1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:04,520 Everybody knows that, you know, in a marriage you want to do 2 00:00:04,520 --> 00:00:06,960 things to keep the spark in your marriage. 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:09,560 It's just such a cliche that we've all heard. 4 00:00:09,720 --> 00:00:13,000 But what about keeping the spark in your housework? 5 00:00:15,400 --> 00:00:19,360 I'm Ronnie and you're listening to Clean with Me, the podcast 6 00:00:19,360 --> 00:00:22,120 where I walk you through cleaning your house step by 7 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:23,840 step. Thanks for joining me. 8 00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:28,160 I have so much to talk about in today's episode, and this is a 9 00:00:28,160 --> 00:00:31,520 little bit more of a topical episode than a step by step. 10 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:35,960 I just want to kind of cover some key points while you're 11 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,120 working in a backroom. In this episode, I'm going to be 12 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:43,720 encouraging you to clean a back bedroom of your house, to 13 00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:48,480 organize and clean it. And by back bedroom, I mean 14 00:00:48,480 --> 00:00:51,280 another room besides your own bedroom. 15 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,600 And don't tune me out if you only have one backroom that 16 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,400 you're responsible for and it's your bedroom. 17 00:00:57,400 --> 00:01:00,400 Obviously, you can go ahead and clean your bedroom during this 18 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:05,040 episode, but a lot of you have another room in the back of your 19 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:08,240 house that you are responsible for. 20 00:01:08,680 --> 00:01:14,560 OK, if you're like me, you tend to prioritize your living areas, 21 00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:19,280 your kitchen, your guest bathroom, and then to a lesser 22 00:01:19,520 --> 00:01:23,640 extent, maybe your bedroom and the master bathroom, possibly to 23 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,240 keep your spouse happy or so that you can wake up in a clean 24 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:30,920 environment or get ready for the day in a clean environment. 25 00:01:31,040 --> 00:01:36,280 But what about that other room? Maybe you have a young child and 26 00:01:36,280 --> 00:01:38,320 you're responsible for cleaning their room. 27 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:44,360 Or maybe you have a spare room that could be used for an 28 00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:49,920 office, a gym, a craft room, or all of the above. 29 00:01:50,400 --> 00:01:53,120 And maybe that room has become kind of a catch all. 30 00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:57,360 Or it's not necessarily a catch all, but it just hasn't been 31 00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,400 cleaned and organized in a while. 32 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:03,640 Anyway, it's time to gear up for your cleaning session. 33 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:09,320 Maybe you need to freshen up for the day a little bit, or maybe 34 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:12,640 you just want to take care of some priority tasks real quick 35 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:14,640 before you disappear into the back. 36 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:18,680 Maybe you want to pick up the front entry area of your home. 37 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,480 OK, for me that would be the living room and then probably 38 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:26,440 clearing off the kitchen island that can be seen from the front 39 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,320 door. OK, straightening my front room, 40 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:33,360 clearing off that front island gives a nice first impression. 41 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,880 Even if there are dishes in the sink or just a few things out of 42 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:42,240 place in the kitchen, my house is going to look generally tidy 43 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,760 if I do those two things, straightening the front entrance 44 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:48,720 and clearing off the kitchen island, which you're probably 45 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:49,960 like. What's the significance of the 46 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:51,440 kitchen island? If you're new to the show, 47 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,160 that's just the part of the countertop that's clearly 48 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,760 visible from my front door. It could be something else for 49 00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,000 you, but maybe you want to just straighten up the first 50 00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:04,440 impression area of your home, whatever that looks like in your 51 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:05,760 floor plan. OK. 52 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:08,520 Or you might be just freshening up and getting ready for the 53 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:10,840 day. I mean, there are a lot of 54 00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:13,280 reasons to just stay presentable. 55 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:19,280 Most of the time I like to get fixed up fairly early and just 56 00:03:19,440 --> 00:03:24,560 be ready for anything, whether you get asked to lunch, spur the 57 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:27,680 moment or somebody Facetimes you. 58 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:32,360 I mean, nowadays that's a thing. Yesterday I called my dad to 59 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:35,840 tell him happy birthday and he wanted to show me something. 60 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:38,440 So he's like, hey, you want to switch to FaceTime? 61 00:03:39,040 --> 00:03:42,280 And I was like, sure. And you know, it didn't set me 62 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:44,640 into a panic because I was fixed up. 63 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:48,840 So there is some motivation if you've been just sitting around 64 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,320 in your pajamas with some smeared makeup from the night 65 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:54,560 before. Anyway, that's enough 66 00:03:54,560 --> 00:03:58,120 introduction because I want you to make some progress in the 67 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:02,400 back, hopefully, if they're freshened up yourself or your 68 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:07,120 house, by straightening up the immediate front entrance. 69 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,880 When you head to that backroom, make sure that you have the 70 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:15,200 containers you're going to need. If this is just kind of a 71 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,160 routine tidying up and it's not a major decluttering and 72 00:04:19,160 --> 00:04:22,960 organizing session, you might just need something to put trash 73 00:04:22,960 --> 00:04:26,360 in. But you might also have a more 74 00:04:26,360 --> 00:04:32,400 complicated situation going on. For example, I am getting ready 75 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,920 to totally redo the backroom in my house. 