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HARNESSING THAT "BACK TO SCHOOL" ENERGY IN MIDLIFE · Uncluttered and Unfiltered: The Podcast For Women Over 50

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  Welcome to Uncluttered and Unfiltered, the podcast urging
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  you to let it go and don't look back, with nationally acclaimed
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  professional organizer Christine Stone and self-proclaimed Hot
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  Damn Mess radio and TV personality Eden Kendall.
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  Welcome everybody to uncluttered and unfiltered.
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  I'm Eden Kendall Christine Stone, nationally, globally
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  acclaimed. I'm intergalactically acclaimed
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  professional better every every episode.
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  OK, Intergalactically proclaimed professional organizer Christine
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  Stone is here and we just finished up Chris's appearance
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  on on the local TV show that I'm Co host of here in River City
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  Live. And you did an episode with us.
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  I'm getting organized for Back to School, which is something
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  you do with us every year. Yes.
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  And for those who don't know, this is how we met years ago.
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  You came on the show. Long time ago, yeah.
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  Like I think 15. I mean long time ago 10 to. 15
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  years ago, about 10 years ago. It has.
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  It has to be. So we did this episode today.
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  You talked about back to school and we get we get it.
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  Listen, this is a podcast for women over 50.
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  Most of us are either empty nesters or soon to be empty
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  nesters or everything kind of just kind of flows as it's going
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  to because the kids are in high school.
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  But let's just say we know that we do have some of you guys that
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  still have littles, but also let's do a back to school
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  organizational episode, but for empty nesters.
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  In other words, let's take some of these tips and tricks that
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  you shared and apply them to our lives anyway.
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  Yeah. You know, cuz you said you
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  missed another episode. You said you missed all of that
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  back. To school, I miss it.
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  I'm every single time it's back to school, I get a little
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  sentimental. I do, I do.
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  I miss it. I miss the lunch boxes, I miss
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  the backpacks. I miss all that.
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  Speaking of lunch boxes, before we launch in, did you have any
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  special lunch boxes when you were in elementary school like
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  Osmonds? Yeah, I had The Osmonds lunch.
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  Box, I had Partridge Family. Oh, you did?
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  Even though by then it was a syndicated show and it was just
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  on like after school, I still loved it.
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  Yeah, I I was very particular, as you can only imagine, where
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  everything like the backpack had to match the lunch box.
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  You know what I mean? Well, you're You didn't become
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  Christine Stone overnight. Intergalactically proclaimed
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  organizer didn't happen in your sleep.
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  No, you didn't wake up like this.
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  I always was into it, even when it was me being the one going
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  back to school. I loved back to school.
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  I loved back to school shopping for clothes.
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  I love back to school shopping for school supplies.
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  So when I had kids, I was double excited.
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  I just was. I love it.
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  I used to love the fresh notebooks.
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  I used to love saying this year I'm going to start writing very
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  neatly and I'm going to keep it up through the school year.
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  And I still love a fresh notebook because I do my to do
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  lists. Yes, I put my calendar in my
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  phone and do all of that. But then every week I transfer
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  everything to my little notebook that stays in my purse and I
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  love when it's towards the end and I buy a brand new one.
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  I love that. Well, then you must be super
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  excited like me that those are coming back.
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  Now it's all over. Tick tock that.
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  Everyone's going back to old school calendars, notebooks.
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  And I was thrilled to see that because I was the queen of
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  having everything in one book. My kids used to make fun of me
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  because I would carry it around like a Bible.
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  Well, you have to have your To Do List because then you If you
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  don't, how are you going to know what to do?
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  Yeah, exactly. So what are some of the ideas
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  you put together that we can carry on with back to school
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  philosophies, but as adults? Well, I always think kitchen and
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  pantry. I don't it.
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  It doesn't matter if you have young kids, high schoolers or no
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  kids, sorting like items, keeping things together, it just
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  makes life easier. It it saves you time, it saves
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  you money. So doing that, whether you have
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  kids going back to school or not, is the number one thing.
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  So today on the show, you showed some slides and there were all
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  of these bins that were clearly marked, of course, lazy Susan's,
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  which is, yes, you know, like you wish you had invented them.
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  Yes, I do wish I invented them. So people don't think about the
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  fact that you're going to be packing lunches and providing
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  after school snacks, and if you don't organize that you're going
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  in at a deficit in the new school year.
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  So OK, even though we don't have kids in school, we're going to
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  organize our pantries. Yes, and purging like the things
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  you don't really use or want or like.
