organized with joy

IF IT FEELS LIKE A NO, LET IT GO!

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about a quote I recently heard from Joshua Fields Milburn. If you don’t know who he is, he is one of the two men who make up the content creators, The Minimalists. They have a podcast, YouTube channel, and they even have a documentary on Netflix. I have been following these guys for several years as inspiration on my journey towards pursuing minimalism. Recently in one of their podcasts, Joshua said something that I think is actually a catchphrase that he says often, “If it feels like a no, let it go!” I am sure I have heard him say this before, but on this day it just hit differently.

This may sound a bit dramatic, but I feel like for whatever reason when I heard this phrase on this day, it was a breakthrough moment for me. So often with my things I have looked at items and think that I don’t love it, but I like to have it around for an option. I especially struggle with clothes and home decor in this way. But as I began looking around my home, I started noticing a lot of “no’s.” There were several things that I was just holding onto to fill up a space or just in case. I have even said to clients before that “just in case” is a dangerous saying when it comes to making progress in decluttering. If I truly want to get to the place where I am managing less things, I have to quit saying “just in case” and I have to start saying “if it feels like a no, let it go!”

There is this cactus print I had in my bathroom for the longest time and it is a great example. It is something that I don’t really love anymore, but I was just keeping it to fill the space. I realized that it is okay to have spaces more simplified, and that is actually what has been more appealing to me lately. I purchased that print several years ago and I have displayed it in different places around my home. I’m beginning to realize that it’s okay for my tastes and style to change. Something I purchased 5 or 6 years ago may just not really be my style anymore. I am also realizing that if I purchased something and a year later decided I don’t really like it, that is okay too! It was not necessarily a waste, because that item taught me something. It taught me more about what my style is, or maybe it taught me to be more intentional and cautious when I make purchases.

Now suddenly as I am walking around my house I am seeing a lot of things that “feel like a no.” I was joking in one of my recent YouTube videos how I could have anything left to declutter, but the reality is over time I am just building my decluttering muscles and learning what actually is important to me! In addition to that, I have now been married for over 27 years and we have three kids, and had two dogs – and that is a lot of years of accumulation. So, it will likely take a lot of years of decluttering.

Over time I have learned that the decluttering process is kind of like an onion, the more layers you peel away the more is revealed. You don’t truly know how much stuff you have until you begin that process of hard core decluttering. The more layers you peel away, the more you learn to let go, and the more you realize what is truly important to you – what you really want to spend time caring for, cleaning, storing, and organizing.

I think more than anything, as I age I realize that relationships and experiences are so much more valuable than stuff! The more stuff I own, the more time it takes away from relationships and time and energy for experiences as I have to take care of that stuff. Slowly but surely I’m getting there! Well friends, I hope what I shared was inspirational or encouraging to you today. I always love hearing from you in the comments, so I would love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post!

8 TIPS TO KEEP YOUR PANTRY ORGANIZED

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I wanted to share some tips with you on how to keep your pantry organized. I was having a conversation with some friends on Marco Polo where we were all talking about our pantries and what works for us and what doesn’t and it inspired me to share these tips with you!

My first tip is to have bins and containers with broad category labels to store your food. Storing food according to like categories is a great way to easily find what you need in your pantry. When you choose broad labels it makes it more flexible if you’re not purchasing the exact same things every week. These bins act as drawers in your pantry making it easier to keep things contained. It’s also a more efficient use of space to take things out of the original boxes or packaging to make your pantry more streamlined. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to achieve this look. You could use bins from around your home, or even cardboard boxes to contain things. Honestly, there are a lot of affordable bin options out there these days, including the white bins I have in my pantry (pictured below). I purchased them from The Container Store and these are the large and medium sizes, costing $6.99 and $4.99 respectively.

My second tip is to invest in uniform bins if you can. Having uniform bins will not only fit more efficiently, but will also make your pantry look more aesthetically pleasing. You might notice in my pantry I have a few different styles for different types of food. I like using the white bins to store broad categories of food, the plastic storage boxes with the white lids for snacks and other categories we are getting in and out of regularly or taking with us to different rooms, and the glass jars are great for staple dry goods such as rice, pasta, and quinoa. I really love those glass jars for storing baking items as well, which I don’t store in this pantry.

With all that said, tip number three is to only purchase containers if you have the time and are willing to decant your food. It will be more disorganized if you have the containers and packaging in your pantry. I actually find it very cathartic to decant my food, so I really enjoy it, but I know it’s not for everyone.

