Start at the Bottom

I am a pretty awful housekeeper. I look on in awe of those who seemingly without effort have beautifully-kept homes with tidy children and look irrepressibly cute, if not gorgeous, themselves. I can only manage one out of three on most days, although somehow I do better for holidays or visitors (but even then the cute/gorgeous item is a lost cause).

But I'm going to post my rules for myself, because I need a place to go to help me keep on track.

1. Start at the bottom. I can get the rest of a room tidy more quickly if the floor is clear (& ideally swept, mopped, or vacuumed). It's very feng shui, I know, but I really do need to be able to walk without any sort of obstacles. And two minutes with the vacuum really makes a huge difference on how I feel when I walk into a room.

2. Clean things before they get dirty. I mopped the floor last night before it got black & so the mopping when fairly quickly. And looking down, I realized that the fridge door needed a wipe down even more than I thought it did & I had time to do it & all the other cabinet doors, too.

3. A mountain of dishes really will become a molehill if I clear the sink first. When I was growing up, there was a proper way to put the dishes in the sink to soak/get washed. But the sink had to be empty first. When I was finished, I was supposed to scrub the sink out with Comet. Due to many moves & several houses without double-side sinks, I've lost that habit. But when I talk myself into getting the sink clean first, the dishes only take half the time to wash.

4. More dishes: wash the weird/seldom-used items first. I usually leave these for last, but then they languish on my counters for days, even weeks, while I spend lots of time washing the items that get used at every meal.

5. Yet more dishes: wash the big things (pots & pans) next.

6. Laundry doesn't back log as badly if I wash the items that dry the fastest first. And then put the items that dry the fastest on the radiators & the items that dry more slowly on the drying rack or line.

7. Laundry also doesn't seem as overwhelming if I put the dirty clothes in the basement by the washer. When I pull a clean load out, I don't have to run upstair to get the next load -- it's already there.

8. (This is a new realization as of today.) Newspapers are great for cleaning windows, shining mirrors, & making steel appliances (like our oven) sparkle. Use the throw-around newspaper on the day it arrives. Five minutes in the living room (lounge), another five in the kitchen. Windows, mirrors, & stove shiny. I can do this. . .and maybe get the kids to help. (Lesley, do you remember how Cami would beg to wash windows because she could use a spray bottle & be on the ladder?)

So, there's my rules for myself. Nothing earth shattering. I just needed to write it down to make it more real to myself. If you've read all this, you are either really bored or else a true friend.