Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to Clean Your House When You Have ZERO Motivation | Clutterbug Podcast # 279

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Are you staring at a messy house but have no energy, no motivation, and no clue where to start? You’re not alone—and this episode is your lifeline. In this powerful, practical, and uplifting episode, I share real-life strategies to help you get off the couch, get moving, and get stuff done—even when you feel like doing absolutely nothing. You’ll discover: ⭐ The psychology of motivation (and why it disappears so fast) ⭐ Science-backed tips to fake energy and trick your brain into action ⭐ Easy mantras to change your mindset instantly ⭐ How to build lasting motivation that doesn’t fizzle out by Day 3 ⭐ 5-minute habits that create real, lasting results ⭐ Famous motivational quotes that actually inspire (not just Pinterest fluff) This isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. Whether you need to declutter, clean, or just stop feeling overwhelmed, this episode gives you the tools and encouragement to take action right now. 💪 You don’t have to feel motivated to start—just hit play.   Listen to an AWESOME Motivational Compelation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4KsEUiw3gA Want to record a question or message for Cas?! Go to www.clutterbug.com/TalkToCas and record a message now!     You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast #mondaymotivation #cleaningmotivation   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey there, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Welcome to another episode that's all about tough love and motivation. I'm here to give you real practical tips for organizing and decluttering and living your very bestest life, even when you don't feel like it. And today's episode is all about getting stuff done around the house. Even when your motivation is like MIA and nowhere to be found. I feel that, friends. We are going to tackle this with like mindset magic and a little fake until you make it energy and a bunch of wisdom from really famous motivators. But first, we're going to talk about what like really motivates you because if we're being honest, most of us start strong and then we fizzle out fast. So how do we stick with things? Let's jump in. Motivation is a big fat lie. Not that motivation

doesn't actually exist because it does. But I think the lie that we all lean into is that we have to wait until it magically hits us and we feel it. And I talk about this all the time. But the true magic in getting anything done comes from starting before you feel actually motivated, like taking action. Just saying I only have to do something for a minute or five minutes. Because when you take action, it's that little motivation that follows. It's the momentum that carries you on. Getting started is the hardest part. You don't have to feel motivated to be productive. You're not lazy. You're not tired. You're overwhelmed. Maybe you're burnt out. Maybe in the middle of all that, you can still take one small step forward. We don't have to wait

until we feel the energy. We don't have to wait until we've got a better night's sleep. We don't have to wait until someone else is watching the kids or we have help or we have time off or we have more money or all the stars align and we finally actually want to do the thing we say we've been going to do for the last, you know, six months. We don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great. I did not make up that quote. That is an incredible quote from Zig Zig Ziglar and I'm going to say it one more time. You don't have to be great to start. but you have to start to be great. So let's talk for a second about actual facts.

So according to research and psychology and behavioral science, motivation isn't like this lightning bolt that strikes us randomly. It is totally something that we create. It's something that we make. It isn't some magical do-hicky thing. It comes from, first of all, autonomy. And what this means is like we like to feel, that we're in control. Autonomy means we are the boss of ourselves. So instead of saying, I have to clean

the kitchen like somebody else is making us, like somebody else is the boss, we can say, I choose to clean the kitchen because I love it when it's clean or I need it to be cleared so it's easier to cook. I choose to clean because it makes me happy to wake up in the morning to a clean kitchen. It's like a tiny shift that is where motivation comes from. That's like one of the main driving things is knowing that we're the boss and we're in control, and this is actually our decision instead of some arbitrary thing that society is telling us we have to do or something. And I know it sounds bongers, just changing the wording, but it works. The other thing that kind of is the science behind motivation, so they say, is competence.

So we feel motivated when we know we're going to be able to succeed. If we're unsure we're going to be able to actually complete a task or we're unsure even how or where, you know, all of that uncertainty in our capabilities is the opposite of motivation. We are not going to truly feel motivated unless we are really confident we're going to be able to succeed, which is why it is imperative that we break things down into tiny winds. If you say, I'm going to have to clean out my closet, oh my gosh, that feels nuts. That feels nutso but so is my new kind of word. Because do you have enough time to complete that task? Where are you going to put everything as you're doing it? Do you even have the supplies to organize it again? If you do all this work,