My fourth tip is to spend time regularly tidying your pantry. I usually give our pantry a little tidy each week when I pick up groceries and decant all of the food I purchased. Even though my family members know the system I have in place, they don’t always put the snack boxes back exactly where I would, so I take that time to just put everything back where I like it. I also like to take everything out every three months or so to wipe everything down in order to get it clean and back in shape!

Another tip I have is to inform your family of your pantry system. Like I mentioned, my family knows the general system I have set up for our pantry. If family members know the basic system, they can help stay on top of putting things where they belong making it a more effective system. You could add labels to the bins to make this easier for family members, and I find labels also aesthetically pleasing.

The sixth tip I have is to use the back of the pantry which is more difficult to get to for back stock. This is obviously for those of you who have a deeper pantry like I do. If you don’t have a deep pantry, maybe there is another space in your home where you can store back stock. In addition to storing things in the back of our pantry, we also have a secondary pantry where I store things that have a longer shelf life that I can purchase at Costco.

Another tip I have is when decanting your food, dump out old product into a dish before adding the new product to the container so it can be on top and used up first. Whenever I’m decanting dry goods into a jar or storage container, I like to be sure the older product is on top so it gets used before the newer product. When decanting liquids, I only add more into the uniform bottle if I’m adding from an already opened product. Once that product is gone, I use it up fully then wash out the uniform bottle with soap and water before opening a new product and adding it.

The eighth and final tip I have to share is to be realistic about the space you have for food and intentional with only purchasing what you can store. If you don’t have a deep pantry, or a secondary pantry, you will not be able to keep a lot of back stock on hand. The less space you have means the less food you will be able to have on hand. Being realistic about your space boundaries for food will help you to not have a cluttered pantry, which will make it easier to keep organized.

Well friends, I hope these tips helped you today! I love hearing from you in the comments, so share any tips you have to keep your pantry organized!

This is the video I shared in conjunction with this blog post if you would like to check it out!

5 THINGS MINIMALISTS DON’T TALK ABOUT

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For today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about something I was wrestling with and thinking about during the process of decluttering old fall decor, and adding in the new pieces this year. If you missed it, on Tuesday I shared a video on my YouTube channel with my fall haul and old fall decor declutter. But I wanted to share with you what was going on behind the scenes in my mind. It did take me several days processing with friends and evaluating my reasoning behind why I decided to purchase new fall decor before I felt confident in my decisions.

If you have been reading my blog posts for a while, I am sure you have heard me talk about how I have been pursuing minimalism for several years now. As I processed through my decision to add new fall decor this year, I thought of 5 things most minimalists don’t talk about. I wanted to share these with you if you are on your own journey to become more minimal, or just on a decluttering journey. 

The first thing I wanted to share is that minimalism looks different for everyone. As a matter of fact, I wrote a blog post about this very topic. Because minimalism doesn’t have hard and fast rules, it can be difficult for me to navigate becoming more minimal. To be honest, I am the type of person who works better under rules, but I do appreciate the fluidity of minimalism. Everyone is in a different life stage, requiring different things. Everyone has different passions and hobbies, and different things are important to them. For me, I love making our home cozy and inviting. I do that with home decor, pillows, blankets, and art.

The second thing I wanted to share is you don’t stop purchasing things altogether when you are pursuing minimalism. One of the most difficult things for me is making decisions on bringing new pieces into my home. I like to be very intentional about what comes into my home, so I know I tend to overthink and overanalyze every purchase. It makes it difficult for me to make decisions, and I often feel guilty when I buy something new. But, I know logically that this is not healthy. I don’t think when you begin to pursue minimalism that means you will never buy anything again. That’s just not practical. For me, since home decor and styling is a passion and hobby of mine, that means I will be removing old decor that I don’t love as much as I once used to and replacing it with new items.

The third thing most minimalists don’t talk about is how decluttering is an ongoing process. Like I mentioned, there will most likely be new items coming into your home regularly. I am sure there are a small percentage of minimalists who purchase nothing new, but for most decluttering is just a part of the process. This is why you will see a monthly declutter with me video on my YouTube channel where I share everything I decluttered for that month. Decluttering is an ongoing habit I have incorporated into my routines. This is how I can keep our home minimal.

