Ep 20 - Our Favorite Household Systems: Featuring Corey Adams

Today we’re going behind the scenes at home in a conversation with my husband, Corey Adams. Join us as we chat all about the systems at home that have been working for us, as well as a few systems we’ve had to tweak over time.

You can listen right here, on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or you can read the transcription below. Enjoy!

Carly: so on this episode of the podcast, I'm bringing you something a little bit different and my guest today is my husband Corey Adams. And I'm very excited to have him here. And we're gonna be talking about our own home and systems that have worked in systems that we have changed over time. I think it's gonna be fun. Before we dive in. I get this question all the time when people find out that I'm a home organizer, and people always say, oh my gosh, your house must be so perfect. I'm like, no, it's not at all. But we are, we are more minimalist-ish, more of minimalist. So it's just, it's easier to keep things tidy when there's just less things to keep tidy. But other than that, I'm sure my husband will tell you that I'm a… he says I'm the slob of the family.

Corey: I don't think you're a slob. I'm just maybe a little obsessive compulsive when it comes to cleaning.

Carly: That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay, so I'll let you do, I'll let you do your bio.

Corey: Oh, okay. Well first of all, thank you for having me on your podcast.

Carly: Anytime.

Corey: I feel honored. This is the first, and I mean probably only podcast I'll ever do, so I'm honored.

Carly: It's not gonna be the only podcast you, you're funny, you should definitely be on podcasts, but I'm really excited cuz you're the first dude we've had on our podcast.

Corey: Hey, finally.

Carly: You guys are getting the recognition.

Corey: Yeah. Finally, us white adult males are getting our recognition finally.

Carly: It's about time.

Corey: It's about damn time. Yeah. That's cool. You know? Yeah. So you want my bio?

Carly: Yeah. Like who, who are you and what do you do in the world? And you don't have to give any, you know, work specifics or anything like that.

Corey: For sure. Yeah, no. I'm a 38 year old dude. I'm originally from Santa Rosa, California, so Sonoma County. Grew up there parents, brother you know, good family life. Moved to San Francisco in 2005 to finish college. So I went to San Francisco. First I went to Santa Rosa Junior College, and then I transferred to San Francisco State. Got a history degree that I do not use at all. And then you and I met in 2006 at San Francisco State, and we've been together ever since. And after graduation in 2008 I got a job in gaming doing customer service. And I kind of, worked my way up from there. From customer service to like, account services, dealer services to-- um, you're giving me the hurry up tap. Yeah. So eventually,

Carly: Brittany cut this out, but like,

Corey: don't cut it out. You're gonna have this cute husband, wife banter. Gonna personalize you, babe,

Carly: but babe, just like the short version.

Corey: Yeah, yeah. Okay. So anyway, so, eventually I, I became a project manager, which is what I do now. So I was a project manager in gaming, but it was like an e-commerce site, so it was like direct to consumer stuff. Then we moved out to Sac in 2017 and I got a job with an animation and virtual reality studio, and now I am a project manager for a web design and development studio. And aside from that, I have played drums since I was 12. So I love playing the drums. I love music, although you would probably argue rightfully so, that I'm a bit of a music snob.

Carly: I don't think your music snob, I think you have great taste in music.

Corey: Thanks, but it's very particular taste. And I tend to like look down on styles of music that I, that I don't like.

Carly: Okay. That is true. And there are some things that I really love that you don't really like, but I think I've fully recognize that a lot of that I've realized has a lack of drums and I think that that's kind of the thing that you go, you gravitate towards naturally. So

Corey: it is, although as you know, I'm uh,

Carly: Sorry, the microphone picks all that up.

Corey: Oh, okay. I'm like rubbing the table.

Carly: We're gonna cut that out, Brittany.

Corey: Yeah. Uh, I just cleaned this table and so I'm like, I know it's a little dog hair on it.

Carly: I know.

Corey: Please don't tell Brittany to cut this stuff out. By the way, I really think you should leave this in. I mean, nobody's gonna wanna listen to this if I'm just like not making you laugh.

Carly: I think there'll be plenty of banter.

Corey: All right. Well, anyways yeah, I play the drums and then as you know, right now I'm looking into learning how to play the piano because I'm just, I really wanna learn more music stuff because that is kind of like, I don't know, the primary thing that brings me happiness in, in life outside of our relationship and stuff like that.

Carly: That's sweet of you to say

Corey: I don't know, just music and then gaming too. I'm kind of, I wouldn't say I'm a video game nerd.

Carly: I would,

Corey: I, I don't know, man. I , for a long time I've worked with like video game nerds and I am nowhere near on the level of some people, but I do enjoy playing video games. That is, that is an outlet for me to like reduce stress and just like, take my mind off things. So

Carly: nerd-dom is a spectrum.

Corey: It is a spectrum

Carly: that we can all enjoy.

Corey: That's true. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Not, yeah, not trying to be a gatekeeper or make things sound exclusive.

Carly: I mostly say cuz I worked in gaming for like six years and I felt a lot of times like, oh, I'm not, I don't belong. Like, I'm not like enough of a nerd, but the thing is like I am, it just might not be nerding out on the same things.

Corey: Right. You're an organizational nerd.

Carly: Yeah, I am. Yeah. I might be like an Anne of Green Gables nerd

Corey: that Yes, yes you are.

Carly: I would say that at work a lot that would always get a laugh.

Corey: You've become a pretty robust T-Swift nerd. I would say.

Carly: That doesn't, we don't need to talk about that on the podcast.

Corey: Okay. I just know you like TayTay

Carly: I do. I do love

Corey: or tater nuts as I love to call her,

Carly: I'm gonna call you Tater nuts.

Corey: Tater nuts. Yeah, so that's, sorry, that's my bio. I don't know, is there anything that I did glossed over there. I, we like to travel too.

