Speaker 1: It's like, say, for example, I have to send like
Speaker 1: an email, I will literally teach myself how to retil
Speaker 1: a bathroom. And I'd rather do that than actually just
Speaker 1: send a two minute email. Hello guys, and welcome back
Speaker 1: to Stepping Up. I'm so excited to be back today.
Speaker 1: I'm going to be changing your life. Okay, well changing
Speaker 1: it at enough so you can actually keep a cleanish house. Yes,
Speaker 1: this episode, I want to be telling you all the
Speaker 1: weird things I do to keep a clean ish house.
Speaker 1: And now I say a cleanish house because I am
Speaker 1: not a type a kind of girl. And you know,
Speaker 1: growing up, I literally was so messy that my mother
Speaker 1: had to cover my Like I had these big they
Speaker 1: were like these handmade shells that I think you know,
Speaker 1: my family made and they were painted blue because I
Speaker 1: really love dolphins at the time, because dolphins were rule,
Speaker 1: and I had so much mess behind it. It was
Speaker 1: just so much mess, and my mother would walk in
Speaker 1: every day and my family and they'd just be so
Speaker 1: sick of seeing. You know. There was like Pokemon toys,
Speaker 1: there was more my books. There was just bits and bobs,
Speaker 1: Like I used to collect all these little things like
Speaker 1: member polypocket, I USEDI toll love that, and then when
Speaker 1: I'd lose it, I'd be devastated. And it's like we
Speaker 1: didn't really stand a chance to not lose it anyway.
Speaker 1: So one day I got home from school and my
Speaker 1: mom had actually hung some shower curtains across my shelves
Speaker 1: and they were like, of course on theme, they were
Speaker 1: on brand, this big. It was a big white shower
Speaker 1: curtain and there was blue dolphins across it. So you know,
Speaker 1: I could really hide my mess with marine wildlife, which
Speaker 1: we love. And you know that's the thing with mess,
Speaker 1: we do tend to try and hide it until it
Speaker 1: builds up. And it did. It kept accumulating and accumulating
Speaker 1: until the shower curtain could no longer hold it. So
Speaker 1: the fact I've managed to find some weird things and
Speaker 1: some hacks that have really helped me keep a cleanish house,
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm qualified to talk about this, and
Speaker 1: especially you know, being a mom and like we've got
Speaker 1: the kids and all the things. It's it's tough. And
Speaker 1: I will say, I will say the house was easier
Speaker 1: to keep clean when the kids were little, Like I'm
Speaker 1: talking like babies, because babies can't move and my girls
Speaker 1: were both really late to walk. They were I think
Speaker 1: sixteen months I believe sixteen seventeen months. And with Harper
Speaker 1: my first daughter, at first I was freaking out. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my goodness, what's wrong. And then with
Speaker 1: Willow my second daughter, I was like, yeah, don't rush, honey,
Speaker 1: you just keep doing like the slug because you know,
Speaker 1: people do like the worm. I used to call it
Speaker 1: the slug and they just like drag themselves along the floor. Anyway, Sorry, Tangent.
Speaker 1: The house was so much easy to keep clean back then.
Speaker 1: And look, yes we were sleep deprived all the things,
Speaker 1: but it was just much more simple. Because now my
Speaker 1: girls are into the polypocket phase as well, and they
Speaker 1: are losing the same things that I did. You know,
Speaker 1: the apple doesn't fore far from the tree, does it.
Speaker 1: So this is just me being really realistic giving you
Speaker 1: tips and things that aren't like overbearing. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: expect you to be running your house and keeping it
Speaker 1: spotless like a boot camp, like we're not doing that here.
Speaker 1: It's just about being realistic because at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, you know, it's not about having like a
Speaker 1: pintre perfect home. It's not about that it's not about
Speaker 1: you know, trying to keep up appearances. It's about making
Speaker 1: your life easier because we all know how much mess
Speaker 1: and clutter affects us and a lot of people. You know,
Speaker 1: I've talked about this so many times, but there is
Speaker 1: studies and science that show that it affects us not
Speaker 1: only mentally but also physically, like our actual health. So
Speaker 1: you know, you just think about it. As a woman,
Speaker 1: we have so much of the mental load that we carry,
Speaker 1: and it's so important that we work out systems and
Speaker 1: ways that can alleviate it because you know, the stress
Speaker 1: from the mental load of remembering all the things. And
Speaker 1: you know, we weren't taught in school how to clean
Speaker 1: a house. You know, we did cooking class, which is cool,
Speaker 1: like I remember we made really cool chocolate chip cookies,
Speaker 1: but didn't really help us too much. And I really
Speaker 1: feel like for people like myself who aren't Type A
Speaker 1: and you know, especially with ADHD, like I'm naturally a
Speaker 1: messy person, like we need help with that. And I
Speaker 1: think if we had subjects taught at school on how
Speaker 1: to do this, we would be much happier people. So, yes,
Speaker 1: today's episode is really going to help many, many people
Speaker 1: out there. And also you're going to get a freebe
Speaker 1: as well my viral cleaning schedule, which you can change
Speaker 1: and make it like whatever you want. You fill it in,
Speaker 1: and it's just going to help really just stop the
Speaker 1: micro decisions, which I'll talk about in a minute, so
Speaker 1: that will be linked in the show notes. But before
Speaker 1: we get into it, a bit of a life update.
