How to Deal with a Messy House All Summer Long

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We favor small steps over big systems here, we're lazy geniuses. Being a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't, and I am so glad that you are here. Today's episode 473, how to deal with a messy house all summer long. If your summer looks different than the rest of the year, because you have kids at home,

and everything is more chaotic, or your rhythms are a little different because of some activities in travel, and I don't know, just reading more than tidying. This episode is for you. I want you to leave this episode with two things.

First, I want you to feel better about the mess that you do have.

“And second, I want you to have some strategies to help you deal with the mess if you want to.”

I think it's good to have perspectives that reframe our mess, because mess isn't necessarily going away. But that doesn't mean that you have to live in squalor, especially not if you don't want to. So we'll take care of both of those things today. After that, we will have a little extra something where I share an update on my album project. I share an update back in April, so it feels like a good time to give it another peak.

Plus, I've listened to a couple of albums recently that I cannot stop listening to. Just so stick a good and great listen for the summer, too. So I want to share this with you.

As always, we'll celebrate the lazy genius of the week with a wild idea for cleaning up art messes.

And we'll finish up with a mini-pap talk for when you're already tired of a long season. Before we get into that, I want to remind you of the difference between two of my books that people love to read during the summer and before school starts back up again. I know it just ended, but you know, so that isn't for a while. But you might be someone who can barely get in a couple of pages of a book a day,

especially nonfiction and double especially if you have like tiny kids who make the idea of summer reading a joke. Still, I have two books that are great reads to help with managing the cast of life. And I think one is great in the summer and the other is better in like August, even into September. They're both great whenever. But if you've been wondering what book of mine will help you be more of a lazy genius in the specific way that you need, here is the quick

rundown. So I think over the summer, if you want an easy read that you can pick up and put down, over and over again, and still apply it right away, I would read the lazy genius way.

It is my first book. It is my best selling book. It is super simple and helpful.

It is the book that teaches the 13 lazy genius principles so that you can start to lazy genius your life, your own way. Principles like decide once, start small, let people in, be kind to yourself, ask the magic question. And if my math is correct, a more. It's like having a great pantry in your kitchen full of ingredients that are really dependable.

“And then when you need to make a certain meal or create a specific solution in the case of this”

metaphor, you have like a lot of great ingredients to choose from. Now sometimes you need just one principle to decide once it's going to solve it for you. Other times, you might combine two or three to make a situation in your life feel a little easier. So that book released in 2020, I wrote it in 2018 in 2019, which is wild because my kids at that time were two, six and eight. That is way different than 10, 14 and 16. So that is a great book for the summer. It feels light and helpful

and an easy read to pick up and put down. All right, then in like August or September, read the plan. The plan is my book on time management, specifically our lazy genius version of time management, which does not focus on optimization and greatness as the goal that instead it focuses on contentment and wholeness as a person. We're not trying to manufacture and plan a perfect life. We're just trying to live. So the first half of that book of the plan is really

the plan pyramid, which is a framework that puts traditional planning into like a kinder context.

Okay? Now the back half of the book, it will, it's great. It will help you think through like planning a week and planning a project and all kinds of planning things. But really, you just need to have a grasp on the plan pyramid on that acronym plan, prepare, live, adjust and notice. Not everyone

“is gifted at preparation or traditional planning. Nor do you need to be. In fact, lazy genius planning”

is built on an equal relationship among preparation, noticing what's working and then adjusting as you go. Some of you are great at noticing people and energies and vibes in what's working. Some of you are really great at adjusting on the fly and pivoting when something goes awry. Some of you are good at preparing and putting the whole plan in its place. But you need all three skill sets to be a lazy genius planner. To be someone who wants to live every day, not just like optimize

and produce every day. That feels like a great book to read going into a busy fall season,

even just the first few chapters are a huge, huge help. So that is the difference between those two

“books and even when you might want to read them. So again, you might want to read the lazy”

genius way of the summer, dip in and out, while you dip in and out of the kitty pool with your children. And then when you're getting closer to the fall, read the first few chapters of the plan to either get a refresher or for the first time a new understanding of the plan pyramid. Okay, now, before we get into you how to deal with a messy house all summer long, let's take a quick break to hear from our sponsors, which makes the show free for you to listen to you. Before we do,

this is your quick reminder that we have a podcast recap email that goes out every other Friday. It's called latest lazy lessons. It summarizes the episode. You don't have to take notes, which is so great, especially on an episode like this that does have like some steps to it. So if you would like to get that recap email, head to you the lazy geniuscollective.com/lissens. Brachinheist, for the best price. Now, at 2.08.90, I'm going to ask you for a streaming of the week.

