Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - The Power of Passion with Bargain Bethany | Clutterbug Podcast # 144

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

In today's podcast,  YouTuber Bargain Bethany chats with me as she shares her best DIY crafting advice.  The QUEEN of Dollar Tree DIY talks about who inspires her, her love, and passion for crafting that she turned into her career!  Find the 3-tier tray that Bethany made : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3bgE8b0-bk  You can find Bargain Bethany on: YouTube : https://www.youtube.com/c/BargainBethany Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/people/BargainBethany/100070074246190/ Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/BargainBethany/?fbclid=IwAR24Cu2hC9eJsMh663dXyjaBVQ_qWKqhYsEI0vY-iNUWhCybZv5Mmayd5cw TikTok : https://www.tiktok.com/@bargain.bethany?fbclid=IwAR3tKzGGIRNcAQuetSklRMXl-aow9iBo7WBnruu7KWaJ_XaDE06bqw9EUFs   You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I am interviewing Bargain Bethany and I'm so excited about this because she is legit my favorite YouTuber. So I'm fan-girling. I can't wait to introduce you. I'm excited about this one. Hey Clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. This one's going to be so fun because I am geeked. All right.

We are interviewing Bargain Bethany. She's a YouTuber that is hands down my all-time favorite YouTuber. I just find her so inspiring. but I got to be honest with you, I don't watch a lot of social media. I'm not really, this makes me a bad YouTuber because I have a YouTube channel, but I don't really watch other YouTubers. I don't really watch a lot of Instagram or even TikTok because every time I do, I find I'm comparing what they're doing to what I'm doing.

And I always fall short. So I'm like, oh my gosh, I should have thought of this. And look how amazing they are. And why is their house so beautiful and mine is so ugly? and why are they so in shape and why do I keep eating cookies all the time? Or why did they think of that and I didn't think of that? And so I really try to limit my exposure to YouTube and to social media to things that only make me feel good when I'm done

and things that don't give me those toxic negative thoughts about myself. And Bargain Bethany is one of the few channels that I watch because I don't know what it is about her but I never, even though she's incredible and creative and making these amazing things, I never think, why didn't I think of that? Or why am I not her? I only feel inspired. I only feel excited. And I walk away after watching her videos and I want to do something, I want to be better and I want to do something cool like she did. And so it's such a positive experience to watch her videos. but the other reason I love it is because now that I've met her in person, we met at a YouTuber

of retreat a few months ago. She's so humble and honest and she's scrappy, you guys, and she is a fighter and she has worked so hard to get where she is. Not only am I watching her now because I genuinely enjoy it, but I'm watching her because I'm rooting for her to succeed. I'm in her corner. I feel like just getting to know her and talking about our experiences. Like my mama bear was coming out.

I like want to protect her. And she's killing the game. Like I cannot. She's crushing me. She has like twice as many subscribers and views. She's absolutely succeeding so much. But but she's still so I guess I don't want to say naive, but she's still like so fresh. She's so unjaded by the whole experience.

She's so trusting and honest and just uniquely. real. So we're going to talk to her. We're going to talk about the power of passion too because I love to watch other people who know what they love to do and make time for it in their lives, whether it's a business or not, knowing what your passion is, knowing what you love to do and what you're kind of good at. I guess that kind of is what makes things a passion, right? You love engaging in and you're kind of okay at it, probably through practice. But identifying your passion and making time for it, I don't know, it just, it makes me so happy to see other people doing it because life is stressful.

Life is chaotic. We don't all love our jobs all the time. Even if we have a great job, it gets repetitive, it gets awful, and sometimes it doesn't light us up in the same way that a hobby does. And so when we can find something to do in our spare time to fill that isn't watching social media or just mindlessly watching television, but doing something that makes us feel empowered, proud of ourselves, gets our creative juices flowing, whatever that hobby, whatever that passion is, when you find it, it's magical.

