>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show prescribing Hope for Healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck. Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite part of the afternoon, getting to spend time with you prescribing Hope for Healthy Families. Today is a day that I have been looking forward to. Starting in January, we announced some different series that we were going to be doing and one of those series is called the Declutter Diaries. Now, you may have heard, every month, once a month we've had, cluttering decluttering expert Kathi Lipp on. And she has fast become just such a wise voice of counsel in my life. She has become a friend. And, you know, this could be taken out of context, but she's become a woman my husband really loves, or so he tells me. He is so happy about how she is helping me to declutter my life. This is something that I really struggle with for sure. And if you've missed any of the Declutter Diaries, you can go back and look for those episodes with Kathi Lipp. We have talked about all kinds of things. How do we hold on to those memories that we have while not holding onto the clutter? How do we transform that clutter into meaningful memories? We've talked about managing our kids stuff, managing our parents stuff. We have talked about how we have the carry the emotional weight of clutter. We've talked about some specific strategies for clutter and we talked about last. Last month we talked about after we declutter, how do we keep it from re accumulating. That can be really hard. And today we're going to dive into some more specifics. Now, apparently Kathi heard from a lot of you afterwards saying, yes, this is great. I want more specifics. Now listen, you can go to join Kathi's Facebook page. She has a Facebook group that's completely free. It's Kathi Lipp's That's K A T H I Kathi Lipps Clutter Free Academy. And then if you want to take it a step further, she has a paid subscription group and she has some books. But I know this is something that a lot of us are dealing with. I've gotten probably more emails about this issue than any other. I get more questions usually about kids using technology. But when it comes to us, this is something that is really there. Now, summer often brings a breath of fresh air. And we're in the summer now. And I have to say I, you know, I have to say it. I know some of you need to cover your ears right now because I'm going to say something that's highly offensive to you, but I'm not sorry. We are now past June 25, so we're now closer to Christmas than we were away from it. I know. See, I just said it. I know some of you are groaning, but that's okay. I love you anyway. But we are in the summer and it does bring a breath of fresh air. I love summer. It's a time when we open the windows, we shake off the routines of the school year, we shake off busy seasons, and we find ourselves just craving a little more space. Maybe we have a little more emotional energy to tackle something because the days are longer or the kids aren't in school, or we just have more opportunity and we see clutter, physical, emotional clutter that just blocks that sense of freedom. And it's not just about the piles in the garage. It's not just about that junk drawer that just keeps reaccumulating. Clutter really does carry emotional weight. Every time you open that junk drawer, you think, oh, I need to clean this out. But then it feels like you clean it out and it just reaccumulates. And sometimes clutter can signal grief, it can signal avoidance, it can signal guilt, it can signal overwhelm. And research actually shows that cluttered spaces can make us feel more anxious. It literally elevates our cortisol levels. It elevates our stress. Now, especially for women who are balancing work and caregiving and life's daily demands and trying to do all of the things and. And men too, it is not a. It is. It is not a discriminator. For sure. It affects everybody. So this summer could be your opportunity to pause and ask, what am I holding on to that is holding me back? What might I gain by letting go? So today we're going to have Kathi join us. We're taking a very gentle, grace filled look, as she always does, at those emotional roots of the clutter. And we'll talk about some real specifics here and maybe why this season of. On the season of maybe a simpler schedule. It might be the perfect time to begin again. Now, we actually just had a major power surge at the studio and so we're working on getting our connection back up so that we can talk to Kathi. But in the meantime, I can share with you some of the things that I have learned on this decluttering journey.
