Latest / JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain / 255: Quick Tip Tuesday: Location, Location, Location: How to Decide the Best Place For Everything

Transcript

255: Quick Tip Tuesday: Location, Location, Location: How to Decide the Best Place For Everything · JOY LOVING HOME - SAHM, Productivity, Home Organization, Declutter, ADHD Mom, ADHD SAHM, ADHD Brain

• 0:00
  In 2026, I have some new aims for my own personal life, but I also have aims for this podcast.
• 0:06
  And one of them is to work on leaning into the more practical.
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  I love mindset and I love telling stories that help us understand our brains
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  a little bit more. And I think that's valuable.
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  But sometimes you just want something practical. And so I'm trying to bring
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  back something that was fairly popular in the past, which were what I called Quick Tip Tuesdays.
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  These are short, practical episodes that you can implement immediately.
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  And that's what we're going to try and start doing on Tuesdays.
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  It is an aim, which means hopefully I get close and you see more Quick Tip Tuesdays.
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  So if that's something that you could enjoy or start enjoying,
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  please think about leaving a review. I would love it.
• 0:55
  A wise person once said, everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its
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  ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid.
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  Well, fish, quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys.
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  It's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your life.
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  I'm Joy, a professional organizer, mom of four, and fellow fish brain.
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  If you're looking for a place to get understanding, encouragement,
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  and ideas for your home that actually fit how your brain thinks,
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  then I'm glad you're here.
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  Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique.
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  Together, we could have a joy-loving home.
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  Okay, today's tip comes from my background in real estate, which amounts to
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  the fact that I got my real estate license in North Carolina exactly one month
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  before we found out we were moving.
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  So anyway, never done anything with it, but proud of the fact that I worked.
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  And put in the time to actually get it. Anyway, the number one tip in real estate
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  is location, location, location.
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  And if you have never heard that it is also important inside of your home,
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  then let me be the person that shares it with you.
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  If it is something you've heard before, then let me just drive this home and
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  explain exactly why and a practical tip that you can utilize today.
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  So in terms of interior real estate in your home, it is meaning in that old
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  adage, a place for everything and everything in its place.
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  When you're thinking about what goes where, it is really, really important that
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  the most useful spaces go to the hardest working items for you.
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  So any item in your house should earn its spot.
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  It should earn the right to be in the best real estate.
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  So to zero that in, let's talk kitchens.
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  When you are thinking about your kitchen, the things that you use all the time
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  deserve to be in the easiest reach places so that your life works seamlessly.
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  And what we're thinking about today is if you walk into your kitchen and you
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  open all the cabinet doors so you can see sort of what's going on,
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  the goal would be if I were hired as your organizer and let's say I was coming
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  in to be unpacking you after your move and getting your house organized from
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  the beginning, which is quite the perk,
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  and I would open all of your kitchen boxes.
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  I would lay them all out on tables and then I would organize all the like things
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  and then I would organize in categories like dishware and serveware and baking and.
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  The list goes on, utensils, et cetera. And I would look at the real estate,
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  which I would have planned ahead of time, but I would look at the real estate
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  in your kitchen and I would say, okay, let's pick a place for the plates and bowls, the tableware.
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  It needs to either be A, super close to the dishwasher so that when you are
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  unloading the dishwasher, it is easy as could be to put away.
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  Or it needs to be really close to the table so that when it's time to set the
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  table, it is just steps away to be setting it.
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  So you do have choices, but if you're asking where is, you know,
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  what goes where, that is one of the rules of thumb.
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  I believe in breaking rules, especially for people with ADHD brains,
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  but I want you to understand the rules so when you feel this urge to break them, you understand why.
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  I love a quirky placement, but it needs to have a reason your brain needed it
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  somewhere that wasn't the logical location.
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  Okay, so example there was with the tableware.
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  So silverware, same thing. If you're looking for a great drawer that is either
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  near the dishwasher or near where the table is going to be set.
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  If you are talking about glassware, you either want it near the dishwasher,
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  again, super ease of putting it away, near the table,
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  super ease of setting it, but possibly even better is really near the refrigerator.
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  Because how often are you grabbing a glass to put ice and a drink in it before
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  it gets carried to the table?
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  So you're always thinking about how do I pick the best real estate so that I
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  am making the most efficient movements through my kitchen. Okay.
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  So here's another example that's not tableware.
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  When you cook,
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  Are your spices, if you're right-handed, in the nearest reasonable spot to the
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  right, or if you're left-handed, the nearest reasonable spot to the left of whoever cooks most.
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  If you're the main person cooking in your house is left-handed,
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  go left. If the main person cooking in your house is right-handed, go right.
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  Also, oils would be great for that same location.
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  Pots and pans, also super close
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  to the stove. Oven mitts, super close to the oven. You get the point.
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  You want things at your point of use.
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  If you have a quirky kitchen, very little space.
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  Sometimes we can't have things where we want them to be, but we want to think
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  about why we're putting them where we're putting them.
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  So sort of your practical, actionable, let me think about this step is,
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  is there anything in this kitchen that is living where it shouldn't be living?
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  Is there anything taking up space that doesn't deserve it?
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  Hard workers should get the best houses.
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  So think through, is there anything I just, darn it, I want to move it.
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  I want to move it closer to where it should be used.
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  Now, cautionary tale, change is really hard on our brains.
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  So if you keep going back to the place where it was and you get really frustrated
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  and you're like, well, that tip didn't even work because I just keep going to
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  places to get what I want to get.
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  Yep, that's going to happen. So know it ahead of time and warn yourself that
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  it's okay that muscle memory is going to take you to where it didn't go and
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  you can have it where it should go.
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  Okay, no, I don't like the word should. So I'm going to do another little asterisk here.
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  Wherever you have it, if it works for you and you don't need your brain thinking
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  of a new place, totally cool.
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  No issue with that whatsoever.
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  And honestly, my family has been having a really great, fun conversation with
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  how inefficiency earns more steps.
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  And since we're all trying to get more steps, maybe an inefficient kitchen is
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  a sneaky genius for your exercise routine.
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  Just a thought. But anyway, I'm going to stop there because the point of these are to be quick tips.
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  But think about it. It's something to evaluate whether you even choose to move anything or not.
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  But where it could come in really useful and to store in the back of your head
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  that location, location, location is an awesome tip is if you are creating a
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  new space that doesn't have any old habits.
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  That's when it works the absolute best. All right, until next time, continue to choose joy.