The fourth thing I wanted to share is that pursuing minimalism helps you to be more honest with yourself when evaluating your purchases. When I first started pursuing minimalism, I didn’t realize how this would cause me to be really cautious about the items I purchase. One of the things I spoke with a friend about regarding my new fall purchases was the idea that I might just be doing this for content and would I do this even if I didn’t have a YouTube channel. She wisely encouraged me, even if I was doing it for content, that would be okay! It is my job after all, and creation is part of the job! Even if that didn’t bring me solace, ultimately I do think I would have still replaced my old decor even if I wasn’t sharing it on YouTube. I am hyper aware of sharing on YouTube in an authentic way, while still creating aesthetically pleasing content.

The fifth and final thing minimalists don’t talk about is the struggle to remain balanced. It can be a challenge to fight against consumerism. Many people in Western culture buy new home decor every season! I think this is why I overanalyze my purchases. I wonder if I’m getting sucked back into consumerism, or if I am truly being thoughtful and intentional with my purchases. It can be difficult to remain disciplined about what you bring into your home. I think most minimalists don’t talk about how difficult it is! I hope one day I can get to the place where I’m confident in the balance.

I do find it a little comical in hindsight that I was feeling bad about replacing fall decor that I have now owned for almost 20 years! I remember purchasing a good portion of that decor when my son was a baby, and now next month he turns 20! So, I think it’s okay to replace it!

PARENTING ADULT CHILDREN + DROPPING KIDS OFF AT COLLEGE

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For today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about having adult children and dropping off kids at college. It is that time of year when some of us are saying goodbye to our kids, and I know that some of you out there are doing it for the first time! I honestly feel like not many moms with older children talk about the challenges, differences, and amazing things about having adult children. I’m not sure why we don’t talk about it. Perhaps it’s because we don’t know how to express the feelings you go through when launching an adult child, but I’m going to give it a shot today!

Obviously the most difficult part of adult children going off to college or moving out is that you miss them. I really don’t think that feeling ever goes away. You just learn a new way of life without them in your day to day life. I think I will always feel like a part of my heart is walking around out in the world without me.

In addition to missing them, you also miss the family dynamic when everyone is together. There is definitely a different dynamic when one or all of your kids move out of the house. It can be challenging to recalibrate after they leave and find a new family rhythm.

Probably one of the most difficult things for me as a mom of young adult children is letting go of control. Even though we did give our kids freedom, especially as they entered into the high school years, we still had some control over their lives and decisions. It can be challenging to allow them to make their own decisions. It’s a balancing act trying to learn how to give them advice and counsel without being too pushy. It also can be difficult to allow them to make mistakes and allow them to just learn on their own – which is just part of adult life!

Similar to letting go of control is letting them be who they are. I’m not sure how other moms felt when holding their newborn infant, but I can imagine many felt like me – holding hopes and dreams for this little baby’s future. It’s hard to not have expectations for your kids, but I learned to hold them loosely. You may want a mini me, or perhaps you want to live vicariously through your children and want them to have a totally different life than you had, either way it’s not healthy to have expectations of them. We have to allow them to be who they are and allow them to work through the process of discovering themselves. Many young adults in their early to mid twenties go through a process of figuring out who they are separate from their parents or family of origin. They may question family values or morals. Know that this is completely normal! While sometimes not easy to watch, you must tell yourself that you did the best you knew how in the moment to raise your kids well, and now it’s time for them to fly.

One thing I think parents with older kids don’t want to talk about is the idea: little kids, little problems, big kids, big problems. I don’t want to minimize the experience that mamas with littles have, because I remember how overwhelming and heavy it felt raising littles, but the reality is life is more complicated with adult children. I have told people before that every stage does not get easier, it gets different. And I guess that is the only way I can explain it. There are pros and cons to every stage of parenting. 

Something else I don’t think a lot of parents of adult children talk about is the fact that you actually go through the grief process when your kids go off to college or move out of the house. It is grieving the loss of what once was. It is grieving the loss of the parent/child relationship as you knew it. It is grieving the loss of the family dynamic you had when they were growing up. Some people don’t realize that you have to go through the stages of grief. Losing someone to death or divorce is not the only type of  loss. It can almost be more difficult when it’s this kind of loss, when your kids move out, because it’s not acknowledged as much as a death or divorce loss. It could also be the death of a dream you had for your child as they may not have the life you envisioned for them.

One thing that I think is particularly hard for moms who stayed at home is shifting your purpose. When the kids were young, life felt very purposeful and straightforward. As your kids get older you have to shift your purpose and find other things that can bring joy and meaning to your life! For me, I took a part time job when my youngest went to middle school, and then started my own business as a professional organizer when my youngest entered high school. Now I have shifted again and enjoy sharing creative content on Instagram and YouTube as well as writing blogs for my website. I still enjoy taking care of my family and helping where needed, it’s just I am needed less now that they are older and more independent. 

