473: My State of the Home Post-Summer 2025 Podcast

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: A Slob Comes Clean

Episode 474: My State of the Home Post-Summer 2025 Podcast
Host: Dana K. White
Date: August 28, 2025

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Overview

In this candid, warmly conversational episode, Dana K. White returns after her summer break to deliver her annual “State of the Home” episode. She reflects on the realities of managing her home and family life through a loose, busy summer, shares practical decluttering and cleaning insights, and offers listeners encouragement grounded in her “reality-based” approach to home management. The main focus is on how her decluttering habits and "pre made decisions" carried her through a busy, unstructured season, while also sharing new lessons from life with older children and current projects.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Looking Back: 16 Years of “A Slob Comes Clean”

• Dana celebrates her 16th year since starting her blog, and notes this is the 12th or 13th year of her podcast.
• She reminds listeners that she never intended to become a decluttering authority—it began as a secret, personal practice blog:

  "I never thought this is what I would be doing ... This was supposed to be a temporary season secret practice blog… But here we are. It is 2025 and this is what I do for a living." (03:00)

2. Summer Reality: Adult Kids at Home & A Different House Dynamic

• Dana describes how home life has shifted, now that her kids are 19, 21, and 23 (compared to 3, 5, and 7 when she began).
• This brings different challenges—less clutter from toys, but less control and different routines:

  "I am here to say that it is easier in a lot of ways when your kids get older... But there are definitely challenges. The main thing... I had to accept that I could only control, and therefore needed to control, what I was doing." (04:56)

3. The Power of Pre Made Decisions

• Dana reframes “habits” as “pre made decisions”—conscious commitments in advance, rather than subconscious routines.
• She discusses how pre made decisions (like always running the dishwasher each night) make staying afloat possible, especially during unpredictable times:

  "Pre made decisions got me through the loosey gooseiness of the summer... Like, running the dishwasher every night... that pre made decision is what carried us through." (09:38)

• Dishes are the cornerstone non-negotiable:

  "Even after 16 years, it's still the dishes that I have to do... When I say the non negotiable is the dishes, I mean the actual dishes themselves." (10:55, 12:01)

Notable Quotes on This Theme:

• “I am so good at negotiating my way out of things... but I learned the hard way... I have to do the dishes every day.” (07:06)
• “The bare minimum is keeping the dishes done.” (12:23)

4. Pre Made Decisions for Fun, Not Just Chores

• Dana extends the concept to positive, enjoyable routines—like deciding to swim in her pool every day during summer (“on any day where it’s even remotely possible, if I'm home, I'm like... I'm gonna stop working at 4:30 so I can go float in my pool and read my Kindle for an hour.”) (17:32)
• She shares about “adult conversation lunches” with her kids before graduation; making fun and bonding a pre-made, scheduled choice rather than something to negotiate in-the-moment and regret missing.

5. Less Control, More Independence with Adult Children

• While home is less overtly messy, Dana notes new challenges: older kids make their own plans, schedules, and meals, leading to less predictability.
• She’s proud that her children can cook for themselves (“my kids are grateful that I taught them how to cook” (20:05)).

6. Decluttering with Her Daughter: Visible Progress First

• Dana describes a decluttering session with her daughter, emphasizing starting with visible surfaces and “just looking for trash” before tackling drawers or less obvious clutter:

  "There's so much power in making visible progress... Let's just look for trash, let's just look for trash on top of your dresser in this space." (23:52)

• The snowballing effect: finding the first trash item leads to finding more, creating momentum and quick wins.
• They establish a “memory cabinet” as a designated, finite sentimental space to corral keepsakes:

  “Let's make this your memory cabinet... As long as it fits in the memory space, the memory cabinet, then it can stay.” (27:24)

Notable Quotes:

• "When you're overwhelmed by clutter: start with visible space first. Visible progress is so powerful." (23:50)
• “Never go to the second location... Go ahead and put it in that container because that means that you won’t have to go back through it.” (29:40)

7. The Importance of the Container Concept

• Dana highlights a key mindset shift: seeing spaces in your home as containers that set natural limits for what you keep.
• Example: celebrating being able to park two cars in the garage, because the garage’s “container function” is respected, not filled with miscellaneous clutter:

  “The reality of the container concept is what has made that happen. The container concept is that space is finite, and every space in my home is a natural limit...” (32:46)

• She reflects that this, more than anything, is what distinguishes her current home life from when she started in 2009.

