# What Happens When Clutterbug Organizes My Home?

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** How to ADHD
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8nGV-zQf0
- **Дата:** 24.06.2025
- **Длительность:** 22:54
- **Просмотры:** 463,322
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/15276

## Описание

Thank you to xTiles for sponsoring this video! xTiles is a digital planner/organizer that really helped me in my quest to declutter (and remember what tasks are related to that...) Try xTiles for free using my link: https://xtiles.app/en?fp_ref=jessica

Ever think your cluttered house is the best you're going to get? I thought so too... but after many... many years of you all requesting I collab with Clutterbug...... I collabed with Clutterbug!!! And I learned some things while now having a house I'm excited to be in... and I feel more confident in being able to continue tackling. Thank you @Clutterbug! 

And be sure to what Clutterbug's video too!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5pWTuI-qvc
And also check out Cas's video on the 3 steps she used to help me organize my house!: https://youtu.be/X3CQ56LhjOo

#declutter #clutterbug #howtoadhd #adhd 

🔗 OUR OTHER LINKS & SOCIALS
Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/howtoadhd 
Buy my book!!: https://howtoadhdbook.com 
Get my weekly ne

## Транскрипт

### Intro []

This all came from one room. Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three. I went to an ADHD conference where Cass from Clutterbug was giving a keynote. And I knew Cass because you tell me about Cass every time I do any video about home organization. You're like, "You should do a collab with Cass from Clutterbug. Clutterbug. " and she actually offered at this conference to come and organize my house. And I said no. Part of why I said no is because I wasn't sure she was serious or if she was just like being nice. But part of why I said no was I was sure I could do this myself. I'm an ADHD expert. I can do it. Months later, I was still making progress, but I was not making progress as quickly as my daughter was gaining mobility. I was running out of time. She was cruising. And this place was not only not baby proofed, it it wasn't adult-proofed. It was not ADHD proof. Like I was tripping over things. My partner was tripping over things and I was really worried about what would happen if she could walk or god forbid run. So I saw Cass at another conference and she bishially went up to her and said, "Were you serious? Did you mean that? " And she was like, "Yes, I will come organize your house. It will change your life. "

### My Journey of Home Organization [1:17]

Hello brains. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 12 years old. And part of the reason I wasn't diagnosed until then was growing up as a girl in the '9s. But part of it why I didn't get diagnosed despite very clearly having ADHD and being called messy Jesse and struggling with all the things that people with ADHD struggle with is because my mom created a home environment for me that worked really well for my brain. There was a launchpad by the door. Um, everything had a home. Things were labeled. I still remember her label maker. It was an amazing label maker. And as soon as she ran out of labels, she went and got more labels, right? Like she had a very ADHD friendly home. So when I moved out and especially once I started learning more about my ADHD and what made an environment ADHD friendly, I tried to recreate that. I tried to set up organizational systems. I tried to maintain my home the way that my mom had. So I would set up organizational systems, but they would immediately fall apart. It felt like I could do all the organizing I wanted, but it would almost inevitably and fairly immediately descend back into chaos because I could set up the organizational systems, but my brain could not maintain them. So, what I learned was I could either have a home that was set up in a way that worked for my brain that was organized or I could have a home I could maintain. Not both. the home that my brain needed to function at its best and to not lose things constantly and be constantly looking for things was not the home that my brain was capable of achieving, which was very frustrating. And it meant that I lived in chaos, especially when I was really busy, working on the book, especially when I was going through IVF, especially when I was pregnant. Like, my house was just chaos. And I got used to living in that chaos because it wasn't worth the return on investment of trying so hard to like organize things and then having it immediately fall apart. I'm just going to accept that this is my life. And then I had the baby. The nesting instinct kicked in for me. I suddenly really cared about my home and making it all nice and pretty and organized. I was suddenly hyperfocused on this and I spent a lot of time and energy trying to get my home to a place that felt really good to me and for me, for my family, for my baby. I did a really good job with her nursery and I was really proud of that. I was able to slowly chip away and with my partner's help too, chip away at making things more organized, more like home and less like an Airbnb that I dumped my stuff in. But we were starting from absolute chaos, right? So the progress was slow and there was a lot to do. In the middle of this, I saw

### Approaching Cas [3:43]

Cass at another conference and sheepishly went up to her and said, "Were you serious? Did you mean that? " And she was like, "Yes, I will come organize your house. It will change your life. to be clear, I will organize one room of your house and I will leave you with ideas of what to do with the rest. So, I was like, great. I'll take whatever help I can get. I have a doom room. She was like, "Okay, hang on. Do a walk through. Show me your spaces and then we can figure out which room makes sense for me to tackle. " I showed her the downstairs. doom room, which I was very, very much hoping that she would pick. Then I went upstairs and I recorded that, but I was like, "This is the main floor. This is where I've actually been spending most of my effort. the baby's play area is perfect. I don't need help with that. And she said, "Okay, I've reviewed the footage, and yes, you do need help with

### The Goal & Possible Challenges [4:25]

that. It's beautiful, but it's not going to be enough storage as she grows, as she gets more toys. I'm going to help you with that whole floor and the floor underneath it. Basically everything but the doom room and my bedroom. " She was like, "I'm going to do your whole house. " Oh god. Okay. So, instead of one room in 3 days, by the way, she was going to come down for three days and do all this. She was going to tackle two floors of my house. That's a lot. That's a lot of That's a lot. We were all kind of nervous about how that was going to go. So, she's incredible and she's a professional, but she's not a magician. And there are a lot of obstacles. For one, she's flying down and won't have her team with her. So, that's going to be an issue. Um, also, my partner is ADHD and does not do well with change. So, I was a little worried about how that was going to go. It's not like a little bit of decluttering. I knew that I had too much stuff because I the place was for me and then my partner moved in with all his stuff and then the baby moved in with all her stuff. We had too much stuff. But she was like, "You could have a you could have a house that's twice as big. You would still have too much stuff. You need to get rid of 50% of your stuff. That is a lot of stuff to get rid of. " So she was like, "Has your partner ever let go of things before? " And I thought about it and I'm like, other than to let go of a piece of hobby related equipment so that he can buy a different piece of hobby related equipment, I don't know if he ever has. And so she was like, "Okay, I'm going to do a coaching call with him. Also, can you get me some helpers? " We did as much as we could. Like we got helpers. My partner and Cass set up a coaching call and they did their coaching call um where she taught him how to let go of things, how to declutter, and my producer even went to IKEA, picked up all the furniture that she was planning on replacing my furniture with. The day came, we were as prepared as possible and Cass walked in the door.

