637 – Cooking Ahead:

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Meet Our Guest

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:01.472)

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. I’m Kathi Lipp, and this is part two of our special episode on managing meals when you’re low on energy. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, I encourage you to go back and check it out for some great tips on meal planning and energy -saving kitchen strategies. In the second part, we’re gonna build on those ideas with specific meal suggestions, ways to get your family involved in the cooking process, and some of my favorite recipes from my new book, Sabbath Soup. So let’s jump right in where we left off.

Kathi

this past weekend we had our kids over I was so low energy I had burnt myself I was not feeling well it was just a bad week but past me had made my cookie dough recipe which I am happy to include in this episode in our show notes but it makes it makes enough for like 120 cookies it’s like it’s a

Tonya Kubo (19:43.277)

Kathi (19:44.034)

It’s big, you can cut it in half, but I never do because I freeze it into portions that will do like a dozen cookies. I, and both of the kids were like, my gosh, this is so good. And I’m like, yeah, homemade cookies, but I didn’t make them today, which is beautiful. And then so much of this is about freezing leftovers. Freezing leftovers for a day when you’re not, on the good energy days,

Tonya Kubo (19:47.091)

Mm

Right.

Kathi (20:12.812)

Take care of your future self on the low-energy days.

Tonya Kubo (20:16.44)

my gosh, and that is so in alignment with what we talk about in our free group, Clutter Free Academy, all the time, right? Because we get people who have chronic illness. And I think that’s one of the issues is in our community, I know we have a lot of people who struggle with low energy for a variety of reasons. you know, a lot of good points in what you just said, but the big one is, that because you never know when the low energy period may hit, it is

Kathi (20:21.504)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Kathi (20:32.706)

Mm-hmm. Right.

Kathi (20:44.396)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:45.998)

to seize and make the most of the moments when you have abundant energy.

Kathi (20:51.222)

Yeah, and Tonya, let’s talk about this because some people do not have low energy. They just have chaotic lives. And that leads to low energy. We have people in our paid and free group who have chronically ill children. But the family still needs to be fed, right? And so they’re going to cook ahead and freeze so they can just pull out that meal when it needs to be pulled out.

Tonya Kubo (20:55.764)

Right

Tonya Kubo (21:05.15)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:20.444)

what depends you have a crazy work schedule. You know, I know a lot of people, me included, you know, you were getting ready for back to school. Because not only do you have girls that are going to school, you have a teacher who hasn’t quite made it to school yet because he’s been so sick, but he’ll get there. But you know that that time is coming. It may not be that you are low energy.

Tonya Kubo (21:31.347)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (21:37.224)

He’ll get there.

Kathi (21:45.45)

you know, a couple of days a week, it may be that your life is chaotic for a couple of months a year. And so to think about that and plan ahead for that is a beautiful thing.

Tonya Kubo (21:57.396)

Great, well thank you for all of those fabulous ideas and also the consideration. That’s what I love so much about Sabbath Soup is that you have taken time to consider that not everybody lives a life of leisure and the book is set up to really help each of us no matter what’s going on in our lives. Just take advantage of the time, the energy, and the money that can be saved from meal planning.

Kathi (22:13.366)

Hmm

Kathi (22:27.362)

Can I also say, you were talking earlier about here’s how to feed your family of 20 on $200, right? Here’s the thing I wanna say, I value your time. And if you love to make homemade tortillas, go off, friend. But I also believe if you can find tortillas for $3 .99 and you are not totally financially strapped,

Tonya Kubo (22:28.626)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (22:33.736)

Hahaha!

Tonya Kubo (22:46.344)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (22:57.216)

that that is that’s I believe that by the tortillas because your energy is also conserving your energy for things you love and maybe you love to make homemade tortillas. I’ve had homemade homemade tortillas. I do. I love to eat homemade tortillas, but if I’m baking them in something or I’m doing it’s not going to happen. So I value your time. I value your energy.

Tonya Kubo (23:02.856)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:20.029)

Mm

Kathi (23:26.26)

and I want you to have your resources.

Tonya Kubo (23:28.87)

All right, so since you brought up the tortillas, that’s a great segue into my next question, which is, what are some go -to meal ideas that you would suggest for people when energy is love?

Kathi (23:33.388)

Mm

Kathi (23:42.314)

Okay, you’re going to be shocked, but soup. I know that’s shocking.

Tonya Kubo (23:44.916)

No, well, it’s also my go-to. I’m not going to lie. That and fried rice. That’s what we make around here.

Kathi (23:51.302)

Right, yeah. Yeah, but you know that it doesn’t take a lot of energy to prepare a soup, especially if you have that leftover bag of shredded chicken in your freezer. And by the way, can we also talk about Sam’s Club has a smoked shredded chicken that is just divine. Yeah, you don’t have a Sam’s near you. The next time you come to visit,

Tonya Kubo (24:04.5)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (24:14.64)

Okay.

Dumb.

Kathi (24:19.222)

We’re gonna have to dry, we’re gonna have to go to a Sam’s and you’re gonna have to experience the magic. Yay, we love a good field trip. But also, you know, I love soup because, I’ve got some leftover celery, I’ve got some leftover tomatoes, I’ve got some leftovers, that can all be thrown in there. And it, you know, those extras that you have can be thrown in. It takes very little effort to do that. So I love that. Rotisserie chicken. Whether you rotisserie it, you’re,

Tonya Kubo (24:23.391)

Field trip!

Tonya Kubo (24:37.022)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:49.038)

Okay, let’s be honest, you’re gonna roast it. Or you buy it at the store. Both of those are perfectly wonderful options. I just encourage you within a day or two of getting at home, you know, your first meal is eating just the straight rotisserie chicken, yum. Your second meal is putting that into like a salad or a soup. And then your third meal is

Tonya Kubo (24:49.598)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (25:06.643)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (25:16.852)

you’re going to do like a chicken salad with Greek yogurt and lemon juice and almonds and you some seasonings like that rotisserie chicken is going to do triple duty and then if you still have leftovers you can put those into the freezer like a rotisserie chicken you can buy pre-shredded chicken that’s that’s totally fine I would just make sure that as soon as you open it up you freeze it

Tonya Kubo (25:33.62)

Mmm.

Kathi (25:44.586)

whatever you’re not using so it doesn’t die a terrible death. I love chili. I love chili on, because if I make a double batch of chili, I’m gonna have chili for dinner. I’m gonna do a taco salad another day. I’m going to do chili on baked potatoes. And by the way, baked potatoes is on this list too. Because you can put anything on a baked potato, right?

Tonya Kubo (25:45.982)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (26:08.13)

yeah.

Tonya Kubo (26:11.643)

you

Kathi (26:12.45)

I love a good baked potato. it’s my favorite, right? And then buying greens. So if you are low energy and you’re like, can’t think about washing and chopping, that’s fine. Buy a box of pre-washed salad. then, we had salmon the other night. So of course I had salmon on my salad the next day. You can have that shredded chicken.

Tonya Kubo (26:14.566)

I love chili on baked potatoes. That’s like my favorite.

Tonya Kubo (26:38.836)

Mm

Kathi (26:41.974)

think of all the combinations you can have. I want you, I think another thing that is really a great staple to have on hand is canned tomatoes. Because you can turn canned tomatoes into just about anything. You can turn it into a sauce, you can turn it into a chili, you can turn it into a marinara, you can turn it into just about anything. It’s great, like last night I had, we had

Tonya Kubo (26:55.624)

Hmm.

Kathi (27:11.21)

we I did just a box jambalaya. It was just the rice and I cut up I put in some sausage in there that we had leftover some shredded chicken and then I put in a can of just tomatoes, chopped tomatoes and it was one of Roger’s favorite meals. Like it’s so easy. It took no energy to prepare. It worked out you know the other thing I would say

Tonya Kubo (27:32.862)

Yay.

Kathi (27:40.306)

is I love to have, I do a big batch of chopped onions and sliced mushrooms and I throw those in everything. I throw them on salads, I throw them into soups, I throw them onto baked potatoes, I put them on pizzas, like those will go onto anything, I love.

Tonya Kubo (27:46.569)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (28:00.168)

my gosh, those are all such great ideas and such delicious, delicious ideas as well. So Kathi, so these are great ideas for when we have low energy. But one thing you haven’t mentioned is sharing the…

Kathi (28:04.82)

Yes, we love delicious.

Kathi (28:19.711)

Mm

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (28:23.732)

So talk, I mean, not everybody has the benefit of living with other humans, right? Some people live alone, but for those who don’t live alone, like talk to me about how we can enroll the other humans in our home who aren’t currently laid up sick on the couch to lighten our load when we have low energy days.

Kathi (28:27.712)

Right. Right. Right.

Kathi (28:38.656)

Yeah

Yeah, well, so let’s talk about different stages of life. You have two girls who Lily loves to cook, right? Where’s Abby on that scale?

Tonya Kubo (28:48.468)

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Abby doesn’t quite understand why she needs to do chores. Aren’t there other humans around here? Yeah.

Kathi (28:58.762)

Okay. Yes. Okay. I understand. So she’s more of a cat. Like, yes, yes. So I think it’s important for, you know, at of the age that she can be that everybody participates. And sometimes that participation is dishes. Sometimes that participation is cooking. But

Tonya Kubo (29:05.242)

Abby is a cat definitely.

Tonya Kubo (29:14.974)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (29:26.89)

We all eat so we all cook. We all eat so we all do dishes. you know, Abby also, you know, has other things going on in her life. We let you parent as you parent. it’s here’s the thing. And Abby has the most wonderful heart in the entire world. But I would definitely lean into the Lily side of things and say, you know, Lily get well, Lily is excited about cooking because that could change.

Tonya Kubo (29:29.107)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (29:49.0)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (29:56.094)

Right.

Kathi (29:56.352)

We don’t know, it could change. But how can you support it without it becoming a huge thing for you? You know what I mean? So what are some simple meals that she can prepare without a lot of supervision? What are some cheats that she could have? Like one of the things that Roger and I do, now that we’re not cooking for a bunch of people, we used to make big batches of rice and eat off of it, you know, for days.

Tonya Kubo (30:21.757)

Mm

Kathi (30:24.768)

We don’t do that so much anymore because we’re not doing that kind of cooking all the time. He has to watch his, I don’t know, there’s something with white rice. He has to watch. And so we do more like brown rice, but every once in we want white rice. So we just have like a little container. But if it’s Roger’s turn to cook, if he’s doing something, because I have a late meeting, he knows he can grab one of those white rices. He can grab some salmon.

Tonya Kubo (30:30.163)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (30:54.402)

and do it very easily. I think it’s just establishing the expectation. You know, it took Roger and I 15 years to figure out, I don’t mind cooking and cleaning in the kitchen. He doesn’t mind doing dishes. He hates cooking and cleaning in the kitchen and doesn’t mind doing dishes. But we were both trying to out-nice each other by doing the most detestable chores. And now

Tonya Kubo (30:54.569)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (31:10.376)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (31:18.13)

Mmm.

Kathi (31:23.53)

You know, I cook dinner. I could cook all day, all week long if somebody else will do the dishes, right? And I still have to do some dishes, that’s fine. But Roger doesn’t mind. say, talking it through and saying, I don’t want to be resentful. I want to, I want to, you know, feed our family with joy, but I need partners in this. So what, how can that look together? And I think that’s a great of start.

Tonya Kubo (31:30.004)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (31:40.317)

Hmm.

Tonya Kubo (31:47.572)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (31:53.566)

start of a great conversation. And if people just say, you know, my husband refuses to cook, it’s not a cooking issue. It’s a marital issue. Like, Roger doesn’t refuse to cook. He doesn’t enjoy it. But he will because he knows that sometimes I need the support. If somebody will not support you when you need the support, that’s a marital issue. And that’s beyond what Sabbath soup can do. But if we can approach it as, you know, I want input.

Tonya Kubo (32:02.984)

Hmm.

Kathi (32:22.89)

into what you wanna eat this week. And I think that’s a big part of it. Letting our family have some decision -making in the meals gets them excited about the cooking. How have you incorporated Brian and Lily into your cooking?

Tonya Kubo (32:31.763)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (32:40.84)

Yeah, so, well, we’ve, how I’ve managed to incorporate all three. So Brian is great at cooking in a pinch at any point in time. Like, you know, if he knows if I have a late meeting, he can usually whip something up so long as there is either pasta or rice and thawed-out animal protein of some sort, right? I would make my leftover meal always be soup. His, he is the reason we have a lot of fried rice in this house. What we are doing differently this year,

Kathi (32:57.634)

Perfect.

Kathi (33:08.246)

Yeah, okay.

Tonya Kubo (33:11.264)

I am actually pulling Abby into the meal planning since she is our pickiest eater in the house So if she helps plan the meals we are more likely to have meals that she will eat and then Lily is cooking one night a week

Kathi (33:15.38)

got it, okay.

Kathi (33:27.21)

Okay, because Abby loves some decision-making. Yes. But what you’re doing is you’re taking everybody’s strengths. And I know when Lily’s cooking, does she get to pick what she’s going to cook for the most part? Yeah, everybody.

Tonya Kubo (33:32.03)

She does. She does love herself some decision-making.

Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (33:44.338)

Yep. Yep. Soup de nuts, whole thing. I will buy whatever it is if that’s what she wants to cook.

Kathi (33:49.224)

Yes. Okay, so tell me one of the meals that Lily has cooked.

Tonya Kubo (33:54.784)

she’s so cute. So she loves to make what I call fancy ramen. So she does the soft-boiled egg and she does the enoki mushrooms. Not going to lie, Kathi, I never bought an enoki mushroom until like three weeks ago, but that’s a big one for her. The other thing that she really loves to do is she likes making pancakes, cookies, and things like that from scratch.

Kathi (34:00.172)

All right.

Kathi (34:09.035)

Yeah.

Kathi (34:19.635)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (34:21.178)

she would prefer to come up with a recipe all by herself. I have encouraged her to follow a lot of recipes to sort of learn, let’s just say proportions before venturing out on I’ll just add flour and milk and salt together and think a pancake comes out.

Kathi (34:31.008)

Right. Yeah.

Kathi (34:38.772)

Well, you know what? It’s good to experiment to a point, but it’s also good to have some knowledge. And next time she comes to the Red House, Miss Kathi will be more than thrilled to buy all the ingredients so she can cook for us. I love that. Yeah. And, know, I, you know,my super sneaky way, which isn’t really sneaky because Roger knows exactly what I’m doing. Like when we had the kids here, you know, let’s barbecue, let’s create pizzas.

Tonya Kubo (34:39.966)

You

Tonya Kubo (34:52.062)

Sounds good.

Tonya Kubo (35:06.59)

Mm

Kathi (35:08.79)

You know, anything outside, Roger’s on it. And I will say, since we got the new Air Fryer, like, ninja combo, Roger’s much more…

Tonya Kubo (35:11.687)

Nice.

Tonya Kubo (35:18.524)

I was like your whole contraption thing that does all the jobs in one? Yes.

Kathi (35:22.644)

love it. I love it. Roger’s much more willing to cook because he feels like things come out well. So yeah. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (35:27.986)

Yes. Well, and that’s important to Roger, right? And think that’s the thing that we didn’t specifically talk about, but is important, is know what’s important to each person in your family. For Roger, he’ll do just about anything if he has confidence that it will come out well. Right?

Kathi (35:38.337)

Yeah.

Kathi (35:43.688)

Yes, yes, exactly. Exactly. He doesn’t want to fail on it. You know, when we were cooking, when I burnt myself, it was because I was making the tomato Jen soup. Just a little hint, people. By the way, this is one of my favorite recipes in the book. Don’t you know, you the soup has a base of bacon grease? I know that sounds crazy, but it’s so good. But don’t drop the butter from a high

Tonya Kubo (35:56.584)

Mmm.

Kathi (36:12.2)

altitude into the bacon grease. Just a little tip, just a little pro tip. Yes, but we were making that tomato basil soup and I had to stop because I was in so much pain and the recipe, Roger was able to make the Cuban sandwiches with no pain whatsoever because I’ve really tried to lay out the recipes very easily so you’re not like

Tonya Kubo (36:15.572)

Pro tip, tip, pro tip from Kathi Lip to you.

Kathi (36:37.784)

shoot, I should have done that. no. Like the recipes in this book are ones that from a novice to somebody who really loves to cook will be able to do pretty easily.

Tonya Kubo (36:48.27)

Nice! And where can we find out more information on the blog?

Kathi (36:53.73)

Yeah, so definitely check the notes here because we’ll have a link to all the places you can buy the book, which is anywhere. It’s called Sabbath Soup and you can get it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your favorite Christian bookstore, any place like that. But also we have a pre-order gifty, which is just, it’s like a, what would you call it? It’s a sample. Yeah, so you.

Tonya Kubo (37:16.456)

It’s a sampler. I call it a sampler. It’s a sneak peek.

Kathi (37:21.728)

But it’s a hefty sampler. Like you’re gonna get a lot of stuff with it. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (37:24.112)

Yeah, well, yeah. And I mean, it’s stuff that’s not in the book, right? That just really helps to get you between now and here because there is nothing worse, Kathi, than buying a cookbook that you are excited about and then having to wait for it to arrive. Don’t ask me how I know listeners. Don’t ask me how I know. But it’s just really hard. So this gets you this closes the gap between when you order the book and when it actually arrives.

Kathi (37:29.579)

Right? Yeah.

Kathi (37:36.769)

Yeah.

Kathi (37:40.48)

Yes. Yes. Yep.

Kathi (37:50.72)

Yep, exactly. So we will put that we’ll drop that below. And by the way, I’ll just say as an author, boy, if you tell me that you’ve pre-ordered my book, you’re my favorite. just I mean, I’ll say that for any author. It’s the most amazing gift. It really is.

Tonya Kubo (38:09.318)

I’m sorry, I’m making funny facial expressions at Kathi. You cannot see my funny facial expressions, but it was because I had an idea. well, my idea is, is that people who pre -order the book and let us know, if they let us know, we should give them a shout out on the podcast. And we will publicly thank you for pre-ordering our book. But you have to tell us because the way that like the…

Kathi (38:16.834)

Do tell.

Kathi (38:22.86)

Mm

Kathi (38:26.965)

yes!

my goodness. Yes. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (38:36.904)

The way that technology works, don’t oftentimes get your name. So we cannot thank you properly on our end. if you tell us you pre-order, they should let us know by emailing me specifically, tonya@Kathilipp.org. Email, I’m not gonna make you send me a screenshot. Okay, we know you don’t have time for that. But yeah, just email me, tell me you pre-ordered the book and we will shout you out in a future episode.

Kathi (38:42.772)

Yeah, how should they let us know?

Kathi (38:50.337)

Okay.

Kathi (38:55.413)

Okay.

No, no, no, no, we trust people.

I love that. I love that. Okay. We have a couple of super-sized episodes here, but it was worth it friend Thank you for going on this sabbath soup journey with us guys. We appreciate you so much You have been listening to Clutter Free Academy. I’m Kathi left now go create the clutter free life. You’ve always wanted to live

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

#636 Batch Cooking Basics: Reclaim Your Time and Energy in the Kitchen

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 24, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

636 – Batch Cooking Basics:

Reclaim Your Time and Energy in the Kitchen

Ever feel like you’re running on empty, but your family still expects dinner on the table?

This episode of Clutter Free Academy is for you!

In part one of a two-part series, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo tackle the common challenge of meal planning and preparation when energy levels are low. Drawing from her personal experiences and upcoming book “Sabbath Soup,” Kathi shares valuable strategies for creating nutritious meals without exhausting oneself.

Listeners will discover:

The importance of pre-planning meals to avoid unhealthy quick fixes
Strategies for breaking down meal prep tasks throughout the week
Utilizing technology and services for efficient grocery shopping
Energy-saving techniques for food preparation

Kathi and Tonya’s relatable anecdotes and practical tips make this episode a must-listen for anyone struggling to balance healthy eating with limited energy.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when part two in this series is released!

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your bonus down Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. Preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024

Clutter Free Resources:

Tonya’s newest podcast:

What are your top three energy-saving tips for meal preparation?

Share in the comments!

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 Guest

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

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. Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s close to my heart, how to manage meals when you’re low on energy. This is actually part one of a two -part episode because we had so much to talk about. In this first part, Tonya and I will be talking about the challenges of cooking when you’re tired, when you’re overwhelmed, when you’re stressed.

and I’ll share some strategies from my new book, Sabbath Soup. We’ll cover meal planning, energy saving kitchen hacks, and how to make the most of those days where you have not enough energy to do all that needs to be done. So let’s get started.

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 Tonya and I are back, better than ever, yay! Well, we’re very high energy, but.

Tonya Kubo (00:25.094)

Yay!

Kathi (00:30.176)

That’s not always the case. As we discussed last week, it has been, well, definitely, I don’t know that, well, how I want to say this. Your family has been very low energy because of lots of illness. We’re wondering now if Roger just has long COVID because this guy cannot get on top of it. We are eating healthy, he’s out there working out.

Tonya Kubo (00:50.772)

Mmm.

Kathi (00:58.24)

I don’t even know if I’ve told you this, Tonya. We have dug a trail around our property so that we can go on walks. Yes, it really is nice. But yeah, we just can’t get Roger feeling good. so, and I was down and out over the weekend. And here’s the thing. You may not.

Tonya Kubo (01:08.374)

how nice!

Kathi (01:25.822)

We do not have the physical location where we can do DoorDash. most people, when I did DoorDash one time when I was at my mom’s house, Tonya, I was aghast at how much it costs.

Tonya Kubo (01:30.632)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:42.024)

yeah, no, it is not affordable. Well, not for us. I mean, it depends on where you live though, right? Because I have friends who, you know, drive big vehicles and stuff and they swear that they save the money in gas.

Kathi (01:45.163)

And here’s

Kathi (01:56.706)

We have a big vehicle. We’ve got about the biggest vehicle you could have. That’s some interesting math. I don’t understand it. I’m not calling your friends liars or dumb, whoo. Yeah. We have not had a lot of energy around here. And I think that this is something that as people get older,

Tonya Kubo (02:07.726)

Yeah

Kathi (02:24.354)

You know, we all want to say hey, we’re gonna always have the same amount of energy I used to be low energy because I had all the kids now I’m lower energy. I just think because the ravages of time and so I do know like I’ve learned I have to balance my energy like in the morning and into you know, I morning until lunch I am good to go then I have my afternoon dip

Tonya Kubo (02:31.507)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (02:42.494)

Mm

Kathi (02:51.074)

and then I’m really good until about 630 and at 630 I’m done. Like I’m not, I’m not, I was gonna say I’m not laying in bed. I am lying in bed, but I’m still working. I’m doing, working on like social media and things like that. But I don’t know. How about you? Where are your energy peaks and valleys?

Tonya Kubo (03:11.988)

Yeah, well, I mean, for me, I have the most energy from like 4 am to noon. Like hands down, 4 a.m. to noon. Four o ‘clock is an evil, evil time, Kathi. Why do people want to meet with me between the hours of two and four pm Like it’s just, that it is not my favorite. They don’t, they obviously don’t. The world is not built around me.

Kathi (03:21.581)

Sure.

Kathi (03:33.794)

They don’t love you. Yeah, obviously.

Well, and here’s the thing, your children want things from you during those hours.

Tonya Kubo (03:44.688)

Right? You feel my pain. Yeah. And, and I would say for a lot of people, know, weekends are a high energy time. It’s, it’s not a high-energy time for me, but I do my best. am somebody. And this is where I think you and me are a little bit different. I do better in a single marathon.

Kathi (03:46.878)

It’s just wrong. Yeah. Yes, absolutely.

Kathi (04:00.439)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (04:10.868)

than I do in breaking things up into say 30-minute chunks throughout the day.

Kathi (04:11.926)

Hmm.

Kathi (04:15.584)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It depends on what I’m working on. But yeah, I like to be able to quit a task when I run out of energy. So yeah, we, you know, as many of you know, I have a book coming out October 8th, it’s Sabbath Soup. And I didn’t really write this with in mind with, you know, three different people when you’re low on time, when you’re low on money, and when you’re low on energy.

Tonya Kubo (04:24.143)

Yeah

Tonya Kubo (04:44.99)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (04:45.33)

Now, all three at the same time is hard. Like I get it. That is super, super hard. And I’ve been in that place where when I was a single mom, there wasn’t a lot of money. I was working full-time. And when I was done for the day, I wanted to be done for the day and it just wasn’t an option. So for all my single moms out there, I no longer feel your pain, but I remember your pain very, very deeply. And

Tonya Kubo (04:53.843)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (05:14.696)

Tonya is currently a single mom because her husband is sick on the couch but I just think that there are times when we have to say you know because all the articles I ever read are about when you’re prepping food You know how to save time how to save money But I think there has to be this third option of when you just don’t have the energy When you need to take care of your future self But how do you do that when your current self?

Tonya Kubo (05:37.341)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (05:44.47)

doesn’t have a ton of energy. And so we’re gonna talk about that. Tonya is interviewing me because it’s my book, but Tonya of course is going to add her own brilliance into this. So let’s talk about it, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (05:46.11)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:58.08)

Yeah, so Kathi, one of the things that I get very stabby about, because as you know, I was raised by a single mom. And so I was raised by a single mom. Money was super, super tight. I now as an adult, when I read all of these ideas, right, of, you know, like how to feed your family of 20 on $200 from Costco, totally exaggerating there.

Kathi (06:05.643)

Right.

Kathi (06:22.238)

Yeah. Right.

Tonya Kubo (06:25.012)

I get frustrated because when I look at these meal plans, when I look at these ideas that are in these articles, it’s like they think that if you don’t have a lot of money, you somehow have 32 hour days, right? Like you’ve got time to go and buy wheat, wheat berries that you then toast and grind yourself to make your own bread. And

Kathi (06:45.204)

Right, right.

Tonya Kubo (06:49.0)

What I appreciate about Sabbath Soup, and even when you were talking about the concept of the book, is that you don’t do that nasty thing where you assume having less in one area, whether it’s time, energy, or money, means you have an unlimited supply in the other area.

Kathi (07:05.154)

Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you about a book I read probably 10 years ago. It’s called On a Dollar a Day. And it was this couple who, you know, we talk about stunt memoir and that’s really what this was. But they both, he was a school teacher or no, she was a school teacher. He worked in some kind of program for the disadvantaged.

Tonya Kubo (07:10.664)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (07:18.728)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (07:34.646)

and disadvantaged youth, I believe. And they were talking about what it looked like to live on what the California welfare system gave to people. And I know a lot about this. My mom was a social worker, and it’s so true. And it’s not like this as much anymore, but…

Tonya Kubo (07:51.443)

Mm

Kathi (08:00.674)

in order to get your benefit, it took almost an entire day where you’re not earning money to go apply, do the paper, all that kind of stuff. And I just know that for a lot of us, we are lacking sometimes in all three. And I don’t know that, this book does not have all the answers. Let’s be 100 % honest.

