#596 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Money

#596 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Money

by | Dec 19, 2023 | Christmas, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, Gifting, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

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596 – Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Money

 

Do you feel like Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year…until you look at your bank account?

Kathi Lipp and her co-host Deanna Day Young have clever, creative, and clutter-free answers to the question, “How can I celebrate the holidays and not overspend?” In this episode, Kathi and Deanna gift us with ten tips to keep the cost of Christmas down and the enjoyment up.

They have ideas to help enjoy the holidays such as:

  • How to use experiences as gift ideas.
  • How to involve those you love in your decisions.
  • And Kathi and Deanna share a brilliant surprise when giving gift cards!

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Did you miss the first three episodes of this series? You can find them here:

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home

Homesteading [hohm-sted-ing]
noun
1. an act or instance of establishing a homestead.
2. the act of loving where you live so much that you actively ignore the fact that your house is trying to kill you on a regular basis.

For Kathi Lipp and her husband, Roger, buying a house in one of the most remote parts of Northern California was never part of the plan; many of life’s biggest, most rewarding adventures rarely are.

Kathi shares the hard-won wisdom she’s gained on her homestead journey to help you accomplish more at home, gain fresh perspective, and give yourself grace in the process. Here’s a handful of the lessons Kathi shares:

  • Prepare before the need arises
  • Everything is always in process, including us
  • Your best household solution is time and patience
  • You don’t have to do everything the hard way
  • Be open to new and better ways of doing things
  • A lot of small changes make a huge difference.
    Highly practical, humorous, and inspirational, The Accidental Homesteader will encourage you to live with more peace, joy, and contentment.

Order your copy of The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home here.

Links Mentioned:

Deanna Day Young 

 

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Which tip that Kathi and Deanna gave is most helpful to you when you are low on money? Share your answer in the comments.

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Deanna Day Young

Deanna lives in southeast Indiana on the Young family farm with her husband of 35 years. She and Roger have two grown daughters.

Deanna is the Director of Operations for Iron Timbers, a family-owned custom furniture business featured currently, and for several years, on HGTV’s Good Bones show. Prior to this position, she was a paralegal and managed the international trademark portfolio for 34 years for the Hill-Rom division of Baxter International. Deanna has a degree in Journalism and Speech Communications from Ball State University and a Paralegal Certification from Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fun Fact – Deanna and her daughter are also Chi Omega sorority sisters!! Hoot Hoot.

You can connect with Deanna at deannadayyoung.com

Transcript

Kathi (00:05.579)
Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutterfree Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And I am back with Deanna Day Young and we are talking all things Christmas, the holidays, and.

This is our series, your holiday game plan when you’re running low on blank. So we’ve already done space, time, energy. Here’s the one that I think a lot of people are going to identify with, money. When you’re running low on money, what can you do to still enjoy the holidays without breaking the bank? So Deanna, I’m gonna start us off.

Deanna Day Young (00:47.324)
Great.

Kathi (00:57.839)
And you and I each have five ideas. We’re gonna go back and forth. So number one, I feel like this is the most important one for me as I’ve done this, is to contact friends and family that you’re exchanging gifts with or that you typically exchange gifts with and set spending limits or maybe just say, can we have a pass this year? Deanna, have you ever done that? You have?

Deanna Day Young (01:23.518)
Yes, yes we did. So I have a group of friends that there are four of us that we’ve done this probably the last four or five years. We said no Christmas gifts and we go and we do an experience which actually leads to my number one or my number

you know, our next one, it’ll be my number one, our number two on our list of 10, is yes, we have done like where we will say we’re gonna go to Cracker Barrel altogether, or we’ll pick a restaurant. And have you heard of like, a lot of people have done this in the past where you go and you give an extra large tip, you prepare.

Kathi (02:01.388)
Oh, I have, yes.

Deanna Day Young (02:02.022)
And so like, yeah, so we have done this the last couple of years and it’s been so much fun. But we’ve also done before where we say we’re gonna take a spa day. So nobody’s gonna buy anybody gifts and then we just go somewhere and we do a spa day. And so it’s just really fun to do that.

Kathi (02:19.671)
Yeah, and I understand if you’re running low on money, you may be like, oh, a spa day. But here’s the thing, oftentimes you could do some of that stuff at home or you need to get your nails done anyway. Like that’s something you were planning on doing anyway. You know, Deanna, one of those things like, and we’re onto number two, brainstorm a list of fun and free things to do with those you love.

Deanna Day Young (02:33.462)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi (02:48.855)
We’ve done a cookie day where everybody comes to one person’s house and what we do is we either prepare in our own homes and then we bring enough cookie dough of our recipe so everybody can take some home and then we have we bake one um one batch of it so we all get to taste it or yeah

Deanna Day Young (03:09.134)
That’s good.

Deanna Day Young (03:15.359)
That’s good.

Kathi (03:16.843)
And so everybody has cookie dough to bring home that they can do for their family or they can give as gifts. Isn’t that a fun idea? But think about something that you would naturally be doing other ways. But Deanna, let me go back to the spending limits. You have to talk about those in advance. So maybe you can’t do it for this year, but you say, hey, for next year, could we do…

Deanna Day Young (03:23.894)
That’s a great idea!

Deanna Day Young (03:42.561)
Yes.

Kathi (03:45.119)
$50 limit per family or you know what could we just exchange for the kids? you know or Guys, you know instead of buying me gifts, you know what I could really use this year there are a couple of big packs at Costco of like flour or Macaroni and cheese, you know like get specific people would love I remember one year my friend I said, what do you want for Christmas and

Deanna Day Young (03:50.475)
Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (04:06.925)
Yeah.

Kathi (04:13.499)
Traditionally, you know Roger and I have had more money. She’s a single mom. She goes I would like a Costco pack of toilet paper She goes I’m so tired of running to the store paying too much and I’m like, I think we can do that for you So we did toilet paper towels And a couple of food things and it was so fun and she baked us cookies It was the perfect exchange, but you have some other ideas here of things that you can do that are free

Deanna Day Young (04:37.41)
That’s awesome.

Kathi (04:43.223)
Right? Tell me about those.

Deanna Day Young (04:43.262)
Right, yes. So, yeah, my number two is do experiences together with friends and family for Christmas. And they are, these are some ideas that are free or very, very low in cost. And so number one was PJs and pancakes. I did this with one of my groups up at church, and there’s, I think there’s six of us in our group. And so what we did is they came to my house in their pajamas or their sweatpants, whatever they were comfortable in. And…

Kathi (05:09.391)
Perfect. Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (05:11.946)
We made, I made pancakes and they each brought like a topping. I can’t even remember now, cause we did this a couple of years ago. I think somebody brought chocolate chips. Somebody brought fruit. Somebody brought a couple of different kinds of syrup. And then we just sat and we had pancakes together. And then we watched a Christmas movie. So no, yeah, it was, it was great. And we were done by, I think we were done by 11 o’clock. And then everybody had the rest of that Saturday to do.

Kathi (05:29.691)
Perfect. In the morning. I love that.

Kathi (05:40.105)
Perfect.

Deanna Day Young (05:40.454)
I’ve done things like that too with, you know, like with another friend where we say, you know what, let’s just spend the day together at one another’s houses. And we do the same thing. We love brownies. So we each brought our own kinds of brownies and then swatched those off. She loves, she always makes Ghirardelli like triple chocolate brownies, you know.

