The Lazy Genius Podcast - #209 - How to Keep Your Surfaces Clear

Episode Date: May 10, 2021

Clutter is a real thing. It feels like there’s never a clear spot to put anything down, and I think it’s safe to say that when surfaces are reasonably clear, your home feels cleaner and more welcoming even if it’s dirty. So today, I am going to share the ten principles of keeping your surfaces clear. Helpful Companion Links Check out The Lazy Genius Way (affiliate link) if you’d like to read more about how I use Lazy Genius principles every day. Instagram is where I hang out the most online, so I’d love for you to join me over there @thelazygenius. Download a transcript of this episode. This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi everybody. You're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 209. How to keep your surfaces clean. Clutter is a real thing. It feels like there's never a clear spot to put anything down. And I also think it's safe to say that when surfaces are reasonably clear, your home feels cleaner and more welcoming, even if it's dirty. It's weird. So today I'm going to share. the 10 commandments, 10 rules. I don't like either of those words. Ten principles? Let's go with principles. I'm going to share with you the 10 principles of keeping your surfaces clear. Number one, you don't have to have clear surfaces. Like, you don't have to. This is not a rule. Sometimes our season of life makes it really hard to keep them clear. Newborn life comes to mind. There are so many tiny moving parts, like literal moving parts to keeping a tiny baby alive. And expecting your counter to be clear of bottles, for example, it's impossible. It is an impossibility. That is just not the season of life for clear kitchen counters. Also, sometimes we have busy days or we're

tired or we're outside reading a book or playing with the kids or we stayed at the library or the park longer than we thought. Any number of things can keep us from clearing off our surfaces when we might normally do it. So this just isn't a rule. It's okay if you have cluttered surfaces. It's okay if they don't even bother you. They might not bother you. It's totally fine. It's totally fine. So start there, please. You don't have to have clear surfaces. This is not a mandate. There is no morality here. You do what matters to you in the season of life that you are in. Number two, not everything has to be clear all the time. This one feels very important, especially when your entire house feels like it's going to eat you, you know?

there's like so much stuff everywhere that you start to get what I call big black trash bag energy and you just start throwing stuff away or you have this expectation that every surface has to be clear always in order for your house to function and I just want to remind you that most days that's probably not how you feel right you don't have to have everything clear all the time you might just need some things to be clear some of the time so drop the all or nothing it's will not serve you well. So number one, you don't have to have clear surfaces. Number two, not everything has to be clear all the time. Number three, some stuff needs to stay out, like those bottles I just mentioned, or your TV remote, or the phone charger, or the stack of

books that your kid is reading. Like some stuff just needs to stay out. A zero-sum approach to clearing your surfaces, it will not work. Some stuff has to be out. I'm just wanting to speak that into your situation. If you speak it into your own situation, it could really help you not seek out solutions for things that don't actually need a solution, right? Okay, number four, claim intentional space. There might be in every room a surface or even two or three that you really, really want to keep clear. In my house, it is the, it's the kitchen island. And I recognize that not everybody has a kitchen island so you can just name whatever you need to name for whatever room that you have. But our kitchen island, it serves me and the function and soul of the kitchen best when it's

either like an excellent use. It's working super hard making snacks and meals or whatever or it is completely cleared off. I have mentioned before in the episode about cleaning your kitchen from ages ago that it is so fantastic to have what I call a dirty dishes zone, which is simply. the place that you always put your dirty dishes. You don't have to wash them yet or load them in the dishwasher, but you have claimed a space for those dirty dishes. That's where they always go, right? That claimed space is intentional and it does not seep into other spaces, okay? Like my kitchen island. Even when the counter where we put all of our, you know, our dirty dishes, even when that is covered in dishes, the clear island still makes it feel like the kitchen is working for me and I'm not working for it.

Like it still feels kind of clean. It's doing what I need it to do. This can happen in every single room. Claim intentional space for clear surfaces. And then you can also claim other surfaces that won't always be clear, but they serve a specific purpose. Claim intentional space. Number five. mark the borders. This one is kind of magical. When your stuff is on a surface on its own, just like hanging out, it looks like clutter. But if you put that same stuff in a basket or on a tray, it is a different ballgame. Now it looks purposeful. Mark your borders. Mark your borders with trays and baskets and shells and jars and whatever else. Mark your borders. Give your stuff an intentional place to go on an intentional surface where that stuff already serves your needs. If it's something that has to stay out, mark its borders.

