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Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast
How to Clean Your House When You Have ZERO Motivation | Clutterbug Podcast # 279
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Hey there, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Welcome to another episode that's all about tough love and motivation. I'm here to give you real, practical tips for organizing and decluttering and living your very bestest life, even when you don't feel like it. And today's episode is all about getting stuff done around the house, even when your motivation is, like Mia and nowhere to be found. I feel that, friends, we are going to tackle this with, like, mindset magic and a little fake it till you make it energy and a bunch of wisdom from really famous motivators. But first, we're going to talk about what, like, really motivates you. Because if we're being honest, most of us start strong and then we fizzle out fast. So how do we stick with things? Let's jump in. Motivation is a big fat lie. Not that motivation doesn't actually exist, because it does. But I think the lie that we all lean into is that we have to wait until it magically hits us and we feel it. And I talk about this all the time. But the true magic in getting anything done comes from starting before you feel actually motivated. Like, taking action. Just saying, I only have to do something for a minute or five minutes. Because when you take action, it's that little motivation that follows. It's the momentum that carries you on. Getting started is the hardest part. You don't have to feel motivated to be productive. You're not lazy. You're not tired, you're overwhelmed. Maybe you're burnt out. Maybe in the middle of all that, you can still take one small step forward. We don't have to wait until we feel the energy. We don't have to wait till we've got a better night's sleep. We don't have to wait until someone else is watching the kids or we have help or we have time off or we have more money, or all the stars align and we finally actually want to do the thing we say we've been gonna do for the last, you know, six months. We don't have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great. I did not make up that quote. That is an incredible quote from Zig Ziglar, and I'm going to say it one more time. You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. So let's talk for a second about actual facts. So according to research in psychology and behavioral science, motivation isn't like this lightning bolt that strikes Us randomly. It is totally something that we create. It's something that we make. It isn't some magical doohickey thing. It comes from, first of all, autonomy. And what this means is, like, we like to feel that we're in control. Autonomy means we are the boss of ourselves. So instead of saying, I have to clean the kitchen like somebody else is making us like somebody else is the boss, we can say, I choose to clean the kitchen because I love it when it's clean, or I need it to be cleared so it's easier to cook. I choose to clean because it makes me happy to wake up in the morning to a clean kitchen. It's this. It's like a tiny shift. That is where motivation comes from. That's like one of the main driving things is knowing that we're the boss and we're in control, and this is actually our decision instead of some arbitrary thing that society is telling us we have to do or something. And I know it sounds bogus just changing the wording, but it works. The other thing that kind of is the science behind motivation, so they say, is competence. So we feel motivated when we know we're going to be able to succeed. If we're unsure we're going to be able to actually complete a task, or we're unsure even how or where, or, you know, all of that uncertainty in our capabilities is the opposite of motivation. We are not going to truly feel motivated unless we are really confident we're going to be able to succeed. Which is why it is imperative that we break things down into tiny wins. If you say, I'm going to have to clean out my closet, oh, my gosh. That feels nuts. That feels nutso. Butso is my new kind of word, because do you have enough time to complete that task? Where are you going to put everything as you're doing it? Do you even have the supplies to organize it? Again, if you do all this work, what is it going to look like when you're done? There's all this uncertainty that makes you feel like you're not actually capable of organizing the entire closet, so you'll never want to actually start. But if you can say, all I have to do on this one shelf is decide the things that I don't use and love on this one shelf, or I only have to put, like, things together on this one shelf, that feels like a win. That feels like something that is easier and you're actually capable of doing. And that is what you need to tell yourself in order to get started on that one shelf. And then once you do one shelf, you're going to find the motivation and the momentum to do another and another. And before you know it, the entire closet is actually organized. But you didn't have to force yourself to do it. And it wasn't scary and it wasn't unknown. You felt capable the entire time and that's why you actually were up and doing the thing. And the third thing that scientists say is a contributing factor to motivation is purpose. So the why really like the meaning behind something. We need to, to know the why before we actually feel the want to do something. So if you could tie your chores and the thing that you're doing to your why, that makes it a lot easier for you to actually get up and do the thing. So you're not just vacuuming the house because like, what's the why? You're creating a cozy, calm home for you and your family. You're creating a clean and safe and dust free home for your family. Right? You're spending 20 minutes to have better air quality for you and your family or whatever it is. Like sometimes we gotta fake our whys. Dig deep, friends, dig deep. But it matters. According to a 2020 study in the frontiers of psychology, goals with personal meaning and a short term feedback loop are far more likely to be followed through. Which means you, you want to make sure that you really