Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Hack Your Bad Habits | Clutterbug Podcast # 173

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Do you have a bad habit that is holding you back?  In today's podcast, I share five of my bad habits and how I've "hacked" them into more positive behaviour. Together, embrace our natural tendencies and turn those bad habits into better ones! 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/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be honest with you. I have a ton of bad habits, like really bad habits, but I've found some little ways to kind of hack them to make them less bad. And I want to share those ideas with you right now. Hey, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. I'm always striving to be a better person. I don't know where this comes from, probably because I was such an absolute terrible person when I was a teen and my early 20s like I did all the bad things. And I feel really guilty for that. But also I think it's human nature to want to level up, to strive for better in ourselves, in what we have, just in life in general. And so I'm always looking for ways to not only do better in life, but kind of break all the bad habits that I feel

are holding me back. I'm a self-help book junkie. I'm constantly like, give me the hack, give me the tip to so I can be this like amazing person. And yet I never quite get there. I never, I mean, I read, you know, a million books that say, get up at 5 a.m. and tackle your day or make sure that you exercise every day for an hour and do it in the morning or have cold showers to reset your cortisol levels. Yeah, yeah, I'm not that person. I want to be that person. I want to be the person who gets up in the morning and has chickens and lets them out and makes everything from scratch. I want to be the person who puts on an apron and sings while she cleans the house while bacon's cooking on the stove for my family every morning. And yet, I'm the person who has to

drag myself out of bed. I'm probably feeding my kids sugary pop tarts. or cereal and I'm screaming at them, make sure you don't miss the bus for the fourth time this week. I want to be better, but I just, I just am who I am. And that doesn't mean I'm completely giving up, but it does mean that as I get older, I'm in my mid-40s now, I am looking at ways to embrace some of my bad habits and maybe hack them a little bit so they're less bad. I know things about, like, no matter how hard I try, there are things about myself that just seem too hard to overcome. Maybe part of it is my ADHD. Maybe part of it is laziness.

I don't know. I'm sure if I really work at it, but I haven't done it up until now. So I've found ways to turn these really negative things that used to pretty much destroy my life and hack them so they're really not that bad anymore. And I just want to jump in and start talking about these bad habits. But while you're listening, maybe you can think of some of your bad habits as well. And hopefully you can relate to some of mine. But how can you adjust? How can you pivot? How can you still be the same person, but make this habit less bad? I feel like it's a lot easier to just twist, change, adapt than it is to go cold turkey and completely stop doing something. Okay. So the first one I want to talk about is shopping.

I have always been bad with money. I am impulsive my entire life. I've sucked. I claimed to bankruptcy at 24 years old. And even after that, I was like, I cannot have a credit card because I do not trust myself. If you give me $5, I will spend $5. I am not good with money. Now, I learned, a lot of ways, you know, pay yourself first. So as soon as I get paid, I would transfer that into a savings account, a portion of that, either 10 or 15%, that I couldn't touch unless I got my lazy butt to the bank and actually physically took it out, which I was always too lazy to do. So I was able to save that way. And I didn't have a credit card. So I was able to keep myself out of debt. I bought nothing on credit. But still, if I would budget myself like, I don't know, $100 for the week,

at the end of the week, I would have zero dollars left after I paid myself first. But the point is, I'm always that person. I want to say I'm going to give up shopping. I'm not going to buy things, but the truth is I love it. I do. I love buying new things. I love the thrill of looking for a sale. I love just getting something new and especially clothes, putting it on my body and just feeling good about myself. I freaking love shopping. And so here's a hack that I did. I started doing this a few years ago. And it's changed my life.

I still have all the benefits without all the negative that came with shopping. And a shopping addiction, when you do have a shopping addiction, let's be honest. And I don't know if I was addicted in that way. It wasn't causing me like huge financial stresses. But I was spending way more than I should have. And a shopping addiction can be debilitating. Not only is it debt, but now you have. so much clutter in your house, where do you put it all? And it's like this vicious cycle of you buy

something and then you feel really ashamed when it doesn't meet all of its expectations. So now you have this stuff that you bought with the feeling of like, ooh, instant gratification. But now it's like, ooh, I shouldn't have bought that. So let's just get to the hack. What I did a few years ago to really help curb my shopping was started shopping at the thrift store. And this honestly, was completely by accident. I loved the thrift store for as long as I can remember. I furnished my first apartment from the thrift store. I used to take the kids all the time and pick up little bags of toys from the thrift store or furniture that I could paint, artwork, lamps, but I never bought clothing. I always kind of thought, ew, if I'm being honest. I was like, ew, I don't want to

