How to Get an Organized Home for 2024 | Clutterbug Podcast # 204 

Sounds amazing!

Hi, I hope you read this… I am in exactly the same boat as you… I was looking back of photos of my one bedroom apartment when I first renovated it and it was gorgeous, but for some reason I didn’t recognise that and over time I have kind of trashed my own home.. the first home I ever bought… the kitchen is almost ruined, the floor is FILTHY - I spent $7000 on that floor. And I’ve never done this before in my life but I’ve been sleeping on the couch for the last 3 weeks because there is so much junk on the bed. I’ve avoided the point it has gotten to til now, binge-watching Netflix daily and isolating myself. But I saw your comment and YOU and Cass have motivated me to focus on what I can do TODAY: which is tidy my bed, and clean the kitchen. Sure, it might not be a deep clean but it’s better than squalor. THANK YOU and I hope you keep focusing on what you can do just for today…

I read it. Thank you for your reply. It is helpful to know I am not the only person who behaves this way. Your response has motivated me to get up and do some more cleaning. Last week, I put a cardboard box by my front door and have been dropping in donations. I am not pulling out everything in the closet, but when I see something I no longer use, I just drop it in the box. I know we have to catch up, so we have to do extra, which is hard, but we can eat this elephant one bite at a time. I'm proud of you for tidying your bed!

Done is better than perfect. It really is. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to get done. We can always improve it next week.

Keep it up! Great job

Wow, I feel so proud of you both! ❤Keep it up one thing one item at a time. Make your space sooo comfy and enjoyable. I finally did that with my bedroom and now I don't allow ANYTHING on my bed unless it's laundry and I'm folding it! 😂 I tough loved myself and I am so motivated by Cas and all you folks making comments. We can do it!! Make OURSELVES PROUD and comfy!! ❤

That's why Swedish Death Cleaning with our own possessions, not to be morbid, will spare our loved ones that agony after we're gone.

That same thing happened to my sweet hubby. His mom had dementia and was a hoarder. It was a huge mess. She wouldn't even let him get rid of obvious trash.

I feel the exact same…my mom is boarder line hoarding with crafts items for years & won’t throw anything away but perfectly sane…my husband & I have cleaned out areas when she was in hospital,etc & within a year, her or my younger 57yr old brother will have stuff back in that clean space….I swore that I would never have a crowded house & let my daughter have to deal with, so that’s been a huge motivation to stay organized…It’s totally frustrating dealing with the excuses from my mom but this year I’ve got better boundaries…thank you for your help Cass ❤

❤ Daughter-in-loves, that's so sweet.

I am doing exactly this for my son. He already asked. "I'm" Almost there!! Now my husband's garage is another story but I'm still working on being an example. :)

I am so proud of you!!!

One of my favorites of hers too ❤

Me too❤

Take care of yourself! I wish you fast recovery.

Sooner or later, everything is trash. Nothing lasts forever.

It’s so tragic but true. Corporations need to make less wasteful products! Someone pls invent a chemical that can safely biodegrade all our trash. 😢

Someone said it all ends up in the trash whether it’s now or in 100 years from now

The best part is, in a few days or weeks, you’ll have moved on - getting rid of ‘useful’ things helped me make so much progress - good luck on your journey, your on the right track 😁

And now someone else can love them.

I moved a year and a half ago and didn't realize I had an physical illness that was not allowing me to do the things I always could (MS with orthopedic issues caused by it) plus rates of movers went up drastically and in my mind, I didn't understand how much I would be paying. I ended up having to just say "leave it" and I had to pay on the back end to have it cleared out because I could not afford to have it all moved and then sort. In hindsight, I should have realized early I needed to not take everything and instead "shop" my place for what I truly wanted to take and then have people come take what they want for free and then if I could discard things great, if not then hire someone to clear the rest and clean. If you are early in the process, I encourage you to do this.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I will definitely do that. Positive vibes going out to you 🙏🏼

@@wendyg6030 thank ypu, and I hope it is a great move for you, and peaceful.

