Diana 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.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Decluttered Mom podcast. It feels like spring today, and I'm so excited because it's, I mean, it's not spring yet. It should be, but it's not.

Um, March is typically like the snowiest month of the year in Colorado, which now I'm recording this the first week of April. So hopefully we're out of the woods a little bit, but we yesterday it was 70 and sunny. It was really windy, but so that kind of put a damper on things.

But today, again, it's supposed to be like 68 and sunny. Uh, tomorrow we are supposed to have a snowstorm, and then Wednesday it's supposed to be nice and warm and sunny. So I'm hoping that we're like we're starting to have more like nice days in a row.

And so I'm like, oh, this would be so nice. And I will remind myself of this when it's the dead heat of summer and it's like a hundred degrees and I want to crawl into an ice bath.

But for now, like I just I love spring. I love spring and I love fall. And I think it's because I just love the changing of seasons. It feels very like like a time of renewal to me. It feels like kind of like a fresh start, uh, kind of a reset, just like New Year.

And spring just it's just it's so nice. You guys know that. Um, a lot of people really like to do spring cleaning and really like totally clear out their house and make it feel fresh and uh that it's that clean slate, right?

And so I'm just I'm excited that it's starting to get that way. I feel like by the end of winter, I just start getting grumpy. Like, and and and it used to be way worse when I lived in Michigan.

Like I grew up in Michigan. I lived there until I was 23, I think. That's when I moved out to Colorado. And here in Colorado, it's cold in the winter and it snows, but like it'll snow, and then the next day the sun will come out and all the snow will be gone.

Most of the time. This winter's been a little weird. Snow stuck around a lot longer this winter than it ever has in the almost 16 years that I've been here. Uh, so I just it's it's funny, but I'm just I'm ready for spring.

I'm ready for something new. But I've been feeling kind of grumpy with the cold and the I just want spring. I want to wear sandals and I want summer soon. And I want to, you know, have the girls out of school and take them to the pool all the time and stuff like that.

So I'm excited. But in April, um I have my birthday. So I'm not a big birthday person. Like my husband is like a major birthday person, and if we could celebrate his birthday for the entire month, he would be good with that.

And my girls are the same way. I'm just kind of like, meh, it's kind of cool. But I just have never, I've just never really been a big celebrator of my own birthday.

But what I wanted to do today's episode on, again, of course, as always, it's not going to be like a super long thing. I get asked often around Christmas time, and then when people find out it's my birthday on Instagram, they will say, like, what do you ask for for your birthday because you don't like want extra stuff, right?

And and that's true. Like that has definitely shifted for me over the years. And I don't like I'm not like putting an Amazon wish list out for the world to see. Like I, but if somebody asks me, like my mom um or my husband or my kids or my mother-in-law, like if they ask me what I want for my birthday, which they all do, they all ask for ideas uh because I'm kind of a hard person to buy for.

So I have to come up with some ideas every year because it's frustrating for everyone involved that does want ideas if I can't come up with ideas. So I have that's shifted over the years.

Like I used to always say, I want clothes, I want um like jewelry, I would like like it, I just wanted stuff. And sometimes that's true now. Sometimes I still do want stuff that's like going to be helpful for me or my business or anything like that.

But most of the time I think of different types of things. I try to think of things that would be very useful for me, like something that I think about like, oh, I would love if I had that often throughout the day or the week or the month or the year.

I also think about experiences. Uh, that's like a big one for me, or things that can help me in my health. Like I'm getting older.

Um, I turned 39 this year, which is wild to me because okay, tell me if this is anybody else. I still feel like my brain is still stuck at like 16, 17, 18 years old for whatever reason.

Like, I just if I think about if someone's like, oh, how old are you? Like my first thought is not 38. My first thought is like, I still feel stuck as like a teenager. Why is that? Is that weird? Is that abnormal? I don't know.

Like, I've talked to a couple of friends that that feel similarly. Like, they're like, I wonder if it will always be this way. Like you just kind of always feel like you're young, even if you're bodied, even if your body doesn't feel young. I don't know. Is this a thing? I don't know.

Anyway, I don't even know where I was going with that. But basically, I turned 39 this year.

Um, and I like my health is more and more important to me. It should have always been important to me, and on some level, it always has been. But I think I'm just more aware. My so my dad passed away when he was in his late 40s. And I think just knowing I'm almost to 40 and like almost to like the decade that he passed away in in his life.

Um, I think it's just kind of a reminder. I don't know. I don't want to say it's it's not like this thing where I'm like, oh, that's probably when I'll go too. It's just it's it's in my brain as like, hey, you may not live until you're like 90 years old. And so take care of your freaking body, right? Like take care of your body, take care of your brain.

