Happy Monday!
Might I interest you in a fun little quiz this morning before you start the day? :)
It was passed to me by a reader of the blog who finally stumbled across an organizational system that works for her, and as someone who’s always intrigued by this sorta stuff I of course had to pop in and check it out for myself too…
And I gotta say – some of the questions I’ve never even pondered before or knew what my answers were until I stopped to think about them! So you’ll probably learn something about yourself too whether you’re looking for a new way to declutter or not.
Here are the notes from my friend, along with the quiz and other resources you might find helpful:
Hope your break was good – up until the health stuff, anyway! Interesting that you mentioned tidying up, because that’s what I’ve been obsessed with lately too. I’ve reorganized almost my full room these last few weeks, thanks to the four clutterbugs course. I’m a Butterfly, which was very enlightening to discover. And honestly, I think for the first time in my life, I may be able to stay organized now, because I’ve organized according to my natural tendencies. It’s pretty amazing!
And when I pleaded for more info so I could check it out:
Here’s the link to the main page: https://clutterbug.me/ and the link to the quiz: https://clutterbug.me/what-
clutterbug-are-you-test (just click on the blue button below the picture that says ‘let’s play’). She has TONS of free stuff online, but she also has books for sale and a $99 course too (plus a free version here: https://clutterbug.me/2019/05/new-free-organizing-mini-course-%f0%9f%8e%93.html)
She’s really helped me understand how I organize, and I would definitely recommend her. I’d suggest you and your wife both take the quiz, because if you are different ‘clutterbugs’ she does offer suggestions of how to organize and compromise.
I took it, and looks like I’m a Cricket :) Which, “tend to be “traditionally” organized and prefer minimal visual clutter in their homes and work spaces. Crickets also prefer detailed, Micro-Organizing systems and are often a bit of perfectionists when it comes to setting up and using these systems.”
Haha… I’m not sure how detailed I am exactly (hard with ADHD!), but I do like my minimal clutter around my house and work spaces. I’d much rather have an empty desk up top and crammed drawers than the other way around! :)
I also tend to pile stuff up in places and then sort them out later – but at least they’re all “organized” and can easily be done in batches when it’s time (like bills or depositing checks, etc. I hate doing just one or two piecemeal and would rather do them all at once, say at the end of the week!)
So while this quiz might be focused more on the house/living stuff, there may be some overlap with how you tend to manage your finances too. Or maybe not and I’m just stretching it, haha, but either way it’s a fun quiz!
Here’s the link to it again if you wanna play along: What ClutterBug Are You?
Only about 10 questions, and you don’t need to give your email or anything to get your answer (isn’t that the worst?). Let us know what you are if you try it out, or if you’ve found any life changing courses/books around this stuff too!
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “for every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.” (True story!)
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I’m also a Cricket. I know, I know. I tend to be a perfectionist. Drives my husband crazy. Clutter causes me stress!! I don’t know where I got this from as no one else in my family is like this! I have to have things organized & mostly behind closed doors. A friend said my pantry looks like a magazine picture, LOL as well as my linen closets. I have nesting boxes to store stuff with labels on them. I have 100% cedar hangers. No wire hangers, LOL and clothes are hung color coded. Yep, I guess they call that obsessive something?
Cedar hangers!!! That sounds magical!!! I despise wire ones too, or any hangers for that matter that are mismatched, haha…
I am a Bee! You are right, J, some of those questions really did make me think. Per the Bee profile, “Bees almost always come with a lot of stuff.” How right that is in my case. When I get into a hobby, I go full tilt regarding supplies. I have stacks of fabric, drawers of yarn, containers of beads plus 3 bookcases plus a Kindle of unread books purely for pleasure reading. And I hang on to all of those supplies “just in case.” I really need to start clearing the clutter!
Haha… Step one is *knowing yourself*, and then it’s on to decluttering from there! So keep on going!! Lots of different ways to create that perfect balance :)
I’m a cricket too – which is what I expected after reading your post (so many similarities). I love organization but I’m not as organized some days as I’d like – so I put those items in piles!! The Container Store is like my “candy store” – my OCD brain goes into overdrive thinking of all these storage/organization styles. Ah, my happy place! Quiz was fun to take – really reinforces to me my style as I was answering those questions.
Good! Glad you enjoyed it :) I can’t even STEP FOOT into a container store because it’s way too exciting for me, haha… And too many options to even choose ONE route anyways so I don’t even put my mind through it!
I’m a cricket too…though I found the descriptions in the quiz a bit confusing! But the description of a cricket sounds at least a little like me!
I’m joining the cricket gang and not surprised. My preference is to just get rid of the stuff rather than having to even worry about organizing it. If you don’t use it, why keep it?!
Haha… that’s one way to do it.
I’m a ladybug! Which is just about perfect! I like my house to look spotless, but like Monica on friends, please do not open my upstairs closets. Any of them. LMAO
This is great! What a fun find!
Too funny, haha…
I’m a cricket. I find this surprising but at the same time it explains why I’m so unhappy living with hoarders. Will read all of the book to see whether, and what, compromise is poassible.
Oh MAN that would be hard to do!!! No way I could do it at all… unless they let me hide it all in their room only or something, haha… Are you living with any hoarders right now???
Yep; two of them. I can close the door of my son’s room. A bit harder with husband. He hoards and clutters half of the space(s) we share. I try not to look at his half. Basically, most of the time I’m in angst that is hard to contain :).
