Well, hello there welcome back. My name is Stephanie Safarian and you're listening to

episode 287 of Sustainable Minimalists, a twice-weekly show about intentional and

eco-minimalist living. Life gets messy. The way I see it, we have one of two choices.

We can either lower our standards, lower our cleaning standards in our homes, or we can work smarter, not harder, by preventing

messes before they become unmanageable.

So on today's show, I invite us to do both of those things. We do need to lower our

standards. We do need to remember that homes are for living, homes are not pretty

creating barrel catalog images. We know that there are more important things

in life than having that pristine home. But at the same time, we are also preventing messes before they become gigantic and stressful and overwhelming.

Not necessarily as a means of having that pristine home, again, but more is a way of lowering our own levels of stress and finding peace and happiness enjoy within our own four walls.

Today I have five ways that you can help prevent messes in your home, an

ounce of prevention. So my first tip is not revolutionary, but how many of us here in America do this? And it is to take your

shoes off when you enter your home and make sure everybody gets in the habit. So not just

you, your spouse, your partner, and your kids, but the in the

service men and the

servicemen and women who come to your house,

the guests who come for holidays,

everybody, house rule, shoes off. Let's talk about the why. The Carpet and Rug Institute

estimates that 80% of the dirt in our homes, so all the dirt, not just the dirt on the

floors, all the dirt comes in on our shoes

Now this makes sense doesn't it the soles of our shoes have grooves and ridges and those grooves and ridges are designed to not make us fall, but these grooves and

ridges are also havens for dirt and sand and mud, you name it.

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