Speaker 1: I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of
Speaker 1: country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community.
Speaker 1: We pay our respect to their elders past present, and
Speaker 1: extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Speaker 1: peoples today. Welcome to Stepping Up the podcast where we
Speaker 1: explore all things organization, mental health routines, personal.
Speaker 2: Development, motherhood and health.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Steph Pace, and I'm the woman behind
Speaker 1: Just Another Mummy blog and also the founder of Steph
Speaker 1: Pace Planners. But I can assure you this is not
Speaker 1: just another podcast online. I'm known for my organization tips
Speaker 1: and tricks and the occasional banter, but it definitely wasn't
Speaker 1: always this way. I used to be a hot mess
Speaker 1: and occasionally still am. And I'm here as your honest
Speaker 1: and real friend each week to show you how I
Speaker 1: turn my life of chaos into clarity.
Speaker 2: Between the house, health, kids.
Speaker 1: Work, and wanting to be the best version of yourself,
Speaker 1: it can be overwhelming, and I'm here to give you
Speaker 1: the tools and tips to stop you feeling like a
Speaker 1: slave to your daily time, asks, home life, and especially
Speaker 1: the expectations you have on yourself.
Speaker 2: Join me as I share my.
Speaker 1: Journey and insights into the art of balancing at all
Speaker 1: and speak to guests who can help us all live
Speaker 1: a better life. Whether you're looking to streamline your daily routines,
Speaker 1: fish your wellbeing, achieve your fitness goals, diamond to personal development,
Speaker 1: or find inspiration to steff up into the best version
Speaker 1: of yourself, We've got you.
Speaker 2: So are you ready to step up your game? Let's go.
Speaker 1: Hello, guys, and welcome back to Stepping Up Today. We
Speaker 1: are going back to the OG stephing days now. If
Speaker 1: you've followed me from the beginning, you would very much
Speaker 1: so know what the term stephing is and remember all
Speaker 1: of the organization content and the schedules and the free
Speaker 1: downloads and everything I put up every single week for
Speaker 1: you guys. And I do miss those days dreadfully, and
Speaker 1: I promise it is coming back very very soon. I'm
Speaker 1: actually recording this podcast to celebrate that i've finally, after
Speaker 1: five years of having SPP, launched out clean Up Schedule Magnet.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many years you guys have
Speaker 1: been asking me for a cleaning schedule Magnet for a
Speaker 1: long time. And she's beautiful she's got everything you could
Speaker 1: possibly need to follow this next tip and keep on
Speaker 1: top of it, and keeps a whole.
Speaker 2: Family in the know.
Speaker 1: They match our other magnets. It's got the gold foiling,
Speaker 1: it's got a section for AM and PM routines, and
Speaker 1: it's got Monday to Sunday and also a section for
Speaker 1: occasional tasks.
Speaker 2: And it's a game changer.
Speaker 1: So I thought today I was going to go back
Speaker 1: to the OG days and talk about cleaning schedules, which
Speaker 1: is my most downloaded resource over one hundred thousand times
Speaker 1: or more.
Speaker 2: And now you.
Speaker 1: Can create your very own cleaning schedule with this custom
Speaker 1: magnet I created to really work for you, not against you.
Speaker 1: There's so many cleaning schedules out there that are just
Speaker 1: too overwhelming and they don't really work. So this one
Speaker 1: is great because you can change it whenever you want,
Speaker 1: because it's a magnet, so you can reuse it. So
Speaker 1: I'm really really excited to announce that. And that is
Speaker 1: one of the biggest questions I've always gotten asked, is
Speaker 1: how do I manage to keep on top of the
Speaker 1: housework where I run a business and I've got kids
Speaker 1: and all the things happening at once. I've actually never
Speaker 1: been good at being overly tidy. I'm naturally more on
Speaker 1: the messy side. It's something that I've always struggled with.
Speaker 1: You guys remember the shower curtain story.
Speaker 2: If you're knew here.
Speaker 1: Basically, when I was little, my shelves were so messy.
Speaker 1: I remember we had all these old sheets and here
Speaker 1: I am going on a tangent. But this was back
Speaker 1: when Pokemon was like humongous, and I know it's big again.