Something else that parents of adult children don’t talk about, because it is hard to explain, is the simultaneous sadness and joy you experience as you drop them off at college. You are so excited for them and for this life stage, but also really sad because it feels like you’re losing them. There aren’t really words to explain how this feels. It seems like such a juxtaposition, but you can have both happy and sad feelings at the same time, and it’s never truer than in that moment!

Okay, I feel like most of this talk seems like there are a lot of negative, hard, and emotional things about having adult children. But, I have to tell you: having adult children is amazing. It is so cool to have conversations with these humans who you watched grow. You have these built in friends, and it’s amazing to hear their thoughts and perspectives on things in life! Sometimes I will have a conversation with one of my kids and just think: wow, this human is so cool!

The other huge advantage to having adult children is the freedom and more margin in life that it brings. Now I can hardly imagine the fast-paced life that I lived when my kids were younger. I truly appreciate the slower pace of life this season has brought. It helps me to be more present in everyday moments. Just this morning on my run, I was appreciating the moment: thanking God for my health, the ability for my legs to run, my heart to pump blood, my lungs to send oxygen. I remember those busy days of raising kids – I felt like my mind was always thinking about the next thing I had to do and it was much more difficult to remain present in the moment.

Lastly, I will tell you, at least for me – you will never quit seeing their sweet baby or toddler face when you look at them. I hold those precious memories close to my heart when I look at them. I will leave you with a Bible verse that has been really comforting to me in seasons of change: Ecclesiastes 3:1 “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

Well, I hope you enjoyed what I shared today. I hope it was encouraging, or at least for mamas with littles gives you insight into your future hearing from a mom with adult kids!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

THOUGHTS ON PERSPECTIVE

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about perspective. The other day I saw a post from a friend on Instagram and it said something along the lines of: perspective is realizing that your worst day may be someone else’s best day. I did share a Reel over on Instagram talking about this, but I wanted to share in more detail about this topic.

When I saw that Instagram post, I had just returned from a trip to Indiana to visit my family to celebrate my Mom’s birthday. On the way home, there was a technical issue with our plane, ultimately causing the airline to cancel the flight and everyone on the flight had to rebook. Rebooking a flight isn’t fun, but my next flight wasn’t leaving until evening when my first flight was supposed to leave at 12:30 in the afternoon, meaning I had to sit in the tiny Fort Wayne, Indiana airport for more than 8 hours. My rebooked flight got delayed and it looked like I was going to miss my connecting flight in Chicago. Luckily when I landed in Chicago, I realized that flight was delayed as well and by running through the Chicago airport I was able to make the connecting flight! The fun didn’t end there though. We were supposed to land in Austin at midnight, but arrived a bit early only to learn there were three other planes ahead of us waiting to unload! Some of them had been waiting for up to three hours! So, we sat at the Austin airport for another hour and a half and I was finally able to get off the plane around 1:30 in the morning!

My mom with her five daughters celebrating her birthday!

It was a rough day no doubt, but earlier on in the day I noticed a family with two young kids and realized maybe it wasn’t so bad that I had to sit in an airport by myself and entertain myself. I also spoke with a fellow passenger who had been awake for 24 hours and had been dealing with delays and cancellations all day! So, it could be worse for me.

Something I thought of when I read my friend’s post was how lucky I am to be able to fly back to visit family. Not everyone has this privilege. I was still thankful for the time I got to spend with family in spite of my adventure to get home!

Admittedly there are times that it can be difficult to have perspective. Life can be challenging and throw us curve balls, which can be hard to navigate. Everyone experiences things in a different way, so I don’t want to invalidate anyone’s experiences but rather just highlight the complexity of human perception. We all have different experiences in life, as well as cultural and social upbringings which contribute to our perspectives. Today I just want to challenge you to be aware of these differences, perhaps helping you see the silver linings in your own life.

Another thing I was thinking about this week with regard to perspective relates to life stage. I did try my best to be present in each life stage, however I know during those growing years, when we were adding to our family, moving into homes, and raising growing children, it was hard to not look to the next phase in life longingly. There is that temptation to think it is the next phase in life that will bring joy or peace. Now having gone through many of life’s stages, I can assure you that this never happens. It’s when we lean into the moment we are in NOW that we begin to feel the joy and peace we are looking for. 

I love this candid photo! It reminds me of how crazy, yet full our lives were raising three young kids!

