Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - The Real Cost of Storage: How Your Clutter Is Stealing Your Money and Space | Clutterbug Podcast # 299

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

We’ve been fed a huge lie — that the stuff in our storage rooms or storage units is worth money. It’s not! The truth is, your “storage treasures” are probably costing you thousands of dollars and stealing valuable space in your home. I’m sharing my own story of how I turned a cluttered storage room into a home office, added $15,000 of value to my house, and never missed a single thing I let go of. You’ll learn how to figure out what your storage is really costing you, the mindset traps that keep us holding on to stuff “just in case,” and my simple decluttering rules to help you decide what’s actually worth keeping. I also talk about why “preservation becomes paralysis” — and how freeing yourself from storage clutter can literally give you more time, money, and peace of mind. To enter the first-ever Clutterbug Storage Wars contest, email [e-mail] with the subject line Storage Wars, and include: A photo or quick video of your storage space (room or unit) A short introduction about yourself and which of the 5 D’s (downsizing, decluttering, divorce, death, or deployment) applies to you If your kitchen feels chaotic too, check out my YouTube video on how to organize it based on your Clutterbug type:https://youtu.be/ZyMPNykNSMc It’s time to stop paying for clutter and start creating space for the life you actually want.       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 #mondaymotivation #motivation #delclutter #decluttermotivation #homeorganization #storagewars       Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My producer and I literally are having an argument right now before we started recording this because there's just no way. There's just no way. We're going to talk about that big argument and hopefully you can be like the deal breaker in this and let me know what's actually true and who's right. But we're also going to be talking about the treasures or the lack of treasures in storage. Like things you're storing and there actually is money to be made. with your storage, either your unit or your room, but it's not what you think.

Make sure you stay to the end because I'm going to announce something so awesome. We are having a Clutterbug contest and hopefully you're going to be like one of the first contestants ever. I'm going to share all the details. You don't want to miss this. So stay tuned to the end of this podcast. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Just like always, you are not allowed to just listen or watch. You have to get up and take it. action and learn while you do and make yourself proud. And today I want you in your storage space, whether you have a storage room or a basement or that doom closet, wherever you just chuck the stuff that you don't want to deal with. That's where I want you to be today. And I want you to ruthlessly

make decisions. Like look at stuff and say, is this worth the space that it's taking? And an easy place to start is with empty boxes because you have some. You don't need that vacuum box from the vacuum you bought five years ago. You definitely don't need the TV box. Why is it so big? Let that go and then dig a little deeper. Like open the boxes, open the totes. Just because you've organized it in the past doesn't mean the stuff inside needs to be kept. All of this is stealing your square footage. It's stealing your just like joy and happiness. And today, you're, you're just like, you're, making the decision and it is going. One of my most controversial, I think, takes when it comes to organization and just like generally like your home in general is that you do not need a dedicated

storage room. There, I said what I said. Like a closet, maybe. You could have a closet for long-term storage. A room? Absolutely not. People think I'm absolutely nuts. Not only do I not think you need a storage unit that you pay for, but if you have a space in your home that's dedicated purely to storage, that's boncadongs, okay? And I've had lots of clients that I've worked with who at first dedicated a large amount of their square footage to this and through decluttering and growing their muscles, they have actually reclaimed usable living space. And they agree with me now that you don't need a storage space. Just say. You know what I have a real problem with? This show on A&E, maybe you've seen it.

It's been running for 16 seasons, and it has fed us all a lie. And that show is storage wars. And the lie is that these storage units are filled with hidden treasure. What a crock of crap that is. People are paying a monthly fee to store things because we have this, like, I don't know, this illusion that the things in there are worth money. And so we pay good money in order to keep it. Guess what's usually in there?

Stained mattresses and old paper. There's not coins. There's not diamonds. There is nothing of value. You may have a speaker system that you once paid $800 for that is now worth $20. And yet you are paying like $100 a month or more. That show, it is lied to us. It's like Antiques Road Show also have a problem with that show.

but on steroids because it's even more toxic because it's it's giving you this false illusion that first of all having a storage locker is normal and that second of all there's actual money in there they actually have a dollar sign in the title like storage worse it has like a the the a dollar sign like just reinforcing that your storage is worth money what a lie the thing about reality TV I mean that is. It's reality TV is that it isn't actually real friends. Okay. So we're watching this and they're sending us this message that every storage locker has something worth so much money hidden amongst the junk. And I've been on TV. I am here to tell you that there's probably a producer like secretly hiding stuff. The cameras cut. They like break the lock. The cameras cut and the

producers hiding the good stuff in there because nobody would put something of extreme value in a storage locker and then just leave it there and pay this monthly fee. It's just not realistic. And it also makes us believe that maybe we have treasure in our storage too, which stops us from ever dealing with it or decluttering it because we think what if we accidentally throw out something that's of huge amounts of value? So I started this podcast by telling you that there is money to be found in storage. But it's not what you think. It isn't that dynasty Chinese earn or something.

