Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - A GENIUS Way To Be More Productive with Lisa Woodruff | Clutterbug Podcast # 210

Episode Date: February 12, 2024

Are you driving around in a car? Are you conducting a train? This is a new concept for home productivity has blown my mind! Lisa Woodruff from Organize 365 explains the difference between "cars" and "trains" and walks you through how to lay the tracks and build your train!  You can listen to Lisa's podcast on this topic here: https://organize365.com/podcast/570-creating-a-home-organizing-train/ Want to try a Sunday Basket? Learn more here: https://member.organize365.com/affiliate/cassandra-aarssen     You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's podcast is going to blow your mind. And I am not saying that lightly. This, we're going to talk about a concept that I had never heard before that makes so much sense. I just can't wait to share it with you. I am interviewing the incredible Lisa Woodruff from Organize 365. She's the CEO of Organized 365, the founder of and creator of the Sunday Basket. She is, hands down, one of the leading, productivity experts in the world, like honestly. And she has incredible systems in place and she's so passionate about especially helping women get a hold of their life and their home and get it organized so that it feels effortless. Are you ready for this? Prepare to get your mind blown. Welcome Lisa to the Clutterbug podcast. I am very excited to have you here today. Cass, thanks for having me back. I gushed about you and how incredible you are and all the things that you do. But I just want to jump right in because one of your latest podcasts blew my mind.

And I would love to talk about your concept of being a train engineer versus driving a car. This concept and how you put it, I've never heard anyone. explain it like this before and it makes so much sense to me and it blew my mind so please i mean i was driving a moped for a long time of my life with like everything piled on top and then i was driving a car and then i'm now i'm a train engineer and um what incredible please if you could let my listeners know and give them and then let's talk about this because mind-blowing okay great what i love about this is you and I both have a very similar mindset and a very similar speaking style. Like we have a lot of cross-pollination in our audiences.

We are both kind of just two women who figured it out. Basically, somehow we ended up in business, I think is how we would both describe ourselves. And I think that is so true, especially for women. Like you become an adult, you end up with this house, you end up with whatever, and all of a sudden you have all of these responsibilities. And women who appear to have it all together have figured this trained system out. And I am constantly, as a kindergarten teacher, trying to analyze and articulate, why do some women seem to be able to go through unexpected events and not lose their mind,

at least publicly, and others can't seem to get past 9 a.m. every day. And they're like, I'm done. I guess I'll try again tomorrow. And so I've constantly, as a child, I was watching my dad's big family, like, how did some of his aunts act and other ones didn't? Or my mom's family versus my dad's family or like people I babysat for. I've been like studying women my entire life. And now I feel as a woman who owns a company and lives with a grandchild and two working on adulting children and now getting my PhD, like I still have time. Your PhD.

I was going to bring that up later. I still have time and you're running this insane business and you're getting your doctorate. Like can we just calm down Lisa. I calm down a little bit. So then so then women like me who have figured this train system out, which I'll explain in a minute, then have to go, oh, well, it's no big deal. The PhD only takes 30 hours a week. I'm only working 40 hours a week in the business. So it's no big deal because if you take 168 hours minus 70 hours, that's still 98 hours.

and that, like, we're trying to tell you this math. And you're like, I can't get my laundry done in one week. I can't even talk to you, Lisa, about doing all these things. It has taken me 12 years to be able to articulate this in a way that people are like, that. That is what is different between productive, organized people and nonproductive people. And it's this car versus train. Your train is like an amazing, streamlined, fancy, I don't know, it's solar powered. It's incredible.

It's super fast. I got like a coal locomotive over here. But you're doing it so much better than me. But the point is I'm still on a train. And when I try to explain to people, I never heard this. Like, it blew my mind because when I'm trying to explain to people like, yeah, it seems like I can get a lot more done. And I'm trying to find the words of what that system is.

Yes. You put it so eloquently. Like, this is the coolest metaphor I've ever heard. And it hits it right on the head of why some people. are just screaming through life, getting so much done, and still they don't seem to be working harder and why other people are running around like crazy pants and yet not getting things done. So genius there. So this idea clicked when I was thinking about us, you and me, as an entrepreneur, wearing all

the hats trying to do all the things versus like Procter and Gamble or GE in Cincinnati, like these long history companies that have like all of these systems and structures. And I keep trying to articulate in my PhD program to my advisor and my professors. Look, I want to create in the household what happened in the 50s, 60s, and 70s in corporations. Like, everybody used to just go to work and you were told what to do. And then somewhere along the way, they created all these systems and processes and procedures inside of work. So that literally you can get hired and onboarded and maybe you don't even talk to a person because there's all this structure inside of corporations.

