Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Japanese Organizing that WORKS (Even With ADHD) | Clutterbug Podcast #317

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

Hey Clutterbugs! Let’s stop making piles and use tiny 1% changes to organize our homes without overwhelm. In this podcast, we’re using Japanese organizing ideas (Kaizen, 5S, Wabi-Sabi, “Mottainai”) to declutter, build simple systems, and keep the house tidy longer. And we’re doing this together (not in a “make 47 piles and cry about it for 60 days” way). This is a mini‑challenge episode where you make tiny micro improvements while you listen . . . and end the podcast feeling weirdly proud of yourself.We’re talking:Kaizen: small steps that actually add up (especially for ADHD brains)Why pulling everything out is a trap (and what to do instead)The “don’t go on Amazon for bins” rule (you know who you are)The 5S system (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain) — Toyota vibes, but for your houseMottainai (“what a waste”): the guilt-free decluttering mindset shiftWabi-Sabi organizing: good‑enough systems that are easy to maintainLet’s get to it! Want to get organized? Learn 6-Step The Clutterbug Method: https://clutterbug.thinkific.com/courses/Clutterbug-Method You can find more Clutterbug content here: Main YouTube Channel: @Clutterbug Website: http://www.clutterbug.me TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/ #clutterbug #podcast #adhdorganization #adhdhome #kaizen #homeorganization #decluttering #homehacks #cleaningmotivation #habitsthatchangeyourlife Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wanted to get your entire home organized? And you start and you take big messes and you start sorting on the floor into a million little tiny piles. And then three weeks later, they're still there. You're still sorting. Except now you're sick of it and you just put it all back into one giant pile and feel like life's kicking your butt. Today we are not focusing on pulling everything out and making piles. In fact, I hope you never, ever do that. Instead, we're going to be focusing on tiny microchanges, small steps that add up to that big change you're looking for. It's not as dramatic and it's not as like, oh, in your face, I'm going to be amazing. But it actually works. And that's the difference. Just like always, you are not allowed to just sit and passively listen

or watch this podcast unless you're driving. Please keep driving and keep your eyes on the road. But if you are at home, you are going to take action. And today's going to be a little bit different. I'm going to give you a challenge to start. But then throughout this episode, I'm going to give you little mini challenges that I hope you do along with me, that you go to a space. And while you're listening, you make tiny micro improvements. Those little tiptoe steps. And at the end of this podcast, you're going to feel so proud of yourself. So the first challenge is I want you to go to your kitchen sink and I want you to clean it out. If it's full of dirty dishes, you're washing them. Definitely pull out that drain stop.

I say this because this morning while I was making my tea, I went over and put an old mug in. My sink has an odor. It has a stink. It has old rags in it. And I'm pretty sure it's melted cheese stuck to the bottom. No, no, my friends. We deserve better. So start there.

Start in your sink. And let's jump into today's podcast. If you're new here, I'm Cass from Clutterbug. And we talk about all things, home maintenance, a little bit of decluttering and organization. we often talk about ADHD, and it's all about finding those ways to make your home easier. Sometimes that means a hack, but sometimes it means the opposite of a hack, because hacks can be a bunch of bull crap and not actually work. We're looking to actually make our lives feel effortless because our homes should not be a part-time job. Speaking of terrible hacks, check out my main YouTube channel.

Coming up really soon, I have a video where I tested a bunch of, viral TikTok hacks. I was so excited, honestly. Every single one was an epic fail. I was almost not going to post the video, but it's hilarious and I had to. I tested it so you didn't have to because the truth is sometimes we spend more time looking for the shortcut that it would actually just take to do it crappy. Today, we're traveling to Japan. Not literally, but how awesome would that actually be? but we are looking into the Japanese culture. Why? Because they are known for organization, not just because of the amazing Marie Kondo, who made organization cool. She is literally the most followed organizer of all time,

but because the entire Japanese culture is really around this zen, orderly, calm approach to life, right? We all want this. They are known for not only beautiful, aesthetically pleasing places, but respect, respect for other people's belongings, their own belongings, and the shared space. They also have to be really mindful about space and small spaces because they don't have 7,000 square foot homes. Everything is really minimal and reasonable, so their organization has to be too. Let's just talk about the elephant in the room for a second, which is my love-hate relationship for Marie Kondo. I love that Marie Kondo made decluttering, like this worldwide phenomenon because it is something that we all need to do.

