Thursday, October 11, 2007
Keeping a Clean Home
How many of you find it difficult to keep a clean house? Why is that? Heather and I were talking about it the other day and were wondering if it was because of a lack of time or a lack of motivation. Well, who doesn't like a clean home? It feels good, you can find things easily, and it's less stressful. The obvious answer then is our home gets messy because we don't have the time to clean it up. The conversation started for us when the statement was said, "If only we had a week at home with nothing else to do, then we would have a clean home." But having a clean home is more than just cleaning everything once, it's keeping it clean. For us younger generation, we get going so fast that we start to take short cuts (don't put away the clothes at the end of the day, don't load that dish into the dish washer, drop the mail on the desk) and those little "short cuts" lead us "have to have" a week to clean up. Heather has really enjoyed a website called "Flylady" and it's all about routines to declutter and keep things clean one little step at a time so you don't need to do those big deep cleans as often. What we need to do is get in those habits of not taking "short cuts" and put that shirt away when you head to bed in the evening. And remember that there needs to be a place for everything and everything in its place. Any thoughts on this?
~Scott
PS. Anyone know of a good system to clean the shower and not let that soapscum build up?
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8 comments:
Scott & Heather,
Keep a sponge and cleaner near at hand, even in the shower if you have space for it, and every other time you take a shower, just spray it on when you get in, take a moment or two to wipe things down as you are soaking and enjoying the hot water and then get about the business you got in for, clean yourself! Always do it in this order so you don't get clean and then "dirty" again with the cleaning products. If you clean the shower/tub first, then you know it's clean and you can get clean too. It will make your shower just that much more enjoyable, knowing that you've done double duty - getting you, and your shower clean. It only takes a few minutes and it can quickly be adapted into your cleaning routine.
That's my two cents anyway.
Megan S.
More thoughts on "keeping a clean home"
My #1 tip - make the bed. A crisp bed makes the whole room seem more orderly and will probably encourage you to pick up clothes and other items more often, to mirror the tidy bed.
Tip #2 - clean as you go. Instead of filling the sink with dishes, rinse them and put them in the dishwasher as you prep your meal. That way, you won't have a heaping pile to take care of after the meal, only two or three things to stick in, put in soap and then start 'er up. That, and clean spills immediately after they happen so they don't get a chance to dry or set in, therefore, saving yourself the elblow grease later on.
Tip #3 - sort the mail as soon as you bring it in from the mailbox. When you take a few minutes each day to sort, throw out and pay bills, you won't have a pile to take care of after a week.
Tip #4 - manage clutter. As you leave a room, take a moment to look around and grab an item or two that isn't where is should be. It will help to keep you from feeling overwhlemed when you walk from room to room and see that everything is cluttered, if you use this tip, that is. :)
I hope you guys are doing well. Love ya
How to avoid spending unnecessary time vacuuming:
1) Get a gigantic truckload of topsoil and spread it all over your floors.
2) Get an equally gigantic truckload of grass seed and spread it all over your topsoils. Make sure you don't have dandilion seeds, that's a real pain later on... I'd check each seed to make sure.
3) Maybe leave a little bit of topsoil without seed on it at the side of the room, you can make it into a flower bed later if you choose.
4) Leave all your windows open and water your floors liberally. Leave your lights on and shine flashlights in dark corners. You will never need to vacuum again.
5) Just remember, the shower cleans you up, right? Therefore the shower is the cleanest thing around. It's not dirty. In fact, soap cleans you up as well, so soap is not dirty. The shower does not need to be cleaned. Same goes for towels... since you're clean when you get out of the shower, the towel gets cleaner each time it touches you.
Enjoy,
Air-run
@Anonymous (Aaron)
AWESOME!
Furthermore, it's a well known FACT that spiderwebs catch dirt and dust therefore, bring a bunch of spiders in and start enjoying the clean air as well.
PS. Jessi disagrees with me, but she also likes to vacuum...
We love and miss you both -- let's get together soon. Jeremy does all the cleaning so I don't have any advice on that.
Claudette
You guys, I have to tell that a number of years ago I came to terms with a hard truth concerning keeping the house clean and organized. It's a difficult truth, but one that I believe is ultimately liberating--and that is that in trying to keep the house clean and organized, you're fighting against the second law of thermodynamics, that of increasing entropy in the universe (order to disorder)
When you realize that you're fighting against the universe it can be a pretty sobering and discouraging thing. But then you think, "Hey, I don't feel so bad about living like a slob. The universe has got the upper hand on me. I can only do my best against the universe, so I'm not going to beat myself up anymore." To beat yourself up over this would be like being upset with yourself for losing in one on one against Shaq. It would be foolish to feel bad about that!
Now to my second point--congratulations on your baby!!!! That is awesome!! When that baby arrives, keeping your house clean will become EXPONENTIALLY more difficult. We speak from experience. But having children is worth it!
Hey guys! Congrats again on the baby. So exciting:) Here is a link to another blog that I love. She has great helpful hints on keeping your home clean and organized, also check out her sisters blog too for some inspiration in parenting.
http://homesanctuary.typepad.com
http://raisingfive.blogspot.com
~Brandy
Hey girlie, I cant remember your email, but I wanted to see what your schedule looks like in the next couple of weeks to get together if you can? Hope all is well!
Tonya
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