Today, as I write this, I went downtown Austin to run on the hike and bike trail before picking up my son’s college apartment key. I used to run on this trail regularly when my husband was a grad student at UT and we lived close to this trail. Every time I run on it I can’t help but think back to the days when I was pushing a jogging stroller on that trail, or pushing the jogging stroller while pregnant on that trail, or pushing a double jogging stroller! I do remember some of those days being difficult and long, but yet I have such fond memories of that time in life. I don’t think I had the perspective I have today to fully enjoy those moments and that kind of makes me sad. I drove past those apartments and it made me smile and reminded me to enjoy the moments I am in NOW. Every stage of life will have easy things and hard things about them. When we accept that, we can like I mentioned earlier lean into all the moments and just BE in them.

My son and I feeding the ducks at the hike and bike trail. I was pregnant with our third child in this photo!

I hope what I’ve shared today in some way encourages or inspires you! I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts on the topic of perspective!

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this post!

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING CONSISTENT

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post, I wanted to talk about consistency. I really believe that one of the most important virtues for success in life is consistency. This applies to almost any area in life. Whether it’s relationships, health and fitness, hobbies, or positive habits.

First I wanted to talk about how consistency is important in relationships. Relationships don’t grow organically. We must be intentional about spending time with those we love. We must show up consistently to foster those close knit relationships. Also when we consistently follow through on promises, meet deadlines, and maintain our commitments, we gain the confidence of others. People are more likely to trust us when we exhibit dependable behavior, which leads to strong relationships both personally and professionally.

In addition to being important in relationships, consistency is a great pathway to mastery. In any hobby or professional related endeavor, the best way to get better or to master something is consistently practicing it. Have you ever played an instrument? If so, you know the importance of consistently practicing to get better or to master it! 

Consistency also helps us to overcome adversity in life. Life does not always go smoothly or the way we plan, and challenges are inevitable. Consistency equips us with the resilience to deal with the difficulties of life. When we are consistent, setbacks become opportunities for growth and learning. The ability to remain focused on the long-term goal, despite temporary setbacks, helps in overcoming obstacles and achieving success.

Consistency is important for developing healthy habits. Consistency is the best way to have success in any healthy habit – whether it’s eating healthy, exercising, a good skin care routine, or healthy sleeping habits. If we want to see change, we must day in and day out continue to be consistent.

Along those same lines, consistency works far better than perfection when we are trying to make a lasting change. We will all have days or even weeks where we don’t remain consistent with something we have committed to. Maybe it’s a sickness, or a family emergency, or even going on vacation that causes us to not follow through on our commitments. We can’t allow these things to derail our progress or derail the momentum we have. If something in life causes us to fall away from our routine of consistency, we must get back to it as soon as we can! 

Something else I wanted to share is that consistency inspires others towards remaining loyal and dedicated. Our dedication and tenacity towards something can be an encouragement or inspiration to others around us. When they see our unwavering determination it can inspire them to follow suit and pursue their own goals in life. Consistency can set a positive example to our children and others who look up to us, but even to our peers, colleagues, or family members. We can foster a culture of growth mindset for those who are in our lives!

Ultimately if we want long term, sustainable success, we must be willing to be consistent. In this time of distractions and instant gratification, consistency can be the compass that helps keep us pointed in the right direction. It’s the steady progress over time that leads us to long term success. When we are consistent in our pursuits in life, we are more likely to reach our goals and maintain a healthy balance in life. It’s not easy to remain consistent in life, but when we do we will begin to see lasting changes.

Here is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this post!

FOCUS ON YOUR HEART!

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday I wanted to share a quote that my friend Jo shared with me. Jo also has a YouTube channel, Minimal Zebra! This quote is from Mother Theresa and it says, 

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you, be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

It can be challenging to deal with people who are unreasonable and self-centered. Oftentimes this behavior is a result of internal struggles the person is going through. When we recognize that people who are unreasonable and self-centered are likely going through or have gone through really difficult things, it can make it easier to have compassion on them and forgive them.

One thing I have learned from having a presence on social media, well and really just in life in general, is that people may misunderstand you. This is something that is really difficult for me as a people pleaser. But I am learning to realize that all that really matters is what is in your heart. People will interpret your actions and words however they want, but they don’t know what is in your heart. All we can do is focus on being the best we can be – a kind, caring, compassionate, and loving person. Also recognizing that we will make mistakes and we won’t always be perfectly kind, caring, compassionate or loving. But all we can do is our best. I’m learning to focus on the internal more than the external, because behavior, if even seemingly good on the outside, doesn’t always reveal true heart motives.