76 00:04:36,120 --> 00:04:40,000 My middle daughter has moved back in with the father of her 77 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,240 kids. And so I've decided, and as you 78 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:46,040 know, I have a son in Marine boot camp. 79 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:53,240 So I've decided to utilize that extra room and I'm not sure what 80 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:58,120 I'm going to call it yet, but it's going to be used as an 81 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:04,240 office slash gym slash craft storage area. 82 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:07,880 And that sounds like a lot, but, you know, we're not rich and 83 00:05:07,880 --> 00:05:12,520 we've only got so many rooms and we still have three kids living 84 00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:15,120 here. Each of my two teenagers has 85 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:19,960 their own room. And then my adult son is staying 86 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:24,120 in the RV in our driveway. It is one of those situations 87 00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:28,360 where he's come back temporarily so that he can save up some 88 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:33,120 money and he likes the privacy of having his his own space out 89 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:35,560 there. Of course he was offered the 90 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:38,920 extra room when it came available, but this is the first 91 00:05:38,920 --> 00:05:44,760 time in a very long time in decades that I've actually had a 92 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,320 spare room. When my husband and I first got 93 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:55,320 married, we rented A2 bedroom apartment simply because we 94 00:05:55,320 --> 00:05:58,880 wanted to have an extra room to store things in. 95 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:04,080 And when we had our first baby, we kept her in the room with us 96 00:06:04,400 --> 00:06:08,560 and just use that second bedroom for storage because obviously 97 00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:11,080 with an apartment, you don't have a garage or anything. 98 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:16,000 And he owns some things, camping gear, fishing gear, things like 99 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,880 that, that he wanted to store in that second bedroom. 100 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:23,720 So that was a spare room per SE, which allowed us to keep the 101 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:28,600 living room and our bedroom tidy because that was kind of the 102 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,920 overflow area where we could put things. 103 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:35,600 I mean, it gave us an extra closet and I think we had ATV in 104 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:39,240 there for when his older kids would come visit. 105 00:06:39,280 --> 00:06:42,360 But as a lot of you know, I have 6 kids. 106 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,200 So since then I've filled every bedroom of every house. 107 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,120 I've lived in three bedroom houses and four bedroom houses, 108 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:52,480 but I've filled every bedroom because by the time we moved 109 00:06:52,480 --> 00:06:56,320 into our first 3 bedroom house, we had two kids. 110 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:00,600 So hopefully you've got at least a trash bag and maybe some other 111 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:05,080 containers if you're going to be redistributing things to other 112 00:07:05,080 --> 00:07:08,080 rooms of the house. Maybe you want to sort things 113 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:11,640 into piles that are within containers, but you do not 114 00:07:11,640 --> 00:07:15,600 necessarily need containers to do this kind of sorting. 115 00:07:16,040 --> 00:07:21,680 Sometimes I just make a pile of items on either the floor or 116 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:25,480 freshly made bed that are going to be redistributed to other 117 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:27,920 rooms. That way I don't get sidetracked 118 00:07:27,920 --> 00:07:31,360 by leaving the room. But you might like putting those 119 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:34,600 items in a laundry basket. There could be a chance that you 120 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:38,080 get interrupted, you get called away from what you're working 121 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:40,000 on, and you have to pause the episode. 122 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:45,320 Maybe you have a baby or toddler who might wake up from a nap, or 123 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:48,120 just something's going to come up where you have to set your 124 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:51,200 housework aside. In situations like that, it's 125 00:07:51,200 --> 00:07:54,440 nice to kind of keep the mess contained and maybe have a 126 00:07:54,440 --> 00:07:58,560 laundry basket or a box of items that you're going to put 127 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:01,520 somewhere. But you also might be packing up 128 00:08:01,520 --> 00:08:05,440 belongings of a specific person, maybe somebody who moved out 129 00:08:05,440 --> 00:08:09,560 recently or maybe somebody who moved out not so recently. 130 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:14,440 I talked to parents all the time of older children who kind of 131 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:16,960 store their kids stuff indefinitely. 132 00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,160 And then at some point they're like, you know what, I'm going 133 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:21,600 to clear out that room and make it a guest room. 134 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:25,880 And that's when they box some of the stuff up and then give that 135 00:08:25,880 --> 00:08:28,840 adult child a chance to pick up the stuff. 136 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:33,640 But I know a lot of you are in a way earlier stage of life and 137 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:37,200 you don't have adult kids, so I'm not going to talk too much 138 00:08:37,200 --> 00:08:40,120 about that. Hopefully if it's a room that is 139 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:44,200 a bedroom or a guest room, you've at least made the bed. 140 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:48,080 Or maybe you've stripped, stripped the bedding and started 141 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:50,880 a load of laundry. If not, do so now. 142 00:08:51,240 --> 00:08:55,160 But some of you are probably already working in the room. 143 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:59,440 Always start by clearing the floor, getting things kind of 144 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:04,520 divided into categories or piles, getting a clear floor and 145 00:09:04,520 --> 00:09:07,000 dividing the items you're going to be going through. 