So people will often ask me, "How do you do it? How do you raise 3 active kids, run a full time business and keep the house so clean?" The answer. . . it's a daily maintenance that I have developed over the years. It has taken many years to figure out what works for me and finding the balance. You will hear me say that a lot, "Finding the balance." This is an ongoing battle for me. I have to tell myself {very} often, things are not perfect. I am not perfect. This house is not perfect. This top 10 list helps me with my balance and keeps things on track. I find that if these things are not done on a DAILY basis, the house tends to get away from me. So this is a list of things I do daily and I think if you give it a try, you will find that your home and your sanity will be better.
I'm the type of person that likes to work with a fresh slate. . so it may be better to give your home a one day scrub/clean/tidy up and start from there. Meaning; take one day to scrub all the bathrooms, scrub the floors, clean all the dishes. You know, the gritty stuff. Then that is where the "maintenance" comes into play. You see, the thing about keeping a clean house, is to never let it get out of hand. Once that happens, it's going to take a whole day to get it back into order. If you make it a daily chore to pick up, clean up, it will never seem so out of control. If you do take a day off, that's ok. I do too! It will just take some extra time to get everything back into order. Ok. .so before I continue to ramble on any more with how to keep up on your house {I'm sure over time you will figure it out. If not, please ask for tips/tricks. I will be happy to help you solve your problems}, here is how to achieve my level of OCD cleanliness.
Top 10 Daily Maintenance program:
1. Be a Stranger in your own home. The one thing I find myself constantly doing is standing in my entry way at my front door and pretending I am a stranger . My #1 goal is to be clutter free and clean from a guest's point of view. At this point, the rest of the house does not matters. Ever had an unexpected guest and just felt completely embarrassed that they seen your house in that order? Here is a quick fix. Stand in your main entry and ask yourself what can I do to make this look more organized and clean? Is there clutter on the floor? Pick it up and move it to the appropriate room/place. If it belongs in a bedroom, simply put it on the floor of that room (we'll come back to that later to put it away. . for now, we are just getting it out of the problem area). Is there dirt/pet hair on the floor? This may lead to #5, but we'll get to that. Are there shoes everywhere? Put them in pairs along the wall, under the bench, in a bin in a closet. I have an entry way that leads into a great room. My living room, kitchen and dining room are all one big room. Lucky me :) Had I done it differently, I would have put up a wall between the dining and living area, but when we built in 2004, I was just happy to be building. It was our first home and I didn't have a clue on floor plans. Do your guests come in from the garage door? Back door? Wherever they come in, make that space/area your number one goal to keep organized and clean. This is my "Optical Illusion" to all my friends/family (ahh ha! you finally know my secret) The rest of my house could be a HOT MESS, but my entry areas will {for the most part} always be in order and clean.
2. Make a Daily List. If there is one thing that keeps my sanity in check, it is a daily list. Every morning I make a list of things I need to accomplish in the day. Most of the items are from my Top 10 list, but then there are always a few extras. Including tasks for my eBay home business, appointments, kids school activities, errands that I have to run, etc. This list keeps me on track and every time I cross out a task, I feel as if I've accomplished something big. When the last item is crossed off, it is a feeling of accomplishment. Do I always get the entire list checked off???. . .uhhhh, no! It's just like a math problem. I carry it over to the next day’s list. I always have wired notebooks on hand and if you were to come over to my house and go thru my junk drawer, you would find several notebooks filled with list after list after list . . .it really does work! I encourage you to give this a try for a week or so and tell me you don't get more done on a daily basis.
(Example: My list for today: 1. Vacuum 2. load of laundry & B's bedding (B is one of 3 kiddos. I will refer to them as A, B and C from time to time.) 3. Package eBay orders 4. eBay pics for listings 5. Prep dinner 6. trip to P.O 7. Tidy up Great Room 8. Take out trash 9. Schedule B's eye appt. 10. Clean main bath 11. Top 10 Blog post)
*I do realize I am very fortunate to work from home, so I know I have more time to work on my home compared to those of you who work out of the home. I still encourage you to make a list and get what you can get done in the morning and work on the rest after you return.
3. Make the beds. This one is so simple yet makes all the difference in the world. Make it a habit to pull the covers up and fluff the pillows before you even leave your room and grab that first cup of coffee. It doesn't have to be perfect, but a room with a made up bed looks 10x cleaner than a room with a messy bed. I do this for my kiddos as well. As soon as they get up for the day, I throw the comforter over their bed and fluff their pillows. My oldest, C, is twelve and plenty old enough to this himself :)
4. Keep the dishes out of the sink! If there is one pet peeve I have, it is dishes in the sink or on the counter tops. If there are dirty dishes in my sink, I simply cannot sleep until they are cleaned or put in the dishwasher. Now I have been known to entertain and be exhausted and just go to bed and leave a few dishes in the sink for morning. And that is fine. But on a day to day basis, keep those dishes clean/put away. Your kitchen will bump up a few extra points on the "clean scale" by doing this simple task.
