Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to Blend Different Organizing Styles Together in one Home | Clutterbug Podcast # 41

Episode Date: February 27, 2018

How do you combine a Butterfly and a Cricket under one roof? Listen to this podcast and learn how to work together with many different organizing styles all living in the same home!   What Clutterbug are you? Take the test today and find out! http://clutterbug.me/what-clutterbug-are-you Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys and welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're still talking about the different organizing style. So what clutterbug are you? There's a free test that you can take on my website to discover what your organizing style is. And today we're going to discuss not only the different styles, but how to work together under one household. Not every organizing system is the same. Not every person. Not every person. person organizes the same way. It isn't one size fits all. Despite what you see on TV and on blogs and in organizing books, everything sort of looks the same. But the truth is, when you go into actual families homes, it doesn't take you long to realize that people just put their things away

differently. They want their things stored, organized, displayed differently than perhaps some of their spouse does or the way you see traditional organizing systems look. And so the biggest difference, obviously, is people who like visual versus people who like hidden. Most things that you see on TV magazines are hidden organizing systems. So inside drawers, inside closet organizing systems, solid bins, all the same color, you know, on a bookshelf. Really a minimal, minimal look. The truth is, just like people who prefer this minimal look and feel anxiety when everything's out and displayed, there are people who are visual, who crave visual abundance, and feel that same level of anxiety

with everything hidden away under monochromatic buckets and baskets and behind closed doors. So how do we come up with a compromise? How do we compromise for a family where perhaps the husband is a cricket and likes everything hidden and the wife is a butterfly who likes everything really visual? So let's talk about that. One of the best ways, that I find to sort of meld these two together, meld a visual person and a person who likes visual simplicity, so visual abundance versus visual simplicity, is with labels. I know for myself that if I lived with somebody who was a butterfly and liked clear containers and like to have hooks and bulletin boards all over the walls, I would feel a lot of anxiety. I would understand their need

to see their things. I mean, they're going to get anxiety for it being hidden away, and I'm going to get anxiety having seeing it. So where's the compromise here? It's definitely in labels. So a label is much less distracting to the eye to someone who likes something hidden away, who likes visual simplicity, than seeing it all. But it's also a really good visual reminder for that visual person who likes to see their belongings of what's inside. So you can still get away with having a bookshelf filled with baskets that are all the same color if each one of those baskets has a really pretty label on it. The secret to these labels are, though, that they have to be large enough

that the visual person can see it from like across the room. They need to be able to glance at that and know exactly what's inside, to ease that anxiety that comes with putting something into a hidden spot. And that's really what it comes down to. It's a two-fold. Not only do they like seeing their things, but it causes real anxiety. It's a subconscious anxiety that putting something away, they're going to forget about it, that it's out of sight, out of mind. And this is more than just paper. A lot of people have this anxiety about paper. You know, if you put the bill away, you're going to forget to pay it. But they feel the same level of anxiety about everything, from clothing to dishes to jewelry. It doesn't matter what it is.

The thought of putting it in a hidden spot means that they might forget that they even own it or lose it. So this is a real fear. And having a label on the container where things go eases that fear. And they're much more likely to actually put the thing away where it goes. But it's not going to be visually distracting and cause anxiety to the family member. who likes visual simplicity. I also really recommend the real anxiety, if you're living with someone who's visual, that the real big anxiety causers for them like paperwork, we need to compromise to that visual person and come up with bulletin boards display for them to be able to put pegboards up and things like that. Because especially if they're the person that's dealing with

the paperwork. They need to have it be really visual or they're going to forget. They're going to forget to pay the bill. They're going to forget all of those things. So if you are the person in the family who collects the mail and you are the person who, you know, has to remember to pay the bill and you're a visual person, you're going to need a bulletin board. You're going to need a command center for all of your calendars to be up on the wall. Whereas if you're a hidden person, you might be completely okay with just having it on your phone or just having, you know, a little daily planner that you tuck inside your purse or put on in a desk drawer. But that isn't going to work for a visual person. So that's where the compromise comes in on those daily important things.

