Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - You need a Daily Dozen | Clutterbug Podcast # 87

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

Now more than ever, we need to take time to bring some joy and positivity into our lives. In this podcast, I share my Daily Dozen with you and encourage you to create one too.          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 we're talking about staying positive and looking at the silver lining in this time of fear and chaos. Hey, Clutterbugs. Thanks so much for joining this Clutterbug podcast. It's a scary time. I'm not even going to sugarcoat it with everything going on in the world right now. How can we not feel anxious and nervous and just stressed out even if we're staying home, even if we're isolating, even if we're not sick? it's such an uncertain and terrifying time. And so for me, I've really struggled with anxiety my whole life. So obviously lately that anxiety is kind of an all-time high. And I'm finding that when I'm taking control of my environment, I say this all the time and I know, but when I do take that time to take control of my home and my environment, for that time, I feel more in control of my emotions. I feel less stressed out.

So I really want you to look at this time as you're at home, you're isolating, or even if you are still going to work, when you come home, instead of reading the news and surfing Facebook, maybe let's take this time to do one small task to push the needle forward, to improve our lives in some way. for me obviously I'm obsessed with organizing and decluttering and all of that stuff but I'm also looking at doing other things to improve my life so I've started the daily dozen I've talked about this in the past but I want to talk about it again I printed out 12 things that I want to do just on a piece of paper every day to improve my life it's 12 new habits and it's things like take the dog for a 10 minute walk hug my kits, read a chapter of a book or listen to a chapter of an audio book. Small manageable things. Maybe for you that means deep breathing for five minutes every morning or tidying off your bathroom counter before you like, you know, you get ready for the day or whatever, but you take five minutes and tidy your bathroom counter. I don't know what your daily dozen looks like, but I do know that having one and putting it on

the fridge, this isn't a to-do list, this is a new positive habit list, it can really improve your mood. And maybe for you, your daily dozen will be spending 10 minutes decluttering something or 10 minutes organizing something or maybe your daily dozen is you're having a shower. You're getting dressed today. You're going to put on lipstick even though you're going nowhere. I don't know. I don't know what yours is going to be, but I really want you to have one. I really want you to take some positive changes in your life during this time and take this really negative thing that's happening and look for that silver lining. Maybe you've always wanted to take an online course. Now is a perfect time to sign up and do that. Maybe you wanted to, my husband's teaching himself guitar.

I don't know why. My daughter, Izzy, she was learning Spanish. She's a band. into that and now she's learning sign language. So every day she's watching a YouTube video and learning sign language. Really looking at this as an opportunity to do some weird cool thing that you've always wanted to do. And maybe that weird cool thing is getting your home in order. And I don't want you to overthink this. I don't want you to overanalyze or over research, overcomplicate, I want you to just trust your heart, close your eyes, and think, what do I really want to accomplish today? Today. What small, positive thing do I want to do today? Maybe it's 10 sit-ups. Maybe it's going for a walk. Maybe it's playing a board game with your family. Maybe it's

just hugging your kids and telling them that you love them. Maybe it's decluttering your laundry room. Maybe it's catching up on laundry. What do you want to do today? And what do you want to do tomorrow? What do you want to do every day? Can you think of 12 small things that you can do every day that get you closer to that goal, to that dream you. I don't want you to think about I want to start a business. I want to be a YouTuber. I want to be a podcaster. I want you to think smaller. I want you to think more about feelings. Do you want to feel more content, more restful? Do you want to feel happier? And what can you do? Do you want to feel proud of yourself? What can you do that will get you closer to those feelings.

Because when we think of end goals, big goals, like I want to own my own company and be a bazillionaire, that's really overwhelming. And as soon as we start feeling overwhelmed, it's just going to add to the stress and the anxiety going on in our lives. So we need to quiet our minds, quiet our souls, and think instead, what feeling do we want to feel? I know for my daughter, she really wants to feel proud of herself. which is why she's learning sign language.

She feels great. She's already bilingual. She speaks French. And that's a real sense of pride for her. So she wanted to sort of capitalize on that. She wanted to expand that, which is why she's chose to learn another language. For my husband,

he sees our daughter Abby play the ukulele and the guitar. And he feels so much pride for her and so, yeah, he just is like, wow, she's really learning something that not only gives her something to do that's positive, but it brings other people joy. And he wants to do that too. He wants to be able to have a hobby that he can do anytime, anywhere, and bring other people joy. So he's learning the guitar and he's doing awesome at it.

