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cleaning Spring Clean Sweep

Guest Post: Have a Clean Home in Minutes a Day

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Rolling out the welcome mat today for Kristin of Living Graciously.  She’s here to spread some wisdom about creating a cleaning routine to make the most efficient use of your time, plus some other gems in her post that inspired me to try some new ideas.  Welcome, Kristin!

Cleaning. The word that makes us all leap for joy, no?! I do get anxious right around this time of year though to spruce things up around the house. Getting rid of all the cobwebs, wool, and coziness of winter feels kind of liberating, doesn’t it?

Today, as a part of Carrie’s series, I thought I’d share the cleaning schedule that helps me keep my home manageable, neat, and ready for company at a moment’s notice.
My overarching inspiration comes from The Flylady whom you can find at Flylady.net. You will see some of her concepts throughout my routine.

Everyday: clean up hotspots (areas where junk accumulates: by doors, kitchen counters, around the phone, etc.) before bed. Don’t go to bed with a dirty house! –
After Dinners: make a quick spot-sweep of the kitchen floors a part of your after dinner clean up routine.
Mondays: I dust the house with my Swiffer or feather duster (fast paced loud music helps this normally mundane chore go by much more quickly!), water house plants
Tuesdays: Vacuum the whole house and clean the bathrooms
Just implementing these few habits religiously, and of course training your family to observe the basic “when you use it, put it back” philosophy, your house can generally be kept in a presentable condition.

In order to keep laundry from accumulating, I also wash one load of laundry a day. Usually, I bring it to the mudroom even before breakfast. Then after breakfast, switch from the washer to the dryer. – I TRY (although I don’t always succeed) to get a whole load taken care of (washed, dried, ironed, and put away) before lunch. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can stay on top of the ever growing wash pile by just doing one load each day.

Also from Flylady, I will sometimes focus on one room or area for an entire week (Flylady’s Zones), and do some deep cleaning little by little. For example, take the kitchen. Here is what zone cleaning might look like:
Monday: Empty and clean out the fridge
Tuesday: Scrub down the cabinet fronts
Wednesday: dust and wipe baseboards and lighting fixture
Thursday: Empty and re-organize silverware and junk drawers
Friday: Go through pantry and throw out expired food
I set my timer for some of these tasks, and just tackle whatever I can in a 15 or 30 minute window. Then I give myself a little reward break for 5 minutes: maybe a coffee break, some quick blog reading, or a brisk walk outside.
Lastly, since we were on the subject of the kitchen, a few things that I have found really help keep my fridge in decent shape is to:

*Wash and prep fruits and veggies right away, and display in a nice bowl or baskets inside the fridge so people can find a healthy snack quickly and with minimal effort.

*Store leftovers in small see-through containers. If you can SEE your options, you are more likely to eat them!
*Don’t push things to the back of your shelves. Out of sight, out of mind…until they start to smell that is…
*Every time you plan to go grocery shopping, go through your fridge before you leave for the store. You might even find ingredients that you already had that you were going to re-buy! Throw out anything questionable, and give the inside of the fridge a quick swipe with a warm soapy dishcloth.

I hope some of these cleaning tips can help inspire you to come up with (or keep pressing on with) a cleaning routine of your own. A working routine looks different for everybody, but just having one is what will keep your house from going to the dogs :-)!

Sorry, couldn’t resist ;-). These are my two furbabies Chester and Caroline!

It was so nice spending these few moments with all of you today! Come on over and visit me at Living Graciously sometime. I LOVE making new friends!

Do you have a cleaning routine? If so, I hope you’ll share it with the class down the comment section. We can all learn so much from each other!

Meet Carrie Higgins


Dreamer, thinker, + lemon squeezer; you'll usually find me clutching a mug of coffee, glue gun, fandeck of paint colors, and a child at any given time. This mom of two (and wife to one) loves to share freshly squeezed ideas for home and family. Join the adventure as we learn most lemons can indeed become lemonade-- with generous amounts of sweetness, perspective, and love.

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Comments

  2. thanks for the great tips, i am a neat freak myself and cannot go to bed unless the house is picked up or atleast everything put back in its place. saturdays are cleaning day and laundry is done, vacuuming, cleaning all the bathrooms as well. Each saturday is a different room to wash bedding. I also clean the kitchen along the way as im cooking dinner.

    Reply

  3. Thank you for the cleaning routine tips. I have a very hard time getting into a routine. With these tips I think I can do it.
    Ever since my kids left the nest and that has been years ago I haven’t been able to get into a routine. When all my kids were home “5 of them” every Sat. was cleaning day. We each had something to do and the house was cleaned up and stayed pretty much clean till the next Sat. I could have company anytime and the house looked clean. I was overwhelmed when it was just me doing the cleaning and could not get organized. So frustrating. With your simple tips for a routine I think I can manage it. Thank you.

    Reply

  4. Wow! How lovely are your furbabies! Thank you for providing this simple tips on how to have a clean home in minutes. It is just a time management and well organized. If I have a time I will do deep cleaning services at my home.

    Reply

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