Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Trash Bag Therapy: The #1 Secret to Decluttering Success | Clutterbug Podcast # 258

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

In this episode, we’re talking about Trash Bag Therapy—the easiest and most energizing way to kickstart your decluttering journey. Whether you're a pro organizer or just starting out, this simple technique is the #1 secret to getting in the mood to declutter and making a real difference in your home. Everyone has trash hiding in their house, even if they think they don’t! I’ll share a list of items you can look for and toss today to free up space, clear your mind, and get excited about creating a clutter-free home. You’ll be amazed at how quickly this method transforms your mindset and your space. Grab a trash bag and let’s get started!   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 #declutter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I did a little trash bag therapy and I was so excited. I was so into it. I immediately wanted to come down here and do a podcast with you to get you excited about throwing out trash too. Every time I go into a client's home to help them declutter, I always follow the same steps. And the first one is starting with trash, decluttering trash. And in my own home, when I need to declutter, I always start with trash. You've probably heard this from every accident. expert. I'm definitely, Dana from a slob comes clean and Dawn from the minimal mom, we're all on the same page with this because of several reasons. And I'm going to talk about all the reasons why you have to start with trash bag therapy. That's what I love to call it. When you want to declutter

your home, no matter if you're an expert or it's day one. We do the same thing. I'm going to talk about why in a second, but I want to encourage you to get up and actually take action. during this podcast. Don't just passively watch or passively listen, grab a trash bag, and let's do this together. We're going to spend like 20 minutes together. Let's make ourselves proud. I want you to use this as a chance to kind of work with a coach and have a body double and kick your house's butt because I'm going to show you how this can be such a positive, fun experience and you're hopefully going to be just like me. And at the end of this podcast, you're not going to want to stop because it's addicting.

Okay. So trash bag therapy, why do we start with trash when decluttering? There's a couple of reasons, but the obvious one is it's therapeutic, which is why I love calling it trash bag therapy. Grab your trash bag right now and just look, we're not pulling things out, we're not making piles, just hunt like it's an Easter egg hunt for actual garbage that's hiding in your house. And the reason this feels so good is because every time you come across something, it's like a little win. It's a little like, ah, yeah, I did it, which gives you that dopamine hit.

It gives you that reward chemical in your brain that makes you excited and happy and proud of yourself and you want to keep going. It's also really therapeutic because there's no anxiety involved. Nothing that you're looking for is going to cause you stress or make you feel overwhelmed. This is literally the easiest stuff to find. So let's talk about some examples as you go through. I think one of the easiest things is like go to your purse or go to your coat pockets and look for old receipts. I have a lot. I had a bunch of my phone. I had pockets. I have them all over the place. This is like an obvious trash thing, right? So we're just like grabbing old receipts or envelopes that come in with bills or junk mail. Maybe you have flyers, things like that, like that type of paper. super easy. And what I would say is not to worry too much about recycling at this point. At the end, we can go through the trash bag and we can pull out the paper to recycle or if there's plastic that you come across because it's not like we're actually going to put like gross food or something or like liquids or anything in this bag. We're going to be looking for trash, but not in the typical

sense of like rotten banana peels and like gross stuff. We're looking for trash that's hidden in your house that you are blind to. And I promise you have multiple trash bags full of stuff hidden in your house that you are completely blind to. So paper is a really easy one. expired food or stale food in the pantry again. Like I, I today did this with Emily filming me for a YouTube video and I ran around my house like a crazy person while she basically chased me with a gimbal. And there wasn't one space that I went to that I didn't find trash because I'm not worried about anything except identifying stuff that I never really took the time to look for before. And Emily was like, I don't have any trash in my home, which is hilarious because everyone says this.

Every client, everyone, I've been to Emily's house. I've helped her declutter. There is a ton of trash in her house. But it's really hard for you to see it and identify it when you're not looking. So again, old papers, old receipts is a really, really good one. Looking at expired food. So even like when's the last time you checked your salad dressings and sauces in the fridge, your old mayonnaise in the fridge, that could be expired?

