#624 Decluttering Family Heirlooms: Navigating Emotional Attachments

#624 Decluttering Family Heirlooms: Navigating Emotional Attachments

624 Decluttering Family Heirlooms: Navigating Emotional Attachments

Hey there, friend! Do you ever feel like your home has become a storage unit for everyone else’s stuff?

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, hosts Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo address a common struggle for many listeners: what to do when family members, both parents and adult children, want to leave their belongings at your house. They discuss the challenges of being part of the sandwich generation, caught between aging parents trying to pass down heirlooms and adult children who may not have the space or desire for these items. Join Kathi and Tonya as they tackle the tough questions and offer practical advice for decluttering with compassion and clarity.

Listeners will discover:

  • The changing attitudes toward possessions among younger generations
  • How to navigate the disconnect between parents’ expectations and their children’s needs.
  • The importance of finding solutions that work for everyone

Whether you’re a parent looking to pass down treasured items or an adult child grappling with the influx of stuff, you’ll come away with a fresh perspective and actionable steps for creating a more peaceful, clutter-free home.

Click here to be notified when the next episode of Clutter Free Academy is released.

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

 

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:

Clutter Free Resources:

What are some creative ways to preserve memories and honor family history without holding onto physical clutter?

Share them 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.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi (00:00)
hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our heart is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life.

And I am here with Tonya Kubo, who is the leader over in our Clutter Free Academy Facebook group. And if you’re not a part of that, I don’t even know why not. It’s free, it’s amazing, she does such a great job there. But we are doing a new kind of episode here today. We’re calling it a mailbag episode. Tonya explain what we’re talking about here today.

Tonya Kubo (00:19)
Yeah.

Yeah, so what happens over in Clutter Free Academy, Clutter Free for Life, but it’s more pronounced over in Clutter Free Academy is, you know, folks join our community and they assume that they are the only person that struggles with clutter, or at least the only person who struggles with clutter like they do. And then they discover that there’s like, you know, we’ve got over 15 ,000 close friends in that group who have the exact same struggles as them, that they are not alone. At the same time, though, when they’re brand new, especially, they…

you know, they hesitate to ask certain questions because they don’t know what kind of response they’ll get. So oftentimes they will email me their question or they’ll send me a private message on Facebook with their question. And sometimes, you know, we’ll just have that private conversation. Other times I will generalize it and post it anonymously to the group and answer it that way. But what I realized is that our podcast listeners who aren’t in the Facebook group, they don’t get the benefit and they also don’t know.

that they can submit specific questions for us to answer here on the show. So what better way than to make all of that known is rather than is to have the mailbag episode.

Kathi (01:35)
Yes.

Okay, and I think we’re going to be doing this about once a month. So if you have a question, what’s the best way for them to ask it, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (01:50)
Well, you know what I would love for them to do is if they are in the group, then they can just post it to the group and say, hey, Tonya, consider this for a mailbag episode and put their question there. The reason I would love that is it gives everybody in the community an opportunity to speak into it. And I think that will help us make an even better episode. So they don’t just get Tonya and Kathi’s perspective, but they get everybody’s perspective. However, if you’re not in the Facebook group and Facebook isn’t your thing, email me at Tonya at kathilipp.org.

Kathi (02:03)
Mmm, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (02:20)
and just put mailbag in the subject line and I will take care of you from there.

Kathi (02:25)
I love it. Okay, so what is today’s mailbag question?

Tonya Kubo (02:30)
Okay, so we’ve titled the this episode with you know what to do when everybody wants to leave their stuff at your house. That was not the specific question that was asked at the same time. I think that is most likely the most acute problem a lot of our listeners have. So I’m going to tell you the question and we’ll answer that specific question, but it also speaks to the title of the episode. So stick with us on this. So the question that came in,

Kathi (02:49)
Yes.

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (02:59)
was from a parent, right? So sandwich generation, right? So they’ve got, they have parents and then, you know, they’ve got adult children. And the issue that they were, well, actually it was the observation that they made was that kids these days, and I use the term kids lightly, because I think to them, I would be a kid, but live differently. Young adults live differently now than they did 30 years ago.

Kathi (03:03)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (03:29)
And so what this member was acknowledging was that, you know, when they were 19, they were married and in their first home. And that home, that very first home was furnished with things that their parents had been saving for them for when they moved out of the house, right? They brought in their hope chest. They had, you know,

Kathi (03:47)
Right.

Tonya Kubo (03:51)
the hand -me -down dining room table, so on, so forth. And they were very appreciative of those things because it gave them a great start in life. And by the time they were 21, they already had kids and they were still, they have this history of welcoming items from either their parents or from their in -laws as they were building this house out. Fast forward to today, they’ve got kids in their late 20s, early 30s.

They don’t own a home. They maybe don’t even want to own a home. They don’t have kids. So here our member has been storing all this stuff, saving it up for their kids to take to help get them that strong start as they build their new home or they live with their family and their kids don’t have that need. And so their question is like, what do I do? Right? Because it feels it.

Kathi (04:25)
Right.

Right.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:50)
It feels bad. It feels like being a bad parent to get rid of that stuff. Because what if the kids need So tell me your thoughts, Kathi.

Kathi (04:56)
Right. So I think it’s interesting and you know, we’re talking about that sandwich generation. I will tell you that also my mom wants to give me stuff and also my kids don’t want to take the stuff that they want. You know what I mean? Like we had, we had a

Tonya Kubo (05:11)
Mm -hmm.

Mmm.

Kathi (05:25)
a situation where all the kids had moved out of the house and they were expecting us to store all of their stuff. So there’s so many different situations to this. So I would say to our gentle listener or, you know, Clutter Free Academy member is to say, it’s time to have a heart to heart with your kids and say, do you want this stuff? Will it serve you? And if they’re saying,

Tonya Kubo (05:34)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (05:54)
Yes, we want that stuff, but not now. You need to make the decision. Do you have the room and the desire to keep it until they’re ready for it? Or do you need to say that’s not really going to work for us now? Because here’s what I would gently say to our Clutter Free Academy member, that having that stuff for your kids could actually be costing them money.

You know, do they need an apartment that could handle that dining room table, that hope chest, that China, whatever that is. And like you said, a lot of people don’t live that way. You know, there’s also so many articles right now about how people who are in the baby boomer generation are living in these giant houses because it makes no financial sense for them to downsize.

Tonya Kubo (06:50)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (06:54)
It would actually cost them money so a lot of people who are in who are Millennials who need the bigger houses can’t have the bigger houses because it doesn’t make sense for baby boomers to move out like there are so many factors here at work and It I Know this that we have some friends who are in their early 30s They don’t want the stuff they want

to be able to move their entire house in the two cars that they own. They want to be able to live in cheap apartments and live that way. So I think it’s worth having that conversation. But here’s the key, being okay with whatever your kids tell you. So if they say, we don’t want the China cabinet, we don’t want the formal dining room.

Tonya Kubo (07:32)
Hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (07:53)
We don’t want those things to be okay to say, be okay with them saying that and you getting, you finding a new home for it. Now here is where I will push back on your kids having a say. If they say, I want all my stuff from my childhood, but I don’t have room for it.

Tonya Kubo (08:03)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:21)
then I think it’s up to the child to come back to the house and go through the stuff and say, you know, you can say, hey, I’m willing to keep two tubs of this or 10 tubs, whatever it is. You get to decide how much space you will allot to storing other people’s items. But it’s not, you have to keep it because I don’t want it. Does that make sense, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (08:32)
Mm -hmm.

It does, it makes complete sense. Because what I’m hearing is, first of all, you as the parent have only so much responsibility in this situation. I think that’s the big thing is it’s hard for parents to realize that as children grow up, they…

eventually come to a place where they need to take responsibility for their stuff, right? It’s no longer on you to store things for me. It is on me to take possession of the things that are important to me or to find a solution to keeping those things if my lifestyle right now doesn’t fit them.

Kathi (09:12)
Mm -hmm.

Yes. Tonya, here’s what I, the other point I want to make, and then we’re going to take a break and we’ll come back and talk more about this. What I see as being a major point of contention is I, as the parent, feel you should want this stuff. And what do you do with those feelings? So we’re going to take a quick break and come right back. Okay, we’re back.

We’re talking about when everybody wants to leave their stuff at your house. So if your kids are saying, I don’t want that stuff, and you’re saying, but you will someday, can I tell you? For me, that was not true. I don’t need a thousand of my baby pictures. I don’t need my bronze shoes. I don’t need X, Y, and Z. Now,

There may be parents out there who say, but you’re going to want this and it’s not true. And we have to trust our adult children to say, no, that’s not important to me. And that’s okay. It’s okay to say, I think that we come from a long line of people who, you know, I spent so much money bronzing these shoes. And to say, well then as a…

Tonya Kubo (10:38)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:55)
as a parent, you can keep those, but as a child, I don’t have to receive those. So I think it’s okay, and we have to, as parents, say it’s okay for our kids to say, what is important to me as a parent is not necessarily important to my child, and I have to be okay with that. That the stuff does not always represent a life. And…

Tonya Kubo (11:00)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (11:23)
You know, when my grandmother passed away, there were a thousand things I could have taken. I think I took four and that was enough to represent my relationship with my grandmother and my mom was okay with that. And so to be okay with the amount of stuff and not put a burden on our children to say, but you’re going to regret it someday. You’re going to regret. I think we instinctually know what will be important to us even 10 to 20 years from now.

Tonya Kubo (11:31)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (11:53)
And there are ways of preserving those things, taking pictures of them or incorporating them into our decor. But I don’t want storage boxes of my stuff that I then have to burden my children with. And I don’t want them to have storage boxes of stuff that then have to be a burden to them.

Tonya Kubo (12:06)
Mm -hmm.

Exactly. Well, and I think, you know…

What some parents worry about, and I’m, I think some adult kids, honestly, are not willing to have the hard conversation. You know, hard conversations don’t have to be conflict conversations. But a lot of times, you know, when, when mom says, well, but you want this, right? It’s just easier to say yes than to actually take a pause and say, you know, actually, mom,

Kathi (12:35)
Right.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (12:51)
No, I don’t. You know, I’m in my fourth apartment of my adult life and I’ve never seen a need to have my baby shoes or to have this or to have that. And, you know, I had a friend one time who her mom kept storing up stuff for grandbabies and my friend was having a very difficult time conceiving. And at one point,

we were cleaning out a closet and my friend was getting rid of all these things that had been stockpiled for her future children. And she says, you know, Tonya, I am just tired of holding space for babies that refuse to make an appearance. Right. And that was her thing. She was like, you know, I haven’t given up hope, but I need to stop like taking up all this space because the baby is just not here.

Kathi (13:32)
Right, wow.

Tonya Kubo (13:44)
And I was like, you know what, you’ve got a great point. And we did, we did a ton of decluttering. And the funny story was, is a year later, she ended up pregnant and we’re talking like 12 years of trying, right? She ends up pregnant and I asked her, I said, do you have any regrets? And she was like, no, I don’t actually. She goes, do you know how depressing it would have been to go through all those boxes and how overwhelming? She’s like, now I’m just going, okay, I know exactly how much space I have. I don’t have the, I don’t need a baby to fit the things that have been stored.

Kathi (13:44)
Right.

Of course. wow.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (14:12)
I can just buy what fits the lifestyle we have.

Kathi (14:12)
Yeah.

Hmm. You know what? It’s it’s so true. You know, everybody has to right size their life. And I think that there are some of us parents who are like, if I give this to my child, I’m not going to feel guilty for not wanting it.

Tonya Kubo (14:21)
Mm -hmm.

I think ultimately that’s really what it is, right? We all want to be good parents until the day we die. And I think sometimes what we, like our definition of a good parent isn’t always the same as our kids. And I think it’s a great idea to just have that conversation like you suggest.

Kathi (14:34)
and yeah right yes

Yeah, and it’s okay. I do not feel less loved because my kids do not want my stuff. And that we have a good relationship is the ultimate legacy I want to pass down, not my things. I also think that there is a space that we have to get into where my kids are not China people or quilt people.

Tonya Kubo (15:02)
Right.

Kathi (15:23)
or whatever it is, but there are those people out there who would love and appreciate those things. And so to find those people, it doesn’t have to be my child, but there are people who appreciate those quilts. There are people who appreciate milk glass. So find the people who will actually appreciate the things and…

Tonya Kubo (15:23)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:51)
You know, for the children who are out there who are like, I don’t want to keep the stuff. I don’t want to keep this stuff. May I gently suggest take some of the photographs, you know, take the photographs of you as a child, take the photographs of you with your parents and display a couple of those things that will be a signal to your parents about how much you appreciate them without having to have all the stuff in your household.

Tonya, for the kids who are listening, I would gently suggest having those conversations in small doses early and often and to let your parents know how much you love them without having to have this stuff. Did your mom try to put a lot of stuff on you, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (16:47)
My mother was a hoarder. Of course she did.

Kathi (16:49)
Of course she did. How did you, in a hoarding situation, this will be my last question for you, in a hoarding situation, how do you have that conversation? And I know hoarders don’t receive those things well, but what was, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (17:05)
I was like, you can’t have that conversation. You just can’t. So it’s the same advice I give members of our community all the time. It’s like, you have to make a decision. You can say yes to everything to keep the peace and get rid of it on your end, however you choose to. Knowing full well they’re going to ask where it is every time they come to visit you all the time. They’re going to expect to see it, to visit it, just like it’s a museum. So that’s one choice. The other choice is to say no.

and have that conflict over and over and over again because it very rarely will not let like will not end in a conflicted conversation. Or you can go to your parents’ house and say I will go through it here and throw those items, donate those items in front of them, which you have to recognize will cause them extreme grief and extreme anxiety.

Kathi (17:58)
You had to make a rule with your mom that she couldn’t leave stuff at your house, right?

Tonya Kubo (18:02)
Exactly. Everything that she came with, she had to leave with. And that was hard because from her perspective, we had all of this space. Why were we so selfish with our space? We had a garage. We didn’t need to park our cars in the garage. We could store stuff that she wanted to leave there. We had closets. I had a car trunk. Why couldn’t my stuff, why couldn’t her stuff stay in my car trunk?

Kathi (18:12)
Yeah.

It’s a heartbreak, it really is. Fortunately, most of us don’t have to deal with a true hoarder. Most of us just have to have an awkward conversation and you can do it. But if you’re a parent, know that them taking or not taking your stuff is not a sign of how much they love you. It’s a sign of how well you’ve raised them to live with less and that’s a good thing.

Tonya Kubo (18:36)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (18:55)
Friends, 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.

#623 – 10 Ways to Buy Less Clothing

#623 – 10 Ways to Buy Less Clothing

623 10 Ways to Buy Less Clothing

Feeling overwhelmed with your clothing budget and need some help?

In this episode, Kathi Lipp and her co-host Tonya Kubo provide busy women with practical strategies to curb clothing purchases while still loving your wardrobe. With 10 doable tips, listen how they: 

  • Use Pinterest for clothes you already own
  • Create a capsule wardrobe
  • Take advantage of a personal uniform

Whether you’re a mom managing ever-changing clothing needs for kids or a woman who wants to balance style and space, this episode provides the encouragement and tactics you need. Join Kathi and Tonya as they discuss real-life ways to shop smarter and use what you own.

Click here to be notified when the next episode of Clutter Free Academy is released.

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

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:

Rit Dye

Shout Color Catchers

Hate Stains (Kathi’s favorite stain remove)

Clutter Free Resources:

What things can you do to help you save during “No Buy July?”

Share them 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.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript
Kathi (00:00)
Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter -Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps every day to have less clutter and more life. And I am back with Tonya Kubo, and I’m not even joking, guys, this is our fourth time trying to record this episode. We really want you to have this information but apparently there are forces that do not want you to. And this isn’t about shame or guilt or fear. This is about buying less clothing. So I think it’s big clothing that is really messing with this podcast, Tonya Well, welcome back for the fourth time.

Tonya Kubo (00:33)
Ha ha!

Thanks for having me yet again!

