Hi there, I’m Jo. I’m 30 and live in South West Wales, in a little village next to the sea.
I run my own small cleaning business. As a side hobby I love to share my homemaking love on Instagram, pop over and say hi @jottiesjournal. I like to share my cleaning tips and tricks, my decor finds and the interior of my home.
It almost feels like random that I have arrived at the place I am today, this wasn’t the path I chose, but on that path I realised it wasn’t for me. I spent 19 years of my life in education and begun work at the age of 16. I finished off with a MA in Youth and Community Work whilst picking up a BSc in Psychology and QCF in Health and Social Care on the way.
On that journey I had to make a lot of sacrifices, got into debt, had to work so hard,- I even managed to finish my MA dissertation whilst my 29 week premature baby was in hospital. You really do not know how strong you are until you actually have to do it, and we never really give ourselves credit for it. I’ve always been busy, with a million things to do, whether it was attending an evening class for uni or catching up with reports for what was my full-time job. That busyness fuelled me- when uni finished, when my daughter was a year old and things began to settle, my world didn’t feel right.I loved the idea of it, but the realisation of what that world of work was really like- really wasn’t for me. I was at management level , and my dreams of what I would like to come from what I did, were never going to be happen. I couldn’t change the world, but I could change the world in me, so I did. I left that path and faced my life head on, one day I may revisit it, but in a very different way.
After deciding I couldn’t carry on where I was working I set on finding a job- in the end I didn’t care where, I had to pay the bills. Also, I have come to the realisation that jobs have equal value, whatever industry you work in, you are making an essential contribution to society in someway. Work your hardest in whatever you do, its not what you do, its how you do it. I learnt this lesson from my mum, I think it troubled her greatly when I was slightly lost, but I remember her saying that to me. After three months of job searching, I was very lucky and managed to get some work with someone I had worked with previously as she ran her own cleaning business with her husband.
During one of my working days, I saw someone that I was in school with, this someone laughed in my face, laughed at me for being a cleaner- but you know what, I couldn’t care what he thought of me, his actions defined who he was, not me. One word, karma. I actually loved that job- it was a breath of fresh air after what I was stuck in. From this I was given the opportunity to fly and set up my own little cleaning business, which is what I am doing today and I am very happy doing so, whilst juggling the work-life balance thing quite well.
On a lighter note, since having a child and a cleaning business, I have become slightly obsessed with cleaning, or more precisely- cleaning products! I have so many as I love testing the scents and finding treasures that make cleaning so effortless! Don’t get me wrong though, (clients please cover your eyes) I do not have a spotlessly clean house 24/7, to be honest it’s probably spotless for a mere second, on one day, of the 365 days of the year! But I try my best to keep it as fresh and clean as I can and enjoy doing so. I am a homemaker, but not in a OCD kinda way, my home works around my life and my family in a sometimes messy but practical way. My home is in no way clinical, its lived in and full of little things I collect on the way- memories, experiences and smiles. My child is a fournager, four going on 14, but I wouldn’t change her for the world.
Anyways, enough about me for now, and as an ending to my ramblings, I hope you find some kind of help, inspiration, or whatever from this blog.
Thanks for reading,
Jo x
Jottie's Journal 