Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to make BIG changes with TINY actions | Clutterbug Podcast # 229

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Whether you want your entire home decluttered and organized or you want to get in the best shape of your life, big goals can be overwhelming. Where do you start? How do you stop yourself from giving up? How to you get motivated?  There is a SECRET to making big and lasting changes in your life feel effortless. Listen to today's podcast and learn how you can transform your life in as little as five minutes a day!     You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I think a lot of the advice that I hear about how to have more success and achieve bigger goals is kind of a load of garbage. Get up at 5 a.m. Push yourself every day. Work harder. Push that extra 10%. That's just not me. And I'm never going to be that person. And the truth is, I don't think you have to be in order to achieve really big things.

Hey, clutterbugs, welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. I'm excited to have you here today. We're going to spend a little bit of time together. And my goal for you is that you get something done that makes tomorrow's you happy. Makes life a little bit easier for you in the future. Rolling up your sleeves, doing something today to make yourself proud so you feel good. So you don't go another day with like, oh, I should have and I could have and I would have, but X, Y, Z. And you don't have to crush the day. We're talking 15, 20, a half an hour tops spending time together today and taking action on your life. And if you're listening to the Clutterbug podcast, it's because you're probably looking for motivation. You're probably looking for help to like want to do household

tasks because it's mundane and it's never ending and it's always the same but it still needs to get done. So I'm here to tell you today you are worth it and you deserve a clean house and you deserve your life to be easier. That's what this is all about and I truly believe having a clean house. Yes, it feels nice. It looks nice. It makes us feel good. But at the end of the day, it makes life easier because you don't have to look for things. You don't have to move stuff in order to live your life, to cook, to use your table, to write at your desk. You don't have to stuff shuffle. You don't have to spend hours scrubbing because things are gross and embarrassing and you have company coming over. Your house is kind of running on autopilot because you consistently do these

small little things to keep it up. And we've talked a lot about how much easier it is to keep up than it is to catch up. So that's what you're doing today. You're going to keep up. And if you are coming from a place and you're listening or you're watching this and you're thinking, it's bad cast. My house, like half an hour is going to do nothing. That's what this podcast is about today.

It is, I want to show you that it's all about the five, the 10, the 15. minutes, the 30 minutes, that that is the secret. It isn't about getting everything done. It isn't like looking at your goals as the big picture long-term ending that is helpful. It's actually a hindrance from you getting things done. And I'm going to show you exactly how to have real goals, how to break them down, and why this different method, a completely different way of looking at your goals is I believe truly the secret. Take action, friends. Get up. Start doing something, dishes, putting away laundry, tidying. The best thing you could do to really have the biggest impact is get things out. Grab a trash bag. If you want to donate, cool, if you're like,

I save the earth, I want to make sure I have recycling. Don't overthink it. Don't overthink it. For now, you can put everything in a trash bag. And at the end of this podcast, you can sort things that are in that trash bag then into recycling into donation. Let's move quick, though, and just pick something up, anything from a pile. Do you want to keep this? Are you using it? Is it worth it? Is it worth the space that it's taking?

You don't have to be a minimalist. This isn't about getting rid of stuff for the sake of getting rid of stuff. This is about simplifying your life so that it's easier. And that starts with letting go of the access. So while you're taking action, I want to talk about goals, just to put this in the back of your mind, hopefully change your mindset a little bit about achieving big things because I know for myself, let's just get real with you. I was homeless for years, which you guys probably know if you've listened to my podcast.