146 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:09,720 Of course, if you don't have anything to go through, and this 147 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:12,560 is more of a routine, clean where you're just putting things 148 00:09:12,560 --> 00:09:15,240 in a hamper, a closet, the trash bag. 149 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,640 By all means, you can start working on surfaces, windows, 150 00:09:18,640 --> 00:09:22,640 window sills, baseboards, dusting, furniture, all the 151 00:09:22,640 --> 00:09:25,200 things. A lot of you have some 152 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,320 organizing to do. If you're not sure what to do 153 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:30,960 with something, maybe just place it on the bed. 154 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:34,240 Or if there's not a bed in the room, place it into the laundry 155 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,160 basket or the redistribution pile to be dealt with toward the 156 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:40,880 end of the episode. But while you're working, I 157 00:09:40,880 --> 00:09:45,080 wanted to talk about internal motivation versus external 158 00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:49,600 motivation. Everybody knows that, you know, 159 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:53,080 in a marriage, you want to do things to keep the spark in your 160 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:55,320 marriage. It's just such a cliche that 161 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:58,600 we've all heard. But what about keeping the spark 162 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:03,320 in your housework? OK, obviously it's arguably not 163 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:07,760 as important, but some of us need to stay excited about 164 00:10:07,760 --> 00:10:12,240 things to stay motivated. You know, doing housework can be 165 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:17,120 so mundane and it's a job that's just never really done. 166 00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,800 I mean, arguably some of us get our house company ready and 167 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:23,800 we're like, wow, this is the best our house has ever looked. 168 00:10:23,800 --> 00:10:26,080 You know, you're having overnight guests and your house 169 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:28,760 is looking amazing and it's a really good feeling. 170 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:32,840 So that's an external motivation when you're preparing for 171 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:37,120 somebody coming. And then the internal motivation 172 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:40,360 is sometimes we just kind of make a commitment to ourselves, 173 00:10:40,360 --> 00:10:43,200 like, hey, I'm going to get caught up on laundry. 174 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,000 My method of staying on top of laundry is keeping family 175 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,960 members laundry separate. Everybody puts their dirty 176 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:55,400 laundry into a hamper in their own room, and then when it's 177 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:58,520 time to do their laundry, they put that laundry directly into 178 00:10:58,520 --> 00:11:00,960 the washing machine. That's the system. 179 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:05,280 But once in a while, something happens where people's laundry 180 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:09,400 kind of gets mixed up and then procrastination can happen. 181 00:11:09,400 --> 00:11:12,040 Nobody really wants to deal with that pile because they don't 182 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:14,600 realize it's theirs. They see other people's stuff. 183 00:11:14,880 --> 00:11:19,720 So recently, I had to kind of hit the reset button and just do 184 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:22,840 several loads of laundry, regardless of who they belong 185 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:27,880 to, sort through them, bag it up for someone who'd moved out, and 186 00:11:27,880 --> 00:11:30,640 then tell another person, hey, you need to go through this 187 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:33,320 stuff because some of the stuff might be yours, you know, the 188 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:36,560 remaining items. And it can definitely be hard to 189 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:41,080 do laundry when you don't know who the stuff belongs to. 190 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,360 And I feel like I was the one who knew best. 191 00:11:44,360 --> 00:11:49,160 So it fell to me to get all this laundry caught up to kind of get 192 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,880 it back to like, OK, we're caught up. 193 00:11:51,880 --> 00:11:56,160 Now everybody needs to do their own laundry separately. 194 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:00,000 And the exception is I do mixed loads for my husband and me. 195 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:04,080 But it's practical because we share a bedroom and he's a man, 196 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:05,800 I'm a woman. It's easy to tell our stuff 197 00:12:05,800 --> 00:12:08,640 apart when we're sorting through the laundry. 198 00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:12,440 Our laundry loads are supposed to consist of the household 199 00:12:12,440 --> 00:12:17,400 towels, a load of our own bedding or a mixed load of my 200 00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:21,120 clothes and my husband clothes or possibly separate loads, mine 201 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:22,960 and then his. But I don't really like to do a 202 00:12:22,960 --> 00:12:26,600 separate load of my own clothes because then he's like, oh, did 203 00:12:26,600 --> 00:12:30,000 you wash any of my stuff? So I, I try to avoid that 204 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:33,000 question, but that's an example of internal motivation. 205 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:38,320 Another example of internal motivation is when I want to 206 00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:44,080 just deep clean my own bedroom or maybe the master shower. 207 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,280 When you have a separate shower and bathtub, you're more likely 208 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,760 to scrub the bathtub than the shower. 209 00:12:50,760 --> 00:12:53,160 So that's something that can get procrastinated on. 210 00:12:53,440 --> 00:12:56,120 But sometimes it's like, hey, I really need to get this shower 211 00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:58,520 clean. So sometimes you pull out this 212 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:03,760 internal motivation to tackle a specific project. 213 00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,280 And, you know, while we're talking about you possibly 214 00:13:07,280 --> 00:13:12,400 working in a spare bedroom, an internal motivation is that I'm 215 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:16,880 excited to move the gym equipment which somehow ended up 216 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:19,720 in our living room. See, we had one of these weight 217 00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:24,560 machines out in the garage, but obviously the weather's never 218 00:13:24,560 --> 00:13:28,560 really perfectly ideal. I mean, it is, but not often. 219 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:31,520 You know, in the summer it's too hot to want to work out there. 220 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:35,280 In the winter, it's too cold. So my husband ended up bringing 221 00:13:35,280 --> 00:13:38,760 it in and much to my chagrin, he put it in the living room and 222 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:40,880 it's heavy and complicated to move. 223 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:43,960 It has to be partially disassembled to move it. 224 00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,080 But now it's on his honey do list that that's going to be 225 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:49,800 going into the backroom. And I haven't decided what to 226 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:52,400 call that room yet. Have you ever noticed that you 227 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:55,640 have a, a room, a name for every room of your house? 