← Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast
Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast
It's NOT Laziness. Perfectionism is Keeping You Stuck. | Clutterbug Podcast #310
00:44:49
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- [00:00]
Cass
I may or may not have had a full emotional breakdown while on a live event in front of thousands of people. There. There was tears. This January has been like so many Januarys in the past where I am just so excited to help you change, like, fresh start. I'm not big on New Year's resolutions, but there's something really powerful about the new year that motivates everyone to try to be better and do better. And so I'm spending a lot of time and a lot of energy just being excited and trying to spread that excitement. But recently on a live that I was doing as part of the Take your house back all day declutter, all that excitement hit a brick wall. This past Saturday, we had our live all day declutter. This was the 15th all day declutter that we do as part of the Take youe House Back group. Dawn from the Minimal Mom, Dana from A Slob Comes Clean, and I from from Clutterbug. In case you don't know who you're listening to right now, together we are like live clutter coaches and we move through different rooms in your homes, trying to encourage thousands and thousands of people who are on the live with us to declutter and helping answer questions. It's like, rah, rah. We're your cheerleader. I get intense sometimes I bring a little tough love. There's may or may not be screaming, but the whole point is to radically remove the things in your home that you're not using and loving so that you can start fresh, right? And I was excited. This was the 15th. I was screaming. I was into it. I was like, we're getting rid of stuff and while I'm helping other people, I'm decluttering my own home. At the same time, I got rid of two entire trash bags of clothing to donate and a trash bag full of trash from my closet in one of the hours. I was feeling good, you guys. This. I was feeling like this is this life changing, amazing thing. And then reality hit me. It hurt. Before we get into my full emotional breakdown and very sad live moment, I want to focus on you. This while you're listening to this is about your progress, what you can do to make yourself proud. And today it's all about five minutes matters. Five minutes can move mountains and people always push back on this. I couldn't possibly make a difference in five minutes. But I want you to prove that you can. Today I want you to go to a space, either a pile that's been sitting on your kitchen counter or in your entranceway and see what you can do in five minutes. We are not stuff shuffling. You are taking action. Put things back where they belong. Take it to the room where it should actually go. And if there are things in that pile and you're like, I don't have a place for this to go, it goes in the garbage. If you don't have a place in your home where that thing belongs or that's obvious where it should go, it means it's not supposed to be in your home. All those little, like, odds and ends and bibs and bobs and whatever. Stop putting them in bags and boxes and calling them doom boxes and putting them in the closet for tomorrow. Make it leave today and never think about it again. If you're like, I don't have a pile cast. Dishes are another place where five minutes matters. Empty the dishwasher.
- [03:26]
Laura
Load.
- [03:27]
Cass
Load the dishwasher. Start soaking those pots and pans. It is incredible how much you can get done in just a few minutes. I actually made a reel about five minutes matters About a week ago, where I was cleaning my very messy looking kitchen. It took me 4 minutes and 13 seconds because I timed it. And when I was reading the comments, people were like, oh, there's no way. Tell the truth. That's obviously a lie. And other people were coming for me, like, you already have a clean kitchen to start. I have boxes and boxes filled with random things that I don't even know what they are. And my reaction is, that's the whole point. If you have boxes and boxes of random things and you don't even know what any of those items are, it doesn't belong in your home. And you can get there too. But you have to be brave enough to say, all right, I'm gonna do this crappy. I'm gonna take that stuff and just put it right in the trash. So I'm passionate about this because I know it's possible. And I think people's reluctance comes from the, like the. The hand wringing that, ooh, I don't wanna make a mistake. Oh, I'm not sure. So everything takes 10 times longer than it needs to. So let's go back to the live all day declutter and my slight emotional breakdown. This isn't just about that one moment during the live. This is about overcoming that roadblock that. That thing that is actually holding you back from the most incredible ins. The life you actually deserve. It's just this one thing you have to overcome, and then your future possibilities are