Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Happy New Year - What’s new with me! | Clutterbug Podcast # 12

Episode Date: January 5, 2017

So far 2017 has been an epic disaster! I am optimistic that the rest of this year is going to rock!  Stay tuned this year for lots of organizing tips, ticks and advice and join me for my "Great Purge of 2017"!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So hey you guys, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast and happy 2017. Unless you're me. My 2017 has not been happy. It has been endless amounts of vomit from my three kids and poop. Just all the vomit and poop. I've never done so much laundry in my life. We picked them up from my mom's New Year's Day. She watched them New Year's Eve, which was amazing. But Abby was peaking New Year's Day morning and it quickly spread. and all three of them are now. Puking and pooping and puking and pooping and little Milo. He's four and he's adorable, but he doesn't get the concept of where to put either of those things. I mean, he's potty trained, obviously.

He is, but not right at the moment he isn't. So it's been, oh man, I'm losing it a little bit. I'm losing it, and I'm trying to stay positive. I mean, it's not their fault, and they're such sweet kids. Abby was coming up the stairs after saying, she's just like, Mom, and then she'd poop. Mommy, I can't aim! And then she'd puke on the stairs again. I'm so sorry, and then she'd throw up on the stairs again. And, I mean, I'm like, get a bucket, but she had a bucket, but she left it downstairs.

She's just so cute. And Milo yesterday was sleeping in my bed, and you guys, okay, so he was sleeping in my bed, started sort of whimpering. So I ran into the room. I heard him crying. I was like, are you okay, buddy? And I pet his head and his eyes like shot open and it was an exorcist moment, like projectile, two feet across the room, probably even more, right into my face. Like I felt the force. It threw me back. No, it didn't really, but it did temporarily blind me. And it 100% got in my mouth. So I'm gagging and screaming and he's crying and I'm screaming for my husband because I literally couldn't see. I mean, he was wiping it on the blankets.

It was, oh, you guys. It was a nightmare. And, yeah, I don't want to relive that. So, so far today, I'm knocking on wood right now. They're still sick, but it's less projectile. It's less messy today, which is awesome. Because it's been five solid days. We are out of sheets.

I'm so backed up on laundry. We're almost out of towels. and I'm pretty sure I'm going to burn every pot and bucket and bowl in my house when this is all over. I hope my husband doesn't get it because when he is sick, he is like a mega baby. The kids are troopers, man. They have fevers right now and they're so sick and they're pale. And for some reason, Abby's eyes are like swollen shut. I don't know what's going on there.

And they're such troopers. When Joe gets a cold, it's like the world is ending. he actually stayed home from work today with like sympathy illness. Um, he thought he felt like maybe he was getting sick. So he literally stayed in bed all day. Well, I, who already, I really am sick, um, was taking care of the kids and, and just anything.

Anyways. And then he, he realized that he wasn't actually sick and got out of bed like at one. And just were like, oh, yeah. Actually, I feel okay. I mean, it haven't helped me if he actually gets sick. I will murder him. I will absolutely murder him because I know it's going to be the worst. He's a great guy.

He does not do sickness well and he doesn't like take care of others who are sick well. I have, we've been together 15 years. I have never had a sick day. Like I have never had a day even after surgery, abdominal surgery, even after C-sections. I've never had a day except when I'm in hospital. A day where like somebody else takes care of me or I can lay in bed. and I know that other things are taken care of, it just isn't, it just, it will never happen. Sometimes I daydream of, like, getting into a car accident or, you know, getting some sort of illness.

Not, like, dying illness, but just so I can go back to the hospital. Because they bring you food, you guys, they bring you food, there's television, you can lay in bed. Our hospital has, like, a menu you can order from. And the food isn't terrible. I mean, all in all, it's pretty fantastic. People, like, come and visit you for short times and bring you pretty good. things. Who doesn't want to be in the hospital? That's like a daydream of mine. That's really sad. But anyways, someday, we can hope. We can all dream. Or taking a vacation just by myself.

Could you imagine how great that would be? Like a weekend away in a hotel with nobody? Oh God, someday. I'm so excited for that day. Anyways, moving on. So, 2017, I'm super big plans. I watched a documentary on minimalism on Netflix. It wasn't great. Honestly, it wasn't a great documentary. But the concept of minimalism I find really appealing. I am not going to be a minimalist, though. I like the idea. I know that I would never implement that because I like stuff too, and I have a lot of stuff, and I have things that are special to me, and I have, like, kids, and I wouldn't want to impose that on them. But the general idea of having less is more is something I'm definitely, making like a mantra for 2017 and I do these giant purges often but I'm

definitely going to really focus on only keeping things that are used that are useful or that I really really love and letting other things go because the thing is having all this stuff is just making more work for me everything I hold on to you is something else I have to dust or it's taking up space for something that I don't have room for that it's on the counter and it's creating clutter it has has to all be important and I don't have a huge house you know it's 1,400 square feet there's five of us living here I need to make sure that I'm really mindful of what I'm keeping in order to keep your sanity really so this year I'm doing a ton of purges I'm

going to make lots of videos about it for you guys I'm also going to go back to the basics and just reorganize all my little spaces the thing about thing for me about organization is it saves me so much time like When I take 15 minutes to organize a drawer, I probably save, you know, 10 times that amount using that drawer, you know, not having to look for the batteries or not having to look around for the scissors, knowing exactly where the pens are and having all the pens actually have ink in them and actually work. I used to like, I'd pull out a pen and I'd test it and it wouldn't work and I'd toss it back

in the drawer like a maniac. Who does that? That's crazy. I'm sure there's more than just me. Or my kids used to have like markers and half of them didn't even work. And yet we'd still have them in the marker drawer that was full. And that's just, it's wasting time. Every time I'd pull out a pen that didn't work, it's a time wasteer.

