Here are the show notes for today’s podcast:
Intro: 00:00 Welcome to essential oil healthcare radio. I am frank, I am a certified physician assistant and I’m Jackie Ritz. I’m an herbalist and lover of essential oils and we would love to bring to you this podcast about herbs, essential oils, supplements, all these ways that you can live a natural life. So stay tuned and listen to us and we’ll be bringing to you lots of content on essential oils using herbs, using natural remedies to take care of yourself and your family.
Jackie: 00:29 So I’ve created a download for you guys on some steps that you can take a as you take an inventory of your life and your home and to help you tidy up and declutter. So check out the show notes and the link and click the download here and you’ll be able to download this free tidying up and decluttering guide so that you can clean up your life in a order and check off each box as you go through.
Jackie: 01:06 Okay.
Intro2: 01:07 Hey everyone, it’s Frank and Jackie Ritz and we are so excited to talk to you guys about tiding up and decluttering your life, not your oils. Okay. So I’m excited about this because I mean, the world is kind of taking, Marie Kondo is taking the world by storm right now with her brand new Netflix show, tidying up. And I have to say that it’s pretty, pretty good. I love it. Um, in fact, there was a year ago, it was about two years ago that I read her book titled The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It’s so good guys, if you’ve never read, read it and please grab it. But the principles, and it really grabbed me. And so I really determined to clean out the clutter in my life. And so I wanted to share this with you guys today because we’re going into the new year. You know, we’ve kind of gotten acquainted with the new year.
Jackie: 02:04 Let’s face it, it’s going by really fast, but spring cleaning is coming up, right? So we’re getting ready to do that annual decluttering and it’s time to really figure out what is bringing us joy in our life and what is bringing us down and causing us to just really lose focus and energy. And so when I read the book, I started with my closet, you know, decluttering my closet. And I didn’t stop until I cleaned out all the clutter from every single nook in my house. And then I started clearing out the clutter of my mind. And this was such a valuable experience for me because I learned how to not only just declutter my life, but did he clutter my mind? And so many of you are probably recognizing this dissatisfaction that we’re finding in the, all the things, right? You’re beginning to do some really major cleaning, tuning into how you feel. Um, maybe you’re just simply living your lives and as you do, you’re finding great freedom and owning less. So all over the world, people are embracing this way of life in this simplicity. There’s even a growing trend right now, frank, of tiny house living, which is living in less than 300 feet. And so we had our moment of tiny house living, didn’t we?
Frank: 03:23 We did. We traveled around the country in an RV for a year. And, uh, we actually were going to come back to a tiny, we were, and I have friends who actually construct tiny houses right here in our area. So there is a definite move in for that. So people are looking to simplify their lives.
Jackie: 03:38 So why do you think people are actually doing the whole tiny house thing?
Frank: 03:42 I think that people are waking up and they realize that we are not defined by the amount of stuff. I actually have like this, I don’t know why I keep this as a mantra. It’s such a, it was a profound thing when I heard it from the movie fight club. If you remember the character of Edward Norton actually specified how he loved to collect stuff inside of his little tiny New York apartment. I believe it was New York. But anyway, he had this profound comment and he goes, the more stuff you own ends up owning you. Absolutely. And so I think that people are definitely understanding that it is not about the collection of stuff anymore.
Jackie: 04:16 It’s not. And I think part of this trend is due to Marie Kondo’s book and Tidying Up on Netflix. But there’s also so many other things that are contributing to this trend. So some of them that I think are, is that people are discovering that, you know, getting more stuff doesn’t lead to more satisfaction in life. Um, they’re seeing that the cost of living big, Eh, it parallels to consumer debt, right? So the bigger we live, the more debt we have and we just aren’t keeping up with the Joneses. But inside we’re deeply dissatisfied and unhappy with our life. And with that mountain of debt that we have, I think people have an egg in their hearts to get back to the simpler life. Like we did remember when we were living in the city and just things just did not feel right.
Frank: 05:05 Oh, absolutely. It was like we, we just, we realize that the hustle and bustle of everybody trying to accumulate things was just not a way that we wanted to live. I mean, now we’ve gone from being a city boy in a city girl growing up in a city of, gosh, it must have been millions of people when we lived there. But now it’s like, I think it’s her past as six or 7 million in the area to where we now have a population of around 2000. So it’s been a really big life change for us. Not saying that anybody needs to do what we’ve done, but we just wanted to simplify our life because we want to time to slow down. And then we found out that that was a lot more valuable to us than stuff.