endless. I started the Day strong. I was looking at all the before pictures in the Facebook group, and I saw very cluttered spaces. Some of them, you couldn't even see the floor. And what I saw was potential. Like, I can't wait to see the afters. I know that this is going to change their lives. And I imagined, as I was decluttering my own closet and getting rid of bags and bags of things, that everybody watching was doing the same thing. And I was so, like, proud and emotional and just excited for their new, incredible life that they're going to be living, because I know what it's like. I know the transformation that happens when you finally stand up and say, enough is enough. I'm sick of the clutter. I'm sick of cleaning, and today's the day. I'm making a change, and you actually do the work. And so while I'm talking about this and while I'm getting so excited, near the end of the day, I challenged everyone to do something probably a little radical. I saw the comments flying during the live. Everyone's like, this is awesome. I'm letting go of so much. And it was like, wow, everybody's great. And I said, okay, time for some exposure therapy. Go to your donation box and pick out one thing and put it in the trash. And immediately, I. I mean, this was live, so I couldn't see anyone's faces, but I felt it. I felt it. All the comments stopped. It was like, record scratch, you know? And then for a while, there was no comments. It was just silence. And then they started coming. I could never. Why would you do that? Oh, that's awful. Why would you throw out something? And so here I am trying to explain. You know, I'm like, you guys, you guys, I know you're going to the donation center anyways. We should always try to donate. I am not encouraging you to throw things out. What I want you to do is prove to yourself that you can make a mistake and the world's not going to end, that there will be sometimes casualties, and that not everything's always going to be perfect when it comes to decluttering. And it's not that big of a deal, because at the end of the day, we're celebrating all the wins. I want you to purposely decide do something bad, because I know that 90% of people who struggle with clutter, it's because they're perfectionists and they're struggling with the clutter because they're so afraid to make a mistake. They're so afraid to accidentally let go of something. That might be special or not donate something in the proper way or not have it go to the perfect person. That. That's why they're, like, making the biggest mistake of all, which is being stuck in a home that's suffocating them, you know, so. So I just thought with this momentum, I could have radical exposure to sucking in order to, you know, take them to the next level. So going forward, there's less fear, there's less anxiety, and there's just way more wins. And the reaction was not at all what I expected. Almost everyone in the comments was horrified, and the idea of doing it badly was so incredibly wrong to them that they were like, absolutely not. And I literally, right then and there, started to cry. Embarrassing. Okay? I started to cry. Not for myself, not because they were like, I couldn't do that, but for them, because I know that if you can't pick out one stained T shirt and throw it in the trash, if you can't find one chipped mug, if you can't pick up one old pen out of your donation box and put it in a garbage bag, you are never going to get where you need to be. You will struggle till the day you die with clutter. Because the truth is, there will be mistakes, there will be accidents, there will be casualties, but you're going to win the war. But you have to give yourself permission to sometimes, not always do things perfectly. And sometimes the best way to do that is to prove to yourself that the world's not going to end if you do make a little mistake. So you make a mistake on purpose. And what's. I was so upset, you guys. I was so upset about this afterwards. I was holding back tears even in the next live. And later in that day, it just kept bothering me. And I said something to my husband about it. And even the next day, I was talking about it with the team and Joe, who. My husband is a total perfectionist. He was like, well, it's okay if somebody gets in a car accident, but you wouldn't tell someone to purposely drive in a ditch. I understand why people were upset. And I'm like, how is throwing out a stained T shirt the same as driving your car into like, it's not the same. And yet it feels the same to people who are struggling with that perfectionist mindset. Every mistake feels enormous. Every wrong, wrong. I'm using air quotes. Wrong thing feels like this enormous moral failing. And I think that's the real crux of it here, isn't it? That's the real underlying issue Is this black and white thinking when it comes to what's the right way to do something and what's the wrong way to do something, and the inability to sometimes say, it's okay to take a shortcut because I don't have