228 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,800 Like you might move into a house that has two living areas in 229 00:13:58,800 --> 00:14:02,320 your this is the living room, this is the family room, or this 230 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:06,080 is the front room and this is the den or, you know, whatever 231 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:08,360 you call things. It's kind of based on, I guess, 232 00:14:08,360 --> 00:14:11,160 the culture you grew up in. I grew up with a laundry room. 233 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:13,720 A lot of times my husband calls that a washroom. 234 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:17,000 It kind of makes me crazy because I feel like a washroom 235 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:20,520 is what like my grandparents were calling a bathroom back in 236 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:22,640 the day. But he's thinking of it as the 237 00:14:22,640 --> 00:14:26,360 room where you do the wash. So all that haven't been said. 238 00:14:26,360 --> 00:14:29,440 I haven't decided the name for the spare room yet. 239 00:14:30,280 --> 00:14:33,720 I might call it the office because I mean, my daughter, my 240 00:14:33,720 --> 00:14:36,640 daughter's room is equally in the back, my teenage daughter's 241 00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:37,920 room. But nobody's just going to call 242 00:14:37,920 --> 00:14:40,040 it the back bedroom. We're going to call it her 243 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:44,920 name's room. Nobody externally cares if I 244 00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:49,520 move stuff into that room. So it's kind of an internal 245 00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:53,000 thing that I'm excited about spreading out some of my 246 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,640 belongings, thinning down what's in my bedroom, thinning down 247 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:00,720 what's in the living room by putting some items in that room 248 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,640 and also making it to where that's where I record. 249 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:09,760 I'm currently in my little corner office of my bedroom 250 00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:13,680 where I'm at a desk with a microphone computer. 251 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:18,120 But the drawback with having that in here is I like to start 252 00:15:18,120 --> 00:15:21,800 working early in the morning. And if I'm up earlier than my 253 00:15:21,800 --> 00:15:24,320 husband, I don't want to record with him snoring in the 254 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:27,000 background. So there are a lot of different 255 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:30,080 reasons to reorganize your house. 256 00:15:30,400 --> 00:15:33,840 Sometimes it's spreading out your belongings so that another 257 00:15:33,840 --> 00:15:37,040 room can look more spacious, a more important room can look 258 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:40,400 more spacious, Or sometimes it's a practical reason, like you 259 00:15:40,400 --> 00:15:43,160 need a place to work. For me, it's both. 260 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:47,280 Another thing I might do with that spare room. 261 00:15:47,520 --> 00:15:53,440 Hopefully you're plugging away at organizing a back room, 262 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:57,720 tidying or tidying up a backroom, whether that's a kids 263 00:15:57,720 --> 00:16:01,400 room, craft room, storage room, spare room, guest room, whatever 264 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:03,720 you call it, office, or even your own bedroom. 265 00:16:03,880 --> 00:16:06,720 And sometimes you don't feel comfortable get getting rid of 266 00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:08,920 things right away. And there's some kind of an 267 00:16:08,920 --> 00:16:14,360 interim step like moving it out to the garage, knowing that when 268 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:16,600 your husband cleans out the garage, he might discard the 269 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:20,040 item, but maybe skip that step and just throw something away. 270 00:16:20,200 --> 00:16:24,280 I mean, some people just have a block against throwing things 271 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,760 away, but you have to understand you're constantly bringing items 272 00:16:27,760 --> 00:16:30,400 into your house, and the longer you live in a house, the more 273 00:16:30,400 --> 00:16:33,480 you're going to accumulate. And I'm not saying you have to 274 00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:35,680 throw things away. You could have a donation box or 275 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:39,320 a donation bag, but you're still getting rid of items. 276 00:16:40,080 --> 00:16:42,800 I mean, when we clean out our backyard, sometimes we're 277 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:48,360 burning things in the fire pit. Other items we take to the city 278 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:52,560 dump, you know, which is a, you know, a fun activity for most 279 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:55,240 husbands, like, hey, let's go on a trip to the dump and they kind 280 00:16:55,240 --> 00:16:58,040 of like it because you're working, you're working 281 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,360 together. Definitely getting rid of stuff 282 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:02,480 is important to your housekeeping. 283 00:17:02,560 --> 00:17:05,040 And I talked about internal motivation. 284 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:10,560 I guess moving my podcast setup to that other room is more of an 285 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:16,240 internal motivation than moving the gym from the living room to 286 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:20,680 the backroom because obviously I'm trying to make my living 287 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:24,440 room look better for company. I don't like looking at the gym 288 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,839 in the living room, but more importantly, I don't want my 289 00:17:27,839 --> 00:17:30,880 guests to see that I have a gym in my living room. 290 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:32,360 You know, it's kind of a guy thing. 291 00:17:32,360 --> 00:17:34,320 And this is not a bachelor pad, folks. 292 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:36,880 Don't get me wrong, I'm going to use the gym, but I mean, it's a 293 00:17:36,880 --> 00:17:39,560 guy thing thinking it would be OK to have it in the living 294 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,880 room. So an internal motivation could 295 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:47,280 be to make your life more convenient or your immediate 296 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:51,120 surrounding look better. Oftentimes A cluttered house 297 00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:54,600 leads to a cluttered mind. So those are some internal 298 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:59,680 motivations for keeping those back rooms of your house clutter 299 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,360 free tidied. Now let's talk a little bit 300 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:06,320 about external motivation. Whose visit are you looking 301 00:18:06,320 --> 00:18:10,000 forward to? And we all know that concept of 302 00:18:10,040 --> 00:18:14,040 you invite somebody over for dinner or whatever, a play date, 303 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,920 you know, maybe you both have a little kid or something, then 304 00:18:16,920 --> 00:18:19,760 that's going to cause you to clean. 305 00:18:20,320 --> 00:18:24,000 It's not enough. It is something and it can cause 306 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,160 you maybe to get out of a rut and pick up your living room and 307 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:31,640 vacuum it, do your dishes and clean your guest bathroom. 