🌟What Clutter Does to Your Brain & How to Declutter for Good! | TRACY McCUBBIN

[Music] hi everyone welcome back i'm michael sandler your host on inspire nation if you've ever wanted more peace in your home then do we have the making space clutter free show for you today I'll be talking with decluttering expert Tracy McCubbin founder of declutter Phi and the author of a liberating excavating new book making space clutter free and that's just what I want to talk with her about today about decluttering your home and your life once and for all that plus we'll talk about great-aunts and Mary Kay gadna Karmann Ghia unworn linen pantsuit a kitchen and ground control a clay bird and a pie and what no hurled smelly candles and stinky bath salts have to do with anything so welcome to the show Tracy are you ready to shine I am Michael I'm so excited to be here I'm just so excited the book comes out on Tuesday and I've been having so many amazing conversations about it so I'm really people are really receiving it well and I'm always excited to find a new audience that is thinking about personal accountability and a bigger view of how they live their lives in relation to their stuff awesome awesome NMIT so before we dive right into things I've got to ask is our clutter killing us yeah I think I think it's I mean on a grand scale I think that the amount of stuff that we have in the amount of stuff that we're putting in the landfills is not helping climate change I think that the amount of stress that we put on ourselves by the sheer volume of what we have is not good for our health and I think you know I always describe clutter as a constant to-do list right you come home and you see these piles and apply everything from just a pile of mail that you haven't looked at for four days to a crowded kitchen counter and that's raising your stress that's raising your cortisol and we all know that's not good for us so let's go from there you're telling me off air about cluttered kitchens and carrots and a study yeah I read this it was so fascinating read this really interesting study that they put people in a cluttered kitchen with a plate of cookies and a plate of carrots and an uncluttered kitchen with a plate of cookies and a plate of carrots and the people in the cluttered kitchen were 75 percent more likely to grab the cookies and the uncluttered kitchen they grabbed the carrot and it made so much sense to me you know I've done a lot like looking at decision fatigue I'm sure you've talked about that with your people and you know when you're faced with all these decisions which is what clutter is you you default to making the bad decision so you can't deal obviously if the cookie so if you're sort of cleaning your plate if you're make taking away decisions you don't need to make you're gonna go for the carrots I like that and we can add two more things to it first off and you talked about this the studies that show mothers who is home have a high density of objects are prone to high cortisol levels and depression when our cortisol levels are up we're going for the sugar because we're in a fight-or-flight response exactly you're in this sort of cycle right your adrenals are going nuts and you're you're trying to deal with all this so you're gonna go at cousin cookie that'll help me that'll help me and we also tend to choose at the vibration we're at or at the vibration of our environment if we're in a high vibration a nice quiet serene kitchen ah a carrot if the kitchen is barfing all over us give me the cookie it's one of the first things with my clients who are really mindful about changing their diet or you know wanting to lose weight or making some significant help changes the first thing we do is declutter the kitchen get every all those what you know one tasker's off the counter it's like you just need if your coffeemaker your rice maybe you know just one or two things and it's just it makes a huge difference so I'm speaking about huge difference huge differences I grew up with ADHD or that's how I was classified bouncing off the walls right will grow to bestseller on it a long time ago when I do an interview I need to declutter it needs to be home quiet in this room and you mentioned you reference a Princeton Neuroscience Institute study about excessive stuff and our ability to focus and concentrate yes I mean you know think about it you know I just I always tell people like think about when you go into you know I travel a lot so you go into the gift stores at the airport and it's like there's the bag of nuts and the bag of candy and the magazines in the water and you're like I I need all this stuff I need all this stuff and it just it just happens in your brain we've all felt it and now the science has proved it awesome so let's talk about the clutter crisis that started in the 90s what happened what did we forget or there are like three key things I can walk you through it what happened to us back then well I mean I think the start the start of it was definitely cheap consumer goods right the minute that we started producing things outside of the country and things got cheap it got easier to buy so we forgot how to care and repair so right sewing kits out the window something stored just buy a new one right good stuff is cheap right you're like why am I gonna sell a button on when I can buy a blouse for nine dollars and and what happened with hold on one second I've got a a sound challenge here can you give me a testing one two three oh one two three whatever at your back that's strange okay let me take a quick note time nope excellent so we forgot how to care and repair and then what is Amazon Prime to have to do with anything everything it has to do with everything you know if you think about it that's shopping on Amazon is a dopamine hit right you're like oh look I got that that's that feels good I'm gonna put that in my cart first of all you're not paying money for it there's no exchange of money so it doesn't feel like shopping it shows up at your house and okay so you don't even have to get out of your house to buy it and it just is so easy to inundate us with stuff shopping has never been easier thank you and then the third challenge is people began to numb themselves or you pick yourself up by what you've bought exactly exactly you know I was at a speaking engagement one time and this woman pulled me aside after and she said you know I had this very stretched long laundry list a very stressful job bad all sorts of things and she goes every day after work I just go to you know with marshals or one of those discount stores and she said and I just the click click click of the hangers I just know I'm gonna be ok and then I just buy things and I feel better and it was so obvious that the way that she was speaking about it in a way that she talked about the ritual of it that she was numbing herself from her difficult life so we're gonna talk more about this in in a later segment of the show another snippet on YouTube for instance if you're following on YouTube but you can tell by looking for instance in somebody's closet about somebody and somebody like this they may have bags by the front door on things not taken out of the bags and like dresses hung up or suits if they're a guy with the tag still on it yeah that's a big one for me when I see lots of clothes with tags on them or if I see that you know the entry line with Amazon and overstock and boxes just this you know I always say like what do you what do you do late at night a little shopping you know it's really indicative of something going on something deeper speaking of which how do you discover your own dad was a hoarder that's funny you know um you know II it was sort of something I kept my grandmother both sets of my grandparents were depression babies so you know there was always that around there was very mindfulness of that but then with