Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Self Care is a Scam! | Clutterbug Podcast #323

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Hey Clutterbug! Still exhausted even after self-care? That's because it's a scam! If you're feeling frustrated, tired, lonely, and in over your head with housework, I've got you. We’ve all heard: “Put your own oxygen mask on first.” In an emergency, yes—absolutely. But when that metaphor becomes your whole approach to life, it can quietly teach you that survival is a solo sport. If you’re overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and trying to do everything alone, this conversation will help you build healthier boundaries and stronger support systems—without guilt. Today we’re unpacking the two extremes that leave so many of us burnt out and lonely: 1. giving until you’re empty, and 2. protecting your peace so hard you end up isolated. The middle ground is interdependence: a place where care is shared over time—without keeping score and without one person carrying the whole load. We’ll talk about the four real-life relational skills this takes, the ones no one teaches us. Plus, two practical tools to help you build towards balance: 1) Chris Guillebeau’s “8th day of the week” exercise 2) The 3-3-3 method If you’ve been thinking: “Why am I STILL tired?” this episode is for you. 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 #selfcare #burnout #boundaries #support #guilt #interdependence #mutualaid #emotional #exhaustion #anxiety #timeanxiety #momburnout #3-3-3method #homeorganization #chrisguillebeau Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you've ever flown before, you know the rule is when the oxygen masks come down from the ceiling, put them on yourself first. But what if this isn't totally always true? Like, I feel like I can put the masks on my kid, my husband, the stranger in the row in front, and still have time for my own mask because I'm always juggling everything all the time. And maybe that's why I'm always so tired. Today, I want to talk about self-care, but I want to talk about it differently. maybe through a kind of weird lens.

I think the self-care message that we're being sold is still like overkill. I feel like it's another to-do on the to-do list because it's things like go get a massage or I don't know, wear face masks in a bubble bath. Like it's a production. You know what I mean? It's a production and it's things that you are doing for yourself. But it never really is that way. Like I was thinking the other day, I need self-care.

And my brain, for some reason, was like, you should go plant your garden because gardening self-care question mark, except guess what? It's kind of a chore. Yes, I like it, but that doesn't, that doesn't like rejuvenate me when I'm exhausted. You know what I mean? It's another thing to do. And I feel this way sometimes about traditional self-care. It's literally like more work. I got enough work. I didn't even know self-care was a thing. Like, I went through the entire. entire 90s and early 2000s, never hearing this as a word. And now it's just everywhere. I mean, it's something that people, all the gurus, all the influencers are like, make sure you take a self-care day. What does that even mean? And how many face masks can one person wear? And I'm pretty

sure that soaking my feet in warm water is not going to solve my chronic exhaustion. What if the self-care we're being sold is just wrong? Just like always. I don't want you to just sit and listen or watch this podcast. Let's take action today. Let's do something today to make tomorrow you a little bit happier and your life a little bit easier. And usually we talk about cleaning or decluttering. But today, let's do something different and super fun. Let's think about what you can do to save yourself just a few seconds tomorrow. An example would be, what if you pick out a few outfits and put them together? I like to do this, like, I pick a shirt and pants to go with it, and then I'll go get some jewelry and I'll hang the necklace

over the hanger. So in the morning, there's no thoughts to be had. My entire outfit is prepared. And sometimes I'll do a whole week at a time so I can pick and choose the next day, but I don't have to pick and choose everything. What can you do to just lower some of that decision fatigue? Or, save yourself some time. Maybe you can pack your gym bag today. Maybe you can, I don't know, do some meal prep. Oh my gosh, so good. Every Sunday we cut up cheese and crackers and we make pre-made salads and we do all this little stuff. So throughout the week, when I'm stopping for lunch, it's already made. It's already prepped and ready. This is something that is something you do right now that you will so appreciate tomorrow. And there are a lot of other things do. How can you make life easier?

