Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to Simplify Your Life - 5 Quick Tips | Clutterbug Podcast # 25

Episode Date: September 7, 2017

Do you want to learn how to simplify your lifestyle? It's easier tahn you think. You can have less stress, less clutter and time wasted with these 5 quick and easy tips! For more tips, visit my website at: http://clutterbug.me Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, you guys, and welcome back to the Clutterbug Podcast. Today I want to talk about simplifying your life and some tricks that I do to really not only make my life easier, more relaxed, but make me feel less like a hamster running on a wheel. And I know you probably feel me on this. I'm a mom. I also work full-time from home, but I'm also a full-time, you know, stay-at-home mom. My kids are home with me while I'm working when they're not in school. And so I feel like a hamster on a wheel. I feel like frantic, like I'm running and running, but really not even going anywhere or accomplishing anything. And I hope you feel me on this. I hope I'm not alone. I think part of it is amplified by the fact that I do have ADHD. So I'm not really accomplishing and finishing tasks. I'm sort of like

starting over here and oh look, something shiny. And I start or something over there and oh my gosh, look a butterfly and you know that I've completely forgotten what I was actually working on. So I have a few tricks that no matter, you know, if you are living a pretty calm life to begin with, or if you are just feeling like you're drowning in crazy chaos, hopefully these can really help to simplify your life. And I definitely don't want to seem like I'm beating a dead horse here. So I'm going to talk about the first thing that you've heard me say a million times, but I will give you a tip to make this a little bit easier, a really quick tip. So when you're talking about simplifying your life, obviously it means doing less work. It means having less stuff. And it means

having just less to remember. Having just less, let's just go with less. Simplifying your life means less stress, less work, less stuff. And so the first thing we can do to really accomplish that obviously is declutter. Having stuff around us, is just more work. That's the honest truth. And the less stuff we have, the less time we have to spend cleaning, the less time we have to spend looking for these things that are lost. And just the less we beat ourselves up, because we all do it. When our house is messy, you have negative thoughts, not only about your house, but about yourself. Oh, I don't know why I can't get it under control. Or what's wrong with me? Other people make this seem so easy and why can't I do it? And I must be a bad

mother, bad housekeeper, bad whatever. And so our environment, when it is in disarray and cluttered, can really make us feel bad about ourselves. And that's the honest truth. And that is the last thing we need. There is enough stuff in this world making us feel bad about ourselves or allowing us to have those negative thoughts about ourselves or making it worse. Let's be honest, without it also being our home. Our home should be the last thing that makes us feel sad or depressed or or any of those feelings. So decluttering, and I know, you're already overwhelmed enough. And so the last thing you want to do is add another task to your plate, which is what decluttering can be. It can be like another job. So what I'm going to suggest you do instead is get a donation bin, a box. You can get a

pretty bin or pretty box or just a cardboard box. It really doesn't matter. And put it somewhere in your home that you walk by all the time. So I actually started putting a declutter bin, like a donation bin, in my living room. And it's just a rubber made tote. I took an old sweater and I covered it so it looks like a pretty just like a little cube in the corner. But every time I come across something, I don't have to like take it to the car or take it to the garage or get a bag. It's not more work for me to just toss it into that bin that's right there. So having a donation bin, right in my living room, I'm telling you, it makes decluttering painless. It makes it so it's not an extra job. It's not an extra plate. And you'll be surprised. Just, you know, I was trying on Milo's

clothes this morning because he started school Monday. And there was a bunch of pants that just didn't fit. So instead of like, you know, putting them back in the closet or having to worry about taking them to the donation bin or what am I going to do with these, I just toss them in the living room bin. You know, I'm in the kitchen and I'm like, oh my gosh, this can opener. I hate this can opener. It sticks. Why am I even having this can opener? I have two. Why do I have this? I just toss it in the bin. So you're sort of getting the idea like no longer am I putting things back because the hassle of donating them is just so stressful. I have an easy place for them to go. So set up a donation center in your house. When I say a donation center, I just mean like a box in your living room,

you guys. It's not, let's not overcomplicate this. And I don't. And I do. I just say a donation center. I did have one in my garage for a really long time and I still do and I while I love that one because you know it's a bigger and I'm able to fill it up and then just load it in my car when I go to the donation place having in my living room works even better because I don't have to go downstairs and I'm lazy and sometimes those few extra steps meant that the clutter I'd like pile it at the top of the stairs or I'd put it on the you know the kitchen island to donate later and it was just adding to the clutter. So having a box in the living room really helps. Let's move on to tip number two for really simplifying your life. And that is just let's work smarter, not harder,

when it comes to housework. We don't get bonus points, you guys, for doing it the challenging way. You don't get bonus points in life for scrubbing your floor and your hands and knees with a bucket. you know that's great for Cinderella and for like I don't know crazy people but the truth is you can still have a clean floor save your knees save your time and save your sanity by getting you know a spray mop getting the tools to clean your house that make it faster easier simpler so you don't have to spend a ton of your time trying to get a clean house and I think that's why a lot of people just sort of like sort of give up and are like I don't have time to clean my house like I'm I'm too busy forget it and then they do nothing like it's an all or nothing thing it's either there's Cinderella