Speaker 1: I love Pokemon. I was a Pokemon master. I had
Speaker 1: every card, and I hate that I never kept them.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so what I would do is I'd draw
Speaker 1: my favorite Pokemon onto a sheet, and I would cut
Speaker 1: the shoutline of it on two layers, so I had
Speaker 1: like a front and a back, So the front that
Speaker 1: had the drawing on it, and then the back, which
Speaker 1: was just a sheet that was in the same shape.
Speaker 2: And then what I did is I would sew up
Speaker 2: the edges.
Speaker 1: And I would stuff it and I'd make my own toys,
Speaker 1: and I used to even sell them sometimes, soe I've
Speaker 1: always been an entrepreneur, would sell them on the street
Speaker 1: to my friends in the neighborhood. And then I also
Speaker 1: would just like make them for myself. So I was
Speaker 1: very crafty, so shit like that. I had all these
Speaker 1: random things. Anyway, So what my parents did is they
Speaker 1: hung a shower curtain across my shelf so you couldn't
Speaker 1: see everything that was going on. So what I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say is, after all of that tangent is I
Speaker 1: am naturally a messy person. And of course, as someone
Speaker 1: that has ADHD, my executive function, which basically means having
Speaker 1: the ability to actually do tasks and carry out tasks
Speaker 1: from beginning to end and initiate the task is really
Speaker 1: body hard, and it gets to the point of being
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed and.
Speaker 2: You just physically like to start.
Speaker 1: Such a basic task is like pulling teeth, And it's
Speaker 1: so hard to explain to people that don't get it,
Speaker 1: but it is like pulling teeth. So over the years,
Speaker 1: I've had to learn routines and hacks and rituals. Because
Speaker 1: I love a tidy house. I love a clean house.
Speaker 1: I struggle to concentrate and just relax when the house
Speaker 1: is messy. Now I've gotten pretty laid back with the state,
Speaker 1: especially when your kids get older. When they're babies, you
Speaker 1: can contain them to a certain area.
Speaker 2: But as they get.
Speaker 1: Older, they can just run wild and they just you know,
Speaker 1: they run free. They put bloody toys everywhere. They get
Speaker 1: all those little hatch and more toys and you step
Speaker 1: on them every two seconds and break your foot. A
Speaker 1: lot harder to control that, which is fine because they're kids,
Speaker 1: and kids need to have fun and they need to
Speaker 1: make mess and that's life. And even without kids, your
Speaker 1: house gets messy. But I'm here to let you know
Speaker 1: that I'm here to change your life. This podcast right
Speaker 1: now is about to change your life. How you upkeep
Speaker 1: your house and the housework, how you look at housework, everything.
Speaker 1: It's going to change the game. And it's also going
Speaker 1: to make you realize why we do get overwhelmed when
Speaker 1: we have to do a big house tidy. This episode
Speaker 1: has multiple hacks, and you were going to want to
Speaker 1: stay till the very end because the last hack is
Speaker 1: literally my favorite hack of all time.
Speaker 2: Drink every time I say hack.
Speaker 1: It's basically going to combat that overwhelm you get when
Speaker 1: you know, you walk into a room or like the
Speaker 1: main living area and there's this stuff everywhere. There's like
Speaker 1: kids clothes, there's toys, there's lip arm, there's male, there's
Speaker 1: all this random shit. It's like all the objects in
Speaker 1: the house decide to have a meeting in like the
Speaker 1: one's place, and they come together, and that is what
Speaker 1: the mess is. So make sure you stay to the
Speaker 1: end for the life altering hack. Now, before I get
Speaker 1: into the tips and routines and hacks on how to
Speaker 1: upkeep a tidy home and your sanity as well and
Speaker 1: not be a robot, I'm gonna give you a bit
Speaker 1: of a reality check on why homes get messy. You
Speaker 1: could be Marie bloody condo and your house still needs
Speaker 1: to be lived in. It still gets messy. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you guys saw. She actually came out after
Speaker 1: she had kids and said, like, she realizes how different
Speaker 1: it is now when she's had kids, like keeping a
Speaker 1: house tidy or something. I can't remember what she said,
Speaker 1: but it was something like that, and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what happens when you have little humans running around
Speaker 1: making bloody mess and putting jam everywhere. Why don't always
Speaker 1: use jam and peanut butter when I talk about mess anyway?
Speaker 1: They are a delicious combo though, So that's probably why.