Super easy way to go. When I went in the pantry today, I found like three cookie packages that had no cookies in them because my kids are monsters. And they just put their hand in, emptied out all the food, then left the packages. But I also find lists with like cereal boxes. There's not enough left for a whole bowl of cereal or there's like two crackers. that are broken in the bottom of a little ritz cracker box, you know, stuff like that. Super, super easy.

Again, we're not worried right now about breaking down boxes and properly recycling. We're just putting everything in a bag so we can move really, really quickly, like a fire under your pants through the house, getting stuff out. So, come on, right. Get the mojo going. Let's go. Let's get up and get go. And let's get going and let's find trash.

So the other reason, while you're finding trash, I want to talk about why I call this trash bag therapy and why we should always start here is, yes, it feels really good to have these little wins. And we're getting this dopamine, we're getting these little hits of like the feel good chemicals in our brain, which is, especially if we do this often, really now associating with decluttering with good feelings. So that's important. It's, It's therapeutic because it is such a positive, cathartic experience. But also, it is rewiring our brain to actually enjoy the act of decluttering without us having to do any of the really hard stuff, like go through photos or sentimental things or clothing

or expensive things. We're just dealing with trash, which means we're training our brain that the act of putting things in bags and getting it out of our house is actually a positive experience, which means when we go to do the hard stuff, it's going to be a lot easier. But the other reason why I call this trash bag therapy is because it's actually a form of exposure therapy. So a lot of people, I would say the majority of people who have never decluttered before, but a lot of people who even have decluttered in the past have a lot of fear and anxiety. of letting go, whether it's scarcity mindset or they've gone through a big loss of a fire or a divorce,

or they just grew up in a household, or they still are struggling financially. And the idea of getting rid of things can really cause like crippling fear and anxiety. And so to overcome fear and anxiety, the most effective course of treatment is exposure therapy, which just means in little healthy, safe environments, you expose yourself to the thing that makes you scared, that gives you anxiety, that makes you feel like really overwhelmed. So dealing with trash is a safe, positive, non-anxiety-inducing way to practice decluttering, to get exposed to decluttering, which again helps us overcome that fear and anxiety. So I always always, start with clients with this for all the reasons I've mentioned and more. We're going to talk about

other reasons. But what's really fascinating is exposure therapy. So this type of therapy about starting with trash and like slowly getting rid of things that don't cause any emotional distress is the only proven way to help a true clinical hoarder. So when somebody is dealing with like clinical hoarding and they've been diagnosed with a hoarding disorder, it's exposure therapy that helps them overcome it. It's this. It's literally practicing one item at a time starting with trash, putting things in the garbage. That's the only way to overcome that anxiety and that fear. So I love this because you're getting so many benefits from so many different ways from doing the one same exercise, which is just looking for trash. And it doesn't matter

if I'm doing my closet, the first thing, even before I go in the closet, I'll do a quick trash bag therapy. For the next reason, which is it, I want to say it primes the pump. It gets the juices flowing. It gets the ball rolling. It gets you in the right mindset. So when you do tackle hard stuff, you're already there. You're like excited. You're all, you're already feeling the momentum and the motivation. And like, this is awesome and I can't wait, which means you're not having any friction or roadblocks in between you and taking big action. So when I'm working with a client and I have a limited amount of time to declutter a big space and a lot of stuff, I start with trash because I know it's going to make the entire process so much easier, even if we're not

starting with trash in the room where we really need to tackle, because maybe there isn't a lot of obvious trash in that room. I'll go somewhere where there is a lot of obvious trash to really build that momentum. And I do this for myself too, because even though I've done this for so long, especially like clothing, makeup, like the lotions and potions, like the wrinkle creams and stuff I've spent a lot of money on, craft supplies, those things can still give me pause and I can still get really hung up on them when it comes to having to let them go because I know I need more space or I'm feeling overwhelmed and I just can't manage the amount of stuff that I currently have. I still struggle. So when I start with a good cathartic trash bag therapy,