We don't have any structure inside of houses. So I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking about this. I'm like, how do I explain this in a real life? So I was like, what is the difference between how I handle a lot in one day versus other people, or how I personally used to handle a lot in one day? So how I used to handle a lot in one day 12 years ago was I had a minivan. And I would load that minivan up like it was a mobile tenement on wheels. At my trunk, I called it a closet. Like we had extra clothes. We had extra coats like for the unexpected. I had a lunchbox. in there. At one point, there was a rat living in our garage that really liked the lunchbox because I had so many snacks in my car. Like, I mean, just, you know, yes, Allstate covered all of that. When my kids were little, I had a portable potty in there. At one point, I was driving around

with a crock pot in my car. This is the thing, because people are like, organization means being prepared at all times for every, that's what the perception is of organization. I have a best friend who's like, I'm organized. Her purse is overflowing her cars full of everything. Like, this is the perception of organization. and carry everything with you at all times to always be prepared at a moment's notice. Yeah, find you, this car has 100,000 miles on it. It did have a rat living in it for a month, which I kept driving it around. Like the crop pot was not clean.

Like it was, you were not putting me on a TV show, but I had whatever I needed wherever I went because my life was so unpredictable because I was constantly driving all these kids and like drop one kid off, then run and do a professional organization job for four hours. They go back and pick up that kid and then take them to that therapy appointment and then try to pay bills in the car while you're going like and you're just like trying to get it all done in your car and the awesome part about your car is like it is yours like you can and I drive a lot of places instead of fly because if I get that phone call I can literally get in the car and I can be on my way home I can pivot and pick up that kid who's sick at school I can go get the dog or whatever like you have

the ability to pivot and keep moving the problem is when you're driving a car you can't do anything other than listen to podcasts, really. And, you know, talk to or scold your children, whichever. You cannot multitask while you're driving. So you're locked into this driving. And you can only be in one place at one time because when you're on your way to one place, you're leaving this other place that you need to be, which is why I started the Sunday basket 20 years ago as a mobile basket that I would use in all these doctors office that I was in to try to keep up on the administration part of my life while I was just sitting everywhere or a single. sitting in car line. I would try to use all these tiny pockets of time. And it is effective and it is

more productive. And you do start to get a glimmer of a piece of control when you start to really stock your car as if it's, you know, a mobile home and you try to use every single second. The problem is you get burned out because it's just constant every single five seconds that I wasn't allocating towards some task. I knew I was falling farther and farther behind and I was getting more and more stressed out. If you look at your life as you're driving a car, right? It's like, am I going left? Am I going right? Is there a shortcut? Which am I have to go? You're waiting for traffic. You have to stop at all the stop signs. Most people in their lives are driving a car. That's like their life. And it's great because you can maneuver and you can multitask and you can do things. But

there's constant things out of your control at all times and distractability everywhere. And it's decision fatigue. Yes. Yes. Totally. So I was thinking, how did I move from that to this, literally doing three full-time jobs and doing a puzzle last night for fun. And I was like, it is because of planning and putting in systems and processes. Like my house runs like a corporation now. And I used to not like that because I wanted to be the stay-at-home mom. It sounds so clinical and it sounds so cold and like I'm a robot. But the truth of the matter is I have so much capacity to actually be there for people and support people because I have so much more capacity.

So how did I do that? And that's when I realized you have to create trains, but you cannot have trains until you have trained tracks. So the first thing you have to do is you have to stop. And that's what I did in 2012, quit my job, came home. I was like, I can't keep running like a rat in a maze for another 60 years. If I'm going to turn 40 and I'm going to live to be 100, like I want out of this maze. I want to create my own thing. So you set up train tracks.

And your train tracks start with organizing your house, organizing your personal life, and starting to plan every day. and then every week and then every month, and then you start to get where you can plan more and more out in advance. Trains run on a pre-planned track. Trains can't go off-road and just go anywhere they want to. So you can either have the spontaneity and the chaos of driving the car everywhere or the planned, purposeful productivity of a train, but once you get on the train, the train is going in one direction and it makes certain stops and you have to be on the train when the train is at that stop.

My train is not as efficient as your train, but I'll tell you what. I have systems in place that take me from one moment to the next throughout my day, and I don't allow myself to get derailed. Here's an example. I empty the dishwasher right before when I'm making dinner. So today there's a bunch of dishes on the counter. It could be done. I could stop in, but no, I do that at this time. And I walk past and I keep focused on the things that I have to get done, that I know that I get done. And it's every day is very, is very, similar. There's some flexibility, but it's those tracks that are keeping me moving fast and not getting distracted and not having decision fatigue. And I love also how you talk about your train that you're building. So first you lay the tracks and I want you to give examples of what those tracks would be, but then you also build cars like the train cars. Lisa, this is so freaking brilliant. Please keep going. Keep going. Okay. So the train tracks are, yes. at first when you realize, okay, I need to have structure in my day, like I had structure when I was in school, or like a corporation person would have structure. They would have a beginning, a middle, and an end of their day. So you need a morning and an evening routine. I'm not doing yoga for three hours and meditating and any of that stuff.