Speaker 1: So the reasons why homes get messy daily is because
Speaker 1: the main spaces of the home are active. There's people
Speaker 1: living there, people come and go, there's daily activities that
Speaker 1: naturally create clutter and mess. And that's just normal things
Speaker 1: like you know, the kids playing. You may be taking
Speaker 1: your stuff downstairs to do some work. The next thing
Speaker 1: that creates a lot of mess is cooking and eating,
Speaker 1: and that's something that we unfortunately do have to do
Speaker 1: like multiple times a day. Things like prepping meals, cooking dishes,
Speaker 1: making your kids a million snacks because you're a snack bitch.
Speaker 1: That type of thing that creates so much mess. Things
Speaker 1: like personal care. Even you're just like having a shower
Speaker 1: or putting on your skin care, there's gotta be towels dropped.
Speaker 1: You've just put makeup on or you've done your skin care,
Speaker 1: and there's products all over the vanity. That type of
Speaker 1: thing that just creates mess up bathrooms and kitchens and
Speaker 1: things like that. They are the ones that can get
Speaker 1: the messiest the quickest.
Speaker 2: Changing your clothes.
Speaker 1: I know my kids like to wear twenty outfits a
Speaker 1: day and they can't reach the top railing in their wardrobe.
Speaker 1: So I just get them to like chucking in a pile.
Speaker 1: But yes, actually in the new house, Oh, this is
Speaker 1: totally off topic. In the new house, the wardrobe for
Speaker 1: the kids, the top bar has like a handle attached
Speaker 1: and you can pull it down and then they can
Speaker 1: reach the top bar themselves. And we've got it for
Speaker 1: us as well. But how cool is that Now I
Speaker 1: don't have to be like them coming in every two
Speaker 1: seconds ask me to get a bloody dressed down because
Speaker 1: they want to be ELSA. Other things that create messes
Speaker 1: is just like unexpected messes like spills, dirt, kids bringing
Speaker 1: things home and the other thing that creates clutter and
Speaker 1: builds up clutter because clutter doesn't just peer in your house.
Speaker 1: People bring it into your house. And that's going to
Speaker 1: be one of the hacks later on about a rule
Speaker 1: around this. So every day, I know my kids, honestly,
Speaker 1: they bring home, Especially Willow, she brings home like twenty
Speaker 1: pieces of artwork a day. I need to open an
Speaker 1: art gallery, honestly, and she loves it and it's so
Speaker 1: beautiful and I love her art, but she brings home
Speaker 1: a lot. They're the way is your house gets messy?
Speaker 1: Is this the fact that's just the way of life?
Speaker 1: So the first tip or rule that you want to
Speaker 1: do to upkeep your home is don't put it down,
Speaker 1: put it away. And now don't neant to roll your
Speaker 1: eyes with this, because I'm sure you've heard of it before,
Speaker 1: but this is something that when I'm really exercising this rule.
Speaker 2: The house is so much cleaner now.
Speaker 1: Some examples of don't put it down, put it away
Speaker 1: is when you get home and you take your jacket
Speaker 1: off or your jumper, don't check it on the bed,
Speaker 1: hang it up, or usually wear again hook. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: wear again hook is the best. If you guys don't
Speaker 1: know what it is, it's basically command hook. And this
Speaker 1: is the hook for clothes that are too clean to
Speaker 1: gone the wash, but too dirty to go back in
Speaker 1: your wardrobe and you know you're going to wear them again.
Speaker 1: Literally why it's called to wear again hook. Perfect for
Speaker 1: work uniforms, stuff of the kids. Just use the wear
Speaker 1: a gun hook. Another example is if you're working at
Speaker 1: a desk, it depends out you get highlighters out you're
Speaker 1: doing your planner. Once you're done, put them away. You
Speaker 1: know the moment where you look at a surface or
Speaker 1: an area, it could be kid's bedroom floor and you
Speaker 1: look at it and you're like shit, like I just
Speaker 1: don't want to do this. It's too much and it
Speaker 1: just feels like so much effort. But when you do
Speaker 1: do it, it takes not long at all. That is
Speaker 1: because when you're looking at all of the items. You know,
Speaker 1: I said before, all the items in the house are
Speaker 1: like coming together for a meeting, and they're from all
Speaker 1: over the house. The reason why you get so overwhelmed
Speaker 1: and feel like you can't start it is because not
Speaker 1: only does your brain have to do the executive function
Speaker 1: of starting the task, it has to look at every
Speaker 1: single item that's in front of you figure out what
Speaker 1: it is, what does it do, and where does it go,
Speaker 1: which is going to lead me on to my next point.