Tonya Kubo (08:06.28)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (08:19.272)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:27.75)

And if you are lacking financially, you and I are big believers in go find a food program because thousands of pounds of food get tossed out every day in the state of California. Let’s get that to some humans, shall we? And then if you don’t have time, it’s okay to go to Costco.

Tonya Kubo (08:30.792)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (08:36.466)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (08:42.824)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:54.036)

and get some prepackaged meals. It’s okay to get the rotisserie chicken. But I’m also gonna give you some ideas on how to stretch that rotisserie chicken. If you don’t have the energy, say like you’re a senior citizen, there are programs for senior citizens for prepared meals. Have somebody, if you can’t do it, have somebody check those things out. But if you’re in that place where you’re like, I do enjoy cooking, or I want to cook because I wanna control the ingredients that are going in my recipes, or I don’t wanna have to leave the house all the time for this kind of stuff. Or I actually like my cooking. I enjoy the type of cooking I do. I just wanna give some easy ideas for people who maybe don’t have a ton of energy to be able to cook. And yeah.

Tonya Kubo (09:49.242)

Mm-hmm. Well, Kathi, I’m sorry. mean, based on your experience, how have you seen a lack of energy impact eating habits? Because that’s the piece where, you know, I’m just going to go grab something quick. I’m just going to go grab something quick. And I hear this from people all the time, you know, a week’s worth of just grabbing something quick oftentimes is not making us feel our best.

Kathi (10:07.009)

Right.

Kathi (10:16.034)

No, it’s not. And you know, you know, I have struggled with obesity. I was born at 10 pounds. Let’s be clear. I’ve struggled with obesity my entire life. Not saying that a 10-pound baby is obese, but you know, it I come from a long line of people who struggle with obesity. And, you know, I know that if I don’t have if I’m not pre-planning, then what I’m doing is

Tonya Kubo (10:41.492)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:45.34)

sometimes the energy comes in deciding, especially in the moment. And so if we’re trying to decide in the moment, the easy things to grab are the pizzas, the easy things to grab are the fast food. hear me loud and clear. I like some fast food. Like I can get down on a Taco Bell taco that that is, you know, I enjoy Chick-fil-A -A every once in a while.

Tonya Kubo (10:48.82)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:05.437)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:09.395)

Yeah.

Kathi (11:15.17)

A McDonald’s Diet Coke is about as close to bliss as I could get. But I know that in order for me to feel good, in order for me to have energy, I can’t be doing those on a regular basis. And let me be honest, know, Tonya, I have a couple of disadvantages. I still have extra weight on me, which, you know, I’m working with and on, but it’s still a reality.

I have a short tendon in my foot, which doesn’t sound like it would be a big deal. But if I stand for any length of time, my right ankle just hurts. And I still have a little bit of a back issue, which is mostly cleared up with losing some weight. But if I’m standing for long periods of time, it does not. So I really have to think about my energy management when it comes to everything I’m doing.

Tonya Kubo (12:09.502)

Mm

Kathi (12:13.416)

This is part of it. And so our food impacts how we feel. If we’re doing that, you know, frozen pizza, the frozen French bread pizza, by the way, which we keep on hand, and we probably have once a week and really enjoy it. It’s the days when it’s Roger’s turn to cook lunch. And because I’ve got an extra meeting and anything that’s too complicated in the kitchen, he could do it. We had him.

Tonya Kubo (12:25.716)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:42.176)

do some very complicated things when I burned my arm recently, but let’s just say it does not bring him joy. So, it’s okay to have the, go back to kind of those comfort foods, but you can’t do it on a regular basis if energy is an issue for you.

Tonya Kubo (12:48.66)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (12:57.662)

Mm -hmm.

Right, okay. So what do you think, since Sabbath Soup is a book that really is focused on weekly meal plans and meal planning, what do you think are some things, because I can imagine that if energy is a challenge, that could sound daunting. So I’m wondering in your mind, you know, what should somebody consider when it comes to planning meals for low-energy weeks?

Kathi (13:18.881)

Yeah.

Kathi (13:26.516)

Yeah, so I like to break it up. So, you know, on Mondays, I’m going to make the plan for what I’m going to cook and I’m going to do an inventory and kind of see what we already have. And by the way, you know, if past me had some leftover chicken, chopped it up, put it in the freezer. What a gift, right? Because that’s chicken I do not have to cook. So I’m going to look for those kind of things when I’m having a low energy week and plan my meals around that.

Tonya Kubo (13:47.454)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:56.448)

Tuesday I’m gonna create my shopping list Just like okay. Here are the things that I want to cook, but I don’t have on hand, And Tuesday for low energy. Can I just tell you if you live near a Sam’s Club? That is my favorite thing in the world because I place my order on Tuesday and I go pick it up on Wednesday or if I’m going into town on Tuesday, I place it on Monday whatever but I I don’t have if I’m having a low energy week

Tonya Kubo (14:10.142)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:19.828)

Mm

Kathi (14:25.832)

I don’t even have to go inside the store. It’s all there waiting for me. And if you’re like, well, nice for you, Kathi, I don’t have a Sam’s Club. Like there are no Sam’s Club in the Bay Area. That’s okay. Target, you can do the same thing with and it’s free. You can do the same thing with where we are like a Rayleigh’s or a Safeway. A lot of places have where you can pick those up. Now both Safeway and Rayleigh’s have a charge, but if you’re low,

Tonya Kubo (14:28.852)

you

Kathi (14:55.1)

on energy, that’s a great energy-saving idea. Thursday, this is where I save my energy because the hardest part of cooking for me is all the chopping. that, that’s the thing that just kills me, right? That and dishes. So on Thursday, what I’m going to do is I’m going to get out my food processor and I’m going to chop anything that needs to be chopped. And if you’re like, that sounds like too much.

Tonya Kubo (15:07.774)

Hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:24.126)

I get it, friend, go to Trader Joe’s and get their mirepoix or you know, which has the carrots and onions and celery already chopped up. Buy the bagged salad, do what you need to do. But if you’re like, no, the money’s the other thing I’m trying to save, then that bag of carrots is so much cheaper than buying chopped carrots. Let’s just do that. Unless there’s a great sale, know, do what you need to do. But I’m gonna get everything out.

Tonya Kubo (15:44.852)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:53.442)

One thing that I’ve done, Tonya, that may seem silly, but I don’t care, is I have an extension cord that runs to my kitchen table. Okay? So I’m gonna wash all my vegetables at the same time, and then I’m gonna sit down at my kitchen table with all my little containers, and I’m gonna chop all my vegetables, and I’m gonna put them into the containers, and I’m gonna chop them, and I’m gonna do all that while I’m sitting down. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (15:56.094)

Mm -hmm.

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (16:07.742)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (16:21.224)

Right, and let me clarify though, because you mentioned extension cord and then chopping vegetables, some people may not connect the dots. It’s because you use a food processor to help you do that.

Kathi (16:28.47)

Sorry. Right, right, sorry. Key, key point. You are so smart. So yes, so I am going to, I’m going to chop all those with my food processor. I’m only washing the food processor once. I may wipe it out every once in while, but I’m only washing it once. And then that is all ready for assembly day on Friday, which is beautiful.

Tonya Kubo (16:33.282)

haha

Kathi (16:56.35)

Another thing that I feel like is really, really key is I am not rushing myself on cook day. So I’m putting things into a slow cooker. Like it can cook all day. It can be doing what it needs to do. Food is marinating. Like it’s a slow process. It’s the slow food movement. Another thing, if you struggle with something like I do with my ankle,

One of the things I’ve done is I’ve got a standing mat that I’ve put in my kitchen. So those are so nice. And it makes such a big difference with energy. Another thing is we don’t wear shoes in our house just because we’ve got a lot of outdoors outside. But we have bears.

Tonya Kubo (17:32.702)

Those are so nice.

Tonya Kubo (17:43.988)

Mm

You have bears that have to go potty somewhere.

Kathi (17:51.498)

Yeah, and this morning there were turkeys that were not letting moose go outside to go to the bathroom. So she just stood there and barked and then Roger came down and is like, what is the drama? I said, it’s turkeys. And he said, you’re just going to have to deal with it moose. And I said, the turkeys are eating our grapes. And he says, not today. They’re not. And so Roger runs out there, shoes them all away. And Roger, I mean, moose was able to go outside. But you know, I don’t even know what I was saying.

Tonya Kubo (17:56.468)

Waaaah

Tonya Kubo (18:09.812)

No.

Tonya Kubo (18:17.256)

Yes.

Kathi (18:21.366)

But it thinking in batches is to plan. Like I cook all of my hard boiled eggs for the week in one batch. I cook all of those type of, you know, I’m trying to do all of my dishes in one thing, you know, one load. I’m doing all of my chopping in one load, thinking about it like that, breaking it down throughout the week so you don’t have to worry.

Tonya Kubo (18:31.122)

Hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:40.691)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (18:50.782)

You’ve already got the food cooked. It’s a beautiful, beautiful concept.

Well, that’s all we have time for this first part of our discussion on meal planning when you’re low on energy. But don’t worry, we have even more great tips and ideas coming up in part two. In our next episode, we’ll dive into some specific meal ideas, how to involve family in the cooking process, and I’ll share some of my favorite go -to recipes for low energy days. You won’t wanna miss it. Thanks for listening to Clutter -Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now.

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

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

Snapware Pyrex 18-piece Glass Food Storage Set

#635 Batch Cooking Basics: The Sabbath Soup Way of Saving Money on Meal Prep

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 17, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

635 – Batch Cooking Basics:

The Sabbath Soup Way of Saving Money on Meal Prep

Have you ever had those moments where you’re staring into the fridge at 5 PM, wondering what on earth you’re going to feed your family?

Well, friend, We’ve got some good news for you!

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo discuss the concept of Sabbath cooking and how it can save both time and money. They explain the benefits of meal planning and batch cooking, emphasizing how these techniques can reduce food waste and lower grocery bills. Kathi also discusses her upcoming book, “Sabbath Soup,” which provides a comprehensive guide to this cooking method.

Listeners will discover:

How to use ingredients you already have on hand
Batch cooking techniques for soups, salads, and casseroles
Tips for proper food storage and freezing
The financial benefits of cooking ahead and reducing food waste

Kathi shares personal anecdotes about her experiences with budget-friendly cooking and offers practical advice for listeners looking to implement Sabbath cooking in their own homes. Plus, here’s the Zucchini Boat recipe Kathi raved about in this episode!

Stuffed Italian Zucchini Boats with Italian Sausage

Preparation Time: 20 minutes Cooking Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

4 medium zucchini
1 lb. Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375°F and lightly grease a baking sheet or dish.
Cut each zucchini in half lengthwise and use a spoon or melon baller to hollow out the centers, leaving about a 1/4 inch thick zucchini “boat”. Place the zucchini on the baking sheet.
In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the Italian sausage and cook until browned and no longer pink, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Remove the sausage from the skillet and set it aside.
In the same skillet, add the chopped onion and minced garlic, cooking until the onion is translucent.
Add the diced tomatoes, basil, oregano, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well and cook for a few more minutes.
Add back the sausage and cook for another 2-3 minutes until everything is well combined.
Spoon the sausage mixture into each zucchini boat, pressing it down and filling to the top.
Top each zucchini boat with a generous amount of mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the zucchini is tender.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Did you miss #634 Time Saving Strategies For Busy Cooks: Sabbath Soup Secrets? Listen in now.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

Souper Cubes

Tonya’s newest podcast:

Clutter Free Resources:

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your bonus down Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. Preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Do you have a personal favorite batch meal recipe?

Share in the comments!

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

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Meet Our Guest

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:00.354)

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 I am here with Tonya, who, it’s been a rough week at the Kubo house.

Tonya Kubo (00:28.866)

hahahahah

Kathi (00:30.86)

friend. Monday night I saw on social media that you had canceled an event and I’m like well somebody died because Tonya never cancels events and you had a major illness which fortunately recovered quickly and now Brian Kubo is on the DL.

Tonya Kubo (00:53.905)

Yes, but he is totally like he’s got some next level stuff. I was not contagious. I did not get him sick.

Kathi (00:58.9)

gosh.

Kathi (01:02.844)

Okay, well that’s yes that is very important and even though I’ve been sick this week I have not seen Brian so it’s not my fault but it is kind of funny that we are talking about cooking on this episode when you are not allowed to do that in your home.

Tonya Kubo (01:16.977)

No, only because the smell of anything makes him wretch all over the place. And I don’t want to it up anymore, Kathi. I’ll be honest. I’m not that great of a person, actually. I don’t want to clean up vomit. I’m good.

Kathi (01:21.086)

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I understand. It was the one thing my mom said it like not in their marriage vows, but before they got married. And my dad, let’s just say my dad was not a hands on dad, but he knew he knew that was his job. Anyway, we’ll move off of vomit. This show is going to require it. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (01:34.014)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:41.237)

And talk about food!

Kathi (01:49.696)

This show is going to require a trigger warning. So how did you end up feeding the kids last night?

Tonya Kubo (01:55.351)

Panera delivery.

Kathi (01:56.77)

Yes. So here’s what I want to talk about because the you ate cheese and crackers, the kids ate Panera. And I think when we think about saving money when it comes to cooking, we think, OK, austerity. We’re just not we’re not going to do any so. Or if if we don’t do that, then we’re going to order Panera. Like there are 10 ,000 variations in between.

Tonya Kubo (02:03.807)

Yup.

Tonya Kubo (02:15.541)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (02:21.897)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:26.856)

Right.

Kathi (02:27.05)

And that’s what I wanna talk about today. So we are turning the tables. Tonya is interviewing me because we’re talking about my book, Sabbath Soup, because I wrote it with the concept, some people don’t have the time to cook. We talked about that last week. Some people just are on such a tight budget that cooking for an entire week feels impossible. And then some people just don’t have the energy.

And lots of people have a combination of the two. So I wanted to give ideas for everybody who was in this situation. So Tonya, I’m gonna turn it over to you.

Tonya Kubo (03:04.507)

Yeah, well, so I think we have to start off and I feel like I start every episode about the book this way, but like I think I need you for the benefit of our listeners to explain what you mean when you’re talking about Sabbath cooking.

Kathi (03:17.175)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:21.826)

Yeah, so in Jewish households, is just what, or you know, I wouldn’t say conservative, observant, thank you, thank you. That is the exact word that I would have never gotten to. That there is a 24 hour period where you’re not cooking. Now, I am not religious about this. Look at the double entendre there.

Tonya Kubo (03:31.431)

observant.

Tonya Kubo (03:49.139)

Yeah

Kathi (03:50.498)

Double meaning but what I’m trying to I believe in a Sabbath. I really am at the conclusion Tonya Good spiritual health is good mental health that there is nothing that is a spiritual practice that is anti-mental health and I lived for so many years going 24 -7 and Never truly having a break because even if I said hey guys

Tonya Kubo (04:02.751)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:09.545)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (04:19.732)

we’re going to stay at home today, we’re going to watch movies, we’re going to read books, people still wanted to eat. And even can we just also say, and I probably should have saved this for the energy one, but even if you’re ordering food out, there is mental stuff that goes with that. Trying to get, you know, find a place. Of course, I’m coming back to my favorite quote of Abby’s ever, you know, during, during the pandemic.

Tonya Kubo (04:25.449)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:38.645)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (04:46.407)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:48.802)

I want to go to a restaurant. I want to eat something that mom’s not eating. I want to eat something that dad’s not eating. And Roger’s like, I feel that so deeply. And I understand. Roger is probably more appreciative of somebody cooking for him than Abby is. Because for Abby, that’s just expected. Of course, you’re going to cook, Mom. But.

Tonya Kubo (05:05.641)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:09.311)

Duh.

Kathi (05:11.618)

There is a factor to all of this. And if you’re on a budget ordering out for food, well, it could be great for a once in a while treat, is probably cannot be your go -to solution. And so Sabbath says for 24 hours I’m not cooking, but I’m still eating. I’m still indulging.

Tonya Kubo (05:16.01)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (05:27.859)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (05:36.034)

in things that I love. I’m still enjoying food. I am enjoying rest. I’m enjoying connection. I’m thankful for what has been served in the life I have. But we pull back for those 24 hours without a list of to-dos to really connect with those around us and connect with God.

Tonya Kubo (05:59.815)

Okay. So I think then, because I have the benefit of seeing inside the book. I don’t have a copy of the book. I just want to point out to everybody, I don’t get copies of the book any earlier than anybody else does. Okay. There’s certain things that the publisher does not give you special privileges to, but I was going to say, no, you have a copy of some other book that has your cover taped to it or hot glued to it or however it is they make that work.

Kathi (06:17.66)

Right, and I don’t even have a copy of the book. Let’s be clear.

Kathi (06:26.59)

Yes. It’s. It is beautiful and the book inside. Hey, I got a free cookbook. I love it.

Tonya Kubo (06:28.831)

but it looks like a copy of the book and it is beautiful. I was gonna say, yeah, you have a free cookbook, it doesn’t have to be yours. So I know that the book is organized into a series of weekly meal plans. So I want you to help us understand how meal planning and this week-by-week cooking idea ties into your perspective on Sabbath.

Kathi (06:38.572)

Yes.

Kathi (06:43.926)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (06:56.83)

Yeah, so I will just speak for myself. If I don’t have a plan, every meal is an emergency. Especially when we tend to have kind of the same breakfast every morning. We tend to have very similar lunches. But dinner, I try to have some variety. I try to do some different things. And if I don’t have a plan, then

Tonya Kubo (07:11.56)

you

Kathi (07:22.258)

What ends up happening? You know that frozen pizza you have in there for emergencies? That’s a monday night’s meal like if I don’t have a plan That is my first go -to because roger always wants to make sure i’m not stressed And so his thing is like why don’t we just do the frozen pizza? But here’s the thing that like we were just talking about hey Tonya Do we need to delay some things and you said that’s just kicking the can down the? the road and it’s

Tonya Kubo (07:28.659)

Yeah

Tonya Kubo (07:47.049)

Mm Down the road, yeah?

Kathi (07:48.648)

It’s, you know, because Tuesday’s coming and we need to eat something on Tuesday. So I like to have a plan for a couple of different reasons. One, if I plan out my meals in advance, I can do it one of two ways. I can plan the meals, know the ingredients I need and look for those on sale. Or what I tend to do is say, okay, here’s what we have an abundance of at the house.

Tonya Kubo (07:51.209)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:15.902)

Let’s meal plan around that. How can that fit into something? And so, but I would say if if meal planning is new for you, I would just take a a week’s worth of meals from the book or from, know, you can get them other places if you want to and do that because it is going to be less expensive than you trying to come up with a new meal every day. It’s going to be it’s going to be less expensive than that one.

Tonya Kubo (08:29.779)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:44.852)

Wednesday night when you get super frustrated and you just say I Can’t decide let’s go out to dinner. So this is when we’re when you meal plan on Monday Yeah, you shop on Tuesday or Wednesday you start prepping on Thursday you cook on Friday or Saturday and then you don’t have to worry about meals for the rest of the week and I I’ve been very purposeful in these meal plans to say

Tonya Kubo (08:50.933)

Mm

Kathi (09:12.268)

hey, that thing you’re cooking for your big Saturday night dinner, you’re gonna use those leftovers on Monday. That big pot of soup that you’re reheating on Sunday after church, that’s Tuesday night’s meal as well. So if you have enough people in your family, you may have to double on some of these recipes, but for the most part, you are going to be strategic in what you’re doing. you know, I like…

I’ve put some really budget stretching recipes into the book so that you are, you’re good to go. Like these are things that are often on sale. You may have in your freezer or in your pantry.

Tonya:

Okay. So this sounds great, but what I’d like to do is just recap sort of this money-saving aspect, because I think you and me talk about this so often, Kathi, that it all makes sense in our heads, but I’m not sure it would make sense to a first-time listener. Right? So,

Kathi (11:24.886)

Perfect.

Kathi (11:28.556)

Perfect.

Kathi (11:45.855)

Right, let’s do it.

Tonya Kubo (11:48.789)

Part of the money saving aspect is when you’re meal planning, you’re also looking at your calendar to see what’s going on. Like, are you really eating at home five days a week? Are you eating at home seven? And you’re only shopping for what you actually need. And then because you, and I love this about your meal plans, because there’s this idea of leftovers on purpose, making the big meal on this night and using some of those leftovers a couple nights later, then you’re minimizing food waste, which…

Kathi (11:56.81)

Mm -hmm. Right.

Tonya Kubo (12:18.119)

You know I’ve looked this up, Kathi, because I’m really passionate about this, but that is like the number one cause of overspending in food costs in the US is the amount of food waste. It’s like billions of dollars in the US every year just goes to a landfill.

Kathi (12:21.376)

Yes.

Kathi (12:32.418)

Tonya can we talk about that because I don’t know that I’ve really thought about it this way before but I think many of us have fallen into the Costco syndrome where we are buying in bulk things that we do not consume in bulk and

Tonya Kubo (12:44.999)

yeah.

Tonya Kubo (12:48.511)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (12:52.295)

yeah, Brian will tell you all the time. It’s so much cheaper to buy English muffins at Costco and throw one package away than it is to just buy the number of packages week to week from the grocery store that we would use. Now to listeners, I know you can phrase English muffins. That’s not the point of the example. It’s just, that’s what he always says. It’s like, we could buy this and throw half of it away for less money than it would cost to buy just what we needed from a different store.

Kathi (13:13.002)

Yes, yes, right.

Kathi (13:21.692)

Mm -hmm. Yes. Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (13:22.089)

But there is a cost, right, to throwing away food. And I think that that is one of those points that when you really have to watch your budget or when you’re choosing to watch your budget, you can’t lose sight of using up what you have on hand is so valuable. But Kathi, you know, I always talk about how even communism sounds like a lovely thing in theory. It’s in practice where it kind of falls apart. So.

Kathi (13:33.452)

Mm

Kathi (13:46.024)

Hahaha!

Yes!

Tonya Kubo (13:51.667)

Tell me how to prevent the practice of Sabbath soup and week to week meal planning. How do we prevent that from falling apart in practice?

Kathi (14:00.896)

Yeah, so first of all, you may not need to do this kind of cooking every single week. That is okay. You may say, hey, I don’t want to roast a chicken. I think buying a Costco chicken is a perfectly valid option. I think where we fall apart so often is in the extremes. Like if you don’t plan for your whole week,

Tonya Kubo (14:14.717)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (14:25.375)

Hmm.

Kathi (14:30.506)

you’re gonna fall apart. Now, let me be honest with you. I plan for the whole week, almost every week, but also within that week, I have things like, hey, this is where I’m gonna do a Trader Joe’s meal. Or this is the night we’re going out. I think that it’s really important that balance, extreme balance is important.

Tonya Kubo (14:56.297)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:58.484)

that there, like you said, there are some weeks where it doesn’t make sense. But can I tell you all the times that it does make sense to cook ahead? We just went on an RV trip. We took all of our meals to San Jose. And we knew we were gonna be eating out at certain points with certain friends and things like that. But I cooked all the meals for our week ahead of time, froze some of them, put some of them in the fridge.

Tonya Kubo (15:11.861)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (15:24.595)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:28.378)

We spent hardly any unplanned money because we knew exactly what we were doing. are our bill has gone down considerably since we’ve been implementing this system because like today, Tony, you know, it has been a hectic week around here. Roger is not feeling his best. He’s feeling better than Brian. I will assure you of that. But like, you know what?

Tonya Kubo (15:39.605)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:53.948)

Yeah.

Kathi (15:58.018)

And here’s the other thing that threw me off. I had defrosted some chili and we were using that for taco salad and I got downstairs, I’m like, I was looking through the fridge, where’s the chili? And Roger’s like, yeah, I was extra hungry. And I’m like, well, I’m super glad you enjoyed that. So I could go to the freezer and I pulled out some chicken stew that I had frozen. Like, there’s no panic.

Tonya Kubo (16:14.708)

you

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (16:24.223)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (16:27.756)

There’s no, no, we now need to go to Taco Bell or something like that. If we go to Taco Bell, it’s because we want to go to Taco Bell. And so I think that it’s really what you’re doing is in one day, you’re cooking about the equivalent of three dinners. You’re cooking a big soup. You’ve got a big like, you know, something like a casserole or an enchilada casserole or something like that.

Tonya Kubo (16:48.297)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (16:57.632)

And then you’re also cooking like a meat and potatoes or a meat and rice or a meat, you know, something like that. So there are these three big meals that are going to last you for about six days. or, you know, five days plus you’re gonna have some left over, whatever it is. And then you’re regaining not just time, but energy and money.

Tonya Kubo (17:05.397)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (17:16.725)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:25.494)

because that is not going to waste. You have a plan for the leftovers instead of them just being in the fridge, growing green penicillin. That’s not what we want. So that’s how, if you’re buying all the groceries up front, but then you’re using most of the groceries. And if you have some groceries leftover, like if you have some asparagus leftover or you have some heavy cream, you can freeze that.

Tonya Kubo (17:44.639)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:55.124)

You can throw that into a salad. You can be creative with those leftovers, but you’re using up most of what you’ve bought.

Tonya Kubo (18:04.191)

Got it. Okay, so you’ve talked about making a big pot of this or a big batch of that a few times. So could you share like what are some batch cooking techniques that you feel work really well or maybe lend themselves really well to Sabbath cooking?

Kathi (18:08.31)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (18:22.732)

So for sure soup like soup is my go -to soup. I will make every single week I make it on Friday or Saturday put it in the fridge and then reheat it on Sunday for after church like part of this Tonya that saves money time and energy is You’re not saying what are we gonna have after church this Sunday? No, you’re having soup. You’re having soup. It’s easy It’s done. You just add some bread and maybe a salad and you’re good to go

Tonya Kubo (18:26.343)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (18:44.426)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (18:52.672)

So I feel like that is a really good thing. Another thing that is interesting for batch, which people may not think about, are salads. So on Thursday, when I’m cutting up like all the mushrooms, all the onions, that kind of stuff, I’m doing that in big batches. And I’m using those onions, not just in salads, but I’m using them in the soup that we’re making or the casserole. And then,

Tonya Kubo (19:01.429)

You

Kathi (19:17.498)

I am cutting up a bunch of romaine lettuce. That’s the lettuce we happen to like in our house. And I am washing it and I’m laying it out so that it dries. That’s the key for it not to turn brown. And I’m storing it with a paper towel. So if you’re looking to save money, cutting up your own romaine lettuce is cheaper than doing say like a bag salad. It’s cheaper than all of that kind of stuff.