This is actually what organization is also about. We think it's about bins and baskets and systems, but it's also about doing the prep work today so you don't have to do it tomorrow. And summer's coming, and I'm excited about this. So gather your sunscreen and the bug spray and the band-aids and put it in a little basket so you can just have it ready to go for summer and things along this nature. Don't overthink it. Just jump in and make life easier for tomorrow's you.

So I must say, listen, we're not, we're not, we're not going crazy here. If you're actually in an emergency, please, please, please put your own oxygen mask on first. You have a mere seconds before you pass out, my friend, if you're actually on an airplane. So like, you first, bro. They say that for a reason. But metaphorically, I mean, sometimes I do think that we should put ourselves first. but also I don't think this applies in every single situation. I do think the saying, like, you can't pour from an empty cup rings true, but sometimes I also think your cup can be overflowing. You know what I'm saying?

Like sometimes, I don't want to say selfish, but there are times where I'm like, I'm taking the day for myself and it's all about me and it's me, me, me, me. And then at the end of that day, I don't actually feel fulfilled. Like, sure, I'm physically rested. but I'm not re-energized, I think, in the way that I need. This is going to sound bonkers, okay? I'm just going to share a quick story with you. Joe and I decided we needed more date nights.

And I was like, oh, spending time with my husband. What a chore. No, that's not true. But planning what we were going to do felt like, you know what I mean? And then we found out about a local food soup kitchen, like food bank slash soup kitchen that needed volunteers. And I was like, oh, I should, you know, they really are desperate tonight. Joe, do you want to come with me? We had such a good time. We, like, we genuinely loved this so much. We felt so just re-energized afterwards and we hung out together. So now this is our weekly date night.

We go to the soup kitchen. That might feel like we're pouring from our cup into other people's cup instead of refilling. but the reality is this is filling our cups more than any sitting alone and reading ever could. So sometimes it is the opposite that actually is real self-care. What I love about this is what I'm realizing is self-care is really like a circle. It's a cycle. We're pouring our cup into other people's and we're getting our cup filled. and it's like this beautiful relationship that's going round and round. It isn't just us focusing on filling our own cup all the time because sometimes it's a

whole lot faster and it feels a lot better when we allow other people to fill our cups for us. I think this whole self-care movement started out of necessity because historically as women, but I mean, anybody can do this, men, women. When we give, give, give all the time, especially in a caretaker role and a people pleasing role, we are burnt out and exhausted. Like, we get to the point where we're resentful because all we ever do is give and think about other people.

And we feel like just bone tired. So I think that's why there was this shift to like, you got to focus on you. You got to fill your own cup. You have to be more selfish. You need to put boundaries on your life. but we can take that to the extreme too. And then we can start isolating because for some reason the idea of self-care means alone, that the way to get it is to be around no one else and have total privacy,

where you're just not moving and doing stuff like you're literally just potatoing. And that that equals you feeling better. And sometimes it does, but not always. And sometimes it can actually be detrimental. because what you really need is to feel loved and appreciated, not isolated and alone. So we've kind of gone from these two extremes, or sometimes we ping pong back between these two extremes of like, we're giving everything to everyone and we are selfless and it's just like give, give, give. And then we hit this breaking point.

We're like, no, I'm having boundaries and self-care and I'm isolating and I'm saying no to everyone. and I'm staying home all weekend in my pajamas and not speaking to another soul. Like, why do we think it has to be one or the other extreme? Because both leave us feeling empty. I think what we actually need is just middle ground that has been there the whole time. The middle ground is just serving our community, being there for others, and taking time to serve ourselves. and making sure that we're getting what we need, right? So it's like it's always been there.

But the issue with, I think, why we avoid the middle ground, which is interdependence, right? So we're all kind of dependent on each other is because that requires communicating. That requires asking for what we need and being receptive when other people are asking for what they need and like this give and take open communication thing. I personally not great at that and actually had a full mental breakdown just a few days ago because I wasn't communicating. I've been very

burnt out and feeling like I need a break. And Sunday I was like, I'm going to take a day to myself. But somewhere along the line, I was like, actually, that doesn't recharge me. I'm going to spend my day filling other people's cup. So I'm going to spend my day filling other people's cup. So I got up in the morning and I wiped all the light switches for some reason. I disinfected all my kids' keyboards. I restrained everybody's bathroom. I put everybody's laundry away for them as a favor to them. I even did Joe's laundry, which I said I wasn't going to do, but I was in like serving mode.