And for me, I really want to focus on feeling healthier. It scares me that I'm 40. And I love organizing and decluttering, but that can't be my answer. everything. And so for me, on my daily dozen, I'm looking at things that are going to make me feel healthier. So it's eating two pieces of fruit a day, taking the dog for a walk. I have 20 crunches on my daily dozen. I also have hug my kids and read one chapter. But the majority of that are small things that can make me feel healthier. So what are you craving in your life? Are you craving order? Are you craving a more organized and decluttered home? Are you craving more of an intimate

connection with your partner? Do you want to just have on your list that you're going to hold hands with your partner every day? Or remind yourself to kiss them when they come home or kiss them every morning. I don't want to put ideas in your head, but I do want you to really think of what your daily does and can be. and why it's so important to have it and how this is such a cool opportunity for us to create those new positive changes and new positive habits not just in our home but in our life and so a daily dozen a piece of paper put it on your fridge write one all the right through 12 and write 12 things and maybe every day you're not doing it i'm not going to lie every day i'm not always eating two pieces of fruit. I'm not always doing these daily dozen things. But having it as a visual reminder is

helping me. And when I do do those things, I do see it. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going to, I'll open the fridge and eat a couple strawberries. Or I'm like, oh yeah, I'm going to run out and take the dog for a quick 10 minute walker. Oh my gosh, I'm going to run in and hug my kids for no reason. I just feel so much joy in those moments. I feel so much accomplishment. I feel proud of myself. And it distracts me from all the crazy negativity and sadness that's going on in the outside world right now. And I want that for you. I want those positive distractions for you. And at the end of all of this, I really want you to look back on this time and think, not, oh my gosh, you know, it was horrible and I was losing money and financially it was, it was terrifying. And I was scared for my friends

and family and everyone's health. And I was scared for the economy and I was scared for our future, I want you to look back at this time. And even though all of those things might be true, I want you to say to yourself, but look what I did. Look what I changed in myself. Look how I've grown as a person. Look what I've accomplished during this time. I've, you know, become healthier. I've learned an instrument. I've learned a language. I've read all of these books. I decluttered my house, I got organized. I spent so much time with my kids. I really want this to be a positive experience for us. So if you follow me on social media, if you follow me on Facebook, or if you follow me on Instagram, take a picture of your daily dozen. If you're going to write out your 12,

I mean, it might be, maybe this is something you not want to share or, or in some way, tag me and let me know that you are going to try this daily dozen and maybe let me know one of the things on your daily dozen list. I really think you can inspire other people, your friends and your family by encouraging them to have a daily dozen too. We can spread this like a virus. We can spread this positivity. It's a small thing that we can do that can have such a positive impact on our lives and other people's lives. So let's spread the daily dozen. I'm going to use hashtag daily dozen and encourage other people to do the same to look at the silver lining in this time. So it's a short little podcast today. I was thinking, am I even going to make a podcast today?

Because I didn't know what to talk about. I'm not doing a lot of cool things, right? I'm staying home. There isn't a lot going on in my life to share with you. But this is something that I'm working on every day my daily doesn't so I thought that I would share it with you and hopefully encourage you guys during this time I guess I can say thanks for those of you who have stayed to the end now right thank you thank you guys so much for those of you who have stayed to the end oh man let's just take a big deep breath I have not been feeling well I had weight loss surgery as some of you guys know five and a half months ago and I've been so tired lately and my my fear my initial fear is oh my gosh it's something related to the weight loss surgery and then my second

fear is do I have the coronavirus and my hypochondriac self you know anxiety added with hypochondriac which I get when I'm in a stressed out everything I'm like if I read web MD I'm dying of cancer you know oh my gosh I have a brain tumor for sure so when I'm stressed this is amplified and so I convinced myself that I was like 100% dying and what it turns out I was fainting I fainted twice in the last week, feeling really weak, feeling really sick. I took my blood sugar. It was 19, which is so high. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's it.

I'm diabetic. Why is this happening to me? And I was going full crazy pants. What it turned out was I was dehydrated. I wasn't drinking enough. And I didn't know this, but when you're dehydrated, not only does your blood pressure go low, which is why I was fainting, but your blood sugar can go really high because you're, you're not getting enough fluids and so your blood is a little thicker or whatever so your

blood sugar is higher so that's what was going on and and I convinced myself that I was 100% dying but I just needed to drink so I added drinking three bottles of water to my daily dozen and I put it on the fridge I highlighted that when I circled it and I'm feeling so much better I feel ridiculous but but I'm feeling so much better I just I was drinking like cappuccino and I was drinking a couple of teas, but those had caffeine in them, and I was not drinking enough water. And I was cranking up the heat, and I had my hoodie on. And so, yeah, it was just dehydrated. I wasn't even feeling thirsty. I was just dehydrated, and I physically made myself sick, and I think the stress and the anxiety contributed to that 100%. So getting fluid, it sounds so

ridiculous. Getting water, I'm feeling less dizzy. I'm not passing out anymore. I've been been testing my blood sugar, it's perfect, strange thing. So it's not the coronavirus, it's not diabetes, I just needed to drink more water. So I thought I'd show that with you. If you guys also maybe aren't feeling the best, feeling dizzy, feeling something, feeling sick, also suffering from slight hypochondriac like me, worried that every tickle in your throat might be the coronavirus, have you drink enough water today? Just thought I'd throw that out there. Who knows? But anyways, thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this weird one. I hope you really do consider starting a daily dozen, writing it out on a piece of paper,

thinking of 12 things that you can do, and think of your feelings, think of how you can, what you want to feel, if is it healthier, is it proud of yourself, is it accomplished, is it in control of your home? And think of 12 small, quick, five-minute things that you can, do to get closer to that. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you guys next time.