Before I get too far in writing this article I want to make it very clear from the beginning that I am by nature a very very lazy person.
I would describe a perfect day in the life of Mia as staying in bed all day with my pajamas on and reading a book. Sadly though, this isn’t my reality. Instead, my reality is working full-time from home, having 3 kids that find joy in making large messes that they have no intention of cleaning up, and a husband who tries really hard but who can’t cook to save his life. With reality being as it is, it means those days of laying around doing nothing are as common as unicorns.
Knowing all of this you might be starting to wonder how this all ties into Spring Cleaning, please try and bear with my ramblings but I’m basically trying to say is that I LOATHE Spring Cleaning. I will never enjoy the idea of cleaning something, decluttering, and organizing my entire house once a year! Seriously whoever invented this idea must have hated me in a previous life.
So instead I have made lists of daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that I do to keep up with my Spring Cleaning all year long!
Now the concept of my lists has upgraded throughout the years, they first started with sticky notes (that was a bad phase I normally don’t talk about), to random sheets of paper I’ve written things out on, to a typed up list I printed up (I started to feel like an actual grown-up during this phase), to now having the beautiful designed lists I have now. I have to give a huge shout out to my amazing cousin Analyn Ashby who took pity on my list when I told her about them and designed something I could proudly display in my family command center. (Seriously Analyn is an amazing Graphic Designer, check out her work: https://happilyeverashby.com/)
DOWNLOAD these lists!
I think at this point my house is kept so neat and clean because of these lists. I have people fooled into thinking that I have my life figured out! Jokes on them! But seriously, these lists have become my life and what I love most is that it is little things broken into different parts throughout the day so I never get that feeling of being overwhelmed. I think that is the biggest problem I have with traditional Spring Cleaning – it feels so overwhelming and pretty much 2 days later your house is back to being normal aka a mess.
Now, I do want to point out that I still have plenty of days that cleaning is just a complete struggle for the day. I still try to reign in the crazy but I’ve given myself some free days in my deep cleaning or monthly list of tasks and when those days come up I feel no guilt in saying it’s not going to happen. I think as moms we try so hard to be perfect and to constantly have perfect days, but every day you can’t be amazing. I’ve just finally decided to embrace that fact and live a happy life.
You might think that having a list of cleaning tasks is crazy too. Let me tell you that this is me recognizing the fact that I need the structure. If I was left to my natural tendencies it would look like a bomb went off in our house. These pieces of paper have saved my kids from developing deep seeded issues and probably saved our marriage since my husband and I have such a different view on “relaxing”.
These pieces of paper have saved my kids from developing deep seeded issues and probably saved our marriage since my husband and I have such a different view on “relaxing”.
I also want to just briefly mention that even though I am the one at home practically 24/7 I do not feel like it is only my responsibility to keep up with the house. My children are all given their own list of tasks to help around the house, and I won’t even bat an eye to ask my husband to do something the second he walks in the door, we are a family that truly believes in sharing the load and helping out not one that points out whose innate responsibility something is.
I’m sure for someone people Spring Cleaning their house gives them a sense of relief and calmness, I can just honestly say that I am not that type of person! The idea of scrubbing down from top to bottom and all the organizing that goes with it is enough to send me screaming and tempt me to sell all my earthly possessions and possibly my kids since they are the one that makes the mess…relax, I won’t sell my kids off. Some people look at me having lists of things to do each day in the same light I am sure, but it is relieving for me to find a system that works! And that is the most important part about keeping up with your house, find what works for you and ignore any that judge you for it.