I like don't want to stop and I want to keep going and I'm like, whoo, and to end up seeing a much more effective and dramatic declutter session because I've done this step first. So this is what you're doing right now in your house. So I'm going to give you more examples. In my house, this might not be for a lot of crickets and bees because you guys like think before you do stuff. But as a ladybug or if you're a butterfly, we don't always stop and think when we're done was something. Our mind has kind of moved on. So what I find in my house and a lot of other ladybugs and butterflies houses are things like wrappers. So you're eating some candy beside your bed and you just put the wrapper in the drawer or tags off clothing. So you buy something new. You rip the tag off and the tag

just kind of goes in a drawer or goes somewhere laying around. So I see this type of trash in my own home. or the packaging from a product. So I'll get something new and I'll like rip open the package. I'll take it with the product. But oftentimes the packaging might end up in the drawer. Definitely see this with my kids all the time. So because this type of trash is very prevalent like in your drawers, in your bedside table, in your dresser on top of your dresser. And because this is obvious trash. This is something that you can hunt for in not just your own space, but in the family spaces or even like your kids' bedrooms. I would never, ever, ever suggest that you would go into somebody else's space and look for things to let go of because you have no idea if it's

special to them or not. But it's pretty obvious a candy bar wrapper isn't special or an old tag or an old like piece of crumpled up wrapper of something or an empty box. from a product that they've used. So this is really easy to be able to go through and just do a big sweep and keep that momentum going. And this is all you're identifying. You're not snooping around. You're just looking for trash.

In the bathroom is a great place to look because you might find like the lids from hairsprays that are no longer, like they were long gone, but the lid is still there. Or old toothpaste tubes, old toothbrushes, people got new ones and didn't throw out the old ones empty shampoo, conditioner, body wash, in the shower. There's always those type of things. So much garbage. But we are blind to it until we start looking. So while you're listening to this, this is what we're doing. We're literally looking with new eyes and you will be shocked at how much trash you find. And I also during this process, like today I was really into it. And I went through my vitamins and I found a bunch of old expired vitamins that I had no idea were expired. But then I

opened up like my bathroom product drawer. And there was a lot of face creams that I had bought and it either made me break out or it stung my eyes or, you know, it just wasn't, I didn't like it. But it was still in the drawer. These are things that are trash. You're not going to donate a half used wrinkle cream. It's not sanitary. There isn't any place that's going to take this. But you also don't have to feel bad for getting rid of it because it's trash to you. It doesn't work. You don't like it. And leaving it in your drawer is just now wasting the space. The item is already gone. You already don't like it. You've already, the money's gone.

It's already spent keeping it in your drawer. The only thing that's doing is wasting your space and making your life harder. So I also consider those type of things trash, whether it's something, a makeup and you didn't like the lipstick color or the eye shadow or, you know, you've broken an eye shadow and you're still keeping it for some reason, like the palate, you know, and it's just making a mess everywhere. What are you doing? That's crazy pants. This stuff is trash and you deserve better. And you don't have to second guess yourself or worry about what if or I could do this or maybe I could donate it here. These things are obviously trash. It's unsanitary to share and they can just go. So we're filling up

this bag. And this is where poor, poor, um, poor, um, poor, um, poor, she was filming me. I got my bag about half full and I started feeling so excited and proud of myself and I didn't want to stop. And I was just like, look over here, look over here. And then I started identifying things that maybe I would him and ha in the past about could this be donated or should I really keep it? Like I found a wireless keyboard that was missing a key and I had replaced it. But I was keeping the old one just in case. I'm not going to donate and old electronic thing that's missing a key. It was obviously trash. But in the past, I had never seen it that way because now I'm in the decluttering, purging magic mojo. Like, it's all like,

