B (7:53)

It's.

A (7:54)

I mean, I'm not sure how the science works. But I will tell you this. When I got my home decluttered, my finances dramatically improved. And I see this same pattern with all of my clients that I work with. It's like cluttered home also equals struggling financially. When we can get the home under control, our finances improve because they are linked in ways that you don't even realize. What's really amazing is the act of decluttering often, like, will lead to more money in your bank account. So while you're decluttering, your removing like the excess inventory so you're less likely to buy duplicates, you're also finding things. It always feels kind of like Christmas morning. Like you're like, oh, I don't need this. And I don't, oh my God, I forgot about this. I actually will use this. Like, this is great. Also, almost every single time we declutter, we find money. We find checks or gift cards or actual cash in things. So we're, we're earning money that way too. There are all these little ways that even a 15 minute declutter cluttering session will equal better finances immediately. Decluttering is a financial strategy. When you're decluttering, you're going to get clarity on what matters. You're going to get really clear on what products you actually use and like, and which ones are just a waste of space and a waste of money. It's going to allow you to start implementing the container concept. So once you declutter, the next step obviously is organizing. So you've decluttered all the candles you don't love from Christmas's past. You know, the ghosts of Christmas. When everyone buys you a candle, you declutter the ones you don't love. Now you have one bin for candles. It's really obvious. Oh man, I Can't add any more. I have to use up what I have, which stops you from those impulse candle buys the next time you're at the store. It's all connected. Decluttering is a financial strategy. And I think the most impactful way that decluttering helps your finances is the fact that it's painful. Like, it's uncomfortable to let go. So what happened with me was while I was decluttering and. And I felt the sting, I was like, oh, I shouldn't have bought that. That was $20. Ouch. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe I spent $50 on that. And I never use it. That hurts. That hurts. It was literally training my brain to think twice the next time I was at the store. Like, the uncomfortable feeling is part of the process, because when we ignore it and we just allow our home to continue to fill up, we're any lessons, right? Like, I'm a person who has to learn the hard way, and decluttering helped me stop and think twice before I just impulsively buy things. When I'm out and about, I feel like it depended on the situation. So decluttering clothing hurt a lot. And I would be a person. Whenever I was feeling bad about myself, I would go to the store and I would like, you know, I have a Christmas party coming up. Oh, none of my clothes. I feel so fat. I would go to the store, I'd buy something, and then the next time I went to declutter, I'd realize I never even wore that Christmas dress or I never even wore whatever that sparkly sequins thing that I definitely felt like I needed at the time. So by the next Christmas, I was like, nah, I'm probably not gonna ever wear that again. Like, it didn't take long for me to see the correlation with different articles of clothing. It did take a little bit longer with the nickel and dime stuff, like the dollar store stuff, which I'm still struggling with. But honestly, the. The big stuff was. Was almost instantaneous, right? It was like, okay, I know I'm a person who's not going to use that thing because I've decluttered five of them. So I'm not going to rebuy that the next time I go to the store. I think the real secret here is constant and continuous decluttering to really help with the finances. So maybe you've done, like, a little declutter. You