From Hot Mess to Less Mess- Things you Should Be Doing Everyday Around the House To Control the Chaos

I’ll admit it…sometimes I’m a hot mess. Clothes everywhere, dishes piled up, running late, toys scattered on the floor…. being a mom is exhausting & hard to keep up. Are you having a hard time balancing that work/mom life WHILE trying to keep up with your house? Girl…..I felt like I was drowning… Maybe these tips will help you too keep your head above water.

I’m NOT writing this to toot my own horn or to pretend that my house is perfect & organized. (Hi, Hot Mess here remember?) Most of this I owe to my mom. Her voice is constantly in my head with her advice. (whether I asked for it or not!) And if you’ve ever been to my mom’s house…things are rarely out of place & it ALWAYS smells good. My Grandma always had a very clean home too. So I have some great role models! Let’s face it, some days I got it together & some I just don’t. BUT these simple things have drastically helped me & my sanity everyday.

1. CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN EVERY NIGHT: Ok my mother FINALLY convinced me to do this. “You know, if you just…” (u know the rest) I was so used to getting distracted from the kids immediately after dinner that sometimes I would just leave it all on the table, left with dirty dishes & a mess to clean up the next day. Then I would find myself ALWAYS behind on dishes. So what started off as a something I was going to prove to my mom (yes I sent her pics of my clean kitchen in the morning for almost a week!) …it quickly became a routine. Just like health & fitness, good daily habits eventually become routine. Your kids can wait, they will get used to the routine. I make sure my dishwasher is empty and all dishes go in or get washed immediately after dinner. Then run your dishwasher either that night or after breakfast in the morning so its clean and ready to empty by dinnertime the next evening. Wipe off your counters, sweep your floor & clean your sink. I promise you in the morning when you come into the kitchen it is SO MUCH BETTER!
2. TOY ROTATION: I should’ve done this a million years ago. I felt bad taking the toys from my kids & putting them away…but they have never asked me about a single toy ONCE. No regrets. Here’s how in the short version: organize the kids’ toys into different bins and rotate out boxes every day or every few days instead of them having access to every single toy every single day. If you need help with this like I did…don’t worry, another post (the long version) is coming to help you! I promise you it’s worth it. Instead of a million toys everywhere you have 1 box of toys to clean up, which brings me to my next point…
3. DO A QUICK PICKUP EACH NIGHT: You are tired & ready for bed I know. But it only takes a quick 5-10 mins to walk thru the living room & quickly fold up your couch blankets, put the toys back in their daily bin & put things back where they belong..ish. (I love to keep a bin in the hallway to the kids’ rooms so I can quickly toss stuff of theirs that stray from their room throughout the day & then the next morning I put them away.) Also do a quick pick up in the kids’ room before bed, have them help by turning it into a game! It’s probably the last thing you really want to do before bed, but it’s so nice to walk into a picked up living room (& kitchen right?!) in the morning to start the day.
4. ORGANIZE YOUR PAPERS: Are your counters or tables paper collectors?My kitchen island was for sure, which in turn made my kitchen messier. Get those papers off your counters with an organizer of sorts. I bought this 3 tiered hanging organizer & hung it in my pantry. Every day mail goes in the organizer along with receipts, Emmy’s school papers & anything miscellaneous. At the end of the week I go thru Emmy’s school papers & decide what is trash & what I’d like to keep & file away in a keepsake box.
5. PUT THINGS BACK AS YOU GO: ughhhhhh why is this so hard?! THIS has been my personal hardest thing to do & I’ve come to terms with the fact that this is my biggest problem. To put things back right away is annoying & I have to remind myself constantly to do it (especially as I’m working on my boutique business which is how my office becomes a hot mess real quick) BUT IT WORKS! Annoying as it may be at the time to take a second to hang your shirt back up or put the spices back in the cabinet as you are cooking, JUST DO IT.
6. MAKE YOUR BED: I know, it’s not groundbreaking news as it’s in every list possible of things you should do everyday, but there’s a good reason for it. It looks nice, makes the room more presentable & feels great to get into a nice made bed at night.
7. START LAUNDRY & DISHES IN THE MORNING: When the kids are having breakfast I always start my first load of laundry for the day. When breakfast is over, I start the dishwasher for the day.

REPEAT EVERY DAY till it becomes habit…it will eventually I promise. Will you be perfect every day? Probably not. My house is still a work in progress, but hey you might just surprise yourself! Good luck Mama, you got this!