Kathi (05:50.115)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (06:02.282)
And then I have another kind of brownies just from a box that we make. And then we just sat and watched a couple different Christmas movies. We drank hot chocolate with our little candy cane in there. And we just had a day together that didn’t cost us any money.

Kathi (06:15.475)
I love that so much. And you’ve also done cookie baking exchanges with friends and things like that. You know what? So here’s what I am going to do with three of my friends this year. I haven’t proposed it. I’m usually the instigator of these things, but one of our friends in this group is financially, it’s really tough right now. But we are all authors and we’re all book lovers. And what I’m going to suggest this year,

Deanna Day Young (06:22.795)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (06:42.679)
Yes.

Kathi (06:45.495)
That you take the three books off your shelf that you think the other three people would love So I can you know, it’s not buying everybody the same book, but it’s saying oh, I think Friend number one would love this book and I’ve already read it. So it’s not spending any money it’s just saying here’s the one I think you’ll love

Kathi

Okay, this is number three. Do you really need new wrapping paper?

Deanna Day Young (09:41.951)
Okay.

Deanna Day Young (09:46.882)
They did, you know.

Kathi (10:02.287)
Do you really need new ribbons? Do you really need new tags? Or do you just want new? Which is totally fine, I get it. So if you really want something new, you can limit it to one. Or go to the dollar store and see if there’s wrapping paper. But I’m really gonna challenge you if you’re really being careful about money this year, can you use what you already have? Can you use the paper you already have?

And here’s another thing I would say, look through like your birthday paper too, because you might just have some red stuff that’s hanging around or some green stuff or white. There are a million different things that you can put that on with. And I have turned birthday wrap into Christmas wrap by tying a little pine branch on it to just make it look cuter. So you can absolutely do that. Okay.

Deanna Day Young (10:54.826)
Oh yeah, absolutely.

Kathi (11:00.652)
Number four, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (11:02.802)
It leads right into my number four. It’s all in the presentation. So my friends laugh at that, but I have said that for years and years. It’s all in the presentation. And so it doesn’t have to cost a lot, but it’s how you present it in a very special way. So let’s use, for example, a pedicure in a jar.

Kathi (11:06.315)
OK. Yes.

Deanna Day Young (11:24.086)
You could give that, you take a ball jar, you can put in a dollar pair of socks that you get, well the Dollar Tree is now 125, but a dollar 25 pair of socks, along with, you can buy those whole pedicure little kits at the Dollar Tree for a dollar 25, separate those out. So in your pedicure jar, you’ve got your socks, you’ve got all your different things for a pedicure, get a

couple maybe little fingernail and toenail jars and put that down in there or the fingernail polish and put that in there as well. Put the lid on the jar and wrap a ribbon around it. You may only have four or five dollars in that gift, but when you present it, because you’ve given it as the presentation, it looks like it is more. Another idea that I love to do, which kind of goes back to do you need more gift wrap,

is I’ve given cookbooks before, or this year we could give the accidental homesteader book as a gift, and instead of buying paper to go with that, use a dishcloth perhaps to wrap that. That’s part of the gift, and then maybe put a spatula on top, which those you can also get very inexpensive, like at the Dollar Tree, and then maybe put a spatula on top that makes it look like it’s a packaged topper. And so you really are

Kathi (12:29.314)
Hahaha

Kathi (12:39.088)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (12:52.098)
There’s a whole lot of good that comes in that. You’re giving a gift that’s a little bit less expensive. It’s in the presentation. And everything that you’re using to give in the presentation can be used as a gift.

Kathi (13:05.467)
I love that. It’s so good. It’s so good and it’s so true You know and oftentimes I never want to give somebody else my junk But I have a lot of good stuff in my house that I do I’ve never used you know Somebody’s given it to me or I bought a packet. You know like the ball jars you were talking about You know, I’ve got

Deanna Day Young (13:17.302)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (13:30.601)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (13:31.759)
these giant ball jars that I’m just not using right now. Like that would be such a great thing. Not everything has to come with a receipt. But it’s all about the presentation and the thought behind it, 100%. Okay, for me, number five is meal plan. This is a great time to spend as little as you can on non-holiday meals by using up what’s in your pantry, your freezer, your fridge,

Deanna Day Young (13:40.726)
Yeah, that’s right.

Deanna Day Young (13:45.58)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (13:52.731)
Definitely.

Kathi (14:01.211)
putting your food budget towards those fancier holiday meals. I follow somebody on TikTok. It’s called, she’s called Dollar Store Meals. And she really, she is so good about going to the Dollar Store because that is the most popular store in the United States. Like there are more of those than Walmart, than Target, than any of those. Because they’re often in rural areas like mine.

Deanna Day Young (14:11.744)
Mmm.

Deanna Day Young (14:23.651)
Oh.

Kathi (14:30.311)
And she says, you know, here’s how to buy a week’s worth of groceries for $20. And she’s done holiday meals beforehand. And so like with like a ham steak and things like that. And so just see what can you do with, you know, can you budget and use up the things you have that are in your pantries, in your freezer.

Deanna Day Young (14:30.379)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (14:36.212)
Yes.

Kathi (14:56.575)
so that later on you can do a little bit more with your holidays. And that also makes sure that your food doesn’t go to waste. Okay, we’re gonna take a quick break. We’re gonna come right back and Deanna’s gonna talk to us all about listening. We are going to want to, if we can listen and save a few bucks, it’s a good day. Okay, we’ll be right back.

Deanna Day Young (15:01.174)
Yes, that’s great.

Kathi (15:22.711)
Okay, we are back with Deanna Day Young and we are talking about how to save money during the holidays. Okay, Deanna, number six.

Deanna Day Young (15:30.846)
Number six for me is listen to what people like, what they want, what they enjoy. Maybe it’s something memorable from the past. And so like, what could you go back and do and perhaps get something that may not cost any money? So let’s just, so listen to them throughout the year. And maybe it’s like for me, my neighbor, she’s 83, I think it is, and she said,

I never go out and look at Christmas lights anymore. She’s widowed now, her kids don’t live here. She has one granddaughter that she doesn’t get to see a lot because she lives a little bit far away, but now she has her own daughter. She’s like, I just really miss going out and seeing Christmas lights and she doesn’t drive after dark. So last year I said, you know what we’re gonna do for Christmas?

Kathi (16:23.076)
Right.

Deanna Day Young (16:27.466)
we’re gonna go drive around and we’re gonna look at Christmas lights. And that’s exactly what we did. We went and we had dinner together at a local restaurant. And then we went out and I drove her around to three different local towns. And we just looked at Christmas lights. Wherever she wanted to go, like she said, I know so and so lives here and they usually have Christmas lights. So we just drove and looked at that. Otherwise we had a little map.

Kathi (16:53.884)
Oh, perfect.

Deanna Day Young (16:56.322)
from our local bank, and they have like a little place, you know, almost like a little scavenger hunt, that you can go and look at different Christmas lights. So we followed that map, and it went into three different local towns, and that was one of her best gifts that she said that she remembers. It was just time that we were able to spend together, but I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I listened to her. I listened to her say, I don’t drive after dark. I listened to her say, I haven’t seen Christmas lights.

Kathi (16:56.558)
Yeah.

Yes.

Kathi (17:02.915)
Yeah.

Kathi (17:16.216)
Yes.

Kathi (17:23.555)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (17:26.218)
in a lot of years because of that reason and because she’s widowed and didn’t have anyone to take her around. So that was her Christmas gift from me this last year was just really the gift of time and getting to do something that she always wanted to do for the last several years but wasn’t able to.