All right, let's get into how to deal with the messy house all summer long. I'm going to

“give you three things to remember to help your mindset. Then I'll share one strategy, one.”

That will help you keep order in the places that matter. Then we'll do a quick rundown of some summer house rules that might help keep some chaos at bay. All right. So we're going to do mindset first. Why? Because how you think? Impacts what you do. And you don't need to be doing anything extra or unimportant in the category of housework. When you could be doing things that are extra and unimportant in better categories this summer, like reading and play. All right.

So mindset number one, you will never have a completely tidy house. That's it. That's the end.

You will never have a completely tidy house. Let alone a clean one. It's so hard. It's so hard. Especially in the summer to have every room, free of clutter and mess. Because people are there for longer. Everybody is eating and playing and taking off socks. And you just can't expect a tidy house all the time. I mean, you can. You can't expect it. But when you do, you're going to get mad because unmet expectations are like a whole thing. If you expect a decently tidy house

most of the time, you will be frustrated. And you will take that frustration and you'll turn it into a system that will fail in three days. So don't do it. Just change the expectation. Expect to have a messy home. If you expect it, anything cleaner than like that normal baseline of chaos is very exciting.

Refrain mess as life. Not life is a mess. But mess is life. When the kitchen is full of dishes,

“it means people are eating. Eating is life and also that's great. When the living room is covered”

in toys, mess is life. It's playing and fun and having a good time at home without screens mind you. Something you're probably trying to have less of anyway. Don't resent the mess you get from no screens. It's life. It's wonderful, curious, playful life. If the couch is covered in a tangle of blankets and pillows like mine is right now, see that mess as life. It's a consequence of kids watching something together and being cozy at home. Don't see laundry as just a mess.

It's life. It's kids playing outside and getting dirty and having a great time. Now listen, I'm not trying to be like Pollyanna over here. Even though I do have a lot of optimism in my bones. But so many of the things that bother you don't have to as much when you think about them differently. Mess is in the eye of the beholder. So behold, differently. Expect the mess, like I said in number one, and then see that mess as evidence of life. You probably want a warm home

that your people love to be in. Well guess what, you're looking at the evidence of that. It doesn't make cleaning up, go away, that it sure doesn't make it easier.

Mess is life. That's number two. And the third mindset is that this is a season.

You have been through a messy house before. You will do it again. It will not kill you. It will eventually end. Now you might even have a decently tidy house in a couple of days. When you and your crew do like a quick family tidy together, it could last several hours, who knows? But the chaos of a messy house, it can lead to like a mournful, desperate, and surely vibe where your thoughts are like how tragic the season is. Like if you look around

and it's just the worst of the worst of a messy summer, your season is going to feel pretty grim. There's just like so much stuff everywhere. But like that is not the moment to mourn this season. You can. I have to. But I just want you to not stay there. Don't let yourself

“stay there for very long in the depths of despair about summer. Remember that everything is a season.”

And we're going to live in this one right now. We can't change the season itself, but we can't change how we view it. It is where we are. So let's honor the best that we can. It will be over eventually. And one of these days it will be over forever. And that will be sad. Like one of these days, summer with kids is going to be gone. Now listen, I'm not going to tell you to like treasure every moment because that is too much pressure. But you could treasure a handful of them or at least like look at them.