what is it going to look like when you're done? There's all this uncertainty that makes you feel like you're not actually capable of organizing the entire closet, so you'll never want to actually start. But if you can say, all I have to do on this one shelf is decide the things that I don't use in love on this one shelf, or I only have to put like things together on this one shelf. That feels like a win. That feels like something that is easier and you're actually capable of doing. And that is what you need to tell yourself in order to get started on that one shelf. And then once you do one shelf, you're going to find the motivation and the momentum to do another and another. And before you know it, the entire closet is actually organized, but you didn't have to force yourself to do it. And it

wasn't scary and it wasn't unknown. You felt capable the entire time. And that's why you actually were up and doing the thing. And the third thing that scientists say is a contributing factor to motivation is purpose. So the why, really, like the meaning behind something. We need to know the why before we actually feel the want to do something. So if you could tie your chores and the thing that you're doing to your why, that makes it a lot easier for you to actually get up and do the thing. So you're not just vacuuming the house because like, what's the why? You're creating. You're creating, a cozy, calm home for you and your family. You're creating a clean and safe and dust-free home for your family, right? You're spending 20 minutes to have better air quality for you and your family,

or whatever it is. Like, sometimes we've got to fake our wise. Dig deep, friends. Dig deep, but it matters. According to a 2020 study in the frontiers of psychology, goals with personal meaning and a short-term feedback loop are far more likely to be followed through, which means you want to make sure that you really understand the reasoning behind you're doing something, not just because I have to, but something that is meaningful to you. And you can actually see that you've accomplished that meaning. So you're done vacuuming the floor and you're like, ah, I'm done that. Yeah. Now the house feels cleaner or feels cozier, the air is safer or there's less dust. Like you're, you're closing that loop. So if you were a person who like starts strong,

you're like, da-da-da-da-da, and you jump in, right? But you tend to drop off after a few days or even a few hours, or let's be honest, even a few minutes, that's totally, totally human. And I think why we do that is because we're relying on feelings instead of systems. When you actually understand the science behind motivation and how you can create that energy, because that's what it is, the want to do something, the excitement to do something. When you can really understand what that looks like and those three things and change kind of the way you talk to yourself, that's how you can build sustainable motivation and momentum instead of just waiting for lightning to strike. So as you're listening, before we jump more into how to stay motivated long term, how to get

amazing things done, how to be like those crazy people that get up at 5 a.m. and run. No, I don't know how to be that person. I'm joking. But before we talk more about sustained motivation and energy and excitement and momentum, I want to make sure that you're not just passively watching or listening to this podcast. The bestest, greatest thing about podcasts is not only do you have the advantage of body doubling, so you can do things with me in your ear. I am your friend sitting in the room with you, which science proves makes people get more done and helps them get motivated, but also you are multitasking like a champ because you're learning. new things, you're hopefully getting inspired, but at the same time, you're checking things off

for that list. So at the end of this, you can feel double proud of yourself because you took time to train your brain and learn new things and just expand your knowledge. And at the same exact time, you're crushing life. Whether you're doing a load of dishes or putting away a load of laundry or finding things to leave your house forever, which is my favorite way. to honestly make it the biggest long-lasting difference in your home is finding 21 things during this podcast that can leave forever. But no matter what you're doing, you are double dipping during this podcast. You know what I mean? You're getting two things at once, and that, my friend, makes you amaze balls. Okay, so something. It doesn't matter what we can

clear off the counters today right now. You can put away that load of laundry. You can vacuum the floor and make your air quality better in 20 minutes. Whatever you're doing, make sure that you're not just sitting and listening or watching this podcast. Because friend, use it, use the motivation, use the body doubling to your advantage. And you're going to feel so proud at the end of this when you're done. Okay. So you don't need consistent willpower. You don't need tools. You don't need like all this stuff. Here's what you need to consistently like long term build habits, I guess, of a person who not like I don't want you to think that you have to be super productive and work 24 seven. But how about this? How about like when you say you're going to do something and you tell yourself you want to do something today, you actually do that thing.

