[00:00:00] Welcome to the average nineties GAL podcast. Join me as I share my own journeys through life, how I got and continue to get through them, as well as real stories from real people in this crazy world. Let's get through it together.
Someone said to me once, the state of your environment is the state of your mind, and that is so true for me. Some people can have clutter around them and have a messy space and it doesn't bother them, but especially ever since I worked from home starting in 2020. I very much realized that I cannot have a mess around me if I am going to focus in any way.
But [00:01:00] then at the same time, I really do not like cleaning. It isn't as if I hate cleaning, but I'd rather be doing something else. And I don't know if anyone else is like me, but. I don't mind doing laundry or folding, but for some reason I can't put the damn clothes in the closet. So I have a basket of folded clothes that sit in my bedroom for I don't know how long, and I grab the clothes from that folded pile to wear as if it's just so easy for me, it's just sitting right in front of me, right?
So I wear the same thing all the time, but I don't know why I can't put the damn clothes into the damn closet. What, why do I do that? I don't even know why. Of course, I'm sure it goes back to just not being able to finish things. I don't know. The other thing that I, for [00:02:00] some reason just cannot do is unload the dishwasher.
I do it obviously, but do you know how long clean dishes sit in the dishwasher? I can't even tell you because once again, just like the folded clothes, I just open it up and grab a coffee cup and pour my coffee instead of just putting away the dishes and unloading the dishwasher. Why do I do this? I do not know.
And maybe there is something that you do that is just like that. Please. I hope so, because if I'm the only one who is like this, then. Uh, I don't help me, but my point being is that I need ways and needed to find ways to get myself to do these things that I really don't want to do. But after I do them and after I keep my home clean and [00:03:00] tidy, and of course if you have kids, you understand this clutter and things.
Just being left all over the place is a thing, but instead of getting angry at it, it's about finding ways that we to keep us from getting angry and finding ways to make sure. It's just being done on a rolling basis instead of just waiting for things to get really bad and cluttered to pile up, for instance, or the bathroom to get disgusting before something happens.
So I have come up with little hacks for myself that I am going to share with you and you can maybe take it. To whatever it is that might be doing the same thing in your life that all of this is doing to me and how this is helping me. [00:04:00] So I ask you to think on the things. If you are really great at cleaning, that's fantastic.
Please share this with someone who may find this helpful. Or you can maybe think on something that doesn't have to pertain to cleaning, but maybe what I speak about today will help you in another part of your life. And before I move on, keeping my car clean, I cleaned out my entire car a few weeks ago and it was the best feeling ever.
I now am never going to let my car. Get so full of clutter and stuff in the trunk where I would just throw stuff in the back of the trunk because I'm taking some kids home from school and you know, things like that. But I opened up my trunk and it was empty and [00:05:00] everything was vacuumed and clean. And it is just, once again, just because it's your car doesn't mean that.
Being in that environment is not going to have an impact on your mental state. It will also show your kids that it's important to keep your car clean, and then of course to keep your home clean and to take care of your home, and to find ways to not let it get messy. This is what I like to do. The very first one is.
I like to call it the As I Go method. So instead of waiting until the end of the week to then go through the whole place and pick up everything and put everything away, and then whoever lives with you, roommates, kids, spouses, [00:06:00] whomever, giving them everything and saying, here, put it all away. And then, okay, I have a teenager.
Then he just throws it on the bed. That's a whole other story. But anyway, my, as I go, method is when I'm walking from one room to another, it doesn't matter what I'm doing. If I see something on a counter or anywhere that is out of its place, I grab it and then put it where it belongs. Sometimes I'll eyeball it, but then I'm not going into the room that that thing belongs in, but it's in my brain.
And so then when I come back on my way, as I go, I grab it and then put it into the room that I'm either walking by or going into. This has saved my sanity once again, being with a teenager. But if you live [00:07:00] or you are. The type of person that just leaves things sitting around and you don't put it away after you use it or whatever it is, whatever the reason, doesn't matter what the reason is.
