#687 – What’s Lurking Under Your Bed? Declutter the Forgotten Zone for Good

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 16, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas | 0 comments

#687 – What’s Lurking Under Your Bed? Declutter the Forgotten Zone for Good

Listen Now

The space under your bed might be the most neglected—and mysterious—storage zone in your home. In this quick, practical episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo equip you with simple steps to declutter the hidden chaos beneath your bed. You’ll learn the best way to tackle dust, discover what actually belongs in this space (and what definitely doesn’t), and get favorite solutions for easy, clutter-free storage—even if you’re short on closet space! Whether you struggle with allergies, have kids who love hiding treasures under the bed, or just want to make the most of every inch in your home, this episode is loaded with relatable ideas and proven tips. Listen in, laugh along, and finally say goodbye to that under-bed pit of mystery—for good!

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Clutter Free Resources:

Support the podcast with Coffee for Kathi!

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:09)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I’m here with Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:20)

Hey, Kathi.

Kathi Lipp (00:22)

Today we’re talking about a place that rarely sees the light of day, the space under the bed. It’s one of those sneaky spots where clutter loves to hide, but today we are making the invisible visible and we’re making it clutter free and intentional. I’ll never forget when I was younger, my mom finally got fed up with not, you know, I’m like, I can’t find any of my clothes. I can’t find any of my clothes.

And we spent probably half an hour digging out from underneath my bed. My clutter free roots are deep and legit. Like, I mean, not my clutter free roots, my clutter roots. And so I and you would think as an adult, things would be better. And they have been better, but it’s only been through intentionality because for me, under the bed was the easiest place where of I don’t know what to do with this. How about we put it under the bed?

Tonya Kubo (00:56)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (01:19)

And maybe that wasn’t best my best system now i’m gonna i’m gonna make a a bold statement here that i’m going to let you opt out of and i’ll explain that but I I think that Things that just because we don’t see it it doesn’t mean it’s not affecting our space and our peace I think it’s you know, I think it’s real

Tonya Kubo (01:31)

Mmm.

No, I agree.

Kathi Lipp (01:47)

Yeah, because if you don’t know what’s down there, then you’re always going to wonder, you’re always going to assume. And you and I were just talking about ? tripping in our own houses over clutter. And the hard part is getting back up. Can I just say, I don’t want to have to crawl under my bed more than a couple of times a year. Yeah, yeah, it does not work for me.

Tonya Kubo (02:03)

Yeah.

No, no.

Kathi Lipp (02:16)

When things get kicked under there, old shoes, off season clothes, random storage bins, forgotten items, we need to know exactly what’s down there. We need to know what’s accessible. It’s a pain to get down there, so it should only house items that truly belong. And we need to be able to clean under there. I don’t know about your house.

In my house, that can get really, really, really dusty.

Tonya Kubo (02:47)

Oh, yeah. Well, and also, you know, I’ve got kids, they shove stuff under there. It’s not pretty, Kathi. It’s not pretty.

Kathi Lipp (02:52)

It’s, yes.

So this is the thing that I’m gonna give you an out for, but I think it’s a guiding principle that many of us should think about, but to use our under the bed space solely for things that are related to the bed. So here’s what I mean by that. That most of us probably have a couple of ? sets of sheets.

Tonya Kubo (03:03)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (03:21)

Most of us have some extra pillows, some extra blankets that we’re not using year round, those kind of things. Now, I know that you happen to use your under the bed storage also for ? out of season clothing, correct? But you know that it’s there. I think it’s really important we do not have mysteries underneath our bed.

Tonya Kubo (03:26)

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, I agree. But I just want to jump in and say you’re giving me an idea because remember this is an old house with two closets and we keep all the bedding and the sheets and stuff in the hallway closet, but it takes up two full shelves because they’re not very big shelves. And so now I’m like, and I have so much space underneath my bed still because I don’t have a lot of non-seasonal stuff. So I’m like, ooh, I could buy a couple.

Kathi Lipp (03:55)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Really?

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (04:15)

containers and I could get two whole shelves free in my hallway.

Kathi Lipp (04:20)

And I’m going to tell you

the containers you should buy. This is revolutionized. Yes. Yes. Okay. So this is a quick episode. We’re going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we’re going to talk about setting up clutter-free under bed storage. So we’re going to take a quick break and we’ll come right back.

Tonya Kubo (04:24)

I love this! I don’t have to shop, you’ll tell me what to do!

Kathi Lipp (04:42)

Okay guys, this is gonna be one of our fastest episodes ever because there’s not that much space underneath our bed. So you don’t, we don’t need to have a giant episode here. But here is, I wanna give you guys some instructions on what to do to actually clean out underneath that bed and what you should be putting down there. So the very first thing I want you to do is pull everything out. And I want, I mean everything.

Don’t leave anything that’s in that middle space there just because you can’t reach it. Get a broom, do what you have to do, pull all of that out, okay? And then I want you to sort and purge. There is stuff that probably has been living down there for a really long time because you just don’t need it. So if you haven’t been pulling it out, like one of the things I just realized, Tonya, I can’t believe this. We had three mattress pads. Why?

Why did we have three mattress pads? I don’t really understand that. It makes no sense in my house why that would be a thing. So.

Tonya Kubo (05:47)

That feels like

a, bought one, we forgot we bought one, we bought another one sort of scenario.

Kathi Lipp (05:53)

Yeah, and I think maybe

the people who left us stuff in the house, maybe there was one there too, like it kind of. It did it gives with purchase, I love that it’s so true. Yes, it’s so true. So then ? this is the time to clean out that space, OK? So you’re going to want to dust. I have I bought something recently and I wasn’t going to mention this, but I’ll mention it now. I bought a.

Tonya Kubo (05:58)

Your house came with a lot of gifts with purchase.

Kathi Lipp (06:22)

? How do I want to say this it’s a cleaner for our fan blades like our blades So it’s like a triangle that you can put over your fan blade and all The dust comes off and when I say all the dust I mean all the dust it looked like it was snowing I didn’t realize how how how in just one year how much dust

Tonya Kubo (06:50)

Does it,

I was gonna say, does it work so well it makes you feel like you’ve been living in filth?

Kathi Lipp (06:56)

I feel disgusting, disgusting. ? But I use that to kind of sweep under my bed. It was perfect. It was absolutely perfect. And I also, we have a Roomba. Like it’s not a Roomba, but it’s Roomba-like. It’s actually higher rated than the Roomba. And so ? once we had everything out, I just pulled up all of the sheets and I let Roomba go wild under there. I don’t know if you saw this yesterday on my feed.

Tonya Kubo (07:12)

Mm-hmm.

Hmm… I did.

Kathi Lipp (07:26)

Guys, my Roomba ran. Roger did not pull up the dog food. I am gonna blame him because I take enough bullets around here. I get enough shrapnel for the things that I don’t do, not from Roger, but from myself. But he didn’t pick up Moose’s dog food and it ran right over it. And it’s so gross. It took about an hour to clean that out, pulling it all apart. my goodness. Yeah, it was disgusting. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (07:44)

It was so gross. So gross.

I bet. But like everybody who commented said, right, at least it wasn’t

poop because I have seen those pictures.

Kathi Lipp (07:56)

At least it wasn’t poop.

Yeah, no, no, this was so much better than poop. Can I just, it’s always good to be thankful, isn’t it? It’s always good to be thankful. And then we’re gonna choose some functional storage. Now, what I have used and I still use in some of our bedrooms is the clear plastic bins, okay? So that has been great. But I have discovered a new thing and that’s why we’re gonna combine this.

Tonya Kubo (08:09)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (08:24)

with our segment of things that have earned this place in my clutter free home. ? This is, it’s not clear. It’s a fabric box. It’s got the struck wires inside, but here’s the big difference. It’s on rollers. And yes, so it has a pocket so you can put what’s in there. like I have, ? I put it in that pocket, things like these are my ?

Tonya Kubo (08:35)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (08:53)

out of season sheets. So flannel is under there right now. And then in the winter, I’ll put my spring sheets in there, but I just grabbed the handle. I pull it out from underneath my bed. I can fit four of these under my bed. You probably could fit six, but because of our nightstands, we fit four under there and it has made. And then here’s the crazy thing. I made a little map that goes inside our closet. So I know.

I don’t have to pull them all out to see which is underneath each one. It’s made such a difference. I’ll link it in the show notes, but now I know exactly what’s under my bed. It’s not a mystery anymore. So for me, I only have things under the bed that relate to the bed because we have an out of season ? bedspread.

because we have a very heavy bedspread that we use nine months out of the year, but in the summer we don’t use that. So ? we’ve got a very thin one that goes on there. ? We have extra blankets, different sheets, that kind of thing. So if it doesn’t relate to the bed, for at least for us, it doesn’t belong there. And now you’re going to adopt that as well. You have extra space. I love that. We’ve made a convert here.

Tonya Kubo (10:11)

Yes! I love this. This

makes me really happy.

Kathi Lipp (10:16)

Yeah, it.

OK, anything else that you want to say about under bed storage? Anything that you feel like has been important in your under bed storage journey?

Tonya Kubo (10:26)

Mm-hmm.

Well, so what I will say is, this hit me probably a few months ago, is if you take full advantage of the space underneath your bed, there isn’t space for other stuff to collect.

Kathi Lipp (10:46)

Yes, it’s so true. It’s so true. Your shoes can’t go under there. Your socks can’t fly under there. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (10:52)

Right.

Yes, or like the girls, know, if I put stuff underneath their bed, then they can’t shove clothes too far underneath that we can’t reach.

Kathi Lipp (11:04)

which I feel is really, really important for this time of year because at least in our household, it’s allergy season. And it’s really important to me that I don’t suffer from allergies like Roger does, but his allergies are terrible. And so I have to keep everything as dust free as possible. And you’re right, as the more items we have under there and the…

Tonya Kubo (11:12)

Mm-hmm. ?

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (11:28)

It can’t just be shoving stuff under there. It has to be in boxes that fit together so they’re seamless. And then we can make sure that it is not collecting dust. I know I’m gonna have to at least once or twice a year go in there and just dust off the tops, but it’s not going to be every day. And here’s what I think is really, really important. When you know what’s under your bed, it’s not a

Tonya Kubo (11:48)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (11:57)

burden anymore. It’s not a pit of mystery, which I feel like is really, really important with what we’re doing. Okay, this is a micro episode guys, but here’s the beautiful thing. It’s not going to take much for you to do this. So pull everything out, go through it, sort through what you don’t need. If it’s been under there for five years, you can donate it. You don’t need it anymore. If you have extra sheet sets that never get to, you never get to, it’s time to get rid of those.

Tonya Kubo (12:05)

Thank

Kathi Lipp (12:27)

If you have things that have just found their way down there and you don’t need anymore, or maybe you’ll find some treasures. If so, I hope that this has been a blessing to you. You’ve been listening to Clutter-Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

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#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Listen Now

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t the fix your soul is craving. If you’ve ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or ashamed of your mess, you’re not alone. Tune in for practical, faith-filled strategies that break the cycle for good, plus real talk on battling perfectionism, overcoming guilt, and creating a peaceful haven without losing your mind or your faith. Whether you’re managing family clutter or just wondering if you’ll ever find the bottom of the laundry pile, this episode will inspire you to reclaim your home, your peace, and your sense of possibility. Grab your coffee (and maybe a basket or two), and let’s start decluttering for good—together!

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Clutter Free Resources:

Support the podcast with Coffee for Kathi!

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:10)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I am here with the queen of decluttering. She has dethroned the clutter in her own life. It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:28)

Hey, Kathi.

Kathi Lipp (00:30)

I should always mention you and I are still on the journey. Nothing has been settled. are still, we are not just founders of the group, we are also members. But we are, I would say my life looks radically different than when I started on this journey 15 years ago. Your journey’s been closer to what, eight years?

Tonya Kubo (00:55)

No, actually my journey has been, so I can always time it with Abby because I started when she was six months old. And so she is 11 now.

Kathi Lipp (01:01)

? right, okay.

okay. So you’ve been on this train for a while and you’re feeling the difference, right?

Tonya Kubo (01:14)

Definitely. But you know, one of the things that you said early on, know, as long as as long as you live with other people, you will always be on the journey.

Kathi Lipp (01:25)

Can I just say I Think I might be worse off left to my own devices not that mr. Roger doesn’t create some messes every once in a while but I act better around him he you know He just like Josh Groban. It was our wedding song you raised me up He raises me up out of my clutter and you know keeps me on the straight and narrow he he’s a good person in that

Tonya Kubo (01:44)

Mm.

Kathi Lipp (01:51)

And it’s so appropriate we’re talking about that today because we’re gonna talk about the room that I share with Roger. It is the bedroom. Now, we’re not talking about it like that, friends, but ? we are talking about, I know, I’m sorry, this is not clutter-free after dark. ?

Tonya Kubo (02:10)

First

influence on you, Kathi! We always get inappropriate. We had the underwear episode, now we have a bedroom episode.

Kathi Lipp (02:12)

No.

Ha

Tonya Kubo (02:22)

And moose, moose does not approve of our behavior right now.

Kathi Lipp (02:26)

Okay guys, you know what if if I stop this podcast every time Moose barks today We are not going to get through it. And here’s the thing. We have people That have just put a new roof on our house. So I thought it’s fine to record today But they are coming and doing the cleanup work and moose things they because of that they should all die and so I’ve

I have one window open in the house that she can’t see out of everything else is shut down. It’s like a cave in here. Okay, and because I’m in the bedroom, but she’s on the bed and she can see outside if or she just assumes that things are happening outside anyway, let’s talk about the bedroom because here’s the thing friends sleep is the foundation of health ? they sit I read something recently like

The lack of sleep that many Americans have is having the same damage as what smoking was in the 70s and being alive and conscious in the 70s. Let me tell you, there was a lot of smoking going on and it was not good. Yeah, I’m the only person I know who’s like when I smell a Newport light or a Newport, I’m like, ? that reminds me of childhood. That’s not good, people. It’s not good. ?

Tonya Kubo (03:27)

Mm-hmm.

was a lot of smoking.

haha

Kathi Lipp (03:49)

So, Tonya, I don’t know about you, but for me, my bedroom can be the dumping ground. And I thought, I was gonna say, I think I kinda know about you, but I didn’t wanna call you out without calling myself out first. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (03:58)

Always, always.

Well,

it’s like one of those things where it’s not just, it’s everybody’s dumping ground, right? You know, we’ve talked about this before because the house is, this house in particular is small. Cause our bedroom has not always been the dumping ground in every house that we have lived in. But because my workstation is in our bedroom, like,

Kathi Lipp (04:13)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (04:30)

Everybody wants to pile stuff for mom to see and everybody knows mom will see it if it’s in here.

Kathi Lipp (04:34)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, and can we just say this is becoming a reality for, you know, for a long time, Roger had his office in our bedroom and I was more of like, I’m at the kitchen table. I’m, I’m working in the living room. I’m working at Starbucks. But when we got rid of some kids, Roger took over an office and because he knew his situation was he needed, you know, soundproofing and quiet and stuff like that.

Throughout the day I could schedule mine but for a lot of us our office is now in the bedroom and So this is becoming a reality for it all of us. I I knew that It it was a problem You know as I have not been feeling a hundred percent recently and I’m pretty good normally about getting dishes downstairs but when Roger said

Tonya Kubo (05:14)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (05:33)

You know, I’ve come, I’ve looked all over the house. We are, I can’t find any glasses. And I had a stash of glasses in the bedroom that he couldn’t see. I’m like, okay, that’s not good. It’s not good because it is the stash and dash. And I don’t know, I feel like my bedroom, it’s my favorite place to hang out too. It’s like, it’s where I rest, I recharge. I know that’s not it for everybody. But why do bedrooms,

Tonya Kubo (05:55)

Hmm.

Kathi Lipp (06:02)

Become the chaos zones. ? I think it’s the one room we can close the door on when company comes and Nobody’s allowed in there. Like you can’t do that with your bathroom because Tonya you have one bathroom. So Yeah ? Plus it’s the place where we get dressed and undressed. It’s it’s laundry limbo and ? I think also

Tonya Kubo (06:17)

I have one bathroom.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (06:29)

It’s the space that’s ours so that when ? we need to put something somewhere and we don’t know what to do with it, I feel like the default is the bedroom because at least it’s in my space. It’s not in the common space.

Okay, we’re doing the great bedroom decluttering reset. We’re gonna do this for five days. It’s Monday through Friday. ? And so I wanna give you some ideas as you approach this. ? Day number one, Monday, we are going to clean our nightstands. You know how passionate I am about a clear nightstand. Do you have a traditional nightstand, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (07:12)

don’t, Brian does.

Kathi Lipp (07:14)

Okay, so what would you do instead of the nightstand? What would be your space?

Tonya Kubo (07:18)

?

yeah, so, so the dresser is close to my side of the bed. So I just use like a little piece of the dresser.

Kathi Lipp (07:22)

okay.

Okay, that’s really really smart. Okay, so here’s what I want you to think about guys Are there things on or in your nightstand that do not belong there? Are there things you need to reconfigure? So I I want you to think about decluttering but also part of decluttering is Do you have old cords there that don’t need to be there? is there something about your nightstand that bugs you? Do you have a working lamp there?

Or a non working lamp that you need to rethink. How can you make your nightstand? The thing that it’s supposed to be now for me the thing it’s supposed to be is a place for my glasses The top place for my glasses my drink to charge my phone We got really fancy nightstands not too long ago that have a place for the cord You know, so you can plug it you plug in your nightstand

and you can charge your cell phone there. I never would have done that until we got the universal cords, but now that we have universal cords, I’m all in, baby. I’m very excited about that. ? But I will tell you, it is a great collector of nonsense, and I need to go through some of that nonsense. My first drawer is things like ? my vitamins and a couple of medications I take each night. It has my… ?

you know, night basket. I’ve talked about it before. So I’ve got this little basket that has ? something to pull my hair back. It has face wipes. It has face cream. It has ? teeth wipes for when I’m just, I just can’t, I just can’t. ? It’s got all of that kind of stuff. So that’s the first drawer. The bottom drawer are things like a shoe horn, just weird stuff that you need and you need to know where it’s at. So that’s gonna be

Tonya Kubo (09:04)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (09:17)

? day one. ? Okay day number two decluttering drawers, so I I What I would like to suggest is that you set a timer for 15 minutes and maybe that’s one drawer for you Or maybe that’s three drawers, but it’s not going to be all the drawers. Let’s be super super clear

And I want you to start with the drawer that bugs you the most. Tonya, what drawer bugs you the most?

Tonya Kubo (09:45)

Well, I would say in my underwear drawer, which is funny because it is the drawer that is at like eye level height for both girls. And so when they don’t know where to put something and they don’t want to just leave it on the surface, they shove it in there. So, you know, at night I get, I open that drawer and there’s like all sorts of surprises.

Kathi Lipp (09:51)

Mmm.

Bye.

Why is the underwear drawer the Bermuda triangle of our bedrooms? I don’t understand this, but I do that weird stuff too. I don’t understand. We’ve talked about this before. I have a dead chicken footprint. I don’t anymore, but I did for a really long time.

Tonya Kubo (10:11)

you

Well, you’re going to love this, Kathi. So I opened the drawer this morning and there’s like a brand new sports bra in there that is not mine. Why is there a brand new sports bra in my drawer? And one child says, well, I didn’t want my sister to see it and take it. So I put it there. Okay.

Kathi Lipp (10:33)

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah.

?

Can I guess? Okay, that was Lily. That has Lily written all

over it. Because Abby is not worried about her sister stealing her stuff nearly as much as Lily is. I don’t blame her. Lily, I see you. I see you as an older sister. I see you.

Tonya Kubo (10:59)

Bye.

Yeah.

It is so hard to be the older sister.

Kathi Lipp (11:11)

Yeah, and guys if your underwear drawer is the drawer you’re gonna work on we’re gonna put a link in the show notes here to our our discussion about underwear drawers because they truly are The the lost city of Atlantis when it comes to our bedrooms. Okay day number three floor and under the bed Okay, I have a terrible habit Tonya of

Tonya Kubo (11:39)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (11:39)

taking off my socks right before bed and then they get smooshed under the bed and we go there and we find like, why do I not have any pairs of socks? Because half of them are under the bed. How is your floor and under the bed and what will you be concentrating on on day three?

Tonya Kubo (11:50)

They’re under the bed.

So I actually kick off my shoes under the bed. that’s the Bermuda Triangle of shoes for me is underneath the bed. My habit is because I go to bed before everybody else and I wake up before everybody else, I tend to leave my clothes on the floor in front of my dresser. And then I wake up to everybody else adding other stuff on top of my stuff. And I can’t get mad, Kathi, because I started the pile.

Kathi Lipp (12:00)

yes, okay.

?

Tonya Kubo (12:26)

Let’s be real. I don’t get to get angry with them when I started the pile on my floor.

Kathi Lipp (12:27)

I know, I know.

I

know, I know. Well, and you guys live in a very small space. yeah, decisions are made. Decisions have been made. This is what we’re doing. Okay, yeah, for me, it’s, definitely need, we’ve got under our bed pretty well organized, but I do want to pull everything out and just say, okay, is everything in the tub it’s supposed to be? Here’s what I want to do. I want to make a list of what’s under there.

Tonya Kubo (12:36)

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (12:57)

because everything that’s under there is supposed to be under there, but I’m not always 100 % sure if it’s labeled, you know, the winter sheets, the summer, whatever. Okay, day number four. I wanna give you a couple of different options. So you could, this is all about your bed, your actual bed, okay? So you could take everything off. This is if you have a dust ruffle, maybe your comforter.

So to wash it ? and put it back on. So that’s a big job. I know it’s a big job, but it needs to be done. We don’t have a dust ruffle, but they catch so much dust and dust mites and yeah, it needs to be taken care of. Or in the normal course of you changing your sheets, maybe this is the day you change your sheets, maybe it’s time to vacuum that mattress.

You should be doing that every six months. okay, Tonya’s looking at me with disgust. Okay, what?

Tonya Kubo (14:02)

I’m not looking at you with

disgust. I’m just like, ? that’s a thing we’re supposed to do. I did not learn that in high school or college, Kathi. I did not.

Kathi Lipp (14:10)

You know, that’s okay. You know

what? We’re here to teach you. Yeah. So the vacuum, can I tell you, if you follow me on Facebook, you know that ? in July ? Moose got skunked. And that is a different experience than I have ever experienced before. And I am a changed human being. My biggest fear.

Tonya Kubo (14:39)

you

Kathi Lipp (14:40)

We had just replaced

our mattress. We had just replaced it. And of course, Moose’s favorite spot in the entire world is our bed. so, yeah, and you know, she, I was like, do I sleep downstairs with her? So after her third de-skunking bath, we were much better. But I was terrified because mattresses are so expensive. They’re so expensive. And yeah, so. ?

Tonya Kubo (15:07)

They are.

Kathi Lipp (15:10)

So yeah, every six months just take ? a vacuum to it if you’ve never done it before Day four is the day for you. So just get that attachment out and ? You’re gonna get a lot of dust and things like that and that’s okay ? You know what don’t feel guilty for what you haven’t done. Just going forward. I do it when we change our ? clocks

when we change our, which nobody changes any clocks hardly anymore, because it’s all done automatically. Not all of them, but like my oven’s not, my coffee maker’s not, but like, I don’t have a lot of change back clocks. Do you?

Tonya Kubo (15:35)

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Microwave is the only thing we have to change.

Kathi Lipp (15:52)

Yeah,

yeah, okay, okay. So that’s usually when I like I literally take that afternoon off and do a whole bunch of things that need to happen every six months and then day number five. This is where I want you to choose your own adventure. ? Maybe you need to wash your curtains and put them right back up. ? Maybe

you know, that’s not something you need to do. You can get out some candles, you know, would a candle in your room be really nice? One of the things that we did is we got ? those electric candles and we’ve got those around the room and we’ve got them on a timer now. And I love that investment. It’s just, it’s a great way to calm down at night and walk into a room that is.

partially lit. It’s really really lovely. So I just want you to do something that is going to make you feel good about that room. Tonya, what would you do?

Tonya Kubo (16:56)

Well, I just started actually ? using a candle in the bedroom because I used to use room sprays, but you know, I’ve got so many folks here with allergies. So, yeah, so I have a candle on my desk that I like to light. You know, I usually light it a little bit after lunchtime and then it just leaves the room smelling nice at bedtime.

Kathi Lipp (17:02)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Love that. Okay. So look at your candles go. You probably don’t need to buy a candle friend You probably have one in your house that you can dig out and use and if you’re like, but I don’t like that one Friend, why is it still in your house? Just I we’re over here asking the hard questions. That’s what we do at clutter free Academy. Okay, I Also want you to think about how you can set the tone with sleeping triggers, you know, we’ve had dr. Vicky here on the podcast all

Tonya Kubo (17:30)

Mm-hmm.

That’s what we do. ?

Kathi Lipp (17:45)

put a link to her show in the show notes. We’ve got so many good past episodes, guys, so I want you to check those out. ? think about, if you go to bed at 10 o’clock, can you start to lower the lights about nine o’clock, an hour before bed? I have a pen and a little pad ? that I keep next to my bed. I went and grabbed it so I can show you if you’re on video and wanna see it. It’s one.

? that suzy flory gave me it says things to do so my chickens can have a better life by the way Tonya did I tell you we became grandparents?

Tonya Kubo (18:25)

No!

