641 – The 3 Words That are Keeping You Cluttered

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Meet Our Guests

Liana George & Angie Hyche

Angie Hyche is an author, speaker, and professional organizer. She’s the author of Unholy Mess: What the Bible Says about Clutter, co-author of Uncluttered: Shaping Your Heart & Home for What Matters Most, and co-host of the Uncluttered podcast. She loves helping people simplify so they can prioritize what matters most.

Liana George is an author, podcaster, and speaker based in Texas. Her first three novels are based on her experiences as a professional organizer and her time in China. When she’s not organizing or writing, you’ll find her reading, traveling, watching tennis, or keeping up her small farm in Houston.

Connect with Angie Hyche and Liana George on their website https://uncluttered.faith/ and on social media https://www.facebook.com/uncluttered.faith and https://www.instagram.com/uncluttered.faith/

Transcript

Kathi (00:01.578)

Okay, this is, we’re talking with Angie Hyche and Liana George, and we are talking about the dirty words. So you editors are gonna be very intrigued by this. okay, five, four, three, two, one.

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 I hope is, as much as we talk about what to do with your hands when it comes to decluttering, I’m hoping that this is going to help your head. That’s my goal for today, and that’s the goal of my two guests, because…

If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, I’ll get to that someday, or I’m just not an organized person. Okay, by the way, nobody’s actually born organized. Can we just be really honest about that? I wanna talk about language today, and so do my two guests. We wanna talk about the language, not just the language you use with the people you love in your home, but the language you use with yourself. I have two amazing guests. First,

I have Angie Hyche and we also have Liana George. Okay guys, sorry. We have Angie Hyche and Liana George. They are the co-authors of the new book, Uncluttered, Shaping Your Heart and Home for What Matters Most. And you guys, you know that’s my jam, right? And they are the co-hosts of the Uncluttered podcast. So we’ve got a bunch of people who love to talk about clutter.

or actually who love to talk about decluttering? Angie is also the author of Unholy Mess, What the Bible Says About Clutter and a professional organizer. And if you don’t think that the Bible talks about clutter, let’s just talk about how a lot of the little red bits of the New Testament are about what you own and what you love. And so I don’t know of a better definition of that than clutter. Liana?

Kathi (02:14.37)

Is a novelist whose first three books draw from her experiences as a professional organizer and her time in China my goodness. Okay. We have so much to talk about ladies. Welcome to the podcast. I’m so glad to have you here today

Angie Hyche (02:29.41)

Thank you, Kathi. We have been looking forward to this for so long. So thank you.

Liana George (02:29.636)

Thank you.

Kathi (02:34.582)

Well, and that’s because your emails kind of got buried in my inbox. That’s why it was so long, but you guys have been so gracious. Liana, I have to ask about your time in China, was that military? Was that missionary? What was that?

Liana George (02:42.214)

Thank

Liana George (02:51.164)

No, it was neither. It was my husband’s company decided to build a facility there And so they moved us there in three weeks. We had three weeks to move Yes, three weeks. We went there July 4th of 2006 and I was back by August 8th So my kids could start school. So yeah, so I really needed to be organized to get an overseas move

Kathi (02:52.941)

Okay.

Kathi (02:56.809)

Nice!

Kathi (03:01.196)

What?

Kathi (03:12.078)

my goodness. Okay. The reason I was so intrigued by that little detail was because I was a missionary in Japan for a year. And talk about a culture change. Yes. So my goodness. Okay, I definitely have to pick up that book. Okay, so I’ll get some book recommendations from you at the end.

When you guys first pitched this idea to me about what you come on and talk about, one of the subjects you gave me was the dirty words of organizing. I’m like, okay, that’s scandalous enough that I am dying to find out what you’re talking about. So Liana, here’s my question. What do you mean by the dirty words of organizing?

Liana George (04:35.214)

Yeah, it’s it’s it is. It’s enough to grab your attention and that’s the whole point. We want to grab your attention because so many times, like you said earlier, you know, it’s the work of our hands that we do when we get organized, but we don’t understand the power that our language has on our efforts to get organized. And so many times we use phrases or words that can severely hamper whatever we’re trying to do. And it’s words like some day later.

Kathi (04:40.302)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (04:51.351)

Mmm.

Liana George (05:05.156)

just in case, I don’t know, or I can’t, right? And so they’re dirty in that, just like the dirty words that we grow up learning not to say, they are, they’re scandalous, right? And they hamper and they hurt us. They don’t, not only, got, when I was working with clients, I’d heard them so much, I was like, you’re hurting my ears, please stop saying that.

Kathi (05:31.48)

Mmm.

Liana George (05:32.552)

So that was, I was like, you know, trying to reframe the way they spoke because we, as we know, the words have power. And so when we use these words, we can either help our efforts or hurt our efforts.

Kathi (05:40.462)

Yeah.

Kathi (05:46.84)

So this is really interesting to me because I’ve got people in my life, some people who, you know, they just naturally tend towards clutter or, you know, maybe they even have hoarding tendencies. And I feel like so often the dirty words aren’t aimed at the stuff, they’re aimed at ourselves. And I wonder…

Angie Hyche (06:08.332)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (06:11.958)

Okay, so let’s talk about when it’s me, when I’m the one who’s saying, I can’t, I’ll do it later. I don’t have, you know, I don’t have the time right now. I don’t have the energy right now, which could all be true. I, you know, I have been at times in my life where decluttering was the last thing on my list. You know, we were in survival mode, but we, we have to, we have to set our own sea level of what, you know, survival is.

So how do these words affect ourselves, Angie? And then how can we start to, well, let me ask you this Angie, what are the words that you bristle at? know, Liana told us hers, but I would love to hear the ones that you bristle at. And how do you start to change that conversation?

Angie Hyche (07:05.304)

I think the ones, the specific ones that I tend to hear the most and that bother me the most is the just in case. I need to keep this just in case because I might need it. And, you know, there are, there’s, there’s such extremes with that, you know, to say, well, I better take my umbrella just in case it rains. Well, that’s pretty legit, you know, it might, but some of our just in cases are so outlandish.

Kathi (07:13.486)

Mmm.

Kathi (07:17.484)

Yeah.

Kathi (07:22.168)

Mm

Kathi (07:29.152)

Right.

Kathi (07:34.988)

Mm -hmm.

Angie Hyche (07:35.446)

You know, to say, I’m going to keep six months of supplies just in case of a zombie apocalypse is completely different. So, so many times with each of these, we talk about, here’s what we’re saying. Here’s what we’re really saying though. And so with the just in case what we’re, think many, many times what we’re saying down deep is

Kathi (07:53.792)

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Angie Hyche (08:04.63)

I’m afraid. I’m afraid that if I let this go, I’m not going to have the opportunity to have it again. And ultimately, at its deepest level, it’s, God’s not going to take care of me. He does not have my back. And that’s pretty deep.

Kathi (08:06.304)

It, you know, yeah.

Kathi (08:21.294)

Yeah, long-time listeners of this podcast will know that I talk about the fear, guilt, and shame of clutter, fear, what if I need it someday, guilt, but so and so gave it to me and shame, I spent so much money on it. And like, those are the three reasons that we keep things are fear, guilt, and shame. And what you’re talking about here is a deep fear. You know, if we had

Angie Hyche (08:29.492)

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm. yes.

Angie Hyche (08:41.677)

Mm

Angie Hyche (08:46.249)

Mm

Kathi (08:47.286)

grandparents who went through the depression, the thought, you know, and that’s been passed down to their kids and sometimes us, you know, you can’t throw anything away because what you’re saying is I don’t value anything and yet we just live in a land and a time of abundance. It’s not so much so I mean, there are people who let’s be clear, they don’t have enough food, they don’t have enough resources.

Angie Hyche (09:03.22)

Mm

Angie Hyche (09:08.46)

Yes.

Kathi (09:15.554)

But for those of us who are listening to a clutter podcast, that’s probably not the situation as much as it is. I don’t know what I have. So I have to buy more. so how do you start to, you know what, we’re going to take a quick break, but then I’m going to come back to you, Liana, and ask, how do we start to, I always call it, you know, I like to call it, how do we gently parent ourselves?

Angie Hyche (09:22.892)

Yes.

Angie Hyche (09:26.924)

Mm

Kathi (09:44.952)

to not be so hard on ourselves, but to say, there a different way of thinking? So I’m gonna come back and ask you that question when we’re done with our commercial. We’ll be right back.

Angie Hyche (09:45.029)

Mm.

Kathi (09:57.728)

Okay friends, we’re back and I just put Liana on the spot, because that’s what we do on a podcast about how do we start talking to ourselves in a different way? We wouldn’t tell our kids, don’t be afraid, just suck it up. But that’s how we talk to ourselves so much of the time, isn’t it? Like what you’re feeling is stupid, stop it. And we would never talk to a child or a dear friend that way, but we can be so hard on ourselves. So how do we start to…

Liana George (10:14.203)

it in.

Kathi (10:24.734)

unpack this fear that’s making us hang on to things that we don’t really need and start to have a new conversation.

Liana George (10:33.242)

Yeah, so one of the things that we encourage in the book, because this is one of our devotionals, you know, talking about these words. And so one of the things that we encourage people to do for the practical part of this, and like you said, to start talking to ourselves, is to write down what are the words that I do say? What are the words that I hear myself saying when I’m organizing or decluttering? And, you know, write those down and then write down

what do you think you’re really saying? Like Angie said a minute ago, what are we deep down really trying to saying to ourselves? And then write down, how can I reframe that question differently? And just by I think going through that, taking the time to go through those little steps, I think can help us really understand, wait, you know, this is, this isn’t what I meant, because, but because I’m acting out of this, either it’s

fear, confusion, misunderstanding, doubt, you know. And then once you can identify those, I think it’s easier for you to process that information and then start speaking differently.

Kathi (11:46.574)

So I’m going to give you some common phrases that I hear when it comes. This is like $60 ,000 pyramid. I’m going to give you the common phrase, and I need the response. OK, and I’m going to go back and forth with you guys. So Angie, we’re going to start with you. I just don’t know where to put it.

Angie Hyche (11:51.234)

Okay.

Angie Hyche (12:01.59)

Yes. All right.

Angie Hyche (12:07.0)

yeah. this is similar to, well, I’ll just put it here for now. this is, this is so common. And I think usually what we mean when we say that is, well, I don’t really want to deal with this.

Kathi (12:15.018)

Right, yeah.

Kathi (12:31.926)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Angie Hyche (12:33.354)

And our excuse is, well, I don’t know where to put it. I don’t want to deal with this. And so then what ends up happening is that item becomes clutter because we put it on the kitchen counter or on the floor or whatever. it’s, it’s, it’s basically, it’s just kind of an excuse to procrastinate. so I think, when we do that, you know, I’ll do it later. I’ll do this just for now. Then many times the later never really comes around.

Kathi (12:49.837)

Yeah.

Angie Hyche (13:03.256)

And whereas if we take the time to do it correctly, then that clutter is not going to build up. know, our book is a devotional book and scripture and one of the scriptures that’s good for this one is Proverbs 13 for lazy people, what much, but get little, but those who work hard will prosper. Now, is it laziness in every situation? No, no, not necessarily, but sometimes it is like, just don’t want to deal with it.

Kathi (13:26.498)

No. Yeah.

Angie Hyche (13:32.994)

So it comes back to that principle that organizers are notorious for saying because it’s so important, having a home for everything. And if you have a home for everything, that pickup is just a breeze. Okay, here’s this. I know where that goes up. I’ll go ahead and… But it’s those items that we haven’t yet established the home for that end up becoming clutter because we haven’t gone through the thinking to try to establish that home.

Kathi (13:40.81)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (14:00.314)

Yeah, I think very few people are actually lazy. I think that they are just so overwhelmed and it’s more of a mental exhaustion than it is a physical. You know, there are times when I’m like, yeah, I’m done for the day because I’ve been working hard all day and it’s like it is time for a little Netflix and you know, whatever I made for dinner. Yes, please. But I think so much of the time, you know, I look at these people who

Angie Hyche (14:05.418)

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Yes.

Angie Hyche (14:23.276)

absolutely.

Kathi (14:29.272)

who struggle with clutter and they’re not lazy. They’re loving their neighbors. They’re cooking for other families. They are working hard at work and when they get home, they cannot make one more decision. Liana, what do you do for the person who is like, I’m just overwhelmed? And by the way, I wrote a book called Overwhelmed and I think overwhelmed is a terrible term because

Angie Hyche (14:37.025)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:57.41)

We can’t get to the heart of what it is, but when somebody’s overwhelmed, how do you determine what is it that’s at the heart of that indecision?

Liana George (15:07.728)

Yeah, I mean, like you said, I agree completely. Decision fatigue is a real thing. It is. And whether you have been busy all day working and you have to come home and you’re like, cannot make one more decision, or you’ve just been decluttering and you’re like, I do not know what to do or how to make any more decisions about my stuff. It’s a real thing. And we can become overwhelmed. We can become frustrated. And I think what we have to do is just when we get to that

We really just need to stop and we need to tell ourselves we’ve done enough for today and it’s okay. We can start again tomorrow. Or, you know, maybe we try not to conquer everything and we try to go for smaller portions so that it’s not so overwhelming and daunting. So I think we need to start small and I think we need to start small in places that are the most impactful.

So I think if you start small, it’s, I always tell people what small space can we change today that will make a difference in your life tomorrow? And sometimes that could be, maybe it’s the kitchen. I can’t get my family’s food on the table because the dining room’s too cluttered. Or maybe it’s just your bathroom sink where you get things ready in the morning with your hair and makeup.

So it’s just maybe starting something small. And I think just making those small little tweaks or decisions can make a big difference.

