14 episodi
Organize Your Closet And Your Life Will Follow Ruma Tenbrink
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- Tempo libero
What does it mean to be more with less? I’m Ruma Tenbrink and welcome to the “Organize your closet and then your life will follow” podcast.If you feel like you are drowning in things and need to take back your life, you are in the right place. I am excited for you to “move towards minimalism” right along with me! Let’s do this together! First, let’s talk a little bit about the Pareto Principle. It’s otherwise known as the 80/20 Rule and the law of the Vital Few, The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes - the “vital few”. So, if we translate this idea to our closets, really think about your wardrobe. You probably reach for 20% of your clothing 80% of the time. I know for a fact this was so true for me and that realization really hit me! It was the first time I went through all the fancy-wear and business clothing I was holding onto in deeper storage. Meaning, I never, ever, ever used them. I love being comfortable and wearing comfy clothes that feel good on my skin and make me feel good. So, I decided to be bold and just dropped them all off at a consignment shop in a funky little community here known as The Piedmont District in Oakland CA. I made it easy on myself and asked her to do her best and whatever didn’t sell well or fast enough for her, she could add to her donates pile which she took to a local women's shelter. The magic of doing this was I went home to a lighter space that felt a lot less overwhelming and easier to organize. I also did good by providing clothes for someone else to love and use. It’s a win-win-win-win. The consumer creates a small carbon footprint by reusing something and getting a good deal on the item, the shop makes their money for holding and displaying the item, the local charity gets really nice clothes donated to them and I go home to the start of serenity and freedom in my closet.Are you ready to change your life simply by organizing your closet? Could it really be that simple? Actually, yes it can. As a professional home organizer, I have seen the phenomenon take place with all of my clients. Every. Single. One. As you start to change your environment for the better, you inherently change along with it. You simply cannot help yourself. This opens a doorway into the world of positive change and along with that, infinite possibilities to uncover who you really are without all the physical stuff bogging down your home and your mind. Ultimately, your creativity hides deep within you because it is so muffled by the things you choose to hide behind. Let’s make this shift right now. By the way, did I mention this will be life-changing? Stay tuned and be ready for it!!!
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Season 2 - Episode 2 - Interview with VC Tang from Stir Fry Stories!
You can find all of VC's info and links to her website, her book launch event and other fun stuff about VC here:
linktr.ee/vctang
We all know the kitchen is definitely the heart of the home. Having a beautifully organized kitchen with only the tools you need and not too many extras makes for ease of use and also encourages more cooking at home! There is nothing better than sharing a meal, cooked with love, with those that you love around you.
VC Tang, author of "Come eat, Grandma!" is here with us today to give us some deeper insights into how Stir Fry Stories and her first book came to be. I am thrilled beyond words to have VC here with us today! VC Tang is an author, home chef and martial artist with an MBA and entrepreneurial spirit. She loves to find inspiration in the "everyday" and will definitely inspire you to enjoy the process of cooking at home more often. Her lovely stories of home and hearth are sure to please.
I would also like to honor Emily Ramai Kim, incredible graphic illustrator that created all the delicious artwork for VC's book. You can find out more about Emily here:
https://emilyfuckingkim.com/
As we move into fall here in Northern California, feel free to join us as we each make our own pot of comfort food for ourselves and our family!!!
Joy and big love to all, ruma xoxox
Support the show
Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink -
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Lavender Light of Love
LAVENDER LIGHT OF SELF-LOVE MEDITATION:
Let's always lead with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!
This meditation will help you embrace yourself in comforting warmth and the infinite love of Mother Earth. It will teach you to love yourself fully and reap the incredible rewards that truly loving yourself can bring into your life. Imagine a world where each and every one of us loved ourselves fully. Imagine that we each had empathy, compassion, and understanding for all human beings and animals simply because we loved ourselves and each other so respectfully. What would this world look like? Most likely, it would be free of hunger, pain, sorrow, and inequity. It would be a world filled with love, peace, harmony, and equality. All of this can start with you. When you are at your highest vibrational countenance of love or above you have the ability to change lives and affect lives around the world without even knowing it. You, just being who you are at your highest vibrational countenance, can change the world. Imagine that and keep your heart open to this powerful meditation that follows.