Kathi Lipp (18:26)

Our chickens finally laid their first eggs. And so they’re itty bitty teeny teeny tiny. I’ll take a picture so we can put them in the show notes, but they’re so cute. So we are registered at Tractor Supply. If anybody wants to go look at my grandma registry, that’s where you can find it. Okay, so got your pen and paper. And then ? for yourself or maybe for your kids, ? if

You have trouble going to sleep, having a good calming routine. ? I do five deep breaths. Now, some people would say that that would wake you up. It just, for some reason, it just helps me. It triggers my brain to say I’m going to sleep. Also, putting my facial moisturizer on totally triggers me to go to sleep. I don’t know what that is, but it’s super, super helpful. Anything you do to kind of trigger your brain to say, nope, it’s time to go to bed.

Tonya Kubo (19:00)

Mm-hmm.

you

Well, so for us, you know, there is bedtime rituals. ? There’s a magnesium lotion I use on the girls that kind of just helps them settle. We all use sleep masks and ? that’s helpful. Just like shutting out all the ambient light is super helpful for us. And fuzzy socks, I like fuzzy socks.

Kathi Lipp (19:33)

?

? okay.

Yeah, I love that. Yeah.

Okay, you know, you have to keep trying things until you find what works, right? And once you find what works, it really does help trigger your brain to say, I want to sleep. Guys, we want your bedroom to be your favorite place in your house. So one of the things I’m gonna encourage you to do is join us over at Clutterfree, it’s Kathi Lipps Clutterfree Academy over on Facebook, September 15th through 19th.

Tonya Kubo (19:53)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (20:18)

we are going to, as a group, do the Great Bedroom Declutter Challenge. So ? if you’re not a part of that group, go over there and join. We have a couple of questions to ask you just to make sure you’re not a bot or you’re not trying to sell things or even worse, a perfectionistic person who wants to tell the rest of us that we’re lazy. We don’t do it. So if you go to Kathi, that’s k-a-t-h-i dot link slash c-f-a.

you’re going to be able to go join that group. So we’ll have the link also in the show notes, but that’s k-a-t-h-i dot link slash c-f-a. That’s for ClutterFree Academy. Guys, let your bedroom be a recovery room, not a storage unit. All right? That is our goal for September. Friends, you’ve been listening to ClutterFree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

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#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas | 0 comments

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Listen Now

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just plain tired of trying—this conversation offers practical hope and encouragement. Kathi and Tonya candidly tackle the frustration and emotional load that comes with decluttering, share faith-based wisdom for those tough days, and offer four simple steps to help you restart your journey with renewed energy. Tune in to discover how God meets you in the mess and how you can break free from the clutter cycle—for good.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

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Clutter Free Resources:

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Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

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Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:11)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutterfree Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And guys, let me just tell you, ? you’ve heard me talk about it here on the podcast. I am still recovering from COVID. Now I am totally toast. Okay, this is what’s happening with my brain. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (00:30)

I was gonna say you

were just about to say you were totally fine, but you couldn’t get those words out

Kathi Lipp (00:38)

I could not. I am testing negative, so that is good. But I will tell you the the exhaustion is real. I am good for about four hours. And let me just tell you, they are not stellar four hours. They are. We’re just surviving four hours. But then I’m toast. I have to go lay down. ? I can’t believe I did this. But let me just here’s my true confession, because my doctor said

Tonya Kubo (00:50)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (01:07)

You can probably expect another three weeks of this. No, like, no. And I don’t know why, but it is exhausting to sit at my desk. It is just exhausting. I do so much better in bed. So do you know what I’ve done? I’ve ordered a hospital table. So this is just a table that you know what it is. Like it sticks out. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (01:09)

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

that comes to the side of your bed!

Yes.

Kathi Lipp (01:35)

And

it rolls under with it. It was only like 60 bucks, which you know, I don’t have 60 bucks to throw around, but I just do so much better with my legs up ? and ? just being cozy under blankets. I can do so much more so.

Tonya Kubo (01:40)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (01:55)

? I have ordered a hospital table that can collapse down. We can put it in the attic when we’re done, because I know I’m going to be, but I don’t want to be underwater for the next three weeks not being, not getting some stuff done. So ? as I stated on Facebook the other day, ? we have a lot of people who come to Clutterfree Academy or a part of Clutterfree for Life.

who deal with chronic illness. Now, this is not chronic illness what I’m dealing with, not by a long shot. And it has also given me a 1 % insight to having to manage my energy. And a couple of years ago, you went through a major health thing where you had to really manage what you were doing. We have both been through something. And so we don’t have all the answers.

Tonya Kubo (02:26)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (02:53)

But here’s what we do, Tonya, You and I listen to the answers from the people in our communities that have chronic illness. And we’ve gained some insight. ? So if you are recovering from illness or you’re in a hard caregiving season, maybe you’re grieving or you were just run down. I mean, like that’s what I am. I’m run down. But this episode is for you. Tonya ?

I put up a question in Facebook about how do you survive when you’re completely overwhelmed? And we got some great answers, including yours. And so I would love for you to share with our audience what you said ? you do when you’re in that space.

Tonya Kubo (03:41)

Yeah, I would love to. for me, and I think the question had something to do with like, you know, how, how do you intentionally like lower the bar, right? When you’re already in over your head. And so I feel like as a mom, right, I’ve got kids in the house, I’ve got a husband, but like the number one thing is everybody has to eat.

Kathi Lipp (03:51)

Yes, yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:02)

And I am fortunate in that we haven’t had too many situations where all of us are sick at the same time. There’s usually at least one person who can do something. But I think, you know, it’s making sure that you have stuff available for everybody to eat because that’s one of the best ways that you can heal and recover is to make sure you’re getting your nutrients. So generally speaking, we always have stuff to make soup on hand.

Kathi Lipp (04:03)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Right.

Tonya Kubo (04:31)

I make my own bone broth, you know, anytime I roast a chicken or whatever. And so that’s usually in the freezer. I freeze fresh ginger so that I can add that easily to recipes. So I’ve almost always got that in the freezer. And then we do a lot of ? freezing of cooked meats, like just, you know, browning ground beef and having that ready to go, boneless, skinless chicken breasts. So in a perfect world, I’ll have all of that in my freezer and I can just make a quick pot of soup. But…

We also keep like I buy like from frontier foods or something but dehydrated soup vegetables where you can just add like a quarter of a cup of them to you four cups of liquid and you make a quick soup So I think those like having a quick soup to put together is easy. I do live in town I can order delivery like I know when my mother-in-law has been sick. She loves whenever she’s sick She loves the chicken tortilla soup from El Pollo Loco and we’ll just

Kathi Lipp (05:07)

Yeah.

yeah, that’s a good soup.

Tonya Kubo (05:29)

Yeah, well, if we’re not sick, we’ll order that and we’ll just go and take it to her, but we’ve ordered it before just to be delivered to her house. ? That’s super helpful. Abby swears the chicken noodle soup at Panera is the best soup ever. I don’t know, but okay.

Kathi Lipp (05:44)

Well, that’s kind of because

Panera is kind of dressed up hospital food. you know, so that’s that’s where she’s getting the vibes from. Yes. But I will say, yeah, I don’t know. A Panera orange scone. ? Yeah, will heal just about anything. Yeah. So, ? you know, it’s so interesting. You and I were talking, I don’t know, a couple of weeks ago, and I was like, the best thing I did

Tonya Kubo (05:50)

okay.

Got it, that would make sense.

Hmm.

Kathi Lipp (06:14)

? when the bet the the thing that made me feel so much better was Roger changed the sheets and talk about sheets

Tonya Kubo (06:20)

Mm-hmm.

Mm, yes. So I don’t know about you, but I ever since I was little, I noticed that like there’s some funky smell that happens when you get sick. And it took me until I was in my 30s to realize that smell was my sheets. So one thing that we try to do is we always try to have at least two extra sets of ? sheets on hand to that way we can strip the bed every three, three days or so.

Kathi Lipp (06:36)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:54)

But I find if I can keep up, nothing else, keep up on the towels and the sheets. Like if the linens are washed and dried and ready, I’m doing pretty well. So like when the stomach flu hits the house, that is my first priority is making sure that I’ve got clean towels and clean sheets in rotation at all times. Because if I get hit, I know that I deserve, Kathi Lipp, I deserve clean towels. I deserve clean sheets.

Kathi Lipp (07:17)

Right.

Yes. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (07:23)

And if I’m not staying

up on it while everybody else is sick, guess what? There’s no clean towels left for mom when she needs them.

Kathi Lipp (07:30)

Yeah, and can I just go a little step further on that? Now, people all lost their minds when I said, I don’t sort my clothes before I wash them. We’ll do a whole nother episode. But here is something I do that has been, ? especially when I’m sick, is using laundry sanitizer, which is not a bleach, but it just sanitizes your laundry. And when we’ve had COVID, when we have a big group of people here,

Tonya Kubo (07:34)

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (07:59)

I just run the towels and the sheets through with the sanitizer and it just makes it feel so much cleaner. So just something to think about. Now that is not necessarily about lowering the standards. It’s just a little extra tip, but yeah. And by the way, if you’re sick, somebody else in your house should be doing that for you. Should be doing the laundry and stuff like that for you. Okay, I wanna talk food for when you are sick.

Tonya Kubo (08:02)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (08:29)

One of the things, a category that we got was meals that take less than five minutes. So Suzy Flory, who has been on this podcast before, she says, you know, if she has the energy, she makes a pot of chicken soup. But if she doesn’t have the energy, she opens up a can of refried beans, put some salsa and cheese into a tortilla and she has a quick burrito. And I’m like,

That is dream. Can I tell you also what Suzy did for me last night? Because I’m still in the midst. Roger is not ? the guy who’s going to do a home cooked meal. ? She is on a book deadline. So she is offered to bring me, well, she’s on her doctoral thesis deadline, let’s be clear, which is turning into a book, right? But ? I kept telling her, don’t bring me anything. Don’t bring, you know, finish your book, finish your book, we’re fine. And she goes,

Tonya Kubo (09:12)

? yeah.

Kathi Lipp (09:21)

Hey, I’m coming to your house and bringing you food. And I’m like, that would be lovely because she’s offered so many times. So what she did, she just got back from Texas and she, think she was inspired by this. She stopped by our local grocery store. It’s local to her. And she picked up some sliced Thai tri-tip. She brought some ? barbecue sauces. She brought some potato salad, some pasta salad and some beans.

Tonya Kubo (09:27)

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (09:50)

And ? so she and some buns and she made us tri-tip sandwiches last night and she stayed and ate with us, which was lovely. I mean, I was so tired by the time she left, but my soul was reenergized. And then this is where she is so extra. Not only did she bring us a quart of vanilla ice cream, she made ? peach hand pies because she know, right? And so.

Tonya Kubo (09:55)

Mmm.

she makes the best pie crust ever.

Kathi Lipp (10:17)

This is more crust than pie, which by the way are the ratios that I love. So she really went extra for it, but it was so lovely and I felt so loved and so taken care of last night and so did Roger. Cause let’s also, he’s a caregiver all this. I try to be very low maintenance, but he is checking in all the time. ? Shannon Garcia says, ? we just do ? cereal and milk. And I’m like, you get it girl. I love that. ?

Tonya Kubo (10:20)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (10:46)

Tina Maxwell, I love this. She does a lot of charcuterie style snacks. You talked about how ? your Abby loves, does she call them?

Tonya Kubo (10:56)

The Snackle Box.

Kathi Lipp (10:58)

That’s right. You know, I love this just like getting some sliced ham, some sliced cheese. You can even get sliced apples and toothpicks and just like I grab kind of, if that sounds good to you, I love that. And then Trisha, I want to make sure, Ontiveros I hope I pronounced that right. Ontiveros, you said it much more elegantly than I did.

Tonya Kubo (11:07)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm, on Tavares, yeah.

Kathi Lipp (11:24)

? Instant mashed potatoes, which I think everybody should have in their cabinet at all time. They’re so much better than they used to be. And here’s my justification for using them, is that Julia Child served them to her husband one time and he couldn’t tell the difference. I’m like, okay, if it’s good enough for Julia’s husband, it’s good enough for me. And then Trisha says she does that with some canned green beans and ham steak. And by the way, I’m not a big…

Tonya Kubo (11:41)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (11:51)

canned green bean person, that’s not my favorite, but there is a lemon pepper seasoning that you can get at Costco, that you put that on any green bean product, it’s a winner. ? It’s the one with the cow head on it. I’ll make sure that we mention that, yeah, it’s so good. And then somebody else mentioned mac and cheese and frozen chicken nuggets and applesauce. that is a, whatever works, friend. ? Yeah, so.

Tonya Kubo (12:03)

So good?

you

Whatever works.

Kathi Lipp (12:21)

? Let’s talk about your pantry and some freezer MVPs. ? Now, Pauline and Shelly both mentioned rotisserie chickens. There is nothing. I keep a cut up frozen chicken in my freezer at all times. And then somebody else, you just mentioned a dehydrated vegetable soup mix. ?

Tonya Kubo (12:37)

Mmm, so smart.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (12:49)

And I’ve seen these Bear Creek soup mixes.

Tonya Kubo (12:53)

who always has five or six of those in her pantry. I will tell you, my family does not enjoy like soup mixes like that. That’s just not their thing. These are so good, Kathi. They do a really delicious, I will give you all my favorite flavors, not that you asked, but I will tell you them anyway. The minestrone is really good. There is a like cheddar potato that I think is really delicious. And then, yeah, so good. And then the beef and barley and what?

Kathi Lipp (13:03)

Okay?

Okay, okay.

? I’ve had that before. It’s so good.

Tonya Kubo (13:23)

My friend likes about them is you can just make them as is on the package, but they always have embellishment ideas on the back. So for the minestrone, what she does is she’ll brown ground beef and onion, and then she does the soup. So it’s a little bit of a heartier soup. ? But I have to say, I have not had a bad one. think right after my friend introduced me to them, I went to her house and we had soup together. I saw them for sale at the grocery store.

Kathi Lipp (13:30)

Yes.

?

Tonya Kubo (13:52)

Cause I feel like they’re a little expensive. They’re not really that expensive. Okay. I think they’re like $5, but they were on sale five for five. So he picks them up and even Brian, Mr. Soup Snob that he is, he thought they were pretty tasty.

Kathi Lipp (13:56)

Yeah, right.

Okay, yeah, this is this is You know making some adjustments and you know zipping them up, which I love. Yeah, Sarah her Burley Sarah Burley mentioned this she says Bear Creek vegetable beef dry soup mix and add a can or two of canned beef from Walmart or Costco when they have it and a beef bullion cube and we have dinner for days makes eight to ten cups of soup. I love that

Tonya Kubo (14:12)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (14:36)

I love that and some you know, don’t don’t sleep on frozen entrees So one of the things we did is I made a sam’s card order or not sam’s card Excuse me sam’s club order where you can just go and pick it up because you know Roger this isn’t his bailiwick We’re just you know being honest here. So we got some of the shredded pork carnitas and we just did that with

Tonya Kubo (14:46)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (15:03)

some vegetables and that he did on the grill and some tortillas and that was wonderful. Some people suggest, ? go ahead, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (15:09)

Kathi,

I’m sorry, because you said frozen entrees. have to share something that you like introduced us to. taking frozen, because we always have like frozen wonton, frozen pot stickers, things like that in our freezer, because my family loves that. But dropping that into some chicken broth with a little bit of green onion back to you can buy freeze dried green onion. Like tastes just like fresh.

Kathi Lipp (15:18)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

which is a beautiful thing, right?

Tonya Kubo (15:36)

But again, quick soup filling but light all at the same time. So fast.

Kathi Lipp (15:41)

Yeah

Yeah, think about these things guys like the healthy choice steamers frozen ravioli ? A prepared meatloaf a prepared pizza like this is survival food guys We’re not talking about your entertaining or this is what you do every week I like to just have a sliced ham because ham can be eaten You know warm cold it does not matter

Tonya Kubo (16:07)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (16:09)

You can throw it into eggs for breakfast. can have it between two slices of bread for lunch. You can put some ? mac and cheese with it and some artichokes or artichokes, excuse me, asparagus. And that’s dinner. Like do what you have to do. There have been some days where I just haven’t felt like eating, but Roger still wants to eat and I want to have things that are easy for him. ? Jill May says she eats

Tonya Kubo (16:12)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (16:38)

pressure canned meat. So ? if that is something you’re into, that’s great to do in advance. Or if you’re bringing something to somebody, that’s a beautiful thing. And then Lori Hayes says she loves a good salad kit, deli meat, hard boiled eggs. ? That is a winning combination. I love those ideas. Okay, but guys, it’s, ? it’s not just about the food. We also have other things to keep up on.

Sarah Thompson made mention she only really keeps up on her bathroom and kitchen like right

Tonya Kubo (17:15)

I agree. I agree

because everybody deserves to throw up in a clean toilet. That’s my rule. That is my rule. You deserve to throw up in a clean toilet.

Kathi Lipp (17:21)

it’s so true, right? Yeah.

I love that. And you’re gonna be more likely to throw up in the right place if it’s clean. Let’s be clear, okay? ? Susie Flory says she just keeps Clorox wipes everywhere, because you can clean almost anything with a Clorox wipe. ? Yeah, and then make sure you, especially if somebody’s sick, if you don’t normally have room to keep all your cleaning supplies in the bathroom, ?

Tonya Kubo (17:30)

Exactly.

Kathi Lipp (17:49)

just for this time while people are sick, keep those Clorox wipes, keep everything in there because you just want to grab and go. I thought this was so smart and I have one of these and I have not been using it. But Carla Stewart says she uses one of those grabber tools for energy conservation. And Tonya, why have I been bending over and picking up Moose’s toys and her half-eaten chew sticks and

the clothes that end up on the floor like a sucker. Like I have a grabber tool.

Tonya Kubo (18:20)

Because Kathi,

because your brain cells are tired and are healing and they did not process that, okay? You needed somebody else to make the suggestion so you could go, ? I could do that. Now you will.

Kathi Lipp (18:26)

Yeah. No, they didn’t.

Yes.

And by the way, I’m using paper plates like it’s 1995. Like I don’t care anymore.

Tonya Kubo (18:40)

yeah, no, Brian, that is I would say Brian’s number one thing is if somebody’s sick, he runs to the store, he gets paper plates, paper napkins. ? He won’t do paper cups just because he feels like when you’re sick, you like neglect the cup and then it gets all leaky and gross. But he’ll even go so far as to get plastic utensils because for because he’s the one that keeps up with the dishes. He’s like, OK, if he gets hit,

Kathi Lipp (18:56)

Yeah. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (19:08)

He just wants everybody to be able to just use and toss.

Kathi Lipp (19:08)

Yeah.

Yeah, and I’m gonna hold this up for Tonya to see, right now I’m supposed to be drinking. It’s like one of those, what were the Stanley cups, but this is the cheap knockoff. got the, remember we had a meeting here several years ago and they came up with prizes and this is the one I got. I use this every day of my life, but ? I fill it up with, ? I need to keep hydrated.

Tonya Kubo (19:15)

? that’s a nice one.

Yep. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm, yep.

Kathi Lipp (19:41)

And the way I’ll do it, you can hear this, it’s still got ice from last night. And I just keep refilling it with ice and whether it’s something with electrolytes or something like that. I’m gonna run through the rest of these really fast. then Tonya, I’m gonna ask you for your best idea as we close out. ? the systems we keep up with are laundry and dishes. It’s the bare minimum. This is from Samantha Weatherstone. ?

Tonya Kubo (19:45)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (20:10)

Those are the things that if you get backed up on it’s gonna be harder. So minimize those. Can ? you use the paper plates? Can you eat out of the container that you bought the food in? Do as much, but keep up on those when you have energy. You only have so much energy, put it where it has to go. This is not the time to go into your photo albums and reorganize them. Just keep up on dishes.

? Keep grocery orders simple deliver drive up or ask a friend when somebody asks you what can they do? Go pick up their food order. You can assign somebody else your Sam’s order or your ? Your Rayleigh’s order, whatever that is ? Robin and Lynn both recommended that and then if you need toilet paper This is the time to bust out your Amazon order, right? You need paper towels. You need a food order

Get that delivered. If you have to pay extra to get it here on time, do what you need to do. And then finally, when people are asking for help, Laurie Nichols says, ? accept help. People want to help. I want to help when my friends are sick. ? Shannon Garcia says, I love this. Asking doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human. ? My friend, Kathi Carlton Willis says, before you say no, ask God if he wants you to say yes to receiving help.

? Julie Wiseman asked for specific help on social people jump at the chance, you know, so ? Hey, you know, my my kid is sick. Could you pick up our prescription people want to help I remember somebody was ? that I barely knew Needed to be picked up at the airport and I said, ? that’s easy. I can do that and She was so shocked and I’m like, no, it was an easy way and it was a specific way and I knew what time

And so Tonya, give us one more example of something you can do ? when you need to lower your standards.

Tonya Kubo (22:12)

well, would say ? accepting help, I think, is probably like the best advice ever, but also like reaching out for help. You know, if you’re sick, call a friend and, you know, ask one of your kid’s friends if they can bring your child home. That has been the hardest thing for me as a parent to go, ? I could ask somebody else to pick the girls up and take them to school or to bring them home.

Kathi Lipp (22:24)

Yeah.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (22:40)

I think that’s a big one. And even like picking up a grocery order for you. Like you can place the order because not everybody has grocery delivery, but can somebody pick it up for you and bring it to your house?

Kathi Lipp (22:41)

Yeah.

Yeah, and you know, ? I thought this was this is such a good one to end on ? Tracy DeLong. ? She recently lost her husband and I mean, that’s the ultimate ? grief ? energy zapper and her advice. I love this ? every day. I got out of bed made my bed brush my teeth got dressed had devotions and breakfast even if I didn’t feel like it is helped me.

to have some order and stability in this season of unrest. So thank you to all of you who shared your wisdom. Tonya, thank you because I love you. You are such a grace first person and I’ve appreciated that in my life. And when I see you ? give it to the people in our Clutterfree Academy membership, ? you are a model for all. And friend.

Take good care of yourself in this season. That is your highest calling, it really is. ? Friends, you’ve been listening to Clutter Free Academy, I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

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#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas | 0 comments

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Listen Now

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart.

Join Kathi and her guest, Tenneil Register, as they unpack the real reasons why lasting organization seems so hard—and how you can break the cycle for good. They talk through absolutely doable steps for busy, overwhelmed women, get real about guilt and grace, and reveal how faith can shift your mindset about home and stuff.

Whether you’re trying the “one-drawer challenge” or just wishing someone else would do the laundry, you’ll find encouragement (with a little laughter!) and practical hope for creating peace in your home that truly lasts.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group
Mirror Jewelery Cabinet
Tenneil’s Earrings
(Use the code “Thankyou15” for 15% off )

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Clutter Free Resources:

Support the podcast with Coffee for Kathi!

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

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Meet Our Guest

Tenneil Register

Tenneil Register can be found creating, repurposing, decorating, gardening and welcoming guests to their reclaimed barn storefront. She and her husband, Cowboy, established rural roots for their blended family of 7 in their DIY ranch home in Iowa. Connect with her on Instagram for practical ideas to reclaim your home.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:12)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I’ve got one of my favorite humans in the world, Tenille Register, here with me today. Hey Tenille, how you doing?

Tenneil Register (00:28)

Hey Kathi, I’m doing great today. I actually just decluttered yesterday, so I can’t wait to talk today about this.

Kathi Lipp (00:36)

Yay, what did you declutter? What was your area?

Tenneil Register (00:41)

closets of non-bedrooms. like closet in the office, closet in the work out room.

Kathi Lipp (00:47)

Okay, can I just tell you I think those are the worst. I think they’re the worst We have a closet in our bedroom. That’s not our bedroom closet I don’t know how to describe that but we have like Roger has a closet. I have a closet and then we have this like utility closet and It is the worst spot in my house for sure So did you find any treasures? What like what was the big reveal from yesterday?

Tenneil Register (01:04)

Mm-hmm.

that our house is now like 100 pounds lighter of the weight on the studs holding it up because of the paper trash that was removed.

Kathi Lipp (01:19)

? Yes.

My goodness, it’s so true, right? It’s so true. Okay, so I want to dive into our episode today and I have you on for a specific reason Tenneil, If you guys don’t know Tenneil Register, so she’s a writer. She’s a speaker but she also owns retail businesses and I’ve worked retail I would say the first half of my life at least half of it was spent working retail

And displays and storage are such a big deal. My background in training was, ? I worked for Nordstrom for years and years. I worked in their gift area. so displays were a big deal, but you own ? some retail businesses you have to think through how to make things practical and beautiful.

And I can think of no greater challenge than when it comes to our jewelry. ? I have, are you a big jewelry person? I would say I am and I’m not, like I’m not an expensive jewelry person. The only really expensive thing I have is my wedding ring, but how about you?

Tenneil Register (02:41)

Yes, so in my early days, I liked expensive jewelry, but now I’m lucky to put my wedding ring on. You know, I have expensive jewelry, but I don’t really wear it very often. I do wear earrings pretty faithfully, because I believe it’s like, it accentuates your jawline. But other than that, like, it depends on the outfit. And so I would say I own

Kathi Lipp (02:49)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (03:10)

quite a bit of jewelry, but I wear it in phases. That’s probably the best way to describe it.

Kathi Lipp (03:18)

Yeah, and it’s so interesting. I feel like jewelry is such a touchy thing when it comes to emotional clutter. ? You know, ? I think when I was younger, I thought expensive jewelry was kind of proving, hey, if you love me, you’re giving me expensive jewelry. I don’t know. Maybe that’s just a younger thing. I know also there are people who love their expensive jewelry. ?

I got very convicted. I heard a sermon one time on Matthew 621 about where is your treasure? You know for where your treasure is there your heart will be also and this woman was talking about is my treasure in my jewelry box and I I I’m making it sound more convicting than it should be because I think it’s okay to love beautiful things, but I really did hold like if you love me, you’ll buy me expensive things on

I don’t know. I was very convicted by that verse in a good way that has really freed me. I see you nodding.

