June 5, 2025 • 37 mins
Summer is here, and if you’re anything like me, you might already be feeling the chaos creeping in. Today I’m joined by my friend Lisa Eckerle, a professional organizer and mom. We dive into the real juggle of managing kids, camps, work, and everything else that comes with this season. We talk about planning summer schedules (yes, even if you’re behind like I am), sharing chores with the kids, and setting up routines that actually stick. Lisa also shares some of her favorite tips for beating decision fatigue and introduces her handy CRAP method to help you tackle clutter without overwhelm.
We discuss:
Lisa also opens up about how she balances being a business owner and a mom, and the honest truth that it’s messy but manageable.Why I think you’ll love this episode:Because summer doesn’t have to feel like total chaos. Whether you’re a planner or just trying to survive until school starts again, Lisa and I share real doable tips that can help you breathe a little easier this season.
Hot Takes:
Grab our 30 day Kid’s Checklist here: https://simplyborganized.myflodesk.com/30daykidschallenge
We discuss:
- How to avoid last minute summer stress by planning ahead
- The truth about decision fatigue and practical ways to deal with it.
- Why it’s so important to share the load at home and how to start those conversations
- How to handle the emotional side of clutter
Lisa also opens up about how she balances being a business owner and a mom, and the honest truth that it’s messy but manageable.Why I think you’ll love this episode:Because summer doesn’t have to feel like total chaos. Whether you’re a planner or just trying to survive until school starts again, Lisa and I share real doable tips that can help you breathe a little easier this season.
Hot Takes:
- It’s never too late to start planning, even if summer’s already underway
- Teamwork at home isn’t about guilt, it’s about support
- Lisa’s CRAP method is a great tool when clutter feels overwhelming
- You don’t have to pack every minute of the summer to make it meaningful
- You’re doing better than you think and you’re definitely not alone.
Grab our 30 day Kid’s Checklist here: https://simplyborganized.myflodesk.com/30daykidschallenge
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, they're organizing friends.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
If you are an aspiring professional organizer, or maybe you're
someone in the early stages of your organizing business and
wondering what the heck is next, don't worry. I've got
you covered here at simply Babe, we offer two mentoring
options to help you grow with confidence. First off, we
have our one on one start anytime program, which is
perfect if you're ready to dive in now. And our
group mentoring Comehork kicks off this coming September, and that
(00:26):
is ideal for somebody.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Who's looking for a little bit more structure. It's a
bit more robust, and it's.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Going to put you immediately in with some community and
give you some extra accountability. So, whether you're looking for
help with pricing or services how to market your business,
either option is going to give you the tools that
you need, and I am here dot guide you every
step of the way. To learn more, visit simplyborganized dot
com or you can click on the link below in
our show notes and you can figure out which option
(00:55):
is best for you. Now, let's build the business that
you have been dreaming about.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Welcome to this organized life. If you're a mom, wife,
or coffee lover seeking advice on how to reduce clutter
and reclaim time, look no further than your host, Louri Hellau,
Founder Simply Be Organized and author of hot Mess, a
practical guide to getting organized. For a lot of people,
clutter is their dirty little secret, but.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
It doesn't have to be.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Each week we will share practical tips, chat with experts,
and provide strategies on how.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
To keep you organized.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I hope that.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
By sharing our stories you feel a little less alone
and more empowered to tackle the areas that are holding
you back. So let's get started.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And Hi everybody, and welcome to you today's episode of
This Organized Life. I'm your host, Lori Pillau, and I'm
so happy that you're here. The time of this recording,
it's May, the end of May, and we are prepping
for all things summer. Real quick, before I get bring
(01:55):
out today's guests, I just want to remind you that
tomorrow is our Clutter Clinic Kitchen Workshop. I'm not sure
if there's going to be tickets available, but head on
over to our website if you are interested, Simply be
organized dot com. Click on the workshops tab and the
beauty of this is if you miss the live workshop,
(02:15):
you can still purchase the replay. So if kitchens are
an area that stress you out and you want to
learn some practical strategies, my favorite products, things of that
nature with regard to kitchen organizing. This is a fun,
interactive workshop. Again, if you're able to join us live,
and if you are listening to this post recording of
the workshop, not to worry, we will be publishing the
(02:38):
replay and you can.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Also ac sit there.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So just visit Simplyborganized dot com slash workshops and you
will go to all the things. Okay, now back to
today's guests. If you've been listening, I've been bringing on
and I have a couple more coming of my favorite
organizers that I've asked to join me as co host
for some episodes of the show. And the reason why
(03:03):
is because they are fun, They are smart, they are
knowledgeable in a real life practical sense of what everyday
folks are looking for regardless of your price, budget, season
of life, and they're just fun to chat with. And
you guys love them because every time I have them
(03:24):
on my show, my ratings go way up. So selfishly,
I love having these guys on my show. And without
further ado, I'm going to welcome my good friend Lisa
Ackerley back to the show. Lisa, come on out.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
That's the price is right it is I want to
do one dollar one dot.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh we go fabulary. Hi.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Now, I feel like everybody knows you, but we may
have some new folks who don't know who you are.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So tell everybody a little bit about your business and
then give us a little insight and so who you
are personally.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So I own the Designer Organizer. It's an organizing company
in Carmel, Indiana, which is just outside of Indianapolis. So
I'll love you East Coast people right now, go Pacers.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Josh wait, Josh was at the game.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Crying.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I don't know. I haven't spoken to him.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
He was more like he was more fangirling over all
the celebrities that were there.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
They did Jimmy Fallon did a thing where he was like,
these are all the celebrities in New York and all
the celebrities in Indianapolis. Is like Mike Pence and his family.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I was gonna say, I don't mean this in anyway,
but who the indian local weather guy stop it?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
He had, Yeah, we have Caitlin Clark, so that'd be
all over your.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know what that does? That say? No more anyway?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Anyway, fun fact though, I used to do advertising for
the Pacers, so there we go. It used to be
in advertising for I don't know, fifteen to twenty years,
and then I started my own company in twenty nineteen.
It used to be called Sorts Support. Any of you
ever heard of that? And if any of you ever
(05:17):
have questions about changing your business thing in the middle
of everything, I have stories. So I've been doing this
since then. I offer basically three lines of service through
my company. So it's in home organizing, closet space design,
and then what I call organizational consulting. I don't know
(05:38):
I'm here for Yeah, Okay, made it up, but anyway,
it's basically, if someone's building or renovating, I look at
their plans before anything gets finalized to make sure that
it works for their actual content that they own in base.
I do this for kitchen mostly it's ain, but just
make sure that their stuff actually if it's in what
(06:01):
will be there and then it will blow and function
for them. So I have employees.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Now you're such a big girl.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I knew they're not contractors. Organ answers out there, they
are not contractors. Made them employees. So that was a
big deal. Yes, but yesterday, Jake, last year, I'll like yesterday.
