Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Super Cleaning and Organizing Motivation | Clutterbug Podcast # 232

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Are you feeling unmotivated to get up and get stuff done?  In today's uplifting podcast, I'll be your cheerleader and motivator to help you kickstart your day and get housework done. Together, let's take action and become the hero of our own story. Let's conquer those tasks and bask in the satisfaction of our accomplishments today! Are you ready? On our mark, get set, be awesome!   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

Are you ready? It's time to get up and be amazing. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. We've got some Monday motivation for you right now because, listen, there's things you want to do, things you should do that you've been putting off. And now is the time. While you're listening to this podcast, we're going to spend a few minutes together and you are going to do something to make yourself proud because this is it. This is your one life. And if you really want to make the most of it and you really want to be happy, it really comes down to being proud of yourself. That's kind of the secret. It's doing the hard stuff. It feels like I don't want to do the hard stuff because it's going to making me unhappy, but the opposite is true. When we push ourselves a little bit, when we challenge

ourselves a little bit, when we achieve our goals, even the tiny little itsy-bitsy ones, we feel good. You are not going to feel good rotting in your bed. You are not going to feel good on social media watching other people live their lives. That does not fulfill you. you. So while we're spending time together and you're listening to this podcast, you are getting up right now. Get up. Don't passively. Listen and take action. You can grab a trash bag and you can hunt for things to leave your house. You can do those dishes. You can catch up on laundry. You can tidy. You can exercise. This is your moment to spend a few minutes and make today great. to make yourself super proud. And let's talk about some positive affirmations that we're going to say

together because here's the thing. What we think is what we are. And that's just the reality of the situation. How you think about yourself, how you talk to yourself is how you are. If you're telling yourself you're lazy, if you're telling yourself you suck at keeping the house clean, if you tell yourself, you're out of shape and you don't like exercising, that is the person you are. And we can change the narrative and change the story at any moment. And we don't even have to 100% believe it. We just got to say the words because our brain is dumb and gullible. Yeah, it's true. And positive affirmations work because when we say the words, we believe the words that we're saying. So here's what we're going to start with. We are going to say, I am in control of my life. And you can say this

out loud. In fact, you should say it out loud. I am in control of my life. I am the hero of my life. I trust myself to make decisions. I trust myself. That's a hard one for so many people, especially when it comes to decluttering or organizing or doing even what seems like small things. There's fear and anxiety about making a mistake, but you don't have to be that person. You trust yourself. My happiness is way more important than the stuff in my home. I want you to really feel that one. My happiness is more important.

than anything in my home. Because when you start putting the stuff from Walmart, the extra dishes, the clothing, the kids' toys above yourself and your happiness, that's a recipe for disaster. Not only is it like a self-esteem killer and a confidence killer, but now your stuff is controlling you. Your stuff is the boss of you. It's in charge. And you feel overwhelmed. you have way too much and you're paralyzed and crippled by it. You are literally letting junk from Walmart boss you around and ruin your life. It's ridiculous when we say it out loud. Ridiculous. But that is the reality of the situation when we are living in home with excess. We have handed over control to inanimate objects. And we have given our self-worth. We have

have given our time, we have given our self-respect to inanimate objects. And enough is enough. And while you're listening to this clutterbug podcast, you're going to be fighting like a warrior for your home, but more importantly for yourself. This is an act of self-love. Doing the dishes, it's self-love. You deserve a clean kitchen. You're demanding a clean kitchen. You are the boss and nobody's coming here to clean it for you and rescue you. You, this is you. You have the power to make yourself happy and to take action and take control in this moment. And it's not even about what it looks like at the end.

That is a bonus. This is about trusting yourself to complete a task, trusting yourself that you are in control and you got this, and loving yourself enough to do the work to give yourself the gift that you really want. You want to be proud of yourself and in control and able to keep up on things and be able to manage things. It takes work, though, friends. It takes consistency. You can be consistent.