People often misunderstand you when they don’t know you well. Either acquaintances in your real life, or people seeing your content online. They don’t know what your life is really like. They don’t know what you endure day in and day out, especially if you are going through things that you don’t share openly about on social media. You know your heart and your motives, so if those are right you have nothing to worry about!

Ultimately we are only responsible for ourselves. Our behavior, our motives, our thoughts. We can’t control what others do, say, or think. In my opinion, it is better to live in such a way that we do the best we can do each day. “Give the world the best we have” as Mother Theresa says. It might not be “enough” by the world’s standards, but when you know you gave it your all, then you can sleep well at night. When you live with integrity, you have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. And when you do make a mistake and don’t live in such a way that you are proud of, then you make a different choice tomorrow!

As someone who is a people pleaser, or like I like to call myself a recovering people pleaser,  it can be easy to get wrapped up in trying to convince people you are a good person. I’m realizing this is a complete waste of energy. We must put our energy into BEING a good person and let the chips fall where they may so to speak. As Mother Theresa so wisely pointed out: “it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

It is not always easy to do, but focusing on your own life, your own happiness, and your own goals without worrying about others’ opinion of you is the healthiest way to live!

This is the YouTube video I shared in conjunction with this blog post.

7 TIME WASTERS

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to share with you ways that we can waste our time. Especially if you are a homemaker, it can be easy to fall into these habits of wasting time. I hope by sharing these 7 time wasters with you, I can encourage you to be more efficient in your day, giving you more margin to do the things you love!

The first time waster is inefficiency in chores, responsibilities, or activities. I have found it really helpful to batch activities for efficiency. Running errands is a perfect example. It makes more sense to run all of your errands at once while you are already out and about then to do them throughout the week. This is especially true if you don’t live close to stores. Another example is checking your email or other notifications on your phone. Set aside times during the day when you will check email and other notifications to respond to emails or social media comments at the same time. It can be a big time waster to continually open your phone to respond to things like this throughout the day. Included in this is even batching your rest time! I personally have found it really helpful to have one day a week where I do not do any work!

The second time waster I wanted to share with you is the amount of time we spend choosing our clothes for the day. Now, if you’ve been around for a while, you will not hear me tell you to become a minimalist and wear black t-shirts everyday! That is not my style at all. I love having lots of options and being able to creatively put together outfits. However, I did want to suggest having a uniform. I do like to wear a uniform. In the summer I wear shorts with a t-shirt or button up, and in the winter I wear jeans with a t-shirt, button up and layer with cardigans and sweaters. I will say, more recently I am rotating in some dresses and skirts as I have been trying to wear everything in my closet. I am really enjoying adding these pieces into the rotation! And of course there are some days where I just stay in my workout clothes all day! Having a uniform cuts down on the time it takes to make that daily decision, and it prevents decision fatigue. 

The next time waster is trying to remember everything that needs to get done. I absolutely love lists! Having daily to-do lists helps me to get these things that need to get done out of my brain and onto paper. You could use digital to do lists if that is your preference, I just love writing things down with pen and paper! In addition to daily to-do lists, I would also suggest keeping a running master to-list – everything that needs to get done at some point but you’re not necessarily going to do it today. You can reference this master to-do list as you are making your daily or weekly to-do lists to incorporate these tasks throughout your week. Again, just getting these tasks down on paper relieves your brain from having to remember them!

Similar to that, we waste time trying to remember all the appointments and where everyone needs to go. I would recommend keeping a calendar – either a physical calendar, a digital one, or like me you could use both. When my kids were younger, I liked to color code my calendars with a color for each person so it was easy to know who had activities or appointments for each day. You could also color code the activities. Perhaps errands could be one color, chores another, and desk work another color.

The fifth time waster I wanted to share with you is trying to figure out when to do what needs to get done. This would be more so for chores or tasks that need to get done each day or each week. I like to have a regular schedule of when I get my basic chores and errands done so I don’t need to waste time thinking about when I will get each task done. Each week I have set aside time to get these chores done. I find that it works best to do two to three chores each day of the week and then you don’t need to worry about it for the remainder of the week. For example, every Monday I do our laundry; every Tuesday I give our kitchen a deeper clean; every Wednesday I pick up our groceries. By having the same schedule each week, I don’t have to waste time thinking about when these tasks will fit into my schedule for the week. 