Kathi (00:43)
Yet again, so guys, it’s so interesting. So we’re diving into this this coming month. We want you to have normally we’re talking about how to get stuff out of your house. But this a lot of our episodes a lot of our content this month is about bringing less stuff into your home. And so we’ve talked about that with food. I feel like clothing for us cluttery friends is one of those things where it’s very easy to Buy more than maybe we even love use or would buy again and Tanya you and I have talked about this before I would not consider you necessarily a clothes horse You always look cute. You just went to a wedding where you looked adorable You you you’ve had so many celebrations this month and you always look great

Tonya Kubo (01:35)
haha

Kathi (01:41)
I want to approach this from somebody who does probably, I like to buy clothes. Like that’s my thing. And since my body size has changed a lot over the past year, I’ve been buying more clothes. But you have two girls who are very into clothes for very different reasons. You’ve got Lily.

Tonya Kubo (01:49)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (02:08)
the the recycler, the upcycler, the she likes to buy from what am I trying to say there’s a word for she’s a thrifter that’s the word I’m looking for

Tonya Kubo (02:20)
Yes, Lily enjoys thrifting.

Kathi (02:24)
And then we have Abby who likes bright shiny things. Is this an accurate description of our two girls here?

Tonya Kubo (02:30)
Yes, yes, I would say so Lily wants nothing that is brand new or comes from a traditional store. Like she only wants thrift stuff and she will not set foot in a store unless she specifically needs an item.

Kathi (02:38)
Mm -hmm.

that’s really interesting. And then Abby, if she could have a brand new piece of clothing every single day, I’m sure that that would not be a problem for her.

Tonya Kubo (02:54)
That would actually not be enough. If she could have five new outfits a day, that might come close to meeting her needs.

Kathi (02:57)
Yeah.

I’ll never forget the first time she was really here at the Red House with us. And there were costume changes at least five times the first day she was here. There was an eating outfit. There was an outdoor outfit. There was a pre -bath outfit. There was an after bath outfit. So, but.

Tonya Kubo (03:14)
Yeah, we’re down to about three now. Three a day.

Hahaha

Kathi (03:28)
I do love clothes. I love them as an expression of who I am. And I do think that because I work full time and I’m on camera a lot, that there are, you know, I would like to have certain clothes and I would like to have those clothes be a reflection of who I am. So I also know though, that I can buy clothes mindlessly if I’m not intentional. And I’m really working on being intentional this year. So we have 10 ideas for about bringing less clothing into your life, but still getting to be the expressive person you are. So I’m going to start. And this is something that I’ve been doing that I feel like is really helping with my creative expression. And that is using Pinterest and other programs to put together outfits with clothes I already own. So.

Tonya Kubo (04:24)
Mmm.

Kathi (04:26)
I have clothes that work for me and I like to research. I would say that I’m probably a little bit more on the, well, I want to be on the boho artistic side of clothing. And so I don’t like things that are super fitted. I would like the clothing to be away from my body.

Tonya Kubo (04:42)
Mmm.

Hmm.

Kathi (04:51)
I also like to have things that are a little weird a little funky not always you know I’ve got my go -to stuff, but I like more of like buckle or Eileen Fisher those kind of things then You know I am definitely not preppy or anything like that and so I like to go on to Pinterest and Also, I am now considered midsize. Which means from probably like a 12 to an 18 size which Sometimes can fit into traditional clothing sizes, but sometimes fits in the plus size. It’s no man’s land it is hard out here for the midsize and Because things feel too small or too big it’s very hard to find exactly what I need So I like using Pinterest to kind of figure out how to put together things that I already have because it’s easier to

Tonya Kubo (05:20)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (05:50)
to put together outfits from things I already have than to go try to find something that fits, that doesn’t need to be altered. I would rather just stick to the clothes that I have and make sure that those work. And I already know I feel comfortable in them. I have certain pieces of clothing that I wanna wear till Jesus comes back. They just make me feel good. So I would rather find new ways to put those together with the jewelry I have, with…

Tonya Kubo (06:11)
Yeah

Kathi (06:18)
You know, and yes, I will buy something new every once in a while, but I want to use what I have instead of bringing new things into my life. Okay, number two, Tanya.

Tonya Kubo (06:31)
Yeah. So for number two, you know, I love how you’re talking about using more of what you have for me with two girls whose body sizes are constantly changing because they are not yet grown up. And then with me, what I have found is it is very easy to lose track of who has what, right? And so I think it’s really important to go through your closet and

Kathi (06:42)
Yeah.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:59)
take a really good inventory. I mean, if this is for yourself, you can take a very specific inventory. For kids, it’s a little hard because you actually never know where all their clothes are. Some might be in the car, some might be in the wash, but really looking for what are the true gaps? Because it’s one thing to be like, gosh, I wish I had a white sweater. And it’s a whole other thing to actually need a white sweater. So I think it’s important to go through,

Kathi (07:10)
Yeah.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (07:27)
everything at least twice a year and check everything from socks to underwear to outerwear and anything in between. And then make a list of the specific items you feel like you need to buy. And then I think prioritize that list according to season and need. So for us, you just mentioned we had a bunch of special occasions. Our girls don’t have dressy attire, right? They’re just kind of heading toward the end of the year. We knew they needed outfits for graduation. We also knew that I, as a mom, did not need a special outfit for graduation, but we all needed different outfits for the weddings that we’ve recently attended because one wedding was super formal, the other weddings were very casual. And it’s so nice when you can go in with an inventory and actually specifically decide, these are the gaps to fill. These are how many items I need to fill each gap.

Kathi (08:13)
Hmm.

Yeah, and I think being thoughtful about those things in advance, so you’re not panic buying, you’re not ordering a bunch of stuff online and praying that something works. I know I had an event that I needed something altered for, and it took me forever to find what I was looking for.

Tonya Kubo (08:38)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:50)
and I had to have a panic alteration and now I have found the alteration person. I’m so grateful. it makes a huge, right? My person is, she works out of her house. She’s very professional. She has a studio in her house, but like right now I’m kind of saving up things to take her all at once and God bless her. God bless her because now I have,

Tonya Kubo (08:55)
Same! I’ve been searching for years and finally found someone.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (09:20)
the pants that will work and the shirt. I don’t wanna panic buy anymore. And what you just talked about, identifying gaps in your wardrobe and saying, hey, do we have special occasions coming up or do we have special needs? I do an annual trip to Mexico with Encourage. And I know about that trip long in advance, but it’s hard to find things in March that…

Tonya Kubo (09:23)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (09:46)
are good for Mexico in April. So like, I just have to think about those things in advance. Okay, number three, give yourself a yearly limit on new clothes purchases. Now for some people, this might be a hundred items. I do not live in that reality, but one year I did, okay, I’m only buying 12 things this year. Now I could not have done that last year because of my changing body, but I am highly considering this for the coming year.

Tonya Kubo (09:49)
true.

Kathi (10:16)
Because the things that when I did this it was like two or three years ago that I did this and I was in a different size body I still have all those pieces. I’ve had them altered. I Because I love them so much. There was no panic buying there was no You know like this will be fine or maybe this would be good. No like those 12 items. It was once a month

Tonya Kubo (10:27)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:45)
Those are things that I love, continue to use and I would buy again. So I bought really long lasting pieces, things that I invested in. Now I will say these were more expensive pieces. These were things that it was like, yes, I wanna have this. But I know me, I am a compromiser. Like I want that hit, I wanna.

Tonya Kubo (11:04)
Mm.

Kathi (11:14)
buy something and I want to feel good in it. And when I buy those kind of compromised pieces, they don’t last. And so giving yourself a limit of what you can buy makes it so you’re more thoughtful, you’re probably saving up for those things and you’ll probably wear them longer and love them more. So I don’t know, you know, something to consider. You can’t really do that with kids

Tonya Kubo (11:41)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (11:44)
I get that because when their bodies change, you have to change with them. But.

Tonya Kubo (11:49)
Yes. And well, and I think it’s one of those things is everybody can come up with their own variation. So something we did that’s similar, if I can just jump in here, is I grew up in an environment where you went clothing shopping twice a year, right? Beginning of the fall semester, beginning of the spring semester. And what we found is that actually makes zero logical sense for us because our girls go through growth spurts at odd times.

Kathi (11:56)
Yeah.

Please.

Yes.

Yes.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (12:18)
You know, we had a situation where we did the school shopping thing in August and in October, Abby’s shoes were too tight. And when we took her to the store, we left with shoes that were three sizes bigger than the shoes we walked into the store with. Now, if I had bought her, you know, two pairs of shoes or three pairs of shoes in August, that would have been barely worn shoes that were in the donate pile. So what we do is we’re like, OK, how would.

Kathi (12:31)
Wow.

Yeah. Right.

Tonya Kubo (12:46)
exactly do we need right now to fill this gap? And then we just know that we may be back at the store buying a couple more shirts, a couple more pairs of pants, who knows what, in a couple of months. So I think that’s the other piece is maybe just limiting how much you buy at any one visit, especially if you’re shopping for people who are on growth spurts or have a growth spurt coming.

Kathi (13:00)
Yes, I think so.

I love it. Yep, exactly. You know, you have to work for what, you know, and when we were growing up, you would go to the big city to buy those clothes. And that’s not really how people live anymore. I mean, some of us do, but for the most part. Okay, number four, Tanya.

Tonya Kubo (13:19)
Mm -hmm.

So this is another great one for kids, but it’s also a great one if you are someone whose wardrobe is nearing the capacity of the space you have to store your clothing. So whether that’s dressers or closets or whatever, which is implementing a one in one out policy, right? For every new item you buy, donate or sell an existing item. You know, only like when you’re at the store, be thinking what item do I have at home that this item replaces?

Kathi (13:50)
Yes.

Tonya Kubo (13:57)
if it’s not filling a gap that you’ve already identified. And I feel like this has done a great job of teaching my girls how to manage the ebb and flow of stuff into their own spaces. So that’s sort of my thought. Like, I don’t know, maybe I’m overly romantic, but I just feel like it’s a great way without shame or judgment to teach clutter -free principles to younger people.

Kathi (14:14)
Yes, I, I, I.

Tonya, can I tell you how I have implemented this in two very practical ways? One, I have a clothes hamper for things I’m gonna donate. So those go into the clothes hamper, once they’ve been washed, they go into that clothes hamper, and when that’s full, I take it to our local donation center. Also, I have a set number of hangers, and everybody can determine their number of hangers. But if my drawers are not closing,

Tonya Kubo (14:41)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:56)
Or I don’t, I’ve run out of hangers, it means I have too many clothes. And that I need to go and curate that wardrobe. Okay, number five. Wait before you buy. So you might, if you are an impulse shopper, and I would say I lean towards that. I know a lot of people struggle with it way more than I do, but I do lean towards it. I would say,

Tonya Kubo (15:01)
Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:24)
Can you give yourself a seven day waiting period? If it’s not on sale, consider ordering that item to try on at home. Maybe to say, hey, I’m gonna try this on at home. I have a hard time trying things on like in dressing rooms. I don’t know why. If you do.

Tonya Kubo (15:35)
Mm -hmm.

Because you get sweaty and gross as somebody who spent some time in the dressing room last week, I will just tell you, ew.

Kathi (15:51)
Yes, yes, I don’t like it and especially with buying jeans. Can I just say buying jeans? I found some jeans at Target that worked for me and I ordered two more pairs because I’m like if I don’t have to try on jeans for another year, year and a half, that’s a good thing. It’s a really good thing. Keep the tags on until you actually wear it. In case you want to return it if you’re just not feeling it.

Tonya Kubo (16:08)
It’s a good life.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (16:19)
Then it’s okay to return that and be a good returner. That’s the thing I think that’s the most important thing. I only buy from places that are really good about returns Nordstrom is really good about returns Old Navy is really good about returns Target is really good about returns Macy’s I have found is not so I don’t buy from them anymore I have to know that it’s I need to not be shamed during a return

Tonya Kubo (16:23)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Mmm.

You

Kathi (16:48)
And I have never had an ounce of shame from Nordstrom Target or Old Navy. They’ve been like, yeah, bring it back, it’s fine. And now I have bought things on clearance that I could no longer return. And I’m like, you know, somebody is going to love this. Okay, Tonya, we’re gonna take a break. We’re gonna go get this podcast paid for. And then we come back, you’re gonna talk about a capsule wardrobe. And I cannot wait to hear your thoughts on that. So.

Tonya Kubo (17:00)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:17)
We’re gonna go and come right back. Okay, we are back. Number six, Tonya, of how to buy less clothing.

Tonya Kubo (17:24)
Yay! Bring in the tip from the person who’s probably like the least proactive in handing out wardrobe advice. But I have to say that as somebody who doesn’t do a lot of clothes shopping, as somebody who just doesn’t enjoy like this whole experience of dressing myself, having items that easily mix and match.

Kathi (17:32)
No!

Tonya Kubo (17:49)
has been a game changer for me. And there’s two reasons. I live in a tiny house, right? Okay, not the official tiny home, but I live in a smaller home. We have two closets in this house. And so I need my clothes to take up as little space as possible. So I love having just a few pieces that work together, whether that is, you know, I know some people really like tank, like shells, right? So like little dressy tanks that you can pair with a bunch of different cardigans or a couple of cardigans for different looks. Same thing with short sleeve shirts or long sleeve shirts. I know some people like to dress things up with a vest, but for me, it’s really about finding fewer pieces. And this goes back to what you were saying earlier. They do, I find, need to be well -made. If you want to embrace the capsule wardrobe, these need to be pieces that can stand up to being worn three to five times in a week which in fast fashion, a lot of times those clothes are made thinking you’re gonna wear them maybe once a month. So you wanna be able to have clothes that can actually stand up to regular wear, which means they’re also standing up to regular washing and drying or hanging to dry and really looking at what are the pieces that just feel like you, that you’re okay wearing frequently. I’m a fan of color schemes, so I wear a lot of black and white with a little bit, like my favorite color is purple.

Kathi (18:46)
Yeah. Right.

Tonya Kubo (19:12)
I like to wear purples in varying tones. I don’t enjoy lavender, but like bright deep tones. I like magenta’s, any shade in the purple family, any shade in the pink family. I don’t do a lot of green. I don’t do a lot of blue, but I find that I get enough variety in just having black, white, a little bit of gray, some purple, some pink, and I’m happy.

Kathi (19:32)
Yeah, you know, and I think that that’s a really good point. You can go onto Pinterest and you can find color schemes that you can use and you can say, no, these are Kathi colors. And I was just at Moose’s oncologist and you know, I hate going there because of why we have to go there, but it is the most warm and loving.

Tonya Kubo (19:46)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (20:00)
Human being collection you will ever find and we just love those people and Ashley who is the receptionist every time I go in there she’s like I I love Your colors. I love what you wear. And so I I dress up for Ashley now I really do because she just makes me feel so good. What’d you say Tonya? Right and

Tonya Kubo (20:18)
dress up for somebody. I said you gotta dress up for somebody why not Ashley?

Kathi (20:26)
You know she goes you always wear these warm tones And it just makes me feel like you are so loving and approachable and she goes and I know you are loving it approach and I’m like, okay colors Can make us feel a certain way and so find the colors that make you feel that certain way I think that’s really really important. Okay number seven We’ve already talked a little bit about this but repair or alter clothing you already own. I have a pair of Jag pants

Tonya Kubo (20:39)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (20:55)
These are they’re like cargo pants. I’ve had them I’m not exaggerating for at least 15 years and If you turn them inside out there you can see the history of these clothing They’ve been taken in a couple of times my mom offered to take them in one more time and then they have patches on the inside of them where I was developing whole

Tonya Kubo (21:03)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (21:19)
I love these pants so much. I love them. Like if I could have one piece of clothing that’s like these are the most Kathi clothing, these are my favorite. But like Tanya and I find that alterations person that you’re just like, okay, they can perform miracles and they can do it when you need them to do it. I’ve got my person, she’s in Roseville. So it’s a bit of a hike. But we have to go to Roseville anyway because that’s where Moose has her oncology appointments. And I can take my things there and she has a room for me to change in and she pins it and she will have it done the next day. Now I don’t come back at least for a week, but it’s done. It’s done. And alterations are not cheap, but factor that into the purchase of the clothing, especially if you’re short. I’m not

Tonya Kubo (21:50)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (22:13)
short but I’m 5 ‘6 which is an inch taller than the average woman in the United States and I still have to have all my pants altered so I just factor that in now but you have found your person I have found my person it’s like finding that hairstylist isn’t it Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (22:20)
Mm -hmm.

