Make it a habit to give the house a quick pickup every day. Getting rid of the clutter will make you think it is cleaner than it really is.
—STEPHANIE CULP
You Can Find More Time for Yourself Every Day
With great determination, Carolyn decided this would be the day to clean the whole house. Since the kids were at school, she was sure she could get everything done before three o’clock.
Even though the breakfast dishes were still on the kitchen table, she wanted to get going. She started vacuuming in the farthest corner of the family room until she hit a stack of newspapers next to the couch. Better get these out of here now, she mused.
As she opened the recycling lid in the garage, she spied a jumble of winter boots lying on the floor. She straightened them out and was delighted to find her missing glove. With triumph, she made a beeline to the front closet to put the lost glove back where it rightfully belonged.
Carolyn then noticed a laundry basket full of dirty clothes sitting at the top of the stairs. She carried the basket to the laundry room and tossed the load in. But as she pulled on the light switch string over the washing machine, the bulb burned out. Not a problem. I’m getting a lot done today, and I can fix that, too, she thought.
As she headed to the basement door to find a new light bulb, Carolyn noticed the breakfast dishes still on the table and the vacuum sitting in the family room. “Now who made this mess and left the vacuum in the middle of the floor?” she muttered as she marched down the stairs.
Impacts of Cleaning
Watching Carolyn clean house may make us chuckle, but we all can identify with someone who starts cleaning yet ends up with a bigger mess on her hands. Being pulled off track results in a less-than-satisfying outcome to anyone intent on sprucing up the well-loved place we call home.
When Carolyn called me, we started to discuss where cleaning fits into a woman’s life. We agreed that her family would probably prioritize meals first, laundry second, and cleaning third. But for most women, a clean home is a higher priority because of the sense of peace and order it brings.
Carolyn was stuck on not only how to get the cleaning done without creating more of a mess, but also with the “Why do it?” aspect behind every pile she encountered. “Sometimes I think I clean for the family,” she began, “but other times I dive in because I can’t stand it anymore. That’s where I get stuck. If nobody in the family says anything, are my cleaning efforts really worth it?”
My Story
I empathized with Carolyn and said I could really relate. “When we were first married, I recalled that ‘cleaning for company’ as a child meant dusting everything,” I said. “So as a new bride, I dusted the house to impress my husband. Then David came home from work and asked me, ‘What did you do all day?’ Obviously, my dusting went over like a lead balloon.
“A week later, I quickly finished vacuuming as my husband pulled up. When he opened the door and looked around, he said, ‘Wow, you cleaned the whole house!’ A light bulb went on for me—and I gave up dusting for vacuuming. I determined to clean things that would make an impact, not just what should be done.”
“I see,” Carolyn said.
“Good. So if it’s okay with you, Carolyn, let’s look at creating a system that will make the most impact in the least amount of time,” I continued. “Let’s begin with two assumptions: First, we want a clean house that will meet our family, personal, and company needs. And second, we want cleaning systems that will work in the least amount of time.”
Carolyn agreed that’s what she wanted, so we began by looking at three aspects of cleaning:
1. Daily pick-up system
2. Weekly maintenance schedule
3. “Clean up clutter” projects as needed
These systems would help us achieve the best results with the least amount of time and effort.
There are two things going on. People are doing less housework because they don’t have the time. But they’re very concerned about how their homes look.
—MARY ELLEN PINKHAM, household hints expert
Daily Pick-Up—Saves Time or Takes Time?
The daily pick-up is an invaluable system for staying on top of our everyday mess-making activities. The daily pick-up should become a habit, just like brushing your teeth. There are two parts to this: morning and evening.
Morning Pick-Up
Each morning, start in your bedroom by making the bed and putting away pajamas and other clothes. Have each family member do the same in their bedrooms, though they will need help if they are six years of age or under. Next, move to the bathroom to briefly straighten towels, put away toothbrushes and makeup, and wipe off the counters and mirrors.
After picking up the bedrooms and bathrooms following breakfast, move on to the kitchen. Clear off the kitchen table, leaving only your attractive centerpiece. Put away all food, immediately clean up the dishes and wipe down the counters. You are now finished with the morning portion of the daily pick-up.
MORNING PICK-UP
Goal: Everyone dressed, bedrooms picked up, and bathrooms and kitchen area cleaned.
