How Busy Moms Keep the House Clean- STILL! {Motivated Moms Giveaway!}
I have reviewed Motivated Moms in the past, but I thought it would be helpful to come back and let you know that it’s still working for me. I used to be the kind of person who would get sweaty palms when the doorbell rang. I would answer the door by cracking it, and come outside to talk (through the narrowest opening possible so you couldn’t glance in) rather than invite you inside. That’s right, I was so unorganized, I couldn’t even pull off the “keep the entry clean” trick that most people rely on.
Today, if you showed up, I would invite you right inside!
That is my dining room and kitchen. Do you see the counters are {mostly} clean, and the dishes are done, and the floor is swept? Do you see how {mostly} clean it is? If you called me now, and said you were coming for coffee, I could have the house company ready in 30 minutes, and that includes a deep cleaning of the bathroom. Do you have any idea how proud I am to be able to say that?
You know what is even more cool? I am able to do this in about an hour (or less) a day. Motivated Moms is simple. Each day, I have a few core chores to do; things like running the dishwasher, sweeping the kitchen, and taking out the trash which are important chores. Then, each day I have a small list of additional chores.
For example, today I had:
- Change hand towels in the Bathrooms
- Clean the bathroom mirrors
- Clean tub and shower
- Vacuum bedrooms or second floor
- Clean out purse/wallet
When I focus and get down to it, those things don’t take much time…. especially since I have been using Motivated Moms for a while. At first, it took me a while to do my chores, because let’s face it, I never cleaned the tub. So, there was all sorts of things I needed to use elbow grease to scrub off. Motivated Moms uses a purposeful rotation of chores, which means that the tubs are cleaned consistently, and don’t accumulate a lot of nasty between scrub downs.
Motivated Moms has a new planner out, which is colorful. I personally am the kind of person who likes practical things which are also pretty, so the added colors was a nice touch. The one I got this time is the full page planner which also has room for a schedule and writing in your meal plan, which is really helpful. Before, I used the page a week version, but with school in session and so much on my plate, I may switch over to this page a day version. For Christian Moms, there is also a version with a scheduled bible study. After purchasing (and reviewing) more versions of this chore planner than i’ll ever need, I can tell you I like all of them!
Motivated Moms is for the forgetful. It’s for unorganized Moms. It’s for the {shhh, I won’t tell if you admit it} the lazy-ish Mom who needs that extra motivation to get off Facebook and get the job done. Motivated Moms takes the big messes, and breaks them down into manageable pieces. It’s a plan that works. To put my money where my mouth is, for this giveaway, I will be matching Motivated Mom’s generous donation of one chore planner, and will be selecting two winners. I really want to get this product into your hands, my dear readers, because it works. It’s been a game changer for me, one that I am so glad to have been introduced to earlier this year.
I struggle with housework in general, but specifically clutter and getting the kids to pitch in and clean up their own messes. I also *strongly dislike* cleaning the bathroom. ;0)
I struggle with the keep up. I get it reasonably clean maybe once a week, but ten minutes later its a mess again…
I struggle with motivation – I don’t want to clean everyday!
I struggle with staying on top of everything! I am known to just wait and do everything at once which takes me all day if I include the laundry. Therefore…its NOT a fun day. This would be perfect!
You know I need this! 🙂
Definitely clutter! UGH!
I really need to start a system. My house is total chaos!
Laundry and Dishes are my two biggest struggles. Although the dishes do seem to pile up more. Having a schedule might make it easier for me to stay on top of it all.
I struggle most with just keeping it all picked up!
I would say I struggle with what I call organized piles… meaning too much stuff and not enough time to tackle it and make it easier to clean.
This is what I need to do, I work full time and am so stressed with that looking to quit my job, taking online graduate level classes, taking a national board exam in the spring, have a toddler and a husband who drives truck 5 days a week, so it’s just me in the evening. I am also a teacher so have tons of that stuff rotating and might start home schooling if I do quit my job. Still need supervision to be ready for my test. Then last but not least I get my mother telling me I am a boarder-line hoarder but it’s because I just cant seem to get started on the cleaning and sorting through, the trash that goes out is amazing if I can get something started but then it is the follow through and finish. If I don’t win I think I would still look to buy the book. I truly enjoy following you on Facebook
Clutter, definitely. All those odd things that really don’t have a place to go drive me nuts. I would love to see my kitchen counter again some day…
Laundry for sure! Keeping our tiny house tidy with no closet space is a challenge also.
I struggle with keeping up with the putting away of the laundry.
I struggle with just about every aspect of keeping the house clean! I’ll come up with routines/schedules that should be simple enough, but as soon as I get a little behind it seems completely overwhelming to get it back under control!
I need this. I’m exhausted trying to keep up with all my chores.
Balancing daily maintenance while homeschooling with 8 children. There are 9 of us at home almost all the time. Life is always in motion and nothing seems to stay clean for long.
Not enough time. Ever.
I’m bad about keeping up with the dusting.
Picking up all the miscellaneous stuff that gets dropped wherever instead of being put away.
