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How We’re Banishing Toy Clutter, For Good

July 20, 2016 by Gina Poirier 6 Comments

How We’re Banishing Toy Clutter, For Good: how we're using the KonMari decluttering method to take our house back from "kid creep"!

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

“It looks like Babies-R-Us vomited in my living room.”

I can’t remember whether it was my husband or someone else who said it, but for some reason this sentiment has stuck with me: how you feel when your sweet and cuddly baby starts accumulating STUFF. It still amazes me how such a tiny being apparently requires more equipment to survive than someone twenty times his size.

You think that eventually you will reclaim your home, but of course…the baby grows and accumulates MORE STUFF. And then once you start adding siblings to the mix, you basically give up.

Earlier this year we started implementing the KonMari decluttering technique in our home. It worked wonders on our clothes (part 1) and our books (part 2), but the rest of the house—what Marie Kondo dubs “miscellany”—loomed in front of me like an unmovable mocking beast. In particular, the toy clutter. It was in every room. Over time I had distributed toy bins throughout the house in an attempt to make it easy to pick up by simply tossing whatever had scattered into the nearest receptacle. This helped some, but more and more it felt like our kids were the ones who owned our house.

toy clutter
Is that the living room? The dining room? The toy room? No one knows…

My husband called it “the kid creep.” Like none of our space was really our own. What’s more, it was overwhelming for the kids when I said, “Time to clean up!” They didn’t know where to start or where to end.

When I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, I, like many parents with this problem, was disappointed that there is no section explaining what to do with toys! Neither was there much help in the follow-up manual, Spark Joy. All Kondo really says is that you should teach your kids how to tidy for themselves. Good advice, but…how to even begin???

I’ll be honest: this process has taken a long time, and I could probably do even more. BUT I can say confidently say that over the past couple of months we have eliminated most of our toy clutter. I can breathe again; I feel like I have grown-up space; and my kids aren’t overwhelmed by their stuff. What’s more, they are equipped to clean it up themselves.

If you’re sick of toy clutter, you don’t have to put up with it. It will take some work, but trust me friend, it is soooooo worth the effort. Here’s what I’ve learned as we’ve taken back our house.

Make a pile. Throw stuff out that you don’t love. Rinse. Repeat.

decluttering toys

That’s the method, simple as that. We were remodeling over a couple of months, so a lot of our stuff was floating around the house with no permanent home and giving me more anxiety than I like to deal with. I recall at least three separate occasions when I piled all of the toys from a particular location and “KonMaried” them. My kids helped quite a bit because I wanted them to learn how to choose to keep only what they truly like. But a couple of times I went solo…because the task was a little overwhelming for them.

We threw out A LOT: probably at least half. I only kept those toys which have resale/giveaway value, which are currently stockpiled with all of the other former clutter…in the garage.

Give the toys a home in one room.

Toy Room

Once we had sorted and discarded every plaything in the house, I wanted to simplify how we organized them. I moved the vast majority of the toys to our newly remodeled family room. It works to store them in small bins that are easy to access, which makes finding toys as well as cleaning them up simple. I don’t recommend “overorganizing” them because they will just get mixed up again anyway. If you have older kids who would like to keep a certain category separate, then do that (we do with LEGOS). Otherwise, don’t create more stress than necessary. Make your system simple!

We try to keep as many toys as possible out of the kids’ bedrooms. These are now quiet areas. We did keep a few toys that are easy to pick up in there—that fit in one small bin.

kids bedroom

This has been a game-changer for me. For the most part, the toys are now downstairs and not scattered all over the rest of our living areas. While rogue toys occasionally sneak into other areas of the house, it’s simple to pick them up and return them to their homes. The kids are much less overwhelmed with cleanup time.

This past week my 18-month-old nephew stayed with us. Since toddlers notoriously scatter stuff everywhere, he put my new system to the test. If you have a toddler, here’s my advice: store their toys in small bins that are easy to carry. Take one bin out during playtime; then put toys back in the bin and put the bin away.

toy bin

Continue to discard…constantly.

The reason that the title of this post is in the present tense and not the past is that the tidying process with the toys is ongoing. As we’ve reduced the size of our toy collection, I’ve learned that we could do even more. So I’ve discovered the practice of throwing clutter out as I see it. The kids are constantly bringing little knickknacks into the home that they play with for one day and then ignore: things like party favors and fast food restaurant toys. If I find one that isn’t being played with or is broken, I pitch it. No one notices.

Birthdays are also a good time to assess, with the kids, which toys are no longer sparking joy. Plus it’s fun to make room for new stuff that they do love!

Concluding observations

I’ve learned a lot through this process and am continuing to learn. While Marie Kondo doesn’t give any specific advice for toys, I think her “spark joy” method has been extremely helpful as we’ve decluttered our toys.

I believe that there is a separate category of kids’ stuff that I didn’t address here, major clutter-causers: crafts, puzzles, games and building sets. I am not yet on top of these beasts but I hope to be soon.

Finally, if you’ve been following this journey you might notice that quite a lot of time has elapsed since I first started (about six months ago). I feel like I have a long way to go…but I believe in the system and I am going to press on with the rest of my house!

(Please pray for me, haha!)

What’s your biggest obstacle when it comes to decluttering toys? Please leave a comment here or on social media.

Like what you read? Subscribe and get tips on faith, homemaking and family life from Holding the Distaff in your inbox. And just because I like ya, I’ll send you my Woman of Strength devotional for free. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thanks for stopping by!

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Filed Under: Home Management, Home Organization

How To Rock Your Schedule (Plus Awesome Resources For Moms!)

May 19, 2016 by Gina Poirier 10 Comments

Feeling exasperated? Stay-at-home moms and work-at-home moms need schedules too! Here's how to do it like a pro

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

Hello, my name is Gina and I have problems. Scheduling problems. Control problems.

I’m not lazy; in fact I know that on many days the thing I need most is to rest. But I can’t figure out when I can fit it in.

Being on time anywhere is a challenge. I have a full day go by and I know I’ve done a lot because the kids are still alive, but I look at the piles of toys and I’m like why???? I have a plan in my head about how my day should go and I don’t stick to it. Some days the word FAIL is plastered to my subconscious mind.

I get angry that there aren’t more hours in a day.

A few months ago I started blogging as a business and honestly, it has thrown me through a loop. Add some remodeling while I’m trying to declutter our house…I’ve had a few meltdowns, okay?

Dealing with my problems has involved some heart digging, but I’ve also had to come up with some practical solutions. I don’t need to feel like every area of my life is flawless, but I do feel like I need to have more sense of control, and less guilt.

I am in control of my schedule, my planner, my to-do lists. They do not run me.

After reassessing how I’m running my life and my household, one the major changes I made was to simply write my daily schedule down. I had done this at the beginning of our school year, but a lot has changed since then. I had an ideal schedule in my head, but there were a lot of nebulous gaps in it.

After writing my schedule from wakeup to bedtime, I’ve learned several things:

  • I have more time than I thought.
  • Social media is the biggest time-waster ever.
  • My kids are happier on a predictable schedule.
  • I feel less guilt about relaxing when I schedule it in.
  • I do have time to clean, cook and shop when I set aside the time to do it.
  • I’m more disciplined about taking care of myself and being healthy.

Trust me, even if you recoil at structure, this is so worth doing! Just try it! It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay-at-home, work-at-home or work-outside-the-home mom; you will benefit from scheduling your time at home.

