Keeping a Clean House: Tips and Advice

You’re probably thinking, “how to clean my house? It’s not the how I’m worried about, it’s the when, and how long is it going to take me.” The trick to keeping a house clean is not to put it all off until you have to do one big cleaning three-day marathon, because the floor became a cushioned asylum of laundry, and the kids took to eating with their hands, because “there aren’t any forks!”.

Small steps:

After a long day of what ever it is you do, you don’t want to spend the rest of the night cleaning. So everyday make a point to do little tasks. Throw a load of laundry in while your relaxing watching your favorite show, or fill all the dirty dishes that need soaked with water. Take steps to making your job easier later when you do feel a bit more up to it.

Set realistic rules:

Everyday before I take the kids to the park to play, I require myself to do at least two cleaning tasks. For example, I may say, “we can’t go until I vacuum and do a small load of dishes”. This ensures something is being done everyday, and helps me feel like I am making headway on the housework, because I am. This is far more effective than saying, “we can’t go until this house is sparkling”, which would set you up for failure and frustration.

Divide and conquer:

You can’t be expected to do it all by yourself, unless that is, you live alone. If you don’t, you know well that the mess seems to multiply three times per person instead of once. Recruit everyone in the house, work out a cleaning schedule, and it’ll be finished up in no time.

Tops first, spread out and organize:

That old saying top to bottom, pays when it comes to cleaning. Why mop the kitchen floor if you haven’t cleared and cleaned the counters? Working any other way erases your previous work. Also, don’t expect to spend five hours cleaning each room and have the first you cleaned still be clean by time you’ve finished. Spread your efforts out. A general clean everywhere is better than an immaculate clean in one room and a disaster everywhere else. In the same line of logic, don’t just shift clutter around from place to place piled up, take the time to find a place for everything. This organization makes it easier to find your things later, as well as prevents you from just moving the same junk over and over. Have a yard sale, put it in storage or eBay it if you don’t have a place for it.

Lastly, try and have fun. I know, how? Who likes house cleaning? I always try to make it a game or contest with myself. “I did a sink full of dishes in 30 minutes yesterday, can I do more today?” Or offer yourself a reward, “If I finished all this laundry, I’m buying myself ice cream”. Remember there is no deadline on a clean house, your happiness far outweighs dusting, and it can be done later, however, there really is no better feeling than coming home to a clean house. You just have to find a system that works for you.

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