Let's Be Honest Mamas | Simple Living

Happy Monday! Spring is finally here and I honestly can't remember a time when I was THIS excited for the season to change. This winter was long and boring and with spring comes the feeling of a fresh start and a whole new world of things to do as a stay at home mama. I've been a SAHM for almost 4 years now. I can't believe that even as I type it. It's hard, sometimes lonely and breaks me and rebuilds me almost every day but I honestly see it as such a privilege and wouldn't have it any other way. I love the role I play in my family and getting creative trying to make a home for my little crew. This past year, we've been really trying to live more simply. At first it just sounded like a good idea, but as we organized and simplified not only our possessions, but our schedules and routines, I felt the stress lift and our lives become more joy filled.

So when I was asked by my sweet friend Hannah Renee to be a part of a fun collaboration with some of my fave stay-at-home mamas I jumped at the chance. I've loved following this series before and when she mentioned the topic was simple living and spring cleaning I was in! I love getting to know people more through their writing and the small details of their day to day lives. We all answered the same questions about simple living, our spring cleaning plans and how we manage our homes as mothers. I'm always so inspired with getting a peek into another mama's life and routine and we really hope you like reading these! If you're interested in checking out the other posts in our little collaboration, I'll link all of their blogs below.

1. Do you have any routine spring cleaning that you do? 

I do love spring cleaning and I don't usually follow a set routine each year but I like to get started as soon as spring is in the air! So this might sound totally weird but (if you have never done this, do it and you will see what I mean) there is something so motivating about watching spring cleaning videos on YouTube. They give me such good ideas and actually make me want to clean!  I also usually find a checklist on Pinterest to keep myself organized and as we all know, nothing feels better than checking an item off your to-do/to-clean list!  

How do you go about it if so? 

With two little toddlers we don't have a ton of time to be super productive so we usually attack most of it on the weekends and I pick a couple projects to knock out during the quiet time. 

2. What does living simply mean to you? 

To me living simply is being intentional, not only with the things you own, but your time, and relationships as well. We live simply by maintaining minimalism in most areas of our house and by being selective about the things we buy/let come in to our house. We also try to live simply with our time and schedules by saying no and not overloading or overwhelming ourselves. I feel like as soon as I start to feel stress in an area, I need to simplify it, and then usually I feel so much better. For us it's about knowing what we value and what our goals are and filling our life with things and people that support and encourage those values and goals. 

3. What are some of of your go to products for your home? 

I love good cleaning products and we've really been trying to switch over to more natural and organic products in our home. With little kids crawling around and touching licking everything, we just feel better about it, plus I love that they aren't strongly scented. I'm not too picky about specific products but we love anything by Seventh Generation, Method or The Honest Company. We LOVE the Honest Company dish soap in lavender and buy that over and over again. I do a lot of DIY cleaners with vinegar and water with lemon essential oil. We also use free and clear laundry detergent from Seventh Generation and use it because both of my kids have sensitive skin and eczema. For the dryer I love putting lavender essential oil on these wool dryer balls, instead of using fabric softener. 

For organization, I'm obsessed with my Sugar Paper LA planner from Target and we have one of these bags or these baskets in almost every room to hold toys, blankets, or books.

4. How do you approach tidying? For example, do you put everything away each day/night? 

Haha I wish I had more of a routine for this but I'm kinda all over the place. I try to focus on one big cleaning to-do each day. I also try to throw a load of laundry in each morning at snack time. But I'm not going to lie, the whole remembering that I put it in there, drying and then folding it in the same day hardly EVER happens. I tidy the bathroom  each night while the kids are in the bath and just try to tidy here and there all day as we move around the house. For me it's so much less overwhelming to try to keep up here and there, than to have this huge mess in front of you as soon as the kids are sleep.  We do a quick house tidy once the kids are in bed which includes finishing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and the floors in the dining room, which are a total disaster after dinner time (thanks Elle). We've also been really working on involving the kids and having them clean up their toys before bed and it's been nice having them start to take a part in that. Now if they could fold laundry (the task I dread the most), we'd be all set! 

5. How often do you clean your home? What are your daily tasks, weekly, bi weekly?  

As I mentioned above, I don't have any set schedule weekly or otherwise for cleaning our home. I am really lucky in that my husband and I both work from home and he is always super helpful with cleaning around the house. Daily, I try to throw in a load of laundry, make beds, tidy toys, run the dishwasher, sweep (like 6 times a day for that one) and clean the kitchen at the end of each day. Weekly I wash our sheets/linens, deep clean the bathroom, vacuum/dust the bedrooms and wipe any mirrors/walls things the kids have coloured on our made sticky. While I love and feel best when my house is clean, I'm also not a slave to it. I'm okay to leave dishes in the sink in favour of a family movie night. I'm okay to not make our beds if we're going to be crawling back in on and off all day anyway. I'm always trying to find that balance between providing a clean and nice living space for my family and also realizing that I can't do it all, and if I did I would be cleaning all day long, so sometimes I let it go and just spend time with them instead. 

Hope you liked getting a little peek into our cleaning routines and outlook on simple living.

Please hop over to my friends' blogs to see their posts and check out their answers too!

Hanna Renee Blog // Amanda Krovic // Elements of Ellis // The Southern Trunk // Amber Lately // His Little Lady // Curious Natalia // Life with Kymberly Janelle // Happily Lindsey