If you let everything sit out by the end of the week, you are going to probably go a little nuts, right? If you're anything like me, but trust me. It is a game changer for me to just make sure things are just being put away on a rolling basis throughout the week. I no longer wait until the weekend to do cleaning and to do everything that did not work for me does not work for me because then I'm overwhelmed.
So if I use my own little as I go method. And the same goes with dishes. Of course, [00:08:00] I hate doing dishes. I mean, who likes doing dishes? But do you know what I hate more a pile of dishes in the sink. So if you wash dishes as you go throughout the week, don't let things, things pile up. You are going to be happier and.
I do unload the dishwasher even though I hate it or for some weird reason I am, my brain blocks it and I just don't want to do it. But obviously if you're going to do something as you go, you need to have an empty dishwasher to load the dirty dishes as you go. So I unload and then I load throughout the week, and then usually.
Depending on the dish situation, I then do a load of dishes every week, maybe twice, [00:09:00] but it doesn't matter. The point is it's as you go. I do the same with laundry. I do not let a massive pile of laundry sit and wait. On the weekend and then do it all on Saturday or Sunday. I see sometimes that some socks, the socks have piled up.
Okay, it's time to do a load of socks and it. Really just keeps me sane. Then my weekend doesn't feel like it's just full of doing a bunch of chores, and then my son doesn't feel like the whole weekend is just doing a bunch of chores. So this may help you as well if you have kids or anyone in your household that helps to do the cleaning and the laundry and everything else.
If everything is done on the weekend, then you just feel like that's the whole weekend in a way. Where's the fun? You gotta have the fun. Bring in the fun. [00:10:00] So that's the As I go method, the other little hack that I have when it comes to cleaning the house is I like to think to myself, I look around the house and I say, if someone I know, or even a stranger.
Just shows up out of nowhere and wants to come in. Am I going to be embarrassed by my house? Am I gonna be a little Oh, oh, so sorry. It's kind of messy. Oh, oh, sorry. When you go into the bathroom, it's a little dirty in there. Sorry. Are you like that or are you totally fine? Do you let someone in freely and say, sure, come on in, and you're not even thinking for a second how your house looks.
There was a time when [00:11:00] I was at my worst, at my darkest with a baby, and I never wanted anyone to come over because I was embarrassed by. My apartment, I didn't want anyone to see it because there was so much clutter things everywhere. I had zero energy, I was very depressed. So everything felt dirty and it, I just absolutely hated it.
And thinking back once again, the state of my environment was also the state of my mind. I guess I could have had someone come and clean it, but let's be real. How many of us, we wouldn't call in someone to clean our place if it was really, really bad. Because you're even embarrassed that the cleaning person is seeing that.
That's how I feel. Once again, that's [00:12:00] probably a something I need to go to therapy for. But when you look around at your place, would you be fine if someone just showed up out of nowhere? That's a really great indicator for me. So throughout the week, I will look around and go, Hmm, no, I'm putting some more things away because this is bugging me.
Oh, I'm going to vacuum real quick, or I'm going to sweep the kitchen floor real fast, because I definitely would not want someone seeing this. And I'm not OCD at all. If this is sounding as if I'm OCD, I'm not at all. I'm just sharing what really happens for, for me and what helps me throughout the whole week.
But I don't want this to sound as if I am a clean freak 'cause, and if you are a clean freak, great. But I [00:13:00] definitely am not. I still let things clutter. I still let dishes pile up sometimes. The other, the next hack is that I try to make things fun. So in terms of having a kind of quote unquote cleaning day, that's usually the day that I dust and mop and vacuum and do a deep clean of the bathroom, and then really clean the kitchen really well.
I will have a day that I do that. It's usually on Sunday. And instead of just doing it, I make it a fun thing. I crank on a favorite playlist, whatever I'm in the mood for. Usually it's nineties hip hop or. Nineties grunge or eighties music, something really fun that I know every [00:14:00] word to and that I wanna dance to while I'm doing whatever it is I'm doing.
