Weird Things I Do to Keep a Cleanish House

And now I say a cleanish house because I am not a type a kind of girl. And you know, growing up, I literally was so messy that my mother had to cover my Like I had these big they were like these handmade shells that I think you know, my family made and they were painted blue because I really love dolphins at the time, because dolphins were rule, and I had so much mess behind it. It was just so much mess, and my mother would walk in every day and my family and they'd just be so

sick of seeing. You know. There was like Pokemon toys, there was more my books. There was just bits and bobs, Like I used to collect all these little things like member polypocket, I USEDI toll love that, and then when I'd lose it, I'd be devastated. And it's like we didn't really stand a chance to not lose it anyway. So one day I got home from school and my mom had actually hung some shower curtains across my shelves and they were like, of course on theme, they were

on brand, this big. It was a big white shower curtain and there was blue dolphins across it. So you know, I could really hide my mess with marine wildlife, which we love. And you know that's the thing with mess, we do tend to try and hide it until it builds up. And it did. It kept accumulating and accumulating

until the shower curtain could no longer hold it. So the fact I've managed to find some weird things and some hacks that have really helped me keep a cleanish house, I feel like I'm qualified to talk about this, and especially you know, being a mom and like we've got the kids and all the things. It's it's tough. And I will say, I will say the house was easier to keep clean when the kids were little, Like I'm talking like babies, because babies can't move and my girls

were both really late to walk. They were I think sixteen months I believe sixteen seventeen months. And with Harper my first daughter, at first I was freaking out. I was like, oh my goodness, what's wrong. And then with Willow my second daughter, I was like, yeah, don't rush, honey, you just keep doing like the slug because you know, people do like the worm. I used to call it the slug and they just like drag themselves along the floor. Anyway, Sorry, Tangent.

The house was so much easy to keep clean back then. And look, yes we were sleep deprived all the things, but it was just much more simple. Because now my girls are into the polypocket phase as well, and they are losing the same things that I did. You know, the apple doesn't fore far from the tree, does it. So this is just me being really realistic giving you

tips and things that aren't like overbearing. I'm not gonna expect you to be running your house and keeping it spotless like a boot camp, like we're not doing that here. It's just about being realistic because at the end of the day, you know, it's not about having like a pintre perfect home. It's not about that it's not about you know, trying to keep up appearances. It's about making your life easier because we all know how much mess

and clutter affects us and a lot of people. You know, I've talked about this so many times, but there is studies and science that show that it affects us not only mentally but also physically, like our actual health. So you know, you just think about it. As a woman, we have so much of the mental load that we carry, and it's so important that we work out systems and ways that can alleviate it because you know, the stress

from the mental load of remembering all the things. And you know, we weren't taught in school how to clean a house. You know, we did cooking class, which is cool, like I remember we made really cool chocolate chip cookies, but didn't really help us too much. And I really feel like for people like myself who aren't Type A and you know, especially with ADHD, like I'm naturally a messy person, like we need help with that. And I think if we had subjects taught at school on how

to do this, we would be much happier people. So, yes, today's episode is really going to help many, many people out there. And also you're going to get a freebe as well my viral cleaning schedule, which you can change and make it like whatever you want. You fill it in, and it's just going to help really just stop the micro decisions, which I'll talk about in a minute, so that will be linked in the show notes. But before we get into it, a bit of a life update.

I've really been trying lately to get back into like the hobbies and things that I love. As you guys know, last year I actually started learning to play guitar and I loved it. It's something I want to do since I was eight years old, and I even went to lessons. And it's funny because so like for me, you know, I haven't played guitar for a little bit, for like a few weeks, and she's a bit rusty. Like my

goal was to learn how to play Wonder War. I love Wonder War, and now Wonder War doesn't really sound like wonder Wall anymore, so I want to get back into practicing that like just five minutes a day. And also, as I mentioned, probably a few episodes ago, I haven't been reading since I know I wrote the book, I just haven't been able to read. I've been trying and it's not happening. So if you guys have any recommendations to help me get out of this reading slump. And

it's actually funny. When I come into the studio today Xander, who is a producer here at Nova, we started talking a bit about like when we were children and the hobbies that we had, and they were kind of considered to be lame, like the interest that we would hype fixate on something, and now people are thinking those things are cool. This is like a bit of a story of one of the types of things I would hyper