my dad we all just thought he was a pack rat you know he just sort of saved things and it was when he had to make a big move from across the country we realized oh this is this is not just a pack rat this isn't just somebody this is something and that was you know at that point they hadn't really even named hoarding disorder they thought it was a symptom of OCD so that was about 15 years ago we were left my family was like oh this is a much bigger problem so that's been a really interesting but then looking back realizing that he had been dealing with this his whole lives like you know as we paid attention to things like oh right him stopping the car you know to get I mean I tell the story in the book about him slowing the car down and put my little brother over the side of the convertible to pull a tool off the ground you know you know that drives that drives my wife crazy because I will on my bike ride and stuff I'm like I could use this someday I'm not a full-on pack rat but if I see a tool on the side of the road interesting like that's the big question right yes maybe you could use it maybe maybe you made that allen wrench maybe you need that screwdriver but how many screwdrivers do already have and if you really need it could you borrow it from someone is it worth it to sort of clog up your life with yet another screwdriver it's so true so let's switch gears from there let's talk about the 7 of the 7 blocks how to determine your clutter block but the most important question is when it comes to clutter are we just lazy and disorganized or something else going on there's something else going on I think that you know I've never I only have never met a client that's been dealing with clutter that just at the bottom is lazy there's always something that they're avoiding and the you know what I like to talk about in my book is that there are real emotional attachment you know stuff comes to us with no meaning right you buy it it has no meaning and we imbue the meaning on top of it so whether it's sentimentality or guilt or frugality all these things get dumped on it and we do it we do it to ourselves so we have the power to take it away I think each one of those things you've mentioned is in my closet I keep a lot of things someday things that I don't use because I bought it and it cost a lot of money but it would take too much time to try to sell it a few things from the past that are reminders things that were given to me that I don't want to give away because it was so kind of somebody to give to me so this this goes to a whole bunch you have 7 different blocks I think I just hit three or four of them right in that that one description let's talk about each of them first off because each of us may have one of these or a combination tell us first we're gonna whip through all seven my stuff keeps me in the past right so this is these are my people who keep mementos of their childhood or their child's childhood lots of trophy's lots of sort of photos abduct bygone days old uniforms old t-shirts from plays they were in you know look there is a certain amount of memorabilia that when you're old and sitting on the rocking chair on the porch you want to look through but when it clogs up your now when you can't use your linen closet I had a client one of my favorite clients she had a linen closet that she couldn't we went to work in it and all of her linens were in a basket on the floor in front of the linen closet and I said well why aren't that linens in the linen closet and she opened it up and it was full of the ashes of her last 12 dogs and I was like you know which is and I said well what what but you need and she because I know I just I don't know what to do I want and I said well you're planting a Japanese maple in your backyard right now I saw the gardener's why don't we have a little ceremony what they'll be close to you and then you can use your linen closet and so it was this her holding on to the past was getting in the way of her now and so the bridge that be the clues the breach would be we get rid of stuff to make room is what you would say is that correct exactly and then I love this phrase that you have I'll just whip off the phrases at each one we go through it letting go of this old stuff make space of the life I want now let's go to the second one my stuff tells me who I am this is really for my shopping people right these are people who are using book buying to stay engaged using buying to give them human interactions you know I had a friend who was a smoker and she once said the thing about smoking is when I'm smoking I'm never lonely like I'm now I'm not at a party feeling awkward I'm not on the porch having a cigarette you know I'm never home on a Saturday night I'm smoking and I think it's the same way with shopping right oh I'm not no no I'm just ordering some things on Amazon I'm not you know not going to a fabulous party so it's really how we identify ourselves it's the same with the people who have to have things with labels on them and really feel like this is my car or this is my stuff for you know it this is a big one I think all of us I mean I think all of us have kind of every one of them but this one I think a lot of us and what's the solution the cure - at the bridge I think it's about having real human interactions finding a way that you can maybe perhaps be of service or look to connect in a way that doesn't involve stuff excellent let's go to number three the stuff I'm avoiding yeah this is mail this is IRS this is like this is the stuff that you've just got a iOS a you gotta pull your big-girl pants up and you got a deal with it you know there's just certain stuff taxes you know I oughta tell people don't go more than three days without opening your mail because it's just this stuff this life stuff the business of life is not gonna go away so just you got to deal with it dealing with it is never gonna be as bad and not dealing with well you call it poisonous and I'm going to call it fermenting if you leave it there it starts to grow a life of its own and it ate pretty quick we've all gotten parking tickets right you get a parking ticket and you're so mad you bought it and you're like not dealing with it and then you turn around and you're like it doubled yes I did a very dear friend of mine called that vid tax where she's like oh you just got the dumb tax so an okay going from dumbass taxes yeah new and you have a phrase I didn't go over the phrase it was a long one for the last one phrase for this one though I have power over my papers they have no power over me or what a mentor told me years ago done is better than perfect I love it I love that done is better than perfect that is fantastic so let's go let's go from there my fantasy stuff for my fantasy life okay so I'm in the middle of this one right now I just bought myself a cup - new person that I'd had my eye on and there one to fame pack for travel because I'm traveling with a backpack now and and I was like okay she purses in so two purses out and I pulled down these very cute vintage little bags like evening bags that I used to use when I would go to the clubs and lived a different kind of life and I was like I'm not that person anymore I'm not going to the nightclubs with my cute little vintage bag like I need a fanny pack for when I travel and I was very confrontive because I wanted to hang on to this stuff thinking that oh this is who I am I'm still the club going fun girl and I'm like oh you're a grown-up that needs to travel and not hurt your back so this is a big one for people I like it if I look over on my closet I've got my nice backpack so organized I took out a brand new one yesterday I only used it a couple times but I didn't enjoy it when I used it before for running it would bounce and I used it again and it bounced but it's an expensive pack it's bright yellow I love bright yellow