The Clutter Conversations
A podcast for anyone who has ever dealt with clutter, personally or professionally.
The Clutter Conversations
Life Done Simply: Aimee Olsen's Journey to Minimalism
What if the stuff you own ends up owning you? Join us on the Clutter Conversation as we chat with Aimee Olsen from Life Done Simply, who shares her remarkable journey from a high-flying career to minimalist living in a cozy 180-square-foot RV. Aimee’s transition from a 1,400-square-foot condo to a minimalist RV lifestyle brings to light the concept of right-sizing—aligning your life with your personal values rather than a fixed number of possessions. Aimee provides a step-by-step guide on decluttering not just your space, but also your time and commitments, emphasizing the importance of annual purges to maintain alignment with your goals.
We dive into the nitty-gritty of minimalist living on the road, discussing everything from resisting marketing temptations to the emotional challenges of letting go of impractical items—like an now-infamous waffle maker. We explore how quality and functionality should always trump sheer quantity, especially when living in a confined space. Tune in to hear personal anecdotes and practical tips on off-grid living, solar power setups, and clever storage solutions that make life simpler and more joyful.
In our final segment, we explore the balance between owning possessions and not letting them own you. Discover Aimee’s favorite travel destinations, the challenges of full-time travel, and how to set up those perfect campfires. We also offer advice for families looking to align their possessions with their values and manage the sentimental aspects of game collections. Join us for an enriching conversation that not only highlights the joys and challenges of simplifying life but also offers practical tips for anyone considering a minimalist lifestyle.
For more information or to schedule a FREE consult call with Katie, be sure to check out KCH Organizers!
Welcome back to the Clutter Conversation, a podcast for anyone who's ever dealt with clutter personally or professionally. I'm your host, Katie, with KCH Organizers. Today on the podcast, we're going to have a right-size maven, Amy Olson from Life Done, Simply helping clients to right-size their lives. And the proof is in the pudding she lives in 180 square feet.
Speaker 2:That's not that big. It's not that big. It's not that big, turns out 24 foot rig, 24 feet.
Speaker 1:Well, we didn't ask about slide outs.
Speaker 2:No, we didn't, Is that?
Speaker 1:like cheating? I don't know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I wonder if she'd be like well, technically it's 180 square feet, but then we have five slide outs and now it's a mansion that would include the slide out.
Speaker 1:No, that would include the slide out, because that's the living space, it's the travel space is different. I think that's quite honestly. I think it's you want to be a fly on the wall about how someone can live and thrive in 180 square feet.
Speaker 2:That's mobile.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't just a one-day process. So enjoy that conversation. Oh, everyone, welcome Amy Olson to the podcast. Hi Amy, thanks for being here, thank you for having me lovely dinner and was very serendipitous sitting across from you and you started talking about something that was something I've long dreamt of, but I haven't had the space, the ability to move into that sector, so why don't you share with us what I'm alluding to?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so about 10 years ago, I was introduced to the concept of minimalism and it was at a real pivotal point in my life because I was really looking to get out of a career that I had built and was successful. But I was really burnt out, I was really miserable and I built a life that required me to stay in this lucrative career. Right, I had to keep Rome up and running. And when I discovered minimalism, I started to systematically go through my home and not just my home, but my time and my commitments and start stripping away everything that really was depleting me, and I noticed that a lot of what I had surrounded myself with was all for other people.
Speaker 3:It wasn't for myself, it was for this fantasy idea of what the ideal life was, right, what is a good life, and through that process of what I call right-sizing my life, I decided that I wanted to help others do the same, because there was no way that I was the only person you know around me that needed this or that felt this way about the walls closing in right, with all the stuff that had started to accumulate again the expectations, the physical clutter, everything and so that's when I became a professional organizer, which was in 2016. I started Life Done Simply with the sole intent of helping people right-size their lives, regardless of what that looked like. Now, my story takes a drastic turn in 2018, when I just kept downsizing in square footage and my partner and I decided that we wanted to move into a 180-square-foot RV and travel the country full-time, and so we did that in September 2018. And we haven't looked back.
