Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Take Back Control of Your Home and Your Life | Clutterbug Podcast # 139

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

Are you tired of always tidying and cleaning your home? In today's podcast, I push and motivate you to clean and declutter your home and make it feel like a vacation from life!     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 clean together right now or let's declutter. Let's do something right this second to take back some control of our homes. Hey, Clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today, I hope we actually work together a little bit. I hope you take this opportunity to do some cleaning or decluttering or tidying of your home while you're listening to this podcast. If you're driving or doing something else and just listening, that's okay too. But I am hoping to motivate you and give you a little. little bit of tough love today because I work with so many people and I work with clients virtually or in person and I train a lot of people through our private Facebook groups and I hear the same thing over and over and over again and that is people are tired of tidying and

cleaning their homes they're sick of the way their space feels they're living in a house that is overwhelming and that they honestly hate and it makes them resentful not only of their home but of their family for not helping and of themselves for feeling like a failure like it shouldn't be this hard why am i struggling and the truth is the real solution the fastest way to get there to dig yourself out to have a home that isn't just storage for your stuff but a home that's for nurturing and serving you the fastest way to get there is to get rid of the crap that you're not using and you don't like anyways. And I say this and we hear this and we know this, but it is so hard.

Even for me, I'm not going to lie, this is so hard. It feels so wrong to declutter things that we've purchased or things that have been given to us. But keeping it is why we are stuck in this constant cycle of mess and work. And I was thinking about this this weekend. I was talking to my daughter Izzy and she said, I don't understand why people, have trailers that they go to on the weekends or in the summer. And she was saying this because my mom, my stepmom and dad and my mother-in-law, all three of them pay for trailers. They go to a trailer park and they have a home. So on the weekends they go to a trailer park. It's a little patch of grass

with a trailer on it. And it seems strange to us from the outside. Why are you going to this trailer? It's like a smaller, crappier version of your own home. Why are you doing this? And Izzy said it's like they're cosplaying that they don't have a lot of money and they're living in a trailer park. But there is one reason why people love this. And you know what it is. I know what it is because I've asked all three of them.

I'm like, I never thought you guys would be trailer park weekend people. But you love going to the trailer park and why is that? and my mom really said it best, but I heard the same sentiment from my mother-in-law and from my stepmom. It's more relaxing to be away from home. They love going to the trailer park because there isn't work everywhere they look. My mom said when she's home, she looks around, she sees big gardens that have to be weeded, dust on all the surfaces, beds that need to be made, laundry, multiple bathroom that need to be cleaned. There's clutter all over the place. The pool needs to be vacuumed. When she's at the trailer, it's easy to maintain. It's small. She doesn't have to do anything but read a book or sit outside by a campfire. It's relaxing because there isn't an endless silent to do everywhere you're looking. They cannot feel that same relaxation in their own home. So they're going to a trailer to escape the never-ending to do. dues because it's a smaller space with less stuff so it's more manageable. And people feel the same way when they go on vacation in a hotel.

You stay in a hotel and you're like, ah, you can just lay in bed, you can watch TV. It feels like a weight is lifted off of you because there isn't all this to do. And the truth is, we don't have to escape our home to feel this way. The reason my parents and my in-laws love going to the trailer is because their home has so much stuff that they're constantly managing the mess. They're stuff shuffling. Everything is harder at their home. It's harder to cook. It's harder to clean.

It's harder to get ready in the morning. It's harder to put away laundry. It's harder to wash laundry. Everything's more difficult because they have an excess. When they go to the trailer, they have only what they need. And I am not suggesting that everyone be a minimalist, but I am telling you that removing the excess, the things you don't use and love from your home will get you closer to a home that feels effortless to maintain.

That feels like a nurturing place that's serving you, not a place that you have to take care of. And so there are three things that you can do, three questions you can ask yourself. You can grab a trash bag, you can grab a clear bag or a box for donations. and just wander around your house. Just wander. Open up a closet. Open up a drawer. Open up a cabinet.

And ask yourself three things. Do I use this? Do I use it? You don't even have to say, have I used it in the last year? You don't have to put these rules. Like, you know, do I actually use this thing? Do I love it? Do I even like it?

And would I buy it again if I did not own this? if like an alien came in and abducted this random item, would I miss it enough to buy it again? If I was at the store, would I buy it again? And if the answer is no to all three of these questions, it goes. It goes. And the whole Marie Kondo thing about sparking joy, you don't even have to ask these questions. You just have to touch an item and you know, you intuitively know. This is called intuitive decluttering.

