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Diana Rene: [00:00:00] 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 percent 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 another episode of The Decluttered Mom podcast. Today is going to be a pretty quick episode because I'm just going to be talking about something that I hate doing, [00:01:00] but I do for my kids because. They love it and it's something that they love doing together and that is baking. And if you also are someone who does not love baking but you want to find ways to do it with your kids that are a little less stressful, then this episode is for you.

Before we get into it though, I wanted to just say it's, what is today? Today is the 15th of January, so we just wrapped up last week our five day challenge, and it was really wonderful. We had more people in that challenge than I could have ever anticipated or expected, but I think our team handled it so well, and People just made so much progress and momentum in it.

And side note, my kids are home with me today, so if you hear playing in the background, that's what it is. But I wanted, I almost didn't record, and I was like, you know what? No, I'm going to record because you guys get it. You [00:02:00] understand. And so if you hear someone, a child in the background playing at some point, then you just know that this is mom life, right?

And we just, we still have to get things done even when plans don't go as planned. So we had the challenge, and then we had a bunch of people join us in my full decluttering program, and they have been on fire. fire since they have started. It has been so fun to watch the member group really just like keep that momentum going from the new year with decluttering and they are getting so much done and they are getting things out of their house and some of them are already starting to implement some systems into their home that are saving them time and energy and patience levels and so I just wanted to say that I know You know, we're still getting DMs and emails daily like with people that are bummed that they miss the challenge because we only do them two times a year.

Um, so if [00:03:00] that's you and you just, you're really wanting to, to declutter, or you're wanting to have some guidance around that or some motivation, Some help with it, then we do have a free training, um, that's going to give you three steps that you can do like today if you are ready to go. So we're going to put that in my, in the show notes of the episode, but definitely check that out if you are wanting to declutter.

Okay, but baking. So if you have been following me on Instagram or listening to this podcast for any period of time, you probably know I do not like cooking or baking. It is something that probably breaks my mother's heart because she has always loved cooking and baking and really, you know, really worked hard to instill that love in us as children and it just, it just didn't stick with me.

And um, Um, I don't know why, I, it's just something that like, I just don't, I don't love and appreciate either one. Um, and [00:04:00] so, it's been an interesting journey for me with having kids because my 10 year old is very into cooking and baking. Like, she has all these cookbooks, um, she is constantly, um, With my husband, she will make dinner for us almost every Sunday, and sometimes they grill together, sometimes they make something on the stovetop, sometimes they bake something, but they, like, she's always looking for new recipes, and I swear she is a much better cook than I am, and she's 10 years old, so her dream is to one day open a restaurant, and so she's really into it, so I had to figure out ways.

When she was little that I was like that just made baking easier because Like cooking is not fun for me either. And so cooking with kids was difficult also but baking like would send my blood [00:05:00] pressure through the roof because It would just, there would be flour everywhere. There would, like, with baking, if you don't get the measurement like exactly correct, then it probably isn't going to turn out, especially you guys living at altitude.

So we are in Colorado, we're in the Denver metro area. And so we are a mile above sea level and that messes things up when it comes with baking. Like, um, if you ever look at a box mix for like a cake or something. You'll sometimes see, like, a little variation in instructions, and it will say, um, At altitude, substitute x for x.

So, like, it'll sometimes give you things that you need to do to change it for it to actually turn out at altitude. And a lot of times, they don't give you that, or you find a recipe online or something like that, and they don't, they don't account for that, and so, A lot of times things just don't turn out anyway, which is very frustrating after you [00:06:00] have spent the time and energy and Purchased the ingredients and all of that and you have a kid who's like excited and hopeful and then the thing doesn't turn out It's not fun, right?

Um, so just with baking it feels like there's higher stakes I guess is what i'm trying to say and like it has to be right along several different Um, fronts for it to actually turn out. And so these are two things that I did to basically make baking feel okay for me and for it to be a much calmer, more fun experience for everyone involved.

They sound super silly, um, especially the first one, and that is just to be okay using, like, box mixes. And I think that a lot of times, um, as moms, we put pressure on ourselves to, like, you know, have, bake Christmas cookies from scratch and, like, make it the same. Super fun thing that they have these great memories of, um, but for me, like, that, it wouldn't be a [00:07:00] fun memory if we baked Christmas cookies from scratch.

It wouldn't be a fun memory because it would be stressful, probably for everyone involved, and so, like, actually making cookies that you have to, like, roll out and do the cookie cutter and all of that would just, it wouldn't work well for, for me. our family because of my, my inability to be a good baker.

