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When your house is a mess and 
you're feeling the stress, what 

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you need is a friend in your 
ear. 

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Start the job and you'll see it 
through with Ronnie talking to 

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you. 
Make the chaos disappear. 

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Clean with Me podcast is here. 
Thanks for joining me. 

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This episode is going to be an 
evening home reset. 

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Of course, you could listen to 
it at any time of day when you 

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want to do just the bare 
minimum. 

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Let's get right into the 
episode. 

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I'm going to assume that you're 
tired and you're listening to 

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this. 
After dinner I want you to go 

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straight to the kitchen and 
start working on those dinner 

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dishes. 
OK, maybe you need to empty the 

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dishwasher 1st and reload it, or
maybe you're going to be washing

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by hand. 
Either way, the first step is 

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the pre rinse and I want you to 
focus on the most difficult 

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items first. 
OK, last night my husband put 

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some fish in the oven and a 
little glass casserole dish and 

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he forgot about it and it kind 
of burned onto that dish. 

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So what I did is I after 
removing those crispy fish 

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fillets, I sprayed that 
casserole dish with the Dawn 

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Power Wash. 
So that's an example of dealing 

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with a difficult item and 
getting it pre soaking. 

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So whether you're using a spray 
like the Dawn Power Wash or 

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you're just filling it up with 
hot water, a little bit of dish 

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soap, and maybe even a 
dishwasher pod, you want to get 

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those difficult items pre rinsed
and soaking so that you can wash

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the easier items while the 
difficult items soak. 

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That's the most efficient use of
your time. 

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Just to let you know what's 
ahead in this episode, after 10 

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minutes from the beginning of 
the episode, we are going to 

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move to do a 5 minute pickup of 
the outer areas, especially your

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main living area. 
OK, so that you wake up to a 

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clutter free house. 
That's crucial. 

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I love getting up in the morning
to a clean living room and being

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at Dish 0. 
So by working along with this 

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episode, you're going to get 
your dishes done, you're going 

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to get your kitchen surfaces 
wiped down, and you're going to 

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get your main outer areas picked
up and that's it. 

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That's all we're going to do in 
this episode. 

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So hopefully you are plugging 
away at those dishes again, get 

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those difficult items free, 
rinsed and soaking and then 

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start washing the easier stuff. 
And by washing this could mean 

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filling up the sink with hot 
water and liquid dish soap and 

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submerging the dishes, washing 
them and rinsing them. 

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Or it could mean just pre 
rinsing under running water, 

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placing in the dishwasher. 
OK, for me it typically is both.

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It just be working on your 
dishes, whatever that means for 

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you, and remember that a task 
expands to fill the time 

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allotted. 
We're about 3 1/2 minutes into 

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the episode give or take due to 
some editing I might do, but you

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don't have a lot of time left to
do the dishes. 

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But in this episode, I'm 
assuming it's just the dinner 

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dishes. 
OK, if you have 24 hours worth 

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of dishes to wash, you might not
get it done in the allotted 

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time. 
And I understand that. 

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No judgment here. 
If you're facing a dishaster 

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tonight, you might need to pause
the episode or re listen to it. 

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Or maybe just continue doing 
dishes instead of picking up the

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outer areas when we move to that
step. 

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OK, But for those of you who are
cleaning up exactly along with 

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the episode and just dealing 
with the dishes from one meal, 

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we're going to spend about 6 
more minutes in the kitchen. 

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And in about one minute we're 
going to do a little bit of a 

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detour. 
Assuming you've gotten your 

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dishes going and the difficult 
items soaking and you're 

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starting to wash things or maybe
your dishwasher is halfway 

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loaded, we're going to do a 
quick detour in a few more 

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seconds where you're going to 
just quickly clear any clutter 

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from your countertops. 
Maybe there is a case of bottled

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water that should be in the 
pantry or wherever you keep it 

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and it's on your kitchen island 
right now. 

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Or maybe there are some paper 
plates or other packaging or 

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trash that needs to get tossed. 
OK, let's deal with that 

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quickly. 
Scoop things up and put them 

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where they go. 
Maybe the seasonings are still 

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out from whenever you cook 
dinner. 

