As a mother of a rough and energetic two year old, I’ve just come to accept that having a clean, tidy house is way overrated and, on the rare occasion it actually happens, cleanliness never actually lasts very long. Case in point: I had friends over for dinner recently the husband and I spent the entire day cleaning things we never take the time to clean during an average week (e.g. I vacuumed both the sofa and under the sofa for the first time in months and actually put things away in their proper place). But, it was raining when our guests arrived so our perfectly mopped tiles were covered in wet footprints within two minutes. The kitchen was full of dishes by the end of the night, and Mr 2 and his play friend spent the later part of the evening unpacking and playing with as many toys as possible across the living room floor. I could grieve the fact I’d spent hours cleaning the house. Or I could just shrug and accept it as a part of life.
I just think a fun life is a messy life, and there’s no point getting stressed about the state of one’s house.
That said, even though we rarely get a chance to clean everything in the house, I try to keep things clean. Let’s just get one thing straight: I rarely succeed, but if I do it’s because I have a few cheats up my sleeve. The one I’m sharing today has got to be one of my favourite ways to keep the house clean – even with an active toddler. It was inspired by my sister who seems to be as obsessed with IKEA’s Expedit range as I am (I have three of these shelves in my house).
The Expedit shelf in our kitchen (pictured above) houses everything from cookbooks, baking goods and empty shopping bags to baby bibs, baby bottles and place mats – and that’s just the top two shelves. The bottom two shelves have Mr 2’s book collection (close to the floor for ease of reach) and the bottom shelf has 4 massive IKEA Drona storage boxes that hide a myriad of toys and creative supplies like crayons, pencils and paper:
So whenever I feel the need for a bit of order in the house, or simply want to hide the endless supply of toys that Mr 2 has littered around the living room and dining room floors, I throw them into a Drona crate and hide them. Yep, I hide the mess. It’s a great tactic. I’ve invested in over 10 of these fabric Drona containers and also use them in Mr 2’s room for clothes storage. It’s particularly handy because we can pull the whole thing out and use it to transport a toy collection from house to house when he’s staying at a baby sitters.
But best of all, they just help me keep the house a little bit tidy.
What are your tricks?