How do you design to battle hoarding? HGTV Design Star Tiffany Brooks shares helpful advice.
Theresa: You are inside MyFixitUpLife with my husband, Mark.
Mark: And my very organized wife, Theresa.
Theresa: Ooh, I like to hear that.
Mark: When you get a game plan, you get super organized. You’re all about it. I will say this from the family side of things, perhaps a hair obsessive.
Theresa: Perhaps. Perhaps. But I keep all the things going, and I do have some extra stuff in our house that I can’t quite get to. While I am organized keeping the machine of our family going strong, I have a lot of clutter piles around our house. I’m wondering if Tiffany Brooks, our guest, has the same problem.
Mark: HGTV Design Star of America’s Most Embarrassing Rooms, HGTV, go!
Tiffany Brooks: (Laughing.) Hi guys.
Theresa: How are you?
Tiffany Brooks: Oh my gosh! I have been great. I have been awesome. Life is just, you know, a whirlwind. Yes, I do have some things to tell about myself and in my own living situation, right here on the radio.
Mark: (Laughter.) Oh.
Theresa: Oh. Let’s all get cozy.
Mark: You see, we have a teletype machine playing in the background or some type of … [makes noise]. You heard it here first.
Tiffany Brooks: Right. A little sofa for me to lie on. You guys are going to be my therapy today.
Theresa: Okay. Tell us about it. What are you clinging to obsessively.?
Tiffany Brooks: I am obsessed with home magazines. I have magazine issues that date all the way back to 2005. Now, when you think about that, that’s ten years worth of one collection, one issue of a magazine and then you multiply that by all the types of magazines that are out on the newsstands and you have yourself a problem. That is my thing and that is my phobia and that’s my vice.
Theresa: It might be a good thing though, too, because then you can go back to 2005, right? Then see what was going on then? Because you know recently my parents moved from the house they’ve lived in for twenty years, and I went through some stuff that was at their house still. There were some magazines that I had kept from …
Mark: Before 2005.
Theresa: Way before that! (Laughter.) It was fun to look through them and say, “Oh, look what was hot then. Like it’s coming back in style now.” Yeah.
Tiffany Brooks: No. It’ stuff like that. It’s ridiculous on my end, because you know what? I am able, I have this inner gift to go into someone’s house and see, just let me see if I can possibly see what’s happening there, and what their clutter issues are. I swear, if somebody handles my magazines the wrong way, or if they mix up December with April’s issue, it’s a problem. Yes, you may think that they’re good for reference, but some of that stuff is really left in the past for a reason. It’s not coming back. It’s never going to be coming back. I don’t know why I still have the magazines taking up shelves and shelves and shelves of valuable square footage in my house. That’s my thing; that’s my dirty little secret.
Mark: I have a trick that I’m going to play on you, next time you’re out to dinner. I’m going to your house. I’m going to take the magazines out, but I’m only going to rearrange the subscription cards inside them.
Tiffany Brooks: (Laughing.)
Mark: I’m moving them all around and then you’ll open one up and because they always fall out, right? You will have a snowstorm of subscription cards from the April 2009 issue.
Tiffany Brooks: Right. Right. You know what? You come do that right around April Fool’s Day. My heart would be, you know, a little bit less hurt if you do it around then. From now on, you leave my stuff alone.
Mark: (Laughing.) Well, let’s talk about …
Tiffany Brooks: I do have some tips though, you know, from my show, and from the listeners.
Theresa: Okay, so let’s go.
Tiffany Brooks: We can begin with that.
Theresa: How can we help other people because obviously we’re bad at helping ourselves?
Tiffany Brooks: You know what? I don’t like the word “hoarding,” but it’s coming down to it with some of the houses and the spaces that I’m going in. A lot of people are really having a tough time with giving up the paperwork piles, giving up the toys in the spaces, giving up the clothing that they know that they can’t fit anymore and they’ll probably never be able to fit into again. When it’s taking up valuable square footage and becoming a problem in your life, then it’s time to do something about it.
Theresa: Okay. So how do you get people to get rid of things, like their magazine pile? How do you talk to them?
Mark: Yeah, what’s the first step?
