Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - This Could Be Why Your Home Isn't Organized | Clutterbug Podcast # 242

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Are you skipping the most important step to getting your home organized? It's not about the bins, baskets or even labels - it's zoning!  In this episode, I am breaking down exactly why zoning is, why it's the KEY to lasting organization, and how you can zone your home for good. Get ready to be motivated to organize your home today!    Sign up for the 30 Day Declutter Challenge here: https://clutterbug.me/declutterchallenge2024     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 #organization Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There is one mistake that most people do when it comes to organizing their home, which is the critical step. And they're missing it. And it isn't bins. It isn't basket. It isn't even labels. It's actually zoning. So in this podcast, I'm going to show you exactly how to zone your home so that it can stay organized for good. Hey, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about zoning. your home. And I'm really going to explain what this means, what this looks like, and why it is the first and most important step of getting organized. I mean, decluttering is probably the first and most important step. But once you've decluttered, you have to zone your home before you can have any semblance of organizing success. It is absolutely the number one step in the organization

process and honestly it's something that a lot of people just aren't doing. Recently I put out an ad in my local community on a bunch of different Facebook posts looking for families who needed an organizing makeover. So on my YouTube channel, I oftentimes will go into my community and volunteer my time, volunteer to buy all the supplies and give a worthy family. a home or room organizing makeover at no cost to them. I love doing this because I don't do one-on-one organizing anymore. I don't work with paying clients anymore. So this is really such a great opportunity for me to be able to get in there and get my hands dirty and do the thing that I love,

but also be able to do it at no cost to really worthy families who otherwise, wouldn't be able to have an opportunity like this. And I mean, the cherry on top is I'm recording it and I'm putting this on YouTube to help hopefully educate and inspire others. So really fun process. But the truth is to find the right family, I have to go to a lot of people's homes and do the like scouting. So they apply online. They'll send photos. And then I will go to these families' homes walk around and do my initial assessment. And we'll talk about some of the ways that I choose a family or not choose a family in a second. But I want to talk about this initial assessment because this last round, I went to multiple homes and I was seeing the same pattern over and over and over again. So not only

am I going into someone's home and assessing their organizing style, but I'm always asking them to not tidy before I come. I want them to leave it exactly how they normally live on a day-to-day basis so I can see how the clutter and the piles and the mess naturally accumulate so that I can really assess the space with a critical eye and help come up with real solutions to catch that clutter. And I'm saying this because if you are in your whole, home right now, I'm hoping you kind of walk through the same process that I'm going to walk you through while I go into someone's home, but in your own home, I hope this is an opportunity for you to look at your space a little bit differently and notice some of the things I notice and

really get an idea of what zoning actually looks like. So before we jump into that, if you are listening to this podcast and you are sitting down on your couch, I will hope that you get up and take action on something. We're going to spend just a half an hour together. I'm going to teach you a bunch of stuff about organization. I'm hoping to motivate you and inspire you. But I'm hoping while you're listening, you're also doing something to make yourself proud.

Spend a little bit of time and catch up or keep up. so that tomorrow you, your life is easier tomorrow. It's a gift to tomorrow you. So do those dishes, put away a load of laundry, maybe do some light dusting. Think of it as like exercising at the same time. You're cleaning your house, you're working out, you're doing a bunch of stuff. Like, you're amazing. You are amazing and you deserve it. So a small wind today, get up, take action, listen to this while you're being productive. Okay. So the first thing I notice when I walk into all of these homes is there's always an accumulation of clutter right at the door, right at the door. This is very common for most homes. And it's the same things I'm seeing

over and over. We live in Canada, so we take off coats and shoes at the door. So obviously I'm seeing that, backpacks, purses, keys. But I also often see a lot of paper clutter, either right at the door or when you're first walking into the kitchen, like on the counter, the closest flat surface before you enter the kitchen is often where people just drop. So receipts, mail, kids artwork, bills that have to be paid. It doesn't matter. Just like calendars, reminders, whatever's in their pocket, loose change.

