Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Lower your expectations to the floor! | Clutterbug Podcast # 105

Episode Date: June 2, 2021

Do you want to achieve more?  Your desire to do everything "right" could be getting in your way.  Take some pressure off yourself and lower those expectations to the floor!       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

Even if you're not a traditional perfectionist, you may be sabotaging yourself in ways that you don't even realize like I am. That's what we're going to talk about today. Hey clutterbugs, welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. I haven't done a podcast in so long, and I realized it was that idea of perfectionism that was really getting in the way. And I am not a perfectionist at all. But I would say to myself, it isn't quiet enough. I don't have the right setup. I just was constantly making excuses of why I wasn't doing a podcast because I guess it didn't seem like I had the ideal situation. So I'm here.

My Uber is picking me up in 20 minutes. My schedule is really tight right now, but I thought I'm going to stop making excuses and just do it. So, I mean, if I make a mistake, we're just going for it today. Because I really want to show you and use this as an example of how that idea, if we're going to do something, we have to do it right, can be sabotaging your life. I don't know who came up with that saying, if you're going to do something, it's worth doing it right. But that honestly is like the worst advice. And I know this because I used to feel this way. My parents used to say this to me all the time.

And so I was really afraid to do things wrong. and I overthought things and I thought I had to have, you know, all my ducks lined up in a row before I would jump into a situation. And even though that went completely against my personality, and there are so many of you listening that that is your personality. You are perfectionist, whether you know it or not. And it is 100% contributing to you not achieving the things in your life that you want to achieve. And I see this all the time. I'm doing this show, right now, Hot Mess House, and I've seen this with clients, but these families in particular are dealing with extreme amounts of clutter. It's why they contacted the show. They're really

struggling, and every single one of them is a perfectionist. They're not lazy. They're not messy. Yes, they organize differently, but that's only a small percentage of what's going on here. it really is a fear of doing it wrong. It's this overthinking, over-analizing, over-researching thing that has snowballed into and manifested into mountains, literal mountains of clutter. And it comes from definitely fear of letting go is a huge issue. Fear of not giving it to the right person, fear of not recycling their things properly, fear of maybe making a mistake. Again, all of this underlie. perfectionism, but also fear of organizing. I can't tell you how many of the clients that I've

talked to have said, well, I want to make sure I'm doing it right. And how exactly should I organize my forks? How exactly should I put the kid's shoes away to maximize functionality? And I'm like, you're tripping over a mountain of shoes when you walk in the door. What does it matter what the perfect way to organize them is? That is not the issue. The issue is you're not embracing the imperfect part of organization. Organization is messy. It isn't about what we see on TV. It isn't in rainbow colors and it certainly isn't having everything folded into tiny little pocket size things. Organization is about creating function and that might be a basket that your kids kick their shoes into at the front door so that you're not tripping over them and that's okay.

This hunt and this desire for this perfect system, this perfect solution, this perfect storage product that's going to solve our problems is the problem, right? We are looking for someone to tell us the answer to our problems. And unfortunately, there is no real answer. There is no organizing system that's going to solve the problems. It's about embracing good enough and creating something, something that makes your life easier. You constantly have papers on the kitchen counter, put a basket there. Maybe if you're a visual organizer, you should have something on the wall, but maybe that doesn't work either.

You can hear the sirens in the background. This is my perfectionism saying I have to stop and re-record. I'm just going with... I'm here in a very busy city, and there's like sirens 24-7, and my Uber's almost here. But I want to give you permission in this podcast to do. things badly. And I'm not saying this as somebody who has completely their life together. And it feels, sometimes it feels really awkward talking to you. I don't want to be that person that's giving advice because I feel like I have no place because my life is not together. But I've been

where you are if you're listening and you're struggling with clutter and mess. I've been there and it was letting go of the idea of what it should look like. That was the biggest catalyst for change. It was giving myself permission to get some dish pans from the dollar store and throw my clothes into those instead of folding that allowed me to finally get control of my home. And I am not suggesting that that's what you do. I'm suggesting that you stop listening to what other people are telling you and you trust yourself. And I'm also suggesting that you try things and fail, that you use boxes from Amazon, Kleenex boxes, cut down cereal boxes, that you try different methods before you find the one that really works for you because you are going

to try and fail. And this isn't just about organization either. It isn't just about decluttering. So often, if you're struggling, like, I'm not exactly sure how to rightly dispose of this and I should find a donation center that's going to do something. really ethical with this or whatever and all of those thoughts of how am i going to i should find a friend who's going to need these baby toys i'm going to hold on to them until my sister has a baby until my best friend has a baby all of these thoughts these perfectionist idealistic expectations we put on ourselves are filling our home i want to give you you permission to throw it in the garbage and you listening you're like throw it in the garbage i listen if you don't have the time and the

