by kathilipp | Mar 26, 2018 | Clutter Free, tips and ideas, Waiting |
One of the things that has changed my house and my mind about clutter more than any other thing is what I’m calling “microsorting.”
In my previous life (like five years ago), when I was waiting in a drive through at Starbucks, or waiting for my oatmeal in the microwave to finish heating, I would jump on my phone and check Facebook. Now, I microsort.
Microsorts are not our typical 15 minute Clutter Free sessions. These aren’t even five minutes. These are the seconds where I’m waiting for something to heat up, power up, and finish up.
As an example, when I’m waiting for my coffee to brew in the morning (I set it the night before, but I’m almost always up before my alarm) I straighten up the coffee area, or refill the ground coffee container, replace coffee flavoring container that is running low (I love sugar-free coconut).
What I love about microsorts is that these are little patches of time that come up all day long. In those tiny pockets of time, you can accomplish so much. The other thing I love? This helps you prepare for the next day, or the next time you are cooking, or the next time you’ll be in that area. Tomorrow, when I get my coffee, the ground coffee container will be full, I’ll have my flavorings, and the area will be clean and tidy and greet me well in the morning. It is my best way to be kind to my future self.
So here are 50 ways to microsort throughout your day:
Waiting in the Kitchen
Whether you’re waiting to take something out of the oven or for those last 30 seconds on the microwave, or maybe it’s waiting for your slowpoke kids to finally finish eating, there are tons of things to do with that extra 30 seconds:
- Unload part of the dishwasher
- Sort your silverware drawer
- Look at dates of food on a shelf in the fridge
- Look at dates of food on a shelf in the pantry
- Sort through your utensil drawer
- Take out the trash
- Take out the recycling
- Wipe off a counter
- Scrub out your sink
- Wipe down an appliance
- Put water in the coffee pot for tomorrow
- Refill a canister (with flour, sugar, etc.)
- Start a shopping list for the next time you go to the store
- Restock dog/cat food
Waiting in the Living Room
Maybe you’re watching real, live TV with (gasp) commercials. Here is what you can do in the living room while you wait:
- Fold blankets or quilts in that room
- Sort through remotes
- Fluff pillows on the couch
- Sort mail
- Get rid of 5 magazines
- Declutter a shelf on a book case – donate five books
- Sort DVDs – donate five that your family never watches
- Hang up any coats that have been discarded in this room
- Get rid of any cords that you don’t use anymore
Waiting for People
I seemed to spend much of my kids’ elementary school years standing by the front door yelling, “Come on!!! Let’s GOOOOOO…” Why not multitask with the yelling and get some things done?
- Clean off your entry table
- Clean off some apps on your phone you never use
- Sweep your front porch
- Restock dog bags (for cleanups during walks)
Waiting in Your Car
We seem to wait in our cars for all kinds of reasons:
For the kids to get out of practice
For the tank to get filled up
For Starbucks to finish your order
For Walmart to bring out your groceries (that you so cleverly ordered ahead…):
- Clean out trash in your front seat
- Create a bag for things that need to be taken into the house
- Go through receipts in your wallet and pitch what you don’t need
- Buy a six pack of water and keep it in your trunk for emergencies
- Sort through your glove box
- Throw away five things in your trunk
Waiting in Your Bathroom
Kids taking a bath. (Obviously, depending on the age of the little ones and their ability to sit upright) or waiting for the shower to warm up:
- Get rid of five empty bottles
- Sort through part of a drawer
- Check expired meds
- Inventory shampoos and conditioners
- Get rid of five products you don’t use anymore
Waiting in Your Bedroom
Waiting for your spouse to come to bed or waiting for him to get ready to go:
- Sort your bedside table
- Sort your underwear drawer – pitch anything you wouldn’t want to be seen at the doctor’s in
- Get rid of one pair of PJs that don’t make you feel awesome
- Pull 5 things from your closet that you don’t wear to donate to charity
Waiting in Your Laundry Area
I hate ironing, so I spend a lot of time waiting for the dryer to beep so that I can grab the shirts like a ninja so that I don’t have to set up the ironing board:
- Match two pairs of socks
- Wipe down the top of the washer and dryer
- Inventory what you need to replenish in that area
Waiting in Your Office
Waiting for a friend to type out a huge Facebook message, waiting for a video to download or even just an app:
- File or recycle five pieces of paper
- Test out five pens to see if they have ink – pitch the ones that don’t
- Return one email
- Update your to-do list
- Inventory office supplies
Those little bits of time can add up – make them add up to a clutter free home.