I had a drug problem. I drank too much. I stole too much. I have a criminal record. I was in and out of jail all the time. Even when I got my life together, so to speak, you know, I was not breaking the law anymore and not addicted to drugs anymore and I had an actual place where I was living and I was paying rent and I was working multiple jobs. I still sucked at all things adulting. I am naturally extremely impulsive hate following rules. I do not like hard work and I avoid it at all costs. I am the queen of procrastination and I get overwhelmed very easily. I put everything off because like that seems really hard. And I have really, I do. I've always wanted cool stuff out of life. But I didn't know how to get it and I didn't, I'm just being honest. I didn't want to work.

like I wanted it but not enough to bust my butt every day, especially busting my butt and not seeing results. It felt like it was for nothing. I felt like it was like what's the point? I'm never going to get there. And this applied to everything. My finances in debt up to my eyeballs, I had to claim bankruptcy at 24. My house in shambles. I had paths of dirty clothes and garbage and I had dirty dishes and It was like hoarder level bad. And even when I was married and had kids, it was still bad. There was no organization. There was no rhyme or reason to everything.

Every day I felt like drowning. And I just didn't see a way out, whether it was the finances, the fitness, my weight. I sucked at everything. There wasn't one area that I was like, yes. yeah, I'm nailing this. And fast forward to today, and I truly am proud of the life that I'm living now. I feel like I kind of figured a lot of stuff out, and I'm certainly not crushing life, and I'm not saying that I am, but I've learned through horrible mistakes, a lot of failures,

which weren't always a bad thing. Failure is not a bad thing. But I learned, like, little shortcuts so I could have all the good. stuff without having to be that person that gets up at 5 a.m. and works their butt off all the time. And that's why I'm so passionate about sharing this with you because I want this for you too. I want you to be so proud of your life. If I went to the hospital today and the doctor was like, you have an hour to live. It'd be devastating. And I would be so upset for my family. but I can honestly say I would not have regrets.

Even all the horrible things that I did, there's nothing that I would be like, I wish I did this or mad at myself for not getting started and doing this. I feel like proud of the things that I've accomplished. And I'm not suggesting that you're like a trophy chasing person who has to do all these things. But if there are things in your life that you wish were going. going better, that you felt like you were more in control of, that you were happier with. I feel like there's a secret to getting it that you might not know. Maybe you do know, but you just aren't doing it.

And I'm hoping to convince you to do it. Okay. Let's start with goals. I think it's important to first know, like, what do you actually want? what what do you are you clear on what you want or is your goal like i want to be rich or i want a big house or i want my house to be crazy spotless like what do you really want do you want to work less do you want to not be stressed out all the time do you want to have a big like do you want to write a book i don't know you might have goals but like you can have tons of goals and write them all

down your big, big, big goals because this is important. And I said earlier that it's the big giant goal that's kind of getting in the way. And it is. But it's also important to know what that big goal is so that you know what path to walk down. You know which direction that you're going in. And when you can take a minute to just think about, you know, a lot of big goals, we're going to pick one. I think if you're listening to the Clutterbug podcast, one of your goals might be to your house to the point where it's organized and tidy and clutter-free so that it just runs on autopilot and it's just effortless to maintain and it feels clean and tidy all the time without you having to work all the time. So let's pick that big goal. Now that's a huge goal.

Now I want you to take that goal and ignore it for a minute because when I was living my messiest life, I would look around at the clutter and I would be paralyzed by the dirty dishes. And I'd get in there one day and I'd scrub and I'd clean. And then a few days later it would be a mess again. And it felt like what is the point? I'm never going to get all this done. I'm never going to achieve this big, huge goal that I have, which is getting my house under control and clean and tidy all the time. So therefore it felt like why bother and it wasn't until i stopped looking at that big end goal i literally just ignored it and changed my goal to every day i'm going to just do 15 minutes of organizing or decluttering or cleaning every day my only goal is to achieve one little thing which when i started it was 15 minutes a day

of working on my home, not the daily dishes and the things that, you know, the vacuuming, but more than that. I was doing 15 minutes above and beyond. It was decluttering a shelf, organizing a drawer, just clean, like organizing the fridge. I would do like 15 minutes, a little project, a project. That's what it is, a micro project that I could then be like, yes, I completed that. And I could feel. good that I achieved that goal. I was really big into the 21 item toss when I first started. So my day would be, today I'm just finding 21 things to leave my house. And that was my goal today. And I wasn't even thinking, I'm going to find 21 things so that my whole house will be clean and tidy one day. I ignored the crap out of that, friends. It was, this is my goal. And getting my house,