filled a singular trash bag. Maybe you even donated a box of things. That is not enough to really have an impact. You have to consistently look for things. We always call it peeling back layers of an onion. That's what decluttering is like. Like the top layer is like the easy stuff, the trash stuff. But then we go a little deeper and we go a little deeper. And every time you go back and continue to look, you're going to find more things that you're not using and loving and you're going to feel that sting on a more regular basis. A one and done decluttering will not change your life. Being consistent with like being intentional and looking at your stuff differently and saying, is this adding value or is this collecting dust? That is what's going to change your mindset about how you buy and consumerism. I learned those big ticket items sting. So I'm never going to be a person now who's going to drop a bunch of money on a purse or a holiday dress or anything like that. Because I'm like, oh, I probably am going to declutter that later and that's going to really hurt. But I, for me, I'm like, oh, you know, if it's $2 at the dollar store, it's probably fine. But even that adds up, my friend. Even all those dollar things add up to big amounts of money. So I'm not saying this is going to 100% solve your problems, but, but I will say this, it helps more than anything else I've tried. I am, I have adhd. I'm an impulsive person. I've always had spending problems. Decluttering improved the way my home looked. It improved the way my home functioned. And it's had the biggest and most drastic impact on my finances over anything else I've tried. I've really realized in my journey, one of the reasons why I was doing this impulse buy was for that hit of dopamine that like feel good. So if I'm feeling sad, oh, I can have a little pick me up. I'm bored on a weekend. Oh, Joe and I, let's go to the store and just look. Let's just look around. We kind of start treating shopping. Yeah. As retail therapy. I mean, they call it that for a reason. It does give us this feeling momentarily of happiness. But we all know it's fleeting. We know it doesn't last. And when we start making that correlation between not only does it sting our bank account, but it hurts our home, which then hurts our self esteem, which then makes life harder for us. When we can make that correlation, it's that added ammo we need to fight back against that just impulsive shopping that we all do. It really does. For me, the decluttering part led to like doing these no spend challenges. So the more I realized how much I was nickel and diming myself because I was decluttering like, oh my gosh, I can't believe. Yeah, I bought that stupid timer on Amazon. Oh my gosh. And I also bought this in the middle of the night from Amazon and never used it. And look at the random stuff from the dollar store whenever or things that were expired when I was doing my pantry. Like, why did I buy those dad cookies? They're disgusting, they're dry, nobody likes them. Stop. I don't care that they're $5 off at Costco. Stop buying them. Cass. When I started doing all this little bit, I was really inspired to do a seven day no spend challenge on a regular basis. And that's what I want to really talk about in this podcast. I can only speak for myself, but there are so many reasons that I tend to impulse buy stress buys when I'm feeling overwhelmed. I try to also buy solutions, right? So if I'm like, ah, this is so much work. What can I buy to make my life easier? But. But my love language is definitely gift giving. So I think for me, the time that I over consume the most is when I'm feeling sad or when I'm feeling like unappreciated by life. Family, my husband, my kids. I treat myself right. And I think this comes also from my parents used to do this sort of like, oh, we can't spend a lot of time with you, so we'll buy you something to show love. I think I show myself maybe a.