Carly: We do love to travel

Corey: and we're super --can I cuss on this podcast?

Carly: Oh yeah.

Corey: We're super, super fucking excited because we're going to Japan in April and that's something that we've been talking about and planning on doing since, like sometime in 2019. We were gonna go in 2020 and then Covid happened and Japan's been very understandably, very strict on allowing tourists back into the country since then. And basically came down to like, we gotta travel somewhere international in 2023. And it was either gonna be Japan if they opened up, or like maybe Spain or something like that. And Japan opened up. So Spain will have to wait.

Carly: Spain will wait, but yeah. Yeah, that's definitely something about us. Like Corey's, my bar none my favorite person to travel with, no offense, anyone I've ever traveled with. Okay. Do you wanna talk about systems today?

Corey: Totes.

Carly: Great. So, as Corey mentioned, he's a project manager. My background is an executive assistant, and now I'm a home organizer. So as you can imagine, we're a little bit nerdy about some things. We're both, I will say kind of like recovering Type A a little bit.

Corey: I don't even know what that means, like Type A versus Type B personalities.

Carly: Just like - particular.

Corey: Yeah, I mean, I guess i'm particular, yeah, I always thought it was like, type A was like alpha, you know, like I take charge and like, I'm not really that, that person at all. I'm definitely more of just like a quiet, you know, wallflower.

Carly: No, it's more like, I have a plan for something and then when that plan goes awry, then my brain starts, it makes my eyes twitch.

Corey: Yeah, I can see. Yeah. That's definitely me then. Yeah, for sure.

Carly: So we're like both, especially at work, it's like we can be chill and like when we're chilling, we're chill. But in life, like are we that chill? I don't know. We try.

Corey: I think we're pretty chill.

Carly: We're medium chill.

Corey: It's mostly just like the stuff that we do at home, like in terms of, yeah, like setting up like organization systems for like our pantry or whatever, or our finances. Or if we're traveling somewhere, you know, we've got the spreadsheet and we've got links and prices and all this stuff, you know.

Carly: Yeah, that's true. We did a four month travel sabbatical in 2017 and like the spreadsheets behind it, I was honestly, it was so beautiful. It was really, really well planned. And now it's like people like, oh, you gonna wing it? We're like, no, we're not those people. But

Corey: I mean, we winged some of it, but it was all like winged within a pretty structured framework, you know, like,

Carly: well, I mean, we wing some things, but not like, people are like, oh, just gonna take a backpack and just go -

Corey: no, no , no, I wouldn't do that shit.

Carly: I know you wouldn't.

Corey: I like, I don't like sleeping on in, I, I've only had to sleep like on the ground in an airport once and it was miserable. So yeah,

Carly: that wasn't the greatest day of your life

Corey: that was I mean it was, yeah.

Carly: What airport did you sleep in?

Corey: Heathrow.

Carly: Oh, that's right. We have that in common. We both,

Corey: It was the day we were coming back from, this was in 2005, right before I met you. 2006, right before I met you, and was coming back from a month in Europe with my brother and a couple friends, and our flight back was super jacked up.

Corey: We had to fly from, Frankfurt to London, Heathrow or London Hamstead. And they take a bus from Hamstead. Yeah. Over to Heathrow.

Carly: You don't wanna do that.

Corey: And then sleep overnight at Heathrow. Just on the ground. Yeah. And then fly from London back to Toronto. Back to SFO.

Carly: woof.

Corey: I was like up for like over 30 hours, I want to say.

Carly: That sounds terrible.

Corey: Yeah.

Carly: But an adventure.

Corey: Yeah. The trip was great.

Carly: I'm gonna dive into, we kind of brainstormed some systems that we are doing now that we really feel work well, and we'll just kind of talk about 'em. Yeah. And then we'll talk about some ones that weren't working well.

Carly: Yeah. And like we've revised Yeah. You know, since then.

Carly: Okay. So the first one, this is kind of a doozy cuz it's a, a little two in one situation, but our meal planning system and grocery shopping mm-hmm, which I happen to know that we have been doing for like a decade now.

Corey: We’ve been doing that same system for a long time. I mean, basically since we've, like, since just you and I have been living together, like we've lived with other roommates. But yeah, I mean, since we moved over to 8th and Moraga in San Francisco, I. As far as I can remember, like we were like, we kind of in the system. Yeah. Or at least like a rough like a rough start of it.

Carly: And I will say that, so back in the day when I was first starting getting organized, there are definitely some, a lot of things that I learned from Rosemarie Groner, who's The Busy Budgeter and I have a distinct feeling. I've not gone back to like, look up the specifics, but I know that the way that I do my meal planning now is based on suggestions from her. Cause I was like really, really deep into her stuff back then. But yeah. And, and I have a blog post. I'm gonna write my notes link blog post about. My meal planning process that I'll link in the show notes too, so you can just see what it is. But, but yeah, we connect, we essentially. Both plan out our own breakfast and lunch. Don't worry what each other are eating. Make sure that we put whatever we need on the grocery list for the week. We go shopping once a week. And we probably do Costco. What? Once a month?

Corey: Yeah

Carly: Yeah

Corey: Yeah, yeah. Once a week - Trader Joe's with the occasional stop over at Raley's for things that Trader Joe's does not have.

Carly: Yeah, they don't have everything.

Corey: And then yeah, Costco, like once a month. But yeah, like the list is. Yeah, we do a weekly grocery list and it's like you write down the stuff you want for your breakfast and lunch. I write the stuff that I want down for my breakfast and lunch. We both like maybe write down some snacks. We want dessert. Yeah. You know,

Carly: Lean in just a little bit. Sorry.

Corey: Sorry. Just wanna be right here. Um, am I kind of just like repeating what you just said?