Right, well and to your point, it’s if you can find your person who does alterations and have them be your person, then you will over time learn how much certain repairs cost to factor those into the purchase. Right, like we just took Lily’s graduation dress in, we just needed the straps to be shortened a little bit, that was $10. I found out during that same visit that having your pants hemmed,

Kathi (22:44)
Yes. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (22:58)
is $10. Having a seam repair is $8. So now I know if something happens to a shirt of mine or whatever, it’s like, okay, do I want to pay $8 to have the seam repaired or not? Right? And I think that can be so helpful versus going, my gosh, my favorite shirt just tore. It is irreplaceable. It is irreparable. Now I have to go buy a new shirt because I don’t know about you, Kathi but before I under like before I had,

Kathi (22:59)
Wow.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (23:28)
tailors to work with, I would just assume, well, it’s cheaper to buy a new shirt.

Kathi (23:33)
Right. And we don’t want to be wasteful like that. Yes, absolutely.

Tonya Kubo (23:36)
And sometimes, don’t get me wrong, it is cheaper to buy a new thing. But not always.

Kathi (23:41)
Yes, but is it better? That’s the question. Is it better to buy a new thing? Okay, number eight, Tanya. We’re gonna blow through these.

Tonya Kubo (23:45)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah, so this is a big one, right? Which is unsubscribe from the emails that tempt you to do more shopping. Right? Like I, some people have better self -control than others, right? You can get hit every single day with a Kohl’s ad and never open that ad. Yay for you. Other people need to open it each time because there might be something here that I can’t live without that wasn’t in yesterday’s email.

Kathi (24:00)
Hmm, it’s so true.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (24:20)
So if you are that person who really just can’t not open them, then unsubscribe and trust that when you’re ready to go to that store again, you can subscribe again and usually you will get the first time customer deal, whatever that deal is. So you don’t have to worry about, there’s some great deal that I’m going to miss. The other thing that you can do if you really do feel like you want to stay on that email list because of something that may happen down the line and you want to know what they’re offering, use your email filters. Every email service provider has a filter. I just actually, I’ve been doing this, Kathi, you would be so proud of me, 20 minutes a day. I’ve been spending 20 minutes a day. I just go through the emails I’m getting and I just set up filters. And so now I have filters set up in my inbox, as of today, by the way. I have a whole shopping folder.

Kathi (25:02)
What?

Wow.

Tonya Kubo (25:16)
And then I have one that’s for under shopping. I’ve got one for groceries, one for restaurants, and one for like miscellaneous stuff, which was really the clothing shops. And I have it set now. It bypasses my inbox. So it instantly archives the email and it puts it in this folder. I never see it.

Kathi (25:35)
That is amazing. That is amazing. I do it a little differently. I have a totally different email for all those things. And so if I’m looking for it, I can go get it. Like this, we’re recording this the week of my birthday and there are all these like discounts and free little offers and things like that. Like, you know, I’m going to be jamming through all that stuff. And I, but it doesn’t tempt me in my regular email. And that’s a beautiful thing. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (25:42)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (26:05)
Number nine, this is the question I ask myself. Will I wear this 30 times? I don’t know why I came up with the number 30, but will I wear this 30 times? And if the answer is no, then why am I buying it? Or if I’m trying to justify when I could wear this 30 times. Now, there are certain exceptions. Some dress clothes, I probably will not wear 30 times, but if it’s something that it’s like it’s for a special occasion that kind of thing I’m okay if it’s less but could I wear this to a wedding on a cruise? To church could I have it altered to wear a different way? I think it’s just an interesting question and number 10 Tonya

Tonya Kubo (26:56)
Yeah, so number 10, I feel like is how I live my life, which is create a personal uniform with a few key pieces you love. So I already talked about this a little bit in that, you know, I like black, white with a splash of purple or pink in it. And that makes a lot of sense for me. It works for my lifestyle. What it also does is it ensures that almost anything I pull out of the closet will go with whatever I’m wearing.

Kathi (27:05)
Yes. Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (27:26)
I discovered recently that, you know, I had a couple of things that were printed. I don’t usually wear a lot of prints. I’ll wear usually solid colors, but I had a couple of things that were printed and it was like, you know, trying to put a cardigan over it, but the cardigan hit like the wrong part of the print. And I was just like, I do not need printed things. Right. And most of these were just because of the way that the graphic was, but I would just say a personal uniform. Like for me,

Kathi (27:26)
Yes.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (27:54)
I know Monday through Friday, I am going to be wearing jeans because I almost never leave the house except if I’m taking kids to school or from, but I’m going to wear jeans. And if I’m recording, I’m going to wear a nicer top. And if I’m not recording, I’m going to wear a t -shirt. And it takes me like six minutes to get ready in the morning because I have that personal uniform, but it also,

Kathi (28:10)
Yep, there you go.

Tonya Kubo (28:19)
And Kathi, I want you to talk a little bit about this, because I feel like you are somebody who has actually taught on this more than I ever have, is I’m actually more productive because I haven’t wasted valuable energy making those decisions first thing in the morning.

Kathi (28:33)
Yeah, you know, I have to decide the night before what I’m wearing or the week before. You know, I put that all out because in the morning I need to hit the ground running like you do. I need to know what I’m wearing because I need to know what my day is going to consist of. So, you know, almost every day I’m recording something like we are today. And so I’ve got a cute top on. I’ve got some pants on.

Tonya Kubo (28:36)
Yeah.

Kathi (29:02)
Now, there are days where I’m going to be cooking all day because, you know, I’ve got a cookbook coming out and that’s probably going to be more of a yoga pant jean kind of, you know, situation. And so knowing what my day is going to be and I love the concept. Somebody told me this like 20 years ago and I love this. Getting dressed to the shoes. So looking what your day is going to be like.

Tonya Kubo (29:28)
Hmm.

Kathi (29:31)
not flopping around in slippers and then having to figure it out all day. Like I’ve got indoor shoes. I’ve got indoor shoes that I wear to keep my, you know, to not track the outside in. I learned that deeply when we had chickens and it just makes a lot of sense. Tonya, I’m gonna give a bonus. This is 11, but we didn’t really do 11.

Tonya Kubo (29:50)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (29:58)
This is gonna be a weird one, but I think it’s really it’s been something I’ve been doing a lot lately dying my clothes Some okay

Tonya Kubo (30:07)
I need to hear more. No, no, we did not talk about this, so you’re gonna have to dig a little deeper and hear from me.

Kathi (30:12)
Yes, so I have some clothing that I love, but maybe it’s gotten a stain on it. Or we have a friend of the podcast who sent me a lovely shirt for that chicken themed shirt. It’s a bright pink. Now, I realized I was not wearing it. Redheads and pink don’t always go great together. Just not going to lie.

Tonya Kubo (30:39)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (30:41)
So what I have done is I bought some Rit fabric dye and I have some bonder. It’s like a bonding agent that you do with the Rit dye. And you have to, when you’re dyeing, ask me how I know this, you need a big pot so that the clothes are not like on top of each other. You want them to be kind of loose in the pot.

Tonya Kubo (30:46)
Mm -hmm.

Hmm.

Kathi (31:10)
And I tend to dye things a navy blue, because that’s a color I like to wear. But any rich color, like a forest green or a navy blue or a deep purple could probably work for this. I don’t tend to go lighter in my dyeing. I’m not that skilled. But like I said, a forest green, a dark purple, a red would be really good.

Tonya Kubo (31:19)
Mm -hmm.

Got it.

Kathi (31:39)
any of those darker or deeper colors and then I I dye the clothes and then I wash the clothes and When I wash the clothes again just the first time Shout has these things called color catchers that Yes, and so my mom’s a quilts artist. She uses those quite often and so those color catchers catch the color you know the first time you wash them

Tonya Kubo (31:58)
Yes, I’ve seen those.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (32:09)
But I have saved a lot of clothing that I really, really love by dyeing it a navy. And I’m not re -buying the clothes, I’m buying the dye, which I usually buy at Joann’s and I wait till I have a coupon and things like that. But I’ve saved a lot of sweatshirts, a lot of t -shirts, pants, because I have dyed them a navy blue.

Tonya Kubo (32:17)
Mmm.

Mm -hmm.

Okay, so now I have to ask a question. This is of course on behalf of the listeners. I have no personal stake in the answer to this question. But how, right, how does that work with like stained clothing? Like if you have grease stains on something, would dyeing fix that or no?

Kathi (32:40)
Of course, you’re in service to them.

Yeah. So I try to get out as much of the stain as possible. I use, now I can’t remember the name of the stain remover I use, but I will find it and I will post it. And it’s a special formulation that really gets a lot of stains out. As long as this can be as light as possible, I feel, and here’s the thing. I dye dangerously. Like if I dye something and it doesn’t come out how I would like it to, I’m okay with that because I was probably gonna pitch that piece of clothing anyway. So I get as much of the stain out as I possibly can and then I die dangerously and I would say 19 times out of 20 I have saved that piece of clothing. And yeah, so I’m glad you like that. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (33:18)
Hahaha.

Mm -hmm. Got it.

Nice.

Kathi (33:46)
Tanya, we are doing something interesting in the month of July in Clutter Free Academy. Can you talk a little bit about this?

Tonya Kubo (33:52)
We are.

Yeah, so each July we typically do this challenge in Clutter Free Academy, which is our free Facebook group. We also do it in our paid membership program, Clutter Free for Life, which is a no buy July, right? Where our goal is to not have any discretionary spending. However, this year we’re doing things a little bit differently in that we are having a low buy July challenge. And the reason we’re doing a low buy July challenge is for a couple of reasons. First of all. We love our cluttery people. Our cluttery people want so desperately to be A++ students in everything that we host, because they are such super fans of all things clutter free and clutter free for life. And the problem is, is our members would get really upset if they had something unexpected happen. For instance, the refrigerator would die, the washing machine died, and they’d say, I failed the challenge because I had to go buy a new washer. And what you realize, Kathi, so credit goes to Kathi, send all your kudos and compliments via email to her.

Kathi (35:01)
complaints, we’re fine with that too.

Tonya Kubo (35:03)
Yeah, usually I take the complaints. You can have the compliments, but Kathi’s, you know, pointed out that it kind of shifted the focus away from where it really needs to be. The goal here is to minimize the amount of clutter coming into your home by minimizing impulse buying and reducing the amount of discretionary spending we do because we know that costs are going up all the time. So a low buy July isn’t so much about

Kathi (35:05)
Yeah

Tonya Kubo (35:30)
what you do or don’t buy. It’s really about the intention that goes into each buying decision in the month of July. And I think Kathi, you are the one who said, like, this is the kind of principle that can get carried on throughout the year. It doesn’t live and die in the month of July each year.

Kathi (35:50)
I will tell you, Tanya, we’ve done this no buy July a couple of times, now we’re doing low buy July, and I am amazed how starting in July, we buy almost nothing from Amazon. It’s amazing. And August, September, October, we buy almost nothing from Amazon. And then starting in, you know, January, February, we start to buy more from, well, December really, because of Christmas and stuff like that. But it really does change our habits. Now it changes our habits for about six months and then we start to fall back into old habits. But we’re getting better and better every year. And let me give you an idea of how I think low buy versus no buy can really set us free.

Tonya Kubo (36:29)
Right.

Kathi (36:43)
You know, we just talked about dyeing our clothes, right? by the way, also black. If you like to wear black, black is a great color to dye your clothes. Yeah, there you go, there you go. But in a low buy July, one of the activities I would love to see you do is buy the dye so that you could save the clothes.

Tonya Kubo (36:46)
Mm -hmm.

I was thinking I’m just gonna dye everything black.

oooo

Kathi (37:11)
Do you see what I’m saying? Like that small purchase, you know, you’re not buying clothes in July, I’m hoping, you know, or you’re buying just a couple of things. But what’s a great activity to save some of those clothes or to keep you from buying new black cargo pants, new black t -shirts, you dye the stuff you already have. You know, if you have a bunch of eggs at your house and instead of,

Tonya Kubo (37:29)
Mm.

Kathi (37:41)
buying the angel food cake, you say, I’m gonna make it, but you don’t have the cake flour? I’d love for you to go buy the cake flour so that you can learn this new skill and you can make your own angel food cake. Those are the kind of things that I would love for you to see you incorporate into a low buy July. So you have these new skills that will carry you forward.

into not wasting food, into not buying clothes. That’s the kind of ingenuity and coolness I want to see in a low buy July

Tonya Kubo (38:18)
Right, and what I’m really looking forward to, and I hope if you are listening and you’re not in the Clutter Free Academy Facebook group, I really hope you’ll join us this month because what I’m looking forward to is the creativity. We have some of the most creative, generous members you can possibly imagine. And I just know that this year with this difference in focus, they are going to knock our socks off with some of the ways that they choose to implement these principles.

Kathi (38:30)
Yes.

Guys, this was a super -sized episode, but I think we had some great conversations, and I hope you will join us over in the Clutter Free Academy Facebook group. We’ll put the link here in the notes, but if you just search for Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy, it’s free to join, and you’re gonna love the encouragement you’re gonna get this year. Tanya, thanks so much for being here.

Tonya Kubo (39:12)
Thanks for having me.

Kathi (39:13)
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.

 

#622 The Frugal Foodie’s Playbook: Mastering Meal Planning and Smart Shopping

#622 The Frugal Foodie’s Playbook: Mastering Meal Planning and Smart Shopping

622 The Frugal Foodie’s Playbook: Mastering Meal Planning and Smart Shopping

Hey there, friends! Are you feeling the pinch of rising food costs?

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp, and Tonya Kubo tackle the timely issue of rising food costs and share practical tips to help listeners save money on groceries without sacrificing quality or taste. With their signature humor and relatable examples, Kathi and Tonya dive into strategies like meal planning, inventive use of leftovers, and tapping into community resources.

Listeners will discover:

  • How to create a pantry and fridge inventory to reduce food waste
  • The power of “loop meals” and repurposing leftovers
  • Tips for buying in bulk wisely

Whether you’re taking part in the Low Buy July challenge or simply looking to trim your grocery budget, this episode is packed with actionable advice and encouragement. Don’t miss out on these frugal food hacks that will help you nourish your family without breaking the bank!

Here are the 50 Breakfast and 50 Dinner Ideas mentioned in the episode.

Click here to be notified when the next episode of Clutter Free Academy is released.

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

 

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:

Clutter Free Resources:

How do you reduce food waste or save money?

Share them 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.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript
Kathi (00:00)
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 fabulous but exhausted Tonya Kubo. She was partying all weekend. She saw people get married there have been graduations I is this is this podcast the most relaxing thing you’ve done all week?

Tonya Kubo (00:24)
It most certainly is.

Kathi (00:28)
Yeah, I remember I canceled something on you on Monday. I’m like, I’m so sorry. So you’re like, thank you.

Tonya Kubo (00:31)
Yes! I was like, my gosh! I just got a whole hour back in my life.

Kathi (00:39)
I am currently not experiencing those kind of weeks, but I know they are yet to come because I have a book coming out in October. And with the the couple months before and the couple months after, it’s like, somebody canceled an appointment. You are my hero. And yeah, I want to sing like Mariah Carey. And yeah, it’s it’s. But, you know,

Tonya Kubo (00:44)
Ha.

Yeah.

Right.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

Kathi (01:08)
not that we’re talking about that book, but we’re talking about some of the the feelings behind that book. That book is called Sabbath Soup and we are talking about food and if you turn on if you’re on social media at all, if you turn on the news, everybody is talking about the cost of food. It’s it’s I think in some.

Tonya Kubo (01:15)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (01:34)
Areas, it’s pretty much the same. Other areas, it feels insane. We are not at the egg crisis we were several months ago. And we still had chickens at that point and we’re very, very grateful for them. But you are not the primary shopper in your house, is that correct?

Tonya Kubo (01:37)
Mm -hmm. Right.

No, unless we’re shopping online. I will do all the shopping online, but usually Brian is the one who really likes to go to the grocery store because he likes to buy stuff. He doesn’t care what he buys. He just wants to buy the stuff.

Kathi (01:58)
Mmm.

isn’t that the, it’s such, it’s so true, right? Like I was telling somebody recently, like I get the same hit if I’m buying a dress at Nordstrom or a Costco chicken. Like I just like buying stuff, which I understand is my cluttery person like aching to get out.

