Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How Owning LESS Means Loving MORE | Clutterbug Podcast #312

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

Hey Clutterbugs! Today, I’m speaking with Joshua Becker (Becoming Minimalist) about minimalism vs decluttering, the mental load of stuff, and how owning less can help you love more and make an impact in the world, while reducing overwhelm and creating a simpler home (all without chasing a minimalist aesthetic).Joshua shares the moment minimalism “clicked” for him: cleaning out the garage while his five-year-old son asked him to play—and realizing possessions weren’t just neutral . . . they were actively stealing his time, energy, and joy. We dig into the philosophy behind minimalism (hint: it’s not about a certain number of plates), the Becker Method for decluttering with momentum, and what to do when you’re stuck in guilt about donating, recycling, or throwing things away.We also talk about the “just-in-case” mindset, why keeping trash in your house doesn’t save it from the landfill, and the categories almost everyone has too much of—hello duplicates and clothes! Plus, Joshua opens up about his new book Uncluttered Faith, the spiritual benefits of owning less, and what it looks like when decluttering frees you up to help others for real. You can find more Clutterbug content here: Main YouTube Channel: @Clutterbug Website: http://www.clutterbug.me TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/ For more from Joshua: https://www.becomingminimalist.com/becoming-minimalist-start-here/ And check out his book, Uncluttered Faith, out February 10, 2026! #clutterbug #podcast #JoshuaBecker #BecomingMinimalist #Minimalism #MinimalistLifestyle #Decluttering #DeclutterYourHome #DeclutteringTips #HomeOrganization #OrganizingTips #SimplifyYourLife #IntentionalLiving #MentalLoad #Overwhelmed #ClutterFree #DeclutterChallenge #DonateDontDump #DeclutteringMotivation #UnclutteredFaith #FaithAndMinimalism #SimpleLiving #LessStuffMoreLife #MindsetShift #HomeDeclutter #CapsuleWardrobe #DeclutterClothes #ReduceStress #Productivity #PersonalGrowth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think I actually want to be a minimalist, not a minimalist in the way, like, aesthetically, but this year I would like to focus on becoming a minimalist, maybe not looking at it as a destination, but instead of way of living, which is amazing because the creator of becoming minimalist is actually who we're talking to today. The amazing Joshua Becker, he is the founder and the editor of Becoming Minimalist. He started this like 17 years ago. He was the OG man. And he not only inspires millions of people to declutter less, but he also combines his faith,

which I actually find really fascinating because in talking with a lot of you and with clients, sometimes there is this moral, I want to be a good person that can be a roadblock to letting go and decluttering because it feels wasteful, because it feels wrong. because you want to be able to help people. And Joshua flips that narrative. And he shows us how it actually is the opposite and how letting go freeze up our time and our lives to make a real impact in the world. So we're going to be talking about his new book on Cluttered Faith, but also just his approach

to minimalism, how it's different, and how it can inspire you to live your very best life. before we meet Joshua and we hear all of his incredible wisdom, he actually is going to share some incredible tips, especially when it comes to what to start decluttering first, like where to go in your home to find things. And I'm going to steal one of his ideas and encourage you while listening to look for duplicates, things in your home that you have more than one of. So it's not going to change your life at all. And he gave this great example. I'm going to share it now. if you have 30 towels right now in your bathroom and you declutter 15, having 15 towels is not going to change your day to day life. It's not. You're still going to be able to dry yourself and do all the

things, but it's freeing up space and time and energy and sharing those towels with other people. I also want you to think about your appliances, your potato masher, your can opener. How many do you really need? Duplicates is such a good. place to start. So run around your house right now, grab a donation box, and look, if you have two or more of the same thing, that's what you're going to put in the box. Hi, welcome to the Clutterbug podcast. Thanks for being here. Well, thank you for having me. This is a pleasure, a joy, always. Appreciate you. Good work you do. I think of you as like the king, I think of you as the king, I think of you was the king of minimalism. You wear the crown. You sort of were pioneering this whole

idea. But I love that it's never been about the look for you because I think that's what we kind of see on social media. Minimalism is like an aesthetic. But for you, it's always been about the value. I maybe started the online movement towards minimalism, but it's certainly not a lifestyle that originated with me. But yeah, glad to be a part of it. it. I'm so excited about all the new voices and new avenues and streams and people talking about it. So, thanks. Okay, tell me how you got started in minimalism. Like, what did that look like? And why? Why were you just deciding one day that this was going to be your journey? My journey, my introduction into minimalism, the short version is I was cleaning out my garage on a Saturday