And so I love watching other people engage in their passions, if that may be. sense. So anytime I'm watching somebody or even when somebody's talking about it, they're like, I love, I don't know, dressing up my chihuahuas in different costumes and they're like talking about different shoes and coats that they have. I'm calling out my stepmom right now. This is one of her passions. She takes pictures and does like photo shoots with her chihuahuas. But it's weird. But to hear her talk about it, I just love that. I love watching other people get excited about something and passionate about something in their lives. So I want you to think about your own life and what are you passionate about? And this can be such a really difficult thing to identify.

And it might be that you haven't found it yet. And that's okay too. But making time for this, really understanding the power of passion and how important it is to have something in our life that makes us feel alive. Whether that's baking or cooking or cooking. or homemaking or board games, crafting, writing. I don't know. Everybody's so different. But knowing what it is for you, I just feel this is so important. It's part of the human condition.

I think we all need to have something that makes us feel alive, powerful, excited, happy that we can escape to when the rest of the world feels sort of overwhelmed. So I'm going to introduce you to Bark and Bethany in just a second, but I also wanted to talk about her resilience. We talk about this in the interview a little bit, but I don't know if you guys know my backstory and just maybe we'll talk about this in another podcast, but I left home at 15. I really struggled. I was homeless until I was 19. And then I just tried really hard to adult, I guess, and I failed over and over and over again. But I kept getting. getting back up and trying again and looking back at all of my epic failures and I have a lot. I still feel all the time now.

I really see them as kind of a way that gave me a fresh start. And all of my epic failures turned out to be really some of the best things that ever happened to me. I lost my YouTube channel about seven years ago, Malatose 79, after five years of growing it. every single week making videos dedicating so much time and effort and energy into this channel I lost it and I had to start again and Bethany has a really similar story

she had a channel that she was working on as a side hustle too for years putting blood, sweat and tears into this side business this side passion and it wasn't working out and she had two choices she could quit she could put her tail between her legs and just say well I guess that was it

But because she loved it, she could also say, I'm going to try again. I'm going to start over. And I'm going to take that failure and turn it into something amazing. And that's exactly what she did. And I hope at the end of this interview, you become as big of a fan of Bethany as I am. We have bargain Bethany here. Okay, listen, Bethany, I'm fan-girling because legit, you are my favorite YouTuber of all time. So this is exciting. Please say hi to my listeners and tell them right off the bat where they can

find you. Hi, I am Bethany, as you just heard. I am a mother to my son Cooper and I'm married. I do YouTube. I've been doing it for over 15 years. I wanted to see one video. I did that for 10 years and now you can find me at bargain bethany um and i've been doing that for around six years now it's a DIY channel youtube.com slash bargain bethany and i feel like meeting you in person we met at a youtubeer retreat you are first of all the sweetest most you know adorable person you're so sweet but also you are scrappy man and you're like resilient and i i saw that in you and i was like she's got hustle and we have sort of the same a little bit of the same YouTube origin story so when I started on YouTube it was a channel called Malatoz 79 and I did that for so long okay I did that for

so long I put so much into it and it was really slow to grow and then I lost my ad sense it got taken away permanently for invalid clicking and I had to start all over again a new channel and I know you did too you had an old channel that you put like your heart and soul into and i want to talk about your decision i guess to start again and and to start from scratch and i know what a trudge that was and look at you now man you're like over a million you're killing the game but tell us i guess about that decision was it hard to start again it was very hard okay so it was a mixture of both it was hard starting again because it's you know you don't know what's going to happen with the next channel you know it can totally flop um but it was easy in the sense that when i had ended that channel i was working

at a grocery store in the deli doing all these hours and then i would come home and body paint and unlike doing a bargain bethany when i start a craft i can stop that craft and continue whenever i want the body painting i can't stop until it's done i can't fall asleep in it i have to go to work the next day. So it was easy in a sense that I was okay not doing that anymore. But it was hard in the sense that I had did this for so long. And I built that channel up and it was successful. But then they came a time where the channel just started to die. You know, like I wasn't getting the same views anymore. The subscribers weren't coming in the same way. Wasn't making the same type of money that I was before. So it was it was kind of like sad to see that go, you know. But. But,