I was like, I'm going to make myself feel good by doing kind things for others. And then it's like seven. I made dinner. I was like, I'm going to. I made. cookies. I made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. My whole day was just making other people happy. Guess what? By seven, no one had noticed. I was exhausted. Then I'm like, what did anyone do for me today? And I was a psycho. I was angry. I was resentful. Joe was watching hockey playoffs. And I was like,

snippy with him. And I'm like, I'm loading the dishwasher for the third time today. And he was like, bro, I did stuff today too. Do you want me to help? And he got up and you could tell he's like, you know when you're mad at your husband? And he's in like that fear mode. He's like, oh, God, what are I getting? I don't know. I don't know why you're mad, but you're mad about something. I'm just going to throw a bunch of things at you and hope you get better. It was that. And what I realized was all I needed to say was, hey, I'm feeling really kind of underappreciated today. If I would have said, I'm feeling like I'm giving more than I'm receiving. If I would have used any word, I wouldn't have had to have my full mental breakdown. And also, maybe I would have

recognized that nobody asked me to clean their light switches. No, of course they're not going to say they appreciate it because they didn't even know I did it. And yes, maybe they appreciated the laundry, but again, they didn't ask. I was just giving, giving and then mad that they weren't happy. Ridiculous. You know what I'm saying? The middle ground is open communication. Like, Hey, I'm feeling a, have you heard this? This is from Brne Brown, I think. So good. So good. She said every person should share with their loved ones what number they're at energy wise throughout the day. So if I was feeling a nine, I could say that. I'm feeling like a nine. Is there anything I can help you with? Because what are you feeling today? And maybe Joe would say, I'm a three.

So I step up. But the next day, I have to know myself and be brave enough. to say, I'm feeling a two today. And then he would then step up. It's that type of communication that allows us to play in that interdependent middle ground. We have to have this give and take, this interdependence that doesn't include a scorecard. We're like, I did 10 things and you only did one thing, kind of thing. Or the pressure or the nagging that comes with the keeping score, who's winning, who's the most productive. All of that is not part of this interdependence. There are really four skills that we need to learn that no one really ever taught us to master this middle ground, this interdependence that we need. And the first is ask. We have to be able to

actually ask what we need, like to verbalize it, not in a screaming, why do you never help me with the dishes. But I really need help with the dishes today because I'm feeling burnt out and I'm feeling a little bit resentful. And I was hoping you could help me with this. That's very different than I'm emptying the dishwasher for the third time today. That was not effective communication. Ask, ask for exactly what you need. And then the second part is receiving it, like being willing to receive it, which is something I, struggle with. So after my mental breakdown on Sunday where I was a crazy lunatic and I was screaming and freaking out, I literally cried to my husband. He's like, what is going on? I'm like,

I'm just so, I just need a day off from everything. I need a day where I'm taking care of. I need a day where people are doing things for me without me being, just because they know that I need a break. And he's like, so take tomorrow off. And that was like, what? He's like, do whatever tomorrow. Call in sick to your job, which I did. The point is, and I was like, and you'll baby me? Like, I need to be a princess. And he's like, okay, so he made me a coffee in the morning.

He made me lunch at lunch. I laid in bed and watched TV most of the day. And it was awkward to receive it because I heard him like washing dishes down there, my kids doing things. And I'm like, I got to be okay with just receiving other people's, you know, them giving to me and he came up and he was like doing laundry and all these things. He was going above and beyond because I asked for one day of that. Would it be great if I didn't have to ask? Of course. But the point is, if I don't ask, how could I possibly be upset that people aren't

reading my mind? So I allowed myself to receive. And I felt amazing. But I also found like just hiding up in my bed alone also wasn't recharging. I then wanted to go spend time with him. So I went down and just said, hey, can we play a family board game? And we played risk. And it was horrible slash amazing. But that was the self-care I also really needed. I needed to put down the chores and pick up some play and fun and let other people handle those mundane tasks for a day. The third skill that we have to master, again recap, first is ask, second is receive. The third is setting limits. Because there's something in our brains that it's almost like this oblige your rebellion or something.