Look at some of the moments. Take a deep breath, spot the good that's here now in this messy summer and smile at a couple of moments. This is a season. And there's some good stuff here. If you stop being annoyed long enough, to notice them. So those are the three mindsets to remember that will

help you mentally manage a messy house all summer long. Again, except that you'll never have a

tidy house all at once. And if you do, it will not last very long at all. Mess is life. And this is a season. So take some deep breaths and internalize those. All right. Next comes a piece of strategy

“to help you tidy what matters. Okay. It's pretty simple. Comes in two parts. I want you to name”

which room and which category of stuff you want to keep the most tidy the most often. So which room is the best room to give your tidying energy to every day? Both for your own mental health and then for your family's ability to function. Since you cannot expect to have a tidy house all at once, what room, what single room, would you prefer to be tidy before you go to bed? Which room gets the attention when you only have room to attend to one room? You get to decide. But that decision,

that's going to help you this summer. You're going to attend to the room that needs at the most. Now it's not the room that needs it the most because it's the messiest. It's the room that needs it the most for the health and safety of your family and your brain. So like if I had to choose, it would be the kitchen. I'd rather keep the kitchen mostly clean, especially when everybody goes to bed. I'd like before that than any other room. It's the kitchen. If the living room is messy,

whatever. That feels easier to tidy quickly anyway. Bedrooms, you cannot walk. You cannot barely

but good gracious. It is an obstacle course of the highest proportion. But I don't care because

“guess what? My kitchen's clean. That's what I care about. The rest of it doesn't really matter.”

So once you decide what that is for you decide the room that gets your first attention and maybe you're

only attention that day, it just makes it easier to let the rest go. So pick your room. Second, pick your category. This is for all rooms, this transcends rooms. But what category of items makes you the craziest and would be best to tend to first. So mine is a dirty socks. I hate dirty socks on the floor. I think it's gross. I don't want to touch them. And my people, all of them, every single one of them, they leave dirty socks in every room all the time, especially in the

summer. During the school year when they come in the house and they take their shoes off and then

they put their socks dirty socks in the sock bucket, like the napkin bucket that I've talked about before.

But in the summer time, that does not happen as much and there are dirty socks from my husband and all three of my children everywhere. I can deal with just about anything being out and like messing things up. It's like we have solutions for this. I'm a resilient person. But dirty socks is where I become a person. I do not like. I do not like. So figure out what that category is for you. It might be dirty dishes. So if the dishes in the house stay in a rhythm, even if the rest of the kitchen

and house, like isn't tidy or clean, you're going to feel better. Or maybe it's pool stuff.

Maybe you're a pool family and the wet towels and the missing sunscreen and the flip-flops everywhere. All

of that just makes you want to cry. So that's your category that you're going to put your best energy into. It could be snack wrappers, dirty tissues, you toys, shoes, discarded mail, or like the stack of cardboard boxes from online orders or whatever. So look at your mess and notice what category makes you the most anxious or frustrated, angry, or like motivated to pick it up out of spite. Now we don't like doing things out of spite as a rule. But it is helpful here in identifying

what category you might want to focus on. Like what do you angrily pick up the most? That is probably your category. So pick your room, pick your category. Mine is the kitchen and dirty socks. What is yours? All right. So let's do just like a quick little recap before we move on to this next

“thing. So I want you to remember a three mindset. It's okay. Expect a house to be a mess.”

Seemess as life and live in the season. Okay. That's the deep breath for your soul. Now you've also named the room and the mess category that you want to put your best energy into. Great. All right. So next, I want you to tend to those two things that room and that category with those mindsets in mind. I want you to tend to those one step at a time. No big systems, friends. One step at a time. My favorite tool to get you started is a house rule.

Set house rules is one of the 13 lazy genus principles from the lazy genus way and those house rules are how you keep chaos from getting started. If you can target where your particular category of mess starts and you put a house rule there to keep that mess from picking up steam, you will keep the mess that matters at bay. Now house rules take time, especially if you have more people in board, that eventually you will start to feel a rhythm in an area that used to

feel super challenging. Now because you need to start small, which is another lazy genus principle,

“don't make seven house rules and then begin. If you have to work hard to remember all of your”

house rules, you have too many house rules. You've started with too many. So start with just one, try one for a week or two, see how it works, let it find a tiny rhythm and then start with another one. Now I know you're thinking that like summer is so short and you're going to run out of time, you're going to run out of weeks to do all these things that you want to make rules about. But here's my council on that. If you create seven house rules right now, I can almost guarantee

by the time you get to the end of the summer, you may have to, may, maybe have to of the seven. The bigger you start, the smaller your number will probably get. But if you flip it,

weeks, you're going to have like four to five house rules that are probably working fairly well. So starting small, it actually gets you more because you can slowly let things grow rather than like building something shorty in a moment of spite. So take your time. Plus, every time you start small, you are proving to yourself that you can. Every small house rule you add every couple of weeks are even months. That is a practice of being a lazy genius. You're not rushing to fix it.