like you follow through. You keep a promise to yourself. You're like, today I'm going to do this and then you do that thing. And you don't make excuses and you don't procrastinate and you consistently be a person that shows up for yourself. That keeps promises to yourself. Doesn't that feel amazing? And I know you're like, that's easier said than done, but as the queen of procrastination, I feel you, okay? And this is, and this is. not easy for me, but there are a few things, little tricks that I feel have helped me consistently be a person that at least most of the time does some of the things, most of the things, I tell myself I'm going to do. The first is habit pairing. I guess this is also called

like habit stacking. This was so important to me because I forget to remember all the cool new stuff that I want to do. So I say, every day I want to write a to do list every morning, or I say, like, I got to take my vitamins every morning, things that I wasn't normally doing, but I wanted to do them, but I would just forget to remember. Because I'm in the habit of not doing those things. So habit stacking means thinking about the new small, tiny, like, let's go with James Clear here and his amazing advice from Atom. habits that in order to create a new habit, it has to be microscopic. It has to be so tiny at first that there are no excuses not to do it. So when we think of something small like

writing a to-do list, I paired that with something I always did every morning like I made a coffee. Well, actually a tea, a try tea latte. So I just put my little no-pad beside the coffee maker. like the cure egg and why my tea was doing its drippy thing, I would just write down a few things that I wanted to do. Like it was out there. There was no excuse. I was able to get that done before my tea was even done. And now this is just an unconscious habit that I do all the time. I also like to have a bath every night. So I paired putting away a load of laundry while my bath fills because my bathtub takes forever to fill. And I'm always done putting away the laundry long before the bath is filled. So now I don't even think about it. Like I start my bath, I put in my

bubbles, maybe I put in my absence cells, maybe some essential oils. And then I immediately, without even thinking about it, put away one load of laundry. Like my brain's on autopilot, man, because I've stacked those together. I know a lot of people who brush, while they're brushing their teeth, they'll tidy the counter or they'll wipe the counter in the bathroom. There are things you can do while the pot is cooking, while you're cooking in the pot is boiling. I should say, like for potatoes or whatever, can you load some dishes into the dishwasher or unload some dishes out of the dishwasher? Can you pair tidying and cleaning up your kitchen with cooking and put those together? There are lots of things, but I think what you first need to do is identify

what is a new small, teeny microscopic habit that I want to start doing on a regular basis and have this sustained motivation and then think, what can I stack? this with? What can I pair this with? And I know we've talked about it before, but have you done it? Because I'm really great at learning a bunch of new tricks and I'm not always so great at implementing them. So while you're listening to this, maybe have it in the back of your mind and think of one thing and then actually commit to giving it a try this week. The next thing that we can do, that's insanely helpful and I'm going to admit I don't always do this and I should is visually tracking. That means, you know, you just kind of have a chart and then every time you actually do that

little thing, you give yourself a checkmark or a sticker or a gold star. I mean, teachers do this for a reason because it actually works. Train your brain. It is a very effective tool to keep you wanting to succeed. That's why they have habit trackers and apps like My Fitness Pal where you log in every day. And every day that you log in, you get like a little reward. It's like a ding-da-ding. You're amazing. That kind of gives us that dopamine, that good job, that gold star that keeps us addicted, honestly, to keeping going. Again, let's talk about James Clear because he is the king of establishing new habits.

in motivation. He says, every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become. Oh, I love that so good. Every action you take is a vote for the person you want to become. So all those little exes, all those little check marks, all those little times that you're like, oops, I did it. There are votes for a calmer, cleaner, tidier, more organized. you. Oh, and I love that. The third thing that's very, very helpful that I actually do use quite often is environmental cues. What this means is you, especially if it's out of sight, out of mind, or if you have ADHD and you're often forgetting everything, environmental cues can really be helpful. So when I know I want to do a quick house tidy, I will leave my tidy toe out on the

counter. So I'm going to tidy after work in the morning. I'm like, oh yeah, I got a tidy later today. I'll leave my tidy tote out. Or if I'm like, I definitely have to vacuum this floor later because I can't do it in this moment, but it's something that I want to do later in the day. I'll leave the vacuum out. Or I'll put the garbage bag on the counter as the visual cue that, oh, I got to change the cat litter tonight. Those environmental cues are very important as long as we don't have an extremely cluttered home. Because what happens when we have an extremely cluttered home and we just like, we're already naturally doing this. We'll leave the bills out to remind us to pay and we'll leave this out to remind us. And then next thing, you know, everything's everywhere. And we don't