Dang!! maybe you need to invest in a garage or outbuilding of some sorts so he can stash all his stuff there nice and out of site ;) Tell him you’ll gladly throw – i mean gently move – all his stuff in there for him too! Lol…
Nailed as a butterfly. Wonder if I am of the endangered kind? Very helpful quiz with a one minute rule which I will adopt as soon I get through a major move with family. Lots of crickets to admire here.
Thank you posting, J.
Hi beautiful butterfly :)
I’m a cricket. Although, there were quite a few questions where I felt like I was a hybrid between two answers. I usually stack and pile things in places until I can finalize them (or so I don’t forget to do something), but the piles that stick around most are usually the ones where I don’t have a home for them. The struggle between frugality and minimalism is real people. :-)
Yeah it is, haha…
Betty the Butterfly here! “A Butterfly is a very visual person and likes to see all their belongings for fear of “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”. Unfortunately, it just isn’t feasible to leave all of our things out, all of the time.” That is completely my challenge (not ‘problem’), especially as I’m an ADHD person. I do like to see my stuff and enjoy it, and I’m sure there is a happy middle ground, and I hope to find it.
When I need to concentrate, I try to use my version of the Pomodoro technique. Set my timer for 20 minutes and focus. It’s just enough time to feel like I’ve gotten something done. Plan to use that more while I’m Marie Kondo-ing my condo.
YES!!! DO IT!!! The Pomodoro technique is great!! And a lot easier to squeeze in vs hours at a time even though that would be perfect :)
And yet another Cricket, which I expected even before the test.
Currently I’m organising my future home in my head. But better not look at the current one. I’ve given up. Can’t even make myself care anymore.
One of my problems is “I should try to sell them instead of donating or throwing out” but I reeeeeaaaally don’t feel like dealing with the logistics. So I postpone.
In those cases I tend to just do whatever it takes to *get it out of the house* even if it means losing money by donating them (though you still get a tax write off). Much better to be out of your house/mind than stewing on it!
It appears I am a ladybug — with organized piles of I will clear that.
Ladybugs are generally stressed out by surface clutter and like to keep their living space clean and clutter free. You know you’re a ladybug if your surfaces are clean and tidy but your junk drawer is overflowing and you would be really embarrassed if guest ever opened your closets.
Haha…
I am a Cricket as well. I definitely relate to the paralyzing effects of not having time to do it perfectly so sometimes organizing doesn’t get done. I really enjoyed Dana K White’s book Organizing at the Speed of Life. Her method really seems to work for me. She has a podcast as well that I enjoy.
Oh cool, thanks for the recommendation!
I’m a ladybug, which makes so much sense! I can keep up with the clutter in the kitchen, dining, living room areas fairly easy but my husband and I moved in together a year ago when we got married and I still call the back bedroom the “Room of Terror” due to the accumulation of craft supplies and other items I haven’t organized yet. The desk in the den is almost constantly overflowing with paperwork that needs to be filed as well. I love her suggestion of open containers to put things in.
I think we’ve all had a room like that at some point in our lives :)
I’m a butterfly and I think it fits me almost perfectly. I tend to leave clothes on top of my drawers since it’s easy access to grab them especially when it comes to sweat pants and t-shirts, no worries about getting them wrinkled. And I try to put things away immediately like my laptop, I don’t like leaving it somewhere like the kitchen table and tend to put it back on my desk right away.
I just got my laptop off my desk and put on the kitchen table to work :)
I discovered Clutterbug years ago. She is great and funny! Her best platform is YouTube. I get lots of organizing, decluttering, and inexpensive, cheap decorating ideas from her.
Found lots of solutions from her….. In my household I am the Ladybug, my husband the Cricket and my young adult son, a butterfly….. Lots of issues, but I have found creative ways to deal with it.
Oh good!
Cool to hear others like her stuff too :) Smart of her to share content all over the different media platforms like that… Especially since so much of it is *visual* in this case!
I did my own Tidying Up project this spring, and wrote about it for my newspaper, Wausau City Pages. I ended up interviewing someone local who had been doing KonMari for years, and was basically a minimalist, and had never heard of FIRE! (And was very intrigued when I explained it – he and his family were practically living FIRE without knowing it.) I never thought of myself as particularly messy, but I was surprised at how much I got rid of through the process. And I was also surprised at how nice it felt having fewer things and having the place really tidy.
How fun! I wonder what they’d think of the movement if they started poking around more… Falling into it naturally would be so amazing and don’t know that many people that have, haha… Most of us need some good encouragement/ass-kicking :)
I’m a Ladybug! “Ladybugs are generally stressed out by surface clutter and like to keep their living space clean and clutter free. You know you’re a ladybug if your surfaces are clean and tidy but your junk drawer is overflowing and you would be really embarrassed if guest ever opened your closets.”
Yup, this is me. Visual clutter drives me absolutely nuts, and if I can’t properly organize things I will shove them behind closed doors. Most of my closets are fairly organized, but please don’t look in my hall closet or laundry room! (Also I had to fudge the “biggest organizing challenge” question – the real answer to that is my husband and kids!)
I thought the same thing with that question!!! Haha… definitely not scientific enough as many of us ARE decent at organizing but it’s those around us who try to mess up our game ;) I swear I’m going to count all my things one day and see just how many I have compared to the rest of the household, haha…
I swear my 6 year old has more stuffed animals than I have worldly possessions of every category combined.
Haha….sounds about right!
Oh I am a bee. I am such a bee.
Haha… rock on… only a couple of Bees here in the community it looks like – you’re special ;)