### Day 1: Cas Arrives & The Walkthrough [6:14]

Hey, you're here. I'm here. Thank you so much for coming. Chloe, come back. It's Can I hug you? Yeah, please. Thank you. I am so overwhelmed. I am so excited. We'll be overwhelmed and excited. Okay. Okay. Tell me why you wanted me to come. Um, at this point, I'm really nervous. I kind of impulsively agreed to this and I was really worried about how it was actually going to go, if they were going to be able to do this, if she was going to hate me at the end of all of this and never want to talk to me again. But I was determined to do a good job, to make her job as easy as possible. And I was so prepared to let go of half my stuff. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to say yes to letting go of so much stuff that they're going to be like, are you sure? Maybe you should keep that. Right. That was what I was going to do. My partner was amazing. Let's move on to this. Go. Oh god. You're my best friend forever. He bought that for you as a gift. Oh, I'm the problem. You're the pro. You said he was going to do It's me, isn't it? It's me. I'm the problem. It's me. And she's like, "Yeah, you're the problem. You're doing great. You're the problem. " And I was like, "Oh, no. What about this? Amazing. What about this? " Amazing. Okay. Um Cass hands me one bag and I'm like, "Oh, oh, that's where that is. Oh, that's what's Oh, I was wondering where that was. Oh, you know what? This is actually really valuable. This is important. I want to keep this. Thankfully, Cass has tricks. Cass gamified things. She taught me decluttering rules. Um, the helpers helped a lot because before I could change my mind about something, they were getting it out of my sight. In fact, out of my house entirely, in fact, sometimes off the property entirely. They were taking things straight to Goodwill so that I couldn't change my mind. Pretty sure we actually did get rid of half of my stuff, at least on that floor. And then we came upstairs and I was really worried because my daughter has some really nice toys and I knew that would be hard and she was like, "You know what? We actually on this floor don't need to get rid of half the toys. In fact, it's not that you have too many toys. You don't have enough storage. We're going to fix that. " So I was like, "Great. " There was still a lot of other stuff to do. We went through the kitchen. We started getting rid of stuff there. The day passed really quickly and basically there was a lot left to do. So I had homework. Cass gave me some homework. I assigned myself some homework. By the way, I was using XTiles for this because it is the only thing that I have found that's a digital system that works as quickly as my brain does because it functions much like pen and paper, except you can then organize the information later. Like turning the brain dump of like the things that I needed to do for homework into specific tasks that then I could reference when I needed to do those tasks, which was that night. That was incredibly helpful. But that's not all XTiles does. You can plan your day, your week, your month, your year, and there are visual layouts for each. Wherever you plan, it will also show up in your other views automatically. It also two-way syncs with Google Calendar. So, if there's something you realize you need to do for a project tomorrow, you can add that to your day straight from XTiles. Plan once, see it everywhere. Adding projects in Extiles is super quick and easy. You can see them all in one place, and they act like files where you can open each one to see what's going on with it. It's also a way to track all your tasks. When it was time to work on my decluttering homework, I just worked straight from the page I created. But if I wanted to see all the tasks I needed to work on, I could have gone to the tasks page. Think of the tasks page as your mission control. You can view them by priority, switch to a table view, or even attach files to each task. Extiles is amazing for sponsoring this video, but also for their commitment to making a product that is as ADHD friendly as possible, and they're updating it regularly based on feedback from our community. Ready to organize your life without the overwhelm? Try Extiles today. I'll link to it in the description below. Your brain will thank you. So, I did my homework and I was up really late and I woke up the next morning just exhausted.

### Day 2: The Reorganization & ...Relaxation??? [10:16]

I was so tired. Um, but thankfully my part was done. So she kicked me out and I was not there for the reorganization of my whole house. But as she was kicking me out, I realized, wait a second, I'm not going to be there for the reorganization of my entire house. And so I asked her the million-dollar question, which is, what's scarier to both of us is the idea that our stuff is going to get rearranged and we're not going to know where things are. So what's the plan for day two? The plan is zoning. And I think that's in the past you've had people come in and clean, which is really shoving and hiding with no rhyme or reason. I've already seen how you move through your space. I've already we've talked about creating like different zones and stations. So where you think where would I look for that first or where does that naturally go? That's where it's going to be, which is different than what you've had in the past, which is like let's just hide and look in every hidden space. There's not going to be that. Everything's going to have a clearly defined purpose and every section of your home is going to have a clearly designed zone. So, you're just like, "Okay, I'm looking for art supplies. It's going to be in the art zone. " Okay. Or I'm looking for books. It's in the book zone. I'm leaving the house. It's in the landing zone or the launchpad zone. Point of performance. Like actually point of performance things will be where you would use them. Exactly. Okay. So, you won't have to look for anything. Originally, she wanted me to leave and go to a hotel with my partner and my baby and like we get like a little family vacation for a night, but my partner was like, I would like to go somewhere that is familiar to me where my daughter also has all of her things, which is his mom's house, Gigi's house. So, I was like, I really like the idea of staying in a hotel. Do you think that it would be okay if I stayed in a hotel by myself and you take the baby to Gigi's? And he goes, yeah, sure. So, I went to a hotel that night and it was such a cool, relaxing experience. For the first time since becoming a mom, I didn't have to work or take care of my baby or clean my house because other people were literally doing it. So, I didn't know what to do with myself. Um, I checked into the hotel. I explained to them that this was my first night away from my baby as a new mom. And they were so nice. They upgraded me to a suite. They sent up snacks. and I just put into practice some of the skills that I had learned from Cass. I put away my clothes and I uh decluttered my makeup bag and I went and had dinner by myself. Actually, I had two dinners by myself. I enjoyed a bottle of wine that my producer brought over to me. I went up to the rooftop pool and got to chill up there. And when all that was done, I was like, "Oh, I could do some like pampering stuff. " So, I did some pampering stuff. And I was I felt bad relaxing because I was like, "Oh, they're probably really stressed, you know, trying to reorganize my house. " But I was like, "They're professionals. Like, I can relax. It's fine. They're professionals. It's fine. This is fine. Like, they're doing fine. Things are going fine. Probably they're probably fine. They're fine. "

### Day 3: The Reveal! [13:16]

So, the next day, my partner and my baby come to pick me up and we take him to work and then we just spend a day together. We go to the park. dog park. We go sightseeing. And it's just the most relaxed I think I've ever been. And finally, it's the end of the day. It's time to go do the big reveal. We pick up my partner and we go to the house. And Cass prepares me. She tells me I might cry. She's like, "People usually cry. Sometimes they don't cry and I cry, which is embarrassing, but she's like, "You'll probably cry. " And I was like, "Oh no, now I feel really bad because like she's probably going to cry and I'm not going to cry. be that shocked. I knew that she kind of wanted to have this like upstairs be our family environment and downstairs was going to be this place for like us as adults. I knew what the plan was. I could imagine it in my head and so I was like, "Yeah, I'm not going to cry. " Oh no. And then I walk in. No peeking. I'm not peeking. No peeking. I don't want to peek. I want to be surprised. Okay, stand right beside each other. No peeking. I feel like you're going to spin us around. You feel a little echo here? A little echo. Okay. I want you to remember what this looked like three days ago when I came. It was like a gauntlet. Really walk. There was hardly any floor space. It felt sad. Okay. Are you ready to see your new grownup living room? I mean, a bit. Yes. Okay. On the count of three. One, two, three. Holy. Okay. And I just immediately cry as much as I could imagine like what she might do or what I would have done if she had told me this is the plan. Even after talking to her, even after hearing her ideas, I could never have in a million years come up with what she came up with. This was so much better than I could have imagined. I thought that I could make the space be what I wanted it to be if I had the time and the energy and the money to do it. Now, the hardest thing about getting out of my house is I don't want to leave. She not only gave me a launchpad by the door, she gave my daughter door that was just for her and my dog a launchpad by the door and me my own launchpad and my partner his own launchpad. Now, obviously, I did this with the help of an incredible professional, and that's not something that everybody has access to. And in fact, I don't have access to that anymore, and I still have two rooms. I still have a doom room to tackle. And I think the more important part of the reveal was not just how incredible the space looked, because I've had a nicel looking space before. I've had an ADHD friendly space before. I did a video about it. The more incredible part of the reveal for me was what it would take to keep it this way. She had made not only the systems ADHD friendly, not only the layout ADHD friendly, she had made the maintenance ADHD friendly. I had a doom cabinet with random baskets so that instead of putting things on top of the surface, I would just have to take that one extra step of opening the door and dropping it in the random basket and just develop that muscle memory. And she's like, and you know what, that's going to take time, too. You're going to put stuff on surfaces. You're going to leave things out. So, just do a 15-minute declutter every night. Every night before bed, 15-minute declutter. So, I did. So after putting my daughter down, even if I was exhausted, instead of going downstairs and plopping on the couch and watching Star Trek and pretending the chaos around me doesn't exist, I take 15 minutes to just do a reset. And you know what? It only takes 15 minutes, sometimes less, because I'm doing it every day. And I was like, "But why would that work? " And she said, "Well, before 15 minutes wouldn't have made a dent. " And she's right. It wouldn't have. But she's like, "Now with the systems you have, with the amount of stuff you have, which is now manageable, 15 minutes a day is enough, not to do dishes, not to do laundry, right? Like that's outside of it. But the declutter is only 15 minutes a day or less. " And it has been. I've been able to keep that up, which is really nice because I've been able to keep that up while I tackle the other spaces. Is it going as quickly as what Cass did? No. I still need help. I still have a very chaotic brain. still have trouble letting go of things, but we are making progress and we're making progress in a way that's working a lot better than what I was trying to do before. So now I

