Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Simplify Your Organizing Style & Do A 7-Day Tidy Challenge | Clutterbug Podcast # 126

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

In this podcast, I simplify the four organizing styles so you can simplify your home and your life. REAL organization comes from knowing your natural tendencies and adapting your home, not trying to use systems that don't work for you.  I also show you how a simply 7-day tidy up challenge can ACTUALLY make you a more tidy person...for good.        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

Let's talk more about the four organizing styles. Let's dig deep so you can once and for all really understand how you organize naturally and why. Hey clutterbugs, welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about the four different organizing styles again and we're going to really dig deep because I think sometimes I have a tendency to overcomplicate this. I'm going to simplify this because the truth is it's really simple. Your organizing style just comes down. down to how you naturally sort and how you naturally store your things. And what I'm really wanting you to do is be more mindful of yourself and your habits and how you put things away, how you naturally use things and how you naturally put things away. So let's first talk about

how you sort. You can be a really detailed sorter, love lots of categories, or be a more broad category sorter. So you just want to be able to put things away. quickly, you don't mind taking the time to dig through a bin to find what you need. Now this doesn't mean you want everything just randomly in a bin, but a broad category sorter or a non-detailed sorter, they don't mind having all of their medicine, perhaps, in one bin and looking for their pain reliever because it's more important to them when they put that aspirin bottle away that they can just chuck it into a basket. So would you rather find something quickly and take time to put it away or put something away quickly

and don't mind taking a few seconds to find it? That's really what this core is talking about. Now, there are a lot of people who say, I want both. I definitely want both. But if you really take a look at yourself, you should be able to know if you are a detailed person or a non-detailed person. do you take the time to sort your papers in a really detailed way or do you really crave that and we're not talking about your fantasy self we all have this fantasy of in an ideal world we're all going to be living in homes like the home edit or we're going to be marie condo but realistically is there any area of your life where you're consistently putting things away in a detailed way are you consistently using a planner on a regular basis

are you detailed in any aspect of your life? And then look at that on a scale. Are you generally a pretty detailed person? Now, I'm definitely an extreme. I'm not detailed at all. I struggle in all aspects of detail. I'm not a good schedule keeper. I don't remember to use a planner on a regular basis. I hate filing things in a detailed way. I hate sorting little bivitibops into tiny little categories. That just really goes against my nature, but you might be somewhere in the middle. And so then we ask ourselves, where are we succeeding when it comes to organization? Are we putting things away when they're in a detailed way? Is our craft supplies? Are we able to keep that tidy because we've already set up a system or we could just follow along this detailed

system? Or are we able to put things away in the kitchen where we're just chucking it into the pantry in a basket, where are you succeeding when it comes to how you sort? And then the second half of the organizing style is, of course, how you store things. Do you store things visually or do you prefer things out of sight? And I'm not talking about your underwear. I'm not talking about the things that you know are never going to disappear if you put them behind closed doors. I'm talking about those really important everyday used items. If you're constantly using something every day throughout the do you want it left out? If you have to pay a bill or remember to call somebody or you have an important document that you want to file, do you have to leave it out? Do you need that visual cue? Are you

craving that visual cue? Do you like having your kitchen utensils out on the, like your big spoons and spatulas out on the counter? Do you like having your spices out on the counter or the oil you usually use when cooking out so it's easy to access? Would you prefer your toothbrush and toothpaste out in a cup on your bathroom counter. This is things that visual organizers crave. They like their everyday things to be out. This doesn't mean that they want everything out because if everything's visual, nothing's visual. If everything's cluttered, you can't see anything anyway, so it's really defeating the purpose. And it doesn't mean you want things to look messy. What this means is you are a visual person and it's out of sight, out of mind, and you need that visual reminder. And usually

visual organizers also just love seeing their stuff. They love looking at their things. They love being surrounded by things they find beautiful and things that spur a memory in them. They love being surrounded by sentimental things. They want the front of their fridge covered in their kids' artwork. They love their home filled with knick-knacks or family photos. Now, everyone is different, but again, this is a scale. Do you prefer a fuller, more vibrant home? Or are you craving more visual simplicity? Do you feel calm in a space?

Do you crave that calm feeling that you get from a clean, serene space? Again, we're not talking about minimalism, but we are talking about less visual distractions, knowing yourself. For me, I do have a lot of home decor, but I definitely feel a little claustrophobic in a space that has a lot of color, a lot of different colors or a lot of different things. I'm craving more visual simplicity. I like more monotone colors. I like more softer basic colors. I'm not really loving a lot of visual stimulation in my space. But a lot of people crave a visual space. My sister loves bold colors

and lots of artwork and loves to be surrounded by all of her favorite things. that energizes her, that feels like home to her. And that's what we're really, really trying to do here is cultivate a space that not only is your home, but that feels like home. And it doesn't matter what anybody else's space look like. It doesn't matter what's in magazines and what's popular right now when it comes to home decor. That's not what this is about. This is about creating a home that is you and that reflects you.

and that is a space that is functional for you. And so as a visual organizer, you're going to want to have things out in a visual way. That's beautiful. That's eye-pleasing. And that's easy for you to access. Let's do a quick breakdown of the four organizing styles. So I've given them bug names because, you know, my name of my business is clutter bug. Right off the bat, let's talk about a cricket.

