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You're listening to The Decluttered Mom Podcast, a podcast built specifically for busy moms by a busy mom. I'm your host, Diana Rene, and in 2017, I had my second daughter and it felt like I was literally drowning in my home. Okay, not literally, but I felt like I couldn't breathe with all of the stuff surrounding me. Over the next 10 months, I got rid of approximately 70% of our household belongings, and I have never looked back. I kind of feel like I hacked the mom system, and I'm here to share all the tips, tricks, and encouragement. Let's listen to today's show.

Welcome to this episode of The Decluttered Mom Podcast. Today is Tuesday, January 30th, and it feels like this month has been going on forever. I don't know if you have a similar feeling as me, but what a strange month. So much sickness, so much weird weather and snow days and you know, I guess it's part of the course for January, but every time you're in it, it just feels kind of crazy. It feels extra crazy in our house because we have three early January birthdays right after the holiday season, and so it's just extra. Maybe that's a big part of it, who knows? Anyway, we are almost in February and the reason I wanted to talk about the topic I'm talking about today is because there is a tradition I started in my home with my kids when they were really little, and it starts on February 1st, and so I wanted to get this out to you before then so that, if it was something that you wanted to try also, you had a little bit of time to get ready for it. I totally know that podcasts live forever, and so you may be listening to this like in August of another year and just tuck this idea into your back pocket for next February, because it's truly one of my favorite traditions that I do for my girls around any holiday, and it's something I have shared on Instagram for years now, and every time I share it, I get so much feedback in my DMs about oh my gosh, I started doing this when you shared it last year and it was the best thing ever and I'm so excited to do it again and then a lot of people just trying it for the first time, and it's one of those things where it takes very little effort on your part, but it is going to create such a cool, just an emotional boost between you and your kids.

And so what I'm talking about is this tradition I started when my 10-year-old was. I want to say she was maybe four when I first started doing this and what I do is every morning from February 1st through Valentine's Day, she wakes up to a new heart on her door with a reason that I love her, and I do that for both girls now, obviously. But it started no, it must have been. She was younger, because my youngest was already one when she was four, so she must have been. She was either three, she was under three. Okay, half this podcast is me trying to figure out my math on years, apparently, but so they're three years apart, so she was probably two when it started, so it's been even longer. So what I do is I just get like construction paper. Some years I make it really really extra cute because I have extra energy that year for whatever reason, and I'll decorate them a little bit more. Other years it's legit like I've used green hearts because that was all the construction paper I had and I didn't have time to go buy anything new and it worked. So, really honestly, whatever paper you can find, but when, if you do have that little extra bit of time or energy, then getting you know pink and red construction paper, just to be more like Valentine E. To make it super easy, what I do is, before February 1st even hits, is I just cut out all of the hearts.

So I have two kids. There's 14 hearts needed for each kid, so 28 hearts. So I cut them all out and then I sit down and I put 14 in one pile, 14 in the other pile, and I just take a moment to think about my kids and why I love them, all of the different reasons why I love them, things that I think are cool about them, compliments about them, and I write them one per day, or one per heart on each of the hearts. I toss them into a folder and I'm telling you this little process that I do because it's going to make your life easier, because for a long time I, for several years, I just did this every single night, like I would cut out one heart and write something that I love about them and tape it to the door, and then the next night I would cut out another heart, write something I love about them and tape it to the door. And that's fine, that's great. It still doesn't take up a ton of time, but to make it even less time-consuming and just to make it an easier process. So also so you don't forget, because that's not fun to like wake up, for them to wake up and be expecting to see it. You know, four days in and there's nothing new, like that's kind of a big let down or disappointment. So having it pre-prepared is going to also cut down on the chance that maybe things don't go as planned and you forget. So okay, where was I? So I cut all the, all the hearts, I write down all of the things on the hearts and then I have two envelopes. I have one for Miss 10 and one for Miss 7, and I put all the hearts in there.

So then I have both of the envelopes and I keep tape in the envelopes also. Diana, why do you do that? Why, because not being able to find tape is probably the most frustrating thing in the world. And also, if your house is anything like my house, crafts are happening all day long, which means tape is being used all day long, and so if I don't protect a couple rolls of tape, then it'll get used up by someone else. So I just pop two rolls of tape and envelopes, so I just have them with me, I don't have to look for them and also I don't run the risk of not having any once the time comes and it's midnight the night before I'm putting up the hearts. I keep them in a drawer in my room and so I just make it part of my routine from the January 31st through February 13th to do that as like part of my bedtime routine while they're already sleeping. I also will set an alarm on my phone, because hashtag ADHD brain I don't want to forget. So I will set an alarm that just is set to go off every single night at 9 pm so that I remember, oh yeah, I need to go do that before I go to bed. So those are just a little bit a couple ways that I just try to make sure that I make it as easy as possible for myself. So then I put it on their door and I just put it on the back of their door and that's all I do.

There's nothing else, there's no added things. I'm not buying gifts, I'm not creating Valentine's baskets. I am writing a reason I love them on a heart and putting it on their door for them to wake up to. And you guys, the joy, the pure joy, and Love on their faces, and they will run into your room and they will tell you Guess what was on my heart, even though you're the one who wrote the heart right. They'll be so excited and it's been really cute to see because this started happening in my home and, according to my DMs, this has been happening in many of your homes too is that they will start doing it to you too, and so not guaranteed, obviously, but I've seen it happen a lot where then I will wake up or like when I go to bed at night, I see there's a new heart on my door and there's a reason that they love me, and so I think it's just a really cute way to connect in a really busy world and our kids.

You know we always want them to know how much we love them, but sitting down and thinking about 14 Specific ways that we love them is really fun because it gives you a chance to like, really think about all of the things that you do Just love and appreciate and you want to bring to light. And when they read those things about themselves, I think it's a confidence boost and it's a connection Between you and them and they feel loved by you doing this simple thing that doesn't really take up much of your time or energy or resources. So I hope this is something that he'll try because it's so, so great. My girls will even say, like yesterday, they were like what day is it? And they were like, okay, it's X number of days until we get our hearts on their doors, like, they look forward to it, and a lot of times they will leave these hearts up all year round, like, we have to take down the hearts from last year in order to put up this year's hearts because they love keeping them up and seeing them and reading them and I think that you know that's why I like putting them on the inside of the door, because then when they go to open their door in the morning when they're leaving getting ready for their day, they're seeing these are all things my mom loves and appreciates about me and just being able to have that reminder instilled in them, I think is really special. So I hope this was helpful. This was a extra short episode, but I just wanted to let you know of this really cool tradition and I hope if you do try it this year, let me know, send me a DM on Instagram. I'd love to hear how it went and we will see you next week.

Thanks for hanging out and listening to The Decluttered Mom Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world if you could write a review or share this episode with a friend or your Instagram stories, and if you're on Instagram, be sure to follow me at the dot decluttered dot mom and send me a DM to say hi.

I'd love to hear what you thought about today's episode. I hope you'll come back next week and hang out with us again.