What are some of the ways that you use pockets of time?
Want to get Clutter Free? Join us in our Facebook Group Clutter Free Academy
by kathilipp | Mar 21, 2018 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Heart, Identity |
Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours (Isaiah 61:7, NIV).
Before I could change my mind, I scooped up my bathroom scale and tossed it into the box labeled, “Goodwill.”
I took a picture of the giveaway box containing a perfectly good bathroom scale (one I’d used daily, sometimes multiple times) and sent it to my friend, Melissa. “Goodbye, bossy box!” I captioned it.
Though technically not house clutter, it did represent a whole heap of heart clutter.
After sharing with Melissa my struggles about shame over my weight, I realized I had become a slave to a digital number. My mood each day depended on whether that number went up or down.
“Has it been working for you so far?” Melissa had asked. I had to agree with her; it hadn’t helped me lose weight or have a healthy relationship with food. It only added to the weight of shame I’d been carrying. I plunked the box into the garage and decided to focus on other markers of health success.
Since my decluttering session, my mood has been a lot lighter. I have the freedom to engage in self care (exercising to feel better and sleep better, rather than punishing myself for a number on a box). I base my success on how good and healthy I feel rather than a fluctuating number.
Shame only serves to weigh us down rather than to help us grow and serve the purpose God created us for (Ephesians 2:10). Before we can ever deal with the exterior problem, we have to throw off the heart clutter holding us back.
Often, items cluttering up our home are tangible evidence we’re carrying around too much shame in our hearts. To the naked eye, it looks like a bathroom scale or 50 bottles of lotion you’ll never use or 6 old phones sitting in your top drawer. But down under the useless stuff, there’s shame involved. Your clutter might represent bad financial decisions, abusive relationships, or other poor choices—any number of things we chronically kick ourselves over.
Once we recognize an item triggers shame in our hearts, it’s easier to toss it. We can’t change whatever caused the shame in the past, but we can make positive, nurturing changes that help us live in a joyful present. Without the weight of shame, we are free to go out and do what we were made to do in the world.
One Small Win
Think of one item in your house you keep, not because it serves you well, but out of shame. Imagine the feeling of lifting the weight of shame off of you when you get it out of your house. Take a deep breath, and do it!
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Lyneta Smith and her husband Doug live near Nashville, TN. When not entertaining their adult children or caring for a mischievous Boston terrier and opinionated tortoiseshell cat, they’re typing away on their computers or doing teaching/mentoring ministries in their church. You can read more from Lyneta at LynetaSmith.com.
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by kathilipp | Mar 19, 2018 | Clutter Free, Fear, God |
It’s March 27, 2017
Due to an emergency, Kathi is unable to do her scheduled Facebook LIVE with the Clutter Free Bible Study group and asks if I’ll fill in.
“If you don’t have any areas of clutter struggle any more, ” she says as only the Queen of Positivity can, “maybe you can tell them about your past challenges.”
“Oh, I’m sure I’ll think of something!” I assure her, glancing guiltily around my office.
During the Facebook LIVE, I show everyone my greatest clutter struggle: the many ways I preserve my ideas.
- A shelf lined with 2 inch binders labeled “Blog Post Ideas #1” … “Blog Post Ideas #2” … “Blog Post Ideas #3″…
- File boxes full of hanging file-folders stuffed with notes from in-process book proposals and retreat messages.