Tonya Kubo (02:24)
Hahaha

Kathi (02:33)
And I have to tell you, I was so proud of Roger the other day because Roger is definitely like, he loves to buy convenience. He loves it. And the other day he was bringing home sandwiches. There were some circumstances and he was bringing home sandwiches. And he said, but we’ve got drinks and chips at home. And I’m like, my thrifty buddy. He goes, I’m learning. Cause I mean, you add drinks and chips to…

Tonya Kubo (02:41)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Kathi (03:02)
a sandwich order, that can be five or six dollars.

Tonya Kubo (03:04)
yeah. Mm hmm. yeah. No, there used to be a time when, you know, like iced tea, for instance, would be like a dollar cheaper than sodas. And now everything is $4 .50 or $5. Like each beverage is $4 .50 or $5 at the restaurants where we go.

Kathi (03:12)
Right? Yeah, nope.

Yeah, we rarely go to McDonald’s. I mean, rarely. But when we do, our order is always the same. It’s two Diet Cokes, an ice water, and a hamburger, a small hamburger patty, no salt. So half that order is for Moose because she gets the patty and the ice water. Ice water is her favorite treat. And she’s such a weird dog. And then we get the Diet Cokes because it’s…

Tonya Kubo (03:36)
Mmm.

Right?

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (03:50)
It can be $30 for us. And we’re not even talking about fast food today. We’re just talking about grocery shopping. And how can we keep the costs of all things groceries down? And you have kids. So let me just say that was not a cheap choice, Tonya Yeah, you’re going to need to.

Tonya Kubo (03:52)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Mm -hmm.

No, it really wasn’t. It wasn’t. But I don’t think anybody has kids to save money. I don’t think that’s why you go into it.

Kathi (04:20)
I would love We’re gonna we’re gonna put our ideas here Tonya But when we do and you’re the queen of all things clutter free in the Facebook group I would love to get our our members ideas about this because we’re gonna share Approximately ten ideas on how you can save on your grocery budget, but I know the the the people in that group are

They’re geniuses. There is something about cluttery people and just the ways that they think differently that I just, I love and adore I love it so much.

Tonya Kubo (04:54)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

I agree, I agree. Well, and should we talk about what we’ve got going on in the group? Yeah, because I mean, part of why we’re talking about ways to buy less food today is because we’re doing things a little differently this year, is we are going into a challenge that’s in our Clutterfree Academy free Facebook group. Anybody can join that and also our Clutterfree for Life paid membership program. It’s a little crossover. We’re calling it Low Buy July.

Kathi (05:06)
Yeah, go for it. Tell us everything.

Yeah.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (05:31)
And let me tell you, so there’s two reasons we’re calling it Low Buy July. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you remember that we oftentimes do No Buy July. There’s two problems with No Buy July. Problem number one is people have graduations and weddings and they think spending five cents automatically fails the challenge and they get very, very sad and very ashamed. Or they think they can’t replace their refrigerator that broke.

Right? And that’s not the intent of the challenge. The intent is really to minimize impulse purchases. But this year, Kathi you were the one who really pointed out that with the cost of things going up so high, people are not able to stock up like they once did. And so it’s unlikely that a lot of people have a full month’s worth of food in a freezer or in a pantry.

Kathi (06:15)
Mm -mm.

Right, right.

Tonya Kubo (06:23)
And so really we’re calling it low Buy July and we’re looking at how can we reduce our spending on all the things throughout the month. And I think food, at least in my family, Kathi, food is the highest percentage of our income outside of the mortgage. Like that, or I should say our expenses outside of the mortgage. That’s where we spend the most.

Kathi (06:26)
Mm -hmm.

Yes.

Of course, it makes total sense because you guys have four members in your family. You want them to be healthy people. And so, you know, you’re not just buying ramen for every meal because that is the cheapest way. And I know plenty of college kids who live that way. But we’re looking for a little bit higher quality of life than that. So we’re going to give you 10 tips.

Tonya Kubo (06:57)
Right.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (07:11)
That will not only reduce your grocery budget, but just keep you you It’s buying less food. That’s maybe it’s not consuming less food, but it’s it’s buying less food and I’m gonna give you my number one and Because I am the queen of buying what we already have and there’s a so for me having a day each week to clean out the fridge and just kind of

Tonya Kubo (07:18)
Mm -hmm.

Mmm.

Kathi (07:40)
Laying eyes on and seeing what we have. There’s a great tick tocker. He has a whole song go to the store by Hoonans sauce come home. no, we had Hoonans sauce go to the store, but like he has Six and if I’m pronouncing that incorrectly, please forgive me, but he has six Hoonans sauces and it’s like it’s that thing that you don’t know if you have it for sure so I

Tonya Kubo (07:57)
Mm -hmm.

Mm.

Kathi (08:10)
You don’t want to run out. And Roger did this for years with baby food, even when his kids were like in school. Like he was so terrified of running out of something they needed. And so doing that inventory is so critical and helps you save from buying things you don’t need to. You know, like this week, I’ve got some baby potatoes that.

Tonya Kubo (08:29)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (08:38)
Need you know something needs to happen with them. I’ve got some mushrooms. I’ve got some chicken that needs to get cooked like that that inventory helps me plan the rest of my meals and keeps me from wasting food and so if you can kind of there are a couple of ways to do it you can pick meals and then see what you have and then go shopping or you can see what you have plan meals around that and then go shopping so

In Low Buy July, I’m really going to challenge people to see what they have and what can you make with that.

Tonya Kubo (09:15)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (09:17)
I think that that’s going to be the best way to do it. Okay, Tonya what is your next tip that? Yeah. Yes. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (09:24)
Well, I think if your first tip, I just have to jump in because I’m so excited. Because if the first tip is inventory, fridge, freezer, pantry, then, and you touched on this a little bit, then the second tip has to be meal planning. And I think you made a really good point is that some people like to see what’s on sale and meal plan based on sales and then see what they have and then make their grocery list.

Kathi (09:33)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Tonya Kubo (09:54)
I actually like to see what I have, just like you do, and meal plan based on what I have, because regardless of what’s on sale, I want to spend as little at the grocery store as possible. So if I can get away with just buying four things at the grocery store, and yes, please, I’ll pause for a moment so everybody can laugh, because no family of four ever gets to buy four things at the grocery store. But if I can get away…

Kathi (09:57)
Yes?

Right.

Tonya Kubo (10:19)
this week with just buying four things and then turning around and buying my normal 25 items next week, awesome. I think I’m so much further ahead than if I am consistently telling myself I have to have a big long shopping list every time I go to the store.

Kathi (10:35)
It’s so true, you know, and we have to figure out there are times when there may be nothing in the fridge and that’s okay. We can still figure out exactly, we can take that inventory, we can say, okay, you know what, I need to restock. There is no point in trying to build on this.

You know, you can’t build on celery and turnips. Like, that’s going to be the saddest soup ever. But I want you to say, okay, is there something in the freezer? Is there something I can defrost? Is there something that I can do in order to make this work so I am not having to buy everything all the time? Because I know that we can, it’s so frustrating to go buy the chicken and see the chicken in your…

Tonya Kubo (11:00)
Mm -hmm.

Right.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (11:30)
in your fridge or to sit and I don’t want you to have this giant back stock of freezer food so that you are not able to buy stuff. You know, it’s so I’ve done this so many times. I’m sorry, I’m getting tongue tied here, but like I’ll come home with stuff for the freezer because I don’t know what I have. And then I’m adding things to the freezer that I don’t actually need.

Tonya Kubo (11:40)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:00)
I run out of room in the freezer. It’s just, it’s a vicious cycle that I want to end and I wanna be smarter about. And I will say, I am so much better than I used to be, but it’s still something that I need to be cognizant of because when I feel like I’m running out of time, that’s where I get into trouble. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (12:05)
Mm -hmm.

Right. Well, anytime we feel desperate, I think, is problematic.

Kathi (12:28)
Yes, and I think especially when we’re running out of time or energy, that’s when we feel like, okay, I just need to make something happen. Okay, so number three, we’re getting into the planning space again, because I think planning is a big part of this. And so some people meal plan, like one of the things that’s been very helpful,

We’ll get this resource together because I know people have begged us for it. It was, I can’t remember if it was 30 or 50, but it was Meal Time Ideas.

Tonya Kubo (13:07)
Yes, yes, we have a breakfast one and a dinner one.

Kathi (13:11)
And I don’t know why we don’t have a lunch one, but you know what, maybe that is to come. But here’s the thing, I know when I sit down to meal plan, I can’t remember anything I’ve ever made at any point in my life ever. And I can’t think of a meal, I can’t think of an idea. And this is, this isn’t, you should make these 50 meals, otherwise you’re not a good cook. This is, check out these meals.

Tonya Kubo (13:39)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (13:39)
maybe they’ll springboard some ideas for you. So Tonya I know we have a lot of, what are your go -to meal ideas?

Tonya Kubo (13:49)
yeah, so we’re pretty simple in this house. So go to Meal Ideas for us. You know, when in doubt, Brian will oftentimes just do like pasta and a meat sauce, like if that’s available. Personally, you know, I prefer just some kind of meat and rice. And the reason I prefer that is because I can take that whatever vegetable we decide to serve with it, that gets to be repurposed into fried rice. And my family will eat

Kathi (14:17)
Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:18)
just about anything in the form of fried rice. So you know that like overcooked steak or the overcooked chicken, the vegetables that everybody thought were too soggy, I just chopped those up really fine, throw them in, make some fried rice and everybody’s happy.

Kathi (14:23)
yes.

Mm -hmm.

I love that so much. Okay, number four, Tanya. This is one of my favorite. Tell us a little bit about loop meals in your house.

Tonya Kubo (14:47)
yes, well I didn’t know that they were called that until I picked up your book. Let me remember, I always call it Six Chicks Freeze and Fix, but that is not what it’s called. Thank you, thank you. Kathi you may know me for 10 more years and you will still have to remind me that that is the name of the book. Yeah, but the idea of, I mean it’s two things, right? It’s first of all, cooking.

Kathi (14:56)
Yeah, it’s called the What’s for Dinner solution.

I am here for it, don’t you worry.

Tonya Kubo (15:14)
with the intention of having leftovers that you can repurpose. But also what I have found is I’ve just gotten good at recognizing what I can make with leftovers, right? It’s like, you know, we use the classic example of the rotisserie chicken, but I mean, like I cook chicken, like a whole chicken in my Instant Pot all the time, is taking that and going, yeah, we can eat, you know, chicken and potatoes and veggies tonight for dinner, but that gets to be turned into…

chicken enchilada casserole or tacos or chicken quesadillas or like I mentioned before, fried rice, because everything gets turned into fried rice around here. But those sorts of ideas are so helpful and it’s even led me to just pre -cooking certain things, like always having, you know, maybe like a quart size freezer bag of chopped up cooked chicken or ground ground meat. Having that…

Kathi (15:49)
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (16:09)
Because don’t you think thawing the raw meat and cooking it is one of the longest, most planning intensive aspects of cooking?

Kathi (16:16)
Yes, and you have to hit it just right. That’s how it feels like. Yeah. Okay, so you know how you plan for leftovers and your go -to is fried rice? Mine has become quiche.

Tonya Kubo (16:20)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

okay.

Kathi (16:34)
So just always having a store -bought pie crust in the freezer. And you just mix up some eggs, some milk, some seasoning. And I had some leftover spinach and some cheese and some bacon. And Roger says it is the best quiche he’s ever had. And.

Tonya Kubo (16:39)
Okay.

Mm -hmm.

So can I tell you Lily’s favorite thing on the quiche front that I recently did? So I had ground beef and I’d read something like Pinterest or whatever, right? So it was like ground beef. And then I took eggs, a little touch of cream, because we keep heavy cream in the house, and Parmesan cheese, mixed that all up, threw that in an eight by eight, baked it, like 350 for like 25 minutes. And Lily was like, this is the yummiest breakfast casserole ever.

Kathi (16:56)
Yes, do tell.

Nice.

There you go. We’re making miracles here for our family, Tonya Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (17:27)
I’m telling you Parmesan cheese, it’s like, it cures all the things.

Kathi (17:31)
Okay, we’re gonna come back. We’re gonna come to number five, which I’m really, really excited about. And when we do, we’re just gonna take a quick break. And then we’re gonna talk about something I’ve just started to do recently, that has been a game changer for us. So we’ll, I’ll tell you my secret when we come back. Okay, we are back. And we’re talking about how do you reduce the amount of food that you’re buying?

So number five for me is, I’m just gonna call it a vegetable chop. And in the summer, the vegetable chop for me is cucumbers, tomatoes, and red onions. And you may be like, okay, well how does that save money? It saves money because I use it all up. I use it all up, and I use it in a million different ways. I use it.

Tonya Kubo (18:06)
Mmm.

Mmm.

Kathi (18:26)
just as a salad just on its own like that. I’ll put some Italian dressing on it or balsamic dressing on it. Add in some salt and pepper, maybe a little bit of feta cheese. Delightful. The other day I took some of that that had been marinating already in that balsamic vinaigrette and I threw it on top of a salad and put some croutons, I put it on top of romaine lettuce and it was delightful.

I also use it as kind of a bruschetta. You know, you can can that on top of toasted bread. There are a million things you can do with it and it is delicious every time. Now in the winter, I do the same thing, but I do it with celery, carrots, and onions. And you know, that can go into a casserole after it’s been sauteed. There are a million things that can be done with it and it’s delicious.

Okay, Tanya, take us to number six.

Tonya Kubo (19:27)
All right, so I think number six, I believe it’s very important to own your privilege in things. And so number six probably works best if you have older kids in the house or if it’s all adults versus having littles. But my idea for spending less on food is having your on your own nights, right? So we call them like Y -O -Y -O, like yo -yo nights.

Kathi (19:56)
You’re on your own, baby.

Tonya Kubo (19:57)
Right. Because the thing is, is you get to decide what you want to have for dinner. Toddlers don’t always make great decisions that help to save money, but older kids do. And so I think this works out really well for those nights when you have like enough of something for one person or maybe like as a side to something else.

Kathi (20:19)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (20:22)
And so everybody gets to go through the fridge, look at the leftovers and just decide what they’re having and then fill in the gaps with whatever they want. Abbey loves to make her own lunchable, otherwise known as charcuterie, right? So she’ll do crackers, cheese and salami and some fruit and she’s super happy. Lily likes to have that too, but Lily’s also somebody who doesn’t mind eating leftover spaghetti and fried rice in the same plate.

Kathi (20:33)
Right?

Right, right. And you know, when my kids were younger, we did these with, they were plastic trays that looked like TV trays, like TV dinner trays. And yeah, you know, that’s tonight’s dinner for us is you’re on your own because we had a fig, fig jam and brie burgers last night that were delicious. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (20:54)
Okay. Yeah.

Yum. That’s the yummiest leftover ever.

Kathi (21:12)
Right. And so we still have one of the half of one of those burgers left. I’ve got some I made some macaroni salad. But my mom and I have leftovers from a restaurant we went to. So we’re just going to be we’re going to be you know, not every meal has to have, you know, a main a veg and a side like sometimes you can just say, Hey, I need a night off or it’s too hot to cook. Let’s

Let’s make some wise decisions here and use up what we have. And this has become very important to us since we don’t have chickens currently because we’re not throwing anything to them. So yes. OK, number seven. And here is a, there’s a big old asterisk next to this, but I just want to talk about buying in bulk. Now,

Tonya Kubo (21:44)
Mm -hmm. Exactly.

Kathi (22:06)
I will tell you, you know, Roger is to baby food as Kathi is to Costco. Why was I continuing to buy huge containers of things when it was just me and Roger? You know, so I’ve had to dial back on this, but there are still some things that we go through pretty regularly.

Tonya Kubo (22:12)
Okay.

Kathi (22:30)
One convenient, I’m just gonna call it a convenience food that we love, is these little bowls of rice that are pre -packaged. You just peel them off and you put them in the microwave, I think for 90 seconds and you’re good to go. Now, I could make a whole big batch of rice. I could, you know what? I’m gonna buy a little convenience and I’m okay with that.

Tonya Kubo (22:39)
Mmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (22:56)
We actually, you know, we go through a lot of flour at our house. We go through, I’m trying to think of the things we go through that we buy in large portions. And it’s okay. It’s okay that we do that. But don’t be buying things at Costco just because it’s a deal and then not use them.

Tonya Kubo (23:20)
Yes, I think that’s the important part. We do, I think we just get into these habits where we’re used to buying a certain amount of an item.

at a certain frequency and when something changes the frequency or even when we go on vacation for a week or two if we don’t manage the quantity in which we buy things start to back up really really fast.

