Tiny Living with a Family – Janelle Hooper Sold Everything and Moved Into an RV

Have you ever thought about selling everything and moving into a tiny house? I think this idea is split down the middle with some dreaming of the adventure while others saying it’s something they could never do. Well on the show today I’m chatting with one of my dear friends, Janelle Hooper from Home with the Hoopers about why they decided to downsize their belongs, sell their three thousand square foot home and move into an RV for over four years.

We cover everything from how she was able to get alone time to how her laundry routine kept her sane in a small space. We also talk about how living more minimal has helped her and her husband discover what matters most to them and how that’s helped them decide how to build their new home.

FULL TRANSCIPTION

0:07
Hi, and welcome to the habits in Home Show. I’m your host, Lisa Lizotte. And I help busy moms bring order to their homes by downsizing and decluttering. And ditching old habits in exchange for systems that bring peace and more enjoyment to their lives. We have too much stuff, not enough space or time, I lack the motivation to get our life together. We need simplified solution to tame the chaos around us, and be available both mind and body to experience all the joy that life has to offer. Are you ready, friend? Let’s get started.

0:51
Hey mama friends and welcome back to the podcast, where we discuss all things decluttering, organization, habits, motherhood, and everything in between. Today, we’ll be talking about car clutter and I’m going to give you four simple habits that I’ve been doing that you could start doing today to have a cleaner and less cluttered car. With kids, I have three kids myself, and I’ve been doing these daily habits and it has helped us a ton. Now if you don’t have kids living at home, or if your kids are older, if we don’t even have any kids yet, you could still apply these daily habits to keep a cleaner and less cluttered car, you’re going to love these tips that I have for you today. I have been a mom for almost 13 years, and I have struggled with keeping my car ideally clean. Now when I say ideally clean, it’s to my standard, what I feel is my ideal cleanliness. Most people haven’t even defined their standard of what clean is. So when they talk about their cleanliness, and if their house is clean, or if their car is clean, they really don’t know what that means.

2:00
When I talk about cleanliness, as long as it’s decluttered and it’s picked up, I feel like my space is clean. I mean, sure I love a fresh car smell and I love perfectly vacuumed mats but the dirtiness of my car doesn’t bother me as much as the tidiness of my car does. Keeping my car tidy and decluttered has been the hardest thing to accomplish with children. I’ll tell you why that I’ve struggled with this. First of all, motherhood is exhausting. You know how you feel coming home from running errands with your children. And you’re just trying to get in the door, trying to get all of them in the door and just crash on your bed or your couch as fast as possible. I mean, who has the energy to even care what is left in the car. Also, I felt like it was just all on me to get everything out of the car and into the house. Because my kids were too little, or I just couldn’t remember to ask them before they ran off and got busy doing something else. I felt like it would be an even greater chore to call them back to help me carry things in. Also, something else that I feel like has been a struggle is all the stuff that I just didn’t know what to do with it. If I carried it inside the house, it would either sit on the kitchen counter or sit at the back door. And I just didn’t know what to do with it. So it was just easier for me to leave it in the car and deal with it later.

3:34
But let’s be honest, how many of us are driving around with things in our car for months and we’ve just procrastinated sorting and distributing it. I mean, anybody have a donation bag that they keep forgetting to drop off? I’ve been there. I’ve done that. It still happens sometimes.

3:53
When Jared and I first became parents, he was adamant that he didn’t want me to get a minivan. I have a Honda Odyssey now and I love it best car ever for being a mom. But anyway, if you are at all familiar with minivans, you know they are notorious for being cluttered with leftover remnants of children. Can I get an Amen? Now I assured him I wouldn’t let that happen. But sure enough, it did. And I hated it. I was pretty good at taking care of my own trash and clutter in the car. But I am not the best at cleaning up behind me. You know, like out of sight out of mind. And when I didn’t see the clutter back there. I didn’t know it was there. So let’s just be clear first, I am not a Nazi mom. So of course my kids eat and they bring toys in the car. It’s just not one of those things that I want to fight. I choose my nose in motherhood very wisely. And this is just not one of the things that I want to waste. I let my kids bring things in the car.

4:58
Now these four habits that I’m gonna share with you is something that I’m also doing with my children. So cleaning out the car is not all on me. So here we go, here are my four habits to keep the clutter clear in your car.

5:14
Number one, limit what comes in the car in the first place. Now I said that I allow my kids to bring things into the car, but you can still limit what comes on, you truly don’t need to take with you as much as you think you do. Electronics are unnecessary for day trips, I do not let my kids watch the TV in my car, we have a really nice TV in our Honda Odyssey. I don’t let them watch TV on day trips, we reserve that for longer trips. So it’s more of a novelty and they’re more excited about it. There truly is so much value to be learned and looking out the window. And when our kids don’t have a device, entertaining them at all times, they’re gonna learn patience, this goes for you too. Don’t pull out your cell phone at a red light or while your tire is being changed. But use this as an opportunity just be still in quiet. This is the kind of life that our mothers had. And they raised some pretty amazing human beings. So don’t be afraid to just let your kids be alone. And in their thoughts in the car looking out the window. They don’t need the television to run short, simple errands. They don’t need electronics in the car on day trips, it’s going to be okay. So teach them by doing and setting an example. And refrain from pulling out your own cell phone while you’re traveling in the car or waiting for something while you’re sitting in the car.

