May 28, 2014

Modern Day Homekeeping : 3 Secrets to a Clean House

Your home is where you share life with the people you love – they are the most important thing, a clean house is not. Don’t take cleaning too seriously – it’s one of those things that has to be done so why not figure out the best and quickest way to accomplish your tasks, right? Start with the daily tasks and then add the weekly tasks (free printable to help is on this post). Slowly you’ll be able to add in the bigger rotating cleaning tasks – these are cleaning tasks like washing windows and washing baseboards. Even when you feel like you’ve got it ‘all together’ you still need a couple tricks up your sleeve (or cleaning glove) to balance real life and a little homekeeping. I thought it would be fun to tell you a couple of my secrets to a clean house – they aren’t revolutionary or world changing but maybe they will help you in your quest for a clean home.

Secret #1 : Skip a day when you need to.

Don’t get wrapped up in the cleaning routine so much that you can’t skip dusting or cleaning the bathrooms for a week. The dust will still be there the next week or on Friday for catch all day (a day to catch up). The reason my cleaning routine works for me and for so many of you is that it isn’t rigid and one day isn’t dependent on the next. NO one likes to feel defeated – just do what you can and the rest will be there tomorrow.

Secret #2 :  Know the fake outs.

People coming over or just want to give your house a 5 minute tidy up? Have a couple quick fixes or fake outs that work to whip your house into shape in a couple minutes. Mine are to put out clean kitchen and bathroom towels, load up the dishwasher, give the toilet a quick wipe down, clear/clean kitchen counters, dim lighting, and fluff sofa pillows.

Secret #3 : Leave when it’s clean.

Now that we’re entering summer, I’ll let you in on my best secret – once the house is picked up we leave. This may sound counter-intuitive but sometimes I don’t feel like going through the whole pick everything up again routine. So we try to spend as much time outside and out and about as we can. We also eat outside as much as possible – the birds love my patio and my kitchen floor stays clean. When my oldest two were younger, we’d do stroller picnics just about every day. They’d eat lunch in the stroller, we’d walk to a park and play, and then we’d head home just in time for naps. Don’t get me wrong, we most definitely live in our house and I don’t invent things to keep us busy, but sometimes getting out is good!

There you have it. My 3 secrets to a clean house. Let’s hear your secrets!

This post is part of a series – Modern Day Homekeeping – you can see all the posts here.

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The Clean Mama Modern Day Homekeeping Kit –  designed to help you (and me!) keep up with your home in the midst of everyday life.