Carly: No, you're good.

Corey: Okay. And then, yes.

Carly: Dinners.

Corey: Yeah. And that. Lately, especially I think we don't always remember to think about this, but we kind of look at our calendars to see like, cuz you're fairly busy some evenings of the week, whereas I'm not.

Carly: Yeah. But, and, and I wasn't for, well, I don't know, two years. Yeah. But now it's kind of a little bit more so Yeah, so we just need to take that into account.

Corey: Yeah. It's like, okay, how many nights a week are we looking at making dinner? You know, and, and what, if any nights in the week are we gonna. One or both of us not be home, or is there like a night in the week, typically Friday and or Saturday night where we're like, we're just fuck, fuck cooking. Let's just make Yeah. You know, let's just order out and Yeah. Get something.

Carly: We generally make five dinners a week.

Corey: Sunday through Thursday.

Carly: Sunday through Thursday. And then if, if I'm. If we can plan it so it works out. Generally we'll cook like once for every two dinners. So if we like cook on Sunday, that Sunday, Monday, yeah, yeah. I cook on Tuesday and have it Tuesday, Wednesday. But then looking at the calendar, it. If like, I'm gonna be gone and you're gonna be here, but it's the cooking night, it might make more sense for you to just have like, an easy thing to cook. Or something to throw in the oven or just go grab food if you feel like, yeah. So yeah. So that's how we basically plan it out. And, and then we just like,

Corey: We figure out the rest, like what's the recipe the rest of what gonna make for dinner and what we already have, and what we don't. The big,

Carly: you're gonna hear Gimli in the background, just slurping water.

Corey: he's going to town. Did he get the donut removed? He did it. He's crafty.

Carly: I know he has this soft donut he has to wear cuz this ongoing paw issue and. He, he's crafty.

Corey: And comes over and drools on our legs.

Carly:I know. I love it.

Corey: He gets water all over our nice hardwood floors. Yeah. Anyways, what were we talking about?

Carly: So, talking about um, so yes, we plan the dinners, but the reason, the reason that this is. Really helpful. And the reason that we continue to do this process is that it really has helped us cut down on food waste like so, so much. Yeah. And that was a real game changer because before we did this, we used to, it was frustrating. We just kind of wing grocery shopping and then not use it all. And then, yeah. And we started this too specifically. Not throw a bunch of money down the drain.

Corey: Totally. Yeah. It's frustrating to like, I mean it's, it's like, yeah, it's both like a money thing and then it's also, it's both like a money thing and it's also like a, I don't know, just it's, it feels kind of shitty to like waste food, you know? Especially like with how. You know, there's food scarcity out there. There's a lot of people that go hungry, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I dunno, I just think I tend to feel guilty if we, like, don't use everything in our fridge cuz it feels like somebody else could've, that could've gone to somebody else or something like that, you know? Yeah. Or, you know, maybe I'm, I'm worried that I'm like not appreciative enough of what we have. Anyway. Your husband's kind of crazy.

Carly: No, he's not. He's great. So yeah, so this meal planning and then the grocery shopping, we do that once a week and not just, it works out, but it's, it's really helped us not have too much food in the fridge at one time so that things go missing. It's helped us use what we have and then and sometimes, you know, when we're doing the meal planning, especially for, you know, for dinner it could be that we look and we have like, oh, some odds and ends of a bunch of vegetables, and then we've still got some frozen chicken. And sometimes I just end up saving little scraps into like a little bit in the freezer. And then I'm like, okay, let's make a random ass soup. And then it's usually pretty good. Sometimes not, but usually pretty good.

Corey: Or if we got refried beans from Costco recently, it's like we're gonna have to have some taco nights.

Carly: Yes. Gonna have a taco with some soy chorizo though from Trader Joe's. Tacos.

Corey: I would say on that, like the the one thing that still stresses me out is just like deciding on dinners. Right. You know, it's like, like we have kind of like a stable of recipes that we go to, but you know, like, like if you do all of them often enough, like things start to. Like get stale, you know? And so we gotta…

Carly: Emotionally,

Corey: Yeah. Yeah. And we kind of like have to find new recipes here and there. Luckily we did HelloFresh for a little bit and like you can just

Carly: So like revived…

Corey: Yeah. And then, then we stopped it and then we just kept the recipe for snack and that was just the recipes, just make those recipes. Like they got this super delicious bibimbap thing that we like to make and

Carly: yeah, they have a lot of good options.

Corey: The shepherd's pie that we made the other day.

Carly: Amazing. Yeah.

Carly: Another system that works out well that we continue to do for years and years and years is to budget on a regular basis. Usually weekly, sometimes not, but it's at least twice a month I would say.

Corey: At least twice a month. But we try to do it weekly.

Carly: Yeah, we try to do it weekly.

Corey: Usually on a Saturday or Sunday. So exciting.

Carly: So exciting. But so the excite.

Corey: So the excite,

Carly: Having the meeting is great because then it kind of, that leads into the meal planning too, so we can touch base with like, what's going on in the week or. I don't know.

Corey: How much money do we have for groceries?

Carly: Yeah.

Corey: How much money have we spent on groceries?

Carly: how much money have we spent on going out? You know? Yeah. And then just kind be like, oh, okay. Maybe we need to check ourself,

Corey: Scale it back

Carly: Before we wreck ourself for the second half of the month.

Corey: Yeah. We're on a DoorDash pause through the rest of December because. We spent way too much money on DoorDash the first week of this month.

Carly: Let's just say we double dashed ourself.

Corey: Double dashed. Yeah. Once DoorDash opened up the option to like also have alcohol delivered to your house, it's kind of a

Carly: Danger.

Corey: Dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. So,

Carly: So I guess we're just driving to the store now.

Corey: Yep.