Here are some general tips I have when creating your ideal schedule:

  • Be as specific as possible, but realize that these are just guidelines. Remember, you own your schedule. It doesn’t own you.
  • Give yourself a couple of “free” periods throughout the day that will give you time to catch up if you fall behind on scheduled tasks (or if you need more time to relax or play with your kids!).
  • Be very selective about what you do when your kids are asleep, including before they wake up, naptime and after they go to bed. Those are the times I absolutely need quiet—to read, pray, write or spend time with my husband. I try to get ready for the day or for bed when the kids are getting ready so I’m not wasting that precious sleep time doing things like brushing my teeth.
  • Include self-care times like relaxing or spending time with your spouse or going out with the girls.
  • Consider tasks that you can distribute throughout the week, such as working on a particular project or cleaning a certain area of the house. Try to do it on the same day each week; that way you won’t put it off.
  • Schedule time for essentials like errands, budgeting, organizing, whatever. I do those during our “free times” as needed.

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I’ll share my daily schedule here, just to give an example. This is my schedule, for the month of May, 2016. I have three kids, ages 3, 5 and almost 7, and we homeschool. Your routine might look like it…or not. I will adjust it again when summer vacation starts at the end of the month, and I will probably adjust again later. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, but seeing someone else’s schedule on paper can give you a little bit of guidance.

6:00Wake up, read Bible, pray, work out
7:15Kids wake up, breakfast, morning chores, get ready
8:30Check email and social media
9:00Homeschool
10:30Free time or morning activity (parks, etc.)
12:00Lunch, afternoon chores
1:00Homeschool
2:00Quiet/nap time for kids, writing/work for me
4:00Free time
5:00Make dinner, eat, clean up
6:30Evening activities (vary)
8:00Bedtime routine
9:00Kids go to sleep, spend time with husband, relax
10:30Sleep

Once school is wrapped up for the year, our schedule will adjust slightly. We won’t do school in the morning, so that time will be set aside for activities or household projects.

Since no one is exactly like me, I thought I’d link to a few ways other moms make their schedules:

Daily Schedules for Stay at Home Moms (for older or younger kids) via Our Small Hours

Toddler and Preschooler Daily Schedule via Tales of Beauty for Ashes

Time Blocking via Hey Donna

How To Balance a Business and a Baby without Going Insane via Brilliant Business Moms

Why a Stay at Home Mom Schedule Matters via Military Wife and Mom

Why and How To Make a SAHM Schedule via What You Make It

If you need more ideas, there are plenty on my Pinterest boards: Plan and Organize and Home Management.

And if you REALLY want some coaching through this, there are even more incredible resources out there:

Rhythms, Routines & Schedules by Rachel Norman and Lauren Tamm: ideas for simplifying and streamlining your life with kids from infancy through school age. I sooooo wish I had read this when my kids were babies; it provides many specific examples and ideas for how to manage your time when you very needy little ones.

Make Over Your Calendar by Crystal Paine: Crystal from Money Saving Mom is the expert on everything like this. She runs a very successful business while raising a family so she knows her stuff. This is a free video course, full of practicals. And if your really love Crystal, check out her popular courses: Make Over Your Mornings, Make Over Your Evenings and Make Over Your Year! I pretty much stalk her, FYI.

Family Systems: How to Automate Your Housewife Life by Hilary Erickson: I LOVE these ideas about how to make your home run like a well-oiled machine; I’m working through this eBook now! So much practical, sanity-saving advice.

You don’t have to be drowning in day-to-day life. While we all have unique circumstances, applying some of these wise principles provided by wise women WILL help.

And remember, as I often say, don’t look at all the examples and then feel insecure or overwhelmed because you don’t feel like you “have it together” like everyone else seems to. Even the best of us have horrible days. If you struggle with this, I think you’ll be encouraged by reading my free devotional, Woman of Strength.

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Filed Under: Encouragement for Moms, Home Management

Awesome Sauce: Multipurpose Marinara + Lasagna

May 11, 2016 by Gina Poirier Leave a Comment

Awesome Sauce: in this versatile recipe learn how to make marinara from scratch, which tastes great on pasta, pizza and in lasagna.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

If you’ve tried any of my recipes, you know my deal: stuff that is simple and that can be used in multiple meals.

This recipe is no exception. When I started teaching myself how to cook, one of the first things I wanted to learn was how to make spaghetti from something besides the Prego jar.

So here you have it: delicious, versatile marinara sauce. I took it from Betty Crocker and adjusted it to our tastes. It goes great on spaghetti or other pasta, lasagna, homemade pizza or even works as a dipping sauce! You can make it with or without meat.

Usually when I make this recipe I use half of it with spaghetti for one meal; then I freeze the other half.

Ready to get started? I’ve included several preparation variations.

Multipurpose Marinara Recipe

Adapted from Betty Crocker Cookbook

Makes about 12 cups of sauce

Awesome sauce marinara

Ingredients

  • 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes
  • 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
  • 1 6-oz can tomato paste
  • 1 onion, diced (about 1 cup)
  • 8 gloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
  • 1 tablespoon oregano
  • salt and pepper to taste (about ½ teaspoon each)

Directions

Add everything to large pot; bring to a boil and then let simmer for half an hour. Serve as desired—adding shredded Parmesan is highly recommended!

awesome spaghetti

Variations

  • You can substitute with fresh tomatoes; I recommend using the roma variety. Just peel and deseed them first.
  • You can also add fresh herbs—there’s nothing like fresh basil out of the back yard! Use about 1 tablespoon of fresh for every teaspoon dried.
  • We usually like to add meat. A good ratio for this recipe is about a pound. Recently our favorite combination is ½ pound Italian sausage plus ½ pound ground beef or turkey. Brown it before you add it to the sauce.
  • This recipe also works in the crockpot! Simply add the ingredients to the slow cooker and heat on low for 4 hours, or on high for 2 hours. If you do this I recommend adding herbs at the end so the flavor doesn’t cook away.

kids eating awesome spaghetti

Bonus: how about lasagna with your leftover sauce?

Awesome Sauce Lasagna

(also adapted from Betty)

Serves about 8

awesome sauce lasagna

Ingredients

  • 4 cups Awesome Sauce (recommended with meat)
  • 8 uncooked lasagna noodles (or the quick cook variety)
  • 2 cups ricotta cheese or small curd cottage cheese
  • ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon fresh parsley
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

  • Heat oven to 350 degrees; cook and drain lasagna noodles.
  • Mix cottage or ricotta cheese, ¼ cup of the Parmesan cheese, oregano and parsley in a small bowl.
  • Make lasagna layers in a 13×9 glass baking dish. Start by adding half of the sauce. Layer 4 noodles on top. Add half of the ricotta or cottage cheese mixture, followed by half of the mozzarella. Repeat. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup Parmesan cheese on top.
  • Bake the lasagna covered with aluminum foil for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and continue cooking for 15 minutes. If you like your cheese to be browned, heat it under the broiler on high at the end for a minute or two.
  • Let the lasagna set for about 10 minutes before serving. 

awesome lasagna plate

Do you make your own marinara sauce? What are your tips for making it awesome?

Like what you read? Subscribe and get tips on faith, homemaking and family life from Holding the Distaff in your inbox. And just because I like ya, I’ll send you my Woman of Strength devotional for free. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thanks for stopping by!

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Filed Under: Home Management, Recipes

10 Ways To Make Grocery Shopping Ridiculously Easier

April 23, 2016 by Gina Poirier 2 Comments

10 Ways To Make Grocery Shopping Ridiculously Easier: if grocery shopping stresses you out, especially if you have kids, these tips are for you.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

Does grocery shopping stress you out?

I remember the days when trips to the grocery store felt like Mission Impossible. The whining, the mess, the corralling, the bribery, the lost shoes.

Small children and long lists simply do not mix.