completely organized and tidy was a byproduct of consistently doing a small mini micro project every day towards the bigger goal. But ignoring, not thinking about big picture, not looking at the mountain, just looking at my feet. And I know no one wants to hear this. And you've, there's a million books written about this. Atomic habits. Everybody who has ever really achieved big things knows this secret, but it's actually really hard to articulate it because you don't know until you've tried. So I'm trying, I spend a lot of time thinking about like, how can I help you really see real results in action? And it isn't about, you could spend all weekend and like crush your home and get it looking awesome and spend, you know, 12 hours.

just working hard at it and that's awesome, but it might just get messy again. It might just revert back to being a disaster again. Because there's more than just these mini goals, these mini projects that you're achieving going on when you take the tiny little daily approach, so much more. because what's actually happening is, yes, you're still chipping away at the bigger project. You're consistently, no matter what, every day, doing a small little thing that you can probably think it's not really making a big difference towards my big goal, but we're ignoring the big goal. You're doing these little projects chipping away consistently on your house, if that's your big goal.

what's happening is achieving the big goals of byproduct because eventually you're run out of spaces to organize and it'll be like but more importantly you've created a habit of making your home a priority you're keeping up so you don't have to catch up you're making it so it feels really effortless and this is the secret because I started with just decluttering and doing these little projects and then before I knew it like I didn't even realize I was doing them. I was just, it was part of it's like brushing my teeth or brushing my hair or putting on clothes. It no longer was something I had to make myself do. I was doing it without realizing it. So then I could add another 15 minute project that I had to make myself do and I'd have alarm. So it was

the nighttime tidy up routine and clean up routine where I made sure the kitchen was clean every night before bed. And I had to, you know, do all the dishes or run around and put things away. I had to like force myself to do that little thing but I was also doing this little 15 minute organizing and decluttering but it didn't feel like I was taking away time from other things because that little other thing now feels effortless and just blends in with my day didn't even think about it anymore so then I was able to add another little 15 minute and another little 15 minute and this is the secret to making it feel effortless you're literally creating in grained habits that are chipping away at your bigger goal without you even realizing it. And before you

know it, you've achieved all these things. So I'm going to give you more examples. And as you're listening, I hope by giving you a bunch of examples in my own life that you can see something similar in your life and apply the same techniques. That's, that's my, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just keeping your company, dude, while you clean, while you put away laundry, while you do something. But I'm also hoping to really challenge you a bit to step outside your comfort zone and really take this seriously and think about how you can apply this, having that big goal, but breaking it down into what can I do every day for 10 or 15 minutes?

what can I do every day? What that will have that goal be the byproduct? I'm going to give you a lot of examples. I'm getting really close to a million subscribers on YouTube. A million subscribers is a big goal. And it's something that I put on my vision board a very long time ago. But I'm going to be honest with you, I never think about my subscriber number. I rarely think about my subscriber number.

I don't track it. I don't look at it on YouTube. That is the bigger goal, but I also ignore that bigger goal. And all I think about is I have to make one video a week. It's all I got, I only have to make one video a week done. I don't think about anything else. I don't think about analytics. I don't think about what, what I need to buy, you know, equipment.

I don't think about, oh, should I, market it more, where should I share these videos? I don't think about strategy. I don't think about what other people are doing and how I can copy them and how and is like, are there trends I need to follow and what am I at now and how fast am I growing? I only focus on, I only have to make one video a week. That's it. I'm just, what video I'm making this week? I don't know. I got to figure something out because I, my only goal with YouTube is to make one video a week. Only thing I think about. thing I care about. And the byproduct is I continue to grow and I'm going to have a million subscribers soon. But it doesn't that feel very different? And maybe it doesn't to you, but it does