Tonya Kubo (19:28.405)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (19:45.314)

Another thing that I feel like really lends itself, so anything you can do in a crock pot lends itself to this. Casseroles are great. You know, and when I say casseroles, people are like, casserole. Okay, lasagna is a casserole friend. You know, I love to do like a broccoli, cheese, chicken and rice bake. That’s a beautiful thing. Enchiladas can be done as a casserole.

Tonya Kubo (20:00.574)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (20:07.209)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (20:13.226)

You know, anything where it’s a big pan of things that you know your family will love. And so we do a lot of that type. And then you can think about this as well. Ingredients are great for batch cooking. So Tonya, we’ve talked about this before. You have a bunch of ingredients. What are you gonna make that into?

Tonya Kubo (20:16.403)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:35.647)

Yeah, I make fried rice. Always.

Kathi (20:36.674)

Yep, I may make another batch of soup. I may make a stir fry. Like right now our garden is bursting with zucchini. We are zucchini 24 seven around here. And so, you know, we have a lot of ingredients on hand. Like we have a lot of mushrooms right now. We have a lot of onions. We’ve got some, you know, we’ve bought on sale.

Tonya Kubo (20:44.693)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:06.272)

ground sausage. So we’re doing a lot of zucchini boats and we’re but you don’t here’s the beautiful thing when it comes to saving money. Yes, I’ve given you recipes unless it’s something you’re baking, you know, like a pastry or something like that. Recipes are suggestions. So if I wanted to make a zucchini boat and if you don’t know what that is, I’ll attach a recipe to here and I didn’t have ground sausage.

Tonya Kubo (21:21.172)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (21:24.511)

right.

Kathi (21:34.516)

I would do that with ground beef and a ton of garlic and onions and mushrooms. And if I really love Roger bell peppers, even though I think they’re disgusting, and we would juice it up in a different way. Just recently, I made my macaroni and cheese, which is a great recipe from the book. And we didn’t have the right kind of cheese, quote unquote. We didn’t have Gruyere.

Tonya Kubo (21:47.167)

Ha

Tonya Kubo (21:50.773)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (22:03.54)

And so we had this port wine cheese and we did that. It was delicious. consider that when you’re trying to save money, consider recipes suggestions. And that’s when you use the frozen pizza. When you’ve made a recipe and you’re like, well, that did not turn out. OK, that’s fine. You have a frozen pizza. Nobody’s going to die. But you may discover something great along the way.

Tonya Kubo (22:19.516)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (22:33.663)

Got it, okay, that’s really helpful. So we’ve talked about what recipes lend themselves really well to cooking in batches or how batch cooking can work out really well. We’ve talked about the money saving aspects. Talk to me about storage.

Kathi (22:51.002)

Yeah, okay, so let me talk about soup because I There there’s a four -step process. Okay, so with soup first of all when I make a pot of soup I let it cool down and I put the whole pot in the fridge. That’s just what I do because Here’s the beautiful thing on Sunday when I come home from church I’m just gonna pull that pot out and put it straight on the the the burner

Tonya Kubo (22:54.761)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:17.417)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (23:17.684)

Like it’s a one pot meal. Now before I do that, if it’s just me and Roger, I’m gonna pull some of that stuff out because I know I don’t wanna reheat it like seven times. It does take some of the moisture out. So with a soup, and this is really with almost any kind of food, let it cool down completely, okay? Just before you pack it away, let it cool down completely. While you’re eating it, let it cool down completely. It’s fine. And then,

Tonya Kubo (23:25.257)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (23:45.204)

Choose your containers. I will tell you I’m loving They’re from Costco and I’ll put them in the comments. They’re just clear containers With a clear top. I’m sorry. I should have looked this up before we did this that snap into place but They are the perfect size There there there’s like a long casserole size. There’s more of like

Tonya Kubo (24:07.967)

Hmm.

Kathi (24:13.802)

I’ve chopped up an onion, let me put that in the container. There’s, I have a little bit of sauce. And then I don’t wanna waste these carrots, I’ll use them on tomorrow’s salad. Those are the four sizes. Yeah, I’m very scientific about this. But once it’s cooled down, you can put it into a container like that. The other thing I have that I really like, they’re called Souper Containers, S -O -U -P -E -R. And I will also put

Tonya Kubo (24:26.291)

Right. I like this.

Kathi (24:43.616)

those in the notes. But those are just a rubber container that are have a square divot that are perfect for a block of soup. And they have a lid that goes on top of it. That’s what I pulled out today when I found out we didn’t have any more chili. And so we’re having chicken stew for lunch. It’s perfect. It’s easy. It’s good to go. So you know, think about the containers. If you’re really struggling with your

Tonya Kubo (24:54.453)

you

Kathi (25:13.236)

your space. Maybe you only have one fridge and you’ve got a large family. It’s okay to freeze things in ziplock bags. It’s not the most economical, but can you reuse ziplock bags? Maybe you used a ziplock bag to store some green onions. That maybe can be used to do a soup. I always freeze things laying down on a cookie sheet.

Tonya Kubo (25:41.823)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (25:42.41)

so that when you’re storing them in your freezer, they either store flat, they store flat. So you can either store them laying down or up. And make sure you label them with the date because you think you know what that soup is. Can I tell you once it’s frozen? You don’t know what that’s stupid. label and freeze it. so,

Tonya Kubo (26:02.803)

It’s hard to tell.

Kathi (26:08.756)

Sometimes when I’m just looking for something to eat, I’ll just flip through. It’s like a card stack of frozen stuff. And that’s how I freeze like my extra limit. That’s another thing is before how can you make sure that things don’t go to waste? Like somebody gave me a bag of lemons off their tree. And that was awesome. You know, we did lemonade and we did lemon and RST and I did lemon bars. And then I was like, I am lemon doubt.

Tonya Kubo (26:14.101)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (26:37.877)

you

Kathi (26:37.94)

So we just got our juicer out and we juiced all the lemons and we froze that lemon juice and we used it all winter long. It was wonderful. Do the same thing with half and half. Do the same thing with heavy cream. I store it like a cup at a time because I want it pre -measured and I’ll put that in the Ziploc bag and store it like that. So it’s about really making use of everything you have in your house.

Tonya Kubo (26:57.461)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (27:07.253)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (27:07.522)

Use your freezer and your pantry. Clean. The other thing that is great about the once a week cooking process is on Monday, I’m in there like cleaning out my fridge, like saying, what do we have? we could have that on a salad tomorrow. that needs to be eaten today. You know, we are not, we are not wasting money in this house.

Tonya Kubo (27:28.863)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (27:32.741)

Okay, well I’m so glad you brought up the fridge cleaning example because, you know, we’ve talked a lot about financial benefits, but it sounds like fridge cleaning, for instance. There are other advantages to stop cooking. So what would those be?

Kathi (27:46.038)

Yeah, so I think one you get to rest. I think that’s the most important thing. Two, you get to use up what you’ve already bought. The cheapest food you will ever acquire is the food you already have. And I know that sounds like a simple idea, but you know, if it works for you to say, hey, I like this whole week’s plan, except I’ve got a lot of ground beef.

I think I’m going to do spaghetti instead of, you know, this rice dish that Kathi had in there. Please, again, these are ideas. They are not, you’re not going to throw off the system. I want you to use what you have. We all go through lean times. Now, we all have different economic situations. You know, for Roger and I, we are trying to save money right now.

because as you know, Tonya, we’ve made some big investments in our business. And one of the ways that we can control costs is by how much we eat out and what we buy at the grocery store. It’s not that we’re trying to live paycheck to paycheck, but dude, I’ve been there. I have lived that life. I have lived the life where I don’t have, you I’ve got $50 to get us

Tonya Kubo (28:45.098)

Mm

Kathi (29:13.058)

I was a single mom, you know, I have $50 to get us through the end of the month and I need to make this stretch. So I know, I know how, I think it’s really important for us to have the skills to say, this is how I can shop on the cheap, cook on the cheap. You may not need to do it, but it’s like, it’s like, it’s like a CPR class. I pray I never have to use it.

Tonya Kubo (29:15.349)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (29:41.034)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (29:41.622)

but I’m so glad I’ve got those skills.

Tonya Kubo (29:45.091)

my gosh, this is so good. I’m so glad you have those skills too, because that allows you to transfer them to the rest of us. So Kathi, can you just recap for our listeners the main ways, like what are the actionable tips from this episode? How can Sabbath cooking save them money?

Kathi (29:50.685)

Yes, that’s what we want, right?

Kathi (30:03.223)

Yeah.

Yeah, so, you know, taking a Sabbath from cooking isn’t just about rest. It’s a secret weapon for your wallet. It really is. There are some weeks where you’re going to need to plan better because finances are tight. And so I want you to have the skills to do that. There are going to be other times where you can be a little bit more extravagant. You can buy the fancy chocolate. You can get the good cut of meat. But let’s…

Let’s take them one at a time. One, plan your meals. If you do nothing else, if you do nothing else, plan your meals. Because if you plan your meals for a week, you say this is what we’re going to eat Saturday night through, you know, Friday, you know, Friday night, you are already going to save money. Take inventory of what you have on hand. Use what you already have.

So you’re not just buying fresh ingredients on top of fresh ingredients on top of fresh ingredients. I don’t want you to do that. I also don’t want you to be spending money on meat when you have that in your freezer, when it’s a lean week. So take an inventory of what you have. Prep yourself. So there are times when I am really running out of time where I will buy pre -chopped vegetables. But we all know that chopping your own vegetables saves you money.

Tonya Kubo (31:06.143)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (31:31.753)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (31:31.818)

So if you can plan like on Thursday, I’m gonna chop all the vegetables and I’m going to pack them away. I’m gonna store them in a way that they’re gonna be great for a while to come. You I do this with strawberries. Like one of the things I do is I will wash and cut strawberries and then I let them completely dry and I put them in mason jars and they last forever. It’s crazy how long they last when if I don’t do that,

Tonya Kubo (31:58.505)

Hmm.

Kathi (32:00.578)

if they just sit in their original container, sometimes it’s three days. I don’t understand strawberries, I really don’t. But I do this with cucumbers. You know, we are big cucumber eaters around here. And so to be able to cut that, you are 10 times more likely to use cut mushrooms than you are mushrooms that are whole. Like just set aside some time to cut.

Tonya Kubo (32:07.509)

You

Tonya Kubo (32:14.805)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (32:26.367)

Mmm.

Kathi (32:29.972)

and then cook. Once you’ve cooked it, you’re not going to not eat it. You’re not gonna say, let’s just chuck it and go to Pizza Hut. No, you’re not gonna do that because you’ve already cooked it. You know how moms always say we have food at the house? Well, lots of times when my mom said that, that we had ingredients at the house. We didn’t have food, we had ingredients. But now you have food at the house. And that’s what I want to help you save money.

Tonya Kubo (32:50.965)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (32:57.366)

to not feel deprived. I think that’s a big thing too. When we are tied on budgets, we don’t wanna feel deprived and there is not a week’s worth of recipes in here that will make you feel deprived.

Tonya Kubo (33:00.255)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (33:10.014)

Nice. Okay, tell us how we can learn more about Sabbath cooking in your book.

Kathi (33:15.168)

Yeah, we’re gonna drop a link in there and we’re gonna give you, if you pre-order the book, because the book doesn’t come out until October 8th, if you pre-order the book, you are going to get a week’s worth of menus and some other ideas and samples and recipes and fun things. So you will get that automatically emailed to you so you can get started right away. So we’ll drop the link into our show notes so you can grab that right away. But the book is available, on Amazon.

Barnes & Noble, your favorite Christian retailer, like anywhere you want, you can buy the book.

Tonya Kubo (33:51.641)

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Kathi. I have had fun switching roles where I get to ask all the questions and I just appreciate you walking us through these steps that I know for you are habitual at this point, but for many of us, it’s like brand new information.

Kathi (34:09.354)

Well, and thank you for asking me because you’re right. I have the curse of knowledge and so to be able to share this in a new fresh way is so great. So Tonya, thank you for hosting. Thank you for being amazing. And friends, thank you for being here. You’ve been listening to Clutter free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you always wanted to live.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

Sam’s Club Smoked Shredded Chicken

#634 Time-Saving Strategies for Busy Cooks: Sabbath Soup Secrets

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 10, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

634 – Time-Saving Strategies for Busy Cooks:

Sabbath Soup Secrets

Hey there, busy friends!

Have you ever wished for a true day of rest from cooking?

In this episode of Clutter-Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and co-host Tonya Kubo dive into time-saving strategies for meal planning and preparation. Kathi introduces her upcoming book, “Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest,” and shares insights on how to manage meals when time is in short supply. They share real-life ideas for streamlining kitchen routines, including tips for freezing ingredients, using kitchen gadgets efficiently, and repurposing leftovers creatively.

Listeners will discover:

The concept of “loop meals” or “leftovers on purpose”
The benefits of batch cooking and prepping ingredients in advance
Using AI tools like Claude to assist with meal planning
The value of pre-made meals and “catering by Costco” during busy times

Kathi and Tonya share personal anecdotes and practical advice for getting delicious meals to your table without losing your sanity. Trust me, your future self will thank you!

Did you miss #633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning? Listen in now.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

Costco Dried Mushrooms

Claude AI

Chat GPT

Tonya’s newest podcast:

Clutter Free Resources:

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your bonus down Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. Preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

What are your go-to time-saving tips?

Share in the comments!

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

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:00.903)

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 here with me is my co-host of Clutter -Free Academy, it’s Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya. So we are in the midst of talking all things food prep. And we’ve been talking about my book that’s coming out, Sabbath Soup, weekly menus and rhythms to make space for a day of rest.

Tonya Kubo (00:14.602)

Hey KathI!

Tonya Kubo (00:20.873)

Yes!

Kathi (00:30.367)

I don’t even know if I’ve shown you this, but look how pretty she is. This is just a mock-up. You know, the inside is somebody else’s cookbook completely.

Tonya Kubo (00:43.328)

You know.

Kathi (00:44.413)

You would never know, but I think she’s so pretty. It makes me so happy. The bowl of soup on the front makes me super happy. And you know what I loved about doing that? We actually went to a hunting lodge. No, no, no, it wasn’t a hunting lodge. It was a vineyard lodge. Like I guess they have had hunters stay there before. And we did all the photography for that. And we cooked a bunch of my recipes and

Tonya Kubo (00:58.624)

Mmm.

Kathi (01:13.021)

the whole crew was like, when do we get to eat these? And we finally got to eat. And they were all like, this is amazing. my goodness. It made me so happy. Because you know, I cook all these recipes and I think they’re amazing. But then to unleash them on the general public, it’s nice. Let’s just say it’s nice to have confirmation that it worked out, right? So I want to talk about, I made this book.

Tonya Kubo (01:26.72)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:35.424)

Right, exactly.

Kathi (01:42.591)

for people who were short on time, short on money, and short on energy. And so I wanted to talk about like, okay, which of those three are you the shortest on?

Tonya Kubo (01:47.392)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (01:53.994)

Cool. I would say time.

Kathi (01:57.599)

Okay, okay, so this episode is for you. Yay. For me, it’s probably energy just because, you know, I don’t know, you know, it’s, I maybe I’m getting a little bit older. I put my energy into a lot of different things. But you have, you have a 14 year old and how old is Miss Abby? 10, that’s what I was gonna guess that but I’m always terrible at guessing children’s ages.

Tonya Kubo (02:00.745)

Yay!

Tonya Kubo (02:21.162)

Ten.

Kathi (02:26.623)

You know, I at my niece I’d be like she’s 12 right? No, she’s 16. Kathi. Okay. Yeah, great Super involved in so You’re at a place where yeah, you’re going into 15, you know between Band camp and you know the different classes your kids take and doctor’s appointments and just your own business there’s there’s not a lot of time so What where?

Tonya Kubo (02:31.424)

No.

Tonya Kubo (02:46.378)

My heart.

Tonya Kubo (02:53.408)

There’s not.

Kathi (02:55.805)

Where do you feel like the challenge with time comes with meal planning most?

Tonya Kubo (03:01.19)

Well, I think for us, when it comes to meal planning, I, part of it is, is that when I worked in an office environment, I would spend my Friday lunch break planning meals for the next week. And at home, I don’t get the formal breaks that I used to get when I was in an office.

Kathi (03:12.229)

Mm -hmm. Mmm.

Kathi (03:18.863)

Right. Yes, yes, that makes a big difference, doesn’t it?

Tonya Kubo (03:24.516)

It does. And so part of it is, is setting aside the time. It’s protecting the time when I’ve set it aside and getting in the headspace. As you know, that transition time with your brain, like just takes a lot. And so those three things always make it feel harder and more time consuming than it should have to be.

Kathi (03:32.095)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:39.207)

It does.

Kathi (03:45.649)

Yeah, well, and I think about, you know, when you’re planning for just a couple days in advance, that’s really tough. And you were planning away from home, which I mean, was great. But also, you didn’t necessarily know what was in the fridge. And as we’ve discussed on this podcast in the past, Mr. Kubo likes to stop by the store. So you may not know what has recently come to your house. Yes, yes, yes. So

Tonya Kubo (03:55.509)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (04:10.416)

Exactly.

Kathi (04:13.375)

I do want to talk about time -saving strategies both with planning but also part of the reason that this is called Sabbath soup is because we are planning for you to take a Sabbath we want you to and we’re gonna work the Kubo’s up from having absolutely no Sabbath to something of a Sabbath to someday having a Sabbath and We’re gonna see this transformation

Tonya Kubo (04:25.896)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (04:38.334)

Yes!

Kathi (04:41.395)

So I want to talk about some time saving strategies and I want you to leap in here too because Tonya, you’ve learned a lot. So I think one thing that I think we really need to talk about is keeping it simple. It’s very fun to try elaborate recipes because you want to try something really, really specific. But I think there’s also a place for

Tonya Kubo (04:57.888)

Mm

Kathi (05:09.735)

What’s easy and done, right? What do we do that we can just do really, really quickly? And one of the things that I’ve learned also is to have the resources on hand to make meal prep easy. So one of the things that I do is I have a set of dry,

Measuring spoons and measuring cups and a set of wet measuring spoons and measuring cups. I have a set of dry Mixing bowls and a set of wet mixing bowls that has been For me that keeps it so I don’t have to clean up all the time now, of course If I am preparing like a meatloaf and I’ve got raw meat in the bowl. I am NOT reusing that bowl. So let’s

Let’s just start off with the assumption that we all have some common sense and that I’m using common sense Because we often have people who will write into the podcast assuming that I don’t know that Robbie can kill you But I I very much know that so we’re just gonna use the common sense that we can I also so what’s your favorite time -saving meal Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (06:05.684)

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:16.576)

Mm

Kathi (06:29.599)

Because I think having some chili, why is it time saving for you?

Tonya Kubo (06:30.112)

Chili. Chili.

Well, cause my chili recipe uses the Instant Pot or I use a crock pot sometimes. You know, I use an Instant Pot for both functions, but you know, my chili recipe is just opening a bunch of cans and dumping it. And what I have started doing, and I think I got this tip from you, is I actually go to a local butcher to buy ground meat. And so I buy it five pounds at a time.

Kathi (06:39.389)

Yeah.

Kathi (06:43.461)

Mm -hmm. Yeah

Kathi (06:50.952)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (07:02.408)

And then when I bring it home, I just cook all of it up and then I portion it out. You know, so five portions. So that’s already done it in the freezer so I can just throw that in with all the rest of my ingredients, plug it in, set it for its time. Done.

Kathi (07:02.417)

Ooh.

Kathi (07:05.87)

-huh. Nice.

Kathi (07:13.415)

Yeah.

Kathi (07:19.419)

Okay, so you bring up such a good point here that is now I do my ground beef I’ll put I’ll do it with the First I’ll saute some onions and then I’ll throw that and garlic and do that because that’s how I like to use my ground beef I also now do that with sausage crumble sausage And shredded chicken, but I will also say sam’s club has a shredded chicken. That’s out of this world It’s a smoked shredded chicken

Tonya Kubo (07:30.89)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (07:39.776)

Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (07:49.053)

Yum.

Kathi (07:49.947)

Yeah, that’s amazing. But to have those packets of pre -cooked meat ready to go to add into your chili, to add into your spaghetti sauce, to add into your soup, genius, genius, genius. And yeah, so I think it’s interesting. There are two ways to define time-saving. So time-saving can be, okay, I’m going to do this real quick because I’m home and we need something quick for dinner.

Tonya Kubo (07:53.802)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:20.103)

which is a totally valid way of cooking. Then there’s another way, which is just how you described your chili, which is you throw all the ingredients in there. It takes you five minutes to throw together. However, it may cook all day. And that’s, to me, those are both time -saving. They are used in different ways, but they both count as time-saving to me. And so I love having those kinds of go -to meals.

Tonya Kubo (08:35.146)

Mm

Kathi (08:49.757)

So I want to tell you a few of my other favorite go -to meals that can hit some of those things. So one of them is just a pasta. Last night, I had made pasta sauce a couple of weeks ago, and I made too much. I froze part of it because I had had some ground sausage, some marinara sauce, some onions and mushrooms, all that kind of stuff. And instead of

Tonya Kubo (08:53.407)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (09:05.866)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (09:18.239)

putting the leftovers into the fridge where let’s just be clear, leftovers go to die. I said, you know what, I’m going, this is what’s called a loop meal, leftovers on purpose. So I packaged that up, it in the freezer. Last night I made, I boiled up some just elbow macaroni and we had that with.

Tonya Kubo (09:40.618)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (09:43.995)

That marinara sauce rogers like this is my favorite meal I’m like good because it’s super easy and then I made a whole box of that macaroni Pasta because I’m gonna turn that into mac and cheese and so like, know, we’re doing those left So like we’re doing a cycle of meals So first I cooked too much marinara and I made that with the pasta which I cook too much of the pasta which I’m gonna make into the macaroni and cheese

Tonya Kubo (09:49.61)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (10:02.186)

Mm

Kathi (10:11.431)

I’m gonna shred too much cheese. I will make that into something else when I make the macaroni and cheese. It’s the circle of life, baby. Another really great time -saving meal for me, and I think this is one that Lily may dig. So I’m just gonna, it’s the sheet pan meals. Has she ever cooked a sheet pan meal?

Tonya Kubo (10:17.664)

Thank you.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (10:35.441)

well, I have, right? So she’s watched me do it, but yeah, she has not made one of her own.

Kathi (10:37.072)

Okay. Yes.

I think some sheet pan fajitas would be right up that kid’s alley. I don’t know. think she might, you slice everything, toss with seasoning, and bake on a sheet pan. And I love parchment paper. It’s the one thing at Costco I don’t care for. Their paper is good, but just the size of it, it’s too big for things.

Tonya Kubo (10:46.892)

I think you’re right. No, you’re right.

Tonya Kubo (10:58.496)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:10.418)

It’s too unwieldy, yeah.

Kathi (11:11.999)

Yes, have I told you my favorite sheet pan? What am I trying to say? What do you parchment paper tip? Have I told you my favorite parchment paper tip? Okay, so you cut out your parchment paper and then you crinkle it all up and spread it out again. So it doesn’t all. Yes, I why did it take me 10 years to figure that out? But God bless.

Tonya Kubo (11:25.084)

No, you have not told me your favorite parchment paper tip.

Tonya Kubo (11:34.178)

So it doesn’t curl up? Nice!

You know what? We used parchment paper two days ago and you know what I did, Kathi? I grabbed cans out of the pantry and just put one can in every corner. So like the moment you’re telling me you crinkle it up, I’m like, that would make it lay flat, wouldn’t it? That would be easier than lugging out four cans from the cabinet.

Kathi (11:48.351)

okay.

Kathi (11:54.619)

Yes, yes.

Kathi (11:59.555)

I do it every time I bake cookies now, every time I do everything. Okay, here’s another fun one. A Greek salad with rotisserie chicken. you’re just doing, so there are two ways to do a Greek salad. You can do like the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, feta, but also another way I love to do it is just the sliced cucumbers and do that in with some tomatoes and throw some chicken in there, do some feta.

Tonya Kubo (12:04.081)

love it.

Kathi (12:29.255)

and put some either Italian dressing or Greek dressing on it. Chef’s kiss, chef’s kiss. And quesadillas, another favorite way and those do great in an air fryer or just in a pan. Tuna avocado boats, have you ever done something like this?

Tonya Kubo (12:32.53)

Mm -hmm.

Yum.

Tonya Kubo (12:39.872)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (12:50.384)

Yes, but not for years because you know the price of avocados around here is a little bit silly. But yes, tuna avocado boats and chicken salad avocado boats are really good.

Kathi (12:55.281)

Yeah, yes it is.

I was just going to say this would be an easy one to do a chicken salad with. And so think about that when you’re roasting a chicken, like for Roger and I, we’re not going to eat all of that roasted chicken. What are you going to make with the leftovers? That is a time saver because if you get that roasted chicken out, you’re chopping it up, you’re eating that for dinner at night. And then at the same time, you’re making a chicken salad so you can have that for lunch the next day or dinner the next day.

Tonya Kubo (13:03.441)

And I’m loose.

Tonya Kubo (13:12.16)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:29.735)

How many times can you have leftovers on purpose when you’re just doing that the next day? And then I love a good wrap, you know, so taking some leftover chicken or maybe some hummus or some pre-cut vegetables and just, you know, putting it on a tortilla or a wrap or whatever you use to roll. It’s a great no-cook meal.

Tonya Kubo (13:36.02)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (13:55.114)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:57.469)

So they’re great for busy days when you know that tomorrow is going to be busy cook tonight and have that as a leftover so I also want you to save time with your cooking routine so Tonya I’m gonna give you a minute to think about what is your favorite time -saving tip for when you’re prepping for things okay so I want you to think about that but I’m gonna tell you my favorite thing

is to cut your veggies for the week. So on one day, for me it’s Thursdays, I’m pulling out my Cuisinart, whatever your food processor is, and I am cutting all of my carrots at the same time. I’m precutting all of my onions, both white or yellow, whatever you want, and then also purple. Like all of that is happening on the same day.

I am cutting up as much as I possibly can in one day. So I only have to clean out the food processor once. So what are you going to do? I also love to use Alexa for reminders and kind of, you know, doing out my day. The other thing I love, and then I’m gonna come to your tip, is to say, hey Claude, here are all my recipes.

What should I do in what order? So if you don’t know what I’m talking about, Claude is AI, you could also use chat GBT. What can I prep the day before and what can I cook the day of? What order should I do that in? I think that that, and Claude is right 90 % of the time, sometimes you have to look at it and say, really, is that what I wanna do? But to get an order, so you’re not having to decide on the day of cooking what you’re gonna do.

