Mom Uniform Most Days: Exercise Shorts and Top | Sports Bra, all non-maternity
It’s Friday! YAY! The most asked question on my blog has been how is your house so clean and how do you keep all that white/neutral furniture clean?! The TRUTH is toys, art supplies, books, etc. are EVERYWHERE all day long…we are having way too much fun! 90% of the time though I go to bed with a clean and very picked-up house. I personally know that I need that in order to function and to start every day anew!
Some weeks this doesn’t happen because LIFE HAPPENS, but 9 out of 10 times it does. Waking up to a clean and organized house and kitchen starts the day off right for us. And, sometimes this is the LAST THING I want to do, especially after dinner and bedtime and I’m tired and my husband is away. But, it pays off each and every time. 🙂
Today, I am showing you what I do in a 30 minute power clean-up at the end of each night…and there’s a little DIY all-purpose cleaner recipe, so be sure to scroll down! 🙂 I have found that when the house and the laundry get way out of hand, it’s totally overwhelming and it makes me LESS LIKELY to clean up, so set your TIMER for 30 minutes! Part of the issue in our home is that our house is small so the mess can compound way more quickly! Here are the five things I do!:
1. Throw in a load of Laundry: I run downstairs and put one load of laundry in the machine. I take it out in the morning! Laundry can pile up WAY FAST and even though I do the majority of laundry on another day, doing a small load takes the edge off things and keeps the dirty clothes basket from getting overwhelming. I am so glad that my very dear and sweet aunt taught me this trick!
2. Fold a very small basket of laundry: Ok, so this is an area where I never can seem to be caught up. There is always a clean basket to fold. I can’t imagine the laundry when you have lots of sweet kids…maybe one day! HA! But, I spend 5 minutes folding some clothes…most of time it’s the laundry that I put in the night before!
3. Clean the Kitchen: I put most of the kitchen items in the dishwasher so the process doesn’t take super long. I straighten up the limited things that are on the counters and clean them off with my all-purpose cleaner, below! There’s nothing like waking up to clean kitchen!
4. Vacuum the Common Area: Ok, we do have a very small house so I realize that it may not be possible with a larger home. Our living space {seen in the first photo} is an area where Everly plays most of the day and it’s where we come into the house so it can get dirty fast…there is no entryway or mud room! After putting the rest of the toys aways in the toy cabinet, I quickly vacuum the rug and the small amount of wood floors around it!
5. Plan the Next Day: I spend just a few minutes thinking about the next day and writing a schedule {flexible, of course}. I put down things like what Everly and I are doing in the a.m. {we try and go on lots of adventures} and my goals for the afternoon during naptime and after bedtime. My favorite planner is HERE! I pretty much already know what we are going to eat the following night since I meal-plan in advance so I don’t really think about meals then, but I suppose you could, as well!
Hope that you all have an amazing weekend! Thanks for stopping by!
Xo,
Christine
doTERRA DIY ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER
If you read my last post about this, I was so skeptical for a long time. These essential oils really do work though. Here is a little DIY recipe that I have been using…saves money, too! Who wants to buy $3 and $4 bottles of counter spray anyway?! Granted you have to purchase the products in the first place, but after the initial investment and over a little time, I have found this bottle of all-purpose cleaner to cost anywhere from 60 and 75 cents, ingredients and all.
What you will need:
– 1/4 cup white vinegar
Simply put the water and white vinegar into a glass measuring jar and add the following essential oil combinations:
– 15 drops of Lavender and Lemon
– 10 drops of Peppermint
– 30 drops of doTERRA On Guard
– 30 drops of Grapefruit oil
Pour all of the liquid from the glass measuring jar into the glass spray bottle! After you get this process down, it takes me 1-2 minutes total! 🙂
