The One About Why We're Here

Tia: Hey, Monica

Amber: Hey, Monica

Tia: Welcome to Hey Monica, the podcast that helps you drop the perfectionism to make space for what really matters in your home, in your food, and in your life. I'm Tia, a professional home organizer and founder of Room For Serenity

Amber: And I'm Amber, a weight-inclusive licensed nutritionist and founder of Whole You Nutrition and the Meal Planning Collective. On today's show, we're sharing how this podcast got started, the meaning behind the name "Hey Monica," and just a little bit about what you can expect from this show moving forward. But first, the way we start every show is confessions. Now, normally we would both bring a real-life confession to share, but today we have a joint confession.

Tia: Mm-hmm.

Amber: Tia, what's, what's our joint confession?

Tia: Our joint confession. Okay, you'd think that by our professions would be planners. So I'm a professional home organizer, you're a professional nutritionist and meal planning coach. So we plan. That's what we do. Our mutual confession, we were extremely fast podcast partners, and when I say extremely fast, I mean met each other for the very first time at a women's networking conference, and from there decided we should maybe grab lunch sometime. So was it like a week later that we had lunch?

Amber: Yeah, that was a week later

Tia: within that first, well, what was supposed to be an hour lunch turned into what? Like an hour and a half to two hours or something

Amber: I think it might have almost been two and a half hours 'cause I was running very late for a meeting that I had later that day.

Tia: So it was like partners at first meeting. We, it's like we were people who decided to get married on the first date. Amber, do you wanna say what was going on in your head?

Amber: I do. And actually, okay, when I'm thinking back and, you know, memories, can they be trusted? I don't think we even talked to each other at that networking event.

Tia: No, we

Amber: was in a session where someone was highlighting work that they had done with you and described, like, what you did and who you work with, and I was like, "Oh, that sounds a lot like who I work with. Note to self, connect with this woman

Tia: Я

Amber: at the end of the conference and, get to know her."

Tia: Yeah. And I remember you coming up to me and we exchanged business cards or something like that, and you're like, "Hey, loved hearing all about what your business does in that presentation. I feel like our ideal audience is X, Y, Z, and you described it perfectly." And so you said, "I think there might be some room for collaboration there," or something like that. "But let's just connect for lunch." Well, I can't tell you how many times that happens in networking meetings where it's like, maybe there's room for collaboration or blah, blah, blah, and then it doesn't really go anywhere. But at the same time, you never know.

Tia: So I was like, I'm excited to learn more about her and learn more about what her business does, and yeah, maybe there is room to collaborate.

Amber: I'd been thinking about doing a podcast for a while. I love listening to podcasts. It seems like a great way to be able to share more about the thought process that goes into the work that I do, 'cause I think sometimes it can be a little bit confusing, and people aren't entirely sure what things like anti-diet approach or what meal planning collective means. So I'd been thinking about podcasting, but I didn't wanna do it by myself. Somewhere in my mind, I was like, "I need to find an ideal podcast partner," and I didn't know what that meant. But when I heard about you and your business at that networking event, I was like, "Oh, maybe this is the person that could be a podcast partner." So as I was driving, I-- for people local to the Twin Cities area, I live in Minneapolis.

Amber: We were meeting in Woodbury, so I had a little bit of a drive. And on the drive, I was coaching myself to not ask a person I've barely met to start a podcast with me. And I think I held it together for 40 minutes, we were almost at the end of, our naturally scheduled, like, meeting time,

Tia: Mm-hmm

Amber: and I kinda looked off to the side and I said, "I told myself I wasn't going to say this, but would you like to start a podcast together?" And again, going into it, we share a similar view, we share a similar, ideal client. And you just seemed so fun. We laughed so much in just those, first 40 minutes of just chatting and getting to know each other.

Tia: Natural connection, super natural connection, and I wish we could have had, a little video on my face when you asked me that, 'cause I'm pretty sure my eyes lit up immediately, and I was like, "Yes!" I was so stinkin' excited, 'cause I too have also wanted to do a, a podcast for a very long time, but I recognize the amount of time and energy it takes, and the… it has to have some real purpose, and it has to not just exist for the sake of existing or exist because you wanna hear yourself talk. It should bring some real value to your audience, right? And it needs to have enough meaty content to continue on for quite some time.

