I'm someone who really loves to sit down and relax in a home that feels calm and tidy, and I've found the easiest way to make that happen most nights is with a 10-minute reset.
At the end of the day, I do a quick tidy of the areas that matter most for me, so the house is reset for the evening. It's helpful for the mornings too - I'm not tripping over things, I know where everything is, and I can grab what I need and go. Life is smoother and calmer.
Here's a realistic look at my 10 minute reset so you can use it as a guide to create your own:
It’s actually more about the habit than the time it takes.
My 10-minute reset isn’t always 10 minutes. I time mine with music. Two songs on Spotify is usually enough, and if the house is particularly messy, I’ll play three and do one section for each song - the kitchen, the bathroom, the lounge room.
You might need a song per area too, or even a bit longer on busy days. No problem! What makes the difference isn’t the exact time. It’s doing it every day, at around the same time, focusing on around the same things. The routine is really what makes this work.
Pick a time that fits your life.
My reset happens while dinner is cooking. The rice is in the rice cooker, the pasta is boiling or something’s in the oven, and I use that little pocket of waiting time to reset the house. That way, when I sit down to dinner, I’m done for the day.
For you, it might be after dinner or once the kids are in bed. Fit it in wherever it suits you. That’s the whole point: it’s easier to stick with when it fits your life.
My three zones.
I focus on three areas: the kitchen, the bathroom and the lounge room. Here’s exactly what I do in each.
Kitchen:
Bathroom:
Lounge room
Build your own version
Mine is kitchen, bathroom and lounge room. Yours might include bedrooms, the entryway or the laundry. To work out your zones, ask yourself:
Build your reset around those, pick a time that suits your day, choose your songs, and do it every day.
I hope this little peek into my routine inspires you to create your own! If you do, let me know how you go with it!
x Marissa
P.S. For more practical ways to make organising & running your home & life smoother, check out The Busy Mum’s Guide to Making Life Easier.
Marissa Roberts
Organising tips to make life easier for busy mothers
Good news! This is easy to fix 💗
If you're decluttering all the time and your home still never feels tidy, decluttering isn't your problem. It's more of systems / flow issue - How things come in, where they live, and who puts them away.
Every home is a little different, but these are the five things I look at with my organising clients when their house just never feels tidy.
Slow down what's coming in.
Is more coming into your home than going out? If you declutter regularly, your answer is probably "No way, heaps is going out!" but stuff tends to sneak in and we don't notice it..
Impulse purchases are one of the the culprits. If you tend to buy things and then forget to use them, forget you have them, and end up decluttering them pretty quickly, try this simple rule: Wait three days before you buy the thing you want. Usually by day two or three you won't care about it anymore - but if you, go ahead and buy it then.
Fewer things coming in means less to tidy!
Action it before you put it down.
This is for stuff like mail, bills, school notes, the little gift bags from events. From now on, don't put it down until you've actioned it. Then it goes in the bin.
Bills - pay them as soon as they arrive, then throw them out. Saving up an emergency fund makes this much easier, because you're not waiting until the due date.
School notes - sign them straight away. Pop money in an envelope and then straight into your child's school bag.
Freebies and random bits - decide on the spot it will live in if it's going to stay, or let it go immediately.
That piece of paper you put down "for later" is how piles start! Handle it as it comes in and it won't get the chance to build up.
Give everything a home, where you actually use it.
Does everything you own have a proper home? Most of the time, a house feels messy simply because things aren't put away. And if something doesn't have a set spot, it will just end up sitting out.
The key is to store things where they're used, not where you think they should go. Take scissors. Most people would keep them in the study. Mine live in the kitchen drawer, because that's where I use them most, opening packets. My "study" is really just a little table for my laptop, so scissors there make no sense for me. You'll have your own version of this.
Kitchen bench tops are a big one too. If yours are always cluttered, it's often because putting things back feels like a hassle. Store each item in the cupboard closest to where you use it, and getting it out and putting it away becomes quick and easy.
Do a quick daily reset.
Set a daily reminder on your phone, an alarm or a calendar event, at the same time each day, and call it "Daily reset." When it pops up, put on two of your favourite songs and do a quick pick-up around the house. Put things back where they belong, straighten the cushions, toys in the toy box, dirty washing in the basket, towels hung up, rubbish out, homework in school bags, that sort of thing.
Yes, this is stuff we know we should be doing, but it's hard to find the energy at the end of the day. Two songs makes it short, fun and doable. If your kids are toddler age or older, invite tell them to help and let them pick the songs to make it more fun for them and less work for you. Which leads me to...
Make tidying a whole-family job.
You don't have to be the only one who puts things away. Bring your kids and your partner into it.
It's so easy for tidying to become "mum's job" by default. When the kids are little, we put things away for them because they can't yet. Then we keep doing it because we know where everything goes and we're faster. Over time, everyone just assumes that's how it works. But then instead of the matriarch of the family, you're the maid. Yuck.
Sharing the load keeps you all managing the household together, rather than you just carrying it on your own.
What works for me is asking in the moment, and being specific:
"Can you just pause for a second and hang your towel up?"
"Can you put your toys away?"
"Can you pop your laptop back in your school bag?"
"Can you take your plate to the kitchen?"
Asking right then, and saying exactly what's needed, means it gets done now rather than "later." And with a bit of consistency, it can become a habit. Every family is different, and we shouldn't have to remind people, but let's face it, a quick reminder beats doing it all yourself every time.
Hope you found these ideas helpful - if you try them, let me know how you go with it!
x Marissa
Marissa Roberts
Organising tips to make life easier for busy mothers
Your pantry is the place where you store your food. But it can also be a spot in your home that encourages your kids to get their own snacks rather than ask you to get one for them.
If you're a busy mum wanting to make your kids more independent, if you're looking to be more "mum" and less "maid", the way you set up your home can make a really big difference.
Most pantry organising advice is designed for a household of adults who can read labels, and put things back where they found them. Add an 8 year old into that picture and the system needs to work differently.
To make your life easier, design your pantry around who's actually using it.
Most pantries are organised top to bottom by category - snacks here, tins there, baking supplies up high. That's a perfectly logical system if the only person opening the door is you.
But if you've got kids who are old enough to want a snack and grab it themselves, an adult-logic pantry means one of two things happens. Either everything kid-appropriate is out of reach and you become the designated snack-getter for every single request, or everything is in reach and the pantry becomes a free-for-all the moment your back is turned.
The fix is to give the pantry a "kid zone".
Stop thinking of the pantry as one space and start treating it as two zones stacked on top of each other.
The bottom shelf (or a low drawer, if that's what you've got) becomes the kid zone. This is where anything your children are allowed to get themselves lives. Pouches, crackers, fruit bars, etc. Put them in a bin or basket they can pull out themselves, at a height they can reach without climbing.
Everything above that - the things you want to control the timing or portion of, the baking supplies, the stuff that isn't actually for snacking - goes higher up, out of reach and out of sight lines. If it's not at eye level, it's not front of mind.
And that's it! The system does the boundary-setting for you and encourages self sufficiency.
Kids can easily understand "the basket on the bottom is mine."
And because it's not precious - it's a basket, not a beautifully arranged shelf - it can take being pulled apart and shoved back in by little hands. "Easy to use" matters more than "looks pretty" when you're in the trenches of motherhood.
Want to try it?
Start with the bottom shelf or the lowest, most reachable drawer in your pantry. Clear it out, and fill it with three or four snack options you're happy for your kids to grab without asking. A basket or bin per category works well e.g. one for savoury, one for sweet, one for fruit.
Move anything currently sitting at that height that you don't want them accessing up onto a higher shelf.
Then call it the "kids's shelf" or the "kids drawer" and let them know that's their spot.
Done! Let me know how you go with it.
x Marissa
Marissa Roberts
Organising tips to make life easier for busy mothers
www.beautifullyorganised.com
You know that feeling when you finally sit down at the end of the day and your brain just won't stop?
The to-do list keeps scrolling. The mental load doesn't clock off. Even when your body is still, your mind is still running the household.
That's exactly why I'm going to start going on my own silent retreats - no yoga instructor, no strict schedule, just me, a hotel room, and two nights of doing absolutely nothing I "should" be doing.
If you've never considered one, here's why it might be the best thing you do for yourself this year:
Real Rest. A quiet night in front of Netflix still has you half-listening for a kid to call out, or mentally planning tomorrow's must-do's. Real rest (the kind that resets your nervous system) needs distance. A silent retreat gives your body permission to fully switch off, because there's genuinely nothing to switch on for.
Space to think in full sentences. Motherhood runs on interruptions. Half-finished thoughts, half-finished coffees. A weekend of silence gives your brain room to finish a thought for once, which is often when the best ideas and realisations show up.
Room to plan without noise. Whether it's your business, your family's next chapter, or just your own year ahead, it's hard to plan clearly from inside the chaos. Stepping out gives you the vantage point to actually see the bigger picture, not just react to whatever's loudest that day.
You come back better, not just rested. You're not just trying to escape your family. It's about returning to them with more patience, more presence, and more of yourself intact. A recharged mum shows up differently, and your kids feel that ripple effect.
So how often should you do it?
You don't need to overhaul your life to make this sustainable. I like the idea of:
Don't stress about doing it perfectly. It's more about having something on the calendar to look forward to, so rest stops being a "someday" idea and starts being a plan.
How to Overcome Objections from Your Partner
Let's be honest, this is usually the real barrier. Here's how to navigate the most common pushback:
"Who's going to look after the kids?" This is a logistics problem, not a reason to say no. Come to the conversation with a plan already mapped out - routines written down, meals sorted, emergency contacts listed. When it's not a mystery to solve, it's much harder to object to.
"That seems like a lot of money/time for... nothing?" Reframe it as maintenance, not indulgence. You service the car. You don't skip your own tank running on empty and call it discipline. A recharged version of you is better for the whole household, and that's a great return on investment.
"Why can't you just rest at home?" Because you know as well as I do that "resting at home" usually means resting with one ear open. Removing yourself from the environment is the whole point, and really it's not about the hotel, it's about the absence of demands on you.
Offer reciprocity. Suggest they take a break too. This stops feeling like a favour you're asking for and starts feeling like something you're building into your life together.
Start small if you need to. One night is enough to prove the world doesn't fall apart without you there - and it usually opens the door to a full weekend next time.
Ready to Plan Your Own Silent Retreat?
I've put together the exact framework I use to plan mine - a full weekend itinerary (rest, journaling, and creative time, no rigid schedule to fight against), a packing list, and a pre-retreat checklist built specifically for handing things over smoothly at home.
It's yours, free - grab it here and start planning your first one!
| DIY SILENT RETREAT PLANNER |
x Marissa
Marissa Roberts
Organising tips to make life easier for busy mothers