I feel like everything, you know, ends up happening for a reason because I love Bargain Bethany so much more than I did the other channel. And you are like literally the most brilliant crafting YouTuber. I'm sorry. And I know you do a ton of stuff from the Dollar Tree. But what you come up with, it's so inspiring for me. Like obviously you are just a creative person. That's like your jam. And I, love the, I call it the power of passion. When you are passionate about something, I truly believe where there's a will, there's a way, and you will legit make money doing what you love. And like, YouTube really gives us an opportunity to do this. I get to do this with organization and you get

to do this with just making incredible things from Dollar Tree items. Have you always been a really creative, crafty person? Yeah, my entire life I've been like that. Um, I always would win like art competitions and stuff. Granted, I went a school of like 20 kids. So I don't know what the competition really was, you know, but I was always like that. And then always into like decorating. I remember I won like student of the year in second grade.

And my mom was like, oh, you can get a toy. And the toy I chose was home decor. So just growing up, I've always liked both of them. And I just always like made things, always drew. then I got into makeup and then with the makeup that whole artistic side transitioned into it. So yeah, I've just, I've always loved crafting and all things that come with it. I love that. I mean, I'm not crafty like you, but I try to be crafty because there's something, I don't know,

there's something so powerful about making something with your own hands. And I'm not, I can't use power tools. I will chop a leg off for sure. But when I craft something, I feel legit proud of myself. I'm like, look at this thing I've made. And it feels so good. So I really try to inspire other people to give it a try because it feels scary if you've never crafted before.

So I need you guys listening to check out Bargain Bethany's channel because you make things from the dollar tree. It is cheap, but they look fantastic. Thank you so much. This is your jam. So you are my inspiration before I want to do something. I'm like, I'm bored. I want to make a craft. I'm like, Barka Bethany, I watch all your videos. But who is your inspiration? Like, who do you look to? Because I feel like as a creative person, do you feel that burnout? Do you feel like you're looking for new ideas?

So, okay, I feel burnout with video ideas. Okay. But when it comes to crafting, I don't get burnt out. I my inspiration I would say is more so going to stores like there's a lot of YouTubers that I watch and that I adore but I I kind of limit how much I watch people because I don't want to end up stepping on their toes and accidentally taking their stuff you know what I mean so I like go to stores and that's where I get a lot of my inspiration from things that I buy and I would say like my husband inspires me a lot I was actually tossing away these bowls. I used some bowls for a DIY. I was tossing them.

And the way that they were tossed, he's like, that looks like candy. And I was like, that's brilliant. It's candy for Christmas. So I didn't toss the bowls. I ended up reusing them to make like jumbo candies. And he does that all the time, all the time where he sees something. I'm like, wow, thank you. So yeah.

The stuff you come up with is insane. And when I met you in, you were like literally the sweetest, most humblest person. But let's call it like it is in the like crafting DIY, especially coming up with stuff with Dollar Tree, you're the queen. You wear the crown. You do. You rule the YouTube space for this. And people sometimes look to you to be inspired. So I love that you say, you know, I kind of don't look to others because you don't want to copy because I know that's a thing that that definitely goes on. the space and you're just so admirable. I know I'm just over here like you're so amazing. I don't hear it enough more. But it's true and I just anytime I see somebody making a living doing something that they love and and still staying true to themselves, I just I just get goosebumps. I just really love that. And even if you're listening and you're like, I'm not going to start a new business doing something I love. There's something to be said just for making time for a passion, that power of passion, right? Like making time in your day. I know we're busy. And if, so this

clutterbug podcast, I'm, a lot of times I'm just teaching people to make homemaking easy, balancing work and home life and your spouse and your kids and having to keep the house clean and all of that can feel overwhelming. But I also really want to encourage people to take part in hobbies too like don't scratch that off the table because that it fills a hole that you don't even know that you have do you ever do this type of stuff and not film it like do you ever craft and not film it so i i love organizing but sometimes i just don't want to make it into a video for that makes sense like i'm just like no i'm not making this content and i do it for fun and and it feels so good do you ever just like put the camera down and like I'm just going to do this because I love it.

