435: Why Understanding the Layers of a Clean House is So Helpful

Summary

Podcast Summary: Dana K. White – A Slob Comes Clean Episode 435: Why Understanding the Layers of a Clean House is So Helpful Release Date: December 12, 2024
Description: Reality-Based Cleaning, Organizing, and Decluttering

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Introduction to the Episode

In episode 435 of A Slob Comes Clean, host Dana K. White delves into the concept of "the layers of a clean house," sharing her personal journey and insights on effective cleaning and organizing strategies. This episode aims to help listeners understand why maintaining a clean home can feel overwhelming and how breaking down the process into manageable layers can make a significant difference.

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Understanding the Layers of a Clean House

The Three Layers: Daily Tasks, Clutter, and Deep Cleaning

Dana introduces the idea that keeping a house clean isn't a singular task but involves multiple layers. She identifies three primary layers:

1. Daily Tasks: These are routine activities that prevent mess from accumulating, such as washing dishes, doing a quick pickup, and sweeping.
2. Clutter Management: This involves decluttering and ensuring that items have designated places to prevent disorganization.
3. Deep Cleaning: This is the comprehensive cleaning that includes scrubbing surfaces, mopping floors, and other thorough cleaning tasks.

Quote:
“At the end of the time that we were there, I realized, oh, okay, the cleaning is only the bottom layer.”
— Dana K. White [04:35]

Personal Experience and Realizations

Dana shares her struggle with maintaining a clean house despite being intelligent and capable. She realized that her approach was flawed because she overlooked the importance of managing daily tasks and decluttering before attempting deep cleaning.

Quote:
“I used to think that cleaning my house was taking it from disaster to perfectly clean and scrubbed.”
— Dana K. White [04:34]

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Impact of Understanding Layers

Removing Bewilderment and Shame

By understanding the layered approach, Dana explains how this perspective alleviates feelings of confusion and inadequacy. She highlights that the frustration of not maintaining a clean house stems from not addressing the foundational layers first.

Quote:
“Understanding the layers of a clean house is so powerful. It removes the bewilderment... it removes the shame.”
— Dana K. White [24:38]

Altering Perceptions of Cleaning Difficulty

Dana emphasizes that once the layers are understood, cleaning doesn't have to be an insurmountable task. Breaking it down into daily, manageable activities makes the overall process less daunting.

Quote:
“When you understand that the daily stuff is so much easier if you actually do it daily, it makes the cleaning easier.”
— Dana K. White [20:07]

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Addressing Comments and Common Misconceptions

Overwhelming Cleaning Expectations

Dana discusses a comment from a listener who was under the impression that maintaining a clean house required spending an excessive amount of time daily. She clarifies that this misunderstanding often leads to feelings of helplessness and discouragement.

Quote:
“That's why it's so important to understand the layers of a clean house, right? Because the beauty of it is the dishes have dishes math.”
— Dana K. White [20:41]

Misunderstandings from Other Cleaning Videos

She points out that many cleaning tutorials assume a level of prior organization that isn't realistic for everyone. This mismatch creates unrealistic expectations and contributes to the sense of failure among those struggling to keep their homes tidy.

Quote:
“They are probably talking about actually having a sparkling, perfect, always magazine-ready house all the time.”
— Dana K. White [33:29]

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Decluttering Methods

Five-Step, No-Mess Decluttering Process

Dana introduces her "five-step, no-mess decluttering process" as a practical solution for managing clutter. This method focuses on eliminating items without the need for extensive sorting or organizing in separate spaces.

Quote:
“I start with the trash so I don't have to think about, you know, oh, my goodness, there's so much for me to do.”
— Dana K. White [37:33]

Practical Application and Benefits

Applying her decluttering method, Dana explains how removing unnecessary items streamlines the cleaning process. By ensuring everything has a designated place or is removed from the home, deep cleaning becomes less time-consuming and more effective.

Quote:
“Once I get to that point, the pickup, like getting my house under control and getting it picked up is just those first three steps of the decluttering process.”
— Dana K. White [38:07]

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Conclusion and Takeaways

Dana K. White wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of understanding the layered approach to cleaning. She emphasizes that tackling daily tasks and decluttering are essential foundational steps that make maintaining a clean home achievable without burnout or excessive time commitment.

Key Takeaways:

• Break Down Cleaning Tasks: Focus on daily tasks, manage clutter, and approach deep cleaning in separate layers.
• Manageable Steps: Small, consistent actions prevent mess from becoming overwhelming.
• Decluttering is Crucial: Removing unnecessary items simplifies the overall cleaning process.
• Eliminate Unrealistic Standards: Understanding personal limits and avoiding excessive expectations fosters a more sustainable cleaning routine.

Quote:
“Understanding the layers of a clean house means that when I don't know what to do, do the dishes. That's the first thing.”
— Dana K. White [36:09]

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By adopting this layered approach, Dana offers a realistic and effective framework for listeners to achieve and maintain a clean and organized home without the stress and frustration that often accompanies the cleaning process.

