3 Ways to Keep Your House Looking Great When You're Too Busy to Keep Your House Looking Great!

As a new mother of one, I realize that people with 2 or more children will probably laugh in my face when I say that having a child makes it hard to get anything done. This said, I also believe that everyone adapts, and when I have my second, and my third, I will probably look back and laugh at myself too. Until then, I don't think it's unfair to say that I am a busy mom! I stay at home with the baby almost full time, with the exception of about 15 hours a week when I'm teaching violin lessons.

Which brings us to the subject of housework.

When I was pregnant people told me over and over again, "housework is not important, just enjoy your baby!" And while I mostly agree with that, I also have a hard time enjoying my baby when I am surrounded by a gigantic mess. It makes me anxious and I can't relax and just play with him when it's a complete disaster and there's so much to do. A little mess here and there is one thing, that I can handle; but a house caked in dust with piles everywhere that hasn't been vacuumed in weeks just gives me the heebie jeebies.

****Disclaimer: I always put my baby first, always. Just throwing that out there before I share the rest of this post****

Like I said above, I wholeheartedly agree that baby comes first. Luckily though, I have found a system that works that keeps my house looking pretty good most days, and I don't feel like I have neglected my baby or missed  out on anything at all. I would also like to point out that right now my living situation is just me, my husband, and the baby.  Everyone's situation is different, so these might not work for everybody.

So here they are, 3 ways to keep your house looking great when you're too busy to keep your house looking great!

1. Naptime Rounds
I know what you're thinking, "you're supposed to sleep when the baby sleeps!" Believe me I do my fair share of that, but I generally just take the first five minutes of his nap to do a quick sweep of the house. This usually includes toys and shoes put away, burp cloths in the hamper, snacks cleaned up, etc. etc. By doing this, the house is not a total stye by the end of the night, and even though I still do a nightly round, it's not nearly as time consuming as it could be.

2. Daily Chore Chart
Now that I am taking care of a baby, I don't have the luxury of spending my Saturday, my once "day off" cleaning the house in one big chunk. With my husband in school, these are his catching up on homework days, which makes Saturdays just like any other day for me to take care of the baby. I decided to make a daily chore chart for myself that covers my basic cleaning needs. It has been extremely helpful, as it is much easier to find 10-15 minutes to do a chore than 2 hours to do the whole house at once. Mine looks something like this:
    Monday: Bathroom
    Tuesday: Living room/nursery *Don't be fooled, it's the same room right now. Small house :)
    Wednesday: Kitchen
    Thursday: Kitchen/Bathroom floors
    Friday: Dust
    Saturday: Vacuum
My wonderful husband takes care of the vacuuming and garbages, so I usually use Saturday to do the chore or two that I might have missed that week.  Between this and straightening up during naptime and the end of the day, the house stays pretty clean.

3. Nightly Dish Washing
We don't have a dishwasher, and things can pile up fast. I have made it a habit to do the dishes every single night. It doesn't matter if we only dirtied just two things, I do them. This way I keep up on them and it is never an overwhelming amount to do. This also helps me during the day when I don't have time to do them after we have eaten, I just rinse them off and put them in the sink, knowing I will do them that night. After the baby goes to bed I do all the dishes for that day, lay them out to dry overnight, and first thing in the morning put them away. For those of you who do have a dishwasher, this could be simply loading and unloading instead of washing and drying.