So I would like to say that I do, but I just don't have enough time in the day. So when I do craft, I tend to film it. I would say like I'm like that when I'm doing like decor for my son's birthday party, something where it's like it's meant for an event. But for the most part, I do record everything that I make. I'm like that with organizing, though. Like, I tend to show organizing hacks on my channel, but lots of times when I'm organizing inside of my house, I don't record it.

And I just like to make everything like look great and nice and everything has a place instead of a big mess. And I'll do that like off camera and not record it. But with crafting, I tend to record everything. I guess it's your bread and butter. That totally makes sense. It is crazy too. So I, you know, I was a really messy person. So I was like hoarder level super slob. But I did like the idea of decorating. I just could never do it. And I love the idea of crafting, but I didn't have space. And I didn't want to like, why would I make a wreath for my front door when you open the front door and it looks like a hovel inside? It felt really pointless to decorate and to do those things when my house was messy. But I think it all goes hand in hand. Like, crafting, even makeup or organizing, decorating. It's all the act of making something beautiful. It's all the

act of creating something that you find beautiful. And I don't know. I think that's probably why I got so into organization because it was something I could do without spending a ton of money and still get that feel. It's almost like a little bit of an addiction. Are you addicted to making things beautiful? Yes, I am 100% addicted. I always tried to tell my husband, oh, you know, this is part of my job. You know, so I have that excuse. Like, why am I buying this? It's part of my job. But why am I crafting all day? It's part of my job. But like I'm addicted to it, you know? Like, I love to do it. It's like, besides being a hobby, it's just, it's just part of me, you know? Yeah, it's part of your identity. I feel, I feel that so hard. But I think, have you ever struggled with mess and clutter? I feel like to get to a point where you can really just go all in on something you love. You have to get rid of all the distractions first. You have to kind of have space.

You have to have time in your life to be able to engage in this. Have you ever struggled with like a cluttered messy house? This is just, I'm just nosy at this point. Oh, no. My house, it is rough because I live in, it's like 950 square feet. And then with what I do, it's hard, especially with having a toddler on top of that. So my house is always like there's clutter everywhere. My house just like a few weeks ago, half of it was Halloween and half of it is Christmas.

We just got a storage unit. Thank God. So I was able to move some of our stuff out to make more room for like everyday living versus all of my craft supplies. but our house, it's like most of the time there's stuff lying everywhere. I just don't have really the space to put things. I try my best. You are constantly bringing things in. You are like you are always making things, which means you'd have to buy things. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just like constant. Listen, can we just talk about your husband a second? When I met you, you realize you're the queen of dollar tree DIY, right? And yet you were so humble. You were so humble and you're just like,

I met a lot of YouTubers, a ton of YouTubers who have not even as much success as you have. And they're buying mansions and they're driving like Lexus and they're like, who. And I feel like you're so grounded. Right. You're just like, you're so grounded like this can end at any time. And does that come from that resilience, scrabiness? I know for myself, I lived, the majority of my life broke more than I've had money. And so I'm always really conscious of that. And when the good times are good, I'm just, I'm saving it till when the good times are bad. Does that make sense? Yes. Totally. I, we didn't grow up with money. You know, we shop at the dollar store in the third store. And then I've talked about this before on my channel. It's not something I hide. We went through

foreclosure when I was younger. So we lost our house. So for me, I'm very scrappy. I, I'm afraid to spend money. Like I will spend it on my YouTube channel any day, but other than that, like, I don't buy much for myself because in my head, I can always lose it all, you know? And maybe I shouldn't be that way. Maybe I should have a more positive outlook. But for me, like, I want another house with another bedroom. But at the same time, like, I'm afraid to buy another house.

