Conquering the Chaos and Finding Balance. Dive into the realities of motherhood and discover practical strategies to navigate the challenges
When you become a mom, everything gets harder. Things like taking regular showers, eating lunch, and going on a date with your partner are suddenly impossible. Not to mention keeping the house tidy! Cleaning, decluttering, and organizing often plummets to the bottom of our priorities between well checks, diaper changes, and play dates. But, all that mess is stressful!
A study from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology confirmed that our environment directly affects our mental health. Messy homes can make us feel embarrassed, out of control, resentful, and over-stimulated. A home should be your sanctuary! And, a tidy home can be your mental oasis.
So, today, we’re sharing home organization tips for busy moms. And, don’t worry, we’re not promoting any lofty goals or boujee products. We’ve only included REALISTIC organization tips. You can implement these simply and maintain them for years to come. Here are our secrets:
9 Home Organization Tips for Busy Moms
Always choose function over feature.
This is the number one tip on this list! Not just because it’s actually first, but because it really works. If you’re looking for easy home organization, this is it! The concept “function over feature” essentially means do what works rather than what looks good. Or, rather, do what works over what’s “normal.”
For example, maybe your problem is socks on the living room floor. Every day when your little wildlings come home from school, they shed their sweaty socks, watch TV, and eventually migrate into another room, leaving their socks behind.
Now, you can tell them to take the socks to the hamper in their room every stinkin’ day. But, let’s face it, they might never do it without you asking! So, instead of stressing and nagging, try putting a hamper in the living room. Radical, right? But, wouldn’t it get rid of your socks on the floor problem? Yes!
Keys get left on the table? Put an organizer on the table. Earrings end up on the bathroom counter? How about a clear jewelry box right there? Or, what about kitchen appliances that always get drug out and left out? Hear us out. What if you just made a space for it and left it out all the time?
This might sound unorthodox, but it’s simple. Almost like a business procedure. When you see something at your business isn’t running smoothly, you pinpoint the problem, and you find a new workflow. That’s what we’re doing here!
See how you can make your home work for you, despite the fact that the toy chest might look weird in the kitchen, or the closets are now empty in favor of a laundry room walk-in wardrobe. Because, a home designed for your family means less stress, less cleaning, and less nagging. It’s a beautiful thing!
Be a minimalist and a maximalist.
There is nothing wrong with being a minimalist or a maximalist. People love to roll their eyes at crunchy minimalists, and people love to pass judgment on the “materialistic” maximalist. The truth is, the best way to declutter your house isn’t a maximalist or a minimalist approach, it’s both!
First, you want to be a minimalist with your “stuff.” Not necessarily your sentimental items or your beloved book collection (though it could be), but in the unnecessary accumulation of junk! Whether it’s old toys, clothes that don’t fit anymore, or loose papers everywhere, the clutter has got to go. Start junking. Donate. Sell. Toss. Just get rid of it, so you can stop cleaning it up!
We know, easier said than done. But, try picking up 10 items a day to throw out, donate, or sell. Soon, you’ll have fewer piles to push around, and you’ll actually be able to see what you own. It’s great! And, getting your items to a new home feel even better. (Even if that home is the dump.)
Next, be a minimalist with your convenience mechanisms. If it makes sense to have a baby changing station on each floor of the house, do it! Or, if it’d be helpful to have appropriate cleaning supplies in each area of the home that requires frequent cleaning, grab multiple bottles of whatever you need.
If you cloth diaper and washing every other day just doesn’t work for your lifestyle, again, there's no need to be a minimalist. Buy a couple dozen more diapers and do laundry less often. Seriously, it’s okay to have an abundance of something if it helps you maintain your home. So, be a minimalist and a maximalist. Buy what works, ditch what doesn’t.
Do a little every day. Even if it’s only five minutes.
“Five minutes matters,” is a great mantra you should practice reciting often. This phrase could apply to self-care, learning a new skill, or, of course, cleaning and organizing a messy house. A dirty or cluttered home can feel completely overwhelming. And, some days, you might not have the energy to complete a project or clean an entire space. That’s okay!
Remember, tidying and cleaning for five minutes helps. It gets you five minutes further in the process and helps you go to bed feeling accomplished, not defeated. Think about it this way, if you wiped down one item in your bathroom every day, by the end of the week it’d be totally deep cleaned!