You know, everything kind of gets piled in this one. little spot. And the reason that that's happening is because there isn't a proper landing zone and there isn't a proper, I call it a command center, but a zone for those type of papers. So let's back up for a second and I'll just like, let's go over like the real crux of what I'm talking about. Organization is creating a home for everything. all your stuff. So like your scissors have a home, your pens have a home, your each section of craft supplies have a home. But on a bigger scale than that, before we can even get into that nitty, gritty little object home, we have to look at the structure and the framework of our home in zones.

Basically what zoning is, is creating different section in your home for big categories. And another thing that I see all the time, so this is just an example of a zone is almost every home that I went into this last time, they all had kids. And I walk into the living room and there are kids toys kind of strewn everywhere, which is fine. They're supposed to have not picked up before I came. But the thing that I'm really noticing is, first of all, every parent apologizes for the mess and says their kids never pick up. But the thing I'm really noticing is even as an adult, if I was to come into this home and have to clean up the toys, I would not be able to do it effectively. I wouldn't be able to do it at all, really, because there's no dedicated zone for toys in these spaces. And I had one parents say,

yeah, I said, well, where are the toys supposed to go? And they said, oh, in their room. So I walked to the kid's bedroom and again, there was no designated toy zone in this room. It was, well, you can toss them in that basket in the corner. You can chuck some in the closet. Maybe some get thrown in a drawer or under the bed. It's like this shove and hide kind of scenario. And the thing is, the amazing thing about organization is its main goal is to catch your stuff where you're now. putting it down. So if you are kids are playing in the living room with a little bit of toys,

it doesn't mean every toy they own needs to be in the living room, but there does need to be a small zone in the living room for those toys to go. And it can look as simple as two baskets underneath the coffee table. That's zoned for active toys that are currently in the living room or two baskets under your TV console. Maybe there's some for the things that normally go in your TV console, but you carve out a space for toys as well. Or it's a giant big basket in the corner beside the sofa that's zoned for toys. And when we think of our house differently, and we don't just look at it as you know, a place to store our stuff or where we eat and where we sleep, but we really look at it more like the framework for our life and how we're naturally living and we set up systems to

catch things where we're naturally putting it down. This zoning makes a lot more sense because real organization should be kind of created and set up around how you naturally organize, how you're naturally putting things down. So the first thing I do when I go into somebody's home is obviously I'm like assessing the space. I'm trying to assess their organizing style. I'm seeing like what's working what's not. But I'm also building this map in my mind of the zones in their home. So I'm letting their clutter really say like this stuff obviously doesn't have a zone or where it's zoned is too far away from where they're naturally piling it and how can I set up a framework in this space using what they have, using the furniture that they have, using the layout that they have to create proper zones.

So where are they naturally filing paperwork? Where close to that can I set up a paperwork zone? Not for every piece of paper they've ever owned, but for the paper that they're naturally just setting down. And I'll organize it later. I'll create homes for the different categories of paper later. But first, I need to know where the zone for that paper is going to go. Where is the zone for shoes?

We can have a zone for shoes that are sometimes worn and then like a separate zone for our everyday shoes that we're wearing right now. Where is the zone for coats? Where is the zone for backpacks? Where's the zone for toys? And moving into a kitchen is always really fascinating because this is a special. that we naturally zone. We usually zone the dishes close to the dishwasher, or we should, to prevent a lot of walking back and forth when we're emptying the dishwasher. We usually zone

the coffee mugs and the coffee and tea by the kettle or by the coffee maker. We generally zone the baking supplies near where we stand to bake, right? We will zone. I always have like a lunchmaking station or a leftover pack-up zone where I'm naturally standing, well, when I'm packing up leftovers or I'm making lunches. That's where I'll store like the food storage containers and the Ziploc bags and those type of things. I'm zoning the kitchen based on the natural flow that I'm having in this space. And this is a critical step that I would say definitely more than half of the people just aren't doing. So when walking around the space, seeing it in its true natural state of chaos, I see that the real issue here is lack of zoning. Obviously, lack of

