Yes,
I’ll admit it; a clean home makes me happy. There is something about a clean,
organized home that gives me the warm fuzzies, but it also needs to be
comfortable and welcoming to family and friends. A friend who visited recently
remarked that she loved coming to our home as she found it so welcoming and tidy.
I was encouraged by her words and so I’m sharing today what I have found works
well. It’s not complicated, and it frees you up from long hours at a time of
housekeeping chores. While your home may not be 100% perfectly clean, it will
be what it should be: a happy haven for your family and a welcoming place to share with others, without the angst of needing to get things
“company ready.” Once you establish these simple routines, they will quickly
become habits, and habits just become a part of
you, requiring almost no thought and a lot less energy than blocking out half a
day (or more!) a week to clean house.
TIP #1--CLEAN YOUR KITCHEN EVERY NIGHT
At
our house the rule is to get the dishes done right after dinner—don’t go to bed
with a sink full of dirty dishes, or dishes left “to soak.” Get all of the
dishes done and put away, then scrub out and polish the sink. Clear and wipe
off the counters and take out the trash. Opening the windows for a few minutes,
throwing the day’s towels and dishrags in the wash and replacing with fresh ones
each day also keeps your home smelling great. Keeping your kitchen tidy actually becomes quite
enjoyable—and nothing is better than waking up to a clean kitchen in the
morning!
TIP #2--DO A NIGHTLY SPEED CLEAN
Make
a habit of a five to ten minute sweep through the house at night to get the day’s
clutter picked and just generally tidying things up before bed each evening.
This definitely needs to be a family effort, and it instills good habits in
your children even from a very early age. This daily routine makes a huge impact
in keeping things organized and tidy.
TIP #3--GET UP A BIT EARLY
Giving
yourself an extra thirty minutes in the morning before heading off to work is so worth it! Having a few extra minutes to start a load of
laundry, tidy the bathroom (this is where those cleaning wipes come in so handy),
start dinner in the crock pot or do some dinner prep all make for a much better
start for your workday. It’s
amazing how happy you will be to walk into a clean house at the end of the day,
instead of opening the door to more work that needs to get done.
TIP #4--USE SMALL MINUTES OF TIME TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
You
really don’t need a lot of time to accomplish a lot! Break up the chores that
do need to be done regularly into manageable five-ten minute chunks of time.
Make a habit of using a few minutes to dust the living room, clean a bathroom,
run the vacuum, whatever really needs to be done. Do one needed chore a day, and
then add one more if you have the time. Yes, you can clean the bathroom in ten
minutes, tops, provided that you are doing it regularly. This is the simple
truth--keeping a house clean is so much easier than cleaning a dirty one! It is
so amazing what using these small bits of time to clean will allow you to
accomplish. It will actually take a lot of pressure off and allow you more time
to enjoy your home and your family.
With these simple routines, your home will stay tidy and welcoming!
Keeping up on things means you will seldom be overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. When your home is cared for on a daily basis, it's also manageable when you need to get things really spiffed up! I hope these tips were a blessing, and they really do work!
“She
looketh well to the ways of her household”~Proverbs 31:27
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