12: How to Have an Analog Summer as a Tech-Loving Mom

How to Have an Analog Summer When You're a Tech-Loving Millennial Mom

I took a little break. A bigger one than planned. And I'm telling you exactly why — because honestly, the reason is kind of the whole point of this show!

This week I'm back with something that's been living in my head all summer so far: the idea of an analog summer. What it means, why I wanted one, and what actually happened when I tried to slow down after my 30-day decluttering reset (because it did not go the way I expected).

Spoiler: clearing the clutter doesn't automatically quiet the busyness. And nobody really talks about that part.

I'm also sharing five things that have actually been helping me slow down — including a tool that's been a total game changer for managing my screen time, my grandma's cookie tin of crayons, and why I finally just let the dishes be messy.

It's honest, it's a little messy, and it's very much a work in progress. Just like the rest of us.

In this episode:

• Why I took a break — and why it was exactly the point of this show
• What the analog summer idea is and where it actually came from for me
• The thing nobody told me would happen after I decluttered — the busyness habit
• Five real things that have actually been helping me slow down this summer
• Why presence is productive (and why that's so much harder than it sounds)
• The messy middle that nobody talks about on social media — and why I wanted to

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the show so you don't miss your Monday reset.

Grab your FREE One Space Reset Kit here!

Connect with Jackie:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/makingthespacewithjackie
• Email: hello@jackiepicchi.com

Affiliate Disclosure: This episode contains an affiliate link for the Brick. If you purchase through my link, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only share products I personally use and love. BRICK LINK

This podcast is for educational and coaching purposes only and is not a substitute for therapy, medical, or mental health care. If you're needing mental health support, please reach out to a licensed provider in your area.

© 2026 Making the Space, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this podcast may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission.