You can do hard things for five, ten, fifteen minutes and then repeat a few hours later. Of course you can. I know you might be tired. Get up. Get up. be grateful for the fact that you have a home with dishes be grateful for the fact that you're able to get up you're able-bodied you're able to take care of yourself and your things we get really caught up and i i'm like i'm getting all a little intense with you but i really fall into

the the same trap of looking at other people's lives and feeling like why is it so easy for them and so hard for me. What's wrong with me? Why does this feel like a struggle? How can I find an easy shortcut way out? And I'm always looking for shortcuts. I'm like the shortcut queen. But in my 45 years on this planet, what I've really discovered is the shortcut is consistency, consistently showing up for myself and doing a little bit because it's easier to keep up than it is to catch up. And it also is easier to come to do the hard stuff when you're coming from a place of happiness and joy, when you're actually happy with yourself. Not your life necessarily. I mean, your life could be going to the crapper, but you're still happy with

yourself. You know, you genuinely know that you're trying your best. You generally feel like you're doing a good job. You genuinely like yourself. That makes it easier. But that is way easier said than done. It's hard to like yourself. It's hard to not see the negative. It's hard to not be your biggest critic. So how do you change that? How do you start putting yourself first and loving yourself more than you love anyone else? How do you do that? We need to do that, but how it comes with practice. It's about faking it till you make it. And it's about proving to yourself that you can do it. And we prove to ourselves by giving ourselves really attainable goals. Because the worst thing we could do is be like you are going to declutter and organize and clean your entire house today.

and then we fail and then we're like, see, I am a failure. It has to be little baby things. I'm doing the freaking dishes. Check, check, did it. Confidence builder. We have to do little tiny things. We have to break it down. But then we have to get off our butt and do it. We have to get up and take action. And today's podcast is going to be short and sweet. It's going to be under 30 minutes. Come on, you can do 30 minutes. You've showed up, you've turned this podcast on, you're watching it or you're listening to it. You are here. Make it count. Throw things in the garbage.

Find things to donate. We're not pittly, pop-ally, sorting, folding little dittly dots here. We are hustling. We are taking big action. At the end of this podcast, you're going to look around and you're going to be like, Dang, I did a lot in 30 minutes. Holy crap, I'm amazing. I feel so proud of myself. What can you do right now to make yourself proud? We are letting go of perfectionism. We are letting go of doing everything the right way, the way our grandma's taught us or our mom or we see on social media. We are all that's

going. We are just getting stuff done. We are checking stuff off that mental list, dishes. laundry, maybe you're vacuuming, maybe you're exercising, maybe you're cooking. I don't know. It doesn't matter. We are making yourself proud because what we really need is that self-pride. We do. We got to stop telling ourselves tomorrow we're going to be a better person. Tomorrow we're going to have a better life. Tomorrow we're going to start. that new habit. Right freaking now, you're going to do it. Have you drank water today? If not, go chug a big glass of water right now. Did you tell yourself you were going to exercise tomorrow? Get up and do some jumping jacks right now. You could do 15 crunches right now and guess what?

You did it. You achieved the goal. You worked out today. We don't have to make a productive. out of everything. And we certainly don't need to make a production out of getting our house under control. The most important thing we can do is just get stuff out, things you are not using. And like if you're listening to this, whatever you're doing, if you are decluttering, I'm going to give you some examples. If you're not decluttering, I want you to leave these examples in the back of your mind and I'm going to maybe motivate you later to do this thing. An easy thing we can declutter that makes a huge impact is our fridge. You have leftovers that are gross in there. You have old lunch meat or cheese that is definitely past the date and needs to go. You have sauces. I know you have

salad dressings. Lord knows. You have expired salad dressings and dip and sauces, condiments that have to go. Just take a trash bag and throw it out. And I don't want you. to worry right now about rinsing out the containers and scooping out the things and washing it for recycling we if you're drowning if you are at the point in your life right now and today and it's okay if you are if you're like i do not have the capacity for that right now i'm going to do it tomorrow it's okay to take a shortcut and just throw it out today until you get to a point where your life feels easy, it's okay to not always be perfect. Because you and your happiness are more important than anything in your home.

