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Diana Rene: 0:06 

You're listening to the decluttered mom podcast, a podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. 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 our household belongings and I have never looked back. 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.

Diana Rene: 0:49 

All right, so I am excited for today's episode because we have Alisa, who is someone that I met on Instagram, which feels like every guest I bring on here is a friend that I've met through Instagram, and she is all about cleaning and how to keep a clean home, and her account is one that I really value, because there are so many things that I don't know. I'm like I don't know how to clean this, and so I will scroll through her videos and check them out, and I always get great ideas, so I wanted to welcome you, alisa, to the podcast. Thank you, can you just share a little bit about yourself and how you got in. You know, like you have quite a big Instagram account about cleaning, like, how did this whole thing happen?

Alissa Schow: 1:36 

Yeah, I started on Instagram as, like, we were DIYers me and my husband and we bought this house and we call it our money pit. We bought it from an older couple that had lived here a really long time, so they had really big dogs and a cat and their adult daughter was living upstairs with her adult kids and they actually hadn't been upstairs in like five years because they were in wheelchairs. Okay, so I mean, you had the pet smell and you had the older person smell, and when we first saw the house, we didn't even talk about it. We were like there's no way. And then later that night we decided this was the house for us.

Alissa Schow: 2:20 

So we came in, we redid everything Like we DIY'd everything ourselves and then, like you know, in one bathroom I had cement tile, one bathroom I had marble and I didn't know how to clean it and I didn't want to mess it up with like using these harsh cleaners that you can buy at the grocery store. So that's kind of how it started. I wanted to like keep all this stuff we had DIY'd and redone looking brand new.

Diana Rene: 2:48 

Yeah, Okay, that makes sense when you said that you bought a house that had, you know, several big dogs. Are the house that we bought about a year and a half ago, people that lived in it before us also had apparently had two, I think, huskies maybe, and we still like. A year and a half later we'll randomly find like dog hair, like I pulled out the bottom drawer of our oven the other day and like there was some like hanging on the back side of the house.

Alissa Schow: 3:18 

Yeah, it hangs on. Yeah, when we pulled up the baseboards it was like underneath just floors. I mean, I don't even know how it got under there, but it really gets everywhere.

Diana Rene: 3:28 

Yeah, yeah, I know that when we had our air vents cleaned too it was like base. The guys that cleaned it were like it was like coated and dog hair. Yes for sure. Oh, interesting. Okay, before you were doing all the DIY stuff, is cleaning something that you really like, appreciated or did all the time? Or was it really just when you built these things that took all your time and energy that you wanted to Right?

Alissa Schow: 3:55 

Well, I feel like I've always been pretty clean, yeah, and when we were living through DIY and renovation, like it was really hard and it's stressful looking at that mess all the time and it's dusty and you just kind of like have to partition off parts of your house, and so when I got all finished I was like, okay, I can maintain this, I can keep it clean and I get a lot of I don't know I say anxiety. I've never been diagnosed, but I probably use that too loosely. But when I get stressed out or anxious, cleaning really helps me feel better, and it always has, because I feel like, even if it's like a little chore or like a job that's been bugging you, when you get it done you feel so much better.

Diana Rene: 4:45 

Mm, hmm, absolutely so. I hate cleaning and that's honestly why that's a big part of why decluttering was so life changing for me, I think, because I think a big reason that I hate cleaning is how much you have to pick up before you actually get to the cleaning you know. And so decluttering it was like, oh, I can actually just clean now. But my favorite type of cleaning I have termed rage cleaning.

Alissa Schow: 5:15 

It's like when I'm really mad about something, like it's like a therapy to just really clean For sure, and also when someone's coming to your house last minute, that that is like frantic, let's get this done and act like we live in a clean house.

Diana Rene: 5:31 

Yeah, I had. That reminds me of a story of when my girls were like really little. I was part of like a local moms group and it was when the method cleaners just came out at Target for the first time and everyone was talking about it and they're like it's so nice because, like, I just don't really like worry about cleaning the whole day and then, like 10 minutes before my husband gets home, I spray the countertops with that and wipe them and like it smells like I was like cleaning the house like all day. Yeah, genius Little hack, yeah. So I asked my Instagram audience what questions they had for you and like the overwhelming number one question was how do I create a schedule for cleaning that is not overwhelming, that, like will actually allow me to get the work done? Do you have any insight to that For?