Use it up means don't waste. Now some of you, your ears just perked
And one thing that we're going to talk about today that I have learned from Kathi that we haven't yet shared with you in her book the Clutter free home, which you can see I have a dog eared here. the Clutter free making room for your life. She has a chapter in the back called use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. Now some of you, your ears just perked just now and you think, I have heard that before. Now actually, this is a piece of frugal wisdom that originated in the United States and was really popular during the Great Depression and World War II. And, and it's reminding us that we being resourceful, having self discipline, living intentionally, these are great values that really are relevant today. And if you listen to me on a regular basis, you know, I love for generations to share their wisdom that they have learned from generation to generation. And we can learn about what they did, especially in conversations about clutter or sustainability or simplicity. So when we look at this phrase again, I'm gonna say it again just cause it's kind of fun to say use it up, wear it out, make it, do or do without. And Kathi and I are gonna give you a challenge to take that on. This summer, we look back at the Great Depression and this phrase kind of captured what families were feeling, struggling to survive during economic hardship because money and goods were scarce and people had to creatively stretch what they had. And we saw this a little bit. I don't in any way want to compare the experiences, but seeking some common ground of relatability, we saw this in supply chain shortages during COVID Now I remember a very specific point in time where I realized that we had a toilet paper crisis in our house. Does anybody else remember this? And thinking for the first time in my entire life here in the United States, like, what am I going to do if I don't have toilet paper? Like, we really don't have any. And we're a household of six, so it is high consumption there. And I remember, my good friend and now producer, she was so generous to me. One day I opened my door and what did I see on the porch there? But I saw a package of toilet paper. Let me tell you how much that meant to me because I knew what a sacrifice it was for her to give and to share that with me when hoarding was the mindset of the day. But we can learn from previous generations that simply didn't have. And they were much more resourceful than we are now. When we look at World War II, of course, in the 1940s, that phrase came back because there was rationing and conserving materials from the war effort, it was not only patriotic, I mean, it was essential to life. And so they had posters and government campaigns that promoted the idea to help manage supply shortages. And we live in such a consumer centric world right now where you can just use everything. You just use something and maybe just get another. I know I have that. When I have clutter, sometimes I buy something I don't need because I can't find that one thing that I have. So let's, let's look at that a little more detailed. Use it up means don't waste. Finish what you already have. Whether that's food in the fridge, shampoo in the bottle, scraps of paper or fabric, do what you can and then wear it out using items until they're no longer functional. Make it do, adapt. Like, maybe your blender isn't fancy, maybe your mix. I have a mixer that I got when I got married. It has been there that long. It still works. It's great. It's not the prettiest. Like what? I like to have a pretty color, sure. But it still works. Or do without. Now that is the most radical probably thinking, do I really need this? And I think that we have my friend Kathi on the line. Kathi, I am so grateful that you're back. I am so looking forward to this public therapy session where I'm literally going to air my dirty laundry and have you helped me sort it out, get rid of what I don't need, and not reaccumulate the clutter. How have you been, friend?
>> Kathi Lipp: I have been so great. And it's so funny that you talk about sorting laundry because I posted something the other day on Facebook that just about people almost. I mean, they were having big feelings about it.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I don't.
>> Kathi Lipp: My clothes.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You don't sort your clothes. That's wild, right? You're such a renegade.
>> Kathi Lipp: I am.
>> Kathi Lipp: Because you know what?
>> Kathi Lipp: It was piling up and piling up and piling up. And so I throw it in the washer. I put everything I can, that I need to in there. And I throw in a color catcher if I think anything's going to bleed.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: And you know what?
>> Kathi Lipp: Nobody in my house has died. Nobody's sick. We are all moving through. But people were like, they angry with me.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Oh, my goodness.
>> Kathi Lipp: Yeah. And I, you know, if there's something delicate, I, you know, every once in a while I'll pull something out. But you know, I just throw that into a lingerie bag and they're like. You throw, you put your kitchen towels in with your underwear. That's the grossest thing I'm hearing.
>> Kathi Lipp: I'm hearing myself on.
>> Kathi Lipp: On the zoom call. Sorry about that.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Sorry about that. That's okay. It is okay. We've had some, we've had some technical challenges and you know, Kathi, I feel like we don't often have technical challenges, but every time you're on, we do. So I just feel like the enemy is at work. He does not want families to declutter because he is using that chaos in their homes to create chaos in their relationship. We're just going to push right through. It's okay.
After the last show, people wanted more specifics on decluttering
Well, speaking of big feelings, Kathi, you told me that after the last show, people had some big feelings and they wanted more specifics. Now, you probably heard me say they can go to your Facebook page, they can join your group. There's lots of other resources. But I just want to let you tidy up, shall we say? If we're using some cheesy puns here, why don't we tidy up any loose ends that we had and, and answer some of those questions that you've been having about the more specifics, of the things that people were saying. Like, yeah, we talked about organization, but what were some of the questions that people had? What do they want to know?