but the darn thing won't do anything for me but I don't want to get rid of it because I spent a bunch of money and it looks so cool I know well this one is that you just we just jumped ahead to clutter block number seven this stuff I keep paying for yeah you keep it and it looks cool and you wanted so my rule of thumb is if you put something on three times and it doesn't work you've got to let it go it's time it's time and I'll tell you backpacks Michael are really interesting a lot of people don't know this but kids who are in the foster care system a lot of times they're moved from home to home with their stuff in garbage bags they don't have so one of the things with bags and backpacks and duffle bags is I always donate to local organizations that work with foster kids so maybe you could find an organization in your town give it and know that you're helping a kid out excellent excellent and so let's double back that was number seven trapped with other people's two actually was that trap with other people's stuff no no that's the stuff I'm paying for right number four and by the way we're going through these fast so they're all in the book for people we did number for my fantasy stuff for my fantasy life and then we jumped ahead to number seven this stuff I keep paying for excellent so let's back up and let's go to I'm not worth you know this is weird when I first got my Tesla I can't do parked in the garage for a few weeks until I could raise my energy up enough and I've got a couple new beautiful Colorado sweatshirts but I know I get clothes food all over my clothes and so I've let my wife wear the beautiful new Colorado sweatshirts until they get to a certain point of tiredness and then I'll steal back from her but here's the thing our stuff mostly is a tool right we wear clothes to stay warm to be able to go in public we drive cars to get around so what are we saving the tool for why so what you drill on it you know you know you deserve driving a Tesla you deserve driving any car it's just this one is so important to me because I'm like what you know people say well I'm saving it for someday but wouldn't some day some days today some use it now appreciate it now I had a client who had a horrible set of knives cooking knives awful he loved to cook and made me have this beautiful set of Hinkle's and I said why are you using the Hinkle's and he said oh those are too nice for me I was like oh you're lovely you deserve nice times we all deserve use our nice stuff if not today when whoo all right now so wear that sweatshirt I like it and then the last one here and this is a particulars if we've had people live with us stay with us other things trapped with other people's stuff yeah this is a big one and those you know as the baby boomers are aging out and passing away you know we're sort of the jet I guess the Gen Xers word we're inheriting all this stuff and it's been very very important to our parents and there's family lore about it and we live very different lives you know old secretaries you can't use them at the desk you can't put a computer on them so all of a sudden you know what I'm seeing as so many people are getting this deluge of furniture and China that was their families they're like I don't use it but I feel so guilty it was my grandmother's I can't possibly get rid of it and it's like well first of all she's passed she doesn't need it you know she's not gonna come back to haunt you it's cotton she would want you to be happy not to be burdened but we get so caught in that this is important somehow and I'm disrespecting someone's memory and I'm like well what you're really disrespecting their memory is if you're annoyed and pissed off that you can't go in your garage because it's full of a bunch of old furniture I like what you did with your grandmother's satchel though you kept one thing you key but by your your other bags your other purses so that you see it all the time and it warms your heart but it's one thing it's not a hundred things exactly you know I appropriated this from dr. Phil but he said them he said the amount of time you spend grieving someone in no way reflects how much you love them and I always say via met I know I love that and I always say the amount of stuff you keep from someone who's passed away in no way reflects how much you love them awesome awesome so let's go from there the next section we want to talk about what in the world are clutter can tell us room by room what do you mean our clutter isn't random and that each bit of clutter tells us something about our lives yeah this is this is fantastic you know I like people too there's so many things that I see you know if like for instance if somebody's bed is stocked high with clothes and they're not sleeping in their bed like what's really going on there what are they not looking at if a dining room table it's full of stuff and families aren't eating together what's really underneath that you know if your desk is piled so high are you clutter block number three that you're avoiding your stuff it's it's a little bit like tea leaves it's gonna tell you something about yourself and that what you said Michael about our stuff not being random you know clients say to me all the time I don't know how it got like this I don't know how this my house got like this man and I always say well you brought it in you you you brought it here so let's take some personal responsibility let's start there and I think that that's what this room by room like let's look at your room let's look where it is in your house in your home and how that's affecting you so so let's look at a few key rooms here first off let's start with our entryway you had talked about Amazon bat boxes and bags and stuff what can we learn by looking at our entryway I mean that takes us straight into clutter block number two my stuff tells me who I am if you have lots of bags and shopping bags and boxes you need to really look at your spending habits and what you're shopping and why you're shopping what you're what you're trying to hope to fulfill by all that show and then let's go to the living room what will our living room tell us you know that's about sort of what you want to share with your family or how you feel about you know if it just becomes a dumping room you're not gonna use it to enjoy it and enjoy your home and it's not the same with the TV room as well or slightly different yeah you know TV rooms sometimes I mean now houses have all these great rooms so it's a little different but TV rooms also can be about kids and too much kid stuff I mean we Oh golly what I'm gonna get this exactly wrong but we have you have like 4 percent of the the United States has 4 percent of the world's children but yet we buy forward over 40% of the world's toys I mean it's crazy I see and in my family's and family homes the amount of toys that kids have it's over well it's no wonder they just want to play with the box right because they can't there's no room for their imagination to grow there's no room everything some spoon-fed so doc family rooms tend to really be about kids that also makes me think of kitchens and having so many appliances that there's no room to actually cook the food let alone get the cup of coffee I better go to Starbucks exactly or that you exactly or you buy all the I called them unit askers right the rice cooker and the slow cooker and insta pot and you're not you know there's no space to make the healthy food people have been cooking for millions of years delicious food with a knife and a pot in a spoon so this idea that we're gonna buy all this stuff to cook healthy no no no here's what's gonna make us cook healthy delicious whole unprocessed foods and a and a beautiful space to cook in I like it in fact you talked about the kitchen as NASA ground control I guess if that in order everything starts to come into order absolutely I