by kathilipp | May 6, 2015 | Clutter Free |
It’s a busy time of year with end of school, end of clubs, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and sports coming to an end. Most moms are just getting through one day at a time. But low and behold, one of these nights, after all the kids are in bed, and she is folding another load of laundry, she is going to remember that all of these teachers, volunteers, coaches and grandparents are going to need gifts… and the panic sets in.
This month we are going to share some gift ideas that are easy to create or purchase with all of those photos of your family and the artwork your children create. Visit us on Wednesdays in May for new ideas!
Idea #1- Photo Coasters
Photo coasters are a great gift idea for:
– Grandparents
– Dad (for his office)
– Mom
– Teachers (think class gift)
How to pick your photos:
Pick the photos or artwork that will bring your gift recipient the best memories or put a smile on their face every time they see it. Candid shots are usually best.
If you are using digital photos, it’s best to print your artwork to size (square, just a tad smaller than your tiles) and print them on photo paper. Let them dry for at least one day before proceeding with the rest of the project. For photos you alre
What you’ll need:
4- 4×4 tiles (you can get these for cheap at any hardware store)
Modpodge
A foam brush
Stick on felt circles (4 per coaster)
Clear spray sealant (optional)
Twine or ribbon
What you do:
Cut your photos so that they are just a tad smaller than your tile. 
Brush a thin layer of modpodge on your tile, center your photo and push it down on the tile. Make sure to push it down firmly without rubbing the photo. Rubbing it could make the ink run. Let it dry for 20 minutes.
Brush on a thin layer of modpodge over your picture making sure to cover the edges of your picture to ensure that it sticks to the tile. Let it dry for 20 minutes then apply a final coat.
Once they are dry, spray the clear sealant over the tile. (Do this step outside!) This will ensure that your coasters are water proof. However, this step isn’t necessary. Modpodge is a sealant and will do the trick. Some DIYers advise it, some don’t.
After your coasters are dry, place a felt circle on the bottom near each corner.
Once they are all completely dry, stack them and tie them together with some twine or cute ribbon.
Ta da… you have a great gift! 
by kathilipp | Jan 28, 2015 | Clutter Free, Guest Blog |
When people have asked the question: “What is one thing you wish you could change about yourself?”, my first thought, after a slightly faster metabolism, is being organized. When I drive through a neighborhood and see someone’s garage door open with bikes hung from rafter hooks, tools lined up on hangers, and assorted bins of sporting equipment, I have an urge to stop and ask if I could take a selfie in front of it…just to fanaticize about what my world would look like if a magic cleaning fairy waved her magic squeegee in my direction.
Organized people don’t use saran wrap on their Tupperware, only to find a stack of lids in some random craft box three moves later…after the said Tupperware has been used as a pet dish and eventually tossed.
One time, I bought a huge three-ring “everything you could ever need to know about being organized” binder. It was obviously written by someone who made Martha, from the Bible, look like a total slacker. The book was full of master copies addressing everything from running a B & B out of your bonus room to keeping track of your child’s fluoride treatments, and the care and nurture of beekeeping. The big selling point was that it came with “a money back guarantee”! If the book didn’t organize my life within a year, I could return it for a full refund or a voucher for home school craft supplies and a pound of fair trade coffee beans.
With hope and enthusiasm, I took out all the relevant pages. I knew once I got everything copied and began the task of filling all the sheets out I would be able to keep track of EVERYTHING! The one thing I hadn’t planed on was having to keep track of all the papers that were now no longer confined to a binder. I lost them. Gone. At the end of the year, not only was I still disorganized, I couldn’t send my half empty book in for a refund. Something needed to change. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be organized; I just was too busy to take the time I needed to really de-clutter and clean beyond the surface. After all, I am a people person who teeters on the edge of being spontaneous. Seriously, we are talking about me. A woman who lost one of her tap shoes and kept the other one for about four years just in case. Just in case what? I run into a one legged tapper who happens to be a size 9?
This year, I have been reading “Clutter Free” and really understanding that clutter isn’t just something that happens in your house, closets, and under the bed. Clutter can become personal and can cost much more than another filing system. The other day while doing a de-cluttering challenge, I came across a box of random things that had been on the desk, then the table, and finally followed the clutter migratory flight pattern to the far corner of my sewing area. Magazines full of tantalizing recipes, old junk mail, craft supplies, and a small brown paper bag filled the repurposed apple box. I opened the bag and out slipped a simple embossed card. My heart sank. It was a card I had purchased and intended to send to a friend who recently lost her spouse. My clutter and disorganization had spilled over beyond myself. With the card in my hand, I decided that what I have it isn’t about freeing up space in your drawers, but in your life and your heart.
My word for 2015 is BALANCE. It is something I will be talking about for the next twelve months. For now, I am taking it one closet and cupboard at a time and cleaning out the things that do not matter to make room for the things that do. ~ Marci
You can find out more about Marci at her website, and you can also discover her two books, The Adventures of Pearley Monroe and Empty Nest:Strategies To Help Your Kids Take Flight!
