Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - What ClutterBug Are You? Learn Your Organizing Style | Clutterbug Podcast # 14

Episode Date: February 17, 2017

Learn more about your organizing style in my new book, "Real Life Organizing".   Buy the book and get your Pre-Order Book Bonus HERE Take the ClutterBug Test HERE Organizing isn't one size fits all.  What works for someone else, may not work for you!  Find out your unique organizing style today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. I haven't podcast in a while, so I'm excited to do this one today, and I wanted to talk about one of my favorite organizing topics, and that is what is your organizing style? So when I was doing professional organizing, I really realized that everyone, all of my clients, had different styles. And I realized this through failure, absolute epic failures. So I would organize a space, based on, you know, what would work for me or what has worked for me in the past or what worked for other clients. And I would always get a callback and they just couldn't keep the system going. I mean, sometimes I got lucky in the first time around. They were keeping it going. But I had a lot of clients because I always say, if it just doesn't work for you, call me back and we'll make sure that it does, which is probably why being a professional organizer wasn't overly, you know, wasn't something that I made a lot of money doing because I was constantly going back and helping them because I wanted to make sure that the system stuck and that the system was something that they could continue working.

But I learned a ton through this process. And one of the biggest things I learned was that everyone sort of organizes differently. And something that works for me doesn't necessarily work for everyone else. Organizing is not one size fits all. And you can see all these, you know, beautiful organized spaces on Pinterest or you can watch some YouTube videos and see how-toes. But to copy that, if that isn't your natural organizing style, is going to be a waste of your time and your money. And the other thing, and the other reason why I think this is so important is most of us live with family. We have other people living in our space, using our stuff and putting it away. And if they organize differently than we do, there can be some issues there. And you probably,

you're like, why don't you put this where it belongs or, you know, whatever it is. You know, if you have little kids, why can't they pick up after themselves properly? Well, usually, I mean, laziness definitely plays into sometimes, but usually a really big reason that people aren't picking up after themselves or putting things away in the proper home is because they have a different organizing style than the person who set up the organizing system. So that is exactly what we're going to talk about today in today's podcast. podcast, we're going to talk about the different organizing styles. So as I was going from client to

client, I was really sort of writing down and looking at, okay, wow, there are certain people who organize certain ways. And I discovered there are four, generally four different styles. Now, you can have a little bit of tendencies from each, but most people I can fit into one category, especially children, almost all children are one of these categories. So there is a little bit of a test that you can take on my website. It is a free test. It's a really short. You just answer a few quick questions and it will help identify what your organizing style is. But you don't have to leave and take the test right now. I'm going to sort of read each of the style and talk about each of the different styles with you and you'll know, you'll know just by me talking what style you are.

And the funny thing is I've been doing this so long. When I meet someone, They don't even have to talk about organizing. When I meet someone, I can almost always tell by their personality what their organizing style is. And so I'm always like, you're a butterfly. They look at me like I'm a total whack job. But you can tell. You can tell because, yeah, I guess maybe it is a personality thing. And that definitely goes all the way through not just personality, but how they like to organize things.

probably their learning style as well. So let's get started with the butterfly. So I have met a lot of butterflies. To be completely honest, most of the people who hire me are butterflies because butterflies really struggle with clutter. Butterflies are, I'm going to say, the messiest bugs. And not that they are dirty in any way, but they are messy. And the reason is because for a butterfly, it's out of sight, out of mind.

They fear that if they've put their belongings away, they'll forget about them. And that fear is justified in a butterfly because when something is out of sight, it's generally out of mind for them. They completely forget about things. They are visual. They have to see their belongings. They want to see their belongings. Butterflies tend to be artistic, creative.

