Never one to shy away from a seemingly boring topic, for me there is however, no escaping this subject on a daily basis. The one thing I’ve noticed since being at home with the ladies is the sheer increase in the amount of housework that has to be done. I’m the first to admit I’m a bit anal about the house being kept relatively neat and tidy. The girls are great at helping to be fair, I hold pretty tight on the rule that if they are finished playing with one toy/puzzle etc they must tidy it up before tearing out the next pile of stuff. The bump is beginning to impede on daily tasks so I’ve been trying to come up with some handy tricks to make life easier for myself. 

First things first this is a little trick I’ve discovered in the past couple of weeks. I picked up these magic sponges recently in Aldi with the packaging promising I could keep pretty much everything in the house clean with just this sponge and water. Sold! However, I went to use it on our walls and it does take everything off, including the paint, oops! There are lots of other places this can be used though, most usefully I have one in every bathroom in the house. These sponges bring the sinks up to sparkling finish without the use of chemicals which I am not allergic to but I do hate using them regularly where the girls will be washing hands and brushing teeth. Plus this sponge is safe to leave in the bathroom, unlike any other cleaning product, and so easy to pick up and give the sink, or bath, a quick clean each day. In our house at the moment we have four double beds, two of which are used every night. I change these both about once a week and noticed myself going through piles of sheets and duvet covers and pillows just to find a set that matched. By the time I’d have the whole lot pulled out and tidied and then changed I was whacked which I’m assuming is due to pregnancy and not the sheer fact that I am literally that unfit! Anyway, the other day in a fit of genius I put two sets of pillow cases inside each duvet cover so now there is no rooting and messing before I even get as far as the beds. Simple and not life changing but if it saves me a few minutes I’m happy. The two ladies could quite literally spend hours playing dress up with their dolls but my god those dolls come with more accessories than even I do. Weeks of tantrums ensued where the big lady was asked to tidy up what she so gleefully dumped all over the floor until eventually I saw the simple and obvious answer in front of my nose. I pop a blanket down underneath the chaos which not only means her knees don’t sore from kneeling on a laminate floor, it also means one swift move in the evenings sees each and every pesky shoe and dress returned to their box easily until the morning. Now if only this trick worked as well for 100 piece jigsaw puzzles…Ok so none of these housework hacks are life changing but I’m working on figuring out more so that I streamline cleaning before the next child lands. If ANYONE has any other tips and tricks I’m all ears!!! 

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