wear somebody else's old, nasty clothes. But a couple of years ago, my daughter, who's now 16. She was about 14 and she was like, mom, take me thrifting. It's awesome. And she found so many cool things like concert teas and great clothes. And while she was wandering around thrifting, I just happened to go down the aisle too. And I found some great clothing. I came home, I washed it. And lo and behold, it still looked amazing. It held up. It didn't shrink. It didn't wrinkle. because if it looks great on a hanger at a thrift store, you know it's going to continue to look great at home in your closet, right? It's this fast fashion.

Not only you're spending like $20 or $40 on a shirt, it just doesn't last. It just doesn't hold up or it wrinkles or it shrinks or the colors run. And then you're left feeling like, oh, I wasted money. And so my eyes were opened to this amazing world of thrift store shopping. And I started with Value Village and it was kind of pricey, but then found Goodwill. I found the holy grail of Goodwill's in the suburbs in a really affluent area. And it's like, Bob's your uncle, man, great clothes.

I always pick things that look great on the hanger that are brands that I recognize. If it's sheen, I put it back because I know it's just going to be washed and ruined. If it's Forever 21, that stays. I don't buy that. But really good quality. It doesn't have to be name brand, but. brands I recognize like Banana Republic or Gap. Those type of clothing are now, like the ones I got from the thrift store are my favorite pieces. And the great thing is I'm spending about $3 an article

of clothing. So yeah, I would say once a month I go with my kids and we spend together probably $40 or even $50 maybe, but all four of us get new pieces of clothing. Maybe I'll pick up a shirt or a pair a pants or a dress and maybe they all get the same. But we're only spending $3 on these articles of clothing. So we're getting a ton of clothes, but it doesn't break the bank. I'm getting that same feeling of like the thrill of the hunt. It's even more fun if I'm being honest. But I never have that shame and guilt of ruining something after or if it didn't work out. And the best part is I feel like I'm keeping things out of the landfill. So now here's our routine. Once a month on a Saturday, we go through our closet and we grab things to donate, things that we don't

really love. Or even if the seasons are changing and we know we haven't worn it a lot, we'll, we bring those things to donate. We donate them. We get the coupon so we can save 20%. Sometimes it's $20 off. It's like it depends on what kind of promos they're having at the thrift store. And then we do a little shopping. And yeah, in an ideal world, I wouldn't be buying anything at all. And I would just wear the clothes I have and be happy with it. But the truth is, I like to shop. And so this satisfies all those things. I'm not filling my house because I have this declutter at the same time so I can get the coupon. Right? It's part of the process. And so I have this like, it's kind of like renting clothes almost. And yet I'm not spending a lot of money either. I'm not contributing to

landfills and I'm not buying into that fast fashion clothing at the mall which is really bad for the environment. So there's so many positives that come out of this and it still isn't, I mean, it isn't great. My husband's like, again, more clothes. So I mean, I'm not saying it's amazing and the perfect solution. But it's a small way that I hacked this bad habit and made it a lot less bad. Okay, my next bad habit, I'm going to be honest. It's staying up too late. I am such a night owl. I hate getting up in the morning. I love to sleep in. It's definitely harder now that I have a puppy. And when I had little kids, it was really hard to because they kind of have their own schedule. But I just, I'm a night owl. There, I said it. I'm a night owl. And it's not a great habit.

And even if I do have to get up early in the morning, I always stay up way too late. So I really hacked this bad habit in two ways. And the first way is I embrace the fact that I'm a night owl. I have a lot of energy at night. It's when I feel the most energized. So this is the time of night where I give myself a to-do list. The things that I have to do throughout the day, I check them off at night so that I can then enjoy the fun thing, which is like watching a movie or just chilling or relaxing.