Support the show
Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink -
Episode 11 - Serene Spaces Visualization
Whenever I am working with one of my organizing clients, I always start with some type of visualization. I want them to wire their brain right from the beginning of our session to see what is to come. With hard work and lots of fantastic decision-making, we always make it to the finish line together!!!
With this visualization, you will immediately start feeling the effects of how it feels to live simply, live clutter-free and stress-free because you are surrounded by what you need and what you love. Get into a really comfortable and relaxed position. You can sit with your feet flat on the floor as mentioned in my recording, OR curled up on your cozy couch with a blankie, OR laying down on your yoga mat. Let your body sink into wherever you are and just breathe in a relaxed fashion.
Enjoy and much peace, joy and love in 2022!
ruma
p.s. I know this isn't a perfect recording at all, but I'm so proud of this first visualization that I ever recorded. I recorded it on my phone many years ago, lol lol. Also, I realize daffodils don't come in blue, but this was "off the cuff" lol lol and I meant to say iris or periwinkle lol lol!!!
Support the show
Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink -
Episode 10 - Find Your Simple Pleasures
What are your daily simple pleasures? If you can start writing down your daily simple pleasures, you may actually find so much more to be grateful for in your life. More gratitude brings more feelings of joy, more feelings of joy bring more happiness into your day every day, more happiness can bring more feelings of fulfillment and the cycle continues. You can now share your joy with others and allow it to become a gift that you find yourself sharing daily with yourself and those around you! Enjoying and really noticing these simple daily pleasures can train your brain to find the joy and the positive and the beautiful things that surround us all the time:
1) Lazy afternoons with nothing to do
2) Sitting down in my favorite cozy spot
3) The sound of water
4) New growth on plants
5) Sunrise (blue hour/golden hour)
6) Sunset (golden hour/blue hour)
7) Fresh Air
8) Waking up to a clean kitchen
9) Putting away clean dishes
10) The song my dryer makes as it finishes the cycle
11) The smell of garlic, onions, and ginger sizzling in EVOO
12) Clothes that fit beautifully
13) 3rd-day hair
14) Checking off my to-do list
15) The smell of fresh coffee brewing
16) Watching my puppies at play outside
17) Chamomile tea in bed
18) Alone time woot woot
19) Clean linens and a cozy bed
20) Bowl of fruit salad
A few extras I forgot to talk about:
21) The smell of book pages and listening to the sound when the page turns
22) A clean home that smells fresh and feels welcoming
23) Piles of clean folded laundry ready to be put away
24) Watching the birdies outside frolic, play and chirp all day
p.s. sorry I messed up the numbering lol lol
Consume less, live more!
Support the show
Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink -
Episode 9 - Tid Bits Series Part 4
Please leave a 5-star review and email me at ruma@mylifeinflow.com if you would like to be entered into the "Giveaway Drawing" which will happen monthly as I choose a random 5-star reviewer. Type the words "Organize Your Closet" in the subject line! If you win, I will reach out to you for your best mailing address and send you a copy of "The Home Edit" by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin!!!
Moving towards a minimal life can actually be daunting for many people. I can definitely attest to the fact that it is challenging. Try incorporating "Tid Bits", much like Tiny Habits so that you can move towards minimalism at your own pace, but make sure you also challenge yourself when needed! Here are Five Tid Bits that you can practice right away:
One Need a Day - Let's get back to single-tasking and really focus on that one thing that really needs to happen today. Do away with the multi-tasking, multi-level, cross-pollinated to-do lists that just make us feel like failures. You only need to do ONE thing today, or maybe even NO-thing! Do what makes you feel good. Do what speaks to your body and spirit. Ask yourself, "What is the one thing I want to get done today that would really make me feel good about myself?" Maybe it's practicing yoga for 10 more minutes than you already do, maybe it's cooking a meal from scratch, maybe it's taking a walk around your block and saying hello to another human being, maybe it's stretching outside your comfort zone and having a deeper meaningful conversation with your neighbor, maybe it's just sitting in the sun feeling the warmth on your skin while cuddling with your fur-baby or loved ones. There are so many things you can do to feed your soul. Whatever those things are for you, please do them regularly!Rituals - As humans, we actually do crave some form of routine as part of our natural circadian rhythm. Routines can keep us healthy and keep our minds engaged when we form self-care rituals that put us and our needs at the forefront. Rituals can be those moments in life at the beginning and end of our day that gives us the time and grace to get into our body/heart-mind/spirit connection which can really feed our souls and make us feel the feelings of accomplishment and success that has nothing to do with your to-do list or your job.Shoulds, Coulds, Woulds! - Are you living your life for yourself or someone else? When you don't live your life for yourself and your truth, your mind/body/spirit actually becomes disconnected and you go into depression because that vital internal alignment is not there. In the words of Martha Beck, "Integrity is the cure for unhappiness. Period."Live Now - Letting go of the past is crucial to living your best life right now. Enough said - you know this in your heart of hearts, no need to elaborate. If you need more tips on how to live now, have a listen to my Episode 4 - What is Hygge, Slow Living and Unloading Baggage? Simple Pleasures under $5 - I really love all the cute suggestions, but I have found that just saving $5 a week has shifted my money mindset into that of saving and not spending and getting caught up in all the consumerism. As soon as I saw how much I could amass with such a small amount, I kept adding to it and went from 5 to 10 to 15 to $20 a week. Try using Stash, Acorns or Fidelity and watch your small potatoes grow into a life-changing full-on spud farm!!!Adapted from "52 Ways to Simplify Your Life", by Lynn Gordon
Consume less, live more!