I have two kids today they are in first and
third and tomorrow they will be in second and fourth.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So your kids, they were way loveler when fuller, Yes
they were. They were smaller, tinier and all the things
when we first when we first met, Yes, Lisa and
I go way back. She was a not an OG
but an early but an early adopter on the SBO
Partner program.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Let's call I wasn't there during your startup here.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, you were not.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You were there in the toddler years, not infancy, all right,
in the dollar years. And I've had a firm receipt
into watching Lisa's not only her children grow, but her
business grow. And let me tell you, she's a rock
star all things, very smart, savvy business strategy in addition
to a great design and organizational talent. So anybody that
(07:19):
has the opportunity to work with you is very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I'll tell them.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
You just hope them's that.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Please do, please do. But I wanted to invite you
on the show today.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
As I mentioned in my intro, not just because you're
my friend, and I enjoy having friends as co hosts,
but we get so many questions from people that want
to hear behind the scenes. They ask a lot of
questions about people in the industry right They want to
know what's going on behind the curt and they want
to know where you struggle, because I think there's this
(07:51):
feeling out there that people who are struggling with clutter
or just organization.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I'm the only one. I'm the only one that feels
this way.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
And we even though we might know on a logical level,
like no, there are other people that are struggling, we
often feel like we're the only one. And there's this
misconception that if you're an organizer, you're always organized, and
you're organized in every single.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Aspect of your life.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And we have many conversations both in a professional setting
and then off off the cuff about no, we're real
people too, and this is we go through different seasons
of lives, and you're in it right now with young kids,
juggling a business, all the things. So I just kind
(08:41):
of want to open it up for you to just
riff off of that there's not so much of a
question there, but just laying the groundwork.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Of like just disputing any of those myths that are
out there.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah, I'm a hot mess, just and they and me
and everyone listening to this is I just play an
organized around TV to you. Well, now, it's hard. The
thing that I struggle with most is, honestly, it's not
necessarily tlendar clutter, because I know how to say no
(09:16):
and am. I don't have Bomo, I have Joma, so
I don't really that doesn't bother me. But it's the
to do list clutter of what I know, what I
have to do, how do I organize it to actually
get it done on a daily basis. The first time
ever I used to make fun of everyone having paper planners. Well,
(09:36):
and behold, I know have a paper plan.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You do, You've regretted, you've regretted.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Okay, let's not go that far. I still have everything digitally.
I have my calendar digitally, I have my to do
list digitally. That part I'm really good at of keeping everything.
I don't miss. The to do I know what I
have to do is just trying to figure out in
my day exactly what which ones I'm going to tackle
(10:02):
that day, which ones can hold off until another day
or another week, and figuring out how. That's why I
did the paper planner, because the to do list on
my digital I thought everything all the time. On my
paper planner, I just go day by day. I now
have a routine where I sit in my living room
in the morning, and this is when the kids are
(10:22):
in school, so they get up, they get ready, we
sit in the living room, I would like to say,
of the family, and then you have this beautiful picture
of us just sitting there being like, oh my an,
what are you going to do today? Now? We're all
on our phone carabl or watching Sports Center right now.
So anyway, I take that time, though, and sit there
(10:43):
and look at my digital calendar and our digital to
do list and put it down on paper. These are
the only I try to do top three things that
I'm going to do today. And then I have a
running list that's on a different page that I can
flip back and forth. But I'm only trying and comes straight.
I don't know three things. And then I also have
(11:03):
a dumping ground. I made my own planner, so not
made it good more. I'm not a crafty person.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
At all.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
But you can personalize your own on a website anyway.
I made a side column that said get blank out
of my head. My kids find it hilarious every time
I see it open and read it. But it's like
a brain dump. I hit my top three and in
the most important section No.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Two.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
There are two important sections. What I have? What am
I going to stop work to do today? No, instead
of trying to work through the whole day that I've
always done. My husband made found me one time Coakie
was working from home with me. I did not get
out of my chair for six hours.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I have I have the Apple Watch and it says
it's time to stand and it'll go, and I.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Just say, I just say yeah, don't care. I tried
Alexa notification, like every two hours they would tell me
to get up, and then I try to have it
like two minutes after that say no, really get.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Up and I just still stop.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Ignore Anyway, So I have this lest Now what am
I going to stop work to do? So it's sometimes laundry,
Sometimes it's putting way clothes. Sometimes it's just like rest
that outside, go for a walk.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So can I ask you a question?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So do you feel that this top three, like, what's
this on paper? It gives you a different level of accountability.
I'm curious about what's the mindset shift from transferring it
over to then allowing you to just hold yourself accountable
(12:49):
to making that execution piece.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I will admit a first day I used at the
top three. I wrote down four and accomplished. None of
them didn't work right, but over the time. So I
started it.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
February. Okay, that's sure.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
So it took me a little bit because I was
writing down the wrong thing. I was writing down stuff
that would take me like three days to do, so
I needed to break that down. So instead of your
saying divine closet, because that's what I kept writing down.
I couldn't do it all in one day because of
stuff that came up and detailed. They had to look
up and all that stuff. So I had to write
(13:32):
down then get the dimensions or answer this question that
I needed and then I could sit down in one
day and get it done. But I was looking at
too big of stuff to write down for one day.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I think, and as you're talking now, I'm like writing
down notes as you're talking. It's just that's no different
than when a parent says to the child, go up
and clean your room, which is overwhelming someone ambiguous, versus
the efficiency of saying I want you to go up,
(14:07):
and I want you to put your clothes in the hamper,
or I want you to put your books back on
the shelf. You're giving a very specific action, and I
think in your case, giving yourself a very specific directive
allowed you to say, yes, this is doable. I can
do this, as opposed to knowing that you have this big,
(14:29):
daunting task and I'm just gonna if I can't do
it all, or I don't know, I don't know where
to begin, or whenever the fill in the blank is,
I'm just gonna avoid it altogether.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Yeah, I'm completely an all or nothing person. I have realized,
like I either sit down and do it from beginning
to end it dump it up for six hours, I
ignore it, don't do it up. So I had to
break it down into if we get that phrase, I.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Am, I'm a tiger.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
It's not eat the gift horse in the head now,
prop eat the frog, eat the frog bite.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
No, there there's a whole gym about it. And I
think it's eat the frog. We're supposed to do the
hard stuff that you don't want to do first, like
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I've never heard that expression.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, I'll look in her. There's a gym that's called
I think it's eat the frog.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Okay, but keep talking. I would think it up.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
So it's the idea of it's like basically, don't procrastinate.
If you do the first, the hard thing first, then
the rest of your day you can have time to
get the rest of your to do list done, or
do the fun stuff, or do the stuff that you
already have passionate about her that comes easily to you
(15:52):
that can be done later in the day, because otherwise
you just start doing all of those that are easy
to check off or tiny little jus that we have,
especially as business owners, like invoices or looking at your
numbers and stuff like that, where it's just tedious stuff.
(16:15):
The do the non gedious stuff first, because then you
eat the frog. I don't know what or where that
came from, but now.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I feel like it's going to be all over because
we've put it out there. So now everywhere I turned
them and I'm going to see it like.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
A whole gym has the name, but anyway, I had
to learn how to do that. I would see this
big thing on my to do list design a hole, closet, kitchen, everything,
and I would be like, Nope, i can do these
ten smaller tasks because I'm just procrastinating to do the
thing that takes me longer to do that I have
(16:49):
to think, concentrate on so eat the frog in the
morning and then do the rest of this stuff. So
when I'm making my to do list, I'm thinking of
one am I eating today is the frog.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I love it. I think that's great.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So a lot of times I wanted to I was
actually going to talk about this on an episode next week,
but I decided, Hey, I think having you sit here
enjoy me, since you are a mom of school age kids,
is going to be more relevant than me sitting here
reminiscing about the days when my kids were home on
(17:23):
summer break, the days of your You know this, for
a lot of people, summer elicits a lot of different.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Emotions for people.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Some people are like super excited because they're like, Yay,
we're kicking into summer. We can take things down a notch.
