Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - The SECRET to a Clean Home is the FAB FIVE | Clutterbug Podcast # 152

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

These FIVE daily tasks, if done consistently, are the SECRET to a home that is clean and tidy all the time. I call these tasks the "Fab Five" and they are truly magical.  It time to STOP working harder, and start working SMARTER when it comes to housework. You CAN be an amazing homemaker in as little as 15 minutes a day.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's talk about the fab five, the five things that we can do to make sure that taking care of our home is easier, that it feels effortless. We do these five things. Our home is going to stay under control. Hey, clutterbugs, welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Today I want to talk about homemaking, which, you know what? I've been thinking a lot about this. Recently I was at my dad's house and my stepmoms and I was doing some organizing of their kitchen. It was already insanely organized, but I was just kind of like doing a little bit more, giving some new bins for their pantry and just under their sink, like, you know, taking it to the next level for them because they just redid their kitchen and it's gorgeous.

So I wanted to gift them some really fancy storage behind closed doors. But I was blown away with how clean and tidy their house was. I'm going to tell you the truth. I was a little envious. It was so organized. They had every meat and cheese. in Ziploc bags and then inside of Tupperware containers. It was so meticulous. All their chips were were perfectly folded, little chip clips. And I walked into their house and I felt like this wash of

imposter syndrome because here I am supposed to be this organizing expert and I'm coming into their home to try to make it better. I'm using air quotes that you can't see. And their house is way more organized than mine is. And a lot of people's homes are more organized than mine is. And I thought about this and I'm like, why can't I do this too? Why am I not to this level? Right? I know how to organize. Now I'm not a naturally organized person and I'm not always going to roll the chip clip down. But why is it that my house doesn't look like this? And when I realized, the more I thought about it, it took me a couple of days. I'm not going to lie. I kind of moped a little bit on the weekend and thought about, man, I need to clean harder and I need to scrub and I need clutter even more and I should really

put all my meat in these little individual containers, but my stepmom is a homemaker. That is her job. That's always been her job. She's never worked outside of the home. She's always been a stay-at-home mom. And then when my brother's moved out, her sole job is to take care of the home. My job is also to take care of the home, though. I'm also a homemaker. I just don't have the time to dedicate to that extreme. I can't do it to the same level that she is. Of course I can't because I don't have the hours to dedicate to that. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't still be a priority to have a good enough home, a home that still is tidy more often than it's not. A home that still is organized as home that's clean. But it doesn't have to be perfectly tidy organized and clean all the time.

And so I'm giving myself some grace and I want you to give yourself some grace too. Maybe you are a homemaker that doesn't work inside the home and you're still like, my house doesn't look like this. There's no shame here. We all have stuff that we're dealing with. We all have different priorities. And life is hard, okay? Life is hard.

But we deserve to have a space that isn't adding to our hardness, right? That isn't adding additional unnecessary work to our plate. And what I've found is the more I put things. off and the worse that they get, the harder I have to work just to maintain status quo. Like if I put off doing my dishes for a couple of days now, I got to scrub them and soak them and things are chiseled on and it's a nightmare and it takes me 10 times longer than it would if I had just rinsed them and wash them as soon as I was done using them. And so I've learned that doing it now means I don't have regret later.

And I'm not great at homemaking. It's never been something that I'm fantastic. stick at, I would probably have more stale cereal than I should. I don't wrap it down and put a clip on it. I'm not great at zipping any container up or putting any containers back on. I like slam the peanut butter lid back on. But at least I've decluttered enough that my home feels in control. And I do the fab five. So we're going to talk about this right now. We're going to talk about these five things that you can do. These are like if you could do nothing else but these five things, your home is going to feel under control. You are going to be able to not be embarrassed if somebody stops by. You're going to feel proud of yourself and it isn't going to be perfect and it's not

going to look like my stepmom's immaculate house that doesn't have a speck of dust anywhere. You probably will still have some things that are not perfect, but you do not have to spend all day cleaning and you will have a tidy and organized and clean home if you do these five things. Okay. So let's just jump in. Let's talk about them. The key here is consistency. And this is what I wasn't doing in the beginning.