Speaker 1: And I know I don't have to say this twice,
Speaker 1: but clutter equals mess equals more cleaning for you. So
Speaker 1: this is also where doing a daily decluttering practice comes
Speaker 1: into play. And now when I say that, I don't
Speaker 1: mean I want you to pull out everything in a
Speaker 1: drawer or like take a section each day, which you
Speaker 1: definitely can. And as I always say, when you're decluttering,
Speaker 1: I do not want you to think of the whole house.
Speaker 1: It's like what they say about the staircase. You don't
Speaker 1: want to think of the whole staircase. You want to
Speaker 1: think of the first step. It's the same as when
Speaker 1: you declutter your home. And I will link my decluttering
Speaker 1: challenge below.
Speaker 2: That is a great way to get started.
Speaker 1: But what I mean about doing a daily decluttering is,
Speaker 1: for example, I get home from work or from the
Speaker 1: gym and I see there's a couple of toys chucked
Speaker 1: in the back, there's a bit of rubbishoved in like
Speaker 1: the cup holders.
Speaker 2: I will just grab that. Stuff goes in the bin,
Speaker 2: Stuff goes where it lives.
Speaker 1: And it's just doing these like little daily tidy ups
Speaker 1: as you go. And this will kind of go into
Speaker 1: my next point. But if you see a surface or
Speaker 1: a draw that has a little bit too much stuff,
Speaker 1: or you know, like half of this stuff's just junk,
Speaker 1: just quickly do It'll take you two seconds. So once
Speaker 1: you get into the practice of that, and then you
Speaker 1: can be a bit more intentional by doing like decluttering
Speaker 1: sessions where you literally spend fifteen minutes on one area,
Speaker 1: you'll be so surprised what you can do in fifteen minutes. Honestly,
Speaker 1: So when everything has a home Not only does your
Speaker 1: brain have to work less hard and try to solve
Speaker 1: the problem, it helps you find things quickly. And everyone
Speaker 1: in your family also knows where things go. How many
Speaker 1: times does your partner not know where to put shit?
Speaker 1: Like mate, you live here too, So once everything has
Speaker 1: its home and everyone becomes aware of that, you can
Speaker 1: actually help each other. Now you're probably asking, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: all well and good, Stuffy, I'll do my decluttering every day,
Speaker 1: but how do I actually organize everything into a home.
Speaker 1: I've done a couple of episodes on organization and doing this,
Speaker 1: so I will link them below, But the main ones
Speaker 1: are before you organize any space, you do want to
Speaker 1: do a cull.
Speaker 2: It's like a draw.
Speaker 1: So say, if you've got a drawer and you've got
Speaker 1: like pens and pencils and all this stuff, and it's
Speaker 1: really messy and there's rubbish in there. Are you going
Speaker 1: to try and put tubs in that and organize the
Speaker 1: mess or are you going to get rid of the
Speaker 1: mess and then see what's left, categorize it and then.
Speaker 2: Put your storage in.
Speaker 1: Literally the process cull, categorize contain Definitely check out the
Speaker 1: episodes I link below. There is a kitchen organization one
Speaker 1: which is really really helpful and that's so budget friendly
Speaker 1: if you do want to like buy items, but it
Speaker 1: actually really takes you through the process of organizing. I'll
Speaker 1: make sure I link all of these episodes and resources
Speaker 1: in the show notes below. Now, if you're someone who
Speaker 1: really struggles to look at a space and organize it,
Speaker 1: I kind of want you to think of your room
Speaker 1: or home as zones. So you know, you've got your
Speaker 1: entryway zone. So when you come in the door, you've
Speaker 1: got space by the door, maybe you have a bin
Speaker 1: for shoes.
Speaker 2: You walk through and you think about what you're doing.
Speaker 1: So you've got keys, you've got your phone, and now
Speaker 1: you want to think about Okay, so how am I
Speaker 1: going to store this? So you want to start designating
Speaker 1: zones for practicality. That's where things like my drop off
Speaker 1: zone comes in. So a drop off zone is basically storage.
Speaker 1: I've set up near the door where we chuck our shoes.
Speaker 1: You can chuck your bag, you put your keys in there,
Speaker 1: and you have like those coins and mail. They all
Speaker 1: have a place and we all know where to put them,
Speaker 1: and you also know where to find them. And then
Speaker 1: you can really break it down into specific shelves or
Speaker 1: drawers or containers that you keep all your tech charges.
