Hey everyone reading this,
I've never been a very organized person. I don't like cleaning, and I don't like organizing. But I do like having a clean and organized house. Can you see my problem?
I don't have the money to pay someone to come clean, and honestly, I'd like to have the satisfaction of knowing I can keep my own house. I love those houses where you walk in and see a few carefully placed decorations, see the fruit bowl on the table, and smell sweet candle scents wafting from wherever.
Contrast this to my house. You walk in and see a pile of shoes spiling out of the shoe shelf, blocking your entry to the house. On the couch and coffee table are heaps of books, jackets, Penny clothes, mail, and anything else I've looked at or used during the day. The dining table has a rock-hard orange and grapefruit in the fruit bowl, along with some tomato stems and random fruit stickers. The dishes pile up in the kitchen, and even if all the dishwasher ones are in the dishwasher, there's still a pile of pans that need handwashing. And while my house sometimes smells neutral, I know that often there's a competition of subtle aromas wafting from the sink, garbage, bathroom, and cat litter box.
So I'd like to know your tips and tricks. What works for you? What doesn't work? And don't feel like you have to have an immaculate house to contribute. Here, I'll share one: About once a day I wipe the bathroom counter and sink with TP to cut down on the dust and hair. It makes it look a bit cleaner when I don't have time to clear everything off and thoroughly clean.
But that's one of my few successes. I'd like to hear some of yours!
11 comments:
I always find that if I know someone's coming over, I can straighten things up enough that it looks mostly clean. This goes back to childhood where our house would be a complete mess. Then, all of a sudden, my mom would remember or get a phone call that my gramma was on her way over (30-60 minutes). We learned to clean up really fast! Other than that, my house gets a real cleaning about every three weeks, oops!
One of the most important lessons I have learned while being a mother is that your life is going to move through stages. Whether it's menu planning, playdates, exercise, or cleaning the house, your routine and schedule will constantly be changing as your children grow and develop and move from one stage to another. Add in the changing position of the sun and your husband's changing work/church schedule and you'll feel like nothing's constant! I have found that I totally go through stages of having a clean house/dirty house. And I'm slowly learning to live with that. That being said, here's what I do.
I have a weekly cleaning chart that assigns jobs to each day of the week. Busy days like preschool or scrapbook day get lighter chores. Monday is deep clean the kitchen because I NEVER do dishes on Sunday. FYI-I'm not currently following it! But when I do I'm always careful to let it go if I miss a day. I don't feel like I have to vacuum the kids' rooms today because I forgot to yesterday. It'll get done next week. Also, I try to be organized. It's easier to pick up if everything has a predetermined spot. And clutter kills any attempt at a clean house. I've learned to throw out. If there's no room, get rid of it. If you haven't touched it in a year, throw it away. It's tough but it feels so good! Once I got rid of a bunch of old Ensigns. It felt wrong for some reason but honestly, I was never going to look at them again. They were just in the way.
I married Clint. That's my tip. He's cleaner and more organized than I am and goes on cleaning rampages. I'm usually left the kitchen, but will overhaul the living room and bedroom. He also cleans the bathroom really well every time he cuts his hair (about every 3 weeks). Other than that, I don't know if I have any tips, though I probably need them just as much as you.
Amen, sister!!! I HATE cleaning but then I get mad when it isn't clean. A big one for me if that I dump all my crap on the kitchen table because it is close to the entry. So, instead of shoving it to the side so we can eat, I have started making an effort to put everything where it goes everyday before dinner. It helps!
I commiserate!! One thing I do is after nap time I follow the kids into whatever room they are playing in. I play with the kids, put a few things away, play with the kids, and put a few more things away. The rooms the kids play in are always the cleanest!:)
Also, when the kids were littler they loved doing dishes with me, just to play in the bubbles. I would pull a stool up to the sink and they would get soaking wet. They're not interested anymore. It must have gotten old:).
We also believe in TV watching:). We don't do it a ton, but in the morning while we're all getting ready I let them watch TV while I clean up. Then we go out for the morning, take naps, and play in the afternoon.
Also, like one of your commentors mentioned, when you have little kids in your house, it is not likely to be spic and span for awhile. My mother-in-law always says take care of the living things first and then get to the cleaning when you can. I think there is a line you reach when you can't handle any more mess and it all gets cleaned up!
One thing that I learned from being a custodian is that the same chemicals can be used to clean pretty much any surface. I use Windex for the mirror, counter, and outside of the toilet. It makes cleaning so much faster.