Kathi (16:39.33)

You know, I was just gonna ask Angie, but I feel like you just answered it. can talk more about this. But I think so often, part of the reason of our frustration is our expectations are out of line with our reality. That kitchen table took three weeks to get to that state. And we expect it to be cleaned up.

Angie Hyche (16:54.626)

Mm -hmm.

Angie Hyche (17:02.338)

Yeah.

Kathi (17:05.486)

in 10 minutes and we get frustrated with ourselves that we can’t do it in 10 minutes. It’s that all-or-nothing thinking. So Angie, how do we combat all-or-nothing thinking with being gentle with ourselves without beating ourselves up?

Angie Hyche (17:21.836)

Yeah. So I think I love how you came back to, know, most of the time it’s not laziness and I agree. and, but it’s also true that like the more frequently we do these little, I’m a big fan of daily pickup, like five minutes daily pickup. So if we’re doing that, even if it’s not every day, even if it’s three or four days a week, we’re spending five minutes.

Kathi (17:41.38)

Yeah, yeah.

Angie Hyche (17:51.376)

the amount of clutter will be so much less when we do get around to, to working on it. and I think that the key thing about these dirty words, whatever we do, they just leave us so paralyzed. And, and if we start saying, you, can’t believe you, you’ve let this go so long and, and, you’re the worst.

That’s just gonna leave us exactly in our tracks. Whereas if we say, okay, this is definitely not the state that I want it to be. I’ve let things go a little too long, but it’s okay. God loves me no matter what, no matter what kind of mess I’m in. So what can I do right now? What time do I have? How can I spend the next… How long do I… Let’s say I have five, 10 minutes. Okay.

Kathi (18:29.984)

Bye.

Angie Hyche (18:49.24)

If my goal is to get my family dinner on the table, can I spend five or 10 minutes clearing this space and then say, okay, so for the, for right now, I had to set these things over here just for now because we needed to eat dinner. So tomorrow during that time, I’m going to work on the things that I had to set aside and just, just forgive yourself for no one can keep up with that all the time. I mean, we look at these things on Pinterest or in a

Kathi (19:02.693)

Yeah.

Angie Hyche (19:18.228)

home magazines or look at that my home should look like that nobody’s home looks like that unless they’re just getting ready to have somebody over really influential you know it’s okay yes exactly

Kathi (19:22.735)

Nobody does, yeah.

Kathi (19:27.936)

Or they’re selling their house. Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask this question as we’re wrapping up here. You know, I’ve got people in my, well, I’ve got a lot of people in my life, because we run a big group, Clutterfree Academy. And, you know, people are so hard on themselves. But I also have people in my life who, you know,

Liana George (19:29.914)

Yeah.

Angie Hyche (19:50.7)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (19:55.971)

well, of course my house is a mess, it’s always a mess, or they’re just so hard on themselves. And I try to come back with, it’s okay, you’re a wonderful person, let me help you, let’s figure this out together. And by the way, I’m sure people tell you this all the time, I could never have you guys, have you over to my house.

And I’m like, no, I’m the person you can absolutely have to your house because I’ve had to dig out of it. totally get it. So Liana, what do we tell to the person that we love that is, that is just, they, the dirty words are about them, that I’m a mess. I can’t take care of it. you know, my house is always a mess. There’s something.

intrinsically wrong with me. How do we speak life to that person that we love and we know that they’re a good person, but they do struggle with clutter?

Liana George (21:00.168)

And that’s really, I think, really, really important and that we do that. And I just want to say to your point of, you know, people saying, I can’t have you over. I always tell them I’m a judgment-free zone, right? Because like you said, there are times when my house is a mess and we all have it. But for those who are struggling with their identity in this organization, you know, one perfection is not a real thing.

Kathi (21:11.704)

Yeah, yeah.

Kathi (21:17.196)

Mm

Liana George (21:27.696)

You know, we need to let that go. But two, being organized is a learned skill. It’s like you said earlier, you know, nobody is born that way. is some that granted. I believe that there are some people who have a more natural tendency for it than others. But it is definitely a learned skill that anybody can learn to do. And so, you know, don’t be so hard on yourself because the other thing you have to remember is you’ve got your own organizing style.

Kathi (21:55.479)

Yes.

Liana George (21:56.378)

I think so many times people compare what they see on TV or in magazines and they think that they have to do it just like that. And when they do it just like that and they try it for a few weeks and it doesn’t work, then they are like, I’m a failure. See, I can never be organized. And that’s only because they just haven’t found the system or the style that works for them. And so I would tell them, be gentle with yourself and figure out what works for you.

Kathi (22:13.56)

Yeah.

Kathi (22:24.962)

Mm -hmm.

Liana George (22:25.626)

try something and if it doesn’t, you if you see that this isn’t working doing it this way or having them, you know, with lids or in covered bins, then you know what? Next time try using bins with no lids and clear bins, right? So you can maybe see what is different. And I mean, it took me, okay, I’m a professional organizer. It took me years to figure out my own children. They’re organizing style, right? And once I did, was like a light bulb went off.

Kathi (22:39.95)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (22:51.522)

right? Yes. Yes.

Liana George (22:54.382)

And we could have peace in our house because I didn’t expect them to organize like me and I could see what their strengths were and they’re organizing and it made a world of difference. But it took us a long time to figure it out.

Kathi (23:05.782)

You know, it’s so funny. I just had a couple of people over at my house and they were cooking in my kitchen and they’re like, your kitchen is so organized. I can’t, you know, I, could never get mine this organized. I’m like, guys, it’s not that I’m more organized than you. I’ve been willing to rip out more systems than you have. And when I say systems, it’s not like I went and bought a system. It’s like, okay, well, these containers kind of fit here and I could put the lids over here.

Angie Hyche (23:25.471)

That’s good.

Kathi (23:34.614)

and let’s see if that works. And it didn’t work eight times, but the ninth time it did work. And it’s like, okay, if Rubbermaid ever stops manufacturing that size container, I have to start all over again. And you know, like if you move your house, if you move to a new house, you have to start all over again. But what you’ve learned is you’ve learned more about yourself as a person.

Angie Hyche (23:40.352)

Mm -hmm.

Liana George (23:50.897)

Yes.

Kathi (24:01.686)

Like what am I willing to put away and what am I not willing to put away? And I’ve just had to learn that I’m from a mixed marriage where I love putting away my Tupperware Rubbermaid kind of stuff because it finally works. And my husband would rather poke his eyes out than put that stuff away. And I’m like, you know what, for the sake of our marriage, just put it on the counter. I got you, babe. And so, you know, knowing that is good, right? And it’s good and it’s deep. Okay, you guys, this is a devotional.

Angie Hyche (24:02.434)

Mm -hmm.

Angie Hyche (24:23.405)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:30.838)

It’s called Uncluttered, shaping your heart and home for what matters most. And guys, as we talk about all the time in Clutter-Free Academy, Clutter-Free for Life, and here on this podcast, the physical clutter is just one aspect of it. But instead of being overwhelmed, start searching for freedom. Start asking yourself questions, because here’s the thing, your organizational system does not define you, but how you approach your stuff.

Angie Hyche (24:45.933)

Thank you.

Kathi (24:59.522)

how you bring God into it and how you work towards peace really does matter. And this is an excellent guide and I’m going to, we’re gonna put the link in the notes so that you guys can go check it out at all of your favorite retailers, Amazon, all those favorite places. We will make sure that you get those links. Angie and Liana, thank you so much for being here today.

Liana George (25:24.408)

Thank you so much for having me.

Angie Hyche (25:24.62)

You are welcome. It’s been a joy. You know, when you were talking about so many times, that whole guilt and shame thing is so strong. I think so many times people will say, I’m not a good wife. I’m not a good mother. Because you look at my house, I’m not, you know, and it’s just, it can be such a stronghold emotionally. I came across someone’s work that I really liked, Casey Davis, her website is Struggle Care.

Kathi (25:32.866)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (25:47.202)

Yeah.

Kathi (25:52.943)

I love Casey. Yes. Yes.

Angie Hyche (25:54.646)

Yeah, but her statement, and I love to say every once in while, cleaning and organizing are morally neutral. That has nothing to do with who you are as a person. You are just as much a loved child of God if your house looks like insanity as you are if, you know, and honestly, like there have been times in my life when I’ve been too concerned with order and not enough concerned with like pouring love into my family. So

Kathi (26:01.356)

They are right.

Angie Hyche (26:24.0)

You can’t, know, it’s difficult to get that exactly right. And so much of it is trial and error. I tried this, this works, this doesn’t work. And it’s constant adjustment. We’re all works in progress.

Kathi (26:35.766)

Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, we never learned anything from perfect people. I only learned from people who are like, you know, like Casey Davis, who I’ve got one of those gripper things because of her for, you know, about two days a month. I, I call them my down days where I just don’t have a lot of energy. I don’t have a lot of strength, but I still want to get things done. And being able to have that little grabber tool.

Angie Hyche (26:42.804)

Mm.

Angie Hyche (26:51.138)

Hmm.

Kathi (27:05.454)

She does things that I don’t need to do because I don’t have a chronic illness, but she has like her laundry basket on wheels and she can scooch around in a chair. Like you do what you have to do. You ask for the help that you need. You bring in the resources that you can. And it doesn’t matter if your mom didn’t do it that way, your best friend didn’t do it that way, or the professional organizer didn’t do it that way. Whatever keeps your nose above water.

Angie Hyche (27:19.424)

Yes.

Kathi (27:34.828)

That’s the right thing to do. And I love that there is that grace in this book. Guys, thanks so much for being here today.

Angie Hyche (27:35.2)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Angie Hyche (27:40.374)

Mm

Liana George (27:42.192)

Thank you.

Angie Hyche (27:42.838)

Thank you, Kathi.

Kathi (27:43.786)

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’ve always wanted to live.

#643 Before It’s Too Late: Why Now is the Time to Deal with Your Clutter

#642 – Financial Organization Made Easy: The Binder Method with Lisa Woodruff

#641 The 3 Words That are Keeping You Cluttered (And How to Change It)

#640 30 Days to Freedom: Join Our Annual 1000-Item Declutter Challenge!

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Oct 22, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

640 – 30 Days to Freedom: Join Our Annual 1000-Item Declutter Challenge!

Are you ready to create some breathing room before the holiday chaos begins?

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, hosts Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo discuss their annual 30-Day 1K Challenge, where participants declutter 1,000 items during November. They explain why this challenge is perfectly timed before the holiday season and how it’s achievable for everyone, regardless of their current clutter situation. Kathi and Tonya emphasize that perfect systems aren’t necessary for progress, encouraging listeners to take “imperfect action” rather than waiting for the perfect plan.

Listeners will discover:

Why starting small is crucial for success
How to gamify decluttering to get the whole family involved
Tips for handling sentimental items and adult children’s belongings
The importance of community support during decluttering

Whether you’re a busy mom trying to reclaim your kitchen table, an empty-nester ready to part with decades of “someday” items, or just someone tired of feeling overwhelmed by stuff, this challenge is for you.

Join the Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group to receive your 30-Day 1K Calendar to help track your progress. Remember to answer all three questions to join the group! It’s how we keep it the nicest corner of the internet.

In this episode, Tonya mentioned the time she rented a dumpster. Listen to the original Episode 434: Do I Need a Dumpster?

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup here and sign up to receive your free ebook featuring four week’s worth of easy meal plans and delicious recipes.

Click here to be notified when the next podcast 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!”

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

Links Mentioned:

Order Sabbath Soup here and sign up to receive your free ebook featuring four week’s worth of easy meal plans and delicious recipes.

Episode 434: Do I Need a Dumpster?

Clutter Free Resources:

Join our members only Clutter Free for Life Facebook Group

What inspired you to start the 30-Day 1K Challenge?

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 (00:01.72)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I am here with my co-host Tonya Kubo, leader of all things clutter-free. Hey Tonya. Tonya, it’s our favorite time of the year.

Tonya Kubo (00:25.117)

Hey, Kathi!

Tonya Kubo (00:29.445)

It is our favorite time of the year. I was just about to say that.

Kathi (00:33.399)

Because we’re weirdo wackos. Yes, but 30-day 1k. What do those words mean to you, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (00:36.969)

We are the Wackos.

Tonya Kubo (00:45.727)

That means in 30 days, we are going to eliminate a thousand pieces of clutter from our homes.

Kathi (00:53.152)

Now, Tonya, you’ve been doing this for years. Obviously, you have no clutter left.

Tonya Kubo (00:58.079)

Yeah, because we just live in a museum over here. You know us. Right? mean, the whole principle, if somebody is just joining us, right? If you are a veteran listener, you’re laughing with us. But if you’re just joining us, the clutter is never one and done. And I think that is the number one challenge for most cluttery peeps when they are new on their journey, is we really think if we declutter the right way, if we just do it right this time,

Kathi (01:04.29)

You

Kathi (01:12.728)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:28.179)

we’re never gonna have clutter again. And that is not how it works if you live with other humans or if you’re going through various stages of life. Like, I don’t know about you, Kathi, but every stage of life I’ve been in brings a different type of clutter into my life.

Kathi (01:43.852)

Well, okay, Tonya, so let me just get, we’re gonna dive into this, but let me just tell you what’s happening over here at the Lipp Household, right? So we’re launching a book and we have a retreat net, you know, in like a week and a half. And the book I happen to be launching is about cooking, right? So every appliance in the Lipp Household has decided to die at the same time.

Tonya Kubo (01:47.87)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (01:58.952)

Mm -hmm

Tonya Kubo (02:03.176)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:09.499)

yes, yes.

Kathi (02:11.144)

And we’ve decided to have a major electrical problem here in our garage, sure. And the people who installed our heating and cooling system, who I won’t say it here on, but if you are installing a heating and cooling system and the people you’re looking at start with a B, contact me first. Let me talk you out of that. But they have to come. So all of that.