Speaker 1:Wow, it is so incredible. I remember driving home from bringing taking my kid to a summer camp one time and I'm on my very favorite road Because it takes me to all the places that I love, and so I was having this really nice moment and I saw these big RVs driving down the road and I remember calling my husband and being like let's sell everything. Let's just why wouldn't we do this? I was homeschooling at the time. I'm like I work for myself. I could do this. I know I could. So I came home and I like started to go through all my clothes. I was like, well, if you and I are sharing a dresser in a closet that's teeny, tiny, everything has to go. And I was like already like jumping into this life. But you're talking about this right sizing process. I jumped right to like let's get rid of everything. And this is what's happening. Guys, get on board. No more books, only nooks. Like that's where my head was. But tell me a little bit about your process.
Speaker 3:How long did that process of right-sizing take? Yeah, so we really started the process in 2016. I sold my company, I got out, so there was one less tether to our standard, what I call sticks-and-bricks life. Then we went from a 1,400 square foot condo to a 900 square foot condo, to a 500 square foot apartment, which I will tell you. When we got into 500 square feet, I remember this moment of overwhelm, thinking there's no way we can get rid of more Like it. Really, the reality really started to hit me.
Speaker 3:However, we got settled in about a month, we got settled into 500 square feet, and that's when the light bulb went off and I said everything is all adjustable, right, as long as we're doing it aligned with our values and our goals. There's no number that is correct, right? It's not about a number of things or a number of square footage or cars or vacations. It's what feels right, and so we started shopping for the RV in early 2018, purchased it in April, and then we're on the road in September.
Speaker 3:Since then, we do kind of an annual purge of the RV just to make sure that we're living aligned with my organizing and decluttering values and really we don't miss anything we've gotten rid of I always joke aside from the big couch we used to have, like we had a big sectional that was fun to watch movies in and relax in. But everything that we stripped away was completely unnecessary. And I say that because once you live a tiny life, all of the important things really have room to come to the surface, and that's about health, relationships, dreams, and so once those started to kind of rise to the top, the physical stuff just seems silly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to jump in and ask you something real quick. For those of you that forget that I exist I'm Jason. So when we were getting out of debt over a decade ago now, we talked about, we started dreaming about what my retirement would look like, and now that I'm retired, things are different. But one of our dreams was to do exactly what you're doing. We thought, man, we'll just buy a rig and we're out. We're homeschooling. Well, it's what an amazing educational opportunity. And things changed for us and our children grew up and dang. Kids have opinions of their own. And here we are in our house Now.
Speaker 2:That's not to say that RVs aren't in the future for us, but I do have two quick questions. One I think I've cracked the code on what you mean by right sizing, but if you could define that clearly for the audience, or what your perception of of right sizing would be and how you would apply that to your client and make and model of your rig. Are we talking like class A, class C? Are you a fifth wheeler? What are we talking?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we are a class C, 180 square feet, so it's a 24-foot long RV, one small bed area, full bath, very small kitchen, and we share it with our 50-pound golden retriever, so we're tight, so the dog takes up more room than everybody else.
Speaker 3:She actually gets a lot more space than we do, but that's just how it goes, so that and we chose that size because of how we wanted to travel, how we wanted to live Again, another very intentional decision. We didn't just go to an RV show and say let's pick the one that looks the best, or, you know, make a really emotional decision. We said, ok, how do we want to travel? Where are we going to go? What does that look like? And then we found this manufacturer which is called Bigfoot. They were built up in British Columbia and it fit what we needed exactly.
Speaker 2:Are you towing behind it as well, for going to the grocery store or what have you? What are you towing behind you?
Speaker 3:Correct. Yeah, we just have an old Saturn view, a 2007 Saturn view. And because, to bring the debt-free discussion back into it again, this lifestyle was how can we take control of our lives and not have to drive down that debt? Because when we hit the road again, we didn't want to have to make decisions based on just surviving, right, we wanted to actually enjoy the process. So that included, you know, an older tow vehicle, something we could pay for cash and, just you know, be done with.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we make those decisions still to this day. We're actually getting the RV repaired. Today there's a little repair being done and those things happen. But we always bring ourselves back to, oh, if we still were living that previous life, all that burden. Right, you know, things go around in a house too.
Speaker 2:And sometimes they're bigger.