Speaker 1: So we have a million phone charges and things. I
Speaker 1: don't know why. I have this big plastic ikea container
Speaker 1: that's divided into a fair few sections. Then I organize
Speaker 1: the cables into sections by what type of charger they are,
Speaker 1: even down to having a certain spot in the kitchen,
Speaker 1: in the cupboard for anything the kids need for school lunches,
Speaker 1: whether that's the lunch box themselves, the lunch cooler bag,
Speaker 1: the insulated cup for breaks. Everything goes in the one spot. Now,
Speaker 1: you may not have a lot of storage, so this
Speaker 1: is where you really want to be utilizing vertical space
Speaker 1: as well. I've done this so much in the unit
Speaker 1: here I get over the door hangers that have organizers
Speaker 1: on them, even under the bed storage, which is really
Speaker 1: good for like you know, your seasonal close, extra toys
Speaker 1: for the kids, things like that, but just really like
Speaker 1: think outside the box.
Speaker 2: You can use the door organizers to store your shoes.
Speaker 2: We use the kids.
Speaker 1: Door organizer for school shorts, certain items that they were
Speaker 1: losing all the time because I know they're up off
Speaker 1: the floor and they're like literally as they go to
Speaker 1: walk out the door. They're rite there because every day
Speaker 1: I bought them these little shorts to wear under their
Speaker 1: school dresses, and they'd always lose them. And since I've
Speaker 1: put them there, no problems. It's all about just trying
Speaker 1: to think of like a solution. Another thing that can
Speaker 1: really help with declattering is having the one in, one
Speaker 1: out rule, So every time something comes in the house,
Speaker 1: something needs to go, and that just really helps with, yes,
Speaker 1: stopping the accumulation of stuff that gets brought into the
Speaker 1: house every single day at Bay. Now, before I move
Speaker 1: on to tip number three that you need to do
Speaker 1: every day to keep with the clean house, I want
Speaker 1: to do a quick recap. So the first one is
Speaker 1: don't put it down, put it away, and the second
Speaker 1: one is everything has a home and doing a little
Speaker 1: bit of daily decluttering every single day. And if you
Speaker 1: like the one in, one out rule. Now, the next thing,
Speaker 1: which we all know is from the OG steph days,
Speaker 1: is having a daily and weekly cleaning routine. Again, I
Speaker 1: don't enjoy cleaning. I don't really know who does enjoy cleaning.
Speaker 1: Maybe on the rare occasion when there's not too much
Speaker 1: clutter around.
Speaker 2: It's okay.
Speaker 1: You need to listen to a podcast, but it's not
Speaker 1: my favorite thing to do in the planet. But coming
Speaker 1: up with cleaning schedules is my jam. I love it,
Speaker 1: and mine has changed a lot over the years. Now
Speaker 1: I'm able to outsource a cleaner just to come in
Speaker 1: and do the deep cleaning, which is one of the
Speaker 1: tips I'll give you soon. But I have to say
Speaker 1: here at the unit, it is much much faster to clean.
Speaker 1: It's very quick, and it's one of the great things
Speaker 1: about it having a small space is how quickly you
Speaker 1: can clean up. But as I said, as your lives
Speaker 1: and lifestyles change and your you know, routines change, so
Speaker 1: does this cleaning schedule. You can't always just expect yourself
Speaker 1: to do the same thing throughout your whole life. I
Speaker 1: know people probably hear the word cleaning schedule and they
Speaker 1: roll their eyes. They're like, oh god, it sounds horrible,
Speaker 1: and they're like, oh, you know, I work full time,
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. But I'll tell you, once you start
Speaker 1: doing a cleaning schedule, because you're cleaning certain areas on
Speaker 1: a consistent basis, the cleaning gets cut in half even
Speaker 1: more so, and you get quicker at it. When I'm
Speaker 1: consistent with my cleaning schedule. My weekend cleaning is courted
Speaker 1: at least because the thing is the reason why I
Speaker 1: started doing this too is because I want to be
Speaker 1: with my family. I don't want to spend my whole
Speaker 1: bloody weekend cleaning the house with Ryan.
Speaker 2: We want to be with our kids.
