Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - It’s Time to GET UP and SHOW UP for Yourself and your Home! | Clutterbug Podcast # 120

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

In today's podcast, we are putting down the excuses and finding the motivation and inspiration to GET UP and SHOW UP for ourselves and our home. Together we are going to declutter, organize and tidy our way to the home that we deserve.  Don't forget to join my FREE Organizing Masterclass going on now! Visit http://clutterbug.com to signup.         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

It's a new year. And if you're like me, you want to be confident. You want to be in control. You want a life that makes you want to spring out of bed in the morning and get excited about your day. Just be excited to be here. And if you're not feeling those things right now, you're in the right place. Hey, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about more. How we're going to get more out of 2020. it's already started out to be kind of a turd. I don't know where you live, but here in Canada, we're back in lockdown. It's so stressful. It's all we hear about is COVID and Omicron and lockdowns and our kids are homeschooling. And it feels so stressful that what I want more than anything is more peace. I want calm. I want to feel more in control, more confident,

more happy with my day. And when we have all these external things going on that we cannot control, we cannot control the government, we cannot control other people, we cannot even control our health. At the end of the day, we can make choices to be healthier. But those things, what ultimately happens to us is out of our control, but what is in our control is how we handle these situations, how we react to our situations, but we are also in control of one thing that affects all of the things we've talked about, your confidence, your peace of mind, your happiness, you are in control of something that directly affects those things. You want to guess what it is? It's your environment. It's your home. And this, I know you've heard me say this so many times, but the truth is, the state of your

house directly impacts the state of your mind. When things are feeling chaotic and out of of control and messy and cluttered, you are going to feel that way on the inside and you can try to ignore it. You can try to compartmentalize and put those things into two separate places in your brain and hope that your home doesn't affect the rest of your life. But at the end of the day, it's still affecting you, whether you're ignoring it or not and whether you know it or not. And this is something we can control. We can do the dishes. We don't want to do the dishes sometimes, but we can do the dishes and we can control this, we can take this back, and we can give ourselves a little bit of self-love by doing this. I spent the majority of my adult life

looking at housework as a chore, especially when you're a kid and you have parents who are like, clean your room, why don't you help out around here and they're complaining about housework, it's really easy for you to learn. It's a learned behavior that this is a horrible thing that we have to do and we have no choice. And unfortunately, it's never ending. Tomorrow we're going to have dishes. We're going to have dirty laundry. We're going to have mess. We're going to have dirt. We're going to have dust. We're going to have grime in the bathroom. And so when we look at it as a project that has to be tackled, it's really defeating because the next day we have to do it all over again or the next week. And if you're an all or nothing person that puts off housework until it's really bad, it's even

worse for you because now you're giving up your free time you're giving up your weekends you are are giving up the precious downtime that you are craving to do more work to dig yourself out of this housework whole that you've created and it feels awful and and we know the way out don't we we we know the way out we know we have to declutter we have to organize we have to do daily routines we know the way out. So why is it so hard to get there? Because it's not a project. It's a daily practice. And this is why we're failing. We're looking at it as a project. We need to change our mindset. We need to stop looking at taking care of our home and our environment as something we have to do that we don't want to do and instead seeing it for what it really is, which is self-care.

And the great thing, honestly, about your home is you can do the dishes in five minutes and see immediate results. And so I struggle with a lot of self-care aspects of my life because I don't see the immediate results. I have to have faith and trust that, yes, walking for 20 minutes a day is going to make me, you know, lose weight or get healthier in the long run. Or eating fruits and vegetables is going to strengthen my body and keep me healthy and make me feel better in the long run. but I can eat an apple and see no difference. I can go for a 10-minute walk and just, you know, yes, I'm going to feel refreshed and good, but I don't see an immediate result. And that is the difference between your home and focusing on your home and things you can do and all the other wonderful self-care things we should be doing. When we do self-care in our home, we see an immediate