Kathi (17:44.467)
I love it and you know we do that every year with my mom and it’s one of her favorite things one of our favorite things It’s amazing Okay And it’s free. You know, I know gas costs money little snackies but you can also like we used to do bring a thermos of decaf coffee or of Hot chocolate and then bake some cookies and you are ready to rock and roll. Okay number four

Deanna Day Young (17:59.242)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (18:04.932)
Exactly.

Yep.

Deanna Day Young (18:11.534)
That’s right.

Kathi (18:13.207)
I will say make your travel plans now. So, oh, I’m sorry, thank you. Okay, number seven, make your travel plans as early as possible. Get those hotel reservations if you need it. Get those Airbnb. You pay for a lack of planning. I pay for a lack of planning on a regular basis.

Deanna Day Young (18:15.99)
Number seven, Kathy.

Deanna Day Young (18:21.462)
Hehehe

Deanna Day Young (18:35.502)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (18:39.291)
And I’m not doing it anymore. I’m taking a look at my calendar months in advance if I can’t. But make those reservations early. You will have more choices. You’ll have more flexibility. And also, you’ll know what you’re getting into. Roger and I are going to an Airbnb next week. And I’m like, do they have a coffee maker? These are important things to know. And they don’t.

So I’ve got a mini coffee maker I am bringing with me so I can save money instead of going out to Starbucks and doing those kind of things. No we’re bringing we’re DIYing it and especially if you’re driving you can do that. We’re flying. So you know how committed I am to this coffee plan. But yeah why do places exist without coffee? I don’t understand. But make your pro your plans as early as possible and know what the situation is so that you can accommodate for that.

Deanna Day Young (19:10.059)
Uh-huh.

Deanna Day Young (19:22.026)
That’s right.

Kathi (19:36.127)
Okay, number eight, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (19:39.434)
Number eight is to ship directly including, to save, excuse me, ship directly with gift cards included to save on shipping to far away people. So if you wanna give a gift to someone that is not going to be in person, ship it to them directly so that it saves on your shipping cost to you and then you going and shipping it to them, if possible. Sometimes, you know,

Kathi (20:05.977)
Right.

Deanna Day Young (20:10.07)
you want to include something that you’re getting. That’s obviously reasonable. But gift cards, so last year our daughter wasn’t able to come home for Christmas. So we’re like, what can we do to get her, these different things that she really did want, well, or we thought maybe she might like. And so I even purchased gift cards online.

that were sent directly to her. So you can purchase the gift card online, but then it will say what email address do you wanna use? And then I just put her email address into it. So then the gift card went directly to her. It was for a local spa. So I just went in there and she lives in Michigan. And so I just went in there and I bought the gift card, but the email address went directly to her. So we didn’t even, you know,

Kathi (20:47.919)
Yes.

Kathi (20:55.366)
Oh nice.

Deanna Day Young (21:07.974)
I mean, we didn’t even have to get a card and send it in the mail. The other thing for us, we are a little nervous of sending gift cards in the mail during holiday times. People can feel that there are gift cards in there. So that’s something to think about. But as this podcast is on how we can save money, if there’s a way to ship directly for somebody who’s not gonna be there in person with you, it’s a great idea to do that so that you don’t pay double shipping.

Kathi (21:16.46)
Yeah.

Kathi (21:35.351)
Yeah, I love that. And I’ll tell you something that we did for a friend who lives very far away. We were all, a bunch of us were sending her gift cards and through the email. Excuse me, through email. But we wanted it to be a surprise. So we set up a Yahoo account for her that said,

Deanna Day Young (22:02.42)
Oh!

Kathi (22:03.023)
her name, Christine, and then we put some random numbers after it, at yahoo.com, and we sent them all there. And then we gave her the password to that email address, and she was able to redeem all of those. Isn’t that? And it doesn’t cost you a thing. It’s super simple, super easy. I think it was actually a Gmail account, but it doesn’t matter. It worked out perfectly. OK. I’m going to continue with the gift card theme.

Deanna Day Young (22:15.074)
That’s awesome! I love that! It’s a great idea! It doesn’t! Oh!

Deanna Day Young (22:28.298)
Yeah, I love that.

Kathi (22:32.587)
And this is gonna sound a little scraggly, but stick with me, okay? 80% of Americans have gift cards that they have not redeemed for a year or longer. What if, you know, like I have GameStop gift cards. Deanna, why do I have GameStop gift cards? I have no clue. I’m guessing.

Deanna Day Young (22:33.247)
Okay.

Deanna Day Young (22:37.671)
I’m with you.

Deanna Day Young (22:57.416)
I’m not sure.

Kathi (23:00.399)
that like when we moved we were cleaning out drawers and these were ones that our boys had received. But can I now use those GameStop gift cards to buy my son the game he wants? Could I now use some of those Starbucks cards to send a pound of coffee to somebody that I love? Okay, I probably won’t do that because I use all the Starbucks gift cards. Let’s be super clear. But.

Deanna Day Young (23:13.867)
Yes.

Kathi (23:28.619)
You know, I’ve received Tarpa, excuse me, target gift cards for rebates, like $5 rebates. Those add up and I can use those to send a gift card. So if you have some scraggly gift cards, use those to send a gift to, you know, somebody that somebody was very sweet and bought you a spa gift card, but you’re not going to use it. That’s not your spa doesn’t take that, whatever it is.

Deanna Day Young (23:36.17)
Yeah. Right.

Deanna Day Young (23:42.635)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (23:53.141)
Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (23:56.586)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (23:58.255)
for somebody in your life who would love a spa gift card. I will say check to make sure that you, that there is money on that gift card. I’ll never forget, Roger received a pound of Godiva one time with a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card on it. The gift card had no money. Which I, we think.

Deanna Day Young (24:01.743)
Oh, that’s great.

Deanna Day Young (24:21.318)
Oh shoot!

Kathi (24:23.227)
that, you know, we don’t know what happened. And he wasn’t close enough to the person to say, did you mean that? He just said, thank you effusively and moved on. But dig through your gift cards. We had a lot of movie gift cards that we bought right before the pandemic and then we couldn’t use. Now we can use those to buy movie gift certificates for people we love. It’s a great way to go. Yeah, yeah. Okay, number 10, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (24:46.826)
Yes, that’s great. That really is. That’s very good.

Kathi (24:53.347)
Bring us home with this entire series!

Deanna Day Young (24:56.474)
Okay, how to save money during the holidays here. We’re gonna look into our closets. So don’t buy new clothes, but rather make a game out of what’s in your closet. I have done this for years. When I worked at my old job, oh my gosh, it just became a game for us. I started the day after Thanksgiving, and I tried to go the entire time of not doing the same outfit. Doesn’t mean the same thing, but the same outfit for all the days.

Kathi (25:08.14)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (25:25.238)
to incorporate Christmas. Now, that doesn’t mean that I have 30 Christmas sweaters. That means that maybe I have a Christmas scarf. Maybe I wear a red turtleneck one day. Maybe I wear a green sweater another day. Bring in pins. I used to collect pins. And when I minimized those and decluttered my pins I didn’t wear, I did keep my Christmas ones. So maybe I have a big angel pin.

Kathi (25:31.468)
Right.

Deanna Day Young (25:54.442)
that I wear different necklaces that are red or maybe it has a Christmas pendant on it or earrings that have Christmas on it. So don’t think that you have to buy a new Christmas outfit. I used to think that years ago, but we don’t have to have new Christmas outfits. Find a way to put what you have together to make a new outfit for you and then just make a game out of it.