Carly: Yep. So that's really good. Highly recommend. And then one I was thinking about recently, this is just a change we made recently, but I think. Big game changer, and I was telling people about it on the Q&A Call for my private community yesterday is that we have made it that the person that's responsible for emptying the dishwasher in the morning, cuz we do the dishes every night, like just start the dishwasher. Mm-hmm, the person who's in charge of emptying the dishwasher is the person who is in charge of getting up with the dog. And we like have our own schedule for that and usually you can do that while he's eating breakfast real quick.

Corey: I always try and get it in while he is eating breakfast. He's quick eater, so

Carly: He's a quick eater

Corey: And if you're not on top of it, sometimes he just finishes eating and then he'll just take a shit right, right there. You're like, can't wait. He just like finishes his meal, takes two steps, and then just takes a dump. Like you asshole. You couldn't wait to like get outside. You couldn't like walk to the door to just like let me know that you need to poop.

Carly: Which is why you really have to empty the dishwasher fast. Listen,

Corey: I don't empty the dishwasher fast

Carly: I don't want, you guys to think that Gimli's just over here shitting left and right. He's

Corey: no, he's fairly well house. He just,

Carly: I would say he is, I would say overall he's really good, but sometimes

Corey: I would say he's fairly well house trained

Carly: I would say, I would say he is better than average.

Corey: Mm. I don't know what the average dog is like.

Carly: Well, just for the sake of this moment.

Corey: Okay. Okay. .

Carly: But sometimes should he have probably let asked to be let out? Before he chow down. Yeah. So then he doesn't just take two steps and then Yeah. Go poop. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think he knows that too.

Corey: He knows it.

Carly: But that's really helped us cuz then it's just done and then Yeah. Like it's done the first thing in the morning before the other person, person even usually gets up and then mm-hmm. . That means that we just fill up the re dishwasher for the rest of the day. Mm-hmm. And then

Corey: Don't leave your dirty ass dishes and dishes in the sink.

Carly: And then hand wash, you know, whatever it is. Trying to be quick with the handwash,

Corey: All of carly's coffee mugs and

Carly: They're special!

Corey: And I just washed it earlier today, the, the silver mini fork or whatever from your oh yeah. Grandmas like silver collection and -

Carly: Yeah. So I have, have China. Yeah. Sometimes I use China, sometimes I use the silver, but it's because I like, I like to use it.

Corey: Yeah. What's the point in having it if you're only gonna use it maybe once a year? Like use less shit? Yeah.

Carly: Yeah. So I use it regularly, but I use it for, it'll be. My snack on a little tea, you know, not teacup. What am I saying?

Corey: Uh uh, whatever you put the teacup on.

Carly: Saucer.

Corey: Saucer.

Carly: There we go.

Corey: There we go. We got it. A tea saucer.

Carly: Tea saucer. So that one's great. And then one that I suggested people all the time that has worked out well here, I think, Hmm, correct me if I'm wrong, is to have a bag for donations and a bag for textile recycling in our closet. Yeah. So it's just if we're like, this needs to go. Yeah. Then we just throw it in there. And donations are leaving here regularly, then I can just put 'em out with the rest of ' em.

Corey: I typically don't use this system very often, but recently I did declutter. A bunch of clothes that I just have just been taking space up in my dresser and in the closet that I just have not worn for years, that I was finally just like, you know, I just need to get rid of this stuff. And it was, yeah, very helpful to have those systems in place because what felt like it could have or should have taken hours really took like 30 minutes or something like that.

Carly: I didn't even know you were doing it. I turned around and you're like, okay, all of this is ready to go. I'm like, oh, dip. Okay.

Corey: Yeah. Yeah.

Carly: Cool.

Corey: Yeah, it's way, way, way quicker and easier.

Carly: Yeah. And then the textile recycling's in there too, for like old socks and mm-hmm. shirts that are just like dead. I use retold recycling who I have been mentioning lately. I, they're not a sponsor of the podcast. I wish they were. Yeah, I would love to work with them.

Corey: Any sponsors would be welcome.

Carly: Any, any.

Corey: If you wanna to talk about organization.

Carly: well, we do have a sponsor. It's, it's Tidy Revival.

Corey: Well, yes, yes, yes. I forgot about the benevolence of Tidy Revival.

Carly: So anyway, retold recycling.

Corey: It's your company.

Carly: I know. It is super, super awesome. And they just, they have subscription plans, so you can have a bag sent from them. It's a biodegradable bag. It's already addressed. They could send you like one, a quarter, one every six months or once annually, whatever it is. I can't actually do that anymore. I did quit my subscription because, We just have so much of a volume that, that doesn't make any sense. And I need to just get the, the biggest bulk they have, which is getting a 10 pack 10 pack of bags which is in route now. And I'm very excited cuz I have too much recycling going on me, get this the hell outta my garage. But that, but that's working out well.

Corey: Yeah, I would say so

Carly: Awesome.

Corey: Sorry, I don't know, like , that's probably the system. Well, no, it's just, like I said, it's like the system that I use probably the least. But

Carly: yeah, that's fair

Corey: I mean, a lot of it is in place for your business, you know, like, because you do a lot of like. Recycling and donations through your business?

Carly: Yeah, I guess like the final step is in place because of the business.

Corey: Yes.

Carly: But it's in our closet.

Corey: Yes.

Carly: For us.

Corey: Yeah. I guess I was thinking about the stuff in the garage.

Carly: Oh yeah.

Corey: Like the racks and the bins and all that stuff. That's more business focused, but

Carly: Oh yeah, it sure is. Yeah. We, I had to guys, I had to get organized with my freaking donations cuz it's just the volume is it's a bit, it's a bit much sometimes.

Corey: Yeah. Yeah. It's quite a bit. Ah.