to me. Having to grow a YouTube channel to a million subscribers seems crazy and overwhelming. And that must be a crap ton of work. And I wouldn't even know where to start. All you got to do is make one video a week. That's easy. That doesn't feel as hard. That doesn't feel as scary. And yet the byproduct of that is a million subscribers. An example two is this podcast. I don't think about how much money am I going to make on this podcast. And do I need to grow and how fast am I growing and I need to get more downloads and I need to worry about marketing it. All I think about is I have to put out a podcast on Monday. I only have to make one podcast a week. I have to sit down and record. I don't even know what I'm going to talk about. I don't even plan them. It's just like

whatever I'm thinking about and passionate about in the moment wanting to share with you. It's a simple thing that I do. I sit down and I hang out with you for a half an hour and we do cool stuff together. It's all my only goal. And a byproduct of that, is having the number one podcast on Apple iTunes and Home and Garden for years. Like we overcomplicate things because we're so focused on the big goal and all the steps that we need to achieve it. And the truth is it's that overthinking, that over-analyzing, that over-complicating, that over-stressing, that is the reason we're not doing it.

you don't have to clean your entire house, declutter your entire house, organize your entire house. That will be a byproduct of you spending 15 minutes a day. All you have to do is spend 15 minutes a day doing one micro little project. Whatever you feel like doing. There's no lists that you have to follow. There's no rules here. You only have to spend a dedicated 15 minutes. decluttering, organizing, doing something.

Little, whatever you feel like. That's it. That's your only goal, which seems 15 minutes a day on whatever the heck you feel like doing, way more attainable than I have to declutter and organize and tidy my entire house. And yet, the byproduct of the 15 minutes a day is that you get, that you're doing that big thing. I really struggle with health and fitness. It's a big issue of mine. I have a lot of roadblocks. My goal is I want to get in the best shape of my life. I was like, I want to work out every other day. I want to run 5K. I want to lose 20 pounds. Like they're all, they're so big and so scary and so like they feel like I'm going to fail. And then so I keep procrastinating it because I'm overwhelmed. So I took the exact same philosophy and I just applied it to fitness.

I only have to work out for 10 minutes a day. That's it. I only have to do something for 10 minutes a day. And I get to pick in the moment what it is. I just can't go to bed without doing something for 10 minutes. Usually it's like I'll just go for a little walk and I don't want to. Or I'll just go downstairs and I'll do some sit-ups and push-ups or I'll do a couple curls on the way that I'll put on four songs and just move my body downstairs for four songs.

And I have to force myself to do it at this point. I do. I'm still in the point where this is not a habit I'm used to doing. It takes grit. It takes me having to parent myself and make myself do it. And I don't want to, friends. But it was like this for everything else too. was like this for the cleaning and the decluttering and the and the organizing. I didn't want to do it in the beginning. I had to force myself to do it, but I only have to do it for 10 minutes. 10 minutes is nothing. If you can't do 10 minutes, 5 is good too.

It's the daily consistency. That's the key. Because here's what's happening that I've noticed. I don't have to force myself as much anymore. It isn't like as awful. and I'm able to like lift a lot more heavy weights now. I don't get as tired when I'm going for those walks or I'm doing that exercise. I don't feel as winded. I feel stronger. I'm getting in way better shape with just 10 minutes a day. I'm acting like I'm doing it. When I stopped thinking

and focusing, I literally ignored the goal. The goal doesn't matter. I am not worried about how much weight I lose or how strong I get or how much weight I can lift or how far I can run. My only thing I got to worry about is what you're going to do for 10 minutes today. And you can do anything you want. You just have to do something for 10 minutes. That feels so attainable. That is the secret. So no matter what your goal is, you want to write a book, you don't even think about that book.

you only have to write for 10 minutes a day. Something. You write something for 10 minutes a day. You want to save money and get out of debt. Cool. You don't even have to worry about how much money you save. Today, you just have to not spend $20 somehow and put it in a savings account or $10 or $5. So you're like, oh, I really want that coffee.

