Mama Hack: Three Things

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I recently started writing about a house-cleaning Mama Hack and ended up on the subject of my delight over discovering the Baby Bjorn Carrier. I’d like to pick back up on that earlier train of thought today.

I previously mentioned that while most people’s houses get messier when they bring a baby home, mine actually got cleaner. This is due to the fact that my baby wanted to be in constant motion, and one of the few things that could keep us moving around the house with her in the carrier was for me to clean.

It was actually a little bit awesome.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that the toddler years are going to bring about ever more messes, but I’m really appreciating the fact that for the first time in my life, I probably wouldn’t be completely mortified if my grandmother dropped by unexpectedly. (I’d be shocked, as she lives all the way across the country, but I wouldn’t be mortified.)

Once I got in the habit of cleaning, it got to be a bit easier. Still, there are times when I just don’t feel like it. That’s when I pull out one of my very favorite Mama Hacks. I call it “Three Things.” Whatever room I’m in, I decide that I’m just going to do three things, and then I can move on with my day.

Let’s say I’m in the kitchen. I can choose any three things to do in that room. Perhaps I want to do something small like put a glass in the dishwasher. On the other hand, I might be willing to put in a little more effort and actually sweep the entire floor. If I empty out the sink drain, then I have accomplished three tasks, and I am officially off the hook for the time being.

No matter which three things I choose to do now, the result is that I don’t have to do them later. If I manage to just do three things every time I walk into the kitchen, I can have the darned thing clean before lunchtime without really even trying. Even if I don’t get it all the way done, the fact of the matter is that if I’ve been in the kitchen four times that morning, there are twelve things done in there that wouldn’t have been taken care of otherwise.

I sometimes take this a step further by doing three things in one room and making sure that the final one takes me into another room where I will do another three things. For example, my third task in the kitchen might be to return the scissors to the drawer in the living room. Once in the living room, I’ll find three things to do in there. Maybe it’s silly, but just keeping myself moving from room to room rather than feeling like I must get one completely clean RIGHT NOW makes a huge difference.

Of course, your attention span might be a little longer than . . . ooh, something shiny . . .

Read more reviews of the Baby Bjorn Carrier

(Mama Hack: n. A tip or technique that reduces the chaos in a mama’s life and makes it easier to manage or more convenient. Because no one looks back and says, “There just wasn’t enough to do.”)