Tonya Kubo (02:18.205)

Mm -hmm. Sure, why not?

Tonya Kubo (02:33.801)

Yeah

Kathi (02:40.344)

contributes to clutter. Plus, let’s just be honest, because I’m not cooking as much, we’re eating out a little bit more. And well, we’re eating in a little bit more. that causes it. just like life circumstances cause more clutter. so you just I, I have spent 50 of my 57 years thinking, well, next year, it’ll calm down. Next year.

Tonya Kubo (02:55.411)

Mm -hmm. Yup.

Tonya Kubo (03:08.732)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:10.164)

you know, when the kids leave the house, it’ll calm down when, and yes, it calms down, but then other things ramp up and all of that contributes to clutter. So explain to us, Tonya, the concept of why, you know, that’s ridiculous. You should just be decluttering all the time. Why are you trying to declutter all that in one month?

Tonya Kubo (03:15.817)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (03:30.986)

Okay, so first of all, if you see yourself in any of those pictures, we’re probably not the podcast for you. But so from a very practical point, we do the 30 day 1K in the month of November, because we know regardless of how solid your systems are, a lot of stuff comes into your house in the month of December. And so it’s nice.

Kathi (03:37.4)

Probably not.

Kathi (03:55.468)

Yeah, it’s so true.

Tonya Kubo (03:57.983)

to not pile more on top of more and to actually reduce the amount of stuff that is in your home prior to this flood of things. Now I have younger children, I’ve been saying I have small children for so long, they’re not really that small anymore, they’re 10 and almost 15. So they come with a whole bunch of stuff, especially in the month of December. So the first reason is just to minimize what’s in your house before you get an influx of things. But the second is,

I think most of us, regardless of how we feel about our homes, spend 10 months of the year so in the thick of it we don’t really pay attention to what’s around us. And then November hits and we start thinking about Thanksgiving and we think about Christmas and you know, if you’re the kind of person who decorates you think about where you’re to put the tree. If you entertain you’re thinking about where you’re going to put all the people. If you don’t entertain sometimes you have fantasies about wouldn’t it be nice if we could entertain.

Kathi (04:55.64)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (04:57.215)

and you start to get really down on yourself. And so the 30-day 1K is a great opportunity to say, you know what, let’s take some massive action. Let’s get into motion so that we feel better about our surroundings on the end of the month than we do right now.

Kathi (05:15.288)

Yeah, and I’m going to add one thing that I’ve never really thought about before when it comes to November and December. We’re just spending a heck of a lot more time in our houses. And, you know, things that you can ignore when, know, nine to five, who works nine to five? Come on, nine to six, nine to seven, you know, like eight, you know, six, 30. Right. Exactly. That was yesterday, except it was seven to eight.

Tonya Kubo (05:26.494)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:34.975)

Hahaha

Tonya Kubo (05:39.155)

Seven to seven.

Kathi (05:44.536)

And we’re just spending so much more time in our houses. And like you said, we’re having more people into our houses. It’s time to really think about how those walls are kind of closing in on you and to create a little elbow room. So guys, this year, we are starting Friday, November 1st, 2024. And so that is our launch day.

Tonya Kubo (05:59.155)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (06:06.163)

Mm

Kathi (06:08.77)

But everybody likes to have a little ramping up, which we will do the few days before, you know, that Halloween week, we will be ramping up. To be a part of it, you need to go, and we’ll put the link down here, to Kathi Lipp’s Clutterfree Academy on Facebook and ask to join. And the most important part of asking to join is answering all the questions. Because if you don’t, we don’t let you in. It’s not that we’re being mean, it’s we’re trying to be really, really kind.

Tonya Kubo (06:13.289)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (06:29.885)

Yes, please.

Kathi (06:37.944)

to the 15 ,000 people who have already answered the questions. And we want to make sure that we don’t have raggedy people in there. Okay, so Tonya, here’s my first question. Is it really possible to get rid of a thousand things in a month?

Tonya Kubo (06:38.879)

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:46.057)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:54.911)

Yes, in fact, every, I have so many 30-day one case stories I can share from our community. So just let me know if you want another story. But so every year somebody says, well, I’ve been at this for three years now. I don’t have a thousand things. Or you know what? We did so much at the beginning of the year. I don’t have a thousand things. And then at the, usually around the 20th, they’re like, my gosh, I’ve already hit a thousand things. So part of it is we,

Kathi (07:03.103)

Yes.

Kathi (07:10.04)

Mm

Kathi (07:19.084)

Yeah, it’s crazy.

Tonya Kubo (07:22.801)

Everybody defines clutter differently. And I remember the first year we did this, I had posted a picture. We had done a dumpster, which we have prior episodes about that. We can link them. But I had gotten a dumpster to get rid of a bunch of things. And there was one person in Clutter Free Academy who was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought this was about decluttering. Trash isn’t clutter. Clutter is only things that are usable. And I was just like, well, maybe in your house, but in my house, I am overwhelmed by trash. So I have a big dumpster.

That’s what I’m using, right? So part of it is how you define clutter. So for us, it is stuff that you do not love, do not use, would not, could not buy again. It’s very simple. If it falls under those three things, then it can be clutter. And I don’t care personally, and Kathi, I know you don’t care how you get rid of it, but here’s the deal. It has to leave the house. You can sell it. You can donate it. You can stick it on your curb or

Kathi (07:52.354)

Yeah.

Kathi (08:02.424)

Mm

Kathi (08:07.416)

Mm

Kathi (08:14.785)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (08:19.965)

You can throw it in a trash can or a dumpster, but it must exit completely to count. And now Kathi, yes, I want you to kind of share your perspective because what I have found in Clutterfree Academy is I am everybody’s friend in Clutterfree Academy, right? I’m their buddy. I am in the thick of it with you, with them, and you are the boss and nobody wants to take off the boss.

Kathi (08:25.929)

It’s so true. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (08:48.639)

So I need you to tell us what your non -negotiables are for the 30 day 1K.

Kathi (08:48.78)

Okay.

Kathi (08:53.688)

Yeah, so first of all, I want you to know it’s very, very doable because it’s only 33 items a day and all of us can do that. Okay, this is how I count things.

Tonya Kubo (09:02.825)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (09:07.769)

I was like, that’s what they’re afraid of. They do not want to upset Kathi Lipp by counting something that doesn’t really count.

Kathi (09:13.634)

Guys, it’s your house. The only thing I care about is that you live in peace. So this is how I count things. If you want to count a thousand piece puzzle as your thousand things, feel free, but that’s not going to get you towards peace. It’s just not. So I always think of it like this. If there’s a paperclip on my desk and I pitch it, that counts as a thing. If…

Tonya Kubo (09:18.068)

True.

Tonya Kubo (09:40.991)

Mm

Kathi (09:43.032)

If there’s a box of a hundred paper clips on my desk that counts as one thing every Decision counts as a thing so if you’re gonna get rid of a thousand things it’s a thousand decisions and That’s why this is so hard because it’s so hard making these decisions So if you’re making a decision, that’s a thing and it counts if you want to count the thousand piece puzzle

Tonya Kubo (10:06.036)

Bye.

Kathi (10:13.176)

pop off, but here’s the thing. I do not believe that that is going to get you to the place you want to be in your house. So if I was going to have one rule, every decision is a thing.

Tonya Kubo (10:25.991)

Yes. So I was going say, so that’s the big non -negotiable one, right? Because people will, we’ve had members in the past, it hasn’t happened in recent memory, I mean, we’ve had people paralyzed by the indecision of whether a pair of shoes counts as one item or two. And go ahead.

Kathi (10:38.626)

Yeah.

Kathi (10:43.594)

And so under that, I would say it’s one decision, because you’re not going to get rid of one shoe and not the other. It’s one decision. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (10:51.535)

Right. Yes, exactly. And so that’s, you know, I think that’s important. And the other thing, and you said this the very first year that Clutterfree Academy was open, so I don’t expect you to remember it. But, you you said like, well, you have, when it comes down to it, you have to decide what’s more important to you. Checking a box toward a thousand things or free, actually making an impact in your home. So back to the thousand piece puzzle.

Kathi (11:16.621)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:19.983)

If it’s that important to you to check off a thousand items on a thousand checkboxes by all means, but how much of an impact is throwing away one thousand-piece puzzle going to make in the landscape of your home?

Kathi (11:31.972)

It’s so true. Okay, so Tonya, I have a question for you. lot of people want to do this and they’re like, one, nobody will help me or two, I can’t get rid of other people’s stuff. So can you talk a little bit about that? Because Roger is on board. Like he’s sold out. We’re doing it. But you have kids. You have a husband.

Tonya Kubo (11:35.539)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:45.16)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:49.278)

Right.

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (11:56.445)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (11:59.213)

And your husband was quite the collector when you got married. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (12:02.911)

he still is. I mean, the collection is dramatically diminished, but he still is a collector type. He likes to collect things. I think I have like, yeah, I think he has like 700 bottle caps on his desk right now. They’re yeah, like he has that thing. Like, I don’t know why I don’t get it. But you know, they’re in a vase. It’s his desk. He gets to do what he wants with his desk, which is it’s rule number one, right? I do not mess with other people’s stuff.

Kathi (12:11.02)

Yeah. So how do you deal with that?

Kathi (12:18.434)

Does he really?

Okay, yeah.

I bet it’s really cute.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (12:31.871)

I focus on my own clutter and I let everybody else focus on theirs. How I have gotten my family enrolled from almost day one is I gamify the 30-day 1K. It is a family-wide contest. I print out our tracking sheet for the thousand items. There’s four people in my family, so this is actually very easy for us. It may not be easy for you, but I have four different colors of highlighters. Everybody gets a highlighter. If you have more people in your family, use markers.

Kathi (12:32.14)

Mm -hmm. Bye.

Tonya Kubo (13:01.651)

but everybody gets to mark off a box in their color when they declutter something. And at the end of the month, whoever has colored the most boxes, so whoever has gotten rid of the most stuff, gets to pick our reward. So we have done it in the past. We’ve done a whole movie day. And so, you know, that person got to pick the movie and then everybody gets to bring their favorite snack. So nobody’s punished for not decluttering the most.

Kathi (13:21.74)

Cool.

Kathi (13:28.354)

Great.

Tonya Kubo (13:30.491)

So we’ve done a movie day, we’ve done dinner out. I remember the first year I taught the girls how to make charcuterie and they all got to pick out a fancy cheese, which you know that was actually a very pricey endeavor. It’s cheaper to take those kids out to the movies. But I gamify it. I think one of the things that I would like to free all of our listeners from is decluttering does not have to be penance. It doesn’t have to be a punishment. You can incorporate joy into this.

Kathi (13:40.152)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (13:59.401)

whole experience. And so I want my children to have positive associations with decluttering. I don’t want them to be like, yeah, every time we decluttered, my mom made us eat baloney sandwiches and wouldn’t let us leave the house until the whole place was clean. I don’t want those kind of memories. So we make a game of it.

Kathi (14:15.757)

Right.

I love it so much. Okay, so we have the people who are like can I even find a thousand pieces of clutter in my house and the other people on the other end of the spectrum Dude a thousand pieces of clutter won’t even make a dent in my house so let’s talk about Those friends who are like I it’s not even gonna make a difference So my first thing would be to say you have to start somewhere

Tonya Kubo (14:23.519)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:32.799)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:46.814)

Mm

Kathi (14:46.89)

and a thousand pieces of clutter, especially in some of the in those circumstances, I would ask you to concentrate on surface clutter. I think for many of us, when we, you know, we’re like, okay, we’re gonna declutter a thousand things. And so we go into grandma’s China, like that’s the first thing we do. And it’s like, okay, that’s not gonna make as much of an impact as all the mail on top of your microwave. So.

Tonya Kubo (15:06.356)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:16.244)

If you want to, and then I would also say if you have a lot of clutter, stick to one room for a while until it feels different, then move on to another place. What would you say to that person who says a thousand pieces are not gonna make a dent?

Tonya Kubo (15:26.495)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (15:31.433)

So what I actually hear in that question, Kathi, is if my house isn’t going to be company-ready, Pinterest perfect, there’s no point in starting. And my response to that is, but if you ever want your home to look like your fantasy home, your dream home, you have to start somewhere, and why not start now? I agree with you. I do advocate for starting in one room.

Kathi (15:42.775)

right.

Kathi (15:55.362)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (15:59.935)

A lot of times the daily challenges that we do for the 30-day 1K will hit various rooms of the house, right? Because what we’re our goal is to jog your memory to get you to think like, what can I get rid of in my kitchen? What can I get rid of in the spare room? But if you focus on one room, then you’re going to be able at the end of the month to go, wow, I’ve accomplished something. If you’re flitting throughout the house, you know.

Kathi (16:05.09)

Sure, yes.

Kathi (16:09.878)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (16:21.368)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (16:26.227)

Like Kathi’s point, I mean, you may have clear counters and a clear microwave in the kitchen. You may have clear coffee table in the living room, but you also just may not feel as accomplished as if you focused all your energy in one space.

Kathi (16:39.786)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, so I think People you know, we we talk about the concept of spending all your time saddling up like I’m gonna I’m gonna find the perfect system. I am going to color code I’m going to have different baskets for different things I’m following these six different decluttering systems that I found and I’m combining the best of all of them

Tonya Kubo (16:49.555)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (17:03.647)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:07.212)

to come up with, and I’ve been working on this system for two months.

Tonya Kubo (17:11.529)

Mm

Kathi (17:13.28)

And I think a lot of us who struggle with perfection are waiting for the perfect system. And we are here to say imperfect action beats perfect inaction. And what I mean by that is don’t spend all your time saddling up, go somewhere. The most important thing is to get this stuff out of your house.