mean think about think about the kitchen and think about how you start your day you know a very sort of old-fashioned way of thinking is do your dishes every night don't wake up in the morning to a sink full of dirty dishes and think about how you start your day you walk in you're gonna make your coffee or tea or whatever your morning for the first beverages and if there's a stack of dirty dishes and stuff all over the counter you're already at a deficit you're already like oh thanks so much to do today why didn't I clean this up you start to beat yourself up so if you can start with a you know clean pallet so to speak you're gonna set yourself up for success for the rest of the day I like it I like to think of our kitchen as our heart or our hearth and I guess if you're leaving stuff out and all the dishes in the sink then you've got clogged arteries each morning exactly I mean think you know I always think about the dishes in the sink especially if you're you know a shared household and like we you were supposed to do the dishes we you were supposed to do the dishes you're already starting the day and a little dickie unifight so there's something about that serenity to walk in and to feel like I'm you know what I'm so good I might have a cup of tea and some oatmeal I'm gonna go conquer the day speaking of serenity what can you tell us about the dining room table and particularly a dining room table that starts to get stuff piled on it you know that it's funny I'm a little that's my Bugaboo al Turner I work at my office's in my home and I live in a big loft and so I know that when my dining room table starts to creep up with stuff that I'm I'm doing everything I'm not I'm avoiding dealing with my stuff I'm not being a grown-up I'm not putting things away and maybe I'm feeling a little lonely and I'm like I don't want to eat by myself on the dining room table that feels kind of sad so if I just pile a bunch of stuff on it I'll eat on the couch and that'll feel fine you know as you said our kitchen is our home in our heart and our dining room table or breakfast table is a way that we can break bread together right to sit down and share a meal to you were together together to start and and by the way even if you're single that you can sit down at the end of the day I know you know I know the Buddhists talk about this all the time that when you eat a meal eat a meal don't be on your phone and don't you know concentrate and be grateful for the food that you're getting and so if your dining room table is stacked with returns and a sweater and your bills you're not going to enjoy your food but we're really lucky have thank you thank you I wrote an article left maybe two decades ago for an ad D publication talking about creating your own Zen zone getting water fountains changing the lighting changing the sounds to create a spa like atmosphere and no place is that more important than the master bedroom what does that tell us about what's going on well the master bedroom is first the first thing I asked my clients with cluttered bedrooms is are you having insomnia issues yeah I don't really sleep that well I thought it was C P whatever the you know the breathing sleep apnea and I was like well you've got five years of old taxes stacked next to your bed and you have textbooks from college and you know this is partly why you're not sleeping clutter is a constant to-do list and if the last thing you see before you go to bed at night is piles of dirty clothes or unclose you need to put away or old paperwork that's not gonna set you up for a good night you know good sleep hygiene so no and every piece of clutter around you to me has an energy it has a frequency and so it's like all piling up in the desktop and your mind and you're just going over when you should be sleeping exactly exactly you just turn it over you know there I have I just I've forgotten it but I learned this fantastic new Japanese word for all your unread books books you buy and you haven't read yeah I got I'll find it and send you is great and I've got to tell me in particular because we've had over a thousand guests on the show and I want some day I put that in college to have my own library I don't have the space so I have a thousand books running around in this house plus from a printing of one of our books for many years ago I have another five or six thousand books so I need to hear about this yeah so it's bears and this is a great my fantasy stuff for my fantasy life clutter black number four some of those books even though you had the guests on them the show you're not gonna read them you're just not gonna and it's okay even though I love them of course and that this is so important that you said this Michael because eat just because you love the guests and you got so much useful information does it mean when you let go of the book it doesn't mean you don't love them anymore and let me say this to you I had a car full of donations from a client one time and I was went stuffed at the grocery store to get groceries and this woman had a table a donation table set up and I said Oh what do you raising money for and she said oh I live in a women's shelter and it's based on the 12-step programs and I said oh that's so interesting I happen to have a bag full of a workbook that my client just got rid of and she's like I'm working step number two and I don't have the money to buy the books and I was like I got you so maybe if the books that you're holding on to you let them out in the world and someone who really needed that information got their hands on it whoa we've got right down at the end of the road there's a little public library I don't even know what you call it it's almost like a newspaper thing you open it up like a book that's the free libraries yeah yeah I'm gonna bring some books over there let's switch gears from here and let's take about five minutes let's talk about the decluttering tricks of the didn't say that ten times fast decluttering tricks of the trade what are the five decluttering questions so ask yourself uh have you used it do you use it regularly or semi regularly so for instance if it's something that you only use on the holidays but you use it every holiday then you're good can you reasonably buy it again or borrow it so are you hanging on to something that has low monetary value that you never use you know for example I always bring up camping equipment it's like well I haven't camped in 15 years but I might go someday and I'm like well that for you know you're paying to store or something that you're not using that my guess is your neighbor best friend has the same camping equipment so can you reasonably buy it again or borrow for somebody do you use it to make money so now this is not oh someday I'm gonna put it on Facebook marketplace this is it's a part of your job so if I'm keeping studio equipment that I may use on only a very semi regular basis but when I need it I'm eat it that's okay yeah that's a semi rate and this is also your business this is you know this is what you do so you that you know that's a very specified thing the next thing is do you have a place to store it your books are the perfect example you know here are books that you're probably not gonna read doesn't mean they're not fantastic and you don't have a place to store it and then the last one is my favorite do you love love love it like there's just some stuff we have that we just love we just love it it makes us happy you know what keep it going to shopping for a brief second I like to say and my wife was shopping for shorts for me earlier this week and she wanted to get me some new shorts the shorts I wanted they had sold out but there was a sale and she could get these others that I don't like quite that much and it for me if it's not in the top 10% if it's not a 90 percentile item I am gonna love love love it and want to keep