Speaker 1: And it's important that you do get your partner to
Speaker 1: share the load. And I know that can't be the
Speaker 1: same for everybody, and I very much acknowledge there's single parents,
Speaker 1: there's people that with fly in and fly out, there's
Speaker 1: people out there with health issues one hundred percent. But
Speaker 1: I'm saying, if you have anyone in your household that
Speaker 1: you can get to support you with cleaning, please do
Speaker 1: because you deserve to be helped. Now, I want you
Speaker 1: to think of a cleaning schedule like keeping your email
Speaker 1: inbox organized. Imagine during the day you're receiving all these emails.
Speaker 1: If you take ten minutes once a day or twice
Speaker 1: a day at certain times that allows you to read, reply, delete,
Speaker 1: do whatever you need to each email as they come,
Speaker 1: then your inbox stays half manageable and you can also
Speaker 1: find really important messages easily. Now I want you to think,
Speaker 1: if you don't do that and you leave your inbox
Speaker 1: for say a week or even a month, imagine coming
Speaker 1: in and then having to go through all of those
Speaker 1: emails that have come in. That would be so overwhelming,
Speaker 1: and that would take you hours, and you would most
Speaker 1: likely put it off as long as you possibly can
Speaker 1: until you get in trouble or fired.
Speaker 2: It's because of the sheer volume of what you have.
Speaker 1: To deal with, and having a cleaning schedule works is
Speaker 1: the same way as checking your emails twice a day. Literally,
Speaker 1: I have an AM and a PM non negotiable routine.
Speaker 1: By having a certain routine in the morning and in
Speaker 1: the afternoon, that allows you to do what I did
Speaker 1: with the inbox.
Speaker 2: It allows you to get.
Speaker 1: In there, sort the clutter that has come in throughout
Speaker 1: the day, get rid of the rubbish that's come in,
Speaker 1: and put things back to their homes.
Speaker 2: But if you leave it to even just the end.
Speaker 1: Of the day, or if you leave all of the
Speaker 1: cleaning of the house till the weekend, you're going to
Speaker 1: be way more overwhelmed and you're going to spend a
Speaker 1: lot more time doing it. I am going to do
Speaker 1: a full episode on each of my AM and PM
Speaker 1: non negotiable routines because they are again life changing and
Speaker 1: really really helpful to keep you in a proactive situation,
Speaker 1: not reactive because no one wants to get up in
Speaker 1: the morning. No lunch is are prepped, you don't know
Speaker 1: what you're wearing. You haven't even washed your clothes that
Speaker 1: you're supposed to wear. The kids' uniforms are still in
Speaker 1: the wash too. Everyone's having a shit time and we're
Speaker 1: not here for it, so we're not doing that anymore.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to only briefly touch on your AM
Speaker 1: and PM routines in the morning. It's all about resetting
Speaker 1: from the night to the next day, so things like
Speaker 1: making your bed, resetting your bedside table, checking your planner,
Speaker 1: and then cleaning up any mess that's happened from breakfast,
Speaker 1: all the kids have left around, things like that, so
Speaker 1: you're really set for the day now. Gocial routine is
Speaker 1: super important, and this is going to allow future you
Speaker 1: not to get pissed off, because future is going to
Speaker 1: be really pissed off if she wakes up to go
Speaker 1: to work or to deal with the kids all day
Speaker 1: and last night's dishes are in the bloody sink and
Speaker 1: there's toys everywhere, and you haven't made their lunches for school,
Speaker 1: and everything's a fucking shit show.
Speaker 2: She's going to be pissed off.
Speaker 1: So these non negotiable routines make sure future you is
Speaker 1: going to be pissed off with now you. So things
Speaker 1: like prepping bags, doing the dishwasher, doing a nightly reset,
Speaker 1: that type of thing, making any meals for the next day,
Speaker 1: just getting it done.
Speaker 2: That's what your PM non.
Speaker 1: Negotiables routine is for things like spot vacuum cleaning, fully
Speaker 1: resetting the kitchen. And I know it's a time and
Speaker 1: it's an energy, especially at that time of night. But
Speaker 1: things that you can do to help this is setting
Speaker 1: a timer. If you're a competitive person or even you
Speaker 1: just know, like I only have to do this for
Speaker 1: like twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: I'll pet you anything.
Speaker 1: If that timer goes off and you're not completely finished,
Speaker 1: you will see, oh there's not much left to go.
Speaker 2: I'll just keep going and you will, and then it's done.
Speaker 1: And the hack at the end is one that's going
Speaker 1: to make this end of day task so bloody easy.
Speaker 2: I can't even tell you.