Transcript

[Dana K. White]

Hey, y'all.

[Unknown Co-Host]

My newest book that I have been working on for the Last Five Years.

[Dana K. White]

Comes out on February 11th.

[Unknown Co-Host]

In this book, I am finally sharing the spiritual side of my desalabification process.

[Dana K. White]

The title of the book is Jesus.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Doesn'T care about your messy house.

[Dana K. White]

At the end of this episode, I'll share more about it, but for now, I'll just say that you can claim pre order bonuses now at aslobchemsclean.com Jesus.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Welcome to a Slob Comes Clean, the podcast.

[Dana K. White]

I am Dana K. White.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I share my personal des lobbification process.

[Dana K. White]

As I figure out ways to keep.

[Unknown Co-Host]

My own home under control. I share the truth about cleaning and.

[Dana K. White]

Organizing strategies that actually work in real.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Life for real people.

[Dana K. White]

People who don't love cleaning and organizing. Thanks for joining me today. This is podcast number 435. I'm calling it why understanding the layers of a clean house is helpful. I might say crucial, you know, for people like us. I'm just going to say it. I'm just going to say us, y'all, in case you started listening because you thought, oh, this person talks about cleaning and organizing. And, and you didn't notice that the name of the podcast was A slob comes clean. And you thought, well, I'm just going to hear all the ear candy that I like to hear about organizing. Well, welcome, and we're glad you're here. But us who are usually talking. The people who I'm usually talking to on this podcast are the people like me, right? Like the people who are like, wait, we're intelligent people. How. How is this so hard? Why is my house so hard to keep under control? Like, what is it about?

[Unknown Co-Host]

Why is it that it seems to.

[Dana K. White]

Be like, it's so easy that no one else even has to ever even has to think about it, and I have to think about it way too much and it's still hard, right? So that's what I'm talking about. And understanding the layers of a clean house is something I used to not do.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I didn't understand that there were layers.

[Dana K. White]

To a clean house. Right? I just knew I wanted a clean house. My house was a disaster. My other. My friends had houses that looked the way that I wanted my house to look. And I was like, what are we doing differently? I don't get. Seemed like we weren't speaking the same language because we weren't. Because I didn't understand there were layers of a clean house. They didn't understand there were layers of a clean house, but they also didn't understand. They didn't understand it because it was just kind of like obvious and natural to them.

[Unknown Co-Host]

And so therefore, when they would legitimately.

[Dana K. White]

Kindly try to help me, like give.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Me advice, like, well, this is what I do.

[Dana K. White]

And I was like, what are you talking about? It doesn't make any sense. So what I mean I say Layers of a Clean House I used to be completely bewildered by the fact that cleaning was such a daunting task for me. Like so daunting. Like I would dread it. I would have to gear myself up. I would wait for inspiration because I hated it so much. And then when I cleaned it would take me days and it was just completely bewildering because my friend would say that she didn't clean or that she.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Never cleaned and her house always looked.

[Dana K. White]

Great and I was like, this doesn't make sense. Well, it turns out we were talking about two different things.

[Unknown Co-Host]

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[Dana K. White]

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[Unknown Co-Host]

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[Dana K. White]

Here's the reality of the layers of a clean house. I have other podcasts on this. I talk about it in my books different places. So I'm just going to give a super brief overview. This is how it works. I used to think that cleaning my house was taking it from disaster to perfectly clean and scrubbed okay. And so when I was talking about cleaning, I was talking about all of that when I was leaving my parents lake house at one point where we had been up there for a, you know, a nice little free vacation for a couple days. And it was just my little family and I was getting it all put back together because my mom left a really detailed list. At the end of the time that we were there, I realized, oh, oh, okay, the cleaning is only the bottom layer. And here's how I realized it. I was catching up on dishes. Like I had tried to keep up with the dishes for the first couple days that we were there, and then the last couple of days I didn't. And so it was time to leave the house. And even though the actual list just said, hey, sweep this area and wipe down this area and blah, blah, blah, and that was the cleaning. Before I could do any of that, I had to catch up on the dishes. Okay. Now at this time, I had been thinking way more deeply than most people think about my house because I was going through my dislabfication process.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I was writing about what I was.

[Dana K. White]

Doing, what I was figuring out on my blog. This started back in 2009. Do we say that? Do we say 2009? 2009. At a slob chemist clean. Com. Okay, so like that, that was where I was figuring this out. So I was already in the mode and so I was already observing, oh, I know, the impact of doing the dishes. And I was seeing the impact of not having done the dishes for the last couple of days and having to.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Catch up on that before I could.

[Dana K. White]

Do anything that was actual cleaning. And then I also noticed, oh, as I tell my husband and my kids, get all of our stuff out of here once. All of their clothes and shoes and socks and random toys that they had brought with them and all that, once that was all packed up and removed from the house, it was super easy. Like all I had to do was clean because there wasn't any clutter because all that was there actually had a place to be.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Right?

[Dana K. White]

But there are layers. So the first layer of a clean house is the daily stuff. This isn't cleaning. It's the stuff that needs to be done every day. It's the dishes, it's the doing a five minute pickup, you know, doing the basic picking up sweeping. You know, those are the things that if I will do those every day.

[Unknown Co-Host]

They never build up to be big.

[Dana K. White]

But if I don't do them and then it's time to clean. I spend all my time that I.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Thought I was going to be cleaning.

[Dana K. White]

Actually just doing dishes and never getting to the Actual scrubbing and the mopping and the wiping down and all that kind of stuff. Because I'm just catching up on things that if I did them every day, only took me a couple minutes every day. Not a couple minutes, 10 to 15, which is, you know, not very many. So that was the first.

[Unknown Co-Host]

That's the first layer.

[Dana K. White]

It's the catching up on the daily stuff.

[Unknown Co-Host]

The daily stuff.

[Dana K. White]

If I will keep that done. That layer is not something I have to deal with when I clean my house. And I'm making little quote marks. I'm sure you can hear that my voice, right? The second layer is the clutter. I. When I would go to clean my house, I would catch up on all the dishes. I'd be exhausted. So that would take me the first day, you know, and then the second day, I was moving all the stuff around. Like, I. All the stuff that had no place to go that was just either randomly sitting in places or piles because I was just like, I don't have a place for everything. And all these things, they made it messy and they made it to where I couldn't actually clean, right? Because you can't actually clean when there's clutter everywhere. So I would shove all that stuff in my master bedroom, lock the door, because that was the place I could lock and keep people out. Because, let's just be honest, most time when I was cleaning, it was because people were coming over, right? So I would get all that stuff shifted, not decluttered, but I would deal with the clutter by shoving it into that room. Well, I realized, okay, the clutter is the other layer. When there isn't a bunch of stuff that doesn't have a place to be, then I can just get down to the cleaning. Especially if I haven't let the daily things get out of control to where I have to catch up, right?

[Unknown Co-Host]

So those are the layers of a clean house.

[Dana K. White]

It's the daily stuff, the clutter and the cleaning. If you can keep up with the daily stuff, and the more you declutter, then when it's time to clean, it's kind of bananas.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Like, it's one of those things where.

[Dana K. White]

I'm like, wait, is this how easy it is for other people? Is this why it looked easy for other people? Because it was easy for other people because they were doing the other things they should be doing at other times and not putting them off until the big cleaning day. It's that, oh, I can just fill a bucket with water and some cleaning solution and just start cleaning. I can Just start wiping down the countertops. Because I don't first have to deal with all the piles of things on top of the countertops.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Right?

[Dana K. White]

So it was just getting down to the cleaning. So that is the Layers of a Clean House. So I had a video that I put out. Let's see. I think it was about. It was about November of 2023. So it. Or no, December of 2023. So right at a year. I don't know.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Anyway, I wrote these notes to do.

[Dana K. White]

This podcast a little earlier, but at.

[Unknown Co-Host]

The time when I wrote the notes.

[Dana K. White]

It had had 521,000 views in 11 months. Now, in case y'all are like, oh, I didn't know Dana was that big of a YouTuber. I'm not. It's the video that's done better than any of my other videos. It's not my number one, but in the amount of time that it has existed, it has done by far the best. Like, YouTube will tell you that's 465,000 more than usual in 11 months. Right? So, as you can see, I don't ever get that many, but this video did exceptionally well. And I was working in. I'd actually been at an Airbnb working on the book that comes out in February, y'all. And as I was getting ready to, you know, leave and had to get it cleaned up, I was like, oh, this is a great demonstration of the layers of a clean House. I will link to that in the show notes for this. So that video did really, really well. And I. I just demonstrated it. I showed what I meant by it. Okay? Now, that video, it ebbs and it flows. It gets a lot of people who are like, oh, my goodness, this explains so much. Thank you so much. That's why it's done really well. It also gets people who don't get it at all. Like, that's the reality of things doing really well on the Internet is you get exposed to a lot of people.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Who didn't know that you existed and.

[Dana K. White]

Who are like, who is this weirdo? What is she talking about? Anyway, so it has its goodness bad.

[Unknown Co-Host]

But it's mostly good, right?

[Dana K. White]

Like, because I know there are a lot of people. You may have found me through that video, right? So I want to talk about two pretty recent comments on that video that show why it's so important to understand that there are layers of a clean house and what those layers are.

[Unknown Co-Host]

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[Dana K. White]

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[Dana K. White]

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[Dana K. White]

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[Dana K. White]

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[Dana K. White]

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[Dana K. White]

Let me read the first one and I'm going to kind of edit it a little bit for. Because I don't like it. Was basically comparing this video makes sense to me and another video I had.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Seen didn't make sense to me.

[Dana K. White]

And I sometimes I'm like, are you remembering exactly what you saw there? Are you kind of, you know, beefing it up or whatever or making it sound worse than it was? So anyway, so I'll kind of. I'll kind of edit a little bit as I go. All right, so this is talking about the layers of a clean house concept, okay? This has given me an entirely new perspective. I recently watched a different video on things people who have clean houses do every day. Okay, so. So the subtitle of my this is me talking again of the layers of a clean house video is why cleaning feels so hard. Okay? So for the person who is completely overwhelmed like I was and like some of you are, or some of you have been at different times, okay? And you look at a clean house and you go, how do you do that? Okay? So this is something that they had been looking up and they had found something, okay? Anyway, so this video involved, according to the commenter, this is their perspective, what they remember, right? Cleaning out expired food from the fridge on a daily basis, doing laundry and putting it away on a daily basis, vacuuming the main areas of the house twice a day. Anyway, supposedly there were 10 things on this list and the person claimed that, which, again, this is perception, okay? I don't want to diss anybody's videos, right? That each one just. And this person put it in quotes, just took 10 minutes.

[Unknown Co-Host]

That's 100 minutes per day of cleaning.

[Dana K. White]

No, thank you. Says, that's exactly why I don't have a clean house. Your video just made things click. Taking 5 to 10 minutes a day to do the daily stuff makes such a difference. I'm that person who would leave cleaning until a weekend, and then I'm spending literally eight hours cleaning. But 90% of that was dealing with layers one and two as you described. Anyway, this video was so helpful and realistic. Okay. So I actually think that I relate very much. Again, I don't know if that's what the video actually said.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Right?

[Dana K. White]

And I have no idea what video they're talking about, but the perception, the impression that the person took away who.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Was looking for how do I keep my house clean?

[Dana K. White]

Was if I was going to do that, it would mean spending 100 minutes a day cleaning, y'all. 100 minutes a day is an hour and 40 minutes. An hour and 40 minutes cleaning every day.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Now, I remember talking to dawn one.

[Dana K. White]

Time and I think we're here on the podcast. And by the way, take your house back is on sale right now, so go grab it while it's on sale. If you're not a member and you've been wanting to, because you got to get it while it's on sale anyway, go to ASA comes clean dot com. Take. All right. Okay. So anyway, she.

[Unknown Co-Host]

She referenced a survey that was similar to that.

[Dana K. White]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but.

[Unknown Co-Host]

An hour and 40 minutes of cleaning is what is being said.

[Dana K. White]

These are the things to do every day. Well, to the person who is overwhelmed and thinks, okay, my house is a disaster, this person says that this is what it takes.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I can't spend an hour and 40 minutes.

[Dana K. White]

Because I guarantee you that the person who is overwhelmed in their house, usually we're overwhelmed because we're busy doing things, right? And so the idea of adding an hour and 40 minutes every day being what it would take if our house was actually going to be under control is the thing that makes us think, well, then that can never happen. I can't do that. I simply don't have it in me to spend an hour and 40 minutes every day doing each of these 10, 10 things for 10 minutes, right? So that's why it's so important to understand the layers of a clean house, right? Because the beauty of it is the dishes have dishes math, okay? And understanding that, that, that the five hours of catching up on dishes that I used to think was doing the dishes, because I only ever did the dishes when I was catching up on dishes, right? And that was the five hour thing. But that, that is not a realistic thing. It's not. It's not how it actually plays out. If I do them every day, it takes me 10 to 15 minutes. I call this dishes math, okay? One day's worth of dishes takes 10 to 15 minutes. But I had no earthly idea because.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I was Doing what I thought was.

[Dana K. White]

Correct math and it was wrong. And that is if I wait five days and it takes me five hours to do the dishes, that means if.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I was to do them every day.

[Dana K. White]

It would take me an hour a day. And I don't have an hour a day to spend doing dishes. And so I would think that I didn't have any option but to put them off and then do five hours, which then just perpetuated that misconception that I had. So instead of that, I went through the process of being like, I'm just going to do my dishes every day and see what. And through doing them, I realized one day's worth of dishes. It doesn't work like I thought dishes math would. Dishes, actual math is one day's worth of dishes is 10 to 15 minutes.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Two days worth of dishes is like.

[Dana K. White]

An hour because now I'm moving and shifting and all that. And then three days worth of dishes is hours because now I have to excavate my kitchen because every dish is dirty and every surface is covered and all that, right? So this reality is, it makes so.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Much more sense to my brain through.

[Dana K. White]

The experience of it, right? Like the experience of doing my dishes and finding out that it was only 10 to 15 minutes worth of time was so much more powerful than someone.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Telling me it's going to be a hundred minutes.

[Dana K. White]

And I'm like, well, I don't have the time and so I never even try it, right? And so this understanding that that daily stuff is so much easier if I actually do it daily and makes the cleaning easier is so helpful to me, right? Like it helps it actually happen. And then understanding decluttering, first of all, understanding how to declutter because I didn' know how to declutter before because I hadn't made up my no mess method, right? Like, I have my five step progress and only progress no mess decluttering method. That is what works for me. And because I know that method, I can tackle any space in whatever time I've got. I don't have to say I don't have an hour and 40 minutes today. What's the point of even trying? Instead, I know that if I just.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Take five minutes to throw away trash, my house will be better off.

[Dana K. White]

And my house is going to get to that point where I am going to be able to clean easily, okay? To do the cleaning easily. I'm not saying I'm going to mop every day. I'm just not. It's never going to happen. But if I'm keeping up with my daily stuff, then when I mop, it's not that big of a deal, right? Which makes it me more willing to actually do it, which makes it happen more often, which all of that stuff working together, right? So it's so important to understand the layers of a clean house so that we don't get caught up in what we assume other people are doing. Okay? And I. I guarantee you, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing an hour and 40 minutes if that.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Is what you want to do.

[Dana K. White]

If it works well for you to say, I'm going to do these 10 things and they're going to take me each 10 minutes every day and you can handle, then that's great. Like, keep doing that, right? Like, don't change anything. But there are a whole lot of us out there who that is flat out too daunting. Therefore, we're never even going to try. Therefore, it's never going to happen. Therefore it gets worse and worse and worse, and it feels more and more unattainable. Right? But the beauty is it actually doesn't take me an hour and 40 minutes. Is my house always perfect? Every time, you know, somebody walks in and I'm like, oh, man, I wish I would have already done the things I should have done today. But no, my house is not always perfect perfect, but it's always within, like, 15 minutes of being totally fine for people to come over. Right? So that is one of the comments that I think is really important to talk about just having that realistic idea. Okay. Then there's this other comment. Okay. I really think there are even more layers than that. And there have been several comments like this over the year. Even cleaning and mopping and vacuuming aren't the deepest. There is a deeper layer for walls, cabinets, closets, and repairs. I think you can also add photo storage, computer cleanup, archival records, birth certificates, and business files. Lolo. That's them, not me. I never say lol. If you ever get a text from me and someone is like, saying, this is Dana, I need you to help.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Me send $1,000, which they never. I never will send you that.

[Dana K. White]

Okay? But you can know for sure if.

[Unknown Co-Host]

They say lol, it was not me.

[Dana K. White]

Because I don't say lol. Anyway. LOL is what they said.

[Unknown Co-Host]

All right, so they are adding on.

[Dana K. White]

A whole lot of other things, a whole lot of shoulds.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Right?

[Dana K. White]

So let's talk about why is it the understanding the layers of a clean house is so powerful? It removes the bewilderment okay, Now I know why cleaning feels so hard. Because I'm not taking care of daily stuff and I haven't decluttered, so therefore I'm adding that to the cleaning. That's why cleaning feels so hard, okay? It removes the bewilderment about why what people with clean houses are saying doesn't make any sense to you. When they say that they don't clean but their house looks amazing. It's confusing. That confusion used to make me feel really bad about myself. That was a huge frustration for me because I was like, what you're saying doesn't make any sense to me. And that makes me feel dumb. And I know I'm not dumb, but I feel real dumb in this situation and it made me feel really bad about myself, right? So removing that bewilderment, giving you the understanding of they're not doing, catching up on daily stuff and decluttering first, which was again, always have to remember my decluttering when I was not actually decluttering when I was doing that as part of cleaning was just stuff shifting, shoving everything in a room, which only meant that then that stuff drifted back out into the house and blah, blah, blah, whatever, okay? It removes the bewilderment about why it is that you clean all day and feel like you don't even make a dent. Because, you know, like the first person said they'll this understood. They understood why now that they were not getting anywhere by spending eight hours on a day, on a Saturday cleaning. Okay, I know that feeling. I know that I'm going to clean it from top to bottom, and it didn't have any lasting effect. Now the reality is stuff doesn't stay clean, right? But if I clean for 8 hours, get my house as perfect as I can get it in eight hours, which I couldn't even get it anywhere near perfect in eight hours when I first started, right? Like, I was way past that. But I would. My husband would go camping for a weekend and I would clean all weekend and he would love it when he came home, right? And it looked great, but because I hadn't actually decluttered then the stuff that I had shoved into another room, into a closet, wherever, when I needed any of that stuff, I didn't actually know where it was. I just knew it was in the pile somewhere. So I had to tear through the pile, which meant everything became this big explosion and just went right back to not really having a place and being all over the house, right? So it didn't have any lasting effect.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Also, I would clean all day and.

