BE: Clean House, even if you live with "The Messies", Part 2

Part 2:
BUT...What if I am "the messy"???!! (I often blame our messy house on my husband and kids, but to be honest, I am a "recovering messy-a-holic" myself! don't tell my husband that I admitted to this!) I am also a recovering "shop-a-holic" which did not help me in my battle of messy-ness. Here are a few things that have helped me in my battle with The Messies. 

My first four steps:
1. Routines 
I learned the importance of establishing routines by reading the book, "The Family Manager Takes Charge" when I was newly married. 


So here are a few of my cleaning routines:

• Each morning when I take a bath, I make my bed while the water is running. 
• Each Tuesday, I do all my laundry and fold it all that night after the kids are in bed. It is all ready to be put away every Wednesday. 
• My husband vacuums every Wednesday. yea!
• I sweep, mop and clean the bathrooms every Thursday. 
• I clean the kids bathroom once a week, while the kids are in the tub. 
• Every night, before the kids go to bed, I put away all their things (with their help). That way, each day starts FRESH. 
• After they go to bed, I gather all the stuff they have strung throughout the house and put into a laundry basket to be sorted to their rooms the next morning.
• Buy groceries when kids are at AWANA. 

This is just the tip of the iceberg on routines, I don't want to bore you! :) But, my point is, if I didn't have a routine to all these things I have to do on a regular basis...I would have to "invent" my week. I would be waiting until it was an emergency. This way - nothing gets too out of hand. That's a good feeling. I'm sure you have many routines that you do on a regular basis - so, the goal is, add to your routines, to accomplish things that need to be done regularly and that may be hard to make yourself do.

2. Clutter attracts clutter 
When you "deep clean" a room, closet, office or garage... Do you notice yourself picking up every scrap of paper that falls on the ground? And, do you also notice that when your garage is a disaster, if something falls on the ground, you don't even pick it up? 
How to keep things neat, is to start out neat. If your desk is a disaster always, it only gets worse and worse. There is no reason to put something away, because it's just a disaster anyway!! (it is funny how warped our mind can get! :)

3. Putting out the hotspots
Where are your PILES?? Where do you drop your purse, paper, wallet, whatever?? Do you look at that place and feel overwhelmed? My place used to be my kitchen table. My kitchen table is also in the middle of our house, visible from almost anywhere. NOT a good place to have a "hotspot"!  I learned from "the flylady" (I have her link below), to clean off your hotspot every night before you go to bed. I also tackled the problem of why I had the hotspot - now it is easier to put my things away where they go, instead of piling them on the table. yea! It amazed me how if I just took on one hotspot, it made my whole house look better. You need to try it!


http://flylady.com/


I have a few places that make my house feel clean: 

• The first is the kitchen SINK! 
• The next is having all the beds made. There is nothing that makes a room feel messier than having an unmade bed. 
• The next is the dining table - I love to have that clear & sparkling after every meal. Then, I have no temptation to set anything there.

4. STOP SHOPPING!! :)
I know, I know, easier said than done! But, the thing I have learned, the less I shop (and bring things into my house that I DO NOT need), the less clutter accumulates. WIN-WIN!


Our church has a resale shop, we have gotten to know several "personal organizers" who bring in things from their clients on a regular basis. I have had one lady bring in 8 garbage bags full of NICE stuff, many things with the tags still on. What the personal organizers do is, they get rid of multiples of everything - even if the multiples are in brand new condition. Ouch! That has got to hurt! 


But, it reminds us, if you are having trouble with clutter, look at how many things you bring into your house each week. Now, how much goes out?? Is it a wonder that we have clutter??


I hope you are enjoying our series on "Clean House, even if you live with the Messies"! Our next post in this series will be  for all you "right-brained creative types"...there is hope for a clean house for you (and me!! :) 


Kristen