Speaker 1: Now let's move into the weekly cleaning schedule again, I
Speaker 1: want you to designate your weekly cleaning schedule into zones,
Speaker 1: so you can do bedrooms, kitchen, living room, bathrooms, entry, away,
Speaker 1: outdoor spaces. I want to give you an example of
Speaker 1: what ours is. So Monday's bedrooms, Tuesday is floors, so
Speaker 1: I have a full day just for floors, just because
Speaker 1: I can smop and vacuum, and I always will do
Speaker 1: a spot vacuum at nighttime. Wednesday's kitchen, Thursday's bathroom. Friday
Speaker 1: is living areas. Saturday is laundry and meal reset, so
Speaker 1: meal prep and that type of stuff, and then Sunday
Speaker 1: is sheets and laundry and any outdoor areas because you know,
Speaker 1: Ryan loves to just do out in bloody water the
Speaker 1: grass for no reason.
Speaker 2: It's like a man thing. I don't get. Now.
Speaker 1: To make this work and to actually stick to a
Speaker 1: cleaning schedule, you need to have it visible to the
Speaker 1: whole family and in a place where you guys are
Speaker 1: always there, so that's where the cleaning magnet comes in.
Speaker 1: You can also delegate zones per family member, So say,
Speaker 1: for example, you'd be like Monday's I'll do the bedrooms,
Speaker 1: Tuesdays you do the floors and get seeds on them magnet.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you can wipe it out and
Speaker 1: change it so easy. And then on the magnet you've
Speaker 1: got your AMM your PM routines on there as well. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are someone that you just like, I can't
Speaker 1: even do zions. It's just too much. All I want
Speaker 1: you to do is spend twenty minutes a day cleaning.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to even think about what you're going
Speaker 1: to clean or where you're going to clean. Just do
Speaker 1: twenty minutes a day. Now, for me, personally, I prefer
Speaker 1: to do like the schedule way because I feel like
Speaker 1: I take twenty minutes anyway. But at least it's kind
Speaker 1: of a reoccurring thing because I know I'll forget to
Speaker 1: maybe do the outside area for a while, and then
Speaker 1: I go out there and.
Speaker 2: It's a shit show.
Speaker 1: So that's why I do promote having a cleaning schedule.
Speaker 1: But even if you do, just do twenty minutes and
Speaker 1: then you keep going until your house is a little
Speaker 1: bit more clean, a little bit more clean, and then
Speaker 1: over time it just gets quicker and quicker to clean.
Speaker 2: Now we have finally.
Speaker 1: Reached the part of the podcast that you've been waiting for.
Speaker 1: And this is the life altering hack that's going to
Speaker 1: change everything, literally change the game for you. I've mentioned
Speaker 1: it a million times. Clutter is just random objects from
Speaker 1: around the house that you need to tidy up, really bloody, annoying.
Speaker 1: So there's toys, there's remotes, there's that fourth bloody spachela
Speaker 1: that you're meant to throw out. It's just everything. They've
Speaker 1: all just kind of got together. And this is where
Speaker 1: I'm going to introduce to you the catchull basket. And
Speaker 1: this is where you have a basket in the main
Speaker 1: areas in your home. So for us, it's the living room,
Speaker 1: and we have one upstairs, and then we have one.
Speaker 2: On the stairs.
Speaker 1: You guys would already remember the upstairs basket. I've done
Speaker 1: that for years, and I did that in the old house,
Speaker 1: So I had a basket at the bottom of the stairs.
Speaker 1: Anything that had to go up, we'd go in the
Speaker 1: basket and we take it up at the end of
Speaker 1: the night. This is the same kind of vibe, but
Speaker 1: basically it is you're placing a basket in the main
Speaker 1: areas of your home. So throughout the day when people
Speaker 1: are finished with things or there's just things that do
Speaker 1: need to go away and they just can't be bothered.
Speaker 2: It gets put in the catchual basket.
Speaker 1: You just chuck it on in there, and then at
Speaker 1: the end of each day you take it with you
Speaker 1: and you just put the stuff away and that's it.
Speaker 2: That's literally the hack.
Speaker 1: Well there's even like these stair baskets I saw because
Speaker 1: if you guys upstairs, you know the bloody pain that
Speaker 1: it is of having to constantly put things on the
Speaker 1: stairs and then no one else in the family takes
Speaker 1: it up and it drives me bloody bonkers. It still
Speaker 1: happens with the baskets, but basically you put everything on
Speaker 1: the stairs and then no one takes it up, and
Speaker 1: then you're trying to like carry all of this shit
Speaker 1: and then you end up being like, oh, I'll just
Speaker 1: take half, and then you won't make the trip back.
