Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Frantic Friday Family Cleaning Party | Clutterbug Podcast # 52

Episode Date: June 1, 2018

Busy families need real solutions for keeping a clean and tidy home. My new Frantic Friday Family Cleaning routine is sure to do the trick!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys and welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today we're talking about the challenges that working parents face, whether you work full-time inside the home or outside of the home, and the difficulties in keeping up with housework and yard work and all the things that come with being a homeowner and a parent and just adulting in general. So thanks so much for tuning in. I have to be completely honest with you. I had a reality check this last few weeks. I've always been a work at home mom. So while raising my kids, I've always also worked full time. I'm using air quotes again, a full time from home. But the thing was, because

there was nobody to hold me accountable to, I was able to take breaks and throw in a load of laundry or vacuum when I noticed that it needed to be done. or, you know, do the dishes and catch up on these little things. The other part of my job is organization. So I'm working from home, but I can also film videos as part of my job of me cleaning and organizing my house. So I really had an unfair advantage. Even though I was working, cleaning and tidying and organizing was also intertwined throughout that day. So I guess the truth is, even when I ran the daycare, we would have cleanup times during the day.

when I ran the daycare. So I didn't really grasp it. I didn't really get the whole scope of how big of an impact it has when you're not able to do those things during the day. So recently, a couple of weeks ago, I hired an assistant. And she comes to my house every day from nine to five and we film and edit. And we are developing in online organizing expert course, people so they can be a certified organizing expert and I'm just teaching them everything they need to know. And so while she's here, I'm working nine to five. So I'm not cleaning the house. I'm not stopping to tidy. I'm not taking the little breaks that I normally would do to put in a load of laundry. And as soon as she leaves at five, I quickly have to make dinner for the kids and, you know,

do that whole thing where you're quickly rush through dinner. You try to load the dishwasher before you're run out the door to kids activities, race home, do bedtime routine, pack lunches for the next day, tidy up a little bit, and fall into bed at 10 o'clock. And I didn't realize. I didn't realize really how hard it was. So first of all, I apologize to all you're working parents out there. It is not the same. It is in no way the same as being a stay-at-home parent in terms of time that you have to dedicate to your home. So I haven't done laundry in a week. I haven't vacuumed. Even though I have room buzz that vacuum, I would take the time sometimes to just like get some leaves that had come in with the dog or, or wipe that spill that I noticed or do a quick light dust while I was, you know,

eating my lunch. And not being able to do that, let me tell you, the house is looking a little rough. And so it's been eye-opening from me. It really has. And I have to change my routine now. I have to change the way that I'm cleaning and organizing and dedicating to my home around a 9 to 5 schedule. And even though I'm like, oh, you know, have a morning routine. There's no time for a morning routine. I do make my bed still every morning, but I certainly don't have the time to do the dishes in the morning after the kids have breakfast and do all. And do all. all of that like wipe down the bathrooms after they've spread their toothpaste everywhere. There just isn't time for that before I have to start work.

And I don't start till nine. So you working parents up there are starting earlier, let me tell you, you are super people. You are amazing. And you should give yourself a pat on the back. So yeah, I've had to completely rethink and reevaluate and change the way I do my routine, which unfortunately means more weekend stuff. it means that now instead of having Saturdays and Sundays dedicating to my family, that's not real life, unfortunately. That's not realistic. It also means that the one night a week that we have off,

Friday is the only night that we don't have kids' activities. Instead of having the whole night dedicated to family game night and movie night, which we always do, we have to take an hour, which isn't a big deal, one hour as a family and do a quick tidy and put away everybody's laundry and just get caught up for the week. So it has been an adjustment for all of us. But I have to say we're getting the groove. So this is week three and I'm slowly starting to get into the groove and it's starting to be less overwhelming. It is still way more work than it was before. But I found little ways to make it a little bit easier. And the one hour on the Friday, so the kids get home from school, I'm done work at five, we eat dinner. And then after dinner,

where we have family game night or before we do anything like that, we dedicate one full hour to a quick house tidy. Everybody puts away their own laundry. Yeah, we just try to get caught up on the tidying. The kids clean the bathrooms. I do a quick mop and vacuum. Joe helps like just putting things away. And usually, honestly, this is our third week doing it. It doesn't even take a full hour and then we can enjoy the rest of our night. And then on weekends, that's what I'm really doing catch up on the yard work because it's summertime, right? And again, I used to pick away at things like that during the week. So anyways, I just had to share with you. It's a whole new thing. I have to write out new routines and have to change everything. But the biggest thing that I've taken away from

this is that I really had no idea what it was like for a working parent to try to juggle it all and to try to do it all. And I'm definitely having a whole new appreciation for it. We got a trailer from our parents for this weekend and we are loading it up with garbage. With things we're going to take a whole truckload for donation and a whole truckload to the dump. Because the problem that I'm seeing is a lot of the things that is leaving a bigger mess is just things that we don't even need. And it's taking away that time. So we're doing a deep, deep, deep purge and loading up the trailer. And then we're getting rid of a ton of garbage things that are in our shed, in our garage that we've just been holding onto and not using, that are just making our life harder. So I think, I'm hoping,

my goal is with less stuff will come less work. And the more I purge, the more time I'm going to have, and the less time I'm going to have to spend on the weekends playing catch up because I'm working 9 to 5 now. So anyways, it's a really quick podcast. I just wanted to update what's going on in my life, which is why I haven't been podcasting because my assistant is here and she's so amazing. I love her so much. But we're totally dedicating all of our time while she's here to developing this really awesome course, which I'm going to let you guys know when it's live. I'm so excited about it. But yeah, I don't feel comfortable podcasting while she's here. It's awkward enough doing it with nobody here. It's super awkward.

doing it with her in the same room as me. So that's why I haven't been updating the podcast as much as I like. So anyways, thank you guys so much for listening. And if you are a working parent, I would love to know if you have a routine that's working for you, or if you have some tips or tricks that you've learned to really help, definitely like the Friday night, we were like the Friday night frantic clean. That's what we're calling it. The frantic clean on Friday night before we can enjoy family time has been helping. And everyone has to get in involved and that's just all there is to it and the kids were dragging them they're kicking and screaming they don't want to put away their laundry they don't want to clean their room they don't want to

you know help out dust and and clean bathrooms but they're going to have to we all have to pitch in so i've been putting more on the kids my husband has definitely been doing more and we're getting into the groove we're getting it we're getting there but i would love to know some tips and tricks that you have as well so thank you guys so much and i'll see you next time