[Dana K. White]

Be like, whew, so glad to be done. And then I wouldn't do the dishes for a week because I was exhausted.

[Unknown Co-Host]

From the cleaning for eight hours.

[Dana K. White]

And if you don't do the dishes all week, well, then you're back in that same exact situation where now I have to do five hours of dishes and that exhausts me. Right. Okay. So it's that and the whole why doesn't cleaning last? So I didn't actually declutter.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I was just moving things around.

[Dana K. White]

So it just moved right back all over the house. And I didn't keep up with daily stuff after it was done. Right. So remove that bewilderment. It removes the shame like we talked about. That made me feel dumb when I didn't understand why this was so hard. Also, you know when you're just imagining how long things take to clean because you're dealing with a totally different situation than somebody who isn't fighting the layers and you know, that amount of time is ever going to happen, it really feels hopeless. Like that. That's what we were talking about in the beginning. It feels so hopeless to think I'm never going to have time, I'm never going to have a point in my life. Or if I do, it's, that's that whole, like it's going to be the next phase of life. The next phase of life.

[Unknown Co-Host]

That's when I'll have an hour and.

[Dana K. White]

40 minutes every day available to clean. That never happens. Okay. Right. So, yeah, it removes that bewilderment. It removes the shame, removes the hopelessness. To understand the layers of a clean.

[Unknown Co-Host]

House during these cold months, we spend a lot of time indoors and the house stays closed up. Cat owners know how a litter box can get smelly quickly. My friend Jackie has indoor cats and knows the importance of a fresh, clean litter box.

[Dana K. White]

So she was so excited to be.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Trying out Pretty Litter so she could.

[Dana K. White]

Tell me how she loves it.

[Unknown Co-Host]

She loved that it showed up at her door. She loved that there was a toy.

[Dana K. White]

Included in the box, a toy with.

[Unknown Co-Host]

A bell that was perfect for her rescue cat, Daisy, who's blind. Pretty Litter has a non clumping formula that traps odor and moisture. It's low dust ultra absorbent formula is also lightweight. It ships free right to your doorstep so you never run out and you don't have to store those big tubs. Jackie loves knowing that Pretty Litter changes color to indicate early signs of potential illnesses in your cat, like urinary tract infections, kidney issues and more. If Daisy ever has an issue like that. Jackie's glad she has a way to know indoor cats and indoor humans Agree. Pretty litter helps a house smell fresh and clean. Go to prettylitter.com slob to save 20% on your first order and get a free cat toy. That's prettylitter.com slob, to save 20% on your first Order and get a free cat toy. Prettylitter.com slob terms and conditions apply. See site for details.

[Unknown Sponsor]

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[Dana K. White]

And also that last comment about oh, but what about, you know, the deeper layer of, you know, repairs and photo storage and computer cleanup and archival records and birth certificates and business files? You know, I mean, they didn't do the big gasp, but I'm adding that gasp in because that's overwhelming, right? So knowing that there are layers to a clean house eliminates those excessive should list. It stops the overthinking and the spinning out.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Not that those things don't need to be done.

[Dana K. White]

Of course they need to be done. But what I used to do was I would look at my house and I would be like, it's a disaster. I need to make a list. And I would start thinking of and.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Listing out all the things that should.

[Dana K. White]

Be done, all the things that I really needed to do. And I was exhausted just looking at the list, right? If I will do the daily stuff every day, dishes are never on the list. When dishes used to take me five hours, by the time I start working on a list, I'm five hours ahead because I don't have to do any dishes because the dishes are already done. Decluttering Once I actually started decluttering, instead of just moving stuff from space to.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Space and room to room because it.

[Dana K. White]

Didn'T have a place. Once I started getting it out of my house, an item that is gone.

[Unknown Co-Host]

From my house, I never have to.

[Dana K. White]

Touch it, move it, think about it, look at it again, and I just get to skip ahead. Which means that when I cleaned, I was able to get that done in.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Way less than eight hours.

[Dana K. White]

I would say less than an hour and 40 minutes usually. But I was able to get that cleaning done, and then it's shocking how.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Much time it freed up.

[Dana K. White]

And I hear this from y'all all the time. You're like, I never imagined, even though I had said it many times. Right. I understand, because I didn't get it either, how much time it would free up in my life to do my dishes every day when I'm thinking it's.

[Unknown Co-Host]

An hour and 40 minutes, so why even try?

[Dana K. White]

I don't do them, but even though I'm not doing them, they're always on the to do list as the first thing that needs to be done. But they're so daunting and it seems so hopeless that I don't do them. And it's just this bad cycle, right? But keeping the daily stuff done daily so that it's just small things done daily, I'm not saying that's all there is to do, but doing those small things daily keeps the house under control.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Keeps it from being a total disaster.

[Dana K. White]

And it frees up so much time. Okay, now, I just want to be clear. Most likely, if there is a video.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Where somebody was saying that they were.