Tia: And so in the back of my mind, it was almost like I wanna be a pop star, but I don't know what music I would do. It was so silly, but at the same time, I'm like, and when I ever come across an opportunity where it feels like I've got the right message for the right people, and it's gonna drive some value, I would be totally open to a podcast. when you brought it up, I was like, "Yes! This is perfect."

Amber: And that's when I knew I found my person, because it wasn't that fake "Oh yeah, sure, maybe we can keep talking about that," kind of response. You were just "Yes." Full-throated, eyes bright and open, "Yes."

Tia: yes

Amber: So here we are.

Tia: Here we are. That is our mutual confession. We were fast podcast partners,

Amber: Yes

Tia: so far so good. It's been so fun, and we're barely even starting, so this is gonna be quite an amazing journey.

Amber: This is where I think we should go next. We've shared that we have a similar… Is there a better way to say ideal client? I make it, I,

Tia: Mm,

Amber: just disliked that term so much, 'cause it makes me feel like we're turning people into products or something. I don't know. I don't like it. Like, I'm j-

Tia: A similar

Amber: Oh. Yeah, audience. Um, yeah, people we like to talk to and spend time with.

Tia: Mm-hmm. Yeah

Amber: so and a lot of that similarity and that overlap is the decision fatigue and the mental load that comes with feeding yourself and your family and keeping a home

Tia: Exactly

Amber: Let's both take a step back and describe, like Tia, if I am a future client of yours, I mean, I suppose a current client, but then I'm probably feeling pretty good about this already. If I'm a future client and it's the morning and I'm opening my closet to get ready for the day, what am I thinking or feeling?

Tia: That is a great question. Imagine you're waking up in the morning, you open your closet, and immediately you have a flood of thoughts. You wanna go to the gym, so then you think, "Are my gym clothes, are they clean? Are they dirty? Do I have stuff that actually coordinates together to go to the gym?" Not that it actually matters, but sometimes people care about that. And then my kids' clothes, um, do they have picture day today, or is it gonna be a hot day or a cold day, or is it gonna be rainy? And what sort of clothes do they need to wear, and do they fit into those clothes, or are they dirty or torn or whatever?

Tia: then you realize that in the afternoon you have a networking event, so you need to wear something that's maybe a little bit more, formal than what you do just when you're taking your kids to school. But you wanna make sure that you have the full outfit, so you wanna have… If you're wearing a dress, you wanna wear the dress and the shoes and the necklace and the blah, blah, right? And so all of a sudden, there's all these things. You're going through your calendar of the day and how all this stuff is gonna fit together, and if things aren't well organized, which a lot of times they're not, especially in busy families, you can start your morning off every morning feeling frustrated and angry

Tia: you've not had the time to make those organized systems work for you and help you to remove the mental load. So your, your mornings start out really stressful versus, hopefully, after my clients are done working with me, they will feel an immediate relief of a very well-organized closet, things that are put together. They can find their kids' clothes. They know where the next size up if- is if they need it. They know where the clean versus not clean gym clothes are and whether there's matching pairs of thi- Like, everything has a home, and everything has a space, and things just flow a lot easier in the morning.

Tia: that's a scenario of maybe what one of my clients might experience, every morning. But Amber, how about you? How might a future client feel maybe in a different context, like when they open the fridge, per se?

Amber: Yeah, I love that question. Before I answer it, I just wanna say one thing that I love about the work that you do is that you really take into account what a specific family or household needs. So it's not like you're going in selling everyone, a California Closet system or, some like, whatever, organizational system that, says it can be customized, but it's like this, one size doesn't quite work for anyone. It's like you're really going through, like, how somebody approaches their day and where those points are knowing those things. I love that it's truly personalized and not just a let's buy matching containers and put a label on it.

Tia: Systems that aren't fitting someone's daily routine are not gonna last very well. But I'm sure the same thing applies to meal planning too

Amber: Yeah, it, it absolutely does. So going back to your question about if someone were to open the fridge, you know, like the, the nutrition meal planning version of the closet is the, is the fridge or the pantry. we probably are opening the fridge in the morning or multiple times a day, but I think the time that feels most impactful and has the biggest effect on, my clients and potential clients is that dinner hour. You're opening the fridge and you're thinking, "Ah, what are we going to eat?" And the fridge isn't just the fridge in those moments. The fridge becomes this representation of your worth and your success and how well you're just doing in the world, not to mention all of the food rules that come flooding in when one thinks about what to make to eat.