Now, you know what? That's my $5 today. That's the $5 today. I'm going to go out for lunch. ah that's that's $15 that's three days of $5 saves woohoo I'm doing it I'm going to save that and it's going to sting and it's going to suck and I'm not saying that this is going to be easy but it's a whole lot easier to find $5 of saving a day or 25 a week not spending $25 somewhere in a week than it is to I'm going to have to how am I going to save $5,000 or how am I going to pay off

$10,000 in debt. Oh my gosh. That's insane. You can't. That's, that's so overwhelming. And like where that feels, it makes me sick. Even thinking about that, if it's just every day I'm going to do a tiny thing, that's my only thing I have to do is this micro little something. And I'm consistently going to do it. And I'm going to have to set reminders to like alarms to remind myself and reminders that this is important. And it's going to be work in beginning, but you can do hard things for five or 10 or 15 minutes. And that's all you have to do. Is this little baby chunk of it? That is the secret. And it's not going to happen overnight, but it is going to happen. It's going to be a lot faster than you think. How many years have you been

procrastinating and putting off all the things you want to do? you would have achieved them all by now if you would have just done five minutes a day working towards it. And that's the hard truth. Because all of those five minutes add up. And the more you do it consistently little projects, the more effortless it feels. And again, a reminder, it is hard in the beginning. But it gets easier. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, cozy earth. I actually love cozy earth so much. I've tried other bedding brands and nothing compares. Not only to the softness, every time I wash my cozy earth sheets, they get absolutely softer. It feels like luxury, but they're lasting years and years and years. It's such good quality.

It's worth the investment. And I love that they're temperature regulating. So they feel cool all the time. I really think you should give this a try and treat yourself to a good night sleep. There is a 100-night sleep trial. So if you were not in love with your new bedding, you can return them, no questions asked, which is incredible. And right now for my listeners, if you want to try any of their bedding, their towels, or their sleepwear, you can save 30% off sitewide. Go to cozy earth.com slash clutterbug. And you can use the code clutterbug to save 30% off sitewide just for my listeners. I talk a lot about goal setting because I do truly feel like it's one of the most important things you can do in your life.

A lot of people, I meet so many people, a lot of my friends and family too. They're so talented. They're so smart. They're like these incredible people who have way more going for them. than I ever, ever could. They spend a lot of time wanting other people's lives and not seeing their own greatness and not seeing their own awesomeness. And a big part of that, I think, is that they don't have real goals for themselves.

They have things they want, sure, they want to be rich and they want to have nice, fancy houses and cars, but have they actually spent the time to sit down and write goals? To be very clear on what they want in life? The answer is no. And there's real power in that. There's power in sitting down and writing out your goals. And then there's magic in taking those big goals and breaking it down into what can I do every day for 5, 10, or 15 minutes towards that bigger goal and then ignoring the bigger goal

and only focusing on that baby project. I have a free goal planning printable pack on my website. You can go to clutterbug.com. Go to the printables tab and you're going to find that goal setting printable pack in there. And it really does help you be intentional because you're going to get that goal planner and you're going to be intentional. and like, what do I want? What are my bigger goals? And then it shows you how to break that big goal down into tiny little steps. And then I want you to do the work and then ignore that goal planner.

But at least you have it in the back of your mind. You know where the end of the path is now. You know what you're working towards, but you're only focused on what you're going to do today. that's tiny to get there. You celebrate the little tiny win. You don't worry about, I'm going to get everything done in the whole house and then I'll be happy. That's that you're not even thinking about that.

Today you're going to do the junk drawer and you're going to declutter it and you're going to organize it and you are going to be proud of yourself. Tomorrow, I don't know. It's going to be fine 21 things to declutter. or it's going to be getting rid of some extra towels and linens in your linen closet. It can even be smaller than that, friends. It can be such a little micro thing that it's just five things that you find today. It can be five minutes of every day there's clutter on the table.