fixate on. When I was younger, I was obsessed with horses, Like I was like a horse girl, you know, and people tend to say the horse girls are weird, which you know, I'm not saying that anyway. So I was so obsessed with horses, and I begged my parents for a saddle. I really wanted to saddle because I thought, you know, if I could kind of I thought I could kind of trick them into buying me a horse by saying I need a saddle, Like obviously I'm like seven,

and I thought I was a mastermind. So I finally got this second hand saddle. They even brought me a grooming kit, like how lucky am I? But you know, the horse never came, which was very devastating anyway. So what I would do is I would chuck. I would literally stand by my saddle every day and just wipe it down like a little weird horse girl, and I'd chuck it on the couch like the arm rest of the couch. And I even had a helmet, like guys, I had the whole shebang except the main event, which

is the horse. And my mother at the time took a photo of me riding the couch as like a widow, and my helmet was super tight and it would pull my eye brows right up, so I just looked constantly in shock. Anyway. So that's kind of what I was

like as a child. And as you guys know, Ryan and we've been together since we're seventeen, and we were in our twenties and Ryan came over to the family home and he was flicking through the photo albums and he freaking found that photo of me riding my couch, So that was fun, but he stayed, so that's nice anyway.

So what I'm trying to talk about. Is that how people would have hobbies back then, like you know, be knitting or something and like old lady hobbies that people thought were lame and now they're like really trending online. They're calling it like cozy hobby. So, like I bought a Nintendo Switch a little while ago, I'd play Hogwarts

Legacy because I love Harry Potter. Like my first year in high school, everyone had like Jesse McCartney on their books, like covering their books, and I had Ron Weasley because he knows he's pretty cute. Ron, I'd have to say. Anyway, moving on, so I'm trying to get back into all of that, and yeah, that's pretty much it. It's just like

it's just life as usual. Also, before I get into it, please don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Stepping Up and also my Instagram page which is steph Pace Underscore, And also check out our Facebook community because we'll be dropping more hints and tips and people like. It's a place for you guys to just chat about the episodes we talk about and I'll always be giving you extra value in there as well. So let's get into it,

shall we. Now let me ask you have you ever's you know, being at home and then suddenly you look around and think, how did it get this bad? And you feel like it's like a weekly occurrence, even though you swear you just cleaned for me. My biggest thing

is on the weekends. I feel like when I wasn't doing these things, I would feel like every weekend I would have to reclean the bathroom like and I'm not talking like like dirty, I'm talking about like clutter, Like you know how there's dirty you know mess, and then

there's clutter mess. It was the clutter mess. And I would always feel like every weekend I was just spending like a day just cleaning up after my own shit, literally because I couldn't up keep it during the week And you know, and then when the house does get into that state and you're looking around, you're like, how do we get here? Instead of cleaning, you're just feeling too over a one, so you end up sitting down and scrolling or doing something completely different. And this is

something I relate to. It's very much the avoidance. It's like, say, for example, I have to send like an email that I really don't want to send, I will I will literally teach myself how to retile a bathroom, and I'll rather do that than actually just send a two minute email. And that's just because it's that resistance that we experience as humans and it's bloody hard. And as I said, they don't teach this stuff at school, and you know,

I definitely do the same. Like there'll be so many times where I know I should be cleaning and all the things, but then you feel like soon as you do it, you turn around and it's gone back to how it was. And I tell you what, kids are really good at making messes, Like they're really really good at it. They give young Steph with her dolphin shower curtain a run of her money. You know, my house

isn't spotless. It's not like Pinterest or anything like that, but it's clean ish and that is good enough for me because that really helps me with my mental load and also gets me my time back, you know. And for me right now, cleanish is good enough. That's the season of my life. Like I'm happy I don't need to have you know, I want my kids to feel like they can still play and they can do the things. But there's little rituals and things that we do that really really help for it not to turn into a

shit show. Like for me, I always just thought I couldn't like I was incompetent, Like there was something wrong with me that I couldn't keep a space clean, Like I just had to be better. I had to be more organized, I had to be more disciplined. I just had to be better version of myself. But it turns out I just didn't have the systems. And these are

the systems I'm going to be giving you today. Now, before I give you these weird and amazing systems to help get your house cleanish, we need to talk about why is this so hard? Like why is this such a punish for us to do a simple life task such as even like things like do you many dms? I get daily about even cooking and meal prep because it's like you think you think that when you when you're growing up. I think for me, I thought I'd get to a certain age and something would click into place