Jackie: 05:43 And in order to slow down in your life like we did, um, we had to get rid of a lot of that clutter of stuff because that is what keeps us busy because we’re busy taking care of it. All right. Um, another thing that I did and started to implement, implement it was that, um, I got rid of a lot of a clutter in our kitchen and some of the tools, you know, and used some things that were all in one, like my instant pot or my brand new Breville smart oven, which I absolutely love, which is a air fryer, an oven, a dehydrator roaster, a baker all in one. Um, but also people are, and they have a lack of storage for stuff. We don’t have enough closet, closet space, kitchen space, um, storage space in our garage and our rooms are becoming too full of furniture and we are unable to just find happiness and joy and all of that.
Jackie: 06:40 Um, I know for us that we were really aware of seeing our families closeness and we don’t want it to disintegrate as each of us starts to focus on, you know, getting more stuff and more technology and more I iPhones and more Nintendo Games. Um, so I think that all of these contribute to why people are feeling this, this deep dissatisfaction with their life and with the stuff that they have. So I want to take a look on this podcast and just challenge you guys with the possibility of just living with less and what are some of the benefits that it can bring you when you do. And so we’re going to concentrate on three steps on how to declutter your life. Um, we’re going to talk about why and how to get rid of your stuff. We’re going to talk about finding ways to store the things that you keep that are bringing you joy.
Jackie: 07:36 And we’re going to talk about living with less and focusing on the things that make you love your new life. So why and how, um, do you get rid of all your stuff? So if you haven’t watched the show tiding up, there’s actually a whole system to it. But it’s important to start with the why’s of decluttering your life because that’s the whole mindset part of it. This is where I had to start and as the questions I had to begin asking myself like, why did I buy all these clothes? Why do I spend so much time looking through catalogs and online stores even though I have everything I need already? Why do I envy the things that I see others get? Um, and so two d to be very successful at decluttering your life, you must begin by De cluttering your mind. So maybe you buy all the latest styles and clothing because as a child, your mother can only afford to give you hand me downs from garage sales.
Jackie: 08:29 Okay, that was me. Or maybe you envy the girl who has it all, um, or had it all in your high school class or in your college class. And you are determined that when you started leading your own life, you are going to find a way to get everything that you wanted. Maybe you missed out on real family closeness as a child and you grew up learning to, you know, be satisfied with the longings of your heart with stuff instead of relationships. And my hitting home with a view of these things. So ask yourself these hard questions. You know, ask yourself, why am I doing this? Um, and it’s not easy and it makes us wonder about are our true motivations and the things that drive us to take the actions in our life. But until you recognize your cluttered thinking and take steps to declutter those thoughts that drive you to getting more stuff, you’re not going to be successful at decluttering your home, your life, your closets or anything.
Jackie: 09:33 So when you’re ready to move on, you’re going to discover that you really don’t know how to get this done. It seems like a very overwhelming job. So how do you start? How do you do it? Um, and I quote Marie Kondo and her book tidy and the right order. There’s only two task involved. Discarding and deciding where to keep things discarding must come first. Be sure to completely finish the first task before starting the next. Do not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding. Do you remember when we were doing this, honey?
Frank: 10:11 Oh yeah. Was this one we were like grabbing stuff and asking those questions about like does this caused me anger or, yeah. Yeah. I remember.
Jackie: 10:20 I remember when we started and hours of how many bags of goodwill did we had. Okay.
Frank: 10:26 No, but we may. Good, well happy we did. There was numerous bag
Frank: 10:29 and how many bags of trash? Probably just the same. Oh my gosh. Genesis. And I’m not kidding when I say, let me give you guys a good number. I felt like we were actually storing track. I think we had probably 30 to 40 big black bags of goodwill donations.
