I feel like this post should be called my tips and tricks for keeping my house not clean-ha! It’s a labor of love for me to try and keep our house tidy. And one that I really do for my husband and kids. I know that “crazy at home” can add a lot of stress to their lives outside the home. For me it’s something that I had to work towards every day and it will likely never come easy. I would almost always rather be lazy and deal with that piece of paper later.
The thing is though, if I am honest with myself, I enjoy a clean home too. I love walking down to a clean, clutter free island but it is not something that you can do once and just have for a week. It is a constant battle for me. At my house I would say it’s a product of having too much fun. A few years ago I read the Marie Kondo book and really liked her outlook on things you accumulate in your home. I did not go through all my stuff in the manner she recommended because that would take far too much time but I know that I should.
Have everything picked up before you go to bed at night.
When you have everything picked up before you go to bed at night it makes you feel like you have accomplished something for the day. It also is so nice to walk down the stairs in the morning to a clean home. It brings me such joy to walk into my kitchen in the morning and get breakfast started in a nice clean space. This also helps me to set a time frame of when I have to have things completed by.
Clean the whole day
I try to pick things up all day long. For example if the kids bring me a dish from a snack, I just put it right in the dishwasher. If they get crumbs on the floors, I vacuum them right up. My husband got me a Dyson vacuum and it has been a game changer for me. It was a big investment and I had begged for one for years because I like how you can vacuum carpets but it almost like sweeps the floors with them too. He got me this attachment for hard floors and it works so well. It felt like one of those purchases that you wonder if it will truly be worth it for me and it has been.
I think that if you do not get too behind, you don’t get overwhelmed. I do a little laundry each day but if I do get behind, I will wash all the clothes I can together. Then as they dry, I will pick out twenty pieces to fold and put away. Then if I have more time I will pick out twenty more pieces to fold and put away until I run out of time or I am caught up. I find that it’s easy to feel like I have completed part of the project and then have 30 things folded but nothing put away. It may not be the most efficient use of your time but for me it is better than looking at a room full of folded clean laundry collecting dust.
Enlist the whole family
I HATE unloading the dishwasher. It is worse for me than doing laundry. So I asked my husband if he would be in charge of that and it turns out that he does not dislike it as much as me. I have turned the task of picking up their playroom over to the kids. They are not allowed to watch TV until it is clean. I can proudly tell you that they watch way less TV than they use to but their playroom is never fully clean. It feels weird in a post about tricks to keeping your house cleaner to say that I am happy with that outcome but they are kids and I would rather have a controlled mess that is getting used, than me cleaning it up all the time.
We need to get our girls doing more chores and that is not an area I am super strong in. I feel like between spelling words, sight words, reading books and memorizing Bible verses, our evenings get away from us. Good chores for kids that I have them do sometimes are putting away silverware, setting the table. putting away their laundry, vacuuming, and cleaning out my car to name a few.
All in all my home is far from perfect but this last year I have decided to make a bigger effort again on keeping our house picked up. These are just some of the ways I have been trying. If you have any good tips make sure to leave them in a comment on my Facebook post here.
Lindsay…
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