Kathi (23:30)
Yes.

Yes.

Well, and let’s just also say the people in our family, you know, if only they would do the same thing this week that they did last week. Right? You know, last week they couldn’t eat enough bananas. This week, bananas are gross, mom.

Tonya Kubo (23:50)
truth.

Yes, yes, and we ruined their lives by buying bananas.

Kathi (24:02)
my goodness, isn’t that the truth? Okay, we’re closing in. Tonya number eight.

Tonya Kubo (24:10)
number eight is using an app to track your food expiration dates. And I know that this is something that you taught me about because I would never do this. I eat and cook things unless they smell funny or look funny.

Kathi (24:24)
Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (24:25)
because that’s the kind of house I grew up in. But of course, you know, Brian, he’s the king of the Serve Safe certificates. He does not want to eat anything if it’s like more than a day past its code and more than three days in the fridge. So the USDA, Kathi, and I don’t have it handy, so I’m hoping we can put this in the show notes, but the USDA has an app that will help you track expiration dates. And I think that prevents people from throwing food away.

Kathi (24:50)
It’s.

Tonya Kubo (24:56)
that they don’t need to throw away.

Kathi (24:58)
Yes, it’s so true. I, I, who’s the itchy trigger finger in your household? Is it? No, it’s Brian. Yeah, it’s totally Brian In my house. It’s Roger. Now, like, he wants to if the milk expires on June 10, he wants to throw it away on June 9, just to be sure. And I’m like, I will murder you in your sleep. Like,

Tonya Kubo (25:05)
Yeah, it’s totally bright.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah. Well, and the thing with milk is temperature affects milk so much. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve opened up a jug of milk five days before the expiration date and it is sour and curdled and makes me want to move houses. And then there’s other times where it’s like four days past the date and it’s perfectly fine.

Kathi (25:40)
Right.

Yeah. Yes. Yeah. You know, you can smell milk. It will let you know when it’s time to go. It will let you know. Yeah, it’s no, no, no, they they let you know right up front. Exactly. Okay, number nine, which is not a solution for everybody. But I do think it’s a solution for many of us is grow. If you’re not going to grow fruits or vegetables, which I totally understand, at

Tonya Kubo (25:52)
Milk and eggs will not trick you at all.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (26:13)
try growing your own herbs. You know, and it’s, they make it so convenient. It’s less expensive oftentimes to go buy that basil plant at Home Depot than it is to buy that little sprig of basil at the grocery store. And if you just put it in the pot and you pay attention to it maybe once a week, you’re gonna be good to go. And so I love…

growing my own herbs for basil, oregano, chives, green onions. Now we also do tomatoes and things like that, but it is so easy to grow those herbs. And if you forget about it, don’t go to the store and buy more herbs, go to Home Depot. It’s often gonna be cheaper for you to do that. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (27:06)
Mmm.

Kathi (27:10)
and Tanya, bring us home with number 10.

Tonya Kubo (27:12)
All right, so number 10 is one of those things where I feel like people have a stigma, Kathi. So I would like for us to destigmatize the use of public resources for saving food costs. So for instance, obviously, like there’s a food bank, right? So and people have a lot of opinions about food banks, but you would be surprised at how

Kathi (27:18)
Mm -hmm.

Let’s do it.

Yeah.

Right.

Lots of big feelings.

Tonya Kubo (27:40)
lenient the standards are for who qualifies to go to a food bank and who doesn’t. But beyond a food bank, we have this really cool thing in my town. And I know you’ve got some similar programs near where you’re at. But we have a community garden. They call it the People’s Garden. And there’s what they call the People’s Pantry and the People’s Fridge. So what these were. So you’ve got the community garden, you know, you donate so many hours per week to tending the garden and then you get a share.

Kathi (27:56)
Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (28:10)
of what is produced in that garden. But anybody who has extra stuff in their home, extra rice, extra dried beans, you can then donate it to the people’s pantry or the people’s fridge if it’s perishable, say eggs for instance. And then anybody can go there and just grab, there’s no sign in, sign out or anything, you just open the fridge. If there’s some stuff in there that you would use, you get to just take that home with you, the same with the pantry. But it’s this amazing collaborative sort of cooperative environment.

Kathi (28:22)
Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (28:38)
that really helps a lot of folks just make it to the end of the month or make it when there’s a little bit more month than money.

Kathi (28:45)
You know, and I want to talk about this from both sides because I have lived on both sides of this where we have donated a lot to food pantries. We do it through our church pretty regularly, especially they want canned tomatoes, you know, whether whatever kind of variation of canned tomatoes. I’m like, I can always give up some of my canned tomatoes. But I was on the other side of this where I was a single mom living below the poverty line.

Tonya Kubo (29:03)
Yeah.

Kathi (29:14)
Why did I not take advantage of this? I think it was embarrassment, it was shame. And today, if I needed to, I would 100 % take advantage of that. I feel it’s a lot like when I go to my mom’s house and they have extra figs Like, you know.

Tonya Kubo (29:33)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (29:34)
I’m going to take the figs because otherwise it’s going to go bad. Now we don’t currently participate in shopping at a food pantry, but it would be my first suggestion for anybody who’s struggling. And you are not, you are, the food pantry knows what they have. They know who they are able to help.

Tonya Kubo (29:55)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (29:59)
And you just have to ask, they all have websites, you can go and check it out. They have ways of doing it. I follow a couple of people on TikTok who go to food pantries. You can use AI to help you plan some meals then if you’re not sure what, because oftentimes you’ll get things in a food pantry that maybe you’ve never used before. And that’s okay, you know, this will expand what you’re able to do with your cooking and your repertoire. But I think it’s really important.

Tonya Kubo (30:19)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (30:28)
to take advantage of these kind of programs, especially if you are struggling financially right now. There are also gleaning programs where if you go and you help pick fruit or you help pick vegetables, you can take a portion of those home. Depending on your abilities, that’s a really great way. So I think a good place to find some of these things are in your local buy nothing group, your community groups.

Tonya Kubo (30:35)
Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (30:56)
There are Reddit pages for different communities and what’s available. Tonya, how do you find out about things in your community?

Tonya Kubo (31:06)
Well, you know, I’m lucky enough to be pretty plugged in, but like you said, but I mean, really is like almost every community has their own like Facebook group or, you know, neighborhood community, like my own neighborhood, you know, we have a group me, but those sorts of resources and when in doubt, just ask someone. And I do want to go back to just this idea of stigma around.

Kathi (31:09)
I was just gonna say you’re the most community plugged in person I know.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (31:35)
any sort of food support system, whether it’s a food bank or sometimes farmers markets have special programs. Like if you come like at the farmers market when it closes, you know, a lot of the farmers will let you have what they have on hand is I think one thing that stops a lot of people isn’t necessarily shame, but an assumption that somebody else needs it more than they do, which I love because our cluttery people have the most generous hearts out there. But I just want to say,

Kathi (31:46)
Yeah. Right.

Yes.

Mm -hmm, yes.

Tonya Kubo (32:03)
It is perfectly okay for you to prioritize your own needs and get the help that you need and trust that the organizations that provide these sorts of support services, like you said, Kathi, they know their capacity.

Kathi (32:08)
Mm -hmm.

Yes, and two more things I want to mention that maybe you just need that support for a couple of months. Maybe you’re going through a tough time and you know funds are lean, you’ve got medical bills, you’ve got it’s the beginning of school. Take advantage. Another thought is there are lots of community programs.

for children and senior citizens. California just did a $40 a month thing for kids who are on lunch programs. And then in our community, Monday through Friday, except for on holidays, there’s a senior lunch.

Tonya Kubo (32:43)
Mm -hmm.

Kathi (33:00)
And Roger will proudly tell you that he is old enough to take advantage of that now. We have not availed ourselves of those services yet. But you know what? I think that there’s something really important there. Sometimes it’s not just about the food, it’s also about the community. And if you feel embarrassed to say, hey, is there a way I could help? Could I come and clean up? Could I come and serve food? If you’re able -bodied, those are things that you can do.

Tonya Kubo (33:05)
Nice.

Kathi (33:29)
Tonya, this is such a information packed thing. I’m sorry, we’ve had construction going on around our house and a barking dog. And I apologize if I seemed a little off my game, but the information is solid, I promise. So thanks for hanging with us. 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.

#619 Decluttering Sentimental Items: Transforming Loved Items into Meaningful Displays

#619 Decluttering Sentimental Items: Transforming Loved Items into Meaningful Displays

619 – Decluttering Sentimental Items: Transforming Loved Items into Meaningful Displays

Welcome back, our sentimental decluttering friends!

In part 2 of the Clutter Free Academy series on decluttering sentimental items, Kathi Lipp and Tonya Kubo explore the art of curating and displaying emotional items in a meaningful way. Throughout the episode, they emphasize the importance of being intentional and selective in your curation process, ensuring that each displayed item truly reflects your heart and brings joy to your space. Listen in as they share insights and inspiration about sentimental items, such as:

  • How to transform your emotional clutter into beautiful, intentional keepsakes
  • How gallery walls, shadowboxes, and themed displays can be used to honor your loved one
  • How sharing the narratives behind sentimental items can enhance their value and significance.

With their insights and inspiration, you’ll be well-equipped to transform your sentimental clutter into beautiful, purposeful keepsakes. So, grab a tissue (just in case) and join us for this heartfelt conversation!

Did you miss Part 1 of this series? Here it is for you. #618 Decluttering Sentimental Items: A Step-by-Step Guide

Click here to be notified when the next episode of Clutter Free Academy is released.

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

 

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:

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter and access a copy of the Decision Tree for Letting Go of Emotional Items that Kathi mentions in this episode.

Clutter Free Resources:

Can you share some of your favorite creative display ideas for sentimental items?

Share them 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.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi Lipp [00:00:08]:
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 we are back for part two of. Yeah, I think that we are going to be referencing this podcast over and over and over again in our free group, in our paid group. And just as people are struggling to, they don’t know what to do with their sentimental items, whether they were passed on from a loved one or something from your childhood that you are just having a hard time. Like, do I keep it? The song should I stay or should I go? Keeps going through my brain. And we’ve got somebody here who’s going to help us decide. It’s Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo [00:00:54]:
Hey, Kathi.

Kathi Lipp [00:00:55]:
Well, I just want to dive back into this conversation that we are having about getting rid of sentimental items. So you also think that we need to talk about the space and lifestyle considerations.

Tonya Kubo [00:01:11]:
There are some things that are absolutely ginormous, and there are some things that aren’t ginormous, but they’re bigger than the space you have. And so I think you have to think about, you know, does this item align with my current lifestyle and my current space? And, you know, if the answer to that is yes, then by all means, find a suitable place for it or repurpose it. So I think of, I didn’t do this. I got rid of it. But remember, when I bought this house, it came with everything in it, which sounded like a deal, until I realized that really, it was just a bunch of stuff that I had to take to the dump.

Kathi Lipp [00:01:51]:
But one of the things, including the stove. Right, right.

Tonya Kubo [00:01:54]:
I’m gonna talk about the stove.

Kathi Lipp [00:01:56]:
You know, I’m gonna talk about the stove. The stove is what I can’t forget.

Tonya Kubo [00:01:59]:
Yes, right. 1949 Wedgewood gas stove. I mean, the thing restored would have been gorgeous. And the family had driven three states over which we live in California. It takes a very long time to get to another state. This isn’t like going from Massachusetts to a neighboring state. So they’d driven to another state. They’d paid several thousand dollars, but they had to rent a vehicle cause it weighed a ton.

Tonya Kubo [00:02:25]:
Four grown men were required in order to lift it out of here. But when they turned this house into a rental, they put it in the garage. Critters had taken up habitants in there, but they were really caught up in, like, no, we pretty much gave you a $4,000 gift here. Like, we covered your closing costs with this stove. And I’m like, yeah, and I’m just, like, looking at it. But eventually we kind of got to the point where, I mean, we knew that we were going to sell it. Once we saw how heavy it was. We’re like, we’re not going to be able to get that into the house.

Tonya Kubo [00:02:57]:
No, we’re gonna sell it. We tried for three years to sell it. Couldn’t find a buyer. Now, if I had deep sentimental attachment and some skill, which I don’t have, by the way, let’s just be clear there. I could have probably turned it into, like, a really cool, succulent planner, right. Because it had, like, all these cool compartment y things, right? I could have done something really cool with that. I could have repurposed it into some kind of storage unit, because, again, it had these neat little compartment y things. I could have made it like a decorative fixture, right? I could have put some kind of, like, plastic acrylic thing across the top and made it almost like a coffee bar.

Tonya Kubo [00:03:41]:
I coulda, woulda, shoulda Kathi done a lot of things with it if it meant that much to me. But just telling you all the things I could have done with it makes this, like, anxiety bubble up in my chest. That makes me so grateful that I posted on Facebook free, but you gotta pick it up.

Kathi Lipp [00:03:59]:
Yes. And which, by the way, yes. We had somebody deliver just our. Our fireplace, and it about killed the two guys who were doing it. And your stove was so much bigger. So, like, I can’t even imagine. Yeah. So it did not align with your lifestyle.

Tonya Kubo [00:04:20]:
It didn’t.

Kathi Lipp [00:04:21]:
And.

Tonya Kubo [00:04:21]:
But if it did, let’s just say I really was attached to it. Right? Like, I was the person who drove three states over to bring that into my house.

Kathi Lipp [00:04:28]:
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo [00:04:29]:
Then you know what I could have done? Like, I could have taken a picture of it, and now with AI, I could have uploaded that and had some warhol style, like, portrait made of it that I could have framed and put in my house.

Kathi Lipp [00:04:43]:
Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:04:43]:
There are ways to preserve the memory, the good feelings, without having to keep the thing if the thing is no longer practical for you.

Kathi Lipp [00:04:55]:
Yes. It’s so true. And, you know, I appreciate, like, we had a relative who put together a book of my mom’s family history, and I’m doing some genealogical research right now. And I’m so grateful, one, that I don’t have to keep all those pictures, and two, they’re available on ancestry.com. And, oh, my gosh. I mean, what a gift, right? So what are some other ways to. Okay, so AI could have taken a picture, some other ways that we could preserve things like that. You know, my dad’s paycheck is schlacked to a piece of wood, and it’s cute, and I love it, but I love the idea of taking pictures of things and putting that up in your house.

Kathi Lipp [00:05:46]:
I think that that’s a great way of doing it. I think one thing not to do is to say my kids have to take it. Cause I don’t want it, but my kids have to take it.

Tonya Kubo [00:05:59]:
Well, I think you can’t. Yeah. You can’t make anybody take it is my point. Because we see that with kids. We see that with siblings, right? I see that a lot in clutter free academy. Right? Like, I am the only one of my siblings who has a garage, who lives on property, and therefore, my siblings have all decided, I have to take this. And it’s like, you don’t have to have to do anything, actually.

Kathi Lipp [00:06:23]:
Right, right. No, I mean, we just had a discussion with Roger’s brother, who. He’s the oldest. He lived closest to everybody, and all the photos ended up with him. And he was feeling such tremendous guilt, and he said, I’m sorry, I have to give these to the other brother. We live on the other side of the country, and it’s like, no, there should be no guilt involved in this. You know, it’s. We can only do what we can do.

Kathi Lipp [00:06:51]:
And if it starts to weigh down your life, I’m hoping that your parent, your relative, your grandparent, that’s not the legacy they wanted to leave for you. Okay, so you’ve answered no to all these things. Like, no, it doesn’t fit my lifestyle. No, it’s not super sentimental, but I think my mom would be really upset if she found out I threw away this cookbook or. How do you get past that feeling?

Tonya Kubo [00:07:25]:
Well, that’s. I mean, that’s really hard, right?

Kathi Lipp [00:07:29]:
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo [00:07:30]:
Because. Well, you know. Cause first of all, it’s like, okay, so is mom alive or dead? Because people. I mean, and I’ve even been that way. Right? Like, I held onto a lot of stuff after my mom died because my mom would have a fit if I got rid of it. And, you know, there was a point where I was like, okay, how long am I gonna make decisions based on fear of my mother’s ghost haunting me? Right? And, I mean, I can laugh about that now because I’m talking about my relationship with my mom.

