5 Essential Things You Need To Declutter Your Home with The Clutterbug

[Music] hey guys welcome to this episode of the rachel cruz show and i'm really excited about this episode because decluttering getting things out of your house organizing it just gives a sense of peace i'm not the best at it but when i do go through with it it's wonderful so i decided to have the expert on when it comes to all this and cassandra from clutterbug is here and so cassandra thanks for thanks for being on thanks so much for having me i'm so excited to talk about this with you oh i'm so glad well you have social media youtube websites so much content dedicated to this idea of decluttering and organizing your home and so it's really important so what made you kind of get into this space in general i'm a recovering super slob like super slob so i lived the first 30 years of my life in chaos and mess and stuff and i felt like i was just born messy but when i tried a different approach i tried instead of tackling it all in one day taking little steps and giving myself some grace my whole life changed my finances improved relationships improved self-confidence improved from like 15 minutes a day of decluttering so i was so passionate about it i started sharing it everywhere anyone who would talk to me and um grew this you know business out of just a love and a passion for helping people yeah i love that that's so great well one of the you know we talk about getting out of debt or saving up for your emergency fund there's a big thing of like just sell some stuff around your house because we all have stuff around that we're not using and i think it's amazing when you actually challenge someone to do something like that they stop and even me you reassess everything in your home you're like okay why do i have so much stuff and so getting it out and kind of that purging and organizing it does it brings such peace like what you experience so i'm not naturally that way i'm i was probably more like you and you said for 30 years i'm like that's just my natural bent uh i'm a little bit more of a free spirit when it comes to all of that even though i know it's great but for you you know getting into the space what have you found are some of the habits a couple of things people can do right off the bat to you know really implement this in their lives i think the first thing the most important thing is changing our mindset we think of decluttering as like taking stuff from us so we think of it as scary and we look at our whole space and think i have to spend a weekend or a week tackling my house and that's what was stopping me so 15 minute chunks are the secret you don't have to do your whole house you have to do the junk drawer today or your purse or just expired medications and the amazing thing that happens is like we can spend 15 minutes on a treadmill and see zero results we can spend 15 minutes on a junk drawer and feel instantly proud of our accomplishments and so this builds and it changes from something scary and horrible to something positive and uplifting when we break it into small chunks and we start with trash yes oh that's so good okay so what are five things that people need to help declutter there's like five items that you talk about that really help you in this process absolutely you need a trash bag so we start with what i call trash bag therapy you grab it you run around your house and you look for old receipts expired food like actual trash which isn't scary it isn't something that feels you know overwhelming and then you also want clear bags because the biggest thing about decluttering is it can feel wasteful especially when we want to save money while this is 20 or so putting your good things that you want to donate in a trash bag sort of reinforces that but if you use clear bags and call them gifting bags and these are gifts that you're giving to others i don't know it it makes letting go of the clothes that don't fit or your kid's shoes they've outgrown so much easier and the next thing you want to do is have a donatable donation box so don't put donations in a laundry hamper or like your nice reusable shopping bags because then you can't just load it into your car and it's just another project for you to sort later yeah so have those clear bags or a cardboard box on hand and just have fun with it go through and see if you can find 21 things in five minutes that can leave your house today the next thing you want to have is a tidy tote so i have adhd and when i declutter if i find something like oh this belongs in the garage if i leave the room you know it's not like going with you it's going to be there yeah totally i'm i'm off so having a tidy tote this could be a laundry basket or something where this doesn't belong in here but i still want to keep it we put it in the tidy tote so we can do it later so we can focus on one space at a time and the last thing and the most important thing that you can have is a timer because we always we almost have like time blindness when it comes to declutter we overestimate how long something is going to take you can declutter your purse in under two minutes set a timer see if you can do it and then as soon as you have that information and you know like this is gonna take five minutes