Support the show
Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink -
Episode 8 - Tid Bits Series Part 3
Please leave a 5-star review and email me at ruma@mylifeinflow.com if you would like to be entered into the "Giveaway Drawing" which will happen monthly as I choose a random 5-star reviewer. Type the words "Organize Your Closet" in the subject line! If you win, I will reach out to you for your best mailing address and send you a copy of "The Home Edit" by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin!!!
Moving towards a minimal life can actually be daunting for many people. Try incorporating "Tid Bits", much like Tiny Habits so that you can move towards minimalism at your own pace, but make sure you also challenge yourself when needed! Here are Five Tid Bits that you can practice right away:
Step Back - Use the "Wheel of Life" as a tool to gauge where you are in your life and how you rate yourself in each of the following categories: Career, Money, Health, Friends and Family, Significant Other/Romance, Personal Growth and Learning, Fun, leisure and recreation and Physical Environment (your home/office). I love this example of the "Wheel" which asks great questions to help you rate yourself effectively. You may need to highlight the entire link and then click on "go to https:......." : https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54bda4bee4b0a3e130efc4ca/t/5d16e12c3f4bcb0001647b55/1561780526296/Personal-Assessment-Wheel.pdfShow Emotions - Allow your feelings to come to the surface. Be self-aware and with great self-love allow the emotions to surface. If you feel sad, cry, it's actually good for you!Simple Systems - As a homeowner, you really shouldn't need more than 15 - 25 file folders with the most important categories. Please note that on my visit to clients' homes, we usually get rid of 80-85% of all the paper clutter they have been holding on to! Here are some of my favorites that most everyone might need. Set up straight line filing in alphabetical order for simplicity and ease: Bank statementsCable billCar insuranceCar paymentsCell phone billCredit card statementsDental recordsElectric billEmployment recordsHealth insuranceHeating (gas/oil) billHome insuranceInternet billLife insuranceLoans (student loans, personal loans, etc.)Medical recordsMortgage paymentsRental paymentsRetirement accounts (401Ks, IRAs, Roth IRAs, SIMPLE, etc.)Separation records from past employersSpecialized medical recordsTelephone (landline) billVision recordsWater billYearly taxes (one folder for each tax year – you may want to create separate folders for federal and state taxes)Proving What? - All I can say for this is "Be true to YOU," you are the superstar in your own life - only you can live your life. Who honestly cares what other people think or what other peoples expectations are of you? When you are living your life for someone else you cannot be living your best life for YOU!Media Down and Out - This is something that we should all do regularly. Find a day to do a digital detox. Start with 1/2 day without your phone and then graduate to a full day then the whole weekend, or whichever days work for you! Not having the "crutch" of your phone and constantly crooking your neck to look at it will make you feel better overall in body, mind and spirit! It allows you freedom to think for yourself and be creative again. Scrolling incessantly can be truly numbing, if you know what I mean. After hours of scrolling one may feel a sense of loss since many hours become wasted in "watching" rather than "doing." Don't get me wrong since I do believe "vegging out" can be good for you Support the show
Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink