← podcasts Archives - Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean
podcasts Archives - Dana K. White: A Slob Comes Clean
444: China, Closets, Cleaners, and More
00:34:09
This week, I’m answering your questions asked over at AskDanaKWhite.com. I’m talking about switching around kids’ bedrooms, getting ready for a cleaner, families and Clutter Thresholds, and more! Preorder My New Book!
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Dana K. White
Hey y'all. My newest book that I have been working on for the Last Five Years comes out on February 11th. In this book I am finally sharing the spiritual side of my desalabification process. The title of the book is Jesus doesn't care about your messy house. 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 welcome to a Slob Comes Clean the Podcast. I am Dana K. White. I share my personal d slobification process as I figure out ways to keep my own home under control. I share the truth about cleaning and organizing strategies that actually work in real life for real people. People who don't love cleaning and organizing. Thanks for joining me today. This is podcast number 444 what in the world y'all? And I am going to call it China and Closets and Cleaners and More. Questions and answers. Yeah, so I am answering some questions that were asked@askdaniky.com you can go there and send in questions to be answered on a future podcast. I do answer them either on the podcast once a month. Ish. And I also answer live on YouTube most Tuesdays. Most Tuesdays, right. Okay, so here we go. Here's some questions. My biggest struggle currently is my fridge. We have a small fridge, not anything like on the organization videos. Yes, you're in the right place. I have tried condiments on the shelf because drawers aren't deep enough for that trick and veggies in the door. I've made my own baskets to be drawers yet my fridge is still daily chaos and people can't find things on the bottom shelf in the back. The I didn't know we had that or leftovers that get tossed so so I put them in the top shelf and they still don't get eaten. My fridge gives me anxiety, just drives me crazy and I could use some ideas. Wish I could submit an embarrassing photo. Thanks for your time. 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A20@soundcore.com that's s o u n d c o r e.com use code sleep at checkout to get $30 off s l E P in all caps tonight, every night, grab your pair and sleep away. So here's the reality. You have a clutter threshold for your fridge too. Okay? So it sounds like it says the organization videos that you mentioned, which I don't do videos like that. But I've seen like what you're talking about, right? Like I've seen the amazingly beautiful Fantabulous. Everything has been taken out of its original thing and put into something really great and matchy matchy and all that kind of stuff, right? And then you mentioned tricks and all, you know, like the tried condiments on the shelf and I've tried veggies in the door and all this. So I'm guessing that you have seen tips and tricks that you're trying to make happen in your fridge and it's just not working. Okay? The same principles apply to the fridge as anything else. Number one, you have a clutter threshold. There is an amount of things, stuff in your fridge that you can handle. And sometimes this goes directly against what you wish you could handle. Maybe you want to be the person who takes everything out and puts it in neat little things or who does all the tricks. And the reality is it's not working. So you know that you have too much stuff. For me, often the the clutter threshold also comes down to I can't handle little extra things, right? Like there's just certain things that I am not going to do and I figure that out by failing. And so you are great. Congratulations. You have figured out what doesn't work for you in a lot of ways. Okay? So the key is going to be to go through your fridge using the no mess decluttering process. Okay? So start with trash. And yes, that does mean expired food. It means, you know, things that have been left to rot inside of food storage containers, all that kind of stuff. Go through that process. It is not fun, right? Like it is way more fun to imagine an amazing system. But the value of doing that is going through the experience and feeling that frustration and getting rid of that stuff, dumping moldy, inedible food into the. To the garbage. Okay. It's not fun, but it's going to help you moving forward. If we're doing things in the way of having the idea that I am going to reach my clutter threshold, my goal is to reach my clutter threshold. It is not to find a way to have the most stuff in the most fancy way. It is instead to acknowledge that I have a clutter threshold and I'm going to reach it. So you've gotten rid of trash first. Right? Because that has to be gotten rid of. Anyway, go ahead and make the decision that if something's expired, I'm going to throw it out. Yes, there are things that have Best Buy dates and all that kind of stuff. But if you are overwhelmed, you need some arbitrary rules. Okay, we don't do a lot of arbitrary stuff in my decluttering process, but this is a way where you can choose that. This is the rule I'm going to have. If it's expired, I'm going to let it go. Right. Okay. Then you go with what is easy. What has ended up in here that actually doesn't belong in here? Now, some of y'all are saying how something ends up in the fridge that does no business being in there. Y'all. I cannot tell you how many times I have found the spoon in the fridge or hot pads in the fridge. Oh, yeah, happens all the time. We're not going to analyze why Y'all feel free to analyze on your own. But like, just look for that kind of