Um, and so I cannot, for the life of me, remember if I have ever talked about this on the podcast before or if I've even done a whole episode.

But I am seeing a functional medicine doctor right now to try and get to the root of uh just a bunch of symptoms, but a lot of inflammation and just things that have been kind of bothering me for years now, but have like escalated in the past year or so. And so I'm just more aware overall of my health.

And so that was a very long explanation to say that like I try to think of gift ideas for things that could help me improve my health. Like for Christmas, I asked for a uh Fitbit. I don't, I've thought about doing an Apple Watch, but I also don't know if I want like everything on my phone accessible to me on my wrist.

I think it'll be, I think I will be just have a harder time breaking like any social media, you know. I don't even is social media even on your Apple Watch. I don't know. But I think I will have a harder time like putting my phone away if I if it's on my wrist, if that makes sense.

Um so I asked for a Fitbit, which I've been wearing, um, because I wanted to be more cognizant of how much I'm just moving throughout the day. Like I I just I can be very sedentary if I don't purposely make myself move.

Um, and that's because five days of the week, my kids are at school and I'm sitting at home and I'm working. So most of that time I'm either like on my couch working on my laptop or at my desk working at my laptop or my phone.

And that's a lot of sitting. Like I'm not like a I don't I don't have a job that uh requires me to be walking around or moving my body. And so I have to be really present to that idea. I have to like encourage myself to walk.

And so I thought that a Fitbit might be helpful because I'm a very competitive person. And I was right.

Um, it has helped me up my activity levels and just I'm not talking about like I'm not like doing some crazy workouts every day. I just walk. I just walk more. Um, and I think that's really good for me, and I think it's good for my body and my anxiety and just um being outside. And so that's been really good for me.

So that's an example. But so when I'm looking at my birthday and I've heard, you know, my mom asked me what I would like for my birthday, and my husband asked what I would like. I wanted to come up with a couple of ideas for them.

And so uh one of the ideas is to have my car detailed. I have wanted to have my car detailed for years, and I always thought it was like this crazy expensive thing to do, and it is expensive.

Like I found someone that comes to your house and does it like in your driveway, and it's I'm blinking on the actual price. I think it was like 160 or something to do the interior, which is the that's what I want is the interior. So, yes, that is expensive, but honestly, like I went to the car wash the other day, and it that was crazy expensive just to go through a car wash.

So uh I was like, you know, this would be amazing.

Um, we don't my my kids don't eat in the car as much as they used to because we live much closer to school. Like a lot of times if they're like, Can I have a snack? I just say no, wait till we're home.

Um, because but they're also six and nine. And so they're not like toddlers that are going to screen their heads off if I don't give them a snack. So I just I feel like now that they are out of like toddlerhood and really messy times, now is the time to get my car detailed and get it like brand new, like all the teeny tiny potential goldfish crumbs that are like somewhere underneath a seat.

Like, I just want it, I want a fresh start inside my car. Um, so that is something I think my mom is just going to just give me money towards it because it is it is pricey, but then that'll be so nice to have done, especially now that it's spring and it's a fresh start, and then I will have my car that um is detailed.

And for those of you who have been around for a while, I don't know if it was last summer or the summer before, but my um, okay, I went to McDonald's, I got two happy meals for my kids. I brought them into the house, they ate them. Yay, all is good. We got sick that night, not from the happy meals.

It was like a respiratory virus, and we ended up being so sick though that we did not, like I did not leave the house for an entire week. My car was in my garage for an entire week.

And when I came out to use my car, I realized that I had left their chocolate milk from their happy meals in the car. And they spoiled, and you guys, spoiled rotten milk smell, you know is terrible, but inside a closed sealed car, they were smell and so hard to get out.

Uh it had spilled a little bit because it had like spoiled and rotted. It, oh my gosh. I can't, you guys, I can't even handle it. Like the seal broke, and so like it like poured, it like dripped out, it didn't pour out, dripped out into the floor.

And I actually contacted someone to see like how like a car detailer, how to get the smell out. And he was like, you just have to really like you have to shampoo it and blah, blah, blah. And he's like, but I'm not gonna lie, like, even doing that is probably not gonna get the smell out, like it's just gonna take time. That's a really tough smell to get out.

And I posted on Instagram, and you guys are the ones who helped me figure out what to do. And I think what ended up finally doing it was putting ground coffee in like an open container underneath the car seats for I think I did it for two weeks every night.

Like I didn't drive around with it because I was worried I would slam on the brakes and it would go everywhere. But I did I had them under the car seat all night long for two weeks.

