't the focus. I hope you enjoyed today's podcast. More importantly, I hope you kick some butt today. You're a warrior, my friend, and I hope you have some dead clutter casualties that you're now going to move their carcasses to the tree. or your car because you're winning in life. You're winning in life.

Let's have a warrior scream. I'm amazing. And I'm more important than the stuff, you baddie. I'll see you here next week when we do it all over again.