And I know that there's a whole other slew of people,
and I fell into this camp where it was a
little bit stress inducing, especially as a business owner trying
to figure out because, like you said, you're able to
do certain tasks.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
In your day while your kids are at school.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
That gives you an opportunity even though there's a craziness
of getting kids off to school and home for the
boss and school lunches and all that stuff now going Okay,
our whole routines disrupted, and that doesn't just impact our
home dynamic, but as a business owner, that does impact
(18:18):
how I'm running my business and the attention I'm not
able to give and when I'm able to see clients
and all of these other things. Talk to me a
little bit about your personal experience and kind of how
you guys are navigating that.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
So my kids go to camps. Lighting that to my
daughter in the first year when she was kindergarten. She
was like, I don't want to sleep outside and I
was like, no, it's a day camp.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
She's like, literally, like I'm camping. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
She was like, I don't want to sleep out that
and I don't want to be gone for a week.
And I'm like now, okay, we need a different work
for them, my god. But anyway, my kids go the camp.
So last year was the first summer where they were
both at camp. Consummer before that, my son was still
in take care. Though. I learned very quickly from last
year that you have to put the work in to
(19:12):
schedule your summer. Honestly, around here, we have to do
it in February.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I was going to say January.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I was going to I was going to say February. Yeah,
because the major camp program that we like to go
into you have to register by March first, and it's
you know, hard to get into, so you have to
do it right away. So I am asking pe February, Hey,
I know you talked about wanting to go up to
Michigan with us. What case right? And they're like, we
(19:42):
we have it. It's snowing, yeah, so we have to
plan early. But I last year I made the mistake
of asking the kids what camps do you want to
go to? Knowing I have a boy and a girl
and they are very different personalitieseople interest, all that stuff,
so they one wanted to go to this camp, one
(20:03):
wanted to go to that one. So I was trying
to be nice. Mom also felt guilty that they had
to go to camp most of the weeks of the summer,
so I was like, let's make this as enjoyable on
them as possible, and they get to pick their own camps.
So did that didn't pay attention to time in locations.
(20:24):
So we had one one had to be there at
eight across town, then the other one at nine the
side of town, and then they got picked up at
three and then six or waiting that long they could have,
but anyway, we were driving all over town at all times,
and then it was from like nine to three, which
(20:47):
during the school year, I actually my kids go to
after school programs, so I don't stop work when the
bus comes home because our bus comes at two thirty already,
and I'm at clients, like I can't always get out
of there on time. So the ninety three of disruptive
for us. So this year I really had to sit
down and ask the kids what they wanted to do.
(21:10):
But also I'm like, you're gonna have fun no matter
where you go. But we planned it that it's better
time and they're going either to the same place every time.
We're like right around the corner from each other, which
was huge because now I don't have to be on
the road as much, going everywhere and trying to keep
all those times in my head, because that's brain clutter completely.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It is such brain clutter. And I, as you were talking,
I have a visceral reaction. Like I can remember driving
one kid to one camp, one kid to another camp,
and sometimes it was just logistics based on their age.
Zoe was at a camp that you had to be
ten and up and Logan was seven or whatever the
(21:52):
situation was.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
And yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot for the.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Parent that is responsible, and in my world it was
me and a lot of my friends. It was the
mom's and really figuring out all of the moving parts
adds a whole other layer to you're already crazy chaotic life.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
And I remember last time, a couple of times being
at client's houses and I'd be like, oh my god,
I have to go get my kid at camp. You
can't be more than ten minutes late. They will not
let you come the next day. And I remember like
pulling into this camp it was three oh nine, and
I was like, oh my god, I made it. The
(22:39):
kids got in and they were like, you were the
last one here, and I just turned around. I'm like,
you're lucky I'm here at all. You andmos got left here.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
That'll come back to you in about fifteen years. They'll
be telling the a therapist that. But it's all good now,
it's sine, It's all good.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
They were amongst friends still because there were people coming
for like eymnastics after that and stuff. But I'd be like,
you weren't, like you were sitting on the side of
the curb. Get over it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And I think it's moms. We really we joke about it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
But I do think that there's this level of you're
trying to please everybody, right, you want to you want
to be dedicated and give your work one hundred percent,
and you're trying to be the best present mom that
you can be, and you're trying to do all of
the things, and it really is impossible to sustainably keep
(23:30):
all those juggling balls.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
In there, honestly. So I have a different perspective than
those moms with that because I am super lucky that
I married a guy who helps, probably honestly more than
I do. We're doing like that's what we were just
doing this morning is saying okay, I can you pick
(23:55):
up this day? This day? You do drop off this day?
Like we share those responsibilities of fun. And we found
neighbors that are going to the same camp. We actually
made a spreadshet me. I made a spreadsheet in February
with our neighbors and shared it with them and said,
(24:17):
this is where our kids are going to camp. Please,
I know accordingly for when your kids can go with us,
So we're carpooling with them. My husband takes so much
responsibility for stuff that brings me a different kind of guilt.
I think it's not the mom guilt that I'm trying
to do it all and be the default parent. I
think people puddle it like I don't have that problem.
(24:41):
I have been helped so much. I then have the
problem of I don't want him doing like I want
it to be. Even so I keep trying to be like, Okay,
if you're going to do three pickups, then I got
to do three peck cups, and then it's a math
game that no one needs to play. But I apparently
do that kind of guilt.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Of you want to make sure that you're pulling your
fair weight, so to.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Speak, pulling fairweight, and then remembering, because if you're doing
it all it's easy you remember ninety threety every day.
I have to remember, oh, I have this pickup in
that drop off, and then I have to put it
in my calendar, and then I have to put three
notifications on it for me to stop working and remember
to go do it. And that has a different it's
(25:28):
a good player that you have to add in there.
But it's also like I was at the client, like,
oh I have pickup Tosh. I forgot it was this day.
I don't have it tomorrow, but I have today.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
That curious, that helpful lot. I appreciate you walking us
through that.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think that's really helpful because I get I think
when we talk about real life, this is how we
do it in our home. It paints a picture for
people that might be listening and go, I don't really
know if I'm doing it right air quote or this
is how we're doing it. I can't see another way,
and hearing other people's experiences really help. Now your kids
(26:04):
are starting to get to the age where as rising
second and fourth graders, they can take on a little
bit more household responsibilities chores if you will. We've done
episodes before about using the summer time to really ramp
that up, or use that as a stepping stone period
(26:27):
to get the kids to be more involved in the
organization routines and chores in the house. How do you
guys handle that? Is that something that you incorporate in?
Is it something I mean? And you were a little
flow to the boat here, But February was like a
(26:47):
good month.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
In February we started family meetings. I actually probably stole
this from a client. She used to do it weekly,
and I was like, we're we going to do it quarterly.