308 00:18:31,920 --> 00:18:36,440 It can cause you to do those things, but it's not necessarily 309 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,560 going to motivate you to detail every inch of your house. 310 00:18:40,560 --> 00:18:44,880 I talked about this a while back, but a new neighbor gave me 311 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:49,320 a tour of her house and I was like, oh, I'll have to show you 312 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:52,400 my house sometime. And I kind of used that as a 313 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:55,880 motivation because I had to get the entire house clean as what, 314 00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,760 at once? So that's one way to harness 315 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:05,320 that external motivation is to think about someone touring your 316 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:09,880 entire house. If your house is new and maybe 317 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,880 you're taking your time or new to you, you've moved into it 318 00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:14,480 recently. It doesn't have to be brand new, 319 00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:18,280 but if you moved into a new to you house, maybe you've got 320 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:21,880 boxes sitting around, you haven't hung up pictures yet. 321 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:27,760 The idea of giving a close friend or family member a tour 322 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:30,600 of your entire house can motivate you to kind of complete 323 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:35,400 that process. OK, another motivation could be 324 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:38,760 just someone moving in with you and they're going to see the 325 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:42,040 back rooms at some point. I didn't really get to harness 326 00:19:42,040 --> 00:19:48,360 this recently when my son, who had been living in another state 327 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:54,720 for around 9 years, was coming. I didn't really have a chance to 328 00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,960 fully detail every inch of my house in preparation for his 329 00:19:57,960 --> 00:19:59,880 visit. I would have if I could have, 330 00:20:00,200 --> 00:20:04,280 but there just wasn't any time. However, I do have that son in 331 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:08,760 Marine boot camp and. I'm just envisioning his 332 00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:12,600 standards getting a lot higher. I mean, we all know about how 333 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:17,480 people in the military have to make their beds a certain way. 334 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:20,440 And, you know, they're, they're learning how to do hospital 335 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:22,080 corners. And I'm not saying I'm going to 336 00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:25,720 take it that far, but they're taught to be extremely neat and 337 00:20:25,720 --> 00:20:28,000 tidy. And I don't want him to come 338 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,360 home and kind of see our house with new eyes and suddenly see 339 00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:35,480 us as disorganized. You know, the mom who is telling 340 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,480 him to keep his room clean all the sudden falls short of the 341 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:41,920 standards he's been taught. It might be an irrational fear, 342 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:47,280 but I'm, I'm kind of using these thoughts to give me this 343 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,880 deadline, OK? Like, oh, we've got 6 1/2 more 344 00:20:50,880 --> 00:20:54,880 weeks before he comes home on leave and I'd like the house to 345 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:56,960 look better than it did before he left. 346 00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:02,400 Another example of external motivation is we already know 347 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,920 who we're having as guests for Thanksgiving. 348 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:07,760 We're going to have out of town guests. 349 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:10,320 So that's another external motivation. 350 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,800 It's a little more long term, but it's like, wow, we should 351 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,400 probably get our shower fixed before that. 352 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:21,080 Our guest shower works, but not exactly how it's supposed to, 353 00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,320 let's put it that way. I mean, it's it's the guest 354 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:27,720 bathroom slash kid bathroom, but nobody wants to really have to 355 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,160 train their guests on how to use the shower. 356 00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:35,640 Hopefully by me sharing these kind of personal thoughts about 357 00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:41,800 what motivates me to go deeper with my cleaning and organizing, 358 00:21:42,440 --> 00:21:45,920 I've helped you kind of think about what you have coming up. 359 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,200 You know, what kind of deadline do you have coming up? 360 00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:55,160 Is someone going to be visiting with you for several days? 361 00:21:55,480 --> 00:21:59,800 Is somebody moving back into the house and you want to make a 362 00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:01,800 better impression than you have in the past? 363 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,120 Or is somebody visiting, and there's something about when 364 00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:09,480 your adult children move out and then they come home to visit 365 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,920 like they're now visitors, that you're straightening up the 366 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:15,680 house for, even though you weren't worried about what they 367 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:19,320 thought of your bedroom when they were kids and they saw your 368 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:22,160 messy bedroom on a regular? There are people who know you 369 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,880 well, who've seen your house messy, but you want them to see 370 00:22:25,880 --> 00:22:27,440 improvement the next time they come. 371 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,520 But sometimes you don't have something like that coming up 372 00:22:30,560 --> 00:22:36,160 and that's where you have to rely on internal motivation. 373 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:41,720 But if internal motivation fails you, which is possible, often 374 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,040 it's it's very hard to be self motivated. 375 00:22:44,040 --> 00:22:47,040 I mean, if we could be self motivated in every area of life, 376 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,000 you know, we'd all be a huge success in every category. 377 00:22:50,360 --> 00:22:54,240 We all fight a battle against ourselves and don't always do 378 00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:56,200 the things that we wish we could do. 379 00:22:56,280 --> 00:23:00,160 But sometimes the thought of surprising your spouse with a 380 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:03,680 clean house, you know, your spouse is someone who's going to 381 00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:05,800 see every room of the house at some point. 