Tiffany Brooks: The first step is that I show people some images and inspirational shots of what their house could look like once we get rid of what happened in the past. The stuff. You know, they get enthusiastic about the possibilities of their space and this unused square footage. For example, if you have the papers on your table, I show people, like on your kitchen table … I may show people images of beautiful breakfast rooms and how uncluttered they look. Then, I take steps on how to get there. For example, with papers, they make wonderful products that you can use for scanning in your papers and actually discarding them or shredding the papers after you’re done with them. You have all the stuff in your scanner and then you have the important documents filed away neatly and you could probably get to them quicker than you could a paperwork pile on your breakfast table or on your counter in the kitchen.
Mark: You don’t recommend painting your house with your social security number on the outside?
Theresa: (Laughter.) Wait. That’s my vanity license plate. What are you talking about?
Mark: I just … look, I’m not that quick on the uptake. I need clarification, Tiffany.
Tiffany Brooks: I don’t recommend doing that. Step-by-step you don’t [upset 06:29] people.
Mark: Got it. Got it. That’s the end. You do that at the end. Once you’ve scanned everything, then okay. Got it. Writing it down.
Theresa: Oh, my goodness gracious.
Tiffany Brooks: Write that down. It’s important. I mean, and they have so many scanners out there. Go there; go to the container store. Get yourself a scanner and a shredder, and a couple of document boxes for things that you obviously can’t discard like tax returns. Get those things in some neat document boxes. But everything else can be thrown anyway, seriously. Everything else can be thrown away.
Theresa: What about things that … you’re encountering people that just can’t get rid of whatever that family heirloom is that does not fit with their house? That they probably don’t like that much and it’s definitely not going to go with what you’re going to do when you makeover their room or their house? What do you do about that family heirloom?
Tiffany Brooks: Well, the thing is the words “heirloom” and “antique” can easily be interchanged in the wrong way. If it’s a family heirloom and it’s actually worth something, I do take the time to research whatever that piece of furniture, that picture, that frame, that tchotchke is, to see if we are holding onto something valuable. If the person is hanging onto it because they love it, then guess what? Tiffany has to put on her big-girl-creative pants and figure out how to make it work in that space. However, if it’s something that is not worth it, and it’s taking up valuable space, and I can use that space to make their lives a little bit better and a little bit more stylish, I will talk them into possibly donating it to a sister or a brother, throwing it away, or selling it.
Theresa: I want to know where you can shop for those big-girl-creative pants, too.
Tiffany Brooks: (Laughing.) I’ll tell you where. You shop at my office phone. Just give me a call and I’ll be right there on the day, smoking.
Mark: (Laughter.) That is the kind of energy and emergency I want from the host of America’s Most Embarrassing Rooms. Are you kidding me?
Theresa: I love it.
Mark: Oh, that’s fantastic. Now, for those of us who are, say, in the more median range of clutter and things that we all have, from kid’s school papers to gym bags, to whatever it is, how do you get a handle on the daily organization tips of … ? Well, I’ll give one away: My wife despises where I leave my keys and wallet every day. Wrong place.
Tiffany Brooks: Well, you know what? It is. But your wrong places may be right for a reason. What I like to do is I typically come into a house and observe how you live. How do you come in and where do you take your shirt off, and where do you put down the keys and the mail? If you end up doing it by the bench, or if it’s thrown by the door, then maybe we need to find some type of something that we can hide the clutter like the shoes in, with a nice little bench on top of that, to go there. Maybe we need some hooks in that spot, because what I try not to do is disrupt how you live. It really is just as simple as recording how you live and then making whatever storage solution or your routine fit with what you’re already doing.
Mark: Wow! I love that! I will also amend how I enter the house which is tearing everything off and throwing it randomly about me.
Theresa: Ah, like our five-year-old.
Mark: Like our five-year-old, exactly.
Tiffany Brooks: Like a five-year old. You know, so many people do it. I [inaudible 10:06] so many people come in. They take off their shoes, they throw down the mail, and then they put their keys wherever they may land. That just signals to me that you need a nice little console table there, with a couple little cubbyholes and a bench to put your shoes neatly in, and somewhere to sit down and do all that, and some hooks for your clothes.
Mark: Wow! You’ve got my DIY juices flowing.
Theresa: Yes!
Mark: I’m really excited. HGTV Design Star Tiffany Brooks of Yay Décor on Facebook.
Theresa: Yes. And youandyourdecor.com. We have to go to break.
Mark: We’ll be back with more very organized MyFixitUpLife. (Music.)
Do you have any video of that? I’d care to find out more
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