Clutter Free Academy

Do any of these sound like you?

• I’m afraid to get rid of things, because what if I need it in the future and don’t have money to replace it?
• My kids’ notes and artwork are all so special and I can’t part with any of it!
• I better buy three of those, that way I’ll always be able to find at least one.

If so, then today’s podcast is for you! In this session Kathi chats with self-proclaimed “pack rat” Amy Betters-Midtvedt about her process of digging out from under all the clutter. They talk about green bananas, earring emergencies, and how worry and sentimentality can trip us up. You don’t want to miss it!

This conversation is a small part of the Abundant Home Conference - a half-day conference held exclusively for members of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free for Life membership community. Are you ready to take the next step in your decluttering journey? The step-by-step plan inside Clutter Free for Life can guide you, and the community you find there will encourage you to keep going. It’s time to change the way you think about your home and your stuff! Click here to learn more and join us today.

Be sure to sign up here and be notified when the second part of this three-part conversation releases next week.

Also, if you haven't listened to Kathi and Amy laugh through episode 547 Why I Don't Eat Green Bananas Anymore, put that one in your queue!

Amy Betters-Midtvedt website

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Have you ever read the ingredients on the bread you buy from the grocery store and thought, “I can’t even pronounce these words! What are they?” Maybe you’d like to take control over what you put into your meals but don’t know where to start?

Start here!

In this episode, Kathi and Roger Lipp discuss what they have learned on their homestead journey about getting closer to the source of their food and what goes into the meals they prepare. As they continue to celebrate the release of Kathi’s new book “The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home”, Kathi and Roger share ways we can all eat like a homesteader even if we don’t have a garden.

For example:

• Making your own bread (Keep scrolling for recipes!)
• Making your own cake & brownie mixes
• Making your own cheese (Kathi and Roger are in LOVE with her homemade mozzarella cheese.)
• Canning and preserving your abundance
• Batch cooking and creating Kathi’s favorite fast food swap out: individual serving cubes of soup

Haven’t listened to Part 1 of Garden Or Grocery Store: Eating Like a Homesteader No Matter Where You Call Home? Don’t miss those tips! Click here to listen.

As promised, here are Kathi’s favorite soup and sandwich bread recipes.

Sandwich Bread 1 cups warm water ½ Tablespoon active dry yeast 2 T honey 2.5 cups all purpose flour, divided 1 teaspoon salt 2 T melted butter, divided

1. Mix the water, yeast, and honey together. Add 2 cups flour, salt and 1 T melted butter together and mix.
2. Put dough on a surface with ¼ cup of flour and knead it for about 5 minutes adding in the other half cup of flour to get a doughy texture.
3. Take your dough ball and put it in a bowl. Cover it with a dishcloth and stick it in the oven with the light on for an hour (it should approximately double in size.)
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
5. Butter loaf pan. Shape the dough into roughly the size of the loaf pan.
6. Let it double again, covered.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.
8. Let cool slightly on a wire rack before slicing.

Soup BreadPrep time: 12-16 hours (rise time) Cook time: 45 minutes

Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups water, room temperature to warm 1/2 teaspoon yeast 3 cups flour 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients together in an ovenproof bowl. You may use a stand mixer to combine and leave the dough in the bowl.
2. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place it in the oven with the oven light on. Let it sit undisturbed for 12-16 hours.
3. Remove the bowl from the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F.
4. Line a Dutch oven with parchment paper. You may find it helpful to crinkle the parchment in your hands so it stays in place.
5. Flour a surface and place the dough on that surface. Stretch and fold the dough ball, then place it in the parchment-lined Dutch oven.
6. Use kitchen shears to make three snips on the top of the bread, allowing the bread to expand.
7. Cook the bread in the covered Dutch oven for 30 minutes.
8. After 30 minutes, uncover the Dutch oven and continue cooking for 15 more minutes.

Serve warm, accompanied by salted butter or a mix of oil and balsamic vinegar.

Yields: Dependent on serving size (typically 8-12 servings)

Kathi also mentioned her favorite cheese making kit. It can be found on Amazon. Kathi is not an affiliate of this product.