Kathi Lipp [00:07:57]:
Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:07:57]:
I would never laugh somebody else. But no, you know, if it’s no. All the way down and your concern is what other people will, think what you’re really saying is you’ve got a boundary problem. Right. And we’ve talked frequently in past episodes about how clutter is a boundary issue. But there’s a lot of, you know, boundary issues that we have in our relationships that manifest through stuff. And, like, all I can say is, I can acknowledge that it’s hard. I can also acknowledge that it’s not helpful for me to be like, we’ll just get rid of it.

Tonya Kubo [00:08:34]:
Right? I mean, your emotional connection with somebody is your emotional connection. But I do think there is a way of working through that. And part of that, I think, Kathi, is you have to separate the act of decluttering sometimes from the emotional thought. Work around the decluttering.

Kathi Lipp [00:08:55]:
Hey, Tonya. We’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to talk to our sponsors, and then we will come right back. Okay? We are back continuing our conversation with Tonya Kubo about sentimental and emotional items.

Tonya Kubo [00:09:10]:
When you’re holding the item in your hand, there’s a lot going on.

Kathi Lipp [00:09:15]:
Mm hmm.

Tonya Kubo [00:09:16]:
Right. Internally in your head. It’s exhausting. Sometimes what you have to do is you have to put that item down and come back to it another day. Or rather than coming back to it, just put that item down for now. Set a notification. I’m a big fan of 30 days from now. I’ll make that decision, but then actually schedule some time.

Tonya Kubo [00:09:35]:
Sit down, journal it, think through it, but, like, think through all the questions, and then, like, okay, so, like, if. If my mom were to find out that I got rid of this, and, like, would she actually say something? If we’re talking about my mother? Yes. Yes, my mother would have. Okay, if she said something like, what’s the best case scenario? What’s the worst case scenario? Like, walking through that. Because all those emotions are going to bubble up just as you’re thinking about these eventual cases. But you don’t need to also be holding the item in order to be working through that. That just adds more stress to the whole scenario. So separate yourself from the item.

Tonya Kubo [00:10:15]:
Go through the questions. Really think through, like, what’s the worst case scenarios? How bad can it be? Scale of one to four. How much can I tolerate these potential outcomes? And then once you make that decision, I’m going to give you a very unpopular opinion. Popular opinion would say, once you make the decision, go take care of it right now. I say, once you make the decision, close your notebook, whatever it is, take a deep breath, go reward yourself because you just did some hard, stinking work and come back to handling the item when you already scheduled yourself to handle the item, but you’ve done the hard work of the thinking?

Kathi Lipp [00:10:54]:
Yes. Okay. Yeah, I love that. It’s to process the emotion. And I think the thing I have to remind myself is my loved one is not in this item. I have a couple of things that, when I look at them, they make me happy, and we should only keep things around that make us happy when we look at them. And that another thing that I’ve had to do, a couple of, like, hard things I’ve had to do, is tell my kids, hey, you’ve got stuff here. If it’s sentimental to you, I need you to pick it up by this date.

Kathi Lipp [00:11:44]:
And if you can’t, if you choose not to, I’m okay getting rid of it. And that may seem really, really harsh, but it’s just not. If I can’t, I can’t be a caretaker for somebody else’s memories. Like, these things. These items mean nothing to me. And so we. That, and we had Jeremy at our house at 1145 one night going through stuff, and he picked out what he wanted, and he said, you can get rid of the rest. And that’s.

Kathi Lipp [00:12:17]:
That’s all we needed. The other thing that I’ve done before is saying, here is this item, extended family. If nobody wants it, I’m going to get rid of it by June 1. And because somehow, sometimes we are held by emotional blackmail by other members of our family, it’s not important enough for me to take, but you should keep it. And that is gaslighting. That is gaslighting in its finest form, to say you’re a bad person if you don’t do what I also refuse to do, and it’s just not true. If you can curate the things that are important to you, and only you can decide what’s important to you, don’t let other people decide what should be important to you, what feelings should be attached to things. It’s emotional blackmail, and we don’t do that around here.

Kathi Lipp [00:13:19]:
If we’re getting rid of clutter, we’re also getting rid of useless feelings.

Tonya Kubo [00:13:23]:
Exactly.

Kathi Lipp [00:13:24]:
And so to put a date on something and say, you know, and this happened with my mother in law’s stuff, my brother in law sent messages to Rogers and his stepfather’s family and said, hey, we’ve got this item. Does anybody want it? He didn’t hear back from anybody. And so three months later, he got rid of it. A year and a half later, somebody said, oh, I’d actually like that. He’s like, it’s gone. It’s gone. And here’s the thing. If it was really important, there’s a phrase going around, at least on TikTok.

Kathi Lipp [00:14:02]:
If he wanted to, he would. And what that means is, if they wanted that item, they would have acted on it. If they were. We can’t be healthy for other people, and so we have to have our own boundaries. And my brother in law felt guilty at first that he got rid of this item. I’m like, you gave them every chance in the world.

Tonya Kubo [00:14:25]:
Yeah.

Kathi Lipp [00:14:25]:
No, no, no. Yeah. We’re done. We live. We are deciding on our own health. Okay, Tonya, anything that you think we have not said that should be said on this subject?

Tonya Kubo [00:14:39]:
Yeah, I think so. I’m just gonna say three more things. Thing one, okay. Is. And this is the hardest part. So what I will say is, give yourself grace. You want to be as honest and objective as possible when you go through the decision tree. Okay.

Tonya Kubo [00:14:57]:
It’s hard. It’s going to feel hard. That’s okay. But, you know, be as honest as you can be. The other thing I will say is take breaks, which I already kind of talked about. Separating yourself from the item sometimes really is beneficial. And then this is the big one that I don’t feel like people like. Hear me when I say, but gosh darn it.

Tonya Kubo [00:15:18]:
Celebrate your successes along the way. Okay. Maybe you have a box of 25 things, and you were only able to part with five of the 25. Can we celebrate that rather than talk about how only five things?

Kathi Lipp [00:15:39]:
Yes, Tonya? I think as we heal, as we do the work, these items come in layers, and sometimes there’s obvious stuff. It’s like, oh, I never have to see this again. It’s fine. And then as we do the work, we become healthier and understand that our relationship is not in these items. We curate the things that were meaningful to us. We are not holding on to things because other people in our life say they should be important to us. And that decluttering that box may come. You may be able to declutter it the first day.

Kathi Lipp [00:16:24]:
It may take you years, and it’s okay. I will tell you this. When I finally take things out of the box and I get rid of six things, and then there’s this one thing. I’m like, you know what? I want that displayed in my house. I don’t want it to be in a box. I I want it to be someplace where I can see it every day and recall the good memories with this person I love. Or, you know, this animal like it. Part of my grieving and healing with Jake was putting that, you know, going and buying the candle.

Kathi Lipp [00:16:58]:
We do not have enough ritual in the United States of America around the death of loved ones. And I think sometimes creating that ritual, you know, finding the candle, and when somebody loses a pet, I send them candles that I think are going to be about the same size as their animal’s neck so that they can put the collar around it. Because there’s a ritual there that says, we honor this life that was so important to us, and that’s part of our grieving and that’s part of our sentimentality. And when I first looked at that after Jake died, I would cry every single time. And now it just brings a smile. And that’s what we want your house to do, is to bring you joy and to bring you peace as you look around. This was a deep conversation, Tonya, but I think it was a really good one. And I’m really grateful for you being here with me.

Tonya Kubo [00:17:55]:
Well, thank you for having me. This was a really. I hope this one is very helpful to our listeners.

Kathi Lipp [00:18:01]:
I hope so, too. And, friends, you have been here, and we’re so grateful that we can speak to you. 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.

#618 Decluttering Sentimental Items: A Step-by-Step Guide

#618 Decluttering Sentimental Items: A Step-by-Step Guide

618 – Decluttering Sentimental Items: A Step-by-Step Guide

Do you have a box (or two, or three) filled with sentimental items that you just can’t seem to let go of?

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp, and Tonya Kubo tackle the challenge of decluttering sentimental items. They discuss the various categories of emotional clutter, from childhood memorabilia to inherited items, and share their personal experiences with letting go. Together, they offer a step-by-step decision-making process to help listeners navigate the emotional decluttering journey with confidence and clarity. Listen in as they how to ask questions and set limits on sentimental items in the decluttering process using:

  • Kathi’s “Five Item Rule” for curating sentimental objects, and
  • Tonya’s “Decision Tree” process for making decluttering choices

Click here to be notified when part 2 of this series, where Kathi and Tonya will dive even deeper into the art of curating and displaying sentimental items in a meaningful way, goes LIVE.

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

 

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:

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter and access a copy of the Decision Tree for Letting Go of Emotional Items Kathi mentions in this episode.

Clutter Free Resources:

How do you personally navigate the emotional challenges of letting go?

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.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi Lipp [00:00:08]:
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 today, I am back with my favorite clutter free co conspirator. It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya.

Tonya Kubo [00:00:26]:
Hey, Kathi.

Kathi Lipp [00:00:28]:
Uh, I I’m excited about today’s podcast, and also, I don’t know, I feel prejudged. Let me just put it that way. I already feel like this is where I’m failing. This is. You know, I think we all have different areas of clutter that we struggle with. And weirdly, I’m not a very sentimental person. I don’t have a lot of, like, things from my kids childhood, things like that. But when there is something and I struggle to get rid of it.

Kathi Lipp [00:01:05]:
And I know that when we were doing our interviews with members of our paid group clutter free for life, you found that the majority of people are just like me. We’re all just like each other, that we struggle. So I would love to hear from you what people’s struggles were with these emotional and sentimental items and kind of the things that. That brought up for people.

Tonya Kubo [00:01:31]:
Yeah, well, so the struggles are. I mean, they’re varied, right? Just because we all have the same. The same core challenge, how it. The symptoms of that challenge are not always similar. So the sentimental items, something we’ve talked about a lot, right, are just like the ghosts of our past lives. So that’s the childhood memorabilia, whether it’s our own childhood stuff or our children’s stuff from when they were babies and such. There is the stuff that we have inherited. Right?

Kathi Lipp [00:02:06]:
So the.

Tonya Kubo [00:02:07]:
The ghost of past lives is both like childhood, but it’s college, it’s former professions. It’s the empty nester who used to homeschool, but they don’t want to let go of the homeschool curriculum because maybe their grandchildren could use it.

Kathi Lipp [00:02:19]:
What is it about homeschool curriculum?

Tonya Kubo [00:02:23]:
It’s expensive. That’s what it is. Kathi, as a former homeschooling mom.

Kathi Lipp [00:02:29]:
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo [00:02:29]:
You know.

Kathi Lipp [00:02:30]:
Yep, you’re right.

Tonya Kubo [00:02:31]:
When I was homeschooling, we had, you know, in our state, we had a thing called public charter schools that would help offset some of the expenses. But if you were homeschooling in the eighties and nineties, you were on your own, and.

Kathi Lipp [00:02:46]:
Yeah, no, that’s true. Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:02:50]:
So there’s that.

Kathi Lipp [00:02:50]:
So that’s true. I remember that. Yeah. Because we, you and I have both dipped our toe into homeschooling. And even though I bought a lot of curriculum used. It was not cheap.

Tonya Kubo [00:03:02]:
No, no. I mean, I remember there was one curriculum that was touted as the best for working families, and it was like $2,000 a year.

Kathi Lipp [00:03:12]:
So you just think, holy cow, right?

Tonya Kubo [00:03:16]:
If that’s you, Kathi, wouldn’t you want to save that just in case the off chance is that, a, you had grandchildren and, b, those grandchildren would be homeschooled maybe one day, kind of.

Kathi Lipp [00:03:28]:
I would want to save it in case I got pregnant at 56, like.

Tonya Kubo [00:03:32]:
Yeah, exactly.

Kathi Lipp [00:03:34]:
And, Tonya, I have to tell you, I was talking with our friend Sherry Gregory recently, and I remember one of the things she had the hardest time decluttering was one of these programs that you got in the box. And, like, here was lesson number 42, and here’s lesson number 78. And I saw somebody post about that and say it was Pokemon for stay at home moms. Gotta catch them all. And just about died when I heard that. And I finally realized I was never going to get lesson number 37. Like, they were never going to put that out. They were just going to add more and add more because I kept buying.

Kathi Lipp [00:04:18]:
Yeah. It is such a pit of despair. Okay, so.

Tonya Kubo [00:04:23]:
So back to the point, right? So past lives, and then there’s the inherited stuff, which I think you see a lot more, you know, but we’ve seen that from the beginning with clutter Frey Academy, that inherited stuff is really tough.

Kathi Lipp [00:04:40]:
It’s really, really tough. And I think, yeah, past lives and future lives. Like, I bet someday, you know, like, I’m gonna keep my wedding dress because I bet my daughter’s gonna want to wear this. No, probably not. Unless your daughter has said, oh, I want to wear that, it’s probably not gonna happen. Right? Yeah. So I understand that there is a lot of angst around this, and so how do we get rid of this stuff? And I think one of the things, we know the challenges, but I have had to approach it with a very systematic approach to take some of the angst out of it. I am not.

Kathi Lipp [00:05:29]:
I lose all logical thought when it comes to some of these things. And I give myself one box for each kid where I don’t have to explain why I’m keeping it. It’s just. But I can’t keep ten boxes for each kid. I keep these boxes because right now the kids don’t want the stuff. And these are small boxes. We’re not talking huge things. But, like, my son, he’s not in his forever house.

Kathi Lipp [00:06:02]:
He lives with a bunch of roommates. And I have a ring from my grandfather. That he wants. He goes, but I don’t feel like I’m in a good position to hang on to. I’m like, I can hang on to it. And I’m also hanging on to his boo bonkie because I think everybody has a version of Boo Bonkie, which is his blue blanket that he couldn’t live without. And I don’t know that he ever cares about it. But, like, about once every couple of years, I go into that box and I’m like, oh, blue blankie.

Kathi Lipp [00:06:32]:
So you came up with some ideas about a decision tree, and I love this. It’s kind of an emotional sorting system for making these decisions. Right. So I’m going to take. And let’s talk about. We’re not going to talk about Boo Boinke, but we’re going to talk about. I’ve got an item right here, and I’ll take a picture of it to show everybody. My dad, his first paycheck at the library when, you know, he.

Kathi Lipp [00:07:07]:
I think he was probably 17 at the time. And my son’s been a librarian. Well, he’s worked at a library. He hasn’t been a librarian. That’s a very specific role.

Tonya Kubo [00:07:17]:
That’s a master’s degree right there.

Kathi Lipp [00:07:18]:
Yeah, exactly. Um, and we used to call him the guy Brarian. But we’re going to take this paycheck that I have sitting behind me that’s laminated and everything like that on a piece of wood. And I’m going to take it through. I want to take it through the decision tree process. So, um, let’s start with my dad’s paycheck. And you know what? We’re going to do that right after we take a quick break. We’re going to take a quick break.

Kathi Lipp [00:07:43]:
We’re going to listen to some sponsors who keep this podcast free, and then we’ll come right back. Okay, guys, I am back with Tonya Kubo, and we’re doing the emotional, sentimental item decision tree. So what is the first question that I am going to ask myself, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo [00:08:03]:
So for me, it is, how do I feel? Like when I’m holding this and I’m just holding something random because nobody listening can actually see what I’m holding. But when I hold this, what are the emotions that instantly bubble up? Am I feeling angst? Am I feeling hurt? Am I feeling happiness? Am I feeling joy? Like, that’s the first thing that I think needs to happen. You got to label that emotion. So how are you feeling about that paycheck, Kathi?

Kathi Lipp [00:08:34]:
It makes me happy. It just. It. You know, I’ll be honest. My dad and I didn’t have a super close relationship. He was definitely on the spectrum. Hard for him to connect engineer. But this makes me feel connected to him.

Tonya Kubo [00:08:52]:
Okay, so it makes you feel connected because that’s the. You know, the second question I would ask is, you know, why do you feel happy? So it makes you feel connected to him. He’s not here anymore. So the next question, like, absolutely doesn’t apply to this item, but it’s. But it will apply to some of our listeners items that they are evaluating, which is, you know, what is the frequency in which you use it? Like, how often are you using it?

Kathi Lipp [00:09:18]:
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo [00:09:19]:
And I’m gonna say, what’s the practicality of using it?

