The stay-at-home life is “easy”! Piece of cake! How hard could it really be?

I know, go ahead and hit me with a brick now!

I had so many misconceptions about what it’s like to stay home. Perhaps the biggest of my misconceptions was this: stay-at-home moms have perfect homes. 

The joys and challenges of my transition to the stay-at-home life is a topic for another day. But today, I want to confess out loud how wrong I was about keeping a perfect home 100 percent of the time, let alone doing it all by myself!

It took me so long to quit being a stubborn perfectionist and to finally ask for help.

A few weeks ago, I received the gift of a clean home, and with it some coaching on how to keep things orderly. Patty Robertson and the “good fairies” from Straighten Your Paths (SYP) are to be credited for that. My five-year-old and I have been calling them the “good fairies” because they truly did some magic on our house and touched our lives in major ways. They began by conducting a brief assessment of the space, pinpointing problem areas, and offering ideas and solutions to help me create more room and order. Then, they deep-cleaned my house and organized where possible!

Since my gift is in cooking, I made them some soup for lunch in exchange for advice on how to keep things up. 🙂 Not only were they generous with their advice to me, but also…

Straighten Your Paths is offering three 90-minute coaching sessions valued at $100 each to three lucky Des Moines residents and readers! See details and enter the giveaway at the bottom of this article!

5 Ways to Decrease Stress and Keep an Orderly Home:

1. Create a plan that works for your entire family.

Spend some time looking through your home. Identify appropriate storage space for items (i.e. a home for toys, a home for books, a home for mail…etc). Talk through chores, and delegate appropriately. Put it all down on paper or your calendar for accountability.

2. Speaking of calendars, schedule your housekeeping tasks in “bite size” increments.

One of the biggest challenges to keeping an orderly home, Patty indicates, is more of a psychological one. “We talk ourselves into an all-or-nothing deal. We think we need to take two full days to get our house in order; and since we don’t have that kind of time, we simply quit before we even begin.” Instead, think 5-minute tasks like sorting the mail and putting away some toys; or 15-minute tasks like decluttering one kitchen drawer. Very important: make time every night for everyone to put away their items before going to bed.

3. “Contain contain contain,” Cindy, SYP’s senior staff, advises.

“Bins, baskets, and bowls are your good friends,” she says. Find small items that belong together and contain them in a basket or container. Before SYP came, stacks of books graced the floor of my 5-year-old’s room. By containing the books in an unused old basket of mine, instant beauty and order was restored. And this will surely set my little one for success. Plastic bins now contain toys in the basement. An old repurposed bowl carries bottles of medicine…. You get the idea.

4. Do your laundry daily!

When I asked Patty what is one of the biggest issues people run into, she said, “Laundry.” Ring a bell? No judging here; we have all been there with piles of laundry in the guest bedroom waiting to be folded and put away. The solution? Incorporate laundry into your daily routine. For Donna, another SYP staff member, it makes sense to throw a load of laundry in first thing in the morning; it’s in the dryer before she drops her kids off at school. She’s able to fold and put the laundry away later in the afternoon. Patty added, “Take your clothes out of the dryer only when you’re ready to fold.”

5. Clean your kitchen every night.

“We are greeted every morning by our kitchen counters and sinks,” Patty says. “Do your best to leave no dishes near or in the sink, wipe your kitchen counters clean, and do a quick sweeping of the floors.”

Do you have some advice or tips of your own? I want to hear them in the comments!

Patty Robertson and the Straighten Your Paths staff have more than 27 years of combined experience in the business of making order out of chaos. They are also extremely caring individuals willing to share their experience to make sure I stayed on track.

They left me with three important things to remember:

• While organizing is not rocket-science, it is a lifelong discipline; take it one day at a time, ensuring it becomes a habit.
• There is no one specific way or formula to keep an orderly home. Do what works for your family. Make it a priority and an investment in your children’s future.
• Ask for help. Recruit your family members. Have a girlfriend cleaning party; and return the favor when you can. Or call a professional service.

Here is the link to learn more about Straighten Your Paths and their organizing, home staging, and housekeeping services.

GIVEAWAY

Des Moines area residents, ENTER below for a chance to win one of three 90-minute coaching sessions with Straighten Your Paths.

Lucky winners, during your coaching session, Straighten Your Paths staff will generally

• assess your space and identify potential obstacles and solutions,
• review your goals, and
• provide ideas and assist with time-management strategies to ensure your family’s success.

All coaching sessions are strictly confidential.

(You may trade your coaching session for a $100 discount on another SYP service of your choice. A minimum of four hours of service is required to receive this discount. Subject to other restrictions per Straighten Your Paths.)