You know what I mean? It's not that. It's the money recovered that you're paying when it comes to those monthly storage fees, right? I mean, they start at $100 a month or more. That is literally thousands and thousands of dollars that you're tossing into storing dirty old mattresses there. I said what I said. But also, even if you don't have a storage room, there is money in your square footage. And I want to share a quick story with you of something that happened, how I kind of discovered I don't need a storage room and how it translated to dollar

signs in my pocket when I switched my thinking and I switched around my home. When Joe and I were first married, we bought a kind of like our starter home. It was three bedrooms with a downstairs room that we were using as a playroom. And we had this big long laundry utility room that ran the entire length of the house. Half of it was for laundry and half of it was for storage. Stacked bins, boxes all the way to the ceiling in our storage room. It was an unfinished space. But when Joe lost his job and he decided to start a business, we were really struggling. As a one-income family, I was running a daycare out of my home and we had no place for Joe to work. And so we had to make a decision like we can't afford to move. What are we going to do?

We need more square footage out of this tiny 600 square foot home, my friends. And I decided to turn the storage room into his office, which means I had to be really ruthless and declutter a bunch of stuff. So I went in. I actually started opening totes and I realized, oh my gosh, this is baby clothes that my kid has actually outgrown. And there's a bunch of clothes that I have outgrown. Why am I keeping them? And, you know, holiday decor I would never use again. Memory items that were really not special and worth the space that they were taking up. And a bunch of actual junk, things that I didn't want in my home anymore, but I felt like I couldn't let go of it because it was expensive or it cost money or I didn't want to be wasteful. So instead, I just wasted square footage by storing it in the basement.

In one weekend, I took out two truckloads of stuff and we put in some inexpensive vinyl flooring, quickly drywalled, and we turned our three bedroom home into a four. I mean, maybe not legally a four, but listen, okay, we had an office down there. When we sold our home, our realtor actually listed it as a three bedroom plus two in the basement because we had these two extra rooms. for an office, for a playroom. And we ended up getting like 15,000 more for our home than our neighbor did, which was the exact same layout because we had that extra living space, not just for storage. And that's when I really realized I didn't miss anything that I let go of, like, nothing. I did not miss one darn thing. But now we had an extra room for living. I want you to imagine what you could do with an extra room for living.

a reading room, a playroom, a workout room, a library, that is possible for you if you let go of this idea that you need to have a room for storage. Okay, so now let's talk about the argument I was having with my producer, Heidi, right before we started recording this. She said that she thought 40% of you probably were paying for a storage unit, not just that you. Not just that you, you have a room in your home dedicated to storage, but you have like an external storage unit that you're paying. And I was like, there ain't no way. Not my community. Not my clutter bugs. They wouldn't dare. So now I'm curious. Do you? I mean, please share. I'm not going to judge. I'm going to judge. But I really would like to know, is this honestly a problem? When I look at

stats online, it says that one in 10 people have a storage unit. But I'm, I'm, I feel like that's in, first of all, it's got to be inflated. And second of all, maybe this is for like highly urban areas where people are in a small condo and they don't have a garage or a shed, which totally makes sense if you are in a situation like that and you live in New York to pay for a storage space or have a storage space. If you have a regular home, that is bonker dongs. Anyways, go to clutterbug.com slash talk to Cass. You can be anonymous if you'd like.

And let me know if you do in fact have a storage unit you pay for and how much you pay per month to have it. I'm going to guess that there'll be none of you. Here's what the research actually says. People who have a storage unit that they pay for, it usually comes down to the five Ds. So the five reasons. The first is downsizing. So they're moving to a much smaller space. The second is decluttering.

And I feel like this involves kind of if you're moving and you have to really drastically declutter the space so it looks good so you can stage it. You know what I mean? You would rent a storage unit. Divorce. Oh, you've got to rent a storage unit while you're figuring out where you're going to live and everything. Death.

So someone passes away. And you want to go through all their belongings. But in the meantime, you're putting it into storage. And last is deployment. So the five Ds, five reasons to have a storage unit. And they're all kind of sad a little bit. They're kind of depressing. I feel like when things are stressful, I mean, all of these situations are insanely stress-inducing events in your life.

