Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Simple Ways to Fall in Love with your Home | Clutterbug Podcast # 111

Episode Date: August 29, 2021

No more excuses! Let's stop dreaming of the home we will have someday, and instead start loving the home we have right now. In this podcast, I'm sharing three simple ways you can fall in love with your home this Fall.        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

Today we're going to talk about some different ways that you can fall in love with your home this fall. Little things like touchups, cleanups, and give-ups that you can do. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. I know it's still really hot outside, but listen, fall is right around the corner. And for us, I mean, I don't know about you and your friends. family in your home, but for us, fall means more work. Fall means more obligations, just more expectations. It's back to school. My kids' birthdays are in fall. We have a lot of extracurricular activities that we don't normally have in those lazy days of summer. And before we know it,

it's Thanksgiving, it's Halloween, and then of course it's Christmas. There's just a lot coming up in a really short amount of time when you start to get into September, October, November, and it doesn't start slowing down again until January. So I want to not only be prepared so that when the busy months pick up, I'm not feeling overwhelmed, but I'm also feeling after this summer, every time this year we close up the windows, we go back inside, especially after the last year we've had, let's just be honest, it can feel a little stifling to be back inside your house again, not having the outdoors to explore the way that we can in the summer and enjoy them. way that we can in the summer. So I'm really dedicated right now to do things to fall in love with my

home again. It's even more important to me right now because recently we've been home shopping. We were thinking about for a long time buying a bigger house and we've actually started looking at some other homes. We put an offer in on one home. We looked at another home a couple of days ago and all of this really got me thinking about all the things that would have to do to my home in order to get it ready to sell. And even though my house is usually pretty tidy, there's all these little things that really bug me about the house. We have cracks in our ceiling that drive me absolutely crazy.

We have plaster walls and plaster ceiling, which were cracked before we even bought the house 10 years ago, and they're still cracked now. And I feel like that would have to be fixed. And there's paint touch-ups all over the place. And there's spots that are filled with things that the truth is I probably wouldn't even want to move with me, but that make closets feel really overstuffed that I was like, oh, I'd have to declutter that if we were going to put the house on the market.

And I would have to paint this room and I would have to touch up the vanity in the bathroom. That's all the paints chipping off. And I was thinking about all this work that I would have to do to get my home to a place that I feel like potential buyers would like it. They'd be like, oh, yeah, this looks done. This looks nice. this looks ready to move in. And then I thought, why am I putting this off? These tiny little projects. Why every day am I looking at that crack and being like, oh, I hate that crack in the ceiling? Why am I just not fixing it? You know what am I waiting? What am I waiting for? Every time I go in

the downstairs Harry Potter closet and I have to climb over things to get inside, if I'm not going move those things when I move, why is it still in my home? And I guess I had never really looked at it. I had never really looked at my home through the lens of a potential buyer or through like I'm going to be selling it. What would I do to make it more sellable? When really what that means is what would I do to make my home the best that it can be? And why am I waiting to make it the best that it can be? and so I'm I'm all on board with this fall in love with your home for fall. I have a ton of little baby projects for my home planned to make to make me love it more because the truth is the more Joe and I talk about it, I don't, I'm not ready to move right now.

And I feel like if I do all of these little things that are really bugging me about the house, I might not want to move. A bigger house is more work. and I really want to simplify my life right now. I want to have less to do. I want to have less pressure, less stress, less overwhelm. And what are things that I can do that make my house sort of be this respite from the rest of the world and the stress? And I think, I mean, when I got organized in the first place, it was work up front.

When I decladered everything, I was like, oh, oh, my. my gosh, it was so much work to get things out. But then every day my life was a little bit easier. And every time I organized something, it was work up front. But then every day, not only was my life easier and I saved time, but my stress level was lower because of the work I had put in at the front end. And now it's time to just do this again. It's time to do a big reset of my home and just tackle all those little projects that are sort of, without me even knowing it, it's like a silent to-do list. This is what Dawn from the middle of the mom says.