and then everything would make sense. And I've talked about this before. How you know our parents' generation, it was very much you don't question them, and they look like they had their shit together. So then for us growing up especially as like millennials, we're waiting for this switch to flick and for us to understand the world and how to do our tax returns and things like that. But it doesn't happen. And I'm thirty five years old now and I'm still working things out. And it's the

thing is, it was just it was a facade. It's obviously they obviously felt the pressure to do that too, and it's just, you know, keeping your house clean is another one of those things like some people, yes, they probably are just naturally gifted with it, and then there's people like me who have like five spatchelors and just have doom piles bloody everywhere. And the thing is, keeping a house clean isn't just tough physically because you have to physically do the thing. I feel like it's more

so tough mentally. And that's because you know, imagine walking into a messy room, you feel your body tightened up straight away. And that's because every single thing thing you see is a micro decision. It's another decision you have to work out that cup on the bench, decision, the washing pile, or decision that toy under the couch, Another decision like should I wash this, Should I do that? Should I wipe that? What should I do today? And it's not so much keeping the house clean, it's about

decision fatigue. We get it. We're so exhausted. Like think about when you wake up in the morning, if anything's not like a habit, like brushing your teeth, you wake up and you're like, oh, like, what am I gonna have for breakfast? What am I gonna wear? Which I have so many good hacks on for this later another time, like what time do you have to live house like? And if it's not like a habit, it's just exhausting. And that's why for me, especially when it hits like

one PM or even lunch, I'm done. My brain is done for the day. And it's so hard too because I'll come home from work or like a day of meetings answering questions all day. And then you know my daughters who are so inquisitive. They they're so clever, and they have all these questions and most of the time I can't get the hump of them. Let's be honest, I'm usually like googling things because Harva wants to know

some they're just so smart, and I'm just done. And that's because it's decision fatigue and our brain is just checked out. You know, you walk into every room every single day and you're like, do I follow this? Do I put it away? Do I vacuum? Do I ignore it? Do I spiral? Do I banish my family? And like, go live in the freaking forest. Your brain's already full. Your brain is so full of like the schedules, kids, work, emails,

like is this person angry at me? You know, it's just like it's it's there's like forty seven micro decisions happening every minute, and then what do we do? We avoid it? We the mess accumulates and we feel like we're lazy, and we're not. We're just overloaded. And that's why I'm here. I'm here to help now, to get into the systems and the weird things I do to

keep my house cleanish. Now, I want you to think of, say you're driving, and then it could be a song and the last time you heard that song was literally it could have been fifteen years ago, and you still remember word for word. But then it comes to things like maybe an appointment one day, or just things going on at school or at work, and you forget, and that's because our brain likes patterns, has like that pattern recognition. So one thing I do I really like to hack

my brain a lot. And this is where I came up with the thing of theme days. So you know you already know I love alliteration unless you haven't noticed already from stuff face planners and things like that, and a lot of our marketing and stuff. I love just using alliteration and ponds. So I'm like, you know, I want to I want to play on that. I'm want to play with that, like pattern recognition and how our brains remember slogans like old ads and stuff like better

go to all, better go to lows or whatever. And I want to do that with the cleaning, because cleaning is boring. Let's make it fun. Okay, So we're gonna use our pattern memory or pattern recognition, whatever you want to call it by having theme days, which I'll explain what they are in a minute. It's removing more micro decisions, so like every day, you're not gonna wake up and like, oh, should I do the laundry today? Should I do this?

Should I do that? It's just like this is the day we do this because to be honest, we do need to be told what to do sometimes. I know for me being you know, the boss of SVP, I love that. Like now I've to on my team a lot of them, like can you just tell me what you want me to do today? Like I need someone just to tell me what to do. So here is where the idea of a theme day is. Each day

of the week. You can have like a little catchy title to it, which I'll give you some mine in a minute, and that's the day you do a certain task or thing. Now, I used to do my cleaning schedule where it was more so just like you know, bedrooms, a Monday laundry is Tuesday. But now I've made it fun again with the whole alliteration thing and things like that. So when that day comes, your brain goes, okay, oh yep, this is the day we do this thing. So some

examples for me are master and Mini's Monday. So this is basically like the master bedroom and the kids' bedrooms. So Monday is bedrooms, which has always been that way, but it really helps me to remember that. So this is the day I will vacuum the bedrooms, just like do a little quick tidy up. It will take me like five ten minutes, depending how massy we are. And this is also part of a tip later on, which is part of our AM and PM reset, which I'll

