Cleaning And Organizing In Many Ways

By SALLY!


My mom was Right....

When I was a little girl my mom taught me and my sisters that before we did something fun, we should do the things we NEED to do. It wasn't much, but we always worked on the house in the morning (picked up our rooms, made our beds, laundry, etc) and then we did the fun stuff in the afternoon. That was alright, but I use to dread summers because my mom always had extra chores (gardening, organizing, spring cleaning, etc) for us to do above our regular cleaning jobs, but we always did it and in the end we'd have a lot of fun. Looking back at all that work I've realized my mom was teaching us the importance that having a house of order means our lives can be in order too. If my house is clean and in order (as much as it can be with two kids) then my life seems to be a little more organized as well. If my house becomes super messy and disorganized, it makes me, my husband, and my girls a little stressed. 

 

Let me share an experience with you that I had this summer. We decided to let my husband's half-sister come and live with us. When she first moved in I tried to show her how we do things at my house. I'm not the cleanest person in the world, but I have daily chores I do around the house (pick up toys, do the dishes, pick up dirty clothes, ect) and I have weekly chores I do (sweep, mop, vacuum, laundry, deep cleaning, ect.) During the summer, I got all of us outside to pull weeds, mow, water the lawn, take care of Ike-the dog and more. I was trying to teach my girls (and the added 18yr old) the importance of taking time to take care for our home.

As I was trying to teach my sister-in-law the simplicity of having a clean home means an organized life I noticed that this had never been taught to her before. Her room and bathroom were EXTREMELY messy. Not just messy, but disgusting. Dirty and clean clothes mixed together on the floor, food all over (floor, bed, trash), used feminine hygiene products all over the bathroom floor, garbage overflowing in the garbage can, and much more. Her life seemed to resemble these rooms; sloppy, disorganized, and careless. Unfortunately, she couldn't hold much together and was constantly unhappy. Her room overwhelmed her, and it was apparent that her life did as well. Sadly, now matter what I did to help her out, she unfortunately moved out of our house not taking this valuable lesson with her.

But, in my own life, whenever I feel overwhelmed like this, I think about the small stuff I can take care of first; in my house and in my life. I take one room at a time and put everything back in its proper place. Just like in my life, I take the mistakes I've made and try to tackle one first (yes, there are many, but I'm trying...).

So... as we try to tackle our life, here are some good ways to tackle our home, too. My mom taught me pretty well, so I'm just gonna pass these on.

1. DON'T get overwhelmed with the mess! As I said before, take one room at a time. For a week, take a room and COMPLETELY clean it top to bottom. Sweep, dust, vacuum, put things away. There is nothing wrong with making your kids help. Have them help with the major rooms (living room, family room, kitchen) and their rooms. Help them to take pride in what's theirs.

2.Assign your kids...or yourself and your hubby weekly cleaning jobs. While growing up every Friday we each had one room we were responsible for. If I was responsible for the bathroom, then I had to scrub the toilet/bathtub, wash the mirror, mop the floor, empty the garbage. Have each person take a major room. One day a week... and the house is spotless.

3. The five minute rule. After you get your house in order, try taking five minutes...that's right- just five minutes... before lunch, dinner, and bedtime to get everyone in the family to help pick up toys, clothes, shoes, ect that is out of place. That way, it does not get overwhelming at the end of the day.

4. Tackle laundry and dishes the best way you know how. Whether its to assign children chores of sorting through laundry, or someone to empty the dishwasher.... let everyone help out. (My three year old loves to help me empty the dishwasher. My five year old loves to get the clothes out of the dryer.)

Really, I'm only writting this to help remind myself why I keep a house of order. So much of life gets crazy for us and our home should be a place of refuge from the craziness. It should be a place to remind ourselves of what we are striving for. I hope this helps you find the energy and inspiration to not just organize and clean your house, but organize your life as well.

And now that I have written this, I have go get some cleaning done!

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A Note From Stacie:

One day I was watching Jon & Kate Plus 8 and Kate mentioned that she sweeps/mops (swiffers) her kitchen/dining area 3 times a day. It hit me that if she could do that 3 times a day with all the craziness going on, I could at least do it once a say. 

Once I started to implement that, I realized I could organize so many other things in my life. I actually made a cleaning schedule for myself; sweeping everyday once and then mop on Saturdays. Laundry everyday but Mondays were whites, Tuesdays were reds/pinks, Wednesdays were darks, etc. Once I started doing that it seemed easier to fold the laundry right out of the dryer instead of a huge pile at the end of the week. Then I added  cleaning the bathrooms and vacuuming to my schedule and it just grew and grew. But, what I found out was that if I took the time each day to do all the cleaning and orgainizing I scheduled for myself it actually didn't take very long. Then I had the afternoon and evenings to spend with my family and do the things I've been wanting to get done like, scrapbooking, journaling, blog writing, etc. 

Now, the schedule has kind of gone out the window, but the effort and drive is still there. It really does just take one small move to make a big change.