Lets be Honest Mamas: Living Simply & Spring Cleaning

This right here is why I love social. One of my lovely IG friends Hannah has created this fun monthly blog collaboration with about a dozen of us mamas. Each month we chat about whatever the topic is that we’ve chosen and how we personally approach it. What I love about this collaboration is that while we are working to show other mamas how we each do things. This isn’t about all doing things the same way. Or saying there is one way you have to do things. We all have something to bring to the table. We can all learn from each other.

So this month is all about spring cleaning and simplifying.

If you know me you know I love to be organized and keep our house clean. I discovered when I got married its not as easy with a man. Then add in a baby and its a whole other ball game. But yes, as my husband points out. I love it. There is something about organizing and cleaning that is therapeutic to me. I feel really strongly about having your living spaces be as clutter free as possible. I am just able to breathe easier.

I don’t typically have a spring cleaning routine that I adhere by its usually more of a oh look I just spent the last 3 hours sorting through every paper in our house (no joke. I just did that last month), must be spring. haha. I just cannot stand clutter, even if its stowed away in a box in the back of a closet. It will haunt me. lol. Don’t laugh at me. Its a real thing people.

What does living simply mean to you?

Living simply for me means living with just the things that bring enjoyment to our life. If having extra things is causing me extra stress, or becoming a burden to myself or our household we have gone outside of the ‘living simply’ mentality. This could mean we have to many toys, gadgets, and clothing that we don’t even use but are cluttering up our house. Or it could be that we’re serving for things.

My five go-to products for my home would be the following:

1. IKEA wood hangers- Why? Because when you use wood hangers as opposed to plastic hangers they take up more room. So you have to only have what you love hanging in your closet. Especially when you have the itty bitty small closet that we do.

2. Essential Oils – My husband and I are those people that uses essential oils daily. We’ve been using oils for over 3 years and I wouldn’t ever go back. We diffuse them and apply them on ourselves each day. Whether its diffusing lemon to help give me extra pep in my step to get that huge mommy to do list done, or applying peace and calming to my feet to help calm myself. Oils have been such an important piece in our lives that helps us destress. (See bottom of blog post for more info on how to start using essential oils)

3. Storage Baskets. Michaels and I are best friends. Whenever their baskets go to 90% off I usually buy them out. We have baskets for EVERYTHING, in every room. I personally need everything to have a place. And a lot of times a basket is where it belongs. Whether its DVDS, Isaacs puzzles, papers…

4. Paper Filing Folders. I cannot even tell you how many I have. At least 5. I get mine at Target + IKEA. This helps every paper in our house have a place

5. Diffuser- This is for our essential oils. The diffuser is so important to be for several reasons. I typically would burn candles at an alarming rate to try and always have our house smell good. Or would stock up on those air freshener sprays around christmas time. When you start looking into the toxin levels of those you may do a double take. So instead of using those items I now diffuse oils to keep the house smelling good.

How do you tidy up your house? Or do you?

How I go about tidying things depends on my mood. The biggest thing that helps me is baskets. We have them all over the house. Now having a baby the amount of things we have has nearly tripled. So having baskets in every room helps keep it all at bay.

I do the majority of tidying up in the morning. After I make my coffee and get the baby changed while he is drinking his bottle I clean up the living room and kitchen (if need be), unload/load dishwasher, clean any bottles I found lying around house 😉

How do you clean your house? Do you have daily/weekly chores?

This is the one thing I could improve upon SO MUCH. I do not have a weekly to do list, or daily to do list. Its really more of look around the house, what needs to get done? Now delegate. Clean mama has some amazing sheets and ig posts on what day to do each thing. I would love to take a few Cues from her. The hardest part for me is that everyday looks different. Some days I am working, some days I am not. Some days I work 1-2 hours, some days I work 12 hours. Which means some weeks laundry gets done right away, other weeks it sits in baskets for two weeks 😉