- Have help
The first five months of Polly’s life I couldn’t have deep cleaned any by myself (by that I mean scrubbing the shower or toilet or cleaning the baseboards. Anything in particular that required lots of bending over for long periods of time). My wonderful Mimi came over every Thursday and if I was too exhausted she would deep clean my whole house for me. We often took turns holding Polly and I cleaned in between nursing sessions.
- Involve them!
No, I don’t mean somehow magically get your six month old to help you scrub floors. But in my experience babies love to be right in the middle with you in whatever activity you’re doing. Polly loves to play with laundry and will gladly play in the pile while I’m folding clothes. If I have a rag and am wiping things down she gets one too and will wipe the floors or the couch and it’s honestly the cutest thing ever.
- Distract them.
Now that Polly is crawling I have fixed her a cabinet right by the sink so while I’m washing dishes she can play with bowls and spoons.
- Wear them!
This worked very well when Polly was 0-5 months especially. Once she was good at sitting up she wanted to be on the floor but when she liked being worn I could be a mad cleaning lady almost just like before, I couldn’t deep clean (see reasons in first point) but I could tidy and do laundry and vacuum and mop just fine.
It takes adjustment and time to realize that you are not going to be able to be as productive as you used to be. Some days all I’m able to do is vacuum the floor and wash the dishes. It’s okay, it won’t always be like that. BUT it is important for my own mental health that the house is clean. So I make it a priority because if it’s dirty and cluttered I can’t think and I feel agitated. So I accept help, and ask for it when needed and it’s something I do for myself and my family to make me feel good and helps my house function for us instead of against us.
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