1. Make sure all beds are made. 2. Pick up the bathrooms. 3. Clean up the kitchen.
Evening Pick-Up
In the evening, the main pick-up goals should be to read the mail, put away the last load of laundry, and finish cleaning up in the kitchen. Also before dinner, make sure that everyone clears their belongings and papers from the family room, kitchen table, and entryway.
If these areas are cleared before dinner, you can spend the rest of the evening as you wish. If you are at work or gone during the day, try to finish these tasks early in the evening so you will still have time for yourself.
EVENING PICK-UP
Goal: Bring closure to the day’s tasks.
1. Complete the day’s mail. 2. Put away all laundry. 3. Pick up clutter spots.
My Home Looks Nice and I Feel Good
One of my class participants wrote back about the benefits of doing the daily pick-up: “Marcia, the daily pick-up system that I now do each morning has dramatically changed the appearance of my home! People actually think I’ve been cleaning for hours. The truth is, I’ve just done a few things. It’s amazing what your system does to make my home look nice and to help me feel good.”
Daily pick-up is not a big deal if you know it’s part of your morning and evening routine. In the morning the three main traffic areas are the bedrooms, bathrooms, and kitchen. In the evening, the three similar traffic areas are the kitchen, family room, and mail/paper trail areas.
Expect to do the daily pick-up morning and evening, and accept it as a small time investment for a peaceful, orderly home. It takes less time than you think.
A Daily and Weekly Cleaning System
Personal Time Management (A & B weekly schedule)
Weekly Cleaning Keeps You Afloat
Carolyn was willing to try the daily pick-up, but she also wanted to move on to the rest of the house. “Yes, I admit that I get sidetracked going through the normal day’s tasks. How exactly do I handle the rest of the house?” she asked.
“Carolyn, there are tasks that can keep your household afloat with minimal effort. These tasks, when done on a regular basis, will keep quick cleaning jobs from turning into major projects. Let’s write out a weekly cleaning schedule that will work and move you in the right direction with minimal effort. The beauty of this approach is that you can simply write it on a three-by-five card and adjust it whenever your schedule changes.”
Weekly Cleaning System
The weekly cleaning system is the backbone of staying on top of cleaning. Weekly cleaning frees up time because you create the time slot and systems that meet your needs. The goal is to stay ahead of the dust and clutter before it becomes obvious to you and everyone who lives there.
Here’s what you do in the weekly cleaning:
1. Empty wastebaskets. Believe it or not, this is a sign of all clean homes and offices. Get your money’s worth from your weekly garbage pick-up by tossing out everything you can.
2. Change bed linens. Instead of tackling the herculean task of changing all the beds on the same day, try changing no more than two beds per day. Set up a schedule for changing bed linens on a weekly or every-other-week schedule.
3. Vacuum. Vacuuming is one of the quickest ways to give the illusion of a clean home.
It also minimizes dust and adds longevity to an expensive part of your home—your carpet and floors.
4. Clean kitchen and bathroom floors. When kitchen and bathroom floors are clean, people will presume you have a clean home. And all you did was keep the crumbs and dirt picked up.
5. Eliminate an annoying pile. Piles are telltale signs of disorder. How many do you see around your house right now? Conquer one pile per week, and soon you’ll regain control.
6. Create a “Ten-Item Priority Project List.” Jot down this priority project list while vacuuming and scrutinizing your home. List no more than ten items, though. Complete one project from your list each week before you add another.
7. Handle errands. Whenever possible, do a few errands on your way home from being out. A convenient, quick stop on the way home takes less time than getting up the momentum to go out and tackle a group of errands later.
THE WEEKLY CLEANING SYSTEM
Goal: Stay ahead of cleaning and clutter with key tasks each week.
1. Empty wastebaskets
2. Change bed linens.
3. Vacuum traffic areas.
4. Clean the kitchen and bathroom floors.
5. Eliminate an annoying pile.
6. Complete a project from the ten-item priority project list.
7. Include errand time for banking, gas, and shopping in your weekly plan.
Carolyn liked the idea of doing strategic weekly cleaning. Now there was hope to manage the essentials of the day and week. Together, we made out a weekly schedule, and she posted one inside her bathroom mirror and another in her kitchen at the personal organizing center. All it took was a quick look to remind her what she needed to do to stay on track and not let major cleaning overwhelm her again.
Clean-Up-Clutter Projects
Carolyn still had questions for me, however. “But how will I ever get beyond my daily routine to my cleaning and clutter projects? Is there a difference?” she asked.