Speak again where But we sat down and we started
telling me it's like, look, you've had it nice. Now
it's time to not have it it's nice. So we
(27:11):
laid down device rolls. We laid down what happens if
you don't go buy the device rules, and then we
laid out chores. I have it written in my planner
and then I know this is bad for a podcast,
but I have those on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
We could be watching his.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
So I just got like this checklist tours, the filled
out one. It's like a post it thing. So we
can put it on our refrigerator, but the filled out
one has like the name of who's in charge of it.
And I tried to make it. You're gonna laugh. I
try to make it. You try to appropriate, but our
age appropriate, I should say. They do the same cup.
(27:50):
But they have to sort their laundry every Sunday into
the hang up clothes and the drying clothes or the
close that dry hunging up and the cork I can
go out in the dryer, got it, and then their
socks the underwear, so they separate their clothes that way,
they're in charge. I guess they're in charge of putting
(28:13):
their clothes away, and I was like, no, veto, because
I want to make sure everything's fooled incorrectly and put
it nicely because I know they won't do that. And
then if I have to go in there, I'll lose
my grap and we're not that's the control for.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
The issue me.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
I will get rid of that eventually as they get older,
but now it's not a thing. So they have to
separate their socks and underwear because we like do it
all together. I also had to get rid of a
control freak thing because my son doesn't care to match
his socks now, and he just throws them all in
(28:54):
his drawer. Luckily, he has a little divided bit into
his socks that he throws them all in, and then
every day he wears miss match sucks. So as part
of this new routine, I let that go because now
I wt not to sit there and match all these
darn socks.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah, So they do that, and then they do they
have the empty the dishwasher. We have that on the
weekend only because frankly, my husband gets up at four
thirty in the morning and loves the dishwasher and that's
his routine, so he didn't take it away from him.
So they do that on the weekend. I'm trying to
remember other stuff. They honestly keep their rooms clean throughout
(29:33):
the weeks that we don't really have that as an issue.
What was the other one? I can't remember now, Oh,
we did do that. This may be an idea for people.
So I got sick of the kids, Like we're saying, like,
no more device time, We're done with that. Then this
is exactly how my son says that we make fun
of them all the time. He just goes around and
(29:54):
going I don't know what to do. I don't know
what to do, and I got really sick of hearing it.
We put each kid gets a drawer in our playroom.
I don't know if you really call it that, but
each kid gets a drawer in the basket, and every
Sunday they have to our Monday they have to go
(30:15):
through the house and gather stuff that they would want
to do that week. So games they would want to play,
card game stuff, crafts, books, anything Jenga would blend the
other week. They have to put it in that drawer.
So when they're constantly saying I don't know what to do,
I can say, go look in your drawer, pull something
out of there, because then it gets sort of the
(30:36):
decision fatigue because of what I can't I don't like
toys being out right now when they were younger, yes,
now no, we're past the totally's everywhere stage, so I
like him hidden. But what I found is that the
kids literally would never go over to the cabinet and
(30:57):
open the door to see what was behind me. They
would just sit in the living room. I don't know
what to do, Like, hey, it's okay to be bored,
so just sit there. And figure it out. But I'm
mistake of having to like tell them, let's open this
cabinet and see what's behind there. So anyway, having the
drawer in the basket that they know this is their
(31:21):
curated duck that they picked very recently to do. And
now they don't have to look at well games and
three different crafts and figure out what they want to do.
It's just, oh, here's one go.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I love that because it takes a decision fatigue away
from you and from them.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
They don't have to take that. It keeps it fresh.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
So like every Sunday, get that stuff out and put
new stuff in go with every week they have a
new toy if you will.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I think that's a great tip before we wrap things up,
because we have to wrap up this conversation. I know
you had a question that one of your or you
got a question from one of your followers on Instagram.
I've asked a question and I thought we could wrap
up today's episode by reading it and go overrom there.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So why don't you pull that up and share?
Speaker 4 (32:16):
So she just asked, how do you deal with sporting
tendencies or the psych aspect of decluttering, and to me,
I wish people would quit calling themselves arders. Not quit
quit putting that negative feeling on yourself because you're not
most of you like parting the clinical thing, it's it
(32:38):
literally lets you not live your day to day life
in a healthy environment. Like that is the extreme. Quit
putting yourself in that and putting that label on yourself
because you're not. You're just a regular person that can't
deal with too many objects every single day. Though with
(33:01):
saying you're a order, you just have a problem of
a collection. Yeah, and also everyone's allowed to have at
least one maybe too. Collection is something that you like.
Everyone thinks that when us organizers come into your house,
we're just gonna make you get rid of it all.
I always like to find out, Like I don't ask
(33:21):
right away because people won't always know. But through the
decluttering process they're like, I think I really like purcess
and this is my thing and I'm not getting rid
of them. Like, okay, that's your one category you get.
Then you can't claim you also love belts or something.
So I try to help them through that. Let's find
(33:41):
your one category and that is what you can hoard
with air quote we're not saying any war. So anyway,
that's a mentality thing, the psych of decluttering that And
I know I've talked about it on your podcast before,
but I have a decluttering phrase it get rid of
your cr ap, and it stands for anything cheap, repetitive, aggravating,
(34:06):
or past primes. We're almost out of time. I don't
go through all of that. People can go back to
your old epio phone and listen to it. But it
helps you look at things from just a very easy
way because a lot of organizers will say you want
to keep the stuff you use, love, need, and that,
(34:28):
to me, I feel is harder because you're like, I
love everything, I use everything, even though you realize you
haven't used something in six months, but you don't want
to make meet that. So if you look at it
from the other way, you're like, Okay, is this cheap
meaning it is terrible quality? Why do you have it
in your life? You're better than that. Itches anyway, every
time you wear it, our is repetitive, you have too
(34:50):
many of the one thing aggravating. It just annoys the
crap out of you every time you use it or
see it, or it brings back a bad memory. Usually
it's a ben ex boyfriend or husband, or ex mother
in law or current mother in law. Sometimes and then
past its primus has cold in it. It no longer fit.
(35:10):
Let's be okay with that that kind of stuff. So
I think if you look at it from that perspective like,
that's an easy yes or no, doesn't saggrebate you Yes
every time? Is this a terrible quality? Yes, so it's
an easier way to look at it.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I love it. Thank you so much, Lisa. I know
that this is your last day of before Bringham a
free I was gonna say it.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And I was like, that just sounds so hard before
your summer routine starts to kick in. I really appreciate
you carving out time to come and share a little
behind the.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Curs the only day I was going to have a
quiet house.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So here we go, Here we go. I'm glad it
will take advantage of it. Obviously we'll link to it
in our show notes, but just shout out to our
listeners where people can follow you find you if they
live in the Carmel, Indiana area.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I want to work with you now, don't not Carmel.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
It's Carmel. You have toda is it?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Oh Caramel Carmel, Carmel, Indiana.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Okay, sorry, if they live in the Carmel, Indiana area,
where they If they live in your neck of.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
The woods near Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yes, go ahead, you have the floor. Tell everyone where
they can find you.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Oh yeah, website the designer Organizer dot com. And then
it's at dot's everywhere. On Instagram they claim I'm on Facebook,
but awesome, it's shook date copy pasted Instagram. It's okay,
there you go.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
It's all good, Lisa, Thank you so much. It's always
fun chatting with you and short.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
I can't believe we did it.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I know.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Listen, we gotta get in, we gotta get out. We
got to get the people moving, all right. Thank you
guys for tuning in. We'll be back next week with
another episode. Until then, I'm llura plow piece out.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
If you liked this episode, please spread the love and
share it with your friends. And if this is your
first time joining us, make sure to click the subscribe
button wherever you are listening so you never miss an episode.
