Keeping a clean house: the mystery solved!

The house.  It is my enemy.

The toys seem to find a way to constantly inch their way in to the middle of the floor, and strategically under my feet.  Matchbox cars are mot made to be stepped on.  I’ve gotten puncture wounds, I’m not even kidding.

But how do we do this?  We’re supposed to raise our tiny little humans to be thoughtful, kind, and caring individuals.  We’re supposed to play with them and love them.  That’s the good stuff.  We’re also supposed to keep a clean and clutter-free house, have nutritious meals prepared and served at regular times, and make our spouses happy too.  There’s 24 hours in a day.  In order to maintain the supermom facade that we’re all woefully aware is bogus, there is help.

I’ve found that my problem is procrastination, motivation, and plain old “out of sight, out of mind.”
I don’t see the dust on the blinds because I’m not 2 inches away from them, I’m 3 feet away and it’s just not noticeable.  I don’t see the dust under the couch, so it doesn’t strike me as something that is pressing… so I put it off.  In comes the procrastination!  Which is closely linked to the lack of motivation.  This goes through my mind on a daily basis: IT WILL ALL BE MESSY AGAIN 15 MINUTES AFTER I CLEAN IT.  So why bother?!?  It’s not hard for me to talk myself out of cleaning.

One way I’ve found to combat this problem of mine is plain and simple.  Organization.  And I don’t mean going out and buying pricey bins and storage containers.  I mean a household organizer.  You can buy one like this kind, or you can just do what I did– use a planner.  All that’s really needed is a calendar, pens, and paper.

I took a large monthly/weekly planner that I use to keep appointments and schedules documented.  I added in the things I do that are pretty routine, like grocery shopping on Wednesdays.  Basically, everything that needs to get done has been documented and has a time to get done.  To-do list, meet your destiny!!

I made a list of daily/weekly/monthly “chores” that need to be done.  (I cheated— I went to a maid service website and copied their list.  I would never have thought to vaccum closet floors, I’m obviously not meant to clean on a regular basis.)

I scheduled the chores into my regular schedule.  By looking at each day and being able to know how busy that day would be and by being realistic about how much I could get done, I’ve been able to set up a pretty good system.  As I complete them, I check them off.  Seeing the list of “finished” items grow is nice, especially because I get annoyed if I work to clean something and you can’t even notice it.  (uh, hello ceiling fan)

This isn’t rocket science.  It’s simple and straightforward.  It takes about 15 minutes to sit down and schedule out.  Give it a shot and let us know if it works.  Or send me lots of angry emails because it doesn’t work for you.  But at least include what does work!