- Stacks of printed drafts (I live in terror of losing digital data, so I hav a printing compulsion) from the months when Kathi and I were writing Overwhelmed: 1st draft, 2nd draft, 10th draft.
- Notebooks from the various writing and speaking conferences I’d been to, dating back before 2010.
“They’re all so beautifully organized and labeled, Cheri!” someone comments.
“Aren’t they?” I agree.
“Which is exactly what has allowed me to justify keeping all this stuff. After all, if it’s color-coded, labeled, and organized in binders, certainly it’s not clutter…right?!?”
My sarcasm evokes laughter, and then we all fall silent in communal conviction.
Just because our stuff looks good does not mean we should keep it.
What Size is Your Plate?
In Overwhelmed, Kathi describes each person’s individual capacity in terms of “the size of your plate.”
Most women have dinner plates—an average capacity for activity and productivity.
A few have turkey platters and can accomplish 2-3 times as much as most people.
I, on the other hand, have a small plate. As a highly sensitive person, I am extra easily overwhelmed.
“Does all this stuff in my office match up with a small plate person?” I ask the Clutter Free Bible Study group members.
No way, they all agree.
All the binders and boxes and stacks match someone with a turkey platter.
A hard truth hits me, smack dab in the middle of Facebook LIVE:
Hanging onto so much stuff is a form of greed stemming from distrust.
Protecting my precious ideas is me saying, “God, I don’t trust you to remind me of what’s important.”
And ultimately, hoarding my ideas is my way of trying to stretch my plate.
I never wanted a small plate. I’ve always wanted a turkey platter. So I’ve surrounded myself with “evidence” that “proves” my preferred truth.
It’s my way of saying, “Look! I have all this! If I have so much, I must have a really big plate!”
Bottom line: I’m keeping an office full of stuff so that I can prove God wrong.
<gulp>
Learning to Trust God
After the Facebook LIVE I look around my office with new eyes.
I’ve worked so hard to protect all my precious ideas, but I have far too many to use.
I need to trust God to choose.
I need to believe that God will help me remember the ideas I need when the time comes. Or trust that He’ll give me something new.
Either way, it’s time to quit pretending I have a bigger plate than I do.
I need to accept the size of my plate and let most of this stuff go.
My stuff needs to match the truth about who God created me to be.
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Cheri Gregory is a teacher, speaker, author, and Certified Personality Trainer. Her passion is helping women break free from destructive expectations. She writes and speaks from the conviction that “how to” works best in partnership with “heart, too.”
Cheri is the co-author, with Kathi Lipp, of The Cure for the “Perfect” Life and the upcoming Overwhelmed.
Cheri has been “wife of my youth” to Daniel, her opposite personality, for twenty-eight years and is “Mom” to Annemarie (25) and Jonathon (23), also opposite personalities.
Cheri blogs about perfectionism, people-pleasing, highly sensitive people, and hope at www.cherigregory.com.
by kathilipp | Mar 15, 2018 | Book Club, Clutter Free, Giveaways |
Welcome to the Clutter Free Book Club, where I share the books I’ve been reading (and hopefully loving.) Each month I review at least one book I’ve read, and because I am living a Clutter Free life, I pass that book on to one of you. To be entered into the drawing, just comment on this post and you’ll be entered to win. But there is one catch: if you win the book, you have to promise to pass it on to someone else when you’re done (keeping this book club Clutter Free.) When you comment below, share either 1. A book you’ve read that you think I should put on my list or 2. The name of the person you will pass this book onto when you’re done reading it!
Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World Hardcover – April 4, 2017
Where I bought it: Audible
by Author Admiral William H. McRaven (Ret.)
Where I read it: It’s a short book – I listened to it while I was helping my step-daughter and son-in-law move into their new house.
I’d heard about Admiral McRaven’s speech at University of Texas (Hook ’em!) and what he’d learned in his military career. It was such and enjoyable book and many of the lessons have stuck with me. Lesson 1 making your bed means that the first thing you do each morning is accomplish something. (I lay in bed for a minute and pray first, so first God, then accomplishment. I recommend THAT order.) Recommended!