I'm there. I'm in it. I'm in the zone. And we take advantage of this by continuing to look in every space. Open up the drawer. Open up the cabinets. Really look. And I was going to through my top dresser drawer and I had found some things. And then I went to the bathroom. And then I came back to the drawer and I opened it again and I saw like 10 more things of garbage that I didn't see with the first look. Because the more into it I got, the more obvious the trash became. And I can't describe this. I mean, you have to really do it for yourself to experience. Like, why didn't I notice that trash five seconds ago? Why am I noticing it now? But there really is magic in that motivation. In that mindset shift, you can see things that you hadn't seen before because

clutter blindness is real. When you look at something every single day and you always see it, you no longer see each individual thing. You see it as a set. And we become blind to the each individual things. So you probably have wrappers and receipts and trash all throughout your house and you don't see it. You just see the junk drawer or the pile on the kitchen counter. We're not seeing each individual item, even sometimes when we look. Sometimes we have to look again. Another thing that I decided to do was I opened up my food storage drawer and there was like a random lid that I didn't have the bottom two and I'm just like done socks that don't have a match buy trash ripped underwear trash shoes your kids have outgrown that are really worn nobody's going to buy those at the

thrift store they're trash broken shoes ripped things trash I found two pairs of shoes that were so destroyed undonatable but still and my kids didn't, Milo did not fit into them. They had been outgrown, but still they were in my closet, our front hall closet, which is bursting. But I had broken damaged shoes that don't even fit him. Crazy. Why? Because I hadn't looked. I hadn't taken the time to do this exercise hunting only for trash. So I'm like laser focused. And the longer you do this, at first it might be a little bit hard to identify things, but once you get in it and you're like in the zone, suddenly you see it everywhere. And you're like, why didn't I notice this before? And it's magical. And it is like energy. I was just like

feeling energized. And Emily is kind of like, okay, I think I have enough cast for the video. And I'm like, one more thing. One more spot. I have to check over here. I didn't want to stop. And even after we stopped filming and it was done, I continued to run around until the garbage bag was completely bursting and I still wanted to go more, but I had other things to do, like record this podcast. But it really is such a wonderful, positive, empowering, incredible experience that you can do. So I have a list here of some other things that you can look for. Let's talk about those right now. I have to take a second to thank Cozy Earth for sponsoring today's podcast.

A few years ago, I switched from just buying regular cheap sheets to treating myself to cozy earth bamboo sheets. And I'm so glad I did. Not only are they actually affordable, but every time I wash them, they get softer. But I think my favorite part is that they're temperature regulating. So I always feel cool in the summer, but they keep me nice and warm in the winter. They're soft, they're luxurious, at an affordable price. And they also have a new bamboo PJ set that I love.

I have the Cozy Earth hoodie, which is so soft. Bamboo is where it's at, my friends. And right now you can save 40% off sitewide using the exclusive coupon code Clutterbug. Refresh your sleep, visit CozyEarth.com slash clutterbug, and use my exclusive 40% off code clutterbug today. For me, cords and cables is a big thing that is something I struggle to let go of. So I will literally have an old cable that's broken. It doesn't even work anymore.

And for some reason, I keep it, like as an emergency cable or something, what? Or I've gotten a new phone, which no longer needs like a USC now or something. USBC instead of a whatever other kind, but still I have all my other old cable. that don't charge it and I don't even have a phone that has a type of charger. What are you doing, Cass? Like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Throw out those cables. Throw them out. So I found a bunch today that were like literally just broken and obvious. I'm like, I don't even, I have so, it's ridiculous. I have a drawers filled. It's so ridiculous. Just, you know, those are things you donate. They're just gone. And if you have really old electronics,

those things can go to. And what I mean by that is like old speakers you used to have for your computer or maybe you had a little wireless Bluetooth speaker that you never use anymore and it's old and dated or old headphones and one side doesn't work. Like why are we keeping this stuff? Why? If you're finding like headphones and drawers, every time I go on a plane, they'll give you those like little headphones and I looked at my travel purse that I use as like a carry on and there was like five sets in there. What? What? This is trash. You crazy lunatic. So that's like stuff we can easily just, we're in the mojo, we're in that we're, it's going, it's going. Old greeting cards. I put this on here because if you have greeting cards like birthday cards and whatever else and someone

