#28: Why We Struggle To Declutter
Why We Struggle To Declutter EPISODE 28 by Dianne Jimenez This article takes 20 minutes to read Don’t have time […]
Podcast Episodes
Podcast episodes By Dianne Jimenez
#27: How To Prevent Holiday Burnout
To many, holiday preparations start after Halloween, others push it to the start of Black Friday or like us, I start putting stuff up somewhere around the first week or 2 of December because our decorations and tree stay up for a good week into January. Basically after the 6th when we also celebrate Armenian Christmas. However, there are quite a few people, and I know some friends who do this. Their holiday season starts as early as summer vacation is over! That’s a full 3 months of conceptualizing, preparing and implementing!
So, with this in mind, as well as being mindful of my own feelings and reasoning why I wait well into December to put up the decorations, – which I’ll share with you later on. But it got me thinking about the impact this season has on our mental health, emotional wellness and overall well-being. Let’s agree, this is a busy time of the year on TOP of it being the holidays. For many it’s year-end so work is demanding to get all our numbers in, all the sales accounted for and working for that big bonus. This is also a time where the heaviness from losing someone can be felt so deeply or the feelings of guilt and self-worthiness can come creeping in and stinging some of us. It’s enough to get burnout… but let’s not get to that point.
In creating this episode, my hope is to arm you and give you tools and strategies of how to go about the holidays that won’t lead you to burnout. To give you tips and tricks on how to manage the overwhelm and be present and in the moment so that you can enjoy the holiday season amidst all the chaos, demands and spreading the joy.
So in this episode I’ll be talking to you about:
How to set the tone so that your intentions are established and used as your guiding light to get through this season.
With setting the tone, you’ll learn ways to pace yourself so as to avoid the overwhelm that can lead to burnout.
Next, I’ll talk about creating space so that our mental health is always in check.
And finally, I’ll talk about something many of us struggle with and that’s: Setting boundaries because we know what lies ahead of us but how can we manage and control our tendencies as well?
#26: Teaching kids about Getting the house ready for guests
Teaching Kids About Prepping The House For Guests
In today’s episode I’m talking about getting the house ready for when guests come over. Now, I know YOU know how to do this already… I’m talking about Teaching Kids this skill.
If you have school-aged kids who are asking for their friends to come over, but you also want to step it up a notch, then this episode could be the one that arms you with a new direction, another perspective or even just inspires you to test some chores out with your kids.
In this episode you’ll learn:
– When’s the perfect time to bring the chore conversation up, aka ‘How do I get my kids motivated to do chores?’
– The steps I take when teaching my kids how to get the house ready before their friends arrive, where we touch on boundaries and ownership.
– Then we’ll touch on the differences between cleaning, organizing and tidying up and finally,
– Which spaces to target when there’s little time to prep
#25: 17 Habits To Making Life Easier
“…going from a cluttered home and feeling overwhelmed to being organized where the house is easy to maintain by everyone – IS a journey…”
1) They’re inexpensive. 2) They come in a variety of sizes and functions. Like you can hang stuff that’s pretty light to really heavy things. They can also be stuff you put on a regular wall or in your shower stall! 3) You can get them anywhere from the dollar store to even the big box stores. And 4) and this is why they’re so awesome: if you don’t like the spot you initially put them in, you can always remove it without damaging your wall behind and put it someplace else. They’re easy to remove regardless of how long that hook’s been there. 5 minutes or over 5 years. It won’t damage your wall so long as you follow the instructions on how to remove them!
[…]
When you walk in our bedroom, you’ll see the side of my husband’s tall dresser right away, and my long dresser is along the door on your right. You won’t see this when you walk in but at the far end of these 2 pieces of furniture, are command hooks placed either on the wall or on the dresser itself.
So often you won’t see clothes on our bed, the chair or dressers because they’re hanging in a hidden spot strategically placed at the height of the dresser so you don’t see them when you walk into our room. It cuts the visual clutter that can often happen when your clothes are all over the place.
#24: Organizing School Supplies With Kids – An Easy Step By Step Plan
This episode is like a mini training where I’m going to help guide you, step by step, into organizing school supplies, so that everything’s ready for the next school year. But here’s the thing, if you’ve been the one taking care of all the school supplies in the past, slowly organizing things over the summer, or nipping it in the bud at the start of summer, no no, not anymore. If you know me by now, follow me on social media and listen to a few episodes, you know I’m all about getting the kids involved when it comes to organizing our homes and lives.
So let’s go!
First off, if you’re wondering “Why do this now?” Let me paint a picture for you:
Say, we take the same scenario I just mentioned a minute ago where the school books and supplies are either still in your kids’ school bags somewhere in the house or scattered here and there in different piles. It’s clutter that’s not only taking up physical space but mental real estate too because, you know it needs to be dealt with. The thing is, it just keeps getting pushed to the bottom of your ever growing ‘to-do’ list and then sits in your mind all summer long.
And imagine it being close to another school year and you’re overwhelmed and scratching your head at all the extra supplies you need to get when you could have sworn you got new school supplies last year. So where is everything?
Or, it’s crunch time now and with the summer ending, fall activities to register for and plan your schedule around , along with doctors and dentist appointments to book….now you have to deal with organizing school supplies so they start the year off right: with everything they need. But time, as always, is running out!
I know there are so many more situations and scenarios similar to these in many households, but what do they all have in common? They all end up leaving parents frustrated, annoyed, not wanting to deal with it and then mentally depleted. ….. And the school year hasn’t even begun yet!
How can we avoid all those unnecessary feelings?
Nip it in the bud now.Today or give yourself a week to finish this simple and easy task and don’t do it alone. I know it could go a lot faster if it’s just you and it’s SOOO tempting to take it all and get it done and over with. I HEAR you! I’ve done this myself over the years. But now, I do things differently: I take every moment I could as a teaching moment . More importantly though, you’re here right now – following this podcast show – because deep down, you also don’t want things to always fall on you, right?
I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it over and over again: Life stuff, household stuff, organizing it, maintaining it all and everything in between – doesn’t always have to fall all on you. It’s not why you’re here in this world. As parents, we are their first teachers so, teach what you know how to do. Your future self and your kids will thank you for it – I promise!
Now, could you imagine taking care of this task, EARLY in the summer: how much more good energy will be created from within you because you just ticked off another item off of your to-do list? And even MORE good feelings because you’re teaching and involving the kids to take care of their things! All the more reason to get started now with organizing school supplies!
#22: To Decant Or Not To Decant?
So if you still have to go out and get something for these amazing teachers and staff, I’m right there with you friend!
So the idea to talk about the topic of decanting food came up as I was organizing a client’s pantry. I asked him if he ever considered decanting certain food items and he wasn’t sure what that meant or what it entailed. So that got me thinking. This would be a GREAT topic to talk about on my podcast: Decanting
Well I’m about to tell you all that in today’s episode. But before I do, don’t forget to hit subscribe and follow on my podcast show from whichever platform you’re listening from right now. If you don’t want to miss when the next one releases, just head to DianneJimenez.com and click on the words “Be the First to know”. You can’t miss it. It drops down right underneath the fuchsia media player.
Alright back to our topic! Decanting: What is it? How do you do this? And Who should decant?