Cleaning Catch up - Number 1

Ok, so like I said, I am going to start posting about how I clean my house, when what and why etc.

This first post is very simple.

Start small!

My house was a sty yesterday. Im not kidding, a full on pig sty.  Picture a bomb going off, then times it by 1000.

So, first thing is first. Attempting to get your mojo back so you can actually begin to be bothered, and find a reason why we should bother cleaning in the first place. As parents know, kids are little tornados. Sometimes it feels like we spend all day cleaning, only to have it look like it did before the mass clean, at 6pm that night. Frustrating right? Right!

So, start small. I started on the least messy room, but one of the most used. The lounge room. There was bits of rubbish on the floor from doing some craft and drawing while they were waiting for me to make dinner. The floor needed a good vacuum, and some general tidying of the bits and pieces around the room. I knew this would take all of maybe 5 minutes. So I started there. After I had finished, I could see the result, and it kick started my mojo for doing it.

Because it looks good!

Then I made my way to the kitchen. I am lucky enough to have my dad staying with us at the moment, and he likes to help out, so he does the dishes for me while I am taking the kids to school. So I came back, put them away, and wiped over the benches, oven, dishwasher and fridge.

After seeing how clean and tidy these rooms were. It got me spurred on enough to keep going.

The way I see it is, get the lived in areas done first, as you don't want to be trying to relax at night when the kids are in bed, with toys under you and things circling your mind. We all do it.

Don't worry about the kids rooms, as they are often the most untidy, and there is a door there for a reason. You close it, and voila, it's out of sight until you are happy with other things, and you feel ready to tackle it.

In saying that, I make sure my kids get up every morning about 15 minutes earlier then we have to, they make their beds, and take out any dirty clothes they have laying around, and do a general tidy. If I make sure they do this every morning, then they generally don't get too badly messy. I have been slack of late however, and they are a bit untidy. But little by little, they are cleaning them up themselves, without me having to nag them, without it taking up their time, and with a little praise, they feel the sense of achievement, and pride of their belongings, and their 'living space'.

Today, I am tackling the tiled floors, toilets, and bathrooms. If I make sure I just get these things done today, I will be happy.

Remember to keep it small. You don't have to do everything in one day.

However, in saying that, I add these 'extra chores' to my daily routine. My biggest tip, is once you have gotten a room nice, tidy and clean, keep it that way. By spending a few minutes each day on little things, they don't turn into big things.

Well, those toilets aren't going to clean themselves, so I am off. Happy cleaning.

Getting my Mum-mojo back

So, recently, I have lost my 'mum-mojo'. I have kind of given up a bit on my house, and being all I can be. I don't know why. Call it frustration from the monotony of it all.

School Station Revised - All Aboard!!

A while ago I did a post about my 'school station' , it was working well, but we needed that big shelf set for all the books we have. So, hubby grudgingly cleared some room in the Garage for me. This is what we have come up with. We had these little shelves floating around basically being unused. So, we tipped it on it's side.

 The bottom cubes are for homework and library bags. 

The top cubes are for school shoes, and school bags are placed on top. 

The red box on top is the library books that need to be returned to the library. (Note to self, return library books!).

The purple box on the right, is for school hats. Next to that is a basket with umbrellas in it for rainy days.

On the wall above, we have a barometer, so the kids can learn to read the temperature for the day, and know if they need jumpers or what not.

Then there is a big notice board. The pin board is where we display all their certificates and things they are proud of. They get rotated often. The white board has 3 columns, Holly, Jack and Xavier, and each column has room for each day of the week going downwards. So we can jot down music day, library day, Japanese day, sports, etc etc. Nothing gets missed that way. Finally, there is a separate notice board. That is my notice board for things I need to remember. At the moment, I have their school photo slips ready for them to take in at the end of the week on photo day.

So there you have it. This is working much better for us, by unloading everything before they come inside, there is less clutter around the house (in theory). Also, they take their shoes off before going inside, so they don't drag the dirt and sand inside. Im thinking about adding another little box for dirty socks too and they are often covered in dirt and grass. And another box with clean white socks to pop on before school. All in the one place equals easy access and nothing lost in the last minute dash out of the house..... well, once again, in theory.

How do you organise your kids school things? Do you have school station or access point?

:)

Music for the soul

Music has a profound influence on me. It does on hubby too. It is amazing how music can change your mood. Make you happy, make you sad, make you think, make you energized, maybe even make you flirty! I have a playlist on my iPod that I use when I am doing the housework to keep me motivated. So I thought I would put my top 10 housework songs here.

Do you have a playlist for housework or anything else? Exercise playlist maybe? What songs do you have?

TOP 10 HOUSEWORK SONGS

10 - ZZ Top - La Grange

9 - Kaiser Cheiefs - Ruby

8 - Bon Jovi - You give love a bad name (one of my mums favourites too!)

7 - Beyonce - Sweet Dreams

6 - Boy & Bear - Cover of Fall at your feet (originally by Crowded House)

5 - The Kinks - You really got me 

4 - Oasis - Some might say

3 - Peal Jam - Even flow

2 - Rolling Stones - Paint it black 

1 - Fleetwood Mac - Go your own way (this is my favourite song of all time)

Some of my other songs are ....

- Modest Mouse - Float On

- Jimi Hendrix - Foxy Lady

- Iggy Pop - Never met a girl like you before

- Social Distortion - Story of my life

- Anything by Bruno Mars

- Patti Smith - Land of a thousand horses

- Seal - Kiss from a rose

- Cranberries - Linger

- White Stripes - Cover of 'Joleen'

- Anything by The Sex Pistols

- Living Colour - Cult of Personality

- Anything by Adele

- Divinyls - pleasure and Pain

- David Bowie - Fame

- R.E.M - Man on the moon

- The White Stripes - Blue Orchid

- Elton John - Benny and the jets

The kids favourite song on y playlist is an unusual one. They love it because it is so crazy!

- Plastic Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour moi!

As you can see I have a wide range of musical likes. I like everything from the corny Cher, all the way to the hardcore Rammstien. 

So, I could go on forever with music I love. But I think I will leave it at that. What is you favourite song?