Kathi (26:11.066)
Yeah.

Kathi (26:18.058)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (26:22.83)
as in one of the podcasts that we did here, I can’t remember which one, if it was on saving space, but you were talking about the outfits that we wear, have your holiday go-to outfit. You don’t have to wear different outfits everywhere you go. You can have that holiday go-to outfit or look in your closet like I’m saying, put things together, make yourself a new outfit from the things that you already have.

Kathi (26:38.756)
No.

Kathi (26:49.251)
Yes, because you’re not going to see the same people at different places So you can wear that same outfit over and over and over again And let me just also remind you because this is a decluttering podcast My my biggest tip is if when you’re going through those Christmas sweaters or I’ve got a lot of long-sleeve Christmas shirts That just have like a saying, you know, jolly everywhere or something like that If you’re not wearing them anymore

Deanna Day Young (26:55.394)
That’s right.

Deanna Day Young (27:13.258)
Yeah.

Kathi (27:17.295)
donate them right away. Somebody is going to love that for their Christmas outfit, especially if you have kids that have Christmas clothing. Donate it, somebody is going to be thrilled. Deanna, this has been such a great series. Thank you so much for hanging out with me.

Deanna Day Young (27:18.976)
right?

Deanna Day Young (27:33.353)
So much fun. Thank you for letting me.

Kathi (27:35.659)
And friends, if you’ve enjoyed this series, would you consider giving us a five star rating wherever you listen to podcasts? Maybe it’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you love your podcasts. Those ratings help more than you know. And I’ll just tell you, we super appreciate them. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy, I’m Cathy Lip. And now go create the clutter free life you were always intended to live.

Woohoo!

Deanna Day Young (28:02.999)
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#595 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

#595 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

by | Dec 12, 2023 | Christmas, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, Gifting, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

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595 – Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

Kathi and her guest Deanna Day Young are returning for part three of their discussion on how to design your holiday gameplan! This week they are helping us know what to do when we are low on energy.

Listen in as they share ten ideas that will help us all to:

  • Think through what is most important.
  • Set realistic expectations.
  • Divide responsibility among family members.
  • Take care of ourselves.
  • Use our resources wisely.

Next week Kathi and Deanna will finish the series by talking about what to do when you’re low on money. Sign up here to be notified when the next episode is released. Did you miss the first two episodes of this series? You can find them here:

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

 

 

The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home

Homesteading [hohm-sted-ing]
noun
1. an act or instance of establishing a homestead.
2. the act of loving where you live so much that you actively ignore the fact that your house is trying to kill you on a regular basis.

For Kathi Lipp and her husband, Roger, buying a house in one of the most remote parts of Northern California was never part of the plan; many of life’s biggest, most rewarding adventures rarely are.

Kathi shares the hard-won wisdom she’s gained on her homestead journey to help you accomplish more at home, gain fresh perspective, and give yourself grace in the process. Here’s a handful of the lessons Kathi shares:

  • Prepare before the need arises
  • Everything is always in process, including us
  • Your best household solution is time and patience
  • You don’t have to do everything the hard way
  • Be open to new and better ways of doing things
  • A lot of small changes make a huge difference.
    Highly practical, humorous, and inspirational, The Accidental Homesteader will encourage you to live with more peace, joy, and contentment.

Order your copy of The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home here.

Links Mentioned:

Deanna Day Young 

The Christmas Project Planner

Apple Hill in Placerville, California

Ace Hardware

Costco Holiday Paper Plates

Favorites:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Which tip that Kathi and Deanna gave is most helpful to you when you feel low on energy? Share your answer 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 

 

Deanna Day Young

Deanna lives in southeast Indiana on the Young family farm with her husband of 35 years. She and Roger have two grown daughters.

Deanna is the Director of Operations for Iron Timbers, a family-owned custom furniture business featured currently, and for several years, on HGTV’s Good Bones show. Prior to this position, she was a paralegal and managed the international trademark portfolio for 34 years for the Hill-Rom division of Baxter International. Deanna has a degree in Journalism and Speech Communications from Ball State University and a Paralegal Certification from Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fun Fact – Deanna and her daughter are also Chi Omega sorority sisters!! Hoot Hoot.

You can connect with Deanna at deannadayyoung.com

Transcript

Kathi (00:04.387)

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 back for part three of our series,

about your holiday gameplan when you’re low on energy. And I have been there, Deanna, how about you? Have you been there? You, you’ve got a broken foot right now. You are healing. Ankle, sorry, ankle, yes. And that, can we just say, when you break a bone, when you break anything, it’s exhausting, right?

Deanna Day Young (00:46.21)

Oh, absolutely.

Deanna Day Young (00:50.318)

I’m glad to work an ankle. I am healing. Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (01:01.287)

Oh, it is abs and for me, not being able to walk is worse. I mean, everybody has a this was the worst. This was the worst. But man, not being able to walk to me is just yeah, it’s pretty tough. So it does zap your energy both physically and mentally to have to go through those things. But I think also for the purpose of our conversation today, sometimes our energy is that because we put too many things into our schedules and we’re trying to do all the things when the holidays roll around. So hopefully we’ll give everybody 10 tips to try and help with that energy.

Kathi (01:30.201)

Yeah.

Kathi (01:38.915)

Well, it’s so true because we have our regular life, which does not stop. And then we’re trying to put this part-time plus job on top of it with holidays. So I wanna talk about this. Okay, so my number one tip is assign everyone a meal to cook for your celebrations. Now, this could be my son who doesn’t cook, this could be him bringing KFC for everybody. I do not care.

Deanna Day Young (01:44.118)

Absolutely.

Deanna Day Young (01:50.74)

Right.

Deanna Day Young (01:58.976)

Love it.

Deanna Day Young (02:09.759)

I love that, I love it.

Kathi (02:09.931)

Just get some food on the table. That’s what we need from you. Yeah, so, and let me be very, very clear here. I think that this is really important with all of the things we’re talking about to have a conversation with everybody in your household to say, this is what’s important to me for the holidays. I wanna hear what’s important for you to the holidays.

Deanna Day Young (02:15.391)

Right, right.

Kathi (02:40.247)

How can we work on this together? Because I’ll just say, I think it’s really important that everybody in the family participates. Even if Christmas isn’t as important to them as it is to you, they should be, as a family, this is what we do. As a family.

Deanna Day Young (02:59.522)

Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (03:04.81)

And the book that you wrote, The Christmas Project Planner, I love, love that book. And one of the things that you say in there is what is the most important thing for you from a food perspective? Because you were trying to use all your energy to make all the things. And I think you used in that book that like Roger’s cranberry cheesecake or there was some kind of a particular thing that like.

Kathi (03:09.036)

Yeah.

Kathi (03:20.45)

Yeah.

Kathi (03:29.208)

Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (03:33.022)

everybody wanted, but maybe they didn’t want this other thing that you were spending your energy on.

Kathi (03:37.875)

Right. Well, and like, I remember thinking I needed to make homemade stuffing. Can I just say, StoveTop is my favorite food in the entire world. Why would, why mess with perfection? I love StoveTop.

Deanna Day Young (03:48.566)

We do the same. Add a little, yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely. Let me tell you what I do. I do two things of stove, we have, I think there’s 13 of us, anyway. So I do two things of stove top stuffing. I put it in a baking pan. I take some chicken broth, I pour over it, and I bake it. No one knows that it’s not grandma’s recipe. I’ve never, only Roger and I know. Yep, nobody said a word and they all love it.

