Tag: tidying

Decluttering the bedroom madness…

Decluttering the bedroom madness…

by foreveryoungaussiemum ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Well…that’s me done for the day…🥱…took 4 hours with 3yro ‘helping’ but I managed get 90% of this room decluttering done before 5yro school bus home.

I ruthlessly filled my car with Op shop donations, created a tidy corner in shed for bags of electronics etc (husband to sort, I wasn’t tossing potentially important cords etc…), and threw out lots of unnecessary packaging, broken items etc.

I wiped surfaces with Earthchoice chemical free surface spray then cleaned floors with my trusty cordless Dyson V10, and Ayers spray mop.

We have our guest bedroom back and functional office. Now to tackle the kitchen dishes and dinner I’d neglected all day in the process.

I still need to pull stuff from under bed and declutter it. Plus go through the drawers and paperwork, but I’m happy with what I got done today. Now I can tackle those smaller tasks in a more relaxed space without rushing.

(It’d become basically a storage area for random things, toys, equipment, broken items need of repair, electronics etc…not dirty as such.)

Do you like the topic of decluttering and organising spaces? Check out these related blog posts, and there’s more to come so please hit that FOLLOW button!

https://foreveryoungaussiemum.home.blog/2021/05/12/gutting-the-clutter-turning-chaos-into-peace/

Habits to help keep a house clean without extra effort (okay, maybe a little…)

Speedcleaning The Madness

Kitchen madness…ow my eyes! (literally…ow)

Choosing to make a difference…

Choosing to make a difference…

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When have you done a task, knowing you wouldn’t be able finish it 100% properly, but chose to do it and see what difference you could make anyway?

I cleaned our shower today. It had been too long…green n pink mould and soap stuff was starting to build up…I’m almost afraid to post photos…

I knew I’d not be able to clean it perfectly…but I had thirty minutes spare and I couldn’t really use chemical cleaner as it was shortly before bathtime and I didn’t want boys inhaling it.

I sprayed it all over with EarthChoice Bathroom Cleaner, waited fifteen minutes (during which I prepped beds, pyjamas etc) then scrubbed grout with an old toothbrush, wiped with microfibre cloth and sprayed with nozzle jet.

My three year old was all up in my space the whole time…frustrating at the end of a long day…but I threw him a wet cloth and he cleaned the floor n wall tiles. That kept him happy and occupied.

I’ll need go over it soon properly…clean the bits I missed…but I still made a difference, despite having littlies underfoot.

I’m certainly glad that I took the effort to make a difference, despite knowing from the beginning that I wouldn’t be able to finish the task completely.

Please like and hit follow! Til next time! 🙋🏼‍♀️

A book is a gift you can open…again…and again…and again.

A book is a gift you can open…again…and again…and again.

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😄 We’ve a very happy boy. 😄

Only the other day, Mr Almost-Five was asking for his birthday to have somewhere special to store his many books cause his tiny bookcase was too small…

He must’ve read my mind cause I’d already arranged for these bookcases.

Exploring…


His birthday isn’t til tomorrow but I decided to surprise him early, and he was ecstatic when his Grandpa arrived with these bookcases! (Collected them for me in his bigger vehicle)

Even more so when I came out with armload of ‘new’ books I’d been storing away for him.
(I regularly buy books from secondhand stores because I don’t think kids can have too many!)

A happy boy reading himself to sleep.

He absolutely loves reading and now he has a place in his room that can grow with him to store all his precious books.

(And so does his younger 3yro brother, who happily inherited his cars bookcase.)

PS: Our biggest baby turns FIVE tomorrow! Where oh where did that time go?!

PPS: He has other gifts coming though his main birthday present isn’t in a box…it’s a memory… His Dad & Grandpa are taking him to the Zoo! He adores animals!

Deceptive Reality

Deceptive Reality

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It’s important I feel, especially at this time of year, that we remember that the photos of our lives we add to Facebook, Instagram etc may not be our ‘real‘ reality, and try our best not to compare our own situation to others.