Frank: 10:43 Yeah, yeah, we, okay, so this is the amount of stuff I remember. Let me see if I can paint this picture for you for the amount of stuff that we actually had and it worked out really well because at that time I was getting retired from the military and we were moving down to central Florida and we were looking at our space, if you will. And we had a pretty decent size apartment. We actually decided to do what apartment rather than doing a a house, which that’s six in one hand, half dozen, the other, because it’s all about square footage I suppose. But we had a, a apartment that had a reasonable amount of square footage. Okay. The crazy thing is, is we went from a house to that. And so like naturally it started happening. These guys that moved us down in central Florida, we lived in a box of are we living in a warehouse of boxes for a least a week where we had paths guys, cause we just, we started running out of space to put places. So like we, we didn’t even understand where to put these boxes. So for a week alone, we literally were walking around on broken down cardboard boxes with other cardboard boxes, towering higher them.
Jackie: 11:46 And so, um, you know, it’s recommended when you start this process, obviously don’t start with the sentimental start going through your clothes first because what this does is it trains you how to look at things with a perspective of does this spark joy for me? Have I worn this outfit and two years, you know, will this outfit be worn in the next six months? That sort of thing. And it really trains you to learn how to say yes or no to certain things. And so then you can move on to, um, like miscellaneous things. Then you can move on to the kitchen and then as you get more and more into it, you can move on to those sentimental things and deciding whether to keep them or to get rid of them. So the right order is different for everyone. Um, it’s probably different than what it was for me.
Jackie: 12:37 But you know, maybe you want to start with where you have the biggest mass. Maybe it’s where you don’t have enough room. Maybe it’s where, you know, in your heart those that you have just simply accumulated way too much stuff. And for many women, for me, this was my closet. Okay. So that’s where I started. Um, some women have clothes from every single fashion trend in every size for every big stores sale last year or the year before. So maybe there’s no room for more clothes and there hasn’t been room for your husband’s clothes in your closet and he’s putting his clothes in the guest room. Um, this might be a good place to start here. I’m sort your clothes into two categories or several categories, top, bottom underwear, outerwear, purses and accessories. And so if each piece of clothing doesn’t give you joy or if it’s stained, ripped, too big or too small, maybe you haven’t worn it in a year, decide now to either give it away or to throw it away.
Jackie: 13:43 And so when you have finished this kind of assessment of your clothes, you can go onto your kids clothes, um, and include them in this process. This is very important for them to be a part of that. Move on to your husband’s clothes. Um, and just figuring out how to store these things as the next thing. I’m not, everything has to be on hangers. Fold what you can, put it into different bins. Find closet space or George space. Um, in order to stay true to your new, less is more philosophy. Make it a rule that every time you bring home a new piece of clothing, you’re going to get read of one thing. In that same category of your house or of your closet, you’re going to follow this way of ordering and decluttering in each area of your home. So probably the next biggest stuff problem is your kitchen.
Jackie: 14:36 So the kitchen gets a lot of traffic. It’s overused, overstuffed, over dirty, right? Um, you probably have too many dishes, things that you don’t use anymore. For me, one of our ones was I had saw this plastic stuff that we never used, so, and it was taking up all the space. Your pantry probably looks like it’s, you know, from 50 years ago, you might have stuff in there that’s way expired, but just start sorting through your kitchen into categories and then take each category one by one. Don’t stop until you’re finished. Get rid of the items that you don’t need, the appliances that you don’t, you use the kitchen stuff and tools that you never use. Any kind of duplicate kit dishes, pots and pans, um, mugs, containers, potholders this stuff. You know the stuff that’s on top of your refrigerator, clean it all out and don’t forget about your fridge or your freezer.
Jackie: 15:31 Um, and getting rid of any freezer burn foods. Right? So the next step is you want to find a new way to store things. The um, an organization I love using Mason Jars for storage and other kind of large glass containers. Plastic containers is something that I got rid of it leeches chemicals into our food. So I don’t use any plastic in our kitchen anymore. We use our glass and stainless and so that’s easy for me. So if somebody gets a cup, you know, and brings home a plastic cup, I throw it right into the trash. Ucla. But just determine that you’re going to continue through the all the categories of your home and don’t stop until you finished everything. So years ago, my mom, okay, told me a story of a woman who was given a white rose. So she sat that rose on her kitchen table and she thought, I can’t leave it there with all those dirty dishes in this things.