Kathi (04:09.591)

Yeah?

Kathi (04:15.839)

It’s so perfect!

Love it and you could do that without butter. You just put the chicken broth in there or do you put some butter in there, too?

Deanna Day Young (04:26.522)

I put a little bit of butter when I make it, like when you make it on the stove. Yes, yeah, I make it. Yeah, yeah.

Kathi (04:28.679)

Okay, oh, got it. You put the made, I understand now you put the prepared. Oh, okay. I’m gonna have to try that. Yes. Okay. So yeah, assign everybody. This is what I’m doing for our next thing. And because I will tell you, Deanna, I have a bunch of backseat chefs in my family who want to tell me how to make things. And I’m like, no, you get your butt up and you make

Deanna Day Young (04:53.794)

Oh.

Kathi (04:58.707)

Yeah, yeah, we’re not we’re not playing that game anymore. So everybody cooks and people love to cook their specialty. And okay, maybe not everybody cooks, but everybody provides. Pick up that bucket of KFC. It’s going to be great. I love it. Okay. Number two, Deanna, you’re talking about expectations here.

Deanna Day Young (04:58.722)

There you go.

Deanna Day Young (05:21.77)

Yes, to set realistic expectations. And in our last podcast, we talked a little bit about don’t try to make it the social media perfect Christmas. And I feel like it’s the same thing from your energy perspective. It doesn’t have to be a picture perfect holiday. Now, you may say, these are all the things I wanna try to do for Christmas, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Put it on a list, but prioritize that list.

Kathi (05:32.035)

Mm-hmm. Right.

Deanna Day Young (05:50.07)

Because when other things pop in that have to be done, you’ve got to prioritize lists to say, man, you know what, driving around and seeing Christmas lights was my priority. So that’s number one. I want to get that done, so let’s fit that into the list. But set those realistic expectations that maybe you can’t do everything every weekend that you wanted to do.

but what are those priorities? And ask your family or those that are involved what their priorities are as well so that together you set those realistic expectations as a family.

Kathi (06:27.891)

Yeah, Deanna, when we first started, you know, every year we go and look at Christmas lights and we had a seven passenger van which worked for our whole family. And it was so fun. I started off by making a big thing of hot chocolate and baking cookies, because you know, we wanted to do that. Now it’s just Roger, me and my mom who go and look at that. We drive through Starbucks. Like we

Deanna Day Young (06:36.727)

Yeah!

Deanna Day Young (06:52.647)

Yeah!

Kathi (06:54.771)

Yeah, I mean it’s more expensive but we can get a cookie we can get a coffee that we want it makes a real difference Okay number three decide in advance what you want your holidays to look like then everybody in the house takes a role So we already talked about that but I it is not up to mom. It is not up to wife Unless you’re single it is not solely up to you what your Christmas looks like. So, you know if somebody wants

Deanna Day Young (06:59.374)

That’s right.

Kathi (07:24.511)

And this is so important. Let me say this, Deanna. So the number of times that I’ve heard of women asking their husbands for help to get ready for a party, and like, you know, I need help dragging out the chairs, I need help setting up the tables, I need help cleaning off the patio, and the husband decides this is the time to repaint the house.

Deanna Day Young (07:50.321)

Yes.

Kathi (07:53.091)

or clean out the basement? No. Sometimes we have to be very, very specific about what the roles need to be. Okay, number four, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (07:53.25)

Yes.

Deanna Day Young (08:06.57)

Number four, clean before you put up your Christmas decorations and then highlight clean. So.

Kathi (08:12.427)

Okay, I’ve never heard the term highlight clean before. What does that mean? I get an idea, but.

Deanna Day Young (08:15.634)

Oh, yeah. So I have done this for years. So you clean really good one day a month, like at the beginning of the month. I mean, really, really good. And then you kind of highlight clean is what I’m saying. So I’ll explain that to you because if, if you are hosting Thanksgiving as I do, I’m cleaning really good right before Thanksgiving. And then the day after we have our Thanksgiving celebration, I’m putting up my Christmas decorations.

So this is my tip based on that. But whatever your schedule is, I would recommend cleaning really good right before you put your Christmas decorations up, to where you feel like people are coming over and I want my house to be really clean. The highlight cleaning for me is I do, I have a schedule. I’ve done this literally for probably 10 years. I think I read it in the Fly Lady book years and years ago.

Kathi (09:10.208)

Okay.

Deanna Day Young (09:13.186)

And so anyway, Monday is mirror and glass. Tuesday is bathrooms. Wednesday is sweeping the carpet. Thursday is sweeping and mopping the tile. Friday is dusting and Saturday is cleaning out my vehicle, sweeping out the garage. You don’t have to do all those too, but it’s a highlight. So I go in and I say, oh my gosh, those mirrors from people brushing their teeth, I need to just wipe those off real quick. That’s a Monday chore.

Kathi (09:31.776)

Right.

Kathi (09:40.424)

Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (09:41.57)

Tuesday bathroom chore, just clean out your sinks and swish a little bit into the pot. It doesn’t mean you have to clean and wipe down the showers and scrub them through the whole month of December. It’s okay. Wipe them down, spray them off, keep a squeegee in the shower. Everybody can do their own as the time comes. With the carpet, maybe it’s just you’re only gonna sweep the living room where everybody is and the dining room doesn’t have to be swept that week. Thursday for the tile, maybe you don’t have to mop.

Maybe that mopping is only once every other week instead of every week. And then just dust the spots that you can see that aren’t decorated. It’s just a highlight dust. And then, you know, I don’t really like, I take everything out of my vehicle when I get out that’s garbage or doesn’t really belong or that needs to go. But that’s a good day to be able to like look and say, I’m gonna get stuff out of my vehicle just because as we go places, we don’t have all this junk in there. I gotta put gifts or I gotta highlight things in there.

Kathi (10:18.86)

Right.

Kathi (10:40.899)

Love it. I love it. Yes. It’s just a keeping up because you’ve got enough to do and if you put enough decorations on something You don’t have to clean it for a while. That’s that’s a Okay, here’s number five buy some of the food you’d normally prepare from scratch so I love I think it’s just as Lovely to buy something locally as it is to prepare it from scratch

Deanna Day Young (10:49.93)

That’s exactly right.

Kathi (11:09.759)

So we have an Apple Hill here that has like apple cider donuts and you know, apple cider, all these apple, apple things that our family loves. So why not just buy the apple cider donuts and call it a day instead of? And then it’s so interesting here. Do you have ACE Hardware’s where you’re at? Okay. I don’t know if they do this, but at our ACE Hardware’s.

Deanna Day Young (11:27.316)

Absolutely.

Deanna Day Young (11:33.343)

Yes.

Kathi (11:39.011)

they have freezers that have locally made pies. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? And so we recently bought a pie there that we’re gonna be using for Thanksgiving. And exactly, I love it. And then, you know, we have wineries here. Now we don’t make our own wine, but you know, those are great to give as gifts and things like that. Anything you can get locally.

Deanna Day Young (11:43.698)

Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really go into our ACE Hardware. That is interesting.

Deanna Day Young (11:54.739)

That’s awesome.

Kathi (12:08.747)

Is real I consider that so thoughtful you’re supporting local Artesians and you are you’re making you know, and sometimes they can make stuff yummier than you. Okay We are going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back and then number six Talking about energy. Oh, you’re gonna go there. You’re gonna talk about okay. We’ll be right back

Deanna Day Young (12:08.779)

Right.

