#460 - How to Better Channel Your Big Black Trash Bag Energy

is not about hacking the system to find more time or hacking your energy to get more

“done. Hustling to be the best or to make the most out of every opportunity is exhausting”

and unsustainable. So here we do things differently on the show we value contentment, compassion, and living in our season. We favor small steps over big systems. Here we are lazy geniuses. Being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. And I'm so glad you're here. Today is episode 460, how to better channel your big black trash bag energy. If you are not yet familiar with the term big black trash bag energy, it's a term I coined to

describe that feeling of wanting to burn it all down and start over. It's when you're overwhelmed and even annoyed by your home and you just start chucking stuff and big black trash bags to get it out of your house. This feeling often comes in the transition from one season to another, like from the end of the school year to summer or the end of the holidays into a new year. It can also happen in the middle of a particularly hard season that doesn't seem to have a lot of

steadiness or order. Or you just come on a random Tuesday when your hormones are a little looped below. It happens to all of us. It's also a great energy when channeled in the right direction. They can help focus your energy towards something that matters rather than toward anything annoying that moves. So today I'm going to share three small steps to help you identify what your big black trash bag energy is really saying and then a small little framework on

“what problems you should actually be solving. I'll share a lot of personal examples of what this”

looks like in my own life. Tiny problems I have solved recently with my big black trash bag energy but without throwing anything beloved away. After that we'll have a little extra something that's just a favorite tip of mind to add life to your home. It's like the simplest thing ever but I'm weirdly passionate about it and we'll share it later. We will celebrate the lazy genius of the week who has her own approach to channeling big black trash bag energy so

very appropriate for today and then we'll close with a mini pat talk for when your home

isn't what you wish it was. That's real and always something to pay attention to when we talk about

clutter or organization or homes in general. Some people don't live in a home that works the way they

“wish it could or looks the way they wish it looked and that's art place to be so we'll have a”

mini pep talk for those folks. Before we get into that you can tell I'm still sick isn't it ridiculous you guys. Too many colds from too many children but we are on we are on the meant but hopefully yeah hopefully next episode I will sound much more like myself. One of the best things that can help you lazy genius things like big black trash bag energy and your home and your habits look literally anything at all are the 13 lazy genius principles those are spelled out in my very

first book the lazy genius way it came out in August of 2020 which again is just I can't ever say

when it comes out without acknowledging like what a hilarious time to launch a book in August of 2020 and it is just like the little engine that could of a book it keeps selling over five years later so many of you revisit it when you're transitioning into a new season especially into a new year so for anyone new here everything I do is based on these 13 lazy genius principles decide once start small ask the magic question live in the season build the right routines set house rules

put everything in its place let people in bach it essentialize go in the right order schedule rest and be kind to yourself in the book every principle gets its own chapter with applications and ideas you don't have to follow them all they're just ideas and of course a lot of encouragement so that you can lean on those principles for everything they are the foundation

sometimes directly but always indirectly of every podcast episode every newsletter every

instagram post every book that I wrote after that these 13 principles are the bedrock of being a lazy genius and will be integral to today's episode as well if you have not yet explored those principles as like a whole entity grab a copy of the lazy genius way you can request

big box store you would like it's available online like pretty much everywhere and it is stocked in

“a number of stores too usually indies it's so fun to see your pictures of this book and other”

lazy genius books like out in the wild especially your local book stores that's just like the most fun thing getting bookshelf space is really tough both in stores and in regular homes to be honest with you so whenever it happens I'm just so deeply honored thank you for tagging me on socials when that happens when you spot a lazy genius book in the wild and if now does feel like a great time to explore the lazy genius way but sitting down to read a book feels daunting maybe even impossible

right now I do read the audiobook so that might be a better choice for you in this season all right before we get into how to better channel our big black trash bag energy let's take a quick break

to hear from our sponsors which makes the show free for you to listen to and as always here's

your quick reminder about the podcast recap email we send out every other Friday it's called latest lazy lessons and we we thinker and make it better like almost every single email the photos in there are hilarious I'm starting to share personal photos from my own life in there you also get a sneak peek of what's coming up on the podcast plus like the normal episode summaries the lazy geniuses of the week and all all the regular things it's short and sweet but wildly full of great

stuff if you'd like to get that recap head to the lazy geniuscollective.com/lissons and vendors with Shopify can sit to an ancient hip garden start it and test not all the funer I'm an euro promonat of Shopify.de/recorder hello I'm Elizabeth Day the creator and host of how to fail is the podcast that celebrates the things in life that haven't gone right and what if anything we've learned from those mistakes to

help us succeed better each week my guests share three failures sparking intimate thought provoking and funny conversations you're here from a diverse range of voices sharing what they've learned through their failures join me Wednesdays for a new episode each week this isn't Elizabeth Day in Sony music entertainment original podcast listen now wherever you get your podcasts