Tonya Kubo (15:40.884)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:49.844)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:50.407)

Okay, so Tonya what’s your favorite time-saving cooking tip?

Tonya Kubo (15:55.09)

Okay, so for cooking, mean, I think your point, I think is the ultimate truth, which is it’s the prep that takes the most time. It’s the chopping and all the things. So for me, some things that I have just discovered over the years, if I’m making recipes where I need shredded cheese, freezing the blocks of cheese in advance, because frozen cheese actually shreds easier and faster.

Kathi (16:06.408)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (16:24.382)

than cheese from the fridge. You don’t have the moisture, all of that. So that’s one, it’s just super easy. We also keep our ginger root, because we do a lot of Asian cooking. So our ginger root is in the freezer because if you grate it, you don’t need to peel it. The peel just kind of like melts away. So that’s one that we do. And then we have started doing a lot more like minced garlic with like ice cubes or oil.

Kathi (16:26.469)

Yeah, yeah. Right.

Kathi (16:34.899)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (16:41.269)

nice. cool.

Tonya Kubo (16:53.246)

like with water or oil and freezing those and making little like flavor bricks. Those are the things. And then for me, the big one is I make my own bone broth. So anytime I cook a roasted chicken, cook a chicken, have bones, I throw that all in the Instant Pot and just water and some seasonings and let that cook. It makes a very neutral broth. It’s not like the broth you buy at the store, but having that frozen in ice cube trays, that makes it super fast to make soup, super easy.

Kathi (16:53.288)

Yeah.

Kathi (17:03.593)

Okay?

Tonya Kubo (17:22.814)

to make, even if I wanna make ramen and just have it be a little heartier using the homemade stuff, all of that, and dried mushrooms. My family loves mushrooms a lot. So dried mushrooms kick up the flavor and things.

Kathi (17:27.579)

Yeah.

Kathi (17:33.585)

Yes.

And Costco has the big thing of dried mushrooms. If, yeah, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (17:39.742)

That’s where we buy ours. And we just started buying freeze-dried green onions. And we bought them online. Brian had seen them at Costco, but they were doing that thing where, you know, they’re not going to order any more. Because, you know, it’s like, you can regrow your green onions. We’ve talked about that before on the show. But, sometimes you just need a tablespoon of green onions. You don’t need the whole batch.

Kathi (17:45.433)

interesting, where do you get those?

Kathi (17:54.161)

Right, right.

Kathi (17:58.397)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kathi (18:06.151)

It’s so true. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (18:07.322)

And so popping those, just a tablespoon of those, again, a lot of times it’s for our ramen, but it just makes everything so much more fun. It’s great for the kids, right? Like I’m not just giving them some noodles and some like broth with MSG. It’s homemade broth, the noodles, and then a little bit of green onion, a little bit of dried mushroom. And they feel like it’s fancy. Of course, Lily will add a soft-boiled egg because she’s a little bit extra.

Kathi (18:12.137)

Yeah.

Kathi (18:22.163)

Yes.

Kathi (18:33.809)

Yes, we love Lily’s extraness. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (18:36.37)

Yes, but those are all things that we do for saving time and yet at the same time not feeling like we’re deprived.

Kathi (18:44.487)

Yeah, and so let me just say something here that’s really important that I should have started this whole thing with. If you need to buy all your food for a week because it’s that kind of week, you know, let’s just be honest. The week of October 8th, when I am going to be promoting, you know, Sabbath soup and how to cook for a week, all of my groceries, all of my meals will probably be

Prepare like it will be the Costco chicken. It will be the pasta that’s already cooked like there is no shame in that yes, I love that yes, and there

Tonya Kubo (19:13.344)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (19:19.39)

Yeah. No, we call it catering by Costco at our house. Right. Or like the Costco. You’ve done this before with a book launch where you get like the Costco size meat and cheese tray, you know, and then you just have that in the fridge and you’ve got that with crackers for like homemade charcuterie, that with bread for sandwiches. It’s really about survival. What makes the most sense? I mean, to your point, you talked about the chopping.

Kathi (19:34.203)

Yes, yes.

Kathi (19:38.429)

Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Kathi (19:46.674)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (19:48.788)

Kathi, there’s been times when like the whole house gets hit with the flu. I just run and I buy the pre -chopped carrots, celery and onions so that I can just come home. I mean, it’s…

Kathi (19:52.638)

Yeah.

Kathi (19:57.503)

You’re better than me. You’re better than me. I would just like, I would find somebody it would be Door Job Dash Mountain Edition. which, which let’s be clear. It’s my friend Susie. Susie would show up with a giant pot of soup. Yes. But you know, sometimes it’s like, okay, so I’m getting two Costco chickens. And so the first day we’re just going to eat it right off the bone.

Tonya Kubo (20:08.146)

Yeah

Tonya Kubo (20:11.92)

Right. Suzie totally would. She’s like that.

Kathi (20:24.723)

The next day we’re gonna roll that up in a tortilla. The next day we’re going to do it into a chicken salad. Like that, if that’s what your version of home cooking is, God be with you. Absolutely, friend. And we even have a week in Sabbath soup where it’s like you’re just buying all the food and you’re putting it together in new and interesting ways because sometimes that’s how we survive. Okay, guys, we are…

Tonya Kubo (20:27.636)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:35.018)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:46.367)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (20:54.003)

We’re going to be showing up here all month talking about how to get dinner on the table when you don’t have time, money or energy. And so next week, come back because we’re going to talk about when you’re on a budget, baby. Sometimes that’s just what you need to do. guys, clutter-free. Excuse me. Sabbath soup. Can you tell that I’m in a mode? Right. So so so and then I just called it Sabbath soap. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (21:16.0)

It’s all good.

Kathi (21:23.551)

I hope you use soap on Sabbath. Sabbath soup is now available for pre-order. And I’m going to suggest that all my cluttery friends, one, listen to the episode before this because we had such great tips about getting you started with Sabbath soup. But also if you pre-order it, you get our quick start guide. And it’s gonna have some recipes you can try before the book comes out.

Tonya Kubo (21:48.576)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:49.055)

It’s going to have some tips and tricks and things that you’re gonna want to know so we have the link in there You can get it from any of your favorite retailers Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Christian books calm like wherever you love to buy books you can find it and So we’re going to list that in the show notes Tonya. Thanks for being on today

Tonya Kubo (22:12.0)

Thank you for having me.

Kathi (22:13.777)

And friends, thank you for being here. And if you have ideas of how to save time with your cooking, we would love for you to share those in the show notes because we may feature those on a future episode. You’ve been listening to Clutter -Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now go create the clutter-free life you were always intended to live.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Sep 3, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

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633 – From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

Hey there, friend! Are you tired of feeling like a short-order cook seven days a week?

In this episode of Clutterfree Academy, host Kathi Lipp and co-host Tonya Kubo dive into the revolutionary concept of “Sabbath Soup,” as featured in Kathi’s upcoming book. Kathi emphasizes starting small, such as preparing one soup for Sunday, and gradually building up to a full week of planned meals. She also addresses common challenges like limited kitchen space and adapting the system for different family sizes and dietary needs.

Listeners will discover:

The importance of planning and protecting Sabbath rest
Tips for organizing the kitchen for efficient meal prep
Strategies for reducing cooking time and streamlining the “big cook day”
How to involve family members in the meal-planning process

Kathi and Tonya discuss the mental and emotional benefits of having a structured meal planning system, including reduced stress, more quality time with family, and true rest on the Sabbath. As mentioned by Kathi in the episode, here’s a picture of her clipboard and basket organizational tip for meal prepping.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

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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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.Tonyakubo.com

Tonya’s newest podcast:

Clutter Free Resources:

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your bonus down Sabbath Soup Shortcuts. Preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Do you have some tips for getting the whole family involved in the meal-planning process?

Share in the comments!

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Meet Our Guest

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:01.424)

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 sitting here with me is now officially, officially the co -host of Clutterfree Academy. Why did it take us so long? Why, why, why? It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:23.696)

Hey Kathi, I don’t know why I just got all excited and got like warm fuzzies. This is so fun.

Kathi (00:26.786)

Yes. It’s well and you’re the co-host of two podcasts. So you’ve officially joined the crazy club. What’s your what’s your other podcast? Just so people know.

Tonya Kubo (00:34.28)

You

Tonya Kubo (00:39.47)

It’s called the business you really want and has absolutely nothing to do with clutter.

Kathi (00:45.224)

But you know what? A lot of our cluttery people are business moguls. So there is going to be a cross-section. So yay.

Tonya Kubo (00:50.47)

You try?

There is, there is. And you know what? I just find creatives tend to be cluttery, right? We have so many ideas, so many interests. So yeah, it totally makes sense for there to be overlap.

Kathi (00:59.514)

Yep, it’s so true.

Yep.

Kathi (01:06.436)

Well, and today we’re going to be talking about another aspect of my business because for the last time in the foreseeable future, I have a book coming out, which in the foreseeable future is I, know, there’ve been a number of books and like Kathi needs a break now and this book is all about having a break, which so this makes a lot of sense, right?

Tonya Kubo (01:18.6)

It is not the last time, Kathi. It is not the last.

Tonya Kubo (01:32.134)

Right, right.

Kathi (01:36.04)

So in October, I have a book coming out it’s called Sabbath Soup and it’s all about creating weekly rhythms and routines and of course, I want my cluttery people to have the first inside scoop because Let’s be honest Tonya. I wrote this for us Yeah, yes Well because I don’t know about anybody well, I do know about some of you, but I’ll just speak for myself

Tonya Kubo (01:55.366)

Right. Thank you. Thank you. I needed it. Okay.

Kathi (02:05.254)

The fact that dinner comes around every single night is the most annoying thing in the world. Like, didn’t I just do that and you want me to do it again tomorrow? Are you insane? And I do really well with a routine. And I do really well with batching tasks. I hate doing the little, you know, mic, I don’t know.

Tonya Kubo (02:20.915)

Hmm.

Kathi (02:31.034)

The idea of cooking a new unique dinner every single night just makes me absolutely insane. And so I have been working on this book. mean, this book has been a thing for a couple of years now and I’m, I’m not going to lie. I’m very, very excited about it. And, so we just wanted to take this podcast to really talk through the process that I feel like

Tonya Kubo (02:38.174)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (02:59.944)

is built especially for cluttery people. It’s about doing one kind of task each day so that you can feed your family and or yourself or your roommates or whoever it is, but also so that you can actually have a break on Sabbath, whatever that Sabbath may be, know, Saturday, Sunday, we happen to celebrate from sundown.

Tonya Kubo (03:03.07)

Mm

Kathi (03:26.084)

on Saturday to sundown on Sunday. And that is a lovely rhythm for Roger and I, the people, and I cook for a couple of extra people. I cook for my mom, I cook for our neighbor, but that to me has just worked out to be a great rhythm for Sabbath. Tonya, when do you tend to celebrate your Sabbath?

Tonya Kubo (03:49.02)

you are so cute, Kathi Lipp. I’m still working on the rest part. Well, I mean, right? Like you said, you wrote the book for us. And what I’m really excited about talking about today in the process that you’ve mapped out is we gave a sneak peek about this to our Clutterfree for Life members earlier this year. So, know.

Kathi (03:54.596)

Okay, okay, yes, right.

Kathi (04:14.118)

Yes. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:16.796)

We got to kind of run it by them and see how the cluttery people feel about this idea of Sabbath. And I’m just gonna be really blunt and admit the fact that so many of us, because of our cluttery ways, we don’t feel like we deserve the rest, right? And the Sabbath feels like something we have to earn. And I, you know,

Kathi (04:22.982)

Yes.

Kathi (04:38.136)

Mm -hmm, it’s so true.

Kathi (04:43.484)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:45.786)

I know we’re going to talk a little bit about the routine because I think that’s so important for people to wrap their brains around. But I would love actually to just kick us off and talk about that. Talk to me as the person who oftentimes still works seven days a week. Like, talk about Sabbath as an earned reward versus Sabbath as you believe we are intended to experience it.

Kathi (04:58.916)

Yes. So.

Kathi (05:11.026)

So I believe that Sabbath doesn’t need to be earned. In fact, it would be like receiving a gift and saying, how much do I owe you for that?

So I get the feeling that I need to get everything done before I can take a Sabbath. I understand that feeling desperately. And also, can I just say, and I don’t mean this to denigrate who we are, but if you’re an American listening to this, it’s a very American way of thinking. Like I have to earn my rest. I have to complete everything.

Tonya Kubo (05:32.51)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (05:51.528)

Mm

Kathi (05:56.808)

on my to -do list in order for that to happen. And can I just say, Tonya and I are in very different stages of life. Your life is very 24 -7. You have kids who want your attention 24 -7. They have lots of activity. 100%, I get it. And let me say, when I needed this the most was when I had kids at home.

Tonya Kubo (06:13.746)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (06:25.286)

You know, and that’s when we really started to drill in on some of these Sabbath routines saying, because I don’t believe that Sam Sabbath needs to be earned. But for people like you and me, Tonya, who did not grow up necessarily with the idea of Sabbath, a Sabbath cannot be earned, but it must be planned. And yeah.

Tonya Kubo (06:45.96)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:53.478)

Right. And what you’re helping me to kind of think about really on the fly here is planned and protected. I mean, isn’t that really what the book’s about too?

Kathi (07:02.728)

Yes. Yes, yes, it really is. So planned and protected to say we are going to be intentional. Now, Tonya, I don’t think you can go from zero to 70. I think, you know, the first step is to say, guys, I’m cooking lunch on Saturday that we will eat on Sunday. Or I’m ordering lunch on Sunday. You know, whatever that

Tonya Kubo (07:24.382)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (07:29.928)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (07:32.46)

is. It’s the, it’s the, because here’s what I believe. It’s very easy for everybody else in the house to have a Sabbath except for mom. I are your, yeah. Are your kids really like working and planning ahead for the week on Sunday? I don’t think so. You know, and I know Brian is a partner with you when it comes to things, but for many of us,

Tonya Kubo (07:43.664)

Exactly.

Tonya Kubo (07:51.428)

No.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:00.942)

the mental load and like the most basic of the mental loads, especially on the weekend is feeding the people. And so if that falls to you, then there is no break. And here, here’s the other thing I know. If we do not respect the rhythms that have been established for us, the rest is going to come one way or another.

Tonya Kubo (08:13.694)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (08:23.144)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:28.378)

It’s either going to come by choice or by breakdown.

Tonya Kubo (08:31.886)

Right. I was going to say, and the alternative is not necessarily one we want.

Kathi (08:36.4)

Right exactly. So I would love if sabbath is like, ha ha ha isn’t that funny? Can you start by saying? What would Sunday look like if I didn’t have to prep? lunch What and here’s what I mean about prep Even if you’re not the one doing the cooking You’re still the one probably doing the running

Tonya Kubo (08:52.072)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (09:00.232)

Mm

Kathi (09:04.23)

or the grabbing or the deciding, or this kid doesn’t wanna have chicken fingers and this kid desperately wants to. But if there’s a plan to pre-decide what is for lunch, and then the next thing is to pre-decide what is for dinner, and then to pre-decide what is for breakfast, that can take, it’s enough to make

Tonya Kubo (09:06.622)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (09:12.296)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (09:16.658)

Mm

Kathi (09:33.316)

that Sabbath day feels special, to feel different, to take some of the hustle out of the day. that’s, Tonya, I have a dream. And my dream for the Kubos is to have a day where mom doesn’t have to make those kind of decisions. Maybe you make the kind of decisions, do I take an hour nap or an hour and a half nap?

Tonya Kubo (09:36.871)

Right.

Kathi (10:00.04)

Do I watch a movie with my kids? Or do I just say, go do you? I’m going to read a book. Or do we decide as a family that we’re going to go do an outing? We’re going to go take a drive? It lays open some possibilities. Those are the kinds of decisions I want you to make.

Tonya Kubo (10:09.48)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (10:22.886)

I love that. that makes it’s funny is because you know, Brian likes to say that I am the executive function for the entire household. And I, I love that he recognizes that. And I hate that that is a reality for so many, right? And who, who don’t have that acknowledged. And so I appreciate the purpose of the book. I appreciate the dream. I definitely, Kathi, just want to say thank you for you.

Kathi (10:30.674)

That’s exhausting.

Yes.

Kathi (10:39.952)

Yeah. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (10:52.2)

kind of laying out a customized gentle approach because now I’m going to ask you the really hard question, Kathi, which is thank you for the gentle approach that applies to the Kubos, but what is your routine like at this phase of life living on a mountain in the middle of nowhere in a house that tries to kill you quite frequently?

Kathi (10:59.933)

Yeah.

Kathi (11:03.386)

Yes.

Kathi (11:08.474)

Yes. Yes. So here’s what I’m going to do. We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to pay some bills. We’re going to come back and I will tell you what our routine looks like with the inclusion of Sabbath soup because it changes everything. It really, really does. So we’re going to go back, go away, come right back, and let’s talk about our routine.

Okay friends, we are back and Tonya asked me what does our routine look like? So our routine is very different than when we lived in the heart of Silicon Valley, but I really wrote this for the people who are doing that kind of life, but it also works for my kind of life. So is it okay if I just kind of break down what we do each day? okay, so this really is a six-day plan and I know that sounds

Tonya Kubo (11:57.468)

Yes, please.

Kathi (12:03.162)

It’s a five or six-day plan. on Monday, I am preparing for next week’s meals. And you may say, okay, that’s very type A of you, Kathi. No, it is very type G of me. I don’t want the constant stress of what are we going to eat tonight? And so for me, who only really goes into town once a week, which is

Tonya Kubo (12:25.672)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:32.338)

by the way, a gift to me. There’s a lot of pre-planning that goes into it. And you’re like, well, I don’t have to plan that hard because I can go to the supermarket seven days a week if I want to. But why would you want to? That’s my question. Why would you want to do that? So Monday, I start with meal planning. So I might do a little inventory, like are there things that we need to use up? Are there things we’re running low on?

Tonya Kubo (12:34.888)

Mm

Kathi (13:01.8)

and then I plan out meals accordingly. I also take a look at what do we have coming up that week. Like this weekend, we have a double blammo. We’ve got our kids coming to visit, but also I’m going to a 30-year-old’s birthday party. So, you know, there’s this double whammy in the best way possible that.

Tonya Kubo (13:17.03)

Yay!

Tonya Kubo (13:25.918)

Mm

Kathi (13:28.612)

Not only did I need to prepare a meal for the birthday party, not a meal, an appetizer, but we also have kids coming who have dietary restrictions. So I take a look at all of that and I plan our meals. and in the coming weeks, Tonya, you and I are going to be talking about, okay, how do I plan these meals if I’m running, if I don’t have a lot of time? Like, how do I plan these meals if we’re on a tight budget? Those things.

So we’re gonna get to all of those. please, if you are not a subscriber to this podcast, hit that subscribe button because we’re going to unlock all the secrets. For everybody who’s listening, we want to make this easy for you. Okay, so Monday is planning day. Tuesday is I clean out my fridge. Now, Wednesday also happens to be garbage day, which we are taking much, yes, it really does help a lot. But that’s also when I make my shopping.

Tonya Kubo (13:56.284)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (14:08.563)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (14:20.915)

That’s helpful.

Tonya Kubo (14:26.088)

Mm

Kathi (14:26.564)

So I will make my shopping list on Tuesday. And here’s the beautiful thing. I order a lot of our groceries from Sam’s Club or from another supermarket that we have here in California called Rayleigh’s or Safeway, one of the others, depending on where we’re going to run our errands. So I will put that order in the night before because Wednesday is typically when we would go to town.

Tonya Kubo (14:48.094)

Hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:52.846)

Mm

Kathi (14:52.936)

Things have changed since I wrote the book and now we go to town on Tuesday So I’m doing a lot of things on Tuesday But for the plan of the book if your shopping day is Wednesday, that’s gonna work out really really well for you. So Wednesday, I’m gonna go pick everything up and I pick up everything that we need for our cooking sessions I pick up anything that we’re running low on like cereal or milk that kind of thing but

Tonya Kubo (15:01.031)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (15:09.96)

Mm

Kathi (15:19.194)

It’s all waiting for me. And can I just tell you, if you’re not already a Sam’s Club fan, I actually was interviewed for an article about how much I love Sam’s Club, because I really do. They load it into the back of your car. Do you have a Sam’s Club near you, Tonya? No, I’m sad for you. moving on for those less fortunate.

Tonya Kubo (15:30.107)

you

Tonya Kubo (15:37.35)

how nice.

Not really, no.

Kathi (15:46.106)

And you know, we go to Costco every once in a while too, but Sam’s Club is my ride or die. So Thursday is really prep day for me. So Thursday is when I get out the Cuisinart, I’m chopping all of the veggies, I wash, spin, chop. I do that for salad ingredients, all of that kind of stuff. It helps me not feel so overwhelmed on cooking day.

Tonya Kubo (16:14.162)

Mm

Kathi (16:14.606)

And I might even do things like saute the hamburger meat or something like that to start prepping my meals. And then depending on my schedule, Friday or Saturday is cooking day. And it helps me so much to have that plan already laid out. I know what I’m gonna do.

Tonya Kubo (16:22.238)

Mm

Kathi (16:41.232)

I try to be as organized as I possibly can, but that Monday through Friday routine never varies. Things come up every once in a while, I may need to do the cooking, mean the shopping and the prepping on one day. Sometimes I’ll need to do that, but, and sometimes I like to work ahead. Like if I’m doing cookies, I may do the cookie dough on Thursday, because that’s an easy thing to do.

But it makes it so much easier. I’m prepared. I know where we’re going to eat for the rest of the week. It makes it a breeze.

Tonya Kubo (17:21.854)

Okay, so it sounds like it’s really organized. It sounds like it’s fairly easy for you to sort of switch things up as they need to be if your day into town changes. So how does this benefit your Sabbath, your day of rest?

Kathi (17:33.424)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (17:41.052)

Because I don’t do anything on Sunday except for reheat. Right, right.

Tonya Kubo (17:44.52)

Okay, but you have to like explain this whole do nothing thing. That’s hard for Tonya Kubo to understand.

Kathi (17:51.17)

Yeah, so I almost every single week make a big pot of soup for us to have after church on Sunday. And I so that’s one of the main meals I’ll cook. So that is I do that on Sunday. I also prep our breakfast for before church. So if I’m going to do say like French toast, what I’ll do is I’ll have all the ingredients there.

Tonya Kubo (18:00.744)

Mm

Kathi (18:20.996)

It’s already decided what I’m doing, right? The bacon is defrosted. The bread is already set out. If I get ambitious, I might even whip up the eggs and milk and cinnamon and nutmeg to dip the bread in. The fruit is already chopped.

Tonya Kubo (18:24.414)

Got it.

Tonya Kubo (18:29.096)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:45.31)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (18:49.79)

Got it.

Kathi (18:50.756)

The dinner that I’m doing Sunday night is going to be usually some kind of casserole or something like that. Also, Saturday night is like our main meal. So like I might do a roast chicken or I might do a ham or soup because I’m going to take those ingredients, that chicken and whatever we don’t eat on Saturday night, that becomes part of Monday night’s dinner or Tuesday night’s dinner. It’s leftovers on purpose.

Tonya Kubo (19:16.904)

Mm

Kathi (19:20.622)

So I am making all my decisions earlier in the week. So Sunday, it’s just like, I need to put the enchilada casserole in the oven. Bam, it’s done. It’s not that I need to cook or prepare the enchilada casserole. No, I just need to put it in the oven. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Tonya Kubo (19:32.744)

Done.

Tonya Kubo (19:40.006)

Right. Yeah. And so I, you know, in the book you talk about your big cook day. So I’m going to be honest when, when you talk about it, I know you have explained it to me privately and I want you to explain to listeners because every time it comes up, like my default thought is I have to cook from like six in the morning until nine at night. So

Kathi (19:45.702)

Mm -hmm. Right.

Kathi (19:51.74)

Yeah.

Okay. Yes.

Kathi (20:05.242)

I would never do that, that sounds terrible.

Tonya Kubo (20:07.793)

Right, so tell me, tell me about the big cook day. How does that work?

Kathi (20:10.586)

Okay, so remember we’ve prepped everything on Thursday as far can we all agree that chopping all the vegetables is usually the worst part of all of it?

Tonya Kubo (20:21.086)

100 % 100 % zero notes. Yes.

Kathi (20:24.398)

Yes, yes. So that’s why like on Thursday, I’m pulling because I don’t know about you. Like my food processor, I never want to pull it out because it’s kind of a pain in the butt to clean. But if I’m chopping all the onions and I’m chopping all the carrots and I’m chopping all the mushrooms and I’m chopping all the celery, and I’m chopping all the pepper, you know, here’s the thing, I’m just going to wipe it out between chops. And I’m only washing it once.

Tonya Kubo (20:36.839)

Yes!

Kathi (20:51.784)

By the way, can I tell you the best part of this plan? I hate to do dishes. It’s it’s it’s my kryptonite you know, who doesn’t mind doing dishes is mr. Roger and So I do all the cooking he does all the cleaning now sometimes he’ll help me prep Especially if we’re snowed in or something like that, but I I don’t I pretty much don’t touch a dish But even if I had to I’d rather do the bulk of dishes on one day

Tonya Kubo (20:55.326)

Please.

Tonya Kubo (21:11.666)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:22.148)

than all throughout the week because it really does cut down on our dishwashing throughout the week. But okay, so I have learned things about doing this big cook since writing the book. Like, my goodness. Okay. I think you are. So I used to just say, okay, I’m going to work on this recipe. Then I’m going to work on this recipe. So a couple of things I’ve done.

Tonya Kubo (21:24.006)

you

Tonya Kubo (21:36.67)

Tell me. Because I feel like I’m getting inside information along with everybody else.

Kathi (21:49.668)

And Tonya, I will get pictures of this so we can put it in the net. One thing I do for each recipe that I’m preparing, I have a plastic basket. And the on Thursday, I put all the things I can in that basket for that recipe. and this is really important. For each recipe, I have a clipboard that I have either photocopied the recipe.

Tonya Kubo (22:18.27)

Mm

Kathi (22:18.492)

because you’re allowed to do that if you own the book. You can photocopy that recipe and I’ll put it on that clipboard or print it out, however you’re gonna do it. And I clip that onto the clipboard. I put that clipboard in the basket. So when I’m going and gathering all the ingredients, all the ingredients are in the basket, except for we’re not putting raw chicken in the basket on Thursday. yes.

Tonya Kubo (22:26.056)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (22:43.282)

I appreciate that clarification.