or this is only gonna take two minutes we're way more likely to actually do it i love that and i actually my husband he laughs at me sometimes because i used to do a timer on our microwave when i would clean the kitchen like a night when you know he was taking kids up and i was like okay here's the kitchen i'm gonna set a timer for nine minutes and i can get a lot done in nine minutes and now that we have alexa i'm always like alexa set timer for 11 minutes and i'll do this obscure number but you're so right though like it's crazy and then when i have time left over i feel like i've like accomplished so much i had four minutes left and i did it all in this amount of time but it does it does something to you because it gives you an end time that's my problem i think is like it just feels like it's this endless thing i'm like i don't have time to do this but i have eight minutes or whatever it is to do it and so i i love that and i love the trash bag idea i had dawn from the middle of mom and the minimalist saw and like very close together so they inspired me so i went up to my kids uh our playroom closet is just like it's it's terrible i mean it's just crap is everywhere and all these random bins and it's just so i emptied cassandra i emptied every single bin and i threw and it was trash it i threw it away because it's old toy you know it's i mean it's broken it's toys from sonic and like like it's all this stuff that no one wants so i did but then my issue i did not leave i left the trash bag in the playroom and i walked out i was so proud of myself then amelia my eyes were like dumping it ran back down i swear in 10 minutes i was like charles dump the trash bag and i was like no so always remember to take the trash bag out that that was take it out that's immediately you gotta complete the cycle take it to your car when you said that i was getting into the trash brilliant it's brilliant yep so good okay sure you have a fun quiz about kind of decluttering and what kind of clutter bug are you so i have not looked at any of these questions i can be very honest i've done good just staying away from it but i want to take the quiz with you i want you to take the quiz i feel like i'm already getting a real macro sense so like a laid-back approach so i'm really curious what your clutter bug style is because it's so important to know because if you've felt messy your whole life it's probably that you just don't organize in the traditional way and just having this information can make you feel so much better about yourself and really have that self-confidence to try again yes oh i love it okay i'm ready i'm so excited i'm gonna guess i think i know in my head when you are done using something you usually put it wherever you used it last you struggle to remember to put things away where it belongs immediately or in a neat pile for later wherever you can fit it you tend to hide things everywhere or somewhere where it's easy to see and you can quickly find it so do you hide things or do you like it out where you can see it i'm a hider i'm a hider you hide i'm a hider you're a hider and so many parts do you pile of emotions in my stuff do you hide till do you do you want a pilot to later or just shove it out of the way i just want to shove it out of the way i just want to yep yeah yeah your biggest clutter issue is you have stuff everywhere paper and important things inside closets cabinets and spare rooms or you hold on to too many things your biggest clutter issue the first one the first one you have stuff everywhere no oh wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait how many were hidden no it wait i already know what you need my second it's my second i think i'm the second actually it's not that the stuff is everywhere okay read the second line again the second okay so you have stuff everywhere or it's mostly just paper inside closets or is it inside closets in all your hidden areas or a jumbled mess yeah absolutely i already know what you are i already know but we're gonna keep going just just this is so fun your home usually looks a bit cluttered with things on display really tidy but you have piles of paper pretty clean and tidy but behind closed doors are a hot mess sandwich a bit cluttered with projects on the go the third i it looks it looks great until you open a drawer or open a closet and then it's scary so again your bedroom usually looks i already know it's going to be pretty clutter free but closets and drawers hidden everywhere yes i don't even have yesterday the top drawer in my nightstands i don't even i don't even know what's in there i literally just enclosed the drawer i i love it so are you a crafter you're this if even if you aren't i want you to imagine you do your ideal craft room is bright and colorful you can see everything or everything is perfectly organized behind closed doors or you want everything hidden except a few pretty accessories and things you find beautiful or you want every tool out and really really visual on a pegboard i'd say the set you know the second year i'd say the second yeah i don't like to see i like i like a clean surface area last one before i go yes you would like your home to be bright and fun functional and minimal beautiful and minimal practical and efficient beautiful and minimal beautiful yeah so you are 100 a ladybug which is the same as me it's the same as me and here's why we caugh i call it a ladybug have you ever seen a ladybug shell on the outside and it's like beautiful and shiny and perfect and then they open their wings and it's like a hot mess under there yeah that that's our homes we want it pretty and beautiful but our hidden spaces are like stop it and they have a weird scent ladybugs have a weird sense so we're great from a distance and then that drawer you open it and it's like that's that's off there's something but here's why so here's why you have felt messy and disorganized your whole life because you are not a detailed person that is correct when it comes to managing your stuff you are a free spirit you're laid back you need less structure you need less organization so what works for us is big baskets big categories instead of filing your paper in a filing cabinet you just have paid bills 2022 and that's okay yes right yeah instead of sorting everything into lots of categories your medicine you just have one basket for medication will hunt for the aspirin never try sorting like pain reliever ant acid that doesn't work for us to put things away we have to put things away so fast so lots of baskets lots of drawer dividers and giving yourself permission to say i don't have to be a detailed person to still be very organized i love this yes and amen because i will tell you cassandra my makeup area is very organized because years ago i had the home edit on the show and they gave me these dividers for my jewelry and my makeup and still to this day i'm like oh i know exactly where that i i can put it's quick and efficient but if there are no dividers in a drawer everything goes in and the door shuts till it closes absolutely i i and you know what doesn't work for you is lids you can't have a lid on a container because if something's hard to put away stupid you won't why yeah yeah you're just gonna say it i agree who's gonna set it beside it it don't causes more issues than it does good it does so you just need to embrace this like laid-back free spirit approach to your organization and you're gonna see like how much or more your house is gonna stay tidy because you're adapting to your style not trying to fit yourself in uh i call them crickets and bees who are like really mad well who are the other bugs a cricket is a hidden organizer that's really detailed and meticulous he is a visual organizer so it's out of sight out of mind they want to see their stuff but they're very detailed and meticulous and a butterfly is visual but not detailed laid back and almost every small child is a butterfly until about the age of 10 then you start to see their organizing personality come out which is why little kids they like to spread their stuff and they don't they're never going to sort their legos by color yep but that's okay that's so great i love this because there's a little bit too where you're like you can white knuckle your way through life and force yourself to do things right that you're just like it's just not me but like but after a while that's exhausting and it's not fun it's not a good quality of life so there's a level of like yes rachel i'm an adult and i pay taxes in life and i have children so like i need to have some humanness of being mature and an adult some of that has to be there but you can't yeah i'm never gonna be a grasshopper cassandra i will never be a grasshopper and i do this for a living and i'll never i'll never be that either and that's okay so yeah it's embracing it we don't we can vacuum and not wrap the cord we can just throw the cord at the vacuum and that's okay and that is okay like i'm in like a therapy session right now oh so great yes but that is okay so nice okay so people listening that are like oh this is good okay okay i'm gonna go and i'm gonna figure out who i am and how to do this best you talked about the things that you need to declutter but there's also the things that you're like no but to organize so that we can have the peace that we all need in our lives what are some of the things that we can do to organize and to help us we need a family command center and this is where we put important bills that need to be paid reminders all the sort of papery stuff even if we have to like sign something for our kids who are in school or they've unpacked their backpack and there's artwork we have to deal with later we need a spot that we can put it until we deal with it later that isn't a pile so if you're visual this should be up on the wall it should be like wire baskets on the wall something that's really obvious and if you're hidden it could be just a little filing system or a basket on your counter but the secret is to contain it into something so it doesn't spread and to make a date with yourself once a week to empty it that's the hard part yes that's so good we have that in our house and i did get a basket for all the kids the papers that they bring home from school it's artwork and it's just academic papers so i literally throw everything in there and then it piles up to about like that high and then i'll go through and throw away most of it but but yeah it feels good because you're like okay it's