gratification. We feel good about ourselves immediately. And it, if you are drowning in clutter, I want you to stop looking at the big picture. If your house is really messy, sometimes you can do the dishes and look around and not feel that win. And this is where your mindset comes in. We're focusing on what we can do and we're really being proud of ourselves. We're rewarding ourselves for every win that we get. This is the secret for us to keep going. in 2022, I want you to prove yourself wrong. Because if you've struggled to maintain a calm, relaxing environment, if you're home, if you're struggling to feel in control of it, it's because you've told yourself that you're

bad at it, that you can't, that this is hard. Maybe you're even telling yourself that you're not worthy of having a home that's under control. And this year I want you to prove yourself wrong. You can do this. This is not hard. It feels hard because you've made it feel hard in your mind. You're overthinking, you're over analyzing and you're over criticizing yourself and you're turning a pile of dishes into a project. It isn't a project. It's a practice. And I'm going to show you how to show up for yourself. And it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard, but every day you need to show up for yourself and give yourself the self-love, which is taking care of your environment. You're going to parent yourself.

I want you to think back to 15-year-old you because on the inside, the truth is you are still 15-year-old you. 15-year-old you doesn't want to do dishes. 15-year-old you has better things to do. 15-year-old you does not want to be nagged by your mother or your father or whoever to pick up your dirty clothes off the floor and to clean your bathroom. and to put away your things when you're done using them. 15-year-old you wants to have fun and do the things that you deserve to do to relax, right? Watch TV, maybe it's go on the internet, maybe it's surf, maybe it's hang out with friends. Whatever it is, the last thing 15-year-old you wants to do is chores.

It was your parents' responsibility to teach you that this stuff is important. And I think where so many parents go wrong, and I know I was definitely not taught this, It's important to clean the house not because of the way it looks and the way that we're presenting ourselves to strangers and not because society tells us we have to clean the house. It's important for us to take care of our belongings because it makes us feel good when it's in control. because it makes us feel confident, because it clears the mental clutter, because it gives us a fresh start, because when we wake up in the morning and we look around and the first thing we see is a bedroom that is beautiful and calm and clutter-free, we wake up and feel really good. When we walk into the kitchen to make a coffee and the counters are clear and there's no dirty dishes,

we feel energized. We feel stress-free and we are way more likely to make an omelet than grab, I don't know, a cookie off the counter. or for breakfast. We make better choices about every aspect of our lives when our house and our environment are in control. And the beautiful, amazing, incredible thing is that you can get your house under control in just a few minutes a day. Consistency is the key here, though. We have to show up for ourselves every single day and there are going to be days you don't want to. There are going to be days where you have to parent yourself and you have to realize that you are still that 15 year old who doesn't want to do it but you also now are not just the teenager you are also the

parent and you're going to say get up I deserve this you need to do this for you we're doing the dishes we're doing the laundry we're running the vacuum we're getting this stuff out of the way at most it's going to take us a half an hour if we do it every day and it might not be done after a half an hour but we are showing up for ourselves and we are doing it because we deserve it It is good for us and we deserve it. And we are going to feel so good immediately when we're done because we've achieved something immediately. And we're going to have to tell ourselves the same thing the next day.

Get up. Get working. Get it done. Parent ourselves. And then reward ourselves for showing up. Reward ourselves with the good feelings that we get to look around and say, look what I've accomplished. Look what I've done.

You're awesome. Go rest. Go relax. You deserve it. because look what you did, look at the things that you accomplished, instead of us avoiding the things we should do. And we're watching the movies and we're on the internet and we're doing these things, but we're feeling guilty about it the whole time. Right? If there is a sink full of dirty dishes or piles of laundry or clutter all over the place and we're sitting down to watch the voices

of family, in the back of our mind whether you know it or not, you're not even really in it and enjoying the things that you're doing because you're feeling guilty. We should take time for ourselves. We should relax. We should watch TV. We should surf the internet. We should hang out with friends. We should play games.