morning when my son Salem was five years old asking me to play with him in the backyard. And after a few hours of me tidying up my stuff and trying to organize my garage, I started talking my neighbor and complained a little bit about how much time had gone into the project. And she introduced me to minimalism. Not that she was a minimalist, but her daughter was. And she said, you know, my daughter is a minimalist. And she keeps telling me, I don't need to own all this stuff. And that was that was the moment. I usually summarize it as the the moment minimalism made sense to me was not when I thought that my possessions weren't making me happy because we would all say that our possessions aren't making me happy. The lightball moment was

when I realized that all the things I owned were actually taking me away from happiness and joy, meaning purpose significance, um, represent. by my five-year-old son swinging alone on the swing set in the backyard while I was cleaning out the junk in my garage. Yeah, I feel that. This is something that I've realized lately so much is like everything we own is work, isn't it? Everything we own is work, it's time, it's mental load. And I had no idea until I started decluttering how much more came back into my life. And your new book, which I'm very excited about, it's Uncluttered Faith, your tagline really stuck out to me. It's own less, love more, and it make an impact in your world.

And it's that last line of making an impact in your world that resonated with me because I do feel like the process of decluttering and living with less opened up a whole new world I didn't know about. the less we own, the greater impact we can have in the world just because we free up money, time, energy, focus, just even what we're pursuing in life. If I'm not pursuing a bigger house and nicer car constantly, then I can pursue good for other people a little bit easier. I think that there are other things that can distract us from making an impact in the world. I think that possessions are a really common one for a lot of people because we live in a culture where it's just become so normalized that we would own a lot of stuff that we don't need. And so I think that that trips up a lot of us, a really high percentage of us.

But if I never ever accumulated more than I needed, there are still other distractions in the world. I think that can keep us from making an impact if I'm just trying to hoard all my money for myself or I'm trying to just spend my whole life traveling the world or technology can trip us up and trying to please other people can trip us up. And so I think that there are other distractions that might trip up people who have been tidy along the way. So I think that's how I would try to describe it. Is that helpful?

I love that. It is because, yeah, you're, I don't. I guess in my brain, I always saw minimalism as the amount of physical possessions you're having, but you're really taking it to another level in like in your, in your everyday, all day life, that you're really being intentional. I love this. Yeah. So that fits my very definition of minimalism. So to me, minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things I most value in life by getting rid of, of anything that distracts me from it. And so for me, that journey began with physical possessions.

Like very clearly that Saturday morning, I'm cleaning out the garage with stuff I don't need rather than spending time with my son. If I own less stuff in the garage, I could spend more time with those things that mean the most to me. But that definition can be applied to a lot of things other than physical possessions. So we can think about how we spend our time and how we spend our money, the relationships that we have in our lives, how we, what we're doing at work, like a lot of different ways that we can apply that mindset.

But I think it's, I think it always leads to more joy. I think it always leads to more fulfillment and meaning when I remove distraction so that I can live aligned with my heart's bowels. use that always leads to a life better lived than one that becomes unintentionally distracted by all that's around us. And your new book, Uncluttered Faith, you're really combining, yeah, your faith with this whole minimalism movement. What made you, I mean, I know you're a pastor. So I suppose this does go hand in hand, but what made you want to, you know, make that connection for other people?

And let's talk about your book, too. Yeah, I appreciate that. So I was a pastor for 15 years before finding minimalism. I've been writing about minimalism for 17 years now. Actually, there's a fun symmetry. I'd been a pastor for 15 years. I've been writing about minimalism for 15 years when I was writing the book on Cluttered Faith. And a little bit like what we mentioned earlier. So for me, as I began owning less and began discovering new opportunity and new joy in life by intentionally owning just what I needed to. I remember talking to my wife, Kim, and I'm like, how come no one told me about minimalism before? Like, why did it take my neighbor in my mid-30s to introduce this idea of life to me?

And I stopped myself halfway because, like, Jesus was saying the same thing. Thousands of years ago, he was talking about sell your people. possessions and give to the poor. He says life is not found in an abundance of possessions. And so, but for some reason, I don't know. I knew a lot of those stories, but I never made the connection that Jesus might have been, that Jesus might have been right and that owning less was a better way to live and start until, like you said the same thing, until I started actually doing it. And so that was kind of the birthplace of the book that came out. you know, a decade later of, let's look a little bit deeper what the Bible has been saying

about this for thousands of years that we've been missing so much. Yeah, I feel like that. I just like that. I'm not personally a really spiritual person, but I feel that. I feel like there is something, yeah, deeper and powerful and just life transforming. And it really does open, when we let go of all the clutter, it really does open ourselves up. up to not just more time, but love and appreciation and just the ability to help other people, too. This is something which all my clients say, like now I have more ability to serve others because I have less physical stuff. It's boncadogs.

