How To Clean Your House and
Keep It Clean
I’m by far NOT the best housekeeper in the world, and frankly, I don’t even like it that much. However, I love the feeling I get when the house is all picked up and looking good. I learned quickly how to get it all done so that’s why I’ve written about how to clean your house and keep it clean.
Have you ever had company drop by unexpectedly and your house is so messy you feel like hiding in the corner? Well, I have and I never want to experience that feeling again. It’s humiliating, frustrating, and embarrassing! Just having the floors picked up, the bed made, and the kitchen clean makes you feel so much better.
One of the problems some people have is that by the time they “decide” to do something about their mess, it’s in such a state that cleaning it just overwhelms them. Well, be overwhelmed no more! I have an easy way to eat that elephant (house cleaning) one bite at a time.
Here is the Easiest Way To Clean a Room That’s
Really Messy
How to clean your house and keep it clean may seem like a tall order, but it’s easy if you know an organized way to do it. Once you get all the rooms like you want them there is a simple solution for keeping them that way, which we will go into later. First, you must learn how to clean those rooms.
As soon as you are in the room that needs to be cleaned you turn to the left and work your way around the room clockwise. Pick up and clean from floor to the ceiling all the way around the room. After that, clean the middle of the room. In order to do a proper job the first time, take a few boxes or plastic storage tubs into the room. One box is for things found in the room that actually belongs in another room. Don’t go put them away as you go. It’s too many steps and distracts you from cleaning in order. Another box is for things to pare down and donate to charity. The last box is for anything that is broken or so ruined it just needs to be thrown away.
These boxes won’t be needed for future cleaning because you are going to be picking up each room each day, which takes only a tiny bit of time. Once I got all my rooms cleaned it was just a matter of straightening every day, with some days dusting and vacuuming.
My System for Cleaning the House and Keeping it Clean
This system is done after I’ve gone through each room clockwise. Each morning the first thing I do when I wake up make the bed. This takes about 20 seconds. Then I head to the kitchen to get some caffeine in my system. (diet coke for me). While having my coke I check my emails and get completely woken up. I work from home, blogging, and writing, so there is no rushing off to commute to another job.
Within 30 minutes I’m ready to get dressed and start picking up the house. I go through each room and wipe down, dust, or whatever needs to be done. Since I do this same routine every morning it takes me about 30 – 40 minutes to go through the entire house (2100 sq feet).
I pick one day a week that I do a deeper cleaning. For me, this is usually Saturday. Saturday is when I mop, vacuum, dust, etc. Laundry is done as needed, not on any particular day.
Just remember there are times when you need to clean out drawers, cabinets, or closets. If you don’t have time for the whole project, just work on the problem area 20 or 30 minutes at a time. It will eventually get cleaned. Many times you will find once you get started you don’t want to quit until it’s completely done.
System For Those Who Need More Structure
If you need more instruction and things written down there is another system I have used in the past. Take an index card and small index box and write down one chore on each card. For example, you will have cards similar to those listed below.
- mop kitchen floor
- clean microwave
- clean living room
- clean toilet
- dust every room in the house
- clean out the refrigerator
- make beds
- clean off the bedroom dresser
Make tabs for your index box that are for each day of the week. Divide your workload (cards you made) by 6 and that is how many cards go behind each day’s tabs. I used 6 days to you would have at least one day a week off from chores. There will be some days your chores can be done in 20 minutes!
Each Monday you do the chores behind that tab, Tuesday the cards behind that tab, and so on. Many people love this system and have great success with it. Either system works great, it’s just a matter of being consistent with whichever system you choose. Even if you choose the index card system you will need to go through each room first using the clockwise system in order to make each room ready to be cleaned.
If you are consistent with either of these systems you will never be overwhelmed by housework again. Plus, you won’t mind when that unannounced company stops by for a visit.
For Those Who Work Outside the Home
These systems will also work for you, but you have to be a little more creative. For example, when I worked, I would clean parts of the kitchen while cooking dinner each night. I would also throw at least one leftover out of the refrigerator each day if there was one. That way the refrigerator stayed cleaned out.
The bed can be made before heading out to work and the deep cleaning can be reserved for your day off. If you don’t want to get up 30 minutes early to clean, divide it into two 15 minutes of cleaning. One before work and one segment after work. I promise that in time it will all come together beautifully!
If you are tired of working for someone else you may want to think about working from home like I do. There are many ways to make money at home and I’ve done several. Right now my income is from blogging and writing. I not only write books that I sell on Amazon, I write content for clients for their websites. I’ve been doing this for years. My favorite writing is for this blog because I can write about what I love and write about things I believe will truly help people have a fuller and richer life.
Blogging is a fun and lucrative endeavor if you have a passion for a subject. There is always something you know that others don’t that you could share with them. But, blogging is not something you make money in overnight. It’s a side business for most in the beginning while they build their social media following and subscribers to their site.
I started this blog for around $60 and that paid for hosting for a full year and my domain! In some cases it can be done for less, I chose to pay for a year at one time so I would not have to worry about any bills the first year. Bluehost is the company I use for my hosting service and when I paid for the entire year they gave me my domain name (name of my website) for a full year for free!
Here are some of the inexpensive plans that they have for starting a blog. I used to use another service and it cost me more than twice this amount!
As you can see the price of starting your own blogging business at home is not expensive at all! I don’t remember which Bluehost Plan I started with, but they are all priced really well. Even if you start with just the basic plan you can upgrade at any time so there are no worries on that.
WordPress is the user-friendly blog management service I use on my Hostgator website and it’s completely free! There are instructions on Hostgator on how to install it, but if you are still unsure, feel free to ask me and I”ll walk you through it. It only takes a couple of minutes. If I can learn how to blog, you can learn too!
With your house clean all the time you have plenty of time left for making money with your brand new blog!
P.S.
I will be publishing a guide I’m working on soon about how to get your blog on the fast track. Be looking for it. Sign up to the Family Dollar Newsletter and be alerted with all the upcoming news and blog post. That way you won’t miss anything! Sign up here and get your free copy of “Get Out of The Kitchen”, an e-book on saving time and money in the kitchen.
