My 3 Step System for an Always Tidy Home

I have a three-step process that I use when it comes to resetting every single space in my house. And so today I want to go through my entire home. I'm hoping you'll work alongside of me. I'll show you exactly how it works, but also the secret to having a house that is so easy to tidy and to keep clean. And you know, those like hot spots and stuff that tend to accumulate how you can completely eradicate them in about two minutes or less. Promise. Promise. You know, if I could take you back 10 years ago, my one and only goal when I first found minimalism was to have one day where the whole entire house was clean. Not like shoved into cabinets and closets and cupboards kind of clean, hidden away so people wouldn't see it. And it looked clean, but it wasn't actually clean. I wanted my whole house from top to bottom, what's visible, what's not visible, to be clean, organized, tidy. And so, you know, I found minimalism 10 years ago. I was a stay at home mom with four kids, ages four and under. We lived in a townhouse at the time, it was about 1700 square feet. Ironically, it's less than a mile from where my new house is now. But I just remember feeling so defeated and part of me thought it would never actually be possible to achieve this. But the other part of me thought, you know what, if I'm decluttering and simplifying, that's my goal. That's what I really want to get to. And it was around that same time where this whole mantra came popular that good moms have sticky floors and piles of laundry and messy kitchens and whatever the sign says. And so as a culture, it seemed like we started to just embrace this idea that when you have little kids and you're trying to run a household, that it's just going to be messy. And on one hand, I really appreciate the sentiment behind it that we don't put these impossible standards on ourselves. But what I kept asking myself was if that's truly how it's supposed to be, and if that's okay, why doesn't it feel good? Why don't I feel like I'm doing well in my house? Why doesn't my house feel peaceful and restful and like a place I want to be because so many days I just wanted to leave my house. I wanted to get out. And so I'd take the kids to Target or we'd go to the park or we'd arrange playdates or I'd put my daughter in preschool so that we'd have somewhere to go during the days. And I just wanted to get away from my home. And it wasn't until I found minimalism and started decluttering that I realized that maybe there's not a lot of truth to that. Maybe good moms have tidy homes, not perfectly deep cleaned homes, but tidy homes, homes that are picked up. And now as I look back over the last 10 years and I've gotten to live in quite a few different homes and gone through many different seasons, now my kids are ages 11 through 16, which is so hard to believe. And I've gotten to live as a minimalist for the last 10 years. I could not imagine living any other way. And we moved into this new house about six weeks ago, and I've been a little apologetic. Like I know it looks super bare. I know, but right now it's kind of like where I can manage it. Right. I've been apologizing. I'm like realizing now, like, Hey, maybe I don't need to apologize anymore. Maybe this is a level that I can actually maintain. And what I have learned over the years is that our houses are always talking to us. They're telling us important information. And I was talking to my sister. I have a twin sister on the phone this morning. I was kind of like going through this video. I'm like, what do I want to say? And she's like, Dawn, you know what's something that you told me was so helpful. So she has four kids ages two through seven. And she was having a hard time getting her kids to pick up their toys. And I simply said to her, Oh, that just means they have too many. And she's like, no, Dawn, you don't understand. Like we've already gotten rid of so many toys. Like my kids hardly have any to the point where, you know, it's like all the other people and homes they go to have so many toys and we don't, and you don't want to look like you're like neglecting or depriving your kids. Right. I'm like, I get it. I'm like, yeah, but honestly, the data, like what they're telling you, if they're not picking them up when it's time to pick up toys is that they simply have too many. And so one night it was like, Hey, it's time to pick up the toys. And they picked up what they wanted to, but left a bunch out. And so she just packed those toys away. And she said, do you know what, Dawn? They didn't miss them. And some of the toys were even some of their favorites, like their magnet tiles that they play with every day. Now there were still some magnet tiles left, but she packed some of them away, even things they love, but they still had too much inventory. And so if you're not able to stay on top of your house, if you can't reset it easily most days, then it's just giving you really valuable information or data. You just have too much stuff still. And would you be willing to continue to simplify it and declutter it and move stuff out so that you can get your house to a point where you can reset it really quickly and easy. And you could have this magical day too, where your whole house is clean from top to bottom and not because you shoved stuff into things. Right? So we're going to keep working, like I said, through the entire house. But actually real quick, I want to run upstairs and I do want to launder my sheets today. I don't know if that's part of resetting or not, but my sheets need to be washed. So I want to go pull those off the bed, get them in the wash