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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is about one simple way to make life easier.

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Speaker 1: Avoid anything with special instructions. So I am all for

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Speaker 1: the little touches that make life feel special, but you

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Speaker 1: want to make sure that anything requiring special care is

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Speaker 1: truly worth the effort. For ordinary stuff, it is wise

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Speaker 1: to go as low maintenance as possible. So when you

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Speaker 1: are shopping for clothes, check the tags to see whether

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Speaker 1: an item will require dry cleaning, or ironing or hand washing.

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Speaker 1: If so, you might want to move on. Even with

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Speaker 1: work clothes, you can often find dress pains, ants and

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Speaker 1: tops that don't require special instructions. Just wash cold and

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Speaker 1: tumble dry low. The goal should be to make laundry

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Speaker 1: day easier rather than more complicated. As for dishes, if

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Speaker 1: it can't go in the dishwasher, think long and hard

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Speaker 1: about whether it needs to be in your house. If

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Speaker 1: you are buying furniture or rugs, go for ones with

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Speaker 1: performance fabrics that wipe clean easily, or go for ones

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Speaker 1: that are colorful or interesting enough that they don't show

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Speaker 1: a bit of dirt. If you're cooking a weekday dinner.

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Speaker 1: Don't choose a food that will be ruined by an

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Speaker 1: extra minute or two in the oven, and don't choose

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Speaker 1: something that will require a trip to another grocery store

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Speaker 1: for a random ingredient. Choose house plants that aren't fussy

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Speaker 1: about when they are watered or that require an exact

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Speaker 1: amount of sunlight in order to thrive. I would also

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Speaker 1: think long and hard about kids' activities that are going

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Speaker 1: to require driving long distances at inopportune times, or that

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Speaker 1: move around a lot constantly. Reworking the family schedule with

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Speaker 1: special instructions is no fun. If you have a naturally

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Speaker 1: complex life, like lots of kids or a job that

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Speaker 1: changes day to day, then you want to develop good

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Speaker 1: routines that make everything else as automatic as possible. Anything

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Speaker 1: with special instructions is by definition a deviation from the routine.

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Speaker 1: It means you can't just throw your clothes in the

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Speaker 1: washing machine and then in the dryer. It means you

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Speaker 1: can't just put it all in the dishwasher and be

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Speaker 1: done with it. So in general, avoid special instructions. Ask

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Speaker 1: how to make life easier, and don't make life harder

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Speaker 1: unless there is a really good reason Tuesday's outfit probably

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Speaker 1: isn't it. In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 1: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 1: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 1: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.