stuff. Another thing too, is every time you're looking for trash or you're looking for easy stuff, you are acknowledging the reality of what's actually in there. Okay, so get that out. Then we go with, is there anything obvious? Donations. Is there anything in here that. Now, I mean, I don't know that you're going to donate refrigerated food. All right? But go ahead and look and see. Is there anything in here that I shouldn't have put in here? Because it didn't need to be refrigerated, but it could be donated. Right. Okay, but then let's go on to the next step. Right? The. If I needed this item, where would I look for it first? Within your fridge for these refrigerated items? That is your question. Okay, so it is not a matter of where am I going to put my condiments. It is a matter of when we open the fridge and I say we, because, you know, you want your family members to be self sufficient in this and you also want it to be sustainable and maintainable. Right? When we open the fridge, where do we reach for the ketchup first? Where do we reach for the milk first? Where do we look for veggies? All right, now we don't want to go in the whole like, well, I would never go looking for veggies, right? But where am I going to look for veggies? Where is the place that we would look for that? And then we're going to put those things in the place where we would look for it first. Okay, and then, and I know I'm saying that like, duh, but I'm just saying this is for myself too, right? Like, I, I understand your frustration and it's that whole try. I think what's going on here is the seeing what I wish my fridge could look like, but that's not maintainable for me. But what is so much better is a fridge that is decluttered down and arranged in a way that actually makes sense to our family and is maintainable for our family. Okay, so you go with that and then you acknowledge the reality of that. If you have an actual bajillion condiments and the place, the, the section, the drawer, the, the shelf, whatever it is that I would look for though these things there first, then if that size of that space, if I can't fit all the condiments that I have in there in that space, then I need to let go of my least favorites. And when you look at it that way, you often may realize, oh, I bought these because they were three for two, three for the price of two, and then ended up not liking them at all. And therefore, oh, actually I've had three. Two unopened, one that we ate a little bit and decided it was disgusting. And that's in there. And it just triggers that, oh, these things can go. These things can go. And embrace the reality of that space. I know it's not pretty, I know it's not what you're wanting, but I'm just saying the way to do this is to acknowledge where you would look for it first. Put things in that spot and the limitations of the places let those things decide how much you can have. And if it's continually getting out of control, you need to have less. You might, it might be an identity issue. You know, you may want to be the mother who has all the cool sauces, but if you had to declutter nine out of 10 cool condiment sauces, because they were all expired. Because you don't actually use those. You may need to just accept that, you know, when I need to go less, I can't handle having all those. Instead, I need to have four basics. You know, I may not be the mother who can buy all the really cool, interesting vegetables, and instead, I may need to be the mom who has celery and carrots for fresh stuff. And then these are the. The three vegetables that we'll all actually eat. And this is it. Like, this is. These are the ones that I get. And I substitute these in for any other vegetables on there because we've just. This is the phase of life that I'm in where I'm just. I don't have the bandwidth to handle all of the creative things. Okay. I mean, here's the thing. Y'all. Y'all know that I am not necessarily. Well, I'm definitely not answering and all of your questions that you've ever had and solving all your problems you've ever had, right? Like, these are things to consider. And the other thing, too, is even if there is a system that you really think is amazing, it's possible you have too much stuff for that system to work. Right? So the goal, no matter what you're doing, no matter what you're wanting, the goal is always going to be, or the need is always going to be for you to declutter first. Right. Next question. Do you have overall suggestions for handling things left by our daughter, who just went to college but will be back for breaks? In addition to this, her younger brother will be moving into the room she used to have. He's 14 and has been sharing a room with two younger siblings up to this point. Thanks for all you do. Okay. Yeah. So this is an interesting one also. This is also where I feel kind of bad that I'm. I'm not answering these in real time. I'm sorry. But y'all know I have coaches, right? You know that, right? I have coaches who are trained and certified in my method. So if you really do need somebody to go through this stuff with you and. And. And help you declutter, that's the best route for actual real time. So I'm thinking that her daughter has been in college for. Let's just say I don't think she's a freshman anymore. Right. Okay. So you've probably already figured this out, but we're gonna do this for everybody, right? Do you have overall suggestions for handling things left by our daughter who just went to College will be back for breaks. So the reality is when kids are in college, they're going to come back. I mean, it's hard because it feels like they're gone and then all of a sudden they're back and then they're gone, and then it feels like it takes forever and then