on their hands and knees scrubbing singing while birds are helping them or they're like literally not doing anything so I really am a huge fan of cleaning supplies that sort of do the work for you so Valita rubber made reveal they have spray mops they're really inexpensive I have the solution like the cleaning solution you can choose any cleaning solution you want and it's in the mop 24-7 and i keep a pad on it 24-7 on the bottom so when there is a spill when there is like sticky goo on the floor i grab the mop from the hall closet squirt squirt squirt wipe wipe wipe done 20 seconds even 10 seconds and you have mopped the floor at night to do my entire upstairs is about you know eight minutes. I've timed it. Yes, I'm a nerd like that, but I have timed it. So I can mop my entire

upstairs for like in eight minutes. And yeah, it's not as stellar as it would be on your hands and knees, but because I do it every day, just really quickly, I mop the floor at least once a day, it never gets really dirty. The other thing I do recommend as well is a Roomba. Now I know, I'm getting groans. You're probably like, oh, Roomba. Now listen, I'm not sponsored by Roomba. They don't pay me to say this in any way. but if you can have a robot vacuum your house and you do not have to pull out your vacuum, why wouldn't you? And I know what you're thinking. It's expensive and there's a cost to it.

But you can find really inexpensive robot vacuums. Even if you go not with a Roomba brand, there are other brands. But I really recommend finding a Roomba secondhand. You can find Roomba's on Craigslist, Kajiji, Facebook mom swaps. If you keep your eyes open, you can find them. I've purchased one for $40 before, and it works great, and I still use it today. You can also find them on sale for great prices, maybe for Christmas it's coming up. You know, ask for gift cards towards a new Roomba.

I promise you, you will love it. You don't have to clean your floor. There's no crumbs. There's no dragging out the vacuum before company comes. There's no stress when you're stepping on whatever your kids have. dropped on the floor for the 30th time that day, your floors are perpetually clean. They just are. And a robot vacuum, yes, it's an investment, but it's an investment in you and your sanity, and it's a time saver. So you can be doing things like dusting the house while your robot vacuums

it for you. You're literally saving yourself time each and every week or each and every day. And you can't put a price take on that. You really can't. So, The other cleaning product that I really recommend to save you time is going with a one product. I call it a one product wonder. So I have one cleaning product for every surface, honestly. So some people are like, you need a glass cleaner, and you have to have a multi-purpose cleaner, and you have to have a granite cleaner, and you have to have a furniture polish. Now, that's great.

That's great for you people who want to spend all your time doing that. For me, I grab one microfiber cloth and one product. that is good for every surface and they exist my friends they're out there method glass cleaner is safe on wood it's safe on granite it's safe on all the you know the surfaces so i really love method mrs meyers also doesn't have vinegar or ammonia in the glass cleaner so it's perfect for all of those different surfaces i also like vim oxy gel it's also a brand c il is the same brand the oxy gel it's a blue cleaner, you actually dilute it with water and I, you know, will spray it or just have a damp rag and a bucket and it always dries streak free even on glass. There's also those, those cloths out there that you can

get that just are water, you know, you ring them out and you sort of dust all the surfaces. So having something like that where you can literally walk around your house and wipe all the surfaces with just one thing in your hand, whether it's a spray bottle and a rag or just the damp rag, is going to save you so much time. So let's move on to tip number three for simplifying your life, and that's meals. And I want to talk about two different things that you can do, three things actually, to really simplify your meals, because cooking, some people love it. Other people are like, oh, grown, you know, not only is it time consuming, but then there's the mess that you have to clean up afterwards. And I was spending 45 minutes to an hour every day preparing dinner. And

that's crazy pants because even though, you know, sometimes it was just cooking, I had to be in the kitchen sort of watching it so it didn't burn or boil over or whatever. And I have ADD, so that part was annoying. And also it was taking away valuable time. Like that was crazy. Why was I spending an hour preparing dinner when I didn't have to? So here's the thing that I do instead. And number one is crock pot meals. And some of them are awful, but I have found some crock pot. pot meals that are amazing and I can throw them in in the morning and you know have a really great one pot dinner because it's all in the crock pot so I don't have a ton of dishes to clean and you have a really healthy nutritious delicious meal that the entire family likes that you didn't have to spend

hours or even a half an hour preparing you throw it in in the morning and it's ready by the time you go um to eat in Pinterest has so many crock pot meals. You can you can search like top crock pot meals on Pinterest and find so, so many. We really like, you know, roast beef with mushroom gravy. And the great thing also about this, this pushes me forward to my second tip is to make two meat meals. So a crock pot really enables you to be able to do this. So I'm going to give you some example of two meat meals. And what I mean by that, it's not it's not like you have steak and chicken at one meal. No, what I mean by that is um so if i'm cooking spaghetti i make twice as much ground beef i save half the ground beef and then