And while you're there, please leave us a review so
other people know that our show is worth to listen.
You can also find us on YouTube and Instagram at
This Organized Life Podcast, and if you'd like to connect
(37:22):
with us, you can head on over to our website
at simply the letter, B Like boyorganized dot com, which
is filled with.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Tons of resources, including free.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners, and all
of our digital offerings. I'll see you next week for
another episode of This Organized Life
Hey, they're organizing friends.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
If you are an aspiring professional organizer, or maybe you're
someone in the early stages of your organizing business and
wondering what the heck is next, don't worry. I've got
you covered here at simply Babe, we offer two mentoring
options to help you grow with confidence. First off, we
have our one on one start anytime program, which is
perfect if you're ready to dive in now. And our
group mentoring Comehork kicks off this coming September, and that
(00:26):
is ideal for somebody.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Who's looking for a little bit more structure. It's a
bit more robust, and it's.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Going to put you immediately in with some community and
give you some extra accountability. So, whether you're looking for
help with pricing or services how to market your business,
either option is going to give you the tools that
you need, and I am here dot guide you every
step of the way. To learn more, visit simplyborganized dot
com or you can click on the link below in
our show notes and you can figure out which option
(00:55):
is best for you. Now, let's build the business that
you have been dreaming about.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Welcome to this organized life. If you're a mom, wife,
or coffee lover seeking advice on how to reduce clutter
and reclaim time, look no further than your host, Louri Hellau,
Founder Simply Be Organized and author of hot Mess, a
practical guide to getting organized. For a lot of people,
clutter is their dirty little secret, but.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
It doesn't have to be.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Each week we will share practical tips, chat with experts,
and provide strategies on how.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
To keep you organized.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
I hope that.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
By sharing our stories you feel a little less alone
and more empowered to tackle the areas that are holding
you back. So let's get started.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And Hi everybody, and welcome to you today's episode of
This Organized Life. I'm your host, Lori Pillau, and I'm
so happy that you're here. The time of this recording,
it's May, the end of May, and we are prepping
for all things summer. Real quick, before I get bring
(01:55):
out today's guests, I just want to remind you that
tomorrow is our Clutter Clinic Kitchen Workshop. I'm not sure
if there's going to be tickets available, but head on
over to our website if you are interested, Simply be
organized dot com. Click on the workshops tab and the
beauty of this is if you miss the live workshop,
(02:15):
you can still purchase the replay. So if kitchens are
an area that stress you out and you want to
learn some practical strategies, my favorite products, things of that
nature with regard to kitchen organizing. This is a fun,
interactive workshop. Again, if you're able to join us live,
and if you are listening to this post recording of
the workshop, not to worry, we will be publishing the
(02:38):
replay and you can.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Also ac sit there.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
So just visit Simplyborganized dot com slash workshops and you
will go to all the things. Okay, now back to
today's guests. If you've been listening, I've been bringing on
and I have a couple more coming of my favorite
organizers that I've asked to join me as co host
for some episodes of the show. And the reason why
(03:03):
is because they are fun, They are smart, they are
knowledgeable in a real life practical sense of what everyday
folks are looking for regardless of your price, budget, season
of life, and they're just fun to chat with. And
you guys love them because every time I have them
(03:24):
on my show, my ratings go way up. So selfishly,
I love having these guys on my show. And without
further ado, I'm going to welcome my good friend Lisa
Ackerley back to the show. Lisa, come on out.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
That's the price is right it is I want to
do one dollar one dot.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh we go fabulary. Hi.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Now, I feel like everybody knows you, but we may
have some new folks who don't know who you are.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
So tell everybody a little bit about your business and
then give us a little insight and so who you
are personally.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
So I own the Designer Organizer. It's an organizing company
in Carmel, Indiana, which is just outside of Indianapolis. So
I'll love you East Coast people right now, go Pacers.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Josh wait, Josh was at the game.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
Crying.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I don't know. I haven't spoken to him.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
He was more like he was more fangirling over all
the celebrities that were there.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
They did Jimmy Fallon did a thing where he was like,
these are all the celebrities in New York and all
the celebrities in Indianapolis. Is like Mike Pence and his family.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I was gonna say, I don't mean this in anyway,
but who the indian local weather guy stop it?
Speaker 4 (04:47):
He had, Yeah, we have Caitlin Clark, so that'd be
all over your.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
You know what that does? That say? No more anyway?
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Anyway, fun fact though, I used to do advertising for
the Pacers, so there we go. It used to be
in advertising for I don't know, fifteen to twenty years,
and then I started my own company in twenty nineteen.
It used to be called Sorts Support. Any of you
ever heard of that? And if any of you ever
(05:17):
have questions about changing your business thing in the middle
of everything, I have stories. So I've been doing this
since then. I offer basically three lines of service through
my company. So it's in home organizing, closet space design,
and then what I call organizational consulting. I don't know
(05:38):
I'm here for Yeah, Okay, made it up, but anyway,
it's basically, if someone's building or renovating, I look at
their plans before anything gets finalized to make sure that
it works for their actual content that they own in base.
I do this for kitchen mostly it's ain, but just
make sure that their stuff actually if it's in what
(06:01):
will be there and then it will blow and function
for them. So I have employees.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Now you're such a big girl.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
I knew they're not contractors. Organ answers out there, they
are not contractors. Made them employees. So that was a
big deal. Yes, but yesterday, Jake, last year, I'll like yesterday.
I have two kids today they are in first and
third and tomorrow they will be in second and fourth.
Speaker 5 (06:33):
So your kids, they were way loveler when fuller, Yes
they were. They were smaller, tinier and all the things
when we first when we first met, Yes, Lisa and
I go way back. She was a not an OG
but an early but an early adopter on the SBO
Partner program.
Speaker 4 (06:53):
Let's call I wasn't there during your startup here.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
No, you were not.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
You were there in the toddler years, not infancy, all right,
in the dollar years. And I've had a firm receipt
into watching Lisa's not only her children grow, but her
business grow. And let me tell you, she's a rock
star all things, very smart, savvy business strategy in addition
to a great design and organizational talent. So anybody that
(07:19):
has the opportunity to work with you is very fortunate.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
I'll tell them.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
You just hope them's that.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Please do, please do. But I wanted to invite you
on the show today.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
As I mentioned in my intro, not just because you're
my friend, and I enjoy having friends as co hosts,
but we get so many questions from people that want
to hear behind the scenes. They ask a lot of
questions about people in the industry right They want to
know what's going on behind the curt and they want
to know where you struggle, because I think there's this
(07:51):
feeling out there that people who are struggling with clutter
or just organization.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I'm the only one. I'm the only one that feels
this way.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
And we even though we might know on a logical level,
like no, there are other people that are struggling, we
often feel like we're the only one. And there's this
misconception that if you're an organizer, you're always organized, and
you're organized in every single.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Aspect of your life.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And we have many conversations both in a professional setting
and then off off the cuff about no, we're real
people too, and this is we go through different seasons
of lives, and you're in it right now with young kids,
juggling a business, all the things. So I just kind
(08:41):
of want to open it up for you to just
riff off of that there's not so much of a
question there, but just laying the groundwork.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Of like just disputing any of those myths that are
out there.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah, I'm a hot mess, just and they and me
and everyone listening to this is I just play an
organized around TV to you. Well, now, it's hard. The
thing that I struggle with most is, honestly, it's not
necessarily tlendar clutter, because I know how to say no
(09:16):
and am. I don't have Bomo, I have Joma, so
I don't really that doesn't bother me. But it's the
to do list clutter of what I know, what I
have to do, how do I organize it to actually
get it done on a daily basis. The first time
ever I used to make fun of everyone having paper planners. Well,
(09:36):
and behold, I know have a paper plan.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
You do, You've regretted, you've regretted.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Okay, let's not go that far. I still have everything digitally.
