Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Cleaning breakthrough?

One of the reasons that I have such a hard time keeping the house clean is that I am a spreader. I take one thing from one room to another room, then don't put it back where it belongs. I try valiently to overcome this tendency, but it is very hard. I read a long time ago a "quick clean" method, and I tried it yesterday. Basically, you make two circuits of your house. It doesn't matter where you start, though always find it easier to start cleaning in the least messy room and work my way to the worst room. Make sure you take an empty basket or box with you. In the first room, pick up and straighten and organize, and everything you find that doesn't belong in that room, toss in the basket. Go to the next room, do the same. If you know there is something in the basket that belongs in the second room, then fish it out. Proceed thusly throughout your house. When you get to the last room, you will have a basket full of odds and ends. Now, do another circuit through the house, depositing those odds and ends where they belong. Voila, magically clean house. Ok, not really clean because you didn't vacuum or dust, but definitely tidy. If you have a particular person or room that seems to errupt more items than others, take a box just for that person or room (for example, one basket for the kids stuff and one for everything else). I did this yesterday and I tidied my whole house in an hour and a half. And Claire wasn't even sleeping! Today, I clean the floors, tomorrow the surfaces. Thursday I start over with the pickup. Of course, you could do this every day too. This is my current plan for keeping the house more orderly. Let's see how well it works.

In other news, it's been raining an awful lot here lately. It's been great. I haven't had to water my garden much at all. Everytime I think it needs it, it rains again. And good long soakers, not sprinkles.

1 comment:

Shannon said...

Woohoo! That sounds like a smart idea. I like to have things tidy. We clean up toys and such about twice a day. Sometimes more. When we don't I just get frustrated. Good luck keeping it up!