Okay. A lot of people talk about the Becker method. Oh, I hear the Becker method. This is your thing. in your new book too. Can you talk a little bit about the Becker method? Yeah, it's the approach that I use to encourage people to own less to make decluttering. It's not about becoming a minimalist, although I think that's the way to go, but it's about owning less, however you want to go about doing it in your home or whatever end result wants to be in your home. And so it's the approach

that I have found to be the most effective for the most number of people. I've been training professional organizers. I call them professional declutterers in the best steps and how to do it. But it really started with an online course that I started 10 years ago called the Uncluttered Course. 100,000 people have gone through it over the last 10 years. And it's just proven to be effective over and over and over again. The simplest way, like we can go into more deep.

details if you want, which I would be happy to and love doing it. The simplest way to describe it is that the decluttering approach is I move through my home, area by area, starting with the easiest most lived in areas first. So my guest room might be the easiest room to declutter in my home. but if I never spend any time in the guest room, then I never get to experience any of the benefits of it. Similarly, my home office might be the place I spend the most time and want to declutter the most. But if it's the hardest room to declutter, then it's also a really difficult place to get started. So usually places like the living room or the bedroom tend to be a little bit easier than some of those other spaces, but they're a space that we spend time in.

And so we can declare the living room and we can sit down at the end of the day and it feels different. It feels better. It feels calmer. And I think that that success provides the motivation and the momentum to go tackle the next hardest room and the next hardest room and the next hardest room until eventually you get to the basement and the attic and the home office and some of those tougher spaces. So good.

I am not a minimalist. Joshua, listen, I feel like part of me wants to be, but I also like my stuff. How do you know if you're a minimalist? Like, I love that you're not like you need six plates, period, and that makes you a minimalist. It's not one size fits all. You talk about this, but how do you know, how far do you have to go? How much further do I have to go? And is it more of just a philosophy and less about the actual stuff. Well, I think it's more a philosophy. So I was introduced to minimalism on that Saturday morning by Monday afternoon. I had started my blog, becoming minimalist, which even 17 years later, I really love the title. It's not became minimalist or I am a minimalist. It's like I'm, I'm becoming like life changes, seasons change, kids.

grow, we grow. And so it's certainly a constant evaluation of do I have what I need? Am I over-accumulating? So all that to say, I'm not sure there is any specific definition of what would make you a minimalist. The way I explain it as, the way I explain the difference is decluttering would be about removing the things I know I don't need, minimalism would be challenging my assumptions of how much I actually need. And so it's not, hey, I'm just getting rid of the surface level stuff that I know I don't need anymore, but like, hey,

could I, do I still have too much stuff? Would life be better if I owned less in my closet? Do I need to be spending my money on those things? Or could it be spent on something better? I think it's great. I think given the alternative, owning just what we need is always better than owning a whole bunch of stuff that we don't need. And so that's why I think minimalism is for everyone, knowing that it's going to look different for everybody. like every family is different and our jobs and passions and hobbies are different.

And so it's always going to look different from one person to another. But man, I think having just what we need to live our best life is way better than carrying around a whole bunch of stuff we don't need. But maybe you disagree. I'm just kidding. I want to be you when I grow up. I have an entire closet dedicated to throw pillows. Make me feel better, Joshua. Do you have something that maybe you still struggle with?

Are you like zen all over? That's the other thing. You minimalist are, you just are so zen. I guess you have nothing to stress about because you've minimized all the distractions. Okay, that's a two-part question. One is, you have too many pens. Joshua, give it to me. What you got? Oh, sure. I think that there's probably some spaces that I could go through. What would I think of? I tend to, so the new book comes out in February. I'm in like promotion mode. I finished writing it last spring and transitioned into another project right away.

And I'm thinking about my home office. And I'm like, yeah, there's probably some stuff that I, well, I know. There's some stuff that I collected when I was writing the book that's still in the area, still in the space that when the book comes out, okay, let's find some time and let's go back through it. Clothes, clothes come into my life and my wife buys me clothes and we just finished Christmas, you know, not too long ago. And things entered my life that someone thought was going to benefit me and I haven't had the time yet to decide. That's the way I treat gifts. I feel like maybe someone knows me better than I know myself and they found joy in this.

product and so they want me to have it. And so I give it some time. I give it some space. And if it improves my life, then it does. And if it doesn't, then I move it along. So yeah, I can think my home office, I mean, my office needs, need some work. For the second part of your question, I mean, there's still stress in life. Like life is never easy and life is never perfect. And things are always going to come up. And owning less doesn't solve every problem. But what owning less does do is it provides the margin to handle life when those trials and when those tough seasons pop up. If I'm not, if my credit cards aren't already maxed out by buying things that I don't need, then the emergency pops up. I have some finances available for it. If my life isn't stretched

too thin, caring for all the possessions in my home or even caring for a home bigger than I need, then I have the time and the space and the margin to handle when those things do pop up. So yeah, life isn't perfect, but I think minimalism provides the space to handle them a little bit better when they do arise. I'm feeling inspired. I'm going to read your book. It comes out tomorrow, which is amazing. And I'm going to immediately read it because I do feel like my home is under control. And I've decluttered possessions, which opened up my time and my energy.