All of these things that we're putting off doing, whether it's decluttering, whether it's touching up the paint that's chipping on the wall or finishing a little project that's been left unfinished for a really long time. These are all silent to-do list things that whether we know it or not are way. us down. They're making us feel bad about our home, bad about ourselves. And it also makes us procrastinate doing things that we know we should be doing because we're like, oh, if I had time to do this fun thing, I should probably be finishing that project. Or I shouldn't really treat myself to, I don't know, a night out at the movies. I should really put that money towards finishing

this little project. But we're not finishing the projects and we're not doing the things. We're doing nothing instead. So we're in this constant state of limbo. And I know you can probably relate. So I want you to think of your own home. And I want you to think if tomorrow, somebody came to you and said, okay, this is your dream home. We can trade it for your house. As long as we're able to sell your home fast,

what would you have to do to get your home sellable? I'm not talking about renovations. I'm not talking about new flooring and new kitchens, new bathrooms, nothing crazy. What could you do, spending nothing or spending a very little amount like a can of paint decluttering cleaning what could you do to get your home to be more sellable and then i want you to ask yourself why the heck are you waiting why the heck why am i waiting why are we waiting don't we deserve to have a home that that we're proud of

that makes us feel good. Don't we? We totally deserve that. So I want us, I want us together, you and I to really challenge ourselves, make a list of little small things that we can do and make it a priority before life gets overwhelming, which is coming up really fast. Right before Thanksgiving, we have all of this crazy stuff coming in and Christmas is right around the corner. What can we do this right now in September? Small, things to make us fall in love with our home this fall. So I'm going to focus on three different areas in my home. I'm going to give up, not give up like I'm giving up. I'm waving the white flag. I'm not doing any more work, but I'm going to give up things that I'm not using and loving and that I wouldn't

bring with me if I moved. And I declutter all the time, but there are still things that I hold on just in case or those areas that I, like the shed that I just like, it's the abyss that I never really go into, but honestly, I'm like, if I was moving, half of the stuff in the shed I wouldn't even bring. And so I said to Joe, we got to rent a dumpster. Why don't we just rent a dumpster? It's not that expensive. You can even get dumpster bags from Home Depot that are a lot less money. It gives you a deadline and it gives you a place for all this extra trash that we're holding on to go. And it gives us the motivation we're looking to get things out. Broken. things. I have bins filled with like cat toys and stuff. Like I haven't had a cat in so many years that's

in the laundry room. I just have stuff that can go. But it feels like it feels so minuscule. It feels like such a small little thing to pull that out that I just haven't got around to doing it. There's always things I would rather do that seems so small on on the list. But I know, I know that all of those little things laying around are going to add up to a big thing. And so I'm looking at my house differently. I'm looking at it like I am going to move tomorrow, which I'm not. We've decided we don't want to move. But what would I not bring with me? And then why the heck am I keeping it in this house? Those things are going. I'm going to go through my board games. Oh my gosh. I'm going to go through the board games and I'm going to get rid of anything that we've outgrown because the other thing is

it's really selfish of me to hold on to these things that we're not using and loving. that somebody else could be enjoying. Whether it's a book on my bookshelf, I know I'm never going to read again, a board game I know we're never going to play again, or clothing that I'm never going to wear again. It's time to give it up so that other people can enjoy it, but also so I can give myself back some space

and take more off my plate. Because every time we have less inventory to manage, our life is easier. And this can honestly be, something that we can do on one weekend afternoon. We can dedicate a few hours to just go through our home. You can get a dumpster bag. You can get a dumpster. You can get garbage bags. Donation boxes. Really plan time in your schedule. I'm going to give things up today. Today, no excuses. I'm setting time to make my life easier and let things go. The next thing that I'm doing is I'm going to clean up.