But I do have, this is what I do in the beginning of the day. This is what I do at 4 o'clock when I get home from work between 4 and 6. And this is what I do before I go to bed. Those like anchors to your day. And then you make the mental decision that, I am going to become a more proactive and less reactive person, which means, yes, I'm going to lose a tiny bit of my spontaneity, but also I'm going to gain back capacity. And so I'm going to move from a car to a train. And initially, you're just the engine. Like, just the engine is on this track, just like you said. And the engine is going down the track and saying, okay, I did my morning routine. I did my afternoon routine.

I did my evening routine. And like, for example, an afternoon routine, this is something also I don't hear a lot of people talk about, but is game changer for me. That is when you end your workday or when your kids come home from school until after dinner. For some people it's 15 minutes. For some people, it's three hours. But it's all the things that have to get done during that time. And your train engine runs because you have a Sunday basket. So the Sunday basket is your weekly planning time and your catch-all time and you're planning for the next week.

And you get used to, okay, I'm going to plan on Sunday for the next week. And when I say plan on Sunday, I mean, pay the bills and make sure all the permission slips are signed. and all of that. But also, I'm going to look at my week ahead. What is the weather? What work obligations do I have? What extracurricular school things are there? What doctor's appointments do we have? What holidays are coming up out of nowhere? Real and made up holidays. Doesn't matter. We have to celebrate them all now. Do I have everything I need for all of those? Have I stocked my car, which is now trained, for everything that I'm going to need? Have I looked at my budget and pulled out the cash that I need? Because this is a hair week, so I need more cash. Like any decisions you can

make on Sunday for your week you make on Sunday so that during the week you're just running the plan that you've made on Sunday. And that is the engine, the Sunday basket, the morning, afternoon, evening routine. Just that alone is life changing. Life changing. Like life changing. Here's an example. So we have a play tonight for my daughter and Sunday. So we knew when we, when I planned for the week, that I had to get, because this is cash only, I had to get cash out. So we plan to get the cash out on the day we're going to the bank. We know it. Like we think the whole week and ahead so that we're not like, oh, crap, we got to stop at the bank on the way to the play. And that sounds like such a small, no big thing, but it's all these little decisions that you make and all these little things that

add up to chaos and distractibility and time. Yes. And it's cognitive overwhelm. Like they have, science has shown that we only have so many decisions for the day. So I like to say in the morning, you have a good morning routine when you are listening to a podcast or daydreaming about your day and you forgot anything that you did. If you end up making at the coffee machine going, how did I get ready this morning? That is the right morning routine. If you're checking things off of a checklist, that is not the right morning routine. The whole point of these tracks of these morning routines, like you said with the dishes, is to know there is a time in a place for that so that you have free the time and the mental capacity right now for what

you're supposed to be doing, which is not dishes or thinking about what you're going to wear today. It is work to create those tracks. That's the thing. So I had to have reminders and repetitively do it. But this real secret, I think, is to not get off those tracks. Like to like, no, this is what I'm doing. And it doesn't have to be insane things. It's like I get done work. I empty the dishwasher. I start making dinner. Like I do those things. And then after dinner, we reload the dishwasher. Every night at my nighttime routine, I tidy the house for 15 minutes.

I reset things. I start the dishwasher. Like it's little, I know this sounds so silly to say this out loud, but those are tracks. And I had never thought of it that way. Those are tracks that no matter what I do those. And now I don't have to think about them because I work so hard to lay them. And the laying of those tracks are habits. And they take a long time to actually become just like motor memory and you're just doing them.

And I don't know about for you, but for me, like in my 30s, I waited so long to get these blessings through adoption, these two little babies. I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom since I knew that was like an optional thing. Like that's what I went to college I was like, what degree can I get until I become a state-home mom? Like I just wanted to be a state-home mom. And when I was a stay-at-home mom, like the fact that I had variety in when I did dishes and what I made and what my schedule was for the day was part of my job description of being a stay-at-home mom and like planning my day and it was fun. But I think that we resist some of that structure at home because it's boring. It's too robotic. It's too clinical.

It's too cold. I want my family to be loving. I want it to be warm. I want to be spontaneous. I want to be. But what happens is when you are that one, way for everything, you're exhausted and you're not really happy by 6 o'clock at night. Yeah. I mean, I feel like I'm definitely, I hate structure. Well, I, in my mind, I tell myself

I hate structure. I'm a free spirit. Free spirit cast was a hot mess sandwich, okay? I have a little bit of structure in my day, but that's all I need. My train isn't as big as you, yours. It doesn't go as fast as yours, but let me tell you, now that I'm not driving a car, I get so much more done. I have so much more time to relax in my day that I can do the fun, spontaneous things because the house, the finances, the big stuff is on autopilot. It doesn't even feel like work. It feels effortless to maintain a home. But I'll tell you, I moved here six months ago.

