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[00:00:00] Diana Rene: Welcome to this episode of the Decluttered Mom podcast. I'm excited for today's episode because we have never done one like this, and. I'm going to be curious to hear what you think about it. So when we are done with this, please send me a dm, uh, on Instagram at the decluttered mom, uh, because I would like to see if this is something you would like me to do more of.

[00:00:26] Maybe we could make it more of like a semi-regular, uh, thing if you enjoy it. So what I'm talking about is a q and A episode, and I asked earlier this week, For questions on my Instagram, uh, we did kind of two like subjects or topics. First is like decluttering, simplifying home management, um, minimizing routine systems, all of those.

[00:00:54] And then the second one was like a more personal. Questions for me. Um, so we'll [00:01:00] do the personal one on a different episode, but for this episode today, I wanted to cover some of the questions that were asked in the question box as far as all things simplifying in home management. And I wish I could answer all of them , but they're.

[00:01:16] There were a lot of questions. You guys have a lot of questions, so um, all of them is not gonna be possible. However, we will be able to go through some of them today, and maybe I can save some for a future episode. Also, you're listening to the Decluttered Mom Podcast. A podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom.

[00:01:40] I'm your host, Diana Rene, and in 2017 I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home. Okay? Not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of [00:02:00] our household belongings. And I have never looked back.

[00:02:04] I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system, and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks, and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show. The first question that we're gonna go over is, do you make lunches the night before to help with morning prep? Mornings can be chaotic. , 100%. Yes. Uh, we always make lunches the night before.

[00:02:28] Sometimes I'm the one making them, sometimes my husband makes them and sometimes my girls make their own lunch. So this is actually the first year that we've done any hot lunch. We have never really done that before. Uh, but the girls really wanted to try it this year, and we decided to let them do it a couple days a week.

[00:02:46] So usually once or twice a week they will get hot lunch, and then the other days they bring a packed lunch. So, We pack the night before and then the morning of, we just put ice packs into the lunch box. That's all we have to [00:03:00] do. I have tried making them in the mornings and it just never goes well. Like I get frustrated, I can't find, uh, what I wanna put in it, or I can't think of something to put in , um, or like.

[00:03:12] One of the girls needs me to do something for them, or one of them has a big knot in their hair that they can't get out or one of 'em, you know what I mean? Like, there's always like, things happen in the morning because it's the morning and we have somewhere to be and nobody's like a hundred percent awake, , nobody.

[00:03:29] We're not morning people in this family. Like not at all. Like we are all, we would all stay up super late and we would all sleep in if we could. And, and so mornings for school, uh, I, the more that I can take away from that part of the day, the better. So we do lunches the night before. We set out, like we go through backpacks, we get water bottles filled.

[00:03:55] Uh, we make sure that shoes are by the door. We make sure coat is by the door, like [00:04:00] everything that we need for the morning, uh, we try to do in the evening if possible. I will even sometimes lay out like, A plate or a bowl for breakfast. If I'm not, you know, like I figure out what I'm going to give them the night before for breakfast.

[00:04:15] I don't prepare it, but um, I have it ready for them. I just find that if we can just take. If we can look at our day and we can see, okay, between this time and this time tends to be pretty stressful. In between, between this time and this time, uh, we have a little bit less, like we have a little bit more ease, right?

[00:04:35] So even if I'm really tired in the evening, I am still not feeling like I'm rushed or I'm in like a chaotic, hurried energy. So, um, I will make lunches while. I'm listening to a podcast, I usually just make it part of PM pickup. So I do PM pickup for the kitchen or even while I'm making dinner. Like if something, if I'm waiting for the water to boil, I'll just [00:05:00] quickly throw the lunches together or, um, but honestly, you guys, this year I have not been doing lunches as much, and if you follow me on Instagram, you probably have noticed, because I used to post the kids' school lunches every single day on stories because you guys liked the idea, like the different.

[00:05:18] Food ideas for lunches, but I usually only make lunch once a week. Now my husband usually makes lunch once or twice a week. Um, and then my kids make their lunch once a week, so I, that's kind of off of my plate now. But I think whoever's doing lunch, they can do it the night before. It is going to help you.

[00:05:41] This question was actually asked a couple of times, which I find interesting. Um, which is how many sheet sets per bed do you keep? I think this is going to, this is like, this is what I do. I don't think this is necessarily like what anyone should do, but it's just what we do. We have [00:06:00] both of the girls sleep in the same size bed, and so I just get, well, first of all, Rewind.