Notable Quotes:

• “The garage is my container for my car. Which means I can't put things in there that make it impossible for me to park the car...” (33:46)
• “I didn't understand the value of space or the purpose of space being open and stuffless.” (34:18)

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Memorable Moments & Listener Takeaways

• Dishwashing Anthem: Dana reiterates her famous, unglamorous but essential “do the dishes every day” mantra, admitting it’s not about sparkle and perfection but true function and the keystone habit for her home.
• Permission for Less Pressure: She models real-life flexibility, noting that her “off summer” wasn’t really completely off, yet she made space for enjoyment as well as task completion.
• Warm Encouragement: The episode’s tone is honest, kind, and deeply relatable—Dana admits both her successes and her “survival mode” misses.
• Container Concept: Her pride and humor about fitting two cars in the garage after years of clutter will resonate with anyone who’s struggled with storage space.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–03:16: Podcast intro, reflection on 16 years blogging, 12-13 years podcasting
• 03:45–05:03: Summer household dynamics; kids' ages, adjusting expectations as kids grow
• 05:03–07:06: Learning to control only one's own actions in the home
• 07:06–12:23: “Pre made decisions” vs. habits, the non-negotiable of daily dishes
• 12:23–16:00: Applying pre made decisions to fun and positive habits
• 16:56–19:54: Creating meaningful family routines (adult conversation lunches); more on pre made decisions as permission, not restraint
• 20:05–21:45: Cooking skills, roommate training, and “mom failures” during a busy summer
• 21:45–28:30: Decluttering in her daughter’s room—visible progress, the trash-first method, and memory container
• 28:30–33:46: The impact of past decluttering; garage as a decluttered, functional space
• 33:46–34:18: Container concept and the value of empty, usable space
• 34:18–35:30: Closing thoughts, encouragement for listeners

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Final Thoughts

Dana’s honest report on her post-summer home shows that even experts have “banana” summers, get overwhelmed, and sometimes fall short on goals. Her insights on “pre made decisions” provide a forgiving, realistic take on forming life-changing routines and give listeners permission to focus on progress, not perfection.

For new listeners: The episode highlights Dana’s trademark blend of practical strategy and compassionate humor—a reassuring listen for anyone seeking order amid chaos.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Dani K. White]

Hey, y'. All. I wanted to let you know that I am speaking at this year's Get Organized hq, an online event. My session is called Busting Through Decluttering Roadblocks and it will go live on Monday, September 8th at 1pm Eastern Time. And it's free to watch for the first 24 hours. You can get your free ticket at a slob comes clean.comhq. that's aslobcomesclean.comhq welcome to a Slob Comes Clean, the Podcast. I am Dani K. White. I share my personal deslobification 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. I think this is podcast number 474. It is my first podcast back after my summer break, which we're going to talk about how much of a break that was. I'm back. So you're gonna have your normal rambly podcasts. I loved hearing from quite a few of you who took the time to email and say thank you for putting out the audio recordings of previous YouTube Q&As. I know there was one where the sound wasn't great and I'm sorry about that. But that really meant a lot. It meant a lot to know that y' all were thankful for that. I'm sure that those were people who've been around long enough that that they know that. The other option was for me to not put any podcast out over the summer, but I thought that was a really fun way to keep things going. But now it's time to get back to things. So this is podcast number 474, and I think I'm calling it my State of the home post summer 2025 podcast. I've done these not every year, but I do them probably quite a few times at the end of the summer because it just kind of makes me think, oh, so how are things going as far as cleaning, organizing, decluttering? All the things that were my goal when I started my blog back in August, right around now of 2009. So I have now officially been doing this for 16 years. What y'? All? That's bananas. That is wild.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

And the podcast I think started in 2013. So this is the 12th year of the podcast. I don't know, I always get mixed up 12, 13, something like that, year of the podcast. So I think it's good to kind of just given an idea because when I started all of this, first of all, I never thought this is what I would be doing if you happen to be new here. Just so you know, this was supposed to be a temporary season secret practice blog and I was going to get my house under control and then I was going to start writing about things I felt qualified to write about. I was not teaching anything and had no intention of teaching anyone else how to declutter. But here we are. It is 2025 and this is what I do for a living. I teach people how to declutter from the perspective of someone to whom this stuff is the farthest thing from natural as it could possibly be.