I have my calendar digitally, I have my to do
list digitally. That part I'm really good at of keeping everything.
I don't miss. The to do I know what I
have to do is just trying to figure out in
my day exactly what which ones I'm going to tackle
(10:02):
that day, which ones can hold off until another day
or another week, and figuring out how. That's why I
did the paper planner, because the to do list on
my digital I thought everything all the time. On my
paper planner, I just go day by day. I now
have a routine where I sit in my living room
in the morning, and this is when the kids are
(10:22):
in school, so they get up, they get ready, we
sit in the living room, I would like to say,
of the family, and then you have this beautiful picture
of us just sitting there being like, oh my an,
what are you going to do today? Now? We're all
on our phone carabl or watching Sports Center right now.
So anyway, I take that time, though, and sit there
(10:43):
and look at my digital calendar and our digital to
do list and put it down on paper. These are
the only I try to do top three things that
I'm going to do today. And then I have a
running list that's on a different page that I can
flip back and forth. But I'm only trying and comes straight.
I don't know three things. And then I also have
(11:03):
a dumping ground. I made my own planner, so not
made it good more. I'm not a crafty person.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
At all.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
But you can personalize your own on a website anyway.
I made a side column that said get blank out
of my head. My kids find it hilarious every time
I see it open and read it. But it's like
a brain dump. I hit my top three and in
the most important section No.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Two.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
There are two important sections. What I have? What am
I going to stop work to do today? No, instead
of trying to work through the whole day that I've
always done. My husband made found me one time Coakie
was working from home with me. I did not get
out of my chair for six hours.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I have I have the Apple Watch and it says
it's time to stand and it'll go, and I.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Just say, I just say yeah, don't care. I tried
Alexa notification, like every two hours they would tell me
to get up, and then I try to have it
like two minutes after that say no, really get.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Up and I just still stop.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
Ignore Anyway, So I have this lest Now what am
I going to stop work to do? So it's sometimes laundry,
Sometimes it's putting way clothes. Sometimes it's just like rest
that outside, go for a walk.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So can I ask you a question?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
So do you feel that this top three, like, what's
this on paper? It gives you a different level of accountability.
I'm curious about what's the mindset shift from transferring it
over to then allowing you to just hold yourself accountable
(12:49):
to making that execution piece.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
I will admit a first day I used at the
top three. I wrote down four and accomplished. None of
them didn't work right, but over the time. So I
started it.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
February. Okay, that's sure.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
So it took me a little bit because I was
writing down the wrong thing. I was writing down stuff
that would take me like three days to do, so
I needed to break that down. So instead of your
saying divine closet, because that's what I kept writing down.
I couldn't do it all in one day because of
stuff that came up and detailed. They had to look
up and all that stuff. So I had to write
(13:32):
down then get the dimensions or answer this question that
I needed and then I could sit down in one
day and get it done. But I was looking at
too big of stuff to write down for one day.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
I think, and as you're talking now, I'm like writing
down notes as you're talking. It's just that's no different
than when a parent says to the child, go up
and clean your room, which is overwhelming someone ambiguous, versus
the efficiency of saying I want you to go up,
(14:07):
and I want you to put your clothes in the hamper,
or I want you to put your books back on
the shelf. You're giving a very specific action, and I
think in your case, giving yourself a very specific directive
allowed you to say, yes, this is doable. I can
do this, as opposed to knowing that you have this big,
(14:29):
daunting task and I'm just gonna if I can't do
it all, or I don't know, I don't know where
to begin, or whenever the fill in the blank is,
I'm just gonna avoid it altogether.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Yeah, I'm completely an all or nothing person. I have realized,
like I either sit down and do it from beginning
to end it dump it up for six hours, I
ignore it, don't do it up. So I had to
break it down into if we get that phrase, I.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Am, I'm a tiger.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
It's not eat the gift horse in the head now,
prop eat the frog, eat the frog bite.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I eat an elephant one bite at a time.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
No, there there's a whole gym about it. And I
think it's eat the frog. We're supposed to do the
hard stuff that you don't want to do first, like
in the morning.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
I've never heard that expression.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, I'll look in her. There's a gym that's called
I think it's eat the frog.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Okay, but keep talking. I would think it up.
Speaker 4 (15:30):
So it's the idea of it's like basically, don't procrastinate.
If you do the first, the hard thing first, then
the rest of your day you can have time to
get the rest of your to do list done, or
do the fun stuff, or do the stuff that you
already have passionate about her that comes easily to you
(15:52):
that can be done later in the day, because otherwise
you just start doing all of those that are easy
to check off or tiny little jus that we have,
especially as business owners, like invoices or looking at your
numbers and stuff like that, where it's just tedious stuff.
(16:15):
The do the non gedious stuff first, because then you
eat the frog. I don't know what or where that
came from, but now.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I feel like it's going to be all over because
we've put it out there. So now everywhere I turned
them and I'm going to see it like.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
A whole gym has the name, but anyway, I had
to learn how to do that. I would see this
big thing on my to do list design a hole, closet, kitchen, everything,
and I would be like, Nope, i can do these
ten smaller tasks because I'm just procrastinating to do the
thing that takes me longer to do that I have
(16:49):
to think, concentrate on so eat the frog in the
morning and then do the rest of this stuff. So
when I'm making my to do list, I'm thinking of
one am I eating today is the frog.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I love it. I think that's great.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
So a lot of times I wanted to I was
actually going to talk about this on an episode next week,
but I decided, Hey, I think having you sit here
enjoy me, since you are a mom of school age kids,
is going to be more relevant than me sitting here
reminiscing about the days when my kids were home on
(17:23):
summer break, the days of your You know this, for
a lot of people, summer elicits a lot of different.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Emotions for people.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Some people are like super excited because they're like, Yay,
we're kicking into summer. We can take things down a notch.
And I know that there's a whole other slew of people,
and I fell into this camp where it was a
little bit stress inducing, especially as a business owner trying
to figure out because, like you said, you're able to
do certain tasks.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
In your day while your kids are at school.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
That gives you an opportunity even though there's a craziness
of getting kids off to school and home for the
boss and school lunches and all that stuff now going Okay,
our whole routines disrupted, and that doesn't just impact our
home dynamic, but as a business owner, that does impact
(18:18):
how I'm running my business and the attention I'm not
able to give and when I'm able to see clients
and all of these other things. Talk to me a
little bit about your personal experience and kind of how
you guys are navigating that.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
So my kids go to camps. Lighting that to my
daughter in the first year when she was kindergarten. She
was like, I don't want to sleep outside and I
was like, no, it's a day camp.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
She's like, literally, like I'm camping. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
She was like, I don't want to sleep out that
and I don't want to be gone for a week.