Speaker 1:So our podcast studio is not where you are sitting right now in the library podcast studio. Library podcast studio, it's in our garage. But our garage is also our laundry room and my office and our storage and my work, like all of the physical stuff that goes along with being a professional organizer. His game room, our Peloton, is in the garage, like there's so many different functions that happen here. And, as you're talking about, you know getting down to 500 square feet, regardless. We have three kids and three dogs and those just not to. You know getting down to 500 square feet, regardless. We have three kids and three dogs and those just not to. You know, throw them under the bus or anything, but they come with their own little baggage, right, and so little little baggage.
Speaker 1:I know they come with a lot of baggage and a lot of hair, oh my gosh, and I'm not just talking about the dogs. Mostly the dogs.
Speaker 1:No it's not. But when I look around at my garage, at what I'm looking at right now, and I think when you mentioned, I'm like, oh, that's a whole day's worth of work. I need to put that on the calendar. Oh, why do I have so many of these things? And I'm a professional organizer, like if you ask me to find something, I can like 95% of the time find it, or it's in like the second or third place that I looked, because I changed my mind at a different moment and she wonders why I'm constantly saying, hey, where's the thing?
Speaker 2:Because she knows, she 100% knows.
Speaker 1:So does your partner have to do that too? Or is everything like there's it? What you have is what you have, so there is no. Where is the can opener? Because the can opener, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 3:Well, you know what's really interesting is. So, before this, yeah, go ahead. Well, you know what's really interesting is before this, both of us were very organized. He's a very organized and tidy person, but what was interesting is, once we moved into the RV and he will continue to say this even today is it feels so good to know exactly what you have and exactly where it is? Yeah, where it is. And I thought that was so interesting because I didn't realize before in our former sticks and bricks life that he felt any stress or anxiety about oh okay, well, that thing's in the garage or the storage unit or oh, you know where is that or what do I have. But he did, and he didn't fully realize the burden of that until it was lifted.
Speaker 3:Yeah, until it's gone.
Speaker 2:It's got to be incredibly liberating. That's amazing.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 3:And again, you know, as the world kind of got crazy in the last four years and there was a lot of stress and anxiety about jobs and income and all of that, we can really rest assured that we've built a life that is sustainable for us right, regardless of what's going to happen out in the world.
Speaker 3:And you know, we're not extreme one way or the other.
Speaker 3:We're not super duper outdoorsy people who just go off into the woods and live off grid forever, but we do that sometimes, we can do that a little bit.
Speaker 3:So for us, it's all about striking a nice harmony with our lifestyle, and I think that the key is we never close ourselves off to evaluating that with a critical eye, right, just because we're doing this thing now doesn't mean this is our entire identity. It doesn't mean that this is forever, that we don't see an end in sight. And that's what I really encourage my clients to think of when they're talking about their dreams and why they want to declutter, why they want to live more simply. I always want to make sure that it's not because of something they're seeing, right, somebody else's dream, somebody else's values and goals, and for me, that's been really important in my business to make sure that I'm coaching people to find their own path and always be willing to evaluate that path, because nothing's permanent. We change our minds and things happen. You have kids, you don't have kids, so that flexibility is really important with the way I see right sizing is it's what's right now and not for some hypothetical future might be right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know that's funny. I always say that words matter, but there's such a different meaning in right sizing as in this is the way it should be sized. This is the correct way to do things, or the right now, this is. It's here I like to talk to my clients about things being relevant. Is this relevant to your life right now, or is it relevant to a goal? Or is it a part of a life that has already been lived and we just can sit with an appreciation of that life? Just can sit with an appreciation of that life? I'm curious, being a part of a partnership of different minds, what's your partner's name? Ben? Ben, that's right, I remember that. So do you and Ben ever have conflict over this annual? We're going to look through all of our belongings and we're going to make decisions again. Do you guys ever have conflict about that? Or I mean, you said that things bubble up to the surface very easily because you have to deal with those things, but what does that look like for you guys?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the physical stuff is not so much an issue. I would say it's less about the annual review and more about that slowing the flow of clutter in. Right, because just because we live in 180 square feet and have nothing in storage does not mean that we are not tempted by all the marketing schemes out there, all the advertising schemes. So I would say the tension is more on the accumulation side than the purging, because we are both very practical and honest with one another and we can really identify okay, this is not something we're using.
