A Tidy Home in a Busy Life

“You’re always so busy… but how do you actually keep your house tidy?”

It’s a question that comes up surprisingly often. As if calm at home is only possible when you have plenty of time, no children, or a perfectly organized schedule.

For many working mothers, daily life is anything but calm. Work, family, and social commitments constantly overlap. Yet many share the same desire: a home that doesn’t drain energy but instead offers peace. Not a showroom, but a place to catch your breath.

The Japandi style, a fusion of Japanese minimalism and Scandinavian warmth, fits this need perfectly. Fewer stimuli, more balance. Not as an interior trend, but as a way of looking at living and life.

The starting point is simple: a tidy home doesn’t require big cleaning days, but a steady rhythm built from small steps.

My own home is not a perfect space. It’s lived in; sometimes there are toys around, and the laundry isn’t always put away immediately. What is there is clarity and space and for many women, that turns out to make all the difference.

In conversations with mothers, the same theme keeps returning. They experience clutter as a burden. It costs them more energy than their work does. They tidy up, but the restlessness remains. Often the cause isn’t a lack of effort, but too many belongings and too little structure.

I recognize that phase myself. The shift didn’t come from working harder, but from looking differently. Calm doesn’t arise from doing more, but from choosing more consciously.

Japandi as a mindset

Japandi isn’t about specific furniture, but about principles:

• Being intentional about what you use
• Choosing soft materials and calm colors
• Making sure everything has a fixed place
• Working with repetition and simple routines

In a home with many belongings, structure is the first step, not getting rid of things.

From chaos to rhythm

Before the reset. Visual noise, energy drain, and the reason rhythm matters. 
Sourced by MovaVonen, Netherlands. 

For me, a tidy home comes from daily attention of twenty to thirty minutes. By dividing the work into small tasks, it remains manageable, even on busy days. For those looking for guidance, I’ve included a simple weekly schedule in the link.

A practical exercise: choose one surface, remove everything, and only put back what you use. Empty space is not a loss, but a functional part of calm.

Small habits, big impact

In my own rhythm, it’s all about simplicity:

• A short reset at the end of the day
• One small task per day
• A maximum of one clutter basket per floor

Shared responsibility

Calm at home doesn’t happen when one person carries everything. By involving the whole family, tidying becomes part of the daily rhythm:

• Each family member has a fixed task
• Children tidy up for five minutes before bedtime
• A short shared evening reset

Rhythm offers predictability and is calming for children as well.

Calm, lived in. Natural materials, fixed places, a table that invites routine. 
Sourced by MovaVonen, Netherlands.

Not perfection, but balance

A calm home isn’t about emptiness, but about clarity. By taking small daily steps, more simplicity, warmth, and balance naturally emerge.

Calm isn’t a goal in itself, it’s a habit.

Many mothers think clutter is a personal failure. It isn’t. It’s often a sign of overload.

For mothers who have questions about this or want to talk about how to create more calm, it helps not to do it alone. I’m affiliated with Manic Momboss, a platform where mothers share experiences and support one another. Questions can be asked via the accompanying link, and I actively engage there.

For mothers who are mainly looking for practical solutions and want to learn more about interior styling, I’ve developed a low-threshold course that teaches you how to style your home toward more calm and clarity in an accessible, realistic way. The focus isn’t on perfection, but on practical choices that fit into a busy family life. More information can be found on my website.

Please note: the course is currently available in Dutch. If you would like to start the course in English, feel free to send an email to [email protected] and I will make sure your course is provided in English.

“Atmospheric living is for everyone, if you fill it with attention, style, and feeling.” movawonen