382 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:09,880 That can be a motivator that is kind of external. 383 00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:14,160 But without having this major event coming, like guests 384 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:19,520 visiting from out of town or a child moving back in after years 385 00:23:19,520 --> 00:23:23,000 of living out of state or giving someone a tour because it's 386 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,040 their first time at your house. And that's not always mandatory. 387 00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:30,080 But I feel like if I have someone over and they've given 388 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:34,120 me a tour of their house, then I'm going to reciprocate because 389 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:38,280 they're curious about my bedroom and master bath and, you know, 390 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:42,960 the other rooms of my house. And I welcome that because it 391 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,000 causes me to kind of take my cleaning and organizing to the 392 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:51,480 next level and actually see these back rooms through someone 393 00:23:51,480 --> 00:23:54,200 else's eyes. And obviously I talk about 394 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:57,200 mental gymnastics. Pretend your house is on the 395 00:23:57,200 --> 00:24:00,640 market and you're a realtor coming through, looking at it 396 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,880 objectively. And the homeowner has asked you 397 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,040 to give them advice and you're like, well, this looks this 398 00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,760 corner looks cluttered. You know, maybe put this stuff 399 00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:13,000 away. That's still harder than 400 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,640 actually planning for guests. OK, That when it's the real 401 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:22,920 deal, your mind knows it. But doing these make believe 402 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:27,120 scenarios where you pretend you're a real estate agent or 403 00:24:27,120 --> 00:24:32,120 you pretend you're a judgmental guest can help you muster up 404 00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:35,960 internal motivation because you're thinking about an 405 00:24:35,960 --> 00:24:39,720 external point of view. So yeah, I have a lot of things 406 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:42,280 to be excited about with my housework. 407 00:24:42,280 --> 00:24:44,720 Now I am in a super busy season of life. 408 00:24:44,880 --> 00:24:50,080 I'm trying to finally, you know, get my bachelor's degree, and 409 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:54,840 I'm going to have an intense 10 months, but future me wants me 410 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,320 to accomplish that. So these projects I'm doing are 411 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:01,960 not going to get done overnight, but they're things that I'm 412 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:07,600 chipping away at to improve the overall look of my home. 413 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:11,880 I mean, I would like my bedroom to look more like a hotel room, 414 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,360 but there are things that I store in my bedroom out of 415 00:25:14,360 --> 00:25:17,960 necessity. That's going to be changing when 416 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:23,040 I move some of the furniture out and into that backroom. 417 00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:26,840 And obviously as a cleaning podcaster, I need to keep that 418 00:25:26,840 --> 00:25:32,760 spark alive where I'm excited about what's next for my home. 419 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:36,120 I think everybody needs that. They need to have these 420 00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:38,840 motivators. I know who people who frequently 421 00:25:38,840 --> 00:25:42,880 re redecorate their home and that's one of the motivators. 422 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:45,920 Of course, not everybody can afford that hobby. 423 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,280 A lot of us are like, OK, we've already got pictures on the 424 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,720 walls. You know, some things need to be 425 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:53,960 replaced here and there, but we're not going to completely 426 00:25:53,960 --> 00:25:57,000 redecorate. But sometimes decorating just 427 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:03,040 seasonally with some items from a dollar store can get you 428 00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:09,280 excited about cleaning a room or buying a fresh set of bedding. 429 00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:14,280 You know, a new comforter, new pillowcases and shams can get 430 00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:19,960 you excited about detailing your bedroom or your guest bedroom. 431 00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:28,960 So self-imposed deadline #1 is making sure that my house is 432 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:33,160 clean and organized to a higher standard by the time my son gets 433 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:39,080 back in 6 1/2 weeks because he's graduated from live in child to 434 00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,560 visiting child. And then major deadline number 2 435 00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:44,480 is getting the house ready for Thanksgiving. 436 00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:48,560 But I'm kind of thinking maybe I'll just be 15 minutes away 437 00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:52,160 from, you know, clean house or an hour or two away from a clean 438 00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:53,400 house. However you want to think about 439 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:58,000 that once I've done these improvements of moving stuff 440 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:03,960 into the spare room and stepping up my game before my middle son 441 00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,480 gets home. What do you have coming up? 442 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,400 And maybe the holidays are a little far away. 443 00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:17,120 Maybe you are having your in laws or your own family coming 444 00:27:17,120 --> 00:27:20,520 to stay for the holidays. Or even if they're staying at a 445 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,520 hotel, they might be visiting you a lot, just spending a lot 446 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:25,720 of time in your house. You might be giving them a tour 447 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:27,440 because they've never seen your house. 448 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:29,840 But what do you have before that? 449 00:27:30,040 --> 00:27:33,880 What's what's a short term event that you're planning for? 450 00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,600 I mean, sometimes it can be just a daily saying. 451 00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:43,000 It could be as simple as accomplishing, accomplishing 452 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,480 something before your husband gets home from work, something 453 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,160 different than what you do on a daily basis. 454 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,000 You know, you do your routine things. 455 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:53,840 You know, maybe you always like to have the dishes done before 456 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:57,400 he gets home from work. But being able to show him that 457 00:27:57,400 --> 00:28:00,520 you organized a spare bedroom or you cleaned out a closet. 