Now that we have a monkey dog that chews up things if we leave them out, we tend to keep our main living area more clean. But all the stuff that was there ends up on the table where she can't reach it, or in our bedroom where we can close the door.
I like cleaning products that you can spray, leave, and wipe. ie: lysol bathroom foam spray, toilet bowl gel, etc. When I clean the bathroom, I scrub the toilet with the toilet brush, flush, put the gel stuff in to soak, spray everything else (sink, shower, outside of toilet) with the lysol. Then I go throw a batch of laundry in or something, and come back and scrub (toilet) and wipe, and I'm done.
I also try to have people over often, because then I clean up before they get there. Either that, or everything gets stashed into our room. If you can imagine, our room is getting a bit messy.
I always make sure that the kitchen counter, sink, and kitchen table are clean before I go to bed. If they aren't, then the morning is going to be so much harder. I also always pick up all the toys after Kyle goes to bed. Usually, he goes to bed and I spend about 15-30 minutes to take care of the dishes, counters, and toys. I always wipe down the counters and table in that nightly process. So even if nothing else has really been done, it looks clean in the kitchen/dinning room/living room. But, also know, that if you put it off it will be worse. If you have fifteen minutes, you can sweep, do dishes, clean part of the fridge. You don't need as much time or energy as you think. I can clean our whole apartment (scrub bathrooms, mop) in three hours. So just break things down so that it is shorter.
There is a book/system, called the FlyLady. She might be good for you. She doesn't work for me though.
I talked to Nate about how I hated our messy house and told him that I needed him to do just one thing ... he got to pick. He made a deal with me that he would always unload the dishwasher everyday ... It's made a big difference. He empties in the morning and we put the dishes in the sink as we go, turn it on before bed and wah la, clean dishes in the morning.
It's been nice to have more space, but it can also be overwhelming to me. That said, I think it's a lot harder to keep a smaller space clean, especially if you have a lot you're trying to fit in it. And baby stuff takes up A TON of space. So give yourself some slack for that. Here are some things I've liked...and they may be repeats of other comments:
1. My mom taught me a great thing, pick at least one room, or area everyday, get 'er done, and then CONGRATULATE yourself. I admit I have a tendancy to think about all I have left to do. But it helps to congratulate yourself on at least that one thing.
2. I too have a daily chore chart. It helps to break things down and then I can call it quits when I've done my daily chore...and move on to something else.
3. I only clean up toys twice a day: naptime and after they go to bed. Otherwise you'll be picking toys up all day long for no good reason.
4. I realized that children play well and have better pretend play when toys are strewn about. So it's fine to have messiness throughout the day when it comes to toys.
5. I always deep clean the kitchen on Monday. Partly because Sunday has been kind of my off day, but mostly because I've had a break most of the weekend and feel the most up to cleaning on Monday...and the kitchen is the hardest to clean in my opinion.
Good luck...especially with all you have on your plate!
Here is my 2 cents (I'll try and keep it short):
1. I only pick up toys WITH the kids at the end of the day (I have a personal opinion that you should have your children help you, even if they are too young to REALLY help-this way they learn) Charley loves to scrub toilets, and I let her wipe out the microwave while I'm doing the kitchen. Today Brodi helped me wipe down the stove. Both love to help me unload the dishwasher, etc...
2. I do dishes as soon as I get them. Once the dishwasher is finished running, I empty it. Dishes in the sink get rinsed and loaded into the dishwasher. Before I cook dinner I fill 1/2 the sink with hot soapy water, that way while I'm cooking I just throw everything in there and then when we're done with dinner I just have to load and not scrub.
3. I wipe down my stove everyday-the magic eraser is great for this! (Use an SOS pad on really rough spots) I think it's a lot easier to do everyday than to do only once in a while. Then quickly wipe down the counters and sink. (Warning: Do not let your child use the magic eraser, it can burn their skin.) To get the metal grates clean, put each one in a gallon size ziploc bag, spray with ammonia and let sit until the next morning-they somehow magically get clean without any scrubbing (I only do this every once in a while).
4. When you live in a small space, clutter is a huge issue. I don't keep many things. I've started trading in all my books at a used book store for credit, I throw away all my magazines once I'm done reading them, we have a garage sale 2x per year. I do keep baby stuff because I hope to reuse it, but everything else gets ditched if there's not room.
5. You might have heard this before, but every night after I put my kids to bed I try to put my house to bed. Put dishes away, clear the table off, clear the floors and couches off, fold all the laundry, etc...
Good luck! I know it's a lot to do, but you will get better at managing it all over time. Plus pretty soon Penny will become more independent-but you'll miss all of your cuddle time!
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