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I used to be stressed by the messes—the fingerprints everywhere, the constant crumbs on the floor, toys everywhere—until something changed inside me.
I realized that one day, my kids will move out, and my floors will be clean, my windows streak-free. But maybe, just maybe, one day I’ll miss their little fingerprints on all of my mirrors. One day I’ll miss those crumbs. One day I’ll miss having chairs covered in raspberry marks. One day I’ll miss having toys to tidy.
I started to remind myself that what sometimes looks like a mess from above is actually their childhood. Once we get down on their level, this is it—this is how they see the world, and it’s beautiful.
This perspective shift helped a lot, but there were also some practical things I started doing that helped me relieve the stress so that I could enjoy those little moments more.
I became somewhat of a minimalist. I decluttered my home. I simplified it all, and my motherhood journey changed.
So here are seven tips I implemented in my life that can make cleaning up to 50% faster for you too.
Keep reading below or watch the video:
7 Tips for a Minimalist Cleaning Routine
1: Simplify the laundry.
The first thing I did was simplify my laundry routine. We try to do a load a day, which is easy when you have little ones. Don’t get me wrong, if I don’t actually have a full load to put on, I’m not going to do it that day, but we do have to do a load pretty much every day.
What we usually do is to schedule the washing machine to start at about 5:00 am in the morning by itself. By the time I wake up around 7:00 am, the laundry is all ready to be hung up to dry.
My toddler loves to help me, and I like to involve my kids, especially when they’re toddlers and really like to do this. Even if it takes longer, I think these experiences are important if we want them to also help down the line when they’re older. At least that’s what I tell myself. We’ll see when they’re teenagers how it goes.
2: Accept the current season of life.
When it comes to cleaning, oftentimes I have no real routine. I do it whenever I can. I do some dusting here and there. I hoover when it’s needed. I clean when I see some dust on furniture. I’m just doing it as I go.
I used to have a weekly routine, but now with a toddler, I’m just trying to accept that sometimes my house might not be sparkling clean, and that’s perfectly okay. We’re all just trying our best.
This goes for you too. Sometimes, in the season of life you’re in, you might not be able to get everything done that you wish you could.
What I try to do is remind myself of those little moments, like when I’m cleaning their windows and I look out into the garden and think, “Oh, it’s such a nice day for them to play outside.”
I think as moms, a lot of the thoughts we have in our heads involve our children, don’t they? When I go around my son’s room to dust and I see the little knick knacks that he’s collected in his treasure basket, I just love that he has these little things he treasures.
I love dusting the frames of precious moments that we saved in time. Nowadays, those little fingerprints on the mirrors honestly make me smile because I know they’re only little for so long. And you know that moment when you clean up one space, and then your toddler decides to “take care” of another one? It doesn’t bother me.
I love looking at their rooms, thinking, “This is their safe place. This is the place where they make memories, get cozy, and keep the things that make them smile.”
When I go into my daughter’s room, I just do a quick tidy. This is such a quick task to do, a quick dust and hoover, just like I do in my son’s room. And it helps that we don’t have a lot of stuff out.
Embracing the current season of life means finding joy in the little moments and accepting that having a less than sparkling house is absolutely okay.
3: Use the 4-step routine for the kitchen.
When I do my kitchen cleaning, I actually have a four-step routine, and it’s very simple, nothing too complicated.
- Tackle the rubbish really quickly. Anything that’s rubbish—packages, food, or whatever—I need to throw in the bin, I quickly do that.
- Put dishes in the dishwasher.
- Hand wash any dishes that are left out.
- Go around and spray the surfaces. I use my Purdy&Figg cleaner for this, it’s non-toxic and amazing because I can use it around the children without having to worry.
This is my kitchen cleaning system, feel free to steal it.
4: Have less stuff out on the counters.
I’ve realized that the less stuff I have out on my counters, the quicker it is to clean and the less dusting there will be.
If I have a lot of gadgets and things out on my kitchen counters, it’s going to take longer when I want to give it a deep clean. I’m going to have to move all these items around, dust the actual items, and it’s just going to take a lot more time. In this season of life, I don’t really have that much spare time.
5: Plan your meals.
One thing I do to keep our weeks running smoothly is a little meal planning routine. It’s nothing intricate, but I do try every Sunday to do a quick meal plan.
This is basically just me writing down about five dinner recipes that I want to make for the next week. For lunches, we usually make a quick salad, maybe an omelet, or sometimes we have leftovers as well. And I only plan five meals because usually, on the weekend, we have a takeaway or sometimes we eat out.
So, I found that five dinners are plenty for us, especially if we sometimes have leftovers. Then, on Monday, we get the food shop delivered.
One thing I do before doing my food shop is to check my cupboard: see how much pasta I have left, see if I still have rice, and check if there are some veggies I can use up. Doing this actually save me a lot of money and prevents my cupboards from getting stuffed with things I completely forgot I had.
6: Whenever you go North.
I love using this tip because it can easily become a habit, and the more you do it, the easier it gets. It’s just something you don’t even think about, but it’s actually going to help you keep your home so much cleaner and tidier in less time.
For example, if I’m going to the living room and I see a sun cream in the hallway that I know belongs in the under-stairs cupboard, I simply take it with me and put it in there. I’m going that way anyway.
This habit of putting things back in their designated places as you move through the house can make a big difference in maintaining order and cleanliness without feeling like you’re adding extra chores to your day.
By consistently doing this, your home stays organized with minimal effort, and you won’t have to deal with large messes all at once. So whenever you go north, take something that belongs there with you.
7: Everything has a home.
This tip has helped me a lot: making sure everything has a home.
It doesn’t need to be perfect; it doesn’t need to be all in its perfect little category. Just try to give everything a space where it belongs. Where do the umbrellas go? Where do the keys go? Where do the hats go? All of those things need to have a home because generally, if they don’t have a home, that’s when they end up spread on surfaces or on the floor.
While you’re here, declutter anything that you don’t need because that’s going to save you so much space and so much cleaning time as well.
My house is not always perfectly tidy or clean, and I’m okay with that. I know one day I’ll miss this era, and maybe a few decades later, we’ll be lucky enough to have more little feet stomping around, making crumbs and fingerprints that I’ll deeply cherish.