Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - The Hidden Cost of a Messy Workspace | Clutterbug Podcast # 283

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

Ever feel like your house is one big junk drawer for your job, your hobbies, your dreams, and your daily chaos? Like your kitchen table is now a desk, your closet is holding camera gear, and everywhere you look is just one more to-do staring back at you? In this episode, I open up about the sneaky stowaway that came with working from home: work clutter — physical, emotional, and digital. Whether you're running a business from your basement, balancing a hybrid job, or trying to keep your crafting chaos under control, this episode will help you draw a line (maybe even build a wall!) between your home and your hustle. We unpack why work-from-home clutter is so overwhelming — and what you can actually do about it. I’m sharing real strategies that have helped me survive running a business with a family of five and a house full of bins, binders, bees (yes, bees), and big feelings. Whether you’re a crafter, a creator, or just tired of your job living rent-free in your living room — this episode will leave you feeling inspired, capable, and ready to take back your space. ✨ We talk about: - Why your home feels like it’s bursting at the seams — and what to do first - The truth about hybrid work clutter (and why it’s the worst) - The 90-day rule for work stuff you haven’t used - How to set boundaries when your office is your kitchen - The power of zoning and why clutter needs “walls” - The hidden mental load of hobby clutter (and how to deal with it)   🎧 Want to leave a question or message for Cas? Go to www.clutterbug.com/TalkToCas and record your message now!   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 #workfromhome #workfromhomelife #homeorganization Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today. We're talking about something I've never talked about before. Do you remember when we all thought working from home was like it sounded like a dream come true? It was going to be so amazing. We wouldn't have to commute. We wouldn't even have to put on pants. Except, guess what? There was a sneaky little stow away none of us expected and that is work clutter now in our home. Today we are taking a deep dive into work from home clutter, not just the physical clutter like all the paper and all the things, but the emotional clutter, the digital clutter. It's still haunting us to this day. I don't want to talk about the event that shall not be named, but a lot of us were working at work and then

move to working at home, but I've always worked at home. If you're listening to this, you're like, Cass, I don't even work from home. There's other type of clutter that I also consider work clutter, which is often project clutter or hobby clutter. It's all the stuff that really our home isn't designed to house. And yet, it's in there. We're digging deep today. We're going to unbury it. We're going to talk about it. And hopefully, I'll offer you some solutions to reducing. Maybe you're a hobbyist, maybe you're a crafter, maybe you have a resale shop, or maybe you're someone who just dreams of having that home-based business and is slowly collecting little supplies for that future dream. It's all under the same umbrella. It's all this

type of work clutter that's now cluttering up our homes. The main issue with this work from home clutter is that our homes just aren't designed to store it. Our homes are made for everyday living, not for working or running a business. I've been working from home for a long time. I actually started with a home daycare, which immediately came with a ton of clutter because I had to provide them a lunchroom, a sleeping area, lots of extra toys and craft supplies. And before I knew it, what was supposed to be like a daycare area was my entire house. It was the dining room table and there was stuff in the corner of my bedroom. So I had to learn relatively quickly how to compartmentalize, how to zone different areas of my house. And now, fast forward, I'm running a business. I have

multiple employees working out of my home. So it's even more critical because not only do I have my work clutter, but I have their work clutter. And they're like, mementos and the papers and their desks and all this stuff. The whole humming business up and here, which also happens to be my house. So I definitely have rules that I follow and kind of a structure that means that the clutter stays where it's supposed to be and doesn't creep into the rest of my home. Before we jump into the nuts and bolts of this podcast, just like always, you are not allowed to sit and passively listen or watch. I want you to get up. I want you to grab you. I want you to grab a bag or a box and we are going to take action. You are going to make a difference in your home today

and you are going to be proud of yourself. And the focus today is going to be your work area. I want you to move to the spot where you either work from home or even if you don't work from home, everyone's got like the working zone. You know what I mean? Where you pay the bills, where you put on your big girl boss pants and you do grown-up stuff. That is a space. Even if it's your kitchen encounter, we're moving there to the place where work gets done. And I want you to just spend three minutes and we're going to make it better. What this looks like is immediately removing trash. You have those empty envelopes from mail that's came in. You definitely have old post-it notes. I know you have to do-do lists. All of those things are easy fines to just grab and toss. You probably have things

also that don't belong in here. Why not take a second and remove and kids toys that should not be in your workspace. The coffee mugs, the many, many coffee mugs need to go back into the kitchen and then take a second just to stack the important paper. We're not filing, we're not organizing, you don't even have to sort it, just stack it neatly so that you have clear workspace. I want you to see a flat surface. I want you to see immediate progress here. It isn't about perfection. We are not tearing things out and making piles. we are only making things better. As I carry on with this podcast, if you want to keep going, if you're feeling the mojo and you do want to go a little deeper and open the drawers, maybe there's a closet in the space.