Speaker 1: I've really been trying lately to get back into like
Speaker 1: the hobbies and things that I love. As you guys know,
Speaker 1: last year I actually started learning to play guitar and
Speaker 1: I loved it. It's something I want to do since
Speaker 1: I was eight years old, and I even went to lessons.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because so like for me, you know,
Speaker 1: I haven't played guitar for a little bit, for like
Speaker 1: a few weeks, and she's a bit rusty. Like my
Speaker 1: goal was to learn how to play Wonder War. I
Speaker 1: love Wonder War, and now Wonder War doesn't really sound
Speaker 1: like wonder Wall anymore, so I want to get back
Speaker 1: into practicing that like just five minutes a day. And also,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, probably a few episodes ago, I haven't
Speaker 1: been reading since I know I wrote the book, I
Speaker 1: just haven't been able to read. I've been trying and
Speaker 1: it's not happening. So if you guys have any recommendations
Speaker 1: to help me get out of this reading slump. And
Speaker 1: it's actually funny. When I come into the studio today Xander,
Speaker 1: who is a producer here at Nova, we started talking
Speaker 1: a bit about like when we were children and the
Speaker 1: hobbies that we had, and they were kind of considered
Speaker 1: to be lame, like the interest that we would hype
Speaker 1: fixate on something, and now people are thinking those things
Speaker 1: are cool. This is like a bit of a story
Speaker 1: of one of the types of things I would hyper
Speaker 1: fixate on. When I was younger, I was obsessed with horses,
Speaker 1: Like I was like a horse girl, you know, and
Speaker 1: people tend to say the horse girls are weird, which
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not saying that anyway. So I was
Speaker 1: so obsessed with horses, and I begged my parents for
Speaker 1: a saddle. I really wanted to saddle because I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, if I could kind of I thought I
Speaker 1: could kind of trick them into buying me a horse
Speaker 1: by saying I need a saddle, Like obviously I'm like seven,
Speaker 1: and I thought I was a mastermind. So I finally
Speaker 1: got this second hand saddle. They even brought me a
Speaker 1: grooming kit, like how lucky am I? But you know,
Speaker 1: the horse never came, which was very devastating anyway. So
Speaker 1: what I would do is I would chuck. I would
Speaker 1: literally stand by my saddle every day and just wipe
Speaker 1: it down like a little weird horse girl, and I'd
Speaker 1: chuck it on the couch like the arm rest of
Speaker 1: the couch. And I even had a helmet, like guys,
Speaker 1: I had the whole shebang except the main event, which
Speaker 1: is the horse. And my mother at the time took
Speaker 1: a photo of me riding the couch as like a widow,
Speaker 1: and my helmet was super tight and it would pull
Speaker 1: my eye brows right up, so I just looked constantly
Speaker 1: in shock. Anyway. So that's kind of what I was
Speaker 1: like as a child. And as you guys know, Ryan
Speaker 1: and we've been together since we're seventeen, and we were
Speaker 1: in our twenties and Ryan came over to the family
Speaker 1: home and he was flicking through the photo albums and
Speaker 1: he freaking found that photo of me riding my couch,
Speaker 1: So that was fun, but he stayed, so that's nice anyway.
Speaker 1: So what I'm trying to talk about. Is that how
Speaker 1: people would have hobbies back then, like you know, be
Speaker 1: knitting or something and like old lady hobbies that people
Speaker 1: thought were lame and now they're like really trending online.
Speaker 1: They're calling it like cozy hobby. So, like I bought
Speaker 1: a Nintendo Switch a little while ago, I'd play Hogwarts
Speaker 1: Legacy because I love Harry Potter. Like my first year
Speaker 1: in high school, everyone had like Jesse McCartney on their books,
Speaker 1: like covering their books, and I had Ron Weasley because
Speaker 1: he knows he's pretty cute. Ron, I'd have to say. Anyway,
Speaker 1: moving on, so I'm trying to get back into all
Speaker 1: of that, and yeah, that's pretty much it. It's just like
Speaker 1: it's just life as usual. Also, before I get into it,
Speaker 1: please don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Stepping
Speaker 1: Up and also my Instagram page which is steph Pace Underscore,
Speaker 1: And also check out our Facebook community because we'll be
Speaker 1: dropping more hints and tips and people like. It's a
Speaker 1: place for you guys to just chat about the episodes
Speaker 1: we talk about and I'll always be giving you extra
Speaker 1: value in there as well. So let's get into it,
Speaker 1: shall we. Now let me ask you have you ever's
Speaker 1: you know, being at home and then suddenly you look
Speaker 1: around and think, how did it get this bad? And
Speaker 1: you feel like it's like a weekly occurrence, even though
Speaker 1: you swear you just cleaned for me. My biggest thing
Speaker 1: is on the weekends. I feel like when I wasn't
Speaker 1: doing these things, I would feel like every weekend I
Speaker 1: would have to reclean the bathroom like and I'm not
Speaker 1: talking like like dirty, I'm talking about like clutter, Like
Speaker 1: you know how there's dirty you know mess, and then
Speaker 1: there's clutter mess. It was the clutter mess. And I
Speaker 1: would always feel like every weekend I was just spending
Speaker 1: like a day just cleaning up after my own shit,
Speaker 1: literally because I couldn't up keep it during the week
Speaker 1: And you know, and then when the house does get
Speaker 1: into that state and you're looking around, you're like, how
Speaker 1: do we get here? Instead of cleaning, you're just feeling
Speaker 1: too over a one, so you end up sitting down
Speaker 1: and scrolling or doing something completely different. And this is
Speaker 1: something I relate to. It's very much the avoidance. It's like, say,
Speaker 1: for example, I have to send like an email that
Speaker 1: I really don't want to send, I will I will
Speaker 1: literally teach myself how to retile a bathroom, and I'll
Speaker 1: rather do that than actually just send a two minute email.
