Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Fight like a WARRIOR for a Clean and Tidy Home! | Clutterbug Podcast # 189

Episode Date: September 5, 2023

I will teach you how to fight like a warrior for a clean and tidy home. The mess and clutter may have won the battle, but you are about to win the war! Are you ready for some decluttering tough love?!    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 going to teach you how to fight like a warrior, fight for your home, fight for your happiness and your peace of mind, and we're going to get started right now. Hey, clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug Podcast. This is going to be a little bit different than my normal podcast because I really want you to take this time and think of this as like motivation. I'm your coach today. I'm going to get a little tough on you, but it's tough love. because this is coming from a place of love. You are my friend and I want what's best for you. And I know what

it feels like to feel like you're drowning in your space, to the frustration every day that you wake up and you're greeted by more to-does that never-ending list. You have to do dishes. You have to clean the kitchen. There's more laundry to get put away. You just vacuum. Why are there crumbs on the floor? Why is there clutter? Why can you not find things? Why is getting your kids on the bus or out the door for school, such a hectic crazy pants disaster every single day. Maybe you can't relate to any of this. But if you can, here's the truth. You, my friends, are at war with your house.

And your house is winning. The clutter is winning. Because if you lose things all the time, if you're constantly stuff shuffling, managing your mess, if it feels like everywhere you look, there's just stuff you have to deal with. Your clutter is winning the battle. Absolutely. But I'm going to teach you right now how to fight like a warrior because that's what we have to do. We have to fight back. We have to stand up for ourselves. We have to say enough is enough. I need to be in control of my own home and my own stuff. And I am no longer going to let some junk I bought at Walmart

bully me, push me around, and make me feel bad about myself in my home. I am no longer going to be a slave to random stuff I don't even like and shouldn't have bought in the first place. And that's what you are when all day you're just managing that mess, it is in control of you. And the most insane part, listen, I am so guilty of this for so many years. The insane part is we kind of are people pleasing this stuff. We feel bad maybe throwing it out or donating it because, you know, it's good stuff or maybe it can be used. Like we become sort of weak and small and insecure. We're not realizing our worth and the fact that we are worth a bazillion times more than the $20.

or crap that we bought from Amazon. Right? Why are we letting this meaningless stuff not only define us as women, as homeowners, as mothers, as leaders of our household, our clutter kind of like makes us feel like it defines us as failures when we're not doing it well, but it also really is bossing us around. Because instead of having fun, instead of relaxing, instead of the doing the things in life that we really want to do, instead we are slaves to the stuff. It should not be hard and it isn't hard to keep a house tidy when you have a reasonable amount of stuff, when things are not in excess, when you don't have to move things just to make a sandwich, when you don't have to clear off your dining room table just to eat dinner as a family.

When you can easily get everyone out the door and everyone's shoes are in their proper place and their coats and their backpacks and everything has a home and you don't have to look and hunt and feel anxious and get upset because you can't find things, all of this adds up to more free time and more peace for you. the only thing that's stopping you from getting a home that feels like that and functions like that is little bits of things here and there and everywhere that shouldn't be in your house. But for some reason, and this is where the tough love comes in, for some reason, you're not strong enough and brave enough to just put it in a trash bag or put it in a donation bag

and to not care where it goes or how it gets there, just that it's leaving so that you can have an easier life. Why is this so hard? I don't know. But today you're going to be brave. And today you're going to be strong. And today you're going to be a warrior because today you are in the fight, not the fight of your life, but a fight for your home.

Because when your home is under control, when you feel like really honestly in charge of your stuff and you are confident that, yeah, I cleaned it today and I'm not going to have to clean it again tomorrow. You're winning. You're winning. And that is such like a burden off your back. I can't even describe it to you until you experience it yourself. So let's get there. Right now. warrior friends. I don't know if you want to put on face paint. You want to scream like a banshee, scream like Zina Warrior Princess. Here's what we're going to tackle first. All the empty boxes in your house. You do not, I don't care how good this box is. Listen, there is no emotional attachment to empty boxes. Your vacuum cleaner box, stop it. There is no reason to keep these big boxes. All the boxes, your appliances came in. You do not need the box. You do not need the box. for the warranty. So why in the heck are you keeping the box? I just moved for televisions and didn't have a

television box. So for the love of Peter, friends, if you're keeping a television box, which is gigantic, by the way, because you might move someday in the future, maybe it's going to leave. Empty boxes take up a ton of space and it is literal trash. It is the packaging that your good stuff came in that you are supposed to dispose of and a lot of people keep it. I would say like 50% of people keep a lot of their empty boxes, especially if something is expensive because why? It's definitely like a brain thing because something in our brain is like, well, if I have to return this, we can return it without the box. And if you've had it for more than a few weeks, you're just going to use the warranty anyways. So bye.