there so the family command center i love that what other areas family community do we need to help feel that feel that piece a landing zone so if your kids are coming home and they are never putting their shoes in the closet or on a shoe shelf or like hanging the coat in the closet we need to adapt our landing zone to work with their organizing styles so take the closet doors off or install hooks just get baskets for people to kick their shoes into instead of trying to force people to organize that isn't the way they naturally do so if you like your your keys should go in the drawer hubby but they're always leaving them out install a hook right above so it's really visual adapting your system to work with your family and making sure that you have an actual landing zone to catch that clutter at the door that's good the landing zone okay love that one anything else okay yeah household management binder so i want you to think oh my gosh there's a flood or something we always keep these important documents in our filing cabinet we're not gonna run and carry our filing cabinet out so we shouldn't have important documents like insurance policies or even your medical information that should be stored in a binder so if anything god forbid happens and you have to run to the hospital you can grab your binder and it has all the information that you need in it so a household management binder is a simple way of just taking or even photocopies of all those important documents and having them in a portable way that's so smart to grab if you need it yes that's great that's a great one and in a meal planning binder saves me so much money so much money i have a binder where i just have all our favorite recipes i have like meal ideas i keep coupons in there and every week i meal plan now i know you don't like structure i don't like structure it's a loosey-goosey meal plan but i do that too i do it every sunday night because it does help me because i'm like i have to know yes what's going on so much and then i can take like freezer inventory i can write my grocery list and is contained into one place that keeps me organized and saves me a ton of money so a meal planning binder is amazing and the last thing is a homeless clutter catcher we all have random stuff that we don't know where to put it or you buy something new and you haven't put it away yet or you have to return something or just it's your husband's stuff piled and you don't know what to do with it but you don't want to look at it dedicating a space in your home for that clutter to go that everyone knows like where's my mom probably put it in the in that drawer or in that cabinet or in that basket is such a lifesaver especially for us as ladybugs because we tend to hide everybody else's stuff when cleaning and we don't trust them where it goes i don't know well i don't know let's play this fun game let's hunt for your keys yes you know that i hid but having this homeless clutter catcher for things that don't have a designated home yet just keeps the house and everyone sane so great ugh cassandra these are such good tips thank you so much i i really do i appreciate it because everyone's life is going you know 100 miles an hour it feels like and you're trying to do your different goals and you're you're talking about different stuff you know at night with your friends or your or your spouse and it's like life is just crazy and so when you can have a level of predictability and peace that goes along with your personality it just gives your home a little bit more of that um that resting place is what it should be so i love that that's absolutely incredible so one question i ask all my guests uh is what is one thing you are doing with money that is creating a life that you love one thing we always it's the 10 so every time we get paid we put 10 away not only into like our emergency savings but now that it's grown that's kind of our fun fund we're traveling we're going to europe like that 10 is how not only we got out of debt but now we're living a life that we're loving because we're we're paying ourselves first yeah for sure oh that's so great ugh i love fun money it's the best it's so great so great it is it took a while to get there but man is it worth it it's just like decluttering a little bit every day is the secret to success that's so great so where can everyone find you cassandra you can take the free clutter bug quiz and find out your organizing style at clutterbug.com yeah you guys go take the quiz find out what you are because it is it's so insightful and it gives you a level of like okay i'm okay i'm not crazy i'm not crazy so great well cassandra thanks for coming on i so appreciate you guys check out everything that she's doing when you need tips for organizing and decluttering and as always remember to take control of your money and create a life you love

Channel: Rachel Cruze

Views: 105,038

Keywords: the rachel cruze show, the rachel cruze show youtube, money, budget, how to save money, budgeting, personal finance, rachel cruze, save money, how to budget, debt, saving money, save, how to make money, ramsey, finance, how to get out of debt, debt free

Id: XHEWgQOrO2g

Length: 21min 35sec (1295 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 10 2022