We just don't want to deal, right? We just don't want to deal with anything else emotional and have some thoughts. So it's kind of like, well, let's just put it in storage and we'll deal with it later. We'll kick that can down the road. It's the ultimate procrastination, except life's always lifey. And there's always crazy chaos coming in. And now we've just sort of shifted it on a shelf to the side. And we're appeasing it with money that we're throwing at it every single month.

So we don't have to deal with it. And before you know it, that $100 or $200 a month is adding up to a vacation you could be taking every year. It's adding up to huge amounts of investments. It's adding up to your potential retirement. fund. It's stealing from you and not only financially, but it's always that to do on the back of your mind that you just can't escape. It's always like, I need to get to that storage locker. And I'm going to be really honest with you, I had a storage locker twice in my life. One was when I moved, I went from being homeless to having my own apartment, breaking up

with my partner, and then moving to a much smaller place. So I rented a storage unit because I had no other place for my furniture. And then I continued paying for it for five years just because I didn't want to deal with it. Finally, Joe and I got together and we were going over my finances. He was helping me because I was a wreck with it. And he's like, what are you? Like, what's this line for storage fees? Let's go actually see what's in there.

So we go, I crack the lock. We, you know, raise the. door and it's just old yucky furniture. Like I physically cringed at what was inside. Like, oh, look that rolled up dirty rug and that old tube TV. I have a tube TV. I mean, honestly, nothing was even worth selling. And I had wasted thousands of dollars storing it because I just didn't want to even think about it or deal with it. We ended up clearing it out in under an hour, filling things in the back of the truck and just taking it to the dump and it was done and it was over. How ridiculous.

And the second time in my life that I had a storage unit was when Joe and I were selling our home to buy this house. It wasn't crazy full, but you know, like when you want to stage it and make it feel really empty and have your garage have like nothing but one rake. One singular rake. So we stored a bunch of the kids hockey gear that they were using because it was off season, and just, you know, camping stuff, all the things that are useful and that we use, but we didn't want it at the time. And we gave ourselves a 60-day limit in order to go and declutter it and make a decision. And here's the craziest thing.

We procrastinated it for like four months. You know, we doubled that time. And when we actually opened the store, we had been living without this stuff for months, when we actually opened the door, over half of it, I didn't even want to bring into my new home. You know what I mean? I'm a decluttering expert. And yet, even I fell into the trap of, ooh, I'll just put it in storage and kick that can down the road. What a huge mistake that was. I think for a lot of my viewers, if they do have a storage unit, we talk a lot about the time will tell bin. So if you're not sure about something, but you have a lot of anxiety, pack it up and put it in another room. And then if you don't miss it,

right, then you can let it go. But if you do miss it, it's there waiting for you. And I do feel like sometimes an external storage unit is kind of like a time will tell bin. We're treating it as this, like, ooh, I don't want to make a mistake. I have this perfectionism or I have this anxiety that I'm going to regret letting something go. I don't want it in my house. I don't even want it in my garage. So I'm going to pay to hold on to it so that I don't regret wasting the money. And to say it out loud is so bonkers, right? Like we're spending money so that we don't feel like we're wasting money. But that's exactly what's happening.

And it is part of the scarcity mindset and the scarcity cycle. And when we actually take time to go there and open up the storage locker and take a look, I think that is when it hits us how silly this whole concept actually is. Have you heard of preservation becomes paralysis? This is like, oh, this is so good. A lot of us do. We think like, oh, I want to save this. Or maybe this is sentimental.

So let's put it into storage and or let's like keep it just in case. And then we feel it almost like gives it more value. But here's something I'm going to tell you. about keeping sentimental things or having memories, it should never be kept in storage. When I hear somebody say, like, all my sentimental and my special things are in the attic, I visibly cringe. Or, yeah, it's in a storage room. Because memory boxes, and I'm a big, you know, like, I'm a big, like,

who everybody needs a memory bin. It should be somewhere in your living space that is convenient and you can access it any time. memories and special items are meant to be for you to go through and enjoy and look at them and easily be able to access so that you can add new memories because every day you might be having something new and special that comes into your life and if the place where you store those special memories is like across town in a storage room you're just going to shove them somewhere else in your house so preserving something should mean giving it a place of honor in your living space, even if it is a closet that's easy

to access, not procrastinating deal with it and shoving it somewhere. Because yeah, it's going to give you that paralysis of, I know I need to deal with it. This stuff is important, but I don't have the time right now or I'm afraid to deal with emotions right now. So you just push that off, possibly indefinitely. And I'm not just talking to people who currently have storage units that you're paying for right now. I really want anyone who's using a room in their home dedicated to storage or if you are like thinking in the future ever about getting a storage unit so that you can declutter