If you're feeling it, go with it. Whatever feels good for you. Or if you're like, this is good enough, Cass, I really got to catch up on the laundry or dishes. You do you, boo. I am going to be in your ear motivating you and pushing you. but I want you to focus on the thing that matters the most right now. When I first started Clutterbug, like really, I say that I first started it, like really got into it and hired my first employee.

That's when stuff got real in my house. Because what you don't see as the person viewing Clutterbug is the massive amounts of camera equipment, the lights, the light stands, the batteries, that it's bonkers, okay? Being a YouTuber comes with a ridiculous amount of equipment. And then on the other side of that, working with brands or doing makeovers means I also need supplies. So I need closet organizers and bins and baskets and drawer dividers. And lots of this stuff is just like taking up a ridiculous amount of time. So within the first year of clutterbug humming along, it's my full-time business. I have a part-time employee.

things were ridiculous. Here I am talking about how to organize your home and my home looks like the container store vomited all over and then just threw a film crew on top of it. It was boncadongs. I also was living in a pretty, not, I'm not going to say small, you'll come for me. But it was an 1,100 square foot home with three children, a husband and a business bonkers. I also had a toddler at the time. So I felt the squeeze that comes from working from home. I also didn't have a proper office space. And so at the end of the day, when I should be done work and wanting to do family stuff, everywhere I look, I'm reminded of the nagging to do I should be working kind of clutter. So something had to be done because everyone in my house was really suffering because of the

clutter that came from my home business. When I first started, I had like a little, it was a Joe office upstairs in a small bedroom. And then I had to have both of my girls sharing a bedroom so that I could have a room for working. That was all we had. We had a three bedroom home. So I put both girls into one bedroom and had like this little, this little office space. Then I surprisingly got pregnant. Now we're having a third baby, Cuckoo Coole, and the business is. And the business is starting to really take off. So the girls obviously moved into what was my office and I was in the living room downstairs. So we had a downstairs family room that had a desk in it and this is where I'm trying to do things while also toddlers are running around and Dora the explorers on the TV and I'm

trying to concentrate. It was not ideal. And when I realized I needed an employee, I was like, but maybe not with the kids and the Dora and the toys everywhere. And so what I actually did was build, like I built a little temporary wall in our home. I turned one room into two. It was really small. This turned both rooms into nine feet by eight feet, which is a shoebox. But it's what I needed to give that separation. And honestly, it changed everything.

It gave me a space that was no longer my living space for at least a desk. It was not big enough for camera equipment. So then the next step was, I need a place for a bunch of camera equipment. And so I created a closet at the end of a hall. It was just an end of a hall with a blank wall. I stuck up a door and gave myself someplace to put the things. It meant I had to declutter a freezer. It meant we no longer had a place for extra food to go.

But more importantly, we now had a place for the, the business stuff to go. And I think this is the first step that I would tell anyone listening is you're going to have to make sacrifices and you're going to have to designate a space in your home and it's not ideal. And maybe you can't build a wall or create a closet, but I guarantee you have a closet now. It might mean you no longer have a linen closet in your home. It might mean you no longer have that storage room in your basement for random extra things and you're going to have less Christmas decorations. It sucks. I know it sucks. But sacrifices have to be made in order to still have a functional business at home and that's all there is to it. There is no perfect solution.

It starts with zoning and then decluttering, letting go to make room for what matters. And the stuff you use for work, it matters. When I first told Joe, I wanted to build a wall in our house, in our basement, and make two ridiculously tiny rooms. His reaction, as a cricket, was like, nope, that's going to definitely lower the resale value of our house. You're taking one nice, big space, and you're turning it into two very unusable spaces. And he was like a hard note, but I convinced him because he loves me. And while everyone's always about open spaces and open concepts, creating less big room, like putting up a wall and having two rooms where you usually have one big one is actually a great solution. And for me as a ladybug, I needed to be able to shut the door.

I needed a place where I could have all the stuff that I did to go to work and then shut the door and leave my office, leave the work and not see it the rest of the day because it was taking away from my family time. It really was. It was this constant nagging to do. And when I shut the door, I didn't have to see it anymore. And I know a lot of people who have work from home in their bedrooms. Like this is a really common thing. And so even doing like dividers in any way, IKEA has these great dividers. You can get those Shoshi screens. I'm definitely not saying that right. But anytime you can give that physical separation from your workspace and the rest of the house, it is instantly going to give you peace. So whether you do build a wall or you create some other

kind of physical separation, that is an important step when you're working from home because it doesn't belong in your living space. But sometimes we have no choice, but we can adapt so that it doesn't belong. It's still there, but you're not looking at it. You know what I'm saying? In my home starting a business, it was like this slow creep of stuff coming in as my business grew. And I think a lot of people can relate to this when they're working from home. You're not used to having all this clutter. And then before you know it, it's more paperwork and it's adding and it's digital clutter. And it's just stuff coming in and your highlighters and maybe you have a whiteboard.