talk about later. And then we have toilets and tiles Tuesday, so any of the wet areas, any told areas, that's the day, like you know, days get wiped down and all that stuff. Toilets get cleaned. That's a Tuesday. And then I've got wipe down Wednesday, which is more like a general clean, like just a bit of a wipe down for most benches and things like that. And then

fresh sheet Friday. Love that day. Not really, it's like you know, when you bloody, it's always like you have the motivation in the morning to do the sheets, and then you forget because of the laundry, which I'll have a hack for soon, and then you're so tired and then you walk in and then the realization that you haven't done the sheets yet and you still have to do that before we get in bed is horrible. It sucks. It's worse than having a slow walker in front of you,

like Dad said. And then we have set up Saturday, which is like restocking items like the soap, all the toilet paper, all that fun stuff, and also just like shopping your fridge and freezer to create a meal plan like for the week. So it's like you're setting yourself up. And that's also the day I like to try and

fill in my planner for the next week. And then we've got shared space Sunday, so that's obviously any shared spaces, so like the lounge rooms a big one because that can accumulate fabit of stuff, but more of like a deeper clean in there too. And this whole idea of theme days works so well for dinners and meal planning. The thing is like I feel we do put a pressure on ourselves to try new meals every week and

do something new every week. But for us and our family, we eat the same dinners every single week, and it works for us. It's like, you know, you like what you like, you know, so let's not like fix what's not broken, you know, So you can use this same idea. So I'm sure you've heard of meat free Mondays and then taco Tuesdays, So using stuff like that and just having a certain day per week where you know, okay,

that's the day we eat pasta. You know, it could be Salmon's Saturdays, I don't know, like or whatever, seafood Saturdays. Take away those days whatever you want to do, and that again, it's removing the micro decisions, which also helps lighten the mental load. And that's the thing, that's the thing we want to do here. And just remembering all this, like your theme days or how you clean your house,

that is going to change as your life changes. As I said, when the kids were little, I didn't have to like upkeep the lund room like twice a day, and now I do because they've decided they want to start a band and then do arts and craft and then they're going to do barbies or within half an hour. But when they were babies, theyre just laying there. I love your girls, but let's just chill now. My second hack or weird thing I do is a brain hack again,

and this is my having my cleaning playlist. Now every time I clean my house, I play the exact same cleaning playlist. Now, this is all about Q association. So I'm sure you've been out and about. Maybe you've smelt something familiar or you've heard something and that memory from whenever you've first smelt that or heard that, it comes

back and you get this memory. And it's the same idea with you know, having a certain ritual, so like you know, maybe once the kids go to bed, maybe you make a peppermint tea and you play your own playlist, and that like signals to your brain it's time to relax now. And that's because our brain is heavily tied toques, so q's usually equal action. So now when I put this playlist on, my brain goes, oh yeah, when we

hear this, we're clean. This is what we're doing. So this is really helping with resistance because let's be honest, cleaning sucks. And also with me and ADHD, it's not very stimulating. So think something that is stimulating and creates dopamine is things like music, and that really really helps. And I have another with this, I'll tell you in a minute. But if you continue to do this and have these little rituals and cues, you will find your brain will just switch gears so much faster. And I

did this heavily when I was writing my book. I would have the same playlist, I would light the same candle, and then I noticed, by like the second or third day, even I was switching into that like flow state so much faster, which we know is so hard. And if you guys don't know what a flow state is, it's kind of like when you're able to be so focused on a task, you kind of lose sense of time because you're just flowing, which is what we want, unless

you hyper fixate on things for like four hours. But anyway, it is so much easier when you have this I actually have which I actually have a certain we'll have two playlists, one for like a morning reset and one for our evening reset. I know it's a bit excessive, but I will give you guys the links if you want them as well, and it's on Spotify, so you

really will see this playlist as like a trigger. So when you have the trigger, you get the action, and that is where you're really going to be hacking your brain. And also, not to mention, you're reducing the should I moment? So you remember at the start of this episode, I was saying, every day you're saying like should I do this? Should I do that? Should I mop? Should I do the washing? You're not asking that anymore because number one, you've got your theme day now you know, yes, it's