>> Kathi Lipp: They wanted to be bossed around. And if you need somebody to boss you around, I am here for it, you know, because we gave some very general principles in there and I stand by those principles. But one of the things that I think that has been a part of my struggle for a long time, and I told my clients, I told my Facebook group, 75% of this is decluttering. It really is. It's getting rid of the stuff because you can't organize clutter. Right. And so, I have not really talked about organizational tools because I think most of us need to really work on just paring down to what we use love and would buy again. And then everybody wants to go straight to the color coordinated, boxes and. Right. Because that's fun and we love them. I would love buy my way out of a problem. And so I thought we could talk a little bit today about some, yes, some of the general principles, but really get specific on some of the things that you can do to put some boundaries in place on your stuff. Because not only does our stuff need boundaries, we need boundaries. And we can do that for you today.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Absolutely. And you know, I wonder about this. You know, of course, for me as a nurse practitioner, I'm very invested, invested in holistic health. And I just Wonder how many people are going to counseling for anxiety or depression. And is that counselor asking you about clutter in your house? Because I feel like this accumulation, it may not be the cause of it. Obviously I'm not trying to pin it on that. But I wonder how much better you would feel if you could get control of that. Because maybe you come out of your counseling appointment and you feel like, okay, we've made some progress. And then you go back to your horribly messy house and your spouse griping at you because your shoes are still all over the floor because you haven't gotten an organization system. And we have so much more to talk about. We're coming up already on our first break, Kathi, but when we come back, I'm going to let you dive right into those specifics.
Use it up, wear it out, make it, do or do without
And I want to go back to this, what I was talking about, this last chapter of your book. I feel like I'm going to be making up a jingle in my head now. The use it up, wear it out, make it, do or do without. Because I feel like those are some really specific strategies that we could take in a, in a world that really is the current kind of mindset is treat yourself, you deserve it. Just buy it. You know, buy more stuff. How can we, learn from those past generations? How can we learn to use things to that, to wear them out, to use them until they're no longer functional, or to make it do or do without. I'll tell you, my husband is a king at this. Like a king. So much so that it's almost to the opposite where I'm saying like, okay, honey, you got, got holes in the shoes now. He's like, they still work, they're still functional, they're fine. He loves using things until they cannot be used anymore. When we come back, Kathi is going to dive into some specifics of that. We'll give you some specific help again. You can join her Facebook Academy, Kathi Lipp's Clutter Free Academy, or you can look at her book and you can find her online. Or you can just meet us right here on the other side of this break where we dive into some specifics. We'll see you in just a minute.
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>> Up + Up by Colton Dixon: Even Though I walk through the valley sometimes it feels like a crawl the valley but I got a promise that I hold on tight to I can't lose when I'm right beside you yeah God, I know the plans you have for me when my cup is overflowing so while I'm in the end between I'ma live my life knowing if I get down you pick me up from the ground you give me love and don't give out give in no condition you lift me up and up again now no matter who surrounds
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Like a welcome back, friends. That song is Up + Up by Colton Dixon. And listen, your day is headed up from here. We're so glad you're joining us here in the afternoon. No matter what you're facing, we are here to give you some encouragement and some hope.
Clutter can interfere with family gatherings and friendships, Kathi Lipp says
And today we are continuing our series in the Declutter Diaries with Kathi Lipp. And we're talking today about using it up, wearing it out, making it do or doing without. And you know, there's just something about summer, I think that invites us to slow down, gather with people we love, linger over barbecue, enjoy a lighter pace. But but clutter can interfere with that. Maybe we don't want to invite people over. Maybe it steals our time. Maybe it's making us frustrated. Maybe it's quietly building some walls between us and the people closest to us. And maybe you've just avoided hosting that barbecue because your house feels too messy. And maybe tension in your relationship is brewing over those shared spaces. When are you going to clean out your side of the closet? Or this stuff you have in my garage? Or some unspoken expectations? I thought you were going to handle this, but I just haven't been able to. Clutter doesn't just impact our stress levels. It chips away at our connections, at, our intimacy and our relationships and our joy. And this season is just a natural time to reset, clear those services, clear the emotional baggage that comes with them, and make some room, both literally and figuratively, for what really matters. So, Kathi, we were talking about after the last episode, people had some big feelings. We've already established that you do not sort your laundry. So if that's going to, you know, really take away your credibility for some people, we'll give them the. The right to exit here. But, hey, I feel like whatever works. I, probably people would have a heart attack over the way that I load the dishwasher, but that's okay. Now my husband's laughing because he's saying, what do you mean you don't load the dishwasher at all? But anyway, let's talk about specifics.
Use it up, wear it out, make do, do without
And, Kathi, let's start with this chapter in your book you have called use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. This is a great specific way that we can avoid bringing more clutter into our homes to manage. So take us away with the specifics. Give me a sermon. I'm here ready in the choir to clap and give you all the amens.
