K+J's Room

So I have been meaning to write a post with photos of the girls's bedrooms for a long time. On another blog I read often Kathryn has posted photos of her kids rooms and it inspired me. I always had an excuse to not take pictures, most often that it was not clean enough or something was not finished but yesterday I finally did it! Cleaned up, go the girls to sit in the doorway and watch while I got some photos. So without further adieu Kaylyn and Jael's room!

 

  

 

Their room is probably one of my favourite rooms in the house, I love the green walls and if we ever moved I think a condition of selling would be that they could never paint over the tree. They used to have a white shag rug on the floor but when I started potty training I took it out, soon after that I found the alphabet blocks at Costco, they are great! They are learning all the letters and often like to carry around 'K' and 'J'. The table and chairs in the corner are from Ikea, they keep their Bible storybooks that we read each night on the table and when they are not sitting on them the bears usually belong in the chairs. One day we will get them real beds but right now the mattresses on the floor work great, they don't get hurt when they fall off and they can jump around on them and be close to each other when they go to bed. Their monkeys are their most prized possession, they sleep with them and mother them and love them to bits. A basket of stuffies and little blankets to wrap them in and an old doll cradle from my grandparents round out the furnishings. If you know me you know that I am a little obsessed with baskets and bins and I love all the baskets and bins on the shelves in their closet, on top of feeding my addiction they make organizing and storage super easy, I can store so much in the bins at the top of their closet and easily get to them. The dresser is a oldie goldie hand-me-down, the baskets are from Canadian Tire and the bins are from Superstore. I wanted their room to have a bit of an animal theme in lots of different mediums, I got the fabric fish from a thrift store, the framed ink okapi my sister picked up from ACAD, the animals on top of the dresser all belonged to Mike and the duck and pig in the frame is actually a card that I thought was so cute so I put it in a frame. They also have a cross stitch from my Gran on the wall by a preemie sleeper they used to fit in, a lizard over the light switch, a fish mobile from Ikea and photos of them as babies. Their tree and the painting of the children in the fall are both done by the very talented Anna Pederson. One night when they were going to bed they wanted to see Cosette who was already in bed so I told them that we would find a picture of her to hang on their wall in the morning, Jael promptly said, 'On that wall!' and pointed to where the photo now hangs. 

That is the run down of their room, maybe one day I will clean up Cosette's room and tell you all about it.

Default Clean

When I first stopped working in an office and came home I told people I was a horrible housewife and while more days than not my house is a bit of a disaster I think I have gotten better and I have a couple things that help me out keeping things clean(ish)

1. Default Clean
One day I realized I was default messy, default messy peoples house's are almost always messy but default clean houses are often clean.This is really just another way of saying, 'Clean as you go' but default clean made it click for me. Poor cheerios and put the box away right away, cut veggies and wash the cutting board, put dishes in the dishwasher right away, wash pots as soon as you use them, put away toys as you finish with them...being default clean makes 'cleaning time' way easier.
2. Morning Routine
I probably get this done at least 4 mornings a week but if I get it done every morning my house looks presentable. I love having a system for everything so clearly I will have a system for my daily chores. start laundry,Unload/load dishwasher, clean counters, clean table, throw all the toys from the kitchen and dining room and entry way into the living room, sweep kitchen/dining room/entry way, clean up living room, vacuum living room. Bam.
3. A Little Help From My Friends
Every once in awhile I call in some help, or help just shows up. Mom, siblings...living a few minutes away has its perks, among them house help.
4. Daily Goals
 I try to set a couple goals for myself everyday, it makes me feel like I accomplished something, thses are often things like 'put away laundry' (which is prob my most avoided chore) 'make meatballs' or clean something extra that has piled up. Every day my goal is that all my girls laugh, not negotiable. Chores are negotiable.
5. Epic Win
Best. App. Ever. Makes goals exciting.
6. Clean Fast
Sometimes I fail at this but when I do spend time cleaning I try to work fast, get it over with, instead of puttereing around and feeling like I clean all day.