And even when I worked so hard to keep my family fed, I would never have what I needed! I forgot to put items on my grocery list; my kids’ diets would consist of Cheerios, Goldfish crackers and macaroni and cheese. They survived and so did I, but at one point I decided that some things would have to change if we wanted to be healthy and sane people.

I don’t have the perfect system. But, I’ve gone grocery shopping to feed our family hundreds (if not thousands) of times. Since consuming food takes up a good portion of our everyday lives, I’m excited to provide a little inspiration in this area.

One caveat: this isn’t a magic formula.

I see a lot of articles on Pinterest about how to scrimp and save and come up with the perfect family food plan. But I haven’t come across a single one that would work for me. And maybe you feel the same way.

Here’s why it’s hard to present the perfect grocery shopping plan:

  • Every family has different needs and preferences with their food. We don’t have any food allergies or restrictions in our household. We’re also purchasing quite a lot of food these days, to feed three growing kids and three adults.
  • Not everyone has the same access to food. I can get to five different grocery stories within five minutes of leaving my house, and I have a big minivan that I can load up with food. That’s luxurious.
  • Not everyone has the same financial means. Right now we live pretty comfortably. In the past we supplemented with government WIC coupons. MANY people live paycheck to paycheck.
  • On that note, food prices vary drastically in different parts of the country (and world!). I visited rural Alaska once, where the price of a half gallon of milk was about $9!
  • Everyone has different schedules. Maybe you stay at home with your kids; maybe you work. Maybe you have a car; maybe you rely on public transportation or even walk.
  • We all have different amounts of storage space. Our family has space in our garage for a refrigerator/freezer so we can stock up. Another luxury.

So I realize that the strategies I present may or may not apply to your situation. As I said, this isn’t a magic formula, but I hope that you’ll nonetheless find at least some of these tricks useful. You have a lot of potential stressors in your life; grocery shopping doesn’t have to be one of them.

10 Ways To Make Grocery Shopping Ridiculously Easier

1. Get comfortable with cooking from scratch

Wait, what? Isn’t cooking a different topic? Well, yes and no. I list this first because it’s difficult to assess what your family’s food needs are if your meals consist primarily of boxed mac & cheese, frozen pizza and carry-out. I’m not against these things entirely, but in my experience, it’s cheaper and easier—yes, easier—to put meals together when you’re not relying on the pre-made stuff. After teaching myself how to cook, I’m a lot more comfortable with throwing together non-recipe based meal based on what I have on hand. This way I’m going to the grocery store less frequently and actually using up what I have.

Does the thought of cooking cause anxiety? Don’t worry. Just take it one step at a time (I still rely on boxed mac & cheese from time to time!).

2. Make a meal plan that works for you

Some people like to plan out a whole month’s worth of meals. I cannot stand the rigidity of doing that. For a long time I did weekly plans, but now I only do about three days at a time so I can adjust for changing schedules, unexpected guests, using up leftovers, etc. There are about a million ways to meal plan, so pick one. The only one I suggest avoiding is…not planning.

3. Make a list of your family’s favorite meals

I love getting in food ruts! Said no mom ever. If you’re tired of spaghetti week after week, start making a list of your family’s favorite meals. Try a new recipe every now and then. If it’s a keeper, write it down on the master list. Then, when you’re planning out those meals, you have a growing list of ideas to choose from. I keep mine in my master planner.

4. Make a pantry inventory

This might sound painful but I promise it might be the easiest thing on this list. I came up with this idea a few months ago: going through my pantry, fridge and freezer and making a comprehensive list of everything that I like to have on hand to make our favorite meals. I put everything in an Excel spreadsheet. Now, when I’m preparing to go to the store, I pull out the list and check off what I need and don’t need. I rarely run out of anything! I also made lists for toiletries, cleaning supplies and other consumable goods, since I often buy them along with my groceries.

5. Keep a running grocery list

Even with my pantry inventory I like to keep a short grocery list with me. These are things that I might only occasionally need and aren’t necessarily on my master inventory. I write them down on my phone or my planner.

6. Buy in bulk about once a month

With my pantry inventory in hand, it is easy to figure out what I need to have in stock month by month. At the beginning of each month I make a big trip to Sam’s Club, followed up by Aldi and Meijer (gotta love the midwest!). It’s a big event, but then it’s DONE. This is the time to get your dry goods and anything you can freeze (which is a lot!). I fill in as needed during the weeks in between, based on my meal plans and how much of the bulk we’ve gone through. Typically these are quick, painless trips to pick up produce and little odds and ends.

I know not everyone is able to do this because of lack of storage space. If this is you, then just adjust as necessary. Maybe you do a bigger trip at the beginning of the month, and then a second but smaller trip in the middle of the month. Whatever works.

I know a few people who order some of their bulk goods online, through specialty shops or even Amazon. Do what works for you!

7. Schedule your major shopping trips

A problem I used to have was feeling that I never really had the time to do a big trip, especially with kids in tow. But ironically, I ended up making bigger trips more frequently, which made me feel exhausted week after week. Now, I have my once a month “big shopping day” on my calendar. Thus I know in advance whether I can schedule other things that weekend—and it helps me plan childcare. I love my kiddos and they love me, but ain’t nobody want to do shopping day together. We all win.

And if you’re really motivated you can schedule some food prep as well—freezer meals, if that’s your thing. I’ll admit…sometimes I get inspired, but not usually.

8. When your kids do come…have a plan

While I don’t take my kids on the monthly big trip, sometimes they tag along when I have to fill in. They know the routine now, but every now and then we have to have a little chat before we go into the store. I call it “the prep talk,” which is very effective at helping kids understand what’s acceptable behavior during the trip.

9. Schedule deliveries and/or pickups

Wherever you like to shop, check and see if they have delivery or pickup options. Often when I go to Sam’s Club I make an order in advance that is ready to go when I arrive. Then when I get there I pick out my meat and produce, and I’m on my way. It saves a ton of time. We also have our milk delivered weekly by a regional dairy we really like. It’s a bit of a splurge, but in my opinion it’s worth it.

10. Don’t stress about coupons

I understand that some people are experts at couponing and it supposedly saves them loads of cash. It’s not my thing. I clip coupons as I see them and keep them in a file. I also clip electronic coupons at my favorite stores and use my Ibotta app to get rebates. When I go shopping I try to remember the coupons, and they save me a couple of bucks here and there.

I don’t obsess over coupons because I believe that when you’re planning your grocery shopping well, you don’t need them. If you pay attention to great deals at Aldi in particular, you’re going to save more than you would with coupons (if you don’t have an Aldi I’m so sorry L). Instead of spending hours poring over coupon deals, I could be spending that time making money instead or spending time with the people I care about.

And that’s it! Some of these tricks are simpler than others, so if grocery shopping stresses you out I encourage you to at least try a few. Let me know how it goes!

Like what you read? Subscribe and get tips on faith, homemaking and family life from Holding the Distaff in your inbox. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

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Filed Under: Home Management

10 Lessons Decluttering Books The KonMari Way

April 7, 2016 by Gina Poirier 7 Comments

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

10 Lessons Decluttering Books The KonMari Way: While it might seem painful to discard books, it actually helps you discover what you love. Useful for adults, kids, homeschool, music, cookbooks and more.

“No matter how much stuff you may own, the amount is always finite.”
Marie Kondo, Spark Joy, p. 35.

I started my KonMari tidying journey about three months ago (read about Part 1 here). I was eager to see the life-changing magic this decluttering method promised. I was not disappointed when we went through our piles of clothes and discarded most of them. To this day, our closets and drawers are tidy—in some ways they look even better than they did at first because we’ve mastered how to store everything.

