making your home a haven

While I was scraping dried food bits off my seven-month-old son’s Bumbo the other day, I was reminded of the best universal cleaning hack there is.

Photo by Messy Nessy

Clean it right away.

Seriously. If I had wiped off my son’s Bumbo as soon as he finished spreading his meal hither and yon, it would have hardly taken any elbow grease, and at most, it would have killed two minutes of my time.

Instead, I chose to wait until later that day, which meant I had to roll up my sleeves, use the scouring pad, and devote ten minutes of time I could have spent emptying the dishwasher, folding a load of laundry, or reading a blog post.

Even a few minutes of time really adds up when it comes to managing our home.

Ask yourself this - which is easier, rinsing and loading your dishwasher right after dinner, or scrubbing off hardened bits of food the next morning? What about folding and hanging a freshly dried load of laundry, or folding wrinkled shirts that will then need ironing in order to maturely wear?

I’m telling this to myself as much as to you, so please don’t think I’m breathing down your neck. It’s so easy for all of us to breathe huge sighs of desperation when we think of the day’s chores ahead of us.

But consider how long - really - your typical daily chores could take, on average, if you did them right away. Here are mine:

• making the bed - 1 to 2 minutes
• decluttering the bathroom counter after getting ready for the day - 1 minute
• wiping off the bathroom mirror and faucet from water marks - 10 seconds
• clearing the dining table from the meal (especially if everyone brings their own plate back to the kitchen) - 1 to 2 minutes
• unloading the dishwasher - 3 to 5 minutes
• loading the dishwasher - 5 to 10 minutes
• wiping off the dining table - 1 minute
• wiping off the kitchen counters after cooking - 2 minutes
• throwing away items after using them (envelopes, wrappers, etc.) - 5 seconds
• putting the magazine back in the basket after I’ve perused it - 5 seconds

You get the idea. I just wonder how many minutes - or hours - I spend cleaning things that could take mere seconds or minutes if I did them right away. Add to that the reduced stress, the lessened physical output, the visual peace, and the increased space acquired from a home cleaned quicker, and well, I’m sold.

I’m going to work on getting better at cleaning as I go.

Application Time

Set a timer for 15 minutes and see how much you can get done in your immediate environment. If you’re in your office, just stay there and declutter what’s around you. If you’re currently surrounded by clutter in your living room, that’s an obvious choice. Just declutter or clean for 15 minutes, get back to your computer, and post a comment. I’m not asking you to rearrange your day’s schedule - just spare a tiny handful of time.

Oh, and after posting a comment, step back and review your decluttering job. Does it look better? Does it make you feel better?

As soon as I post this article, you better believe I’m getting up to empty the dishwasher.

I’d love to hear if you applied this idea. Do you find this idea to be true in your life? What are some daily chores that could be cut in half if you did them immediately? Have any tips on quick cleaning? I can’t wait to read your comments today.

Toblerone at Simple Mom has graciously asked me, Heidi from Mt. Hope Chronicles, to fill a guest spot on her site this week. I feel honored to contribute to this wonderful resource.

All photos by Heidi

I love to inspire others to find joy in the simple things in life as well as share my journey as a mom of three little boys. My passions include decorating and design, photography, literature, education, and family life.

So many Mt. Hope Chronicles readers are creative and enjoy beautiful homes, but they’ve expressed their frustration that the ‘where, what, and how’ of wall décor trips them up. I’ve heard the question over and over: “Exactly how do I hang things on my wall?”

I thought I would share here at Simple Mom a few of the tips I use when decorating and designing the walls in my own home.

• Coordinate the shape and size of your wall decor with the shape and size of your wall space. Large items (or a grouping of small items) in a large space; small to small; horizontal to horizontal; vertical to vertical.

• Less is more. Try not to fill bare spaces for the sake of simply filling a space. Wait until you have something perfect or a piece that you really love. While it might take some experimenting and arranging, a little minimalism looks more attractive than haphazard or inadequate arrangements.

• The Rule of Three applies to items hanging on the wall. Go for groupings with odd numbers.

• If you have the space, be brave and try one over-sized element to make a bold statement.

• Don’t place numerous disconnected pieces throughout a room. Choose one or two favorites, consolidate into groupings, or ‘ground’ a wall item with a piece of furniture.

• Aim for consistent wall height between furniture and wall decor throughout a room. Stand in the center of the room and turn slowly. Do your eyes move up and down to follow the focal points along the wall, or do they move smoothly?

• When hanging items on a blank wall, aim for roughly eye level. If you want to be exact, the center of the item or grouping should be 55-58″ from the floor. In a child’s room, it would be appropriate to hang items lower on the wall to match a child’s eye level. I throw the eye level rule out the window when hanging a picture above an item of furniture such as a piano or above a mantel. I then hang the picture comfortably in the space available, as long as it is not hugging the ceiling.

• Think outside the box. Use unexpected items on the wall. If nothing else, they can be conversation starters. Hang game boards (Scrabble, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly…), a grouping of white plates, decorative maps, empty frames painted in bold colors, a collection of straw hats or mismatched wooden oars for a summer atmosphere, a painted quotation, or an old door. You are only limited by the bounds of your imagination (and your husband’s tolerance level). Look through catalogs, magazines, and decorating books scouting for ideas.

• Create your own art. A canvas painted with a list of the things that makes you happy is much more personal in a home than a store-purchased, mass-produced, framed picture. Create silhouettes of your children or a collection of treasures found on a nature hike secured in a shadow box. Hang a large framed cork board, a board covered with stainless steel for a magnetic surface, or a surface painted with chalk board paint for an ongoing creative process. I used a cork board to create a personalized Christmas advent calendar.

• Don’t be afraid. Your home is a place for self-expression. A place to feel comfortable in your own skin. A place of acceptance. Ultimately, only you (and the members of your family) need to love the way your home looks and feels. Throw these tips out the window if they are unhelpful or hinder your creativity!

“The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it. Your life will be impoverished. But if you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life.” - Frank Lloyd Wright

I love everything about Heidi and her blog, from the photos of her “forever house,” to the reasons she homeschools, to the little shop in Oregon her family runs that I enjoy when I travel there. She’s also the one who inspired me with this little idea. If you haven’t yet, subscribe to Mt. Hope Chronicles for more decorating and design ideas, and a celebration of the little things in life!