Tonya Kubo (17:21.214)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (17:41.599)

Mm

Kathi (17:42.302)

And when I say out of your house, it can go into the back of your car, but then the back of your car needs to be put somewhere. So, you know, if you, what, what do you say to that perfect, that perfect mindset? I mean, I know you just talked about that, but like just for the getting started, you’ve already talked about if it can’t be company perfect, I’m not going to start at all. So what, what would you say on day one to that person who

Tonya Kubo (17:48.713)

Exactly.

Tonya Kubo (18:04.67)

Mm

Kathi (18:12.148)

is like, but I’m going to make mistakes. It’s not going to be right. How do you help them, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (18:17.135)

Right. Yeah, well, so I always tell people start small. And when we say small, we mean really small. Your very first day, I think the temptation is to say, I’m going to tackle this entire cabinet. I’m going to tackle this entire closet. Your very first day, I want you, if it’s the cabinet or the closet, I want you to just focus on one shelf. Like,

Kathi (18:25.954)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (18:43.229)

The top of the microwave is, if that’s where everybody drops mail and paperwork and stuff, the top of the microwave is your only job on day one. Okay, the kitchen table, it’s your only job on day one. That’s it. It’s not the entire room. It’s not every flat surface in the room. It’s just one single flat surface. Take a picture before, take a picture after.

Kathi (18:56.525)

Yeah.

Mm -mm.

Kathi (19:09.366)

Yeah, you know, I’m gonna give one other suggestion. know, you know, I’ve been in houses where the kitchen table would take a week. So here would be my suggestion for a space that even though it looks small is overwhelming, get some painter’s tape and section off that table into quarters or eighths, whatever you need to do. And just do the one section at a time. It’s going to be so much more manageable, so much easier. Okay, we’re gonna take a.

Tonya Kubo (19:18.174)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (19:27.081)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (19:31.464)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (19:39.01)

Quick break and when we come back, we’re going to talk about where do you start? What do you do? We’ve already talked a little bit about it, but we have some tools that are going to help you get started. So we’ll be right back. Okay, friends, we are back and we’re talking about where do you get started? Tonya, my whole house is crazy. I don’t even know where to start. Can you please boss me around? Okay.

Tonya Kubo (20:01.383)

Yes, so we always say pick the room that bugs you the most. That’s your starting point. So it’s usually two different places. Place number one is where company might see. That’s usually where our members want to start because they want to feel good about having people in their home. But the other most commonly bothersome place is the place in the back of your mind that you were like, if I died in my sleep tonight and stranger saw that.

Kathi (20:14.103)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:30.171)

I would die a second death. Right? That is usually the number two. But I like to start in a public spot because then every day when I walk in the front door, I’m reminded of my progress. That is my favorite.

Kathi (20:31.756)

Mm hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (20:43.672)

Mmm, I love that and We also are going to be doing some challenges for you We’re so you need the most important thing is to stay active in the group So you can get those challenges. So, you know what’s going on and you can be there with other people you know what you’re talking about right there Tonya is the low-hanging fruit sometimes

Tonya Kubo (20:52.371)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:11.251)

Mm

Kathi (21:12.332)

You know, it’s the place that’s most obvious or the place the thing, you know, is going to be the easiest like right now in my entryway because we just got home from unpacking some stuff. There are some fruit boxes, you know, like the cardboard boxes you get at Costco and things like that. Like I could get five points right now by just going. That is low. I didn’t mean to do fruit boxes as your low-hanging fruit, but you know that will cement it in your mind now. Right.

Tonya Kubo (21:18.291)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:27.091)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (21:32.767)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:41.085)

Right

Kathi (21:42.048)

Yes, so there are things that need to be thrown away. There are things that you’re like, well, maybe somebody will eat that banana. That was your thought on Tuesday. It’s now Friday. Nobody’s eating that banana. You can you can throw that away. That stained t-shirt that you’ve tried to bleach four times and it’s not coming out. You can either you cut it up for rags, or I’m going to let you count it.

Tonya Kubo (21:55.775)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (22:10.057)

Mm -hmm

Kathi (22:10.196)

As a declutter I am because you’re repurposing it, and I love that idea, but get that low-hanging fruit, Tonya, let’s talk about how important is momentum and how do you keep it going.

Tonya Kubo (22:28.639)

Yeah, so the first thing, so I think momentum’s very important. So if you are mathy person, some of our members are mathy people, I am not a mathy person, but I’ve been doing this long enough to know that 33 items a day is about 250 items per week. And some folks really, because 33 items is not satisfying to them, they wanna do 250 in one sitting. And I…

Kathi (22:36.727)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (22:55.263)

I love that about you and at the same time, it is going to be a lot harder. It’s gonna feel harder to declutter one day a week to 250 items than it is to do a 10, 15, 20-minute session each day. So I think that’s part of the momentum is if you, know, six.

Kathi (23:11.5)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (23:16.191)

say, hey, from 6 a.m. to 6 15 a.m. every day, I’m going to do my decluttering or from 2 15 to 2 30 every day, I’m going to do my decluttering and just make that happen. Then by the end of the month, you’re going to have a 30-day habit that has been built. And that is huge. And in terms of keeping going, can we just be honest that decluttering solo is not fun? OK, the demons in our head get really loud, I have found. And, you know, we start

Kathi (23:29.376)

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Kathi (23:39.797)

It’s done.

Tonya Kubo (23:46.239)

We start with the negative talk. Like, how did I let it get like this? My gosh. Like, I remember the last time I cleaned this space and if I’d only kept it up and da da da da. And really in terms of continuing that momentum and keeping your motivation, that’s why we have a community. I love to say, know, everybody joins Clutter Free Academy thinking they are the only person in the world who has a clutter problem. And then they find out they’ve got about 15,600 or 700 friends or so.

who also think they’re the only person in the world who has this problem.

Kathi (24:16.918)

Right, you know, and so I also want to talk about momentum, but with a different take on it. So like one of the ways that I keep myself going when there’s a big decluttering is by putting milestones into my path. So I don’t even know if it’s milestones, but let’s say triggers in the middle of my path. So if I’m really working on decluttering for a month,

Tonya Kubo (24:24.936)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (24:39.411)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:45.848)

Then every week I’m going to Goodwill to drop off clothes. Every week or maybe every other week, I’m going to the dump to do a dump load of you know things that have accumulated in my house Every week I am I’m going to challenge myself to post 10 things on our free cycle group or our buy nothing group. Like I am going to be doing this

Tonya Kubo (24:50.494)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (24:56.083)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (25:10.323)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (25:15.576)

I’m going to give myself some smaller goals and targets and go from that. Okay. If you are going through your house and you’re noticing like we’ve got all the Barbie stuff in the corner and I have not seen that Barbie move in 18 months. How do you talk to your kids? I know yours are a little older, but you’ve, you know, how do you talk to your kids about

Tonya Kubo (25:41.695)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (25:45.174)

How do we consider if this is something we keep or not?

Tonya Kubo (25:48.625)

Yeah, so I always like, I will reframe the conversation and focus first on what to keep before what to get rid of. So I’ve never gone to my children and said, we have to get rid of stuff. Instead, I say, hey, you know, it looks like we have like more stuff than we actually have space for. What do you really love here? So if I found the Barbie in the corner, I would just say, hey, how much are we loving this Barbie right now? mommy, I love it, I love it.

Kathi (26:08.95)

Yeah, okay.

Tonya Kubo (26:17.351)

Okay, well, I noticed you haven’t played with it in a while. Is it because it’s not where it belongs? Or is it because you feel like maybe you’re a little too old to play with Barbies right now? And then, especially in the month of November, I frame donating as a way to play Santa for other children. And they get very generous when it’s framed that way.

Kathi (26:32.769)

Mm

Yeah, so great.

Kathi (26:40.892)

Yeah, because they can imagine where it’s going instead of into the void. Let me also talk about your adult kids stuff, your adult kids who have moved on. I will say, hey, you know, whether it’s my stuff that I think somebody in the family may want, or their stuff that has been left behind, I will often do it as a text.

Tonya Kubo (26:43.635)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (27:09.208)

To say hey, you know take a picture text it over. Hey, is this something you’d like or I’m going to Goodwill can I go drop that off and? So that they know it’s a binary decision It’s not no mom. I want you to keep it because I can’t make a decision It’s either going to your house or it’s being donated because my house is no longer a storage shed for you.

Tonya Kubo (27:38.324)

Right.

Kathi (27:39.308)

But I also have to be okay with the no, don’t want it conversation. And that’s really hard for a lot of people because you remember that as it was in our house, Boo Blanky was this, know, Justin’s whole life was, you know, focused on Boo Blanky. And now you don’t want it. Are you kidding me? But it doesn’t have the same meaning to him as it does.

Tonya Kubo (27:46.526)

Yup.

Kathi (28:08.888)

I did at the time, but he is now he is now 30 years out from blue blankie and it’s okay for him to let it go. So I have to be able to say, do you want to keep this? No. Okay. Then I will donate it. I will throw it away. I will do whatever it needs to be done. And then also just making sure that you have an easy system that you are not recreating all the time. You know, we talk about the, you know,

Tonya Kubo (28:10.461)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (28:15.357)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (28:34.526)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (28:38.539)

three totes and two bags. So there’s a garbage and recycling bag. There’s put away, giveaway and other rooms. And that helps you make decisions the whole time. Tonya, I wanna start to wrap this up. What will they experience in the free group when they join for the month of November?

Tonya Kubo (28:48.287)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (29:03.123)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, so when you come into the month of November, be prepared. It’s a busy time, right? The challenge is a busy time. We have activity probably is like 3X, what it typically is, but you’re going to come in to the group and you are going to see before and after pictures showing all different types of living circumstances. We’ve got people who live in studio apartments. We have people who live in teeny tiny urban dwellings, people who have a lot, a lot of land.

a lot of open space and everything in between. have people who have several children. We have people who have no children, people who live alone, people who are, know, every age you can imagine. It’s always funny to me. Everybody joins thinking they’re gonna be the youngest person who’s ever joined the group and then they find out they’re not. Because clutter doesn’t, like clutter isn’t something that only becomes a problem after the age of 50, right? Many of us have a lifetime struggle.

Kathi (29:46.038)

Roommates, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (30:00.467)

but you’re also going to get a lot of support. You’re gonna have me in there every single day supporting you. Kathi is gonna be in there multiple times a week. You’re gonna have Grace. Grace is our community manager over in our paid Clutter Free for Life membership, but she comes in. We’ve got Deanna and then our Clutter Free for Life members. This is what I love about our Clutter Free for Life members because they are the people who said, you know what? Like I can’t do this on my own. I actually need hand-holding support.

They come in and they serve as mentors. They help people. say, Hey, you know, I remember my first 30-day one K this is what worked for me. And it is just the most loving, accepting place for anybody who actually struggles with clutter. Now asterisk, big asterisk. If you are somebody who does not struggle with clutter, you are a born-organized person. Please do not join our group thinking you are going to tell everybody how to live right.

Kathi (30:54.967)

now.

Tonya Kubo (30:55.411)

Because we are the kindest corner of the internet for the cluttery peeps. We are not the kindest corner of the internet for the people who think they know better than the cluttery peeps.

Kathi (31:02.518)

Yeah, we just will kick you out. And the most loving, there are places for you. There are Reddit threads where you can go tell everybody else how to live. But Tonya and I do not do that. And we’ve made tremendous progress on our journey. But we don’t boss. I mean, we push you around in the kindest way possible, but it’s because you’ve asked us to. So there we go. And Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (31:13.012)

Yeah

Tonya Kubo (31:16.808)

No.

Mm

Tonya Kubo (31:26.023)

Yes.

Kathi (31:29.91)

We’re going to do a little download for people who join the group, right?

Tonya Kubo (31:33.183)

Yes, yes. So every year we have kind of a different resource we provide for the 30 day one case so that people who are there every year have something a little different. But sort of this year what I have planned for our community is it’s the combination of what has been requested and served people well over the last five years. So we’re gonna have a calendar. It’s gonna give you what your challenge is for each day. And it’s going to have a spot where you can actually mark how many items you’ve decluttered.

for that day. So we have a separate tracking sheet that tracks you all the way to a thousand, but I think it’s important to be able to look at your calendar and see, hey, I was able to do 90 things on Monday. I did 10 things on Thursday. I’m still doing well. And so that’s going to be there for you to just give you that, individual guidance. I know it’s really hard, especially when you’re overwhelmed or when you’re starting out to go day by day, you need to be able to see a little bit ahead of you in the path. And that’s what we’re going to provide this time.

Kathi (32:31.774)

I love it. So guys, we’ll have the link below, but you can also just be on Facebook and do Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy and you will find us even if you just do Clutter Free Academy, you will find us. If you don’t know how to spell my name, it’s totally fine. But or check out the link below. Answer all the questions. There only like three, but we need you to answer them so we know that you’re our kind of people, which means cluttering and kind. That’s those are our kind of people.

Tonya Kubo (32:41.961)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (32:58.846)

Yeah.

Kathi (33:00.77)

Tonya, thanks so much for all your expertise today. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (33:03.519)

Thank you, and one more thing, if you’re participating and you are a social media person, I wanna see #30day1K all over social media this year.

Kathi (33:10.506)

Yes. Yes, I love it. I love it. love it. I will make sure I am hashtagging up a storm. 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.