I cannot do this every week without putting some sort of fun with it. I also, my, uh, have my son do it with me because. Oh my goodness. If I didn't make him clean his room, it would, who knows what would be living in there and I don't even wanna know. So I'll let him choose the playlist sometimes and we'll both just crank, we'll crank it up because we live in an apartment, so we could just crank on the music, on the stereo, and then the two of us are hearing the same music and we do it at the same time.
So we make it kind of a fun little. Weekly event if we don't feel like doing music or if I, if I'm doing it, if I'm alone and I don't feel like doing music, sometimes [00:15:00] I'll put on a movie or a show that I have seen a million times and it doesn't matter if I'm watching it or not. It usually is a musical though, I will say, because once again, just the music and singing to it, dancing to it.
All of that just turns it into a really good time, and it goes by so much faster. So that's another little hack that I do, is making it fun. And then once again, if you have children or roommates, spouse, if you have other people living with you, make it a thing. Something that you do together. And then it goes by really fast and it's fun and then you're done.
And especially if you have kids. It's becomes something that's expected. Your kids will then say, oh, aren't we supposed to do, you know, fun cleaning time? Now you can even give it a name. I can't think of a name right now, but [00:16:00] give it some kind of name. You know, there's game night. If you have a game night or do anything on the regular with your family.
Make this something that you do with your family. Crank on the music, crank on the fun movie, whatever it is you need to do, and then it's expected. And then you have your kids actually holding you accountable or your roommate holding you accountable saying, all right, we haven't done. Fun, clean time yet let's go.
What movie are we gonna do? What playlist? Do a collaborative playlist together where you come up with your favorite songs that you love to sing and dance to. Whatever it is that works, I suggest doing it. And you would be surprised at how differently you feel about doing those things, especially if it's something you don't like doing.
For instance, maybe I will just [00:17:00] turn on some music to just put the damn clothes in the damn closet.
The next thing is about that I, now, whenever I think about those folded clothes or the dishwasher that needs to be unloaded. I tell myself, do it now. So I try the best I can. We can't always do it, but the moment I think about doing it, I tell myself, go do it. Do it now, and just, just do it. Don't stop yourself.
Zero excuses. There's no reason not to. So if there's anything that you hate doing like that, don't stop yourself. This, the moment you think about doing it, just go put down whatever you're, whatever you're doing, if you can, and just do it. And this goes [00:18:00] with like donating clothes or going through things that you have that you wanna throw away.
Going through drawers. Going through closets, anything. I also think of if I died today. What would my family have to go through? Or what would they find? Just think about that. Think about the things in your closets and in your drawers. And I don't mean kinky stuff, hey, it can be kinky stuff, but you shouldn't be embarrassed by that by the way.
But imagine a parent or a grandparent or your kid. Going through all of your stuff. So I think of journals, for instance. What have I said in journals that might be interesting? [00:19:00] Do I wanna recycle that? Are there kinky things? Are there photos that you know, maybe you don't want someone to see? I don't have anything that I can think of right now that is.
Exactly like that, that I'd wanna get rid of. But sometimes just thinking that makes me wanna go through all of my stuff and organize and toss out things that. I'm not saying everything is embarrassing, but it just puts that into my mind to move forward, to go through my stuff and to donate or toss. It's just a nice little like, Hmm, do I even know what I have in my closets?
And I did that about a month or two ago and it just, what was great is. I got rid of a ton of stuff. I donated a ton of stuff [00:20:00] and tossed out a ton of stuff, not because I found anything that I didn't want my family to find, but that really got it going, which was a really funny thought. So that if that helps you go through all of your stuff as well, then that's great.
So I hope that was helpful for you and hopefully sparked some ideas for yourself or a little imagination and creativity when it comes to doing things you just don't want to do, especially when they are things like cleaning that we all have to do all the time. Cleaning, laundry, cleaning a car, all of the things that.
Aren't very fun, at least not to me, but they are part of our life. [00:21:00] And just like grocery shopping and cooking, if you really dislike doing those things well, maybe some of these little hacks that I've brought up will help you figure that out as well, because. These, this is part of our everyday life things that we have to do, right?
So I really do hope that this was helpful. As always, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you and I will talk to you next week. Bye-bye.