wipe down Wednesdays. Let's go. Now, I've got my playlist pumpin' and I'm listening to bloody Mariah Carey like we're good to go, mate, and we're getting the dope of meine. We're getting it all done. And you know, this is what we do on Wednesdays. And look, don't get me wrong, the first few times, you're gonna have a little bit of resistance, but once your brain knows the queue and

the trigger, it's gonna be so much easier. Now, my next hack, and this is honestly like, oh, I feel like I'm a genius really for this fun Now this is I love baskets. Now, I love tubs, baskets, anything that can contain the mess or categorize the mess. Now, this hack is called my catch or basket. And I'm sure you might have seen it on social So this is the idea where you get a bar basket and you put it in one high traffic area of your home. Now, in our house, we actually have one basket each for

the girls and I have one for myself. Ryan doesn't really tend to need one because I feel like he doesn't have like a lot of stuff, whereas yeah, us girls just have stuff anyway, So we have our names on it and they sit in the lound room and then basically you can kind of call these this doesn't bloody belong here basket. So anything that doesn't belong in that space, whoever it belongs to, goes into their basket. And then at the end of the day we put

our stuff away, so we're like batching the mess. And it's not like, you know, you could just do this as one basket. But for me, again, I'm trying to reduce the micro decisions and trying to figure things out. So when everyone's stuff's mixed together, see if it's one basket and it's got Harper stuff, Willows stuff, my stuff, I'm still having to then separate it. And this is also why I started using washbags when I do the

laundry to separate Harper and Willows stuff. But I can still do the same load because I hate having to like do the extra steps. The less steps the better. And you're not now when you have like a catch or basket, you're not cleaning it twenty times a day,

You're not constantly going back to their rooms. You're just chucking things into people's baskets and then you do a little reset lap and then it's not our problem anymore and you look just the kids still shove half their room in the basket, yes they do, and still sometimes like I will have to put their stuff away, but at least it's easier. Like batching is just life changing. When you can just do everything at once and not have to constantly be picking up tiny things all day,

your life will be changed. And also with like psychology, they say visual containment lowers anxiety. So if you see like you know, if you see a pantry and you see there's like chips and things everywhere's it makes you feel a bit more chaotic. But when you see them just shoved in a tub, you feel like it's like more organized. And I love a gook top so and Amazon's just the best anyway, moving on, this also is linked to my next tip, which is the bench basket.

Now this has to do. It's pretty much the same kind of thing, but it's for the kitchen because I feel like the kitchen bench is probably worse than the lounge room for me. And we have like the butler's pantry, which is awesome and then we have the main kitchen, which still like it kind of doesn't make really make sense, but it's cool anyway. And the idea behind that is

to you're meant to like utilize the butler's pantry. So then the main kitchen looks clean like no one lives there, which we love, but it doesn't happen in my house. So the bench basket is the same kind of thing. It's a really cute little rope basket. Anything that's on the kitchen bench that doesn't belong there goes in there or goes into someone's tub. And then we do a reset lap and like empty that at night too. So look,

and again with this stuff, we're not perfect guys. We don't do these things like every single day to the tee, but we do try to stick to it and that helps a lot. And look, even with the tubs, like even if it's like a couple of days goes by, or even a few days and then then the tubs start to overflow, then we're like, okay, let's let's put this stuff away now. And it's just at least it's contained, it's not spread across the bloody lounge room floor. And

I'm stepping on pole pockets. Now, my next tip is

for laundry. And I know, I know there's others out there like me, but the amount of times I've re washed a load because its smell like regret because I forgot to transfer it to the dryer or like hang it is insane, Like I don't want to think about how many times I've done that now, because you know, we forget things and every load takes a different amount of time usually, And you know, this is where I really love using some washing machines have the delayed start timer,

so you can actually, like say, what I do a lot is I'll pop a load in, but I'll delay the start, like say at nighttime, and I'll say start in ten hours, so when I wake up, it's ready to be hung up straight away. And for me, I'm really I'm much more willing to do things in the morning, like I'm more motivated. So that's why how I kind of organize it. Some people will do that before work and then they'll hang it up after work, but you need something to remind you to do the thing. So

this is super simple. But this is where I set alarms now every time I put a load in I do a transfer timer, so a timer that literally says move the washing or it's going to smell, literally because I'm having to redo it all the time. So that is what I do. And I now I've started using Siri a lot more. Now I have to say, I kind of forgot about old Ciri. She's really helpful. So now for me, anywhere I can remove the resistance into having to physically set a timer, I would just say like, hey, Siri,

