Episode 63: Spring Cleaning Simplified (14 day challenge)

go after little bits of better by building offensively small habits that create big impact . This is the Habit Lab Podcast . Hello , welcome to Habit Lab . If you heard a weird sound in the background , I got so excited .

As you know , I usually talk with my hands , but I punched my overhead light shade , so that's a first , you guys , and if this is your first time ever listening to this episode or to this podcast and you're like , this lady is interesting , you are accurate . That is an accurate assessment of this podcast . Host .

Okay , so I am Jenna Zint and I'm really excited because this episode is going to be about spring cleaning . And the reason I'm excited is it's not just an episode , there's actually a challenge wrapped in it . So I just I got this idea a couple of weeks ago and , yeah , so I'm executing it . I have I made a 14 day offensively small spring cleaning checklist .

All the things I put on there . I actually titled a portion of it offensively small . Chores are meant to be done in 15 minutes or less . But the reason I made this little freebie is because I actually want to do it with you .

So I don't know how long you've been following along my journey or me on Instagram , but one of the things I initially started doing was these small accountability groups because one I have just realized that I am way . It's not unique to me . I am an extrovert , but in general , I'm wired to follow through so much more like the freak .

The success rate for me with a goal or a task or a plan is three times higher if I have other people that I have like some level of a social contract with . So I love accountability groups for this reason .

That is one of the reasons that I usually am working out with people or , frankly , that's why I did my Bible habit group for 2025 is because I wanted accountability .

So when I used to do like little small free accountability groups for like a month on Instagram and I just haven't done one in a while because I've been had a bit of a fuller life , so I feel very excited to get back to my roots here .

So what this is is , if you I will put the link in the show notes you sign up like , the link will take you to the form . You fill it out , then you'll get it in your email . It's just like a click attached to the email . So then you'll get the 14 day spring cleaning challenge . You're welcome to either take a screenshot or print it off .

This episode will be more than just this . I just wanted to give you context for the rest of the episode . But the idea is then I will also have a free little account , really small , low stakes accountability group . I'm going to start on Instagram only . Sorry , folks , I've done Instagram and Facebook at the same time and it's a little too much for me .

So on Instagram there'll be a free group message , like a group thread . I'll start and if you want to do this spring cleaning challenge , I'm going to do it for about a month , so there's not like a start date . We don't actually all have to start at the same time . You're welcome to DM me and if , for some reason , I'm like , oh , you

know , you're welcome to DM me . And if , for some reason , I'm like , oh , you know , you're listening to this six months in the future , I'm like that doesn't exist . But here's the free chat . You know , here's the free checklist .

Regardless , you can always get the free checklist regard if you're listening to this six years in the future , six months in the future or six days in the future . Checklist is yours , but anyways . So I'm just inviting you into that component . And then the other thing is I'd love to actually see your results as you tackle day ones .

Let me see Day one offensively small shoes , purge out chrome pairs of shoes , put away winter ones , tidy the bin and the rack . The goal is that you do not take more than 15 minutes for any of these chores any day for the next two weeks . But I'd love to actually see your before and afters , so like a before of your shoe rack and then an after .

And if you just tag me , I'm actually going to gamify it , and the person who tags me the most , I'm going to pick actually three winners . The one who tags me the most is going to win a free 10 minute coaching , and then I'll pick other two at random .

So I'll give away three 10 minute coachings and you're going to be shocked at how far we can get in 10 minutes . I have a lot of people who book them and then we make a game plan , we solve where they're hung up and then they go on their way . So , anyways , that's the three components for the literal challenge of this episode .

I am going to get to meat and tips and information in the rest of the episode . If you don't actually want to do the challenge , but very least you could just download it and do it on your own , or you could download it and then ask me to on Instagram to join the little accountability thread

message , group message and then , if you want the third option , it could be tagging me for a chance to win a free 10 minute coaching call . Okay , so the reason I specifically wanted to talk about spring cleaning is a lot of times people .

The question I get when I'm working with people , when I'm coaching them , is how do you apply the principle of offensively small habits to projects ?

So maybe you get like starting with 10 minutes of exercise consistently over time , but how do you use the similar principles to apply bigger tasks that don't maybe need consistency but are too big to do in bite-sized chunks ? So one of the things that I do hence the spring cleaning challenge is I will write it out in small like .

I'll literally get specific and limit myself to 15 minutes . So if it's cleaning the garage , I think I've told you before that when my garage gets out of control , I'll hit it for like five or six days where I only get it , give it 10 or 15 minutes , but by the end of it my whole garage is clean . But I didn't lose a Saturday to doing it , you know .

