Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Clean the House in 30 Minutes?!?

I am 100% embarrassed and ashamed to admit that I am the world’s worst housekeeper. At present, our house gives a whole new meaning to the word “filthy.” There are 3+ days worth of dishes piled up in and around the sink {life without a dishwasher really is the worst}, pine needles from the shedding tree outside all over the floor, and puppy toys and treats scattered everywhere. A clean load of laundry sits in a basket waiting to be folded; another is still in the dryer. Our bed hasn’t been made in weeks, and I’m sure that my sewing room should be declared a national disaster area. And the only reason I can stand to bathe in our scummy shower is that I always shower sans contact lenses and thus can’t see exactly how disgusting the walls, curtain and floor of our shower really are.

I grew up in an immaculately clean house ~ my mom is borderline OCD when it comes to cleanliness {don’t get mad at me for saying so, Mom ~ you know it’s true!}, so our carpets were ALWAYS vacuumed, the floors were ALWAYS scrubbed, the toilets were ALWAYS cleaned, and so on and so forth. And to be honest, I miss being able to eat a cookie or cracker that’s fallen on the floor without a second thought about exactly how dirty the floor it fell on really was. I hate that our bathroom sink almost always has toothpaste stuck to it somewhere, and I am tired of the bottom of all of our white socks turning brown the instant we take a step on the floor. Plus it’s getting really old having to do a speed clean of the whole house so it is somewhat presentable if a family member or friend calls to let us know they’re on their way over for a quick visit. I know that I will never been the housekeeper my mom is, but I also know that I can keep a whole lot cleaner house than the one I’ve been keeping.

My new plan is to do a little bit of cleaning every day. Amanda at Imperfectly Beautiful had the same idea, based on a 30 minutes a day checklist she discovered here. It sounds AWESOME! The basic idea is that by doing maintenance cleaning in the main areas of the house on a daily basis, the mess won’t get away from you. We’ll see if I can actually stick with it, but it’s definitely worth a try!

Do you have any special tricks you use to get the house cleaned in a jiffy? I’d love to hear them!

2 comments:

Amber Filkins said...

That second paragraph is exactly what I was going to say to you! I tend to be a little messy, with piles here and there. My house was never immaculate, but pretty clean.

The past few months, I've been doing a little bit every day {most days a lot b/c I'm home a ton these days} and it is honestly SOOO much easier to keep on top of everything. The dishes are done everyday. I do a load of laundry almost every day, instead of have to do like 5 loads b/c I let it pile up.

I'm actually able to get a lot more stuff done that I want b/c I have a lot more free time. And I'm happier. And our house feels happier, and more calm.

Soooooo, if your bed hasn't been made in weeks......does that mean you haven't changed the sheets in weeks?? You should start there. :)

Sugarplum Garters said...

Reply to Amber:

Oh my goodness! I may be a bad housekeeper but I'm not so disgusting that I sleep in dirty sheets! They get washed once a week. :o) With my schedule, I usually do laundry in the evening and end up putting new sheets on the bed at bedtime so there's no point in making it then. And in my defense as far as the bed making goes, my better half gets up hours after I do, so really he should take responsibility for the bed making. :o) And he did do all the dishes yesterday while I was at work, so that was nice to come home to. (He's still out of work so he's home all day.)

Thank you for the tips!