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[Dani K. White]

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[Dani K. White]

Foreign okay, so what was my summer like? Well, I had one college kid home all summer and then I had another college kid who was in and out for a few weeks at the beginning and the end of the summer. And then the other one lives, you know, in an apartment full time. So that one did not come home for the summer other than, you know, weekends, a couple occasionally here and there. But that's what it was like. And I when I started my blog, my kids were 3, 5 and 7 and now they are 19, 21 and 23. Took me a minute to remember. That's a big difference. And I I am here to say that it is easier in a lot of ways when your kids get older because they're just not living in the living room all the time with toys and things like that. So but there are definitely challenges. I the main thing though that I look back and realize that I had to accept that actually started to change things was that I could only control and therefore needed to control what I was doing.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

Like I only finally started to make progress in my home when I said, you know what my situation is? My situation at the time I had kids who were three, five and seven and that was my reality. And being frustrated because having kids who were three, five and seven made it harder. Which of course they legitimately did.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

Didn't get me to the house that I wanted to have. And when I say the house I wanted to have, again, if you're new here, just so you know, it was not me wanting to have a perfect home, it was me wanting to have a livable home.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

And so I had to embrace the reality of the situation that I was in. But I, I, it is, it is easier, right, when you don't have little ones who live their whole pretend play life in the living room. So. But it's also hard sometimes too, and it's kind of sad, but I just have always determined to just enjoy whatever stage of life I happen to be in. Okay, so that was the situation for the summer. Yes, I took off from the pressure of having to put out new podcasts and new YouTube videos all summer. However, I'm working on a book that is due technically beginning of October, but in my mind it's due September 15th. So that book will not come out until 2026, because that's how books work. It'll come out, I think October of 2026. But that means I really have not had the summer off because I have been going and working on the book. I go to coffee shops and things to kind of get out of the house and have some focus time to work on that. But has been a little frustrating because I feel like I haven't had the summer off that I normally try to have. Also, as you know, the last several years I have been doing all of my YouTube videos over the summer and that's also not being completely off. But it's also worth it because then I don't have to make videos all the time, all year. They're already done for the year. But that's because I have a college kid who does, who edits those videos while he's home in the summer. So the reality is I didn't necessarily have it off, but it was lovely and nice because, because of, you know, not having the new content needing to go out, you know, to you guys. So. But let's talk about some pre made decisions. Pre made decisions is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. When I talk about pre made decisions, what I mean is basically the stuff that I used to think of as habits that I was like, oh, if I could just make it a habit to always have my dishes done, if I could just make laundry a habit, if I could just do this, that and the other as a habit, then my house wouldn't be out of control. And I was thinking of habits as being the things that I do without realizing that I'm doing them. Like all of my bad habits, my things that I shouldn't do, but do it and then go, wait, did I just do that again? Like that's what I think of as a habit. So that's what I thought I was working toward or wishing for, that doing the dishes was going to be the kind of habit where I was like, wait, I just do the dishes? Oh my word, I didn't even realize I was doing them. But that is not how it's ever worked for me. But I do consider these things pre made decisions, right? Like a pre made decision is something where I had to look at something as a non negotiable, but I had to look at it as a non negotiable because I am so good at negotiating my way out of things that other people are like, wait, of course you have to do the dishes. Because you do. We have to do the dishes. But I would try to negotiate my way out of doing the dishes. And I learned the hard way that, you know, from years of putting off doing the dishes and having to excavate my kitchen when it was time to clean my house and using up all my energy just getting the kitchen back to being under control, that I never got to the rest of my house, right. That mindset of, okay, I now know because I have learned the hard way that I have to do the dishes every day. If I will do them every day, they never get behind. If I will do them every day, they only take take 10 to 15 minutes to do them. That's what I call dishes math. And if I will do them every day, then the rest of my house somehow stays under control because I am able to work on the rest of my house instead of spending all my catch up time in the kitchen.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