Deanna Day Young (12:20.587)

Yes.

Kathi (12:35.859)

Okay, we’re back with Deanna. She’s gonna tell us how to have more energy. Go ahead, Deanna. Be everybody’s health fit auntie.

Deanna Day Young (12:42.231)

Well, I just…

Deanna Day Young (12:46.13)

And it’s not that I am any picture perfect of health fit, but I have found these things over the year. Well, that’s true. That is true. And that is so very frustrating because I just started back up with a trainer and I only trained about two weeks. So anyway, it’s okay. We’re figuring it out as we go along. But so my suggestion for number six for us to have more energy is to really

Kathi (12:50.243)

Well, dude, you can’t walk right now, so we’re gonna give you a pass.

Kathi (13:05.059)

You’ll get there.

Deanna Day Young (13:12.194)

Stay active before you know that you’re gonna be eating more carbs and sugar during the holidays, even if it’s just for short walks. So, you know, maybe you say, oh my gosh, my day is just absolutely filled. Can you get up 15 minutes earlier and take a walk around the block or get on the treadmill a little bit? Something that really, and I think, I guess I shouldn’t say that I know that there’s scientific evidence behind this, but I think there is, that if you get something started in the morning, if you go for a walk,

it really does give you more energy.

And the other tip that I just think is so important, when we go, whether it’s at our home or whether it’s to an outing that you have at church, people go through the line and they pick up their food,

then they just go ahead and get their dessert then. Because you’re hungry and everything looks good and you get six pieces of dessert and then you feel bad and you don’t wanna throw them away so you eat them all. Just go through the line and get what you want for your meal. When you’re finished, sit for a few minutes and then go get your dessert. And things won’t look quite as tempting. It’s kinda like going to the grocery store hungry. It won’t look quite as tempting. And so then you’re eating less sugar, less carbs, which in turn gives you more energy.

Kathi (15:02.843)

Okay, okay. Can I tell you my pet peeve about buffets? And my s- okay. You know when you’re setting up the buffet and you put your plates at the front? Why do people put forks, knives and spoons and napkins at the front of the buffet? That- it- it makes me crazy! I need both-

Deanna Day Young (15:08.668)

Yes.

Deanna Day Young (15:18.316)

Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (15:25.678)

Yeah, that’s true.

But you know what I do? Yeah, I set mine. So I set my table, like my dining room table. If it’s at my house, if I’m hosting, the dining room table is set with the napkins and the silverware. And so all they have to do is get the plates.

Kathi (15:32.555)

What do you mean? Okay.

Yeah, I-

Kathi (15:41.807)

Okay. So if you’re setting up a buffet and you’re putting the forks, knives, spoons, napkins on it, on the buffet table, put them at the end. We don’t need to be messing with those at the beginning. And especially if there’s a long line, we don’t want to have to cut in line to come back and get them. No, no, no. I need both hands for getting my food. I want my food. I want to be scooping, and I don’t want to be dropping my random spoon into the buffet.

Deanna Day Young (15:53.718)

That’s a good point.

I love that.

Deanna Day Young (16:02.626)

That’s good. Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (16:10.125)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi (16:11.663)

Put them at the end, rant over. Okay. Yeah, and so don’t ever buy one of those things that has like, it’s a holder for plates and forks and knives and spoons and napkin. No, you don’t need that. You don’t need that, especially if you’re trying to save space. Okay, number seven, hire help the day before and the day after. Remember, we’re talking about saving energy here, not money, because you have to figure out which of your resources you have the most of. If money is your struggle,

Deanna Day Young (16:14.721)

Good job.

Kathi (16:41.411)

then listen to next week’s podcast because we’re gonna talk about what if you’re low on money. But right now we’re talking about energy. So when I was a teenager, we would always have our holidays with another family, like an extended family, not our family, if they were across the street. And we went to a very fancy Thanksgiving or Christmas, I’m not sure, I can’t remember which one it was, in San Francisco,

with very rich people. And we would go, you know, we would usually just go across the street to their daughter’s house, but this was the fancy one. And they had somebody in a maid’s uniform, remember this was 40 years ago, doing all the dishes. Like they came in, helped set up and did all the dishes. And I thought, that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard of in my entire life. That is genius.

So because we don’t celebrate on the holiday, we could actually do that. We could hire somebody to come in and do that. Or we hire somebody locally. She’s somebody who’s retired and she needs some supplemental income. We hire her when we have retreats to bake cakes for us. She needs the money, we need the help. Could you hire somebody to clean your house? There are…

places that will hang all your Christmas lights, if that’s important to you. There is a college student that could send out your Christmas cards for you. We have a local ravioli shop here, and so we’ll buy Christmas raviolis and make those, or tamales, you know, tamales is a great thing to do for Christmas. So if you have a little bit more money than time, hire somebody to do one of these projects for you. Okay.

Deanna Day Young (18:16.958)

Oh, good one.

Deanna Day Young (18:37.427)

I love that.

Kathi (18:38.619)

Yeah, yeah, and you’re helping people that you love who need some extra cash. Yeah Right Yeah, yes

Deanna Day Young (18:44.3)

And those college kids that are home that really can’t have a job at home during the holidays, perhaps. Yeah, that’s great. I love that idea. Good one.

Kathi (18:51.531)

Yeah Have them have them hang your lights do your you know frosty the snowman decorations do it all. I love it Okay number eight

Deanna Day Young (19:02.646)

Number eight is another kind of healthy one that I wanted us to think about is to drink plenty of water and don’t overdo the coffee and the caffeine drinks because we’re very tempted to do that when we are looking for more energy. But the problem is we may drink six cups of coffee when in reality we only drink one or two. That does make us feel good for the time, but then you crash. The same with energy drinks. You may only drink one a day, but you decide I’m gonna drink one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

So I can stay up till one o’clock in the morning. And that’s just, that’s not the way to do it. Fill yourself with water. I’m not saying don’t drink your coffee, don’t drink your energy drink, but I do think that if we can stay on top of like drinking more water and doing some of the things even like number six that I said about staying active, it’s gonna keep us from having that crash and it’s gonna keep our energy level where we want it.

Kathi (19:54.387)

I love it. Yes. I’ve got an alarm that is set to remind me to drink water throughout the day because I just don’t even think about it. OK. Number nine. Make ahead dishes and fancy paper plates. OK. Let me let me give my justification here. So like one of the things I will make ahead this year is my apple cake because it freezes so well. It’s so good. It’s so dense and so moist.

Deanna Day Young (20:01.829)

Oh, that’s good.

Deanna Day Young (20:19.898)

Mmm.

Kathi (20:22.775)

that it freezes well and you can unfreeze it and enjoy it. But I can make that in November to eat at Christmas time. And it’s gonna be great.

Deanna Day Young (20:32.716)

Oh, will it save that one because I would want to eat it. You might have to make two.

Kathi (20:35.791)

I know. Well, you can see you can chop it ahead and you can just eat all the corners because that’s my favorite part. Yeah, it’s really good. And then I’m not a paper plate user. I’m married to an environmentalist. He’s a deep environmentalist. But I also understand that Roger and I manage 33 acres of forest. So we are conservationists at the holidays. I’m going to use paper plates. So

Deanna Day Young (20:41.214)

Oh, there you go. Yeah, sounds awesome.

Deanna Day Young (21:01.902)

There you go.