And then before you know it, it's like, I have no place for all this stuff. And what I think is really fascinating is this is a situation. where you're building your ship while at sea, where you're adapting your space around you while you're also living and working in it. This isn't like, okay, I have time to set up my home office and then I'm going to start working. No, you've got to work every day while also finding a way to set up your home office or your home business. And it's doable. It's doable when we don't try to treat it like a project and we we treat it as like this everyday thing your stuff needs a home where can it go that isn't stuff shuffling where can it go that you don't have to move it

to make dinner that you don't have to move it to live in your house and what can go to make room for that stuff and this is exactly what i started with i started with like it was in a corner and i'm like, this is an ideal. How can I give myself a home for this? And then I bought a little armoire, right? It's like not going to be perfect right off the bat. Maybe it looks like bookshelves. Maybe it does look like a little packs unit. Or maybe it looks like a little renovation in your home to make a real space for this stuff to go. I had a few clients who reached out to me, I would say a year after they started working from home and it was out of desperation. They were like, I don't know what to do.

I tried to copy what was at my workplace in my home and yet it's not working. And it isn't that you're messy or you failed because your workplace is literally designed to be a workplace. It has filing cabinets and it has break rooms and it has all the storage that you need. What it doesn't have is clothing and pots and pans and kids toys, right? I think what happened was, I know what happened was. People try to replicate what it looked like in the office in their own house. And now they have filing cabinets and shelves and ergonomic giant chairs and stands for their many monitors.

And it looks like they're a NASA astronaut up in there. And they're looking at this and it's in their bedroom or it's in their living. room or it's in the corner in a home office. And there's this sort of like unnaturalness about it. Like it doesn't, it feels out of place. It feels uncomfortable even because it feels like it doesn't belong in your home. And on top of that, we also have the stacks of paper and the binders and all the other stuff that comes with it. And it can feel like, ugh, almost worse than having to put on pants and go to work. I read a study that said people who have that like hybrid work, so they go to work at the office half the time or some of the time and then work from home. They are overwhelmed

with the amount of clutter that they have at their home office and that there's this surge of just extra stuff that they just don't know how to deal with. If you were listening to this podcast and you were one of the many people who went from working at an office to now you're working from home. You're working remotely. I want you to look at this clutter totally different than you do your own personal living clutter. Because you probably had to move a crap ton of stuff from the office to your house. And let's get real. It's continually coming.

And when I usually say, if you haven't used something in the last year, let it go. your work-based, your work-from-home business or your office stuff has a different rule. I want you to think of this as more like 90 days, three months max, because those binders, that extra stuff, all the extra paperwork, you are not getting paid a storage fee from your company to keep it in your house. This is ridiculous. You are not going to have a year from now still having the paperwork that belongs at a workplace, not in your home. So you are allowed to be ruthless. If you haven't used something in the

last 90 days, and it's a work from home type thing, give yourself permission to let it go. The dry erase markers, the extra paper, if you haven't used that bulletin board, those planners and Lord, all the binders, let them go. If you do need something in the future, that's your company's problem. You know what I'm saying? Put in a request. Fill out a, I don't know what big companies do, some sort of invoice requesty thing. This isn't on you, man, and it certainly shouldn't be on your home to store other people's stuff. My best friend Jess started working like a hybrid. So she's three days at home and then two days in the office and then the next week it's kind of like reverses. So three days in the office and then two days at home. And she is a

asked me repeatedly to come help her organize her office space because there's always things coming in. She said to me, I had to buy like a whole punch for home and I had to buy extra highlighters at home and I had to buy all the things that I normally would just use at the office that I didn't have at the house. So she's buying like duplicates of things that otherwise she would never have in her home office. She also found that she would have to bring the paperwork home and then back again. So she was making duplicates of the files so that she wasn't having to like shuffle them in these bags back and forth all the time where she was doing it. So basically she has two workplaces that are almost identical. And now she has to keep track of double the stuff, which was

and is exhausting. One of the things that I recommended was that she did have like an office go bag that this had the main things that she used. So her laptop, the charger, the charger. The things, we're not talking about the whole punch here, but the things that she used all the time that if everything else, if it spontaneously combusted, she could still do her job, one of those things kept in a bag that goes back and forth. So it never feels overwhelming. And also, you're not misplacing two things now. How often was she taking stuff back and forth, back and forth, and having it all over the place and forgetting things at work. And then now she needs a third thing. So having one travel bag that was minimal just with the essentials was really key to not misplacing

things and to not lugging a ton of clutter back and forth. I've heard from many people who will say, I have two of everything now and I can't even find one of them. Having more of something doesn't make it more likely that you're not going to lose it. In fact, it actually makes it harder to find things. Sometimes what we actually need is less. We need a home for the things so that they don't get lost. We don't need more things. It's like people who shove a pair of scissors in every place.