“You're just paying attention to your most important problem right now and slowly”

trying to solve it one step at a time. Okay? So back to a messy house during the summer. I want you to think about a house rule one for either the room that you want to keep clean or the category you want to keep from taking over your house. So pick whichever one you think will

be the easiest to implement first and just start. Okay? So you might tell your family that this

summer it matters that the dirty socks stay off before because they make you feel sick to your stomach and it also makes laundry harder. Since people are likely to run out of socks more quickly if they're not actually in the laundry getting washed. So this summer everyone, we're going to have a house rule where if there are socks on the ground, anyone in the family is allowed to shout socks and everyone has to come. The sock culprit has to get the socks but everyone has to

come when socks are screened. That can make some people in the group accountable and they're like watching for socks because like maybe one sibling does not want to be interrupted by another kid's dirty socks so they're going to be like hey do your socks on a living room grab them before mom scream socks and we'll have to run you know. Now listen that's really silly but hey if you're most annoying thing is dirty socks and your children don't like to be interrupted like do whatever

you can to make sure the dirty socks don't accumulate without anyone else noticing like make

“it worth it to them where it's a rule that you have to come running and maybe like if they don't”

come running they have to come and get the socks even if they're not theirs and nobody wants to touch other people's dirty socks so gross again silly but single house rule and just start and see. Now the same is true for a house rule in the room that matters right that's the category that

matters this is the room that matters if the most important room is the bathroom because you only

have one and it needs to be tidy and ready to use every day then make it a house rule that nothing gets left out like everything in that bathroom has to be put away when you're done not everywhere in the house just in the bathroom so if you notice that a kid left their toothbrush on the side of the sink after their brush they're teeth instead of putting the toothbrush back in the toothbrush holder go get the kid say hey bud remember house rule to put away bathroom stuff and I saw that

“your toothbrush is still out so can you take care of that please like be kind and direct”

eventually kids will be annoyed at having to go back over and over again and they'll probably start following the house rule without needing to be reminded because they're tired of being having to go back you'll have to put a little more effort in at the top to help them see but stay kind and be patient they'll come out welcome around one house rule at a time I grabbed some house rule ideas that you all have shared over the years to help you think about the

possibilities for your own home as you kind of brainstorm what a house rule could be for your category or for your room so I'm just gonna run through a few of these and hopefully it'll get some of your own creative ideas going almost a juices and that's not okay all right so here's one from a Kirkman about bathrooms she says this is brilliant you guys I can't even deal I lock one bathroom this is during the summer I lock one bathroom we have two in our house one my boys use and

one my husband and I use like all stay at home moms I have more to clean in the summer unless time to do it and then there are guests so many guests so during the summer I lock the

boys bathroom and I make them use hours this way I have only one bathroom to clean and I always

have a bathroom that is cleaned and ready when guests arrive no more running describe the toilet or scrape away toothpaste gunk when I hear a car coming up the driveway this way I have less to clean and I enjoy unexpected guests a lot more I mean lock in a room that is some brilliant genius energy right there house rule is one bathroom during the summer don't use the locked bathroom that's your house rule it's great now is there gonna be a transition because the kids are using

a Kirkman would rather have a locked always clean bathroom and only one other bathroom to clean

even though that that one bathroom is probably going to be dirtier because it's four people instead

“of two but that's a worthwhile choice because of what matters the most changes everything when you”

name that love it okay next one amber says one suction cup hook per person in the showers for all the wet swimsuits that need to drip dry it keeps them off my floors all right so if your category is dripping swimsuits and you're like holy moly all the swimsuits I can't I can't and they're driving crazy this is a great idea this is a house rule swimsuits on your hook right you can just do that keep that going and everything else is gonna feel easier because you're

tending to the most annoying category all right here's one from Kate to help manage our large families messy house all summer I've created a summer schedule that includes a blitz tidy so before we go out and enjoy our day at the lake or adventuring everyone tidies the house until it's put back together usually 10 minutes that way we aren't coming back to a big mess so this is great and works well for Kate since she has a lot of hands to help tidy

