So, as I have mentioned already, I have FIVE kids! With five children, it’s hard to keep up with most things….. hair, make-up, the latest fashion, lunch dates, gym time, AND your home! Not to brag or anything, but I always get complements or inquiries on how well I keep up with my house. (Pat on the back)

I will say that my pinch of my OCD traits play a little roll in my lifestyle, but they’re are several other things that help me stay on top of my house. Organization is key; I think it’s safe for me to say that organization is number one! My next best tip is making the little things around your home a priority, they make the biggest difference: floorboards, ceiling fans, light switches and plugs, bathroom trash cans, etc, etc…. I remember as a child growing up, my grandma would share all kinds of these “adult” tips with me, of course then I would think, “Ummmm okay Grandma, I’ll be sure to never forget that!” -lol! All jokes aside, Thank God I hadn’t!! You can get away with having toys and laundry on your floor, but not toys, laundry and dirty/dusty floorboards and sticky light switches and plugs. My last bit of advice is putting certain tasks on the calendar. Make it a priority to tackle at least one to two things a week, make it a Sunday or a day during the week while the kids are out (if their little and just get in the way). No matter how or when you schedule a date with your home, make it a date and don’t cancel!

Organization!! Not everyone is wired with an organization component in their body, lucky for you, you don’t have to be. Bins, baskets, buckets, shelves, filing cabinets, and drawers all make it that much easier to be organized, these items are your friends!!! If you have children, get them in the routine, as well, with using these items. As they get older and more familiar with what goes where, it’ll become innate on putting things where they go (please keep in mind that this doesn’t make them a cleaning guru though). In a couple of my children’s rooms’, as well as my play room, I use a Cube Organizer shelf (I’ve purchased mine from Target, they have quite a few to choose from and they hold up pretty well. I know that Ikea also has a great deal of a selection when it comes to Organization cube shelves-I have little experience with this brand, at his time, but have heard great things). Aside from the organization cube shelves, you’ll also need organization cube storage bins. They’re are so many different styled bins to choose from, you can base the style on the tone of your home. For example, in my play room, we use decorative storage cube bins (mine are from Target), in my daughters room, I use decorative coiled rope baskets to put her hair ties and bows in, and in my eldest son’s room, we use a variety of different bins. In his room there are fabric cube storage bins (from Amazon), a large Lego head bucket with a lid, a couple plastic bins from the dollar store, and some containers that I have found along the way to store his legos in. Get creative and base the bins on the desired look you’re going for in that particular room. In these bins, separate what you can to an understanding point. You don’t want to over-organize these bins though, doing this will only cause confusion and you’ll find that no one will help keep these bins as organized as you desire them to be. Make it simple as possible but with a cause. For an example, in my Play Room, we have few bins for a particular toy and other bins with a general description that we fill with random toys that fall under that general description. The toys that have their own bin are the toys that we have a majority of: like cars, trains, and Star Wars. The bins that have a general description are toys such as baby toys, boy toys (darts, Nerf guns, super hero toys, action figures, and so forth) and a bin for girl toys (you get the point). By having these bins, it makes it easier for your kids to clean up after themselves all while looking organized and having these cute bins that contribute to your style of choice.

Papers-YUCK!! We all deal with mail, school papers, “important” papers that we should keep but don’t know where to put them; paper mess is the enemy!! I keep a two drawer filing cabinet in my closet, hidden from any and everyone to see. Unless you have a nice office space, a filing cabinet is kind of an eye sore. In my filing cabinet I use folders to separate all of my important documents that I feel necessary to keep. File and forget…..of course until you need them again!

Throughout the rest of my house, I don’t use to many cubed storage bins, per se, it’s just not the style of my home (you’re style may be different though, and that’s perfectly fine!) I do use bins though!! I have a cute little bucket that says, “Baby Things” on it, I put this out in the open and stuff everyday learning toys in it and store it on my living-room shelf. Having these little bins that hold everyday essentials helps prevent mess that just lingers out in the open. I also have a cute, on the larger side, metal basket that holds blankets. My kids (and I) spend a lot of our free time on the couch, and when you’re lounging on the couch, who doesn’t like lounging with a blanky!?!?! But, let’s be real here, how many of your kids drags a blanket out and folds it up and puts it back after using it? well, NOT mine! The blanket basket is cute, fits my style and serves a great purpose.

Onto the next tip; now this tip kind of goes hand in hand with my third and final tip. Keeping up on the little things around your house and finding the time to do so. Okay, have any of you ever visited a friends or family members house and wile using their bathroom facility, you just sat there and as you looked around you just started noticing things? (a little over the top example, I know….. but let’s face it, it has happened!!!) While looking around, you don’t notice the pile of clothes on the floor that their kids left there when they got ready for school that morning, No! What you notice is the pile of build up dirt and dust on the floorboards, the toothpaste smeared on their drawer, or the finger smudges and grime that surround the crevices on their door. These are the small things that I was talking about that make the BIGGEST difference in a home! I mean this is your home we’re talking about, right? You want to treat your home with love and respect, and by doing so , we need to give it a little TLC! Don’t think that this needs to be a daily chore for yourself, that’s just impossible. Let’s be more practical, make a day out of the week for dusting, or taking some Windex and cleaning your picture frames and other glass items that you have, cleaning your floorboards, light switches, plugs and knobs, DOOR FRAMES, door crevices, wiping down your cabinets and getting those hard to get spaces like fans and light fixtures. I know, I know…. It sounds like a lot! But I promise you, these are the areas of your home that make the biggest difference. These are the areas that people notice! If your house is larger, do a section one week and the other section the next week, get your partner and/or children to partake in keeping up with their home as well. You can pick 2-4 of these tasks to tackle one week and revisit those same tasks two weeks later, in between those two weeks, tackle the other things around the house that need to be done. If you maintain this weekly for about an hour-two each time, you will always have a clean house! You have can several dishes in the sink, some clutter on the counter, or toys on the floor and you’ll look like any other normal person (especially if you’re a MOM), but if you have dirt and just stickiness all over your walls and other areas of your house, your house is going to come off as “dirty”. Well, I hope that I was of some help in guidance and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me or leave a comment!! Thanks for stopping by!!