set me at an alarm or whatever. And that's what I do. And now I've done this, the washing gets actually completed much more often. So that's super helpful. And the thing is, it's it's not us being lazy, you know. It's just about our working memory, and we're not. We don't have built in clocks, or some people probably do, but I do not. I don't even have it. I have no sense of direction. I've got like no GPS,

no inner GPS, spatially awkward, specially unaware. Like anyway, now we've got our theme days, we've got our baskets, we've got our timers. Now we're going to be moving on to the five minute rule. Now, there's always going to be times where you just like I do not want to do this. I know it's bloody set up Saturday, but I don't want to like look in my fridge

and figure out a meal plan. So one thing when I don't want to clean or do the things, I don't negotiate it with myself for forty five minutes like I used to, I negotiate for five minutes. So what I do is, you know, starting anything is the hardest part. We know that starting anything is literally the hardest thing. But momentum builds dopamine, and momentum builds more momentum. So I tell myself, Okay, I said a timer for five minutes. I want to do whatever this thing is for five minutes.

And when the timer goes off and I hate it, I can stop, And ninety nine percent of the time I will just keep going because you're already in the flow. When you get it done, you put on your playlist, you do the thing. So doing a little five minute timer really really helps. Another thing I love to do, and this is a little bit excessive, I build mine on camber because I use that full work. I will make like a bingo card, like a cleaning bingo card. But I'll just kind of like change it up for

whatever it needs to be done that day. Because when you have it on a Bingo card and you get to like cross it off, it's just really satisfying. It's like you know what to do list and you get to tick things off. And I'm always that person, like I will do things that isn't on my to do list, but then I will write it down and tick it off. Anyway, that's what I do with the Bingo card. So honestly, if I should make a template for you guys, let

me know if you want me to do that. Just like take a photo of you guys listening to this episode and tell me if you want a Bingo card, because I will make you one, and I'll make it edit like you can edit in camera or whatever. Because it really helps. And also I've used it with the kids so when they need to do some chores and stuff and then when they like the middle square will be like unlocking like a treat or something, or like maybe we go to the park or whatever. It really helps.

Now the next thing I do to keep the mess at bay Ish is am and PM resets. Now these are life changing, and I know you've probably seen them on social media. I've been doing them for so bloody long and they do change as well. But soon as I stop these, that's when shit hits the fan. Because it's not about like never making mess, it's about preventing and like just being more proactive. So like for us, when I started doing this, I kind of wanted to zoom out. I looked at our day and I was like, Okay,

when does the mess happen? Like when does the biggest amount of mess happen? And it's always in the morning and then also after like you know, witching our own like the dinner time rush. So that's why why we do amm PM resets. No, Like when you think about it, it's like when you want to get into fitness, you need to get into the habit of going to the gym. It needs to become a habit and it's something you

need to do every single day to get results. And it's the same as cleaning and de cluttering, Like we need this to become a habit because when it becomes a habit, there's less resistance. So hence we do things like we use timers, we use the cleaning playlist, and for me, I actually do have two cleaning playlists. I've got one for the AM reset, so it's a bit more like motivational, bit more like energy kind of music.

And then the PM reset is more you know, like listening to like Coldplay and shit like that and like the red Hot Chili peppers and all the old things that I used to love. So it gives me different energies and my brain goes, oh, yeah, we're putting the house to bed, you know, Oh no, we're setting up for the day. So doing these mini resets morning and evening are really going to help you reset after the

morning rush where everyone's getting ready. Like, for example, for me, like I didn't realize how important it was to do the morning reset until after I had kids, because you know, you're getting everyone ready for school or like daycare or whatever, and then you come home and the house is a shit show still, And it really does only take a cup like five ten minutes, and if you do it as you go and it becomes a habit, it's so much easier. So for example, like think about in the

morning rush, what you're doing and you're getting ready. So for me, I'll have like makeup and hair stuff cluttered all over the bathroom, the kitchen is a mess from breakfast and the kids, and then you've got the lounge room that's also a mess from the kids. Sorry kids, And then you know, you've got all of that, so it's just like resetting that so when you are coming home from work or dropping off or whatever you're doing,

you're not coming back to that chaos. And then you also if you didn't do that, the stuff that happens throughout the day, and then after the dinner rush, it's even bigger. I no wonder we're so overwhelmed because at the end of the day we're also exhausted, so we're not really helping future us at all. It's making it much worse, so it's even more important. On another note, to put the house to bed is what we're going