organization, lack of homes. But before we can set up a home, we really have to know where that home's going to be. And that home has to be in that natural flow of where we're putting things down. So I, the last house that I was at, I'm actually working with them. I'm excited for you to see this video. It'll be coming out in the new year. I said, well, where do your keys go? And they both said, well, we have a spot, you know, behind the door where they're supposed to go, but we never put them there. And I said, so where do you put them? And neither of these, this couple, the husband and or the wife had a real answer to where they go because there was. was no particular spot. There was no zone. There was a spot, but it wasn't working. It was kind of out of sight, out of mind. They were obviously visual and it was kind of out of the way. So I just handed, I put the keys in the husband's hand and I said, pretend you're coming home, ignore me, do what you do. And he walked in, he walked past the entrance way. He walked past where this little console thing and he tossed it on the kitchen table.

This is the natural rhythm that he has. So I don't want to put the key spot in the entranceway. I'm going to put the key spot right beside the table. So I was like, okay, what if I do a little floating shelf? It's low. It's got a bowl on it. It's right beside where you're naturally chucking it on the table, but now you can chuck it into this bowl.

And immediately he kind of like, I could see in his eyes, he's like, yeah. He got that. Yeah, I don't want it on the kitchen table, but I need to put it where my natural rhythm of putting down is. I need to create zones for things and homes for things, how I'm naturally living. And this is my favorite part of going through people's homes is when I'm pointing out the lack of zoning and giving ideas for how to create this structure. how to make things make sense, how to stop them from walking back and forth of their home over and over and over again. Like organization should make you lazy, friends. That's what this is all about. You should be able to be like walking the least amount as possible in your home when you have a really good organization structure because it is set up to be easy. it is frameworked to be effortless for you and then once we have the big zones like this is where crafting

is on this wall this is where office supplies go on this wall this is where toys go over in this section this is where paperwork goes over here in this section then we can think of what that system looks like and get like what type of containers am i getting what kind of system am i getting what does that organization actually look like but the first step is where is that going in this space here's another example in in this kitchen i noticed a ton of medicine not only the medication they take on a daily basis which to me should be zoned in the kitchen if that's where you're naturally taking it if your daily vitamins and your daily medication you take them right beside the sink or right beside the coffee maker, that's your trigger. That's where you should be storing that.

But that doesn't mean you need to store every type of medication you have in the entire house here. You don't need your cough syrup and your aspirins and everything else stored in this space because you're not using that on a regular basis. And the thing is, we really have to triage that valuable space, especially in a kitchen and the living room in a space because it's not endless. We actually need space for living, not just storage. So keeping some of the medication in here makes total sense. Keeping every kind of medication in here does 100% not make sense. So taking a look at their medication, they had like literally every kid medicate, everything. They had an entire cabinet filled in their kitchen with medicine, band-aids, first aid supplies, all the medical supplies, and then the spillover all over the kitchen counter, and it wasn't a

large kitchen. So I just said, where, if it wasn't here, would you look for medicine and first aid supplies? Like, where else could this go? If this was like, like, blah, not an option. It was off the face of the earth. Where would you look? And they actually had a hall closet. That was just filled with blankets and towels and kind of using it as a linen closet. But that made sense for them because it was out of the bathroom in case they only had one bathroom in case somebody needed to access it. They didn't want it in the bathroom. But it was right beside the kitchen and beside the bathroom.