“alright let's get into how to better channel your big black trash bag energy here's the thing”

the energy that powers big black trash bag energy is good energy it's active it can get stuff done the thing you want to pay attention to is solving the right problems you want to harness all that great momentum and desire for change and direct it into something that will actually help your life if you let big black trash bag energy just run wild you will end up with bags of stuff you might want in a few days a home covered in piles mental exhaustion possibly ruptured

family relationships I don't know so let's tend to that energy in a different way shall we let's get different results than those very messy sad ones I have three things that you can ask yourself to help you channel the energy in a helpful direction I don't want you to shut it down completely

“I think it's useful then you might not have time to actually use it right now but I think it is”

really useful it can help you get something that matters done that it's better to solve small necessary problems rather than chucking everything in a bag so these questions will help you do that

the first thing I want you to do is name the invisible problem this requires no cleaning

or organizational supplies no sweat no movement at all just stand there and ask yourself honestly what's the invisible problem what's actually bothering me what's really going on here a few weeks ago I felt some really big BB TBE coming on a lot of stuff was not put away the clutter was growing in like multiple parts of the house and no one else seemed to care I knew that my energy was important but I also knew that going big would not be helpful so instead of yelling at my family

invisible problem I was bothered that no one else noticed the clutter in the same way that I did

I was annoyed that I'm usually the one to notice and do something about the energy and vibe in our home I realized that if someone else took it upon themselves to take care of the cardboard stack they needed to go outside someone else thought about calling the water bottles because we have so many someone else decided to put away all the tiny things scattered about or even just like think about those things it would feel different even if the stuff itself did not move the shared labor would

make me feel better so really my biggest invisible problem was that I felt alone and a bit resentful about feeling alone guess what if I were to big black trash bag energy that clutter while the invisible problem lay under the surface I would do all that work alone and actually make the invisible

“problem worse because I'm doing the work alone still I think that's one of the reasons big black”

trash bag energy leads us to satisfied at the end it's almost always hiding an invisible problem

and the trash bags will not solve it the solution to your invisible problem might be simpler than you think or even a little surprising so asking the question and sitting with the answer gives you time to really think about what you need for me in that moment when I think that I'm the only one noticing the vibe of the home caring about it caring about the organization of things I personally enjoy a reframe of gratitude like I am wired to care about that stuff I love order

in the energy of a room I love moving this photo or that plant or getting a bigger area rug to make the room feel cozy or vacuuming that rug so that it's more pleasant to play games on like I I really genuinely love being someone who tends to those things and likes tending to those things like I genuinely do I love our home I love it and I'm I'm really proud of the work I've done to make it feel the way it does now I know that not everyone has those eyes most people

in my family don't have those eyes naturally they're care the things that they care about they have in in other areas and we all benefit from that right that home vibes are like my natural territory so I find a lot of joy in the reframe of gratitude that my family and I all benefit from

“the way that I'm naturally wired and I think that's kind of rad and guess what that changes how”

I channel my energy completely changes it I don't feel resentful when I'm feeling grateful instead I feel free to invite my people into helping me even though they don't see the need in the same way that I do like it just lightens the load for me to be grateful that I really do care about order and vibes and where things are on a shelf I'm glad about that so start by naming the invisible problem it will almost certainly change how you use your big black trash bag energy

okay the next thing I want you to do is name your season this is so incredibly important your big black trash bag energy is almost certainly linked to what your life looks like right now but if you ignore that if you ignore your season you start solving problems that are just part of where you are which distracts you from solving small problems within that season that actually might make things

