Making Time: With Gourmet Girlfriend

This post was written by Gourmet Girlfriend.

I don’t know if you know but I have five young children. All wonderful young boys. Aged 4, 6, 9, 12 & 14. I know right! How super doop lucky am I?! I can hear you saying ‘Wow you are SOOOOOO lucky’. I totes CAN!

Alright maybe you weren’t saying that but were saying the usual response I get when I tell people how many children I have and that they are all boys. “OMG. FIVE children! Five BOYS!!!!!!  Sheesh you must be BUSY.” Well um yep. I am. But they are the acest funnest crew a lady could ask to hang out with.   And also pretty messy.  But the bestest fun is messy isn’t it?

And yes they are really very fun (messy).

I have always loved the way Chinese people believe you have really enjoyed your meal if the table is a huge mess after eating. So true non? Well imagine my house being kind of like a table after a really great Chinese meal. Signs of life, love and laughter strewn all around. And at first glance it is chaos but all it really takes is a fresh tablecloth & newly laid out cutlery to restore order.

If I tried to make it all pristine and perfect I would be a wee bit batty by now I think.  Instead I choose to take a few shortcuts with things so that I can invest more in the love & laughter part of life with them.  That is how I most enjoy spending my time. Loving & laughing is the absolute BEST.

I have never ever aimed to be the Queen of Clean but would so happily wear the crown of the Kingdom of Love & Laughter.

Here are four top time-saving tips that I use in my Kingdom *ahem* house:

1.)   I don’t do ANY ironing.  I am the ‘Shake & Fold queen’. The last time I tried to iron I accidentally I ironed my arm. Apparently it was quite wrinkly, but OUCH!  Now I have a scar to remind me of why I don’t do ironing. When my youngest saw me holding the iron that day he asked me “Why are you using Dad’s iron?’ He had an excellent point……..

2.)  Boys LOVE Lego. A LOT. But tidying Lego strewn across the room is soooo time consuming. Here is my number one time saver Lego trick. Buy a dedicated Dust Pan & Brush set JUST for your Lego. Ours lives next to the Lego drawers ready to quickly and painlessly sweep up all the stray Lego. W I N!

3.)  My boys unstack the dishwasher ALWAYS. Any breakages just mean I am allowed to buy something new to replace it. I am VERY happy to have an excuse to go out and buy more Vintage crockery from the op shop.

4.)   While we are talking Dishwashers….. I don’t own any crockery that does not fit in my Dishwasher.

One of my mottos (and probably my favourite) is: “If it doesn’t fit in the Dishwasher it fits into the bin.”  So much time saved not having to wash by hand = so much YAY!

You can thank me for these tips later when you are sitting down on the couch reveling in the awesomeness of watching your children do the dishwasher.

Or you can watch this little movie I made……

X

GG

About Gourmet Girlfriend:  GG is a mother of five boys aged 14, 12, 9, 6 & 4 and a passionate lover of life, music, coffee, clogs, food & friends.