remember anything because there's too many environmental cues. That's real. The struggle is real there. So make sure that you're only really doing this if you've got kind of most part of the clutter under control and that you're not just adding to the chaos because honestly when everything's visual nothing is visual and you'll forget about it anyways. So the last thing that I want to mention for establishing this like reoccurring motivation turning things into something you just do all the time without having to force yourself is recommitting every single week. Motivation doesn't last forever. I mean, you don't even have to recommit every week. You can recommit every day, right? So I am really bad for this when it comes to dieting. I'll say, this is the day I start and I'm not going to eat sugar and I'm going to do better and I'm not going to eat a bunch of junk food. And then I mess up. And then I'm like, well, that's over. You know, that was nice when it lasted two days. And then I mess up. But what I need to, do is just realize every day is a new day to recommit. And it's okay if I mess up. I just start again

tomorrow. And I'm not, I'm not further behind because I still have the two days that I did well. Yeah, I messed up, but that's okay. We're not keeping track of the messups. We're only keeping track of the successes. The messups don't matter. We only, we don't put a gold star on the mess up. We only put a gold star on the winds. So we just jump back on the horse. And I know, we hear this and people say it all the time and it's like yeah yeah yeah but like but like what if we actually did this i got to take a little dose of my own medicine here the biggest thing that i've done that i really wouldn't want to recommend for you from a person who never actually feels like doing stuff that's the truth i'm just going to be honest with you there's a lot of things i say yeah yeah yeah

i want to do i want to do i want to do but then i'm like oh it seems like so much work and effort. My laziness takes over and I'm just like, I'd rather watch Netflix. I'll do it tomorrow. Okay, this is it. And I will push that and push that. I will come up with every excuse. I will play the victim. I will say no one helps me. Poor me. I don't have time. I'm overworked. It's not fair. I have ADHD. I just can't. I will, this is my natural instinct. So the thing that I do the most, when I know I really should and I deep down actually want to do something, I just can't muster up the motivation to get started, I fake it. I fake the motivation or more importantly, I borrow it.

And my favorite way to borrow motivation from somebody else, I immediately go to YouTube and I start listening to motivational speeches on the internet. And I can't listen to a whole motivational speech because ADHD, that's boring. I will search motivational compilations, the best motivational compilations. And I'm going to put some links to some of my favorites down below. But I just want to give you a quick little sneak peek right now. Do not settle. Do not think that where you are and what you see is,

all you will ever have. There is more, but change doesn't always come to you. It comes from you. Not everybody's going to believe in you. There are going to come times where you're going to be broken all to pieces and you're going to feel like you cannot get it all together. You can't seem to bring your life back on track. But get that mess out of your ears and listen to the words that I'm saying, you can put your life back together again. You have the faith, you have the strength, you have the knowledge, you have the ability. Now go to work and do your business. And I just want to ask anybody listening to me, why not you?

Why not you? Why can't you be the person that changes everything? Are you feeling it? Do you know what I'm saying? saying like it doesn't take much for me to just hear words from other people and yeah the music underneath helps i get fired up in minutes i have an app actually on my phone this isn't sponsored or anything but i also have an app that when i'm not feeling it i'm just like boom and it gives me that little bit of that a youtube is free just go google it listen to it boom other ways that you

can quickly if that doesn't resonate with you other ways you can quickly kind of fake or borrow it to obviously turn on like bump and music. Yep, music is motivating and period. It just is. Also, Tony Robin says this all the time and I've tried it. Doing poses like a person or moving your body like a person who is motivated. So that warrior pose or that Superman pose where you put your hands on your hips and you stand up and you're like, do-da-do, I'm amazing. Science shows, that that actually makes your brain, it releases chemicals that make you feel like excited and motivated to do something. It releases like dopamine and serotonin when you stand certain ways. This is why Mel Robbins, she had like a whole book, didn't she on high-fiving herself in the mirror? Maybe she definitely did

give yourself a high-five in the mirror. It might have even been a book. It probably was a New York Times best-selling book. Ridiculous. But yeah. She basically is like, high five yourself because the act of like, you're amazing, giving yourself a high five. Instantly sends chemicals to your brain that make you feel motivated. It works. I know you may be rolling your eyes, but it's true. Also saying things out loud, even if you don't believe them, like, I'm going to clean my whole house. I'm so proud of myself. I deserve this. Saying something out loud, like some positive affirmation, again, Totally, totally works. Mel Robbins again, I love her. She's a genius. She does this thing where she counts down from five. So five, four, three, two, one, go. Like a blast off, like a rocket.