“There is a difference between regular cleaning and cleaning up clutter,” I replied. “Cleaning is the dusting, vacuuming, and floor mopping that you do on a daily or weekly schedule to keep your house clean.”
Cleaning up clutter is dealing with all the items we dust and vacuum around—piles of videos, CDs, and cassettes in the family room; cardboard boxes; and notebooks of committee meetings and photo projects stacked up in corners. All these need to be dealt with to have a clean home and a simpler lifestyle.
These project piles will continue to grow and grow until you deal with them. You need to either find a “home” to put them away, do them, or return them to the store with their receipt. A simple lifestyle does not have piles!
Clean-up-clutter projects relate to anything not being handled in the cleaning schedule. Once these projects are dealt with, the daily pick-up becomes much easier. It’s worth the effort to do one weekly clean-up-clutter project on the appropriate day of your cleaning routine.
The next time Carolyn vacuumed, she made a similar list of ten things that had become her personal clean-up-clutter projects. She had always made lists, but things never got done. Now she was thinking about her motivations to follow through on a project. The alternative was to fuss and fume about all the clutter at home. She decided to get going on her list and clean up her home—for good.
| CLEAN-UP-CLUTTER PROJECT DAY | TIME | MY MOTIVATIONS TO TAKE ACTION |
| 1. Wash the light fixtures. | 10 minutes each | I love when they sparkle! |
| 2. Scale down the number of refrigerator magnets. | 10 minutes. | This action makes the kitchen look cleaner and bigger. |
| 3. Sort and purge the videos. | 1 hour | Videos take up a lot of space and often get watched just once. |
| 4. Organize all the books in the house. | 2 hours. | Someone else can be using them. |
| 5. Clean off the fireplace mantel. | 30 minutes. | Dusty knickknacks depress me. |
| 6. Organize the hall closet. | 3 hours | I can’t find anything anymore. |
| 7. Clean up the bedroom piles. | 30 minutes per pile. | I really want to wake up to a clean room each morning. |
| 8. Clean up the nightstand. | 45 minutes | It would be so peaceful to have flowers with a book to read. |
| 9. Sort the magazines. | 30 minutes | I’d like to sit and read a magazine for relaxation. |
| 10. Catch up on the to-read pile. | 1 hour | Newspapers and magazine piles make any house look messy. |
A True Sense of Order—Shelves and Drawers
Another way to de-clutter your home is to organize your shelves and drawers. Doing so will bring a true sense of order to your home. It is helpful to start here because each shelf and drawer is a defined space. Once you have conquered these small spaces, you will feel confident enough to move on to larger spaces.
Clean Shelves First
To begin organizing a shelf, take out all of the items and set them neatly aside. Then wipe off the shelf and add new shelf paper, if necessary. Choose attractive paper that can be maintained easily.
Throw away outdated and useless things, such as old food and outdated cosmetics, and you’ll experience instant gratification. Sometimes you have to let go of old, familiar “stuff” to simplify your life.
Before returning an item to the shelf, decide whether you really need it. Think about whether the item should be
• kept,
• tossed,
• given away.
Then put back only what you like or are confident that you’ll use. Put away all items with the labels facing forward. It helps to arrange items from tallest to shortest. Same-sized items are best arranged alphabetically. Leave one-third of the shelf space clear for simplicity and growth.
In general, you will feel more organized if you have clean shelves because you use them every day.
Personal Satisfaction—an Organized Drawer
To organize drawers follow the above steps for shelves. Put smaller items in open containers to keep them from sliding around. Shoeboxes or cardboard boxes cut to drawer height work great. And remember to put the most frequently used items in the front third of the drawer.
Kitchen towels and washcloths should be individually rolled or folded in shallow drawers so that each one can be seen and easily removed. Do the same with your silky clothing, but you might want to put them in a smaller container within the drawer.
Important: Only organize one drawer or shelf at a time and always start with a clean surface nearby. Then proceed to the next drawer. You are finished when you have put away or given away the piles you created.
In no time you will experience the gratification of opening an organized drawer. This will encourage you to move on to the other drawers and shelves in your house and even your garage! Work with that momentum and keep going.
Finding Time to Organize
Now that you know the “how to” of organizing, where do you find the time to organize shelves and drawers? The answer: either as you use them, or at a separate time. If you decide to do one refrigerator shelf a night, start at the top and work down. When you scrub down a bathroom, first organize a shelf or drawer and then continue with your bathroom cleaning. If you work better staying focused on one project, go for it and clean out all your bedroom drawers in one weekend.