Tenneil Register (04:23)

Yeah, well, I’m nodding because I think in the 90s, we were definitely intentionally sold that marketing message from jewelers. And I can remember thinking that I was the more gold I had on my hand, not just the more loved I was, but the more stable that I was, accomplished, steady, things are secure. And I think we…

Kathi Lipp (04:31)

Yeah. Yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (04:50)

I think we tend to think that when people have really nice things that something about their life feels like safer and more desirable than if not. So yeah, that’s kind of what made me inside.

Kathi Lipp (04:55)

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think you’re absolutely right. think, you know, I was born in the 60s. You were born much later than that. But we were told if you’re loved, the ring will be big. The jewelry will be chunky. Yeah, absolutely. And I think also, you know, there are stories we tell ourselves about jewelry. Some of our jewelry is very significant. You know, you’re going to you’re going to pry my wedding ring off of my cold dead hand.

Like this it means a lot to me, but there’s also sometimes false sentiment versus true significance ? I think we can honor memories or be held hostage by them ? Sometimes we’re given things like there there was a lot of jewelry in my jewelry box Probably about 15 years ago that I had worn once or twice like some some gold bracelets that I had

? from a first marriage, ? things like that. And I just wonder sometimes if my, some of our jewelry boxes are full of memories or are they misplaced obligations? I just felt like because I had been given that, even though it didn’t serve me, ? I had to keep it because it was worth something. It had memories attached to it. Like I had some jewelry that was passed down from my grandmother. Now some of it I wore a lot.

But some of it, it was like, okay, I’m never gonna wear it. This has nothing to do, you know, I never, it wasn’t a fond memory for me. It was just passed down. So I felt like I needed to keep it. Do you have any guilt jewelry? I guess that’s my question.

Tenneil Register (06:49)

think I do. actually keep it. This is like confession. I hope my family’s not listening. So the things that I had that I would not wear and it’s family oriented, I actually have it in our bank safe box, like at the bank. And then it’s not like in my jewelry box. But it’s there to remain part of the family estate, so to speak. And it’s not even, this stuff is not highly valuable.

Kathi Lipp (07:06)

? got it.

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (07:19)

That’s just a place out of my daily life that it can be kept safe for generations to come.

Kathi Lipp (07:19)

Right!

Yeah, because things do come around and jewelry is relatively small. So it’s easier to I don’t want to say hoard, but you know, for some of us, it’s hoard. And so yeah, it’s very it’s so much easier to do that. I wanted to tell I wanted to tell a story on here. You know, I had my wedding ring from my first marriage. And, you know, it wasn’t super valuable, but they definitely had some value to it. But

It’s not something I wanted anymore. And I had some ? gold bracelets and things like that from that. And I was trying to think of what I could do with them. And there was a cause that was really important to me and Roger after we got married about building wells in Africa. And I said, what would you think about me selling my first wedding ring? Because you don’t really sell the wedding ring, you’re selling the gold.

and the diamond attached to it if there’s a diamond on there. And so I talked about it with Roger. I talked about it with my kids. I’m like, if there’s any reason you want me to hang on to this, and my daughter said I would hawk it. And I’m like, okay, then I’m not saving it to pass down to you. And so what we did, yes. Yeah. Nope, they could not care less.

Tenneil Register (08:23)

Great.

was dying to know whether the kids wanted that. I was dying to ask you that.

Kathi Lipp (08:49)

So what I did actually was I sold it and we used the money to build wells in Africa and it’s actually part of one of Susie Flory’s books I’ve never written about it, but she wrote about it in one of her books about ? I’m trying to remember the historical figure that sold a bunch of stuff to For service and that’s what we did and can I tell you I’ve never felt a day of guilt over that like that was exact

it and so it’s this I Thought I might feel guilty about it. But what it really was is like no, that’s actually something You know, I’m not a huge fan of my ex-husband I have much more positive feelings towards him now than I did when we got divorced but He doesn’t even know that I did that but I still think about that’s something positive that came out of our Relationship does that make sense or am I weird?

Tenneil Register (09:46)

Wow,

such a beautiful way of reclaiming something out of a difficult situation and making something beautiful. I absolutely love

Kathi Lipp (09:50)

Mmm.

I do feel like there’s some redemption there. I really, really do. I, you know, I, and I didn’t want to feel judged by it about from my kids or from anybody else, but I think that there’s a stewardship aspect of this, that we can use those things.

Tenneil Register (10:17)

Yeah, so one way that I’m stewarding jewelry, think a little different, hopefully than like generations before me, like, like expensive jewelry that my husband bought me early in our marriage and I loved it and I wore it all the time. And now maybe I don’t wear it, I don’t love it as much.

Kathi Lipp (10:25)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (10:37)

If I wait until I pass away for my daughters to inherit that jewelry, they will probably also be at an age where they’re not wearing that sort of thing. And so I’ve started working through like jewelry that I own currently and gifting it to them like right now while they’re in their 20s and they love jewelry. And yet maybe I lose it on vacation because they’re still at that phase of life. But if it brought

Kathi Lipp (10:48)

you

Yes.

Tenneil Register (11:07)

if it brings them joy, whether it’s for 13 months or the next 33 years, like that would be a better place for it than in the bottom of my drawer for them to find later. Plus, unless I’m gonna go through and label, like this one was from my first husband, blah, blah, blah. And this one was from my current husband, your dad. You know, like what is the…

Kathi Lipp (11:20)

That’s so true.

Yeah!

Tenneil Register (11:35)

Who wants to leave an inventory of their jewelry? And so I would rather like give it to them while I’m alive and say like when I was your age, I loved wearing this. It’s valuable. Your dad bought it for me. Here it is. So that’s that’s one of

Kathi Lipp (11:39)

Right.

love that so

much. Yes. And, and yeah, jewelry is meant to be worn. It gets more beautiful, the longer it’s against skin. I mean, I love that. And so both Tenneil and I have admitted, hey, we’re, we’re not like expensive jewelry people. I’m more like, it feels weird to say costume jewelry, but let’s just say I’m in the

$45 and below category for most of my jewelry, right? And so I want to talk about how do you actually organize that? because I’ve got I’m not gonna lie. I’ve got a lot of it and I want to be able to use it I want to be able to find it too. That’s another thing So I want to tell you some solutions that I have Tenneil has some solutions. So we’re gonna talk about

Yeah, because we’re cheapy girls. That’s it. We’re fun. ? No, we’re gonna call it fun fashion jewelry. That’s what we’re gonna call it We’re not gonna call it costume. We’re gonna call it fun fashion I feel like putting things in order in my house gives me so much joy

? To be able to find things to categorize things that kind of thing, but I will tell you until ? December of this year my jewelry was chaos I kept trying to find solutions for it so but I want my home to be a place of beauty order and peace and So I want to hear from you Tenneil, What are some? Freed because you’re a display girly and You’re good at this stuff. What are some things that you have done to really?

? Just I don’t know if it’s do you display your jewelry do you hide your jewelry? What do you do?

Tenneil Register (13:35)

So I have a combo. I’m gonna be really plain, my three jewelry habits. One of them is I tend to take off my jewelry as I unwind for the day, right? So I have three significant places then that these little small piles of things like my wedding ring and earrings end up in. And so I’ve learned that that’s my habit and I have put a cute little dish in those places.

Kathi Lipp (13:38)

Okay. Yes. Yes.

Yes, me too!

Tenneil Register (14:05)

so that they are corralled. I could scold myself to walk to my real jewelry box that hides a lot of jewelry, but I’m not going to. So I just have this pathway and then I pick them up from that path the next day. All right, so that’s one way. I do have a flown jewelry box with the doors that open on the side with necklaces and earrings and stuff like that. That’s kind of my catchall. And then

Kathi Lipp (14:05)

Yes!

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (14:34)

I have, well I guess I have four piles. I have the mess that accumulates on top of said jewelry box, because I’m too lazy to open the drawer and put it away. And then I do have some displayed jewelry. I actually have some busts that you would see in a store. And I have those on top of a dresser for my necklaces that I wear most often.

Kathi Lipp (14:51)

Hmm? ? yeah!

Tenneil Register (15:00)

And then also like one that I don’t wear, a necklace that I don’t wear often, but I love it and I want to see it. So I have that on the bust on top of the dresser. That’s my personal style. My sister, she’s amazing. She has like a screen window that’s vintage and cute and her little earrings hang on that. And then she has a window frame with all these little hooks on it. And then all of her necklaces are on that. And I always want to be that because I think she must get so much joy.

Kathi Lipp (15:16)

Right?

Tenneil Register (15:28)

when she walks up to the wall of her jewelry that also looks like beautiful wall decor and she can pull off her pieces and wear them. But that is not my personal habit.

Kathi Lipp (15:39)

Yes. Okay. I love it. I love it so much. And ? yes, the screen is something I’ve seen before. I was going to build it until another solution came into my life, which I will talk about. I think some other things to think about guys are things like velvet trays, because everybody’s house is different, right? You may have more drawer space. So a velvet tray could be really, really helpful for you. And especially if you’re like a ring person.

Like ? a or a bracelet person having those velvet trays could be really really helpful one of my friends had a cake stand and she put all of her different bracelets on it and it was so cute and then for a long time I used a pegboard where I would just hang my necklaces and things like that if If you’re a curator of things like teacups that could be really cute for you as well. What were you gonna say Tenneil?

Tenneil Register (16:35)

I actually have a cake stand in my bathroom. It’s a really pretty marble stand. And so there’s like a small plant and a little, you know, motivational saying. And that cake stand is where I can take off my daily jewelry and put it up there. And then it’s not on the counter where it can fall into the sink. It’s up on the cake stand.

Kathi Lipp (16:38)

? cute. ? huh.

you

Yes, okay. And here’s my thing. I like the people who just take their stuff off and go put it away. I will never understand those people. That is not me. And you

Tenneil Register (17:03)

This episode is not for

you. We love you. We admire you.

Kathi Lipp (17:07)

Yes, we admire you. You are listening to the wrong podcast friend, but ? here’s what I do I I have a silver antique dish that I love but I never really knew what to do it Every day I go take it off there and it just piles up until the end of the week And then I put everything away at the same time, but it’s still I think it’s it’s a beautiful It’s a beautiful way to do it and it’s a grace based system Which I love I it just says

Tenneil Register (17:11)

haha

Kathi Lipp (17:36)

Hey, you know, we’re not looking for perfection. We’re not saying, hey, we’re gonna go put this away every day. And I will say, I do have a dish on my desk because sometimes I’m at the end of my day where I have to look cute, but I’m still working. So I take my earrings off, I take my necklace off, I put it on that little dish and it works for me. And that works for me. Another thing that you might think about is a jeweler tree. ? So it has like,

holes that can stick out that you know, you can hang things off of and that’s what I did for a long time ? but I Think one thing to think about is to group jewelry with a purpose I have once I well I’ve got three sets of jewelry where the earrings they didn’t I didn’t buy them as a set but they just go together and I hang them together so that it’s just easy it’s like a capsule and I so I also keep

those where for travel, they work with a lot of different things. And I’ve got this one pair of earrings, they’re just thin gold hoops that work with everything. So I have a cup, I have one set of those that I leave in our trailer, because they’re going to go with absolutely everything. actually have, I have to replace this because it went through the wash. It makes me crazy.

I’ve lost so many things by leaving things in my pocket, but this is a pair of earrings made out of ? Boots like wading boots in Alaska. They go with everything. I love them So I need to order a new pair of those but I left those in our RV for the longest time because they just go with everything so I think either grouping things that go together is a great way to do that or reducing

If you’re just a simple gold or silver hoop person, go for it. Or maybe you’re like, I could wear the same turquoise necklace every day of my life. I love turquoise. Never buy me, yep, exactly. I love it. Never buy me diamonds, buy me turquoise. That’s what makes me so happy. Any last thoughts, Tenille?

Tenneil Register (19:42)

to my hearing everyday of my life.

I also keep a travel pack of jewelry and I actually it’s separate than my everyday jewelry. Then I don’t have to sort it all out. So I have travel jewelry. some of them are duplicates of something I own and then I there’s no back and forth with that. And then, I mean, if you’re somebody who will put your stuff away, like we’ve sold and people really love them is like the full length mirrors that open up the mirror to the jewelry inside. ?

Kathi Lipp (19:58)

Mmm.

? okay.

Tenneil Register (20:23)

And many of my customers have purchased those from me and they say it’s life-changing. I just haven’t been able to discipline myself in that way. But I can see how being close to the mirror would help.

Kathi Lipp (20:24)

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah. So I’m going to go deep into the mirror because that is the thing that has earned a place in my clutter free home. And so I want to talk about, yeah. So I’m going to tell you the story of how this came into my life and how it has changed my life. Okay, guys, this is our segment. You know it, you love it. It is things that have.

earned a place in my clutter free home and I want to tell you about my full length mirror jewelry organizer. Now, I am not the person who puts away my jewelry every day, but I have my little silver dish that goes right next to this. this is how I never seen one of these before. But my daughter, Amanda, my stepdaughter, Amanda, ? when people come to our house, they use our bath.

We redid our bathroom a few years ago and guys, it’s my favorite room in the house. I love it so much. But she saw my jewelry collection and she’s like, Kathi, you are out of control. I’m like, I know, I know. But I just hadn’t really thought through how to really take care of that. And so for Christmas, all my kids got together, they each chipped in and they bought me the full length mirror.

jewelry organizer and they bought me a couple of pieces of jewelry to put in this and you guys I love this so much first of all It’s a full-length mirror, which we already had but we had just a little one in our bedroom And this is full-length I love it And so you open it up you open up the mirror part and it has places for rings bracelets Necklaces and it has a whole rack for the earrings

And can I tell you, so once a week, I take everything from that silver dish and I hang it back up, but it’s like going into your favorite curated store and picking out your earrings for the day. And it makes me so happy. I can’t even stand it. So you said a lot of your customers have bought that as well.

Tenneil Register (22:34)

Yes, yeah, we sold them in our shop and it’s a swivel one, you know, and so it works like in a lot of flexible places. yeah, that’s been really popular. So I think you’ve changed at least my life that the mess I put on top of my jewelry box, I’m gonna put a nice tray there. Because then I can pick them up and put the pieces off and it will feel like an official task instead of shape like the pile.

Kathi Lipp (22:40)

?

Mm-hmm

Yes.

Yes, I love it.

Tenneil Register (23:03)

It’s just a matter of,

Kathi Lipp (23:03)

Yes, I.

Tenneil Register (23:05)

that’s a grace-based system, right? Instead of guilty myself of being messy, I have a system. I love it.

Kathi Lipp (23:07)

Right.

Yes, and can I tell you I feel like this is what fancy ladies do I really do like your fancy lady mate You would take your necklace off. You would take your earrings off and then some maid would come do it now I’m the maid in this in this scenario, but it makes so much better Yeah, and guys i’ll put a link to the ? the cabinet that I have that I love ? and Yeah, my kids I love when they come together, you know wonder twin powers activate because

Tenneil Register (23:23)

And you’ll see the key. Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (23:41)

This has been so great and it doesn’t take up much room, but it lays everything out. It makes me feel so happy. And Tenille, I also need to know where you got those earrings because I may need those in my life. Don’t tell me you got them like seven years ago.

Tenneil Register (23:59)

It’s been a bit, but I think I can find you the place.

Kathi Lipp (24:04)

Okay, very very cool. If you happen to find the place we will also put it in the in our show notes because Those are super super cool. I love them. I’m also going to show for people who are watching online My favorite pair of earrings my friend carol gave these to me. I they’re they’re my favorite fun and funky earrings But ? look at those little I mean aren’t those I? There can you see them? They’re they’re very

Tenneil Register (24:30)

That macrame, right?

Kathi Lipp (24:33)

Yes, they’re macrame. They’re like a yellow gold. I cannot tell you how many things these go with they make me super happy. So ? yeah, but yours are fabulous and ? mine mine are these are made out of ? how how bone the ones that i’m wearing today and ? I they just make me super happy. So guys if We ? yes, I will i’ll see if I can find a link

Tenneil Register (24:55)

And I need to know about these ones made from boots. The ones made from boots. the parents of the kid knows that.

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (25:03)

Yeah, they’re super cute. Sadly, they don’t do well a parent leather doesn’t do well in the washing machine. Who knew right who knew? Yeah But i’m gonna find those because yeah, they make me super happy and guys You make us super happy by you just being here. I hope this gave you an idea or two for your jewelry situation because having your stuff laid out

Tenneil Register (25:10)

Oops. ?

Kathi Lipp (25:28)

to get dressed every day, add, it’s the icing on the cake. And that’s what we want for you. We want every day to have a little icing on your cake. You have been listening to the Clutterfree Academy podcast. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

« Older Entries

#683 – Declutter Your Bathroom Sink Space (Even With Zero Storage!)

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 19, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas | 0 comments

#683 – Declutter Your Bathroom Sink Space (Even With Zero Storage!)

Listen Now

Tired of opening your bathroom cabinets only to find chaos staring back at you? You’re not alone. In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi teams up with decluttering expert Tonya Kubo to tackle one of the most frustrating spaces in many homes: the bathroom sink area.

Whether you’re blessed with ample storage or struggling with a pedestal sink and four family members sharing one bathroom (like Tonya!), this episode offers hope and practical solutions. You’ll discover why taking everything out might be the best first step, how to make smart decisions about duplicates and expired products, and creative storage hacks that will transform your space.

Kathi shares her game-changing discovery about medicine cabinets in unexpected places, while Tonya offers wisdom from working with Clutter Free for Life members on their bathroom transformations. From stackable organizers to tension rods for spray bottles, you’ll walk away with actionable strategies you can implement today.

Remember: the goal isn’t perfection—it’s creating systems that work for your family’s current season of life. As Tonya beautifully puts it, “Maybe not forever, but for now.”

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

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Order Sabbath Soup here

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Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:09)

Well hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And speaking of less clutter, we’re gonna dive into the bathroom today guys and we’re gonna dive in with one of my favorite clutter free human beings. It is Tonya Kubo. I was about to say Tonya Lipp. Did you need to be adopted? I mean was that?

I’m not gonna lie, Christmas for our kids. Yes, Christmas for our kids is not bad. And they’re all in their 30s. just think about it. ? We could make some arrangements. And by the way, Roger and I are not grandparents, so this would have some built-in benefits for us as well. okay. ?

Tonya Kubo (00:35)

Hey, it’s good to be a Lipp!

hahahaha

You would.

Kathi Lipp (01:01)

Can I tell you my favorite room in this entire house is the one that almost nobody else goes into? Almost not even Roger. I’m not gonna lie. It is my bathroom. My bathroom makes me so happy.

Tonya Kubo (01:15)

? well, your bathroom should make you happy. It has heated floors. That’s my favorite part of your bathroom.

Kathi Lipp (01:19)

It does have heated

floors. Yep. And that’s not enough for moose. She needs a heating pad in there. But it also has like, it’s a, you guys, it’s the only fancy thing we have. ? it has, it has ? a, a wet floor for half the bathroom. So that’s like a giant open shower, which is crazy. But if you’re going to design your own bathroom, go all in friends, go all in.

Tonya Kubo (01:31)

Mm-hmm.

I agree.

Kathi Lipp (01:48)

Yeah, and then it has a beautiful jet tub. And ? yeah, it just makes me so happy. But can I tell you where I went wrong in all my designing and scheming? Here’s where I went wrong. I did not think about storage in there. did not think, you know, here I am, the queen of trying to be clutter free. And ?

Tonya Kubo (02:01)

Where did you go wrong?

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (02:15)

I love storage behind doors so you don’t have to think about it. There’s none. we’ve got five drawers, know, ? two of which are Rogers, three, well, one of them is shared and two are mine. And then we have to put some baskets on the bottom of the vanity that we can pull out. But you know, you’re storing things like toilet paper, hairdryers, things like that. And then we’ve got some other, yeah.

It’s just not great. gonna, so I have had to figure out how to be as decluttered as possible. Now, I say that, I whine about my lack of storage, but Tonya, would you care to share your bathroom setup?

Tonya Kubo (02:46)

Right.

Mm.

So

setup is, you know, sub-optimal, let’s call it that. So of course we’ve got four humans, one bathroom, and you the house was built in the early 50s so well we do have a cabinet and drawers in the bathroom that is one of only two closets in the whole house outside of the bedroom closets so we have to do a lot with that storage space and the worst

Kathi Lipp (03:08)

Yes. Yes.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (03:31)

I think what’s the worst is we have a pedestal sinks. We have no under sink storage and no counter either.

Kathi Lipp (03:37)

Right, it is that is, that is a problem, especially with that many humans. ? One of them a teenage, one of them solidly a teenager, the other one teenage, adjacent, and it’s a lot. So, ? you know, I, in my bathroom, I want my bathroom to be a place of calm. But Tonya, can we just say your bathroom just needs to be a place of survival?

Tonya Kubo (03:47)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (04:06)

Someday.

Tonya Kubo (04:07)

Well,

exactly. Yeah, no, it’s exactly it’s survival and the cat box is in there, right? So it’s like a whole lot of stuff going on in there.

Kathi Lipp (04:13)

? bless you. ?

bless you. ? my goodness. Okay. Let’s all take a moment of silence for Tonya’s bathroom. Okay. So here’s, here’s what I want to talk about. So this is, this is about decluttering your sink space. Okay. So Tonya you’re done. Cause there is no sink space. Done. Okay. But for the, okay. But for the rest of us,

Tonya Kubo (04:33)

Done. A plus plus student over here.

Ha ha!

Kathi Lipp (04:42)

who have normal bathrooms, who have some storage, that kind of thing. I wanna talk about a few ideas, ticks, ticks, ticks, my, guys, I’m still recovering from COVID, so if I’m stupid, just roll with it, friends, just roll with it. Tricks and tips that we can do. So if you’re under the sink, storage is a mess.

Tonya Kubo (04:46)

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Kathi Lipp (05:08)

This is gonna sound very anti Kathi and very anti clutter free, but here’s what I’m going to ask you to do I’m gonna ask you to take everything out and we normally rail against taking everything out at one time because that can be very overwhelming to our ADHD ADD adjacent brains ? because if you’re a cluttery person

Tonya Kubo (05:32)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (05:36)

that may not be your diagnosis, but you understand the territory that that is. And that can be really, really overwhelming because all of us have had that project where we’ve everything out and we’ve lived like that for two months. And I don’t want you to do that, but fortunately the under sink area is small enough that it probably shouldn’t be too much.

And then I’m gonna ask you to just lay everything out. Put everything on the floor, put everything on the table. And ? Tonya, what would be your advice if when you’re going through that stuff, obviously we’re gonna throw away trash, we’re gonna recycle what we can. But say like you have duplicates there and you don’t have a ton of space. What would be your advice to people?

Tonya Kubo (06:26)

Yeah, well, this is such a great topic because I’ve been working with some of our Clear Free for Life members on their bathrooms, right? Because when you’re overwhelmed, I think the bathroom is a great place to start. You’re the one who taught me that, Kathi, because it’s a small space and the bathroom sink in and of itself is such a win because that’s where you get ready, right? You’re washing your hands when you get, I mean, it’s the highest traffic area really in a bathroom. And so,

Kathi Lipp (06:34)

Mmm.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:54)

One of the things that I suggest is when you’re going through everything, when you have a bunch of duplicates, I think the first thing is get real with yourself and decide, these things, like, do I really want duplicates of this? Okay. If it is like your favorite pumpkin spice hand soap and you’ve got five of them and you love pumpkin spice hand soap by all means, make your hand smell like pumpkin spice all year long. But if you’ve got duplicates of something you don’t like, I think those go in the giveaway pile.

Kathi Lipp (06:56)

Yes.

Yes, or you know, take that lid off, smell it. Now, if you just don’t like the scent, I’ll just tell you, Plumeria from Bath and Body Works grosses me out in deep, deep ways. Because to me, it smells like, well, it doesn’t gross me out. It just reminds me of feminine hygiene products. And that’s not what I want to smell like. I’m just going to be honest with you. So.

Tonya Kubo (07:32)

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (07:53)

Smell it if you just don’t like the smell because that’s not your scent then give it away If it’s off in any way shape or form that gets pitched nobody wants your off smelling stuff ? so yes lay everything out and then ? Go if you have duplicates if you have the room you can store them there in the bathroom where you use them if you don’t find someplace else but just

Tonya Kubo (08:00)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (08:22)

Remember where you store things. That’s the important thing. So I have backup storage in my closet. I’ve got very high shelves in there and I have drawers and I’ve got one drawer that’s like for hair and I’ve got one drawer that’s for skin and makeup and it’s the backups. And so instead of going to the store, I’m going to go into my drawer to get those things.

Yeah, throw away any expired products or empty containers. I think that’s really important. Why do you think we hang on to those things, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (08:57)

Mm-hmm.

my gosh, Kathi, for so many reasons. So I do think a lot of times empty containers end up underneath the bathroom sink because we don’t know what else to do with them. And we think, we’ll put it here for now and then we’ll figure out what to do with it later. Or we think that there’s gonna be a future state where we’re gonna have an idea of how to use it.

Kathi Lipp (09:11)

Mmm, yeah.

Mm-hmm. I love it. Okay. The next thing is if you haven’t used it in six months Do you really need it now here is what I would suggest, you know, just don’t throw it away I would now if I was the mom of a teenager and teenager adjacent I I think it could be fun to go through and say hey guys. Do you want to try these masks?