Speaker 1: And that's just because it's that resistance that we experience
Speaker 1: as humans and it's bloody hard. And as I said,
Speaker 1: they don't teach this stuff at school, and you know,
Speaker 1: I definitely do the same. Like there'll be so many
Speaker 1: times where I know I should be cleaning and all
Speaker 1: the things, but then you feel like soon as you
Speaker 1: do it, you turn around and it's gone back to
Speaker 1: how it was. And I tell you what, kids are
Speaker 1: really good at making messes, Like they're really really good
Speaker 1: at it. They give young Steph with her dolphin shower
Speaker 1: curtain a run of her money. You know, my house
Speaker 1: isn't spotless. It's not like Pinterest or anything like that,
Speaker 1: but it's clean ish and that is good enough for
Speaker 1: me because that really helps me with my mental load
Speaker 1: and also gets me my time back, you know. And
Speaker 1: for me right now, cleanish is good enough. That's the
Speaker 1: season of my life. Like I'm happy I don't need
Speaker 1: to have you know, I want my kids to feel
Speaker 1: like they can still play and they can do the things.
Speaker 1: But there's little rituals and things that we do that
Speaker 1: really really help for it not to turn into a
Speaker 1: shit show. Like for me, I always just thought I
Speaker 1: couldn't like I was incompetent, Like there was something wrong
Speaker 1: with me that I couldn't keep a space clean, Like
Speaker 1: I just had to be better. I had to be
Speaker 1: more organized, I had to be more disciplined. I just
Speaker 1: had to be better version of myself. But it turns
Speaker 1: out I just didn't have the systems. And these are
Speaker 1: the systems I'm going to be giving you today. Now,
Speaker 1: before I give you these weird and amazing systems to
Speaker 1: help get your house cleanish, we need to talk about
Speaker 1: why is this so hard? Like why is this such
Speaker 1: a punish for us to do a simple life task
Speaker 1: such as even like things like do you many dms? I
Speaker 1: get daily about even cooking and meal prep because it's
Speaker 1: like you think you think that when you when you're
Speaker 1: growing up. I think for me, I thought I'd get
Speaker 1: to a certain age and something would click into place
Speaker 1: and then everything would make sense. And I've talked about
Speaker 1: this before. How you know our parents' generation, it was
Speaker 1: very much you don't question them, and they look like
Speaker 1: they had their shit together. So then for us growing
Speaker 1: up especially as like millennials, we're waiting for this switch
Speaker 1: to flick and for us to understand the world and
Speaker 1: how to do our tax returns and things like that.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't happen. And I'm thirty five years old
Speaker 1: now and I'm still working things out. And it's the
Speaker 1: thing is, it was just it was a facade. It's
Speaker 1: obviously they obviously felt the pressure to do that too,
Speaker 1: and it's just, you know, keeping your house clean is
Speaker 1: another one of those things like some people, yes, they
Speaker 1: probably are just naturally gifted with it, and then there's
Speaker 1: people like me who have like five spatchelors and just
Speaker 1: have doom piles bloody everywhere. And the thing is, keeping
Speaker 1: a house clean isn't just tough physically because you have
Speaker 1: to physically do the thing. I feel like it's more
Speaker 1: so tough mentally. And that's because you know, imagine walking
Speaker 1: into a messy room, you feel your body tightened up
Speaker 1: straight away. And that's because every single thing thing you
Speaker 1: see is a micro decision. It's another decision you have
Speaker 1: to work out that cup on the bench, decision, the
Speaker 1: washing pile, or decision that toy under the couch, Another
Speaker 1: decision like should I wash this, Should I do that?
Speaker 1: Should I wipe that? What should I do today? And
Speaker 1: it's not so much keeping the house clean, it's about
Speaker 1: decision fatigue. We get it. We're so exhausted. Like think
Speaker 1: about when you wake up in the morning, if anything's
Speaker 1: not like a habit, like brushing your teeth, you wake
Speaker 1: up and you're like, oh, like, what am I gonna
Speaker 1: have for breakfast? What am I gonna wear? Which I
Speaker 1: have so many good hacks on for this later another time,
Speaker 1: like what time do you have to live house like?
Speaker 1: And if it's not like a habit, it's just exhausting.
Speaker 1: And that's why for me, especially when it hits like
Speaker 1: one PM or even lunch, I'm done. My brain is
Speaker 1: done for the day. And it's so hard too because
Speaker 1: I'll come home from work or like a day of
Speaker 1: meetings answering questions all day. And then you know my
Speaker 1: daughters who are so inquisitive. They they're so clever, and
Speaker 1: they have all these questions and most of the time
Speaker 1: I can't get the hump of them. Let's be honest,
Speaker 1: I'm usually like googling things because Harva wants to know
Speaker 1: some they're just so smart, and I'm just done. And
Speaker 1: that's because it's decision fatigue and our brain is just
Speaker 1: checked out. You know, you walk into every room every
Speaker 1: single day and you're like, do I follow this? Do
Speaker 1: I put it away? Do I vacuum? Do I ignore it?
Speaker 1: Do I spiral? Do I banish my family? And like,
Speaker 1: go live in the freaking forest. Your brain's already full.
Speaker 1: Your brain is so full of like the schedules, kids, work, emails,
Speaker 1: like is this person angry at me? You know, it's
Speaker 1: just like it's it's there's like forty seven micro decisions
Speaker 1: happening every minute, and then what do we do? We
Speaker 1: avoid it? We the mess accumulates and we feel like
Speaker 1: we're lazy, and we're not. We're just overloaded. And that's
Speaker 1: why I'm here. I'm here to help now, to get
Speaker 1: into the systems and the weird things I do to
Speaker 1: keep my house cleanish. Now, I want you to think of,
Speaker 1: say you're driving, and then it could be a song
Speaker 1: and the last time you heard that song was literally
Speaker 1: it could have been fifteen years ago, and you still
Speaker 1: remember word for word. But then it comes to things
Speaker 1: like maybe an appointment one day, or just things going
Speaker 1: on at school or at work, and you forget, and
Speaker 1: that's because our brain likes patterns, has like that pattern recognition.