Example, I speedcleaned my kitchen this morning in a spare fifteen minutes.
It’s by no means perfect… but it’s unarguably much improved.

However…if I stepped back a bit further…you could see it’s not as clean and organised as it seems…

And if I stepped forward, you could see the obviously dirty windows. (Too high to easily clean without a ladder…it’s on my to-do list!)

If I post a photo of my clean & Christmassy dishwasher, I could easily hide the real reality of the mess of what I call my ‘crazy Kitchen corner’ between dishwasher and second freezer.

It’s not a lie, it’s just the part of my reality I generally choose to show. We all do it. In photos of our homes, children, pets, Christmas decorations etc, and ourselves.

So please…try not to compare yourself to what you see on social media, to photos your family and friends post or images you see in magazines and mainstream media.

Because if they stepped back…or showed you the out-take photos of their kids etc… what you SEE is not necessarily their true reality.

Just do YOUR best to be the BEST version of YOU that you can be, do what YOU can do and make the best of what YOU have in life.

Always remember… (as my mum always told me growing up)… that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

Please hit FOLLOW if you haven’t already and have a Merry Christmas!

Speedcleaning The Madness

Speedcleaning The Madness

by foreveryoungaussiemum ♥ 3 Comments

Do you speedclean?

I’ve been unmotivated to clean all day… so I decided on a 15minute speedclean before dinnertime…cause if I didn’t, this mess would carry over til tomorrow & frustrate me more!

(20 minutes in reality as I had to break up a pre-dinner-hangry argument between 4yro & 3yro)

I won’t bore you with details of what exactly I cleaned…photos make that pretty obvious…

I love my Christmas decorations, they were scattered throughout kitchen. Maybe this will help stop this area becoming a dumping ground for random stuff…

So if you’re short on time, please don’t feel you can’t still make a difference. Even if you don’t get it all done.

Please hit Follow to see more upcoming posts. I appreciate the support!

Train em’ Young and Lead by Example

Train em’ Young and Lead by Example

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The biggest of tantrums occur if I don’t let my boys ‘help’ me & I over-praise them when they do.

They follow me everywhere…which both frustrates me…and makes me proud that they are interested in all the things that I do.

Mr 4 helps me sort n spray clothes n put in washing machine, and was ecstatic when I showed him how to press the buttons! He then, alongside Mr 2, helps me grab dry clothes from the inside air-dryer lines and sort them into piles. They even follow me to their bedrooms and help put the items into each drawer, asking each time which drawer each item belonged.

Even if I usually need go back & re-do their cleaning attempts (ie, re-fold clothes as they’re placed into drawers or re-wipe surfaces)… I know it’s important to encourage this behaviour now to hopefully continue the habit as they grow.

Mr 2 helps me unload dishwasher every morning. We have a benchtop half-size dishwasher (Oh I wish I had a full-size one!), I hand him safe dry items, open cupboard/drawers and he puts them away. When we’re finished, I close dishwasher and give him high 5 plus fist bump…the look of pride on his little face is so incredibly heartwarming.

Their latest thing to do is request a cleaning cloth each time they eat at the table & wipe their own mess, even on floor. They’ve even both started getting upset if I forget and start to wipe the mess first. Yes…I have to go back & do it properly… but that is how they learn.

Every-time we go out to a bakery/cafe etc, I’ve taught them to ask the attendant for a wet cloth to wipe the table (or I give them a baby wipe, if we’re at a new establishment) and they wipe their own mess. Again, yes of course staff need to wipe table anyway…but it’s teaching them to be responsible for their own messes.

I want my children to clean & help because they want to & know it’s important and respectful, not because they have to do it. I overly praise it when it happens but I never force them to do it.

They receive positive attention for it, especially if their requests to help me are unprompted and they’re learning to seek that positive interaction.

And that I think, is key.