Get your FREE Mrs. Meyer’s Fall Scents Cleaning Pack from Grove Collaborative! Go here for the info.
Pre-order How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind and get the pre-order bonuses by filling out the form here.
How Laundry Day Helps Me Declutter
How Many Socks/Undies/Whatever Do I Need?
–NonyThe post 105 Laundry Routine = Decluttering is Easy Podcast appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.
Laundry Day. Oh, Laundry Day.
How I love thee.
I know it sounds a little (or a LOT) over-dramatic, but seriously, y’all … Laundry Day is the best thing that has happened to me in this whole deslobification process.
It’s 10 a.m. on a Monday morning right now, and the second load is in the dryer. I’m driven to get it all done so I can NOT do laundry for the next six days.
Lest you think I’m some super-organized person who does things perfectly, it’s actually Tuesday morning. When I wrote that, I totally believed in my heart it was Monday since the kids were out of school yesterday and my allergic-to-schedules brain is all off-kilter. And then I remembered I needed to post about an amazing offer so I won’t get to put this up until Wednesday.
Whatever.
I big, puffy-heart love Laundry Day. There are two whole chapters about it in my new book (coming out in LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS). I blather on about exactly how it works even though it seems like it shouldn’t work for people like me, and exactly why all the reasons I resisted it for so long are wrong.
But that’s not what this post is about.
This post is about decluttering. And how Laundry Day helps me declutter.
Pre-Laundry Day, I had no clue how many clothes we had. Or how many we needed. I just knew we were always running out of clean clothes. Always. So I was always buying more.
Buying more meant I could wait longer before I had to do laundry. Waiting longer to do laundry meant the piles were bigger (and were more like mounds than piles). Bigger piles/mounds/monstrosities meant I was more paralyzed and overwhelmed at the thought of doing all that laundry, so I waited. So I thought we didn’t have enough clothes because we kept running out. So I bought more.
The first step of Laundry Day is to sort every last piece of dirty clothing in the entire house into piles. If you are against sorting by color (as some are), sort into random-colored piles the size of your washing machine’s capacity.
One look at the piles on the first Laundry Day was enough to break through my Slob Vision and show me we had too many clothes. Way too many.
I also saw, as I worked through those blankety-blank piles, that we had clothes we would never, ever wear. That at the bottom of our hampers and baskets, never to make it into an emergency load, had been outgrown clothes, doll clothes, and other-and-assorted made-of-fabric stuff.
SEEing our dirty clothes all in one place showed me our excess.
One reason I couldn’t even consider getting rid of clothing was fear of going commando. I had zero confidence whatsoever that I’d find clean clothes when I opened my dresser drawer. Which meant purging clothes never entered my mind as a possibility.
Once Laundry Day became a consistent thing, I was able to relax. I could finally trust that I would have the clean clothes I needed when I needed them.
The best perk I experienced of Laundry Day was that my kids didn’t even realize they were identifying their favorite clothes.
When I got to the point I was truly only washing one week’s worth of clothing (which doesn’t happen on the first Laundry Day), I saw clearly what wasn’t being worn.
Clothes left in drawers aren’t favorites. Favorite clothes, when they’re clean every week, get worn every week.
Decluttering clothing was ridiculously easy when I could see so clearly which clothes my kids chose to wear last. Or didn’t choose at all.
I’d love to hear about the laundry system that works in your house and if it has opened your eyes to Clothing Clutter.
If you have no laundry system, or if you’ve tried unsuccessfully (like I did) to do a load a day, I encourage you to give Laundry Day a shot.
Here’s the podcast I recently recorded with my husband. In it, he talks about how the change in laundry has been one of the biggest and best changes in our home.
If you’re overwhelmed with laundry and/or your home in general, check out my book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. I tackle laundry and everything else home-management-related in that book. Find out what you’ll get as a bonus if you pre-order before the release on November 8th!
The post How Laundry Day Helps Me Declutter appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.
I’m excited to partner with a company that is currently impressing my socks off!
If you love fall scents, don’t miss this amazing deal from Grove Collaborative that’s only available this week (through the 16th)!
Grove Collaborative is a unique company with a passion for household products that are gentle on the environment and gentle on your family. If that is your passion too, they’re an excellent resource for finding tested products in one place at great prices.