And I'm like now, okay, we need a different work
for them, my god. But anyway, my kids go the camp.
So last year was the first summer where they were
both at camp. Consummer before that, my son was still
in take care. Though. I learned very quickly from last
year that you have to put the work in to
(19:12):
schedule your summer. Honestly, around here, we have to do
it in February.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I was going to say January.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
I was going to I was going to say February. Yeah,
because the major camp program that we like to go
into you have to register by March first, and it's
you know, hard to get into, so you have to
do it right away. So I am asking pe February, Hey,
I know you talked about wanting to go up to
Michigan with us. What case right? And they're like, we
(19:42):
we have it. It's snowing, yeah, so we have to
plan early. But I last year I made the mistake
of asking the kids what camps do you want to
go to? Knowing I have a boy and a girl
and they are very different personalitieseople interest, all that stuff,
so they one wanted to go to this camp, one
(20:03):
wanted to go to that one. So I was trying
to be nice. Mom also felt guilty that they had
to go to camp most of the weeks of the summer,
so I was like, let's make this as enjoyable on
them as possible, and they get to pick their own camps.
So did that didn't pay attention to time in locations.
(20:24):
So we had one one had to be there at
eight across town, then the other one at nine the
side of town, and then they got picked up at
three and then six or waiting that long they could have,
but anyway, we were driving all over town at all times,
and then it was from like nine to three, which
(20:47):
during the school year, I actually my kids go to
after school programs, so I don't stop work when the
bus comes home because our bus comes at two thirty already,
and I'm at clients, like I can't always get out
of there on time. So the ninety three of disruptive
for us. So this year I really had to sit
down and ask the kids what they wanted to do.
(21:10):
But also I'm like, you're gonna have fun no matter
where you go. But we planned it that it's better
time and they're going either to the same place every time.
We're like right around the corner from each other, which
was huge because now I don't have to be on
the road as much, going everywhere and trying to keep
all those times in my head, because that's brain clutter completely.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It is such brain clutter. And I, as you were talking,
I have a visceral reaction. Like I can remember driving
one kid to one camp, one kid to another camp,
and sometimes it was just logistics based on their age.
Zoe was at a camp that you had to be
ten and up and Logan was seven or whatever the
(21:52):
situation was.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
And yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot for the.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Parent that is responsible, and in my world it was
me and a lot of my friends. It was the
mom's and really figuring out all of the moving parts
adds a whole other layer to you're already crazy chaotic life.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
And I remember last time, a couple of times being
at client's houses and I'd be like, oh my god,
I have to go get my kid at camp. You
can't be more than ten minutes late. They will not
let you come the next day. And I remember like
pulling into this camp it was three oh nine, and
I was like, oh my god, I made it. The
(22:39):
kids got in and they were like, you were the
last one here, and I just turned around. I'm like,
you're lucky I'm here at all. You andmos got left here.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
That'll come back to you in about fifteen years. They'll
be telling the a therapist that. But it's all good now,
it's sine, It's all good.
Speaker 4 (22:54):
They were amongst friends still because there were people coming
for like eymnastics after that and stuff. But I'd be like,
you weren't, like you were sitting on the side of
the curb. Get over it.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And I think it's moms. We really we joke about it.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
But I do think that there's this level of you're
trying to please everybody, right, you want to you want
to be dedicated and give your work one hundred percent,
and you're trying to be the best present mom that
you can be, and you're trying to do all of
the things, and it really is impossible to sustainably keep
(23:30):
all those juggling balls.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
In there, honestly. So I have a different perspective than
those moms with that because I am super lucky that
I married a guy who helps, probably honestly more than
I do. We're doing like that's what we were just
doing this morning is saying okay, I can you pick
(23:55):
up this day? This day? You do drop off this day?
Like we share those responsibilities of fun. And we found
neighbors that are going to the same camp. We actually
made a spreadshet me. I made a spreadsheet in February
with our neighbors and shared it with them and said,
(24:17):
this is where our kids are going to camp. Please,
I know accordingly for when your kids can go with us,
So we're carpooling with them. My husband takes so much
responsibility for stuff that brings me a different kind of guilt.
I think it's not the mom guilt that I'm trying
to do it all and be the default parent. I
think people puddle it like I don't have that problem.
(24:41):
I have been helped so much. I then have the
problem of I don't want him doing like I want
it to be. Even so I keep trying to be like, Okay,
if you're going to do three pickups, then I got
to do three peck cups, and then it's a math
game that no one needs to play. But I apparently
do that kind of guilt.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Of you want to make sure that you're pulling your
fair weight, so to.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Speak, pulling fairweight, and then remembering, because if you're doing
it all it's easy you remember ninety threety every day.
I have to remember, oh, I have this pickup in
that drop off, and then I have to put it
in my calendar, and then I have to put three
notifications on it for me to stop working and remember
to go do it. And that has a different it's
(25:28):
a good player that you have to add in there.
But it's also like I was at the client, like,
oh I have pickup Tosh. I forgot it was this day.
I don't have it tomorrow, but I have today.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
That curious, that helpful lot. I appreciate you walking us
through that.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
I think that's really helpful because I get I think
when we talk about real life, this is how we
do it in our home. It paints a picture for
people that might be listening and go, I don't really
know if I'm doing it right air quote or this
is how we're doing it. I can't see another way,
and hearing other people's experiences really help. Now your kids
(26:04):
are starting to get to the age where as rising
second and fourth graders, they can take on a little
bit more household responsibilities chores if you will. We've done
episodes before about using the summer time to really ramp
that up, or use that as a stepping stone period
(26:27):
to get the kids to be more involved in the
organization routines and chores in the house. How do you
guys handle that? Is that something that you incorporate in?
Is it something I mean? And you were a little
flow to the boat here, But February was like a
(26:47):
good month.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
I guess.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
In February we started family meetings. I actually probably stole
this from a client. She used to do it weekly,
and I was like, we're we going to do it quarterly.
Speak again where But we sat down and we started
telling me it's like, look, you've had it nice. Now
it's time to not have it it's nice. So we
(27:11):
laid down device rolls. We laid down what happens if
you don't go buy the device rules, and then we
laid out chores. I have it written in my planner
and then I know this is bad for a podcast,
but I have those on YouTube.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
We could be watching his.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
So I just got like this checklist tours, the filled
out one. It's like a post it thing. So we
can put it on our refrigerator, but the filled out
one has like the name of who's in charge of it.
And I tried to make it. You're gonna laugh. I
try to make it. You try to appropriate, but our
age appropriate, I should say. They do the same cup.