so they can start running through the system. And then I think I can really illustrate, state this three-step process the most clearly in our laundry room. So we'll probably head in there and I'll show you exactly step-by-step what I mean with this process. It's so funny because as I was taking the sheets and all the bedding off, I'm like, I love my mattress so much. And today's video is sponsored by Helix Sleep. And this is the perfect time of year to update your old grody, worn out mattress. And I've been sleeping on a Helix mattress for five years now. And I think what happens for a lot of us is we simply don't realize how our old mattress has broken down and it's not supporting us anymore. I was waking up with back pain. My side would hurt. I would wake up at night because I just couldn't get comfortable. And it wasn't until we got our new Helix mattress that I realized that it was actually the mattress that was the problem, not me. Right? And so Helix Sleep makes premium mattresses customized to fit your unique needs and conveniently delivered right to your door. And I mean, you've heard me talk about being a Helix mattress for a long time. You know how much I love it. But what you might not know is that it comes in three different firmnesses and they have over 20 mattresses to choose from. And what I appreciate is that they make it so easy to get matched with your perfect mattress too. So you just go online and you take the Helix Sleep quiz. It only takes about a minute. What position do you normally sleep in? What type of mattress do you prefer? And then at the end, you're going to be matched with your perfect mattress too. So for me, it was a Helix Dusk and this is one of their elite mattresses. Yeah, I get excited to go to bed at night and to get to sleep on this mattress. That's what happens when we get older. So you get matched with your perfect mattress and then it's conveniently delivered right to your door, free shipping in the US. And what I especially love about Helix too, is that they give you a 120 night sleep trial. So you get over three months to test it out and make sure that it's just the right fit for you too. And then beyond that, you also get a lifetime warranty. And Helix also has a new line of premium mattress toppers. So if you're not quite ready to take the plunge on a full new mattress, or you want to upgrade the sleep for a different mattress in your home, check out their mattress toppers. We were able to add a premium mattress topper to Adeline's mattress. It made a gigantic difference without having to replace the whole mattress. So thank you Helix so much for sponsoring and you can save 20% off sitewide. Just go to helixsleep.com slash minimal mom during their spring savings event. All right, let's get back to resetting. I actually want to share with you now my three-step process for achieving and maintaining a highly simplified home. And so I think the best place to illustrate that is in the laundry room and then we'll head back downstairs and keep resetting. Okay. So the three steps again are declutter, organize, and maintain. And so the first step is to declutter. So when we moved in the laundry room, we kind of came a dumping ground for the paint supplies and different projects that were going on throughout the house. And honestly, I was fine with that. I think when we move into a new space, it's good to collect some data. And even for you now, when you walk into any space in your house, if it's a little bit cluttered, all this is is data. This is actually very helpful data to work with. So we often say no failure, just data. So can I encourage you to look at it objectively? Not what it's saying about you. You're not lazy. You're not a loser. We're all managing way more inventory than we are meant to. So nothing wrong with you. Let's look at the data. And so most likely what the data is telling us is that we're not using it, or we don't have space for it in this area. And so when we can look at it more objectively, we can say, what do I actually need in this space for it to function really well? What's the purpose of this space? Well, it's a laundry room. I want laundry to work really well in this room. And so I only want stuff in here that is supporting that goal. And so when there's stuff on the floor, then other stuff collects around it. I had noticed we didn't have a good spot for dirty laundry to go. So that was rolling around the back of my brain, but I wanted to initially in this decluttering step, remove anything from here that did not belong in this space. And so it can be really helpful to just pull everything out and put it into categories and look at what you're dealing with. So I was able to find a container for the paint stuff. I labeled all the paint cans. So those could go down to the basement and rehomed some other stuff that had found its way in here that just didn't need to be in here. So again, the first step is to declutter or simplify the space, paring it down to only what is essential in here for the space to perform its function. Step number two then is to put in very simple organization. Simple organization is organization that we can maintain, which we'll get to in the next step. Complex organization often goes south, right? So we want to put in simple organization that our whole family can use and maintain. And so in here, there's already one shelf in here. I don't think this wire racking shelving is necessarily the best solution, but I don't want to do a full laundry room overhaul right now. And so I wanted to work with what we had. And so these baskets from Target are my favorite. They roughly hold about one load of