@@AtoZenLife we are going through every room! Having a big yard sale next weekend. We’ve been working on the yard sale. This the 5 minute double check.
@@AtoZenLife Does decluttering my head mouth and attitude count as things to Declutter? Well I already know the answer is a big YES bcuz your other videos on meditation self care and exercise ARE SOOOO HELPFUL. THOSE VIDEOS HELP ME A TON. I GO for walks and center myself and we'll you teach me discipline so I can become who I want to be. I'm totally still working on me. Always will be. I am very Frank blunt forward and loud and all the rest... I cud go on. But I have learned that people want to tell me their story without my input. I DONT WANT TO BE A KNOW IT ALL. People just want someone to listen to them. It's that simple. I call it MINIMAL INPUT. It can still be a dynamic relationship of any kind if (I) just listen
I try your wake up early routine to start my day. Coffee is a must. I don't know how you go without. I exercise and get so much done while taking my time and not feeling rushed so my schedule feels like it just flows. That outside part of y'all s new home is great for doing so many things. It will bring great memories. I luv it.
For me, the real idea of “take it there now” to put things away where they go while decluttering is it encourages me to let it go to the trash can bc if I’d rather throw it away than put it where it goes, it didn’t deserve to be in my home any way lol I know that sounds wasteful and lazy but it’s my trick I use. I have really severe back pain, multiple bone spurs on my spine, so most days I’m more committed to having fewer things so I don’t have to clean as much in the long run.
I'm a fan of Dana K. White and her take it there now. It's not just one item at a time. She looks around for things that are going to the same spot and takes it all to that spot.
The slightly used sunscreen would be a perfect thing to offer on Buy Nothing if you can’t use up multiple bottles before they expire. A lot of people in my local group struggle to afford good quality products like that, so it’s a win for everyone.
This is what I live by. I get so much done in just 5 minutes. Remember at the beginning of my decluttering journey. I would spend hours decluttering and wondered how people could get it done in just fifteen minutes or so. Here, I am years later, actually able to get stuff done in 5.
Yes! You can get a lot done in 5 minutes and it doesn't matter if it doesn't all get done. It's still helpful. I like this style of decluttering when I'm only planning to clear up one space and know that tidying it up will only only take 5-10 minutes. Sort into piles (garbage, recycling, donating, has a home already) and then take all the piles to their homes. However, if I'm going to be decluttering for longer than 15 minutes, I bring my garbage, recycling and donate containers with me and put items in their home the first time I pick them up even if I have to go to the other end of my home or outside to do this. Of course, I take a quick look for other things that go in the same area to reduce the number of trips. That way I don't have a bunch of stuff to put away when I've run out of steam or am interrupted. The space might not be finished but it's better than it was and I don't have piles that I need to sort through again later because I can't remember what they were. (Credit for the way I do long decluttering goes to Dana K. White).
I keep a rag bag about the size of a shopping bag in the laundry room. Although I will launder and use rags over again, if they get especially dirty or have ink or something that could get on other things in the laundry I just toss them because I have plenty. Also have a rag bag in the garage with larger fabric scraps. Those go in the trash after one use.
The idea of using a basket is just genius. This saves so much time by not running back and forth to put things away! I think this is one of your best tips yet! Thank you!
You can get a lot done in 5 minutes - great motivation :) I would return the realtor book to their office, if only to force them to take responsibility for the trashing of it. So wasteful! The binding and cover can’t even be recycled, possibly not the paper either if it’s coated. For people whose homes are chaotic the “take it there now” principle can be a game changer. You’ll definitely empty those baskets and put things away because your home in under control, but for people living in chaos they can easily become “doom boxes” that need to be resorted months later when people find them again.
Regarding the book about a house you looked at but didn't buy, if not too much of an inconvenience, I would take back to the realtor office or just put in recycling. Your videos inspire me as I'm cleaning. Thank you!
I’m finally learning that declutter means just that! Trying to declutter an area and organize has led to many failures 😮 I did huge declutter before I moved but sadly not enough. Been in my new place a year and still too much stuff. Wanted it organized as I put away but too much stuff 😵💫 lead to disappointment and I’ll do it later. Started doing these 1 cupboard or 5 min decluttering but not organizing and see so much more progress. Love your channel been long time follower don’t post much mostly watch! Thanks
I've never been so eurly. I've been jumping from cleaning and declutering my room and my school work because that's what works for my brain. Thank you for the bonus motivation to fully deal with all my childhood cluter. I'm hoping to move out for cheap so that means less stuff.