Speaker 1: So one thing I do I really like to hack
Speaker 1: my brain a lot. And this is where I came
Speaker 1: up with the thing of theme days. So you know
Speaker 1: you already know I love alliteration unless you haven't noticed
Speaker 1: already from stuff face planners and things like that, and
Speaker 1: a lot of our marketing and stuff. I love just
Speaker 1: using alliteration and ponds. So I'm like, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to I want to play on that. I'm want
Speaker 1: to play with that, like pattern recognition and how our
Speaker 1: brains remember slogans like old ads and stuff like better
Speaker 1: go to all, better go to lows or whatever. And
Speaker 1: I want to do that with the cleaning, because cleaning
Speaker 1: is boring. Let's make it fun. Okay, So we're gonna
Speaker 1: use our pattern memory or pattern recognition, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it by having theme days, which I'll explain
Speaker 1: what they are in a minute. It's removing more micro decisions,
Speaker 1: so like every day, you're not gonna wake up and like, oh,
Speaker 1: should I do the laundry today? Should I do this?
Speaker 1: Should I do that? It's just like this is the
Speaker 1: day we do this because to be honest, we do
Speaker 1: need to be told what to do sometimes. I know
Speaker 1: for me being you know, the boss of SVP, I
Speaker 1: love that. Like now I've to on my team a
Speaker 1: lot of them, like can you just tell me what
Speaker 1: you want me to do today? Like I need someone
Speaker 1: just to tell me what to do. So here is
Speaker 1: where the idea of a theme day is. Each day
Speaker 1: of the week. You can have like a little catchy
Speaker 1: title to it, which I'll give you some mine in
Speaker 1: a minute, and that's the day you do a certain
Speaker 1: task or thing. Now, I used to do my cleaning
Speaker 1: schedule where it was more so just like you know, bedrooms,
Speaker 1: a Monday laundry is Tuesday. But now I've made it
Speaker 1: fun again with the whole alliteration thing and things like that.
Speaker 1: So when that day comes, your brain goes, okay, oh yep,
Speaker 1: this is the day we do this thing. So some
Speaker 1: examples for me are master and Mini's Monday. So this
Speaker 1: is basically like the master bedroom and the kids' bedrooms.
Speaker 1: So Monday is bedrooms, which has always been that way,
Speaker 1: but it really helps me to remember that. So this
Speaker 1: is the day I will vacuum the bedrooms, just like
Speaker 1: do a little quick tidy up. It will take me
Speaker 1: like five ten minutes, depending how massy we are. And
Speaker 1: this is also part of a tip later on, which
Speaker 1: is part of our AM and PM reset, which I'll
Speaker 1: talk about later. And then we have toilets and tiles Tuesday,
Speaker 1: so any of the wet areas, any told areas, that's
Speaker 1: the day, like you know, days get wiped down and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. Toilets get cleaned. That's a Tuesday. And
Speaker 1: then I've got wipe down Wednesday, which is more like
Speaker 1: a general clean, like just a bit of a wipe
Speaker 1: down for most benches and things like that. And then
Speaker 1: fresh sheet Friday. Love that day. Not really, it's like
Speaker 1: you know, when you bloody, it's always like you have
Speaker 1: the motivation in the morning to do the sheets, and
Speaker 1: then you forget because of the laundry, which I'll have
Speaker 1: a hack for soon, and then you're so tired and
Speaker 1: then you walk in and then the realization that you
Speaker 1: haven't done the sheets yet and you still have to
Speaker 1: do that before we get in bed is horrible. It sucks.
Speaker 1: It's worse than having a slow walker in front of you,
Speaker 1: like Dad said. And then we have set up Saturday,
Speaker 1: which is like restocking items like the soap, all the
Speaker 1: toilet paper, all that fun stuff, and also just like
Speaker 1: shopping your fridge and freezer to create a meal plan
Speaker 1: like for the week. So it's like you're setting yourself up.
Speaker 1: And that's also the day I like to try and
Speaker 1: fill in my planner for the next week. And then
Speaker 1: we've got shared space Sunday, so that's obviously any shared spaces,
Speaker 1: so like the lounge rooms a big one because that
Speaker 1: can accumulate fabit of stuff, but more of like a
Speaker 1: deeper clean in there too. And this whole idea of
Speaker 1: theme days works so well for dinners and meal planning.
Speaker 1: The thing is like I feel we do put a
Speaker 1: pressure on ourselves to try new meals every week and
Speaker 1: do something new every week. But for us and our family,
Speaker 1: we eat the same dinners every single week, and it
Speaker 1: works for us. It's like, you know, you like what
Speaker 1: you like, you know, so let's not like fix what's
Speaker 1: not broken, you know, So you can use this same idea.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure you've heard of meat free Mondays and
Speaker 1: then taco Tuesdays, So using stuff like that and just
Speaker 1: having a certain day per week where you know, okay,
Speaker 1: that's the day we eat pasta. You know, it could
Speaker 1: be Salmon's Saturdays, I don't know, like or whatever, seafood Saturdays.
Speaker 1: Take away those days whatever you want to do, and
Speaker 1: that again, it's removing the micro decisions, which also helps
Speaker 1: lighten the mental load. And that's the thing, that's the
Speaker 1: thing we want to do here. And just remembering all this,
Speaker 1: like your theme days or how you clean your house,
Speaker 1: that is going to change as your life changes. As
Speaker 1: I said, when the kids were little, I didn't have
Speaker 1: to like upkeep the lund room like twice a day,
Speaker 1: and now I do because they've decided they want to
Speaker 1: start a band and then do arts and craft and
Speaker 1: then they're going to do barbies or within half an hour.