Kathi Lipp [00:09:23]:
Zero practicality, but it is displayed. So I feel like that’s a use. That’s. That’s a form of use for me, that it’s not just on a shelf that I’ve ignored. It’s like, no, it’s in a place that when I see it, it makes me happy.

Tonya Kubo [00:09:41]:
Well, what I would add for consideration, because that’s the other thing we know, is our listeners are great rule followers, but this decision tree is a wonderful framework for evaluating whether to keep or not keep your sentimental item. But there’s nuance to it. So, in this case, you’re not using it, but it’s displayed. It’s not taking up a ton of space. It’s a first paycheck.

Kathi Lipp [00:10:07]:
Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:10:08]:
Okay.

Kathi Lipp [00:10:08]:
Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:10:09]:
We’re not talking about a china hut chair.

Kathi Lipp [00:10:11]:
Yes, exactly.

Tonya Kubo [00:10:13]:
So I think that’s important to point out, too, we might feel a little differently if we’re talking about this gigantic china hutch that goes floor to ceiling.

Kathi Lipp [00:10:21]:
Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:10:21]:
But next, whether it’s a china hutch or it’s your dad’s first paycheck, the next question is, what’s the sentimental value associated with. Of that item? Is it because it’s attached to irreplaceable memories? Is it attached to an irreplaceable association?

Kathi Lipp [00:10:40]:
Yeah. Well, I have not kept a lot of my dad’s stuff because, you know, honestly, it wasn’t his. His rock collection. There were other people who were more connected to that. His cameras, other people more connected to that. But this one, I have very few things of his because I. I remember my dad, and I remember him with love and fondness. So I don’t need a lot of stuff around.

Kathi Lipp [00:11:09]:
But this paycheck, it’s not that it’s associated with a particular memory, but it’s associated with goodness. In my dad.

Tonya Kubo [00:11:18]:
Right. And for most of our folks who are evaluating sentimental stuff, they’re probably not looking at something that’s already displayed. They’re probably going through boxes in their garage, in a spare room, in a drawer. So what I would say if they had the same answer, though, right? Like, it’s associated with good memories. I feel good about this. I have very few things that have similar associations. Then I would say, okay, so let’s think of ways that you can preserve the memory if that item is not practical in your home. If the item is practical, then let’s talk about clever ways of displaying it.

Tonya Kubo [00:11:56]:
Like, how do we make it part of the actual intentional design of your home? And if the answer is no, like, it does not have any, you know, irreplaceable memories or associations, you know, it’s one of 22 of a similar item, then, you know, it’s. It’s time to make the hard, that hard decision about, do I really need to keep this? Do I need to keep this now?

Kathi Lipp [00:12:22]:
Yeah. So this is not part of the decision tree, but what I. A kind of rule that I’ve made for myself. Not a rule, a guideline is for somebody who is close to me. I. I can keep up to five of their items. So, you know, and obviously, if something happened to Roger, that would be blown out the water. But, you know, I’ve lost my dad in the past ten years.

Kathi Lipp [00:12:51]:
A year ago, I lost you and I lost our good friend Jen. And I have a couple of items around here that remind me of her. She sent me one time a towel that says fold in the cheese, which is from Schitt’s Creek. And it’s a little joke. And so I have a couple, but, you know, and that was a significant loss in my life. But five items is enough for anybody in my life. And I have people in my life that are very precious to me, but I haven’t lost them. And so things of my kids, that kind of things.

Kathi Lipp [00:13:32]:
Five is a good guideline for me. It doesn’t feel overstuffed, it doesn’t feel crazy, and it forces me to make decisions. So everybody has to have their own number, right?

Tonya Kubo [00:13:44]:
And what I was going to say is, I want to speak to the person right now who is like, five is not enough. Damn. I get five does not sound like very many. And, you know, you already said it’s an arbitrary number. It’s a number that works for you. It may not be the number that works for me. Maybe I need four, maybe I need eight. But the reason five is a good benchmark number is because we don’t just have one special person in our life.

Tonya Kubo [00:14:12]:
Right.

Kathi Lipp [00:14:12]:
Right.

Tonya Kubo [00:14:13]:
So you think about it. If you’re keeping five items from mom, five items from dad, five items from mom in law and dad in law, now we’ve got 20 different items that we’re having to find space for. So that’s why.

Kathi Lipp [00:14:28]:
And Tonya, let’s talk about our dog, too. Like, we’ve got all these grand. And then. Yeah. And then the things from your dog, like, it can get out of control.

Tonya Kubo [00:14:37]:
Right. So for some people, I just want to clarify that because I think for some people, they’re thinking like, five is so many because they have, you know, I don’t know, six sets of parents because of in laws and steps and all of that. And other people who might be an only child of only children is like, no, I need 20 because that just.

Kathi Lipp [00:14:56]:
Gives me 40 items. Right. So I think it’s good to have a number because then you say, am I keeping this just because I love the person, or am I keeping this because there’s significance to this item in that person?

Tonya Kubo [00:15:13]:
Right. Well, and you know me, like my latest thing that I’m all about, and I talk about this in Clutterfree Academy, and I’m talking about in clutter free for life, which is our private membership program, is I’m all about the freedom of constraints. It doesn’t matter what the number is when you set a limit, it’s clarifying because it either takes the place of one of the five items or it doesn’t.

Kathi Lipp [00:15:37]:
Right. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, I think about the, I’ve done the, the five for our dog Jake, and one way I keep his sentimental, you know, I do this for some of our pets, is I have a picture in the house. So for pets, it’s the. The number is three. And so I keep their collar around a candle. So it’s around a can, a glass candle.

Kathi Lipp [00:16:07]:
And so I have that collar. I have a picture, and then I have an item that was important to them and that feels like enough. And by having more items, it doesn’t prove that I love Jake more. There’s no way I could have loved Jake more. But these are the things that are comforting to me. Tonya, this has been such a rich conversation, but we’re not even close to being done. Can I have you come back next week and we’re going to talk about how do you curate the emotional and sentimental items in your life? Are you willing to come back?

Tonya Kubo [00:16:40]:
Definitely. I would love to thank you, Kathi.

Kathi Lipp [00:16:42]:
Okay, friends, 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.

#618 Decluttering Sentimental Items: A Step-by-Step Guide

#612 How to Deal with the Mental Load Part 2

612 – How to Deal with the Mental Load Part 2

Do you feel like you are the only person in your house who understands the amount of strategic planning it takes to do the grocery shopping?

You are not alone, my friend!

Join us for How to Deal with the Mental Load Part 2, as Tonya Kubo and Kathi Lipp explore the balance of insourcing and outsourcing daily tasks to manage burnout. Discover creative solutions for family involvement, the mental load battle, and how to negotiate for change without guilt. This episode offers insights into mental load management and gender roles, aimed at improving household dynamics. Kathi and Tonya offer helpful insights, such as:

  • How insourcing allows people to “scratch an itch” they have
  • How to make decisions based on resources
  • How to achieve collective household downtime

Did you miss How to Deal with the Mental Load Part 1? Listen here

Tonya and Kathi mention continuing this conversation. Here are the details! Live workshop: April 11 at 4 p.m. PST in the Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group (kathi.link/cfa)

Looking for the best way to communicate ideas and questions with the Clutter-Free Team? Send an email to support@kathilipp.com

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

 

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:

Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky

Sign up here for Kathi’s newsletter or here to receive her Clutter Free Basics Kit! 

“The Help List” – Kathi’s social media post about her kids/guests helping at the holidays that went VIRAL! 

Continue this conversation with Kathi & Tonya at the live workshop: April 11 at 4 p.m. PST in the Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group (kathi.link/cfa)

Clutter Free Resources:

Tonya Kubo found creative ways to manage her mental load through “insourcing” and “outsourcing.” Share in the comments some personal experiences where these strategies have worked for you!

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.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi (00:00.398)
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 two of my discussion of mental load with Tanya Kubo. And Tanya, I loved our first conversation. I wanna dive right into our second conversation. You and I lead Clutter-Free Academy and Clutter-Free for Life, and are on this podcast,

Tonya Kubo (00:27.463)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (00:30.362)
often giving people lots of ideas of how to declutter their house, how to do all the things. But I know that there are a lot of women out there, and I’m just going to say women, who are trying to do this all on their own. And they are not getting the help from their partner, from their kids, from anybody. And you know, a lot of our conversation is going to be around partners, but also, I had four kids, you’ve got two kids.

Tonya Kubo (00:44.871)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (01:01.495)
Those conversations need to happen as well. How do you explain mental load to your girls? How do you explain that it can’t all be up to you?

Tonya Kubo (01:13.827)
Yeah, well, I mean, mental load to the girls is simply all, you know, the level of difficulty it is to do a thing. You know, so we talk about like, you know, Lily rode horses, both girls have taken piano lessons. There’s a period in time where you have to think, in the case of piano, before you push each key, right? Is this the right key? Am I doing it with the right level of pressure? All of that stuff.

Kathi (01:25.792)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (01:38.731)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:43.627)
And then one day you’re just playing piano and you’re just worried about your chords and you can tell if it sounds right. Like that’s kind of the ultimate description of mental load. I use the computer analogy with them all the time because they’re younger, they get it. But I just tell them, there’s a lot going on in mama’s brain right now and I need some help. I need some help to offload it. But I also normalize when I know there’s a lot going on in their brains and I…

Kathi (01:59.456)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (02:05.964)
Yeah.

Kathi (02:10.622)
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (02:12.148)
I offer for them to offload on me.

Kathi (02:15.346)
Yeah, I love that. And you know, it’s interesting. I used to feel very guilty for asking for help, asking for support when I enjoyed doing something that was hard. Like, you know, planning for our Christmas or planning for a big Thanksgiving. And I actually enjoy that, but it’s also a lot of work. And, you know.

Tonya Kubo (02:23.675)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:34.331)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kathi (02:40.338)
Last November, I wrote an article about the help list where I was asking family members to help my kids and stuff. And that thing blew up not because I’m a great writer, but because people are desperate for help.

Tonya Kubo (02:45.58)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:52.911)
Well, and people had strong opinions. I mean, can we unpack that? Cause that right there was, I think, one of the best case studies in the topic that we’re discussing, not so much even the mental load topic, right? But you had everything from people going, can I see your list? Because they didn’t even know what was appropriate to ask for help with, right? Like, because the idea of asking for help was so foreign. And then there were the people…

Kathi (02:58.187)
Sure.

Kathi (03:04.34)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (03:12.706)
Yeah.

Kathi (03:18.334)
Right.

Tonya Kubo (03:22.535)
that were like, well, remind me never to accept an invitation to your house if I have to do chores while I get there. Right. And we’re like, huh, okay. I mean, if that’s what you read, that’s like if that’s what you read into it, fine. But right. But you know, it’s like that person who wrote that lives with somebody who’s probably doing all the stuff.

Kathi (03:28.488)
Right.

Kathi (03:31.95)
Huh, interesting take. Yeah.

Kathi (03:43.846)
Yes, exactly. Right? Yeah, it was very bizarre. And I said, you know, I have my adult children, the people I gave birth to, go in and check our bathroom to make sure it’s clean. They’re like, how filthy is your bathroom that you need somebody to go in and check it? I’m like, you know, towels get dingy after a little while. toilet paper needs to be replaced. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (03:52.165)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (03:55.845)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (04:06.823)
And it’s like that’s…

That’s like not even the point. The point is if somebody else is in charge of checking the bathroom every hour, you don’t have to, you don’t have to be thinking, oh gosh, like is the toilet paper out? Do I need to refill the soap? Is the, is the hand towel still hanging up there or did one of the kids like walk off with it? Right? It’s just like, oh, well somebody else has got that. They’ll tell me if there’s a problem, if they need my help. I mean that, that right there is the definition of mental load. It’s the fact that you are trying to base to Turkey.

Kathi (04:12.404)
Yes.

Kathi (04:17.373)
Right.

Kathi (04:32.918)
Yeah.

Kathi (04:36.629)
Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:38.703)
while wondering when the last time the toilet paper roll was changed.

Kathi (04:41.814)
Yeah, it’s exactly it. So let’s talk about the difference between insourcing and outsourcing because I think this is really interesting how you describe it. And on that list, I had insourcing and outsourcing. And yeah, so let’s talk about what you mean by that.

Tonya Kubo (04:55.276)
Okay.

Tonya Kubo (04:58.739)
Yeah, so, you know, because I was a working professional for, you know, my entire married life and also as a mother, I got used to and I worked at a university. So we outsource certain tasks and then, you know, we would insource tasks, which meant you found somebody to do the thing. And even if it wasn’t part of their natural job responsibilities. So when I started looking at, so like my personal come to Jesus meeting with myself and with Brian was

when I realized that I would get home on a Friday night, like the house was sideways all week long, I would get home on a Friday night and I would not actually sit down until I collapsed into bed on Sunday and I would go to work on Monday’s limping because I was so sore from being on my feet the whole weekend. And so I started thinking like, okay, if I can’t do it all, who can? Right? And there was a period of time when I couldn’t, like I couldn’t afford to hire help.

Kathi (05:45.783)
guess.

Tonya Kubo (05:56.911)
So I just started getting really creative. And so the insourcing is who lives inside, who can I delegate this to that lives inside my home? And the outsourcing is who can I delegate this to that lives outside my home? Now what’s on my insourcing list may be different than yours based on, there are certain things, for instance, Brian would not be comfortable having somebody come inside our house and do. So even if there were people that offered that service for money,

Kathi (06:14.722)
Sure.

Kathi (06:21.291)
Okay.

Tonya Kubo (06:25.399)
He would not be okay with anybody outside of our home doing that, right? Brian does not want anybody else doing his laundry. Brian does his own laundry. Right. Yeah, I mean Brian does the laundry in the house because that’s he has a thing.

Kathi (06:32.051)
Mm-hmm. I’m right there with Brian. It is not comfortable for me.

Kathi (06:39.567)
No, I was gonna say, I think Brian gets to be uncomfortable with people doing his laundry because Brian does the laundry. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (06:45.875)
Right, and Lily, like Brian, Lily does her own laundry. She doesn’t want anybody else touching her stuff. Okay, that’s fine, right? So that’s an example of insourcing, because note, the laundry gets done and I don’t do it. That’s what I needed to happen, right? So the grocery shopping, for instance, Brian loves to buy things. He is, he’s a buyer. So we always talk about in Colorful Academy, you’re a buyer or a keeper, he’s the buyer. He loves it. And what I found out,

Kathi (06:57.09)
Right. Beautiful. Love it. Yeah.

Kathi (07:06.486)
Yep. Yes.

Tonya Kubo (07:12.851)
I loved a grocery shop too actually, like that’s fun for me. But what I found is that if he wasn’t in charge of grocery shopping, if I did that piece, then he would take out that buying impulse in other ways.

Kathi (07:15.198)
Mm-hmm, right.

Kathi (07:26.447)
Ooh, good observation.

Tonya Kubo (07:28.259)
So having him go grocery shopping allows him to fulfill that urge to buy without blowing our budget. But you know what Brian hates doing, Kathi? He hates meal planning. Well, he hates meal planning. He hates thinking about what to eat. He just wants the food to magically appear. Like if it could just like, yeah, that’s what he wants. So when I was in grad school,

Kathi (07:34.182)
Yeah, scratches that itch. Yes. Oh, that makes a lot of sense. Right. Making a list. I just, yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah, cause that’s how that works. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (07:55.331)
was when we started to outsource more. So I had somebody who would make meals for us once a week. Right, because I just told them, I was like, I don’t even have time to eat in a restaurant. So eating in a restaurant is not an option. But I can have, and they would drive the meals to us. They delivered the meals to us before Uber eats. And then that’s when we had a housekeeper. We only had a housekeeper for the time I was in grad school. And I would just tell them, like, for me it was,

Kathi (08:03.552)
Mmm, yeah.

Kathi (08:09.896)
Yeah.

Kathi (08:14.806)
Beautiful nice

Tonya Kubo (08:24.975)
wiped out, I’m exhausted, I can’t do all this, and guess what? You deserve to rest too.

Kathi (08:29.918)
Mm-hmm. Yes, isn’t that the goal? Isn’t that the goal is that it’s not that we just we want to give mom a break. We want to get no we want everybody To have time downtime. We want everybody to have time where they don’t feel the pressure of things going on we want everybody to have some delight and not feel guilty for wanting to pursue a hobby

Tonya Kubo (08:31.599)
So that’s kind of my difference. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (08:38.98)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (08:43.397)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (08:58.703)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (08:58.77)
or not feel guilty. And this is where I like to bring in our discussion about space, time, energy, and money. You know, what are your resources? Because during grad school, I’m guessing you didn’t have a lot of extra money, but you had even less time.