### What I Know Now [17:24]

know that it is possible to have a space that is organized in a way that really works for my brain that also my brain can maintain. And that's a really powerful thing to learn because I was convinced that I had to choose one or the other. I could not have both. I did a whole episode about this with Messy Jesse. can see it here. I did not think this was possible for me, but it is. And that's really cool. I'm really motivated to keep this going and accomplish these or close to these results in the other areas of my house. I'm motivated to tackle that doom room, to tackle my bedroom, to tackle my office, to keep my makeup bag decluttered. I'm moving from a place of chaos to calm. I used to think that I couldn't have calm because my brain was too chaotic. My brain's chaos spilled out into my environment. My brain's chaos had an impact on my environment. And it always has. But what I learned is that my environment also has an impact on my brain. My brain can be more calm now because my environment is less chaotic. And before it didn't really work that way because I was, you know, either like super anxious like trying to keep it all together and then it would fall apart. I was back in chaos so quickly that I didn't get that benefit. But now, like living day after day in an environment that is calm, it's kind of like reset my nervous system a little bit. And I'm more calm. We actually have room to film in my house now. I want to be That's pretty cool. And it's not like I don't have ADHD all of a sudden. I still do. And it still gets messy and things still get left on surfaces or whatever, but it's just fixable now. Like we were really worried at first like, "Oh no, you left a thing on the table. It's all going to descend back into chaos, but it hasn't. And the reason it hasn't is because it is now doable to maintain this space. Not perfectly, not 100% of the time. I'm still going to live in it with the brain that I have. It's still going to get chaotic from time to time, but it's a level of chaos that can be put back in the box. I can clean up in 15 minutes. I can reset the entire place as somebody's on their way over um without having to shove things under beds or on top of beds or whatever. So now I have a home that works for my brain, that supports my brain, but not just mine, but my partners and my daughters. She actually learned to walk that week. The week that Cass came down, the first day after I finished my homework, my daughter took her first independent steps. And when we came back for the big reveal, like she got to walk all over her play area, I'm just really grateful to Cass for making this happen. So, I was able to have this space that works for me, but also a space that I can maintain. It would have broken my heart if I could have watched my daughter enjoy this space so much and it had descended back into chaos. But it didn't because Cass was right. 15 minutes was enough. It's not perfect. There's stuff on surfaces right now, but at the end of the night, I take 15 minutes and I declutter and it's re it's reset. I go through my doomags once every couple of weeks and they don't get so doomy. Um, I'm able to maintain this environment for myself, for my partner, and for my daughter. And not by myself. Like my partner is doing it, too. We do the reset together. Or if he's having a bad day, I will do the reset. or if I'm having a rough time, he'll do the reset. And my daughter helps us put away her toys before she goes to bed. But as a family, this space works for us. And as a family, we can maintain it. And that's not something I've ever had before. And it's not something I thought was possible. I'm going to be watching a lot of Cass's channel and probably taking her course or multiple courses cuz it's just been so gamechanging for me. Um, just knowing that it's possible has given me a lot of hope and it's motivation. So, as I'm keeping these spaces decluttered, um, I'm decluttering in other spaces as well, and I'm making progress in those spaces, too. I'm so grateful to everybody who made

### Outro (and tons of appreciation) [21:39]

this possible, including my brain advocates and all my Patreon brains. If I hadn't been able to afford to go to the conference, I wouldn't have reconnected with Cass. None of this would have even happened. But, you supported us and so I did get to go and this did happen. And I believe in ripple effects. I I'm hoping that by sharing this with you, it gives you hope, too. I'm hoping that we can continue on this journey together as part of my overall mission this year of making life more doable for myself and helping you make you as well. Again, go check out Cass's channel. The video of the entire process, including all the reorganizing, is on her channel. It's live now. Link is in the description below. Like, subscribe, click all the things, and I will see you next video where I talk about many of the things that Cass taught me. um in this process that is helping me declutter moving forward and organize my place better moving forward. Bye brains.