72: Transform Your Home From Chaos to Calm With Simple Systems
Ever feel like you're drowning in household chaos, despite your best efforts to keep everything organized? You're not alone! In this week's episode, we're tackling the real challenges of home organization with refreshing honesty and practical solutions that actually work.
Our guest expert (and mom of five!) shares a game-changing perspective: you don't need to be naturally organized to have a well-run home. She reveals simple systems that have transformed her own home from chaos to calm, including a brilliant color-coding strategy that eliminates daily frustrations and a meal planning approach that makes dinner decisions practically automatic.
What you'll discover in this episode:
A 5-minute trick that makes overwhelming tasks manageable
How to pair tasks you hate with habits you love (it really works!)
A clever way to get the whole family involved in keeping the house organized
The meal planning secret that eliminates decision fatigue
Simple systems that work even if you're not naturally organized
Whether you're tired of asking "whose water bottle is this?" for the hundredth time or just want to simplify your daily routines, this episode is packed with practical tips you can start using today. No complex systems or Pinterest-perfect solutions required – just real strategies that work for real families.
Mentioned in this episode:
Key Takeaways:
[02:00] The power of implementing 5-minute cleaning bursts and turning household tasks into family competitions
[04:00] Simple meal planning system using themed days and family input to eliminate decision fatigue
[09:00] Game-changing strategy of color-coding family members' belongings for instant accountability
[11:00] Habit stacking technique: pairing unpleasant tasks with enjoyable daily routines
[17:00] Starting small with the "timer method" to tackle overwhelming organizing projects
Simple Systems for an Organized Home: Expert Tips from a Mom of Five
As busy moms, we often find ourselves drowning in household chaos, wondering how other parents seem to have it all together. But what if I told you that even organization experts aren't naturally organized? In a recent episode of the Hobby School podcast, I sat down with Corinne, founder of Wonder Mom Wannabe and mother of five, who shared this refreshing confession along with her practical approach to home organization.
The Truth About Home Organization: It's About Systems, Not Perfection
"When my house was out of control, everything else felt overwhelming," Corinne shared, echoing a sentiment many of us know all too well. As a military spouse often managing the household solo, she discovered that the secret wasn't becoming a naturally organized person – it was creating simple systems that work for real life. These aren't complex organizational charts or Pinterest-perfect solutions, but practical approaches that can be maintained even during life's busiest seasons.
The Game-Changing Power of Color Coding
One of Corinne's most impactful strategies started with a simple problem: too many drinking glasses cluttering the countertops. Her solution? Color coding each family member's belongings. What began with colored-rim glasses evolved into a comprehensive system covering everything from towels to school folders and sports bags. This simple change created instant accountability and eliminated daily arguments about whose items were left out.
The beauty of this system lies in its simplicity and scalability. You can start small with just drinking glasses or water bottles and gradually expand to other areas of your home. The visual nature of color coding makes it easy for even young children to participate in keeping the house organized.
Revolutionizing Meal Planning Through Themed Days
If you've ever stood in front of your refrigerator at 5 PM wondering what to make for dinner, you'll appreciate Corinne's approach to meal planning. Instead of starting from scratch each week, she implements a themed day system – think Meatless Monday or Taco Tuesday – and involves the whole family in the planning process.
The genius of this system is its combination of structure and flexibility. By having each family member contribute their favorite meals and creating a four-week rotation, you eliminate decision fatigue while ensuring everyone has input. This not only simplifies the planning process but also reduces mealtime complaints since everyone has contributed to the menu.
The Power of Habit Stacking: Making the Unpleasant Pleasant
Perhaps one of the most versatile strategies Corinne shared was the concept of habit stacking – pairing tasks you dislike with ones you naturally enjoy. For instance, she unloads the dishwasher while brewing her morning coffee, transforming a dreaded chore into part of a pleasant morning routine. This principle can be applied to virtually any household task: folding laundry while watching your favorite show, organizing a drawer during your morning tea, or cleaning the bathroom counter while waiting for your face mask to dry.