it for years I don't want to bring it in the house no no and you know and here's the thing you're gonna know in the back of your mind she's gonna have bought those this you know b-squad shorts and even though she got him on sale you're gonna go really like them and then you're gonna end up donating I mean you're like why spent the money I should have just bought the thing that I love love love how do we know whether to sell donate recycle or throw out this is a great question we can do ours on this look the first thing let's talk about selling stuff most stuff is a diminishing asset furniture you know it's like it's like what they say about a car you buy a car drive it off the lot it goes down so the great thing is we do have the internet research you have eBay you have Facebook marketplace you can do a little research and find out what things have actually sold for it's not what they're being listed for it's what they've actually sold for you know I say people go well it's worth a lot and I said here's what it's worth it's worth what someone will hand you cash for today so that's fantast so that's when we do your research do your due diligence donate I call it conscious donating I you know a friend of mine was in disaster relief and she and she was in Indonesia during this tsunami and she said that a plane landed it would be they've been hearing about this plane with all these supplies that were coming and it landed and it got off they started to unload it and it was wool sweaters and like high-heeled shoes so you know just don't take everything and go well they're poor people they'll be happy to get this ripped stained t-shirt no they won't you know like donate things that people can use donate things that you know people can appreciate so it's just and I always tell people look they're big organizations that are doing great but sometimes for instance my favorite example is old sheets and towels you know you can't donate those to Goodwill but all the local animal rescue take them that's a fantastic use so if something isn't donatable then we look at recycling which we know is not the best topic right now in this country that's me mess Oh Kenny Nash might you know somebody said to me once when you throw something away where's away so you know it takes a little bit of work but there's a great company called TerraCycle where they recycle everything there's companies that are clothing companies Patagonia and North Face will take old fabric and give you a discount so if you wear those things you know with a little bit of research you can find places that will recycle almost anything and then sometimes we kind of get to the last and you just have to throw it away and what I tell people is if that makes you feel bad then remember that feeling when you start to buy you know I'm very reading a lot and being very mindful of food waste right how much food we throw away in this country and I the other day I did I didn't make it with some cauliflower I just didn't get to it in time and I had to throw it away and it was all moldy and I was at the store the other day and I was like oh that cauliflower looks beautiful and I was like no no no no you does block cauliflower you didn't need it you're not buying cauliflower so you know it's a it's a mindful approach to how we spend and what we bring into our home but we're gonna switch gears here before we do that I got one personal I've got a box in front of me I don't know where to put it to keep it safe in this house it's inherited baseball cards maybe some are worth a lot of money maybe not I don't have the time to go through on eBay card by card with tens of thousands of cars what do I do with these things that's interesting I probably would it's funny baseball cards are a funny thing where you're like oh these are actually worth some money you know there are lots of people that do this that full-time it's the same with coin dealers so maybe you want to do a little research and find somebody an appraiser there are actually certified appraisers who would prayed that I always tell people you know just do your again do your due diligence maybe you know I know you're not so far from Denver and you know this is where the Internet can be your friend thank you thank you all right let's switch gears let's talk about decluttering room by room and I want to dive right into the kitchen the heart the hearth first particularly if it's a small kitchen where do we find the space to make food exactly so you know one of the things it's monkey I live in a loft so I have a teeny little kitchen so what you're really gonna look at here is tools that do more than one thing right like I can't believe how many houses they go into that have a crock pot and an insta pot and I'm like isn't this the same thing like isn't you know they're like no but it's and I'm liking isn't that just a Dutch oven over there that's really the same thing in all those so it's about looking at your appliances or your utensils that only use for one thing mushroom scrubbers that's just a sponge you know it's like cherry pitter I'm like you're not just a knife so that for small kitchens in most kitchens start at that level and then also don't be afraid to declutter in your pantry you really look at are you eating this food you know where is it just gonna go to waste so many food pantries actually take you know this is a whole other conversation but food expiration on packaging is pretty arbitrary so a lot of food pantries local food pantries will take slightly expired food so if you went through a Mumbi garbanzo bean fades and now you don't like them if there even if there are six months couple months old a lot of food pantries will take that awesome awesome so tell us what do we need to do on our countertops I mean I think nothing you know do you have coffee or an electric you just you want to smooth workspace right your kitchen is where you cook the food that nourishes you so you want to have a place that you can cook you want a really good knife you want a lovely cutting board and you don't want to have to push everything aside then make yourself a meal and lower cabinets what goes in there that is what you know that's great storage mixing bowls you know glass food storage things you know you think about you know there's the triangle of a kitchen right that you're only supposed to move in three steps and really think about oh these glass bowls that I mix in I use all the time this is my favorite wooden salad bowl that should be in a prominent place and the stuff that you use less can go to the back let's talk about upper cabinets and coffee mugs I mean if you're a family at two how many coffee mugs do you need four maybe six if you have people over you know I go into homes and there's thirty coffee mugs and they're like well I got that at the corporate retreat and that one we got in Hawaii in the airport and I'm like well do you use it no I only like this one you know people are so specific with the amount of coffee that they want so really look at the chipped wine glasses the water glasses that nobody likes and good Jillian's of coffee mugs and then I am scared to ask about this one this one where is a constant churn and struggle to keep up with our fridge yeah I know it's really you know I think I think it's about that is really going to be mindful when you go shopping I know I always tell people don't go grocery shopping without a list you know really high lest you know ideally we'd be going to the farmers market and we'd be buying food on a more regular often basis so we don't get all clogged up and then also do a look at your condiments you I got that paleo ketchup and I don't like it so let's not buy that again you know so it's a it's a it's a mindfulness about your food thank you so let's go from mindfulness in the kitchen let's talk about the entryway and entryway closet how do we start to declutter