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Tanya: Welcome to another episode of the momentum, podcast the show dedicated to inspiring, uplifting and empowering women on their journey through motherhood. I'm your host, Tanya Valentine. And today you guys are in for a treat, because today we are interviewing the Organization Queen herself. Nikki Morris.

 

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Tanya: The holidays are approaching, my friends. And why wait until the New year to start getting your life in order. This episode is a must listen, especially if you're hosting the holidays, or need practical tips to declutter and prepare for the holiday season.

 

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Tanya: Nikki will share easy.actionable ways to organize your home in life, so you're ready to thoroughly enjoy your holidays. Nikki. Thank you so much for being here. Can you start by introducing yourself to our listeners so that they can get to know you better?

 

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Yes, thanks for having me quick intro. For myself, I'm 38 years old, a wife and a stay at home. Mom.Come April, my husband and I will have been married for 10 years, all of which have been alongside his Nfl. Career.Being a girl from a small town in Massachusetts, I came from a close knit family, where we would have aunts and uncles. Cousins live close by within 5 min of each other Sunday night dinners. I've had to really learn how to adapt and adjust my life to fit of more of on the go and flow mentality. As a woman married to an Nfl coach, life can be ever changing. Each new season can come with a move that can bring you closer or further away from family members. Friends, it's sudden, it's fast, and it can be hectic.

 

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Nicole Morris: I am a type, a personality coupled with high function, anxiety, and a bit of Ocpd, which is something I've learned over the years. I thrive in minimalism. Less is more and more causes me to be anxious. Since, understanding this about myself, I have adapted my life to serve the better good of myself, which then allows me to show up for my husband and kids at a higher capacity.So I found things that help keep our family, our household flowing in the different seasons of life.  And I'm here today to share a few takeaways that have helped me as a mom, and hopes that they can help others in their homes and throughout their daily lives.

 

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I love it.

 

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Tanya: I'm ready. Let's get into it.

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Nicole Morris: perfect. Does that sound good to you? Okay, alright. Okay. So for me, something I always have in my house, I would tell you to do a Central Command station. So it's basically somewhere where you can have everything that's in your brain outside of your brain. So

for the Morris household I usually keep a wall space. It's typically somewhere in the kitchen. I've tried to keep it on my fridge, but I look at it, and it's just clutter and noise, so I hang it up, and then I take it down, and I move it 20 times. But I've finally found a blank wall space that works for us and some things that would typically be taped up. There would be the kids annual school calendar. A monthly calendar that I would get from like target or on Amazon, where it's like

a big say, like 2 feet by 2 feet poster with like the calendar laid out for the month, and you write in the month in the days and I kind of like that's my paper go to calendar and I hang it on the wall as well. So just like as I walk by randomly. If it's you know, typically I go to my phone and I use that calendar. But like it's out and about. And if my phone's not out, it's just kind of something that I can like. Oh, like I forgot, we have that today, or it just like jumps out at me, or if it doesn't jump out at me.

 

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Nicole Morris: my babysitter takes a look, or my husband takes a look, or if someone's visiting and like gonna try and help out with the kids, they can like kinda have an idea of what's going on that day. Another document I like to keep up there could be like the weekly dinner plan for us or the kids. Cafeteria lunch schedule so like I can eyeball it real quick in the morning. Be like, oh, they'll eat that. I'll pack light snacks or they're not gonna eat that I need to pack an entire full blown lunch, cause it's not something that's like up their alley for what they want. Outside of, like a physical Central Command station on the wall. I am huge on my iphone with like a notes page.

 

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Nicole Morris: So something I do is. I tab everything out, so I'll have one that's called like to do another one. That is grocery list, one that might be. We have a lake house in New Hampshire, and it will be called like Lake House, Lake House Punch List. So, for instance.things that would go on that outside obvious, like groceries, and to do list, you know, but for, like a Punch list, for one of our properties would be pressure. Wash the house. It may have the gutters cleaned schedule like fall clean up schedule put to put the docs in. So it's kind of like, instead of having a to do to list that I look at that is so overwhelming with, like all of my life on it, they're like many categorize things.If that makes sense categorized out.

 

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Nicole Morris: you know. Yeah, they're like broken down into smaller chunks. So that yeah. So it's like anything with the Lake House. I don't really have to look at every single day. I don't have to go to that note, notes, Page, you know. And the nice thing the nice thing about like the notes page on the iphone, too, is like when you go and you pull up the app.

