Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Say Goodbye to ”Toxic” Clutter in your Home | Clutterbug Podcast # 81

Episode Date: January 11, 2020

Make 2020 the year that you rid your home of "toxic" clutter. This is the clutter that not only steals your space, but it makes you feel bad about yourself every time you look at it. Self worth and happiness begins with having positive thoughts about yourself. It's time to remove everything from your home that makes you have negative thoughts, right now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys and welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today. We are talking about toxic clutter and I guess what toxic clutter is and how it affects more than just your home and how it looks and how it's affecting you. For me, the definition of clutter is two things. It's items in your home that you are not. not using or haven't used in the last 12 months, even if it's put away neatly, even if, you know, it's not looking like a traditional mess. I really consider that clutter. And the other

thing I consider clutter is anything that's in excess. So something that you have an excess amount of. So looking at around at your home, most people identify clutter as the piles, the mess that they see on their counters. But the truth is when you're decluttering or when you're purging your home, the things that are out on your counters or on top of your dressers on your surfaces, that's the stuff that you're actually using all the time and every day. That's the stuff you don't want to get rid of. Those are the things that you actually need to keep in your home. And usually the reason that they're laying out are because you're a visual organizer or more likely you don't have a place for those things to go. And usually that's because all of your drawers, the closets,

the hidden spots are so full of clutter. They're filled with things that you're not using and loving so there's no room for the everyday items that you are using. So they end up being piled everywhere. So when I talk about decluttering, I'm definitely not talking about tidying up your messes or getting rid of things that you see on top of surfaces, I'm talking about clearing out those hidden areas like closets and drawers, dressers, so you can make room for the things that are laying on your surfaces so that when you do a nighttime tidy routine,

it's fast and easy to put your everyday items away. So when I'm thinking about toxic clutter, to me, toxic clutter are those things in your home that are making you miserable. They're making you unhappy. It's those unused items that are making you feel guilty every single time you look at them. It's those unused items that you see as wasted money because it feels like you're throwing away money or you're giving away your hard earned cash.

Those type of items are really toxic because every time we see them in our home, they're in our home, they're just filling our home and ourselves with negativity. They're making us feel bad about the way our house looks because it's so full, because it's so messy. They're making us feel bad about ourselves for not using the items that we bought. We're not fulfilling that promise we made to ourselves when we purchased the item. We feel wasteful. It's all of these negative feelings and emotions that are attached to that toxic clutter. And it doesn't have to be necessarily sentimental items or guilty clutter.

It can be like, I don't know. the Costco size garbage bags you bought that you don't fit your garbage can and you're never using them or those cleaning supplies you purchased that, you know, you thought, oh, I'll use these, but you don't really like them and they're just sitting under your bathroom counter, taking up space. And every time you look at them, you feel that twinge of guilt. Like, oh, I spent $7 on that bottle and I don't really like it. It's even if it's that subconscious little twinge of guilt or self-hatred for the things that you see in your home. That is really toxic clutter. So that's what I want to challenge you this year to do is remove all of that stuff from your home. I want you to get

rid of that breadmaker that you bought. You had every intention of making fresh bread and you've maybe done it once and not since. That's toxic clutter. Every time you see that breadmaker, you're like, oh man, I wish I would have, you know, stuck with that. I want you to get rid of the treadmill if you're not using it and every time you look at it you sort of feel guilty for not running on it. You're not going to run on it more by piling clothes on it or whatever, right? Like it's time for a fresh start and it's time to let go of those things in our home that remind of our past failures, that remind us of money we've spent and wasted, that remind us, you know, of gifts we didn't like from people and we feel guilty for not liking them.

All of those things that make us feel, even if it's a split second feeling of not of bad, of negativity, we're getting rid of it. So how do you declutter? How do you get rid of this toxic clutter in your home? It never starts with the things you see. Looking around at your home, you're probably thinking, oh, it's so messy, I have to declutter, but you're looking around and you say, but I use all of this stuff. What could I possibly declutter? I use everything. You use everything you see. So it's time to open up those storage rooms. It's time to open up the closet and dig to the very, very back. It's time to go through your drawers, your kitchen cabinets. It's time to purge those hidden spaces because that's where our toxic clutter lives. It's stealing our space.