hasn't taken the time to write like a meaningful message inside. They just went to the dollar store or went to Hallmark and got you a card. That is trash. It's not special because it doesn't have a special note in it. It's just a card somebody bought. Those things are not worth the space they take up. And so they're just leaving. Buy. If it's not, it's not sentimental because someone hasn't written like something really special inside. It's just a card. goodbye. It's absolutely trash. Clothing your kids have outgrown or clothing that is they still fit into, but it's like stained and you'd be super embarrassed. My son plays soccer at school and he rips holes in all his pants. Like I'll buy him a brand new pair of pants and like a week later

they have freaking holes in them. So now I just buy him really cheap pants because it doesn't matter. He'll rip holes in them. Those are not worth donating. Those are just going in the trash. And when I leave them and I don't take time to find them and take them out, he will wear them to school and he will look like a hobo. So I'm looking for holy pants because my 12 year old doesn't care. But I care. And he's not wearing holy pants because he has enough pants without holes. They're going in the garbage.

Basically anything damaged. I had this black t-shirt that I loved and it had a bleach stain on the back of it. and I always would forget. And I'd like wear it. I'd be like, oh yeah, it has a bleach stain. I gotta get rid of this. And I'd put it in the laundry. And then I'd put it away without realizing.

And then I would just be like, oh, I like this black t-shirt. Oh, it's got a bleach stain. And we played this dumb game for way too long. So trash. I'm not going to donate it. It's ruined trash. So anytime you have something that's damaged, you deserve better. You deserve better than ripped holy sheets.

You deserve better than ripped threadbare towels. Super disgusting stained towel that you're drying your body with, but you know it's clean, but it doesn't really look clean, so you feel a little icktacular. Why? Why is it in your house? You're a freaking grown-up, and you deserve nice towels. Bye.

You don't need them. You have enough other ones that aren't stained and gross that you can get rid of the stained and gross ones. or if you have nothing but stained and gross ones, you're going to buy yourself a couple nice new towels because you deserve it and we're letting go of the old ones. We don't have to keep these things just in case everyone in the house is all puking at the same time. You deserve not to dry your face with a towel that's only good for cleaning up puke. And you don't need to store this stuff in your home either because you have a beautiful home and we only have

so much space. And so we're only going to keep the things that are useful and that we like and that we enjoy. And stop. And that goes for old pillows. If you've bought yourself new pillows and you've kept the old disgusting ones that are kind of yellow and gross for company, nobody wants your drool-filled old lumpy, yucky pillows. If you have two company pillows, It's enough. The rest can go. Don't keep them. They're gross and they're just taking up space and they're gross. And they're gross. Just throw them in the garbage. No one wants your drool sponge of a pillow. But I used to keep them too. I'm not judging because I used to keep them. I probably still have some that need to go. But a couple of years ago, I threw it like five. Disgusting lumpy, stained gross

gross, gross, gross, pillows because these are things that, like, you get a new one in for some reason, you just keep the old. So that goes for bedding, old blankets. We all have just too much. And sometimes it's okay to just be like, you know what? It's nasty.

And everyone on earth deserves better. You know, I'm just going to put it in the trash. I'm going to do everyone a favor and put this nasty stained blanket or that soaked lumpy drool pillow in the garbage. Yeah, you're doing everybody a favor, man. Okay. So nearly empty cleaning supplies or like empty cleaning bottles, this is crazy. Like a lot of the times I will have a cleaning product that has just a smidge left in the bottom, but it doesn't really spray properly because it's not enough to like get up the little hosy thing. And I just, I just keep it in with my cleaning supplies forever for some reason.

Like, it's not usable, but there's a drop left. So somehow, what? Nope, we're throwing that out today. We're throwing that out today. And if there's cleaning supplies that you've bought that you really just don't like or you don't like the smell or it just doesn't work for you, it's not your favorite, and it's been sitting there for a long time and you know you're never going to use it, that you have my permission today to throw those out too. Okay, we're in the mojo. We're in the toss and times. We're having so much fun. Here's another thing I'm giving you permission to throw out. If you're a parent and you have puzzles or like any pieces that have like any games that have a bunch of pieces that are missing and it's like someday you're going to go through and find all those pieces and then you can donate it when you've done that. No. That's ridiculous. ridiculous. Your time is precious. You deserve better. Throw it in the garbage. That game that's missing pieces, those puzzles that are missing pieces, it doesn't matter. You deserve better. We are not people