but I have to do like my nighttime cleaning routine. I have to check off the things and I usually start those things around 9 o'clock or sometimes even 930 or sometimes even 10 if I'm being honest. But this is the time of day where I feel the most energized. So I'm more likely to get those things done because that's like kind of my like boost of energy time anyways. So I've kind of set myself up for success and hack to the fact that I'm a night owl and make sure that I'm being productive at that time of day and then rewarding myself afterwards with the fun time. Before I used to try to be a morning person or try to get things done, you know, right after dinner or in the afternoon. I'm like, this is when I should do. Like right now I'm recording this podcast. It's 9.15

at night. I, in an ideal world, I would be doing this during the day. I would be doing this during my workday, but I just, I'm a nighttime person. So the big things, the things that I really like don't want to do that I'm dreading doing, but I know I got to do, I schedule those at night. And a lot of that is cleaning. I'm going to be honest, clean up the kitchen, doing the dishes, giving things like a quick, even walking the dog. These are activities that I do at night to hack the fact that I'm a night owl. And it's working out awesome. The other thing I do, is I set myself screen time on my devices. So I have Apple devices and I've set up screen time. So all of my Apple devices turn off at 11 p.m. And I don't know the password. My husband knows the password. So if it is

a weekend and I'm like, hey man, I want to like crush it till two or three in the morning, he could just give me, he can like put in the password and turn it off for that night. But I have told him with no exception. He is not allowed to give me the password when I got to work in the morning. And sometimes I'm like a real nasty person about it. I feel bad for Joe. But listen, I'm just being honest. I need this.

I need this like regulation from another. I need somebody else to regulate me. That sounds so awful. But I do. I do. And most of the time I don't even ask for the password. I'm just like, ugh, this sucks fine. What else am I going to do?

Because I'm not yet tired. Maybe I'll read a paperbook or maybe I'll just go have, I don't know, get ready for bed or I'll sit in the hot tub or do something. And these activities because they are boring make me sleepy. And I generally go to bed earlier because I don't have something fun to watch like a screen, which leads me to my third bad habit. I watch way too much TV. I do. And part of this is ADHD, but I hate just doing nothing. I'm a multitasker. Even when I'm watching a movie, I also want to be surfing the web on my phone.

Like I just, I consume an insane amount of TV. And there are days. And I kid you not. And I don't know why. But even if I'm doing something really fun, we're out all day. We're doing like, we're amazing things. I'm having a great time. It's almost like I have a TV quota in some weird way. I'll get home at night. And I feel like I can. can't go to bed if I'm not zoning out to TV. Like if I'm not shutting my brain off and kind of zoning out to television. And this is weird. And I know this is weird, but I also get addicted to shows. So if I'm watching a new show, I like want to crush them back to back to back to back. And this type of bad habit in the past meant that I would go days without doing anything at all. I wouldn't just like I wouldn't pick up after myself.

I would just like order takeout. Everything would be a disaster. I'd be dirty. Like what is wrong with me? Addicted to TV. But it's true. And I'm definitely a lot better than it used to be mostly because I'm very busy. But I still, I just love it.

And I'm a person that just loves watching especially movies or television shows. I'm not big on social media. so I'm not like a huge person that'll scroll TikTok for hours, though I've been known to do it. That's not what my problem really is. It's mostly movies or television shows. So here's how I've hacked this. Anytime I'm doing something that's mundane or boring, I am watching a show or watching a movie or listening to an audiobook. So if I'm walking the dog, I'm listening to an audiobook.

If I'm doing the dishes, I have my tablet up on the windowsill and I'm watching a show. When I get ready in the morning and I'm doing my makeup and my hair, I'm watching a television show on my tablet. When I'm putting away laundry, I'm watching a television show on my tablet. It's Joe's like, what the heck, man? But I don't know what it is. It's like this way I get to still enjoy that relaxation time. If I'm walking on the treadmill, Lord knows. Lord knows I'm watching a movie or a TV show.

I get to still feel like I'm having that downtime, that like mind-numbing zone-out time that I'm really honestly craving. But at the same time, I'm getting stuff done. And so, yes, I still watch too much TV. I've never been to like a party when someone's like, hey, have you seen that? Yes, I've seen that show. I've seen every show. I've seen everything on Netflix, everything on Amazon Prime, everything on Disney Plus. I consume an obnoxious amount of television, but I try to always do it, for the most part,

while I'm doing something else. And so even if I'm laying a bed at night, I'll be like crocheting or I'll be doing something. I'll be answering emails while watching a show. So I've kind of hacked this bad habit and paired it with a positive habit in that when I watch TV, I'm productive at the same time. And so I get to like have it the best of both worlds. And it's amazing. And I definitely think that this, if you are also a person who like loves watching TV,