Our favorite home guru, the nestar, she has something similar to this that she calls a home base. It's basically like a bordered container in every room that holds the regular daily things. So for example, let's talk about my living room. We have, in our living room, we have four tables. They're all pretty small, but we have a sectional sofa as well as three individual chairs in our living room. And I learned from the nester that surfaces really do matter in rooms where people are sitting because of things like drinks and plates and books and all that kind of stuff. It's so important to try and have a surface that's within reach of any seat in your room. So because of that, we have four tables. We have a main coffee table in front of the couch. We have one table next to my morning

chair that's like across the room from the couch. We have one table in between the other two chairs that they, you know, share for drinks or whatever. And then we have a table. that actually isn't a table. It's really like a big storage basket with a lid and then there's a tray on top of it that's on the far side of the couch. Now, the main coffee table is always clear unless it is actively being used. But when we do our family tidy, when we tidy the L, as we say in our house, which is our main living area that's like kind of in the shape of an L, when we tidy the L, that table, that coffee table is always completely cleared off. Nothing lives there permanently. But what about the things that we use every day, like the TV remote and the box of tissues and the comb and the ponytail holders that I use every night to braid Annie's

hair while she watches a video? What do we do with those things? They are all on a tray on that storage basket. That's where they go. That is our living room home base. That's where the borders are marked. So mark your borders. We all have stuff that has to be out. So make it feel less out by putting it in or on something and mark your borders. Number six, if you can't clear stack. If you cannot clear stack. Some of you might be like me and visual clutter becomes mental clutter real fast. So clearing away clutter is really important to like functioning as a human being. Or sometimes you really just only have like 60 seconds to clear a room. And that 60 seconds, it just isn't enough to clear everything. So when you can't clear, stack. If the kitchen table is covered in books and art supplies and the mail and whatever else and you just don't have the time or energy to put all of those things away, but the cluttered table is making you crazy, stack it all up. Make a neat pile. It's almost like you're creating borders, but with the edges of a stack. I know that's a really simple one, but I promise you it helps. When you

cannot clear, stack. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life.

You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. Okay, so quick recap. Number one, you don't have to have clear surfaces. Number two, not everything has to be clear all the time. Number three, some stuff needs to stay out. Number four, claim intentional space. Number five, mark the borders. And number six, if you can't clear, stack. And now number seven, have a Wild West surface. So I love naming things like the Wild West something because it's just like, whatever, man. I don't know. We don't know what's happening. But sometimes you need a surface where there are no rules. There are no exceptions. It's just like a dumping ground and it's okay if it stays that way for a while. In fact, a Wild West surface sometimes makes it easier to clear other places because you're not expecting everything to be clear all the time. And it's a place you can move those stacks that you just made when you don't have time

to clear, but you do have time to stack. You can move those stacks to your Wild West surface and you can clean that up when you have the time. because then what you can do is you can clear that wild west surface in a batch and you can put all that stuff away at the same time. You put it away all at once. But having somewhere where the rules are loose is really important. Otherwise you're going to expect something from yourself and from your home that is not sustainable. You likely cannot have every surface clear all the time. And you likely will not have the energy to even do it all the time. So have a sort of

surface that you choose. That's a little out of the way, maybe if you can, but it's where stuff can go if you don't have time to put it away. Number eight, make clearing part of your rhythm. So this is for like daily regular clearing, but this is also for situational clearing. Okay, so I'll explain both. First, let's do daily clearing. So in our house, we tidy every day before screen time. The kids know that we don't start screen time until we do a tidy. I do not want to spend their screen time cleaning up their mess. I don't want to do it. That does not feel fair. So we do it together. That's just part of our rhythm. By the way, you guys, next week is an episode on screen time, kids in screen time. So look out for that. Okay. So clearing our L surfaces, right, when we tidy our L, cleaning our surfaces, those main

living room surfaces is already part of our daily rhythm. And it makes a huge difference. So see where you can add that to your own daily rhythm. And I want you to notice that we're not clearing every surface in the whole house. It is just in our living room and our kitchen. It's just the main part of the house where we mostly hang out. Don't expect this to happen every day in every room. Most likely. Okay. Now, situational clearing. There are some great house rules that you can set to keep certain surfaces from becoming overwhelming. I think that overwhelming surfaces happen when more than one task is happening in one place. It's like that overlap of living of, you know, you've got a project and a chore and you're reading and all these things, like all at once. For example, I have a house rule

that I've actually shared on Instagram before, but in case you have not heard me say it before, I always clean off the kitchen counters and really, honestly, just the island, truly. before I go grocery shopping every single time. It is so helpful to come home with bags of food and all the stuff and not have to add those bags to a pile of mail and a stuffed animal with a broken seam that I need to sew together and my computer and a stack of books and you get the idea. I used to do that. I used to just like bring everything in. But I made that house rule because I was getting so overwhelmed by everything on my kitchen surfaces when I went shopping. It's like, it's almost like I couldn't put away the groceries or the stuff that I brought home because all the

stuff that was already there, it almost like it combined into this big hub of trash. And I thought, well, I can't, I can't, don't make me do this. This is too hard. And I would just sort of stall out. So I created a house rule to keep that from happening. That is what house rules do, right? They keep the overwhelm from growing. So I clean the kitchen counters off before I go to the store. It's simple and it works like a dream. So where can you create a house rule for situational clutter? And then that becomes part of your rhythm whenever that situation shows up. Number nine, put everything in its place. This is a lazy genius principle, just like house rules are a lazy genius principle.