>> Kathi Lipp: Yes. So, America was at war and the resources were going away, and, the government said, we need you to use it up, wear it out, make do, do without. And I have taken that as. As somebody who loves a little excess. Let's, let's, you know, if you're a cluttery person, let's be clear. We, you know, we just talked about how we love to buy ourselves out of a situation. We love to acquire more and more and to really focus on, can I use what I already have? Can I, use it up, wear it out. Can I make those jeans last a little bit longer? Make, do. Do I really need another pair of jeans? Or do the 4 pairs or 8 pairs or 12 pairs I already have? Are they enough? do without. Maybe. Everybody I know, is it, you know, loves a good Stanley cup or a Yeti cup, but you know what? Maybe that Starbucks cup that somebody gave me at work 10 years ago is still working just fine. So do with. Do I really need the new thing, or could I just not have it? And it's really interesting, Jessica. every year in our clutter free community on Facebook. Facebook, we do a challenge in July, and it's called Low by July. It used to be called no by July, but everybody, cluttery people can be very black and white, and they're like, well, you know, I popped a tire, but it's no by July. So I. No, no, no. That's not what we're talking about. Go get the tire. But are there things that I can do to not be bringing more stuff into my house in the month of July? And some people are like, well, July doesn't work for me because everybody has a birthday. Would you reduce what comes into your house by 10% or 20%? we use July to really ramp down our finances and up our savings, and we use that money to put away for the holidays and for vacation. And so what we're doing is things like, you know, those vegetables that have been in the freezer, you know, a while. July is when we are definitely going through all of those. We are doing the canned food. We are doing the entertainment we already have. We're not paying for new entertainment. We are, I don't buy clothes in the month of July. We, don't, we. We try to use what we have at the house for projects. And it's like, if we wanted to say, oh, we're going to do this project in July, and I don't have all of that stuff. Maybe we could install the new bathroom door in the downstairs bathroom because we have all of that stuff. And so it's just looking at what you already have, kind of taken an inventory, saying, what can I do with what I already have? And every day we have little challenges for you in the Facebook group. People love this challenge.
>> Kathi Lipp: It's, a really wonderful reset into how I'm. It's. It's a stop in the middle of the year to say, do I need to look at some of my habits? Do I need to look at how I'm spending some of my money? Do I need to look at some of my consumerism? And buying things isn't bad. Buying more than you need is and this is the time to tweak that.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I love this. And it's great timing because July 1st is next week, Tuesday, if I'm not mistaken. So people have time to join your Facebook group and to get involved in this, because it's all about the little things. Kathi, you've talked about that from the beginning. It's not about this one weekend that you're going to set aside and declutter your life and change your whole life. It's about making these little micro choices all the way through. It's really about changing your lifestyle. And this is just one more way that you. You can do that.
Low by July. What do you see when you help people with clutter problems
Low by July. I really love that. And you know, Kathi, I think about it, when I think about low by July, Like, I have teenagers and young adults, and so what they like to do is go out to eat. Like, eating at home is something that old people do. Like, who wants to have peanut butter and jelly or make something at home in this day and age? And I hear this from a lot of parents of doordash I just saw. Actually, one of my friends had posted on her, Facebook page the other day about how frustrated she was that her kids. Kids could have this app on their phone and they had access to order and they could DoorDash one taco if they wanted to. But I think sometimes that's because our kitchens are really, really cluttered. Our refrigerators are cluttered, and when we go to cook, our pantries aren't organized. So we're overwhelmed because we're looking and we're thinking, oh, my gosh, what do I make? I really don't want to. And then if I clean the kitchen, I certainly don't want to mess it up. But it really. If you train yourself and you think, okay, we're going to have low by July. And that includes food. Right. Looking at your kitchen, the kitchen is really. People say that's the heart of the home. What do you see when you help people with clutter problems? me who have a cluttery kitchen, how can they. How can they, take some of these principles that we're just talking about in the specifics and take it specifically to their kitchen?