Kathi (21:03.699)

Get some nice paper plates that don’t have to be we have one dishwasher like most people in America Lots of people don’t have a dishwasher Use the paper plates when you need to Because I don’t want you crashing after all of this So Costco has a set of paper plates that we tend to buy each year And we just decorate around those and they look great But what can you make ahead of time even if you’re not making your Christmas dishes ahead of time?

Deanna Day Young (21:15.766)

I like it.

Kathi (21:32.495)

Can you make the food you eat that week ahead of time? And that’s gonna make a huge difference. Yes, exactly. Okay, number 10, Dino, bring us home.

Deanna Day Young (21:36.566)

Yeah, right, right. It goes back to meal planning, kind of back to meal planning.

Deanna Day Young (21:45.354)

Number 10, keep your routines as much as possible. Like get to bed early. And I’m not saying earlier, but if your bedtime is typically 10, try to keep those routines as much as possible, especially if you have children, because it’s so very hard for children to get out of the routine, to lose their energy, become grouchy. So keep routines as much as possible, like getting to bed early, your quiet times in the morning for Bible study. Sometimes I think we get so, you know, involved in this time of year that we just don’t even take our quiet time as seriously if we have one of those, if we have quiet time. We don’t take it as seriously. So don’t lose what your routines are. So keep your routines as much as possible. And I think from that, your energy level will stay high.

Kathi (22:33.915)

I love it. Okay, you guys, this is all of our best ideas to if you’re just running low on energy, this holiday season, these are some things you can do to get through, but also keep yourself safe and healthy. That’s what we want most from you. Okay, friends, you’ve been listening to Clutter-Free Academy, I am Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you were always intended to live.

 

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#565 How to Reclaim a Space In Your Home – Part 1

#565 How to Reclaim a Space In Your Home – Part 1

by | May 16, 2023 | Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, DIY, Getting Started, Gifting, Hard Stuff, Home, How to, Organizing, Overwhelmed, Perfectionism, Podcast, tips and ideas | 0 comments

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565: How to Reclaim a Space In Your Home – Part 1

Have you ever longed for a space to call your own? Welcome to your tribe! Today Kathi Lipp is joined by fellow book lover and Abundant Home Conference speaker Amy Betters-Midtvedt. Amy is an expert in all things home and parenting stirred with a super sized spoon of humor but today they talk about Amy’s decluttering path to carve out a space for something she loves: books. Listen in as Kathi and Amy discuss:

  • Creating small goals to decluttering bins of treasures from the past
  • Knowing when to ask for help
  • Giving yourself permission to change your plan

Here’s a photo of Amy Betters-Midtvedt’s fabulous Book Room that she and Kathi talked about in this episode.

Also, if you haven’t listened to  Kathi and Amy laugh through episode 547 Why I Don’t Eat Green Bananas Anymore, put that one in your queue!

The Clutter-Free Home: Making Room for Your Life

 

Longing for a place of peace from which you can love others well? The Clutter-Free Home is your room-by-room guide to decluttering, reclaiming, and celebrating every space of your home.

Let author Kathi Lipp (who once lived a life buried in clutter) walk you through each room of your house to create organizational zones that are not only functional and practical but create places of peace that reflect your personality. Kathi will help you tackle the four-step process of dedicate, decide, declutter and “do-your-thing” to reveal the home you’ve always dreamed of, and then transform it into a haven that reflects who you truly are meant to be.

If you’re also feeling overwhelmed by the care and upkeep of all the stuff under your feet or sense that your home is running you, instead of the other way around, come discover how to create a space that doesn’t have to be showroom perfect to be perfect for you and the people you love. life. Order your copy of The Clutter Free Home here.

Links Mentioned:

Amy Betters-Midtvedt website

Amy Betters-Midtvedt on Instagram

Amy Betters-Midtvedt on Facebook

Kathi’s Favorites:

The Clutter-Free Home

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life.

Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

30 Qt/7.5 Gal, Pack of 6 Stackable Plastic Storage Containers?

 

Tell us about one of your small decluttering goals in the comments below!

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Amy Betters-Midtvedt

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

You can connect with Amy at amybettersmidtvedt.com. 

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The Most Wonderful, Clutter Free, Gift-Giving Ideas for this Christmas

The Most Wonderful, Clutter Free, Gift-Giving Ideas for this Christmas

by | Dec 3, 2018 | Christmas, Clutter Free, Gifting, tips and ideas | 1 comment

Tell me if this sounds familiar, friends. Your family members make the lists of all the things they simply MUST have for Christmas. Each list alone might actually be pretty do-able, but as you shop for those must-have items you also pick up a few dozen “Oh, they’d like this” type of things.

Or, their list is all big-ticket items and they’ll only end up with one or two things under the tree. That doesn’t feel very Christmas-y, so you pick up a few more items – just some little things, really.

Or you get the under-the-tree stuff done and then are left with stockings to fill with…what? Hmm. Maybe I’ll just head to the dollar store and find a cute trinket or two or eight…

Any of that sound familiar?

I’ve had years when each of those have felt true. In my desire to make the holidays special I bought items for those I love to round out the Christmas gifts or to fill the stockings. Then, after Christmas I realized that what I had done was stuck a bow on clutter and brought it into my home. The aftermath of Christmas can be an avalanche of clutter on top of what you are already trying to purge. Enough of that nonsense. I’d like to avoid that this year. No clutter with bows, thank-you-very-much. Who’s with me?

Here’s my plan to prep my home for Christmas and to bring home less clutter, and more joy.

First Declutter

Mildred, a member of our Clutter Free Academy Facebook group, posted a picture of an empty laundry basket in front of a Christmas tree. Above it was their Elf on a Shelf and a sign that said, “You’ve got to Give to Get! Please fill up the basket with toys you no longer play with and I will take them to the North Pole for other kids.” What a brilliant idea!

There are so many things our children no longer love or play with. So many things our teens no longer use or wear. So many things that are taking up space in our closets and desks. What if we took an evening as a family to get the ball rolling to purge and donate before the gifts start flowing in? Let’s put our items in the laundry basket first and show the kids how it’s done!

Buy Stuff You’ll Use – Literally

When we polled the Clutter Free group for some clutter free gift ideas the number one answer to come in wasn’t the same thing, but the same kinds of things—consumables. These are things we can enjoy, while using up.

  • Bath fun: fizzies, crayons, bubbles, shower gel in favorite scents
  • Cologne or body spray (especially for those “fragrant” teens)
  • Make-up and nail polish
  • Favorite candy and treats that you don’t purchase often
  • Spice rubs and entertaining food sets
  • Special flavors of coffee, tea, or cocoa

What if we filled those stockings with things that wouldn’t be around in a month? Some of the sweetest gifts are those we use up and remember fondly rather than having to dust or trip over all the time. This mindset works well for those we are buying for outside our home as well. Give the blessing of clutter free gifts!

Let’s Do Something Fun

Experiences were the second most popular recommendation for clutter free gifts. When grandmas and grandpas ask for family gift ideas, we can share places we’d love to go and things we’d love to do instead of stuff we’d like to have. Here’s a few ideas:

  • Memberships for the zoo or a museum
  • Season passes to the amusement park, local pool, or state park
  • Trip to a local attraction, escape room, or some fun thing you’ve wanted to try
  • Gift card for dinner out together, coffee dates with mom or dad, or other special treats
  • Pampering gift cards for mani/pedis, massages

There are all kinds of things we could do together that would be more meaningful than another video game or a piece of clothing that will wear out. Asking for experiences can be a brilliant idea. One year a friend of mine asked her mom to give her family an evening at a local escape room from a Groupon deal. She got a money-saving deal and they had so much fun together. It was a clutter free win-win.

