Ch apter 2 - Before You Start
Be proactive rather than reactive
Have you noticed that cleaning up is a real scourge when you neglect things for quite a long time? A pile of dishes, a thick layer of dust, and all your clothes scattered around the room―this is not a picture that looks appealing and inspiring. The more you procrastinate, the harder it gets to start tidying up.
However, there is a way to avoid tedious full-scale cleaning if you are proactive. Instead of piling your clothes on an armchair after a long work day, place them neatly in your wardrobe right away. Instead of collecting all your dishes in the sink, wash them after each meal. Instead of heaping rubbish in a waste bin for days, empty it every day when you pass a trash container on your way to work. Instead of leaving a book on a coffee table, put it in a bookcase as soon as you finish reading. Doing this on a daily basis, you’ll avoid a whole weekend of cleaning and cursing. These small actions are quite easy and don’t require much effort. Develop a habit to take care of each step and you’ll be amazed at the long-term results.
So don’t let the piles of trash grow: start a new clean life today .
Checklist
Before you start cleaning, create a checklist of responsibilities. It’s very easy to forget something in the process of cleaning, so make sure to put all the tasks on the list and follow it. Below you’ll find an example of such a checklist.
However, don’t try to do everything on the list alone and at once.
Don’t do it alone
It’s especially tedious to clean the house if you do it alone while your husband or wife is watching TV and your kids are playing a computer game. Divide the responsibilities between your family members and don’t listen to their excuses. Almost all the women work today; so they are equal with their husbands in terms of household chores. As for children, if they are grown up enough to play computer games, they must be fit to mop the floor or dust the shelves too. It’s essential to know how to clean the house from childhood, and habits are formed much better from little up.
Assign each task to a family member. Take each of your family members’ strengths into account and make sure everybody has something to keep him/her busy. For example, a wife may do the dishes and mop the floors, her husband may carry the trash out and do the vacuum cleaning, and their children may dust the furniture. Another idea is to divide rooms or house zones between the family members.
Schedule
In order not to get lost in responsibilities and timing, create a weekly and/or daily calendar. There is no need to do a deep cleaning at once; divide the tasks and do one small task every day. Don’t try to do everything at once: to avoid stress, follow a cleaning routine step by step. Create a 10 or 15-minutes limit for your daily cleaning. Do something small and easy every day, and you’ll notice that you don’t need to exhaust yourself on the weekend.
Here is an example of a schedule for your whole family:
This schedule is just an example, and you may adjust it and add much more tasks according to your needs.
It’s also essential to prioritize. What is the most important room or zone for you now? If you are expecting guests, it’s reasonable to start from the living room. If you don’t have enough time to clean the whole house before they arrive, no problem. Just make sure they stay in the living room and don’t see the pile of dishes in the kitchen. Another way to prioritize is to start with the messiest rooms. Is a bathroom a complete chaos? Or are your clothes in disarray? Start from the tasks that require the most effort.