6:41
Alright, tip number two or habit number two, throw away trash at every stop along the way. This is something that we’ve been doing. If we get out at a store, we look around in the car to see what trash we can collect and throw it away because there’s usually a trash bin outside of the store that we are entering. So don’t hoard up trash in the car and save it for when you get home. Make it a habit to look around your car and find any, even the smallest piece pieces of trash that you can throw away.

7:13
You could even turn this into a game for your kids and keep a running tally of how many pieces they collect. Their reward could be super simple, like a piece of candy, or just the fact that they won. I mean, there’s lots of value in just knowing that you’re the winner for the day right. Also, I highly recommend having a designated place where you keep trash, we keep our trash in the pocket of our door, because it’s easy to grab whenever we stop.

7:39
Now it would be best to keep a plastic trash bag in there or a plastic grocery bag because if you have anything soiled or wet, you’re not going to get that messiness all over the pocket, because then you’ll probably not clean it up right away. So highly recommend putting a bag in there but if not just collect your trash in the pocket of your door.

7:58
Alright, step number three or tip number three, habit number three, whatever you want to call it, have a nothing on the floor rule now we have this rule in our house. But we have recently started applying it to our car, I highly recommend keeping a reusable grocery bag open on the floorboard between your kids feet. And if something goes down on the floor, it must end up in that bag where it is all collected. And then the bag is removed at the end of the trip and the items that are in the bag are returned and to their places in the house and then the bag is taken back to the car for the next trip. Or you could place it in a designated area like where your purses were, you know to grab that collecting bag, if you will, when you walk out the door to go on your next trip.

8:49
I think it’s really great to give your children any kind of task. So if you want to equip your child with this task of returning the bag back to the car, make it their job, say okay, you got to go put this bag back in the car for us. also utilize the seat pockets on the backs of the driver and passenger seat. This is where we keep library books and water bottles and it keeps things from ending up on the floor in our car. Now I have some friends that have younger children and they will put toy baskets or toy bags in the car when they go that is great. Just have a designated place where you collect the things that are traveling with you in the car and they’re not ending up on the floor.

9:32
Habit number four, just like the surfaces in our home. I like to remove everything from the vehicle and reset the vehicle for the next trip. It’s kind of like a clean slate. Now I don’t want sloppy leftovers and I’m sure you don’t want any from our last trip in our vehicle or in our car. So I like to make have this rule of nothing. All the surfaces are cleared and reset.

10:00
It’s a rule in our car that nobody gets to go inside and play, get on television or anything else that they like to do, until everything is cleared from the car. This may even mean people make more than one trip. Yeah, sometimes we have to go back to the car. And we can’t carry everything. I know how you probably are. I’m like this, I try to carry as much as I can and one trip because I don’t want to come back. But I keep in mind that I’m setting myself up for success and a happier car ride, if I go ahead and take the time to clear the clutter and cleared the stuff out of the car now and resetting the car for our next trip.

10:40
Now, I will say that what usually comes in from the car ends up either on the kitchen counter or on the kitchen floor. But I’m okay with that for right now. And we’ll eventually train the kids how to put things away, right as they bring them in. But for now, resetting the car each and every time we return home is the habit I want to establish in them right now.

11:04
Okay, so those are the four habits that I’ve been doing with my family to have a cleaner, less cluttered car. But I want to share with you a bonus habit that I’m sure you’re gonna love. gift yourself with a once a month or every two months. Full service, carwash. Yes, ma’am. Go ahead and do it. Add it into your budget, tell your husband that it’s important. I started doing this recently, and it has made a huge difference in my habit of keeping up with the clutter in the car.

11:34
When you pay for full service, they clean the car from top to bottom for you but they won’t move your clutter in the car. So to get the biggest bang for your buck, it all has to be cleared out which forces you to do something with the crap that you’ve been driving around with. It also creates a luxury experience.

12:02
Treating ourselves to a monthly carwash is seriously worth the investment. You know how amazing it feels when you have a house cleaner, come and clean your house. Okay, so think of your car as an extension of your home, another dwelling place you are driving around, it’s housing you, that’s where you are, and just hire someone to clean it for you.

12:24
This is one thing that we can delegate to somebody else and take off our plate. I promise you it will be worth it. And if money is an issue, start asking for gift cards for Christmas and birthday presents. Because let’s be honest, we don’t need more things. We need more services in our life. Can I get an Amen?

12:46
Let’s do a quick recap of the four habits including our bonus habit that you need to start doing today to keep your car clutter free. Number one, limit what comes in number two, tame the trash and this is by throwing trash away at every stop and having a designated place to collect the trash. Number three, follow a nothing on the floor rule your kids can learn this rule I promise. Number four, clear all the surfaces when you arrive home so nothing is left and your house your car is reset each and every time you arrive back home. And our bonus habit that we are going to start doing and treating yourself with is treat yourself to a full service car wash. I promise you it is worth it moment.