or have less in your home today without feeling the emotion, without having to make hard decisions. I hope that you really are listening to this podcast and realizing it's like a cautionary tale, right? It's make the decision today. Do the work today. Don't push it off till tomorrow because you're just adding a tax. You're adding an actual financial tax to your future, but you're also adding like extra emotional tax as well. You know how I love rules. I love decluttering rules. And I do think there are some like general rules or guidelines that you can ask yourself when it comes to things you have in storage. And the first is, have I used this in the last two years? And I didn't want to just say one year because if you're using it within the last year, why the heck is it in storage? You know what I'm

saying? You probably use it more like if you used it often, it would probably be in your regular living space. But two years is a really good guideline. If you haven't accessed something in the last two years, you probably don't need it. The second question is, does it make me, happy or does it have a clear purpose in my life today? So does it make me happy and does it have a purpose in my life today? The third is, can I photograph this instead? Like, can I take a picture or write this thing, the memory, the story behind it down? And is that just as effective sentimentally as keeping the item? And the fourth is, would I buy this item? And the fourth is, would I buy this item? again. And I think why this is really important because when I opened my storage locker that I had

literally paid for for five years, that was the first thing I noticed that, well, first of all, I didn't love any of the things. They didn't have purpose in my life today. They didn't make me happy. But more importantly, I wouldn't buy any of these things. I wouldn't buy a tube TV for my house. I wouldn't buy that stained mattress. I certainly wouldn't buy those old curtain rods again. I didn't need or want any of the things in there in my life today. Let's go back to the money for a second because this really bothers me. All right. It really, really does.

Storage units in America generate 50 billion, billion with a B, dollars a year. Billion. And there's over 50,000, 50,000 like storage places. 50,000. You guys got like, what, 52 states down there? I don't know. Math, but that's like a thousand per state. What the heck?

And each of those units, is that right? How many states you got? I don't know, how many states you got? Is there only 50 states? Is that included Alaska? I don't freaking know. Okay, my producers just told me there's only 50 states. Okay, I don't know.

I'm from Canada. How the heck would I know? Cool, cool, cool. 50 states. Maybe we're counting territories. It doesn't matter. No, that's a thousand unit, like places per state. And each of those have hundreds of storage units within each storage unit facility. This is bonkers. You know what? I'm going to just share something even awfuler with you. I'm part of a lot of like entrepreneur groups where, you know, people who own businesses and their hoity tooty get together. to talk about how to make more money.

It's literally groups, how rich people can get richer. It's gross, but I go because I own a business and maybe I'll learn something. And the most disgusting thing is they always talk about one of the best investments that people can make is buying, like, land to build these storage units on because it is one of the fastest growing industries. And also, you make so much money because you can buy one small plot of land, you can put a bunch of freaking tin cans on it and you can charge suckers a hundred or two hundred dollars a month to store their crap there and a person who owns this you know it's not expensive

to set up it's literally tin cans right that they're charging money for are just sitting back and laughing into their billions of dollars it's bonkers and i say no more right let's stop falling for this crap it's ridiculous and it's a scam i think what's really interesting too is that the number of people who have storage units like skyrocketed during the pandemic. Right. And this is why this is like this booming thing. And everybody's like, let's invest in businesses that have storage units because it seemed like everyone and their uncle started renting storage units, which also meant that they could raise the price because there was such a demand to ridiculous amounts. When I started with mine that I held on to, I think it was like

40 or $50 a month here in Canada. The last time I just rented one, Joe and I rented one, it was a 10 by 10 storage, like 10 by 10, right? Not that big. $176 a month. $176 a month, that's outrageous and absolutely nuts. So why do I think that the price went up so much because they can, they can charge that much. And why was it this boost during the pandemic? Because everyone had Marie Kondo fever. Everyone was home and they wanted to declutter more and they wanted their space to feel simplified and larger and less stressful and chaotic. And instead of just making the decision on the stuff and decluttering the things they didn't use in love, they just burdened themselves with this problem later and put it in a storage unit. That's all it was. It was

like it's it's the ultimate kick in the groin to tomorrow you. It's like I don't want this stuff but ooh I don't want to deal with any hard decisions. I'll make tomorrow me not only deal with that hard decision but have to drive across town to deal with the hard decision and pay for it in the meantime every single month. It's ridiculous that we do that to ourselves and if you You've done that. Listen, I get it and I've been there, but there's a way out. And that's driving your butt over there with a bunch of freaking garbage bags. Rent a U-Haul if you have to. It is cheaper than paying every month for that freaking storage unit and take everything out of the storage unit and put it in the U-Haul and drive it immediately to the dump.