Like we allow people to ask and take and take and take and then we have a big freak out. And then we say, nope, this is my boundary. I want nothing to do with you at all. And that's not helpful. The skill we need is the skill we need is the. setting the limits. So my mom, she is a widow and she is lonely and she lives about an hour away and she wants me to go shopping with her, of course. And I love that. And she wants me to help her decorate and she wants me to help her garden and she wants me to just come over for coffee. And

she wants a lot of my time, which is totally understandable. But what happened was like, I'm busy and I have family here and I work two jobs. And so I was starting to get really resentful of the amount of time I was spending. So then I just avoided her calls. Then I was like, oh, I can't talk to my mom because she's going to ask me to spend time with her. And I don't want to spend like hours and hours and hours with her every single week. I just don't have the capacity. But avoiding didn't make me feel better. It just made me feel guilty in shame. And I miss my mom. So with setting limits, it's now, mom, I take Friday afternoons for you. And if a Saturday's a better, we'll pick a Saturday every other week. So I'll do Friday afternoons and every other Saturday with you, which is

that limit, that boundary, which means when I'm talking to her on a Tuesday and she's like, hey, can you come real quick and hang this picture? I can say, mom, that's a two hour drive for me. I love you so much, but I can do that on Friday on our set limit days. So everybody wins. Nobody's resentful. and I don't feel taken advantage of, and I also don't feel guilty for not spending time with her. The final skill we need to learn is the repair, because we've probably gone nuclear. Let's be real. I know I went nuclear on Sunday. Or we've just had so much resentment bottled up for so long, maybe on multiple sides with multiple people, that it's became this battleground where now we're just fighting for who's better.

who's doing more, who's winning. And the repair comes in of like having the conversation, hey, I'm sorry I've been short. I'm sorry I've been taking it out on you. I'm sorry if I've come across as like resentful. It's because I feel XYZ. I feel overwhelmed. I feel like I'm taking on the majority of this. And it would be so helpful and I'd be so appreciative if we could come up with a plan together to share the load. This type of communication, we were never taught. We were never taught like, I'm sorry. Or looking at the other person's perspective and realizing they are not mind readers. Maybe they should realize that we're the only ones who ever do the dishes in the laundry and all the cleaning, but maybe they just don't. So instead of screaming it at them when we are

having a mental breakdown. What if we calmly were just honest? And in having that conversation with Joe, I was like, and I did the light switches and I did the and then he was like, okay, I hear what you're saying, but also no one asked you to do any of that. And a lot of that seems like you were just making work that maybe was unnecessary, which is true. So I can't do something. And I can't do something for someone else that they didn't ask me to do, that they didn't even care if it was done, and then be mad that they weren't appreciative or be mad that they weren't repaying me with some other kind of grand gesture. But I wouldn't have had that realization, had I not had a calm, real conversation trying to repair the damage I did from screaming

like a banshee. It's because their light switches are always so grody. And I just started doing this during COVID because I was like, I'm going to keep everyone safe. And now it's just this habit that I disinfect like doorknobs and light switches out of, and then I'm like, oh, I'm doing all this to keep you from getting ill. They don't even know or care. And Cass, you don't need to do it anymore. You complete nut job. Learning these four skills is going to take time. This isn't something we're going to like fix overnight, but it's worth it. And these are things that if we slowly pick away at them and we practice, they're going to take practice, and we are open to having real conversations and asking for help and receiving it and setting

limits, that's when real change can happen for us. Our goal is not perfection here. We are not aiming for that. That's, I think, what those two extremes were, right? We're either like giving, giving, giving, or we're like, oh, I'm giving nothing. This is about that wonderful middle that balance. And I have two tools that I'm going to share with you that can help you actually achieve it. The reality is if support and rest aren't named and named calmly, it's just who's ever the neediest wins or whoever's yelling the loudest gets the attention and gets and gets what they need, which isn't working for anyone. Tool one is something super cool. It's actually like a thought experiment that you can do. And I heard of this from Chris Gillibault. He is