And so at my old home, things were running like a well-oiled machine. And I'm like, oh, I just have my love together. I moved to a new house and suddenly I find myself in a Honda Civic again. And I love, you have mentioned many times like you're the anti-professional organizer, like you like to have the strong. That's why I think this is such a great conversation because I think people do view us differently. I have so much time. And I will say that the reason why I think you think my trains are running so fast is because

I have actually created a corporation and another train, which is my team. And so my team runs a lot of, I mean, obviously, now the podcasts are the interviews that I do, but shipping and ordering and customer service and running the clubs and like that those are done by literal people. Like there's trains and they each have trains and like we're all doing this. So the household part, you know, I am only working 30 hours a week in the business while I work 30 hours a week on the PhD. So I'm working 60 hours a week, but not. I'm inside of my company 60 hours a week. You just, you are a productivity not expert. But, but it's, but look, the results speak for themselves. Like I want to be more like you. You're amazing. I, I dip my toe in the water and it is so much better. It's so much better being a train conductor. And it took me a while to build new tracks in this house. And I was frustrated. because it is, well, it was frustrating because I had to kind of learn new things and there's a lot more work to be done and new tracks to be done. And now, six months later, I'm on autopilot here. And it feels effortless. And so I want this for the listeners, but I think your concept of moving from

driving around your life in a car to riding on a train because you're going in one, you can go so much faster, you're getting so much done. are so much more efficient, is so brilliant because it makes you look at the concept of routine differently. And it gives you a real perspective of what it looks like, which is I don't get derailed in the day with all the little things around me because I know when I'm tackling those later. I have a plan of when I'm doing these things, when I pay the bills, when I meal plan, when I go grocery shopping, when I do do the housework, that I'm able to ignore all the stop signs and the traffic lights because I'm on a track, man.

And I'm just going along fast in my day. And I can read a book or watch a movie while I do it because I'm on a train. I'm on a mother freaking train, Lisa. So Cass, I think I want to talk about the train cars. but before we go to that, I want to really dive into this idea. I think that we all have that we do want to be spontaneous and fun and available for novelty and newness and relationships and connection. And if you did not have a productive mother, or maybe you did have a productive mother

and then you appeared that she was cold, which could be too. But if you did not see someone who was productive and also available for fun, you think you have this either or in your head. And what I have found to be true for myself is the more that I create better systems and structures at home. So we've laid the tracks. We're now moving to weekly planning. We're a conductor of a train. We're doing the Sunday basket.

We haven't even added any cars yet. All of a sudden, I have more capacity. And this is why I'm getting my PhD because I'm trying to figure out what actually happens in the brain when a woman becomes organized and she doesn't have this cognitive overload. What I found is when women started doing organized 365 and they did the Sunday basket and then the productive home solution and then the paper, they got to a point in it does take one to three years to get all the way organized, all your cars that we're going to talk about, get on your truck. They got their trains going with all their cars and Cass, they were mad at me. Not mad, mad, but they were frustrated. And do you know why? No.

They had nothing to do at home, which meant they had to figure out what they had to do with their life. because Organized 365's mission is not really about organization at all. Our mission, which has been our mission for eight years, is organized 365, helps you get your home, functionally organized so that you have time to do what you are uniquely created to do. And so many of us, especially women, get so trapped in the day to day that we have totally stopped dreaming and we have forgotten what it is we want to do. Like, I have a coach for my PhD. And each time we meet, she says, I don't even know why you're getting the PhD.

because you already have the podcast and you're already coming out with the theories. I said, I know, but I want to publish them. She goes, why? You're already reaching so many people in these ways. Like, what is it you think this PhD is going to give you? And I just said, I just want to get it because I just want to get it. Like, I don't even have to get it. Like, I just want to get it.

Why can't somebody who's 52 just go get a PhD because they feel like it? Like, I just want to get it. And you have the capacity to do it. You have the room in your life. Yeah. Yeah. When I first got kind of things going on autopilot, I was stay at home mom running a daycare. And I looked around and thought, oh, suddenly I have time.

I was like, what do I do with it? I was bored because I was working so hard. I was managing the mess for so long. Every moment was filled with chaos that I didn't feel ever bored because it was never boring. And then when things started getting easier, I was like, wait a minute. And I just kept adding to the place. and adding to the plate and adding to the plate. But then that felt effortless.

I'm not getting my PhD, but I just became a volunteer medic. And I'm doing this. And I'm running a charity. I just started a charity for my stepdad. And I'm writing a new book. And it's like, and still running a business. Yes. And still have tons of time for Netflix.

I know. See? We're both weird. I watch a ridiculous amount of TV. I listen to at least an audiobook a week, a whole book a week, plus the PhD, plus work, plus Greg wants to watch like five hours of TV. I'm just like, and I'm doing like, through all jigsaw puzzles per week. We watch like three episodes a day.