Knowing if you need something in your home or not. And if the answer is no, you do not let fear. fear, you do not let anxiety, you do not let indecision bully you into keeping it. Because filling your house with crap that you should not have bought in the first place is making you hate your home. And it's making you resentful of your life. It's making every day harder and you deserve better. So when you're listening to this podcast, I want you to just find the strength and the bravery. You don't have to throw everything out. It doesn't have, you don't have to make a mess. You don't have to pull things out and make piles. In fact, you

shouldn't do that. That is not what decluttering is about. It isn't about making a huge mess and pulling things out and sorting things into a million piles. That is the opposite of what you're supposed to do. What you're supposed to do is just like an Easter egg hunt. Find things that can go. you've probably bought so much crap at Walmart at Costco at wherever that you shouldn't have bought and you regret buying and we can't go back in time we can't get that money back that money has been wasted it's gone it was wasted the moment you purchased it and you are not any richer for holding on to that item in fact that item is now stealing from you it's like you're punishing yourself over and over and over again for making the mistake of buying it in the first place.

You are not richer. You are not $20 richer because you have that $20 item shoved in a closet somewhere. It's stealing your space, but more importantly, it's something that you constantly have to move, manage, remember you own, and it's taking away space for the stuff that you do like and use. So your home is so full, you're stuff shuffling and you probably have things on your surfaces that are hard to put away because they don't have a simple home because your home is bursting and even if it looks tidy. If it's full, things are hard to put away. Getting ready in the morning takes longer. Finding clothes to wear in your closet takes longer. Putting clothes away takes longer. Living your life is just a little bit more difficult for every time you add something on your

plate. Every tiny thing even that you add into your home is taking tiny bits away from your time every single day and making your life a little bit harder. I'll never forget I said to my husband, I wanted a pool. I wanted a pool for our backyard so badly. And he's like, yeah, we're busy though. You're going to have to clean the pool and you're going to have to scoop the pool. You're going to check the chemicals. And I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's going to be worth it. I want a pool and we wanted a deck and we wanted you know a tree fort for the kids and then i wanted a hot tub and every then i wanted a boat and a kayak and a paddle like i'm always like you know it would be so great this new thing let's add it to the plate added to the plate and then it's like wait a minute

now i have to sand and stain the tree for it so it doesn't look like crap and the deck i need to pressure wash it and restain that every couple of years and i've got to completely clean the pool all the time and scoop the leaves out. And the hot tub needs me to check the chemicals all the time and keep that clean. And I've got to clean the boat and we've got to like in the winter. We have to winterize it and do all of these things. And it's like, holy crap, everything that you think at the moment is like, this is going to be amazing and is going to improve my life and be a blessing. We never see the long term work that we have to put in to that item. And I named big things. But the same is true for everything.

Every t-shirt you buy, every scented candle, every new cleaner that you get. Every single thing you buy, you need to have a home for it in your home. You need to manage it. You have to take care of it. You have to remember where it is. And this is all adding onto your plate. This is the opposite of simplifying your life. This is the reason why people buy trailers and they go to a little patch of grass on the

weekend to escape the life that they have created. What they are really escaping is the crap that they shouldn't have bought in the first place. And there's a lot of things that you bought and you use and it served you and now it isn't serving you anymore. The baby toys. The clothes your children have outgrown. The clothes you have outgrown. If you're anything like me. My point is seasons of life change. We do not need to keep the old things from the old season because it's suffocating us. It's drowning us and stuff. And right now you can take back control of your home and your life by saying enough is enough and filling a bag and filling a box and digging deep and it's going to feel uncomfortable.

And you don't have to get rid of anything that you don't want to, anything that you love. But I'm not going to lie and say that it's easy to declutter because it isn't. It isn't supposed to be easy. That's why it's so worthwhile. Anything that you do in your life that's going to get you closer to the life that you're craving, that's going to level you up, that's going to be something you are going to be so proud that you've done, it's going to be hard. But every time you let go, it's going to get easier. Every time it gets a little easier.