Alissa Schow: 6:23 

me, I think growing up we used to always hear, oh, we're going to do spring cleaning or like it.

Alissa Schow: 6:30 

It felt like when we would clean something it was like you know, you've let it get so bad that now you have to like spend all day like cleaning the garage or whatever it was. Yeah, and so for me, like we have four kids and you know I try to, I try to get them on the same page and it doesn't always happen. But I feel like if you're doing little things every day, kind of throughout the day, like maybe a morning reset, or you know, like after dinner you're doing your dishes, running your dishwasher, starting the next day with a clean kitchen, so I just feel like, if you can get on those little habits and cleaning systems like I actually put a checklist out today but I broke it down yeah, I have like a daily, weekly, monthly and then quarterly, so it kind of you know, if you do these things during the day, it's not going to be like, oh, saturday's here and now, the whole family is going to spend all day cleaning and then we're going to start over trashing it on Monday.

Diana Rene: 7:35 

Right, okay, that makes sense and I'll link the cleaning checklist in this, this show notes for the podcast, if you can get those to me. But that's a really good point. And something that I hear often is like, how do I get my kids involved? And so I always encourage people to have we do like what we call a PM pickup. So every evening, you know, sometime between dinner and bedtime, everyone that's home has to participate and it's 10 to 15 minutes of just picking up the main floor of the house, like the kitchen, the dining and the family room. And if you're doing it every single day, it's, it literally takes 10 minutes because it didn't have a lot of time to build up. You know, right, if you wait like a week and you only do it once a week, then it definitely it's going to take you two hours because it take, you know, everything builds up. So it kind of sounds like the same principle as that.

Alissa Schow: 8:32 

Yes, and along with that, timers, like you said, works so good. Like it's amazing what you can do when you set a 15 minute timer and you know, even when I'm doing it alone, I get a lot done. But when I get my kids involved and my husband involved, like it's amazing what 15 minutes can do.

Diana Rene: 8:50 

Right, and then it kind of tricks your brain and you, you know you catch momentum and then you want to keep going a lot of times when you're done. So I always say, like, give yourself permission to quit at the 15 minutes or whatever you know timer you set, but a lot of times you will want to keep going, so it's going to take you a while. Yeah, how old are your kids?

Alissa Schow: 9:09 

21. I just had one turn 20. Okay, no, sorry, he turned 19.

Diana Rene: 9:17 

Okay, that's all right.

Alissa Schow: 9:21 

So my two older kids are actually living out of the country right now. Oh, wow, okay, yes, so it's been interesting. And then I have a 14 year old and a 12 year old, okay.

Diana Rene: 9:32 

So at what age would you say that you really got them involved in cleaning?

Alissa Schow: 9:38 

They all learned how to do the laundry when they were 10. Okay, they were in charge of it. They can't complain when they don't have anything to wear because it meant they didn't do their laundry. I worked with them quite a bit. They knew what they were doing by the time they were on their own. Okay, I feel like we do like the daily pick up things. But also on Saturdays unless we're crazy with ball games and stuff they all have bathrooms to clean. They all have probably four or five chores to do. They're not anything crazy, but if they take a good half hour or 40 minutes, their chores are all done. I usually don't let them do what they want to do until I go look and make sure everything is clean.

Diana Rene: 10:28 

Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, very cool. Another question that was common in the question box is how to deep clean nonstick pans, because apparently I have stainless steel pans so I'm not sure, but apparently this is a very common problem.

Alissa Schow: 10:45 

Do you?

Diana Rene: 10:45 

have any insight on that.

Alissa Schow: 10:48 

Well, I have stainless steel pans too, but I know that if you put baking soda and vinegar, or baking soda and lemon and vinegar, it cleans pretty much everything.

Diana Rene: 11:00 

Okay, that's good to know. Yeah, would you say that that's like is that your go-to cleaning product or yes?

Alissa Schow: 11:10 

I would say baking soda. I probably have four, it's baking soda, dawn dish soap, white vinegar what would be my other one? Probably lemon.

Diana Rene: 11:22 

Lemon. Okay, yeah, interesting. Okay. Three people asked this and I selfishly want to know the answer to, because I have this problem, but we have engineered hardwood floors. I feel like no matter. I've tried three different products for mopping and every single one of them makes the floor slippery. Yeah, is that like user error or is it using? The wrong product or both.