Speaker 3:I always tell the story of when we first hit the road. We had everything downsized to go into the RV and I had this electric waffle maker and I had used it maybe once since it was given to me and I wanted to take it with. Now. There's a couple of reasons why that's ridiculous. One, because I had only used it once or twice before. Two, it has an incredible electric draw on it, like. So a power draw when you're camping is pretty significant. This is kind of RV 101 stuff, but I still wanted to bring it and it came time to do that review after our first year and there it sat and I just I had to kind of eat crow. The professional organizer held on to something foolish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you could have made waffles out of the crow.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, jason is a lemonade out of crows kind of guy.
Speaker 3:No, jason is a lemonade out of crows kind of guy. But you know, so it really it. We don't have many conversations about what we need to get rid of because it's so obvious, but it is that just being mindful about what we're bringing in.
Speaker 2:I've got a couple of questions. I'll do one at a time, though. Do you, I assume, since you can go off grid, that you've got some kind of solar rig set up? Like all the other nerds I see camping myself included?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we have a little bit of solar and we have a couple of lithium batteries. Our RV is also equipped. It was built in a way that makes it more of a four season off grid RV off-grid RV, so we're equipped to do it for a little bit, but we don't usually go off-grid or boondock as they call it for more than about 14 to 20 days.
Speaker 2:That's a nice stretch. Though that's a nice stretch.
Speaker 1:We just got back from a music festival, which we have a converted cargo trailer. We have a dresser and a queen-size bed in there that lifts up in it. We have a bunch of storage under there and we've had it since 2021. We got it in 2021 for a road trip to Yellowstone, I always want to say Yosemite every time.
Speaker 1:One of these days I'll get it right the first time. And it's basically a hard-sided tent and we have a plug-inin but we don't ever plug in. So we did this camping trip and it's glorious, like our kids. We took one of our three kids with us and she had a friend with her and they wanted to charge their phones because, oh, we need to stay in contact with you. But really this place that we were at was, I mean, it's a music festival and people are it's one big happy family kind of thing, and I'm like you don't need that. Like they would get to 20% and I'd be like good, go on. Like that is how much you need to be able to contact me if you need me or find someone with a radio. Like there are solutions for those problems.
Speaker 1:That I think, when we are surrounded by so many problem solvers that electricity included that we kind of limit ourselves to being problem solvers, like how can we fix this? And when I'm working, like in a kitchen is a great example when I'm doing physical organization in a kitchen and people have, you know, their coffee cup collection, that half of them are stuffed in the back or way up on the top shelf because they're just collectibles. They'll ask me how do I pare these things down? And I'm like, is there something else that can do that job? If you really think that you have so many things and you want to right size, downsize, declutter whatever you want to put to that, want to right size, downsize, declutter whatever you want to put to that, if that's really a desire for you to have less, is there something else that can do that job?
Speaker 1:And I love that pause that they take to figure out is there a big salad bowl that I could use, or maybe two medium size bowls that nest nicely together, instead of this one massive bowl that doesn't fit in any drawer or cabinet that you have? It's like that kind of exploration you're talking about to the nth degree. It's not, and I would assume, because you have so few things, that the quality of things is more important than the quantity of things, so that you know the can opener isn't going to break, that the glasses, when they do break, they can be easily replaced with, you know, a stop at Goodwill or whatever that looks like for you. We don't need a new set of eight. We need one glass or we wait until we only have two glasses left.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and we don't keep anything just in case. There's no, just in case, it's just for when. But when we first hit the road, the joke among everyone we knew was, oh my gosh, they only have four plates, four bowls, four cups, six spoons, six forks, six knives. And they just went how that's so ridiculous, I mean. And it just became the joke, how that's so ridiculous, I mean. And it just became the joke.
Speaker 3:But I will tell you that there has not been one day where we wish we had more plates. We don't have the need for that, and I know from working with those same clients. If they're not, if they're just in an organizing and decluttering mindset, it's not good enough because they can justify the need for more. You have to be leading those conversations with a radical mindset, which is no. I'm going to what I call ditch the status quo. I help individuals ditch the status quo by empowering them to manage not just their physical stuff but their time and their priorities with more intention, more reality, right. And that is the only way that you can live differently.