C (16:25)

Little bit of love.

A (16:26)

I soothe the aches in my own life with purchases because it's something that I've been trained to do. And not only that, society is training us to do that. You deserve it. Look at this. Oh, you're feeling kind of crap about your wrinkles. Treat yourself to some cream that's going to make you feel younger. Your butt's getting flat because you're old and saggy. Treat yourself to these jeans that'll make you look perky. Influencers up there smiling, telling us these things will change our lives and next thing you know, we've added it to the cart. Except we know it's not going to change our life. Our butt's still looking flat and we're still pretty wrinkled. There isn't some magical thing that's going to drastically improve our life. In fact, all of these purchases are ruining Our lives. They're ruining our finances, and they're ruining our home. The Kardashians are business geniuses, right? They really are. I mean, people always roll their eyes like, oh, they're famous for doing nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she had the sex tape. Fine, Kim. That's how you get started. But that woman at the end of the day is a businesswoman. She. She markets, she sells, and she knows how to do it. Because at the end of the day, who doesn't want to feel beautiful, who doesn't want to feel put together? Who doesn't want to feel like, have shiny hair and glowing skin? She knows that she spends a fortune to get it at the plastic surger place and then hawks her freaking Spanx to us. You know, like, buy these $15 sucker marinr underwear and you can look like me too. Kim. You spend $250,000 for that body and you work out like a dog in the gym. Like, that's. That's a full time job to look like that. But it's spun like, we can do it too, without having to work if we just trade our money for it. It's a lie. We know it's a lie, and yet we continue to fall for it. I used to listen to Dave Ramsey podcast all the time. So sometimes I hear him in my head, or some version of him that I've made up in my head when I'm out shopping. And it is like a mantra that's helpful, and that is like, if say something's $20, I'm like, I could have that thing for $20, or I could turn that $20 into $100. Because this is something that I didn't realize for a really long time, is that your money can make you money. And when we save the money, even in like a high interest savings account. I know, lame. Let's talk lame. But it equals it, like quadruples. It can even be ten times worth, right? My husband used to say this too. He's like, that's not just $2, Cass. That has the potential of being $20, and is that worth it? And so, yeah, I had to change my mindset about money and start seeing it as a tool. Its ultimate job is to make you more money. That's what it's for. It's not to trade for goods. It's. It's a tool to make you money. And when you can start seeing things that way, it helped me, like, think twice before just wasting it on random doodads. Also played this board game all the time. It was like the game of life or something. I forget what it was called. It was made by rich dad, poor dad dude. And you would like get a budget and then you could either invest that money in things that then gave you money, or you pulled a card that was like, do dad. You bought a haircut, you bought shoes at the store and it would like deplete your overall money and you would lose the game of life. It wasn't called life, but the point is, it was like these little mental tricks that started adding up. And I was like, yeah, the little crap at. In the grand scheme of things, we're not going to be on our deathbed and say, man, I'm so glad I bought those fuzzy slippers. We're going to be like, I'm so glad I saved my money and was able to go on that trip. Or I saved my money and was able to provide for myself when I couldn't work any longer. I'm so glad that I didn't give in to all of these nickels and dimes. I think that's the thing that we don't really see in the moment. We're like, we're broke, we're struggling. We don't realize that $5 today will be $20 later, right? We don't see our money in this growth mindset. We see it as something to just get us the cool stuff right? Now this, this like, flash in the pants kind of buys. There is this voice in our head that's constantly telling us, I need, I need, I need. But the reality is we already have. We have a lot, okay? And it feels like a need, but it's really just a want. And even if we waited 24 hours, we probably don't want it tomorrow. So it is this immediate gratification kind of thing that we need to zoom out and look at it for what it really is. And that brings me to the first thing I want you to practice, which is if you really want something, wait till tomorrow. I've been doing this thing on Amazon because I am so guilty of late night impulse buys where we removed the credit card from Amazon. So I will add things to the cart, but I can't actually buy it unless I walk my butt to find my credit card and then like, add the credit card and then I immediately delete the payment again. So I have to do it the next time. So I'll just add things, things to the cart and leave it there. And then after a few days, I go through. And what's bonkers is 90 of the stuff I don't actually even want anymore or I forgot this is how bad my ADHD is. I will get packages delivered to me and we have next day delivery and you could hold a gun to my head and I would have no idea what's in the package. Like, it's like Christmas. More like I have no idea. If you can't remember what you bought, you don't need it. Going 24 hours before you buy something is a really good tactic, but I do think there's even a better one. Like we can push ourselves a little bit further with a no spend challenge. And a lot of people do this for three days. I recommend seven. It is, it's like cleansing. You know, people do juice cleanses. They're like, I'm not gonna eat food and I'm gonna fast for three days and I'll feel so much better and I'll reset my life.

C (22:56)

Life.

A (22:56)