You know what I'm saying? You know, where you go and you're like, there's a pair of scissors in every drawer and then they can never find any scissors. I think one of the worst parts, I know one of the worst parts from work from home clutter is the mental toll that it takes. And also the time suck that it takes. For me, I'm really, like, I remember things by seeing them sometimes, right? It's kind of like that visual cue. So when it's 8 o'clock at night and I'm just walking through the kitchen and I see a stack of papers or work things where I see camera equipment, suddenly my brain says, oh yeah, you're supposed

to finish that thumbnail or, oh, yeah, you were supposed to like send those emails. And before you know it, I'm on my laptop and I'm doing work. And it was really hard to separate work from home life when everywhere I looked in my home life, I also saw work. And it meant I was giving up time that I should have been spending on myself or my family to something that should have been done by 5 p.m. But when you have work clutter, 5 p.m. is like, now it's negotiable, right? It's like there is no end to your work day when there is no end to the workplace clutter in your home. It's really important when we work from home to have an end of the day routine, right? To have something that we do to close the day, to signal to our brain like work is done now. And this can be really hard

if it's in your house and in your living area. This could be an alarm that goes off that reminds you or you turn on the same song every day as like closing time, you know, like you close your kitchen at the end of the day, like a restaurant, you got to close your workplace too. It has to have an end. And sometimes it needs a cue, whether that's an audible cue, whether that is an alarm, whether that's a song that you play, or a ritual like you're actually unplugging the computer. You're shutting it down. So it's a process to turn it. back on. You are physically altering your space, like you're putting things in drawers or packing up. And honestly, even just throwing a blanket over your desk if you got to do what you got to do

to close the end of your day is really a vital practice to give you that separation between work and home. Probably my biggest struggle, honestly, working from home is the mentally always thinking about work. So I tried to not see it, but still I would worry that I would forget things. Does this make sense? So I'd be like, oh, I got to worry about that videos do and I got to remember to send this email and I got to do all this thing. And I would be laying in bed and it would be one o'clock in the morning and I would be whipping out my phone in my notes app just like making notes so that I could sleep and it's okay. You will remember. And what is helpful for me to stop doing this is two things. One, I started brain done.

So at 4.45, I'm done at 5. At 4.45, I have an alarm that goes off that says, end of day, brain dump all the things you didn't get done. And I literally take my notebook and I just write down all the stuff that I'm going to have to do in the morning, like a quick little to-do and I leave it on my desk so I see it the next morning. And this is helpful because otherwise I would say like five more minutes, just 10 more minutes. I'm just going to send this one last email. I'm just going to make this little tweak. I have to have that rule, that boundary. And so writing it down gives me that peace of mind. The other thing I did was I needed an accountability partner. So I asked Joe to not let me talk about work after five. And this has been

tough because we'll be driving in the car on the way to Costco and I'll be like, hey, I had this great video idea and I want to talk about it with him. And he's like, we don't talk about it. And he's like, we don't talk about work past five. And I get a little like grumpy, you know, like, because I'm, because I'm thinking about it and I'm excited or I have this thing I want to bounce off of him, but he's right. We need boundaries. We need separation. And even if I'm, it's a positive, even if I'm excited to talk about something with work, work doesn't belong in my home life. It just doesn't. And I need to have that clear line that I can't cross in order to protect that precious non-work time in my life.

I feel like if you've made it this far in the podcast and you don't work from home or have a home-based business, good on you. I hope you're getting stuff done and you're still feeling pumped and you're getting something from this. But let's talk about the other type of clutter that I still want to lump under work from home. Maybe you are a crafter and you want to sell some things at a craft store

or maybe you've bought things because you hope to really, you sell them one day or maybe you're even like my husband. So he has a workshop and he likes to build. And even though it's a hobby, it does kind of leak over into the work from home zone in that these unfinished projects are still nagging him. Do you know what I'm saying? So even if your hobby is like crafting or doing puzzles, when you have these to-dos in your living space, it's taking from your living time. It's taking from your down time because you see it as this nag. So just like a work from home having rules and boundaries, you have to have these same rules and boundaries in that where does this go when I'm not working on it? Where is it's home? Where does it belong? Where do your

craft supplies, your home base business? Where do your hand tools and your power tools and your extra wood, where do your puzzle that is half finished? Where does this go when you're not working on it? And it needs an actual proper place to go that isn't on your kitchen table, that isn't in your bedroom, that isn't on the floor. Because that is your living space. And it has to have a separation from your working stuff. I feel like a broken record, but it really does come down to zoning. Zoning is setting up homes in your homes for different activities and different categories of stuff.

So it's so important to have a clearly defined, like you're not going to actually like paint, you know, a border on your floor, but it needs to have that in your mind a border of this is where it belongs. and things can't leak past this zone. Whether it's your craft supplies or your home office, that is its zone. And even within there, we're going to even go a little bit deeper. Like, this is your zone for paper within your workspace. This is your zone for writing supplies.

