Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert, advice columnist, and author of the New York Times bestselling book, My Boyfriend Barfed In My Handbag ... And Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha. Her flagship column, “Ask a Clean Person”, debuted in 2011. Here on Lifehacker, we’ve launched a new iteration of it, focusing on parenting and all the messes it brings. 

Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert, advice columnist and author of The New York Times bestselling book, My Boyfriend Barfed In My Handbag ... And Other Things You Can't Ask Martha. Her flagship column, "Ask a Clean Person", debuted in 2011. Here on Lifehacker, we've launched a new iteration of it, focusing on parenting and all the messes it brings. 

Jolie Kerr is a cleaning expert, advice columnist, and author of the New York Times bestselling book, My Boyfriend Barfed In My Handbag ... And Other Things You Can't Ask Martha. Her flagship column, "Ask a Clean Person", debuted in 2011. Here on Lifehacker, we've launched a new iteration of it, focusing on parenting and all the messes it brings. 

I can boast very few untarnished wins in my parenting career - namely, they are: 1) making my daughter believe that frozen grapes are a totally acceptable dessert, 2) teaching her to love Swiffer-ing, and 3) potty training. Potty training was the biggest surprise success as I was fully prepared for drawn-out doom. I had read about the 3-Day Potty Training method in my Facebook mummy groups, but it sounded too good to be legit.

Three days? You're talking about just 72 hours to transition from a life of bulky nappy bags, drippy accidents and stressful searches for a freaking changing table, to one of nappy-free liberation? My shipments of Huggies took longer than that. But when my daughter was two-and-a-half and totally understood the concept of using the toilet (I'd always ask her if she wanted to try, and she'd always reply, "Not today, mama"), I decided to give it a shot.