these look the entryway is your is your actionable items right that's a step in a perfect how it should be the stuff that needs to get in and out of the house so maybe if you're trying there to declutter you make yourself a to-do list you know like oh I got to return this sweater to Maria I got to take this stuff to the dry cleaner like you know realize that it got stuck there because you have to do something about it and entryway closets go through the coats that you haven't worn in three years get rid of the sports equipment that the kids don't play anymore you know that that's where you bring everything in from the outside so you you live in cold weather so you know that there's there's some coats that you like I haven't worn that in four or five years and it drives me nuts but I we did go earlier this year we made a massive run with our winter clothes to the local sports replay store and then we looked at what our spring stuff was and we got our spring gear in there quickly yeah it's great and look what you're doing a seasonal closet you know I love I love that I live in California so you know it's all this it's all the same here but I let you know use the end of winter into spring to take all your clothes out okay we didn't the kids grew out of these jackets we didn't wear these all winter like you know it's really you it's the same thing as an aside but the same thing with taxes I always tell people use tax time as a time to declutter your paperwork I like it so I'm almost afraid to ask this one what on earth do we do with our kids rooms yeah kids but what is a friend of mine call it the kids room or where hope goes to die you know it's really interesting you everything that we know about child development and brain development is that less kids like boundaries kids like less choices right you're you're helping them grow their brain so if their rooms are just look like toys-r-us threw up in it you're overwhelming them and you're you know by keeping less stuff it really teaches them like don't put things down put them away a big fight between parents and kids is mom I can't find this mom I can't find that if their rooms are uncluttered and everything has a place they'll put it away and they know where to go find it so first of all you're getting rid of the fight and second of all you're teaching them independence and you know I say look let them do what they want to do on their walls if they want to put you know all the posters up in the world but the floor needs to be clean and it needs to be a place where they can sleep at night where they can feel good and look if they love all those little chach great but every year as they grow older help them revisit it like maybe what they were collecting before they're not collecting now thank you thank you thank you let's switch gears since you were talking about sleep let's talk about the master bedroom what do you mean we hide secrets in our bedrooms oh my golly our bedrooms are just you know there's that I often find that bedrooms that master bedrooms are really cluttered there tends to be intimacy issues you know either or either the either there's something going on between the couple there's a person not acknowledging their loneliness it's often families parents that work so hard and are working and feeling guilty about working parents and that they've not taking any time for themselves it's really the master bedroom is about self-care I said to somebody the other day at the end at the end of it decluttering is actually self-care I love that so let's talk more about making the master bedroom master bathroom an oasis what can you tell us about our nightstands and about our furniture purge purge purge purge no furniture in the master bedroom that you don't use no exercise equipment that you bought and overpaid for clutter block number seven that you don't use you know your nightstand should have one book on it a glass of water your iPad you know your eye shade like it's not ten books and eight magazines and your bills think about it it's last thing you see at night and it's the first thing you see in the morning really let that sink in and then their master closet oh these are my favorites look you're I love clothes I really love clothes but your closet at the end of the day is a tool it's a tool for you to get dressed and get out the door or go into your office in a healthy non stressful way so if your closet is so packed that you can't even move your hanger an inch I'm gonna bet you use is probably only about ten things you wear so you're not even going into that closet so it's about setting yourself up for success right getting dressed you're not starting the day in a panic I mean we keep coming back Michael to this conversation about how clutter is directly related to stress right if you're like oh where's that sweater I need that blazer I've got a big meeting I'm digging through my closet you're already up here and you haven't even left the house yet well we're gonna talk about it more in just a tiny little bit but things need to have a hole don't they yes they do and and you know closets are like with like so shirts with shirts shirts with skirts we you know we don't as you said having been diagnosed with ADHD you know part of ADHD is sequencing right going sequencing back and forth between tasks so if you're like there's a shirt there's a sweater there's my prom dress there's a blazer you know it's just it's but if all your shirts are here and all your pants are here and all your sweaters you know exactly where to go to get what you need thank you master bathroom yeah look it shouldn't look like the sale rack at CVS don't like come on you know what products you use if you bought over bought you know a beauty product and you're like I don't like the scent or it has an ingredient it then I don't use like you got to put your big-girl pants on and let it go you just don't need stuff in there again want to take a shower in the morning a bath at night and have it be serene and make you feel calm it's funny you say serene and calm and when it comes to like scented candles and the bath salts that we got from gift after gift after gift that just start piling up exactly like well some you know and that brings up a whole first of all yes Santa candles that you don't like the scent of but that brings up a whole thing people are like why can't get rid of it cuz somebody gave it to me and I haven't thought recently where I thought I wonder people are that person gave me that gift they just didn't want it anymore they were just passing it along you know so the act of and Deepak Chopra talks about this the act of giving is the gift is the act of giving right it's not that's net you give so if you go to somebody's house and you just bring a poem or say a poem or a flower that's that that's the act it's not the thing so keeping something you hate or doesn't smell good to you is kind of going against their generosity if that makes sense that does so let's talk about one that that I have managed so far it's in theory a two-car garage I don't understand what modern cars it's more like a 1.5 but to get tested in the garage I have to go caddywhompus what can you tell us about the garage and what in the world we do you know garages is a great a great receptacle for clutter block number for my fantasy stuff for my fantasy lives it's like why I took up rock climbing I don't like that but I can't get rid of all that rock climbing or here's all these old papers I need to deal with you know or stuff you've inherited the garage becomes the dumping ground the storage depot so it's really about being honest with yourself about if you're ever gonna do that thing again that's sport again you know bikes are a great thing I I just my boyfriend I just bought two new bikes and we bought them used beautiful Bianchi's fantastic without them for under $100 each and