Speaker 1: And that is why having these baskets is really really helpful.
Speaker 1: Another tip for this hack is allocate a basket to
Speaker 1: certain family members or so to Ryan, you do the
Speaker 1: downstairs basket or do the living room basket, and the
Speaker 1: kids can do the upstairs basket.
Speaker 2: Like, get the.
Speaker 1: Kids involved and it's going to make it so much easier.
Speaker 1: You can even make it a game, you know, you
Speaker 1: put some music on, put a timer on it. People
Speaker 1: can see how quick they can empty their basket, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and just make it fun. But yes,
Speaker 1: the catch or basket is a game changer. It can
Speaker 1: be a laundry basket. You can get cute baskets from kmart. Now,
Speaker 1: these methods I've said, like the catch or basket daily declutter,
Speaker 1: you can pop them on your AM and PM routines
Speaker 1: on your cleaning magnet on the fridge, because that will
Speaker 1: give you a reminder. The thing is, and this is
Speaker 1: why I never will say to use a digital planner,
Speaker 1: because your phone also is attached to so much ocean
Speaker 1: and the outside world where you will always get distracted.
Speaker 1: You'll go on your phone to maybe check you to
Speaker 1: do list and then you end up on bloody Instagram.
Speaker 1: Whereas when you have a planner, when you physically write
Speaker 1: things down, you're eighty percent will likely to achieve them.
Speaker 1: And the fact is, with the magnet, it's right in
Speaker 1: your face and everyone in the family can see what's
Speaker 1: going on. It's like having the meal planner. The reason
Speaker 1: why we love the meal planner is you don't have
Speaker 1: to think about it. So just to do a bit
Speaker 1: of a recat we've got, don't put it down, put
Speaker 1: it away. Everything has a home, a daily declutter, daily
Speaker 1: AM and PM, non negotiable routines, a weekly cleaning schedule,
Speaker 1: use a timer, have the catch all basket, and involve
Speaker 1: the family in tidying up, and it will make it
Speaker 1: so much easier. I hope this episode has helped guys.
Speaker 1: I know for me, doing these things just made a
Speaker 1: world of difference. I know housework can make a lot
Speaker 1: of people feel inadequate. How does everyone else keep up
Speaker 1: with their houses? And the thing is that they don't.
Speaker 1: It's an ongoing thing. It's never going to be fully clean.
Speaker 1: But if you can implement things like even just to
Speaker 1: catch all basket, even if you can take one of
Speaker 1: these things that I've just said and start it, it's
Speaker 1: going to make a world of different And I would
Speaker 1: love if you guys get your catch or baskets or
Speaker 1: have you wear again hooks or whatever.
Speaker 2: Please do tag me on Instagram. I love to see it.
Speaker 1: Please tag Steph Pace, Underscore and Stepping Up on Instagram
Speaker 1: because I just love to see you guys implementing these
Speaker 1: tips and how much it's helped you. So anyways, guys,
Speaker 1: make sure if you want to jump on and graub
Speaker 1: the cleaning schedule magnet, you do that now because they
Speaker 1: have been flying and I knew they'd.
Speaker 2: Fly off the shelves because you've been wanting it for
Speaker 2: so long.
Speaker 1: But it really is a game changer, and things like
Speaker 1: this just help people like us with messy minds to
Speaker 1: live their lives more easily. Anyways, I love you and
Speaker 1: I'll talk to you later, babe. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for tuning in today's episode of Stepping Up.
Speaker 2: I don't want this to.
Speaker 1: Be just another podcast that you listen to you get
Speaker 1: inspiration and then you don't take action.
Speaker 2: If there's been something in this episode that will help.
Speaker 1: You step up into the best version of yourself, open
Speaker 1: up your trusted planner and make a plan. And if
Speaker 1: you've loved listening to today's episode, take a screenshot and
Speaker 1: show me where you've been listening from.
Speaker 2: I love seeing it.
Speaker 1: Make sure you tag us at Stepping Up and steph
Speaker 1: Pace underscore on Instagram so we can see it. And
Speaker 1: make sure you subscribe because you won't want to miss
Speaker 1: what's coming up next week.