Amber: Um, so it might be past diets that you've done, uh, that Instagram post that's telling you that if you're not eating protein at every meal, like you might as well cease being a human. all of those things are like flipping through the head of somebody who's opening the fridge at this time. especially at this dinner hour, you're rushed. Most people are either getting home from work or getting home from picking up the kids. You're transitioning from one part of the day to another. You're stressed, 'cause let's face it, most of us by the end of the day have some level of stress of what has been done during the day or still needs to be done before the day is over.

Amber: Most of us are also very hungry when it comes to dinner time because we might not be

Tia: Or

Amber: Speaking from, yes, speaking from personal experience and from working with many clients, uh, we're not so great at always feeding ourselves lunch, like a truly satisfying and nourishing lunch. So by the time we get to dinner, yeah, that hangry feeling is setting in. Plus we're tired. It has been a long day. And so all of it just feels so overwhelming. It's like it ends up not really even being about the food, it ends up being about all of these other things. Am I, am I a good enough, you know, wife, mother, all of that. So when I work with people, I try to do a couple of things, and this applies both to one-on-one clients and when I work with people in the meal planning collective.

Amber: a lot of it is about rewriting those external food rules, so all of those like Instagram posts and past diets and recommendations from, you know, a doctor or a friend or, I don't know, the Weight Watchers things you picked up when you were 12 years old, whatever it might happen to be is replacing those external food rules of what you should or shouldn't do with learning to, trust your internal cues. What does it feel like when you're hungry? What does it feel like when you're full? So tuning into and trusting those cues is part of it. And then in terms of meal planning and in the collective, it's really making meal planning a priority, 'cause we know, I don't think I've talked to a single person who has told me that they have regretted setting aside time to meal plan.

Amber: Most people are like, "Oh, I know if I take the time to meal plan, my week goes better. I know what to buy at the grocery store, so I'm making less last-minute trips to pick things up. We're spending less money on takeout." Kind of all of those things.

Tia: Mm-hmm

Amber: still meal planning somehow falls down on the to-do list to the bottom. So it makes everything else in the week easier, but somehow it's still at the bottom of the list. So the idea of the collective is that we're putting it on the calendar together, so there is a time where you're showing up, other people expect you to be there. It's also at a time of day where for most people, it's a little less stressful. You know, like you're going into this knowing you're meal planning, so it removes some of that stress from the situation that is so often present when it's, uh, you know, 5:00 p.m. and you're opening the fridge trying to figure out like is this spinach still fresh?

Amber: I also really like to highlight, similar to the closet organization that you were talking about, being really realistic. Like, what does your day or week look like? Are there after school and evening activities? Are there early morning networking meetings, or are there lunches out? You know, just really looking at that week ahead and then making sure you're putting things that you actually like to eat. Like, this isn't fantasy meal planning. This is not we're on a diet and we need to hit a certain number of macros. This is real life. and then having those backup plans without guilt. sometimes we just need the chicken nuggets, we need the grilled cheese, we need the frozen pizza, because those are the things that make the rest of the day easier, and we're gonna be fine nutritionally.

Amber: eating a frozen pizza is not going to somehow derail your health forever. It's totally fine. So, you know, reducing that stress, reducing that mental load, being real, and letting go of that guilt and shame is really what I love helping people do in changing that relationship with food.

Tia: Yeah. And I think the way that you described that is the reason why I got so excited about doing a podcast with you, because our philosophy how we run our businesses is so very similar. We meet people where they're at, and we walk into their lives and accept them for chapter they're in whatever that chapter looks like. And home organizing, that's a very personal space to walk into, and sometimes people can feel really judged when you walk into a house. And they don't… A lot of people don't even wanna raise their hand for help because they're like, "I am so ashamed how my house is disorganized right now." And the way that I try to break that down and remove the shame altogether is to say, the people that I work with are prioritizing all the right things in their life.

Tia: They're prioritizing snuggles with their kids at night instead of rearranging the bookshelf. They're prioritizing walking to the park with their family and back because they need the exercise, the dogs need the exercise, the kids need the exercise, and everybody needs to get out of the house, but at the expense of something else. They're prioritizing their work. They're prioritizing their relationship with their significant other. And there's only so much time in a day, and a lot of times, the last thing anybody ever wants to do is sit down and organize their space. It's a pretty unique thing that somebody actually enjoys that.