#643 Before It’s Too Late: Why Now is the Time to Deal with Your Clutter

#642 – Financial Organization Made Easy: The Binder Method with Lisa Woodruff

#641 The 3 Words That are Keeping You Cluttered (And How to Change It)

https://www.dayspring.com/mary-martha-psalm-90-17-cookbook-stand

#639 Cooking Without the Crazy: Kathi Lipp’s Pre-Cook Checklist

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Oct 15, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 1 comment

Listen Now

639 – Cooking Without the Crazy: Kathi Lipp’s Pre-Cook Checklist

Hey there, friend! Have you ever felt like cooking dinner is just one more overwhelming task on your never-ending to-do list?
Trust us, We’ve been there. But what if we told you that just five minutes of prep could transform your entire cooking experience?

In this episode of Clutter-Free Academy, host Kathi Lipp shares her top five pre-cooking habits that can transform any kitchen experience. Joined by Tonya Kubo, Kathi reveals simple yet effective strategies to make cooking less stressful and more enjoyable. Kathi and Tonya provide practical advice for listeners looking to implement these habits in their own kitchens, regardless of size or layout.

Listeners will discover:

The benefits of gathering all ingredients before starting to cook
Why printing recipes or using a tablet stand can make following instructions easier
The value of laying out all necessary tools before beginning to cook

Listeners will come away with actionable steps to create a more organized, efficient, and enjoyable cooking experience, ultimately leading to less stress and more time to enjoy meals with family.

As promised in this episode,
Here’s the picture and link to Kathi’s favorite cookbook stand.

And here’s her Poppy Seed Chicken recipe!

Poppy Seed Chicken

Ingredients:

4 Chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 can Cream of chicken soup
4 oz Sour cream
2 tsp Poppy seeds, divided
1/4 c. Melted margarine
1/2 sleeve Ritz crackers

Directions:

Combine soup, sour cream and 1 tsp of the poppy seeds in a bowl. Crush crackers and combine with melted margarine and remaining poppy seeds. Layer chicken and soup in casserole dish, then top with cracker mixture. Cover and freeze.
Defrost overnight.
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

Order your copy of Sabbath Soup here and sign up to receive your free ebook featuring four week’s worth of easy meal plans and delicious recipes.

Click here to be notified when the next podcast 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!”

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

Links Mentioned:

Order Sabbath Soup here and sign up to receive your free ebook featuring four week’s worth of easy meal plans and delicious recipes.

Kalorik Air Fryer

Ninja Air Fryer

Rubbermaid Food Storage

Hoka Shoes

Target Baskets for Meal Prep

Clutter Free Resources:

Join our members only Clutter Free for Life Facebook Group

What’s your favorite kitchen organizing tool or hack?

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 (00:01.23)

Okay, this is 639, five things I always do before I start cooking, but I just remembered something I wanted to talk to Tonya about.

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter-Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps every day to live with less clutter and more life. And I am back with co-host of Clutter -Free Academy, it’s Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya. Are you sick of talking about cooking?

Tonya Kubo (00:32.588)

Hey, Kathi.

Tonya Kubo (00:37.985)

No, I love talking about cooking. It’s like my favorite thing.

Kathi (00:39.552)

I love talking about cooking too. I know this is Clutterfree Academy and we keep talking about cooking, but I feel like they are very, they go side by side. It’s the stuff we have to do every day of our lives. you and I are both cooking with a limp right now because you don’t have an oven either, do you? Yeah, so my air fryer seven and one combo is getting doing

Tonya Kubo (00:52.78)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:00.364)

I do not.

Tonya Kubo (01:06.392)

Hahaha

Kathi (01:07.928)

quadruple duty at this point. Yes, what kind of air fryer do you have?

Tonya Kubo (01:10.387)

As is mine.

Tonya Kubo (01:14.481)

I think it’s called a Kalorik. It’s K -A -L -O -R -I -K. Got it from Kohl’s.

Kathi (01:16.556)

Okay?

Okay, okay, okay. We have the Ninja 7 and 1 and that is now my ride or die. I love that thing. And it flips up. It makes me so happy.

Tonya Kubo (01:24.482)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:28.289)

Yeah

yeah, yours takes up a lot less space than mine. Ours, we wanted French doors so that we could get things easily in and out. So this was one of a couple versions that had that at the time.

Kathi (01:35.512)

Nice, yes. No, so smart.

That is awesome. Well today we are talking about I well I’m talking about and Tonya’s I want to hear your ideas as well But I just realized and it’s taken me. I don’t know 57 years to figure this out if I spend about five minutes prepping before I start cooking I don’t feel so stabby While I’m cooking like I enjoy cooking until I have to cook

Tonya Kubo (01:48.748)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:01.229)

Mm -hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi (02:12.078)

And then when I have to cook, I’m like, I’m just annoyed by everybody. And so I’ve realized this will take, depending on the state of my kitchen, let’s be honest, five to 10 minutes before I cook and it makes all the difference in the world. So I just wanted to go through these five things pretty quickly. So the first thing is comfortable shoes. I have an ankle issue.

Tonya Kubo (02:16.491)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (02:23.384)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:41.517)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (02:41.588)

in that, the tendons in my feet are too short. And so if I’m on my feet for any amount of time, my ankle swells up. It’s delightful, let me just tell you. And so I used to, because we don’t tend to wear shoes in our house, I used to just wear like my slippers or something. And by the time I was done, I was crying. So now I wear it, and for like all day cooking.

Tonya Kubo (02:52.098)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (02:58.253)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (03:04.161)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:09.358)

I have a brand that I use Vionics that I’m a big fan of. They’re for people with flat feet. But I have heard recently about Hokas. The universe or the Holy Spirit, I’m not sure which, is telling me over and over again about Hokas. And you have a pair.

Tonya Kubo (03:12.322)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (03:21.141)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (03:29.258)

I do, I have a pair of their sandals and they’re really nice. So I have very high arches, which means naturally that I just put a lot of pressure and weight on the front part of my foot. And especially on those bones that are like below the pinky toe and the toe next to it, know, the toe that stays home and the one that goes wee wee wee all the way home. Those two toes get a lot of pressure underneath them.

Kathi (03:42.488)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:47.511)

okay.

Kathi (03:51.02)

Yes, yes. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (03:56.44)

And so Hoka’s because they have that high art support, they help balance out that pressure. Cause like you, Kathi, I mean, I don’t have foot problems, but I have hard floors in my kitchen. And I just find that the bottom of my feet will hurt so much after even just an hour of trying to walk around barefoot cooking.

Kathi (04:15.118)

Yeah, yeah, I did get a standing mat too. That has been really, really helpful. Yeah. So my yeah, and I’ve had some major foot surgery. This was like 30 years ago, but I have to baby my feet. So I was at physical therapy the other day for another broken part of my body. And they all suggested hocus, which is really interesting. I’m going to have to research a little bit more because I have the flattest feet in the world. Like

Tonya Kubo (04:20.0)

Which are helpful, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (04:25.516)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:42.221)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:43.018)

Yeah, so I have to see if that if that’s what’s gonna work for me But putting good shoes on can make a big difference Especially if you’re going to be doing some batch cooking or something like that, and I don’t do put this down every day It’s just there all the day all day long, but that standing mat has really been super helpful to me. Okay number two Before I cook I empty the dishwasher and clean out the sink

Tonya Kubo (04:53.74)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:01.196)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:10.687)

Yes.

Kathi (05:11.84)

So tell me why this is important to you, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (05:14.924)

Well, for me, it’s a couple of things. First of all, it helps to clean as you go, right? There’s nothing worse than spending an hour, two hours cooking, sit down to eat, and then afterward, you can’t even see your sink, right? Your sink is buried in dishes and then you have to go. And then it feels, I’m sure it’s not another hour of doing dishes, but it feels like an hour of doing dishes.

Kathi (05:21.324)

Yes, right.

Kathi (05:34.274)

Yeah.

Kathi (05:42.83)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (05:42.998)

Whereas when you start off, if the dishwasher is empty and the sink is empty, then you can be putting dishes in the sink as you go. And then when you’re waiting for something to come to a boil or you’re waiting for the oven to come to temperature, you can just start loading your dishwasher as you go.

Kathi (06:00.908)

Yes, it makes all the difference in the world to not feel like you have to move something before you do something else and clear off the counter before you do something else. And for me, like one of the things that I have found that is really important for me is to be able to put the colander in the sink so that when I’m rinsing things off, I’m not having to like move the stuff out. It just makes it so much easier.

Tonya Kubo (06:08.34)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:19.867)

yeah.

Tonya Kubo (06:23.17)

Mm

Kathi (06:28.138)

And any professional chef, any kitchen will tell you starting off with clean counters that you’re able to put things on, that you have room to work, et cetera, et cetera, is chef’s kiss. yes, so it is my biggest part of prep to do that. And if I know I’m gonna be cooking the next day, I’ll make sure that I run the dishes the night before.

Tonya Kubo (06:35.202)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:42.188)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:56.257)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (06:56.82)

So that I can start off with that clean sink. Okay, we’re gonna take a yes, please Yeah

Tonya Kubo (07:00.536)

Can I, before we take a break, one more thing I think that goes along with the clean dishes, like clean dishwasher, clean sink, clean your counters. If you can start with like cleared counters, I’m not saying you have to scrub your grout. I’m just saying clear the counters off so you have space for staging.

Kathi (07:06.103)

Yes.

Kathi (07:10.572)

Yeah, it’s so true.

Yes. Yeah.

It’s become my life’s goal to keep as little on my counters as possible. the right now, if you look at my counters, the things that I have on it are our standing mixer because it weighs 700 pounds and it scares me. Yeah, I’m not moving it. It’s it’s my biggest fear in life, Tonya. It is my biggest fear in life.

Tonya Kubo (07:38.274)

Same, same. I’m so scared to drop it on my toe.

Mm

Kathi (07:48.108)

Then, like my knees are weak just as we’re talking about it. Like that feeling you get behind your kneecap, that’s my feeling right now. So I have my standing mixer, my paper towels, which I’m still trying to figure a way to get like mounted underneath. Yeah, that’s my next goal. My air fryer, God bless it, we salute it. This is gonna sound weird, but my ice cream maker.

Tonya Kubo (08:06.004)

up.

Kathi (08:16.48)

It fits into that weird corner that nothing really, you know, and so I can pull it forward and it makes a big difference. And then I’m trying to think of anything else I have on the sink except for the kitchen, you know, the soap. Like that’s my goal is to have it as clear as possible, to have as much room as possible. And I will be honest, a big part of that was getting a kitchen island. That helped a lot. Okay, we’re gonna take a quick.

Tonya Kubo (08:20.289)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (08:36.376)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (08:41.09)

Yeah.

Kathi (08:45.026)

break and then we’re gonna come back and we’re gonna talk about tip number three, about five things I always do before I start cooking. Okay friends, we’re back. So number one was to lace up our running shoes. Number two, empty the dishwasher, clean out the sink and Tonya added, just clear the counters as much as you possibly can, keep your counters clear. And then number three for me is to pull all the ingredients out of the fridge, freezer, and pantry.

Tonya Kubo (09:05.741)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (09:13.708)

Yes.

Kathi (09:15.586)

Because can we talk about how many times I’ve started a recipe and realized, I don’t have all the things I thought I had.

Tonya Kubo (09:22.488)

Probably twice as many as I have and I’m like have done that at least a hundred times.

Kathi (09:27.348)

It’s so annoying, right?

Tonya Kubo (09:30.038)

And I feel like this whole episode is you sharing one of your tips and me going, yes, that, do that.

Kathi (09:34.55)

Yeah, that’s okay. Yes, but it makes such a difference to say, okay, I have everything I need. And when I do my big week cooking for Sabbath soup, I actually have baskets that all the ingredients for this recipe go into this basket, all the ingredients, not the fresh stuff, I don’t put you know, because I do this the night before, but it makes such a difference. And then I realize, okay,

Tonya Kubo (09:40.961)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (09:44.962)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (09:48.76)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (09:54.733)

Right?

Tonya Kubo (10:00.279)

Yeah.

Kathi (10:03.766)

Either if I don’t have an ingredient, either I can shift. I can say, you know, okay, so in my chicken and wild rice soup and I don’t have chicken, so we’re gonna do pulled pork in that and it’s gonna be fine. Or, you know, something like, or we’re do turkey in it or something. We can always shift. Or if I don’t have heavy cream, I can do half and half. Like there’s a million ways you can change up a recipe. It’s okay as long as you know going in.

Tonya Kubo (10:08.962)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (10:21.005)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (10:26.808)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (10:32.404)

Right. I mean, it’s so important because I think about like this weekend, I did a bunch of cooking and there was one recipe and I’m like, okay, mentally, right? Ticking off like, okay, got that, got that, got that. yeah. You know what? I’ll make that for dinner tonight because I’ve got all the things. And then when I went to set everything out and compare it to the recipe, I did not realize it called for sour cream. And I was like, I didn’t know that. And if I had looked at it the day before,

Kathi (10:33.521)

Yes.

Kathi (10:47.288)

Yeah.

Kathi (10:54.672)

Tonya Kubo (11:00.716)

then I could have saved some Greek yogurt. But the day before I was making sourdough pancakes, which call for buttermilk. And so I just use a combination of milk and Greek yogurt. that’s, well, milk and Greek yogurt, right? That makes a good thick buttermilk. And so I was like, use the Greek yogurt. So then it was like, okay, so we need to make sure we get sour cream the next time we go to the store when I want to make this recipe. But otherwise, I would have gotten

Kathi (11:03.694)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (11:12.002)

Vinegar. Yeah. okay. okay, cool.

Kathi (11:21.421)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (11:30.764)

like four steps into the process, because sour cream comes in at the end, and then not been able to finish because I didn’t have sour

Kathi (11:35.116)

Yes.

Right. This is why, you know, this is one of the things I do beforehand. But having an inventory of what you have is actually kind of awesome when you’ve got that much going on. So, yeah, pulling everything out, saying I do have everything I need or I can flex or I can make a different recipe. It’s the idea of mise en place, you know, just to have everything prepped.