Kathi (22:45.53)

We you know, we’re putting things in there like the can of salsa the jar of tomatoes the loaf of bread the the peaches, know, whatever that is so everything’s going in that basket because I feel like So much of the cooking experience is going around and finding all the stuff so

Tonya Kubo (22:56.797)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:08.462)

my gosh, that’s the 6 a to 9 p thing. It’s racing back and forth on your kitchen.

Kathi (23:11.18)

Yes, yes. Right, so all the spices are going in there. And somebody said, well, what if you’re using the same ingredient in a bunch of different things? So you put like the salt and pepper, I put that in the basket I’m preparing first. And then I’ll just put the salt and pepper into the next basket. The other.

Tonya Kubo (23:29.278)

Okay, that makes sense. I could figure that out all by myself, Kathi. I could.

Kathi (23:33.776)

Yes, I you know, but you know, sometimes people we we both have people in our lives, Tonya, they’re newer neurodivergent, right? They’re neuro spicy. And until you tell them exactly what to do, you know, they don’t want to do things wrong. And I appreciate what not wanting to do things wrong. So we’re going to help out our friends that and it’s not just neuro spicy people. It’s all of us who sometimes just we need to be taken by the hand.

Tonya Kubo (23:36.862)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (23:43.058)

Mm -hmm. Yep.

Tonya Kubo (23:56.382)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:03.214)

Another thing that I’ve learned since writing the book is I have two sets of measuring cups. I have two sets of measuring spoons, one for wet and one for dry. And that and then a bunch of measure glass measuring cups and a set of bowls, one for wet and one for dry. And that has made a huge difference to me. And

Tonya Kubo (24:03.39)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (24:21.309)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:31.256)

I’ve learned that since writing the book because I just always did what I always did and then I really challenged myself. How can I make this easier? How can I cut the time down? And I feel like I went from cooking for about maybe four hours on the weekends to closer to two or three. Yeah, so I think.

That does not include doing all the dishes. Can we just say you’re gonna have to do dishes for a while? But you’re doing them all in one day instead of everything else. So I will put some pictures of how I do the baskets with the clipboards, but game changer, absolute game changer.

Tonya Kubo (25:14.864)

Okay. Okay. So I’ve been at your house before. You have more counter space than I do, but I wouldn’t say you have a ton of counter space. So where are you setting all of this up?

Kathi (25:18.715)

Yes.

No, I don’t.

Okay, so a couple of things. I’m doing it on my kitchen table for the most part. Having an extension cord has really helped out with being able to move things around. And also, I spent some time in my kitchen really thinking about how I’m using my space. And we actually just bought a kitchen island on wheels.

Tonya Kubo (25:31.483)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (25:39.634)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (25:54.269)

Kathi (25:54.96)

Have I not shown this to you yet?

Tonya Kubo (25:56.644)

No, I do not. I have no knowledge of this. Is your life changed?

Kathi (26:00.6)

Tonya, my bright blue kitchen island is everything. Because not only is it gorgeous and it gives me more prep space, it has cabinets underneath where I can store everything I’m using for this process.

Tonya Kubo (26:10.302)

Whoa.

Tonya Kubo (26:21.766)

You know we Clegary people love a good cabinet.

Kathi (26:24.376)

And this is a great cabinet. I’m like, Tonya, this is going to make you weep openly. I have not filled up this entire thing.

Yeah, it’s kind of beautiful. So I would encourage you, you may not think you have the space for something. And when I say I rethought my space, can we just be honest? My friend, Tenille, came to my house and helped me rethink my space. And she said, yeah, she says, I think you should have a kitchen island. And I said, where? And she showed me how and we had to move my kitchen table about eight times.

Tonya Kubo (26:46.376)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (26:51.87)

Tenille is so good at that.

Kathi (27:03.88)

and we finally dialed it in. And you know, we sometimes have big groups to our house. So I needed to be able to put the leaves in the kitchen table. But really 90 % of this is set up on my kitchen table. so having that extension cord has been a game changer because I can leave my mixer set up over there. I can, if I want to, I can cook in my air fryer on my kitchen table.

Tonya Kubo (27:06.366)

Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (27:22.27)

Mm

Kathi (27:33.0)

We’re making it work. It’s kind of a beautiful thing.

Tonya Kubo (27:38.664)

That sounds so efficient.

Kathi (27:42.022)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (27:43.408)

How long? mean, like, how much? I feel like this is like a life’s work. Like, this is your opus.

Kathi (27:48.474)

I, yes, I do feel that deeply. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (27:52.51)

So how long did it take you to sort all this out?

Kathi (27:57.668)

So this has been in phases for sure. I think you remember me talking about six chicks freeze and fix. My cooking club that I did, especially when my kids were younger, where we would each make three meals, six of us, each of us would make three meals, but we’d make six family size portions of it. And then we’d swap it all together. So I learned a lot by doing that. And then when it was just me and Roger,

I said, I don’t need to plan anymore. And then I got really mad at Roger for wanting dinner on a regular basis. And I’m like, well, maybe I need to rethink these things. And I got really mad when everybody could relax on Sundays except for me, because people still needed to eat. But I also didn’t want to spend a ton of money going out for every meal, right? And so this, I feel like this is my master’s.

Tonya Kubo (28:57.448)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (28:57.8)

and cooking and planning, but the gift is not becoming a professional. The gift is getting a day off a week. And it’s made me, it’s made me very, so I feel like people who have never really in a real way experienced a Sabbath are actually gonna have a transition time if they start to do this.

Tonya Kubo (29:06.738)

Yeah.

Kathi (29:25.112)

I don’t say dive in with I’m just gonna lay around all day Sunday, like transition in small ways. to put, I think it’s really important to not have a big old day just kind of looming out there in front of you, but to say, and to dream about if my family had the time, what would we do with it?

And I think that that’s a really beautiful way of approaching it. And let me also say this, like this Sunday, I’m gonna cook on Sunday, but let me explain why. It’s because my stepson Jeremy is coming. And every time he comes up here, we try to perfect our ravioli recipe. And so we’re going to enjoy our time cooking, but we don’t have to cook.

Tonya Kubo (30:11.382)

Aww.

Kathi (30:18.076)

the rest of the time here because it’s already planned out. I already know that on Saturday we’re having salmon and we’re having potato salad and asparagus. I already know that. We’re gonna cook some of that on Saturday night because we wanna have it on the barbecue and Roger loves to barbecue. But the ingredients are already bought. I have no stress about it because it’s already happening. It’s a gift.

Tonya Kubo (30:46.078)

That is such excellent advice. mean, you’ve talked about starting small. You’ve talked and you’ve given us a great plan of how we can do that. You’ve talked about, you know, just how we can make this manageable, how we can maximize our space. I really appreciate how thoughtful this is. I feel like I’m not going to say this is better than getting the book because the book is what has the recipes. This just has a detail of the process. But I feel like

Kathi (31:11.814)

Yeah. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (31:14.876)

This episode is such a great compliment to the book. Any final thoughts for us? Anything else we need to know after listening to this whole process laid out?

Kathi (31:21.295)

Yeah.

Kathi (31:26.192)

So I love what you said about starting small. And so I would really encourage you, if you do nothing else, can you cook a pot of soup on Friday or Saturday to have on Sunday? So the reason it’s called Sabbath soup, and there are a million different kinds of recipes in here. Yes, it’s not just soup recipes. Like there are so many bangers in there.

Tonya Kubo (31:49.03)

I was gonna say, you have to tell them it’s not just soup recipes.

Kathi (31:55.686)

the macaroni and cheese, the roasted chicken, like there’s so many great recipes. But here’s why I think soup is such an excellent Sabbath meal. Because it’s usually a one pot meal. I’m gonna cook it on Friday or Saturday. I’m gonna let it cool down. I’m just gonna stick that entire pot in the refrigerator. And then I’m going to pull it out when I am ready to cook it.

You can buy a loaf of bread at the supermarket. You can buy a bag salad to put with it. You’re done. That is you have already checked off one meal. And by the way, if if you don’t have leftovers from soup, what are we even doing here? And there are some bigger families who are going to have to have double some of these recipes. But we love to have that soup on Tuesday night. So we’re going to have it.

Tonya Kubo (32:43.858)

Yeah.

Kathi (32:50.564)

on sat on Sunday after church and then we’re gonna have it again on Tuesday night. And if it’s chili, we may put it on top of a potato, we’re gonna figure something else out with it. But sometimes because it’s just the two of us and we’re feeding our neighbor and my mom, sometimes it has enough for eight that I just freeze some of that and that’s fast food for another week. And like I have so many blocks of soup and I just feel like they’re little

bags of gold in my freezer. It makes me so happy because all I have to do is pull it out the night before Let it defrost and i’m ready for lunch the next day. So I would say start small Find a recipe you love if you don’t get the book. It’s okay Find a recipe you already love that you already make i’m going to tell you all the ways to prepare for your cook day are

between this podcast and the book are there. And I think so much of the mental break that so many of us are looking for is somebody just laying out the plan. And I feel like I’ve done that for you. I’ve done the research, the hard work, the ideas. You can adjust a lot of these recipes for your family’s dietary needs or their preferences.

You’ll notice there are not a lot of green peppers in the book because I think they’re disgusting. It’s my own prejudice, but you can put them into your family meals. I will not be discouraged. Yes, yes. So Tonya, you are not a Sabbath person. So I’m going to turn the tables on you. what, what, is there something you think you can grab onto here?

Tonya Kubo (34:21.658)

All you want, right?

Tonya Kubo (34:29.48)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (34:34.526)

Well, yes, I mean, as you know, we’re recording this the week before school starts. And we have a whole new thing with kids in different schools. We haven’t had that before. And it’s about 50 minute drive between schools we mapped out. And so I’ve actually really been leaning in. I don’t have the full book, right? But I have like a little sampler of it and I’ve been really leaning into the process and I am actually fortunate.

Kathi (34:39.131)

Yes, yes.

Kathi (34:44.52)

Kathi (34:49.66)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (34:55.783)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (35:03.422)

maybe even more fortunate than you, Kathi, because I have a Brian who quite honestly is very similar to Mr. Roger. But I also have a Lily who is 14 and is very excited about taking on some of the cooking for the family. And so I have a partner. You know, I have more than one partner in my house to do this, but we’ve already been talking about like implementing the book. And so for us, it’s really going to be about starting with

Kathi (35:07.26)

Yes.

Right.

Yes

Kathi (35:23.452)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (35:32.722)

getting used to having a plan to soup a week, then the next step is going to be cutting down on our grocery store trips. Because Brian likes to go to the store every day on the way home from work. And so then it’s going to be about what does it look like if we only go to the store once a week? And I feel like the plan is going to come together with those two things. Everything else is really going to fall into place for us.

Kathi (35:43.728)

Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

Kathi (35:54.716)

Yeah.

my goodness, I just love it. And guys, we are going to put information about how to get the book. Right now it would be a pre -order, but there is a gift if you pre -order the book. It’s a sampler. I don’t know, how else would you describe it, Tonya? Is it? Yes. Yes, okay. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (36:15.474)

That’s what I call it, it’s a sampler. That’s what I have, right? Because I’ve pre -ordered the book. So I have the sampler. I love it. You know, people think I get all this stuff for free. I buy this stuff, folks. I buy it.

Kathi (36:25.392)

Okay guys, I offer to her for free But yeah, just so you know, I know because she’s amazing and I do that for people I support too Because I want them to have that sale. I want them to know that I’m in it and I want the pre -order Bonuses, so we’re gonna put all the information in there because the sampler will get you started That’s what I want for you. The sampler will get you started

Tonya Kubo (36:28.862)

But I still buy it!

What’s in it?

Tonya Kubo (36:39.902)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (36:49.275)

Yes.

Kathi (36:53.576)

So we’re gonna give you all that pre-order information. You can get it at any of your favorite retailers Tonya I feel like this podcast episode is the best companion we could have done to Sabbath soup. I’m so excited Thank you so much for being excited with me and we’re gonna have to we’re gonna have to find out what Lily’s favorite recipes are We’re gonna need we’re gonna need a report back from her on that. Okay

Tonya Kubo (37:07.996)

I think so too.

Tonya Kubo (37:20.178)

We will do it in the name of research for you, Kathi.

Kathi (37:22.18)

Okay, I love it. Well, friends, you’ve been listening to the Clutterfree Podcast. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

Amy Betters-Midtvedt on Facebook

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 27, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

Hey there, friends! Can you relate to this statement? The Teenage Years: that stage where your sweet kiddos suddenly develop opinions about everything and seem to forget how to unload a dishwasher.

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, host Kathi Lipp welcomes Amy Betters-Midtvedt, author of “You’ll Make It (and They Will Too),” for an insightful discussion on parenting teenagers. Amy shares personal anecdotes and practical advice, offering hope and encouragement to parents in the trenches of teen years. Whether dealing with resistance to chores or preparing teens for adulthood, this conversation offers valuable insights for parents, grandparents, and educators alike.

Listeners will discover:

How to implement a fair and fun chore wheel system
The value of allowing teens to develop independence and responsibility
Navigating the transition when teens leave for college and return home
How building a strong family community prepares teens for life’s challenges

This episode provides listeners with actionable strategies for fostering independence, improving communication, and creating a harmonious household environment. And as promised, here’s the picture of Amy’s son who has “triple the personality of the average child.”

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

amybettersmidtvedt.com

Amy Betters-Midtvedt on Instagram

Order Amy’s book You’ll Make It (and They Will Too) here

Clutter Free Resources:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

How did you navigate the shift from parenting young children to parenting teenagers?

Share in the comments!

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

Amy Betters-Midtvedt

Amy Betters-Midtvedt is a writer, educator and mom of 5. Her passions include piling on the couch with her family to binge watch the Office, buying all the books she possibly can, trying to finish a conversation with her husband without being interrupted and writing to help people find the joy in their everyday lives.
You can connect with Amy at amybettersmidtvedt.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:00.656)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live life with less clutter But more life and guys, it’s a special day around here She is one of my

Favorite follows on social media if you’re not following her I’m gonna drop the link below because you need to Because you just need to be in that place where you get a little shot of hope a little shot of humor and a little shot of love every day and that is what I get from our Guests guys. It’s Amy Betters-Midtvedt.

Welcome. Welcome back to Clutter Free Academy

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (00:50.472)

Thank you so much. And it always just gives me such a thrill to hear you say anything, all these nice things about me because I was following you for so long before we even met and was such a fan. So it’s just like, I’m always like fan girling a little bit. So thank you. I appreciate

Kathi (01:04.39)

Stop it, it, stop it, because here’s the thing. I just feel like you have there. There are probably, I don’t know, like 10 people who have a daily impact on my life. Like I learn a little something from them or, you know, it’s just that shot of humor. I don’t follow anybody who isn’t funny. OK, that’s not true. There are a couple of people who kick my butt in the best way possible. But you are funny and you are so relatable.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (01:29.372)

Yes, I hear

Kathi (01:33.758)

And I’m so grateful to have you as a daily part of my life. So, and you have your first book baby. And I know, okay, you’ll make it and they will too. Okay, can I tell you I have made it and they have too? But can I tell you, it doesn’t stop. I will say I’m very grateful that they are all grown adults.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (01:53.785)

Stop.

Kathi (02:01.904)

They’re all pretty much what they’re doing, what they’re supposed to be. And here’s the thing that I’m super grateful for now that I don’t take for granted anymore. We are in each other’s lives and we like being in each other’s lives. And has it surprised you how many people are not in that situation anymore? I, you know, I never, first of all, I never knew it was an option not to have a

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (02:15.996)

Yes, that’s the goal.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (02:30.418)

Right?

Kathi (02:31.982)

Like I didn’t know that that was I mean i’m so up in my mom’s life that I live in her house three days a week now but I I used to think it was just about getting them across the finish line And by the way guys if you’re like, my kids are out of here. We’re fine I want you to listen to this Because we’re not just talking about I mean we are talking about teenagers and pre -teens and all of

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (02:39.61)

Ha ha

Kathi (03:00.538)

But also, we’re going to be talking about communication, we’re going to be talking about household. But I used to think the goal was just to get them raised and make them productive members of society. But that’s not, I mean, that’s not the goal. So tell me what the goal is and how do you get

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (03:20.146)

Well, think the goal, think is that exactly what you’re talking about that you are experiencing is that lifelong connection with these people that you love more than anything and staying in that space together where you want, they want to be with you. Like they want to be connected to you and you want to be connected to them for all the days, right? That you are each other’s people always. And that it sounds like great, but also it’s not actually

Kathi (03:38.084)

Mm -hmm.

Right. Yeah. Yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (03:49.584)

super easy always to do. It’s not necessarily automatic. Like I assumed that would be automatic, but I could see in my parenting ways that I was pushing kids into a totally different space. You know, then why would you want to come back and be with this version of me?

Kathi (03:51.928)

Right,

Kathi (04:07.29)

Okay, first of all, that’s hard for me to imagine, but you have a chapter in your book that is basically saying you’re not parenting you. okay, so unpack that because I, you know, I really did grow up thinking, well, I’ll just do what my parents did and I’ll get the parent, you know, the same results. And that is, that is not true. So, so tell me about that. Unpack that for me.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (04:30.8)

my gosh, it’s so false.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (04:34.962)

Okay, so for me, I really very much expected to be parenting five little versions of me, right? And so I did this just what you said, like what my, I had great parents. I am still in their lives. We live in the same community. We attend church together on Sunday. I love being with them. And so just thought that’s what it was gonna be. But very quickly I realized I had created very different humans with my husband that were not me. I was a very, I know.

Kathi (04:40.036)

Yes, yes.

Kathi (04:59.11)

How dare they? How dare they?

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (05:04.766)

just needed to go back and tell my mom she was lucky. Like I was like this rule following, church attending, just right. I wanted to do well in school, all the things. Give me some rules and some guidelines and I will follow them like a boss, right? And I birthed five questioners who really liked to, they don’t rules? What are you talking about? I’m going to forge my own path and have my own ideas. And it was very shocking when.

Kathi (05:07.398)

Right

Kathi (05:18.416)

Yeah, yes.

Kathi (05:23.238)

Mmm.

Kathi (05:26.702)

Yeah, yes, yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (05:33.438)

my oldest daughter, you know, met those teen years and very much was her own person making her own decisions and doing things that 14 year old me never would have dreamed of doing. And so I felt like, well, what do I do now? I’m grounding her. I am taking things away. I am like, you know, I am giving her lectures. None of this is working. And it was a hopeless feeling for a while

Kathi (05:43.745)

Right.

Kathi (05:47.738)

Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

Kathi (05:56.464)

Right?

Kathi (06:00.888)

Yeah, you know what? All you had to do was show me the picture of your son leaning against the car and say, you guys, we’ll drop that picture into the show notes because I don’t know his personality, but I just know he has tripled the personality of your average child.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (06:11.368)

Yeah.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (06:20.254)

Yeah, that is him a thousand percent. That is all of my people that live in this house.

Kathi (06:27.544)

Well, you know what? This would not be a Clutterfree Academy discussion without talking about, I want to hit on two things. I want to talk about chores, because you have a whole chapter about chores, which I think some of us are relearning as adults how to do that. But first of all, I want to talk about communication. And can I tell you, you gave me so much relief.

that somebody who is raising such fine human beings as yourself, because we’re a blended family, my husband’s kids call him and talk to him.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (07:04.638)

You’re going out a little

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (07:11.304)

I missed the beginning of

Kathi (07:27.366)

for 30, 45 minutes at least once or twice a week. And my whole relationship with my children is by text. And you know what? We have a great relationship. If I called them or they called me, it’s probably because one of us is in the hospital or jail. But you actually say using technology can be a strategy with your kids. Talk about

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (07:56.638)

Absolutely. It can be really hard to get our teenagers to talk. that’s, we say technology is all bad. It’s not like there are things that that kids will tell you over a text that they couldn’t tell you with their mouths. And that is a wonderful, beautiful thing. And texting is also like, it’s so easy and immediate that especially when our kids leave, like when my girls went to college, it was really easy for them just we could drop a couple of texts as they were walking to class. And you can leave that thread lay there for hours until someone comes back to it.

Kathi (08:04.589)

It’s not.

Kathi (08:08.227)

Mmm.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (08:25.426)

where a phone call just seemed like they just didn’t have time. So I relate to that when my were out now they’re all five are back for the next year. but yeah, there’s a whole nother book there. so yeah, so, so we did a lot of that, but it really is, you know, the text I asked them not to send me is just like the mom question mark or mom. need to tell you something like that. Those strike fear of like, just tell me the thing.

Kathi (08:32.459)

wow.

Okay.

Kathi (08:50.724)

Yeah. Right. Right.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (08:53.65)

don’t set it up for me because it’s either going to be like, want money for Culver’s or I’m in jail. I don’t know. So right. Whatever it is. So we need, we need to tax appropriately, but that I think is a wonderful way, especially when they’re really stuck in their rooms and not coming out a lot. We’ll just text and it works great.

Kathi (08:58.65)

Yes, yes.

Kathi (09:09.262)

Yeah, yeah.

And you know, I think about that. I am 57. There are times when I do not want to talk to people. know, there are people that I, you know, they’ll send me, you know, they’ll call me and leave a voicemail. And I’m like, in the year of our Lord 2024, that just feels really aggressive. Like, yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (09:33.982)

It’s aggressive. Like you should be in jail if you’re gonna do that. Or you should be a medical professional that’s telling you when my appointment is. That’s it. And even then they can text. I’m gonna tell you.

Kathi (09:41.23)

You know, and I have, right. I feel like, you know, oftentimes I’ll say, I need, I need to talk to you, but just know everything is okay. Nobody’s in jail. You’re not in trouble. Like all the, but there are some things you do want to say, but it’s almost like I’m sending an invitation to, set up a phone call. Okay. Amy, we’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to pay a few, few bills. And then when we come back, I want to get down to it.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (09:51.314)

Right, right.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (10:00.626)

Yes, yes, I love that.

Kathi (10:09.826)

rules and chores because can I just tell you I feel like this when I think about the biggest struggles of my parenting life these are them these are the things so we’ll we’ll we’ll pay some bills and come right

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (10:11.89)

You got it.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (10:20.913)

Yeah. Yes.

All right, sounds

Kathi (10:27.064)

Okay guys, we are back with amy betters midvet you guys the name of her book is you’ll make it and they will too And you may not be in these teenage years, but you know somebody who is and so this is not to give them advice. We’ll let amy give advice because You know, she’s the she’s the she’s the one in the trenches and actually has got some kids out of the house But here’s what I know we can be such a support to our friends

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (10:43.602)

Hahaha!

Kathi (10:56.912)

who are raising teenagers and without giving advice, but just saying, I’m here for you. Yeah, my kids did the same thing. It won’t be like this forever. So I need you to help me unpack some trauma when it comes to house rules and chores. It’s, right. What is the resistance? Like, I think we’re not raising selfish kids.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (10:57.246)

Amen. yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (11:15.127)

I know. It’s a thing. It’s a thing.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (11:24.732)

No, no.

Kathi (11:25.264)

But the idea that I have asked, like how offended my kids would get with the request to unload the dishwasher.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (11:33.554)

thousand percent, a thousand percent relate to that. And we have had that here so many times. And I think this is where a little of my like teacher education background has really played a big role and helped me to really work on this. For thing number one, we needed to debunk in this house. And I think everybody who’s listening can relate to this, whether you have kids or not, or teenagers or not, is this idea that somehow mom, everything is mom’s job.

Kathi (11:44.486)

Ahhhh. Yeah.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (11:59.91)

And if I am unloading the dishwasher, I’m helping mom. So I think that’s part of why people get offended. It’s like, I don’t really want to help you right now. You’re not helping me. Like it’s not all my job. This doesn’t like for some reason, like I’m the mom. And so I own all the jobs in the house. So I did take chart paper at one point because I’m a teacher and I put it up and I listed all the jobs that it took to run a household. And I pulled the kids in and I just said, who, who is responsible for this? Well, almost everything was mom. There were some things that were dad. Every once in while, a kid’s name was mentioned. I said, look at

Kathi (12:07.445)

No!

Kathi (12:16.134)

Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (12:29.49)

Look at this list. Look at all the jobs I have. Can you walk around the house and rate me on how I’m doing?” And the house was just trashed. They walked around and came back and my little Sam, who was like eight at the time, said, no offense, mom, but you’re not doing a very good job. I said, you are correct. Because it is impossible for me to do all these jobs because they’re actually not all my jobs. These are all everybody’s jobs. These are just the jobs of the community that live in the home. So we’re no longer going to say these are mom’s jobs. These are community jobs.

Kathi (12:34.841)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:52.976)

Yes.

Kathi (12:57.656)

Mm -mm. Mm -hmm.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (12:58.866)

And we’re going to talk about how we can actually work together so that the house doesn’t look like this. You’re right. There is a problem and we’re all going to fix it together. So leaning into that idea that we are a community. We need to take care of our property in the community. We need to take care of our home. We need to take care of our lawn and our cars and all the things. And everybody who lives here is responsible for that and move them out of this mindset that they try to hold onto from when they were little is that mom’s always going to take care of me. I am, but I’m also going to teach you how to be.

Kathi (13:11.226)

Mmm.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (13:28.326)

a person that other people won’t hate to live with and a person who understands their role in the community. Like this is what it is. And so that mindset shift, we work on that continually along with this mindset that like if you’re a boy, you also can do laundry. And if you’re a girl, you can also probably change the oil. Like gender does not determine what you are able to do. So really breaking a lot of those things and then trying to make it fun. Like I bought a chore wheel. So like all the worst chores are on the chore wheel.

Kathi (13:32.366)

Right?

Kathi (13:45.039)

Yes.

Kathi (13:56.078)

Yeah. Nice.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (13:57.436)

and we spin it every week and we all get one of the bad chores. I get a bad chore, my husband gets a bad chore, each kid does, because we’re just as, we’re on the same level. We’re all the same people. And so that’s really been the biggest shift. It’s a work in progress and my house is a work in progress, but it’s really, I think that’s the linchpin to actual lasting change.

Kathi (14:02.574)

Right, right.

Yes.

Kathi (14:13.605)

Yes.

Kathi (14:19.598)

You know, I don’t know about you, but I have learned so much from my daughters about these attitudes, right? I’ll never forget right before Roger and I were getting married, we had like computers set up in the living room. So the kids had their computers in there. And one of Kimberly’s uncles said, Hey, Kimberly, you know, we’re all working in here. Could you come

And her brother and her stepbrother were on either side of her. And so the uncle came back to me and said, Kim gave me a bunch of attitude about helping out. And I said, so why did you ask Kim? Because Kim came to me and said, why’d they ask me and not the boys? And I’m like, you know what? It is such a good question. And my daughter will point out all these like areas of misogyny

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (15:14.524)

Yes.