time to do everything perfectly. So I. I do have to take a second to clarify because hopefully some of you are thinking, is really taking something from a donation bin and putting it in the trash a mistake? It doesn't really seem like a mistake, but here's what I mean by it being a mistake. You've already made the decision that this item is going to be gifted to someone else. It is going to find a new home and a new purpose and, and not be wasted. So taking something out of that and then therefore wasting it, I can see how that would feel like a mistake. It would feel wrong. And for me, there's lots of times that I'm like, I don't have the capacity today to take something to, to the donation center and I put it in the trash. And I don't see that as a mistake. But I will say I asked them to go even a step further than that. It wasn't like one thing. They're going to the donation center anyways. It is no more work for them to bring that other item. In fact, it's more work for them to purposely pick something out and then waste that item by throwing it in the trash. So I understand it was a radical, drastic thing that I was asking them to do, especially for people who don't have a lot of experience with decluttering and people who are really struggling with the perfectionist mindset. But that was the whole point. To me, this is about exposure therapy to not just decluttering, but decluttering badly and just doing life, sometimes a little bit not perfect. To not always be following these invisible rules that society puts on us of how everything's supposed to be done, because that's the reason we're struggling. That's the reason we're failing, because we're trying to walk this path. We don't even know who carved out the path, and we don't even know if the direction that it's going is the right one. Just following the people before us and doing, you know, what we think we're supposed to do. And maybe we need to make our own path and do it a different way. When I first started my decluttering journey, I mean, I. I took forever to get there because I was making the mistake so many people make, which is looking at A pile of mess and then sorting it into a million different piles. You know, oh, this is all the writing things, and this is all the highlighters, and this is all the paper. And before you know it, it's four hours later and you've pile and turned it into 50 piles on the floor. And now what do you do? You're exhausted. And eventually it just becomes one big pile again. We have to get to a point where the only piles we make are stay and go. The only decision we make is, is this worthy of my home or not? Am I using this or not? Period? And sometimes that means in the moment, you're like, oh, this I'm not using, I'm not loving. I don't. What do I do with it? How do I dispose of it? Am I supposed to take this blanket to the Humane Society? It's kind of ripped and stained. Well, maybe I can turn it into dish towels. Maybe I can turn it into dusting rags. Or maybe you could just put it in the garbage and move on and never think about it again. And it's the third option there, the putting it in the trash and never thinking about it again, that dug me out. That's the attitude I had to have in order to make real change because there wasn't enough time in the day. I didn't have the mental or the physical capacity to declutter and organize my home in the way that you're supposed to do it. And I want everyone else to get there too. But in order to do that, you have to be able to make these mistakes. They're not even mistakes, but we're calling them mistakes because society tells us they're mistakes. We have to be able to do it dirty. We have to be able to just go fast and done today is better than perfect tomorrow. We have to be able to radically say, the only thing that matters is that this, this thing is gone so I can move on with my life. I have not been able to stop thinking about this, this live. Am I embarrassed? I cried? Yeah, but I always cried during a live. So it's not about that. I can't get past the fact that throwing something in the trash was so impossible to so many people who have been working with me for a long time. So I wanted to talk to you today during this podcast because I want you to think about this moment right now as exposure therapy. I want you to radically expose yourself to sucking right now. So while you're listening to this podcast, can you find something that is good, that is useful, but that you don't use and can you put it in a trash bag? Can you do what they couldn't during the live Take youe House Back. Can you radically fight back against all the urges of what's right and wrong and just give yourself permission to suck? I know this is hard, especially you bees and crickets. I know you're cringing. You might be like feeling a little sweaty at the idea of doing it. But that's what's supposed to happen, right? Change is uncomfortable and overcoming your biggest roadblock, which is perfectionism. And I'm going to clarify this perfectionism