 

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Nicole Morris: All of those categories are listed. So it's not like you have to go and search for them. So like, for instance, I just pulled mine up, and it just says, like under the main on the main page, you don't even have to click around it. Says groceries to do Lake House punch list, and Seattle tickets, for instance, because we have a bunch of family coming in for my husband's Nfl. Game for the rams for Seattle, and I have to categorize how many tickets I have to buy who's coming to that game. So that's one that I have for myself to see how many tickets and who's coming and how we all get there, and blah! Blah blah. So anyway, that's a good one, and the other one that I just started using.

 

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Nicole Morris: is the skylight calendar. You can mount it on the wall. You mine just sits on the kitchen countertop, and the reason I did that is, I had to have a liver surgery in September, and I didn't know if I was going to be in the hospital for like a week or 2 days. So for me, I could constantly update things on my calendar, on my iphone and know that they were syncing to the

to the skylight calendar that was on my kitchen counter. So my husband or my mother, or my babysitter like if they looked at it, it was always synced, and up to date versus like, obviously, my paper calendar wouldn't have been so. It kind of.

 

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Tanya: Yeah, I've never heard of the skylight calendar. But I mean, I use Google Calendar. So what do you can you just do you link your digital calendar to it. 

Nicole Morris: Yeah, you can buy it on like Amazon, and it looks like a little picture frame. And like I said, you can hang it on the wall or put it on the calendar and stuff so like, if I make a change to my calendar on my phone. it automatically sends it to that. So it's like awesome. It's 24 7 up to speed. And I think I think a big part of my push for things like that.

 

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Nicole Morris: you know, like I share my iphone calendar. My husband and I have shared calendar so he can always see, like where we are, what I'm doing, what needs to be done like everything. He doesn't have to ask questions. He could just go to the calendar and see like what's on the schedule that day, and I think, a bit part of where my brain training went to that is, I used to be an executive assistant for the Carlyle group.and the my boss traveled like over 217 days a year.So for our job to work together and like may have like reservations and plane tickets and hotels and meetings, and all this stuff we the biggest component of my job was to make sure our calendars were synced because we weren't in an office together. So I was like, Okay, what's the biggest thing here, like, what's gonna make this work? And it also allowed me to not have to be in the office. 24, 7,my computer at my desk because everything was really electronically synced. So, for instance, I color coordinated things which I'll talk about that

coming up to, you know. His calls were yellow, his in person meetings were red, his flights were blue. It was just an easy way that worked for my brain. Constantly be synced electronically.

 

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Nicole Morris: So I just always highly recommend that I have some friends that are like, I'm a paper and pen kind of girl, and it's great. But like when we're out to lunch or having a dinner trying to make plans, she'll always be like, Oh, like. I have to go back to my paper calendar like At home. And then I'll text you, and like, that's great. It works for people. But like I love that I could just be anywhere at any time, and not have to worry about like having to add another to do to my list like, oh, let me

 

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Tanya: like, I have to remember. Yeah, just having that just in the back of your brain, like just taking up space. And they're like, Oh, I have to remember to get back to this person.

 

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Nicole Morris: Yeah. And I feel like being like a mom. You're always like accounting for, not just yourself. You're accounting for, like the whole husband, schedule and their family schedule, and a school schedule and a sports schedule so like, I try and keep as much noise. limited and outside of my head that I can.

 

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Nicole Morris: You know my husband will laugh at me. He'll be like, hey! Could you like put on the calendar like that. I have a haircut on Thursday, and it's funny cause like he could use it himself. He can go add to the calendar, but like I'm our. I tell her it'll go on so like it's enabling. But he knows I do enjoy that like control part to like. I like to take care of them like in ways that it eases up for something that they would have to do, you know.

 

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Nicole Morris: But yeah, just keeping as much noise out of my head so that I'm not anxious, and that when I go to bed at night I'm not like. Did I forget to do this or that, you know. So I don't know. My phone is just kind of like my life saver.

 

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Nicole Morris: If that makes sense, it's just like I always have it on me, you know. And there's so many apps and things that you can use on it to like declutter, your brain and make your life easier yeah, so you know that has been a help for me, and I share things with people. You know. People are always like, how do you keep like all the balls in the air all the time. And I always just give little tips. And that's like kind of like, what the goal of of this podcast would be

 

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Nicole Morris: Another item that I wrote down. And your typical podcast I'm sure people just like flow with conversation. But my brain doesn't work that way. Because I'm like, what am I gonna miss and like, what am I gonna talk about so clearly? My stuff is all like folded out for us today? So the next thing I was gonna go into was routine.

