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Guest Introduction

My name is Susanne, I have three school aged boys, two in High School one still in Primary. My husband and I are both from Germany, migrated to Australia 19 years ago – so the kids are all Aussies. We speak German at home – the kids are completely bi-lingual. Something I am very proud of, specially because it is a lot of work.

I studied in Germany and have an Engineering degree in Interior Architecture.

Architecture and raising a young family doesn’t mix, that’s when, 9 years ago, I started to set up Less Mess, a Professional Organising business helping the overwhelmed gain control over their live!

ProfessionalOrganisersd help their customers to find personalized solutions to conquer the clutter once and for all.

You can find me: www.lessmess.com.au

www.facebook/lessmess

I also write a blog www.lessmess.com.au/blog and a newsletter - subscribe here 

A day in the life of Susanne

I am not really an early riser, but since having kids 16 years ago, I kind of have to.

I trained my kids early (4 years onward) to work the coffee machine – because without it I don’t function and this way I get it served in bed by someone in the family.

Breakfast is a very German affair – we eat mostly home baked bread, sliced meat and chees. And we have it together, always did and will as long as it lasts.

Because everything is out on the table the kids make their own sandwiches – from your 2 onwards!

I drop one child to school and continue to travel to wherever that day’s customer lives… anywhere in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, Tamworth…

Other days are home and office days where I do my social media, write articles, invoices (love that bit) and develop new ideas (writing a book with a collegue, designing an APP) or work on my group workshops.

I love baking for a break from work, so the kids are quite spoilt and expect cake for afternoon tea – and not just them. German cakes are loved by all their friends, too.

As they got older, involvement with homework gets less (hurray) but I am still the P&C president of Abbotsford Public School. I am also a founding member of ‘Deutschstunde’ a not for profit organisation teaching kids German. We started in 2009 with just over 20 kids and are teaching 109 his year! A huge effort, but worthwhile!

I or hubby write a weekly mealplan and try to go shopping not more than once a week. Saves on stress, money and rotten food.

Whoever has more time does the cooking and increasingly we don’t eat together any more as the teenagers have after school commitments or play sport at night!

We own (the best organised) camping trailer in all of AUS and most holidays we spent exploring the outback of NSW. 

The best advice you received

Being a housewife is a challenging but rewarding job – never let anyone talk it down. Enjoy being your own boss!

A banana and a glass of milk is good enough as dinner for a toddler.

Don’t overdo it with the cleaning – there are more important things in life (she was very organised, though)

LIFE HACKS

Routine, routine, routine: I was home with the kids at 12.00pm sharp for 7 years of my life, weekends, holidays, always. This way there was no second guessing what would happen. All my kids had an afternoon nap till shortly before they started school – gave me the necessary hour to catch my breath! 

Recipes

Cinnamon scrolls: everyone loves them, cheap, quick and apart from gluten intolerant everyone can eat them.

500gr flour

Warm water (don;’t ask me how much, enough to make it a rollable dough

2 teaspoons of dried yeast

Pinch of salt

Let rise for at least 2 hours

Roll flat on the kitchen bench. Smother with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll into a sausage

Cut into 1 inch snails

Lay flat on a greased oven trey

Let rise again if time permits

Bake for 20 min

Best hot straight out of the oven!

How have kids changed your world?

100%. It’s been so long, I can’t really remember a life without them!!

What book are you currently reading

“Der Hudertjaehrige der aus dem Fenster sprang und verschwandt”

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

Jonas Jonasson, original is in Swedish

It’s crazy but also historically true – somehow!

What two areas would you like to improve in your life?

I am pretty happy with what we have, bit more cash would be nice!!

Quick Questions

What website have you signed up to that you actually find value in receiving their emails?

Flying solo

I am not big on newsletters and selfhelp (unless I write it myself) and find these things clutter my inbox or newsfeed

What’s one piece of advice you would give your pre baby self

Don’t stress – kids are fun!

What’s the most useful / useless baby item you have?

I tended to take advice from two different approaches. Germany and Australia: for example: German stick their babies into buckets to bath them. The idea being that they love the tightness because it resembles the womb… It thought that was very handy. Also, they don’t bath their kids as often as we do in Australia, again, very handy to not have that pressure.

But to answer that question: a bucket!

What’s your experience like with day care?

Not really relevant any more, but loved it – kids too!

If you have one or more children, was it easier transitioning from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 2 etc

Hardest is from 2 to 3. Two is a part time job, 3 definitely full time! 

CREDITS:

Producers of the Busy Mum Podcast - Terry Iasam & Jackee De Campo

The Busy Mum Podcast Jingle - Benjamin Dean 

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