And guess what I did? I immediately filled it with hobbies. And I was like, I have so much more time. And I just started stacking life on top because I'm no longer managing the mess. I'm no longer having to tidy before I can clean. I know I've not had to look for an item. And I can't even remember the last time. And that has been so impactful.

And it's opened up so many opportunities. that perhaps I've cluttered up in other areas, you know. So your approach of intentional, it really is, isn't it? It's being intentional and removing the distractions for what matters because even silly hobbies sometimes can be taking away from what I really want out of my life. Yeah, it's really easy. The way I describe it is when a distraction becomes a, lifestyle. Like, hobbies are really good for us. They provide a healthy distraction. They provide a time

to rest our brains and give us something to look forward to, like a moment of rest or watching television. Like, there's nothing wrong with watching television at the end of the day to rest. But when that distraction begins to take over my life, when the hobbies become so much so that I'm missing out on living my best life, making the biggest impact in the world that I can, as opposed to refreshing me and recharging me. It's distracting me from meaning. Then I think that's when, like you say, then, okay, let me, let me adjust here. Is this serving me or is this becoming something that I'm serving instead? I always say if you're even interested in spiritual things, then I think you'll find a lot of benefit in the book. There's a lot of

a lot of truths to it, even if you're not specifically following one religion or another. And so like some of the benefits, and they're all based on stories in the Bible, things like when we pursue minimalism, we learn lessons about ourselves that we wouldn't learn elsewhere. I started taking things to goodwill, Salvation Army, when we began decluttering. and I took a van load of stuff to Goodwill. It felt great. A second van load. By about the third or fourth van load of things that I was dropping off, I started to ask myself,

like, why did I have three van loads of things in my house that I didn't need? Like, why do we keep things that we don't need? Why do we buy things that we don't need? Like, legitimately, why would we intentionally go buy something that we don't need? And I think the more you, the more you're going to be. you wrestle with that question, the more you start to learn, you know what? I don't think those motivations were healthy. I think maybe I'm a little more greedy than I thought. Maybe I am trying to impress people with the things that I buy. Maybe I am a sucker for a sale more than

maybe advertisers do control my life more than I thought. And so that's just one of the good things that happen as we go about owning less. Some of the others is we, you know, begin to discover and overcome greed and we can overcome worry in our life. We start living a more intentional life. We have more room for people in our life. As the tagline says, we can make a bigger impact in the world with the one life that we have to live. So those are some of the different chapters and some of the different benefits that come into our lives. I like that you're looking at this from a different approach because I've worked with a lot of clients, some of which have had hoarding tendencies. And the things that they're holding onto, there is this underlying, I want to have this so I can help my neighbors

in case someone needs this in the future. I'll be the person to hold it in case my daughter has a baby one day and we'll want these things. Or if there's ever an emergency, I'll have all these extra blankets. But we're so distracted by the stuff and they're so distracted by the things. they're never actually able to help. But underlying, like, the thought of I'm keeping this is so I'm not wasteful. I'm doing the right thing. I'm being a good person. I have the things if anyone does need them.

But the opposite is actually happening, isn't it? It's like there's this confusion in their brain. And they're not able to really help anyone or make an impact because of the stuff. So I love that you're coming at it from a different angle that I think can be really helpful for people who are struggling with that. There's like a moral dilemma there. Like wasting is bad and letting go and just getting rid of stuff is like seen as this as this bad thing to do. Yeah. There's also a sense of, I'm holding onto this thing so that I can potentially help someone in the future. but that thing could probably be used by someone right now.

You just don't know who that person is. And so, like, I'm going to hold on to it in case my daughter needs it when she has a baby. Well, meanwhile, there's a single mom in your town who could use those baby clothes right now. There's, you know, a family in poverty right now that could wear those maternity. clothes that you're saving or they have the newborn son that those clothes could fit right now and be using. And so it's a little bit of like there are wonderful organizations in the world that know the people in your community that can be using those things.

And so a little bit of releasing that responsibility and a little bit of trusting, okay, I can donate them there. They're doing good things. they'll put those things into use. I always think the just in case stuff is that like we hold onto something for some potential need that might arise in our life. Meanwhile, there's someone with that real need today that could be using that thing if we would just release it and take it off our shelf and put it out into the world.