 

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Nicole Morris: You know. I have again on my phone. If you go to like your alarms. I have daily alarms set. So I try and wake before the kids wake. So like I have a 6 30 Am. Alarm. And then there is one for Monday through Friday, at 6 45 am. To wake the kids, one at 7 25 am like. So it goes off. So I know that we have. That's our 5 min warning.

 

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Nicole Morris: So you know, we'll be doing something, you know, whether Malia is brushing her teeth or Jaylen still finishing breakfast at 7 25, when the alarm goes off. All of our brains are like we have like 5 min to wrap this up and like get out the door to make the bell. So it's funny. It's kind of like those alarms the kids here and I hear, and they all, we all know, like time to like check in something like is coming up and needs to be done like, let's stay on track, and it's hard. It's easy to get off track when you're a mom like I'd only have like one, but 2, and gosh! Even more than that. It's just easy to get off track. So 7, 25, I know, like, okay, if I leave here, I have 5 min, and if I leave anything after 5 min like we're closely missing the bell, and I don't want my kids day to start like.anxious like, are we gonna are we gonna miss the bell like, are we gonna be late, you know.

 

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Tanya: Yeah, that's great. That's like such a great time management system, like, I imagine you're never late.

 

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Nicole Morris: No, we're usually always like 5 to 10 min early for things. But you know it's funny. I don't wanna create things that II call them struggles. Other people call them strengths. But like

I am always on time. I do always have like a system that works like I don't want to make it so that, like, my kids have to be like me. But I do want them like aware of like timing and showing up and being respectful of like plans with people, you know. So you know, Malia is a lot like me

when it comes to that stuff of like I had just mentioned. She's like, Are we going to miss the bell, or are we going to be late? I say, no like I just don't want her to start anxious.

 

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Nicole Morris:  So we have like alarms for everything. So I did like. I said, like this, the leave for school. I have one for myself. I call it the bad mom alarm every time it goes off, like if I'm with someone they're like, What's that for? I'm like, Oh, it's my bad mom alarm. And they're like what? And I laugh. I'm playing that. Yeah.

 

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Nicole Morris: I laugh, and I'm like, Oh, it's my alarm. Like to remind myself to pick up my kids.

 

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Nicole Morris: Oh, my God! Like if I'm if I'm like grocery, shopping, or like doing a return or a nail appointment, or like, maybe if I'm doing a self care day at home and like reading a book like, I don't wanna. I need to make sure. I remember like where the time is flowing. So it's always like 15 min before I have to get them. So I call it the bad mom alarm.

 

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Nicole Morris: then we, you know, we typically come home. And the other part of the routine is like.you know, we come home. We wash our hands, we do our homework, have a snack, and then, you know, we eat dinner at 5 30, and I always have another alarm set for 6, 45 cause like after dinner and homework sign. Do whatever you want when that alarm goes off like they run upstairs and they get in a tub, get in a shower, or whatever is. They know that that shower or bath time.

 

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Nicole Morris: and then, after that, one goes off at 7 45 pm. And that's like, alright. Everyone upstairs and in our rooms like it gives them 15 min to get in their room, read a book, get settled, you know, do whatever they want, and like 80'clock, we kind of like shut lights out, and  like the day's done, and those alarms are set every day Monday through Friday.

 

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Nicole Morris: and it's just something that like for us. Personally, we thrive off, and it helps me stay on schedule.

 

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Tanya: Yeah, that's awesome. And that works for you guys like, do you ever have to fight with your kids at night to go to bed? Or they just know, like you've been doing this so many times that it's just like ingrained in there.