So logistically, that was a great place to zone this type of stuff. But it never got moved there because it was full. No problem, friends. The zoning part. is the most important. Like you've created a spot where this should go. It makes sense to go here. All the medication except the stuff they use every day is going to be relocated there. Now we can move to that space and rezone that. You've got four shelves. You need one for medicine and first aid. We're going to put that at eye level. We're going to have one zone for what? Towers. That's important. One zone for

sheets and one zone for blankets. We take everything out. We put back on the shelf, whatever doesn't fit. We shop the stuff we love first, friends. We start putting back the stuff we love first. Then whatever doesn't fit, we have to be really ruthless. It's probably going to have to be donated. That's all there is to it because our house is only as big as our house is. and stop. We can only keep what fits in this space we have. But if we haven't zoned that space, if we don't have an idea what that space is for

and all the categories that need to go in there, how could you possibly get organized? And I know this sounds so simple and saying this out loud, you're probably like, yeah, this is obvious. Way to go, Captain obvious, Cass. But I'm telling you, the truth is, most people do not do this. They do not look critically at their home. They do not look at the piles and the

clutter and the mess and think like strategically, okay, this is here because it's not easy for me to put it away right away. And how can I set up a zone for all the things that I'm naturally putting down close to where I'm putting it down so that I, it's just as easy to put it away? Because if you are constantly picking up and tidying all the time, the problem is not, if you have a messy house, the problem is not that you're not working hard enough. The problem is that you're putting it down in the first place. You don't have to pick it up more. You have to put it away more. And that shouldn't take a lot of effort. It should be just as easy to put it away as it is to put it down in the pile. That's the secret. It really is. Why does my house stay tidy all the time? Guys, I am not a

naturally tidy and organized person. Instead of just putting it on the counter, I can put it right here, right beside, just as easy. Still don't have to open a lid. Instead of like kicking my shoes into, on the floor when I first come in, I can kick them into a cubby just as easy. No more work. no more work for me because I've set the structure up of my house and I've zoned my house to catch the stuff where I'm naturally putting it down. Yes, decluttering is obviously a big part of that and organizing and setting up like, yeah, my craft supplies are zoned over here, but I need like a spot for my kids crafts and a spot for the paint and a spot for the blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know, we know. But that comes after the fact that, okay, well, cool, but where do craft supplies go?

Where is that zone? And how big is that zone? How much space do I have to work with? Because we have to organize for the space, not our stuff. We zone the space and then we make our stuff fit the space. So I hope this is making sense. This is what I do. I know I said that I was going to tell you some of the other little things that I do when I'm walking through a family's home. So I thought we do that right now. And then stay tuned. Don't go yet because I also want to talk about little things that you can do to fall in love with your home this fall.

Today's podcast doesn't actually have a sponsor, but I did want to take a second just to remind you of the 30-day declutter challenge. It's a 30-day declutter challenge. that is on both my website and my YouTube channel. And here's the thing. It is 30 days in a row. It started on September 1st, but that can be a lot. That can be a lot to take on, especially now that Christmas is coming and we have Thanksgiving coming up and Halloween and your life is busy. But I wanted to let you know about it because if you feel like, okay, I have too much, I can't possibly zone and set up organizing systems because I don't have room for anything.

This 30-day challenge can be helpful, but you can also modify it. You can pick and choose the days that you want to do. Maybe you need more space in your pantry. Just join me for the pantry day. You think of it as like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And whenever you need a little support and motivation and help decluttering a space, you can spend five minutes with me, and it can be any space you want, and it is 100% free. So not only can you sign up, you'll get the daily emails, but you can also just go to YouTube

and pick and choose the videos and watch them anytime you want. It also comes with an e-book and a calendar that comes with that, so you can like see all the days and pick the ones you want. I just wanted to share this with you in case you are like me and sometimes just do you. things better that we don't want to do when we have somebody to do it with. You know, body doubling is pretty magic. So go to clutterbug.com and you can check out that 30-day declutter challenge totally free or you can go to YouTube and go to Clutterbug and you'll see the 30-day playlist there and again, it's totally free. Okay, so as you're cleaning your own house or doing something,

