cleaning house

It's never ending, especially with a baby and a dog! Some of you may know that I am a neat freak and I cannot stand for things to not to be in there place. I hate going to bed at night knowing that there are dirty dishes in the sink or a pile of unfolded clothes on the couch. It absolutely drives me crazy! However, I am learning that with a baby I cannot always have a spotless house. There will be toys (both Avery's and Bailey's)  scattered throughout the house and I have to be okay with that. For a while I would spend Avery's nap times picking up all of the toys off of the floor, only to bring them right back out when she woke up. What was I thinking?!!? I no longer feel the need to constantly be picking things off the floor; though after she goes to bed at night I do try to straighten up a bit.

Our house is also all tile.... no carpet, just a few area rugs... and I never knew just how difficult it would be to keep it clean. Of course, I try to vacuum and mop once a week, but now that Avery is scooting all over the place, I have learned that my once-a-week floor cleaning is just not enough. Avery literally scoots all over our house and when I go to pick her up she is covered in dirt, dog hair and who knows what else... It's so frustrating because Chris and I do not wear shoes in our house in hopes of not tracking in a lot of dirt and germs. I know Bailey tracks in a lot of dirt, but I can't keep wiping her paws every time she comes in from outside- not with a baby in my arms!  SO, I've been completely grossed out by all that Avery picks up on her outfits as she is scooting around in our house but am NOT ok with having to lug out a huge vacuum cleaner every single day. I am proud to say that I have discovered my new favorite cleaning device. The Swiffer Max! Seriously, it.is.amazing. It literally grabs everything right off the floor like magic! It's so much lighter and even gets the job done quicker (and better) than the vacuum cleaner. Obviously, I can only use it on the tile, so I still have to keep up with vacuuming the rugs on a regular basis, but now I can rest assured knowing that the floors are clean enough for Avery to scoot around on!!

Now on to laundry. Does anyone else feel like that is ALL they do? I am usually pretty good at staying on top of all of our laundry, but that typically means having to do a load-or two- each day (or maybe every other day). I can't even imagine how much laundry I will be doing when we have another child (no, that is not an announcement). This week I have fallen behind and am trying to play catch up in one day. This is what my living room looks like-- and there is still a load in the dryer, washer and I'm not even going to THINK about washing Bailey's beds and toys today!

at least I have a great helper!!

SO, cleaning the house is a never ending process. I am learning that I cannot keep our house spotless- a house is supposed to look lived in! It's ok if the sink has a few dishes in it when I go to bed... There are so many other more important things in life than trying to keep our house spotless. Avery will only be this age once and I don't want to miss a minute because I'm stressing over the messiness of our home. Plus, it just takes 5 minutes at the end of each day to tidy up the house enough that I don't go too crazy!

In all seriousness, I count it a true blessing to be able to stay at home with Avery and spend her nap times cleaning and cooking. I'm so blessed to be able to do my dream job- a stay at home mom!!! I really do have the best job in the world! :)