That's hard though. Like, you have to have discipline every moment to not go eat a cracker. You're not going to completely eliminate all the food from your home, but you can eliminate the ability to buy by taking your credit card and your debit card, putting it in a bowl and putting it in the freezer. Okay, you, I have done this. I have to. You have to take that ice out. You have to chip away to get to your card. There's no impulse here. It is such a. It's so much friction. Is that a burden to dig it out? That, yeah, you're way more likely to actually go the full seven days. And it's actually kind of fun. If you haven't done a no spend challenge, you gotta give this a try. It is it. It invokes something in you that makes you get creative. You're like, oh, all I have is lima beans. I'm gonna ask Chat what I could make with lima beans. You definitely have more than just lima beans. Stay with me here. But it does, it makes you think about your stuff that you currently have differently. You're digging through. What always happens when I do a no spend challenge is I feel bored because I tend to buy when I'm bored. And so I'll go into my craft room and I'll make something, I'll paint something, or I'll use up things I have because I'm feeling inspired to use up things that I have during this seven day. And if you can do this, this once a month, do a seven day no spend challenge, you will save thousands and thousands of dollars. I, I kid you not. This is like a miracle. Even at my brokest when we did this, I felt more appreciative for what I had. I was more creative. I was cooking better dinners. I felt so freaking good. You guys, you've got to give this a try. I have done this in the past for months at a time. I wouldn't say a whole year. Because once we get into, like, kids, birthdays, all my kids are birthdays are close together. Christmas or things like that, I like, oh, that's gonna be uncomfortable. I have to plan ahead. I choose months where I don't have to plan. January is an awesome month to do this because you probably already have a lot of extra new things and you've bought extra food over the holidays. So fill up your. I. I would now I don't even have to do this, but I would fill up my tank with gas. I would get the basics at the grocery store, like milk and bread, and then I would freeze my credit and debit cards. I would not, like, be able to spend money for a whole week. And then I would do it again in February and March and and so on. This is life changing. It really is. And I encourage you to pick one week in January coming up and try a no spend challenge for yourself. Definitely, like, January is a really good time to do this, especially if it's like, after New Year's, you know what I mean? Because maybe you want to go out for New Year's and buy a couple drinks, start, like, January 2nd or 3rd, you have leftovers, you've got boxes of chocolates. You've got, like, new things you can try out to keep busy. This is such a good time of year to give a no spend challenge a try. The biggest impact after you're done a no spend challenge is that you, like, felt really proud of yourself for being able to make what you already have work, right? And that lingers. So maybe the next week you can spend money, but you're still like, ooh, I wonder if I can make, like, garden pasta again. Or I wonder if I can make chili with just the things in my pantry. You start to feel inspired by shopping your home first. That is the biggest impact that a no spend challenge has. Also, Joe would go through and he would tell us, like, the total amount of money saved. So we use TD as our banking and it automatically kind of tracks our spending for us. So you can immediately see, like, whoa, we saved like $1300 and didn't feel like we were going without. And that's amazing. If we do that every Month, that's a family vacation, the end of the year. So that's another impact that you can see immediately when you go one whole week, like seven days of spending nothing. What's really cool about doing a no spend challenge is you're getting multiple wins. You're getting obviously you're saving money, which is a win, right? You're not spending, you're saving awesome sauce. But also you're using up things in your home, so you're reducing your clutter. It is, it's a form of decluttering to do this because you're going to be clearing out the pantry and you're going to be using up supplies, which is awesome. But most importantly, you're also getting the mood win because this is really satisfying. It is a way to feel very proud and to have fun too. It is, it's creative. I, I, I can't, you can't describe it unless you've tried it. Like, I really want to encourage you to give a no spend challenge a try because it's going to just open your eyes to things you didn't even realize could be fun. Suddenly you're aware. A lot of us kind of ignore our finances. Even if we track our spending, it's like, ooh, we don't want to look. It's like, oh, money, that's stressful. I never have enough. But we don't pay attention. And doing a no spend challenge for me was eye opening because holy crap, why was I going through Starbucks drive thru so many times? Why was I like, I couldn't believe what I was spending at shoppers drug Martin on base. Like a face mask. Oh, I deserve it. And getting some dry shampoo and getting extra things here like, what are you doing? When I could zoom out and see how much those things tallied over a week, I thought twice before I was doing it the following week. It was really making me pay attention to my finances in ways that I had never before. So just to recap over, consumption really drains you. Not just financially, but it drains you emotionally. Emotionally, it just feels like you're stuck in quicksand. But the flip side of that is decluttering and doing no spend challenges really invigorates you. It really, it gives you a sense of calm and purpose and more money in your bank account. I'd like to take a second to thank today's podcast sponsor, Aura frames. An aura digital picture frame is a perfect gift for that sentimental person on your list. I've gifted them to my mom, my mother in law, my stepmom and all the grandmas. And it's wonderful because you can preload these frames with beautiful pictures without even taking it out of the box, and share this frame's code with all the other extended family members. This way, when you're on vacation or if someone has a sweet moment that they can capture on their phone, you can instantly update it to your loved one's frame anytime from anywhere in the world. Right now, you can save $35 off their famous Carver mat frame. Simply go to auraframes.com clutterbug Again, that's auraframes.com clutterBug to save $35 off. Exclusively just for clutterbug listeners. Now it's time for my favorite part of the podcast. Talk to Cass. We have have Chaotic Cricket. I love this. This is the name that we're going with.