This is your zone for storage. It's critical to do this for two reasons. One, you're always going to know where everything is and you're not going to have to look around for something within that category because you know it's in the zone. and two, it provides limits and boundaries. And with a limit and a boundary, it means you're not allowed to go outside of that, which means you're not going to have the clutter creep. The clutter creep is where things slowly spread and clutter attracts clutter.

So as soon as you have a pile, your brain says, oh, it's okay to just drop more there. And your family is just dropping more things there too. And before you know what your house looks like an episode of hoarders and you're like, how did this happen? It wasn't this bad two days ago. But that's the reality of clutter. That's what happens when you don't have that limit, that container, that structure. It's very easy to get out of control very, very quickly. So you're going to have to get tough with yourself. You're going to have to say, I only have this closet, I only have this shelf, I only have this one corner, and it can't go outside of that. So what do I have to remove in order to make that fit? I talked a little bit of

about digital clutter. I am so bad at this. I don't even have advice for you because this is probably my biggest struggle. I'm going to tell you what I do. I sometimes just like select all my emails and delete. And I just pay for extra cloud storage. I don't even know. Like I have so many Google drive lists and friends. Okay. I have no business giving you any advice. But here's what I will say, I try to keep my desktop clear, you know. I try to drag and drop it all into folders because at least digital clutter is searchable. Your home clutter is not searchable. So if you had to pick to focus either cleaning up your digital clutter or cleaning up your physical clutter, I vote physical clutter all day every day. You can't just drop it all into a closet.

and then find what you need. There's nothing's tagged, okay? You are the mental processing. You are the computer for all of your stuff. So you have to put things into folders when it's physical. You have to put things into little compartments and little baskets and keep things labeled. It's just the way it is. And it makes it a lot easier to do that when you have a lot less stuff to remember and sort and tag.

inventory and categorize. Let's talk about clutter bugs for a second and specifically which clutterbug style has the hardest time with working from home clutter or hobby clutter. And it is no surprise that it is a bee, a busy little bee. Why? First of all, bees struggle with clutter more than any other organizing style because they are fighting on two fronts. Bees are really logical and they're perfectionists and they're detailed and they love categories. They're a bit of perfectionist. So they don't want to make a mistake and they want to do everything properly. And doing things properly and having lots of categories means extra stuff and extra space. That's all there is to it. You got to spread your stuff out more to have it truly organized,

which means it's taking up more room. But the other side of a bee is because they're so visual, they remember things by seeing it. So they want to see things, which means they're more likely to leave things out. But they also have that emotional trigger that comes from being visual, which means they're more emotionally attached to things. So not only do they not want to let go of things for logical reasons, but they don't want to let go of things for emotional reasons too. And that combination means you got a lot of stuff, bees. like a lot and you want to organize it all perfectly. And I'm just so grateful I'm not a bee sometimes. No offense. I mean, I'm not a bee organizer, but now I have honeybees. So I picked up my honey bees this week

and installed the nuke, which is like this nuclear colony of four trays and a queen into my box. And man, I feel like this is my third job now. So not only do I run. a business full-time and now I'm a part-time firefighter, but now I am a beekeeper. I had no idea. I mean, people said, hey, Cass, this is a lot of work. And it comes with a lot of stuff. But I was like, yeah, yeah, no, no, they don't know what you're talking about. Nope, friends, every single night I tend to my bees. So every night after dinner at dusk, I put on my bee suit and I go out to check them to, I just found that they had ants. So I've been like dealing with their ant infestation. And I've been treating them for mites and I feed them and I have to make

them this sugar syrup water and I have to check their trays and I have to make sure they're secure. And it's a whole thing. And it also comes with a lot of clutter. I have a smoker and I have pry bar tools and I have extra frames and trays and I have reducers, entrance reducers, and I have the medicine that I need. And now I have this like I'm sprinkling cinnamon. So I got industrial bag of cinnamon to sprinkle to keep the ants away. I've had to create a whole zone and shelf and organizing system for my beekeeping supplies, which is something I never thought I would say. But I will say it's been really cool. I'm learning so much and I'm laying in bed at night and I'm just like researching beekeeping. I probably need a little.