Speaker 3:You can't make decluttering decisions based on the rule of thumb right, what your neighbor's doing, or what your sister's doing, or what your brother's doing. You can't. You know. That's the difference is, we decided to make decisions based on what was right for us, even though it looked ridiculous to others. But at no point have we felt it's funny. We don't even have items that break on us. Really, we haven't had to replace anything. The four plates we had five and a half, almost six years ago when we hit the road are the same plates we have now.
Speaker 3:Same glasses, same silverware, and year after year, we sit with that knowledge of oh my gosh, not only are we living in our dream life, but now there's this unintended consequence for us, which is we've lessened our environmental impact. That was not something we were leading with at all, but to be able to go, oh wow, it's a nice byproduct. It is a nice byproduct and so there's, with great intention comes, you know, great result yeah.
Speaker 2:So as somebody, you're talking to us from a library in Missoula, right that's. I got that correct, correct.
Speaker 3:I got to say a little disappointed.
Speaker 2:The RV is getting repaired. I don't get a tour, but that's fine, it's neither here nor there. That's a different show. I don't get a tour, but that's fine, it's neither here nor there. That's a different show. When you have clients, I assume the majority of them are virtual, but do you also in your travels? If you're like, hey, I'm going to be coming through Illinois in March, why you would go to Illinois in March, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But if you were to do that, I know, but don't travel to Illinois in March, it's cold monsters. Anyway, if you happen to be going through there and you've got somebody in Illinois like, oh, I would love to book you, do you do both of those options?
Speaker 3:I do, though the majority of my work now is really coaching and it's my simply aligned coaching program.
Speaker 3:So I've worked in homes with individuals, but I recognized an issue, which is when we and I know Katie can agree.
Speaker 3:When we're in the home, there's a sense of urgency to fix the problem right.
Speaker 3:The clock is ticking, the dollars are running, the meter's running, and I find that really good, intentional decisions aren't always made at that stage.
Speaker 3:So where I shifted my business is I really wanted to help people focus on the clutter beforehand, understanding what their goals and values are, so they can use that as a compass when we start exploring what their clutter tendencies are, which I can usually identify pretty early on with a client why they're holding on to time, expectations, ideas and stuff and then really preparing them. So when the professional organizer comes in whether it's me or it's Katie or someone else they can be confident in the decisions that they will make right, because how often do they look to the professional organizer and say, well, what's the rule of thumb or what do you think? It doesn't matter what we think. That's not a sustainable, confident place for our clients to be, and so I really shifted my business to be mostly virtual, though I do travel for some clients, just because I find that it's in these conversations like this, when we're not looking at the clutter, they can more clearly discuss the clutter they can more clearly discuss the clutter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's actually something that I've kind of been pivoting partially with this podcast, to get into that more. What is that relationship like? And to ask the questions about what is your relationship with your stuff, with your clutter, with your schedule, with your family, with your all of these yours? I can only come in Like I am. I'd say I'm systems and my employee is sorting, like that's all the stuff, stuff. I'm like let's find the thing that makes it so that you can access those things very easily. That's where my passion lies. But if they have too much than fits into that real estate that they have, that's where my passion lies. But if they have too much, then fits into that real estate that they have. That's where that conversation really starts.
Speaker 1:And you're absolutely right, it takes away a bit from this, from the session, because they want a finished product at the end of the day, they want labels. You know what I mean? Give us labels. Um, and I I've been trying to pivot a little bit to more of that. Let's just talk about it for a little bit. I would tell people during discovery calls if they have anxiety. I work with a lot of chronically disorganized people and some people with hoarding tendencies, and if it's too stressful for you to have me in the house, that says something Like let's talk about it first. Show me a video, if that feels okay to you, or send me a picture, or whatever it is, because if they aren't in that place that they feel comfortable even showing the stuff, they're not going to feel comfortable making any decisions that, like you said, are intentional and the right decisions for them in that space.