C (30:31)

Hi Cass, I've been watching and now listening to you for a long time. I'm a huge fan. I believe I'm the textbook cricket. I love to microorganize and once I have a system, I do follow it. But until I do, it's pile central all over the place. And to make it even more challenging, I'm a perfectionist. My situation is that I don't even like clothes clutter. While I'm not a minimalist, I don't like lots of knickknack decor, nor am I a collector. I don't even have personal frame photos hanging around. But my downfall is I love clothes and I love to shop. I'm also a bit of a bargain hunter and the worst thing to ever happen to me is discovering the dollar tree. I'm sort of like you as I've forbidden myself to buy certain categories clothing, linens, shoes. But I justify buying tons and tons of dollar tree items because they're just a dollar dollar. I think the dollar tree raising its prices is going to really help curb my spending as I can't rationalize spending $1.75 on an item that just a few years ago was only a dollar. After listening to your podcast, I need your help figuring out why I can't solve my messy home. I'm not an emotional clutterer. I don't have identity clutter, I don't keep trash, and in fact I love to throw trash and recycling out. I may have a tinge of a scarcity mindset and my love language is gift giving. What I don't have is time. I care for my elderly father and have a lot of demanding responsibilities that result in me not Living in my house for more than a few days at a time. So I'm struggling to get momentum decluttering before I have to leave again. And then when I return, it takes me a day or two to figure out where I left off. And to add insult upon injury, I'm in the middle of some renovations and repairs. So keep trying to empty a room to enable the work, but that just creates more chaos. Do you have any suggestions on someone in my situation? I try to practice your 15 minutes rule and can't seem to sustain your best practices help.

B (32:29)

Signed.

C (32:30)

Chaotic Cricket.

A (32:33)

I love this Chaotic Cricket. Yeah.

B (32:35)

So.

A (32:36)

So you've done the first step, which is dealing with trash, and the second step is going deeper and going like really analyzing your things and getting it out. And all perfectionists, even non perfectionists, do this thing where we think it's going to be like it's, I have to do this big project, I have to spend a weekend and declutter. So here's what I would love you to do. It's 20, 26 coming up. What if every week you found 26 things to go? 26 things. Giving yourself a number is really helpful for perfectionists because it pushes you a little bit out of your comfort zone. But it's a rule and it's a, it's a guideline, it's a boundary. You guys love that kind of crap. Okay, so 26 things every week. If you find a piece of trash, that's fine, it totally a gum wrapper, but it will push you to maybe a few tea towels. Or maybe it's that pillow that's really lumpy and it's just sitting in your closet for guests. But. But it's covered in drool. Nobody wants that drool pillow. Clutter Cricket. Okay. Oh, it's Chaotic Cricket. Nobody wants that pillow. Chaotic Cricket. That could be one of your 26 things. You do this for one month, you're going to see an immediate impact. So I am writing a book called Do It Shitty. Very exciting. Where I'm offering real life solutions and hacks and shortcuts that we do shitty to make make life easier. So I would love it if you would record some ways that you do things shitty to help inspire others. Plus, I'm totally going to steal your ideas and put them in the book. So let's hear from Brooke with her Do It Shitty shortcut.