Alissa Schow: 11:54 

I mean, I would say maybe the product, because I know there's a lot that can leave a film. Okay, we have what is it? Lvp luxury vinyl plinking, uh-huh. Yeah, I don't know how similar it is, but I do know that Very similar. Yeah, I use really, really hot water and I just put I don't know, maybe a teaspoon of tide powder. You want the powder, not the liquid. Then I do a splash of bleach. Okay, I feel like that's a winning combination, okay.

Diana Rene: 12:28 

Interesting. I'll try that, though Great. Then another common question was shower grout. This seems to be a very frustrating thing for people.

Alissa Schow: 12:42 

Yes, I get that question a ton too. Yes, Because it gets the little. I mean you see mold, right? Right, I have pretty new bathrooms. I think they're a couple of years old. At this point I still I'll see some black and I'm like where is this coming from, Right? Yeah, Okay, this is my grout cleaner and it works really well. It's baking soda. It's half a cup of baking soda, a quarter cup hydrogen peroxide and then a teaspoon of Dawn. It makes this paste. You mix it all up. Then you can take a little brush and put it on your grout and you just rub it in and let it sit there for at least a half hour. You can go longer. I mean it should get rid of it, especially the black or that orangey slimy stuff that you get in your shower. It works great.

Diana Rene: 13:37 

Okay, that's great to know If somebody has never really been taught how to clean but now they have a home that they're responsible for, obviously with everybody else in the household. What are the biggest or most common mistakes that you see people when they're really learning how to clean a home?

Alissa Schow: 14:00 

I mean, my mom didn't teach me a ton, like we had chores to do, but I wouldn't say I like learned the right way, so I kind of had to figure it out. I would say, try to like focus on kitchens and bathrooms and like knowing, like, what your products are Like. If you have a marble countertop, you're not going to be able to use a lot of cleaners, but if you have forts or like granite, so I would say for sure, understand what the material you're trying to clean and Google is like the most amazing resource ever for that Right. So know what you're trying to clean. And I would say I don't know bedrooms Everyone's in charge of bedrooms like keeping them picked up. And kitchens and bathrooms, those are, like I think, the hardest things. So to get a handle on your kitchen for sure.

Diana Rene: 14:59 

Yeah, okay, that makes sense. I know that I got granite countertops for the first time of my life about a year and a half ago and I was like, oh, I don't know, like I thought I didn't know you had to like even think about different types of cleaning products Right. So I got them and luckily, my contractor told me Uh-huh.

Alissa Schow: 15:21 

Yeah, what did he tell you to clean your granite with?

Diana Rene: 15:24 

He gave me some type of cleaner. I don't, I don't remember the name of it. It's in the kitchen but yeah, it was like a specific granite cleaner, uh-huh. But I wanted it wasn't marble, but it was like a byproduct of marble initially, and he talked me out of it because he said it stains. Yes, so easily.

Alissa Schow: 15:43 

Marble in the kitchen is a nightmare.

Diana Rene: 15:46 

Yeah, I am not the person to have something that would stain. Yeah, I'm not either. Yeah, awesome. Well, um, I know that you know Alisa. I always say her name wrong. Um has never done a podcast before, and so it's been so fun having you on here, because you did great and we do really short and sweet podcasts, but you gave really good, like concrete things that people can go do, like today, um, and so you're probably going to get a lot of people following you and sending you message saying Perfect Thank you, because now I don't have the mold in my shower anymore.

Alissa Schow: 16:23 

Yes, yes, thank you.

Diana Rene: 16:25 

Where can people?

Alissa Schow: 16:26 

find you? Um, I'm at home in chaos on Instagram and I think it comes up without it, but it's home, dot and dot chaos.

Diana Rene: 16:35 

Perfect and then yeah, Awesome. We will also link that in the show notes, as well as her uh schedule for the checklist for cleaning. Um, but definitely go say hi to her and send her a DM. Um, and thank you so much for being on today.

Alissa Schow: 16:50 

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. This was very, very fun Awesome.

Diana Rene: 16:55 

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 Instagram, be sure to follow me at the dot decluttered mom and send me a DM to say hi. 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.