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Diana Rene: 0:06

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.

Diana Rene: 0:49

Welcome to another episode of The Decluttered Mom podcast. I have a very, very, very special guest again this week. However, she has a different name, because the last time she was on the podcast, she was Miss Eight and now she is Miss 9. Welcome to the podcast, hi. So she's really excited because we are going to talk about her and Miss 6's after-school routine, and this is something that she has helped me develop over the past couple of years, and every time that we are getting ready to implement it again after a long summer, then she helps me remember everything that needs to go on this list. So today, we're going to talk about the after school checklist? Yeah, so tell us about what that is.

Miss 9: 1:47

Yeah, so tell us about what that is. So the after school checklist, it like, helps us to remember to do all the things we need to do after school, cause sometimes it can be easy to forget.

Diana Rene: 1:57

Yeah, because, like after school, when I pick you up from school, are you usually like, super energetic.

Miss 9: 2:07

Not really.

Diana Rene: 2:08

No. I'm just like tired You're usually tired because you just had a long day at school, right? So it's not like you get home and you're like yay, what can I do as a chore when I get home? You just want to like hang out and relax. Yeah, yeah just want to like hang out and relax, yeah, yeah, so when we're really overtired, it's really easy to forget what we even need to do, right, yeah, so what? How does the checklist help you?

Miss 9: 2:35

Helps me remember all of the things I need to do. Yeah, yeah, cause, like sometimes, we can forget.

Diana Rene: 2:41

Right, and do you feel like it makes it go by a little quicker? Definitely, do you think it makes it a little bit more fun?

Miss 9: 2:50

Yeah, because it's like you have this beautiful checklist that mommy made and it has, like, all the things you need to do. It has cute little pictures on it, yeah.

Diana Rene: 3:02

Well, and it's cool because you each get your own clipboard and your dry erase markers, right. Yeah, so you can walk around and you can walk around with. You can either leave it on the hook or you can walk around with it so as you're doing the the tasks on there, you can check them off. Yeah, and we'll have a link to a template for the checklist in the show notes also.

Miss 9: 3:25

Yeah.

Diana Rene: 3:26

Okay, so let's go through your after school checklist. Do you do these in order?

Miss 9: 3:35

Sometimes. But sometimes if I just came in through the door and you say, okay, time to do your guys' checklist, I might have my backpack and my lunchbox in the other hand and my said, okay, time to do your guys's checklist, I might have like my backpack and my lunchbox in the other hand and my sunnies on and my shoes on. So I might just like put down everything, take off my shoes, like bring it over.

Diana Rene: 3:56

So sometimes a little bit out of order. Yeah, okay, before we jump into the list, actually is there. Do we do this every single time you get home from school, no matter what. Do we sometimes? We don't right sometimes, because sometimes I can tell that you guys really need a snack yeah and you really need to just like decompress for a bit right yeah.

Miss 9: 4:20

So, mommy, lets us like have a snack for some time.

Diana Rene: 4:24

Yeah so sometimes we just say, okay, just go wash your hands, you can have a snack, but then you have to do the checklist after yeah yeah so, but we never let it go past that, right. It's not like oh, you can do it before bed, because then we just forget yeah, and that doesn't help and then it's more to do that Like.

Miss 9: 4:45

And then if we wait till like bed, then it adds to like our bedtime routine and then it takes a long time. So then we don't go to bed on time, so then we're sleepy and tired the next day, so we do it again.

Diana Rene: 5:00

Right, it goes on and on. It's not a fun cycle, is it, no, okay, so what is the first thing? Shoes put away. Yes, and do you have a specific place that you're supposed to put your shoes?

Miss 9: 5:13

Yeah. So we like put our stuff away and like we have like a closet by our bathroom down here and there's like kind of like shelves and on the bottom shelf there's like a really small shelf that's just big enough to fit me and miss six's shoes.

Diana Rene: 5:34

So that's where we put them yep, and why do you think it's important to have, like, a specific home for your school? Shoes, Because if you don't, then it might like like you can lose them Right, and it can make the mornings feel a little more stressful when you're like trying to run around the house looking for them, right.

Miss 9: 5:56

Yeah, Like like Miss Six did this morning. Yeah.

Diana Rene: 6:01

Well, because why was she running around looking for him? Because she didn't put them in the right spot, yeah exactly Like yesterday.

Miss 9: 6:08

she like accidentally, she put them in the shoes bin instead of where our school shoes go.

