You know that feeling when the baby’s crying, the toddler needs his butt wiped, dinner’s burning on the stove, the laundry hasn’t been switched in eight hours, and you can’t remember when your last shower was?

Yeah, I know it well. That’s why I did a live stream about it the other day. Hashtag mom life, right?

Well, sort of. I mean chaos is the name of the game when you’ve got little ones, but the thing I’ve learned in my mommy years is that there are things you can do to calm the chaos and cut the clutter in your life, and that’s such a comfort in the desperate years! I’m gonna break down a few key ways you can de-stress your home in just ten minutes.

Note: maybe your mess is too much to knock out in ten minutes – that’s okay! Just work on one of these things for ten minutes, and if it’s not perfect when the timer goes off, at least it’s better than when you started. Progress, not perfection.

Ten Minute De-Stress Ideas

• Go through the pile of dirty laundry you have waiting for you. Are there any pieces of clothing in there that aren’t really needed? Anything that doesn’t fit anymore? Anything that’s super worn out? Anything that you don’t really like? Get rid of it! Work through the pile till you only have what you know your family likes, needs, and wears regularly. Now Laundry Mountain is a little smaller!
• Give the surfaces in your house some attention. Is there paperwork or clutter on any of them? What about the unexpected surfaces like the top of the fridge, microwave, or cabinets? Do a surface clean-up for ten minutes. Throw away trash, sort paperwork, and put toys and random items in the rooms they belong in.
• Get a large empty laundry hamper. Go through your house with it collecting anything and everything you see that isn’t where it belongs. When you’re done, carry the hamper with you throughout the house and put everything away.
• You can do the above idea the same way, but with items that you don’t even need to keep! Carry the hamper through the house collecting any items you see that are not something you really need, that’s used regularly. Dump the items in the hamper into a trash bag and put it in the back of your car for a trip to Goodwill this week. Doesn’t that feel good??
• Take your kids into their bedroom (or wherever their toys are kept) and tell them there are lots of kids who are poor, and do not have any toys. Give them a box or bag and excitedly tell them they get to choose ten toys they don’t play with that they would like to give to another child who needs them. Make it a happy, exciting ordeal! Take the toys to the donation center with them this week. You purged, helped someone else out, and taught your kids empathy all in one shot. Awesome!

• Go into your bathroom and take a look at all your hair and makeup products. Put everything you don’t use on a weekly basis into a box. Throw it away. Wipe down the counter tops, toilet, and edge of the bathtub. Voila! Clean and organized bathroom in ten minutes.
• Head into your kitchen. Set a timer for five minutes and wash dishes until it goes off. Spend the next five minutes wiping down counters and sweeping up crumbs. Maybe your kitchen isn’t completely detailed, but it surely looks better and you feel a lot better!
• Go through your house and make all the beds. If your kids are home and old enough, have them make their own. Made beds make for a tidy house and a happy mama!
• Go through your house with the mindset to straighten up. Fluff the throw pillows, rearrange the pillows on the beds, wipe down and rearrange the items on the nightstands, put a cute stack of books on your coffee table, pick some flowers from outside for your dining room table, straighten up for ten minutes and see how much better you feel afterward!
• Focus on the entryway. This is the first things you see when you walk in your house, so it’s important! Straighten it up. Put shoes in the closet they belong in, hang fallen coats on the hooks, arrange the kids’ backpacks in a way that looks better, sweep, wipe down the baseboards. All clean!

There you have it. Some simple, doable ideas to decompress the stress in your house in just ten minutes. Sometimes things like this are the difference between a horrible day and an “Yay! I made it!” day. Keep on keepin’ on, mama.