You know what I mean? Like, to spend more money on something. I find this really admirable because we live in, like, we live in a, like, we live in a society, we live way below our means as well, just like you do. Like we're living, I'm driving a rusty used minivan and people sometimes make comments, right? We have a 1400 square foot home with a family of five and we don't have a lot of storage. Plus I have employees working out of this space. We are on top of each other. We're just like, but still, there's something to be said for the peace of mind of living below your means of saying like, yeah, all that fancy, shiny stuff is nice, but I'd rather

feel safe. Yeah. Yeah. And I got that same sort of mentality from you that your family comes first. Safety and protecting them comes first. And you're not a showboater, Bethany, you're not like, you're just, you're just really, it's admirable. So I just wanted to say that. I appreciate that. And I do feel the same way about you. I feel like we have very similar paths with how we were, we grew up and our YouTube journeys. So it means a lot coming from you and all the sweet things that you say about me because like, I try and I'm happy that other people notice it, you know, because when you get all these mean comments all the time and things to put you down,

it always feels really good when you have that like one that really stands out and especially somebody telling me in person. So I really do appreciate that. Yeah, it's hard. We live in this weird like social media where it feels like we have to keep up. And then when you pull back the curtains, sometimes the people you think you have to keep up with really aren't doing that great. And they're sort of putting out this facade that isn't real, you know. And I love that when I watch you, it's so, it's real.

You're real. You're honest. You're open with your followers. And you're just trying to inspire them to make something beautiful without spending a lot of money. and that's ah it's just it gives me all the feels so let's inspire our listeners today it's it's fall right and let's talk about something that they can do in their home maybe even a dollar tree thing like if you were talking to somebody who has never really done a craft before is there something you recommend that maybe they start with something they could make that's really simple for fall time

or just anything anytime so okay I can be so specific because when it comes to Dollar Tree crafting, there are so many easy things that it literally involves buying products and glue. Okay. So I would start with like if I'm, if somebody who's not into crafting or even just getting into home decor, I would start with like a tier tray. You just buy the plates from Dollar Tree, the candle holders from Dollar Tree. That's a decorer piece and it's all you have to do is glue them together. And I feel like you start there, then you decorate the tier tray with these little knickknacks that you make or. pieces that you buy and then from there you're going to start like be addicted pretty much to crafting

you pick the tear tray that was the first thing of yours that I copied I got like the pizza pan and then it was the the candle holder flipped upside down and then I glued on like a baking pan and then I put a bucket on the top and you had you spray painted it white and then you rubbed like black around the edge do you remember this I know it's a long time No, no, no. It's an enamel look you're talking about. Yes. It still sits on my counter to this day. Like, three dollar tree pans. I think it was like six dollars to make. I love that thing. And I decorated for all the different seasons. And that was like such a yes, do that go. I'm going to put a link in this podcast description to that video of Bargain Bethany's, which is the first one that like, I remember watching it. I was just like, this chick is a genius. I ran to the dog. dollar tree. So funny. bought all the supplies.

So, so, so brilliant. Just, I mean, obviously everything you do brilliant, but I love the two tray. Okay, I'm putting you on the spot. But give us another thing that someone can make from the dollar tree. Well, then my next would probably be a wreath. And the reason I would say wreath, again, it's easy. It's inexpensive to make. You can sell the wreath at craft stores. So if you're trying to make extra income, a wreath. And then like, they're easy to like change. So you can have your basic wreath and then just add little pieces to it to change it for the season. So you don't have to change it out every holiday.

For instance, I have this wreath. It's good for every season. Just recently for Halloween, I bought the plastic spiders from Dollar Tree and I just placed them on the wreath. I could take them out and then buy like little snowmen or something and place them on the wreath. So it's something where you can reuse it versus making a wreath every single time. So that's the next. I love that because you don't have to store a wreath. I should have done that because I have like 14 downstairs in my storage closet just crammed in there.

That's so, so smart. Okay, I hear this. You probably hear this a lot to you. My dollar tree sucks and everything is crap. Why is your dollar tree so great? But there are, you can find really good things like making a tiered try. Every dollar tree is going to have those. supplies hands down. But do you have sort of advice for sometimes my dollar tree is like really

tacky looking flowers? And so how do you kind of pick, is there like do you pick neutrals or what is sort of your secret, I guess, for making dollar tree stuff look seriously super expensive? So, okay, if we're talking about flowers, I look for ones that have a dusty look. That's the best way to describe it. It's like more muted versus that like very plastic look. I don't know if that makes sense. So it's more like a dusty look to it. But I actually don't buy flowers too much from Dollar Tree. It depends. If I don't find that look to them, I will go elsewhere because at the end of the day, I'm going to get more bang for my book going to places like Walmart and Hobby Lobby versus the dollar store.