Jackie: 16:30 So she cleaned up her kitchen table. She cleaned her stove, she cleaned her sink and finally she cleaned her entire kitchen. She took that one rose and she put it in the living room on the side table beside her favorite chair chair. She continued until her entire home was d junked and clean and sparkling. So visualize your home without any distracting clutter. What would it look like? Um, now that you’re, you know, after you finish those processes of, you know, decluttering, discarding and then organizing, then your get to, you get to move on into this place of joy. Um, and just realizing that stuff you can really live without. There’s so much that you don’t need. And what I loved is once I cleared out that stuff, I found greater contentment in the areas of my life that I really, really loved and wanted to focus on.
Jackie: 17:32 You know, growing better relationships with my children. And I believe there’s some things that we can learn, some principles that we can take away from this so that we can learn to be okay with living with less. Because culture doesn’t dictate this to us, right? It tells us, get more, get more, get more by this. By this I mean it’s everywhere. My biggest thing that I try to remember is live beyond the temporary. And I love the verse, Matthew Six 20 in the Bible store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. Another thing that we learned to do was to give. So giving expands our heart. It helps us to keep our hands open, to receive gratitude and to give cheerfully. And so we gave a lot of things away to people who were in need and needed it more than us.
Jackie: 18:27 Um, I learned to grow a thankful heart. And gratitude has become through this process, the foundation of what I focus on. Um, so I don’t focus on what I don’t have now, but what I do have and contentment I found by realizing how much I already have. Another thing is live within your means. You know, this is a practice that frank and I were trying to continually to incorporate and every single day of our life, for example, um, we probably could afford a nice truck, right frank? We actually had a nice truck. We did. We did have a nice truck. I forgot about that was about 10 years ago, but we could afford a nice truck right now. But our farm pickup is, how old is it? 50
Frank: 19:16 it is a 1993 Ford f one 50 and it actually has a manual transmission for those that were born. Uh, you know, yeah. At least in 20 years or more you would realize that that was a stick shift. It’s a four by four where I actually have to get out of the vehicle and put these locking. I have to twist the locks, if you will, on the front wheel. As long story short, she’s old, she’s full of Patina, but she’s full of character and she’s a really great, yeah.
Jackie: 19:42 My favorite thing is he’s has a calm, what is the hooks? The command hooks on the driver’s side window was the window don’t work anymore. So that he can roll it down while he’s pushing down on the button. And it’s really, really funny. And ghetto. Um, another thing that we do and we still do is we buy the majority of our clothes from secondhand stores. And so this is like why spend $100 on two things when I can go to goodwill, spend $50, and I’ve got clothes for all four.
Frank: 20:13 We’re going a lot of those times that actually still has the original tags on it
Jackie: 20:16 and it’s like, like they didn’t brand names, they didn’t wear it. I love it. Um, try to live sustainably using the things that you raised your grow instead of shopping at high priced and unhealthy big box food stores. Okay. Um, also furnish your home with repurpose furniture. We love this place that’s local to us in Asheville called the regeneration station. And what they do is they obsipo furniture. And so we have a shabby chic home. Um, because we used a lot of refurbished furniture, that was probably half the price of what we would have spent. So if you put your house in order now you’re going to be able to pour out your time and your passion into what brings you the most joy in life and also your mission in life. So I’ve firmly believe and how you’ve grown to believe that life truly begins after you have put your house in order and then after you put your house in order, you can move on to other things like putting your car in order, putting your phone and order, you know, putting your digital stuff and your emails in order. That was all part of the process of elimination that we all went through. So that’s it. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and you’d go out there and tidy up and declutter your life.
Frank: 21:36 I want to end with just one quick thing that is a Dave Ramsey quote that we have as a mantra motto, if you will, for our home. And that is we buy things that we don’t need with money that we don’t have to impress people that we don’t like and what that being said, think about that. Maybe hit wine, read it, or it should say here at over and over again, because that is a great mantra to live by. Thank you dad. Dave Ramsey for that. We love doing these podcasts. Please click on that subscribe button. That way you get a notification every time we come out with a brand new episode, give us a comment, give us a rating, give us stuff, because we really adore it. We want to know there were spot on for you and we cannot wait to see all of you again
Both: 22:22 on our very next podcast. Take care. Everybody.
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