So we don't have room for the things we actually use in love. And every time we do catch a glimpse of these things, we're just feeling that negative emotion. from those items. So grab a box, grab a bag, open up a hidden spot, and just start pulling things out. If you're really anxious,

you have a lot of anxiety about getting rid of things because it feels wasteful to you, I really recommend getting clear garbage bags. There's something about putting your items into a black or green garbage bag that makes it feel like you're throwing it away. Even if you're donating it,

it can feel wasteful because putting things in the garbage bags, traditionally our brain is like, okay, this is garbage. And you're looking at your items thinking, these are still good. Someone could use these. So don't put them in a garbage bag. Put them in a donate bag or a gifting bag. It's a clear garbage bag, but we're changing the wording here to make you feel better. We're putting them in gifting bags.

So clear bags we can really call gifting bags, and we're gifting them to somebody who's going to love and appreciate them. so we can get them out of our home because in our home these good, wonderful things are toxic. So we're clearing out all of those things that give us those bad mojo, those bad feelings. So definitely get some clear bags or boxes, go through all those hidden areas and fill it up, see how much you can actually find. I've been purging this past week, you guys, it's insane the mountain that I have. and I feel looking at that I feel guilty my mom was actually here and she was like oh that's so wasteful you're getting rid of so much that's so wasteful but looking closer at the things I'm getting rid of I haven't used any of those things in over a year most of it is kids clothing that they've outgrown toys that they don't play with anymore that they've long outgrown there's puzzles and learn to read books that we haven't used in years

So is it really wasteful to gift those to somebody else? How is holding on to them being less wasteful? On the other side, I'm wasting space in my home. It's taking up valuable space. So the best thing I can do is let those things go. So many people have a fear of being wasteful. And a lot of people who really care about the environment don't like throwing things in the trash either. They want to find the best way to recycle things.

or dispose of things, and it can really cause a lot of anxiety and fear to the point where they're holding onto literal garbage because it feels wasteful getting rid of it, but you're just kind of kicking the can down the road. I mean, holding onto trash in your home so it doesn't end up in a landfill, you're not going to use that trash. It's just going to continue to accumulate, and eventually it's going to end up where your trash is going to go anyways, even if it's after you pass away. Unfortunately, I've actually had some clients, some family members who have hired me after their hoarding relatives have passed on. And what started with good intentions of not wanting to contribute to landfills or not wanting to be wasteful, those good intentions

slowly over time added up to someone whose home was filled with garbage, which really is toxic in so many ways, not just emotionally, but it's physically toxic as well. And I'm not suggesting that your fear of letting go or you holding on to those few extra things is going to add up to that. But I am saying that everyone started with the best intentions, that everyone started out from fear and anxiety of being wasteful. And it's so important that we can really identify the difference between just being negligent and wasteful with items and holding on to items we aren't using out of that fear.

Right? So the money has already spent. We wasted the money the moment we bought an item that we weren't going to use or the moment we've outgrown that item. And holding onto it isn't going to erase that. If anything, it's going to constantly remind us and make us feel guilty of that. So gifting it to someone else is really the only way, the only positive thing that can come out of this toxic clutter. So this weekend, I really challenge you to take a look around your home in those hidden areas and see if you can find some toxic clutter to get rid of. Anything that you haven't used in the last 12 months, anything that you wouldn't buy again? So ask yourself, okay, like if this was stolen tomorrow by thieves who came in the middle of the night to steal my fondue set

for some crazy reason, would I go and buy another fondue set? If the answer is no, it's got to go. You can ask yourself about this, about everything. And if you wouldn't buy it again, I mean, if someone came in and stole my can opener, I would go buy another can opener because I use it all the time. I wouldn't go buy another rice maker. So, not that I have a rice maker, but you're getting the point. So take a look at your home.

You're going to be surprised how many things you can get rid of. No matter how much I purge and declutter, I can always find more, which just proves how much stuff I had in the first place and how a family of five really does outgrow things at a pretty rapid rate. In one year, your children will outgrow an entire size of clothing. they will also outgrow toys within that one year. So if you're not doing huge purges every single year, you're having an accumulation of stuff. And that toxic clutter is filling up all those hidden areas. And when your hidden areas are filled,

that's when your house starts to get really messy. So make 2020 the year that you purge all of that toxic clutter, fresh start, fresh clean home, fresh new you. Thank you guys so much for listening and I'll see you guys next time.