Every Fall, there’s a list of things that I absolutely love to do at home, just to make it feel a bit more like Fall, and to remind myself to slow down a bit every year. I’ve found that in our current house, it’s a lot easier for me to steer away from doing certain things because of this fear of THE MESS, especially since I’ve been living without a dishwasher for a year (I know, I never thought I could survive that long either), or because our kitchen table is a literal hallway away from our kitchen, but I’ve powered through my “no-mess” anxiety, as I like to call it, and we’re slowly working through our checklist. I think a big reason people choose not to decorate, or to bake, is because they only can see the cleanup at the end, myself included. But I’m here to tell you to #LifeALittleMore – that ITS WORTH THE MEMORIES, and to indulge in your list of fun to-dos, even if your house may get a little messy! Plus I am going to share my favorite ways to cleanup too, including some of my favorites – Febreze, Swiffer, Cascade, and some other mommy life savers!
Bake an Apple Pie (from apples you picked yourself!) – I am not the best cook, but I absolutely love to bake! Every year, I try to go apple picking, and then bake a pie using the apples that I picked by myself. Sure, the flour everywhere can get a little bit messy, but I love sharing the pie together as a family at the end, and baking together as well (even though I usually do all the baking haha). It drives me a bit nuts to see the mess all over the kitchen while I am cooking, but I try to just let it get a little messy, and always remember that it only takes about 15 minutes to tidy up afterwards! I love using the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to scrub flour off my carts at the end, and since we don’t have a dishwasher, I scrub all of our dishes with Dawn Platinum dish soap!
Carve a Pumpkin – This is another messy one! I made sure to put down a big cardboard box to save a lot of the mess from getting on the table, but it was really fun introducing Hudson to what’s INSIDE a pumpkin! He didn’t quite get it yet, but it was fun to let him help take the seeds out and place them into a bowl, since sorting is one of his favorite things right now. We ate chocolates, and made it into a little day together. I scrubbed down the table with Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to get all of the pumpkin slime off, and then sprayed a little Febreze to freshen up!
Bake Pumpkin Seeds From Your Carved Pumpkin! – MMM, I love salting some pumpkin seeds and baking them! It’s pretty easy, and then you can use the seeds on salads or as a side with meals for the week!
Decorate the front patio, by the front door, and the living room – This one takes a bit of time, since you’ll have to head over to your local nursery, pick out some pumpkins and mums (or grab some fake pumpkins that you can reuse year to year) – but I think it is my favorite step of all! It’s totally worth the annoyance of “putting it up, and taking it down” for that feeling of sipping coffee in the morning with cute Fall things all around me! I always love that fresh feeling of tidying up and decorating for a new season, and keeping the living room clean with my Swiffer Sweeper, WetJet and Dusters is one of those weekly chores I actually look forward to!
I hope this short and totally doable list + some quick cleanup hacks has inspired you to get cookin’ and decoratin’!
Thanks to P&G for sponsoring this post, but as always all opinions are my own.
