Do you know what I was most unprepared for with having my first child? It wasn’t a lack of “stuff,” or even a certain thing my kid did that I couldn’t handle. Nope, it was the alarming rate at which babies grow out of clothes and then having no where to put those clothes. I’m going to show you my secret shame today, in hopes that it might make you feel better. At least that’s the hope!
I had absolutely no game plan for clothing storage with my first. And now, almost two years later, this is what his closet looks like:
None of those boxes have diapers in them. Every time he would outgrow a size, I would just throw all the clothes into a diaper box and stash it in the closet. Now that he’s going on two, there are a lot of boxes! It’s rather unsightly, and now that I have another child’s clothes to deal with, I am realizing I need to get a handle on this. Like, immediately!
So, I’ve come up with a plan to take care of this situation. And I’m going to get to it! Nope, I haven’t done it yet, but I did create some labels for new storage bins, and that’s half the battle, right? Right? Just agree with me.
I haven’t even started yet (I’m waiting on my new storage boxes to arrive), but these labels are getting me excited about this pesky little project. I’m going to just print them and laminate them before attaching them to my storage bins. Easy! If you want to snag some of your own, click here to download. I made a set for boys and girls!
I’ll keep you updated once I get moving with this project. In the meantime, happy organizing! That’s all for today, friends! Have a fabulous day!
I shared a couple of weeks ago over on my Instagram how I have silly names for all the chores I do each day of the week, and several people were interested in it, so I decided to share!
I have always been a pretty “clean and organized person,” but I never really stuck to any sort of routine, I would just do things as needed. But then I had a child and when I went back to work after maternity leave, I was feeling very overwhelmed about keeping up with my house and so I knew it was time to start a real routine. So even though it’s summer, and I’m technically home right now, don’t think that this isn’t for you if you are working outside of the home full time. This is about getting a little bit done each day so that you never have to do a lot at once.
First, there are a couple things I do every single day (or weekday). A load of clothes is one of them. I know that may seem counter-productive to some, but trust me on this. I never spend more than 5-10 minutes folding and putting away laundry. I start a load as soon as I’m dressed in the morning, flip it over, and fold it while I’m waiting for my son to fall asleep after I put him down for his nap. During the school year, I start it on my way to work, Ethan flips it on his way to work, and when I get home, I quickly fold and put away. Because it’s only one day’s worth of clothes, it’s never overwhelming. (Also, our washer has an auto sensing fill, so it’s not using excessive water. We haven’t noticed any difference in our water billing since I used to only do clothes once a week or so.)
I also vacuum every day. I realize most people don’t need this, I just have a hairy dog and a crumb monster child, so it works for me. If you don’t need a daily vacuum, just consider that a quick kitchen floor sweep. I usually do this in the evenings after my son goes to bed.
The last thing I do every day is dishes. We actually don’t have a dishwasher (pre-renovated kitchen problems), so I wash by hand at the end of the day, let them dry on the counter overnight, and put them away first thing in the morning. I know this sounds like a lot. I promise it’s not.
Then each day of the week, I do one chore or task that needs to be done on a regular basis but not every day. I came up with names because I’m nerdy like that, but it helps me remember! On Mondays I mop, hence Mop Monday. I mop all the hard surface floors in my house. on Toilet Tuesday I clean my bathrooms (we have two). On Wash Wednesday in addition to my load of clothes, I also run a separate load of sheets, and one of towels. On Third Thursday, I rotate through different things that don’t need to get done every week, but should still be getting done somewhat regularly. One week I’ll dust my flat surfaces and shelves, the next week I’ll do windows (again, dog and toddler), and the week after that I’ll do my kitchen. I’ll throw away anything in the pantry or fridge that needs to go, as well as clean the outside of my appliances. On Free Friday I just catch up on anything that I may have missed through the week. Inevitably there will be something that didn’t get done, so I give myself a buffer. And on the weekends, I don’t do anything but the dishes and vacumming. I keep the weekend open for bigger projects around the house.
And that’s it! I spend about 30 minutes each day keeping up with my house, and it keeps me on track so I don’t wake up one day to a bathroom that hasn’t been cleaned in a month. I never have to worry about doing a huge cleaning day, or spending all my weekend working on housework. Although our house is in a perpetual state of disarray because of projects going on at any given time, the general cleanliness is usually up to par.
If you’re reading this in the days that it was first written, join me on Instagram, as I’ll be walking through each day on my stories. You can do it with me! You can either screenshot the photo above if you are wanting to save it on your phone, or if you’re a paper kind of person, you can click the link below to download and print your own copy. Check it off each day as you go! I can’t wait to get cleaning together!