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  And then the next thing is having a drop station, whether
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  when you come in your house, whether you have young kids with
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  backpacks and their sports equipment or whatever it is,
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  even as an adult, you should have a drop station, a place for
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  your keys, for your phone, for any important papers that you
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  need. Having a place where it's all
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  right there at your fingertips, easy access.
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  Because when you open the mail, it is kind of like the adult
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  version of homework. Sometimes, you know, there's a
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  bill that might need to get paid.
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  It's kind of like that permission slip, right?
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  If you put it away, you won't see it, right?
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  You know where are you going to put it so you know to address
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  it. Right.
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  So having a call later or one of my favorites is a file box that
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  has handles because you can just take it from room to room.
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  It's not stationary and it looks great sitting on a counter and
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  you can label it orders, placed bills to pay.
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  It just makes it so much easier with paperwork.
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  Okay. That's the next one.
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  And then like we talked about any files, any, anything that
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  you need right away, keeping it at your fingertips, whether it's
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  signing papers for kids, going back to school, keeping items,
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  keeping your cords organized. That has nothing to do with if
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  you have kids or not. Making sure you organize your
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  cords so you can find which cord goes to which item, which is
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  getting very hard now because there are so many different
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  chords. So keeping it organized and you
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  can, there's so many options. You can go to my neatly Designed
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  on Instagram if you want picture ideas, but keeping chords
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  organized, organizing your junk drawer so that when you open the
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  drawer, you can actually see your tape, your scissors, your
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  tape measure, those type of things.
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  Whether you have kids in school or not, these are things that to
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  me, are essential. Absolutely.
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  And you know what else we can actually kind of pivot off this
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  for? You know, when I was really
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  little, I still have great memories of going to my
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  grandmother's house. And now you've got the
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  opportunity to be a grandma. And so I remember going in and
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  playing school, like doing workbooks and things like that.
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  Yes, I had that grandmother that I was doing workbooks in the
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  summer. It's true.
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  But you can practice organizing. That's something you can
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  actually practice. Yes, you can learn about.
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  Right. Also, I mean, I always say start
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  with one thing because you're going to love it so much that
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  it's going to motivate you to move on to the next area.
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  So don't try to organize your whole house in one day, because
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  that's usually a fail. And also, whether you are gifted
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  and you're an organized person or if you're not, find a
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  professional organizer in your area to help with the new year.
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  And whether you have kids or not, it always is a new year.
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  In my opinion. Come August, you feel like it's
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  a new year. Even though January is the start
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  of a new year, in your mind, especially if you were a mom,
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  you always think August is the start of a new year.
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  So kind of treat it like back to school, you know, summer because
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  summer, even if you're just still going to the same nine to
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  five job or whatever you do for a living, you're doing it every
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  single day. And so summer doesn't really
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  mean anything as far as like with teachers, there is still
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  that kind of feeling, that summer feeling of a little bit
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  more freedom. And so when fall comes,
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  especially if you're somewhere where the weather then turns,
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  things do shift. So it is a great time for your
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  mindset to shift to people talk about spring cleaning.
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  Maybe it's that back to school reorganization that you have
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  even if you don't have kids around.
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  Well, and a lot of people still work from home.
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  And so it's, it's, it is a refresh, a refresh the start of
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  before fall. I love this time of year for
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  getting organized because it seems that even people with
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  kids, their kids go back to school and they have the house
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  to themselves so they're able to get things organized.
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  So it is one of my favorite times a year minus the heat cuz
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  I live in Florida. Yeah, exactly.
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  Okay, So do you have anything else on your list before we do a
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  little bit of a transition in topics?
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  No, I think that covers it for adults.
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  Just making sure everything has a home.
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  Okay, well I did want to, since we're on this episode and we are
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  going into the fall, tell you a little bit about some of the
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  things we have planned down the road, just not in this episode,
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  but down the road. We are going to be doing 1
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  coming up very soon about all of the different sober drinks that
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  are out there. There's this big move towards
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  people stepping away from alcohol.
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  So we're going to talk about all of the different options.
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  Some of them are just nothing more than kind of they make you
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  have that flavor of drinking something that's alcohol.
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  Others have what they call adaptogens in them.
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  Some have straight up THC and get you buzzed.
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  And we're going to talk about all of those options in an
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  upcoming episode. Another episode we're going to
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  talk about is that ship has sailed.
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  Like things that it's just like, don't even ask me because that
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  ship has. Sailed.
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  Yes. Yes.
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  And we always want to know what you guys want to hear about.
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  Yeah. So we have a lot of new friends
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  in our ladies only page, which is on Facebook.
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  You can jump right on to that. It's called Uncluttered and
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  unfiltered Ladies only. That's the one we have to let
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  you in now. We are on social media
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  everywhere, but that's the one we have to literally let you in.
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  So come over there because we do have some of you guys are being
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  really bold lately and I love this.
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  And you're posting memes or you're posting questions.
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  We just had a lady ask she's she's planning to downsize, but
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  not for a few more years. So she's asking everybody for
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  their opinions. And I said, you're going to be
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  so proud of me. You haven't had an opportunity.
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  I think this just came up last night, so you haven't had an
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  opportunity to see it yet. But I said, tell me if I got
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  this right. I know Christine will say start
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  purging immediately, even if it's not for a few more years,
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  and even start scheduling regular charity pickups to make
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  those appointments. I mean, right, yes.
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  OK, well, I'm good, thank you. But then I tagged you so you
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  could come. In Yeah.
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  You know, do the real, real advice.
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  I know, but everybody is has been so helpful to her.
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  I've noticed we've already had five people come in it and it
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  only was posted last night. So that's the kind of thing that
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  happens over in our ladies only page.
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  So we really love when everybody participates in that one.
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  And the other thing that we have added to this podcast is every
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  single episode. Now, this was an organizational
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  episode, right? But every episode, no matter
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  what the subject, you're going to be giving us a tip, yes, An
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  organizational tip, yes. So do you feel like we've
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  included enough in this episode or did you want to throw one
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  more on? Can you tell us what your
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  collator folder labels are at? Home well mine are bills to pay.
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  OK, orders placed and let me think what my other one is
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  trying to think. I mean, and that's specific to
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  you orders placed because you'll.
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  Often, yeah, because of my business, right, Sometimes I'll
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  have a receipts folder that I need to keep certain receipts at
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  my fingertips to refer back to things I need to do.
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  So it'll be to do it just depends what Phase I am and
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  what's going on in my life. I change mine out all the time
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  because I have like 4 different label makers.
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  So I I change them out a lot. I don't have set folders, but I
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  love a collator and I love a file box that you can just take
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  from room to room. It's clear.
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  I keep white hanging file folders.
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  So it looks neat. It looks organized and that's
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  that's going to be. I don't know what I would do
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  without either one of those because I have both of them and
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  I use them all the time. And I do have one more question
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  for you and it's organized related today when you were on
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  the TV show. And by the way, we're going to
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  make sure that clip is also available for everybody to
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  watch. When you were on the TV show
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  with me today, you showed a picture where the labors labels
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  were just photos or like it said, crayons.
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  They didn't say the word crayons because it's for little kids so
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  that when they're helping to put things back, like now as a
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  grandmother, you'll have your littles be able to come and put
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  things back. Did you like print those off the
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  Internet and just stick them on there?
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  I. Just printed them off that.
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  Yeah, from the Internet and put in them off and put them in
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  adhesive labels that stick on and you just slide them in.
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  It's really great to teach kids from when they're very young.
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  If you take it out, you need to put it back.
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  And they don't put it back if there's no place to put it back
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  to. So even as a grandmother, I
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  have, you know, OK, I love singing the Barney cleanup song.
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  Still, yes, I do. Clean up.
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  Clean up everybody, everywhere. And so it just makes it a game,
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  you know, So you really have to teach young kids organizations,
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  like some people just aren't born with it.
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  And make it simple. Make it simple.
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  How fun that I didn't know I knew that song until we started
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  singing it. Because my kids watch a lot of
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  Barney. Well, everyone, thank you so
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  much for being with us for this episode of Uncluttered and
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  unfiltered. Once again, we invite you to be
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  a part of our ladies only Facebook group.
• 16:04
  Also, all those other little things that you can do, the
• 16:07
  likes, the subscribes, get those instructions from your other
• 16:10
  favorite podcasts, but do them for us as well, please, because
• 16:13
  they do really help. But the most important thing,
• 16:15
  the one that we most understand as far as boosting our
• 16:17
  listenership is when you share us with one friend, just one.
• 16:21
  If everyone does that, our numbers will double.
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  And when our numbers go up, more people find us, which means we
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  grow our community, which means more women get to feel seen and
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  heard. And that's what this is all
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  about. So remember with with a summer
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  chaos, it's time for us to do a refresh.
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  So all of that, all of that chaos from the summer, you can
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  let it go. And don't look back.