The Clutter Connection. Cassandra Aarssen

      In early versions of my Clutterbug test, using VAK, I theorized visual learners would also be visual organizers, since visual individuals learn best from looking at pictures or graphs when processing new information. By the same token, audio learners, who learn best from listening to others speak rather than reading written instructions, should prefer a more minimal living space. While this sounds as though it would make a lot of sense, and many visual organizers are in fact visual learners, and many audio learners in my life do crave visual simplicity, the truth is, these assumptions can be misleading.

      In fact, the biggest monkey wrench tossed into the gears of the first draft of my wonderful theory was me. I crave visual simplicity, but I’m totally and 100 percent a visual learner. I wanted so badly for there to be a connection to learning styles, and while there is certainly an obvious correlation, it obviously doesn’t hold true 100 percent of the time.

      Left Brain versus Right Brain

      When I think of a visual person, I imagine someone who craves bright colors and bold home decor. On the other hand, when I think of a person who craves simplicity, I imagine someone who loves a simple and muted color scheme. Therefore, in the early stages of developing the system, I also foolishly assumed there was a connection between a person’s organizing style and their creative tendencies.

      It’s easy to assume that those who crave visual abundance must be more creative and artistic than those who need visual simplicity. While this may be true in many situations, it certainly isn’t true in all of them. The opposite assumption could also be made: Those who crave visual simplicity are not as creative or artistic as visual organizers. Again, this is most definitely not the case. Take myself, for example. I need visual simplicity in my home, but I love to craft and create and consider myself a very artistic person. I also know many visual organizers who don’t have a creative bone in their body.

      Nature versus Nurture

      “Nature versus nurture” is also an area that I needed to consider. Does it play a role in the drastically divergent ways that people organize and maintain their homes? Were people born with a certain organizing brain type, or was it a learned behavior, influenced by our parents’ organizing style?

      I see connections to both. Almost all the hoarders I’ve worked with have come from families with hoarding tendencies. One could argue that this, in fact, is proof of it being a learned behavior. But what if the tendency to become emotionally attached to our belongings has a hereditary component instead? How do we explain the fact that so many children who come from neat, organized families later struggle as adults to be neat and organized themselves? Can we simply blame bad parenting? If that is the case, why do children within the same family often grow up to have different organizing styles, despite being raised the same way? These thoughts only drove me back to an earlier theory that it must have a direct connection to a person’s innate personality type.

      The one idea, which I now hoped would always prove true (and has consistently been my experience with many clients), is that the logical and analytical brain types almost always prefer detailed and categorized organizing systems.

      I held onto this one last personality-trait theory for dear life, but I have recently met some analytical thinkers who just can’t maintain a detailed organizational system and require a simple one instead. Perhaps reading about my trials and errors in this book will entice a PhD candidate somewhere to research and collaborate on this further, but until then I am only left with…

The Logical Conclusion

      You can’t judge a person’s organizing style by personality alone. While there are definitely certain traits that the majority of people in each category share, it is not always 100 percent accurate.

      So, how can we identify a person’s organizing personality style? The best way to discover your organizing type is to, just as I did, take a look at the systems that are working for you. Are you able to keep your files organized at work? Are you always able to find your keys when they are on a hook? Do you use your phone to track your appointments or do you prefer a daily planner or calendar hung on the wall? The answer is quite literally staring you in the face every day (or hidden in a drawer). You just need to take a look around to really see yourself in a whole new light.

      And remember: Not everyone organizes the same way. Just because a system has worked for one person, that does not mean that it will work for everyone. While the why is open for debate, I have mastered the how. I have testimonials from clients and my global online community who have transformed their lives and their homes just by discovering their Clutterbug organizing style. I have seen the immediate effect that identifying your style can have on, not only your space, but your self-esteem and your self-worth. You are not messy, everyone just organizes differently.

      Every day, I receive hundreds of emails from people who have felt and seen the immediate impact of knowing themselves through the Clutterbug system. Now, I will help you too. Let’s identify your unique style and work from your strengths to help you become more productive and lead a much happier life.

Let’s Get Organized!

      Repeat after me: “I am a hardworking, productive, and organized person.”

      Heck yeah, you are! Say it again!

      “I am a hardworking, productive, and organized person.”

      Now, let go of those traditional perceptions of what your home is supposed to look like. Let go of how you think you are supposed to organize and plan your life. Let’s stop looking to others for inspiration, and instead take a step outside the “traditional basket” and look inside ourselves for the answers. Every time we experience a little bit more self-awareness, we are also experiencing self-growth. That is what this book is all about: knowing yourself better so that you can gain the self-confidence required to run your home, office, and life like a boss.

      Is discovering your style going to transform your house overnight? Of course not. Here’s what is going to happen: You are going to give yourself some much-needed grace. You are going to stop telling yourself that you are messy, lazy, or unproductive; those are the lies that have been weighing you down and creating roadblocks in your life. You are going to see yourself—and your home—for what you really are: unique and amazing. No more wishing for something different or feeling bad for the way things are now. Knowing yourself means appreciating yourself, and appreciating all that you have, as well. It’s going to be hard. It is going to require that you roll up your sleeves, turn off the television, and make things happen for yourself. No more excuses. No more lies. No more self-hatred. This journey WILL be challenging, but it will also be worth it.

      For years, I aspired to become a more detailed and “traditionally organized” person. Fantasy Cas is going to organize her computer into neat and logical file folders one day. She is going to make time to redesign her filing system so that her folders are subdivided into micro-organized categories, which are filled with files saved by both name and date for easy finding. Real-life Cas has a desktop so filled with crap that she can’t see her background and has only one folder, called “desktop rando stuff, ” where