It's more important than putting stuff in a landfill. It's more important than climate change. It's more important than wasting money. It's more important than anything else. You. You cannot be a person who's doing good in the world. You cannot be the shining beacon of positivity and hope and change. You cannot make the world a better place when you're drowning.

You've got to get yourself together first. And you're going to break a couple eggs while you're baking that cake. And that's all there is to it. And it's okay. You are in catch-up mode. If you feel like your house is under control, then you watch. out those recycling, you know? If you're like, yeah, I can leisurely do it because my life feels easy and I'm, I feel like, you know, it's everything's good. Then you do that. But if you're like,

man, I can't see my kitchen counters, you don't got time for that. That level of expectation and perfectionism is the reason the not allowing yourself to be crappy at stuff is the reason you can't catch up you got to take shortcuts man and then once you get there life will be easier i promise you and then going forward you can be the person who does i hope you don't do everything right but more things the way we're supposed to i'm using air quotes because um anyways if you've done your fridge, move on to that pantry. You have stale food in there. I know you do. Things nobody's ever going to eat. Things that you've maybe tried and you didn't like, things that have been in there for years. Let's make room. Let's throw things in the garbage so that every time you cook or grab a snack or your

family's looking for food, your life is easier. So your kitchen stays tidier. And you need the space. Once we've cleared out space, then maybe we can organize and we can create one basket or one cabinet or one shelf just for snack foods. We can have one just for baking supplies. We can have another one just for canned goods or sides like rice and pasta. But we cannot do that until we've got rid of the excess, until we have breathing room and space in our kitchen to shift things around. And even if we never organize, that is fine. Who cares? Getting stuff out is the most important step. Starting in your kitchen is great because it's easy. Another spot that you can go in is your bathroom. Man, your bathroom should be streamlined like nobody's business. All those lotions and potions and perfumes and things you've bought that you don't like, makeup that you've bought that you never wear. Get it out. Don't even. Don't even.

think about it. Don't even for a second feel bad. Do you use it? Do you like it? If the answer is no, goodbye. Because you are more important. And when you've streamlined your bathroom, when you've streamlined your entire home, your life is easier. You go to get ready. It's easy to find everything. It's easy to put away. You don't have stuff cluttered all over your counters. You've been ruthless. You've ruthlessly gotten things out of your home so that it's easy. Nobody's coming to do this for you. Unfortunately, we are the grownups. We are in charge.

We are the boss. We make the decisions. And our home is a reflection of that. If your home is out of control and chaos and it's like, You are not being a boss. You're not. You're being a teenager who's waiting for a parent to come in and take over. You're the freaking adult, man.

This is you. You are the hero. Save yourself. Take control. Be brave. Trust yourself. action and get stuff done. You are going to feel so good. We are not working for hours here. We're not burning yourself out. You are not like you have to work from the time you get up till

the time you go to bed. We are together right now for less than 30 minutes. Less than 30 minutes to make a huge difference. I hope you're feeling it right now. You feel in that power. You're feeling like that energy. And if you're not, if you're dragging here, is a quick tip. Move your body in a way that someone would if they were excited, if they were empowered, if they were motivated. Mel Robbins talks about every morning she high fives herself in the mirror. Tony Robbins talks about his power stance. Do you know why these incredibly motivated and motivating people always talk about your body and physically how to do it because it works. Because it works, you can trick yourself into feeling energized.

So you're going to like pump your arms. You're going to like make the motions of cheering. You're going to dance around. You're going to hop. You're going to be like, how would you feel if somebody right now was like, here you go. I am making a dream of yours come true. you would be like yes yes you are making your dream come true right now you are this is what you're doing and you can do this any time you want move your body and make the motions of the excitement you're going to feel

when it's done and we are not focused on your entire house or your big goal if you're exercising right now I don't care how much weight you have to lose or how far you have to run. That is not the goal today. I want you to ignore that big goal. Today is I'm doing 20 minutes or 30 minutes of XYZ. I'm doing 15 push-ups. I'm walking to the corner and back. That's your goal. That's the success. That's the pride that you're going to have in accomplishing that. We don't even think about the bigger goal. because that can be overwhelming. We are proud of ourselves for every step we take. Every single step.