Yeah, I'm ordering 3,000 piece jigsaw puzzles now so that the last a couple weeks, I'm like, this is insanity. And I think this is the lie that has been sold to women. You can't have it all, so don't even try. B.S. B.S. We. And that you have to work harder.

That's also a lie. It's also a lie that you have to work harder. Like, do more, do more. It's not about doing more. It's about being more efficient. It takes about three years in order to truly become an organized person. And I've never said it takes any less than that. Like, I've always said that.

It took a while for my business to take off. And you're like, it's going to take three years. Yeah, I'll see you later, Lisa. I'm out. I'm not putting in that kind of effort. But there is marked improvement with each step. So step one, to start thinking week instead of a day. If you're thinking day to day, you can't be very proactive.

You have to think at least just one week. But a solid year to really get that morning, afternoon, evening routine, really trust that you're going to do it every single week. And while you're doing that, then you start adding on actually physically organizing your house. And those are the cars. So the first car is the pink car. And that is the personal car. You have to organize yourself first before you organize everyone else. I used to say, start in the kitchen, start wherever.

Where do you usually tell people to start? I say in the bedroom. I say in the master bedroom because it's like, I don't know, it's like you're the persona of you. So you wake up, your clothes are organized, you're, you just feel confident, you feel proud of yourself, you're streamlined in your personal space. We have, like, is this where you say too, like your personal stuff? Yes, your personal space. So it's your bathroom, your bedroom and your closet. And it is because, cats, if people would just get personally organized, they could.

can live their life 50% organized like that. You wake up. You get in a shower, you go in the closet, you get dressed. My definition of an organized closet is every single thing in that closet fits and you would wear it. If I went into your closet and I pulled something out and said, put this on and walk out the front door, you would do it. If you wouldn't, it shouldn't be in there. I'm not saying you have to get rid of it. It just shouldn't be in the closet. So you get dressed. It's exactly what I say. Yeah, right. Same exact thing. Exactly thing. You could close your eyes and, get dressed and then and leave and it fits you. And yep, it looks good.

Exactly. Lisa. And then bathroom. Same thing. Like no samples. We don't need any samples. Like we're not changing our facial regimen. Like just the one lotion you like on your face because if you use the one that's a little

too thick, which is what I'm doing right now, I'm annoyed. This morning I was annoyed. I was like, oh, I have to decide the moisture I love that I'm running out of or this leftover one until I get to the Costco. So every morning this week I've been annoyed because I've had to decide. which moisturizer I'm going to put on my face. You should not be annoyed. No, and it's the same with makeup.

If you have lipstick and you bought it and it's not your shade, don't put it in your drawer. What are you talking about? Because like that's just you're never, it's not going to change. You're always going to hate it. So why is it taking up space? Because you pay for the money.

Well, you already spent the money. You're not going to get it back. Move on. You're going to be right yourself for another three weeks about this. Like just throw it away and move on. So if you go to bed and you wake up, up and you literally wake up in the kitchen, you end up in the kitchen to make your coffee or whatever, and you're dressed and you've been thinking about your day and you haven't had to think about

what's going on your face or what's going on your body, you are personally organized. And now you've got your engine with the Sunday basket with your personal organization, train car. And your train car, like, so there have been some medical emergencies in our family and I have now learned that I have basically a diaper bag for me. It's a backpack. But when there's going to be a medical emergency, I'm like, oh, grab the backpack. And in the backpack, it has warm socks, a warm sweatshirt because those hospitals are freezing. It has protein bars and it has bottles of water.

It has an extra charger for my phone. Like, if there's an emergency, meet personally, this is what I'm going to need. I can live for days on these protein bars and water. I know how long it'll sustain me another two hours. And sometimes you need that. So what do you need? You just built an emergency caboose, man. You just built a little emergency caboose car.

I love it. And then you move from there. So then the next car I have you do is storage. What do you do next after personal? It's like kitchen, man. For me, because I feel like women's, women are really, for some reason, like we, maybe it's society's pressure, but we feel like the kitchen reflects us and is a reflection of us as a human being.

So when the kitchen's a messy and disaster and we can't find the food and everything's crazy. We're like, well, we're failures. Yeah. All of a sudden, we're the reason there's a war. I mean, I don't know why it's always our fault. Basically. Okay, I do agree with you. I move to storage and then to family areas only because family areas get undone by your family like daily. They do. But, however, the kitchen, you can keep pretty organized if you organize it your way. Before we get into talking about the kitchen and how to build your tracks and your train cars in the kitchen, I have to thank today's sponsor, Hello Fresh.