So that's another way to think about it as well. I'm going to ask you to judge me right now because you seem like a person who really has a good handle and what is right and what is wrong. And I sometimes walk the line and I'm not quite sure. So I, in helping people in my own home, there are things in my home that just aren't donateable. There is what I would see as trash or even things like, oh, I could recycle that, but I'd have to scrub it out first and really clean it. And I just give myself permission to say, I'm going to do better in the future. I just need a fresh start. I'm overwhelmed and I will put things in the garbage and I have had feedback that this is like, how could you? And what I've seen is sometimes

people will hold on to these things because they don't want to contribute to a landfill. They don't want to make the world. These are good people, Joshua. They want to save the world. But they're, they're trying to save the world by just not making a mistake. And then their house is just a complete disaster and nightmare for them on a day-to-day basis. So tell me the truth. Am I a terrible person for putting things in the trash sometimes? That is a great question. It's an important one. And the way I try to help people with this is, yes, I think we do what we can. If something can be donated, we donate it. If something can be recycled, it can be recycled. But if something has outworn its usefulness, if something is garbage, if something is trash, if something belongs

in the landfill, then the reality is it is going to end up in the landfill. And you keeping it in your home for another 10 years doesn't change where it's going to end up. It just means that your home has become the landfill instead of where that item is going to go, needs to go, and is going to live. Like things get worn out and things get used and we can't save them from the landfill by keeping them in our home. You know, we save them from the landfill by not buying them in the first place. But if they're garbage, then that's where it's going to go.

And there's no sense turning my home into the landfill. if there's a designated space and there's professionals taking care of it and they know what to do with those items, then that's where they need to go. So that's the way I explain it. We do our best if we can, but if something needs to go there, then either we do it now or someone has to do it 12 years from now, but it won't change the end result. You heard it here, my listeners. Joshua, the king of minimalism, is giving you permission to just put things in the trash sometimes.

Thank you. I love that so much. Okay, I have just a couple more questions and then you're going to tell us where we can get your book, which again comes out tomorrow. So excited. I'm super proud of you. You've helped like over 100,000 people more within the greater impact, but students declutter. So my listeners today, I always encourage them to look for things and to find some things to go. Do you have a recommendation, a category, an item that you've noticed people tend to just have to. much of universally. That's something that people right now listening could just go to and put in a donation. Oh, come on. Everything. Everything. Your whole house. Just back up a U-Haul. We have too much. We have too much of everything. So there are two places that I send people to think of. And well, gosh, we can talk about this stuff all day. And maybe we should sometime. So I think I always tell people that duplicates is a great place to get started. You can have, you can get rid of your duplicate items without changing the way you live your life.

If there's 30 towels in your linen closet, you can go down to 15 towels and nothing changes. Like you still get to dry yourself every time you get out of the shower. And so this minimizing journey doesn't have to be about. I'm living a completely different life. It just means I'm keeping fewer of the things that I use. So towels, I think, is a great one. Coffee mugs is a big one, but maybe too difficult for people who have a lot of coffee mugs. Honestly, the stat that I cite in the book, there's this fascinating study.

They studied how many, what percentage of our clothes get worn, actually get worn, And then they asked the person what percentage of their clothes they think they wear. So if you can picture it, I actually wear 18% of my clothes. But if you ask someone, they would say that they wear 75% of their clothes. And so then there's this gap of, what's the math on that? 57% like the gap between what you actually wear and what you think you wear. And America, interestingly enough, ranks number three, I think Canada. that might be ahead of us, but like, like, ranks third in that gap between what we think we wear

and what we actually do. And it's something like 50 or 60 percent difference. So most Americans wear 18 percent of their clothing. And so I would send people to, uh, to their clothes to, to declutter. It's, it's one of those spaces that has a, uh, immediate visual impact. If I get rid of a third of the clothes in my closet every morning, every evening, every time I do laundry, I can see the benefit of it. I can see how much easier it is to get ready in the morning. So that is where I would send people to get started. Just get rid of a third of your clothes and you'll be just fine.

