How to Use This Book

I KNOW THAT NONE of us live in identical houses with the same number of family members and cleaning challenges. You might be a single woman in a one-bedroom apartment, and another reader might be in a six-bedroom home with ten children. I based the cleaning schedule on the average house: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, kitchen, and dining room. There are days to clean a family room, an office, and a homeschool space, as well as a project day to clean another area that I didn’t list. I would like you to implement the cleaning ideas Monday through Friday, use Saturday for projects you need to catch up on or for extra rooms, and reserve Sunday for rest.

Feel free to adjust and make the plan work for you. Let’s say you have a basement instead of a family room. Just use the family room day to work on the basement. See how flexible it is?

Each day there is a reading designed to encourage you, inspire you, get you thinking, and get you energized. There is no judgment; this isn’t boot camp. Come as you are and have some fun as you make your surroundings sparkle and infuse your heart and your home with peace.

After the day’s reading, you will be given two challenges: a Mary Challenge and a Martha Challenge. The Mary Challenge speaks to your heart and the Martha Challenge spurs you to action.

My goal is to inspire you and give practical help to get you moving and cleaning, so that ultimately your house will be nice and tidy by the end of the thirty-one days.

But of course it isn’t just about the cleaning.

My hope is that through the readings and the Mary Challenges, you will be motivated and also be able to experience peace throughout the process. I want to engage your heart, and I want you to have rest in your soul.

The world needs both Marys and Marthas, and if we can embrace a little of both of them, I think we’ll grasp this homemaking thing with gumption and grace.

Mary Challenges

Through the Mary Challenges, I want to encourage you to get rest and fill your heart with God’s peace by sitting with the Lord, reading the Scriptures, and learning from Him. In fact, when we choose to sit with Jesus first, we are choosing the “good portion” that Mary did while Martha was bustling around trying to get everything accomplished.

Before the cleaning and the day with all of its (possible) troubles gets ahold of you (Matthew 6:34), I’m encouraging you to get ahold of Him.

These challenges will get you pondering different aspects of your life and offer you practical ideas to inspire you over the next few weeks.

Martha Challenges

The Martha Challenges are designed for those of us who are not born cleaners. Oh, we want a clean home, and we start out with good intentions, but we tend to get overwhelmed with ALL THERE IS TO DO because we aren’t consistent with keeping on top of the cleaning. Ahem. The Martha Challenges in this book break down cleaning tasks into manageable steps for you, spreading them out over a month. These are not deep-cleaning tasks; these are let’s-get-this-house-in-order tasks. Hence, there are no challenges to dust the ceilings or rotate mattresses. While those tasks are worthwhile for keeping a home in clean shape, this book does not go into that depth. However, we will organize junk drawers and scrub toilets.

Getting Your Kids Involved and Bonus Tips

Some days include a section called Get Your Kids Involved! This is for those of you who have children and want to utilize their capabilities. Directing their exuberance and energy into hands-on responsibility is a boon for all of you. Never underestimate how much your kids are able to do. The Bonus Tips are extra tips to help you for that particular day to hopefully make your cleaning life easier!

Are you ready? Let’s get to it!