Are you ready to be Clutter Free? Start the 21-Day Clutter Free challenge! Sign up now!
by kathilipp | Jan 27, 2015 | Clutter Free, Podcast, Relationships, The Husband Project, tips and ideas |
You hardly have time to eat or shower… how are you supposed to have time for sex?
Are you ready for a clutter free romance?
Our new series of books, “Hot Mama,” was written just for busy women like you—women who want fulfilling, intimate and hot sex lives without all of the clutter that makes our marriages ho-hum. And to kick it off, we’re talking about decluttering your life to make room for… sex. Listen and hear how to:
- Keep your bedroom a place that’s romantic and sexy, not depressing and cluttered.
- Find room in your busy schedule for sex and intimacy.
- Making sure your lingerie drawer is full of cute things.
- Make room in your life for all of the flirty fun things that happen in a marriage. (And find out exactly what Kathi is talking about when she says “her salad kit.”)
When you’re done, head over to http://www.kathilipp.com/fridaynightlights to sign up to get a free sex tip delivered to your inbox every Friday for ten weeks to help you keep your sex life fun, fulfilling and yes, even hot.
And here’s a link to the body lotion that’s mentioned in the podcast: Bath and Body Works Aromatherapy Orange Ginger Energy Body Lotion! You don’t want to miss that part of the show!
Erin MacPherson lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Cameron, her sons Joey and Will and her daughter Kate. She is the author of “The Christian Mama’s Guide Series“, a staff writer for Dun & Bradstreet and a freelancer for publications like Thriving Family Magazine, MOPS MomSense, FamilyLife Magazine, Daily Guideposts and BEMag. She blogs about her life, her kids and her faith at ChristianMamasGuide.com.
by kathilipp | Jan 22, 2015 | Clutter Free, Guest Blog |
Clutter Free and Me
You know Linus and his blanket from the Charlie Brown cartoons, right? Well, there’s Sharon and her clutter, okay? As a little girl I was challenged with all my dolls and accessories. I shared a room with my older sister who did not do clutter. Every Saturday was clean your room day. What an ordeal for me! It continued on into college. Spaces were getting smaller and I was collecting more “things”. My dad was amazed at my ability to pack it all into the trunk to go home each spring. As I married and had children it became like a snowball rolling down the hill increasing in size and multiplying.
I recall a friend visiting for a playgroup, who commented on how messy our dressers were. She never returned. I felt shame realizing not everyone lived like I did. There were neat people. How could I become one?
Over thirty-five years have gone by since that day. The ebb and flow of clutter remains… on my mind constantly, always like a foreboding storm. My friend, Kathi Lipp has written a book for people like me. She understands that shame, that forever overwhelming feeling, and the energy-zapping demon of clutter.
“The problem is that clutter can become so overwhelming that to try and attack even a little of it can feel defeating. So instead, you give up and live in the piles.
Clutter never lets you settle on one thing. There is too much distraction, too much stop and start; too much ‘I’ll get to it when I can.’
It shames us. It steals our joy. It makes us exhausted. It brings up bad memories. It keeps you guilty…
Clutter keeps talking to us, weighing us down, and keeps us from living the life we were designed to live.”
She gets me. But then she offers words of hope:
“In the next several chapters, we’re going to talk about how our head keeps us bogged down in clutter – the lies we tell ourselves to keep clutter alive and how we can retrain our mind to stop trusting in stuff to meet our needs.”
Really, Kathi?
I have read several of Kathi’s other books. Most recently The Cure for The Perfect Life and her practical, spiritual, and humorous ways to handle my procrastination worked wonders so why not trust her with my clutter? She invited me to be a part of her book launch and I accepted, willing to be clutter vulnerable with the world.
Clutter Free discusses how to get rid of stuff, how to keep it from coming into my home; and why I keep it, and more.
The chapters on what it is costing me tugged at my heart knowing my clutter keeps me from entertaining, from enjoying my hobbies, and from following God’s plan for my life.
As of today, at least 25o items are gone, most of them trash and some to give away. My mom’s piano and unnecessary items from my remodeled kitchen have found homes.
Freedom, peace…HOPE
Sharon Paavola
Sharon writes about hope, healing, and God’s love along with book reviews.
Purchase Clutter Free – Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space on Amazon or Barnes & Noble now!
by kathilipp | Jan 21, 2015 | Clutter Free, Guest Blog |
I’ll Just Put it Here for Now by Alexandra Kuykendall
We have a house with a front door that almost never gets used. Sure we open it to go on the front porch to get the mail, but almost everyone who comes in and out of our house does so by way of the garage and our mud room. The “mud room” is a landing place between our kitchen, laundry room, garage and stairs to our basement. In other words, it’s a vortex of stuff.
