Ep473 - Decluttering Your Life: Insights from Tracy McCubbin

32min | 07/08/2025

Description

This episode is sponsored by: My Financial Coach
You trained to save lives—who’s helping you save your financial future? My Financial Coach connects physicians with CFP® Professionals who specialize in your complex needs. Whether it’s crushing student loans, optimizing investments, or planning for retirement, you’ll get a personalized strategy built around your goals. Save for a vacation home, fund your child’s education, or prepare for life’s surprises—with unbiased, advice-only planning through a flat monthly fee. No commissions. No conflicts. Just clarity.

Visit myfinancialcoach.com/physiciansguidetodoctoring to meet your financial coach and find out if concierge planning is right for you.

__________
Dr. Bradley Block is relaunching the show on July 14th! Help by downloading 10 episodes, subscribing, and leaving a review. Email a screenshot to enter a raffle for prizes like FIGS scrubs or a podcast takeover—and get his one-page cheat sheet on how to nail the first 10 seconds of every patient encounter.

_________

In a world drowning in clutter, how can physicians reclaim their space and sanity? Host Dr. Bradley Block welcomes Tracy McCubbin, to explore the psychology behind hoarding and practical decluttering strategies. With two decades of helping clients including many doctors, McCubbin explains how our hunter-gatherer instincts and sentimental attachments fuel a $10 billion storage industry. She addresses Dr. Block’s paper-hoarding habits, the outdated textbooks in his office, and the challenge of managing kids’ toys, offering insights on separating decluttering, organizing, and cleaning. This episode equips physicians with tools to break free from clutter paralysis and foster independence in their families.

Three Actionable Takeaways:

Digitize Information – Save articles and studies digitally in bookmarks instead of printing, reducing paper clutter.
Separate Tasks – Tackle decluttering, organizing, and cleaning as distinct steps to avoid overwhelm.
Set Habits – Establish consistent placement (e.g., keys in a bowl) to streamline daily routines and reduce stress.

About the Show:

PGD Physician’s Guide to Doctoring covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!

About the Guest:

Tracy McCubbin is the CEO and founder of dClutter Fly, one of America’s top decluttering companies, where she has helped thousands of clients, including physicians, clear clutter over the past 20 years. She is the author of Making Space Clutter-Free and her latest book, Make Space for Happiness. Recently, she transformed dClutter Fly into a franchise, empowering others to join her mission. Known for her practical and empathetic approach, McCubbin addresses the emotional and psychological barriers to decluttering, offering solutions tailored to busy professionals.

Website: https://dclutterfly.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracy_mccubbin/?hl=en
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@tracy_mccubbin

About the host:

Dr. Bradley Block – Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physicians

W...

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Description

This episode is sponsored by: My Financial Coach
You trained to save lives—who’s helping you save your financial future? My Financial Coach connects physicians with CFP® Professionals who specialize in your complex needs. Whether it’s crushing student loans, optimizing investments, or planning for retirement, you’ll get a personalized strategy built around your goals. Save for a vacation home, fund your child’s education, or prepare for life’s surprises—with unbiased, advice-only planning through a flat monthly fee. No commissions. No conflicts. Just clarity.

Visit myfinancialcoach.com/physiciansguidetodoctoring to meet your financial coach and find out if concierge planning is right for you.

__________
Dr. Bradley Block is relaunching the show on July 14th! Help by downloading 10 episodes, subscribing, and leaving a review. Email a screenshot to enter a raffle for prizes like FIGS scrubs or a podcast takeover—and get his one-page cheat sheet on how to nail the first 10 seconds of every patient encounter.

_________

In a world drowning in clutter, how can physicians reclaim their space and sanity? Host Dr. Bradley Block welcomes Tracy McCubbin, to explore the psychology behind hoarding and practical decluttering strategies. With two decades of helping clients including many doctors, McCubbin explains how our hunter-gatherer instincts and sentimental attachments fuel a $10 billion storage industry. She addresses Dr. Block’s paper-hoarding habits, the outdated textbooks in his office, and the challenge of managing kids’ toys, offering insights on separating decluttering, organizing, and cleaning. This episode equips physicians with tools to break free from clutter paralysis and foster independence in their families.

Three Actionable Takeaways:

Digitize Information – Save articles and studies digitally in bookmarks instead of printing, reducing paper clutter.
Separate Tasks – Tackle decluttering, organizing, and cleaning as distinct steps to avoid overwhelm.
Set Habits – Establish consistent placement (e.g., keys in a bowl) to streamline daily routines and reduce stress.

About the Show:

PGD Physician’s Guide to Doctoring covers patient interactions, burnout, career growth, personal finance, and more. If you're tired of dull medical lectures, tune in for real-world lessons we should have learned in med school!

About the Guest:

Tracy McCubbin is the CEO and founder of dClutter Fly, one of America’s top decluttering companies, where she has helped thousands of clients, including physicians, clear clutter over the past 20 years. She is the author of Making Space Clutter-Free and her latest book, Make Space for Happiness. Recently, she transformed dClutter Fly into a franchise, empowering others to join her mission. Known for her practical and empathetic approach, McCubbin addresses the emotional and psychological barriers to decluttering, offering solutions tailored to busy professionals.

Website: https://dclutterfly.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracy_mccubbin/?hl=en
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@tracy_mccubbin

About the host:

Dr. Bradley Block – Dr. Bradley Block is a board-certified otolaryngologist at ENT and Allergy Associates in Garden City, NY. He specializes in adult and pediatric ENT, with interests in sinusitis and obstructive sleep apnea. Dr. Block also hosts The Physician’s Guide to Doctoring podcast, focusing on personal and professional development for physicians

W...

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

About Succeed in Medicine

Was your training enough to handle everything physician life demands? From lawsuits to leadership, career decisions to challenging conversations, balancing the personal with the professional — not enough was addressed in medical school, residency or fellowship. This show fills those gaps so you can live up to the expectations that come with the white coat — not just in the exam room, but in all the places your MD follows you. Your host, Dr. Bradley Block, a private practice ENT, is right there with you — navigating the same challenges and bringing in world-class guests to teach, as he puts it, “everything we should have been learning while we were memorizing Kreb’s cycle.” With nearly 500 episodes and close to half a million downloads, Brad has built a trusted space where physicians come for brass-tacks, immediately-applicable advice. You don’t need another certification. You need a podcast that covers personal finance, private practice, side-gigs, main-gigs, reacting to bad reviews, misinformation, social media, charting, parenting, communicating, negotiating, leading, managing, teaching, learning and what to do when someone yells, “Is there a doctor on board?”

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

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