Like enough is enough. You are not giving your hard-earned money to some rich fat cat anymore. I promise you there's like 2% of the stuff that's in there that's worthy of keeping and you have space in your home for those things. The rest, it's just stealing your money and it's stealing your peace of mind. Let's talk more about money because I'm, listen, money is a motivator, right? It's, it's one of the motivations of why people have a storage unit in the first place. They don't want to waste money by just donating or decluttering something. So they're paying, $200 a month. I'm not great at math, but let's just do some math right up in here. $200 a month is $2,400 a year. $2,400 a year. That's a vacation, my friend. But in 10 years, which

flies by, especially the older you get, the faster it goes, 10 years, that's $24,000 that you have just set on fire and watched it burn. And we're not even talking about. about the gas it takes to drive over there and like put more crap because you ain't taken anything out put more stuff in the storage unit maybe you're insuring the stuff oh please say you're not insuring the stuff in the storage unit but maybe you are where it's it just all adds up so grab a calculator and i seriously here's what i want you to do i don't know how old you are but like let's estimate you're going to live to 90 you're going to live to 90 how many years left is that how much do you pay per for your storage unit and let's do the math what that's going to cost you. And then I want you

to get real and ask, is the stuff in there worth that? Is the stuff in there worth what it's going to cost you to store it for the rest of your life? And what could you do with that money instead? And I don't not want to let off people who don't have a storage unit but have a storage room or a storage basement or a stored attic in their house. I'm not letting you off the hook. Calculate how much square footage of your home you were dedicating to storing stuff. And then go and check out the cost per square foot of local real estate in your area and do the math. Like how much are you spending in your house square footage? That is money too to store stuff. And like I said, like we gained an extra $15,000.

We added to the value of our home by giving us another room. And not only that, we enjoyed that office every single day. You deserve extra space in your home, too, for something that you will use all the time. And it will improve the quality of your life. And it will improve the value of your home. You do not need to keep storing that dusty old junk. Of course, we need to store some stuff. And let's talk about what actually needs to be stored because we have things that have to go into like a long-term storage.

Right off the bat, obviously it's seasonal decor. You have Christmas trees. You have totes. I have Christmas pillows. A lot of them. I have seasonal decor coming out the wazoo. But I do not allow myself to have an entire room for it. I have one closet.

One closet and I decluttered other things to make that closet a dedicated, closets like dedicated storage for seasonal decor. If you're a camper, that makes sense. You're going to have camping supplies. And we're not using that all the time. Maybe you're using that a few times a year. Of course, you're going to store camping things. If you have a very small space, you might need off-season clothing to have storage, which totally makes sense. Maybe you live in New York, but you like to kayak. Sure, you got to store that giant kayak or your skis, you know, you're skier, that's something you probably need storage for, like extra storage for. Everything else, the sentimental stuff, is a big fat no.

Storing your mom's dining room table? It's not special enough for you to use as your everyday dining room table. Why the heck is it in storage? Storing memories in totes and bins, you should have a memory closet or store them under your bed. So anytime you're feeling nostalgic or you're missing your love, one, you can go through and enjoy those memories. That's what they're there for. Not to collect dust. We're not honoring memories by having them collect dust in a attic or a storage room. That's bonkers.

Honestly, like, besides off-season things or like holidays and the occasional sporting equipment or camping, I can't think of anything else that is worthy of storing. And those things are so small, those are things that like a closet will do one wall in your garage will do not an entire room now all of this leads me to the awesome thing i was talking about in the beginning of this podcast we are going to have the first ever clutterbug competition so whether you have a storage unit that you're paying for or storage in your home i can't help everybody but i am going to help four of you reclaim your money, reclaim your space, and we'll do things like audit what's actually in there. Maybe we will find something of value. Probably not. But let's dispose of that in a way that gets you some money.

And let's reclaim either the money that you're spending on your monthly fee or the square footage. And the competition between the four of you will be who can find the most treasure, which is like the most money. Who can get the most money back in their lives? and I will be with you every step of the way coaching and helping you and encouraging you, your cheerleader, and of course helping you through the hard decisions too. So if you want to be part of like real storage wars, this is like what it should have been on that A&E show. If this sounds like something you want to take part of, here's what you have to do.

