Keeping House

I admit it. I do not have a neat nature. My mother’s organizational gene was passed to my brother and not me, so I have to work hard at keeping things neat. Thankfully God loves me just as I am and so does the handsome neat freak I married! Because of my neatness deficiency, I must have an effective yet realistic plan to keep our house neat and clean. It is possible to keep house without giving up. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Stick to a schedule. Most of the time we do not do heavy housekeeping on the weekends. At our house weekends are for family fun, not vacuuming or dusting! Our customized cleaning schedule is in effect Monday through Friday. Each day one or two rooms are cleaned, thus making the job of housekeeping attainable and leaving us free of dishpan hands on the weekend!

Don’t do it alone. After all, you’re not the only one living in your home! Make housekeeping a family affair by assigning age appropriate jobs to everyone. Even young children can be taught to help sort laundry, pick up toys, and put their clothes away.

Have materials handy. Keep a cleaning bucket or caddy filled with all the supplies (towels, gloves, wipes, sponges, sprays, etc) you’ll need to clean. When it’s time to clean, grab your bucket and get to work immediately rather than waste time searching for and gathering supplies.

Prevent little jobs from becoming big jobs. Make “spot cleaning” a part of the daily routine. By taking preventative measures, none of us will spend hours cleaning large messes. Before retiring for the night, do at least one load of laundry, sort the mail, sweep the floors, wipe down stovetops and countertops in the kitchen and bathrooms, spray the shower and tub with a tub and tile cleaner, wash and put away all dishes.

Bond with a basket. Keep clutter on the stairs under control by using a step/stair basket. At our house, the things that need to go upstairs (hair bows, cell phones, Bibles, socks, toys, etc) are dropped into the basket throughout the day. Before going to bed, the basket is carried upstairs, emptied, and brought back down to the bottom step where it’s ready to be filled all over again. I love the one we purchased from Lillian Vernon.

Put the paper away. Create a household organizational binder to keep track of all the necessary papers (take out menus, phone lists, school forms, etc.) in your house. For more information on creating a household binder, click here.

Call and cancel. As soon as catalogs and credit card offers you don’t want arrive, call the sender and have your name taken off the mailing list. This will cut down on junk mail and leave you with less to file or shred. Another way to decrease the amount of mail you receive is to visit and register at www.catalogchoice.com. Once you register, you can select the catalogs you no longer wish to receive.