- In the past, I just thought there was something wrong with me that I couldn't keep our house clean. And I would kind of brush it
off like, oh, I'm a messy person. Oh, we have four little kids, it's
not possible to stay on top of it. But deep down inside, if
you would've asked me, I actually really wanted to have a clean
house because I felt like a loser and a failure every single day that
I couldn't stay on top of it. And so I didn't know if it was
actually possible or not, but I tried, like I tried all the different things. And so today I want to talk about how
I clean differently now that I'm a minimalist, what finally clicked so that
I was able to stay on top of my home, and I'll show you my mishap at the
laundromat with trying to clean our comforter. Well, spring is in the air here in Minnesota, so I thought we could do some cleaning
together. I'm gonna tackle the kitchen, the bathroom, our bedroom, and get
all the linens and everything washed. I'll show you what happened at the
laundromat. It's really a big bummer. But while we're here in the kitchen, I wanted to talk a little bit about
how I clean differently now that I'm a minimalist. So over the last seven years
we got rid of about 80% of our stuff. And so that makes it obviously
so much easier to clean. And so I think one of the ways I clean
differently now is I'm constantly asking myself as I'm tidying up and picking
up and cleaning, does this have a home? So if I'm putting something
away, does it have a home, an easy place to put it away? Because
we all know that makes it easier. But I'm also asking myself when I'm thinking about that, does it deserve a home? Does this item need to
live in our house still? Do I want to continue to manage
it and have to put it away again? Like if I'm putting it away today, I'll probably have to put it away
again tomorrow or the next day. And so I've shared this before, when we
first started decluttering our house, when I would hold something up,
I would ask myself, okay, are we currently using this? Is
somebody using it or wearing it, or will they for sure in
the next six months or year? And that was kind of my initial filter.
But then as we got further into it, I kind of evolved the question to
say, but could we live without it? And that's kind of what I'm
filtering now, even as I'm cleaning, is looking at stuff, as I'm putting it away and looking
in the cabinets and drawers, that other stuff in there and saying,
but could we get by without it? Is it possible that I don't need
to manage this item anymore? Do we have something else that works
just as well? Is this a duplicate? Is it something that I thought
was gonna be helpful and work well, but it didn't actually
live up to it? That's a big one. We buy stuff cause we think it's gonna
solve a problem only to find out that maybe the marketing kind of
exaggerated it a little bit. And so as I'm cleaning, I'm looking at the inventory and the
stuff in our house and I'm really asking myself, does this still
deserve a spot in our house? And so I get pretty ruthless now because
I know as soon as the inventory creeps up, it's over. It's hard to pick up, it's hard to tidy and I don't want to
clean anymore because it's overwhelming. But when the inventory is really low,
then I actually can stay on top of it. Now does that mean our house is perfectly clean all the time? No, not at all. But I do know that I can pull
it together super quickly. Like every room is usually only five
minutes away from being company ready. The kitchen might take a few
more minutes, but most days I, even if there's a lot
of stuff out of place, I don't get overwhelmed by it anymore
because I know it's only five or 10 minutes dirty. And so that has given me so much
peace of mind and I no longer worry anymore when, remember when you would spend multiple days cleaning and you're like, oh, it looks so nice. Only
to like one day later, everyone's lived in it
again and you're like, it doesn't even look like I cleaned
anymore. It was so frustrating. And so now it doesn't take a long time
to clean and it doesn't take a long time to pull it back together. And for me that is much more
valuable than some of the stuff that we've gotten rid of or donated. Another question that comes up frequently is if we have a cleaning routine or cleaning schedule. And I'm probably
like you, I have tried them all. I have tried Fly Lady, the simplified
Fly Lady versions, Clean Mama, just everyone out there. And
I just, I don't know, for me, it's never been something that
I've been able to stick to. And so I clean on an as-needed basis. It's when we have pockets of time
and when things need to be done. And sometimes I pull the kids in and they
help. And other times, like right now, I say go outside. Anybody that
comes back in has to help clean. And so they will happily be outside
playing now for quite a while because they would rather do that than clean.