So I think you can still use the same principles , and I actually wanted you . I didn't just want to tell you how to chunk out a bigger task into small steps . I wanted you to experience it . So that's why I put this challenge together , so that we could do this together .

Some things to note is that , whether you're going to follow my checklist or you're just learning in general the concept of how to tackle a bigger project into bite-sized chunks , most of the time when I limit myself to 10 or 15 minutes , I literally set a timer Some of these days as I was writing the chores , I know it's going to take you longer to actually

complete it . It's going to take you longer than 10 to 15 minutes . But one of the things for myself is often when I'm scheduling out my day , if I go longer it would be at the detriment , or almost like run into the next task and there'd be like a

couple ripple effects . So to build trust with myself . I actually think it's a really important skill to be able to give a task the time you committed and learn how to walk away .

So many people I don't know if it's just , I don't think it's just ADHD , but have almost like an anxiousness from not completing it , so they avoid tasks until they have the whole time that they would need to complete it . So that's kind of the idea of why I did the spring cleaning challenges , because one I'm looking ahead .

I just did my spring planning workshop this morning . It was fun . Everybody who was on there , live thank you . It was fun to do it together . And I'm looking at my season , the months ahead , and I have like a lot coming up . I have our church host a conference and I'm on the executive team for that , and then I'm actually speaking at the workshop .

The day after the conference , our Bethel Women's Conference , and then a day after that I'm actually leaving . I don't know if I've told you guys this , but I'm going on a 10-day missions trip to Ecuador which I'm going through with our church's ministry school . As an alumni , you're allowed to go because I haven't gone .

I graduated over almost 20 years ago from our ministry school , so I haven't done one for you know , 18 , 17 years . But every year I have a habit , like one of the things I do every year is invest in my own spirituality somehow . So whether that's a conference somewhere else or a workshop or a class , and this year I just wanted to .

A couple of years ago I took my oldest daughter . I organized a group of mom friends and we did a mommy and me missions trip to Mexico and we built a house . But I knew that I wanted to do this year . I wanted to go with my best friend who's led this trip to Ecuador for a couple of years .

Just because the testimonies are unreal and as I've been reading the New Testament the last , you know , actually I'm a year and a half into just repeatedly reading the New Testament .

You know , actually I'm a year and a half into just repeatedly reading the New Testament I was like , oh my gosh , what this would be , the like almost culmination of studying something so meticulously for a year and a half and then go with the chance to live it .

So in my mind , this missions trip is 10 days where I get to just go live the gospel , like pray for the sick , oh , days where I get to just go live the gospel like pray for the sick . Oh sorry , I feel emotional , like I just feel so much anticipation about getting my only .

My only role that I will be embodying in those 10 days is to get to be a disciple , like I'm not going to be a mom . Well , you know what I mean . Of course I'm going to do lots of planning ahead of time to make sure everything runs smoothly at home , but I'm not a leader , I'm not a wife , I just get to have my primary .

It's such a unique opportunity in my season of life to get to be so narrowly focused for something for a couple of days . So , anyways , that to be said . So , after my conference and my speaking and then leaving the country for 10 days , and then a few days after me returning from my missions

trip , my in-laws come for and we're going to go out of town with them for 10 days . So it's just a lot . And I started realizing like , oh my gosh , the reason spring cleaning is a thing is because we all kind of feel this tendency .

As the you know , the weather warms up and we're opening the windows to kind of clean and purge the house for a fresh start as the weather shifts and I have been feeling that like my windows are open behind me .

But realizing I felt overwhelmed looking at what my next month would hold and I was like I don't know that I'm going to have the capacity to do that . And that's literally the point of taking a big task and bite sizing it out Like I don't actually have the time to give a whole day to spring cleaning . It would tank my normal coaching hours .

It would tank the next couple of weeks , two weeks . I have a bunch of speaking obligations that I have coming up , so I wouldn't be able to give spring cleaning a whole day , a whole day , like the task would require , if I was to approach it with the all or nothing mindset .

But I realized , like when I start getting hopeless about things , I'm like , oh wait , wait , this is the old thought pattern of approaching a big task .

So that's why I actually broke it up , because I'm like I actually need to find time to do some of these things because I'm hosting more , but I don't have the large quote unquote ideal window of time to do this . So hence the 14 day spring cleaning challenge was born .

What I want , what I'm hoping you experience is one , taking a big task and learning how to literally specifically make it to bite-sized chunks that are 15 minutes or less . Two , I want you to practice setting your timer and walking away . Sorry , I feel like a coach right now because I feel very energetic about you practicing this stuff .

I want you to practice walking away when it's not complete and being okay with good enough . And then the other thing I want you to notice is if you look at this when you download this little checklist , it's not going to be a total spring cleaning overhaul , like your house isn't going to be spotless by the end of it .