We call it your decluttering muscle. because at first letting go feels like the biggest, baddest, wrongest thing you could possibly do, especially if you're somebody who is a perfectionist or struggles with anxiety or has past trauma or past financial insecurity. All of this is like a toxic storm that makes decluttering harder, right? It really does. It puts so much pressure on you. But even if you don't have any of that, decluttering is hard because it's nature.

human nature to gather, to collect, to stockpile for the time where the famine's coming, winter's coming, right? Well, we can't hunt and there won't be berries and there won't be the fresh food. We better stockpill. We better hold. We better collect. We are literal hunters and gatherers. It is our biological nature to gather, to collect, to hoard. That is what we're designed to do. Unfortunately, there's a target around the corner and we no longer have to, you know, go out and gather and hunt for our food. And so we have this excess. We have this sort of innate thing in us that's telling us gather, gather, gather, it's wrong to let go because there could be something, you know, scary in the future. This is safety. This is security. But we need to be

smart enough to say, wait a minute. This is no longer safety and security. This is no longer making me feel better. This is no longer giving to me. It's now making me feel bad. It's over-complicating my life. It's stuffing my home. It's making me miserable. And enough is enough.

We need to have the self-awareness to understand that we are not living in the wild anymore. We need to tell our brain to catch up. We can't fill our home. We can't stockpile for every emergency. We cannot keep every article of clothing we have ever purchased just in case. And we cannot worry about the perfect person to give all our stuff to or the perfect way to dispose of it or recycle it or any of the other lies and excuses that our brain tells us in an attempt to avoid getting rid of things, putting it in the trash or putting it in the donation and moving on. Any excuse that you're telling yourself of why you can't do these things are lies that your brain is telling you to avoid the uncomfortable, anxious feeling that comes with decluttering, but it is supposed to be scary and make you feel anxious. Because you're learning a new skill that goes against everything your brain is telling you is right.

but you got to trust me. You have to trust me here because we are living in a different time. We are living in a different season. And you're listening to this podcast. You're listening to this clutter bug podcast because you want to change your home and your life. Because you want to simplify because you're sick of it. And you want someone, me, probably, to tell you exactly how to get there. And this is what I'm doing.

It's tough love. Do not let the crap from Walmart. make you hate your home. Do not let the crap from Walmart bully you into keeping something that you know you shouldn't keep. And once you've decluttered, once you've gotten rid of the things

that you don't use in love, guess what? Then we can organize. Then we can create homes and hacks and ways to increase storage and to make life easier. But you're always going to have to go back to decluttering again.

You're going to be decluttering until the end of time because you're always bringing new things in. There will always be birthdays and Christmas and random trips to the store where you see some scented candles on sale and you buy them and you get new clothing and whatever else. We are constantly bringing things into our home and we have to be getting things out at the same rate just to keep up.

So if you've gone years without regular decluttering, you have years worth of stuff that you need to remove right now. And it doesn't have to be overwhelming and it doesn't have to be a huge undertaking. And you do not have to make a mess. You just have to grab a bag and fill it and grab another bag and fill it and hunt. Try the 40 day challenge where you're doing 40 bags for 40 days. Fill it. Toss it.

Don't look. Don't even think about it again. Don't even think twice. It's just leaving your house. But you don't have to be so structured to that either because, oh man, 40 days. That seems like an excessive thing. Just listen to this podcast over and over again. Or any other person who's telling you the same thing, which is you deserve a home that feels like a vacation from life.

Your home can feel like going away to a trailer and you don't even have to leave. The stuff you're not using and loving has to leave. That's it. If you need some extra support, if you need some extra accountability, if you want, A team of people to help you. The Take Your House Back course is now open for a limited time. It's open for the next week and a half for $94. I joined with Dawn from the Minimal Mom and Dana from Asob comes clean.

And the three of us together created a course to help you take back control of your home by decluttering without making a mess, without being stressed, without it being emotional. we work together step by step to help you and you get the free support group on Facebook with thousands of other people who are exactly where you are and are going to be cheering you on. You'll get videos and podcasts and so much printables and step by step instructions and you'll get access to our all day live declutter where you're going to roll up your sleeves, you're going to grab boxes and bags and we're going to do this, what we're doing right now, but live, you're going to see my face. You're going to see Dawn.

You're going to see Dana. We're going to walk you through room by room pushing you, encouraging you, supporting you to take back control of your home. Right now, you can go to take your house back.com and sign up for just $94. Money back guarantee. You're not extremely happy. Of course, we'll give you your money back. I am just so proud of this course. I don't usually talk about it.

I never talk about it. I'm not really a salesy person, but I'm proud of this. So if you're listening to this podcast and you're thinking, this is exactly what I need, Cass, I want to take back control of my home and my life and I just need some extra support. The Take Your House Back course is exactly what you need. That's Take Your Houseback.com. And I hope to see you on September 10th for our all-day declutter. Thank you guys so much for listening.

I hope you're feeling inspired. And I'll see you guys. time.