Kathi (15:15.562)

I just starting to uncover and I think housework is the number one place where we have been duped and you know, I mean, do you hear people saying daddy’s a little helper? No, it’s mommy’s little helper, right? Yes. And like we’re all helping mom. Aren’t we great? Because we’re helping mom. No, I, I mean, even if you’re a full time stay at home parent,

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (15:17.714)

Yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (15:32.094)

thousand percent. A thousand percent.

Right?

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (15:44.915)

Right.

Kathi (15:45.806)

which I don’t think either of us have been for a really long time. It’s not all up to us. And I love your unpacking of that. I love your chore wheel. How’d you do the chore wheel? How did you said you spin it? Like, I need to know this.

Amy Betters Midtvedt (15:47.782)

No. No. No.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (16:02.14)

you spin it. I put, we just put all, so you just buy them on Amazon and you put in each slice. has like a chore, a bad chore that like, so we all have our things we’re sort of responsible for. We kind of have divvied up like different things, who cleans what bathroom, all of that. There’s like the assumed chores. And then there’s just like the junk that like it, some of it’s vacuuming the whole house. Some of it’s like the fly lady stuff too, or like, you know, that kind of stuff. Like what are you, what do have to do? So I kind of tried to be really intentional.

Kathi (16:06.854)

okay.

Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. Yes, yes. Right, right.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (16:29.586)

because otherwise I was also spending my day off vacuuming the whole house, dusting, dump stuff. Why am I doing that? So that’s all on there. And then you spin it and you go to your Troy. There’s also an inspector and an enforcer on the tour wheel. So there’s one person responsible and it’s not always whoever gets it gets it to inspect the work of each person. So like if I’m vacuuming and Sam is the inspector, he comes to make sure I got my vacuuming done correctly, correctly.

Kathi (16:33.326)

Yes. Yes.

Kathi (16:43.76)

To tell. Yeah.

Kathi (16:55.597)

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (16:58.364)

And then the enforcer is the person that makes sure no one’s like hiding in the bathroom during chore time or like doing getting distracted doing other things. So the enforcer, if I end up laying down and reading and I’m not vacuuming, the enforcer would come up to me and say, mom, it’s time for choice. You’ve got to do your vacuuming as if that would happen. But those were two key pieces that put them into the driver’s seat of this. Like it’s also not my job to make sure you do your job. And it’s not my job to make sure you do your job well, because that’s the other part that happens. Right? Like,

Kathi (17:06.522)

Nice.

Kathi (17:13.99)

my goodness.

Kathi (17:20.559)

Yeah

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (17:28.222)

I’m like, you didn’t actually finish cleaning the kitchen. You didn’t actually finish your laundry. That’s silly. So we put that on them and they love that. Those are, they love

Kathi (17:28.228)

Yes.

Kathi (17:38.79)

Okay, so here’s my question though, because you did not, as you birthed them, they did not come out knowing the chores. Was there a switch at some point? And how old were the kids when the switch happened? And how did you get the buy -in that you needed?

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (18:01.21)

I tried really hard. I don’t know how well I did this, but when they were little and wanted to help, I tried really hard to let them. And that’s really difficult, right? Because we are fast and we’re better and we don’t always want to take the time. where we could, especially I think I got better as I had more kids and like Sam used to love cleaning toilets when he was little, he would clean every toilet and we just let him, right? It’s great, whatever. He was the hero of all time for whatever reason, that was a fun job for him. It is no longer, but.

Kathi (18:06.203)

Yeah.

Mm -hmm. It is difficult. Yeah.

Kathi (18:24.012)

Sam, you’re my hero.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (18:29.918)

So leading into some of those moments. And then we had certain things like cleaning the kitchen has always been their job. It still seems shocking sometimes to them when I say it’s time to clean the kitchen, whatever. They’ve been doing it for years. But it’s fine. And we also have to let it go, right? It is how it is. However they do it, if they want to negotiate for 30 minutes about who is going to do what job, go with God, my friends. I don’t care. Just do it. letting them do it their way and really from an early age and

Kathi (18:51.6)

Yeah. Right.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (18:59.386)

easily by the time they were in middle school, they should be doing almost all the things. There’s really nothing by that age. know, I watched my middle schoolers at school. They’re really independent people. If they’re acting like they can’t, you know, wipe down a counter, they’re a hundred percent lying. I’m watching what they’re doing at school and they’re running the show there. So they can run the show really easily

Kathi (19:02.83)

Yes.

Kathi (19:09.038)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (19:15.6)

Yeah.

Kathi (19:19.204)

Yes. It’s so true, right? At school, they are so capable and they come home and it’s like, what? I don’t know how to squeeze this bottle. But I love what you’re saying here because statistics show our kids are not going to graduate from college and get their Mr. And Mrs. Like they’re going to go into community living situations. They’re going to have a few roommates.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (19:48.456)

Yes.

Kathi (19:48.536)

And I’ll never forget, my daughter went off to college, and I’ve told this story before, and she was teaching people on her college dorm floor how to do their laundry. And I was like, how did those parents not have kids doing laundry? I could barely keep up. If I had to do four people’s laundry on top of mine and Roger’s, it would be all over. And so what we’re doing is we’re

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (20:09.969)

Right.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (20:13.894)

Right? Right?

Kathi (20:17.846)

just making it so that our house is more livable. We’re making it so that our kids future homes are more livable. And we’re not but you know, we’re busting through that resistance to cleaning. If it’s just a part of your life, if it’s just like brushing your teeth or washing your face, or all of those kind of things. And I’ll have to I have to say I’ve had to overcome some resistance in my own

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (20:27.003)

Absolutely.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (20:38.098)

Right? Right?

Kathi (20:47.43)

Like I don’t know why I feel like somebody else like Sam should be cleaning my toilets, but I really deep down Believe that deeply that I should not have to do that But I have to do it Yeah, yes

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (20:53.02)

Right, thousand, I know. I know. I agree. I feel that way about my bathroom too, like the whole bathroom. I always look at it like I can’t believe this is still my

Kathi (21:07.566)

And you know, giving kids the tools to say, hey, the less clutter, the easier it is to clean.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (21:13.958)

That’s the biggest thing. And I will say my girls are finally learning that lesson as they move home, right? So they’re in a situation, my daughter did just say, she’s like, I’m going coming home. I’m like, well, I feel what’s going on. Why do you feel that way? She goes, it’s nothing you’re doing. I love being home. It’s my room. It’s so overwhelming. She said, I think it’s finally hit me that I’m not gonna have good mental health till I go through my stuff. I’m like, it’s true. You’re

Kathi (21:17.862)

yay.

Kathi (21:35.579)

It’s so true.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (21:35.838)

It’s so true. they are this weekend. It’s finally time. have to they have to they’re storing a lot of stuff because they’ll be out another year. They don’t want to sell everything, you know, so they got themselves they’re going have these on the storage unit. The two girls good for them. They’re paying for it and and really making some hard decisions about what belongs where and we did just have a bunch of water in our basement and had to get rid of a bunch of things. That’s why I’m not in my book room. My book room is yet to be put back together.

Kathi (21:42.434)

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Right.

Good for them.

Kathi (21:58.082)

I saw that.

because your book room is, okay. I’ll pray for you.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (22:05.2)

It’s going to be okay. Thank you. It’s going to be all the books from the bottom shelf and above are okay. Just so I only lost the bottom shelf. So I’m trying to focus on the good, but, that was eyeopening because my husband’s the one who went through our storage area and how it looks now. He’s like, Amy, there’s no excuse for some of this stuff that we had. He’s like, and I’m looking at more things. And he was right. It really helped us identify clutter and doing that as a community. My son’s room was hit.

Kathi (22:11.523)

Okay,

Kathi (22:29.498)

Yeah.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (22:32.072)

you know, a lot of the kids stuff was hit as we walked through that, that journey together as, let me tell you kids who can’t clean a kitchen, they’re darn good. When water comes in your basement, they were like an army. They were amazing. They, that’s when their true colors showed, like when the chips were down, I realized they had a lot of skills and they were really able to let go of a lot more things way more easily than I thought they were. And really that reminded us like, we even started talking about Christmas. Like, do we just want an experience this year? Look at all this stuff that we didn’t care about.

Kathi (22:40.71)

that’s so great. Yeah.

Kathi (22:59.344)

Yeah. Right.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (23:01.064)

do, do right? lot of it’s like Christmas presents that no one, let’s just really use our time more wisely. So being in that community together with those kids during that kind of a trauma really helped us realize what we need to let go. It’s really, it was really kind of an impactful

Kathi (23:14.904)

You know, I it’s we’re coming up on the well, we just celebrated the six year anniversary of moving out of our house in San Jose and moving up here. And one of the things that I said was the true test of love is not who comes home for Christmas. It’s who comes home to help you move. And right. And the true test of your kids is how are they in an emergency like

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (23:34.607)

Kathi (23:43.334)

because they have had all the training, And I mean, what an example of how, you know, building this family community. And we may not always like it, and it may not be kumbaya, and it may not be, you know, what you would put up on Instagram, but when you’ve got water in your basement, your kids rose to the occasion.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (23:46.172)

Yes!

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (23:53.949)

Yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (24:07.378)

they worked for days. They’re actually one of my daughter’s boyfriends drove down and just came to help. my, actually my son’s girlfriend was here. She stayed for, like she came back day after day. Like it was like, you’re right. It is a true testament to like that underlying community that we’re trying to build. Then it’s there. Like it holds in those hard times. That feels really, really.

Kathi (24:14.549)

my goodness.

Kathi (24:22.339)

Well.

Kathi (24:29.28)

Yes, yes.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (24:32.558)

good when I’m like looking at the kitchen and they didn’t clean. There’s like a part that’s called the L and no one ever wipes it down. And I always yell, nobody’s clean the L and the L is dirty again. Then I can remember how great they were in the crisis and remind them like you guys like pulled flooring out. You can come and wipe down the L it’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay.

Kathi (24:43.535)

Right!

Kathi (24:48.142)

Yeah, it’s so true. Okay, Amy, you know, we were talking a lot about clutter and home maintenance. But can we just say, when it comes to teenagers, that’s a lot of the stuff of this life, isn’t it? And so I love how practical you are. I love how grace filled you are. You’ll make it and they will too. What? Who is this book for? Tell me who this book is

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (25:04.614)

It is.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (25:16.228)

This book is for, first of all, any parent that has little kids that are about to become teens, that has teens, that’s launched kids. There’s a chunk of the book that is about that launch and that coming back. I would say anybody who’s walking alongside someone, a grandparent that has teens, especially because things are different. I have lot of conversations with my mom about that.

Kathi (25:23.307)

Hmm.

Kathi (25:29.061)

Yeah.

Kathi (25:32.58)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (25:38.578)

Like she will remind me, she’ll give me a good dose of perspective, but then she’s also trying to understand how different it is this generation. So I think it could be really an impactful book for grandparents, educators that are trying to understand the population that they’re working with and what is really making them tick in their homes. Cause they present one thing to us in school. I think it’s really important to see some of that other side. So I really wrote it for that parent that was sitting in the middle of the night, just outside their kid’s bedroom door thinking,

Kathi (25:50.584)

Mmm

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (26:07.3)

I am the only parent that is dealing with this, that my kid is the only kid that is a hot mess. And I wanted them to be able to grab this book and just open it and be like, my gosh, wait, this happened and they made it. Got it. I can do

Kathi (26:18.264)

Yeah, it’s so true. I think one of the biggest things we need during that time is hope and to not feel alone. Okay, guys, we’re going to give links to where you can find. You’ll make it and they will too, which is a big promise. But if anybody can deliver on that, it’s my friend Amy. Amy, thanks so much for being

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (26:24.072)

Absolutely.

Amy Betters-Midtvedt (26:35.658)

It’s a big promise. It’s holding. Yeah. Thank you so much for having

Kathi (26:43.326)

such a great conversation. And friend, thank you for being here. Whatever age and stage you’re in, your kids are in, there is hope, not just for you, but for your home as well. 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.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 20, 2024 | Christmas, Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Fear, Freedom, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

Do you ever say you’ll start holiday prep early, but then suddenly it’s December and you’re in a tinsel-covered panic? Well, no more!

In this episode, Kathi and co-host Tonya Kubo dive into part two of their discussion on preparing for the holidays in August. They offer practical advice for early holiday planning. Kathi and Tonya emphasize the importance of considering family needs, budgeting, and self-care in the planning process.

Listeners will discover:

How to plan for those perfect holiday photos
How to plan for budget-friendly holiday travel
How to create a realistic holiday decor plan (even if your husband Roger thinks there’s no such thing as too many Christmas lights.)

Throughout the episode, Kathi and Tonya offer relatable anecdotes and practical strategies to help listeners reduce holiday stress by planning ahead.

Kathi shares her love for early holiday meal planning and cookbook perusing in this episode. She mentions one of her favorite recipes called Raclette. Check out Raclette photos in the banner as well as the recipe below!

Raclette

3 to 7 oz. raclette cheese per person, sliced to fit the small trays under the raclette grill. (We find this at Trader Joe’s and at some of the fancier stores from around November through February, and we’ve even found it on Amazon.)

4 to 6 potatoes new potatoes per person, boiled with the skins on. (You have better things to do with your life than peel tiny potatoes.)

Optional Ingredients: Everything else is what you like or have on hand. That’s the beauty of this meal—you get to make it what you love. Here are some ideas: bacon, beef fillet, thickly sliced, pork sausage, zucchini, thickly sliced, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, white pearl onions, bell peppers, thickly sliced, cornichons or pickled gherkins (traditional dinners call for sweet pickles, but we only use dill), pickled baby corn, asparagus, crusty hearty bread, barbecue sauce or ketchup (I have found this to be a game changer)

Directions

1. Turn the raclette grill on to medium-high heat.

2. If you are using bacon, place the slices on the grill plate and cook to your liking.

3. Use the bacon fat to cook the other ingredients. (If you are not using bacon, simply brush the grill plate with some olive oil.)

4. Place some meat and vegetables on the hot grill plate. (When we have vegetarians or vegans visiting, we use two grills. You could even just use a tabletop skillet for the veggies and the raclette skillet for the cheese and meat.)

5. While the meat and vegetables are cooking on the grill plate, place slices of raclette cheese on the small trays and put them under the heating element.

6. Slice or smash the potatoes on your plate. Scrape the melted raclette cheese out of the tray and serve it over the warm potatoes. It is also common to place the melted cheese over the cooked vegetables. Some people even put slices of potatoes into the handled trays so that the cheese melts directly on top.

About eight people can use one raclette set at a time. This is a warm, hearty dinner that is a universal hit at our house and with our guests.

If you want to keep the whole meal on the tabletop, you can even use it to prepare dessert. Just clean off the grill and roast marshmallows over it to create tabletop s’mores. (Is there a better way to end a meal than with chocolate and marshmallows?)

Did you miss part one of this conversation? Click #630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas

Would you like to receive an early Christmas gift? Join the Clutter Free Facebook Group where they will provide you with a download of all 10 Planning Tips! Remember,. Remember, you can’t join the CFA Facebook Group without answering the membership questions. It’s how we keep it the kindest corner of the internet.

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.Tonyakubo.com

Raclette cheese

Clutter Free Resources:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

What do you do in August that helps you make the holidays stress free?

Share in the comments!

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Meet Our Guest

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

Kathi 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

And I am back with co -host of Clutterfree Academy. It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya!

Tonya Kubo (00:33.21)

Hey, Kathi!

Kathi (00:35.134)

I’m excited. Okay. You know, I was super excited last week about Our 10 tips for a stress -free holiday. We we got through five last week I’m finally getting smarter in my old age not trying to do 10 tips in one episode Like let’s break because then we have super size episodes and you have to go back. No, no, no We just we started we knew this was gonna be a two episode series, but we’re talking in August about

what to do to prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving and all the holidays in the winter. And why are we doing that, Tonya? Why are we just that organized and type A and so on top of it?

Tonya Kubo (01:18.478)

No, but we wish we were. Actually, the reason we’re doing it is because we cluttery people need time to plan to plan, right? So when it comes in October, it is two months too late. We need time in August to make some decisions, sit with those decisions, recover from the effort of making the decisions so that then when push comes to shove, October, November, we’ve already know what we’re doing and then we just forge ahead.

Kathi (01:20.188)

We do.

Kathi (01:27.09)

Yes.

Kathi (01:47.354)

And that’s what we need. need some time, space, and we need to take care of our future selves because otherwise it all comes down to us. I know how these things

Tonya Kubo (01:57.82)

Right, and so because it all comes down to us, I am gonna jump us right in. If you didn’t catch the last episode, I just encourage you to go back and look at it. It should be pretty easy to find in the player that you’re listening to. Or head over into Clutterfree Academy, our free Facebook group, because we have a download with all 10 tips. It’s called 10 Decisions to Make in August for a Less Stressed Holiday. That’s waiting for you there right now. Kathi, just take it away

Tip number six.

Kathi (02:28.83)

Yeah, so we talked about are you gonna do Christmas cards or not? And both decisions are 100 % fine, friends. But if you are gonna do Christmas cards and you want a picture of your family, or if you just want a cute Christmas picture to put up on social media or to hang up in your house without sending Christmas cards, that’s allowed too. It actually is. And

Also, our vet, if we didn’t give them a picture of moose each year, there would be a revolt. So maybe they do that just to make us feel good, but I don’t care. It does make me feel good. So now is the time to make plans for that Christmas picture. Now, maybe plans are, hey, we took this great picture on our vacation. Let’s use that. That is a perfectly acceptable picture. Our Christmas card last year, somebody came to our house and took a great picture of moose.

holding one of her toys and she looks a little mischievous. And so we just, we knew that that was the perfect card. So, or maybe you want to get a professional set of pictures taken of you and your family. All of these are options in August. But as we get closer to November, our options get

And then we’re sending out for Christmas cards on December 1st. We get them back on the 15th. We don’t have time to send them out. And then we have 200 Christmas cards that we’re like, well, maybe next year. So now is the time to take the picture, okay? And we do have, what is your favorite tip for taking a great picture? Do you have one? I’ll tell you mine and then you can tell me yours. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (04:01.254)

Right.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:16.954)

Sure.

Kathi (04:18.578)

So I think the best pictures are where people feel comfortable. And so not so staged, not so posed. We just did a whole photo shoot here at the Red House. And Tenille, our photographer, kept telling us how great we looked. And if your photographer is not doing that, you need to find a new photographer. So also if you’re a parent, especially of a tween or teen,

and you just want to, you know, to be able to say, hey, you look great or have somebody else tell them they look great. That would be my go -to move. Okay, how about you, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (04:54.108)

I was gonna say my tip is take 400 pictures because one of them is bound to look good. right? Because the more people you have, the harder it is to make sure everybody is looking at the camera at the same time with their eyes

Kathi (04:57.946)

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Kathi (05:10.096)

It’s so true. And I think the other thing to say on that is, boy, just wear something comfortable. The best pictures are where you’re wearing jeans and you feel great.

Tonya Kubo (05:16.144)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:19.824)

Yep, that is so true. All right, Kathi, go ahead and give us tip number seven.

Kathi (05:26.278)

Okay, it’s time to plan for Christmas travel. So if you’re gonna be flying cross country, if you need an Airbnb, you need hotel rooms, you need flights, now is the time to get that information nailed down. Can I tell you just the mistake we made recently? Roger and I were gonna do this big, big, big trip and we’re like, okay, we think we can save enough money for this. It’s gonna be tight.

Tonya Kubo (05:48.934)

Sure.

Kathi (05:56.038)

You know with the flights and the everything we’re doing, but I think we can do that so we we went ahead and booked we got the travel insurance and Then we looked at the flights Holy cow, Tonya. I had no idea how it’s an international flight. I had no idea I had no idea so We’ve made the hard decision to not go until we think we’re gonna do like in five years because we want more time

to gather our pennies together. So instead of our 20th anniversary, this will be a great 25th anniversary. We’re gonna do something fun and fabulous for 20 years. But start to get those numbers into your head now. Start to look for flights now. Maybe sign up for a flight tracker to see if the cost goes down. Get an idea of what hotels or Airbnbs are gonna cost in that area of the country or the world, whatever that is.

Tonya Kubo (06:27.578)

Right.

Kathi (06:55.568)

Start to nail some of that information down now so you’re not in a panic in November. Now, you don’t travel for holidays usually, do you? Okay, so for you, it’s just, should we clean out the car or not, right?

Tonya Kubo (07:04.567)

Not usually, no.

Tonya Kubo (07:11.072)

Yeah, well for me, so I have a couple of relatives that live in other states, right? So our big thing is, yes, should we clean out the car or not? The other thing that we have, if we’re road tripping, because that does happen sometimes, when the girls were younger, especially, it’s nap time. When are you going to leave, right? When do you leave the house? When do you plan to come back? You know, because ideally, if you’re doing the holiday thing, somebody else’s house, you don’t want your kids to lose their charm before you have a chance to get them into the

Kathi (07:21.872)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kathi (07:40.73)

Right, Yeah, that charm covers a multitude of sins. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, and this is a great point. You know, for us, we may be RVing this Thanksgiving. And so, like, it’s time to look at those RV spots. It’s time to look at packing, you know, road tripping. What kind of food are we going to bring? Because if you are planning to eat out every meal while you’re road tripping,

Tonya Kubo (07:45.914)

Yeah, yeah.

Kathi (08:09.32)

that’s gonna cost you as much as Christmas. maybe, you know, maybe make those plans now. And also, if it is now the time to discuss, do you want to stay with relatives or is that a terrible idea? We had to, you know, there were some relatives we would have loved to have stayed with them. There were other relatives for other reasons that it was very hard to stay with. So to start preparing people early for those decisions,

is really, really good and

Tonya Kubo (08:41.946)

Yes, yes. Okay. So what is tip number

Kathi (08:48.734)

Now is the time to ask for do you need time off from work? Do you need to make other arrangements? Do you need to offer yourself a sacrifice for Christmas so you can get Thanksgiving off? You know what so start to ask now because you’re starting to plan so early and you’re starting to connect with the people that you’re planning

you might be able to ask earlier than you’ve ever been able to ask before. And if you’re, especially if you’re working someplace like retail or you’re in a hotel or a restaurant situation, getting that time off request in as early as possible or to find out, no, I can’t take time off then. Those are all good things to know. And the earlier you can get that request in,

more likely you are able to do it. This is why I also really suggest if you have any possibility of celebrating on a day other than Christmas or other than Thanksgiving, boy, it alleviates a lot of stress for a lot of people. I know that it’s nice to have that Friday off between Thanksgiving and the weekend, but also the cost of traveling.

Tonya Kubo (09:53.19)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:06.085)

That week is extraordinary. The cost, could you take a different set of days off and make it easier on

Tonya Kubo (10:15.644)

Mm -hmm. Excellent tips, excellent tips. And especially, you what’s nice is if you’ve got people who work retail, there’s blackout dates already set, right? So that helps you plan accordingly. I love that. So we need to take a quick break, because as you like to remind me, Kathi, we like to keep the lights on around here, right? So we will be back with tips nine and 10 after our commercial

Kathi (10:24.379)

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Kathi (10:34.792)

Pay the bills.

Kathi (10:45.456)

Okay, we are back and we are diving right back into our tips. Tonya, I’m just gonna go into nine. This is especially important for the lip household.

Tonya Kubo (10:57.39)

Right, it is not important for the Kubo household. So you go for it, Kathi. Yeah.

Kathi (11:00.424)

You know what, see this is good to know, right? This is good information to know. A holiday decor plan. you know, like Tonya’s like, well that’s easy, no.

And that’s okay. And I think, you know what, if I wasn’t married to Mr. Christmas, that might be my plan too. I might have just a cute little tree off in the corner or something like that. Our first Christmas together, we decided to not celebrate on Christmas because we knew that, we had had a wedding that year and we thought, well, the kids will wanna be with their other parents and that’s fine. So what we did is we bought a two foot,

Christmas tree and we did a road trip to a bunch of different B &Bs and we took that Christmas tree to each B &B and it was perfect. But Roger likes some lighting. He likes to dec… Yes, he likes to decorate the yard. Now since we get free Christmas trees because they’re all in our backyard, we set up three Christmas trees often in our household. And so

Tonya Kubo (11:45.456)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:52.024)

how fun.

Tonya Kubo (11:58.779)

He does.

Tonya Kubo (12:07.099)

Yeah.

Kathi (12:13.938)

For me, it’s very important that we go in having a budget because every year, Tanya, every single year, I think, well, surely we have enough lights. We must have enough lights. His last name is Griswold. I don’t understand it. But yes, every year we go by the lights. So one thing I’m going to insist on this year, insist on is

Tonya Kubo (12:25.04)

You’d never have enough lights for Mr. Lip.

Tonya Kubo (12:39.515)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:43.376)

Mr. Lip, we need an inventory of what we have because what often happens is, that might be in the attic or it might be in the storage shed, but I’m not sure. So while we’re here at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, we might as well get XYZ. No, no. Well, okay, if he really wants to, we will, but.

Tonya Kubo (12:48.42)

yeah.

Tonya Kubo (13:05.04)

Mm -hmm.

No. Yes. I was gonna say yes.

Kathi (13:13.266)

But could we find that information out in August? Or let’s be kind to ourselves even September when it’s not blazing hot in the attic. Could we put a plan together so that we actually know what we have? Do you wanna change up the theme? So in our bedroom, we put up a Christmas tree that’s very Woodland themed. In Roger’s office, we put up a tree that’s very Disney themed.

and then downstairs it’s bright and shiny things. So we know, do we want to change any of that? And then what do we need to do with DIY project? Is there something that we’d like to do? Let’s budget for it now, let’s go in with a plan so we’re not doing last minute things. And I think this is a good, I’m gonna put cooking under this as well. Now it’s harder to plan for cooking four months in advance, but.

Tonya Kubo (13:48.474)

Yeah.

Kathi (14:10.8)

If you’re gonna be trying a bunch of new recipes, does that require a new KitchenAid? Does that require a new thingamajig? What are we doing? Or maybe, for us, we often wanna smoke a turkey. We need to make sure that the barbecue that we’re using, or the Traeger, or whatever we’re doing, is in proper working order if we haven’t been using it.

Tonya Kubo (14:25.285)

Kathi (14:35.698)

Because I cannot tell you the number of times we’ve gone to use the thing and we haven’t used it for nine months and the thing maybe had some friends living in it. Let’s check that out. Let’s not be surprised. How about that? Let’s not be surprised.

Tonya Kubo (14:53.341)

That’s a surprise you never want, but it’s so much better to have it in August than it is to have it like the week before you plan to use

Kathi (14:57.956)

Right? Right, especially if you’re snowed in. Now you have to dig your way. Yeah, there’s just a million reasons to check early

Tonya Kubo (15:07.14)

I was like, hear the emotional scarring from your past experiences, Kathi.