they're back and then, you know, so it's a very influx time of life, right? And you want her to feel welcome when she comes home. But y'all have made some changes because this is the reality, right? Like the younger brother is going to move into the room because this is. This is how things go, you know, that. That this is going to be his room primarily now. And then she will have some other situation when she's home for breaks, right? So it all comes down to the container concept, right? So it comes down to this is not her room anymore. The identity of the room is no longer her space, right? So it needs to be his space. But that doesn't mean some of her stuff can't be stored in the closet, you know, or in some other closet somewhere. It's like you determine where would we look for her stuff that she's leaving at home that she's not taking with her to college? Because they don't take everything with them to college, right? So that stuff that she is leaving at home, we designate a space for it as best you can. I mean, this is determined by the space that you have, not by how much stuff you wish you could you could do, right? So it might be that, okay, this is your room now, but we are going to give half of the closet to her stuff, and then that stuff is going to be boxed up or whatever. But it's a defined space. So we're taking what was in her room and now putting it in there, and we put our favorite things in first. You know, which the ideal would be for her to have a say in this and for her to be involved in this process. Let's put our favorite things, our most important things in there first because they're going to be stored in this area. Or we have these cabinets that we've cleared out of other things that we don't use as much because we need to have a place to put her stuff or, you know, in the attic or the garage or whatever it is. These are the places I would not recommend the attic just because they will be home more than it feels like they're going to be home that first time that they leave, right? And so it needs to be something accessible more easily accessible and that she can access on her own. But that that stuff give it a space and let that space determine how much of it you get to keep. Right? Like the facts are the size of the house that you have. This is what needs to happen, right? Like the brother is moving into the room. It isn't her always room anymore and so this is the space that you have for it and let that be the determining factor. How in the world has January already come and gone? My book releases this month y'all so it has been a crazy busy month for me. My calendar does not leave much room for meal planning or cooking up complicated dishes, so I am loving having my Prep Dish meal plans that arrive every week in my inbox. They're convenient and we just enjoy these meals. I receive an email every week that includes a grocery list and instructions for prepping meals ahead of time so our dinner time meals are ready super quick. This time of year there are plenty of hearty steak stews and crock pot meals. The great thing about Prep Dish is I can choose from four different plans. Gluten free, paleo, low carb and super fast. If you want to serve healthy homemade meals without the stress, the founder Allison is offering listeners a free two week trial to try it out. You can't beat that. Check out prepdish.com slob comes clean for this amazing deal again, that's prepdish.com a slob comes clean for your first two weeks free. It's that easy. As I've worked on my home, I've come to accept that having one higher quality item is better than having a bunch of lower quality items. Which is why I'm so happy to have discovered Quince. Quince offers a range of high quality items at prices within reach. I've bought three down alternative comforters from Quince because I fell so in love with the first one I bought. They're truly luxurious and they've kept me warm and cozy through some very, very cold weather this winter. Everything available at quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. How do they do that? By partnering directly with manufacturers. This way Quince can cut out the cost of the middleman and pass the savings on to us. Give yourself the luxury you deserve with quince. Go to quince.comclean for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's Q-U-I-N C E.comclean to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comclean this episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. We hear about those red flags for things we should avoid or relationships we should be cautious about. What if we focused more on recognizing the green flags in friends, choices, and partners? If you're not sure what those green flags look like, therapy can help you identify them. A therapist can help you actively practice recognizing them in your relationship. My biggest green flag for my husband is that he is so incredibly honest sometimes to the point where I'm like, honey, you don't have to be quite that honest. But I'm truly so thankful for how he is. Whether you're building a friendship or dating, whether you're working on your marriage or just working on yourself, it's a good time to form relationships that love you back. Better Help is an affordable therapy option. It's completely online and convenient, serving millions worldwide. With Better Help, you'll be connected with a diverse network of credentialed therapists who have a wide range of specialties, and you can easily switch therapists anytime at no extra cost. Discover your relationship green flags with better help. Visit betterhelp.comclean to get 10% off your first month. That's betterhelp h e l p.com clean Dana I have been peeling the layers of the decluttering onion for a few years