You can send an email to makeover at clutterbug.com and send a photo of either your storage unit or your storage room, whatever you have, and make sure that you put storage wars in the subject line. So storage wars in the subject line and include a quick video on your phone just introducing yourself, right? Tell us your name, a little bit about yourself and what D you're struggling with. Again, that's like, are you downsizing? Are you decluttering? Divorce, death deployment, what is the real underlying reason why you've got all of this stuff in storage? Then we will choose four lucky winners to compete to the death of their clutter and gaining tons of cold hard cash. What do you win? Cold hard cash. Plus, of course, we get to hang out and I will help

you every step of the way. So again, send a photo and a quick video to makeover at Clutterbug. with the subject line, Storage Wars, and I can't wait to work with you. Let's be real here. We have two choices. You can keep paying for your own personal memory museum, or you can gain back some seed money for your future. Which one are you going to do? I'd like to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Caraway. I switched to Carraway cookware and let me tell you. I feel like a real for real grownup every time I'm making dinner. Not only are they the most beautiful pots and pants ever. Like they come in so many different colors.

I have both the cream and the navy blue set. But they're so like heavy. They feel like real for real grown up cookware. And I can like fry and then immediately put it in the oven. Like everything is like ovenproof too. They are non-toxic. So I don't have to worry about like the teflon and the microplastic. but also they're so easy to keep clean.

Yes, I am that person that if something is burnt on, I would rather throw it in the garbage. And I have thrown the pot or the pan in the trash instead of scrubbing it or letting it soak for days. And right now you can save 10% off your next purchase. Go to carawayhome.com slash clutterbug or use the code clutterbug to take an additional 10% off your next purchase. Now it's time for my favorite part of the podcast, which is Talk to Cass. And first up

is Sandy. Hi, Cass, this is Sandy. I just wanted to say my house is all decorated for Christmas, except the trees are not all decorated yet. My outside is Halloween. Inside is definitely Christmas. Thanks to you, my house is in much, much better shape. I have probably cleaned more than I have in years since I've started watching you recently. And I've done junk draws. I have done cupboards and closets. And yes, they get a mess again, but I am keeping up on it much better than I ever did.

So thank you very much. Sandy, I'm so happy for you. I'm so proud of you. I love it. I can feel like I can hear like the pride in your voice. And it is, it is like kind of addicting because it makes us feel so good when we can finally get control of our home.

Now we have a question from Kristen. Hi, Cass. This is Kristen. I have watched your show for years, and I love your podcast, and thank you so much for the opportunity to get to talk to you. I'm a butterfly organizer, so I love visual. I like being creative. And I'm calling about my kitchen because I have a pretty small kitchen,

and I love making things from scratch. So I have a lot of appliances that get used daily. I have a juicer, a coffee maker, a blender, a breadmaker, canisters, the drying rack for all the equipment that I use to make stuff from scratch. And my kitchen always looks like it's just exploded. On top of that, I have two little boys, and all of their stuff is always creeping in here. And I don't even mind that, but it's just such a struggle for me to figure out how to be a visual organizer when there's just not a visual organizer. when there's just not enough space. So how can I better prioritize and just, you know,

embrace my visual organization, but also make my kitchen not look like it's constantly exploded? Thanks for any ideas and keep up the great work. Kristen, I love this. This is really hard for me to answer without seeing your space. Immediately my gut is like, does she have a pantry? Can we make it a Butler's pantry? Can we have a little juicing station?

But then I'm also thinking, do you really juice? every day, Kristen. And the breadmaker every day, because if it isn't every day, it shouldn't be on the counter. Right. It does not, it's not a huge deal to take that appliance out, use it and put it away. So that's the first thing I want to challenge you to do is like really assess, do I use this every day? The second thing that you can do to get more space is look at some visual options. Like, you know, visual organizers, you know, those pot racks that hang over the island, what if you could actually hang your beautiful pots and pans and now give yourself an entire cabinet or using a cart system for like maybe your juicer and keeping all your fruits and

vegetables you use on it that can be like wheeled to the side? I, it's really hard for me to give you actual organizing advice without seeing your space, Kristen. but I will say the first step is being real with yourself and only keeping the things that you use every day out on the counter. I know that's not what you want to hear. If you want to have a virtual makeover with me though, Kristen, you might be able to win. So you can send in a quick video and photo of your kitchen to makeover at clutterbug.com because I'm always giving away virtual makeovers where I will help you come up with a custom organizing plan for your space. I also did a video where I showed how I organized a visual space. It's like a combination, how to combine

different organizing styles in a kitchen over on my YouTube channel. So if you want to go check that out, hopefully you'll get some visual ideas that can help kind of keep things visual, but calm it so it doesn't feel like clutter. That video is over on my clutterbug channel. Now let's do a dinosaur from Rocky. Hey, Cass, this is Rocky. Um, And my sister and I, and actually my husband, we all listen to you and try to follow some of the rules. My sister and I are trying to break generational hoarding. And that's pretty tough. But anyways, I have a decluttering dinosaur for you.