Kathi (15:09.679)

my goodness. Yeah, ask me how I know, friends. Ask me how I know. No, actually don’t ask me, trauma. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (15:13.722)

Ahahaha!

Tonya Kubo (15:17.36)

No. All right, Kathi, give us tip number

Kathi (15:21.15)

Okay, this may be the most important one, the most important one. really, one through nine is leading up to 10. And this is just, it’s gonna sound very new agey, self -care and boundaries, self -care and boundaries. Think back with your spouse, your kids, your parents. Was last year’s Christmas just a little too long?

Tonya Kubo (15:36.678)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:50.492)

Were there a few too many people? Were there a few too many dishes that were required to be made? I really believe in saying, know, one thing I’ve learned, I used to think, it’s less stress for me to make all the food because I have control over when things are happening in my kitchen. No, that was just me being a little bit of a control

It’s so much better to say, you know what, you’re really good. Like my sister -in -law, this is an underrated talent. She makes the best salads in the world. I don’t know anybody who makes a better salad than Lucinda Richardson. I don’t know anybody. So let Lucinda bring the salad. Beg her to bring the salad. Let people contribute. If people are saying,

Hey, Kathi, I would love for you to do your Raclette. I’d say, yes, that would be great. Would you bring the Raclette cheese? Yes, I’d be happy to do that. But you know what? I have a lot of people who live closer to Whole Foods than I do. And that’s a Whole Foods item. To be able to say, you know what? This year, we’re not going to be able to go to three different family events in a short amount of time. You were talking about this with your kids.

You know, do we need to be aware of nap time and travel time? And thinking, you know, as adults, sometimes we can, but we shouldn’t suck it up. But kids, they’re not known for their suck it up abilities, right? So to be able to say, you know what, our first day, and we’ve done this when we travel now, our first day, hey, our whole job is just to get there and then go to the hotel and order some food.

Tonya Kubo (17:22.854)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (17:26.897)

right?

Kathi (17:41.914)

and not be on for anybody. And that’s a beautiful thing. And that’s what I think we need to say, you know what, I’m gonna be better on Thursday, Friday and Saturday if it went on Wednesday. It’s just me and the people I love because we can figure it out. We can sleep in, we can do what we need to do. But to just say

Do we say no to overwhelming commitments? And one way for me to do that, and I would love to hear any tips you have, Tonya, because you guys are really good at boundaries, is we just got an invitation today to one of our favorite humans’ 30th birthdays. The 30 -year -old is inviting us to their birthday and we’re not related to them. I feel highly honored. But instead of saying, of course we’ll be there, I said, let me check with Roger. Because I just need to know.

What’s gonna make him most comfortable? What’s gonna be the best thing? It sounds precious of us, but also sometimes I forget, oh wait, we’ve got a big deadline the day before. So it just says, hey, let me check the calendar and let me check with my significant other and we’ll get back to you. And if I get back within 24 hours, no harm, no foul. So what’s a good way for you that you have set boundaries around the holidays?

Tonya Kubo (18:40.678)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:53.046)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (18:58.702)

Yeah, so it’s interesting having kids who are growing up, right? Because what I discovered the hard way is, you know, they have school events, if they have extracurricular activities, oftentimes there’s holiday events associated with that. Like, Brian and I do not have the luxury of complete control over our calendars, even outside of work. And so for us,

A lot of it has to do with if it involves school. ask like as soon as back to school night is, which is late August, I will be asking, do you have a calendar of all events for the fall? Do you have a calendar for the whole academic year? You know, we’re recording this and it’s not quite August yet because that’s how you get August episodes, folks, if you record them before August. And I just found out

Kathi (19:37.98)

Yeah

Kathi (19:46.727)

Right?

Tonya Kubo (19:51.064)

there’s a mandatory commitment for Lily that runs for the next eight days. And by the way, we’re out of town, right? Yeah, exactly. And so I am learning now, okay, so I need to set some boundaries and say, we’re a family that has to plan ahead and we are more than happy to show up to mandatory events. However, you’re gonna need to get us those dates right now. And so again, just to kind of like tie that up in a bow, what I would say is for the school stuff, I ask for the calendars.

Kathi (19:56.263)

What?

Tonya Kubo (20:19.642)

Like early, I ask often. And then when it comes to the personal commitments, I pretty much just tell folks, know, let me check my calendar. And if I can make it, say, I’m gonna make every attempt to be there. However, you know that schools are really good about spring and last minute stuff on you. So if I have to shift it, I’ll let you know. And then I leave it at

Kathi (20:40.988)

Yeah, yeah, it’s really smart because yeah, there are so many competing priorities and whoever made that mandatory last minute commitment, unless they’re paying you, no, that’s crazy, that’s just crazy. I love these and I think that our community is gonna have some really great ideas about what to do in August to make things easier.

Tonya, know one of the things I like, and here’s one of my little gifts to myself in August, is that I’m a cookbook peruser. I like to dive into a good cookbook and I’m gonna start planning my meals for the holidays early in August because that’s something I enjoy. That’s not something everybody enjoys, but I do. So I’m gonna have my little stack and I’m going to spend some time perusing.

Tonya Kubo (21:19.11)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:31.097)

Right.

Kathi (21:37.392)

and just bring some delight and it’s gonna make me look forward to the holidays more because I, yeah, I’m excited about that. This is, yeah, and like I said, our Facebook group is gonna have so many great ideas because they’ve all done this. They bought the t -shirts for sure.

Tonya Kubo (21:46.181)

I love that.

Tonya Kubo (21:56.348)

That is true. And as a reminder about the Facebook group, if you’re not in there, you want to be in there because we’re going to put a download with all tips this episode and last episode. It’s going to be called 10 Decisions to Make in August for a Less Stressed Holiday. And Kathi is so good about reminding you this. If you are requesting to join the group, please answer the questions. If you don’t answer the questions, we don’t let you in. We want that community to be as kind as possible. All right, Kathi, anything else you want to add?

Kathi (22:16.627)

Yes.

Kathi (22:26.392)

No, I just want to say thank you for listening. Tonya, thank you for leading us so well. And friends, thank you for being here. You’ve been listening to Clutter -Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the Clutter -Free life you were always designed to live.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

#630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 13, 2024 | Christmas, Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Fear, Freedom, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas

Do you feel stressed out during the holidays? Trust us, your future self will thank you for listening to this episode.

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and co-host Tonya Kubo discuss the importance of making key decisions in August to ensure a less stressful holiday season. Kathi and Tonya emphasize the benefits of early planning, such as reduced stress, better financial management, and more time to enjoy the holiday season. They share personal anecdotes and practical advice, making the episode both relatable and actionable for listeners.

Listeners will discover:

How to decide on holiday gathering dates, locations, and participants early to avoid last-minute conflicts.
How to plan gift exchanges, considering family dynamics and financial situations.
How to set a realistic holiday budget, including categories like gifts, food, and decorations.

So grab a cool drink, find a comfy spot, and listen in on how to get started on making this Christmas your most organized and enjoyable one yet!

Would you like to receive an early Christmas gift? Join the Clutter Free Facebook Group where they will provide you with a download of all 10 Planning Tips! Remember, you can’t join the CFA Facebook Group without answering the membership questions. It’s how we keep it the kindest corner of the internet.

Click here to be notified when part 2 of this episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.Tonyakubo.com

Join the Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group and remember to answer the Membership Questions when prompted.

Clutter Free Resources:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

What are some of your creative ways to approach gift exchanges with extended family?

Share in the comments!

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To share your thoughts:

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Meet Our Guest

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 speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:01.084)

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 I am here with the co -hostess with the mostest, it is Tonya Kubo. Hey Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:47.113)

Yay!

Tonya Kubo (01:08.736)

Hey, Kathy.

Kathi (01:10.444)

I’m excited about today’s episode. feel like as we’re planning ahead, nothing makes me feel like so smart as planning ahead, as pre -deciding, as getting decisions out of the way so that August Kathi is a hero in November Kathi’s eyes. And that’s what we’re gonna do for each of our listeners today. So I’m gonna turn it over to you because my excitement is gonna spill out so much. not even.

Let’s just admit it, I had trouble doing the intro today. I was so excited about this.

Tonya Kubo (01:43.165)

I was just saying, you’re so excited that you have 400 words trying to come out of your mouth at the same

Kathi (01:48.873)

All at the same time, but let’s let’s dive in. Let’s do

Tonya Kubo (01:52.954)

Okay, so what we’re actually talking about is Christmas. And if you are like me, I was gonna say, if you’re grinchy like I am, you’re like, seriously, what is this? But here is something that I know from several years of leading Clutterfree Academy and our Clutterfree for Life membership program, Kathy, and that is that we cluttery people have a true biological need

Kathi (01:58.737)

Yes! Yay! In August!

Tonya Kubo (02:22.22)

to plan to plan. See, Christmas planning in October is about two months too late for most of us.

Kathi (02:29.754)

It really is for us cluttering friends, yes.

Tonya Kubo (02:33.346)

So what we are going to do is this is a two part episode, I believe, and we are going to be it has to be because because I wrote out 10 tips and you wrote out 10 tips and that’s 20 and we’re only going to give you 10 folks. We’re only going to give you 10. So can we just get started, Kathi? I want you to jump right in with what is your first tip when it comes to making a decision in August to have a stress free

Kathi (02:37.892)

Yes, it has to

Kathi (02:42.49)

Yeah

Kathi (02:46.606)

Right.

Kathi (02:57.112)

Okay, so this may sound so basic and for some of you, this is just gonna be a check mark because you’re gonna say, I host Christmas every year on the 24th and 25th and how awesome to have a life that is that perfectly ordered. But for many of us, that is not our reality because we have in -laws, out -laws, blended families, divorced families, all of that kind of thing. So I would implore

to nail down what you’re celebrating, when you’re celebrating, and where you’re celebrating. So for us, we often don’t celebrate Thanksgiving just because we have four kids, some of them work retail, some of them, you know, they all have these schedules where it’s really hard for them to get away from work. And so we just say, you know what, stay with your families in the Bay Area and we’ll do something fun later

So we don’t really worry about Thanksgiving so much, but sometimes we’ll have friends or other family over and that’s great. But Christmas, Christmas needs to be decided. It’s great if it’s decided a year in advance. We often have everybody show up with their little phones and figure out dates. But if we can’t decide a year in advance, August is when you should be doing that. Because if you

If you have other adults coming to your house or you’re going to theirs, I think four months is a really good timeframe to start nailing all that down. makes a lot of sense. And we have one of our kids who’s like, I can’t plan that far in advance. I’m like, well, if you get a better offer, you go for it. But the rest of us, we need to know. So, you know, he’s never planned an adult family function in his life. So it’s okay.

Tonya Kubo (04:32.928)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (04:51.667)

Right, right well then

Kathi (04:52.452)

So what do you guys

Tonya Kubo (04:55.328)

Well, so we actually are the, how do I put this? Like we can’t, we have a core member of the family that will not be able to tell us when they can celebrate Christmas until sometime around December 15th and they are typically the host. So yeah, so we spent several years not spending Christmas or any holiday with family. We did friend.

Kathi (05:08.367)

Yes.

Kathi (05:13.596)

wow!

Tonya Kubo (05:22.486)

We had some friends and we would just spend holidays with them because they had a similar lifestyle to us. They needed to plan several months in advance. And so we would just book it out. But then as the kids get older, right, it’s harder to like explain why we’re not spending Christmas and Thanksgiving with aunts and uncles and grandparents and all of that stuff. So we try to be fluid, but to some degree there’s like, I can only be so fluid, right?

Kathi (05:49.742)

Right, right. Yeah, and I think that that’s okay to say this is what I’m able to do. So what I do in August, if I haven’t done it already, is say, here is the date range of when you can come hang out with us, and here’s the one day that if you can make it work great. If you can’t, let us know now. But if I don’t hear from you in the next few days, I’m going forward, no turning back.

to get that planted so other people can make their plans, so they can do their shop, so they can do all of that kind of stuff. They can figure out their New Year’s plans. Like we’re celebrating as a family the day after Christmas through the next couple of days. you’ve heard me give this advice a thousand times. You can have everybody celebrate together. You can celebrate on the actual date.

you can have people be happy about it. Pick two out of three. And my preference is to have us all together and people to be happy about it. I don’t care if it’s happening on the actual date, but if you can get that nailed down as soon as possible, I think that that is a really smart thing to

Tonya Kubo (06:58.892)

Mm -hmm. Right.

Tonya Kubo (07:09.082)

Awesome. Okay. So that is really good advice. You covered both the importance of ahead, but also how to handle it when it’s sticky, which is something I appreciate because of course, just because you have a need to plan ahead doesn’t mean everybody else has a need. What would be your second

Kathi (07:24.066)

Right. Okay, so while you’re getting together the date and the time and where, know, whose house it’s going to be at, I think it’s all really great to have that conversation about gift exchange. You know, maybe you guys already have a family or friends tradition that is, but also we had kids who were growing into adults and wanted to set the expectation

Tonya Kubo (07:50.348)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (07:53.852)

Early that hey, we don’t need 75 gifts from anybody, but also maybe as you guys get older We don’t need to give you 75 gifts So we’re pretty much at the place where we do three gifts for everybody except we have one teenager in our family And I’m like no we’re gonna buy her the things that she wants and so to just set that expectation also to set expectation with young adults about You know you do get your grandmother a gift

Come on, be a good human being. Like they, you know, they don’t know sometimes because they’ve always had mom and dad take care of it. And so is there, do you need to pull back on some of that? Maybe because somebody in the family is having some financial constraints. You know, what taking the temperature in August is better than announcing in December what you’re going to do. So do you have like

Tonya Kubo (08:23.82)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (08:48.609)

right.

Kathi (08:50.256)

family code when it comes to gift exchange or is it a free for

Tonya Kubo (08:54.723)

Well, so it’s been a free for all for years and this last year the extended family one of the cousins reached out and was just like it’s ridiculous. I do not want to carry all that stuff home ever again. And so they do a trellis. do a bowling day. In lieu of a gift. So everybody goes and bowls for half a day and then they go to somebody’s house and has dinner.

Kathi (09:07.567)

Yeah.

Kathi (09:11.92)

Mmm. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (09:19.49)

And that’s what they do. And the kids love it. It’s so much better than going home with 32 different bags that they can’t remember who gave them what. It’s just so much more

Kathi (09:30.106)

Yeah, you know, Tonya, you and I both have given birth to children who like to open gifts like that. That’s a big part of what they like. And I don’t want to take that away from them. But to be able to do an experience like that, I think that that is tremendous. And especially if that’s like a cool cousin or aunt or uncle, like, you know, then the kid that’s you’re forming core memories there. That is so, so, so

Tonya Kubo (09:36.096)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (09:54.995)

Right. And of course, I mean, they still get Christmas gifts here. They still get presents at our house, right? It’s just not having that overwhelming

Kathi (09:59.364)

Yes. Yes.

Yes. I love it. I also think this is a good idea to start kind of putting in your mind when people ask you what you would like for Christmas to start coming up with that list, start making decisions and keeping track. If you’re the parent, maybe keeping track of some of the things that your kids have mentioned and to keep that as a curated list. So grandparents, know, aunts, uncles. And then also, I also like to just keep track of where

Tonya Kubo (10:12.098)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:32.74)

be a good gift card for that person. If I’m not coming up with anything specific, what can we do to make them feel just loved and appreciated? Tonya, I think we need to take a quick little break. We need to go pay some bills. We’re going to come back and we’re going to go with number three of our five decisions to make in August to have a less stressed holiday.

Tonya Kubo (10:45.73)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (10:58.954)

All right, so we are back and Cathy, let’s just jump right into number

Kathi (11:04.718)

Yes. Okay. I think this is a great time for you to have a discussion with your spouse, your partner, your kids, your parents, whomever it is about the holiday budget. this money, money. People would rather talk about money than let’s just say for little ears who are listening, more intimate subjects that I consider more intimate subjects, but, they would rather talk about those more intimate subjects than money.

because money has so much dynamic that’s attached to it. But I think the further out you are from the holiday and gift buying, the easier it is to have those conversations. So have those conversations in August instead of October. And you will take a lot of stress off of people. I, you know, Roger and I will have a budget that includes

Tonya Kubo (11:47.33)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:03.66)

a couple of different categories like gifts, entertaining. Entertaining makes it sound fancy. Let’s just say food, okay? One of the core budget items you need to have if you’re married to Roger Lipp is lighting. We have to have a lighting budget each year. So creating those realistic budgets. And one of the things that I wanna talk to Roger about

Tonya Kubo (12:11.511)

Yeah.

Kathi (12:32.728)

August is to start doing kind of like a Christmas club thing Do you remember clip Christmas clubs from like the seven sixty seventies and they well you weren’t around for some of those decades, but Yeah, okay, so I grew up in a time where you could at your bank open a Christmas club account and Okay, okay you do okay, so tell me about that,

Tonya Kubo (12:43.754)

I was gonna say, no.

Tonya Kubo (12:52.885)

yeah, we have

Yeah, we do that. Yeah. So it’s just, it’s a direct deposit every month and it goes into an account and I have mine set up. the regular Christmas club, it dumps the money automatically into your account like Thanksgiving week. And then it’s everything that you’ve saved up for the last year gets dumped into your account Thanksgiving week. And then that’s your money to go Christmas shopping or do whatever. And ours has, you can do Christmas club and you can

vacation club, which your money gets dumped in the summertime. I don’t like the automatic dumping because sometimes I lose track of it, right? Or, you know, Brian goes, woo, windfall. And there went my Christmas budget. So I haven’t set up to where I manually move the money

Kathi (13:30.214)

Cool.

Kathi (13:36.56)

Mm -hmm.

Right

Kathi (13:47.106)

I like the manually moving because you can start to determine, you know, where are we going to put this? What categories are we going to put this into? I love that. Yeah. So I want to, that’s what I want to do next year is to this August say, okay, let’s start setting up, you know, let’s, let’s start in January of next year, start putting some money aside. I, know, Roger gets a bonus most years and that’s usually

Tonya Kubo (13:49.44)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:16.252)

Christmas comes out of. We don’t know that that’s happening this year. So we’re going to need to, you know, do some creative financing, but that’s okay. And I think it’s good to have a realistic budget. Not like I know that we spent $2 ,000 last year, but we need to keep it to 1000 this year. Like, is that really going to work for you? Or what major thing are you going to take out? Roger and I have decided this year not to do Christmas gifts for each other because

Tonya Kubo (14:29.036)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:43.962)

We want to take a trip next year, things like that. think that that is, you know, having those conversations now so you’re not disappointed when the time comes.

Tonya Kubo (14:53.876)

Right, and I’ll just add another one for families. I have several friends that they actually theme their Christmases, and so they alternate. So there’s an electronics Christmas, and then the next year is a reading Christmas. And they only do so many gifts per child, but so that they know they need a little bit more set aside for electronics Christmas, but they spend a lot less on reading Christmas. And so that helps them balance it

Kathi (14:56.302)

Yeah.

Kathi (15:04.467)

Kathi (15:08.562)

okay.

Kathi (15:12.582)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:23.55)

on a two year cycle. I love that idea. So I just feel the need to share that with everybody.

Kathi (15:25.24)

Mm, I love that. Yeah. I think that’s so great. Yes. We did, we, when my kids were growing up, we did more of like, okay, there was a reading gift, there were clothes gifts, and then there was that fun gift, which often had a plug. So yes, I think that that, I think having a theme helps you narrow your decisions and helps you pre -decide, which is what this, this whole episode is about. It’s pre

Tonya Kubo (15:37.782)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:52.566)

Right. Well, like you said earlier on, right? It’s about making sure that November you likes August version of you and isn’t like cursing the name of August version of you. So Kathi, we are at tip number four. Do you need me to recap? Cause you may have lost track. Okay.

Kathi (16:01.329)

Yes.

Right, absolutely.

Kathi (16:11.036)

No, I’m good. Number four is your Christmas card list. So here’s what I mean by that. Figure out how many Christmas cards you’re gonna send. So the first decision is, are you sending Christmas cards? And go for

Tonya Kubo (16:28.692)

And Kathy Lipp, can I say something right now? That is the best thing ever. That I read your Christmas project planner after my mom had died. And the year that my mom died, when I read that, that gave me permission not to send Christmas cards that year. And I needed that relief so much.

Kathi (16:46.62)

I’m so glad.

Kathi (16:51.45)

Yeah, you know what and here’s the Brilliant thing. It’s not a binary decision It’s not we are a christmas card family or we’re not a christmas card family We’re like an every other year christmas card family now We did send them last year and my plan is to send them this year because if you listen, you know a big thing that’s going on our life on in our lives

Moose has cancer and this is probably her last Christmas with us and I’m not crying and so I want to have a great picture with me and Roger and Moose for our Christmas card and so I’m probably gonna send them this year and even on the years I don’t send them I love receiving them so I’m honored if I’m on your Christmas card list but I also understand the years where I don’t hear from you for a couple of years because life got in the

Tonya Kubo (17:18.028)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:45.518)

So I think it’s really a great idea in August because can we just say in December trying to send Christmas cards out, like Christmas is a part -time job.

Tonya Kubo (17:57.983)

It is.

Kathi (17:59.469)

And do we really need administrative tasks in December? No, no. So if you can, just get the list together. We’re talk about the cards and everything like that. But just decide if you’re gonna send them and be okay with not sending them. The other thing you can do, okay, Tonya, I will also say this. If you have some people in your family or like aunts or uncles or grandparents,

Tonya Kubo (18:04.266)

No, no, we do

Kathi (18:29.244)

like they live for the Christmas card, you can also buy a pack of like 10 Christmas cards and just send five of them and it’ll be okay. So you sent Christmas cards to these five people who it really means something to and that’s okay. Yes. I do believe that you will not be arrested. Yes, I do believe.

Tonya Kubo (18:41.372)

What?

Tonya Kubo (18:48.047)

I don’t know. Are you sure? Are you

Tonya Kubo (18:54.3)

okay. That reminds me of Abby. Abby will say, is that legal? Yes, yes, there is no law against not sending Christmas cards or only sending part

Kathi (18:58.926)

Right? Right. Yes, it

Tonya Kubo (00:20.329)

All right, Kathy. So I think we are ready for tip number

Kathi (00:25.942)

Okay, so this is like we’re thinking ahead about the Christmas card list. I also want you to think about the Christmas gift list. Like who are you actually giving gifts to this year? And are there people that maybe it’s time to have a discussion, hey, you know, we keep exchanging Amazon gift cards every year. What if we just went to dinner?

Or what if, you know, like I would rather spend time with you than to feel that obligation. And because I love you, don’t need a gift from you to be, now there are people in our lives we wanna do gifts for, our kids, maybe our parents, brothers, whatever. But get realistic about your Christmas card list. Do you have teachers from your kid’s school that you need to give to? Are there, you know,

Tonya Kubo (01:03.873)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (01:24.)

I also, I’ll put in this and in the Christmas budget some big tips that I give. Like we have a house cleaner that comes, you know, a couple of times a month. That I want to give a big tip to them. We have somebody who comes and helps with chopping down trees and things like that here on the property. We’re going to give them a big tip. Maybe it’s your hairdresser, maybe it’s your nail person. Like I give a big tip to the people who are loyal to me all year and who fit me in.

Tonya Kubo (01:38.135)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (01:53.614)

when it’s inconvenient. Because I want to stay on the nice list, not the naughty list. So do you need to have some hard conversations or maybe not hard conversations? Maybe you’re giving some freedom to people, but there’s advantages to early gift planning. Could you stock up on some things early on? Like I think about this, we’re big believers in stockings. We

Tonya Kubo (01:55.52)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:59.515)

Right. Exactly.

Tonya Kubo (02:12.884)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:22.135)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (02:22.724)

We like to do stockings for everybody in the family and we do stockings for every animal in the family. And so if I can buy those things, and we’ve got bunnies, we didn’t do them for all the chickens, but we do them for the dogs. Yeah, the quad pets, those are the ones that we’re doing it for. So I wanna get those things not in December. Let’s get those things early and so it’s not impacting us quite so much.

Tonya Kubo (02:35.703)

can understand that.

Kathi (02:50.36)

and I can start wrapping early and things like that. this is also a good time to keep track, to keep a list because it’s easy to forget what you’ve bought when you have a lot of kids and maybe they have their partners and they have their kids and all that kind of stuff. So starting a list either in your phone or an Excel spreadsheet or however you do it. Do you have any ideas for a Christmas gift?

creating the list.

Tonya Kubo (03:18.761)

Yes. Yeah, we all have a Google Doc and we just use the Google Doc all year long. And then when holidays come up, we know what to lean into. And, you know, we’ll have the girls prioritize like a little bit before the holiday. So we have a sense. But it’s really, really nice, especially when they’re younger, to just let them have a place where they can dream and then bring them back down to reality when it comes closer to the day.

Kathi (03:23.114)

okay.

Kathi (03:43.694)

Yeah. She’s speaking from experience because as we’ve recorded this, Sunday was a grand birthday in the Kubo home and there was a lot of dreaming and a lot of bringing back down to earth. But you know what? That’s what we do as parents. We give them wings and then we help them land safely.

Tonya Kubo (03:54.077)

Yes, it was a grand birthday.

Tonya Kubo (03:59.755)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:05.549)

Yes. Okay. So Kathy, we have our five tips. I just want to recap them really quick for everybody. So these are our five August decisions for stress -free holiday. And this is part one. We’ve got five more coming up, don’t we? So the first decision is when and where will you have your holiday gatherings? The second is planning those gift exchanges.

Kathi (04:13.583)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:20.248)

Yes. That’s right, baby.

Tonya Kubo (04:34.391)

Who are we buying gifts for? Who’s buying gifts for us? What do we want to do? A little bit of spoiler alert if you’re just catching us. You know what? Do an experience. It’s just easier on everybody. Number three is set your holiday budget early. The further away that you are from the holiday, the less emotional it is. And I loved your tip, Cathy, about the Christmas club, right? Having a savings account that just manages the Christmas budget for you so you don’t have to stress about it.

Kathi (04:44.803)

It is easier.

Tonya Kubo (05:03.853)

Tip number four was your Christmas card list. Start that now, get the addresses now. Don’t do admin tasks a couple of weeks before Christmas. And then finally, along with don’t do admin tasks two weeks before Christmas is let’s get your Christmas gift list going. Now, if you are like me, Kathy, if our listeners are like me, it is hard to keep track of these things. Right now in August, this sounds brilliant, but I’m probably listening to this show on the way to somewhere else. So I cannot write these tips down.