And then I look at the rest of my house. We have so far to go.

In her second book, Spark Joy, Kondo addresses some of the apprehension you can encounter when you realize the amount of sheer work that it takes to completely tidy your whole house. And she says to keep pressing on. Because someday, it will be done.

Our busy lives got even busier in the last couple of months. Step 2 in the KonMari method of tidying up is books. I didn’t think this leg of the journey would be difficult—and it wasn’t really—but the rest of life got in the way. I’m about a month behind where I thought I would be at this point.

But you know what? That’s okay because at least I’m not endlessly going through stuff, with no goal in mind. We have made progress, and now we have a collection of books for the whole family that is pleasant to the eye and easy to navigate.

Tidy Bookshelf After KonMari Decluttering

10 Lessons Decluttering Books the KonMari Way

If you haven’t read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, one of the most shocking sections is when Kondo tells you to go through your books. You are supposed to pile them up on the floor, pick them up one at a time and assess your feelings about them. If they “spark joy” you should keep them, and if they don’t you should toss them. DO NOT open the books.

Book Pile for the KonMari Decluttering Method

Naturally, this gives book-lovers a bit of a heart attack.

At some point in my young adulthood, I recall saying that one of my life goals was to have a massive library. It would be a way to showcase my love of learning, right?

And then along comes KonMari, who says toss all the books.

What?!!!

Nonetheless, I decided to put some trust in my favorite new Japanese friend and follow her advice. Does it spark joy?

With a busy schedule it took me several weeks to complete this. I did the adult books in one session, the homeschool books in another, the baby books in another and the older kid books in another. I also quickly went through cookbooks and sheet music.

Here’s what our family (well, mostly I) learned from the process:

  1. We have a lot of garbage books.

You know, the ones you pick up but never finish, the ones that are water-damaged, the ones that you keep after college because you think they have valuable information—but ten years later you can’t remember a thing about them (and have no interest in relearning).

These are easy to get rid of.

  1. It’s okay to throw away old books.

We have a lot of books that have been well-loved but are falling apart, particularly those supposedly indestructible baby board books. As Kondo says, thank them for their service and say goodbye. They can go to the garbage can—it’s okay! No one will be offended.

  1. Keep the books you’d want to lend.

This might go against KonMari’s advice because I wouldn’t necessarily read these books again myself. But one of the reason I love to have books is because I love to lend them. Ask my friends; whenever someone is trying to solve a problem I will often say, “Oh, have you read this book…?” And then I go grab it.

But then again it might not go against the KonMari method after all. It gives me joy to lend books. So I keep them.

  1. Aesthetics matter.

I’ve been inspired by Modern Mrs. Darcy lately, who regularly displays her gorgeous book collections on Instagram. Her books are often color coordinated! This goes against my intuition because I want logical order but dang, her bookshelves look pretty. Thus, it’s okay to keep a book just because it looks nice.

My bookshelves aren’t magazine pretty, but they’re no longer a disorganized mess of books I have no interest in. And they’re not bad, right?

  1. Ditch the educational stuff you don’t use.

I’ve only been homeschooling for about two years, and already we have stockpiles of educational material. Most of it is junk that I acquired at used book sales or has been given to me. At one time I thought that it would be handy to have a deep pile of resources, but it’s not handy if you don’t use them! It’s a relief to know what we like and what we don’t—and it’s okay to pass along the stuff we don’t.

  1. Double-check with the spouse.

This decluttering project is mostly my thing. My husband is supportive, but I’m doing the bulk of the work. The challenge with books is that many of them are shared. When I went through our shelves, I took everything off as per the KonMari instructions. First I kept the books I knew I wanted as well as the books I knew Marc liked. Then I left a pile of books for him that I wasn’t sure about. At his convenience he went through them and pulled out the ones he wanted to keep. It was no-drama.

  1. About those books you “might” read.

Kondo says to trash them, but I couldn’t pull the trigger on all of them. I have a handful of adoption books and a few others that were given to me as gifts. I’ll hold onto them for now. I now am not afraid to get rid of books, so I can revisit them later (she does say that you can do this to a certain extent while you hone your tidying skills).

  1. Kids do better with less.

Tidy Kids' Bookshelf After KonMari Decluttering Method

Prior to decluttering, we had a ton of kids’ books and I was afraid that I would be harming my children by getting rid of any of them. But the truth was, they couldn’t find half of them anyway! In addition to the falling-apart books, I discarded the ones that they had outgrown or were just not good reads. You know, like the free paperbacks you get with a kids meal.

Now their fewer books are much more neatly organized, and—shocking—my kids are reading more! They are much more likely to pull a high-quality book off the shelf when they can see it. Here is the bookshelf in my boys’ room (ages 5 and 6). My daughter (3) has most of the toddler books in her room. I plan on getting a small shelf for her soon, but in the meantime they are lined up against the wall. It works for now!

  1. Do you really need all those cookbooks?

Um, no. Especially these days. I kept my favorite Betty Crocker as well as a couple more that I refer to regularly.

  1. Sheet music—ditch the mess.

I have been playing the piano since I was seven years old and I have carried around all of my old music with me for a couple of decades. It was time to say goodbye, especially since I don’t play a lot anymore anyway. I kept hymns and Christmas music, which I occasionally play at church, as well as my favorite classic and fun music to play. I had a huge basket full of music that I hadn’t looked at in years. Now there is small magazine holder that contains all of the music I love as well as my kids’ lesson books.

Moving forward: All said and done, I think we got rid of about a third of our books. Volumes that had been buried in drawers are now on display. It’s fulfilling to look at our shelves and know that we enjoy everything on them. Kondo says that after you declutter your book collection, you have a snapshot of your personality and values. For the adults, we have a lot of Christian books and some classic literature, as well as a few practical living books (oh and Marc’s fantasy collection in the basement 😉 ).

As I said, we still have a loooooong way to go in our decluttering journey. While I threw out the books in poor condition, I still have a handful that I am trying to decide what to do with. My current thought is to list the most valuable ones on Amazon and put the rest out at a garage sale I will hypothetically have this summer. I suppose if I can’t get rid of them by next fall I will probably donate them.

Up next is papers! Yawn. After that is miscellaneous items. I will report as I find interesting and appropriate.

Have you tried KonMari decluttering? Where are you in your journey? I could certainly use the encouragement if you have any tips! Leave me a comment here or on social media.

Update: check out my post on decluttering toys.

Like what you read? Want to continue following along with my KonMari journey? Subscribe and get updates from Holding the Distaff in your inbox. You can also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

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Filed Under: Home Management, Home Organization

2 in 1: Crockpot Chicken Tacos + Chicken Taco Soup

April 2, 2016 by Gina Poirier Leave a Comment

2 in 1: Crockpot Chicken Tacos + Chicken Taco Soup: get 2 meals out of this delicious and simple crockpot recipe.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

Rare is the evening when I make a meal that makes everyone happy. You know what I mean?

I’m not one of those moms who likes to cater to every individual’s needs. You eat what’s on the dinner table or not. I try not to be too exotic when it comes to our nightly spread, and in general it’s fair.

But still. Satisfying the palates of three kids (not to mention a husband who’s pretty particular?). It takes a quasi miracle.

But then there are tacos.

We have not a drop of Mexican blood in us but I think we all wish we did. My oldest son is already trying to put hot sauce on anything. Tacos bring us together. Tacos are magical. Tacos get eaten.

We eat some form of something-wrapped-in-a-tortilla almost weekly. One of my favorites is delicious and very easy. Crockpot chicken tacos take five minutes to prepare, and their bounty lasts for days. What’s more, I’ve discovered how to make a second meal out of them: chicken taco soup. You can freeze the leftover chicken you have and have a completely different meal a few weeks later from the same batch.