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Let's get that stuff put away. 
Let's get the mess consolidated 

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to the sink or maybe right next 
to the sink. 

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Because there's some things I 
like, I don't like to put in the

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dish water, like, you know, 
breakable glasses and whatnot. 

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If you're using a dishwasher, 
those can go into the 

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dishwasher. 
If you're going to wash them by 

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hand, you might want to set them
right next to the sink, but the 

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goal of this quick detour is to 
get your surfaces clear so that 

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you can quickly spray and wipe 
down those surfaces. 

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It's important to do that before
bed. 

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You don't want pests to be too 
comfortable on your kitchen 

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counter. 
You want it clean. 

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You want to use a cleaning 
product to do it. 

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You want it to smell like some 
type of cleaning product and not

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have any crumbs on it when you 
go to bed. 

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So again, we're on just a quick 
detour while you probably have 

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some dishes soaking and you're, 
you're into the process of doing

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your dishes. 
You're going to spray and wipe 

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down your countertops, your 
stove top, anything else that 

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needs to be wiped down to get 
your kitchen sanitary, and it's 

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just going to be a speed spray 
and wipe down. 

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You're going to do it as quickly
as possible. 

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This is not a deep clean of the 
kitchen because I realize the 

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evening reset is the hardest 
one, at least it is for me. 

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You're tired. 
You don't feel like doing this. 

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So if you tell yourself you're 
just going to do the bare 

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minimum and just get the dishes 
done, just get the countertops, 

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stove top and sink, you know, 
cleaned up, sanitized, and then 

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just quickly pick up, you will 
wake up to a visually 

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uncluttered home and it's going 
to feel good. 

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OK, Hopefully you've quickly 
cleared and wipe, sprayed and 

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wiped down the surfaces. 
If not, feel free to pause the 

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episode if you need more time or
just don't work exactly along 

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with the episode. 
The important thing is that you 

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are working as quickly as 
possible in your kitchen to 

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reset it before bed. 
I want you to get back to those 

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dishes and finish the job. 
OK, you might be loading the 

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dishwasher or you might be 
scrubbing the dishes by hand, 

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but let's get those dishes 
washed. 

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Let's get it over with. 
Let's get down to dish zero. 

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Then, when you get up in the 
morning, you can empty your 

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dishwasher, empty your drying 
rack, and set yourself up for a 

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successful day of housekeeping. 
Even if you're not going to be 

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spending all day on 
housekeeping, you're going to be

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able to start with a clean slate
in the morning and have an 

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easier evening. 
Tomorrow night, we're going to 

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spend about one more minute 
finishing up those dinner 

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dishes. 
Don't be upset with me if this 

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wasn't enough time. 
I don't know if you have 10 kids

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or if you've let the dishes pile
up, but for a lot of you, this 

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is going to be enough time. 
And I'll be honest, sometimes I 

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like to rush you a little bit 
because if you wanted to spend 

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40 or 50 minutes cleaning, you'd
probably be on one of the paid 

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bonus episodes right now, doing 
more of a whole house rescue or 

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a kitchen deep clean special. 
Special thanks to those who have

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unlocked the bonus episodes by 
becoming a paid subscriber, 

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either through Apple Podcasts, 
Spotify, or some other way, 

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maybe Patreon or a private 
arrangement you've made with me.

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I appreciate that so much, but I
realize not everybody is able to

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subscribe to bonus content. 
Even just listening to these 

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free episodes helps me, so I 
definitely appreciate each and 

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every one of you. 
Hopefully by now you've gotten 

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your dishes done. 
It is time to do that 5 minute 

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pickup of your outer areas and 
you're going to decide which 

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areas to pick up. 
And also it's going to kind of 

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depend on your family size and 
the ages of your kids, if you 

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have them and your lifestyle and
what kind of pets you have, how 

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much you're able to pick up in 5
minutes. 

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OK, maybe you just need to pick 
up a few straight items from the

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living room and straighten your 
cushions and throw pillows. 

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Or maybe you just want to get 
all the toys into the toy box 

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and just get the get the floor 
picked up. 