understand the reasoning behind your doing something. Not just because I have to, but something that is meaningful to you and you can actually see that you've accomplished that meaning. So you're done vacuuming the floor and you're like, ah, I've done that. Yeah. Now the house feels cleaner or feels cozier, the air is safer or there's less dust, like you're, you're closing that loop. So if you are a person who like starts strong, you know, like dun dun, dun dun, and you, you jump in, right? But you tend to drop off after a few days or even a few hours, or let's be honest, even a few minutes, that's totally, totally human. And I think why we do that is because we're relying on feelings instead of systems. When you actually understand the science behind motivation and feel how you can create that energy, because that's what it is, the want to do something, the excitement to do something. When you can really understand what that looks like and those three things and change kind of the way you talk to yourself, that's how you can build sustainable motivation and momentum instead of just waiting for lightning to strike. So as you're Listening. Before we jump more into how to stay motivated long term, how to get amazing things done, how to be like those crazy people that get up at 5am and run. No, I don't know how to be that person. I'm joking. But before we talk more about sustained motivation and energy and excitement and momentum, I want to make sure that you're not just passively watching or listening to this podcast. The great, the bestest, greatest thing about podcasts is not only do you have the advantage of body doubling so you can do things with me in your ear, I am your friend sitting in the room with you, which science proves makes people get more done and helps them get motivated, but also you are multitasking like a champ because you're learning new things, you're hopefully getting inspired, but at the same time, you're checking things off that list. So at the end of this, you can feel double proud of yourself because you took time to train your brain and learn new things and just expand your knowledge. And at the same exact time, you're crushing life. Okay. Whether you're doing a load of dishes or putting away a load of laundry or finding things to leave your house forever, which is my favorite way to honestly make it, the biggest long lasting difference in your home is finding 21 things during this podcast that can leave forever. But no matter what you're doing, you are double dipping during this podcast. You know what I mean? You're getting two things at once. And that, my friend, makes you amazeballs. Okay, so something, it doesn't matter what. We can clear off the counters today. Right now, you can, you can put away that load of laundry. You can vacuum the floor and make your, you know, air quality better in 20 minutes. Whatever you're doing, make sure that you're not just sitting and listening or watching this podcast. Because, friend, use it. Use the motivation, use the body doubling to your advantage. And you're going to feel so proud at the end of this when you're done. Okay? So you don't need consistent willpower, you don't need tools, you don't need like all this stuff. Here's what you need to consistently, like, long term, build habits, I guess, of a person who not like, I don't want you to think that you have to be super productive and work 24 7. But how about this? How about, like when you say you're going to do something and you tell yourself you want to do something today, you actually do that thing. Like, you follow through, you keep a promise to yourself. You're like, today I'm gonna do this. And then you do that thing. And you don't make excuses, and you don't procrastinate, and you consistently be a person that shows up for yourself, that keeps promises to yourself. Doesn't that feel amazing? And I know you're like, that's easier said than done. But as the queen of procrastination, I feel you. Okay, and. And this is not easy for me. But there are a few things, little tricks that I feel have helped me consistently be a person that at least most of the time, does some of the things, most of the things I tell myself I'm going to do. The first is habit pairing. I guess this is also called, like, habit stacking. This was so important to me because I forget to remember all the cool new stuff that I want to do. So I say, every day, I want to write a to do list every morning. Or I say, like, I got to take my vitamins every morning. Things that I wasn't normally doing, but I wanted to do them, but I would just forget to remember because I'm in the habit of not doing those things. So habit stacking means thinking about the new small, tiny. Like, let's go with James Clear here and his amazing advice from Atomic Habits that in order to create a new habit, it has to be microscopic. It has to be so tiny at first that there are no excuses not to do it. So when we think of something small, like writing a to do list, I paired that with something I always did every morning. Like, I made a coffee. Well, actually a tea. A chai tea latte. So I just put my little notepad beside the coffee maker, like the Keurig and why my tea was doing its drippy thing. I would just write down a few things that I wanted to do. Like, it was out there. There was no excuse. I was able to get that done before my tea was even done. And now this is just an unconscious habit that I do all the time. I also like to have a bath every night. So I paired putting away a load of laundry while my bath fills, because my bathtub takes forever to fill, and I'm always done putting away the laundry long before the bath is filled. So now I don't even think about it. Like, I start my bath, I put in my bubbles, maybe I put in my epsom salts, maybe some essential oils. And then I immediately, without even thinking about it, put away one load of laundry. Like, my brain's on autopilot, man, because I've stacked those together. I Know a lot of people who brush while they're brushing their teeth. They'll tidy the counter or they'll wipe the counter in the bathroom. There are things you can do while the pot is cooking. While you're cooking and the pot is boiling, I should say, like, for potatoes or whatever, can you load some