Tia: I'm just one of those weirdos that loves it. But that's what I see. When I walk into a kid's room that's, maybe really messy, first of all, I'm like, "This is just the stage of life that they're in. This is normal kid behavior." And second of all, I think, yeah, they spent more time snuggling their kids than they did putting the stuff away, and they're asking for help because they don't want the mental load of this space over them anymore. I don't look at it with any sense of judgment whatsoever. And the same thing with you, and the whole, like, get busy, so our meals need to kinda adjust and adapt to that.

Tia: But at least if you've planned something in advance, have a better likelihood of success when it comes to the meals that you have on the table than you would if you didn't. And the same thing goes for organizing, too. you have a structure in place, and you have a home for everything in your home, will things still get messy from time to time? Sure they will, but it'll be so much easier to put things back where they belong when they have a defined home versus not. Right?

Amber: Yeah, absolutely. I think that makes so much sense, and you're so right with the food thing. It's not about perfection. It's not about creating, these really elaborate meals. It's about knowing, Wednesday night is a busy night in our house. We're relying on frozen veggies because you don't have to cut them. You can throw them right into the microwave to heat up. it's using these things that you know your family will eat, because we don't need every meal to be a fight.

Tia: Yeah.

Amber: is about just kind of acknowledging where you're at, acknowledging what you need. And sure, can we strive to, increase our protein or fiber or fruits and veggies? Yes, all of those things are goals that, different people have, and I think, nutrition still matters. I wouldn't be a nutritionist if I didn't think nutrition matters.

Tia: Mm-hmm.

Amber: like we put so much pressure, like if we're not doing it 100% perfect, it's not worth doing at all, and then we just, like, fall headfirst into a bag of chips and

Tia: Oh

Amber: feel terrible mentally and physically and think, "Oh, well, maybe I can try again next week."

Tia: Yep. Yep. Pretty common. we are both empowering people to find joy in their homes and in their kitchens, people that perfection does not bring joy. not about perfection. about progress. both of us create systems that support people's busy lives and allow for there to be imperfection in those busy lives as well. Amber, I'm gonna toss it off to you

Amber: the other thing that we said we would cover today, which I think is important, is we talked about why we're here, how we got here, what we do, who we serve. We also said that I'm Amber and you're Tia, so neither one of us is named Monica. So who the heck is Monica? Why is this podcast called Hey Monica?

Tia: Anybody wanna guess? Anybody, anybody? It's Monica Geller from the TV show Friends.

Amber: Yay.

Tia: For those who have seen Friends, you will very well know that Monica is the character that is known for her perfectionism, especially when it comes to organization and putting things in the right place and being very about where things belong and that they should not be touched or moved. people also recognize her as the person the chef, and she's the go-to person in the friend group for meal planning, and especially when it's, like, holidays or special events. She's the one that really is on top of how to make the perfect thing for that event

Amber: When I think of her in terms of organization, I always think of that episode where they were playing the game and they were talking about how many categories of towels she has, and it was like guest towel, fancy guest, every day. You know, it's like this woman had like six different categories for towels. I feel like that just really speaks to that whole perfectionism thing that we're getting at.

Amber: I do think that this podcast in particular is talking to an older and wiser Monica. So again, for those who have watched the show, you know that it ends with her and Chandler moving out of the city. They now have kids. And I can only imagine as they make that transition from like in their 20s living in the city to having a family in the suburbs, that all of those perfectionist tendencies, first of all, they probably get turned up. I am sure she was, pureeing homemade baby food for those kids. Like, I have no doubt in my mind that that is who Monica was at that stage of life, which is great. If that's what you wanna do and that is what you have time to do, by all means, if that's important to you, you can do it.

Amber: But there's also a lot of other ways to feed your child. That doesn't mean you need to like grow, pick, and process all of the food from an organic farm in order to give your children healthy and delicious food. I also have to imagine that, she's not able to maintain the house in the same way that she was able to keep the apartment clean. because life is just busier. Like when you have a family, when you have more going on, all of those joys and stresses of life, they show up in the places that you're spending time, which is great. I think it's a sign of a life well-lived. but, again, speaking a little bit from personal experience and not just projecting onto Monica, it can feel really hard when you can't like keep things to the standard that you have decided needs to be maintained.