now. I feel that my house is in fairly great shape. My problem is a set of china. Two sets, actually. I possess two sets of fine china. One was my deceased mother's and one and the other was my step grandmother's. I have them in a china hutch that I love and there's actually plenty of space in it. My grandmother's china is very ornate and I love it. I actually love it more than my mother's, and I'm not willing to let go of that set. But I have this odd feeling that I should declutter one of them. I tried to give grandmothers to members of her actual family, but they aren't interested in it. Again, I actually love the set and use them as my dishes in college and I have the room. Do you ever get to a point where you almost felt compelled to declutter things even though they fit in the container? If so, what did you do? Thanks in advance. Okay. Yeah, here's the thing. You don't have to get rid of those. Okay? I know that china is one of those things that people like to put on lists of stuff that nobody should have anymore. It's your house. Do what you want to do. If you love them both and you have the room, don't let this be a stressor, okay. If you want to get rid of it. Because you know what? This is the one that I actually enjoy. If you want to replace your everyday dishes with your grandmother's set that you used as everyday dishes in college and do that again, you can do that, right? Like, it's fine. The issue becomes when you don't have the space for those things. Now, let's say you have realized that, oh, I had a bunch of things packed up that could go in the china cabinet, and those things are clutter because they don't actually have a place to be, then that might help you make the decision, right? Like, okay, I have these things that need to be given a home, and this is the place where I would look for them first. If I was actually using them and had them out, then that might be the deciding factor. And in that case, it might be the, you know, okay, I'm gonna. Which one deserves space more? You know what? Actually, I'm let go of my mother's one because the one that, you know, was my grandmother's is what I actually use, used and liked. Okay, great question here. What do I need to do or know before hiring someone to help me with house cleaning? What do I do in preparation for them coming? I've been following you and participate in the take your house back course. I've made great progress with decluttering. However, I'm getting older, and helping my husband with our small farm business leaves me with little time to do the cleaning. Tidying only goes so far. Yes. Like, as y'all know, unless you're new around here, I don't know if I've talked about it lately, but I'm a big fan of hiring someone to clean. But I also am a big fan of understanding what that actually means and that it is not magic. Right? Like, what do you need to know before hiring someone? I would get personal recommendations, right? And yeah, that's what I would do. I would get personal recommendations, people who've actually used them. And I think you'll be surprised. A lot of people don't realize that their friends have people come in and clean for them. Like. Like, it's. It's. I do, you know, in case. Did I say that already? I do. I love having my cleaning person come in, but the reality is that they do not do daily stuff. Okay? So the things that you need or they shouldn't because you don't want them. Them to waste their time on that. Right? Like, so the daily stuff, like dishes, you do not want them wasting their time on that. Okay. So the layers of a clean house, understanding what those are, are really key here. So the things you need to have done before your cleaner comes is the dishes need to be done. Every single dish needs to be put away because they don't know where to put these things away, right. And they can't do the deep clean around it if those are sitting on the counter. Right. So dishes need to be done. Dishes need to be put away. Countertops need to be wiped down. Right. Like, because they're coming in to do the deep scrubbing, not to, you know, scrape off that spaghetti sauce that's been there for two days and got really hard, you know, and is difficult to wipe off now. Like, so the daily, that kind of stuff needs to be done. Everything needs to be picked up off the floor and actually put away because they need to be able to, to clean. Like, they need to be able to dust and mop and clean bathrooms and clean counters and all that. So the real thing is the decluttering. The decluttering meaning you've either, you've gone through and everything that is on a surface level either has been given a home and you know where that home is so that you can't, you have a place to put it and you're not just shoving things aside for when somebody comes to clean, but you've given things real homes inside of it. Now if there's, you know, closets and, and cabinets that are messy on the inside, that's, you know, you can go ahead and get a cleaner before you've gotten to those, but your surface can actually be completely cleared consistently. Okay. That's the goal here. Yeah, those are the main things, is that everything picked up, everything put away. So, so as far as, where do you need to be in your process in your home, you need to be at a point where you've got your daily stuff down, your five minute pickups, your doing the dishes, you're checking the bathrooms for clutter, you're sweeping the kitchen floor to make sure there's not stuff all over the floor and your surfaces have been decluttered so that there's nothing that doesn't have a place to be away from, you know, the surface itself. Next question. Bakeware. I love to bake. This is them talking, not me. I, I like the idea of baking, but I don't, I