you know, walking around your house, taking action. in doing something to make yourself proud. I did want to share with you because I just thought that would be fun. My process, when I'm going in to really assess the families that I'm going to pick to volunteer my time. So right off the bat, I'm going in and I'm hoping they didn't clean. Most of the time they really listen and don't clean, even though they're embarrassed. I think they might tidy a little bit. But I'm assessing the biggest clutter piles that I see. So what? is hard for them to put away naturally or what are they not naturally like they're setting it down instead of putting it away that's step one i've got to create zones for that i have to restructure

that and i'm really assessing what kind of storage do they currently have do they have way more stuff that'll fit in the current storage that they have and i can tell this by how many layers deep their home is, right? So the first layer of your home is the current storage that you have. So your kitchen cabinets, your closets. The second layer would be flat surfaces. So are all of the flat surfaces covered with stuff? Then the third layer deep is where things start to be set in front of the first layer. So we have piles on the floor. We have things stacked in front of cabinets. in the kitchen, we have things stacked in front of a closet or closet doors open and things have spilled out. That's kind of three layers deep. Then when we're looking at like four or fifth

layers deep, you start to get piles, maybe even two layers deep of piles or waist high piles or entire rooms that are completely full. So I'm really assessing that because that tells me how much they have to let go of. If I'm generally seeing no clutter at all, which means like, that doesn't mean they're organized friends. They could have like every cabinet could be like a hot mess sandwich and a total disaster. But if they're not having things on all their surfaces, I know there's minimal decluttering to be done because everything fits in the house that they currently have. And we know, because I've said this a million times, organization does not create more space, only decluttering can do that. In fact, true organization oftentimes will take up more space.

So there's this myth that if only I got organized, you know, everything would fit and it wouldn't be a cluttered mess. That is not true. Not true. You can shove it and jenga and stack it, friends, but that's not organization. That's just stacking things real neat. true organization is being able to effortlessly find things and effortlessly put them away, creating simplified systems that are just as easy to put away as it is to put it down. And oftentimes that actually creates a little bit more space because you have to have some breathing room. You have to have some baskets.

You have to have some containers or you have to have, yeah, space, breathing space that separates different categories. So I'm looking at how many layers it is to really assess. how much I have to declutter. So if I see, basically, I use it as like 25 percentage. So if I see that they're one layer deep and it's pretty thick and all the surfaces are covered, I know they have to declutter probably 25%. If they are two layers deep, which means not only are all the surfaces covered, but now they have stuff piled on the floor and they have stuff in front of all their storage, they probably have to declutter 50% of the stuff. If we're situations where we're having

waste-high piles or we're having entire rooms that are full, we're more like 75% of stuff that has to go. Right? So I'm assessing that. First, I'm assessing like their zoning structure and how I could zone better in what's working, what's not. Then I'm assessing their level of decluttering that has to be done in order to have true functional organization and storage. And then lastly, what I'm assessing, well, I'm also assessing their organizing style. I'm trying to, right? But this is difficult to do in a very cluttered space. But it's helpful for me to assess their style to know, okay, if they're macro organizers, I need a little bit more space because they need big categories that they quickly put it away.

Are they detailed people? Then I can be using stacking containers. That's going to save me a little bit of space. Are they visual? I instantly try to look for wall space. How can I create the more visual storage? And if they're hidden, I take a look at the storage that they have to see if it's adequate for hiding.

Do they have enough closets? Do they have enough cabinets with doors? Would we have to add some sort of closed storage? George to give them more. So these are all the kind of the things that are running through my mind when I'm looking and assessing the space. And then the last thing I do is a hoarder test. So no matter what space, even if they're only like one layer and everything's in the cabinets, if I open them and they're really, really full, I know I've got to do a light decluttering here or if it's like way high super full, I cannot judge a person's ability to let go just based on how much stuff they have.