to call it. Some people call it closing shift, so I think if you're in hospitality, they call it closing shift where they reset everything. And I don't know about you guys, but there's something about waking up to a clean house that just makes me feel like I've got my shit together. You know, These mini resets are more so about maintenance. They're not about hustling or being perfect and it's not like we're deep cleaning daily. It's just

upkeep daily. Now when you've got your theme days and you've got your little resets and things like that, we really do need our visual cues to remember. And like I love a label, you know, we as I always used to joke that if Ryan stood still for too long, I would label him husband because my brain it just really helps to have like constant reminders of like this

is what we do at this time. Because I don't know about you guys, but I have like the memory of a goldfish and having you know, even though when you think about it in KINDI and stuff, when we're learning things, we have visual cues around the classroom to remember what we just learned. And why aren't we doing that as adults, Like why don't we why don't we have our routines on the wall. You know, we can make them more aesthetic in all the things, but it's

important we do that. So this is where I actually made is a Steph faced Planner's product. It's a magnet. It's a cleaning schedule magnet. She's aesthetic, of course. Chuck her on the fridge and then I've got my routines on there, so I've got my AM reset, I've got my PM reset, and then I've got my theme days written down. So not only am I reminded of what days, what the family is too. And this is where you

can get them to help. And I know it's like you're probably like rolling your eyes, like Steph, how the hell am supposed to them to help? But it's all about just like making it fun and like like for me, I used to struggle to get the girls to help, and look, there's still days where they're like, no, Mum, I'm not doing that. But I would play the playlist that I have and then they get into it and they love it. And it's just like you can make

it like a fun thing. You get the timer involved, you do the bingo cards, and it's not like you don't have to run your house like a boot camp. But we like everyone lives there, everyone does need a chip in. We're also giving our kids the lessons that we needed on how to upkeep a house because we're figuring it out too. And it's the same, like it's the same concept as out of sight, out of mind. So if we're not constantly being reminded we're going to forget.

And that's why I always say if people are new to using a planner, you need to have it open on your kitchen bench or anywhere where you are mostly so it could be your office, your bedroom, whatever, but always have it open because out of sight is out of mind. And my last tip is to reward yourself. Okay, like we're not dogs to a bone, but we may as well be. I again, we need the dopamine hit, so one like these don't have to be like we're not buying ourselves presents unless you really want to and

you end up on Amazon scrolling for so long. We don't need half of the things, but you know, just rewarding ourselves, like you've done the laundry. Okay, light that really boogie expensive candle that you got as a present, or you got the dishes done, make a nice coffee, or if you folded a load of washing, Like sit down and scroll on your phone for fifteen Okay, let's be honest, scroll on your phone for an hour and not feel guilty about it, because when you know, there's

a bit of a like a dopamine hit afterwards. So like for me, when I finish cleaning I always light a candle. I don't know what it is, because candles make me feel like cozy and like it's fresh, and it's like a ritual now, just like the playlist, and it really really helps to have that. So once I've lit that candle, I get this dope mean hit, like yes,

you did it again, and it becomes a cue. So I hope all of these weird and wacky tips have helped you, and I think it's just so important we kind of just be more honest about how what a punish it is to try to be an adult sometimes, because you know, keeping the house clean and meal planning and cooking and keeping up with everyone's calendars is just

not like a natural thing for everyone. And I feel like it's not really a natural thing for anyone because you know, I feel like as humans, we weren't meant to be living in this such a fast paced lifestyle. And you know, with technology and all the obviously it's got amazing opportunities, but the mental load and like our mental health do take a huge dive. So I think it's important that we stop being so I don't know, like try always trying to hide our mess and we're

ashamed of our mess. Instead, like, let's open up about our mess so we can share our tips with each other about how we manage our own messes. And yeah, I just think it's super important. So and don't forget guys. If you want your free cleaning scheduled template download, just hop into the show notes and hit the link there. And if this episode made you feel a little bit less alone in your mess and you're chaos, please just

take a photo, share it on Instagram or whatever. I would just love to hear it, or even just like shoot me a message in my DMS on Instagram and it would mean so much to me. And also just send this to a friend who might be struggling with the same stuff as you, which is pretty much all of us. And here's a reminder to make sure you go set your timer to transfer your washing so it doesn't smell. I will see you guys next week.