pleasing our stuff. Our things do not have feelings. You're not hurting anyone's feelings. You're not taking anything from anyone else. It's not like you're going to hold onto this and one day magically get all the pieces and donate this and change someone's life. What are you talking about? This isn't the cure for or hiding in your house. It's an old stupid Muslim Doug puzzle that's missing the cow. It's trash. It's just trash. We overcomplicate and we give way to, we put so much pressure on ourselves and give way too much power to inanimate objects that then just like rattle around our house forever because we have this idealized version of what we're supposed to do with it. And someday when I have time, when I'm a better person, when I get my act together, then I'm going to do all these amazing things.

What are you talking about? The only way we're going to get our act together and be like this amazing person is if we have way less stuff to manage. And the only way you're going to do that is to fill that freaking trash bag, friend. That's it. We can't wait. Like, we're waiting until we get to the point where life is easier before we do all this hard stuff. What? No, life's going to continue to be hard because all this friction, all these roadblocks are in our way.

So we just eliminate them. We eliminate the work. And I'm also giving you permission if you have one of those kids' toys that are just like constant messmakers, like the pickup sticks or whatever. Like you have to set it up for them and then the way they play with it is dumping it all out on the floor again. to in. Do every other parents on the planet a favor? Please and just throw it in the garbage. I know you guys know what I'm talking about. There's that stuff that like you have to do the like little stupid setup. And then the kids fun is just trashing it. And then we play this game. And they trash it like one second and it takes you a half an hour to clean it up. And then it gets trashed again in one second.

Nope. No, sorry, Bob. That is trash. Or if you have a toy set, but your kids only play with a portion of the toy set. So maybe you've got like the Hot Wheels track, but the kids only really play with the cars. They don't play with the big track that goes with it. You can just throw out pieces of like throw out the track. You don't have to wait till it's a whole set to donate it. And nobody wants just the track without the cars. So we just hold on to it when the reality is trash.

Put it in the trash bag, friends. Put it in the trash. Also craft supplies. Dried out pens. Broken crayons. Paints that are dried out. Markers that are missing the lids. Coloring books that are almost full.

Craft projects you've started halfway and you've never finished. And every time you look at it, you feel kind of bad about yourself. You're not going to feel bad anymore when it's in a black trash bag. And it's gone forever. Seriously. Ruthless. anything, that broken vacuum that you said you were going to fix two years ago and it's still sitting in your garage. Goodbye. Feel it, friends. Feel it. All those I'm going to get to someday

maybe I'm going to fix. I'm going to mend. I'm going to hem those pants. I'm going to fix that hole. I'm going to glue that lamp. I'm going to make freaking, I don't know, pottery out of that broken dish. No, you're not. All of that needs to leave so that you have less pressure on yourself and less work. And all of these things can just go in your trash bag right now. And I promise you this. You will never think about them ever again. They'll just be gone.

Off your plate, out of your house, out of your mind, it's freedom. And this feels so freaking good. I mean, I want to go fill another trash bag. I filled a trash bag. It was bursting today. And I did it in about under 15 minutes. It's not even about what your house looks like. That is just the cherry on top.

That's the added bonus. This is about freedom from your stuff. This is about self-love. self like you're putting yourself as a priority and it is really magical how this can transform how you look at your material things really easily it's all about the mindset shift so grab that trash bag and fill it i hope you enjoyed i hope this was a quick one today i hope you're still feeling the mojo. If you are, keep going. Don't stop till you start like to feel that burnout, then stop. Don't push yourself. As soon as it's not fun anymore, stop. But if you're still feeling excited,

take advantage of that. And any time that you want to like make a difference again or before you tackle a big thing, like, oh, I got to really declutter my kitchen or I got to declutter my clothing or I have to declutter this huge pile in the middle of my living room. Remember to always start with a little trash bag therapy first because that is how you get your motor going. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you're feeling inspired and motivated and I'll see you guys next time.