[00:06:07] I just have white sheets in our house for all of the beds and for my bed. It's a king size bed. Um, and I have two sets of sheets. White, just white sheets. We don't use the top sheet, which I know is super controversial, but. I, I kick it off any, any time that I had it on my bed before. My husband never used it either, so I just don't even mess with it.

[00:06:29] We use that for like, picnics and or um, painting or pumpkin carving or if someone gets sick, um, in the middle of the night, things like that. So we have, uh, we have a pile, uh, folded. Top sheets that we do keep in the closet of our guest room. So I will say that. Um, but then for the girls' beds, they both have twin size beds, and so I just have three, no, four.

[00:06:59] Sorry, I don't know what [00:07:00] I'm talking about. I have four sheets. Uh, for their, their beds. Like there's not like two for miss nine and two for miss six. They're just kind of four twin size sheets. And that way when I'm washing their sheets, I can put on a fresh pair of sheets and then vice versa, like we're not.

[00:07:21] There is nothing worse than like stripping your bed to wash your sheets and then forgetting about them in your washer or dryer. And like being so tired at night and going up to bed and realizing that you don't have sheets like that is one of the worst feelings. And so, um, that's what always used to happen to me.

[00:07:39] And so now we just have two per bed basically. I know that a lot of people like, want a ton of pairs of sheets because they're worried about like, if their kids get sick in the middle of the night or, um, if they pee in their bed or anything like that. Uh, that's why we, that's part of why we keep the extra top sheets.

[00:07:58] Like I said, we use 'em [00:08:00] for a bunch of different things, but, um, if that were ever to happen, then we would just put the top sheet on the bed and like tuck it around and basically treat it like a. Okay, this next question says, how can I keep my kitchen clean? What is the routine for that? So there's a couple of things to this.

[00:08:19] Number one is to declutter ruthlessly, which you're probably tired of me saying that, but that's just the truth. Like if you can really ruthlessly declutter your kitchen, it's automatically going to be a little bit easier to clean because you're not gonna have as much stuff to deal with. Second, I would implement systems.

[00:08:40] So for the kitchen, I would absolutely implement PM pickup. Um, if you don't know what that is, um, shoot me a DM and I can send you information on that. I can't remember if I have an episode on that or not, but I do know I have things on Instagram for it. Um, but PM pickup, doing that every night is going to really help [00:09:00] you to keep your kitchen clean because it's.

[00:09:03] Here's the thing, you guys, when we have stuff like in our kitchen, if we have dirty dishes in our sinker, we have stuff all over the countertops. It's easier to just keep piling on. It's easier to not really take care of it because when we walk into a room that's already messy, Uh, we're not as inclined to keep it tidy, but if we walk into a room that's already cleared, then we don't want to make the mask.

[00:09:29] So we're more likely to follow through on the systems and the habits that we do have in place. And so for your kitchen, a hundred percent declutter ruthlessly, number one. And then number two, implement systems and routines, which for the kitchen, the first one I would start with is PM pickup. Okay. The next question is, do you use clean cleaning products and what is your take on this?

[00:09:54] So, Yes and no . Is that [00:10:00] a clear answer? Um, for just like normal, everyday, like all purpose cleaner and like counter spray and glass cleaner and stuff like that. Um, I do use clean cleaning products and I'm going to totally blank on the name. Hold on, let me go look and. Okay, better life. Um, that is the cleaning product line that we use.

[00:10:23] We now use their laundry deter. Uh, we use their all-purpose cleaner. We use their like bathroom cleaner. We use their glass cleaner and they actually sent me like a package a couple years ago with products just as like a free gift, um, to see if I like them or whatever. And I did. I, I don't really know that I have like a stance on this because again, this is like a controversial thing.

[00:10:50] Um, we do use heavy duty cleaning supplies if there's illness in the house or for anything like with meat, um, or anything that needs to be like [00:11:00] disinfected or sterilized. We do use the heavy duty. Stuff. But for just like normal daily, weekly type cleaning, we use 99% better life. I just, they sent me all this stuff free.

[00:11:13] They're not, I'm not being paid for this. I don't, I don't get anything for this, but, um, they sent it to me for free. I've always just really liked. Their product and it works well. Um, it doesn't have a strong smell, which is important to me because I'm very sensitive to smell . Like I, I feel like as I've gotten older, I've gotten more sensitive to smell.

[00:11:34] And then I have been dealing with, I know I've talked about this on Instagram before, but I have been dealing with like a lot of inflammation and I've had hives on and off for. A long time. Um, it's the end of February right now, and I've had highs since October. Um, not near, it's much more well controlled now, but I'm, I'm also on like a lot of [00:12:00] antihistamines still.