Tonya Kubo (09:43)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (09:50)

you know, let’s see if either of you like these things. And so I know my daughters, ? well, I should say my daughter loves to come into my bathroom when she comes to visit and see what I still have that doesn’t look like it’s in use. And sometimes I have to say, no, I just spent all my money on that eye cream, hands off. But there is sometimes things I’ve been given that just aren’t my jam, but they’re really, I mean, they would be cool. ?

Tonya Kubo (10:07)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Kathi Lipp (10:19)

You know, just recently, my daughter was going through stuff and she’s like, Ooh, why do you have this lightning grease from, ? what’s the name of that? You’ll know what I’m talking about. It looks like, lush, lush. You know, yeah. Lush is very big, ? with her and her friends. And I’m like, Roger and I were at the mall and I was bit by something while I was standing outside.

Tonya Kubo (10:34)

? yes, I like Lush.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (10:48)

and it was the itchiest I’ve ever been. And I went into Lush, I’m like, do you have anything for this? And they said, yes, this greased lightning, it’s a spray bottle. I sprayed it on there, instant relief. It was wonderful. But Kimberly uses it for other things. So I gave it to her. she’s going to appreciate it more, right?

Tonya Kubo (11:07)

Nice.

Kathi Lipp (11:10)

So ditch what you don’t use, but you know, maybe give it another try see if it’s something if you were given something and you kind of stuck it in the back there give it a try it may become your next favorite product. So I do have duplicates of stuff, but I’ve really since I’ve started living the clutter free life. I have said, okay, I’m only buying a backup when I only have a couple weeks left. Like I’ve got a hair.

Tonya Kubo (11:37)

Mm.

Kathi Lipp (11:39)

thing that I use and I was tempted to buy three of them because it’s just easy to buy all of them. Like, why am I paying to store all this stuff? That’s ridiculous. And so I’m trying to do that. Now, are you a stocker upper or are you a replace as needed?

Tonya Kubo (11:55)

No, you know, this is back to like privilege of living in town Most things we replace as needed every there are certain things like for instance shampoo and conditioner When we open one then we buy the next one Because I know that we need shampoo and conditioner every month, right? That just makes sense there but like the hand soaps body wash I find that you know a scent we love now sometimes by the time you get to the end of the bottle you’re tired of it

Kathi Lipp (11:59)

Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Right.

Tonya Kubo (12:24)

So that I just replace as needed.

Kathi Lipp (12:25)

It’s so true.

It’s so true. Yes, I am using one right now and I’m very much looking forward to buying my next scent.

Tonya Kubo (12:35)

I hear you, Kathi, I hear you on that one.

Kathi Lipp (12:37)

Yep,

yep. Okay, so ? The other thing yeah, we’ve talked about this another podcast, but don’t be using old makeup Especially on your eyes and if anything smells off pitch it I don’t care that it’s Lancome or anything like that pitch it go for it

Tonya Kubo (12:56)

Also, don’t give your old crusty makeup to your kids. I know like when I was growing up, that’s what my mom and her friends did. I have friends who do it, but like, okay, you don’t want to get an eye infection in yourself. You don’t want to give one to your kids. Just trash, trash, trash.

Kathi Lipp (13:10)

No.

Yeah, yeah. And I think what that causes us to do is to use up what we have that is good. And that’s yes. And we want to teach our kids to be responsible with their makeup. And by the way, I don’t wear Lancome. My expensive stuff is Mac. But let’s be honest, most of the stuff I’m wearing I get when I’m at Wal-Mart. ? You know, hey, I love tubing mascara and you can get that at Wal-Mart. OK. ?

Tonya Kubo (13:18)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (13:40)

Okay, so the first thing was to take everything out. Second thing purge, three, reduce and simplify. You don’t need seven different mascaras. Pitch all of them except for the recent one because mascara can go bad. It can go off. ? If you find, consolidate stuff. That’s what I’m doing right now with some of my ? hair products. I’ve got, I don’t know why, but I’ve got bottles that have a third or

Tonya Kubo (13:51)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (14:09)

I am combining all of those things and there’s a little funnel that I got it on ? on Amazon and all I’ll put it here in the show note

But it’s a little funnel for doing just that, putting little bits of things like your cosmetics, your lotion, that kind of thing. so ? combine, combine, combine. number three is reduce and simplify. Only keep what you actually use. ? If you have a lot of, say, mini shampoos, mini conditioners,

First of all, stop grabbing those at the hotel. You don’t need them. And most hotels have turned to just one big pump in the hotel anyway. So that’s going to help us cluttery people a lot. ? And if you get beauty samples, try them. See if you actually like them. And then you can reinvest. It’s not worth it to save it for a rainy day. ?

Tonya Kubo (14:53)

Mm-hmm. ?

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (15:13)

We’ve all lived through the pandemic. We have lived through the rainy days. Don’t save that kind of stuff. Okay, so now we’re going to clean. So, you know, wipe the inside of the cabinets, the drawers. ? One thing that I am now doing, Tonya, because it’s just fun. I don’t have wallpaper in my house. That’s just not something I do, but I love the look of wallpaper. And I have been ordering some samples because we need to wallpaper the inside of our RV.

Tonya Kubo (15:35)

Right.

Kathi Lipp (15:43)

because we just went to check on our RV and the wallpaper was halfway down the wall. So yeah, heat, moisture, yeah, we did all the right things and still did that. So I’m going to be re-wallpapering, but I’m getting some samples now. So one of the things I’m doing, and it’s silly and ridiculous, but can I tell you how happy it makes me? I’m putting, yeah, so.

Tonya Kubo (15:44)

?

I was gonna say, I don’t care. wanna know more now. Tell me the silly ridiculousness you

have.

Kathi Lipp (16:09)

You

can buy wallpaper samples for a dollar. And so I am taking those to the RV and seeing which ones will all match with what we’re doing. But I also got some samples of some wild ones for just a strip of that we could do. And the rejects, I am lining the inside of my drawers and I open up those drawers. Can I tell you how happy it makes me? It makes me so stinkin happy.

Tonya Kubo (16:39)

What is it, Kathi, that you feel like makes you happy about it? Is it just the colors? Is it the print? Or is it the fact that it just looks more put together to you?

Kathi Lipp (16:48)

It looks more put together and it is something I’m doing entirely to take care of myself. It’s like a secret, yes, this is just for me and it makes me so happy I can’t even stand it. I am going to, one of the things I’m doing, we have two other bathrooms in this house. So you can get waterproof mats.

Tonya Kubo (16:54)

? I like that.

Kathi Lipp (17:15)

to put on the bottom of those ? that will keep it so if something spills or leaks or something like that, it’s not going to ruin that. And this is a really good time to check for leaks. If you’ve got, you know, if you’ve got especially an older house, it’s great to get a leak detector. We have paid for our leak detector and we have a nephew who ? is in

in the business and he gave us the leak detector that especially if you live in a high water area, you can check for leaks around your house. it might be worth or borrow one from somebody you know who’s in construction or something. Just check every once in a while. It’s good to check. And if you’ve got a leak under that bathroom sink, take care of it because

Tonya Kubo (17:46)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (18:10)

It was ounce of prevention is worth a dollar of cure or something like that. You know what I mean Pound of cure. That’s it. Yes. So that’s probably British right an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure No ounce. No, I don’t know. No, it’s weights. It’s weights. You’re right. Okay, so ? Now I want to talk about organizing under the sink so tonya have you done anything in your kitchen?

Tonya Kubo (18:14)

Pound of cure, pound of cure.

No, no, it’s a US thing.

Kathi Lipp (18:40)

organization-wise that could transfer to a bathroom sink. I’ll tell you one of the things that we’ve, oh, go for it, yes, if you have an idea.

Tonya Kubo (18:43)

? Go ahead. No, I was going to

say my best idea came from you. So you start and let’s see if it’s the best idea that I agree with here.

Kathi Lipp (18:51)

Okay,

so I don’t know maybe six months ago we bought these stacking ? Okay, so tell tell us Tonya because you’ve got more brain power than I do right now

Tonya Kubo (19:05)

So you had, I don’t even remember when we were talking about, I think it was another episode, but these stacking shelves or stacking organizers, whatever you want to call them, that go underneath the sink because for years, I’m just so functional with certain things, but also it’s one of those things that like, this is how my mom did it. And even though I knew it didn’t work, I didn’t know another way to do it. But you have all this lost vertical space in an under the sink cabinet.

Kathi Lipp (19:21)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Exactly.

Tonya Kubo (19:33)

And you know, it’s like, well, if I have like a really tall jug of something, I can put it down there. But how often do we have really tall jugs of something? So that’s stackable organizer. In fact, that’s what I’ve been sharing with some of our members who have very small bathrooms, but they do have a bathroom sink with a cabinet underneath is just going out and getting a stackable system. You can put twice as much stuff down there.

Kathi Lipp (19:41)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (19:59)

And the other thing, and I think it was you that talked about it, but having a removable caddy for the things that, you know, like your shower stuff, for instance, you don’t want to keep it all in the shower because that makes the shower hard to clean. So you just carry it in and out, but it’s out of the way, out of view when you don’t need it.

Kathi Lipp (20:05)

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

I love it so much. Yes, you have mentioned everything. And I know some people have like pull out drawers under there and that’s great if it can fit. So those are some great ideas. I love it. ? The other thing is ? if you have the room installing a tension rod down there that you can use to ? hang your spray bottles off of and that’s been a game changer for us as well.

Tonya Kubo (20:25)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (20:47)

Okay, let’s talk about counter space in the bathroom. I know I keep talking about things that Tonya does not have. ?

Tonya Kubo (20:53)

It’s

okay because our listeners do, Kathi, and we are here to serve our listeners.

Kathi Lipp (20:57)

Yes. I’ll tell you one thing that I’ve done that has made a big difference is just having a pretty tray. Because there are things I want to keep on the counter. I’ve got a couple of hair products, that kind of thing. that has, it just makes it look more pulled together. And it’s easy to clean by just taking, you know, moving that, wiping it down, putting it back if you need to every once in a while cleaning the tray off.

Tonya Kubo (21:06)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (21:22)

But can I tell you something that has been a game changer in my bathroom that people might not think about? It’s having a medicine cabinet in a weird place. Now, okay. Okay, so we have ? a mirror over our sink, right? And I didn’t want a medicine cabinet there, but I do have a medicine cabinet on the opposite wall behind.

Tonya Kubo (21:35)

Okay, I need explanations please.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (21:52)

over my toilet. And so it’s just another mirror in there, which is nice because I can get, I can look at myself from behind once I’m dressed and I can say, okay, is this working? But also it has just great storage. It’s not for like my toothbrush or anything like that. keep, ? first of all, I keep our toilet cleanser in there. ? I keep…

Tonya Kubo (22:03)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (22:18)

our spray bottle in there because remember I don’t have any under the ? sink storage. I keep backups of a couple of things that we run out of pretty frequently. ? So some of the smaller shower gels and things like that. ? it just blends in, it’s not a big deal, but it’s great storage in a weird place and I love it. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (22:44)

Yeah, it’s so

creative. that’s part of what you need, especially when you have small spaces or when you’re working through your clutter journey, ? you need creative solutions. And I think that’s a kind of lesson to take away from this particular episode is the most important thing is figure out how do you make the space work for you.

Kathi Lipp (22:59)

Yes.

Yes, it’s so true. Okay, I’ve got another weird thing that I’ve done. Okay, so six is streamline counter space and then seven, I should go back to this seven designated drawer. So I have one drawer that is for makeup and I have one drawer that’s for hair. And it just, I don’t know why it took me so long to get to that designation, but it just did. And then finally, ?

Tonya Kubo (23:15)

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (23:36)

I have, it’s a ceramic container that’s round and a little tall, and I keep it on our counter, and I keep ? Clorox wipes in there. So it’s not a Clorox wipe container on my counter. It doesn’t look like that. It’s just a cute container, but I can grab a Clorox wipe and every day I can just wipe down the sink and the countertop.

Tonya Kubo (23:40)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (24:04)

and it keeps it looking nice, it totally blends in, nobody knows that it’s a cleaner, not that you have to keep that a big secret, but it just looks nice. And instead of having a Clorox container on top of your sink. So here is my question, Tonya, have we missed anything? Anything that we should talk about?

Tonya Kubo (24:12)

Mm-hmm.

Well, I think that the, I’m gonna say two things. I think number one is sometimes it’s an experiment, Kathi. And I think that’s one of the challenges that we run into is we think whatever solution we come up with today has to be the solution for the next 20 years. But to your point, like designating a drawer, I think this is perfect. For a long time, we had,

Kathi Lipp (24:39)

It totally is.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (24:57)

Because we do have three drawers that are within easy reach of the toilet. And so we had like the top drawers where we kept the toilet paper. ? Because that made perfect sense for Brian, it made perfect sense for me. You know what though, it didn’t make sense for Abby because Abby wasn’t tall enough to access that. And so the toilet paper went to the bottom drawer. Well, now, you know we have two cats. Guess what? We found.

Kathi Lipp (25:01)

Mm-hmm. Mm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (25:25)

that the bathroom drawer is actually the perfect place to stock the backup food and treats for the cat. I would have never thought to do that otherwise, but as I was going through rearranging what went in the first, second, third drawer, it was like, ? this actually makes perfect sense for cat stuff. Maybe not forever, but for now.

Kathi Lipp (25:31)

Nice. Right. No, of course not.

I love that. Yeah, maybe that that’s the perfect sentiment to end this on. Maybe not forever, but for now. We had to do different things to survive when we had six people living in a house with two bathrooms that, you know, shower, shampoo and shine. And now, you know, we can make different choices, but do something for the stage of life you’re in and

Tonya Kubo (25:52)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (26:11)

Guys, we will put all of the links to everything that we’ve talked about here in our notes. And so if you if there’s something that you feel like could make and we’ll also put some pictures of what it looks like in my house to do some of these things. Tonya, this has been so great and you’ve inspired me with a couple of ideas that I’m going to go try. I love this so much. And friends, thank you for being here. I hope you are also inspired. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp.

Go create the clutter free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

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#682 – Back-to-School Prep: Tips for a Smooth Transition

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 12, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Parenting, Podcast | 0 comments

#682 – Back-to-School Prep: Tips for a Smooth Transition

Listen Now

In this episode of Clutter-Free Academy, Kathi Lipp is joined by Tonya Kubo to tackle the often chaotic back-to-school season. They explore practical strategies to help families organize their homes and lives for a smoother transition into the school year such as

Creating a backpack drop zone

The importance of meal planning

Practical ideas for keeping on top of the chaos

Kathi and Tonya share personal insights and actionable tips. They also introduce the upcoming Back-to-School Clutter Free Challenge, a community event offering daily encouragement and inspiration. If you’re looking for ways to turn back-to-school chaos into calm, this episode is for you.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Clutter Free Resources:

Support the podcast with Coffee for Kathi!

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

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Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:11)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And friends, if your kids aren’t already back to school, they are soon on their way. I just was ? on social media and a teacher was talking about this was the first week back to school. And let’s be clear, we’re recording this at the end of July. And I just thought those

poor children and then I thought no, those poor teachers, those poor, poor teachers. But can I just tell you, I love this time of year about, I am not going to school, I have no desire to go to school, but this feels like the kickoff to the rest of the year for me. There’s something about an academic calendar that is deep in my bones. And I know very few people feel this as deeply as Tonya Kubo,

Tonya Kubo (00:44)

Hey.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (01:10)

who is married

to a teacher and has two kids. So Tonya, how, it’s T minus what for your kids and Brian going, I know Brian probably goes back early because he has to get ready, but where are we sitting right now?

Tonya Kubo (01:13)

Yes.

Yeah!

Well, I think this episode will actually go out the day before school starts for the girls because school starts August 13th for my girls. Although today when we’re recording, which is July 24th, is the first day of school for one of our school districts in this town. So last night I was talking with parents who were like, first day of school is tomorrow. I was like, I’m sorry.

Kathi Lipp (01:31)

? okay.

Yes.

?

mean, when I was growing up back in the old days, and we were firmly into September before that was happening. And it just is not that way anymore. we want to help you whether you are going back to school because you’re a teacher, whether you have kids who are going back to school, or you just want to capture that pencils and notebooks feeling.

Tonya Kubo (01:58)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Kathi Lipp (02:19)

because that’s where I’m sitting right now. ? This episode is for you. Because here’s the thing, back to school chaos isn’t inevitable. And it doesn’t have to start at school. It starts at home. I really feel like that. Now sometimes, yes, school can add some chaos. ? But I think that there are some things that we can do at home.

to really make this time of year so much easier for ourselves and for those who are going back to school. Tonya, what is one thing that you do before kids go back to school that has been a win for you? Anything that you do.

Tonya Kubo (03:04)

I mean, there’s a lot of things that we’ve learned over the years. ? Some of them we’ve learned here from Clutterfree Academy. So in July is usually when we do our school supply inventory. Because I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent way too much time buying all the wrong stuff. And now we don’t do our back to school shopping until after what they call roundup, where they give us like the supply lists, because I’m

Kathi Lipp (03:07)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. yeah.

? yeah.

Tonya Kubo (03:30)

tired of predicting what teachers are gonna want this year. So delaying school shopping until after you get the class list, nobody gets kicked out of the first day of school because they didn’t have the right pencil. Like just, you know, send them to send them to schools as little as possible and get it later. The other thing though, is I would say is meal planning for that first month of school. That’s huge for us.

Kathi Lipp (03:34)

Yes.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah, that makes a huge difference, right? Because ? if I remember anything about my kids going back to school as Tonya is yawning, it is exhausting. It is exhausting. No, here’s the thing, Tonya. You were just thinking about the beginning of school.

Tonya Kubo (04:02)

Sorry.

Exactly enough! Look, I’m so

tired and overwhelmed already.

Kathi Lipp (04:14)

and she wants

to put her head down on her desk. And I’ll never forget like that first week of school, it’s the hot mess express. They’re exhausted, their brains are exhausted, their bodies are exhausted, they’re cranky. And so to not have to fight over dinner is a beautiful thing to say, yeah, so what is it about?

Tonya Kubo (04:25)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (04:40)

this back to school that if we don’t prepare. mean, for me, it was my kids and their exhaustion. And the other thing is my kids would want to go back to school shopping for clothes. And I’m like, okay, we’re still in the dead of summer. Even in September, we’re still in the dead of summer. I’m not buying you five outfits that either you’re going to sweat in or you’re not going to wear until November when the styles change anyways.

Tonya Kubo (04:44)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (05:09)

So what makes it such a mess for you guys if you don’t prep?

Tonya Kubo (05:14)

So for us, part of it, it’s the routines, right? My people need a lot of notice and a lot of transition time. you know, like, so for instance, yesterday, Abby was at the doctor and he was making small talk and he asked her how she felt about going back to school. It had not occurred to her that school was starting in three weeks and she instantly starts anxious about how

Kathi Lipp (05:23)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (05:42)

she doesn’t have enough summer break left. So, right? So they just need a lot of transition. So for us, ? the change in bedtime. So we’ll start now, three weeks ahead, like having them go to bed a little bit earlier. And then the other piece though is it’s really the food because in the summertime, they’re used to eating whenever they’re hungry, there’s stuff around. then they’re, right, they’re gonna go back to school and it’s like, okay, for Abby, we’re gonna leave the house.

Kathi Lipp (05:45)

? bless her heart.

Yeah.

It’s a grazing.

Tonya Kubo (06:12)

7 15 she’s going to get to school at roughly about 7 45 8 o’clock and then she needs to not eat until lunch. That’s a long time for her to go. So I have learned it’s packing stuff that they can eat when they wake up but also for her she needs to have a snack on the way to school and then making sure that we’ve planned what are the right lunches because that’s the other thing as a mom.

Kathi Lipp (06:24)

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:39)

I just want them to eat school lunch because I’m tired and I don’t want to have to think about it and nobody died from eating school lunch for a week. And also that’s a really rough adjustment. So it’s nice to be able to have a lunch packed from home for that first week of school. So that you’re not having to deal with the cafeteria stuff. Cause that’s the other thing. There’s a lot of cafeteria overwhelm that happens with our kids.

Kathi Lipp (06:46)

Yeah.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I love that you pointed all of that out. And yeah, my kids were never big school lunch people. I’ll be honest, when I was a single mom, they were on free lunch program because I made so little money. And can I tell you, a blessing that was. What a huge gift that was. But yes, you’re right. The first Kim.

Tonya Kubo (07:15)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (07:28)

missed her first meal because she didn’t know how to navigate. It never occurred to me to figure out how to navigate the first and she was too shy to ask. And so, you know, and she was at a new school and blah, blah, blah. So that totally makes sense. And so I want to talk about some things that we can tackle for school prep. Some things you might want to consider, might want to think through. These don’t work for every family, but

Tonya Kubo (07:34)

Mm-hmm.

Yup.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (07:57)

They’re gonna, but think through this list and see what might help you. ? One thing that we did is we had a backpack drop zone. We didn’t call it something cute like that, but we just said, okay guys, this is where your backpack goes when you get home. Because they’re so big, but we spent so much time looking for them. It was crazy. So if you wanna go get something and then trying to look for them the next morning, are you kidding me? Too much.

Tonya Kubo (08:08)

Mm-hmm.

That’s so true!

Kathi Lipp (08:27)

So if you need to go grab something out of your backpack, great. But this is not what we’re doing. We also, ? we were not big lunch pail people, but we had, you know, they had food that they hadn’t eaten. And so just a reminder, hey guys, any food that you didn’t eat, bring it back to the kitchen. We’re either gonna pitch it or we’re gonna use it the next day. ? Having a lunch plan. One of the things that we tried to do when we were packing lunches in high school was,

We tried to have three days that were like, hey, here are your standard kind of things. And then a couple of days where it was like, hey, if you just want to go grab some snack pack, like, you know your body, I trust your body, but I’m always going to insist on a piece of fruit and a water bottle. Like I need to know that those things have happened during the day. I was watching a video the other day of

Tonya Kubo (09:12)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (09:26)

a woman who was packing her husband’s lunch and he’s an ER doctor. And people are like, some people are like, that’s so much food. And then other people are like, are you kidding? He’s hardly, you know, that’s what you’re giving him. You know, he, deserves to sit down and eat a real meal. they’re like, have you met a doctor in the ER? There is no sitting down to eat a real meal. So no.

Tonya Kubo (09:33)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (09:54)

Like know your kids and know what they will actually eat. I would love to hear from you, Tonya. Like what are some things that your kids will actually eat in their lunches?

Tonya Kubo (10:04)

Yeah, well, so both girls are very different. something both girls like is mini charcuterie, or as Abby likes to call them, her snackle boxes. Yes, but salami, cheese, crackers, fruit, nuts. Lily can take nuts to school, Abby can’t. So that’s something that they both really enjoy.

Kathi Lipp (10:11)

Snacko boxes, I love it.

Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (10:28)

Lily likes sandwiches now. She didn’t used to. This is the first year that we like sandwiches. Abby does not. Abby likes to have chips, but Lily’s favorite thing really is to take dinner leftovers. Like if we can find, if it’s good room temperature or cold, or we can find a way to keep it warm, she is so happy with like a metal thermos of rice and meat and broccoli. She’d eat that every day.

Kathi Lipp (10:35)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It’s perfect.

Yeah, perfect, perfect, perfect. And yeah, you can do that rice in a big batch and yeah, you’re good to go for a while. ? Yeah, my kids always wanted a sandwich. they had a place where they could heat things up. So we had one kid who liked a frozen burrito that, you know, kind of defrosted during the day and then went in there, those kinds of things. So.

? We did not have snackle boxes when my kids were younger, but that would have been fire for them. So thinking about that and letting your kids say, what am I actually going to eat? And then finding the healthiest, best version of that. Do they need a snack for the morning? Do they need a snack for the afternoon? Those kind of things. It’s good to think through those things instead of doing it at the last minute. Another thing that we did,

Tonya Kubo (11:43)

Mm-hmm. ?

Kathi Lipp (11:47)

that was ? very, very helpful was a labeling station. Now, okay, so this is interesting. My mom, who is a sewer, had ? got us labels one time with our last name and our phone number on them that could be ironed into clothes. So like jackets, that kind of thing. So that felt very, very fancy. And then just having, we did a bunch of

? Mailing labels that had our kids names on them so they could put those in books or they could put those in their ? Pencil box those kind of things so they would be able to have that kind of thing and then also putting over their Sharpie markers because sometimes you just need to write on stuff Especially like a lunchbox or something like that. What information do you label your kids stuff with is it name and phone number? What is it?

Tonya Kubo (12:36)

Mm-hmm.

Usually just name and phone number.

Kathi Lipp (12:48)

Mm-hmm, and I’m guessing that’s an adult phone number

Tonya Kubo (12:52)

Yeah, my phone number, always my phone number.

Kathi Lipp (12:54)

Yes,

yes, yes. Okay, so thinking about that labeling station and then ? I know that you have done clothes checks in the past where you’re checking to see what still fits, what doesn’t fit, what needs to be replaced. How do you go through that?

Tonya Kubo (13:08)

Mm-hmm. ?

it’s the least high tech thing ever. And I do recommend like spoiling yourself afterward because it’s such a pain, it’s tiring. But what we’ll do is so we’re in the process of that right now where we are making sure that everything is clean, right? So like going through all the hidden cracks and crevices where laundry likes to hide, washing everything. And then as it comes out of the dryer when we’re folding,

Kathi Lipp (13:20)

Yes.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (13:38)

we’re having the girls try it on right then and there. It’s like, oh, well, we’ve had this a while, try it on. And then, you if they try it on and it doesn’t fit, it goes in the giveaway bag. And if it does fit, then it goes into their drawer. I think that’s so much easier than taking stuff that’s already been put away and going through it. But that’s just what works for us.

Kathi Lipp (13:40)

? so smart.

Hmm.

Yeah. ?