A cricket is a traditional organizer. They really prefer things out of sight. They love visual simplicity, so they're a hidden organizer, but they love details. They love lots of categories. They love all things organization. The second organizing style is a ladybug. A ladybug is also a hidden organizer. They're craving that visual simplicity with things out of sight, but they don't do details.

They are more laid-back organizer. They need big categories with no lids so they can just. toss their things away quickly. Next, you have a B organizer that's a really visual organizer. They like to see their everyday important things. They love things color coordinated, think the home edit, but they're also really detailed. They are definitely, they love categories. They're a little bit of perfectionist, and they want to put things away properly. And last, you have the butterfly, who is also a very visual person. It's out of sight, out of mind. They want to see their everyday important things, but they're more laid back. They don't do a lot of details. They need that

big category, simple organizing solutions. Once you know your organizing style, now you can set up a system in the areas of your home where you're struggling to keep it tidy that's going to stay organized for good. And this is about saving you time. It's about saving you money. So you're not buying systems that don't work with the way you naturally organize. So once you have an idea of your organizing style. This is why things can get tricky because you might say I'm totally a cricket, but for some reason my office has paper all over the place and everything's a mess or I have things all over the counter. Why? Why and how can I do this? This goes for both bees and crickets, but the big stumbling block is you really, because you're a perfectionist, because you love

details, because you want to put something away right, you tend to procrastinate putting something away until A, you're done with it, and B, you have the system that's set up in a perfect way. So you can do two things to sort of combat this. And the first thing is take the time to actually set up a detailed system because once you have a system in place, once you actually do the work and set it up, you'll have no problem maintaining it. It's all about it has to have a designated home. Once something has a clear and dedicated home that you've set up,

you'll have no problem putting things back there. It's just taking the time to actually do the work. And it's putting off that perfectionism. It's saying, okay, I don't have to wait for the perfect container. I'm going to embrace good enough right now. Which leads me to the second thing that you can really do as a cricket or a bee. And that's just embrace good enough right now. Just let go of that drive to really get detailed. And for now, set up a good enough home, whether it's a basket, a drawer, or a shelf. And say, I can. can always go back and make it perfect later. Because the odds are you have a lot of procrastination piles all over your home. If you're struggling with clutter, if you're a detailed person,

you're probably putting off till you can do it right and now you're overwhelmed. And it's everywhere. And so we just embrace good enough. Okay, where is this pile going to live? Where can I set a home for this right now? Rip off the bandaid and start taking action. By identifying, by having the that self-awareness by being mindful of where the problem's coming from. By doing that, by just knowing yourself and why you're struggling, now you have the tools to take the first step to tackling the issue. For macro organizers, it's basically the same issue, but we have a tendency of doing those more laid-back organizers is just shoving and tossing, right? We're done with something. We either drop it exactly where we've used it last, or we toss it in the nearest basket or drawer

or closet. So everything's mixed up. There is no rhyme or reason to our piles. Everything is everywhere. And you might know where everything is or you might not. You might think you know where everything is. But it's really hard for you and the rest of your family to sort of coexist in chaos. And that's what's happening with a laid-back organizer who doesn't have any systems in place is we're creating chaos on a daily basis. Because nothing has an easy home, we're just dropping, we're shoving, sometimes we're even piling, but there isn't a lot of rime or reason to what's going on. And so that's exactly what we have to do is create big picture homes so we can still shove and pile and toss things into a basket, but it's all separated

into these bigger categories. So we know that all of our medical supplies, like first aid supplies, like band-aids and all of the stuff we need if we cut ourselves, we know where they live. And they're all together and there isn't a little bits and bob scattered throughout the house. We have bigger categories in our home. Now this is a lot of work. I'm not going to lie. It means actually going through every area of our home, pulling stuff out and macro sorting. Looking in your drawer and saying, okay, there's a lot of everything in here. Where is this category going to go? Where our office supply is going to go? Where are medicines going to go? Where are household tools going to go? and just setting up a good enough system, dedicating a home.