Speaker 1: But when they were babies, theyre just laying there. I
Speaker 1: love your girls, but let's just chill now. My second
Speaker 1: hack or weird thing I do is a brain hack again,
Speaker 1: and this is my having my cleaning playlist. Now every
Speaker 1: time I clean my house, I play the exact same
Speaker 1: cleaning playlist. Now, this is all about Q association. So
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've been out and about. Maybe you've smelt
Speaker 1: something familiar or you've heard something and that memory from
Speaker 1: whenever you've first smelt that or heard that, it comes
Speaker 1: back and you get this memory. And it's the same
Speaker 1: idea with you know, having a certain ritual, so like
Speaker 1: you know, maybe once the kids go to bed, maybe
Speaker 1: you make a peppermint tea and you play your own playlist,
Speaker 1: and that like signals to your brain it's time to
Speaker 1: relax now. And that's because our brain is heavily tied toques,
Speaker 1: so q's usually equal action. So now when I put
Speaker 1: this playlist on, my brain goes, oh yeah, when we
Speaker 1: hear this, we're clean. This is what we're doing. So
Speaker 1: this is really helping with resistance because let's be honest,
Speaker 1: cleaning sucks. And also with me and ADHD, it's not
Speaker 1: very stimulating. So think something that is stimulating and creates
Speaker 1: dopamine is things like music, and that really really helps.
Speaker 1: And I have another with this, I'll tell you in
Speaker 1: a minute. But if you continue to do this and
Speaker 1: have these little rituals and cues, you will find your
Speaker 1: brain will just switch gears so much faster. And I
Speaker 1: did this heavily when I was writing my book. I
Speaker 1: would have the same playlist, I would light the same candle,
Speaker 1: and then I noticed, by like the second or third day,
Speaker 1: even I was switching into that like flow state so
Speaker 1: much faster, which we know is so hard. And if
Speaker 1: you guys don't know what a flow state is, it's
Speaker 1: kind of like when you're able to be so focused
Speaker 1: on a task, you kind of lose sense of time
Speaker 1: because you're just flowing, which is what we want, unless
Speaker 1: you hyper fixate on things for like four hours. But anyway,
Speaker 1: it is so much easier when you have this I
Speaker 1: actually have which I actually have a certain we'll have
Speaker 1: two playlists, one for like a morning reset and one
Speaker 1: for our evening reset. I know it's a bit excessive,
Speaker 1: but I will give you guys the links if you
Speaker 1: want them as well, and it's on Spotify, so you
Speaker 1: really will see this playlist as like a trigger. So
Speaker 1: when you have the trigger, you get the action, and
Speaker 1: that is where you're really going to be hacking your brain.
Speaker 1: And also, not to mention, you're reducing the should I moment?
Speaker 1: So you remember at the start of this episode, I
Speaker 1: was saying, every day you're saying like should I do this?
Speaker 1: Should I do that? Should I mop? Should I do
Speaker 1: the washing? You're not asking that anymore because number one,
Speaker 1: you've got your theme day now you know, yes, it's
Speaker 1: wipe down Wednesdays. Let's go. Now, I've got my playlist pumpin'
Speaker 1: and I'm listening to bloody Mariah Carey like we're good
Speaker 1: to go, mate, and we're getting the dope of meine.
Speaker 1: We're getting it all done. And you know, this is
Speaker 1: what we do on Wednesdays. And look, don't get me wrong,
Speaker 1: the first few times, you're gonna have a little bit
Speaker 1: of resistance, but once your brain knows the queue and
Speaker 1: the trigger, it's gonna be so much easier. Now, my
Speaker 1: next hack, and this is honestly like, oh, I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm a genius really for this fun Now this
Speaker 1: is I love baskets. Now, I love tubs, baskets, anything
Speaker 1: that can contain the mess or categorize the mess. Now,
Speaker 1: this hack is called my catch or basket. And I'm
Speaker 1: sure you might have seen it on social So this
Speaker 1: is the idea where you get a bar basket and
Speaker 1: you put it in one high traffic area of your home. Now,
Speaker 1: in our house, we actually have one basket each for
Speaker 1: the girls and I have one for myself. Ryan doesn't
Speaker 1: really tend to need one because I feel like he
Speaker 1: doesn't have like a lot of stuff, whereas yeah, us
Speaker 1: girls just have stuff anyway, So we have our names
Speaker 1: on it and they sit in the lound room and
Speaker 1: then basically you can kind of call these this doesn't
Speaker 1: bloody belong here basket. So anything that doesn't belong in
Speaker 1: that space, whoever it belongs to, goes into their basket.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of the day we put
Speaker 1: our stuff away, so we're like batching the mess. And
Speaker 1: it's not like, you know, you could just do this
Speaker 1: as one basket. But for me, again, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: reduce the micro decisions and trying to figure things out.
Speaker 1: So when everyone's stuff's mixed together, see if it's one
Speaker 1: basket and it's got Harper stuff, Willows stuff, my stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm still having to then separate it. And this is
Speaker 1: also why I started using washbags when I do the
Speaker 1: laundry to separate Harper and Willows stuff. But I can
Speaker 1: still do the same load because I hate having to
Speaker 1: like do the extra steps. The less steps the better.