Moving house is the very best time to really declutter. I want to downsize just to declutter. Lol

Oh my gosh, you just described my life! Kids are now grown and my husband and I are decluttering zone by zone. So far, 3-4 zones and 8 carloads to the donation center and several large bags of trash are gone. Lots more to do but we’ve got a good start.

There actually is, hoarding is often treated by anxiety-OCD specialists, and research does happen. There has been some specific research that found hoarding disorder is actually a separate issue from OCD and chronic disorganization. 👍🏻

If she’d donated the items that you had given her, you would have felt better. I think she would have, too.

She did donate some of it. 😊

im still listening and i’m still applying all of these ideas.

Wishing you the best during your surgery.

🙏 for health and healing

I feel this too. I’m a stay-at-home mom of two little ones and after dinner is a very busy time of my day. I do all the cooking and then Cleaning up the kids, and bath time and finally getting a shower myself and putting everyone to bed. It’s busy, and even just 15 minutes is a stretch when everyone is sleepy and it often feels like much too much to do at the end of the day. We do 3 meals a day here at home and my kitchen is never not in use. So what I started doing instead, I’ve scheduled 8 minutes of dishes 4 times a day. If there’s a pile or I’ve fallen behind, I don’t always get them all, but surprisingly 8 minutes is plenty of time to make a dent in what’s there, if not complete it all. If I want to keep going I will, but after 8 minutes, I’ve given myself permission to stop if I need to. I’m not sure of how severe your limitations are, or if you are cleaning for just yourself or also others, but maybe you could try setting a timer a few different times throughout the day, for however much time is comfortable to you. Focus on the goal of just making progress, knowing that you’ll have several opportunities to keep moving forward throughout the day. “Clean as you go” has never worked for me, but requiring myself to do a task 4 times a day when it’s convenient for me, has dramatically improved my situation. It sounds like it would be more work, but it’s honestly so much less. Also with children, it’s easier when the timer is the bad guy. I often get interrupted when I’m trying to make progress, but when I have a timer set, I can tell my children that they have to wait for that remaining amount of time. I’m accountable to stick to it, and they’re learning to be patient.

Your comment is a great suggestion for a future Cas video. In the meantime, I am the parent of a teen with a disability who wants to learn to be at least semi-independent. As a mom, I am trying to find tools and methods that she can use to maintain her space. Though we don’t have it all figured out yet, we have found a few things that seem to be working well. She has lower muscle tone and less-than-optimal coordination so things like spray bottles and laundry detergent jugs are hard for her to handle. So, we use laundry sheets, a Clorox toilet wand with one-use scrubbers, and disinfectant wipes. Are they the most effective or environmentally friendly options? No, but they do make cleaning and laundry doable for her. It’s worth the trade off for us. We can be environmentally friendly in other ways like reduced packaging or lower consumption if it’s important. But for her independence we will make whatever adaptations need made. She also does chores in smaller increments. Rather than clean the entire bathroom in one pass, she cleans the counter and toilet, takes a break and goes back later to do the tub, then again later to do the mirror and floor. There’s no rule that says it all has to be done at once. I know I didn’t offer much in the way of practical advice but maybe it can help to think of things from a slightly different approach.

I wish your daughter all the best--she sounds like a wonderful young lady. Wouldn't it be great to have more video resources to address living independently with disabilities? There are far more of us out here than folks might realize. @@aliciam6177

I certainly remember when my days resembled yours--whew! I'm well past that life stage now. Declutering and lack of physical strength make for a Catch 22--making life easier means decluttering, but the body just says nah, I don't think so. My goal this year is to do the entire house--I'm off to a good start. Heck, even the turtle crossed the finish line in the race with a rabbit. @@dptfo

Speak life ❤

Thank U. ❤

I’m sorry for your loss ❤

My dad is 92 and STILL WORKING and has holes in his undies and refuses to throw them out!!!! He can def afford new and he has plenty of new yet won't get rid of the old!!!

@mjgriffin49 I had holes in my underwear and it was my last clean pair and had to go to work. Unfortunately I ended up in the ED and was admitted to hospital and all I had were those holey underwear !

Use rubber or nitrile gloves, so your hands aren’t exposed to so many chemicals or the need to repeatedly wash your hands.