Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles

I am so excited to share how I tackle spring cleaning as a mother of littles! I realize this topic is more specific, but I hope it encourages other young mamas as we head into spring. 

This post contains affiliate links. For my full disclosure, click here. I am a Norwex Independent Sales Consultant.

I woke up Monday with a crazy motivation that I haven’t had in quite some time. On top of being pregnant in my first trimester, January and February just felt blah. I was tired all the time, it was grey and cold outside and my energy levels were just plain low.

Waking up on Monday to the first day of March and a bright sunny day fueled my motivation and I decided it was time to clean. Not just my regular cleaning, but a deep spring cleaning along with some major organization.

It is still cold outside (in fact it snowed again today in Michigan), but there is just something about heading into spring that makes me crave a good cleaning and purging. Anyone else?

Of course as you know, I homeschool and have my three little boys at home with me all the time, so regular cleaning can be enough of a task, let alone spring cleaning.

I have shared a few tips on natural cleaning and keeping a house tidy with toddlers before, but today I am going to share how I tackle spring cleaning as a mother of littles. I hope this helps not only mothers, but also grandmothers or aunts that possibly have young ones around as well. 🙂

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Pray

The first thing I like to do every day, not just when I am spring cleaning, is pray. I like to give it all to God and ask him to really keep my priorities in check and give me patience with my sweet boys. This is so helpful to me and really helps me start with the right mindset! 🙂

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Make a List

The second thing I like to do is make a list. Write down everything that you would like to accomplish. It can be overwhelming to have all of your tasks floating around in your head, and writing it all down is a great way to see all that you want to tackle. I absolutely love my Tidbits Planner specifically for this, it has so much space and is easy to organize everything I want to write down. 

I also love making lists because there is something so satisfying about being able to cross things off as you go. Even if you just complete one small task, you still can visually see that you accomplished something by crossing it off! This really pushes me forward and helps me to stay motivated. 

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Lower Your Expectations

When I started spring cleaning on Monday, I had such a smooth day and accomplished so much. At the end of the day I was so happy and had so many things crossed off my list. I woke up Tuesday motivated again, hoping for the same results and it was a completely different day. 

The specific task I chose to tackle from my list was my kitchen. The utility drawer alone took over an hour and a half with my boys. I quickly realized the day was not going to be as productive as Monday and had to tell myself to be content with what I could accomplish, even if it wasn’t what I had hoped for. 

Even if you only are able to cross one small thing off of your list, it is still moving in the right direction towards your end goal. If you have low expectations and exceed them, it’s an amazing feeling!

You never know the needs and demands of your little ones and they change all the time, so lower your expectations and don’t set standards that are too high for yourself.

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Get Your Little Ones Involved

This tip may seem like the worst idea ever, but I promise you it can be very helpful! I strongly believe it is so good to teach your children how to be responsible and what hard work looks like. They are living in the house too and helping make the messes! 

Find something that is reasonable for them to work on, something that they are able to do without your help. They can work away at the task you have given them which also helps them to be less of a distraction to you.

Praise is so important in this area too if you want them to succeed. They need to hear how helpful they are and how proud you are of them. This will encourage them to keep wanting to help you and find a sense of pride in their work. I really try not to pressure or force them to help me either, unless it’s the mess they made on their own. 

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Use Natural Cleaning Products

This tip is very important to me, especially if you want your kids to be involved. You don’t want to stress about what they are picking up, touching or using and having natural products just makes it so much easier. 

As I mentioned in the beginning, I am very passionate about this and even shared this blog post entirely on it if you want to read all of the products I love to use. They work just as well and you don’t have to worry about your home being filled with different chemicals or harmful products. 

My favorite natural cleaning product by far is my Norwex Enviro-Cloth. This cloth and water have been the easiest and most powerful tool I have used to clean with and I have been using it for years. 

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Let Go of Your Ideals

It is so important to have set ideals that you follow daily for your kids and to follow them as consistently as possible. But sometimes, you need to let go of those ideals and not beat yourself up for doing so. 

For example, my boys do not watch television at all during the day. It is just one standard that I personally feel is important, just because I like to encourage them to play and use their imagination as much as possible.

But when Caleb (my two year old) started pulling out and playing with everything I was trying so desperately to organize on Monday, I decided to give in and turn on some cartoons.

Spring cleaning isn’t something that I do all of the time, in fact I like to get through this list each year as fast as I can. Allowing my two year old to watch television instead of getting into the very thing I just organized is okay! 

Balance is so important because when I allow something like television to help me accomplish my goals, I in turn can be a more productive and better mom to my sweet little boys and we can all get back to our normal routines even faster. 

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Take Care of Yourself 

Taking care of yourself is so important! It is so easy as a mother of littles ones to get so swept up in taking care of our kids that we do not take care of our own bodies. 

When I was pregnant with my first, I had no concept of eating healthy or taking care of myself. I was in a vicious cycle of being tired all of the time and pretending that sugar and junk food was fueling me through my day even though it only led to a spike of energy and another crash and plenty of mood swings in between. 

Your health is so important and ties directly to your success as a mother. Giving your body the fuel it needs for energy and focus really doesn’t take as much time as we think it does. Take the time to eat a big breakfast, make yourself snack on healthy options to sustain your energy throughout your day and be sure you are drinking enough water. All of these things will make such a huge difference in the long term for you in how you feel! 

Spring Cleaning as a Mother of Littles – Have Quiet Time in the Afternoon

Having quiet time in the afternoon is not only good for your kids as a rest time, but also for you to have to reset and accomplish tasks. When your kids are young enough, you can have them nap for quiet time, but right now I have my older boys do worksheets or color in coloring books while Caleb naps. 

Establish what quiet time is with them and be consistent. The first few days may be a difficult transition for you, but you would be surprised how quickly a habit will form for them and the amount you are able to accomplish in that new time you have for yourself. 

I hope these tips on how I tackle spring cleaning as a mother of littles were helpful to you. Maybe some seem obvious, but recently I read that as bloggers we should really be sharing what we are doing, not just doing or creating simply to share.

So, spring cleaning is what I’m doing now! Will you let me know if this post encouraged you in some way? Thank you for stopping by today and I would love to hear your spring cleaning tips in the comments below!

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