“you can also simplify this by choosing your most important room that it's not the whole house right”

but before you leave for an activity you quickly tidy that room the one that matters the most that's

the house rule now if you usually run behind and you don't always have time for the tidy

or you feel like it's being like crammed into too small space because you're just trying to get out the door well first you could just build it in like start getting ready sooner so you have time for the tidy or you tidy before you start getting ready to leave you know that's like the first thing you do or if you know that you're gonna leave later in the day like you can just tidy the most important room any time and you know that when you leave it's going to be tidy like

two minutes you guys are gonna do wonders no matter when you do them all right here is a tip from book bay but we got a hand me down vacuum robot now I say auto is coming so all the things need

“to get off the floor that kids named the vacuum based on the button on top this is auto mode the”

kids clean up without a fight because it's not me telling them to clean it's me helping them save their toys and craft supplies from auto so we used to have a robot vacuum and my name was sucker buddy and he was the best he is the best but then we got like a new chair in a rug that had like a really high pile and it just made sucker buddy the sucker buddy did not function anymore and so we had to put sucker buddy away but robot vacuumers are so fun for kids like name the vacuum stick google

lies on it and yes make it a house rule that when auto or sucker buddy or whatever your name is is coming it's time to get the stuff off the floor it's like a game almost the response is immediate it's so helpful that is a great house rule I love this one from Bethany especially if you are category is dishes or your room is the kitchen we eat breakfast outside it gets us out the door to play for a few hours before it is too hot and then we've all burned off some good energy before the heat

drives us in bonus cleaning up breakfast for a 10 month old and two preschoolers is much easier out of doors isn't that great house rules breakfast outside done like it checks a lot of boxes

with just one rule all right here's another dish related one from mera I always wanted to avoid dirty

dishes in the summer but instead of buying tons of expensive paper plates and going through them a really three days I grabbed some food fry baskets from the dollar store and I found somewhere to buy a giant pack of restaurant basket liners I even cut them in half so that they go longer and for 90% of the snacks and meals that my kids eat the paper liners keep the baskets from needing to be washed at all and then I just throw away the paper and restack the baskets that is a

terrific house rule eat your food in a fry basket all summer and then maybe you have a rule of like empty your fry basket when you're done or if you have children who eat a lot of ketchup on things and the way that they empty their fry basket tends to like get the ketchup on the basket because they make the house rule like teach them how to throw the paper away you know like the house rule is you dump it like you flip it over and dump it or you pick it up by the corners or

you know like that that is there is a way to throw away the food inside or the paper inside the fry basket so that you don't get ketchup on your fry basket or barbecue sauce or whatever it is so that's you might start with meals in the fry basket that's your first house rule the

start to see how they do that then you might add another one a couple weeks later where you're like

“this is how we empty the fry basket house rule is you know whatever so just add on this and think”

about how easy how much easier kitchen cleanup or dishes are once you slowly implement a house rule like that and think about how much easier it makes all the other chores because you have

tended well to the thing that matters the most and then finally the room that you might want to

tend to is actually your schedule let's just like pretend that maybe your biggest mess happens in your calendar it's not really your room it's the organization of summertime so Katie shared this idea for summer Monday through Wednesday I schedule appointments doctor appointments that car maintenance all those things and then I leave Thursday and Friday and the weekend days open for play dates day trips on the fly long weekend trips so when my kids ask for a sleepover or day

trips somewhere and I'm not near my paper calendar because I'm analog I say let's look at Thursday or Friday because I know they're going to be open I feel like it's given me a less chaotic summer schedule which my kids don't even notice but I love so that's really great that's a house rule that says like responsible things and you can even add like chores whatever it is but like the responsible days for the most part of Monday through Wednesday then all the fun is going to be Thursday through

Sunday like that's that's a house rule for your schedule that's okay so I hope some of these house rules have just given you ideas you don't need to like follow them but they can you know