limit on that. I probably need an alarm that doesn't let me do this past 8 p.m. I digress. Any time we're doing something new and cool, it comes with new mental and physical clutter that we then have to organize, whether it's bees or crafting or woodworking or surfing. Everything cool and new that we bring in has to also be organized. Oh, gosh, stung so many times. How many times did I get stunned? The first day I got stung three times or four times. They are clever little little beasts. I think I may have squished some. I didn't mean to. I was trying to put their trays from their nuke box into their existing box and I got stung a couple times. And now every time I put on the suit, they remember. They're like, that's the bee squisher. I could not be in a suit

around them and they are calm. I put on the suit and they start flying around me like don't you dare squish us friend. But I haven't been stung since. So that's good. I mean baby steps. I'm learning. I'm smoking. I think I need to get some new paintbrush tools or something to scoop them back in so I can put the lids on and the trays back in. It means more supplies, more stuff to organize. But every day I feel like I get a little bit better at this beekeeping thing. Are you ready for a talk to Cass segment when you are actually part of the podcast? I'm so excited for this. This is fun to have you and hear your questions. And let's start today with Isabel. Hi, Cass. This is Isabel in Utah. I'm originally from Quebec, Canada. That's where my accent is from. I love your content. Very relatable for me and my family.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood as well. So really appreciate all your content. I'm curious to find some help in direction in creating a more ADHD friendly environment for both of my younger kids to do their homework. I'm thinking maybe in their bedroom to have a desk, but right now they do, my almost 16-year-old daughter just does, her homework on her bed. And same with my son that's going to be 11 in the fall.

For homework, we just don't have a designated homework space. And they both claim that they hate sending down on a chair and just want to do it on their bed. But I feel like that's not really working. So, and I, for long term, I would just really like them to be able to separate work and where day sleep. So if you have any ideas for maybe homework stations that are ADG-friendly, and also maybe upgrading a bedroom from little boy to tween boy, that would be helpful to make a bedroom functional so that we are not going crazy in the morning, getting ready

for school. Anyway, that's where I'm starting right now is, is with the bedroom. But if you have any ideas or any videos, you can point me to words. I would very much appreciate it. Thank you. I love this question because I feel like Isabel, you're not going to like the answer. But here's the thing. I love doing work in my bed. So when I'm writing my book, I actually write in my bed.

But I have some tools that make it easy. And I think some of these tools could help your kids as well. One is I have a caddy. So I would honestly recommend that you create a homework caddy for them. So it looks like a cleaning caddy. It's like this plastic thing that's portable. Or doing a three-tiered rolling cart. That's what I do for my kids.

Because the thing about ADHD is we don't want to be like stuffy and rules. So it's possible that sometimes they'll want to do homework in their bed and sometimes they'll want to sit at the kitchen counter or sometimes they'll want to sit in the living room. And that's okay. You should move around. But you should have something portable that you can take. with you. So giving a caddy with maybe all their markers and their pens and their calculator or a

three-tiered cart where it has extra paper and binders and the things that they need is great because you can wheel it into the closet when you're not using it or you can like carry it any place in the house where you want to do your work. Also having a desk in your bed is actually really easy. I have this, it's like a breakfast cart, you know what I'm trying? That kind of flips over my lap and I have a spot for all my pens and my writing things. My laptop goes on here. And it's great because it turns my bed into a workspace. But when I'm done, I just fold it up and tuck it under the bed. So it goes away. Giving your kids an option like this to be able to turn where they're comfortable, where they feel safe, into a productive workplace, but then have it tuck away when they're not using it is probably

going to be a way better solution than a stuffy desk in the corner. That's very. anti ADHD. Flexibility is what they need. Now let's hear a story from Jessica. Hey Cass. My name is Jessica. So I was in this constant state of overwhelm and honestly just drowning and stuff. My mental and physical health were struggling for years and I just didn't know why. After I had my daughter and became a stay-at-home mom, I started to try to set up systems and nothing was working. I wanted so badly to be an organized person, but I didn't know where to begin. My mom, who was actually a minimalist, told me I had too much stuff and would try to help me clean and organize, but the very next day I was back to the mess and the clean never

lasted, and I realized only I could decide how to use my space. And to be honest, I really didn't know how to use the space that I had. My mind was just all over the place with all of the things that I needed to do and it just shut me down completely. I know in some of your previous episodes you mentioned having too little space and too much stuff, but I have the opposite situation where we're a family of three and we have more space than we need. We have rooms and closets full of kids' toys that we need to go through. Projects we plan to get to and hobbies that we will one day make time for.

We still need to hang on the wall, and we've been here, you know, almost five years. You talk about how your space reflects your state of health mentally and physically speaking. I couldn't agree with you more. In March, I was actually diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called celiacs, which it's a severe gluten allergy. And I have to cook all of my meals at home because in my small town, there's really not any place I can eat safely. And having to cook three meals, you know, plus snacks every day made me quickly realize that I had

to get organized. I had to make changes in order to stay healthy. This forced me to start the process and luckily I stumbled upon your podcast and it was exactly what I needed. You let the fire under me and I cleaned out my closet that exact night. And now when my kitchen gets messy, I can't handle it. I want things to have a home, not just a home, but the first. right home. I'm putting in the work and at the same time my health is improving. Knowledge