“a little easier after the winter holidays I think everyone is like a little skittish about stuff”

there's more of it with holiday to core with Christmas trees possibly gifts you have put more stuff in the same finite space in your home and it can feel a little bit like wearing pants that are too tight but that's the season that's the season when you name that season you can soften toward that problem a little bit toward having so much stuff around and know that you know once you put away the holiday decorations it's gonna feel a little better no need to like blindly throw

a bunch of stuff away right now this always happens to me in the summer the pool towels and swimsuits

more mess in the house because the kids are home all day instead of that school like it's a lot but

“if I get overwhelmed by my home and I feel big black trash bag energy coming I can actually recognize”

that I'm in the season of summer I'm in a season of pool stuff and humans everywhere it's just where I am so trying to remove the evidence of a season simply makes no sense I don't have to ignore the BBTB but I can channel it into a more helpful direction for example past summers of feeling this way but also naming the season that I'm in it led me to put up a laundry like drying rack in the dining room which we rarely use for actually eating and that rack stays up all summer naming the season

and channeling the energy led me to throwing the beach towels into the dryer as soon as we at home so they're not so gonna win it led me to inviting more frequent titties of our main living area without resenting my kids for like existing in the place where they live using the energy for good use it for good we are still in a season of like sickness as you can tell by my voice

like since like the second half of January was snowdies we were like home because of like all these

snowdies and then from the very beginning of February through literally right now there has not been a week where one adachi was not sick with something like there were several weeks where multiple people were sick but like somebody on the current somebody has been sick for weeks it's cookupants that because that is our season the house was covered in like tiny stuff thermometers, grocery bags full of use tissues which is disgusting but hey it works and he's like necklace that she took

off mid afternoon and laid on the table because she didn't have the energy to go put it away like more unfolded laundry than usual lying about because nobody had the energy to take care of their own stuff it was just like a madhouse of an oyensis and all of those tiny things they added up to one big house that was driving me crazy acknowledging the season it helps you settle that

“annoyance like I think it always does and that doesn't remove the problem it doesn't remove the”

tiny stuff but it re contextualizes it and you don't have to even do anything to make it better you can just notice be like this is my season look at that all right so you are feeling the big black trash bag energy and before you let it take the wheel you're gonna name the invisible problem and you're gonna name the season you're in see what happens with those two questions the third thing that you can name is what you can actually control based on your season our invisible

problems are often about a desire for like complete Thanos level control but you always have

like a little bit of control or certain things when you take the time to name what you can solve what you can actually manage well what you can kindly control in your season you're gonna solve problems it will actually help again like pull season I can't control the existence of towels the towels come with a season that I can control how and where they're tended to I can put up a rack that holds towels and swimsuits the whole time I can put towels in the dryer as soon as we get home

I can accept that the towels are gonna be there and move on those kinds of decisions actually make life easier without making life a machine that we're trying to control every piece of so what can you actually control within your current season of life when you know the invisible problem and you acknowledge your season that question is a lot easier to answer and that is where you channel

“your energy that's how you use that sorely big black trash bag energy for good”

you solve problems that are within your control that help your season and you solve them in small ways but it doesn't stop there and here's the final like little framework I want you to consider as you figure out what problems to solve we all know that solving small problems is the absolute right call but sometimes we can get distracted by solving problems that lead us

remember we don't do that here so what I would like for you to consider first when naming your

“small problem within your control in this season of life is to solve a problem that is genuinely”

helpful like for real helpful for you or personally enjoyable genuinely helpful or personally enjoyable don't get distracted solving problems that create an optimized life focus on what helps your actual life what is genuinely helpful or something that helps you enjoy your life sometimes one small solution can capture both but I just want you to stay focused on what is genuinely helpful or personally enjoyable not on what is the most optimized okay so all of those things

it's fairly basic it's not super flashlight you're going to name the invisible problem you're going to name the season you're in and you're going to name what you're going to actually control that will help you channel your big black trash bag energy and a direction that's either genuinely helpful or personally enjoyable now what is that look like practically here are some recent things

for my own life to kind of show you how all this works so the first is my cup cabinet all right so