And then I also got those charcoal filter things that they look like bean bags, um, but they're charcoal, I guess, inside of them. And um, I put those under the seats also and just left them in there full time.

And then I always had my windows down as much as possible, and that's what finally got the smell out. Um, just a pro tip if you ever, if you ever accidentally leave chocolate milk in your car for a week in the summer, then those are the things that I would recommend.

But all that to say, um, that guy was helpful. So I'm going to have him detail my car and I'm really excited about it.

The other things that I am asking for for my birthday are a massage. Um, I would just love to get a massage.

I also am asking to get my like a gift card to get my nails done. I haven't done that in forever.

Um, and that's one of those things I just have a hard time spending my money on, probably because I don't, I don't enjoy the actual experience of having my nails done, but I really like having them done. Like I just feel more put together when I do have them done.

But knowing like that I have to go and sit in a nail swan, that gives me like the smell gives me a headache, and I have to sit there and have someone touching my hands for an hour and a half, like that prevents me from doing it. So sometimes if I have a gift card, then I will go and then I will feel much better and I will just feel more put together and and all will be well.

And side note, PS, I don't expect all of these. I don't expect any of these. I just I like to give several different ideas at several different price points too.

Um, I mean, it's my mom and it's my husband, so I can know like what they are spending. So that helps me. But at the same time, like if I didn't know that, then I like to give different price points, just like we've talked about before.

If you have not listened to the episode about gifts, um please go back and listen to that. We'll put that in the show notes.

Um, but that is all about how to talk to like family members who buy your kids toys all the time and how to talk to them about experience type gifts and how how to make that simple for them and for you. And I talk a lot in there about how it's important to give different price points because you don't want to discourage someone from giving an experienced gift just because it sounds like it's too expensive. So keep that in mind too.

But I just like to give a couple or like a variety of ideas because it's helpful to my mom, it's helpful to my husband to have some things to choose from.

Um, plus, then there's like a tiny bit element of surprise because it's not, you know, they're I'm not just giving them one thing. So all that to say, I don't expect any of this. I don't expect all of it. It's just just ideas.

The other two things that I um put on my list was a rebounder. You guys, have you seen these? I mean, it's a trampoline, that's all it is, but um, they're like small trampolines.

Um, the one I want has like a handle on it, so because I have terrible balance at times, but it's a way to again move your body. So I'm excited about this. I honestly like I only found out about this because of TikTok, like, which is like 90% of the things, the way I find out about things.

There are apparently a lot of really cool rebounder, like dance type workout things on YouTube. And um, I see some people just do it while watching TV, and you just like you literally just bounce on this like small trampoline, but it's supposed to have a lot of health benefits, and I'm not, I don't really know everything about that.

I just know that it's a really good way, and it looks kind of like an easy, simple way to be able to move my body more. So that's um that.

And then the last thing is any Broadway tickets. So um last year I had a season, uh, I think they call it subscriber, basically like season tickets to Broadway shows um at the Denver Center of Performing Arts.

And it was wonderful, it was so amazing. I really, really, really love live theater like that. Uh and and I just don't, I never go.

And so the this subscriber thing was really nice. However, I just I didn't go to a lot of them because I was sick or I was home with sick kids, or uh just, you know, things came up like weather, like there's a blizzard one time.

And so it was hard. But I really there are several shows that are coming this year that I really, really, really want to see. The Book of Mormon is probably the top of my list.

So that again, I put on the list because it's just something that I really enjoy doing, and and it's an experience, right?

So everything here is either an experience or something that's going to be helpful.

Car detailing is going to just be helpful in my daily life, right? It's not adding stuff into my life.

Broadway ticks uh is an experience. It's gonna be a fun thing that I can go with my husband or a friend, and it's an experience that I will love and think about forever because I when I go to a Broadway show, I am like so sucked in that like that's all I can think about for the next week.

And I feel like I know, I feel like I know the actors and like their character and everything. I just I get so into it.

Um, the rebounder is a physical item, but it is something that I think will help me in my goals with just being an overall healthier person.

And then the massage and massage is an experience, but also good for my well-being.

And nails is not good for my well-being. Well, maybe, right? Like I feel more put together when I have them. So it could be, but um, it's not adding more things to my life. It's it's really an experience.

So I hope this was helpful for you. I don't know if it was, but I just thought it would be kind of cool to walk through my thought process on if someone's like, hey, I need a gift idea, please give me a gift idea, how I think about that, instead of being like, oh, here's this list of like stuff from Amazon that is going to become junk in two months.

So I hope this was helpful. I will see you next week uh for the next episode.

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.

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I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.