Amber: And we will talk way more about perfectionism and permission and all of that in future episodes. But this older and wiser Monica is starting to realize that maybe that perfectionism isn't serving her, and she's missing out on things that are more important in her life by trying to maintain these really rigid structures

Tia: Precisely.

Amber: Yeah. And then I also like to think that this is a Monica who has reckoned with that internalized anti-fat bias. I think, again, anyone who has watched the shows remembers there's the flashback episodes to high school with fat Monica, and it was, uh, not done in the most kind and body positive way, to say the least. Again, bigger topic, bigger subject for another day. but I think this Monica has also reckoned with that and realized that some of those food systems and body image expectations also are not serving her

Tia: Mm-hmm.

Amber: of life

Tia: Yeah, exactly. And she's at a place where she's old enough, wise enough to know what her values are, and that's where this reckoning process is coming from, right? But she's still struggling to let go of some of those perfectionistic tendencies, and she misses the super tidy life she used to be able to control, and we all know how controlling Monica was in, in those episodes of Friends, right? She's missing that control, but she's realizing that control is not serving her well anymore. missing the picture perfect plated meals that she used to serve, but she's now realizing that she can embrace really messy, fun meals around a table with a loving family, it doesn't have to be perfectly plated.

Tia: And she's missing the luxury of time that she used to have, 'cause it was the luxury of time as a single woman that allowed her the capability of doing so much of those things. She had the time to control these things around her. she had the time to make those perfectly plated meals. she doesn't have that time anymore, but the way that she's using her time is more aligned with her true values as a mom, as a wife, as a friend. with her life, sometimes everything feels like it's kind of held together by a thread, but it's a very loving thread, I will say. And I think we can kind of see a little bit of her in all of us.

Amber: I agree. I agree. It's definitely, um… Of course, she's a fictional character, but I do think so many of us can see certain aspects of ourselves reflected in that perfectionism drive. I can't wait to talk-- I'm, like, holding my tongue 'cause I know we will talk more about this, but I'm so excited to get into some of that. But okay, so beyond the subtle, and maybe sometimes not so subtle nod to "Friends," what else can listeners expect from our podcast, Tia?

Tia: Like we did today, we'll start with confessions. We don't expect perfection from you, and so we're gonna use confessions as a way to share with you that we're not perfect either. that's the way we're gonna start the episodes. And then each episode, we're gonna explore topics like mental load that women carry, home organizing tips and tricks, how to keep everything in the right place, as well as meal planning tips for busy people. And then we're gonna cap it off with what's working now. This is gonna sound like little tip or an insight from our lives that is working for us in the moment and is really making us feel more efficient or streamlined.

Tia: are these things gonna work forever? Who knows? I don't know. It might be something that we carry with us forever, or it might be something that works in this chapter of our lives, but maybe not the next. We'll see. But that's how we're gonna end is what's working now

Amber: I love that. And I already know that confessions and what's working now are going to be my favorite parts. If I were a listener, those would be my favorite parts. Those are the little behind-the-scenes insights that I love to hear from other people. So I hope our listeners feel that same way, getting a little peek behind the, curtain of, not just our professional personas, but our real life, crumbs in the silverware drawer, for example. That might be someone in the world. And then just for those planners among us, um, which we do include ourselves, our plan is to do, a season where we'll release an episode each week for a couple of months, and then we'll take a little break and return with another episode later.

Amber: So we're trying to keep-- We're trying to lead by example by having some work-life balance and showing that it's okay to take breaks. So I hope that that comes across. but now, hard to believe, but we've reached the end of our first episode, which means it's time for what's working now. Maybe we need a little jingle. Do we need a little jingle for what's working now? We'll have to do a little music search.

Tia: All right, so we started with the closet, so I'm gonna end with a closet. Each room in a home, this is my hot tip for every family, room has a bin for clothes that people do not love. And we all know when we're looking through our closet in the morning, we'll take something off the hanger and look at it, decide, "Ugh, that doesn't fit me right now," or, "I haven't worn that for ages." Or maybe we don't even take it off the hanger at all 'cause we just keep sliding past it every single time. Instead of waiting for a specific day in the month or year two years to actually go through your closet and declutter it, do it in the moment.

