Can a cleaning routine really restore your sanity? Well....yes it can!

 

It’s Saturday. Five years ago, I would have been falling into a heap at the end of the day, hardly able to keep my eyes open by 8 p.m. after spending the better part of the day catching up. Yes, just catching up…on the basic stuff that keeps a house going. You know, the dishes overflowing from the sink. The fridge with that weird sticky goo on the shelf and last month’s leftovers. The laundry. Oh, so much laundry! And forget about the tumbleweeds of pet hair lurking around every corner. This was just the basic stuff that needed doing, but that just never got done until Saturday rolled around, when I could make some little dent in getting it squared away. Nevermind the extras, like the attic with its burgeoning boxes of stuff that certainly doesn’t spark joy. The basement, calling to me in a musty, gravelly voice to get rid of stuff we haven’t touched since we moved in. And the garage...well, let’s just consider that my husband’s territory and close the door on that one. 

So, what makes this year different than five years ago? I don’t spend my precious Saturdays cleaning anymore, at least not to the extent that I did for years and years. I started doing a daily cleaning routine about a year ago, and little by little, the results have started speaking for themselves. 

1. Plan it out.

I read about the idea of doing a little bit of cleaning each day to free up my weekends from a few blogs and websites, but the most notable and inspiring one I’ve found is at www.cleanmama.com. The idea of doing a little each day instead of lumping everything into one weekend marathon is so simple I don’t know how I didn’t do this before. This website outlines exactly what you can do each day to keep your household humming with specific daily tasks that you can knock out in a few minutes each day. There are daily non-negotiables, like making your bed and picking up stuff that’s out of place. It’s amazing how these little changes make such an enormous impact on how you feel about your house, and the little wins are so motivating and really keep the momentum going! I LOVE waking up to a clean kitchen sink, and the feeling of turning down the sheets on my bed and snuggling under the tucked covers never loses its appeal to me. Maybe I like the little, sensual pleasures of the everyday more than the average person, or maybe these little things are just what make life more enjoyable. Each day, you work on a specific room or task of your house. Mondays, I do bathrooms. Tuesdays, it’s dusting surfaces and cleaning any glass and mirrors. Wednesdays, I vacuum any hard and carpeted floors in the house. There’s something to do each day except Sundays, which are reserved for that all-too-underestimated rest and rejuvenation we all need. You can do as much or as little as you want, really. I find that if I’m having a tough day (or week!) and just can’t get to something, it really isn’t that bad if I have to forego it until the next week. Your house stays in a perpetual state of clean when you’re chipping away at it daily, and you can give yourself that grace when you need to.

2. Recruit help where you can, but do what is important to you.

So, my husband probably thought I was a little crazy when I first started doing this, because I was printing out schedules and putting them on lists so I could remember what I wanted to accomplish around the house each day. Then, I’d be vacuuming after dinner one day, folding a load of laundry before bed, and just doing things in a way that perhaps hadn’t been as visible to him before. Oh, how I love to cross things off a list! Plus, my thinking was that if the daily cleaning routine was more visible (i.e. all you have to do is look at what needs to be done spelled out on a paper, rather than ask me “What needs to be done?”), people in my household would be more likely to pitch in and do something on the daily list. I am one lucky girl to have a family that will offer to help, or at least that is receptive when I ask for some help. We truly can’t do it all on our own, but so many of us do just that. Why do we do that? My answer to that question was always that if I don’t do it, it won’t get done. Sometimes, that still is my exact thinking, and some days I go it alone, and do what I can. But when your family can SEE what needs to be done to keep the house clean and comfortable for everyone, and if you communicate that this is important to you and that their help is greatly appreciated, in my situation, more gets done and I’m not always bearing the brunt of the cleaning. In a perfect world, it would be a seamless, hiccup-less process, and everyone would pull their weight...but, alas, we do what we can and know at the end of the day that we did a good job, even if everything didn’t get crossed off the list. I don’t have small children or any kind of incentives/chore chart, but that could definitely be incorporated with the daily “to-dos” on the list. Do what works for you and your family. Just remember, you’re not the only person responsible for keeping the house cozy and inviting for everyone.