I was like an all or nothing person. I know I've talked about this before, but I was like saving it all up for the weekend and then screaming and rage cleaning. That's what I did. I had a big mess all week. And then I rage cleaned it perfect on the weekend. Nightmare. It was awful. It was stressful. My cortisone levels were through the roof and the more stressed I get, the more I eat and I gain weight and then I feel lethargic and tired. And then I'm stressed and then I eat. And it's like it's all tied together, isn't it? Our emotions, our stress, our finances, our weight. It all goes hand in hand. But some things are just harder than others to get control of. But our home, it's a foundation for our weight. It's a foundation for our weight. It's all goes hand in hand. But some things are just harder than others to get control of. But our home. It's a foundation for our home. It's a our life. And if we can take back control of our house, which we can see immediate results, right,

we can clean the kitchen and immediately, boom, see results. The other areas of our life improve too. I could run on the treadmill for five minutes and get a little sweaty, but not see those immediate results. Yes, it's good for me. Yes, I should do it. But that immediate gratification, that also gives us all these benefits in other areas of our life because we're less stressed, because we have less cortisol because we're feeling proud of ourselves, because we have more confidence, because we're not escaping one more thing in our house, so we're not eating or watching Netflix to escape looking at a messy home. Because we've taken care of all of that, everything's a little bit easier. So the Fab Five, you ready for them? Fab Five, this is all we got to do. And most of these

things, almost all these things, should be done daily. Daily. Dishes. That's a fab five. Do your dishes every day and just wipe your kitchen counters. And the magical thing is, I used to wait until all my dishes were dirty to wash my dishes. I'm embarrassed to tell you this. I used to hide dirty dishes in the oven. I used to hide dirty dishes in cabinets. I'm so embarrassed to say this. But that, that's my reality for most of my adult life. Now that I do the dishes consistently, at first I had to force myself and it was horrible and I felt like this is the worst thing ever. Now I don't even realize I'm doing them. I don't even think about it. It's a mindless task. When I'm done eating, I do my dishes. And our dishwasher was broken for two weeks and that kind of sucked the first

couple of days having to hand wash everything. And by the end of the two weeks, honestly, it was like nothing. Again, I was doing it consistently and it was just a nothing, a big fat nothing burger. and so dishes every single day. And the second is bathroom. And I'm not talking about scrubbing your shower. I can't even tell you the last time I scrubbed my shower. That's gross. I'm gross.

But I don't do it. I am talking about wiping the counters, getting the toothpaste gobs off, maybe giving the mirror a quick wipe. We're like five minutes here, a five minute thing, tidying things up so that your bathroom always feels fresh. Because if you're going into your bathroom to get ready in the morning, and it's gross and it's cluttered and it feels gross. That's like this lingering feeling of ugh, the first thing in the morning, right?

Ugh, my bathroom is gross. Why don't I clean it? This isn't fair. Why are my family such pigs? And it's kind of setting the tone for your whole day. So dishes, bathroom, and here's the third that is so important. Daily five-minute tidy-ups. Before you go to bed, you're going to tidy.

you're going to tidy. You're going to just put things back where they belong. Every day, a five-minute tidy before bed or a 10-minute tidy and hope, I hope the other people in your house are going to help you do this too. Set a timer. Let's go. Before we get to watch a movie at night, before we get to have fun, before we get to have our bedtime snack, let's all work together for five minutes and tidy as fast as we can. This is powerful. This is the power of consistency. It's freaking magical. I know. Marie Kondo says the life-changing magic of tidying up.

She is not wrong. Tidying up is magical. What I mean by tidying is literally just putting things away, picking up the toys, picking up the papers, picking up the random things, throwing out the trash. Tidying, tidying really quickly, five minutes can make magic happen. The fourth fab five thing is laundry. Ugh.