with the things that don't really matter in life. I think it's incredible that you're a perfectionist where it does matter. Life saving things emotionally, all the all. There's a million times in your life where it's important to be a perfectionist, but there's equal amounts of time where that perfectionism is holding you back, which is over complicating your life. And the only way to know the difference and to break through and to stop that pattern is to practice sucking and realize that the world is not going to end and it's okay and you're still a good person and you're still amazing and you can donate things tomorrow. It doesn't mean every time you have to throw things out. It just means it's okay if you do. I really truly believe that 90% of people who struggle with clutter are struggling because of perfectionist mindset. And I, that is a hill I, I would will die on. And I wasn't a perfectionist per se, but I even see looking back, my struggle with clutter and all of that was like I thought things had to be done a certain way. And because I knew I didn't have the capacity to do it that way, I just avoided doing it all together. I sucked at organizing. I couldn't filing cabinets and I couldn't keep up on systems. I was not good at the perfect way to clean my house. So I just didn't do it at all. And even though that isn't perfectionism, it's a byproduct of being surrounded by perfectionists and thinking that there's this way that everything's supposed to be done. And when I couldn't live up to that, I just didn't try it all. And perfectionists are dealing with this on a everyday basis. It's called perfectionism paralysis and perfectionism procrastination. Until I can do it right, I'm not going to do it at all. I'll wait and do it later. And we end up our entire lives just kicking that can down the road, piling more and more work on tomorrow's us because we're afraid to do that work badly today. I've worked with so many people, like, so many clients, and I've seen the same cycle over and over again, and it's. It's super bizarre. And I'm. I. I know I give this example all the time, but I'm gonna give it to you again. Shauna is the one that stands out to me the most. Her home was so cluttered. Okay, Shauna's home. I went in there to help her. She was so emotional. She felt like a bad mother. She felt like a bad wife. She felt like a bad human. She was working two jobs. She was busting her butt and yet never had clean underwear for her kids. Couldn't even see the floor. Was just struggling to get dinner on the table because she had to clear the table to even have a place to eat. And when I suggested to her that she take her underwear that were clean out of the basket and just throw them in her drawer and not fold them, she just about had a heart attack. She was like, I could. That's terrible. No, I'd have to fold. I couldn't. And I'm like, are you. Look around, babe, open your eyes. Do you not see what I see? It's a h up in here, right? But to her, she looked around, and what she saw was, I'm going to get to it later. I'm going to do it, right? She saw the promises she was going to keep to herself. She saw the potential, and. And unfortunately, like, it was suffocating her. It was holding her back. I'm gonna put a link to Shauna's makeover video. If you haven't seen that, it's a few years old. I'm gonna put a link to that in the show notes. Her transformation was so incredible. Not just the physical space, but her internal transformation, because her homework was to just throw her laundry in her drawers for week without folding, and she hated every minute, and she looked like she was going to puke, but she promised she would. And when I came back to her home a week later, she was a changed person. And that's the power of radical exposure to sucking. And that was a few years ago, but I see this every freaking time I work with a client. Tomorrow we actually have a video coming out, a makeover with Sabrina, who was struggling with two rooms in her home that were just Dumping storage grounds. It was crazy. And the reason she was struggling was 100% because of her perfectionism. Her expectations on how she was supposed to do things were literally crushing her and stopping her from ever getting started. We decluttered one room that was almost to my eyeballs full and had been like that for 18 months. We completely unburied her beautiful room in under four hours. So I'm. I'm gonna make a commitment to myself to get over this crushing, is this sadness. I don't know what I feel about the live. I just feel disappointment. That's what I feel. Ooh, I'm disappointed. I'm gonna try to get over that because the same way I ended that live is the way that I'm gonna. I mean, the same thing I'm gonna say to you, and that is, maybe they couldn't throw something out today, but I hope they try again tomorrow. And I hope people watching that live took away from that. Maybe they couldn't in that moment, but they're like, maybe I should try to suck a little bit tomorrow. And. And