The key is getting started and keeping your momentum going. When you’re done with a certain area, reward yourself by buying a new organizing item for that area. This will help keep you motivated as you see the transformation of each shelf and drawer.
Task Oriented versus Goal Oriented
Making a list of clean-up-clutter projects gets you only halfway there. Why is that? Because it’s just a list. And even if you go the next step and add a date and time frame to do it, you still might not get it done in a timely manner, if at all. Why does that happen? The answer lies in vision and action.
There are two perspectives:
• Task oriented: A woman who is task oriented has a long list of cleaning projects, but they may not be getting done because there is always more to do.
• Goal oriented: A goal-oriented woman has a vision of a clean, clutter-free home with time off to enjoy it. She does the right thing at the right time and for no longer than she intends to.
When You Don’t Feel Like Cleaning
I once saw a saying in a gift shop that sums up how many women feel about cleaning: “I clean every other day. This is not the other day!”
Although we might have the same attitude, we still have to clean—whether we’re in a bad mood or a good mood or in no mood. Wear comfortable clothing and tennis shoes, which can put a spring in your step as you wheel that vacuum around the house. Never try to clean in your pajamas or bathrobe, or you will take twice as long and never really finish.
When you are weary and need to clean, perk yourself up by putting on your favorite high-energy music. At the very least, you’ll burn some calories if you work energetically until the windows sparkle and the clutter is put away.
If all else fails, talk to yourself. Tell yourself what a great job you’re doing and what fun it will be to sit down and read a magazine when you finally put the dust rag away for the week.
Ten Tips to Simplify Your Cleaning
1. Start cleaning after the daily pick-up is finished.
2. Clean the visible and obvious messes first.
3. Do tasks that will give you visible results and personal satisfaction.
4. Get rid of the dirt on the largest surfaces—floors and counters.
5. Use a timer and find out how little time a task takes.
6. Do routine tasks the same day of the week, and don’t worry about them until then.
7. Recognize cleaning has a beginning and an end; focus on the end result.
8. Beautify what you do so clean is more appealing than cluttered.
9. Make a clean sweep through the house each night so you begin each day with a fresh start.
10. Take Sunday off so you have a day to look forward to—a day of rest.
Benefits of Being Organized
Once you know how to clean up effectively, it’s important to remind yourself of the benefits awaiting you. A simple cleaning system gives you
• a nice-looking home,
• more free time,
• less stress.
Anything that becomes routine takes less physical and emotional energy. Always remember an organized home is easier to maintain than a disorganized home. It is definitely worth the time to create a system that works for you.
As you continue to make a clean sweep throughout your home, you will get better and better at it. It will take less time. And the payoff comes when you find out how easy it becomes to stay on top of the dust and clutter.
Is Cleaning Worth My Time?
Carolyn, I’m happy to say, got the picture. “This ‘dive right in’ approach is for the birds. I have too much to do in life to waste any time. I am on the road to a new life and a clean house,” she concluded emphatically. “I know my family will benefit, but I really want a weekly plan just for my own peace of mind.” She knew she was getting organized about cleaning for herself, not just for company or the family.
As Carolyn wondered whether she could get everything done that we talked about, I reminded her of an important principle from the Bible: “The wise woman builds her house, but . . . the foolish one tears hers down” (Proverbs 14:1). This means the wise woman persistently invests in improving her home, while the foolish or impulsive woman tears hers apart.
We shared a good laugh that the principle was so appropriate as we viewed the disarray of the family room, laundry, and garage all in process at once.
Carolyn chuckled again at her morning efforts as she grabbed her calendar and wrote out a room-per-day plan over the next week. She was ready to get going with her new focus, and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Now where was that vacuum?
Personal Reflection
1. What do you most enjoy about a clean home?
2. What is the most frustrating part of cleaning your home?
3. What cleaning habit would make the biggest and most dramatic improvement in your home?
4. What three words do you want to reflect the clean feeling of your home?
A Simple Prayer of Perseverance
Dear God, thank You for a roof over my head and a place to call home. Help me to keep at the cleaning and clutter pick-ups so my home becomes my castle. Help me to persevere and stay focused. I am grateful that at least You and I know what I did today. Amen.
A good 50 percent of housework is not just cleany-clean, scrubby-scrubbing, but shuffling clutter, litter, and junk from place to place. Getting rid of junk is the easiest way to free yourself from household imprisonment.
—DON ASLETT, Clutter’s Last Stand