You can do one-time orders, or set up a delivery schedule so you never run out of the products you need. I love eliminating stress with subscription services.
When you go to their site, you’ll answer a few questions about your family size and cleaning style, and they’ll suggest products for you. You don’t have to purchase the products they suggest, but it’s a great way to get an idea of the things they offer! Just adjust the numbers of the suggested products if you don’t want them.
Look around at sections like cleaning, personal care and more. If you find $20 worth of things you need (who doesn’t need toilet paper and shampoo and laundry detergent?), you will also receive the Mrs. Meyer’s cleaning products seen in the photo! (Not the apples or cider or bowl. Just the dish soap, cleaning spray, handsoap and towels!)
If you’ve been around a while, you know I have to be VERY careful about what scents I have in my home. I was glad that one of the two choices for this fall special was Apple Cider, which is one of the few scents I can handle. The other scent option for this offer is Mum. Honestly, I was so excited to get new handtowels along with the yummy-smelling soaps! New handtowels always make me happy. And turning old stained ones into rags (the one-in-one-out rule, y’know) makes me happy too!
What you get free, in addition to your $20 order of items completely of your own choosing:
Go here to get this special offer, and check out the many, many natural products they offer.
AND, can you believe they sent me FLOWERS this morning to celebrate me sharing this great offer with you?
In my normal spirit of full disclosure, here’s the before and after of my dining room table. Yay for motivation to clear it (mostly) off! 
Get your free Mrs. Meyer’s products here.
In case you didn’t catch it when I said I’m partnering with Grove Collaborative, I am. That means all the links in this post are my affiliate links. I got a free credit with them and will earn when you use my link. The opinions and sensitive nose and messy dining room table are all mine.
–NonyThe post Mrs. Meyer’s Fall Scents Pack from Grove Collaborative appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.
Mentioned in this podcast:
My soon-to-be-released book: How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind: Dealing With Your House’s Dirty Little Secrets
Enter your pre-order info here and you’ll get 14 Days to Opening Your Home to Guests plus other digital bonuses as soon as they are available!
Podcast on Reality-Based Green Cleaning
–NonyThe post 104 Idealism? Perfectionism? Podcast appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.
One of the most common decluttering questions I hear is: How many (fill in the blank with whatever item they’re currently stressing over) do I need?
It’s a logical question.
I’ve asked it many times in my own home.
Many, many times. How many hangers should I have? How many t-shirts do I need? How many pairs of shoes should I keep? How many boxes of cereal should I buy when our favorite brand goes on sale?
In the past, I’d go through several phases in my quest to find the answer to this common decluttering struggle.
Phase One: Stare into space. Think really, really hard. Come up with nothing.
Phase Two: Try to do math in my head. Number of days when I wear undies (ummm, all the days) times (or divided by?) how often I do laundry minus something-or-other. Give up. Math and I don’t mix.
Phase Three: Get logical and decisive. There’s no such thing as too many undies! Really. Undies are totally necessary things. Why am I even asking myself such a dumb question? (Write undies on a shopping list.)
Phase Four: (weeks later, while pushing on the dresser drawer with my full body weight, unable to close it because of the abundance of undies) Ugh. I have way too many! I have got to figure out how many I should actually keep!
Repeat phases one through four.
That endless cycle didn’t work.
Really, there’s nothing to analyze or figure out.
I can keep the number of socks/undies/t-shirts that will fit in my sock/undies/t-shirt drawers.
Or the number of cereal boxes I can fit on my cereal box shelf. Or the number of hangers that will fit on the bar in my closet. Or the number of shoes that will fit on my shoe shelf.
It’s the Container Concept. No math required.
Here’s a non-hypothetical example:
My dresser drawers had (once again) gotten out of control. How did I know they were out of control? I couldn’t shut them.
Not being able to shut my drawers was the obvious clue my Slob Brain needed to alert me to the face that I had too many t-shirts/socks/undies/whatever.
I love obvious clues (especially ones that used to not be obvious to me at all).
I needed to declutter however many items needed to be removed for the drawers to be able to close. No math needed.
When I looked at it that way, I didn’t have to ask myself how desperate I would need to be to wear that very faded and a-little-stained freebie t-shirt from a fun run I didn’t even participate in back in 2009.