Behold (recipe adapted from Chocolate Therapy).

1. Crockpot Chicken Tacos (serves 4-6 if you reserve meat for soup)

Crockpot Chicken Taco Meat

Ingredients

For meat:

  • 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 cups salsa of your choice
  • 1 tablespoon chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
  • ¼ teaspoon onion powder
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon dried oregano

For everything else:

  • Corn or flour tortillas of choice
  • Garnishes of choice: guacamole, sour cream, shredded cheese, lettuce, beans, etc.

Directions

Add all of the ingredients for the meat into the crockpot except for the dried oregano. Cook on low for about 4 hours. Add the oregano for the last ½ hour of cooking. Shred the chicken by pulling it apart with two forks. Serve the way you like it.

A couple of tips: I highly recommend cooking up fresh tortillas. We buy the Tortilla Land brand. It takes about 20 seconds per tortilla to cook and it is so worth it. I also am not a huge sour cream person so we don’t usually have it in the house. We do, however, have plain Greek yogurt, which makes an excellent sour cream substitute (less calories too!).

Depending on what kind of salsa you use, the taco meat can be pretty wet. Some people like this and others done. If you like your meat drier, serve it with a slotted spoon—you could even try straining the meat. But you might want to save the juices for the soup.

If you’re making soup, set aside two cups of the chicken

2. Chicken Taco Soup (serves 4-6)

Chicken Taco Soup

Ingredients

For soup:

  • 2 cups of leftover taco chicken
  • 4 cups chicken stock or broth (try making it homemade!)
  • 1 can of corn, drained
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice (about 1 lime)
  • 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
  • 1 10 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 cups black beans (about 1 can, optional)
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 2 teaspoons chili powder
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 2 handfuls cilantro, chopped

For garnish/sides (optional):

  • Tortilla chips
  • Shredded cheese
  • Sliced avocado
  • Sour cream or Greek yogurt

Directions

Put all of the ingredients in a soup pot and simmer for about 30 minutes. I highly recommend using a cast iron dutch oven for every type of soup you ever make. So. Good.

This soup is good on its own but in my opinion it’s phenomenal when you load it up. Since I have picky eaters I usually serve the beans on the side and people can add them if they want them.

I hope you enjoy these tasty and convenient family dinners!

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Filed Under: Home Management, Recipes

8 Ways To Teach Yourself How To Cook

March 10, 2016 by Gina Poirier Leave a Comment

8 Ways To Teach Yourself How To Cook: Even if you have no experience, cooking is a skill you can learn by putting these simple tips into practice.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

For my 23rd birthday (we’re pushing ten years ago now :/), I asked my boyfriend for a cookbook. I had just graduated from college and my culinary skills were broad enough to include making boxed macaroni and cheese and reheating frozen burritos. I wasn’t joking with my gift request.

He knew, of course, that I was trying to prepare to be at least a somewhat adequate wife. Not that qualifications for wifehood these days necessarily include kitchen prowess; nonetheless, I knew it was time to learn.

And so he took drove me up the side of a mountain outside of Anchorage to take pictures on my birthday—and then he gave me this.

Betty Crocker Cookbook: Teach Yourself How To Cook
It has been well loved.

He gave me a ring too.

engagement photo

As cute as the story is, my skills didn’t improve much after we said, “I do.” I got slightly more proficient at baking and a few family recipes that generally relied on processed ingredients. Before we had kids, Marc got home from work earlier most days and frankly, he was a better cook. So I wasn’t greatly motivated.

Then babies happened, we moved across the country, and I transitioned to being home full time.

About four years ago—around the time I started blogging, incidentally—I started to feel more inspired. Like maybe I shouldn’t be doing what was fastest and easiest when it came to feeding my family. I was also becoming more aware of where our food was coming from and how to prepare it in healthier ways.

And so my food journey began in earnest.

Today I’m not a phenomenal chef, but I’ve got a decent repertoire of healthy meal options that the family enjoys. I’m not a fanatic, but as much as possible I stick to whole ingredients. I genuinely enjoy cooking. And I enjoy eating even more!

It’s an age of convenience when it comes to preparing our food, but there’s also a growing movement to source food responsibly and prepare it healthfully. I find a lot of the advice out there to be inspiring but overwhelming.

As a busy parent, I had to take baby steps.

It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you’re persistent you can teach yourself basic cooking skills—even with absolutely no previous experience or natural talent. Trust me, if I can do this, pretty much anyone can.

Need some help getting started on your own food journey? Here’s what worked for me:

  1. Start with a great basic cookbook.

I know that cookbooks are going out of style…why bother when you have a million recipes at your fingertips through the Internet? While I’m a big fan of Pinterest recipes, you don’t always know what you’re getting. I love my very first Betty Crocker cookbook and use it to this day more than any other resource. It covers a variety of tried and true dishes that are easy to make.

Betty Crocker is also helpful because it thoroughly answers all those random questions you have like what temperature your meat should be or how to tell if your muffin batter has been overmixed.

open cookbook

  1. Transition slowly.

I went through a phase when I was implementing a meal plan that introduced a new dinner recipe every night. I quickly discovered that, while I was working very hard, my family didn’t not appreciate the sudden changes (particularly my husband, who liked the old family recipes). You might have the best intentions, but being too adventurous every day isn’t encouraging for picky eaters. Plus, if you’re still learning the basics, you have a high likelihood of botching something up.

While I was slightly disappointed, I compromised and only introduced one new meal a week. In the long run, we still have the variety I desire but the transition wasn’t as painful.

  1. Make homemade substitutes for processed foods.

Over time I’ve learned that I can replicate pretty much any boxed food—resulting in healthier, tastier dishes. I regularly make my own pasta sauce, chicken stock and a substitute for canned condensed cream soups. Sometimes when I’m feeling motivated I’ll even make my own bread and granola.

One caveat: don’t beat yourself up if you don’t make all the things from scratch. I’ve been through that guilt trip. If you love to make everything from scratch, that’s fantastic. But I confess that my kids still like boxed macaroni and cheese and I am happy to feed it to them. Someone arrest me (hey at least it’s the organic brand!).

  1. Plan, plan, plan.

There are endless ways to approach this and I’ve tried a lot of them. When I was first starting out, it was helpful to plan meals and grocery shop weekly. Now I do it a little more loosely because I’m more confident about pulling together what I have on hand.

The situation you don’t want to be in is discovering at 5 p.m. that you have no food in the house and no dinner plan. If this is you, it’s not that hard to start: write down at least five meals that you want to make during the week and make a grocery list. Eventually you’ll start knowing how to plan for not just dinner but other meals as well.

  1. Keep a list of your favorites recipes.

Eventually you’ll find that some of your meals are really tasty. That’s great! Make sure you write down which ones everyone likes so you don’t forget about them. I have a list of our favorites in my planner, which I refer to regularly whenever I plan our meals.

  1. Take advantage of leftovers.

It only makes sense: if you have a great recipe, make lots of it. You can eat the leftovers for lunches, or freeze a big batch for later. As much as possible I also try to get the most bang for my buck; for example, when I make pasta sauce, I use half of it on spaghetti and save half of it for lasagna later. Soup recipes are easy to double. I also like to make a batch of smoothies and freeze some into popsicles.