Along those same lines, we may waste time by not having a regular sleep schedule. When our sleep schedule is unpredictable, we won’t know how much time we will have each day to accomplish our to-do lists. Studies have shown that it is far more healthy to stick to a regular bedtime and wake up time. Yes, even on the weekends! When we have a regular sleep routine, not only is it a healthier way to live, but it also allows us to be more efficient in our work. We are also less likely to feel tired when we keep a regular sleep schedule and so we are able to get our work done!

The last time waster is an obvious one, and I know it’s a tough one as I myself struggle with this… we waste time on mindless entertainment – either scrolling social media, or watching Netflix or YouTube. I understand that these things are a part of our lives, but I wanted to encourage you to unplug from time to time. Ideally we would come up with appropriate boundaries for ourselves on how much and how often we engage in this entertainment. I think we could all stand to cut back on our social media usage and tv watching, ME INCLUDED! I used to not open any of the social media apps on my phone on Sundays as a part of my rest day, but slowly it crept back in. Not to scroll, just to keep up with chats, DMs, and notifications. However I really think it would do me good personally to get back to the habit of not looking at social media at all for that one day a week.

The video I posted on my YouTube channel in conjunction with this blog post.

10 MINDSETS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU DECLUTTER

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Hey friends, today for my Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to share with you some thoughts about decluttering. I know I have talked about decluttering quite a bit on my social media platforms. I have shown the process of decluttering, what I’m decluttering, and why I am decluttering items. But today I wanted to share with you mindsets that will change the way you declutter. Hopefully by sharing these mindsets it will give you a new perspective as you move forward in your decluttering journey. Today I am sharing 10 mindset shifts to help you declutter better!

The first thing I wanted to share with you is to have a positive perspective versus negative. Oftentimes when we approach decluttering we can feel like it is a negative thing: it’s difficult, time consuming, and maybe even tiring both physically and emotionally. When we have this mindset shift that decluttering is a positive thing, moving us towards our life goals, helping us deal with anxiety or other mental health issues, and making our external environment one we love to live in, we will be excited to start the process of decluttering.

Along those lines, another mindset shift around decluttering is to focus on what you are working towards. What is the end result you want? When you create a vision for your life and have that picture in your mind it can spur you on to take the necessary steps to achieve that life you are working towards.

The third mindset shift I wanted to share is to focus on what stays instead of what goes. Sometimes it can be helpful to choose the items you love and know you use regularly and set those aside first. Then you can evaluate what is left. I have done this with clothing for instance where I choose my top favorites, then evaluate if I really need to keep what is leftover. When we focus on what is staying it can help us to appreciate what we have and have an abundance mindset versus a mindset of lack.

Another mindset shift that is similar to that is to think of decluttering as curating. You are curating your collections – anything from clothes to kitchen items. When we think of curation, we may think of a museum. Museum curators are intentional and thoughtful about what they bring in. So much like this curating, it is an intentional process of only surrounding yourself with the things you love and use and removing everything else so it’s easier to enjoy the items you own.

The fifth mindset I wanted to share with you is to focus on the inflow as well as the outflow. Sometimes we don’t realize how important it is to change our spending habits as we work towards decluttering our homes. If we don’t change the inflow, then we will quickly come back to square one and the decluttering progress we made will have made little difference. Sometimes we must be ruthless with ourselves and implement a spending freeze or a no buy period in order to change our habits.

Another mindset shift is realizing you do not equal your stuff. Your value is not in the clothes you wear, the car you drive, or the stuff you own. Finding our value in something more important like in our faith, in our ethics, or in the way we live our lives makes more sense. If we find our value in our stuff, this is a very unpredictable thing to put our value in as we could lose our stuff or lose our jobs and not be able to continue to buy more items.

Something else I wanted to remind you of is having the mindset that the money is long gone. You cannot get your money back after you have purchased and then used an item. Some people find it difficult to declutter because of the money they spent on an item. If an item is sitting in the back of a drawer or cabinet going unused for years, it does not help us financially to hold onto it. Let go of the guilt you may have for spending money on items and then make better decisions moving forward in the future.

Speaking of guilt, let go of all of the guilt around getting rid of items. Whether it is guilt over spending money on the item, or maybe it was a gift given to you and you feel bad getting rid of it, or perhaps it’s something you inherited. If the item is no longer serving you, let go of the guilt and let go of the item.

The ninth mindset change I wanted to share that is adjacent to the feelings of guilt is that memories are not stored in things. You can have memories of a certain time in life, or of a person without holding onto items. Sometimes it can help to take a photo of something if you are struggling to let go because you have memories attached to the item. I do recognize that sometimes tangible things can spark our memory of a time or person, but ultimately the item itself does not hold the memory. The memory is in your mind!

