5 tips for keeping organized!

I am the mother of two small children, one recently turned 3 and the other 7 months old. They make a lot of messes. It is the nature of the beast. They are also VERY time consuming! The best most adorable time consumers of my life!

But what that means is that there are lots of messes happening constantly and by the time one mess is cleaned up... another has happened! Any mom knows the drill! Silence means trouble, and while you are busy cleaning one mess another is being made!

So it is important for me (someone who is innately lazy) to keep things organized and clean in the EASIEST way I possibly can!

So I thought I would compile a small list of how I stay organized while not spending my entire day cleaning! This is obviously not everything I do and just a sampling of what helps me, but this might be the beginning of a series!

SO HERE WE GO!!

1. MAKE EVERY BED

The easiest thing in my house that makes the biggest difference in the over all appearance of our home is making the beds. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Nothing makes a room look more sloppy than your biggest piece of furniture (often times the focal point in the room) being an unmade mess. Making a bed takes practically zero time, depending on how ocd you are, and makes the biggest difference! It also goes hand in hand with other productive things. For example: I will feel less inclined to fold the laundry if I have to do it on an unmade bed. I challenge you to make every bed in your home every day for one week. That's it. I feel at the end of the week, most people will want to continue making their beds because of the difference you can already feel in your home.



2. DAILY TO DO LIST/ WEEKLY TO DO LIST

I am a massive list maker (isn't that obvious already?).  I can have all of these random lists going on in my head, or I can spend 5 minutes once a day and write things down. I try to spend a few quiet minutes every night, after the kids have gone to sleep, and think about the next day. I think about what things in the house need taken care of immediately, what things we have planned, and what I need to have on my radar. I then make a quick list in my iphone for the next day. It takes very little time and sets my day up to be on time for things, have a clean home (with little effort), and take care of the adult things that I have to do. In the same regard, I like to spend a few minutes on Sunday night and make a weekly to do list. The items on this list are more like goals than HAVE TOS. For example, my fridge needed cleaned out after all of the Easter cooking. It isn't something that has to be a major priority, but if I have the time and the kids are napping or keeping themselves entertained, then it's something I can look at and get done. I don't push myself to get EVERY SINGLE THING on the list done EVERY SINGLE DAY. I just use it as a guide so I don't feel over whelmed. Most of the things on my daily lists take less than 5 minutes for each item. Instead of crowding my head with things that need done, I write it down and get rid of it!

3. DO LAUNDRY EVERY DAY

I mentioned that I am innately lazy. SO why would I want to do laundry every single day. I don't really want to. What I want to do less is spend 6 hours on my Saturday doing all of the laundry from the entire week. When you have little children, there happens to be a TON of laundry. Also, it takes like 5 adult items to fill a load in the washing machine and 8 billion kids clothes. So if I have 3 loads of kids clothes... I will be folding tiny clothes FOREVER, which takes a surprising amount of time. So here is the solution that has worked best for us.  Every single day, I gather all of the dirty clothes in the house, wash and dry that load, and put it in the laundry basket. I don't fold it though, because who wants to fold laundry EVERY DAY?!  Definitely not me. ON the second day, I do another load of laundry all the way through. After, I fold that laundry and the laundry from the day before. So I am only folding laundry every other day. Keeping the laundry on this schedule insures that the laundry doesn't stack up, and it insures that I am not folding laundry every single day. Find a laundry pattern that works for you and stick with it.

4. DOWNSIZE!

This tip is something that takes a little time at the beginning but ends up being a big time saver on a daily basis. My example: I have a lot of kitchen tools. As someone who used to be a chef, I have 3 different types of food processors and blenders, a million cake tools, cooking tools, scales, and anything you could possibly imagine! Do I need or use all of it? No. Especially not anymore. So when we purchased this home, which is smaller than our last, we knew that not everything could stay. We went through and weeded out the multiples, choosing the best or most useful to stay, and tossed/ donated the extras. By reducing the amount of things that you have, you directly reduce the amount of time it takes to keep those things organized. Do I need 3 pairs of the same pants in a small closet?! No. Do I need to keep those 6 inch heels that my feet are now too spread (from having babies) to comfortably wear? No. Do the kids need to keep every single toy they have ever been gifted?! NOOOOOO. Seriously though, NO.

5. DUST ONCE OR TWICE A WEEK

Shiny things look nicer. Our brains are wired that way. Once I started dusting the house a few times a week, I found that I wanted to keep that habit up. Just for the simple fact of when I walk around my house my brain goes "Oh. So shiny!" and it likes that.