And that kind of helps turn off her brain and do some chemically sciencey thing to help her get up and get going. Putting your shoes on? Seriously. I'll tell you this. Anytime I'm like, I should exercise and I don't want to. If I'm, I say all I have to do is put running shoes on, I am going to move my body in some way. And if I really am like, this house looking like, it's looking gross, you got to clean it. And I am not feeling it. If I put on an apron, it tricks somewhere in my, I don't know how it works. I don't know sciencey stuff. But dressing the part really does motivate. And it's absolutely incredible.

And you've got to give it a try. You can try all these things. You can stand like a warrior. You can put on an apron. You can put on shoes. You can listen to motivational speeches. You can high five yourself. You can do a little jumping jacks.

You can look like an absolute weirdo for like five minutes to do all these things. And I promise you, my friend, guaranteed or your money back, it's a free podcast. But even if it wasn't, guaranteed or your money. back, you will feel pumped and you will feel motivated and you will get started. I do want to talk for just one more second with you about mantras because I don't know if this is because I am innately insecure or if this is a woman thing. I don't know. But when I first started getting organized and getting my house under control, doing all the things, let's any type of self improvement that I did. I was reading a lot of self-help books at the time, which I found incredibly

helpful because basically I was reading or listening to audiobooks. We didn't have podcasts back in the day, but this is the same thing. It was like replacing my crappy, terrible negative thoughts with the person that I was reading or listening to's thoughts. It was kind of, it was, it was reprogramming my brain by doing this. But what I learned was that it's really important. to have kind of mantras or just being aware of the way you're talking to yourself and catching yourself saying these really nasty things and replacing them with positive things. And for me, I started with this one mantra that I'm, it's like I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but I cried saying it. And sometimes I still get emotional saying it, especially if I'm on a live or I'm coaching.

Sometimes I'll do this. I'll say these things like in Take Your House Back, all day declutters or something. I'll say this thing because this is this one sentence that really had a huge impact on me. And that is, I deserve a beautiful, clean, and clutter-free home. I deserve a beautiful, clean, and clutter-free home. And I used to say, like, I deserve an organized home and I deserve a decorated home and I deserve, yeah, just a clean home. Even saying any iteration of those sentences used to be so hard for me to say.

Why? I can't tell you. But for me to say that out loud and say it again and then I'd say it again. And at first I'd be like, I deserve a clean home. And I felt like almost shame. I felt like I didn't believe it. And then I just kept saying it and saying it. And then literally tears are streaming down my face.

Because I think the reality of the situation is I didn't believe I deserved it. And I think part of me almost was self-sabotaging. And part of me believed it was never possible. And part of me believed it was never. I wasn't capable. And just all. All of it was gross and there was so much self-doubt and self-loathing tied up to how my home looked. And I didn't even know it until I started repeating these mantras.

I deserve it. And I want you to say it because here's the truth. You do deserve it. And you can start with I deserve to wake up to a clean. kitchen every morning. And then when I really started believing that, then I started saying, I won't settle for waking up to a messy kitchen. I demand this. I will not disrespect myself and leave the mess for tomorrow me. I started getting fears. I went from someone who was like weak and almost like pathetic about it.

Like, oh, I don't deserve this. And I'm just, I'm so bad at this. And it's just, oh, God, of course, I'm such a disaster. Of course, my kitchen's a mess to being someone that like fiercely stood up for myself and was like, I, there's absolutely no way. I'm going to settle for anything less than a beautifully clean kitchen every single day because I deserve that. And anything less than that is disrespectful.

period and stop. Okay. And I know it feels weird, but here's a quote from Henry Ford. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. And sometimes when you are telling yourself you're going to fail and what's the point? It'll just get messy again and you can't do this and no one will help you anyways. And it's like, ugh, it's just negative, negative, negative. That's what you allow to happen. You are letting this. You have what you accept. You live in a messy cluttered home because you accept,

because it's acceptable to you to live in a messy cluttered home. Because you're like, oh, I guess I don't, I guess I'm allowing this. I'm accepting this. I don't deserve any better. Like heck, you don't. change the way you talk to yourself and you'll change everything about your life and it takes practice. But you can do amazing things.