a really good friend of mine, an incredible New York Times bestselling author and the creator of the eighth day. I don't know what else to call it. I don't even know if he created it, but I'm giving him the props. Okay. It's called your extra eighth day. And the concept here is, think about if I said to you, you have an extra day this week. It's a bonus day. You get to do whatever you want, no pressure. You don't have to work. You don't have to do any extra things around the house. It's a day to do whatever you want. What is your first instinct that you would want to fill that day with? Like, what do you want to do on that bonus day? You get a whole 24 hours extra in the week for anything you want. And what's really fascinating is you might think, what I think, I want a whole day to just lay in bed and

play Fortnite, right? That probably means I'm craving rest and a little bit of isolation. Maybe I'm over-peopled. But sometimes when I do this thought experiment with myself, I actually think, oh my gosh, I'd love to get together with my friends and do a game night. Because obviously, I'm craving connection. Sometimes I'm like, oh, I would spend the whole day gardening. I would want to get out with the family and plant flowers and garden. Obviously, this. This is something that I'm craving. So when we don't know what we need, it feels like guessing. You know, like, do I need to be alone?

Do I need more people time? Do I need to give more? Like, what do I need? That feels like too big and too hard of a question to really answer. So this thought activity, this thought experiment of what would you do on an eighth day of the week with no responsibility, no pressure, and no time commitments? Like, what would you do with that day? That is the perfect way to really understand what you're craving. The point of the eighth day is not more productivity. This isn't like so you can get more done.

It's actually the opposite of that. It's a day where you don't have to be productive so you can really identify what you need more of. Maybe you need more rest, more solitude, more nature, more play, more adventure, more deep conversational. conversations. Maybe you need more time with your spouse. Maybe you need to go to a soup kitchen because it's super fun. The point is your eighth day, that day that's wide open and you can do anything you want. It's not a vacation, my friend. It's just bonus hours. Whatever you would do to fill that is how you can really know what you're craving and what you're missing right now. There's no laundry on this day. Like, no one is catching up on laundry. Also, spoiler alert, there isn't actually an eighth day.

Like, I wish there was. No, no. This isn't about like you making an eighth day. This is about you dreaming of what you would do on that eighth day. And then knowing that that's what you're craving. And then finding time to work this into the seven days we got. You know what I'm saying? We got to work it in because we can't have a whole extra day.

What we're going to do is convert like the fantasy into real life by creating micro days, micro eighth days, which is like an hour or two hours once a week unscheduled. We're not going to like plan what we're going to do. We're just going to give ourselves some breathing room in our schedule and then fill that with the thing we're craving. with the thing that we're yearning for that maybe we don't even know that we are without doing the eighth day thought experiment. So I'm going to ask you a couple of questions. I want first thought that comes into your head. On your magical fantasy eighth day, who are you with?

Like think about it. Who are you with? What are you not doing? Like what's the thing you're like, I don't need to do this on my eighth day because it's bonus time. And what are you not trying to prove? And what I mean by that is, are you like, I want to prove that I'm a great mom and I want to prove that I'm a great wife or I want to prove that I'm super productive and I get a lot done?

What are you letting go of? What like label and pressure are you letting go of on your magical fantasy eighth day? What I love about this eighth day hack is that sometimes it reveals things even a little deeper than we realize. So if we're like, I'm tired, you know, I'm so exhausted, we might not actually be tired physically. We just might not feel energized. And that's a big difference. It really is. And just visualizing what we're craving or what we could do that feels energizing, that feels like, oh, yes, this is what I need. That's exactly what you need. That's exactly what you need. And if it is that you're feeling a lack of energy, like you feel like you just don't have that oomph,