Tonya Kubo (11:47.223)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:58.85)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:06.538)

everything you know all of that ready to go and You can flex you can think of you know If you don’t have the buttermilk which I don’t know why anybody buys buttermilk because you can just make it so easily and What would I use it for these other things but you can say okay? I don’t have like you said. I don’t have the sour cream. Let’s flex. Let’s do something different We can make we’re smart people we can make different choices Okay number four

Tonya Kubo (12:19.914)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (12:29.004)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:36.568)

For years, I tried to follow a recipe on my phone. my phone is small, your phone is small, all of our phones are small. So I’m gonna say either, there are two things here. Either print out the recipe, which I find to be the most helpful for a couple of reasons. One, if I print it out and I make adjustments to it, I can write that directly on the recipe. Two, I can find the recipe again.

Tonya Kubo (12:39.64)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (13:00.076)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:05.858)

because what is more frustrating than having a recipe you love and never being able to find it again? You know, it’s because you’ve been looking for it either in the cookbook or whatever. And three, I have a binder of all my favorite recipes and I can go back and I can look for things and I can say, we really enjoyed this. But also it’s just so much easier to move around your kitchen. Now,

Tonya Kubo (13:06.145)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (13:12.663)

This is true.

Tonya Kubo (13:16.32)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (13:31.864)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:32.13)

This also works with an iPad or a tablet of some sort, but what do you do, Tonya, when it’s not necessarily a cookbook?

Tonya Kubo (13:43.262)

Yeah, for us. So I’ll use my phone. Brian will always print out the recipe because, you know, he gets distracted if he picks up his phone. You know, where I but you know, it’s funny that you bring that up because our printer is out of ink right now. And this weekend I was making one recipe, but it called for an ingredient and there was a second recipe for that.

Kathi (13:49.806)

Mm

Kathi (13:54.391)

Yeah, me too.

Tonya Kubo (14:07.488)

And it was so annoying. Like I had, I had each recipe on a different tab on my phone so I could flip back and forth. But there was a point where I was like, if I just had these printed out, that would be so much easier.

Kathi (14:07.584)

yes.

Kathi (14:19.2)

Yeah, and that’s really where I am. I get very easily distracted or sometimes I’ll want to play a video on my phone while I’m cooking or you know because you and I are both in the social media space I want to be recording what I’m cooking which is not what everybody wants to do but sometimes that is what I want to do and just having that laid out being able to make adjustments to it. I also I have a cookbook holder

Tonya Kubo (14:27.862)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:33.943)

Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:47.02)

that is the size of a piece of paper that has been very helpful to be able to hold all of that. Or just having a magnet and putting it on the side of my stove, out of reach so it doesn’t catch on fire, or on the side of my refrigerator. That’s a great way of doing it as well. then, number five, having a stand is great whether you have a tablet.

Tonya Kubo (14:47.106)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:52.482)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:59.667)

Okay, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (15:05.496)

Mm

Kathi (15:14.918)

Cookbook or printed out a recipe. I really think a cookbook stand is Critical and I’ll put a picture of my cookbook stand in in the show notes so that you can all see it I got it from Day Spring. I love it. Then number five

Kathi (15:44.14)

This goes along with just getting yourself ready. It’s almost like if you think about your favorite cooking shows, how they have everything laid out, being your own sous chef. So you’ve already, you you’ve cleaned out the sink. You’ve already put the ingredients together. You’ve got the recipe. And then the next thing is having all the tools laid out. what? OK, so this is what I call my fancy lady cooking. OK, let me tell you about my fancy lady cooking.

Tonya Kubo (16:11.51)

Mm -hmm. I want to hear about the fancy lady.

Kathi (16:15.148)

Because you know, I just bought a kitchen island. I’m so grateful. It’s not big, but it has a lot of storage. It has a surprising amount of storage. And we are making another shelf to go in there so that we can store even more. But in there, I have a set of glass bowls that are different sizes. I have my salt and pepper. I have my nesting.

Tonya Kubo (16:22.134)

Mm -hmm. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (16:30.488)

Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (16:36.152)

Okay.

Kathi (16:42.862)

measuring cups and measuring spoons. I have a cutting board and on top of this kitchen island, I have my knife block. Like everything I need is right there ready to go and I love it. Yes. So I just go on what the side I’m not cooking on. open up.

Tonya Kubo (16:55.864)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (17:01.58)

Nice.

Tonya Kubo (17:08.705)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:09.942)

the doors, I just put everything on top of the island, I’m ready to go. So how can you make storing your tools easier for yourself? There are, you know, some of it, some of it really, and you know, you’re listening to Clutter-Free Academy, so you’re not gonna be surprised by this particular idea. But to get rid of everything in your kitchen that you’re not really using, so you can get to the things that you’re using,

Tonya Kubo (17:16.044)

So good.

Tonya Kubo (17:20.181)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (17:36.376)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:38.9)

on a daily or at least weekly basis. What accommodations have you made in your kitchen? I’ll ask you this in a second. I’ll tell you mine first that have made storing and getting to your tools easier. For me, it was all the Rubbermaid, I’ve replaced all my random Tupperware storage with the Rubbermaid Crystal Series.

Tonya Kubo (17:40.418)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:01.794)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (18:06.722)

which are all square sizes and they fit so beautifully into our pullout drawers. It’s just made such a difference that I don’t feel anger every time I go to our storage containers. Yeah, how about you, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (18:08.758)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:19.884)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:23.946)

Yeah.

So that’s been a big one for us. In fact, we were just talking about how, cause you know, we invested in a set probably a couple of years ago, but you know, when you have small children, not everything comes home. Or if they fidget, they like to fidget the little flaps off, which really affects, it’s a huge problem in my house is everybody fidgets the little side flaps off. So then we, you know, switched to using some like, like gladware style.

Kathi (18:36.77)

Mm -hmm, right.

Kathi (18:42.222)

interesting. Yeah, that has not been a problem with Roger. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (18:55.468)

containers, this weekend, you know, it’s like, okay, we need to go back to using that because the Gladware containers just don’t hold up well in the wash, right? They get misshapen. But for us, it’s been all of those containers, like everything that we might use to package up food, whether it’s for a school lunch or to package up leftovers is in one cabinet. So I’m only going to that cabinet if I need to focus on food storage.

Kathi (19:02.774)

Right. Yeah.

Kathi (19:16.695)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (19:22.602)

And then we have another cabinet. So we do have our like bakeware and mixing bowls and cabinets next to each other. But then we have a cabinet that’s for what I call like big food prep. So that is where the cheese grater lives. We have two sizes of food processor. So we have like the mini chopper and then we have the larger one. We only use the larger one like a couple of times a year, usually around the holidays. But that mini chopper is so nice. You know, chop up a few cloves of garlic.

Kathi (19:33.442)

Yeah.

Kathi (19:37.048)

Yeah. mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (19:46.087)

Right.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (19:51.966)

onion, a few carrots, that works out really, really well. And so that is in one specific cabinet. And it just makes life so much easier if you’re not having to dip into five different cabinets and then reach to the back.

Kathi (19:58.168)

Mm.

Kathi (20:03.094)

Yes, yeah. I think so much of willingness to be cooking at home is removing those steps. Those extra steps that just like, my gosh, are you kidding me? That’s why getting, you know, our pantry is in our garage. It’s in an entirely two rooms away from the kitchen. And so to be able to gather everything at once, having that little basket that I take out there and say,

Tonya Kubo (20:11.874)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:21.848)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (20:26.07)

Right.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (20:32.672)

And the other thing I do, which I’ve mentioned on other shows is

Tonya Kubo (20:36.04)

I was going to say, we gotta talk about the baskets, Kathi.

Kathi (20:38.958)

Yeah, the baskets are great. So I have this basket. It’s just a plastic basket that I think I got at Target. I may have gotten a couple of the styles at Walmart, but I definitely got some of them at Target. It’s rectangle. Yeah, I would say it’s about like about a 9 by 13, that kind of size. And it has handles. And what I do is when I print out the recipe and I’ll even print out recipes,

Tonya Kubo (20:50.205)

And it’s square or rectangle, right? Okay.

Tonya Kubo (20:58.306)

Mm

Kathi (21:07.394)

that are from a cookbook I own so that I can put that on a clipboard to put in that basket. And so that recipe, I’m not trying to remember all the things I need and go to the garage and come back and we’re like, dang, I forgot the pinto beans. And I go back to the garage. No, no, no, I’m getting everything. I’m checking it off as I go. I have got everything I need in that basket with the clipboard, with the recipe.

Tonya Kubo (21:07.48)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (21:15.957)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:26.881)

Right.

Kathi (21:36.558)

So that i’m going and i’m gathering all of that because I think it’s the going back and forth You know an additional 50 steps to get those pinto beans is what makes it like I don’t ever want to cook. It just takes so much energy. No, no, no, no We’re gonna prep everything ahead of time put it in that basket gather everything that we need and Take that basket wherever our prep is going, you know, if you’re if you’re taking things to that food processor

Tonya Kubo (22:01.826)

Mmm.

Kathi (22:06.592)

or maybe it’s to the standing mixer. Like I’m just taking everything with me and I’m not going back and forth a thousand times. It makes all the difference in the world.

Tonya Kubo (22:15.84)

Yeah, well, and you know another benefit to that method is, at least in my mind, is for those of us who live in households, especially with small children, sometimes we buy things and they don’t actually make it to making the recipe. So like, for instance, there was a recipe I made, it was like dinner on Monday night, and it used crushed-up Ritz crackers.

Kathi (22:32.476)

Mmm, yes, yes.

Tonya Kubo (22:40.936)

I had been trying to make that recipe, Kathi, for two weeks, but people kept eating all my crackers. And so finally I’m like, Hey everybody, see this box of crackers? This, these are mom’s crackers. They are for a recipe. And everybody looked at me like I had a third eye. But as you talked about that, it’s like, well you could actually just put, you know, whether you need a sleeve of crackers, two sleeves of crackers, put that in the basket. And then everybody knows whatever’s in the basket is off-limits.

Kathi (22:41.297)

Ha

Kathi (22:52.59)

Yes.

Yes. Right.

Kathi (23:09.324)

Yes, and I just remembered we talked about a chicken and rice recipe. I think it was on the last podcast. Okay, but it was the poppy seed chicken recipe and I will I’ll drop that recipe in here because it’s terrible for you is the least healthy recipe, but it’s the one my son always asked for when he’s coming home. And you know what? If you’re going to have something that’s not healthy, have something that’s delicious, right? So yeah.

Tonya Kubo (23:18.904)

Uhhhh

Tonya Kubo (23:34.782)

yes, yes, we all want the chicken poppy seed recipe, don’t we? don’t we folks? listeners?

Kathi (23:38.326)

Yeah, I will make sure. Yes, it’s so good and it uses Ritz crackers. That’s what that was the trail that helped me remember that. Yes. Yes, I could help you with that. It having those and that’s another one other kitchen tool I love is having some blue painter’s tape on hand because you can say with the blue painter’s tape if it’s.

Tonya Kubo (23:47.281)

I have some Ritz crackers right now. I feel like I need this recipe.

Tonya Kubo (24:00.696)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:05.292)

You know something that you can’t write on with marker. Don’t eat this stop it people or You know, I use the blue painter’s tape to remind myself like to What was I gonna say if I’m running out of something or you know measurements those kind of things or I can use it to seal up Packages like their blue painter’s tape is a great tool to have in your kitchen Okay, so the five things I always do before I start cooking Tonya what’s

Tonya Kubo (24:06.488)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Kathi (24:35.114)

What’s the most important thing that if you’re saying, okay, if you can’t do five, just do this?

Tonya Kubo (24:41.76)

Empty the dishwasher, clean out the sink before you get started.

Kathi (24:43.746)

I think you’re right. I think I have to agree with you there because it’s about lowering the barriers. It’s about lowering the barriers. yeah, having that clean surface I think is so, so important. Tonya, this has been great. Thanks for hanging out with me.

Tonya Kubo (24:50.198)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (24:58.85)

Thanks for having me.

Kathi (25:00.448)

And friends, thank you for hanging out with me. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you’ve always wanted to live.

#643 Before It’s Too Late: Why Now is the Time to Deal with Your Clutter

#642 – Financial Organization Made Easy: The Binder Method with Lisa Woodruff

#641 The 3 Words That are Keeping You Cluttered (And How to Change It)

Modern Asian Baking Cookbook

#638 Cooking, Community, and Conversation: How to Start a Cookbook Club

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Oct 8, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

638 – Cooking, Community, and Conversation:

How to Start a Cookbook Club

Do you know how sometimes cooking can feel like a chore?

Well, imagine turning it into a party where everyone brings a dish, shares their cooking adventures, and leaves with new recipes and closer friendships.

In this episode of Clutter-Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo dive into the delightful world of cookbook clubs. Kathi introduces the concept, explaining how these gatherings can transform cooking from a solitary chore into a social, enriching experience.

Listeners will discover:

What is a cookbook club and how to start one
How to choose and assign recipes from a selected cookbook
Tips for hosting, including using paper plates for easy clean-up
How to incorporate discussion questions to enhance the social aspect

Kathi and Tonya also touch on the importance of making cooking enjoyable and how cookbook clubs can reignite passion for home-cooked meals.

Want to start your own cookbook club? Our kit makes it easy. Get yours here.

And as promised, here is Kathi’s favorite scheduling app! http://www.signupgenius.com/

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts PLUS a personal shout-out on a future CFA episode. Email Tonya Kubo at tonya@kathilipp.org to register for your shout-out. The preorder bonus ends October 8, 2024.