dishes into the dishwasher or unload some dishes out of the dishwasher? Can you pair tidying and cleaning up your kitchen with cooking and put those together? There are lots of things, but I think what you first need to do is identify what is a new, small, teeny, microscopic habit that I want to start doing on a regular basis and have this sustained motivation and then think, what can I stack this with? What can I pair this with? And I know we've talked about it before, but have you done it? Because I'm really great at learning a bunch of new tricks, and I'm not always so great at implementing them. So while you're listening to this, maybe have it in the back of your mind and think of one thing and then add. Actually commit to giving it a try this week. The next thing that we can do that's insanely helpful, and I'm going to admit I don't always do this, and I should. Is visually tracking that means, you know, you just kind of have a chart, and then every time you actually do that little thing, you give yourself a check mark or a sticker or a gold star. I mean, teachers do this for a reason, because it actually works. Train your brain. It is a very effective tool to keep you wanting to succeed. That's why they have habit trackers and apps like MyFitnessPal, where you log in every day, and every day that you log in, you get, like, a little reward. It's like a ding, ding, ding. You're amazing. That kind of gives us that dopamine, that good job, that gold star that keeps us addicted, honestly, to keeping going. Again, let's talk about James Clear, because he is the king of establishing new habits and motivation. He says every action you take is a vote for the type of person you want to become. Oh, I love that. So good. Every action you take is a vote for the person you want to become. So all those little X's, all those little check marks, all those little times that you're like, oop, I did it. They're votes for a calmer, cleaner, tidier, more organized you. Oh, and I love that. The third thing that's very, very helpful that I actually do use quite often is environmental cues. What this means is you, especially if it's out of sight, out of mind, or if you have ADHD and you're often forgetting everything. Environmental cues can really be helpful. So when I know I want to do a quick house tidy, I will leave my tidy tote out on the counter. So I'm going to tidy after work in the morning. I'm like, oh, yeah, I got a tidy later today. I'll leave my tidy tote out. Or if I'm like, I definitely have to vacuum this floor later because I can't do it in this moment, but it's something, something that I want to do later in the day, I'll leave the vacuum out or I'll put the garbage bag on the counter as the visual cue that, oh, I got to change the cat litter tonight. Those, those environmental cues are very important as long as we don't have an extremely cluttered home. Because what happens when we have an extremely cluttered home and we just, like, we're already naturally doing this? We'll leave the bills out to remind us to pay, and we'll leave this out to remind us, and then next thing you know, everything's everywhere and we don't remember anything because there's too many environmental cues. That's real. The struggle is real there. So make sure that you're only really doing this if you've got kind of most part of the clutter under control and that you're not just adding to the chaos. Because honestly, when everything's visual, nothing is visual and you'll forget about it anyways. So the last thing that I want to mention for establishing this, like, reoccurring motivation, turning things into something you just do all the time without having to force yourself is recommitting every single week. Motivation doesn't last forever. I mean, you don't even have to recommit every week. You can recommit every day, right? So I am really bad for this. When it comes to dieting. I'll say, this is the day I start and I'm not going to eat sugar and I'm going to do better and I'm not going to eat a bunch of junk food and then I mess up. And then I'm like, well, that's over. You know, that was nice when it lasted two days. And then I mess up. But what I need to do is just realize every day is a new day to recommit, and it's okay if I mess up. I just start again tomorrow. And I'm not. I'm not further behind because I still have the two days that I did. Well, yeah, I messed up, but that's okay. We're not keeping track of the mess ups. We're only keeping track of the successes. The mess ups don't matter. We only. We don't put a gold star on the mess up. We only put a gold star on the wins. So we just jump back on the horse. And I know we hear this and people say it all the time and it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like, but like, what if we actually did this? I gotta take a little dose of my own medicine here. The biggest thing that I've done that I really would want to recommend for you from a person who never actually feels like doing stuff. That's the truth. I'm just gonna be honest with you. There's a lot of things I say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to do, I want to do, I want to do. But then I'm like, oh, it seems like so much work and effort. My laziness takes over and I'm just like, I'd rather watch Netflix. I'll do it tomorrow. Okay, this is it. And I will push that and push that. I will come up with every excuse. I will play the victim. I will say, no one helps me. Poor me. I don't have time. I'm overworked. It's not fair. I have adhd. I just can't. I. I will. This is my natural instinct. So the thing that I do the most when I know I really should and I deep down actually want to do something, I just can't muster up the motivation to get started. I fake it. I fake the motivation. Or more importantly, I borrow it. And my favorite way to borrow motivation from somebody else, I immediately go to YouTube and I start listening to motivational speeches on the Internet, like I will. And I can't listen to a whole motivational speech because adhd, that's boring. I will, I will search motivational compilations, the best motivational compilations. And I'm going to put some links to some of my favorites down below. But I just want to give you like a quick little sneak peek right now.