there's power in that. And I think the idea of sucking, or I call it, do it shitty, it's more than just your home. I've been doing decluttering and organizing now for 15 years. Probably a little over 15 years, if you count my own transform. And I know how impactful it is there and how you can see immediate results and how far you can come when you just allow yourself to embrace good enough. But it's not just about your home. It's your finances. It's. It's your relationships. It's everything. This idea, these expectations of how we're supposed to do things, this black and white. Well, this is right and this is wrong. Thinking stops us from reaching our potential in every one of those areas. And I think one of the biggest ways that it impacts your life is with your dreams, with these big goals that you have. That's the power of doing it shitty. Everyone's so afraid. Ugh. I get emotional because it's so. Such bull crap, man. Now I'm crying. This isn't live, but it's equally as embarrassing as alive. All right, listen. Get your crap together. Go, go. Listen. Wow. Everyone's so afraid to do things wrong. Everyone's so afraid to make a mistake or to be embarrassed or to, you know, like, not do their best that they don't do it all. That they wait. And every day they wait is another day of their life that is just passing them by. They're missing out on everything because they're. Because. Because they can't just throw something in the trash. Because they can't just show up and be bad. I learned by doing. And so I didn't need to be perfect before I started. I learned to be great by doing the thing. And you will too. You don't have to have all the answers and have the perfect plan and all the supplies and know exactly what it's going to look like before you get started. You figure that out while you're going. But you're never gonna get anywhere if you don't start and start shitty. Start sucking. Purposely be bad. Honestly, purposely be bad. Suck on purpose, my friend. Because that is how you can see this transformation. This is how you can overcome that perfectionist. It's all about exposure therapy. So what are you going to expose yourself to today? How are you going to suck today? What mistake are you going to make on purpose today? Do not drive your truck into a ditch. That is not what I'm talking about here. Safe ways, radical exposure to sucking in safe, non dangerous ways. And yeah, that means throwing things in the trash that could be donated. That means putting your dishes away even though they're not 100% dry. You're like, what about the mold in the. Stop it. It means not folding your underwear. It'll be okay. It means purposely just embracing good enough. Good enough to move on to something else and then do the something else. The next thing crappy too. And before you know it, before you know it, you're going to be so far ahead, all the things on your to do list will be done. And every time you practice sucking, you're gonna get a little better and it's gonna feel like you're not putting in effort. It's gonna feel like you still suck and yet you're gonna look around and be like, actually, I'm really, really good at this. I really think it comes back to we always think we have to be perfect before we start. We always think we have to be ready before we begin any new task. And that is the biggest myth and the biggest lie of all. It's what's holding us back. The reality is we're never going to be prepared. We're never going to know exactly how to do everything. We're never going to be an expert. We learn by doing. We figure it out while doing the thing right. We learn to swim while drowning in the ocean. That's just the reality. So let's break the cycle. Let's over overcome this expectation that we have to have all the answers and just jump in with both feet and figure it out together. I have to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Caraway. I switched to Caraway's cookware and I am very impressed. My favorite things about them are they are so heavy, like they're solid, heavy duty and I can fry and then immediately put that pan or pot into the oven to finish cooking. I feel like a fancy chef boyar ard over here, like Martha Stewart. Plus they're incredibly easy to clean and of course they're non toxic. If you still have those old Teflon pans, one scratch is releasing thousands of micro particles into your body. It is time to make the switch. Caraway's cookware set is a favorite for a reason and it can save you up to a hundred and ninety dollars versus buying them individually. Please visit carawayhome.com clutterbug10 and you can take an additional 10 off your next purchase. This deal is exclusive for our listeners, so go to carawayhome.com clutterbug10 or use the code clutterbug10 at checkout. Caraway Non Toxic Kitchenware Made Modern now it's time for my favorite part of the podcast where I want to promise I'm not going to cry anymore. But I, I mean I haven't heard these, so no promises, but we're going to start by hearing from Kathy.
