Maintaining A Tidy Home: Tips & Tricks From a Busy MIA Mom

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Tidy bedroom Maintaining A Tidy Home: Tips & Tricks From a Busy MIA Mom Vanessa Santamaria Contributor Miami Moms Blog
Making your bed sets you up for success.

How are you doing with those spring-cleaning projects?

A couple of months ago I shared a post focused on spring cleaning and organization. I asked you, my friends, to join me in conquering the clutter together.

As a busy mom with a crazy work schedule, it’s imperative that I keep things in order so that I don’t waste time searching for an item. I’m sure you can relate. You’re working on an important project and one of your kids walks in and asks for a glue stick to complete her homework assignment. If you knew exactly where that glue stick was, you could quickly grab it, hand it to her and continue with your work. But if you have no idea where that glue stick was last seen, then you will need to stop what you’re doing and begin the search… And by the time you finally locate the renegade glue stick, you’ve forgotten where you left off on your work project and totally lost your mojo.

Sound familiar?

Enter Nicole Ferrando-Simpson from Neat With Nic, a Miami-based professional organizer who has completely transformed my life. We were able to tackle my home office, get rid of excess, organize the chaos, find systems that work for me, and create a space where I feel productive and inspired. Now I’m happy to report that I’ve addressed one of my BIGGEST pain points. Hooray for spring cleaning! Next up is the playroom… With so many toys and trinkets (can you say Shopkins and LOL’s?), I’m desperate for a system that works for our family.

Sorting toys Maintaining A Tidy Home: Tips & Tricks From a Busy MIA Mom Vanessa Santamaria Contributor Miami Moms Blog
Organize toys and teach your kids to put things back in their place.

Below I’m sharing some of Nicole’s secrets (shhh!). These are just some of the tips she recommends for keeping your home tidy. Can you believe one of the things she suggests is as simple as putting things back where they belong? Yep! Whether it’s your clothes, tools, kitchen utensils or toys, take an extra minute and put it back where it belongs. This will prevent things from piling up and it will save you precious time later.

Here are a few more tips:

  1. Teach kids which items go where and WHY.
  2. Use hooks to hang your kids’ bookbag and gear.
  3. File it — don’t pile it. (I’m guilty as charged!)
  4. Use Tupperware to quickly sort items in a junk drawer.
  5. Keep a donation bag handy to place items that no longer fit, you don’t like, etc.
  6. While cooking, clean up and load the dishwasher as you go.
  7. Clear the countertops — a cluttered countertop makes the kitchen look messy.
  8. Use cookie sheets to freeze liquids in a Ziploc. Freezing them into a flat surface will let you stand or stack them.

She also suggests that you make your bed every morning. “[It] sets your mood for the day and encourages you to keep your bedroom tidy,” Nicole says. “Your bed is the focal point of the room.”

I still remember watching a commencement speech given by retired Navy Admiral William H. McRaven, who led the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. He told the graduates that, “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. And by the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.”

Doesn’t that make you want to run off and make your bed right now?