I've got to take a quick second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Earth Freeze. I switched to Earth Breeze a few years ago, and I love it. It is a laundry detergent that comes in a sheet. It looks very similar to a dryer sheet. You just drop one in the washing machine, and it works amazing. Not only does it get your clothes really clean, they smell great, but it's really good for the environment. You don't have those big plastic jugs or those containers for the tidepods. It all comes in recyclable cardboard sleeve.

And it doesn't take up a ton of room in your laundry room either. So if you're short on space, this is a really good option. They also have a scent-free formula, so it's safe on your skin. You can use it even for babies. I really love Earth Breeze, and I think you'll love it. to. And right now, just for my listeners, you can save up to 40% off just by going to earthbreeze.com slash clutterbug. That's earthbreeze.com slash clutterbug. Another way to keep your motivation going, to keep yourself really focused on task, is to try to

move as quickly as possible, to try to hustle, to allow yourself to take life. To take little shortcuts. If you're putting away laundry right now, you don't got to fold your underwear, friends. Just toss your underwear in the drawer. It's fine. No one's going to see it. And if they do, they're not going to care if your underwear is a little wrinkly. They're just going to be happy to see you in your underwear. Okay, quick, fast moving. We're getting it done. We're just putting away the laundry. That's it. We're putting away. We're putting away. laundry. Do you know how many people will sit and fold laundry in front of the TV and then those laundry baskets will sit there with the clothes folded till the end of freaking time? Not today. You're

going to grab one of those laundry baskets. You're going to walk and you're going to put it away immediately. And if it doesn't fit in the drawers because you've got too much stuff, you are going to take literally five minutes and you are going to get rid of things in the drawers. That's you're not wearing that can go. Because guess what? The clothes that you're putting away, you've worn. You know you like them. It's the stuff in your drawers and in your closets. That's the stuff that you're not wearing. Those are the things that can go. So make room and don't even think twice about it. You should be able to easily put your clothes away and not have to shove. If you have to stuff clothes into a drawer, you have way too many. And if you're saying, well, I would be able to fit it in my

kids' drawers if they kept things folded and blah, blah, blah, they're not going to. I'm not a folder. My kids aren't folders. In an ideal universe, we would fold everything like Marie Kondo in little pockets, and it would be amazing, and everything would be color coordinated in real life. We just don't do that. So we need to have it fit. even if we're putting it away a little messy. And if it doesn't, we need less. And that's all there is to it. That's like, it's math, man.

Does it fit or does it not? And if it only fits if we like perfect it and make it super awesome and shove it tight and fold things super small, then that is ridiculous because you're not going to do that every time. And you can't expect your children or your spouse to do it every time. Do you want to be the one who's always in charge of putting away clothes? If the answer is no, then you've got to make it easier. That's all there is to it. You got to fill a bag, let it go.

Come on, you can do this. Who cares? You are more important than those clothes that nobody's wearing and you're not wearing anyways. Your time is more valuable, way more valuable. We're letting it go. And I don't want you to worry about, well, I should sell the clothes. I should drop them off to consignment. I should take pictures. I should sort them. Today is not that day.

Your time is worth way more than any money you could ever possibly get from that clothing. And you could say, I don't have the money cast. Do you know what? You're not any richer right now. The clothes in those drawers are not dollar bills. The money's already been spent. We're just trading that for time at this point. You do not have the capacity. to sell everything, to post everything, to drop things off to a million different consignment shops or donation shops and all these other things. You don't have time for more. You need less. You need so much less. Do not put any more expectations on yourself today. Do not kick that can

down the road tomorrow today. Enough is enough. Today is about making your life easier. What are you going to do to make tomorrow's life easier? What can you subtract from your life right now so that you have less work tomorrow? Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy, just throw things in the garbage, put stuff in a donation bag, and immediately take it out to your car. Blankets, clothes, those stupid socks that don't have a match that you're just constantly, well, someday I'm going to buy.