Diana Rene: 6:16

So she put them away. She just put them in the wrong home, yeah, and then it caused confusion this morning while she was getting ready to leave for school. Yeah, yeah, okay. And then what's confusion this morning, while she was getting ready to leave for school? Yeah, yeah, okay. And then what's the next one? Sunny's in drawer. Yes, so you have sensitive eyes, just like mommy. Yeah, so you wear Sunny's every day, and so does your sissy, right?

Miss 9: 6:39

Mm-hmm.

Diana Rene: 6:40

So those go in the drawer in the kitchen. That's their home, right next to all the hair stuff and all of that right.

Miss 9: 6:49

Because if we don't put them away there, then sunnies are easier to lose than like your backpack or something Definitely. So you're like running around and you're like I need a pair of sunnies, yeah.

Diana Rene: 7:03

Okay. What's the next one? Papers in bin Okay. Can you the next one? Papers in bin Okay. Can you explain that?

Miss 9: 7:09

one. So we have bins in the closet where we put our school things and it like is a blue bin, for we each have our own, and when we have like schoolwork that we had to take home, like if we had homework, or if we had like papers that were all finished and the teacher graded and stuff and then gave it back to you, then we put it in that bin for mommy to, and it's mommy's job to come and look at it.

Diana Rene: 7:38

And we do it together later on, once it's full too right.

Miss 9: 7:43

Usually we try to do it at the end of the week, but sometimes we're too busy. Yeah so sometimes it's usually the papers are in the bin for at least a week or something. Yeah, but, if there's like really important papers that we need to show mommy, then we have to just bring it to her.

Diana Rene: 8:02

Right. So usually we just kind of wait until the bin is full or almost full, and then we go through it right?

Miss 9: 8:09

Yeah, I actually just cleaned out my bin, like last week, I know I saw you.

Diana Rene: 8:14

You didn't even need my help anymore. That was the first time. Huh, yeah, yeah, okay, what's the next one? Backpack on hook. So there should be hooks. We still haven't installed hooks. At our old house, we had hooks. Yeah, this house we mommy just hasn't been able to figure out how to install them myself huh, yeah.

Miss 9: 8:38

So we like we would put the hooks in the closet, but for now we've just been like putting it on the floor, on the floor in the closet right.

Diana Rene: 8:48

So you still have. You still know exactly where to put them and where to find them. It's just hopefully we can get hooks one day I can figure out how to do. You know why I haven't installed them yet? Why? Because I saw a tiktok where someone drilled a hole into the wall to hang up a TV and they drilled right into a water pipe so the water was shooting out and flooded their house.

Miss 9: 9:14

That's not good.

Diana Rene: 9:16

And I have been researching it, trying to figure out how to figure out, because it's right. Next to the bathroom. See, oh yeah, it's right next to the bathroom. See, oh yeah.

Diana Rene: 9:24

So I was like I don't want to accidentally drill, because I don't want to drill into a pipe and then have a house flood yeah, but I like just moved in everything I have read has not been very helpful for, like they said, to use a stud finder, like there's certain stud finders that can help you locate water pipes, but apparently those don't really work anymore because most houses use, like, plastic for pipes instead of metal. So that's why every time I am like about to work up the courage to try it, I'm like, no, this is a bad idea. So maybe I just need to hire someone to come in to do it, and who knows what they're doing? Maybe I just need to hire someone to come in to do it, and who knows what they're doing.

Miss 9: 10:06

Yeah, because, like at our old house, we used plastic hooks that you like stick onto the wall, but those only lasted for like a week, so we had to keep buying new ones and they kept breaking because with the heavy backpacks they would keep falling Right.

Diana Rene: 10:25

So we don't want to just keep spending money on those that don't work for very long.

Miss 9: 10:31

Yeah, they only work for like a week each.

Diana Rene: 10:33

Yeah, okay. So this next one you're going to have to start doing soon.

Miss 9: 10:38

Yeah, we haven't really been doing this one Coat on hook.

Diana Rene: 10:41

Because you haven't needed a coat, yeah, but now it's falling.

Miss 9: 10:45

Now it's getting chilly.

Diana Rene: 10:47

Not in the afternoon, but definitely in the morning. Yeah definitely Okay. So coat on hook. So that's going to be a separate hook and those actually we have in there already because they were already in there.