I love it so much. Okay. And then family calendar. How do you keep track of all the things? I mean, between, yeah. You guys, I wish I could show you Tonya’s face right now. I just wish I could, or maybe it’s best we don’t.

Tonya Kubo (14:15)

Yeah, maybe it’s best we go. Well, we’ve tried everything, right? So one year we bought a family calendar that was like spiral. It’s very nice actually, Kathi It’s a very nice calendar. It was a great idea. And it had like your week schedule, a spot for grocery list, a spot for prayers for the week, like all, everything you could want to have. it paper and it worked really well and nobody ever looked at it.

Kathi Lipp (14:24)

Yeah, okay.

Perfect.

Tonya Kubo (14:41)

? So then I went to calendar whiteboard. So I’ve got one in the hallway. I’ve got one in my office and that worked for like a month and then everybody stops using, you know, they stopped looking at it and then because they don’t look at it, you don’t use it. We have a gigantic just blank whiteboard that’s in the living room that they do like to use for lists. But this year, you know, I’m just going in on trying digital because Abby does have a tablet. She doesn’t have a phone, but she has a tablet.

Kathi Lipp (14:41)

Of course.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (15:10)

Lily has a phone and then going, okay, can we just map everything out digitally? But I feel like it’s practical versus ideal. The meal plan still does best when it’s put to the front of the fridge with a magnet. My favorite though is when Mr. Brian Kubo, who we love and adore, opens the fridge where the meal plan is and stands there for five minutes trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

Kathi Lipp (15:24)

Right.

Love and adore.

Tonya Kubo (15:37)

and then comes and asks me if there’s a meal, like a plan for dinner. And then I go, yeah, I thought that was on the fridge. And he closes the fridge door and he looks at it. He goes, that one right there, that plan. I’m like, yeah, that plan honey, that one right there.

Kathi Lipp (15:48)

Right there. We love you, Brian Kubo. Well,

and you know my story of Mr. Justin Hunter, who, ? mom, were out of soy milk. Well, did you put it on the list? No, can’t you do that? Do you understand? Do you understand? First of all, I don’t drink soy milk. You are the only person in this house who drinks soy milk. And by the way, that list on the refrigerator is a magic list.

Tonya Kubo (16:15)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (16:17)

You just write soy milk, even if you just wrote soy, three little letters, you know what’s going to happen? Somebody’s going to read that list, put it on the shopping list, is going to go to the store. They’re going to use money that they have earned to purchase that milk. They’re going to drive it home. They’re going to carry it into the house and they’re going to put it into the fridge. So I think your contribution

Tonya Kubo (16:20)

We would get it for you, ?

Kathi Lipp (16:46)

could be writing the item that only you consume on the magic list. Yeah, he still hasn’t recovered from that little, could you just put, couldn’t you just do it? Yeah, okay. Anything that you’re trying to train your kids on now at the beginning of school that helps. I’ll tell you one thing that we did that I feel like a genius for. We had a minivan.

Tonya Kubo (16:53)

Ugh.

?

Kathi Lipp (17:16)

and we had a garbage bag and a recycling bag in that minivan and all of you empty, you go through your backpack and throw away anything that can be thrown away. Recycle anything that can be recycled and anything you need me to pay attention to, you need me to look at, you need me to sign, you need me to put on a calendar, put it in this tray, this bucket I have in the car and I will take care of it. But it is…

Tonya Kubo (17:40)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (17:45)

up to you to get that into the bucket. Anything that you are trying to train your kids now on as school starts.

Tonya Kubo (17:53)

? that’s so good. So cleaning out the back of the car when they get out, because, I’ve only been trying that for three years. We’ll see. ? My other mission is not to have dishes in the bedroom. Right. Because it’s like it would be easy for me to do the dishes after they go to school in the morning if I didn’t have to go hunt for them in the scariness that is a bedroom. But I think, you know, for what we’re working on right now is having

Kathi Lipp (17:59)

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (18:23)

both girls get their clothes out, start thinking today about what they want to wear tomorrow. And we are working with Abby on doing her own laundry.

Kathi Lipp (18:33)

nice, okay, I love that. Okay, so if I had kids right now, one thing I would probably be combating, and I do combat with Mr. Roger Lipp, is every time we go to town, we don’t need to go to Starbucks. And…

Tonya Kubo (18:35)

Those are our biggies.

?

Mr. Kubo also does not understand why such things must be true. Why must he live in this torture?

Kathi Lipp (18:56)

It’s…

Yes. Okay, so one thing I will tell you, Costco, this is for my friend Brian Kubo in case this is a little snackety snack you like. ? There is a croissant, bacon and egg sandwich at Starbucks ? that is fire. It’s so good. It’s so good. And we have found it’s equal at Costco.

Tonya Kubo (19:25)

At

Costco?

Kathi Lipp (19:28)

for maybe a quarter of the cost. And so I’ll put a picture in the notes, but yeah, because if it was up to my kids, we would have just driven through Starbucks every single week and it would have to become the equal of our mortgage payment. And so I know that we would do Starbucks like every other Friday with the kids, but.

Tonya Kubo (19:44)

Mm-hmm.

same.

Kathi Lipp (19:57)

to have some food at home that they would actually eat because if it was just left to their own devices, my kids would not eat anything for breakfast. So I tried to have things that they would actually eat. what are some quick things that they can grab? Fruit, shelf stable milk, bars, what is it that they will actually eat? Heat up, microwave, breakfast, thinking through that is going to help you a lot. ?

Tonya Kubo (20:22)

you

Kathi Lipp (20:25)

Here’s my thing, Tonya. We don’t have to fix everything by Monday, but start to ask yourself some of these questions. And one of the ways you can do this is we are doing a back to school clutter free challenge. And I am super excited about this. This is in our free group, Kathi Lipps Clutter Free Academy. We’ll put the link in the show notes. But if you just go to ? Facebook and you type in Kathi with an I, Lipps.

or clutter free, you will find it, okay? Answer the questions we ask you because we are very selective of who we let in there because we don’t want people trying to sell you stuff or bug you. But this is a completely free group. In August 18th through 22nd, we are going to do a five day challenge to get you ready for back to school. So even if your kids have started school, even if you are not currently in school, but you just love the idea of prepping and organizing for the fall to come.

Tonya Kubo (21:06)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (21:25)

You’re going to love this. So I will be in there. We will be cheering you on. Tonya will be in there. We will cheer you on. People will be sharing their ideas. There will be daily challenges and community encouragement, tips and tricks. You’re going to love it. Well, Tonya, I salute you as you head back to school because it’s not just the kids. It’s the parents. And when you’re the only person in the household who isn’t going back to school, how much of this

lands on you. I know the answer. Much of it lands on you. You are the support system for all the emotional people who have to be places that maybe they’re not the most excited about or maybe they’re really excited about, but they’re really exhausted. And so we send you off with all of our hearts and our best wishes. Okay. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be a great year for all the Kubos and for all of our listeners and friends.

Tonya Kubo (21:58)

Mm-hmm.

Thank you.

Kathi Lipp (22:23)

You have been listening to Clutterfree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter free life you were always meant to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

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#681 – Embracing Empty Spaces: A New Approach to Clutter

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 5, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

#681 – Embracing Empty Spaces: A New Approach to Clutter

Listen Now

Join Kathi Lipp and the creative genius, Tenille Register, as they explore the journey of embracing space over stuff to live a clutter-free life. In this episode, you’ll discover

Practical strategies for decluttering with purpose.

How choosing space can lead to a peaceful home environment.

How to start your own decluttering tradition.

Tenille shares her insights on storing with intention using creative solutions like her shape sorter technique for your household items. If you’re seeking inspiration and practical steps to reclaim your space, this episode is a must-listen.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

Closet Hanging Baskets

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Clutter Free Resources:

Support the podcast! https://kathi.link/coffee

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Meet Our Guest

Tenneil Register

Tenneil Register can be found creating, repurposing, decorating, gardening and welcoming guests to their reclaimed barn storefront. She and her husband, Cowboy, established rural roots for their blended family of 7 in their DIY ranch home in Iowa. Connect with her on Instagram for practical ideas to reclaim your home.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:11)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. I’m back with one of my favorite human beings on the planet. It is Tenille Register. Hey, Tenille.

Tenneil Register (00:25)

Hey Kathi!

Kathi Lipp (00:28)

So here’s the thing I know about you I would not consider you one of the more naturally cluttery people in my life But I will say this I think you have just about more moving parts than anybody else That then I know I there are some people They you know, we talked about this with being overwhelmed. Some people have ? Demi toss cup size platters

Tenneil Register (00:44)

Yeah

Kathi Lipp (00:54)

And you have a turkey size platter about how much you do and how much you accomplish but all of that accomplishment leads to clutter and Here’s what I know about you. No, I don’t know this about you, but i’m going to posture this about you most people downsize because they have to But you have chosen to do it for peace. Does that make sense?

Tenneil Register (01:20)

It absolutely does because in these endeavors, we have access to a lot of square footage that we could continue to store and store. And because our businesses are things like Airbnb’s apartments, retail store, I could justify keeping almost anything because we will use it. So yeah, I would say I am very intentionally, actually it’s a July tradition for us.

Kathi Lipp (01:28)

Thank you.

Right.

Tenneil Register (01:50)

to get rid of things just for the sake of getting rid of them to make sure that we don’t kind of go over the threshold of how many things we can be responsible for.

Kathi Lipp (02:00)

Okay, so tell me about this July tradition because explain to me why we pick the hottest month of the year. Like that’s my favorite excuse. I can’t declutter out, you know, in the barn or the garage because it’s just too hot. Yeah, so tell me more about this. I love this.

Tenneil Register (02:22)

Because many people like you are celebrating Lowe by July, so it’s our slow season.

Kathi Lipp (02:29)

Nice! okay, that makes so much sense, yes!

Tenneil Register (02:34)

Truly it’s just our downtime. A lot of people are vacationing. There’s not a lot, ? July the yard work even kind of evens out. Like you have to mow but not pulling a ton of weeds. it’s just kind of a slow season. And so we just ? roll up our sleeves and do it. And we have done everything from like literally bringing in a roll off dumpster to our driveway so that there’s no ? like decision making involved. It just went in the dumpster.

Kathi Lipp (02:43)

Yes, for us too.

Yes.

Tenneil Register (03:03)

? And you guys, that’s not irresponsible. We are repurposers. So if we are not repurposing it, it is not repurposable and that’s why the dumpster. ? Or just like making frequent trips for ice cream and dropping off at the Goodwill. This year has not been a dumpster year, but I would say every three to four years we have a dumpster worthy purge.

Kathi Lipp (03:10)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Yeah.

Yes, and you know what? I think that that is one thing that as cluttery people You know, we’ve been told You know reuse re, you know reduce recycle and here’s what I know A lot of cluttery people tend to keep stuff because they don’t know what to do with it. They’re like, okay if I throw this away i’m a bad person and

Tenneil Register (03:48)

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (03:54)

I think that there is no value, there is no virtue in keeping it in your house or in your space as opposed to the dump. ? I think the virtue comes when, if it can’t be donated, if it can’t be reused in some way, don’t bring it into your house again, but it’s okay to get rid of it. Does that make sense? Am I saying that correctly?

Tenille knows I’m recovering from COVID, so she’s gonna explain things that are jumbly out of my mouth, but she can make it make sense.

Tenneil Register (04:20)

It was.

just have a good example from my office closet clean out. I had these stacks that I bought on clearance of like little stickers that you mark your planner with or different little notepads and that kind of thing. And I bought them when I was coaching teachers because teachers like those kinds of things. And so I had this stack of them. I will…

Kathi Lipp (04:30)

Please.

Mmm. Yeah.

Tenneil Register (04:51)

I was about to like say, you know, I could take that out to California when I meet with the authors and give them a goodie bag. And then I thought to myself, me, why would you fly this stuff all the way across the country? That’s silly. And so I put it in the goodwill bag. But by the time I finished cleaning out the closet, the truth was the monetary value of what was in that goodwill bag is not worth what they’re going to pay somebody to sort through the bag.

Kathi Lipp (04:59)

Mm-hmm.

Tenneil Register (05:20)

And so I put it in my car intending to go to the Goodwill, but when I went to the trash can, I just put it in there. It’s a small sack. The energy used in gas, thought, then them sorting it. There wasn’t enough in there to be worth monetarily doing that. And for me, I think you said it right. I keep it out of guilt. So giving myself permission to almost like rebel against the system and just throw it away strengthens my decluttering skills.

Kathi Lipp (05:21)

Hmm.

Yes. ?

Right.

Yes, and it’s the resolve to you know, I threw this way do not bring it back into the house Do not bring similar things back into the house

Tenneil Register (05:59)

Right, because I threw it away, I’m not going to pick those up on clearance the next

Kathi Lipp (06:03)

Exactly, exactly. Yeah, here’s the thing. Why do we think we have to keep something just because we have the room? Like, why do we why are we afraid of that space? Do you think?

Tenneil Register (06:17)

I don’t know, when we bought our home to fight against that, I tried to keep an empty drawer in each room. As a way of saying, like, I don’t want to give into this ideal that because we have the space, we should fill it, or because we have the space, we should keep the items. And so I almost think…

Kathi Lipp (06:25)

Mmm, really?

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (06:41)

I think we probably have an idea that we’re not being a good steward of things or that we don’t have our adult self together if we have gaps, right? But the same way we’re learning gaps in our schedule allows us to love people, I’m learning that an empty drawer allows me to love someone too because I can tell the guests that drawer is empty, feel free to use it.

Kathi Lipp (06:46)

Mm-hmm.

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, I do have empty drawers in all of our guest rooms, but there are other spaces that are filled to the brim. so may I, you know, I am still deconstructing my cluttery ways and I want to live a life of peace. And when everything is filled, like if I bring something new into the house and I have to get rid of something in order to make room for it.

Tenneil Register (07:08)

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (07:31)

That’s not a peaceful circumstance because that new thing has to sit out until I find the new place for it. And so as ? I am more of a maximalist than a minimalist, but I need to become less afraid of empty spaces. And that’s something I’m working on. Okay, friends, we’re going to take a little break and we’re going to come back and I want to talk about what happens when you choose space over stuff. What does that do to your brain?

What does that do to your heart and how can we actually do that? So we’re going to take a quick break and come right back. Okay, guys, we are back. I am here with Tenille Register, who is just, I think she’s probably mentally ill because she says she keeps an empty drawer in all of her rooms to remind herself. I don’t even know what that would feel like and I need to figure that out. So what happens?

What’s the feeling for you when you are choosing space? How does that feel for you?

Tenneil Register (08:35)

I feel like I’m leaving room for something else good to come into my life. I know that sounds kind of like spiritually strange, but I just feel a little woo woo. But if I’m overflowing with things, then literally if I bring a new thing home or if somebody gives me a gift, then I have this huge project of figuring out where to put it. Where if I have some space,

Kathi Lipp (08:41)

Mmm. ?

Woo woo, but I love woo woo, go for it.

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (09:03)

And I am not the master of this, it’s a work in progress. Like I said, the closets that I cleaned out yesterday, I actually called my husband and when I cleaned out these closets, I got rid of a filing cabinet and a dresser that were in these two closets. And I said, okay, but what are we gonna put in them? And then as we talked about it, what if it was just an empty closet with floor space?

Kathi Lipp (09:30)

I don’t even know how to think about that, be honest.

Tenneil Register (09:36)

Right, because I felt like I needed to add like a bookshelf for some bins of storage or a bench that we could put something under. Like naturally my brain tried to do that. And so I’m in this place where I’m like, what if there was just an empty closet so that if I got an Amazon box at the same time company was coming, I had an empty closet to go set the Amazon box in until I had time to open it. Like, I don’t know, I haven’t mastered it, but this is my what if that I’m in right now.

Kathi Lipp (09:42)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Okay, I have to tell you, I have done this in our front closet ? because that’s the place where, know, normally when you get an Amazon box or something like that, you would put it, but it’s always been packed to the gills. So instead, what I did was I bought ? some storage things for that, which I’ll talk about in our things that have earned a place in my clutter free home. And

? Now, if something comes into our house, that can be its temporary holding place. And it feels so good to say it doesn’t just have to get piled on top of something. And that makes it, yeah, it’s, you know, we don’t need more bins necessarily, we need breathing room. And sometimes the bins can help us with the breathing room. But sometimes it’s just organizing our clutter. And we need less of that.

Tenneil Register (11:06)

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (11:07)

Yeah.

So, where do you start?

With this idea it because it feeling very radical and I’m sorry. My dog is now climbing on my desk right now Little distracting we’re gonna get her off. Yes. She she she does this with you and with Tonya she really likes She knows you guys. Yes. So yes, she she likes to come up and just check out if that’s her friend Okay, please continue

Tenneil Register (11:21)

?

She knows.

Yeah, so I mean, I think the one thing is just choosing the space that you’re going to have empty, right? Like, is it going to be the tiniest little drawer? Is it just going to be eight inches on the shelf, you know, in the pantry? Like, where is the empty place going to be? And then it’s almost like playing a game with yourself. How long can I leave this empty?

Kathi Lipp (11:48)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Tenneil Register (12:05)

before you even know how you’re gonna use the empty space. I know this sounds like radically strange, ? but for example, like in our bathroom, the bottom drawer is what I decided to leave empty. So what that meant was like, actually we don’t need as many bath towels as we have, downsizing the number of bath towels that we have. No, the water pick, no one has pulled that out in three years to use the water pick. We might’ve paid a lot of

Kathi Lipp (12:18)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Right.

Tenneil Register (12:34)

it and been excited about it, but we’re going to get rid of that. And then we’re going to have this empty kind of holding space. So I think, I think it’s almost just like trying to set a rule for yourself and like looking at it as a challenge. And of course, there has to be room for grace and flexibility. If I find them overflowing, I may have to put some stuff in that drawer. The key is to come back to it and review it.

Kathi Lipp (12:58)

Exactly.

Right and to you know, all that back stock we have like in my bathroom i’m like Why am I keeping so many candles in my bathroom? Like that just doesn’t make sense It’s time to get rid of some of those so there can be that space because if I can’t put something down because that space is so crowded Then there there need to be some hard decisions and my tips would be start with the least emotional space I think when we go and we say we want to create space

The first thing we think about are grandma’s photo albums because it’s like there’s an emotional anchor to that. Don’t start there. Start with the bathroom towels. Like, do I really need eight towels in my bathroom? Or can two hanging in the bathroom and two back up be enough? What is enough for that? And then celebrate one win. Take a picture. If you’re in our free group.

Clutter-free Academy or our paid group clutter free for life take a picture because the rest of us get this right there may be people who don’t get how important this is but we all get it and creating this visual space like one of the things I’m really convicted about is not convicted but the place where I need to do this is there I I Have a couch table behind my couch in the living room

that kind of stays the same all year. And wouldn’t it be fun to put, ? Roger just gave me the most beautiful picture for Mother’s Day. It’s like hand painted, it has a rabbit on it. I love it so much. Why am I putting that in the kind of chaos of my kitchen instead of pulling that into the living room and putting some branches in it or something like that? So I’m gonna go do that today. I’m gonna clear off that place.

I think we just get comfortable with something that we’ve liked and it’s hard for us to imagine. It takes energy for us to imagine something else. But this is your challenge. So, you know, what would you downsize right now? Is it a drawer? Is it a closet? Is it a table? For me, it’s going to be a table. Anything come to mind for you Tenneil?

Tenneil Register (15:18)

? Yes, it’s going to be ? continuing here in the office, like how I store my office supplies, right? Like I have a cubby that I like, I have a tray that I don’t like, like downsize how I keep my office supplies.

Kathi Lipp (15:26)

you

Mmm. Yeah and think about this guys and Tenneil is the expert at this Do you have like I have a cake stand that I don’t need I’ve got three cake stands Do I need three cake stands? But could I use that in other parts of my house? Once I clear away the clutter give me some other ideas Tenneil because you’re so good at this stuff

Tenneil Register (15:55)

First of all, the cake stand has to be somewhere with the candle on it because it’s a beautiful way to keep your candle.

Kathi Lipp (16:01)

?

yeah, I love that. Okay, I can do that.

Tenneil Register (16:04)

?

Yeah, yeah. So ? I love crocks like bowl crocks. So like, I try to use them to store things, but then they end up with too much in them. And so ? using them for objects that make sense, like a crock bowl is perfect for paper plates, right? Or you regularly grab and go like that. And so what

Kathi Lipp (16:12)

Mm-hmm.

? yeah!

So smart.

Tenneil Register (16:33)

When I start to get bored with my house, it’s actually kind of looking like the size and shape of the objects. Like when I was little and I actually still get satisfaction out of it. You know the shape sorters, like the plastic little type toys shape sorter. If you can start to see your house like a shape sorter, which container is the right shape of item, that’s when you really take off your creativity ? in using.

Kathi Lipp (16:53)

Okay. Okay.

Okay.

Tenneil Register (17:02)

things like cake stands, crock bowls, baskets in an effective way.

Kathi Lipp (17:08)

Okay, give me a couple more ideas of shape sorter ideas, because I love this thought.

Tenneil Register (17:14)

So toolboxes, I love old toolboxes, like especially the little metal caddy kind. And then I put our tabletop games, right? Like our card games, Skip Bo, Uno, that kind of thing, because then it’s got a handle so you can carry it around. So I love that thing. ? And then let’s see.

Kathi Lipp (17:18)

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

Okay.

Tenneil Register (17:38)

I’m gonna go with like, some people would use big baskets. use like, they’re cement troughs. This is gonna sound so strange, but they’re basically like a big metal tub where somebody would mix cement in them in days gone by. And so the result is this big tub that’s the perfect size for like pillows and blankets. You can also do it with a big wooden dowel basket.

Kathi Lipp (18:02)

That’s amazing.

my goodness. ? I love that. And you know, just yesterday I saw somebody who had a magazine rack from probably the nineties or two thousands and they stored ? rolled up pillows or blankets in it and it was so cute. ? I love that.

Tenneil Register (18:23)

Yeah!

Yeah, and those are also great,

like those magazine racks are also good toilet paper holders if you need to store your toilet paper in plain sight or paper towels, that kind of

Kathi Lipp (18:37)

That’s so clever. I love that so much Okay, guys, we’re gonna take a quick break and when I come back We’re gonna talk about some clutter free things some things that have earned a place in my clutter free home. So stick around Okay friends, we are back with things that have earned a place in my clutter free home I don’t even know my own title. So I was telling you earlier in this episode

about a couple of things that I’ve put in my front closet. So one thing is we said, you don’t need more containers to contain your clutter, but we have a lot of things that are in our front hall, that our front hall closet that we need access to things like we have ? stuff for our dog there, stuff for like our keys, Roger’s wallet, those kinds of things. And so we’ve bought two things that have been really helpful.

One are these little, they’re like sorter baskets. They’re probably, for the people who are listening, they’re probably like eight inches by six inches for the big ones. And then there are smaller sizes. And we put things in there like we have a sunscreen basket. We have a bug spray basket. We have a mooses leash and treats basket. And then we have these

Hanging organizers so they hang off of a rod in that closet and they’re just these open baskets that we can put blankets in there or we can put ? All everything that Roger takes to the car. So we have a Roger basket in there. That is his hat He uses a baseball hat his his wallet ? His he uses sunscreen before he gets in the car. So that has made it so we don’t have to keep all that stuff

out all the time and it makes such a big difference. ? Tenneil I know that ? you love to have ways to hide things and so I’m going to send you a link and I’ll put a link in the show notes for you to see these because I think these would be great ways to think about, like you said, what would work in this space like the shape sorter that you were talking about.

Tenneil Register (20:53)

Yes, and I’m changing my mind. I’m not going to organize my office supplies. You’ve just inspired me to use our front hall closet. The front hall closet, we don’t use it for anything useful. So I’m going to look at these favorite things of yours and come up with a way to make that space useful.

Kathi Lipp (20:58)

Do tell. ?

Love it and friends. We love you. Thank you so much for being a part of the podcast You’ve been listening to clutter free Academy. I’m Kathy Lipp now go create the clutter free life. You’ve always wanted to live

Find this episodes full show notes and resources here.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

« Older Entries

#680 -From Overwhelmed to Organized: Transform Your Closet in 45 Minutes

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Jul 29, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

#680 -From Overwhelmed to Organized: Transform Your Closet in 45 Minutes

Listen Now

Is your closet causing you stress instead of bringing you joy? In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo share their proven system for creating a closet you’ll actually love opening every day.

What You’ll Discover:

How to set a clear vision for your ideal closet (and why this matters more than you think)Simple organizational solutions that make any closet feel 40% more organized

Storage solutions that work for small spaces and tight budgets

Perfect for listeners who:

Feel overwhelmed every time they open their closet door

Struggle with decision fatigue when getting dressed

Want practical systems that actually work long-term

Are tired of failed decluttering attempts

Kathi and Tonya share their personal closet confessions, favorite organizational tools, and the small changes that make the biggest difference. You’ll leave this episode with a clear plan to create a closet that feels like “the best curated consignment shop” of items you actually want to wear.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

Shelf Dividers
Sock and Underwear drawer episode (extra links here for helpful clothing organization items)
Free Closet Download

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

As promised, a photo of how Roger’s closet is organized using the above linked shelf dividers:

Clutter Free Resources:

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

Leave a note in the comment section below.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:10)

Hey friends, welcome to clutter free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life and We are back with our series. We’re just taking it one space at a time Sometimes we just need a deep dive and that’s what we’re here to do how to declutter certain areas of your home And I am here with my fellow clutter girl

? We have gone through our houses together and we live to tell the tale. It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:43)

Hey Kathi

Kathi Lipp (00:44)

Okay, so I need to know how does your clothes closet make you feel? Do you approach it with love and joy? Is it overwhelming? Like what’s the deal for you?

