Episode 26: Creating Cleaning Routines That Work For You With Kelly Briggs

Today we are interviewing Kelly Briggs, a homeschooling mom of four who runs The Simple Home Mom blog, creating home management resources for overwhelmed stay at home moms. We’ll discuss our cleaning routines and take a quiz about our housekeeping habits.

Highs and Lows:

Kelly: High - went swimming at the beach and had it all to themselves; Low - one of her sons hit his front teeth, and they were too sore to eat dinner.

Emily: Low - decorating mishap of setting the hydrangeas on fire while cleaning; High - rented a jackhammer!

Bre: High - Attending Becky’s birth!

Kimmy: High - Work Bonus (Dining Chairs); Low - House is always a mess!

Creating a Cleaning Routine That Works for You

Kelly Briggs is a homeschooling mom of four, who lives in Canada and runs The Simple Home Mom website and social media, in addition to a business of social media management on the side.

What we currently do for cleaning, and our pain points:

Kimmy: try to do laundry every weekday and try to do dishes every day. Tidy everyday before bed.

Dust, vacuum and mop only when I have big parties. 🤣Clean toilets once a week or more when company comes over.

Pain points: pregnancy, working my part time job while watching toddler makes everything more difficult! I need a schedule and better system desperately, rarely fold and put away laundry, need to not be all or nothing. Reminding myself feather dusting is okay!!!

Bre: I don’t have one! I did try having a lost to check off, but I got discouraged with not checking them off.

Emily: rotating list of tasks during the week in my planner, catching up on weekends: (bathrooms, vacuum, bathrooms, vacuum, mop, carpet cleaning, dusting, windows as time allows)

Interview with Kelly:

With four kids, homeschooling, and running a side hustle and small business, how do you make time for it all?
Are you a natural planner, or do you prefer to be more spontaneous?
What is “loop planning” and how does it work?
How should we go about creating a routine?
What’s a routine you’ve tried in the past that hasn’t worked for you? How did you make adjustments to fix it?
What advice would you give to another mom who feels overwhelmed?