think I've decided I don't actually love it. I don't know, I think I must have every size, shape, type of cake pan and sheet pan ever made. I moved them from my kitchen to a spare bedroom closet and thought about putting them in totes to store in my basement as the older I get 70, the less I use them. But I just know that the minute I donate them I'll be kicking myself because somebody will request that special layer cake or cookie cake or roll cake or cookies and I'll either have to buy another one or turn down the request. Thoughts? Yeah. So this is really, really stressing her out. What I would do is I, I would personally say no, I'm not going to store them in the basement. Right. Like you, you have a place, you've got a closet, you moved them there. I would declutter down to the point where they are super functional in that space. Okay. And part of the decluttering process, you know, let's say that yes, you would look for them all here embracing the container concept and you know the, the two parts of step five are put like items together and then declutter down to the point where they fit in the space usably, functionally get to a blee. Okay. So putting like items together without pulling everything out, you have a baking sheet. Okay. I'm going to put it with the other baking sheets. Okay. I've got a, this size cake pan. I'm going to put it with the other ones like that. The reality is that because you have collected so much, it is very likely that you have way more than you would ever need to even do these things. That might be possibilities. So putting the like items together and then decluttering down to the point where you can use and get two things easily in the space you have because the basement, you know, that's, that's just a easy way to keep everything right, which is what you're trying to not do. So you know, you specifically said I have you know, the three layer cake, right. Like somebody, the special layer cake or cookie cake or whatever. There is a really good chance, and I'm saying this as a non expert baker, that a lot of those things you could do in a maybe less than ideal way with a different kind of pan. Like there, there's probably a pan that if you had to, you could do several of these different things in. Right. So if you can do that, get rid of the extras so that you have, you could make do. It wouldn't be ideal, but you could do it. And so look at it that way and say this is the space that I have. I would say ideally the space in the kitchen. Right. Because when we take it to its second location. That's where bad things happen, right? That's what Oprah said. So, so like, where is the place in my kitchen where I'm going to have this stuff and just go through it with the idea of this space is the limit. So I'm going to put the most important, the most likely to ever be used and the most versatile ones in here first and let that be the deciding factor. And I think a lot of times when you do that, you're going to find that, oh, actually I could get by and do most of the things that I might have to do with these, you know, this number of things. 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. So she was so excited to be trying out Pretty Litter so she could tell me how she loves it. She loved that it showed up at her door. She loved that there was a toy included in the box, a toy with 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. This message comes from Greenlight. Ready to start talking to your kids about financial literacy? Meet Greenlight, the debit card and money app that teaches kids and teens how to earn, save, spend wisely and invest with your guardrails in place. With Greenlight, you can send money to kids quickly, set up chores, automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications. Join millions of parents and kids building healthy financial habits together on Greenlight. Get started risk free@greenlight.com listen greenlight.com listen after many unsuccessful decluttering attempts in 20 years. I just can't see the positive outcome realized. I don't know how to motivate myself after seeing it crash and burn time and time again. Even small victories get undone by others or even myself. Sometimes large organized areas have been completely dismantled. My family is wondering, where's the ferry that picks up after me? I don't have the time to do all these things. Everyone brings more things into the house. And now I have a if you can't beat them, join them attitude, which has dismayed my spouse. How do I regain momentum and get others to see the goal? I'm not on social media, but I do watch your YouTube. Okay. All right, so here's the key. And these are the. These are the words I'm going to point out, okay? And that is even small victories get undone. Make sure you're decluttering and not organizing. Remember that decluttering and organizing are not the same thing, but they feel like the same thing. So sometimes when you're decluttering what you're really think, you think you're decluttering, but what you're really doing is trying to come up with solutions that will allow you to keep all the stuff. Right? And the reason I say that is it says large organized areas have been completely dismantled. It is most likely that you are over your clutter threshold, okay? And over your family's clutter threshold. So the only way to hit your clutter threshold to be at the amount of stuff that you and your family can easily keep under control is to declutter to get rid of more stuff. The reason why I say this is if. If the stuff is gone, it can't get out of place again. So less stuff means less possibility of things getting out of control. They still will. It'll still happen. Right? But it's less overwhelming because it's less