Like she literally inspired millions of people to get stuff out of their homes. What I don't love is how it didn't always work for us ADHDers, like pulling everything out and making a giant pile. I did that. I did that in the dark times of COVID, you know, where I was stuck in the house. I'm like, I'm going to take every piece of clothing, mine, my three children's, my husbands, and I'm going to make a mountain. in the living room. And then I'm going to stare at that mountain for 60 days while crying because

holy crap. So, I mean, I should have, I think probably because I stopped at like chapter one and got so excited, I just dove in. If I would have read the entire book, I probably would have learned some other lessons. But the point is, I think the concepts are incredible, but I also think that this all or nothing approach, which is what really the Conmarie method is based on, can feel a little overwhelming. So for those of you who have ADHD or you're undiagnosed, okay, and you're just like a little bit of a hot mess, here's some ground rules today. We are not pulling everything out. You're going to want to. You're going to be, you know, full of optimism and see that shelf and want to completely empty it.

Stop and no. We are taking little baby steps because making giant piles is an absolute trap. Second, we are not going on Amazon while you listen to this and adding containers to your shopping cart. No, friends, no, that is just wasting money and it's a hope that's going to go die in a pile with the other containers you bought last month. So we're not buying containers and we are using timers because timers are going to help us stay focused and make sure we're not going off and just creating way more work for ourselves. They're going to keep us on track. The first thing we're going to talk about today is the word Kaizen. This is a Japanese word that means change for the better. And it's commonly used to describe tiny little steps, little increments of change that lead

towards this bigger goal that we have. And I love this because instead of being overwhelmed, right, by this big task, we're just doing these little tiny baby steps so that we never feel stressed. So we never feel like we're failing and we only ever have progress. It's also so important that these tiny little steps are consistent, that we're content. continually making these steps over and over again, that's what leads up to the real, real progress. And what's really crazy to me is I know that it's little steps that are the secret. I know this, but I know this with the things that I've done little steps that have seen success, like organization or cleaning my home.

But I forget to remember sometimes. And I want you to head over to my clutterbug YouTube channel and check out the video that I posted last week where I was trying to do this crazy 30-day health challenge. I don't know why I wasn't applying these tiny steps to my health, but what's crazy is when I tried the challenge, I saw the results about little micro adjustments. I thought I was failing, but in fact, I was not. Go check out that video to see what I mean, and I hope you're feeling inspired because I am so inspired to just really apply this method everywhere. I need to stop treating things like big goals as events. I need to stop looking at organization,

cleaning, money management, my butt and getting it smaller. All of those things are not events. It's all about these little tiny steps consistently that add up to real lasting change. And the part that's the most amazing is when you do it this way, when you look at things as little increments and you do them over and over again, they become unconscious habits. They become you and your identity and you no longer have to force yourself to do them or make them into projects. It's just you over here being a master at life. So what I want you to really remember when we're going into this little challenge that I'm about to give you is that you're not going to be an organized person by Saturday. This is about those little building blocks. You are going to slowly become an organized person

because you are building an organized life. All right, you ready for the challenge? I want you to think of one space in your home or even one object in your home that creates friction. Something that you touch every single day. This could be your keys or your wallet. This could be your bathroom products that you use to get ready in the morning.

It can be when you're making yourself a coffee. It's you do you, boo, the first thing that comes in your mind, a small point of friction, and how can we make that just one percent better? What is the most, like, lower that bar, friends. You are not completely rearranging or reorganizing or rezoning. What is a small, tiny micro adjustment that just might make something a fraction better, 1% better? I'm going to give you some quick examples to help you make it a little bit easier. If every day you are kind of hunting for your keys and you're not sure where they are, grab a 3M hook and just put it where you're naturally put them down, put them there.