it might not be that you need more self-care. It might be that you need to structure your time a little bit differently, that you need to make little adaptations into your day to actually feel energized again. So here's the second tool. I am obsessed, okay? this is my new thing that I do. I call it the 333 method. I call it that because that's what other people who are way smarter than me call it and I learned it from them. And I started doing this a few months ago. I saw it somewhere and let me tell you life changing. So every morning I have a notebook that's by

the coffee maker and as I'm making my chai latte, I write down my 333. The first three are three things I want to do that day. Like, think of it as a traditional to-do list. I only get three. If I get them done, cool. Maybe I don't. That's also cool. But I'm writing like my top three. The next three are three fun things I want to do. Or like the three things that I would be yearning for if it was my eighth day. And the final three are three goals for the week. Now again, those can be fun or those can be tasks. But this 333 method, I put it on a piece of paper. I leave it out and I glance at it all throughout the day. And here's what happens. I feel motivated because I only have three tasks to do that I actually am like, oh, that's easy. I can check those off. And maybe I do and then I

add more and that's okay. But we're starting with 333. But just being reminded of those three fun, those three, the recharging, the three. Sometimes my fun is like, play fortnight for an hour. Sometimes my fun is go for a walk with Joe. Sometimes my fun is big cookies with the kids. It always changes based on what I need fueled that day. But it isn't vacuum dishes. Me, go to work, send that email. And then the final three are more big picture thinking, which makes me excited about the week. So this week on my 333 is I want to plant more wildflower. seeds. And I'm really excited about that. And every time I glance at this, the next day I'll like start my new 333, I keep the same weekly goals. Sometimes they change. But looking at that is like,

yeah, what day am I going to do this? And I'm excited at the possibilities coming. It keeps my energy up. And it keeps me really thinking about more than just being productive or giving for others. I have this beautiful balance between the things I want to do and the things I want to receive. And I've got it right down on paper to keep me reminded of them. I think what also is really helpful is to take a look at your 333 list and really evaluate it. Are all of your things that you're doing for other people? Right. So is you're like, I'm going to, the three things like, I have to clean the house. I have to do the laundry. I have to, I don't know, something else for someone else, take my kid shopping and get a prom dress. And then the fun things are like, I want to visit my mom. I want to

bake cookies for the neighbor. I want to blah, blah, blah. Again, these are all like external, even though they bring joy, it's a really good indication that these are all for others. Or maybe your list is all like me, me, me, me also. It's about self-awareness, my friend. How can we how can we have that balance, which I love about the three through three is like your output versus your joy is balanced with this method. But also how can you make sure that all of these three tasks that you're writing down, these three three three are are balanced within the give and take, right, with other people too. Because this is what it's all about is that middle ground, that self-awareness and that we're going to stop doing things we've always done just because we've

always done them, and we're actually going to evaluate what we do and ask ourselves why. This isn't a productivity system. This is a balance system that also just happens to make you more productive. I mean, that's a cherry on top, because I'm always about that productivity hacks. And I am more productive when I also have balance of joy and fun. Because nothing sucks my energy more than burnout. And nothing just sucks me dry more than resentment and giving too much, but also taking too much doesn't energize me either. I just feel like, I feel like if all I do is lay around and

face mask and play Fortnite all day, I also have lost the zest in my life. So if you're taking anything from today. I hope you're taking that your cup doesn't have to be full, but it can't be empty either. It's about a constant flow of refilling and pouring here because nobody likes stagnant water. Anyways, you know what I'm saying? Guess what clutter bugs? We have a new segment. This is super fun. This is called Cass Rants about random stuff because A, I know, a new therapist and I don't have one and this makes me feel better. And B, sometimes we just need to get fired up about stuff and maybe it'll fire you up too. Okay. It's called this new segment, not today, Satan. So today we're going to say,