They like bright colors. They like bold. And they need organizing styles that really reflect that. So you may be a butterfly if you have like all your clothing on top of your dresser but your drawers are empty or your closet's empty but all your clothes are on the floor or you're piling them on a chair in the corner or you know you're loading up hooks but never putting it on a hanger you kind of get the idea. And butterflies tend to be really overwhelmed with the idea of organizing because they just don't know where to start. They sort of flutter from from task to task which is another

reason why I like to call them butterflies. And, you know, they need a, they need a plan. They need something, you know, this is how to do it, this is how you're going to get it done, and here's some clear directions that'll work for your style. So I'm going to give some tips specifically for a butterfly. And one of my favorite tips is having brightly colored or clear bins, especially inside a closet, like a, you know, your bathroom closet or your linen closet, clear bins really work for butterflies. And the reason is you can see this, you can see this stuff that's inside. So if you have one for, say, toiletries or extra products or one for first aid, just having a clear bin, meaning you can see through it, you'll know exactly what's in there and you're more likely

to put things back away. And I also like the idea of brightly colored or color organizing for a late for a butterfly and this really works for finances for papers so say green for anything that has to do with banking or money red for anything that has to be done right now blue for anything that has to be home I mean definitely you can make it yourself but setting up color-coded filing systems or brightly colored bins you know maybe all your craft supplies are red and all your home little you know light bulbs and things like that are in blue containers, you're sort of getting the idea. But that can be motivating for a butterfly as well. But the most important thing is to label each and every one of those bins. They've done a lot of studies. I don't know who's doing these studies, but I've read some

studies that say you are so much more likely to actually use a container, put things back in its proper home when it's labeled. And you've probably heard of this before at different factories or, you know, places of work where they actually draw the picture of the hammer on the pegboard, you know, the outline, the chalk outline, and that's where the hammer goes back again. The reason that that works, they've actually done studies that say you're more likely to put your hammer back if it has a designated home that is labeled or really easy visually to see. So you're not going to be leaving your, you know, you have a headache, you take an aspirin, you're not going to be leaving the bottle out on the bathroom counter if it has a really clear.

labeled place where that should go back. The other thing that really works well for butterflies is taking advantage of the vertical space with things like bulletin boards or peg boards. It really is a, you have to see your schedule. So just having, you know, a planner isn't always effective for a butterfly, but a bulletin board or a big chalkboard or something where they can really see their calendar and see all their to-dos up and out is a really great way to stay motivated. to obviously remember the things you have to do and really keep you and your family organized. And butterflies are also really distracted by their own clutter. And so I almost always recommend having a friend or family member help with bigger organizing

projects for a butterfly because you float from task to task task. So invite someone over. Ask them to help you sort through your items and really keep you on track. Plus butterflies tend to be extremely social. You like working with others. And so having a friend help you is going to make the job a lot more pleasant and definitely easier. Another really easy trick, of course, for a butterfly is a 21 item toss. So a 21 item toss, I chose this number because it isn't overwhelming.

Finding 21 things in your home isn't an obnoxiously huge number. but it's also large enough that you have to push yourself to reach that goal. So grab two bags, grab one for donate, grab one for toss or garbage, and run around your house as fast as you can and just find 21 things today. The biggest thing for a butterfly is they generally just have too much stuff. They have a lot of stuff because they don't declutter often, because they don't organize often and because they like to have their stuff out. It doesn't take long for a butterfly's home to be just.

overwhelmed with clutter. So a 21 item toss is a really great way to help you get started and to tackle it. So I have lots more tips for a butterfly in my new book. I have a brand new book coming out called Real Life Organizing where I definitely talk about each and every style and give lots of tips for that. I'm going to put the link in the description below where you can pre-order that book. It comes out in April and right now I have this really awesome pre-order bonus where I'm offering a free planner pack, which is valued at $10. Plus, if you order in the next week, you can fill out the form. Again, I'm going to put the link to that below, your pre-order bonus form.

And anytime I have any printables that are going to be for sale, you will be on the list that will automatically get them for free. And if you live in the U.S., the book is only $11 right now. So you are getting such a steal. So make sure you take advantage of that out. Again, I'm going to put the link below. to the book where I have a whole chapter dedicated to the different styles and lots and lots of my favorite organizing tips in there. So let's move on to the cricket. So you know your cricket if you have

very neat tidy piles. So crickets tend to be definitely classic pilers. They pile their paper, but they also tend to be really tidy people. They are logical. They're practical. They're practical. they like things in a very certain way. They tend to be perfectionist, but you would say, you know, why aren't they organized? The thing about a cricket is they almost want it to be overorganized. They want their things to be so perfect that setting up this system can take a really long time and they don't generally have the time. So they put it off until they can do it right. A cricket usually says it's not worth doing if it isn't worth doing right. And so what they're left is a lot of piles and a lot of to be done soon type projects when it comes to organizing, and that can quickly add up to a lot of clutter. So I always say crickets are over-organized. They are over-organized to the point where, especially if they have family members who can't, you know, use their really detailed organizing systems. That can cause a lot of problems in animosity, too. So the biggest solution for cricket is to let me.