I've watched Fleabag, I love that show so much like 7,000 million gazillion times. And that's okay because while I've watched that, I've also cleaned my house and did my dishes and crocheted a blanket and, you know, answered emails and got an obnoxious amount of stuff done. Before I get to the fourth bad habit, I have to thank Hello Fresh for sponsoring today's video, which is kind of ironic because I feel like Hello Fresh helps hack this bad habit, which is my eating habits. Not only did I eat too much, but I got way too much fast food. I'm not great at cooking. And so I love Hello Fresh because three times a week, I have it delivered to my house. It's pre-packaged meals that are like all put together. Everything's pre-portioned. I just need

to follow the instructions. It's like paint by numbers for food. And I have delicious chef-inspired meals. I don't have to go to the grocery store. I don't have to plant. And I definitely don't have to run out for fast food. I have healthy, delicious gourmet meals. And I kid you not, I feel like this is a hack for me. Right now, if you haven't tried this, you can try HelloFresh. Go to Hellofresh.com slash clutter pod 16 and use the code ClutterPod 16. And use the code ClutterPod for 16 free meals plus free shipping. Again, that's hellofresh.com slash clutter pod 16. You're going to get 16 free meals plus free shipping.

Okay, so let's talk about another way that I hack this bad eating thing that I do. You guys know if you've been listening or watching me for a while. I've struggled with my weight my entire life. the only time that I really had my weight under control was in my early 20s. And I kind of went the other way. I became a personal trainer. I was working at a gym. I was working out compulsively.

I was measuring all of my food. Like it was like an all or nothing thing. I took it way too far and I became obsessive. And it was not healthy. Even though I was eating healthy and exercising and I guess in theory healthy, I, it wasn't healthy mentally because it was such an obsession for me. And then I was just kind of like, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be this person anymore. I don't want to be the person who can't enjoy a slice of pizza unless I go run 5K. And I just stopped cold turkey and started eating

skittles for breakfast and chocolate cake and you deserve that extra cheesecake. And it wasn't so bad until after I started having kids and then I was in my 30s and then definitely getting close to my 40s. I got up to 250 pounds. And I was snacking on junk and candy and chocolate constantly, especially at night, especially when I was watching TV and I would binge tubs of ice cream, bags of chips, but mostly candy and chocolate. Like, it would, I, if I couldn't go out to go grocery shopping or pick something up and run an errand without stopping and getting a coffee and a donut, or if I was running into a store, I would get a chocolate bar at the checkout every single day, at least once a day, probably twice.

I would be consuming this type of food. Plus, coming home and eating granola bars or candy and whatever else we had in the house, cookies, constantly shoving my face filled with junk food. And you guys know I tried to hack that by having weight loss surgery. but listen, I didn't hack my brain that just temporarily hacked my body. And I started gaining the way back again. And I remember the whole time I was going through like the weight loss surgery, you have to meet with a nutritionist once a week and once a month and do all this education.

And she kept saying, I don't care what you eat as long as you eat a protein with it. So if you want to have a chocolate bar, that's fine. Pair a protein with it. What can you have? can you have a cheese string? Can you have a protein bar? Can you have a pepper. And I was like, pepperette and skittles. That's disgusting. She's like, I don't care. Have some cottage cheese. It doesn't matter. Just pair of protein with what you're eating and try to eat the protein first. And I thought this was like the dumbest thing. But after I had gained back 35 pounds after my weight loss surgery, I was like,

I got to give this a try. And so I, don't have limits on what I can. I can eat whatever I want, but I have to have some sort of protein first. And I usually go and get a little bowl of cottage cheese or a pepperette or cheese or something, a yogurt, like a Greek yogurt. And then I'll have like a little bit of something bad. But I'm not overeating on the bad stuff because I'm kind of a little bit full from the protein. And also I stay fuller longer because I've had that little bit. bit of protein. So it's kind of like I'm paying my due. Like yeah, Cass, you can have skittles, but you got to have a Greek yogurt first. And then I'll just have a little bit of skittles and still

feel satisfied. But overall, I'm eating a lot less. I'm feeling fuller, longer because I'm having the protein first. It is an ideal. I'm not some gorgeous skinny person over here. And I haven't lost that 35 pounds back, but I stopped gaining. I'm maintaining. I maintain. and I'm maintaining that hunger because when I just consume sugar, I have that spike of insulin and then I feel like starving again an hour later. And then I'm stuck on this vicious cycle of like binging chocolate and then feeling hungry and unsatisfied and needing more candy. And like it's like almost an addiction, but a physical addiction as well.