Click here to be notified when the next podcast 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:

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

After you preorder Sabbath Soup, email Tonya Kubo at tonya@kathylipp.org to register for your Shout-Out on a future CFA episode!

Kathi’s favorite scheduling app – http://www.signupgenius.com/

Other cookbooks Mentioned:

Against All Grain Cookbook

Betty Crocker Cookbook, 13th Edition

America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook

More With Less Cookbook

Clutter Free Resources:

The Business You Really Want on Apple Podcasts

Join our members only Clutter Free for Life Facebook Group

Tonya’s newest podcast:

The Business You Really Want on Spotify

What role do you think cookbook clubs can play in building community and fostering relationships?

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 (00:01.058)

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 host of all things clutter-free, Tonya Kubo. Hey Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:28.002)

Hey, Kathi.

Kathi (00:29.842)

so, we are doing this. This is such a fun episode, and it’s inspired by my friend Sarah Troutman. We love Sarah, who by the way is such a fabulous cook. She’s kind of amazing. Yeah, she was my original soup friend that when I would get sick, she would show up at my house with like a cardboard box.

Tonya Kubo (00:37.513)

We love Sarah.

Tonya Kubo (00:44.12)

She really, really is.

Tonya Kubo (00:51.459)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (00:56.246)

They had soup and bread and salad and, yeah, a lifesaver in those times. Because everybody gets sick every once in a while, and you’re like, and these were, this was kind of pre Door Dash day, or at least it was pre me thinking, yeah, Door Dash is an option because that seems very, that seems like what my friends in San Francisco and New York do, little bougie. So instead of Door Dash, I had Sarah.

Tonya Kubo (01:10.168)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:18.094)

Too bougie for you, Kathi Lev. Too bougie.

Kathi (01:25.462)

But I was talking, she and I were messaging back and forth and she’s like, I can’t wait for your book, Sabbath Soup, because we are doing a cookbook club and I’m going to feature this as one of my selections. I’m like, a cookbook club, tell me more.

Tonya Kubo (01:43.822)

Leave it to Sarah to come up with an idea like this. I love it. Okay, tell me about it.

Kathi (01:48.626)

So we have now adopted this as something we are doing for Sabbath Soup, and Sarah’s group is going to be the first test case. And so I thought it would be really interesting to talk about, we have developed a whole, like, here’s what you can do to host a cookbook club. And in fact, we are going to have some downloads.

Tonya Kubo (02:11.192)

Mmm.

Kathi (02:14.848)

So that if you want to host a cookbook club, not just for Sabbath Soup, but for any of your favorite cookbooks, here are some tools that you can use. So, first of all, Tonya, tell me some of your favorite cookbooks, because I always find this fascinating. I think your favorite cookbooks tell me a lot about you.

Tonya Kubo (02:21.006)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (02:33.79)

Okay, well, so the Against All Grain cookbooks, probably that’s my favorite series of all time. And, you know, it would be faster for me to just tell you about my favorite like food websites. But, but there’s, there is a cookbook that I really enjoy called Simple Asian Baking. And it’s more like Asian-inspired recipes that you can make at home. But

Kathi (02:37.707)

yeah. Mm -hmm. Yes.

Kathi (02:48.851)

Yeah, that’s okay.

Kathi (02:58.114)

interesting.

Kathi (03:02.483)

Tonya Kubo (03:03.038)

lot of fun stuff there. And that’s from, it’s Subtle Asian Baking. See, I don’t even know the name. But yeah, that was an awesome cookbook. It came out of a Facebook group. So, I like that one a lot. And then, know, Betty Crocker, Betty Crocker on Better Homes and Gardening cookbooks never let me do.

Kathi (03:09.036)

That’s okay.

Kathi (03:17.502)

God bless her.

Right because they’ve been tested a thousand times. So, a couple of my favorites are and of course now the America’s Test Kitchen. I love their cookbooks. They have a cookbook that came out probably about five or six years ago that you could injure yourself if you dropped it on your foot. But like my absolute favorite

Tonya Kubo (03:23.87)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (03:31.832)

Ooh!

Tonya Kubo (03:39.054)

Mm

Kathi (03:49.846)

Blueberry muffin recipe is kind of based on that I’ve done a little twisting to it with some lemon and stuff like that, But I love that also one for me. That’s really old But I love it’s the more with less cookbook and this was made there was a woman, and she has since passed her name was Doris and She was a Mennonite, and she gathered up

Tonya Kubo (03:53.986)

Mm

Kathi (04:16.334)

all the favorite recipes from fellow Mennonites around the world. And I love it. It is such a basic cookbook, but I will tell you this cookbook saved my bacon when I was living in Japan, and I didn’t have access to all the foods that you might have in the United States because it’s such a basic cookbook recipe. And it was really tailored that no matter where you are, what ingredients you have available, you can

Tonya Kubo (04:21.238)

Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:40.632)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (04:46.07)

You can eat beautiful food. And then when I was a young mom and, or, and a single mom and I was B -R -O -K -E, so, you know, four syllables broke, this was a great way to say, hey, whatever I have on hand, I can turn into something. So, if you were going to have one of those cookbooks, what you would do, here’s the concept for a cookbook.

Tonya Kubo (04:48.494)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (04:55.532)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:03.628)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:09.25)

Mm -hmm.

I was going to ask you, like at first, I need to understand the cookbook club.

Kathi (05:14.594)

Yeah. Right. Yes. So, I don’t have this is how I think about it. All of my favorite people are cooks. I have a couple of people that I allow into my life who are not cooks, but they really appreciate eating. So, they’re allowed to hang out with us. But I love people who are creative, who like to experiment with food.

Tonya Kubo (05:26.072)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:34.787)

Mm

Okay.

Kathi (05:44.396)

who like to try new things and really learn new skills. And that’s what I feel like a cookbook club can do. You can hang out with cool people who are interested in the same things that you are. And here’s the thing, you and I both know this, that cooking and getting dinner on the table, two separate skills. There are times that we really enjoy cooking. Your daughter, Lily, loves to cook. You love to cook; Brian loves to cook.

Tonya Kubo (05:50.541)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (06:10.968)

Mm

Kathi (06:13.768)

I love to cook; Roger loves to barbecue. Again, two very different skills. But you know, sometimes it’s just like, okay, I have to get dinner on the table. Last night, the watermelon almost took me out, Tonya, because I bought this watermelon. No, it was the emotional weight of the watermelon. decide, they are, and so I said, instead of a vegetable, we’re just gonna have

Tonya Kubo (06:16.355)

Yeah?

Tonya Kubo (06:28.648)

How’s that? Did it fall on your foot?

Tonya Kubo (06:34.235)

watermelons are a commitment.

Kathi (06:42.496)

We had some chicken, and we had some potato salad. I’m like, what could be better than a watermelon? And Roger was chopping it all up and it tasted like water. And I was so, and it was a little, wasn’t mealy. just did, I don’t know. It was so sad. And I’m like, I’m done. I don’t need to eat. Like I can’t. So I did gather my gumption and I created a zucchini, not zucchini, cucumber, red tomato, I mean red.

Tonya Kubo (06:48.76)

What could be better?

Tonya Kubo (06:53.639)

Kathi (07:12.318)

onion tomato salad with feta and we soldiered on but like there are just times when you get to six o ‘clock and you’re like no I can’t I do not have the emotional energy but if you’re excited about cooking something then that I don’t know there’s a different energy wouldn’t you say

Tonya Kubo (07:33.08)

There is, there is. And I think that when you’re excited about cooking something, it doesn’t feel like a chore, right? Like I am energized by the process of making the dish and then sitting down to eat it feels like a reward. Whereas when I am not excited about it, then…

Kathi (07:45.612)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Kathi (07:51.798)

Yes.

Kathi (07:57.154)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (07:58.964)

Even eating it feels like a chore. Like sometimes, Kathi, quite honestly, I don’t have the energy to chew. Right?

Kathi (08:04.598)

Yeah, yes, right? I totally get it, I get it. There are times, you know, like I love food, let’s not get it twisted, but there are sometimes I’m like, I resent Roger for wanting to eat dinner. And by the way, he would be the first person to say, I’ll make a peanut butter and honey sandwich, which by the way, sounds disgusting to me. But he’s fine with that, but I’m like, no, you know, I should make a meal. yes, so.

Tonya Kubo (08:13.187)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (08:32.282)

Kathi (08:33.618)

I feel like one of the advantages of a cookbook club is to get excited about the art of cooking and not just the chore of cooking. And I will also say this, I feel like any time somebody else can teach us a little hint, a little idea, a little shortcut, it’s a beautiful thing. So you’re going to laugh at me, but I did not know with my citrus juicer.

Tonya Kubo (08:38.156)

Mm -hmm. Got it, got it.

Tonya Kubo (08:52.109)

Mm

Kathi (09:01.75)

that you were supposed to put the cut lime, lemon, orange, whatever it is, dome shape. I thought you were supposed to fit it into the cup. So, you know, when you squeeze it, it turns it inside out and you get as much juice from it as possible. But I shared that yesterday on the live and people are like, I never knew that I never knew that. And I was like,

Tonya Kubo (09:07.64)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (09:11.672)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (09:16.183)

Tonya Kubo (09:21.23)

Mm

Kathi (09:29.896)

I didn’t either. So, like anytime you can learn something like that, I feel cooking can be such a solitary activity. When we gather together, we can start to figure some of those things out and be a little bit smarter than when we started.

Tonya Kubo (09:45.816)

Got it. Okay, so that helps me understand sort of why I might want to get together with a bunch of people and talk about cooking and cookbooks. How does the cookbook club specifically work?

Kathi (09:52.308)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (10:00.086)

Yeah, so if you don’t mind, what we’re going to do is we’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back and then I’m going to dive into kind of what you need for a cookbook club. And it’s very easy to start and I hope you’ll be inspired by the end of this podcast. Okay, we’ll be right back. Okay friends, we are back with the who, what, where, when, why, how. We already did the why, and the how of the cookbook club. So.

Tonya Kubo (10:04.334)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (10:10.274)

Got it.

Tonya Kubo (10:24.032)

Yeah

Kathi (10:26.53)

If we were going to use Sabbath Soup, which by the way, we’re going to have all these things down in a printable for you.

Tonya Kubo (10:32.866)

By the way, it’ll be easiest to use Sabbath Soup. Just going to throw that out there, because we’ll do it all for you, almost.

Kathi (10:36.93)

Yes, we will do it all for you, but this will be a great blueprint for future clubs that you want to do. yes, so first of all, just pick a date and time. So, I’m actually doing this. We are doing a cookbook club here at the Red House in October. And we are going to, you know, I’m inviting some people, getting the date on the calendar early. And

Tonya Kubo (10:42.946)

Yes.

Got it.

Tonya Kubo (10:55.182)

Mm

Kathi (11:03.26)

Just decide, you know, do you want to do this monthly? Do you want to do it quarterly? I really feel like post-pandemic quarterly might be your best option unless you have a bunch of people that live really close together and your kind of already do life together. It’s just that it’s hard to get people to gather together, but food is a great incentive. And so, I like to use an app like there are lots of scheduling apps out there, being able to like

Tonya Kubo (11:20.59)

Mm.

Kathi (11:32.012)

pick a date and time, I’ll put a couple of my favorites in the notes so we can find something like that. But to find a date and time, I’m going to do it on a Saturday from three o ‘clock to six o ‘clock, or three to five, three to six, depending on how long people want to hang out. And just say, so that people can still go home if they have Saturday night plans, they can still do that. So here’s kind of the kit we’ve come up with. So, first of all,

Tonya Kubo (11:43.16)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (11:57.838)

Mm

Kathi (11:59.754)

with the Sabbath Soup Kit, you’ll get eight recipes. So these are some of my favorite recipes in the book that kind of all go together. So like our mac and cheese, which is amazing, tomato gin soup. So I’ve got a couple of main dishes, a couple of side dishes, a couple of desserts, a couple of appetizer things that can be used as appetizers.

Tonya Kubo (12:19.211)

and

Tonya Kubo (12:24.494)

Mm

Kathi (12:27.994)

Everybody who comes brings a dish unless you decide otherwise. So you’ll have some recipe cards. Then you’ll also have some blank recipe cards. And I’ll tell you what we’re going to do with those in a bit. The menu board. So this is just a sheet of paper about like, what’s the menu? And so you’re going to write what the dishes are and then put the name next to the person who cooked it. So if people have questions and things like that, they can ask, you know,

Did you use a special kind of pasta? Like whatever it is. Then we’re having, we’ve got some extra, because we’re going to be a little extra here. So we’ve got some verse cards that we wanted to be able to make the table a little zhuzhier. And then tabletop cards with some questions that you can ask each other to get to know each other better. And then finally, some little fold-over food signs. So you can say, this is,

Tonya Kubo (13:01.186)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (13:18.776)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:26.838)

This is the macaroni casserole, the tomato gin soup, that it is, it contains meat in it. So people will know. So, you know, in Sabbath Soup, we have a ton of recipes that are vegetarian, but that may not be what you guys want to do. So you can put on there exactly what it is. So the fold-over food signs are just a cute way of being able to put things on your table and go from there.

Tonya Kubo (13:37.176)

Mm

Kathi (13:56.98)

Anything you think I missed there? Anything? Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (13:58.824)

Yeah, I just have one thing that I think I understand, but I’m not sure. So when you’re doing a cookbook club, I was thinking everybody brings a specific cookbook, but this is like you feature a cookbook and then everybody makes one item out of the cookbook. Is that how we do it?

Kathi (14:03.319)

Go for it.

Kathi (14:12.268)

such.