It's a two-parter. Today, I finally threw away a piece of my childhood hair that my mom had kept and she put it in a ribbon. And it was like a chunk, like from a haircut. It was a chunk of hair. And with the hair was like a quarter and a fortune cookie telling and a school photo of me. So it kind of felt like I was throwing away like a piece of myself. It felt weird. But I literally got my haircut last week and I didn't keep any pieces.

So I think I'm fine. And the other part also has to do with hair. and it's that when I was in, I think, third grade, I went ahead and cut my hair for locks of love or some sort of donation thing. Anyways, that hair eventually got donated after it sat in a closet in the bag and the ponytail for about, I think, six years. So anyways, we're working on that generational decluttering. And I really appreciate you and the work that you do. Thanks so much. Bye. Rocky, that's so, I love that. You're hilarious. You're like, I just got my haircut

last week and I didn't keep in. Isn't that so true? There's this pressure that we're supposed to keep a lock of our child's hair from their first haircut. For what? I mean, I kept all my kids teeth from the tooth fairy for some reason, just like a bag of teeth. Like, why? And also, what's its purpose in the future. That doesn't even invoke a memory. It's just like I had hair. I still have hair, but that hair was from what I was yet? What? What are we doing? Humans are weird, but Roggy, good for you. Let's all say that that's not something that's worth keeping. All right, we have some thoughts from Erica. Hey, Tash. My name is Erica, and I'm a stay-at-home mom. I've got three little kiddos at home, and I've been following you for a few years now.

I'm part of Take Your House Back, and that's been the biggest impact on my life. I'm learning to simplify, and everything's kind of working a lot better than it used to. But now I'm still shopping, and I'm realizing now that I don't need all the stuff. Like even just like grocery store stuff, like, 85% of, of that in the store is just garbage. It's not even good for you. And they, there's so much advertising. And especially with little kids too, they make you think you need all the kid things. And I guess why I'm reaching out is because I'm hoping that you'll shift a little bit. All of those of us who are struggling with clutter, at least most of us, I'm guessing, it's not just

clutter that we're struggling with. It's shopping. It's over-consuming. It's and I feel like I'm not, I'm not even the problem anymore. It's the fact that there's just so much out there targeting, targeting us all the time. And I'm not financially savvy at all, but I know that you are. And I'm hoping that there's not, I'm hoping that there's going to be a shift. And even in your content, like I love the decluttering message, but also I feel like you should shift to the shopping side of things. Like, we got to stop shopping because we don't need the things. We need the dopamine. Does the things give us?

And I'm so tired of being in debt and not having anything of actual worth. It's sucking the life out of me. sucking the life out of my family and I really I'm really asking for your help so please if you could do I mean this in content you've always done of course but

with more focus on the financial side of things and how to stop just stop it's it's crazy the amount of just time

being wasted on all things we don't need all. All the, the lies, my brain lies to me so much. And I'm tired of being lied to. And I love you, Cass, and I just, I hope, I can't wait for your new book. And I'm ready for you to write another one after this one about financial stuff. Thanks. See you soon. Thank you, Erica. You're right. I do need to talk more about the financial stuff. I think I feel like a bit of an imposter because I'm very impulsive when it comes to money. And I do consume way more than I should. And I know. And I give in. Oh, I give in. If I go to Costco and I'm like, I'm just going for the pop because my kid has an issue with Coke Zero and it's cheaper to buy it there. I fall for those N-cap bull crap where it's like, oh, They have flameless candles and it's $22 and I end up spending money I shouldn't. So I feel like I'm, I don't talk about it a lot because I feel like a hypocrite.

That's the honest truth. But I will say that there are a few things that I've done that have helped and I want to share those with you. And they might seem kind of drastic. But anyways, I do not buy anything on credit ever. Like that was the first rule. If I don't have the cash in my bank account, I am not allowed to have it. period. Period. There's no buying anything on credit ever. So that's helpful because it stops me from,