Or get a bowl, get an old Tupperware container and write keys on the side of it and stick it right on a flat surface. That label is going to, even if it's hand drawn and it looks like absolute garbage, it is going to do something amazing for your brain. Same with mail. Get an old Amazon box. I know you've got something you haven't broken down yet in your garage. garage, pull one of those out, write important paper and stick it right on the counter for the important things to go in. Your kids have all those little bibbidi-bobs everywhere, the random Barbie shoe, and that definite McDonald's toy that's absolute junk, go get a vase. I know you have a

million of those for flowers that your spouse never buys you and just put all the random bibbiddy bobs in a vase right now. It's art and it's contained and it's no longer clutter. These are the tiny micro things that you can do in this moment. Literally get rid of one pen that's dried out. That's 1% better the next time you open that junk drawer and reach for a writing utensil. I do not want you to take forever. I don't want you to overthink. Whatever pops in your mind right now, this is what I want to do. And I'm going to be your timer. So I'm going to start talking about another concept. And by the time I'm done, you're done this tiny micro improvement. Whether you're actually done or not, you're still done. Okay, we're leaving it

in its slightly better progress area. So know that I'm only going to talk for like three to five minutes. Make this task tiny on your market set. Go. I want to talk about something called the 5S system. I have heard this talked about many times before. It was a, it's kind of like a, no, it's like a, Stop, don't tell me. It's like a, the word is efficiency. Yes. Okay. My parents, really good friend, one of their best friends, is the Six Sigma guy here in Canada. He like developed this and he goes around to different companies and he helps work on their efficiency. He must have added an S because the 5S is the system that was developed in Japan and it was really made popular by Toyota. And if you know anything about Toyota, those cars never die. The quality is amazing. But it's not just for factories. What if we can take this 5S system principles and apply it to our own home as well? What if we can automate systems? What if we can create like management inventory systems where it just feels effortless? And the best part is anyone can come in and use it. So you no longer have to tell your husband where the tape is and your

kids, they know where the scissors are because your home is like a Toyota factory. Fortunately, these five Ss translate in English to also start with S. So I don't have to remember the Japanese or pronounce the Japanese names for all of these. They're in English too. So here we go. The first S is sort and no, this doesn't mean you have to take everything out and make tiny piles. What it means is you are going to have categories of things, all the batteries together. So you're going to remove things that aren't batteries and put those with the other things of that category. Sort. Okay, we got this. The second is set in order. And I love this because not only does this mean giving everything a home, but it means prioritizing the things that you

touch and use the most often and giving them a home, setting them in order first. This is so easy to do in the kitchen. Think about the things you touch the most. It's snacks in our house. So let's contain all the snacks to one shelf. Let's set them in order. We're not going to have a box of mac and cheese on that shelf. We are going to only have snacks. That is the snack shelf we have sorted. And now we're setting in order. The next S is shine, which is basically just clean. Maybe you notice some imperfections. Maybe, you know, it's a little bit of straightening, but it's also scrubbing the goo. because we all have it. And when you organize, you will find more and the dust and all of that. Okay. Next is standardized. And this is the part that I'm most excited about because what this really

means is you want to make this like this is where you turn it into factory mode. So you're using all the same containers. You're labeling everything. You are having it like a store. People can come in off the street and know where your mac and cheese is because it's on the shelf with your other sides. It's standardized. You can even take standardized further than that and create checklists. Think of like menu planning or your shopping list, your checklist of things you're going to like clean each week. These are really about kind of like maintaining the first three sort, set in order and shine. Standardize is. about making sure these things stick because you've created systems. And the last S, but not least, is sustain. This just means you got to, you know, actually maintain these spots. You got to go back every now and then and tidy them up. You have to create these habits of using these new systems. So it's all well and good to have them in place. You can have an awesome menu board and it looks gorgeous on your kitchen wall. But if every Sunday, you don't have an alarm that goes off that tells you to

right next week's menu on it, it's pretty useless. We have to train ourselves to use these new systems that we've put in place. All right, how are you doing on your Kaysen activity? That 1% change that you made to the thing that you did that you touch all the time because guess what? You're done in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and quit, put it down, walk away, you're done. You've made a tiny change. And this might be hard for you, especially you bees and crickets, you're like, I'm just going to do a little bit more, just 10 minutes more cast, stop it. This is the whole point of this podcast, is learning that these tiny micro good enough changes are the secret. This isn't going to be this overnight huge goal that you're going to achieve during this podcast. We're training ourselves that small steps matter.