And then how I make these items look more high end, I'm not sure. You're not sure. I know you paint a lot of stuff. You do paint. And sometimes people are really afraid of paint. But man, I feel like you cannot mess up spray paint. Am I right?

Yeah. Maybe if you don't move it back and forth. But as long as you're moving your hand back and forth, you can't really mess that up. up and a can of spray paint. I'm telling you, man, it can change drastically the look of something. Yes, especially something from Dollar Tree. Most definitely it can. And then even painting, like painting, you don't have to do anything too intricate. Like just painting it with acrylic paint, a solid color, it's going to completely change the look. So I agree.

I love that. Okay, okay. Thank you so much for chatting with me. I want everybody to go find you and be inspired to create something today. You make insanely gorgeous things and they're like under $10. Let's be honest. Right. Sometimes you make things that are more, but somebody can go to the Dollar Tree today with $10, watch some of your videos and your videos have like a bodonka donks. Every video has so many different options too. It's so inspiring. And yeah, I just, I want to send everybody over there because at the end of the day, I call this like hugging your home. When you do something small to create something to make any space more beautiful, it just makes you feel better about your home. And when you love your home, when you hug your home, I feel like it hugs you back.

I love that. That's a great saying. So how can my listeners find you? Oh, you can find me at YouTube. www. YouTube.com slash bargain Bethany. I also have Instagram, Bargain Bethany, Tick-Tock, Bargain. Dot Bethany.

Somebody stole my Bargain Bethany name on TikTok, but I'm real easy to find. And then I'm just launching a website. I haven't done that in a very long time. I don't know why it's taking me so long, but you can find me there at Bargainbethany.com. Oh my gosh, you got the dot com. I'm so happy. That's amazing. I didn't know.

I didn't know you were on TikTok. Are you like a TikToker? You don't do like the dance thing. No, I don't know how to dance. Yeah, I just started uploading on TikTok. I'm not very good with it because I don't know how anybody keeps up with YouTube TikTok Instagram Reels. I don't have a clue. But I've uploaded a few videos on there. And do I consider myself a TikToker? Not at all. Am I trying to be one? Yes. I'm trying my best. But it's hard. Same. Same. It's hard. I'm used to long form content, right? So I ramble a little bit, a little bit, a little bit. I don't know how people do with these transitions and they're flipping. My kids like make a TikTok in five minutes. I'm like, what is going on? Like how? I feel like I'm a millennial born in 87. I always feel like I'm on top of things and like I'm really familiar with like Gen Z and what they're into. But I'm starting to lose it. And it's more apparent when I'm on. TikTok. Like I don't know what's going on. I barely know how to work the app, how to fix the audio and all that. I'm like, what is happening? And I feel like doing YouTube, I always a little bit more in the know. But like I said, I'm starting to lose it. Like it's, I've lost it. I've lost it

completely. I'm a, I'm a old lady here. I'm in my mid 40s. And I thought too, I was like, yeah, I'm so tech savvy. I'm a cool mom. Because I got the YouTube thing. I got that. I can do that all day. But this TikTok, it's, it's a whole thing. And I see it moving over to the YouTube too, you know, with shorts. They're really pushing that. And it's like, I guess we're resilient, Bethany. We're resilient and we're scrappy. We're going to, we're going to get this. Hopefully. But again, now shorts. I don't know. It's going to be something else in the future. And we'll see if we can keep up. We'll adapt. I know it. And if we don't, we've stockpiled away. because we live below our means because we put our family in safety first above all the pretty

things we could buy. So that's so, so admirable. Well, thank you so much for joining me. This was amazing. You're incredible. I appreciate it. And please, everyone, go right now to YouTube. Go to Bargain Bethany and pick one thing to make today from the Dollar Tree so you can love your home a little bit more. Thanks for listening and I'll see you guys next time.