Keeping your Charlotte home clean with a team of children seemingly determined to destroy it is no simple task. Day after day your Charlotte home looks like a hurricane came rolling through and every night you're left cleaning up the mess. Whether its muddy footsteps or the living room toy war-zone, you can use following tips to cleaning your house quick.



Kid Bins
Turn clean up time into a game for your kids. Give them each a bin of their own to collect their toys from around the house and offer them something enticing as a reward.

Smell The Love
Use baking soda on fabrics and carpets to freshen up the unknown smells you cant quite put your finger on.

Microwave Magic

Put a bowl of water in the microwave for a minute or two. As the water heats up the steam will help loosen any stuck-on crusty messes and make cleaning a lot easier.


Laundry Room
Use a dryer sheet to quickly de-lint the laundry room and include your kids in the sorting process. Kids can find fun in a lot of chores we find tedious and are often eager to be "Mommy's Little Helper"

Lemon Fresh
Put a lemon or a lime in your disposal and let it run. The smell of the citrus will cover up any unwanted sink smells and leave your kitchen smelling fresh.
Bathroom Shine
Take a warm shower, then when you get out use the steam that has built up in the bathroom to help you wipe down everything while its still wet. Make sure you use a non-streak cleaner on mirrors and metals to give the bathroom a completely clean feel.



Charlotte moms have plenty to deal with on a day-to-day basis and don't need to spend all of their free time cleaning up a disaster zone. Use these tips to make your daily cleaning a little less hectic and free up time to spend with your kids. If you would like to learn more about time saving techniques feel free to contact me at sarah@sarahmartinhomes.com.

I had a mommy/baby play date yesterday and joined 5 other moms at Freedom Park. It was great to get out of the house-admittedly more so for me than for Ellie. All of the babies there were older than Ellie so it was great to listen to their “horror” stories and know that I’m not alone and that after getting through the newborn stage, child-rearing will get easier.


One of the gals, Valerie, mentioned that she may be looking to move soon. Right now, she, her husband, and new baby are in a condo uptown (something they invested in when they were spry newlyweds who dined out most nights of the week and frequented Happy Hours sans baby) and they are now being squeezed out with all the baby swings, baby bouncers, Bumbo’s, Tummy Time mats, and other baby necessities. (I use the term “baby necessities” loosely obviously. And I’m not passing judgment on Valerie and her newly decorated condo-my own home has slowly transformed from young, elegant, & modern to infantile, silly, and cluttered). This home metamorphosis is exactly where our conversation led.

Valerie wondered: How can I show my home and sell it to folks who will most likely be a young couple, a single banker, or an empty-nester couple when it appeals only to 8-month olds? I was proud of Valerie for even recognizing the importance of staging and setting the tone for her potential buyers. She thought back to 9th grade Writing Class and said: “Who will be my audience?”

We talked about how Valerie & her husband must make it appear to the general public they that do not have an infant at home. In fact, she needed to make the home appear as though no one in particular lives there. I don’t mean, of course, that the condo be vacant, but that it looks simply like a new home or a home that is on display for Parade of Homes. The buyer must be able to envision themselves living there and unless they have an infant (which they probably won’t since they’re looking for a condo Uptown) then the minute they walk into 673-D they will mentally take this option out of potential purchases. I’ve seen it dozens of times: a couple walks in to a home with excitement and hope and you can see it melt off their face when the home is poorly decorated, cluttered, dirty, or “just not my style.”

Valerie’s next steps:


1. Decide if they’re really ready to put their home on the market

2. Find somewhere to store the extra “things” that are cluttering the condo (an attic, a friend’s house, a storage unit). “Store away items” might include: the cappuccino machine that’s never been used, the CD tower that goes unused since the iPod joined the family, the toy chest, winter/summer clothes, all family picture frames, extra furniture, etc.

3. Find a specific place for everything that's left in the house (including closets, cabinets, etc.). These items need to be “stored” away but kept close enough to grab for potential daily use. Remember, the house needs to look professionally staged. These items include things like: toothbrushes and other toiletries, superfluous kitchen counter items, dog food bowl, bin near the front door with shoes in it, and other daily items that don’t add to the home’s ambiance.

4. Pack it up or store it away!