goodbye to the boxes. Right now, I want you, while you're listening to this, goodbye to the boxes. Maybe they're in your basement. Maybe they're in your garage. I don't know where they are. Throw them in the front yard. Throw them on the porch. Throw them on your balcony. Get them out. We're not going to break them down right now. We're not going to worry about taking the styrofoam. We're going to Zina Warrior Prince, Princess, your house up in here, and we're just, throw it out the door. We'll deal with it at the end. Feel that energy. Fight for your house and start with empty boxes. Start with empty bottles, too. Those lotions, the shampoo with like an inch of goo and you don't actually like those things or all those lotions you got from your mother-in-law for Christmas and you

don't even like them. And it probably came in a kit from Walmart and they smell really bad. But then, for some reason, why? Why are we letting this? Why are we people pleasing the gifts we don't even like? No one who gave us this is ever going to know if you are opening up your bathroom closet, your hall closet, and you're seeing these type of lotions, you're seeing these like half bottles of shampoo or face cream or whatever it is. And you're like, it's not really my jam, but I'm going to hold on to it just in case someday maybe because all of this is adding up to a harder life. Right now, get rid of it. And what do you do with the empty shampoo bottles? You probably want to rinse them out and recycle.

them. What if, friends, what if as the warrior you are today, you just throw them in the trash bag? What if you do that? What if you give yourself permission to just move quick today, to be fierce today, to fight today? And tomorrow, we're going to do it badly today so that tomorrow we can be better because we'll have more space, more time, more capacity, more mental ability to do these things better because the bulk of the heart is gone. We just need to get the hard out. And you might think, what's a couple empty boxes? What's some bottles of lotion? What's a few extra things? It all adds up to excess. This is the battle. It's death by a thousand cuts, friends. It isn't just one thing that's adding to the clutter. It's all the little things. They're fighting you and you're at war. And there will be casualties of

this war. And that's okay. That's normal. That's okay. Some things are going to hurt to let go of. But we don't have to do the things that you love, that you cherish, your sentimental things. We put that all aside. You are right now, you're just fighting junk. And let's talk about what some of those junk things are to help you understand and, like, give you that inspiration so you can warrior it up. Grab a trash bag. Grab a trash bag. Or grab a clear bag if you want to do donations. Old nasty towels. If they're ripped, if they're stained, I promise you, you have enough. You buy always, whenever you bought a new towel, did you get rid of an old one? The answer is no. You don't even have to answer that. I know the answer is no, which means you had enough back then.

Now you have excess. Stop it. I'm giving you a stop it. Because, because this is tough love, stop it, it's going. If you've ever bought yourself a new pillow and didn't get rid of the old pillow, instead you put it in a closet in case you have company and you want to give them your nasty, skanky, stained, drool-filled pillow, you don't need that many. All those old sheet sets that you had when your kids were younger and they had themed bedrooms and you have princesses and superheroes and bugs, bunny, whatever it is, they can go now. They can leave now. And they are going to free up space that you didn't even know

that you had. And every time something leaves, it's a breath of fresh air for your home. And you, you have taken one step forward in your battle with your home. This is how you win. It's things leaving. And it isn't just one trash bag leaving. It isn't just one box leaving. That's great. That's a amazing. Celebrate that. But that, my friends, is not going to make the difference that you need to really fight the battle. You need to fight this battle on every front. And you need to have 20 trash bags leave your house and 20 boxes leave your house before you're even going to start to see a difference. You can pack your house tight. You can jenga every closet. Lord knows, I'm an expert at that. But when you need something that's jenged in the back, when you open this closet to get something

and you have to pull everything out to find what you need, it's all time and mental space that you're wasting because most of the stuff in that closet can leave. Life should be easier for you. Managing your home should be easier for you. So you're fighting for your home. You're fighting for your family. You're fighting for your peace of mind. And you have to be brave and you have to be strong. And it might feel wrong at first to let things go that are good. It's still good stuff, right? So it might feel wasteful to like just toss it to the side because this is not garbage. But it is junk. It's junk if it's not useful to you. today right now. If you're storing it because of maybe someday or it was expensive or I don't want to

hurt someone's feelings, you are literally people pleasing your stuff at the detriment of yourself. Do you remember when you first move into your place, your home, maybe even before you moved anything in and how excited you were and how much you like, how much potential that your home had do you still feel that way? Do you still look at it and think, ah, the possibilities of this place? Do you walk into your home and feel pride? Are you proud of how it looks, how it functions, on how it makes you feel? Could you invite a neighbor in and feel good? It doesn't have to be perfect. But does it make you happy? Does it? Because it should. It's your home. It's your nest. You should find it beautiful.