And so that is a pre made decision. Pre made decisions got me through the loosey gooseiness of the summer. Yes, I only had one kid at home. Yes, I was still working on book writing and video making, but summer is loosey goosey. I mean, little things like, oh my goodness, we wouldn't, we love to go see Aunt Becky. Oh, oh my goodness. If we're gonna go, this is the week we have to go. All right, well, we decide on Tuesday that we're leaving on Thursday to go drive six hours to go see Aunt Becky and visit her.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

Like that kind of stuff that being open for anything. That is why I take off in the summers, right? Is that I Want to. My kid says, mom, I would like to go look for new tennis shoes. And I say, okay, we can do that. Because I don't have as many time sensitive things on my calendar.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

I've tried to free that open. So that's a pre made those pre made decisions of running the dishwasher every night or hand washing the dishes if I have to, or hand washing the ones that don't fit in the dishwasher.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

That pre made decision is what carried us through the summer, carried us through the loosey goosey ness time, which I know the last podcast that I recorded like this before I went on Summer, I talked about that, like just focusing on that. But I'm just here to report that Shocker of all shockers. Even after 16 years, it's still the dishes that I have to do. Like, that's still what I have to do. And when I keep the dishes done, when that is the non negotiable that either I or my husband or my daughter know that we have to run the dishwasher, if as long as we will do that, the kitchen never gets completely out of control. The kitchen gets messy. And y', all, I know I've said this sometimes, but when I say do the dishes, a lot of people want to think, I mean, get my kitchen perfectly reset and sparkling every day. When I say do the dishes, what I mean is do the dishes. Do I want to get my kitchen perfectly reset and sparkling? Of course I do.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

But when I say I've boiled it down to if I will keep the dishes done, if I will do them every day, it keeps my house from getting out of control. I'm talking about the actual doing of the dishes. Even if I don't wipe down the counters, even if I don't throw away the trash for the macaroni and cheese box.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

Even if I don't, whatever, if I will keep the dishes done, then those moments of, oh my goodness, I didn't do that last night. It is quick and it is easy to then get things wiped down and picked up and the kitchen look beautiful and reset because I did the dishes. So when I say the non negotiable is the dishes, I mean the actual dishes themselves. There are no tricks. I'm not trying to trick myself into making the kitchen spotless. I am just like, do the dishes. Does that normally result in some wiping down and some straightening and all that? Yes, of course it does. But knowing that it's the dishes that are the hinge is really powerful for me. Because I am the kind of person who's like, don't tell me I have to do something that doesn't actually have to be done right? Like of course the kitchen needs to be cleaned up. But when, when I'm talking about what is the bare minimum? I want to know the actual bare minimum. And the bare minimum is keeping the dishes done. So. So that's pre made decisions. Five minute pickups. Those are pre made decisions. Not that we did one every day, but when I have that moment of I'm like five minute pickup, that will cure that and it will get things back under control. The other thing too is that pre made decisions can be for fun stuff too. Anytime I'm writing a book, especially when I'm writing a book and also living in the loosey gooseiness of summer and trying to get the videos done, I honestly get very frazzled. And so having some fun pre made decisions is really helpful for me. And what I mean by that is getting in my pool. Now this is not saying get in the pool every day because I know not everybody has a pool. I just have one now for the last couple years in our new house. But making it a pre made decision that I'm gonna get in my pool every day is somehow a brain shift that is really helpful and powerful to me.

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[Dani K. White]

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[Dani K. White]

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[Dani K. White]

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[Dani K. White]

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[Dani K. White]