Just a word on the books I read and review: I have a wide and varied sense of taste when it comes to books. I would love for you to enter and win one of my books – but if you are offended by book content, I would ask that you go online to read reviews to see if this book is for you before you enter to win.
*Only US readers are eligible to receive the free book.
by kathilipp | Mar 14, 2018 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Heart, Identity |
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)
I’m ready to throw out all of my jeans. Nothing reminds me of the extra weight I’m wearing than a pair of jeans. My skinny jeans really are a paradox. As I tug, yank and wiggle out of them after a long day, I feel trapped in guilt. Suffocating guilt traps them like a denim straight jacket onto my hips. Why haven’t I lost weight yet? How could I have let myself get this heavy? Why do I keep insisting on cramming my body into these jeans? I can’t shed these jeans fast enough. Unfortunately, those extra pounds don’t make fast an option.
Eventually I peel off the jeans and throw them in a heap on my closet floor. They lay there, mocking me. I might have removed the jeans from my body, yet I still don’t feel free of them. There’s another layer squeezing me, my heart.
The guilt. Oh the guilt.
That’s much more difficult to remove. And today it’s almost impossible to shimmy out of.
I quickly grab a pair of leggings and pull them on, their softness and comfort enveloping me. Oh how I long for the same feeling in my heart.
Deep in my heart, I hear a whisper. A reminder. My worth is not found in how my jeans fit, the number on the tag in my jeans, or the number on the scale.
My worth is in Jesus.
For me to wear the peace of that statement, I need to not only shed the too-tight clothes, but the guilt, the shame and the disappointment that comes with them.
Hebrews 4:16 reminds me that because of Jesus, I can approach the throne of God’s grace with confidence. Not with guilt, shame and fear. With confidence. No matter the size of my jeans. The number of the scale. God wants me to come to Him with confidence, but what waits for me there is so much better than confidence! He’s waiting for me, for you, with grace and mercy. And as I find His grace and mercy, I can begin to extend it to myself.
And today, that looks like adding that pair of jeans to the bag of items I’m going to donate later this week. And since I’m already in my closet, I might as well go through some other clothes that don’t fit me. They’re just clutter anyway.
As I let go of clothing that doesn’t fit me, I also let go of the guilt that God never designed to fit my heart.
One Small Win
What’s one item that you can give away or throw away today that will not only release you from physical clutter but from the emotional clutter of guilt? Once you think of it, go do it! Bag it up and put it in your trunk for the next time you’re near a donation spot or throw it away if it’s trash. As you get rid of it, say goodbye to the guilt about it too!
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Melissa Mulvaney is a wife, triple-boy blessed mama, writer, certified life coach and lover of her loud and joyful life. She’s known for her cowbells skills, only writes with pink pens, has the loudest laugh in the room, uses 10 exclamation points instead of a period, and cheers her people on literally and figuratively. If cheering people on was a sport, Melissa would win the gold! You can connect with her at MelissaMulvaney.com.
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by kathilipp | Mar 13, 2018 | Clutter Free, Kitchen, Podcast |
Decluttering your kitchen could be the hardest area of the house because it is constantly being used. Tonya Kubo is back with Kathi Lipp as they break down their top 5 favorite tips to keep the kitchen free from clutter. How do you organize the real estate on your counter tops? And what about the refrigerator, pantry, cupboards and drawers… so much or so little space that can save you time, money and frustration.
Stop the madness and get in on this freedom we call a clutter free kitchen with the simple, doable tips Kathi and Tonya divulge in this entertaining and revealing episode.
For more great tips, join us on the private Facebook group all about living the clutter free life.
Tonya Kubo is the illustrious, fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter-Free Academy Facebook group. She and her husband, Brian, are raising two spirited girls in the agricultural heart of California. She writes about fighting the demons of comparison, clutter and compulsion on www.tonyakubo.com.