Transcript

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So I took a little break from the podcast, and we are officially back at it. Summer has begun, and we're settling back into a summer rhythm over here. And I took a big break, a little bit bigger than expected, and I wanna tell you why, because honestly, the reason is kinda the whole point of this show, making the space, right? We are making the space in our lives for all of the moments, big and small, everything in between. We had a ton going on at the end of the school year. We had some really exciting milestones, and I really just wanted to be present for all of it, every little bit of it. And so I just gave myself full permission to make space where I needed it, and part of that was just saying no to some other things, essentially moving things down on the priority list welcome back to Making the Space Monday. I'm Jackie, a value-based decluttering coach, and this is your Monday reset where we make space for what actually matters in your home, your head, and your life. You guys, it feels really good to be back, especially right now at the start of summer. This is the official first week of summer according to the calendar, and I think summer is one of those seasons that actually invites us to slow down if we let it. There is something about this time of year that feels like a big exhale. The school year ends, it was probably really busy for so many of us, the schedule's starting to shift, and even if your summer's packed, I know a lot of people are doing camps, and activities, and traveling, and all the things, but there really is something different about the pace, and I think that's worth honoring. I think summer really deserves an intention, not a packed to-do list, not a perfect plan, just a sense of what you actually want the season to feel like. Because it does go fast, right? We blink and summer goes by so incredibly fast. And if we don't decide what we want from it, it just kind of happens to us So that's part of what I've been sitting with coming into this summer, and it led me to something I've been calling my analog summer, which I wanna tell you about because it started as an idea, and it turned into something that's actually changing how I'm moving through my days So you may be asking, what does analog summer mean? And let me explain because I know it's a little buzzwordy. You might be hearing this word a lot lately because especially for us millennials, we wanna go back to the '90s, right? When it was so analog. Like, literally everything we were doing, how we were raised, that was all analog. So I am, by nature, someone who likes to optimize things. I do like systems. I like tech. I genuinely enjoy figuring out the most efficient way to do something, and I'm not gonna pretend that I don't. If there's an app for something, I've probably tried it. If there is a shortcut, I wanna know about it. But I'm also a millennial mom who does content creation, and there's this thing that happens where you look up from all the optimizing, all the systems, all the apps, and all the tasks, the scheduling, the planning, the producing, and you realize you've been so focused on efficiency that you kinda just missed the moment. Like, you've been running a tight ship and forgot to actually enjoy being on it in some sense. And summer just kinda hit differently this year. I really looked at the season ahead and I thought, "I don't want to optimize this one. I really wanna feel it. I wanna lean into it. I just wanna be as present as I can." And this is a challenge. As somebody who's really showing up on social media differently than I ever have, it's kind of a hustle. There's a lot that goes into it, and I'm committed to growing and I have so much that I wanna share with my audience, and I'm so committed to helping people. I want them to gain value from what I have to share, so I gotta figure out how to do it in balance. So an analog summer for me, it means just removing as much of the tech as possible in the day. I know it's almost impossible to remove all of it. I mean, if I could take all the laptops and phones and computers and tablets and all the things out of my house, I would. But the reality is we still do need them to some degree. So I'm really trying to figure out how to balance this. I do not have a perfect system, by the way, but I am definitely trying to improve upon this every single day. So I have a couple of, tips and ideas and things that I've been using that are working, and I will share that with you later here in the episode. But really what I see for an analog summer is not only just kind of de-teching as much as I can, but introducing a lot of these old hobbies and things that I wanna experience more in my 40s with my kids. Introduce the things that I grew up doing, whether that means a slower pace, getting back into using our hands and being creative, whether it is an art project or a craft, just having some slow afternoons, reading a book that is not meant for school or work or optimizing. It's just for fun. Slowing down, opening up the cookbooks in the kitchen that haven't been touched in months, maybe even a year, and start picking out the weekly menu based on what's in the cookbooks, not what's online. So you kinda get my drift here, right? We are slowing down, and we're doing things less tech-based. So I wanna tell you about something that happened a few months ago, and I'm sharing this because I generally don't think anyone really talks about this part, and I really think that we should be talking about it. If you may recall, I did a 30-day reset in my own home, and it was pretty significant. You know, we got rid of a lot of things. These were a lot of, I wanna call, like, the annoying decluttering projects, the things that I just never get around to doing. And so I purposefully picked 30 spaces in my home, pulled them at random from a jar every day, and I got 'em done, and it felt so darn good. And for the first time in a long time, things felt just a lot more manageable. Even if it was a drawer that I rarely open, just opening it now feels like the lightest load ever. It's so much more spacious, more like the home I actually really want to be in, not one that feels a little too overwhelming. And then something unexpected happened after this. I did not know what to do with myself not every single day, 'cause clearly there's plenty to do as a busy mom, but I was having a hard time figuring out after, like, now what? Now what do I do? It's all pretty organized. Everything is pretty much in order. I don't have to keep doing this. So even after all the stuff was gone, the mental overhead of managing all the things was gone, and instead of feeling this, beautiful, peaceful presence, I kept kind of wandering around my house like I needed to keep going. And I've got to admit here that I'm just somebody that is kind of like that, you know, programmed in a sense to want to clean up the spaces again. Here's that optimization, just making sure everything is in order for the most part. There's no perfect home happening over here, but I like an organized home. So I really got it to a point where I didn't have to