Speaker 3:Right, and there's so many factors. I'm I've shared my clutter tendencies with you before, but, again, it's that fear of missing out, that fear of scarcity, that fear of misunderstanding, right. So I always say those are the three major tendencies that have people holding on to stuff, and until they can understand what their tendencies are, we can fix the problem for them. Temporarily, yeah, but they need to make the decisions moving forward. That's going to slow that flow of clutter in, and again, not based on my idea of what living should be like, but their values and goals, and that's why, when I work with a client, that's one of the first things we work on is what are your core values? I help them identify those. And then, what are some goals? And it doesn't have to be around organizing. It could be starting a podcast, it could be doing what I'm doing living on the road, or just. I find, though, that most people just want a sense of agency over their stuff. They've lost that agency, they feel like they're not in control, and they just want that back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of my favorite things that Dave Ramsey was the guy that led us out of debt and one of the things I love that he's always said is I want you to have stuff, but I don't want your stuff to have you. I think that's similar to what you're talking about with the agency. The stuff is ambivalent. It's not inherently good, it's not inherently bad, it's just stuff. But if, when you ascribe a feeling to it or ascribe a memory to it, then it starts to take on this whole other thing, which could be good or could be bad, but I'm going to put you on the hot seat. I have a very, two, very important questions.
Speaker 1:One you've been traveling. He comes with two questions at a time, All the time, every time. 60% of the time.
Speaker 2:It works every time. First, you've been traveling for six years now. I need the favorite place you've been and a place you will never set foot in again.
Speaker 3:Oh well, I can answer that latter, Arkansas.
Speaker 2:Is the hard pass.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's the hard pass we passed through. I believe I actually was traveling out of somewhere there, I was flying out, but we camped on the backwaters of the Mississippi and it was in prime Asian beetle slash box, elder season, nope, and our entire rig got infested. But on top of that, it just it's for some people, it's just not for us.
Speaker 2:That's a very politic way to answer that.
Speaker 3:Good for you Sorry, arkansas, yeah, so we both kind of pledged that if we have to go up and around, we'll go up and around, we're down, we'll go up and around, we're down. Our favorite place that we travel to, or that we have traveled to and we keep returning, is Sedona, arizona. It's just very lovely. We love to hike. We also love the Oregon coast, which we just spent a significant amount of time here this month. Where on the Oregon?
Speaker 2:coast, did you go yeah?
Speaker 3:So Brookings, oregon, it's near the California border. Okay, it's Crescent City and then Brookings.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 3:And the weather there is absolutely gorgeous. It's in what they call the banana belt, and so it's got fairly even temperatures all year round. And so it's got fairly even temperatures all year round. And now, from born and bred Minnesotans, that's appealing to us where the temperatures just kind of hover in that 55 to 75 range.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's perfect. That is perfect.
Speaker 1:Throw a sweatshirt on in the morning and at night and perfect campfire weather, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Oh man, absolutely, Actually. Now I have a follow-up question uh, campfire, do you guys? Do you have a campfire set like? You have a solo stove or something along? You got you're, you're camping full-time, you gotta have campfires we don't have.
Speaker 3:So we have looked at the solo stoves, but but it's just too much.
Speaker 2:Too big.
Speaker 3:It's too big. It's just another thing that you're packing up and again packing up and setting up. We want to keep that as simple as possible. Public land, national park, campgrounds, state park campgrounds they're all set up. So again, it's one of those. Do we really need it if they already have it? Is that yeah? Yeah, that makes sense. Is there a?
Speaker 1:solution to this problem already.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly to this problem already?
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So, as our time is winding up we have about five more minutes I am very curious if you have a little snippet of advice for our listeners, of people that my first thought was people that have children that want to do this process, because I have tried to do some sort of that process but I keep the kids keep growing and their clothes keep happening and they, they're, they're whimsy Like, they just change their minds and they're very fluid. Do you have a piece of advice that you can give to the listeners that say this is a place to start or, you know, just push in the right direction if you will?
Speaker 3:Well, I think you know, not having children of my own the one thing I've noticed is, if you just don't fight what the natural inclination is right. So we meet a lot of couples on the road or families on the road with children, and it's amazing when you point out what the things, what kind of space those things take up. And I'm saying not physical space, but when kids want to hold on to things, even adults, you have to ask yourself. You have to ask yourself if I remove this, what am I making space for? Now, if you have a really creative child and they love to do a lot of artwork, or you have a child that's really into fashion, okay, that's their values and goals. That is their values.