Tia: When you see something that you haven't worn for six months, put it in that bin. And then every single morning becomes an opportunity to declutter something that doesn't fit, that you've outgrown either in your season of life or in the chapter that you are in your work or parenthood journey or whatever it may be. If you're not using it anymore, it needs to go. So have a little donate bin in each closet. And then maybe once a month or once every two months, all the bins out of everyone's closet and bring it to a donation site. Now, this podcast is located in the Twin Cities, in St. Paul and Minneapolis area, and so I'm gonna give a little shout-out to St. Vincent de Paul in the Twin Cities for clothing donations.

Tia: They are a fantastic nonprofit. They, they serve up absolutely anything you could possibly need a thrift store. but their hours are amazing, for not only shopping but also donating, which it isn't always the case for a lot of donation sites. So that's a really big one, especially for busy people. you've gone through all the trouble and effort of g- getting these bins, filling these bins up, stick- sticking them in your car, and actually making it to that place to donate them, and then closed on that one Monday of the month, that is frustrating. So St. Vincent de Paul has very consistent hours for donations, and they're fantastic.

Tia: I will add details in the show notes for, where you can find them.

Amber: I love that. I love this idea so much. I do not currently do this, but I'm going to need to put a bin in my closet. one thing that I talk so often about with clients, particularly those that we're working on body image, is if you open your closet and everything makes you feel bad about your body,

Tia: Mm-hmm.

Amber: we need to shift that. And this allows you to just kind of like take it out and set it aside, and then maybe you do revisit it before you just dump it into the donation pile, and you give it a little bit, bit more thought at another time. But it's like clearing it out so you're not confronted with this thing that just makes you feel bad first thing in the morning. I love that so much.

Tia: And that is something that I actually had a conversation with one of my clients about once. body had significantly changed, and because of that, she was willing to have this massive closet reorganization effort, and she needed to try every piece of clothing on because she wasn't sure if that piece of clothing would actually fit her not. so it took a while to go through all of them, but at the end of it, she had a closet that was full of clothes that not only fit her well, but made her feel fabulous. And every time she put on a new shirt or blouse that she felt a little iffy about, it was really hard for her to let go of her items, especially if she felt like she spent a lot of money on them or it was a gift from someone.

Tia: I would ask her two things. I would say, "Is this gonna help you in your effort to get everything into one closet?" 'Cause she was going from, like, four different closets down to one closet. is this gonna help you in your goal in getting everything into one master closet? If not, let's get rid of it. Or, does this make you feel fabulous? 'Cause I could see it. I'm not, I'm… I would never say that I'm any sort of, like, clothing, wardrobe expert or fashion, fashionista at all, I can tell in someone's eyes when they feel amazing in what they're wearing, and I could sense a lot of times that she felt guilt about, like, "Well, I should like this thing." No, there's no shoulds about it.

Tia: If you don't like it, you don't like it. If you, if you feel neutral about it and you've got six other things that look similar, let's just get rid of it, right? Anyway, so that was a really long-winded say- way of saying, yes, absolutely, your closet needs to love you back. And y- when you open the doors to your closet, you should feel and excited about what is available to you to put on

Amber: I love that. I love that. And okay, to c- to continue on, I'm very excited about this topic and I can't just move on. It also reminds me when I talk to clients about figuring that clothing thing out, the first thing that I recommend people do, whether it's buying new clothes or going through their closet, is to try the clothes on not in front of a mirror and judge it based on comfort first. So it doesn't matter, it does not matter what it looks like. If the pants are digging into your side or giving you a wedgie, or the shirt is cutting into your armpits, like if it's uncomfortable, who cares what it looks like?

Amber: You're not going to feel good about yourself or your body when you're wearing it if it's uncomfortable. So

Tia: Yeah

Amber: the comfort check first and then take a peek in the mirror and see how it feels in terms of like, you know, fashion and colors and kind of all of that personal style stuff. But c- comfort is king. Um, I don't know if that's the middle-aged person in me speaking. I might not, I might not have agreed with that statement as much in my 20s as I do in my 40s, but I strongly, strongly believe that, that our clothes should be comfortable first and foremost.