stuff that's out of control. Large organized areas, it is one thing to take a time of focus and just get everything into a place, into a spot, all that. But then the reality is if it is more stuff than you can handle, if it is more complicated a system, then y'all can actually maintain with your way that you are. Meaning, like, for me, I had to. I had to give up on this. We just need to be different. We just need to be different. Instead, go, okay, this is how we are. And so let's do things in a way that actually works for the way that we are, right? So I would say declutter, declutter, declutter. Because this shared spaces need to be decluttered down to the lowest clutter threshold. Meaning what? The person who can handle the least stuff and keep it under control to that, if it's a shared area, you need to go with the lowest common clutter threshold. Okay. And the other thing to do is really zero in on the five minute pickup the first time you do it. I really do mean five minutes. Don't think of it as something to maintain progress. Think of it as something that both creates progress and maintains any progress that you've made. Right. The five minute pickup is not going to be fun the first time. Right. But it's a. Everybody in the house, let's all do a five minute pickup, prove that you really mean five minutes by stopping at the end of five minutes. Because that is going to be more valuable because they're going to be more willing to do it tomorrow. And that's where the, the real value in, is in, in doing it day after day after day. Right. Whenever you think of one, if you miss one, okay, just do it again the next time you remember, really zero in on doing those five minute pickups. Everybody being involved. Okay. And then as you've done those for about a week, start mentioning that we have more stuff. The fact that we can't get things under control. Everybody working for five minutes, which if you have three kids and a husband and you then that's 25 minutes worth of work. You know, just mention, okay, we really have too much stuff because five minutes doesn't cut it. So we need to have less stuff so we can get it to where five minutes will be enough. Right. And so just mention that and then keep decluttering and keep decluttering and keep working on those five minute pickups. That's the way, that's how you meet your clutter threshold, is by decluttering and you know, you're at it by the five minute pickup being enough to keep it under control. Uh, let's see. Not sure how to word. Okay. See somebody, they call it a stuffy. And a stuffy is what people say when they have an accent. And so it makes me really, really want to read this with an accent, but I'm not going to. You're welcome. Okay, not sure how to word this. So I'll phrase it as an example. Once something has been decluttered, say five stuffies are left filling their container, and while decluttering a different area, another stuffy is found. Take it. There now happens and a final decision cannot be made at that moment. Meltdown but your head explosion rule doesn't apply or an interruption happens. What would you Recommend with the 6th stuffy, I. E. Take it back to where it was found to be dealt with later, Drop it on the floor until time is available, Shove it in with the other five until that space gets decluttered again. Okay, so couple of things I'm going to point to here. You mentioned the head explosion rule doesn't apply. Okay, so the head explosion rule for those of y'all who are new, is nothing. No physical item is worth my head exploding. So if it makes me feel like my head is going to explode, I actually just need to get rid of it. Right. But what you're saying is I can't just get rid of it. So. Okay, it is fine to skip it if you're going to skip it. I would take it back to where it was before. I would not drop it on the floor. Okay. Because back to where it was before means my house is no worse off than it. Than it was. Right. But I also just really want to encourage you to go with the instinct. Right? So you said there's five stuffies filling their container like it's on a shelf. And you have this other one that you found and you go to take it there now and you're like, oh, no, there's no room. Try for the instinct, try for the. Okay, which one can go? That one. Okay, yeah, it hurts, right? But just try to go for the instincts and see if you can do it. But yes, if you can't. If you just can't. And your option here is to skip this item and move on to something else. I would put it back in the original space so that your house is not worse. Let's see, how can I choose between decluttering my 7 year old daughter's clothes or buying her a bigger closet? Is there ever a time when a bigger container is the answer? If there is room for one? Okay, I wouldn't choose between. I would declutter and then see if there's an actual need for that. Because so many times it's like, oh, should I declutter or buy a bigger closet? I'm not sure. I think the answer is a bigger closet. But if you, if you haven't decluttered yet, you have absolutely no idea if there's even any need to be asking this question. So declutter first. It is not that you can't buy a bigger closet. Again, this makes it feel like it's somewhere outside of the US because, you know, ours are Built in, but I know a lot of places, they are an actual unit, you know? But when it feels like. Like it is natural to feel like a bigger closet is the option, it is the answer, right? Like it is normal to feel that. But knowing that it's normal to feel that is all the more reason to say I've got to declutter first. Whether I'm going to need to buy her a bigger closet or not, I have to declutter because I have zero concept of anything and what we need or what would be