>> Kathi Lipp: Yeah. So that is such a great observation. I love this. And I am not the most frugal person in the world. I'm trying to become more. When I see the door dash fees, I get very inspired to cook at home because it is wild. Right. So one of the things I would say is lots of times we have lots of ingredients without a plan. So what if you, you know, look at what you have and so you have a head of lettuce. Well, you know, to become a salad, it has to be prepped. So I spend a little bit of time at the beginning of the week and I do a few things like, like I'll bake a few potatoes, I'll, hard boil some eggs. I'll make a pitcher of iced tea. I'm gonna chop some lettuce and let it on the counter to dry a little bit so it's not going back into the bag wet. Or if you're like, I need to do a bagged salad, do what is actually going to get eaten at your house. That's the thing. But if you can prep that food, you know, if you take an hour and you prep like eight different foods. Foods, maybe it's cooking some chicken or maybe it's just shredding some chicken. But if you shred some chicken, hard boiled some eggs, you know, you chop some lettuce and carrots and you get out the, your, chopper once a week and you just do all your veggies at that. Or if you buy them prepackaged, I know that's more expensive. But the difference between buying prepackaged chopped carrots and doordash that, you know, let, let's pick the pre chopped carrots. I tend to be a chopper. You know, I'll just go through and chop all of that. But that's everything you need for a salad right there. That's going to be delicious and as good as one that you can order from doordash. So if you can take a little time to just inventory what you have, buy at the store what you need. So maybe you have everything, but you don't have the good dressing and you're like, the dressing is the difference between whether I eat at home or not. Either make the dressing or go buy the dressing. Do what you need to do, but use what you have. Don't just buy the vegetables to let them linger in the crisper and then throw them out on Tuesday night when the garbage comes. Like, have a plan for all of that. And if you say, I'm going to take an hour and just prep all of this, your, the, the, the goal post is so much closer to eating at home. And that's a big deal. You, you're not having to make such a big leap to prepare because you have things that are already prepped. Do you ever go to, oh, I'm trying to remember the fast food Chinese restaurant? Oh, God, yeah. Did you ever go inside where they had all those chopped vegetables, like, in their crisper, all lined up? They were so gorgeous, and it was like they were all ready to go. And that's what I want my kitchen to be like. It's like, I, the idea of prepping and then cooking can feel like too much, you know, shopping, prepping, cooking. But if you can do it in stages, shopping and then another day prep and then another day cook, that. That makes it so much more doable. And that's what I want.
Kathi recommends Sabbath Soup because it's easy to make and versatile
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, we have talked before about your book, Sabbath Soup, and you have such a great recipe book and talking about, you know, things that you can prepare season by season. And you talked about even this concept of just having soup on Sunday. And just because it's easy to make, you know what's coming. You can easily make it more if you want to add, have people over. So I encourage people who are starting to get hungry now that we're talking about food in the middle of the afternoon to check out, out Sabbath Soup. Because, Kathi, you're just a wizard of all of these kinds, of resources, and I appreciate that so much. And one thing that I have learned lately is that you can use AI because, you know, AI has a lot of negative things, but one of the positive things is you can actually put in, hey, these are the ingredients in my refrigerator. What's a recipe that I can make with this? And it might tell you what you could make. my kids showed me this, and I was like, oh, my gosh, that's absolutely amazing. I didn't even know that you could do that, but those are ways that you can do that.
When we have too many mugs, it's easy to leave them everywhere
But looking at the rest of the kitchen, I think what you said actually about the coffee mugs, I, feel like my husband's eyes are boring in the back of my head because I have a problem with coffee mugs. I do. Because you think, oh, well, this is a really nice one, and, oh, this person gave this to me, and, oh, this. Well, you know, what am I going to do? Just throw this out as a perfectly good coffee mug? But realistically, I, I do not need more than one or two. What do you say to that person who says, yeah, I have a mug issue. Really, really bad. How do we. How do we start to get rid of those and declutter our cabinets and get rid of stuff, dishes that we're not using?
>> Kathi Lipp: Right? So I say everybody in the family gets to pick three or four mugs that are their absolute favorites, and then everybody Everything else needs to go to the wayside. Now you have a lot more humans living with you, so maybe that is, you know, two mugs. But this is also. When we have too many mugs, it's very easy to leave them everywhere in the house. And you're like, where's my favorite mug? Well, there's one on your desk. There's one on your nightstand. So getting those all wrapped up. And I think this is where organization comes in.
Jessica and Kathi Lipp discuss organization in the kitchen on Decluttering Diaries
Jessica and I would love to talk a little bit about organization in the kitchen as well.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Go for it.
>> Kathi Lipp: we don't even know what we have. We just don't even know what we have. And so if I was going to work on organization anywhere in the kitchen, the first thing is decluttering, like you were talking about with the mugs. And by the way, one of my favorite mugs in the entire world was left over from the people who lived here before. It's the perfect size. It's the perfect. Yeah.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Yes.