Starting Small: The 5-15 Minute Rule
For those feeling overwhelmed by the state of their home, Corinne offers a compassionate yet practical approach: start with just 5-15 minutes. "Give yourself those small victories," she advises. Choose one small area – a drawer, a shelf, or even just a corner of the counter – and set a timer. This approach eliminates the paralysis that often comes with looking at the big picture and allows you to make progress without becoming overwhelmed.
The key is giving yourself permission to stop when the timer goes off, though you'll often find yourself wanting to continue. This strategy builds momentum through small wins, creating a positive cycle of motivation and achievement.
Taking Action: Your Next Steps
Remember, the goal isn't perfection but progress. As Corinne emphasizes, "Pick one thing to simplify... If it feels good, then hopefully you'll do more." Whether you start with color coding your family's belongings, implementing a themed meal planning system, or tackling one drawer for five minutes, the important thing is to begin.
The most effective organizational systems are the ones you'll actually use, so don't feel pressured to implement everything at once. Choose one strategy that resonates with your family's needs and lifestyle, and build from there. After all, organization isn't about becoming a different person – it's about creating systems that work for the life you actually live.
Ready to start simplifying your home life? Visit wondermomwannabe.com for free home management planning pages and more practical organizing tips. Remember, every organized home started with a single step – what will yours be?
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Welcome to the HobbyScool podcast. Whether you're a seasoned hobbyist or just getting started, HobbyScool is the perfect place to learn something new. My name is Dr. Destiny Copp and I'm your host of the podcast. But before we jump into our episode for today, The only thing I ask is that if you enjoyed the episode, please share with a friend and give us an honest review on your favorite podcast platform.
This helps us get out the content to more people. I also want to invite you to get on our wait list for our next HobbyScool online learning summit. These are free to attend and you can find the link to join at HobbyScool.com which is also in our podcast show notes. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.
And my special guest today is Corinne.
Corinne is a [00:01:00] mom of five, founder of Wondermom Wannabe and a home organization strategist dedicated to helping busy moms simplify daily life. Now, Corinne, I am super excited to be chatting with you today. And we're going to be talking about one of my most favorite topics.
And that is like organizing our lives, simplifying our lives, making sure we're getting rid of that overwhelm. And you definitely are the person to help us with this. But before I get into all the questions I have for you, can you tell the good audience just a little bit more about you and how you help people?
Sure. But first thank you for having me. I'm super excited to be here chatting with you too. So yes, a little bit about, me. I am like, I need to be upfront. I'm not a naturally organized person. Like I, like I've never found joy in decluttering for the [00:02:00] sake of it. God bless the people that are that way, but it's not me.
So as a mom of five, I've got five quick kids, was definitely familiar with overwhelmed in my house. And it just wasn't, it wasn't an option because my, my husband was in the military and was gone a lot.
So it really was on me to kind of keep things together. And I quickly learned that when my house was out of control, Everything else like felt overwhelming to like the house being out of control really impacted every other aspect of my life. So, um, I like what worked for me is I needed systems like systems that worked for like my real life.
Ones that made life easier without requiring me to become some super organized person that I wasn't. So I started small, like things like setting timers for five minute bursts of cleaning because I could do anything for five minutes, or I'd make like a laundry competition with the kids. See who could get their stuff down to the laundry room or put their laundry away fastest.
So I just found these little tricks that worked. And the [00:03:00] more that I did and would share those with people, the more I realized I was not alone. This is a very common problem. Other moms are looking for the same thing, right? Like simple, smart changes that actually stick. So that's what I focus on. And that's what I do at Wonder Mom Wannabe, just helping busy moms take control of their home life in a way that doesn't feel like they've taken on a second full time job.
I love that. And I definitely need to learn that laundry trick. I have two teenage boys here in my house. And I, as you were saying that I'm like, yes, their clothes are sitting outside of the laundry on the floor, waiting to be put up. They've been washed and folded and hung up and everything. And they're still sitting on the floor for them to get on.
So let's delve into this because I know that you teach about simple systems. Can you walk us through exactly what you're referring to and why, you know, how, how is this so powerful and how does it work?