Such a great question. Sorry, I started in the middle. This is the curse of knowledge, Tonya. So yes, so the person who’s hosting, when I say hosting, doesn’t necessarily have to be at their house. Like Tonya could pick the cookbook, but Tonya says, hey, our house is under construction, so we’re going to meet at Kathi’s house. So if Tonya’s the host, she’s the one who’s picking the cookbook and assigning the recipes. that’s, yeah, that’s the next thing we’re going to talk about.

Tonya Kubo (14:19.568)

hahahaha

Tonya Kubo (14:34.584)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (14:40.728)

Got it, okay.

Kathi (14:44.308)

So if you assign the recipes, and you can do this a million different ways, you can draw them out of a hat. You can say, hey, you did the main dish last time, could you do dessert this time? Or something like that. Or maybe somebody’s just having a rough month and they say, all I can bring is the chopped carrot. Well, that’s fine, that’s okay. So you’re preparing the meals at home. Now I will say,

Tonya Kubo (14:57.486)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:05.87)

Mm

Kathi (15:11.998)

I was part of a cooking club one time where we all got together in somebody’s big kitchen and cooked together. I don’t know that I’d recommend that. If you do have somebody who maybe doesn’t have kitchen space, they could come over early and prepare. But I think it’s better to just, the host doesn’t have a thousand dishes, especially prep dishes and things like that. But.

Tonya Kubo (15:17.486)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (15:27.735)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (15:34.338)

Mm

Kathi (15:38.472)

That way everybody’s cooking at home. They’re bringing it with them and they’re bringing their dish home to clean out. And so it makes it a little bit easier. And then my vision for it is we just put everything out on the table. have, so you set up the space, just having one table where everything’s put. We have a rolling kitchen island. So I would probably put everything on that.

Tonya Kubo (15:46.626)

Got it, okay.

Tonya Kubo (16:05.73)

Mm

Kathi (16:07.69)

You might have a sideboard or a part of the table. Or if you want to do it family style, you could just put everything in the middle of the table and let people serve. I am going to suggest that it’s okay to use paper plates. Like this may just be the time where you want to keep it low-key. And this is not for everybody to take a huge portion of macaroni and cheese.

Tonya Kubo (16:23.853)

Okay.

Kathi (16:35.938)

This is for everybody to try a bunch of different dishes. And so maybe it’s a half portion, maybe it’s a quarter portion, enough that people can come. So I would recommend probably no less than five people and no more than 10. That feels like a good number. And that way you can, you get to try a bunch of different things from this one cookbook.

Tonya Kubo (16:40.526)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (16:52.824)

Mm -hmm. Okay.

Kathi (17:04.64)

I think it’s a great way to test, is this a cookbook I wanna put in my permanent collection? Here’s my theory and I don’t know, your results may vary. Tonya, if I can get eight banger recipes out of a cookbook, I’m down. I’ve got the Against the Grain cookbook, I bought it specifically for the chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Tonya Kubo (17:06.998)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (17:11.384)

Got it.

Tonya Kubo (17:21.838)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (17:30.476)

It’s a really good chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Kathi (17:32.212)

So real and you guys if you don’t know Against The Grain, it’s for gluten-free cooking, right? Am I saying that correctly? It’s all grain-free. Okay

Tonya Kubo (17:38.875)

No, it’s for it’s all grain free. So it’s not just it is gluten-free by default, but it is free of all grain. So no rice, no nothing.

Kathi (17:45.61)

Yeah, okay.

Okay, so yeah, Michelle Cushatt was the one who introduced it to me. So like it uses like coconut flour and things like that, right? Okay, I am not very familiar with that whole world, but I have to do some gluten-free cooking for our retreats and things. So that’s why I got that. But.

Tonya Kubo (17:56.172)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (18:06.551)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, the pumpkin donut recipe, highly recommend.

Kathi (18:12.77)

see, this is good to know. See, I love that. Okay, I’m going to need to look that one up. And then I think that you can, when you’re sitting down, you’re eating all this delicious food, whatever cookbook it is, you can say, hey, this recipe was really easy. Or you know what, this challenged me to do some different things. And to also share, hey, as I was looking through the book, here are some other recipes I hope to try. And

Tonya Kubo (18:31.275)

Mm

Kathi (18:41.482)

I just think it’s a delightful way of sharing some time, also improving our skills, improving our cooking repertoire. I also love that we get to talk about one of our favorite things, food. And my suggestion would be as you’re sitting there, everybody grab their calendars, somebody suggests a cookbook that they love, and you plan your next time together.

Tonya Kubo (18:49.027)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (19:05.614)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (19:12.174)

Got it, okay, so let me make sure I understand this. So how we do this is first of all, we decide that we want to have a cookbook club. Five people, 10 people sound good, but I would argue it’s whatever sounds like a party to you and not overwhelming, right? And then you’re going to, one individual is appointed to pick the cookbook. Now that person may host the event at their house.

Kathi (19:19.094)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (19:26.506)

Yep, that’s

Tonya Kubo (19:37.49)

or it may be at a centralized location. Like I can imagine for some people, they might like having this at a social hall, just depending on what they have access to. And then everybody cooks a recipe out of that book. It sounds like your recommendation is just to make sure that sort of we have a great experience out of the cookbook that the host assigns the recipes. Everybody brings, you know, they cook at home, they bring it potluck style. Then you sit down and everybody gets to try a little bit of something.

Kathi (19:43.382)

Sure. Yeah.

Kathi (19:57.91)

Mm

Kathi (20:01.953)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (20:07.042)

four recipes, probably four to eight, it sounds to me, like what you would have. Get a little sample, then that lets you know whether you want this cookbook. But then you are also talking about, you know, just having conversations and sort of other things that make it more of an experience. Is there anything you want to add to that idea versus just a utilitarian, let’s try some recipes.

Kathi (20:10.934)

Yeah.

Kathi (20:25.814)

Yeah.

Kathi (20:29.762)

think that there is a great opportunity with some table talk discussions. If you have some questions, like one question that I asked at a party recently that was such a great question was from the jobs you’ve worked, what is something you always do or never do because of your specified knowledge? So, Tonya, I’m going to ask you that question.

I think that’s a great question. Like you’ve had a lot of really interesting jobs that people don’t know. You’ve done everything from being a newspaper reporter to inseminating cows. And so you have done, you’ve had a variety of experiences. Is there something from your schooling, your work, something that you do or don’t do because of your special knowledge? Look at your smile. That’s so funny. Okay. She’s got an idea.

Tonya Kubo (21:04.555)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:26.818)

Well, there’s a few of them, but I think the easiest one is naming our children. Brian was a schoolteacher. I was a former reporter. I wrote up youth sports results. So we made the decision very early on that we were not going to do any creative spellings. And we were going to choose names that were easy to say and easy to spell.

Kathi (21:31.905)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:35.718)

yeah. Yeah.

Kathi (21:43.969)

Yeah.

Kathi (21:49.354)

smart, smart, smart. Yeah. I love watching the videos when you go into like a vet’s office and it’s like, what is one thing you would never name your dog? And it’s always Bella. Like, you know, like every dog is named Bella, even the guys. So yeah, it’s such a great question. Like at this party we were hosting, we asked that and our son’s friend said, I would never buy seafood on the weekend because it’s, it’s

Tonya Kubo (22:00.898)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (22:16.322)

Mm

Kathi (22:19.314)

it’s been delivered probably by Thursday and by Sunday, you don’t wanna touch it. And I thought that is so fascinating. Someone else said that they would never buy a car like a Tesla because, and this is no Tesla slander, this was their experience with their job, because Tesla builds all the different components of the car. And he said, as a car buyer, he would rather have

Tonya Kubo (22:22.638)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (22:37.303)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (22:49.152)

Goodyear who specializes in the tires and all the specially but he works for a lawyer who’s specialized and he does statistics for this lawyer on car crashes and things like that and I thought you know and Roger Rogers contribution was you know, we joke about y2k people don’t know how close we were and I thought that was a fascinating answer. So

Tonya Kubo (22:52.355)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (23:03.714)

Got it.

Tonya Kubo (23:12.91)

Yeah.

Kathi (23:17.506)

We’re going to include some discussion questions, but you can also just Google, know, table talk questions and have some of those up there. Also, you know, if you can, getting those recipe cards and if everybody fills out a recipe card, and then people can grab the blank cards and fill out the recipes for the ones they like, or you can photocopy them or something like that. The other thing I will say about a cookbook club,

Tonya Kubo (23:25.88)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (23:47.746)

Do not be afraid to reach out to the author and see if they will zoom in for 10 to 15 minutes. I think especially, you might not get, I can’t remember the author of Against the Grain, you might not get her. But somebody like me or somebody who, I’ve got a couple of friends who have written cookbooks. We would love to zoom in for your,

Tonya Kubo (23:51.896)

Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:56.909)

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (24:04.418)

Mm

Tonya Kubo (24:13.582)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (24:14.818)

your little gathering and talk about our experience with the cookbook and recommend some recipes that maybe somebody would enjoy and you know, so the best way to do that I think is really through social media to message them through social media unless there you have a contact or something like that But that’s what I’m going to be doing for Sarah’s club is they’ve already asked me if I will zoom in for 15 minutes to talk about why I cook, you know did

Tonya Kubo (24:29.902)

Mm

Kathi (24:43.584)

the recipes I did, what was my heart behind the book and to suggest some other recipes they might enjoy. And I think that that’s just a little bit extra. And don’t we love being just a little bit extra?

Tonya Kubo (24:45.24)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (24:57.442)

Just a little bit.

Kathi (24:59.074)

Yeah, so guys, we’re going to include the instructions on how to have a cookbook club and all the resources we mentioned here in the notes. And if you would be if you’re going to be doing the Sabbath Soup Cookbook Club, let me know. I would love to if at all possible zoom in for 15 minutes. We’ll have a great discussion. And knowing me will stay longer than 15 minutes. But if you want to keep it to 15 minutes, we can.

but I’m going to be doing this here at the Red House with a group of friends and I’m really looking forward to it because here’s what I love. I just have to clean my house and cook one dish and let the party begin, right? And I’m very excited about that. I’m very excited to see the twists that people are going to put on these recipes. It’s going to be a lot of fun. So Tonya, thanks for hanging out with me today.

Tonya Kubo (25:37.719)

Yeah!

Tonya Kubo (25:45.621)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (25:51.086)

Thanks for having me.

Kathi (25:52.32)

And friends, thank you for hanging out. 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.

#643 Before It’s Too Late: Why Now is the Time to Deal with Your Clutter

#642 – Financial Organization Made Easy: The Binder Method with Lisa Woodruff

#641 The 3 Words That are Keeping You Cluttered (And How to Change It)

Sam’s Club Smoked Shredded Chicken

#637 Cooking Ahead: How to Feed Your Future Self

by Clutter Free Academy Team | Oct 1, 2024 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

637 – Cooking Ahead:

How to Feed Your Future Self

Hey there, friend! Are you feeling overwhelmed by the thought of cooking dinner tonight?

We’ve been there.

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, we’re diving into the world of easy, delicious meals that won’t drain your energy or your wallet. In this second installment of their two-part series, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo continue their discussion about Kathi’s new book, Sabbath Soup, offering practical tips and strategies for stress-free meal planning and cooking. They discuss the importance of valuing both time and energy when it comes to meal preparation, and offer encouragement to listeners who may feel overwhelmed by the daily task of feeding their families.

Listeners will discover:

The importance of cooking ahead and freezing leftovers for low-energy days
Strategies for involving family members in meal planning and preparation
The value of establishing clear expectations and dividing kitchen responsibilities
Insights into the recipes featured in Sabbath Soup and their ease of use for both novice and experienced cooks

Listeners will leave this episode with practical strategies for making meal planning and preparation less stressful and enjoyable, even during busy or low-energy periods.

And as promised:

Kathi’s Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Hint: This dough can be frozen as pre-scooped balls or ready-to-slice logs.
Prep Time: 20 Minutes
Bake Time: 10 minutes
Yield: 112 cookies (recipe may be halved)

Ingredients:
5 cups oatmeal
2 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 8 oz. Hershey bar, grated
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
2. Measure the oatmeal and place it in a blender to blend into a fine powder.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to combine with the butter mixture, then stir in the flour, blended oatmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the chocolate and nuts.
4. Scoop the dough into balls and place about 12 to a cookie sheet, evenly spaced, baking in batches. Bake for 10 minutes.
5. To freeze for later baking: Flash freeze scooped dough balls on a cookie sheet. Individually frozen dough balls are easier to handle and will keep their shape better when transferred to a freezer bag for longer-term storage. Alternately, form the dough into a log about 2 inches around and wrap in plastic wrap. Put the dough in the bag and write baking directions on the bag. I like to experiment with the cookies and find out what the baking time and temp is for frozen dough as well as thawed dough. Bake for 10 minutes, and then keep checking every 2 minutes to get them just perfect.

Did you miss Part 1 of this conversation? Listen to 636 Batch Cooking Basics: Reclaim Your Time and Energy in the Kitchen here.

Preorder Sabbath Soup here and receive your free download bonus Sabbath Soup Shortcuts PLUS a personal shout-out on a future CFA episode. Email Tonya Kubo at tonya@kathilipp.org to register for your shout-out. 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

After you preorder Sabbath Soup, email Tonya Kubo at tonya@kathylipp.org to register for your Shout-Out on a future CFA episode!

Clutter Free Resources:

The Business You Really Want on Apple Podcasts

Tonya’s newest podcast:

The Business You Really Want on Spotify

Can you share your top tips for meal planning when your energy is low?

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

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

#643 Before It’s Too Late: Why Now is the Time to Deal with Your Clutter

#642 – Financial Organization Made Easy: The Binder Method with Lisa Woodruff

#641 The 3 Words That are Keeping You Cluttered (And How to Change It)

#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: