Prioritizing Your Time

Everyone seems to think that I'm some sort of robot because my life seems to be so "in order." I often get asked 'how do you do it?! You have two kids!' and my reply is just that I'm simply on auto pilot. I understand that I'm more organized that most people; even my email has to be cleaned out; I usually only have about 5 emails max on my homepage--its either deleted or saved into a folder. I cant stand being unorganized.. which is why I spent half of my Saturday two weekends ago going through thousands of pictures on my computer and organizing them into their appropriate folders.

So what's my key to being clean and organized? Schedules. I have a schedule for everything. Here's what my typical (cleaning) week looks like:

Monday: Vacuum the house, mop downstairs, do a load of colors and a load of whites.
Tuesday: Vacuum the house
Wednesday: Vacuum the house and clean the bathrooms
Thursday: Vacuum the house
Friday: Vacuum and mop the house, do a load of laundry

...obviously I love vacuuming. I feel like doing laundry is the top thing that people procrastinate on, and it ends up building up more and more until you have 8 loads of laundry and are extremely overwhelmed.. and that's why I set a schedule for it. 
Having the schedule for it helps me to keep the workload down--I do 3 loads of laundry a week for my 4-person family: colors and whites on Monday, and just colors on Friday. Its nice having a set laundry schedule because the whole family knows when its laundry day; if Joe needs something washed, he knows to have it in the laundry basket by either Monday or Friday or else its just gonna have to wait. This also saves on money, as we aren't doing 8 small loads. Usually on laundry day, I wake up, toss the laundry in the washing machine, then get the kids changed and get them breakfast. By the time they're done eating, the laundry is ready for the dryer. Once I put that in, I head upstairs and take a shower and get ready for the day. Usually by the time I'm done getting ready, the laundry is ready to be folded. Boom, done with laundry, and I have the rest of the day to do whatever I need to do. 

Now, for kitchens. My kitchen is never dirty (unless Joe just cooked a meal--then its a wreck until I clean it up). Having a clean kitchen is an ongoing thing; it never ends. You just have to stay on top of it. As soon as you're done using a dish, it immediately gets rinsed and put in the dishwasher--don't let it sit in the sink: that's how you get dishes to build up, and then the mess is just so big you get overwhelmed. I wipe my counters down probably 5 times a day (I understand that's a little excessive; that's my OCD. But there's nothing worse than having crumbs or mess on the counter and accidentally setting something in it).

As far as having kids and a clean house goes, I actually find that pretty easy. I've heard of moms who are too tired to clean up their kids' messes after they put them to bed, so it usually gets left overnight, and the mess just builds up. Don't even let that be an option! Us moms have enough on our plates--between changing diapers, feeding our kids 24/7 (because I know how kids are always eating), dealing with meltdowns, keeping the house clean, and trying to look like a Stepford Wives--I don't even deal with toys. My kids can play with whatever toys they want--but they are the ones who clean it all up. I don't clean up their messes--they do. If I make lunch, the toys have to be put away before they eat. If we're leaving the house, the toys have to be put away before we leave. Nap time, dinnertime, bedtime--the toys have to be put away. Some of your kids may not know this rule, but if you enforce it enough, they'll catch on. My kids know the drill; for the most part, I don't even have to tell them to clean up--they just do it.

If you take all of this information and apply it to your life, I'm sure your house will be "company ready" at all times, and you wont even feel like you're doing anything. Once you get into the routine, everything is just upkeep and easy.

I've seen the posts on Facebook and Instagram that say stuff like "my house is a mess because I'm a great mom and would rather spend time with my kids" and blah blah blah. I'm a great mom too--I'm just a great mom in a clean house. My kids are not missing out on anything from me keeping the house clean; they can make messes all they want--they just have to clean it up.

A lot of stuff I post on here is just a matter of opinion and past experiences.. but this, I believe, I am an expert on. Take my advise ;)

Sparkly clean at all times!