Absolutely. So simple systems, like the reason that [00:04:00] they're simple, right? Is it's the whole purpose of them is to eliminate decision fatigue. Like that is the thing with us moms, right? Like we've got to make so many decisions, not just for ourselves, but for the whole family. Creating systems like most of my systems do that they make some of the decisions for you so that you don't run into that decision fatigue over and over again and the whole point of a system is to keep things running smoothly without you having to Think about it or actually do the things all the time.
So a perfect example of this is meal planning. Most people overcomplicate it, right? That's why we all hate it. It's why they give up. So I simplify it right from the start by doing two things. One is theming days. Like when I discovered this little trick, it was life changing for me. So this meant I didn't ever have to start completely from scratch.
So, you know, if Monday's meatless Monday, Tuesday's taco Tuesdays, Wednesday's slow cooker meals, like just like you pick the theme. That first decision is already made. And now it's so much [00:05:00] easier to pick what you're having on any given night. You're just plugging in recipes. The other thing that I did, and I do this with everything, like this is not, we're a team in my family, right?
Like it is not just me trying to run the show. The kids don't get to be divas. Like we're a team that works together. So I always get the family involved when I can. So when it came to meal planning, I'm like, okay, everybody give me two or three meals that you like, really put in your dinner requests.
It gives them buy in so that you get less complaints about dinner. But also it was like less brainstorming I had to do to figure out what everybody was going to like. So once I start with that, like I've got all the meals that we want, I take that, and then I put it on repeat. I just, like, I realized. I don't like monotony.
I don't want to have the same thing every single week, but I also don't have a great memory. So four weeks is enough for me to feel like we're not having the same thing all the time. So I put a four week meal plan together using those two tricks, right? Like [00:06:00] theming them and then having the kids put their input as to what meals they wanted.
And then I just created a four week rotation. And now with grocery pickup, like I could order the groceries and then I just repeat that grocery list four weeks from now. And make a couple tweaks as opposed to building an entire grocery list from scratch again, so it took a little time up front, but once it's done and eliminates 90 percent of the work for months like that's what a simple system should do it should it should run.
Very simply, like it's not a, that's not a complicated system, right? Plans, some meals, put it on repeat. It's not complicated. And it really wasn't that much work, but once you've done the work, it's very little work later. So you hit upon some really like hot points for me in my house, because I'm always asking people, you know, it's.
It's Sunday night and I am doing like the grocery pickup. So I'm going into my Kroger app on my phone and I'm like, well, what do you guys want to eat this week? Cause I'm picking it up at the [00:07:00] grocery store tomorrow. And I always get this, I don't know, or I don't care. And then I make something like I made something this past week.
It was like a chicken enchiladas and I had one of my kids were like, I don't like that. Okay. You know? So what do you do in those types of situations? So like, I definitely was, with five kids. I, you, I just wasn't a short order cook. Like that was, you know, you pick your battles. This is one that I picked.
I'm not a short order cook. So my kids all learned how to cook very early. You could make something different for dinner. If you wanted to, but I wasn't going to make something different. If they didn't like what I was serving, they were more than welcome to make their own. I never. Because I also didn't want to force kids to eat.
So I have weird food issues. Like I won't eat venison, for example. So I get it. Not, not wanting a food. And I was never going to force feed my kids things they didn't want, but I also wasn't going to cater to them. Even kids, like when I say I was making, like I was introducing [00:08:00] this concept to my kids, kids as early as young as four and five can do very simple like sandwiches.
So like we'd have a rule, you had to have a vegetable, you had to have a protein. And as long as they followed that rule, they could make what they wanted if they really didn't like what was for dinner. You had to have at least one bite. Right. Like you had to have a bite before you told me you didn't like it.
Love those rules. Yeah. I'm going to try that on my 16 year old. He tells me he doesn't like my chicken enchiladas. My daughter was a vegetarian for seven years and I'm like, I don't like no one else in the family who liked meatless meals. So I would make extra side dishes, but I was like, if you want something, you know, hardier for your main dish and, these side dishes aren't cutting it for you, you're going to need to learn how to cook.