I have been avoiding decluttering my drawer in the bathroom, and also avoiding pulling the fridge out to clean behind. I always feel like these tasks will take a huge amount of time and effort (mostly because I'm a perfectionist and want the result to be perfect). However if I set a 15 minute timer, I most likely can get either of these tasks done, maybe even both tasks!
Under the bathroom sink is an area I dread going into also. For 5 minutes it is not so bad. There were two dead tiny insects in a plastic container under a pipe used to catch any potential leaking water. I was unaware we had any insects there. This is good to know. Thanks, Marissa. Five minutes works best in certain situations.
As far as the book you were talking about that was of another home, I would definitely trash it with no second thoughts. It’s not your home, you didn’t buy it. If it was the home the home you bought, that would be another story, but trash it!! Thank you for the inspiration, going to decluttering our daughters room which is now deemed, “the cat” room, kitchen drawers, bathroom drawers, and hopefully my husbands drawers(cross your fingers, he likes to hold on to everything!)
Great tips! Regarding the realtor's book, offer to return it to the realtor if the house hasn't sold yet so he can pass it along to another potential buyer 🙂
My sister in law has a rule about found money: it goes into a giant jar theybhave to be cashed in for a family vacation. They have 6 kids so sometimes no one knows how it belongs to or several claim the money as their own. But since it goes into the jar they all get to benefit from a nice family vacation. Some of the kids even add extra that they want to add. It also teaches them to look after their own money a little more carefully and not just put it down and forget about it.
Hello! Would you please do more videos on how to save money cooking and keeping minimal food in the pantry but not feel like we are running out of food. Maybe refrigerator clutter too?
Today I need to do a bit of paperwork decluttering, last week was a trainwreck and I didn't have the concentration skills/time to take care of it. I'll feel better once it's done for sure. The book from the house/realtor is a nice idea, but SOOOO wasteful! One of my favorite things to do is start a RU-vid video, watch for so many minutes, then pause and see what I can get done in 5-10 minutes, then back to the video.
Loving your examples of all that can be accomplished in only five minutes! The bag of clothes can go to textile recycling. H&M accepts clothes that are too worn or stained to donate. There are other places that have textile recycling as well. Thanks for the video!
Loving all your videos! Quick tip before I finish. You can return Amazon packages to a wholefoods without printing the label. They print it there themselves. So excited to see the final reno!
I also have an allergy to some sunscreens, turns out it's the PABA. Apparently a good number of people are allergic to it. Difficult to find one without it. This has been a great video for me do some house cleanup as I'm watching. I've had the motivation to do more than 5 minutes at a time which has been nice
You must be busy with new home projects. Try to get alot done when kids are at class. And do put the children to help with new projects when they come home. Clutter in our lives can waste our time and bog us down. Even thoughts can bog us down or disrupt us. But i give great praise to you and mr.zen because life experiences do not clutter us in any way shape or form and you have given your little men many life changes and growing experiences. With all the travel and etc. You are wonderful parents. I am scared of heights and bridges and tunnels so i dont wonder off to far lol. We can never HAVE TOO MANY EXPERIENCES. On another note i think you all had the perfect number of children. They say we need to populate the planet more. Too many children just burden the older children with growing up to fast by having helped raise the younger children. And the parents are away from the children trying to make a living. Its like a vicious cycle so to speak. I know people that have many children and whenever I am in their presence it is always complete chaos. 2 kids is perfect on mom, budget and the world plus the kids GET THE MUCH NEEDED ATTENTION TO BECOME GREAT ADULTS. It all starts with the parents. Maybe you can do a video on things we can never charge as clutter like learning or veggies or cleaning or reading. I just caught myself bcuz too much of anything is bad. For example we all think of reading as a good learning tool or pleasure so how could it possibly be to much. But someone may read to avoid what they need to be doing . Or too much of travel causes jet lag. SO THE LESSON HERE IS WHAT MARISSA HAD ALREADY TAUGHT US: DO WHAT YOU LOVE ! Thats it! AND EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. THAT'S WHAT I CALL MARISSA 101.I just had to talk IT OUT WITH you guys to work it out in my own head. Everybody have a nice day. Hay Marissa when are you going to write YOUR OWN Book about all things minimal???