is power. Right now I'm focusing on the spaces that I can see every day and I'm putting to use the systems that you talk about. I'm seeing the hot lava on my surfaces and I'm never leaving the room empty-handed. You have been such a huge part of my wellness journey and I wake up every day excited to throw something away. Doing the dishes and laundry still sucks some days, but you are giving me the tools to make it suck way less, and I'm forever thankful for all of your help. Decluttering is a journey, not a destination. Thanks again, Cass. Jessica, you're so wise. It's like all my favorite little sayings and mantras you hit on. I'm so proud of you. It's awesome. I could hear in your voice, I feel like we have a similar

journey, you are getting addicted to the little wins. And that's what really helped me. I always saw everything as a big project. It was like, well, one day I'm going to clear out the basement. Someday I'm going to get to this. But when I really started breaking it down into these little 15 minute projects, something amazing happened in that every time I completed a little 15 minute thing, I got to pat myself on the back. I got to be like, look how amazing you are. You did a good thing, Cass, and I got really addicted to the pushing the needle forward. Those little tip-toe steps towards the bigger thing. So I stopped looking at it like, well, I have so much to do and started seeing like, look how much I've done. And household tasks started to feel less like chores

and more like little celebrations and wins that I was looking forward to doing. And I can hearing your voice that you're in that same place. So I'm happy for you because yeah, we got to do it, unfortunately. We got to be grownups. So why not enjoy the process? And now we have a question from Katie. Hi, Cass. My question is what to do when you're in a decluttering plateau? I was good at decluttering for like several weeks. It made good progress. And then I have just been kind of barged down by it lately where I just like, I'm kind of stuck to know what to declutter next. And sometimes me and my husband have different opinions on things we want to keep and things we don't. So just any advice for that. Thanks. Oh, I love this so much. I want to tell you like

stop decluttering for a little bit. Honestly, when it starts to feel like, when it starts to feel like a chore, I think it's time to pivot and embrace the power of pretty. So this is the thing. I know you've probably decluttered a space that is manageable maybe, but maybe you don't love it yet. Why not treat yourself to some really pretty bins or baskets? Or why not, I don't know, like take that space to the next level in some small way, bloom where you're planted, like enjoy it. because that's part of the process too. And this is why I think I love organizing so much because not only can you create a functional space, but it's almost like decorating in that the space can also

be beautiful too. And whether it's just making your junk drawer a little more beautiful or your linen closet or maybe your pantry doing something really small, it can kind of ignite that again. because decluttering is awesome, but it doesn't always give you that, you know, you declutter a closet, you open it up, is it pretty? Does it make you, ah, if not, that's where I think your focus should be. Decluttering is awesome and it's part of the process, but treating yourself to a beautiful space can also, yeah, be a little therapeutic too. Now we'll hear from Michelle.

So this is how I usually start when I am cleaning and organizing and decluttering. I start with my favorite music, my Latino music. I make sure I'm in my space and my zone because for me it's something special. I've always made it a point, not always, since 2018. I started in the summer of 2018 decluttering and it's been a journey and I made it always fun and entertaining not something like I don't want to do this awful because I don't want to do it I didn't want to do it before 2018 and in this way I make my music I have my fun music on I listen to different podcasts I listen to you a lot I put videos there

sometimes I've tried to do it watching a movie or something but it doesn't work out watching a movie because I'll miss out in the movie and then I'll be like oh then I don't want to clean so I'll do like I'll watch like friends or something I've watched before or modern family that I can play or Gilmore girls that I can play in the background. And I go, oh, I know what's happening here because I've watched it so many times. Every year I'm surprised how every year. I'm like, oh, I need to keep this. I'll keep it a year. Then a year happens. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I did not even touch this.

Oh, no, no, no. I'll keep it one more year. So this is the year that I've had things that I've had for like three years that I have not touched. This summer, it's been a little difficult. again this summer getting, getting decluttering or getting, I don't want to say getting rid of stuff, but it is, it's decluttering because in 2018, I started with Marie Kondo and I just, I decluttered so much. It was like a huge, that was the hardest time for me. I never really done it that way. And then I found you and your way of thinking really has motivated me

in the way you do things. There's one thing you said and it has stuck with me. I heard this last year. I don't know when you said this, but I heard this last year on one of your videos. You said, whatever you are throwing away does not cost what you paid for it. And for me, that was a game changer. Like there's a, I had bought a lot of things. I had gone a lot to marshals and things like that in the past. I'd be like, oh my gosh. Well, this costs me. This shirt here was, I remember it said it was $70 and I bought it for 12. I can never get rid of it. And I'm like, why can't I get rid of it? Like, it doesn't cost the $12 or the $90. It costs. It doesn't cost that anymore.