• Mozzarella & Ricotta Cheese Making Kit | 5 Piece DIY Kit Includes Cheesecloth, Vegetable Rennet, Citric Acid, Cheese Salt, & Cooking Thermometer

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Guest Host: Roger Lipp

Order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

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Is it possible to eat like a homesteader even if you live in an apartment? Yes, it is!

Eating like a homesteader is really about being more purposeful and thoughtful about what you eat and where you source your food. In this episode, Kathi and Roger Lipp discuss what they have learned on their homestead journey about growing their own food in the garden as well as the non-gardening ways they source their food. For example:

• The satisfaction of growing your own food
  • Start with a salsa garden/container garden.
• Don’t have a garden? Try:
  • Shopping at a Farmers' Markets or Roadside Stands
  • Joining a Food Swap or Bartering Group
  • Be a part of a Community Garden
• And what to do if you have an abundance of produce

For those of you wondering where Kathi and Roger’s chickens fit into the “Eating like a Homesteader” plan, don’t be worried. Kathi's philosophy is they don’t want to meet their meat.

Looking for the Meal Planning Calendar Kathi mentioned in this episode? It's right here! Calendar_Meal_Planner

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Guest Host: Roger Lipp

Order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

To share your thoughts:

• Leave a note in the comment section below.

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one.

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Would you like some tips and tools to help you move from last minute scrambler to organized planner? Welcome to Part 2 of How to Plan Like A Homesteader where Kathi and her co host in life and on the mic Roger Lipp discuss strategies for advanced planning.

You might not need to worry about your snow blower not working like they do out in the wilderness they call home, but there are so many things you can plan in advance for to make your life run more smoothly. For example:

• Pet and animal care
• Regular medical appoints to avoid a medical crisis
• And the many joys of putting a vacation on the calendar

If you haven’t listened to 579 How To Plan Like a Homesteader No Matter Where You Call Home, Part 1 yet, click here.

Also…today is the day that Kathi Lipp’s new (and visually stunning) book The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home releases! You can still get in on all the preorder goodies but you MUST order it today. How? Listen at the end of the episode to get the details on how to procure your Accidental Homesteader extras!

Click here for the Clutter Free Academy newsletter and be notified when future episodes are released.

Guest Host: Roger Lipp

Pre-order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

To share your thoughts:

• Leave a note in the comment section below.

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Would you consider yourself a natural planner, or is it challenging for you to plan ahead? If you think planning doesn’t come easily, then you share that trait with Kathi and Roger Lipp, but moving to the Red House has forced them to plan ahead. In today’s podcast they share their hard-won wisdom with all of us.

Even if you don’t live on acres in the wilderness, you can still apply these lessons to lessen the stress in your life. For example:

• Are you prepared for extreme weather events or other emergencies in your area?
• Have you been thinking longer term in your financial planning?
• What home maintenance issues are going to turn into big problems without attention?
• Are you taking the time to build practical skills?

Kathi and Roger give us some helpful ideas in all these areas and more. Listen and find out how you can experience more peace in your home by planning ahead.  

Sign up here to get an email when Part Two comes out next week, when we will learn seven more areas to think about in order to plan like a homesteader.

Guest Host: Roger Lipp

Pre-order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

The Automatic Millionaire

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Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one.

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Have you ever been working on a project and had to run to the store to buy something you needed? How about run to the store multiple times to buy what you needed? You might be in need of what Kathi and Roger Lipp call the Magic List!

Kathi and Roger are starting a series titled Accidental Homesteader, where they take some of the principles they’ve learned about homesteading and applied them to everyday life. In this episode it’s all about creating effective, precise, time and money saving lists! Listen in as Kathi and Roger laugh and lay out listing making tips, such as:

• How to create effective shopping lists
• How to organize your To Do lists so things actually get done
• Why it’s important to keep a master list (Kathi keeps hers on her phone!)

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Guest Host: Roger Lipp

Pre-order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

Sam's Club

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What happens to your time when you have a rare moment, and nothing is scheduled on the calendar? Does it immediately get full of all the things that aren’t on your to-do list, but could be? Jen Cowart, a pastor, Bible teacher, and author, recently experienced a season with extra margin, and she chose to be intentional with her time instead of letting others fill up her calendar. (Can you even imagine?)

