Wouldn’t you love to keep your house tidy? Uggh! The house is always messy, especially when you have kids. It feels impossible to keep your house tidy when you hate cleaning. But, I can tell you — from first-hand experience — it is possible.
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Every mom I talk to shares her frustration with trying to keep the house clean and tidy. There are so many things pulling at your attention.
Now, I’m not talking about white glove swiped across every surface kind of clean.
I’m talking about tidy enough that if someone drops by you won’t have to crawl into a cave and die kind of clean.
That’s really all we’re asking for here.
What you probably want most for your homes is peace … no one wants to be constantly weighed down with clutter and mess.
But, it will take some efforts to keep your home clean and tidy. Thankfully, there are some things you can do to eliminate the overwhelming feeling like you’re climbing Mount Everest when it’s cleaning time. It doesn’t have to take over your whole day and give you an emotional setback.
Follow a few steps and take back your home.
You can do this. Let’s get started.
But, First take two minutes and get your cleaning supplies from Grove. They come straight to your door and you’ll love starting out with a FREE Gift Set.
How To Keep Your House Tidy
1. Determine your Minimum Cleanliness Status
When you live with kids, you’re not living in a Pinterest Perfect world. Get over that kind of thinking right now! You do need to figure out, though, what’s important to the peace of your home. Do the bathrooms always need to sparkle? Do you just want to focus on the main living areas? You know, the public areas. Is your bedroom the most important? Figure out what is the most important to you and start with a focus there.
2. Clean the Kitchen After Every Meal
No matter what your focus, the kitchen needs to be done every single day or it will make overwhelming piles of dishes and gunk. Our kitchens really do get the dirtiest. Between all the food and dishes, things can start piling up quickly, so make sure that after every meal you get the kitchen cleaned up. Follow these tricks to 10 Kitchen Cleaning Tips When You’re In A Hurry.
3. Keep Things Put Away
If you take something out, put it away when finished. To help with your house cleaning journey, this is the most important tip. If you can train yourself and your kids to do this, you will be well on your way to keeping things in order all the time. It’s not natural and it takes effort, but get on your kids’ case every single time they leave something out. And, constantly reminding them will force you to get in the habit, too.
4. Do A 10-Minute Tidy
Doing a 10-Minute Tidy will bring your home back in order when things start to look like the Tasmanian Devil just came through for a visit. Even when we hate cleaning, we can all muster up 10 minutes for quick clean.
5. Small Tasks Every Day
Trying to clean the whole house in a day is awful. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve tried that and then just petered-out halfway through. Instead, try to assign specific tasks to each day. With this system, each task gets a different day: bathrooms, sweep/mop, dusting, laundry, vacuum, etc.
6. Set A Specific Time
If you always know that at a specific time it’s cleaning time, it becomes such a habit that you don’t have to think about it anymore. It starts to feel routine and isn’t as painful; it requires much less effort. Tack it onto another task – maybe right after lunch, or just before the kids get home from school. Maybe even right after they leave for school so you then have freedom with the rest of your day.
7. Set A Timer
Give yourself a specific amount of time and work your tail off for that time. Most cleaning you can wiz through in about 30 minutes, so start with that. If a task is taking longer, you may find that you have the energy to keep going. If you don’t, then just stop and either do it when you feel like it later or add it to tomorrow.
The reality is, cleaning is not fun. It is work. We’d all rather sit back and binge-watch This Is Us or Scandal, but there’s a big price we pay when we don’t keep the house tidy.
That price is peace.
So, don’t be willing to give it away another single day. Bring that sense of peace into your home and keep it there by setting up your routines and sticking with them. It will take some effort, practice, and a bit of time, but Stick With It! You are worth it.
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