So when I organized the junk drawer, I tested all the pens and threw it all the ones that didn't work. And that little thing has saved me so much time. So that's the type of things I'm doing through my whole house. Just really streamlining, really making sure things are functional, functioning the best that they can, and taking a look at my sort of bad spots, my catch-all spots around the house, I have these hooks on the back of the door that are always full, like full. And so I need to address those areas, you know, my desk, and I have this one area of my kitchen counter that always just seems to attract clutter. I need to address those areas and come up with solutions for them

in order to keep that stuff to a minimum, because that's the stuff that stresses me out. Let's be honest, it causes me stress to have to deal with that over and over and over again. So I don't, I have enough things going on in my life dealing with material possessions. I do not want that to be something that I have to focus on. The other thing is, I am totally guilty of this, but so many of us buy things in order to feel happy. Or we think, you know, if I had this brand of car, or if I had a bigger house, or if I had nicer clothes, I mean, I'm not into the close thing, but I'm definitely guilty of daydreaming about having a bigger house. And if I had an extra bedroom, or if I had a big kitchen, I'd entertain more, or, you know, if I had this, then I'd be

happy. And buying things never makes anyone happy. It actually makes us more miserable. So I'm going to try, and that's the whole, I guess, basic concept of minimalism, is being really grateful and happy with what you have and keeping those things for a real minimum and not giving into, you know, commercial commercialism or materialistic wants. I'm not going to go that far. Let's be completely honest. But I am going to be more mindful of what I buy. Not only is it going to save me money, which is awesome, but it's also going to save me from having just even more stuff to take care of, more unwanted things to take care of. So I'm giving myself a temporary, band in the dollar store because while I'm super cheap I mean I would never ever ever spend a lot of money

on things like clothes or purses or or anything like that I'm so cheap I'll drop 60 dollars at the dollar store on absolute garbage like I'll go in there everything's a dollar and I load it up and I come home and it's it's literally like junk some of it's useful but I've wasted so much money at a dollar store so 2017 that's it I have big plans I am going to try to only buy meat when it's on sale I am going to use coupons and go through the flyers. I'm going to ban myself from the dollar store, which is going to be so hard because I'm obsessed with the dollar store. I'm just going to try to do better.

I'm going to try to be really mindful of what I spend my money on and what I bring into our home. And hopefully the outcome of that is, you know, more money, less stress and more happiness for all of us. So I'd love to know your sort of, I hate the idea of New Year's resolutions. because I never stick with them. So I'm going with the mantra instead.

It's the same thing. Let's be completely honest. But it feels different. I'm not calling it a new use resolution. But I definitely want to focus on being more budget, conscientious, and just having a less cluttered home. Yeah, less stuff in my home. So I'd love to hear what yours are,

what you're sort of, let's not call it resolutions. Every year I'm like, I'm going to lose 20 pounds. At the end of the year, I'm like 40 pounds heavier. So let's just say that's never happening. And I'm never going to have that new year. I'm learning. I'm almost 40.

It took me that long. Listen, I like food. Food is not my friend, though. And I'm not going to worry about it anymore. Over. It's done. I'm not in that mind frame right now to have to stress about it anymore. It's just causing me to be sad and feel bad about myself.

so I'm over that. Let's move on to something that's easier. Exercising a diet is hard work. You know what? Cleaning your house and keeping organized, that's easy. I find that way easier because I can spend 10, 15 minutes a day doing a little bit of work and see an immediate result that's long-lasting. I could walk for 10 minutes on the treadmill and have nothing except some sweatiness, you know, and maybe, I guess, if I did it every day, no, even 10 minutes, it's not enough. You know what I mean? I need. I need. more and even if I decide I'm going to have a salad for dinner, it doesn't cancel out the bagel I had for breakfast. It's every meal I have to be good for. And that's exhausting. But organizing,

organizing. I mean, I could be a slob all day. If I spend 15 minutes cleaning up the kitchen at night, I can be right back to square one. So yeah, let's stick with that. It's easy, it's manageable. I can see a difference. And it makes me feel good. It makes me feel real. good to get on top of things and to have things organized and not chaotic anymore. So hopefully I'm going to remember to do two podcasts a week for you guys, inspiring you to get organized, giving you lots of different organizing tips and tricks and advice along the way and just also blabbing too about my cozy life. So thanks so much for listening and I will see you guys next time.