neither neither of them had ever been ridden Wow and and as somebody who raised bikes in Europe Bianchi awesome and oh it's not a bike I love and I you know we knew we were looking at bikes and we eat a big bike culture and he said let's just look let's just look on Craigslist and you know and there's so many people that buy bikes and then in Los Angeles and then they go I can't I can't ride a bike like this is crazy so the garage is where that where that really comes into play what do we do with the old photos and memorabilia that are piling up particularly in the garage yeah so here's what I'll say to people about first about photos organizing your photos is a huge job and not to be taken lightly you know everyone says to me well I'm just gonna scan all my photos and I'm like well then you're just gonna have that same mess in that box on your hard drive you know it's about putting some time into it it's about not being afraid to declutter letting go of the photos that you know are that people don't look good people are looking away from the camera photos of you know buildings unless you're a professional photographer that's what Google images for like I know what the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like I don't need my photo of it so you know photos are tough photos are really tough I know people are going to come back the photo people always get upset with me about this but don't be afraid to declutter and then if you the simplest of organizing maybe just by decade you can tell by the size of the pant leg just a memorabilia you know I don't even know where my cycling medals are at this point but we all have trophies and medals and I got this in Little League or who knows what we we put them all around there's not even room for them you know it's an it's again about making sure that it's not clutter block number one your stuff keeping you in the past right are you reliving your old victories if that memorabilia if those letters bring you great joy and you look back at them fantastic if they're letters from one boyfriend that you don't even want to think about ever again let him go like really think about what's the thing that's going to delight you in the future I I was helping a friend declutter her house she was getting ready to move and she had all these files and I was like wood is got like we got to go through this and in it we we had met our junior year abroad in Florence Italy and she had had kept her journal for all that trip and she had the entry of about meeting me the very first time and she still took this day one of my best friends so that is a fantastic like that's great but the list of restaurants that she liked in Florence you know 30 years ago I was like what half of those are closed so you know it you can distill it down and as you get older it may not have as much meaning right by the railway station in Florence is where I had my greatest pasta ever I have no idea what the name was there was a night time trap taxi thing running through red lights lost here too many went past the right train station it was a whole great adventure but I don't have the journal look you brought up a great thing Michael so much of why we keep stuff from the past is we don't want to lose the memory right it's not really about that it's not really you don't want that hunk of shiny red metal you want the feeling that the sports car gives you right we want the feelings around it we want the memories around it so if you need a talisman to remind you that's great but our memories are better than we think especially about the important thing since you're talking about memory let's go not so much into the closets but let's go to the attics and cellars where we try to hide and keep our memories what do we really want to keep in our attics and sellers and here's a crazy thing you can have nothing up there there's this idea in the US that we have to fill every space what if you have an attic with nothing in it you know every time I help somebody move out especially when I seen your downsides we're moving and we're doing all the stuff and they go oh oh and then there's the attic I'm like oh well what's up there oh I don't know and I'm like okay let's go look at and it's stuff they haven't seen in 10 20 30 years what are you holding it on - and it's clogging you up it's in the back of your head somewhere but why so let's go from here let's talk about creating order room by room first off do we need to go label crazy I'm a fan of the labels but you know labels are great for households that there's a lot of people right so if there's a couple people putting things away then labels are fantastic but as I joke don't label a cuchara pens because people can see that their pens but garages are fantastic this is my bike repair equipment this is holiday decorations you know lit these are photos labeling stuff that they cold storage when you go and see it remind you you don't go wet in there you go all right that's all my bike repair equipment when I need to repair my bike I know exactly where to go do we need to create a fancy system to declutter no I mean no everybody wants a magical answer and you know it kind of goes back to what you said Michael about done what did you say done is better than is better than good right done is better than good so so many people are like well I got it what's the best way to do it I gotta figure out my filing since I'm like you know you just have to do it right it's like exercise this is a perfect analogy people are like why I gotta figure out the one I like and I got about and I'm like don't just put Tenney's on and walk putting pennies on and walking it's so much better for your health than figuring out the perfect exercise awesome what do you mean by visual order and I level being prime real estate so I call I level Malibu that is the prime level in your house and again we've talked about visually how much our brain can handle a lot of stuff right so visually weak all this clutter is raising our cortisol making us stressed out so at every eye level you want things really serene and I'll say I'll make this caveat you know there's a minimalist movement right and everybody's on board and everyone's talking about that but what's serene for some people it's varying degrees right so some people like some people are comforted by seeing all their books that makes them happy I'm not saying there's one prescribed way I'm saying what works for you do you feel like you own your stuff or does your stuff start to own you so you know my house is different because I mean one person than a family of five so really taken to account important thing is your house working for you which brings us to a really important question what can you tell us about putting things away do it it's it's the quick you know somebody said to me the other I love this the other day one of the best things that we personally can do for climate change is to wash our clothes in cold water like that's just the big that's the easiest change we can make and we can make a huge difference and I feel that when the best ways to conquer clutter is to put things away don't just put them down put them away is there is it important to decide like we were talking about earlier to give a home I thought about when when I wrote this ATD book years ago I thought of actually for students having them take like an old wooden desk have a place for the stapler out line where the stapler goes and so that each place you can see if it's out of its home well do you remember my grandfather had a pegboard in his garage and he had to dream and they were out like and look you bring up such an important point with this because here's what you do you're taking that decision off your plate you're not thinking where does the stapler go you go oh the stapler goes here you know it's not an important decision in your life where the stapler