  1. Invest in quality kitchenware…slowly.

Preparing food is so much more enjoyable when you have the right equipment. I say this cautiously…because nothing is more annoying than a kitchen full of gadgets you don’t use. But there are some I love and would highly recommend to everyone getting serious about food prep. I acquired these slowly and I think that’s important because you will know better what you need once you have more experience:

  • Good knives. We got our Wusthof set as a wedding gift, and nearly ten years later they’re still fantastic. Just don’t forget to get them professionally sharpened from time to time.
  • Cast iron cookware. We have two Lodge skillets and just recently acquired a dutch oven as well. Food just tastes better in cast iron because of the residual oil left in it. It’s now the only way I can make soup.
  • Crockpot. If you don’t have a slow cooker, do yourself a favor and go get one. Now.
  • Rice cooker. It’s just better this way, trust me. Get the Asian brand.
  • Stand mixer. I was skeptical about whether I wanted to spend that much money on a kitchen appliance until I finally got it as a birthday gift. I’m a convert. There is just no other way to make any kind of dough. Plus the ice cream maker attachment is the best!
  • Food processor. This is quite handy if you want to make your own salsa, creamy soups, nut butter, pesto, hummus…you name it.
  • Airbake cookie sheet. I feel a little silly posting this one, but it makes such a huge difference in the quality of my cookies.
  • Quality blender. I don’t have one yet. But I want one. Making smoothies and other drinks would be so much easier. So the Ninja is next on my hit list.
  1. Don’t give up!

If you only have one takeaway lesson from this post, let this be it. Try and try again until you figure out what works. You can do this. Your family will not starve and you will not live on takeout forever. Don’t feel guilty when you make a mistake; use it as a learning opportunity. You will get better. I promise.

Where are you in your food journey? Are you an expert cook or just starting out? Share your tips in the comments or on social media.

And don’t forget; subscribe to free email updates from Holding the Distaff for inspiration in your inbox.

Happy cooking!

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Filed Under: Home Management

5 Steps To a NO FAIL Cleaning Schedule

March 4, 2016 by Gina Poirier 4 Comments

5 Steps To a No Fail Cleaning Schedule: learn how to come up with a cleaning system that works, so you can feel less stress and guilt about your home.I mopped the floors today. Try to contain your applause. You should be especially impressed because this included around the toilet. The one little boys use.

Cleaning is such a mundane and yet necessary part of our everyday lives. I think many of us find that a clean home is a peaceful one; it feels like a haven and a place of joy rather than a place of stress. So I figured this would be the perfect topic to provide inspiration for you today!

I see (and pin) a lot of cleaning ideas on Pinterest: natural cleaning, deep cleaning, routine cleaning, professional cleaning tips, cleaning hacks…and so on. It’s all fantastic advice. There’s just one problem.

Actually doing the cleaning.

In spite of all of the tips out there, even scheduling tips, I inevitably find that I fall behind. Life happens. The kids get sick, I get sick, busyness creeps in. I have days when I have the time but I don’t have the energy. Frankly, sometimes I don’t feel like doing it, just because. So I don’t.

I used to apologize a lot whenever someone came over because of the mess. I try not to do that as much anymore, but I’m finding it’s becoming less necessary. That’s because I finally found a system for our house that works!

The NO FAIL cleaning schedule.

One of the hardest battles I face as a homemaker is feeling like a failure whenever I’m not meeting my own expectations—which are usually completely arbitrary. So I say…no more failure!

Before I move on to the strategies, there are two principles that you should keep in mind when designing your own no fail cleaning schedule:

    • Give yourself a lot of space for grace. Life happens and you inevitably are going to miss something on your checklist. But that doesn’t mean you’re a failure.
    • Make more than adequate room in your schedule for cleaning. Daily. If you can’t fit it in, take a hard look at your lifestyle. Is the busyness worth it? If the state of your house stresses you out and you can’t fit a cleaning schedule into your life, you may need to reassess priorities (cut things out or get some more help). But please finish reading here before you do that, because it might not be as hard as you think.


Okay then, are you ready to set up your own system? Here’s what to do:

  1. Set a (realistic) standard.

Take a moment, grab some tea in a quiet corner, and envision your ideal home. I’m talking about the way you’d want it to look if you were trying to show it on the real estate market. What does it look like, feel like, smell like? On a scale of 1 to 10, rate that vision a perfect 10.

Now, give that vision a good hug. Then say goodbye.

A few weeks ago a friend with a young toddler asked me how on earth you’re supposed to keep your house completely in order when you have a little tornado on the move all the time. The answer: lower your standards. You can fight me on this one, but it’s just a fact of life for 99.9% of parents. That’s a scientific figure ;).

Now that you’ve let go of your vision, find a more realistic one. If the first vision was a 10, I’d say subtract at least a point or more for each child under the age of 5. I’d guess that for most people, a house cleanliness score of 7 or 8 is perfectly acceptable. Heck, some days I’ll be happy with a 4 or 5. No fail!

  1. Differentiate between clutter and dirt.

Clutter has to do with your stuff and dirt has to do with more natural substances. To clean up your clutter, you need to put it away where it belongs. To clean up dirt, you need to vacuum, sweep, mop and scrub. This post primarily addresses dirt, not clutter. Granted, the less clutter you have, the easier it is to keep your home free from the dirt that naturally accompanies said clutter. For more advice about dealing with clutter, I suggest you follow along as I declutter our house using the KonMari method.

In my opinion, dirt is a lot more manageable than clutter. Let’s say you completely fall off the wagon for a month and don’t clean at all. No worries, you can get back on track. No fail!

  1. Identify and prioritize high frequency needs.

There are some household tasks that you can’t put off for more than a day or two. You’re probably aware of them: in our home we can’t neglect the dishes or the laundry. Other tasks include wiping down tables and countertops and sweeping the kitchen floor.

I recommend getting everyone in the household on board completing these tasks. Make them a part of your daily routine. Chore time is a built-in part of our homeschool schedule. My boys, currently ages 5 and 6, take turns each day helping me put dishes away, putting their own folded laundry in their drawers and wiping down surfaces. By the way, I highly recommend making little kids clean bathroom surfaces every day! They don’t do the most thorough job, but if done daily, the bathroom sink and the toilet never get completely out of control.

We currently do two or three loads of laundry every other day (my mom helps, which is wonderful). I like this system because it gives us a catch-up day if we fall behind. Quite often I don’t make the full transfer from washer to dryer to folded to put away until it’s time to start washing all over again.

Other daily tasks can include making beds and picking up toys, but again that is dealing with clutter rather than dirt. So do what works for you.

All in all—even if all else fails—if I have even some control of these little things, I feel a lot better about the state of the whole house. And if we fall behind a day or two, no big deal…we just play a little bit of catch-up and get back on track. No fail!

  1. Identify and execute five weekly tasks.

This step has been the real game-changer for me. I have identified five cleaning tasks that I ideally want to complete once a week. I can tackle each of these tasks in half an hour or less. In our home, these are:

  • Vacuum upstairs
  • Dust whole house
  • Vacuum downstairs
  • Clean bathroom
  • Mop floors

On a perfect week, I will complete one of these tasks each day, and then I can devote my weekend to either relaxing, working on other household projects or deep cleaning.

I think I have had a perfect week pretty much never.

But here’s what’s great: most weeks I will accomplish at least two or three of those tasks. When I miss one I can catch up on the weekend if I so choose (not likely to happen), or I can just know that I’ll hit the missed task the following week (or the week after!).

I’m always pretty aware about how frequently these tasks are being accomplished. And they never really pile up. Today I mopped the floors for the first time in about three weeks. And you know what? They weren’t horrible.

The beauty of this plan is that you are very unlikely to be in that awful place when everything is completely filthy—because if you’re at least trying, some portion of your house is going to be acceptably clean at any given time. No fail!