Because the truth is, decluttering is not a natural way of life for 99% of the population. We've just never been taught it's important. So maybe they've just gone their whole life and not ever let anything go. And they've, or they've, you know, bought a lot or they've been given a lot. so they have more stuff than other people. Maybe other people are just starting out or they've gone through a divorce and they have less stuff. You cannot really understand if someone struggles to let go or not just by looking at

their home. Even full to the brand bursting does not make them a hoarder. I do have to do the hoarder test, though, on everyone just to really assess if they're ready to take the next step on organization. and this is what it actually looks like. I will go and pick up some random object. If I have to open a cabinet, I'll open a cabinet. And I really try to choose an object that doesn't look overly special,

but that isn't trash. So I'm not going to pick up like a wrapper, you know, and say, can I only go, I'll pick up something like a knick-knack. or I'll pick up, I don't know, a throw pillow or an old blanket or a child's toy. And I will say, hey, when I leave today, I'm going to take this with me and I'm going to drop it off a goodwill. Is it okay if I take this with me and donate it? Now, they, first of all, don't know if they're chosen and if they're working with me. They've never had me like go, like talk to them about decluttering and I haven't really got into the decluttering questions and I I'm just right off the bat.

I'm like, hey, I'm going to take this with me. Is that cool? Is it fine if I take this with me? And if they say no, that's fine because that could be special. I don't know. There also could be like, listen, weirdo just coming in and taking stuff from my house, right? So then I will pick another object that looks a little less special, still not trash, but some random thing. It could be, I don't know, paper plates or in the last house, it was napkins. It was like fall themed napkins that obviously came from the dollar store. So I picked up that package off a huge pile and I just said, is it okay if I take this? I'm going to take these fall napkins and just donate them. And if they're saying no to that, then I pick one more random item, something of a different

category. I don't know. Maybe they're really into napkins. Or maybe they planned on like decouppaging with these napkins. Or they had a party coming up and it matched all the other party supplies. I'm not judging here. I'm picking some other random thing. And I'm saying, is it okay if I take this? If they say no to three random items leaving their house, all three, I know I can't work with them. Because if they are not willing to let go, I cannot help them because you cannot organize excess and stop. And there are going to be things that are perfectly good and useful that will have to leave in order to have an organized home and that's all there is to it. That's all there is to it. Sorry. You have way too much more than can fit into the home

you have today. I am not a magician. I have to work with what you have and I want to give them a truly functional home that will not ever get messy again. And in order to have that, you have to have to have breathing room because I have to set up zones and I have to set up structure and I have to set up organizing systems to catch these stuff they actually use all the time. This isn't about some stacked, labeled Pinterest box house. What are you talking about? friends. You are busy and you probably have kids and you have a life and you have pets and you have a husband or a wife and you have mess. And we just need to make it so you can come home without even thinking and put it away neat. Done. Move on with your life. And in order to do that,

you have to be willing to let go of some things. So if they fail that test, I don't say you failed and I can't work with you. Of course not. I just thank them for their time. We continue on conversations. I kind of change the subject. And then I'll let them know that I'll get back to them. And we will schedule yeah, something in the future or I'll let them know if they're chosen and blah, blah, blah. But the truth is, I can't work with people who aren't willing to let go. There are a lot of specialists who will. A lot of professional organizers love the challenge and we'll do that slow, steady approach. But for me, I'm donating my time. I'm donating my money. I don't have days and days and days to spend with you. We have one day to declutter a ton of stuff. I need you to be ready.

So that is kind of my method when choosing a family. Okay, let's spend the last few minutes while you are taking action on your house, you're doing laundry, you're cleaning, you're doing whatever. I thought we would take a few seconds and just talk about some little ways that you could fall in love with your home this fall. And this is really me convincing you to buy stuff, which I know is ridiculous. Like not stuff I'm selling. So stop, listen. And I know I'm all like, commercialism sucks. Maybe not buy stuff.