capacity to do it perfect, the only thing that matters is that you're taking the step forward to the life that you're craving. And I'm going to use myself as an example here because as much as I say all of these things, I'm also guilty of this, but in another area of my life. I finally got to a place where I feel like I was able to get my home under control, my finances under control, my business under control. And I'm using the same technique. The lowering my experience. The lowering my expectations like you guys, putting my expectations on the floor kind of lowering that allowed me to make progress in these areas. But when it comes to my health, I've always struggled. I used to work in a gym. I was a personal trainer. I taught a yoga class, an ab classes. And I was really into fitness

and nutrition. So I have this preconceived notion of what it looks like to be a healthy person. and my thought is, holy crap, that's a lot of work and I don't want to ever do that again. I was obsessed. I ran 5K every morning. I did that in this extreme way that left no room in my life for anything else. I measured my food. I measured my almonds and little M&M containers. I, it was my everything, almost in the way that organization is now my everything if I'm being completely honest. And so when I look at health and fitness, I think to myself, I have to wait until I have the time, the energy, the ability, the money, whatever it is to do that right. And honestly, it was sitting there and just, I'm alone in this Airbnb.

My family has got home. I bought running shoes. I bought running clothes. I'm like, I'm going to start running. I started researching apps. And I realized, like, I'm doing the thing that I say not to do. I'm doing, I'm putting roadblocks in front of myself. And I'm giving myself permission to work out badly.

So every single day I've been going for a run. And I did the one minute walk, one minute run thing, and I had two minutes left and I bailed out. And that's okay because guess what? I ran for like 16 minutes. And that's amazing. And every day I'm doing 10 pushups and 10 crunches, which is nothing.

But it's something. And allowing myself to do it badly and giving myself permission, I don't care what you do, Cass, just do something. Even if it's one wall push-up, it's something, and be proud of me for that. You guys, I'm making healthier choices. I walked past the bakery this morning on my way back, and I didn't buy the delicious-looking Danishes that were out front. And I mean, I'm changing my mindset by allowing myself to do it crappy,

but giving myself permission to lower those expectations that I put on myself and I want you to do the same thing no matter what area of your life we're talking about, whether it is health and fitness, whether it is getting your home decluttered or organized or starting a business or being a parent. We have such high expectations and we look at these influencers online and we see things that they're doing in their life that seems. amazing and it's so much pressure and there's always going to be people out there who are doing one thing in their life really well but perhaps other areas of their life they're not but we're only looking at that one area that they're doing things well and the truth is they may be doing it crappy and they're

just succeeding in that area because they're lowering their expectations and allowing themselves to do it crappy it is then it is when we just let go of the research the analyzing the overthinking and just do, that we actually see huge leaps and bounds and progress in our life. And I want that for you. I want you to do a shit-ass job at something, whether it's push-ups, whether it's throwing things in the garbage because you just don't know the right way to dispose of it, whether it's putting your kids' shoes in an Amazon box at the front of the door to catch them so you're not tripping over them. I want you to do something really badly today. And I have a lot of people in my experts group who I have an online course and organizing experts group to help people

learn to get organized, but also if they want, I'm giving them advice so they can do an organizing business and all of them, all of them, so many of them are at an impasse because they want to know exactly how to start a YouTube channel, exactly how to get clients, exactly how to get an ad. And I challenged them last week to just do something badly. Make a Facebook page and make it bad. It doesn't matter. Just make one. Today.

See what you can do. Make a video. It doesn't matter if it's good. Make a video. Do an ad for Father's Day coming up and post it in your Facebook marketplace, in your community, and see what happens. And so many of them posted. the thing that they did that they just jumped in. They stopped worrying. They've lowered their

expectations. They dropped those expectations to the floor. And they did it. And they're so proud of themselves. And they're seeing results. And they're making more progress than they have in the past year because they're embracing good enough. And I know that this is harder to say than it is to do. And I know that if you are a perfectionist, this is something that goes against everything that feels like your nature. I just want you to try it. I really do. There is something so like liberating about just letting go of the expectations that we put on ourselves.

And we feel expectations from parents and society and social media, but the biggest and worst and heaviest expectations are the ones that we're putting on ourselves. And so I want you today to just repeat good enough. I'm going to embrace good enough. I'm going to just do things badly because done today is better than perfect tomorrow. I can always go back and tweak it and make it better. But today I just need to push that needle forward. I just need to make progress.

Maybe your house is super, super dirty. I just want you to vacuum. If there's stuff on the floor, vacuum around it. I don't care. This isn't about you having to do all or nothing. It's about doing something. Okay, I got to go. My Uber's going to be here.

Love you guys. This was a weird one. Again, embracing imperfection, embracing good enough. And I'll see you guys next time.