Mommy On Purpose

This was the first area I tackled when I decided to become a clean freak. Because if you can’t figure out a way to squeeze cleaning into every day, some how, some way, then you’re in trouble. Even if it’s spending 5 minutes to put your clothes in your hamper or stick your dishes in the washer, everyone has SOME time to clean up after themselves. You just have to make it a habit. And until it’s a habit, you have to make it a part of your routine.

So here’s the list of daily things that realistically COULD be done every day, listed from highest to lowest priority (in my opinion):

First, the bed. This step serves a double purpose, because it reduces the temptation to get back in bed. Which doesn’t help your cleaning goals for the day one bit!

The bed can easily take up half of the floor space in the bedroom, so if you make it, your room automatically looks 50% cleaner! The bed was the first thing I tried working into my routine. This was while I was still working and childless and convinced that I had NO time to clean. I made myself do it each morning before I left the bedroom after getting dressed. Mentally, I just kept telling myself: no breakfast till you make the bed. And it worked! Now I make the bed later in the day, but because it’s a fixed part of my daily routine, it always gets done.

Next, tidying. I haven’t broken myself of the habit of throwing crap all over the floor yet. So until I do, I’ve gotten myself INTO the habit of tidying up several times a day. As sloppy as my family is, we can’t possibly get away with just one tidy-up session on any given day. This is something I’m still working on… and you can tell because my house is only REALLY tidy when company’s coming. So I’m still playing with the schedule. Ideally, I would tidy up right before the baby woke up in the morning, right after she went down for a nap, and right before I went to bed at night. But the tricky thing about tidying is, the more you let it build up, the more intimidating it gets, which makes you that much less likely to ever do it again. As long as you live. So tidy while you can.

Dishes are a tricky thing too, because most people hate to do them, their schedule is more determined by how full the dish washer is than by whether or not it’s “time to do the dishes,” and small children make them almost entirely impossible (along with everything else you’d like to get done, right?). So my fix for this was, sadly, TV. It’s something I always swore I would never do, but that was back when I had all the answers, and no kids. Funny how that works. So I strap the cheerio-muncher in her high chair, plop her in front of a Wiggles video, and slam out some dishes. A lot of times, I run the dishwasher at about 75% capacity just to stay on schedule. Not very green of me, I know, but when you’re as lackadaisical as I am, that schedule’s the only thing that’ll keep you going.

So if you can get those three done, make the bed, tidy up, and do the dishes, by my standard you’ve done pretty well for the day. The next two items on the daily list are considered entirely optional in my house, but they sure make the house FEEL clean when you can get to them.

And by counters, I mean kitchen and bath. And on good days, I throw the kitchen table in for kicks and giggles. These are major trouble areas in my house, and fall more into the “tidy” category than actual “counters.” Again, the more often you tidy them, the easier they’ll be next time.

Sweeping doesn’t really do much for the visual aesthetic of a clean home, but if you have baby, between the mess factor of flying food and the ick factor of that food being found and consumed later on, sweeping is a big one.

So this is step 1 if you’re working on being cleaner and tidier. Some time I’ll put my weekly list up here and talk about the adventure THAT’s been.