Simplify. Declutter. Optimize.
Maximize your time with your kids and yourself by minimizing chores and decision fatigue.
My name is Florence. I am a full time working mother of two. I am divorced and share custody of my two children who are teenagers now. I have time to write when they are with their dad. I work 5 days a week and I have a 30-minute commute. I live in Scotland but I am originally from France. I am an engineer and I like to find solutions to problems, at work and at home.
I couldn’t identify to most of the visible mums on social networks for different reasons: they only work from home, they don’t commute, they don’t have a boss and control their schedules, they have a big house with tons of storage or a big washing machine… some of them don’t even work! And they give pieces of advice that don’t apply to my situation.
To afford to be lazy, I need to be smart
As a parent, or an adult sometimes, I don’t have the option to opt out of feeding ourselves, washing our clothes and cleaning our home. I don’t like it and I will never find motivation. I’d rather do something else! I want to be lazy but I know I would have to pay the price for it, like when you spill tomato sauce and it takes seconds to wipe when the spill is fresh but it becomes a much bigger task when it’s dried up!
I know that if I want to be lazy, I need to be smart. I need to make choices that overall work to my benefit and don’t hinder me on the long run. I need to make decisions where the pros and cons add to positivity. This is optimalism.
Optimalism is for instance:
Choose to buy liquid shampoo because I would need a special trip to a specific shop to buy the only solid shampoo I like (and I have tried many!). It’s inconvenient, very costly, and my family doesn’t like it although solid shampoos are probably the best choice for the health and the environment.
Choose to buy clothes that go in the same wash so I don’t need to do any sorting (it’s sooo time consuming!!) but make one exception for knits because I am okay to be cozy and stylish at the price of an extra load of laundry (but I don’t have any other special fabrics like white or fragile).
Choose to have a minimum decor - usually one piece or one group of pieces of wall art per room (I don’t even have anything in my bedroom) - for low maintenance and easy cleaning (no candles, sculptures, souvenirs…) but a vast Lego collection which is exposed permanently on the window sill because the whole family is passionate about Lego. We all have some, we build them together, we update and upgrade our sets together, and we even have winter and celebration themed Lego instead of Christmas decorations! Lego is joy!
Choose to have two bed sets per bed in the house (1 in use, 1 in the laundry) and not just one set like some minimalists recommend because I can never be sure I can have them washed and dry the same day. Any extra would be useless and stealing storage space.
Optimalism evolves with time and changes with life (typically as the kids grow older).
I hope to exchange with other parents that are looking for tangible and effective solutions to their problems in different seasons of life.
Get in touch
If you want me to try and find a solution to one of your problems, send me a short description of what it is with photos. If I think I have a possible solution to offer, I'll publish it as a post. This is for free, finding solutions to problems is my kind of fun, I am an engineer at heart!