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Kathy
Hi Cass. First of all, thanks for all you do. All your videos are great and inspiring and I've been listening to them for years. I had a question or could am seeking some advice on after decluttering for years, probably this is my sixth year and I'm down to stuff that is harder to declutter. How do you, how do you keep going once you're there? Everything has a place in my house but like cupboards are full, all storage areas are full, everything's neat and tidy. But I'm still over my clutter threshold. So how do you keep going? I guess I'm at that middle part of the onion and everybody says it's easier to declutter, you build your declutter muscles. But I feel like I'm getting weaker a little bit because the stuff is harder now. It's not the easy stuff. So I just would love any advice you have on. Once you're down to all this, all your things that fit nicely in your storage areas and it's no longer visible clutter, but you're still over your clutter threshold, how do you keep going? So any Advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again for everything you do. I think you're awesome, you're funny, you keep me interested and you keep me going. So yeah, thanks again and I look forward to what you have, what your ideas are. And yeah, I want to keep going and I want to get this done. Although I know you're never done, but I just, I'm kind of stuck. So any advice you can give on getting down to a place where you are not over your clutter threshold would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again. Bye.
- [30:30]
Cass
That's so good. Thank you. Kathy, this is a really, really good question and it's going to be an answer that you probably don't expect because it's the opposite of what I always say to do. But first, let's talk about what your clutter threshold actually is. Everyone has a different clutter threshold and it's your ability to maintain the amount of stuff that you have in your home today easily. And so we usually frame this in two ways. One, can you tidy a space, one singular space in under five minutes. So if you can quickly pick it up and put things back in under five minutes, you are probably within your clutter threshold. Right? It's, it's easy to maintain. And the second thing is you know where everything is and you can easily like, like locate it in your home, in your mind. So you need that extra touch up paint. You know exactly where it is. When you're over your clutter threshold, there's so many things to remember. You're like, I don't know where things are, or it takes over five minutes to tidy. Which is probably the issue that Kathy's having. When things are put back, they're perfect, but it's just more inventory than she can actually manage. So here's what I'm going to suggest to you, Kathy, and this is the thing we say never to do, but you are to a place where you can do it. And that is pick one shelf, one drawer, one like small area. And I want you to take everything out, which is what I say to never ever, never ever do. But when we're actually to the organizing phase, this is what we need to do. Decluttering, I want you to just focus. Well, this can go, this can go. And making sure everything fits. But you've graduated past that. You're at the next step. And so you take everything out of that drawer and then you shop the pile that you've just pulled out and you start putting back your favorite things first. So I like this, and this is the most important. And I use this the most often and this and this and this and this till the drawer gets to a point where you're like this looks good. This is a reasonable amount. You are still gonna have the pile. Still good things, still useful things, but your least favorite things. And that can go. That's how you get to your clutter threshold. That is the next step. It is treating your space as finite. It's using that container concept and it's shopping your favorite things or the most used things first and putting it back until that space is full. And then what's left is leaving your home. It's not going somewhere else. It's leaving your home. Because we just can't keep everything now we have a story from Laura.
- [33:07]
Kaz
Hi.