Carly: Anyway. Let's talk about our utility closet, cuz you mentioned that as a system that you feel is working well.

Corey: Utility closet, you mean our hallway closet?

Carly: Yeah, the hall closet.

Corey: Yeah. I love it.

Carly: So we have one main closet in our house.

Corey: It's a good size.

Carly: It's a really good size. Especially considering, I mean, our house isn't, it's not huge. It's not tiny, you know, it's like 1,400 square feet.

Corey: Yeah. 1400 square feet.

Carly: And so we've got one big hall closet, has two big doors and basically two big sides. Yeah. Big sliding doors. Yeah. Do you wanna talk about.

Corey: I mean, you know, it's just the way you've organized it makes a lot of sense and it just makes it so everything has its own place, right? Like we, there's a place to hang our coats. There's a place to put our shoes, there's a place for anything Gimli related. So it's got like an, like his, his jacket and like extra poop bags and toys and all that stuff. There's, there's a space for like board games and then, on the other side, that's like one half of the closet, and then the other half of the closet, there's toilet paper, paper towels like bath towels and stuff like that for us, if we wanna swap 'em out. Or for guests. Same with like, spare couple sets of sheets.

Carly: We even have our our pillows and blankets,

Corey: Pillows, blankets. Yeah.

Carly: Proud of that thing. So I used, yeah, there's, it's usually. Toy storage, or I would say like kind of those squishy laundry baskets that are tall and round. We have a couple of those that I used to use for my sorting bags for work, which was a bad idea. So I'm glad I revised that system. But We kept them. They're from ikea. They're like black and white stripe. They're pretty cute. And we shoved a bunch of pillows and extra blankets in them. And then because they're a little bit taller, they're probably like, what, three and a half feet tall or something?

Corey: Yeah, they're fairly tall. Yeah.

Carly: Then we're able to really utilize the vertical space at the top of our closet. Mm-hmm. Because, and that's a dead spot for a lot of people, which fair enough. Like what are you supposed to store that that's ta that's that tall and still able to get it out? So yeah, I was pretty happy with that.

Corey: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And then there's, what else? Is there space for. Like rags and washcloths. Washcloths and then like toiletry refills, like we've got like extra toothpaste in there. And mouthwash all our covid tests, batteries…

Carly: Tons of hand sanitizer

Corey: And sanitizer. Yeah. All that stuff. And we got a vacuum, our sweet little Dyson.

Carly: Oh yeah. Well, and then, and we have the little

Corey: Oh the hand vac? Yeah, pet hair.

Carly: That bin has the pet hair, hand vac, and the iron. And then the separate vac I just got for the car cuz I really wanted this like certain kind of vacuum.

Corey: It's great.

Carly: Yeah. Yeah. We're good. Just got a lot our stuff in there. It works out well. Yep.

Carly: And it's, and it's that system. I just refreshed it. But I would say overall it kind of keeps up with itself pretty.

Corey: Yeah, I mean, there's really not too many times that I like look in our closet. I'm like, geez, this is a fucking mess. Like, no, it's, it's, it's pretty self-sustaining, I guess. Yeah. The way it's organized, it's chill.

Carly: Okay. Yeah.

Corey: I like it.

Carly: Awesome, awesome. Well that makes me happy. Stop stealing my water. Okay,

Corey: Well, I drank all mine.

Carly: I know I want some too.

Corey: And I drink a lot of water - don't cut this Brittany.

Carly: That's my baby. He's hydrated. Yeah. I don't care. I'll put this here so we can share.

Corey: Yay.

Carly: Let's talk about systems that were not working systems that we switched up and I jotted down a few for you to chat about. Number one for me, this is really me, not Corey, but my memory for anything and everything. This really struck me because I was thinking about before we set up, oh, actually before we like combined our finances, so before we got married, before all of that I just. Years ago, I was just really, really bad with my finances and when I was really nervous to start online, automatic bill pay, I don't know what my resistance was. I think I just didn't trust the internet. Hmm. This is an old story

Corey: Also. I think you need to give yourself some credit. Like, yeah, you had some credit card debt and whatnot, but I don't think that you were like terrible with your finances because, and correct me if I'm wrong, but the time that we started dating and stuff, I don't ever remember you like not having enough money to pay rent, you know, or like buy food and stuff like that. You know, like you, you, you, you, you at least managed to have enough of a handle on your finances. That, as far as I know, when we were dating early on, like that was never an issue.

Carly: Yeah. I would say that's incorrect.

Corey: Oh, really?

Carly: Yeah, because I actually had an extreme… a lot of anxiety about bringing anybody in to have any visibility into my finances. Mm-hmm. That was a huge part of it. So like you, you wouldn't have in insight into that.

Corey: Oh, okay. Fair.

Carly: So it was actually terrible, but I did never pay my rent late.

Corey: I mean, that's huge. There are plenty of people out there that have like late payments on rent and stuff.

Carly: Yeah. That, that got paid.

Corey: And food? Right?

Carly: Yeah. But

Corey: I mean, maybe it wasn't always the healthiest food or the

Carly: No, it's just this like one story, well, I'm not gonna get into it, but let's just say right, be, so this was actually before I knew you, but, there's a very distinct memory of right before I got this job at a club that I had when I was in college and met you. Right as I got that, like the last thing that I bought at the grocery store, I remember, I guess now I'm just telling the story. The last thing I bought was like a bag of beans and like an onion. Mm. Because that's it… that's all I had left. So, no, I was not good with my finances at all, and constantly had bills that were late. I was constantly overdrawn. It was like a catch up game with overdrawing doing. Direct deposit advances through my bank. Like it was just a nightmare. Oh, it was really, really bad.

Corey: This is all news to me. . Geez. After how many years? 16?

Carly: Well, why would it come up?

