
August 17th, 2017
5 Practical Tips to Keeping your home clean + organized
This post was created in collaboration with my friends at BestBuy.ca + Dyson. All views, opinions, goals and bucket lists are my own. Thank you for supporting our sponsors who make this blog possible XO
I can already hear my close friends and family laughing at this post because when it comes to keeping everything “in order” lets just say I’m currently the hot-mess mama scrambling to keep afloat. Tell me I’m not alone?
When I was pregnant I was the most clean and tidy I’ve ever been in my life. As soon as the nesting kicked in it was organization central in our condo. Everything got cleaned out, re-organized and 95% of our belongs had a designated spot to go into. Our place was clean and organized 24/7 leading up to bebe J being born…
Fast forward throughout this last year and as to be expected babies come with a lot of…”stuff” We are definitely outgrowing our space. Having it as our living, working, studio and play area is challenging and frustrating at times but thankfully the last two months or so I feel like we’ve made progress – there is light at the end of the tunnel and we’re finally getting our groove back and kicking some big bad habits in the butt.
So here is my ‘practical guide to keeping your house clean when you’re a new busy working mama!’…or hey even if you’re just busy working and doing your thing!
1. Get Help (!!!)
Did you get that? Like yesterday. To the working new mom who thinks she can do it all – you can’t – actually you CAN but you’ll probably be a hot mess stress ball – how do I know this? Because I tried this and failed, and failed and failed. I was always playing catch up, always behind. When you work, play and live in the same space and its constantly messy or rather in our case the mess would move from room to room – it can get really frustrating. Ko and I would get into some really silly arguments and then at the end we really couldn’t remember what they were about. Two months ago about two hours after a heated conversation I asked Ko half joking half dead-serious – if our place wasn’t in such chaos right now would we have gotten into that argument? We laughed but also realized – no – probably not.
The next day I hired cleaners to come every other week. We can do the up keep in-between but knowing they are coming every other week to do a nice deep clean has been EVERYTHING we’ve been missing. Why haven’t I been doing this all year? Best money I ever spent. Guess what? No silly arguments since. Outer chaos, inner chaos – when our home is clean and tidy I can function better. Now. I need to figure out how to keep the little ones toys all organized…hehe
2. Ten Minute Tidy
Anyone every watch Luna on the big comfy couch? Remember the 10 second tidy? This is kind of like that. We try to do this every night – key word here “try” lets be honest totally doesn’t happen every night but at least every other day – We set the timer for 10 min and go full speed to tidy all the remnants of a busy day around the condo. Putting J’s toys away (aka: collecting all the balls from under the couch and behind the furniture lol), any props from photoshoots, laundry, clothes, front entrance etc. Its amazing how much can get done in 10 minutes. This does not include the Kitchen! Tasks to include:
- Emptying Garbage
- Vaccuming Floors
- Clothes Away
- Toys Away
- Straightening up furniture
- Entrance tidy
- Wipe down of counter tops, table
- Quick bathroom wipe down and tidy up
I also like to trick my brain into being more productive around the house. If you actually monitor how much time it takes to do these small chores its next to nothing. But the laziness creeps in and says ahhhh do it later! If you track your time and know it only takes 3 minutes to do “xyz” you’re more likely to just get it done in the moment rather than putting it off.
Can you tell we’ve been trying hard the last few months to kick some REALLY bad habits that happened once we became parents? I know I know, don’t blame the baby!
3. Use Easy Appliances
Aside from the fact that you guys are going to get the chance to win a sweet v7 Motorhead cordless Dyson for yourself another reason I partnered with Best Buy and Dyson is because I adore their products. We bought a Dyson when we got married, the Dyson blow dryer has literally cut my getting ready time in half and now the cordless v7 Motorhead model has cut my cleaning time in half.
Here is why I love it – its so easy and quick! I’m all about convenience these days. The fastest way to break a bad habit is to figure out what silly *ahem lazy* thing is standing between you and that thing. Our old Dyson was amazing and powerful but you needed to find an outlet to plug it in – great for when we were in cleaning mode but for end of day or for fast clean ups like when I step on the 10th cheerio by 10am you want something quick, easy and powerfu!
…plus…its pink. Need I say more?
Pssst! Head on over to my Instagram for your chance to win this and check out bestbuy.ca for their full selection!
4. Clean Yo’ Kitchen!
I wrote about this before but if I fail at everything else walking into a clean kitchen to make my coffee in the morning is a small slice of heaven. Whenever I don’t clean my kitchen the night before my mornings always start cluttered and messy. After tracking my “productive” work days vs the work days I struggled with it almost always started with our place being tidy – nuts right? I’ll be honest 80% of the time Ko cleans the kitchen once J is down so I can sneak in a little bit more work before we get to bed especially on days when I didn’t work. So grateful he does this especially because the man can clean to perfection!
5. Designated Place for Everything
Remember when I talked about my nesting organization frenzy? Seriously, I was on a first name basis with everyone at the container store – I was likely referred to as the crazy but happy pregnant girl. I digress –
Well, even when this get crazy and nuts – when you get to the 10 min tidy it actually goes really fast b/c you’re just putting everything back in tis place vs. trying to find an open space for it! The bathroom for example can get scary chaotic especially if I’m trying to get ready for an outing – make up, hair products and skincare sprawled about – it takes under one minute for me to quickly pop everything back in its place. (you super organized people who are saying to themselves aka my best friends lol *so why don’t you just do that when you’re done* because that’s not how I roll okay?! Baby steps! lol)