The person who likes visual simplicity should always sort of bow out to the person who likes the visual and allow them to have that. But for the smaller things, you know, that's where that's where hidden person, the things that aren't used on a regular basis, that's where the person who likes that visual simplicity can sort of win that battle, if that makes sense. This is what I've really found with clients that has worked in the past, is that sort of level of compromise. Also, know that if you're the one, your own personal space, if you're the one who is taking care of the bills and taking care of the mail and you're a hidden person, then you can set that up your way. But if it's a shared space, those important paperwork, you should always lean towards

compromising towards the visual person. So let's look at the other side of organizing, the different organizing types. So you have, obviously, if someone's visual or craves visual simplicity, so visual abundance versus visual simplicity, and then you have people who crave really detailed organizing systems versus people who crave simple organizing systems. And, people ask about this specifically, now this could be completely biased because I am a ladybug, so I need simple. But in shared spaces, my advice, again, this could be biased, but my advice is to go with the simplicity, to compromise to the simplicity for spaces that are used every day on a regular basis. It really is difficult for someone to maintain a detailed system on a regular basis,

on a daily basis. So coming home with your, you know, you're coming home after a long day and you grab the mail out of the mailbox and you come in, it's easier to set it into one bin that's mail that needs to be sorted versus taking that time to put one into bills to be paid, one to be to review, one to file, one to shred. You're sort of getting the idea. If you are a ladybug or a butterfly, your natural tendency is just going to be to drop those down, to just walk in the door and drop it where it lays. Whereas you're a cricket and a bee, you're going to really want to put it away properly.

And this comes, it's not just paper, it's everything. You could have a bunch of different tape. You could have scotch tape and packing tape and green painters tape. If you were to have, create a home for this in your house, a butterfly and a ladybug would just want one bin for tape and throw it all mixed together. This would cause a bee and cricket sort of anxiety. They would want things separated.

So how do you compromise? How do you set up systems that both bugs can work under one house? And my tip is if it's in every single day used thing like paper, like bathroom products, like just in the kitchen, go towards simplicity. If it's those smaller items that are used less frequently, like the tape, like craft supplies, like, things that tools, things that you're not using every single day, then go towards the detailed person. Allow them to set up that system because it isn't something that we're using on a regular

basis. A butterfly and a ladybug are willing to take the time sometimes to use those detailed systems, but it can't be for your everyday systems. So we're going to default to simplicity. We're going to default to macro organizing when we have people working together in a shared space. We're going to always default to them. So hopefully this makes sense. It's so hard for me to articulate this. And it really, really depends on the person and depends on the couple. You're going to have to look at your house.

Take a really good look around and look at where your problem areas are. And know what your organizing style is and what your spouse is. organizing styles and look at your space with a critical eye and say, why isn't this working? What do we need here? What system can we set up here that is going to set us up for success? And having the idea of what bug you are in the back of your mind and how you use the space and who's mostly the one using it on a regular basis and the space you have and the budget you have, you're going to be able to come up with the best organizing solution. You have the knowledge and you know yourself and your family better than I ever could. So I want you to

take confidence in your house and confidence in your ability to transform it into a really organized space. I think, I know for myself in the beginning when I was drowning in clutter, I was looking to experts to help me. I was looking for this perfect solution. Like if only they could tell me exactly what to do. I could do it and then I would be organized. And the truth is nobody's home is the same. Everyone's different. Every family's different. Every personality is different. We all have different stuff and space and budgets. Nothing is really one size fits all. We can take tips and tricks from experts and we can mold them into something that really works for us. And that's what I want you to do. I want you to find that confidence. I want you to tell yourself, I am an organized person

because you are. Everyone is. Maybe you've been telling yourself for a long time or other people have been telling you that you're messy and that you're disorganized and that you don't have the ability to do it, but they're wrong and you're wrong. You do. If I can do it, trust me, anyone can do it. And it's all about having that confidence in yourself. And it's all about realizing that you do know what's best for you. You do know what's best for your family and for your home and taking the time to set that up. And it doesn't have to be perfect. And it doesn't have to be epic. And you don't have to go to the store and buy a lot of money, spend a lot of money. Use some extra cardboard boxes to begin with. Get Kleenex boxes. Cut down some cereal boxes for drawer

dividers or use scotch tape and hang your stuff right up on the wall where someday you think you'd want a bulletin board. This isn't about perfection. It's a about function. It's about creating a really functional, organized home. So when you come home after a long day or you're just, you're ready for bed, you can drop the stuff and it go back in its home. You don't have to think about putting things away or stress about where things should go. It's going to be natural for you to put things away because you've created homes for those things and that really is the secret. It's coming up with homes for everything from batteries to light bulbs to the scissors to the pens to the nail when you walk in the door to where your kids put their

backpacks. Everything needs a home and those homes should be reflective of your organizing style, of your family's organizing style and of the space that you have to create those homes. So get organizing, my friends. Be confident in yourself. Transform your home and transform yourself at the exact same time. Thanks so much for listening. I hope you enjoy it and we'll see you next time.