Joe cooks four nights of the week and takes care of meal planning and I'm in charge of three nights of the week and I choose to go with HelloFresh. It saves me time. I don't have to plan. I don't have to worry about buying things. I get delicious, nutritious meal kits delivered to the house three a week and they're easy step-by-step instructions. Everything's pre-portion so there's no waste. And the best part is a lot of these meals I can put together in under 15 minutes, which I need. in my busy life. So right now, if you want to give HelloFresh a try, you can get free breakfast for life by going to Hellofresh.com slash clutter pod free for free for free. That's one item per box while your subscription is active. That's hellofresh.com slash clutter pod free.

We shop at the grocery store for all the possibilities and yet we're running a restaurant. your kitchen is a restaurant, but you're shopping at the store as if your, your kitchen is multiple restaurants. My kitchen right now is three restaurants. It is a convenience store primarily. From four to six, it is a diner. We cook like, order up Abby. Okay, now for Grayson, and I'm making all the different things, or Abby is, and we're all cooking. We're all like, it's like a diner. And then on Sunday, we are a five-star restaurant. On Sunday, my husband goes to all the stores. He gets salmon, he gets brie, he gets fillets, he makes a new recipe every single week. His mother comes over. There's wine, there's, there's music. Like it is wonderful. And when I go to tackle our budget,

I'm like, Greg, that Sunday dinner is too expensive. You have to cut back on that Sunday dinner. But the truth of the matter is, it's the fast food that we're buying, the stocking of the convenience store that we don't eat, and then the diner that's like serving as if it was 89 diners instead of saying this is the diners menu for the week you can have anything you want when you want but these are the only things this diner will be serving this week it won't be serving everything you've had in your whole 23 years of being a human um so we don't have all of the options there and end up throwing them away so that your kitchen is a restaurant so it's such a good analogy I love that because I also like identifying the strength and weaknesses in your family because I'm a

I would go to the grocery store, I'd like, oh, asparagus, oh, Brussels sprouts. Oh, look at this. But with no plan, like there would be no meal plan and then they'd all just rot and I'd throw them out, you know. Whereas my husband's like, he's really good at these is what were the meals and he's only buying things for the meals. Whereas I like to go and like kids snacks. I like, oh, for their school lunches and I can take care of that. So we actually shop, we're in charge of different things when it comes to the kitchen and we only stock. for those things. So we know what we're having for dinner every single night this week. We can switch it up. Maybe Tuesday we have Thursdays. Like we're not like, correct, right? Exactly. But it means I'm

not throwing out hundreds of dollars worth of rotting fruits and vegetables, which I was. Or meat just going in the freezer because you buy it. It's on sale. And you're never pulling that back out again. I mean, and you're never pulling it out. No. You're never pulling it out. No, I know. So your restaurant is, is a family style restaurant because you make the mashed potatoes and pass it around the table, right? I used to have a family style restaurant. I'm still buying as if we have a family style restaurant. We only have a family style restaurant on Sunday, but we don't have a family style restaurant. We have a high-end restaurant. We're eating filets, Cass. So understanding who, like you said, who's the buyer, what's their preference? What are they buying for? And what style restaurant are you?

Because exactly, like my mom love her. We've all, like I was her only child and we move, I moved out 30 freaking years ago. Do you know what I'm saying? But she's still buying bags of potatoes and to make, and it's just all going bad. So look at your own life. Like what are you eating? What type of restaurant is your kitchen right now? What is your restaurant?

Trains, restaurants. And how can we run that like a train and make that efficient? too. Like you're buying of the food and your cooking of the food. Just a little meal planning, man. Meal planning for us. Well, and this is the thing. If you don't plan, and we don't, we don't do me. We're going to be. If you don't plan where these groceries are going to go, they are going to go bad and you are going to throw the money away. So everything about organization and productivity is this ying and yang of time and money. It takes time to get organized and then you save money and then you have more time and then you save more money. And it's this. back and forth of time and money, time and money. And the more time you put into organizing and systematizing your house,

the more money you save because you're not doing things as often, which then starts to alleviate more time. So if you don't do any kind of meal planning and you don't do a grocery store planning, then you end up on Wednesday night. Oh, it's too late. I guess I'll go through the fast food, which used to be like a $10 or $20 hit. Now it's $30, $40, $50, $60. Oh my gosh, it's $60 for my family to get McDonald's.

$60 for my family of five. It's crap and it's supposed to be cheap and it's $60 freaking dollars. And then what would you have used that $60 for? So this is why I'm going to do this new blitz is because this is where your discretionary money is. None of us have extra money. There's no such thing as extra money. But you're going to prioritize eating like you're hungry. You're going to eat.

You're going to go through, oh, dang it, $60. I just want you to think every time now, like, okay, you're making that choice. Like, I go and I get onion rings because I like the drive to get onion rings. I like the onion rings. I get them with a sweet tea. It costs eight bucks. I know what I'm doing. That's fine.