This sucks and I want to deal with it. I'm going to just put a basket here. And then tomorrow you're going to solve another. problem with a little micro thing and it's not going to be perfect and maybe you're even going to have to change that in the future but that's not the point the point is to consistently chip chip away take a step down the path towards your bigger goal and only look at your feet don't look up at the terrain and the mountain and the big climb that you have because that's going to make you want to do nothing at all one small thing a day or one small thing a week. That's the secret. That is the true secret.

And there's going to be resistance and there's going to be friction and it isn't going, you're not going to want to do those small. Even the five minute projects, you're not going to want to. But we're not waiting to be motivated. We don't wait to feel motivated because that's the biggest lie. nobody feels motivated. And if you do, it's fleeting and it's at like three in the morning when you should be sleeping. We can't wait for motivation. We make our own. You put on your big girl pants, you force yourself to get up and you're going to do something for five minutes no matter what. You're not allowed to cop out. You're not allowed to be a little, oh, I don't want you today. I don't know. I'm tired. Or I just it. Nope. Absolutely not. You're the boss, man. You're the boss. You're the master of your life. You're the captain of your ship. You don't get to crap out. I almost said the B word. You don't get to like over five minutes. I don't care if your arms falling off. You can do five freaking minutes. That's the attitude.

That's the difference between people who are getting stuff done and proud of themselves. and those of us who are waiting for it to just magically happen. You do not have to work all day every day. You do not have to be a person who gets up at 5 a.m. and bust their butt and is like a workaholic. That I personally feel is super toxic. If you want to be that person, cool beans, bro, but you don't have to be. But you do have to be a person that pushes yourself in a bird. a little tiny burst and you have to do it every single day. It's the consistency. That's the secret

because that is how you create a habit. That is how you make it so you don't have to push yourself anymore. That, I promise you, it is going to feel like second nature. Whatever little thing that you're going to do every day, a month from now, maybe two tops, you're not even going to have to think about it or force yourself at all. It's going to be like, blah, blah, blah, blah. I do it. You do it basically in your sleep. So now you can add another one. We don't just like not add something. Nope, no, now you add something else. As soon as the one feels easy and effortless, now you add something else. Tiny. And before you know it, bro, you're going to be like, look at the amazing life I have and people are going to say, how are you getting all this done?

And they're going to say, you must work all the time. And you're like, action. I feel real lazy and I don't feel like I work hard at all. Because you're not. Because you're not. You've just created habits and achieving things in a really, truly effortless way. And you deserve it. One at a time. You probably have 50 goals.

That's okay. pick one. Pick one. One at a time. We're going to achieve one at a time. It isn't a race. You're not behind. You don't have to catch up. There's no wrong answer here. A little bit of consistency every day is the key. And I'm going to take my own medicine because I've been putting off writing my next book because I'm doing firefighter training and I'm in school and I'm going to all of that. Plus I'm trying to run this business and do the podcast. and I have the courses and the lives and the interviews and making videos and and taking care of the house and I have three kids and I have the dog that needs to be walked and now I'm adding fitness on my plate and I'm like holy crap like I guess I'm not writing a book but here's the thing can I write for five minutes yeah because at the end of the night I still have a few hours that I'm just you know surf in the net surfing the web or do it and I can still do those things I don't have

have to fill every single moment. But when I really want something, I don't have to say, oh, I'm too busy and I guess I can't have it. It's just going to take me longer to get it. I just got to be consistent and chip away at it because life moves fast and before I know it, I'll be there without having to give up anything. Because five minutes matters. And at the same time, five minutes feels like nothing. I'm rooting for you, friends. I'm in your corner. You got this.

And at the end of this podcast, which is right now, I want you to look at what you accomplished and be proud. It was enough. It was more than enough. You're amazing. You can stop now. It doesn't have to be done. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Tomorrow's a new day. What you got done today is awesome. It's the only thing that matters. Do not get burnt out by trying to, to climb a whole entire mountain in one day because then tomorrow you're not going to feel like doing anything and you're going to need recovery time. That is not how you do it, friends. It isn't a one and done. Stop now, be proud of what you've done and pick it back up tomorrow. You are incredible. I love you and I'll see you next time.