And then when we get to where we think it should live and there's other random things in there, it means taking that out and dedicate another home. It's a messy, messy process. And the unfortunate thing is when we start getting organized, the truth is our house is going to look worse than it did before. That's just part. That's the thing that we never really hear. All of these experts, all of these professional organizers,

we're seeing these either TV shows or you're watching YouTube videos. And no one tells you the truth is you got to make a mess before it gets better. And this is the reason why all the experts tell you to just do one small thing at a time. Start with one drawer. Start with one pile. And yeah, you're going to have the in the meantime clutter. But that's okay. You can start by organizing one drawer, which means you have a bunch of stuff now that you've had to take out because it doesn't belong.

it's okay to have it does not belong bin that you just sort of shuffle along with you the way you're going to make real real progress that's lasting though is every time you do a small area some things are leaving some things are leaving your house what can go what do you not use what do you not love what would you not buy again what can leave your house so by the time you're done stuff shuffling and It's going to take you a time. That's the unfortunate thing, but you will get to the end. You will get to a point where you've gone through every pile, every closet, every drawer, every hidden space, and it's good enough. And everything has a home. And suddenly you're no longer in the messy middle. Suddenly you're no longer on this hamster wheel of tidying all the time. And you're setting up systems

that work with how you naturally manage your stuff. I don't want you to copy what you see in magazines or on YouTube or on Instagram. I want you to really know yourself. Trust yourself and trust the process as you're going through your home, as you're making messes, as you're reorganizing. Now as you're setting up systems for you and how you naturally sort and how you naturally store your stuff. I want to take a second to thank KiwiCo for sponsoring today's podcast. Now that it's spring, my family is really looking forward to planting flowers in our garden. It's warmer. We're going to spend lots of time outside, but it's also a really great time of year to just introduce new things to my kids. Every single month we get a crate in the mail and this day that the box

arrives is totally the favorite day of the month for my kids. Usually we get the tinker crate because we love teaching our kids about math, science, and engineering. Right now, we're going to go ahead with the Atlas crate for spring, and we're getting the kite-making kit and the maker crate we're going to get in this spring, too, so we can make hanging flower pots for the kids' windows. As a parent, I really want to get my kids off their screen. I want them to do creative things. I want them to learn and see how fun it can be to actually do art and science.

and Kiwi-Co makes it easy. There's something for all ages, and there's absolutely no commitment. Step into spring and celebrate the season of discovery with a Ki-W-Co subscription box. Get 30% off your first month, plus free shipping on any crate line with the code clutter at kiwico.com. That's 30% off your first month at K-I-W-I-C-O-com promo code Clutter. There is one last part that I want to talk about that again, we don't talk about very often, which is your habit. It doesn't matter what you're organizing style is.

You're probably in the habit of being messy. You're in the habit of putting something down instead of putting it away. And that, it doesn't matter what system you set up. It doesn't matter how much decluttering you do. It doesn't matter if you're a minimalist. You're still going to struggle with daily clutter and mess if you don't get to the root the problem, which is then you're in the habit of being messy. I want you to consider listening to this podcast doing a seven day challenge. A seven day challenge. That's all it's going to take

to change this habit, to change your life. It doesn't mean that your house is going to be immaculate at the end of the seven days and everything's going to be organized because we talked about this. That takes time. But the everyday clutter that seems to just pile up all the time, I can help you with that with a seven-day challenge. Changing your habit from being messy to being tidy is the easiest habit that you'll ever change. It is 100% the easiest habit. And all you have to do is set yourself daily reminders throughout the day for five-minute tidy times. I suggest having at least three or four.

So every morning, every mid-morning, every afternoon, and every evening, having an alarm on your phone that forces you to do a five-minute tidy. And I'm not talking about in your drawers or some hidden space. I'm talking about your countertops. I'm talking about your surfaces. I'm talking about your bathroom counter, your kitchen counter, your bedroom top of your dresser. Where are you naturally just putting things down instead of putting things away?

I want you to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to tackle these hot spots all throughout the day for just seven days. And what you're going to see at the end of the seven days is instead of putting your keys down on top of the counter, you're going to be putting them on the hook or in the drawer where they belong. Instead of leaving your toothbrush out on the counter, your toothpaste, you're going to be putting it in the cup or putting it in the drawer. Same with with your hairbrush. Same with the dishes. Instead of putting them on the counter, you're going to be putting them in the dishwasher or in the sink. This is what's going to happen at the end of the seven days because you're training yourself with these five-minute tidy-ups,

you're training yourself to put things away. Let's make this even easier. Let's do a seven-day challenge for only seven minutes a day. I want you to set seven alarms throughout the day for a one-minute tidy-up and just pick an area that's a surface that's a hotspot and spend one minute, 60 seconds, seven times a day. You can do that. You can do seven minutes a day.

day, right? To try this for seven days. Set an alarm. Make sure it's going every day. Pick random times that you know you're going to be home, that you know you're going to be home each of these seven days. I want you to set an alarm to retrain your brain. And after the seven days, you can shut it off. You don't have to do it anymore. And I promise you at the end of this seven days, just doing one minute at a time, you can train your brain. You can retrain your brain to be a tidier person. You have nothing to lose. Give it a shot. I hope you are feeling inspired right now. Grab your phone right now and start setting alarms. And I'll see you guys next time.