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Hey there friends. Welcome to the better postpartum podcast. I’m your host Angel Swan, crunchy mom, coffee addict and postpartum doula turned new mom, coach. This podcast is your audio guide to not just surviving but thriving during those early and newborn days. If you want to care for yourself, your household and your baby with confidence, grab your earbuds because this is the only podcast that you need. So what do you say? Should we get started with today’s episode? Let’s do this. Hey, friends, thank you so much for tuning in today. Before we get started, I just wanted to read this lovely review submitted by lens DM. She says, I wish I had discovered this sooner because even with a two month old, many of our tips would have been helpful to have earlier in my journey. It is great to go back to old episodes too. I also love how she gets right to the facts and has shorter episodes because moms are definitely short on time. Hey, thanks for that review. And if you’ve been loving this podcast and learning from it, please go to Apple podcasts subscribe, leave me a five star rating. And you know what, take that extra step and leave me a review those little love notes and they really our little love notes. Okay, I love them so much. All those love notes that you leave, they really just make my day makes me so happy to read them. And it really just helps other moms find this podcast so they can learn from it too. So thank you again, to Lindsay M. Now, let’s get into today’s episode, which is how to keep a tidy home when you have a baby. It feels like that’s impossible to do sometimes. Right. So I wanted to make this episode just for you guys. I feel like before we really get into the tidying tips, we need to talk about your baby. Because you know, your baby needs you then you do a whole lot. And that’s probably why you feel like you can’t get on top of the tidying. You might be you know, in the middle of doing something, your baby cries or fusses. So you immediately drop what you’re doing and go intend to them. The problem is, when that happens, you’re left with unfinished projects all over the house. So today, I’m going to give you some really quick and easy tips for you on how to keep your house tidy. And they’re so quick that you can really implement the quick tip and then go into into your baby. Just kind of let them pause and sit there for a second. Or if you know if you don’t want to do that. Or if your baby won’t let that happen. Maybe they go from zero to 101 second, like my daughter did. You know if your baby will let that happen. I think you know what I’m going to say? I’ll give you a second take Yes. Okay, you need to babywear you have to you can wear them while you’re doing your quick tidying. Or if they’re not into that. Maybe they’re a little bit bigger, you can put them in like a bouncer, you can put them in a walker, put them somewhere that they like to hang out in their little swing, whatever. Or maybe you can get them doing some independent play with like open ended activities, Montessori style. You know, that’s my favorite Montessori stuff. We get them doing some kind of independent play or, I mean, really, if they’re not going to do that you got to wear them.

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But keep them busy long enough for you to tidy up. However that is for you. So now with that, let’s get into the tidying tips, because that’s the best part of this episode, right? So first things first, when you wake up in the morning, I want you to just make your bed, make your bed. It sounds really silly. But making your bed is a really great way to start the day. It starts you off feeling accomplished. You’re like, Okay, I made my bed, check that off of the to do list. And just like that you have created momentum for yourself to continue tidying up after yourself throughout the rest of the day. It is so crazy how that just kind of flips a switch in your mind, like, Oh, I got that one thing done, I can do anything. So the next thing that I want you to do is to declutter your space. This may take some time, especially if clutter has built up. But you need to practice decluttering every single day. Because if you don’t do like a mini decluttering every day, then those things are going to start to pile up. And then that becomes so overwhelming to try and deal with all of the stuff at once. So when we think about decluttering, you know, everything must have a place a place for everything and everything in its place. So if you don’t have a home for each item that you own, then your house is going to quickly become a cluttered mess because you’re just setting things down willy nilly wherever you see an open space, because those things don’t have a home. So if you do have a home for everything, then you can more easily put things away when you’re done with them. And the key here is actually putting things away when you’re done with them like immediately after you’re done with them. I know I know. This is like mind blowing stuff like who would have thought of that? So here’s one example. This is a really easy one. I know, so many of you are guilty of this. I used to be guilty of this, but let’s just go into it right. So let’s just say you, you just had a bowl of yogurt. And now you have a dirty bowl and dirty spoon. So what do you do? What is your current habit? Do you tend to put that bowl and spoon in the sink? Or on the counter and save it for later? Why? Why do you do that? Stop it, stop it, just take that extra two seconds, open up the dishwasher it put those dishes in there, come on, you can do it. The thing about keeping a tidy home is you have to start new, tiny habits that will keep your house tidy throughout the day. And one of those little tiny habits that you can start doing right now is putting your dishes in the dishwasher or washing them right after you’re done eating. I like to use this rule for motivating myself to do something that I don’t necessarily want to do. But I know that I need to do it. And that rule is, if it’s only going to take me two minutes or less, then I’m just going to, I’m just going to make myself do it. Because it’s only two minutes, you know, anybody can handle a two minute task, I can do that. So putting your dishes into the dishwasher is only like a 10 second task. It’s not even two minutes. So why not just do it right? I know you can do it. Okay, another tiny habit you can start is doing a 10 minute tidy in the middle of the day. So what is a 10 Minute tidy? It’s kind of self explanatory. But a 10 minute tidy is literally just taking 10 minutes to go and put things away that you might have left out throughout the day for various reasons. Like you just didn’t get around to putting them away earlier, you know, because the baby cried, and they needed you or someone knocked on the door and you had to go pick up that Amazon package or you know, whatever. So the 10 Minute tidy is when you’re going to put those things back into their little homes. And just like that, in 10 minutes, you will have tidied up your house. And I do want you to remember that tidying is not deep cleaning, tidying, is not scrubbing toilets, or dusting or vacuuming. It’s just putting things away where they’re supposed to be. It’s really more like decluttering your space. Because when you have clutter in your home, it’s gonna lead to having a cluttered mind, which doesn’t feel great.