Speaker 1: And you're not now when you have like a catch
Speaker 1: or basket, you're not cleaning it twenty times a day,
Speaker 1: You're not constantly going back to their rooms. You're just
Speaker 1: chucking things into people's baskets and then you do a
Speaker 1: little reset lap and then it's not our problem anymore
Speaker 1: and you look just the kids still shove half their
Speaker 1: room in the basket, yes they do, and still sometimes
Speaker 1: like I will have to put their stuff away, but
Speaker 1: at least it's easier. Like batching is just life changing.
Speaker 1: When you can just do everything at once and not
Speaker 1: have to constantly be picking up tiny things all day,
Speaker 1: your life will be changed. And also with like psychology,
Speaker 1: they say visual containment lowers anxiety. So if you see
Speaker 1: like you know, if you see a pantry and you
Speaker 1: see there's like chips and things everywhere's it makes you
Speaker 1: feel a bit more chaotic. But when you see them
Speaker 1: just shoved in a tub, you feel like it's like
Speaker 1: more organized. And I love a gook top so and
Speaker 1: Amazon's just the best anyway, moving on, this also is
Speaker 1: linked to my next tip, which is the bench basket.
Speaker 1: Now this has to do. It's pretty much the same
Speaker 1: kind of thing, but it's for the kitchen because I
Speaker 1: feel like the kitchen bench is probably worse than the
Speaker 1: lounge room for me. And we have like the butler's pantry,
Speaker 1: which is awesome and then we have the main kitchen,
Speaker 1: which still like it kind of doesn't make really make sense,
Speaker 1: but it's cool anyway. And the idea behind that is
Speaker 1: to you're meant to like utilize the butler's pantry. So
Speaker 1: then the main kitchen looks clean like no one lives there,
Speaker 1: which we love, but it doesn't happen in my house.
Speaker 1: So the bench basket is the same kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It's a really cute little rope basket. Anything that's on
Speaker 1: the kitchen bench that doesn't belong there goes in there
Speaker 1: or goes into someone's tub. And then we do a
Speaker 1: reset lap and like empty that at night too. So look,
Speaker 1: and again with this stuff, we're not perfect guys. We
Speaker 1: don't do these things like every single day to the tee,
Speaker 1: but we do try to stick to it and that
Speaker 1: helps a lot. And look, even with the tubs, like
Speaker 1: even if it's like a couple of days goes by,
Speaker 1: or even a few days and then then the tubs
Speaker 1: start to overflow, then we're like, okay, let's let's put
Speaker 1: this stuff away now. And it's just at least it's contained,
Speaker 1: it's not spread across the bloody lounge room floor. And
Speaker 1: I'm stepping on pole pockets. Now, my next tip is
Speaker 1: for laundry. And I know, I know there's others out
Speaker 1: there like me, but the amount of times I've re
Speaker 1: washed a load because its smell like regret because I
Speaker 1: forgot to transfer it to the dryer or like hang
Speaker 1: it is insane, Like I don't want to think about
Speaker 1: how many times I've done that now, because you know,
Speaker 1: we forget things and every load takes a different amount
Speaker 1: of time usually, And you know, this is where I
Speaker 1: really love using some washing machines have the delayed start timer,
Speaker 1: so you can actually, like say, what I do a
Speaker 1: lot is I'll pop a load in, but I'll delay
Speaker 1: the start, like say at nighttime, and I'll say start
Speaker 1: in ten hours, so when I wake up, it's ready
Speaker 1: to be hung up straight away. And for me, I'm
Speaker 1: really I'm much more willing to do things in the morning,
Speaker 1: like I'm more motivated. So that's why how I kind
Speaker 1: of organize it. Some people will do that before work
Speaker 1: and then they'll hang it up after work, but you
Speaker 1: need something to remind you to do the thing. So
Speaker 1: this is super simple. But this is where I set
Speaker 1: alarms now every time I put a load in I
Speaker 1: do a transfer timer, so a timer that literally says
Speaker 1: move the washing or it's going to smell, literally because
Speaker 1: I'm having to redo it all the time. So that
Speaker 1: is what I do. And I now I've started using
Speaker 1: Siri a lot more. Now I have to say, I
Speaker 1: kind of forgot about old Ciri. She's really helpful. So
Speaker 1: now for me, anywhere I can remove the resistance into
Speaker 1: having to physically set a timer, I would just say like, hey, Siri,
Speaker 1: set me at an alarm or whatever. And that's what
Speaker 1: I do. And now I've done this, the washing gets
Speaker 1: actually completed much more often. So that's super helpful. And
Speaker 1: the thing is, it's it's not us being lazy, you know.
Speaker 1: It's just about our working memory, and we're not. We
Speaker 1: don't have built in clocks, or some people probably do,
Speaker 1: but I do not. I don't even have it. I
Speaker 1: have no sense of direction. I've got like no GPS,
Speaker 1: no inner GPS, spatially awkward, specially unaware. Like anyway, now
Speaker 1: we've got our theme days, we've got our baskets, we've
Speaker 1: got our timers. Now we're going to be moving on
Speaker 1: to the five minute rule. Now, there's always going to
Speaker 1: be times where you just like I do not want
Speaker 1: to do this. I know it's bloody set up Saturday,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to like look in my fridge
Speaker 1: and figure out a meal plan. So one thing when
Speaker 1: I don't want to clean or do the things, I
Speaker 1: don't negotiate it with myself for forty five minutes like
Speaker 1: I used to, I negotiate for five minutes. So what
Speaker 1: I do is, you know, starting anything is the hardest part.
Speaker 1: We know that starting anything is literally the hardest thing.
Speaker 1: But momentum builds dopamine, and momentum builds more momentum. So
Speaker 1: I tell myself, Okay, I said a timer for five minutes.
Speaker 1: I want to do whatever this thing is for five minutes.