>> Kathi Lipp: And so, you know, your favorite mug might be associated to a memory, but we all have favorite mugs because they hold the right amount of coffee or tea, they're the right weight, they keep things warm. So find. Really be analytical about what it is that works for you and get rid of the rest. And then once. This is the same thing with food. If you bought something like, you know, a mix for egg flour soup at some point, and you're like, yeah, I tried it. It wasn't my fav. In the back of our brain, we're saying, but what. What if I lose my job? Maybe, you know, maybe I'm going to need that egg flour soup. Well, let me just tell you right now, Roger and I volunteer for a food bank. There's somebody who needs your egg flour soup more than you do right now. So don't feel guilty about it. Just get it into the right hands. Or if you're like, oh, but it's expired, they won't take it, then it's time to throw it away. It's okay. You are. I promise you, you're gonna be fine without that soup. I promise you. And once you get down to what you need, spend the most energy you can on, the places in your house that are the most frustrating. So if your kitchen's the most frustrating, like, one of the things that we did, we went to.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Hold on. I'm gonna hold you right there, Kathi. We have to give everybody a cliffhanger. One of the things thing she did is you'll find out after the break. Listen, I treat these moments like gold. This is my therapy and I'm inviting you all to join in. Don't go away. I'll be back right after the break with more on Decluttering Diaries from Kathi Lipp. We'll see you in just a minute.
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>> Somebody Prayed by Crowder: Every night there by your, you fold your hands and bow your head throwing out another prayer in faith. When you're wondering if he's hearing you look at me, I'm living proof I'm only right where I am today because somebody prayed so I hit my knees these hands have no power but there ain't an hour he don't come through. That's why when mountains move, I, say, looks like somebody prayed
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Somebody Prayed by Crowder. And he said, when mountains move, he says somebody prayed. And maybe in your house today, that's a mountain of clutter. And maybe, just maybe, somebody is praying that you are going to move that mountain of clutter, that something is going to happen in your house, else that you can finally conquer the clutter. Well, we have been doing this series I'm calling the Declutter Diaries with Kathi Lipp. She is the author of the Clutter Free Home Making Room for your Life. And she has great news for you because she has a free Facebook page that you can join a Facebook group. And she's about to start a challenge called Low by July. So if you want to be in on that and see what kind of lifestyle modifications you can start to make, take to declutter your life, then I encourage you to take advantage of that. And in this summer, as the days are growing longer, our pace is just a little slower. We're giving you an invitation to reevaluate not just your schedule, but your space. And what are you holding on to that you don't need anymore? Is it those vegetables that you told yourself you were really going to eat this time? I know my husband's looking at me as he's throwing them out. Is it that that 42nd coffee mug that you just feel like you need. What if that clutter in your house is not just, taking up physical space, it is clouding your clarity and your calm and your capacity to enjoy life. We are not just talking about cleaning out a closet. We're talking about changing your life. And doing this can really be a sacred act of renewal. And when we clean out what we don't need, we find what matters. We're talking about peace and presence and purpose. And so today we're talking to Kathi about that. We were right in the middle of her kitchen. And Kathi, you were just about to tell us something that you do to help keep your kitchen clean and talking about the space that frustrates you most. For many, that's their kitchen. For others, it is somewhere different. But I'm going to give it back to you to let you finish your story.