But when I'm stopping by LaRosa's on the way home for $50 because nobody has time to make dinner or there's nothing in the house we can make, even though there are hundreds of dollars with the food still sitting in the house, that's not okay with me anymore. Like I would like to be able to save that money. So that should be your reason to go, okay, I'm going to spend an hour thinking about the menu for our restaurant this week. Yes. And then creating what we need for our restaurant because I'm going to be paid $50 per week by not going through fast food. And now with that $50 per week, so $50, I'm making $50 an hour, basically, I can now use this $50 towards putting the kids in camp, going on the vacation, getting a Sunday basket, whatever.

Like I can use this money differently because I have planned. And so this is what it looks like in our house. And you guys, people listening are going to think this is so weird. We go to the grocery store. My husband's in charge of the meals that he's planned for the week. I'm in charge of like kids snacks for lunches. We actually keep kids snacks for lunches in a separate place in our kitchen. We have a, like it's zone. So I know when that's getting empty, that's my job to refill it. He's in charge of food. So we ran out of milk, which is like we need milk. When we go to the store just to get milk, We are only getting milk. I am not like, oh, look at this, look at this, look at this.

Like, I'm on a train, man. I'm on a train where before I'd be like, I'm going to pick up popcorn. Oh, look, this meats on sale. Yes. Ground beefs on sale. And it sounds great. It sounds like we're going to save money. But it would always just end up getting tossed in the freezer because I wasn't meal planning.

And I was just, you know, and it was so much waste and so much extra inventory in my restaurant so now we have a plan for the week we only get the meals for the plan for that week we can switch it up within that week yep we have a plan for kids snacks and if we need something extra we go and just get that and it's very rare that we have to but we're out of milk so we do have to but it's it's like nope i'm not getting derailed we're just getting that because we have the plan for the rest when you say you need extra milk what i think is what i used to do when i was a stay-at-home mom is I go to the grocery store to get the milk. You have to go through the whole entire grocery store to get to the milk.

Now, I know it costs double to get that milk if I get it at the convenience store or we have It's an extra dollar, but I go to the convenience store. I'm so glad you said that. Yes, because, and I think people should know that it's time and money. So for an extra $1, you didn't have to park like halfway out. Of course, we need the steps, but whatever. You didn't have to park so far away, walk all the way in, get the milk, walk by everything you might have bought.

And I would. I probably would. I saved money to. I saved money to because I know I would pick up stuff that I didn't need and wasn't planned on having didn't need for my butt. You know what I mean? Yes. We have self-discipline at the store.

So we don't have to have self-discipline every single day, all day long at home. So I'm really bad. I'm like, oh, Oreos, get ice cream sandwiches. My husband's like, nope, you're in charge of school snacks. So I get the ones I don't love. but I know my kids do and he's in charge of meals, breakfast, lunch, and dinners. And it's so great because if I want a snack, I got to make it, you know? No one's going to do that.

No one's making it. But it's okay. It's good. Like, it's like I'm healthier. I'm happier. We're saving money. And we don't have the waste that we used to have in our house. But none of this happens by accident.

none of this happens overnight. None of this is easy. And so we're like, well, if I can't make that change this weekend, like you can make, just after listening to this from now and when you run out of milk, spend $1 more and go to the convenience store, if that's the only thing you got out of the podcast, that's a win. Because you just saved yourself time and you realize I don't have to go to the grocery store for every single thing. productivity is all about little micro improvements and planning.

So what my professor said to me after I had this whole study and she's like, okay, this could be groundbreaking. She said, actually, I think you should research planning because we don't know where that is in the brain yet. And I think you could find it. I was like, you think I could find where planning is in the brain like medically? She goes, yes. I said, for my dissertation?

She goes, no. for your life's work. I was like, oh, gosh, I'm not going to map the brain and find where planning is. But of course, now I can't stop thinking about it. I have a feeling you are. I have a feeling you actually are. This is good. I love that you love the research because you're bringing real science into this.

This isn't just like, oh, this worked for me. This is like, no, this works for everyone. This is science. And this is the most efficient way to have extra time and money. and space and capacity in your life. And if nothing else, if you're listening to this, this train, for me, that was such a light bulb listening to your podcast. Thinking of your life as you're the conductor of a train so incredibly powerful because

it means you're not allowing yourself to get derailed. And if you start thinking of your life in this way, like, no, I'm on a train path today and you see, oh, that's a bill, I should probably get to. No, I pay the bills on Sunday. Oh, oh, gosh, I'm out of milk. I should run to the grocery store. Nope, it's not grocery stopping day, babe. You can go to the convenience store later when you're running out for the next errand

because you're on a train because this is your track and you're staying on. That is powerful, Lisa. And life is going to, life is going to sidestwike. You are going to have big, unexpected events that you can't just ignore. and I do address that in the podcast as well. And this is why people who get to the point where they move to these trains and they get these train tracks, even if they haven't explained it this way, and these train cars and they get their house as organized as they want it to be. I used to think it has to be all the way organized. I'm giving up on that.