Fine. You don't have to buy stuff. But there is something really magical about refreshing a space in some small way. We live in our house day to day. We see it. all day long, it can become very mundane and boring easily. And if we're not inspired, if we're not like, we don't have those like, how do I love this space feeling about our house? It's really hard to get motivated to keep up on it, to clean it and to tidy it. We're just not going to feel

it. We're not going to want to because why? It's just going to look the same tomorrow. So the power of pretty is a way of really inspiring us to continuously be in love with our home. And I generally take the change of the seasons to enact this. And I don't want to redecorate my house all the time because it's expensive and you got to store all the stuff and it's time consuming. But doing small things like having pillow covers from Amazon, which are, like $12 for a pack of three that are a fall theme that you literally just zip up over the current pillows you have if you're like me and you're a nut about throw pillows is like you don't know that's not a lot to store but it refreshes and changes the space changing a centerpiece putting

some like dollar store fall leaves in a vase on your table done doing a wreath literally just adding some pine cones from outside in a bowl. Like even just changing around the furniture, adding some throw pillows, lighting a couple candles, moving things around, refreshing the space. Decluttering also does this, going in the space and hushing it, as Don from the minimal mom would say, or going in and like removing a bunch of knick-knacks or picture frames that you usually have out, taking out some plants, whatever it is, changing the, the space, making it look different and even small, subtle ways, greatly impacts how we feel about our home because when we see it looking the same day in and day out, it becomes invisible.

We don't notice it anymore. And it's really hard for us to have those like fall in love feelings for the space. It doesn't matter if you don't love your furniture. It doesn't matter if you want to paint and renovate and it isn't exactly your dream home. We can still hug the space. We can still bloom where we're planted. We can still have a small fall centerpiece. And this isn't about spending a bunch of money. This is about making the space look subtly different, loving it, caring for it, nurturing it, refreshing it so that we see it in a new light. Because when we hug our home, it hugs us back. When I do something as small as changing out the pillowcases or adding a new throw or adding

some fall leaves to my table, I'm a little addicted to pumpkins. I go to the dollar tree and get a bunch of pumpkins and sprinkle those around. When I do that, it feels like a whole new home. It just does. It feels like I've redecorated it even though I haven't. rearranging my kids furniture in their bedroom, just like moving the bed to a different wall or shifting things around, they start cleaning their room more. This is just, this is nature, this is human nature.

And I know you know what I'm talking about, but you might not be doing it because you think, oh, it's more work and oh, I don't want to learn. I don't want I got enough to do, Cass, I don't want to do that. I'm telling you, it will inspire you. It will make you want to keep it tidier and cleaner. It will make you love your space a little bit more. And I think that's important to keep us motivated because doing the dishes and doing the laundry and vacuuming and cleaning, it sucks.

It sucks. I'm telling you it's a gift. I'm saying you got to do it. I'm saying, you know, it feels good when it's done. but to get up and do it every day or every week all the time it's like well it's mundane what if you wanted to though and if the power of pretty if you've taken a few minutes to change your space to make it feel new and fresh and different you're going to want to and i just do this four times a year well i guess i do it yeah four times i do it at fall and then at christmas right we all get excited to

put out our Christmas decorations, we should feel excited for all these little changes. And then in the spring, I'll do again, like a more neutral thing. And in the summer, I change things up. I'm like throwing out bunnies in the spring. You know, just dollars store, dollars for friends. And it's not a bunch of clutter. It's tiny little things. It fits in one tote. It's not a ton of stuff. It's not adding more to your home, it's just changing and refreshing. And again, if you don't want to buy anything, moving around furniture, decluttering, shifting things from one room to another, just so it feels fresh and different, there's power in this. There is power in this. So I hope you're feeling inspired. I loved hanging out with you today. I hope you learned something. And if not,

that's fine too. I hope you got something done and you're feeling really, really. proud of yourself because you deserve a beautiful home that feels effortless. Thank you guys so much. I'll love hanging out with you and I'll see you guys next time.