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When you have a cluttered home, you know, you’re probably looking all around yourself thinking about all the things that are out of place, all those messes that are just staring right back at you. And then you get anxious and overwhelmed thinking about how much work it will be to get your house back in order. And that is why I want you to start small, like putting your dishes away. Because I know, I know, right? I’ve been there. I know that even with a baby, you can handle a two minute task that’s going to get you to that goal of having a tidier home, you can do it and I know that you can also handle a 10 minute tidy in the middle of the day. I feel like that’s a small commitment, right? Two minute tasks a 10 minute tidy. Can you commit to 10 minutes in the middle of the day to tidying up? I think you can raise your hand. I’m going to pretend that I can see you raising your hand. Yes, that’s what I wanted. Good job, you can do it. Okay. So you know what another thing that you can do is a 10 Minute tidy at the end of the day to get yourself set up for the next day. Because I’m sure that you just like me, you create messes between the middle of the day and the end of the day, right. More messes happen. So let me tell you what I do in just 10 minutes every night to set myself up for the next day. Okay, first I put away anything that I left out. Then I do a quick wipe down of the counters to make sure there aren’t any crumbs or spills. I know this leans more towards cleaning and not tidying. But I really don’t like to have filth in my home and crumbs or spills or not great, that’s filth, and I cannot have that. So I wet my counters really really quick. And then I put away any dishes that might have been left out and put them into the dishwasher. And if the dishwasher is full or almost full, I run it and that way in the morning, I can go and empty my dishwasher. And then my dishwasher will be ready to receive dirty dishes for the rest of the next day. And then the last thing that I do is I do a quick sweep of my floors to get any noticeable crumbs are dust bunnies. And actually right now this is super necessary for me because I didn’t have to do it every day before the sweeping. But right now Jenny is doing this thing where Where she’s peeling layers and layers off of boxes, because you know, we get a lot of Amazon packages. So she’ll peel the boxes apart, and then leave the scraps all over my floors. So that is kind of forcing me to sweep because I cannot have those things just all over my floors. Because then the cats will mess with them too. And they kind of bat them around, and then I find them in all kinds of crazy places. So that’s yeah, that’s why I sweep every night. Now. You don’t have to sweep every night if you don’t want to. But if you want to, then you can sweep. It really, this only takes me 10 minutes, you guys are not doing a thorough job of any of this. I do my deep cleaning on other days I have in my planner. But that is what I do every night before I start my bedtime routine to help myself wind down and get ready for bed.

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So if you like these tips, I did want to let you know, you can learn more about how to manage your home like this and creating those little habits in my program called back to you. So the back to you blueprint is a step by step system that’s going to take you from feeling burnt out to having more control over your life, and getting 30 minutes of me time every single day. And I promise this relates to the episode just keep listening, I’ll tell you why. So the back to you blueprint will teach you how to First we start by building up your support system for when you need to call for backup. Because we all have those days, when we need a little extra help, then you’ll learn how to get your baby or toddler on a consistent, predictable routine, that’s going to allow you to have more control over your day. Because when you can get your your kid on a predictable routine, then you know what to expect, right? So that’s the second thing we do, then we move into simplifying your tasks, which is part of what we’re talking about today, right. So you’re going to learn how to create routines in your life in your daily life that are going to make your daily tasks easier. And then it’s going to make your task even quicker, because you’re just going to be doing the same thing, every single time, it takes a mental load off of you with that running to do list, things are going to be so much quicker, so much easier, which is going to free up a whole lot more time in your day to do whatever you want to play with your baby to do something for yourself. So then finally, the last thing that you will do was we’re going to learn how to create a weekly plan. Where you’ll prioritize your tasks, you’re going to use time blocking to fit those tasks, the tasks around your baby’s schedule. And of course, the ultimate goal, right is you’re going to be blocking out those 30 minutes of me time every single day. So that you can fill up your cup and be the best version of yourself because you cannot pour into your kids if you have an empty cup. So we got to fill you up first so that you can fill up your kids with love and all that light that you bring to their lives, you have to take care of yourself first as the whole reason I created back to you and back to you as a self paced program. But you will not be doing it alone. So we have a members only Facebook community where you can go, you can post your homework assignments, you can get accountability. You can also just post questions in there any time get feedback for myself and other members. And we do have a weekly q&a call where you can ask questions and get one on one support for me in real time. So if all that sounds great to you, and you want to come and join me in the back to your program, I have linked it in the episode description so you can click on it there. Or you can go to Angel spawn.com/back to you to join today. That is a n g e lswon.com/b. AC KTOYO YOU to join the program. Okay, friends, as always, don’t forget, you can come hang out with me on Instagram at Angel dot swan. You can grab my free postpartum planner on my website, Angel Swan calm. And of course, please don’t forget to go to Apple podcasts, rate review and subscribe. It would mean so much to me if you would do just that. Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to you soon. Bye bye. Thank you so much for listening to the better postpartum podcast. Here’s what I want you to do next. If you loved what you heard today, would you do me a giant favor and leave me a written five star review? Those little love notes that you leave are the perfect way to thank me for putting out these episodes just for you. Seriously, it would mean the world to me. Next, take a screenshot of the episode you’re listening to right now and share it on your Instagram stories and make sure you tag me at Angel dot swan. That’s SW o n so that more Moms can find this podcast and hopefully get the advice and encouragement they need to truly thrive with their babies. And don’t forget to come back every single week for more nuggets of wisdom and truth bombs about the early motherhood journey. I’ll talk to you next time. Bye bye