I hate this one. I mean, laundry sucks. That's, that's just, there's no way around it. It's like never ending. It's every day. We wear clothes and we have more laundry. But if we can have a consistent laundry routine, and for me in this house, it's every day. I do a load every day. Sometimes I have to do two loads a day. If we're doing bedding or extra towels, today, Joe was walking down the stairs and he was had a big load of laundry. He was carrying down and he put a Coke zero on top. And the can of Coke fell and it exploded. It was like, a horror scene. The thing was spinning and spraying and there was pop on the ceiling and there was pop on the walls and there was pop everywhere. We went through like 10 towels to clean it up. So we had an extra load of laundry today. But so things happen. But usually it's a load of day and it keeps the mountain away. And it keeps me feeling sane. And I curse every time I have to put a load of laundry away. Every time I'm like, ugh, I hate this. But it's never more than five or 10 minutes. It's, It's, again, a nothing burger. But I'm forcing myself to do it and be consistent so that I'm never running out of clean underwear,

first of all, but also never feeling that overwhelm of the mountain of clothes. Dirty clothes. Dirty clothes mountain is like, it's my nemesis. And I have three kids, and they often leave their dirty clothes on the floor. And I'm like, pick up your clothes off the bathroom floor. Pick up your wet towels off the bathroom floor. But it's never crazy pants. because we're doing a load a day.

And the last, but I think the most important of the Fab Five, is regular decluttering. And what I mean by decluttering is, I know if you listen to this podcast, you've listened to me say it a thousand times, but if you're listening right now in your house, listen to me. Get stuff out. Right now, what can leave? What can leave your home? Look around and get stuff out. And the more you get out, the easier your life is.

and it feels like it wouldn't be that way. Like what is some extra blankets going to do in my cabinet? Or who cares if I have some empty boxes downstairs in the storage room? Is it really a big deal if I've got five pans in my kitchen? Yes, it is. It's a big deal. And it makes a big difference because every single thing, from the big things like the vacuum cleaner,

all the way down to a scrap piece of paper, is something you have to manage. It's something you have to remember that you own. It's something that's just adding to your plate physically and mentally. And the more you can get out, the more peace of mind you have. The better you feel, the easier your home is to take care of. And yeah, it could be some dried up pens. That's going to make a difference. I know it doesn't seem like it's going to make a difference, but I promise you it's going to make a difference. And every time we let things go, we're peeling off these layers of this onion to really, to just really improve every single freaking aspect of our life. If you could only do one of these fab vibes, well, you got to do your dishes. Two of these fab vibes, it's dishes

and decluttering. That's going to have the biggest impact on your life. And I talk to my sister quite often. I'm going to throw her under the bus and I hope she doesn't listen to this. Jennifer, if you're listening to this, I'm sorry. I'm throwing you under the bus here, but she has always struggled with a really messy home too. Both of us have really struggled. with the messy home. But in the past 15 years, my house has been under control and stayed consistently tidy. And I clean way less than she does, way less than she does. But she's not focusing on these Fab Five. Because when I do talk to her and she talks about having to clean the house, she's saying things like, I got to wash the walls this weekend. Or I have to move all the furniture to vacuum

behind it, or I have to take everything off my surfaces and do a big dust and wash my curtains. And meanwhile, you can't see the floor in her living room. And her bathroom counters are piled worth of stuff and there's garbage is overflowing everywhere and there isn't a stitch of clean clothes in the whole house. And yet, this big mountain ahead of her that she sees, her focus is often on things that aren't going to push the needle forward. She's stressing and thinking and putting her time and effort onto things that aren't going to give her the biggest bang for her buck. She doesn't need to wash the walls. Yeah, sure, maybe they're dirty and maybe they're dusty. She doesn't need to move the furniture to vacuum. She needs to do dishes, bathroom, tidying, laundry, decluttering. Because here is

the magic with that fab five. When you do those fab five, you save yourself so. You save yourself, so much time and effort every day. You're going to get hours back in your week. And I'm not exaggerating, like, like legit, hours back in your week. And your house is going to be cleaner because it's tidier. So it's not a big deal to occasionally run the vacuum. I'm going to be honest, I don't move furniture when I vacuum. I also don't have to dust very often. Because I don't have piles of clutter everywhere, I don't get piles of dust. I don't get piles of like dog hair and and like those tumbleweeds that I used to get when my house was messy. And my house isn't messy because I declutter and tidy and do laundry and do the bathrooms and do the dishes. Those five things are magical. And if we can

focus on those and be consistent every day with those things, the rest of the stuff doesn't really matter. We can be an excellent homemaker without having to scrub our walls or wash our windows or remove our furniture when we vacuum or put our food into little Tupperware containers or put our spices in alphabetical order or decant anything. We can be excellent homemakers without having to bust our butt on a daily basis. Before I talk about other easy, simple things that we can do to just feel like better homemakers, I have to thank Cozy Earth for sponsoring today's podcast. A big priority to me is getting a good night's sleep,

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You need to check this out. Go to cozyEarth.com right now, just for my listeners, you can save 35% off when you use the coupon code clutterbug. That's cozyearth.com. Use the promo code clutterbug to save 35%. So let's talk more ways that we can, I don't know, feel like we're better homemakers. I love this term. I used to look at homemaking as kind of a negative thing. Not negative. I shouldn't say that. I think the truth is I was really envious. I was envious of other moms who could stay home and didn't have to work. I was never in a position, unfortunately, where I could do that. I always had to earn money.

And so I was working full-time outside of the home, whether running a daycare or doing other things, running a blog, being a YouTuber, and being a stay-at-home mom and homemaker at the same time. So I guess I was resentful. Yeah, I was jealous. I was jealous of the other moms who could be homemaking and make that their full-time job. But I think somewhere along the way I also realized that I wanted to be a homemaker too. I can be a homemaker and work full time. And there's really a lot of, I don't know, there's a lot of satisfaction that comes from caring from my home. And so I still have to work 40 or 50 or sometimes 60 hours a week, which means my homemaking job, which is like my part-time gig, I can't be a lot of hours. I have to find shortcuts.

I have to find ways of still getting the same results without dedicating hours and hours to it, which is where the Fab Five definitely come into. So focusing on those things, it means, yeah, my house isn't perfect and the garage is really messy, and I don't vacuum as often as I should, and I definitely don't dust or clean showers as often as I should. I don't clean out the fridge as often as I should. But my house, you walk in the door and it's tidy, and it's clean, and the dishes are clean, and the laundry's done and the bathrooms are clean and I feel good. I get done work at the day at the end of the day and I'm not greeted with endless to-dos.

I feel good. If someone stopped by, I wouldn't be embarrassed, which is all I need. And yes, when I go to other people's homes, I do feel a like pinch of jealousy that I wish I could take it to the next level, but I'm just not in that season right now. And maybe you listening aren't in that season too. And that's okay. But there are ways that we can still be great homemakers. We can make our house feel more like a home.

That's what homemaking is. We can give ourselves this sanctuary, this oasis that we deserve, no matter how busy we are, no matter how much other things we have going on in our life or how much we're working. Because we deserve it. At the end of the day, it's about feathering our nest. And our home is a priority. And we can lie to ourselves and say that it doesn't matter.

more important things and there are more important things. But we don't have to spend a ton of time to have a space that feels, that makes us feel good. The best thing we can do, like I said, is declutter. But there are other little things that I always do that, I don't know, it gives me that cozy feel like baking cookies, baking banana bread. I don't do this often. I suck it baking. I'm not going to lie. I suck it baking. But there is something, freaking magical about taking some rotten bananas and making banana bread. It's literally the easiest recipe. I don't even use a mixer. I mix this up with a fork. I think if you Google Clutterbug banana bread recipe, you'll find that recipe and these chocolate chip cookies I make all the time.

I found this recipe. Again, I don't even use a mixer for it. I'm so lazy. I whip it together. They're amazing. I use margarine. Like I don't even use butter. I'm so bad. But they turn out great every time. Doing this little act, spending like 20 minutes making banana bread or whipping together some homemade chocolate chip cookies, I feel so good. I feel so good. I feel like I'm homemaking. I feel that same pride and that same like warm, tingley feeling when I do something small like decorate or move furniture around. This past weekend, I picked up some garland form. the dollar tree and I strung it on our headboard and I wrapped our headboard with some Christmas lights and then put a wreath on the picture. Yeah, right on top with a 3M strip. I just like stuck a 3M

hook on our picture above our bed and hung a Christmas wreath on there. And now every time I walk in our bedroom, it's like, oh, it's Christmassy. You know what I mean? It's like a small thing. It doesn't look fantastic. But that's not the point. The point is I hugged my home a little bit. You know, in a space that I generally would not decorate for the holidays. I never decorate my bedroom for the holidays. It made me feel really good about my space. So right now, as you're in your home, as you're walking around, I hope you're decluttering or tidying while you're listening to this, how can we do something a little special in a room? Can we clear off your bathroom counter and can we put like a little Christmas tree or some Christmas towels or get a Christmas soap dispenser? Can we do

something small that just gives you that little homemaking feeling, that warm, like, ooh, I'm nurturing my home. I'm loving my home. I'm making it feel cozy. Can you bake cookies once the kitchen's clean? Can you treat yourself to cookies? You can. And you will feel pride. This is the type of stuff that doesn't, I don't feel exhausted when I do these little things. I feel energized. I always think like, oh, it's going to be work. But the opposite happens. I feel, when I feel do something that makes me feel proud, I feel energized.

And I go to bed at night and I look back at what I've accomplished in that day. And I smile and I'm like, yeah, I baked my kids fresh baked chocolate chip cookies today with the kids. And we licked the spoons after we mixed it. And it's awesome. And I want to do more of that. I want to do more of those little homemaking things with my family because I want them to see

the good feelings that come with taking care of your house. There's been a monumental shift in society, especially for us as moms, because we've had to earn money. We had to go back to work and we had to make other things

other than our home a priority. And I think it's had a negative effect. Not saying that every woman or like men can stay home too. Not saying that there should even be a, ugh, I just have to clear the air here. I am a feminist.

I am not saying that we need a full-time person to stay home. But what I am saying is like the art of homemaking and having a home that's tidy and clean and has healthy, fresh-baked food or, or I don't know, like the act of preparing food, the act of taking care of ourselves and our own. belongings, it really does have an effect in our mental health, a positive effect on our mental health. And so with this shift to earning money, having to pay the bills, and kind of doing all the

other things that we have to do, like running our kids to 50 million things and being involved in a bunch of extracurricular activities and just life and the shopping and the in the commercialism and all this stuff. I feel like our homes kind of have been pushed to the back. They've been kind of neglected. And I think a neglected home has a negative impact on us, our finances, our relationships, our self-esteem, our mental health, our stress levels.

And I think making that shift back to caring for our space more can help all of those areas improve. but we don't have to dedicate a full-time job to doing this. We can take shortcuts and we can take those shortcuts by focusing on the Fab Five and giving ourselves some grace if things aren't perfect because they're a whole lot better than they would be if we weren't focusing on these five areas. And again, the biggest impact we can have is getting stuff out. And the more we get out, this other magical thing happens,

the more it hurts and it sucks and it feels awful because you're like I just spent money on that. Ouch! That sucks letting it go. I feel like I'm giving away, you know, $500 because I'm letting go of things I spend $500 on. We're not poor for getting rid of it. But the next time we go to the store, it really makes us stop and think before we make those impulsive purchases. Decluttering has helped me curb my spending more than anything else I've ever tried. because decluttering sucks

and I don't want to feel that pain again and I think about it while I'm at the store because it's like I've done it so many times I bought things I shouldn't and I felt that pain that now when I'm at the store it's like ooh do you really have a space for this I know it's so cool

but do you really need another scented candle or throw pillow or blanket or sweater remember all that stuff you've had to declutter and it stops me from buying so I'm saving money I'm saving money by letting go. And this is something that I can say to you a million times, but you have to experience it yourself to really understand.

And so today, while listening to this podcast, I hope you're cleaning and I hope you're scrubbing and I hope you're putting away laundry. And I hope, I hope more than anything, that you are putting stuff that you do not need in a bag right now. Old mugs that you're never using in your kitchen, let them go. ripped in stained towels, goodbye. Those extra sets of sheets that you don't need for your bedding, for your beds, go.

Let them go. Right now, don't worry about who's going to get them and where you're going to donate them and finding the perfect home. Just put them in a bag and take them to your car. You deserve this. Clothes you're not wearing, bye. Fill a bag. Feel empowered.

Feel empowered because this is about you standing up for yourself against the stuff. and saying, I am more important than all this stuff in my home, because I deserve a home that fills me up, that makes me happy, that makes me feel proud, that makes me feel good about myself. And the thing between you and that home that you deserve is stuff you're not using or you don't even want anyways. Okay, thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you're feeling inspired to give these Fab Five a try.

Make them a priority every single day. Be consistent. This is what's going to change your life. Dishes, bathrooms, tidying, laundry, and daily decluttering. Thanks so much, and I'll see you guys next time.