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June 10 - June 14, 2019
Albert Einstein once said, “If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing that it is stupid.”
the Clutterbug Classification System was born. The four categories are as follows: •Ladybug – Craves Visual Simplicity with Organizational Simplicity •Cricket – Craves Visual Simplicity with Organizational Abundance •Bee – Craves Visual Abundance with Organizational Abundance •Butterfly – Craves Visual Abundance with Organizational Simplicity
A Butterfly needs easy, fast, and macro-organized solutions that are clearly visible to succeed.
A Butterfly’s home needs to be designed to transform the one-minute rule into the five-second rule. The one-minute rule is, If something takes less than ONE MINUTE to do, you must do it immediately. For most Butterflies, if you can design a home where it takes less than FIVE SECONDS to put something away, they will have no excuses not to do it.
A Butterfly needs easy, fast macro-organizing solutions, with items such as baskets or bins that are visible and/or clearly labeled.
Here is what works for your beautiful Butterfly brain:
BINS, BINS, AND MORE BINS.
LABELS.
KEEP IT VISUAL.
DECLUTTER.
The reason Butterflies struggle more than any other bug is twofold. First, they are reluctant to put things away for fear of forgetting about them, which leads to surface clutter everywhere. Secondly, these visually abundant bugs have more emotional attachment to their belongings, compared to those who prefer visual simplicity.
Butterflies are all about visual abundance. If you are a Cricket or a Ladybug, you crave visual simplicity.
Here is the golden rule when combining Clutterbug styles: In a relationship with divergent styles, you should always default to the needs of the visual bug and to the bug who needs simplicity.
There are a few simple, easy things you can do to make being tidy easier for the Butterfly in your life. The most important thing you can do is to label…everything.
If you struggle with procrastination due to perfectionism, it’s time to stop overthinking and just start organizing.
The natural logic and analytical thinking of a Bee means that organization is in your blood. Sorting and categorizing is literally how your brain naturally works.
The reality is that, while a perfectionist may desire to have everything perfect, life often gets in the way. Sometimes what a Bee wants just isn’t realistic, and instead of settling, a Bee often chooses to wait.
People blame their clutter on lack of storage or not having the right or “perfect” organizing systems. People blame lack of time, lack of money, or lack of space for their clutter, and the truth is, none of that really matters.
Indecision is a huge issue for Bees. They are afraid to make a mistake, so they don’t make any decisions at all!
It’s important for Bees to take charge of their clutter and not be afraid to make mistakes, and there are strategies to do this in ways that don’t feel impossible or frightening.
Holding onto unused items is taking from you, not giving. They are taking your time to maintain them, your space to store them, and your happiness by cluttering up your home. When you can finally see the difference, it’s easy to purge and only keep the items that make you feel happy and fulfilled today.
A Bee often has many projects underway and is usually a busy and active person.
Bees are very organized and tend to be perfectionists.
A Bee has a detail-oriented and analytical personality.
Embrace good-enough organizing. It is better to start with a “good enough” organizing system (instead of piling); you can always come back and fine-tune your systems later, when you have more time.
Schedule, schedule, schedule. Your time is precious, so make the most of it. Create daily and weekly chore lists, a daily schedule, and make sure you have a monthly calendar that you can reference easily.
Bees can benefit from lists more than any other bug! Make a list of all the things you want to do that day (make it reasonable), and work on those and only those. If you can’t get them all done, carry the leftover items to the next day’s list.
There’s a kaleidoscope of extremes contained within the different facets of the Bee personality. Some are extremely visual, while and others need only their most important items out in the open. Some Bees are hard-core perfectionists, while others have learned to relax their standards and go with the flow a bit more.
Man, does the Bee ever benefit from having things written down!
As for making lists, nothing motivates a Bee more than having a proper and visual checklist. A list keeps them focused and makes them much more productive.
A Bee requires structure and routine more than any other Clutterbug, whether they admit it or not. Their perfectionism can run rampant without a simple and attainable plan of action.
A Bee MUST prioritize their lists.
Sometimes, when we take on too many things in life, we end up not doing any of them very well.
When there is more than one personality type sharing a space, I recommend always defaulting to the visual and to the simple system.
When a Bee sets his or her mind to something and has a strong support system in place, anything and everything is possible.
Ladybug can be easily distracted and requires simple and easy organizing solutions to stay on track.
A Ladybug is most undoubtedly a person who does not want to see their stuff, but taken to its most extreme.
A Ladybug loves to have a clean and tidy home, but their closets and drawers are usually a mess.
Cluttered surfaces and messy piles can cause a Ladybug to feel stress and anxiety.
A Ladybug hides mail, medicine, and bathroom products out of sight, even when no one is coming over.
Once a plan has been implemented, Ladybug organizers are really great at following and maintaining the system (as long as it’s simple).
Of course, labeling your containers is critical for long-term success. Labels also enable other Clutterbug personalities in your family to know where everything is. I can’t stress enough the importance of always labeling your containers, no matter what your organizing style. This makes finding items and tidying up much easier, and they also act as a subconscious reminder to put things away when you are done using them.
A Cricket is a classic organizer. How their brain compartmentalizes things is the epitome of traditional organization and the exact style that most organizing systems and tools are designed for.
The trait which most defines a Cricket is perfectionism. They have a deep desire to do things the “right” way and can sometimes be what people call a “type A” personality. Logical, analytical, responsible, and organized—those are the trademark traits of a Cricket. A detailed and functional organizing system eases their anxiety about losing things and ensures that they always know exactly where everything is stored. They share this perfectionism trait with the Bee, but where Bees crave visual abundance, Crickets need visual simplicity in their environment.
Sometimes, a Cricket’s drive for perfection overpowers their need for visual simplicity. What this means is that, while they prefer to have everything out of sight, Crickets will often pile items until they have a chance to put things away “properly.”
It’s also easy for a Cricket to become overwhelmed with the little details in life. Overthinking and overplanning are common issues that a Cricket can struggle with.
Crickets spend endless time sorting large piles into detailed categories, only to be left with lots of smaller piles. Finding functional homes for micro-sorted piles is tough, so they often end up getting mixed together again over time.
A Cricket naturally wants to micro-organize first, but it always results in too many piles with no proper place to put them all. By starting with large categories, the initial sort is done much more quickly. Then, you can micro-organize to your heart’s content within those broad categories.
Until the “perfect” organizing system is put into place, a Cricket will often “pile” their belongings.