Other days if it's super cold out, they might choose to be inside and
clean rather than go outside and that's totally fine. But I believe that
behind the motivation of that question, "Do you have a cleaning routine?"
is how do I stay on top of my house? That was the solution I was
trying to find all of the time. And I think there are multiple factors
that go into this and that's why there's no one size fits all with it because
it depends on how much time we have, how much physical energy we have,
how much motivation we have, what other things are emotionally
and mentally pulling on us, because that can totally
derail our motivation, and how much inventory is in our house.
And so for me, I find in seasons, like right now we're in a little bit of
a quieter time and so I have a little bit more time. I have a
little bit more bandwidth, we've obviously lowered the inventory
in our home, and so I'm like, the weather's getting
nice, let's spring clean. I have the space for it and it's
very enjoyable for me right now. But there have been other springs
where that's not necessarily the case. And so I think there's many factors that
go into it and so if you've ever been frustrated like, well, how come that
works for them and it doesn't work for me, or why can't I stick with this? It's probably just because there's different things going on in your life right now. Those people that
are dedicated to cleaning, of course they're gonna keep
their homes up, that's their job. But for some of us, that's not our number one priority or
number one thing pulling at us right now, even though it's something
that we really desire. And so my encouragement of course, or
you already know what I'm gonna say, keep the inventory down, declutter, declutter, declutter. And that's definitely what's made it easier for
me to keep our house clean. I was just thinking back when I
said, there's been other springs, it was a year ago that I was trying
to clean the oven and then Tom decided to take it even further apart. So I'm
gonna link to that video down below. I also tested out a lot of cleaning
products on there and they're all still my favorites. So those still
are all things that I use, but if you just need a laugh today and
want to see the fiasco we had with our oven door, I will link to that
down below as well. All right, so I have to tell you my saga
with getting our comforter washed. So we have had this for two years-ish now, and in the beginning I kind of went back and forth because it's so light colored and I love it. It's
beautiful. But I was like, maybe living with a handyman
I shouldn't have it on all the time because I just knew over
time it was gonna get destroyed. Like even our sheets now,
even after they're washed, they don't come perfectly
clean anymore, which is fine. I know there's probably things I could
do to get 'em cleaner, but it's fine. I'm not, that's not me right now in the season I'm in. So last year I took the comforter
to the big, to the laundromat, to the big washing machines, cause I knew in ours it would be too
tight in there and it wouldn't really get clean. So I took it there and
it got, it came pretty clean. And so I should probably do
this more than once a year, but it was looking pretty, way more
dirty this time around. And so I'm like, okay, we gotta go wash this. So I took it to town and I put
it in one of the jumbo washers, $10.75 cents. Went back when
it was done, pulled it out, threw it in the car and came home. Well, it wasn't until I was spreading it out
on the deck railing that I realized that there were rust spots on
it. And I was so frustrated. So I need to call there just
to let them know. I don't, I'm not gonna try to get my money back. I probably could, but just so they know. It looks like, it had the circle pattern
when it was first, when I first saw it. It had like the circle pattern from
the inside of the washer, you know? So I want to call and tell 'em just so
other people's stuff doesn't maybe get wrecked in there. And so Tom's mom is a nurse and she had
said that hydrogen peroxide takes blood out -- sorry, that's gross
-- really well, and it does. We have used that trick quite a lot.
And so I asked my Facebook group too, I'm like, okay, what do we use for rust? And there were some good
rust remover things, but I don't have any of those here. So
I'm just gonna try hydrogen peroxide. We're gonna try some hydrogen peroxide first because this is what I have. We'll see if that actually does the trick or not. Wouldn't that be nice if it did? I don't know. Oh, it's going everywhere. Oh yeah. Oh, the green, the green from this
microfiber cloth is bleeding onto it, so I'm gonna get a different color one. I'm sure some of you were like, I could
have told you that was gonna happen. Okay, I got a lighter colored one
and this is an actual Norwex cloth, so we're pulling out all the stops
now. We're gonna try and do this right. And I'm gonna try and maybe bend the
material this way so it puddles into the stain and doesn't run all over. Oh man. Okay, I'm not sure how
well you can see this. It is definitely making
it lighter. I'm guessing, so if I would've done it right away, I think it would've come out much better and I probably would have better luck. But it definitely is making it lighter. So I might spend just a few more minutes
on it, but then beyond not much. Wow, actually, even as it's just
sitting, it's lightening up more. I think it's working. I'm gonna scrub on it a little bit more
and we'll let it dry and then we'll just see how it works. So I let it dry
now. I'll show you how it looks now. I actually found a third spot when I
was doing that too. I was like, oh, darn it. So it definitely
faded it. It's not perfect, but it's good enough because the comforter didn't come as clean this time around either. It's fine. So I
don't know how much longer, so we'll probably keep this maybe another
year or so and then I might look for something different and demote
this to the camper or something. So actually that's a good idea.