It should clean as beautiful. It should be functional. You should not be wandering around your home. And everywhere you look, see things that you need to do, should do. It should not be another chore for you. And if it is, it's time to just, it's time to start fresh. Because you deserve it. Because you deserve it because you're more important.

And it feels really selfish to put yourself first above the stuff in your house. Why does this feel weird? I mean, it shouldn't feel selfish, but it does for some reason. But you are more important than the stuff in your house. You're more important than the sheets. You're more important than the empty boxes. You're more important than the food that you bought at Costco that you don't actually like and you have that box of cookies or granola bars or protein powder. And you're like never going to eat it. And you know that, but you're keeping it because of shame, because of guilt, because of, Ooh, if I let it go, then I have to admit that I shouldn't have bought it and I wasted the money. You still wasted the money. Now you're just wasting the space, friends. Fight.

Be brave. Be ruthless. Be a warrior today. And get things out. I want you to honestly say out loud. Out loud. Hopefully no one's around you because this might be weird. I deserve a clean and beautiful home. I deserve a clean and beautiful home. Do you believe that?

Do you believe that you deserve and that can have a tidy, organized, clean home on a regular basis? Because you can. And to believe that is the first step. I remember, oh my gosh, I filmed a YouTube video last week and I was talking about this and I filmed a Facebook, but when I was filming the YouTube video, I was remembering my own journey through the clutter and the mess and the house always being dirty. And the fact that I never really felt, I guess, that I did deserve it. I felt like I felt like I wasn't, I was too lazy to have that. I wasn't. I wasn't good at managing a house. I wasn't organized enough and that it honestly was out of the realm of possibility because I wasn't good enough. I wasn't good enough. Not only to provide it for myself, but to provide

that for my family. I just really didn't believe that it could happen. And I got so emotional. I cried on a YouTube live. I'm embarrassed to tell you this at the thought of just like remembering the fact that I used to just not have faith in myself, that I wasn't brave enough to just rent a dumpster and get rid of it. Why did I put my own worth and my own, yes, self-esteem and my own happiness below junk? And I got really emotional thinking about all the people out there who are watching that live and all the people out there who just aren't even, but are, in the same place, not realizing their value and instead putting more value on a $20 thing that they got at a thrift store or at Walmart or at Amazon, some junk made in China. It's absolute nothing

in comparison to them and their own value. And yet they're letting that stuff make them miserable. That's really what it is. the whole decluttering process going through and warrior rat throwing things in the trash putting stuff in donation getting it out it's about self-esteem it's about standing up for ourselves finally opening up the closet and say you know what these don't fit me they are bullies They are telling me these clothes that don't fit are telling me that I'm fat. They're making me feel ugly. And I am better than that.

I am beautiful. I am perfect the way I am. And these clothes are leaving. Because why am I letting a pair of jeans tell me that I'm fat and ugly every time I look at them? It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. Why are you letting the piles of junk on your kitchen counter tell you that you're bad at a housekeeper. Why are you letting all the little things push you around? They're pushing you around.

And that doesn't mean, I don't want you to like having nothing but one fork and a plate and sit on the ground. We don't have to be minimalist here. That's not what this is about. It's the stuff that you're not using and that you don't even like anyways. It's the empty boxes, the bottles of goo, the expired food, the expired medications, the clothes that don't fit. the old sheets and blankets. It's the utensils in your utensils, the utensils, all those things. If they don't fit in just one drawer in your kitchen, all the spoons, the gadgets, the peelers, the choppers, if it doesn't fit into one drawer in your kitchen, you have way too many, way too many. And it's time to get it down to one drawer. Imagine if you have,