let go a little bit. Remind yourself that creating a good enough organizing system today is better than, you know, having no, the perfect organizing system tomorrow, because in the meantime, what you're really left with is no organizing system at all. So I'm going to suggest that you do it badly. No, I'm going to suggest that you, what's called macro organize. So macro organizing means, let's use your finances as an example. So you have a lot of finance. papers that need to be filed and you want to set up a system for one for taxes and one for your kids college fund and one for each different bank account maybe one for stocks or one for bonds I don't know you want to have it really separated segregated and detailed instead in the meantime

what you could do is have one filed marked investments or financial papers and stick all of them in there in the meantime. At least it's organized. At least if in a pinch, if you needed some of that paper, you would know where to go to find it. It would be easy enough to find it. And it's not going to be piled on your desk or on your kitchen counter or wherever in the meantime, which could mean that those papers would get lost or, you know, lost in the pile. The thing I like to remind a cricket is a pile is not a file and vertical is really visual where horizontal is hidden. So if you're just piling your papers horizontally in a pile, it's really hard to know what's in there and because they're hidden and because you can forget about them. So setting up a vertical filing system and to file

your files that way instead of your regular piles is a much better way. It's also important for crickets to have an action file. So an action file is a place where you put those important papers that you have to deal with immediately, those urgent papers. And I really like using a magazine rack for the wall or any other type of vertical filing system that's out in the open so you can see, make sure it's clearly labeled, and it really helps keep a cricket motivated when it comes to those important papers because papers are sort of a cricket's nemesis. They are pretty good with a lot of things, but paper, they want such a detailed paper organizing system, it can quickly overwhelm them. Let's move on to the ladybug. I am a ladybug and my mom's a ladybug. I come from a long line

of ladybugs. They're enigmas, I like to call them. Have you actually ever seen a real life ladybug when they open their wings. Like a ladybug is beautiful and everyone's like, oh, it's so cute. Look at that ladybug. And then it spreads their wings and underneath it's like a horror show under there. It's just all their, you know, bug stuff and it's not pretty. And that's basically my house. I mean, I like my house to be pretty and look clean and tidy. But if you open a closet or a drawer or look under the bed or any room that basically, you know, company doesn't see, those spaces can be total disaster zones. And I am not alone. There is a lot of us ladybugs out there. We get stressed out by visual clutter, so we shove and hide. We want things to look really tidy all the time.

So we're hiding all the stuff that's out, and then we have no idea where it is. We need to find it later. So here's some quick tips for a ladybug. The key to success, is to set up systems inside your drawers and inside your closets where you can actually toss and hide when companies coming over or because you don't want to look at the clutter, but it's going to keep it neat and tidy. So every drawer should have drawer dividers. Every closet should have different labeled containers with no lids on them. So you can toss and throw the things, you know, when you're hiding. But it's going to be neat and organized when you toss them in. If something is hard for a ladybug to put away, you won't.

You'll shove it in a closet or in a drawer. So you need to make sure that your organizing systems are set up in a really simple and easy-to-use way. And this usually means purging a lot of stuff too. Just keeping the things you actually love and use on a regular basis so you can have them in really easy to store spots in your home. Invest in baskets and bins that you find beautiful because baskets are a lady-a-lawful. because baskets are a ladybug's best friend. You can have pretty beautiful baskets on your kitchen counter or on top of your dresser or wherever throughout your home to keep one beside your sofa

with all your favorite books. A basket is a great way to increase your storage, you know, hide away the clutter for you, but not have it in a jumbled mess underneath your bed. A basket is definitely, definitely your best friend. A binder system also works really well for a lady with clear plastic sleeves. So family papers, schedules, calendars, coupons. If you're like me, you don't want to have a calendar hanging on your wall, but you can have a binder system or a kitchen command center on the side of your fridge that has all of those important papers you need, but in a really pretty and attractive way. Let's move on to the bee. A bee is someone who has a lot on the go. They're literally a busy bee. They always are having

