1. My house is clean. I haven't left the house since Sunday. But my house is clean. All the laundry is done. Wow. I will bask in this feeling for the entire 2 hours that it lasts. It is such a rare occurrence, that I had to blog about it. It's funny, every time my house is clean, I promise myself that I'll never let it get messy again. Oh, but then life happens, right?!? One day at a time.
2. I admit it. I do not like to clean. It does not and probably will never come natural to me. So I am all the time trying to figure out a way just to keep a 'straightened up' house. Hey it's better than nothing. But after talking with a friend, I think we discovered the key to having a clean house. It's fool-proof. Works every time. Guaranteed. (I sound like an infomercial) You ready for this? If you want to keep a clean house, all you need to do is.... invite guests over at least 3 times a week. Oh yeah. You know I'm right. There is nothing like the adrenaline rush you get approximately 5 hours before guests are supposed to arrive. I suddenly go into straight Martha Stewart mode (even hubby does too) and out of nowhere I'm a cleaning machine. And when it's all said and done, I look around and say to myself "Now why can't I do this all the time, this is amazing!" Our guests arrive, admire the vacuum lines and then I shrivel in guilt at the thought of them thinking that I live like this all the time.... nope. wishful thinking. ***I suppose I must add the disclaimer: somehow the bedroom always misses the cleaning list when guests are coming. It becomes the storage ground for all things we don't feel like finding a place for. As long as all things random can go in the bedroom and we can at least get the door shut - then whew, we're safe. Bring on the company!*** Oh, come on! You do it too. :)
3. My son is 2 1/2... is that too young to assign chores? Chores are a beautiful thing. I can say that now. They weren't beautiful when I was young, but they are now! Funny how a little age and a lot of perspective changes things. I must figure out a way to teach my child(ren) to enjoy chores. Must.
4. Why do I have so many throws? Who needs that many average-yet-awkwardly sized blankets just lying around? Somehow a throw that is on sale will just gravitate toward me at any given store. And for some reason, I feel like I must get it. They even sell throws at gas stations?!? And yes, I've bought one there. Well - it was for a road trip - but still. I have this certain linen closet that contains an over-abundance of random colored throws. I should have a yard sale just to get rid of some of them - it's ridiculous really. And I have 2 snuggies. Wow.
5. I know this post was completely random, but you should at least be thankful that I shared my ultimate house cleaning tip with you. Now, share yours... what do you do (or attempt to do) to keep a tidy house consistently?
6. Oh, and click HERE for my post about a GREAT laundry deal!!!
She carefully watches everything in her household and suffers nothing from laziness. Prov 31:27
(Side note: I'd like to meet this virtuous woman when I get to heaven, I bet she had the best tips. In the mean time, I just remind myself that I'm a work in progress... hey I have learned to 'laugh at the days to come'.)
Be blessed.
Zisms
45 minutes ago
7 thoughts:
Alright I am NOT the queen of clean like my mother but have found a couple tips that help me.
I have found that if I put on a load of laundry before I do anything in the morning that it helps me get things rolling. If I do this everyday I usually have a couple loads each day and am finished with all the laundry in the house by 10:00am. That is a nice feeling. Also keeps laundry from piling up and taking an entire day to complete. Even if I skip a day it isn't that big a deal.
I hate cleaning bathrooms but I find that if I grab a Walart bag to house my dirty paper towels it goes much quicker. Plus easy to throw it all away.
My kiddos have been putting their own laundry away for a couple years now. If you are OCD about it all being neat in the drawers then you might want to skip this and do it yourself but they are now used to it and can fold alot of it themselves too. They love washcloth folding....who knew?
My nemisis is dusting so if you come across any awesome tips for that please share!!!
My secret (with kids in the mix!) is to clean at least ONE THING a day. Taking small, steady steps will insure your house is clean all week. For example, Monday-kitchen, Tuesday-bathrooms, Wednesday-vacuuming, bedrooms, Thursday-dusting, stairs, dining room, Friday-i kind of take it "off", ha!, Saturday-hardwood floors...
You will teach your child(ren) by EXAMPLE, they really will pick it up!
I am a clean-before-people-come-over type of person, and a tidy-the-rest-of-the-time type, too... and thats okay with me. I like to live in and enjoy my house, and although I keep it pretty clean, I'm not breaking my back all the time to keep it spotless. Dirty dishes are my peeve, so I pretty much stay on top of that.
I HATE to clean my bathrooms, but when the motivation starts to peek its head, I go ahead and spray everything down with my bathroom cleaner, and let it soak for a while. When I come back to it a little bit later, it is a lot easier to wipe down as opposed to scrubbing for hours. It might just be in my head, but to me, it doesn't feel like it takes as long.
*Pine sol is my favorite smell...
*Vacuuming is my favorite surface level chore (quick cleaning fix)...
And
*lighting a candle does wonders for my cleaning motivation. Theres something about the click of that lighter and the flaming wick that instantly says to me "it's time". Haha!
I am with you on the cleaning but I am trying to get better. Cleaning up messes as they appear, folding laundry as it is done drying. I think that little ones can handle cleaning (some) Luke has to keep his toys picked up, thats his job. They may not be organized but they are out of the floor and in the toy box. We've really been working on one toy at a time.
The day that I can post a blog with the first sentence, "My house is clean" I'm going to paint my door red and and then go to the beach! haha.
Oh yes, company will keep the house clean! No kids for us yet, but since I work full-time and the hubs works from home I had a sit down with him and said "I need help". Consistent help with the house without having to ask. So we got a dry erase calendar board and to the right I wrote all the common cleaning chores that need to be done and how often. I wanted to just assign chores but the hubs felt that was too confining. So he and I see the list and if we do an item we write it down on the day we did it. I am a list girl and the satisfaction of seeing it done helps me a lot. For sure get the kids involved early! The daily chores in our house are: dishes, trash, make bed, pickup clutter. Weekly is water plants, clean bathrooms, sweep, mop, dust, sweep porch, vacuum. Other chores are less than weekly. Except the laundry, which I handle myself and don't want hubby to touch! :) I am also OCD about the kitchen sink and counters being cleaned after every meal made.
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