Transcript
Speaker: Hey moms, it's Laura Olinger.
Speaker: Welcome to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast.
Speaker: Because there's no manual for the hardest job in the world.
Speaker: Welcome to part two of my conversation with Sarah Fritsch, founder of Moxie Space Professional Organizing.
Speaker: So I would love to transition a little bit more into like practical tips and tools.
Speaker: So imagine that you have, you know, a client who, you know, has got lots of kids and they've got a very busy life and they are just always on the go.
Speaker: And the problem is they imagine if they would hire an organizer that the house would then be messy again in a week.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like what I'm wanting to like share with the audience is, you know, how do you come into a home, you know, get it all clean and organized, but then help the client learn how to maintain it and the client as the parent, but help the parent then teach the kids.
Speaker: These are the new systems.
Speaker: This is how we want to do it.
Speaker: So, so what do you offer when situation?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, so first and foremost, if our goal is that we are setting up extremely simple systems and I use the word system, but that is, that just means like, where does the mail go when it comes to the front door?
Speaker: You know, the, the incoming mail, what's the system for that?
Speaker: Does it get tossed onto the kitchen Island?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: for the for a week you know and then maybe it gets dealt with maybe it never does and maybe it gets lost or whatever like that's that's a system i mean it's not functioning but so a system just means like what's the process you know and so our goal is always always to set up the most simple system possible and in fact um we really feel like if you have to go through more than like two steps to access something in your home
Speaker: it's that's too many steps.
Speaker: So you can think of like, put, let's, let's start with toys.
Speaker: You know, putting toys away.
Speaker: If you set up a system and especially for younger children, right, it's going to be even more, maybe more challenging is say that, you know, their toys are put away.
Speaker: inside a bin that has a lid on it.
Speaker: And that bin goes inside a cabinet and that cabinet has a door on the front of it, right?
Speaker: So you've got to open the door and then pull out the bin and then take off the lid.
Speaker: It's like that's three steps, right?
Speaker: That's a lot to put away toys.
Speaker: That's not a system that is likely going to stay or that anybody's going to use.
Speaker: What's going to start happening is they're going to open the cabinet door, maybe hopefully, and maybe just shove it, maybe just throw it in the thing.
Speaker: So the best, you know, if you had to keep the cabinet door, then the best thing would be to have a bin with no lid.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So they can just, but they still have to open the door, pull the lid out, you know, maybe best thing is to lose the cabinet door altogether.
Speaker: Maybe.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But sometimes you got, you want stuff to be put away.
Speaker: So there's a balance, right?
Speaker: There, there certainly is a balance with organizing of like finding something that is functional and works, but also looks nice.
Speaker: And I don't think that we should,
Speaker: throw out one thing.
Speaker: I think aesthetics matter.
Speaker: I think beauty matters.
Speaker: And if the idea of being organized is to
Speaker: help us have a home that helps us relax, I would love for beauty to be a part of that, you know, because I don't know, I think beauty is relaxing, I guess, you know, it's like, why not, right?
Speaker: We don't have to, and I think, you know, sometimes we can over-organize stuff, right?
Speaker: And have, you know, dozens and dozens of bins, and then it's kind of like, whoa, like there's so much in here.
Speaker: So there is like an aesthetic balance, I think, that ideally goes with organizing.
Speaker: But talking about like simple, simple systems are going to be the easiest to maintain.
Speaker: So when we're going in, we're organizing a whole house and I get that all the time.
Speaker: You know, I don't know if I want to spend this money on, on, on your service because I think it's just going to go back that way in a week or two.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And now of course, part of staying organized does require a shift in habits.
Speaker: No question.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: If we're going to set up a system that involves everybody taking their shoes off at the door,
Speaker: And no one has ever taken their shoes off at the door.
Speaker: But now we have a nice bench, a shoe bench.
Speaker: Maybe everybody in the family has their own cubby for their shoes and their name is on it.
Speaker: That's wonderful.
Speaker: And it's a simple system.
Speaker: Let's say it's very simple.
Speaker: But the fact is, is nobody's ever taken off their shoes at the door ever before.
Speaker: So how do we get that to happen?
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So it's like one of two things is going to happen.
Speaker: Either one, we're going to start using some sort of a trigger mechanism or, you know, something where we, you know, we stack these habits and,
Speaker: I can't even really come up with an example, but where we're trying to get, we're trying to change our habits so that when we walk in, we take our shoes off.
Speaker: You know, maybe we put a new rug that says, take your shoes off.
Speaker: Maybe there's a sign that says, take your shoes off.
Speaker: And it's there for three weeks until everybody learns to take their shoes off.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Or maybe what happens is no one is ever going to take their shoes off at the door.
Speaker: It's never going to happen.
Speaker: The shoes get taken off.
Speaker: somewhere else in the house, right?
Speaker: So maybe the system actually needs to be set up over here where the shoes get taken off naturally.
Speaker: There really is like, there's some choices.
Speaker: It's like, do you develop the system where it's already happening or do you try to come up with this brand new system?
Speaker: and then get everybody to follow this new system.
Speaker: It's possible, it's possible, but sometimes you have to ask yourself, like, am I just trying to create something that's not gonna exist?
Speaker: Okay, and then of course it comes down to like, well, how do you get your kids on board?
Speaker: How do you, A, I'm learning a new system.
Speaker: Hopefully it's very, very easy.
Speaker: And if it's not easy and simple, it's gonna fall apart like 99% of the time.
Speaker: So you have to ask yourself that too.
Speaker: Like, if it's just too complicated, then it's probably not gonna last.
Speaker: Um, but I, I don't know.
Speaker: I, I think that we learn by watching and we learn by example.
Speaker: And of course I think parents are always told lead by example.
Speaker: And I think that it really is helpful to think of that when it comes to teaching your kids how to organize.
Speaker: Like if you were, you know, you're getting onto them about not putting their things away, but your things aren't put away either.
Speaker: That's hard, right?
Speaker: That's hard to, um, emphasize and, um,
Speaker: So I, you know, I, when I talk to parents and they're trying to figure out how to get their kids on board, I just say, okay, first you get your systems in order.
Speaker: You focus on your own place.
Speaker: You put the mail away when you come in, you know, you hang your coat up and maybe, so maybe you're fine.
Speaker: You're doing all these things or once you're doing all these things, then I think, you know, asking them to, to, um,
Speaker: I'll just keep going with the shoes.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's like you're, you're going to have to remind them to take their shoes off at the door for a while until it becomes a habit.
Speaker: Something that we talk about a lot, just we, as in Moxie spaces, we like to call it the 10 minute tidy, the 10 minute tidy.
Speaker: It's 10 minutes a day.
Speaker: Ideally it's the same time every single day.
Speaker: So maybe it's in the evening, maybe it's right after dinner, maybe it's right before dinner.
Speaker: depending on how your day flows and your family's day flows.
Speaker: But ideally it's kind of around the same time every day.
Speaker: And eventually, ideally the whole family gets involved.
Speaker: And I think that that could be maybe the best way to set the example, but also have time to teach and time to do it as a family.
Speaker: And the biggest thing is that you're only doing it for 10 minutes.
Speaker: So you're not trying to do 20 minutes today because you skipped yesterday and tomorrow it's only five and
Speaker: It's like, no, you're trying to set a habit.
Speaker: It's 10 minutes.
Speaker: You'd be amazed.
Speaker: I'm sure all the mothers out there know how much you can get done in 10 minutes, right?
Speaker: You can get a lot done in 10 minutes, especially when you have a timer.
Speaker: And that's the other piece of it all is set a timer for 10 minutes.
Speaker: Maybe it's a 10 minute song in the house or whatever it is.
Speaker: Maybe it's a loud timer.
Speaker: So everybody is hearing it.
Speaker: And, and you just focus on maybe just one area, you know, maybe, and then maybe your kid who, you
Speaker: We'll never take their shoes off at the door there.
Speaker: They're tidying task every evening or whatever it is, is shoes, right?
Speaker: Tidying the shoes by the front door, taking all the excess shoes that, you know, the rain boots that we're not going to need again for three months and putting them in the closet.
Speaker: You know, that's part of the maintenance piece of it all.
Speaker: But I think that the thing about getting organized is one thing.
Speaker: Maintaining it is important.
Speaker: a very important piece.
Speaker: And I think that we miss that a lot.
Speaker: We miss the maintenance and we get frustrated that things don't stay organized, but nothing will stay the way that it was.
Speaker: If you don't maintain it, it's just like working out, right?
Speaker: It's like I worked out seven days of sleep.
Speaker: That's amazing.
Speaker: I don't have to work out again for six months.
Speaker: And it's like, that's not how that works.
Speaker: Unfortunately.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That's the, that's the perfect analogy.
Speaker: And I thought of some fun ideas as you were describing the 10 minute tidy, that's such an ingenious idea.
Speaker: And I thought, what if you had a playlist where it's the same three songs?
Speaker: Cause I don't know, songs are about three minutes.
Speaker: So if you had about three of them, the same three songs every day, and it's like real hype music, like my son who's 14 cleaned up his room on his own without me asking the other a few days ago.
Speaker: And he was blasting his music so loud.
Speaker: I didn't know what was happening in there.
Speaker: And I finally peeked in and he's like folding something.
Speaker: I'm like, Oh, you're cleaning up.
Speaker: But I think like music, like the part of the cleaning part or organizing part or maintaining it is,
Speaker: is getting the energy, right?
Speaker: Getting yourself in the mood because we're all kind of feeling depleted if it's that middle, end of the day, and to kind of bring the energy back up in the house.
Speaker: And the other thing I thought of as you were saying that is how we brand it.
Speaker: So I just had a post on my mom's group the other day about how a lot of moms get resistance from kids when we call them chores.
Speaker: Because who wants to do a chore?
Speaker: Like, it doesn't sound fun.
Speaker: That sounds kind of like torture.
Speaker: And so it's like, all we have to do is call it something else.
Speaker: And so my advice was to call it a family contribution.
Speaker: And, you know, we all contribute to living in the household.
Speaker: So this is, we all are part of this, this family system.
Speaker: And then I had someone m ake a comment and she called it something else, our family responsibilities or something like that.
Speaker: And that even worked.
Speaker: And so even if you, you know, I love the 10 minute tidy, like that kind of sounds fun.
Speaker: It sounds catchy, you know?
Speaker: And so it's like, I loved your idea of everybody takes a space or maybe they take space that they're responsible for.
Speaker: Like there's so many ways you could do it, but that would be one way where you're kind of like getting the whole family on board.
Speaker: And so also as we were talking, the next thing I thought of is,
Speaker: You know how they say opposites attract?
Speaker: Well, I'm sure you do this, but inevitably they're in a married couple or a cohabitating couple.
Speaker: There's always a messy person and there's always a clean person.
Speaker: Maybe not always, but probably a lot.
Speaker: So what is your feedback about that?
Speaker: Yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker: It's kind of a similar thing in, well, we get that all the time.
Speaker: We have someone who calls and they say, well, I really want this, but my partner doesn't.
Speaker: Or they say, you know, my partner really needs to get organized.
Speaker: I'm really organized.
Speaker: Like, what should I do?
Speaker: How do I get them organized?
Speaker: I think first and foremost, you can only focus on your own stuff first.
Speaker: So if you're, if you put in the effort and the work to organize your own space, then you have maybe some, a leg to stand on to talk about somebody else's organization.
Speaker: Something interesting though to note is that there are different styles of organizing and they reflect,
Speaker: who we are and the way our own brain works.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So some, for instance, like some people feel that they need to see all of their stuff or they'll forget they have it.
Speaker: And then other people feel the exact opposite.
Speaker: Like I know I need to see nothing because I don't want to see it because it makes my brain feel overwhelmed if I can see all my stuff.
Speaker: And so sometimes that means while using clear containers versus opaque, you know, containers you can't see through with labels on the outside.
Speaker: for clear containers with labels, but you can see through the container.
Speaker: And what I'll say is, well, there is an, there's actually, there's an interesting book out there called the clutter connection.
Speaker: And this organizer has broken up four different styles of organizing.
Speaker: And basically everybody falls into one quadrant or actually, actually you lay over two different quadrants.
Speaker: And so that could be helpful.
Speaker: It could be helpful if you are, or if you're with a partner who seems the opposite of you and maybe, um,
Speaker: doing a little bit of research and just digging around to find out maybe they have a different style.
Speaker: And so my style is not going to work for them, but what is their style so that we can find a system that works for them?
Speaker: You know, and I think as with any relationship, there are compromises and there are things that you have to agree to and you stick to it, you know, and you've got to pick your battles and decide what really matters the most.
Speaker: Sometimes bringing in outside help, like an organizer can be a really great solution.
Speaker: I will say that we have heard so many times, um,
Speaker: And it doesn't always land like this.
Speaker: I will say this.
Speaker: But more often than not, it's usually the wife hires us and the husband was not.
Speaker: He was not sold on the whole thing.
Speaker: Maybe he finally agreed to allowing it to happen.
Speaker: But it's after we do our work that the husband is amazed and blown away and they're ready to have us back.
Speaker: And so sometimes it's just they need to see it to believe in it.
Speaker: You know what I mean?
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's it.
Speaker: That's so funny because that's also like, you know, they say some dads don't really bond with their baby until after the baby's born.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because they need to see it.
Speaker: And it's like the same thing.
Speaker: They are not.
Speaker: It's kind of a weird analogy, but they're not really.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Great analogy.
Speaker: Yeah, right.
Speaker: And so they can really see the results.
Speaker: And so maybe for the women out there who are trying desperately to sell their men on a service like yours, maybe you show pictures of like before and afters of other people's services and like, you know, show them the benefits.
Speaker: Like maybe that's what they need to like to get on board.
Speaker: So next question is, I don't know why this stands out to me so much, but when I'm on social media,
Speaker: And I see pantries.
Speaker: I just drool because it looks so beautiful.
Speaker: And actually what y'all did to me in pantry many years ago was phenomenal.
Speaker: And so what is it about the family pantry with the food storage that is just like so dramatic from like before to after?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, you know, I think that a lot of times it's the products, right?
Speaker: Like you go from a before pantry and it's just shelving with food all over it.
Speaker: And then you go to a pantry.
Speaker: It's often, I feel like the, the most dramatic transformations, usually a lot of organizing products have been brought in.
Speaker: And so that's a very different look.
Speaker: You're talking about just like, I mean, this is like a merchandise, like shoppable grocery store now versus just like, you know, kind of chaos.
Speaker: Here's the thing about food that is really interesting and packaging.
Speaker: It's really the packaging of the food is that,
Speaker: And this could go with books also.
Speaker: There's a lot of words and colors and, you know, design elements and advertising and all of that all over, usually all over our products, our food packaging.
Speaker: And you can, you have to adopt the idea that words are also a form of clutter because your mind immediately starts reading it.
Speaker: And it's just information that you're intaking that you might not need to be intaking.
Speaker: Um, um,
Speaker: And so when we, so what's nice about using products, and when I say products, I mean an organizing bin or a container, even like a turntable Lazy Susan kind of thing.
Speaker: When we use bins and containers, it conceals all of that excess wording colors.
Speaker: And then also, of course, now all the bins and containers match.
Speaker: So you've got this very uniform look that's very clean.
Speaker: And it seems very simple, but in like the way that simple is beautiful.
Speaker: The thing about, oh, I wanted to say too, the turntables, like the Lazy Susan's turntables, we like using those because it breaks up kind of the look.
Speaker: So kind of definitely a transformed organized pantry has all the aesthetics, like all those, you know, points for good aesthetics.
Speaker: That's what's going on there.
Speaker: And sometimes there's a mix of different types of containers.
Speaker: There's a mix of turntables versus, you know,
Speaker: clear bins versus a textured canvas bin.
Speaker: And what is nice about breaking that up is that it's kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier when you can like over-organize and you have like, you know, shelves and shelving of so many bins, they all look the same.
Speaker: There's labels on all of them.
Speaker: That's kind of, that's too much.
Speaker: If you're looking at like 20 containers, what could be nice is if you distinguish the different
Speaker: categories or zones by using different types of products.
Speaker: It can just be helpful for your mind because it's not too much of one thing.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: That's nice because I never knew what it was about when I see those pictures of the pantries that I don't know why I love it.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: I'm like, why did my people get that?
Speaker: That's my problem.
Speaker: I think I have too many of all the same bins now.
Speaker: I have like all the clear ones.
Speaker: Oh, well, and clear.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Maybe what you're saying is, A, I can see too many of the labels and the words, but B, I need to mix up my textures, maybe add in like a wicker canvas or whatever, some bins so that my eye isn't just overwhelmed with all the clear, but I have different kind of break.
Speaker: It breaks it up.
Speaker: Is that what you're saying?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's totally what I'm saying.
Speaker: And try a couple of turntables in there too for condiments or things like that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Because that
Speaker: That will also help break it up.
Speaker: And I'll say too, a note about clear containers.
Speaker: Do you have labels on your bins or no?
Speaker: I do.
Speaker: And the funny thing is I don't always update them.
Speaker: So then it says like sweets, but really it's like my rice and stuff.
Speaker: Of course, that's happening to all of us.
Speaker: That's the other piece of like the maintenance, you know, like we set up the systems, but they have to be maintained.
Speaker: Side note, I highly recommend just like putting in a calendar invite maybe a couple times a year or like when the school year changes to go through your systems, like use that as a trigger for maintaining.
Speaker: Okay, clear bins are tricky because you can still see through them.
Speaker: So it doesn't take away the clutter of words or colors or things like that.
Speaker: If you put a label on it and the label is clear or the label is hard to read, then that's even more challenging.
Speaker: If you have a solid label on a clear bin, that's nice because you can see it more easily.
Speaker: If that's, if that's an aesthetic you're okay with.
Speaker: And then I thought I was going to say another thing about that, but I think it's just more, you're right in that maybe mixing it up, getting a mix can be really nice and very helpful for the visual appeal.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: That was really helpful advice.
Speaker: And I wish we had time to like go through every like space.
Speaker: Like, cause I know closets with clothes are a big one, but we're, we're running low on time.
Speaker: There is one more thing that I wanted to bring up, which I remember you and I had talked before and you gave me like the coolest concept, which was, I remember you talked about is in your house and the idea of every inch square inch of your house is valuable real estate.
Speaker: And so the question is,
Speaker: How are you using that space?
Speaker: So can you speak to, do you remember saying, talking to me about that?
Speaker: Can you speak to that a little bit?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: It's definitely a concept we like to speak about.
Speaker: And it's the A, yeah.
Speaker: Every inch of your space is, is real estate within your, the real estate that you have.
Speaker: And so there's value on all of it.
Speaker: And when you are out shopping in the world,
Speaker: Really good habit to get into is asking yourself before you buy something, where is this going to live?
Speaker: Do I have real estate?
Speaker: Do I have space for this to come into my house?
Speaker: And if it's so lovely and it's so wonderful that you want to make space, then do that.
Speaker: But make space, which means you have to release another piece of real estate in your house for that new item to come into.
Speaker: Um, it's also a concept of thinking about how you're placing things and like really good real estate is that is the real estate that you see right away.
Speaker: It's the stuff that's right in front of you.
Speaker: It's a high level or counter level.
Speaker: And so using the really prime real estate for things that you're not accessing very often is usually, um,
Speaker: you know, not helpful for you.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So like put the things you're using most often, even if your pantry, right.
Speaker: If you want to eat healthier, put the healthier foods at eye level.
Speaker: Don't put your snacks at the real, at the prime real estate that you see right as you walk in the door, you don't put all the junk food there, you know, you think of it that way too.
Speaker: I think that's such a great concept that we can pass along to our kids too, right?
Speaker: Like the most used is where we want to put, because I try to teach my kids to organize their own belongings and maybe the stuff we never use or we're just saving or whatever, we put that on a very high shelf that we can't access easily.
Speaker: It's just a really good concept for people to remember just like doing in their daily life or when they do their big clean outs.
Speaker: Okay, so any last bits for the moms?
Speaker: Anything you want to share about your personal life?
Speaker: I know I think you're, do you have a blended family or blending a family that, you know, you're kind of like adopting these personal habits with?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So that's interesting because you've got someone who already has habits and you're trying to blend in your own, but also it's challenging.
Speaker: It's challenging to have a blended family because I have my own ways of doing things, which of course, you know, is like organized, but to have grace and with others as they learn and see what's happening naturally for them.
Speaker: You know, I will just say that, you know, thinking about what's happening naturally in your home, where are things landing naturally, um,
Speaker: and trying to develop systems around what's happening naturally before trying to, you know, just undo everything in the home, you know, start there, start small, always start small and always use a timer when you're trying to do your own project.
Speaker: It can be very helpful.
Speaker: Oh, that's so great.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Well, I have an idea for a whole nother show on blending families, emerging families, because I feel like there's a lot of us in that boat.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: So with that being said, how can people find your company moving forward?
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So our website is just moxyspace.com.
Speaker: Booking a free call with us to learn.
Speaker: If you're interested to learn what it could look like to hire an organizer, that's the best place to do it.
Speaker: We're also on Instagram.
Speaker: That's our main channel.
Speaker: We post before and afters.
Speaker: We post our team.
Speaker: And you can connect with us there too.
Speaker: Perfect.
Speaker: Well, thank you, Sarah.
Speaker: This was so great.
Speaker: I just love you're always so full of ideas and concepts and great practical takeaways for the mom.
Speaker: So thank you again.
Speaker: My pleasure, Laura.
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: Thank you for listening to the Positively Healthy Mom podcast, because there's no manual for the hardest job in the world.
Speaker: Don't forget to subscribe and share with your friends.