Tonya Kubo (00:57)

I am pretty ambivalent about my clothes closet, but I don’t have a walk-in closet. ? so, you know, I just have like a stereotypical 1950s sort of row of clothes across and Brian gets about two thirds of it and I have a third of it.

Kathi Lipp (01:14)

That is not the normal breakdown for a couple.

Tonya Kubo (01:18)

No, but it’s a normal breakdown for us. When we lived in a bigger house, he had two closets and I had one closet, but my closet wasn’t full.

Kathi Lipp (01:21)

Okay.

? Brian Kubo,

you live an extravagant life. I love it so much. Yeah, I also do not have a walk-in closet. This house was built more as a summer retreat than it was like. People are very impressed we live here year-round. When we moved here, it wasn’t supposed to be a year-round place. And then we decided to move here year-round and the people who ?

Tonya Kubo (01:39)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (01:54)

Sold us the house. There’s like, we’re very impressed. You’re living there year round and our neighbors were like we did not think you were going to make it the first two years. So i’m like, yeah, we didn’t either because the house kept trying to kill us but ? It was yes. Yes, but ? we have come to a peaceful living arrangement with the house We we’ve stopped trying to burn it down and it’s stopped trying to kill us. So it’s a beautiful thing

Tonya Kubo (02:02)

hahahaha

I was going to say that was a rough two years. I was there for it.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (02:21)

but the closets have not gotten any bigger. And I wanna talk about how do we get to be more in love with our closet? And today I wanna talk about making that a reality. So we’re gonna talk about how do you declutter, clean and organize your closet? Because that’s going to get us a fur piece to really loving it. So number one, I want us to think about

Tonya Kubo (02:30)

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (02:50)

How do we set a vision for our closet which sounds very woo-woo, but do you want a decluttered closet? Do you want because you want less? Decision fatigue more space feeling good about your wardrobe ? I do but I also want I also don’t want to go there and say I have nothing to wear because I don’t like the clothes in the closet So I I don’t want to over declutter, but I also don’t want it under declutter and so ?

I thought this was really interesting. I heard about somebody who talked about a visualization exercise. Imagine your ideal closet and how it makes you feel. So for me right now, we talked about this on a previous episode. One, I love, and I do mean love, some matching hangers Like that gets me 30 % of the way to feeling good about my closet.

Tonya Kubo (03:42)

you

Kathi Lipp (03:46)

So I’ve got you’ve got matching hangers tonya. I’ve got matching hangers ? what I wish my closet had right now that it doesn’t is a little bit more space before between the clothes ? right now it’s a little too packed for my I haven’t done a deep declutter on that In a while, so that’s something I want to do. The other thing is ? And my closet doesn’t cause me stress right now

Tonya Kubo (03:58)

Hmm.

Kathi Lipp (04:13)

but one improvement that I’d like to make in the next month or so is hanging all the pants together, hanging all the jeans together so I can really see what I have. Is there anything that you’ve done in your closet that makes you feel better about it?

Tonya Kubo (04:21)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so it’s funny, I don’t do this consistently, but I have, because I typically organize my closet, you I have a coat and then anything that’s long and then business attire. And then I kind of go to more casual toward the center of the closet. But ? one time I color coded everything like I had everything done by color. And I have to tell you, it was so much easier to find

my favorite top, my favorite this, my favorite that, when I had it arranged that way. Now I will tell you week to week, I did not have the energy to be that thoughtful about how I put things away. But when I do, it’s special, Kathi It really is. Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (04:59)

you

It feels good, right?

Yeah, you know, when I know I’m having a busy week and I really want to, you know, launch well, I’ll put together outfits for that week. And that’s a beautiful thing. I’m not going to lie that really, really, because you already know that shirt hits you at the right spot for those pants, etc, etc. It makes me it makes me very, happy. So

Tonya Kubo (05:22)

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (05:37)

Yeah, that’s set what step one is like, how do I set my vision for this closet? ? Again, sounds a little woo woo, but it actually makes it makes a big difference. And step two, the purge. ? If you are able to maintain that one in one out rule, that’s really, really helpful. But also, ? maybe setting aside like 45 minutes and trying on questionable pieces. Now, Tonya, I’m going to admit.

I’ve had something in my closet for three years now that I have never worn. ? And it’s something I spent a lot of money on and I tried it on in the store. ? It’s from the Sundance store, which they don’t have any near me. I bought this in Colorado. I cannot return it. And every time I go to try it on, feels a little, it’s a dress. It feels a little too short. And

Tonya Kubo (06:10)

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (06:36)

I but I can’t get rid of it and I think we all have something like that in our closet if you don’t you are a stronger human being than I am but There’s been a lot of other things that I’ve bought and it’s like I’ve worn it a couple times I’m like, you know what this just doesn’t feel like me So if you take 45 minutes and just try on some questionable pieces and say, okay Will I ever wear this is this something that I should keep in my closet?

And if it doesn’t make you feel great, get it out of there. You probably already have enough that makes you feel good. And when I get rid of enough questionable pieces, I’m like, okay, if I get rid of 10 things, I’m gonna allow myself to buy one thing that’s gonna replace that. Because I have, and so it is time for me to do that. What is your purge system?

Tonya Kubo (07:23)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so for me, ? I don’t do a lot of shopping. So I’m not one of those reasonable people who buys like a couple of pieces every season. So typically what I’ll do is as I’m putting away my clothes, there’s this one shirt or something that gets in my way. And I realize, it’s because I haven’t worn it in a long time and now I’m starting to get really grumpy about having to move it to put my clothes in. And so that always tells me, okay, it’s time to go through the closet.

And so I’ll get rid of everything. And then what I do is I inventory what I need to replace because I dislike shopping so much that I do not want to go and buy four shirts if I actually only need two, because there’s a lot more trying on if I have to go home with four versus two. and then I also will take a look through I’ll look at Brian’s clothes because Brian wears a lot of printed t-shirts.

Kathi Lipp (08:17)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (08:26)

And if there shirts that like the designs are coming off, I know he won’t get rid of those shirts, but I’ll make a note like for gifts and stuff for him for later.

Kathi Lipp (08:35)

Mmm. that’s nice. I love that you’re you’re planning on a replacement. I love that so much ? Another strategy for maintaining how much is in your closet ? We had on the abundant home conference my friend Lauren who has a tik-tok channel about how every season she pulls out her clothes turns the the hangers back we’ve all heard this trick and she only flips them when she wears them and ?

And then at the end of the season, what she does is she works at a college and so she donates a lot of those clothes to girls she works with at the college. And so she knows they’re going to somebody who will give them a good home. She does the same thing with her shoes. She’s trying on everything every year. And I love that for her. ? And you guys have all heard our quiz, do I love it, do I use it, would I buy it again? So I’m going to… ?

Tonya Kubo (09:13)

you

Kathi Lipp (09:34)

give you a couple of different questions you could ask about clothes. Do you love it? If you love it, you get to keep it as long as you also wear it. This dress I got at Sundance, I love it, but I don’t wear it because I don’t necessarily love it on me. And then the third question, know, when I was coming up with this, I’m like, does it fit and does it flatter? And I’ve decided I don’t like the word flatter.

Because I think that that for many of us doesn’t make me look thinner and I care a lot less about whether something makes me look five pounds less Here’s what I care more about. Does it fit and does it feel like me? Does it feel like what I would want the world to see me in and so if flatter is a very important thing to you then go ahead and keep it but

Tonya Kubo (10:04)

Hmm.

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (10:34)

I would love for us to think about does it fit and does it feel like me? ? Do you have any sentimental clothes that you hold on to even though you don’t wear them?

Tonya Kubo (10:47)

I mean, I still have my engagement dress. I have that. You know, I have my wedding dress. But beyond that, I have a t-shirt. It’s so old right now. But Brian brought it back from Disneyland. had a chaperoned grad night. And it so he brought that back for me the day that we found out we were expecting Lily. So I keep that and it’s orange. It’s orange and it says bad girls rule.

Kathi Lipp (10:50)

Aww.

Tonya Kubo (11:17)

and it has the evil queen on it and all sorts of sequins and stuff and I love it. In fact, think like Lily wears it every now and then now, which is funny because she never wears orange, but yeah, it’s a fun shirt and I still have it, but it’s very memorable.

Kathi Lipp (11:30)

? I love that so much. Yeah, I have a couple of things, like things that people have given me that are sentimental that I don’t necessarily wear, but I can’t really get rid of them. You know, it’s just, ? you know, so I think it’s okay to have a couple of things, a couple of things that you’re like, I’m not ready to get rid of that. And it’s like, that’s okay. You know what? If you’re still functioning, if you still have enough clothes to wear, it’s okay.

? Okay, so now if you’ve decided I’m getting rid of this I I want to give you a couple of different piles So there’s the keep pile obviously that can all go back in donate. So if it’s still in good condition ? You can donate that trash and then I think there’s also a reasonable pile That is I’m going to try it on again. Maybe closer to fall or maybe you

You don’t have to make your decisions in one fell swoop. You can say, you know what, I’m not ready to make this decision. Now, I want you to make hard decisions as much as you can, but if you can’t, that’s okay. We can do this in steps because we are compassionate with ourselves and with others. Okay, we’re gonna take a quick break and when we come back, I wanna talk about cleaning out and organizing your closet. So we’re gonna come right back.

Okay, friends, so if you’ve pulled a lot of your clothes out, now you don’t have to pull everything out at once. I don’t need you to do this. This is not Marie Kondo. We don’t need to pile everything in the middle of our bed and make it work. And even Marie Kondo has said recently, that’s too much. It’s too much. Don’t do that. So.

Tonya Kubo (13:13)

It’s

amazing what having children will do to change your perspective on keeping your house tidy.

Kathi Lipp (13:19)

It really is. can I just say, I love that she said that. Because when I read her book, I was like, yeah, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not going to work for me. And now she’s saying, you know what? I’ve had a little bit more life experience. That doesn’t work for me either. So maybe if you’re 20s, Marie Kondo can totally work for you. Otherwise, maybe be gentle with yourself. So ? as much as you can, as you’re pulling things out,

Tonya Kubo (13:24)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (13:45)

This is the time to grab a vacuum. Grab that feather duster. You know, it’s the fuzzy duster. Let’s call it that. Get in there and clean. ? I just recently redid Roger’s closet. ? you know, I don’t consider that an especially dirty place. We do not put his clothes away dirty in there. But pulling all that out felt really good to be able to swiffer in there, wet swiffer, and just get it looking really, really good. ? Also, ?

Well, we’ll talk about organization in a second, but ? get in there and just deep clean, get a handy vac, do all that. Now I also want you to go in there and let’s talk about organization. ? You can categorize by type and function. So maybe there’s work clothes, casual clothes. If you have anything formal, Roger has a couple of shirts. I mean, ? suits. I have a couple of more dressy dresses. ? maybe there’s some seasonal. We are.

Where we live in the mountains, it’s very seasonal. I have probably a quarter of my wardrobe crosses over all year round. Things like sweat bottoms, things like that. But all of my winter clothes are up in the attic right now and I’ve just got summer clothes out. Now that’s probably not the same for you, right Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (15:08)

No, mean, our house is so much smaller, but we do have like our winter clothes. I put that underneath my bed. I have organizers and because, you know, again, small closets, those bulky winter clothes take up so much space.

Kathi Lipp (15:17)

Okay. that’s right.

They really do. You probably have a lot more clothes that you can wear year round. ? Yeah. So, you know, also think about, and I’m going to put up a picture of what I’ve done with Roger’s closet. Now my closet has a lot of, I’m not going to say nonsense, but things you might not expect in a closet. Like we keep all of our medications up on the top shelf of my closet.

We keep a lot of my hair products, those kind of things. So that’s not what the typical closet is going to be for, but I’ll show you Roger’s because we’ve been able to really ? put some great systems in there that has really helped. ? So I wanna talk about some of the storage solutions we’ve done. So ? again, I use slim velvet hangers to maximize space. Roger hates those. He hates the texture of them.

So he has just white plastic hanger. ? You might wanna consider clear storage bins. ? That’s what I use for all that, ? like the back stock of our bathroom stuff that we use in there. ? I also, something I’ve just discovered recently that has been super helpful is shelf dividers. So ? Roger has like four categories of clothes that he has on the top.

portion of the shelf. Now I used to just throw them up there. Like there was no rhyme or reason, but he has sweats. He has long sleeve shirts. He has short sleeve shirts and jeans. And we got some shelf dividers and these things are a miracle. I love them so much. They just slide onto the shelf and they have like a wire separator and it has made his closet 40 % more organized. I love it.

Tonya Kubo (17:02)

Want to pick?

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (17:19)

? Yeah, I love these things. ? Also, you might want to consider hanging organizers for shoes or accessories, especially like my mom has the largest closet I have ever personally been in. It is huge. Like when they showed the house, they had a gym inside the closet. It’s huge. It’s huge. So, ? you know, my mom has shoe rack organized, hanging shoe rack organizer.

Tonya Kubo (17:20)

Nice.

my gosh.

Kathi Lipp (17:49)

because she has so much hanging closet space. That is not my personal dilemma. ? And then if you have drawers in your closet, well, we live an entirely different life. We just do. But ? if you do, we’ll link to the episode about ? the sock and underwear drawer organizers that might be able to help you. ?

You know, there are some people like they repaint their closets. That’s not really my jam. I just want my clothes to be at I wanted to feel like I’m going into a really well run consignment store. Does that sound weird?

Tonya Kubo (18:32)

No, not at all. I mean, you want it to feel cozy and exciting and you want everything to make sense.

Kathi Lipp (18:41)

Yes, yes. I think and something that has been really important for me is at the end of the day, I am very careful like the shirt I’m wearing right now. I’m wearing this for work. I’m not wearing this to make dinner. I’m not wearing this to go out into the garden. So this has not been worn. So I have not spilled anything on it yet. I mean, the day is still young, but I’m going to hang this up again.

So that has been a real saver for me. Okay, we’re about to get controversial again, Tonya. So here we are, right? Okay, so we live far from everything. So pretty much after work is done, I’m gonna take my work clothes off and I’m gonna get into my night clothes. I’m gonna get into some sweat bottoms. I’m gonna put on a sports bra, which I sleep in, which freaks people out apparently. I don’t care, I live my life. Nothing bad has ever.

Tonya Kubo (19:18)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (19:38)

has ever happened because I’ve been in a sports bra while I’ve been asleep. In fact, I would like to suggest if I had to leave here in the middle of the night, which I’ve had to do to take Roger to the ER, I was very glad I slept in a sports bra. That’s a good thing for me. I’ve never had to, I just hang my clothes up again. And every once in a while, I’ll wash them again.

Tonya Kubo (20:03)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (20:05)

putting those away, having room in my closet, not having to fight with that is huge for me and I really, really love it. And then one of the things I’m going to commit to from this podcast out, I have shoe storage in my closet. I’ve got some shelves in there. This is my lazy habit. I just throw my shoes in there. I don’t put them back on the shelves.

Tonya Kubo (20:31)

you

Kathi Lipp (20:32)

So about once a week, I’d love to say I’m gonna be the person who just, that’s never gonna happen. I am 58 years old this week. It’s never gonna happen for me to just put those right back in there. So I’m going to once a week commit to putting all those things back in there. Any closet confessionals you wanna give us, anything you wanna change.

Tonya Kubo (20:54)

Yeah, I would, I feel like I say this every time we talk about closets on here. It’s like, I want to make better space of the floor of the closet. Cause I have a floor and then there’s ? drawers below it. And so I can’t put anything too heavy because then the drawers will collapse. But I always feel like it’s such a waste of space. This open space down here.

Kathi Lipp (21:02)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Right? Yeah.

Okay, okay, we’re both committing to making our closets more functional. I love it ? guys it will have a little download here so that you can follow along with some of these suggestions because We want your closet. Like I said, I think that that is my new vision is to have the best curated consignment shop That of all things that I would want to buy that makes me super happy.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

« Older Entries

#679 – Grief and Clutter – A Journey Through Loss and Letting Go

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Jul 22, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Hard Stuff, Hope, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Relationships, Rest, Restore | 0 comments

#679 – Grief and Clutter – A Journey Through Loss and Letting Go

Listen Now

Join Kathi as she has a conversation with Lisa Woolery who lost her husband Eric suddenly at age 50. Lisa faced an overwhelming reality: not only was she grieving the love of her life, but she also inherited his extensive collection that filled their 6,700 square foot home. From dozens of guns to barrels of water and MREs, Eric’s “beautiful, cluttery” nature had created a different kind of burden for his wife and their two children.

In this deeply moving episode of Clutter Free Academy, Lisa shares her raw and honest journey of grieving not just her husband, but also dealing with the mountain of possessions he left behind. You’ll discover how she navigated the anger, the overwhelm, and ultimately found peace through intentional decluttering.

Listeners will gain an inside look at someone having to manage a loved one’s clutter after they are gone, learn practical strategies for honoring a loved one’s memory without keeping everything, including Lisa’s “five box rule” that helped her teenagers choose what mattered most when they downsized. She reveals the difference between sentimental items worth keeping and collections that served their purpose, and how creating a curated space helped her heal and move forward.

Whether you’re dealing with your own loss or simply struggling with a partner’s clutter, this episode offers hope, practical wisdom, and permission to choose peace over possessions.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

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Meet Our Guest

Lisa Woolery

After two decades as a public relations executive, Lisa was thrown into widowing without warning. Not ashamed of her many “hot messes,” she shares the challenges of rebuilding life after the desolation of losing her husband.

Lisa writes with grit, humor, and raw honesty so other widows know they don’t have to be perfect in the face of grief. In The Widow’s Comeback, she dives into money, abandonment, parenting tweens, dating, self-forgiveness, and faith—offering companionship and hope for the road ahead.

She lives in Kansas City, loving on her two teenagers while chasing after her three rapscallion dogs. For fun, she travels the world, plays pickleball, and reads in her cheetah-print recliner.

The Widow’s Comeback memoir and the companion 365-Day Grieving Calendar are her first books. Lisa is currently working on her first Widow’s Comeback comedic novel. Stay tuned.

Follow her journey at TheWidowsComeback.com or on Facebook and Instagram @TheWidowsComeback.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:08)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I’m so excited to have one of my friends on the podcast. She’s never been here before, but we are talking about, it’s a hard topic, but it’s also gonna be a good topic today. ? the title that we’re working with is A Minimalist Journey Through Loss and Letting Go.

This is my friend Lisa Woolery. She recently wrote a book called The Widow’s Comeback. What if you knew you’d be okay? Lisa, welcome to the program.

Lisa Woolery (00:47)

Well, thanks for having me, Kathi. I’m really excited to be here. I just love your ministry and the work that you do.

Kathi Lipp (00:51)

Hmm

Well, and you’re part of that. You help, especially over on our writer’s side, and I’m so grateful for that. And we’ve already done some foreshadowing here about what this topic is going to be. ? You are widowed. And tell us just really briefly ? that portion of your story.

Lisa Woolery (01:14)

Yeah. Well, one day when I was 50, I was making dinner for my husband who was 53 and he died suddenly while I was chopping broccoli. I unsuccessfully gave him CPR and suddenly my life really was over because I had to figure out how to create a new life without him. And I had two tweens at the time.

Kathi Lipp (01:27)

Wow.

my goodness. It just unimaginable. And I will say that you do live with a lot of joy. I see that every single time I’m in a room with you, a zoom room or in a room physically with you, you do live with a lot of joy, which I’m sure at the time seemed impossible. And you had not only did you have grief, but you had a lot of really practical things to take care of.

And when we were talking about doing this podcast, you said that you’re more of a minimalist. I mean, I see in your house almost every single day. We’re on Zoom almost every single day. And I would never, ever think that you have a clutter problem. But maybe your husband was a little bit more on the cluttery side. Is that the impression I’m getting?

Lisa Woolery (02:35)

My husband was a beautiful, cluttery person. Yes.

Kathi Lipp (02:38)

Yes, they’re the best, right? This is why

we all marry them. And then we figure out, oh, no, oh, no, what have I done? But you guys were married for almost 30 years, you know, and very, very close. But your husband, you say was a little bit of a prepper. And you know, that’s close to my heart. I’ve written a book on prepping. But it sounds like maybe he was a little bit more extreme than I was.

Lisa Woolery (02:45)

Hahaha.

Hello.

Yeah, well, I think that, so my husband was a member of the NRA, lifelong gun owner, ? loved to shoot, hunt, these kinds of things. And then some new topic or hobby came about, which was called prepping. And it sort of…

Kathi Lipp (03:13)

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Lisa Woolery (03:30)

it sort of fell into what my husband loved to do, which was to collect things and go like all out. Like I used to joke that Eric Woolery put in 100 % when he had a new hobby. And so when we were young in our marriage and had our first apartments, he immediately got the extra bedroom for his clutter. And then as our marriage grew and we became…

Kathi Lipp (03:41)

Right.

? got it.

Lisa Woolery (03:58)

better at our careers and made more money. We just bought bigger houses so he could have more space for his things. And ? I like to laugh and say that Eric Woolery died like eight months early because he missed COVID and all of the collecting of toilet paper and all of those things. Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (04:15)

? He would have been proven right!

Yes. I, my big flex was when I went to Costco,

just as COVID was emerging, they’re like, you don’t need to buy toilet paper. I’m like, baby, I’m set. I’m good. Don’t you worry about Ms. Kathi. We’re good here. And yes, you know, I, first of all, I’m glad that you had whatever you needed in that time. ? you know, he probably would have looked at it like, Hey baby, look, I was taking good care of you.

Lisa Woolery (04:35)

Ha ha ha!

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (04:50)

I

made sure that you were prepared. So here’s my question. ? Was it a big point of contention? Was it a big point of frustration in your marriage? Tell me, unpack that for me.

Lisa Woolery (04:54)

You

Mm-hmm.

Well, we had two topics throughout our 28 year marriage that we never resolved. One was junk food. One was clutter. And so we, like I said, we managed it by having more rooms and, and we had an agreement that the house was mine to keep neat and tidy and his rooms were his to do what he wanted. And so, ?

Kathi Lipp (05:10)

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Woolery (05:32)

That’s kind of how we dealt with that.

Kathi Lipp (05:34)

You know, and it’s really interesting. ? That is pretty much the conclusion I’ve come to for a lot of people is that we may never resolve with our, it’s the people who have a lot of clutter and are not working on it that I know can be very, very frustrating. And so that clutter has to be contained behind the door or, you know, on shelves or something like that. So what you guys really did was,

You didn’t argue over stuff you agreed on space Yeah, and that is something that we really Preach here because you’re probably never going to change somebody else’s clutter personality But you can say hey, it’s important to me that I live in a house that I feel comfortable in and that means not having guns and ammo Because I we’ve talked a little bit about this

Lisa Woolery (06:08)

100%, yes.

you

Kathi Lipp (06:32)

He wasn’t just collecting toilet paper and food, right?

Lisa Woolery (06:35)

No,

When he died, we had in the basement of our 6,700 square foot house, he had these big rooms down there where he had his prepper things. And yeah, he liked guns. We had a joke. He never counted my shoes. I never counted his guns. And when he died, actually our estate was frozen for three months.

Kathi Lipp (06:46)

Wow.

Yes.

Lisa Woolery (07:04)

for an investigation and a delayed death certificate and some things. So luckily actually, because I sold his 74 guns and that allowed us to have food on the table and go on field trips with school, rent a violin and et cetera. So that was actually a little helpful. Yeah, yeah.

Kathi Lipp (07:04)

Hmm. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, he was taking care of you from the beyond. He absolutely was. Yeah.

And guys, we know people have a lot of different feelings about guns. We’re just telling you what the actual story is. Yeah. I, I, have to understand, ? you know, a lot of people really draw a line in the sand and say, you know, I, I know what’s in these rooms. So you have to, you have to get rid of this stuff. And, but

That stuff made Eric very happy. ? I right? And it wasn’t a financial burden or was it? Okay.

Lisa Woolery (08:00)

Yeah.

It was not. And he

and he actually would invite the kids in he would take the kids to gun shows and they would buy MREs and all of these things and they would make bug out bags together. And he enjoyed it. It was his hobby. And that’s fine. I was fine with that.

Kathi Lipp (08:15)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah,

I wonder if he and I ever ran into each other at PrepperCon, because we did go one year in Utah. You know what, we’re going to take a little commercial break. And then when we come back, I want to talk about grieving, not just Eric, but the stuff and how you dealt with that, if there was resentment. And just giving us the non-cluttery person’s perspective about

you know, what we leave behind. And I think that that could be really helpful. We’re gonna take a quick break and we’ll come right back. Okay, friends, I am back with Lisa Woolery, The Widow’s Comeback, and we are talking, I’m sorry, I didn’t even get that into frame there. ? We are talking about the stuff that’s left behind when somebody you love is gone. And,

not only were you grieving, but you had a lot of practical things you had to take care of. And, you know, one of them was selling some of the things. Tell me some of the other things that, you know, you were left to deal with that some of us might not think of because I’ve never lost a spouse. I’ve lost my dad, but I haven’t. My mom is still with us. I’m so grateful. So I know that there are going to be big things I have to deal with that I didn’t have to deal with with the loss of my dad.

because, ? you know, and it’s a little bit different because than losing parents because that’s closing an entire estate, but you were still around. still had, you still had to live life even though your partner was gone.

Lisa Woolery (10:04)

Yeah. Well, I have a scene in my book where I wasn’t expecting this, but over the course of five days, five huge crates came from Southern California to my house in Kansas. We had lived in Kansas for nine months and he was ? working super commuting and his staff finally, a few months later, was probably six months later, packed up his stuff and sent it. And it was four very large crates.

