What I’m Strict About, No Matter Where I Live

I’m not the kind of person who needs empty counters or a colour-coded fridge to feel like my space is in order. I’m not a minimalist, and I have no interest in becoming one. If you’re looking for a home organisation for working moms South Africa that involves matching baskets and labelling everything, this isn’t that. But there are a few things I will not budge on, no matter where I am or what’s going on around me, and at the top of that list is the bathroom. I may not be pedantic, but unhygienic is not my style.

The Bathroom Is Non-Negotiable

To me, the bathroom needs to be the cleanest room in the house, full stop. I hate soap scum. I hate grime, so I wipe down and mop daily and do a proper full clean once a week without exception. That usually entails washing down every area in the bathroom, from the toilet seat to the walls, giving everything a good scrub and making sure it smells nice.

Nothing stays in there that isn’t supposed to be; everything has its place, and it goes back to it. And hair. I genuinely cannot stand hair left in the sink or on the floor. My girls and I have long hair; we shed a lot, and it’s a real trigger for me. Just a daily brush, and the floor is covered.

Part of this is practical: a bathroom can turn unhygienic faster than almost any other room in the house if you let it slide for even a day or two. But part of it is just preference. It’s usually the coldest room in the house, so I like it to feel nice in spite of that, cosy even, and I want it to stay that way. Two rules in my bathroom are completely non-negotiable. Pee does not stay on the toilet seat. Ever. And you rinse the sink after you use it. Both are forbidden to ignore, and both are enforced without apology.

I wrote about how I actually tackle the bathrooms and kitchen over the weekend in my weekly reset post, if that’s something you relate to.

Clothes Deserve Respect

My kids will sometimes shove dirty clothes straight into their cupboards rather than the two seconds it takes to put them in the wash basket, and it drives me absolutely nuts. I will never understand the logic there. For me, clothes deserve a bit of respect; they cost money, they serve a purpose, and leaving them on the floor or piled on a chair just isn’t how I want to live, even if I can’t always explain why it bothers me as much as it does. Leaving them on the floor or piled on a chair just isn’t how I want to live, even if I can’t always explain why it bothers me as much as it does.

Putting things away, keeping a space clean, a bed made, and a surface dusted – none of it is about being house-proud or having something to prove. It’s more that when my space feels settled, my head feels a bit more settled too. If everything around me is in disarray, I notice it creeping into how I feel, and I’d rather avoid that if I can help it.

Why I Keep the Floors Clean Daily

Floors are a daily thing for me, partly because of the same logic. We have house shoes and outside shoes in this house, and outside shoes do not come past the front door. Full stop. Just the thought of what we could be walking in from outside really gets my mind running. And yes, my kids still slip up; they’ll wander around barefoot and then go lie on their beds or the couch with the same feet that have been walking around the house all day.

So keeping the floors clean isn’t really just about the floors. It’s the beds, the couches, basically everything that gets touched by whatever’s on the bottom of their feet. I vacuum at least thrice a week, every alternate day, and do a full mop throughout the house once a week. The bathrooms and kitchen are cleaned every day, because having water on the floor is a no-no.

Home Organisation for Working Moms in South Africa

My room needs to feel relaxed because it’s my sanctuary, and I want it to look nice without pretending I’m working with a magazine budget; you need actual money for that. This is the realistic version of home organisation for working moms South Africa, the one nobody photographs for Pinterest.

What I’m after is warmth. Warm colours, lots of blankets and pillows, rugs, candles, pot plants everywhere because I genuinely love them, and photo frames with all my favourite people and moments. Everything in there is something I actually love, which is exactly why I want it to stay maintained rather than disappear under clutter.

The same goes for my jewellery. I’m not exactly overflowing with diamonds and gold, but what I have is precious to me, so I keep it stored properly in its respective little box, protected, looked after, and not tossed somewhere it can tarnish or get tangled or break. If something matters to you, it deserves a proper place. That’s really the whole philosophy behind everything in this post. It’s the same standard I hold myself to everywhere else too, not just in this house.

What I Do With the Kids’ Cupboards

Kids grow fast; we all know that, and I can’t stand them digging through a cupboard full of things that no longer fit just to find something to wear. Twice a year, I go through my younger two’s cupboards and pull out anything too small or unworn, the same way I go through my own wardrobe when something no longer fits my style or my life, using the same framework I built for exactly that, and donate it. It keeps their cupboards manageable and easy to grab from without disrupting everything else, and it means when we do go shopping, I already know exactly what they actually need.

Their Space, Their Rules

My eldest is a different story, and honestly, I leave her to it. She’s not in the habit of clearing things out the way I am, but she’s an adult now, and maybe the things she’s holding onto mean something different to her than they would to me. That’s not my space to control. I’ll drop the occasional hint, but I won’t push it. She’s working and studying right now; there’s already a lot on her plate, and I’m not going to add pressure by hounding her about a messy desk.

In a way, it’s the same with my younger two. I want my space respected, and I try to respect theirs in return. If my daughter has hair clips and lip gloss scattered across her desk, I leave them. It’s her space; she’s comfortable in it, and she’s happy enough in her own home to be exactly herself, even if her version of tidy doesn’t match mine. They know the ground rules, and that’s all that matters.

You don’t need a big budget for any of this, and it definitely doesn’t need to look like something out of a magazine. When you respect your space and the people sharing it with you, that’s really all it takes. How you do that doesn’t have to look like the next person’s version of it. Your home is your home, and how it makes you feel in it is what actually matters. Take a step back every now and then and ask yourself what you’re really holding onto, what’s worth maintaining, and what you can finally let go of.

If any of this felt familiar, stay tuned for more.