Lastly, I wanted to share that decluttering doesn’t have to be a sprint. In spite of what Marie Kondo told us, we do not have to declutter our whole house in one day! I understand that different decluttering processes work for different people, but sometimes this mindset that we have to declutter all at once or set aside a big chunk of time to get decluttering done prevents us from getting started in the first place. If we have the mindset that we can do a little at a time it will feel more manageable. Oftentimes once you get started the ball starts rolling and you want to continue on, but you can have the mindset that it can be a slow and steady process!

DEBUNKING THE BUSYNESS CULTURE

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Okay friends, for today’s Thoughtful Thursday post I wanted to talk about the culture of busyness. I have often talked about living intentionally, and part of that is living at a slower pace – spending time on the things I love and the things that are important to me, and cutting out the things that just keep me busy.

In today’s fast-paced world, many people are proud of how busy they are. They may believe this busyness is a sign of importance or productivity. Today I wanted to challenge this glorification of busyness and the idea that constant activity is synonymous with success and/or fulfillment. I wanted to debunk this idea that busyness is always positive by sharing the detrimental effects it can have on our mental well-being, relationships, and overall quality of life.

Ryan Holiday, an author and content creator has said this: “Whenever you say ‘yes’ to something, you’re saying ‘no’ to something else.” We all make decisions on how to spend our time. And we all have a finite amount of time. If we say yes to lots of things, then we may be forfeiting time to rest and rejuvenate. 

One of the primary things I wanted to talk about is this assumption that being busy equates to productivity. The reality is, busyness often leads to inefficiency and burnout. When we have a lot on our plates, our ability to focus on and prioritize tasks diminishes. This affects our productivity and our quality of work. Being busy is different from being productive, and I think people often don’t realize this.

Something else I wanted to address is the effect constant busyness has on our mental well being. The constant pursuit of busyness can over time take a toll on our mental health. Having nonstop obligations leave little room for rest, relaxation, and self-care. All things that I think can be undervalued. This can lead to stress and anxiety which causes emotional exhaustion. Rest and relaxation are not a negative thing, these are not things to be viewed as being lazy, but instead as part of a healthy lifestyle. Scheduling in times of rest prevents you from being lazy by making a plan in your schedule for rest AND for work. When we give our brains, bodies, and emotions time to rest and rejuvenate, we are more likely to be productive when we are working. If you think about athletes training, they schedule in time to allow their bodies to rest for their muscles to recover. Our brains are no different, and need time to recover as well.

Our relationships can also take a toll when we are constantly busy and have a packed schedule. In the pursuit of busyness, we can sometimes sacrifice quality time with friends and family. When we are busy all of the time, it can be difficult to be present in the moment as we do interact with others, we may be thinking of all the other things that we must get done. Deep and meaningful relationships require time and attention. When we leave little margin in our lives to develop these kinds of relationships, we are left feeling alone and/or disconnected. We must schedule our time in a way that we can be fully present in everything we do, including time with people fostering these deeper connections.

Contrary to popular belief, a truly fulfilling life cannot be measured by the number of tasks we accomplish each day. Busyness can cause us to not live in the moment, and therefore we may miss life’s little pleasures as we are rushing from one task to another or one activity to another. Again, as we keep a schedule that allows for margin we are more likely to truly live in the moment, enjoy the little things, and therefore experience more gratitude in life. If we have a balanced life of productivity and the ability to live in the moment our quality of life will go up!

To counteract this culture of busyness, we must embrace simplicity and mindfulness. Simplifying our schedules, and learning what to say yes to and what to say no to can create the space we need for this type of presence in each task and activity in life. As we are more mindful of how we spend our time, we begin to become self aware of our priorities and moving forward we can begin to choose our time doing the things that align with our values and goals in life.

I did want to say that I recognize that there will always be busier seasons in life. I remember when my kids were all school aged we felt busy and on the go constantly. This was just a season. Also, we chose to combat the extreme busyness by limiting the number of activities our kids could participate in each season. We wanted to teach them the value in not overcommitting and to be fully committed to the things they wanted to invest their time in. We not only embrace these ideas for ourselves but to teach our children the value of rest and self-care. 

Lastly, I just wanted to encourage you to challenge our culture’s narrow view of success, which often revolves around busyness and external achievements. True success should be viewed more holistically, accounting for mental well being, healthy relationships, and personal fulfillment. When we adopt this mindset, we will be able to escape this culture of busyness and replace it with something far more meaningful.

This is the YouTube video I posted in conjunction with this blog post.