And that changed my, I'm going to say that changed my life about organizing that one sentence. Oh, many things you've said, of course, but that one sentence, it is not, does not cost what it was before. Now it's zero dollars. But that mentality for me, I'm like, I've been able to declutter a lot. Now, this summer, I really feel it's hard for me this summer because I've had those things I've held on to two and three years now or even four or five years. And I told myself, oh, if I don't use it.

next year, next year. And this year, I'm like, I'm done. And I have so many things I have not used. And they're like so sentimental. But they're, they've been in a drawer. I decided it's not, it's not going to be like, if the day I die in someone comes and looks at all my stuff, this is not the special little box that I have a little box that I'm saving some things. It's so small little box. It's not that. It's just part of like some junk stuff. So it just, my mind is, things different about even buying things. I don't go and buy things like crazy anymore. So thank you. Thank you so much. We all thank you. My family here. Michelle, I adore you. I feel like we would be friends. I want to talk about a couple things.

One, listen to me. You need to schedule a donation pickup. You need some accountability to get that stuff out because it's really easy for you'd like you've been kicking it down the, that can down the road for three years. you need to schedule like the diabetes society or somebody in your community that does a pickup for two Saturdays for now and start loading that stuff into boxes in anticipation of them coming. You need a deadline friend. A deadline will be your best friend. But also I want to talk about the thing that you talked about in the front. I call that going to zombie town or a zombie land where you turn your brain off so you could do like the horrible crappy stuff like cleaning your house.

I go to zombie land or zombie town. And I call it this because my brain is so focused on what it's listening to, which is not music. It is raunchy, raunchy fantasy romance novels. And it is vampires and maybe witches, throw some werewolves in there doing naughty things. I'll just tell you. And I'm so into the book that I don't even. realize how much I've cleaned. And I don't want to stop because I'm really into the thing, but I will caution you one time Joe picked up my AirPods because I was around him and I had paused and then I was

doing something and Joe's in his AirPods was now hearing my book with the werewolf porn. And he did not look at me the same way after that. So just be careful. of that. You listen to whatever you need to do to turn your brain off and go to Zambiland when cleaning. Latino music sounds nice, but if it's some raunch, just know that that could happen. Okay, that's, am I oversharing? I'm oversharing. And now we'll hear from Corin. Hi Cass, this is Karin from the UK. I just wanted to say a great big thank you to you and your team because after finding you on YouTube, I started watching all your videos and listening to your podcasts and after a year of bad health, it gave me the energy and the excitement to get decluttering.

And I've spent the last four months sorting out every room in my house and got rid of over a thousand items. and the only thing I'm having trouble with now is the box full of photographs, the memory box and the paperwork, but everything else is done. So thank you so much. Bye. I'm so proud of you.

And I know that you're a beer cricket because you counted the number of things you decluttered, which is very B or cricket like of you. And I love that. You know what? When it comes to photos, let's give yourself permission to just have a box for photos. and that's enough. Like that it, label it photos and guess what? You're done. And also, maybe just have a box that's labeled paperwork. And that's okay too. Like, what if you're done, Karen? Like, what if that's good enough?

And you are done, babes. Now you're just in maintenance mode every maybe couple of weeks, do a 21 item toss and sail off into the sunset in your organized, good enough, amazing home. Good for you. And last but not least, let's hear from Stacey. Hey, Cass. My name is Stacey. I was wondering how you got started with your business. Right now, I'm a full-time teacher, but I would love to have my own business. I have a page now on social media, but I just want to get some tips. Any help you? will be great. You're amazing. Thanks. I would love to help you. First of all, don't quit your job. Listen, I started my business. It was like a side hustle. So I started helping friends and family because

I thought I was a genius and I was like, listen, you don't have to actually put things in filing cabinets. There is another way. And I started helping my chronically and messy friends with this less organized approach. And I loved it so much and it was so rewarding that I asked them, If they knew of any other friends or family, that needed help. And then I put this advertisement out on Facebook. I made a poster at the grocery store with these tearaways, you know, at the bottom? That was like, messy home, hire an organizer, guaranteed to stick or your money back. That was a bad marketing idea.

Okay, don't do that. But honestly, people started to call. And then what I did to gain even more clients was I reached out to real estate agents. instead if you have any homes that are going on the market that people are struggling to let go or declutter I'm available and I started doing free organizing information talks at senior centers and libraries anywhere that I could share my passion and give free advice it always turned into people who would then hire me and of course I started sharing on social media on YouTube and and anything else just really coming from a place of I learned this awesome thing and I want to share

it with you too. And the byproduct of that was I started getting clients without really having to work on hardcore marketing. So I think if you are coming from a place of passion and your goal is to just make other people's lives easier, start there and the money will follow. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I hope you got a ton of stuff done. I hope you're proud of yourself. Even if you got one thing done, your life is better than it was before you started listening to this podcast. And I'm so proud of you. I hope you're proud of yourself. Tomorrow there's a really cool video coming out on YouTube. So go to my YouTube channel. You do not want to miss it. I am full drill sergeant. I even went to the thrift store and bought camo pants and a

whistle. So just be prepared for that. You don't want to miss it. And I'll see you guys next time. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play. Feel the fun with Play Ojo. The online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep with no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woohoo. Feel the fun. Hey, oh Joe. Honey, forget about the lasagna. Let's celebrate.

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