there are a little, oh my gosh, behind my washing machine. I used to have this box filled with candles. I got them from IKEA, you know, those little votive candles. You get like a pack of like a million for $5. Anyways, I had it on top of my washing machine when we first moved in. And the box tipped and it fell behind and it dumped. And I have never picked those up, like ever behind the washing machine. And I was in the laundry room and I thought, oh my gosh, if we were selling our house

and like a home inspector came and looked, I have cleaned the lid trap. Okay, I have gone behind the washing machine. machine seen this huge pile of dusty, dusty old candles and thought, well, whatever. I'm not touching those. Why? Why? Okay. So I have all this, like, I'm embarrassed. I have all this stuff that I've put off. I have a garbage shed and sometimes like the garbage, the kids haven't tied it properly and they've tossed it into the garbage can and then the garbage like overflows and the garbage falls onto the ground. And we've just left it there. All right. There's cardboard that I kid you not has not made it out. There's like flattened pizza boxes in the bottom of our garbage shed

every time we just leave them there. We take out the recycling boxes and we're just like we could bend down and pick up those broken pizza boxes or we could just leave them for another year. Like what? There's all these like little ways that I've been really lazy enough. I'm going to dedicate time to just clean up the little things that I've not made a priority. I have underneath our deck, we have like old canoes and kayaks that are filled with water and leaves. They're like breeding pools for mosquitoes and kids toys from when my kids were really little, like a little play kitchen is under there. And one of those little cars that they ride in, you know, the remote control cars or whatever.

My kids are way too big for that. Why is it under there? It's time to clean up all of those little things that I would have to if I was selling my home. home. And the last thing I'm going to do is some touch-ups. I painted our downstairs bathroom and the paint's chip. I painted it like eight years ago and some of the paint is chipping off, but I still have the paint. And when I stained everything black like a crazy person, my kitchen and my baseboards, some of that is chipped from the rumba and just from use, but I still have the stain. So it would take honest minutes to touch up some of these things, these scuffs on the wall, grab a magic

eraser and just and just touch up the scuffs, touch up anything where the pain is chipped. It really, really wouldn't take me very long. So I'm going to make that a priority too. Because again, those are things I would do if I was selling my house. And why am I waiting for somebody else to enjoy it when I can make, I'd have to do it anyways. Why don't I do it for me and for my family to enjoy right now? So I'm going to challenge you too. It doesn't have to be crazy. Okay. It doesn't have to be some big elaborate thing but what can you do to fall in love with your home this fall what small project have you been putting off what's something that you should be painting or cleaning or decluttering that really without i you know it i know you're thinking of something right now it doesn't

have to be something you have to spend a lot of money on but there is something you've been putting off either treating yourself to or finishing or doing in your home that whether you know it or not is constantly nagging you it's nagging you it's on your silent to-do list it's making you feel bad about your home and bad about yourself and we're putting down our excuses we're saying enough is enough i deserve better and i'm going to just do it and that could be something as really simple as getting yourself that new shower curtain since yours is ripped in your bathroom or finally getting blinds for your bedroom so the sun every morning isn't shining in your eyes or biting the bullet and saying you know what i want new throw pillows and i have no problem getting takeout why is it so hard for us

to treat ourselves to something for our home maybe you want to paint your front door or get yourself a fall wreath for your front door what can you do to put your home and yourself first just for a moment so that you can fall in love with your home a little bit more. We're making a priority, you guys. This is what we're doing. This is our goal for September. Even if you do one small thing, you're pushing that needle forward. You're getting one step closer to a home that you love. Look at social media at these beautiful white kitchens and these beautiful pictures and walking closets and I think, oh, it would be so nice to have that. And because I'm always focusing on the things that I don't have and the things that I want,

it's really hard to appreciate what I do have. And because I'm not appreciating it, it's really hard to feel happy. When you're always looking to the future and you're not focusing on today, it can get you into a place where you're always feeling restless and you're not enjoying the moment and you're not loving what you have right now and you can feel like ungrateful. I want you and me. I want both of us to really be happy in the home that we're in right now. We can still want more and crave bigger and better things, but we really have to be happy with what we have because that's where true happiness and contentment

comes from, it's being grateful for what we have today. So we're going to do little things to fall in love with our home because it's that act of giving love that gives us that love feeling back. When we do something small to improve our home, we feel proud of ourselves and proud of our home and house proud is how we love our home again. So thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you're feeling inspired to do something. something small this fall to fall in love with your home again. We'll see you guys next time.