I had goodness I had some real big big black trash bag energy in my kitchen there were multiple reasons why I have been baking more which means more baked goods are stored on like prized counter space it also means more dishes are out in the drying rack you know I'm using and washing more dishes it's not a huge deal because they're like contained in the drying rack but they're still visually stimulating they're still more stuff out I was also feeling some BBTBE because the category

of cups, mugs and water bottles was becoming like way too unwieldy I I find joy buying through store mugs my children have varying opinions on water bottles and any in particular is obsessed with spending her money on new cute ones so we've got a lot of those I also noticed that a lot of our cups they were not making it to the cabinet because they're too high for any to reach and she's the one who unloads the shelf in the dishwasher that has all the cups it was just like

weird kitchen energy and I did feel the pull to declutter every cabinet to find new spots for everything I even thought for a brief moment about upgrading our countertops because they were black their black and they're like can sometimes feel a little dark into pressing and it was like is that the problem here do we need new countertops listen that was not the problem but but big black trash bag energy it makes everything feel like a problem so I named the invisible problem

I like more white space in my kitchen then I currently have basically the counters are cluttered

and some of the cabinets are levels who fall it's not that the kitchen doesn't function it's just like a small part of it isn't functioning at peak performance but peak isn't necessary

“peak is not necessary optimized is not necessary but that's what I noticed that's what I noticed”

it's like you know it's just a little more cluttered than I would normally like as far as my season goes I'm in a season of baking more and of having a pre-teen daughter who is really in acute stuff she has no joke four different water bottles that she rotates like outfits that is incredibly dear to me and it's the season I don't want to dismiss just because it adds more clutter to the kitchen naming the seasons of baking more which I love and any having fun with water bottles which I also

love it makes the problem so much softer and easier to work with and then to that third thing what can I control in the season with this problem of having less white space in the kitchen when extra stuff is being added one problem that I solved I'll share now and then there's another problem that I'm still considering so the first thing I solved was the cup cabinet itself so I glassware or like the bottom shelf because the glassware is heavier and it felt like it would

be supported better on the lowest shelf I don't know why also was in my direct eyeliner when I

“open the cabinets and I think I'd rather look at pretty glassware when I open the cabinet then”

plastic cups that the kids use but guess what matters more than what I see when I open the cabinet

glass ones so I shifted what's used less often I shifted it higher and I used I shifted what's

“used more often lower in the cabinet where she can reach it's not as pretty on the inside anymore but”

that does not matter as much as any being able to reach stuff I also moved a couple of my mugs to the top shelf to make it easier to put clean ones back in the cabinet because my mug section of the cabinet is like she a little fall so I moved a couple of them up so that my boys are not having to play mug Tetris when they unload the dishwasher okay the water bottles that's a tiny project that I'm still considering that will happen one afternoon after school maybe this week

or this weekend but it's something I'm willing over we do have so many water bottles in multiple

cabinets and it's time to pull them all out and just call we will keep many of them and some are

great for different kinds of scenarios but I know we don't need all the ones we have and they're

“clogging up the cabinets it's like the hour remember that episode of the lazy genius kitchen”

the YouTube series we did when Annie Downs was I went into her kitchen and she was overwhelmed by the lack of space in her freezer that it turned out she was storing like 15 ice packs or something and that was what was causing the problem that's me and water bottles we just had too many we just have too many and they're making three of our kitchen cabinets more cramped than they need to be there's a decent chance that all the excess baked goods which I love and the baking equipment

out which I also love they might feel less annoying once those other problems are solved maybe

maybe not but I'll start with the cups and the water bottles and see what happens if the baked goods still cause a problem I might start looking for a creative solution to store them where they don't take up so much counter space or maybe they're not stored in like random plastic containers that aren't as cute you know I could find something to put them in on the counter that's a little cuter but that can happen later now isn't all of that better than taking everything out of every

cabinet and like getting a quote on new countertops like just to centralize the water bottles

“and move the cups around that's how you use big black trash bag energy for good okay here's”

another recent example we have a hallway closet turned pantry that stores like all the extra food and foil and wrapping paper and toilet paper in a bingo set that I've only used once but I refuse to get right out because I am obsessed with being out it is like the catch all and it's mostly organized and by organizing I mean like everything has a general place like a shelf on which to live or floor space to occupy nothing is labeled but it's reasonably neat and items are like mostly

grouped together but every few months it has like a tiny crisis it becomes overloaded with stuff too many things are not put back in like their general place cake flour is next to aluminum foil which is on top of the Costco size box of goldfish it feels like Monica's secret closet on friends you know so in years past I would get so overwhelmed by that closet slash pantry and I would feel a lot of big black trash bag energy about it I'd be like we have too much stuff why

does anyone put anything away we need another closet we need to stop shopping a Costco we need we need it it was like a whole thing right we just panic but now I've calm down thankfully now I realize that this is what happens in closets and pantries like entropy is the thing it doesn't mean anything is wrong it just means the closet needs to be tidy to little and in fact there's not really an invisible problem here a messy closet could be an example of me trying to create an invisible problem

something like like I could be like my family or being dummies and they can't keep things straight no that's not really a problem it's also unkind nor is that the kind of home I want to live in you know I don't want to blame normal patterns of disorganization on the behavior of my people like that they're not the problem it's just that too much stuff has been like kind of put away instead of completely put away and now everything is as few now I could talk to my family about

being more thoughtful when they get out of box of tissues or when they go to find a pack of microwave popcorn and they leave a mess in their wake and sometimes I do but I cannot control their behavior nor do I want to be the kind of person who tries they're going to do what I often do I do this

on the right shelf to make room for that thing I do it they do it and that's how the pantry shelves

can you know get a little wonky and that's okay but I I am just becoming like less and less interested in cultivating a home that's all about control like I cannot control their behavior I can't

“ask them to try and put things back in a need or way whenever they remember otherwise every six months”

or so we pull out the stuff that's covering the floor that's stored on the floor we pick a few items that are like on their last legs that we can make for dinner real quick and then we just put things back where the toilet paper isn't like with the chocolate chips like it's no big deal these are the rhythms and seasons of a home so don't resent them or trying to try to control things that you actually can control there's another example I already mentioned the kitchen overwhelm

that I recently experienced and how part of the clutter is from all the extra baked goods on the counter it's taking a valuable counter space and while those baked goods are obviously like valuable in and of them so I love them the visual stimulus of having plastic containers stacked by our dirty dishes zone which is where I've been putting them is kind of less than ideal I'll try to remember to share a photo of this in the next latest lazy lessons but we have a section in

the kitchen where it's like it's like a standard counter and cabinet above right but the cabinet section has like a little nook for the microwave and then the air fryer is right beneath the microwave nook on the counter okay the areas around both of those appliances are perfect for storing extra containers of stuff it's where we stick the top order that my mother-in-law sent Japanese leftovers in so that we can return them to her the next time that we go over there it's

where the donut box goes or the loaf of sourdough that doesn't fit in the bread box goes we eat a lot of bread it is harder to it's harder to visualize the size of hose but my point is that like all of the bakery containers were ending up in like teetary stacks on the counter on the counter and I noticed that maybe they would work better where the appliances are the paper towel holder we have a paper towel holder that's like a stand-up straight on a stand it's like

an old-like hea paper towel holder we've had for probably 20 years that has always stood next to the

microwave in that little microwave nook and I was like oh my gosh that is a much better spot for boxes of baked things so I just swapped the paper towels and those bakery containers that's all I did I just swapped their swap their spots somehow that little swap it made things feel so much better not fixed or perfect but definitely better now I would eventually like to have counters that are less cluttered but I also listen I live in a home with five people who practically

live in the kitchen we eat at home a lot we cook and bake often I have a couple of small appliances I really love on those counters and I use I want to keep them out so it's just the nature of how we live if I try and clear off the counters completely to make things need or I'm actually

“hamstringing my family and what matters to us I don't want to create a new invisible problem”

and then solve it and consequently cause a new set of problems because my kids can't find the bananas because I stash them in a cabinet because I can't stand having fruit on the counter anymore like do you see them saying none of that makes any sense now even though my kitchen is hard to visualize the point the point here is kind of easy to spot I don't need to reorganize how we live in the kitchen and figure out how to get everything off the counters I just needed to try

swap the paper towels with the container of cookies this is how you live well in your home you guys you start small you try something out and you make life a little easier rather than trying to

change it all at once okay one final example I always get the edge to adjust how our home looks and

feels once spring hits I think that's normal and lovely happens to all of us we are exiting you know that coziness of winter we're letting the sunshine of spring and and that often means that I want

“a refresh in some of the rooms of my house too but here's the thing I really love our living room”

like so much at least once a week I look around and I say out loud to cause hopefully he's there I'm like I really love this room I really love this room it's cozy what I love a cozy room it's

weeks ago I was feeling a little antsy in there even though I love the room I was feeling a little antsy

and I had to pull I had that pull of the big black trash bag it was calling my name now it wasn't huge back at feel it this is when I'm like hey let's move all the furniture around or let's get all the kids stop out of here or we need new side tables you know now one the furniture does not have many configuration options in our living room so moving it around is like kind of a dumb idea number two my kids live here my get a grid of their stuff in the room that they live in the most

makes no sense so that's fine and then three I love our side tables we do need new side tables they're all thrifted and cool they weren't so perfectly in my sane moments I have no desire to replace them or change anything about the living room I love the living room but it's in those moments

“of big black trash bag energy where I I start to go off script and I think that big changes needed”

and it's usually not so here's what I did instead I did what I just taught you in this episode I

asked myself what seemed visible problem there wasn't a huge emotional problem but I did feel like the room was growing it had stale nothing has changed in there like honestly a couple of years and I was just feeling like normal levels of wanting a little a little bit of change then I considered my season it is early spring it's the time of year when I'm always like a little restless noted right that's good for me to know it helps keep things in check because I know that that

feeling is driving me to do more than I need to do so then I asked like okay what can I actually do in here what can I actually control I don't need to change or move the furniture or really

a lot of the decor that I have like I love at all I don't want to get rid of anything that I can

currently see in my living room like I don't want to get rid of it I love it all so here's where

“you remember to ask yourself like what is genuinely helpful or what do you personally enjoy”

when you're trying to figure out a problem solve ask yourself those two things what is like going to be genuinely helpful in here or what do I personally enjoy do you know what I personally enjoy you know what I love with my whole heart stuff on the walls I love art I love photos like I love I love stuff on the walls I have mirrors like I just I love hanging things on the walls and I have been adding a lot of art to our home over the last few years we go have a ton

of it everywhere I added three new pieces yesterday like it's ridiculous it's actually the most fun it's the best because I genuinely love it it's so enjoyable to me that do you know what we don't have as much of on the walls photos like people I was looking around the living room was beautiful

“with all the art but when I sit on the couch I cannot see any faces of my people the only two photos”

that we have up are out of my sightline and that was when I was like oh here we go I love stuff on the walls and I love my people we need some photos so I grab my phone I chose a selfie that cause and I took last year at our annual fall opening ceremony corn maze adventure which is just a cute picture of the two of us and I took another picture of me and a friend on a trip together and I sent both of those photos just too just too I sent both of those photos to the

dark store down the street for printing they were ready within 15 minutes which was insane so I put the selfie of me in cause it's like an 8 by 10 I printed it pretty big I put it in a frame I already had I knew I already had a frame I was gonna use I hung it on the living room wall right across from the couch where I could see it then the picture of me and my friend I had a tiny tiny frame so I printed a tiny tiny photo of me and my friend and I put that on a desk across

from the couch so I can see that too now I have faces of people I love in the room and it made this face feel fresh without having to pull out any trash bags and start over other examples might be things like sweeping off your front porch rather than buying a new patio furniture for it donating the winter coats and shoes that won't fit your kids next year rather than making big organizational moves to fit it all in your house right now or maybe cleaning out one part of

the basement that you use rather than the whole thing your big black trash bag energy is good it's coming from a from a good place from a desire to make home feel and work better that's great and you and your people benefit from that energy but you need to channel it in a way that's actually

and the name what you can actually control when you make small changes that are genuinely helpful

or personally enjoyable rather than letting that big energy take over and lead to down a path of optimization and you throw everything away you keep making your home a place you want to live in

“and that's how the better channel your big black trash bag energy”

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can I apologize for it all right for today's a little extra something i want to share with you my single favorite tip for bringing life into your home this is as simple as it comes and i'm sharing it because i see so many people not doing this thing here it is let the light in open your windows open your blinds move the curtains aside let the light in like many people i love looking at houses as i drive around town and i've now made it like a sort of game to notice how many windows are

closed off and there are so many there are so many blinds drawn so many curtains closed so many homes are not letting the light in there are multiple studies that show how impactful natural light is on our mood our brain functioning even our sleep it's so important now obviously not everyone has access to natural light or windows or a view of the outdoors at work maybe not even at home i remember um at one school my husband is a school counselor and at one school that he

once worked at his office was full center block and it had one tiny tiny window at the very top

of the wall when i saw his eyes office for the first time i cried like genuinely i could not imagine

being without natural light all day long and i know a lot of folks have that circumstance at work but maybe at home you likely have a little bit more control and i want to encourage you to use it let the light in open your windows first thing in the morning i have been inside so many homes where the blinds are drawn and the curtains are closed or they're open just to sliver and it usually is not intentional like whoever lives there just doesn't think about it anymore if that's you i'm

encouraging you to think about it one of my favorite things is to wake my kids up in the mornings and i open their windows i hope i pull inside their curtains i move aside my curtains in my bedroom when i wake up i do the same thing in the living room for any curtains at our closed it's like

“my morning ritual will let the light in and it's one of the most significant choices i think i”

make at home as we know the simplest things can have an enormous impact so here's just your reminder to open your curtains and let the light in and that is today's a little extra something all right this week's lazy juniors of the week is Anna from or a land uh and a rites in this chaotic period of life with two little under six i've been working to avoid overwhelming big by trash bag energy from hitting by creating a note-sap list of things that aren't working

to break down the overall problem of my house's chaos to a manageable to manageable small organizational wins this way when i have a spare moment and i want to research or shop or browse the internet for ideas i can use the list to create a targeted search on how to organize and item a focus i know is an issue for me this way when i see something that isn't working at home like clutter zones toys that need boxes i can add it to the notes list and i don't have to

“immediately drop everything in tackle the problem it helps me figure out what matters and add”

checkmarks for completed tasks or additional tally marks to the things that i have noticed more than once i feel productive and a small mental weight is lifted from the pressure to sort it all out right now or throw it all away what a great idea like this is a wonderful use of the principle

time or the energy or even the ideas to do it right then but then the problem leaves your brain

“to make space for other things so this is such a great idea because it puts those problems”

those noticed problems in their place for a time when creativity and problem solving are more readily available you don't have to solve everything right now but if you spot something that could use a solve you can take note of it in one place and look at that when you have some big black trash energy you can channel that energy into solving problems you've already spotted it's just a great idea Anna so congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week

and now for a mini pep talk for when your home isn't what you wish it was i have definitely been in some homes that made me feel sad about my own home like at least at first they were cozy

with like amazing art or super cool decor choices a home like has a big window seat that i'm super

jealous of another friend might only have like white ceramic dishes that stack beautifully in the open cabinet space and it makes me kind of resent the colorful plastic plates and my kids still really prefer to use i get the feeling of discontentment at home if your home

“isn't what you wish it was that's okay it's normal and you should be kind to yourself about it”

but what i'd invite you to do alongside that kindness and awareness of how you're feeling

is to look for the good in your home what do you love about it even if it's one thing i want you

to name it you might love that your toddler can jump on the couch and snack on the couch without too much worry because the couch is old you might not want that couch forever and you feel that real strongly uncertainties but it sure is great in the season or you might not like that you live far away from people maybe in a home that you married into that the peace of the trees and the open sky that's pretty great it's natural in human to dislike things about home or vocation family life stage

“hair color you name it that even as you remain honest about your situation remember that good is”

here right now and look for it name what you do enjoy about your home and it will help balance out the other side maybe even lessening it a little bit more than you expected and that's a many pet talk for when home isn't what you wish it was if this episode was helpful to you or if you've been looking for a way to support the show please share this episode with someone that you know or you can leave a kind review on apple podcasts every mention and ever share and makes the difference in turning

more people into lazy geniuses so thank you so much for your support this podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the office lady's network this episode is hosted by me kinder edachi an executive produced by kinder edachi genifisher and angelicansy special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production if you'd like a podcast recap every other week be sure to sign up for latest lazy listens email that goes out every other Friday you can head to the lazy

genus collected about home slash listens to get it thanks y'all for listening and until next time be a genus about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't i'm kinder i'll see you next week , but what i want to do is not to get a lot of students semester by tag leapt or bücher soft behind the internet so master's really great, you can say that you can't get the back of your story but you don't believe it, egal, it's just a challenge, make it a lot of time with

viso steuer and when the dannar is working, he says catching save viso steuer hold it dangel to ruck, yet cost and those outsmobies.