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Do not settle. Do not think that where you are and what you see is all you will ever have. There is more. But change doesn't always come to you. It comes from you. Not everybody's going to believe in you. There are going to come times where you're going to be broken. All tomorrow pieces and you're gonna feel like you cannot get it all together. You can't seem to bring your life back on track. But get that mess out of your ears and listen to the words that I'm saying. You can put your life back together again. You have the faith, you have the strength, you have the knowledge, you have the ability. Now go to work and do your business. And I just want to ask anybody listening to me, why not you? Why not you? Why can't you be the person that changes everything?
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Are you feeling it? Do you know what I'm saying? Like, it doesn't take much for me to just hear words from other people. And yeah, the music underneath helps. I get fired up in minutes. I have an app actually on my phone. This isn't sponsored or anything, but I also have an app app that when I'm not feeling it, I'm just like, boom. And it gives me that little bit of that. YouTube is free. Just go Google it. Listen to it. Boom. Other ways that you can quickly, if that doesn't resonate with you, other ways you can quickly kind of fake or borrow it is to obviously turn on, like, bumping music. Yep, music is motivating and period. It just is. Also, Tony Robbins says this all the time. And I've tried it. Doing poses like a person or moving your body like a person who is motivated. So that warrior pose or that superman pose where you put your hands on your hips and you stand up and you're like, I'm amazing. Science shows that that actually makes your brain. It releases chemicals that make you feel, like, excited and motivated to do something. It releases like, dopamine and serotonin when you stand certain ways. This is why Mel Robbins, she had like a whole book, didn't she? On high, fiving herself in the mirror, maybe. She definitely did the give yourself a high five in the mirror. It might have even been a book. It probably was a New York Times best selling book. Ridiculous. But yeah, she basically is like, high five yourself. Because the act of, like, you're amazing, giving yourself a high five instantly sends chemicals to your brain that make you feel motivated. It works. I know you may be rolling your eyes, but it's true. Also saying things out loud even if you don't believe them. Like, I'm gonna clean my whole house. I'm so proud of myself. I deserve this. Saying something out loud, like some positive affirmation. Again, totally, totally works. Mel Robbins, again, I love her. She's a genius. She does this thing where she counts down from five. So five, four, three, two, one, go. Like a blast off like a rocket. And that Kind of helps turn off her brain and, and do some chemically sciency thing to help her get up and get going. Putting your shoes on? Seriously, I'll tell you this. Anytime I'm like, I should exercise and I don't want to. If I say all I have to do is put running shoes on, I am going to move my body in some way. And if I really am, like, this house looking like it's looking gross, you gotta clean it and I am not feeling it. If I put on an apron, it tricks somewhere in my, I don't know how it works, I don't know sciency stuff, but dressing the part really does motivate and it's absolutely incredible. And you've gotta give it a try. You can try all these things. You can stand like a warrior, you can put on an apron, you can put on shoes, you can listen to motivational speeches, you can high five yourself, you can do a little jumping jacks, you can look like an absolute weirdo for like five minutes. Do all these things. And I promise you, my friend, guaranteed or your money back. It's a free podcast, but even if it wasn't guaranteed or your money back, you will feel pumped and you will feel motivated and you will will get started. I do want to talk for just one more second with you about mantras because I don't know if this is because I'm innately insecure or if this is a woman thing. I don't know. But when I first started getting organized and, and getting my house under control, doing all the things let's. Any type of self improvement that I did, I was reading a lot of self help books at the time, which I found incredibly helpful because basically I was reading or listening to audiobooks. We didn't have podcasts back in the day, but this is the same thing. It was like replacing my crappy, terrible, negative thoughts with the person that I was reading or listening to thoughts. It was kind of, it was, it was reprogramming my brain by doing this and. But what I learned was that it's really important to have kind of mantras or just being aware of the way you're talking to yourself and catching yourself saying these really nasty things and replacing them with positive things. And for me, I started with this one mantra that I'm. It's like, I'm almost embarrassed to say this, but I cried saying it. And sometimes I still get emotional saying it, especially if I'm on a live or I'm coaching. Sometimes I'll do this. I'LL say these things like in take your house back all day declutters or something. I'll say this thing because this is this one sentence that really had a huge impact on me. And that is I deserve a beautiful, clean and clutter free home. I deserve a beautiful, clean and clutter free