  1. Do the rest as needed.

Okay, I admit this is horribly vague, but this is the part when you have complete freedom to do what works for you. All of those extra tasks that need to be accomplished occasionally: deep cleaning, yard work, bigger household projects, even decluttering—you can figure it out. Currently I list most of my long-term household goals in my planner, and at the beginning of the month I pull out a couple of them and try to figure out when we can complete them. It is helpful to schedule them in advance so we can plan our weekends accordingly. Some months we have more extra time than others. As long as we’re making some progress, it’s all good. No fail!

I hope you find this tips useful so that you can decrease the amount of stress you feel in your home—and experience the victories more than failures.

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Do you have a cleaning schedule? What’s working for you? How would you adjust for your lifestyle (whether you work outside the home, you have different age kids, etc.)? Leave a comment here or on social media!

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Filed Under: Home Management

What Happened When Our Family Got Rid of Most of Our Clothes

February 19, 2016 by Gina Poirier 9 Comments

 what happened when our family pin

Disclosure: this post may contain affiliate links, which won’t change your price but will share some commission. See here for more information.

Minimalism intrigues me. If you look at my Pinterest profile, it’s cluttered (ironically) with terms like minimal, simple, classic, declutter, simplify, organize and throw away.

But in everyday life I am anything but a minimalist. At this moment I am sitting at my dining room table in a sea of markers, crayons, coloring books, blocks, stuffed animals and half-finished homeschool assignments. Most of the time I just live with it because kid clutter is just part of life right now. Yet it bothers me.

I caught on to the minimalism trend a few years ago after reading a couple of books: Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire by William T. Cavanaugh and 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker. I realized that, while material goods are not evil in and of themselves, they make life complicated. If we’re not careful, they consume us.

With newfound conviction I purged some of our belongings. And then we moved on with our lives. We had another kid. Our possessions reproduced like rabbits. And so here I sit.

I knew why I wanted to declutter but I didn’t know how to do it. There’s a problem with a lot of the decluttering advice out there. It says to purge your home but isn’t clear about what you should fill it up with. And so we get bulimic about our possessions; we purge and drop off a load at the thrift shop and then we binge whenever we find a “good deal”…until our closets are bursting again. It’s a discouraging and kind of gross cycle.

Enter KonMari.

I asked for The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo for Christmas. This book has grown immensely popular in the U.S. over the past year. I read it from cover to cover and was convinced that this was the answer to my clutter dilemma. I dubbed 2016 the year of tidying up in the Poirier household.

There are about a million posts out there reviewing, analyzing, testing and critiquing the KonMari technique, so I’ll try not to be terribly repetitive. I’m going to share how it’s working (or not working) for us. Take it or leave it.

At the beginning of the book, Kondo encourages you to write down “why you want to be tidy” before you start implementing this system in your home. On December 27, 2015 I wrote:

I want to wake up each morning and go to bed each night peacefully, so I can focus on God and my family instead of my life’s distractions.

Simple, right? The hope is that by tidying up my life I can also tidy up my thoughts (and that should flow into my prayer life, which I wrote about here!).

Kondo says that to do this properly, you have to have a “tidying marathon”: going through your house category by category. You keep the items that “spark joy” and discard the rest.

The phrase “tidying marathon” sounds about as fun to me as swimming in ice water. It might be refreshing but you’re going to have to give me a good reason why I need to torture myself. Doing it in small doses is more appealing.

I’ve concluded that for us, taking a few days to go through our entire house all at once isn’t going to work. And the more closely I read, I think there is a misconception about what Kondo recommends. She says that the average person takes about six months to thoroughly tidy their home (p. 35). And she primarily works with people in tiny Tokyo apartments, so for us it could take even longer.

My method is to spend a couple of hours each weekend focusing on one category of possessions in our home. I (and when applicable, we) will methodically sort through each item in a category, discard what doesn’t “spark joy,” and put away what does spark joy in an orderly fashion. I hope to be done by summer, but I’m not stressed about the deadline. We’ll be done when we’re done.

The first category Kondo recommends to tidy up is clothing. I just finished going through my clothes, my kids’ clothes and our linens (my husband is on his own 😉 ). This process took about six weeks. And we are easily discarding most of the clothes we own.

If you’re unfamiliar with the method, it involves taking every scrap of clothing in your house and piling it all in the same place. You then handle each item individually and test how you feel about it. You keep it if you love it and you trash it if you don’t. Then you fold most of it up and stack it in your drawers vertically. What you decide to hang in the closet should be minimal and rises from left to right.

IMG_5348
My clothes pile
My closet: before
My closet: before
IMG_5351
Hangers no longer needed!
Project: boys' room
Project: boys’ room

I did it with my own clothes first and then together with my boys (my daughter is too young). Kids’ clothes are daunting because if you’re like me you not only have their current sets of clothes, but also the stuff they’ve grown out of and the stuff they have yet to grow into. We tackled it all.

My new and improved closet
My new and improved closet

So far, I’ve been extremely pleased with the results. Here is what I’ve observed from the experience:

  • Tidying is contagious. I’ve been talking enthusiastically about my tidying up with my friends and family. While my husband isn’t following the method exactly, he got inspired to clean up his “man cave” area in the basement. He’s very happy with it. Other friends have bought the book themselves and have started sorting their clothes. Some people have teased me about it (there’s a mystical aspect to the book that feels silly), but it hasn’t bothered me.
  • I have a strange attachment to my possessions that I wasn’t aware of. Why is it so hard to throw out something that you haven’t worn in five years? Kondo says on p. 181 that you’re either holding on too much to the past (the outfit from that special event), or you’re anxious about the future (I’ll keep it just in case I need it). If it has served you well, even if it made you happy for a brief moment, be thankful and let it go.
  • I don’t miss the things I discarded. I’d forgotten that I even owned most of them anyway. If I really feel like I need something that I threw out, I can go get another one. This hasn’t happened yet.
  • My dresser drawers really make me happy. I’ve shown them off on more than one occasion. Super weird.

    My joyful drawers
  • I can find anything I need in a snap. I can also tell if something is missing because if it’s not in its designated spot, it’s not in the house.
  • I have all that I need. I have less than half the clothes that I used to, but I find that it is easier to get dressed in the morning because whatever I spot in the drawer is something I like. I will occasionally need to update my wardrobe, but this is much easier now that I have a full picture of what I actually need to feel stylish and comfortable day to day.
  • Kids can be tidy. All of my kids’ drawers used to be a mess. I’ve tested my boys (ages five and six) for a couple of weeks now, and they are perfectly capable of putting folded clothes away properly and selecting their favorite outfits without pulling everything out. They like everything they own because they helped me sort it. The key is having drawers that aren’t overstuffed, with clothes that are easy to find. One of the doubts I had about KonMari was if the method would work for families. She has had many clients who are parents, and she simply says that kids as young as three can be taught how to be tidy. She goes into this in more detail in her second book, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up.
  • The boys' closet
    The boys’ closet