Kathi Lipp (10:34)

my.

Lisa Woolery (10:34)

One day,

yeah, one day I looked out on to the front yard and my puppies were out there just tearing things up and there was just trash everywhere. And one of the crates had arrived and the puppies tore into it. And it was such a huge mess. I kenneled the dogs and I went outside and was just like the wind was blowing. I was trying to get a hold of all this stuff and I hadn’t yet been mad at Eric, but ?

Kathi Lipp (10:45)

Mm.

Lisa Woolery (11:03)

I was burning mad. Like I remember being out there just yelling you F F F. You leave me with this and I have to clean up more. When will it end? And I just had a horrendous meltdown in my front yard. I mean, I don’t know who saw or who heard or like I don’t even care. But ? so there was some anger.

Kathi Lipp (11:09)

Mmm.

Yeah.

Of course, of course.

Lisa Woolery (11:31)

in dealing with some of that stuff. And, you know, it was probably the resolution of all the fights that we had had about his stuff. But, you know, I cleaned it up, I dealt with it, and then I moved forward. And it was kind of empowering that I was allowed to choose what to do with this stuff. And I actually called my neighbor and said, all this stuff is here. I don’t want the kids to see it. And so she said,

Kathi Lipp (11:38)

Right.

Yeah.

Lisa Woolery (12:00)

put it all in your car, bring it down and I’ll put my trash cans up at the curb. And then I just threw it all out and I did that for four days. I did it for four days straight. The last day I took the last crate, I put it down in the basement in this kid room where they had their puzzles and sleeping bags and just put it in the back and thought, well, they can find that one day.

Kathi Lipp (12:07)

wow.

Okay, okay, so it was is a process of going through that I You know, I it’s such a weird question, but I’m gonna ask it anyway You know those of us who struggle with our clutter when we live with other people You know, they they get to share that burden What what do you wish Eric would have known? Maybe in the five years before he passed that would have helped you

it not only in the grieving process, but the going on process.

Lisa Woolery (12:57)

Well, I think that his prepper stuff is okay. Like it’s fine. I dealt with it. Like I loved the guy and I loved all of his silly, silly quirks. I mean, I would say that the things that I wish we would have prepared for better were ? like financial things. Like we never got around to finishing our ? estate because we couldn’t decide who the kids would go to. And he left a business loan.

Kathi Lipp (13:03)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Lisa Woolery (13:25)

? Just like some things like that. So I can’t even say it was clutter. Like I’m a good cleaner out or I’m not sentimental. I just threw it all away. Well, actually, I’ll say this. And for anybody who’s dealing with a cluttery prepper husband and gets to get rid of some of the stuff, I would like take pictures of these big barrels that you could put water in or just MREs. And I just put it up on Marketplace and I’d say,

Kathi Lipp (13:33)

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Lisa Woolery (13:55)

prepper stuff, $100. And people would come to my house and they’d just take it away. And some of the guys would be like, are you sure I can take this? I feel like I’m leaving you in an unsafe position. And I would be like in my head, COVID happened. My husband died. What worse things am I going to have to live through where I’m going to need an MRE?

Kathi Lipp (13:56)

Mm-hmm, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it’s so it’s so true you’ve already lived through the worst of it and Here we are and you know, I will always keep prepper stuff. Just I’m not an extensive prepper I’m a very practical prepper like I go through my stuff. We have lots of canned food. We’re good you know, we make sure that we have a ? Non-electric can opener so we can get into that food that kind of thing

Lisa Woolery (14:23)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (14:46)

? You say you’re not sentimental, but ? was there any struggle with getting rid of some of these things that Eric cared about? Or did you really from the start know this isn’t Eric, this is things he cared about. There are two different things. Like how did you rationalize all that?

Lisa Woolery (15:08)

Well, I didn’t feel sentimental about any of the prepper stuff. But when Eric first died, I took these two beautiful Tiffany boxes that we had that had had some large purchases that he had made for me. So like, I loved those boxes. And I took those boxes and I filled them with his personal items. ? And then I…

Kathi Lipp (15:28)

Mmm.

Lisa Woolery (15:31)

have them saved for my kids. They know when they graduate from college, they’re allowed to come in and choose. And occasionally, if they’re having a really hard time, I let them come in and choose things. But they’re like, so here’s, ? I’m holding up, I wear Eric’s watch every day. He had a lot of watches. He had a lot of, so many things. And so I was able to choose like some beautiful sentimental things. So I guess I am a little sentimental to keep. But then some of the other things like,

Kathi Lipp (15:41)

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah.

Lisa Woolery (16:01)

MREs were just junk to me. They weren’t, it wasn’t his beautiful watch or his personal things.

Kathi Lipp (16:07)

Guys,

MREs are like, ? no, that’s okay, packaged food that lasts a really long time, backpackers, preppers, know, astronauts, yes, yes, they all, MREs are something that they do. ? How did you decide what to keep and what to let go? I mean, okay, so the prepper stuff was easy, but then you get to his watches or…

Lisa Woolery (16:11)

? sorry.

Army guys.

Kathi Lipp (16:34)

You know some of the other thing and what did you how did you decide what I love that you created two boxes? For your kids for things that they could have I my kids are in their 30s and they still they still feel like mom I’m not settled enough to take Grandpa’s ring yet. Can you hold on to it? And I’m like, absolutely I’m not gonna hang on to a car for you, but I can hang on to grandpa’s ring. So how did you decide what to keep?

Was it about him? Was it about your relationship with him and the kids? Like, how did you go through that thought process?

Lisa Woolery (17:09)

Well, I went through when I was cleaning his things out and this was over some time. I would if I felt sentimental about it or I felt like, ? it’s Eric, then I would put it in the box. And that’s how I did it. But a year ago, we moved out of our six thousand seven square foot house with all of the things. And I took some time to get rid of things and.

Kathi Lipp (17:29)

Yeah.

Lisa Woolery (17:34)

I did what I told my kids was right sizing, like getting to the right size house for us. And I gave my kids each five boxes and I said, here is what you get to take to the new house. So when you’re packing, they were 15 and 16 at the time. Like here, you can put whatever you want in these boxes and that’s what we’re moving. Everything else.

Kathi Lipp (17:37)

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Woolery (18:02)

we’re throwing away or we’re going to give to people who need it like the goodwill. So and then I said, you know, if your five boxes fill and you still have some things, you know, come and talk to me and we’ll discuss it. And so my daughter did very well. My son, who is, I think, a little cluttery, ? had some trouble. So I went down and just had a session with him where I’m like, keep or throw out, keep or throw out, keep or throw out. And

Kathi Lipp (18:07)

Right, yeah.

Lisa Woolery (18:32)

that I could walk him through, why is this special? Do you feel something special about it? Or is this just something that’s been sitting around for a long time? Like, how do you feel dad in this? And so, yeah. So I feel like we did pretty well and there’s only been like maybe one or two things that the kids have asked about. Nothing. I haven’t missed anything.

Kathi Lipp (18:42)

Mm-hmm. What a great question. What a great question. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Lisa Woolery (19:01)

So

when they do say like, well, you didn’t bring that or something, then I’ll just say, I’m so sorry. Let’s just talk about it. And then we do. And then they can get mad at me if they want. And then we just move on.

Kathi Lipp (19:09)

Mm-hmm, yeah.

I love that. ? I love that you had them be part of the process. yeah, there are always going to be things, it’s never gonna go perfectly, right? It’s never going to be 100%, but we can say, we can gather these things and we can say, this is just a small representation of everything that he was to us. And these spark great memories. ?

I know you live in a pretty clutter free space. ? Does that make you miss Eric more Does it give you a sense of peace? how, how is it to not be surrounded by the stuff?

Lisa Woolery (20:00)

Well, I don’t do well with clutter. I can’t write if my space isn’t perfectly clear. So I feel very empowered in my new house. And I feel like it’s a fresh start. if, like right now, where I’m sitting in my living room in a chair, and I can just glance to my right a little bit and look at my bookshelves. I have these bookshelves.

Kathi Lipp (20:03)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Lisa Woolery (20:27)

Looking at the bookshelves on the very top shelf. I have five yearbooks Some of the yearbooks Eric and I shared because we were high school sweethearts. Some of them were his Before he knew me so I have those I look over on the shelf and I have his two pens sitting there and I have ? behind it like I have a beer stein with like pens in it and Behind it is the preppy handbook, which he loved in high school

Kathi Lipp (20:35)

Mmm.

Hahaha!

Lisa Woolery (20:57)

And so ? then I have like on the other side back here, I have a picture of us. And so I just have some little things around that I can look at or like my son signed some papers the other day and he used his dad’s pen. So ? he’s here. Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (21:06)

Yeah.

? You’ve really curated it you’ve really

curated Eric around your house I love that for somebody who is going through a loss and They feel the need to keep everything because it feels like that’s how you honor the person What would be your advice? To somebody who is is really struggling with the the things left behind

Lisa Woolery (21:46)

Well, I can say for how I feel and everyone feels differently about clutter, but what I can say is you, like your loved one dies and then you have to start over. So how do you want to start over? What feels comfortable for you? Does it feel comfortable to have all this clutter around? Well, I don’t know what to say about that because I’m not a cluttery person, but for me having, and I love the word you used, having curated.

Kathi Lipp (22:09)

Yeah. Yeah.

Lisa Woolery (22:15)

the things that mean something to me about Eric and then moving forward feel really good. And ? I know that you talk a little bit about like making a video about something. I didn’t know that at the time, but I still like, this is going to make me like tear up a little bit. I remember when I got to Eric’s first briefcase because we like, he was so proud of that briefcase. He was the first person in his family to not be blue collar. And he was so proud of that.

Kathi Lipp (22:27)

Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. ?

Lisa Woolery (22:44)

and he took it to his accounting job at Ernst & Winnie and like circa 1990 or something. And that was so hard for me to get rid of, but I knew that I had to, because it was old and janky and dust collecting. And so I took it to the trash can. It’s gonna make me cry a little bit. And I said to him, this was your beginning and we don’t need it anymore.

Kathi Lipp (22:48)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Lisa Woolery (23:13)

And so I threw away a close to trash can and I went in and cried. But you know, like sometimes it’s hard, like it’s gonna make you cry and just, but kind of going through all of it helped my healing. And so now here I am in this new house, new neighborhood, new fresh start, some of Eric’s things and I can be happy.

Kathi Lipp (23:17)

Yeah.

Yeah. Right?

? What a great note to end on guys if you are interested in Lisa’s book it’s called the widow’s comeback. What if you knew you’d be okay? It’s Lisa Woolery Lisa. Thank you so much for being on the podcast today And thanks for letting us get to know Eric a little bit ? You know, they’re never truly gone as long as we keep their memories alive ? Friends

Lisa Woolery (23:55)

Well, thanks for inviting me.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Kathi Lipp (24:09)

? We’re gonna take a quick commercial break and we’re gonna come back and it is this week’s ? installment of things that have earned a place in my clutter free home. So stick with us and we’ll be right back.

Lisa Woolery (24:20)

You

Kathi Lipp (00:00)

Hey, welcome back. This is my favorite part of the show, the part where I talk about these clutter-free items that have earned a place in my home. And I’ve got Tonya Kubo on the line. And so Tonya, I’m very excited to talk to you about can openers. Yay!

Tonya Kubo (00:21)

Tell me more?

Kathi Lipp (00:23)

Okay, I’m sending you a link right now. It’s called the Kitchen Mama Auto Electric Can Opener. so I discovered this when I was going through some mobility issues. I overused my phone and my kids are all embarrassed. They’re like, mom, it’s too much TikTok. I’m like, I know, I know, babe. here’s the problem.

Tonya Kubo (00:27)

Kathi Lipp (00:50)

I had a real hard time with my right hand, which is not my dominant hand, but grasping things, holding things. And I saw this online. it’s a can opener that you put on top of the can and you hit a button and it spins around and does a clean cut of your can and without you even having to touch it.

Tonya Kubo (00:54)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (01:18)

It’s so great and can I tell you it’s not just a mobility thing but when I’m doing my chili which has a lot of cans in it I just sit that on top of the can push the button and it has to be seated properly it takes a second but it just spins around does it and I can open the can so if if a can opener is never anything you’ve thought about before

Tonya Kubo (01:27)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (01:46)

But I’ll tell you, there are more items in your kitchen that really take strong mobility than you might imagine. A salt grinder, a pepper grinder. And I bought one of these can operators for my mom and she’s like, Kathi, that seems a little ridiculous. And now if there was a fire, it would be one of the top five things she takes out.

Tonya Kubo (01:53)

Mm-hmm.

Well, you know, it’s funny is because I looked at I was like, that doesn’t look like anything. And they’re like, no, Tonya, really. But I mean, I’ve been a desk worker since college, which, you know, keyboards long before they ever knew what ergonomics was. So, yeah, my grip strength is terrible. So the idea. Yeah. But the idea that I could open cans.

Kathi Lipp (02:13)

Yeah.

Yes.

Right, so we have to work on our grip strength and do this. Yes. Yeah, this is

Tonya Kubo (02:35)

Cause my hand will cramp if I try to open three cans just to make chili, right? It’s like three cans of beans.

Kathi Lipp (02:39)

This is exactly where I’m

And I like this because one, a couple of things. It’s not electric. So in an emergency situation, you know, your power’s out, battery operated, you’re good to go. The other thing I like about it is, you know, we’ve all used or seen those electric can openers that sit on your counter. I don’t want an electric can opener on my counter. I just stick this in the drawer and I pull it back. It takes four batteries.

Tonya Kubo (02:52)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (03:09)

And it’s, I love it. I can’t even tell you, I love it so much. It can open any kind of can that you need it to. I have used it on soda cans that I lost a little tab on. So that was nice. And I just, yeah, so like I said, if it’s not a big deal for you, this may not be.

Tonya Kubo (03:27)

Ooh.

Kathi Lipp (03:35)

the things that have earned a place in my clutter free home, this may not be it for you. But if you have arthritis in your hands, ? if you’re careful with sharp edges. Now, one of the fun things was I was making chili when we had some friends over and their seven year old asked how they could help. And I’m like, you know, you can’t help fry the ground beef necessarily. Mom might not. And then I’m like,

Tonya Kubo (03:56)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (04:02)

you can open all the cans. And this was the most fun that seven year old had had in a really long time. And I wasn’t worried about it because all the edges are, they’re the non-sharp edges. And so that makes me super, yeah. So this is something that Abby would have no problem working with. regular can openers can be frustrating. And by the way, I know there’s a can opener where you lay it flat on top of the can.

Tonya Kubo (04:06)

Ha ha!

Mm-hmm.

Right, that’s so important.

Mm-hmm.

I have

Kathi Lipp (04:31)

And okay, can I, yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:31)

that. But my hand cramps because I just don’t have that dexterity and Abby has a hard time because her hands aren’t yet big enough.

Kathi Lipp (04:40)

Okay, see, and this would solve both of those. And can I tell you who this would make a great gift for? The lefty in your life. Because can, yeah, can openers are not designed for lefties. And as a lefty, yeah, yeah, exactly. So if anybody wants to buy a second one for me or Tonya, yeah, this is great. Go ahead, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (04:55)

No, no, fellow lefty here.

Yeah,

we’ll take it. I just have one very important question. What color do you have?

Kathi Lipp (05:09)

I have red because I live at the Red House, but ? mom has blue So that will never get them mixed up. There are different colors There’s just the plain white one if you’re more of a minimalist And there’s a green one now I am I am buying the turquoise one because the blue is kind of a turquoisey blue for our RV because everything in an RV is ? Is turquoise blue so that how what color would you order?

Tonya Kubo (05:10)

Okay, right.

Mmm.

Got it. Okay.

A blue. I was gonna order a blue. Cause it’ll stand out. I have a yellow kitchen and so I want to be able to like see it across the room.

Kathi Lipp (05:39)

Okay, yeah.

Yes, I love it. Okay, so by the way, if you’re into tinned fish, which everybody is these days, this also works on that. It opens like any weird can. So I love that for us. Yes. Okay, so the link will be in the show notes. Let me be honest, we get a little kickback. I think it’s probably gonna be a whole 40 cents from the $22 that you might spend.

Tonya Kubo (05:58)

Yay!

Ooh, I was gonna

say, I thought it would be like, you know, 2.8 cents. So, hey, 40 cents.

Kathi Lipp (06:17)

I don’t know,

I don’t know. Who knows, maybe this is the way I get rich, I don’t know. But I wanna be honest with you, but this is something that I personally use and love and wanted to share with you guys. So friends, thank you for listening to Clutter-Free Academy, I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

« Older Entries

#678 – The Great Laundry Debate: Sorting, Systems, and Space-Saving Secrets

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Jul 15, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Podcast | 1 comment

#678 – The Great Laundry Debate: Sorting, Systems, and Space-Saving Secrets

Listen Now

Join Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo as they tackle the challenges and opportunities of laundry room organization. Explore the practical steps you can take to transform your laundry space from chaos to calm. In this episode, discover why your laundry room may be a hidden source of stress and how you can revamp it into a place of order and efficiency. Whether it’s optimal storage solutions, must-have products, or debunking the biggest laundry myths, Kathi and Tonya offer practical tips and insights to refresh your routine. This episode is your guide to a clutter-free laundry life, filled with humor, honesty, and hope. Don’t miss out on learning how to make laundry less of a chore and more of a breeze.

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here.

Links Mentioned:

FYI: Some product links may be affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Clutter Free Resources:

Join our Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Order Sabbath Soup here

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Meet Our Co-Host

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A professional community strategist, she believes everyone deserves to have a place online where they feel like they belong. Raised by a hoarder, Tonya knows firsthand the pain and isolation that comes from living in conditions others don’t understand. She wants better for her family and her cluttery peeps, which is why she is passionate about the compassionate slow-and-steady approach that makes Clutter Free unique. She lives in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit tonyakubo.com to find out more about her community work, or email her at tonya@kathilipp.org to discuss the Clutter Free Academy podcast and programs.

Meet Our Guest

Julie Ubbenga

Julia is a wife, a mom of five, and a minimalist-living coach. Julia is passionate about helping others live a more meaningful life with less stuff. See what she’s up to in her journey of simplifying and making space for what matters at her website.

Transcript

Kathi Lipp (00:10)

Hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. I am here with Tonya Kubo and Tonya, we have a very deep topic today, one that people have big feelings about. We’ve recently done some laundry episodes, but I want to talk about the actual space ? where your laundry is. Now you and I have different spaces for our laundry.

? Yours is in the garage, right? Yeah, I lived for many, years with laundry in the garage. Can I just say it had some pros and cons. I wonder if it does for you as well. What are your feelings about laundry in the garage, your garage being your laundry room?

Tonya Kubo (00:42)

Correct.

? like this is the only time I’ve ever lived someplace where the laundry was in the garage. So ? I don’t have a lot of comparison. I don’t like it being outside of the house, but at the same time, it’s nice not to have the laundry pile inside the house.

Kathi Lipp (00:59)

Okay?

Yeah, I had it ? at one of my homes. Well, actually, growing up, it was outside in the garage. And then the first house I co-owned with my then husband, it was outside. And I liked it not being in the house, but I missed it being in the house. Yeah, OK. So that’s not helpful, I know. But ? yes, yes.

Tonya Kubo (01:40)

? I feel like that’s exactly how I feel.

Kathi Lipp (01:44)

It was just nice that, you know, we could put things out there. There was enough room for like a rolling rack so we could hang things. And my laundry room currently, which you have seen, is the smallest laundry room I’ve ever seen in my entire life. ? I think it was built for when laundry, when washing machines were much, they weren’t as deep. And so, ?

Tonya Kubo (01:50)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (02:09)

You have to kind of slide in there to do things, but you make what you make work, right? And so, yeah. So I recently, ? I like having my laundry space indoors now, especially since we live in such, it can be very, very cold here. And the laundry room can either be a stress zone or a streamlined system.

Tonya Kubo (02:15)

Right.

Kathi Lipp (02:36)

And so let’s spend some time to make it streamlined. Let’s make this happen. we just recently did a post over on my page about laundry where people had very strong opinions, very, very strong feelings. We will talk about that in this episode. So if you’re like, are they gonna talk about it? Yes, we are. But. ?

I want to talk about how we can make that space, no matter what your sorting system is, as streamlined as possible. So I think the most important thing, at least for me, that nothing that is, anything that has nothing to do with laundry has no place in the laundry room, unless you have one of those giant laundry rooms where you can also put in a StairMaster or something.

That has never been my situation. Mine has always been in closets or those kind of things. So you clear the clutter. You know what you need in there. You need things like your detergent, your fabric softener, your color catchers, which if you don’t know what a color catcher is, that’s part of the big discussion going on in Facebook. These are, I found out about these because my mom’s a quilter.

And before you use a fabric to quilt with, you need to wash it to get all the dyes out. But you don’t want that dark red going on to the white polka dot. So you put in, it’s a shout color catcher, and we’ll put that in here in the show notes. And that little piece of absorbs, or I guess it’s a piece of paper, absorbs all that dye. And so your things don’t get messed up.

If you like to wash dangerously like I do, which means mixing colors and things like that, that is a beautiful thing to have. You also want your dryer sheets, your stain removers. We use dryer balls, all that kind of stuff. ? Let go of old empty products. We just recently, okay, my mom said she told me about this like seven years ago and apparently I ignored her. We’re not supposed to use bleach in our septic system.

Tonya Kubo (04:56)

Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (04:56)

?

Because it eats the microbes and yeah, which totally makes sense So we don’t need bleach anymore. So I got that out of there now. I still have a bleach pen I will die with that bleach pen in my cold dead hand ? Because I love Yes, if you see me being buried without that bleach pen You go talk to Roger. Okay, cuz something so some something suspicious. All right and then

Tonya Kubo (04:59)

Mm-hmm.

Okay, good to know.

Kathi Lipp (05:26)

Also, I think it’s time, I’ll never forget this. When we first bought our first house and there was a coat closet, I thought, wait, I could have matching hangers in that coat closet? Because we had come from a tiny, tiny apartment. And I guess it wasn’t the first house I owned, but it was the first house that was kind of big and it was my first coat closet. And my mom’s like, yeah, go crazy. And I bought matching hangers. And there is just something.

about matching hangers for me. You too, Tonya, I can see you nodding.

Tonya Kubo (05:59)

Oh yeah,

no, think, well, maybe not everybody, but yes, matching hangers, I feel like everything just is so much easier to like fit when all, cause all the hangers are the same size, the same length, all of that, that’s part of the matching piece. I love

Kathi Lipp (06:09)

Yes.

Yes, so Roger has white plastic hangers and I have the black velvet covered hangers because those velvet ones skeeve him out and the white ones my clothes fall off on them because all of his shirts are the button-up collar so like we just know what works for us so get rid of anything that it that you don’t need in there hangers baskets

Tonya Kubo (06:27)

Hmm.

Kathi Lipp (06:43)

Laundry gadgets that you thought were going to solve all your problems and they just took up space and then I want you to think about Zones, this is step two. So do you need ? if you’re a sorter? Do you need different bins for maybe whites darks delicates that kind of thing. We have cabinets over our washing machine and dryers so we have some things in there like our lingerie bags and the cleaning products and things like that.

? So you need a sorting zone or you know, I don’t really have space for that So our sorting zone is if we’re sort anything it’s gonna be up in Roger’s closet where we keep the dirty clothes ? Don’t worry. I store a lot of things for him ? the cleaning zone. So all the cleaning products together ? Folding zone again. Mine is too small. We don’t really have a space for folding out there. So this is our very sophisticated syndrome

system, we grab everything from the dryer that doesn’t need to be hung up and we put it on the couch for Moose to then lay in. Because this is one of her chief, chief ? gifts in life is being able to lay in warm clothes. Now, where do you fold?

Tonya Kubo (08:03)

On the bed, on our bed specifically.

Kathi Lipp (08:06)

Okay, okay. That’s a bit. Yes. And that works for you, right? Like what other space are you going to do?

Tonya Kubo (08:10)

Yeah,

yeah, we don’t have a lot of other space and Otto also appreciates a nice pile of clean laundry to lay in as well.

Kathi Lipp (08:17)

Mmm.

Okay,

so has is it Susu is that am I? The new kitten who’s by the way doing great, right? Yes Has Susu discovered the warm laundry pile yet?

Tonya Kubo (08:23)

Yeah, Susu’s the kitten.

Yes, yes, very, very healthy.

Yes, yes. you know, it’s funny is Otto even likes an empty laundry basket. Like they just like baskets. But yes, we we put the laundry on the bed and we just tip the basket over on the side. So it doesn’t topple off the bed because that is really upsetting. And then we came in and he was like tucked all the way in the back, just like perched like a king on top of the pile.

Kathi Lipp (08:40)

Yes, right.

Oh,

I love it. I love it so much. It makes me so happy. Also, you know, all of this may not be contained in your laundry room, but if you have a big laundry room, a hanging zone, so we do, we have little hooks all across and then we have another bar that has S hooks on it that we can use for drying things or hanging shirts, that kind of thing. So that’s been really, really helpful.

We also air dry a lot of our stuff. And so we have a bathroom right next to the laundry room. So I’ll often just hang things from hangers in that bathroom that works for us. And then an ironing zone. So we don’t iron a bunch of stuff. We have pretty much decided unless somebody is getting married or buried, we’re probably not wearing something that’s ironed. But we do have ? up in one of our

Tonya Kubo (09:47)

Hahaha

Kathi Lipp (09:53)

Extra bedrooms, we have an ironing board that kind of thing So I think the important thing is here It may not all be contained in your laundry room But you should have a system of where you are sorting your clothes where you’re keeping the cleaning supplies where you’re putting where you’re folding things Where you’re hanging things and where you’re ironing things if those are all part of your system ? Any any thoughts on that tonya anything that you would do differently or anything that you think about differently on that?