Speaker 1: And when the timer goes off and I hate it,
Speaker 1: I can stop, And ninety nine percent of the time
Speaker 1: I will just keep going because you're already in the flow.
Speaker 1: When you get it done, you put on your playlist,
Speaker 1: you do the thing. So doing a little five minute
Speaker 1: timer really really helps. Another thing I love to do,
Speaker 1: and this is a little bit excessive, I build mine
Speaker 1: on camber because I use that full work. I will
Speaker 1: make like a bingo card, like a cleaning bingo card.
Speaker 1: But I'll just kind of like change it up for
Speaker 1: whatever it needs to be done that day. Because when
Speaker 1: you have it on a Bingo card and you get
Speaker 1: to like cross it off, it's just really satisfying. It's
Speaker 1: like you know what to do list and you get
Speaker 1: to tick things off. And I'm always that person, like
Speaker 1: I will do things that isn't on my to do list,
Speaker 1: but then I will write it down and tick it off. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's what I do with the Bingo card. So honestly,
Speaker 1: if I should make a template for you guys, let
Speaker 1: me know if you want me to do that. Just
Speaker 1: like take a photo of you guys listening to this
Speaker 1: episode and tell me if you want a Bingo card,
Speaker 1: because I will make you one, and I'll make it
Speaker 1: edit like you can edit in camera or whatever. Because
Speaker 1: it really helps. And also I've used it with the
Speaker 1: kids so when they need to do some chores and
Speaker 1: stuff and then when they like the middle square will
Speaker 1: be like unlocking like a treat or something, or like
Speaker 1: maybe we go to the park or whatever. It really helps.
Speaker 1: Now the next thing I do to keep the mess
Speaker 1: at bay Ish is am and PM resets. Now these
Speaker 1: are life changing, and I know you've probably seen them
Speaker 1: on social media. I've been doing them for so bloody
Speaker 1: long and they do change as well. But soon as
Speaker 1: I stop these, that's when shit hits the fan. Because
Speaker 1: it's not about like never making mess, it's about preventing
Speaker 1: and like just being more proactive. So like for us,
Speaker 1: when I started doing this, I kind of wanted to
Speaker 1: zoom out. I looked at our day and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: when does the mess happen? Like when does the biggest
Speaker 1: amount of mess happen? And it's always in the morning
Speaker 1: and then also after like you know, witching our own
Speaker 1: like the dinner time rush. So that's why why we
Speaker 1: do amm PM resets. No, Like when you think about it,
Speaker 1: it's like when you want to get into fitness, you
Speaker 1: need to get into the habit of going to the gym.
Speaker 1: It needs to become a habit and it's something you
Speaker 1: need to do every single day to get results. And
Speaker 1: it's the same as cleaning and de cluttering, Like we
Speaker 1: need this to become a habit because when it becomes
Speaker 1: a habit, there's less resistance. So hence we do things
Speaker 1: like we use timers, we use the cleaning playlist, and
Speaker 1: for me, I actually do have two cleaning playlists. I've
Speaker 1: got one for the AM reset, so it's a bit
Speaker 1: more like motivational, bit more like energy kind of music.
Speaker 1: And then the PM reset is more you know, like
Speaker 1: listening to like Coldplay and shit like that and like
Speaker 1: the red Hot Chili peppers and all the old things
Speaker 1: that I used to love. So it gives me different
Speaker 1: energies and my brain goes, oh, yeah, we're putting the
Speaker 1: house to bed, you know, Oh no, we're setting up
Speaker 1: for the day. So doing these mini resets morning and
Speaker 1: evening are really going to help you reset after the
Speaker 1: morning rush where everyone's getting ready. Like, for example, for me,
Speaker 1: like I didn't realize how important it was to do
Speaker 1: the morning reset until after I had kids, because you know,
Speaker 1: you're getting everyone ready for school or like daycare or whatever,
Speaker 1: and then you come home and the house is a
Speaker 1: shit show still, And it really does only take a
Speaker 1: cup like five ten minutes, and if you do it
Speaker 1: as you go and it becomes a habit, it's so
Speaker 1: much easier. So for example, like think about in the
Speaker 1: morning rush, what you're doing and you're getting ready. So
Speaker 1: for me, I'll have like makeup and hair stuff cluttered
Speaker 1: all over the bathroom, the kitchen is a mess from
Speaker 1: breakfast and the kids, and then you've got the lounge
Speaker 1: room that's also a mess from the kids. Sorry kids,
Speaker 1: And then you know, you've got all of that, so
Speaker 1: it's just like resetting that so when you are coming
Speaker 1: home from work or dropping off or whatever you're doing,
Speaker 1: you're not coming back to that chaos. And then you
Speaker 1: also if you didn't do that, the stuff that happens
Speaker 1: throughout the day, and then after the dinner rush, it's
Speaker 1: even bigger. I no wonder we're so overwhelmed because at
Speaker 1: the end of the day we're also exhausted, so we're
Speaker 1: not really helping future us at all. It's making it
Speaker 1: much worse, so it's even more important. On another note,
Speaker 1: to put the house to bed is what we're going
Speaker 1: to call it. Some people call it closing shift, so
Speaker 1: I think if you're in hospitality, they call it closing
Speaker 1: shift where they reset everything. And I don't know about
Speaker 1: you guys, but there's something about waking up to a
Speaker 1: clean house that just makes me feel like I've got
Speaker 1: my shit together. You know, These mini resets are more
Speaker 1: so about maintenance. They're not about hustling or being perfect
Speaker 1: and it's not like we're deep cleaning daily. It's just
Speaker 1: upkeep daily. Now when you've got your theme days and
Speaker 1: you've got your little resets and things like that, we
Speaker 1: really do need our visual cues to remember. And like
Speaker 1: I love a label, you know, we as I always
Speaker 1: used to joke that if Ryan stood still for too long,
Speaker 1: I would label him husband because my brain it just
Speaker 1: really helps to have like constant reminders of like this
Speaker 1: is what we do at this time. Because I don't
Speaker 1: know about you guys, but I have like the memory
Speaker 1: of a goldfish and having you know, even though when
Speaker 1: you think about it in KINDI and stuff, when we're
Speaker 1: learning things, we have visual cues around the classroom to
Speaker 1: remember what we just learned. And why aren't we doing
Speaker 1: that as adults, Like why don't we why don't we
Speaker 1: have our routines on the wall. You know, we can
Speaker 1: make them more aesthetic in all the things, but it's
Speaker 1: important we do that. So this is where I actually
Speaker 1: made is a Steph faced Planner's product. It's a magnet.