do that as much as I have been doing it for a long time, like many years. So I just kind of kept looking for that next thing to manage, the next problem to solve, the next thing to organize, and then it hit me. I had been using the busyness of managing my stuff as a way to stay busy, not necessarily always intentionally, not consciously even. But the managing, the sorting, and the finding, and the maintaining, it had become its own kind of filler, and without it, I didn't quite know what to do with a quiet moment. And these are the moments that I had been craving, like, "Oh, when I just get the house in order, I can finally just sit down on the couch and read my book, or I can go for a leisurely walk, and I'll take my time making dinner." But I seriously have felt super challenged, like leaning into that. It's like my nervous system recognizes and knows we've been in a different form for a very long time, and we are trying to adjust. So this analog summer could not have come at a better time, because it gives me something to lean into and practice that I've already experienced at a point in my life, growing up as a kid during this time, and just wanting to feel that again. And here's the thing I want you to sit with because nobody talks about this part. Decluttering doesn't fix the busyness habit. So if you are someone like me, it can be very challenging. It just removes one of the things you were using to feed it, which means at some point, you have to actually look at why you were so busy in the first place. For me, that was a little uncomfy. I'm not gonna sugarcoat it. I started reaching for hobbies. I started picking up new things to fill the space, not because I was totally passionate about doing it, but because I just didn't know how to just be, and I'm still figuring that part out, honestly. But I wanna say it out loud because I think a lot of us, especially moms, especially women who have spent years in motion, we don't actually know how to rest. We think we do, but the second the busyness clears, we find something else to manage, and that cycle doesn't break on its own. That realization is what planted the seed for the analog summer idea, not as a solution to it necessarily. I don't have it all figured out, like I said, but it's an intention, a very clear intention, a practice. It's a deliberate choice to try to get from here to there, even when I'm not totally sure where there is yet. And if you're in the middle of your own version of this, if you've been decluttering or you're thinking about starting or you're in that weird kind of in-between where things are better but you're still figuring out what better actually feels like, I want you to know that's part of it. And summer is actually one of the best times to work through it, and let me tell you why summer has this built-in permission to do things a little bit differently. The schedule shifts, the pace changes, and there's this natural opening to try something new. So if you're feeling that pull, here are some things that have actually been helping me So the first one is setting some form of a tech window or some tech boundaries instead of trying to go cold turkey. Because if you're anything like me, telling yourself, "No tech today," it's not gonna last very long. It's just almost impossible, especially in today's day and age. What's actually working for me is having more of a window or a system, so maybe a specific part of the day where the phones go down and they stay down. For me, what I've been doing is a combination of things. I'm using something called a brick, and I actually have an affiliate link in the show notes if you're interested in checking it out, and it has been fantastic it's basically a little magnet that lives on my refrigerator, and I can tap my phone onto the brick, and it will block me from all of the unnecessary apps that I don't need to be visiting. But as a mom who does rely on her phone and wants to have communication with her kids and certain apps available, I wanna have access to them. So I need my phone, but I don't need it with all the stuff, all the junk, right? All the stuff that is cluttering and distracting. So I use the brick to block myself from these apps at certain times in the day. So I have work hours set, so I will not visit apps during those work hours. I also have family time set, so I'm not tempted to go and scroll when I should be spending time with my family. So that has been really helpful for me. I also am really intentional about when I'm on my phone around my family, Because remember guys, modeled behavior is picked up so easily by the people around us, and I've been a lot more aware of when and how I am using my devices in front of my children, because it's really setting a tone or a pace in our home. And I've realized that it's so easy to pick up on. We're just mimicking what everyone else is doing or making it okay to just be on our phone. It's the one thing that I complain about so often, but yet I'm part of the problem. So removing whatever that looks like. So if it's not having your laptop open and working hours into the night, if you're able to do that, just being aware, pay attention to those habits and start to shift gently. You don't have to do it cold turkey, like I said. The second one is picking one analog thing and just protecting it, and this can be different every day. I wanna mention that. I'm in this really fun curiosity discovery phase of doing this one. So pick something. It doesn't have to be a whole lifestyle overhaul, just one thing you actually wanna do that has nothing to do with your screen, and you put it into your week like it matters, because it really does. For me right now, I've been trying things like coloring. I bought an adult coloring book that I found at a store, and it's so adorable. I bought some new markers, and when I have a couple moments and I'm not really sure what to do with that, like anxious or nervous energy of wanting to clean or take care of something in the house, I redirect, and I go right to the coloring book. And it's so nice to just color again. I used to love coloring as a kid. I can remember going to my grandma's house, and she had one of those like brick fireplace things, and she had a big old cookie tin full of crayons and some coloring books, and I would just color to my heart's content. So it's very nostalgic. It is absolutely very analog. I've also picked up some different hobbies. I have some crafting supplies, so I am working on learning embroidery. I am a little challenged, but I'm learning all the stitches, so if you have some tips and tricks, send them my way. I am learning. It's a very slow process, but I am doing it. That's been fun. I've also really enjoyed just hanging out in my backyard, like slowing down the day enough to just go lay in my hammock, take a few deep breaths, even just eat lunch outside and not taking my phone with me. I absolutely love records, vinyl records and music. I love, love, love, love, love music. So for me, it has become a bit of a hobby, I love listening to my vinyl, researching things about vinyl. That one I gotta be careful with because I can go down a rabbit hole online, but