freed up a drawer in your kitchen, you could have space for all the stuff that's on the counter now. If in your kitchen you have more than one shelf in a cabinet for mugs, for like coffee mugs, you have too many. Way too many. One shelf, friend. One shelf is all you need. If you have more than that, let them go. Let the ones you don't really like go with confidence. Let the shelf be the bad guy. You can only keep what fits on there. And guess what? Now you've got room for something that you actually use all the time. Because nine times out of ten, the stuff that's on your counters, if you're looking around and you're like seeing piles on the desk or piles on top of the dresser or piles on the kitchen counter, that stuff you're actually using. You can't put

it away because you don't have a really easy way to put it away because every spot is full of the, that's the junk. It's full of the junk. And maybe mixed in with the junk, there's good stuff. I can guarantee mixed in with the junk. There's good stuff. But there's a lot of junk. Stealing your space. Stealing your happiness. Stealing your peace of mind. Stealing your time. Stealing your time. Because everything you own is something you have to manage. You have to remember that you owned it, remember where it is, you're taking mental inventory, you have to move it to find other things, you have to clean it, you have to maintain it, enough is enough. You are more important. You are number one. You are top dog. And guess what? You're in charge of it all.

You're the boss of your home. You're the leader of your home. You are the cat. You are the of this army and it's time to charge into battle and to fight. Right now, as you're listening to this, it is time to fight. Fill a bag, fill a box, throw stuff outside. I don't care. Don't worry about folding those donations. Don't worry about breaking down the boxes right now. Do that later. Feel the energy. Feel the power of you as a warrior fighting for your home. and just get it out right now. We'll deal with it at the end. Throw it out. Get it out. Open up the jump door. We're going to scream like warrior princesses. We're going to chuck stuff out the front door. Their neighbors are going to think you're insane, especially if you're wearing

paint on your face, warrior paint on your face while you're screaming like a warrior princess, chucking stuff on your lawn, whatever. It doesn't matter what the neighbors think because you're fighting. You're at war. The only thing that matters is you and how you feel and that you feel empowered. that you feel brave, that you feel strong, that you feel in control, that you feel proud of yourself because you are finally seeing the truth. What really freaking matters and it isn't the stuff. So you can make better decisions. You can make faster decisions.

You can make decisions with more confidence because there are going to be casualties of this war, but they aren't going to sting as bad because you know you're fighting for the thing that really matters, which is you and your family and your happiness and your peace of mind and your time right now. You're fighting for your beautiful, beautiful home. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor. When I am fighting for my house, the most important room in my home, honestly is my bedroom because this is a really escape from the rest of the world and I treat myself to beautiful sheets. You guys know I love cozy earth bedding. It's bamboo sheet set is my absolute favorite. It's temperature regulating incredibly soft no matter how many times I wash it. But I also have all

their pillows and their waffle blankets for the bed. It feels like luxury, but at a great price, They're timeless classic sheets. And it's time that you treat yourself as well. Right now, my listeners can save up to 35% off sitewide when you use the code clutterbug. Go to cozy earth.com and save up to 35% off site wide when you use the code clutterbug. Okay, Warriors, if you are honestly just feeling very overwhelmed and you have no idea where to start, you're not alone. It, gosh, it feels defeating, doesn't it? When you're looking at a huge mess, because our brain says this is going to take weeks, if not years, to tackle. And any time that you

spend on this might feel like it's not really worth your time. You have a million other things that are more important you should be doing. And you're not even going to make a dent in it. So why bother fighting? I know that this is something that a lot of of people feel. And I know this is something I felt many times and you are not alone. And I don't know why our brain tells us this because the truth is it's a lie. And so today, I want you to try the power hour. I want you to set a timer for just one hour and dive in with reckless abandon. Is that the word? I'm just making up words now. I want you to dive in, set that. timer and just focus on better. I'm just going to, I'm going to, I'm not going to organize.

I'm not going to worry about, about anything, but getting stuff out and putting stuff away. And if it doesn't have an away, it's like where would I look for this thing first and we shove it there? Or we just zone. We're just going through the mess and the pile and we're making it better, whether it's whatever space is bothering you. Whatever space when you walk in is like, man, I just want to turn and leave. Or this makes me feel really bad about myself. I'm sick of the piles of laundry. I'm sick of the kitchen, having dirty dishes everywhere and everything on the counter. I'm sick of the entranceway tripping over shoes. What is the space right now? Whatever is the first thing popping in your mind. Go there. Set a timer for,

one hour and see what you can accomplish. And I did this on the weekend because we just moved in a few weeks ago. And anything that I wasn't like I didn't want to deal with right now, I threw it in the basement or I threw it in the garage. And it's like a big garage. I was so excited. I'm like, I finally can park in the garage. I couldn't walk in the garage. I couldn't walk. And I said to Joe, can we tackle the garage this weekend? And he was like, it's going to take like three days, Cass. We don't have the time. And I said, can we just do one hour? And he, he honestly said what I was thinking, which is one hour's going to do a whole lot of nothing. One hour's going to make zero difference. What would be the point? There's so many cooler things we could do with one hour.