But when I eat a protein first, I don't have that crash from the sugar. so I can still have the sugar, but I'm not starving an hour later. If this makes sense, listen, if you are also a junk food junkie, making yourself eat protein first, it's a game changer. It can even be like three bites of a pepperette, a spoonful of cottage cheese. Like, we don't have to go crazy here. But stop, think, consume the protein, then have the fun thing. It will change your life. I'm serious. It will change your freaking life. Okay. So my final bad habit. First of all, I talk a lot, too much, but I also love to give unsolicited advice.

I do. I just do. This is so bad. I just like, I feel like I'm helping people. And this is sometimes backfired. I feel like I get this from my mom. My mom is very much like this too. Like she'll come to my house and she's like, oh, your gardens need some work. You know what would be the best thing. You need to plant some, I don't know, cone flowers over there. because of the right sun that you get. And if you put hydrangeers over there, it would look so good. And these plants aren't the best for that. And I mean, like, it is nice.

I appreciate it. But also, I didn't ask for her advice. She's just knowledgeable about gardening and trying to help. And when I first started getting into organization, I remember going to friends and family houses and being, oh, my God, I would love to organize your pantry. It's such a disaster right now. I know exactly what could help.

Man, Cass, that's rude. It's rude. It's rude to give unsolicited advice to somebody who hasn't asked. Even if it's coming from a place of love and you know you could help them, I've had when I was overweight, so many people used to give me weight loss advice. Like it was, I couldn't go anywhere without getting unsolicited weight loss advice. But I couldn't really be that mad because I couldn't go anywhere without giving unsolicited organizing advice. I just really love to just like, I know exactly the product that could help you here. Or I'd walk into somebody's house

and I'd see that they have coats and shoes everywhere. And I'd have to bite my tongue because what I wanted to say is, hey, man, you're a visual organizer. Everything's everywhere because you don't want to use your closet. Put some hooks over here instead. Have an open mudroom when you first walk in and you'll no longer have clutter. But you know what? They didn't ask for my help. And so I had to zip my lip. And so how do you hack this?

If this is your thing, how do you hack the fact that you are just dying to share your incredible passion with the world? Even if they don't ask for it, you can do something like a podcast or you can make TikTok videos or you can write a blog if you don't want to show your face or you don't want to have your voice. There's so many ways that you can share your passions and help with the world without giving unsolicited advice. And I think one of the, every time I think of this, I think of my best friend Jess. I hope she's not listening to this. But every time I talk to her, she loves cooking. And she's always giving unsolicited cooking advice. You know, she's like, you know, oh, it would be so good if you added just a pinch of sugar to this spaghetti sauce, it would taste so much better.

Or you, oh, the garlic on your garlic bread. If she's ever eating at my house, she'd be like, if you roast that garlic first in the oven, then you can, instead of dicing it like this, you can just spread it like a cream over your garlic toast. And that would be so much better. And I'm like, why don't you have a cooking blog or a cooking podcast? because she obviously is so passionate and she's got amazing tips. She also cleans houses and loves to give like cleaning tips and cleaning advice. It would be an amazing way to share that with the world without insulting anyone.

So I'm just throwing that out there. I think if you are a person who has like you just, you're excited about something or you're passionate or you're really knowledgeable about something, but you tend to perhaps share at inappropriate times or maybe when people don't really ask, I think this is something you could consider. It's a way to hack your bad habit and turn it into the most amazing positive thing. Here I am doing this podcast, sharing stuff just because I love to talk and I love to maybe help people, make their life a little bit better, but you're listening on purpose. You want to be here. not just knocking on your door and in offering it to you unsolicited. So it's a win-win for everyone.

And it's just these are five ways that I hack my bad habits. It's a weird podcast today, but I want you to look at your own life. If you smoke, why not switch to a nicotine-free vape? It is an ideal. You're still vaping vape juice. It's not great, but you're not having the nicotine. So it's like a little bit better. My stepdad, he used to be a big drinker. He had multiple heart attacks and his stroke. And then he switched to near beer. I don't know if that's actually what it's called, but it's like alcohol-free beer. So he still enjoyed like the taste and just all the parts that went with it. He was to actually bring it with him to his favorite pub bar and drink it with his friends, this alcohol-free, and then the place started carrying it for him.

So he could actually go there and get a cold one and didn't need to bring it. And so he had all the same benefits that he loved, hanging it with his friends, you know, drinking and sitting around. But he wasn't getting the alcohol, which was really, really bad for him. So my point is, even the worst habits can be hacked a little bit, can be manipulated, can be massaged can be changed into something a little less bad and in some cases really positive. Thank you guys so much for listening. And I'll see you guys next time.