just really taking the time to listen to the things I've collected that are very special to me. So that has been a really fun experience too, especially in the summer. And another thing I'm looking forward to doing in the summer is dusting off all my cookbooks and starting to go through them one by one, and at least picking one, maybe two recipes a week that I'm cooking out of an actual cookbook, and not looking up a recipe on my phone, because that's something I miss doing, and I think there's just something so slow and beautiful about that process, and we need to do more of it. The third one is letting your home support the slowdown, okay? So this is where the decluttering actually connects, because when your environment is calm, when you're not walking past piles, and projects, and things that just need to be dealt with, it's so much easier to sit still. Your home either invites rest or it pulls you back into motion. So if there's one space that feels chaotic, one surface that's always bugging you, Clearing that one thing can actually change how you feel in the room or your entire home for that matter. You don't have to do the whole house. Just find the one spot that's been pulling at you the most, and you can deal with just that space. And don't forget, I have the One Space Reset kit to help with exactly this. It's the same method that I implemented over my 30-day decluttering journey. The fourth one is releasing the guilt around not being productive. Whew, this one, this is the hard one. This is the challenging one for me. It is so much harder than it sounds because a lot of us, especially moms who are used to doing all the things, sitting still feels like we're falling behind because there seems to always be an endless list of stuff, right? We got a million tabs open. We have a to-do list that goes for days. There's always something coming up that we need to prepare for, but I just wanna offer a reframe. Presence is productive. Being in the moment with your kids, reading a book, having a slow morning, that is not wasted time. That's actually the whole point. We declutter so we can be here, right here, totally present. So let yourself be here. This is the entire purpose of me leaning into this work in this coaching space of making the space because I feel so passionate about it. And again, I wanna be so honest and keep it real with you guys because I am also on this journey. Remember, I said I'm kinda wired to buzz around and be productive and not always slow down, and the thing that I want the most that I crave all the time is to be so present. But getting from A to B is often challenging. So we're in this together. We're figuring it out. We're slowing it down so we can be present. And the last one is just giving yourself permission to not have it figured out because I think a lot of us wait until the conditions are just perfect to slow down, or we're waiting for it to slow down. We'll rest when the house is done, when the to-do list is cleared, when things are settled, and I'm very guilty of this. But that moment doesn't always come on its own. You have to decide that right now in the middle of things being imperfect, still figuring it out. Working towards that version of your life is enough. This summer is enough. You are enough. You can start here. And this can show up in really small ways. One thing that I tend to do is if I see a cluttered countertop in the kitchen or dishes in the sink, no matter what time of day it is, I feel like I gotta just go and do the thing. But I could literally be managing that all day in the summer. I've got kiddos at home. They're cooking things at different times. It's just kind of- messy in there almost all day. And I realized just this week, I was like, "Look, I cannot be doing this, otherwise I will stay in motion every day, every pocket of time that I have, and I just let it go. I let it be messy. I let it be imperfect until the end of the day when we can manage it then, because I need to protect those pockets of time for myself to just be, to be in my analog summer, to just be present, to take a deep breath and go do those things for me too as a mom Here's where I wanna land with you because I think this is so important. I don't have this all figured out. We don't all have this figured out. I'm even somebody who has worked over the last decade in a career where I help people work through behavior change, and I know firsthand in my own life how hard this can be. And I am now also a decluttering coach who spent a month not recording her podcast because she was trying to practice being more present with her family, and it was so worth it. I cleared a ton of stuff out of my home, and then I had to sit with the discomfort of not having as much to manage. I am also someone who discovered that she loves content creation and is also genuinely wrestling with what it means to live slower, more analog, and also do the work that I love and try to keep it in balance. Those things are all true at the same time, and I think that's actually the most honest version of this work. Because here's what I know: making the space isn't a destination. It's not a before and after. It's this ongoing, sometimes uncomfortable practice of clearing what's in the way and then actually sitting with what's underneath. And sometimes what's underneath is beautiful and peaceful, and sometimes it's the realization that you've been hiding from yourself inside your own busyness. And that part, the getting from here to there part, nobody really talks about. We see so often on social media where people have arrived or maybe where they're starting. So I wanted to, even though I'm still in the middle of all of it, share the messy middle. If you're at the beginning, if your home still feels overwhelming and you haven't done any of the reset yet, it's okay. Start with one space. Start this summer. Use the natural momentum of the season to just take one step. And if you're somewhere in the middle, if you've cleared things out and you're wondering why it doesn't feel the way you thought it would, I just want you to know that's real. That's part of it, and you are not doing it wrong. This work starts in the home, but it doesn't end there, and that's actually the whole point. Thank you so much for being here today. If you're just finding the show, welcome. I am so glad you're here, and if you've been here since the beginning, thank you so much for sticking with me. This show is genuinely in my heart space, and being back feels really good. So if this episode resonated with you and you want the next step, grab the One Space Reset Kit. It's a short guided reset to help you clear one space at a time, whether that's a space in your home or one of those open loops that's been weighing on you. You can find it in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the show so you don't miss your Monday reset. I'll see you next Monday, guys. Until then, let's go make the space. A quick note before we close. This podcast is for education and inspiration. It's not a substitute for therapy or medical care. If you're needing mental health support, please reach out to a licensed provider in your area.