But I wanted to see. I wanted to test because it's like kind of like put your money where your mouth is cast. You say these things all the time. But I'm also, from the, I'm fighting, I'm saying these things from the other side of the battle. I fought the battle. Took me a really long time, but it was like 10 years ago. And now I'm on the other side and I kind of forgot what it felt like. And so I've been thrown back in now to a messy, chaotic space and it zaps everything from you. Looking at the spaces in my home that are out of control, that are disorganized, that are cluttered, that are filled with mess,

I feel physically and emotionally drained, just looking at them. Just being around the mess, I am exhausted. And I haven't even done anything. So I wanted to see what we could do in one hour. I set a timer for one hour. I actually set up the camera so, you know, we could see the difference. And at the end of the hour, I was like, Okay, it doesn't look a lot better.

But my husband was stoked because what we had done in that hour is we had zoned. We had moved the shelving and the cabinets and things into place. We had come up with the structure of the garage and we had thrown out a ton of stuff and moved a lot of stuff to donate. So it still looked like a mess, the pile in the middle. but then he said to me, let's just do one more, one more hour. So I have this on video. I have like the first hour where I feel like it wasn't super obvious. It wasn't even another full hours, like 40 minutes, and the whole garage was tidy. So in under two hours, something that we have put off for weeks, something that has made me feel so depressed. Every time I walk in there, it smelled like skank garbage

and like some had died in there. And I just like, not only was I not parking in there, I wasn't even, I didn't even want to go in there and look for things I needed. I just wanted to set it on fire and start again. Not even two hours. It isn't perfect. It isn't perfectly organized, but it is a thousand times better. I am not embarrassed.

I walk in there and I think, ooh, this looks good. I am proud of myself. I fought and won that freaking. battle in under two hours. And that's the power of an hour. Set a timer for one hour. And I know one hour seems like a lot of time. Put on an audiobook, put on a podcast, put on some music, multitask. That's what I think is the great thing about audiobooks and podcasts. Even like a YouTube video that you're listening to, you are learning and cleaning at the same time. You are doing double duty. You are doing two things. It feels so good. You're educating yourself. You're growing as a person and you're making a difference in your home at the same time. And one hour can move literal mountains, my friend. I promise you your entire kitchen will be clean in one hour. You could do so much in the power of an hour. It is magical. Five minutes is great. Five minutes,

matters, but five minutes isn't going to win a war. Five minutes isn't going to, isn't going to murder a bunch of clutter in your house. Five minutes is incredible, but one hour is how you make a difference, a big difference. Today, right now, you've got to fight, though. We're not just wandering from room to room. We're not, we're fighting here. We're moving fast. We're being ruthless. You are taking action. This isn't a flutter hour. Okay? This is a power hour. This isn't a little, I'm going to maybe just fold my tea towels. You're not folding your tea towels.

You're shoving them in the drawer and you're moving on. Guess what? This isn't, I'm going to slowly dry my pan. You're going to throw your pan in the cabinet still kind of wet. You're going to shake off and throw it in there. This is a power hour. This is a move. This isn't a tiptoe through the tulips, friends.

This is a battle. This power hour you're going to fight. and you're going to be amazed at what you do. So pump that energy, bring that energy, set that timer, set multiple timers, find an audiobook, find a motivational podcast, whatever it is, and let's kill some clutter. Let's fight for your home. Let's prove to yourself that you can move mountains, that you can do this, that you are, I'm going to get demonetized that you're a badass. You're a badass boss of your house right now.

You got this. You are amazing. And you can do hard, amazing things. And I believe in you. And I am so proud of you. And you are worth way more than anything in your house. You are the most important thing. You are the most important thing and your happiness comes above all the stuff. Don't let it bully you. Don't people please it anymore. Fight for your home today. Thank you guys so much for spending time with me. I got a little fired up there, but I just really love you guys. And I'm going to give you some tough love when you need it. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you guys next time.