You'll still have plenty to wear. I love it. Yes. Go to your clothes. And I appreciate you saying duplicates too because there, why do we have so many potato mashers? You only, you can't even use both. Why? And can openers, you better not have more than one can opener. There is. There's these everywhere from your appliances. If you opened up my kids drawer right now, there's probably six

toothbrushes in there. Why? It's all these little things that are adding up to, yeah, just a very cluttered suffocating life. All right. Joshua, I was going to say when you, you know, when you consider duplicates across all the different areas, throw pillows. You didn't mention throw pillows, but, oh, okay, sorry. Sorry, they, they, sorry. There's what, there's many seasons, okay? And then there's Easter and then there's spring and then there's summer, then there's fall, then there's Halloween, then there's Thanksgiving. So you need a throw pillow for every occasion. We should do this all day sometime. He should. He's coming for my throw pillows. I might go just declutter one just for you. I do. I love this. I, I, I've seen the benefit with just a little bit of,

I say a little bit of decluttering. I decluttered a lot. I see the benefit where I'm struggling is there's always things coming back in. And, and I think that's the difference between decluttering for the sake of decluttering and how it looks and decluttering for the philosophy of minimalism, which is being intentional in all areas, really only keeping what we need and what we use so that we have abundance everywhere else. And you're just so inspiring. So thank you. Tomorrow, the book comes out. Let my listeners know where they can get their copy. Uncluttered Faith is available anywhere and everywhere that books are sold and it's available in any and every format. I always think it's funny when someone emails and like, is there an audiobook version? And I'm like, you can't hardly do a book

without an audiobook version anymore. So it's available in any and every format and wherever sold. So thank you. Certainly it'll be on my Becomingminimalist.com is my home base and my website. And certainly there's a big announcement there. But again, I'll just be sending you to all the usual booksellers. And I'm going to put a link to your website down below. If, Avi, I feel like all my listeners know about you. Again, you're the king of minimalism. But if not, check out the show's notes so you can make sure that you follow him. One last question before we go, how does your family feel about minimalism? Because I do have one maximalist daughter. My other kids, they're like, yes, having lesses, but I have one who wants to keep everything she's ever

and she wants to see it all. Is there, are your, is your family totally on board? My family is on board. I think probably our spirituality, like our Christian faith helps a little bit in that way. I mean, the whole basis of most spiritual beliefs would be that there's more to life than the physical things around us. And so I think that that helps. Now, I always say, so my kids are 23 and 19. And I always say that, We'll know how much they buy into this when they're on their own in their first career, making more money than they need to just buy lunch on their college campus. So I think they're on board, but, you know, they'll have to make their own decisions once there's money in the bank, what they're going to spend it on. And I like to think the principals have steeped into their hearts and lives, but we'll find out for sure when they get to make all their own decisions. I have a feeling it has. I have a feeling it has. I mean, you live your message and it's apparent and you just spread it to everyone else. Okay, I know I said the last question, but I have one more question because, again, my favorite, just the thing that really stands out to me about your book is your tagline,

own less, love more and make an impact in your world. So I'm curious, how do you, like, could you share an example of how someone has made an impact on the world or potentially could once they've made this minimalism journey? That's a big question, isn't it? It is a big question. We started a nonprofit called The Hope Effect 10 years ago. That came from the first two books that I wrote when I had nine publishers bid on a book about how buying things won't make you happy. we decided okay. Like we're not, we believe what we, we believe what we say. And so we took the proceeds and started a nonprofit and we've gotten over 500 children

out of orphanages and into families. I think that the impact that someone is going to have is always going to look very different from one person to another. There are problems in the world that you are passionate about, more passionate about than other people. There are talents and skills and experiences that you have that other people don't have. There are people in your life that you love, that you can love better than anybody else. What owning less does, what minimalism does is it frees up that money and time and that mental creativity to start living my life focused on those problems in the world that I am

passionate about solving. It frees up our pursuits to not chase bigger houses and bigger cars, but help more people with the one life that we have to live. And so lots of wonderful examples, no doubt. And I look forward to everybody listening to this, having their own story to tell in the future. Thank you. I love this. Yes. And please, tag Joshua, if you've gone through a decluttering journey and you've been able to make an impact. Please share that impact and make sure that you tag Joshua and Clutterbug on social media so we can see, we can show and inspire other people and really see what these impacts look like. So thank you, Joshua so much. I appreciate you being on so much. And again, Uncluttered Faith, congratulations. I'll put a link in the show

notes so everyone can buy a copy. Thank you, Cass. Appreciate all your hard work. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. This is actually really relevant because when we're talking about decluttering and duplicates, especially I decluttered all my extra sheets that were not cozy Earth sheets because there's just no comparison. And why? Why did I need ones that I wasn't loving and wasn't using anyways? I'm so glad that I switched to cozy earth betting. It is soft. It is temperature regulating. It comes with a 10-year warranty. I have washed them so many times. They still look and feel brand new. And you can try their pajama sets too. Also, absolutely, it feels like luxury, but without