>> Kathi Lipp: Yeah, so, so I have really hunkered down on, not just decluttering my kitchen, but making it as functional as possible. And so, I really do believe get your space cleared out 80%, whether that's a drawer, a room, before you start to really invest in organizational tools. But once you get there, organizational tools can make a big difference. So one of the things that we did did is on where we just had shelves, you know, we opened up a drawer, a door, and there's some shelves in there. We pull, we put it installed, pull out shelves. And my husband is, he would tell you when we moved into this house he was not the handiest man in the world, but these were super easy to install. And they just pull out. You can buy them on Amazon. You just search for pull out drawers or yeah, pull out drawers for cabinets. And it's just screwing in a couple of things and it makes that space so much more usable. And so if you don't already have those in your kitchen, that's something to do. Another thing is drawer dividers. there are spring loaded drawer dividers that you can get off of Amazon. And what they do is they just give you boundaries within a drawer. So in my kitchen I have one, for one of my drawers where I keep, here's where I keep the dish towels and here's where I keep the cleaning cloths. And it's made such a difference. A couple of other things you might want to consider in your kitchen are shelf risers. So if you, you know, you, things get lost at the back of your pantry or at the back of your cabinet, putting some risers in so you can put some Cans back there, or maybe your spices. And then lazy Susans. If you have corner cabinets. Lazy Susans are a game changer. So you can see everything in that space. It's going to make a huge difference. So just being very thoughtful about your organization, not just going, you know, to Target or, looking up things on Amazon that are just, you know, like, oh, these have changed my kids. Like, let's be very, very careful about what we're investing our money in. But when you see, oh, this could change something. One thing that I did, I think I may have mentioned it on here before is, we have a corner cabinet where we keep all of our pots and pans. So we bought a pot and pan holder that just keeps lids and organizes things. But the other thing we purchased in there is a rechargeable light. Light that you just stick at the top of that cabinet, and you can pull it out and recharge it with a USB cord, and it makes all the difference in the world.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Those are great tips. And, you know, as I'm listening to you, Kathi, I'm having a revelation here. I'm having a conviction, which I feel like I have every time we have the show. But I think about when you're talking about either holding on to stuff that you don't need that makes more clutter, or you're talking about choosing organizational tools to buy, I feel like, whether that's your kitchen, whether that's your closet and clothes that you have. We were just talking about this in the break. Sometimes the things that you want to buy or the things that you want to hold on to are more aspirational, and they're kind of who you wish you were instead of who you really are. And I think about this because right now I'm thinking about my kitchen and thinking about how I bought these little pizza plates because I thought, oh, they were so cute. They're like a triangle. And I was imagining this kind of Pinterest moment where I'd serve pizza on these little pizza plates and we'd have, you know, like this, I. I don't know, magical moment, on pizza plates. It's so dumb. I'm embarrassed to say it out loud. But the truth is, Kathi, who we really are is. We are a family on the go. We've got four kids. We are constantly going to a sports game or something, and if we get pizza, we're gonna eat it on paper towels. House. I mean, I'm just being really real here. What do you think about that? Do you find that, you know, we hold on to something because we think, oh, I wish I, you know, one day I might be the kind of person who uses a lemon zester or whatever it is, you know, Or I might be the kind of, person who wears this outfit. So I'll hold on to it when we really just need to be honest about who we really are. Do you. Do you think that's true? Am, I off here?
>> Kathi Lipp: No. Who am I right now? What do I have right now that works for my life? And, yes, I would love to be the kind of person who wears linen pants every day that I live in the mountains. Friend, that's not going to happen.
A lot of new homes are being built with a kitchen and a prep kitchen
Did you know that a lot of these new homes that are being built are being built with a kitchen and a prep kitchen?
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I see that. The butler's pantry, it's sometimes called. I think that that is a big trend.
>> Kathi Lipp: Yes. And, like, that's crazy to me. We're not using our kitchens for kitchens anymore. They're being kept for display. And I am a person who uses my kitchen, who uses my stuff. And if I'm not using my stuff, my house. House is not the kind of house that has things just for show. I love to have beautiful things to use, but I don't have beautiful things to just display. life is too short to have things around us that are not useful. And so. And, you know, whose life is that anyway? So, yes, I do keep around a few things that are not useful. Pictures and. And artwork and things like that. Those aren't useful. They're just beautiful. But the rest of my life needs to be very utilitarian. And I can't keep things around just because maybe someday I'll use it. It needs to be. Everything needs to earn its place in this house.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: You know, that is really convicting because I'm thinking, just yesterday, one of my daughters was just precious and just said, hey, I'm going to clean out the linen closet for you. And I mean, really. The angels in heaven started singing the Hallelujah chorus. I was so happy about that. This. And as, she was cleaning out the closet, Kathi, she found these pillows that were quilted. They were handmade. They're little accent pillows. They're squares, if you can imagine. And they have little quilts on them. And she said, she said, I've never seen these. What are these? And I said, oh, that was actually a wedding gift. And she said, where's it from? And I said, well, that's actually from my piano teacher, the lady who taught me piano. She handmade those for me. And she said, said, why are they in the closet? And I said, well, they're special. And she said, they're so special. You've had them in the linen closet for almost 30 years, and I've never seen them. How special are they, Mom? And, you know, that was really convicting to me, Kathi, I was just hearing you say, like, life is short, and thinking about some of those things. Like, I mean, are my kids gonna love those pillows when I'm gone? No, because they're not even gonna know who gave them. They're just gonna think, oh, there's a, cute little quilted pillow. Is it special or is it not? I've never seen it. Just get rid of it. It. But she put them out in my living room. They go perfectly, actually, on the. On the chairs. And now every time I walk by, I smile because I can see that pillow. And I see the piano in my house because I love music and I love to still play the piano. And it makes me smile because I think of her. And really, this is just, flipping the whole way that I'm, thinking about living my life. I think I've shared with you before, Kathi, that one lady at my wedding shower, she gave me a silver bowl. And I did not take her lesson when she first gave it to me, but she said, this bowl is to serve your husband. And I kind of thought, well, that's really awkward and kind of strange. And she looked at me right in the eyes, and she said, he's the most important guest you'll ever have at your table. Don't save your guest dishes for people who only come over every once in a while. Use her special for that. And I wish that I had embraced that when I was younger, but I didn't. But I think just thinking about how we use some of the. These things instead of just keeping them so special, they're in the butler's pantry or the, you know, the. The prep kitchen or the linen closet, you know, and really embracing who we are and how our lives are, that can be a really reframing paradigm. And I'm so grateful to hear you say that. Any other words of wisdom on that, Kathi?