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actually do this. Here is a couple other tricks we're going to pull out for you. right now and I call this like a motivational menu. Pick what you think sounds tasty and eat that. Okay, let's just rapid fire. Here's your buffet of options. You're ready? Grab a fork, my friend. Watch a cleaning video like one of those Clean With Me videos from YouTube. The messier it starts out, the better. That's a miracle. You know those people? There's so many great YouTubers that do this. Like any, just clean with me to music. Motivational Clean with me. Watch those on YouTube. They'll start with like, it is messy. And then they just speed it up to music and you just watch them transform their home.

Nothing is more motivational than that for me. Like honestly, I'm just like, okay, I can do this with you, my babes. Yep, watch other people do it. That's the, you don't want to eat that one? Fine, let's go. Call a friend. Call a friend. My friend, Jess and I used to do this every Monday.

We would call each other on the phone and we would both clean our houses at the same time together. And I'd hear her dishes clank in and I'd be like, oh, I'm folding laundry and it sucks. And we'd talk about our day and we'd complain about our husbands. And we'd gossip about our, you know, other friends. And we were, we were just whatever. We were horrible. But we would talk for like two hours. And at the end, I'd be like, oh my gosh.

I got so much done. And so did she. And we'd congratulate each other. And we'd be like, see you back here next week for another date, bestie. Oh, I miss that. I love her. That was so good. Okay.

So another thing is gamifying this. I watch this TikToker that does that. She's like, how long does it actually take? So you look at a task like your dishes and then you guess how long it'll actually take. And then you time yourself doing it and see how fast you can actually do it. How fast can you actually do this thing? And I'm always shocked whenever I time myself how actually quick things get done. Like consistently, do you know it's three and a half minutes, three and a half minutes to empty a dishwasher. That's bonkers. It's less than five minutes to put away a load of laundry. Less than, I swear to you, I don't even fold. So this is like having to take it and hang things and less than five minutes. So you think something's going to take

forever? See how fast you can do it. Take some shortcuts. Do it as fast as possible. That's the only goal. And time yourself. So, so, so fun. Still don't want to eat that one. That, buffet dish doesn't sound yummy. How about this? Set a timer for 15 minutes and then treat yourself. For every 15 minutes you get, I don't know, I used to treat myself with chocolate that ended badly, but treat yourself with something. Maybe not buying things either. That always ends badly. Maybe like 15 minutes of doing something, I get 30 minutes of watching TV or some kind of fun. 15 minutes of boring stuff, 30 minutes of fun stuff. Does that help? No, not so much. My friend, I gave you a lot of quick little tips here to try from. If you're feeling it while listening to

this podcast, and I've had a lot of comments about this, I've read your comments on the podcast, like for some reason, I can't do anything all week. And then Cass, you yell at me. And suddenly, I'm super motivated and I'm doing something. I think maybe this is working for you because of the body doubling aspect. Because you are borrowing motivation from me and we're hanging out together while we do it. So I do think that either listening to podcasts like this or listening to motivational speeches, like I kind of showed you a little bit earlier today, that might be what you need. So how can we take that and apply it to other things in your life that maybe aren't

cleaning related or decluttering related. What other things are you like, man, I wish I had motivation to do this other random thing, like work out or go for a walk or walk my dog or spend time with my husband? I don't know what yours are. But how can we use these same tricks across the board? Because this is it. 90% of this, my friends, is self-awareness knowing what works for you and why. And then just rinsing and repeating it. I want to end this short little podcast today talking just for a second about the clutterbug types because I do think this is so important to understand your organizing style to really, like we talked about the self-awareness, but let's go deeper than that. Let's understand your natural tendencies. Because for a really long time, I would do all these

little tricks to get motivated and I would try something like organizing my paperwork and filing cabinets or doing, like, I would try to clean and tidy, but it would just become a mess again. And I felt really defeated because when we do get motivated and we push the needle forward and we're proud of ourselves, but then the next day, it all just goes back. And we feel like we've taken two steps forward, but then life just kicks us two steps back anyways. Of course, it can be really hard to feel consistently motivated. Because if we don't feel like we're doing all this but we're not getting any further ahead, why would we keep doing it? And for me, in order to get ahead and stay ahead, one of those pivotal changes was understanding my organizing style, like really

understanding what worked for me on my best, but more important on my worst day. I had to have systems that were ladybug proof. I had to have big bins and baskets with no lids that I could chuck things away. I had to kind of have these, I want to say the chuck it an F word, but I know I don't have a PC up in here. I don't know what's like chuck it buckets. Let's call it that. I had to set up systems where everything was still sorted into big categories. So I wasn't mixing things together. I wasn't creating like these doom baskets or doom boxes where I had actually no idea where anything was. I was setting up a clear home for. everything that made sense, that was categorized with other things that made sense for those