Tonya Kubo (10:23)

No, I think, you know, I mean, ultimately what you’re saying, Kathi is is it needs to function for you, for your family and for the space you have. Like you could never set up your laundry space like mine simply because you’ve got like this much space and like.

Kathi Lipp (10:42)

It’s a it’s

it’s the size of a half bathroom is our our whole laundry room.

Tonya Kubo (10:49)

? really? Is it that big? I feel like it’s much smaller than a half bathroom.

Kathi Lipp (10:51)

Okay, I was gonna say, I was gonna

say if that, yeah, yeah, it’s the size for a toilet in the sink. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (10:59)

Yeah, like, yeah, like

if you lived in Japan or in the downtown San Francisco. Yeah, super tiny, right? Whereas for, mean, like I don’t have a dedicated laundry room on one hand, but on the other hand, I have an entire garage and my washer and dryer set up against one wall. I could choose to make as much of that space my laundry room as I want.

Kathi Lipp (11:04)

Right, yes, it’s very tiny.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely. Just know what it is and make sure that everybody in the family knows what it is and then you can go. Okay, so number three, ? toss or store. So get rid of broken or mismatched laundry baskets. Store off-season items like heavy blankets or guest bedding in someplace else. know, make sure that…

Tonya Kubo (11:31)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (11:49)

You know, one of my fatal flaws is just leaving things on top of the dryer for way too long. I’ve been known to, I know, I’m the only one, right? And so just making sure that you’re making it as intentional and useful as possible. Don’t let things linger there. Okay, and then number four, make it manageable. ? you figure out how many loads you’re doing in a week and

Tonya Kubo (11:55)

What? What? No. Shh.

Yes!

Kathi Lipp (12:18)

Can you do one load a day? And I don’t sort my clothes, which is the big controversy. But one thing I do do, and it’s not sorting by colors, it’s sorting by textures, is I’ll do one load a week of things that I don’t wanna iron. Like all of Roger’s cotton shirts, my cotton shirts, cotton pants, that kind of thing. So. ?

Tonya Kubo (12:21)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (12:46)

But I will do that all at one space. So I will go and grab that out immediately. So there’s very little ironing to do. Now you have one person in your family who just does her own laundry. And so does she have a day of the week? What is that?

Tonya Kubo (12:59)

Mm-hmm.

Lily usually does her laundry on weekends, so either Saturday or Sunday, depending. But all of her clothes is like one load.

Kathi Lipp (13:12)

Right, right. And they’re mostly black, right? Yeah. Yes, I’ve met her. Yes. She’s a mini of my kids. Like, yeah, Kimberly ? and Amanda for a long time. Amanda, there was there used to be, I don’t know if there is anymore, a special detergent that’s just for black clothes. And yeah, so that was very important to Amanda for a very long time. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (13:15)

Yes, because you’ve met her.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mmm.

Kathi Lipp (13:38)

We’re going to take a quick break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about organizing your laundry room and some ideas around that. So we’ll be right back.

Okay, friends, let’s talk about organizing this. Now, let me say between decluttering and organizing, let’s talk about a couple of things that maybe you should do. One thing is dust behind your dryer, especially. ? Get down there with a vacuum, really clean that out. Having a long, long reaching feather duster or ? one of those bristly brooms is a good thing.

And then also, if you haven’t done it in a while, cleaning out your dryer duct. So there are kits you can buy online or at Home Depot that is just a big snake to get down there because fires start this way and you should be cleaning that out either every six months or once a year, depending on how often you use it. But if your dryer is not functioning the way it should be, before you call a repairman,

Get that all cleaned out because you can have that so backed up that no air is flowing and it could be a real struggle and it causes a lot of dust in there. So give everything a good wipe down. Get a cleaner that you love. I have a combination of okay, I’m bougie. Let’s just be clear. I am super bougie. I love the smell of grapefruit. Don’t necessarily love the taste, love the smell. And so ?

I ordered Clorox wipes that are a grapefruit smell and I use the method cleaner that is that. So grabbing your roll of paper towels, giving everything a good wipe down, ? wiping the top of your washing machine. like the lid lifted but in there. And then also you should be washing the inside of your washing machine.

Tonya Kubo (15:19)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (15:44)

At least once every six months and so there’s a product for that. There’s a product for everything guys Of course there is I will put that in there, but you just want to clear that out now I’ve noticed also this may help one or two people out there ? When we back when we were using bleach like it wasn’t affecting anything ? It really damaged the top of our washing machine, and so I got some spray paint

that is for ? white enamel appliances. And I took some blue painter tape and I marked off all the things that I didn’t want that color and then laid an old towel across the tub so it didn’t get in there. And now you have to be willing to not use your washing machine for like a full day. But I sprayed that on there so it wouldn’t keep ? rusting and getting degraded. ?

? That’s something to think about with that, but clean that space really really well. You’re gonna feel so good ? And then this is the time to think about could I put some wall-mounted shelves or cabinets for storage in there if I need it a small rolling cart between the washer and dryer is a great like a slimline one ? Over-the-door racks for hanging items or storing cleaning supplies that those are some great ways to maximize space

I’ve also done, in one of my houses, we did an over the door shoe organizer for ? sorting. So we had some cleaning supplies in there, but I would also put things like single socks, that kind of thing. ? And then the next step, label everything. As I get older, I’m a bigger believer in…

marking it up like a kindergarten room and just labeling absolutely everything you need in there. ? And then installing hooks for things like if you’re keeping brooms or mops or reusable bags in there. And then I did something last year that ? I guess it’s been a couple of years now that I’m really glad I did. We’ve got those giant ? containers of laundry soap from Costco and they’re so

Tonya Kubo (18:06)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (18:08)

Heavy and for a while you knew that I had a problem with my thumb going all the way up to my shoulder and You trying to lift that thing was making me be in so much pain So I got these refillable jugs off of Amazon. I’ll put a link in there that are really cute and so I would put most of the soap in there and then I had a couple of leftover smaller containers soap containers and

and I would just fill that up. So it was like three containers, but I stored that, I could get rid of that giant container. None of these were super heavy and it just made everything look 10 % cuter and I’ll take 10%. So using clear jars or label container for things like detergent, dryer sheets, I have my dryer sheets in a little wooden crate. They’re not scented, so I’m not trying to keep the scent in them. They’re unscented.

Tonya Kubo (19:01)

Mm.

Kathi Lipp (19:04)

? has been really, really helpful. ? Anything you’ve done to make your space, I know probably in the garage you’re not so worried about cute, but anything you’ve done to make it more functional.

Tonya Kubo (19:14)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so we do have a hanging rack, right? Because certain things that we want to hang to dry. So we have a shelf that is over the washer and dryer. And so I like that a lot ? because it makes the laundry detergent, the dryer sheets and everything in easy access. And I keep a little tiny, it’s a very tiny trash can up there to put like the balls of lint.

Kathi Lipp (19:41)

Hmm,

guess.

Tonya Kubo (19:44)

I will share a cleaning tip. It’s a little weird, but I’m going to share it anyway. those of us like the one thing I will say that’s problematic about having your washer and dryer in the garage is you get a lot more dust than you would inside the house. But years ago, somebody had talked to me about taking the ball of lint out of the dryer trap and using that to clean off the top of the dryer because

Kathi Lipp (19:47)

Please.

yeah.

Interesting.

Tonya Kubo (20:08)

It takes

all the lint in the surface desk by static because there’s a bunch of static in there. And so I’ll do that to clean it off and then I wipe it down. But I don’t have like the balls of lint that collect once you get it wet. So that that’s my cleaning tip right there. That’s all I got for you folks. But it’s funny is it’s you know, it’s the only trash can in the whole house that actually doesn’t have trash. It’s just like very light because it just has lint balls in there.

Kathi Lipp (20:13)

Yeah!

Tonya Kubo (20:34)

But

it has been very helpful to us in terms of keeping the washer and the dryer a lot less dusty than they typically would be.

Kathi Lipp (20:42)

That’s nice.

I like that then you feel like you can actually use that surface. I love that so much Okay. Now let’s just talk about maintaining that area So you just got Tonya’s tip wipe down the washer and dryer regularly to prevent that dust buildup ? Clean out the lint trap after every load ? Kim had a roommate who didn’t know you were supposed to do that. She she went on vacation

Kim went on vacation and she comes back and she’s like, guys, this is a fire hazard. So I will tell you, if you take nothing else from this, clean out your vent, clean out your lint trap. Like, please, please, ? And regularly check behind the machines for stray socks or lint. ? We’ve gotten down there with like a flashlight just to see. And I will tell you, I…

Tonya Kubo (21:35)

Hmm.

Kathi Lipp (21:42)

I’m not short, but I’m not tall. I’m a little bit taller than the average American woman. I’m 5’6″. And one of the things that’s really helped me is because washing machines now are built so they’re so, so deep. I keep a pair of barbecue tongs in the laundry room so I can reach that little tiny sock that’s all the way in the back. yeah, that’s…

I that has been very very helpful and I use that to grab things behind it and then Run that cleaning cycle on your washing machine with a wash cleaner. It really really does help Okay, so as we promised we’re talking about the link to the laundry post. So ? a few days ago I Admitted that I don’t sort my clothes and

People kept saying, can’t do that. They’re gonna become so dingy and so dark and your clothes are gonna be so gross. Okay, Tonya, have you ever seen me be dingy in my life? I am not a dingy person, okay? So I reject that in the name of Jesus Christ. now people have very, very big feelings. What were some of the reactions you saw, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (22:43)

No. ?

Hahaha

you

But how I would sum it up is people have big feelings about laundry. And I think we see this a lot of times with our cluttery community, right? Is so many of us were raised in homes where there is a way, you know, there is the right way and then everything else is wrong and only idiots do it that way. And apparently like laundry brings that side out of everybody.

Kathi Lipp (23:17)

Yes.

It really does. It’s I hadn’t. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (23:24)

Because I have to,

I just want to tell you, Kathi like, I don’t actually care that much about what you do with your laundry, because you know what, I barely care about what I do with my laundry. But people, people are passionate about how other people do their laundry. That’s what I’m going to say.

Kathi Lipp (23:37)

Yes.

It’s really wild isn’t it? It’s very very wild. So here’s what I’ll say I’m gonna put a link to this in the show notes ? And I think I think you guys are going to enjoy reading that now right after I posted that because people were good I would say they’re getting heated but they were getting a little tiny some people were getting a little tiny judgy and Or they were saying, you know, could never do that. And so

Tonya Kubo (23:53)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (24:12)

This is how I’d like to reframe it for those of us who feel very religious about how we do laundry. If you are doing micro loads, like, you know, I my blues and my purples because, you know, that’s just that’s how I’ve always said and you are not overwhelmed by that. Go off you, you quiet queen. I love that for you. I love that you have so much calm in your life.

Tonya Kubo (24:28)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (24:41)

And I have never experienced that level of calm in my life. And so if you’re looking for ways to maybe change some things up, try washing dangerously. Like I have no problem. If I’ve got a new pair of jeans, I’m throwing a color catcher in there. And that color catcher is going to absorb that. Now, if you’re like, no, I’ve had these kinds of jeans before. They have such a dark dye.

They bleed for weeks. I don’t know why you would still buy those jeans, ? do what’s going to work for you. But that doesn’t mean just because it worked for your mom, it’s the best system. And so I want us to have laundry freedom, Tonya. This is really my siren call.

Tonya Kubo (25:25)

I’m just telling you, Kathi, we haven’t seen this level of controversy since I came out on this podcast about not using a top sheet in my bed. Do you remember that? Yeah, it’s okay.

Kathi Lipp (25:36)

Yeah, okay. I still have a little judgment for you. No, I know it’s very

European. I really do It’s okay. You know what? Here’s the thing Tonya, I never have to sleep in your bed Yeah, so it’s all good. It’s all good Yeah, when I did I will say when we were traveling to new york and we got an airbnb and there was no top sheet on it I I was like, yeah

Tonya Kubo (25:42)

Hahaha

You were like Tonya was

here first!

Kathi Lipp (26:06)

Yes, exactly. This is not for me. This is not for me. This is not for me. ? Okay, guys, we’re going to take a break and we’re going to come back and I’m going to talk about ? something that has earned a spot in my clutter free home. ? We are going to have such a great conversation with Julie Abenga. I never pronounce her name right. I never pronounce the same the twice.

But she said that that was fine. She has a new book called Declutter Your Heart and Your Home, How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy. And it’s such a great conversation. You’re gonna love it. Okay, so we will be right back.

Kathi Lipp (00:00)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life.

And guys, if you have been a listener to this podcast for any length of time, you know I am not a minimalist. You know that I might even be described by some people as a maximalist, but I’ve been able to take my maximalism, woo, if that’s even a word, and coexist with it in a joyful way. But I know some of you really desire to live a more minimalist life.

and have I got the guest for you. You guys, her name is Julia Ubbenga and she has this, you guys, it’s a fantastic new book, Declutter Your Heart and Your Home, How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy. guys, she is all about the joy. Julia, welcome to the podcast. We’re so grateful you’re here.

Julia Ubbenga (01:01)

Thank you, Kathi, It’s wonderful to be here talking with you today.

Kathi Lipp (01:04)

? Yeah, I, you know, like I told you before the show, we don’t have a lot of people on who are talking about decluttering because as a cluttering person, I love to collect other decluttering systems and things like that. But I could not get over your story. And so I’m just, I don’t know that I’ve ever just jumped in and said, hey, tell me your story. But that’s what I’m doing it today because your path to minimalism.

I feel like is really unique but also kind of universal in many ways in what you’ve gone through. So tell me more about that.

Julia Ubbenga (01:38)

Yeah, so I have not always been a minimalist. Pretty far from it actually. I’m an unlikely minimalist, you could say. And my story starts in childhood. I grew up close to my grandma and my grandma loved to shop. She would buy things whether she needed it or not. It was her love language to give people gifts, to give me gifts. And so we’d stroll the malls together and I I soon learned that shopping was fun. It was a way to feel good. It was a way not to feel bad to kind of cover up hard feelings.

And so I carried this mindset with me into my twenties. I started making money. I started spending money and pretty soon I had all this stuff and $40,000 worth of consumer debt. Yeah. So when I thought about this debt, I felt bad, but when I felt bad, I’d go buy something new because that’s what I thought would make me feel good and make me feel happy. And so this cycle, it continued up until the time our second daughter was born. And I was working outside the home as a speech language pathologist at the time.

Kathi Lipp (02:28)

You

Julia Ubbenga (02:37)

but I’d always wanted to stay home with our kids. So that was my dream to be a stay at home mom. And my husband got a promotion at the time and I could stay home. I was so excited, but I had this really idyllic vision of what stay at home mom life would be like. thought, yeah, I thought my daughters and I would be snuggled on the couch, reading Little House on the Prairie, would be giggling over tea parties. In my mind, it was just going to be great. Well, a couple of weeks into the stay at home mom gig, I would not even called myself a stay at home mom. I would have said,

Kathi Lipp (02:51)

right?

Julia Ubbenga (03:07)

A full-time stuff manager would have been a better title because Kathi, that is what I did. I was constantly looking for things and picking things up and cleaning things, tripping over things that I hadn’t picked up yet. It was just all consuming. was exhausted. I was stressed. I couldn’t really be present to the people around me. Like I was there, but I wasn’t really there as distracted and just, I was overwhelmed. So.

Kathi Lipp (03:13)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Julia Ubbenga (03:33)

A couple months into living this way, I was diagnosed with postpartum depression. And I remember this morning where I was up in the nursery in the recliner chair. I was feeding our baby and I was talking with God, really pleading with God. was like, God, what is going on here? This isn’t what I signed up for. Something needs to change. And I was reading the Bible and a couple of verses from Luke chapter 12. They just jumped off the page at me and they said, your life.

Kathi Lipp (03:39)

?

Julia Ubbenga (04:02)

does not consist of possessions, be rich in what matters. And so I paused right there and I asked myself, was I rich in what mattered? Was I rich in relationships, time for a faith life, time for hobbies that I loved? And no, the answer was absolutely not, I wasn’t. So that planted the seed that something in my life in the area of possessions needed to change. But I didn’t know what, I didn’t know where to go from there. And that same week, I had a therapy appointment.

And at the end of the session, just as I was leaving, the therapist said, Julia, have you ever heard of minimalism? I’m like, you mean houses with white walls and next to nothing in them. And she’s like, no, there’s more to it than that. Look into it. I think you might be interested. So I was curious and I did a Google search there in the car just right after the session and realized that there’s a lot of resources about minimalism. So I started reading books and blogs and listening to podcasts about it. And this idea.

that I didn’t need all this stuff to be happy. And in fact, I’d be a whole lot happier with less of it because then I’d have more time and energy to focus on who and what mattered. It was a mindset shift that was life-changing. And it finally gave me a vision of how to get out from under all this stress and anxiety that I was feeling at the time. So I went all in on minimalism. I started a blog at the time. I called it Rich in What Matters after the Bible verse that spoke to me.

And we let go of 75 % of our stuff over the course of the first year. And then we downsized to an apartment home and got rid of our consumer debt. We built our own intentionally smaller new home. And so yeah, we’ve been living as a minimalist family for six years now, and we have five kids ages 11, seven, four, three, and three months. And yeah, and now I have this book that I’ve written, Declutter Your Heart in Your Home, How a Minimalist Life Yields Maximum Joy.

Kathi Lipp (05:45)

Wow.

Julia Ubbenga (05:52)

Because I want to give other people the tools to live less stuff, to live a lighter life if they feel called to do that.

Kathi Lipp (06:00)

Okay, first of all, birthing a baby in a book at the same time, I give you major props, my friends. I think that there are a lot of people out there who say, this sounds amazing. To not be dealing with my stuff all the time, to not be shuffling it from one room to another, to not spend my entire life picking up and putting away and all of that.

Julia Ubbenga (06:06)

Thank you.

Kathi Lipp (06:26)

What does practical minimalism actually look like in everyday life? What can you give me like one or two practices or mindset shifts that have made the biggest impact for you?

Julia Ubbenga (06:39)

Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, I think that minimalism itself is misunderstood, that it’s about more than just your stuff. So if we’re talking mindset, minimalism is just a tool to live your life with intention. And so it’s about letting go of the things in your life that don’t matter, to make space in your life for the things that do matter. And that does apply to your possessions, but it also applies to your calendar commitments, to your self-talk thoughts, your thought patterns.

So it’s you’re constantly discerning what are you letting into your life? And then if it’s not supporting your life, it’s not aligned with your values, if it’s not serving you, you’re letting it go. And so practically this would look like keeping a calendar that doesn’t have half-hearted commitments on it. ? It would also just mean you’re constantly looking around at your things in your home wondering, this still serving me? Is this distracting me from my present life?

? you know, what matters to me from my kids, from my spouse, is it distracting me? Is it taking my time and my energy and attention? Or is it helping me better connect with them? So I think it’s really just you’re kind of the gatekeeper of your home and your world and just discerning what you let into it.

Kathi Lipp (07:49)

Yeah, I would say as I am on this journey, because it will always be a journey for me. I’m never going to be in a finished space, but this spot where I am more comfortable in my home than I’ve ever been before, but what I’m also noticing is, I don’t know that I’ll ever be a minimalist, but it’s the same questions. Is this still serving me? And I think we all have different levels of

Julia Ubbenga (07:56)

Yes.

Kathi Lipp (08:19)

the amount of stuff around us that makes us comfortable or more importantly uncomfortable at you know the the not disease like a sickness but the dis-ease in our lives because I feel like I’m being suffocated or I can’t find what I need. I would love to know from you what was the overwhelming feeling before you started on this minimalist path?

and contrast that with what does it feel like now. When you wake up in the morning and you look around, what was the feeling you had before and what is it now?

Julia Ubbenga (09:01)

That’s a great question. So I think that before minimalism when I’d wake up the more in the morning and look around I Felt like the home had the upper hand like I would look at a mess and I was like I have no idea when I am going to find the time to even start taking care of that and I would feel stressed and I would feel anxious even ? and So now when I look around and I see a mess definitely we have messes We have five kids, but I see the messes and they’re manageable. They’re easily tidied

Kathi Lipp (09:26)

Right.

Julia Ubbenga (09:30)

They don’t have the upper hand. don’t spark that same feeling of overwhelm in me. It’s more of a mindset shift of where, ? okay, there’s a mess there and I can take care of that in five minutes later when I’m done playing with my kids. And so, yeah, so it’s just this idea that you are feeling good in your home. You’re not overwhelmed by your home and that just helps you become more present to the people around you in your home.

Kathi Lipp (09:42)

Yeah.

Guys, even if your goal isn’t to be a minimalist, what I love about this book is it will help you develop a minimalist mindset that says, I don’t have to keep things out of fear, guilt, or shame. I don’t have to keep things because somebody gave them to me. And here’s what I love. You talk about your grandmother with such love and respect that you knew that that was her love language. And you can also say,

I received that from my grandmother, but I don’t have to carry it forward. And I love that. Julia, I would love, as we are wrapping up here, one or two practical things that somebody can do today to start developing this mindset. Is it a practice? ? What is it that would help somebody get started with this today?

Julia Ubbenga (10:49)

Well, a super practical thing that I love is just getting a quick decluttering win and going and clearing off the front of your fridge or maybe just keeping one or two of your favorite things on it. And the reason I say go tackle the front of your fridge is because there’s a study done at UCLA and in it they found that the average fridge in a home has 52 items on it. And there was a connection between the amount of stuff on a fridge and the amount of clutter in a home. So if your goal is to live a clutter free life,

then clear off that front of your fridge, something you see very often, and you’ll see that. And that can be a reminder that can help you shift your mindset that, hey, I am not gonna live in a cluttered home anymore. I see that clear fridge and I am going to live a clutter-free life.

Kathi Lipp (11:35)

Julia, I love that you and I referenced the same UCLA study. Have you read that book? I love that book so much. Guys, if you don’t know what we’re talking about, I can’t remember the name of the book. Maybe you do. ? If you don’t, it’s okay. I will put it in the show notes. But they went and lived basically with dozens and dozens of families to study clutter in homes around the LA area mostly.

Julia Ubbenga (11:40)

Yes, it’s a great one. Yes, I have it at home. Me too.

hmm.

Kathi Lipp (12:06)

And ? first of all, if you read that book, you’re going to realize you are not weird, you are normal. I don’t care how much clutter you have in your home. If you are below hoarder, you are normal. But also talking about cortisone levels in women who live with a lot of stuff. And Julia, I know for me, and I can already tell from speaking with you that our cortisone levels changed as we decluttered.

I don’t have any scientific proof of that, but the feeling of not being on edge all the time is life changing, isn’t it?

Julia Ubbenga (12:40)

Yes.

It is life-changing. is. Yeah. I think the book is called life at home in the 21st century. Does that ring a bell? Yeah. It just came to me. Yeah. And it is such a life-changing experience to not being on, not to be on edge in your home all the time. And I think that actually makes your nervous system shift out of that fight or flight response that we get stuck in so much. And that has implications for our health, Kathi. mean, stress and nervous system dysregulation can lead to health problems. And so.

Kathi Lipp (12:49)

Yes, yes, yes, exactly. Yeah.

Julia Ubbenga (13:14)

It goes deeper than, yeah.

Kathi Lipp (13:14)

And

we discount those health dangers in women. We know about it for men, but heart disease and from stress is a huge factor for a lot of women. And so I love that we are having this conversation. And while you and I come at it from different levels, the heart is the same. We want you to be at peace in your home. And guys, ?

Julia Ubbenga (13:22)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi Lipp (13:44)

? This is such a great read and it’s gonna be so if you found Julia inspirational and I know my listeners I know you found her inspirational today. You said I want a piece of that ? Guys, you know this segment things that have earned a space in my clutter free home And this book has declutter your heart and your home how to how a minimalist life yields maximum joy We’ll have a link in our show notes

Julia thanks for being on today. This this book is a treasure. I’m gonna read it again I’m gonna pass it along to a friend who I know also needs to hear your words. I’m so grateful for you today

Julia Ubbenga (14:23)

Thank you so much for having me on, Kathi. It was a fun conversation.

Kathi Lipp (14:26)

And friends, I’m just so grateful you’ve been here today. You’ve been listening to Clutter-Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

Sep 9, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, community, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast

Are you tired of feeling like you’re living on an endless treadmill of tidying up, only to have chaos sneak right back in? This week on the Clutter Free Podcast, Kathi dives deep into the secret reason behind recurring clutter—and why baskets and labels alone aren’t...

#685 – Stuck and Overwhelmed? The Real Reason Your Clutter Won’t Budge

Sep 2, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, Restore, tips and ideas

Are you worn out from battling clutter and not seeing the progress you’d hoped for? In this heartfelt episode, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the reality of declutter fatigue and why, for so many women, the journey can feel never-ending. If you’re feeling stuck,...

#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

Aug 26, 2025 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Podcast, tips and ideas

Is your clutter making a comeback…again? You tidy up, you declutter, but somehow, all those piles and projects sneak right back into your life. If you’ve ever felt defeated when the mess keeps resurfacing, this episode will speak right to your heart. Join Kathi and...

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#687 – What’s Lurking Under Your Bed? Declutter the Forgotten Zone for Good

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#686 – Declutter Once and For All: Why Your Home’s Chaos Keeps Sneaking Back

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#684 – Decluttering for Real Life: Simple Steps for Busy, Overwhelmed Women

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#679 – Grief and Clutter – A Journey Through Loss and Letting Go

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#678 – The Great Laundry Debate: Sorting, Systems, and Space-Saving Secrets

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