Nicole Morris: I think all of the stuff we do so much like we really don't get stressed out with any of our daily schedule. But I'm going to out myself here. My son is like the nail in the coffin for me. He drives me nuts like Melina is like abiding, and does things, and Jalen is just like the child that I don't know what my life lesson is with him like I don't know what I did to like. Get it. I love him to death, but he drives me nuts, andit's like, I don't wanna put my shoes in socks on like cause. I'm still doing this or like, I don't wanna go to bed yet, because, like I didn't get to play the video game that I wanted to play, you know. So like there's some times where I'm like, oh, I don't have any to fight this battle tonight like it's not a big deal like I'm just gonna let him play the video game for 10 min. It means a lot to him, and it doesn't bother me. And we're still gonna be like on task and on time. So like, go for it last night, that's not how that happened. He had a complete meltdown. He was like so upset. And I said no to the video game, because, like if he had handled it better. He could've had the extra time, and it would have been fine, but he didn't, and we ended up laying in bed and him crying, and I had to tell him, you know, like today, he would get a better opportunity to do that. So yeah, it. It is a routine that they're all aware of. And you know it's funny when you do it so much. Naturally, they're like ready for it. So I noticed, like, you know, Tuesday nights we have baseball practice, and we don't even get home till 6 30, which is like so late for us to just be stepping in the door, and like, I noticed, like even a 15 min difference from 7, 45, when we usually head up to like 8 like Malia went up last night and later, but like. Didn't want to put her TV on, didn't want to listen to her sleep. Meditation, music she listens to at night sometimes.

 

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Nicole Morris: and like she just wanted to go to bed, and it's like a 15 min window. But like her body and her brain, everything was ready. So could be a combination of things.

 

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Tanya: Yeah. So routines are huge. Yeah. And I want to talk about because I know we have a limited amount of time, just because my daughter's going to be coming the bus way up like maybe 10 min. But I want to talk about well, first

 

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Tanya: to all the busy moms feeling overwhelmed like they're juggling multiple taks and projects a lot of them like without completing any, because of the constant distractions and never any to do list. Where can they start for a quick and easy win just to kick, start their organization journey and gain some momentum? What would you? What would be like one thing that you would recommend. That would be easy.

 

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Nicole Morris: I feel like there's a couple just quick ones like plan ahead, meal plan dinners for the week like I said. Pack lunch is the night before. Pick out outfits the night before.

 

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Nicole Morris: you know, like have days where you're doing laundry a day where you grocery shop a self care day like plan ahead and pick like II wash sheets every Friday. you know, just planning ahead.

 

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Tanya: decluttering. I don't know. For me. It's it's huge I love. Yeah, let's talk about that, because as a holidays come like, I think that decluttering is important, because, like, that's one thing that's hard for me, like one of the things that stresses me out is the idea of adding more stuff in the house like the toys they get for Christmas. So like, what advice would you have for prepping the home and decluttering to prepare for the things that inevitably are going to come into the home during the holiday

 

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Nicole Morris:Specifically, I have the kids go through in November, go through the playroom, and we gather like a bunch of things that like they don't need, and or or like things that are missing pieces. So things that are missing pieces go in the trash, things that like we don't need because we're making space for more to come in. We donate I've read articles about like a Santa bag, and it's like, have kids put like 10 toys in a Santa bag and, like you, leave that out on Christmas Eve, and then new toys are in it. Christmas day. I thought that was so cool. Yeah, I thought that was so cool. So I'm not gonna adapt that this year as well. And then not necessarily for Christmas, but just like in life. I go through our closets like at each season.and make sure, like the sizes are on point, for, like what they need and like. you know that it fits and that it's like in the climate change of where we're living at that time. And whatever we don't need we donate so I think that's huge.

 

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Nicole Morris:  specifically for like Christmas and like to enjoy the holiday season. Schedule your family photos. Now pick out your family picture outfits. Now, get holiday card addresses like start get it. If anyone's moved like, I have a Google drive which we could save for another episode, or I could touch briefly on it now. But in my Google drive, I keep addresses. So one template is just my return address labels so like every year. I just print those out, and I have them to put on the card, so I don't have to handwrite it. So I, and then so I pre order, or I print them myself. The returns I buy stamps in advance. Christmas stamps.I make my shopping list unlike what the kids want. Typically, I do that in like an Amazon cart. And I hit save for later, save for later cause, I typically buy the kids like 10 presence each, and then anything on top of that that I'm like, oh, they would like, and I would have got people ask any ideas, and I just share the Amazon link.

 

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Nicole Morris: So it's like, Oh, like, I'd buy this. But I already hit their 10 min their 10 present.

 Max, that I'm doing personally. So like, here's other things and ideas, and like, pick this, and if you get it, let me know when I remove it from my cart, you know I had to. It was just like awesome, like family and friends and everything. And that's another thing we said like no more Christmas presents for like friends we're like, Hey, we get so much stuff. There's nothing they need. Oh, I'm just like I'll just do a birthday present instead of like Christmas and birthday, like one thing or like said like, I'll come and I'll take everyone to the movies.

