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The Science Behind the Clutterbug Philosophy

Before we jump right into the organizing personality test, I first want to share with you some of the “science” behind the different organizing styles and how I developed it.

Disclaimer: There is actually no defined science involved (yet).

However, I’ve spent years observing my family, friends, and clients, trying to link the different organizing types to other personality traits or to one’s particular upbringing or even family history. I wanted to more deeply understand why some people are visual organizers while others are not. Why is it so easy for one person to use a detailed filing system every day, while others just make a pile? Surely I thought, there must be an easy way to wrap this whole concept up with a neat and tidy bow. Unfortunately, the more I dug into the underlying explanation for why some people organize differently from others, the further I actually got from an easy answer. Turns out people and psychological profiles are complex!

While there are shared characteristics that apply broadly to people in each of the categories I’ve defined, these characteristics certainly do not apply to everyone in the group in every given situation. So don’t worry if you were already thinking, “I’m a Cricket, but my house looks more like I am a Ladybug.” Like a lot of things in life, there is a spectrum to the Clutterbug system. During the ups and down of its development, I found there are also a lot of personality traits that I expected to fit neatly into specific organizing categories but, in the real world, just don’t. Despite having an anti-analytical brain, I still wanted to create a test and system that provided concrete, indisputable facts and figures for analysis! However, in the end, while there are certainly four distinct organizing types (and tens of thousands of people now validating this theory with real results), a list of personality-based similarities within those types (apart from organization) just isn’t easily defined. Therefore, it is important to understand as we delve into it that, without having a clear and concise list of personality traits for each organizing personality type, it is hard to create a test that is going to be 100 percent accurate, so consider yourself warned.

Is Organizational Style Related to Learning Styles?

This first question I wrestled with is a good one, isn’t it? At first, I was certain there was a correlation between the different organizing styles and the different learning styles. There are many different ways to learn new information, and for the basis of my Clutterbug research and development, I used the VAK learning style models developed by psychologists in the 1920s. This model is still recognized as the one of the three main learning style models today.

What Is the VAK Learning Styles Model?

According to many psychology and education professionals, most of us learn best in one of three ways: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.

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 she drags and drops all her unnamed and undated files when her desktop gets too full. How do I find my important files? By searching for them in my file browser and hoping like heck I’ll remember what I saved them as.

Would a more detailed and categorized file system actually work for me? Not likely. I’ve set up so many different systems in the past, and they all end up getting tossed into the “desktop rando stuff” folder eventually. I really want to get my computer perfectly organized, but, the truth is, I don’t take the time to save and file things that way…it’s just not me. I wish it was, I’ve tried to change, but in the end, it just never sticks. Instead, I need simple desktop folders for “photos,” “marketing,” “blog posts,” “videos,” etc., where I can drag and drop things and back them up to the server in case I accidentally delete something important. As much as I want to be a detailed person who loves organizational abundance, I need fast and simple solutions for everyday use. Should I feel bad about this and beat myself up over it? Of course not; life is too short to cry over file folders. It works for me, and that is all that matters.

It’s time to let go of those preconceived notions of how things are “supposed” to look and how we are “supposed” to act. Just let ’em go.

Now it is time to take the Clutterbug test.

But first, some instructions:

Be honest! Set aside your fantasy self. We don’t need that person to answer questions. You won’t learn anything constructive or useful from him or her. You will only be picking the answers that describe what you aspire to be or what you should be, instead of looking at who and where you are right now. Maybe you love the idea of having perfectly organized closets with your clothing arranged by style, season, and color. Maybe you tell yourself that you will make this happen…someday…when you have more time, money, or space. If your clothing is currently in a heap on the floor, then the detailed and perfectly organized closet is your fantasy self, not your real-life self. Sometimes the expectations we put on ourselves are so ridiculous that they are completely unattainable. The only thing an unattainable goal will do is make us hate ourselves and be the excuse we rely on for never getting started.

It’s time we design our homes and plan our lives based on who we really are and what really works for us, but that’ll only happen if you are honest. I’m going to hold up a mirror and show you who you are, and I will show you how to use the inherent strengths of your bug to overcome your weaknesses. This isn’t your traditional self-help book, designed to morph you into a better and shinier version of yourself. You are already amazing just the way you are, so answer the test honestly and take that step to becoming the badass home boss that you are destined to be.

One last note: When taking the test, realize that the state of your home is a combination of ALL the styles living there, including your spouse and children. When answering the following questions, think about the spaces that are predominantly maintained by you, as this will help you to get a better understanding of your own Clutterbug style. Let’s get started!