things to be together. But those homes were so fast and easy. I could literally throw it from across the room and have it go there. And this was crucial for my success. Because now I can push myself and get motivated and do all these tricks and get myself a little further ahead. But I wasn't getting pushed back tomorrow. It was staying ahead. And then I could take another step and another baby step and another baby step. And I was actually moving forward. I was actually making progress. And this came from understanding my style. So let's listen to a listener here. I love this new talk to cast segment where you can call in and you can ask questions or you can just share your stories and I can share them here on the podcast. So if you want

to do this, go to clutterbug.com slash talk to cast. So right now, let's listen to Tara. So back in 2018, I was looking for ways of how I could start to try to clean out my closet. That was the first thing I wanted to do. My whole house was a hot trash mess, but I wanted to at least get my closet in order because I had dropped something in there and I couldn't find it. So I turned to YouTube and I somehow found Cass and realized it wasn't me that was having problems with the mess. It was the mess. And it was the fact that I really just had no specific organizing skills because I just had never

been really taught of what I, you know, it was one way or nothing. and I'm not an all-or-nothing type of person. So when I realized that it was the fact that I am a butterfly and a bee kind of mixed together and the way that traditional organizing is set up, it's not really meant for that. I need visual, but I also want order to that visualization at times. Sometimes I'm, you know, depending on the room, I'm a little more of, a cricket and sometimes I can just be a ladybug. It just depends, but most of the time I lean into B. And it's pretty amazing because one little closet refresh and organizing just lit into my other rooms, into my bedroom,

and then I started putting hooks and taking doors off of closets and realizing that I needed something open and visual. and that worked the best for me. And, you know, there's always that one space that gets to be still a hot trash mess at times. And I have a Monica closet, as I'm sure a lot of us do. But the fact that I started slow, I set timers, I made routines happen, I always make sure that I don't have any dishes in my sink before I go to bed. And I do tidy ups and I make sure to declutter when I can. Also, to take your back, take your house back course, that was awesome to have other organizers

and other styles to kind of integrated in, but you know, it took time. And you're not going to have a clean, tidy organized house overnight, but it can happen. I know because we now can can find everything. One of my kids was asking for a paper and I knew exactly where it was and I knew where to send them to get it. And, you know, my kids are 25 and soon to be 21. And I wish that some of these things I had picked up when they were younger, but it's nice that as they head into adulthood, that they have something that they can look at and see, you know, some tools and ideas. You know, the nice thing is I can have people come into my home to have to do work, and it's not a hot trash mess, and I love that.

And I just wanted to share my story of, you know, years later, it all sparked one day because I dropped something in my closet and I was done with the mess. I was tired of being tired of everything, just being in disarray. So I hope that this gives a little insight into something, and I hope you have a great day. Thank you, Tara. Oh, my gosh. I love that. And I think the thing that really stood out about listening to Tara is she knows herself.

Let's get real. She's like, I'm mostly a bee, but sometimes I'm a little cricket and sometimes I'm a ladybug, and sometimes this room I'll do a little. And that, I love that so, so much because the truth is, it is about just understanding what works for you, but also understanding other systems too. And maybe, yeah, it's like I'm totally a ladybug, but sometimes I'm a little cricket over here because it makes more sense to be a little crickety. Or in my craft, I like the pegboard. That's a little B, but it works in that instance. But knowing the words, like being able to understand. the different styles and what works and what doesn't and why and be able to put like actual words to

it is so incredibly helpful. It's truly means that you understand the organizing fundamentals. You understand like how it works and why and how your brain works and why and what works and what doesn't. And that's totally absolutely key to have success long term. So thank you, Tara, for sharing that, I hope listening today that you did get something done, that you are feeling proud of yourself, that you learned maybe a couple tricks, you've got some motivational buffet things to kind of pick from your motivational menu, see what works, try on something new, put on an apron, listen to one of those amazing motivational compilation speeches on YouTube, whatever you got to do, man, because at the end of the day, this is all about being proud of

ourselves and truly realizing that we deserve this. We deserve to be proud of our home. We deserve a home that is beautiful, that is clean, and that is clutter-free. Thank you so much, my clutter bugs, and I'll see you guys next time.