But what I notice again is in the all or nothing mentality , because I couldn't do all of it then I would almost shy away from doing any of it . But what you're going to notice when you're jumping into it and just having very clear , defined 15 minute tasks , one a day , you're not going to feel overwhelmed ,

no-transcript . With the all or nothing mentality you're going to watch this momentum and be able to find bits and actually get a bet . I would be shocked if you didn't experience wins and other cleaning benefit . You know , like chores , that you just start naturally looking for a few days in outside of the list that I made for you .

So that was another thing I want you to experience . I call them timer tasks . And then the other thing I was going to say is , just with some of the as you're purging and giving away , I'm going to do an episode in the future about habits of sharing . It's just been cool .

My community does such a good job of wanting to be good stewards of our stuff , all of us being , most of us being on tighter budgets and then awareness of not wanting to waste . So like sharing or like donating , finding local places that we back or believe in .

Actually , my missions trip , we're actually taking empty suitcases and our local mom group we've connected with them to get their kids extras to bring with us on our missions trip .

So , as you're doing , there's quite a few like shoe purges and closet resets and bathrooms , just thinking through who do you want to give it to , how do you do that in a systematic way ? I purposely put a couple of the closet purges back to back so that you could save your piles and do one run for a donation or working out to give it to a friend .

I was going to say I have . I think I've mentioned this before , but when Rosie outgrows , when Audrey outgrows stuff who's my oldest I save it for Rosie . When Rosie , my youngest daughter , outgrows stuff . I then have a couple mom families , two mom families who have younger girls that I donate , like I usually .

We just kind of have a track record of giving them stuff , which helps me with not being overwhelmed with all my options . I just text them if they want it and I usually try to drop it off within 48 hours .

Actually I'm laughing because both of them live on my way to pick up my kids from school and I'm wondering if that was subconscious , if I chose people that was easy for drop-offs . But I think sometimes we get overwhelmed or idealistic about wanting to find them for a good home or a perfect home .

But I just have found people that are the right size and they know freely , without offense , I'm going to give them everything from our closet purge , but they are welcome to re-gift , chuck or donate whatever they don't like . So it's like a freely given , no offense if you don't want or like whatever they give . And it's been cool because we've done this .

We're on some people's list like that as well , and then I have girlfriends that I will give to specifically , but then for donation box . I'm looking in my closet right now as I'm recording this . I actually have kept . It was funny .

It kind of happened by happenstance where I realized that I would wait till I could do these huge hauls for Goodwill and then I'd be overwhelmed or it kind of again , analysis , paralysis .

So instead I got this giant it was an accidental purchase like giant blue bag that I was going to gift to Goodwill and then I realized , oh , I could make this my tool for my giveaways , for my donations . Or when I say Goodwill , I think of it like Kleenex . I don't just donate to Goodwill .

There's other charities and there's some shelters and I'm more creative . But I'm going to use it as a catch all for donations but simply having this bag be what I fill up with donations . When I was going through Wesley's closet this weekend and I've caught a couple of shoes that don't fit anymore , I just put them instantly in there .

Or what I do kind of is , when I don't like things , I don't like how they fit , but maybe they're really not great enough to give to my friends , I'll do the big friend pass offs when I'm switching their wardrobes for the season .

But if I'm collecting bits and pieces here and there , I won't make the effort to give them to a friend , usually unless there's something nice or I don't know name brand . But beyond that I have my big bag . It's a big blue bag . That's just my Goodwill and my habit .

Cue to myself is when I fill it up then I take it for a drop off but I keep the bag . And I take it for a drop off but I keep the bag . So the bag's always in my closet , it's hung up on a hook and I just slowly fill it up .

So that's been a helpful little hack for me , rather than having Goodwill piles I used to try that or I'd wait and have a ton and it was overwhelming . So just kind of actually making my donations bite size has been

super helpful . Yeah , so I think that's it . I would love for you to join me in this spring cleaning challenge , whatever portion you want to do . If you just want to download the checklist , if you want to make your own . You don't want to download my checklist , no problem .

Lady or man dude , I can't imagine there's very many dudes listening to a random girl talk about spring cleaning . Offensively small spring cleaning . Anyways , you're welcome to download it . Do it on your own . You're welcome to DM me and join the little group accountability thread on Instagram , or you can also . You could do all of those , none of those .

You could also tag me in your before and afters for a chance to win a free personalized coaching with me . Anyways , I enjoy activating people , I enjoy community , I enjoy doing it together and that's my heart behind this . So join me in this spring cleaning challenge to lighter loads everybody .