Tracy McCubbin
speaker
48 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard Nov 2024
Tracy McCubbin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
today on something you should know if you're going house hunting or car shopping there are certain days you should and should not go then how to get organized and clear out the clutter where do you start organize your junk drawer you've all got one every house has a junk drawer get rid of the broken rubber bands the dead batteries organize your junk drawer then see what it feels like when you need something you know exactly where to go for it
Thank you, Mike. Thanks for having me.
We are emotionally attached to our stuff, right? We've created this whole story around it. My aunt gave it to me, but she's passed away and I can't possibly get rid of it because she'll be angry at me. I paid good money for this. I never use it, but it was expensive. Or this Letterman's jacket reminds me of who I used to be.
We've created these stories around our stuff and we become attached to them. So because of these stories, we don't let go and our homes start to fill up with too much stuff.
Exactly. Look, I have helped people declutter. I've been a professional declutter and organizer for 15 years now. I have decluttered so many storage units. And I can tell you that there is nothing, there is nothing in those storage units that's worth more than someone's paying to store it.
But because we've told ourselves this story that this is somehow important, then we're financially taxing ourselves. And I think that's the thing to understand. This is what I tell people all the time, that your home and your stuff is a tool. your home is a tool. It's where you rest. It's where you replenish. It's where you renew yourself, right?
Where you connect with your family over the dinner table or get a good night's sleep. But if it's so full of stuff that it can't function, it's detracting from you. Look, they've done the science. They've tested this. They've done so much research into how much Energy, our clutter sucks from us. If you live in a cluttered home, you have elevated cortisol. They've done it. They've proved it.
So this is always what I say to people. It's not about creating a perfect home so that you look good on Pinterest. It's about creating a home that works for you.
100%. And I don't make some edict about you can only have 30 books and five shirts. It doesn't work that way. What's different? Everybody's different. And like you said, some people are collectors. Some people, like I just worked with a woman who loves roosters. She loves them. She has so many rooster things around her house. It makes her so happy. It would make me nuts. But But I respect that.
But what I'm talking about is when it stops working. If you start to feel like you don't own your stuff anymore, but your stuff owns you, that's when the clutter becomes a problem. So it's not a sort of, it has to be one way and everybody's the same. It's, has it stopped working for you? Do you have rooms in your house that you can't go into anymore?
That's usually the first time I get a phone call from a potential new client. They're like, we have two guest rooms. We want our kids to come and visit, but they're so full of, I don't even know what, we can't use them. That's when the clutter isn't working anymore.
You know, everybody's different. I mean, there are some thematic things, you know, a lot too many clothes, paperwork, tools in the garage. But the way that it sort of presents itself as opposed to a category of stuff, it's more about the emotional hold they have. So if I go, you know, if I go into a garage and there's tons and tons and tons of tools and And it's an older couple.
You know, the gentleman's in his 80s. He's not fixing cars anymore. He's not getting up on a ladder. Right. This is sort of the stuff of his past. You know, I go into work with young moms and their bodies have changed after having a baby, but they're keeping all these clothes on.
from when they were a different shape, like, oh, well, I'm going to get back there someday, or that's how I'm supposed to be. You know, so much of it is about being stuck in the past or feeling wasteful. It's more about the emotional story that people tell themselves than what the stuff actually is.
yeah and here's the thing it's like i collect cookbooks i cook all the time i love my cookbooks i have two big shelves of them i go back to them i refer refer to them all the time they're a part of my life but i'm in so many kitchens where people are like oh we don't even cook like we just have those for show so it's about are the things serving you are they helping you and
also about feeling good in your home. You should feel good. You should feel happy. You should want to be in your home. And so I think it's about finding the balance. Life's all about balance, right, Mike? It's like we strive to be something, but sometimes we're like, okay, we're going to have to give a little over here so we can get a little more peace over there.
yeah absolutely so one of the things that they found and this especially applies to women but people who live in cluttered homes have raised cortisol so we know that cortisol is our fight or flight right it's the thing that keeps the kind of fat around the belly stuck on us people in cluttered homes have that
They did a really fascinating study where I think they did it at Harvard, where they put people in a cluttered kitchen and they offered them the choice of a carrot or a cookie. The majority of the people in the cluttered kitchen took the cookie. Then they took people and they put them in an uncluttered kitchen. They'd offered them a carrot and a cookie.
The majority of people in the uncluttered kitchen took the carrot. And what they think that is about, and I'm not sure if you've discussed this with your listeners, but there's something that they've found called decision fatigue, which is where it's basically that sort of completely oversimplified.
But the part of your brain that makes decisions, the more decisions it makes in a day, the more tired it gets. And when that part of your brain gets tired, it defaults to making bad decisions. So it's why when you wake up in the morning, you feel fantastic. You're like committed to I'm just going to eat grilled chicken and steamed broccoli and I'll be great all day.
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