should live it's like why I always tell people your keys belong in you know two places the bowl by the door or in your backpack pants pocket or purse and that's it so you take those decisions that aren't important you train yourself to know I always can find paper here you know you always know the milk is in the fridge so you're not walking around going where's the milk you always so you take that decision we make so many decisions every day let's take the easy ones off here's where the stapler lift and put it back when I'm done with it I take it I use it I put it back when I'm done with and people dealing with a Dede that's just a fad that's just like one thing you don't even have to worry about so imagine doing that with everything I love it and on that note one thing we don't want to have to worry about and we take care of it on Saturdays is having a consistent day or window to catch up on the home so the home may fall apart it's our office as well things might go completely off the rails during the week but Saturday it's all got to be put back in its place exactly I do it's kind of late afternoon on Sundays so to work out on Sunday and then I tidy up and I make my to-do list for the week and you know you you go into the week for success so I also tell people if it takes you more than 20 minutes to tidy up a room there may be a clutter problem here very good what would you say are the top three tips to make space clutter free well first of all is be mindful of what you buy right I would agree complete right and now I'm actually it's funny I have I have banned myself from clicking the Buy button on Amazon if it's important enough I will then discuss it with Jessica certainly I could buy whatever I want but I will discuss it with her and it puts a mindful gap between the purchase and it's showing up in the door so that I'm not going oh goody gimme-gimme-gimme right and also that conversation with Jessica about what you want to buy is making you be accountable Yeah right you're not you're not just doing the dopamine hit you're like I like that I want that new water bottle you're like you have to go and stand in front of another person and say so I want this new water bottle and she'll say you have six or you have three I know but it's this cool orange color and then you start to say it out loud and you go oh yeah I don't need another water bottle so it's really that conversation is fantastic and for people who maybe don't have another person in their household to discuss it with have an accountability buddy have a buying accountability buddy what advice would you give parents to help their kids with clutter today last stuff less toys you know it's just it's just it's gonna make cleanup time easier it's going to develop their imaginations less if I have a whole group of my parents who have told their children since they are very young though parents don't buy children presents like are grant the gray parents and the aunts and uncles bring so much stuff that we just don't even buy anything so it's really about less stuff you know when kids were younger they had you know one bear want that and now it's like hundreds and hundreds of stuffed animals you're not doing your kid a favor by buying them all that stuff that's the sound of freedom where example go to find out more and to find your beautiful book and this is one thing that you want to bring into your home exactly I know there was a little irony where I'm like I'm asking people to buy a book so the book is available all over the place it's called making space clutter free the last book on decluttering you'll ever need it's at Amazon it's at Barnes & Noble it's showed up this week at all the independent booksellers fantastic and I might add so many libraries are ordering it you got a some really great reviews so the libraries are ordering I'm a big fan of using the library so that makes me really happy and yeah I can tell you are too and then social media I'm at Tracy underscore McCubbin on Instagram on Facebook I have a great Facebook group I'm doing a fun Facebook live on the Thursday the 6th at 5 p.m. I'm going to give away three copies of the book and I'm going to take people's questions about their specific clutter awesome and in I'm guessing if I'm out not a little bit of people but if I'm not incorrect here if you want to find out more you can also go over Tracy McCubbin com tra cy m CC u BB I am calm to find out more I know it's we have too many places to get ahold of us we need to declutter our you know our digital life oh that gets into the whole topic of email and desktop that we're not even going no no two last questions first off what brings you the greatest happiness or what I call the whoa factor when a client calls me and tells me that they were able to do something they hadn't been able to do before because they decluttered hi I was able to get dressed and get out my door in 15 minutes I had a friend over for a cup of coffee and I hadn't done that in 10 years my family ate Thanksgiving at the dining room table that makes me go this has been awesome any last words of wisdom you want to share with people today Tracy I would say I'm just gonna go back to it don't put it down put it away beautiful beautiful beautiful thank you so so much Tracy this has been a lot of fun and inspiring because taking your test I did we did relatively great but I know there's a lot hiding in the closets so to speak and so you have motivated I'm gonna look at what I can do with with the books I really get to revisit the four or five thousand books that are of a print of ours that I'm holding on to I'm gonna go through my closets I am very excited because I know everything in our lives has an energy that ties us up and to me clutter begets clutter magnet so for everyone out there this is Michael Sam they're saying be well have fun get making space clutter free and begun decluttering your life today and shine bright thank you so so much JC oh great great great great your that was so fun I could talk to you all day absolutely I just I just love the sort of holistic you know I just love tying it in to kind of everything how we eat how we live how we recycle it's really it's really all tied together they couldn't agree more and I think how we go out into the world is dependent on the environment at which we spend eight ten twelve hours each and every day if this is we bring that with us if this is a jumbled mess we bring that with us - exactly and I just want people to be successful and happy and you know that there's so much stress we can't control right the news and all that but the stuff that we can let's let's make our homes a joyful place thanks so much for watching if you enjoyed it be sure to LIKE like below also leave your comments have some real fun with it subscribe to our Channel where you're going to get more great videos more interviews coming up and check out our website inspire nation show calm that's where you'll find tips blogs information videos you won't find anywhere else and useful and helpful resources really help you kickstart your life and just shine bright thanks so much again thank you for your support like like like subscribe see the website thanks so much and have fun of course shine bright

Channel: Michael Sandler's Inspire Nation

Views: 363,141

Keywords: tracy mccubbin, making space clutter free, what clutter does to you, what clutter does to your mind, clutter expert, declutter expert, how to declutter, declutter your life, declutter youtube, effects of clutter, clutter effects on health, can’t throw things away, clutter effects, declutter book, decluttering book, inspire nation, inspire nation show, inspire nation podcast, inspire nation 2019, michael sandler, decluttering youtube, declutter your home, declutter hacks

Id: Y27ZrCQ_QIQ

Length: 65min 0sec (3900 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 13 2019