breaking the bank. If you want to give Cozy Earth a try, you can go to their website, cozyEarth.com, and use my code, clutterbug, for up to 20% off. Again, go to cozyEarth.com, use the code clutterbug for 20% off. And if you're not a code, you get a post-purchase survey, be sure to mention that you heard about cozy earth right here on the clutterbug podcast. I've interviewed Joshua in the past. We've had a great talk about minimalism, but this one, I don't know, it felt a little different. And what I love is that I'm not personally a religious person, but I love that he is making that connection between faith and clutter, between, you know, this foundation of so many people's lives, their faith,

and how they can use that to help them let go of the excess and live the life they're really craving. And it's a beautiful way to combine it. And if you are a person who is spiritual and has faith, I really think this will resonate with you. I honestly didn't learn about Joshua until about five years ago. And this is when minimalism was becoming this, you know, fad. And you saw everywhere. everyone had like white houses and and one bed with like nothing beside it, empty rooms. Where's your coffee tables, people? And everybody was saying, I'm a minimalist. So I started looking more into it. And what was lovely, like I loved Dawn from the Minimal Mom. She has such a great message. And she actually was sharing about Joshua Becker. That's why she got started. He was the person who

motivated and inspired her to start. So obviously I started looking to him too. And again, his message about it not being about what it looks like. It's not about the aesthetic. He's never going to give you a number of things you need. You don't need six, you know, towels and two dinner plates. He's not about that at all. He's about the philosophy and the importance of of knowing what matters and having time for it. So yeah, he just has a beautiful message. Now it's time for my favorite part of the podcast. Talk to Cass and let's start with a story from Stacey. Hi, Cass. This is Stacy from Pennsylvania. I found you last year and you're, it's not a cat. Get it done. Even if it's shitty method has seriously changed my life and my house. My house and my entire life have completely transformed. And I am so grateful to you. One thing that I haven't been able to tackle yet is my photos on my phone. Oh my God. It's a freaking disaster. I have over 17,000 photos to go. through and so many are pictures of my kids that I took two dozen pictures and only need to save like one. This has been such a block and so overwhelming to start. But guess what? I'm a butterfly. I don't need to sort all of these out to specifically categories and hurt my head. I need to macro organize and sort stuff into personal household crafts, recipes, hobbies, etc. You don't need to sort things by vacation or birthday party or whatever because your phone can already do that for you.

And you don't want to sort things by like dogs or kids activities because then you're like, oh, this is a picture of my dog. But it also has my kids in it. So where does it go? Everything goes into a personal album. It includes your friends, your family, your dogs, all the good stuff. And it weeds out all your screenshots and your pictures of your declutter. project so you can easily find everything with filters within your macro category. I've already gone through over 3,000 pictures and I am so excited to get my pictures into a more findable state.

It doesn't need to be perfect. Do it shitty and just get it done. I love you so much, Kass. Thank you so much for everything you've done for me. I love this. Stacey. At first, I was scared because I thought you were going to ask me, like how to go. I have no idea how to do that because I have way too many photos and everything else on my phone too. But now I'm feeling inspired. And you're so right. When I want to find a picture of my dad, if I literally type dad in, like I open up my phone camera roll and type in dad, somehow it knows. That's some weird smart technology over there. But every photo I've ever had of my dad pops up, which I love it. It sorts it for me so I don't have to. But you are going a step further.

and you're like actually putting it in macro folders, I think I'm going to copy you, Stacey. I also think I need to delete some things. So thank you. I'm feeling inspired, and I'm going to do that later today. Now we have a question from Danny. Hi, Cass.

My name is Danny, and I have two questions for you. The first one is, how do you do it crappy without practicing it wrong? I am a musician. and I've done so much practicing in my life, and I've always been told if you practice it wrong, it's going to be wrong forever. And so I have, you know, I'm absolutely a perfectionist.

I'm sure you heard that right away. But I'm just, I just am having a hard time, like, wrapping my brain around this concept of, like, do it crappy versus the one that's been ingrained in my head of don't practice wrong. So that was my first question. My other question is I have been watching you for probably a year now. And it's been so wonderful. My house is so much cleaner and so much just better than it used to be. But I have noticed that I put so much time and effort into my house.

It's like every day I do the dishes. So I put my daughter to bed at like seven and then I'll kind of procrastinate going downstairs because I know that I'm going to go do the dishes. and clean the living room and so I'll procrastinate for a little bit until I get the, well, I turn your podcast on and then I get the motivation to go do it. But it's like, anyway, so I do the dishes and clean up the toys from the living room, which usually only takes about 20 minutes, 15 to 30 minutes, depending on what I made for dinner. And then it's like somehow I just spend my whole evening cleaning and decluttering.