And she did. She's actually the best cook in the family now as a result of that. So I'm going to switch gears on you just a little bit. You talk about. Eliminating decision [00:09:00] fatigue. I think we all can relate to that. I feel like I have that constantly in my life.
Can you share one to two of your favorite small changes that have made a big impact in your life? Absolutely. The biggest one, was color coding my family. When you've got more than a couple people in a house, if everybody neglects to put away one thing, You've all of a sudden got a very cluttered house, right?
And that was the biggest problem that I had in my family.
So I color coded my family. It started with. Glasses like the cups that they were drinking out of because someone would go get a drink. They leave it on the countertop and then they wouldn't like then when they'd come back, they didn't know if it was theirs or someone else's and they'd go get another glass.
And so each day we were going through like 20 glasses. It was ridiculous. So I started and everybody got a colored glass and I let them pick their color. We actually, there were glasses with like a little colored rim around the bottom. But [00:10:00] then it was like, Oh, everybody's got a favorite color. And thankfully for me, they were all different colors.
So I applied it to everything, their towels, their water bottles, their school folders, their color on the calendar. Like sports bags, everything got color coordinated. And now, you know, like if there was a green bag laying out, I knew that was William and, you know.
And so William had to take care of it. So color coding the family, super easy to implement. It's fun. It's visually aesthetic, everything about that. And it eliminates those daily micro stresses because it just frees up that mental space. You know, there's instant accountability. You know, who's it is. It's one less thing you have to think about, right?
Like when you're buying something for the kids, you just know, for me, that was life changing. The other one for me that is like, this is.
This is the trick I use for me because I have found I am my biggest hurdle with certain tasks. There are just some chores that are chores to me. I really don't enjoy them. I have a hard time making myself do [00:11:00] them. So I read atomic habits a long time ago, and that for me was a life changing book. And I implemented so many of the strategies and the habit stacking, the habit stacking was huge for me.
So every morning when my coffee is brewing and it's a Keurig, it's not like it's taking it a ton of time. I unload the dishwasher. I hate unloading the dishwasher. We all do. You're not alone. But like now it's just, it's a habit. The dishwasher doesn't ever not get unloaded in the morning because I do it when I make my coffee, which I never forget to make.
Like I have my coffee every morning. It is part of my ritual. It's a cherished part of my ritual. So that's what I would do. I would. stack these things that I normally like to do with the things that I don't like to do. I love to brush my teeth at night. I don't like to do the whole moisturizing routine.
And at my age, I have to do the moisturizing routine. So I've paired them, right? Like when they, the, my moisturizer, my nighttime moisturizer lives in the [00:12:00] same drawer with my toothbrush, which makes no sense in anyone else's world. But for me, when I open up the drawer to get my toothpaste and my toothbrush out, I.
See my moisturizer and I do it like those two habits just go hand in hand. So habit stacking. Like I, I use a lot of visual cues, cause if I see it, if I don't see it, I forget about it. So if I want, if you want to drink more water, like I live with a 24 ounce tumbler on my desk, right?
Like it's just always there. And because it's there, I drink water all day long. So any of the things that you find yourself challenging, you know, like it's challenging for you to do matching it with something that you naturally like doing is an easy way. And then just keeping it in front of you. So those are like, that's a very simple thing to implement.
And it's, it's one of my favorite tips for making myself do things I don't want to do. It's like these little things that anything you can do to eliminate the resistance that you naturally run into, right? It makes it easier to get things done, even the things you don't enjoy. [00:13:00] There was so much good stuff there.
I don't even know where to start, but we're talking about like matching it up. I'm like, you know what, that's what I do with my treadmill. I turn on my TV, watch my favorite show while I'm walking, do you know, doing my treadmill walking. So I'm kind of matching those up. The other thing I was thinking about when you were talking about the dishwasher, I actually started doing that years ago too, in the morning, because.
What was happening is people were just leaving all their dirty dishes on the sink. I'm like, no, put them in the dishwasher. So every morning I, clean it, get, the dishes from the night before. Put them up.