    My daughter's clothes, minus jackets and dresses, fit into one drawer.
    My daughter’s clothes, minus jackets and dresses, fit into one drawer.
  • I don’t need to keep everything given to us. I have an awesome friend with two older boys who has given us all of their old clothes, many of which my kids have yet to grow into. These clothes are generally in great condition. I decided to go through them and pick out the best of the selection and then get rid of the rest. What used to be a huge mess at the back of the closet is now a much smaller volume of apparel that is strategically organized by size. Now when my oldest moves up a size, I can pull out a full wardrobe for him, ready to go. I’m donating the rest.
  • It’s easier to be generous. The day after I finished sorting all of the kids’ past, present and future clothes, I had a friend come over with her kids. They wanted to play in the snow but her oldest son didn’t have snow pants. I happened to know that I had a pair his size that my kids hadn’t grown into yet, so he borrowed them. While I was thinking about it, I gave her a big pile of clothes in sizes too big for my boys—the ones that would have been sitting uselessly in the closet and probably wouldn’t have been worn.
  • I have a garage sale ready to go. I took all of the clothes we didn’t want and sorted through them. The ones in poor condition were donated to a recycling bin managed by a local shelter, while the ones in good condition were sorted by size and put in bins. Now they’re ready to go for the garage sale I plan on having after this little adventure is over (to fundraise for our adoption!). They are also easily accessible for friends and family whom I’d like to donate our old clothes to as needed.
  • Tidying the KonMari way is all or nothing. One of the unique qualities of this method is that you do it by category. What that means is that some of my storage space is only half organized right now. The top shelf of my closet has odd little knickknacks; there is unused space is the kids’ closet that I eventually want to use for toys; the bathroom closet has nicely folded linens and disastrously cluttered baskets of toiletries and medicine. If I am going to feel excited about my whole house, I’ve got finish what I started.
  • Storage methods can be trial and error. One of the things I initially didn’t like about Kondo’s first book was that it left a lot of room for interpretation when it comes to how to organize your belongings. I think she did this because your method largely depends on what your personal belongings are like and what type of storage space you have. I’m currently reading Spark Joy, which is like an organizational encyclopedia and is quite helpful. But there is flexibility even within that. I’ve rearranged my closet a couple of times ever since I first went through it, and it has gotten better—but I’ve needed to figure out how to make it work.

It’s hard to believe that this is only the beginning of my tidying expedition. We’ve accomplished so much, but there is a lot more to go. Staying true to the method, the next category to tackle is books. This is dizzying, as we are bibliophiles with mountains of toddler books and homeschooling materials (many of which we aren’t using). I’m writing this in part to keep myself accountable! I’ll keep you posted throughout the rest of our tidying journey (don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss a post!). In the meantime, I hope that you’re inspired. If I can tidy up my house, so can you. Have you tried the KonMari method? What has your experience been like?

Update: now you can read Part 2: 10 Lessons Decluttering Books The KonMari Way and Part 3: How We’re Banishing Toy Clutter, for Good.

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Filed Under: Home Management, Home Organization

2 in 1: How To Make Perfect Yogurt Smoothies + Popsicles

February 4, 2016 by Gina Poirier 9 Comments

 

2 in 1: How To Make Perfect Yogurt Smoothies + Popsicles. This fruit and yogurt double recipe is healthy and easy to make, not to mention resourceful.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links. See here for more information.

I have a confession to make. I’m lazy in the kitchen. Oh wait, you are too?

The dread of cleaning the blender is often enough motivation to deter any desire for a healthy smoothie. If I’m going to make one, it’s going to feed a lot of people and it’s going to be amazing. It better be worth the hassle.

The problem is, my other family members don’t always want a smoothie when I do. So I found the perfect solution: freeze the leftovers as popsicles! Not only do I get the most bang for my buck from the blender, but I have a healthy “dessert” for the kids later. Double. Win.

There are a million smoothie recipes out there, but I think one of the problems I always have is that I don’t always have the exact ingredients on hand to make the more interesting ones. They often call for either a type of fruit or liquid that eludes me at the moment. And unless I plan ahead for what smoothies I want to make for the week (Ha! Yeah right), I’m stuck to my own inventions.

And so, I’ve had to cultivate the art of making a good smoothie with whatever is in the house. It’s taken some time, but I have finally figured out the way to make a perfect smoothie every time.

Do you want to know the secrets? It can seriously revolutionize breakfast time, snack time, anytime.

smoothie

I prefer yogurt smoothies because of the extra protein and nutritional punch, so I use that as a base. Beyond that, the sky is the limit.

This recipe makes about two full glasses of smoothie goodness. Drink it all, share it, or freeze the leftovers in popsicle molds.

Step 1: Yogurt (1/2 cup)

I usually have plain Greek yogurt in the refrigerator so that’s my go-to. Vanilla and other sweetened varieties can also be good; just avoid adding sweeteners later so you don’t go overboard.

Step 2: Liquid (1/2 cup)

You can get creative here; if you like a milky texture you can do milk or a milk substitute. If I have a sweetened yogurt then I usually choose milk; if my yogurt is unsweetened then I like some juice. Just know that the sugar content goes up substantially if you go the juice route. I know it sounds weird, but sometimes I mix milk and juice! It’s delicious when it’s all blended.

Other options include water or even a mild herbal or green tea. Not my favorites, so I stick to the ol’ milk and/or juice.

Step 3: Soft add-ins and fresh fruit (up to 2 cups)

More creative time! Add your soft ingredients next: things like avocados, bananas, even greens. Altogether you’re going to want about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of fruit/veggies added at by the end, so keep that in mind if you’re planning on adding frozen fruit too.

When I have avocados I like to add about ¼ cup. They add a rich, buttery flavor and consistency; plus the healthy fats will keep you full longer. I also like bananas because I usually have some that are too mushy to eat, and they’re cheap. If you have frozen bananas, don’t add them yet.

As far as greens go, you can usually never go wrong with a big handful of baby spinach because it’s so mild. If you choose a more bitter green (like kale), I recommend using a citrus juice along to offset the bitterness.

Put the greens in underneath the heavier items so they’ll be pressed down towards the blades.

If you have fresh fruit, add that now too. If you’re feeling uncertain about what tastes good together, I’ll tell you a secret: all the fruit. Berries are my favorite, but alternatives include oranges and mangoes. I steer clear of grapes, melons and apples; however if you know a good combo then let me know!

I also like to add about a tablespoon of chia seeds. I dunno. Because they’re good for you. Other options include a tablespoon of coconut oil, a dash of vanilla and even a dash of salt (try it!). And if you haven’t used anything sweet up to this point you might want to add a squirt of honey.

Step 4: Blending round 1

Blend, blend, blend for up to a minute or two until everything is smooth! This is especially important if you have a wimpy blender like mine. Maybe someday I’ll get something a little nicer. I’ve got my eye on this one.

Step 5: Frozen fruit/ice

If you’ve already added all the fruit you want then this step is optional; you might want to blend in a handful of ice to make it cold.

Typically I buy a big bag of frozen fruit from Sam’s Club so I can just toss in a handful whenever I get the smoothie urge. Berries, mangoes and mixed fruit blend are my favorites.

Step 6: Blending round 2

This part could get ugly and loud. But wait it out. You know how a blender works. Hopefully you have a base that is smooth so that it’s not a big deal to blend in the chunky stuff.

If your blender gets stuck, turn it off and stir with a spoon. If it’s still having trouble, add in a little bit more liquid and blend again until you find the consistency you desire.

This step varies for me depending on the ratio of frozen fruit I’m using. It’s one reason I hope to eventually get a more powerful blender.

Step 7: Enjoy

Breakfast or snack time! I always like starting out my day with a couple of servings of fruits/veggies. So does my daughter.

grace smoothie

Even when it makes her look like the Joker.

Step 8: Popsicles

popsicle

Pour whatever leftovers you’ve got into some popsicle molds! Or even the whole batch! Done!

What are your tips for perfect smoothies? Feel free to link in the comments!

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Want more smoothie inspiration? Follow me on Pinterest.

Filed Under: Home Management, Recipes

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I'm Gina, a happily married mom of three and stress management coach. I help exhausted, overwhelmed moms find peace and purpose in the everyday. Be sure to sign up for tons of free resources that will help you stop just surviving and start thriving! Read More…

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