[Dana K. White]

Doing this, they were probably talking about actually having a sparkling, perfect, always magazine ready house all the time, right? Like, if they were saying that they were spending 10 minutes on these 10 tasks every day, they were doing that. And that's awesome. That's not what I'm talking about, y'all.

[Unknown Co-Host]

I'm so sorry.

[Dana K. White]

Maybe I should have said that at the beginning. Because if I said that at the.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Beginning, then y'all would have known to.

[Dana K. White]

Stop listening if that's what you were hoping for. Because that's not what I'm here for, right? I'm here for, let's get rid of the ongoing mess so we can live our life in our house. Like, that's just me. I'm not saying one is right and one is wrong. I'm saying this is what I'm doing. I'm not here to tell you how to have it all spark all the time. I'm here to tell you how to have a house that you're like, yeah, got it.

[Unknown Co-Host]

We can do this. Right?

[Dana K. White]

Okay, so the excessive should lists become a list of, yeah, those are things I need to do, and now I have time to do them. And also, it's not the same list.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Organizing your photos is not on the.

[Dana K. White]

Same list as wiping down the kitchen counters. It's just not the kitchen counters. Is not even a list, y'all. So at the back of how to manage your home without losing your mind is the 28 days to hope for your friend home to hope for your phone. That's what it is. It's the 28 days to hope for your home, which was the first ebook I ever wrote. And when I wrote how to Manage.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Youe Home Without Losing youg Mind with.

[Dana K. White]

A traditional publisher, I was like, we have to include this because this is how you do it.

[Unknown Co-Host]

This is how you go from, oh.

[Dana K. White]

My word, why is this so hard to, oh, okay, I think I can do this. And I remember when I first wrote that ebook. So what I'm saying is it's available to you now right at the back of how to manage your Home. But when I wrote that first ebook, I remember friends, other bloggers, like, oh, you should include some checklists, some daily checklists. And I was like, no, no, no. The whole point to me is that.

[Unknown Co-Host]

It needed to be boiled down to.

[Dana K. White]

The point where these are the things that are easy enough and simple enough for me to remember that I don't need a checklist. So that by the time I do a checklist, it's about other things, bigger things. Okay? But these things are basic enough. They don't even need to be on the checklist.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Right.

[Dana K. White]

It also, knowing the layers of the clean house gives me the thing to tackle. I have. I just heard from somebody who had been through intense, intense trauma, and she said. She was saying thank you, and she said, thank you for teaching me that when you don't know what to do, do the dishes. Like, knowing that they are layers of a clean house means that when my.

[Unknown Co-Host]

House is a disaster or when my.

[Dana K. White]

Life is a disaster and things are really, really difficult, and I feel so bewildered that it feels like there's so much to do. There's this, and I could be doing this, and I could be doing this, and I could be doing this. Instead, I know if I don't know what to do, do the dishes. That's the first thing. Knowing that takes so much stress off. Right? That's the reason it's so important to understand the layers of a clean house. That there are layers. It's not just a big clean the house. This is the reason why the five step, no mess decluttering process is so helpful when you're trying to help your.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Kids clean their rooms. Right?

[Dana K. White]

I was the kid whose room is always a disaster. And just the statement, clean your room, it didn't mean anything to me. Like, I Didn't understand, and I'm sure.

[Unknown Co-Host]

My mom did try to break it.

[Dana K. White]

Down and things like that. So I don't want to act like she never tried. I'm just saying what I remember is, clean your room and me going, what? That's why the five step, no mess decluttering process is what I use when I'm just working in my house when it's gone out of control, and that is, I start with the trash so I don't have to think about, you know, oh, my goodness, there's so much for me to do. Instead, I just say, okay, I'm going to start with the trash after the dishes are done.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Right.

[Dana K. White]

All right. I'm gonna start throwing away trash. Okay. Is there anything that I already do know what to do with? That's the easy stuff. I'm going to go ahead and get that stuff out of here.

[Unknown Co-Host]

All right?

[Dana K. White]

Okay. Is there anything I can just, you know, get rid of? Normally, as a donation, Obvious donation, normally a regular old cleanup of the house.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Once I have done the decluttering, which.

[Dana K. White]

Got things either out of my house or given a real home with the first decluttering question, if I needed this.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Where would I look for it?

[Dana K. White]

First things either have a home or they're gone. So once I get to that point.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Where things do have homes and there's.

[Dana K. White]

Nothing just kind of floating around, wishing it had a place to live at that point, the pickup, like getting my house, you know, under control and getting it picked up is just those first three steps of the decluttering process. Right. Like, it's just the trash and the stuff. I already know where it goes. It's really just the first two steps, honestly, like, those first two steps will get me through a space that has already been decluttered. We'll get that space back to being, you know, what I want it to be. So understand the layers of a clean house and the power of knowing that there are layers. And what those layers are is it removes your bewilderment. You get it now, right? There's so much power in that. It removes the shame because you're like, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, now I understand. I'm not clueless. I'm. There's not something wrong with me that they say it's easy, and I say it's so hard.