helpful or if we need it or not, if I haven't decluttered. So declutter first. But. Yes. Are there times when you need a bigger container? Of course there are. And it's your house. You can do whatever you want. I encourage you, though, to first of all, declutter first. But because nine times out of 10, you're going to realize you don't need a bigger closet. But if you do need a piece of furniture or something like that, a bigger container, you buy it for the space you have, not for the stuff you have. Okay, so what space do you have for this closet? That is the space that you have that your house is the room, is the container. And so the closet has to go in there. And that is going to be the hard line of, I don't have any choice. I can't have more clothes than this. Okay, so. So even if you are going to buy something after you've decluttered, it is still determined according to the space that you have to put that container in. All right, this is one last one. It kind of goes back in the same idea before. As before, we were talking about the cleaners, and the question is, we're finally able to afford having a cleaning service once in a while. Yay. They ask that all the surfaces be cleared so they can clean faster. Basically what we talked about before, right. This past week, we had to move stuff into random places, and I'm not even sure where some things got to. It got me thinking that I need to declutter even more just to leave designated open space in cabinets and drawers for when the cleaners are coming. Is there any alternative? I feel like the decluttering will never end. Okay, yes, you need to declutter more, but not to leave space for things to be stuffed. Okay. Anything that is on a surface, it needs to have a place to go. Okay. Like, if they're saying, like, I'm assuming we're not talking about knickknacks here, because knickknacks they would be dusting right for you. But like give it a real home. Like where would I look for this first? Let's say there is a collection that they've asked you to put away, which doesn't make sense to me because I would think that they would, you know, be dusting it, but anything. Where would I look first for this item that I was going to put back out after the cleaners came? Okay, give it a space. Give it that space needs to be its home and give it that space. And so yes, that is decluttering, giving things a space and you know, make acknowledging that space and getting rid of stuff in order to make sure that you have enough room for it, that is it. But it wouldn't just be a place to stick stuff, it would be a place for this item where I would look for it first. Make sense? Okay, this has been fun and I will talk to y'all next. I think this one is coming out. Oh yeah. Y'all make sure you listen to the things about the books, the little ads at the beginning and the end of the podcast because this is it y'all. You gotta get your pre order bonuses and so go and order the book wherever. If you've already ordered it before, go fill out your information@aslobcomesclean.com Jesus and that will give you access to the pre order bonuses which are all digital and are delivered immediately. They do not come with the actual book. Right. Like so the, the people you bought the book from don't know anything about the pre order bonuses. We don't know if you've pre ordered unless you take your pre order information and fill it out at a slob chemsclean.com Jesus I hope that you will pre order if this is a book for you and it's going to be really fun. I can't wait to have it out in the world. My book, baby. Okay, I will talk to y'all next week. Bye. Okay, y'all, I'm back to talk about my new book that comes out February 11th of 2025. If you've ever wondered how I put 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 to old podcasts and I don't want you to miss exciting things that are coming out like the new book. This book is called Jesus doesn't care about your messy house, he cares about your heart. 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 my own life to explore what grace is. My hope is that exploring this topic, finding out what the Bible really says and how Jesus really views you will remove the shame around this issue so that you can move forward. I also want to make sure you know that if you pre order there are pre order bonuses. 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 library and send us an email and let us know that pre order it from anywhere and then go to a slob chems clean.com Jesus and there's actually links there of places to pre order if you haven't yet. But you'll go to the 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 for you to come and fill out this form. 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 downloadable because it'll be an invitation that you'll receive to a live Q and A exclusively for those who have pre ordered. So here's how this is going to work. 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 sessions to hopefully allow you to make 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. That's the first category. 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. But we're friends. 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 why we're doing each of them twice, so that hopefully you can make one. We'll send out the invitations to those 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. So I would love for you to pre order if this is a book that you would be interested in or somebody you know would be interested in. Pre orders are so helpful for authors. So I greatly appreciate you doing that. 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 preorder and or to fill out the form and claim your preorder bonuses. All right, I will talk to you later. Bye.