3. Stop. Bringing. Stuff. Into. Your. House!

The biggest changes in my house and keeping it clean came from the mind-shift of really questioning what I need to buy or allow into my home. I was never a mall-wanderer, and I don’t have the money to buy things just to buy things (nor do I get pleasure from spending my hard-earned money!) But those Target aisles are pretty fierce competition to my sensibilities and that rational little voice that reminds me I’ll have a credit card statement due at the end of the month for whatever I put in my cart today. Last year, after donating several car loads (yes, car loads) of clothes, housewares, books, and just stuff I didn’t know why I was hanging onto, I realized how much more cleaning and organizing I was doing just to keep up with the excess stuff that was literally stacking up in cabinets, corners, shelves, and in any free space I could store it in. I used to think it was smart or resourceful to buy things I found on sale, since they were cheaper, and I could need them eventually, or I liked them at the moment. But the more I came to detest the clutter I was battling with every day of my life, the more I came to the understanding that I didn’t need to bring these things into my house in the first place. My new rule: if we don’t need it, we don’t buy it. And, as you know, I am a list person, so sticking to the shopping list, and going only to the stores I need to visit, is how I roll. If you wander around aimlessly, you’re bound to find something you think you can’t live without. But you can! Resist the temptation to load up on things that won’t have a home in your home, and that will ultimately take up space you don’t have, while costing you money you don’t need to spend.

4. Decide you’re going to stick to it. Then really stick to it.

Ah, how deceptively simple this one is, but how tricky it can be. Like anything good in life, it takes work, focus, and dedication to keep your house clean. Changing up your routine can be helpful, but don’t subscribe to the illusion that magically the housework will be done for you. It won’t! But it is much more surmountable when you’re able to see what you need to do laid out before you, to know what needs to be done when, and have no guessing about it - the routine really becomes automatic. At this point, everyone in my house knows I expect the dishes done, counter wiped down, and sink scrubbed every night before bed. Whether I do this or someone else does depends on the day and who feels like pitching in, but the payoff I get for doing this simple routine each evening is huge when I wake up to get my coffee in a spotless kitchen. My mind can focus on the first few fragrant sips and what I need to do today, rather than ruminate on a cluttered counter or leftover dishes sullying the sink. Those things just aren’t there anymore, and for that shift in thinking and living, I am very grateful. 

This routine can be bumpy at first, as you plan it out and make adjustments to make it work for you. Remember, you’ll have days you’re too tired to get to something, or you feel like no one is helping you despite your pleas, or you just need a break. That’s okay. Take a day off, but then get rested and get back to it the next day! For me, the routine and planning ahead save me that much time and energy, and at this point, the cleaning and knowing what needs to be done each day is kind of on auto-pilot. I know what to do each day, and I do it. And as for my family, I encourage them to help and to just look at the list for what will really help keep our space the way we all want it to be. Some days I get more help than others, but I’m really proud of my husband’s attempts at helping and lightening the load a bit. He commented recently that he likes the house clean, and it makes him feel so much better when it is. I never expected to hear those words from him, but was secretly cheering inside, seeing that what I had been working so hard at was paying off in that respect. This really caught me by surprise! Where he used to toss dirty laundry on the floor, dig through a laundry basket for clean clothes each day, and leave in the morning with the bed a mess, now he takes the time to do things in a way that will contribute to a place we love to relax and unwind. As for my Saturdays, I still do the dishes and make the bed. There’s always going to be some clutter on the counter to put away at the end of the day. The difference is that I feel more motivated to take care of it instead of letting it sit around and stack up to take care of “later”. I just have a lot more hours that I can do just what I want to do, and that is something I never thought was possible.