Mommy Moments

I am definitely not the cleanest person who ever lived. I like having a clean house but it is hard to keep it that way. I learned after marriage that cleaning a whole house was much different than cleaning a dorm room. And now I’m learning that keeping a clean house when you have a baby is even more of a challenge.

Having a super messy house (or even a halfway messy house for an extended period of time) drives me crazy. I don’t function well with a messy house. When it’s messy, it is just one more thing piling on top of all the others things and I get stressed out and overwhelmed and then nothing gets done. Which just leads to more stress. It’s not pretty.

So how do I fix this problem? I organize and I take baby steps.

I love organization. It hows I keep track of things. I get excited about calenders like this one that I picked up at the store yesterday:

My new calendar

I also love lists. Here are just some of my pads of paper:

Lists, lists and more lists

I used to make lists that said “Clean kitchen, living room, bathroom, etc.” Then at the end of the day I would have done a few things but gotten nothing checked off my list. Not only was I unproductive, I felt unproductive and that was discouraging.

I now make lists like this:

Living room- Clean off coffee table, pick up William’s toys, dust, vacuum
Bathroom- Sink, toilet, floor, tub
Kitchen- Dishes, counters, trash, sweep and mop

By breaking every area down into smaller tasks or ‘baby steps’  it made the jobs seem less overwhelming to me. Then as I finish each part I check it off my list. Before, when I told myself to clean the kitchen, I would look at it and feel I didn’t have time to finish. Now I may not have the time to do the whole job at once but I can easily find the time to finish one part of it.

And at the end of the day the whole job is usually done without stress or any overwhelming feelings.

If you have any secrets or tips for how you accomplish tasks/housework, I’d love to hear about it!

Tags: housework, organization