not today, Satan. Here we go. I went to Mexico twice this year. I stayed at this amazing resort the second time that had sea turtles for days. You would walk right off the beach. The first time I had to pay to go to Occumal. I paid like $200 to swim with sea turtles, swim with like three sea turtles. It was great, but there was people there policing the whole time because what do we never do? We never touch a sea turtle. Second time I went three weeks later, there were hundreds of sea turtles all day. The point is, there were people riding the sea turtles like it was a surfboard. There was a chick feeding them bananas. Do bananas grow at the bottom of the ocean? There were people petting them. were people hugging them. They were not today, Satan. Sea turtles are in danger. Don't you dare touch them. Okay? I'm just going to say, if you see a sea turtle, don't touch it. If you

see any wild animal, it is not a pet. I don't, you don't pick up baby bunnies and take them home. Not today, Satan. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. I switched to Cozy Earth bedding and let me tell you there's no going back. I've now become a sheet snob. I know this because I've been staying in hotels recently and everything feels so scratchy because my cozy earth sheets feel like light and cool. Their temperature regulating, but so ridiculously soft, it feels like luxury. And so whether I'm taking a day to lay in bed and watch Fortnite or I'm just having a hot flash and need to sleep in peace, cozy earth, Sheets are there to make it a little bit better, a little bit more special in my bedroom.

And I want this for you too. Or maybe for your mom. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code clutterbug to save 20% off right now. Whether it's a gift of PJs or sheets, go to cozyearth.com, use the code clutterbug, and save 20% off. Now it's time for Talk to Cass. I love this segment so much. I love that you like call in. Let's start with Courtney. Hi, Cass, this is Courtney, formerly from Kentucky and now living in Iowa. I wanted to thank you so much for your

encouragement in response to my previous message that you featured on your podcast some weeks ago. I appreciate that so much. I have a question for you, and this is about paper clutter, which I, as a cricket really struggle with. I have kept my planners from probably 20, 18 and on or so, at least 2020, because I used them kind of as a way to journal stuff that was going on in my life. I didn't keep a journal specifically in those years, but I was very much into personal productivity, organization, you know, picking out like your top three tasks for the day. And so then at the end of the week, I would kind of jot down like my wins from the week. And I would do that also at the end of each quarter and then at the end of each year.

So those probably four to six years worth of planners have wins from like the year and stuff like that that I kind of like to look back on and go, wow, there's so much progress that I've made in my life. However, I don't know. Is it worth keeping like the planners just for that? or should I transfer those kinds of things into just like one digital file? Or what would you recommend for that? Because I do have several of these planners and I've just been storing them away. I don't really want to get rid of them. But everybody that I'm hearing from in the decluttering space and home organization space

is saying like get rid of your old planners. So what would you recommend for that? Thanks so much. Listen, Courtney, I think if you have this space for them, then it sounds like memory and like put it in your memory bin, right? I never think we should just get rid of something for the sake of getting rid of it. That being said, if you live in a small space and these planners are like in your living space, absolutely freaking not. Like if you don't have a place for them to go and also you plan on doing this for the rest of your life and you're going to be running out of space, that's where it's a problem. So yeah, we don't have to declutter for the sake of decluttering. And if you have room in your memory bin, put them in there. But if you're like, my house is actually quite cluttered cast, that's the reality of it. And I don't have space for them. I would suggest that you start a wins. Like a wins sheet, a wins board, a wins vision board, which is like instead of a to-do, it's a ta-da. And you're like, in 2018, I accomplished this. It could be a chalkboard. It could be a a whiteboard so it's always in flux. But it sounds like that's the part you really love is like celebrating your wins. And you don't necessarily need to keep the whole planner for that. But also, if you have the space, it's not hurting anything. Now we have a dinosaur from Nikki.