Bye, gone. What else? You're looking in your living room, do you have like toys spread everywhere? Some of them are going to go. The ones that are on the floor, guess what? They play with them. Where do those toys belong? That's probably super full.

What can go? Baby books they've outgrown, bye-bye. Toys they never play with anymore, buy, gone. Take them immediately to your car. Leaving your house. Your life is easier today. And if you're not sure, we can put them in a box and move them in the basement of the garage. It's getting out of your house, though.

Because tomorrow, that's way less toys for you to pick up. This is what you got to do with fierceness, with like a viciousness. You got to fight for a home that's easier. You are the boss. You are in command, you are in control. This house, your home, your nest, you are in charge of, and you are tired of it being a ton of work. So it's time to make it easier. And that means less stuff.

And it means rolling up your sleeves and doing the work to catch up on dishes and laundry and and tidying and vacuuming and dusting and all the things you put off because you feel overwhelmed. You've got like a few minutes left with me now. We are in the home stretch and you are doing amazing. You got this. You are incredible. When you get up and take action, you can do amazing things. You are a motivated person.

You are a person who trusts yourself. You are a capable person and you are the boss. the mother freaking boss of your home and your life. Whatever it is that you're doing right now, you should be so proud because there is a million other people out there who are sitting, feeling sorry for themselves, wishing they could have the motivation that you have right now. There is people watching, sitting on their couch, watching other people have the life that you are creating for yourself right now. You are not wishing and dreaming. You are

making it happen. And for that, that is enough for you to feel really proud. We live in a world of people who are filled with whiners, poor me, always the victim. Why can't they have what other people have. It's not fair. And they're envious. And they're looking at watching TV or watching social media. And they're looking at other people's lives with jealousy. But that's not you. You are taking action. You are not the victim right now. You are the hero. And that is the difference. It doesn't have to be all day, every day. It has to be right freaking now. And then tomorrow, you're going to get up and you're going to do it again. 30 minutes is the secret. Consistency is the secret. Showing up for yourself. It's motivational Monday, friends, and you are starting off the week with a bang. Be proud. I'm proud of you.

ride this motivation but hear me before we end because we are ending in a few minutes hear me do not push yourself and spend hours today i know you're feeling pumped you're feeling motivated you're like i'm getting stuff done this is great do not burn out save some of that gas you're going to need some gas in the tank for tomorrow don't push yourself to the point of exhaustion that's that cycle we don't want to be on that all or nothing cycle you're all you're all either doing everything or you're doing nothing at all. That is a recipe for disaster. That is how we stay stuck. You don't have to finish it today. You don't have to clean the whole house today. You don't have to get super buff today. You don't have to work out to the point of exhaustion.

You don't have to do everything today. We're going to leave some for tomorrow because tomorrow you're going to feel this same way. Tomorrow you're going to get up and take action again. And the next day and the next day. And when we are done this podcast today, you can rest. You can relax. And you can do that coming from a place of like true, I deserve to take a break because I worked hard. It's balance. Friends, it's balance. No more all or nothing. No more pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion and then needing to take a week off. It's a little bit every day. And it's a little bit every day of feeling really proud of yourself. And knowing that you are amazing and that you got this. And good things happen to you because you make good things happen to you. And positive things

happen to you because you're a positive person. And life isn't always perfect, but you are doing your absolute best. And you trust yourself to follow through. You trust yourself to complete tasks because you know, you know you do it. You set small goals and you complete those goals. Good for you. Today, you took action on your life. Today you are the hero, not the victim. And for that, I hope you're feeling great. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me on this motivational Monday. And I'll see you guys next time. Thank you.