(27:50):
But they have to sort their laundry every Sunday into
the hang up clothes and the drying clothes or the
close that dry hunging up and the cork I can
go out in the dryer, got it, and then their
socks the underwear, so they separate their clothes that way,
they're in charge. I guess they're in charge of putting
(28:13):
their clothes away, and I was like, no, veto, because
I want to make sure everything's fooled incorrectly and put
it nicely because I know they won't do that. And
then if I have to go in there, I'll lose
my grap and we're not that's the control for.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
The issue me.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
I will get rid of that eventually as they get older,
but now it's not a thing. So they have to
separate their socks and underwear because we like do it
all together. I also had to get rid of a
control freak thing because my son doesn't care to match
his socks now, and he just throws them all in
(28:54):
his drawer. Luckily, he has a little divided bit into
his socks that he throws them all in, and then
every day he wears miss match sucks. So as part
of this new routine, I let that go because now
I wt not to sit there and match all these
darn socks.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Yeah, So they do that, and then they do they
have the empty the dishwasher. We have that on the
weekend only because frankly, my husband gets up at four
thirty in the morning and loves the dishwasher and that's
his routine, so he didn't take it away from him.
So they do that on the weekend. I'm trying to
remember other stuff. They honestly keep their rooms clean throughout
(29:33):
the weeks that we don't really have that as an issue.
What was the other one? I can't remember now, Oh,
we did do that. This may be an idea for people.
So I got sick of the kids, Like we're saying, like,
no more device time, We're done with that. Then this
is exactly how my son says that we make fun
of them all the time. He just goes around and
(29:54):
going I don't know what to do. I don't know
what to do, and I got really sick of hearing it.
We put each kid gets a drawer in our playroom.
I don't know if you really call it that, but
each kid gets a drawer in the basket, and every
Sunday they have to our Monday they have to go
(30:15):
through the house and gather stuff that they would want
to do that week. So games they would want to play,
card game stuff, crafts, books, anything Jenga would blend the
other week. They have to put it in that drawer.
So when they're constantly saying I don't know what to do,
I can say, go look in your drawer, pull something
out of there, because then it gets sort of the
(30:36):
decision fatigue because of what I can't I don't like
toys being out right now when they were younger, yes,
now no, we're past the totally's everywhere stage, so I
like him hidden. But what I found is that the
kids literally would never go over to the cabinet and
(30:57):
open the door to see what was behind me. They
would just sit in the living room. I don't know
what to do, Like, hey, it's okay to be bored,
so just sit there. And figure it out. But I'm
mistake of having to like tell them, let's open this
cabinet and see what's behind there. So anyway, having the
drawer in the basket that they know this is their
(31:21):
curated duck that they picked very recently to do. And
now they don't have to look at well games and
three different crafts and figure out what they want to do.
It's just, oh, here's one go.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
I love that because it takes a decision fatigue away
from you and from them.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
They don't have to take that. It keeps it fresh.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
So like every Sunday, get that stuff out and put
new stuff in go with every week they have a
new toy if you will.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
I love it.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
I think that's a great tip before we wrap things up,
because we have to wrap up this conversation. I know
you had a question that one of your or you
got a question from one of your followers on Instagram.
I've asked a question and I thought we could wrap
up today's episode by reading it and go overrom there.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
So why don't you pull that up and share?
Speaker 4 (32:16):
So she just asked, how do you deal with sporting
tendencies or the psych aspect of decluttering, and to me,
I wish people would quit calling themselves arders. Not quit
quit putting that negative feeling on yourself because you're not
most of you like parting the clinical thing, it's it
(32:38):
literally lets you not live your day to day life
in a healthy environment. Like that is the extreme. Quit
putting yourself in that and putting that label on yourself
because you're not. You're just a regular person that can't
deal with too many objects every single day. Though with
(33:01):
saying you're a order, you just have a problem of
a collection. Yeah, and also everyone's allowed to have at
least one maybe too. Collection is something that you like.
Everyone thinks that when us organizers come into your house,
we're just gonna make you get rid of it all.
I always like to find out, Like I don't ask
(33:21):
right away because people won't always know. But through the
decluttering process they're like, I think I really like purcess
and this is my thing and I'm not getting rid
of them. Like, okay, that's your one category you get.
Then you can't claim you also love belts or something.
So I try to help them through that. Let's find
(33:41):
your one category and that is what you can hoard
with air quote we're not saying any war. So anyway,
that's a mentality thing, the psych of decluttering that And
I know I've talked about it on your podcast before,
but I have a decluttering phrase it get rid of
your cr ap, and it stands for anything cheap, repetitive, aggravating,
(34:06):
or past primes. We're almost out of time. I don't
go through all of that. People can go back to
your old epio phone and listen to it. But it
helps you look at things from just a very easy
way because a lot of organizers will say you want
to keep the stuff you use, love, need, and that,
(34:28):
to me, I feel is harder because you're like, I
love everything, I use everything, even though you realize you
haven't used something in six months, but you don't want
to make meet that. So if you look at it
from the other way, you're like, Okay, is this cheap
meaning it is terrible quality? Why do you have it
in your life? You're better than that. Itches anyway, every
time you wear it, our is repetitive, you have too
(34:50):
many of the one thing aggravating. It just annoys the
crap out of you every time you use it or
see it, or it brings back a bad memory. Usually
it's a ben ex boyfriend or husband, or ex mother
in law or current mother in law. Sometimes and then
past its primus has cold in it. It no longer fit.
(35:10):
Let's be okay with that that kind of stuff. So
I think if you look at it from that perspective like,
that's an easy yes or no, doesn't saggrebate you Yes
every time? Is this a terrible quality? Yes, so it's
an easier way to look at it.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
I love it. Thank you so much, Lisa. I know
that this is your last day of before Bringham a
free I was gonna say it.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
And I was like, that just sounds so hard before
your summer routine starts to kick in. I really appreciate
you carving out time to come and share a little
behind the.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Curs the only day I was going to have a
quiet house.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
So here we go, Here we go. I'm glad it
will take advantage of it. Obviously we'll link to it
in our show notes, but just shout out to our
listeners where people can follow you find you if they
live in the Carmel, Indiana area.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
I want to work with you now, don't not Carmel.
Speaker 4 (36:08):
It's Carmel. You have toda is it?
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Oh Caramel Carmel, Carmel, Indiana.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Okay, sorry, if they live in the Carmel, Indiana area,
where they If they live in your neck of.
Speaker 4 (36:19):
The woods near Indianapolis.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yes, go ahead, you have the floor. Tell everyone where
they can find you.
Speaker 4 (36:27):
Oh yeah, website the designer Organizer dot com. And then
it's at dot's everywhere. On Instagram they claim I'm on Facebook,
but awesome, it's shook date copy pasted Instagram. It's okay,
there you go.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
It's all good, Lisa, Thank you so much. It's always
fun chatting with you and short.
Speaker 4 (36:50):
I can't believe we did it.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
I know.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Listen, we gotta get in, we gotta get out. We
got to get the people moving, all right. Thank you
guys for tuning in. We'll be back next week with
another episode. Until then, I'm llura plow piece out.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
If you liked this episode, please spread the love and
share it with your friends. And if this is your
first time joining us, make sure to click the subscribe
button wherever you are listening so you never miss an episode.
And while you're there, please leave us a review so
other people know that our show is worth to listen.
You can also find us on YouTube and Instagram at
This Organized Life Podcast, and if you'd like to connect
(37:22):
with us, you can head on over to our website
at simply the letter, B Like boyorganized dot com, which
is filled with.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Tons of resources, including free.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Downloads, checklists, links to our amazing organizing partners, and all
of our digital offerings. I'll see you next week for
another episode of This Organized Life
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