Maybe you don't want your storage room organized. If you have the spaces that you're in are as organized as you want them to be and you're living your best life. So my thing is, do you have the time to do what you want to do? read a book, watch TV, start a new business versus have to do all of these household-related things. That's all I want for you. Then once you have that time, at something big happens, someone passes away or there's a divorce or there's something big happens. Your train is going to stop.

It is not a impervious train. It is going to stop for that period of time while you deal with that really hard thing. The thing is your train is going to start up again. it's not like your train got derailed and the cars are off the track like they're just stopped waiting and it takes a while to get it started it takes a while to get it does but the trains are all on there now you just moved so you moved your train from one track to a new track so it stopped your train stopped it literally went over to completely different house i got back in my car for a bit i got back in my car no you didn't you actually never did you just moved your train to a completely different

track and then you went through each of the cars and got them ready for this new track and and then you started your train back up again. And it started going, so you don't lose all of the organization and productivity you have learned. You have to reorient to the new track, to the new way of living, to the new life circumstance. But you know how to put your trains in order. And you know you just need to set up this kitchen and this bedroom and this closet and your new emergency caboose. And then you're like, okay, is everything set up? Okay, great.

Fire up the train. Now we're running again. and you're probably running at the same speed you were in the last house. Yeah. I have five bathrooms plus a bathroom in the garage. Like this house is so much bigger than my last home. And I was like, how can I get this all done? And I was panicky.

And I was like, and then I just built a new track for that. And now it's on autopilot. And it's no extra time than my last house. It, honest to goodness, isn't. I gave up some things. I was like, oh, that's not as efficient. I don't have to do it that detailed anymore. I can take shortcuts here.

It's fine if I let that go. My kids can do this. My husband can do this. I can let this go. I can delegate. And guess what? Just as efficient. It just took time to get the systems in place.

But now it's like, man, I got time again. This doesn't feel hard. If you go back a minute and just listen to what Cass said, the way you just described your house is how a CEO would describe a business. And that is not how. women describe our houses. You literally just talked about, I put this in place and I delegated this and I and I changed this KPI and I did. And that's why businesses work. And that's why people can come and go in businesses because the job descriptions and the systems are there. We have to

create that in our houses. And if you don't create it, it's not going to be there. You are the CEO of your home. You are the CEO of your home. You are the CEO of your home. home, run it like a business. Make it efficient. It can still be fun and laid back and spontaneous, but why are you in the mud, in the muck, slinging the stuff on the things that don't matter? These are older podcasts, but I did, you're the CEO and the CO of your home, and I explain the difference. So the CEO, the train conductor, the visionary, the planner, the setting the strategic objectives, but also you're the C-O-O who has to implement and do all of the operations. So you do actually have to do both. But I like that you're saying that because we default to

the C-O. We run all the trains. We do all the actionable. We do all the operations without vision, without the CEO, without the strategy, without the planning. You are just a hamster on a wheel. You're just a rat and a mate. But when you add on being the engineer, being the CEO, being the conductor, being the visionary, being the planner, all of a sudden, you're charting where you're going instead of reacting to where you've been or what is going to come up today. So good. I mean, this was so good. And I'm even thinking back to like when I was a stay-at-home mom and it was chaotic and different.

And I remember I said to myself, no, I'm going to run this. Why is it, can I run a business? I was like the executive director of the Lung Association. And I was doing okay there. but I can't get the dishes done and my kids clean and myself showered. And I was like, no, man, I got to run this like a business. So I was like, this is when we're doing circle time. This is when it's recess.

This is when we're doing nap time. This is when. And I printed off this little cute schedule on the fridge, life changing. Yes. Like I was running my being a stay at home mom like I was running a daycare like a business. And then eventually I brought daycare kids in because it was like a daycare. And it was incredible. So we were in our home the same way.

Gosh, Lisa is so brilliant. I mean, I could talk about this all day, but listen, I want everybody to go listen to Lisa's podcast. And also, if you could let my listeners know where they could find more about you, I already sung your praises in the beginning. But you're incredible. And it's a different way of looking at the thing that everybody else is saying. But it makes so much sense. So just thank you. And please let my listeners know how they can find you.

Oh, thanks, Cass. It's just organized 365 everywhere on, I'm on LinkedIn as Lisa Kelly Woodruff and then Organized 365 on Instagram is where I'm most active. And then the podcast is organized 365. Yeah. And you, I mean, the Sunday basket, you have so, so many efficiency tools, right? Productivity tools for families. And you've done the work for them. All they got to do is follow the steps. And you're building. in their tracks and their train cars for them. So it's just incredible. And thank you so much for being on today's podcast. I know everyone listening is so inspired. I know I'm inspired by you to be more efficient. And thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. See you later. Thank you guys, everyone for listening. We'll see you next time.