Speaker 1: It's a cleaning schedule magnet. She's aesthetic, of course. Chuck
Speaker 1: her on the fridge and then I've got my routines
Speaker 1: on there, so I've got my AM reset, I've got
Speaker 1: my PM reset, and then I've got my theme days
Speaker 1: written down. So not only am I reminded of what days,
Speaker 1: what the family is too. And this is where you
Speaker 1: can get them to help. And I know it's like
Speaker 1: you're probably like rolling your eyes, like Steph, how the
Speaker 1: hell am supposed to them to help? But it's all
Speaker 1: about just like making it fun and like like for me,
Speaker 1: I used to struggle to get the girls to help,
Speaker 1: and look, there's still days where they're like, no, Mum,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. But I would play the playlist
Speaker 1: that I have and then they get into it and
Speaker 1: they love it. And it's just like you can make
Speaker 1: it like a fun thing. You get the timer involved,
Speaker 1: you do the bingo cards, and it's not like you
Speaker 1: don't have to run your house like a boot camp.
Speaker 1: But we like everyone lives there, everyone does need a
Speaker 1: chip in. We're also giving our kids the lessons that
Speaker 1: we needed on how to upkeep a house because we're
Speaker 1: figuring it out too. And it's the same, like it's
Speaker 1: the same concept as out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker 1: So if we're not constantly being reminded we're going to forget.
Speaker 1: And that's why I always say if people are new
Speaker 1: to using a planner, you need to have it open
Speaker 1: on your kitchen bench or anywhere where you are mostly
Speaker 1: so it could be your office, your bedroom, whatever, but
Speaker 1: always have it open because out of sight is out
Speaker 1: of mind. And my last tip is to reward yourself. Okay,
Speaker 1: like we're not dogs to a bone, but we may
Speaker 1: as well be. I again, we need the dopamine hit,
Speaker 1: so one like these don't have to be like we're
Speaker 1: not buying ourselves presents unless you really want to and
Speaker 1: you end up on Amazon scrolling for so long. We
Speaker 1: don't need half of the things, but you know, just
Speaker 1: rewarding ourselves, like you've done the laundry. Okay, light that
Speaker 1: really boogie expensive candle that you got as a present,
Speaker 1: or you got the dishes done, make a nice coffee,
Speaker 1: or if you folded a load of washing, Like sit
Speaker 1: down and scroll on your phone for fifteen Okay, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, scroll on your phone for an hour and
Speaker 1: not feel guilty about it, because when you know, there's
Speaker 1: a bit of a like a dopamine hit afterwards. So
Speaker 1: like for me, when I finish cleaning I always light
Speaker 1: a candle. I don't know what it is, because candles
Speaker 1: make me feel like cozy and like it's fresh, and
Speaker 1: it's like a ritual now, just like the playlist, and
Speaker 1: it really really helps to have that. So once I've
Speaker 1: lit that candle, I get this dope mean hit, like yes,
Speaker 1: you did it again, and it becomes a cue. So
Speaker 1: I hope all of these weird and wacky tips have
Speaker 1: helped you, and I think it's just so important we
Speaker 1: kind of just be more honest about how what a
Speaker 1: punish it is to try to be an adult sometimes,
Speaker 1: because you know, keeping the house clean and meal planning
Speaker 1: and cooking and keeping up with everyone's calendars is just
Speaker 1: not like a natural thing for everyone. And I feel
Speaker 1: like it's not really a natural thing for anyone because
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like as humans, we weren't meant
Speaker 1: to be living in this such a fast paced lifestyle.
Speaker 1: And you know, with technology and all the obviously it's
Speaker 1: got amazing opportunities, but the mental load and like our
Speaker 1: mental health do take a huge dive. So I think
Speaker 1: it's important that we stop being so I don't know,
Speaker 1: like try always trying to hide our mess and we're
Speaker 1: ashamed of our mess. Instead, like, let's open up about
Speaker 1: our mess so we can share our tips with each
Speaker 1: other about how we manage our own messes. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I just think it's super important. So and don't forget guys.
Speaker 1: If you want your free cleaning scheduled template download, just
Speaker 1: hop into the show notes and hit the link there.
Speaker 1: And if this episode made you feel a little bit
Speaker 1: less alone in your mess and you're chaos, please just
Speaker 1: take a photo, share it on Instagram or whatever. I
Speaker 1: would just love to hear it, or even just like
Speaker 1: shoot me a message in my DMS on Instagram and
Speaker 1: it would mean so much to me. And also just
Speaker 1: send this to a friend who might be struggling with
Speaker 1: the same stuff as you, which is pretty much all
Speaker 1: of us. And here's a reminder to make sure you
Speaker 1: go set your timer to transfer your washing so it
Speaker 1: doesn't smell. I will see you guys next week.