Corey: 17 years. That really changes things, babe.

Carly: Oh yeah?

Corey: Yeah.

Carly: This is the podcast episode

Corey: I don't know how I feel about this.

Carly: where we breakup.

Corey: Oh my God.

Carly: So anyway, online BillPay was a real game changer for me, is the point.

Corey: Well, and then you like slowly. I don't think it was anything through what I did. Sorry. Keep motioning to, like,

Carly: I'm trying to have you come a little bit closer to the mic. I'm afraid that I'm gonna be louder than you.

Corey: I mean, that's fine. Sorry, I was gonna make a shitty joke.

Carly: I think you just did.

Corey: What do you what?

Carly: No, I'm just teasing,

Corey: That's not a shitty joke. That's a great joke. No It's gonna go off the rails, but I still say Brittany. Don't cut any of this. Leave this all in. Don't cut. Don't cut anything. Don't cut any of this. Be more like the couple podcasts that I listened to with millions of subscribers. And just let it all hang out.

Carly: Let it all hang out.

Corey: Let it all hang out. What were we talking about?

Carly: Bill pay?

Corey: Bill pay. Well, I mean, this is like, you're, you've kind of gone backwards into like how your finances were before, like we joined finances, but we're really talking about.

Carly: Oh yeah, that's right, because we're talking about stuff that wasn't working and that was more on you. Like I, you know, not the bullet, sorry, but like

Corey: No, it was, I kinda had a handle on my financesat a pretty young age.

Carly: No, you did have a handle on your finances. That's something I really liked about you and that's why, and one of the reasons why I'm like, I gotta get my shit together. Cause I gotta, I gotta be up to snuff.

Corey: Well you did get your shit together. I mean,

Carly: I did.

Corey: You paid off thousands of dollars in debt.

Carly: Tens of thousands

Corey: Tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt, eh?

Carly: No, no, no. Tens of thousands dollars of debt. not credit card debt.

Corey: Not credit card Debt. Debt. Oh, right. Student loan debt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I. So, you know, props to you.

Carly: Thanks, man. You know, like that was really hard.

Corey: Like I never really had to do that. I mean, I was fortunate in that I didn't have to take out student loans because I did the community college thing first, and at that time it was affordable enough to be able to like pay tuition on a part-time job. Yeah. And still have extra spending money. Yeah. And I was living with my parents still. And then when we moved to San Francisco, I had a part-time job and also like, you know, help from my parents.

Carly: And you, you're not really like the club in every weekend guy.

Corey: No, no, no, no, no. Like, yeah, definitely. Like I'm just not a big money spender in general. Yeah. Like if I can help it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like I. Spent more money on myself than I have in the last, like 17 years on music year recently. And it was like a really big deal for me. Cuz I, I know I had been wanting to make some of those purchases for like, well over five to 10 years and I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Carly: I know you kept asking me my opinion, like, yeah, what do you think? Yeah. Should I do it? And I was like, yes, you should. Yeah. And then three months later, what do you think? Should I do it? Yeah. What do you think? I'm like, yeah, do it. I have no qualms with spending money on myself. Yeah. Okay. Things that aren't working, oof.

Corey: I just thought of another thing that like for me isn't working, but i don't know. It's, I think it's working for you, but it's not working for me, but it's kind of why we have two separate systems.

Carly: Oh,

Corey: I was just thinking about that cuz I was staring at the mail holder and how, like you have this mail holder like there on the kitchen counter to like hold all your stuff when you're ready to look at it. Yeah. Whereas I'm the type of person that, like, I check whatever's addressed to me daily and like if it, if it's junk mail, which it usually is, tear that shit up, throw it in the trash, get it credit or whatever. And then if it's something that needs action, it's like I put. Usually on my work desk because that'll remind me like the next day when it's like time to work, like part of my to-dos for the day. It's like, okay, and if I can get this bill taken care of or respond to this letter or whatever, like, I'll just do it and just take care of it, you know?

Carly: Yeah.

Corey: Like whereas you're, you have a different system and you're the type and because of your business, I think the volume of mail for you personally and your business is a lot more significant than, than my, like, than, yeah. But most of, most of it's junk. I mean, isn't that most mail? Yeah. You know, but, but still takes time to sift through it though, you know?

Carly: Yeah. And the thing that's just that, the difference is that like if it's during the work week and I have other things on my plate, like my to-do list is full. And so I don't really give a shit about responding to any of that. So I just want it to go into my mail Container, and then I, my, my aim is to go through it on the weekends. I'm not saying that's like a perfect, always happens. Yeah. But that's the goal is to alwa to go through it on the weekend. Yeah. But that drives you crazy.

Corey: Yeah. I mean, it only drives me crazy. Now if it's something that affects both of us, but you have to like get to it or whatever. Like I can't really think of too much stuff like that. Like maybe like Jetta registration or something like that, but then I'll just like put it on. Sometimes I'll just put it on your plate if you have more bandwidth. Yeah, and I'll, and then that works out. I'll just take care of it.

Carly: Yeah. So I guess it's just, that's two different, that's people having two different slightly systems.

Corey: Two slightly different systems. Slightly different systems. Thank you. Yeah. And and just rolling with it cuz you're not the same person. Yeah. Just going with whatever works best for the individual, you know? Yeah. Like, and at the end of the day, like I feel like I take care of any mail that's addressed to me that requires any sort of response, whether it's urgent or not. And for you, you will just not right then. But you're also like, this just goes to our personalities too. Like you're the type of person that. If something needs to get done, you are the type of person that can wait to take care of it because you're like, oh, I'll get to it on this day, but these other days I have to focus on this. Whereas I'm definitely the type of person where if something like that comes along, like I can't get other stuff done until I take care of that thing because maybe it's a quick and easy, just like, oh, I just need to go online to this website and register for this or whatever.