[Unknown Co-Host]

No, no.

[Dana K. White]

We just weren't looking at it the same way. Like, we weren't looking at it because they maybe didn't have to look at it that way. And it eliminates those excessive should lists because the should excessive should lists keep us from getting started? And if we don't get started, we're never going to get there. Okay.

[Unknown Co-Host]

All right.

[Dana K. White]

I hope that was helpful and I will talk to y'all next week. Don't forget to go grab take your house back while it is on sale. A slob comes clean.com take. All right, bye. Okay, y'all, I'm back to talk about my new book that comes out February 11th of 2025.

[Unknown Co-Host]

If you've ever wondered how I put.

[Dana K. White]

These current things in with old podcasts, that's one of the features that my ad network allows me to do. And I'm very thankful for that because I know a lot of y'all listen.

[Unknown Co-Host]

To old podcasts and I don't want.

[Dana K. White]

You to miss exciting things that are coming out like the new book. This book is called Jesus doesn't care.

[Unknown Co-Host]

About your messy house, he cares about your heart.

[Dana K. White]

And this is a departure for me for sure. So my first three books did not contain spiritual content and that was on purpose. And this book talks about why ultimately this is a book about God's grace, what it means and how it plays out in life. And I'm using this example that feels both too unimportant and too daunting from.

[Unknown Co-Host]

My own life to explore what grace is.

[Dana K. White]

My hope is that exploring this topic, finding out what the Bible really says and how Jesus really views you, will.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Remove the shame around this issue so that you can move forward.

[Dana K. White]

I also want to make sure you.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Know that if you pre order there are pre order bonuses.

[Dana K. White]

So I'm going to talk real quickly about what those are. You can pre order from anywhere. You can even request it from your.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Library and send us an email and.

[Dana K. White]

Let us know that pre order it.

[Unknown Co-Host]

From anywhere and then go to a.

[Dana K. White]

Slob comes clean.com Jesus and there's actually.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Links there of places to pre order.

[Dana K. White]

If you haven't yet, but you'll go to the form there and fill out your information with your pre order number and information from your receipt. Okay? So just so you know, we don't have any way of knowing that you pre ordered. Okay. We don't get any information about you from the place where you bought the book. They don't send us any information about you. So the only way for us to know that you have pre ordered is.

[Unknown Co-Host]

For you to come and fill out this form.

[Dana K. White]

And they are all digital and they're downloadable, meaning you're going to get them immediately. Now they don't come with your book. And again we only can give them to you if you tell us that you've pre ordered and give us your information. But what are the bonuses? Well, the bonuses include a preview of the book, it's the first two chapters, and then also a five day Bible study based around the theme of the book. And then the last thing is not.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Downloadable because it'll be an invitation that you'll receive to a live Q and.

[Dana K. White]

A exclusively for those who have pre ordered.

[Unknown Co-Host]

So here's how this is going to work.

[Dana K. White]

I am going to do three categories of Q and A's and for each category I'm going to do two sessions. Okay, so there will be a daytime and an evening for each of these.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Sessions to hopefully allow you to make.

[Dana K. White]

It to one of them. But the three categories are divided out to hopefully meet everybody where they are. Because I know that people are at very different places on this side of this journey. Okay, so the three categories are I'm all in. Like you get it, you hear the title, you read the book and you're like, yep, I'm all in. I want to talk more about this.

[Unknown Co-Host]

That's the first category.

[Dana K. White]

The second category is I've got questions like I think I know what you're saying, but I've got some questions about this. We'll have two sessions for the people who are in that place in that category. And then the last category is no, nope, I'm out.

[Unknown Co-Host]

But we're friends.

[Dana K. White]

And so you read the book and so you pre ordered so you can be invited to that one. Because I know that, like I said, we're all at different places and we want to be able to really have those conversations. Those will not be recorded because I want to honor the privacy of those who are participating. So it will be something where that's.

[Unknown Co-Host]

Why we're doing each of them twice.

[Dana K. White]

So that hopefully you can make one.

[Unknown Co-Host]

We'll send out the invitations to those.

[Dana K. White]

Sessions probably about a week after the book releases to give people time to get into it and start, start reading. So that when we have those discussions, we're, you know, talking about the same thing.

[Unknown Co-Host]

So I would love for you to pre order if this is a book that you would be interested in or.

[Dana K. White]

Somebody you know would be interested in. Pre orders are so helpful for authors.

[Unknown Co-Host]

So I greatly appreciate you doing that.

[Dana K. White]

But ultimately I just want it to be a book that is helpful for you. You can go to a slob comes clean.com Jesus both for information on how to pre order and or to fill out the form and claim your pre order bonuses. All right, I will talk to you later. Bye.