This post is sponsored by JAWS “Just Add Water System” and they were a wonderful ally as I rescheduled this content. All thoughts and opinions within this post are mine.
This post was originally planned for last week but as the Black Lives Matter movement continued to awaken us all, I decided to silence my pre-scheduled content and open doors for the appropriate and much-needed voices to be heard instead. I’m currently working on another post with movement resources and action items that will be live in the coming days.
Now to the post…
I feel lucky to be married to someone who also needs to have a clean and organized home to function properly. Cody is adamant about having sparkling kitchen countertops at the end of the day, and I’m right there with him. We find that waking up to a clean kitchen truly sets the tone for a good day. But clean countertops don’t lead to spotless homes 24/7 mind you. Over time we’ve created and perfected daily systems that we know bring us joy in the long run, and so we depend on them. Case in point: clean countertops leads to an overall tidier home, which leads to more peace and calmness, and so on. And now, more than ever, it’s downright essential to keep disinfecting our homes daily.
But don’t be fooled into thinking our home is always completely calm and tidy. We do an overall good job of managing all the stuff that somehow seems to accumulate (blame past Target trips and blame the influx of kids’ stuff that seems never-ending), but I’m ALWAYS open and interested in any way to decrease the stuff, while maintaining, or even increasing, the sense of order in my abode.
Which brings me to JAWS, an eco-friendly cleaning product brand; they’re simple, effective, and care for your home and planet at the same time. Bonus? They help you decrease the amount of STUFF that enters your home. WIN-WIN. You keep the original bottle and when it’s empty, you use pods filled with JAWS cleaning solution (plus water) to refill. Cue their clever acronym “Just Add Water System”.
I’m thrilled that JAWS is sponsoring this post today, as I’ve been eager to share some tips and tricks for cleaning and organizing so your home functions as well as possible for you and your family. Let’s dive in! 🙂
No. 01 – Create Simple Routines. Figure out what works best for you and your family, and do those routines daily. From sorting your mail as you receive it to making your bed immediately after you get up, to cleaning the kitchen after the kiddos asleep and running the dishwasher before bed, these routines quickly become second nature, saving you physical and mental energy – and time. One routine I recently implemented was to swap ALL the hand towels, bath towels, and bedsheets on the same day. I no longer have to struggle to remember when the last time I washed them.
No. 02 – No Sleep Unless You Do A Sweep. Do a five-minute quick clean-up at the end of the day. Cody and I both quickly clean up any toys that were left out, we put away dishes we didn’t get to before putting the kids down to bed and wipe down the counters with JAWS Granite Cleaner before turning off the kitchen lights and heading to bed. This is key for beginning the next day with a clear mind. When I don’t do these steps, I start the next day a bit foggy and stressed. By doing these smaller tasks as we go, it helps to make our deep cleaning day much less of an overall task, which in this season of our lives, we outsource most of the time.
No. 03 – Everything Has A Home. When your home is organized, it feels cleaner – even if you haven’t busted out your cleaning products. That means everything has a spot where it belongs, a spot where it should return to at the end of each day (even if that spot is the collect-all junk drawer; I may love to tidy up but I also believe in “out of sight, out of mind”). Additionally, when your cleaning products are stored well, it makes the cleaning process easier and faster. If I have to fumble around to get to our JAWS Window Cleaner, the handprints on our windows would never get cleaned. Easy to grasp equals easy to complete when it comes to cleaning.
No. 04 – Divide and Conquer. Have your family members/partners/roommates/etc. do their part – even the little ones! I recently had our kiddos wash my makeup brushes and it was (semi) productive, keeping them busy while I attended to something else in the kitchen. It may be rare to have a partner/roomie who also loves to clean as much as you do, but it helps to set expectations and ground rules. Another option: hire out the help! I know right now it’s not ideal, but our deep cleaning is usually done by a team here in Boston and they are the BEST; this has helped us since Evie was born. It may take a village but I’m down for it.
No. 05 – Products Can Amp Up The Pleasure. Select products you really love to use for your daily cleaning and store them in a way that makes you happy. The process of cleaning doesn’t have to be painful and the right products can definitely help. In our home, for example, we keep all our daily go-to products like JAWS Kitchen Cleaner and Granite Cleaner. in a pull-out shelf under our sink in the kitchen, along with microfiber towels for cleaning countertops (effective and eco-friendly).
Interested in crossing off many more deep cleaning tasks, these next couple of weeks (and putting your JAWS products to good use)? Sign up here to receive my Spring Cleaning Checklist so you don’t miss a spot!
I’d love to hear your cleaning tips below!