Diana Rene: 11:01

Oh yeah, I forgot about those Whoever lived here before had hooks on the side so we can use those for coats. Yeah, good point, and the only reason we haven't used them for backpacks is they're a little bit too high to get one of them up. Yeah, and the coat should be easier, I think for a coat will be easier.

Miss 9: 11:19

I actually think we only have one of those hooks because one of them was on one of the doors, but I think you had to take it off to put one of the oh really, yeah, Okay, we'll have to look.

Diana Rene: 11:29

Yeah, so maybe we'll need to install more hooks. Oh, no. Okay, what's the next one?

Miss 9: 11:37

Where were we Right here? Yep Unpack lunchbox.

Diana Rene: 11:42

Okay, what does that mean? To unpack your lunchbox? Does that mean just walk into the kitchen and toss your lunchbox on the counter? No, okay.

Miss 9: 11:49

So we have jobs that we have. We're the ones that have to like unpack our lunchboxes. So if there's like, so we do like ice packs in our lunchboxes, right?

Miss 9: 12:00

Right so like we have to take the ice packs out and put them back in the freezer in a special spot in a container, and then if there's any food we didn't eat, we would grab that out, and if it was like a pantry snack, we could put it back in, but if it was like a yogurt or cheese or something, we probably wouldn't want to keep that. Yeah, yeah.

Diana Rene: 12:23

It's pretty gross, huh yeah. And then if there's like Tupperware, like containers maybe you had pasta that day in a container what would you do with that? Put it in the dishes. Yeah.

Miss 9: 12:34

Or like if the dishwasher, you put it in the dishwasher.

Diana Rene: 12:38

If it's available for dirty dishes, right.

Miss 9: 12:40

Yeah, and then after we do all the stuff inside the lunchbox, we close up our lunchboxes and put them in the lunchbox spot in the cabinet, which is just a cabinet in the kitchen.

Diana Rene: 12:51

Yeah, yeah, awesome. Okay, water bottle and sink I think that one's kind of self-explanatory yeah. Again, if the dishwasher is available for dirty dishes, what would you do with it?

Miss 9: 13:04

Put that in there? Yeah, but first you would have to empty the water bottle.

Diana Rene: 13:09

That could be a mess if you didn't yeah.

Miss 9: 13:13

It'd like flood the dishwasher. Okay, what's the next one? Change clothes, put in laundry.

Diana Rene: 13:19

Okay, so why did we start doing this? Do you remember?

Diana Rene: 13:24

I don't remember, no no your pediatrician, your doctor, told us that to start doing this a couple years ago because she said it decreases like sick germs coming into the home, yeah, from school. So she said ideally kids should change their clothes and then take a shower or a bath right when they get home, but that we did that for a little bit, but that proved to be difficult to do every single day. Yeah, so right after school at least, when everybody's tired and and all of that. So we now just do change clothes. But do you just take your clothes off and just leave them on the floor?

Miss 9: 14:08

of course not not. That would just leave a mess for later to pick up.

Diana Rene: 14:13

Right, so where do they go?

Miss 9: 14:15

We have like our own laundry bins in our rooms and that's where we put them and they're like really cool laundry baskets.

Diana Rene: 14:23

I know what is yours.

Miss 9: 14:24

What is yours? Mine has like, it's like Paris, so it has like Eiffel Towers and like all the like Paris stuff, like macarons and all that stuff.

Diana Rene: 14:39

It's so cool, it is cool. And what is your sissy's?

Miss 9: 14:44

Hers is a big puppy face. She loves puppies.

Diana Rene: 14:49

She sure does. Okay, what's the next one?

Miss 9: 14:52

Wash hands.

Diana Rene: 14:54

It's important to always remember to wash hands right.

Miss 9: 14:58

Yeah.

Diana Rene: 14:58

And then what's the last one?

Miss 9: 15:01

Clipboard back on hook.

Diana Rene: 15:03

Yep, yeah. So when you're going through your checklist and you are marking them off with a dry erase marker, the checklist is just printed off from a printer, it's just paper. But then we put it in a plastic sleeve so that way they can use a dry erase marker to mark the the check marks as they go, and then they can just erase it and they can reuse it. I would say these ones they last for about half a year, half a school year, and then we'll have to put in a new sleeve because they sometimes get pretty wrinkly, but this one is like holding up well.

Miss 9: 15:38

Yeah, and also I just noticed that the paper is cardstock.