So here’s what I think we should do. I think we should gather together all tips after our next episode and we should have a download for folks that they can find inside Clutterfree Academy, which is our free Facebook group open to all of our listeners and a few of their friends so long as they’re nice. And we will just so that everybody knows what to look for. It’s gonna be called 10 decisions to make in August for a less stressed holiday.

and you’ll find that inside our Clutterfree Academy Facebook group. And the link of that is gonna be in the show notes. Anything you wanna add, Cathy?

Kathi (06:08.336)

Yeah, if you’re saying, I’m gonna go be a part of that group, just know you have to answer a couple of questions before we let you in there. Lots of people apply and they skip over the questions, but we wanna keep that the kindest corner of the internet, and so we’re gonna make you answer the questions. So you have to read the rules, but come in there, you’re gonna find 15 ,000 of your new best friends, and you’re gonna all get clutter free together. Tonya, thank you so much for hosting us today.

Tonya Kubo (06:24.375)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:37.675)

I am so happy to have been doing this. Thank you for having me, Kathy.

Kathi (06:41.84)

Friends join us next week for those other five tips because they really are going to make a difference You know we are going to take care of our future selves and the first way we’re going to do that is to get over the holiday hump with a lot of love a lot of fun and some cocoa, so I’m Kathy lip with Tonya Kubo.

Thank you for joining us. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy. Now, go create the clutter free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

www.instagram.com/hilaryprall

#629 How to Incorporate Vintage Finds Without the Clutter

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Aug 6, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Fear, Freedom, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

629 How to Incorporate Vintage Finds Without the Clutter

Hey there, friends! Have you ever wondered how to balance your love for vintage items with a desire for a clutter-free home?

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, host Kathi Lipp welcomes designer Hillary Prall for part 2 of their insightful discussion on balancing vintage design with clutter-free living. Hillary, who is both a vintage enthusiast and the daughter of a hoarder, shares her personal journey of clearing out her mother’s estate while maintaining her love for antique and vintage items. The conversation delves into the emotional and practical challenges of dealing with a hoarder’s legacy.

Listeners will discover:

Strategies for incorporating vintage pieces into home design without overwhelming the space
The importance of documenting family stories and the history behind heirlooms
The need for setting boundaries, both with possessions and with family members who may struggle with hoarding tendencies

This thought-provoking episode offers a compassionate look at the complexities of dealing with family legacies, hoarding, and pursuing a balanced, beautifully designed home.

Did you miss part 1 of this insightful conversation? Listen to 628 How to Curate Your Life: The Way to Love Things Without Drowning in Them here.

Click here to subscribe to this podcast and never miss another episode.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.hilaryprall.com

www.hilaryprall.com/blog

Clutter Free Resources:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

What are some creative ways you display vintage collections without overwhelming a space?

Share in the comments!

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Meet Our Guest

Hilary Prall

Hilary Prall is the creative mind behind Hilary Prall Blog, an online destination for vibrant, eclectic interior design. Hilary’s passion is creating unique, beautiful spaces that work for real-life budgets. Through her website and digital channels, she shares her colorful home design, DIY ideas, and a penchant for repurposing thrifted items with inspo-seekers all over.

Hilary’s design brightens the feeds of almost 40k fans on Instagram and Facebook. She has been featured regularly on Des Moines NBC affiliate WHO-TV, home retailer blogs, and several online magazines. She offers an array of affordable digital products that provide design help with the click of a mouse.

Before starting Hilary Prall Blog in 2015, Hilary spent years at a job that wasn’t her true calling. That experience, though, is what drives her enthusiasm for encouraging others to pursue their dreams and supporting other entrepreneurs.

A life that blends work, creative interests, and family provides ongoing inspiration as Hilary and husband Jason (with support from Cooper the corgi and Sheldon + Howard the cats) turn the transformation of their builder-grade ranch home into endless sources of design ideas. When she’s not tinkering at home, the next best bets are thrifting, road-tripping, trying a locally-owned restaurant, or enjoying the outdoors.

Visit her at www.hilaryprall.com.

Transcript

Kathi (00:01.381)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter -Free Academy, where our heart is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And we are back. If you didn’t get to hear last week’s episode with designer Hilary Prall,

and content creator, and she’s just fabulous, you guys. You just need to go check her out. Go take a listen to that, because I think that that was a really rich and interesting conversation. Hilary is the daughter of a hoarder and has had to walk through that journey. And as many of you know, both Tonya and I have walked through that journey as well. And to get a little bit of an idea of what you can and cannot do in that journey.

Hilary Prall (00:32.557)

You

Kathi (01:00.549)

But today I want to tap into the other side of Hilary’s life and that is about the design side and You know Hilary I’m sure you said that you’re still going through some of your mom’s things like you’re still working on that situation in your life and That’s been kind of exhausting and I thought it was such an interesting point when we are surrounded by so much clutter

whether it’s ours or somebody else’s, it really can deplete you artistically, creatively, emotionally. Is that what you’ve been going through the past couple of years?

Hilary Prall (01:44.907)

Yeah, I think I just, I mean, aside from just, you know, the suddenness of losing my mom, but then knowing that I was gonna have to deal with all of this stuff. And it feels very lonely. I mean, people will offer to help you, but they have no idea. And we have had very helpful people in it. The sort of…

part of this is that my mom had gotten remarried and we love him and are very thankful to have him in our lives. We’re his only family. He’s our only family at this point. But it’s his house. And so, you know, whereas most people we would have sorted through everything and then had an auction or an estate sale, we have had to work around him and schlepping it and, you know,

Kathi (02:26.853)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hilary Prall (02:38.794)

my husband likes to be very efficient and not touch things three times or four times. And it was, you know, and we’ve sort of had to deal with him saying, it’s totally fine. And he has been very patient, but then he would get a wild hair and like clear out a whole section of stuff and shove it in a closet. And so it’s like, so now I have to re go through that closet. So just kind of, you know, that part of, and then she lived an hour away. So just a lot of things that made.

Kathi (02:42.853)

Right.

Kathi (03:00.261)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (03:07.977)

made it all just a little bit harder. It’s like, you know, couldn’t something be a little easier? So we have the bulk of it done now. The other thing is we had to go through every box because it was just, she did try to get organized several times. And so there would be stuff mixed in that shouldn’t have been and whatever. So we have the bulk of it done to the point that the rest can easily be.

Kathi (03:13.797)

Right.

Kathi (03:20.933)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (03:33.161)

donated or taken to auction in just one of our vehicles. We had to rent a moving truck for the big auction. And then she just had a lot of jewelry. So I have taken, I think, three loads now to a local jewelry store to have to sell the metal. She had a lot of costume, but also, I mean, it’s worth money, the gold. So I probably have one.

Kathi (03:39.429)

Yeah.

Kathi (03:44.549)

Hmm.

Kathi (03:52.869)

Yeah, sure. Yeah.

Hilary Prall (04:00.392)

maybe one more, two more loads to take of that. So just the time that it takes. So it takes all your free time. And so, you know, I would do whatever work I could during the week that I felt like doing for myself, for my own business, keeping our house running. And then, you know, we really tried on the weekends to get down there and do some work. So.

Kathi (04:08.677)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:15.973)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:23.205)

Hilary, let me ask you a question before we dive into the design and decorating side of things. I was just listening to a great person on TikTok whose mother suddenly passed away. And she said she was giving advice for any parents out there about wills and estates and trusts and things like that. It was great, really terrific advice. I would love to hear from you as somebody who is going through the thick of it.

What would your top piece of advice be for somebody like your mom? Like, is there a list she could have left? What could she have done to make this a little bit easier? We know she wasn’t gonna get herself organized, but is there something she could have done? And then what would be your top piece of advice for somebody who’s in your situation, who’s going into a hoarder’s house? Who, what?

Hilary Prall (05:10.631)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (05:20.677)

I would love those two pieces of advice.

Hilary Prall (05:24.966)

So I think both pieces of advice can work for both parties. So number one, we’ve talked about this a whole bunch. Thankfully, my mom left us some money to work with. There was money in the estate, but no matter what you’re doing to get rid of stuff, it costs money. Dumpsters cost money. You can take stuff to the Goodwill or whatever, but when you’re talking about a hoarder’s house,

Kathi (05:29.029)

Okay.

Kathi (05:37.765)

Okay.

Hilary Prall (05:52.485)

And I know people think about hoarders as being dirty. My mom wasn’t like that. I think she could have gone down that road had she not gotten remarried. It was just such tremendous volumes of stuff. Some of it, you know, there was mold involved and things like that. But you have to somehow get it to wherever it’s going. And you can’t. It’s not just going to be a, you know, a few loads to goodwill. Number one, they don’t want all that stuff in one trip.

Kathi (05:52.581)

Yeah.

Kathi (05:57.893)

Yeah.

Kathi (06:20.357)

Right.

Hilary Prall (06:21.509)

but you have to somehow get rid of it. Thankfully we lived close enough that it was reasonable, but if you lived out of state, I don’t know what people would do if you’re not close. I mean, so have some money set aside, I guess. If you are not the parent and you’re the person who you know you’re gonna have to deal with this, I would start maybe talking to figure out.

Kathi (06:30.021)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (06:37.029)

Yes.

Hilary Prall (06:47.492)

Where’s my local auction? Who does the state sales? Now, again, other situations, you might be able to have someone come in and do the auction there or whatever. And a lot of times with hoarders, if it’s bad, the stuff’s not salvageable. So you could call, like you can hire 1 -800 -GOT -JUNK, but maybe just come up with a game plan of some sort of how you are gonna liquidate it because it is a lot and it’s a lot of work and it’s, you know,

Kathi (07:01.125)

Right. Yes.

Kathi (07:14.373)

Mmm.

Hilary Prall (07:17.156)

Again, you don’t want to, I don’t like to ask for help. That’s my personality, but at some point we just needed some bodies to help us get stuff upstairs and not completely break our bodies and burn out. So just how you’re gonna deal with it, the finances, what that looks like. We’ve spent a lot of money just trying to get rid of stuff, which seems crazy.

Kathi (07:21.893)

Yeah.

Kathi (07:30.629)

Yeah.

Kathi (07:42.949)

It does.

Hilary Prall (07:44.611)

The other thing that I think would be helpful, luckily, like I have said, I love old stuff. I have always loved old stuff. A lot of the stuff I have now acquired that was family, I looked at at my grandma’s house when she had it. And so I would just pour through stuff. So I knew what was a lot of family stuff. My sister would have had no idea, because she doesn’t care about that stuff. I wish I would have asked or,

Kathi (07:59.973)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (08:13.282)

enforced a little bit more with my mom, please write down the history of this or who did this belong to. Because at a certain point, not that it matters, you know, like 50 years from now, I’m not going to care if my nieces keep everything that was mine. And I don’t think that our ancestors think that you should. But it is important to you know, if something’s really important or has provenance, you should

Kathi (08:18.085)

Hmm, yeah.

Kathi (08:30.597)

Right.

Kathi (08:34.405)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (08:40.546)

want to know those stories. And I did know some of it, but I wish either my mom had done more or I had asked more about it because she held on to those things so tightly that we didn’t know a lot of the stories behind them. There are things that I remember from my childhood, even from our own house that I wanted to hold on to, but I just wish I knew a little bit more of the history behind some of the stuff.

Kathi (09:02.565)

Sure. Yeah. Yeah, my mom is putting Post -it notes under things. And just to say a little bit about where she got that milk glass or whatever the thing is. And like, she is, you know, for a long time when I would go visit her, she would say, don’t throw away the milk glass. You can sell it, or you can keep it, but don’t throw it away. And I’m like, okay, mom.

Hilary Prall (09:10.241)

Okay, yeah.

Hilary Prall (09:15.905)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (09:27.36)

Yep. Yep.

Kathi (09:28.869)

I’m learning about milk glass. I promise but you know, I just want to hear I want I want everybody who is in our clutter free Listening audience to hear what Hilary has said that Your mom who I’m sure was a lovely but complicated person Left you with a task that has left you feeling alone and

Hilary Prall (09:31.904)

Yes.

Kathi (09:58.341)

I don’t think any of us would wish that upon our children. And so to hear what Hilary is saying, if there are things that you can do right now, if there are things you can get rid of right now, if there are the stories that you can tell about those items so that your child or whomever is, your nieces, your nephews, your grandkids, whomever it is, they don’t.

End up feeling alone. I think that would be list. That would be a great service that you have provided here Hilary Okay, I want to talk about more fun things. Let’s talk about fun Okay So I want you love vintage. I think a lot of our cluttery people do I think one of the things and when I say cluttery people I count myself as as one of those people so i’m not pointing any finger. Well, if i’m pointing fingers i’m pointing them back at me but

Hilary Prall (10:29.211)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:56.517)

I think we, a lot of cluttery people have a real deep appreciation for vintage. And that’s why it is hard for us to get rid of things. So how do you incorporate your love for vintage into your designs in a way that promotes a healthy clutter -free living space? Because it can be really easy to do too much or keep things just because they were old. But how do you incorporate it into a way,

that it’s not just lovable, but livable.

Hilary Prall (11:30.014)

I will say we don’t have children, so it makes it a lot easier. I think if you have little kids running around, you’re not gonna have all of this stuff. That’s just how it is. We do have three active pets, so I have to be okay if things get broken or whatever. I have a few things even right now that…

Kathi (11:32.997)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (11:38.725)

Right.

Kathi (11:46.437)

Yes.

Hilary Prall (11:53.79)

I know I need to change out just because of how we live and I’m tired of messing with it. I think that’s part of it is if you if it’s constantly bringing you angst or whatever, then reevaluate it. You know, I really try to keep our bedroom very calm, very clutter free. And sometimes it’s just the addition of one extra thing that can just that’s it. I need to I need to clear the decks. So.

Kathi (12:21.957)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (12:23.101)

I think for me, I don’t ever want people to feel like they have to be overly careful. Last week, we have a cleaning lady that comes every couple of weeks and she does a great job considering how much nonsense I have. And so just very absentmindedly, she was here and I was out talking while she was working and I was just going through and fluffing my stuff because I’m also a little OCD.

Kathi (12:28.741)

Hmm.

Kathi (12:32.773)

Yeah.

Kathi (12:37.797)

Hahaha!

Hilary Prall (12:50.076)

And she said, I’m sorry. She said, I can’t ever remember how your stuff goes back. I said, do not worry about that. That’s on me. That is for me to go through and be fidgety about. So I think just manage your expectations. I mean, do you want people to feel comfortable in your house? Then, you know, they have to be able to live with your stuff. Plenty of people. I have an Instagram friend that has the most incredible home.

Kathi (13:10.917)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (13:18.587)

and I was lucky enough to go and visit it and it is museum worthy. But also I think it’d be really hard to add anybody else to that house. So I think it does have to depend on what your, and he would say that, so I think it’s okay. But you have to be okay with whatever your situation is and what it can accommodate, I guess.

Kathi (13:23.365)

Hmm.

Kathi (13:32.357)

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Kathi (13:42.117)

I love that it’s being realistic about how you live so you can be realistic about how you design, how you bring things in and living with what you love. Guys, we’re gonna take a quick break and then when we come back, I wanna talk to Hilary about what advice she would give to somebody that she was helping with designs who struggles with clutter. We’re gonna take a quick break and then we’ll come back with that.

Hilary Prall (13:47.098)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:12.293)

Okay friends, we are back and Hilary knows our cluttery hearts. She knows our cluttery spaces. And so if you were working with a client, what advice would you give to somebody who tends towards clutter? Do you have any really practical ideas or solutions or maybe some inspiration for them?

Hilary Prall (14:27.962)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (14:33.689)

I think honestly the first thing is clear the decks a little bit. Take everything out if you’re redoing a space. If you’re unsure about something, put it in a tub and if you don’t care about it a month from now, three months from now, it can move on. It can find somewhere else to live. I also think same with clothing. If you’re tired of wearing something but you hold on to it because, I might use that, well, when you’re ready to use it,

maybe just go buy something new. Say I over the last three years have lost over 70 pounds. So I don’t need to hold on to those old clothes because I’m gonna buy something new. Life is very, very short. So I don’t think that you need to hold on to every last detail of everything. Keep the sentimental pieces. Part of…

Kathi (15:04.869)

Yeah, yeah.

Kathi (15:11.173)

Wow.

Mm -hmm. Right.

Hilary Prall (15:29.369)

Part of going through my mom’s stuff was I’ve really sifted through. So I’ve, you’ve touched every single thing. And I have an entire closet downstairs plus some overflow of family things that I’ve brought home. My sister needs to come through and go through them. And then the rest of it, I’m gonna pick the things that I really care about and the rest I’m gonna try to reach out to the historical society of where my grandma’s from and, you know, kind of liquidate some stuff that way. But, cause I…

Kathi (15:35.685)

Mmm.

Kathi (15:54.181)

yeah.

Hilary Prall (15:57.816)

They’re important things, but also I don’t need to keep them. So not everything has to be kept. Not everything in my house should be important to my nieces and nephews down the road. You know, it’s just not everything is sentimental.

Kathi (16:03.109)

Right.

Kathi (16:15.845)

Yes, and so I love that thought that yes, this is important history, but my house is not a museum. And, you know, we can take pictures. You’ve given me two ideas that I’ve never really considered auction houses and your grandmother’s local historical society. You know, is this something? Yeah. Tell me more about that.

Hilary Prall (16:38.839)

Yeah, they’re actually, yeah. So they’re, well, and this is just because I grew up going to this. There are a couple of, I think, there are always historical societies. So, I mean, they’re always looking for things. They want to have curated, you know, whatever. There’s a big event that we would go to every year. And I can specifically remember there is a whole little room or house devoted to scary old dolls, which I don’t want.

Kathi (16:47.173)

Yeah.

Kathi (17:07.173)

Mm -hmm, right.

Hilary Prall (17:07.958)

But I have two of my grandmas and I have her little baby buggy and that would be a great thing to give them. And, you know, my grandpa was a farmer down there and I mean, they, they want that stuff. They want ephemera and you know, all the things that for all intents and purposes, I will never really look at again, but I have all of this stuff. So unless I want to display it or really feel like I’m going to look at it again, I just, I don’t need that heaviness. But.

Kathi (17:19.205)

Yes.

Kathi (17:27.557)

Right.

Hilary Prall (17:37.973)

I didn’t want to make a rash decision while I was going through things and just pitch it. Because I did get rid of a few things that I kind of am like, shoot. But also, I’m not gonna let that, yeah.

Kathi (17:40.293)

Yeah.

Kathi (17:47.909)

Mm hmm. Well, that’s gonna happen with the amount of stuff you had to deal with. You’re gonna get you’re gonna get rid of a few things that, you know, maybe but we can’t let that keep us from getting rid of the things that are going to stop us from living. And, you know, when we bought this house, and you don’t know anything about my story, but we bought a house in the middle of the woods, like, and the people we bought it from,

Hilary Prall (17:54.293)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (18:06.196)

No.

Hilary Prall (18:14.58)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (18:17.893)

they left a lot of their stuff here, including an antique water stand that we love and they loved it, but they had no place for it. Their kids had no place for it. And so the agreement we left with was if I ever decide to get rid of it, I call them. And if they don’t want it, then it’s up to me to get rid of it. And I was fine with that. And another thing that they…

Hilary Prall (18:29.236)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (18:36.148)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (18:45.221)

They had this giant list of all these things that they were leaving with us, but one thing they were not leaving was an IKEA table. And we’re like, well, that’s odd. You left all this other stuff. Why are you taking the IKEA table? Come to find out this IKEA table was from the original IKEA in… Yes, it was the IKEA in Europe. And it was bought, I think, either in the 40s or 50s and shipped to the United States.

Hilary Prall (18:54.099)

Hilary Prall (19:04.339)

IKEA.

Hilary Prall (19:11.795)

Okay.

Kathi (19:14.085)

And so that’s a part of their family history. And we love that story so much, and they still sell that brand of table at IKEA. We bought that, we bought the 2019 version of it. And you can still have the story without having the object. And to be able to carry that on is great. When do you know that your passion,

Hilary Prall (19:22.322)

Okay, yeah. that’s awesome.

Hilary Prall (19:29.778)

Yeah, yeah.

Hilary Prall (19:35.09)

Absolutely.

Kathi (19:42.757)

for board games or paint by numbers has gotten out of control. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, guys, she mentioned these in the last episode. But how do you know when it’s enough?

Hilary Prall (19:55.634)

Well, I have stipulations so for the the paint by numbers I don’t want although I just bought one that doesn’t doesn’t align with this but it’s it’s so different that it’s okay, but I Don’t really like people in them. I don’t like eyes So they have to sort of fit my colors and I want them to be pretty well done You know the board games I don’t

Kathi (20:05.577)

We won’t judge you.

Kathi (20:13.125)

Mmm.

Okay.

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (20:22.417)

I have shelves that I could stack them on, but part of the display is that I’ve hung a lot of them on the wall as display. So I don’t know, is there an end to something? I would say as long as it’s not stressing you out, you’re not putting yourself in financial distress, you can still walk in your house, I suppose it’s okay.

Kathi (20:28.261)

yes.

Kathi (20:41.253)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (20:44.625)

But if you can no longer enjoy your stuff, that is for me genuinely it. I wanna look at it. I wanna look at it. I wanna enjoy it. I love my stuff, but I don’t wanna have to put it in a tote and think about it randomly. So for me, I don’t wanna store stuff. I want it out and about. And as far as like my family stuff, one thing I did wanna say is just because my mom had it or my grandma had it,

Kathi (20:44.805)

Yeah.

Kathi (20:55.461)

Yeah.

Kathi (21:00.677)

Right, right.

Hilary Prall (21:14.096)

I want to collect my own stuff. I have a whole life ahead of me. I very easily from the loss that has happened in my life could easily think, gosh, I don’t have a life left. But I have a lot of years left hopefully and I have a lot of collecting to do. So I want to have room to collect my own things. I don’t want to have to just have my mom’s stuff.

Kathi (21:16.389)

Right. Yes.

Kathi (21:28.997)

Guess.

Kathi (21:38.021)

I love that. And you said you want to enjoy your stuff, but you also want to enjoy your space. And I think that’s the perfect balance for what we’re talking about. To be able to enjoy your stuff and be able to put your, enjoy your space and to have some guidelines. I love your guidelines for your paint by numbers. It can’t have people, it can’t have I, and you said, but that you said there was an exception to that that you just bought.

Hilary Prall (21:44.431)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (21:48.399)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (21:54.639)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (21:59.759)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (22:03.695)

Yeah.

Kathi (22:04.709)

but you must have loved it so much that you were willing to break your own rule. And I think that’s the reason we have rules and guidelines to keep us kind of contained. But then we know when something is outside of that and that’s really special. Hilary, you’ve given us so much to think about. Where would you like people most to seek you out? Is it through your website, through Instagram? Where should people go find you?

Hilary Prall (22:09.295)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (22:14.415)

Mm -hmm.

Hilary Prall (22:29.807)

Instagram first, I hang out there a lot. I’m in stories a lot there, that’s what I love. I love to be able to connect with people that way. So I would say definitely Instagram. From there you can find me anywhere, but also if they go to my website, I have a pop -up to join my email list. I email once a week. I really try to share something there that I’m not sharing anywhere else, so it’s definitely bonus material, bonus content. And…

Kathi (22:33.797)

Yeah. Okay.

Kathi (22:42.181)

Okay.

Kathi (22:51.973)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (22:58.766)

Yeah, I just really, as I have walked through this, the people who have reached out to me saying, I had to go through this, I’m going through this, I’m going to have to go through this, you know, and I think just the self -realization that we can all kind of struggle with it. I’ve had a few messages that were kind of rude, you know, saying this is a mental illness, you know, but I understand. I 100 % understand and I watched my mom struggle with it.

Kathi (23:10.757)

Yeah.

Kathi (23:23.589)

Yeah. Yeah.

Hilary Prall (23:27.629)

overtly for 20 years. You know, so I would be the last person to judge anybody about it, but it would be wonderful if people could seek the help that they, that I’m assuming is out there. I know people specialize in it, but also, you know, if you’re going through it with a family member, I know that, you know, it genuinely is like drugs or alcohol. I mean, I would try to explain that to my husband. It was really hard for him to understand it.

Kathi (23:29.893)

Yeah.

Kathi (23:40.133)

Right.

Kathi (23:50.149)

Yeah.

Hilary Prall (23:54.349)

And you know, I know people sometimes do have to just walk away from a situation. Luckily, I didn’t have to do that with my mom, but you have to have some boundaries and anyway, so.

Kathi (24:01.445)

Yeah.

100 % yeah, you know, lots of times with hoarders, they want you to hold on to their stuff. They want you to be a part of it. And just because one person suffers from hoarding doesn’t mean there aren’t other sufferers surrounding them. And, you know, can we acknowledge both as victims? I think that that’s a really important thing that you’re saying here. There’s more than one victim.

Hilary Prall (24:22.123)

Yes, absolutely.

Hilary Prall (24:30.123)

Absolutely.

Kathi (24:33.701)

Hilary, I love the compassion you have for your mom while also speaking the truth. Guys, she’s got tears in her eyes and as the fellow daughter of a hoarder, I feel those tears. I’m further removed than she is. She’s in the thick of it right now. So I wanna say an extra thank you for being here and sharing your story with us. Thank you so much. Okay.

Hilary Prall (24:58.475)

Absolutely, yeah. Thanks.

Kathi (25:01.637)

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.

#633 From Overwhelmed to Organized: A Step-by-Step Guide to Clutter-Free Meal Planning

#632 Decluttering with Teens and Other Family Members: Life Lessons in Letting Go and Prioritizing What Matters

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

www.instagram.com/hilaryprall

#628 How to Curate Your Life: The Way to Love Things Without Drowning in Them

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Jul 30, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Fear, Freedom, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

628 How to Curate Your Life:

The Way to Love Things Without Drowning in Them

Hey there, friends! Have you ever struggled with finding the balance between loving vintage and clutter?

In this enlightening episode of Clutter Free Academy, host Kathi Lipp welcomes designer and content creator Hilary Prall. Kathi and Hilary explore the challenges of breaking free from generational clutter habits and finding a balance between loving vintage items and maintaining an organized home. As the daughter of a hoarder, Hilary offers valuable insights on curating spaces, letting go of sentimental items, and developing strategies to resist hoarding tendencies.

Listeners will discover:

How to set clear goals
How to understand personal limits when it comes to collecting
The importance of displaying and enjoying items rather than storing them away

This episode offers a unique perspective on the intersection of design, organization, and personal growth, making it a must-listen for anyone struggling with clutter or seeking to create a more intentional living space.

Click here to be notified when Part 2 of this interview with Hilary Prall is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

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!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.hilaryprall.com

www.hilaryprall.com/blog

Clutter Free Resources:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life