For this second installment of my wisdom and advice after 39 years of life, I decided to focus it on how to keep a clean home. Yesterday's installment was more on the serious side, so I'll keep it light for now.
#12 Make every trip up the stairs count. There's always something that can be taken up the stairs. So, every time you go upstairs, bring something with you to put away. Sometimes I have used baskets at the base of the stairs to collect things and then I take it upstairs in one load. But, I find that the basket can become overwhelming and it can get dumped or emptied. So, instead, I make every trip count.
#13 Empty the dishwasher every morning and fill it throughout the day. My sink never has dirty dishes in it. It does have clean dishes on the clean side, occasionally, but rarely does it have dirty dishes. By starting with an empty dishwasher, every plate, every cup, every spoon etc. gets placed directly into the dishwasher throughout the day. What about if I'm making dinner??? I wash as I go. So, by the end of making dinner, there are no pots or pans to clean.
#14 Nike's motto: Just Do It... this is my motto. I am a finisher. I finish every task I start and I finish it quickly. Sometimes this gets me in trouble because I am not a perfectionist, but, I finish and complete every task. I know people in my life who will spend three hours organizing a drawer. When they are done, that drawer looks amazing. However, in that three hours the rest of the house has fallen apart and suddenly keeping a clean home is overwhelming. I just do it. If I'm tired... well, I know that the mess isn't going anywhere, so I just do it. If I'm feeling lazy, I just do it. I don't want to exercise, I do it anyway. Just do it, and do it well.
#15 Squeegee the shower. Jon Mark and I squeegee the shower after every single use. It was a practice that my parents instilled within us when we lived with them and we have continued it ever since. It keeps the shower clean, and it prevents hard water build up.
#16 Every bathroom, and every main room needs it's own cleaning supplies. I am less likely to clean a bathroom if I have to travel around the house carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies. When the cleaning supplies are already there, it's easy to wipe down a toilet seat or clean a mirror. I clean my bathrooms every day, because it's easy to do so. This is also a good rule of thumb for toothbrushes. Have toothbrushes upstairs and downstairs. Have a vacuum for upstairs and a vacuum for downstairs.
#17 Horizontal surfaces should not become places where people dump or store items. A house looks cluttered and messy when horizontal surfaces are used for storage. Try to store things vertically or out of sight in drawers or closets.
#18 Have the kids help with a ten minute clean up every evening and throughout the day. Use words like, "Before any electronics or play time, we need to stop what we are doing and spend 10 minutes cleaning". Chore charts don't work for me, and I felt guilty about this for years. I tried several, they all failed. I'm just not that kind of mom. I do most of the heavy lifting: dishes, bathrooms, laundry. But, I do expect my kids to help with the responsibilities. They do very well during ten minute clean ups. Also, every night I tell them what I want done, and they do it. I'll say, "I need the dining room, kitchen, and floors done, who is doing what?" They work together and it gets done, just not on a chart.
#19 Take pictures of kids art work and then throw it away. That may sound cruel, but if you keep all of their little treasures, the house will become cluttered. Keep it on the fridge for a day or two and then take a picture.
#20 Go to bed with a clean house. It's a good start to tomorrow when today is already clean.
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