Another pre made decision that I had with when my kids were seniors we did adult conversation lunches, right? And I said okay, for the second semester of your senior year, which the first one that was 2020, so we all know how that went after March. But I said okay, we're going to go out to lunch on Thursdays when you get out from early release at school. And you know, and like that pre made decision prevented me from having the regrets of oh no, their senior year is gone and I meant to have these adult conversations with them and then we never. No, it prevented that regret, but it also gave me permission to stop whatever I was doing because I was like, no, I have already negotiated it out and thought it through and decided pre decided that this is worth my time. Therefore I get to go do this fun thing and take my kid out to lunch once a week at that time. It's the same with the pool. Like I can get very busy in all my stuff and I'm like, I have so many things to do, I need to be working on my book. And I'm like, you know what? Summer is summer. And summer is the only time that I get to be in the pool. And so I'm gonna get in my pool every day. Does that mean I do every single day? Of course not, right? There are days where it just doesn't work out. But because it's a pre made decision on any day where it is even remotely possible, if I'm home, I'm like, you know what, I can work but I'm gonna stop working at 4:30 so I can go float in my pool and read my Kindle for an hour. And so the pre made decisions are freeing because I don't have to negotiate that every day. I don't have to go, oh, I really want to get in the pool, man, I've got to get this stuff done. There's so much I could spend this time working on my book. And then I'm like, nope, it's a pre made decision. This is a worthy use of my time. And therefore at the end of the summer, I don't have regrets because I'm like, no, I've used my pool. I mean, I always tell my husband, I'm like, you know what, I'm just validating that we paid the money for the house, which, I mean, the pool just came with the house. It's a really old pool, but I love it. Okay, but so where can you make pre made decisions about positive things? And I think sometimes knowing the value of a pre, not sometimes knowing the value of a pre made decision on things I want to do then somehow boosts my willingness to also do the things I don't want to do because they're pre made decisions. Right. I see the value of not having to think this through every ding dang time.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

Sorry for my language. Okay, let's see. What are some other things I was going to talk about? Oh, one of the things I was going to say when the kids are older, yes, it's easier in some ways, but it's also, you have less control.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

Like I don't. I, I have to send out a text and say, hey, nobody make plans on Friday night because we're going to have a family dinner because the one who was overseas, you know, is home and. Got it. Okay, this, this kid's not working. And this. Okay, nobody make plans. So you have a little less planning control. The other thing is they do cook a lot themselves. And I did. Did I already tell you this? I don't, I couldn't have because this was in June. I've told y' all before, but I had reconfirmed to me that my kids are grateful that I taught them how to cook. One thing I didn't do great with this summer that I talked about last summer and I got a lot of people asking me questions about it was the roommate training. I didn't do great at the, not a single dish in the sink, partly because I was very distracted. And the reality is that it's one of those things I have to enforce and keep on people about. So I did talk about that before. I think it's a great thing. And it's one of those things where I'm like, why did I not get on this again this summer? But it was that I had an explanation written out, ended up getting so splattered over the year that I eventually took it down. So then it wasn't up this summer. But it was basically an explanation of nothing ever in the sink. The dishwasher is clean and you have a dirty dish. You have two choices. Wash the dish, hand wash it and put it over to dry, or empty the dishwasher so you can put it in the dishwasher. Like, I went through all the different scenarios. If the dishwasher is dirty and there's room for it, great. If it fills it up, you need to run it. Like going through that. But I called that roommate training. Didn't do great with, with it this summer. I also, my daughter and I decluttered together in her room. So I personally was kind of in survival mode. I did not get a lot of decluttering done, but I fine without it because every. All my used spaces are all decluttered, right? Like, I experience the benefits of pre made decisions and having decluttered because I am able to zero in and focus in on other things and not have everything go to total, you know, disaster status because of all the decluttering I've done in the past. But I, I'm always, I could always keep decluttering. And no, I didn't work on that this summer. But my daughter and I worked on her room. She asked if we could declutter in there. And I said, of course, yes. And she knows the process, right? But of course, the thing that happens when you go into a space is that, and I think this is important, those of y' all who know the process and have used it in the past, because I hear this from people, they're like, I ran into this problem. And I'm like, were you using the process? And they're like, oh, no, I actually, I didn't use it this time. And I'm like, exactly. So she knows the process. And yet the overwhelming feeling that she had wanting to declutter her room was, I think I need to declutter my drawers first so that I'll have a place to put things. And I didn't say no, you know, because I'm trying to be really cool and everything and not always be like, you know who I am, right? You know, I Write books about this. I do say that, but I say it funny. I just said, hey, let's. I said, let's try this first. I said, we can do that if that's what we end up needing to do. But why don't we try the surfaces first, the visible space first? Because there's so much power in making visible progress. And her dresser was all very neatly placed, but it was overwhelming with how much stuff was on there. So I said, let's just look for trash. Let's just look for trash on top of your dresser in this space. And so we took a before picture, and she started looking for trash. And she was like, there's probably not any trash, y'. All. Once she got going on the trash, which is what happens to all of us, right? Once she got going on the trash and realized, oh, there are things here that are trash, then she started seeing more and more trash. Like a lot of her perfumes and lotions and things that she had used, didn't love, and therefore didn't keep using it, and then it had somehow ended up on the dresser. After she had that momentum built of throwing stuff away and seeing the immediate progress of stuff just going straight into the trash, she realized, oh, actually, this one's trash. And, like, so when she first looked, as happens to all of us, we're like, oh, no, no, no, there's not trash. That's not trash. But then when she got on that roll, she got rid of tons, and we basically just threw away trash occasionally would run across some. Oh, yes, that's easy. I know what to do with that. But that space looked. So she was excited about how easy it was because she was just focused on trash and how she was able to immediately get started. And then we went with surfaces first and then did the drawers. The problem with doing the drawers first, first of all, it's not visible. And visibility is so powerful to keep you encouraged and inspired and motivated to keep decluttering because you're seeing the progress that you're making. But also, this. The mental thing that happens when you do have. I know my drawers are full, and I've got stacks of clothes that need to be put away. Go ahead and go through those stacks and see if there's any trash or obvious donations in there first. Because when you haven't done that first, then you've got a big stack, and you think, I've got to have room for that big stack. When in reality, the stack is probably not that big. Once you get rid of the obvious donations and the damaged pieces. Okay. And so then you have a much better idea of what you're going to need to put away. And then when you go to. Into the drawer. As soon as we started going to put things away, then she was like, oh, now she had the. The. The trash momentum anyway. She was already on a roll and she was able to, you know, toss things so much easier, so much more easily into the donate bin.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