Tia: Yes

Amber: Okay, because I also love to continue on a theme. You started with closet and ended with closet. Since I started with fridge, I'm also going to end with fridge. Now, I do not feel like this is the most revolutionary, tip out there. Many of you might already be doing it. But one of my favorite things in looking at kind of fridge organization is keeping things in clear containers. When you can see the leftovers or see those veggies that you chopped up, it's so much easier to use them, to pull something out to make a meal, and to not lose it or forget about it somewhere in the depths of the fridge.

Amber: Now, I find my go-to containers are the Snapware glass containers that Costco carries. I have a couple of sets. I love them. They have lasted for years. The lids don't warp, like all of the things that are great about them. And then I also really love a mason jar. They are inexpensive. the wide mouth pint-sized jars are perfect for freezing, like a single serving of a soup or a chili. They work great to store all kinds of things in the refrigerator. I am sure I will end up talking about mason jars and my freezer a lot during the course of this podcast. but those are two of my go-to containers that I use to store food so that I can see it, and it helps to avoid some of that out of sight, out of mind that can happen so often.

Amber: it reminds me when I was a, a kid, my grandmother in particular was one of the people, I think this is pretty common, who would save food containers, so things like a Cool Whip container or a, butter container or something, and put leftovers in them, so you never knew if what you were opening in the refrigerator was Cool Whip or like spaghetti sauce. So that, again, is where those glass containers can really be helpful. So that's what's working now in my house

Tia: Yeah, that's awesome. I'm gonna go back to the mason jar really quick. So for some reason in my mind, it was… I was taught never to put glass into a freezer because it could burst. But that, I think that's typically because if you have liquid in a glass container, it needs to be able to expand. So what's your hot tip for using a mason jar or any other glass container and putting it in the freezer for those that are listening?

Amber: Yeah, absolutely. And it is so true. If you fill a container all the way to the top with a liquid, it will expand when it freezes. Most of the mason jars, if you look, they actually have a line etched into them that says, freeze line. But if you don't see that on your container, leave at least one inch of head space between the top of whatever you're putting in the jar and the lid, and that should be enough to allow for some expansion without any cracked or shattering jars in your freezer.

Tia: Brilliant. Okay, another question. I'm

Amber: Yeah.

Tia: you with questions.

Amber: Love it. Bring 'em on.

Tia: Okay, mason jars. Metal lids or reusable plastic? I guess they're both reusable. Metal lids or plastic lids?

Amber: I have a mix of both in my house. I tend to use the metal lids because that's what comes with the jars when you buy them, but they definitely get rusted over time. And when you're using them in this way, they are no longer suitable for actually canning things. Like, that always needs to be a fresh, never been used

Tia: Mm-hmm.

Amber: ring and lid combo. but I do have a set of the plastic ones too that I will, use. And they just kinda get whatever I grab first ends up being what I use.

Tia: I love mason jars even for organizing things. They're so wonderful. Anything that is see-through that you can see, exactly what's inside of it, huge proponent of. I love it. And then some people like organizing with everything just having a label and not being able to see into it. Other people like being able to see actually the contents inside. I'm all about the latter. But that's for another day. Well, you can tell probably just by this episode alone that Amber and I are little chatterboxes, and we could probably go on and on about meal planning and home organization tips all day long. But that is all for today.

Tia: So if you liked today's episode, you can show us your support by telling your friends and family that we exist. Tell them about the Hey Monica Podcast, leave us a five-star review on Apple Podcast or Spotify

Amber: Yeah. Do you like how we only ask for five-star reviews? Not just a review. We love five stars. We can't get rid of all of the perfectionist tendencies at one time, people.

Tia: It must be five stars.

Amber: if you have any questions about the show or suggestions for future episodes, you can always send us an email at heymonicapodcast@gmail.com. And any show notes or links for each episode will be available at heymonicapodcast.com

Tia: Amber supports individuals exhausted by dieting who want to improve their relationship with food and body. You can learn more and book a free connection call at

Tia: Amber also hosts a virtual community and co-working space dedicated to planning realistic, satisfying, and nourishing meals that actually taste good. Find more and join the collective at mealplanningcollective.com

Amber: And Tia helps busy professionals with kids who have amazing systems at work but no energy left to create organized systems at home. You can book a free consultation at roomforserenity.com or get organizing tips and tricks from her on Instagram. Her Instagram handle is @room_for,

Amber: and that's spelled out F-O-R, _serenity.

Tia: Bye, Monica

Amber: Bye