home. And I used to say, like, I deserve an organized home and I deserve a decorated home. And I deserve, yeah, just a clean home. Even saying any iteration of those sentences used to be so hard for me to say, why? I can't tell you. But for me to say that out loud and say it again and then I'd say it again. At first I'd be like, I deserve a clean home. And I felt like, almost shame. I felt like I didn't believe it. And then I just kept saying it and saying it and then literally tears are streaming down my face because I think the reality of the situation is I didn't believe I deserved it. And I think part of me almost was self sabotaging. And part of me believed it was never possible and part of me believed it was never. I wasn't capable and, and just all of it was gross. And there was so much self doubt and self loathing tied up to how my home looked. And I didn't even know it until I started repeating these mantras. I deserve it. And I want you to say it because here's the truth. You do deserve it. And you can start with, I deserve to wake up to a clean kitchen every morning. And then when I really started believing that, then I started saying, I won't settle for waking up to a messy kitchen. I demand this. I, I will not disrespect myself and leave the mess for tomorrow. Me, I started getting fierce. I went from someone who was like, weak and almost like pathetic about it, like, oh, I don't deserve this. And I'm just, I'm so bad at this. And it's just, oh, God, of course I'm such a disaster. Of course my kitchen' a mess. To being someone that like, fiercely stood up for myself and was like, I, there's, there's absolutely no way I'm going to settle for anything less than a beautifully clean kitchen every single day, because I deserve that. And anything less than that is disrespectful. Period. End. Stop. Okay? And I know it feels weird, but here's a quote from Henry Ford. Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. And sometimes when you are telling yourself you're going to Fail and what's the point? It'll just get messy again and you can't do this and no one will help you anyways. And, and it's like, ugh, it's just negative, negative, negative. That's what be. That's what you allow to happen. You are letting this. You have what you accept. You live in a messy, cluttered home because you accept because it's acceptable to you to live in a messy, cluttered home because you're like, oh, I guess I don't. I, I guess I'm allowing this. I'm accepting this. I don't deserve any better. Like heck. You don't change the way you talk to yourself and you'll change everything, everything about your life. And it takes practice, but you can do amazing things. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Cozy Earth. Years ago when I turned 40, I decided to treat myself to some actual grown up, nice sheets. And there was no going back. My first set of Cozy Earth sheets, it felt like luxury. I mean they're not luxury prices, but they're so soft. They're bamboo and they're. The more I wash them, I swear, the softer they get. And I also love that they're temperature regulating. There is just nothing nicer than sliding into cool, silky, soft sheets at the end of the day. And yeah, I deserve that. I deserve my bedroom to feel like a beautiful luxury hotel. And right now there is a risk free purchase. Like you can try these sheets or you can try their beautiful pajama sets risk free for 100 nights. And if you don't love them, you can return them. They also come with a 10 year warranty. So that's a decade full of cool quality sleep. And right now you can upgrade your sheets for summer. Go to cozyearth.com and use the code clutterbug for 40% off their best selling temperature regulating sheets and their pajamas and more. Trust me, you will feel the difference the very first night. Go to cozyearth.com use the code clutterbug to sleep cooler, lounge lighter and stay cozy. Are you still not feeling it? Are you still not feeling pumped? Are you still not believing in yourself that you can take whatever you feel right now? That is like an impossible obstacle. You're like, I'm not sure I can actually do this. Here is a couple ads, got other tricks we're gonna pull out for you right now and I call this like a motivational menu. Pick what you think sounds tasty and eat that. Okay, let's Just rapid fire. Here's your buffet of options. You ready? Grab a fork, my friend. Watch a cleaning video. Like one of those clean with me videos from YouTube. The messier it starts out, the better. That's a miracle. You know, those. Those people. There's so many great YouTubers that do this. Like, any. Just clean with me to music. Motivational. Clean with me. Watch those on YouTube. They'll start with, like, it is messy, and then they just speed it up to music. And you just watch them transform their home. Nothing is more motivational than that for me. Like, honestly, I'm just like, okay, I can do this with you, my babes. Yep. Watch other people do it. That's that. You don't want to eat that one? Fine. Let's go. Call a friend. Call a friend. My friend Jess and I used to do this every Monday. We would call each other on the phone, and we would both clean our houses at the same time together. And I'd hear her dishes clanking, and I'd be like, I'm folding laundry and it sucks. And we talk about our day, and we'd complain about our husbands, and we'd gossip about our, you know, other friends. And we were. We were. We were just. Whatever. We were horrible. But we would talk for, like, two hours, and at the end, I'd be like, oh, my gosh, I got so much done. And so did she. And we congratulate each other, and we were like, see you back here next week for another date, bestie. Oh, I miss that. I love her. That was so good. Okay, so another thing is gamifying this. I watched this tiktoker that does that. She's like, how long does it actually take? So you look at a task like your dishes, and then you guess how long it'll actually take. And then you time yourself doing it and see how fast you can actually do it. How fast can you actually do this thing? And I'm always shocked whenever I time myself how actually quick things get done, like, consistently. Do you know it's three and a half minutes. Three and a half minutes to empty a dishwasher. That's bonkers. It's less than five minutes to put away a load of laundry. Less than. I swear to you, I don't even fold. So this is like having to take it and hang things in less than five minutes. So you think something's going to take forever. See how fast you can do it. Take some shortcuts. Do it as fast as possible. That's the only goal. And time yourself so, so, so fun. Still don't want to eat that one. That buffet dish doesn't sound yummy. How about this? Set a timer for 15 minutes and then treat yourself for every 15 minutes you get. I don't know. I used to treat myself with chocolate that ended badly. But treat yourself with something. Maybe not buying things. That always ends badly. Maybe like 15 minutes of doing something. I get 30 minutes of watching TV or some kind of fun. 15 minutes of boring stuff. 30 minutes of fun stuff. Does that help? No, not so much, my friend. I gave you a lot of quick little tips here to try from if you're feeling it while listening to this podcast. And I've had a lot of comments about this. Who? I've read your comments on the podcast. Like for some reason I can't do anything all week. And then, Cass, you yell at me and suddenly I'm super motivated and I'm doing something. I think maybe this is working for you because of the body doubling aspect, because you are borrowing motivation from me and we're hanging out together while we do it. So I do think that either listening to podcasts like this or listening to motivational speeches like I kind of showed you a little bit earlier today, that might, might be what you need. So how can we take that and apply it to other things in your life that maybe aren't cleaning related or decluttering related? What other things are you like? Man, I wish I had motivation to do this other random thing like work out or go for a walk or walk my dog or spend time with my husband. I don't know what yours are, but how can we use these same tricks across the board? Because this is it. It. 90% of this, my friends, is self awareness. Knowing what works for you and why and then just rinsing and repeating it. I want to end this short little podcast today talking just for a second about the clutterbug types, because I do think this is so important to understand your organizing style to really like we talked about the self awareness. But let's go deeper than that. Let's understand your natural tendencies. Because for a really long time I would do all these little tricks to get motivated and I would try something like organizing my paperwork and filing cabinets or doing like, I would try to clean and tidy, but it would just become a mess again. And I felt really defeated because when we do get motivated and we push the needle forward and we're proud of ourselves, but then the next day it all just goes back and we feel like we've taken Two steps forward, but then life just kicks us two steps back anyways. And of course, it can be really hard to feel consistently motivated, because if we don't feel like we're doing all this work but we're not getting any further ahead, why would we keep doing it? And for me, in order to get ahead and stay ahead, one of those pivotal changes was understanding my organizing style. Like, really understanding what worked for me on my best. But more important, on my worst day, I had to have systems that were ladybug proof. I had to have big bins and baskets with no lids that I could chuck things away. I had to kind of have these. I want to say the chuck it and F word, but I know I'm gonna have PC up in here. I don't know. It's like chuck it buckets. Let's call it that. I had to set up systems where everything was still sorted into big categories. So I wasn't mixing things together. I wasn't creating, like, these doom baskets or doom boxes where I had actually no idea where anything was. I was setting up a clear home for everything that made sense, that was categorized with other things that made sense for those things to be together. But those homes were so fast and easy. I could throw, literally throw it from across the room and have it go there. And this was crucial for my success because now I can push myself and get motivated and do all these tricks and get myself a little further ahead. But I wasn't getting pushed back tomorrow. It was staying ahead, and then I could take another step and another baby step and another baby step, and. And I was actually moving forward. I was actually making progress. And this came from understanding my style. So let's listen to a listener here. I love this new Talk to Cast segment where you can call in and you can ask questions, or you can just share your stories and I can share them here on the podcast. So if you want to do this, go to clutterbug.com talktocast so right now, let's listen to Tara.
- [40:42]
C
So back in 2018, I was looking for ways of how I could start to try to clean up my closet. That was the first thing I wanted to do. My whole house was a hot trash mess. But I wanted to at least get my closet in order because I had dropped something in there and I couldn't find it. So I turned to YouTube and I somehow found Cass and realized it wasn't me that was having problems with the mess. It was the message, and it was the fact that I really just had no specific organizing skills because I just had never been really taught of what I, you know, it was, it was one way or nothing. And I'm not an all or nothing type of person. So when I realized that it was the fact that I am a butterfly and a bee kind of mixed together. And the way that traditional organizing is set up, it's not really meant for that. I need visual, but I also want order to that visualization at times. Sometimes I'm, you know, depending on the room, I'm a little more of a cricket and sometimes I can just be a ladybug. It just depends. But most of the time I lean into B. And it's pretty amazing because one little closet refresh and organizing just led into my other rooms, into my bedroom. And then I started putting hooks and taking doors off of closets and realizing that I needed something open and visual and that worked the best for me. And you know, there's always that one space that gets to be still a hot trash mess at times. And I have a Monica closet it as I'm sure a lot of us do. But the fact that I started slow, I set timers, I made routines happen. I always make sure that I don't have any dishes in my sink before I go to bed. And I do tidy ups and I make sure to declutter when I can. Also the take your bath, take your house back course, that was awesome to have other organizers and other styles to kind of integrate it in. But you know, it took time and you're not going to have a clean, tidy, organized house overnight. But it can happen. I know because we now can find everything. One of my kids was asking for a paper and I knew exactly where it was and I knew where to send them to get it. And you know, my kids are 25 and soon to be 21 and I wish that some of these things I had picked up when they were younger. But it's nice that as they head into adulthood that they have something that they can look at and see, you know, some tools and ideas. You know, the nice thing is I can have people come into my home to have to do work and it's not a hot trash mess. And I love that. And I just wanted to share my story of, you know, years later. It all sparked one day because I dropped something in my closet and I was done with the mess. I was tired of being tired of everything just being in disarray. So I hope that this gives a little insight into something and I hope you have a great Day.
- [44:34]
A
Thank you, Tara. Oh, my gosh. I love that. And I think the thing that really stood out about listening to Tara is she knows herself. Let's get real. She's like, I'm mostly a bee, but sometimes I'm a little crooked, and sometimes I'm a ladybug, and sometimes this room I'll do a little. And that. I love that so, so much. Because the truth is, it is about just understanding what works for you, but also understanding other systems too. And maybe, yeah, it's like, I'm totally a ladybug, but sometimes I'm a little crooked over here because it makes more sense to be a little crickety or in my craft. I like the pegboard. That's a little B, but it works in that instance. But knowing the words, like being able to understand the different styles and what works and what doesn't and why and be able to pull, put like actual words to it is so incredibly helpful. It's. It's truly means that you understand the organizing fundamentals. You understand like, like how it works and why and how your brain works and why and what works and what doesn't. And that's totally, absolutely key to have success long term. So thank you, Tara, for sharing that. I hope listening today that you did get something done, that you are feeling proud of yourself, that you learned maybe a couple tricks. You've got some motivational buffet things to kind of pick from your motivational menu, see what works, try on something new, put on an apron, listen to one of those amazing motivational compilation speeches on YouTube. Whatever you gotta do, man. Because at the end of the day, this is all about being proud of ourselves and truly realizing that we deserve this. We deserve to be proud of our home. We deserve a home that is beautiful, that is clean, and that is clutter free. Thank you so much, my clutterbugs. And I'll see you guys next time.