We should have times where we just take a nap in the afternoon. But we shouldn't do it to avoid. We shouldn't do it as a form of procrastination. And I'm not saying you have to do, you can't do anything fun until your entire house is under control because that is not the way to get there. that is the all or nothing cycle that we are breaking this year. This year, we are embracing progress over perfection. This year, you listening are saying, I'm just going to fill the sink with soapy water. I'm going to wash a couple dishes or I'm going to load or unload the dishwasher. I'm going to do good enough and then I'm going to stop and I'm going to be proud of myself

for doing something. And tomorrow you're going to get up and you're going to do the same something all over again. And maybe this time you're going to push yourself just a little bit more than you did yesterday. And some days you're going to do a lot and some days you're going to do a little. But the thing is, you're going to do something every day because when you take charge of your home, you are taking charge of your life. In 2022, we are creating new habits, new interests, and we are getting excited about the idea of being in control of our environment. Just like you and I are taking the time right now to discover new things about ourselves and develop new interests. It's so important that the kids in our lives make the same discoveries. That's why we love KiwiCo. And I want to thank KiwiCo

for sponsoring today's podcast. KiwiCo is a subscription service where every month my kids get a new box that helps them discover STEM in a new positive way. Joe's an electrical engineer, so he wants to teach our kids all about science and technology and engineering and math, but make them actually love it in the way that he does and it's hard it's hard to get them off their tablets and get them interested but kiwiko makes it easy this month they're actually building a robot together that walks in the past they've built cranes and learned about movement and mechanics and engineering with so many fun projects that they look forward to this every month we like the tinker line which is ages nine to 16 so all three of my kids who are different ages can really get involved together

If you want to learn more, go to kiwiCo.com and use promo code clutter to get 50% off your first month plus free shipping on any crate line. Again, that's going to kiwiCo.com. That's k-I-W-I-C-O dot com promo code clutter. So let's talk about the how. How do we make a dent in a house that feels overwhelming? How do we make a dent in a house even if it doesn't feel overwhelming? but we feel like we don't have time to really get it under control. You feel like, listen, Cass, I am working all the time.

I'm constantly showing up for my house and I'm showing up for myself and I'm doing the dishes and I'm doing the laundry, but I still feel so out of control because it never feels like enough. It's probably because you're not doing the three steps. If you are spending time on your house every day, but yet the next day it still feels out of control, I promise you it's because you're not doing the three steps. steps. These three steps are key. They seem so easy, but they are hard because we have to do all three of them. And we have to do them every day. We have to commit. We have to show up for ourselves. We have to say this is a priority. And I cannot do two out of the three of these things because I'm going

to fail. And what are these three things? It's declutter. It's organized. And it's a daily routine. And the declutter is so important. And this is one that so many people do not do. They try to organize their excess. They try to just buy their way out of clutter. They're like, I feel like everything's about. I'm going to go to the store and buy more totes, more bins, more three drawer systems, more shelving, more closet organizing systems, more whatever, more binders for the paper. And then they end up with just organized clutter. Or they end up with all of the containers filling up their basement because they're so overwhelmed.

They don't even know where to start in there just now they have even more. The first step is just declutter. It's just get stuff out. And not only is it the first step, but it's an ongoing step. This is something you will never stop doing. You will never stop taking stuff out of your home because stuff is always coming in. And decluttering doesn't have to be hard because you don't have to make a huge mess and make piles and sort and take an afternoon. You just need to grab a bag and a box and pretend it's Easter morning. And instead of looking for eggs and chocolate, you're looking for things you don't use and you don't love and you're getting it out of your house. house. Decluttering is not tidying. It's not setting up your closet like a jenga and shoving everything in and cramming and seeing how much you can put it into drawers or hide out of sight. That is not decuttering. Getting the stuff off of your surfaces is not decluttering because guess what? The stuff on your surfaces is probably not clutter. The stuff on your kitchen counter is there because you use it. Decluttering is getting things out of your house. It's trash. It's empty wrappers. It's It's bills that have already been paid, but it's also things, clothing you haven't worn.

Toys your kids haven't played with. It's opening up drawers and saying, like, why do I have so many pens that actually don't work? And after I use the pen in it and no, it doesn't work, I toss it back in the drawer. These things are leaving. And every time you get something out, no matter how small, the rest of your life will be a little bit easier. It's chipping away at the mountain in front of you. We're getting out. We're getting out.

And here's the scary thing is, you're going to have to. declutter so much more than you think you're going to have to in order to really get to a point where you have a manageable amount of inventory. But I promise it's worth it. I promise you will not get rid of anything you use or that you love or something that you're going to regret. We're just letting go of the things that are not serving you today. And not your fantasy self that you're going to be tomorrow, maybe you'll get into crafting, or maybe you'll fix that broken vacuum one day. These are all toxic lies that we tell ourselves, this fantasy self. The only thing this is doing is making us feel guilty about the person that we are today

by not being enough, by not fulfilling this fantasy that we have of what we should be doing, and that is toxic. And in 2022, you're going to say no to toxic clutter. We're going to say no to guilty clutter. We're going to get that stuff out of our home because you deserve a home that makes you feel proud and confident and happy and peaceful. So we're decluttering. And the second thing we're doing is we're organizing and this isn't about buying fancy bins and baskets and making it look like the things we see on Pinterest or Instagram. This is about creating a home for things where we naturally put it down. We look at our clutter, which we shouldn't call it clutter.

We look at the stuff on our counters. We look at the stuff on our top of our drug. and we look at the things where we're putting things down and we say, how can we make a home for this stuff really close by? Maybe it's the top drawer. Maybe it's a drawer in our island. Maybe we hang a paper organizer on the wall right above where we naturally pile papers. We're dedicating homes for things. That's all it is. That's all organization is. And sometimes it is putting things into pretty baskets. But that's a small part. What we're really doing is making our house functional and we're making sure that Even our homeless stuff, even our random things have a place to go.

And maybe that random place is literally just, oh, look in the random place drawer. Look in the random place cabinet. That's fine. That's fine. It just needs a home. So that's step two. And step three is so important. It's routine.

And that is showing up for yourself every day and saying, the dishes are non-negotiable and the laundry is non-negotiable. And a 10-minute tidy is non-negotiable. Every day I'm just going to put things back where they go. and I'm going to make sure that I'm doing the dishes and that I'm putting away the clean clothes. And that's it. That's it. Daily, daily routine. And sometimes we get, we sort of like bogged down in the weeds about routine, like how often should I vacuum and how often should I dust and how often should I clean the windows and do the baseboards? And then we're so overwhelmed about all the

things we should be doing that we do nothing at all. So we focus, we're doing the dishes, we're doing the laundry and we're tidying up. I don't care if you do nothing. else but you're showing up for yourself for those things and the magical incredible insane thing is if you declutter organize and do your daily routine that is enough you will feel confident and in control and peaceful and you will realize that vacuuming every now and then is not a big deal and dusting is not a big deal and it's no longer a chore and it's no longer gonna have to be something that's scheduling into your weekend or your day, you're in control. Your house is in control with those three things.

But it starts with realizing that you are still that 15 year old who doesn't want to do it. And it's time to change the mindset, to look at this as self-care, look at this as a gift to yourself. And even when that isn't working, it's time to parent yourself and say, listen, put down the device, shut off the TV, stop procrastinating, and do it today. Because this is what. what we have to do to get to the place in our lives that we want to be. Because our home is the foundation for an entire life and when it is under control, when our home is to a point where we feel calm and things are running like a well-oiled machine, the rest of our life is going to fall into place, our finances, our relationships,

everything, everything is affected by the state of your home. And you can get there in just a few minutes a day. We can do this. Thank you guys so much for listening, and I'll see you guys next time.