I'm "decluttering" in the wake of my 5-year-old grandson, who slept over last night and is unearthing plenty of stuff! He's certainly got more energy than me!
I use 5 minutes (sort of - don't take the time) to do something at home every day. It could be de-cluttering, it could be cleaning, watering my plants or things that need to be mended... (And it had become a routine so I don't think about it, just doing it.)
I agree. The book’s purpose was to be a promotional resource, not a keepsake. If it helped you fall in love with your house, that’s beautiful… and mission accomplished! It has served its intended purpose.
As for the real estate book I would just Chuck it! You already have a beautiful house. You don't need to look at someone else's life. As for my kids school work. I keep some of the art and work that I feel good about and put in in a small bin.
Mom of 4 sons (now all grown)-the trash bag I always called the Primal Clean. A take on the Primal Scream the boys knew when the black trash bag came out, they should have put away their toys and legos.
I just decluttered 6 trash bags of my clothes and 1 of my husband's. We also decluttered the kids clothes and sold them to a place in town that buys gently used kids stuff. We made like $60 off their clothes! I got to the point where I'm ready to just rid of so much!!! We are not done decluttering!! More kids clothes over the weekend!!
I like this idea. My husband and I live in a tiny apartment and despite being minimalists clutter is a big challenge due to the small space. I also spy a Naruto figure.
❤ I haven’t bought paper towels in 10 years. No looking back. I have also noticed that old cotton towels, cloth napkins, and t shirts are way better quality than the cotton being produced now days so I am especially saving the oldest ones.
I LOVE that lightshade you're putting in, beautiful ❤❤❤ and thank you for showing the 'actual' clutter of your bathroom, real life mess is great for people to see, if you struggle with clutter some decluttering channels look too pristine and where on earth does a newbie start!
And that Realtor book! What a wasteful thing they created that's probably not even on recyclable paper. A good example of the waste we can minimise early by deciding not to create those sorts of things in the first place. I'm going to remember that next time I go to an Open Home and will no longer bring home any promotions materials
I am absolutely loving your videos! I really appreciate the way you talk us through your reasons for decluttering. I was wondering if you have old videos from when you first started decluttering, if so, where can I find them?
Another comment! Try an alternate wearing the backup glasses. Apparently if you don't wear glasses the frames get really brittle and just break. It happened to me when my son was a newborn. I have really bad eyesight and before he was born I'd wear contact lenses all the time, but I reverted back to my barely used glasses for the night feeds. The plastic literally just snapped in several places over the course of just a few weeks. Pretty sure I later read or heard from an optometrist that glasses need to be worn to stay durable. Maybe it's the warmth or oils in skin that keeps them supple?
I would save the book from the realty agency, someplace with household documents, but that's me. I would pass it along to the next owners someday. I've always felt that houses have a soul and are affected by their history. And it might be fun to page through one day, reflecting on your choice. Again, that's just me.
With the house book.... If at all possible, I'd take it to that house or the realtor. Or donate. Our neighbors had looked at buying our house, but bought the house next door, They had a beautiful flyer that was for our house and gave it to us. It has been a nice keepsake to see how it looked before we bought it. The other option, we have a creative reuse store or a school that could use the pictures as art resources for collages.
I don't understand why you would put clothes you're going to throw away in a drawer to deal with later. Why not toss it as soon as you decided it needed to go?
My thought exactly. I keep a bag in the bottom of my closet and when it’s full, out it goes! I have way too many rags already so I don’t need to cut up T-shirts, etc for rags.
Completely agree! Here we have textile recycling bins so I keep a bag in our closet and things go in there until the bag is full enough to drop off but if I were going to throw out the items I would just do it once I found the hole or stain.
My top tip is get rid of waste bins and laundry hampers in bathrooms, just put that stuff where it belongs each day when youve finished getting dressed each day, I LOVE never having to empty those bins!
@@nicoleryanweldon2369 but what happens when the bins get full? If my experience w/ people with ADHD is representative, garbage will just pile up on many full bins and become a game of “how much trash can we balance on this before it falls?”
