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Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Household Tips

Good Morning! Today I am linking up with the Bolin Bunch for 10 on the 10th and the theme of the day is "10 Household Tips". I cannot wait to read all of the other household tips because I feel like this is an area I could always improve on. I only had 8 that I truly live by and didn't want to think up two extras just in order to have 10... so instead of 10 on the 10th it's more like 8 on the 10th. :)
1. Invite Someone Over, You'll Be Surprised How Fast You Can Clean-- This quote above is me to a tee! I do a pretty decent job of keeping things picked up around here, but I swear to you the minute we invite someone over for dinner/ a playdate all of these things I don't otherwise notice start glaring me in the face! I can get more done in an hour or so when people are coming over than I could in an entire week when I'm not rushing. Devin once stumbled across this video on Youtube and I die laughing because it is a slightly exaggerated version of me, only slightly. 


2. Put On a Good Podcast/Audiobook/Music, You Won't Even Realize How Long You've Been Cleaning-- I love to put on a good podcast or audiobook while I'm cleaning because I can get totally lost in what's happening and before I know it, I've cleaned the entire house. I love a good gossipy podcast like Almost Famous from Ben and Ashley (Former Bachelor stars) or a thriller audiobook because I can get caught up so easily. 

3. Set a Timer-- On the days I really don't feel like doing anything, I will set a timer for 5-10 minutes and try to get as much done as I can in that time period. You'll be surprised how much you can get done in a short amount of time when you know the end is in sight.
Lily Grace loves to bring her toy vacuum out to "help clean". 
4. Split it Up-- Devin is a huge help around the house (thank God!) so we usually make a master list on the weekends and then get to work picking and choosing something off of it. I can't say Lily Grace is much help at this yet :).

5. Stay Organized-- I feel like if I stay organized, then things don't all pile up at once and I only need to do a little bit each day. I love my planner that I use every day for writing down one or two things on my to do list. I try to tackle them if I can, knowing that I never have a huge amount of stuff to do since I take care of it throughout the year little by little.

6. Keep a List-- I love, love, LOVE a to do list. I keep a constant running list on my phone of things that need to be done around the house. Then I always know where it is and if I have a 10-15 minute chunk of time before I need to be somewhere, I'll pick one small thing off the list. On the weekends we try to pick 1-2 bigger things from our list to accomplish. We are constantly checking one thing at a time off this list and it helps to keep us from ever feeling overwhelmed about the amount to be done since we are constantly working towards it (I hope that makes sense).

7. If In Doubt, Throw It Out-- I am very much the opposite of a pack rat. While we live in a decent sized house, there isn't a lot of room for storage in our attic and we don't have a garage. This means that we don't have anywhere to hide our stuff when we aren't currently using it. I am a very firm believer in if we aren't using something anymore, we need to get rid of it. This may not necessarily mean throwing it away. Depending on the items I will either try to sell them (Facebook Marketplace has been great for this!), donate them, and then if donating won't work we throw it away. In fact since we are in the process of selling out house we have had to move a lot of things into storage to "declutter" and have realized that we haven't missed most of the stuff we got rid of. Maybe we won't even bring some of it with us to our new house, we will just donate it?

8. Know When to Say "This is Good Enough"-- No matter what, you will NEVER have everything done. At some point you need to just know when to call it a day and accept that your house is lived in, so it is okay for your house to look lived in. 

I can not wait to read the rest of your tips! Thanks so much to Jen for coming up with a great idea for a link up!!

8 comments :

  1. Your tips are great! The other day I listened to podcasts while I cleaned my living room and it went really well. I also love a list, and I want to make a list of overall tasks to take care of, like you suggested!

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  2. I've seen that video before and all three of my kids and my husband were like "oh my gosh that is what you do!"... Yep! Though lately I have been trying to get out of that habit too. Our home is pretty darned cleaned and organized and those things that bother me are probably really not noticeable to others.

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    1. It's so funny, I think there's a little bit of that video in all of us 😉

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  3. I love all these tips, especially the reminder in the last one!

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  4. Thanks so much for linking up with me! Your list was great! It has taken me a while to realize that our house is lived in and it's okay if it's not perfect...But I finally don't feel bad if someone comes over and things aren't spotless. Hope the rest of your week is good!

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    1. It's hard to get to that point of not caring, especially when you're so type A like I am!! Luckily I have a much more laid back husband who gets it 😂

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