458 00:28:00,640 --> 00:28:04,440 And that might not be your style to, you know, do that for him or 459 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:07,880 show him that I'm just throwing out some ideas. 460 00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:12,640 But sometimes getting rid of stuff can can be exciting in and 461 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,680 of itself. There are times where I've done 462 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:21,960 a major purge and just measured my success in black trash bags 463 00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:27,080 and white donation bags. I will often buy two colors of 464 00:28:27,080 --> 00:28:29,360 bags so that I can differentiate. 465 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:33,040 You know, you don't want to have that like phobia that what if 466 00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:35,960 somebody throws this away thinking it's trash or whatever. 467 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:39,720 And sometimes you can even put, you know, things in clear bags 468 00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:43,280 that you're keeping. But boxes can also help you 469 00:28:43,280 --> 00:28:48,600 differentiate or Rubbermaid tubs are great, or Sterilite is 470 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:50,880 another brand. The brand isn't important, but 471 00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:54,440 I'm just kind of talking about these rectangular tubs with lids 472 00:28:54,440 --> 00:28:56,480 that you can buy just about anywhere. 473 00:28:56,560 --> 00:29:00,680 Those are great for storing things that you're going to keep 474 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:03,080 and you can label them. Like if you have a toddler who's 475 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,280 grown out of their clothes, you might want to put some items in 476 00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,560 one of those tubs, put the lid on it and label it Girls 2T to 477 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:14,200 3T or whatever, for example. Another thing I'm big on is 478 00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:17,480 after you've done a major purge and decided that you're going to 479 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:22,000 keep certain things, that's when it's time to buy storage 480 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:23,520 containers. You don't want to buy a bunch of 481 00:29:23,520 --> 00:29:26,720 containers before you've purged a room, OK? 482 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:30,760 Because you know, they say, as I say, you can't organize clutter. 483 00:29:30,760 --> 00:29:34,120 You want to get rid of stuff that you don't need and organize 484 00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,000 the stuff that's important to you. 485 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:39,600 So from time to time I'll decide, hey, I want to keep all 486 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:43,920 this stuff, the certain category of items, and I'll buy those 487 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:48,760 little plastic dressers that you can get at Walmart or another 488 00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:52,520 similar store like that. I like to store those in my walk 489 00:29:52,520 --> 00:29:55,120 in closet. Those are great for storing 490 00:29:55,120 --> 00:29:59,400 things like yarn or stationary or insert whatever there. 491 00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,800 If you're organizing a kids room, they're great for 492 00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:05,720 organizing Legos or other small toys. 493 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,840 And some people like to go a step further and actually label 494 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,600 those plastic dressers, which I've done with the one in my 495 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,360 closet because sometimes if you don't mess with that dresser for 496 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,880 a while, you kind of forget, like, what was this drawer for? 497 00:30:18,880 --> 00:30:20,960 There's nothing in it. What was I planning to put in 498 00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,600 this drawer? OK, so I'm planning to have my 499 00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:31,080 office slash podcast setup in one corner of that spare room 500 00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:34,560 that's currently spare but won't be spare once I set it up. 501 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:38,360 It's I'm staking my claim on that room, but I'm also going to 502 00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:43,520 move this small coffee table. You know, if you've really been 503 00:30:43,560 --> 00:30:46,560 listening to this podcast for a while, you might even remember 504 00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:51,880 that I have a small coffee table along one wall in my bedroom. 505 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,920 And it's got a couple drawers and it's got a shelf under it 506 00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:59,320 that's going to go into the spare room too, because I'm 507 00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,000 going to use that to store and organize my yarn. 508 00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:08,120 And then I'm planning to hang my illuminating looms above it, 509 00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,720 like to put little hooks and everything, stuff that I've been 510 00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,400 doing in my bedroom. When I'm thinking about how I 511 00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:17,720 want a bedroom to look that I sleep in, I kind of envision a 512 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:20,720 nice hotel room. There's a large work of art 513 00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:24,080 that's kind of a focal point, maybe a couple smaller pictures 514 00:31:24,080 --> 00:31:27,320 on the side walls. There are night stands. 515 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:30,680 There might be a desk or a TV stand. 516 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:32,520 Mine's going to be minus the desk. 517 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:35,120 OK. At this point in the episode, I 518 00:31:35,120 --> 00:31:39,920 want you to gather up any items that need to be moved out of 519 00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:44,120 your room, OK, that you're working on and either get rid of 520 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,720 them, put them in a closet somewhere, figure out what 521 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:49,480 you're going to do with them. Maybe they need to be in a 522 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:53,640 laundry basket temporarily while you buy some kind of a plastic 523 00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:57,080 tub or dresser. This is what I call recovery 524 00:31:57,080 --> 00:31:59,600 time, where you've been working in a room and then you, you 525 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:02,400 don't want to leave a mess. You don't want to leave piles. 526 00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:05,680 Let's quickly make some decisions and deal with those 527 00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:07,560 piles. Maybe you need to put a donation 528 00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,360 bag in the trunk of your car. Maybe you need to move something 529 00:32:10,360 --> 00:32:13,280 to a different room. You know that whole spreading 530 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:17,400 out concept where you move something into an overflow room 531 00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:19,720 to make the important room more spacious. 532 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:23,960 I want my bedroom to feel peaceful and spacious, and I'm 533 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,440 OK with the fact that there are going to be a lot of things 534 00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:29,760 going on in that spare room. I think I'm leaning strongly 535 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:31,760 toward calling it just my office. 536 00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:34,760 Obviously my husband's going to be working out on in there, but 537 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,320 I have a gym in my office and my husband comes in here to work 538 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:39,320 out. OK. 539 00:32:39,320 --> 00:32:41,400 Sometimes you got to just define the space. 540 00:32:41,760 --> 00:32:44,960 What, what is the purpose of that room you're working in? 541 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:49,280 Think about that while you're putting things away and getting 542 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,600 it organized, and maybe you're calling it a guest room or 543 00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,160 sewing room. Once you put those items away, 544 00:32:55,160 --> 00:32:57,520 and maybe you need to pause the episode if you need more time, 545 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:00,800 you want to do some dusting and cleaning. 546 00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,360 You know, maybe you need to dust the ceiling fan. 547 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:07,600 Maybe you need to wipe out at least one window sill. 548 00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,760 Or if you have a sliding glass door in your master bedroom and 549 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:14,920 that's where you're working, you need to vacuum out the dust out 550 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:17,960 of the tracks of that sliding glass door. 551 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,320 OK, Or maybe you just need to wash a window. 552 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,320 Regardless of what you use that back bedroom for, it probably 553 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,440 has a window and dusting doesn't take that long. 554 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:32,160 I mean, if you've been working in a room this long, you've 555 00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:34,640 probably, and it has night stands, you've probably cleared 556 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,960 off those night stands. Or if it's an office, you've 557 00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:40,920 probably cleared off the surface of the desk. 558 00:33:41,040 --> 00:33:45,480 Time to wipe it down because the finishing touch is vacuuming and 559 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,040 dusting the room. So let's get it dusted. 560 00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,280 And then I'm going to be closing out this episode. 561 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:55,960 But you might want to put on some music while you sweep and 562 00:33:55,960 --> 00:34:00,560 mop or vacuum and mop if it's a hard floor, or just vacuum if 563 00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,960 it's a carpeted room. A bonus task could be cleaning a 564 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,440 stain off the carpet with, you know, using a spot cleaner and a 565 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:10,880 spray bottle and a damp rag. You know, always be observant 566 00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,480 when you're vacuuming carpet for spots that need to be cleaned. 567 00:34:14,639 --> 00:34:18,280 And if you have family members who are old enough to help you, 568 00:34:18,600 --> 00:34:21,560 maybe you've created a pile and they need to come get their 569 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,280 stuff. OK, everybody come get your 570 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,199 stuff out of this pile. These are items that don't 571 00:34:27,199 --> 00:34:30,880 belong in this room. Come get them and put them away. 572 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:35,639 Often as a mom, whether I'm folding a bunch of laundry, a 573 00:34:35,639 --> 00:34:40,080 bunch of miscellaneous laundry that's gotten mixed together, or 574 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:45,560 I'm just cleaning out a closet, I will make piles for people and 575 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:49,080 then I'll call them at the end, hey, come get this stuff. 576 00:34:49,199 --> 00:34:53,360 Or hey, son, I found these items that used to belong to your 577 00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:57,280 older brother. I want you to take these and put 578 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:59,320 them in your closet because these would fit you. 579 00:34:59,320 --> 00:35:01,280 Now. Something I did recently when I 580 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,920 went through my hall closet. I hope you got a lot done during 581 00:35:04,920 --> 00:35:08,800 this episode. My next bonus episode is going 582 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,520 to be a Walk With Me episode, but I'm not going to record it 583 00:35:12,560 --> 00:35:14,480 while walking. I'm going to record it in the 584 00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:18,960 studio, so to speak, so that you won't have to listen to all the 585 00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:21,440 wind and the background noise. It'll be more like one of these 586 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,880 cleaning episodes. But the good news is that one's 587 00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:28,360 going to be available for all of my supporters. 588 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,440 Some of the Walk With Me episodes are not available for 589 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:36,600 people on the lowest level of Patreon support. 590 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:39,760 I want to make the next one available to all financial 591 00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:44,200 supporters at every level just to kind of give you an A sample 592 00:35:44,200 --> 00:35:48,880 of what that's about to see if you want to start supporting on 593 00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:53,240 Apple or on the all excess level of Patreon. 594 00:35:53,280 --> 00:35:57,920 But anyone who's supporting the show is doing me such a huge 595 00:35:57,960 --> 00:36:01,680 favor and hopefully also benefiting from the content. 596 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:05,760 So stay tuned for that Walk with Me episode that's going to be 597 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,680 available to everyone who supports me at any level. 598 00:36:08,840 --> 00:36:13,440 Again, some Walk With Me episodes are only available to 599 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:17,880 Spreaker and Apple supporters and people who are All Access 600 00:36:17,880 --> 00:36:23,080 supporters on Patreon. There is a very affordable basic 601 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:28,400 level on Patreon that unlocks all cleaning episodes, but I'm 602 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:32,440 going to give everybody who's supporting at any level a sample 603 00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,760 of the Walk With Me episodes. So that's coming next. 604 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,920 Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate each and everyone 605 00:36:39,920 --> 00:36:41,840 of you. As always, Happy cleaning and 606 00:36:41,840 --> 00:36:43,320 I'll talk to you in the next episode.