Because no matter what day it may be, nothing looks better and is more inviting than a clean home.
You sweat and slave, scrubbing and scraping to make your house impeccable. And then an hour later, it looks like a disaster zone once again, with magazines cluttering the living room floor and your children’s toys scattered throughout the halls. Is there a way to prevent this from happening again? Can your countertops stay sanitized for longer than 12 minutes? Maybe. If you’re willing to take a few itsy bitsy, teeny weenie baby steps.
Baby Step One: Change Your Mind
If you prefer spring-cleaning and other massive cleaning endeavors, you’ll never keep your house clean every hour of every day. To make your cabinets shine and your sink sparkle from sunrise to sunset, you’ve got to do a little bit of cleaning every day.
But wait there’s more! Want to make sure your dishes wind up in the dishwasher when they’re dirty and back in the cabinets when they’re clean? Don’t waste time. Put them up right away! Nothing will clutter your shelves, cabinets, and chest of drawers faster than laziness. Putting things where they belong is incredibly easy and will make your house much more pleasant for you, your family, and your guests.
Baby Step Two: Make a Calendar
Why do you only scrub your toilet once a year? Because you don’t have a schedule. Why does the mildew on your shower door only get wiped away every three months? Because you don’t have a cleaning routine. Change that by grabbing a notebook and creating a cleaning calendar. It doesn’t have to be ornate or painfully specific. It just needs to be useful.
Some jobs, such as wiping down counters, need to be done on a daily basis. Others, such as vacuuming or dusting should occur weekly, while cleaning inside the stove is done with less frequency. Regardless, they should all be written on the calendar to keep your house in clean shape all the time. To determine when to schedule bigger jobs, such as deep cleaning the carpet or the gutters, take note of how much time passes before the jobs need to be done. Then schedule them accordingly.
I like hugs and I like kisses,
But what I really love is help with the dishes!
— Unknown
Baby Step Three: Get Everyone on Board
No matter if your house is 800 square feet or 8,000, making it clean isn’t a one-person job. Get the entire family in on the act with a chore list. Make it fun by awarding prizes to the person who pitches in the most or performs cleaning tasks without being asked.
After all, if you’re going to make your house shine, it depends on everyone in your household being aware of the need to keep clean! Because while you may be used to following your kids around the house, wiping the floor as mud falls off their shoes, you can’t keep your house clean 365 days a year that way.
Quick Cleaning Tips
Hungry for more squeaky clean tips? You’ve come to the right place. When you’re ready to take your cleanliness to the next level, try these on for size!
Instead of painting dirty walls, give them a wipe down with 1/4 cut baking soda, 3 cups water, and 2 tablespoons ammonia. If that doesn’t work, try spot painting to get a little more life out of your paintjob.
Help your stainless steel appliances look like they just came off the store floor by applying a little baby oil once a week. For the best result (that’s the only kind you want—right?), rub along the grain of the metal. Other option: have your family wear gloves any time they want something out of the refrigerator.
Have small kids with big toy boxes? Tired of having dolls and miniature cars spread all over your house? Pack your kids’ toys into multiple small boxes and let your children only have one box at a time. Every week or so, pack up the current box and break out a new one. It will keep your house cleaner and ensure all the toys that are out and about are being used.