>> Kathi Lipp: Yeah. You know, when we talk about, you know, we talked about, use it up, wear it out, make do, do without out, use it up. Enjoy what you have. Enjoy what you have. My mom lost all of her water goblets in the 89 earthquake. The San Francisco earthquake.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Wow.
>> Kathi Lipp: And I just think about how we. We were Waiting for a special occasion. But you know what? Life is a special occasion, right? And we don't save anything for good. We don't save anything for good because today is going to good. God has made today good.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Life is a special occasion. I absolutely love that. And you're absolutely right. I just, I'm really convicted in thinking about that. And, and part of the clutter is that, you know, I have stuff that I don't need, but some of it I just can't let go of because I think, well, maybe one day I'll be that kind of mom, I'll be that kind of wife, I'll be that kind of woman. But it just isn't there. And I've got to be more comfortable in doing that.
What other space in the house do you feel people struggle with the most
Well, what, what other space in the house do you feel like people really struggle with the most? we talked about the kitchen, but is there another room in the house that tends to just come up again and again?
>> Kathi Lipp: I think for women it's the bathroom, like just, where you're putting on makeup, where you're, you're, you know, getting ready. And it's so easy to grab all of those things and hold on to old make or things that used to work for us and don't anymore. And so my big thing is go through that. It's also a safety issue. You don't want old eyeliner on your eyes. You don't want old face cream touching your skin. Go through that and then just realize what is your daily routine. Maybe have a little space for a special occasion, but just streamline it so that your daily routine is as simple as possible. I want you to get out the door with the least amount of muss and fuss you possibly can. And that's just paring it down to what you actually use. I think that that's really, really important.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: And it goes back to what you said in challenging our listeners to use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. And you are so right. I think, especially as women. Although even now, you know, there's more and more marketing of skin care regimes toward men. I see that on social media all the time. And so I see those drawers, you know, getting, just filled with product that maybe we think, oh, I'll be that kind of person that has a seven step skincare regime. But when really I'm just the cold cream moisturizer kind of girl. And I think we've got to use it up. And I, I've given my kids a challenge of that before and it's amazing how we can go back through bags and find a travel toothpaste or something like that. You know, that's just going to to make it do well. Kathi, you have been just so encouraging. I'm so appreciative. We are not done. We're just about halfway through now. We have lots more to talk about on the declutter diaries. Tell us once again where people can find your Facebook page and your website.
>> Kathi Lipp: Yeah. Yeah. I would love for you to check out Kathi Lipp's Clutter Free Academy. Just say that you were listening to Dr. Nurse Mama and we will let you in. We only let the good people in. But, And we have the best we. I know you really do. It's K A T H I So Kathi Lipp's Clutter Free Academy. And we start this challenge starting July 1st, so we would love to have you be a part of that. And you can pick up clutter free my book anywhere books are sold and.
>> Dr. Jessica Peck: I have it right here in my hand, all dog eared and read. And you can go to kathylipp.com that's K A T H I L I-P-P.com. listen, wherever you are in whatever mess you're in and whatever progress on your declutter journey, I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. I'll see you right here tomorrow for Ask doctor nursemama Friday and we'll talk all things tech. See you then.
>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