you know maybe two days later we'll have chili or tacos or taco soup or some like shepherd's pie something with that leftover already cooked ground beef what that does is means i don't have to cook the meat again and the meat is always the most time consuming thing that you cook when it comes to a meal so when we have roast beef i always buy a roast beef big enough that we we can have beef stew with the leftovers or or you know hot roast beef sandwiches or something with the leftover meat so when I cook a roast chicken we have a family of five or a big family now I just cook two roast chickens instead of one and the second roast chicken I use for like chicken stir fry and chicken um chicken and dumplings so I get two meals out of the second chickens you know what I'm saying

like it just it really it saves you so much time to to cook that way to double the meat when you cook and then use the leftover meat for a really quick meal on the nights where you're busy or that second day. So I guess this really comes down to meal planning. Right, take a piece of paper, write down the meals you want to have that week and really try to make at least two or three of those double meat meals. So things that or crockpot meals or something where you can really reinvent those leftovers, you'll not only save yourself money, but you're going to save yourself time and that's what this is all about. That's what simplifying your life is about it's spending less time to get the same results it's about still preparing like a delicious

healthy meal for your family but in a quarter of the time that it would normally take you and um yeah so that's my that's my tip meal plan crock pot two meat meals and let's move on to my tip number four and that is having a nightly routine and i'm not just talking about a cleaning routine but i mean Obviously, it's so important to have a nightly cleaning routine because it sets your day and the next day you're going to wake up to a clean house. But having a nightly routine so you have a great morning. And so I set a big bottle of water out beside my bedside table every night so I can drink it not only through the night, but the first thing I get up, I have a big glass of water already there waiting for me. I lay out my clothes for the next day the night before and have them ready so I don't have to when I'm groggy and tired. I'm not a morning person. I don't have to like, you know, think about, oh my gosh, what am I going to

wear, trying to find something. It's already ready. It's already laid out. And I do the same thing for my kids. Every night, they pick the clothes for the next morning. So I'm like, pick your outfit for tomorrow. So our mornings go smoother. Our day starts out smoother. I also set out the things for breakfast. So if we're having smoothies for breakfast, I'll bring out the blender and, you know, the way powder, if we're having cereal, I'll set at the bowls and the spoons for the kids and the cereal, so they can just wake up and everything's sort of ready. It's simple. It's simplified. And for me, the nightly routine really doesn't take very long, but it ensures that the busiest time of our day, which is morning before school, before getting ready for the day, that's the hectic crazy

time, that that's much simpler and goes much smoother and I save a ton of time. So I also, I also so prepare the kids lunches the night before, you're getting the idea. So I think I spend anywhere from a half an hour to 45 minutes every night, which means I do have to give up some of that TV time. A lot of people are like, oh, you know, they're done dinner and then they just want to watch TV until they go to bed. I do give up a little bit of that time in order to make my next morning easier, but I don't regret it. So if you are like, oh, that's, you know, I don't want to work. I've worked all day. I want to relax. You can put on Netflix on your tablet or, or, or, or, you're, you know, I don't want to work. I'm put TV on in the background while you're doing these things or an audio book on your phones.

You can, you can multitask, I mean. You can do your relaxing time at the same time as you're doing your prep work for the next day. And last but not least, I want to talk about this other way to simplify your life. And this is going to sound crazy, you guys, because it's so not me. but I've been meditating and I'm not good at it there's no enlightenment in my future I don't think I'm doing it right but let me tell you I light a candle I just like take deep breaths and sometimes I listen to nature music and I sit on my bedroom floor and I try to think about absolutely nothing and I can't I mean even though I'm not doing it right I'm sure I'm not because I'm still having thoughts and I'm constantly reminding myself to have no thoughts, and I'm just trying to focus on my

breathing and deep breath. And this isn't like an hour thing. It's like a five-minute thing when I'm feeling stressed or anxious or overwhelmed. And I immediately feel better. I immediately feel more relaxed and I immediately, it just like clears that jumbled mind. It simplifies my mind. And I used to make fun of people who meditate. And I still sort of do because, you know, there's those yogis and they meditate and they eat crunchy granola and those people are hilarious and i'm like i mean secretly i'm a little jealous let's be honest but um that isn't me that's i'm i'm not that i'm eat a donut seed donut eat the donut love the donut never work out i'm not into healthy things i microwave plastic in the microwave i know it's like asking for cancer but i can't argue with the results

I can't argue with the results of taking a few seconds out to try to just meditate sometimes. So if you've never done it before, honestly, you guys, give it a try. And maybe schedule it into your day and try it for a week. You're going to see those yogis, man, they're on to something because you do feel more energized, more relaxed. How do you feel energized and relaxed at the same time? I don't know, but it's true. You do. And you're going to feel clearer, your mind.

You're going to feel it's going to soon. simplify your mind. And anyways, it's been life-changing for me. So those are the tips I want to just share with you today. Thank you guys so much for listening. This was a long one. You hear me rambling on like this. I appreciate it. And I will see you next time.