So it's, ready for all of their dirty dishes. And that helped out tremendously. I also loved the color coding that you talked about, because what happens around my house is there's like a water bottle out and is half empty and nobody wants to claim it as theirs
why do you get up, open up a water bottle and only drink half of it? It just [00:14:00] drives me crazy. Well, and I know that I know we're keeping it short, but I'm going to like one of the systems that worked when I was losing my mind with my children because they were like, For me, it was, it was the not putting stuff away.
I made that single rule. It was one rule. I didn't want to give them a whole laundry list of things. It was one, you had to put things away where they belonged. That was it. That was the household rule. And, I had gone to some parenting class, learned about this like X system is what I call it, but I don't think that was the name of it.
But what I did is for each of the kids, because I have very different kids, like they all have unique personalities and I love that about them, but they all cared about different things. So for my youngest daughter, and she was too little for her, her X chart was, it was a daily thing. So we reset it every day, but she got three stripes.
So if I'd find something she hadn't put away, we'd just go put an X on the chart. And then after three, she started to lose privileges that mattered to her, right? Like [00:15:00] she would lose TV. She'd lose dessert for each child, it was different. Like one of my sons loved playing video games.
He lost the video games. That worked really well for the teenagers. Their chart would last for a week. So the first time you forgot to put something away, you got a freebie. But then you start to lose the privileges. Like you lose the car keys for the rest of the week.
And then you reset at the end of the week, we've forgotten everything that's happened before and whatever privileges you lost. Come back. But this was like, for me, it took all the emotion out of it. I wasn't yelling at anyone. It was just very matter of fact. Oh, you forgot to hang up your jacket.
Go mark an X, right? Like, or I would just mark an X and be like, okay, well, you've used up one of your freebies. You know, one more and you're gonna, you know, you're gonna lose a privilege. And every time that I came back to the system multiple times throughout raising kids, it's not something that was in effect 24 seven year round.
But every time the house was getting a little out of control, I'd bring back the X charts. Everybody knew what it meant. And it would [00:16:00] take two weeks before it was just enough to reset those habits. And then we'd bring it back. Everybody's like, oh yeah, mom's going to actually crack down if we don't do it.
They just, they get back in the habit of putting things away and then the extract would go away. But one of the most effective parenting systems I've used in like throughout my years of raising my children. I love that. And, I, you know, I could see why that would be so very powerful, especially for the teenagers.
I have two of those in my house and they don't want to lose those video game privileges. I can tell you that. So what advice do you have for somebody who feels like their home is just too messy or too disorganized and they just don't know where to start? Having been in that position a lot, right?
Like we moved a lot and then you're just starting from square one. You've got all these boxes and stuff. Like I've faced that overwhelm a lot. So I don't answer this question lightly. I will say the thing that always worked for me, yeah, I hate that expression because I would never want to eat an elephant, but [00:17:00] eating the elephant one bite at a time, right?
Like I just. I like, again, I like to trick myself. So set a timer and just pick a task, one task, one drawer, one box, whatever it is, like pick one thing that you think you can tackle in 5 to 15 minutes. No more than 15 minutes because It's really hard to talk yourself into doing something for 15 minutes or, you know, for 20 minutes, 30 minutes, but it's really easy to talk yourself into doing something for 5 to 10 minutes, set a timer, like commit to doing that the timer goes off.
And a lot of times after you've started, you'll find you're in a zone. But if you're not. And you're tired and you're exhausted from other things. You've given yourself permission to stop then. And you don't feel like a failure.
So if you're overwhelmed give yourself those small victories, right? Like set a timer for five minutes, only committed to doing it for five minutes. You will likely get in a zone and do much more than you planned on. But if you don't, you've given yourself. Forgiveness and permission to not tackle everything all [00:18:00] at once that moment.
And eventually, like we, you know, we know this, anybody that's in the organizing space, it's those little bits forward that get you there, right? Like, and it's the endorphin rush and the dopamine, you know, that you get from accomplishing something. So that is like. That's my advice. Start small. Pick, keep focused very small.