Speaker 3:So I always tell family members you have to consider everyone's values and everyone's goals. But just then, that's not the item you focus on. You focus on the stuff that isn't aligned with their values and isn't aligned with the greater family goal. And that's what we see families doing on the road, in RVs, traveling full, full-time, is they? Not? Everyone has to give up everything. They just have to give up everything that isn't aligned with their values. Right, and that's really effortless. But you really, I think you have to help children identify that, because they're just like us as adults. They've been programmed to well. My friend has this, I have this, my friend's doing this, I want to do this, yeah. And so the same thing is. But what do they want to do? And then I'd say make more space for that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, that's good, some good advice and I'm like, oh, what are we going to make space for? We have a kid going off to college in a couple of months and her graduation is today, so I'm looking forward to her being able to find what that means for her. So that's exciting. Thank you very much for that. I am hoping that you can share where we can find you online and tell a little bit about your Life, done Simply program that you have. Where can they find that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so lifedonesimplycom and slash simplyaligned. You can find that under my clutter coaching and I'm at Life Done Simply on all the handles Twitter, facebook, instagram. And I'll also say that you can find us on Facebook with our traveling account, which is Romesteaders. So R-O-A-M Steaders, like Homesteaders oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's just the single place we follow, did you?
Speaker 2:do the TM Because you should TM the crap out of that. Did you do the TM Because you should TM the crap?
Speaker 3:out of that. We were trying to blog and keep up a website when we first started, but my focus again I had to simplify and I have to say my focus has got to be on the business. But we do post our travels and we love to answer questions too. So if you're interested on hitting the road or what it's like to radically right size into an RV, I'm happy to answer the questions there as well.
Speaker 1:Amy, thank you so much for being on my podcast, my Little Baby Podcast. I appreciate it so much. You can say you were there for the infancy and I can say that I've gotten to have wonderful conversations with you and I can't wait until the next one. So thank you so much for your time and your expertise and your opinions. I very much value them. Thank you Wonderful. Thank you so much. That was such a great conversation and I knew you were going to enjoy it.
Speaker 2:I hope I didn't dominate the conversation too much. I kept having so many questions. I just kept saying it's not your podcast dummy.
Speaker 1:I saw you geeking out over there a little bit. It was exciting.
Speaker 2:I am jealous. I'm jealous. I think that is such an amazing undertaking, not only just to do period. Living on the road full time is its own thing. Living on the road full time with a partner that has full buy in as well, and running a business if not business as, because we don't we don't know what Ben does yeah, but my God, that's what an amazing accomplishment to be a part of.
Speaker 1:That is so funny that you think of it as an accomplishment, because in my mind I'm thinking they stripped back so much to make this happen, which in its own way is an accomplishment. But when I think initially of an accomplishment, it's what did I? What do I have to show for it? I guess, and the fact that they have less to show for it is a really interesting perspective on the word accomplishment.
Speaker 2:Oh well, I think that's funny that you said they have less to show for it. See what I did there. No, I did that, technically, I did that, you just noticed it because I'm…. I underlined it, I underscored it.
Speaker 1:I'm just so clever I can't even keep track of my cleverness.
Speaker 2:It's overwhelming.
Speaker 1:Well, I do have to. It's overwhelming that you feel the best in, you're going to pack the things that fit you right now, you're going to pack the things that you know you're going to need and you leave for vacation and you feel great. Do you ever think, oh, I wish I had that one sweatshirt back where, you know, back at home, and it's kind of it's that vacation mentality that less just frees up so much space for more, and I'm not talking about the more more, the more stuff right, right, yeah, more mental space yeah I I was most mostly fascinated or I was fascinated the most, rather by the the right sizing.
Speaker 2:I had a different definition of it and when she threw in the it's, it's right for right now. Yeah, that that is also very liberating, because right now is right now, but in a bit it's going to be a different. Right now, so you have the freedom to grow, to change to whatever and change what is around you to fit right now. I loved that Right-sizing that's a great term.
Speaker 1:So do you think you're going to look through some of your games that you don't play anymore? Oh, look at that, we are out of time everybody oh, that's a great term. So do you think you're going to look through some of your games that you don't play anymore? Oh, look at that, we are out of time everybody.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a shame.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll let you know how that happened, Since I'm at the board.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go ahead and hit the music now. Alrighty, Thanks for joining us everybody.
Speaker 1:No for real. Thanks for joining us on the Clutter Conversations. I'll let you know how that game thing happens.
Speaker 3:I don't think it's going to happen. It's not. It will if we move into an RV, give it.