 

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Nicole Morris: Another huge thing that people make fun of me for, and I'm sure I'm going to get the text like November first, like I always do. I have all of our presence stored in a closet and wrapped before Thursday before Thanksgiving. I start the closet. November first is when, like the closet starts, and it's already kind of started like with a couple of small things like an Advent calendar things like that. But I mean I, all of our guests are wrapped like by the first week of December, and then they go back. They're stored in the closet, and I used to put them out before Christmas, you know, like 2 weeks before, or like the week before. And now I put I put like a couple out because things give me anxiety, and I've noticed that like it just doesn't help like as a mom, and being on the go all the time.

 

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Nicole Morris: I look at it, and I'm like, it's overwhelming me like, I wish, yeah, I just stare at. I'm like, Oh, it's just so much so. I just kind of load the presence out like from us and the ones that come in from like family and friends. I load them out now like Christmas Eve.

Nicole Morris: Okay, just so. It's not loud to me.

 

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Tanya: that is awesome. Like II can't even imagine. Like the relief I would feel just going into December and knowing that everything's done

 

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Nicole Morris: well, I mean target. You go to all these places the Mall and target. And like everyone's acting like jerks that everyone's driving around and stressed out like it's to me it's just like it takes away from it, being like fun, like getting my kids like something I know. I'm like trying to like. See if there's any left on the shelf at target, you know.

 

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Nicole Morris: So I do. I always like see what like the top toy gifts are for the year, and that all all that stuff's released already on the Internet, and I go through it. If anything's like calling to my kids, I get it. And every year people say, How are you able to get that without paying like 3 times the price, and I was like II bought it in October

 

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Tanya: right? Oh, my God, that is so smart! Well, you have given us, like some really  great ideas, and I know that myself and all the listeners are gonna feel much more prepared going into this holiday season. And we are gonna definitely have to do another, probably more than one podcast episode. If you'd be up for it.

 

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Tanya: I hope so but as we wrap up, it's clear that your organizational strategies are a game changer for moms looking to find balance in their hectic lives. And, Nicole. Your practical advice and personal experiences serve as an inspiration for all of us, navigating the complex world of motherhood.

 

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Tanya: Remember, organization is key to reducing stress and making the most of your precious time. Nikki's wisdom has shown us the way. Thank you so much again, Nikki, for your time and sharing your wisdom. I can't wait to have you on another episode. If the listeners want to connect with you and ask questions, how can they find you?

 

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Nicole Morris: They can just message me. Maybe on like my Instagram would probably be the best. Yeah. The handle is at Nicki, Marie Morris and IKKI, MARI, EMOR, RIS

 

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Tanya: perfect and do you want to end with any words?

 

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Nicole Morris: Yeah. I guess. Like something that always there's 2 things that always come up to me. One is like as a mom. I beat myself up when I'm like playing with my kids, and I find that I'm not enjoying it like they are. But it's not fulfilling to me, and I just have to remind myself, like

we don't have the brains that are compatible with the ages of our kids so like. Don't judge yourself for not enjoying like doing Legos or playing Plato with your child like, it's okay that it brings them joy and not you like, my brain developed. And Malia's is 8, like. it's okay that I don't enjoy it, and like, just be kind to myself. The only other one I have is. you know, like, for the stay at home moms out there. I think that  it's important to take pride in being a stay at home. Mom, like studies, have shown that the work is equivalent to a 2 and a half. 2 and a half full time job caring for your children. And like, that's basically a work average of 14 HA day and like what 98 h work week like it doesn't stop, and, like some people are just like, Oh, you know, sometimes I say, I'm a stay at home, mom and I like kind of shriek inside when I say it. I'm like it, doesn't. It sounds so weird, you know. You know. I think so. I think we just really need to be like, Ca, like, show ourselves like some compassion like, if I wasn't here doing this I'd be having a job and then taking probably half that pay to pay someone to do what I'm doing.

 

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Nicole Morris: You know, my kids get to have it with me. So I think we just need to like

 

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Tanya: thank you for saying that, like, I know that a lot of any stay at home moms that are listening to the pod. This podcast right now you just they feel seen. I'm so glad that you mentioned that. So thank you so much. and thank you for being on here and sharing all of your organizational tools and tricks, and I can again cannot wait to have you back on and everybody, if you found value in today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, share and leave a review. We'd love to hear your thoughts and any topics you'd like us to explore in future episodes. So thank you for joining us today and until next time stay organized. Stay inspired and keep thriving in your journey as a mom. Bye.