I just knew something had to leave the drawer, so it might as well be the thing I didn’t even like.
I purged (with very little angst) enough stuff to allow me to close the drawers easily.
I even had leftover space.
Leftover space meant that on Laundry Day, when more clothes needed to go in those drawers (clothes I had recently chosen to wear), there was room. When there wasn’t enough room in a certain drawer, I practiced the one in one out rule to make room.
Because that is the answer to the question, “How Many T-Shirts/Shorts/Pairs-of-Undies Do I Need?
I need as many as can fit in the drawer.
Any more than that and the drawer can’t close and my house has no chance of NOT being messy.
Yay for non-math-based answers!!!!
This post is an example of how a mindset change has changed my home. If you are desperate to change your mindset, and you want home management strategies that actually make sense (to us not-naturally-organized types), check out my new book, How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind. The book will be released wherever books are sold on November 8th, so pre-order now. Sign up for pre-order digital bonuses (including 14 Days to Opening Your Front Door to Guests) here.
The post How Many T-Shirts/Shorts/Pairs-of-Undies Do You Need? appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.
Dana/Nony here: I loved this email from Shruti, who lives in India. First of all, I love hearing about life in other parts of the world. But I also love how she applied certain principles about clutter to a home that is run very differently from mine. Clutter can be a problem anywhere.
Dear Dana,I came across your blog a long time back, but the ‘s’ word put me off and I never actually read anything. Last week, I stumbled upon your podcast and I remembered your blog. I have been reading it backwards AND listening to your podcasts (backwards ;)) since I have rediscovered you!I just wrote to say that I can SO RELATE TO WHAT YOU SAY!!!I am a full time quilter, juggling motherhood, being a Brand Ambassador, and eBook author, regional representative for SAQA for India and SE Asia, a quilting instructor, add to it a mix of motherhood (I have only one child – he’s 10 now), the strain of living in a joint family (like millions of Indians do), being the ideal Daughter-in-law to my super awesome parents-in-law and a wife!I have one full time maid (she comes in for 4 HOURS EVERYDAY!- yup, even weekends and holidays!), one part time maid (I can actually hear you gasp now) who comes in for an hour everyday AND a cook who comes in EVERY EVENING to make dinner!We Indians make a lot of fuss over food. So I actually have to cook 2 meals for the entire family (Breakfast & Dinner – which I have delegated). I also make fresh flat bread and rice every day for Lunch! My MIL makes the veggies and the Dal – We have a full meal – lunch & dinner – Flat Bread (Chapati)+ Veggies (usually cooked with some spices and oil) + Rice + Dal (a kind of runny gravy – not very spicy) + salad! And that is a lot of work! Breakfast is where I can get creative.With all my luxuries, how can I relate to you?Well, my house is nowhere the immaculate place that it should be with all the household help that I have! I and my husband actually have fought over the state of the house!I was listening to your podcast about hiring help and ONE SENTENCE made so much difference!You said – the hired help cannot give you a clean house if it is not decluttered! And that struck me! The simplicity of it and yet the immense-ness of it!Thank you for lighting that spark in my brain!!! I have been decluttering like crazy for the past few days! To the point that my son actually started putting away all his toys into his cupboard lest I should get rid of them!I can already see the difference! I declutter ONE shelf every morning before I leave! It takes barely 15 mins and then I do not put everything back, but ask my maid to clean the shelf and put stuff back! I have also started using containers on shelves – that makes it even more simple!!! I have seen so much difference in the last few days! I actually come back to a cleaner home!!! I started with the visible spaces – Living-Dining areas – and the difference is noticeable!We actually share a formal living room with my in-laws and we have our own kitchen! So the dining space and the living space on our floor is combined into an informal area! That’s the first room that anyone who comes to ‘my’ home sees – My in-laws live on the floor below so if the guests aren’t close enough, we do not invite them upstairs!I feel so much better when I come home in the evening!!!Love your blog and your podcast as well as your blogcast!!!Just wanted to say Thank you!Lots of hugs from India!!!Cheers,ShrutiP.S. It is pretty normal for a home in India to have multiple maids coming in everyday. My parents have 3 maids + a watchman just for the 2 of them!
The post Different Culture, Common Struggles appeared first on A Slob Comes Clean.