I'll put this one in the camper. It's a nice light weight for
summer. I really like that about it. And then I could get a
different one for in here. I know the question always comes up too, where do people put the
extra pillows from the bed? Ours are just always stacked in the corner. I mean, where else do you put them? If anyone has a super, I don't know, great place that you put your pillows
from your bed and your shams and everything, please let us know. But does
anyone else put 'em anywhere different? I don't know. But I like
having them, so it's fine. I know I've talked about
this a little bit recently, but I enjoy cleaning our home
so much more now that it's just cleaning. So like this, washing
the sheets, washing the comforter, making the bed was enjoyable to me because I didn't have to declutter our room first. And so I know many who, if
you're watching this right now, you might still very well be
in the decluttering phase. So I want to let you know, if you get discouraged because you can't keep up on the cleaning and this isn't enjoyable to you, keep decluttering because the decluttering and getting the extra inventory out is what made it possible for
me to keep up on the cleaning. It really is a lot more
enjoyable now, which I, again, I never thought that would be
me saying I enjoy cleaning now. And don't get me wrong, any time our schedule gets
kind of chaotic or crazy again, then it goes back to feeling like a burden and it's really difficult to stay on top of. So there is a balance
with having the house decluttered, but also not having a
jampacked schedule too. And I also want to let you know that
we have a small amount of our Declutter Your Home in 15 Minutes a
Day workbook still left. They are on spring cleaning sale for $20.
So I'll put a link to that down below. We haven't talked about
it for a little while. I don't like actually
promoting my products, but the feedback has been phenomenal.
So I'm so grateful for that, and for everyone who has bought
it. So thank you for that, but if you haven't gotten a copy yet, it goes room by room through your house
and just helps you break it down so you know what to keep, what to let go, and it really gives you a lot of confidence in decluttering so that you can make progress really quickly. So that was my whole goal behind
writing this over 150 full color pages, lots of
pictures, very interactive. And so my hope is that it can
be really helpful for you too. I'll put a link for this down below. Well, thank you for spending time
cleaning with me today. It's always more fun when
we do it together, isn't it? Did you catch Tom at the door
in the mirror? He was like, "I don't want to interrupt
your video." I'm like, "You're already interrupting my video.
It's a mirror. They can see you." So Tom says hi too. He also chose to go outside rather than
to help clean, but it's totally fine. Again, I don't mind it so much anymore now that the inventory is so low in our house. So I'd love to know if
this resonates with you. Do you feel like you need to keep reducing
the inventory in your house so that it does become a little
bit easier to clean? Have you noticed that in your
own house? And of course, any other cleaning tips
or tricks that you have, I think we're all ears when
it comes to that. But again, don't beat yourself up if you
tried other people's systems, if you've heard of people who are
like, "This is the best system ever, this will for sure solve all
your problems," and it didn't, don't stress so much about that.
Again, we're all in different seasons. We have different things pulling
at us. Just set the timer for five, 10 or 15 minutes and just
do what you can each day. And even doing that little bit
is gonna make you feel better. I love what the Fly Lady
says, every day she has, or every week she has an Anti-Procrastination Day built in and she says that taking action builds confidence and
makes you feel less guilty. And I'm like, oh, amen, we all need that.
More confidence, less guilt. So just doing a little bit every day
really does help with that as well. All right, well, I love you. I hope you have a really good
day and I'll see you again soon.