You could try repurposing that book from the realtor (for the house you didn’t buy) into a nice photo album. Take the pages out of it and either put photo pages in it or pockets for your kids artwork.
I’d let the boat go by giving it back to the realtor if they’re still accessible! If you don’t do this already, you can give your worn out clothes to Freecycle. Anything they can’t use gets recycled into things like couch filling. They do regular free porch pickups. It’s just like those parking lot bins you see that accept clothing donations. Many of those gets shredded and recycled so they can even accept old shoes.
Just a couple thoughts, since I cant read all the comments. I always kept at least one shirt/pants that were stained for grungy play/work (painting etc) rather than messing up another shirt. Also 100% cotton shirts/towels are cut up for rags. Cotton socks with holes make great dust cloths.
I always keep the bag of worn out cotton clothes and socks in our basement and garage for rags. You’re renovating your house and will need rags at the ready.
Trés ADHD clean up: pick up three piles of clutter, put them in the basket. Put the basket in a closet. Forget about the piles and don’t deal with them for a year.
I am a super minimalist, so there is nothing to declutter, but since I commit to one project a day, I'll be cleaning my living room windows today, which weren't cleaned in months. It takes five minutes, each.
Another Inspiring Video... 1. 🔨Happy Delay: Many people skip the step of letting flooring acclimate to the temperature and humidity of the project space. Since you have had your wood on site for a while, you are maximizing your chances that your flooring will not buckle with an increase in humidity. The wood may shrink a little with the dry air of January, and gaps around the edges will be covered by your baseboards and quarter rounds. It is normal for all wood to expand and contract seasonally. 🔨 2. 👗It would be helpful to know your thoughts on when to donate vs. when to immediately trash used clothing. Is it better to take damaged clothing to Goodwill or other shops that send unsellable clothing to a recycler? 👕 3. 🎃 Would your boys do a Halloween bag craft project? Turn an old T-shirt inside out and sew or staple the bottoms together. If stapling, staple through the hems. If the staples seem loose, use a little hammer or plyers to flatten the bent ends of the staples. To make it more secure, put staples closer together or add a second row of staples. You can practice on the sleeves that you cut away. Cutaway the arms at the arm seams. Cutaway the neck trim, then, using the shoulders as the bag handles, cut the bag opening to be symmetrical on both sides. A bigger opening will make filling easier, but a smaller opening will make it easier for treats to fall out. Turn the bag right sides out. The handle edges may roll but they will not unravel. Hang the shoulders on a hanger to store the Halloween costume and items like a flashlight until needed on the big day. 🎃 4. 🏠. Keep the house book if it contains information that will be useful in the future like: 🏠History 🏠Dimensions 🏠Plans 🏠Utility Connection Locations 🏠Roof Age 🏠Windows Age 🏠Furnace, AC, Water Heater Ages 🏠Historical Utility Cost Data 🏠Appliance Ages 🏠Dates of Major Repairs Anticipating the year a building component needs replacing helps with budgeting. Knowing warrantee expirations may help you save on repairs. Comparing utility usage data may help you troubleshoot energy loss or water leakage. 🏠 Thanks again for the inspiration...
It is surprising what you can done in 5 minutes when you set a timer and don't get distracted by anything else. Regarding the book, like others said, I'd try to return it if not too inconvenient, or at least maybe call them or the realtor and see if they want to pick it up. If they say pitch, then I'd recycle it but if it's worth them picking it up, they can come and get it.
Definitely, the yearly stationery packs are expensive, and depending on your child and how well they take care of their things, you will quickly end up with excess. Source stationery yourself, or alternatively I would customise the order and not reorder items they already have the next year.
I would put that book in the same place I put all the appliance manuals and other things I feel like I can’t toss because it’s a rental and not mine to throw away.
My fam needs to Declutter organize and clean up their own crap. I am not THEIR MAID. MOMS with multiples teach them to be pro active helpers. Lastly I understand the timer helps get us going and such. I FEEL STRESSED IF I USE A TIMER
It is so nice because our school gets a significant discount on school supplies, so parents would not be able to find the supplies cheaper. (Another bonus is when parents order supplies from the school, students have the correct supplies. It never fails that when parents shop for the supplies themselves, they buy the wrong things.). Your district may be different though...