5. Vacuum/Sweep your main area. This includes the high traffic areas. Entry way, Living room, Kitchen, Dining Room, Hallways leading to and from. This is where the OCD kicks in, because I know a lot of you are reading this and saying, "Vacuum EVERY day?! This girl is crazy!" And yes, I may be. ..But I don't vacuum the entire house. Just what gets the most traffic (refer to tip #1). I have kids, I have a hubby that works out doors and "forgets" to remove his shoes, I have HAIRY pets. . if I didn't do this on a daily basis, these floors would be disgusting. I'd have pet hair balls rolling down the hallways and animal cracker crumbs crushed in my carpets and an inch of dirt on the hardwood. It doesn't take long. . maybe 10 minutes and the house will look so fresh! I have a setting on my vacuum for "hard surface", but if you don't, invest in a cheap dirt devil or something to use on the hard wood/tile areas. OR if you like the good ol' fashion broom. .go for it! In my opinion, clean floors = a clean house. I see vacuum lines and it's like the gates of Heaven have opened and I can hear the choirs of angels singing, "HAaaaaaa LAY LU YA!!!!" Yes, I know its spelt "hallelujah".
6. A sink of hot, soapy dishwater will do the trick. After the dishes have been cleared, put away and the counter tops are clutter free, I will fill up my sink with hot, soapy dishwater and wipe down the counter tops. Do I do this if I cooked the night before and did it then? Yes. Do I do this if I haven't used the kitchen? Yes. It is amazing what can settle on a countertop overnight and throughout the day {oh the germs! Don't get me started!}. I wash down my counter tops, stove top and appliances daily {and sometimes more than once if I've cooked. .of course I clean up after I prep food/prepare a meal. {We will get to this another day, another time}. If your kitchen table is close by, do that too. I don't do it all the time, but on days where I need to clear smudges or crud from my wood floors, I will use this water to mop up those areas. {of course after I have washed off everything else. .PLEASE don't scrub your floors and then use the same water to clean your counter tops or wash dishes. .Please!}
7. NO INTERNET, SOCIAL MEDIA until my list is complete! I think this is why a lot of employers have banned Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or internet in general from their place of work. It is so easy to get sucked in and loose an hour or two by catching up with everyone’s status updates, checking the latest Tweets, or my guilty pleasure. . Pinterest! I could easily sit at the computer all day and do nothing. I really could. Let's face it, the internet is Addicting!!! So I have to tell myself, "Danielle, when you get your list done, then you can go play." Am I a stickler? Pfffff. . .uhh I'd be lying if I told you yes. BUT, I do make a conscience effort to get my work done first. I encourage you to try it. Even if you have to shut down the laptop and hide your smartphone. . .you will survive. I promise! {Cue Gloria Gaynor, I will survive - "At first I was afraid. I was petrified!"}
8. Start every day with a cup of Laundry detergent. You thought I was going to say coffee?! Well, that is a gimme. If there was a #1 complaint I've heard over the years on cleaning and keeping up on house work, this would be it! Laundry is a chore. It's not something {most people} LOVE to do. It's one of those things that will NEVER end {unless you have a maid or are adopted by the Kardashian family where you would have an outfit for every day of the year}. So to think that you will just get to it on the weekend.. . who wants to spend an entire day off doing laundry?! Not this girl. I try to get a load in first thing in the morning and work on it throughout the day. If you work out of the home. .one load in at night, one load in the morning. Keep the rotations going. It will never be caught up, so why spend an entire day doing it only to have another mountain waiting for you next weekend?
9. Dress for Cleaning Success. Ok, so I work from the home so it is easy for me to hang out in my cleaning clothes all day {aka jeans and a t-shirt}. I do this more than not, but I still get myself around in the morning by showering, doing my hair, putting on a little bit of makeup - making myself {somewhat} presentable - I'm not a slob. . .I really am not :). No matter your profession, you must dress the part. Same goes with cleaning. You can't wear a dress and heels and clean your home. You simply cannot {unless you are Brie Van de Kamp from Desperate Housewives}. But it's just not reality. When you are ready to take on your list, get into something comfortable and roll up your sleeves. It really will make a huge difference.
10. Give yourself 1 Organizing/Cleaning Challenge each day. Outside of my daily maintenance, I have extra challenges. Some days it is washing bedding, others it is cleaning a bathroom. Some days it is organizing the kitchen pantry and some days it is cleaning closets. There are so many areas of maintenance in home and in reality it will NEVER all be done. I find that if I keep a schedule of doing certain things on certain days, it helps keep me organized and on track. For you, it may be adding that "Challenge" to your list of things to do for the day. Here is my example:
Monday - Bathrooms
Tuesday - Bedding & wash/polish wood floors
Wednesday - Dust & Vacuum downstairs area
Best of luck at your Maintenance program. I'm sure once you give these tips a spin, you will find ways to tweak them to your own liking and figure out what works best for you, your family and your schedule. I'd love to hear your tips too!
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