Carly: Yeah, of course.

Corey: And I'll just do it to get it outta the way and get it outta my brain because I don't get it outta my brain. It'll drive me nuts.

Carly: Yeah. Whereas if I have it in that thing, then I can just get it outta my brain. Yeah. Knowing that it will get done in the time allotted to take care of those things just. I can't think about it now. Yeah. And there's no right or wrong answer that kind of goes into like you have to do what the right thing is for you. Mm-hmm. . And if it's not working, then switch it up. But if it is working, then lean in and know that there's not one type of system for every personality.

Corey: Totally. And our personalities are, I think this goes back to that, is our personalities are pretty different. Like I'm the type of person that today is my first day off of the weekend. I just like to get all my chores out of the way. Boom, boom, boom. Get that shit done. Cross all that stuff off my list so then I can spend the rest of the weekend not stressing out about that stuff. Yeah. Cause I got it done. Whereas you're, You're able to compartmentalize that stuff and not -

Carly: well, we're not done with work for the week.

Corey: Right, right. But what I'm saying is like, you, like on, in your free time, you're able to compartmentalize, oh, I need to get this done, this, this, this, but you know, I'm gonna relax first, you know, or I'm gonna go do this first, or something like that. And it doesn't, doesn't bug you like, you know.

Carly: Yeah. Which is why sometimes, we'll, we've been talking a lot more lately too, about like breaking up our to-do list so that it's like, you know, if like you're really hoping X, Y, Z happens, Then like, what could you put on my plate and just know it's gonna get done so that I don't feel like I have to like, get it done on the timeline that you want it done. Or that you have to do it. Because then, you know, look, over time just, you know, in relationships it can be like resentment over time that like you've taken on more of the load. Not you specifically, but anyone.

Corey: No, for sure. And yeah, I can see situations where that might lead to resentment. Luckily, I don't think that that's happened with us. And I'm also just the type of person that if I have the time to do it and I can just get it done now, instead of waiting for somebody else to do it, I'm just gonna do it. You know? So then again, I just won't have to worry about if it gets done or not.

Carly: Yeah. Well I'll take it. Yeah. Let's talk about Tupperware.

Corey: Totally. I'm like totally taking this thing way off the rails, aren't I?

Carly: No, you're good.

Corey: Okay. I feel like people are gonna listen to this and then at the end they're gonna be like, so what the fuck were they talking about?

Carly: Systems, systems, systems, systems. Yeah. So what, what's the, the Tupperware?

Corey: Tupperware, yeah. That was one thing that didn't work for us when we were living together early in San Francisco, is I just feel like we just have like oven of like the containers and then oven of the lids, and they were like, way high up or something like that. And so like just, you always had to pull the bins down and like sift through to find the right container and then sift through to find the right lid. And we've just kind of tweaked things since then. And also bought nicer Tupperware with kind of like distinct lids and sizes of lids. And it just, I don't know, it's much easier to find the Tupperware and the matching lid and just like, you know, find the appropriate size for whatever leftovers we have. Yeah, so I dig that and yeah, the system used to be used to be broken, man. Just broken. Yeah.

Carly: Yeah, these days we've got one bin. It's a clear bin. Honestly, it's from the Dollar Store. I bought it like a decade ago. Just a clear bin filled with all the lids. And then we have, I think I have three piles of the actual food storage containers now. It's like the older ones that are kind of in the batches, in case it's more like -

Corey: Are you talking about those big - the ones with the red lid ones?

Carly: No, no, no. Just the ones like that. Just the older, the ones that we just were using.

Corey: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. So like the slightly older ones.

Carly: So we'll just keep using them until they die. But it could be good if like, We're gonna send food to someone else's house or,

Corey: yeah. And we don't care. If it doesn't come back, it doesn't come back.

Carly: Like, please don't bring it back. Yeah. And then we've got some of those like soup containers, like from takeout spots for the same Yeah.

Corey: Those are like handy, dude.

Carly: Those are really handy. Anything liquid, it's like, boom, put it in there.

Corey: Yeah, especially like leftover coffee and stuff. Oh yeah.

Carly: Leftover in the summer. Yeah. Yeah. And then I just put it in the fridge and then have it the next day as like an iced coffee. Anyway. Yeah. That's good. And then we've got this actual containers that we're using these days are by Rubbermaid…I wanna say it's Rubbermaid Brilliance. But they saw him in sets and I think we got ours at Costco. Right?

Corey: We got ours at Costco.

Carly: Yeah. But I'd had my eye on it. It was definitely a thought-out situation.

Corey: We were looking at the Pyrex ones. Right. But like the, there was something up with those Pyrex ones.

Carly: So anyway, it's the Rubbermade Brilliance line and we got it at Costco… I'm pretty sure we got it at Costco. Yeah. But I had my eye on it for a long time. Yeah. And I like it because, the lids snap really securely into place like really fricking securely.

Corey: And I like the way that they're constructed, the lids. It really feels like you're getting a, like a very solid airtight seal,

Carly: Very solid airtight seal on air on your lids. Yeah. Now I'm gonna say something controversial

Corey: And they don't seem to warp in the dishwasher. Like it's a thick enough, durable enough plastic. I haven't noticed any warping in the dishwasher where it's like zero. Some of our older shittier Tupperware, it's so thin and like flexible already that like you wash it in the dishwasher and it like bends and. And stuff like that. Yeah. So yeah, this stuff's, this stuff's solid,

Carly: man. This, yeah. We definitely have, I'm not gonna say fights, but like, not, not fights about what can and can't be dishwasher safe. And let's just say that we've lost an expensive fridge bin.

Corey: What expensive fridge bin? Yeah. Oh, oh yeah. Whoops. . I mean, that thing was like thicker plastic than our Tupperware.