D (34:22)

Hi, Cass, My name is Brooke and I'm in Eugene, Oregon. I've been listening to clutterbug since 2020. I'm a butterfly. I'VE taken a virtual course as well. That was helpful. And like you, I'm an enfp infp. I have ADHD and dyscalculia. So a lot of the things you share, I. They really resonate with me and they're super helpful. And I want to thank you for everything you've done and taught all of us. All of us clutterbugs. I have a success story that I'd like to share as well as a Do it Shitty tip. So the success story is this weekend, I had to reset my bedroom. The bookshelf was out of control, my bedside table was out of control, and the laundry was just kind of in need of being done. And in the past, this task would have taken me three, four hours with, like a bunch of doom bags left over or even longer, but I wouldn't have been complete. It wouldn't have been done right. And this time, because of everything you've taught me, like staying on top of decluttering throughout the year, trash bag therapy, all of those things. Understanding my organization style and what works and what doesn't. The task took me an hour, which was the amount of time of one podcast episode of yours. And that is huge. I felt like I was reclaiming my life. Like, that's like a non scale win, right? Because then I went and helped my son finish his room, and then he and I left the house to the holiday market and we did a holiday craft craft, and I made dinner. And I ended the day feeling really successful about what I had done. And it was super easy to do it. I was. That, to me, was a big sign that consistency pays off. And listening to you pays off. Now for my do it Shitty tip to stay on top of keeping my bathroom clean, which I'm not great at. I don't like the chemicals. They give me asthma or they disrupt my asthma. Each day I use a new washcloth on my face, and then I use that washcloth to wipe down the tile and the crevices and all those little areas where stuff will build up. I clean it out and then dry it out, and then I wash them all with bleach and start over. And I do that while I have the conditioner, like, in my hair, you know, so I'm getting some deep moisturizing and some superficial cleaning done in the bathroom. And I love the concept of do it shitty. I hope to hear more tips from your other listeners. Thank you so much for everything you do, Brooke.

A (36:52)

That's so good. I'm totally gonna use that. Yeah. Because I Always use a fresh washcloth to wash my face at night too. And then I just have this damp rag. Yeah, I could dust, I could hit the light fixture. That stupid ledge that's always filled with toilet paper fluff in my bathroom. That's a good one. That's genius. And I'm gonna use that one. Thank you, Brooke. We also have another Do It Shitty from Anonymous.

B (37:19)

Hey, Cass, I just wanted to share my contribution for the Do It Shitty method, and it relates to emails. For many years, I wanted to be the person that had a perfectly organized email inbox at work. You know, tons of folders, everything controlled, no emails in the main inbox. However, all the many times that I tried setting up folders and organizing never stuck, never worked for me. Which I now know is because those were cricut organization methods and I'm a ladybug. So unfortunately, I found out that having 12,000 emails in my inbox and just doing targeted keyword searches is what really works for me. But I actually had so many emails that the work server started deleting the older stuff, and I lost some pretty important stuff that way. So I realized through listening to your podcasts and reading your books that I just needed to do something and it didn't need to be super organized as long as it was done. So I created a single folder called Archive and I moved everything into that. So now stuff won't get deleted. I can still use my keyword search to find stuff, and I have the satisfaction of having an empty inbox. So if I suddenly change and become a completely new person, I can still have the option to organize those emails. But I highly doubt that will ever happen because if I have free time at work, I definitely don't want to be be organizing my emails Anyways. I just wanted to share that and say, you changed my life. I'm finally able to understand myself a little bit better and set up some systems that will stick. Anyways, thanks for all you do. Bye.

A (39:22)

I love that also. Same girl, same. That's what I do. It's like everything gets archived into a bucket and then I just. Just search for the email I need and when it starts to get way too many, I will search like Amazon, you know, because you know when you order something and it's shipping, it gives you that stupid thing and then I just select all delete. You know what I mean? So if you're getting like the. The ones you know you don't need to keep, you could just type that into the search, select All Delete, and you're winning it life. People who put their emails into folders are maniacs. I hope you found something that you decluttered today, something that you let go of, even if it was money you had spent on it. Like, even if it was expensive, because the money's already been spent. You are not any richer for keeping it in your home, and you won't be any poorer for letting it go. In fact, decluttering is going to make you more financially stable. It really is. So I hope you're like feeling empowered today. Get that warrior energy, because you're taking back your home, you're taking back your pride, you're taking back your self worth, and you're taking back control of your finances too. Thank you so much for watching or listening. I hope you're having an incredible day and I'll see you next time.