[00:12:01] Um, but in October when it first started, I got sick. So they think it was either stress or viral induced or a combination of both and. I had terrible, like head to toe hives, so itchy, so uncomfortable, like honestly like painful on parts of my body. Like my feet were like swelling. They were like one, one of my feet.

[00:12:25] One day was like twice the size of its normal size. I'm not kidding. It was huge and it was red and it was itchy and it was painful and. I don't know. I don't, I still don't know what's going on, but, um, I'm working with like a functional medicine doctor. We're doing a bunch of testing. I'm working with a dietician and.

[00:12:46] Trying some things in my diet, um, but then also just to kind of throw spaghetti at the wall, I'm also eliminating as many things as possible just in my life that could be contributing to it. So [00:13:00] we switched from like the laundry detergent that we were using to the Butter Life one. What else did I switch?

[00:13:05] Like. My shampoo, my body wash, my face wash, my moisturizer, like pretty much every self-care, uh, hygiene item I have switched out to like a clean product that primarily is fragrance free. I think that's the biggest thing that I've been looking at is like re reducing as much fragrance as possible just in my day-to-day life.

[00:13:30] So who knows if it's. Who knows, who knows? I could do an entire like series, a whole, a whole episode series, podcast series on this because it has been an interesting journey. But cleaning products, again, yes and no. Okay. And then the final question that we're gonna do for this episode is how do you declutter clothes when you have six kids and try to keep hand me downs.

[00:13:57] Um, so I. The, [00:14:00] uh, system that I have for this applies whether you have two kids or 10 kids. Like it doesn't really matter, um, how many kids you have, but I have a hand me down system where, um, I actually don't keep hand me downs anymore because what was happening was, um, MS. Nine. and Miss six were like different sizes for different seasons, right?

[00:14:27] Like they're almost exactly three years apart. And so when, um, my youngest was born, I was like, oh, that's awesome for hand me downs because she's gonna fit like in all of my oldest daughter's clothes and it's gonna work out perfectly. Well that didn't really happen because, um, my youngest is, uh, Taller at different ages or like different stages than my oldest daughter was.

[00:14:54] So, um, like she, when MS nine, it's, I'm like [00:15:00] getting, I'm confusing my own brain with not being able to use their names right now. But like, if MS nine was wearing, uh, three tea during the winter primarily, and then it's like MS. Six was wearing. Two t primarily in the summer, you know what I mean? Like, it just didn't really work, um, size wise after she turned like two, um, it, it worked until she turned two, and then when she turned two, three-ish, uh, the sizes didn't match up anymore.

[00:15:31] And so I, I, I basically going to be going through all of the hand me downs very soon and just donating them and giving them to friends because it just, I, I find that it's not working for our family, but. The system that I have that does work well if your kids can find a way to fit into the right clothes in the right season.

[00:15:52] And all of that, um, is that we just had a one bin rule for each size. So like all two tea [00:16:00] clothes had to fit in one bin, and all three tea clothes had to fit in one bin. And what that did was it forced me, it forced me to only save. Quote, unquote good clothes, right? Like, um, I wasn't going to save something that had like a stain on it or I wasn't going to save something that, uh, was a cute outfit, but like I never reached for it.

[00:16:23] And you guys know, especially with babies like. You have all these outfits, but there are the ones that were your favorites. Whether or not because it was cute or because it was easy to put on them, or like, I remember I had several sweaters that I, that I bought for MS nine when she was a baby that were just like the cutest things I had ever seen.

[00:16:42] But they were so hard to get over her head and she hated it. And I hated putting it on her because she would cry and like it was a struggle to get it over her head. And like, so I. Found myself, like every time I would go into her closet to grab an outfit for her, like I would [00:17:00] never pick those and they would just sit in her closet taking up space.

[00:17:03] Um, and I almost saved . I almost saved them because they were kind of expensive sweaters, and they were like, seriously the cutest things ever. But like having the one bin rule forced me to not save those because I knew that I would save them and then they would just sit in my youngest daughter's closet and then.

[00:17:22] she would cry when I would try to put him on her. Like it just doesn't make sense. So having the one bin rule per size is really helpful for just kind of forcing you to make that decision. So again, let me know. Send me a dm. Do you like this q and a format? Um, should we do more of these or what do you prefer?

[00:17:42] I would love, love, love to hear your feedback. Thanks for hanging out and listening to the Decluttered Mom podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories. And if you're on [00:18:00] Instagram, be sure to follow [email protected] and send me a DM to say hi.

[00:18:05] I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.