LOL I thought I was the only one who was no good at this. I swear, the floors get SO messy because the kids just drop EVERYTHING. And no one picks it up!
My biggest struggle is clutter……from myself, my dh and my ds. Our home is small so when things start stacking up on surfaces….it can start to feel like we are drowning in clutter!
I struggle most with sticking to routines. I set up a chore day schedule (i.e. Monday=mop day, Tuesday=toilet/tub day, etc) but find that I never follow it. I end up doing tasks willy-nilly and it feels like I never accomplish enough.
I struggle in general, but the biggest challenge here is keeping the clutter down to a dull roar. And I think we need to vacuum more often than we usually do.
I just struggle with house keeping, period. It’s almost impossible.
Clutter everywhere seems to be a challenge for our family. We live in a 70 year old farmhouse that has virtually no closet space and no basement. Our family is constantly on top of one another. It would be so much easier to clean – really clean – if we had a manageable system and could figure out what to do with the “stuff”.
Thanks for hosting this give away!
Bathrooms and kitchen floors are what I would willingly pay ( if my husband would allow it) someone to do for me. But that’s not going to happen so I have to put on my big girl pants and just do it!;)
I struggle with the deep cleaning. I’m able to keep up with the day-to-day stuff but never seem to get to the other things.
Keeping the dishes from piling up! I can’t believe how many we go through!
Just moved to a new house…trying to keep it clean whilst decorating it and exploring a new community is tough!
Laundry Laundry Laundry
Can I just Put the WHOLE House? I just did! HAHAHAHA I think my main problem is managing the time to clean…the whole house! 🙂
My main struggles are the floors,walls, lounge, children’s bedrooms etc. this product sounds great!
I want to clean the entire thing at one time… it never works with two little ones around 🙂
That’s the good thing about Motivated Moms- once you realize doing it all at once is a little bit unrealistic as a busy Momma, you can get rolling on a purposeful rotation of chores. They have things split up- so things that really need done daily (like dishes) are on your daily list, and things that need done less often (like cleaning the fridge shelves) are rotated through. Everything, from towels needing washed, and couches needing vacuumed is scheduled in, and it repeats.|
After a while, everything starts to look much brighter because you are doing it all in a purposeful way. Then, it’s easy to get things ALL clean on days where company is coming, or a holiday is happening, and you have an extra chunk of time to go through the house. If you follow the rotation, it’s 90 percent clean all the time, instead of 100 percent clean once a week (or month…..). It does take a month of dedication to get to that 90 percent, but I promise, this one works!
I SO need this!!! Thanks for the review and giveaway opportunity. We have clutter (paper mostly) that needs to go…constantly.
You’re welcome! Good Luck!
I have a hard time juggling three kids and chores. And I have a lazy streak and a perfectionist streak (why bother if I can’t do it right?) Just like my kids, I could use some structure!
The dishes and laundry. The things that are being undone AS you do them. So frustrating!
LOL! Littles are a blessing and a curse, aren’t they? That’s the reason why I didn’t photograph my living room yesterday- I told myself I would NOT tidy up for the pictures since that would defeat the purpose, and Little Miss had gone through the room pulling ALL the hundreds of books off the book shelves. It was a disaster. Clean underneath the books, but a disaster all the same.
I feel your pain!
Clutter in the kitchen is my biggest challenge.
I have paper clutter. blech
My biggest struggle is floors.
Oh I struggle! I usually have the dishes done but the counters are all piled high with stuff, I have tried so many organizational systems and always end up feeling like a failure! Perhaps this is the one I need, little chunks!
Motivated Moms is one I can manage. I tried fly lady, but it was just too overwhelming. With this one, I only have to worry about my little list for the day. I took different colored highlighters to it to assign chores to other family members, and we roll with it. I will say that the whole house is never spotless at the same time, but who am I kidding- it never would be with so many littles under our roof.
I’ve come to accept that mostly clean is clean enough for my tastes, and the more consistent I am with the plan, the cleaner everything is overall. it takes a month or two to really see the magic behind Motivated Moms, but once you get to the point where things are still pretty clean from the last time you did the chore, you’ll be floating on cloud 9 😀
Is it ok to say everything? 🙂
Tara H
Floors and walls are the hardest in our small home with seven people!!
Thanks for hosting this!
Kate
Ugh. Walls. We have this awful flat paint that chips off if you try to wash it. I re-paint my hallway about twice a year, and it still has nasty dirt streaks at child level year around. I tidy it up for christmas, and early summer, and the rest of the year, try to not look at it. It’s on thing I will NOT miss about our German apartment!
I struggle with clutter! Just trying to find a place for it all…everything ended up piled up on my kitchen counters
Boxes! You need more boxes. 😀 I have one catch all basket on my kitchen counter, and a small wicker basket in each room. If the basket over flows, its time to take it around the house putting things away…. or throwing things away as it sometimes turns out!
The thing that is the hardest is trying to do everything on my list for the day.
I struggle with everything, but especially laundry!
Laundry is the worst for me too! I made it Hubbys job, and let go of the guilt over the laundry pile in my room 😉 Not a perfect solution, but it helped!