Hey, clutter bugs. Welcome back to the clutter bug podcast. I'm pretty geek about today's episode because not only do we have the most inspiring

decluttering expert that I've ever met, but she's also my friend. I want to welcome Dawn from the minimal mom. Dawn, I just read this. You reach over one million people every month on your YouTube channel, sharing practical tips and ideas to simplify and declutter.

And you've been a minimalist now for seven years over seven years. Hi, and welcome. Hi, Cass, you were like my number one cheerleader. You are the best ever and a million. Wow. I don't like to look at those numbers because then I put a lot of pressure on myself to be like, Oh, man, you better make sure the videos are really good. If that many people are watching.

Your videos are telling me that always really good. You definitely have a knack for inspiring people. You're like you are a motivational speaker. And I don't know if that's what you're intending to be, but that's what you are.

You're inspiring and motivating millions of people to let go of the stuff that's over complicating their life. And I want to talk about something really strange today. But before I do that, I want you. Maybe my listeners don't know you tell us how you got started.

Yeah, well, I mean, I was just like everyone else, right? I was a mom with four kids aged for an under and there was just so much stuff all of the time.

And I was so tired of picking up the same toys and washing the same dishes and folding the same laundry. And I just thought there has to be like a different way to do this. And so I actually heard a podcast with Joshua Becker on it. He's a well-known minimalist. And he just one line changed my life. He said,

Did you know you don't have to have all this stuff? And I was like, no, Joshua, I didn't know that.

I just thought I was doing what you're supposed to do. And you know, Cass, it's it was around that time to where you started seeing the signs like good moms have messy kitchens and sticky floors. And so it was the kind of this like cultural thing even that was just like hot mess mom.

You know, and it was like, Oh, okay, that is just what it's supposed to be like, right? But then like why am I so miserable.

And so over the course that year after I heard that podcast, I just started decluttering. I kind of just looked at it like an experiment. I didn't tell my husband what I was doing.

But I ended up getting rid of about 80% of our stuff because that's how far I had to go to find a house that was easy to maintain.

And like I wanted to do other stuff. Like I didn't want to just clean my house and take care of the kids. Like I had like I liked, you know, building websites are doing graphic design. And so like I wanted to feel that I wanted to do it all basically.

And I really found that if I had my house highly simplified, I didn't feel like a loser as a mom. And I could keep it together and still do the other stuff that I'd hope to do too.

Yeah, we have, I mean, we have such a similar story. I was drowning in clutter as mom to running a home daycare. And it was Peter Walsh. I watched his show Clean Sweep and he was getting rid of like truckloads full of stuff. I don't know why this never really dawned on me before.

I'm trying to organize. I'm trying to stack. I'm starting to buy solutions. It never really dawned on me. No, like you have to let half of your stuff go minimum, like get it out of your house.

Like how life changing it was. My finances improved, my relationships improved, my happiness improved, my mood improved. I became a better mother. I started a business, same as you.

Like, yeah, no, it changed everything, right? I think that's why we're like, you're kind of like a motivational speaker now. I'm like, it's just like, I just want to tell you like, it's so good. Like it's so good over here. Like join us. Right. And so that's why we do YouTube videos and courses because we're like, however we can like get into your mind.

Get into your mindset and be like, trust me, let the crap go. Your life is going to be so much better.

Yeah. And it is. And I think that's what I wanted to talk to you about today.

I think this message now is being heard by a lot of people. And yet there's still a stumbling block when it comes to getting stuff out of the home. And I find that there's a lot of reasons we talk about it. We have a course together.

Shameless plug. Take your house back. But we talk about some of those stumbling blocks and how hard it is and you have to build up your muscle. But I wanted to talk to you about something that I

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