Like I do the 30 minutes and then I just keep going and like I'm enjoying it because I'm listening to you. But it's also like where did my two hours, my only two hours that I have to myself go? I know exactly where it goes. I'll notice spots that need to sweep or mop or the laundry will be done and I'll need to put it away. Or there's just always another space to work on. And it feels like it's been taking all my free time. I'm doing all these things more crappy than I used to. Like my socks, I don't even, I only have black socks, so I just toss them all in a bin.

I don't even like pair them anymore because they're just, they're all black. Anyway, so I've been doing all these things like more crappy than I used to, and it looks so much better than it used to. And it's easier than it used to be, but it still takes up so much of my time. And I'm just curious if you have any thoughts for me about that. You're amazing. I love listening to you. You've helped me so much. Bye. I have so many thoughts. And let's just start with how do you do things wrong? Like, that's what you said, right? How do you make yourself do things crappy? And you were like, do it the wrong way. And I just want to challenge you on that because I'm not a musician,

first of all. But I do want to tell this little story. Joe and I went to a concert and we had this opening act and I'm forgetting their name. There were fools, I think I want to go with refools, but don't quote me on that. And they were two brothers and they were amazing. They're local. They were singing. They were playing. And Joe said, look at what they're doing. They're playing. Their guitars are upside down. So their dad was a musician. And they are left-handed, though, and he had a right-handed guitar. So they learned by just flipping it upside down. They had to make up their own chords. They had to, you got, they're so, good and Billy Raffoul, I think that's his name. Anyways, he's like around here. He's like a rising star.

He's selling out everything. So even in music, who says what's the right way and what's the wrong? And that's what I want to challenge you when it comes to your home. Who says the right way to put away laundry? Who says the right way to vacuum and mob? Like we have these rules, these arbitrary rules that no one's actually told us we've probably learned from our parents or seen something on TV. I want you to challenge that because I'm here to say there is no wrong way. There's only your way. And done is all that matters. And there is what is even perfect? Trust me, your idea perfect and Martha Stewart's are very different. So there is no top of the mountain here. The other thing I want to say is you are not allowed to do anything cleaning related for more than 20 minutes at night. Period. There.

rule on you because no, yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. I used to do the same thing. I would just get caught up in the momentum. And before you know it, I'm scrubbing baseboards and it's 11. Like, why? Stop it. What are you doing? And it feels good in the moment and it's giving me dopamine. But in the long term, I'm going to feel burnt out and resentful about my home. So you are not, like you are not allowed. You have a cutoff. I think it should be 8 p.m. and you are not allowed to do any cleaning after that, period. Okay, set a timer. Get yourself a cool little cute timer.

Leave it on your kitchen counter. It doesn't even matter if it's done. You're done when your timer goes off. Now we have a story from Abby. Hey, Cass. This is Abby from Manitoba, Canada. I just wanted to say hi and thank you so much for your podcast, how you encourage us to do stuff,

decluttering while we're listening. I just listened to the one about doing things averagely, and I finished the podcast out by, yeah, cleaning the head of my vacuum cleaner. I had done it before, like a year or so ago, and it definitely needed it again. There was a big pile of hair that I cut off with a serrated knife, something that I thought I could change in my life. after listening to that podcast episode was not recording me and my husband's spending, or maybe not as detailed. We had had that advice given to us a number of years ago, and it was kind of working for us,

but it also was a bit of a stressor, and it is really hard to do consistently. And I think we have a decent idea of how much we are spending. So I think I'm not going to do that for maybe the first three months of 2026 and see how things go. And yeah, I really like on my bank app the tracking it gives for where we're spending money. And that has probably helped me more actually than following our spreadsheet. Yeah, so thank you for that encouragement. I'm also a new mom.

and so yeah hearing you talk about attachments with your kids and how yeah if they can just fail on their own or just learn some more independence it can be really helpful for them I love learning about parenting and balancing yeah spending lots of time with my kid but also letting him do stuff on his own yeah thank you for your content bye thank you abbey please throw that spreadsheet directly into the trash can. Yeah, my mom, she's adorable and she's really into, she calls it like balancing her checkbook. So she will go through all of her banking statement and like cross-references against all her things. She spends hours doing this every single month. Girl, I got an app on my phone that just alerts me when I'm getting too close to spending

the limit I put in on like things. And it, I'm like, it's, tracks every. Get yourself some time back and let technology help you out. Don't you dare open that spreadsheet? Okay, there. I said what I said. How did the duplicate hunt go? Did you find things? Did you find those extras that you had more than one of? Did you feel brave enough to declutter? Because if your potato masher breaks, oh my, you can go to the thrift store and buy one for a dollar. So it's all good in the hood. Guys, hope you're feeling empowered. Hope you filled a box. today and I'll see you next time. Frozen lasagna, medium power,

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