Because of the process and the progress that she had already made.

[EasyCater Advertiser]

Beth, you're in charge of ordering the tacos for the meeting today?

[Dani K. White]

Yeah, I'm not going to order the tacos.

[EasyCater Advertiser]

What?

[Dani K. White]

I'm going to easy cater the tacos. With EasyCater, you can order from a huge variety of restaurants, track expenses and save time.

[EasyCater Advertiser]

Nice.

[Dani K. White]

Oh, by the way, you're emailing the meeting notes, right?

[EasyCater Advertiser]

No, I'm going to easy mail them. Where's my music?

[Dani K. White]

Sorry, Ben, there's no EasyCater for that.

[EasyCater Advertiser]

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[Sleep Number Advertiser]

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[Dani K. White]

Something else, too. On that, we established a specific. She has this piece of furniture that has. It's not really a drawer, but it's. It's got a door that opens. It's kind of like an armoire, but not really, but it has a defined space in the middle. And we said, let's just make this your. Because it was already kind of used that way. Let's make this your memory cabinet. And that was very freeing for her because she was like, okay, you know, just the things that you're like. I don't know. It's like, okay, as long as it fits in the memory space, the memory cabinet, then it can stay.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

And so that was very freeing for her, and that became her. Take it there now. Oh, this is something I would look for in my memory cabinet.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right.

[Dani K. White]