And because we are a family of six, we’re talkin’ a lot of stuff. Six people’s worth of backpacks and cleats and sweaters and artwork and leftover lunches, to dump every time we walk in the house.
On top of the regular inflow of clutter, its snow season where we live. Which means for the last month and a half we’ve needed snow boots, hats, gloves, scarves and snow pants for sledding about two times a week. The rest of the days, a single jacket will do because it’s back to Colorado sunshine.
A few days ago, I could barely walk through, not to mention over, all of the MESS that had landed in this spot. Visitors coming in and out of our house were greeted by this “welcome mat” of coats and socks and school papers and lunch boxes strewn everywhere. I needed to do something about this disaster of a space.
I grabbed Kathi Lipp’s newest book, Clutter Free: Quick and easy steps to simplifying your space. This is what I found:
“It’s so easy to just put things somewhere “for now” and then leave them there day after day, week after week, month after month until our house becomes a cluttered mess.”
This landing had become our “for now” spot with all things coming in and out of our home. Kathi asks, “What is causing you to put things down “for now”? Are you feeling too rushed in your everyday life? Is there never a chance to reset?” Ummm….does she have a nannycam positioned in this mudroom of mine? I needed to take the hour required to clear this space of its clutter.
I decided our mud room should hold only immediate needs. The jackets, shoes, backpacks, and gloves we need TODAY as we walk out the door. There shouldn’t be soccer backpacks hanging on hooks because it’s not soccer season. There should be no flip flops in shoe bins when we have snow on the ground. And there should not be four coat options per person when we can only each wear one jacket, one hat, one pair of gloves at a time. All of these things we “put here for now” have overstayed their welcome and need to be tucked away in coat closets and bedroom closets to be brought out in a few days or a few months when we need them.
So I did just that, moved everything back to its designated spot (and in the process redesignated some locations) and gave a bag full of shoes and hats away in the process (tips I also learned from Kathi’s book). With all of the piles cleared out it felt as though I could breathe when I stepped in my house. And when my husband walked in the door he proclaimed, “Praise Jesus!” Well, yes, always. But also thank you Kathi Lipp for a practical nudge to get the clutter out.
Alexandra Kuykendall is a mother of four, ages twelve to three, Alexandra Kuykendall spends her days wiping. Wiping counters, wiping bottoms and wiping tears. Alex lives in Denver with her family where she serves as the Specialty Content Editor for MOPS International (Mothers of Preschoolers). Her first book, The Artist’s Daughter: A Memoir, chronicles her questions of identity from girlhood through motherhood.
Find her at www.AlexandraKuykendall.com.
Are you ready to be Clutter Free? Start the 21-Day Clutter Free challenge! Sign up now!
Purchase Clutter Free – Quick and Easy Steps to Simplifying Your Space on Amazon or Barnes & Noble now!
by kathilipp | Jan 20, 2015 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free Podcast, Podcast |
Dinner hour.
Two tiny words that can make your heart start to pound, your stomach clench and your hand reach for the phone to order pizza. Again.
Nothing (okay, almost nothing) is more stressful than planning, cooking and executing dinner. Kathi and Erin share their best “been there, done that” tips for making dinnertime quick, fast and healthy. Listen in and hear how you can:
– Declutter your pantry and kitchen so cooking gets less stressful
– Declutter the chaos of dinner time to make it peaceful and fun.
– Declutter your meal planning to make grocery shopping and cooking simple.
– Declutter your leftovers so you can use them to make two or even three dinners.
– Declutter your dinner time so you can eat joyfully instead of stressfully.
Kathi and Erin mention some of their favorite recipes. You can download them here. Declutter Meal Time Recipes
Plus, click below to order Kathi’s new book “Clutter Free” (Get it, declutter your life, declutter your meal planning?) and she’ll send you a free copy of her book “The What’s For Dinner Solution” just for ordering. Just add the code 4DINNER to your box when ordering!
Link for two-book deal!
Use coupon code: 4DINNER
Also, I invite you to become a So Here’s the Thing Insider. Members of the Insider’s Club will get exclusives including:
- Podcast at least one day before it’s available to the public
- Freebies from our guests that only Insiders will get
- Opportunities to suggest topics and guests for future podcast episodes
- Exclusive discounts and offers
- Exciting Insider look at the conversation between me and my guests during the “after show“!
To become an insider, simply sign up here!
Sign up for Kathi’s 21-Day Clutter Free Challenge too!
FREE DOWNLOAD
All the recipes Kathi and Erin talked about in one easy download. Click here to download.
Erin MacPherson lives in Austin, Texas with her husband Cameron, her sons Joey and Will and her daughter Kate. She is the author of “The Christian Mama’s Guide Series“, a staff writer for Dun & Bradstreet and a freelancer for publications like Thriving Family Magazine, MOPS MomSense, FamilyLife Magazine, Daily Guideposts and BEMag. She blogs about her life, her kids and her faith at ChristianMamasGuide.com.