Carly: Let’s handwash hand wash our fridge bins. Guys. It's like -

Corey: I mean… if it says dishwasher safe…

Carly: I don't know that it does say that.

Corey: Well, I don't know if it did either. I'm just saying if it says dishwasher safe, I mean,

Carly: If it says dishwasher anyway the Rubbermaid Brilliance line also has food storage containers that I think for sure rival the Pop containers. And that is because they're a lot less easy for a kid to take out and spill everything because of the snaps. And then the Pop containers, if you pull that lid off with one hand, you're just, you get new flour and sugar everywhere and it's a mess. So highly recommend. And then the last one, this is just an example of like a tiny, tiny tweak, but we used to have this … he's making fun of me cuz. Touching his leg to say, please stop tapping cuz it picks up on the microphone.

Corey: Yeah. Sorry. She's giving me a look.

Carly: Should we even do the last one? I feel like it's not long enough measuring spoons. I think I'm just gonna wrap it up actually.

Corey: Really?

Carly: Yeah.

Corey: I'm enjoying this especially if you don't cut this out Brittany, because I feel like this is just gonna show. I don't know. Our personal dynamic, it's gonna bring some life and some character to your podcast.

Corey: You know, it's gonna bring out your personality,

Carly: it has life and character… I think this is long enough.

Corey: I'm used to listening to podcasts that are like, at least an hour long. If not an hour and a half, two hours. Two hours,

Carly: we don't do that

Corey: they interview interesting celebrities, you know. Okay. I'm not an interesting celebrity.

Carly: I know. That's why we're making it shorter.

Corey: shit.

Carly: just kidding.

Corey: We can talk about measuring spoons

Carly: no, I think I wanna wrap it up. Getting tired. Getting tired. I think I'm like tired. sitting in like the sun.

Corey: You're not in the sun, by the way. You're definitely in the shade. It's just my baby likes to take naps all the time. I think she's feeling a nap coming on, but she's got work to do and then we've got grocery shopping.

Carly: I know. Okay. Which means, okay, we have meal planning to do tonight. We gotta work on that grocery list. Brittany, cut all this out.

Corey: Don't cut this out. Brittany, please don't cut this out. I know we've never met before, but I'm really hoping you do me a solid on this one. And you take my side and you're like, you know, Carly, I think you should leave this stuff in. Like, it's really entertaining. It's got me laughing. I think it's gonna make our listeners laugh and you never know. Like, why not put it out there and, you know, see how people respond to it. You pick up a few extra listeners,maybe it'll get a couple people to join your Clutter-Free home course. Is that not how I say it?

Carly: That is how you say it.

Corey: It's the Clutter-Free. Home… Process.

Carly: Yes. Clutter-Free Home Process

Corey: Course though, right?

Carly: It's a course, yeah, yeah. it is a course.

Corey: So I missed one word in there.

Carly: Yeah.

Corey: I'm I'm trying.

Carly: You're doing great.

Corey: If you're listening and you haven't joined the course, you should absolutely join the course.

Carly: This is all gonna be cut out.

Corey: Come on. Don't cut that out.

Carly: I'm cutting it out.

Corey: It's gonna be so vanilla if you cut everything out.

Carly: It's just me laughing like for a billion years.

Corey: it's nice to hear people laugh, especially the hosts.

Carly: I'm gonna start wrapping up now.

Corey: Think about some of your favorite like Conan O'Brien interviews. It's always like when he's busting up laughing because somebody's like just killing it.

Carly: Wrap it up. So we've talked about a bunch of processes and systems that we like ones that weren't working, that we've tweaked mm-hmm. and I hope that you got some good ideas and or just had fun listening to us.

Corey: If you cut everything out,

Carly: won't cut everything out, but we will be cutting out a big old chunk of me just laughing , it's just empty sound with me like wheeze laughing.

Corey: All right

Carly: I appreciate you being here. Thank you.

Corey: Yeah, thanks for having me. This is, like I said, I, this is I feel honored and Yeah. And it's a unique experience. I've never done this before, so thank you.

Carly: Yeah. This is also the first time I've recorded a podcast with someone in the same room.

Corey: Yay. I feel bad. I should have put more, I should have thought about it and I should have just set up my rec, my like drum recording stuff and just like, use this mic and then. Condenser mic, and then we could have two mics and, and we could run it through my audio interface and make it sound like really like high quality. Not that this doesn't sound high quality.

Carly: Wow.

Corey: But this is a USB mic, you know?

Carly: I know it is. Yeah.

Corey: And I've got analog XLR connections and preamps and all that stuff

Carly: we'll do that next time

Corey: yeah. Next time. If you want to have me on for another time. Yeah. Yeah, I can certainly. Certainly.

Carly: Maybe next time when you come on, I'll like poll people and do an AMA.

Corey: Sure. If people have questions. Yeah. Yeah.

Carly: We'll see what's what.

Corey: We'll see what's what.

Carly: We'll see what's what. Mm-hmm. The next time on the Tidy Revival podcast. No, but thank you. I appreciate it.

Corey: Oh me?

Carly: Yeah,

Corey: yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me. Love you.

Carly: Love you.

Carly: If you wanna learn more about how I can help you, head to Tidy Revival dot com to learn more about how I work with people one-on-one or in the Clutter-Free Home Process private community. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you'll always have access to the latest episode. We would also love to hear your takeaways.

Carly: You can feel free to tag us at Tidy Revival. On Instagram, Facebook or tiktok.

Carly: The Tidy Revival podcast is written and hosted by Carly Adams and edited by Brittany McLean. Title Song Maverick is by Dresden The Flamingo, and until next time, remember…

Ep 20 - Our Favorite Household Systems: Featuring Corey Adams

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