Don't look at the entire kitchen and be like, I've got to rework the entire kitchen. Look at the pantry. Look at the refrigerator. If that's too overwhelming, look at a shelf in the refrigerator, right? Like look at a single drawer and tackle that five minutes in. If it feels good, keep going. Corinne, that's So much good stuff there. And as you were talking about that, I was like, you know what, this could be applied to so many areas of our life, not just like organizing a house. I was thinking about, you know, like for instance, you know, some of the work that I do online, you know, sometimes I just set a [00:19:00] timer.
I'm like, you know what, I'm going to work on this for the next 20 minutes, especially if it's something that I really don't want to do, like setting up. Facebook ads or something like that. I'm like, I set the timer, I work on it. And then I'm like, at the end, either I can keep going or I can stop and do something else.
Well, you know what it came out of? It was working out. Like I, I fall out of my workout routine a lot and I realized, and I'm a runner. So if I'm not, if I've not run for a while, the way I get myself running again is I'm like, you know what, let's strap on our shoes and let's just go out. And I'm like, I'm only going to run half a mile.
I've never only run half a mile so once I realized that it does, it works absolutely everywhere else. It even works with healthy eating. If you say, I've got to eat five carrots before I can have a piece of chocolate. After you eat five carrots, you don't want chocolate, right?
It literally works with everything. So if someone is listening right now and they want to take action right away, what do you suggest they do? What is the one thing they should do when they walk [00:20:00] away from listening to this? So I love this question and my advice would be to pick one thing to simplify, right?
Like we're going to keep the focus small and I don't ever like to tell anyone what to do. So for each person, this is going to be something different. So maybe that's just creating one new habit stack, like wiping down the counters while your coffee is brewing, right? Maybe it's assigning a color to each family member and seeing how much easier.
your daily life is going to get. Maybe it's creating a grab and go basket by the door for your keys, wallets and anything else that tends to go missing. Maybe it's coming up with a themed meal night, like, taco Tuesday. So you have one less dinner decision to make. Or maybe it's like making a five minute deal with yourself to tackle a small task you've been Putting off, like I've given you a long list, not because I want everyone to go implement all of these, but out of all of those, there's one that you like seems doable, right?
Like there's one, you can absolutely implement as soon as you stop listening to this episode, right? Just so pick one, pick [00:21:00] one, do it. If it feels good, then hopefully you'll do more, right? Like you'll pick the next thing that's easy to implement. Cause if you implement it and it works for you, you're likely to stick with it and you're going to see a difference.
in your life over time. So Corrine, you gave us so much to kind of think through and work on today. Can you let the audience know where they can find you if they want to learn more? And I think you have a free gift for them also. I do. So yes, to find me, it's easiest to reach me on my site.
That's where I'm most active. Wondermomwannabe. com. And, you can find me also on Instagram and Facebook, my tags at Wondermomwannabe. Or you can email me. It's Corinne at wondermomwannabe.com, but I do have some home management planning pages and these are just some pages out of my home management banner by, I'm sorry, the home management planner, and they're designed to help busy moms get organized without over complicating things.
[00:22:00] So it includes some simple templates for like tracking household tasks, meal planning, routines, like all the stuff that we struggle with. Point of them is to help reduce mental load and make daily life more manageable. So I created these because I needed a system since I wasn't naturally organized and this is what I've come up with and it's completely free.
I've got it up on the site at https://wondermomwannabe.com/hobbyscool/ spelled the way you spell it h o b b y s c o o l. So you can go there, fill in your email address and I'll send it straight to your inbox. And I will make sure that all of those links are in the show notes so people can just go there and find you, Corinne.
And thank you so much for joining me today and sharing all of your wonderful knowledge with us. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure.
Thank you so much for listening today. Don't forget to sign up for the waitlist [00:23:00] so you'll be the first to know when our next free Hobby School online learning summit launches. The link is in the show notes for this episode or you can go to HobbyScool.com and that's Hobby School with school without an H in it.
Talk soon.