So, like, something that we started doing for Christmas is we would buy, like, the sugar cookie packets where you just mix in the eggs, the butter, whatever you mix in. I don't even know. I don't even remember. That's how often I I bake. I didn't think about baking, but um, you would just mix in the things with the packet and then you would make the cookies.

So like, just finding ways like we bake cakes every year for both girls birthdays. For Miss Seven's birthday, Miss Ten and I bake a cake together for her. And for Miss Ten's [00:08:00] birthday, Miss Seven and I bake a cake for her. So we do box mix cakes. And it's still fun for them. They still get to, you know, pour the ingredients in.

They still get to mix together. We still get to put it in the oven. We still get to decorate it with frosting. Oh, you guys, that is my timer to pull the muffins out of the oven, which is exactly why I even had this on my brain today. Okay, so that's just, that sounds silly, like such a silly thing, but I just think giving yourself the permission and the grace to shortcut it and to use box mixes is 100 percent okay.

They're still going to get the experience, you're still going to spend the time together, and you're still going to get the end result without having to go through All of the extra steps. Now, this obviously, again, does not apply to you if you love baking. If, like, you enjoy baking, if it's something that you do for fun, then, of course, like, using a box mix probably sounds, like, horrible to you because [00:09:00] it wouldn't be fun because it would take out all of the extra steps.

This is for people who are like me who do not enjoy Baking. So then the other thing that I found out pretty early on when Miss Ten was little was that baking something went a thousand times better and smoother and there was less issues if I just pre measured everything. So what I would do is I would clear the kitchen table and I would If I had needed two eggs, then I would put two eggs next to a bowl.

Um, when she was really little, I would just go ahead and crack them myself, put them in the bowl, and have them ready to go. But once she, I mean, once she got to age, honestly, even two or three, she was like ready to go. So she, I would just put the eggs out next to the bowl. I would, if I needed a cup of sugar, I would Pre measure.

Measure out a cup of sugar and I would put it in a bowl. [00:10:00] I would just, it was just ready to go. And if this is sounding like, Oh my gosh, this is going to be so much more work because there's so many more dishes. This is an instance where we would use, like, paper bowls. Because it's not something that we're doing every single day.

And it's something that would just make the activity happen. If I had to use all I would then have to clean up and wash and or put through the dishwasher, then I might not do it. So this is just one of those things where maybe you use paper rolls for this one activity, right? So, if it called for three quarters cup of milk, I would have that.

Pre measured, Ready to go. So you get the idea. I would have everything pre measured out on the table and I would put it in the order of the steps that we needed to do and then that way it Took away some of the chaos like of little hands trying to like dig cups of flour [00:11:00] out of the flour bag and then dropping the flour, you know, I mean, you probably can picture exactly what I'm talking about because you've probably experienced it yourself, right?

So it just eliminated a lot of the frustrating parts of baking and it simply like, Just made it more fun for everyone involved because they had fun there was less chaos and like things not being measured correctly and all of that happening. Um, and so that in turn made it fun for me. It made it easier for me to have more patience throughout the whole process and it It sounds so, it's one of those things where I was like, do I even make a podcast about this?

Because it sounds so simple, but I remember posting about this on Instagram a couple years ago and the number of DMs I got that was like, why did I never think about doing this? This would make it so much easier and less stressful. Um, and so I, I know it's a helpful thing. It's just one of those things that it's so simple and easy to do [00:12:00] that it's, it's hard to remember how, um, helpful it is.

And so that is what I have done now since they were really little. 10 year old will sometimes even help me prep things. So if we're getting ready to bake, like today we baked muffins and we did it from a Um, box mix, but she was like, okay, what do we need? And she's looking at the box mix. She's like, okay, we need three eggs.

So she went and got the three eggs. So she's at an age now where it's, it's not a concern. Like all of the things that used to happen is not a concern with her anymore. But she's able to help Miss Seven with these things now, um, and she likes helping me get everything ready to go. So I don't know if this was helpful, helpful to you.

Um, like I said when I posted on Instagram, a lot of people took value from it. So I wanted to put it here on the podcast also in case you are someone like me who maybe, maybe you don't hate baking as much as I do, but maybe you just don't like it or maybe you avoid [00:13:00] it because The few times you've tried it, you've ended up with like, just a disaster and it didn't turn out and it was so frustrating.

So um, I hope this was helpful and we will see you on next week's episode. 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.decluttered.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.