And a lot of what keeps our surfaces dirty is that stuff doesn't have a place. And I want to encourage you that that does not mean that you're doing this wrong. Like sometimes things don't have an obvious place or you haven't taken the time to find one yet. For example, okay, from where I'm sitting right now, I'm in my bedroom because I do all my work and recording at my desk at the foot of my bed. Right now I can see my, I'm looking at my dresser. On my dresser is an Amazon, actually two Amazon boxes stacked on top of each other with new phone photography setup equipment like a stand and a ring light stuff to make it easier for me to do videos, but I don't have a place to put that gear yet. I don't know where I'm going to store it.

So it's just sitting on my dresser in the box. There are also, next to that, three swimsuit tops that are too small for me. I tried on all my swimsuits the other day to see if I needed to get more. And I do because I grew out of several. And so I don't know what I'm going to do with these three tops that are too small for me now. So they're just in a stack on my dresser, right? There's also, this does have a place, but it's a little bit more complicated. There's also a guitar. strap that is not in the guitar case. And if you have guitars, you know, you know why. I mean, it's only like 15 seconds, but it's like kind of a big deal to put something in a guitar case because you have to like, guitars are big. You have to find a place to like lift them up and put them on the

bed and open all the snaps and lift up the guitar and wrap the strap up in the little cubby and snap it back clothes. It's like, it's not a hard thing, but it's also kind of a whole thing. So it takes more steps than usual, I guess, to put it away. So the guitar strap is still in the dresser. Now that has a place, right? But nobody's put it there yet. The other things don't have a place. They just don't have a place yet. And sometimes things don't have a place yet. So be kind to yourself and name that the reason your surface isn't clear is maybe because you haven't named where something goes. So that's just your next step. Where's this going to go? Where do I want to put this? But it is easier to clear surfaces when everything has a place.

place. And finally, number 10, put everything in its place as soon as you're able. Now, I want to be very clear about this. This is not a rule. This is a principle. This is not me telling you what to do. You do what you want, right? But this is just acknowledging what we all know and how we all live pretty much every day. That if we don't do something, if we don't like put something away like kind of soon after we're done using it, it will sit there for a long time. And the longer it sits, the longer it will continue to sit. It is so weird. So a way to begin clearing your surfaces is to clear them as soon as you're able or put things in their places before you put them down on a random surface that is not their place. The sooner you do it,

the less you'll have to, which again, it is fine if you don't. You're not a bad person or a bad housekeeper or any of that. It's seasons of life, you guys. But that is an approach, and a perspective that can help if clearing your surfaces often, if that matters to you, do it as often as you can, or as soon as you can, and maybe as often as you can. But like, it grows. It's a magnet of like, it's like some sort of alien creation or something. So just do it as soon as you're able. And those are the 10 principles of how to keep your surfaces clear.

I hope that helps. I put up a poll last week sharing the next few episodes. and which ones you guys were most excited about, and it was this one by a lot. So I hope that it has met you and helped you, and I'm so glad that you listened. Okay, before we go, let's celebrate our lazy genius of the week. It's Sasha, who does not have a last name on Instagram, which I respect. Sasha says, I found Sasha because she tagged me in a post for the pop cast with Knox and Jamie, who we love. The podcast celebrated their 400th episode last week, and they had this fun like Instagram graphic to fill out that ask people what their favorite pop cast

catchphrase was and what the pop cast got them into. Sasha said that her favorite catchphrase is how dare you, which I have had Jamie say to me personally and it is kind of the best to make her like fake mad enough to say how dare you. But Sasha also said that the thing the pop cast got her into was the lazy genius. So that is so fun. I'm so glad you're here, Sasha. Plus Sasha's bio says that she loves nail polo. reading romance novels, wearing bright lipstick, and she is forever geographically impaired. And if you were to sub for the word romance novels, if you were to sub out books about circuses or teenage girls, like bringing down the patriarchy, Sasha and I are the same

person. I am also forever geographically impaired. So thank you for listening, Sasha, and for being here and the same to all of you. I'm so grateful for every year, for every podcast review, book review, Instagram follower, newsletter subscriber, all those things. You guys are just the best. So until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week. Have you ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that more dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life because when you're living a B or B plus life, you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A-plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.