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But if you're at a stage of life
where there's not a lot of 

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clutter on the floor, you might 
be able to go through your whole

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house picking things up. 
You might be able to head to the

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bedroom and put your shoes in 
the closet. 

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But most of you probably should 
focus on the outer areas. 

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Your entryway, your living room,
your family room, your hallway, 

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or just one, one of two living 
areas maybe. 

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I think a lot of people who have
both a living room and a family 

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room keep one of those rooms 
perpetually tidy. 

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Those floor plans where you have
a living room on the front of 

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the house and then you have a 
family room further back where 

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you're actually hanging out with
the family. 

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And that's why you call it the 
family room. 

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A lot of times in those kinds of
houses, the living room stays 

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picked up. 
You know, there might be a rule,

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no toys in the living room, but 
for those of us with just one 

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living area, it is quicker to 
pick up. 

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But at the same time, it's kind 
of a challenge. 

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Definitely just be picking up 
your outer areas where I while I

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talk, But definitely there are 
pros and cons to different floor

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plans and sizes of of home. 
When I had a tiny house, and I 

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mean, I, I don't mean one of 
those tiny houses where it's 

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super small, but I'm talking 
about simply because I didn't 

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have enough storage space. 
But then if you have a huge 

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house, you've got a lot more 
surface cleaning to do, you have

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more bathrooms, more dusting, 
more vacuuming, more mopping. 

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That can be a lot too. 
Now I live in a what I would 

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consider maybe a medium sized 
house and I do feel like the 

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living room gets cluttered 
quicker due to the fact that I 

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don't have a family room meaning
a second living area. 

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One of my most important 
solutions is simply having a toy

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box in the living room where I 
can quickly put things and then 

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when it starts to get too full I
move some of the toys out to the

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garage toy box. 
And I'm talking about toys for 

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my grandkids. 
But maybe you have young 

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children or pets that are 
spreading toys out. 

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If the living area you're 
picking up is far from the 

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kitchen, you might want to 
consider getting a wastebasket 

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if that would make it easier for
you to keep it tidy. 

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And it's not just toy boxes, 
necessarily. 

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Sometimes just a decorative box 
or basket of some sort in the 

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corner will give you a place to 
quickly stash things, which is 

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also nice if you're expecting if
you find out company is coming 

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over on short notice. 
When you're picking up, it's 

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always a good time. 
It time to kind of when you're 

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doing a quick pick up, it's 
always a good time to kind of 

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evaluate how the room got that 
messy and what kind of solution 

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might prevent it from getting as
messy in the future. 

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Could be that you have too many 
toys in circulation. 

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It could be that you don't have 
enough storage. 

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Maybe you need a storage Ottoman
or some type of basket to stash 

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under a side table. 
Or like I said, maybe you need a

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wastebasket. 
We don't have a wastebasket in 

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our living room because it's 
right next to the kitchen. 

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So trash gets taken to the 
kitchen. 

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But we do have toy boxes. 
Well, we have one basket for 

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toys currently. 
It used to be toy boxes, plural,

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But we have a lot of other 
storage. 

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We have a pop up coffee table 
where we keep supplies for the 

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fish tank. 
We have a drawer in the side 

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table where some of my 
daughter's art supplies. 

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I mean, she's definitely not 
allowed to paint in the living 

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room, but pens and whatnot? 
Markers. 

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Anyway, I hope you got your 
house picked up and this was 

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just a quick evening reset. 
If you got your dishes done, 

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gave your countertops and 
stovetop A swipe, and picked up 

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your main living area, you can 
go to bed now. 

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Or maybe you did this reset 
right after dinner and you're 

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going to relax with your family 
and do whatever your evening 

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routine is, whether it's story 
time and bath time with the kids

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or watching a movie with your 
husband. 

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Last night, my husband and kids 
and I played Yahtzee together. 

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That was super fun. 
Anyway, thank you so much for 

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00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:45,600
listening. 
I hope your home is tidy and 

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your dishes are done. 
If not, it might be time to 

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listen to another episode. 
Happy cleaning and I'll talk to 

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you soon.