Don’t feel like you have to do it all. A little can turn into a lot. But, not doing anything spirals into worse mess, stress, and chaos.
Always cook extra for easy meal prepping.
You may see TikTok videos of housewives taking a whole day to prep healthy meals for their family for the week. The idea is great! But, maybe your weekends are packed, or the idea of destroying your kitchen to make all that food sounds exhausting and counterproductive. We get it. So, try a different meal prepping process!
When you cook your regular nightly meals, double what you cook! Whatever your family doesn’t eat, divide into meal prepped containers and place them in the fridge. If you cook the next night, do the same thing! This way, everyone has lunches to take with them to school or work. And, if you’re having a night when there isn’t time to cook, now leftovers are for supper!
It’s a simple action but can save a lot of time and save a lot of money. Make extra with every meal you cook. Even breakfast! Those leftovers will fuel your family for the rest of the week. And, they’ll provide an alternative to cooking on a night when you’re too busy or too tired.
Find a planner that works for you.
There are hundreds of planners out there. Each one is uniquely designed to help keep you organized. Not all of them will work for your process, but one definitely will! Experiment with different planning systems, both digital and physical, to help keep you on track.
This isn’t all about decluttering your space, it’s also about reshaping your routine and daily habits. And, a planner can help you do that. Don’t give up when the first one doesn’t stick. Try again! The level of organization you feel with a detailed planner will bring you peace and comfort.
Here are some great planners to try:
- Silk + Sonder Monthly Planner Subscription
- Google Calendar
- Happy Planner
- Things 3 App
- Best Self Planner
- Laurel Denise Weekly Planner
Centralize to fewer areas during the day.
Another quick tip to keep your home tidy and organized is to stay centralized to one space. If you can corral a lot of your activity to just a couple of zones in the house, those are the only ones that get messy! If you’re a stay-at-home mom or work-from-home mom, this might look like work, lunch, diaper changes, and playtime all happening in the living room!
Map how your family moves through the house during the day, and see if you can condense them to just a couple areas. Then, at the end of the day, those are the only areas you have to clean. Everything else remained untouched!
Ensure others in the home are participating.
You might feel you’re the only one doing housework, but that shouldn’t be the case. Your whole family should help to keep your home clean and tidy. Try making a chore chart and clearly setting expectations.
And, make sure every item has a place. Sometimes things like loose papers, excess toys, and other clutter don't really have a home at all. In order to have whole family organization and peace, everyone needs to know where everything goes! Give each item a home and label all the containers to make cleaning up quick and easy for the whole tribe.
It’s not just tidying that the kids can help with either! Teach them to do dishes, fold laundry, and help with yardwork. (Great life skills!) Lower your expectations of the completed project, praise them when they help out, and make maintaining the home a family affair. It’s not all on you, momma!
Learn what type of organizer you are and make a plan.
So, the Home Edit life isn’t for everyone. It’s a beautiful life, don’t get us wrong. But, is it practical? Not for everyone! We love the “Clutterbug” approach of diagnosing your organizational style and making a home declutter plan based on that.
You and every member of your family should take this quiz. Your home might be cluttered and messy because the current systems are inefficient for you and your tribe’s organizational style. After you complete the quiz, it’ll direct you to an organizational guide. It’s so helpful! Let us know in the comments what kind of organizer you are!
Hire someone if needed.
In the end, if you need help, don’t hesitate to hire home organizing or cleaning services. If you can afford it, there is no shame in having someone come in and help you out. Whether it’s just one time to catch up, or a weekly scheduled thing, you deserve help! They can restore peace to your chaotic home by helping you get organized and discover new, more effective processes.
A functional home will stay tidy. When the processes and systems in place work, your home just makes sense! So, add function over feature, practice minimalism and maximalism, get help, plan your week, and do a little cleaning every day. We hope you’ll get your home back on track in no time! And, of course, we hope your mood improves and your home returns to a place of sanctuary. You deserve it!
For more mom tips and cloth diapering instructions, check out our blog! Each week, we post helpful articles to help busy moms like you. If you have questions or content you’d like to see, please let us know in the comments or in our Facebook VIP group! We can’t wait to see you there!