“spark some ideas for you for what matters the most for you now there there are just so many”

ideas in the world all right so don't get hung up on finding the perfect one you don't need the perfect house rule just try one in the room that matters the most or the mess that matters the most it doesn't have to be optimized it doesn't have to be the best whenever just pick one and see what happens all right so to recap you're going to remember three things you're going to expect the mess and not expect everything to be tidy at one time it is unlikely so just let it go

next you're going to see the mess as evidence of life try that tiny reframe to be kinder about

your space and the people who make the mess and then third you're going to live in your season

this season will end so just be here now find the good stay present here and enjoy it okay let's your mindset then you're going to pick one category in one room that will get the majority of your tidying attention all right if that room is good the other rooms feel better if that category is good the other categories feel better so name those so you can invest your limited time and energy in the best place and then set you and your family up well by choosing one house rule

to help that category or that room work even better keep the chaos from starting with your house rule make it small as you can and only start with one you can add more over time and that is how to deal with a messy house all summer long

hold your money with what do you mean coffee in your best form with Cuba will always be on the

stop for a minute because with the new Cuba one capsule machine from Chivo to the French special and the other two worlds of innovative press brutality and with 17-year coffee for every time a Labour premium coffee from up to 20 euros and that he has the Cuba capsule machine in Dinah Chivo Fiala and off Chivo De E alright it's time for a little extra something I have an album project update for you as a reminder I'm trying to listen to a ton of full albums from start to finish in 2026

my initial goal was something like 300 albums split between ones that I've never heard before

“and others that I definitely have and as I have said before I think that number will prove to be”

too high that I've still listened to way more full-length albums in the first half of the year than I ever have in years pass plus all the new stuff there's so much new stuff so it's been so fun and our last update a couple of months ago I was up to 65 total albums for the year so it was like first quarter 65 and today I'm at 91 which is 26 additional albums since that last update I think I thought originally that I could do like four or five albums a week that is shaping up to be closer

habit by Courtney Barnett and pumpkin by Georgie Parker I have listened to both again since then

“especially creature of habit it is just so windows down and it has zero language so it's great for”

car rides with kids that I have four new albums to share with you today that will be on my regular rotation after twenty twenty six of four sure one of which I listened to I think maybe six times already it's crazy also I cannot play clips which breaks my heart like I would love to give you the vibe of these but it's like a legal thing you know so we can't do it but just look them up look them up to get your vibe okay before I share the four I do have an honorable mention go go look this up

just for the experiment of it this album is called the stone roses by the band the stone roses this album messes with your mind it was released in 1989 so you'd think it'd be like an 80 sound or at least making it's way into the 90s with like big synthetic pop vibes or something you'll

“this album feels like it came out in 2005 in the best way it's like ground breaking I do not”

understand how this music was made in 1989 it's like 1960s rock meets Weezer it is a great album for one it's really great that it's also just so bizarre to listen to like knowing it came out in the 80s in 1989 like I even played it for my oldest kid in a couple of his high school friends on a on a drive home from school and I was like hey listen to this when do you think this album came out based on the sound then they were all like early 2000s which was impressive that they

know what that sounds like but they were right it sounds early 2000s but it came out me today it's crazy so that's the stone roses go listen the stone roses by the stone roses okay

here here are my actual four albums to recommend the first one is not four tiny ears since there

is a language but it's the album group project by Hilo Jack so Hilo Jack is a group it's like a collaborative group made up of three existing artists right that that got together to make this really genre-bending album so I came across them because one of those artists is Clyde Lawrence from the band Lawrence who I love they're the ones who sing what you want which is like the best like energy making song ever oh my goodness it's so good anyway this album is really fun and

surprising you've got Clyde who sounds like Michael McDonald then you have this indie rock guy and there's also a rapper so it's this really cool again genre-bending collaboration great vibes love it again does have language so watch it with the children um that that's group project by Hilo Jack I've listened several times I will listen again number two music speaks louder than words by Candy Staten okay this came out 1977 this lady is she's been nominated for like several

Grammys some of the songs are really familiar her voice is spectacular it's like very funk, soul, a little disco it's such a good time and if you like musicianship if you like the actual music holiday of music like you turn your head at a really great lick or a cool horn arrangement or you make like a like a happy grimace when a guitar player like play something super cool you will love this album it is so excellent and really fun for summer so again that's music

speak louder than words by Candy Staten STA T-O-N number three is such a sleeper the artist is Dominique Adams and y'all she has like 3,000 listeners on Spotify that is not a well-known artist and I do not understand her album called to keep to keep it reminds me of Jacob Collier but like smoother her voices I mean it is hot and I threw butter the style is so interesting and soothing and cool there's also a lightness to her music that just feels like the best soundtrack

to a rom-com it's just so good I don't understand why more people are not listening to her

“I don't even know how I found her I think it just the album got served to me on Spotify”

but go listen to the album to keep by Dominique Adams holy actual moly and then finally

the album that I listen to have it doesn't times easy easy is big flower like go bloom by Henry Jamison this is the perfect album for being in the car with kids or at home but wanting your own music it's the easiest listening it's like incredibly complex though

there's a song with Jacob Collier if you like Ben Howard some of his songs remind me a

“little bit of Ben Howard's music even his voice a little bit like very rich and atmospheric but”

also very fun and cool it's it's just so good so in my album project spreadsheet which I will eventually share at some point like probably at the end of the project so I have two ratings for each album one for how listenable something is and then another that I call heart rate which is how much I personally love it because you know like some things you love but they're not easy listen it's just like any day or some things are super easy to listen to but they

don't they don't grab you right so this album got in nine out of ten in both categories I don't think I have any ten out of ten yet which is maybe just too hard to name a perfect album but like this could essentially be a ten out of an owner but it's in both categories I love it so much

“and it's also so easy and fun to listen to which is why I've listened to it so many times so again”

the title big flower light go bloom big flower light go bloom by Henry Janeison and that is today is a little extra something and now for this week's lazy genius of the week this week we have Julia who writes my lazy genius of the week idea something I use at work but can definitely use at home too especially if you have kids I'm an art teacher for young students and I don't have a lot of time in between classes to clean up messy projects so I ordered puppy training paths and I

place them on the tables to protect them and catch any liquid spills paint mess et cetera it saves me so much time and usually I don't even have to do more than throw away the pad and move on

well listen we have never had a pee pad tip before so today is a big day this is pretty brilliant

and also legit funny depending on the ages of the kids that you're using this for like that's a lot of comedy to do your art on a puppy pee pad but I can totally see a parent having a pack of these for certain kinds of projects that allow you to say yes more quickly because the clean up is not as daunting as it could be so listen there's a first time for everything and I'm happy today is the first time for a pee pad tip so thank you so much for sharing Julia and congratulations

of being the lazy genius of the week and now for a many pep talk for when you're already tired of a long season so the other day it was just like the second or third day that the boys were home for the summer and I was like oh my goodness when is it gonna be September it's like I was in the very early days like like barely barely plural dates of a messier than usual house of being

interrupted I kids you always have a question weirdly Sam's question has evolved from like can

“I have a snack that's what it used to be to can I take the car so like that's not weird at all”

but I felt it I felt the mounting frustration and then I realized I was like just two days into the summer it was like mildly devastating and also like pretty funny that sometimes you're at the start of a long season that's not summer or not funny you're in a place that could be way more frustrating than messy kids you're dealing with a struggling marriage or a tough relationship with a kid or a job that you have to just like tough out for another year before you can leave or you can

be at the start of the summer already dreaming of a different kind of day so there's not a solution here but I do think an important thing to remember is to be where you are and look for the good that is here now thinking about how much longer this hard season will last is devastating it's discouraging there's no good news really and then when you look back at how things once were while comforting maybe for like a little bit that doesn't offer much either because it's making you wish for something

you don't have contentment is hard in a challenging season especially when you have like a lot longer to go but if you and I can look for a bit of good today if we can focus on the small things today if we can rest today if we can connect with someone today it makes today a little better and tomorrow not quite as daunting so be where you are even if you're at the beginning look for the good that's here now stay connected to the small things that bring you joy and if there aren't any find some

listen to music call a friend hug your kid bring coffee to a neighbor eat watermelon like be where you are it helps even when you are in the beginning of a really long season and that is a mini peptop

looking for a way to support the show we would absolutely love it if you would share this with a friend

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more people learn about the show and learn how to be a lazy genius which we want more of that in the

world so thank you so much for your support this podcast is part of the Odyssey family and the

“office ladies network this episode is hosted by me kinder adachi an executive produced by kinder”

adachi janifisher and angelic hensie special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production

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“that goes out every other Friday hits you the lazy genius collective dot com slash listens to get it”

thanks y'all for listening and until next time be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't i'm kinder at and i'll see you next week