Think Outside Boxes

When it comes to Christmas giving, we love to give gifts that are meaningful. I think we need to reframe what a meaningful gift is – sometimes it doesn’t need to be something our loved one keeps forever. Simple and small can be special. Pampering is something we can enjoy to recharge and when the massage is over we aren’t burdened with clutter. Family experiences provide memories we can treasure in our hearts and require no dusting or storage.

This Christmas, just say no to more clutter and yes to gifts that we can consume to bring joy. Merry Christmas, indeed. (Kids, in case you are reading this – I will take a massage.)

 

Kathi Lipp is the author of 16 books including Overwhelmed, Clutter Free, The Get Yourself Organized Project, The Husband Project, and Happy Habits for Every Couple. She is the host of Clutter Free Academy the Podcast! with Kathi Lipp and speaks at conferences across the US. Kathi is also the creator of Communicator Academy and Leverage: The Speaker Conference, both designed to help writers and speakers become the communicator God has created them to be.

 

Episode #221- Wait and See with Wendy Pope

Episode #221- Wait and See with Wendy Pope

by | Oct 11, 2016 | Gifting, Patience, Podcast | 0 comments

Episode221WaitandSeewithWendyPope

Wait and See

In Wait and See, Wendy shares biblical wisdom on how to prepare for the future even as you participate in God’s work in the present. Drawing on the story of David, Wendy helps you exchange weariness and discouragement for hope and action. Instead of getting distracted with the object of your wait, you can grow closer to the Person of your faith—transforming your wait-and-see season into one of the sweetest seasons of all.

Waiting is not wasting time, it is training time. But waiting is hard and waiting, well, requires patience. But what if waiting well is like riding the waves and an opportunity to find pleasure in the experiences we are going through? This week Kathi talks with Wendy Pope about her new book Wait and See, Finding Peace in God’s Pauses and Plans. Wendy shares how it took 13 years for this book to be published, but through the waiting God worked in such a way, she would not trade the relationship built with Jesus for the world. Often times the waiting is where God actually prepares us for the work he already has already prepared for us. What are you going to take away from a life worth waiting well? Listen in and discover the value in waiting well.

 

Meet Our Guest

Wendy Pope

Wendy Pope

Wendy is the author of Wait and See. She is a contributing author to the Real-Life Women’s Devotional Bible, Encouragement for Today: Devotions for Daily Living, The Reason We Speak, and God’s Purpose for Every Woman. Wendy writes devotions for Proverbs 31 Ministries’Encouragement for Today and is a content provider for the free online devotion app First 5 as well as a member of the Proverbs 31 Ministries speaker team.

Wendy is the wife of Scott, mother of Blaire and Griffin, author, speaker, and Bible study teacher. She loves lazy Sundays watching golf with her husband, thrift-store shopping with her daughter, and watching building shows with her son.

Throw Some Light on Black Friday

Throw Some Light on Black Friday

by | Nov 25, 2015 | Blog, Christmas, Clutter Free, Gifting | 1 comment

Throw-some-light

For most of America, the day after Thanksgiving will be spent trying to get the most for the least amount of money. The winner will be the person who can grab the most toys, clothes, gadgets and doo-dads for the people on their list. Whether they need them or not.

Now, hear me well: there is nothing wrong with being a wise shopper and looking for the best deal on something that you know you want or something that someone you love wants, and you want to give it to them.

But what if you want to start building different values into your family taking back Black Friday is a great way – and day – to start.

As someone who has been in the position of being an unemployed single mom, I remember all too well having to rely on other people to make the holidays happen for my kids. I remember desperately wanting to get my kids certain toys, or a shirt that I knew my daughter would love, and not being able to because of my lack of funds.

WhatIfGiveFBThe highlight of my Christmas that year (besides seeing how other people stepped in to love on my kids, and myself) was the absolute thrill of finding some gently used items for my kiddos at Goodwill. I was able to get a little creative with a couple of finds at the local thrift store; there was the like-new art kit for my daughter, and an un-opened pack of Yu-gi-oh cards for my son (at the time, that was the score of all scores.) I found a couple of books from the series they were reading, and even a really cute top that I was able to wear to some Christmas parties.

As much as I want to make Jesus the center of everything I do during the holidays, I long in my mommy heart to bless my kids in a way that will demonstrate that I care about the unique, wonderful people they are. And sometimes, that means Legos or a tube of lip gloss.

Sadly, a lot of the time, donation centers are used instead of a recycling can – they receive so much unusable clothing (which, I do understand, that some centers can sell by the pound to recover some of the money for processing those items. Check with your donation center to see if they welcome this type of donation before making it.) Some of us wait until an item is unusable, undesirable, unfashionable and just plain unworthy until we are willing to get rid of it.

But what about donating those new red kitten heels that you wore once and never wore again because they pinched your feet. Instead of holding onto them for years, (because they cost so much money!) how about donating them and letting a mom with a limited budget feel pretty in those shoes.

Or how about the Barbie that your daughter had-to-have, but then lost interest in about twelve days after her birthday. If she no longer loves it, ask her to donate it so that some other little girl will have the chance to love it.

Or that second (or third) garlic press? Give another woman the chance to create Christmas dinner she wants by making her mom’s homemade marinara sauce (complete with freshly crushed garlic.)

What if we spent the day clearing out our homes in preparation of the abundance that’s about to hit in the next month instead of fighting crowds to get the best barging to fill up our home.

What if we taught our kids that there is even more joy in passing on things that others will love than owning everything and enjoying nothing?

What if winning was giving everything away until everything in your home was something you use, love, or would buy again.

What if the highlight of your Black Friday was donating clothes, tools, toys and books that others could love (and even wrap up for their own kids and families to put under the tree?)

What if Black Friday was marked, not by how much we buy, but how much we give?

Black Friday is November 27th this year. Would you consider joining me in figuring out how you can bless other families that will struggle to get something under the tree this year?

I can’t tell you how much this idea excites me: the thought of some of you, leading your families in the charge not only to declutter, but to give instead of focusing on all you can get? It just gives me shivers.WhatIfWinningFB

Here’s what you can do:

  1. Grab some extra boxes (or for clothes and toys, garbage bags). If you don’t have extra boxes piled up, just waiting for disposal, find a friend who shops with Amazon Pantry. I promise, they will have all the boxes you need.
  2. With the others you live with, come up with a goal. Let me be so bold as to challenge you: could you come up with 100 items to donate? 100 is doable, but will still challenge you and your loved ones to stretch. Set your goal and then work towards it together.
  3. Come up with a plan of action. When decluttering, it’s always great to pair a kid with an adult. When the adult is decluttering their area, the child can be the runner – putting things away, putting items into the donation box, etc. When decluttering the child’s area, the parent can be there to encourage the child to get rid of things they no longer love and use, but also can help with some wise decisions when a child is becoming a little too good at decluttering (like wanting to give away Aunt Edna’s antique quilt…)

Some things to consider giving away. No longer loved:

  • Bikes
  • Camping equipment
  • Books
  • Toys
  • Jackets
  • Purses
  • Backpacks
  • Jewelry
  • Clothes
  • Games
  • Puzzles
  • Ornaments
  • Christmas decorations

So, are you in? Tell me what you think about the challenge and invite others to join in. Remember to let let me know what you did and how it blessed you and your family at info@kathilipp.com or at my Facebook page.