So let's move on to another challenge. I want you to pick a space. I'm going to give you an example of the entrance way, but pick any space, and we're going to go through the five S's. So here's an example. You do you, boo. But if you're in your entrance way, we're going to start with sort. And what I want you to do is just make sure all the shoes are sorted together. Is there shoes that you see right there that nobody uses? Toss them right now. They're going to leave. Are there like things mixed in with the shoes that don't belong, like umbrellas and paper? We're going to move it to a paper section. We're going to throw out that old umbrella that's definitely broken or has like blues clues on it, even though your kid is 14. That can absolutely go. So not that we're making huge piles. We are

using the space that you currently have. We're just making sure that the things that belong are categorized together and the things that don't belong are out of there. Now let's talk about set in order. And this is really easy to do when you think about the space that you have. You don't have to go and completely reorganize, but if you have a shoe shelf, can you make each shelf for a different family member? Or can you make one section in your closet for muddy boots to go and just put that there? Can you take a look at the coats and the backpacks and all of those things? And can you say, what are the ones that we're using every day now? Here in Canada, it is no longer freezing outside. So can we put the winter coats away and just have our spring coats out on the hooks?

How can you set things in order? Little tiny changes. And grab a pen if you need to. Maybe you're like, man, I wish I had hooks, Cass. Everything's in the closet. Cool. Write a list right now. I need to get five hooks today and make a note of where they should go on your wall.

If you have little kids, hang them low. planning is part of the set in order, right? Because yeah, it is. Moving on to shine, get a rag, don't go crazy, and just wipe surfaces. Just wipe, wipe a surface. See some mud. Get it, girl. Okay. Next, standardized. This is going to be really tough to do in this short amount of time that I'm giving you, but I do want you to think about it and maybe make a note. This could be literally adding labels, like right to that shelf. You could be. put hubby's name for where his go and your name for the shelf that for your shoes. You can add labels to the bins where your kids put their hats and mittens and gloves. You can think about

what are some systems that I can use in this space to make it function better, whether that's hooks for backpacks, a bowl for keys. How can you standardize and create systems here? And a really good thing to do like I love to do is a go bag. I am a person who I have all these little things like my headphones that I bring when I go out the door. And I like to have my wallet that I always forget. But if I get pulled over, I need my driver's license because I don't use a wallet. The point is I have this little zippy bag where I just throw all that type of stuff in my glasses because I can't see without my glasses, my chapstick. What if I standardized it by putting all of that into one little bag and leave it by the entrance door? That totally counts.

And last but not least, sustain. What is one day of week that you can focus on resetting and reevaluating your entrance way for 20 minutes? Pick a day, pick a time, and add that to your calendar right now. Grab your phone, open up your calendar app, and set a reoccurring meeting for every single week at the same time when you know you're going to be home to sustain and maintain that space. And I know I'm not giving you a lot of time. Like the five Ss, this is a whole lot. You're like my whole entrance way or whatever other space you're tackling right now, this is crazy pants. This is not a lot of time to make a big impact, but that's the point. Because this is about trying things out. It's about trying new systems. Maybe you just grab a piece of painter's

tape and you rip it off with a marker, you write your child's names and stick it on different parts on the wall for where they can hang their coats. If that doesn't work, you just peel off the painter's tape and you try another system. Nothing's lost. We don't want things to be perfect in this part. We want it to, in fact, be kind of crappy and not really that good. Why? Because that gives us the ability to change and adapt without guilt or shame or remorse for time wasted. When we can do it quickly and imperfectly to test different systems and strategies, that's where we get data back of what's working and what's not and why. And that's where we have the courage to just keep trying different things because it doesn't

take a lot of time and it doesn't take a lot of effort. and that's how you find what actually works for you. So you're doing a crappy job right now. You're just trying a little bit. You're making things slightly better. You're systemizing a little bit. And next week, let's see if it's better. Let's see what worked and what didn't and we'll make small changes again. So I want you to keep working on this space until the end of the next thing we're going to talk about, which is Montanai. Montanai actually translates to what a waste. And I think of this in the concept of decluttering because a lot of the times we don't want to let things go because we feel like it's wasting the money, right? Even though that money was wasted the second we bought that item.

But it also feels like we're wasting the item because we should be using it or it is still good. So donating it feels wasteful. But when we're thinking about Monta and I, let's be real. This is like we're zooming out and we're looking at this item for what. what it actually is. I'm going to pull your kids blues clues umbrella into this. Yes, it's useful, but you're not using it. Your teenager is not using this. So it's wasting space in your closet. It's wasting space in your home. But more importantly than that, it's wasting that item. That item can actually be used by someone else. You are wasting it by keeping it in your home

collecting dust in a closet and you are wasting your time having to remember it and your mental capacity you have to clean that thing. It's all wasteful. When we hold on to things in our home that we don't use and love, we are wasting that item and we are wasting our space and time. So we're looking at things differently while you're in this space and you're working on your five S's and you come across those shoes that you bought. Girl, they look so good on that shelf. They are two inch heels. Your calves were going to look gorgeous. Your butt was going to be popping. Except your 46, Cass, your 46, and your feet burn, and you have a bunion, and you put them on, and then you have to take them off a half an hour later and carry them around and go barefoot and look like an

absolute weirdo. And then your feet are dirty and you're in pain. What? Blisters? All of it. Nope. but you paid $140 for those gorgeous shoes. What a waste! But the waste was the moment you bought them. The waste is not when you take them and you declutter them so someone else who is much younger and has much better feet can actually enjoy them. You're wasting the shoes. You are wasting your space. You are wasting your time. And let's even go a step further. And I know we're talking about what a waste. But man, every time you look at them, you are filled with shame and guilt for not using them. So I know at first, your first instinct is, oh my gosh, they were expensive. That's $140, whatever, I overpaid for those stupid shoes. And you feel this like, sick feeling about letting them go. The money has already been spent. It's already been wasted. You are not richer for holding onto them and you won't be poorer for letting them go.

And this applies to everything. The coats your children have outgrown, that snowsuit you bought, and it was adorable. But your kids like, Mom, I'm never wearing that. It's hideous. It doesn't matter what it costs. It's wasteful to keep it. This is the mindset shift that's going to get you the home that you deserve when we start using Montanai.

What a waste. I think this word in Japanese is really, it's so much deep. too than just being wasteful. It's about respecting your resources. Not only your home, respecting your home and not wasting its precious space with clutter you don't use. Like that is like, oh my gosh, you have this gorgeous home. You're paying this mortgage every month for this home and you're wasting its potential, right, with this disrespect of holding onto things, but it's also looking at it as so disrespectful to waste that umbrella, that perfectly good umbrella that can be used by someone who needs it, that can be put to use every single

day. It's disrespectful to that item. It's disrespectful to your belongings to hoard them when you're not using them instead of sharing them with others. And I always love thinking back to the podcast that I did with Joshua Becker because this is something that I hear a lot from people that when they have an item that they're not using and they know that they're disrespecting it, somewhere in their brain they want to find the perfect home for that umbrella, your sister's kid, maybe your neighbor, maybe you, and you spend all this mental energy and physical time trying to re-home these items to the perfect person. But what Joshua Becker said is the perfect home already exists, you just don't know that person personally. When you donate something to a thrift store,

the person who finds that and falls in love with it, that's the perfect home. You don't have to be responsible to find that. Basically, the universe does it for you, friend. Okay. So know that when you're donating your items to goodwill or whatever thrift store you want to donate to, that is the perfect home because the person who chooses that item chooses it because they love it and they want it and they need it. Not because it's your neighbor and you're forcing your junk on them because you want to feel good about who it goes to. Feel good that it's going to the thrift store. I'm going to go a step further. This is something I'm super passionate about because I have loved ones in my life who are the people who always take the hand-me-downs. They're always the one who people who people,

are offering, offering, offering, oh, you've got kids, here's some extra clothes. My kids outgrew them. Here's some books. Here's some toys. Here's this, this furniture, blah, blah, blah. And the person is like, yes, I'll take, I'll take. But they don't need all that excess. And it's almost, it's almost like they're being used because the people who are giving are giving in their mind from a place of kindness. But the reality is they just want to make sure their clutter goes to this perfect person. And the people pleaser is accepting it, even though now they have to manage it. They have to deal with it. They have to sort it. They have to decide what they want and they don't. They have to keep it till the end of time until they can find the perfect person. Let's stop the cycle. You can say,

hey, I've got some things. No pressure. Is there one or two things that you would like? I'm going to donate the rest. Stop pushing your belongings on other people to appease your own sense and your own fear of wastefulness. So right now, you are done your five S's. It doesn't matter if you're actually done. You are done now. You've made some small progress, and that is awesome. Stop working on that space. We are going to move on to the next challenge, which is your Montanai challenge. I want you to grab one of those Amazon boxes you haven't broken down yet, or a reusable shopping bag. You have too many, my friend, and I want you to go around your home and look for 10 things that are being wasted in your home. Ten things you're not using. That you can share and gift to someone else,

that you can show respect to that item by letting it be actually useful, by no longer wasting it. So go around your home, and if you find more than 10, awesome sauce, fill that bag. And while you do this, I want to share something with you. Joe and I have been volunteering at a soup kitchen, and it has been such an incredible experience, but what really stood out to me while we were there is how the little things can make the biggest difference. So we brought extra socks and gloves and hats, all of which were gone immediately. But the thing that they needed the most was reusable shopping bags. Because not only, were they going to the soup kitchen for a great bowl of soup and some pastries and goodies,

but they were also going there for hygiene products and there was extra clothes and they had nothing to take it with them in. So just a simple act of dropping off your extra reusable shopping bags, to you, it's like, yeah, those are just floating around in my car. But to someone else, they are serving a real purpose and it's wasteful to keep them hoarded in a cupboard. So we actually took like 50 reusable shopping bags there and people were so grateful for them. It's honestly, it's these little things you don't even think about. And this isn't about finding the perfect home. And I don't want you to think, oh, I'm going to go to the soup kitchen and give all my things.

Or I'm going to go to stop doing that. Sometimes Goodwill is the perfect home. But I want you to just look at your stuff a little differently. and I want you to picture the person out there who has so little and what you could give just by donating your unused items. So while you're running around looking for things to fill in your box or your bag, I know that this has probably been a challenging podcast for you because I am giving you a bunch of big challenges to do and really very small amount of time to actually get them done. And especially if you're a perfectionist, this can feel like,

well, I'm not done. And I just started and it's not going to look right. And I want to keep going. And there is this urge to make spaces perfect. And that's why we're focusing on Wabi Sabi. Wabi is not that green, very spicy stuff that comes with your sushi. It is a Japanese term that means accepting imperfections. This is something I am. really, I mean, I'm embracing this with my whole self. Not only am I writing a book about it, embracing the good enough and the imperfections, but I feel like this peri metapause phase that I'm in, I just have less Fs to give, you know? I see, I'm scrolling through Instagram and I'm looking at these beautiful pantries. And my brain now is like, nah, that's too much work, man. I just going to

throw it in the bin and call it a day. Like, how can we stop trying to treat our homes like museums and realize that we have children who drop their things when they come in and husbands who treat the kitchen counter like a filing cabinet and ourselves who, you know, we get ready in the morning and we just leave all our bathroom products all over the counter and move on. How can we stop beating ourselves up that our houses don't look perfect and realize that that is a lie and a myth? And I'm sure there are people out there who have perfect homes that are like all the time, but that is a part-time job for them to maintain. And you and I don't want that. We want a home that is cozy and relaxing and feels good. And we want to embrace the imperfections

because that is real life. What Wabi-Sabi organizing means to me is just embracing my ladybug self. If you were to walk in my home anytime, you would be like, dang, girl, this is clean. And then you look in a basket and everything's a hodgey-podgey. I don't fold and I'm okay with that because I know where everything is and I can find it and I can put it away fast. My junk drawers are a little messy. My closets are a little haphazard. But everything has a home. It is imperfectly perfect because it's efficient, it's manageable, and it works for my family. I have coats and shoes when you first come in that you can see because my family is filled with butterfly. and I don't have to hide it because it works. At least it's not on the floor. I embrace the

imperfections and I embrace the good enough organizing systems because my only goal is done. My only goal is less work to maintain, but I am also not willing to live in chaos. I am not willing to live in a home that feels messy and like, ah, and we can have it all. You can have your cake and eat it too. You can have a home that looks tidy all the time, but also is easy to put things away. And that happens when you embrace your wabi-sabi, the imperfections. The point of this entire episode really comes back to the first thing we talked about, which is Kaizen, which is these tiny little changes. We're not going for perfection here. We are not looking for this dramatic, overnight, completely life-changing thing. We are being consistent. We are chipping away.

We are tiptoeing towards the life we're craving because that is how we make change that sticks. That's how we have a lasting system that actually works. And if you're sitting there right now, listening to this and you're listening to this, you have something in your hand and you've, you've gone off the rails and things aren't perfect. You're like, what do I do with this thing? And I did accidentally pull everything out of this closet and everything looks like a hot mess. It's all okay. Put that item down, kick that stuff back into the closet for another day. Tiny progress was made. I promise you it was. It's good enough. You did an awesome job. Now it's time to move on to something cool, like reading a book or having a nap, or talk to Cass, maybe hold off on the nap till the

talk to cast part's done. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. You guys know I switched to Cozy Earth sheets years ago, and let me tell you, there's no going back. I have this like satin-esque set that are my absolute favorite. I don't actually know what they're called, but they feel like a cloud. Climbing into my bed every night when these sheets are on, feels like luxury. And now, even when I stay and go on vacation and stay in hotels, I yearn for my cozy earth bedding. And they don't just have bedding. They have pajamas and socks and gorgeous clothing. I'm telling you, you've got to give this to try. And right now, you can go to cozy earth.com and use my code clutterbug to save up to 20%. When you try cozy earth,

you get to experience the craft behind the comfort and make every day feel intentional. First, we have a question from Maria. Hello, Cass, this is Maria. I'm in Colorado. I have a question about, I heard about what you said about clothes, calling your names and stuff like that, because you keep it hoping to get back into it

because you've outgrown it or whatever, and it just screams at you and it calls you names and stuff. And I've really taken that to heart and I've been able to clean out my closets and stuff. I'm at that stage of life where I'm trying to pare down and make less clutter as my kid is becoming an adult. And my husband and I are moving into a smaller space. We cannot keep all the things that I've kept for memories, especially all the pictures. I have literally hundreds of pictures.

And I've been trying to take pictures of the pictures and then get rid of them, which works, but it is really intense, and it's gotten to the point where I'm emotionally getting stuck, and now it's screaming at me because I haven't been back to it for months. And I was wondering if you had any suggestions. And I was going to look at getting a professional, but it's close to almost 50 cents of photo, and I will go broke, and I don't have that extra money to do this professionally,

to have somebody just take my pictures and put them in a thing. So I would love any suggestions you have at this point because I really need to get through these boxes and whatnot. I'm going to tell you the honest, goodness, truth. I haven't looked at them a lot. But when I see them, as I'm one of those kinds of bugs, it becomes very hard for me to get rid of it. So it just is important to me to keep these memories, but at the same time, I recognize that I'm not seeing them a lot. And now I'm stuck.

Please advise desperately. Thank you. Oh, Maria, I have advice for you. Okay. And you're not probably going to love it. But this is a multi-step process when you're dealing with a ton of photos. And the really important thing is that you have some predetermined categories and that you start with the first step, which is not scrapbooking all ones you love. Like that's, we're going to put them all in albums. No, no, that is the final step. So what I want you to do is grab some banker boxes or photo boxes and go on Amazon, get some acid-free paper. It's really cheap and it's just acid-free paper. Line the boxes with the acid-free paper and come up with rough categories. You don't even have to look at the pictures to know. You probably have like your childhood when your kids were little, maybe vacation,

you know, three or four rough categories. Now go to the boxes where all your photos are and get yourself a garbage bag. Open that up beside you. Sit on the floor, put a movie on and open the box. Grab the photo and we just start sorting. If there are duplicates, trash. If there are ones that are the people, back of people's heads, trash. If it is a photo of a sunset, girl, trash. We are not keeping the ones that are not worthy. Because when we mix special and unspecial photos together, everything just feels like so important. So the first step is sorting out the ones that don't belong, that aren't worthy, that are just wasting space. And this might feel like, holy crap, this is going to be a ton of work and then I have to go back through and organize them again.

But I promise you, this is the shortcut, okay? Because worst case, you just put the lids on the boxes that you've sorted into and you label the outside, my kids when they were little. And there you go, organization for a ladybug. But someday you can go and put them in albums. But today is not that day. Today is getting all those photos down to a quarter of what you have. And the only way to do that is have the predetermined categories. And while you're going through, say, this isn't worthy and just put it in the trash. There's no shame in throwing out photos that are not good enough to keep forever. This is the thing. If you have boxes of actual photos that you took to get developed, this is back in the day before we could like preview if that was a good photo, 90% of the crap on that role was

absolute garbage. And for some reason, we always got duplicates. Why? Why did we do that? Why do we have four photos of grass or something or a hill or a map? You don't even, what are we doing? That's not a memory. It's the face. That's the memory. It's the smiles. It's like those are the ones we want to keep.

The photo of the freaking, even the photo of the Eiffel Tower and whatever, you can go on the internet and see that crap. If you're not in the photo, put it in the trash. Sorry. Now we have a note from Anonymous. Hi Cass. I wanted to record a message for you and then stumbled upon the Talk to Cass' Mental Health Counseling website. Just wanted to throw this out there.

Maybe you already knew this and this is a common wordplay and I'm just very late to the party. Or it's a coincidence that you didn't know about yet. Here you go, now you know. The real reason why I wanted to record a message is because I'm actually a bit worried about you. I love your content. I love how open you are about you feeling burnt out and not loving your job quite as much as before. But I wish you would act upon it, by which I mean I wish you would take a bit. break you really deserve this your followers will not stop following you I'm

really sure about that we are so devoted you love me so much so just take a break try to rest I know how difficult that is for you but I would love it for you to know that it's okay to take a little break and we'll be here to listen again when you're back. Thank you so much for everything that you do. That's actually so sweet. Okay, here's the truth of what's going on. And I, I'm sad that you picked up on what I was putting down. But yeah, I love my job so much. And the truth is, like, the idea of not doing it for a while is so sad. Like, I would be so sad. But I also, like, hate love it sometimes because my only thing I could think of as like perimenopause. It isn't just my job. It's everything. I have zero patience for

everyone and everything in my life. I just all my all I just, and it's not even a burnt out thing. I'm just like, I'm just like, why can't things just be easier? Let's just skip to the good part. I'm sick of all the nonsense. It's crazy. Yeah, I assume maybe I need hormone replacement therapy. I'm good and I'm actually genuinely happy and I'm in a good place. And in fact, I will say this. I'm going to say this. Anonymous, listen, I think my life's improving with my little bit of bad attitude because I am not putting up with other people's crap anymore. I am no longer a doormat. I am no longer people pleasing, not only other human beings, but also my home and stuff. I'm just like, you're too much work. Stupid system. I'm done with you. Dummy.

And I just move on. And my life is better. And I play a lot of fortnight. And I have way more free time. Things are good. Even though I'm grumpy. The grumpiness is making things better. Also, I'm going on a vacation again tomorrow.

And I just came back from vacation. I'm going on another vacation. Though sometimes I'm even a little grumpy about the vacation. I'm like, vacations are so much work. Listen, okay. We're just in Cass' grumpy era. It's fine. Last but not least, we have a do-it-shitty from Shelley.

I have not heard this. I'm feeling excited. Hi, Cass. My name is Shelley, and I have a do-it-shitty for you. Just a little bit of a backstory. I live in an apartment. My living room, the back part of the living room, is also my craft area. I own a craft business.

So I'm sewing a lot, so I have a lot of cotton, a lot of thread, a lot of stuff that, you know, gets around the house. In my living room, I have an entertainment center, and then on my kitchen counter, there's room for some stools that have a silver bottom. So my do-it shitty is, as I am walking from the living room to my bedroom every day to take my shower, I take my left sock and I run it along the floor in front of the entertainment center. I take my right sock, and I run it along the silver bottom.

of the chairs to get rid of all the dust, all the fuzz, all the thread, all the everything. Now, some people might call this lazy. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to call it efficient. Thanks for all you do, Cass. I really appreciated everything, and I hope you have a great day. Thank you. Shelly, I love the crap out of this so freaking much. Yep, same. Okay, I often will dust things like baseboards with my sock. And guess what? Sometimes when I'm putting away the dishes from the dishwasher and they're still damp, I rub them on my butt because I just dry them on my clothes and stick them in the we are geniuses, Shelley. Thank you everyone for listening. I hope you're really proud of the tiny

little change you made today. And seriously, now it's for real your time to take a break and go have a or do something super fun because you deserve it. And I'll see you guys back here next time. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play-Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games.

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