I can still overconsume, obviously, but I'm not like putting my family in jeopardy with this hard boundary, this hard rule. And that rule I had when I made no money at all. Like I remember multiple times it was like family members' birthdays, my mom's birthday once, my daughter, her second birthday we had just given birth to Abby and I didn't have money to buy my two year old a birthday gift and I was like I can just put it on a credit card but no like the rule is absolutely that's not happening and guess what she didn't know we just wrapped up toys she forgot she had whatever I felt like a horrible crap mother but in hindsight thank goodness I did that she did not notice and it went on so so that's the first rule I would say and that also means like anytime you

know that you have this impulse thing. So the grocery store is not my friend. I have to do like I order it online and then I go for a pickup because as soon as I go inside the building, I will buy scented candles. I will buy bull crap. I have no, I can, I am too impulsive, but I know this about myself so I don't allow myself to go inside the building. And that's another thing that that you could do. I think sometimes when we're bored, we're like, let's just go to the store. No, that's bad. So if you try to follow those two rules, Erica, like you order online and you do the pickup where you don't go inside the buildings. No credit cards saved on Amazon allowed. If you want something, you have to go find your freaking credit card, enter it in, and then immediately

delete it off again and then do that because trust me, I'm like, ooh, wouldn't this be nice? I'm like, oh, my wallet's across the room. Never mind. That's how important it is. I'm too lazy to walk across the room to buy the thing, I don't freaking need it. And then telling yourself no credit cards allowed, honestly, those simple, simple rules are kind of the first step that can really help. And I'll think about more content about how to just stop the overconsumption. That's a beast in itself and I need to work on it too. So thank you, Erica. That was a great suggestion. Last but not least, let's hear from Janelle. Hi, Cass, this is Janelle.

I'm just sending a little message to let you know that your podcasts and your YouTube have changed my day-to-day significantly. I have been finding myself bed rotting, thinking about all the things I don't feel motivated to do, putting on one of your podcasts, and hopping to and getting way more than I thought I could get done in just one of those 45-minute to an hour podcast episodes. I am a butterfly with ADHD. I thought I was clean-ish, organized-ish, but I was not very good at decluttering. I did grow up in a household that did keep things fairly clean and purged often, but I saw potential in a lot of things. So my decluttering muscle was there, but it was weakened. My husband is a cricket who also sees potential in everything. So needless to say, we have a lot of unfinished projects or things we're hoping to get

to or craft supplies that we haven't touched in a year or two. I sense listening to your podcast. I've started to seriously take decluttering seriously. And And recently got rid of an old singer sewing machine from the 90s, not like a nice vintage one. Just one I got from Goodwill, probably six years ago that wasn't working. I have another sewing machine that does work. We had been holding onto this thing thinking, oh, one day, maybe next week, maybe next year, right, we'll get to fixing this extra sewing machine. I don't know what I needed two sewing machines for.

But all that to say, my decluttering muscle is getting stronger and it's been significantly improving my mental health and well-being. So mostly just wanted to let you know that you're doing an amazing job. I do have a little bit of a question. So I mentioned my husband is a cricket, I'm a butterfly. I have ADHD. I really like to have these visual. I'll forget they exist.

But the visualness of everything in my home, it's a bit. a very colorful, very bright, very eclectic home can be overwhelming to my husband. And we're setting up his office right now. We're starting to try and make spaces that function for him. If he had his way, he would alphabetize our spice cabinet. So I'm wondering what I can do to try and find a happy medium so that we all can get along and continue on this amazing journey of decluttering and organizing our home. Thank you so much.

To know, I love that so much. Okay, fun. My husband's a cricket too. Oh man, the struggle is real with crickets. The logic makes them want to keep everything. The hidden part makes them not want to see anything. So they're always struggling. You know what I mean? They're just like they put so much pressure on themselves to to someday maybe I'm going to do it perfect later. Yeah, that's rough. So here's what I would suggest, especially now that you're setting up his office to really try to neutralize that. space for him so he can have a place to kind of detox from the noise, from the color, from like the extra stuff. So solid bins and baskets or if you are going with like Billy bookcases to buy the doors so that he can shut them so that he can have a place to kind of, yeah, turn off and rest from the stimulation that he's getting elsewhere. And the same thing can be kind of put into your home definitely keep your bright artwork and all the things you find beautiful and inspiring. But does your toaster inspire you? Like maybe the toaster can go under in a cabinet or maybe some of the like things that yeah, I don't use it every day and I don't find it beautiful.

Maybe we can compromise with tucking those things away. When you want toast, I promise you're not going to forget you own a toaster. You're not going to forget, you know, those type of things, don't hide your bills, okay? Janelle, don't hide the bills. But those other things, that can be like this beautiful compromise and it can be as much as a solid basket with a label. That's one of the best compromises of all. I hope you got some things out of your storage today. I hope you're feeling proud of yourself no matter what you did. And for those of you who weren't able to make massive progress in your storage area, I hope you apply to have some co-examined. coaching with me and to be part of our first ever storage wars competition with the grand

prize being but tons of money in your pocket. Doesn't that sound fun? Yeah, I know. So again, you can send to makeover at clutterbug.com. I can't wait to see your submissions. And I'll see you guys next time. Frozen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time.

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