Tonya Kubo (09:05.03)
Yes.

Tonya Kubo (09:12.731)
Well, so it’s like yes and no, right? Because grad school comes with loans, right? And so, I mean, there was, that was the thing as we got into the second year of grad school, I didn’t actually need a loan to cover my expenses for schooling, right? And so, but I went to Brian and I was like, okay, we don’t need a loan to cover the school expenses, but if I take out the loan.

Kathi (09:17.066)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (09:21.912)
Mm, okay, yeah.

Kathi (09:32.14)
Ah, okay. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (09:42.403)
that can cover some childcare support so that you can actually sleep in on a Saturday morning. That’s something he enjoys doing and somebody else can watch the girls. And that could help us so that we’re not eating McDonald’s three nights a week. And so that was a conscious decision we made as a couple. And I will tell you right now, Kathi, I pay that student loan payment every month with great gratitude in my heart because I don’t think I would have gotten through grad school because I was working full-time. But for me,

Kathi (09:49.705)
Yeah.

Kathi (09:55.534)
Right.

Kathi (10:03.946)
Yeah.

Kathi (10:08.291)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (10:11.439)
You know, there was also the kind of help that we hired, right? So it was like college kids. So I wasn’t paying like an in-home nanny expense. Right. But that time versus money thing, that was it was really hard for me to say, OK, I’m at a place where the time is so precious and if I have a free hour, I want to spend it reading to my children. I don’t want to spend it tidying up my kitchen.

Kathi (10:18.582)
bright. Yeah.

Kathi (10:34.146)
Yeah.

Kathi (10:37.834)
Absolutely. Yeah, we’ve had to make decisions around here as a couple. You know, it’s very inconvenient for us to go places. Like I have no choice. We are not running out to dinner. Like that’s not happening. If it’s going to happen, it’s usually it’s nine. Well, no, it’s 19 times out of 20 that I am cooking the meal, you know, and that’s okay. But that also means that

Tonya Kubo (10:47.281)
Mm-hmm.

Nope.

Tonya Kubo (11:00.777)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (11:07.226)
I’m not trying to work five days a week. I just can’t. Where we’ve chosen to live, I cannot do that. But we save money in other ways. And so those are decisions we’ve had to make as a couple. And, but both Roger and I want time to pursue things we love. You know, for Roger, he’s doing lights for a concert this weekend. And if I was saying, no, you need to be home.

Tonya Kubo (11:10.184)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:21.659)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (11:35.626)
because X, Y, and Z, that doesn’t make sense. And so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna come back in just a few minutes, we’re gonna listen to a couple of commercials, and then when we come back, I wanna talk about how do you start these discussions? Because it can be really hard to go from zero to 100. You know, like I’ve been, you know, shouldering the extra load, the mental load, the.

Tonya Kubo (11:48.972)
Oh, okay.

Tonya Kubo (11:53.429)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (12:01.394)
And I wanna give a couple examples of mental load so people can understand what we’re talking about, but then how do you have the discussions so that you can make changes in how you actually execute things around the house? We’ll be right back. Okay, we’re back with Tanya Kubo and we are talking about mental load. I wanted to give an example of what we’re talking about like for mental load. So, and I’m gonna use one of my kids as an example in that…

Tonya Kubo (12:22.727)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (12:31.326)
you know, my son went through a very belligerent stage where he, I said, you know, he says, mom, there’s no almond milk. And I’m like, well, I’ve told you to put that on the list, because I don’t drink almond milk. I don’t know what and he’s like, can’t you just figure it out? He said this to me, a whole human, fairly and he has repented for him for his sins.

Tonya Kubo (12:53.463)
And he’s still alive? I was like, and he’s still alive?

Kathi (13:00.566)
But I was like, dude, I’m the one who has to make the list. Go to, you know, drive myself to the store, go shopping, make sure that things are within budget. Purchase those things, bring those things home, and then put them away. All I’m asking you to do is put it on the list. But that was too much for him.

And you know what? I think there are a lot of partnerships out there like that. Like, yes, yes. And, good.

Tonya Kubo (13:31.307)
Oh yeah. I mean, like with Brian, well, I was just gonna say like how I explained it to Brian is what I recognized, I said that he does the grocery shopping. So I do the meal planning, I make the list, I send them to the store. Well, there was a time when I was trying to keep us, I think it was like a low buy a month or something, I was trying to keep us to a very tight budget. So what I realized, I couldn’t understand why, but he took twice as much time if I was like, okay, and don’t spend more than $100.

Kathi (14:00.383)
Mmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:00.927)
and he would come home in a foul mood. And what I, after a discussion, he was like, look, Tonya, give me a list. You tell me to stick to the list, I can do that. He goes, but when you give me a list and you send me to the store and you say it can’t go over a hundred dollars, then every item I go to buy, I have to go, okay, well, do I buy the three pound bag of apples or do I buy the individual apples? Do I buy the green apples or do I buy the red apples?

Kathi (14:03.571)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (14:23.854)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (14:26.691)
Like I’m having to do all these mental calculations and he’s telling me this and I’m like, yeah. That’s how you go to the grocery store.

Kathi (14:31.826)
Yeah, right. Yes, I we all want to do the fun parts of a job. I love the picking out the apples when there’s no budget. I love you know, I love like what pre-made meal are we going to get today? But when there’s a budget, we don’t get to do that. And, you know, I have to I have to figure out like when we go to town, it’s not just going and buying the food, it’s making the list.

Tonya Kubo (14:43.492)
Yeah!

Tonya Kubo (14:51.003)
No!

Kathi (15:00.942)
combining it with foods that we already have here. You know, what’s about to expire, so we need to eat that up for like, we do not give humans enough credit, just in the simple act of feeding ourselves how hard that is.

Tonya Kubo (15:14.083)
Well, and Kathi, you mention a lot that you live rurally, but what you leave out, and I think it’s important for those listening who don’t live rurally, but not only everything you just said, but see, you can’t afford to make a mistake in writing your grocery list or inventorying your pantry, because when you get to the store and you come home, it’s for many families who live as rural as you do.

Kathi (15:30.273)
No.

Tonya Kubo (15:41.995)
It’s a one to two times a month visit into town. It’s not a weekly visit. And so it’s like, okay, well, if I forget something, I’m living without it for a whole stinkin’ month.

Kathi (15:45.471)
Yes.

Kathi (15:51.874)
Right. Yeah, because I’m not paying and I’m not exaggerating here, $15 in gas to go get the thing. Yeah. And, you know, I also have to be prepared the day before. I have to make sure that the blue ice is frozen because I can’t be carrying that stuff around in my car. I have to make sure that we have the ice pack there. If I’m going to take something to the dry cleaners to get mended or something like that, that has their…

Tonya Kubo (15:58.528)
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (16:08.611)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (16:20.158)
is so much that goes into it. And I don’t know that Roger really understood that. Now, I will also be fair, I don’t understand the mental load that he is under in different areas around our house. But I do know that whereas his is more special occasion, mine is every day. Like it’s every day feeding the people, yeah.

Tonya Kubo (16:41.575)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (16:44.935)
Well, it’s just difference. And I think it’s fair to say, I mean, read any, like, read what? Like, women are like spaghetti, men are like waffles, like any of those couples Bible study books. And they’ll all tell you that men’s brains compartmentalize one thing at a time, and women’s brains see connections everywhere. So that is why, as we’re making the grocery list, we can think about like, oh, good golly, next Thursday is the Valentine’s Day party or the Easter party.

Kathi (17:05.004)
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (17:14.743)
and we’re going to have to have cupcakes and little Jimmy’s allergic to fruit. So he needs a special cupcake. Right? Like Brian would have that thought the morning of the school party. Oh, did we get the special cupcake? Not because he’s a bad person, not because he doesn’t love our kids any more than I do, it’s simply because for him there’s two time zones. There’s now, there’s not now. Next Thursday is not now.

Kathi (17:21.74)
Yeah.

Kathi (17:25.098)
Right, absolutely.

Kathi (17:29.474)
No.

Kathi (17:38.558)
Yeah, yeah. Yes, exactly. Okay, so how do we have these discussions in a respectful way, but also in a way that impacts change? It was really interesting when we were having this conversation with Clutterfree for Life. We were talking about, is it easier for your partner to be at home or away on a trip?

And I, you know, it’s such a clarifying question. My life is harder when Roger is gone because I’m letting the chickens out. I’m, all those kinds of things. My life, Roger’s life is harder when I am gone because I’m cooking the meals and everything. I think for most households in America, it can be set, I’m not saying all, it’s not all men. I get this guys, please.

Tonya Kubo (18:13.903)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:18.617)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:35.751)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (18:37.866)
But it’s easier when our husband is traveling than when he’s home. But it’s not easier when mom is traveling than when they’re home. And I just, I think, at least I would say that’s true for people my age. And so, and I know there’s some change coming up, but it’s not as fast as we’d like it.

Tonya Kubo (18:55.344)
Yeah!

Tonya Kubo (19:02.067)
depends. I mean, I remember when I was traveling with mops and a lot of the women had never left home before. And I mean, their phones were getting like blown up all the time, right? Like, where’s this and what about this and what about that? And what I noticed the difference is the women who got all the calls and the women who didn’t, where the women who didn’t get the calls were the women who were like, look, as long as

Kathi (19:09.707)
Right.

blowing up. No.

Tonya Kubo (19:28.375)
all the kids that I left alive are still alive when I get home, it’s good. Then the dads felt free to solve the problems, right? And some of those moms went home and like the sink was disgusting and all the laundry was dirty and their kids ate McDonald’s all week. But the other moms who were like, they had like a plan or they didn’t have a contingency plan for when they were gone, it was like that.

Kathi (19:37.866)
Right.

Tonya Kubo (19:56.675)
So I think how, you know, the real question is like, how do you start the conversation in a respectful way? I don’t recommend doing what I do. Don’t throw a temper tantrum. I threw an adult-sized temper tantrum, several times actually, before I realized that rather than coming at the conversation from I do all this, I’m losing my marbles over here, I, and you never, and da, was to simply, when I made that recognition that I was tired and exhausted.

and I wanted a break and guess what? It wasn’t that I deserved a break and he didn’t, it was that I was envious of the breaks, of the rest I thought he was getting. And so I approached it simply from, I don’t want you to do more than you already do, but I need to do less. So how do we make that happen?

Kathi (20:37.783)
Yeah. Yep.

Kathi (20:47.742)
Right, and here’s what I’ll say about your mops example. I would be okay coming home to that sink full of dirty dishes if when I got home, we were both working on it together. But if I’m going away and getting punished because I’m going away, no bueno. And so I feel like one of the most important sentences

Tonya Kubo (20:53.38)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:01.845)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:05.226)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Kathi (21:15.854)
to be able to start this conversation is, okay, this is how we’ve lived before, but this can’t work for me anymore. And I like what you said. I don’t want you to necessarily work harder, but I need to rest more. So how are we gonna get to that? And I really love the book, Fair Play, because it enumerates what actually takes

has to happen in order for things to happen. Like going to a birthday party is not just going to the birthday party. It’s, do you have something clean to, I’m talking if you’re taking your kids going to a birthday party. Do you have clean clothes to wear that are appropriate for the activity? What is the activity? Who’s going to be the adult in charge? Do I trust that adult? Do we have a birthday present for this child that we’re going to? Does that need to be wrapped?

Tonya Kubo (21:46.311)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:58.052)
Yeah!

Kathi (22:15.702)
Are there other things that we need, if my child has allergies, how do I communicate that with, I mean, it can be a 20 item list. And I know that there are some parents who would say, you’re making this more complicated than it needs to be. No, actually, we’re not. No.

Tonya Kubo (22:23.748)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (22:27.079)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (22:36.111)
No, it’s just you do it on autopilot. So the problem with mental load where people misunderstand and it’s just like my grocery shopping example. When Brian’s like, Tony, I have to do all this. I’m like, yeah, we call that grocery shopping. Because for me, that’s one task. It’s all lumped into grocery shopping. For most people, it’s like, well, you’re just going to a birthday party. But if you want somebody to help you, you can’t just assume they know all that. You have to list out every aspect of preparing for the birthday party.

Kathi (22:42.446)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (22:47.798)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (22:55.286)
Yeah, no.

Kathi (23:08.25)
Yeah, and so we need partners is what it is. And they don’t have to take over everything, but they may have to take over some things that they have not had to take over before. And to be able to say, like I said, I don’t need you to work more, I just can’t be working as much as I am. And so that either means that you’re going to have to take on, learn some of these things, take on the load.

Tonya Kubo (23:12.553)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:28.226)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (23:35.774)
or we’re going to have to get some help. And both of those are great options. But if you are stressed, if you’re not falling asleep at night, if you are feeling resentment, I’m guessing it’s mental load friends. So to have the conversation to say, this is how we’ve lived up until now, and I cannot continue that way anymore.

Tonya Kubo (23:38.509)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:42.567)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (23:55.429)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (24:03.454)
I would love for us to come to a solution together. You know, Roger got asked to change something about the lighting at church. Somebody was upset because the lights were in their eyes in the congregation. And so the person in charge said, Roger, we can’t have lights in the audience anymore. And Roger was really frustrated because he said, I understand that we need to solve this problem.

Tonya Kubo (24:16.838)
Mm.

Tonya Kubo (24:32.007)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (24:32.31)
but you came to me with a verdict and didn’t ask for help with the solution. And there are lots of ways we can approach this. I’m a lighting expert, we can figure this out. And so to have the conversation and say, not saying you have to come up with everything yourself when you’re having this conversation, but here’s the end result that I need. I don’t need you to unload the dishwasher.

Tonya Kubo (24:43.931)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (25:01.586)
I need to not have to unload the dishwasher every single time. And there’s a lot of ways that can be accomplished.

Tonya Kubo (25:06.307)
Well, you know what? Yeah, I mean, what you’re really bringing up reminds me of, I think what ends up happening is we jump to a solution, like there is only one way to solve this without getting really clear or accurately communicating the problem. So, I know a lot of couples, it’s like I kill myself cleaning the house, the house,

Kathi (25:18.78)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (25:26.987)
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (25:36.031)
is in complete disarray or I hire a housekeeper. Those are the only three options they see. When if they approached it with, I actually only am able to tidy up one hour once a week. And one hour a week is not enough with six kids and this and this and this. What else can we do?

Kathi (25:43.957)
Yes.

Kathi (25:57.448)
Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (26:01.807)
Then you open the conversation to other people going, well, maybe Ike do an hour one day a week. And Ike, I mean, that’s what we do all the time here in this house is, you know, clutter free is 15 minutes a day. Everybody has their own 15 minutes a day to do. And guess what? The house gets an hour of attention. Not always in the places I would put my attention, but guess what? It’s not me. So it’s great.

Kathi (26:18.359)
Yeah.

Kathi (26:24.887)
Right?

Yes, it’s fine, yes. Tanya, we wanna be able to continue this conversation and we are going to do that over in our Facebook group, Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy. We’re gonna put some dates and times down in the show notes. We would love for you to be able to join us and we’d love to hear your ideas too because we don’t have all the answers. We have a lot of questions, we don’t have all the answers.

Tonya Kubo (26:35.576)
Yes, we are.

Tonya Kubo (26:43.413)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (26:48.366)
Mm-hmm.

Tonya Kubo (26:55.335)
I was gonna say, here’s what I would love, is I would love people’s thought, like if you’re listening right now and you’re like, oh my gosh, I have questions, I have thoughts, I want them, email them to us. We will give you the best email address to reach us at here in the show notes, but email us and we will use that to formulate the agenda and actually really talk about not just how to start the conversation, but what are some good tactical approaches?

Kathi (27:04.51)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Kathi (27:24.638)
Yeah, because we want to solve this. We don’t want to just complain. We want to solve this. And we want to make life better for everybody in our house. Tanya, thanks for being with me today.

Tonya Kubo (27:33.961)
Thanks for having me and being willing to have this conversation. This is a tough one.

Kathi (27:36.966)
Yeah, we are going to keep having this conversation too, because we need to. Friends, you have, you’ve been the most important part of this conversation and we want to hear your thoughts. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter free life you were always wanted to live.