Diana Rene: 15:42

Yeah, you know what? Maybe that's why, because the last couple of years we've just used regular printer paper.

Miss 9: 15:50

this year we use cardstock and I think it's helping it to hold up better yeah, because it's not getting so like wrinkly yeah, because like, even if you like draw, like check it off, then if you accidentally forget to erase it, then you can like just erase it and it doesn't leave like any marks or wrinkles.

Diana Rene: 16:15

Right Interesting.

Miss 9: 16:17

Yeah, maybe we learned something new. Yeah, I like just noticed that Awesome.

Diana Rene: 16:23

Well, is there anything else you want to say about the after school checklist? Hmm, what are? I have an idea, what are. If someone is listening to this right now with their kid and they're like I want to try that, what would your best advice be for starting a checklist? Well like, like how would someone come up with a checklist that works well for them? What? What's a good exercise in their brain to think about? Maybe what happens when they walk in the door?

Miss 9: 16:57

oh yeah, because you can't just like, because like it wouldn't be very good if you just walk in the door and toss all your stuff in a pile on the ground right, but, like a lot of people, don't wear sunglasses, right.

Diana Rene: 17:09

So like it wouldn't make sense for them to put sunnies in the drawer if they don't wear them very often, right, yeah, or maybe they live in Hawaii so they don't ever wear a coat, so it wouldn't make sense for them to do that.

Diana Rene: 17:23

But maybe they live in a climate where they're wearing like all sorts of winter clothes every day, so they may need extra things like putting boots somewhere. So it's just thinking through what are the things that my kid is wearing or bringing to school every day, what are the things that they have to have ready in the mornings and then kind of working backwards to make sure that everything is done the day before after school, just to make mornings easier.

Miss 9: 17:55

Yeah, and also you don't have to like copy the same spots that we put that away, because, like, if you do wear sunnies, you don't have to put them in a drawer.

Diana Rene: 18:05

Right, you might have a different place for them. You mean, yeah, yeah, absolutely, you're right, that's a good point, yeah.

Miss 9: 18:12

All righty.

Diana Rene: 18:13

Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast again. I think you're the first person ever that we've had for two separate podcasts. That's pretty cool. That's special, huh, awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you, bye. I hope that was helpful for you. She was so excited to come on and I love that. She just loves organization. It makes my heart happy. So something to think about.

Diana Rene: 18:46

If you were listening to this podcast and you're like, yeah, I want to try this, then you can download the template on our show notes and just walk through, think through in the mornings what are the things I need to be able to walk out the door with the least amount of stress as possible. Do my kids bring lunch boxes to school every single day? Yes, okay, how am I going to make it easier on myself to make sure that those lunchboxes are ready? I can pack lunches the night before and by having every, having every child put away their lunchbox stuff the day before, you have everything available to you as you're packing your lunches and you're not trying to. You know, hunt them down. Hunt the lunchboxes down. You know, hunt them down. Hunt the lunch boxes down. Finding them under the seat in the car. You know everywhere exactly where everything is, and so just thinking through everything that you need when you're walking out the door in the morning and write all of those things down, and then you can kind of work in reverse to come up with your afterschool checklist.

Diana Rene: 19:47

If you've never done this with your kids before, it will take some practice and it will take some time and some grace and patience. And so for the first couple of weeks I would do it with them. I would have them grab their clipboards, grab their markers and walk through it with them and make sure they understand it. If they're really little and they can't read, you can put little icons next to it. Miss Six, she's in first grade and she can read, but sometimes she gets a little frustrated if she's overtired, like after school. So, for example, where it says shoes put away, there's a little shoe next to it. Where it says sunnies and drawer, there's little sunglasses. So making it easy for them, helping them walk through it for the first couple of weeks and giving encouragement. Sometimes we need some type of reward system for finishing these. We did that before afterschool checklist without me having to like, beg you or, you know, nag you to finish it. Then you can pick a prize from the prize bin, which would be just a bin of like stickers and temporary tattoos and things like that, and that really motivated them. So now we don't do that because we just don't need to. It's just a part of everyday life, because it became a habit.

Diana Rene: 21:13

But I hope this was helpful for you, and let me know in DMs if there's a different aspect or a different routine that you would like to hear more in depth about, like this. I'm curious if that's helpful to you or not to hear it more in depth. I hope you have a great rest of your week and we'll see you next week on The Decluttered Mom podcast. 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 thedeclutteredmom 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.