Good morning, Cass. I have a dinosaur for you. As I was cleaning out my craft room, I found five disposable cameras. I sent them in for processing just because I was curious. as to what was on them. I kind of thought maybe I should just toss them, but the curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to get them developed. When they came back, they were all such horrible quality that I could barely even tell what was on the photos. One of the photos I could tell was my nephew, who is now 21 years old. He was a tiny baby, so that kind of gives you an idea of how old these photos cameras were. Anyhow, I spent $80 developing these photos, and not a single one of them could be displayed or shared with others. They all ended up in the trash. So note to self,

if you think you should just throw it away, just avoid the curiosity and just throw it away anyways. Thanks for all you do for us. Bye. I love the crap out of this dinosaur so much because do you know how many times when I'm decluttering, I come across like film canisters or disposable cameras. And then there's like, but what if there's something I've been missing my whole. life on this girl no you you you haven't even and also i didn't even know places still developed film and 80 dollars is too much so i'm sorry you had that experience because you lost money but also you're helping everyone listening today feel inspired to just throw those out because most of the pictures were just the back of people's heads anyways on those old you know those little

you know what i mean all those photos sucked now let's hear from Hope. Hi, Cass. My name is Hope from Western New York. I've been meaning to reach out for weeks now, and I was finally listening to your podcast and decided, you know what, I'm just going to do it shitty. I'm not going to write it out. I'm just going to speak. So I wanted to reach out because you were talking about decluttering holidays with Peter Walsh and how great it would be if there was a decoloring holiday. And we do have one in our family that we observe. my husband, he grew up celebrating St. Nick Day on December 6th. St. Nick would come and leave a little something in their stocking overnight.

I wanted to do that with my family, but I had to make it make sense. St. Nick and Santa in my mind, they were always interchangeable. So I made it all about decluttering and donating. We, it's the more charitable aspect of Christmas. I go through my boys, we sit down, we do toys together. I make a big show of gathering the stuff from my donation bin and we leave it out for St. Nick to take. St. Nick connects with Santa Claus and then he's got plenty of time to load it on his sleigh and

deliver it to kids who might not have toys otherwise. And it's been really, really great. It gets them thinking about, you know, sharing what they don't need in this moment with somebody else. And yeah, it's a wonderful tradition. Then St. Nick leaves them a little trinket in their stocking and it tides them over until Christmas. I want to thank you so much for everything you do. You're constantly in my head all day, every day, and I wouldn't have it any other way. those are good positive thoughts and mantras which is quite a change from some of the voices on my

head throughout the years so thank you so much and keep on shining keep on sparkling thanks cast ah hope let's make this a real national holiday that is so freaking beautiful i wish I could go back in time and do this with my kids. We definitely would go through and like we would find things to donate before Christmas. But I love this so much. Also, I love that you're like, Santa's elves are overwhelmed and we can all be Santa's elves and help find presents that they can put on the sleigh. Oh, just so freaking good.

What a beautiful way to make a yearly tradition. And you're just like extending Christmas even more. It's just, it's so good. stop it. I'm going to write this down and this is going to be something that we're going to champion together, hope. I hope it takes off. I love, love this so much. If you want to be part of the Clutterbug podcast, I would love to help answer your questions. So if you have a custom question, like, how should I organize this or what's the best way to set up a system for this? Definitely go to clutterbug.com slash talk to cask, ask a question. Or if you have a decluttering dinosaur, a

decluttering dinosaur is like you found something so old. You're like, why is this still in my home? That's a dinosaur. And you're going to help inspire and help motivate other people listening. So thank you so much again. Go to clutterbug.com slash talk to Cass. If you have a question, I'd love to answer it. You definitely want to head over to my main channel. It's just called Clutterbug because I am doing a video collab with my absolute here. Gretchen Rubin. She's been on this podcast twice because, yes, that's awesome. But her words of wisdom, we put them to the test in person and she helped me do a makeover. And also, I went to her house, which will be a totally different video and I snooped through her stuff to diagnose her

organizing style. You do not want to miss these videos. They are so, so good. Head over to the Clutterbug channel. Subscribe if you haven't already and keep your eye out for those videos. I hope you're feeling so motivated to find that middle ground to do self-care a little bit differently. Hopefully you try the eighth day thought. This is just please try this. And consider grabbing a blank notebook and doing the 333 method. I think both of these tools absolutely can help you find that piece, that recharge, even that re-energization that you are craving.

And I hope you did something today to make tomorrow's. life easier. Like I hope you gave yourself a gift that tomorrow is like a little bit of extra time. Thank you guys so much and I'll see you next time.