- [33:07]
Laura
Cass, I don't have a question, but I wanted to leave an appreciation message to you. My name is Laura and I've been watching your YouTube channel and listening to your podcast for a few years now. I've been a silent listener, but lately I have been feeling the need to express to you how much you have helped me in the process of simplifying my home and my life life. The past few years I've been working here and there on decluttering and becoming more minimal with my physical items in my home. But after having my daughter in 2024 I really felt the urge to finally pull the trigger and make some serious changes. I had pretty severe anxiety and after having my daughter it got worse. One of my big triggers is visual clutter and the silent to do lists around my house. Lately I've been making changes to make our household run smoother. So some examples are I was keeping my keys on a hook by the back door when I only ever used the front door, so I moved them to the front door. I was always reaching for my food storage containers which were on a bottom shelf in my pantry and hard to get to, so I moved them to a cabinet with way easier access. These small changes have made such a big difference in the ease of my day to day life lately. And listening to you has definitely made me realize that I don't have to do everything the way that everyone else is doing it. I just need to do things the way that it works for me and our household. You remind me that I deserve better, my family deserves better, and I'm capable of improving our home, which in turn makes our lives so much easier in so many ways. You have really helped me build my decluttering muscle and it is true that the tough love strategy definitely works. Works for a Lot of us. I now have absolutely no guilt in getting rid of things that no longer serve me or my family. And it is so freeing to be able to feel like I finally have control of it all. I try to share my experience with anyone who will listen because I know that they are also capable of changing their life. And a lot of times your videos get shared to them. I have to say, the thing that makes me the most emotional, though, is that that my daughter has so much more room to move around and play, even in our tiny town home. So I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all that you do. You are amazing. Thank you.
- [35:26]
Cass
Thank you, Laura. I'm so proud of you. I love that. I think it is crazy how tiny little changes we can make to our home add up to hours of our life back. Just moving the keys means you don't have to walk across the house every day. It's the small things like that that that make the biggest difference, isn't it? So thank you. That was incredible. I appreciate that. I love that you're just making life easier as a new mom. And again, we have a video coming out Tomorrow on my YouTube channel about Sabrina's makeover, her dealing with her perfectionism and being a new mom and all the craziness that comes with it and little changes that she made to make life easier, too. So you don't want to miss that video. It's also really nice, after me feeling sorry for myself, that I'm shouting into the wind and it's not resonating with anyone and everyone's gonna be stuck in clutter and they're not gonna change their lives. It's really nice. Thank you. To know that, you know, sometimes it matters. And. And you said you just want to tell everybody, you know, because you're so excited and you just want to share it with everyone so their life can change too. That's exactly why I do this. Like, I'm so passionate about it because I'm like, this. This decluttering, organizing thing changed my life. I just want to shout it from the rooftop because it is. It's. It feels like the most incredible secret that you just want everyone to know. Now let's hear from Emily.
- [36:50]
Emily
Hi, Cass. My name is Emily. And as an ADHD/Neurodivergent Girly and. And a chronic illness girly, I love this whole concept of do it. So I was just listening to the podcast, and I was listening to somebody call in and talk about how they don't use a Top sheet. And you were saying same and I was saying same because Sam. But I do want to give my tip for that and for like keeping your comforter not getting gross. So what I do is I use. There is an antibacterial fabric spray that doesn't have like a strong scent. Like, doesn't seem too strong, but it definitely does kill the bacteria. I was going to say the name of the brand, but, like, not sponsored, you know, but there are some antibacterial fabric sprays that you can use. And what I do, I. I spray my comforter with that. Especially because I think you've talked about this before, but you can't make your bed immediately. But like, I'm not getting up early enough to give it an hour to, you know, like, get ungross. So, you know, I give it some time and then I, I come over and I spray the comforter and I spray the bed part with this fabric spray. And then even then too, another kind of do it shitty thing. When I, like, quote, make my bed, I'm not like tucking the comforter into the bed because, like, I don't even like that when I get into a bed. And then it's because, like, I want to tuck myself into the comforter. Not like, you know what I mean? I don't want to tuck the comforter into the bed. I want to tuck the comforter into the me. So I. When I just kind of make my bed, I spray that fabric spray and then I just kind of like, you know, move the sheet, the. Not the top sheet, the comforter so that it is nice and just kind of like, like over the bed in a way that doesn't look bad. And then it's easier for me to crawl in when it's time to do that. So that's my tip. Thank you for what you do.
- [38:46]
Kathy
Bye.
- [38:48]
Cass
Emily. I feel like you need to start a podcast. First of all, I love your voice. You're awesome. Also, that's a super great shitty hack. I might have to get this spray. And also same who's tucking it in because I want a burrito after and roll myself up into a ball. But also my feet must be free because claustrophobia is a real thing. But not too free because Freddy Krueger might be under my bed. Gosh, we are weird. But isn't it nice? Thank you for sharing, Emily. And last but not least, we have a question from Kaz.
- [39:19]
Kaz
Hi, Cass. This is Kaz. Similar sounding names. I know it's. That's K A, Z. But anyways, I'm Kaz, I'm from California and I am a biology researcher and I work in a lab, which means I work under a lab advisor. And we have different organizing styles or at least prioritizations when it comes to organizing. And so my lab advisor, her, the lab space is a mess and multiple previous lab mates have tried organizing it and it's gone into chaos. And there was a time last summer where I was like hyper fixated on your videos and like was trying to plan, I was making this grand plan of how to organize the whole her whole lab setup instead of just like doing it and getting started and trying to get rid of things for sure. And so now that I'm not really in that hyper fixation anymore, I'm trying to figure out how to get back into it and how to organize things in a way that will help my lab advisor. And I know of course I need to get, we would need to get rid of things first. But yeah, just I want to get back to that because working in that kind of environment is very stressful for me. And so any advice that you have would be great. Thank you.
- [41:06]
Cass
I love it. And I actually do have advice. Here's what I would suggest. You're not gonna do the whole lab in one, in one fell swoop. That's crazy pants. Also, you need to get your lab friend on board and want this, right? So here's, here's what I would suggest. Pick the tools or supplies, just a few of them that you use the most often, like every day. Every day. And can you add a little caddy system? Can you have a tray to corell it? Can you add labels just for those things, like one small bite, take a chunk out and then work with that for a week or two and see how much easier life is and then go to the next stuff you touch the most often. This is kind of the same thing I suggest when people are trying to organize their home. It's. Can you start with making a cleaning caddy? Just your cleaning supp. You start with just, you know, your underwear drawer, the things that you're touching every day, make that a little bit better and like feel it. That's how we get the urge. That's how we get the like motivation and the momentum to keep going. It's all these little wins. But it's also how we, I don't want to say manipulate, but manipulate other people to get excited about organization too. You got to prove it with a good old fashioned win. There was a time in my life where one of my business ideas after I was starting Clutterbug was to have the secondary branch where I would go into workplaces and do the quiz with all the people who worked there and help them individually like organize their desks and the workspace in a way that worked for everyone. So kind of giving different companies this individualized approach to structuring not only the individual desk, but the entire workplace around their employees organizing styles so that it's. It was more functional for everyone. This was like literally this thing I was going to do with my business. I was going to take it down in that direction and then, you know, life got lifey and I went more to like kids toys and blah, blah, blah. And here we are today. But I am still really passionate about the idea of we spend like half of our time at a workplace. So making it functional not just for us, but for all the employees is really important. If you want to be part of the podcast, I would love to hear it. Go to to clutterbug.com talktocast and don't be afraid to ask your personalized questions like how should I organize this Cass? Or what should I let go of in this room? That's what I'm here for, is to answer your questions. I would also love to hear your dinosaurs. You got some old hair for some reason. You know, when your kid had its first haircut, but now your kid's 60. Well, that would make you a. It's possible. The point is, let me know that story too. Also, I want to hear more shitty shortcuts. That would be incredible. Spraying your comforter with some antibacterial spray so you don't have to wash it all day. This is the stuff I'm living for. Give it to me. Do things sucky. Radically suck at things. Take shitty shortcuts and then let me know the ones that work on again. Go to clutterbug.com talktocast I hope you prove to yourself today that five minutes matters. I hope you take a look at whatever you got done and you're like, holy crap, dude, that was way more than I thought I could get done. And you give yourself a big old pat on the back. And if you haven't proved to yourself yet, try again tomorrow because five minutes really does matter. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me and I'll see you next time.