Instead of just take. I don't like to have a memory box. I don't see it as a decluttering supply. I see it as a. As a destination where something lives. Right. Because if it's a supply and you just carry it along with you, then you start throwing a bunch of stuff in it and becomes overwhelming very quickly for those of us who see everything as a, you know, memory sentimental thing. But we made so much progress. I think we got rid of. I have a picture, but of course, I'm not looking at it right now, but I think we got rid of four bags of trash and like, three very large boxes of donated. Mostly clothes. Okay. But lots of other things, too. So we made so much progress, and it was easy, right? All I was there to do was keep her on track. Do you see any more trash? I bit my tongue. I never said. I maybe said, but then would take it back and say I was sorry, but I never said, this is this trash, right? Like, that's the desire that we have as a mom, right? Is to go, hello, this is trash. Do you not see it? And instead I just, you know, look for trash. Is there any more trash? And she kept finding it. She kept finding it and kept making progress. Okay, great. Let's go ahead and get rid of anything that, you know for sure is not going to go in these drawers, out of this stack of clothes. All right, you know, okay, you want to. These are things that you do want to get. Let's start putting them away, and when there's not room, find something that's less valuable to you, and let's get rid of that. So we went in one, outed and ended up having tons of space in her drawer because as she would look for something that she was willing to get rid of in order to make the space for the things that she wanted to put in there, lots of things revealed themselves as obvious donations by doing that. Okay, so that was really. That was really fun. And I'll tell you how it goes later, because I'm recording this before we've actually done it. But as she packs, we were talking and she said, I was thinking, you know, what should I do with the stuff? Stuff like the decorations that I know I'm going to take? I said, well, instead of putting them in a pile, the container that you're going to take with you to school that we're going to pack in the car. Go ahead. As you pick something that you want to use to decorate your dorm room, put it in that container. Like, there doesn't need to be an in between spot, right? There's no. Never go to the second location. That's what Oprah taught us, right? So with the bad guys, never go to a second location. Do everything you can. That's what she said. Her expert said. But go ahead and put it in that container because that means that you won't have to go back through it. You won't have to remember what the pile is. And that container will be a natural limit that will trigger in your brain. Oh, okay. This is the limit to how much decor I can actually take. And let's see. So state of the home was. That's the point of this podcast, right? The state of the Home was that I basically lived with the benefits of the decluttering that I have done in the past. I was able to make it through a loosey goosey survival mode summer of working on a book and doing all this and got to swim every day because of all the decluttering that I've done. Even when things get a little bananas, there's just so much less stuff to get out of place. And putting things. Getting things back under control, putting things back into their place is easy because things have places like that is not how it was when I started. I couldn't get things back under control easily because so much of my stuff didn't even have a place to go. And so it was always overwhelming because I would be like, I don't know where to put all my stuff. So decluttering is what brought me to the point where that is no longer an issue. And then finally, our garage has stayed clean except for a few new donation boxes, right? It has stayed clear. And y', all, this is a big deal. So it's. I mean, I've been able to park my car in the garage for a long time now, but this summer, after we had completely cleaned out, cleared out the garage, but there will be a video on that over the course of the next year. We're able to park two cars in the garage during hail storms. In Texas, we have hail storms. I mean, I'm sure you have them everywhere or most places, but when you know hail is coming, it's. You want to get your car out of the hail. Now, when you have five people in the house and they all have cars, it's not always possible. But we put the two newest cars in the garage. And my husband got a new truck this summer, not new, but new to us that he's very, very proud of, very excited about. And he told me the other day, he said, you know, I put the truck in the garage last night before I went to bed because I got an alert that it might heal. And so that's like, that's a big deal. If you're new around here and you just have a little bit of decluttering to do, you might be like, what? Some of y' all know. Some of y' all know the big deal that it is to be able to pull a car into the garage because it might hail. It's a really big deal for those of us who struggle with clutter. And the reality of the container concept is what has made that happen. The container concept is that space is finite, and every space in my home is a natural limit to what I am able to keep in my house. Therefore, it changes how I look at every space in my home. And it helps me look at my garage as a place for the car or the truck.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Right?

[Dani K. White]

Like it change. Like the garage is my container for my car. Which means I can't put things in there that make it impossible for me to park the car, now do I? Of course I do. But I can't. That's why it's a big deal that we finally had both sides of the garage cleaned out. But that mindset shift into oh, even though from, you know, 7:30 in the morning till 6:30 at night when my husband is gone at work, like it's technically empty space or he doesn't always park it in the garage anyway just because it is a little tight. But it's not empty space that I can fill up, which is the way I used to think of any empty empty space I can put stuff there. Instead, it's empty space that is serving the purpose of being empty and available to be able to put the car in there. And that mindset shift is the biggest difference between now and the state of my home versus 2009. When I started all this, I didn't understand the value of space or the purpose of space being open and stuffless. All right, I hope this has been helpful. I know it's rambly it's always an adjustment for me to get back to doing the podcast and just blah blah blah for 30 something minutes. But I missed you all and I have enjoyed being back and I am excited to see where this year takes us as we all keep on decluttering. All right, I will talk to you all next week.

[Podcast Listener/Interjector]

Bye.