In today’s episode, Kathi and Jen discuss how to thrive when your life is just too overwhelming. They talk about:

• How seasons play a role in our schedule
• What a “win” looks like
• Specific times that MUST be carved out
• What to prepare for in order to thrive
• The schedule considerations that matter most

Want to dig deeper? If so, check out Jen’s new Thrive Women’s Bible Study. You can download a free discussion guide for the first two lessons in the Thrive Participant Workbook here.

Jen has two copies of the Thrive Bible Study to give away to Kathi’s listeners. For your chance to win, answer this question in the comments: What area of your life would you really like to get practical about creating margin in?

You are meant to thrive. You may need to get still before the Lord and do a little work, and that work may be to embrace who He created you to be.

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*This episode is sponsored by United Methodist Publishing House.

Links Mentioned: Guest Host: Jennifer Cowart

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Do you love the excitement and intrigue of that the arrival of a subscription box brings? We do too! But are all subscription boxes equal? Can subscription boxes become just one more thing to declutter?

Join Kathi and her Tik Tok famous guest Meredith Lynch as they discuss decluttering and the world of subscription boxes. Meredith started out as a beauty influencer but pushed back on the fast fashion/fast beauty culture. She is not afraid to speak her mind and has the cease and desist letters from beauty brands to prove it! Kathi and Meredith covered so much in this episode that Kathi has labeled it an XXLarge episode of information, such as:

• The origins of subscription boxes
• How some subscription boxes have become a scam
• The concept of White Labeling - mass producing a product and slapping a designer label on it

But we love new beauty products! Are there any trusted voices out there? YES! Meredith Lynch gives us two people to follow for authentic beauty product insight.

Don't forget to give Clutter Free Academy a one sentence review on your favorite podcast platform! Thanks!

Sign up here for the Clutter Free Academy newsletter and be notified when future episodes are released. Links Mentioned:

Guest Host: Meredith Lynch

Pre-order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

Meredith Lynch at meredithmlynch on Tik Tok

Meredith Lynch at meredithmlynch on Instagram

Stefanie Fritz- Luxury Makeup Artist at stefaniefritzxo on Instagram

Jamie Greenberg - Celebrity Makeup Artist at jamiemakeup on Instagram

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

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To share your thoughts:

• Leave a note in the comment section below.

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one.

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Welcome back to the basics! Kathi Lipp is joined by Roger, her husband and fellow declutterer, and they are here to recap some of the best tips they have discovered about decluttering.

How do you declutter quickly? Kathi has an easy to follow decluttering system for you and it only takes 15 minutes.

Step 1 - Gather your tools. Kathi likes to use 3 tote bags. One bag is "give away," one bag is "put away," and one bag is "other rooms." The 2 additional bags Kathi adds to the mix are a garbage bag and a recycling bag.

Step 2 - Pick a small area. This could be a desk, drawer, or shelf. Make sure it is something so small, you don't have to move your feet for the 15 minutes you are decluttering. This will also limit the number of decisions you have to make and avoid B.S.O. (Bright Shiny Object Syndrome).

More decluttering tips from Kathi and Roger:

• Listen to something dedicated to your declutter time. Kathi listens to the Scientology: Fair Game podcast from Leah Remini.
• Body Doubling - Make yourself accountable by telling someone you will be decluttering. Or have someone in the room with you - this is also known as body doubling. It helps to have someone there to help you focus and accomplish your goals. Join Kathi’s Clutter Free Academy group on Facebook for some online accountability with a community who understands!  
• Break big projects into smaller goals. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed. Find doable steps such as spending 15 minutes a day to declutter.
• After each 15 minute decluttering session, set your timer for another 5 minutes to take care of the items you have sorted into different bags or boxes.
• Remember that when you declutter every day, it keeps you from wanting to bring things into your house in the first place.

Don't forget to give Clutter Free Academy a one sentence review on your favorite podcast platform! Thanks!

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Guest Host: Roger Lipp

Pre-order Kathi's book The Accidental Homesteader here!

Scientology: Fair Game Podcast

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Kickstart to Clutter Free eCourse

To share your thoughts:

• Leave a note in the comment section below.

Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

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