laundry. And I did want to create a little bit of separation for the laundry. So I wanted to have one bin for darks, one for microfiber stuff that we don't wash with other things. And then two bins that are just for mixed general wash stuff. And so that's what I'm creating here with these four bins. Oh, and I'm also relying on these zippered pouches in here. Again, I think they work great when you have just kind of odd shape stuff. I'm 99% sure I will not need any of this, but I want to time test it for just a little bit to make sure. So I was able to put everything in here, keep it really neatly organized. I'm going to put a label on it and then I put it with my other ones that I have for the house. And so very simple organization. And then the last step is to maintain it. So once we get the space back to square one, unfortunately we're going to have to maintain it. Flat surfaces will always collect clutter until the day that we die. Any kind of flat surface, right? The top of the dryer, the edge of the laundry tub in here, the floor, the shelves if there's not stuff on there. Flat surfaces will always collect stuff. And often we think like, Oh, there's something wrong with me or with my organization or whatnot. And so when we're looking at this maintenance piece, we have to evaluate if it's starting to get cluttered again or feeling hard or difficult to reset. I always want to look at, is it just a maintenance thing? You know, the kitchen table is just going to need to be cleared every day. Or should I go back to the beginning? Does it need to be decluttered further? Is that what the data is telling me? Or is the organization outdated? Did it work in the past, but now it's not working? Has the organization never worked in this space, right? There's a lot of trial and error that goes into finding just the right organizing systems and products for any space. But what I've found is that usually it's going back to that first step of decluttering even further. And when we're willing to do that really ruthlessly, no matter how big or small your house is, how much space you have or don't have, we can make any space function well. It's just being willing to let go of all the stuff you're not actually using anyway, put in simple organization and then commit to maintaining it. But again, the maintenance piece is so easy once you get it really highly simplified. And that's why I'm no longer apologizing for my super simple house, right? Doesn't this just say come in and do laundry in here now? It looks awesome. It feels really good. And again, when we look at the beginning shot, that felt anxiety inducing, overwhelming, stressful. Now it feels very functional and easy to do what we need to do in there. So that is awesome. This is where we have to have ultra low inventory and we don't have to apologize for it anymore either. Okay. So then back downstairs in the dining room the kids and I were clearing off the table and then I knew there'd be questions about this. So we got this table set from a friend. I'm so grateful for that super high quality. However, the blue chairs did not quite match our new aesthetic. We're going with a lot of cream colors and then green as an accent color. And so I'd seen these chair covers on Amazon. And so it was time to get them put on. They fit so well and they made such a big difference. And yeah, they're light colored, which probably isn't ideal. They're washable too. Okay. Then over to the entryway. So this is the back entrance that comes off of the garage. And when the kids are with me, there are five of us here. And so shoes can add up really quickly. And also we're in between seasons here in Minnesota. And so we still have some winter stuff mixed in with our regular shoes, but I don't want to be too overconfident, but I think we can pack the winter boots away. And so I'm taking winter stuff out and I'm going to put it in a tote in the basement to store until we need it again next, well, in the fall, whenever. And so that was one of the things I'm doing. So again, anytime a space is feeling a little messy, a little chaotic, I'm always running through this list in my head, the clutter, organize, maintain. And so this space had been feeling a little catch all E again, kind of like the laundry room. And I was giving myself grace with it. It is what it is. But then finally I was like, okay, let's, you know, really look at this objectively. And so it was clear. The winter stuff could go out of here now. Also there were some returns in here and I do think it is very important to have a spot in your house where you keep returns. And so I need to create that location. Now, remember if you create a location for returns, that's not going to remind you. Then I also put on my task or my to-do list, what returns I need to make because just having them in the return spot will not, I will not remember it and I won't check it and it'll be out of sight, out of mind. So I use a return location in conjunction with my to-do list and reminders with that. And so that's the only way I can stay on top of that type of inventory in my home. And also we will talk about hotspots and how you can remedy them ultra quickly here in just a second. But you're not seeing the kids help me a ton in this video, but they do help whenever they're with me. And that was one of the things when they were little and my house was really cluttered. I felt frustrated because I knew kids should be helping more, but it was so hard. They would get frustrated. I would get frustrated. And then it was like, fine, I'll just do it myself. And as we began to simplify and declutter our home, it became so much easier to involve them to the point where in our old house, we had it so dialed in. Each of the kids had a zone. When it was time to clean up, everyone went to their area and we could do it so quickly and efficiently. Now it took a little practice to get there, but because the house had been so highly simplified, I didn't feel bad asking the kids to help. Right? And it didn't take a lot of time. It wasn't overwhelming or unreasonable. And so we had really found a good groove. We haven't totally established that here in our new house, but again, we've only been in here for six weeks. So like, I know it will come. We have a track record to draw on. And I also know how important it is for kids to help. And so I'm committed to that. And I know it's just a matter of time before we get all of that dialed in here as well. All right, well let's talk a little bit about these pesky hotspots that seem to accumulate on all of our flat surfaces. Hotspots are just those areas of your counter or different flat surfaces where stuff naturally tends to collect. So again, no failure, just data. What are these spots telling us? But the problem with hotspots is there is so much inventory coming into our house all of the time. And some of it deserves a home, a dedicated home. We should find good organization and a place for it. And other stuff we just don't know. But a lot of times we don't know the difference until some time has passed. So I'll say time brings clarity. Usually after we give things a little bit of time, we know if we're actually going to need them or not. So I want to show you two of my favorite tools now for tackling hotspots and how you can get through them really quickly. Because again, there's more stuff than time in the day. So two of my favorite tools again are these zipper pouches. And I've been showing these recently. And also a crap basket. And you don't have to call it a crap basket if you don't want to. You can call it whatever you want in your house, like a not today or a time will tell, whatever. But I've showed this a few times and actually the feedback is very positive. And I love being surrounded with women who are willing to think outside of the box and to do things imperfectly. If again, they lower the anxiety in your home. So let's talk a little bit more about the crap basket. We can talk about both of these, but here's what I think a crap basket is really helpful. I think you can call it a clutter catcher. I don't know what Cass calls it, but there are a lot of little random things that collect, especially if you have kids in your house. And again, we don't know if we're going to need them or not. So I did this in my parents' house. I did it here after I moved in. And it is amazing the clarity you get. So I showed the one in my parents' house and that one was around Christmas time. And a few weeks later I'm looking at it and I was like, 90% of this stuff can just get thrown away. Now, just in a few weeks, I had that kind of clarity about the random cords, almost empty gift cards, packaging, instructions for things, boxes for things. Just that little bit of time passing gave me clarity on the bulk of the items in there. And then anything that I still didn't know about, I could just leave in there. So I don't want you to underestimate the power of this tool, how it can very quickly give a home to stuff that is random and has been floating around on your flat surfaces, but also how time brings clarity. And over time, the stuff you put in here gives you really valuable data to work with. So what feels like a hard decision today, now a few weeks removed, becomes very easy. So don't underestimate this tool. I know in the past we've sometimes said, oh, don't defer decisions, make a decision now. Again, I think we're dealing with too much inventory and we're real low on bandwidth. Right now, our brains are tired. And so if we can find some hacks like this that help make it easier, but also help get your house back to square one, where you can think more clearly, where it does free up a little bit of extra bandwidth. If I have everything contained in here and it's sitting here, there's a clear boundary around it. I always talk about how our brains want boundaries, so categorize and contain. If I know everything in here is just waiting for some time to go by for me to make a decision, this does not stress my brain out at all. When it was all spread across the counter, that was very stressful to my brain. And now again, fast forward, we get our house simplified, our surfaces are kind of cleared. Now, when I sit down and I'm like, all right, I'm going to go through this basket really quickly. Again, when I'm in a peaceful and calm space, it doesn't feel that hard to go through it. It doesn't feel that intimidating. I'm like, yeah, I can tackle this quick. When every space is overflowing and cluttered and overwhelming, it feels a lot harder to make those types of decisions. And a lot of times we don't even trust ourselves to make decisions when our house feels very overwhelming. So this is a great hack. I know some women, when we talk about it in our membership community, they're like, Oh Dawn, I could fill up like 80 of those. It's not wrong because again, time brings clarity, but getting it into a container, telling your brain this stuff is, is categorized and contained. And through the process you're probably going to find obvious garbage and stuff to throw away anyways. It's actually not wrong, especially if it's all been kind of spread out across all your flat surfaces now, at least then it would be contained. So don't disqualify yourself from using it, just trying it. We need to be in motion to get the data and to test out these things and see if they're going to work for us. So it's been working for me and I think it could work for you as well. Same with the zipper pouches. I've been using these again, just to contain the random stuff that comes in our homes. And these now I can stick into a container and they're just going to live, I don't know, either in my office or in the basement for now. But if I need, I actually did reference something out of this one just today. I know where it is. It's easy to get to. I actually came out and I brought this with me and the person that needed the info out of it was like, whoa, look at you, you're so organized. I'm like, I know, right? This made me feel really good. And again, this has never been me. I was a messy person through and through, right? It actually felt very good. So I want you to have those feel good feelings in your house too. Okay, so we've gotten a lot of the main areas reset. In the entryway here, I actually ordered a closet organizers from Ikea and they arrived in a gazillion pieces like things from Ikea do. And, um, we've started putting them in now and then there was Amazon boxing around them too. You just, you know how it goes. And so I will do a updated like organized house tour where I show all the organization we're putting in. I did do a video with our kitchen organization, um, recently. And so I can link to that, all of my favorite kitchen organizing products that I've found over the years that really do make a big difference. And so here, I just want to get boxes broken down, some things opened up that had accumulated and you know, just get it all kind of pulled back together. But, um, I do want to say welcome to, I know that we have some new friends. I've been making videos here on YouTube for eight years, which is just wild. And I know we have many friends who have been around since the beginning or near the beginning. And I'm so grateful for you. And also it's always fun to meet new friends too. And to just get to share this with you because, um, I don't know, finding minimalism is truly one of the best things that has ever happened to me. And I think too, if I, if I take you all the way back, I grew up on a farm here in Minnesota, just outside of the Twin Cities. So I was born an identical twin in the fall of 1982. And my parents both worked full-time and also farmed full-time. We, my parents' farm was just a couple of miles away from my grandparents' farm on my dad's side. So it was a big family operation. And I love that so much. We had family close by. Some of my fondest memories are riding in the tractor with my dad. And we also, you know, along with that, we just didn't have a lot of extra. I'm so grateful. All of our needs were always met, but we didn't have the name brand clothes, you know, and all the stuff that our friends did. We never drew drove new vehicles or even newer vehicles, you know? And so, um, it's interesting because when I look back, my parents were, I mean, they continue to be two of the hardest working people I know, but also so kind and so generous. And even when they themselves did not have a little or a lot of extra, they modeled to us how to be appreciative of what we have. Uh, they also modeled creativity, how to make do when you don't have just the right thing. My dad is like seriously one of the most creative people that I know. And he always just had such a good attitude to where, you know, I think farming is just problem solving one-on-one all the time. Right. And he would just approach everything that broke down or didn't go right as a puzzle to solve. And he always kept a good attitude and was optimistic. And it was just like, huh, how are we going to deal with this now? And I really appreciate that upbringing because in, I mean, don't get me wrong. In some ways then when I was a little older and I did have money and I could afford branding things, I mean, usually from thrift stores or garage sales or whatnot, I did covet them a little bit. I clung to them a little bit, but now as we've, I've simplified and um, and have this home now that is very simplified and decluttered. I don't have a lot of fear about going without. And many of us never declutter our homes to the point that would make it really easy and simple because their fear creeps in. What if I need it someday? Uh, what if I look foolish if I get rid of it now and then I end up needing it? What if it looks like I'm wasting money or not, you know, being wise with my resources? And so I know how this can get kind of confusing because on one hand, keeping everything makes it look like we're being wise and preparing for the future. But on the other hand, like I talk about, it's all inventory that we have to manage and it gets to be way too much. Also, I know some of you had said, you were worried that I didn't have any decorative throw pillows in this house. So I did order some off of Amazon and I saw on Instagram, the hot tip. So these are 20 by 20 inch pillow covers, but then I saw a gal say, get pillow inserts that are a size bigger. So I got pillow inserts that are 22 inches by 22 inches and they did fill them up very nicely. They could use a little like fluffing and smoothing out, but nonetheless it was kind of fun to unbox those and put them together. But something we've been talking about in our membership community recently is that somewhere along the lines, many of us have picked up this belief that something is only a good decision if there's never a mistake attached to it. So it's only a good decluttering decision if it means in the future, we never need it again, or there's never an instance where we can need it. And the problem with that is none of us are able to predict the future. And so when we're decluttering, a good decision is actually one where we look at the past data and we look at our current reality and we say, okay, I have not used this item over the past however many years and I can't think of an instance in the near future where I'm going to need it. Therefore it is a calculated and logical decision to let this item go. And honestly, those were the main questions that I used 10 years ago when I decluttered the first 80% of our stuff. I just said, have I used this in the past year? Do I know for sure if I'm going to use it in the upcoming year? And if I didn't, I was willing to let it go. And there is some risk involved with that. Don't get me wrong. There is some risk involved with that. But again, I think with my upbringing, you know, my dad never gave us a hard time or my mom either. If we made a mistake or we didn't do something quite right, he just always had the attitude that we learned from it. And so there was no mistakes, just learning experiences. And you know, often we learn the most when things don't go quite right. Right. And so I really appreciate that, that one, uh, he never made a big deal if we made a mistake. And then two, he demonstrated creativity every single day and making do with the things we did have. And I don't say that in a way of, Oh, we should keep every single thing so that we can use it creatively in the future. I mean, we're actually all very creative beings. And so a lot of times we think, Oh, if I did clutter this thing and then I need it, I'm going to be so frustrated with myself. But what you'll actually find is that often we can find something else that will work just as well or almost as well. But we haven't had to exercise that creativity because marketing tells us there is a physical solution and a solution we can buy for every inconvenience that we have. And so we're so used to buying solutions that we don't rely on others, borrow things from others, or just use something else that we have instead. And so I think that has really helped me to be able to just look at minimalism early on 10 years ago when I found it, I'm like, well, this is really just a big experiment. I didn't know if it was going to be the solution that I was looking for, but I was willing to give it a try. And over the course of that first year, like I said, I got rid of 80% of the stuff in our house, just looking at stuff we weren't actually using. And that was 10 years ago. I would say now we've gone even further that I would say I've gotten rid of 85, actually now at this point, 90, 95% of my stuff, I'm living with so little in this house and it feels so good. I could never imagine going back to managing that kind of inventory again and living that way. It was exhausting. I always felt behind. I always felt like a loser. I always felt like I wasn't doing a good job. And I just, it's really interesting now looking back how much the physical stuff and the messes and the clutter, how much it nagged at me, ridiculed me. We'll sometimes use the term the silent to-do list. It was always running in the back of my head. And so now to get to live with this kind of freedom, I truly can't imagine any other way. And I'm so glad that I get to make videos and talk about it. And I have an incredible membership community where we get to practice this. I like to say like the YouTube videos, I share the mindsets, the how-tos, why I'm doing what I'm doing. But then inside of our membership community, we're in there actually doing it day in and day out. I have videos in there every single day and we do live decluttering. Like tomorrow morning we have live decluttering going on. Every Saturday morning we have a home management class where we talk about all of the things that go into running our house, like meal planning, managing our calendars, our to-do lists, and that kind of stuff too that goes into running a household. We are all managing so much. We're managing so much and we don't even realize it because we've been doing it for so long. And so again, I just today want to give you permission to say it is okay to let go of this stuff that is not serving you, that's not making your life any better. It doesn't actually matter if you spent money on it. If physical stuff is meant to make our life better and easier, and if it's not, one of the best things you can do is let it go. And we do it over time. We build trust with ourselves over time, but it is honestly the best thing that I have ever done. I don't ever want to go back. And like I said, I'm not going to apologize for my house looking a little sparse these days, because I have matched the inventory to my bandwidth and this is about it. With four kids right now and everything else going on, this is about what I can manage and that is totally okay. All right, well, I hope you got some resetting in your house done today too. I have over 800 videos here on YouTube to help you simplify and declutter. And like I said, our membership community is so cool and awesome. We practice this, we do this together every single day. We also have body doubling twice a day, which is just where you can go in live and work with others. And that has been the secret sauce for a lot of people, especially when we struggle with motivation and accountability and all of that. And so I know our days fill up before we know it, another month has passed. And so I would really love to get to spend more time with you in there as well. So details will be where details should be. I love you. I hope you have a really good day and I'll see you again soon.