projects or hobbies or they have a lot of work or they work from home and they tend to work hard and play harder. So they almost always keep their tools, papers, and supplies out until they're done finished the job that they're working on. But this creates a huge clutter problem, especially I'm going to use a scrapbooker as an example. So they're scrapbooking, so they're keeping all of their scrapbooking supplies and the photos and all that stuff out all the time. But, you know, in between the scrap-bicking part, you're just left with a huge mess. And it can impact the whole family, especially if you're not having a designated spot that's just yours. Another example is, you know, some bees love to cook. That is their passion. So they have every kitchen gadget known to man,

or they like to bake and they've got all the supplies that they leave it on their counters. They can easily access it next time. Basically, a bee is a hobby lover. And, you know, that can have come with a lot of stuff, a lot of gadgets, a lot of tools, a lot of supplies, and sometimes those stuff has to be left out. So a suggestion for a bee would be to try to limit to no more than three projects or hobbies on the go at once. So if you have an unfinished project like a scrapbook or a woodworking project or something that you haven't had for a long time, it may be time to let it go and get rid of it because this just opens you up and your space and your house to new projects that you're going to be more passionate about and probably going to actually get around to doing them.

Sometimes a bee is like really into fitness and gets a ton of, you know, exercise equipment, but then prefers to go to the gym. You know, let that exercise equipment go and instead create a little craft space or something that you are more likely to use. So, um, yeah, bees. are the masters of good intentions. There's only so many hours in the day, let's be honest, and they want to cram so much in and use so many cool things to get it done that there's never enough time and they end up taking away a really valuable space, not just from them but for their families as well. So one of the biggest tips I have for a B is to create priority lists. So write

down all of the things that are the top priorities in your life. And you can do this even daily is having a clean and clutter-free kitchen, you know, a priority over finishing your scrapbook, then you really need to look at, you know, scheduling your time accordingly for that and maybe making some tough decisions. A B also needs to learn to let go because they tend to leave on to thing, hang on to things that they might use someday. So, you know, 50 million different screwdrivers or all the stickers for your scrapbook or a ton of kitchen gadgets that you don't use, but you could use someday. Yeah, bees have to learn to let go and always ask yourself, what is the worst case scenario? So yes, what if you get rid of this extra crockbot? What is

the worst thing that could happen? Maybe you have a potluck and you have to bring two, but you could always borrow one from a friend. So once you ask yourself what the worst case scenario is and really look at it, it's never as bad as you actually think, and it's always much easier to let things go. But the biggest thing a bee can do is schedule their time, like actually write themselves a to-do list every single day, make sure it's manageable and always do the most important thing first. Scheduling, scheduling, scheduling, scheduling is so, so important for the busy bee. So those are a couple of the different bugs. And again, my new book that's coming out, real life organizing, has so many more, you know, little tips and tricks for each different bee. But I'm curious

which one you are. I think you should definitely take the test. I'm going to put the link to the test below as well. And thank you guys so much for listening. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, almost every child is a butterfly. So kids need really visual or clear, sorted, labeled containers in order to stay organized. If you've got everything and beautiful baskets all on their shelf and all their toys are on the floor, that's probably why. They're just not going to naturally want to put their toys in something or it's out of sight, out of mind for them. So the quick tip is to treat your kids like a butterfly. Use clear or brightly

colored picture labeled containers to keep them organized for good. So again, thank you guys for listening and make sure if you have pre-ordered my book, Real Life Organizing, you only have one week left to get on that pre-order bonus list, which is a free, basically free printables for life, you guys. It's such a great opportunity. My husband's like, why are you doing that? That was such a bad idea. Now, you know, every time you have a printable for sale, you're going to give it to them for free. I know, but I said it. So that's why I'm making the cutoff in one week, in one week, because he was right. I mean, I just, I was like, you know what's a great idea? Let's give it all away for free. And so I'm cutting that off in a week, but because I said it, you will still qualify.

So again, I'm going to put the link to that form below where all you have to do is enter your email your name and the digits of your confirmation or your receipt number that when you've ordered the book. Don't put any dashes though. Just put the plain number in and you will automatically be signed up for that list and you'll automatically get some instant planner pack free printables. So thanks again and I will see you next time.